NARRATIVE OF DARSIE LATIMER, CONTINUED
‘The House of Redgauntlet,’ said the young lady, ‘has for centuries been
supposed to lie under a doom, which has rendered vain their courage,
their talents, their ambition, and their wisdom. Often making a figure
in history, they have been ever in the situation of men striving against
both wind and tide, who distinguish themselves by their desperate
exertions of strength, and their persevering endurance of toil, but
without being able to advance themselves upon their course by either
vigour or resolution. They pretend to trace this fatality to a legendary
history, which I may tell you at a less busy moment.’
Darsie intimated that he had already heard the tragic story of Sir
Alberick Redgauntlet.
‘I need only say, then,’ proceeded Lilias, ‘that our father and uncle
felt the family doom in its full extent. They were both possessed of
considerable property, which was largely increased by our father’s
marriage, and were both devoted to the service of the unhappy House
of Stuart; but (as our mother at least supposed) family considerations
might have withheld her husband from joining openly in the affair of
1745, had not the high influence which the younger brother possessed
over the elder, from his more decided energy of character, hurried him
along with himself into that undertaking.
‘When, therefore, the enterprise came to the fatal conclusion which
bereaved our father of his life and consigned his brother to exile, Lady
Redgauntlet fled from the north of England, determined to break off all
communication with her late husband’s family, particularly his brother,
whom she regarded as having, by their insane political enthusiasm, been
the means of his untimely death; and determined that you, my brother, an
infant, and that I, to whom she had just given birth, should be brought
up as adherents of the present dynasty. Perhaps she was too hasty in
this determination--too timidly anxious to exclude, if possible, from
the knowledge of the very spot where we existed, a relation so nearly
connected with us as our father’s only brother. But you must make
allowance for what she had suffered. See, brother,’ she said, pulling
her glove off, ‘these five blood-specks on my arm are a mark by which
mysterious Nature has impressed, on an unborn infant, a record of its
father’s violent death and its mother’s miseries.’ [Several persons
have brought down to these days the impressions which Nature had thus
recorded, when they were yet babes unborn. One lady of quality, whose
father was long under sentence of death previous to the Rebellion, was
marked on the back of the neck by the sign of a broad axe. Another whose
kinsmen had been slain in battle and died on the scaffold to the number
of seven, bore a child spattered on the right shoulder and down the
arm with scarlet drops, as if of blood. Many other instances might be
quoted.]
‘You were not, then, born when my father suffered?’ said Darsie.
‘Alas, no!’ she replied; ‘nor were you a twelvemonth old. It was no
wonder that my mother, after going through such scenes of agony,
became irresistibly anxious for the sake of her children--of her son in
particular; the more especially as the late Sir Henry, her husband, had,
by a settlement of his affairs, confided the custody of the persons
of her children, as well as the estates which descended to them,
independently of those which fell under his forfeiture, to his brother
Hugh, in whom he placed unlimited confidence.’
‘But my mother had no reason to fear the operation of such a deed,
conceived in favour of an attainted man,’ said Darsie.
‘True,’ replied Lilias; ‘but our uncle’s attainder might have been
reversed, like that of so many other persons, and our mother, who both
feared and hated him, lived in continual terror that this would be the
case, and that she should see the author, as she thought him, of her
husband’s death come armed with legal powers, and in a capacity to
use them for the purpose of tearing her children from her protection.
Besides, she feared, even in his incapacitated condition, the
adventurous and pertinacious spirit of her brother-in-law, Hugh
Redgauntlet, and felt assured that he would make some attempt to possess
himself of the persons of the children. On the other hand, our uncle,
whose proud disposition might, perhaps, have been soothed by the offer
of her confidence, revolted against the distrustful and suspicious
manner in which Lady Darsie Redgauntlet acted towards him. She basely
abused, he said, the unhappy circumstances in which he was placed,
in order to deprive him of his natural privilege of protecting and
educating the infants, whom nature and law, and the will of their
father, had committed to his charge, and he swore solemnly he would
not submit to such an injury. Report of his threats was made to Lady
Redgauntlet, and tended to increase those fears which proved but too
well founded. While you and I, children at that time of two or three
years old, were playing together in a walled orchard, adjacent to our
mother’s residence which she had fixed somewhere in Devonshire, my uncle
suddenly scaled the wall with several men, and I was snatched up; and
carried off to a boat which waited for them. My mother, however, flew to
your rescue, and as she seized on and held you fast, my uncle could not,
as he has since told me, possess himself of your person, without using
unmanly violence to his brother’s widow. Of this he was incapable; and,
as people began to assemble upon my mother’s screaming, he withdrew,
after darting upon you and her one of those fearful looks, which, it is
said, remain with our family, as a fatal bequest of Sir Alberick, our
ancestor.’
‘I have some recollection of the scuffle which you mention,’ said
Darsie; ‘and I think it was my uncle himself (since my uncle he is)
who recalled the circumstance to my mind on a late occasion. I can now
account for the guarded seclusion under which my poor mother lived--for
her frequent tears, her starts of hysterical alarm, and her constant and
deep melancholy. Poor lady! what a lot was hers, and what must have been
her feelings when it approached to a close!’
‘It was then that she adopted,’ said Lilias, ‘every precaution her
ingenuity could suggest, to keep your very existence concealed from the
person whom she feared--nay, from yourself; for she dreaded, as she
is said often to have expressed herself, that the wildfire blood of
Redgauntlet would urge you to unite your fortunes to those of your
uncle, who was well known still to carry on political intrigues, which
most other persons had considered as desperate. It was also possible
that he, as well as others, might get his pardon, as government showed
every year more lenity towards the remnant of the Jacobites, and then he
might claim the custody of your person, as your legal guardian. Either
of these events she considered as the direct road to your destruction.’
‘I wonder she had not claimed the protection of Chancery for me,’ said
Darsie; ‘or confided me to the care of some powerful friend.’
‘She was on indifferent terms with her relations, on account of her
marriage with our father,’ said Lilias, ‘and trusted more to secreting
you from your uncle’s attempts, than to any protection which law
might afford against them. Perhaps she judged unwisely, but surely not
unnaturally, for one rendered irritable by so many misfortunes and so
many alarms. Samuel Griffiths, an eminent banker, and a worthy clergyman
now dead were, I believe, the only persons whom she intrusted with the
execution of her last will; and my uncle believes that she made them
both swear to observe profound secrecy concerning your birth and
pretensions, until you should come to the age of majority, and, in the
meantime, to breed you up in the most private way possible, and that
which was most likely to withdraw you from my uncle’s observation.’
‘And I have no doubt,’ said Darsie, ‘that betwixt change of name
and habitation, they might have succeeded perfectly, but for the
accident--lucky or unlucky, I know not which to term it--which brought
me to Brokenburn, and into contact with Mr. Redgauntlet. I see also why
I was warned against England, for in England’--
‘In England alone, if I understand rightly,’ said Miss Redgauntlet,
‘the claims of your uncle to the custody of your person could have
been enforced, in case of his being replaced in the ordinary rights of
citizenship, either by the lenity of the government or by some change
in it. In Scotland, where you possess no property, I understand his
authority might; have been resisted, and measures taken to put you under
the protection of the law. But, pray, think it not unlucky that you
have taken the step of visiting Brokenburn--I feel confident that the
consequences must be ultimately fortunate, for have they not already
brought us into contact with each other?’
So saying, she held out her hand to her brother, who grasped it with a
fondness of pressure very different from the manner in which they first
clasped hands that morning. There was a moment’s pause, while the hearts
of both were overflowing with a feeling of natural affection, to which
circumstances had hitherto rendered them strangers.
At length Darsie broke silence; ‘I am ashamed,’ he said, ‘my dearest
Lilias, that I have suffered you to talk so long about matters
concerning myself only, while I remain ignorant of your story, and your
present situation.’
‘The former is none of the most interesting, nor the latter the most
safe or agreeable,’ answered Lilias; ‘but now, my dearest brother, I
shall have the inestimable support of your countenance and affection;
and were I but sure that we could weather the formidable crisis which
I find so close at hand, I should have little apprehensions for the
future.’
‘Let me know,’ said Darsie, ‘what our present situation is; and rely
upon my utmost exertions both in your defence and my own. For what
reason can my uncle desire to detain me a prisoner? If in mere
opposition to the will of my mother, she has long been no more; and I
see not why he should wish, at so much trouble and risk, to interfere
with the free will of one, to whom a few months will give a privilege
of acting for himself, with which he will have no longer any pretence to
interfere.’
‘My dearest Arthur,’ answered Lilias--‘for that name, as well as
Darsie, properly belongs to you--it is the leading feature in my uncle’s
character, that he has applied every energy of his powerful mind to the
service of the exiled family of Stuart. The death of his brother, the
dilapidation of his own fortunes, have only added to his hereditary zeal
for the House of Stuart a deep and almost personal hatred against the
present reigning family. He is, in short, a political enthusiast of
the most dangerous character, and proceeds in his agency with as much
confidence, as if he felt himself the very Atlas who is alone capable of
supporting a sinking cause.’
‘And where or how did you, my Lilias, educated, doubtless, under his
auspices, learn to have a different view of such subjects?’
‘By a singular chance,’ replied Lilias, ‘in the nunnery where my uncle
placed me. Although the abbess was a person exactly after his own heart,
my education as a pensioner devolved much on an excellent old mother who
had adopted the tenets of the Jansenists, with perhaps a still further
tendency towards the reformed doctrines, than those of Port Royal. The
mysterious secrecy with which she inculcated these tenets, gave them
charms to my young mind, and I embraced them the rather that they were
in direct opposition to the doctrines of the abbess, whom I hated so
much for her severity, that I felt a childish delight in setting her
control at defiance, and contradicting in my secret soul all that I was
openly obliged to listen to with reverence. Freedom of religious opinion
brings on, I suppose, freedom of political creed; for I had no sooner
renounced the Pope’s infallibility, than I began to question the
doctrine of hereditary and indefeasible right. In short, strange as it
may seem, I came out of a Parisian convent, not indeed an instructed
Whig and Protestant, but with as much inclination to be so as if I had
been bred up, like you, within the Presbyterian sound of Saint Giles’s
chimes.’
‘More so, perhaps,’ replied Darsie; ‘for the nearer the church--the
proverb is somewhat musty. But how did these liberal opinions of yours
agree with the very opposite prejudices of my uncle?’
‘They would have agreed like fire and water,’ answered Lilias, ‘had I
suffered mine to become visible; but as that would have subjected me to
constant reproach and upbraiding, or worse, I took great care to keep my
own secret; so that occasional censures for coldness, and lack of zeal
for the good cause, were the worst I had to undergo; and these were bad
enough.’
‘I applaud your caution,’ said Darsie.
‘You have reason,’ replied his sister; ‘but I got so terrible a specimen
of my uncle’s determination of character, before I had been acquainted
with him for much more than a week, that it taught me at what risk I
should contradict his humour. I will tell you the circumstances; for it
will better teach you to appreciate the romantic and resolved nature
of his character, than anything which I could state of his rashness and
enthusiasm.
‘After I had been many a long year at the convent, I was removed from
thence, and placed with a meagre old Scottish lady of high rank, the
daughter of an unfortunate person whose head had in the year 1715 been
placed on Temple Bar. She subsisted on a small pension from the French
Court, aided by an occasional gratuity from the Stuarts; to which the
annuity paid for my board formed a desirable addition. She was not
ill-tempered, nor very covetous--neither beat me nor starved me--but she
was so completely trammelled by rank and prejudices, so awfully profound
in genealogy, and so bitterly keen, poor lady, in British, politics,
that I sometimes thought it pity that the Hanoverians, who murdered, as
she used to tell me, her poor dear father, had left his dear daughter in
the land of the living. Delighted, therefore, was I, when my uncle made
his appearance, and abruptly announced his purpose of conveying me
to England. My extravagant joy at the idea of leaving Lady Rachel
Rougedragon was somewhat qualified by observing the melancholy look,
lofty demeanour, and commanding tone of my near relative. He held more
communication with me on the journey, however, than consisted with his
taciturn demeanour in general, and seemed anxious to ascertain my tone
of character, and particularly in point of courage. Now, though I am
a tamed Redgauntlet, yet I have still so much of our family spirit as
enables me to be as composed in danger as most of my sex; and upon two
occasions in the course of our journey--a threatened attack by banditti,
and the overturn of our carriage--I had the fortune so to conduct
myself, as to convey to my uncle a very favourable idea of my
intrepidity. Probably this encouraged him to put in execution the
singular scheme which he had in agitation.
‘Ere we reached London we changed our means of conveyance, and altered
the route by which we approached the city, more than once; then, like a
hare which doubles repeatedly at some distance from the seat she means
to occupy, and at last leaps into her form from a distance so great as
she can clear by a spring, we made a forced march, and landed in private
and obscure lodgings in a little old street in Westminster, not far from
the Cloisters.
‘On the morning of the day on which we arrived my uncle went abroad, and
did not return for some hours. Meantime I had no other amusement than to
listen to the tumult of noises which succeeded each other, or reigned
in confusion together during the whole morning. Paris I had thought
the most noisy capital in the world, but Paris seemed midnight silence
compared to London. Cannon thundered near and at a distance--drums,
trumpets, and military music of every kind, rolled, flourished, and
pierced the clouds, almost without intermission. To fill up the concert,
bells pealed incessantly from a hundred steeples. The acclamations of
an immense multitude were heard from time to time, like the roaring of a
mighty ocean, and all this without my being able to glean the least idea
of what was going on, for the windows of our apartment looked upon
a waste backyard, which seemed totally deserted. My curiosity became
extreme, for I was satisfied, at length, that it must be some festival
of the highest order which called forth these incessant sounds.
‘My uncle at length returned, and with him a man of an exterior
singularly unprepossessing. I need not describe him to you, for--do not
look round--he rides behind us at this moment.’
‘That respectable person, Mr. Cristal Nixon, I suppose?’ said Darsie.
‘The same,’ answered Lilias; ‘make no gesture, that may intimate we are
speaking of him.’
Darsie signified that he understood her, and she pursued her relation.
‘They were both in full dress, and my uncle, taking a bundle from Nixon,
said to me, “Lilias, I am come to carry you to see a grand ceremony--put
on as hastily as you can the dress you will find in that parcel, and
prepare to attend me.” I found a female dress, splendid and elegant,
but somewhat bordering upon the antique fashion. It might be that of
England, I thought, and I went to my apartment full of curiosity, and
dressed myself with all speed.
‘My uncle surveyed me with attention--“She may pass for one of the
flower-girls,” he said to Nixon, who only answered with a nod.
‘We left the house together, and such was their knowledge of the lanes,
courts, and bypaths, that though there was the roar of a multitude in
the broad streets, those which we traversed were silent and deserted;
and the strollers whom we met, tired of gazing upon gayer figures,
scarcely honoured us with a passing look, although, at any other time,
we should, among these vulgar suburbs, have attracted a troublesome
share of observation. We crossed at length a broad street, where many
soldiers were on guard, while others, exhausted with previous duty, were
eating, drinking, smoking, and sleeping beside their piled arms.
‘“One day, Nixon,” whispered my uncle, “we will make these redcoated
gentry stand to their muskets more watchfully.”
‘“Or it will be the worse for them,” answered his attendant, in a voice
as unpleasant as his physiognomy.
‘Unquestioned and unchallenged by any one, we crossed among the guards;
and Nixon tapped thrice at a small postern door in a huge ancient
building, which was straight before us. It opened, and we entered
without my perceiving by whom we were admitted. A few dark and narrow
passages at length conveyed us into an immense Gothic hall, the
magnificence of which baffles my powers of description.
‘It was illuminated by ten thousand wax lights, whose splendour at first
dazzled my eyes, coming as we did from these dark and secret avenues.
But when my sight began to become steady, how shall I describe what
I beheld? Beneath were huge ranges of tables, occupied by princes and
nobles in their robes of state--high officers of the crown, wearing
their dresses and badges of authority--reverend prelates and judges, the
sages of the church and law, in their more sombre, yet not less awful
robes--with others whose antique and striking costume announced their
importance, though I could not even guess who they might be. But at
length the truth burst on me at once--it was, and the murmurs around
confirmed it, the Coronation Feast. At a table above the rest, and
extending across the upper end of the hall, sat enthroned the youthful
sovereign himself, surrounded by the princes of the blood, and other
dignitaries, and receiving the suit and homage of his subjects. Heralds
and pursuivants, blazing in their fantastic yet splendid armorial
habits, and pages of honour, gorgeously arrayed in the garb of other
days, waited upon the princely banqueters. In the galleries with which
this spacious hall was surrounded, shone all, and more than all, that
my poor imagination could conceive, of what was brilliant in riches, or
captivating in beauty. Countless rows of ladies, whose diamonds, jewels,
and splendid attire were their least powerful charms, looked down from
their lofty seats on the rich scene beneath, themselves forming a show
as dazzling and as beautiful as that of which they were spectators.
Under these galleries, and behind the banqueting tables, were a
multitude of gentlemen, dressed as if to attend a court, but whose garb,
although rich enough to have adorned a royal drawing room, could not
distinguish them in such a high scene as this. Amongst these we wandered
for a few minutes, undistinguished and unregarded. I saw several
young persons dressed as I was, so was under no embarrassment from the
singularity of my habit, and only rejoiced, as I hung on my uncle’s
arm, at the magical splendour of such a scene, and at his goodness for
procuring me the pleasure of beholding it.
‘By and by, I perceived that my uncle had acquaintances among those
who were under the galleries, and seemed, like ourselves, to be mere
spectators of the solemnity. They recognized each other with a single
word, sometimes only with a grip of the hand-exchanged some private
signs, doubtless--and gradually formed a little group, in the centre of
which we were placed.
‘“Is it not a grand sight, Lilias?” said my uncle. “All the noble, and
all the wise, and all the wealthy of Britain, are there assembled.”
‘“It is indeed,” said I, “all that my mind could have fancied of regal
power and splendour.”
‘“Girl,” he whispered,--and my uncle can make his whispers as terribly
emphatic as his thundering voice or his blighting look--“all that is
noble and worthy in this fair land are there assembled--but it is to
bend like slaves and sycophants before the throne of a new usurper.”
‘I looked at him, and the dark hereditary frown of our unhappy ancestor
was black upon his brow.
‘“For God’s sake,” I whispered, “consider where we are.”
‘“Fear nothing,” he said; “we are surrounded by friends.” As he
proceeded, his strong and muscular frame shook with suppressed
agitation. “See,” he said, “yonder bends Norfolk, renegade to his
Catholic.faith; there stoops the Bishop of ----, traitor to the Church
of England; and,--shame of shames! yonder the gigantic form of Errol
bows his head before the grandson of his father’s murderer! But a sign
shall be seen this night amongst them--MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN,
shall be read on these walls, as distinctly as the spectral handwriting
made them visible on those of Belshazzar!”
‘“For God’s sake,” said I, dreadfully alarmed, “it is impossible you can
meditate violence in such a presence!”
‘“None is intended, fool,” he answered, “nor can the slightest mischance
happen, provided you will rally your boasted courage, and obey my
directions. But do it coolly and quickly, for there are a hundred lives
at stake.”
‘“Alas! what--can I do?” I asked in the utmost terror.
‘“Only be prompt to execute my bidding,” said he; “it is but to lift a
glove--Here, hold this in your hand--throw the train of your dress over
it, be firm, composed, and ready--or, at all events, I step forward
myself.”
‘“If there is no violence designed,” I said, taking, mechanically, the
iron glove he put into my hand.
‘“I could not conceive his meaning; but, in the excited state of mind in
which I beheld him, I was convinced that disobedience on my part would
lead to some wild explosion. I felt, from the emergency of the occasion,
a sudden presence of mind, and resolved to do anything that might avert
violence and bloodshed. I was not long held in suspense. A loud flourish
of trumpets and the voice of heralds were mixed with the clatter of
horses’ hoofs, while a champion, armed at all points like those I had
read of in romances, attended by squires, pages, and the whole
retinue of chivalry, pranced forward, mounted upon a barbed steed. His
challenge, in defiance of all who dared impeach the title of the new
sovereign, was recited aloud--once, and again.”
‘“Rush in at the third sounding,” said my uncle to me; “bring me the
parader’s gage, and leave mine in lieu of it.”
‘I could not see how this was to be done, as we were surrounded by
people on all sides. But, at the third sounding of the trumpets, a lane
opened as if by word of command, betwixt me and the champion, and my
uncle’s voice said, “Now, Lilias, NOW!”
‘With a swift and yet steady step, and with a presence of mind for
which I have never since been able to account, I discharged the perilous
commission. I was hardly seen, I believe, as I exchanged the pledges of
battle, and in an instant retired. “Nobly done, my girl!” said my
uncle, at whose side I found myself, shrouded as I was before, by the
interposition of the bystanders. “Cover our retreat, gentlemen,” he
whispered to those around him.
‘Room was made for us to approach the wall, which seemed to open, and we
were again involved in the dark passages through which we had formerly
passed. In a small anteroom, my uncle stopped, and hastily muffling me
in a mantle which was lying there, we passed the guards--threaded the
labyrinth of empty streets and courts, and reached our retired lodgings
without attracting the least attention.’
‘I have often heard,’ said Darsie, ‘that a female, supposed to be a
man in disguise,--and yet, Lilias, you do not look very masculine,--had
taken up the champion’s gauntlet at the present king’s coronation, and
left in its place a gage of battle, with a paper, offering to accept the
combat, provided a fair field should be allowed for it. I have hitherto
considered it as an idle tale. I little thought how nearly I was
interested in the actors of a scene so daring. How could you have
courage to go through with it?’ [See Note 9.]
‘Had I had leisure for reflection,’ answered his sister, ‘I should have
refused, from a mixture of principle and of fear. But, like many people
who do daring actions, I went on because I had not time to think of
retreating. The matter was little known, and it is said the king had
commanded that it should not be further inquired into;--from prudence,
as I suppose, and lenity, though my uncle chooses to ascribe the
forbearance of the Elector of Hanover, as he calls him, sometimes to
pusillanimity, and sometimes to a presumptuous scorn of the faction who
opposes his title.’
‘And have your subsequent agencies under this frantic enthusiast,’ said
Darsie, ‘equalled this in danger?’
‘No--nor in importance,’ replied Lilias; ‘though I have witnessed much
of the strange and desperate machinations, by which, in spite of every
obstacle, and in contempt of every danger, he endeavours to awaken the
courage of a broken party. I have traversed, in his company, all England
and Scotland, and have visited the most extraordinary and contrasted
scenes; now lodging at the castles of the proud gentry of Cheshire and
Wales, where the retired aristocrats, with opinions as antiquated as
their dwellings and their manners, still continue to nourish Jacobitical
principles; and the next week, perhaps, spent among outlawed smugglers,
or Highland banditti. I have known my uncle often act the part of a
hero, and sometimes that of a mere vulgar conspirator, and turn himself,
with the most surprising flexibility, into all sorts of shapes to
attract proselytes to his cause.’
‘Which, in the present day,’ said Darsie, ‘he finds, I presume, no easy
task.’
‘So difficult,’ said Lilias, ‘that, I believe, he has, at different
times, disgusted with the total falling away of some friends, and
the coldness of others, been almost on the point of resigning his
undertaking. How often I have I known him affect an open brow and a
jovial manner, joining in the games of the gentry, and even in the
sports of the common people, in order to invest himself with a temporary
degree of popularity; while, in fact, his heart was bursting to witness
what he called the degeneracy of the times, the decay of activity among
the aged, and the want of zeal in the rising generation. After the day
has been spent in the hardest exercise, he has spent the night in pacing
his solitary chamber, bewailing the downfall of the cause, and wishing
for the bullet of Dundee or the axe of Balmerino.’
‘A strange delusion,’ said Darsie; ‘and it is wonderful that it does not
yield to the force of reality.’
‘Ah, but,’ replied Lilias, ‘realities of late have seemed to flatter his
hopes. The general dissatisfaction with the peace--the unpopularity
of the minister, which has extended itself even to the person of his
master--the various uproars which have disturbed the peace of the
metropolis, and a general state of disgust and disaffection, which seems
to affect the body of the nation, have given unwonted encouragement to
the expiring hopes of the Jacobites, and induced many, both at the Court
of Rome, and, if it can be called so, of the Pretender, to lend a more
favourable ear than they had hitherto done to the insinuations of those
who, like my uncle, hope, when hope is lost to all but themselves.
Nay, I really believe that at this moment they meditate some desperate
effort. My uncle has been doing all in his power, of late, to conciliate
the affections of those wild communities that dwell on the Solway, over
whom our family possessed a seignorial interest before the forfeiture,
and amongst whom, on the occasion of 1745, our unhappy father’s
interest, with his own, raised a considerable body of men. But they are
no longer willing to obey his summons; and, as one apology among others,
they allege your absence as their natural head and leader. This has
increased his desire to obtain possession of your person, and, if he
possibly can, to influence your mind, so as to obtain your authority to
his proceedings.’
‘That he shall never obtain,’ answered Darsie; ‘my principles and
my prudence alike forbid such a step. Besides, it would be totally
unavailing to his purpose. Whatever these people may pretend, to evade
your uncle’s importunities, they cannot, at this time of day, think of
subjecting their necks again to the feudal yoke, which was effectually
broken by the act of 1748, abolishing vassalage and hereditary
jurisdictions.’
‘Aye, but that my uncle considers as the act of a usurping government,’
said Lilias.
‘Like enough he may think so,’ answered her brother, ‘for he is a
superior, and loses his authority by, the enactment. But the question
is, what the vassals will think of it who have gained their freedom
from feudal slavery, and have now enjoyed that freedom for many years?
However, to cut the matter short, if five hundred men would rise at the
wagging of my finger, that finger shall not be raised in a cause which I
disapprove of, and upon that my uncle may reckon.’
‘But you may temporize,’ said Lilias, upon whom the idea of her uncle’s
displeasure made evidently a strong impression,--‘you may temporize,
as most of the gentry in this country do, and let the bubble burst of
itself; for it is singular how few of them venture to oppose my uncle
directly. I entreat you to avoid direct collision with him. To hear
you, the head of the House of Redgauntlet, declare against the family
of Stuart, would either break his heart, or drive him to some act of
desperation.’
‘Yes, but, Lilias, you forget that the consequences of such an act of
complaisance might be, that the House of Redgauntlet and I might lose
both our heads at one blow.’
‘Alas!’ said she, ‘I had forgotten that danger. I have grown familiar
with perilous intrigues, as the nurses in a pest-house are said to
become accustomed to the air around them, till they forget even that it
is noisome.’
‘And yet,’ said Darsie, ‘if I could free myself from him without coming
to an open rupture. Tell me, Lilias, do you think it possible that he
can have any immediate attempt in view?’
‘To confess the truth,’ answered Lilias, ‘I cannot doubt that he has.
There has been an unusual bustle among the Jacobites of late. They have
hopes, as I told you, from circumstances unconnected with their own
strength. Just before you came to the country, my uncle’s desire to find
you out became, if possible, more eager than ever--he talked of men
to be presently brought together, and of your name and influence for
raising them. At this very time your first visit to Brokenburn took
place. A suspicion arose in my uncle’s mind, that you might be the
youth he sought, and it was strengthened by papers and letters which the
rascal Nixon did not hesitate to take from your pocket. Yet a mistake
might have occasioned a fatal explosion; and my uncle therefore posted
to Edinburgh to follow out the clue he had obtained, and fished enough
of information from old Mr. Fairford to make him certain that you were
the person he sought. Meanwhile, and at the expense of some personal
and perhaps too bold exertion, I endeavoured, through your friend young
Fairford, to put you on your guard.’
‘Without success,’ said Darsie, blushing under his mask when he
recollected how he had mistaken his sister’s meaning.
‘I do not wonder that my warning was fruitless,’ said she; ‘the thing
was doomed to be. Besides, your escape would have been difficult. You
were dogged the whole time you were at the Shepherd’s Bush and at Mount
Sharon, by a spy who scarcely ever left you.’
‘The wretch, little Benjie!’ exclaimed Darsie. ‘I will wring the
monkey’s neck round, the first time we meet.’
‘It was he indeed who gave constant information of your motions to
Cristal Nixon,’ said Lilias.
‘And Cristal Nixon--I owe him, too, a day’s work in harvest,’ said
Darsie; ‘for I am mistaken if he was not the person that struck me down
when I was made prisoner among the rioters.’
‘Like enough; for he has a head and hand for any villany. My uncle was
very angry about it; for though the riot was made to have an opportunity
of carrying you off in the confusion, as well as to put the fishermen
at variance with the public law, it would have been his last thought to
have injured a hair of your head. But Nixon has insinuated himself into
all my uncle’s secrets, and some of these are so dark and dangerous,
that though there are few things he would not dare, I doubt if he dare
quarrel with him. And yet I know that of Cristal would move my uncle to
pass his sword through his body.’
‘What is it, for Heaven’s sake?’, said Darsie. ‘I have a particular
desire for wishing to know.’
‘The old, brutal desperado, whose face and mind are a libel upon human
nature, has had the insolence to speak to his master’s niece as one whom
he was at liberty to admire; and when I turned on him with the anger and
contempt he merited, the wretch grumbled out something, as if he held
the destiny of our family in his hand.’
‘I thank you, Lilias,’ said Darsie, eagerly,--‘I thank you with all my
heart for this communication. I have blamed myself as a Christian man
for the indescribable longing I felt from the first moment I saw that
rascal, to send a bullet through his head; and now you have perfectly
accounted for and justified this very laudable wish. I wonder my uncle,
with the powerful sense you describe him to be possessed of, does not
see through such a villain.’
‘I believe he knows him to be capable of much evil,’ answered
Lilias--‘selfish, obdurate, brutal, and a man-hater. But then
he conceives him to possess the qualities most requisite for a
conspirator--undaunted courage, imperturbable coolness and address, and
inviolable fidelity. In the last particular he may be mistaken. I have
heard Nixon blamed for the manner in which our poor father was taken
after Culloden.’
‘Another reason for my innate aversion,’ said Darsie, but I will be on
my guard with him.’
‘See, he observes us closely,’ said Lilias. ‘What a thing is conscience!
He knows we are now speaking of him, though he cannot have heard a word
that we have said.’
It seemed as if she had guessed truly; for Cristal Nixon at that moment
rode up to them, and said, with an affectation of jocularity, which sat
very ill on his sullen features, ‘Come, young ladies, you have had time
enough for your chat this morning, and your tongues, I think, must
be tired. We are going to pass a village, and I must beg you to
separate--you, Miss Lilias, to ride a little behind--and you, Mrs.,
or Miss, or Master, whichever you choose to be called, to be jogging a
little before.’
Lilias checked her horse without speaking, but not until she had given
her brother an expressive look, recommending caution; to which he
replied by a signal indicating that he understood and would comply with
her request.