Our Polly is a sad slut, nor heeds what we have taught her;
I wonder any man alive will ever rear a daughter;
For when she's drest with care and cost, all tempting, fine and gay,
As men should serve a cucumber, she flings herself away.
Beggar's Opera.
After the death of Mr. Bertram, Mannering had set out upon a short
tour, proposing to return to the neighbourhood of Ellangowan before
the sale of that property should take place. He went,
accordingly,' to Edinburgh and elsewhere, and it was ill his return
towards the south-western district of Scotland,--in which our scene
lies, that, at a post-town about a hundred miles from
Kippletringan, to which he had requested his friend, Mr. Mervyn, to
address his letters, he received one from that gentleman, which
contained rather unpleasing intelligence. We have assumed already
the privilege of acting a secretis to this gentleman, and therefore
shall present,--the reader with an extract from this epistle.
"I beg your pardon, my dearest friend, for the pain I have given
you, in, forcing you to open wounds so festering as those your
letter referred to. I have always heard, though erroneously
perhaps, that the attentions of Mr. Brown were intended for Miss
Mannering. But, however that were, it could not be supposed that
in your situation his boldness should escape notice and
chastisement. Wise men say, that we resign to civil society our
natural rights of self-defence, only on condition that the
ordinances of law should protect us. Where the price cannot be
paid, the resignation becomes void. For instance, no one supposes
that I am not entitled to defend my purse and person against a
highwayman, as much as if I were a wild Indian, who owns neither
law nor magistracy. The question of resistance, or submission,
must be determined by my means and situation. But, if, armed and
equal in force, I submit to injustice and violence from any man,
high or low, I presume it will hardly be attributed to religious or
moral feeling in me, or in any one but a Quaker. An aggression on
my honour seems to me much the same. The insult, however trifling
in itself, is one of much deeper consequence to all views in life
than any wrong which can be inflicted by a depredator or the
highway, and to redress the injured party is much less in the power
of public jurisprudence, or rather it is entirely beyond its
reach. If any man chooses to rob Arthur Mervyn of the contents of
his purse, supposing the said Arthur has not means of defence, or
the skill and courage to use them, the assizes at Lancaster or
Carlisle will do him justice by tucking up the robber:-Yet who will
say I am bound to wait for this justice, and submit to being
plundered in the first instance, if I have myself the means and
spirit to protect my own property? But if an affront is offered to
me, submission under which is to tarnish my character for ever with
men of honour, ant for which the twelve judges of England, with the
Chancellor to boot, can afford me no redress, by what rule of law
or reason am I to be deterred from protecting what ought to be, and
is, so infinitely dearer to every man of honour than his whole
fortune? Of the religious views of the matter I shall say nothing,
until I end a reverend divine who shall condemn self-defence in the
article of life and property. If its propriety in that case be
generally admitted, I suppose little distinction can be drawn
between defence of person and goods, and protection of reputation.
That the latter is liable to be assailed by persons of a different
rank in life, untainted perhaps in morals, and fair in character,
cannot affect my legal right of self-defence. I may be sorry that
circumstances have engaged me in personal strife with such an
individual; but I should feel the same sorrow for a generous enemy
who fell under my sword in a national quarrel. I shall leave the
question with the casuists, however; only observing, that what I
have written will not avail either the professed duellist, or him
who is the aggressor in a dispute of honour. I only presume to
exculpate him who is dragged into the field by such an offence, as,
submitted to in patience, would forfeit for ever his rank and
estimation in society.
"I am sorry you have thoughts of settling in Scotland, and yet glad
that you will still be at no immeasurable distance, and that the
latitude is all in our favour. To move to Westmoreland from
Devonshire might make an East Indian shudder; but to come to us
from Galloway or Dumfriesshire, is a step, though a short one,
nearer the sun. Besides, if, as I suspect, the estate in view be
connected with the old haunted castle in which you played the
astrologer in your northern tour some twenty years since, I have
heard you too often describe the scene with comic unction, to hope
you will be deterred from making the purchase. I trust, however,
the hospitable gossiping Laird has not run himself upon the
shallows, and that his chaplain, whom you so often made us laugh
at, is still in rerum natura.
"And here, dear Mannering, I wish I could stop, for I have
incredible pain in felling the rest of my story; although I am sure
I can warn you against any intentional impropriety on the part of
my temporary ward, Julia Mannering. But I must still earn my
college nickname of Downright Dunstable. In one word, then, here is
the matter.
"Your daughter has much of the romantic turn of your disposition,
with a little of that love of admiration which all pretty women
share less or more. She will besides, apparently, be your heiress;
a trifling circumstance to those who view Julia with my eyes, but a
prevailing bait to the specious, artful, and worthless. You know
how I have jested with her about her soft melancholy, and lonely
walks at morning before any one is up, and in the moonlight when
all should be gone to bed, or set down to cards, which is the same
thing. The incident which follows may not be beyond the bounds of
a joke, but I had rather the jest upon it came from you than me.
"Two or three times during the last fortnight, I heard, at a late
hour in the night, or very early in the morning, a flageolet play
the little Hindu tune to which your daughter is so partial. I
thought for some time that some tuneful domestic, whose taste for
music was laid under constraint during the day, chose that silent
hour to imitate the strains which he had caught up by the ear
during his attendance in the drawing-room. But last night I sat
late in. my study, which is immediately under Miss Mannering's
apartment, and to my surprise, I not only heard the flageolet
distinctly, but satisfied myself that it came from the lake under
the window. Curious to know who serenaded us at that unusual
hour, I stole softly to the window of my apartment. But there
were other watchers than me. You may remember, Miss Mannering
preferred that apartment on account of a balcony which opened from
her window upon the lake. Well, sir, I heard the sash of her
window thrown up, the shutters opened, and her own voice in
conversation with some person who answered from below. This is not
'Much ado about nothing'; I could not be mistaken in her voice, and
such tones, so soft, so insinuating--and, to say the truth, the
accents from below were in passion's tenderise cadence too--but of
the sense I can say nothing. I raised the sash of my own window
that I might hear something more than the mere murmur of this
Spanish rendezvous, but, though I used every precaution, the noise
alarmed the speakers; down slid the young lady's casement, and the
shutters were barred in an instant. The dash of a pair or oars in
the water announced the retreat of the male person of the
dialogue. Indeed, I saw his boat, which he rowed with great
swiftness and dexterity, fly across the lake like a twelve-oared
barge. Next morning I examined some of my domestics, as if by
accident. and I found the gamekeeper, when making his rounds, had
twice seen that boat beneath the house, with a single person, and
had heard the flageolet. I did not care to press any further
questions, for fear of implicating Julia in the opinions of those
of whom they might be asked. Next morning, at breakfast, I dropped
a casual hint about the serenade of the evening before, and I
promise you Miss Mannering looked red and pale alternately. I
immediately gave the circumstance such a turn as might lead her to
suppose that my observation was merely casual. I have since caused
a watch-light to be burnt in my library, and have left the shutters
open, to deter the approach of our nocturnal guest; and I have
stated the severity of approaching winter, and the rawness of the
fogs, as an objection to solitary walks. Miss Mannering acquiesced
with a passiveness which is no part of her character, and which, to
tell you the plain truth, is a feature about the business which I
like least of all. Julia has too much of her own dear papa's
disposition to be curbed in any of her humours, were there not some
little lurking consciousness that it may be as prudent to avoid
debate.
"Now my story is told, and you will judge what you ought to do. I
have not mentioned the matter to my good woman, who, a faithful
secretary to her sex's foibles, would certainly remonstrate against
your being made acquainted with these particulars, and might,
instead, take it into her head to exercise her own eloquence on
Miss Mannering; a faculty, which, however powerful when directed
against me, its legitimate object, might, I fear, do more harm than
good in the case supposed. Perhaps even you yourself will find it
most prudent to act without remonstrating, or appearing to be aware
of this little anecdote. Julia is very like a certain friend of
mine; she has a quick and lively imagination, and keen feelings,
which are apt to exaggerate both the good and evil they find in
life. She is a charming girl, however, as generous and spirited as
she is lovely. I paid her the kiss you sent her with all my heart,
and she rapped my fingers for my reward with all hers. Pray return
as soon as you can. Meantime, rely upon the care of, yours
faithfully,
"Arthur Mervyn.
"P.S.--You will naturally wish to know if I have the least guess
concerning the person of the serenader. In truth, I have none.
There is no young gentleman of these parts, who might be in rank or
fortune a match for Miss Julia, that I think at all likely to play
such a character. . . But on the other side of the lake, nearly
opposite to Mervyn Hall, is a d-d cake-house, the resort of walking
gentlemen of all descriptions, poets, players, painters, musicians,
who come to rave, and recite, and madden, about this picturesque
land of ours. It is paying some penalty for its beauties, that
they are the means of drawing this swarm of coxcombs together. But
were Julia my daughter, it is one of those sort of fellows that I
should fear on her account. She is generous and romantic, and
writes six sheets a week to a female correspondent; and it's a sad
thing to lack a subject in such a case, either for exercise of the
feelings or of the pen. Adieu, once more. Were I to treat this
matter more seriously than I have done, I should do injustice to
your feelings; were I altogether to overlook it, I should discredit
my own."
The consequence of this letter was, that, having first despatched
the faithless messenger with the necessary powers to Mr. Mac-Morlan
for purchasing the estate of Ellangowan, Colonel Mannering turned
his horse's head in a more southerly direction, and neither
"stinted nor staid" until he arrived at the mansion of his friend
Mr. Mervyn, upon the banks of one of the lakes of Westmoreland.