The bell strikes one. We take no note of time
But from its loss. To give it then a tongue
Is wise in man. As if an angel spoke,
I feel the solemn sound.
YOUNG.
The moral which the poet has rather quaintly deduced from the necessary
mode of measuring time may be well applied to our feelings respecting
that portion of it which constitutes human life. We observe the aged,
the infirm, and those engaged in occupations of immediate hazard,
trembling as it were upon the very brink of non-existence, but we
derive no lesson from the precariousness of their tenure until it has
altogether failed. Then, for a moment at least--
Our hopes and fears
Start up alarm'd, and o'er life's narrow verge
Look down--on what? a fathomless abyss,
A dark eternity, how surely ours!
The crowd of assembled gazers and idlers at Ellangowan had followed the
views of amusement, or what they called business, which brought them
there, with little regard to the feelings of those who were suffering
upon that occasion. Few, indeed, knew anything of the family. The
father, betwixt seclusion, misfortune, and imbecility, had drifted, as
it were, for many years out of the notice of his contemporaries; the
daughter had never been known to them. But when the general murmur
announced that the unfortunate Mr. Bertram had broken his heart in the
effort to leave the mansion of his forefathers, there poured forth a
torrent of sympathy like the waters from the rock when stricken by the
wand of the prophet. The ancient descent and unblemished integrity of
the family were respectfully remembered; above all, the sacred
veneration due to misfortune, which in Scotland seldom demands its
tribute in vain, then claimed and received it.
Mr. Mac-Morlan hastily announced that he would suspend all farther
proceedings in the sale of the estate and other property, and
relinquish the possession of the premises to the young lady, until she
could consult with her friends and provide for the burial of her father.
Glossin had cowered for a few minutes under the general expression of
sympathy, till, hardened by observing that no appearance of popular
indignation was directed his way, he had the audacity to require that
the sale should proceed.
'I will take it upon my own authority to adjourn it,' said the
Sheriff-substitute, 'and will be responsible for the consequences. I
will also give due notice when it is again to go forward. It is for the
benefit of all concerned that the lands should bring the highest price
the state of the market will admit, and this is surely no time to
expect it. I will take the responsibility upon myself.'
Glossin left the room and the house too with secrecy and despatch; and
it was probably well for him that he did so, since our friend Jock
Jabos was already haranguing a numerous tribe of bare-legged boys on
the propriety of pelting him off the estate.
Some of the rooms were hastily put in order for the reception of the
young lady, and of her father's dead body. Mannering now found his
farther interference would be unnecessary, and might be misconstrued.
He observed, too, that several families connected with that of
Ellangowan, and who indeed derived their principal claim of gentility
from the alliance, were now disposed to pay to their trees of genealogy
a tribute which the adversity of their supposed relatives had been
inadequate to call forth; and that the honour of superintending the
funeral rites of the dead Godfrey Bertram (as in the memorable case of
Homer's birthplace) was likely to be debated by seven gentlemen of rank
and fortune, none of whom had offered him an asylum while living. He
therefore resolved, as his presence was altogether useless, to make a
short tour of a fortnight, at the end of which period the adjourned
sale of the estate of Ellangowan was to proceed.
But before he departed he solicited an interview with the Dominie. The
poor man appeared, on being informed a gentleman wanted to speak to
him, with some expression of surprise in his gaunt features, to which
recent sorrow had given an expression yet more grisly. He made two or
three profound reverences to Mannering, and then, standing erect,
patiently waited an explanation of his commands.
'You are probably at a loss to guess, Mr. Sampson,' said Mannering,
'what a stranger may have to say to you?'
'Unless it were to request that I would undertake to train up some
youth in polite letters and humane learning; but I cannot--I cannot; I
have yet a task to perform.'
'No, Mr. Sampson, my wishes are not so ambitious. I have no son, and my
only daughter, I presume, you would not consider as a fit pupil.'
'Of a surety no,' replied the simple-minded Sampson. 'Nathless, it was
I who did educate Miss Lucy in all useful learning, albeit it was the
housekeeper who did teach her those unprofitable exercises of hemming
and shaping.'
'Well, sir,' replied Mannering, 'it is of Miss Lucy I meant to speak.
You have, I presume, no recollection of me?'
Sampson, always sufficiently absent in mind, neither remembered the
astrologer of past years, nor even the stranger who had taken his
patron's part against Glossin, so much had his friend's sudden death
embroiled his ideas.
'Well, that does not signify,' pursued the Colonel; 'I am an old
acquaintance of the late Mr. Bertram, able and willing to assist his
daughter in her present circumstances. Besides, I have thoughts of
making this purchase, and I should wish things kept in order about the
place; will you have the goodness to apply this small sum in the usual
family expenses?' He put into the Dominie's hand a purse containing
some gold.
'Pro-di-gi-ous!' exclaimed Dominie Sampson. 'But if your honour would
tarry--'
'Impossible, sir, impossible,' said Mannering, making his escape from
him.
'Pro-di-gi-ous!' again exclaimed Sampson, following to the head of the
stairs, still holding out the purse. 'But as touching this coined
money--'
Mannering escaped downstairs as fast as possible.
'Pro-di-gi-ous!' exclaimed Dominie Sampson, yet the third time, now
standing at the front door. 'But as touching this specie--'
But Mannering was now on horseback, and out of hearing. The Dominie,
who had never, either in his own right or as trustee for another, been
possessed of a quarter part of this sum, though it was not above twenty
guineas, 'took counsel,' as he expressed himself, 'how he should demean
himself with respect unto the fine gold' thus left in his charge.
Fortunately he found a disinterested adviser in Mac-Morlan, who pointed
out the most proper means of disposing of it for contributing to Miss
Bertram's convenience, being no doubt the purpose to which it was
destined by the bestower.
Many of the neighbouring gentry were now sincerely eager in pressing
offers of hospitality and kindness upon Miss Bertram. But she felt a
natural reluctance to enter any family for the first time as an object
rather of benevolence than hospitality, and determined to wait the
opinion and advice of her father's nearest female relation, Mrs.
Margaret Bertram of Singleside, an old unmarried lady, to whom she
wrote an account of her present distressful situation.
The funeral of the late Mr. Bertram was performed with decent privacy,
and the unfortunate young lady was now to consider herself as but the
temporary tenant of the house in which she had been born, and where her
patience and soothing attentions had so long 'rocked the cradle of
declining age.' Her communication with Mr. Mac-Morlan encouraged her to
hope that she would not be suddenly or unkindly deprived of this
asylum; but fortune had ordered otherwise.
For two days before the appointed day for the sale of the lands and
estate of Ellangowan, Mac-Morlan daily expected the appearance of
Colonel Mannering, or at least a letter containing powers to act for
him. But none such arrived. Mr. Mac-Morlan waked early in the morning,
walked over to the Post-office,--there were no letters for him. He
endeavoured to persuade himself that he should see Colonel Mannering to
breakfast, and ordered his wife to place her best china and prepare
herself accordingly. But the preparations were in vain. 'Could I have
foreseen this,' he said, 'I would have travelled Scotland over, but I
would have found some one to bid against Glossin.' Alas! such
reflections were all too late. The appointed hour arrived; and the
parties met in the Masons' Lodge at Kippletringan, being the place
fixed for the adjourned sale. Mac-Morlan spent as much time in
preliminaries as decency would permit, and read over the articles of
sale as slowly as if he had been reading his own death-warrant. He
turned his eye every time the door of the room opened, with hopes which
grew fainter and fainter. He listened to every noise in the street of
the village, and endeavoured to distinguish in it the sound of hoofs or
wheels. It was all in vain. A bright idea then occurred, that Colonel
Mannering might have employed some other person in the transaction; he
would not have wasted a moment's thought upon the want of confidence in
himself which such a manoeuvre would have evinced. But this hope also
was groundless. After a solemn pause, Mr. Glossin offered the upset
price for the lands and barony of Ellangowan. No reply was made, and no
competitor appeared; so, after a lapse of the usual interval by the
running of a sand-glass, upon the intended purchaser entering the
proper sureties, Mr. Mac-Morlan was obliged, in technical terms, to
'find and declare the sale lawfully completed, and to prefer the said
Gilbert Glossin as the purchaser of the said lands and estate.' The
honest writer refused to partake of a splendid entertainment with which
Gilbert Glossin, Esquire, now of Ellangowan, treated the rest of the
company, and returned home in huge bitterness of spirit, which he
vented in complaints against the fickleness and caprice of these Indian
nabobs, who never knew what they would be at for ten days together.
Fortune generously determined to take the blame upon herself, and cut
off even this vent of Mac-Morlan's resentment.
An express arrived about six o'clock at night, 'very particularly
drunk,' the maid-servant said, with a packet from Colonel Mannering,
dated four days back, at a town about a hundred miles' distance from
Kippletringan, containing full powers to Mr. Mac-Morlan, or any one
whom he might employ, to make the intended purchase, and stating that
some family business of consequence called the Colonel himself to
Westmoreland, where a letter would find him, addressed to the care of
Arthur Mervyn, Esq., of Mervyn Hall.
Mac-Morlan, in the transports of his wrath, flung the power of attorney
at the head of the innocent maidservant, and was only forcibly withheld
from horse-whipping the rascally messenger by whose sloth and
drunkenness the disappointment had taken place.