A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with
thine ears. See how yon justice rails upon yon simple thief.
Hark in thine ear: Change places; and, handy-dandy, which
is the justice, which is the thief?
--King Lear.
Among those who took the most lively interest in endeavouring to
discover the person by whom young Charles Hazlewood had been waylaid
and wounded was Gilbert Glossin, Esquire, late writer in ----, now
Laird of Ellangowan, and one of the worshipful commission of justices
of the peace for the county of----. His motives for exertion on this
occasion were manifold; but we presume that our readers, from what they
already know of this gentleman, will acquit him of being actuated by
any zealous or intemperate love of abstract justice.
The truth was, that this respectable personage felt himself less at
ease than he had expected, after his machinations put him in possession
of his benefactor's estate. His reflections within doors, where so much
occurred to remind him of former times, were not always the
self-congratulations of successful stratagem. And when he looked abroad
he could not but be sensible that he was excluded from the society of
the gentry of the county, to whose rank he conceived he had raised
himself. He was not admitted to their clubs, and at meetings of a
public nature, from which he could not be altogether excluded, he found
himself thwarted and looked upon with coldness and contempt. Both
principle and prejudice cooperated in creating this dislike; for the
gentlemen of the county despised him for the lowness of his birth,
while they hated him for the means by which he had raised his fortune.
With the common people his reputation stood still worse. They would
neither yield him the territorial appellation of Ellangowan nor the
usual compliment of Mr. Glossin: with them he was bare Glossin; and so
incredibly was his vanity interested by this trifling circumstance,
that he was known to give half-a-crown to a beggar because he had
thrice called him Ellangowan in beseeching him for a penny. He
therefore felt acutely the general want of respect, and particularly
when he contrasted his own character and reception in society with
those of Mr. Mac-Morlan, who, in far inferior worldly circumstances,
was beloved and respected both by rich and poor, and was slowly but
securely laying the foundation of a moderate fortune, with the general
good-will and esteem of all who knew him.
Glossin, while he repined internally at what he would fain have called
the prejudices and prepossessions of the country, was too wise to make
any open complaint. He was sensible his elevation was too recent to be
immediately forgotten, and the means by which he had attained it too
odious to be soon forgiven. But time, thought he, diminishes wonder and
palliates misconduct. With the dexterity, therefore, of one who made
his fortune by studying the weak points of human nature, he determined
to lie by for opportunities to make himself useful even to those who
most disliked him; trusting that his own abilities, the disposition of
country gentlemen to get into quarrels, when a lawyer's advice becomes
precious, and a thousand other contingencies, of which, with patience
and address, he doubted not to be able to avail himself, would soon
place him in a more important and respectable light to his neighbours,
and perhaps raise him to the eminence sometimes attained by a shrewd,
worldly, bustling man of business, when, settled among a generation of
country gentlemen, he becomes, in Burns's language,
The tongue of the trump to them a'.
The attack on Colonel Mannering's house, followed by the accident of
Hazlewood's wound, appeared to Glossin a proper opportunity to impress
upon the country at large the service which could be rendered by an
active magistrate (for he had been in the commission for some time),
well acquainted with the law, and no less so with the haunts and habits
of the illicit traders. He had acquired the latter kind of experience
by a former close alliance with some of the most desperate smugglers,
in consequence of which he had occasionally acted, sometimes as a
partner, sometimes as legal adviser, with these persons, But the
connexion had been dropped many years; nor, considering how short the
race of eminent characters of this description, and the frequent
circumstances occur to make them retire from particular scenes of
action, had he the least reason to think that his present researches
could possibly compromise any old friend who might possess means of
retaliation. The having been concerned in these practices abstractedly
was a circumstance which, according to his opinion, ought in no respect
to interfere with his now using his experience in behalf of the public,
or rather to further his own private views. To acquire the good opinion
and countenance of Colonel Mannering would be no small object to a
gentleman who was much disposed to escape from Coventry, and to gain
the favour of old Hazlewood, who was a leading man in the county, was
of more importance still. Lastly, if he should succeed in discovering,
apprehending, and convicting the culprits, he would have the
satisfaction of mortifying, and in some degree disparaging, Mac-Morlan,
to whom, as sheriff-substitute of the county, this sort of
investigation properly belonged, and who would certainly suffer in
public opinion should the voluntary exertions of Glossin be more
successful than his own.
Actuated by motives so stimulating, and well acquainted with the lower
retainers of the law, Glossin set every spring in motion to detect and
apprehend, if possible, some of the gang who had attacked Woodbourne,
and more particularly the individual who had wounded Charles Hazlewood.
He promised high rewards, he suggested various schemes, and used his
personal interest among his old acquaintances who favoured the trade,
urging that they had better make sacrifice of an understrapper or two
than incur the odium of having favoured such atrocious proceedings. But
for some time all these exertions were in vain. The common people of
the country either favoured or feared the smugglers too much to afford
any evidence against them. At length this busy magistrate obtained
information that a man, having the dress and appearance of the person
who had wounded Hazlewood, had lodged on the evening before the
rencontre at the Gordon Arms in Kippletringan. Thither Mr. Glossin
immediately went, for the purpose of interrogating our old acquaintance
Mrs. Mac-Candlish.
The reader may remember that Mr. Glossin did not, according to this
good woman's phrase, stand high in her books. She therefore attended
his summons to the parlour slowly and reluctantly, and, on entering the
room, paid her respects in the coldest possible manner. The dialogue
then proceeded as follows:--
'A fine frosty morning, Mrs. Mac-Candlish.'
'Ay, sir; the morning's weel eneugh,' answered the landlady, drily.
'Mrs. Mac-Candlish, I wish to know if the justices are to dine here as
usual after the business of the court on Tuesday?'
'I believe--I fancy sae, sir--as usual' (about to leave the room).
'Stay a moment, Mrs. Mac-Candlish; why, you are in a prodigious hurry,
my good friend! I have been thinking a club dining here once a month
would be a very pleasant thing.'
'Certainly, sir; a club of RESPECTABLE gentlemen.'
'True, true,' said Glossin, 'I mean landed proprietors and gentlemen of
weight in the county; and I should like to set such a thing a-going.'
The short dry cough with which Mrs. Mac-Candlish received this proposal
by no means indicated any dislike to the overture abstractedly
considered, but inferred much doubt how far it would succeed under the
auspices of the gentleman by whom it was proposed. It was not a cough
negative, but a cough dubious, and as such Glossin felt it; but it was
not his cue to take offence.
'Have there been brisk doings on the road, Mrs. Mac-Candlish? Plenty of
company, I suppose?'
'Pretty weel, sir,--but I believe I am wanted at the bar.'
'No, no; stop one moment, cannot you, to oblige an old customer? Pray,
do you remember a remarkably tall young man who lodged one night in
your house last week?'
'Troth, sir, I canna weel say; I never take heed whether my company be
lang or short, if they make a lang bill.'
'And if they do not, you can do that for them, eh, Mrs. Mac-Candlish?
ha, ha, ha! But this young man that I inquire after was upwards of six
feet high, had a dark frock, with metal buttons, light-brown hair
unpowdered, blue eyes, and a straight nose, travelled on foot, had no
servant or baggage; you surely can remember having seen such a
traveller?'
'Indeed, sir,' answered Mrs. Mac-Candlish, bent on baffling his
inquiries, 'I canna charge my memory about the matter; there's mair to
do in a house like this, I trow, than to look after passengers' hair,
or their een, or noses either.'
'Then, Mrs. Mac-Candlish, I must tell you in plain terms that this
person is suspected of having been guilty of a crime; and it is in
consequence of these suspicions that I, as a magistrate, require this
information from you; and if you refuse to answer my questions, I must
put you upon your oath.'
'Troth, sir, I am no free to swear; [Footnote: Some of the strict
dissenters decline taking an oath before a civil magistrate.] we ay
gaed to the Antiburgher meeting. It's very true, in Bailie
Mac-Candlish's time (honest man) we keepit the kirk, whilk was most
seemly in his station, as having office; but after his being called to
a better place than Kippletringan I hae gaen back to worthy Maister
Mac-Grainer. And so ye see, sir, I am no clear to swear without
speaking to the minister, especially against ony sackless puir young
thing that's gaun through the country, stranger and freendless like.'
'I shall relieve your scruples, perhaps, without troubling Mr.
Mac-Grainer, when I tell you that this fellow whom I inquire after is
the man who shot your young friend Charles Hazlewood.'
'Gudeness! wha could hae thought the like o' that o' him? Na, if it had
been for debt, or e'en for a bit tuilzie wi' the gauger, the deil o'
Nelly Mac-Candlish's tongue should ever hae wranged him. But if he
really shot young Hazlewood--but I canna think it, Mr. Glossin; this
will be some o' your skits now. I canna think it o' sae douce a lad;
na, na, this is just some o' your auld skits. Ye'll be for having a
horning or a caption after him.'
'I see you have no confidence in me, Mrs. Mac-Candlish; but look at
these declarations, signed by the persons who saw the crime committed,
and judge yourself if the description of the ruffian be not that of
your guest.'
He put the papers into her hand, which she perused very carefully,
often taking off her spectacles to cast her eyes up to heaven, or
perhaps to wipe a tear from them, for young Hazlewood was an especial
favourite with the good dame. 'Aweel, aweel,' she said, when she had
concluded her examination, 'since it's e'en sae, I gie him up, the
villain. But O, we are erring mortals! I never saw a face I liked
better, or a lad that was mair douce and canny: I thought he had been
some gentleman under trouble. But I gie him up, the villain! To shoot
Charles Hazlewood, and before the young ladies, poor innocent things! I
gie him up.'
'So you admit, then, that such a person lodged here the night before
this vile business?'
'Troth did he, sir, and a' the house were taen wi' him, he was sic a
frank, pleasant young man. It wasna for his spending, I'm sure, for he
just had a mutton-chop and a mug of ale, and maybe a glass or twa o'
wine; and I asked him to drink tea wi' mysell, and didna put that into
the bill; and he took nae supper, for he said he was defeat wi' travel
a' the night afore. I daresay now it had been on some hellicat errand
or other.'
'Did you by any chance learn his name?'
'I wot weel did I,' said the landlady, now as eager to communicate her
evidence as formerly desirous to suppress it. 'He tell'd me his name
was Brown, and he said it was likely that an auld woman like a gipsy
wife might be asking for him. Ay, ay! tell me your company, and I'll
tell you wha ye are! O the villain! Aweel, sir, when he gaed away in
the morning he paid his bill very honestly, and gae something to the
chambermaid nae doubt; for Grizzy has naething frae me, by twa pair o'
new shoo ilka year, and maybe a bit compliment at Hansel Monanday--'
Here Glossin found it necessary to interfere and bring the good woman
back to the point.
'Ou then, he just said, "If there comes such a person to inquire after
Mr. Brown, you will say I am gone to look at the skaters on Loch
Creeran, as you call it, and I will be back here to dinner." But he
never came back, though I expected him sae faithfully that I gae a look
to making the friar's chicken mysell, and to the crappitheads too, and
that's what I dinna do for ordinary, Mr. Glossin. But little did I
think what skating wark he was gaun about--to shoot Mr. Charles, the
innocent lamb!'
Mr. Glossin having, like a prudent examinator, suffered his witness to
give vent to all her surprise and indignation, now began to inquire
whether the suspected person had left any property or papers about the
inn.
'Troth, he put a parcel--a sma' parcel--under my charge, and he gave me
some siller, and desired me to get him half-a-dozen ruffled sarks, and
Peg Pasley's in hands wi' them e'en now; they may serve him to gang up
the Lawnmarket [Footnote: The procession of the criminals to the
gallows of old took that direction, moving, as the school-boy rhyme had
it, Up the Lawnmarket, Down the West Bow, Up the lang ladder, And down
the little tow.] in, the scoundrel!' Mr. Glossin then demanded to see
the packet, but here mine hostess demurred.
'She didna ken--she wad not say but justice should take its course--but
when a thing was trusted to ane in her way, doubtless they were
responsible; but she suld cry in Deacon Bearcliff, and if Mr. Glossin
liked to tak an inventar o' the property, and gie her a receipt before
the Deacon--or, what she wad like muckle better, an it could be sealed
up and left in Deacon Bearcliff's hands--it wad mak her mind easy. She
was for naething but justice on a' sides.'
Mrs. Mac-Candlish's natural sagacity and acquired suspicion being
inflexible, Glossin sent for Deacon Bearcliff, to speak 'anent the
villain that had shot Mr. Charles Hazlewood.' The Deacon accordingly
made his appearance with his wig awry, owing to the hurry with which,
at this summons of the Justice, he had exchanged it for the Kilmarnock
cap in which he usually attended his customers. Mrs. Mac-Candlish then
produced the parcel deposited with her by Brown, in which was found the
gipsy's purse. On perceiving the value of the miscellaneous contents,
Mrs. Mac-Candlish internally congratulated herself upon the precautions
she had taken before delivering them up to Glossin, while he, with an
appearance of disinterested candour, was the first to propose they
should be properly inventoried, and deposited with Deacon Bearcliff,
until they should be sent to the Crown-office. 'He did not,' he
observed, 'like to be personally responsible for articles which seemed
of considerable value, and had doubtless been acquired by the most
nefarious practices.'
He then examined the paper in which the purse had been wrapt up. It was
the back of a letter addressed to V. Brown, Esquire, but the rest of
the address was torn away. The landlady, now as eager to throw light
upon the criminal's escape as she had formerly been desirous of
withholding it, for the miscellaneous contents of the purse argued
strongly to her mind that all was not right,--Mrs. Mac-Candlish, I say,
now gave Glossin to understand that her position and hostler had both
seen the stranger upon the ice that day when young Hazlewood was
wounded.
Our readers' old acquaintance Jock Jabos was first summoned, and
admitted frankly that he had seen and conversed upon the ice that
morning with a stranger, who, he understood, had lodged at the Gordon
Arms the night before.
'What turn did your conversation take?' said Glossin.
'Turn? ou, we turned nae gate at a', but just keep it straight forward
upon the ice like.'
'Well, but what did ye speak about?'
'Ou, he just asked questions like ony ither stranger,' answered the
postilion, possessed, as it seemed, with the refractory and
uncommunicative spirit which had left his mistress.
'But about what?' said Glossin.
'Ou, just about the folk that was playing at the curling, and about
auld Jock Stevenson that was at the cock, and about the leddies, and
sic like.'
'What ladies? and what did he ask about them, Jock?' said the
interrogator.
'What leddies? Ou, it was Miss Jowlia Mannering and Miss Lucy Bertram,
that ye ken fu' weel yoursell, Mr. Glossin; they were walking wi' the
young Laird of Hazlewood upon the ice.'
'And what did you tell him about them?' demanded Glossin.
'Tut, we just said that was Miss Lucy Bertram of Ellangowan, that
should ance have had a great estate in the country; and that was Miss
Jowlia Mannering, that was to be married to young Hazlewood, see as she
was hinging on his arm. We just spoke about our country clashes like;
he was a very frank man.'
'Well, and what did he say in answer?'
'Ou, he just stared at the young leddies very keen-like, and asked if
it was for certain that the marriage was to be between Miss Mannering
and young Hazlewood; and I answered him that it was for positive and
absolute certain, as I had an undoubted right to say sae; for my third
cousin Jean Clavers (she's a relation o' your ain, Mr. Glossin, ye wad
ken Jean lang syne?), she's sib to the houskeeper at Woodbourne, and
she's tell'd me mair than ance that there was naething could be mair
likely.'
'And what did the stranger say when you told him all this?' said
Glossin.
'Say?' echoed the postilion, 'he said naething at a'; he just stared at
them as they walked round the loch upon the ice, as if he could have
eaten them, and he never took his ee aff them, or said another word, or
gave another glance at the bonspiel, though there was the finest fun
amang the curlers ever was seen; and he turned round and gaed aff the
loch by the kirkstile through Woodbourne fir-plantings, and we saw nae
mair o' him.'
'Only think,' said Mrs. Mac-Candlish, 'what a hard heart he maun hae
had, to think o' hurting the poor young gentleman in the very presence
of the leddy he was to be married to!'
'O, Mrs. Mac-Candlish,' said Glossin, 'there's been many cases such as
that on the record; doubtless he was seeking revenge where it would be
deepest and sweetest.'
'God pity us!' said Deacon Bearcliff, 'we're puir frail creatures when
left to oursells! Ay, he forgot wha said, "Vengeance is mine, and I
will repay it."'
'Weel, aweel, sirs,' said Jabos, whose hard-headed and uncultivated
shrewdness seemed sometimes to start the game when others beat the
bush--'weel, weel, ye may be a' mista'en yet; I'll never believe that a
man would lay a plan to shoot another wi' his ain gun. Lord help ye, I
was the keeper's assistant down at the Isle mysell, and I'll uphaud it
the biggest man in Scotland shouldna take a gun frae me or I had weized
the slugs through him, though I'm but sic a little feckless body, fit
for naething but the outside o' a saddle and the fore-end o' a poschay;
na, na, nae living man wad venture on that. I'll wad my best buckskins,
and they were new coft at Kirkcudbright Fair, it's been a chance job
after a'. But if ye hae naething mair to say to me, I am thinking I
maun gang and see my beasts fed'; and he departed accordingly.
The hostler, who had accompanied him, gave evidence to the same
purpose. He and Mrs. Mac-Candlish were then reinterrogated whether
Brown had no arms with him on that unhappy morning. 'None,' they said,
'but an ordinary bit cutlass or hanger by his side.'
'Now,' said the Deacon, taking Glossin by the button (for, in
considering this intricate subject, he had forgot Glossin's new
accession of rank),'this is but doubtfu' after a', Maister Gilbert; for
it was not sae dooms likely that he would go down into battle wi' sic
sma' means.'
Glossin extricated himself from the Deacon's grasp and from the
discussion, though not with rudeness; for it was his present interest
to buy golden opinions from all sorts of people. He inquired the price
of tea and sugar, and spoke of providing himself for the year; he gave
Mrs. Mac-Candlish directions to have a handsome entertainment in
readiness for a party of five friends whom he intended to invite to
dine with him at the Gordon Arms next Saturday week; and, lastly, he
gave a half-crown to Jock Jabos, whom the hostler had deputed to hold
his steed.
'Weel,' said the Deacon to Mrs. Mac-Candlish, as he accepted her offer
of a glass of bitters at the bar, 'the deil's no sae ill as he's ca'd.
It's pleasant to see a gentleman pay the regard to the business o' the
county that Mr. Glossin does.'
'Ay, 'deed is't, Deacon,' answered the landlady; 'and yet I wonder our
gentry leave their ain wark to the like o' him. But as lang as siller's
current, Deacon, folk maunna look ower nicely at what king's head's
on't.'
'I doubt Glossin will prove but shand after a', mistress,' said Jabos,
as he passed through the little lobby beside the bar; 'but this is a
gude half-crown ony way.'