Can no rest find me, no private place secure me,
But still my miseries like bloodhounds haunt me?
Unfortunate young man, which way now guides thee,
Guides thee from death? The country's laid around for thee.
Women Pleased.
Our narrative now recalls us for a moment to the period when young
Hazlewood received his wound. That accident had no sooner happened than
the consequences to Miss Mannering and to himself rushed upon Brown's
mind. From the manner in which the muzzle of the piece was pointed when
it went off, he had no great fear that the consequences would be fatal.
But an arrest in a strange country, and while he was unprovided with
any means of establishing his rank and character, was at least to be
avoided. He therefore resolved to escape for the present to the
neighbouring coast of England, and to remain concealed there, if
possible, until he should receive letters from his regimental friends,
and remittances from his agent; and then to resume his own character,
and offer to young Hazlewood and his friends any explanation or
satisfaction they might desire. With this purpose he walked stoutly
forward, after leaving the spot where the accident had happened, and
reached without adventure the village which we have called Portanferry
(but which the reader will in vain seek for under that name in the
county map). A large open boat was just about to leave the quay, bound
for the little seaport of Allonby, in Cumberland. In this vessel Brown
embarked, and resolved to make that place his temporary abode, until he
should receive letters and money from England.
In the course of their short voyage he entered into some conversation
with the steersman, who was also owner of the boat, a jolly old man,
who had occasionally been engaged in the smuggling trade, like most
fishers on the coast. After talking about objects of less interest,
Brown endeavoured to turn the discourse toward the Mannering family.
The sailor had heard of the attack upon the house at Woodbourne, but
disapproved of the smugglers' proceedings.
'Hands off is fair play; zounds, they'll bring the whole country down
upon them. Na, na! when I was in that way I played at giff-gaff with
the officers: here a cargo taen--vera weel, that was their luck; there
another carried clean through, that was mine; na, na! hawks shouldna
pike out hawks' een.'
'And this Colonel Mannering?' said Brown.
'Troth, he's nae wise man neither, to interfere; no that I blame him
for saving the gangers' lives, that was very right; but it wasna like a
gentleman to be righting about the poor folk's pocks o' tea and brandy
kegs. However, he's a grand man and an officer man, and they do what
they like wi' the like o' us.'
'And his daughter,' said Brown, with a throbbing heart, 'is going to be
married into a great family too, as I have heard?'
'What, into the Hazlewoods'?' said the pilot. 'Na, na, that's but idle
clashes; every Sabbath day, as regularly as it came round, did the
young man ride hame wi' the daughter of the late Ellangowan; and my
daughter Peggy's in the service up at Woodbourne, and she says she's
sure young Hazlewood thinks nae mair of Miss Mannering than you do.'
Bitterly censuring his own precipitate adoption of a contrary belief,
Brown yet heard with delight that the suspicions of Julia's fidelity,
upon which he had so rashly acted, were probably void of foundation.
How must he in the meantime be suffering in her opinion? or what could
she suppose of conduct which must have made him appear to her
regardless alike of her peace of mind and of the interests of their
affection? The old man's connexion with the family at Woodbourne seemed
to offer a safe mode of communication, of which he determined to avail
himself.
'Your daughter is a maid-servant at Woodbourne? I knew Miss Mannering
in India, and, though I am at present in an inferior rank of life, I
have great reason to hope she would interest herself in my favour. I
had a quarrel unfortunately with her father, who was my commanding
officer, and I am sure the young lady would endeavour to reconcile him
to me. Perhaps your daughter could deliver a letter to her upon the
subject, without making mischief between her father and her?'
The old man, a friend to smuggling of every kind, readily answered for
the letter's being faithfully and secretly delivered; and, accordingly,
as soon as they arrived at Allonby Brown wrote to Miss Mannering,
stating the utmost contrition for what had happened through his
rashness, and conjuring her to let him have an opportunity of pleading
his own cause, and obtaining forgiveness for his indiscretion. He did
not judge it safe to go into any detail concerning the circumstances by
which he had been misled, and upon the whole endeavcured to express
himself with such ambiguity that, if the letter should fall into wrong
hands, it would be difficult either to understand its real purport or
to trace the writer. This letter the old man undertook faithfully to
deliver to his daughter at Woodbourne; and, as his trade would speedily
again bring him or his boat to Allonby, he promised farther to take
charge of any answer with which the young lady might entrust him.
And now our persecuted traveller landed at Allonby, and sought for such
accommodations as might at once suit his temporary poverty and his
desire of remaining as much unobserved as possible. With this view he
assumed the name and profession of his friend Dudley, having command
enough of the pencil to verify his pretended character to his host of
Allonby. His baggage he pretended to expect from Wigton; and keeping
himself as much within doors as possible, awaited the return of the
letters which he had sent to his agent, to Delaserre, and to his
lieutenant-colonel. From the first he requested a supply of money; he
conjured Delaserre, if possible, to join him in Scotland; and from the
lieutenant-colonel he required such testimony of his rank and conduct
in the regiment as should place his character as a gentleman and
officer beyond the power of question. The inconvenience of being run
short in his finances struck him so strongly that he wrote to Dinmont
on that subject, requesting a small temporary loan, having no doubt
that, being within sixty or seventy miles of his residence, he should
receive a speedy as well as favourable answer to his request of
pecuniary accommodation, which was owing, as he stated, to his having
been robbed after their parting. And then, with impatience enough,
though without any serious apprehension, he waited the answers of these
various letters.
It must be observed, in excuse of his correspondents, that the post was
then much more tardy than since Mr. Palmer's ingenious invention has
taken place; and with respect to honest Dinmont in particular, as he
rarely received above one letter a quarter (unless during the time of
his being engaged in a law-suit, when he regularly sent to the
post-town), his correspondence usually remained for a month or two
sticking in the postmaster's window among pamphlets, gingerbread,
rolls, or ballads, according to the trade which the said postmaster
exercised. Besides, there was then a custom, not yet wholly obsolete,
of causing a letter from one town to another, perhaps within the
distance of thirty miles, perform a circuit of two hundred miles before
delivery; which had the combined advantage of airing the epistle
thoroughly, of adding some pence to the revenue of the post-office, and
of exercising the patience of the correspondents. Owing to these
circumstances Brown remained several days in Allonby without any
answers whatever, and his stock of money, though husbanded with the
utmost economy, began to wear very low, when he received by the hands
of a young fisherman the following letter:--
'You have acted with the most cruel indiscretion; you have shown how
little I can trust to your declarations that my peace and happiness are
dear to you; and your rashness has nearly occasioned the death of a
young man of the highest worth and honour. Must I say more? must I add
that I have been myself very ill in consequence of your violence and
its effects? And, alas! need I say still farther, that I have thought
anxiously upon them as they are likely to affect you, although you have
given me such slight cause to do so? The C. is gone from home for
several days, Mr. H. is almost quite recovered, and I have reason to
think that the blame is laid in a quarter different from that where it
is deserved. Yet do not think of venturing here. Our fate has been
crossed by accidents of a nature too violent and terrible to permit me
to think of renewing a correspondence which has so often threatened the
most dreadful catastrophe. Farewell, therefore, and believe that no one
can wish your happiness more sincerely than
'J. M.'
This letter contained that species of advice which is frequently given
for the precise purpose that it may lead to a directly opposite conduct
from that which it recommends. At least so thought Brown, who
immediately asked the young fisherman if he came from Portanferry.
'Ay,' said the lad; 'I am auld Willie Johnstone's son, and I got that
letter frae my sister Peggy, that's laundry maid at Woodbourne.'
'My good friend, when do you sail?'
'With the tide this evening.'
'I'll return with you; but, as I do not desire to go to Portanferry, I
wish you could put me on shore somewhere on the coast.'
'We can easily do that,' said the lad.
Although the price of provisions, etc., was then very moderate, the
discharging his lodgings, and the expense of his living, together with
that of a change of dress, which safety as well as a proper regard to
his external appearance rendered necessary, brought Brown's purse to a
very low ebb. He left directions at the post-office that his letters
should be forwarded to Kippletringan, whither he resolved to proceed
and reclaim the treasure which he had deposited in the hands of Mrs.
MacCandlish. He also felt it would be his duty to assume his proper
character as soon as he should receive the necessary evidence for
supporting it, and, as an officer in the king's service, give and
receive every explanation which might be necessary with young
Hazlewood. 'If he is not very wrong-headed indeed,' he thought, 'he
must allow the manner in which I acted to have been the necessary
consequence of his own overbearing conduct.'
And now we must suppose him once more embarked on the Solway Firth. The
wind was adverse, attended by some rain, and they struggled against it
without much assistance from the tide. The boat was heavily laden with
goods (part of which were probably contraband), and laboured deep in
the sea. Brown, who had been bred a sailor, and was indeed skilled in
most athletic exercises, gave his powerful and effectual assistance in
rowing, or occasionally in steering the boat, and his advice in the
management, which became the more delicate as the wind increased, and,
being opposed to the very rapid tides of that coast, made the voyage
perilous. At length, after spending the whole night upon the firth,
they were at morning within sight of a beautiful bay upon the Scottish
coast. The weather was now more mild. The snow, which had been for some
time waning, had given way entirely under the fresh gale of the
preceding night. The more distant hills, indeed, retained their snowy
mantle, but all the open country was cleared, unless where a few white
patches indicated that it had been drifted to an uncommon depth. Even
under its wintry appearance the shore was highly interesting. The line
of sea-coast, with all its varied curves, indentures, and embayments,
swept away from the sight on either hand, in that varied, intricate,
yet graceful and easy line which the eye loves so well to pursue. And
it was no less relieved and varied in elevation than in outline by the
different forms of the shore, the beach in some places being edged by
steep rocks, and in others rising smoothly from the sands in easy and
swelling slopes. Buildings of different kinds caught and reflected the
wintry sunbeams of a December morning, and the woods, though now
leafless, gave relief and variety to the landscape. Brown felt that
lively and awakening interest which taste and sensibility always derive
from the beauties of nature when opening suddenly to the eye after the
dulness and gloom of a night voyage. Perhaps--for who can presume to
analyse that inexplicable feeling which binds the person born in a
mountainous country to, his native hills--perhaps some early
associations, retaining their effect long after the cause was
forgotten, mingled in the feelings of pleasure with which he regarded
the scene before him.
'And what,' said Brown to the boatman, 'is the name of that fine cape
that stretches into the sea with its sloping banks and hillocks of
wood, and forms the right side of the bay?'
'Warroch Point,' answered the lad.
'And that old castle, my friend, with the modern house situated just
beneath it? It seems at this distance a very large building.'
'That's the Auld Place, sir; and that's the New Place below it. We'll
land you there if you like.'
'I should like it of all things. I must visit that ruin before I
continue my journey.'
'Ay, it's a queer auld bit,' said the fisherman; 'and that highest
tower is a gude landmark as far as Ramsay in Man and the Point of Ayr;
there was muckle fighting about the place lang syne.'
Brown would have inquired into farther particulars, but a fisherman is
seldom an antiquary. His boatman's local knowledge was summed up in the
information already given, 'that it was a grand landmark, and that
there had been muckle fighting about the bit lang syne.'
'I shall learn more of it,' said Brown to himself, 'when I get ashore.'
The boat continued its course close under the point upon which the
castle was situated, which frowned from the summit of its rocky site
upon the still agitated waves of the bay beneath. 'I believe,' said the
steersman, 'ye'll get ashore here as dry as ony gate. There's a place
where their berlins and galleys, as they ca'd them, used to lie in lang
syne, but it's no used now, because it's ill carrying gudes up the
narrow stairs or ower the rocks. Whiles of a moonlight night I have
landed articles there, though.'
While he thus spoke they pulled round a point of rock, and found a very
small harbour, partly formed by nature, partly by the indefatigable
labour of the ancient inhabitants of the castle, who, as the fisherman
observed, had found it essential for the protection of their boats and
small craft, though it could not receive vessels of any burden. The two
points of rock which formed the access approached each other so nearly
that only one boat could enter at a time. On each side were still
remaining two immense iron rings, deeply morticed into the solid rock.
Through these, according to tradition, there was nightly drawn a huge
chain, secured by an immense padlock, for the protection of the haven
and the armada which it contained. A ledge of rock had, by the
assistance of the chisel and pickaxe, been formed into a sort of quay.
The rock was of extremely hard consistence, and the task so difficult
that, according to the fisherman, a labourer who wrought at the work
might in the evening have carried home in his bonnet all the shivers
which he had struck from the mass in the course of the day. This little
quay communicated with a rude staircase, already repeatedly mentioned,
which descended from the old castle. There was also a communication
between the beach and the quay, by scrambling over the rocks.
'Ye had better land here,' said the lad, 'for the surf's running high
at the Shellicoat Stane, and there will no be a dry thread amang us or
we get the cargo out. Na! na! (in answer to an offer of money) ye have
wrought for your passage, and wrought far better than ony o' us. Gude
day to ye; I wuss ye weel.'
So saying, he pushed oil in order to land his cargo on the opposite
side of the bay; and Brown, with a small bundle in his hand, containing
the trifling stock of necessaries which he had been obliged to purchase
at Allonby, was left on the rocks beneath the ruin.
And thus, unconscious as the most absolute stranger, and in
circumstances which, if not destitute, were for the present highly
embarrassing, without the countenance of a friend within the circle of
several hundred miles, accused of a heavy crime, and, what was as bad
as all the rest, being nearly penniless, did the harassed wanderer for
the first time after the interval of so many years approach the remains
of the castle where his ancestors had exercised all but regal dominion.