In the course of these notandums, I have, here and there, touched on
divers matters that did not actually pertain to my own magisterial life,
further than as showing the temper and spirit in which different things
were brought to a bearing; and, in the same way, I will now again step
aside from the regular course of public affairs, to record an occurrence
which, at the time, excited no small wonderment and sympathy, and in
which it was confessed by many that I performed a very judicious part.
The event here spoken of, was the quartering in the town, after the
removal of that well-behaved regiment, the Argyle fencibles, the main
part of another, the name and number of which I do not now recollect; but
it was an English corps, and, like the other troops of that nation, was
not then brought into the sobriety of discipline to which the whole
British army has since been reduced, by the paternal perseverance of his
Royal Highness the Duke of York; so that, after the douce and respectful
Highlanders, we sorely felt the consequences of the outstropolous and
galravitching Englishers, who thought it no disgrace to fill themselves
as fou as pipers, and fight in the streets, and march to the church on
the Lord's day with their band of music. However, after the first
Sunday, upon a remonstrance on the immorality of such irreligious
bravery, Colonel Cavendish, the commandant, silenced the musicians.
Among the officers, there was one Captain Armour, an extraordinar well
demeaned, handsome man, who was very shy of accepting any civility from
the town gentry, and kept himself aloof from all our ploys and
entertainments, in such a manner, that the rest of the officers talked of
him, marvelling at the cause, for it was not his wont in other places.
One Sabbath, during the remembering prayer, Mr Pittle put up a few words
for criminals under sentence of death, there being two at the time in the
Ayr jail, at the which petition I happened to look at Captain Armour,
who, with the lave of the officers, were within the magistrates' loft,
and I thought he had, at the moment, a likeness to poor Jeanie Gaisling,
that was executed for the murder of her bastard bairn.
This notion at the time disturbed me very much, and one thought after
another so came into my head, that I could pay no attention to Mr Pittle,
who certainly was but a cauldrife preacher, and never more so than on
that day. In short, I was haunted with the fancy, that Captain Armour
was no other than the misfortunate lassie's poor brother, who had in so
pathetical a manner attended her and the magistrates to the scaffold;
and, what was very strange, I was not the only one in the kirk who
thought the same thing; for the resemblance, while Mr Pittle was praying,
had been observed by many; and it was the subject of discourse in my shop
on the Monday following, when the whole history of that most sorrowful
concern was again brought to mind. But, without dwelling at large on the
particularities, I need only mention, that it began to be publicly
jealoused that he was indeed the identical lad, which moved every body;
for he was a very good and gallant officer, having risen by his own
merits, and was likewise much beloved in the regiment. Nevertheless,
though his sister's sin was no fault of his, and could not impair the
worth of his well-earned character, yet some of the thoughtless young
ensigns began to draw off from him, and he was visited, in a manner, with
the disgrace of an excommunication.
Being, however, a sensible man, he bore it for a while patiently, may be
hoping that the suspicion would wear away; but my lord, with all his
retinue, coming from London to the castle for the summer, invited the
officers one day to dine with him and the countess, when the fact was
established by a very simple accident.
Captain Armour, in going up the stairs, and along the crooked old
passages of the castle, happened to notice that the colonel, who was in
the van, turned to the wrong hand, and called to him to take the other
way, which circumstance convinced all present that he was domestically
familiar with the labyrinths of the building; and the consequence was,
that, during dinner, not one of the officers spoke to him, some from
embarrassment and others from pride.
The earl perceiving their demeanour, enquired of the colonel, when they
had returned from the table to the drawing-room, as to the cause of such
a visible alienation, and Colonel Cavendish, who was much of the
gentleman, explaining it, expressing his grief that so unpleasant a
discovery had been made to the prejudice of so worthy a man, my lord was
observed to stand some time in a thoughtful posture, after which he went
and spoke in a whisper to the countess, who advised him, as her ladyship
in the sequel told me herself, to send for me, as a wary and prudent man.
Accordingly a servant was secretly dispatched express to the town on that
errand; my lord and my lady insisting on the officers staying to spend
the evening with them, which was an unusual civility at the _pro forma_
dinners at the castle.
When I arrived, the earl took me into his private library, and we had
some serious conversation about the captain's sister; and, when I had
related the circumstantialities of her end to him, he sent for the
captain, and with great tenderness, and a manner most kind and gracious,
told him what he had noticed in the conduct of the officers, offering his
mediation to appease any difference, if it was a thing that could be
done.
While my lord was speaking, the captain preserved a steady and unmoved
countenance: no one could have imagined that he was listening to any
thing but some grave generality of discourse; but when the earl offered
to mediate, his breast swelled, and his face grew like his coat, and I
saw his eyes fill with water as he turned round, to hide the grief that
could not be stifled. The passion of shame, however, lasted but for a
moment. In less time than I am in writing these heads, he was again
himself, and with a modest fortitude that was exceedingly comely, he
acknowledged who he was, adding, that he feared his blameless disgrace
entailed effects which he could not hope to remove, and therefore it was
his intention to resign his commission. The earl, however, requested
that he would do nothing rashly, and that he should first allow him to
try what could be done to convince his brother officers that it was
unworthy of them to act towards him in the way they did. His lordship
then led us to the drawing-room, on entering which, he said aloud to the
countess in a manner that could not be misunderstood, "In Captain Armour
I have discovered an old acquaintance, who by his own merits, and under
circumstances that would have sunk any man less conscious of his own
purity and worth, has raised himself, from having once been my servant,
to a rank that makes me happy to receive him as my guest."
I need not add, that this benevolence of his lordship was followed with a
most bountiful alteration towards the captain from all present, in so
much that, before the regiment was removed from the town, we had the
satisfaction of seeing him at divers of the town-ploys, where he received
every civility.