It seems that shortly after Robin Finnie had departed from the gallant
cavalier, a lad, called Sandy Macgill, who was colleagued with him in
the plot, came towards the captain with looks cast to the earth, and so
full of thought, that he seemingly noticed nothing. Going forward in
this locked-up state of the outward sense, he came close upon Swaby,
when, affecting to be startled out of his meditations, he stopped
suddenly short, and looked in the lieutenant's broad face, with all the
alarm he could put into his own features, till he saw he was frightened
out of his judgment, when he said,--
"Gude be about us, sir, ye hae gotten scaith; the blighting blink o' an
ill e'e has lighted upon you.--O, sir; O, sir! tak tent o' yoursel!"
Sandy had prepared a deal more to say, but finding himself overcome with
an inward inclination to risibility at the sight of Swaby's
terrification, he was obligated to flee as fast as he could from the
spot; the which wild-like action of his no doubt dismayed the cavalier
fully as meikle as all he had said.
But it's the nature of man to desire to do whatever he is forbidden.
Notwithstanding all their mystical admonitions, Swaby still persevered
in his evil intents, and accordingly he was seen lurking, without his
sword, about the heel of the evening, on Hallowe'en, near the skirts of
the clachan where Mysie Gilmour lived. And, as it had been conspired
among her friends, Mungo Affleck, her gude-brother, a man weel stricken
in years, but of a youthy mind, and a perfect pen-gun at a crack, came
across the cavalier in his path, and Swaby having before some slight
acquaintance with his garb and canny observes, hovered for a little in
discourse with Mungo.
"I counsel you, sir," said the pawkie auld carl as they were separating,
"no to gang far afield this night, for this is a night that there is na
the like o' in a' the year round. It's Hallowe'en, sir, so be counselled
by me, and seek your hame betimes; for mony a ane has met with things on
Hallowe'en that they never after forgot."
Considering the exploit on which the cavalier was then bowne, it's no to
be thought that this was very heartening music; but for all that, he
said blithely, as Mungo told me himself, "Nae, not so fast, governor,
tell us what you mean by Hallowe'en!"
"Hallowe'en!" cried Mungo Affleck, with a sound o' serious sincerity.
"Do ye no ken Hallowe'en? but I need na say that. Ye'll excuse me,
captain, what can you Englishers, that are brought up in the darkness o'
human ordinances in Gospel things, and who live in the thraldom of
episcopalian ignorance, ken o' Hallowe'en, or o' any other solemn day
set apart for an occasion?--O, sir, Hallowe'en among us is a dreadful
night! Witches and warlocks, and a' lang-nebbit things, hae a power and
a dominion unspeakable on Hallowe'en. The de'il at other times gi'es,
it's said, his agents a mutchkin o' mischief, but on this night it's
thought they hae a chappin; and one thing most demonstrable is;--but,
sir, the sun's down--the blessed light o' day is ayont the hill, and
it's no safe to be subjek to the whisking o' the mildew frae the tails
o' the benweed ponies that are saddled for yon awfu' carnavaulings,
where Cluty plays on the pipes! so I wis you, sir, gude night and weel
hame.--O, sir, an ye could be persuaded!--Tak an auld man's advice, and
rather read a chapter of THE BOOK, an it should even be the unedyfying
tenth of Nehemiah, than be seen at the gloaming in this gait, about the
dyke-sides, like a wolf yearning for some tender lamb of a defenceless
fold."
Mungo having thus delivered himself, went away, leaving Swaby as it were
in a swither; for, on looking back, the old man saw him standing half
turned round as if he was minded to go home. The power of the sin was,
however, strong upon him, and shortly after the dusk had closed in, when
the angels had lighted their candles at their windows in the sky, to
watch over the world in the hours of sleep, Swaby, with stealthy steps,
came to Mysie Gilmour's door, and softly tirling at the pin was
admitted; for all within was ready for his reception.
Robin Finnie and Sandy Macgill having carried thither Zachariah Smylie's
black ram, a condumacious and outstropolous beast, which they had laid
in Mysie's bed, and keepit frae baaing with a gude fothering of
kail-blades and a cloute soaken in milk.
Mysie, on opening the door, said to the gallant cavalier,--
"Just step in, ye'll fin' a' ready," and she blew out her crusie which
she had in her hand, and letting the captain grope in by himself,
hirpled as fast as she could to one of the neighbours; for, although she
had covenanted with him to come without his sword, she was terrified
with the fear of some dreadful upshot.
As soon as he was in, Robin Finnie and Sandy Macgill went and hearkened
at the window, where they heard the gay gallant stumbling in the floor,
churming sweet and amorous words as he went groping his way towards the
bed where the auld toop was breathing thickly, mumbling and crunching
the kail-blades in a state of as great sensual delight and satisfaction
as any beast could well be. But no sooner had the cavalier placed his
hand on the horned head of the creature than he uttered a yell of
despair; in the same moment the toop, in little less fright, jumpit out
of the bed against him and knocked him down over a stool with a lounder.
Verily Providence might be said, with reverence, to have had a hand in
the mirth of his punishment; for the ram recovering its senses before
the cavalier, and being in dread of danger, returned to the charge, and
began to butt him as if it would have been his death. The cries that
ensued are not to be told; all the neighbours came running to the door,
to see what was the matter, some with lighted sticks in their hands, and
some with burning coals in the tongs. Robin Finnie and Sandy Macgill
were like to die of laughing; but fearing the wrathful ram might dunt
out the bowels or the brains, if he had any, of the poor young cavalier,
they opened the door, and so delivered him from its horns. He was,
however, by this time, almost in a state of distraction, believing the
beast was the real Evil One; so that he no sooner felt himself free and
saw the lights, than he flew to his quarters as if he had been pursued
by a legion.
Some of his own soldiers that were lying in the clachan, and who had
come out with the rest of the folk, saw through the stratagem, and,
forgetting all reverence for their afflicted commander, laughed louder
and longer than any body. In short, the story was o'er the whole parish
next day, and the very weans, wherever the cavalier appeared, used to
cry ba at him, by which his very life was made a shame and a burden to
him, insomuch that he applied for leave to give up his commission, and
returned home to his kindred in the south of England, and we never heard
tell of him after.