The moment that the man who came to the door saw, by the glimpse of the
light, that both my brother and Esau Wardrop had swords at their sides,
he uttered a cry of alarm, thinking the house was surrounded, at which
all the riotous soldiers within flew to their arms, while the man who
opened the door seized my brother by the throat and harl't him in. The
panic, however, was but of short duration; for my brother soon expounded
that they were two perishing men who came to surrender themselves; so
the door was again opened and Esau Wardrop commanded to come in.
"It's but a justice to say of those rampageous troopers," said my
brother, "that, considering us as prisoners of war, they were free and
kind enough, though they mocked at our cause, and derided the equipage
of our warfare. But it was a humiliating sight to see in what manner
they deported themselves towards the unfortunate family."
Ringlewood himself, who had remonstrated against their insolence to his
aged leddy, they had tied in his arm-chair and placed at the head of his
own table, round which they sat carousing, and singing the roister
ribaldry of camp songs. At first, when my brother was taken into this
scene of military domination, he did not observe the laird; for in the
uproar of the alarm the candles had been overset and broken, but new
ones being sworn for and stuck into the necks of the bottles of the wine
they were lavishly drinking, he discovered him lying as it were asleep
where he sat, with his head averted, and his eyes shut on the iniquity
of the scene of oppression with which he was oppressed.
Some touch of contrition had led one of the soldiers to take the aged
matron under his care; and on his intercession she was not placed at the
table, but allowed to sit in a corner, where she mourned in silence,
with her hands clasped together, and her head bent down over them upon
her breast. The laird's grandson and heir, a stripling of some fifteen
years or so, was obligated to be page and butler, for all the rest of
the house had taken to the hills at the approach of the troopers.
As the drinking continued the riot increased, and the rioters growing
heated with their drink, they began to quarrel: fierce words brought
angry answers, and threats were followed by blows. Then there was an
interposition, and a shaking of hands, and a pledging of renewed
friendship.
But still the demon of the drink continued to grow stronger and stronger
in their kindling blood, and the tumult was made perfect by one of the
men, in the capering of his inebriety, rising from his seat, and taking
the old leddy by the toupie to raise her head as he rudely placed his
foul cup to her lips. This called up the ire of the fellow who had sworn
to protect her, and he, not less intoxicated than the insulter, came
staggering to defend her; a scuffle ensued, the insulter was cast with a
swing away, and falling against the laird, who still remained as it were
asleep, with his head on his shoulder, and his eyes shut, he overthrew
the chair in which the old gentleman sat fastened, and they both fell to
the ground.
The soldier, frantic with wine and rage, was soon, like a tiger, on his
adversary; the rest rose to separate them. Some took one side, some
another; bottles were seized for weapons, and the table was overthrown
in the hurricane. Their sergeant, who was as drunk as the worst of them,
tried in vain to call them into order, but they heeded not his call,
which so enraged him, that he swore they should shift their quarters,
and with that seizing a burning brand from the chumla, he ran into a
bedchamber that opened from the room where the riot was raging, and set
fire to the curtains.
My brother seeing the flames rising, and that the infuriated war-wolves
thought only of themselves, ran to extricate Ringlewood from the cords
with which he was tied; and calling to the leddy and her grandson to
quit the burning house, every one was soon out of danger from the fire.
The sense of the soldiers were not so overborne by their drink as to
prevent them from seeing the dreadful extent of their outrage; but
instead of trying to extinguish the flames, they marched away to seek
quarters in some other place, cursing the sergeant for having so
unhoused them in such a night.
At first they thought of carrying my brother and Esau Wardrop with them
as prisoners; but one of them said it would be as well to give the wyte
of the burning, at headquarters, to the rebels; so they left them
behind.
Esau Wardrop, with the young laird and my grandfather, seeing it was in
vain to stop the progress of the fire, did all that in them lay to
rescue some of the furniture, while poor old Ringlewood and his aged and
gentle lady, being both too infirm to lend any help, stood on the green,
and saw the devouring element pass from room to room, till their ancient
dwelling was utterly destroyed. Fortunately, however, the air was calm,
and the out-houses escaping the ruinous contagion of the flames, there
was still a beild left in the barn to which they could retire.
In the meantime the light of the burning spread over the country; but
the people knowing that soldiers were quartered in Ringlewood, stood
aloof in the dread of firearms, thinking the conflagration might be
caused by some contest of war; so that the mansion of a gentleman much
beloved of all his neighbours was allowed to burn to the ground before
their eyes, without any one venturing to come to help him, to so great a
degree had distrust and the outrages of military riot at that epoch
altered the hearts of men.
My brother and Esau Wardrop staid with Ringlewood till the morning, and
had, for the space of three or four hours, a restoring sleep. Fain would
they have remained longer there, but the threat of the soldiers to
accuse them as the incendiaries made Ringlewood urge them to depart;
saying, that maybe a time would come when it would be in his power to
thank them for their help in that dreadful night. But he was not long
exposed to many sufferings; for the leddy on the day following, as in
after-time we heard, was seized with her dead-ill, and departed this
life in the course of three days; and the laird also, in less than a
month, was laid in the kirk-yard, with his ancestors, by her side.