WAVERLEY PROCEEDS ON HIS JOURNEY
Then Edward had collected his scattered recollection, he was surprised
to observe the cavern totally deserted. Having arisen and put his dress
in some order, he looked more accurately round him; but all was still
solitary. If it had not been for the decayed brands of the fire, now
sunk into grey ashes, and the remnants of the festival, consisting
of bones half burnt and half gnawed, and an empty keg or two, there
remained no traces of Donald and his band. When Waverley sallied forth
to the entrance of the cave, he perceived that the point of rock, on
which remained the marks of last night's beacon, was accessible by
a small path, either natural, or roughly hewn in the rock, along the
little inlet of water which ran a few yards up into the cavern, where,
as in a wet-dock, the skiff which brought him there the night before
was still lying moored. When he reached the small projecting platform
on which the beacon had been established, he would have believed his
further progress by land impossible, only that it was scarce probable
but that the inhabitants of the cavern had some mode of issuing from it
otherwise than by the lake. Accordingly, he soon observed three or four
shelving steps, or ledges of rock, at the very extremity of the little
platform; and, making use of them as a staircase, he clambered by their
means around the projecting shoulder of the crag on which the cavern
opened, and, descending with some difficulty on the other side, he
gained the wild and precipitous shores of a Highland loch, about four
miles in length, and a mile and a half across, surrounded by heathy
and savage mountains, on the crests of which the morning mist was still
sleeping.
Looking back to the place from which he came, he could not help admiring
the address which had adopted a retreat of such seclusion and
secrecy. The rock, round the shoulder of which he had turned by a few
imperceptible notches, that barely afforded place for the foot, seemed,
in looking back upon it, a huge precipice, which barred all further
passage by the shores of the lake in that direction. There could be
no possibility, the breadth of the lake considered, of descrying the
entrance of the narrow and low-browed cave from the other side; so
that, unless the retreat had been sought for with boats, or disclosed
by treachery, it might be a safe and secret residence to its garrison
as long as they were supplied with provisions. Having satisfied his
curiosity in these particulars, Waverley looked around for Evan Dhu and
his attendants, who, he rightly judged, would be at no great distance,
whatever might have become of Donald Bean Lean and his party, whose
mode of life was, of course, liable to sudden migrations of abode.
Accordingly, at the distance of about half a mile, he beheld a
Highlander (Evan apparently) angling in the lake, with another attending
him, whom, from the weapon which he shouldered, he recognized for his
friend with the battle-axe.
Much nearer to the mouth of the cave, he heard the notes of a lively
Gaelic song, guided by which, in a sunny recess, shaded by a glittering
birch-tree, and carpeted with a bank of firm white sand, he found the
damsel of the cavern, whose lay had already reached him, busy, to the
best of her power, in arranging to advantage a morning repast of milk,
eggs, barley-bread, fresh butter, and honeycomb. The poor girl had
already made a circuit of four miles that morning in search of the eggs,
of the meal which baked her cakes, and of the other materials of the
breakfast, being all delicacies which she had to beg or borrow from
distant cottagers. The followers of Donald Bean Lean used little food
except the flesh of the animals which they drove away from the Lowlands;
bread itself was a delicacy seldom thought of, because hard to be
obtained, and all the domestic accommodations of milk, poultry, butter,
&c., were out of the question in this Scythian camp. Yet it must not
be omitted, that, although Alice had occupied a part of the morning in
providing those accommodations for her guest which the cavern did not
afford, she had secured time also to arrange her own person in her best
trim. Her finery was very simple. A short russet-coloured jacket, and
a petticoat, of scanty longitude, was her whole dress; but these were
clean, and neatly arranged. A piece of scarlet embroidered cloth, called
the snood, confined her hair, which fell over it in a profusion of rich
dark curls. The scarlet plaid, which formed part of her dress, was laid
aside, that it might not impede her activity in attending the stranger.
I should forget Alice's proudest ornament, were I to omit mentioning a
pair of gold ear-rings, and a golden rosary, which her father (for
she was the daughter of Donald Bean Lean) had brought from France, the
plunder, probably, of some battle or storm.
Her form, though rather large for her years, was very well proportioned,
and her demeanour had a natural and rustic grace, with nothing of the
sheepishness of an ordinary peasant. The smiles, displaying a row of
teeth of exquisite whiteness, and the laughing eyes, with which, in dumb
show, she gave Waverley that morning greeting which she wanted English
words to express, might have been interpreted by a coxcomb, or perhaps
by a young soldier, who, without being such, was conscious of a handsome
person, as meant to convey more than the courtesy of an hostess. Nor do
I take it upon me to say, that the little wild mountaineer would
have welcomed any staid old gentleman advanced in life, the Baron of
Bradwardine, for example, with the cheerful pains which she bestowed
upon Edward's accommodation. She seemed eager to place him by the meal
which she had so sedulously arranged, and to which she now added a few
bunches of cranberries, gathered in an adjacent morass. Having had the
satisfaction of seeing him seated at his breakfast, she placed herself
demurely upon a stone at a few yards' distance, and appeared to watch
with great complacency for some opportunity of serving him.
Evan and his attendant now returned slowly along the beach, the latter
bearing a large salmon-trout, the produce of the morning's sport,
together with the angling-rod, while Evan strolled forward, with
an easy, self-satisfied, and important gait, towards the spot where
Waverley was so agreeably employed at the breakfast-table. After morning
greetings had passed on both sides, and Evan, looking at Waverley, had
said something in Gaelic to Alice, which made her laugh, yet colour up
to her eyes, through a complexion well embrowned by sun and wind, Evan
intimated his commands that the fish should be prepared for breakfast.
A spark from the lock of his pistol produced a light, and a few withered
fir branches were quickly in flame, and as speedily reduced to hot
embers, on which the trout was broiled in large slices. To crown the
repast, Evan produced from the pocket of his short jerkin, a large
scallop shell, and from under the folds of his plaid, a ram's horn full
of whisky. Of this he took a copious dram, observing he had already
taken his MORNING with Donald Bean Lean, before his departure; he
offered the same cordial to Alice and to Edward, which they both
declined. With the bounteous air of a lord, Evan then proffered the
scallop to Dugald Mahony, his attendant, who, without waiting to be
asked a second time, drank it off with great gusto. Evan then prepared
to move towards the boat, inviting Waverley to attend him. Meanwhile,
Alice had made up in a small basket what she thought worth removing, and
hinging her plaid around her, she advanced up to Edward, and, with the
utmost simplicity, taking hold of his hand, offered her cheek to his
salute, dropping, at the same time, her little curtsy. Evan, who was
esteemed a wag among the mountain fair, advanced, as if to secure a
similar favour; but Alice, snatching up her basket, escaped up the
rocky bank as fleetly as a roe, and, turning round and laughing, called
something out to him in Gaelic, which he answered in the same tone and
language; then, waving her hand to Edward, she resumed her road, and
was soon lost among the thickets, though they continued for some time to
hear her lively carol, as she proceeded gaily on her solitary journey.
They now again entered the gorge of the cavern, and stepping into the
boat, the Highlander pushed off, and, taking advantage of the morning
breeze, hoisted a clumsy sort of sail, while Evan assumed the helm,
directing their course, as it appeared to Waverley, rather higher up the
lake than towards the place of his embarkation on the preceding night.
As they glided along the silver mirror, Evan opened the conversation
with a panegyric upon Alice, who, he said, was both CANNY and FENDY;
and was, to the boot of all that, the best dancer of a strathspey in
the whole strath. Edward assented to her praises so far as he understood
them, yet could not help regretting that she was condemned to such a
perilous and dismal life.
'Oich! for that,' said Evan, 'there is nothing in Perthshire that she
need want, if she ask her father to fetch it, unless it be too hot or
too heavy.
'But to be the daughter of a cattle-stealer--a common thief!'
'Common thief!--no such thing: Donald Bean Lean never LIFTED less than a
drove in his life.'
'Do you call him an uncommon thief, then?'
'No--he that steals a cow from a poor widow, or a stirk from a
cottar, is a thief; he that lifts a drove from a Sassenach laird, is a
gentleman-drover. And, besides, to take a tree from the forest, a salmon
from the river, a deer from the hill, or a cow from a Lowland strath, is
what no Highlander need ever think shame upon.'
'But what can this end in, were he taken in such an appropriation?'
'To be sure he would DIE FOR THE LAW, as many a pretty man has done
before him.'
'Die for the law!'
'Aye; that is, with the law, or by the law; be strapped up on the
KIND gallows of Crieff, [12] where his father died, and his
goodsire died, and where I hope he'll live to die himself, if he's not
shot, or slashed, in a creagh.'
'You HOPE such a death for your friend, Evan!'
'And that do I e'en; would you have me wish him to die on a bundle of
wet straw in yon den of his, like a mangy tyke?'
'But what becomes of Alice, then?'
'Troth, if such an accident were to happen, as her father would not need
her help ony langer, I ken naught to hinder me to marry her mysell.'
'Gallantly resolved!' said Edward;--'but, in the meanwhile, Evan, what
has your father-in-law (that shall be, if he have the good fortune to be
hanged) done with the Baron's cattle?'
'Oich,' answered Evan, 'they were all trudging before your lad and Allan
Kennedy before the sun blinked ower Ben-Lawers this morning; and they'll
be in the pass of Bally-Brough by this time, in their way back to the
parks of Tully-Veolan, all but two, that were unhappily slaughtered
before I got last night to Uaimh an Ri.'
'And where are we going, Evan, if I may be so bold as to ask?' said
Waverley.
'Where would you be ganging, but to the laird's ain house of
Glennaquoich? Ye would not think to be in his country, without ganging
to see him? It would be as much as a man's life's worth,'
'And are we far from Glennaquoich?'
But five bits of miles; and Vich Ian Vohr will meet us.'
In about half an hour they reached the upper end of the lake, where,
after landing Waverley, the two Highlanders drew the boat into a little
creek among thick flags and reeds, where it lay perfectly concealed.
The oars they put in another place of concealment, both for the use of
Donald Bean Lean probably, when his occasions should next bring him to
that place.
The travellers followed for some time a delightful opening into the
hills, down which a little brook found its way to the lake. When they
had pursued their walk a short distance, Waverley renewed his questions
about their host of the cavern.
'Does he always reside in that cave?'
'Out, no! it's past the skill of man to tell where he's to be found
at a' times; there's not a dern nook, or cove, or corri, in the whole
country, that he's not acquainted with.'
'And do others beside your master shelter him?'
'My master?--My master is in heaven,' answered Evan haughtily; and then
immediately assuming his usual civility of manner--'But you mean my
Chief;--no, he does not shelter Donald Bean Lean, nor any that are like
him; he only allows him (with a smile) wood and water.'
'No great boon, I should think, Evan, when both seem to be very plenty.'
'Ah! but ye dinna see through it. When I say wood and water, I mean the
loch and the land; and I fancy Donald would be put till't if the laird
were to look for him wi' threescore men in the wood of Kailychat yonder;
and if our boats, with a score or twa mair, were to come down the loch
to Uaimh an Ri, headed by mysell, or ony other pretty man.'
'But suppose a strong party came against him from the Low Country, would
not your Chief defend him?'
'Na, he would not ware the spark of a flint for him--if they came with
the law.'
'And what must Donald do, then?'
'He behoved to rid this country of himsell, and fall back, it may be,
over the mount upon Letter Scriven.'
'And if he were pursued to that place?'
'I'se warrant he would go to his cousin's at Rannoch.'
'Well, but if they followed him to Rannoch?'
'That,' quoth Evan, 'is beyond all belief; and, indeed, to tell you the
truth, there durst not a Lowlander in all Scotland follow the fray a
gun-shot beyond Bally-Brough, unless he had the help of the SIDIER DHU.'
'Whom do you call so?'
'The SIDIER DHU? the black soldier; that is what they call the
independent companies that were raised to keep peace and law in the
Highlands. Vich Ian Vohr commanded one of them for five years, and I was
sergeant myself, I shall warrant ye. They call them SIDIER DHU, because
they wear the tartans,--as they call your men, King George's men, SIDIER
ROY, or red soldiers.'
'Well, but when you were in King George's pay, Evan, you were surely
King George's soldiers?'
'Troth, and you must ask Vich Ian Vohr about that; for we are for his
king, and care not much which o' them it is. At any rate, nobody can
say we are King George's men now, when we have not seen his pay this
twelvemonth.'
This last argument admitted of no reply, nor did Edward attempt any;
he rather chose to bring back the discourse to Donald Bean Lean. 'Does
Donald confine himself to cattle, or does he LIFT, as you call it,
anything else that comes in his way?'
'Troth, he's nae nice body, and he'll just tak ony thing, but most
readily cattle, horse, or live Christians; for sheep are slow of travel,
and inside plenishing is cumbrous to carry, and not easy to put away for
siller in this country.'
'But does he carry off men and women?'
'Out, aye. Did not ye hear him speak o' the Perth bailie? It cost that
body five hundred merks ere he got to the south of Bally-Brough.--And
ance Donald played a pretty sport. [13] There was to be a
blythe bridal between the Lady Cramfeezer, in the howe o' the Mearns
(she was the auld laird's widow, and no sae young as she had been
hersell), and young Gilliewhackit, who had spent his heirship and
movables, like a gentleman, at cock-matches, bull-baitings, horse-races,
and the like. Now, Donald Bean Lean, being aware that the bridegroom
was in request, and wanting to cleik the cunzie (that is, to hook the
siller), he cannily carried off Gilliewhackit ae night when he was
riding DOVERING hame (wi' the malt rather abune the meal), and with the
help of his gillies he gat him into the hills with the speed of light,
and the first place he wakened in was the cove of Uaimh an Ri. So there
was old to do about ransoming the bridegroom; for Donald would not lower
a farthing of a thousand punds'--
The devil!'
'Punds Scottish, ya shall understand. And the lady had not the siller
if she had pawned her gown; and they applied to the governor o' Stirling
castle, and to the major o' the Black Watch; and the governor said, it
was ower far to the northward, and out of his district; and the major
said, his men were gane hame to the shearing, and he would not call
them out before the victual was got in for all the Cramfeezers in
Christendom, let alane the Mearns, for that it would prejudice the
country. And in the meanwhile ye'll no hinder Gilliewhackit to take the
small-pox. There was not the doctor in Perth or Stirling would look near
the poor lad; and I cannot blame them, for Donald had been misguggled by
ane of these doctors about Paris, and he swore he would fling the first
into the loch that he catched beyond the Pass. However, some cailliachs
(that is, old women) that were about Donald's hand, nursed Gilliewhackit
sae weel, that between the free open air in the cove and the fresh whey,
deil an' he did not recover maybe as weel as if he had been closed in a
glazed chamber and a bed with curtains, and fed with red wine and white
meat. And Donald was sae vexed about it, that when he was stout and
weel, he even sent him free home, and said he would be pleased with
onything they would like to gie him for the plague and trouble which
he had about Gilliewhackit to an unkenn'd degree. And I cannot tell you
precisely how they sorted; but they agreed sae right that Donald was
invited to dance at the wedding in his Highland trews, and they said
that there was never sae meikle siller clinked in his purse either
before or since. And to the boot of all that, Gilliewhackit said, that,
be the evidence what it liked, if he had the luck to be on Donald's
inquest, he would bring him in guilty of nothing whatever, unless it
were wilful arson, or murder under trust.'
With such bald and disjointed chat Evan went on, illustrating the
existing state of the Highlands, more perhaps to the amusement of
Waverley than that of our readers. At length, after having marched over
bank and brae, moss and heather, Edward, though not unacquainted with
the Scottish liberality in computing distance, began to think that
Evan's five miles were nearly doubled. His observation on the large
measure which the Scottish allowed of their land, in comparison to the
computation of their money, was readily answered by Evan, with the old
jest, The deil take them wha have the least pint stoup.' ['The Scotch
are liberal in computing their land and liquor; the Scottish pint
corresponds to two English quarts. As for their coin, every one knows
the couplet--
'How can the rogues pretend to sense?
Their pound is only twenty pence.']
And now the report of a gun was heard, and a sportsman was seen, with
his dogs and attendant, at the upper end of the glen. 'Shough,' said
Dugald Mahony, 'tat's ta Chief.'
'It is not,' said Evan imperiously. 'Do you think he would come to meet
a Sassenach Duinhe-wassel in such a way as that?'
But as they approached a little nearer, he said, with an appearance of
mortification, 'And it is even he, sure enough; and he has not his tail
on after all;--there is no living creature with him but Callum Beg.'
In fact, Fergus Mac-Ivor, of whom a Frenchman might have said, as truly
as of any man in the Highlands, 'QU'IL CONNOIT BIEN SES GENS,' had no
idea of raising himself in the eyes of an English young man of fortune,
by appearing with a retinue of idle Highlanders disproportioned to the
occasion. He was well aware that such an unnecessary attendance would
seem to Edward rather ludicrous than respectable; and while few men were
more attached to ideas of chieftainship and feudal power, he was, for
that very reason, cautious of exhibiting external marks of dignity,
unless at the time and in the manner when they were most likely to
produce an imposing effect. Therefore, although, had he been to receive
a brother chieftain, he would probably have been attended by all that
retinue which Evan described with so much unction, he judged it more
respectable to advance to meet Waverley with a single attendant, a very
handsome Highland boy, who carried his master's shooting-pouch and his
broadsword, without which he seldom went abroad.
When Fergus and Waverley met, the latter was struck with the peculiar
grace and dignity of the Chieftain's figure, Above the middle size, and
finely proportioned, the Highland dress, which he wore in its simplest
mode, set off his person to great advantage. He wore the trews, or
close trousers, made of tartan, chequed scarlet and white; in other
particulars, his dress strictly resembled Evan's, excepting that he had
no weapon save a dirk, very richly mounted with silver. His page, as we
have said, carried his claymore and the fowling-piece, which he held in
his hand, seemed only designed for sport. He had shot in the course of
his walk some young wild-ducks, as, though CLOSE TIME was then
unknown, the broods of grouse were yet too young for the sportsman. His
countenance was decidedly Scottish, with all the peculiarities of
the northern physiognomy, but yet had so little of ifs harshness
and exaggeration, that it would have been pronounced in any country
extremely handsome. The martial air of the bonnet, with a single eagle's
feather as a distinction, added much to the manly appearance of his
head, which was besides ornamented with a far more natural and graceful
cluster of close black curls than ever were exposed to sale in Bond
Street.
An air of openness and affability increased the favourable impression
derived from this handsome and dignified exterior. Yet a skilful
physiognomist would have been less satisfied with the countenance on
the second than on the first view. The eyebrow and upper lip bespoke
something of the habit of peremptory command and decisive superiority.
Even his courtesy, though open, frank, and unconstrained, seemed
to indicate a sense of personal importance; and, upon any check or
accidental excitation, a sudden, though transient lour of the eye,
showed a hasty, haughty, and vindictive temper, not less to be dreaded
because it seemed much under its owner's command. In short, the
countenance of the Chieftain resembled a smiling summer's day, in which,
notwithstanding, we are made sensible by certain, though slight signs,
that it may thunder and lighten before the close of evening.
It was not, however, upon their first meeting that Edward had an
opportunity of making these less favourable remarks. The Chief received
him as a friend of the Baron of Bradwardine, with the utmost expression
of kindness and obligation for the visit; upbraided him gently with
choosing so rude an abode as he had done the night before; and entered
into a lively conversation with him about Donald Bean's housekeeping,
but without the least hint as to his predatory habits, or the immediate
occasion of Waverley's visit, a topic which, as the Chief did not
introduce it, our hero also avoided. While they walked merrily on
towards the house of Glennaquoich, Evan, who now fell respectfully into
the rear, followed with Callum Beg and Dugald Mahony.
We shall take the opportunity to introduce the reader to some
particulars of Fergus Mac-Ivor's character and history, which were
not completely known to Waverley till after a connexion, which, though
arising from a circumstance so casual, had for a length of time the
deepest influence upon his character, actions, and prospects. But this,
being an important subject, must form the commencement of a new chapter.