A VOLUNTEER SIXTY YEARS SINCE
On hearing the unwelcome sound of the drum, Major Melville hastily
opened a sashed door, and stepped out upon a sort of terrace which
divided his house from the high-road from which the martial music
proceeded. Waverley and his new friend followed him, though probably
he would have dispensed with their attendance. They soon recognized in
solemn march, first, the performer upon the drum; secondly, a large
flag of four compartments, on which were inscribed the words COVENANTS,
RELIGION, KING, KINGDOMES. The person who was honoured with this charge
was followed by the commander of the party, a thin, dark, rigid-looking
man, about sixty years old. The spiritual pride, which in mine Host of
the Candlestick mantled in a sort of supercilious hypocrisy, was, in
this man's face, elevated and yet darkened by genuine and undoubting
fanaticism. It was impossible to behold him without imagination
placing him in some strange crisis, where religious zeal was the ruling
principle. A martyr at the stake, a soldier in the field, a lonely and
banished wanderer consoled by the intensity and supposed purity of his
faith under every earthly privation; perhaps a persecuting inquisitor,
as terrible in power as unyielding in adversity; any of these seemed
congenial characters to this personage. With these high traits of
energy, there was something in the affected precision and solemnity of
his deportment and discourse, that bordered upon the ludicrous; so that,
according to the mood of the spectator's mind, and the light under which
Mr. Gilfillan presented himself, one might have feared; admired, or
laughed at him. His dress was that of a west-country peasant, of
better materials indeed than that of the lower rank, but in no respect
affecting either the mode of the age, or of the Scottish gentry at
any period. His arms were a broadsword and pistols, which, from the
antiquity of their appearance, might have seen the rout of Pentland, or
Bothwell Brigg.
As he came up a few steps to meet Major Melville, and touched solemnly,
but slightly, his huge and overbrimmed blue bonnet, in answer to the
Major, who had courteously raised a small triangular gold-laced hat,
Waverley was irresistibly impressed with the idea that he beheld a
leader of the Roundheads of yore in conference with one of Marlborough's
captains.
The group of about thirty armed men who followed this gifted commander,
was of a motley description. They were in ordinary Lowland dresses, of
different colours, which, contrasted with the arms they bore, gave them
an irregular and mobbish appearance; so much is the eye accustomed to
connect uniformity of dress with the military character. In front were
a few who apparently partook of their leader's enthusiasm; men obviously
to be feared in a combat where their natural courage was exalted by
religious zeal. Others puffed and strutted, filled with the importance
of carrying arms, and all the novelty of their situation, while
the rest, apparently fatigued with their march, dragged their limbs
listlessly along, or straggled from their companions to procure such
refreshments as the neighbouring cottages and ale-houses afforded.--Six
grenadiers of Ligonier's, thought the Major to himself, as his mind
reverted to his own military experience, would have sent all these
fellows to the right about.
Greeting, however, Mr. Gilfillan civilly, he requested to know if he
had received the letter he had sent to him upon his march, and could
undertake the charge of the state prisoner whom he there mentioned, as
far as Stirling Castle. 'Yea,' was the concise reply of the Cameronian
leader, in a voice which seemed to issue from the very PENETRALIA of his
person.
'But your escort, Mr. Gilfillan, is not so strong as I expected,' said
Major Melville,
'Some of the people,' replied Gilfillan, 'hungered and were athirst
by the way, and tarried until their poor souls were refreshed with the
word.'
'I am sorry, sir,' replied the Major, 'you did not trust to your
refreshing your men at Cairnvreckan; whatever my house contains is at
the command of persons employed in the service.'
'It was not of creature comforts I spake,' answered the Covenanter,
regarding Major Melville with something like a smile of contempt;
'howbeit, I thank you; but the people remained waiting upon the precious
Mr. Jabesh Rentowel, for the outpouring of the afternoon exhortation.'
'And have you, sir,' said the Major, 'when the rebels are about to
spread themselves through this country, actually left a great part of
your command at a field-preaching!'
Gilfillan again smiled scornfully as he made this indirect
answer,--'Even thus are the children of this world wiser in their
generation than the children of light!'
'However, sir,' said the Major, 'as you are to take charge of this
gentleman to Stirling, and deliver him, with these papers, into the
hands of Governor Blakeney, I beseech you to observe some rules of
military discipline upon your march. For example, I would advise you to
keep your men more closely together, and that each, in his march, should
cover his file-leader, instead of straggling like geese upon a common;
and, for fear of surprise, I further recommend to you to form a small
advance-party of your best men, with a single vidette in front of the
whole march, so that when you approach a village or a wood'--(Here the
Major interrupted himself)--'But as I don't observe you listen to me,
Mr. Gilfillan, I suppose I need not give myself the trouble to say more
upon the subject. You are a better judge, unquestionably, than I am, of
the measures to be pursued; but one thing I would have you well aware
of, that you are to treat this gentleman, your prisoner, with no rigour
nor incivility, and are to subject him to no other restraint than is
necessary for his security.'
'I have looked into my commission,' said Mr. Gilfillan, subscribed by
a worthy and professing nobleman, William, Earl of Glencairn; nor do I
find it therein set down that I am to receive any charges or commands
anent my doings from Major William Melville of Cairnvreckan.'
Major Melville reddened even to the well-powdered ears which appeared
beneath his neat military side-curls, the more so, as he observed Mr.
Morton smile at the same moment. 'Mr. Gilfillan,' he answered with some
asperity, 'I beg ten thousand pardons for interfering with a person
of your importance. I thought, however, that as you have been bred a
grazier, if I mistake not, there might be occasion to remind you of the
difference between Highlanders and Highland cattle; and if you should
happen to meet with any gentleman who has seen service; and is disposed
to speak upon the subject, I should still imagine that listening to him
would do you no sort of harm. But I have done, and have only once
more to recommend this gentleman to your civility, as well as to your
custody.--Mr Waverley, I am truly sorry we should part in this way; but
I trust, when you are again in this country, I may have an opportunity
to render Cairnvreckan more agreeable than circumstances have permitted
on this occasion.'
So saying, he shook our hero by the hand. Morton also took an
affectionate farewell; and Waverley, having mounted his horse, with a
musketeer leading it by the bridle, and a file upon each side to prevent
his escape, set forward upon the march with Gilfillan and his party.
Through the little village they were accompanied with the shouts of the
children, who cried out, 'Eh! see to the Southland gentleman, that's
gaun to be hanged for shooting lang John Mucklewrath the smith!'