Come from the hills where your hirsels are grazing,
Come from the glen of the buck and the roe;
Come to the crag where the beacon is blazing,
Come with the buckler, the lance, and the bow:
Many a banner spread
Flutters above your herd,
Many a crest that is famous in story;
Mount and make ready then,
Sons of the mountain glen,
Fight for the _King_, and our old Scottish glory.
SIR WALTER SCOTT'S _Monastery_.
The sough of war and invasion flew over the face of the land, at this
time, like a great whirlwind; and the hearts of men died within their
persons with fear and trembling. The accounts that came from abroad were
just dreadful beyond all power of description. Death stalked about from
place to place, like a lawless tyrant, and human blood was spilt like
water; while the heads of crowned kings were cut off; and great dukes and
lords were thrown into dark dungeons, or obligated to flee for their
lives into foreign lands, and to seek out hiding-places of safety beyond
the waves of the sea. What was worst of all, our trouble seemed a
smittal one; the infection spread around; and even our own land, which
all thought hale and healthy, began to show symptoms of the plague-spot.
Losh me! that men, in their seven senses, could have ever shown
themselves so infatuated. Johnny Wilkes and liberty was but a joke to
what was hanging over the head of the nation, brewing like a dark tempest
which was to swallow it up. Bills were posted up through night, by hands
that durst not have been seen at the work through day; and the agents of
the Spirit of Darkness, calling themselves the Friends of the People,
held secret meetings, and hatched plots to blow up our blessed King and
Constitution.
Yet the business, though fearsome in the main, was in some parts almost
laughable. Every thing was to be divided, and every one made alike:
houses and lands were to be distributed by lot; and the mighty man and
the beggar--the auld man and the hobble-de-hoy--the industrious man and
the spendthrift--the maimed, the cripple, and the blind, the clever man
of business and the haveril simpleton, made all just brethren, and alike.
Save us! but to think of such nonsense!!--At one of their meetings, held
at the sign of the Tappet Hen and the Tankard, there was a prime fight of
five rounds between Tammy Bowsie the snab, and auld Thrashem the dominie
with the boulie-back, about their drawing cuts which was to get Dalkeith
Palace, and which Newbottle Abbey. Oh, sic riff-raff!!!
What was worst of all, it was an agreed and determined on thing among
them, these wise men of Gotham, to abolish all kings, clergy, and
religion, as havers. No, no--what need had such wise pows as theirs of
being taught or lectured to? What need had such feelosophers of having a
king to rule over, or a Parliament to direct them? There was not a
single one among their number, that did not think himself, in his own
conceit, as wise as Solomon or William Pitt, and as mighty as King
Nebuchadnezzar.
It was full time to put a stop to all such nonsense. The newspapers told
us what it had done abroad; and what better could we expect from it at
home? Weeds will not grow into flowers anywhere, and no man can handle
tar without being defiled; the first of which comparisons is I daresay
true, and the latter must be--for we read of it in Scripture. Well, as I
was saying, it was a brave notion of the king to put the loyalty of his
land to the test, that the daft folk might be dismayed, and that the
clanjamphrey might be tumbled down before their betters, like
windle-straes in a hurricane:--and so they were.
Such a crowd that day, when the names of the volunteers came to be taken
down! No house could have held them, even though many had not stepped
forward who thought to have got themselves enrolled. Losh me! did they
think the government was so far gone, as to take characters with deformed
legs, and thrawn necks, and blind eyes, and hashie lips, and grey hairs
on their pows? No, no, they were not put to such straits; though it
showed that the right spirit was in the creatures, and that, though their
bodies might be deformed, they had consciences to direct them, and souls
to be saved like their neighbours.
I will never forget the first day that I got my regimentals on; and when
I looked myself in the bit glass, just to think I was a sodger, who never
in my life could thole the smell of powder, and had not fired any thing
but a penny cannon on a Fourth of June, when I was a haflins callant. I
thought my throat would have been cut with the black corded stock; for,
whenever I looked down, without thinking like, my chaff-blade played
clank against it, with such a dunt that I mostly chacked my tongue off.
And, as to the soaping of the hair, that beat cock-fighting. It was
really fearsome; but I could scarcely keep from laughing when I glee'd
round over my shoulder, and saw a glazed leather queue hanging for half
an ell down the braid of my back, and a pickle horse-hair curling out
like a rotten's tail at the far end of it. And then the worsted taissels
on the shoulders--and the lead buttons--and the yellow facings,--oh, but
it was grand! I sometimes fancied myself a general, and giving the word
of command. Then the pipeclayed breeches--but that was a sore job; many
a weary arm did they give me--beat-beating camstane into them.
The pipeclaying of the breeches, I was saying, was the most fashious job,
let alone courtship, that ever mortal man put his hand to. Indeed, there
was no end to the rubbing, and scrubbing, and brushing, and fyling, and
cleaning; for to the like of me, who was not well accustomed to the
thing, the whitening was continually coming off and destroying my red
coat, or my black leggings. I had mostly forgot to speak of the birse
for cleaning out the pan, and the piker for clearing the motion-hole. But
time enough till we come to firing.
Big Sam, who was a sergeant of the Fencibles, and enough to have put five
Frenchmen to flight any day of the year, whiles came to train us; and a
hard battle he had with more than me. I have already said, that nature
never intended me for the soldiering trade; and why should I hesitate
about confessing, that Sam never got me out of the awkward squad? But I
had two or three neighbours to keep me in countenance. A weary work we
made with the right, left--left, right,--right-wheel, left-wheel--to the
right about,--at ease,--attention,--by sections,--and all the rest of it.
But then there is nothing in the course of nature that is useless; and
what was to hinder me from acting as orderly, or being one of the camp-
colour-men on head days?
We all cracked very crouse about fighting, when we heard of garments
rolled in blood only from abroad; but one dark night we got a fleg in
sober earnest.
There were signal-posts on the hills, up and down all the country, to
make alarms in case of necessity; and I never went to my bed without
giving first a glee eastward to Falside-brae, and then another westward
to the Calton-hill, to see that all the country was quiet. I had just
papped in--it might be about nine o'clock--after being gey hard drilled,
and sore between the shoulders, with keeping my head back and playing the
dumb-bells; when, lo and behold! instead of getting my needful rest in my
own bed, with my wife and wean, jow went the bell, and row-de-dow gaed
the drums, and all in a minute was confusion and uproar. I was seized
with a severe shaking of the knees, and a flaffing at the heart; but I
hurried, with my nightcap on, up to the garret window, and there I too
plainly saw that the French had landed--for all the signal posts were in
a bleeze. This was in reality to be a soldier! I never got such a
fright since the day I was cleckit. Then such a noise and hullabaloo in
the streets--men, women, and weans, all hurrying through ither, and
crying with loud voices, amid the dark, as if the day of judgment had
come, to find us all unprepared; and still the bells ringing, and the
drums beating to arms. Poor Nanse was in a bad condition, and I was well
worse; she, at the fears of losing me, their bread-winner; and I, with
the grief of parting from her, the wife of my bosom, and going out to
scenes of blood, bayonets, and gunpowder, none of which I had the least
stomach for. Our little son, Benjie, mostly grat himself blind, pulling
me back by the cartridge-box; but there was no contending with fate, so
he was obliged at last to let go.
Notwithstanding all that, we behaved ourselves like true-blue Scotsmen
called forth to fight the battles of our country; and if the French had
come, as they did not come, they would have found that to their cost, as
sure as my name is Mansie. However, it turned out as well, in the
meantime, that it was a false alarm, and that the thief Buonaparte had
not landed at Dunbar, as it was jealoused: so, after standing under arms
for half the night, with nineteen rounds of ball-cartridge in our boxes,
and the baggage carts all loaden, and ready to follow us to the field of
battle, we were sent home to our beds; and, notwithstanding the awful
state of alarm to which I had been put, never in the course of my life
did I enjoy six hours sounder sleep; for we were hippet the morning
parade, on account of our gallant men being kept so long without natural
rest. It is wise to pick a lesson even out of our adversities; and, at
all events, it was at this time fully shown to us the necessity of our
regiment being taught the art of firing--a tactic to the length of which
it had never yet come.
Next day, out we were taken for the whilk purpose; and we went through
our motions bravely. Prime--load--handle cartridge--ram down
cartridge--return bayonets--and shoulder hoop--make ready--present--fire.
Such was the confusion, and the flurry, and the din of the report, that I
was so flustered and confused, thinking that half of us would have been
shot dead, that--will ye believe it?--I never yet had mind to pull the
tricker. Howsomever, I minded aye with the rest to ram down a fresh
cartridge at the word of command; and something told me I would repent
not doing like the rest, (for I had half a kind of notion that my piece
never went off;) so, when the firing was over, the sergeant of the
company ordered all that had loaded pieces to come to the front. I
swithered a little, not being very sure like what to do; but some five or
six stept out; and our corporal, on looking at my piece, ordered me with
the rest to the front. It was just by all the world like an execution;
we six, in the face of the regiment, in a little line, going through our
mauoeuvres at the word of command; and I could hardly stand upon my feet,
with a queer feeling of fear and trembling, till at length the terrible
moment came. I looked straight forward--for I durst not jee my head
about, and turned to the hills and green trees, as if I was never to see
nature more.
Our pieces were cocked; and at the word--Fire!--off they went. It was an
act of desperation to draw the tricker, and I had hardly well shut my
blinkers, when I got such a thump in the shoulder, as knocked me
backwards head-over-heels on the grass. Before I came to my senses, I
could have sworn I was in another world; but, when I opened my eyes,
there were the men at ease, holding their sides, laughing like to spleet
them; and my gun lying on the ground, two or three ell before me.
When I found myself not killed outright, I began to rise up. As I was
rubbing my breek-knees, I saw one of the men going forward to lift up the
fatal piece; and my care for the safety of others overcame the sense of
my own peril,--"Let alane--let alane!" cried I to him, "and take care of
yoursell, for it has to gang off five times yet."
The laughing was now terrible, but being little of a soldier, I thought,
in my innocence, that we should hear as many reports as I had crammed
cartridges down her muzzle. This was a sore joke against me for a length
of time; but I tholed it patiently, considering cannily within myself,
that knowledge is only to be bought by experience, and that, if we can
credit the old song, even Johnny Cope himself did not learn the art of
war in a single morning.