Upon a quiet, gray December afternoon, nine years and more from the
June day when he had fished in the glen and Mother Binning had told
him of her vision of the Jacobite gathering at Braemar, English
Strickland, walking for exercise to the village and back, found
himself overtaken by Mr. M'Nab, the minister who in his white manse
dwelt by the white kirk on the top of the windy hill. This was, by
every earthly canon, a good man, but a stern and unsupple. He had not
been long in this parish, and he was sweeping with a strong, new
besom. The old minister, to his mind, had been Erastian and lax, weak
in doctrine and in discipline of the fold. Mr. M'Nab meant not to be
weak. He loathed sin and would compel the sinner also to loathe it.
Now he came up, tall and darkly clad, and in his Calvinistic hand his
Bible.
"Gude day, sir!"
"Good day, Mr. M'Nab!" The two went on side by side. The day was very
still, the sky an even gray, snow being prepared. "You saw the laird?"
"Aye. He's verra low."
"He'll not recover I think. It's been a slow failing for two
years--ever since Mrs. Jardine's death."
"She was dead before I came to this kirk. But once, when I was a
young man, I stayed awhile in these parts. I remember her."
"She was the best of women."
"So they said. But she had not that grip upon religion that the laird
has!"
"Maybe not."
Mr. M'Nab directed his glance upon the Glenfernie tutor. He did not
think that this Englishman, either, had much grip upon religion. He
determined, at the first opportunity, to call his attention to that
fact and to strive to teach his fingers how to clasp. He had a craving
thirst for the saving of souls, and to draw one whole from Laodicea
was next best to lifting from Babylon. But to-day the laird and his
spiritual concerns had the field.
"He comes, by the mother's side, at least, of godly stock. His
mother's father was martyred for the faith in the auld persecuting
time. His grandmother wearied her mind away in prison. His mother
suffered much when she was a lassie."
"It's small wonder that he has nursed bitterness," said Strickland.
"He must have drunk in terror and hate with her milk.... He conquered
the terror."
"_'Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved
with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.'_--What else should his heart do but burn
with a righteous wrath?"
Strickland sighed, looking at the quiet gray hills and the vast, still
web of cloud above. "It's come to be a withering fire, hunting fuel
everywhere! I remember when he held it in bounds, even when for a time
it seemed to die out. But of late years it has got the better of him.
At last, I think, it is devouring himself."
M'Nab made a dissenting sound. "He has got the implicit belief in God
that I see sair lack of elsewhere! He holds fast to God."
"Aye. The God who slays the Amalekites."
M'Nab turned his wintry glance upon him. "And is not that God?"
The other looked at the hill and at the vast, quiet, gray field of
cloud. "Perhaps!... Let's talk of something else. I am too tired to
argue. I sat up with him last night."
The minister would have preferred to continue to discuss the character
of Deity. He turned heavily. "I was in company, not long ago, with
some gentlemen who were wondering why you stayed on at Glenfernie
House. They said that you had good offers elsewhere--much better than
with a Scots laird."
"I promised Mrs. Jardine that I would stay."
"While the laird lived?"
"No, not just that--though I think that she would have liked me to do
so. But so long as the laird would keep Jamie with him at home."
"What will he do now--Jamie?"
"He has set his heart on the army. He's strong of body, with a kind of
big, happy-go-luckiness--"
A horseman came up behind them. It proved to be Robin Greenlaw, of
Littlefarm. He checked his gray and exchanged greetings with the
minister and the tutor. "How does the laird find himself the day?" he
asked Strickland.
"No better, I think, Mr. Greenlaw."
"I'm sorry. It's the end, I jalouse! Is Mr. Alexander come?"
"We look for him to-morrow."
"The land and the folk'll be blithe to see him--if it was not for the
occasion of his coming! If there's aught a body can do for any at
Glenfernie--?"
"Every one has been as good as gold, Greenlaw. But you know there's
not much at the last that can be done--"
"No. We all pass, and they that bide can but make the dirge. But I'll
be obliged if you'll say to Mr. Alexander that if there _is_ aught--"
He gathered up the reins. "It will be snowing presently. I always
thought that I'd like to part on a day like this, gray and quiet, with
all the color and the shouting lifted elsewhere." He was gone,
trotting before them on his big horse.
Strickland and the minister looked after him. "There's one to be liked
no little!" said Strickland.
But Mr. M'Nab's answering tone was wintry yet. "He makes mair songs
than he listens to sermons! Jarvis Barrow, that's a strong witness,
should have had another sort of great-nephew! And so he that will be
laird comes home to-morrow? It's little that he has been at home of
late years."
"Yes, little."
The manse with the kirk beyond rose before them, drawn against the
pallid sky. "A wanderer to and fro in the earth, and I doubt
not--though we do not hear much of it--an eater of husks!--Will you
not come in, Mr. Strickland?"
"Another time, Mr. M'Nab. I've an errand in the village.--Touching
Alexander Jardine. I suppose that the whole sense-bound world might be
called by a world farther on an eater of husks. But I know naught to
justify any especial application of the phrase to him. I know, indeed,
a good deal quite to the contrary. You are, it seems to me, something
less than charitable--"
M'Nab regarded him with an earnest, narrow, wintry look. "I would not
wish to deserve that epithet, Mr. Strickland. But the world is evil,
and Satan stands close at the ear of the young, both the poor and them
of place and world's gear! So I doubt not that he eats the husks. I
doubt not, either, that the Lord has a rod for him, as for us all,
that will drive him, willy-nilly, home. So I'll say good day, sir.
To-morrow I'll go again to the laird, and so every day until his
summons comes."
They parted at the manse door. The world was gray, the snow swiftening
its approach. Strickland, passing the kirk, kept on down the one
village street. All and any who were out of doors spoke to him, asking
how did the laird. Some asked if "the young laird" had come.
In the shop where he made his purchase the woman who sold would have
kept him talking an hour: "Wad the laird last the week? Wad he make
friends before he died with Mr. Touris of Black Hill with whom he had
the great quarrel three years since? Eh, sirs! and he never set foot
again in Touris House, nor Mr. Touris in his!--Wad Mr. Jamie gae now
to Edinburgh or on his travels, that had been at home sae lang
because the laird wadna part with him?--Wad Miss Alice, that was as
bonny as a rose and mair friendly than the gowans on a June lea, just
bide on at the house with her aunt, Mrs. Grizel, that came when the
leddy died? Wad--"
Strickland smiled. "You must just come up to the house, Mrs. Macmurdo,
and have a talk with Mrs. Grizel.--I hope the laird may last the
week."
"You're a close ane!" thought the disappointed Mrs. Macmurdo. Aloud
she said, "Aweel, sir, Mr. Alexander that will be laird is coming hame
frae foreign parts?"
"Yes."
"Sic a wanderer as he has been! But there!" said Mrs. Macmurdo, "ony
that saw him when he was a laddie gaeing here and gaeing there by his
lane-some, glen and brae and muir, might ha' said, 'Ye're a
wanderer--and as sune as ye may ye'll wander farther!'"
"You're quite right, Mrs. Macmurdo," said Strickland, and took his
parcel from her.
"A wanderer and a seeker!" Mrs. Macmurdo was loth to let him go. "And
his great friend is still Captain Ian Rullock?"
"Yes, still."
Mrs. Macmurdo reluctantly opened the shop door. "Aweel, sir, if ye
maun gae.--There'll be snaw the night, I'm thinking! Do ye stop at the
inn? There's twa-three sogers in town."
Strickland had not meant to stop. But, coming to the Jardine Arms and
glancing through the window, he saw by the light of the fire in the
common room four men in red coats sitting at table, drinking. He felt
jaded and depressed, needing distraction from the gray chill day and
the laird's dying. Curiosity faintly stretched herself. He turned into
the inn, took a seat by a corner table, and called for a bottle of
wine. In addition to the soldiers the room had a handful of
others--farmers, a lawyer's clerk from Stirling, a petty officer of
the excise, and two or three village nondescripts. From this group
there now disengaged himself Robin Greenlaw, who came across to
Strickland's table.
"Sit down and have a glass with me," said the latter. "Who are they?"
"A recruiting party," answered Greenlaw, accepting the invitation. "I
like to hear their talk! I'll listen, drinking your wine and thanking
you, sir! and riding home I'll make a song about them."
He sat with his arm over the chair-back, his right hand now lifting
and now lowering the wine-glass. He had a look of strength and inner
pleasure that rested and refreshed.
"What are they saying now?" asked Strickland.
The soldiers made the center of attention. More or less all in the
room harkened to their talk, disconnected, obscure, idle, and
boisterous as much of it was. The revenue officer, by virtue of being
also the king's paid man, had claimed comrade's right and was drinking
with them and putting questions. He was so obliging as to ask these in
a round tone of voice and to repeat on the same note the information
gathered.
"Recruits for the King's army, fighting King Louis on the river
Main.--Where's that?--It's in Germany. Our King and the Hanoverians
and the King of Prussia and the Queen of Austria are fighting the King
of France.--Aye, of course ye know that, neighbors, being intelligent
Scots folk, but recapitulation is na out of order!"
"Ask them what's thought of the Hanoverians." It was the lawyer's
clerk's question. Thereupon rose some noisy difference of opinion
among the drinking redcoats. The excise man finally reported. "They're
na English, nor Scots, nor even Irish. But they're liked weel enough!
They're good fighters. Oh, aye, when ye march and fight alangside
them, they're good enough! They're his Majesty's cousins. God save
King George!"
The recruiting party banged with tankards upon the table. One of the
number put a question of his own. He had a look half pedant, half
bully, and he spoke with a one-quarter-drunken, owllike solemnity.
"I may take it from the look of things that there are none hereabouts
but good Whigs and upholders of government? No Tories--no damned black
Jacobites?"
The excise man hemmed. "Why, ye see we're no sae muckle far from
Hielands and Hielandmen, and it's known what they are, chief,
chieftain, and clan--saving always the duke and every Campbell! And I
wadna say that there are not, here and there, this side the Hielands,
an auld family with leanings the auld way, and even a few gentlemen
who were _out_ in the 'fifteen. But the maist of us, gentle and
simple, are up and down Whig and Kirk and reigning House.--Na, na!
when we drink to the King we dinna pass the glass over the water!"
A dark, thin soldier put in his word, well garnished with oaths. "Now
that there's war up and down and so many of us are going out of the
country, there's a saying that the Pretender may e'en sail across from
France and beat a drum and give a shout! Then there'll be a sorting--"
"Them that would rise wouldn't be enough to make a graveyard ghost to
frighten with!"
"You're mistaken there. They'll frighten ye all right when they answer
the drum! I'm thinking there's some in the army would answer it!"
"Then they'll be hanged, drawn, and quartered!" averred the corporal.
"Who are ye thinking would do that?"
"I'm not precisely knowing. But there are some with King George were
brought up on the hope of King James!"
More liquor appeared upon the table, was poured and drunk. The talk
grew professional. The King's shilling, and the advantage of taking
it, came solely upon the board, and who might or might not 'list from
this dale and the bordering hills. Strickland and Robin Greenlaw left
their corner.
"I must get back to the house."
"And I to Littlefarm."
They went out together. There were few in the street. The snow was
beginning to fall. Greenlaw untied his horse.
"I hope that we're not facing another 'fifteen! _'Scotland's ain
Stewarts, and Break the Union!'_ It sounds well, but it's not in the
line of progression. What does Captain Ian Rullock think about it?"
"I don't know. He hasn't been here, you know, for a long while."
"That's true. He and Mr. Alexander are still like brothers?"
"Like brothers."
Greenlaw mounted his horse. "Well, he's a bonny man, but he's got a
piece of the demon in him! So have I, I ken very well, and so,
doubtless, has he who will be Glenfernie, and all the rest of us--"
"I sit down to supper with mine very often," said Strickland.
"Oh yes, he's common--the demon! But somehow I could find him in Ian
Rullock, though all covered up with gold. But doubtless," said
Greenlaw, debonairly, "it would be the much of the fellow in me that
would recognize much in another!" He put his gray into motion. "Good
day, sir!" He was gone, disappearing down the long street, into the
snow that was now falling like a veil.
Strickland turned homeward. The snow fell fast and thick in large
white flakes. Glenfernie House rose before him, crowning the craggy
hill, the modern building and the remnant of the old castle, not a
great place, but an ancient, settled, and rooted, part of a land poor
but not without grandeur, not without a rhythm attained between
grandeur and homeliness. The road swept around and up between leafless
trees and green cone-bearing ones. The snow was whitening the
branches, the snow wrapped house and landscape in its veil. It broke,
in part it obliterated, line and modeling; the whole seemed on the
point of dissolving into a vast and silent unity. "Like a dying man,"
thought Strickland. He came upon the narrow level space about the
house, passed the great cedar planted by a pilgrim laird the year of
Flodden Field, and entered by a door in the southern face.
Davie met him. "Eh, sir, Mr. Alexander's come!"
"Come!"
"Aye, just! An hour past, riding Black Alan, with Tam Dickson behind
on Whitefoot, and weary enough thae horses looked! Mr. Alexander wad
ha' gane without bite or sup to the laird's room, but he's lying
asleep. So now he's gane to his ain auld room for a bit of rest.
Haith, sir," said Davie, "but he's like the auld laird when he was
twenty-eight!"