Francis Osbaldistone, when he encountered the famous Rob Roy by night, was
in all probability, notwithstanding Sir Walter's assertion to the
contrary, in a very tolerable state of trepidation. At least I know that I
was, as I neared the bridge of Dreepdaily. It was a nasty night of wind
rain, and not a soul was stirring in the street--the surface of which did
little credit to the industry of the paving department, judging from the
number of dubs in which I found involuntary accommodation. As I floundered
through the mire, I breathed any thing but benedictions on the mysterious
Shell Out, who was the cause of my midnight wandering.
Just as I reached the bridge, beneath which the river was roaring rather
uncomfortably, a ragged-looking figure started out from an entry. A
solitary lamp, suspended from above, gave me a full view of this
personage, who resembled an animated scarecrow.
He stared me full in the face, and then muttered, with a wink and a
leer,--
"Was ye seekin' for ony body the nicht? Eh wow, man, but it's cauld!"
"Who may you be, my friend?" said I, edging off from my unpromising
acquaintance.
"Wha may I be?" replied the other: "that's a gude one! Gosh, d'ye no ken
me? Aum Geordie Dowie, the town bauldy, that's as weel kent as the Provost
hissell."
To say the truth, Geordie was a very truculent-looking character to be an
innocent. However, bauldies are usually harmless.
"And what have you got to say to me, Geordie?"
"If ye're the man I think ye are,
And ye're name begins wi' a D,
Just tak ye tae yer soople shanks,
And tramp alang wi' me,"
quavered the idiot, who, like many others, had a natural turn for poetry.
"And where are we going to, Geordie, my man?" said I in a soothing voice.
"Ye'll find that when we get there," replied the bauldy.
"Hey the bonnie gill-stoup!
Ho the bonnie gill-stoup!
Gie me walth o' barley bree,
And leeze me on the gill-stoup!"
"But you can at least tell me who sent you here, Geordie?" said I, anxious
for further information before intrusting myself to such erratic guidance.
He of the gill-stoups lifted up his voice and sang--
"Cam' ye by Tweedside,
Or cam' ye by Flodden?
Met ye the deil
On the braes o' Culloden?
"Three imps o' darkness
I saw in a neuk,
Riving the red-coats,
And roasting the Deuk.
"Quo' ane o' them--'Geordie,
Gae down to the brig,
I'm yaup for my supper,
And fetch us a Whig.'"
"Ha! ha! ha! Hoo d'ye like that, my man? Queer freends ye've gotten noo,
and ye'll need a lang spune to sup kail wi' them. But come awa'. I canna
stand here the haill nicht listening to your havers."
Although the hint conveyed by Mr Dowie's ingenious verses was rather of an
alarming nature, I made up my mind at once to run all risks and follow
him. Geordie strode on, selecting apparently the most unfrequented lanes,
and making, as I anxiously observed, for a remote part of the suburbs. Nor
was his voice silent during our progress, for he kept regaling me with a
series of snatches, which, being for the most part of a supernatural and
diabolical tendency, did not much contribute towards the restoration of my
equanimity. At length he paused before a small house, the access to which
was by a downward flight of steps.
"Ay--this is the place!" he muttered. "I ken it weel. It's no just bad the
whusky that they sell, but they needna put sae muckle water intil't."
So saying, he descended the stair. I followed. There was no light in the
passage, but the bauldy went forward, stumbling and groping in the dark. I
saw a bright ray streaming through a crevice, and three distinct knocks
were given.
"Come in, whaever ye are!" said a bluff voice; and I entered a low
apartment, in which the candles looked yellow through a fog of
tobacco-smoke. Three men were seated at a deal table, covered with the
implements of national conviviality: and to my intense astonishment none
of the three were strangers to me. I at once recognised the features of
the taciturn M'Auslan, the wary Shanks, and the independent Mr Thomas
Gills.
"There's the man ye wanted," said Geordie Dowie, slapping me familiarly on
the shoulder.--"Whaur's the dram ye promised me?
"In Campbelltown my love was born;
Her mither in Glen Turrit!
But Ferintosh is the place for me.
For that's the strangest speerit!"
"Hand yer clavering tongue, ye common village!" said Toddy Tam. "Wad ye
bring in the neebourhood on us? M'Auslan, gi'e the body his dram, and then
see him out of the door. We manna be interfered wi' in our cracks."
M'Auslan obeyed. A large glass of alcohol was given to my guide, who
swallowed it with a sigh of pleasure.
"Eh, man! that's gude and strang! It's no ilka whusky that'll mak Geordie
Dowie pech. Fair fa' yer face, my bonny M'Auslan! could you no just gi'e
us anither?"
"Pit him out!" said the remorseless Gills. "It's just extraordinar how
fond the creature is o' drink!" and Geordie was forcibly ejected, after an
ineffectual clutch at the bottle.
"Sit ye down, Mr Dunshunner," said Toddy Tam, addressing himself to me;
"sit ye down, and mix yoursel' a tumbler. I daresay now ye was a little
surprised at the note ye got this morning, eh?"
"Why, certainly, Mr Gills, I did not anticipate the pleasure----"
"Ay, I kenned ye wad wonder at it. But ilka place has it's ain way o'
doing business, and this is ours--quiet and cozy, ye see. Ise warrant,
too, ye thocht M'Auslan a queer ane because he wadna speak out?"
I laughed dubiously towards M'Auslan, who responded with the austerest of
possible grins.
"And Shanks, too," continued Toddy Tam; "Shanks wadna speak out neither.
They're auld-farrant hands baith o' them, Mr Dunshunner, and they didna
like to promise ony thing without me. We three aye gang thegither."
"I hope, then, Mr Gills, that I may calculate upon your support and that
of your friends. My views upon the currency----"
"Ay! that's speaking out at ance. Hoo muckle?"
"Ay! hoo muckle?" interposed M'Auslan, with a glistening eye.
"I really do not understand you, gentlemen."
"Troth, then, ye're slow at the uptak," remarked Gills, after a meaning
pause. "I see we maun be clear and conceese. Hark ye, Mr Dunshunner,--wha
do ye think we are?"
"Three most respectable gentlemen, for whom I have the highest possible
regard."
"Hoots!--nonsense! D'ye no ken?"
"No," was my puzzled response.
"Weel, then," said Toddy Tam, advancing his lips to my ear, and pouring
forth an alcoholic whisper--"we three can do mair than ye think o'.--It's
huz that is THE CLIQUE!"
I recoiled in perfect amazement, and gazed in succession upon the
countenances of the three compatriots. Yes--there could be no doubt about
it--I was in the presence of the tremendous junta of Dreepdaily; the veil
of Isis had been lifted up, and the principal figure upon the pedestal was
the magnanimous and independent Gills. Always a worshipper of genius, I
began to entertain a feeling little short of veneration towards Toddy Tam.
The admirable manner in which he had contrived to conceal his real power
from the public--his assumed indignation and horror of the Clique--and his
hold over all classes of the electors, demonstrated him at once to be a
consummate master of the political art. Machiavelli could not have devised
a subtler stratagem than Gills.
"That's just the plain truth o' the matter," observed Shanks, who had
hitherto remained silent. "We three is the Clique, and we hae the
representation o' the burrow in our hands. Now, to speak to the point, if
we put our names down on your Committee, you carry the election, and we're
ready to come to an understanding upon fair and liberal grounds."
And we did come to an understanding upon grounds which might be justly
characterised as fair on the one side, and certainly liberal on the other.
There was of course some little discussion as to the lengths I was
expected to go in financial matters; and it was even hinted that, with
regard to bullion, the Honourable Mr Pozzlethwaite might possibly
entertain as enlarged views as myself. However, we fortunately succeeded
in adjusting all our differences. I not only promised to give the weight
of my name to a bill, but exhibited, upon the spot, a draft which met with
the cordial approbation of my friends, and which indeed was so
satisfactory, that they did not offer to return it.
"That's a' right then," said Toddy Tam, inserting the last-mentioned
document in a greasy pocket-book. "Our names go down on your Committy, and
the election is as gude as won!"
An eldritch laugh at a little window, which communicated with the street,
at this moment electrified the speaker. There was a glimpse of a human
face seen through the dingy pane.
A loud oath burst from the lips of Toddy Thomas.
"Some deevil has been watching us!" he cried. "Rin, M'Auslan, rin for your
life, and grip him afore he can turn the corner! I wad not for a thoosand
pund that this nicht's wark were to get wind!"
M'Auslan rushed, as desired; but all his efforts were ineffectual. The
fugitive, whoever he was, had very prudently dived into the darkness, and
the draper returned without his victim.
"What is to be done?" said I. "It strikes me, gentlemen, that this may
turn out to be a very unpleasant business."
"Nae fears--nae fears!" said Toddy Tam, looking, however, the reverse of
comfortable. "It will hae been some callant trying to fley us, that's a'.
But, mind ye--no a word o' this to ony living human being, and aboon a' to
Provost Binkie. I've keepit him for four years in the dark, and it never
wad do to show the cat the road to the kirn!"
I acquiesced in the precautionary arrangement, and we parted; Toddy Tam
and his friends having, by this time, disposed of all the surplus fluid.
It was very late before I reached the Provost's dwelling.
I suppose that next morning I had overslept myself; for, when I awoke, I
heard Miss Binkie in full operation at the piano. This time, however, she
was not singing alone, for a male voice was audible in conjunction with
hers.
"It would be in amazing consolation to me if somebody would carry off that
girl!" thought I, as I proceeded with my toilet. "I made a deuced fool of
myself to her yesterday; and, to say the truth, I don't very well know how
to look her in the face!"
However, there was no help for it, so I proceeded down stairs. The first
individual I recognised in the breakfast parlour was M'Corkindale. He was
engaged in singing, along with Miss Binkie, some idiotical catch about a
couple of albino mice.
"Bob!" cried I. "my dear Bob, I am delighted to see you;--what on earth
has brought you here?"
"A gig and a foundered mare," replied the matter-of-fact M'Corkindale.
"The fact is, that I was anxious to hear about your canvass; and, as there
was nothing to do in Glasgow--by the way, Dunshunner, the banks have put
on the screw again--I resolved to satisfy my own curiosity in person. I
arrived this morning, and Miss Binkie has been kind enough to ask me to
stay breakfast."
"I am sure both papa and I are always happy to see Mr M'Corkindale," said
Margaret, impressively.
"I am afraid," said I, "that I have interrupted your music: I did not
know, M'Corkindale, that you were so eminent a performer."
"I hold with Aristotle," replied Bob modestly, "that music and political
economy are at the head of all the sciences. But it is very seldom that
one can meet with so accomplished a partner as Miss Binkie."
"Oh, ho!" thought I. But here the entrance of the Provost diverted the
conversation, and we all sat down to breakfast. Old Binkie was evidently
dying to know the result of my interview on the previous evening, but I
was determined to keep him in the dark. Bob fed like an ogre, and made
prodigious efforts to be polite.
After breakfast, on the pretext of business we went out for a walk. The
economist lighted his cigar.
"Snug quarters these, Dunshunner, at the Provost's."
"Very. But, Bob, things are looking rather well here. I had a negotiation
last night which has as good as settled the business."
"I am very glad to hear it--Nice girl, Miss Binkie; very pretty eyes, and
a good foot and ankle."
"An unexceptionable instep. What do you think!--I have actually discovered
the Clique at last."
"You don't say so! Do you think old Binkie has saved money?"
"I am sure he has. I look upon Dreepdaily as pretty safe now; and I
propose going over this afternoon to Drouthielaw. What would you
recommend?"
"I think you are quite right; but somebody should stay here to look after
your interests. There is no depending upon these fellows. I'll tell you
what--while you are at Drouthielaw I shall remain here, and occupy your
quarters. The Committee will require some man of business to drill them
in, and I don't care if I spare you the time."
I highly applauded this generous resolution; at the same time I was not
altogether blind to the motive. Bob, though an excellent fellow in the
main, did not usually sacrifice himself to his friends; and I began to
suspect that Maggie Binkie--with whom, by the way, he had some previous
acquaintance--was somehow or other connected with his enthusiasm. As
matters stood, I of course entertained no objection: on the contrary, I
thought it no breach of confidence to repeat the history of the nest-egg.
Bob pricked up his ears.
"Indeed!" said he; "that is a fair figure as times go; and, to judge from
appearances, the stock in trade must be valuable."
"Cargoes of sugar," said I, "oceans of rum, and no end whatever of
molasses!"
"A very creditable chairman, indeed, for your Committee, Dunshunner,"
replied Bob. "Then I presume you agree that I should stay here, whilst you
prosecute your canvass?"
I assented, and we returned to the house. In the course of the forenoon
the list of my Committee was published, and, to the great joy of the
Provost, the names of Thomas Gill, Alexander M'Auslan, and Simon Shanks
appeared. He could not, for the life of him, understand how they had all
come forward so readily. A meeting of my friends was afterwards held, at
which I delivered a short harangue upon the constitution of 1688, which
seemed to give general satisfaction; and before I left the room, I had the
pleasure of seeing the Committee organised, with Bob officiating as
secretary. It was the opinion of every one that Pozzlethwaite had not a
chance. I then partook of a light luncheon, and after bidding farewell to
Miss Binkie, who, on the whole, seemed to take matters very coolly, I
drove off for Drouthielaw. I need not relate my adventures in that
respectable burgh. They were devoid of any thing like interest, and not
quite so satisfactory in their result as I could have wished. However, the
name of Gills was known even at that distance, and his views had
considerable weight with some of the religious denominations. So far as I
was concerned, I had no sinecure of it. It cost me three nights' hard
drinking to conciliate the leaders of the Anabaptists, and at least three
more before the chiefs of the Antinomians would surrender. As to the Old
Light gentry, I gave them up in despair, for I could not hope to have
survived the consequences of so serious a conflict.