Is this thy castle, Baldwin? Melancholy
Displays her sable banner from the donjon,
Darkening the foam of the whole surge beneath.
Were I a habitant, to see this gloom
Pollute the face of nature, and to hear
The ceaseless sound of wave, and seabird’s scream,
I’d wish me in the hut that poorest peasant
E’er framed, to give him temporary shelter.--BROWN.
The gallant Ritt-master would willingly have employed his leisure in
studying the exterior of Sir Duncan’s castle, and verifying his own
military ideas upon the nature of its defences. But a stout sentinel,
who mounted guard with a Lochaber-axe at the door of his apartment, gave
him to understand, by very significant signs, that he was in a sort of
honourable captivity.
It is strange, thought the Ritt-master to himself, how well these
salvages understand the rules and practique of war. Who should have
pre-supposed their acquaintance with the maxim of the great and godlike
Gustavus Adolphus, that a flag of truce should be half a messenger half
a spy?--And, having finished burnishing his arms, he sate down patiently
to compute how much half a dollar per diem would amount to at the end of
a six-months’ campaign; and, when he had settled that problem, proceeded
to the more abstruse calculations necessary for drawing up a brigade of
two thousand men on the principle of extracting the square root.
From his musings, he was roused by the joyful sound of the dinner bell,
on which the Highlander, lately his guard, became his gentleman-usher,
and marshalled him to the hall, where a table with four covers bore
ample proofs of Highland hospitality. Sir Duncan entered, conducting his
lady, a tall, faded, melancholy female, dressed in deep mourning. They
were followed by a Presbyterian clergyman, in his Geneva cloak, and
wearing a black silk skull-cap, covering his short hair so closely, that
it could scarce be seen at all, so that the unrestricted ears had an
undue predominance in the general aspect. This ungraceful fashion was
universal at the time, and partly led to the nicknames of roundheads,
prick-eared curs, and so forth, which the insolence of the cavaliers
liberally bestowed on their political enemies.
Sir Duncan presented his military guest to his lady, who received his
technical salutation with a stiff and silent reverence, in which it
could scarce be judged whether pride or melancholy had the greater
share. The churchman, to whom he was next presented, eyed him with a
glance of mingled dislike and curiosity.
The Captain, well accustomed to worse looks from more dangerous persons,
cared very little either for those of the lady or of the divine, but
bent his whole soul upon assaulting a huge piece of beef, which smoked
at the nether end of the table. But the onslaught, as he would have
termed it, was delayed, until the conclusion of a very long grace,
betwixt every section of which Dalgetty handled his knife and fork, as
he might have done his musket or pike when going upon action, and as
often resigned them unwillingly when the prolix chaplain commenced
another clause of his benediction. Sir Duncan listened with decency,
though he was supposed rather to have joined the Covenanters out of
devotion to his chief, than real respect for the cause either of liberty
or of Presbytery. His lady alone attended to the blessing, with symptoms
of deep acquiescence.
The meal was performed almost in Carthusian silence; for it was none of
Captain Dalgetty’s habits to employ his mouth in talking, while it could
be more profitably occupied. Sir Duncan was absolutely silent, and the
lady and churchman only occasionally exchanged a few words, spoken low,
and indistinctly.
But, when the dishes were removed, and their place supplied by liquors
of various sorts, Captain Dalgetty no longer had, himself, the same
weighty reasons for silence, and began to tire of that of the rest
of the company. He commenced a new attack upon his landlord, upon the
former ground.
“Touching that round monticle, or hill, or eminence, termed Drumsnab, I
would be proud to hold some dialogue with you, Sir Duncan, on the nature
of the sconce to be there constructed; and whether the angles
thereof should be acute or obtuse--anent whilk I have heard the great
Velt-Mareschal Bannier hold a learned argument with General Tiefenbach
during a still-stand of arms.”
“Captain Dalgetty,” answered Sir Duncan very dryly, “it is not our
Highland usage to debate military points with strangers. This castle
is like to hold out against a stronger enemy than any force which the
unfortunate gentlemen we left at Darnlinvarach are able to bring against
it.”
A deep sigh from the lady accompanied the conclusion of her husband’s
speech, which seemed to remind her of some painful circumstance.
“He who gave,” said the clergyman, addressing her in a solemn tone,
“hath taken away. May you, honourable lady, be long enabled to say,
Blessed be his name!”
To this exhortation, which seemed intended for her sole behoof, the
lady answered by an inclination of her head, more humble than Captain
Dalgetty had yet observed her make. Supposing he should now find her in
a more conversible humour, he proceeded to accost her.
“It is indubitably very natural that your ladyship should be downcast
at the mention of military preparations, whilk I have observed to spread
perturbation among women of all nations, and almost all conditions.
Nevertheless, Penthesilea, in ancient times, and also Joan of Arc,
and others, were of a different kidney. And, as I have learned while
I served the Spaniard, the Duke of Alva in former times had the
leaguer-lasses who followed his camp marshalled into TERTIAS (whilk
me call regiments), and officered and commanded by those of their own
feminine gender, and regulated by a commander-in chief, called in German
Hureweibler, or, as we would say vernacularly, Captain of the Queans.
True it is, they were persons not to be named as parallel to your
ladyship, being such QUAE QUAESTUM CORPORIBUS FACIEBANT, as we said
of Jean Drochiels at Mareschal-College; the same whom the French term
CURTISANNES, and we in Scottish--”
“The lady will spare you the trouble of further exposition, Captain
Dalgetty,” said his host, somewhat sternly; to which the clergyman
added, “that such discourse better befitted a watch-tower guarded
by profane soldiery than the board of an honourable person, and the
presence of a lady of quality.”
“Craving your pardon, Dominie, or Doctor, AUT QUOCUNQUE ALIO NOMINE
GAUDES, for I would have you to know I have studied polite letters,”
said the unabashed envoy, filling a great cup of wine, “I see no ground
for your reproof, seeing I did not speak of those TURPES PERSONAE, as if
their occupation or character was a proper subject of conversation
for this lady’s presence, but simply PAR ACCIDENS, as illustrating
the matter in hand, namely, their natural courage and audacity, much
enhanced, doubtless, by the desperate circumstances of their condition.”
“Captain Dalgetty,” said Sir Duncan Campbell, “to break short this
discourse, I must acquaint you, that I have some business to dispatch
to-night, in order to enable me to ride with you to-morrow towards
Inverary; and therefore--”
“To ride with this person to-morrow!” exclaimed his lady; “such cannot
be your purpose, Sir Duncan, unless you have forgotten that the morrow
is a sad anniversary, and dedicated to as sad a solemnity.”
“I had not forgotten,” answered Sir Duncan; “how is it possible I can
ever forget? but the necessity of the times requires I should send this
officer onward to Inverary, without loss of time.”
“Yet, surely, not that you should accompany him in person?” enquired the
lady.
“It were better I did,” said Sir Duncan; “yet I can write to the
Marquis, and follow on the subsequent day.--Captain Dalgetty, I will
dispatch a letter for you, explaining to the Marquis of Argyle your
character and commission, with which you will please to prepare to
travel to Inverary early to-morrow morning.”
“Sir Duncan Campbell,” said Dalgetty, “I am doubtless at your
discretionary disposal in this matter; not the less, I pray you to
remember the blot which will fall upon your own escutcheon, if you do
in any way suffer me, being a commissionate flag of truce, to be
circumvented in this matter, whether CLAM, VI, VEL PRECARIO; I do not
say by your assent to any wrong done to me, but even through absence of
any due care on your part to prevent the same.”
“You are under the safeguard of my honour, sir,” answered Sir Duncan
Campbell, “and that is more than a sufficient security. And now,”
continued he, rising, “I must set the example of retiring.”
Dalgetty saw himself under the necessity of following the hint, though
the hour was early; but, like a skilful general, he availed himself of
every instant of delay which circumstances permitted. “Trusting to
your honourable parole,” said he, filling his cup, “I drink to you, Sir
Duncan, and to the continuance of your honourable-house.” A sigh
from Sir Duncan was the only reply. “Also, madam,” said the soldier,
replenishing the quaigh with all possible dispatch, “I drink to your
honourable health, and fulfilment of all your virtuous desires--and,
reverend sir” (not forgetting to fit the action to the words), “I fill
this cup to the drowning of all unkindness betwixt you and Captain
Dalgetty--I should say Major--and, in respect the flagon contains but
one cup more, I drink to the health of all honourable cavaliers and
brave soldados--and, the flask being empty, I am ready, Sir Duncan, to
attend your functionary or sentinel to my place of private repose.”
He received a formal permission to retire, and an assurance, that as
the wine seemed to be to his taste, another measure of the same vintage
should attend him presently, in order to soothe the hours of his
solitude.
No sooner had the Captain reached the apartment than this promise was
fulfilled; and, in a short time afterwards, the added comforts of a
pasty of red-deer venison rendered him very tolerant both of confinement
and want of society. The same domestic, a sort of chamberlain, who
placed this good cheer in his apartment, delivered to Dalgetty a packet,
sealed and tied up with a silken thread, according to the custom of
the time, addressed with many forms of respect to the High and Mighty
Prince, Archibald, Marquis of Argyle, Lord of Lorne, and so forth. The
chamberlain at the same time apprized the Ritt-master, that he must
take horse at an early hour for Inverary, where the packet of Sir Duncan
would be at once his introduction and his passport. Not forgetting that
it was his object to collect information as well as to act as an envoy,
and desirous, for his own sake, to ascertain Sir Duncan’s reasons for
sending him onward without his personal attendance, the Ritt-master
enquired the domestic, with all the precaution that his experience
suggested, what were the reasons which detained Sir Duncan at home on
the succeeding day. The man, who was from the Lowlands, replied, “that
it was the habit of Sir Duncan and his lady to observe as a day of
solemn fast and humiliation the anniversary on which their castle had
been taken by surprise, and their children, to the number of four,
destroyed cruelly by a band of Highland freebooters during Sir Duncan’s
absence upon an expedition which the Marquis of Argyle had undertaken
against the Macleans of the Isle of Mull.”
“Truly,” said the soldier, “your lord and lady have some cause for fast
and humiliation. Nevertheless, I will venture to pronounce, that if he
had taken the advice of any experienced soldier, having skill in the
practiques of defending places of advantage, he would have built a
sconce upon the small hill which is to the left of the draw-brigg. And
this I can easily prove to you, mine honest friend; for, holding that
pasty to be the castle--What’s your name, friend?”
“Lorimer, sir,” replied the man.
“Here is to your health, honest Lorimer.--I say, Lorimer--holding that
pasty to be the main body or citadel of the place to be defended, and
taking the marrow-bone for the sconce to be erected--”
“I am sorry, sir,” said Lorimer, interrupting him, “that I cannot stay
to hear the rest of your demonstration; but the bell will presently
ring. As worthy Mr. Graneangowl, the Marquis’s own chaplain, does family
worship, and only seven of our household out of sixty persons understand
the Scottish tongue, it would misbecome any one of them to be absent,
and greatly prejudice me in the opinion of my lady. There are pipes and
tobacco, sir, if you please to drink a whiff of smoke, and if you want
anything else, it shall be forthcoming two hours hence, when prayers are
over.” So saying, he left the apartment.
No sooner was he gone, than the heavy toll of the castle-bell summoned
its inhabitants together; and was answered by the shrill clamour of the
females, mixed with the deeper tones of the men, as, talking Earse at
the top of their throats, they hurried from different quarters by a long
but narrow gallery, which served as a communication to many rooms, and,
among others, to that in which Captain Dalgetty was stationed. There
they go as if they were beating to the roll-call, thought the soldier to
himself; if they all attend the parade, I will look out, take a mouthful
of fresh air, and make mine own observations on the practicabilities of
this place.
Accordingly, when all was quiet, he opened his chamber door, and
prepared to leave it, when he saw his friend with the axe advancing
towards him from the distant end of the gallery, half whistling, a
Gaelic tune. To have shown any want of confidence, would have been at
once impolitic, and unbecoming his military character; so the Captain,
putting the best face upon his situation he could, whistled a Swedish
retreat, in a tone still louder than the notes of his sentinel; and
retreating pace by pace, with an air of indifference, as if his only
purpose had been to breathe a little fresh air, he shut the door in the
face of his guard, when the fellow had approached within a few paces of
him.
It is very well, thought the Ritt-master to himself; he annuls my parole
by putting guards upon me, for, as we used to say at Mareschal-College,
FIDES ET FIDUCIA SUNT RELATIVA [See Note I]; and if he does not trust my
word, I do not see how I am bound to keep it, if any motive should occur
for my desiring to depart from it. Surely the moral obligation of the
parole is relaxed, in as far as physical force is substituted instead
thereof.
Thus comforting himself in the metaphysical immunities which he deduced
from the vigilance of his sentinel, Ritt-master Dalgetty retired to his
apartment, where, amid the theoretical calculations of tactics, and the
occasional more practical attacks on the flask and pasty, he consumed
the evening until it was time to go to repose. He was summoned by
Lorimer at break of day, who gave him to understand, that, when he had
broken his fast, for which he produced ample materials, his guide and
horse were in attendance for his journey to Inverary. After complying
with the hospitable hint of the chamberlain, the soldier proceeded
to take horse. In passing through the apartments, he observed that
domestics were busily employed in hanging the great hall with black
cloth, a ceremony which, he said, he had seen practised when the
immortal Gustavus Adolphus lay in state in the Castle of Wolgast, and
which, therefore, he opined, was a testimonial of the strictest and
deepest mourning.
When Dalgetty mounted his steed, he found himself attended, or perhaps
guarded, by five or six Campbells, well armed, commanded by one, who,
from the target at his shoulder, and the short cock’s feather in his
bonnet, as well as from the state which he took upon himself, claimed
the rank of a Dunniewassel, or clansman of superior rank; and indeed,
from his dignity of deportment, could not stand in a more distant degree
of relationship to Sir Duncan, than that of tenth or twelfth cousin at
farthest. But it was impossible to extract positive information on this
or any other subject, inasmuch as neither this commander nor any of
his party spoke English. The Captain rode, and his military attendants
walked; but such was their activity, and so numerous the impediments
which the nature of the road presented to the equestrian mode of
travelling, that far from being retarded by the slowness of their pace,
his difficulty was rather in keeping up with his guides. He observed
that they occasionally watched him with a sharp eye, as if they were
jealous of some effort to escape; and once, as he lingered behind at
crossing a brook, one of the gillies began to blow the match of his
piece, giving him to understand that he would run some risk in case of
an attempt to part company. Dalgetty did not augur much good from the
close watch thus maintained upon his person; but there was no remedy,
for an attempt to escape from his attendants in an impervious and
unknown country, would have been little short of insanity. He therefore
plodded patiently on through a waste and savage wilderness, treading
paths which were only known to the shepherds and cattle-drivers, and
passing with much more of discomfort than satisfaction many of those
sublime combinations of mountainous scenery which now draw visitors from
every corner of England, to feast their eyes upon Highland grandeur, and
mortify their palates upon Highland fare.
At length they arrived on the southern verge of that noble lake upon
which Inverary is situated; and a bugle, which the Dunniewassel winded
till rock and greenwood rang, served as a signal to a well-manned
galley, which, starting from a creek where it lay concealed, received
the party on board, including Gustavus; which sagacious quadruped, an
experienced traveller both by water and land, walked in and out of the
boat with the discretion of a Christian.
Embarked on the bosom of Loch Fine, Captain Dalgetty might have admired
one of the grandest scenes which nature affords. He might have noticed
the rival rivers Aray and Shiray, which pay tribute to the lake, each
issuing from its own dark and wooded retreat. He might have marked, on
the soft and gentle slope that ascends from the shores, the noble old
Gothic castle, with its varied outline, embattled walls, towers, and
outer and inner courts, which, so far as the picturesque is concerned,
presented an aspect much more striking than the present massive and
uniform mansion. He might have admired those dark woods which for many
a mile surrounded this strong and princely dwelling, and his eye might
have dwelt on the picturesque peak of Duniquoich, starting abruptly from
the lake, and raising its scathed brow into the mists of middle sky,
while a solitary watch-tower, perched on its top like an eagle’s nest,
gave dignity to the scene by awakening a sense of possible danger.
All these, and every other accompaniment of this noble scene, Captain
Dalgetty might have marked, if he had been so minded. But, to confess
the truth, the gallant Captain, who had eaten nothing since daybreak,
was chiefly interested by the smoke which ascended from the castle
chimneys, and the expectations which this seemed to warrant of his
encountering an abundant stock of provant, as he was wont to call
supplies of this nature.
The boat soon approached the rugged pier, which abutted into the loch
from the little town of Inverary, then a rude assemblage of huts, with a
very few stone mansions interspersed, stretching upwards from the banks
of Loch Fine to the principal gate of the castle, before which a scene
presented itself that might easily have quelled a less stout heart,
and turned a more delicate stomach, than those of Ritt-master Dugald
Dalgetty, titular of Drumthwacket.