_Hail awful scenes that calm the troubled breast,
And woo the weary to profound repose;
Can passion's wildest uproar lay to rest,
And whisper comfort to the man of woes!
Here Innocence may wander safe from foes,
And Contemplation soar on seraph wings._
Beattie.
'No wonder that my countryman has celebrated the merits of a Scotch
breakfast,' said I, upon seeing the splendour and abundance of the
morning repast at Castle Eredine. The linen and china were exquisitely
delicate; and the table, though loaded with a plenty approaching to
profusion, was arranged with perfect order and neatness. Eredine, for so
I found it was the custom to call Mr Graham, having placed me in a
sturdy, square-built, elbow-chair, with a back lofty and solid enough to
serve every purpose of a screen, began to heap before me all the variety
of food within his reach. In vain did I remonstrate. The ceremonial of
hospitality required that I should be urged even unto loathing. When I
turned to supplicate my host for quarter, and hoped that he was inclined
to relent, an old lady, who sat by me on the other side, assailed me in
the unguarded moment with a new charge of ham and marmalade.
'Ah! if he had seen the breakfasts in my young days!' said Eredine, in
answer to my comment. 'A Glen Eredine breakfast was something
substantial then. It was not children's food that bred the fellows who
fought at Prestonpans.'
'What could you possibly have, sir, that is wanting here?'
The chieftain smiled compassionately upon me, as on a representative of
the sons of little men. 'Why, strong venison soup,' said he, 'and potted
ptarmigans; or, if we were a hunting, a roasted salmon:--hunters are not
nice, you know.'
As soon as we rose from table, Charlotte went to resume her office of
housekeeper, which had, in her absence, been most zealously filled by
one of her innumerable cousins. To associate me in this employment was
one of the friendly arts by which Charlotte contrived to domesticate me
at Eredine; and household affairs furnished some little occupation for
us both, although the establishment at the Castle was then smaller than
it had ever been from time immemorial.
Feudal habits were extinct; and the days were long since gone, when
bands of kinsmen, united in one great family, repaid hospitality and
protection with more than filial veneration and love. Eredine had
outlived three elder sisters, who for the greater part of a century had
resided under the roof where they were born; and two younger brothers,
who, after expiating, by thirty years of exile, their adherence to their
hereditary sovereign, had returned to lay their ashes with those of
their fathers. His eldest son had, a few months before, fallen a
sacrifice to a West Indian climate; his second was banished from home by
circumstances which I have already mentioned. The family, therefore,
consisted of Eredine, his daughter, and myself; four men and seven women
servants; Charlotte's nurse; a blind woman, who, being fit for nothing
else, was stocking-knitter-general to the family, and served, moreover,
as a humble substitute for the bard of other times; two little girls,
one humpbacked, the other sickly; and three boys, two of whom were
maintained because they were orphans, and the third because his
grandmother had been the laird's favourite, some sixty years before;
and, finally, Roban Gorach, Cecil's deserted lover; who, as the humour
served, tended Henry's old white pony, or wandered to all the sacraments
administered within sixty miles round, or sat by his torn oak from morn
to night unquestioned.
But these were by no means the only persons who daily shared in the good
cheer of Castle Eredine. Besides several superannuated people of both
sexes, who, for this very purpose, had been provided with cottages
adjacent to the castle, we had stable-boys, and errand-boys, and
cow-herds, and goose-herds; beggars and travellers by dozens; besides
maintaining, for the day, every tradesman who executed the most trivial
order for the family without doors or within. How was I surprised to
learn, that this establishment was supported by an estate of little
more than a thousand pounds a year!
This family party was, for the present, reinforced by visiters of all
ranks, who came to congratulate Charlotte's return. Among the earliest
of these was my old friend Cecil, who recognized me with tears of joy.
Recovering herself, she began to applaud her own skill in prophecy. 'I
told you,' cried she, 'that ye knew not where a blessing might light;
and there, ye see, ye're in Castle Eredine. And now Mr Henry will be
gathered to you, and that will be seen.'
In answer to my enquiries into her own situation, she informed me that
her husband had returned home, having been disabled by sickness, and
discharged from his regiment as unfit for service. She talked of his
illness, however, without any alarm; for she had travelled on foot to
Breadalbane to bring water from a certain consecrated spring[24], on
which she fully relied for his cure. 'What grieves us the most,' said
she to me apart, 'is that he's no' fit to help at the laird's shearing
this year; as he had a good right, as well as the rest. And ye see, I
cannot speak to Miss Graham upon that to make his excuse, for she might
think we were _reflecting_, because he got's trouble tending Mr
Kenneth.'
The next day brought the harvest party of which Cecil had spoken. About
four o'clock in the morning, I was awakened by the shrieking and
groaning of a bagpipe under my window; and starting out of bed to
ascertain the occasion of this annoyance, saw about a couple of hundred
men and women collected near the house. These I found were the tenantry
of Glen Eredine, assembled to cut down the landlord's corn; a service
which they were bound to perform without hire. Yet never, in scenes
professedly devoted to amusement, had I witnessed such animating
hilarity as cheered this unrewarded labour. The work was carried on all
day, in measured time to the sound of the bagpipe, yet without causing
any interruption to the jests of the young or the legends of the old. Mr
Graham himself frequently joined in both, without incurring the
slightest danger of forfeiting respect by condescension. Dinner for the
whole party was, of course, despatched from the castle. Fortunately, the
cookery was not very complex, for the old nurse and the blind
stocking-knitter were the only persons left at home to assist Charlotte
and myself in the preparation.
It was customary for the festivities of the day to conclude with a ball
on the old bowling-green; and promising myself some amusement from the
novelty, I repaired to the spot soon after the time when the dancers had
been accustomed to assemble. But no dancers were there. Not a person was
to be seen, except one sickly emaciated creature, wearing a faded
regimental coat over his tartan waistcoat and philibeg, who stood
leaning against a tree with an aspect of hopeless dejection.
Supposing that I had mistaken the place, I enquired of this person
whither I must go to seek the dancers. 'Think ye, lady,' said the man,
with a look somewhat indignant, 'that they would dance here this night?
I hope they're no' so ill-mannered. It would be a fine story for them to
be dancing, and the best blood in Eredine not well cold i' the grave
yet!'
I perceived that he alluded to the recent death of Kenneth Graham; and,
struck with such an instance of delicacy in persons whom I considered as
little better than savages, I was going to enter into further
conversation with the man, when seeing Charlotte at a distance, I
hastened to meet her. I could not prevail upon her to express the
slightest surprise at the sensibility of her countrymen. 'It is just as
I expected,' said she; and she proceeded to inform me, that the person
whom I had quitted was the husband of my old friend Cecil, and the
foster-brother of Kenneth Graham. 'Poor James!' said she; 'I believe it
would have broken his heart if that bowling-green had been profaned with
the sounds of merriment. He visits it every evening at the same hour
when he was wont to come five-and-twenty years ago to play with my
brothers. That poor fellow has given the strongest proofs of the
attachment to a superior which you think so uncommon. As soon as he
heard that my brother was ordered abroad, he left his wife and children,
and explored his way on foot to the south of Ireland, where the
regiment was already embarked. He enlisted; watched his master in the
dreadful disease which few could be found daring enough even to relieve;
followed the remains of his foster-brother to the grave, when sickness
had made him unable to return from the spot; and lay all night on the
earth which covered the head he loved best. Alas! alas! it lies among
stranger-dust, far from us all.'
Although, ever since we had been on confidential habits, Charlotte had
spoken of her dead brother almost as much as of the living one, these
were the only words of lamentation which I ever heard her utter.
On the contrary, the associations with which the remembrance of the dead
was joined seemed to be pleasurable. She appeared to sympathise in the
delight with which Lady Eredine and her son would meet; speaking of them
exactly as she would of living persons possessed of all the sentiments
and functions of mortality.
From these themes the transition was easy to the subject of Henry
Graham,--a subject in which I took almost as much interest as she did
herself; for what girl of one-and-twenty could be uninterested in an
unknown lover? a lover described as handsome, brave, generous, good! and
who had besides fallen in love at first sight; a compliment which, by
the value some ladies put upon it, I suppose is estimated more by its
rarity than its worth. Now, all this my imagination found in Henry
Graham; for I was in the land of imagination. I was more than half
persuaded of my conquest. There was no other way of accounting for his
assiduous good offices; his flattering yet minute description of my
appearance. But Charlotte never directly admitted this explanation of
his conduct, and I durst not venture to show her how far vanity could
lead me in conjecture; though curiosity often made me come as near to
the subject as I dared. 'After all,' I would say to myself, 'what can it
signify to me? I shall never like the man; and I would far rather earn
my bread by labour than by marriage.'
In the mean time, I was as much domesticated at Eredine as if I had
already been a daughter of the family. My kind friend soon found means
to make me consider it as for the present my permanent abode. She knew
me too well to expect, that this could ever take place so long as I felt
myself a useless dependent; and this was, I am persuaded the real cause
which inspired her with an enthusiastic desire to excel in music. There
was no danger that this plea for my detention should soon be exhausted;
for Charlotte's skill hitherto went no farther than jingling a
strathspey upon an excruciating harpsichord. Precisely at the lucky
moment, however, arrived a splendid harp, a present from her considerate
brother; and our labours began with much zeal and some success.
In return, she exerted surprising patience in assisting my study of her
native tongue; and the whole family, myself included, were delighted
with my progress. We make rapid advances in a dialect which is the only
medium of communication with three fourths of the persons around us;
and, in justice to Highland politeness, I must assert, that there is no
language which may be attempted with more perfect security from
ridicule. This acquisition, together with my performance of some Gaelic
songs, brought me into high estimation with my venerable host. He
declared, 'that I could turn Chro challin or Oran gaoil almost as well
as his mother,--_white be the place of her soul!_' and only regretted,
that instead of 'that unhandy thing of a harp, which made trews where
trews should not be, I had not the light lady-like Clarsach, that the
d----d Hanoverians burnt when they ransacked Glen Eredine.'
There might have been danger that my favourite recreation, to which long
abstinence gave all the charm of novelty, should make unreasonable
encroachment on my time. But almost the earliest work of my renovated
judgment had been to impress me with a solemn conviction of the value of
time; and when I recollected that, of the few allotted years of man,
seventeen had already been worse than squandered; that of the uncertain
remainder, a third must be devoted to the harmless enjoyments, a part
rifled by the idle fooleries of others,--an unknown portion laid waste
of joy and usefulness, by sickness, by sorrow, or by that overpowering
languor which palsies at times even the most active spirit;--when I
remembered, that the whole is fugitive in its nature as the colours of
the morning sky, irreversible in its consequence as the fixed decree of
Heaven, I could no longer waste the treasure on the sports of children,
or suffer the jewel to slip from the nerveless grasp of an idiot. I had
formed a plan for the distribution of my time; to which I adhered so
steadily, that I seldom spent an hour altogether unprofitably; that is,
I seldom spent an hour of which the employment had no tendency to
produce rational, benevolent, or devout habits in myself or in others.
Let it not, therefore, be imagined that my whole life and conversation
were as solemn, and as wise, and as tiresome as possible. The flowers of
the moral world were doubtless intended to scatter cheerfulness and
pleasure there; and the woman who contributes nothing to the innocent
amusement of mankind has renounced one purpose of her being. I am
persuaded, that a happier party, or at times a merrier never met, than
assembled round our fireside at Eredine.
Nor was it always confined to the members of our own family. Our
neighbours--and all within twenty miles were our neighbours--often came
with half-a-dozen of their sons and daughters, two or three servants,
and a few horses, to spend some days at Castle Eredine. Uninvited and
unexpected, they were always welcome. No preparation could be made; no
bustle ensued. The guests were for the time members of the household,
and partook in its business, its enjoyments, and its privations. The
morning amusements of the gentlemen furnished us with game; those of the
ladies, with lighter dainties; and our evenings were enlivened by music,
more abundant, it must be confessed, than excellent.
But, though my hours were neither dull nor solitary, I must own, that my
heart leaped light with the hope of something new, when, one morning,
Charlotte, running into the room breathless with delight, exclaimed, 'He
is coming, dearest Ellen! he is coming! He will give up all his
habits,--his pursuits,--he will give back their trash,--he will return
to his father,--to us all!'
'Henry! When, dear Charlotte?'
'Now! Soon! In a week! Oh, if that week were past!'
Charlotte was restless with joy. She left me almost immediately; and I
followed her to her father. The good old man folded us both to his
breast. 'God grant I live this week,' said he, 'and then----' He paused
a little, half ashamed of his emotion; 'I doubt,' said he, with a smile,
'my eyes are not so strong as they have been.' Then disengaging himself
from us, he hurried out upon the road which led to Edinburgh, as if he
had already hoped to meet his son; and repeated the same walk full
twenty times that day. Next, he would count every stage of Henry's
journey, and fix the very hour of his arrival, and order an infinity of
preparations for his reception; and, when he had quite exhausted
himself, he sunk into his great oak-chair ruminating, while a delighted
smile at times crossed his face. 'The little curly-pated dog was his
mother's darling,' cried he; 'and yet I never could find out how that
happened, for there never was a Southron blood-drop in him. He was
always a Graham to the heart's core.'
Had I before been wholly uninterested in Henry's arrival,--had I owed no
obligation to him as the bestower of a secure though humble
independence,--had all the suggestions of vanity been silenced, I must
have sympathised in the joy expressed in every face I saw, in every
voice I heard. The house-maids all claimed the honour of arranging his
apartment; and as the division of labour, and all the distinctions
between cook and chamber-maid, were quite unknown in Glen Eredine, the
honour was bestowed according to seniority. The spinners celebrated
their young master's return in the extemporary songs, so common among
their countrywomen. The men brought home for him as many rocs,
black-cock, and ptarmigan, as would have satiated[25] courteous King
Jamie's ravenous visiter. Charlotte's nurse told me endless anecdotes of
his childhood; and I heard the blind knitter cry out in a tone of
triumph, 'He led me up the loan with's _oun_ hand, sirs; and that's what
he never did to one o' ye all. And shame fa' me, if ever a man lead me
by the right hand again, an it be no Eredine himsel'; and that's not to
be thought.'
The only one who took no share in the cheerful bustle was poor Roban
Gorach; yet he too could in his way, testify affection for his young
master. I had strolled out; and taking my favourite station on a ledge
of rock which overhung the lake, I had suffered my thoughts to shape, I
know not what romantic dream, of Henry Graham, and friendship, and
Charlotte, and Maitland, and Castle Eredine, and castles in the air;
when I was roused by the approach of poor Roban, attended by the old
white pony, which followed him like a dog. He accosted me with an
earnest look, lowering his voice to a confidential tone. 'They say
you're ordained for him,' said he; 'so blessings on your face! take him
peaceably.'
Since I had become a favourite in Glen Eredine, so many dreams and
prophecies had announced me its future mistress, that I had no
difficulty in apprehending his meaning. 'Oh! you must let me refuse a
little at first for decency-sake, Robert,' said I, laughing.
'Mysel' would fain you do's bidding before you be hindered,' said he;
laying his fingers pleadingly upon my arm. 'What if he _would_ see you
going down the loan there, and through the wood, with another man's boy
in bosom?'--he raised his arm, tracing as he spoke the path towards
Cecil's dwelling; then letting it drop unconsciously, he proceeded in
his native tongue, as if he had forgotten my presence. 'He would care
no more for his fine golden watch, and all the parks and _towns_ of
Eredine, than for the wind when _she_ flies by him.'--'But, Robert,'
said I, interrupting his mournful reverie, 'how should you all like to
have a Saxon mistress in the Castle?'--'If it were so ordered,' answered
Robert, 'who could say against?--and we might be very well, though it
were so. Just you forget that you're a stepmother, with your leave; and
we'll all forget it too.'
When I returned to the house, I learnt, what I had indeed inferred from
Roban's language, that Cecil had been there. She came to ask medicine
and advice for her dying husband; but when told the good news of the
day, she retired without suffering Miss Graham's joy to be interrupted
by her melancholy errand. Though, after having lived three months in
Glen Eredine, I could no longer be surprised at this delicacy, it can
never cease to please; and I immediately requested Charlotte to direct
our evening walk toward Cecil's cottage.
We were received at the door by Cecil, who loaded us both with
congratulations; and invited us, as she was accustomed to do, into her
chamber of state, or as she phrased it, 'ben a house.' This apartment
was at that time no unfavourable specimen of Glen Eredine parlours. It
had to be sure an earthen floor not levelled with much nicety, but it
was tolerably clean; it was ceiled with whitened boards, lighted by a
sashed window, furnished with plane-tree chairs and tables, and
ornamented with an open corner cupboard filled with gaudy stone-bowls,
and jugs enriched with humble anacreontics. This was not, however, the
family room; and, finding that poor James inhabited the other end of the
building, we insisted upon adjourning thither.
The humbler apartment was separated from the other by a panelled closet
or rather box, which served the double purpose of bed and partition. The
remaining walls were imperfectly plastered with clay; and the rude
frame-work of the roof was visible, where light enough to make it so was
admitted by the aperture which served for a chimney, and by a window of
four panes, one of which was boarded, and another stuffed with rags.
Beneath the above-mentioned aperture, the bounds of the fire-place were
marked only by a narrow piece of pavement, upon which a turf-fire
smouldered unconfined against the wall. The smoke, thus left at large,
had dyed the rafters of an ebon hue; and, mixing with the condensed
vapour, distilled in inky drops from the roof. The floor was strewed
with water-pails, iron-pots, wooden-ware, and broken crockery. Cecil's
eldest child, a boy of about four years old, tartaned and capped as
martially as any 'gallant Graham' of them all, sprawled contentedly in
the middle of the litter, sharing his supper of barley-bread with an
overgrown pet lamb; and the youngest attired with rather less ceremony,
crouched by the side of a black pot, contesting with the cock the
remains of a mess of oatmeal pottage.
From these postures of ease, however, Cecil instantly snatched them
both. 'Up, ill manners!' cried she; 'think it your credit to stand when
the gentles come to see you.' This maxim she enforced by example, for no
entreaties could prevail upon her to be seated in our presence.
The sallow, haggard countenance of poor James appeared through the open
panel of the bed; and Miss Graham approaching, enquired 'how he felt
himself?'
'Ye're good that asks,' said Cecil, answering for him; 'but he'll never
be better, and he has no worse to be.'
'These people are savages, after all!' thought I. 'Would any humanised
being have pronounced such a sentence in the sick man's hearing?' I
stole a glance towards the bed, half fearing to witness the effect of
her barbarity.
'Trouble must have its time,' said the man cheerfully; 'but we must just
hope it'll no be long now.'
This was so little like fear, that I was obliged to convert the words of
encouragement into those of congratulation; and after Miss Graham had
made some more particular enquiries, I expressed my satisfaction in
observing such apparent resignation.
'Deed, ma'am,' said James, 'I cannot say but that I am willing enough to
depart; I'm whiles feared, indeed; but then I'm whiles newfangled.'
'I'm sure, lady,' said Cecil, tears now streaming down her cheeks, 'he
has no reason to be feared; for he's been a well-living Christian all's
days, and a good husband he's been;--and he shall have no reason to
reflect that he has no' as decent a burial as ever the ground was broken
for in Eredine. And for that we're partly much beholden to you, Miss
Percy,--a blessing on you for that,--and a decent departure might you
have therefor! And thankful may we be, Jamie, that ye'll no lie in
unkent ground, among strangers, and heathens, and all the offscourings
of the earth!'
'No!' said Miss Graham; 'among strangers you shall not lie. You shall be
laid by the place where your foster-brother should have lain; and your
head-stone shall be my memorial of him, and of what you did for him.'
A flash of joy brightened the face of the dying man. He looked at Miss
Graham as if he would fain have thanked her; but though his lips moved,
they uttered no sound. Cecil was voluble in her thanks; and I verily
believe was half reconciled to the prospect of her misfortune, by the
honour which it was to procure for her husband.
'When you see my dear brother,' proceeded Miss Graham, 'tell him, James,
that my only regret now is, that I should show neither love nor honour
to his remains; and that they must rest so far from mine!'[26]
At this moment a casual change of posture made me observe, through the
window, a human figure, partially hid by an old ash tree which grew
within a few feet of the cottage wall. The figure advanced a step; and I
perceived through the dusk of the evening that it was Roban Gorach. He
was leaning against the tree, with his eyes fixed on the window; his
head and arms hanging listlessly down, with that undefinable singularity
of mien which betokens the wandering of the mind.
I was going to call Miss Graham's attention to the circumstance, when
our strange conversation was interrupted by a scream from the youngest
child, whom Cecil had hastily caught up in her arms. The scream was
certainly the shriek of pain, perhaps partly of surprise; yet Cecil
apologising for her child's temper, began to soothe him with the sounds
which nurses apply to mere frowardness, mixing them at times with the
hum of a song. Her remonstrances to the child were given in Gaelic,
interrupted by apologies in English to Miss Graham and myself. More than
once she pronounced the word[27] which signifies 'Go,' 'begone!' with
strong emphasis; holding the child from her as if threatening to forsake
him. He still continued to cry, and she to hush him with a song, which
was at first irregular and indistinct; but which, by degrees, formed
itself into regular rhythm, pronounced with such precision, that even my
slender knowledge of her language was sufficient to render it
intelligible to me; while its occasional interruptions gave me time to
fix the meaning at least in my memory. Of the plaintive simplicity of
the original,--of the effect it derived from the wild and touching air
to which it was sung,--my feeble translation can convey no idea; but I
give the literal English of the whole[28]
Go to thy rest, oh beloved;
My soul is pained with thy wailing;
The wrath of a father is kindled by thy complaining:
Go to thy rest.
Choice of my heart thou hast been,
But now I lay thee from my bosom
That it may receive my betrothed:
Go to thy rest.
Oh cease thy lamentation;
Disquiet me no more.
Till the long night bring morning of pleasant meetings:
Go to thy rest.
Though I, having seen that Roban Gorach was one of Cecil's auditors, was
at no loss to perceive the double meaning of the song, neither poor
James nor Miss Graham could observe any thing peculiar in it. Cecil
never appeared to cast a glance towards the real object of her address;
and at every pause in the air she conversed with an appearance of
perfect unconcern.
I own my esteem for my first Highland friend was far from being improved
by this specimen of her dexterity in intrigue. As soon as Charlotte and
I had taken our leave, I told her what I had observed; but, unwilling
to express a harsh opinion, I waited for her comments. The incident,
however, made no unfavourable impression upon her. 'I know,' said she,
'that Cecil has a great deal of discretion and presence of mind.'
'Presence of mind, I allow; but really it seems to me, that if her
husband had witnessed this piece of management, he would have been very
pardonable for doubting her discretion.'
'How so? do you not think it was prudent to prevent her dying husband
from being shocked by the sight of that poor creature?'
'To tell you the truth, Charlotte, I think such readiness in intrigue
betokens Cecil's fidelity to be at least in danger.'
'Surely you do not suspect--you cannot suppose--setting aside all fear
of God, think you she could make outcasts of her children!--transmit her
name, black with the infamy of being the first unfaithful wife that ever
disgraced Glen Eredine! No, no; Cecil would rather be buried under
Benarde: ay, silly as he is, Robert would rather lay her head in the
grave! No, no, Miss Percy; whatever may be the practice in other
countries, we have reason to be thankful that such atrocities are
unknown in Eredine.'[29]
Charlotte's warm defence was interrupted by the approach of poor Robert,
who was following us home. 'Would ye just please to bid _her_,' said he,
pointing towards Cecil's cottage, 'let me thrash two or three sheaves
for her. She has nobody now to do for her; and if ye'll just allow me,
it's as sure's death, I'll stay in barn, and never go near house to
plague her.'
'I think, Robert,' answered Charlotte, 'it would be very foolish in you
to take so much trouble for one who never even speaks to you.'
'Ay, but yoursel' knows I'm no very wise,' said Robert, with a feeble
smile. Then, after a few moments' silence, he repeated his request. Miss
Graham gave an evasive answer, and he again fell behind; but, during our
walk, he came forward again and again to urge his petition, as if he had
forgotten having offered it before.
'I beg pardon of Cecil and Glen Eredine, Charlotte,' said I. 'I had
forgotten the nature and constancy of this poor young man's attachment,
when I suspected her of imprudence. I am sure that a virtuous man alone
can feel, a woman of discretion alone can inspire, such disinterested,
such unconquerable affection.'
'You are right, Ellen. Looseness of morals on the one side, or even a
very venial degree of levity on the other, is fatal to all the loftier
forms of passion. I believe even perfect frankness of manners is hostile
to them: it leaves too little for the imagination.'
We both walked on musing, till my dream was broken by our arrival at the
gate. 'Is your brother reserved?' said I, very consciously.
'I never found him so,' returned Charlotte, laughing; 'but you have so
much imagination that I believe it will do, notwithstanding.'
The day approached when this object of universal interest was to arrive;
and every stage of his journey, every hour of its duration, was counted
a hundred times. 'Four whole days still!'--'To-night he will sleep in
Scotland!'--'By this time to-morrow!'--In how many tones of impatience,
of exultation, of delight, were these sentences uttered!
The father's joy was the least exclamatory. After the first emotion was
past, he seemed to think much expression of his feelings unsuitable to
his years; though every thing 'put him in mind what Henry said when he
was last at home;' or, 'what Henry did when a boy;' and he every now and
then shook Charlotte and me by the hand with such a look of
congratulation!
He hinted some intention of riding as far as Aberfoyle to meet his son;
though he seemed to doubt whether this were altogether consistent with
his paternal dignity. 'It is not what one could do for every young man,'
said he; 'but Henry was never a sort of boy that is easily spoiled.' So
with this salvo, with which many a father has excused his
self-indulgence, Eredine determined to meet Henry at Aberfoyle.
On the eventful morning the whole family arose with the dawn. Almost the
first person I saw was Eredine, arrayed and accoutred in the perfect
costume of his country, marching up and down in the court with even more
than his usual elasticity of step. The good old gentleman prepared for
his journey with all the alertness of five-and-twenty. 'Come,
Charlotte,' said he, 'get me a breakfast fit for a man. Remember I have
more than sixty miles to ride to-day. Miss Percy, do you think any of
your Lowland lads of seventy-six could do as much? Well, well, wait till
nine o'clock at night; and, God willing, I'll show you a lad worth a
fine woman's looking at.'
In spite of the entreaties of old Donald MacIan and the family piper,
who would fain have led forth the whole clan, Eredine set out attended
only by his household servants. But as soon as the laird was gone,
Donald followed his own inclinations. The piper marched through every
_baile_[30] in the Glen, pouring forth a torrent of vigorous discords,
which he called the '_Graham's Gathering_;' then took the road towards
Aberfoyle, followed by the train whom he had assembled. By noon,
scarcely a man was left in Glen Eredine.
On the other hand, the women came in crowds to the Castle, each bringing
a cheese, a kid, a pullet, or whatever else her cabin could supply; and,
having deposited these '_compliments_,' as they called them, they
quietly returned to their homes. The servants ran idly bustling about
the house, forgetting every part of their business which did not refer
to Mr Henry. One began to air his linen as soon as day dawned. Another
piled heap after heap of turf upon his fire. A third, at the expense of
the state bedchamber, embellished his apartment with a carpet not
unlike, both in pattern and size, to a chess-board. I found a fourth
busied in anointing his leather-bottomed chairs with a mixture of oil
and soot; scrubbing this Hottentot embrocation into the grain with a
shoe-brush. 'I'm just giving them a bit clean for him,' said she, in
answer to my exclamation of amazement. 'He had always a cleanly
turn,--God save him!'
At last all preparations perforce were finished; and the day then seemed
endless to us all. Charlotte was silent and restless. She tried to work;
but it would not do; she tried to read, and succeeded no better. She
visited her brother's apartment again and again, and could never satisfy
herself that all was ready for his reception. She began to fear that he
might not arrive that night, yet she was half angry with me for
admitting the possibility. Towards evening she stationed herself in a
window to watch for him; turning away sometimes with tears of
disappointment in her eyes, and then resuming her watch once more.
Twilight closed in the stillness of a frosty night. Charlotte drew me to
the gate to listen. All was profoundly quiet. At last a dog bayed at a
distance. 'I hear the pipe!' said Charlotte, grasping my arm. I
listened. The sound was faintly heard, then lost, then heard again. By
degrees it swelled into distinctness; the trampling of horses,--the
tread of a multitude was heard,--voices mingled with the sound.
Charlotte ran forward, and then returned again. 'No! I cannot meet him
before all these people,' said she; and we retreated to the house.
I saw through the dusk the stately figures of the chief and his son
approaching on foot from the gate where they had dismounted; and I stole
back into the parlour, unwilling that my presence should embarrass the
expected meeting. Yet, with a fluttering heart, I listened eagerly to
their quickened steps,--to the clasp of affection,--to the whisper of
rapture. 'Brother!'--'Charlotte!' pronounced in the scarcely articulate
accents of ecstasy, were for some moments the only words uttered; the
next that reached my ear, were those in which the traveller eagerly
enquired for me. I sprang forward, for it was a well remembered voice
that spoke; but the next moment I shrank before the flashing glance of
Maitland!
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 24: The said Breadalbane spring once existed in Atholl; but
its guardian Saint having been offended by some failure in respect, or
in liberality, removed it to its present site. This neglect was the more
unpardonable, because Highland saints have a very saint-like facility of
propitiation. A halfpenny is considered as a profuse offering; a nail, a
pin, or a rag, is all that the saints exact in return for the benefit of
these healing waters. The saints' wells can generally be distinguished
by the shreds of cloth hung upon the impending bushes; and other
offerings of like value dropped into the basin.
Some of these springs are resorted to annually by way of preventative;
others are visited as occasion requires. Some of the waters are taken as
a medicine. Others--and these, I apprehend, the most useful--are
externally applied. In this case, the ablutions must be repeated for
three years successively; and if the patient die in the interim, a
friend must complete this ceremony in his stead, bringing away at the
same time a bottle of water, to be poured upon the grave of the
deceased. Within these few years, an old woman, for this pious purpose,
twice performed a journey of nearly a hundred miles.]
[Footnote 25: See Scott's Border Minstrelsy.]
[Footnote 26: Messages from the living to the dead are not uncommon in
the Highlands. The Gael have such a ceaseless consciousness of
immortality, that their departed friends are considered as merely absent
for a time; and permitted to relieve the hours of separation by
occasional intercourse with the objects of their earliest affection.]
[Footnote 27: Falbh bi falbh.]
[Footnote 28: Extemporary songs are common among the Highlanders. With
these they beguile their labours; often, of course, at small expense of
taste or invention. The readiness with which they apply their verses to
compliment, to banter, often to graver purposes, is, however, very
remarkable; and Cecil is far from furnishing a rare or exalted specimen
of the powers of Highland _improvisatori_.
I have been told, that an Argyllshire woman, one evening, while
expecting her husband's return, was surprised by a visit from some
persons whom she guessed to be officers of justice sent to apprehend
him. Finding the man absent, they determined to wait his arrival in the
hut; taking care, of course, that his wife should not go out to apprise
him of his danger. She contrived, however, to hush her baby with an
extemporary song, which, without alarming the vigilance of the guards,
warned her husband from his perilous threshold, and he escaped. Other
instances, somewhat of a similar kind, suggested the incident in the
text.
Indeed, the only merit which the Highland scenes in Discipline presume
to claim, is, that, however inartificially joined, they are all borrowed
from fact.]
[Footnote 29: Although, in the remoter parts of Scotland, chastity is by
no means the universal virtue of unmarried persons, instances of
conjugal infidelity are still rare. Within the present generation they
were almost unknown.
About twenty years ago, it happened, in a remote country town, that two
persons of the lower rank were accused of adultery. The charge, whether
true or false, had such an effect, that the man was driven like a wild
beast from human converse. The very children pelted him with mud in the
street; crying out, 'There goes the adulterer.']
[Footnote 30: Hamlet,--_Town_.]