"Guy Mannering, or, the Astrologer," the second of the
Waverley series, represents the labour of six weeks. Although
the novel was completed in so short a period, neither
story--if one or two instances of evidences of haste is
ignored--nor characterisation has suffered. For the main theme
Scott was indebted to an old legend of the horoscope of a
new-born infant. In common with nearly all his tales, several
of the characters in "Guy Mannering" were founded on real
persons; Meg Merrilies was the prototype of a gipsy named
Jennie Gordon, and many of the personal features of Dominie
Sampson were obtained from a clergyman who once acted as tutor
at Abbotsford. The hero was at once recognised by Hogg, the
Ettrick shepherd, as a portrait of Scott himself.
_I.--The Astrologer_
It was in the month of November, 17--, when a young English gentleman,
who had just left the University of Oxford, being benighted while
sightseeing in Dumfriesshire, sought shelter at Ellangowan, on the very
night the heir was born. Our hero, Guy Mannering, entering into the
simple humour of Mr. Bertram, his host, agreed to calculate the infant's
horoscope by the stars, having in early youth studied with an old
clergyman who had a firm belief in astrology.
Mannering had once before tried a similar piece of foolery, at the
instance of the young lady to whom he was betrothed, and now found that
the result of the scheme in both cases presaged misfortune in the same
year to the infant as to her. To the baby, three periods would be
particularly hazardous--his fifth, his tenth, his twenty-first year.
He mentally relinquished his art for ever, and to prevent the child
being supposed to be the object of evil prediction, he gave the paper
into Mr. Bertram's hand, and requested him to keep it for five years
with the seal unbroken, after which period he left him at liberty,
trusting that the first fatal year being safely overpast, no credit
would be paid to its farther contents.
When Mrs. Bertram was able to work again, her first employment was to
make a small velvet bag for the scheme of nativity; and though her
fingers itched to break the seal, she had the firmness to enclose it in
two slips of parchment, and put it in the bag aforesaid, and hang it
round the neck of the infant.
It was again in the month of November, more than twenty years after the
above incident, that a loud rapping was heard at the door of the Gordon
Arms at Kippletringan.
"I wish, madam," said the traveller, entering the kitchen, where several
neighbours were assembled, "you would give me leave to warm myself here,
for the night is very cold."
His appearance, voice, and manner, produced an instantaneous effect in
his favour. The landlady installed her guest comfortably by the
fireside, and offered what refreshment her house afforded.
"A cup of tea, ma'am, if you will favour me." Mrs. MacCandlish bustled
about, and proceeded in her duties with her best grace, explaining that
she had a very nice parlour, and everything agreeable for gentlefolks;
but it was bespoke to-night for a gentleman and his daughter, that were
going to leave this part of the country.
The sound of wheels was now heard, and the postilion entered. "No, they
canna' come at no rate, the laird's sae ill."
"But God help them," said the landlady. "The morn's the term--the very
last day they can bide in the house--a' things to be roupit."
"Weel, I tell you, Mr. Bertram canna be moved."
"What Mr. Bertram?" said the stranger. "Not Mr. Bertram of Ellangowan, I
hope?"
"Just e'en that same, sir; and if ye be a friend o' his, ye've come at a
time when he's sair bested."
"I have been abroad for many years. Is his health so much deranged?"
"Ay, and his affairs an' a'. The creditors have entered into possession
o' the estate, and it's for sale. And some that made the maist o' him,
they're sairest on him now. I've a sma' matter due mysell, but I'd
rather have lost it than gane to turn the auld man out of his house, and
him just dying."
"Ay, but," said the parish clerk, "Factor Glossin wants to get rid of
the auld laird, and drive on the sale, for fear the heir-male should
cast up; for if there's an heir-male, they canna sell the estate for
auld Ellangowan's debt."
"He had a son born a good many years ago," said the stranger. "He is
dead, I suppose?"
"Dead! I'se warrant him dead lang syne. He hasna' been heard o' these
twenty years."
"I wat weel it's no twenty years," said the landlady. "It's no abune
seventeen in this very month. It made an unco noise ower a' this
country. The bairn disappeared the very day that Supervisor Kennedy came
by his end. He was a daft dog! Oh, an' he could ha' handen' off the
smugglers! Ye see, sir, there was a king's sloop down in Wigton Bay, and
Frank Kennedy, he behoved to have her up to chase Dirk Hatteraick's
lugger. He was a daring cheild, and fought his ship till she blew up
like peelings of ingans."
"And Mr. Bertram's child," said the stranger, "what is all this to him?"
"Ou, sir, the bairn aye held an unca wark wi' the supervisor, and it was
generally thought he went on board the vessel with him."
"No, no; you're clean out there, Luckie! The young laird was stown awa'
by a randy gipsy woman they ca'd Meg Merrilies," said the deacon.
But the presenter would not have this version, and told a tale of how an
astrologer, an ancient man, had appeared at the time of the heir's
birth, and told the laird that the Evil One would have power over the
knave bairn, and he charged him that the bairn should be brought up in
the ways of piety, and should aye hae a godly minister at his elbow; and
the aged man vanished away, and so they engaged Dominie Sampson to be
with him morn and night. But even that godly minister had failed to
protect the child, who was last seen being carried off by Frank Kennedy
on his horse to see a king's ship chase a smuggler. The excise-man's
body was found at the foot of the crags at Warroch Point, but no one
knew what had become of the child.
A smart servant entered with a note for the stranger, saying, "The
family at Ellangowan are in great distress, sir, and unable to receive
any visits."
"I know it," said his master. "And now, madam, if you will have the
goodness to allow me to occupy the parlour----"
"Certainly, sir," said Mrs. MacCandlish, and hastened to light the way.
"And wha' may your master be, friend?"
"What! That's the famous Colonel Mannering, sir, from the East Indies."
"What, him we read of in the papers?"
"Lord safe us!" said the landlady. "I must go and see what he would have
for supper--that I should set him down here."
When the landlady re-entered, Colonel Mannering asked her if Mr. Bertram
lost his son in his fifth year.
"O ay, sir, there's nae doubt of that; though there are many idle
clashes about the way and manner. And the news being rashly told to the
leddy cost her her life that saym night; and the laird never throve from
that day, was just careless of everything. Though when Miss Lucy grew up
she tried to keep order. But what could she do, poor thing? So now
they're out of house and hauld."
_II.--Vanbeest Brown's Reappearance_
Early next morning, Mannering took the road to Ellangowan. He had no
need to inquire the way; people of all descriptions streamed to the sale
from all quarters.
When the old towers of the ruin rose upon his view, thoughts thronged
upon the mind of the traveller. How changed his feelings since he lost
sight of them so many years before! Then life and love were new, and all
the prospect was gilded by their rays. And now, disappointed in
affection, sated with fame, goaded by bitter and repentant
recollections, his best hope was to find a retirement in which to nurse
the melancholy which was to accompany him to his grave. About a year
before, in India, he had returned from a distant expedition to find a
young cadet named Brown established as the habitual attendant on his
wife and daughter, an arrangement which displeased him greatly, owing to
the suggestions of another cadet, though no objection could be made to
the youth's character or manners. Brown made some efforts to overcome
his colonel's prejudice, but feeling himself repulsed, and with scorn,
desisted, and continued his attentions in defiance. At last some trifle
occurred which occasioned high words and a challenge. They met on the
frontiers of the settlement, and Brown fell at the first shot. A horde
of Looties, a species of banditti, poured in upon them, and Colonel
Mannering and his second escaped with some difficulty. His wife's death
shortly after, and his daughter's severe illness, made him throw up his
command and come home. She was now staying with some old friends in
Westmoreland, almost restored to her wonted health and gaiety.
When Colonel Mannering reached the house he found his old acquaintance
paralysed, helpless, waiting for the postchaise to take him away.
Mannering's evident emotion at once attained him the confidence of Lucy
Bertram. The laird showed no signs of recognising Mannering; but when
the man, Gilbert Glossin, who had brought him to this pass, had the
effrontery to make his appearance, he started up, violently reproaching
him, sank into his chair again, and died almost without a groan.
A torrent of sympathy now poured forth, the sale was postponed, and
Mannering decided on making a short tour till it should take place, but
he was called back to Westmoreland, and, owing to the delay of his
messenger, the estate passed into the hands of Glossin. Lucy and Dominie
Sampson, who would not be separated from his pupil, found a temporary
home in the house of Mr. MacMorlan, the sheriff-substitute, a good
friend of the family.
Colonel Mannering lost no time in hiring for a season a large and
comfortable mansion not far from Ellangowan, having some hopes of
ultimately buying that estate. Besides a sincere desire to serve the
distressed, he saw the advantage his daughter Julia might receive from
the company of Lucy Bertram, whose prudence and good sense might be
relied on, and therefore induced her to become the visitor of a season,
and the dominie thereupon required no pressing to accept the office of
librarian. The household was soon settled in its new quarters, and the
young ladies followed their studies and amusements together.
Society was quickly formed, most of the families in the neighbourhood
visited Colonel Mannering, and Charles Hazlewood soon held a
distinguished place in his favour and was a frequent visitor, his
parents quite forgetting their old fear of his boyish attachment to
penniless Lucy Bertram in the thought that the beautiful Miss Mannering,
of high family, with a great fortune, was a prize worth looking after.
They did not know that the colonel's journey to Westmoreland was in
consequence of a letter from his friend there expressing uneasiness
about serenades from the lake beside the house. However, he had returned
without making any discovery or any advance in his daughter's
confidence, who might have told him that Brown still lived, had not her
natural good sense and feeling been warped by the folly of a misjudging,
romantic mother, who had called her husband a tyrant until she feared
him as such.
* * * * *
Vanbeest Brown had escaped from captivity and attained the rank of
captain after Mannering left India, and his regiment having been
recalled home, was determined to persevere in his addresses to Julia
while she left him a ray of hope, believing that the injuries he had
received from her father might dispense with his using much ceremony
towards him.
So, soon after the Mannerings' settlement in Scotland, he was staying in
the inn at Kippletringan; and, as the landlady said, "a' the hoose was
ta'en wi' him, he was such a frank, pleasant young man." There had been
a good deal of trouble with the smugglers of late, and one day Brown met
the young ladies with Charles Hazlewood. Julia's alarm at his appearance
misled that young man, and he spoke roughly to Brown, even threatening
him with his gun. In the confusion the gun went off, wounding Hazlewood.
_III.--Glossin's Villainy_
Gilbert Glossin, Esq., now Laird of Ellangowan, and justice of the
peace, saw an opportunity of ingratiating himself with the country
gentry, and exerted himself to discover the person by whom young Charles
Hazlewood had been wounded. So it was with great pleasure he heard his
servants announce that MacGuffog, the thief-taker, had a man waiting his
honour, handcuffed and fettered.
The worthy judge and the captive looked at each other steadily. At
length Glossin said:
"So, captain, this is you? You've been a stranger on these coasts for
some years."
"Stranger!" replied the other. "Strange enough, I should think, for hold
me der teyvil, if I have ever been here before."
Glossin took a pair of pistols, and loaded them.
"You may retire," said he to his clerk, "and carry the people with you,
but wait within call." Then: "You are Dirk Hatteraick, are you not?"
"Tousand teyvils! And if you know that, why ask me?"
"Captain, bullying won't do. You'll hardly get out of this country
without accounting for a little accident at Warroch Point a few years
ago."
Hatteraick's looks grew black as midnight.
"For my part," continued Glossin. "I have no wish to be hard on an old
acquaintance, but I must send you off to Edinburgh this very day."
"Poz donner! you would not do that?" said the prisoner. "Why, you had
the matter of half a cargo in bills on Vanbeest and Vanbruggen!"
"It was an affair in the way of business," said Glossin, "and I have
retired from business for some time."
"Ay, but I have a notion I could make you go steady about, and try the
old course again," said Dirk Hatteraick. "I had something to tell you."
"Of the boy?" said Glossin eagerly.
"Yaw, mynheer," replied the captain coolly.
"He does not live, does he?"
"As lifelich as you or me," said Hatteraick.
"Good God! But in India?" exclaimed Glossin.
"No, tousand teyvils, here--on this dirty coast of yours!" rejoined the
prisoner.
"But, Hatteraick, this--that is, if it be true, will ruin us both, for
he cannot but remember."
"I tell you," said the seaman, "it will ruin none but you, for I am done
up already, and if I must strap for it, all shall out."
Glossin paused--the sweat broke upon his brow; while the hard-featured
miscreant sat opposite coolly rolling his tobacco in his cheek.
"It would be ruin," said Glossin to himself, "absolute ruin, if the heir
should reappear--and then what might be the consequences of conniving
with these men?"
"Hark you, Hatteraick, I can't set you at liberty, but I can put you
where you can set yourself at liberty. I always like to assist an old
friend."
So he gave him a file.
"There's a friend for you, and you know the way to the sea, and you must
remain snug at the point of Warroch till I see you."
"The point of Warroch?" Hatteraick's countenance fell. "What--in the
cave? I would rather it was anywhere else. They say he walks. But donner
and blitzen! I never shunned him alive, and I won't shun him dead!"
The justice dismissed the party to keep guard for the night in the old
castle with a large allowance of food and liquor, with the full hope and
belief that they would spend the night neither in watching nor prayer.
Next morning great was the alarm when the escape of the prisoner was
discovered. When the officers had been sent off in all directions
(except the right one), Glossin went to Hatteraick in the cave. A light
soon broke upon his confusion of ideas. This missing heir was Vanbeest
Brown who had wounded young Hazlewood. He hastily explained to Dick
Hatteraick that his goods which had been seized were lying in the
Custom-house at Portanferry, and there to the Bridewell beside it be
would send this younker, when he had caught him; would take care that
the soldiers were dispersed, and he, Dick Hatteraick, could land with
his crew, receive his own goods, and carry the younker Brown back to
Flushing.
"Ay, carry him to Flushing," said the captain, "or to America, or--to
Jericho?"
"Psha! Wherever you have a mind."
"Ay, or pitch him overboard?"
"Nay, I advise no violence."
"Nein, nein! You leave that to me Sturm-wetter; I know you of old. But,
hark ye, what am I, Dirk Hatteraick, to be the better for this?"
Glossin made him understand it would not be safe for either of them if
young Ellangowan settled in the country, and their plans were soon
arranged. None of the old crew were alive but the gipsy who had sent the
news of Brown's whereabouts and identity.
Brown, or, as we may now call him, Harry Bertram, had retreated into
England, but now, hearing that Hazlewood's wound was trifling, returned
and landed at Ellangowan Bay; he approached the castle, unconscious as
the most absolute stranger, where his ancestors had exercised all but
regal dominion.
Confused memories thronged his mind, and he paused by a curious
coincidence on nearly the same spot on which his father had died, just
as Glossin came up the bank with an architect, to whom he was talking of
alterations; Bertram turned short round upon him, and said:
"Would you destroy this fine old castle, sir?"
He was so exactly like his father in his best days that Glossin thought
the grave had given up its dead. He staggered back, but instantly
recovered, and whispered a few words in the ear of his companion, who
immediately went towards the house, while Glossin talked civilly to
Bertram. By the next evening he was safely locked up in the Bridewell at
Portanferry, until Sir Charles Hazlewood, the injured youth's father, to
whom Glossin had conducted him, could make inquiries as to the truth of
his story.
_IV.--Bertram's Restoration_
Bertram, unable to sleep, gazing out of the window of his prison, saw a
long boat making for the quay. About twenty men landed and disappeared,
and soon a miscellaneous crowd came back, some carrying torches, some
bearing packages and barrels, and a red glare illuminated land and sea,
and shone full on them, as with ferocious activity they loaded their
boats. A fierce attack was made on the prison gates; they were soon
forced, and three or four smugglers hurried to Bertram's apartment. "Der
teyvil," said the leader, "here's our mark!" And two of them seized on
Bertram, and one whispered, "Make no resistance till you are in the
street."
They dragged him along, and in the confusion outside the gang got
separated. A noise as of a body of horse advancing seemed to add to the
disturbance, the press became furiously agitated, shots were fired, and
the glittering swords of dragoons began to appear. Now came the warning
whisper: "Shake off that fellow, and follow me!"
Bertram, exerting his strength suddenly, easily burst from the other
man's grasp, and dived through a narrow lane after his guide, at the end
of which stood a postchaise with four horses.
"Get into it," said the guide. "You will soon be in a place of safety."
They were driven at a rapid rate through the dark lanes, and suddenly
stopped at the door of a large house. Brown, dizzied by the sudden glare
of light, almost unconsciously entered the open door, and confronted
Colonel Mannering; interpreting his fixed and motionless astonishment
into displeasure at his intrusion, hastened to say it was involuntary.
"Mr. Brown, I believe?" said Colonel Mannering.
"Yes, sir," said the young man modestly but firmly. "The same you knew
in India, and who ventures to hope that you would favour him with your
attestation to his character as a gentleman and man of honour."
At this critical moment appeared Mr. Pleydell, the lawyer who had
conducted the inquiry as to the disappearance of Harry Bertram, who
happened to be staying with Colonel Mannering, and he instantly saw the
likeness to the late laird.
Bertram was as much confounded at the appearance of those to whom he so
unexpectedly presented himself as they were at the sight of him. Mr.
Pleydell alone was in his element, and at once took upon himself the
whole explanation. His catechism had not proceeded far before Dominie
Sampson rose hastily, with trembling hands and streaming eyes, and
called aloud:
"Harry Bertram, look at me!"
"Yes," said Bertram, starting from his seat--"yes, that was my name, and
that is my kind old master."
* * * * *
When they parted for the night Colonel Mannering walked up to Bertram,
gave him joy of his prospects, and hoped unkindness would be forgotten
between them. It was he who had sent the postchaise to Portanferry in
consequence of a letter he had received from Meg Merrilies; it was she
who had sent back the soldiers so opportunely, and through her the next
day Dirk Hatteraick was captured; but, unhappily, she was killed by that
ruffian at the moment of the fulfilment of her hopes for the family of
Ellangowan.
Glossin also met the fate he deserved at the hands of Hatteraick, who
had claims to no virtue but fidelity to his shipowners.
* * * * *
Mr. Pleydell carried through his law business successfully, and we leave
him and the colonel examining plans for a new house for Julia and
Bertram on the estate of Ellangowan. Another house on the estate was to
be repaired for the other young couple, Lucy and Hazlewood, and called
Mount Hazlewood.
"And see," said the colonel, "here's the plan of my bungalow, with all
convenience for being separate and sulky when I please."
"And you will repair the tower for the nocturnal contemplation of the
heavenly bodies. Bravo, colonel!"
"No, no, my dear Pleydell! Here ends the astrologer."
* * * * *