MARY BURNET.
The following incidents are related as having occurred at a shepherd's
house, not a hundred miles from St Mary's Loch; but, as the
descendants of one of the families still reside in the vicinity, I
deem it requisite to use names which cannot be recognised, save by
those who have heard the story.
John Allanson, the farmer's son of Inverlawn, was a handsome, roving,
and incautious young man, enthusiastic, amorous, and fond of
adventure, and one who could hardly be said to fear the face of either
man, woman, or spirit. Among other love adventures, he fell a-courting
Mary Burnet, of Kirkstyle, a most beautiful and innocent maiden, and
one who had been bred up in rural simplicity. She loved him, but yet
she was afraid of him; and though she had no objection to meeting with
him among others, yet she carefully avoided meeting him alone, though
often and earnestly urged to it. One day, the young man, finding an
opportunity, at Our Lady's Chapel, after mass, urged his suit for a
private meeting so ardently, and with so many vows of love and sacred
esteem, that Mary was so far won, as to promise, that _perhaps_ she
would come and meet him.
The trysting place was a little green sequestered spot, on the very
verge of the lake, well known to many an angler, and to none better
than the writer of this old tale; and the hour appointed, the time
when the King's Elwand (now foolishly termed the Belt of Orion) set
his first golden knob above the hill. Allanson came too early; and he
watched the sky with such eagerness and devotion, that he thought
every little star that arose in the south-east the top knob of the
King's Elwand. At last the Elwand did arise in good earnest, and then
the youth, with a heart palpitating with agitation, had nothing for it
but to watch the heathery brow by which bonny Mary Burnet was to
descend. No Mary Burnet made her appearance, even although the King's
Elwand had now measured its own equivocal length five or six times up
the lift.
Young Allanson now felt all the most poignant miseries of
disappointment; and, as the story goes, uttered in his heart an
unhallowed wish--he wished that some witch or fairy would influence
his Mary to come to him in spite of her maidenly scruples. This wish
was thrice repeated with all the energy of disappointed love. It was
thrice repeated, and no more, when, behold, Mary appeared on the brae,
with wild and eccentric motions, speeding to the appointed place.
Allanson's excitement seems to have been more than he was able to
bear, as he instantly became delirious with joy, and always professed
that he could remember nothing of their first meeting, save that Mary
remained silent, and spoke not a word, neither good nor bad. In a
short time she fell a-sobbing and weeping, refusing to be comforted,
and then, uttering a piercing shriek, sprung up, and ran from him with
amazing speed.
At this part of the loch, which, as I said, is well known to many, the
shore is overhung by a precipitous cliff, of no great height, but
still inaccessible, either from above or below. Save in a great
drought, the water comes to within a yard of the bottom of this cliff,
and the intermediate space is filled with rough unshapely pieces of
rock fallen from above. Along this narrow and rude space, hardly
passable by the angler at noon, did Mary bound with the swiftness of a
kid, although surrounded with darkness. Her lover, pursuing with all
his energy, called out, "Mary! Mary! my dear Mary, stop and speak with
me. I'll conduct you home, or anywhere you please, but do not run from
me. Stop, my dearest Mary--stop!"
Mary would not stop; but ran on, till, coming to a little cliff that
jutted into the lake, round which there was no passage, and,
perceiving that her lover would there overtake her, she uttered
another shriek, and plunged into the lake. The loud sound of her fall
into the still water rung in the young man's ears like the knell of
death; and if before he was crazed with love, he was now as much so
with despair. He saw her floating lightly away from the shore towards
the deepest part of the loch; but, in a short time, she began to sink,
and gradually disappeared, without uttering a throb or a cry. A good
while previous to this, Allanson had flung off his bonnet, shoes, and
coat, and plunged in. He swam to the place where Mary disappeared; but
there was neither boil nor gurgle on the water, nor even a bell of
departing breath, to mark the place where his beloved had sunk. Being
strangely impressed, at that trying moment, with a determination to
live or die with her, he tried to dive, in hopes either to bring her
up or to die in her arms; and he thought of their being so found on
the shore of the lake, with a melancholy satisfaction; but by no
effort of his could he reach the bottom, nor knew he what distance he
was still from it. With an exhausted frame, and a despairing heart, he
was obliged again to seek the shore, and, dripping wet as he was, and
half naked, he ran to her father's house with the woful tidings. Every
thing there was quiet. The old shepherd's family, of whom Mary was the
youngest, and sole daughter, were all sunk in silent repose; and oh
how the distracted lover wept at the thoughts of wakening them to hear
the doleful tidings! But waken them he must; so, going to the little
window close by the goodman's bed, he called, in a melancholy tone,
"Andrew! Andrew Burnet, are you waking?"
"Troth, man, I think I be: or, at least, I'm half-and-half. What hast
thou to say to auld Andrew Burnet at this time o' night?"
"Are you waking, I say?"
"Gudewife, am I waking? Because if I be, tell that stravaiger sae.
He'll maybe tak your word for it, for mine he winna tak."
"O Andrew, none of your humour to-night;--I bring you tidings the most
woful, the most dismal, the most heart-rending, that ever were brought
to an honest man's door."
"To his window, you mean," cried Andrew, bolting out of bed, and
proceeding to the door. "Gude sauff us, man, come in, whaever you be,
and tell us your tidings face to face; and then we'll can better judge
of the truth of them. If they be in concord wi' your voice, they are
melancholy indeed. Have the reavers come, and are our kye driven?"
"Oh, alas! waur than that--a thousand times waur than that! Your
daughter--your dear beloved and only daughter, Mary--"
"What of Mary?" cried the goodman. "What of Mary?" cried her mother,
shuddering and groaning with terror; and at the same time she kindled
a light.
The sight of their neighbour, half-naked, and dripping with wet, and
madness and despair in his looks, sent a chillness to their hearts,
that held them in silence, and they were unable to utter a word, till
he went on thus--"Mary is gone; your darling and mine is lost, and
sleeps this night in a watery grave,--and I have been her destroyer!"
"Thou art mad, John Allanson," said the old man, vehemently, "raving
mad; at least I hope so. Wicked as thou art, thou hadst not the heart
to kill my dear child, O yes, you are mad--God be thanked, you are
mad. I see it in your looks and demeanour. Heaven be praised, you are
mad! You _are_ mad; but you'll get better again. But what do I say?"
continued he, as recollecting himself,--"We can soon convince our own
senses. Wife, lead the way to our daughter's bed."
With a heart throbbing with terror and dismay, old Jean Linton led the
way to Mary's chamber, followed by the two men, who were eagerly
gazing, one over each of her shoulders. Mary's little apartment was in
the farther end of the long narrow cottage; and as soon as they
entered it, they perceived a form lying on the bed, with the
bed-clothes drawn over its head; and on the lid of Mary's little
chest, that stood at the bedside, her clothes were lying neatly
folded, as they wont to be. Hope seemed to dawn on the faces of the
two old people when they beheld this, but the lover's heart sunk still
deeper in despair. The father called her name, but the form on the bed
returned no answer; however, they all heard distinctly sobs, as of one
weeping. The old man then ventured to pull down the clothes from her
face; and, strange to say, there indeed lay Mary Burnet, drowned in
tears, yet apparently nowise surprised at the ghastly appearance of
the three naked figures. Allanson gasped for breath, for he remained
still incredulous. He touched her clothes--he lifted her robes one by
one,--and all of them were dry, neat, and clean, and had no appearance
of having sunk in the lake.
There can be no doubt that Allanson was confounded by the strange
event that had befallen him, and felt like one struggling with a
frightful vision, or some energy beyond the power of man to
comprehend. Nevertheless, the assurance that Mary was there in life,
weeping although she was, put him once more beside himself with joy;
and he kneeled at her bedside, beseeching permission but to kiss her
hand. She, however, repulsed him with disdain, saying, with great
emphasis--"You are a bad man, John Allanson, and I entreat you to go
out of my sight. The sufferings that I have undergone this night, have
been beyond the power of flesh and blood to endure; and by some
cursed agency of yours have these sufferings been brought about. I
therefore pray you, in His name, whose law you have transgressed, to
depart out of my sight."
Wholly overcome by conflicting passions, by circumstances so contrary
to one another, and so discordant with every thing either in the works
of Nature or Providence, the young man could do nothing but stand like
a rigid statue, with his hands lifted up, and his visage like that of
a corpse, until led away by the two old people from their daughter's
apartment. They then lighted up a fire to dry him, and began to
question him with the most intense curiosity; but they could elicit
nothing from him, but the most disjointed exclamations--such as, "Lord
in Heaven, what can be the meaning of this!" And at other times--"It
is all the enchantment of the devil; the evil spirits have got
dominion over me!"
Finding they could make nothing of him, they began to form conjectures
of their own. Jean affirmed that it had been the Mermaid of the loch
that had come to him in Mary's shape, to allure him to his
destruction; but Andrew Burnet, setting his bonnet to one side, and
raising his left hand to a level with it, so that he might have full
scope to motion and flourish, suiting his action to his words, thus
began, with a face of sapience never to be excelled:--
"Gudewife, it doth strike me that thou art very wide of the mark. It
must have been a spirit of a great deal higher quality than a
meer-maiden, who played this extraordinary prank. The meer-maiden is
not a spirit, but a beastly sensitive creature, with a malicious
spirit within it. Now, what influence could a cauld clatch of a
creature like that, wi' a tail like a great saumont-fish, hae ower our
bairn, either to make her happy or unhappy? Or where could it borrow
her claes, Jean? Tell me that. Na, na, Jean Linton, depend on it, the
spirit that courtit wi' poor sinfu' Jock there, has been a fairy; but
whether a good ane or an ill ane, it is hard to determine."
Andrew's disquisition was interrupted by the young man falling into a
fit of trembling that was fearful to look at, and threatened soon to
terminate his existence. Jean ran for the family cordial, observing,
by the way, that "though he was a wicked person, he was still a
fellow-creature, and might live to repent;" and influenced by this
spark of genuine humanity, she made him swallow two horn-spoonfuls of
strong aquavitae. Andrew then put a piece of scarlet thread round each
wrist, and taking a strong rowan-tree staff in his hand, he conveyed
his trembling and astonished guest home, giving him at parting this
sage advice:--
"I'll tell you what it is, Jock Allanson,--ye hae run a near risk o'
perdition, and, escaping that for the present, o' losing your right
reason. But tak an auld man's advice--never gang again out by night to
beguile ony honest man's daughter, lest a worse thing befall thee."
Next morning Mary dressed herself more neatly than usual, but there
was manifestly a deep melancholy settled on her lovely face, and at
times the unbidden tear would start into her eye. She spoke no word,
either good or bad, that ever her mother could recollect, that whole
morning; but she once or twice observed her daughter gazing at her, as
with an intense and melancholy interest. About nine o'clock in the
morning, she took a hay-raik over her shoulder, and went down to a
meadow at the east end of the loch, to coil a part of her father's
hay, her father and brother engaging to join her about noon, when they
came from the sheep-fold. As soon as old Andrew came home, his wife
and he, as was natural, instantly began to converse on the events of
the preceding night; and in the course of their conversation, Andrew
said, "Gudeness be about us, Jean, was not yon an awfu' speech o' our
bairn's to young Jock Allanson last night?"
"Ay, it was a downsetter, gudeman, and spoken like a good Christian
lass."
"I'm no sae sure o' that, Jean Linton. My good woman, Jean Linton, I'm
no sae sure o' that. Yon speech has gi'en me a great deal o' trouble
o' heart; for 'ye ken, an take my life,--ay, an take your life,
Jean,--nane o' us can tell whether it was in the Almighty's name, or
the devil's, that she discharged her lover."
"O fy, Andrew, how can ye say sae? How can ye doubt that it was in the
Almighty's name?"
"Couldna she have said sae then, and that wad hae put it beyond a'
doubt? And that wad hae been the natural way too; but instead of that,
she says, 'I pray you, in the name of him whose law you have
transgressed, to depart out o' my sight.' I confess I'm terrified when
I think about yon speech, Jean Linton. Didna she say, too, that 'her
sufferings had been beyond what flesh and blood could have endured?'
What was she but flesh and blood? Didna that remark infer that she was
something mair than a mortal creature? Jean Linton, Jean Linton! what
will you say, if it should turn out that our daughter _is_ drowned,
and that yon was the fairy we had in the house a' the night and this
morning?"
"O haud your tongue, Andrew Burnet, and dinna make my heart cauld
within me. We hae aye trusted in the Lord yet, and he has never
forsaken us, nor will he yet gie the Wicked One power ower us or
ours."
"Ye say very weel, Jean, and we maun e'en hope for the best," quoth
old Andrew; and away he went, accompanied by his son Alexander, to
assist their beloved Mary on the meadow.
No sooner had Andrew set his head over the bents, and come in view of
the meadow, than he said to his son, "I wish Jock Allanson maunna hae
been east-the-loch fishing for geds the day, for I think my Mary has
made very little progress in the meadow."
"She's ower muckle ta'en up about other things this while, to mind her
wark," said Alexander: "I wadna wonder, father, if that lassie gangs a
black gate yet."
Andrew uttered a long and a deep sigh, that seemed to ruffle the very
fountains of life, and, without speaking another word, walked on to
the hay field. It was three hours since Mary had left home, and she
ought at least to have put up a dozen coils of hay each hour. But, in
place of that, she had put up only seven altogether, and the last was
unfinished. Her own hay-raik, that had an M and a B neatly cut on the
head of it, was leaning on the unfinished coil, and Mary was wanting.
Her brother, thinking she had hid herself from them in sport, ran from
one coil to another, calling her many bad names, playfully; but, after
he had turned them all up, and several deep swathes besides, she was
not to be found. This young man, who slept in the byre, knew nothing
of the events of the foregoing night, the old people and Allanson
having mutually engaged to keep them a profound secret, and he had
therefore less reason than his father to be seriously alarmed. When
they began to work at the hay, Andrew could work none; he looked this
way and that way, but in no way could he see Mary approaching: so he
put on his coat, and went away home, to pour his sorrows into the
bosom of his wife; and in the meantime, he desired his son to run to
all the neighbouring farming-houses and cots, every one, and make
inquiries if any body had seen Mary.
When Andrew went home and informed his wife that their darling was
missing, the grief and astonishment of the aged couple knew no bounds.
They sat down, and wept together, and declared, over and over, that
this act of Providence was too strange for them, and too high to be
understood. Jean besought her husband to kneel instantly, and pray
urgently to God to restore their child to them; but he declined it, on
account of the wrong frame of his mind, for he declared, that his rage
against John Allanson was so extreme, as to unfit him for approaching
the throne of his Maker. "But if the profligate refuses to listen to
the entreaties of an injured parent," added he, "he shall feel the
weight of an injured father's arm."
Andrew went straight away to Inverlawn, though without the least hope
of finding young Allanson at home; but, on reaching the place, to his
amazement, he found the young man lying ill of a burning fever, raving
incessantly of witches, spirits, and Mary Burnet. To such a height had
his frenzy arrived, that when Andrew went there, it required three men
to hold him in the bed. Both his parents testified their opinions
openly, that their son was bewitched, or possessed of a demon, and the
whole family was thrown into the greatest consternation. The good old
shepherd, finding enough of grief there already, was obliged to
confine his to his own bosom, and return disconsolate to his little
family circle, in which there was a woful blank that night.
His son returned also from a fruitless search. No one had seen any
traces of his sister, but an old crazy woman, at a place called
Oxcleuch, said that she had seen her go by in a grand chariot with
young Jock Allanson, toward the Birkhill Path, and by that time they
were at the Cross of Dumgree. The young man said, he asked her what
sort of a chariot it was, as there was never such a thing in that
country as a chariot, nor yet a road for one. But she replied that he
was widely mistaken, for that a great number of chariots sometimes
passed that way, though never any of them returned. These words
appearing to be merely the ravings of superannuation, they were not
regarded; but when no other traces of Mary could be found, old Andrew
went up to consult this crazy dame once more, but he was not able to
bring any such thing to her recollection. She spoke only in parables,
which to him were incomprehensible.
Bonny Mary Burnet was lost. She left her father's house at nine
o'clock on a Wednesday morning, the 17th of September, neatly dressed
in a white jerkin and green bonnet, with her hay-raik over her
shoulder; and that was the last sight she was doomed ever to see of
her native cottage. She seemed to have had some presentiment of this,
as appeared from her demeanour that morning before she left it. Mary
Burnet of Kirkstyle was lost, and great was the sensation produced
over the whole country by the mysterious event. There was a long
ballad extant at one period on the melancholy catastrophe, which was
supposed to have been composed by the chaplain of St Mary's; but I
have only heard tell of it, without ever hearing it sung or recited.
Many of the verses concluded thus:--
"But Bonny Mary Burnet
We will never see again."
The story soon got abroad, with all its horrid circumstances, (and
there is little doubt that it was grievously exaggerated,) and there
was no obloquy that was not thrown on the survivor, who certainly in
some degree deserved it, for, instead of growing better, he grew ten
times more wicked than he was before. In one thing the whole country
agreed, that it had been the real Mary Burnet who was drowned in the
loch, and that the being which was found in her bed, lying weeping and
complaining of suffering, and which vanished the next day, had been a
fairy, an evil spirit, or a changeling of some sort, for that it never
spoke save once, and that in a mysterious manner; nor did it partake
of any food with the rest of the family. Her father and mother knew
not what to say or what to think, but they wandered through this weary
world like people wandering in a dream. Every thing that belonged to
Mary Burnet was kept by her parents as the most sacred relics, and
many a tear did her aged mother shed over them. Every article of her
dress brought the once comely wearer to mind. Andrew often said, "That
to have lost the darling child of their old age in any way would have
been a great trial, but to lose her in the way that they had done, was
really mair than human frailty could endure."
Many a weary day did he walk by the shores of the loch, looking
eagerly for some vestige of her garments, and though he trembled at
every appearance, yet did he continue to search on. He had a number of
small bones collected, that had belonged to lambs and other minor
animals, and, haply, some of them to fishes, from a fond supposition
that they might once have formed joints of her toes or fingers. These
he kept concealed in a little bag, in order, as he said, "to let the
doctors see them." But no relic, besides these, could he ever discover
of Mary's body.
Young Allanson recovered from his raging fever scarcely in the manner
of other men, for he recovered all at once, after a few days raving
and madness. Mary Burnet, it appeared, was by him no more remembered.
He grew ten times more wicked than before, and hesitated at no means
of accomplishing his unhallowed purposes. The devout shepherds and
cottagers around detested him; and, both in their families and in the
wild, when there was no ear to hear but that of Heaven, they prayed
protection from his devices, as if he had been the Wicked One; and
they all prophesied that he would make a bad end.
One fine day about the middle of October, when the days begin to get
very short, and the nights long and dark, on a Friday morning, the
next year but one after Mary Burnet was lost, a memorable day in the
fairy annals, John Allanson, younger of Inverlawn, went to a great
hiring fair at a village called Moffat in Annandale, in order to hire
a house-maid. His character was so notorious, that not one young woman
in the district would serve in his father's house; so away he went to
the fair at Moffat, to hire the prettiest and loveliest girl he could
there find, with the intention of ruining her as soon as she came
home. This is no supposititious accusation, for he acknowledged his
plan to Mr David Welch of Cariferan, who rode down to the market with
him, and seemed to boast of it, and dwell on it with delight. But the
maidens of Annandale had a guardian angel in the fair that day, of
which neither he nor they were aware.
Allanson looked through the hiring market, and through the hiring
market, and at length fixed on one young woman, which indeed was not
difficult to do, for there was no such form there for elegance and
beauty. Mr Welch stood still and eyed him. He took the beauty aside.
She was clothed in green, and as lovely as a new-blown rose.
"Are you to hire, pretty maiden?"
"Yes, sir."
"Will you hire with me?"
"I care not though I do. But if I hire with you, it must be for the
long term."
"Certainly. The longer the better. What are your wages to be?"
"You know, if I hire, I must be paid in kind. I must have the first
living creature that I see about Inverlawn to myself."
"I wish it may be me, then. But what do you know about Inverlawn?"
"I think I _should_ know about it."
"Bless me! I know the face as well as I know my own, and better. But
the name has somehow escaped me. Pray, may I ask your name?"
"Hush! hush!" said she solemnly, and holding up her hand at the same
time; "Hush, hush, you had better say nothing about that here."
"I am in utter amazement!" he exclaimed. "What is the meaning of this?
I conjure you to tell me your name?"
"It is Mary Burnet," said she, in a soft whisper; and at the same time
she let down a green veil over her face.
If Allanson's death-warrant had been announced to him at that moment,
it could not have deprived him so completely of sense and motion. His
visage changed into that of a corpse, his jaws fell down, and his eyes
became glazed, so as apparently to throw no reflection inwardly. Mr
Welch, who had kept his eye steadily on them all the while, perceived
his comrade's dilemma, and went up to him. "Allanson?--Mr Allanson?
What is the matter with you, man?" said he. "Why, the girl has
bewitched you, and turned you into a statue!"
Allanson made some sound in his throat, as if attempting to speak, but
his tongue refused its office, and he only jabbered. Mr Welch,
conceiving that he was seized with some fit, or about to faint,
supported him into the Johnston Arms; but he either could not, or
would not, grant him any explanation. Welch being, however, resolved
to see the maiden in green once more, persuaded Allanson, after
causing him to drink a good deal, to go out into the hiring-market
again, in search of her. They ranged the market through and through,
but the maiden in green was gone, and not to be found. She had
vanished in the crowd the moment she divulged her name, and even
though Welch had his eye fixed on her, he could not discover which way
she went. Allanson appeared to be in a kind of stupor as well as
terror, but when he found that she had left the market, he began to
recover himself, and to look out again for the top of the market.
He soon found one more beautiful than the last. She was like a sylph,
clothed in robes of pure snowy white, with green ribbons. Again he
pointed this new flower out to Mr David Welch, who declared that such
a perfect model of beauty he had never in his life seen. Allanson,
being resolved to have this one at any wages, took her aside, and put
the usual question: "Do you wish to hire, pretty maiden?"
"Yes, sir."
"Will you hire with me?"
"I care not though I do."
"What, then, are your wages to be? Come--say? And be reasonable; I am
determined not to part with you for a trifle."
"My wages must be in kind; I work on no other conditions.--Pray, how
are all the good people about Inverlawn?"
Allanson's breath began to cut, and a chillness to creep through his
whole frame, and he answered, with a faltering tongue,--"I thank
you,--much in their ordinary way."
"And your aged neighbours," rejoined she, "are they still alive and
well?"
"I--I--I think they are," said he, panting for breath. "But I am at a
loss to know whom I am indebted to for these kind recollections."
"What," said she, "have you so soon forgot Mary Burnet of Kirkstyle?"
Allanson started as if a bullet had gone through his heart. The lovely
sylph-like form glided into the crowd, and left the astounded
libertine once more standing like a rigid statue, until aroused by his
friend, Mr Welch. He tried a third fair one, and got the same answers,
and the same name given. Indeed, the first time ever I heard the tale,
it bore that he tried _seven_, who all turned out to be Mary Burnets
of Kirkstyle; but I think it unlikely that he would try so many, as he
must long ere that time have been sensible that he laboured under some
power of enchantment. However, when nothing else would do, he helped
himself to a good proportion of strong drink. While he was thus
engaged, a phenomenon of beauty and grandeur came into the fair, that
caught the sole attention of all present. This was a lovely dame,
riding in a gilded chariot, with two livery-men before, and two
behind, clothed in green and gold; and never sure was there so
splendid a meteor seen in a Moffat fair. The word instantly circulated
in the market, that this was the Lady Elizabeth Douglas, eldest
daughter to the Earl of Morton, who then sojourned at Auchincastle, in
the vicinity of Moffat, and which lady at that time was celebrated as
a great beauty all over Scotland. She was afterwards Lady Keith; and
the mention of this name in the tale, as it were by mere accident,
fixes the era of it in the reign of James the Fourth, at the very time
that fairies, brownies, and witches, were at the rifest in Scotland.
Every one in the market believed the lady to be the daughter of the
Earl of Morton; and when she came to the Johnston Arms, a gentleman in
green came out bareheaded, and received her out of the carriage. All
the crowd gazed at such unparalleled beauty and grandeur, but none was
half so much overcome as Allanson. He had never conceived aught half
so lovely either in earth, or heaven, or fairyland; and while he stood
in a burning fever of admiration, think of his astonishment, and the
astonishment of the countless crowd that looked on, when this
brilliant and matchless beauty beckoned him towards her! He could not
believe his senses, but looked this way and that to see how others
regarded the affair; but she beckoned him a second time, with such a
winning courtesy and smile, that immediately he pulled off his beaver
cap and hasted up to her; and without more ado she gave him her arm,
and the two walked into the hostel.
Allanson conceived that he was thus distinguished by Lady Elizabeth
Douglas, the flower of the land, and so did all the people of the
market; and greatly they wondered who the young farmer could be that
was thus particularly favoured; for it ought to have been mentioned
that he had not one personal acquaintance in the fair save Mr David
Welch of Cariferan. The first thing the lady did was to inquire kindly
after his health. Allanson thanked her ladyship with all the courtesy
he was master of; and being by this time persuaded that she was in
love with him, he became as light as if treading on the air. She next
inquired after his father and mother.--Oho! thought he to himself,
poor creature, she is terribly in for it! but her love shall not be
thrown away upon a backward or ungrateful object.--He answered her
with great politeness, and at length began to talk of her noble father
and young Lord William, but she cut him short by asking if he did not
recognise her.
"Oh, yes! He knew who her ladyship was, and remembered that he had
seen her comely face often before, although he could not, at that
particular moment, recall to his memory the precise time or places of
their meeting."
She next asked for his old neighbours of Kirkstyle, and if they were
still in life and health!
Allanson felt as if his heart were a piece of ice. A chillness spread
over his whole frame; he sank back on a seat, and remained motionless;
but the beautiful and adorable creature soothed him with kind words,
till he again gathered courage to speak.
"What!" said he; "and has it been your own lovely self who has been
playing tricks on me this whole day?"
"A first love is not easily extinguished, Mr Allanson," said she. "You
may guess from my appearance, that I have been fortunate in life; but,
for all that, my first love for you has continued the same, unaltered
and unchanged, and you must forgive the little freedoms I used to-day
to try your affections, and the effects my appearance would have on
you."
"It argues something for my good taste, however, that I never pitched
on any face for beauty to-day but your own," said he. "But now that we
have met once more, we shall not so easily part again. I will devote
the rest of my life to you, only let me know the place of your abode."
"It is hard by," said she, "only a very little space from this; and
happy, happy, would I be to see you there to-night, were it proper or
convenient. But my lord is at present from home, and in a distant
country."
"I should not conceive that any particular hinderance to my visit,"
said he.
With great apparent reluctance she at length consented to admit of his
visit, and offered to leave one of her gentlemen, whom she could
trust, to be his conductor; but this he positively refused. It was his
desire, he said, that no eye of man should see him enter or leave her
happy dwelling. She said he was a self-willed man, but should have his
own way; and after giving him such directions as would infallibly lead
him to her mansion, she mounted her chariot and was driven away.
Allanson was uplifted above every sublunary concern. Seeking out his
friend, David Welch, he imparted to him his extraordinary good
fortune, but he did not tell him that she was not the Lady Elizabeth
Douglas. Welch insisted on accompanying him on the way, and refused to
turn back till he came to the very point of the road next to the
lady's splendid mansion; and in spite of all that Allanson could say,
Welch remained there till he saw his comrade enter the court gate,
which glowed with lights as innumerable as the stars of the firmament.
Allanson had promised to his father and mother to be home on the
morning after the fair to breakfast. He came not either that day or
the next; and the third day the old man mounted his white pony, and
rode away towards Moffat in search of his son. He called at Cariferan
on his way, and made inquiries at Mr Welch. The latter manifested some
astonishment that the young man had not returned; nevertheless he
assured his father of his safety, and desired him to return home; and
then with reluctance confessed that the young man was engaged in an
amour with the Earl of Morton's beautiful daughter; that he had gone
to the castle by appointment, and that he, David Welch, had
accompanied him to the gate, and seen him enter, and it was apparent
that his reception had been a kind one, since he had tarried so long.
Mr Welch, seeing the old man greatly distressed, was persuaded to
accompany him on his journey, as the last who had seen his son, and
seen him enter the castle. On reaching Moffat they found his steed
standing at the hostel, whither it had returned on the night of the
fair, before the company broke up; but the owner had not been heard of
since seen in company with Lady Elizabeth Douglas. The old man set out
for Auchincastle, taking Mr David Welch along with him; but long ere
they reached the place, Mr Welch assured him he would not find his son
there, as it was nearly in a different direction that they rode on the
evening of the fair. However, to the castle they went, and were
admitted to the Earl, who, after hearing the old man's tale, seemed to
consider him in a state of derangement. He sent for his daughter
Elizabeth, and questioned her concerning her meeting with the son of
the old respectable countryman--of her appointment with him on the
night of the preceding Friday, and concluded by saying he hoped she
had him still in some safe concealment about the castle.
The lady, hearing her father talk in this manner, and seeing the
serious and dejected looks of the old man, knew not what to say, and
asked an explanation. But Mr Welch put a stop to it by declaring to
old Allanson that the Lady Elizabeth was not the lady with whom his
son made the appointment, for he had seen her, and would engage to
know her again among ten thousand; nor was that the castle towards
which he had accompanied his son, nor any thing like it. "But go with
me," continued he, "and, though I am a stranger in this district, I
think I can take you to the very place."
They set out again; and Mr Welch traced the road from Moffat, by which
young Allanson and he had gone, until, after travelling several miles,
they came to a place where a road struck off to the right at an angle.
"Now I know we are right," said Welch; "for here we stopped, and your
son intreated me to return, which I refused, and accompanied him to
yon large tree, and a little way beyond it, from whence I saw him
received in at the splendid gate. We shall be in sight of the mansion
in three minutes."
They passed on to the tree, and a space beyond it; but then Mr Welch
lost the use of his speech, as he perceived that there was neither
palace nor gate there, but a tremendous gulf, fifty fathoms deep, and
a dark stream foaming and boiling below.
"How is this?" said old Allanson. "There is neither mansion nor
habitation of man here!"
Welch's tongue for a long time refused its office, and he stood like a
statue, gazing on the altered and awful scene. "He only, who made the
spirits of men," said he, at last, "and all the spirits that sojourn
in the earth and air, can tell how this is. We are wandering in a
world of enchantment, and have been influenced by some agencies above
human nature, or without its pale; for here of a certainty did I take
leave of your son--and there, in that direction, and apparently either
on the verge of that gulf, or the space above it, did I see him
received in at the court gate of a mansion, splendid beyond all
conception. How can human comprehension make any thing of this?"
They went forward to the verge, Mr Welch leading the way to the very
spot on which he saw the gate opened, and there they found marks where
a horse had been plunging. Its feet had been over the brink, but it
seemed to have recovered itself, and deep, deep down, and far within,
lay the mangled corpse of John Allanson; and in this manner,
mysterious beyond all example, terminated the career of that wicked
and flagitious young man.--What a beautiful moral may be extracted
from this fairy tale!
But among all these turnings and windings, there is no account given,
you will say, of the fate of Mary Burnet; for this last appearance of
hers at Moffat seems to have been altogether a phantom or illusion.
Gentle and kind reader, I can give you no account of the fate of that
maiden; for though the ancient fairy tale proceeds, it seems to me to
involve her fate in ten times more mystery than what we have hitherto
seen of it.
The yearly return of the day on which Mary was lost, was observed as a
day of mourning by her aged and disconsolate parents,--a day of
sorrow, of fasting, and humiliation. Seven years came and passed away,
and the seventh returning day of fasting and prayer was at hand. On
the evening previous to it, old Andrew was moving along the sands of
the loch, still looking for some relic of his beloved Mary, when he
was aware of a little shrivelled old man, who came posting towards
him. The creature was not above five spans in height, and had a face
scarcely like that of a human creature; but he was, nevertheless,
civil in his deportment, and sensible in speech. He bade Andrew a good
evening, and asked him what he was looking for. Andrew answered, that
he was looking for that which he should never find.
"Pray, what is your name, ancient shepherd?" said the stranger; "for
methinks I should know something of you, and perhaps have a commission
to you."
"Alas! why should you ask after my name?" said Andrew. "My name is now
nothing to any one."
"Had not you once a beautiful daughter, named Mary?" said the
stranger.
"It is a heart-rending question, man," said Andrew; "but certes, I had
once a beloved daughter named Mary."
"What became of her?" asked the stranger.
Andrew shook his head, turned round, and began to move away; it was a
theme that his heart could not brook. He sauntered along the loch
sands, his dim eye scanning every white pebble as he passed along.
There was a hopelessness in his stooping form, his gait, his eye, his
features,--in every step that he took there was a hopeless apathy. The
dwarf followed him, and began to expostulate with him. "Old man, I see
you are pining under some real or fancied affliction," said he. "But
in continuing to do so, you are neither acting according to the
dictates of reason nor true religion. What is man that he should fret,
or the son of man that he should repine, under the chastening hand of
his Maker?"
"I am far frae justifying mysell," returned Andrew, surveying his
shrivelled monitor with some degree of astonishment. "But there are
some feelings that neither reason nor religion can o'ermaster; and
there are some that a parent may cherish without sin."
"I deny the position," said the stranger, "taken either absolutely or
relatively. All repining under the Supreme decree is leavened with
unrighteousness. But, subtleties aside, I ask you, as I did before,
What became of your daughter?"
"Ask the Father of her spirit, and the framer of her body," said
Andrew, solemnly; "ask Him into whose hands I committed her from
childhood. He alone knows what became of her, but I do not."
"How long is it since you lost her?"
"It is seven years to-morrow."
"Ay! you remember the time well. And have you mourned for her all that
while?"
"Yes; and I will go down to the grave mourning for my only daughter, the
child of my age, and of all my affection. O, thou unearthly-looking
monitor, knowest thou aught of my darling child? for if thou dost, thou
wilt know that she was not like other women. There was a simplicity and
a purity about my Mary, that was hardly consistent with our frail
nature."
"Wouldst thou like to see her again?" said the dwarf.
Andrew turned round, his whole frame shaking as with a palsy, and
gazed on the audacious imp. "See her again, creature!" cried he
vehemently--"Would I like to see her again, say'st thou?"
"I said so," said the dwarf, "and I say farther, dost thou know this
token? Look, and see if thou dost?"
Andrew took the token, and looked at it, then at the shrivelled
stranger, and then at the token again; and at length he burst into
tears, and wept aloud; but they were tears of joy, and his weeping
seemed to have some breathings of laughter intermingled in it. And
still as he kissed the token, he called out in broken and convulsive
sentences,--"Yes, auld body, I _do_ know it!--I _do_ know it!--I _do_
know it! It is indeed the same golden Edward, with three holes in it,
with which I presented my Mary on her birth-day, in her eighteenth
year, to buy a new suit for the holidays. But when she took it she
said--ay, I mind weel what my bonny woman said,--'It is sae bonny and
sae kenspeckle,' said she, 'that I think I'll keep it for the sake of
the giver.' O dear, dear!--Blessed little creature, tell me how she
is, and where she is? Is she living, or is she dead?"
"She is living, and in good health," said the dwarf; "and better, and
braver, and happier, and lovelier than ever; and if you make haste,
you will see her and her family at Moffat to-morrow afternoon. They
are to pass there on a journey, but it is an express one, and I am
sent to you with that token, to inform you of the circumstance, that
you may have it in your power to see and embrace your beloved
daughter once before you die."
"And am I to meet my Mary at Moffat? Come away, little, dear, welcome
body, thou blessed of heaven, come away, and taste of an auld
shepherd's best cheer, and I'll gang foot for foot with you to Moffat,
and my auld wife shall gang foot for foot with us too. I tell you,
little, blessed, and welcome crile, come along with me."
"I may not tarry to enter your house, or taste of your cheer, good
shepherd," said the being. "May plenty still be within your walls, and
a thankful heart to enjoy it! But my directions are neither to taste
meat nor drink in this country, but to haste back to her that sent me.
Go--haste, and make ready, for you have no time to lose."
"At what time will she be there?" cried Andrew, flinging the plaid
from him to run home with the tidings.
"Precisely when the shadow of the Holy Cross falls due east," cried
the dwarf; and turning round, he hasted on his way.
When old Jean Linton saw her husband coming hobbling and running home
without his plaid, and having his doublet flying wide open, she had no
doubt that he had lost his wits; and, full of anxiety, she met him at
the side of the kail-yard. "Gudeness preserve us a' in our right
senses, Andrew Burnet, what's the matter wi' you, Andrew Burnet?"
"Stand out o' my gate, wife, for, d'ye see, I'm rather in a haste,
Jean Linton."
"I see that indeed, gudeman; but stand still, and tell me what has
putten you _in_ sic a haste. Ir ye dementit?"
"Na, na; gudewife, Jean Linton, I'm no dementit--I'm only gaun away
till Moffat."
"O, gudeness pity the poor auld body! How can ye gang to Moffat, man?
Or what have ye to do at Moffat? Dinna ye mind that the morn is the
day o' our solemnity?"
"Haud out o' my gate, auld wife, and dinna speak o' solemnities to me.
I'll keep it at Moffat the morn. Ay, gudewife, and ye shall keep it at
Moffat, too. What d'ye think o' that, woman? Too-whoo! ye dinna ken
the metal that's in an auld body till it be tried."
"Andrew--Andrew Burnet!"
"Get away wi' your frightened looks, woman; and haste ye, gang and
fling me out my Sabbath-day claes. And, Jean Linton, my woman, d'ye
hear, gang and pit on your bridal gown, and your silk hood, for ye
maun be at Moffat the morn too; and it is mair nor time we were away.
Dinna look sae surprised, woman, till I tell ye, that our ain Mary is
to meet us at Moffat the morn."
"O, Andrew! dinna sport wi' the feelings of an auld forsaken heart!"
"Gude forbid, my auld wife, that I should ever sport wi' feeling o'
yours," cried Andrew, bursting into tears; "they are a' as saacred to
me as breathings frae the Throne o' Grace. But it is true that I tell
ye; our dear bairn is to meet us at Moffat the morn, wi' a son in
every hand; and we maun e'en gang and see her aince again, and kiss
her and bless her afore we dee."
The tears now rushed from the old woman's eyes like fountains, and
dropped from her sorrow-worn cheeks to the earth, and then, as with a
spontaneous movement, she threw her skirt over her head, kneeled down
at her husband's feet, and poured out her soul in thanksgiving to her
Maker. She then rose up, quite deprived of her senses through joy, and
ran crouching away on the road towards Moffat, as if hasting beyond
her power to be at it. But Andrew brought her back; and they prepared
themselves for their journey.
Kirkstyle being twenty miles from Moffat, they set out on the
afternoon of Tuesday, the 16th of September; slept that night at a
place called Turnberry Sheil, and were in Moffat next day by noon.
Wearisome was the remainder of the day to that aged couple; they
wandered about conjecturing by what road their daughter would come,
and how she would come attended. "I have made up my mind on baith
these matters," said Andrew; "at first I thought it was likely that
she would come out of the east, because a' our blessings come frae
that airt; but finding now that would be o'er near to the very road we
hae come oursells, I now take it for granted she'll come frae the
south; and I just think I see her leading a bonny boy in every hand,
and a servant lass carrying a bit bundle ahint her."
The two now walked out on all the southern roads, in hopes to meet
their Mary, but always returned to watch the shadow of the Holy Cross;
and, by the time it fell due east, they could do nothing but stand in
the middle of the street, and look round them in all directions. At
length, about half a mile out on the Dumfries road, they perceived a
poor beggar woman approaching with two children following close to
her, and another beggar a good way behind. Their eyes were instantly
riveted on these objects; for Andrew thought he perceived his friend
the dwarf in the one that was behind; and now all other earthly
objects were to them nothing, save these approaching beggars. At that
moment a gilded chariot entered the village from the south, and drove
by them at full speed, having two livery-men before, and two behind,
clothed in green and gold. "Ach-wow! the vanity of worldly grandeur!"
ejaculated Andrew, as the splendid vehicle went thundering by; but
neither he nor his wife deigned to look at it farther, their whole
attention being fixed on the group of beggars. "Ay, it is just my
woman," said Andrew, "it is just hersell; I ken her gang yet, sair
pressed down wi' poortith although she be. But I dinna care how poor
she be, for baith her and hers sall be welcome to my fireside as lang
as I hae ane."
While their eyes were thus strained, and their hearts melting with
tenderness and pity, Andrew felt something embracing his knees, and,
on looking down, there was his Mary, blooming in splendour and beauty,
kneeling at his feet. Andrew uttered a loud hysterical scream of joy,
and clasped her to his bosom; and old Jean Linton stood trembling,
with her arms spread, but durst not close them on so splendid a
creature, till her daughter first enfolded her in a fond embrace, and
then she hung upon her and wept. It was a wonderful event--a
restoration without a parallel. They indeed beheld their Mary, their
long-lost darling; they held her in their embraces, believed in her
identity, and were satisfied. Satisfied, did I say? They were happy
beyond the lot of mortals. She had just alighted from her chariot;
and, perceiving her aged parents standing together, she ran and
kneeled at their feet. They now retired into the hostel, where Mary
presented her two sons to her father and mother. They spent the
evening in every social endearment; and Mary loaded the good old
couple with rich presents, watched over them till midnight, when they
both fell into a deep and happy sleep, and then she remounted her
chariot, and was driven away. If she was any more seen in Scotland, I
never heard of it; but her parents rejoiced in the thoughts of her
happiness till the day of their death.