[Mr. Train was requested by Sir Walter Scott to give him in writing the
story as nearly as possible in the shape in which he had told it; but
the following narrative, which he drew up accordingly, did not reach
Abbotsford until July 1832]
In the old Stock of Fife, there was not perhaps an individual whose
exertions were followed by consequences of such a remarkable nature as
those of Davie Duff, popularly called “The Thane of Fife,” who, from a
very humble parentage, rose to fill one of the chairs of the magistracy
of his native burgh. By industry and economy in early life, he obtained
the means of erecting, solely on his own account, one of those ingenious
manufactories for which Fifeshire is justly celebrated. From the day on
which the industrious artisan first took his seat at the Council Board,
he attended so much to the interests of the little privileged community,
that civic honours were conferred on him as rapidly as the Set of the
Royalty [Footnote: The Constitution of the Borough.] could legally
admit.
To have the right of walking to church on holy-days, preceded by a
phalanx of halberdiers, in habiliments fashioned as in former times,
seems, in the eyes of many a guild brother, to be a very enviable pitch
of worldly grandeur. Few persons were ever more proud of civic honours
than the Thane of Fife, but he knew well how to turn his political
influence to the best account. The council, court, and other business
of the burgh, occupied much of his time, which caused him to intrust
the management of his manufactory to a near relation, whose name was
D------, a young man of dissolute habits; but the Thane, seeing at last,
that by continuing that extravagant person in that charge, his affairs
would, in all probability, fall into a state of bankruptcy, applied to
the member of Parliament for that district to obtain a situation for his
relation in the civil department of the state. The knight, whom it is
here unnecessary to name, knowing how effectually the Thane ruled the
little burgh, applied in the proper quarter, and actually obtained an
appointment for D------ in the civil service of the East India Company.
A respectable surgeon, whose residence was in a neighbouring village,
had a beautiful daughter named Emma, who had long been courted by
D------. Immediately before his departure to India, as a mark of mutual
affection, they exchanged miniatures, taken by an eminent artist in
Fife, and each set in a locket, for the purpose of having the object of
affection always in view.
The eyes of the old Thane were now turned towards Hindostan with much
anxiety; but his relation had not long arrived in that distant quarter
of the globe before he had the satisfaction of receiving a letter,
conveying the welcome intelligence of his having taken possession of
his new station in a large frontier town of the Company's dominions,
and that great emoluments were attached to the situation; which was
confirmed by several subsequent communications of the most gratifying
description to the old Thane, who took great pleasure in spreading the
news of the reformed habits and singular good fortune of his intended
heir. None of all his former acquaintances heard with such joy the
favourable report of the successful adventurer in the East, as did the
fair and accomplished daughter of the village surgeon; but his previous
character caused her to keep her own correspondence with him secret from
her parents, to whom even the circumstance of her being acquainted with
D------ was wholly unknown, till her father received a letter from
him, in which he assured him of his attachment to Emma long before
his departure from Fife; that having been so happy as to gain her
affections, he would have made her his wife before leaving his native
country, had he then had the means of supporting her in a suitable rank
through life; and that, having it now in his power to do so, he only
waited the consent of her parents to fulfil the vow he had formerly
made.
The Doctor having a large family, with a very limited income to support
them, and understanding that D------ had at last become a person of
sober and industrious habits, he gave his consent, in which Emma's
mother fully concurred.
Aware of the straitened circumstances of the Doctor, D------ remitted a
sum of money to complete at Edinburgh Emma's Oriental education, and
fit her out in her journey to India; she was to embark at Sheerness, on
board one of the Company's ships, for a port in India, at which place,
he said, he would wait her arrival, with a retinue suited to a person of
his rank in society.
Emma set out from her father's house just in time to secure a passage,
as proposed by her intended husband, accompanied by her only
brother, who, on their arrival at Sheerness, met one C------, an old
schoolfellow, captain of the ship by which Emma was to proceed to India.
It was the particular desire of the Doctor that his daughter should be
committed to the care of that gentleman, from the time of her leaving
the shores of Britain, till the intended marriage ceremony was duly
performed on her arrival in India; a charge that was frankly undertaken
by the generous sea-captain.
On the arrival of the fleet at the appointed port, D------, with a large
cavalcade of mounted Pindarees, was, as expected, in attendance, ready
to salute Emma on landing, and to carry her direct into the interior
of the country. C------, who had made several voyages to the shores
of Hindostan, knowing something of Hindoo manners and customs, was
surprised to see a private individual in the Company's service with so
many attendants; and when D------ declined having the marriage ceremony
performed according to the rites of the Church, till he returned to the
place of his abode, C------, more and more confirmed in his suspicion
that all was not right, resolved not to part with Emma till he had
fulfilled, in the most satisfactory manner, the promise he had made
before leaving England, of giving her duly away in marriage. Not
being able by her entreaties to alter the resolution of D------, Emma
solicited her protector C------ to accompany her to the place of her
intended destination, to which he most readily agreed, taking with him
as many of his crew as he deemed sufficient to ensure the safe custody
of his innocent protege, should any attempt be made to carry her away by
force.
Both parties journeyed onwards till they arrived at a frontier town,
where a native Rajah was waiting the arrival of the fair maid of Fife,
with whom he had fallen deeply in love, from seeing her miniature
likeness in the possession of D------, to whom he had paid a large sum
of money for the original, and had only intrusted him to convey her in
state to the seat of his government.
No sooner was this villanous action of D------ known to C------, than
he communicated the whole particulars to the commanding officer of a
regiment of Scotch Highlanders that happened to be quartered in that
part of India, begging at the same time, for the honour of Caledonia,
and protection of injured innocence, that he would use the means in his
power, of resisting any attempt that might be made by the native chief
to wrest from their hands the virtuous female who had been so shamefully
decoyed from her native country by the worst of mankind. Honour occupies
too large a space in the heart of the Gael to resist such a call of
humanity.
The Rajah, finding his claim was not to be acceded to, and resolving to
enforce the same, assembled his troops, and attacked with great fury
the place where the affrighted Emma was for a time secured by her
countrymen, who fought in her defence with all their native valour,
which at length so overpowered their assailants, that they were forced
to retire in every direction, leaving behind many of their slain, among
whom was found the mangled corpse of the perfidious D------.
C------ was immediately afterwards married to Emma, and my informant
assured me he saw them many years afterwards, living happily together in
the county of Kent, on the fortune bequeathed by the “Thane of Fife.”