"The whole scene floats as a sort of dream before me,--the
beautiful day, the gray ruins covered and hidden among clouds of
foliage, where the grave even in the lap of beauty lay lurking and
gaping for its prey. Then the grave looks, the hasty, important
bustle of the men with spades and mattocks, the train of carriages,
the coffin containing the creature that was so long the dearest on
earth to me, and whom I was to consign to the very spot which in
pleasure parties we so frequently visited. It seems still as if it
could not be really so. But it is so, and duty to God and to my
children must teach me patience."
His pecuniary troubles were greeted with the liveliest sympathy from all
quarters. The Earl of Dudley but voiced the general thought when he
exclaimed, on first hearing of them: "Scott ruined! the author of
'Waverley' ruined! Good God! Let every man to whom he has given months
of delight give him a sixpence, and he will rise to-morrow morning
richer than Rothschild." When, after a time, he rallied and went on a
journey to London, the deep sympathy with which he was received, and the
kindness of all with whom he associated, cheered his heart a great deal,
and he went back to his unparalleled labors quite refreshed. But he had
set himself a task which it was impossible that any man could do, and
although he worked himself mercilessly to the end, he failed of
accomplishing it. His nervous system became completely shattered, and he
had several strokes of paralysis; but it was not until his mind also
began to fail in serious fashion that he would give over his work. He
seemed determined to die a free man, but the task was too prodigious. He
labored like a giant, but he failed.
The record of those closing days is very sad. The pity they excite is
too deep even for tears. One turns from them with a heavy burden at the
heart, which nothing can for a time relieve. The only comfort is that he
was surrounded by the kindest and tenderest friends, and that he bore
everything which came to him with unflinching fortitude and the
kindliest spirit. His last words spoken to Lockhart are characteristic
of the man: "Be a good man, my dear; be virtuous, be religious, be a
good man. Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to lie
here." There is nothing in the record of Sir Walter's life which any
friend would wish to blot. One can but be pained to excess by the record
of his business troubles, so hopeless in their entanglements, but
through all these even, his character glows with undiminished
brightness, and we love him ever more and more. He was a man built on a
large scale, both in intellect and heart, and, although he doubtless had
his failings, there is little that is recorded of him that detracts in
any way from his innate nobility. Such a funeral as his has seldom been
witnessed.
"The court-yard and all the precincts of Abbotsford were crowded
with uncovered spectators as the procession was arranged; and as it
advanced through Darnick and Melrose, and the adjacent villages,
the whole population appeared at their doors in like
manner,--almost all in black. The train of carriages extended more
than a mile; the yeomanry followed in great numbers on horseback,
and it was late in the day ere we reached Dryburg. Some accident,
it was observed, had caused the hearse to halt for several minutes
on the summit of the hill at Bemerside,--exactly where a prospect
of remarkable richness opens, and where Sir Walter had always been
accustomed to rein up his horse. The day was dark and lowering, and
the wind high. The wide enclosure at the Abbey of Dryburg was
thronged with old and young; and when the coffin was taken from the
hearse and again laid on the shoulders of the afflicted
serving-men, one deep sob burst from a thousand lips."
The heart of Scotland was broken at her great loss. And well might she
mourn. The sceptre which the great Wizard of the North had so long held
was broken, and no successor has yet risen to uphold the fame of Auld
Scotia. Nor will a successor arise. No hand like his will ever touch the
harp of his native land; no strains such as he evoked ever again sound
through the rocky glens and passes, and echo from the mountain-heights
of Scotland.
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