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WILSON'S TALES OF THE BORDERS
AND OF SCOTLAND.
HISTORICAL, TRADITIONARY, & IMAGINATIVE.
WITH A GLOSSARY.
REVISED BY
ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
ONE OF THE ORIGINAL EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS.
VOL. XVI.
LONDON:
WALTER SCOTT, 14 PATERNOSTER SQUARE
AND NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE.
1885.
CONTENTS.
THE LEVELLER, _(JOHN MACKAY WILSON)_
THE OLD CHRONICLER'S TALES, _(ALEXANDER LEIGHTON)_
THE DEATH OF JAMES III.
GLEANINGS OF THE COVENANT. _(PROFESSOR THOMAS GILLESPIE_)
V.--THE RESCUE AT ENTERKIN
VI.--THE FATAL MISTAKE
VII.--BONNY MARY GIBSON
VIII.--THE ESKDALEMUIR STORY
IX.--THE DOUGLAS TRAGEDY
THE COUNTESS OF CASSILIS, _(ALEXANDER CAMPBELL)_
THE HAPPY CONCLUSION, _(ANON.)_
MR SAMUEL RAMSAY THRIVEN: A TALE OF LOVE AND BANKRUPTCY, _(ALEXANDER
LEIGHTON)_
THE MAN-OF-WAR'S MAN, _(JOHN HOWELL)_
THE ANGLER'S TALE, _(OLIVER RICHARDSON)_
PERSEVERANCE; OR, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF RODERIC GRAY, _(JOHN MACKAY
WILSON)_
THE IRISH REAPER, _(JOHN MACKAY WILSON)_
GRACE CAMERON, _(ALEXANDER CAMPBELL)_
THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE, _(ANON.)_
WILSON'S TALES OF THE BORDERS, AND OF SCOTLAND.
THE LEVELLER.
How far the term, "A Leveller," is provincial, or confined to the
Borders, I am not certain; for before I had left them, to become as a
pilgrim on the earth, the phrase had fallen into disuse, and the events,
or rather the cause which brought it into existence, had passed away.
But, twenty-five or even twenty years ago, in these parts, there was no
epithet more familiar to the lips of every schoolboy than that of a
_Leveller_. The juvenile lovers of mirth and mischief displayed their
loyalty, by _smeeking_ the houses or burning the effigies of the
Levellers; and he was a good subject and a perfect gentleman, who, out
of his liberality and patriotism, contributed a shilling to purchase
powder to make the head of the effigy go off in a rocket, and its
fingers start away in squibs. Levellers were persecuted by the young,
and suspected by the old. Every town and village in the kingdom had its
coterie of Levellers. They did not congregate together; for, as being
suspected individuals, their so doing would have been attended with
danger; but there was a sympathy and a sort of brotherhood amongst those
in the same place, and they met in twos and threes, at the corners of
the streets, in the fields, or the workshop, and not unfrequently at the
operating rooms of the barber, as though there had been a secret
understanding in the growth of their beards. Some of them were
generally seen waiting the arrival of the mail, and running across the
street, or the highway, as the case might be, eagerly inquiring of the
guard--"What news?" But if, on the approach of the vehicle, they
perceived it decorated with branches, or a flag displayed from it, away
turned the Levellers from the unwelcome symbols of national rejoicing,
and condoled one with another in their own places of retirement. They
were seldom or never found amongst rosy-faced country gentlemen, who
walked in the midst of their fellow-mortals as if measuring their acres.
Occasionally they might be found amongst tradesmen; but they were most
frequently met with at the loom, or amongst those who had learned the
art and mystery of a cordwainer. The Leveller, however, was generally a
peaceful and a moral man, and always a man of much reading and extensive
information. Many looked upon the Leveller as the enemy of his country,
and as wishing the destruction of its institutions: I always regarded
them with a more favourable eye. Most of them I have met with were
sincerely attached to liberty, though they frequently took strange
methods of showing it. They were opposed to the war with France, and
they were enthusiastic admirers, almost worshippers, of Napoleon and his
glories. They could describe the scene of all his victories--they could
repeat his speeches and his bulletins by heart. But the old Jacobins of
the last century, the Levellers of the beginning of this, are a race
rapidly becoming extinct.
I shall give the history of one of them, who was called James Nicholson,
and who resided in the village of T----. James was by trade a weaver--a
walking history of the wars, and altogether one of the most remarkable
men I ever met with. He had an impressive and ready utterance; few could
stand before him in an argument, and of him it might have been truly
said--
"In reasoning, too, the parson own'd his skill,
And, though defeated, he could argue still."
He possessed also a bold imagination and a masculine understanding, and
both had been improved by extensive reading. With such qualifications,
it is not a matter of wonder that he was looked up to as the oracle, the
head, or king, of the Levellers in T---- (if, indeed, they admitted the
idea of a king). For miles around, he was familiarly known by the
designation of Jemmy the Leveller; for though there were others of the
name of James who held similar sentiments in the village and
neighbourhood, he was Jemmy _par excellence_. But, in order that the
reader may have a correct representation of James before him, I shall
describe it as I saw him, about five-and-twenty years ago. He then
appeared a man approaching to sixty years of age. His shoulders were
rather bent, his height about five feet eleven, and he walked with his
eyes fixed upon the ground. His arms were generally crossed upon his
breast, and he stalked with a long and slow step, like a shepherd
toiling up a hill. His forehead was one that Spurzheim would have
travelled a hundred miles to finger--it was both broad and lofty; his
eyebrows were thick, of a deep brown colour, and met together; his eyes
were large, and of a dark greyish hue; his nose appertained to the
Roman; his mouth was rather large, and his hair was mixed with grey. His
figure was spare and thin. He wore a very low-crowned and a very
broad-brimmed hat, a short brown coat, a dark striped waistcoat, with a
double breast, corduroy breeches, which buckled at the knees, coarse
blue stockings, and strong shoes, or rather brogues, neither of which
articles had been new for at least three years; and around his body he
wore a coarse half-bleached apron, which was stained with blue, and hung
loose before him. Such was James Nicholson as he first appeared to me.
For more than forty years he had remained in a state of single
blessedness; but whether this arose from his heart having continued
insensible to the influence of woman's charms--from his never having met
with one whom he thought he could safely take "for better, for
worse"--or whether it arose from the maidens being afraid to risk their
future happiness, by uniting themselves with such a strange and
dangerous character as Jemmy the Jacobin, I cannot tell. It is certain,
however, that he became convinced that a bachelor's life was at best a
_dowie_ one; and there was another consideration that had considerable
weight with him. He had nobody to "_fill his pirns_," or "_give in his
webs_;" but he had to hire and pay people to do these things, and this
made a great drawback on his earnings, particularly when the price of
weaving became low. James therefore resolved to do as his father had
done before him, and to take unto himself a wife. He cast his eyes
abroad, and they rested on a decent spinster, who was beginning to be
what is called a "_stayed lass_"--that is, very near approaching to the
years when the phrase, a "_stayed lass_," is about to be exchanged for
that of an old maid. In a word, the object of his choice was but a very
few years younger than himself. Her name was Peggy Purves, and it is
possible she was inclined to adopt the language of the song, and say--
"O mother, onybody!"
for when James made his proposal, she smirked and blushed--said she
"didna ken what to say till't"--took the corners of her apron in her
fingers--hung her head--smiled well pleased, and added, she "would see!"
but within three months became the wife of Jemmy the Leveller.
James became the father of two children, a son and daughter; and we may
here notice a circumstance attending the baptism of the son. About three
weeks after the birth of the child, his mother began to inquire--
"What shall we ca' him, James? Do ye think we should ca' him Alexander,
after your faither and mine?"
"Haud yer tongue, woman," replied James, somewhat testily. "Goodness me!
where's the use in everlastingly yatter-yattering about what I will ca'
him? The bairn shall hae a name--a name that will be like a deed o'
virtue and greatness engraven on his memory as often as he hears it."
"Oh, James, James!" returned Peggy, "ye're the strangest and perversest
man that ever I met wi' in my born days. I'm sure ye'll ne'er think o'
giein ony o' yer heathenish Jacobin names to my bairn!"
"Just content yersel, Peggy," replied he--"just rest contented, if ye
please. I'll gie the bairn a name that neither you nor him will ever hae
cause to be ashamed o'."
Now, James was a rigid Dissenter, and caused the child to be taken to
the meeting-house; and he stood up with it in his arms, in the midst of
the congregation, that his infant might publicly receive baptism.
The minister inquired, in a low voice, "What is the child's name?"
His neighbours were anxious to hear the answer; and, in his deep,
sonorous tones, he replied aloud--
"GEORGE WASHINGTON!"
There was a sort of buzz and a movement throughout the congregation, and
the minister himself looked surprised.
When her daughter was born, the choice of the name was left to Peggy,
and she called her Catherine, in remembrance of her mother.
Shortly after the birth of his children, the French Revolution began to
lour in the political horizon, and James Nicholson, the weaver, with a
fevered anxiety, watched its progress.
"It is a bursting forth o' the first seed o' the tree o' liberty, which
the Americans planted, and George Washington reared," cried James, with
enthusiasm; "the seeds o' that tree will spread owre the earth, as if
scattered by the winds o' heaven--they will cover it as the waters do
the sea--they will take root--they will spring up in every land: beneath
the burning sun o' the West Indies, on the frozen deserts o' Siberia,
the slave and the exile will rejoice beneath the shadow o' its branches,
and their hearts be gladdened by its fruits."
"Ay, man, James, that's noble!" exclaimed some brother Leveller, who
retailed the sayings of the weaver at second hand. "Losh! if ye haena a
headpiece that wad astonish a privy council!"
But, when the storm burst, and the sea of blood gushed forth like a
deluge, when the innocent and the guilty were butchered together, James
was staggered, his eyes became heavy, and his countenance fell. At
length he consoled his companions, saying--
"Weel, it's a pity--it's a great pity--it is bringing disgrace and guilt
upon a glorious cause. But knives shouldna be put into the hands o'
bairns till they ken how to use them. If the sun were to rise in a flash
o' unclouded glory and dazzling brightness in a moment, succeeding the
heavy darkness o' midnight, it wad be nae wonder if, for a time, we
groped more blindly than we did in the dark. Or, if a blind man had his
sight restored in a moment, and were set into the street, he would
strike upon every object he met more readily than he did when he was
blind; for he had neither acquired the use o' his eyes nor the idea o'
distance. So is it wi' our neighbours in France: an instrument has been
put into their hands before they ken how to use it--the sun o' liberty
has burst upon them in an instant, without an intermediate dawn. They
groaned under the tyranny o' blindness; but they hae acquired the power
o' sight without being instructed in its use. But hae patience a
little--the storm will gie place to the sunshine, the troubled waters
will subside into a calm, and liberty will fling her garment o'
knowledge and mercy owre her now uninstructed worshippers."
"Weel! that's grand, James!--that's really famous!" said one of the
coterie of Levellers to whom it was delivered; "odd! ye beat
a'thing--ye're a match for _Wheatbread_ himsel."
"James," said another, "without meaning to flatter ye, if Billy Pitt had
ye to gie him a dressing, I believe he wad offer ye a place the very
next day, just to keep yer tongue quiet."
James was one of those who denounced, with all the vehemence and
indignation of which he was capable, Britain's engaging in a war with
France. He raised up his voice against it. He pronounced it to be an
unjust and an impious attempt to support oppression, and to stifle
freedom in its cradle.
"But in that freedom they will find a Hercules," cried he, "which, in
its very cradle, will grip tyranny by the throat, and a' the kings in
Europe winna be able to slacken its grasp."
When the star of Napoleon began to rise, and broke forth with a lustre
which dazzled the eyes of a wondering world, the Levellers of Britain,
like the Republicans of France, lost sight of their love of liberty, in
their admiration of the military glories and rapid triumphs of the hero.
James Nicholson was one of those who became blinded with the fame, the
splendid success, and the daring genius of the young Corsican. Napoleon
became his idol. His deeds, his capacity, his fame, were his daily
theme. They became the favourite subject of every Leveller. They did not
see in him one who laughed at liberty, and who made it his plaything,
who regarded life as stubble, whose ambition circled the globe, and who
was the enemy of Britain: they saw in him only a hero, who had burst
from obscurity as a meteor from the darkness of night--whose glory had
obscured the pomp of princes, and his word consumed their power.
The threatened invasion, and the _false alarm_, put the Leveller's
admiration of Napoleon, and his love of his native land, to a severe
trial; but we rejoice to say, for the sake of James Nicholson, that the
latter triumphed, and he accompanied a party of volunteers ten miles
along the coast, and remained an entire night, and the greater part of a
day, under arms, and even he was then ready to say--
"Let foe come on foe, like wave upon wave,
We'll gie them a welcome, we'll gie them a grave."
But, as the apprehension of the invasion passed away, his admiration of
Napoleon's triumphs, and his reverence for what he termed his stupendous
genius, burned with redoubled force.
"Princes are as grasshoppers before him," said James; "nations are as
spiders' webs. The Alps became as a highway before his spirit--he looked
upon Italy, and the land was conquered."
I might describe to you the exultation and the rejoicings of James and
his brethren, when they heard of the victories of Marengo, Ulm, and
Austerlitz; and how, in their little parties of two and three, they
walked a mile farther together in the fields or by the sides of the
Tweed, or peradventure indulged in an extra pint with one another,
though most of them were temperate men: or, I might describe to you how,
upon such occasions, they would ask eagerly, "But what is _James_ saying
to it?" I, however, shall dwell only upon his conduct when he heard of
the battle of Jena. He was standing with a brother Leveller at a corner
of the village when the mail arrived which conveyed the important
tidings. I think I see him now, as he appeared at that moment. Both were
in expectation of momentous information--they ran to the side of the
coach together. "What news?--what news?" they inquired of the guard at
once. He stooped down, as they ran by the side of the coach, and
informed them. The eyes of James glowed with delight--his nostrils were
dilated.
"Oh, the great, the glorious man!" he exclaimed, rubbing his hands in
ecstasy, and turning away from the coach; "the matchless!--the
wonderful!--the great Napoleon! There is none like him--there never
was--he is a sun among the stars--they cannot twinkle in his presence."
He and his friends received a weekly paper amongst them; it was the day
on which it arrived. They followed the coach to the post-office to
receive it; and I need not tell you with what eagerness the contents of
that paper were read. James was the reader; and after he had read an
account of the battle, he gave his readers a dissertation upon it.
He laid his head upon his pillow, with his thoughts filled with Napoleon
and the battle of Jena; and when, on the following morning, he met two
or three of his companions at the corner of the village, where they were
wont to assemble for ten minutes after breakfast, to discuss the affairs
of Europe, James, with a look of even more than his usual importance and
sagacity, thus began:--
"I hae dreamed a marvellous dream. I saw the battle of Jena--I beheld
the Prussians fly with dismay before the voice of the conqueror. Then
did I see the great man, arrayed in his robes of victory, bearing the
sword of power in his hand, ascend a throne of gold and of ivory. Over
the throne was a gorgeous canopy of purple, and diamonds bespangled the
tapestry as a firmament. The crowns of Europe lay before him, and kings,
and princes, and nobles, kneeled at his feet. At his nod he made kings
and exalted nations. Armies fled and advanced at the moving of his
finger--they were machines in his hand. The spirits of Alexander and of
Caesar--all the heroes of antiquity--gazed in wonder upon his throne;
each was surrounded by the halo of his victories and the fame of ages;
but their haloes became dim before the flash of his sword of power, and
the embodiment of their spirits became as a pale mist before the majesty
of his eyes and the magnificence of his triumphs. The nations of the
earth were also gathered around the throne, and, as with one voice, in
the same language, and at the same moment, they waved their hands, and
cried, as peals of thunder mingle wi' each other, "Long live the great
emperor!" But, while my soul started within me at the mighty shout, and
my eyes gazed with wonder and astonishment on the glory and the power of
the great man, darkness fell upon the throne, troubled waters dashed
around it, and the vision of night and vastness, the emperor, the
kneeling kings, the armies, and the people, were encompassed in the dark
waves--swallowed as though they had not been; and, with the cold
perspiration standing on my forehead, I awoke, and found that I had
dreamed."[1]
[Footnote 1: Many in this neighbourhood, who read the Leveller's dream,
will remember the original. Twenty years ago, I heard it related by the
dreamer, with all the enthusiasm of a staunch admirer of Napoleon, and I
have preserved his words and imagery as closely as I could recollect
them.]
"It is a singular dream," said one.
"Sleeping or waking, James is the same man," said another, "aye out o'
the common run. You and me wad hae sleepit a twelvemonth before we had
dreamed the like o' that."
But one circumstance arose which troubled James much, and which all his
admiration, yea, all his worship of Napoleon could not wholly overcome.
James, as we have hinted, was a rigid Presbyterian, and the idea of a
man putting away his wife he could not forgive. When, therefore,
Napoleon divorced the gentle Josephine, and took the daughter of Austria
to his bed--
"He hath done wrong," said James; "he has erred grievously. He has been
an instrument in humbling the pope, the instrument foretold in the
Revelation; and he has been the glorious means o' levelling and
destroying the Inquisition--but this sin o' putting away his wife, and
pretending to marry another, casts a blot upon a' his glories; and I
fear that humiliation, as a punishment, will follow the foul sin. Yet,
after a', as a man, he was subject to temptation; and, as being no
common man, we maunna judge his conduct by common rules."
"Really, James," said the individual he addressed, "wi' a' my admiration
o' the great man,[2] and my respect for you, I'm no just clear upon your
last remark--when the Scriptures forbade a man to put away his wife,
there was nae exception made for king or emperors."
[Footnote 2: I have often remarked that the admirers of Napoleon were
wont to speak of him as _the great man_.]
"True," said James--"but----"
James never finished his "but." His conscience told him that his idol
had sinned; and when the disastrous campaign to Russia shortly after
followed, he imagined that he beheld in its terrible calamities the
punishment he had predicted. The sun of Napoleon had reached its
meridian, the fires of Moscow raised a cloud before it, behind which it
hastened to its setting. In the events of that memorable invasion and
retreat, James Nicholson took an eager and mournful interest. Thoughts
of it haunted him in his sleep; and he would dream of Russian deserts
which presented to the eye an unbounded waste of snow; or start,
exclaiming, "The Cossacks!--the Cossacks!" His temper, too, became
irritable, and his family found it hard to bear with it.
This, however, was not the only cause which increased the irritability,
and provoked the indignation, of James the Leveller; for, as the glory
of Napoleon began to wane, and the arms of the British achieved new
victories in the Peninsula, he and his brethren in principle became the
objects of almost nightly persecution. Never did the mail arrive,
bearing tidings of the success of the British or their allies, but as
surely was a figure, intended to represent one or other of the
Levellers, paraded through the village, and burned before the door of
the offender, amidst the shouts, the groans, and laughter, of some two
or three hundred boys and young men. The reader may be surprised to hear
that one of the principal leaders of these young and mischief-loving
loyalists was no other than GEORGE WASHINGTON, the only son of our
friend, James Nicholson. To turn him from conduct, and the manifestation
of a principle, so unworthy of his name, James spared neither
admonition, reproof, nor the rod of correction. But George was now too
old for his father to apply the latter, and his advice and reproof in
this matter was like throwing water in the sea. The namesake of the
great President never took a part in such exhibitions of his father, and
in holding his principles up to execration and contempt; on the
contrary, he did all in his power to prevent them, and repeatedly did he
prevent them--but he entered, with his whole heart, into every proposal
to make a mock spectacle of others. The young tormentors knew little or
nothing of the principles of the men they delighted to persecute--it was
enough for them to know that they were _Levellers_, that _they wished
the French to win_; and although James Nicholson was known to be, as I
have already said, the very king and oracle of the levelling party in
the neighbourhood, yet, for his son's sake, he frequently escaped the
persecution intended for him, and it was visited upon the heads of more
insignificant characters.
One evening, James beheld his son heading the noisy band in a crusade
against the peace of a particular friend; moreover, George bore a long
pole over his shoulder, to the top of which an intended resemblance of
his father's friend was attached. James further saw his hopeful son and
the crowd reach his friend's house, he beheld him scale the walls
(which were but a single storey in height), he saw him stand upon the
roof--the pole, with the effigy attached to it, was again handed to him,
and, amidst the shouts of his companions, he put the pole down the
chimney, leaving the figure as a smoke-doctor on its top.
James could endure no more. "Oh, the villain!--the scoundrel!" he
cried--"the--the----" But he could add no more, from excess of
indignation. He rushed along the street--he dashed through the crowd--he
grasped his son by the throat, at the moment of his springing from the
roof. He shook with rage. He struck him violently. He raised his feet
and kicked him.
"What is a' this for?" said George, sullenly, while he suffered even
more from shame than his father's violence.
"What is it for!" cried James, half choked with passion; "ye rascal!--ye
disgrace!--ye profligate!--how can ye ask what is it for?" and he struck
him again.
"Faither," said George, more sullenly than before, "I wad advise ye to
keep yer hands to yersel--at least on the street and before folk."
"Awa wi' ye! ye reprobate!" exclaimed the old man, "and never enter my
door again--never while ye breathe--ye thankless----"
"Be it sae," said George.
James returned to his house, in sorrow and in anger. He was out of
humour with everything. He found fault with his daughter--he spoke
angrily to his wife. Chairs, stools, tables, and crockery, he kicked to
the right and left. He flung his supper behind the fire, when it was set
before him. He was grieved at his son's conduct; but he was also angry
with himself for his violence towards him.
A serjeant of a Highland regiment had been for some time in the village
on the recruiting service. He was to leave with his recruits, and
proceed to Leith, where they were immediately to embark on the
following morning. Amongst the recruits were many of the acquaintances
of George and his companions. After the affair of the effigy, they went
to have a parting glass with them. George was then about nineteen. He
had not yet forgiven his father for the indignity he had openly offered
to him--he remembered he had forbidden him his house. One of his
companions jestingly alluded to the indignation of the old man--he
"wondered how George stood it." The remark made his feelings more
bitter. He felt shame upon his face. Another of his companions enlisted;
in the excitement of the moment, George followed his example, and,
before sunrise on the following morning, was on his road to Leith with
the other recruits.
Old James arose and went to his loom, unhappy and troubled in his
spirit. He longed for a reconciliation with his son--to tell him he was
sorry for the length to which his temper had led him, and also calmly to
reason with him on the folly, the unreasonableness, and the wickedness,
of his own conduct, in running with a crowd at his heels about the
street, persecuting honest men, and endangering both the peace of the
town and the safety of property. But he had been an hour at the loom,
and George took not his place at his (for he had brought him up to his
own trade); another hour passed, and breakfast time arrived, but the
shuttle which had been driven by the hand of his son sent forth no
sound.
"Where is George?" inquired he, as he entered the house; "wherefore has
he no been ben at his wark?"
"Ye ken best," returned Peggy, who thought it her time to be out of
humour, "for it lies between ye; but ye'll carry on yer rampaging fits
o' passion till ye drive baith the bairns and me frae 'bout the house.
Ye may seek for George whar ye saw him last: but there is his bed,
untouched, as I made it yesterday morning, and ye see what ye've made o'
yer handiwark."
"Oh, haud yer tongue, ye wicked woman, ye," said James, "for it wad clip
clouts. Had Job been afflicted wi' yer tongue, he wad needed nae other
trial!"
"My tongue!" retorted she; "ay, gude truly! but if ony woman but mysel
had to put up wi' yer temper, they wad ken what it is to be tried."
"Puir woman! ye dinna ken ye're born," replied James; and, turning to
his daughter, added, "Rin awa out, Katie, and see if yer brother is wi'
ony o' his acquaintances--he'll hae been sleeping wi' some o' them. Tell
him to come hame to his breakfast."
She left the house, and returned in about ten minutes, weeping, sobbing,
wringing her hands, and exclaiming--
"George is listed and awa!--he's listed and awa! Oh, my poor George!"
"Listed!" exclaimed James, and he fell back against the wall, as though
a bullet had entered his bosom.
"Listed! my bairn, my darling bairn, listed!" cried Peggy. "O James!
James!--ye cruel man! see what ye've done!--ye hae driven my bairn to
destruction!"
"Woman! woman!" added he, "dinna torment me beyond what I am able to
endure. Do you no think I am suffering aneugh, and mair than aneugh,
without you aggravating my misery? Oh, the rash, the thoughtless
callant! Could he no forgie his faither for ae fault?--a faither that
could lay down his life for him. Haste ye, Katie, get me my stick and my
Sunday coat, and I'll follow him; he canna be far yet--I'll bring him
back. Wheesht now, Peggy," he added, "let us hae nae mair
reflections--just compose yersel. George shall be hame the night--and
we'll let byganes be byganes."
"Oh, then, James, rin every foot," said Peggy, whose ill-humour had
yielded to her maternal anxiety; "bring him back whether he will or no;
tell him how ill Katie is; and that, if he persists in being a sodger,
he will be the death o' his mother."
With a heavy and an anxious heart, James set out in pursuit of his son;
but the serjeant and his recruits had taken the road six hours before
him. On arriving at Dunbar, where he expected they would halt for the
night, he was informed that the serjeant, being ordered to push forward
to Leith with all possible expedition, as the vessel in which they were
to embark was to sail with the morning tide, had, with his recruits,
taken one of the coaches, and would then be within a few miles of
Edinburgh. This was another blow to James. But, after resting for a
space, not exceeding five minutes, he hastened forward to Leith.
It was midnight when he arrived, and he could learn nothing of his son
or the vessel in which he was to embark; but, weary as he was, he
wandered along the shore and the pier till morning. Day began to break;
the shores of the Frith became dimly visible; the Bass, like a fixed
cloud, appeared on the distant horizon; it was more than half-tide; and,
as he stood upon the pier, he heard the _yo-heave-ho!_ of seamen
proceeding from a smack which lay on the south side of the harbour, by
the lowest bridge. He hastened towards the vessel; but before he
approached it, and while the cry of the seamen yet continued, a party of
soldiers and recruits issued from a tavern on the shore. They tossed
their caps in the air, they huzzaed, and proceeded towards the smack.
With a throbbing heart, James hurried forward, and in the midst of them,
through the grey light, he beheld his son.
"O George!" cried the anxious parent, "what a journey ye hae gien yer
faither!"
George started at his father's voice, and for a moment he was silent and
sullen, as though he had not yet forgiven him.
"Come, George," said the old man, affectionately, "let us forget and
forgie. Come awa hame again, my man, and I'll pay the _smart_ money.
Dinna persist in bringing yer mother to her grave, in breaking yer
sister's heart, puir thing, and in making me miserable."
"O faither! faither!" groaned George, grasping his father's hand, "it's
owre late--it's owre late now! What's done canna be undone!"
"Why for no, bairn?" cried James; "and how is it owre late? The ship's
no sailed, and I've the smart-money in my pocket."
"But I've ta'en the bounty, faither--I'm sworn in!" replied the son.
"Sworn in!" exclaimed the unhappy father. "Oh mercy me! what's this o't!
My happiness is destroyed for ever. O George! George, man! what is this
that ye've done? How shall I meet your puir wretched mother without ye?"
George laid his head upon his father's shoulder, and wrung his hand. He
was beginning to experience what hours, what years of misery may proceed
from the want of a minute's calm reflection. The thought of buying him
off could not be entertained. The vessel was to sail within an hour--men
were needed; but, even had no other obstacles attended the taking of
such a step, there was one that was insurmountable--James Nicholson had
never in his life been possessed of half the sum necessary to accomplish
it, nor could he have raised it by the sale of his entire goods and
chattels; and his nature forbade him to solicit a loan from others, even
to redeem a son.
They were beginning to haul off the vessel; and poor George, he now felt
all the bitterness of remorse, added to the anguish of parting from a
parent, thrust his hand into his pocket, and, as he bade him farewell,
attempted to put his bounty-money in his father's hand. The old man
sprung back, as if a poisonous snake had touched him. The principles of
the Leveller rose superior to the feelings of the father.
"George!" he cried, "George! can my ain son insult me, and in a moment
like this? Me tak yer blood-money!--me!--me! Ye dinna ken yer faither!
Before I wad touch money gotten in such a cause, I wad starve by a
dyke-side. Fling it into the sea, George!--fling it into the
sea!--that's the only favour ye can confer upon yer faither." But,
again, the parent gained the ascendency in his heart, and he
added--"But, poor chield, ye meant it kindly. Fareweel, then, my
man!--Oh, fareweel, George! Heaven be wi' my misguided bairn! Oh! what
shall I say to yer puir mother? Fareweel, lad!--fareweel!"
The vessel was pulled off--and thus parted the father and his son. I
shall not describe the feelings of James on his solitary journey
homewards, nor dwell upon the grief of his wife and daughter, when they
beheld that he returned alone, and that George "was not."
It was about two years after his son had enlisted, that the news of the
peace and the abdication of Napoleon arrived. James was not one of those
who partook of the general joy; but while he mourned over the fall of
the man whom he had all but worshipped, he denounced the conduct of the
allied sovereigns in strong and bitter terms of indignation. The bellman
went round the village, calling upon the inhabitants to demonstrate
their rejoicing by an illumination. The Levellers consulted James upon
the subject, and his advice was, that they ought not, let the
consequences be what they would, comply with the request or command of
the authorities, and which had been proclaimed by the town-crier; on the
contrary, he recommended, that at the hour when the illumination was to
commence, every man of them should extinguish the fires in his house,
and leave not a lamp or a rushlight burning. His advice was always akin
to a command, and it was implicitly followed. The houses were lighted
up--the illumination was general, save only the windows of the
Levellers, which appeared as in mourning; and soon attracted the
attention of the crowd, the most unruly amongst whom raised the cry of
"Smash them!--send them in!" and the cry was no sooner made than it was
obeyed; stones flew thick as hail, panes were shivered, sashes broken,
and they ran from one house to another carrying on their work of
destruction. In its turn, they came to the dwelling of James--they
raised a yell before it--a stone was thrown, and the crash of broken
glass was heard. James opened the door, and stood before them. They
yelled louder.
"Break away!" said he, contemptuously; "ye puir infatuated sauls that ye
are--break away, and dinna leave a hale pane, if it's yer sovereign will
and pleasure! Ye silly, thoughtless, senseless idiots, how mony hunder
millions has it cost this country to cram the precious Bourbons on the
people o' France again?--and wha's to pay it, think ye?"
"No you, Jemmy," cried a voice from the crowd.
"But I maun toil frae mornin till night to help to do it, ye blockhead
ye," answered James; "and ye hae to do the same, and yer back has to
gang bare, and yer bairns to be hungered for it! Certes, friends, ye hae
great cause for an illumination! But, as if the hunders o' millions
which yer assistance o' the Bourbons has added to the national debt were
but a trifle, ye, forsooth, must increase yer county burdens by breaking
decent people's windows, for their sake, out o' pure mischief. Break
awa, freends, if it's yer pleasure, the damage winna come out o' my
pocket; and if yer siller is sae plentifu that ye can afford to throw it
awa in chucky-stanes!--fling! fling!" and withdrawing into the house, he
shut the door.
"Odd! I dinna ken," said one of the crowd, "but there's a deal o' truth
in what he says."
"It was too bad to touch his windows," said another; "his son George has
been in the wars, and the life o' a son is o' mair value than a pund o'
candles."
"Ye're richt," cried a third.
"Hurrah for Jemmy the Leveller!" cried another. The crowd gave a loud
cheer, and left the house in good humour; nor was there another window
in the village broken throughout the night.
Next day, James received the following letter from his son. It was dated
"_Toulouse, April 14, 1814._
"HONOURED FATHER AND MOTHER,--I hope this will find you and my
dear sister well, as it leaves me, thank Providence for it. I
think this war will soon be over now; for, whatever you may
think of the French and their fighting, father, we have driven
them from pillar to post, and from post to pillar, as the
saying is. Not but that they are brave fellows, and clever
fellows, too; but we can beat them, and that is everything.
Soult is one of their best generals, if not their very best;
and though he was in his own country, and had his positions all
of his own choosing, I assure you, upon the word of a soldier,
that we have beaten him out and out twice within this
fortnight; but if you still get the newspaper, you will have
seen something about it. You must not expect me to give you any
very particular account about what has taken place; for a
single soldier just sees and knows as much about a battle as
the spoke of a mill-wheel knows about the corn which it causes
to be ground. I may, here, also, while I remember, tell you
what my notions of bravery are. Some people talk about
courageous men, and braving death, and this and that; but, so
far as I have seen and felt, it is all talk--nothing but talk.
There are very few such cowards as to run away, or not to do
their duty (indeed, to run away from the ranks during an action
would be no easy matter), but I believe I am no coward--I
daresay you think the same thing; and the best man in all T----
durst not call me one; but I will tell you how I felt when I
first entered a battle. We were under arms--I saw a part of the
enemy's lines before us--we were ordered to advance--I knew
that in ten minutes the work of death would begin, and I
felt--not faintish, but some way confoundedly like it. The
first firing commenced by the advanced wing; at the report, my
knees shook (not visibly), and my heart leaped within me. A
cold sweat (a slight one) broke over me. I remember the
sensation. A second discharge took place--the work was at
hand--something seemed to _crack_ within my ears. I felt I
don't know how; but it was not courageous, though, as to
running away or being beaten, the thought never entered my
head. Only I did not feel like what you read about _heroes_.
Well, the word '_Fire_' was given to our own regiment. The drum
of my ear actually felt as if it were split. My heart gave one
terrible bound, and I felt it no more. For a few moments all
was ringing of the ears, smoke, and confusion. I forgot
everything about death. The roar of the action had become
general--through its din I at intervals heard the sounds of the
drum and the fife. But my ears instantly became, as it were,
'_cased_.' I could hear nothing but the word of command, save a
hum, hum, something like a swarm of bees about to settle round
my head. I saw nothing, and I just loaded as I was ordered, and
fired--fired--fired!--as insensible, for all the world, as if I
had been on a parade. Two or three of my neighbours were shot
to the right and left; but the ranks were filled up in a
twinkling, and it was not every time that I observed whether
they were killed or wounded. But, as I say, after the third
firing or so, I hardly knew whether I was dead or living; I
acted in a kind of way mechanically, as it were, through a sort
of dumfoundered desperation, or anything else ye like to call
it; and if this be courage, it's not the sort of courage that
I've heard and read about--but it's the only kind of courage I
felt on entering on my first engagement, and, as I have said,
there are none that would dare to call me _coward_! But as I
was telling ye, we have twice completely beaten Soult within
these fourteen days. We have driven them out of Spain; and, but
for the bad winter weather, we would have driven them through
France before now. But we have driven them into France; and as
I said, even in their own country, we have beaten them twice.
Soult had his army all drawn up and ready, upon a rising
ground, before a town they call Orthes. I have no doubt but ye
have some idea of what sort of winter it has been, and that may
lead you to judge of what sort of roads we have had to wade
through in a country like this; and that we've come from where
nobody ever had to complain of being imprisoned for the
destroying of toll-bars! I think that was the most foolish and
diabolical action ever any person in our country was guilty of.
But, besides the state of the roads, we had three rivers to
cross before we could reach the French. However, we did cross
them. General Picton, with the third division of the army,
crossed or forded what they call the _Cave de Pau_ on the 26th
of last month, and we got over the river on the following day.
Our army completed their positions early in the afternoon, and
Lord Wellington (for he is a prompt man) immediately began to
give Soult notice that he must seek different quarters for the
night. Well, the action began, and a dreadful and sanguinary
battle it was. Our third division suffered terribly. But we
drove the French from their heights--we routed them. We thus
obtained possession of the navigation of the Adour, one of the
principal commercial passages in France; and Soult found there
was nothing left but to retreat, as he best might, to Toulouse
(from whence I write this letter), and there we followed him;
and from here, too, though after hard fighting, we forced him
to run for it. You may say what you like, father, but Lord
Wellington is a first-rate general--though none of us
over-and-above like him, for he is terribly severe; he is a
disciplinarian, soul and body of him, and a rigid one. We have
beaten all Bonaparte's generals; and I should like to meet with
him, just to see if we can beat him too. You used to talk so
much about him, that if I live to get to Paris, I shall see
him, though I give a shilling for it. What I mean by that is,
that I think the game is up with him; and four or five Irish
soldiers, of my acquaintance, have thought it an excellent
speculation to club together, and to offer the Emperor
Alexander and the rest of them (who, I daresay, will be very
glad to get rid of him on cheap terms), a price for him, and to
bring him over to Britain, and exhibit him round the country at
so much a-head----"
"Oh depravity!--depravity!" cried James, rising in a fury, and flinging
the letter from him. "Oh, that a bairn o' mine should be capable o'
pennin sic disgracefu language!"
He would allow no more of the letter to be read--he said his son had
turned a mere reprobate; he would never own him more.
A few weeks after this, Catherine, the daughter of our old Leveller, was
married to a young weaver, named William Crawford, who then wrought in
the neighbourhood of Stirling. He was a man according to James' own
heart; for he had wrought in the same shop with him, and, when a boy,
received his principles from him. James, therefore, rejoiced in his
daughter's marriage; and he said "there was ane o' his family--which
wasna large--that hadna disgraced him." Yet he took the abdication and
the exile of Napoleon to heart grievously. Many said that, if he could
have raised the money, he would have gone to Elba to condole with the
exiled emperor, though he should have begged for the remainder of his
days. He went about mourning for his fate; but, as the proverb says,
they who mourn for trifles or strangers may soon have more to mourn
for--and so it was with James Nicholson. His son was abroad--his
daughter had left his house, and removed to another part of the
country--and his wife fell sick and died. He felt all the solitariness
of being left alone--he became fretful and unhappy. He said, that now he
"hadna ane to do onything for him." His health also began to fail, and
to him peace brought neither plenty nor prosperity. The weaving trade
grew worse and worse every day. James said he believed that prices would
come to nothing. He gradually became less able to work, and his earnings
were less and less. He was evidently drooping fast. But the news arrived
that Napoleon had left Elba--that he had landed in France--that he was
on his way to Paris--that he had entered it--that the Bourbons had fled;
and the eyes of James again sparkled with joy, and he went about rubbing
his hands, and again exclaiming, "Oh, the great--the godlike man!--the
beloved of the people!--the conqueror of hearts as well as countries! he
is returned! he is returned! Everything will go well again!"
During "the hundred days," James forgot all his sorrow and all his
solitariness; like the eagle, he seemed to have renewed his youth. But
the tidings of Waterloo arrived.
"Treachery! foul treachery!" cried the old man, when he heard them; and
he smote his hand upon his breast. But he remembered that his son was in
that battle. He had not heard from him--he knew not but that he was
numbered with the slain--he feared it, and he became tenfold more
unhappy and miserable than before.
A few months after the battle, a wounded soldier arrived at T---- to
recruit his health amongst his friends. He had enlisted with George, he
had served in the same regiment, and seen him fall at the moment the cry
of "The Prussians!" was raised.
"My son!--my poor son!" cried the miserable father, "and it is my
doing--it is a' mine--I drove him to list; and how can I live wi' the
murder o' my poor George upon my head?" His distress became deeper and
more deep; his health and strength more rapidly declined; he was unable
to work, and he began to be in want. About this period, also, he was
attacked with a paralytic stroke, which deprived him of the use of his
right arm; and he was reluctantly compelled to remove to Stirlingshire,
and become an inmate in the house of his daughter.
It was a sad grief to his proud spirit to feel himself a burden upon his
child; but she and her husband strove anxiously to soothe him and to
render him happy. He was still residing with them when the radical
meetings took place in various parts of the country, and especially in
the west of Scotland, in 1819. James contemplated them with delight. He
said the spirit of liberty was casting its face upon his
countrymen--they were beginning to think like men, and to understand the
principles which he had gloried in, through good report and through bad
report--yea, and through persecution, for more than half-a-century.
A meeting was to take place near Stirling, and James was sorrowful that
he was unable to attend; but his son-in-law was to be present, and James
charged him that he would bring him a faithful account of all the
proceedings. Catherine knew little about the principles of her father,
or her husband, or the object of the meeting. She asked if it would
make wages any higher; but she had heard that the military would be
called out to disperse it--that government would punish those who
attended it, and her fears were excited.
"Tak my advice, Willie," said she to her husband, as he went towards the
door; "tak a wife's advice for ance, and dinna gang near it. There will
nae guid come out o't. Ye can mak naething by it, but will lose baith
time and money; and I understand that it is likely great danger will
attend it, and ye may be brought into trouble. Sae, dinna gang, Willie,
like a guid lad--if ye hae ony regard for me, dinna gang."
"Really, Katie," said Willie, who was a good-natured man, "ye talk very
silly. But ye're just like a' the women, hinny--their outcry is aye
about expense and danger. But dinna ye trouble yersel--it's o' nae use
to be put about for the death ye'll ne'er die. I'll be hame to my
four-hours."
"The lassie's silly," said her father; "wherefore should he no gang? It
is the duty o' every man to gang that is able; and sorry am I that I am
not, or I wad hae rejoiced to hae stood forth this day as a champion in
the great cause o' liberty."
So William Crawford, disregarding the remonstrances of his wife, went to
the meeting. But while the people were yet assembling, the military were
called out--the riot act was read--and the soldiers fired at or over the
multitude. Instant confusion took place; there was a running to and fro,
and the soldiers pursued. Several were wounded, and some seriously.