He can turn a man into a boy;
A boy into an ass;
He can change your gold into white moneye;
Your white moneye into brass;
He can turn our goodman to a beast
With hoof, but, an' with horn,
And chap the goodwife in her cheer,
This little John Barleycorn.
_Old Song._
The plan of our great necromancer was no other than that of pushing
round the wine, and other strong intoxicating liquors, to the utmost
extremity; and it is well known that these stimulating beverages have
charms that no warrior, or other person accustomed to violent
exertions, can withstand, after indulging in them to a certain extent.
The mirth and argument, or rather the bragg of weir, grew first
obstreperous, afterwards boisterous and unruly, and several of the men
got up and strode the hall with drawn swords, without being able to
tell with whom they were offended or going to fight. Neither the
Master nor the abbot discouraged this turmoil, but pushed round the
liquor, till some of the most intimate friends and associates of the
party, in the extravagance of intoxication, actually wounded one
another, and afterwards blubbered, like children, for vexation. While
they were all in this state of unnatural elevation, father Lawrence
got up, and addressed himself to the party, for the first time. He
represented to them, by striking metaphors, the uncertainty and toil
of the warrior's life; and requested all such of them as loved ease,
freedom, and independence, to become inmates of his habitation; and
during the time of their noviciates, he promised them every good
thing. Several of them pretended to snap at the proffer, some on one
condition, some on another; but when he presented a scroll of
parchment, written in red characters, for their marks or signatures,
no one would sign and seal, save Tam Craik, who put his mark to it
three times with uncommon avidity, on the positive condition that he
was to have as much fat flesh as he could eat for the first three
years, at all times that he chose, by day or by night.
When matters were at this pass, and our brave yeomen could with
difficulty rise to their feet, they heard a chorus of sweet and
melodious music approaching, which still drew nearer and nearer. This
was a treat they little expected in such an habitation; but how much
greater was their surprise, when the hall-door was thrown open, and
there were ushered in thirty of the most lovely maidens that the eyes
of men had ever beheld. They seemed, too, to be all of noble lineage,
for they were dressed like eastern princesses, rustling in their
silks, and covered over with dazzling gems. The Master welcomed them
with stately courtesy, apologizing for the state of his castle, and
the necessity they would be under of sitting down and sharing the
feast with warriors, who, however, he assured them were all gallant
gentlemen, of his own kin, and some of them of his own name. The
splendid dames answered, that nothing on earth would give them so
much delight as to share the feast with gentlemen and warriors, the
natural protectors of their helpless sex, to whom it should be their
principal aim to pay all manner of deference.
As soon as the door was opened, our brave yeomen, with the profound
respect that men of their boisterous occupation always pay to female
beauty and rare accomplishments, started all to their feet, and made
their obeisance. But the worst concern for them was, that they could
not stand on their feet. Some of them propped themselves on the hilts
of their sheathed swords, leaning the points backward against the
wall. Others kept a sly hold of the buff-belt of the comrade next to
him; and a few, of whom the poet was one, and Tam another, lost their
balance, and fell back over the benches, showing the noble dames the
soles of their sandals. All was silence and restraint, and a view of
no group could be more amusing; for though our heroes were hardly able
to behave themselves with the utmost propriety, yet they were all
endeavouring to do it; some keeping their mouths close shut, that no
misbecoming word might possibly escape from their lips; some turning
up their white faces, manifesting evident symptoms of sickness, and
some unable to refrain their joy at this grand addition to their
party.
The first breaking up of the conversation was likewise extremely
curious; but it was begun in so many corners about the same time, it
is impossible to detail it all. Will Martin, with a lisping unbowsome
tongue, addressed the one next him to the following effect.
"Fine evening this, noble dame."
"Do you account this so very fine an evening, gallant knight?"
"Hem, hem; glorious roads too; most noble lady,--paced all
with--marble, you know. Hem! Came you by the marble path, fair lady?
Hem! hem!"
"Not by the marble path, most courteous knight, but on one of
alabaster, bordered with emeralds, rubies, and diamonds you know. Hem!
hem!"
"May all the powers--Hem--powers of beauty, you know--Ay--hem! and
love. Hem! What was I about to say?"
"Could not guess, knight."
"That smile is so sweet. Will such an--hem!--such an angelic
creature,--really con--descend to converse familiarly with a plain,
homely warrior."
"Your notice does me far too much honour, worthy knight." And so
saying she put the tip of her palm gently on the warrior's rough hand.
Intoxicated as Will was with wine, he was petrified with astonishment
and delight, and could not find terms to express his gratitude and
adoration. Many others were likewise by the same time testifying, by
their bright and exulting looks, the joy and delight they were
experiencing in the conversation of those most beautiful and refined
of all earthly objects. Tam Craik beheld, or thought he beheld, his
lovely Kell among them, blooming in tenfold loveliness. He was so
drunk that he could not articulate one syllable; but he fixed his long
coulter-nose and grey eyes steadily in the direction of her face, and
put his hand below the table and scratched.
Still the cup and the cates circulated without any respite. The Master
and the abbot both called them round and round; and though the lovely
and high-born dames tasted sparingly, nevertheless the circumstance of
their having touched the cup with their lips was sufficient to induce
the enamoured warriors to drink to them in healths deep and dangerous.
Reason had long been tottering on her throne with the best of them,
but these amorous draughts of homage overthrew her completely, and
laid her grovelling in the dust. The heroes fell from their seats
first by ones, but ere the last in threes and fours. Still the
courteous and sympathetic beauties tried to administer comfort and
assistance to their _natural protectors_, by holding up their heads,
and chafing their temples; but, in spite of all they could do, total
oblivion of passing events ensued to the whole of our incautious
troopers.
The next morning presented a scene in the great hall of Aikwood,
which, if it cannot be described, neither can it ever be conceived.
There lay our troop of gallant yeomen, as good as ever heaved buckler,
scattered over the floor; some in corners, some below benches, every
one of their eyes sealed in profound slumber though the day was well
advanced, and every one having an inamorata in his arms, or clinging
close to him of her own accord. At a given signal, the great bell of
the castle was rung with a knell that might have wakened the dead. The
sleepers raised their drowsy and aching heads all at the same time;
and, as was natural, every one turned his eyes first toward the
partner of his slumbers. Their sensations may be in some measure
conceived, when, instead of the youthful, blooming, angelic beings,
whom they had seen over-night, there lay a group of the most horrible
hags that ever opened eyes on the light of day. Instead of the light,
flowing, and curled hair, there hung portions of grey dishevelled
locks. Instead of the virgin bloom of the cheek, and the brilliant
enamel of the eye, all was rheum, haggardness, and deformity. Some
had two or three long pitted teeth, of the colour of amber; some had
none. Their lovely mouths were adorned with curled and silvery
mustachios; and their fair necks were shrivelled and seriated like the
bark of a pine-tree. Instead of the rustling silks and dazzling
jewels, they were all clothed in noisome rags; and, to crown the
horror of our benumbed and degraded Bacchanalians, every one of the
witches had her eyes fixed on her partner, gleaming with hellish
delight at the state to which they had reduced themselves, and the
horrors of their feelings. The poet, and two or three others, fell
into convulsions; and all of them turned away groaning, and hid their
faces from these objects of abhorrence.
The Master came with his enchanted liquor once more, and sprinkled it
over the prostrate and humbled group, who were now in that state of
mental agony that rendered them indifferent to aught that could occur;
and, as he sprinkled them, he said to himself, "I now have the power
over you, though you had been seven times anointed in holy church."
"Aye, seven times seven," said a tremendous voice; and the words were
followed by a laugh that shook the vault of the hall, which laugh was
echoed by three or four accordant voices, and afterwards by all the
witches in the apartment. The astounded warriors again raised their
heads, and beheld their friend, the abbot, stalking along and along
the hall in the midst of them in majesty sublime. He wore the same
sable and flowing robes, and the same mitre, that he did on the
preceding day; but he was now striding openly in his own character,
with his legs shagged and hairy, shaped like those of a goat, and his
feet cloven into two distinct and horny hoofs. The three attendants
were there also, but they were no more three monks, but the identical,
Prig, Prim, and Pricker, the infernal pages of Master Michael Scott.
In short, our yeomen discovered, to their utter despair, that they had
been riding, eating, and drinking, hand to fist, with the devil in
_propria persona_.
Before giving any of them time to recover their senses, he strode up
to Dan Chisholm, and stooping over him with exultation, he said, "Did
not I tell you, Christian droich, when I bayed you at the mill, that I
would be before hand with you at Melrose, and have not I kept my
word?" As he said these words, Dan once more saw down his throat, and
beheld the burning flame within. Half-dead with fright, he threw
himself back on the floor, and held up one foot and one hand, as his
last inefficient defence, on which his infernal Majesty vomited such a
torrent of sparkling flame out upon him and his forlorn partners, that
they lost all hope of ever again moving from the place where they
were.
"Take heart, my brave fellows," said the Master. "This great primate,
you see, is no other than the prince of the power of the air, the
great controller of the mighty elements, who has honoured us with his
company. You are now in his power, and lie at his mercy; but he is
more of a gentleman than he is generally represented to be, and will
scorn to take advantage of a few poor insignificant creatures, who
call themselves Christians, of whose company he is sure before he
wants it. He knows you will fume, and bully, and fight for a few short
years, sending one another home to his ample mansions in myriads
before your time. Both he and I would scorn to take farther advantage
of beings so blind ignorant, and inconsistent, than suits our own
amusement. We only love to mock you, show you your own littleness, and
how easy a prey you would be, were there a being in the universe that
watched for ever over your destruction. Cheer up, gallant soldiers!
and now for the long-waited developement of mighty moment. I will show
you the manner, and very mode, by which your captain must only hope to
succeed in his great enterprise."
He then touched every one of them with the divining-rod that was in
his hand, pronouncing at the same time some mystic words, which none
of them comprehended. While he was thus occupied, the witches rushed
from the hall, and as soon as he had touched the hindmost, he himself
also made his escape, and looked from a crevice of an inner wall. The
enchantment began immediately to take effect; the warriors rolled
about on the floor in strong convulsions, bellowing and flouncing,
trying always to run on all-four, and then tumbling over again. At
length their noses and chins began to grow forward in hideous
disproportion, till their heads began to assume something of the forms
of the heads of beasts, and liker to those of calves than any things
else. The laughter that pealed from loop-hole, crevice, and barbican,
was, at this eventual period, excessive. The devil, the three wicked
spirits, the great enchanter, and his conventicle of witches, seemed
all to be in convulsions at witnessing how the metamorphosed champions
shook their long heads, looked at one another, and tried to speak. How
their language changed from long-drawn words, half pronounced, to
downright confused bellowings; and how their forms, in the space of a
few minutes, gradually assumed those of as many mighty and ferocious
bulls.
"I have now given you your own proper shapes, and showed you in frames
suited to your natures," cried the Master, from a crevice.
"Pass forth, and be gone; and carry my respects to your captain."
Then there was a combined bellow of rage arose in the hall that would
have rent any castle to the top but that of Aikwood; and benches,
boards, and couches, flew about in flinders on the horns of the
furious monsters. Forthwith they rushed out into the great court, and
from that to the side of the hill, bellowing, and tearing up the
ground with hoof and horn, till the country was alarmed for many miles
round; and, believing that all hell was broke loose from the castle of
Aikwood that day, they betook them to their heels, and fled away out
of sight and out of hearing.
The outrageous drove looked back as they ascended the brae to the
eastward of the castle, and saw the devil and the great warlock,
standing on the topmost tower, laughing at them; the former appearing
of a size and dimensions equal to those of another castle. The grand
mitre that he wore on his head, shaped like a crescent to conceal his
horns, now moved like a cornuted black cloud amid the firmament; his
eyes glimmered like two of the reddest of the stars of heaven; and the
sceptre that he waved in his right hand was like a tremendous pine all
in flame, or rather like a burning aerial meteor. Our transformed
warriors gallopped away in terror as fast as cloven hoofs could carry
them, with one mighty bison, that had once been Charlie Scott, far
a-head of all the rest; for, notwithstanding of all that Charlie had
seen and heard in favours of the devil, he felt as much affrighted for
him as ever, degraded as he was in form. No wonder was it that our
tumultuous group was terrified and galloped off; for at the same time
that they saw Satan stretching out his sceptre in his right hand, he
held out Tam Craik by the nape of the neck in his left, while the poor
fellow was seen sprawling and spurning the air over an unfathomed
void. When the arch-fiend made his retreat from among the warriors
that morning, in the midst of the confusion he carried Tam off with
him, according to compact--fed him for some time on animal food of the
richest quality, which, never once satisfying him, the devil grew
weary of such a voracious cur, and twisted his neck about.
The drove was no sooner out of sight, than the Master said to one of
his pages, "Pricker, assume thou the habit that thou hadst yester-eve;
mount, and ride after these wild cattle, and deliver them over to the
charge of their dolt of a confessor. He will try to rescue them from
their present degraded and brutal forms, but he will not be able.
Spirit, thou sawest a part of the charms performed. Give him the
proper directions how to find it out before leaving him. It boots
nothing offending my kinsman, the Warden."
Pricker mounted his horse, and rode straight for the fords of
Howden-burn, where he knew the friar was awaiting his companions, and
meant to have driven them all up before him to the cottage door, where
the friar and his fair ward sojourned, and there delivered them over
to the care of these two, as a present of fine beeves from the great
Master to Sir Ringan Redhough. But before the infernal page overtook
them they were all at the door of the cottage, bellowing and kneeling,
and trying in vain to make their hard case known to the friar.
Pricker came up, and saluted the friar, who, observing his clerical
habit, returned the compliment in a hurried and careless manner--for
he was confounded by the arrival of so many mad bulls.
"Reverend brother mine," said the page, "I deliver over into thy
charge this herd of beautiful cattle, the best breed that ever roamed
the forests of Caledon. They are a present from Master Michael Scott
to his cousin the Warden of the middle marches. See that you deliver
them safe and sound."
"Lo, thou seest with thine eyes, and thou also hearest with the hearing
of the ear," said the friar, "that the creatures are outrageous, and
not to be governed by the hand of a single man. And thinkest thou a
brother of the holy order of Benedict would take a goad in his hand,
and ride forth after these bulls of Bashan? Lo, would they not even
run headlong upon my mule, and thrust their horns into his side? Thy
servant also, and this maiden, would they tread under their feet? Go
to! Thou speakest as one lacking understanding."
"I give them in charge to thee, as desired by one with whom it is
dangerous to contend," said the page; "and alongst with them this
request, that your captain will make away with them as quickly as
possible for food to his army."
At these words of the apparent sacristan there was such a roaring and
bellowing commenced among the herd, that, for the first time, the
friar began to suspect some horrid enchantment, but wist not what to
dread. The drove turned round their heads to the speaker,--shook them
in disapproval of what he had said, and joined in such a ferocious
roar against him, that it was not like ought the friar had ever
witnessed among the brute creation before. The metamorphosed troopers,
however, knew too well now who Pricker was to attack him, but,
turning again round, they came in a row, and kneeled around the friar,
looking at him with the most supplicating expressions of countenance
that ever cattle put on."
"Lo, methinks I have looked upon these wild beasts of the forest in
some of the days that are past," said the friar, "and that their
countenances are not entirely unknown to me; though when, or in what
place, in that thing my memory upholdeth me not. I pray thee, brother,
to declare unto thy servant where thou camest by these beasts of mine
acquaintance. If thou art a follower of the worthy Father Lawrence,
thou must speak the truth.--Tell me, art thou a Christian?"
The bulls gave not the infernal page time to reply. They turned about,
shook their heads, and tossed the earth at him with their horns,
raising at the same time such an outcry of rage against him that the
friar himself was afraid, and retreated within the door of the
cottage; and he thought that, amid their confused bellowings, he
could distinguish as it were these words pronounced, "He a Christian!
Away with him! Away with him!"
"Lo, what am I to understand by all this?" said the friar.
"Come near unto me, thou man of mystery, that comest like one of the
children of Esau, with thy cattle and thy herds, and tell unto thy
servant what are these?"
Pricker would not, however, come nigh the friar, but still kept his
distance; for against the friar's spiritual armour he durst not
engage; but he called out to him, in mockery, "I then declare unto
thee, O thou great magician, who camest to cope with the prince of all
magicians, Master Michael Scott, that these are thy master's yeomen
whom thou leftest with him yesterday. Now, what sayest thou? Hast thou
ever witnessed power like this?"
The friar lifted up his eyes to heaven, and tears fell down on his
dark beard. "O wretched man that I am!" cried he, "why did I leave my
children in the lion's den? yea, even in the den of the great lion.
Wo is me, that this breach hath been made among the followers of my
Master! But there is One that can yet controul all the powers of
darkness, and to Him alone must I apply without delay."
The friar went instantly to his devotions, and performed many rites of
a nature too sacred to be here minutely described; yet, after all his
exorcisms, the men could not regain their natural shapes, but lay and
rolled about on the valley in awful convulsions. The hellish page, who
had kept far aloof during the time of the friar's sacred appeal, now
came galloping near to enjoy the convulsions of the herd, and the
grief and astonishment of the friar; and after mocking for some time,
in obedience to the great wizard's command, he called to the
friar, and said, "I see he that brought about this wonderful
metamorphosis,--for which you shall one day be grateful,--can only
effect the counter-charm. Look into the manes on their foreheads, and
look narrowly;" and having said these words, he darted off towards
Aikwood with the speed of lightning.
The friar did as this flying horseman had directed, and searching the
long curled mane between the horns of the first monster that came to
his hand, he there found stitched a small scroll of parchment, neatly
rolled up, and written in blood. Then he caused them to bring him
fire, in which he burnt it, and presently there stood up at his
hand one of Sir Ringan Redhough's warriors, in all his arms and
accoutrements as he first arrived at the castle of Aikwood. "By the
life of Pharaoh!" cried the friar, "surely this excelleth all that I
beheld heretofore!"
The spell was now quickly dissolved; but no pen can do any justice to
the feelings of our amazed troopers, as they again strode the green in
their own forms and vigour, embracing the friar, and thanking him as
their deliverer. They returned back over the ridge, not without some
dreadful apprehensions, to the mill of Aikwood for their horses, but
went no more in view of the portentous castle. They found their horses
at good feed; and whenever Charlie saw Corby's skin, that glittered
like the plumes of the raven, he cried, "Aha, Corby lad, ye haena
wantit either meat or drink, ye rascal! Od ye hae fared better than
your master, ye cock-luggit glooming thief; stall up, ye dog, till I
caparison you, and then let us bound for the border."
But the most curious and least suspected of all the circumstances
attending the horses was, that Dan Chisholm's horse and those of his
three companions, that they left stabled in the deep dell above
Lindean, were all found standing at the mill among the rest. The
miller could give no farther account about them, than that a lad
brought them all tied to one another's tails, and said they belonged
to four of the baron of Mountcomyn's men that were gone to Aikwood.
"By the Lord Soules," cried Dan, "then it is true that Master Michael
Scott said of the devil being more of a gentleman than he had been
generally represented. For all the pranks he has played us, I'll think
the better of him for this the longest day I have to live. What say
you to this, friend Yardbire?"
"I shall be twenty miles off Aikwood at least afore I speak another
sentence about either him or some others that I ken o.' Mercy on us!
poor Tam Craik! What an end he has made wi' his fat bacon! Hech, but
it be a despisable thing to rin open mouth to the--I'll no mention
whae--for their greed o' meat. Some may hae gotten nae mair than what
they deserved; but as for sachless Gibbie Jordan, he has been right
hardly dealt wi'. My heart's unco wae for the poor laird, and I think
something should be done to recover him."
"Something _shall_ be done for him," said the friar, and that of such
momentous consequence, that, if his own iniquities keep him not in
bondage, all the powers of the evil one shall be unequal to the task."
After all these horrid perils of weird women and witchcraft thus
miraculously overcome, our troop rode straight on to the camp of the
Warden, and found him in the vicinity of Wooller, having come into
those parts to counteract the rising about Berwick in behalf of the
English garrison. And the time being at hand on which he must either
do or not do, either join with heart and hand in the cause of the
Douglas, or leave him to stand or fall by himself, and abide by the
consequences--his impatience for the return of his men from Aikwood
castle had been commensurate with the importance that he attached to
their mission. But when they informed him of all the wonders they had
witnessed, and the transmutations they had seen and undergone--how the
warlock and his spirits had raised the tempests, deluged the plains,
levelled the forests, and cleft asunder the everlasting mountains, the
baron was like one in a trance. It was long before they could make
themselves accredited, or impress him with any other idea than that it
was a story made up to astonish him. With the feats performed by the
friar, he was particularly pleased, and from that time forth paid him
more honour than he had ever been seen pay to man. But the precise
meaning of the destiny, read for him out of the book of fate, puzzled
and interested him most of all. It was dark and full of intricacies;
and it was not till after long consultation with wise men, as well as
women, that any thing like a guess could be formed of its tendency. By
making words and actions to coalesce, a mode of procedure was at the
last pitched on as the only one reconcileable with the predictions.
This mode will eventually appear without giving the detail at present,
and the reader will then be better able to judge whether or not the
Redhough and his sages understood the Master's signs and injunctions
properly.