Commissions and black bills he had,
And a' the land went hey-gae mad,
The like was never seen, joe:
* * * * *
To dance and caper in the air,
And there's an end of him, joe.
_Old Jacobite Song._
Weel, ye see, my masters and mistresses, this is what I never expected
to see. There is something sae grand in being in the presence of a
King and Queen and their courtiers, that it brings me in mind of the
devil and his agents that I have been in the habit of entertaining for
a month bygane. But there is some wee difference in masters for a'
that; for, in my late service, if I had been brought in to entertain
them, in an instant they would have had me transformed into some
paltry animal, and then amused themselves by tormenting that animal to
death, by dissecting it while living. But the queerest thing of all
was this,--there was aye a spark of life that they could not destroy,
which, for all their cruelties, remained active and intelligent as
before; and the moment they put that spark of life out of one animal,
they popped it into another, and there was I obliged to undergo the
same dismemberment and pain once more, and so on for ever. The
inflicting of torment was their chief delight, and of that delight
there was no satiety,--it seemed still to increase by gratification.
On the very first day that I entered on my probation they had a feast,
as my comrades know, and as I also have good reason to know, for on
that day I suffered death nine times; and yet I was Gibbie Jordan
again before night. They first turned me into a cock, and after the
three pages had chased me round the castle, and thrown stones at me
till I was hanging out my tongue, and could not cackle another lilt,
they seized me, took me into the scullery, and drew my neck. Ere ever
I was aware, they had me transformed into a huge lubberly calf, while
one of the hellish pages was dragging me by the neck with a prickly
rope made of hurcheon hides, and the two others were belabouring my
rumple with cudgels. I suspected their intentions, and being still
terrified for death, and inclining rather to suffer any thing, I drew
back, shook my head, and bellowed at them, while they still redoubled
their blows on my carcase, and cursed me. In spite of all I could do,
they dragged me gasping into the slaughter-house, kept the knife an
excruciating long time at my throat, and then, after piercing the
jugular vein, they laughed immoderately to see me running about,
bleeding to death, with my glazed stupid eyes; and when, through
faintness, I began to flounder and grovel on the floor, they laughed
amain, threshed me to make me plunge a little more, and when I could
do nothing farther than give a faint baa! they thought that the best
sport of all, and mimicked me.
I had scarcely ceased baaing as a calf, when I found myself a
beautiful cappercailzie, winging the winter cloud, and three devils of
falcons after me. 'Now,' thinks I to myself, 'If I do not give you
the glaiks now, my hellish masters, may I never wap a wing again. By
all the powers of swiftness, but I shall try for once if the feathers
shall not carry the flesh away.' Sanct Martha, as I did scour the rimy
firmament! I took the wind in my tail, but I went with such amazing
velocity that I left it behind me, and as I clove it, it seemed to
return in my face. I reached the shoulder of a lofty mountain, and
then I laid back my wings, and bolted through the air like a flash of
lightning. 'O ho! Messrs Hawks, where are you now?' thought I to
myself. Good Lord! ere ever I was aware, there was ane o' them
gave me a nab on the crown, that dovered me, and gart me tumble
heels-o'er-head down frae the shelves of the clouds; and lighting with
a dunt on the ground, I had nae shift but to stap my head in a heather
bush, and let them pelt at me till I got some breath again. Then I
made for a cottage, thinking the inmates could not but pity my
condition, and drive the hawks away from me. I took cover among their
cabbage, in the sight of both man and wife; but instead of pitying me,
the one came with an old spear, and the other with the tongs, to
finish my existence,--and always when the falcons came down on me with
their talons, the two cried out, "Weel done, little hawkie! Yether him
up! puik him weel!" I was forced to take wing again, till at length,
through fatigue and want of feathers I dropt close to the castle
whence I had set out, and the three falcons, closing with me, first
picked out my eyes and then my brains. I was stabbed as a salmon,
hunted as a roe-buck, felled as a bull, and had my head chopped off
for a drake. The dinner was made up of me. I supplied every dish, and
then was forced to cook them all afterward. It was no wonder that I
could not partake of the fragments of the meal.
From the moment that the Christian warriors were all dismissed with
disgrace from the castle, the devil became contumacious with the
Master, and assayed to carry matters with a very high hand. But he had
to do with one that would not succumb, no not in the smallest point,
but who opposed him with a degree of virulence of which even the
master fiend seemed scarcely capable. It was a scene of constant
contention and rage, and the little subordinate demons did not always
know which to obey. It was, if it please your Majesties, a scene acted
in terrible magnificence, of which I have seen several poor and
abortive emblems among mortal men. And henceforth I shall aways
believe and feel, when I see a family or society constantly involved
in disputes, wranglings, and angry emotions, that they are children of
the wicked one, and moved by the spirit of discord, that bane of the
human race.
"The worthy gentleman hath said well," said the abbot. "It is a moral
truth that can never be too deeply impressed, that _peace and love
only lead to happiness_. They are emanations from above, and the
contrary passions from beneath. All the fierce and fiery passions of
the soul are the offspring of hell fire. But a truce with preaching.
Honest friend go on with your strange relation, and acquaint us in
what manner his infernal majesty and the king of mortal magicians
spent their time."
In constant discord and jarring. The devil challenged the Master with
impotency in entertaining a poor crazy monk, and submitting to be
protected and even cowed by him; at which the Master took high
offence, and retorted in the bitterest terms; while the other always
hinted that he would make him repent his intercourse with that
preposterous and presumptive fool. So he termed our own worthy friar
and head chaplain.
In one thing only they agreed, and that was in abusing the witches.
Never were there poor deluded creatures guided in such a way as they.
The devil says to the Master one day in my hearing, "Brother Michael,"
says he, "I have an act of justice to perform to all our true and
trusty female lieges in this quarter. I gave them my princely word of
honour, that on their yielding themselves up souls and bodies to me
and to my service, they should all be married, and all to young and
goodly husbands too. That having been the principal, and almost the
only boon, the good consistent creatures required of me for the
sacrifice they made, they must not be disappointed." The Master
acquiesced, but at the same time remarked, with what I judged
unreasonable chagrin, that when he was keeping his word so punctually,
it betokened nothing good for those to whom he kept it.
Well, we had a witch's wedding every night for nine nights running;
but such extreme of wickedness is past all human comprehension, beyond
the possibility of description. The marriage ceremony itself, always
performed by a demon in the habit of a friar, was a piece of the most
horrid blasphemy ever conceived; and every night one of the witches
was married to the devil in disguise. Sometimes the bridegroom made
his appearance as a gay cavalier, sometimes as a country squire, a
foreign merchant, a minstrel, and a moss-trooper. The old wretch of a
bride was all painted by some devilish cantrip, and bedecked with
false jewels, and though she seemed always aware of the deceit in a
certain degree, from former experiences, yet it was wonderful with
what avidity each of the old creatures clung to her enamoured and
goodly husband! How they mumped and minced in their talking, and ogled
with their old grey ropy eyes! And then how they danced! Gracious me,
how they flung, and danced among the deils and the warlocks! and
capered and snapped their fingers, giving their partners often a jerk
on the nose or the temple as they passed and repassed in the reel, as
quick as green clocks on a pool. Then the bedding of the brides, these
surpassed all description; and as they had me fairly in thrall, I was
suffered to witness every thing. The first witch bride was led out at
the back door of the castle with much state and ceremony, into a place
that had been a bowling green, and in which there was nothing else
save a bowling green: Yet, to my amazement, there stood a bower of the
most superb magnificence; and there, in a chamber hung with gorgeous
tapestry that glittered all with gold and rubies, the loving couple
retired to their repose, and to all the delights and joys of so happy
an union. Then wishing them the greatest conjugal felicity, all the
gallants returned to the castle. But I, being curious to see what
would be the end of this grand pavilion in the bowling-green, which I
knew must be merely a delusion, avision, a shadow of something that
had no stability of existence, went up to the top of the castle, and
from a loop-hole sat and watched what was to be the end of this
phenomenon. I waited a good long while, and began to think all was
real, and that the splendid witch had met with a happy fortune,--for I
knew them too well to be all witches from former happy experience. But
at length the lusty bridegroom, as I supposed, began to weary of his
mate, for I saw the form of the bower beginning to change, and fall
flat on the top, and its hue also became of a lurid fiery colour. I
cannot tell your Majesties what sort of sensations I felt when I saw
the wedded couple sinking gradually down through a bed of red burning
fire, and the poor old beldame writhing to death in the arms of a huge
and terrible monster, that squeezed her in its embraces, and hugged
her, and caressed her till the spark of wretched life was wholly
extinguished. I saw distinctly by the light of the flame that
surrounded them, and marked every twist of the features, and every
quiver of the convulsed limbs; yet these were not more impressive than
the joy of the exulting fiend, who continued to caress and kiss his
agonized mate to the last, and called her his love, and his darling,
and his heart's delight. At length the distortions of the human
countenance reached their acme--the shrivelled bosom forgot to throb,
and, with the expiry of the mortal spark, the lurid flame that burnt
around them also went out, and all was darkness, There was no bower,
no chamber, no bridal bed, but a cold winter soil; and I thought that,
through the gloom, I perceived the couple still lying on it.
As I could get no rest all that night for thinking of the terrible
scene I had witnessed, as soon as the sun rose next morning I went out
to the bowling-green, but found nothing there save the strangled body
of the wretched woman,--a dismal and humbling sight,--squeezed almost
to a jelly, and every bone broken as if it had been smashed on an
anvil. Being curious to examine her robes in which she appeared with
such splendour the evening before, and her jewels, part of which I had
seen her lay carefully aside, I took every thing up as it lay. Her
robes were a small heap of the most wretched rags imaginable: her
pearl necklace was a string of dead beetles, and her diamond rings
pieces of thread, on which were fastened small knots of clay, and
every thing else proportionally mean. While I was standing considering
this vile degradation that had taken place, I heard a voice at a
little distance that called to me and said, "Gibbie Jordan! Gibbie
Jordan! why standest thou in amazement at a true emblem of all worldly
grandeur! It is all equally unreal and unsubstantial as that on which
thou lookest, and to that it must all come at last."
'Hout, friend,' thought I, 'it canna surely be a' sae perfectly unreal
as this, else what does it signify?' But a' that I could look and
glime about, I could never discover the speaker that said this; and
when I thought seriously of the matter, I found that it comes a' to
the same thing in the end.
"Honest friend, thou hast again illustrated a momentous moral truth,"
said the abbot,--"and I thank thee for it. Thou hast the art, in thy
simplicity, of extracting more good out of real evil than any expounder
of divine truths throughout the land. Thou art both a moral and a
natural philosopher, and I intend conferring on thee some benefice under
the church, that thy talents may no longer remain locked up in a helmet.
Prithee, go on with thy extraordinary narrative; but these witch
weddings are too horrible for mortal ears."
Then you may consider, my Lord Abbot, what they were for mortal eyes,
especially such a run of them, which were every night varied in their
horrors, and terminated in something perfectly distinct from all those
preceding. On the second night the bridegroom was a foreign merchant, a
man of bustle and punctuality, who said he could not remain late with
his kind convivial friends, and was under the necessity of carrying his
bride off at an early hour, having business of importance to transact
on the morrow. It was a speculation, he said, on which he calculated
making a good profit, and a man who was coming in to have a wife, and in
all probability a small family to maintain, required to look after and
attend to these matters. The witch caressed him in ecstacy when he made
this speech, and proffered to go with him as soon as he chose. She
saluted her cronies, and bade them farewell; and although there is no
love among those sort of people, yet there was still so much of human
nature remaining, that there seemed to subsist a degree of regret that
they should never meet again. My own heart was even sore for the
wretched beldame; for I had witnessed a scene the preceding night which
had been withheld from her view, and those of the other brides that were
to be; and I knew that a fate somewhat similar awaited them all. They
mounted this one behind the spruce merchant on a tall gallant charger
whose eyes gleamed like lightning, and away they set over the leas of
Carterhaugh, at a light gallop; but at every bound the swiftness of the
steed increased, till it was quickly beyond the speed of the eagle. The
witch held like grim death, and would fain have expostulated with the
bridegroom on the madness of risking their necks for a little per
centage,--but her velocity was such that she could make no farther
speech of it, than just a squeak now and then like a shot hare. The
reckless merchant flew on, still increasing his rapidity, until he came
to the very highest rock of the Harehead linn. The witch knew of the
dreadful chasm that was before them, and weening that her husband did
not know she uttered a piercing shriek; but the void was only thirty
yards across and a hundred deep, so the fearless merchant, meaning to
take it at one leap, made his charger bound from the top of the
precipice. The infernal courser cleared the linn, but the witch's head
failing, she toppled off about the middle space. There were two
fishermen spearing salmon in the bottom of the gulf, who saw the
phenomenon pass over their heads, and the wife lose her hold and fall
off; they heard her likewise saying, as she came adown the air, "Aih,
what a fa' I will get!" And as she said, so it fell out; for she
alighted on the rocks a short space from the place where they stood, and
was literally dashed in pieces; but the steed ran away with the merchant
over hill and dale like a thunderbolt, and neither the one nor the other
ever looked over his shoulder to see what had befallen the bride.
This continuation of horrors still depriving me of rest, I went into
the linn the next morning to look after the corpse; but the three
pages, Prig, Prim, and Pricker, were engaged with it, cutting it
trimly up, and hanging it on the trees of the linn to be frozen, so
that they might thereby be enabled to preserve it for some grand
experiment. In the same manner did they serve the remains of all the
brides; none of them ever being buried,--but there was one taken away
bodily. I shall now, in conformity with your reverence's hint, desist
from the description of any more of these weddings, and proceed to the
adventure by which I attained my liberty.
I had often attempted this, both by night and by day, but these imps
seemed to possess a sort of prescience, for in all my attempts I was
seized and maltreated so grossly that I gave up all hopes of escape,
otherwise than by some upbreaking of the warlock's establishment, and
of all such incidents I had resolved to avail myself, and you all see
that at last I have succeeded,--which happened on this wise.
Still as Christmas tide drew on, the wranglings between my two chief
masters, the devil and the warlock, grew more and more fierce; and as
I heard they were obliged to sever before that time, I both hoped and
dreaded some terrible convulsion. The fiend, for several successive
days, was always hinting to the Master that it now behoved the latter
to deliver him up the black book and the divining rod; and he tried to
cajole him out of them by fair speeches and boundless promises: but
with these requests the Master testified no disposition to comply, and
the promises he utterly disregarded, bidding him bestow his promises
on those who did not know him. At length the fiend fairly told him,
that he must and would have the possession of these invaluable
treasures, which ought never to have been put into the hands of mortal
man, and that now he would have them if he should tear his heart from
his bosom to attain the boon.
I weened that matters were come to that pass now that the Master would
be obliged to yield, and that all this show of resistance was only the
ebullition of a proud and indignant spirit struggling against the yoke
under which it knew it was obliged to bow, like a horse that champs
the bit, to the sway of which it knows too well it must submit. In all
this, however, I had reckoned before mine host, and knew not the
resources of the great magician. Beneath the influence of the cross I
found him a child, a novice, a nonentity, unresolved and inconsistent in
his actions. But amongst the beings with whom he associated I found him
a superior intelligence, a spirit formed to controul the mightiest
energies, and not brooking submission to any power unless by compulsion.
To my utter astonishment he not only gave the arch-fiend absolute
refusal, but haughty defiance; and then it was apparent, that, except
from necessity, all forbearance was at an end.
"Preposterous madman! dost thou know whom thou beardest?" said the
fiend, gnashing his teeth with rage and thirst of vengeance: "Knowest
thou with whom thou art contending, thou maniac?--and that I can wring
thy soul out of thy body, consigning the one to the dunghill, and the
other to elemental slavery, at my will and pleasure?"
"I defy thee," said the Master: "Do thy worst. He that imparts a
moiety of his power to another, must abide by the consequences. Do I
not know with whom I am contending? Yes! I know thee! And thou art so
well aware that I do, that at this moment thou tremblest beneath my
rod. I know thee for a liar, a deceiver, a backbiter, and a spirit of
insatiable malevolence. Who can lay one of these charges to my name?
Were I immortal as thou art, how I would hurl thee from thy usurped
and tyrannic sway over the mighty energies of nature. Were I freed of
the incumbrances of mortality,--of blood that may be let out by a
bodkin,--bones that may be broken by the tip of an ox-goad,--and
breath that may be stopped by the twang of a bow-string; of vitals,
subjected to be torn by disease,--preyed on by hunger, thirst, and a
thousand casualties beside:--yes, were I rid of these congregated
impediments, as I shall soon be, I would thrust thee down into that
subordinate sphere of action to which only thy perverse nature is
fitted. This black book and this divining-rod are mine. They were
consigned to my hands by thyself and the four viceroys of the
elements, and part with them shall I never, either in life or in
death; and while I possess them I am thy superior. Begone, and let me
hear no more of thy brawling at this time, lest I humble thee, and
trample on thee before thy day of power be expired."
This the Master pronounced in loud and furious accents; and as he
finished he struck the devil across the gorge with his golden rod.
The blow made him spring aloof, and tumble into the air, it had such
powerful effect on his frame; and when he stood again on his feet, he
roared with rage and indignation, in a voice that resembled thunder.
The Master had the black book belted to his bosom, with bands of
steel, that were hammered in the forge of hell; and laying his left
hand upon that, and brandishing his divining-rod in his right, he
dared the fiend to the combat. The latter approached, and poured from
his mouth and nostrils such a stream of liquid flame on the magician,
that it appeared like a fiery rainbow between them. This greatly
incommoded the Master, and made him skip like a mountebank; but it was
soon exhausted, and then the fiend threw trees and rocks at him, some
of the latter of the weight of five tons. All these the Master
eschewed; and though he sought no other weapons but his rod, he brake
in upon his antagonist, and chaced him from the field. Then the war of
words again commenced, which increased to a tempest of threatening,
wrath, and defiance. The arch-demon boasted of his legions, and of
their irresistible power; and threatened to bring them all to the
contest, and annihilate the Master and his adherents, root and branch.
"I have already said that I fear neither them nor thee," said the
Master. "What though thou hast the sovereignty over the element of
fire, and all the fierce and indurated spirits that sojourn and ply in
the sultry regions of flame, as also of the grovelling spirits of the
mould? Have not I at my command those of the air and the water? I can
muster against thee the storm, the whirlwind, and the raging tempest,
the overwhelming wave, and the descending torrent. These shall
extinguish thy meteor hosts, and sweep thy mold-warps from the face of
the earth. I am in the midst of my elements here. Thou art out of
thine, and that thou shalt feel when thou bringest it to trial."
Thus parted these two once-bound associates, but now jealous and
inexorable foes,--a good lesson to all those who form combinations
inimical to the laws or authority of the land in which they reside.
Like those master-spirits, such are likewise conspirators against
rightful sovereignty, although on a smaller scale; and like those whom
they imitate, and by whom they are moved, their counsels will always
be turned either to foolishness or against themselves.
"The sphere that this man hath filled in society," said the abbot, "is
far below that in which he ought to have moved. If his narrative is
true, which I can hardly believe, he turns it to most excellent uses;
and if it is an apologue, it is one well conceived for the purposes of
instruction. Verily, this gentleman hath never moved in his proper
sphere."
"I think it is not very unlikely that your reverence says," said Sir
Ringan, "for he made no great figure in it. Tho' I had always a
partiality for him, I had no great faith in his valour. He would
rather have cut down a warrior behind his back than before his face
any time. He has made mare quake this night wi' his tale than ever he
did wi' his weapon. I entreat ye to get on, laird, and let us hear
how they made up matters."
Made up matters, does my chief say? That was a term no more mentioned
between them. They separated but to raise their different forces, and
meet again with more fury and effect. The Master spoke to his three
pages, and asked if they were resolved to stand firm to his interest?
They answered, that they would, till the term of their bondage
expired.
"Then am I doubly armed!" said the Master, exultingly; "and I will
show your tyrant that I can quell his utmost rage. Speed thee, my
trusty and nimble spirits; speed to the western and northern spheres,
and rouse the slumbering angels of the winds and the waters. Tell them
to muster their array, and bear hitherward,--to rear the broad billows
of the Atlantic up against the breast of heaven, and to make a bellows
of every cloud to gather the winds up behind them. Then bring down the
irresistible spirits of the frozen north in ambush,--and who shall
stand against their fury! How soon will you execute your commissions?"
"Master, I'll ring the surface of the ocean, from the line to the
first field of pickled ice, before the hour-glass is half run."
"Master, I'll look south on the polar star,--call every whale,
sea-monster, and ice-shagged spirit by his name, and return to you
before the cock-bittern can boomb his vesper."
"And I'll to the moon,
And the stars aboon,
And rack my invention
For the coming contention:
And the wind and the weet,
And the snow and the sleet,
I'll gather and gather,
And drive them on hither."
With that the three imps departed on their several missions, but not
before they had seized me, and bound me to a ring on a turret of the
castle. The Master retired into his apartment for some time, but soon
came up to the level space on the top of the castle, our old birth,
and strode about in the most violent agitation, but appearing rather
to be moved by anger and impatience than by dread. At length, he came
up to me, and said, "How now, droich? What thinkest thou of all this?"
I said nothing, for I durst not answer a word.
"Dost thou think," continued he, "that there exists another being,
either mortal or immortal, like me, thy master?"
I still durst not answer a word; for if I had said _no_, it would have
been blasphemy; and if I had said _yes_, it would have provoked him to
do me a mischief; so I looked at my bonds, and held my peace.
"Thou darest not say there is," continued he; "but I know what thou
thinkest. Sit thou there in peace till this great trial of power be
over; and if thou darest for thy life invoke another name than mine,
thou shalt never stir from that spot dead or alive. But if thou takest
heed to this injunction, and cease from all petitions to, or mention
of, a name which thou mayest judge superior to mine, then shalt thou
be set at liberty to join thy friends."
I determined to attend to this,--but he waited not for my answer, but
strode away, looking now and then on the book of destiny, and at the
western heaven alternately. At length he exclaimed, "Yonder they come!
Yonder they rise in grand battalia! Noble and potent spirits! How
speedily have you executed your commission. Yonder comes the muster of
my array, and who shall stand against them!"
I looked towards the west when I heard him talking in such ecstacies,
but could see nothing save a phalanx of towering clouds, rolling up in
wreaths from the dun horizon. I had seen the same scene a hundred
times, and could hardly help smiling at his enthusiasm, especially
when he went over a long muster-roll of the names of spirits and
monsters whom he saw approaching in the cloud. 'It is a sign that
warlocks have clear een,' thinks I, quietly, 'for I see nothing but a
range of rolling and restless clouds.' However, he was so overjoyed
with the sight of this visionary array, that, having no other to
communicate with, he came rapidly up to me, and said, "Tell me,
droich, didst thou ever witness any thing so truly grand as the
approach of this host of mine?"
"You must first lend me the use of your eyes that I may see them,"
said I; "for, on my word, I see nothing save two or three files of
castled clouds, which I have seen an hundred times."
With that he lent me a blow with his rod, and said, though not
apparently in wrath, "Thou hast no brighter eyes, and no brighter
conceptions, than a hedgehog, but art a mere clod of the valley, a
worm; if I knew of aught lower to liken thee to, I would do it! Dost
thou see nothing like fleets and armies approaching yonder? Dost thou
not see an hundred and seven of the ships of the ocean above, coming
full sail, with colours flying, and canvas spread? Seest thou not
also, to the south of these, two files of behemoths, with ten thousand
warrior-spirits beside?"
I looked again, and though I was sensible it must be a delusion
brought on by by the stroke of his powerful rod, yet I did see the
appearance of a glorious fleet of ships coming bounding along the
surface of the firmament of air, while every mainsail was bosomed out
like the side of a Highland mountain. I saw, besides, whole columns of
what I supposed to be crocodiles, sharks, kelpies, and water-horses,
with a thousand monsters never dreamed of by human being. The Master
marked my astonishment, and exulted still the more; and then he
desired me to turn round, and look toward the north. At first I could
see nothing; but on being touched again with the divining-rod, I shall
never forget such a sight as opened gradually to my view. The whole
northern hemisphere, from the eastern to the western horizon, was
covered with marshalled hosts of the shades of gigantic warriors. They
were all mailed in white armour, as if it had been sprinkled with
hoar-frost; and their beards, which had the appearance of icicles,
hung down, swinging in the wind, like so many inverted forests,
stripped of their foliage and bark, and encrusted with ice. They were
all mounted on the ghosts of crackens, whales, and walruses: and for
bows and quivers each had a blown bladder on his bade as large as the
hill of Ben-Nevis. My heart quaked at the view of these tremendous
polar spirits, and I said, "Great and magnificent Master, are yon
terrible chaps all coming hither?"
"Certes they are," said he: "Why dost thou ask after having heard my
mandate sent forth?"
"Because," said I, "If yon bearded spirits be a' coming here, I wish I
were somewhere else, for the like of yon was never beheld by man. If
your opponents dare face you, they have a spirit beyond what I can
conceive."
"They will be here, and that instantly," said he, "And lo! yonder they
come! I will go down and meet them on the open field. But, in the
meantime, I will loose you with my own hands, for who knows what may
be the issue of this day; remain where thou art, for here thou shalt
be safe, but no where else."
I looked; and as far as my eyes could discern, I saw as it were a
thousand thousand sparks of fire rising from the east, that came in a
straight line toward me, and with great velocity. As they came nearer
I perceived that they were all fiery serpents, with faces like men,
and small flaming spears issuing from their mouths, which they held
between their teeth, or drew in as they listed. These were led on to
the combat by the arch-fiend himself who came at their head in the
form of a huge fiery dragon with his iron crown on his head, and wings
springing from his shoulders behind, that reached as high as the hill
of Blackandro. 'Aih! God guide us!' thinks I to mysel, 'Michael has an
awsome adversary to contend with the day!' He was nothing daunted,
however, but went boldly down the valley, where he was met by hosts of
crawling monsters, such as snakes, lizards, and a thousand others.
These I took to be the spirits of the element of earth,--but they were
lubbards in a field of battle, for, at a brandish of the Master's
magical rod, they ran off wagging their tails in such a vengeance of
a hurry that they overturned one another.
The van of Michael's western array had by this time gained the middle
sky, and hung boiling and wheeling like a troubled ocean straight
above his head and above mine. Its colour was as dark as pitch, but
there was now and then a shade of a dead white colour rolled out, and
as suddenly again swallowed up in the darkness. I never saw ought so
awfully sublime. It had now descended so low, that it hid the polar
giants entirely from my view, and the Master kept waving his rod
towards it, and clapping his left hand always on the black book, till
at length, with the motion of a whirlpool, the cloud came and settled
all round him. The fiend and his firebrands perceiving this, darted
with the utmost fury into the middle of it, and the most tremendous
crash of thunder ensued that ever shook heaven and earth. My eyes were
dazzled so that I could not see ought distinctly, but I perceived
these flaming meteors glancing and quivering round the verges of the
darkness, and ever and anon darting again into it. Seven of these
peals of thunder succeeded one another, and then I saw the spirits of
flame would overcome, for the darkness began to scatter, and I saw
the Master hard bested, defending himself with his rod against a
multitude. He then cried with a loud voice, and waved his rod toward
the north, and that moment the giant warriors of the polar regions
loosed all their quivers at once, and with such effect, that they
tossed the opposing legions before them like chaff. The hailstones,
the snow, and the sleet, poured upon them thicker and faster, and the
wind roared louder than their thunders had done before. There was no
more power in their foes to stand before them; they were scattered,
driven away, and extinguished. When the Master saw this, he shouted
aloud for joy, calling out 'Victory!' and leaping from the ground in
ecstacy. But when he was in the very paroxysm of exultation, the great
dragon came round with a circular motion behind the castle, and
approaching behind the wizard's back before he was aware, seized him
by the hair with one paw, and by the iron belt with the other, and
bore him off into the air straight upward. The Master struggled and
writhed very hard, but never opened his lips. At length, after great
exertion, he struck the monster a blow with his rod that made him quit
his hold, and fly away yelling after his discomfited legions.
The Master fell to the ground from a great height, and lay still, and
when I saw no one to come near him, I left the corner where I had hid
myself, and ran to his assistance; but he was quite dead. His teeth
had severed his tongue in two, and were clenched close together; his
eyes were open, and every bone of his body was broken. Having
witnessed the unspeakable value of the golden rod, I put out my hand
and took hold of it, wanting to bring it away with me, but I might as
well have tried to have heaved the castle from its foundations.
Besides, when I tugged at it, the dead man turned his eyes toward me
with a fierceness that chilled me to the heart, so I fled and came
hitherward with all my might. He is lying in a little hidden valley,
at the side of the burn, immediately above the castle, with the book
of fate locked in his bosom, his rod in his hand, and his eyes open. I
have now described to your Majesties this scene exactly as I saw it;
but I must also tell you, that when I came to the mill, both the
miller and his man, neither of whom knew me, said it had been an awful
storm of thunder and lightning. I asked if they perceived nothing
about it but a common storm of thunder and lightning? And they said,
nothing, save that it was exceedingly violent, and rather uncommon at
such a season of the year. I have, therefore, some suspicions that
there might be magical delusion operating on my sight; but of this I
am certain, that the great enchanter was carried up into the middle
space between heaven and earth, fell down, and was killed."
"I think there can be no doubt," said the King, "that what you have
told us is the plain and unvarnished truth, though, perhaps, the rod
of divination might open your eyes to see the storm in a different
light from that seen by the eyes of common men. Of this there can be
no doubt, that the greatest man, and the most profound scholar of the
age, has perished in this conflict of the elements. He has not only
kept the world in awe, but in dreadful agitation for the space of
thirty years; let us, therefore, all go to-morrow and see him
honourably interred. I ask no rites of sepulture to be performed over
his remains, which, if living, he would have deprecated, only let us
all go and see his body reverendly deposited in the tomb, lest it be
left to consume in the open fields."
They went, and found him lying as stated, only that his eyes were
shut, some of his attendant elves having closed them over night. His
book was in his bosom, and his rod in his hand, from either of which
no force of man could sever them, although when they lifted the body
and these together, there was no difference in weight from the body of
another man. The King then caused these dangerous relics to be
deposited along with the body in an iron chest, which they buried in a
vaulted aisle of the abbey of Melrose; and the castle of Aikwood has
never more been inhabited by mortal man.
THE END.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes
This text is a reproduction of the 1822 edition. It includes many
dialect and archaic words and spellings, as well as many typographical
errors which have not been changed.
Some characters were not printed clearly:
p. 79 The letter "i" in "you would deify" was not printed and is
conjectural
p. 131 the line ending "The wines and liquor" does not meet the margin;
"liquor" may be plural.
p. 151 the line ending "of beings so blind" does not meet the margin,
and may end in a comma
p. 274 the colon in "by the Douglas:" is unclear and may be a semi-colon
p. 307 the semi-colon in "the attempt prematurely;" is unclear and may
be a comma
Chapters are inconsistently headed "CHAPTER" or "CHAP."
The text includes the following inconsistent spellings:
Father Lawrence and father Lawrence
galloped and gallopped
Castle-Wearie and Castle-Weary
Corby and Corbie
chace and chase
The text includes many examples of inconsistent hyphenation. The
following are inconsistently hyphenated or printed as two words:
yester eve and yester-eve
all four and all-four
arch fiend and arch-fiend
back friends and back-friends
bowling green and bowling-green
coulter nose and coulter-nose
deep wooded and deep-wooded
divining rod and divining-rod
high born and high-born
high spirited and high-spirited
hoar frost and hoar-frost
iron door and iron-door
The following are inconsistently hyphenated or printed as one word:
daylight and day-light
Castlewearie and Castle-Wearie
drawbridge and draw-bridge
auldfarrant and auld-farrant
bareheaded and bare-headed
eyebrows and eye-brows
outdone and out-done
staircase and stair-case
The following are inconsistently printed as one or two words:
fairy land and fairyland
Gude faith and Gudefaith
mean time and meantime
The text contains the following apparent errors:
p. 10 missing apostrophe ("its only the devil")
p. 17 missing quotation mark ("What do you think")
p. 25 missing quotation mark ("is the better. The imps")
p. 30 extra quotation mark ("behind the friar."")
p. 46 missing quotation mark ("preserve their worshippers.")
p. 47 missing quotation mark ("and who must yield.")
p. 60 missing quotation mark ("all unsafe with such.")
p. 62 question mark instead of full stop ("off thy frame?")
p. 68 missing quotation mark ("those we love.")
p. 79 two instances of missing quotation marks (""Stay, they cried, stay
the solemnity,")
p. 89 missing quotation mark ("your's was the best tale.")
p. 98 mis-spelling "in the expecsation"
p. 102 extra space in "the sweetest strain s"
p. 112 missing quotation mark ("follow them.")
p. 158 extra quotation mark ("ever cattle put on."")
p. 163 mis-placed apostrophe ("that I ken o.'")
p. 163 missing quotation mark ("and that of such momentous")
p. 168 missing full stop ("them to think of")
p. 183 extra quotation mark ("Scott'" said Yardbire:")
p. 189 mis-spelling "possessession"
p. 196 duplicate word "themsels; and and if ye hear a Laidlaw"
p. 205 missing quotation mark ("Strangers, I think!")
p. 206 comma instead of full stop ("he says, We'll never make")
p. 207 missing quotation mark ("But whoever refuses,")
p. 213 mis-spelling "disingeniousness"
p. 222 duplicate word "the fourth was a a boy"
p. 225 missing space "andbegan"
p. 237 extra quotation mark (""Alas, for my beloved")
p. 284 single instead of double quotation mark ("the like o' that?'")
p. 299 missing quotation mark ("begging admission to your")
p. 321 extra quotation mark (""The Queen crossed herself,")
p. 331 extra quotation mark ("'it's 'God's will?'")
p. 346 extra quotation mark ("new born beauties."")
p. 349 full stop instead of comma ("from a beam's end.")
p. 378 mis-spelling "convalesence"
p. 379 missing quotation mark ("apply to him again.")
p. 380 duplicate word "shew a a"
p. 380 missing quotation mark ("Inferiority!")
p. 382 missing full stop ("the lord Douglas--But")
p. 389 missing quotation mark ("Oh Sir Charles!--")
p. 391 missing quotation mark ("or an engagement say?")
p. 393 duplicate word "to Sir Charles was was nothing"
p. 405 duplicate word "she could not not be"
p. 409 "They" instead of "The" ("They rest marshalling")
p. 410 mis-spelling "Peatstackknowe"
p. 411 missing space ("Gibbie,and")
p. 422 missing space ("a delusion, avision")
p. 423 comma instead of full stop ("all was darkness, There was no")
p. 440 duplicate word "brought on by by the stroke"
p. 447 extra quotation mark ("was killed."")