CORPORAL DICK AT THE MANSE
Adam had received his pension-paper, which required to be signed by the
parish minister, as certifying that the claimant was in life. Dick was
glad of this opportunity of calling upon the minister to obtain for his
friend the required signature. He was known to Mr. Porteous, who had
met him once before in Adam's house, and had attacked him rather sharply
on his Haldanite principles, the sect being, as he alleged, an
uncalled-for opposition to the regular parish clergy.
A short walk brought Dick to the manse. After a few words of greeting
he presented the Sergeant's paper. Mr. Porteous inquired, with rather a
sceptical expression on his countenance--
"Is Mr. Mercer really unwell, and unable to come?"
"I have told you the truth, sir," was the Corporal's dignified and short
reply.
Mr. Porteous asked what was wrong with him? The Corporal replied that he
did not know, but that he was feverish, he thought, and was certainly
confined to bed.
"Your friend, the Sergeant, as you are probably aware," remarked the
minister, signing the paper and returning it to the Corporal, "has
greatly surprised and annoyed me. He seems quite a changed
man--changed, I fear, for the worse. Oh! yes, Mr. Dick," he continued
in reply to a protesting wave of the Corporal's hand, "he is indeed. He
has become proud and obstinate--very."
"Meek as a lamb, sir, in time of peace, but brave as a lion in time of
war, I can assure you, Mr. Porteous," replied the Corporal.
"I know better!" said the minister.
"Not better than me, sir," replied Dick; "for tho' ye have kent him as
well as me, perhaps, in peace, yet ye didna ken him at all in war, and a
truer, better, nobler sodger than Adam Mercer never raised his arms to
fight or to pray, for he did baith--that I'll say before the worl', and
defy contradiction!"
"Remember, Corporal, you and I belong to different Churches, and we
judge men differently. We must have discipline. All Churches are not
equally pure."
"There's nane o' them pure, wi' your leave, neither yours nor mine!"
exclaimed the Corporal. "I'm no' pure mysel', and accordingly when I
joined my kirk it was pure nae langer; and, wi' a' respec' to you, sir,
I'm no' sure if your ain kirk wasna fashed wi' the same diffeeculty when
_ye_ joined it."
"Discipline, I say, must be maintained--_must_ be," said Mr. Porteous;
"and Adam has come under it most deservedly. _First_ pure, _then_
peaceable, you know."
"If ever a man kept discipline in a regiment, he did! My certes!" said
Dick, "I wad like to see him that wad raggle the regiment when Adam was
in't!"
"I am talking of _Church_ discipline, sir!" said the minister, rather
irate. "_Church_ discipline, you observe; which--as I hold yours to be
not a properly constituted Church, but a mere self-constituted sect--you
cannot have."
"We're a kin' o' volunteers, I suppose?" interrupted Dick with a laugh;
"the Haldanite volunteers, as ye wad ca' us; but maybe after a' we'll
fecht agin the enemy, an' its three corps o' the deevil, the worl', and
the flesh, as weel as yours."
"You are not the regular army, anyhow," said the minister, "and I do not
recognise your Church."
"The mair's the pity," replied the Corporal, "for I consider it a great
blin'ness and misfortin' when ae regiment dislikes anither. An army,
minister, is no' ae regiment, but mony. There's cavalry and artillery,
light troops and heavy troops, field guns and siege guns in an army, and
ilka pairt does its ain wark sae lang as it obeys the
commander-in-chief, and fechts for the kingdom. What's the use, then,
o' fechtin' agin each ither? In my opinion it's real daft like!"
The minister looked impatiently at his watch, but Dick went on to say--
"In Spain, I can tell ye, we were a hantle the better o' thae wild
chiels the guerillas. Altho' they didna enlist into the gand or ony
regular drilled regiment, Scotch or English, the Duke himsel' was
thankfu' for them. Noo, Mr. Porteous, altho' ye think us a sort o'
guerillas, let us alane,--let us alane!--dinna forbid us tho' we dinna
follow _your_ flag, but fecht the enemy under oor ain."
"Well, well, Dick, we need not argue about it. My principles are too
firm, too long made up, to be shaken at this time of day by the
Haldanites," said Mr. Porteous, rising and looking out of the window.
"Weel, weel!" said Dick. "I'm no' wantin' to shake your principles, but
to keep my ain."
At this stage of the conversation Miss Thomasina entered the room, with
"I beg pardon", as if searching for something in the press, but yet for
no other purpose, in her eager curiosity, than to ascertain what the
Corporal was saying, as she knew him to be a friend of the Sergeant's.
Her best attention, with her ear placed close to the door, had made out
nothing more than that the rather prolonged conversation had something
to do with the great ecclesiastical question of the passing hour in
Drumsylie.
Almost breathless with indignation that anyone, especially a
Haldanite,--for she was quite as "High Church" as her brother,--should
presume to take the part of the notorious heretic in the august presence
of his great antagonist, she broke in, with what was intended to be a
good-humoured smile, but was, to ordinary observers, a bad-natured grin,
saying, "Eh! Mr. Dick, _you_ to stand up for that man--suspended by the
Session, and deservedly so--yes, most deservedly so! Him and his
starling, forsooth! It's infidelity at the root."
"It's what?" asked the Corporal, with amazement. "Infidelity did you
say, my lady?"
The "my lady" rather softened Miss Thomasina, who returned to the charge
more softly, saying, "Well, it's pride and stubbornness, and that's as
bad. But I hope his illness will be sanctified to the changing of his
heart!" she added, with a sigh, intended to express a very deep concern
for his spiritual welfare.
"I hope not, wi' your leave!" replied the Corporal.
"Not wish his heart changed?" exclaimed Miss Thomasina.
"No!" said Dick, emphatically, "not changed, for it's a good Christian
heart, and, if changed at all, it wad be changed for the worse."
"A Christian heart, indeed! a heart that would not kill a starling for
the sake of the peace of the Session and the Kirk! Wonders will never
cease!"
"I hope never," said Dick, "if that's a wonder. Our Lord never killed in
judgment man nor beast; and I suppose they were both much about as bad
then as now; and His servants should imitate His example, I take it. He
was love."
"But," said Mr. Porteous, chiming in, "love is all very well, no doubt,
and _ought_ to be, where possible; but justice _must_ be, love or no
love. The one is a principle, the other a feeling."
"I tak' it, with all respect to you, sir, and to madam," said Dick,
"that love will aye do what's right, and will, therefore, aye do what's
just and generous. We may miss fire pointing the gun wi' the eye o'
justice, but never wi' the eye o' love. The sight is then always
clearer; anyhow to me. Excuse me, Mr. Porteous, if I presume to preach
to you. The Haldanites do a little in that line, tho' they're no' a'
ministers! I'm a plain man that speaks my mind, and sin' ye hae gi'en
me liberty to speak, let me ax if ye wad hae killed yon fine bird, that
was wee Charlie's, wi' yer ain han', minister?"
"Ay, and all the birds under heaven!" replied Mr. Porteous, "if the law
of the Church required it."
"I should think so! and so would I," added Miss Thomasina, walking out
of the room.
"It wad be a dreich warl' wi'oot a bird in the wuds or in the lifts!"
said the Corporal. "Maybe it's because I'm a Haldanite, but, wi' a'
respect, I think I wad miss the birds mair oot o' the warl' than I wad
a' the kirk coorts in the kintra!"
"Drop the subject, drop the subject, Mr. Dick!" said the minister,
impatiently; "you are getting personal."
The Corporal could not see how that was, but he could see that his
presence was not desired. So he rose to depart, saying--"I'm feared I
hae been impudent, an' that my gun has got raither het firing, but, in
candid truth, I wasna meanin't. But jist let me say ae word mair; ye'll
alloo this, that a fool may gie an advice tae a wise man, and this is my
advice tae you, sir--the advice o' an auld sodger and a Haldanite; no'
muckle worth, ye may think:--Dinna hairm Adam Mercer, or ye'll hairm yer
best freen', yer best elder, and yer best parishioner. I beg pardon for
my freedom, sir," he added, with a deferential bow.
The minister returned it stiffly, remarking only that Mr. Dick was
ignorant of all the facts and history of the case, or he would have
judged otherwise.
Something, however, of what the Corporal had said fell on the heart of
the minister, like dew in a cloudy night upon dry ground.