THE STONE OF THE SUN.
I have now arrived at a point in the history of that acute factor,
pious elder, and severe moralist, Mr. Snaggs, which I would
willingly, but cannot omit, without leaving in my narrative a hiatus
which every dramatist, novelist, historian, and biographer would
unanimously condemn. With the suspicion natural to a Celt, Minnie
mistrusted Ephraim Snaggs, and informed Callum of the proposed
meeting.
Callum's eyes flashed fire! he grasped his skene, and bit his lips,
with a dark expression on his brow; for it was well known in the
district that two handsome girls had already been wiled by Snaggs to
distant towns, where, after a time, all trace of them was lost; and
when questioned by their friends (he had taken care to evict and
expatriate their relations), he had only groaned, turned up his eyes,
twiddled his thumbs, and quoted Blair.
The peculiarity of his request, the solitude of the place, and its
traditionary character, excited the keenest suspicion in the mind of
Callum Dhu, and he begged of me to accompany him to the
trysting-place, to which we accordingly proceeded, and there
ensconced ourselves among the thick broom, juniper-bushes, and long
wavy bracken, about an hour or so after sunset.
In a wild and solitary rift or ravine, that opened at the back of Ben
Ora, and the rugged sides of which were covered by the light feathery
mountain-ash, the silver birch, the hazel, and the alder, amid which
the roe and the fallow-deer made their lair, stood the
Clach-na-greiné, or _stone of the sun_. A huge misshapen block, on
which some quaint figures and runes or words in an ancient and
barbarous language were discernible; it was a relic of the Druids,
whose religion, a corruption of the older faith of the Magi, had
inspired them to worship the God of Day as the essence of fire. Here
had the spirit of Loda descended on their souls, and here in latter
times the posterity of Mac Ionhuin (or the Son of Love) were wont to
meet in arms, to hail and inaugurate their young chiefs; here justice
was administered, and the guilty were flung into the Poul-a-baidh, or
drowning-pool; here the Red Priest of Applecross anathematized the
sacrilege of Lachlan Mohr; and here in 'the glimpses of the moon,'
the famous white stag of Loch Ora, which was believed to be
bullet-proof, and to have a miraculous longevity, was seen at times.
In the centre of this obelisk was a round hole, through which the
lovers of the district had been wont for ages to join hands in
testimony of their mutual betrothal: this formed a strong and sacred
tie of mutual fidelity, which none had been known to break without
suffering a violent death.
It happened as old Mhari had told me a hundred times, and as Callum
Dhu was ready to affirm on oath, that among the men who followed my
father into the ranks of the Black Watch, there was one who had
betrothed himself solemnly to a girl of the glen, through the hole of
the Clach-na-greiné. Forgetting both him and her trothplight, this
girl fell in love with a handsome stranger whom she met at a
harvest-home in Glentuirc. He danced with her repeatedly, and
whispered of her beauty and of his passion until her head was turned,
and her heart so far won, that he persuaded her to cross the mountain
of Ben Ora with him; but her confidence being mingled with fear, she
begged of a companion to follow them a little way. The moon was
bright, and as they proceeded, she observed with growing alarm that
he carefully avoided every stream and rill of running water, and that
his face, though manly and beautiful, was deathly pale in the white
moonlight. They descended into the ravine, and anon were seen in the
full blaze of the moon, near the great rough column of the
Clach-na-greiné. A shadowy cloud obscured it for a time. When it
passed away, the maiden and her pale lover had disappeared. The
Druid obelisk stood on its grassy mound in silence and loneliness.
The damsel was never seen again. Her earthly lover also proved
false; he married a Spanish wife, and after escaping the whole
Peninsular war, was killed at the side of old Ian Mac Raonuil by the
_last_ shot that was fired from the hill of Toulouse.
A hundred such traditions combined to make the place wild and
unearthly. The path to it from Glen Ora lay through a skeleton
forest of old fir-trees, which, being entirely denuded of bark and
foliage, were white, bleached, and ghastly in aspect; while the stone
was generally covered by numbers of the hideous reptile which is
known in some pails of the Highlands as the _bratag_, and is spotted
black and white, and when eaten by cattle, causes them to swell and
die.
But enough of the Clach-na-greiné.
Minnie had not been many minutes seated on a fragment of rock near
it, and had barely exchanged the appointed signal with Callum--a
verse of a song, to which he replied by a low whistle--when Mr.
Snaggs, who had left his pony among the blasted pines, was seen
hastening to the rendezvous with a cat-like step and stealthy eye.
'I am punctual, you will perceive, my dear girl,' said he, taking her
hand kindly in his; 'the broad white moon seems just to touch the
huge black shoulder of Ben Ora, and throws the shadow of that grim
obelisk along this horrid ravine. If one were to shout here, would
the sound be heard in Glen Ora, think you?'
'No, sir,' replied Minnie, with a shudder.
'You are very confident or courageous, my dear Minnie, to venture so
far to meet _me_,' said he, in his most winning tone. We were close
by and heard everything.
'Courage is nothing new in Glen Ora,' said Minnie.
'But your people belonged to Glentuirc?'
'Yes, of old,' answered Minnie, proudly; 'the Mac Omishes of Chaistal
Omish.'
'A most euphonious name--are you sure?'
'Do you doubt it?'
'Yes--for so beautiful a face as yours, Minnie never came of the race
of Glentuirc.'
'They were braver than they were bonnie, perhaps, Mr. Snaggs,' said
Minnie, with reserve.
'But now about your uncle's farm, Minnie--it lies with yourself to
keep Gillespie Fatadh in the glen and it lies with you to level his
cottage to the earth and drive him into a Lowland workhouse, or to
the distant shores of America.'
'With _me_?' was the breathless query.
'Sit down on this green bank and listen to me. We must be wary, my
dear girl, in treating with the denizens of this glen, for they are
sinful ones--sloth is sin, and they are slothful,' said Mr. Snaggs,
drawing close to her side, and patting one of her pretty hands with
his right hand, while it was firmly clutched by his left; 'we must be
wary--religion is the life of the world, and wickedness is always its
own punishment.'
'Sir?' was the perplexed interjection of Minnie.
'I was about to remark, my dear,' resumed the moralist, putting an
arm round the waist of the girl, who became flushed, and who trembled
violently, 'that we should take care of the beginnings of sin; but as
the divine Wilson remarks, "nobody is exceedingly nicked all at
once;" thus I might kiss you, as I do now--so might a young man; but
I do so, with all the emotions of a father stirred within me--yes
Minnie, the emotions of a father, an elder, and a factor; yet were a
young man to do this, as the divine Blair remarks----'
'But about my uncle's farm?' urged poor Minnie, in great perplexity;
'we have long expected a rich cousin from India, where, as his
letters said, his fortune and his liver were growing larger every
day; but he has never appeared--and then my uncle omitted to sow his
corn last year in such a way as to save it from the birds and
fairies.'
It was now Mr. Snaggs' turn to look perplexed.
'From the fairies?' said he.
'Yes--for after a field is sown, our farmers mix some grain and sand
together, and scatter it broadcast, saying at every handful, "the
sand for the fairies, and the corn for the birds;" and those mixed
grains become all that the birds and fairies take. But the minister
told him that this was a sinful superstition--so the crop rotted in
the ground, or was destroyed between the Marquis's grouse and the
mildew.'
'Hush--did you not hear something stir among these bushes?' said
Snaggs, with alarm, as Callum raised, and ducked down his head
suddenly; 'pooh! a polecat or a blackcock--listen to me, Minnie; I am
always kind to _you_, whatever the glensmen may say of me.'
'Yes, sir.'
'Seldom is there a time, that I come over the hills from Inverness,
without bringing something for you--a ribbon, a rosette, a gaud or a
gown-piece--eh.'
'True, sir--and many, many thanks for your kindness to a poor girl
like me.'
'Not at all--not at all, when she is so sweet and pretty, Minnie.'
'Sir!'
'Do you not understand me?'
'No.'
'Then give me another kiss to begin with.'
Minnie innocently enough tendered her soft cheek, to which the
fatherly Snaggs applied his lips like a leech, and his eyes began to
sparkle, as he surveyed the fine slope of her shoulders and contour
of her bust. He became excited, and retaining one of her hands in
his, clasped her tightly by the waist.
'I have ever been kind to your uncle, Minnie.'
She was about to break away, but these words restrained her, and she
gazed anxiously into the eyes of Snaggs, who, therefore, kissed her
so tenderly, that I had much ado to retain Callum in his lair among
the long bracken. Poor Minnie, in her distress, looked
beautiful--her face was so full of expression.
'I have kept Gillespie Ruadh in his farm without raising its rent,
which would have been rather futile, as he has not paid a sixpence to
me for these past two years.'
'God will reward you, sir,' said Minnie, weeping.
'Cannot you reward me too, Minnie?'
'I, sir--a poor girl without a halfpenny in the world!'
'You. Would you not like to leave the glen and enter into the
service of a lady in the Lowlands. I know one, a fine and motherly
old dame, whose strict, moral, and religious principles----'
'No--no, I could not leave Glen Ora and the Mac Innons.'
'The Mac Innons,' laughed Snaggs, 'will soon be but a memory here:
long ere this day twelve months, the grass will grow is green on
their hearths, as it waves on the hearths of Glentuirc.'
'Then I will still have Callum Dhu,' murmured Minnie, in a voice that
trembled.
'Callum Dhu,' reiterated Snaggs, with scornful impatience; 'what is
he that you should regret him?'
'My betrothed husband,' said Minnie, with honest pride; 'and none can
reap in harvest or handle the cashcroimh like he; but he preferred to
be a hunter like his fathers before him; and at shinty, wrestling,
racing, tossing the stone, the hammer, or the caber, there is no one
on the Braes of Loch Ora like Callum Dhu Mac Ian.'
'Stuff! These qualities, lassie, only fit him for the trade of a
housebreaker. Better would it be for him if he read his prayers; for
as the divine Blair sayeth, "every prayer sent up from a secret
retirement is listened to." See, here is money, dear Minnie,'
continued the wily Snaggs, holding before her a handful of
bank-notes; 'those wretched pieces of paper which cause so much
misery and crime, will be yours if----'
'If--what?'
The tempter whispered in her ear, and his eyes gleamed in the
moonlight.
She uttered a half-stifled scream.
'For Heaven's sake let me go, Mr. Snaggs, or I shall scream for
help,' said Minnie, as a rosy crimson replaced the paleness of her
cheek.
'None can hear you.'
'Be not so sure of that,' she retorted, with a scornful smile.
'Remember your uncle, his sick wife and family! Why are you so
afraid?' he whispered; 'I will be your protector for life, Minnie,
and will open up a thousand new scenes and pleasures to you. Let me
teach you that you were not born to live always in this dull and
hideous glen. Oh, Minnie, have my eyes not told you the secret of my
heart?'
'I am getting quite faint,' said Minnie, overcome by excitement and
alarm.
'Apply my handkerchief to your nostrils--this strange perfume may
revive you.'
He placed his voluminous silk handkerchief close to her face. In a
moment a tremor passed over the form of Minnie, and she sank
senseless on the grassy mound of the Clach-na-greiné. With a
triumphant chuckle the pious moralist knelt down and threw his arms
around her; but in the next moment a fierce shout rang in his
startled ears, and the strong hand of Callum Dhu was on his throat,
while the blade of a bare skene glittered before his eyes.
For a moment these two men glared at each other like a snake and a
tiger. In the next, the frail moralist was dashed upon the turf, and
the iron fingers of Callum compressed his throat like a vice, until
his eyeballs were starting from their sockets.
'Mac Innon,' cried my fosterer, 'what shall I do with him? we are
near the old Hill of Justice--his life in your hands--say but the
word, and the last breath is in the nostrils of our tormentor!'
'Let us drag him to prison,' said I.
'Prison--ha--but there is none nearer than the Castle of Inverness.'
'Then let us fling him into the Poul-a-baidh, where the bones of many
a better man are whitening among the weeds.'
'Right--mona mon dioul! but few stones will be on your cairn, dog!'
And snatching by the throat and heels the terrified wretch, who could
scarcely gasp for mercy, we rushed to the edge of the pool, where
justice was executed of old, and flung him headlong in.
'The curse of the Red Priest be on him!' cried Callum, as Snaggs
disappeared with a scream of terror. Anon, he rose to the surface,
floundering, dashing, and bellowing for aid, until he laid hold of
the long weeds and broad-bladed water-docks, that fringed the margin,
and after being nearly suffocated by the floating watercresses (of
which, I suppose, he would in future share the horror of the learned
Scaliger), he scrambled out in a woful plight, and ran towards his
pony, which was cropping the scanty herbage that grew among the
blasted pines. The moment he was mounted, he turned towards us a
face that was ghastly and white with fear and fury; he was minus a
hat, and his grizzled hair hung lank and dripping about his ears.
'Scoundrels!' he cried, 'for this outrage you shall both rot in the
Castle of Inverness.'
'I will not be the only one of my race who has been within its
towers,' said I; 'but they suffered for fighting brave battles on the
mountain side--not for ducking a yelping hound like you.'
In token of vengeance, he shook his clenched hand at us, and galloped
away. Long before this, the situation of Minnie attracted all our
attention, and excited our wonder and alarm.
'Laoighe mo chri--speak to me--hear me!' implored Callum, kneeling
beside her on the grass and taking her tenderly in his arms. But she
remained quite insensible and unconscious of all he said to her.
'By what witchcraft did she faint thus?' said Callum--'she, a strong
and healthy girl--so full of life and spirit too!'
'Snaggs spoke of a perfume in his handkerchief.'
'A perfume,' responded the black-browed Celt, grinding his teeth;
'what could it be?'
'Oh--this phial may tell,' said I, picking up a little bottle which
lay on the turf beside Minnie. It was labelled 'Chloroform.'
'Dioul! what is that?' asked Callum.
'An essence invented by a Lowland physician. It makes even the
strongest man so insensible for a time, that you might cut off his
leg and draw all his teeth without having the slightest resistance
offered.'
'Insensible!'
'Ay, as a stone; look at our poor Minnie.'
'The unhanged villain!' exclaimed Callum, swelling with new wrath;
'dioul! why did I not gash his throat with my skene as I would have
scored a stag? He had some dark and sinister end in view; he deemed
Minnie but a poor, ignorant, and unprotected Highland girl, who knew
no language but her native Gaelic, and had no idea of aught beyond
the sides of the glen; but as far as grass grows and wind blows will
I follow and have vengeance on him!'
Minnie recovered slowly and with difficulty: she was sick and had an
overwhelming headache, with such a weakness in all her limbs, that we
were compelled to support, and almost carry her between us to Glen
Ora. Callum mingled his endearments with muttered threats of
vengeance on Snaggs, and as I knew that he would keep them too, I was
not without anxiety as to the mode in which his wrath might develop
itself.
Two days after this affair, on the application of Mr. Snaggs, the
sheriff of the county granted warrants of removal against every
family in the glen; and these long-dreaded notices of eviction were
duly served in form of law by a messenger-at-arms, in the name of
'Fungus Mac Fee, Esquire, Advocate and Sheriff,' a position that
worthy had gained, after the usual lapse of time spent in sweeping
the Scottish Parliament House with the tail of his gown.
Six days now would seal our doom!
Such was the result of poor Minnie's intercession for her old uncle,
with the admirer of the 'divine Blair.'