w
WHITE COCKADE
OH,
FAITH AND FORTITUDE,
BY
JAMES GRANT,
AUIHOB 0?
" THE YELLOW FRIGATE," " SECOND TO NONE,"
"THE KING'S OWN BOBDEBEB8," " TITl! ROMANCE OF WAB,"
ETC., ETC.
LONDON :
GEORGE BOUTLEDGE AND SONS,
BEOADWAY, LUDGATE.
NEW YOEK : 416, BECOME STEEET.
1868.
PR
4726
GnvWs
PEE PACE.
IN my former novel, ' The King's Own Borderers,' I endea-
voured, in the characters of Lord and Lady Rohallion, to
depict Jacobitism in its decline, or rather when it had become
identified only with the senility and weakness of enthusiastic
old age ; but in the following story I have sought to pourtray
it in the zenith of its strength, and before it had degenerated
into mere sentimental loyalty to a race of dead monarchs of
all loyalty perhaps the most pure and unselfish.
In the progress of my tale, I have had to introduce several
points of local history, a branch of study which, I am sorry to
say, is now usually the last element thought of in Scottish
popular education.
Scotsmen, and Englishmen too, have long since learned the
value of that treaty, which made them equally subjects of a
vast united empire, on whose flag the sun never sets ; but Sir
Baldred Otterburn will represent a numerous class, who existed
even until after the beginning of the present century, and who
bitterly resented the Act of Union.
' The English adherents of the Stuarts had nothing to say
against it,' says a recent writer ; ' but the Scottish Jacobites
could scarcely find words sufficiently strong to express their
hatred and horror of a measure which, to their excited patriot-
ism, seemed to be the consummation of all ruin and disgrace,
and the utter annihilation of Scotland as a free and indepen-
dent country;'* and singularly enough, a bill for its total
repeal in June, 1713, was only lost by a majority of three in
the House of Lords.
* Dr. Charles Mackay. Preface to 'Jacobite Songs,' &c.
IV PREFACE.
As a proof of how the two countries, by previous animosity,
obstructed each other's progress, the year 1867 has proved that
the revenue of England, since 1707, has increased tenfold, and
that of Scotland more than sixtyfold! (Vide Debate on the
Reform Bill in March.)
The character of Balcraftie is neither a solitary one, nor en-
tirely original, for such a composite rogue, the famous Deacon
Brodie, actually figured among the Town Councillors of Edin-
burgh, in the end of the last century, and expiated his Dcrany
crimes on a gallows, constructed by himself, for the use of the
Criminal Court.
It must be pretty apparent to any student of History, that
had the whole fighting force of the Highlands followed Charles
Edward, we might never have heard of a battle of Culloden ;
and it is somewhat amusing to observe how the thousands who
remained quietly at home, and all their descendants too, have
readily adopted the laurels of the little band in whose faith
and valour they had no share whatever.
In all the military details of my story, I have striven to be
correct, and have consulted the "War Office Records of most of
the regiments engaged at Falkirk and Culloden ; and if, in
entering somewhat into the spirit of the time, I have written
with a little bitterness about the barbarities that followed the
extinction of the Insurrection, it has been simply in the genuine
hatred of all cruelty and tyranny oppression and hypocrisy
for the last expiring wave of Jacobitism has long since broken,
and left not even a ripple upon the shore ; and a poet, or a
reader, may be a Jacobite in literature, without being in the
smallest degree a Jacobite in politics.
June, 1867.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTEtt PAG
I. i'ETOILE HE IA MEB. . ..... 1
II. ATTAINTED . , 5
III. THE YABN OF CAPTAIN SCUPPER M.ua ... 9
IV. FATHER TESTIMONY ...... 16
T. ON SHORE 21
VI. BAILIE REUBEN BALCBAFTIE 26
VII. THET SET FOBTH 33
VIII. AN OLD SCOTTISH CAVALIER . , . 40
ix. DALQUHABN'S MISSION 45
X. THH HOUSE OP AULDHAME , . 50
XI. BBYDfi 9TTERBUBN ....... 53
XII. T1IE WITHr-BAWINO-ROOM 62
XIII. IN VINO VEBIT13 .,.,. v ..',. 68
xiv. BRTDE'S FOUR LOVERS ...... 72
XV. BALCKAFTIE ON THE SCENT ..... 78
XVI. TOUBS ONLY AND EVER! 83
-XVII. MB. EGEBTON PBOPOSE3 ...... 90
XVIII. THE QFABBEL 95
XIX. MYSTERY 99
vi CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAOft
XX. THE DEIL ! 3 LOAN 105
XXI. THE DEATH SHOT 108
XXII. IN THE TOILS 112
XXIII. THE ABLED BBIDE 116
xxiv. WYVIL'S DEPASTURE ...... 122
XXV.~BBYDB'S ENTEEPEISB 128
XXVI. THE SEQUEL ....... 138
XXVII. THE BLACK LUGGEB 143
XXVni. THE EAVINE 14-8
XXIX. THE VAULT OP TANTALLAtf . . . . .154
XXX. THE PEISONS OB 1 THE BAS8 . . . 161
XXXI. FIRST DAT OP CAPTIVITY 164
xxxn. BETDE'S SOBROW AGAIN 170
XXXIII. SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND FOBTY-FIVB . . . 173
XXXIV. GLOOM. ........ 177
XXXV. HOPE DEPEEBED 182
XXXVI. A PLOT LAID 190
xxxvn. HOW BBTDE'S GUINEAS WERE SPENT '. . . 195
XXXVIII. THE WHITE BOSS IN BLOOM .... 200
XXXIX. HOPE DAWNS ANEW. . . , . . . 208
XL. THE ATTEMPT 213
XLI. THE WABEANT. ....... 216
3CLII. ON LUFFNESS MUIB 221
XLIII. CAELISLE . .' . 227
XLIV. THE CAVEBN OF THE BASS 233
XLV. DALQUHABN IN EDINBUBGH ..... 238
XLVI. GENEBAL PBESTON ...... 247
XLVII. THE PBOVOST'S SUPPEB . . . . . . 255
XLVni. THE CABINET ....... 262
XLIX. THE PBINCE'S COUBT ...... 266
L. CHAGBIN 271
LT. THE BAID OF DALQUHABN 276
III. A FBIEND 283
LIU. LIEUTENANT LA BOQUB , . 287
COXTENT3. Vii
CHAPTER PAQS
LIV. THE LAIQB COFFEE-HOtTSE 292
'LV. THE DOUBLE DBEAM 99
1YI. THE MABCH 302
LVII. THE NETHEBBY ABMS ...... 808
LVin. LONGTOWN 313
LIX. IN ENGLAND 319
LX. THE EETBEAT FHOM DERBY ..... 323
1X1. THE ABDUCTION 328
LXII. THE VICABAGE OF PENEITH 331
I/XIII. THE EEAE GUABD ATTACKED .... 337
LXIV. A MABBIAGE . . . . . . . .313
LXY. AT THE CALLENDEE ...... 348
LXVI. THE DAY OF THE BATTLE 355
LXVII. THE 17TH OF JANUAEY, 1746 .... 358
LXVIII. COBHAM'S DHAGOONS 353
LXIX. IN THE NOETH 370
IXX. THE GABEELTINZIB ....... 375
LXXI. THE BITEE BITTEN 380
LXXII. HIS EXAMINATION ....... 385
LXXIII. THE NIGHT HAECH TO NAIEN .... 391
LXXIY. SEPAEATED! .....,,. 397
LXXV. THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN ..... 4Q2
IXXVI. THE SEQUEL . ....... 41Q
1XXTU. THE COIEE GAOTH -.... 416
L'ENVOY 423
NOTES. .......
THE WHITE COCKADE,
CHAPTER I.
'l/ETOILB DB LA. MEB.'
' The ship is sailing, the moon is shining ;
Low on a level with the deck.
She swims through the white cloud breakers leaping
About her hull as about a wreck.
'The ship is sailing, my heart is sinking;
Ned, you never knew me thus before :
We're home at last! hut I wish 'twere niorninc
There's something waiting for me ashore.' Good Words, 1866.
ON a bright morning in May, along, low, black lugger was creeping
along the German Sea, about thirty miles off tha mouth of the
Firth of Forth.
Sharply prowed and pinck -built, having a round stern finished
(by a continuation of the bulwarks aft) with a narrow square part
above ; she had two large quadrilateral or four-cornered sails, each
bent to a strong yard, and confined by well-greased parrels to the
slender and taper masts, which were raked well aft. The size of
those long sails suggested that great care was requisite in lowering
and shifting them, which was necessary at every tack, for the lugger
was one of unusual tonnage for her rig, and was decked and armed
with two brass guns, and several puteraroes or swivels along her
gunnel.
Forward and amid-ships, a mixed crew of sixteen Scotsmen and
Dunkirkers, sat smoking or chewing pigtail, with their backs to
the morning breeze. They were all rough, weatherbeatcn, and
bushy whiskered fellows. Their hair, long and dirty, was serred
round with spun-yarn to keep it tidy, or out of their eyes if they
went aloft. All wore coarse pea-jackets and short kilt-like trowsers
of canvas, well japanned with tar. They had long knives, with
shark-skin sheaths in their girdles, and wore broad square metal
buckles on their shoes.
Though few in number, these men were bold and reckless in
aspect and bearing ; for their craft was the ' Etoile de la Mer,' a
notorious contraband vessel of Dunkirk, and they were sailing on
the sea, at a time when smugglers, if taken, had seldom the option
1
2 THE "WHITE COCKADE.
of entering the king's service. In their own phraseology, they
sailed ' with halters round their necks/ and when captured were
usually strung up to the yard-arm.
That his majesty's ship, the ' Fox,' was now on the look-out for
the lugger, in those very waters, was an exciting circumstance of
which some friendly fisherman had duly informed them over night ;
thus a sharp look-out was kept by Captain Scupperplug and his men,
as they crept slowly towards the estuary, being in no hurry to enter
until after sunset, and ere that time, along summer day, they knew,
must intervene, so every sail of any apparent size was carefully
edged away from.
I am doubtful whether the real name of this famous old Scottish
smuggler was ever recorded, as, among seamen, he was always known
as Captain Sanders Scupperplug, or old Puerto-de-la-Plata, having
been one of the five British seamen who took that place by surprise
an event in his life, concerning which, he spun many a tough
yarn, over his can of grog ashore, and in the long watches of the
night at sea.
He was a thick- set, stunted, and truculent, but withal, seamen-
like personage ; he wore a low three-cocked hat, edged with tar-
nished lace ; his thick grizzled hair, of no particular colour, was
crusted with saline particles and queued with spunyarn. He had
a short blue, stiff- skirted and collarless coat, buttoned up to his
throat, and garnished with several rows of gilt buttons on the
wide cuffs and square flapped pockets. A broad leather belt girt
his waist, and sustained a long knife or dagger.
The slash of a cutlass had traversed his right cheek, imparting a
sinister glare to his eyes, by the consequent contraction of the
muscles, and his nose having been carefully slit by the Spaniards,
when he was a prisoner in Hispaniola, made his aspect unusually
repulsive. He looked like a genuine pirate a sea-faring bull dog
on his hind legs ; and had all the bearing of one who had been, as
he sometimes boasted in his cups, a powder-monkey on board the
' Vulture," under Captain William Kidd, who was hanged (for
piracy and levanting with a king's ship) at Execution Dock in the
year 1701, as all the world knew then.
The distant and dim blue wavy ridges that rose on either bow,
from the German Sea, were the hills of Fife and of Eastern Lothian,
and far away towards them, the green billows rolled merrily in the
sunshine of the early morning. The sails which appeared at the
horizon were chiefly coasters, hugging the land as they crept along,
for we were at war with France then, and no vessel of any size or
value, unless a privateer or letter of marque, ventured seaward
without a convoy.
' De vind is veering bore aft,' snivelled the mate, Vander Pier-
boom, who was steering. lie was a short, squat, and ferocious-
looking Hollander, who might very well have passed for the twin
brother of his captain, as has nasal protuberance had been hope-
THE WHITE COCKADE. 3
lessly smashed by a half-spent shot at Puerto-de-la-Plata, and his
cheeks had been spritsail- yarded by an arrow on the coast of Africa.
' More aft,' exclaimed Scupperplug, with one of the dreadful and
useless oaths then in vogue ; ' and it is freshening too ; Mnhoun !
we'll be inside the bay before the middle watch is over, and that
winna suit our plans. Lower the yards ! take in sail ; and, hearkee,
you young limb of Satan, Jule Leroux '
' Yes, sare,' cried a little French mulatto boy, tumbling hurriedly
out of the boat where he had been asleep.
' Shake loose the ensign.'
' Which, monsieur ?'
1 The union, d n it, and you too ! Up with it, chock-a-block.'
From a bundle of bunting, composed of the flags of all nations,
the boy hurriedly and nervously, as if he already felt the captain's
colt across his tawny shoulders, selected one, bearing the red cross
of England, behind the white saltire of Scotland (the emerald isle
had, as yet, no share in that parti-coloured conglomeration of crosses,
the Union Jack), and it was run up to the head of the taper main-
mast, for Captain Scupperplug was prepared to pass himself off as
a trader from Lerwick, Thurso, or the Hans Towns, if questioned
by any one in authority, for ships' logs and papers were not kept so
strictly then as now.
Hitherto the gallant Captain Scupperplug had been sailing under
a most cunningly devised assortment of colours which belonged to
no nation in particular and were only intended to mystify, at a dis-
tance, any king's officer, but more especially Captain Beaver of the
' Fox ' frigate, whom it was now the smuggler's chief object to
avoid, as in addition to a contraband cargo, he had on board two
passengers, who were eminently obnoxious to the British govern-
ment, and after landing whom in safety, a certain authority at Dun-
kirk, was to pay him the sum of fifty louis d'or, over and above all
expenses.
Great Britain was then, I have said, at war -with France. She
had been so since 1744, and also with Spain since 1739 at war,
moreover, for sundry remarkable causes which did not concern the
simple and tax-paying people of these realms a single jot.
The emperor, Charles VI. of Germany, had died in 1740, and the
French caused the Bavarian elector to be crowned in his place,
thus stripping of her inheritance, his daughter, the famous empress
Queen of Hungary. Prussia pounced on Silesia ; France, Saxony,
and Bavaria, attacked the rest of her dominions ; but Britain with
Holland, and soon after, Russia, united in her favour.
We islanders had no apparent cause to meddle in this continental
squabble ; but then the good and well-being of Hanover, and the
security of that petty Electorate, so well beloved at the Court of
St. James', depended upon a nice balance of the hostile interests of
the German Empire. The servile English ministry were willing to
gratify George II. and his hideous mistresses by making an essay
12
4 IDE WHITE COCKADE.
in its favour. A few millions of gold, a few thousand British lives
were nothing when Hanover was menaced ; so to war we went, with
a will, as usual. Our troops soon made a diversion in favour of
Maria Theresa, and the nominal emperor had to fly to Frankfort,
where he lived in obscurity all of which, being history, is perhaps
not new to the reader.
Hanover was preserved, the real object of our interference ; but
still the war went on by sea and land, a state of affairs which made
no difference to the adventurous Captain Scupperplug, who,
favoured by the fog, had stolen out of Dunkirk, end escaping the
fleet of Rear- Admiral Byng, then cruising off the north and east
coasts of Scotland, had arrived safely, aa yet, with a good cargo of
brandy and sherry, almost within sight of the Isle of May.
'If overhauled by a shark of a king's ship, these passengers of
ouw will add muckle to our risk o' being tacked up by the craig,'
remarked the captain, in a growling tone, to his mate ; ' and in
this bit lugger we canna hide them. Mahoun take it ! the cabin
is little better than the sautbacket o' the Crail fisher boat.'
' Hide deni no, unless under de vater, vid a gannon shot at dcro
veet,' suggested the cruel Dutchman ; ' dree time, hab I said, dey
had better valk de plauk, dan add to our beril by dere bresence
aboard!'
' No no, d n it, Vander Pierboom ; think of the fifty louis
d'or ; they are worth that muckle, ye dour Dutch devil.'
' Bud who de Henkers, are dey ? :
' Dinna fash your thumb aneut that, mate. They are some o'
those will turn the world upside doon, I hope ere long, and then,
Mahoun ! we shall have nae ships o' the German Elector poking
their snouts in Scottish waters. The mangy white horse o' Hano-
ver may the devil gie it the glanders ! will have to keep ashore,
or on its ain side o' the German sea.'
' Oho I zee I zee,' said the mate, putting a thick finger to
where his nose once had been ; ' dev are Jagobites vat you call
eh? 1
' Aye, aye, just sac but keep her away, Vander Pierboom,' said
Scupperplug, who had been looking long and intently through an
old battered telescope, well served round with spun-yarn, at a grey
object that was slowly rising from the horizon : ' keep the coast of
East Lothian well aboard, for that is the May already, or I'm a
Dutchman !'
' Bearing about dwendy vive mile off, or so,' said the Hollander,
whose flattened nose sorely impeded his pronunciation.
' Exactly sae keep her away three points more to the south' ard
par los infernos, the mair sea-room we gie our bit barky the
better,' added the captain, whose language was a strange compound
of English and Scotch, interspersed with foreign oaths, picked up
chiefly in the Spanish main ; ' with the hail o' a lang summer day
before us, every hour adds to our danger, so keep a bright look-out,
TEE WHITE COCKADl. 5
lads, or by the Honker's horns, we may never see the auld timmcr
forts o' Dunkirk agaiu! Jule Leroux, are those gentlemen below
stirring yet ?'
'Oui Monsieur le Captaine,' replied the boy, eying the colt, a
piece of knotted rope which hung half out of the skipper's right
hand pocket.
' Then get ready some coffee, dashed with Nantz ; and look sharp,
ye French baboon, or it will be the worse for ye !'
He now took up his heavy pistols (which were barrelled and
mounted with brass) from the binnacle ; after looking carefully to
the flints and priming, he placed them in his broad black leather
girdle, and buttoned his rough pilot coat over them. He then
bellowed something hoarsely down the companion hatch into the
little cabin of the lugger.
Voices responded cheerfully from below, and two gentlemen soon
after hurried on deck ; and, with faces expressive of joy and anima-
tion, bade him and Mynheer Vander Pierboom good morning, all
unaware of the latter' s kind suggestion for dropping them quietly
overboard, each with a cold shot at his heels.
Then they looked eagerly around at the bright green waves danc-
ing merrily past in the summer sunshine, and at the stripe of dis-
tant coast, that rose on either bow, as the lugger, under her reduced
canvas, bore slowly, but steadily on, rolling a little from side to
side, as she was now trimmed before the wind.
CHAPTER II.
ATTAINTED.
' 0, the tod rules owre the Uon,
And the midden's abonn the moon,
80 Scotland maun cower and cringe
To a fause and foreign loon :
weary fa' the piper chiel
Wha sells his breath sae dear ;
And weary fa' the evil time
The Orange Prince cam' here.' Old Song.
Jy stature both these strangers were above the middle height, and
were well built and well knit in figure. One wore his light brown
hair unpowdercd, and simply tied by a white ribband ; he was dark-
blue eyed, and oval-faced, eminently handsome, courtly iu bearing,
and certainly not more than flve-and-twenty years of age.
The other, who wore a Eamillies wig and jack boots, which
seemed to have seen better days, was stouter in form and darker in
complexion, having been bronzed by exposure to the weather in
many a foreign land. His forehead was well marked by the lines
of thought, and his dark eyes wore usually a stern, sharp, and en-
quiring expression, though the form of his mouth signified extreme
6 tnE WHITE COCKADE.
good nature. He was more than twenty years the senior of his
companion, like whom he wore a plain light green frock, without
lace or ornament on the pockets or loose wide cuffs, fastened in
front by a row of silver clasps, and girt at the waist by a plain
black leather girdle, at which hung his sword and a pair of small
silver mounted pistols, from two steel hooks. From the chasings
of these pistols, a coat of arms had been carefully effaced.
Though simply known as Captains Douglas and Mitchell ' Cap-
tain ' as Gibbet has it ' being a good travelling title, and one
that kept waiters and ostlers in order,' the younger was Henry
Douglas, Lord Dalquharn,* of the Holm, in the Stewartry of Kirk-
cudbright, a near kinsman of the gallant Viscount Kinmure, who
perished on the scaffold for the House of Stuart ; and the elder was
Sir John Mitchell, Bart., of Pitreavie, in former times a Captain of
the Scots Grey Dragoons both attainted and outlawed for their
steady adherence to their native line of kings and both now re-
turning to Scotland on a mission fraught with peril to themselves,
for if discovered, the axe and gibbet awaited them.
Each lifted his little low triangular hat with studious politeness
to the squat skipper, and then waved as if in welcome to the dis-
tant coast.
'So land is in sight at last, my old cock of Puerto-de-la-Plata?'
exclaimed Sir John Mitchell.
' The Lammer-Muirs, Captain Douglas, will soon rise on the port
bow ; yonder is the Isle of May, and a point or so further north,
are Fifeness and Kilmcinie Craig : I daresay you'll ken them, Cap-
tain Mitchell/ said the smuggler, good naturedly, for he was too
much of a Scotsman not to sympathise with the expression which
he read in the handsome faces of the returning exiles as they looked
towards the land of their birth and of their dearest hopes.
' Fifeness and Kilmeinie,' repeated Sir John Mitchell, thought-
fully, as he shook his head.
Aye, sir coming from the other side o' the sea running south
frae the Red Head of Angus, or the Inclicape Rock, we've to gie
that long reef the Carr-rocks a wide berth north longitude 56 16',
west latitude 2 34'. Ilech, sirs ! rnony a stout ship as ever sailed
the sea, hath had her timbers torn on those devil's teeth.'
Without hearing the skipper's remarks, the eyes of the elder
passenger were Cxed earnestly on the dim blue stripe of coast.
' For thirty years," said he, in a low voice, ' my eyes have looked
on other lands ; and now now I cannot tell what is coming over
me, but my heart is very full, Dalquharn very full, indeed ! Egad
so many things have happened, and 1 have seen so much of the
busy world, that ages seem to have elapsed since I was out with n:y
Lord the Earl of Mar in the '15, and now I hope we are on the eve
of going out again.'
* Pronounced Dalwharn, in Scotland.
THE WHITE COCKADtf. 7
Lord Dalquharn smiled at this significant phrase, which is always
used in Scotland to express having joined the House of Stuart, just
as in Ireland, to say having been ' up,' signified being engaged in
the affair of '98 ; but Lord JJalquharn's smile was a bitter one, and
his ungloved hand was tightly clenched in the carved steel hilt of
his slender little walking sword, a farewell gift from Prince Charles
Edward.
The late Lord, his father, had first embroiled himself with the
intrigues of the cabinet of St. Germains at the time of the accession
of George II. ; some thirteen years before, he had also in his place
in Parliament as a representative peer, resented too bitterly the
severe and shortsighted proceedings of the ministry in the matter of
the Porteous mob, and used such strong language in his protest
against the removal of the gates and portes of Edinburgh, that he
had to make his escape from London. A summons from the privy
council he treated with disdain, and repairing to St. Germains with
his lady (a Gordon of the House of Keninure) and their son, the
little Master of Dalquharn ; ere long he found his title forfeited,
his name proscribed, and his estates gifted to a truculent whig-
noble, who had been deeply implicated in the Glencoe Massacre and
the Treaty of Union, having sold his vote for the same sum as the
patriotic Lord Chancellor Seafield to wit 490.
Now, his only hope and heir stood a beggar and a fugitive on the
deck of an obscure smuggling lugger, but full of anticipations of
better and more glorious days, when, as his companion whose
hostility to the government was of much older date phrased it,
' King Jamie should cock up his beaver in old Holyrood.'
1 You are very silent, Dalquharn,' said Mitchell ; ' of what are you
thinking ?
' I am thinking of my father and of my mother, who sleep by old
King James's side in the chapel of St. Germain-en-Laye.'
' Loyal still in death !'
' Yea loyal still ! If the dead king were to come forth, he
might hold royal state again, so many true and gallant Scottish and
Irish hearts are mouldering near him that is, if their blessed
spirits do not, as I hope, find eternal rest.'
' Come, come, Gadamercy ! you must not sink into a dolorous
mood, with the land in sight and Byng's fleet we know not where.
Egad ! I can smell the hot coffee of our little yellow friend, Leroux.'
' I have not your elasticity of spirits, my dear Sir John, though
twenty years your junior,' replied the young lord. 'Viewing my
country as I do, through the medium of her past history, with ail
her wrongs and romance, her heroes and their struggles against the
aggressive kings of England through the medium of her poetry
and her music glorying as I do in the name of a Scottish man,
never more tlian when exiled as a loyal cavalier and desperate sol-
dier of fortune, enduring penury, obloquy and affronts, feeding my-
self in foreign camps and cities, with the last relic of my inherit-
8 THE WHITE COCKADE.
mice, my sword, the prince's gift, I now feel swelling np within
me a flood of enthusiasm a crowd of thoughts too deep for utter-
ance, on seeing again those dear old mountains rising from the sea,
though we are returning, it may be, but to find our graves among
them.'
' Thoughtless as you deem me, Dalquharn," said the other, as he
caught something of the young lord's enthusiasm, ' I felt once like
you ; I was a boy then, a gallant and joyous boy, at an age when no
grief could crush hope, and no sneering monitor could quell or damp
the glorious glow of ambition and romance ! Now '
' Well and now ?'
' Matured, saddened and soured by stern experience, and many a
time by grinding poverty, I view the world with very different
eyes ; yet am I hopeful still, otherwise I should not have come in
such doubtful guidance, on this, our desperate errand. But zounds !
e'en now, man, I think I can see Pitreavie, my old ancestral home
in the cosy East Neuk of Fife, embosomed among deep primeval
woods. I can hear the rooks cawing on its Imge square chimneys,
and the creak of the vanes on its turret tops, mingling with a song
my mother used to sing to me long, long ago to me and my three
brave brothers who fell at Sheriffrnuir for King James. Black dool
and woe be on that day, and yet she grudged them not in such a
cause, for she was a Kirkaldy of the House of Grange. The old
Bong is in my ears, and in my heart now,
'" And with it comes a broken fount
Of tears I deemed was dry ;
Auld faces, voices, come as wont,
And will not pass me by 1"
'Yet with (3-od's help and King James's favour, we may all brook
our own lands again, and lie at last in our forefathers' graves, Sir
John.'
' So time will prove, my lord ; I think the cold-blooded massacre
in G-lencoe, the bankruptcy of Darien, when two thousand Scotch-
men perished to gratify Spanish cruelty and English jealousy, the
studied violations of the treaty of union, the restoration of patron-
age, our defeats at Carthagena and elsewhere, have surely given
Scotland a surfeit of Dutch stadtholders and German electors !'
The homely odour of fried ham and eggs, ascending from the lit-
tle cabin of the lugger, coupled with the captain's warning that
breakfast awaited them, now lured the friends below. As they
descended, Yunder Pierboom, who had been watching them atten-
tively as they stood far aft on the pinck built stern, and who had
been endeavouring to follow their conversation, of which, however,
lie could make nothing, now twitched one of the captain's wide
cuffs as lie was about to descend backwards into the cabin.
' Sgiippcrblug,' snivelled the noseless Dutchman, in a whisper
' you are to get fifty Louis ober and above your bassago money for
dese gentilmeiisb. cli ?'
THE WHITE COCEAIiE. 9
1 Yes fifty Louis, and what tlicu ?' growled his commander, im-
patiently.
1 You might get de Louis at Dunkirk, and ebber so ver inoeh
more here, if '
'If what, you infernal Dutch lubber out with it, hand owro
hand.'
' You zold 'em to de government as voreign spiesh dis would
be to gain doubleonsh on both handsh.'
' Nae rnair o' this to me, mate, and whisper but a word o't among
the crew, and I'll make shark's meat o'ye ! Makoun what ? sell
the puir fellows to the Elector's shambles, when within sight o'
their ain peat reek !' he added, with a terrible imprecation upon
his own eyes and limbs. ' Na, na damme ! I done mony a strange
thing in my time in the Spanish main and elsewhere ; but I'll never
be Judas enough to act like a vile Scotch whig, and sell the man
who trusts me. Keep a sharp look out while I'm below, Vander
Pierboom haul out the jib to keep her steady, and keep silence for-
ward, or cuidado del cuchilla as we used to say on the Plate river,
which in plain Scots, means, beware the jagg o' a Kilmaur's whittle !'
With this significant threat, and a very sinister flash in his eye?,
Captain Scupperplug's ugly visage vanished through the companion
hatch.
An angry scowl passed over the flat face of the avaricious Dutch-
man, and he dragged his hat by the fore cock, sullenly over his eyes.
He made no reply as he slunk aft, but he had his own thoughts and
intentions nevertheless.
He seated himself on thetaffrail,lit his huge pipe, and proceeded
to consider how, without involving himself with his captain, of
whom he had a wholesome terror, he could convert the two unsus-
pecting ' bassengcrs,' into the current coin of Great Britain.
CH APT Ell III.
THE YAHN OF CAITAIS SCCPrEBPLFO.
4 Oft liad he shewn, in climes afar,
Each attribute of roving war ;
The sharpened ear, the piercing eye,
The quick resolve in danger nigh ;
The upend, that in the flight or clmse
Outstripped the Charib's rapid race ;
On Arawaca's desert shore,
Or where I. a Plata's billows roar,
AVhen oft the sons of vengeful Spain
Tracked the marauder's steps in vain.' Sokeby.
To avoid all questioning as to their plans or objects in returning
home, the two companions were pursuing a course they had con-
jnnctly adopted during their rapid and hitherto safe voyage from
Dunkirk, by enquiring of Captain Scupperphig the adventures of
Id THE WHITE COCKADE.
bis early life, and thus being generally full of himself and his own
affairs, he was never weary of ' spinning yarns ' of a very savage
nature, certainly, but incident to his voyages in the West Indies and
along the Spanish Main between the Isthmus of Panama and the
Serpent's Mouth.
With these episodes of reckless piracies by sea, of open cities
sacked by land, of vast treasures, plate, jewels, doubloons and pieces
of eight, buried on lonely isles, among the sands of Peru or the
palm forests of Tortuga buried with a murdered Spaniard or Negro,
whose spirit was supposed to haunt and guard the spot : stories of
Adventurous hearts ! who bartered bold
Their English steel for Spanish gold/
lie mingled superstitions, wild, and gloomy, of haxmted ships that
sailed in the wind's eye with all their canvas set, or were manned
by demon crews ; of the Flying Dutchman, and St. Elmo's Light;
of bags of magic wind, sold by ' black and midnight hags,' in the
Scottish Hebrides or Scandinavian Fiords ; and many a tale he told
them, too, of the ferocious Buccaneers with whom he had served in
the Windward Isles ; of the terrible reprisals made on each other
by the English and Spaniards, when no mode of cruelty, of mutila-
tion or torture was deemed too exquisite or terrible ; and of men
marooned on the lonely keys off the mountainous Isle of Hispaniola,
or in the mangrove creeks of Tobago, for transgressing the iron
statutes of the Buccaneers, and there left to perish miserably of
hunger and thirst, or by wild animals.
1 A rare ruffian this !' said Dalquharn, in a whisper to his friend ;
' I would we were on shore, or safe out of his hands.'
His favourite reminiscence, one to which he was never tired of
recurring, was the capture of Puerto de la Plata in South Ameri-
ca ; and on this morning, when after liberally dashing his coffee
with Nantz, he took to imbibing Nantz alone, or very slightly dashed
with water, he was unusually fluent on the subject.
' Ye are to ken, sirs,' said lie, ' that in the year after war was de-
clared against Philip V. of Spain, I had shipped on board the
" Eothesay Castle " a Privateer of Glasgow, Captain John Hall,
master and owner, a stout mariner and near kinsman to the Laird
of Dunglas. She carried eight cai-riage and fourteen swivel guns,
with a crew of forty men, the very flower of the Clyde. By yellow
fever, and the fortune (or rather misfortune) of war, our crew had
dwindled down to only twenty-five hands, when in the spring of the
year, we found ourselves cruising off the mouth of the Plate Eiver;
but we had aboard plenty of ammunition, powder, and shot, which
we took out of a Spanish sloop, that we scuttled with all her hands
in her, off the east end of Hispaniola.'
'What with all her hands on board?' said Lord Dalquharn j
'did they make no resistance?'
' Troth did they ; but a cold pistol barrel applied to ilka man's
THE WHITE COCKADB. 11
ear, and a couple shot down for example, made them mute as her-
rings,' replied the captain, who relinquished much of his local dia-
lect, as he wanned with his subject ; ' so down went the " San An-
tonio de las Animas," with all her crew.'
' The poor creatures would swim, of course ?'
'May be aye, and may be no,' said the other laughing.
'How?' '
' They might have swam for a time, had we not tied them back to
back. Mahoun, sirs ! the loons were only Spaniards, and they sune
droon ye ken. Well then we were off the Puerto de la Plata,
and though we had only twenty-five hands on board, Captain Hall
resolved to capture the town. Yet it had a petty fort, and about a
thousand of a white population.'
' With only twenty -five followers ?' exclaimed Sir John Mitchell,
incredulously.
' He did it with /our, of whom I was one, and Vander Pierbooin
might have been another, but he was our gunner, and was required
aboard. Blazes! we weren't to eat even the Elector's mouldy bis-
cuits, for nothing, and we kenned wcel, sirs, that there was a
mighty mint of treasure, gold, silver, and ingots, to say nothing
of some black-eyed Spanish wenches, to be had in the town, -when
once we had made ourselves masters of the port, that commanded
it, on a bit knowe, uae bigger than Berwick Law.
' The weather was hot so hot that we could scarcely drink our
grojr, for the water became as bilge in the casks, so we mixed it by
the rule of thumb, which gave us three parts of rum to one of
water. We were like parched peas ; our pistol barrels grew hot in
our girdles, and our cutlass blades in their leather sheaths. The
but tor was served out by the purser in pint stoups, and all alive wi'
cockroaches, fireflies, and weevils, so we longed for a day's run
ashore among the wine shops, and our mouths watered, when we
thought of the purple grapes and juicy melons, of bright doubloons,
and brighter Spanish eyes in La Plata.
' Under French colours, the three fleurs-de-lys, we came to anchor
with a spring upon our cable, within cannon shot of the town. We
had our guns double-shotted with round and grape, but kept all the
ports closed, and all the hands, save seven, were sent below, when
Captain Hall quitted the ship (which had all the appearance of a
quiet merchant trader), taking with him in the jolly boat only four
men, of whom, as I have said, I was one.
' We went straight to the Caza de la Villa, which in the Spanish
lingo, means the town house, and there we saw the Alcalde and
Archbishop of La Plata, to whom the captain gave himself out to
be trader from Martinique in the Windward Isles, laden with a
mixed cargo, which he was anxious to sell speedily, to save it from
the rascally British privateers, particularly from the " Rothesay
Castle," of Glasgow, which had done such damage to the Spanish
shipping among the Bahamas, and in the Gulf of Mexico and I
12 THE WHITE COCKADE.
could see, that at the name of our sliip, the Spaniards twisted up
the nioustnohios and ground their teeth.
'The Captain invited the Archbishop and Alcade to come on
board, and, as our boat was small, and would hold only those two,
in addition to ourselves, they were simple enough to come off alorie
with us.
' When seated in the cabin, over a glass of Alicant, Captain Hall
enquired, as if casually, " what manner of man, the governor of tho
fort was and whether they thought he would purchase a portion
of the cargo."
' Suspecting no evil and believing in Captain Hall's French, which,
to say the least of it, was queer enough, the Alcade wrote a letter to
the Senor Gobernador, whom he averred to be a brave and true
Hidalgo from old Spain ; and the moment he pouched it, Captain
Hall blew his whi.-lle ! Then before our two lion Spaniards knew
exactly what had happened, they were both tied back to back, gagged
with ropeyarn, and stowed away in the cable-tier, with their legs
padlocked in the bilboes.
" Taking the letter of introduction, Captain Hall and the four of
us, all armed with our cutlasses and each with two pair of long Scots
iron pistols under our coats, shoved off once more in the jolly boat.
Hound his waist, the Captain wore a British ensign, by way of a sash.
' " Now my lads," said he, " stand by for squalls, when you see this
flying on the fort. Vander Pierboom, have the ports triced up, the
guns run out, and ready to heave shot, shell, crossbar, slugs and
stinkballs into the town, and fear not, shipmates, the place will be
our own, for as long as we want it."
'Though the town had only about a thousand Spanish inhabitants,
they possessed sixty times that number of Tributary Indians ; in the
neighbourhood were many rich mines, and the revenue of the Arch-
bishop was estimated at eighty thousand ducats yearly.
' We had, ilk man of us, a stiff jorum of new England rum under
our belts, sweet with molasses, fiery and strong ! We were in high
spirits and ready to face Mahoun himself, so away we went to the
fort, an old stronghold of the Buccaneers, which the Spanish govern-
ment had rebuilt and strengthened.
' Our captain was introduced to the Spanish commandant, a tall,
sallow fellow, with long black moustachios, solemn eyes, and a
doublet of sad coloured serge slashed with white cotton for coolness.
He carefully read tho letter of the chief magistrate, made the Cap-
tain several low bows, invited him to luncheon, while we kicked our
heels in the verandah without and counted the Spanish guard,
which we found to consist of twenty ill-armed men exactly one for
each pistol shot we could give.
'The moment the Captain and Governor were alone, the former
clapped a pistol to the head of the latter, and swore that he would
blow his braius out, if he made the least sound or resistance.
' The Don sullenly gave up his sword, and permitted his hands
THE W11ITE COCKADE. 13
and his mouth too, to be secured by a few fathoms of line which
the Captain had in his pocket. We then rushed on the soldiers of
the guard, who, never expecting an attack, were smoking drowsily
under the shady verandah. We shot down all who failed to escape ;
closed the gates and hoisted the Union in place of the Red and
Yellow of Castile and Leon. Then we heard a cheer from the
" Rothesay Castle," mingling with a murmur from the people in
the town below.
' " Hurrah, my lads !" cried the Captain, " you'll find this better
work than loading with boucan at Monte Video, and filling the
forehold with hides and horns !"
' The privateer's ports were now instantly triced up and all her
battery brought to bear on the town, while we opened a fire from
the guns of the fort. The inhabitants finding themselves exposed
to a cannonade by sea and hind, and ignorant of the force in possession
of the castle, fled from the place in great numbers, and in less than
ten minutes, our shells and rockets set the town in flames. We then
spiked the guns in the fort, threw all the arms into a deep well, blew
up the magazine, and on being joined by a party of the crew, plun-
dered the town at our leisure, the cowardly Spaniards flying before
us in all directions.
' For twelve hours we were masters of La Plata we twenty-fire
British seamen !
' By shot and shell, we killed more than two hundred persons in
the streets, and spared none who came in our way, for you must
bear in mind, sirs, that those same Spaniards had cut off the noses,
ears and lips of many of our countrymen, and thereafter, hanged,
drowned, or roasted them, for it was the fashion to use English
prisoners so, in that part of the world, and will be so while this war
lasts.
' We got fifty wedges of silver and dollars to the value of 6000
sterling. My own share was but five hundred pistoles, with a gold
cup and some silver crucifixes which I found iu the cathedral ; but
I soon lost all my plunder among the slop-dealers and dickybirds at
home, who in three hours, stripped me of what took as many years
of privateering to gain.
' \Ve brought off a few Spanish girls, but we soon tired of their
company and sent them ashore, some days after, together with the
Alcalde and the Archbishop, as we rounded the Cabo de Santa Maria,
where the old Tower of the Wolves stands ; and then bidding good-
bye to the River of Silver, we hauled up for Britain, and bore away
with every inch of canvas spread, for if taken, after our late prank,
every man of us would have been strung up, or sent in chains to dig
in the mines of San Luis de Potosi.
' After a splendid run of about six weeks we cast anchor in the
Clyde, our pockets well lined with Spanish, and luckily just as the
last allowance of mouldy biscuit and rancid boucan beef was brought
14 THE WHITE COCKADE.
from the storeroom ; so that's my yarn, gentlemen, of how we took
Puerto de la Plata." *
Captain Scupperplng had barely concluded his story of an event
which made a great noise in its time, when the deep bass voice of
the Dutch tnate came hollowly down the companion hatch.
' Below there ?'
' Hilloah !' responded his commander.
' A large square rigged vessel is standing down the river close
hauled wit all her larboard tacks aboard ; and may I never zee de
Keysers Q-raght of Amsterdam, or smoke a bibe at de Haarl Poort
again, if she be not de Vox Vrigate !'
' The Fox frigate !' said Mitchell.
' The devil !' exclaimed Dalquharn.
This startling announcement made Captain Scupperplug and his
two passengers spring on deck, and there sure enough, about ten
miles distant, was a large square rigged ship, exhibiting a great
spread of canvas which shone white as snow in the sunshine against
the blended blue of sea and sky. She was running south-east on
the larboard tack, towards the coast of Haddingtonshire, and did
not display a pennant, but, by the telescope, a broad scarlet ensign
could be discovered at her gaff peak, and ere long her tier of guns,
her three great poop-lanterns, and a colour flying on the jack-stalF,
which all large vessels had then rigged on the bowsprit, just above
the cap or spritsail yard-appurtenances, somewhat too inan-o'-war
like to be pleasant.
This alarming sight created some consternation on board the
lugger ; noon was barely past, and she had been creeping slowly up
the Firth, with her lugsails half-hoisted to gain time, ere night fell.
' On a wind she could never overtake us,' said Scupperplug, who
alone preserved his confidence, for even the faces of Lord Dalquharu
and Sir John Mitchell wore an expression of extreme concern.
1 If she should prove to be the " Fox," and insist on over-hauling
us ?' suggested the latter apprehensively.
' I've nae wish to come within range of her guns, for some of our
hands might be pressed,' the skipper replied in a low voice, ' and
then there is no saying what the devil, or the hope of escape, might
lead them to discover. Bear away towards Tyningham Sands ! By
the horns o' Mahoun, I'll beach the lugger and then blow her up,
rather than surrender !'
' Her boats might pursue you into shoal water,' suggested Lord
Dalquharn, whose thoughts ran chiefly on his being taken prisoner,
and the blasted hopes, the deadly perils that would be sure to
1 * 'If Captain Hall,' says a journalist of the time, when writing of this re-
markable affair, 'could take the town and fort of Porto de la Plata with four men
only, why are not some land forces immediately sent him ? Is there any reason
in the world to doubt, but that such a brave and experienced officer, with a file
or two of musketeers, which might easily be spared off St. James's Guard, would
soon make himself master of all the Spanish dominions in America, and thereby
enable us to command a peact upon our own terms ?' Scots Magazine, 1740.
THE WHITE COCKADE. 15
follow such a catastrophe, for already the castle of Edinburgh
and the Tower of London held in thraldrom several of the sus-
pected.
' Boat or no boat, if yawl or pinnace were to come off wi' marines
and small-arm men, I wadna strike my colours without fighting
d n me if I would !' exclaimed Seupperplug, whose eyes shot fire,
while his face crimsoned with rage, and the sword-cut in his right
cheek grew almost black, for he had all the courage of a bull-dog,
and his spirit seemed to rise in proportion to the danger ; " mast-
head the yards sail trimmers to the tacks and braces ; bring the
sheets more aft, and keep in shore for Tyningham Sands. Cast
loose the guns load wi' a round shot, and a bag of nails and mus-
ket bullets in each ! Quick, Vander Pierboom ; and bring up the
small arms, lads, hatchets and pikes ; we'll be ready anyway, for
we dinna ken what kind o" night-birds may await us in shore, and
for a' we see, we may be running out of the latitude of Hell, into
that of Hecklebirnie a place that is hotter still !'
The great quadrilateral sails of the lugger were fully hoisted now.
and her course was trimmed more southward ; the perpendicular
cliffs of the Isle of May, all whitened by sea-birds, began to grow
fainter on her lee quarter, while the steep green cone of North
Berwick Law, the giant precipices of the Bass Eock, and all the
iron-bound shore that rises between Tyningham Sands and Tan-
tallon, became more defined and dark ahead.
Already the bluff promontory of Dunbar, with the red round
towers of its ancient castle, and the wild waves foaming white
against its rugged rocks, could be discerned, when to the great
relief of all on board of none so much, perhaps, as Lord Dalqu-
harn and his friend, though they were without secret papers or
cyphers of any kind to compromise them save one concealed in
the former's scabbard the headsails of the large ship they were so
anxiously avoiding, were seen to shiver in the wind ; the jib sheet was
let fly ; her tacks and sheets were lifted ; and her yards swung round
in rapid succession, as they were braced on the other tack. She
altered her course, bearing away to the northward ; and long before
the lugger had crept past the promontory, still marked by the old
ruined tower of Scougal, and where, as the old legend avers, St.
Baldred's boat remained fixed as a rock amid the suvf, she was hull
down, and had melted into the evening sea and sky.
16 THE WHITE COCKADE.
CHAPTER IV.
FATHER TESTIMONY.
' Old Linstock, I swear, you are no fnir weather spark,
Your bull-dogs, my bleacher, must bite if they bark,
We soon may fall in with a custom-house shark,
Success to the free trade for ever !
' I've landed the stuff when the tempest howled high,
Not a light on the beach, nor a star in the sky ;
The cruisers ! the lubbers, they're all in my eye,
Good luck to the free trade for everl'
David Vedder.
THE sun had sunk beyond the Lomond hills, and the long, lovely
and undulating line of the Fifeshire coast looked dark and gloomy ;
but the vast expanse of the estuary still reflected the ruddy flush
that lingered in the western sky, when the lugger passed through
the deep channel that lies between the stupendous Bass Rock and
the formidable bluff, which is crowned by an open and roofless ruin,
that in its prouder and earlier days had been a chief stronghold of
the turbulent Douglasses. The wild and rugged precipices here are
of the darkest iron hue, their summit covered by the vast fortress,
'Broad, massive, high and stretching far,
Aud held impregnable in war ;'
their bases, whitened in the foam of the ever restless German Sea.
The lugger had fallen to leeward and lost much way, during the
supposed chase or escape from the suspected war-ship, and she was
now standing up to the Firth of Forth, which there is some twelve
miles broad, before a very faint breeze, for the wind had almost died
away as the sun went down. The coast line was rapidly becoming
dark as indigo against the horizon, but here and there red-lights
twinkled in the windows of the cottages and farm-houses along the
cliffs.
As she stood along the rocky shore, Captain Sanders Scupperplug
and his flat-nosed mate, Mynheer Vander Pierboom, swept it in
vain, again and again with their telescopes, for a certain little red flag
on Scougal point, or on Tantallou ruins, which lie a Scottish mile
further to the westward, and also, as the twilight deepened, for a
lantern which was usually waved in a secret and mysterious manner
at Bainslaw, to indicate that the coast was clear for a safe run of
their cargo into the cavern at Seacliff, and certain other places
better known to the smuggler than to the collectors of His Majesty's
customs. They were now rounding the dangerous sunken rocks of
Greenlesly, and already the lights of the little town of North Ber-
wick were twinkling on their larboard bow.
The total absence of all the expected signals filled the two
worthies with a perplexity which found vent in numerous oaths and
imprecations uttered against themselves, and a personage whom
they designated ' old Father Testimony.'
THE WHITE COCKADE. 17
By the Treaty of Union, Scotland had immediately to cease im-
porting wine, brandy, fruit, and everything else produced by France,
a nation which the Jacobites were fond of boasting, had been her
ally for nearly eight hundred years, or since Charlemagne surrounded
the red lion with its double treasure of lilies. To replace this loss,
there was no remedy save that which the smugglers supplied. A
great branch of her commerce was destroyed ; much bitterness was
consequently excited, and to cheat the English exciseman to any
extent was considered patriotic and perfectly justifiable.
In their hatred of the obnoxious malt tax, which was thrust upon
the Scots in 1724, and in opposition to which, so much blood was
shed in Glasgow and elsewhere, the people saw but little harm in
smuggling a few runlets of French brandy duty free. Every facility
was afforded to the contrabandistas, and some of the very men who,
in open daylight, glorified most in the Protestant succession as by
law established, under cloud of night, while the cargo was being
safely run in some lonely islet or secluded cave on the sea shore,
consoled themselves by the reflection, that they were only cheating
the English who were their ancient enemies, and the Hanoverian
elector, who ruled where he had no right to be.
' Ready the ground tackle, mate !' cried the still perplexed cap-
tain of the lugger, ' bend the cable to the anchor, coilaway warps,
and look out for breaking bulk. We'll have to start and run the
cargo somewhere before daybreak, e'en should we heave it into the
Firth, with the runlets strung to a buoy-rope ! Launch the boat '
' Vor what burbose ?' growled the mate, through his nose, or
rather through what remained of it.
' That ye shall see,' replied Scupperplug, with one of his useless
oaths ; ' stand by the fall-tacklejump in, Leroux, you French,
devil, and clear the falls ! hoist and lower away handsomely a
wee bit bear the boat off the side push off!'
The boat was speedily lowered, and again the mate enquired for
what reason.
' The reason is this, ye Dutch lubber I am pledged to one in
Dunkirk, I wad be fain to please, to land these two gentlemen, our
passengers, safe on Scottish ground, and it shall be done at once.
If we are in dool and danger, I shall keep them out o' both if I can.'
' I thank you, Captain,' said Lord Dalquharn, who overheard the
explanation ; ' I regret to find that you deem yourself in peril, for
sooth to say, the presence of myself and friend on board, can but
add to it.'
1 1 thocht as muckle !' exclaimed Scupperplug, taking the hand
of the young lord in his hard and dingy palm ; ' but ye must have
a glass of grog wi' me ere ye go, gentlemen, to drink success to the
good old cause and the king owre the water ! To Hanover say I,
or to Hecklebirnie (and that is farther den) wi' the Elector, his
excise, and his malt tax too !'
' Why do you apprehend danger ?' asked Sir John Mitchell, who
2
18 THE WHITE COCKADB.
now perceived that the whole crew were completely armed with
cutlasses and with pistols, which they carefully loaded and flinted,
securing all the ramrods with a lanyard, in man-o'-war fashion.
' Nae signal has been made along the shore by one who awaits us,
and who must have seen us dodging about in the Firth since sun-
rise sae we kenna how the night may end,' he added, sullenly.
' I hope you will avoid bloodshed at least while we are in your
hands,' said the baronet, laughing.
' I have nae wish, Captain Mitchell, to slay ony o' God's crea-
tures, if English excisemen can be reckoned as such. But they
shall hae a bluidy lyke-wake wha meddle wi' me ! Since this Tile
incorporating Union, an anker o' brandy on the sea, or a sheep on
a hillside, hae been valued at the price o' a Scottish man's life ;
but a' tilings will be righted when King Jamie comes hame !'
' I hope so,' whispered Lord Dalquharn to his companion ; 'but
I shall thank heaven when we are rid of those repulsive wretches.'
A voice was now heard hailing the lugger, and a boat pulled by
two men, came sheering alongside.
' Lugger, ahoy ! ahoy Sanders Scupperplug !'
' Who hails ?'
' One you may be blithe to see in time, old Puerto-de-la-Plata,'
replied the other, as he dexterously caught the slack of a rope
which was thrown to him, and, after making it fast to a ring-bolt in
the bow of his boat, assisted his companion to scramble on deck.
' By my soul, it's auld Father Testimony himself !' exclaimed the
smuggler, as this man, who was muffled in a dark roquelaure, and
wore a voluminous wig, over which his hat (unflapped evidently for
disguise) was secured by a large, silk handkerchief. ' Why, in the
name of Mahoun,' he added, as they shook hands, ' did ye show us
neither light nor signal ?'
' Because the Philistines are along the whole shore frae Scougal
Point to the Castle Hill Gage, the exciseman, tide-waiters, red-
coats, and all! But we shall weather the murdering gang yet.
Ye maun e'en run for the auld place outside Craigleith, and lie to,
under the lee o' the island.'
' They have a ten-oared boat, with a pateraro in its bow, named
after Jack Gage himself.'
' Yes but the pateraro was spiked, and the boat scuttled, at
Garvy Point last night,' replied the stranger with a chuckling laugh.
' There will be no moon, aud the Lord be thanked for a dark and
gloomy night !'
'And there are red -coats, say you!'
'Even sae, Sanders.'
' A curse upon the English Sorners what seek they here ?' ex- 1
claimed the smuggler, bitterly.
'Our brandy stoups, Sanders, and ourselves, I warrant. But
we'll weather the liirimcrs yet, I say we'll weather them yet!' said
this strange visitor, striking his cane emphatically on the "deck.
THE WHITE COCKADE. 1
' They are levying black mail like sae inony hieland caterans cure
a' the country side, in the shape o' victuals and drink, which neither
they nor their king will ever pay for, I fear.'
' What is the news along shore ?'
' There was a lunar rainbow three nights ago, and that aye fore-
bodes something in these times of ours. 1
' What can it forebode, you daft carle ?'
1 Heaven forefeud, that it bode not a rising o' the clans, a plague
in the lowlands, or something to the Pagan who ruleth in Rome.'
' And so we mustn't haul up for Canty Bay ?'
' No, no.'
' And why?'
' The shore is watched, and the garrison of the Bass are on the
alert. If they saw our lights they might fire on speculation, and
alarm the hail country-side.'
' And the auld cove at Seacliff ?'
' Waur and waur still, Sanders !'
' How so ?'
' It is guarded by Captain Wyvil, with a party of Howard's foot.'
Deep oaths were muttered by the crew at this intelligence, but
he whom they called ' Father Testimony,' said :
' Then Craigleith it must be, or to sink the kegs somewhere wi' a
buoy-rope ; and you maun e'en haul your wind, Sanders heave
and weigh, get out o' this the moment the cargo is run.'
' I fully meant to do so ; but wherefore the warning, Father
Testimony ?'
'The "Fox" man-o'-war was off Fifeness, this morning '
1 Was that sail to windward of us really a king's ship after all ?'
1 Yes ; a hawk o' the Elector's.'
Again a chorus of oaths was uttered by the smugglers, who were
all Jacobites, so far as opposition to the laws went.
' She is heavily armed, and her captain is a Tartar.'
' When she altered her course, as if to overhaul us, my heart
went tick-tack, like old Mother Von Soaken's Dutch clock at the
Haarl Poort. But her crew must either have failed to see, or to
suspect us.'
1 'Twas an escape, for " were ye swifter than eagles, and stronger
than lions," as David said of Saul and Jonathan, she had overtaken
you.'
' Clap a stopper on your preaching tackle, old Testimony,' said
the skipper impatiently.
1 And now, captain, to land de bassenger,' said the Dutch mate,
coming forward.
' Passengers ! passengers !' replied he of the wig and unflapped
hat, in great trepidation, now perceiving, for the first time, the two
travellers, who appeared each with his sword at his side, his pistols
hooked to his girdle, and carrying hia mail, or small portmanteau.
'Wtiere, or how, in the name o' madness, got ye passengers, Sanders?'
20 THE WHITE COCKADE.
' At Dunkirk, Father Testimony at Dunkirk.
' Was it wise or beseeming to liae them on board ?' asked thd
other with great asperity.
' I dinna ken much about the wisdom o' the proceeding, nor do
I care either ; but they are gentlemen, who have behaved and paid
as such paid in good rix-clollars, as ever were picked up in the
Spanish Main.'
' If they land, they may fa' into the hands o' those you would
be loth should question them,' whispered the other, in a low, fierce
Toice. ' Keep them under hatch : knock them on the head do
with them as ye will, but land them not, I say, here, at all events !'
' By the hand o' my body, but you are as bad as the mate,' re-
plied the smuggler ; ' but landed they shall be,' he added, with
one of his terrible oaths, ' and in safety, too !'
' Do you ken the value o' your neck, Sanders Scupperplug ?'
' Troth, do I ! Zounds, man ! before I could seize a breaching
to a ring-bolt or becket a royal, I learned to ken that ; for even as
a biscuit-nibbler, under Captain Kidd, I served wi' a halter round
it. I never kenned a larned lingo, but I can prick off the lugger's
course on the chart ; I can handle the tiller as weel as the cutlass
and what mair is needed by me ?'
'But, Sanders if Gage, the English exciseman '
' Silence, I say !' thundered the other, ' and tempt me not to be
a greater devil than I am. I have a' the danger, and you mair than
an honest man's share o' the doubloons. Farewell, gentlemen,' he
added, turning to Lord Dalquharn and Mitchell, who had over-
heard a portion of this conversation, without in the least compre-
hending it, ' we part here, never to meet again likely but success
to you 1"
Scupperplug presented his right hand to each, and with his left
took off his old battered cocked hat as they descended into the boat.
' Pull quietly in shore, Vander Pierboom,' said he over the side,
' land then near the auld kirk on the rocks the tide is far out now :
' then pull hard for the craig, we'll need every hand when the
hatches are open.'
The time was now close upon the hour of nine in the evening ;
heavy clouds obscured the sky, and a thick vapour from the east
overspread alike the sea and land, most fortunately for the opera-
tions of the smugglers, whose lugger stood, slowly and unseen, past
the little town of North Berwick, and lay to, close by the north side
of Craigleith, one of the four desolate and rocky islets, which are
situated about a mile from the mainland. The others are named
the Ibris, the Fidra, and the Lumbay, and all are the resort of the
puffin or coulternib, the jackdaw and the black rabbit.
There is some fissure known only to themselves, the lugger's crew
resolved to conceal the cargo, while the small boat, pulled by Van-
der Pierboom and little Jules Leroux, landed their two passengers
at the place indicated by the captain, a long flat reef of rocks,
THE WHITE COCKADE. 21
covered by seaweed, which at low tide extends for several hundred
yards seaward, to the east of the old ruined church of North Ber-
wick ; and it was not until they heard the oars dipping in the
water, as the Dutchman and French mulatto boy pulled away into
the mist (the treacherous intentions of the former personage being
baffled in the hurl v burly of running the cargo), that the two forlorn
wanderers felt fully aware that they were at last on terra firma,
after a long and exciting day a day of anxiety, risk and peril be-
yond what they were quite aware of ; and they little knew, more-
over, that their troubles were only beginning.
CHAPTER V.
ON SHOBE.
' I understand you
And wish you happy in your choice ; believe It,
I'll be a careful pilot to direct
Your yet uncertain bark to a port of safety.
Margaret. So Bhall your honour savo two lives, and bind US,
Your slaves for ever !' New Way to fay Old Debts.
1 ON Scottish ground at last!' exclaimed Lord Dalquharn ; 'I was
the first to leap ashore, and so bid you welcome, Sir John Mitchell,
ere long I hope to be again of Pitreavie.'
' And I thank you, my Lord Dalquharn of the Holm,' replied
the other, lifting Ids little feather-bound hat with a politeness
that was not all jest, as he grasped his young friend's hand and
shook it with genuine warmth. ' Gorl bless the dear old land we
tread on the land of our forefathers and our forefathers' graves !
"lis thirty years ago since I stood on a Scottish hill-side or heard
the waves of a Scottish sen, Dalquharn ; but all the dreams of many
a weary day are not yet realized.'
' There are times for all things ; and the time for our long-hoped
for realization will come anon.'
' Ah, Dalquharn, I cannot describe to you, how my heart was
stirred within me, when on the march near Ter Tholen in Zeeland,
I came upon a broom bush, growing by the way-side, with all its
golden bells ! It made my thoughts, my heart rush home to the
green braes and the haunts and hills of my boyhood to many a
place I never more might see. Balmerino and I each plucked a sprig
and stuck them in our hats, and, egad, my lord, I think they gave
us more spirit than a horn of Skiedam, when three days after, wo
found ourselves under the cannon of Bergen-op-Zoom ! But,' lie
added, after a pause, ' we are our own lacqueys, having our cloaks
and mails to carry we are afoot; and now which way tend we,
for this house of Auldhame ?'
' Precisely the matter I was considering; and zounds ! but the
night groweth dark and stormy apace.'
22 THE WHITE COCKADE.
For some hundred yards they had to scramble inland, over great
and rugged masses of red sandstone rock, which the ebb-tide had
left uncovered, and which were slimy and wet, covered by tufts of
seaweed, star-fish, and incrustations of limpets. The lugger had
disappeared in the thick mist which had settled over the sea ; but
through the vapour, as through a curtain of gauze, there flared at
times a gleam from the ancient lighthouse on the Isle of May,
nine Scottish miles distant. There, on the summit of a tower forty
feet in height, a fire of coals was kept constantly burning by night.
This tower had been built by a humane Laird of Barns, in the days
of Charles I. ; but his unfortunate architect, when returning after
the completion of his work, was drowned in a tempest raised by
certain malevolent witches, who expiated the alleged crime at the
stake on Gulane Links.
A little to the right of the impromptu landing-place, between the
two exiles and the gloomy sky, rose the pointed gable of a ruined
church, upon a ridge of steep and insulated rock. This was the
fragment of what is traditionally called 'the Auld Kirk' of North
Berwick, of which the massive porch and the font, are alone re-
maining now. Then it was surrounded by graves, which year by
year the stormy waves of the encroaching German Sea have torn
away. Even the great slab which long marked the resting-place of
the Lauders of the Bass, and under which the good Sir Eobert, the
comrade of Wallace lay, lias lately been swallowed up by the ocean,
and the gothic vault in which lay the stone coffin and leaden seal
of some forgotten knight, ' Willelmi de Douglas,' has gone too.
The white waves were breaking wildly over the beach and amid
the graves of the old church ; the shore beyond looked black, deso-
late, and undefined in outline; but the two friends at last reached
the stripe of land that borders the Eastern Links, (or downs as
they would be called in England) where a high and grassy knoll,
still named the Castle Hill, bears the foundations of a fortress whose
name has long since gone to oblivion. The aroma of the yellow
flowers (crow's-foot and lady's-bed straw) which grow there among
the rushes and purple-heath bells, filled the night air ; the place
was intensely lonely, and no sound broke its stillness, but the white
waves climbing the adjacent rocks, or the pipe of the solitary sand-
rail among the brown sea ware.
' I have been at Auldliame in my boyhood,' said Lord Dalquharn,
' and I think I should know my way there ogain ; we are only
three miles or so from the place, and there, as I have stated to you
often, my father's friend, Sir Baldred Otterburn, a staunch old cava-
lier and true man, will receive us blithely and hospitably.'
'And our path '
' Lies eastward, by the old Temple-house of Rhodes, past tho
Uairlaw, the village of Castleton, and the highway that leads to the
ancient Hold of Tantallon.'
' I am glad you know our whereabouts BO well, my lord j foy
THE WHITE COCKADE. 23
Egad ! on being landed thus, we seemed not unlike two Eobinson
Crusoes, or a couple of those marooned pirates, of whom our late
friend with the euphonious name, told UB so many yarns over hi*
flip can o* nights.'
'Your pistols are loaded, I hope?'
'Yes and yours, my lord?'
1 Are charged carefully and flinted with agates ; they were a pre-
sent from the Count de Saxe at Dunkirk, so I prize them highly.'
' Arms are, unfortunately, necessary, even in our own beloved
land, for we know not what night hawks may be abroad ; but lead
the way, my lord.'
The two friends, each carrying his leathern mail, with his roque-
laure flung over his left shoulder, now struck into the highway,
which was bordered by hedgerows, avoiding the town, which was
sunk in silence, and darkness too, for not a light was visible at any
of its windows ; not a dog barked ; all was still save the dashing of
the waves on the rocks of the little harbour, and even these died
away as the travellers proceeded inland, feeling as they trod on,
with anxious, but yet with happy and hopeful hearts, that this was
but the beginning of a great end, for they were somewhat important
units in the scheme for organising a rising in favour of the House
of Stuart a rising, which Ihey well knew, was to take place in
the north, ere the summer of that year the memorable 1745
was past.
Erelong the road they were pursuing turned to the eastward, and
they found themselves again in sight of the sea, and of the dim and
distant pharos that flared in the night wind upon the summit of
the Isle of May.
They had barely proceeded half a mile in this direction, when a
man, carrying a lantern, appeared suddenly in front.
' Yoho, brothers stand !' he shouted roughly.
' 'Sdeath, but this is passing strange a footpad, and with a
light!' said Dalquharn, as he drew a pistol from his belt ; but Sir
John Mitchell, his superior in years and experience, quickly seized
his arm, for several other men, six at Isast, started from the hedge-
rows, and the blades of their cutlasses, and the butts of their pis-
tols, were seen to glitter in the rays of the lantern.
In short, the two gentlemen found themselves confronted, sur-
rounded and compelled to submit to a very humiliating interroga-
tion, the end of which they could not foresee.
' Who are you, sirs, that we find so close to the sea-shore, and
at this time of night ?' asked he of the lantern in a pure Euglish
accent.
' And harkee, fellow, who the devil are you, that dare to ask a
question so absurd ?' demanded Lord Dalquharn, haughtily.
' We are those who have the right to do so,' replied the other,
firmly and quietly.
' The right we are yet to learn that !' exclaimed the young noble
furiously.
21 THE WHITE COCKADE.
'Surrender we must search those mails you carry; if you are,
as you seem to be, gentlemen, it is strange to find you afoot here,
with your own cloak bags to carry," said the other, who had the
aspect and dress the sun-burned visage, the low cocked hat, the
peajacket, and loose canvas slops of a seafaring man. ' Sur-
render,' he added, placing his cutlass between his teeth, and very
deliberately cocking a large ship-pistol.
' Surrender zounds ! and in whose name ? ' enquired Lord
Dalquliarn.
'The name of the law, which we are sworn to maintain.'
' The law be ' Mitchell was beginning angrily with a hand
on his sword, when the Englishman said,
' In the name of the king, then.'
' Agreed we have nothing either to discover or conceal,' said
Lord Dalquharn ; ' I capitulate, provided you do not disarm ua.'
' Agreed, sirs for we may be under a mistake, after all.'
' "Tis a rascally press-gang, I believe,' said Sir John, as he blew
the priming from his pistol locks.
' We are not, sir,' replied the man with the lantern.
' Then who in the devil's name are you, and of what do you sus-
pect us ?'
' We are custom-house officers, who have all day watched a black
lugger in the offing, and we suspect you of having left her that is
all, my masters,' said a surly fellow, who had hitherto remained
silent.
For a moment the two friends gazed at each other irresolutely.
There was much for them to fear in falling into the hands of any
one in authority, and to resist might be dangerous, though the
Tacksmen of the customs and their officers, being chiefly English-
men, were most unpopular functionaries, and were not unfrequently
destroyed when opportunities offered. There were then no coast-
guard or preventive service, but the shore-masters, tide-waiters, and
other officials, were always well armed ; and those into whose cus-
tody our friends were now taken, had close at hand a few seamen
of the ' Fox' frigate.
At this time, every man who came from abroad, especially from
France, was an object of intense suspicion to the authorities in
England, and still more to those in Scotland, as he was supposed to
be infallibly a secret emissary of the Cabinet of St. Germain, or of
the Pope ; and, moreover, was not unlikely, if a Scotsman, to be
an apostate from, and enemy to that gloomy form of religion, es-
tablished by the hero of Glencoe, and secured by the treaty of
union.
Britain was at war with France, from whence they had just
come; hence Lord Palquharn and his friend found themselves in a
very awkward predicament, when seized by those custom-house
officials, who had been waiting and watching the lugger from about
Canty Bay and Seacliff, where she was usually wont to run her
cargoes.
THE WHITE COCEADB. 25
' I assure you, gentlemen,' said Lord Dalquharn, ' that your de-
tention of us is quite illegal '
' These mails '
1 Are merely our personal baggage a change of linen or so.'
'Then in that case you have nothing to fear from their ex-
amination.'
' Nothing !'
' You have come from abroad, I think ?'
1 We have,' said Dalquharn, with chilling hauteur.
' And were landed hy that lugger of old Puerto de la Plata of
Sanders Scupperplug eh ?'
'Yes "L'Etoilede la Mer," of Dunkirk but we were mere
passengers, lawful travellers.'
' You have papers, no doubt '
'Letters signed and vizzied by the conservator of Scottish
privileges at Carnpvere, and the British Ambassador what the
devil, fellow, would you have more ?'
' Many a pirate sails under false colours, gentlemen, so you must
come along with us. The admission that you have sailed aboard of
Captain Scupperplug, is almost a hanging matter in itself. But
where is that precious lugger now ?'
4 Afloat, I hope, amid yonder mist.'
'Much useful information that is ! But you must come with us
before Mr. Balcraftie."
' Who is he ?'
' The senior magistrate in the Burgh a sanctimonious old
Scotch Put, who will sift you in a fine fashion, so sure as my name
is Jack Gage.'
' Let us lose no further time, but go at once,' said Lord Dalqu-
harn, with increasing irritation, as they surrendered their mails
and roquelaures.
' An infernal scrape !' muttered Sir John Mitchell ; ' 'Sdeath, I
would we were well out of it !'
' And this is our first welcome home to Scotland to be taken
neck and heels, before some priokenred cur a canting, psalm-
singing Bailie !' exclaimed Lord Dalquharn, with irrepressible bit-
terness, as they retraced their steps along the dark road, towards
North Berwick. ' Our first night may be spent as criminals, iu a
Tolbooth by heavens, a Tolbooth, Sir John !'
They had but two things calculated to excite suspicion as to
their character and politics their swords, the blades of which were
inscribed with the words, No Union, and which had in the cut-steel
work of their shells, the letter S., for Stuart, marks by which
Scottish gentlemen of the Jacobite faction were wont to distinguish
each other at once, as readily as if they wore the forbidden badge,
the white cockade of lung James the white rose of York in
their hats.
26 THE \VHITE COCKADB.
CHAPTER VI.
BAILIE EETIBEH BALCBAFTIE,
' Leonato. I must leave you.
'Dogberry. One word, sir: our watch, sir, have, indeed, apprehended two
aspicious persons, aud we would have them this morning examined before your
worship.
Leon. TaVe their examination yourself, and bring it me ; I am now in great
baste, an it may appear unto you.'
Much Ado about Nothing.
PASSING by a wooded and sequestered lane, near the ancient parish
church of St. Andrew, a fane more famous in the annals of dia-
blerie than those of religion, as the reputed rendezvous of the
wizards and witches of the three Lothians, and where, in the days
of James VI., Satan was wont to preach to them from the pulpit,
the Excise officials, with their two prisoners, turned to the right,
nnd soon found themselves in the centre of the little town of North
Berwick, which then consisted simply of two streets, crossing each
other at right angles.
A quaint and quiet little place, its houses were chiefly thatched,
and had outside stairs, and picturesque outshots overhanging the
street on beams of wood and pillars of stone. It had been made a
royal bur-gh by Robert III., a port in the time of his predecessor,
and was once a place of trade, but when no one knows now. It
once possessed a castle, the site of which, as I have said, is only
marked by the green knoll overlooking the East Links.
'Had 1 taken the road by the Blackclyke, instead of the path
along the shore, we had escaped those fellows,' said Lord Dalqu
harn ; ' on what trifles may the fate of a man rest !'
' True, my lord, and of empires too !'
'Yes even of empires ; but for the Molehill the work of the
little man in black velvet who worked underground, a certain white
horse had not stumbled, and the Hero of Giencoe and Darien had
not died before his time.'
Threading their way in the dark among carts, piles of peat and
other fuel which stood in rows before the doors of the street, ere
long they found themselves before the mansion of Bailie Reuben
Balcraftie, a two-storied edifice slated with stone ; still conspicuous
by its round tower and turnpike stair, it stands opposite a building
which was then an inn or change-house, and bore the Otterburn
arms, creaking in the wind from an iron rod.
There were lights in the magistrate's windows. The massive
iron risp on the door was sharply applied to by Gage the excise-
man, and immediately on this a loud and nasal voice was heard at
a distance within the house singing a verse of the fifth psalm, from
Andro Hart's edition in Scottish metre, and quaveringly it came oa
the gusta of wind :
THE WHITE COCKADE. 27
'But let all joy wha trust in thee,
And still make shouting noise ;
For them tliou scent, let all that lore
Thy name in thee rejoice.'
' By George !' exclaimed Mr. Jack Gage impatiently, ' it it
shouting with a vengeance ; the crop-eared Covenanter will keep us
waiting here all night !'
Another querulous voice now gave out a verse of the next psalm,
and again several persons raised their pipes in mingled and dis-
cordant whines :
' I with my groaning weary am,
And all the night my bed
I ca'is-ed for to swim ; with tears
My couch I water-eJ.'
Then the discord of ill-attuned voices was heard for a time, rising
and falling on the wind that coursed through the panelled passages
and stone-paved corridors of the house, and mingling with the
chafing of the now flowing tide, on the rocks that gird the harbour.
A storm of pistol butts now clattered on the door, while the
excisemen and tidewaiters swore with impatience. On this, the
singing ceased ; the shield of an eyelet hole was withdrawn on the
inside ; an eye was seen to vizzy them carefully, while a querulous
and ill-natured female voice demanded
' Wha tirls at the pin ?'
'Open the door, you infernal Scotch witch open open in the
king's name, and say that Mr. Gage of the Customs would speak
with old Squaretoes with Bailie Balcraftie.'
Almost immediately after this, the ponderous bolts and bars were
shot back, the door was opened, and the magistrate himself, in an
accurate suit of black broad cloth, with enormous cut steel button?,
a vast wig, long sleeve ruffles, and huge shoe buckles, appeared
with a candle flaring in each hand. He displayed neither surprise
nor offended dignity at the noisy and untimeous visit to his house ;
but bowed and smirked with considerable obsequiousness and ser-
vility.
' Your servant, Mr. Gage a thousand pardons, sir, and a thou-
sand mair ! I fear you'll liken me to that lord who had charge of
the gate at Samaria, to keep you sae long at the door; but family
worship, ye ken family worship, above all earthly considerations,
must have place ; and, oh, but it is sweet and beseeming, too, so to
close a long day of hard and honest labour !'
' We are in danger,' whispered Mitchell to hia companion j ' this
man is a false villain I know it !'
'How?'
' By the whine of him.'
' But, heyday ! Mr. Gage, what in the name of the world and of
misrule brings you here at this time o' night ?'
' We have here two suspicious characters whom we fear are con-
28 THE WHITE COCKADE.
nected with the lugger we have watched all day. In fact, they
admit to having been landed by that notorious rascal old Scupper-
plug, not two hours since.'
' Suspicious characters smugglers smugglers, said you ? De-
frauders o' the revenue and o" their fellowmen ? Let me have a
look at the chiels bring them ben into the office, and I'll talk to
them, I warrant ! Smugglers, indeed, and at this time o' night !'
continued the magistrate, with growing indignation.
At the first sound of his voice, our two friends started and ex-
changed glances.
' Where have I heard, or where before met this man ?' said Lord
Dalquharn in a whisper.
' Send for the burgh officer and the Gudeman o' the Tolbooth,'
resumed the Bailie. ' We'll have them laid by the heels instanter,
Mr. Gage ; as sure as I am a pardoned sinner.'
' Harkee, sirrah take care what you are about,' said Lord Dal-
quharn, with a loftiness of bearing peculiar alike to his class and
the time ; ' for so sure as there is a heaven above us, I may requite
this, by hanging you at your own market-cross !'
The threat, or the tone in which it was uttered, were not without
a due effect upon the magistrate, who grew deadly pale, and darted
at the speaker a covert glance of wrath and spite. He hastily shut
the door and ushered the whole party into a low-ceiled room, in
the centre of which was a black oak table, littered with docquets,
books, and papers. On the walls, which were panelled with plain
white wood, hung charts, maps, bills of lading, and various printed
documents.
The advertisements of ' a weekly waggon to leave the Grass-
market of Edinburgh for Inverness every Tuesday God willing, but
on Wednesday whether or no ;* the salvage of a sloop wrecked at
the Yellow Craig ; and a cornetcy in Gardiner's Dragoons, ' pre-
sently quartered in the Canongate, and to be had cheap,' showed
the multifarious nature of the Bailie's transactions.
There was a large placard to the effect that ' the Spirit of the
Lord had appointed Reuben Balcraftie to hold forth to the God-
fearing folk of the Burgh, at 5 o'clock that afternoon, and, D.V., he
would do it, at the " Auld Kirk." '
Close by this hung the ' Orders of the Provost, Bailies, and
Council of North Berwick, to be observed by all constables in the
discharge of their duties to arrest all night-walkers, papists, sus-
pected priests, and Egyptians ; all persons, not gentlemen, wearing
pistols or daggers ; all swearers and banners in close and wynd,
and to commit them to ward in the Tolbooth.'
Now, as the magistrate seated himself in a black leather easy
chair, and set down the candles, which were in square stands of
oak, carved, turned, and mounted with brass, Lord Dalquharn and
Sir John Mitchell had an opportunity of examining the face of this
THE WHITE COCKADE. 29
personage tlie senior Bailie, who, in absence of that other poten-
tate, the Provost, was to decide upon their fate.
As Keuben Balcraftie plays a somewhat important part in this
our story, some elaboration is necessary in pourtraying him.
He wore a stiff solid tie wig, (of that fashion introduced by Lord
Bolingbroke), the curls of which appeared as if hardened into
rollers, while the pendant lumps of hair were tied at the end like
horse-tails at a fair. From amid this cumbrous and ugly substi-
tute for hair, his face looked forth, in singular repulsiveness. The
small-pox, a dreadful scourge in those days, the destroyer alike of
life and beauty, in his earlier years, had seamed the rugged visage
of Reuben Balcraftie, rendering him rather more hideous than even
freakish Dame Nature had intended him to be.
Fully past fifty now, his figure was thick set, and he had a con-
siderable stoop in his broad and muscular shoulders ; his eyes, dull,
pale-blue and watery, were always more busy than his thin, cruel
lips ; they usually had a film over them ; quiet, heavy, stealthy and
watchful, they were the eyes of a human vulture, and seemed to
lurk under fierce and shaggy brows of grizzled hair. He was not
exactly a vulgar man, being quiet in his general demeanour, but he
was of low extraction, as his great hairy hands, and huge feet
showed, for his father had been the Gudeman of the Tolbooth, and
his mother a gypsy prisoner a poor wretch, who had her sentence
of drowning in the sea, deferred for a time, that she might bring
him into the world.
He was undoubtedly a sharp man of business, a wonderful
arithmetician, but a noisy and ostentatious holder forth ou religion,
being, moreover, the ruling elder in the Parish Kirk. He was ever
restless in the acquisition of money ; yet his whole household con-
sisted of a half-starved clerk, an old and devoted house-keeper, and
a slip-shod servant girl. He was miserly, miserable, and savage to
the poor : he could drink hard, yet never was known to get tipsy,
and he gloried in, and gloated over the possession of several bonds
and wadsets, over more than one broad estate in the fertile Con-
stabulary of Haddington.
While he opened his oak lettron or desk, fussily spread a sheet
of paper before him, thriftily smoothed back his huge ruffles under
his wide square cuffs to keep them down-, and dipped a great
quill in the inkhoru to take Mr. Gage's deposition, Sir John
Mitchell, who had been eyeing him attentively, drew nearer to
Dalquharn.
' Ah, my lord,' he whispered, ' is the land that is so productive
of such worms of such sanctimonious wretches as this, worth
fighting for, or worth returning to?'
' Under favour, my dear Sir John, hypocrisy is not peculiar to
any country,' urged the young peer.
' But by all the gods, of late years, hypocrisy has thriven on
30 THE WHITE COCKADE.
Scottish earth, like a green bay tree, and seeins likely to do so,
world without end !'
To Gage, a frank, open featured, jolly looking Englishman, with
a ruddy visage and a rough flaxen wig, who stood twirling his hat
upon the forefinger of his left hand, waiting with impatience to
speak, the Bailie, pointing to his religious placard, said
' I saw you not at the preaching o' the word, Mr. Gage, when I
expounded this evening.'
'I had other matters in hand, off Scougal point ; but come, come
Bailie Balcraftie the night wears apace, and I should have been
trussed up in my hammock ere now. Stick to what I've come
about. You won't convert me, and I think my evil ways, as you
call them, are a deuced deal jollier than your sad ones,' said the
Englishman, laughing.
The Bailie raised his watery vulture-like orbs to the ceiling,
slowly saying
' Whatever will become of sic a sinner as you, is clean beyond
my comprehension ; yet a day will arrive, when you may remember
the blessed words o' the scripture, " Thou art my hiding place." '
' I wonder in what creek, cave, islet or other hiding place along
shore, those Scotch and French devils of old Scupperplug stowed
the stuff to-night,' said Gage, polishing his pistol butts, with his
great square cuff ; ' I warrant these gentlemen can tell us, if we
make 'em.'
The Bailie gave him and them a sharp covert scowl, and re-
plied
' Ye are all brands destined for the burning.'
A prospect under which the Englishmen seemed quite easy.
' As for your prisoners, Mr. Gage, they look as little like smug-
glers, as Egyptians or popish priests ; yet wha kens ; the vest-
ments, the trinkets and the cruciformed hammer o' Belzebub, may
be found in their mails. And so, sirs, you actually and unblush-
ingly admit having landed from the craft o' that nefarious loon
the Captain of the 'Etoile de la Mer,' of Dunkirk, for whose sei-
zure and apprehension the Lord Advocate, and the Commissioners
of His Majesty's Customs at Edinburgh, are offering a most
princely reward ?'
' We do, sir,' replied Dalquharn, while an evident change came
over the visage of the questioner.
'And last from Dunkirk ?'
' Yes, sir.'
' I trust ye are not spies of that hellicate King of France, Louis
XV., or,' continued the Bailie, growing more and more serious, ' of
that man of Moab, who calls himself James VIII., and that youth
of Belial, his pretended son ?'
Mitchell laughed aloud at this, as if really amused j but Lord
Dalquharn made a gesture of impatient scorn.
' Sirs, I deal not in words that are idle or unprofitable } neither
THE WHITE COCKADE. 81
do I smile much, and laugh, yea, but rarely,' resumed Balcraftie ;
' but hand me their papers, Mr. Gage,' he acKled to that functionary,
who, after searching the mails of botli prisoners, found only a spe-
cies of passport in each, but no letters or other documents.
These are our papers," said Lord Dalquharn, with a hauteur and
loftiness of bearing, before which the heavy vulture eyes of the
truculent magistrate quailed; 'they are duly signetted by the
British ambassador at the Hague, by the Conservator of our Scot-
tish Privileges at Campverc, and shew sufficiently who and what we
are.'
' By George, I believe the poor fellows are no smugglers or spies
either, but merely exiled Scottish gentlemen," they heard Gage
whisper to his men ; ' I wish we had taken the other road, and not
come athwart their hawse ; for if they be as I suspect, 'Sdeath, but
I wish them God speed!"
' Thou art a worthy fellow, my English friend,' said Lord Dalqu-
harn, as he shook the exciseman's hand ; ' I wish that some of my
countrymen had half thine honesty, thy John Bull courage and
generosity."
' My father was gunner aboard the Duke of York's ship, on
many a day when they were teaching the Dutch lubbers to take off
their hats on the high seas to lower their jacks to us, from Vau
Staten to Cape Finisterre, and I ain't forgotten that, sir I ain't,'
replied the Englishman, with a peculiar glance.
' I ay suspected you o' being a Jacobite in secret, Mr. Gage,' said
the Bailie, ' and now as sure as I'm a pardoned sinner, I ken it.
You two gentlemen are officers of the Scotch-Dutch ?'
' On the half-pay of their High Mightiness, the States General,
and late of the regiment of Brigadier Mackay, son of the Lord
Reay.'
' But how came ye by the way o' Dunkirk, a port now watched
by the British fleet ?'
'A. long explanation may be necessary,' replied Lord Dalquharn,
evasively.
' Your coming here aboard o' Sanders Scupperplug, is a bad end
to a cloudy beginning, sirs ; but whither were ye bound, when ar-
rested by Mr. Gage and his concurrents P*
' For the house of a friend.'
' 'Twouldna be likely, for the house o' a foe j but can ye not
name that friend ?'
' We were on our way to the house of Sir Baldred Otterburn of
Auldhame and SeaclilT.'
Another indescribable change came over the features of the
Baillie, and the friends who knew not how to construe the expres-
sion of his dull, watery, avaricious eyes, felt rather uncomfortable.
He seemed fidgety, and for a time sat pondering, while muttering,
' They may be massraongers, Mr. Gage Jesuits in disguise, for
a' that we ken ; those sons of the Prince of the power of the air
32 THE WHITE COCKADE.
of the crooked and slimy serpent of the roaring lion that goeth
about, seeking whom he may devour, take all manner of shapes.'
' Egad, sir,' said Sir John Mitchell, with a burst of laughter, in
which Gage and his mates joined ; ' I thought I was too old a sol-
dier to be mistaken for a churchman ; and as to my friend, Captain
Henry Douglas here, he does not look much like a Jesuit.'
' Beware, Mr. Balcraftie,' said Lord Dalquharn, whose wrath was
fast increasing.
' And why should I beware, sir I a magistrate a free burgess
and Bailie of North Berwick an elder in the Kirk, too ?'
' It seems to us, that we have all met before.'
The vulture eyes opened and shut, and then opened wider than
before ; a piteous expression of fear, mingled with spite and rage,
passed over the Bailie's face, and, perceiving his advantage instantly,
the young lord turned to Gage and said, with a smile,
' I hope we are not to be compelled to say where the black lugger
is just now, and where her cargo of brandy and sherry is being
landed, in care of Father Testimony ?'
' Undoubtedly not,' said Baillie Balcraftie, with precipitation, as
he rose from his lettron or desk ; ' the laws admit of no compul-
sion. And now, sirs, that I am satisfied that ye are captains o' the
gallant Scotch-Dutch, and bound on a visit to my worthy friend,
Sir Baldred Otterburn, at Auldhame, whither I shall have the high
honour o' conducting you to-morrow. I dismiss the charge, Mr.
Gage. I shall be answerable for our friends, if called upon. For
to-night they shall tarry wi' me, and to-morrow we will set forth
together ; and as a bit of advice to you, Mr. Gage, be not sae ready
to seize on strangers again : remember " thou shalt neither vex a
stranger nor oppress him, for ye were strangers in the land of
Egypt." '
' Egypt be blistered ! never was there, though I've been at old
Gib, and in the Levant with Bear-Admiral Byng,' said the bewil-
dered exciseman, as he and his party were hurriedly bowed out ;
and the Bailie, with a fierce expression in his stealthy eyes, and
something more like a curse than a blessing on his cruel lips, care-
fully bolted his strong and massive door behind them.
After a hasty supper, as the hour was late, the companions, who
were now the honoured guests of Mr. Eeuben Balcraftie, retired to
the chamber he had provided for them a double-bedded one,
having two of those oak-panelled recesses, called box beds, which
are still used in some parts of Scotland.
'Adieu for this night, gentlemen,' said the Bailie, as he deposited
the candles on a dressing-table, whereon were a bible and ' night-
cap,' i.e., a silver tankard of spiced ale ; ' to-morrow we shall set
forth betimes, after a broiled haddie, a rasher o' bacon, and a dish
o' tea, for Auldhame.'
1 Thanks, and a good night to you, most worthy host,' said Dal-
till WHITE COCKADH. 83
quharn, with one of hia quiet smiles ; ' Gad, we live in times of
change !'
' Aye, of a verity, as the preacher saith, " when tlie sun is bright-
est, the stars are darkest ; so the clearer our light, the more gloomy
our life with deeds of darkuess. Former times were like Leah,
blear-eyed but fruitful ; the present like unto Rachel fair but
barren." Aye, truly, we live in sinful and troublesome times.'
The moment he was gone, Sir John Mitchell secured the door
and placed a table against it. He carefully reprimed his pistols,
and placed them below his pillow. With the hilt of his sword, he
sounded all the panels and flooring, to assure himself there was no
secret entrance to the room. He then opened the window, to ex-
amine the means of escape, if necessary, and saw, that from (he
roof of a stable the ground could easily be reached, for a long life
of peril and exile had made him alike suspicious and cautious.
' Wherefore all this care. Sir John ?' i>ked Dalquharu.
' I have an intense distrust of our landlord.'
'And I have more than that a thorough conviction.'
' The canting, prickeared cur ! I can read in his face the lines of
an assassin.'
And I am convinced, or nearly so, that he, and the man in the
unfliipped hat, who boarded the lugger in short, that he and
Father Testimony, are one and the same person !'
* * * # * #
Luckily, only indistinct sounds reached the huge ear of Reuben
Balcraftie, which at that moment was placed against the door of
their chamber. Of their conversation he could make nothing ; but
as he glided away with a cat-like step, a bright but malevolent
gleam was in his cruel eyes, and he rubbed his great coarse hands
together with satisfaction.
'Jacobites,' he muttered, 'returned Jacobites, and bound for
Auldhame too! The work gangs bravely on I'll hae the auld
knight in my toils, and Miss Bryde too my bonnie bride that is
to be !'
CHAPTER VII.
THEY SET FORTH.
' May, sweet May. again has come,
May that freeH the land from gloom ;
She is in the greenwood shade,
Where the nightingale hath made
Every hianch and every tree
Kiiitf wiih her .sneet melody,
Sing J-H. join the chorus gay :
llml this merry mouth <if May.'
From the German.
UKDEH the sun of a lonely forenoon in May, the sea and land wore
their brightest hues, when the Lord Dalqulmrn and his friend set
3
34 THE WHITE COCKADE.
forth for Auldhame, accompanied by Bailie Reuben Balcraftie,
whose society they would rather have been without, and who
although he knew them simplv as Captains Douglas and Mitchell
strongly suspected that they bore a higher rank. They were pre-
ceded by his half-starved clerk, who carried their mails and roquo-
laures.
The shrewd Bailie, who had a secret purpose of his own to servo,
was not ill-pleased to have an excuse for visiting Auldhame, where,
as we shall shew ere long, he was not always a welcome visitor.
Ou this occasion, he proved a decided bore alike to Lord Dalqu-
harii and Sir John Mitchell, neither of whom knew how, in his pre-
sence, to introduce themselves under their plain titles of Captains
Douglas and Mitchell, to Sir Baldred Otterburn.
Noon was well advanced before they quitted the mansion of the
magistrate, who was detained in his office adjudicating on a case of
alleged witchcraft, though that crime had almost disappeared since
the union.
Eight fisher boats had come into the harbour that morning from
the herring ground ; two of these had netted over one hundred
crans of fish, the rest only averaging twelve crans among them. In
consequence of this unequal fortune, an angry scene ensued, and
the house of the pious and upright Bailie was beset by the less
lucky fishermen and their families, who alleged that their rivals had
succeeded by mere witchcraft, through the devilish spells of an old
hag who dwelt at Aldbottle, opposite the Eock of Fidra, and that
she had the power of driving the herrings into the nets of her
friends, by placing in their boats certain little stones which she
found in the ruined chapel of St. Nicholas, on the islet before her
hut,*
A general riot in the high street of the borough was the sequel.
Such doings had not been known in the country side, the sufferers
alleged, since the time when the Wise Woman of Keith, Agnes
Simpson, the Gyre Carlin, or Mother Witch of all Scotland, had
landed witli two hundred of her compatriots in cives and riddles,
and danced on the shore of North Berwick, prior to meeting the
devil in the church of St. Andrew, where they opened the graves
and desecrated the dead, committing many other enormities, all of
which she confessed to King James in the winter of 1590.
The enraged fishermen assaulted the town-officer, broke his hal-
bert and rent his livery, and the case against them having been
aggravated by the circumstance that they had drank some ale at
forbidden hours, they were all punished, some by being chained to
the jouging-rod in the tolbooth, put in the stocks at the town-end,
or whipped through the streets and expelled the burgh ; and it was
against the ale drinkers that our upright Bailie inveighed most bit-
* Similar accusations were made by the fishermen of Ardersier against
'Cluaigh. the Witch of Petty,' in the September of 1866. See Scotsman aud
Dundee Advertiser.
THE WHITE COCKADB. 85
trly, as he drained a good stiff horu of brandy and water, and
assumed his tie-wig, large cocked hat, and walking staff, which he -
termed ' a wand a sma' wand, sirs, such as David had, when he
went forth to warsle wi' Goliath the mighty.'
' Were you not somewhat severe on those poor fellows ?' said
Dixlquharn, who had been reflecting that if ever he found himself
in his place as a peer of the realm, such tyranny as this should be
curbed.
' Severe, Captain Douglas ? ca' you justice severity ?'
' No ; but it may be harshly administered.'
' Sir," replied the other, while shaking out his ruffles, erecting the
forecock of his hat, and planting his cane emphatically on the cause-
way, 'I am a bailie and a justice o' the peace in our constabulary
of Haddington ; it beseems not, that I should be cowed by a vile
mob o' fisher loons, and fear the face o' a feeble human creature, for
the judgment delivered is the Lord's, and no mine. I should res-
pect no persons in judgment, saith Deuteronomy, but hear the
small as well as the great. As a bailie, I must act wi' honest in-
tentions even as one in the sight o' the Omniscient, wjiose eyes
behold me, and whose eyelids try the children of men.'
These quotations he whined in an intoned voice, with his watery
eyes half-closed, and a self-satisfied smirk on his coarse visage, while
at every second step, he struck the pavement firmly with his cane.
' And you actually whipped and banished from the burgh, those
poor fellows, for drinking ale at the " Auldhame Arms ?" ' exclaimed
Sir John Mitchell, with surprise.
' Indubitably, Captain Mitchell ; and what for no, sir, but no
chiefly for that. By our law once, no man durst be found in a
tavern within a burgh, after the nine-hour bell had been rung,
under pain o' the tolbooth ; but that warning was given an hour
later by desire o' the Regent Arran's countess, after whom it was
named " the lady's bell ;" but now people are punished according
to their quality, for public drinking at untimeous hours. A nnble-
man payeth twenty pounds Scots, and sae on, down to a serving-
man, who payeth twenty shillings toties quoties, one half o' ilk fine
to go to the pious purposes o' the parish, and the other half to the
informer.'
1 And the poor toper, who hath spent his last penny on ale, and
cannot pay your fine '
' We punish in their person ; and so, sirs, I whipped those loons
forth the toun, when I might hae nailed their lugs to the cross.'
The appearance of the town piper (every burgh had one then,
with a small allotment of land, still called the 'piper's croft') put
a stop to the Bailie's monotonous talk, as the musician struck up
1 The Braes of Yarrow,' and played before them through the streets
so far as the Well-tower-mill, where he received a largesse from
Dalquharn, and retired bonnet in hand.
There in the bright suushine, was one of those features, which,
32
36 THE WHITE COCKADE.
in those days, and until a very recent period, made every roadside
horrible a malefactors corpse, half reduced to a skeleton, with the
black crows wheeling around and alighting upon it.
' Gad a-mercy !' said Mitchell, ' here is a gibbet, to show that we
are in a civilised land a land where justice, or more probably law.
is sternly administered.'
'A Border Egyptian loon,' said the Bailie, pointing to the corps*
with his cane, ' hanged by the lords of justiciary, for hamesucker
and burning a barn-yard at Dirlton. He asked for a cog of ale be
fore he was turned off the ladder, and drank to the health o" th<
popish pretender, the black devil, and King George.'
' I don't think, egad, that the old country is much changed sine*
I fought at the battle of Sheriff-Muir!'
' You have served, sir ?' began the Bailie, turning shnrply round
' In the Scots' Grey Dragoons,' replied Mitchell, haughtily.
'Aye, sirs, the country is no much changed even since that bluidi
day at Dunblane verily, it is a vale fu' o' slime pits,' whined tin
Bailie, ' even as the vale o' Siddam was, when the Kings of Sodou
and Gomorrah fled !'
The Bailie's voice ascended into a roar, as a beggar, one of tin
king s beadsmen, in his long blue weed, approached them silently
bub bonnet in hand. Sir John Mitchell gave the poor man a snuil
coin ; in doing so, he did not throw it as some might have done
but handed it with politeness.
' This gentleman is in poverty,' thought the quick-witted magis
trate ; ' none but those akin to beggary slip money sae deftly int<
n beggar's palm.'
Perhaps he was right, for the poor are usually the kindest to tin
poor.
Nearly a thousand feet above the road they traversed, rose tin
steep, vast, isolated, and volcanic cone of North Berwick, on whosi
summit many a beacon has glared in the war-like times of old. I
was covered on every side with the richest verdure, and rose amic
spacious fields where the young grain was sprouting, and the bird
were swarming in the thick old hedgerows. The sky was clear, anc
the atmosphere light and balmy. High into mid-air ascended tin
smoke from many a moss-roofed cottage chimney, and many a snu|
farm-house, secluded among ancient timber, in all the leafy glory o
BU miner.
Broad on their left stretched away for leagues, its waters ming
ling with the German Sea, the noble estuary of the Forth, with al
its green and rocky isles, the chief of which, with all its myriad gan
nets wheeling in the sunshine, and whitening its cliffs, towered tin
stupendous cliffs of the ' storm-defying Bass,' the giant fragmeni
of a former world the Bastile of the covenanters with a little rec
standard, just barely discernible, fluttering on its western ramparts
for it was still garrisoned by a liltle party furnished yearly by th<
Scots Foot Guards.
THE WHITE COCKADB. 37
In the offing the ' Fox ' frigate was visible about four miles dis-
.ant, standing across the estuary before a gentle breeze, but with all
icr canvas set, even to her royals, and, like a giant bird, with all its
vhite pinions spread, she shone in a strong relief upon the expanse
>f blue. Farther olf in distance the lug sails of a fleet of fisher-
wilts, marked the faint line where cloud and ocean met.
By referring frequently to the state of affairs on the continent,
inch as the armaments at Dunkirk, the siege of Fribourg, and in-
rcstment of Tournay, the wily Bailie sought to learn the views, in-
:entions, and politics of his companions ; but they seemed on the
ilert, and generally contrived to appear much more interested in
;ho local intelligence he could afford them : such as the Edinburgh
mail-bags having been found in the Tyne at llailes' Castle the
post-boy and his horse having perished when crossing the river at a
treacherous ford ; and then of a herd-laddie at Tyninghame, who
had been sorely tormented by an evil spirit in the shape of a
hoodie-crow, until released therefrom by the pious offices of the
Keverend Mr. Curfullle, the minister of Whitekirk. While the
Bailie gabbled of these things, Sir John Mitchell had become silent
and thoughtful, and solaced nimself by smoking a handsome silver
mounted tobacco pipe, which had been presented to him by His
Grace the Duke of .Berwick, whose aid-de-camp he had the honour
to be till that fatal day when the duke was killed by a cannon-ball
in the trenches at Philipsburg.
' When were you last at Auldhame, Captain Douglas ?' asked the
Bailie, still anxious to gratify his curiosity.
'Not since my boyhood, some years ago; and then but for a
short time. Sir Baldrcd has a son '
'He had:
'You speak in the past tense, Mr. Balcraftic!'
'Sony am i to do sae,' said the Bailie, in an altered voice.
' Dead is the heir of Auldhame dead ?' exclaimed Lord Dal-
quliarn.
' Even sae, sir ; he was shot through the head assassinated,
when riding home from the bank at Edinburgh some years ago. On
that dolefu' night, the spectre drummer was heard and seen in the
avenue of Auldhame by the Kevereud Mr. Curfuflle, as you may
gi-e duly minuted in the records o* the Kirk Session ; for whenever
evil or fate are nigli the line of Otterbum, 'tia said they have their
warn ing in that form.'
' This is most sad I heard not of it, for I was far away in French
Flanders,' said the young lord, in a tone of real sorrow ; ' one stout
hand one gallant heart less in the coming fray, Sir John,' he whis-
pered to his friend.
' lie left a daughter.'
' True, Bailie ; I remember the little girl, Bryde Otterburn a
flaxen haired romp a genuine Scottish lassie, with a wealth, of lint
white locks.'
38 fHE WHITE COCKADE.
' Even eae, sir ; but her locks are something between gold and
chesnut now. She is the apple o' the auld Baronet's eye ; but she
hath sair, sair longings after the leaven o' Prelacy and Episcopacy,
if not, as Mr. Carfuffle fears, after the Babylonian scarlet -woman,
despite a' that I, a usefu' friend o' the house, can say, though a
hopefu' and a pardoned sinner.'
Indeed, this woman in scarlet was the pretended bugbear, the
religious bete-noir of Eeuben Balcraftie's life, as she has been of
many a Scottish saint before and since.
After passing the ruins of Tantallon Castle on the left, they di-
rerged from the bridle path they had hitherto pursued, into a foot-
way through the fields, so narrow that they had, as Sir John said,
'to march in Indian file,' with the Bailie in front.
1 How conies Sir Baldred, a man on whom our friends in exile,
rely so much, to have dealings or acquaintance with such a scurvy
fellow as this !' said Dalquliarn in a low voice.
'Some money difficulty hath doubtless brought it to pass ; the
Bailie has hinted as much pei-haps wadsets to raise the wind, and
lay some devil in the shape of a creditor. Zounds ! I used to have
enough of such things in my time, before I went out in '15. This
fellow with the pale vicious eyes, seems a true blue cropear, as
scurvy a patch, as if he had sold Montrose or King Charles or had
danced ancle deep in human blood at Philiphaugh or Dunavertie.
I warrant him as genuine a Scottish whig as ever shared the com-
pensation gold at the Union ! A rare example of the liberal-minded
Scot of the eighteenth century Cromwell's curse on all such! It
is odd, however, that such as he, should be our first acquaintance
and guide hither, returning as we do, and on such an errand.'
Doubtless had IBailie Bale-raft ie adorned the present century in-
stead of the last, he would have been an active Sabbatarian, a ve-
hement opposer of Sunday trains, of bands, Botanic Gardens, and
all rational amusements, even to walking in the sunny fields on
'the sabbath,' and would have put little boys in the stocks for
daring on that day to whistle in the streets. lie would have en-
forced the tyrannical ' Forbes Mackenzie act,' as rigidly as we have
seen him do the nineteenth act of the first parliament of King
Charles II., held at Edinburgh in 1661 ; he would have foisted up
missions to the heathen ; shone on the rostrum at revivals, and ex-
torted money on all hands for the evangelization of Bokhara and
the South Sea Islands, and been charitable only in printed lists,
when his name appeared in full for the edification of his neighbour
and the glorification of himself.
The fires of a hundred warlike tribes have been quenched in the
gli-'iis ; the Highlands are a wilderness from Lochness to Lochaber j
but the great family of Balcraftie is still the most flourishing of the
Scottish clans !
After a walk of somewhat less than three miles, Lord Dalquharu
recognized the venerable mansion of Auldhamo rising before them
THE -WHITE COCKADB. 39
at tlic end of a long avenue, and situated at the edge of a steep
green bank that sloped downwards to the sea.
On the south, north, and west, a species of barbican wall defended
the house. The large gate in this enclosure was of hammered yet-
lau iron, and the portal in which it hung, was surmounted by a
kind of Palladian entablature with mouldings of t^e time of James
VI. Several oval loopholes for musketry perforated this massive
defence ; but long unused for warlike purposes, they were now
almost hidden by the luxuriant ivy, the clematis, and fragrant
honeysuckle.
The sudden apparition of an infantry soldier, in his red undress
iacket, very leisurely pipe-claying his belts in the sunshine, withiu
the open grating of the iron gate, caused our friends to change
colour visibly, and a deep smile to twinkle in the cunning and
watchful eyes of the Bailie.
' Hey-day what have we here soldiers?' exclaimed Lord Dal-
quharn, starting back.
' Even sae, my gude sir,' replied Balcraftie ; ' a party o' Howard's
Foot are quartered at Auldhame and Tyninghame '
' For what purpose ?' asked Sir John Mitchell, with some aspe-
rity ; and again the eyes of the Bailie twinkled.
' To aid the officers of excise in watching for smugglers, for many
a keg o' brandy and Hollands, that never pay duty to King George,
are hidden whiles, in the caves along shore, and even in that under
the Bass ; so Captain Wyvil and Lieutenant Egerton have been in-
vited by Sir Baldred to reside here, where I warrant they find them-
sels in clover.'
In fact, the appearance of Captain Wyvil's grenadiers of the
Kentish Buffs, marching down an avenue in their Prussian sugar-
loaf cups and Ramillie wigs, a little drummer in front, rattling on
the same drum with which he had beaten the ' Point of War,' a
year or two before, at Detliiigc-ii and Fontenoy, had been a source
of excitement at Auldhame, quite as great, us when my Lady Helen
Hope, the Countess-Dowager of lladdington, came, as she was wont
to do, once yearly, on a state visit, in a gilt coach, like a huge apple-
pie, with six grey horses, with white roses in their ears, a page of
the sirname of Hamilton on each step, Sir John of Trabrown as
her master of the horse, and six armed serving men, all of the name
of Hamilton, with the dexter-hounds on their sleeves, riding round
her.
Among the honeysuckle and ivy, which half shrouded the gate,
could be seen, about five feet from the ground, the jougs,* or iron
collar, in which refractory vassals were wont to be confined, and
above the entrance carved in stone, the arms of the family, three
otter's heads, with a chevron between, and on a chief azure, a cres-
ceut or, the coat-armour of the old Otter burns of Bedhall and Auld-
* From jugvm, a yoke.
40 THE WHITE COCKADE.
hame. To these were added the arms of Nora Scotia, the Scottish
baronetage haying been founded to promote the colonization of that
province.
CHAPTER VIII.
AN OLD SCOTTISH CAVALIEE.
'I saw the Stuart race thrust out nay more,
I saw my country sold for English ore ;
Such desolations in my time have been,
I have the end of all perfection seen 1'
Epitaph at DunMd, 1728.
PATTTFTTI misgivings crossed the mind of Lord Dalqnharn on learn-
ing that government troops were not only cantoned on the barony
of Sir Baldred Otterbnrn, but that their officers were his guests,
and had been, as the Bailie said, for a week past.
Why, or how wo.s this ?
Had Sir Baldred changed his political views and gone over to the
interests of one, whom he had hitherto deemed and stigmatised as a
foreign usurper ; or was it mere kindness and hospitality that led
him to offer Captain Wyvil and Lieutenant Egerton of the Kentish
Buffs, better quarters than the thatched village hostelry could have
afforded them ? t
If otherwise, Dalquharn's mission was a fruitless one, and he
had only lured his friend Sir John Mitchell to his doom. For some
moments a sickening palsy of the heart came over the young Lord.
At Paris they had Lade adieu to Prince Charles Edward Stuart,
who had come thither from Rome, for the purpose of putting him-
self at the head of the Due de Roquefeuille's baffled expedition ;
he was then projecting, and had confided to them, his intended
rising in the north, and they had resolved to precede him as a
species of avant-couriers to certain of the loyal noblesse in the Low-
lands, on whose adherence he could depend ; and on old Sir Bal-
dred Otterburn, a friend of his deceased father, the young Lord
Dalquharn of the Holm, chiefly relied, for assistance and advice.
As for Sir John Mitchell, thirty years of exile had made him
almost a stranger in the land of his birth. Those who were aged
men in 1715, were now in their graves, and the friends and com-
panions of his youth, had ceased to remember him in many instances;
in others, were dead, or changed in thought and action. Apart from
the painful doubts excited by the presence of red coats at AuldhanTe,
Dalquharn remembered the danger, that accrued to himself and his
friend, should the officers suspect, or detect in them, two attainted,
forfeited and outlawed men.
Mr. John Birniebousle, the elderly red-faced butler, who wore a
suit of black broad cloth, with vast cut steel buttons on his sleeves
THE WHITE COCKADE, 4,1
and pocket flaps, and who, like his betters, indulged himself in wear-
ing an old-fashioned bag-wig, received them with many reverential
bows, at the door of the mansion a door that was studded with
huge nails, as if it closed a prison, and was guarded, moreover, by
many locks and bars and loop holes for musketry.
' Sir Baldred was within, and would see them immediately,' Mr.
Birniebousle said, as he conducted them through the paved entrance
hall, which was vaulted with solid stone.
There in an auibre, also formed of carved stone, and chained to
the niche for security, stood an antique silver flagon, of rare and
curious workmanship, from which King James VI., the Scottish
royal pedant, had drunk a pint of burnt sack, when in April, 1603,
he passed by Auldhame gate, on his way to the throne of England ;
and after shaking hands with the then Laird, an aged knight, who
had served his royal mother well and valiantly on the field of Lang-
side, passed on to the castle of Dunglass, the residence of my Lord
Home, with all his retinue of five-hundred horse ; and it is reported
that as the king departed, the old Laird hid his face in hia bonnet
and wept, while repeating the ancient prophecy,
'A French wyfes the sonne will be,
Shall bruik all Britain round by sea.'
for now the time had come, and Scotland's kings were to pass away.
His grandson, the present Baronet, to whom the reader is about
to be introduced, was a fine example of an old Scottish gentleman of
his time, one who lived on his own estate, and farmed his own lands,
drinking beer and eating bread, that had been made under his own
roof; proud of his ancient ancestry because their shield was stain-
less, and they had all been loyal and honourable men ; quiet and
loving to his people, gentle to the poor, and faithful a la mart, to a
race of kings who were in exile, loving them for the heroic valour
and patriotic virtues of their forefathers, rather than their own
merits a cavalier full of old and glorious memories, who loved his
country not for what she was, but what she might have been : a
devout and simple believer in the right divine of monarchs, yet
sorely hopeless of ever seeing that fantasy triumphant.
Born in 1670, when prelacy with its reckless troopers rode rough
shod over ' a broken covenant and persecuted kirk,' as a boy he had
seen Claverhouse's Life Guards flying from Drumclog, and the un-
fortunate and maddened Covenanters plant their flag in vain on
Bothwell Bridge. But even as a boy his sympathies were with the
oppressors rather than the oppressed, who sold their king, for he
had been baptised by Archbishop Sharp, who was slain on Magus
Moor in 1679, and by desire of his father, an old cavalier of the
Montrose wars, lie was named Baldred, after the apostle and patron
saint of East Lothian. In infancy lie had been dandled on the knees
of the ' bloody ' Duke of Lauderdale ; in early years he had been
the friend and fellow-student of Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun : thus
42 THE WHITE COCKADE.
their sentiments were the same, and like the clerical acquaintance of
Sir Walter Scott, who for fifty years was never known to preach a
sermon, without having a ' fling at the vile incorporating union,' it
was a fruitful source of complaint I o our querulous old Scottish tory,
who seldom omitted an opportunity of committing all its promoters
to the infernal gods.
Of the three last Stuart kings, he could not in his heart approve,
but still less could he approve of their foreign successors, and he was
still willing to give the old race a trial again, for the sake of those
who had fallen in many a battle for Scotland, and who lay in their
graves in Dunfermline and Holyrood.
Tradition had rendered him more loyal to dead than to living
royalty, and many have been so in Scotland since. "Tis a wonder
to any one who looks back at the Stuart family, to think how they
kicked their crowns from them,' says the author of ' Esmond ;' ' how
they flung away chances after chances ; what treasures of loyalty
they dissipated, and how fatally they were bent on consummating
their own ruin. If ever men had fidelity, 'twas they ; if ever men,
squandered opportunity, 'twas they ; and of all the enemies they
had, they themselves were the most fatal.'
And most true this is of the Stuart Kings in England, or after
the union of the crowns.
It is Sir Baldred Otterburn of whom we read a quaint anecdote
in Wodrow's ' Analecta.' Chancing to ride through Jedburgh, when,
the whig magistrates were proclaiming the Orange Prince as ' King
William the Second of Scotland and Tuird of England,' at the Market
Cross, they asked him to drink Ids health.
'No, sirs,' replied the Baronet; 'but I will take a glass of wine
with you nevertheless.'
So a little round glass was handed to him, as he sat on horseback,
with his gold stamped gambadoes buckled to his girdle, his holster
pistols before him, and a long rapier hy his side.
' Aa surely, sirs, as this glass will break,' he exclaimed aloud, C I
drink confusion to William of Orange, and hail the restoration of
our lawful King and his son !'
With these words he drained the wine and dashed the glass from
him, but it rolled down the steps of the cross harmlessly and un-
broken !
A bailie picked it up, impressed his seal upon it with wax ; and
as its escape was deemed a great Presbyterian miracle, it was sent,
adds the Reverend Robert Wodrow, ' with ane attested account to
King William.'
Sir Baldred galloped off, followed by the jeers of all 'the prick-
cared curs,' as lie called them. The incident, alike singular and
ominous, added fuel to the fire that burned within him ; he joined
the Lord Viscount Dundee in the Highlands, and served with him
in the victorious, but useless campaign of KillycTankie.
Some there *were who averred, that when the post boy (a boy
THE WHITE COCKADE. 43
by tlie way, in his fiftieth yenr) was attacked on Hedderwick Muir,
on the evening of the 16th August, 1696, by two mounted gentle-
men, in bluck velvet masks, wearing, one a grey silk coat, with brown
buttons, and the other disguised in 'a white English coat, with
wrought silver thread buttons,' and with cocked pistols, carried off
His Majesty's mails, which contained papers of importance for the
Scottish Privy Council, and left the said post boy, tied by the heels
to his own horse some there were, we say, who averred, that
although one was known to be a son of the Viscount Kingston, that
the other was certainly the fiery young baronet of Auldhame.
A leg broken when hunting on Luffness Muir, had luckily pre-
vented him from joining the Earl of Mar in 1715, and so saved his
estate and title ; but since the death of his only son and chief hope,
he had become somewhat of a changed man, and invariably wore
black velvet.
Sir Baldred's heir had been coming from the bank of Scotland, at
Edinburgh, with a large sum in notes, which lie carried in a maro-
quin or scarlet leather case, stamped with the Otterburn arms. He
was accompanied by Bailie Balcraftie, and when riding in the twi-
light ut a lonely part of the road, where it crossed Luffness Muir,
then nn open and desert waste, they were attacked by footpads.
The Biiil'c narrowly escaped a bullet, as a hole in his beaver attested ;
but young Otterburn was pistolled from behind, and dying on the
spot, was robbed of all the money he carried.
The loss compelled Sir Baldred to raise a sum on a wadset (or
bond) from Mr. Balcraftie, and it was a singular circumstance a
very singular one, indeed that lie paid it mostly in the notes of
which the poor young gentleman had been plundered, and all of
which had come into his hands in tite way of business. Hence these
murderous foot -pds were supposed to be in the neighbourhood ;
but no one answering the description given of them by the indefati-
gable magistrate could ever be discovered.
On the night of this foul assassination, his widow, who did
rot Jong survive, declared that she heard the solemn sound of
the spectre's warning drum iu the avenue, while others declared
that the noise was produced by the hollow roaring of the sea upon
the rocks known as the Carr and St. Baldred's Boat.
Funeral expenses were then enormous, and when the heir of
Auldhame wts buried by torchlight in the chapel of St. Baldred,
near the seashore, there was given in the mansion a dredyie, which
lasted a month ; cooks and pastrymen were brought from Edinburgh
to provide for the guests, and all the pipers in the Three Lothians
came and went at their pleasure, drinking claret, ale and usque-
baugh, in such quantities, that John Birniebousle, the thrifty old
butler, danced on his bobwig in sheer despair. On the night of in-
terment, the funeral procession on foot and horseback was a mile in
length. In those days, a chief mourner, who failed almost to ruin
41 THE WHITE COCKADE.
himself, was voted a sorry fellow: for then as now, people lived for
appearances.
And now this good old Scottish gentleman, the sole hope of whose
existence was his charming grand-daughter, the orphan Bryde Otter-
burn, came forth to the door of the chamber-of-dais, holding hack
the old russet and green tapesti-y, out of which the moths were flut-
tering, mid a fine subject for the pencil of Vandyke he would have
formed^ as the visitors saw him, then in his seventy-fifth year, his
grave and handsome face furrowed alike by time and care, though
his dark grey eyes were clear and bright. He wore a dark flowing
cavalier wig; his long doublet and slops were of the days of the
revolution all of black velvet, faced, trimmed, and tied with purple
ribbands, with knots of the same on each shoulder; a white lace
cravat encircled his neck, with the ends drawn through his grand-
father's thumhring.
A broad shoulder scarf of purple and black velvet sustained his
steel-kilted rapier (for he was never unarmed, even at his own fire-
side), and his sturdy old legs were encased in black boots, square-
toed, with high red heels, and furnished with large silver spurs ;
and a fine picture, we say, he formed, as he threw back the arras,
and came forth, making three of those grand old bows peculiar to
his time.
This costume of black velvet and purple satin was his general
dress, though he varied it by wearing a crape scarf and black feather,
on the anniversary of the abdication of King James VII., on which
occasion, with somewhat childish loyalty, he would grind an orange
under his heel, just as his exuberance led him to give a joyous dinner
party, and drink a deep, deep stoup of prime old burgundy on the
10th of June, the birth of the old chevalier.
Sir Baldred bowed, and then held forth his hand, the flowing
curls of his black cavalier wig, which he wore in direct opposition
to the white perukes of the Georgian era, waving gracefully to and
fro as he did so ; and he managed them well, for, as a quaint
writer says, ' how to wear a wig was then part of the education of a
man of the world, and not to be learned in books. Those who know
what witchcraft there is in the handling of a fan, what dexterity in
the nice conduct of a clouded cane, will imagine the wits and gen-
tlemen of old did not suffer the wig to overshadow their temples ;
and many a country squire must have tried in vain to catch the
right toss of the head ; to sport a playful humour in those crisp
curls ; to acquire the lofty carriage of the fore-top, or the significant
trifling with some obtrusive lock ; and felt as awkward in his new
wig as a tailor on horseback, or a fat alderman with a dress-sword
dangling between his legs.'
THE WHITE COCKADE. 45
CHAPTER IX.
DALQTTIIABN'S MISSION.
'Yon rnn, my lord, no hazard.
Your repi'tntion shall still stand ag fair'
In all good men's opinions as now : ,,
For though I did contemn report myself
As a mere souiid, I still will IK- so tender'
Of what concerns yon, in nil points of honour,
That the iinniHCiilate whiteness of your fame
Shall ue'er be sullied witti one taiui or spot.'
A T CM Way to pay old Debts.
SIR BAII>BEI> met them in a corridor hung with portraits. There
might be seen Miss Brjde Otterburn's mamma, a shepherdess in
Sowder, with hooped skirt, a crook with ribbons, and her lambs
isking about her; and near it was a full length of Sir Baldred's
bride by Sir Peter Lely, as Diana with a crescent on her brow, a
short cymar looped at the right knee, a bow bent in her hand, aud
a view of Auldliame and the Bass Rock in the background.
The vulture eyes of the Bailie were now intently watching the
meeting of the baronet and his visitors.
'Twa friends o' yours, most worthy Sir Baldred, whom I have
had the high honour to guide hither," said the Bailie, hat in hand,
while perpetrating a series of obsequious bows that threatened, each
time, to cast his cumbrous tiewig at the feet of the tall old cavalier,
who made rather a chilling response. ' Captain Douglas and Cap-
tain Mitchell of the Scots Brigade in Holland, Sir Baldred.'
' They are welcome," said the other, presenting his hand with
sudden warmth to each : ' right heartily welcome to Auldliame
your humble servant, sirs. But you must have been long absent
from these parts, or have come from a distance surely, to require a
guide.'
'Aye mony ask the road they ken fu' well,' said the Bailie,
rather sarcastically ; but he cowered beneath an angry glance from
Sir Baldred.
' We are from Dunkirk last, where we saw a dear and mutual
friend, who commends himself unto you," said Dalquharn, in a
hurried whisper, as he pressed the hand of Sir Baldred, and they
exchanged a quick glance full of intelligence ; but quick though it
was, it did not escape the vuiture eyes, nor did the whisper elude
the large, attentive aural appendages of Balcraftie, who knew too
well that the mutual friend referred to, could be no other than
Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the heir of these realms.
'We will speak of our friend anon, and when more at leisure,'
said Sir Baldred, casting an unmistakably impatient glance at Bal-
cruftie, who, lingering irresolute, and cringing in aspect, strove to
light up his fold, malignant eyes, with a vapid smile.
' Captain Douglas is, I believe, au auld friend o" yours and o* the
46 THE WHITE COCKADE.
house o' Auldhame,' said he, still sifting and watching. Ifc was a
fine thing, a fact soothing to his malevolent spirit, and promising
future profit, to have two such gallant looking men as the strangers,
and perhaps the proud old cavalier too, who seldom concealed the
scorn he felt, in his power, so he resolved to be wary and watch closely.
' An old friend, Captain Douglas cannot be,' said Sir Baldred,
smiling, ' for lie is but a youth, and I am '
' Like unto Isaac, " being old and full of days." '
' To speak in your own cant, Bailie, the years of my pilgrimage are
verging on seventy-five now,' responded the other sharply.
' Yet, Sir Baldred,' said Dalquharn, in a low and mellow voice,
' I had the honour to be once before under your hospitable roof.'
' When ?'
'At that memorable time when Parliament directed the demoli-
tion of the gates of Edinburgh, after the affair of the Porteous
mob.'
' Just ten years ago come the next eighth o' September,' said the
Bailie, braving another wrathful glare from Sir Baldred.
'in that year I was here with my poor father and mother," said
Dalquharn, lowering his voice.
' And she, Captain Douglas,' said Sir Baldred, ' and she '
1 Was, as you may remember, nearly related to two unfortunate
gentlemen the Earl of Dumbarton and the Viscount Kenmure.'
' Great heaven, my do I ? is it possible ? Excuse me, Captain
Douglas, but I remember me now,' said Sir Baldred hurriedly, and
a sudden flush crossed his grave old visage, as he again took JJal-
quharn's hand a flush of pleasure at the recognition, oddly mingled
with anger, that one whom they dared not trust, stood by observant
of all ' she and your noble father are both dead I know that
much.'
*' Alas yes.'
'You shall be my guests you and your friend : Bailie, will you
oblige me by seeing Mrs. Dorriel, the housekeeper, and also the
butler? they would gladly confer with you anent several wants in
cellar and buttery ; we have other visitors just now, and a few kegs
of French sherry and brandy you understand were welcome
here. See to it at once, I pray you, and join us anon at dinner.'
With a deep smile on his inscrutable face, the Bailie, though he
knew that he had failed to discover who ' Captain Douglas ' really
was, withdrew to dispatch, without delay, his business with Dame
Dorriel Grahame, and Mr. Birniebousle, the butler, while Sir Bald-
red led his visitors into the charuber-of-dais, or great dining-room,
and carefully closed the solid oak door, and draped over it the thick
arras, which represented the slaughter of the famous wild boar of
Gulune.
1 Though young enough to be my grandson, you do me high
honour, my Lord Dalquharn of the Holm, in visiting my poor house
thus/ said the fine old courteous gentleman, as he almost embraced
THE WHITE COCKADB. 47
the young peer. ' Begad ! but thou'st grown a tall and proper fellow
dark and handsome, and like thy father, too ! Welcome, and all
the more welcome, as I guess the errand on -which thou hast come
but 1 fear 'twill be a bootless one. And your friend '
' Sir John Mitchell of Pitreavie and that ilk in Fifeshire ; a baro-
netcy of the same year as your own.'
' Gadso ! Sir John, your humble servant. I knew your good
father well stout old Sir William of Pitreavie, -whilom Chamber-
lain of Fife and Captain of Burutisland. Many a jolly runlet of
claret and sack we have drank together, to the confusion of the
Union and all its abettors, in Hughie Blair's tavern in the Parlia-
ment Close. Many a constable we've bilked there, and many a
tavern bully we've pinked and trounced together ! You were in the
army ?'
'First, under her majesty, the good Queen Anne, of glorious
memory, in the Scots' Greys, then commanded by John Earl of
Stair. You are doubtless aware, Sir Baldred, that on the night after
the battle of Malplacquet, I, when a mere boy in his teens, a cornet,
rashly challenged the Duke of Marlborough to meet me with sword
and pistol for coarsely reflecting on my country, while I delivered
to him a dispatch from Prince Eugene of Savoy. That challenge
wrought my ruin in the service! So my Lord Balmerino and I
went out with the Earl of Mar, in 1715, and since the ill-fated
battle of Sherili'muir, I have been, like too many others, a broken
and a lain! loss man !'
' Landless and homeless,' said Sir Baldred bitterly : 'how many a
noble peer and gentleman of that ilk have been so, since that fatal
time when England first relinquished her unavailing sword, to in-
sert a golden wedge in the foundations of our Scottish throne ?'
The old baronet was now on his hobby, and might have ridden it
for an hour, but Dalquharu said :
' We are, I trust, the heralds of a brighter era. Ere long, Sir
Baldred, his royal highness the Prince of Wales will land in the
Highlands '
' May the blessed God in heaven prosper him !' exclaimed the
old man, while his eyes filled with tears, as he raised Ins trembling
hands upward, and the deep earnest loyalty of those days, when
the sword and the gibbet were its test, gushed up in his true old
Scottish heart.
' In the north we can reckon upon the loyal clans to a man ! Of
the lowlands I am very doubtful. Of England save the border
counties and some friends in London I am totally so.'
' Unless we strike a good blow first on Scottish ground,' said Sir
Baldred, cheerfully.
' The affair of '15 has taught us some wise, but bitter lessons.
Little is committed to writing. We carry on our tongues, and in
our hearts, the instructions we are to communicate to you, the Earl
18 THE WHITE COCKADE.
of Kilmarnook, old Lord Lovat, and all on whom His Majesty King
James and tlie Prince of Wales can rely.'
' Call him Duke of Rothesay, I pray you, my lord.'
' One of the chief objects of tin's earlier mission of Sir John and
myself is to see about the establishment of a cavalry force, France
furnishing the arms, harness, and accoutrements, as we have been
promised commissions in the Life Guards of James VIII., so soon
as it has' been formed by the Lord Elcho.'
'By what fatality, my lord, did our long expected Dunkirk expe-
dition come to pass away ? The accounts given us, in the " Cale-
donian Mercury," were most mengre.'
' Prince Charles Edward left Rome disguised as a courier, for
everywhere the Elector had his hawks and spies abroad. Reaching
Paris undiscovered, he had a long audience with King Louis '
'Long, long have his family been the dupes of France! In all
ages that nation hath deceived them !' exclaimed Sir Baldred, em-
phatically.
'France seemed serious then; fifteen thousand infantry wero
assembled at Dunkirk, under the immediate orders of His Royal
Highness, while the Brest fleet, consisting of twenty-three sail,
manned by more than ten thousand seamen, entered the Channel,
under the flag of Admiral the Due de Roqucfeuille, to take them
on board. Spies soon informed the ministry of these measures, and
when ofi'Dungeness the fleet of Admiral Norris was in sight. Sir
John and I w.'re on board "Le Neptune," of 74 guns, commanded
by the Chef d'Escardre Monsieur de Carnilly, and saw the alarm
and confusion of the French at the superior aspect of the British
fleet.'
'In plain words, my lord, the Due de Roquefeuille turned tail
and fled ?'
' We got under sail at sunset, and stood down the Channel. That
night a dreadful storm came on, and we reached Brest in a sorely
crippled condition, while many of our transports perished witli all
on board. So the scheme of a sudden descent under the superin-
tendence of the Count de Saxe was completely frustrated.'
' All the better, sirs,' said Sir Baldred ; ' I like not this French
intervention in our affairs. If the House of Stuart is ever to be
restored to the British throne, I vow that I should like to see it
done by British hands.'
'And so thinks His Royal Highness !' said Sir John Mitchell;
' the fearless little boy, whom I, myself, have seen pursuing the
cannon balls as they ricochetted past the tent of the Duke of Ber-
wick, and who lately served in the campaign in Flanders, is now a
tall and gallant gentleman, the model of a prince, and fortunately
for those he hopes to govern, his temper and spirit have been
taught moderation by exile, for he has learned many a stern lesson
in adversity.'
' Ere winter be past, he has sworn to be in Holyrood, or in his
THE WHITE COCKADE. 49
grave!' said Dalquharn, in a low but earnest voice; his banner,
like that which Hontroso unfurled at Invercarron, shall hare u
crown and a coffin, as symbols that lie conies to seek one or the
other,"
' Woe is me !' said Sir Baldred ; ' I am old and poor ; I can
neither aid His Majesty's service or purpose by men or with my
sword ; but money he shall have, if that bloated miser Reuben Bal-
craftie hath it to give, even at fifty per cent. A cheque on our
Scottish Treasury, may, one day, repay it all ; if not, there was
mair tint at Sheriffmuir eh, Sir John? 'Tis a hard time for us
this ; I can scarcely get a penny of rent, in consequence of the
terrible cattle plague, which during the last four years hath swept
away all our Irerds. We have empty byres over all the barony,
and in the house a half empty pantry, as Mrs. Dorriel the house-
keeper will tell you. Bowie and Kirn are alike empty in all the
farm-towns, and our poor cottar folk have sore times, sir sore
times ; but the king is coming, and we shall have less taxes and no
more German wars ! Every man owes something to his lawful king
and to the land that bore him ; the talents of some ; the industry,
the gold, and the valour of others ! But as the old song says
'Cock tip your beaver, and cock it fu' spnisli,
^Wll over the Unrders, and gi'e them a brush ;
The Southrons there shall learn better behaviour,
And each true-hearted cavalier cock up bis beaver ('
At that moment the arras was withdrawn, the door opened, and
the Bailie entered, on which the three gentlemen affected to con-
tinue a very animated discussion on the appearance of the weather,
and the prospect of rain, though the May-day sky was without a
cloud.
1 Soho ! here come Bryde and her English cavaliers !' exclaimed
Sir Baldred, looking from a window (which like all the rest in
Auldhame, was secured from intrusion by a basket grating), as a
lovely fair-Inured girl in a blue riding habit, with a white liat and
long ostrich feather, dashed up the long shady avenue, on a splendid
bay, attended by two grooms in the Olterburn livery, and accom-
panied by two officers Captain Wvvil and Lieutenant Egerton of
Howards who, in their liamillie w igsand Kevenkuller hats, square
skirts and crimson sashes, worn in what was called the German
fashion (round the wuist), looked as stiff and odd as infantry officers
usually do, even in the present day, when mounted.
'Ah! they have been so far as Spott. God be good to us! It
seems like yesterday when I rode over to Spott-loan, on an October
evening in the year 1705, with Sir William Mitchell of Pitreavie
and my Lord Kingston, to see half a dozen poor old women burned
in one huge fire a pile of tar- barrels for witchcraft! We have
put dinner back an hour for those loiterers ; but JolmBirniebousle
shall now ring the house-bell.'
To find that his father's venerable friend was still true to 'the
4
50 THE WHITE COCKADE.
good old cause,' though certain redcoats were received as guests at
.Auldhame, bad lifted a great load of suspicion and anxiety from
the heart of the young and enthusiastic Lord Dalquharn.
CHAPTER X.
THE HOUSE or AULDHAME.
'Anldhame! the wall-flower's scented bloom,
Grow* lovely on thy turrets grey,
And. like the rose strewn on a tomb,
A fragrance sheds around decay.
No harps are murmuring in the hall ;
No armour glittering on the wall ;
For gone are knight and seneschal,
The voice of man is dumb I
And nought but ghosts, so gaunt and tall,
At dreary midnight come.' St. Baldred of the Bass,
THE Otterburns of Auldhame were one of the oldest families in the
constabulary of Haddington, though they took their name from a
place which is now merely a farm at Longfbrrnacus in the Merse;
but the race could trace themselves into the remoter ages of Scot-
tish history ; and Sir Baldred was fond of boasting over his flagon
of Burgundy or pint of burnt-sack ; that Allan Otterburn had been
secretary to Murdoch, Duke of Albany, when James I. was crowned
at Scone ; and that, in the time of James II., Nicholas Otterburn
of that ilk was ' Clericus Rotolorum Kegni Nostri ;' and he never
failed to remember Sir Adam Otteiburn of Auldliame, who was one
of the fir-t filteen senators of the College of Justice, and who, in
1544, was Provost of Edinburgh, which he valiantly defended
agninst the English till it was in flames in eight places, repulsing
them at. the cannon's irouth ; for be inherited all the valour of his
father, who fell at Flodilen.*
Overlooking the surrounding pea from its steep green slopes, in
view of picturesque and rugged Dunbar, the towering Bass and
Tantullon on its precipitous cliffs, that rise like ribs of bronze from
waves of snowy foam, Auldhame, though not built for a long
deft-nee, unlike most of our old Scottish mansions, had never been
assailed save once, when General Monk's rannoniers, on their way
to attack the castle of Tanfallon, fired a few twelve-pound shot at
the bnrb can wall, in a spirit of mere mischief: and Sir Baldred had
heard his mother tell, with mingled wrath and fun, 'how the rrop-
eared Puritans of England, in their steep-crowned hats and falling
collar-bunds, calves' leather boots and russet doublets, robbed the
hen-roosts, and drained the cellars, and sung psalms with the
I'tchen wenches ; but they did no more ; for Cromwell's brave fel-
lows like himself behaved very well while in Scotland.
Still more unlike our feudal mansions, the annals of Auldhame
* Vide Haig and Bruntou.
lllE WHITE COCKADE. 51
were darkened by no memorial of violence, treachery, or crime.
The family liad never been wealthy enough, or sufficiently powerful
to lake much share in the great, desperate, and, bloody game of po-
litical parties, which was for ever being played in Scotland, till the
rapid progress of events, and the abolition of their hereditary juris-
dictions, in 1747, saved the land from its chief curse, the intrigues
of a degraded, envious, grasping, venal, and treacherous nobility ;
thus, no feud, or raid, or midnight foray, no deed of blood, except
one in war, cast a shadow on the hospitable hearth of the Otter-
burns of Auldhame.
The family had a death-warning, so local gossips say, in the shape
of a spectre-drummer, who beat round the house, up the long shady
avenue, or along the solitary sea-shore at midnight, ' when fate was
nigh the line of Otterburn ; and this was alleged to have been the
case, ever since Sir Nicholas, who fell at Flodden, slew in cold blood,
three days before the battle, a drummer of the Lord Surrey's army.
The corbelled turrets at the angles of the walls were meant more
for decoration or utility than resistance : yet each had an arrow-hole
iii its window-sill, and the steep roofs of grey slabbed stone were
thickly spotted with green lichens, which gave a tone of venerable
antiquity to the whole edifice.
With its gablets covered with scutcheons and initials, the old
mansion formed a heraldic history of the alliances of its successive
inmates, cut in solid stone, and in several places appeared the fess-
clieque, for Lady Jean Stuart, daughter of John, third Earl of
Athol, the wife of Jolm Otterburn, who carried the king's banner
at Solway Moss.
Many a family festival, kept as such festivals were only kept, in
the hearty rough old times many a Hallow eve, with its tales of
witches and glamour ; many a frosty yule, with its green holly
branches and red berries, and many a new year's feast, when the
snow lay deep on the far stretching Lammermuirs, and the steep
slopes of Dunpender ; many a marriage with its jollity ; many a
birth with all its hopes and tenderness, and many a death, with its
noisy dredgie, and its long funeral torchlight procession, have those
old walls witnessed.
Some little conspiracies too, as when John Otterburn was official
of Lothian in 14-77, and the ambassador of Pope Julius II. came to
wheedle James IV. to send troops to the Italian wars ; and in much
more recent times, all Haddingtonshire knew, that there was a
mighty burnishing up of old holster pistols and snap-lock muskets,
and that many a blunted pikehead and notched broadsword were
put on the whirring grindstone, otf that memorable night in the
March of 1708, when the Chevalier de Fourbin, the Marechal Due
de Matignon, King James VIII., with the gallant Irish brigade and
French troops, to the number of fifteen thousand bayonets, were all
off the Red Head of Angus, and half the money for which Scotland
was sold, lay yet in the Castle of Edinburgh !
42
52 THE WHITE COCKADE.
The quaint old garden, with its formal grass walks and high yew
hedges, stone terraces, and leaden gods and goddesses, were stocked
with herbs by the famous Holyrood seedsman, Millar of Craigan
Tinuie, less because they were of the best Dutch kind, than because
he, worthy Quaker, was hereditary master gardener to the King of
Scotland ; for Sir Baldred was loyal even to the carrots and turnips
which garnished his platter of Bass-fed mutton ; but Miss Bryde's
flower parterres suffered sorely from the cold blasts of the east, or
as the gardener was wont to stigmatise it, " the Hanoverian wind ;"
for Sir Baldred affirmed, that it had blown over the German sea,
more keenly than ever, since the accession of the House of G-uelph .
In defiance of the lord advocate, many engravings of " the king
owre the water," and of his family, with all their royal titles below,
were to be found in the rooms of Auldhame.
Westward of the ancient gate by which Lord Dalquharn and Sir
John Mitchell approached the mansion, there was then a grove of
giant trees, the remnant of one of those old forests wherein our
hardy ancestors hunted, perhaps, before the world was redeemed,
and when its shades formed the home of the Coille-donean or men
of the woods. Now, it was locally known as the Deil's Loan
(Anglice, Devil's-lane), for there his satanic majesty was alleged to
promenade on certain gloomy evenings, when the sky was black and
lowering, and the sea-mews fled inland ; and his terrible presence
was always heralded by loud and angry gusts of wind, so stormy
that they frequently laid flat some of the ancient trees, tore the
thatch from the cottage roofs, rent the cabers from the walls, and
hurled the waves in wild tumult against the ruins of the ' auld
kirk' at North Berwick, at each recession, sucking the dead from
their graves, to strew their bones upon the beach.
Then ' Auld Mahoun,' was known to be at his trysting-place, and
more than one ill-favoured old woman, iu the hamlets of Tyning-
hame and Auldhame, was averred to be waiting to receive him and
to obey his commands to work mischief by land and sea.
The chamber-of-dais, or dining-room, wherein Sir Baldred now
spent many an hour, telescope in hand, watching the passing ships
(chiefly that cruising hawk of the Elector's the ' Fox' frigate), as he
was too old for much out-of-door exercise, and had altogether relin-
quished hunting, was carpeted with rush- work ; the recessed win-
dows had velvet cushions on the stone seats, and these were covered
with pretty needlework by Bryde'e industrious little fingers. A
large iron grate stood on a square stone block, within the wide fire-
place, on each side of which were two cai-yatides of Egyptian aspect,
with quiet, solemn and stupid faces, supporting a great lintel, in-
scribed,
Sanct. 13alBrcB bits ?is
a legend which the Reverend Mr. Aminadab Carfuffle, of White-
kirk, and Baillie Balcraftie, had more than once hinted the cxpe-
THE WHITE COCKJU>E. 53
diency of obliterating, as savouring of popery and the scarlet
woman ; but Sir Baldred had once sworn in his cups, that ' the
loon who defaced a letter of it, should be nailed by the lugs to the
outer gate !'
The ceilings were of that delicate white pargetted plaster work,
so common in Scottish mansions which hare been repaired during
the time of James VI. ; and a cornice of alternate lions and unicorns
passant, can still be traced on the time-worn walls.
There hung the suit of tempered plate armour, with the two-
handed sword and barred helmet of Sir Adam Otterburn, who, as
we have already stated, so stoutly defended the Scottish capital,
when the warlike Earl of Hertford landed with the savage orders
of his master, the Royal Blue-Beard, ' to iitterly raze it, and to
spare no living thing nor woman nor youngling, nor even the
household dogs ;' but who was driven down Leith Wynd, faster
than he came up, leaving nearly all his culverins, sakers and other
brass cannon, behind him ; and though he ultimately burned the
city, these were long after shown in the castle of Edinburgh as
trophies of the war of 1544.
Opposite the armour hung a full length of Sir Baldred, in the
then uniform of the royal company of archers, a tartan coat faced
with white, a white silk scarf, a blue bonnet, with a St. Andrew's
cross above his black cavalier wig ; for he had, in latter years, been
a crack shot among that remarkable body, into which none were
admitted save known adherents of the House of Stuart, as their
real object was to learn openly the use of arms without suspicion,
and hence this chartered company of bowmen, was merely a secret
school to educate officers for the Jacobite cause, though in the
happier reign of Victoria, it figures as ' The Queen's Body Guard
for Scotland. 1
CHAPTEE XL
BRTDE OTTEBBUBN.
' How oft in musing mood ray heart recalls,
From grey-beard father Time's oblivious halls,
The modes and maxims of my early day,
Long in those dark recesses stow'd away;
Drags once more to the cheerful realms of light
Those buckram fashions, long since lost in night,
And makes, like Endor's witch, once more to rise
My gorgeous graiidames to my raptured eyu 1'
Salmagundi.
WHILE the sunset of a bright May evening, streaming over the fer-
tile fields and waving woodlands, came through the toll windows of
Auldhiuue, and lighted up gaily the picturesque old chamber-of-
dais, dinner was served there, and with the last clang of the great
copper bell that dangled from one of the gables without, Sir Bald.-
54 THE WHITE COCKADE.
red and his guests sat down to a sumptuous and varied feast, the
presiding queen and goddess of which was his grand-daughter, Miss
Bryde Otterburn, who had just arrived from a gallop with the two
English visitors, and now appeared with, her natural blooin and
radiance, greatly enhanced by exercise.
When at Auldhame ten years ago, as a mere lad (a time and
visit concerning which the curious Bailie Balcraftie resolved to in-
quire in other quarters), Lord Dalquharn had left Bryde Otter-
burn a little flaxen-haired girl, who nursed a waxen doll, gathered
flowers by the wayside, and shells on the sea-shore. Now he found
her a full-grown belle of twenty. Ten years had made a wonderful
difference in them both !
To please the deceased Lady Dalquharn, who was her mother's
dearest friend, she had been called after St. Bryde, of Kildare, the
ancient patron of the house of Douglas, hence her quaint name ;
and for this trifling circumstance, as well as certain traits of char-
acter, chiefly her gay and happy spirit, poor Bryde was rather
shall we call it ' tabooed ' by the more rigid ladies of East Lothian,
her family having always had rather vague ideas of Presbyterianism,
with decided leanings towards Prelacy.
Her eyes and hair were exactly of the same chesnut hue the
former very soft, but clear and deep : the latter very silky and rip-
ply. Her manner was animated, and though her features were not
regular, she possessed the ' best essence of beauty expression,' for
her clear hazel eyes were full of intelligence, always varying, but
ever gentle, winning, and feminine.
From the colour of her eyes, and their long dark lashes, some
might have called Bryde Otterburn a brown beauty, though she had
a wonderful brilliance and fairness of complexion. Some there were
who thought her laughing, good-humoured mouth a little too large
for the rest of her soft features ; but none could deny the cherry
tint of her beautifully cut lips.
Bryde had been well educated, according to the ideas of the time
in Scotland, having been boarded with Madam Straiton, a fashion-
able ' mistress of manners,' in the Canongate of Edinburgh, whose
house adjoined that of His Grace of Queensberry, where she had
shared the society of the Earl of Haddington's grand-daughters, the
Ladies Rachel and Grizel, afterwards Countess of Stanhope ; and
where, with several other demoiselles of good family, she had been
taught to dance the minuet and other measures, how to carry her
vast hoop and long train, to sing the songs of Mr. Allan Eamsay's
1 Tea Table Miscellany,' to play on the virginals or spinnet, to paint
on satin, to make wax fruits, and filigree work of gilt paper ; in
addition to which accomplishments, she had also been taught spin-
ning and cookery, and how to oversee the pantry and brewhouse,
like the noble duine, her mother, before her.
In fact, it was to his darling grand-daughter Bryde, that the con-
fiding old Laird of Auldhame gave almost the entire charge of his
THE WHITE COCKADE. 55
property in many instances ; certainly the whole control of his
household, the care of his tenants, and of the poor in the hamlet, so
Bryde had her pretty little hands quite full, you may be assured ;
and a lively time she and old Dorriel Grahame, the housekeeper,
had of it, when the kain (or tribute) was collected from the tenants,
such as a score of meadow geese on old Michaelmas day, and as
many fat hens on Eastern's Even, before Shrove Tuesday.
On this day at dinner, Bryde's beautiful soft hair was unpow-
dered, and in all ita natural glory, fell rippling over her shoulder?,
from under one of those tiny lace mob-caps, which were then in
fashion. A blnck satin apron, with a ruche of white ribband round
it and round the pocket-holes, formed an important portion of her
attire ; but even the long stomacher and enormous hoop fardingale
under her blue silk dress (the breast and flounces of which were
covered by innumerable little knots of white ribband) were unable
to spoil the grace and beauty of her form.
Among the men of those days the hoop was objected to, quite as
much as the crinoline of more recent times ; but it also had its
defenders, and among others the gentle Allan Ramsay, who says :
' If Nelly's hoop be twice as wide,
As her two pretty legs can stride ;
What then t will any man of sense
Take umbrage or the least offec.ce?
' Do not the handsome of our city,
The pious, chaste, the kind and witty,
AY ho can afford it, great and small,
Regard a well-shaped fardingale V
A very housewife-like bunch of keys hung at her chatelane, and
with them a silver pomander ball, perforated by small holes to let
out the scent. All her ornaments were chiefly valued because they
had been her mother's : an etui and a little round, embossed gold
watch, a cut-steel set of mosaics, necklet, bracelets, and girdle of the
time of Louis Quatorze.
Sir John, simply known as yet by all save his host and hostess as
Captain Mitchell, handed her to dinner, and sat by her side. Dal-
qulinrn sat near Sir Baldred, and the other seats were occupied by
Bailie Balcraftie and the two English officers, who were both hand-
some, pleasant, and gentlemanly men, though the Jacobite emissaries
could very well have dispensed with their presence.
Captain Mannaduke Wyvil, the senior in years and rank, was the
beau ideal of a suave, polished, and good-humoured English officer,
lie had seen much of the world, and was the eldest son of Squire
AVyvil. of Hurstmonceaux, in the county of Salop. He had a slight
halt in his gait, having been wounded at Foutenoy in the preced-
ing year.
Talbot Egerton, his subaltern, was a Londoner, somewhat etourdi
in his bearing, not liking the Scots much in fact, perhaps, hating
them, like every ' true-born Englishman ' of his time ; but ho was
56 THE WHITE COCKADE.
well enough bred to keep his opinions entirely to himself, moreover
the national acrimony of future years had not been developed by
Wilkes, the North Briton, and the scurrility of Churchill's provin-
cial pastorals.
They wore their uniform (which thtm no military man ever went
without, even when on half- pay), the ample, flowing, and richly
laced coats of the Kentish Buffs, with flap waistcoats, and knee-
breeches, both of buff-coloured silk. Their white and well-pow-
dered wigs were of the regimental pattern ; and to these gentlemen
of the sword, Sir Baldred had simply introduced his secret visitors
as 'Captains Mitchell and Douglas friends of mine, fresh from
Holland, after vanquishing the French and the buxom toasts and
beauties of Haarlem and Amsterdam.'
Captain Wyvil and Sir John soon fraternised as old soldiers, who
had tasted salt water and smelled gunpowder, and they courteously
exchanged snuff-boxes ; but Egerton, who affected to be somewhat
of a beau, or blood, the 'fast man ' of a very slow age, eyed Dalqu-
harn distrustfully and coldly, and doubtless he had good reason.
For the entire past week in Auldhame lie had been the favoured
cavalier of Miss Bryde Otterburn, and had her society all to liim-
self ; but now this stranger in the green frock, with his fair hair
queued back by a blue ribband this Captain Douglas, who had
dropped suddenly among them, as if from the clouds, engrossed all,
or nearly all her attention ; and to make matters worse, they seemed
quite old friends, with ample and mutual recollections of a former
intimacy.
Though the conversation of this little dinner party was general,
the Bailie was reserved and watchful, with his pale watery eyes
usually fixed on Miss Otterburn and Dalquharn, while his host eyed
him grimly, and thought
' Egad ! in my young days, such a carle as Reuben Balcraftie
must have drunk his thin ale out of a pewter stoup below the salt ;
now, sink him ! he drinks claret and sherry out of well cut crystal,
at the same board with his betters.'
Sir Baldred asked a blessing ; he was afraid to let the Bailie (or
' Swivel-eyes,' as Mr. Egerton called him) do so, lest the viands
should be cold, ere he had relieved, by a long out-pouring, his
thankful spirit ; and then the meal proceeded briskly, old Birnie-
bousle, the butler, in his bob wig, and several powdered liverymen,
being in attendance. Mr. Birniebousle, who wore hodden grey in
general, was attired in his holiday suit of black broadcloth.
Sir Walter Scott was quizzed by an English critic, for ' always
feeding his heroes well,' but it must be borne in mind that dinners
a la Russe, and of kickshaws, were unknown a century ago in Scot-
land and in England too.
Before Bryde towered a great pasty of venison stalked in Bin-
ning Wood, and at the lower end, was a gallant grey salmon from
THE WHITE COCKADE. 57
the Tyne : on one side a capon with pease-pottage ; on the other, a
steak pie of dainty mutton, esteemed all the more for being fed on
the Island of the Bass ; then the second course consisted of fried
sweet-breads, a platter of roasted powts, or young muir fowl, a jug-
ged hare and fricasseed rabbits, with custard pies and puddings ;
while sherry, port, claret, and brandy were all going round the
table pell niell : and there was present one small dish which excited
universal comment potatoes a strange root introduced from Ire-
land into East Lothian, only four years before, by Hay, of Aber-
lady, as a garden rarity, and sent as a present from him to Auld-
haine himself!
' Salmon are unco' scarce in the Tyne, Auldhame,' observed the
Bailie.
1 Everything hath been so, since the Union,' said Sir Baldred ;
' but anent the salmon, the seals have been swimming about the
river mouth, and that is the chief reason. "Odsheart ! I know the
Tyne well, and have fished every foot of it, from the Firth up to
Middleton Muir, Bailie, thirty good Scottish miles ; but these days
are over with me now. I've twinges of rheumatism in the leg
which I broke in the year '15, when rushing my horse at a feal-
dvke. "Sdeath ! I protest, I don't think that dour auld carle, An-
drew Brown of Dolphiugton, though a great medicinar in his time,
set that same leg right. He bled me like a sheep, I can remember,
and gave me a powder, pulverised from the moss that grew on a
human skull in his library ! Hia lodging was then opposite the
mint, in the Cowgate, a genteel, but rather busy thoroughfare.
Ugh ! how I wearied of my sojourn there, till I came home by easy
stages in my Lady Uaddington's glass coach. Pass round the wine,
John Captain Wyvil's glass is quite empty.'
While the dinner proceeded, Dalquharn and Bryde were talking
of old times, or rather ll.eir younger days, and of some of his ad-
ventures since, all of which were full of interest to her; so poor
Mr. Egerton found that ho quite failed to attract her by an anec-
dote about ' Sparkish and Sir Timothy Tawdry of ours, who in an
eating-house at Charing Cross, met with two subalterns of Barrel's
regiment, who had just come home after Fontenoy ; that a quarrel
ensued about kissing the barmaid a rosy-cheeked wench, and it all
ended in a game of sharps yes, begad, madam by the rule of
steel, at the back of Montague House, and in both those bucks of
Barrel's, being pinked and taken home on shutters by the watch !
and so forth.
Wyvil and Mitchell were fighting Malplaquet over again, and
snuffing prodigiously over their reminiscences ; so Egerton was re-
duced to endure the conversation of Bailie Balcrai'tie, whom he
only half understood, and wholly detested, and who bored him by
elaborate details of the great rinderpest which was then destroying
the cattle in all parts oi' Britain, and which he called ' a plague
58 THE WHITE COCKADB.
sent by the Lord to carry awa* the bestial of Jew and Gentile
alike.'*
Talbot Egerton, like other young men of his position in society,
had made the ' grand tour,' between the time of leaving Cambridge
and joining the Kentish Buffs in the Balearic Isles; he was fond
of gaiety, and he who had been sick of service in Scotland as sick
as any of Caesar's Legionaries were long ago and who had longed
for London, with its bustle and society, its coffee-houses, Drury
Lane, and Covcnt Garden and the Mall to be beating the watch
and scouring St. Giles with other young bloods of fire and good-
breeding longing, too, for cocking matches at Chelsey, and other
matches at Hocklcy-in-the-Hole, had suddenly become quite recon-
ciled to his country quarters, under the influence of Bryde Otter-
burn's society for a week, and had said much less to Wyvil about
odious mountain scenery, Scotch mists, cheek bones, oat-meal, and
brimstone ; and now to make amends for her inattention, she be-
gan to rally him upon permitting the smugglers to escape last
night.
On this, he proceeded to inform Lord Dalquharn, with consider-
able minuteness, that lie and Captain Wyvil, had undergone great
annoyance, and no small amount of personal peril, when patrolling
the dangerous coast between Tantallon and the rocks known as St.
Baldred's Cradle, amid a dense mist, as a run of smuggled goods
was expected to be made, by a Dunkirk lugger, which Mr. Gage
was unable to board, as all the fisher-boats were at sea, and his own,
with her swivel gun, had been scuttled and destroyed by some of
the smuggler's confederates on shore.
Dalquharn and Mitchell covertly smiled at each other, and the
uneasiness of the Bailie was only too discernible to them both.
' Talking of that affair,' said Captain Wyvil, setting down his
glass of Burgundy, and plaving with his ruffles, ' I vow, Miss Ot-
terburn, that I am almost glad the Sanders Scupperplug (or what-
ever is his name) escaped us.'
' Why, Captain Wyvil ?' asked Bryde, laughing at the odd
name.
' I can forgive the old fellow anything, as one of the five brave
British seamen who took the little fort of Puerto-de-la-Plata, and
burned the town.'
' But from all I have heard, he must have some confederates in
the neighbourhood, and bold ones too, Captain Wyvil. 1
' He has, Miss Otterburn, and I'd give a month's pay to find 'em
out,' exclaimed Mr. Egerton.
' Because you are tired of this secluded place and of us,' sug-
gested Bryde, ' and long to change your quarters.'
* This cattle plagna was equally fatal on the Continent in 1745-6. Tn Sep-
tember of the latter year, the London papers state that 'in Essx Alone, up-
wards of 60(iO cattle died of it before the 1st of June last/ and that 60,000 per-
ished iu Denmark before the middle of December.
THE WHITE COCKADE. 59
'Ah, don't say so, I pray you, madam,' implored Mr. Egerton,
actually blushing nearly as red as his coat, while the Bailie's face
during this little colloquy was an amusing picture to those who, like
Dalquharn and Sir John Mitchell, could read it. They smiled to
each otlier again, and the latter took a pinch of rappee from a Se-
vres box, presented to him by the Duke of Berwick.
1 Scupperplug is no doubt a nom de guerre, and egad, it is a droll
one !' said Egerton, who having made ' the grand tour ' in charge
of a bear-leader (as travelling tutors were named) had picked up a
little French, a language then very properly despised, as Mr.
Wilkes might have told us, by all loyal and true-born Britons, as
being fitted only for frog-eaters, dancing-masters, barbers, and cat-
fut-scrapers, who wore wooden shoes and adhered to the Pope, the
evil, and the Pretender. ' The whole district hereabout,' resumed
the Lieutenant, ' is deeply interested in the smuggling business, so
that I fear we shall have to make short and sharp work with all
who fall into our hands and come to the cold iron, without reference
to riot acts and so forth.'
' Riot acts man alive ! don't talk of them,' exclaimed Sir Bald-
red, with sudden irritation. ' In Scotland, in my time, in the pur-
suit of a lawful feud or family quarrel, we could keep the crown of
the causeway with sword and pistol, if we so wished, against all
coiners sack a farm-town, burn a grange, or blow up a tower;
make a tulzie at kirk or market, on the highway, or in burgh, and
there was no more about it ; but now since the accession of this
House of Hanover, we have had a riot act passed by the united
parliament, expressly to prevent what they termed the disorders,
which might be occasioned by that accession, the proclamation of
which, in Edinburgh, I well remember, for it was made to the
people under the cannon's mouth, every gun in the castle being
double-shotted and turned on the city, while the Lyon King and
his heralds were at the cross! and so, now a Douglas sits down at
the same table with a Hamilton, a Scot with a Kerr, and have no
occasion to leave their swords with the butler or tapster, for they
cut their coats peaceably now according to the English fashion.'
Captain Wyvil laughed good humoureclly at this odd view of
matters taken by the baronet, whose boyhood went back to the days
of King Charles the Second, and certainly of all the many griev-
ances of which he complained, the restrictions of good government
were the most singular ; but after Miss Otterburn had retired amid
the low bows of all present, and after the removal of the cloth, Mr.
Birniebousle brought in long clay pipes for tobacco, and the sooth-
ing Nicotian weed became the order of the evening, while the pretty
heiress of Auldhame sighed alone over her tea-board and its best
equipage in the drawing-room.
^ Fresh decanters and jugs of wine were brought with certain cu-
rious old drinking glasses, massive and dwarfish, each with a small
gold coin of Francis and Mary, King and Queen of France and
60 THE WHITE COCKADE.
Scotland, blown into the stem. The butler also, as a matter of
custom, placed a tankard of pure water at his master's right hand.
' Fill your glasses, gentlemen a bumper to the king !' said Sir
Baldred, passing his glass over the water, and thus, with a clear con-
science and a loyal heart, drinking mentally to his lawful king, who
was in France beyond the sea.
' This loyal toast is the first always drunk at my good father's
table,' said Captain Wyvil, who thought he detected something
doubtful in the mode Dalquharn drank it. ' The old squire was
wont to ride once yearly, from Hurstmonceaux to London, for the
sole purpose of kissing the hand of King William.'
1 Ah the late Prince of Orange,' said Dalquharn.
' He was originally Prince of Orange,' replied Captain Wyvil,
still smiling, for he was quite a man of the world.
' Yes, when he lurked behind a shutter at the Hague, and saw
the assassination of the De Witts, Cornelius, and John the pension-
ary of Holland,' eaid Sir Baldred, with great bitterness, 'and when
he beheld the rascal mob, as the History of the United Provinces*
tells us, " drag their naked bodies to the common gibbet, where they
hung them by the feet and cut off their noses, ears, and fingers,
which were sold in the circumjacent parts. Nay, some of the popu-
lace cut large pieces of their flesh, which they broiled and eat."
When those fine doings went on at the Hague, he was Prince of
Orange; but he was the "pious, glorious, and immortal King Wil-
liam," when he massacred the Clan Donald in cold blood at Glen-
coe, and sent a warrant here, to torture in the steel boots, and nigh
unto death, the poor Englishman, Neville Payne ; and when he
betrayed our Scottish colonists of New Caledonia to the murdering
and merciless Spaniards, he was king assuredly Dei Gratia, and
Defender of the Faith !'
Captain Wyvil, who was used to these little outbursts on the part
of his old host, again smiled with that imperturbable good humour
which is peculiarly English.
1 We shall drop King William,' said Captain Wyvil. ' We En-
glish, less loyal than you Scots, taught the House of Stuart the
bitter lesson, that kings were made for their subjects, not subjects
for their kings ; but I think you must admit that this new war
with France is most just ?' he added, to change the topic.
' Of course,' said his lieutenant ; ' egad, a war with France must
always be so.'
'Especially when waged, like this, in defence of our beloved
Electorate of Hanover," said Lord Dalquharn, unguardedly.
' Nay, Captain Douglas,' replied Wyvil, eying him sharply ; ' I
think His Majesty, King George, was quite right to declare war
after King Louis's notorious breach of all treaties by building the
new forts at Dunkirk, by hostilities committed against our fleets in
the Mediterranean, and that most insolent affront, by receiving at
* London, 1705,
{HE WHITE COCKiDfi. 6i
liis court of Versailles, the son of the Popish Pretender under
favour, gentlemen Scots I shall call him the young chevalier, for I
bear the king's commission, and can say no more,' added the Cap-
tain, on seeing the angry flush that crossed three of the faces pre-
sent, while even the old butler knit his brows and paused, napkin
in hand, looking very much as if he would have liked to punch the
captain's head. ' Then there was the embarkation actually made,
of a body of troops, with the Lords Middleton, Dalquharn, and
other attainted Scots, at that same devilish place, Dunkirk, to fight
for the so-called James VIII. of Scotland, and but zounds ! but I
am getting quite warm on the subject,' said the Englishman, check-
ing himself with a little good-humoured laugh, when he saw how
the colour came and went in the cheek of old Sir Baldred, whom he
was too polite and amiable to offend.
So there was an awkward pause here, which the Bailie sought to
fill up, by stupidly remarking that every day brought fresh tidings
of a projected landing ' among the Highland Ishmaelites, by that
infatuated young gentleman, the Chevalier (he dared not call him
Pretender in the presence of Sir Baldred, and feared to say Prince
in the hearing of two king's officers, so he steered the middle course,
like many equally cautious and better men), but believed that he
would be, like his father, the victim of Jesuit priests, of artful women
and hot-headed Irishmen. And only three days ago, when in Edin-
burgh,' he added, 'I saw Sir Hector Maclean and Mr. Bleau, of
Castlehill, apprehended by the town guard in the Cannongate, and
sent in chains to London in a king's yacht, by order of the Lord
Advocate.'
'And for what?" asked Lord Dalquharn, whose brow lowered
angrily.
' Suspicion of being in the French service,' said the other, slowly,
and watching the effect of his words, ' and of enlisting idle loons for
the Pret Chevalier. Wae is me, that men should meddle wie'
siccan affairs, for " better is he that ruleth his spirit, than he that
taketh a city !" '
''Twill come to the musket erelong, I fear,' said Captain Wyvil,
shaking his head sorrowfully ; ' the Highlands are all unchanged
since that flash in the pan at Sheriff Muir.'
4 Pass the wine, Bailie,' said Sir Baldred, impatiently.
' GJude French claret, this,' said the Bailie, whose bad breeding
appeared pretty often; 'twa shillings the bottle, I suppose thin
bodied, though I'll try the white wine, Sir Baldred. I'se warrant,'
he added, smacking his thin wicked lips, ' ye pay a shilling the
mutchkin for that, John Birniebousle ?'
' Drink, Bailie, and welcome ; what my butler pays, or does not
pay, can matter little to my guests,' said Sir Baldred haughtily.
In the outer hali we've a butt o't on tap, Bailie, ready for all
comers, when sic folks as the Scougals o' that ilk, keep but a barrel
o' twopenny ale,' said the old butler with commendable pride.
62 THE WHITE COCKADE.
'Sneer not at Scougal, John,' said his master angrily; 'he lost
much in that d nable Revolution of '88.'
' And now, sirs,' said Sir Johu Mitchell, rising, ' shall we join Miss
Otterburn at a dish of tea ?'
On this, Lord Dalquharn and Mr. Egerton, whose thoughts had
been in the withdrawing-room, for some time past, rose with equal
alacrity, and hastened towards the door, the arras of which was
withdrawn by the butler, and though heavy drinking was then the
fashion and more so among the Jacobites than the more cautious
whigs I am glad to record that not one of the six gentlemen were
in a state to make pretty Bryde blush, or tremble for the safety of
her tea equipage, though their clothes and periwigs smelt most
odiously of tobacco.
CHAPTER XII.
THE WITHDBA'WING-BOOM.
/Even as I muse, my former life returns,
And youth's first ardour in my bosom burns,
Like music melting in a lover's dream,
I hear the murmuring song of Teviot's stream.
The crisping rays that on the waters He,
Depict a paler moon, a fainter sky ;
While, through the inverted alder boughs below,
The twinkling stars with greener lustre glow.' John Leydtn.
ACQUAINTED by her grandfather, of who Captain Douglas and Captain
Mitchell really were, and of what was their ultimate object in visit-
ing Auldhame, the poor little heart of Bryde Otterburn was sadlj
fluttered. Like nearly all the Scottish ladies of the period, she was
enthusiastically loyal, for the Stuarts had their most active and de-
voted adherents among the fair sex. When Prince Charles was at
Holyrood, four months after this time, so great was the crush oi
fine ladies at his levee in the Gallery of the Kings, that they broke
the staff of the royal standard, which the veterans of his Highland
guard considered a bad omen of the future. So Bryde looked to th<
coming time of battle and peril, with mingled joy and apprehension
The young Lord Dalquharn now filled her thoughts to an extent
that our new acquaintance, Beau Egertou of the Kentish Buffs, coulc
not have suspected or relished.
She remembered him, not as the lord, but the master of Dal
quharn, a handsome boy, when she was but a girl of ten, and prio
to her being boarded with Madame Straiton, that most prim an<
discreet ' mistress of manners.' He it was who had often led he
pony so gallantly along the edge of the beetling cliffs ; who fear
lessly slung himself over them at a rope's-end, to gather the eggs o
the gannet and puffin ; the brave companion with whom she ha<
many a time explored the vast chambers of Tantallan, repeopling it
1HE WHITE COCKADr. 63
lofty towers with grim and mail-clad warriors like Bell- the- cat, and
proud imperious dames, like Agnes, the Black Countess of Dunbar,
who mocked the warlike Salisbury, when he retired 'foiled by a
woman's hand, before a shattered wall.'
And there were the ruins, too, of St. Baldred's chapel, where all
their kindred lay ; and there were the deep recesses of the Druid's
cave at Seacliff ; the woody shades of the Deil's Loan, and many
other places they had explored together, came back with all their
incidents, to memory now, and she still thought with terror of the
day when she must have perished, on a boating expedition to the
Bass, had he not borne her up bravely, and kissed her, and besought
her not to be afraid !
The handsome boy who had trussed and plumed her hawks, and
trained her long-eared and pug-nosed Bologna spaniel to play a
score of pretty tricks ; behind whom she had often ridden on a pil-
lion to hear Mr. Carfuffle preach in Whitekirk, and once to Edin-
burgh to see the Tolbooth, after it had been attacked by the Por-
tcous mob ; and for whom she had wept herself to sleep on the
bosom of old Dame Dorriel, many a night, after he went fur away to
France, beyond the sea, had come to visit them again, a tall, winning,
and she must acknowledge it an extremely well-favoured man,
with a gravity of carriage, a somewhat sad expression of eye, but
with a studious politeness and calm reserve beyond his years ; but
all the result of an early life of peril, of political intrigue, of exile,
and, perhaps, of poverty.
It seemed to her like some of the fairy stories or romances she
had read this unexpected visit. She thought of Amadis de Gaul,
of Glorianna, and of Urganda the Unknown, and the heroes and
heroines of other works, which had been lent to her in secret, by my
Lady Haddington, as they both feared Mr. Carfuffle, who hated a
romance, because the name was nearly akin to Romanism.
Glancing at the mirror (and seldom did it reflect a more winning
face or more lovely figure), she smoothed her bright brown hair,
and shook out her hoop, which, Heaven knows, was ample enough.
She opened and shut her fan impatiently, and arranged and re-
arranged the tiny cups of Dresden china upon the mahogany tea-
board, which stood on a large buhl gueridon, or tripod table. The
water hissed in the silver urn. On one massive silver salver was a
pile of currant ' scones,' or cakes, the work of Bryde's own hands,
and on another rose a pyramid of petits-gatettes-gateavx a species
of short-cake, still called by the Scots, in homely fashion, 'petti-
coat tails.'
And now, as the voices of Sir Baldred and his guests were heard
in the corridor, Bryde gave a last glance round the drawing-room,
the chairs of which were covered with blue Flanders damask, the
walls being tapestried at each end and wainscottd elsewhere ;
the wax-lights in the pale bronze chandelier were burning brightly,
aud all her peculiar domain looked elegant and cheerful, as the
64 tHE WHITE COCKADE.
gentlemen entered, with the usual apologies for lingering over the
bottle ; and a charming picture the little heiress of Otterburn made,
as she sat in an antique chair, her feet in tiny white slippers with
high red heels, resting on a velvet tabourette, and the rich damask
curtains festooned as a background, while she dispensed from the
gueridon table, the beverage called tea, in the smallest of cups and
saucers.
Tea was still somewhat of a rarity in Scotland, and had first been
brought into that country towards the close of the preceding' cen-
tury by Sir Andrew Kennedy, who was Lord Conservator of the
Scottish Privileges at Campvere, and had received a small parcel of
it, as a present from the Dutch East India Company.
' I am assured that Miss Otterburn must have thought us very
ungallant in leaving her so long alone,' said Mr. Egerton, with his
most insinuating smile, as he placed himself at once, by her side.
' But we were talking of politics, Miss Otterburn,' added Dal-
quharn, ' and they grow more interesting every day.'
' Especially to w*,' she replied by an arch glance.
'Yes to us, indeed,' said Dalquharn, with a smile.
' And you were drinking toasts, doubtless, Mr. Egerton, amid
loyal and hickupping cheers oh, I understand."
' No, indeed, we were not,' he replied, earnestly.
' Then I must give you one,' said she, lowering her voice and
stooping towards Egerton, who had humbly seated himself on a
tabourette similar to that on which her little feet were resting.
' You, madam ?'
' Yes-1 ; do you think it droll ?'
'And your toast is, prythee '
' Long live King James VIII.,' whispered the pretty rogue, al-
most into the side curls of Egerton's wig, half-closing her merry
brown eyes, and half-stooping towards him ; and as she held aloft a
little Dresden cup, displaying a round and taper arm of marvellous
whiteness and beauty, bare, save its bracelet, to the dimpled elbow,
which emerged from a short sleeve edged by a long fall of lace of
Malines, she looked beautiful, brilliant and droll ! ' Dost hear me,
sir? Ah that I were a man, and wore a sword and perriwig,
instead of this mob-cap and fardingale ! Long live King James
VIII., the brother of the good Queen Anne !'
' I dare not, Miss Otterburn I protest to you I dare not drink
it, even in this stuff called tea,' urged poor Egerton, colouring, and
glancing nervously towards Captain Wyvil.
' Well, I cry for mercy, sir, and crave pardon.'
' Pardon of me,' said lie, looking quite radiant.
' Yes ; it is wrong and ungenerous of me to think of putting
you in a false position, even in jest.'
' A la sante de la bonne cause /' said Egerton, draining his cup,
and laughing ; ' I think that hath the true ring of the Court of St.
Germains eh ?'
THE WHITE COCKADE. 65
Q-ood Captain Wyvil looked smilingly towards them, and shook
iis large wig, while saying, ' Egad, dou't seek to seduce my subal-
ern from his allegiance, Miss Otterburn, though I fear many a
nore loyal man than he hath figured in St. Giles round-house bo-
ore now. Come, Talbot, though a sprightly spark, don't forget
hat your father was a grave whig, a leading member in tlie Culres'-
icad Club, and figured sword in hand in the famous riot that was
lispersed by the Foot Guards and the King's Musketeers.'
'Another cup of tea my Captain Douglas?' Bryde hesitated
,nd blushed, she had almost addressed him by his title.
' I thank you, yes,' said Dalq^uharn, his sword tilting up, as he
nacle a low bow.
'My my what? her Captain Douglas!' thought Egerton and
he Bailie too, as their eves met by chance.
' A rare and beautiful China this !' observed Dalquharn.
' Oh, sir, 'tis very poor, be assured,' said Bryde, colouring ; ' and
ret it was my mother's marriage gift from the exile Earl Marishal.'
' I have seen a set that looked less beautiful, and for which a
;ing gave a regiment of horse,' said Sir John Mitchell to Captain
tVyvil.
' Yee ; I too have seen it at Dresden, in the Neustadt; it was
;ivcn to the Elector Augustus II., by Frederick I. of Prussia, in
xchange for a regiment of Cuirassiers fully equipped. He was
hen founding the military force of his kingdom, and so was parting
iven with his beloved China.'
And now Bryde, when she saw the two attainted Jacobites and
he two red- coated officers all so blithe and pleasant together, won-
lered if the time would really come, and she trembled for it, when
hey might be cutting each other's throats on the battle-field !
A volume of the ' Orpheus Calcdonius ' of Allan Ramsay, pre-
icnted by him to her mother, and dedicated by the poet to th
Princess of Wales, Wilhilmina Caroline, of Brandenburg-Anspach
!Sir Baldred had torn out that leaf) stood open on the music-
And.
Our simple grandmothers aye, and even our mothers too in
England, but still more in Scotland, knew no other songs than
:hose of their native island ; and had neither the ' snobbery,' nor
;he bad taste to imitate foreign artistes by attempting opera, or to
impose bad German or worse Italian, on an audience which knew,
perhaps, not a word of either. Such high accomplishment, or va-
jaries were all unknown at Madame Straiton's establishment,
opposite His Grace of Queensberry's lodgings in the Canongute ;'
)O now Bryde Otterburn ran her white fingers over the kevs of the
wiry-sounding spinnet (an instrument sorely inferior to one of Col-
lard's grant! tri-cord pianos), and sang the march of the Viscount
Kenmure, just as her mother had taught her she to whom the
handsome cavalier, so young and gay, had waived a farewell with
oifl plumed hat, as he rode forth with his troop of two hundred
5
66 THE WHITE COCKADE.
gallant Galwegian yeomen for England, to return no more, for h
sealed his loyalty with his blood on Tower-hill, after thememorabl
rising of 1715.
' Kenmure is on the awa, Willie,
O Kenmiire is on the awa !
Ami Kemnure's Lord is the bravest Lord,
That ever Galloway saw !'
We are sorry to admit that this song being a national one, woul
only be sung now in the kitchen of Bryde's descendants ; but i
was not so then, and the hearts of the two returned exiles wer
stirred within them, by a deep and earnest emotion, while the lire!
girl sang, and especially at the last verse
' Here's to him that's far awa, Willie,
Here's victory owre his foes;
And here's a flower that I lo'e best,
The Rose, the snow white Boat /'
As she Bang, the Bailie, into whose huge but meanly moulde
brain, the good wines he had imbibed were mounting, hovered nea
the spinnet, with his hands vulgarly thrust under his square, bud
ram-stiffened coat-tails, and with a strange, half-tipsy and hall
gloating expression in his pale, cunning eyes, while he regarded th
bright, laughing girl, who, without waiting either for applause o
invitation, clashed at once into the ' Bonnie briar bush,' anothc
high cavalier song, in which its snowy blossoms are likened to th
white cockades of the loyalists ; and he seemed to see two level
heads, each crowned by a waggish mob-cap, and four white armi
with gemmed hands, running swiftly over the keys.
' Well, Bailie,' said Lord Dalquharn, who had been eyeing hir
narrowly ; ' how like you the song ? think you not that in ou
national music Miss Otterburn excels ?'
' Excels !' repeated the Bailie, somewhat startled by Dalquharn'
cool, but lofty manner ; ' excels O O O !' he exclaimed wit!
one of those prolonged howls, peculiar to a certain class of canter
when quoting Scripture, ' " Many daughters have done virtuously
but thou excellest them all," Bryde Otterburn, and weel may th
words o' the Proverbs be applied to you.'
Bryde, who did not ' see' the application, smiled so proudly an
disdainfully, that the vulture eyes shut and opened, while thei
proprietor drew back a little way.
The lofty bearing of the two passengers, who had come so my;
teriously, and to his great annoyance by the ' Etoile de la mer
puzzled him ; his brain was not in its clearest state at that momen'
but he felt convinced that they were something more than mer
captains in the Dutch service in fact, that they were, according t
the phraseology of the time, ' persons of quality,' gens de marqut
or men of condition. Bryde's glance to Dalquharn at the lin
about ' the snow white rose ' convoyed a volume, a clue if one wei
wanting, and he would follow it up !
THE WHITE COCKADE. 67
' A fearless little Jacobite it is !' said Captain "Wyvil, smiling, as
lie presented liis gold snuff box to Sir Baldred, who sat in his easy
chair, beating time on the hilt of his sword, and a bright expression
lighting up his old wrinkled face.
But now the party was to separate for the night. Dalquharn and
Mitchell both looked weary, and a stirrup cup of mulled port was
ordered, then another and another followed ; and it is with some
shame we have to record that on this night the poor old baronet
got rather disreputably tipsy, proposed ' the health of his sacred
Majesty Charles II., now reigning,' and insisted on singing some
very rebellious songs to Captain Wyvil who laughed, good humoured,
as he and the butler helped him to bed, where he dozed off to sleep,
singing, in a quavering voice
' To wanton me, to wanton me,
Oh, ken ye what roaist would wanton me ?
T<> see King James at Edinburgh Cross,
\Yl" fifty thousand foot and horse ;
Oli, that is what maist would wauton me I*
Dalquharn was not without fears that he and his companion
might be unwittingly betrayed. To drink deep was one of the sins
of that time, when ' a man of fashion (to quote a great writer) often
passed a quarter of his day at cards, and another quarter at drink.
I have known many a pretty fellow, who was a wit too, ready of
reparte, and possessed of a thousand graces, who would be puzzled
if ho had to write more than his own name.'
The two English officers took their swords, and set forth to visit
the village of Auldhame, and ascertain whether their men were all
in quarters, if not abed, and the Bailie took his departure, staff in
hand, to return to North Berwick, a three miles' walk, in the moon-
light.
We have said, that this most wily and watchful personage could
drink without ever getting quite inebriated ; on this occasion, how-
ever, it was apparent to Mr. Birniebousle, as he somewhat contemp-
tuously slammed the iron barbican-gate on ushering him out, that
the magistrate and elder set forth on his pilgrimage, to what he
termed ' his tents and his flesh pots of Egypt,' with his tie perriwig,
very much over his eyes, and that he seemed to be sorely troubled
by the breadth, rather than by the length of the road, for even
saints and patriarchs 'have had their weak moments, long since
Father Noah toppled over after discovering the vine.'
' Gin ye tyne the gate and gae owro Tantullan Craigs into the
sea, 'twere but a sma' misfortune to the country side,' thought the
old Butler with a saturnine grin, as the Bailie, whom he liked as
little as his master, went unsteadily down the avenue, with a mind
full of vague ideas that he had a great Jacobite plot to discover
ideas sharpened by avarice, covetousness, and jealousy.
Yes, strange as it may appear, this earthly worm felt a scorching
5-2
63 THE WHITE COCKADE.
jealonsj
evident
hame !
jealousy alike of Dalquharn and Egerton, -whom he had left, too
evidently as rivals, in possession of the fair fortress at Auld-
CHAPTER XIII.
IN TINO YERITAS.
' Davy. Shame, sir ! He's a soldier, a man of pleasure." A wife would be too
heavy luggage for him to carry about with him.'
Thi Highland Fair, an opera, 1731.
SAPE in the dwelling of a friend, although that dwelling also re-
ceived two persons who might soon be mortal foes, Lord Dalquharn
of the Holm, and Sir John Mitchell, had no need to look to the
charges of their pistols on this night.
Mrs. Dorriel Grahame the housekeeper, with a wax candle in
each hand, conducted his Lordship, whom she did not recognise,
though he remembered her well of old, with her Flemish coif, its
long lappets and black silk band, her grey stuff gown and large
white neckerchief, her motherly kindness, and her quaint garrulity.
He remembered the room perfectly too, with its gilt, leather
hangings, manufactured some fifty years before by the celebrated
Bai.ie Brand of Edinburgh, and its antique pillard oak bed, placed
on three steps and canopied like a tomb, the curtains being, as
Dame Dorriel told him, ' shewit wi' pearling on cramozie by the
bonnie white hands o' her ain doo Miss Bryde,' which no doubt
greatly enhanced their interest in his eyes : ' it was a feather bed,
mairowre, wi' double Scottish blankets, forebye twelve others in the
house,' she added, with laudable pride : ' but uane she feared were
cosy or soft enough, for the twa English captains, deevil byde
them !'
Dalquharn looked earnestly at the old woman, and smiled, as one
in a dream. It seemed but yesterday since he last heard her voice
and beheld her liale old face, which had not one wrinkle more. She
trembled at the idea of ghosts and warlocks, yet wore on one of her
fingers a ring made of a coffin hinge as a spell against cramp, and
had been cured of a tumour by nine strokes of a dead man's hand
at sunrise the hand of the poor wretch who hung in chains at the
town-end of North Berwick ; and had at her bed head a hag-stone,
or perforated pebble, slung on a red thread, to pi-event night-mare
by evil spirits sitting on her stomach.
Sho saw that the stranger was a comely and handsome young
man, and so, surveying him kindly, bade him good night, hoped ho
would sleep sound, and backed out of the chamber with a low, old
fashioned courtesy.
How well Dalquharn remembered this apartment, for it had been
that of his father and mother, with its walls stamped over with
THE WHITE COCEADB. 69
alternate thistles nncl flenrs-de-lys, in heavy gilding, and the deep
sfone fireplace with its elliptical arch and massive Scottish mould-
ings, the keystone being a shield, charged with the three otters'
heads of Otterburn.
In that room, they had slept for months, those beloved parents,
and on those pillows, where his own WAS to lie, their revered heads
had reposed heads lying low enough now, beneath the pavement
of the royal chapel at St. Germain, and as he looked around, their
figures seemed to rise before him. Nothing here was changed save
himself, for many years more than were his, seemed to have passed
since then years of stirring action, hot hate, and passion, deep
intrigue and care years of wandering and hope, battle and
disaster!
' I shall drenm of bright, laughing Bryde Otterburn,' thought he,
as he laid his In-ial on the pillow, ' and think only how lovely my
little friend of other times has grown.'
Meanwhile Bryde, who was reposing in her pretty bed, and think-
ing perhaps of Dalquharn, could little know that she was the sub-
ject of a lively conversation elsewhere.
The new moon waa shining high, sharp and clearlv, in the blue
?ky, its pale light mingling witti the last red flush of the May sun-
set, which still lingered beyond the Fifeshire hills ; for the hour
was not yet ten ; but people were usually early abed in those days,
especially in the country. Captain Wyvil and Lieutenant Egerton
were returning from the village and home-farm of Auldhame (a
quaint, old, picturesque house is tlie latter, and still remarkable for
its square and massive chimneys), after having seeu Colour Sergeant
Tony Teesdale, and found all their gallant Buffs in quarters ; and
now as they proceeded homeward, Captain Wyvil discovered that
his subaltern was a little in liquor, and very much in love.
Egerton had drunk quite enough at dinner, and of the stirrup
cup after, to have his tongue loosed, and his steps made a little
unsteady, on issuing into the open air. At some distance they
passed Bailie Bulcraftie, as he quitted the avenue and stumbled
along the highway towards Castleton, on his way home.
4 There goes old Swivel-eyes,' said Egerton ; ' let us avoid him,
and strike through the fields to reach home. I hate that sly Scot;
and, gad, I feel somehow that he hates me yes, rot him, hates
me ! But to return to what we were saying. Well, Marmaduke
Wyvil, what think you of our little Scots beauty here ?
' How now, what mean you ? Think ?'
' Yes.'
4 1 think she hath smitten you, friend Talbot.'
' Egad, I vow, I protest, that I am quite astonished! Steady-
eyes front!' stammered Egerton, making a lurch against the cap-
tain, and nearly tearing one of his epaulettes off. 'As for the
people of this country, L hate 'ein, as every true-born Englishman
hould.'
tO THB WHITE COCEADS.
' Well ?' said Wyvil, a little impatiently.
' I came here with some of our old English traditions and family
notions in my head. You know that my mother is a grand-daughter
of Sir Anthony Weld, who writ a pleasant book of travels in Scot-
land, which he described to be a wild and mountainous country,
infested, however, " by no monsters, except women ?" Well, wl>sn
I heard that the old " laird of that ilk," as the people here call him
(whatever the devil it may mean), had a pretty granddaughter, I
thought she might solace me during our banishment in this land
of bondage and brimstone, smugglers and psalm-singers. I
fancied her a freckled, red-headed Scots wench, in neat's leather shoes,
and yarn stockings of her own spinning, a linsey-woolsey petticoat,
with a calimanco and high wooded pattens for wet weather ; but,
begad, sir ! surprised I was indeed to find her in laced slippers, with
high French red heels and fine silk socks ; a hoop like Queen Anne's,
some six yards wide at least ; and her hair, at times, done over a
toupee all as fine, forsooth, as any lady of quality in Piccadilly, who
drinks tea and takes snuff " a la Pompadour." '
' Nay, nay, snuffs she none, my friend ; but I repeat that you are
too evidently smitten in that quarter,' said Wyvil, taking the young
fellow's arm to steady him.
' Smitten ? Well, perhaps I am.'
'And with a little Scots girl.'
' What a joke ! I can fancy the dismay at our house in Piccadilly.
My father, mother, and sisters, fancy that we are among cannibals
here ; and yet for fashion and bearing this girl might vie with any
woman in town.'
'So you have surrendered to this Caledonian Sacharissa, this
Lindamira, who bakes, brews, and spins ; who is great in the man-
ufacture of scented waters and elder-flower wine ; who is as gay and
as waggish as any noble shepherdess at the Court of Louis XV. ;
and, by Jove, she looks very like one, when she wears powder !'
' Surrendered ! Not quite yet ; nor have I even brought her to
the point. I have often tried to do so, during the short time we
have been here ; but we have so many disputes on politics, and
then I think she only tolerates me. Tolerates me, forsooth ! And,
egad ! Wyvil, I can't help thinking that if things progress as they
are doing, between Lowlandcr and Highlander, we Englishmen here
may ere long find ourselves between the hawk and the buzzard.
Concerning his nationality, our old friend the Squire of Auldhame
is as mad as a March hare.'
' Not more mad than you are, Egerton. You cannot expect him
to turn Englishman and adopt your views, which are quite as pro-
vincial as his own. You judge of him harshly, too: he is but
a man of the old school, and such a school has existed in all ages.
Perhaps the first Briton who begirt his netherman with a sheep-
skin, and built him a wigwam, was despised as effeminate by some
THB WHITE COCKADE. 71
noble savage of the old school, \vho contented him with a coat of
blue piiint, and a cheap residence in the root of a tree.'
'A queer old cock it is!' continued Egerton, who, being tipsy,
was irate, jealous, and droll by turns. ' He actually swore and was
indignant because I gave vails to his servants, and they were
offended too!'
' And yet we deem these Scots avaricious and poor, though 'tis a
land where all men work and all disdain to beg.'
' Then who is this Captain Douglas ? Some poor devil of a Scot,
with all his income on his back, or in the plated hilt of his hanger.
Gad ! I wonder if he knoweth carte and tierce, and can handle that
same hanger?'
' To judge by the lack of lace on his frock, I fear me that Douglas
is poor,' said Captain Wyvil, gently.
' Poor ! I should think so,' resumed Egerton, waxing more wroth
with the conviction that Bryde on this evening had considerably
slighted himself; 'all his demmed countrymen are; but there is
mischief brewing among them here ; I could see it even in the
brown eyes of that girl to-night. The devil! a proud, prinked-up
baggage it is, and, for all I know, perhaps as slippery in the tail as
handsome !'
' Talbot !' exclaimed Captain Wyvil, ' beware of letting your
jealousy run riot thus.'
1 When I first came here,' continued the ill-used Mr. Egerton,
'I thought to kiss and slop the maids as we do elsewhere ; but,
by Jove, sir, I had my face slapped and a good Kamillie wig torn
by a cheek-boned cockatrice, who threatened me with the minister
and the " Kirk Session," whatever that mny be : and then, when I
said to the Sqirre, " demme, old boy, that maid of Miss Bryde's is
decidedly pretty I rather like her," he reddened like a turkeyi-ock,
and laid a hand on the old-fashioned rapier that is never from his
side I fancy ho sleeps with it iind then begged pardon with a
Frenchified bow, saying, that he should not forget I was his guest.
But Miss Otterburn is charming!' added the Lieutenant, relapsing
into the maudlin state. ' You know, as Defoe says, "we are for-
bidden at Highgate to kiss the maid when we may kiss the mistress ;"
and when I see her hanging about her old grand-dad's neck and
kissing him '
' A very pretty sight. Her filial love quite enchants me,' said
honest Wyvil.
' It doth me too, Marmaduke it doth me too ! but lean tell you
it sets my heart on fire, and I should like to share some of those
filial kisses. Yet, if I do but take her hand, she turns from me
with such a touch-me-not cock of her pretty nose, looks superb,
and sweeps away with her hoop inflated, till she will-nigh shows
her garters.'
' A sight which, I suppose, makes the matter -worse,' said Wyvil,
laughing outright at the aggrieved tone of his friend and brother
72 THE WHITE COCKADB.
officer ; ' but harkee, Beau Egerton take care that our brown-eyed
Scots girl dou't make a Jacobite of tbee.'
'In which case '
'You may lose your head as well as your heart. The best re-
cruiting Serjeants of the Pretender are the fair sex ; every woman
seems to think she hath an order to beat up in his cause, here in Scot-
land at least. Be warned by me. I have been in many a garrison-
town, my friend, in Flanders, and at home in England beyond the
Border, so my heart is not likely to catch fire here in Scotland,'
said Wyvil, with less gallantry than he would hare exhibited in
Bryde's presence. ' Suppose the girl would marry you, could yoti
settle down here ?'
Egerton steadied himself and took a tipsy surrey of the fields
that stretched far away westward in the clear cold moonlight, the
dense woodlands, and the old house, whose quaint turrets rose above
them.
' Here demme, no ! I might hunt my harriers, and lead a kind
of respectable jogtrot life like a turnspit-dog, or a squirrel in a
cage, till the old boy died ; then I should sell off the whole place
house, lands, everything, and invest in England, in Surrey, some-
where near London go into parliament, perhaps who can say
what I might do ; but as for a living death in this region of pride
and hypocrisy, sour-visaged Sabbatarians, oatmeal, and brimstone,
it ain't to be thought of! The very idea of the thing makes me
long for London, with its gaieties, its pretty bar-keepers in the
taverns and chocolate houses at Covent Garden and Whitehall.
Fancy this old tory Put, Sir Baldred, having such a couple of rake-
hells in his house !'
' Talbot, you speak for youi-self,' said Wyvil, seriously.
1 Nay, I speak for you too, slyboots !' exclaimed Egerton, giving
Wyvil a most vigorous poke in the ribs, as they passed through the
barbican gate ; ' but I must bring matters to an issue I shall pro-
pose to my little Scots charmer on the first opportunity by Jove,
I shall!'
CHAPTER XIV.
BIIYDE'S FOXTE LOVEBS.
'Oh, lady, lady! tliat dear place,
Though poor of soil, and scant in space,
Wliei-e she we love, the girl whose grace
Has with sweet bondage blessed the breast
That spot, where she in pomp doth hide,
However mean, o'er all beside,
Empires of power, and lands of pride,
Is sweetest, richest, fairest, best.'
TtnnanCt Potmi.
THE opportunity so coveted by Mr. Talbot Egerton, of the Kentish
Buffs, did not, however, come very readily.
THE WHITE COCK1DB. 73
Tlie acquaintance of Bryde with her early friend Lord Dnlqu*
liarn, now rapidly ripened into friendship, and from friendship it
expanded on both sides to a growing love !
Three days in each other's society sufficed to achieve this, and
already Dalquharn felt that Bryde Otterburn was to be his fate.
Wlien a man of five-and-twenty, good looking, handsome, courage-
ous, and experienced, makes up his mind thus, matters are pretty
sure to progress rapidly.
Yet knowing the deadly game he had to play the perilous ei f -
rand on which he had come, Dalquharn waa not without painful
doubts, fears, and compunction, about revealing his growing passion
to Bryde Otterburn.
There were actually times, when he almost made up his mind to
leave her and Auldhatne, and return no more, until the intended
rising in the North had been decided for weal or for woe, and until
his own destiny was known, for he trembled to involve poor Bryde
and the good old enthusiast, her grandfather, in the ruin which too
surely fell on all who adhered to the unhappy House of Stuart.
Tims, many times did this brave and generous young noble
struggle with his heart and resolve to go, but the charm, the in-
fatuation of his love for Bryde, was too sweet, too powerful ; and a
word, a smile, a touch of her 'fairy hand, dissipated his greatest
resolutions. Daily he said, 'I shall leave her!' and day after day
found him still lingering at Auldhame.
The arrival of the two friends, from abroad, too, was an event of
the first magnitude, in the usually dull life led by Bryde Otterburn.
Books there were few then published in Edinburgh ; dull romances
were imported from England and read in secret ; duller books of
devotion were read in public, a little ostentatiously, perhaps. There
were few journals to give an account of affairs at home or abroad,
and the ' Scots Magazine," under its coarse blue cover, was not very
lively with its ' summary of public affairs proceedings of the
political club and domestic history.' Still less lively were the
columns of that dingy little quarto, the ' Caledonian Mercury,'
which the riding postboy, or the carrier, brought to Auldhame,
every second or third day after its publication, and to which Sir
Baldred adhered faithfully, because it was always in the interest of
the good old cause, and had been so since the restoration.
Unless in exile, France was forbidden ground to the Scottish
gentry now, and a residence at home within the narrow circle of
their mountains and glens, contracted their minds and filled them
with strange, morose and gloomy prejudices, unknown to their
forefathers a few generations back, when the gay ambassadors of
France, Spain, and Austria, had their hotels iu that fashionable
region, the Cowgate of Edinburgh!
Poor Bryde saw only the world at Church, and what a dismal
little world it was ! Yet weekly, it was something to look forward
to the ride to Whitekirk iu all weathers, to hear the Reverend
^4 THE WHITE COCKADE.
Aminadab Carfuffle expound in nasal tones on the glories of Judea,
and the terrors of a certain place with a warmer climate, for two
hours by the pulpit sand glass.
With her grandfather's prelatical instincts, named as he had
been, Baldred, after the patron saint of the district and of his race,
and named as she had been, Bryde, by Dalquharn's mother (who
was a catholic of the House of Kenmure), the gentle girl, though
etunned and bewildered by the harsh and stormy theology of Mr.
Carfuffle, and the expostulations of the Bailie, could never be
thought to think much evil of the ancient creed, as the mass of her
countrymen did, when she remembered how many good and pure,
true and loyal men and women had died in the faith of their
Christian forefathers. In that faith did William Wallace die, and
Robert Bruce bequeath his heart to the Holy Sepulchre.
The family always went mounted to church ; the baronet and
two grooms wearing their swords with holster pistols, while Bryde
rode her favourite pad. She would have disdained alike as too
effeminate, the use either of a sedan, like the Lady Haddington, or
of a glass coach, like the Laird of Newbyth ; and as for her grand-
father, he would as soon have thought of going in a palanquin or
an air baloon (had he ever heard of them) as in either of those
conveyances, while he had a good nag in his stable ; and when she
went thus abroad, as veils were not then worn, Bryde had her
charming face concealed by a little velvet masque.
When she first appeared at church, escorted by Dalquharn, who
looked so handsome and distinguished, lie quite divided the atten-
tion of the congregation, with my Lady Haddington's little blacka-
moor in a Spanish dress, with a silver collar round his neck a
creature she had bought at Glasgow market, to attend her at ser-
vice and in her walks abroad ; to carry her muff, fan, or Bible ; to
feed her marmoset and parrot, and comb out the breed of spaniels
given to her mother by Charles II.
Withal, Bryde was a happy and busy creature, and in working at
her spinning-wheel, in colouring satin, making wax flowers and
embroidery, or tambour-work, in playing on her spinnet (one of
Fenton's best), when she picked up a new song by Mr. Allan
Ramsay, she had always employment enough.
Egerton, who, like most well-bred men of those days, played
pretty fairly upon the violin and flute, frequently accompanied her
at the spinnet ; and with all his secret and ill-concealed dislike of
Scotland and the Scots, he had soon found the impossibility of not
striving to please a beautiful young girl; and, as she knew no other
airs than those of her own country, he was compelled to make,
what he deemed, a merit of necessity, and acquire them, which he
did very readily.
After the arrival of Lord Dalquharn, there was a change in all
this, for save in the evening, and when the iron gates were closed
for the night, the spinnet was rarely opened. Between the brown-
THE WHITE COCKADE. 75
eyed heiress and the young attainted lord, there was a mutual bond
of national and political sympathy, which the young English officer
could not comprehend a secret intelligence of which he could
make nothing, save that it piqued his pride, wounded his somewhat
inordinate self-esteem, and, while it confirmed hia passion for
Brvde, also filled him with a jealous fury.
Egerton presented her with a silver-mounted flageolet, and in
the gallantry of the day, the mouth-piece was obstructed by apiece
of paper, on examining which, she found it contained a copy of
verses addressed, as it were, by the happy instrument to her coral
lips and slender fingers. These had been copied, we are sorry to
say, wholesale by Egerton from the ' London Magazine,' wherein a
poetical strephon had sighed them forth, to his real or imaginary
Chloe or Lindamira. Innocent Bryde never doubted that they
were the rogue's own production, and declared them to be ' vastly
pretty !'
But when Dalquharn presented her with a bronze medal, which
but two months before, he had received from a certain royal hand,
that gift she prized much more, and kissed with the devotion of a
pilgrim, who beholds the reh'ques he has trod a thousand miles to
see.
It bore the effigy of ' Charles Prince of "Wales, 1745,' and on
the reverse, ' AMOR KT SPES," around a figure of Britannia standing
erect, with a fleet in the background.
All the purposes and hopes of the royal exiles, the intentions of
himself and Sir John Mitchell, he had to narrate to her again and
again. He had also to describe the king, the young Prince of
Wales, and his brother Henry, the Duke of York and Albany (they
were studious in giving every title, those sturdy Jacobites), also
Her MBJesty the Queen, Maria-Clementina, whom he had often
seeii, the mother of that'bonnie Prince Charlie," who was yet to
be embalmed in the hearts and the songs of the people, daughter of
Prince James Sobieski, and granddaughter of the Liberator. Their
appearance, their sayings, their eyes, their hair, &c., all he had to
describe and relate, for Bryde was never weary of the theme, and
listened to him with her loyal heart beating high, the colour in her
soft cheek deepened and her brown eyes sparkling ; and all these
things had to be spoken of, when they were alone, or at least when
Wyvil and Egerton were not present, so between the two young
visitors there was now a most decided, though as yet unacknow-
ledged, rivalry.
Tlbot Egerton had become even more than usually careful of
his hitherto scrupulous toilet ; a greater slave to his mirror, to
puffing his regimental wig with powder, to the arrangement of his
rufflt-s, his choice of sleeve-links, kneebucklcs and brooch, his fall
of point-d'Espane ; and nearly drove his valet, a stolid Yorkshire
grenadier, crazy, by the adjustment of his side curls and the black
ilk bag or flash, that hung between bis shoulders j but poor
76 THE WHITE COCKADS.
Egerton arrayed himself in rain for conquest now, as Dalquhara,
in liis somewhat faded green suit, with his own fair hair simply
Juened by a ribband (like the young Prince Charles, whom he was
jnd of thinking he resembled), his soft and tender, but manly
eyes, his bearing so gallant, earnest, and at times pre-oocupied and
ead, seemed to Bryde the beau-ideal of all she had read or heard
Bung, that a hero or prince should be the magnificent young
princes of those dear old fairy tales, which have charmed BO many
generations of boys and girls, and whose authors are scarcely
known.
Egerton's quotations from Ovid, or from the vapid ' Poetical
Essays' of the London Magazine, then published at ' the three
Flower-de-luces, in St. Paul's Churchyard,' or from the poems ol
Mr. Edmund Waller, whose works he greatly admired, were not
always either apt or happy, and his citations from the latter, by
frequently exciting her laughter, greatly annoyed him, for he
deemed the author of ' The Gentle Shepherd' not worthy to tie the
shoe string of him, who sang of Sacharissa.
When Egerton would quote
'While in the park I sing, the listening deer
Attend my passion, and forget to fear;
Wlien to the beeches I report ray flame,
They bow their Imads, as if they felt the same I
To gods appealing, when I reach their bowers,
With loud complaints they answer me in showers.
To the.e a wild and cruel soul is given,
More deaf than trees, and prouder than the heaven 1'
Bryde would laugh merrily at the poor poet being rained on, and
at that overstrained hyperbole, which seemed to the amorous
Lieutenant of the Buffs, a singular combination of grandeur and
tenderness. Then, as no lover likes to be laughed at, he would
leave her in a pet, or by blundering or committing mistakes, by
talking of the Pretender and the rebels (ever a sad error in Scot-
land), he would irritate the girl he was most desirous of pleasing.
'This young gentleman hath served a popgun campaign or so, in
Flanders ; but he will never be a hero," lie once remarked, chiefly
to pique ' Captain Douglas,' who stood near them.
1 A hero, perhaps not," said Bryde, who saw the sudden and
painful flush that crossed the cheek of the attainted lord : ' had he
a heart that knew neither genuine love or honest hatred, he might
be like your adored Prince of O range ; pity nor fear, lie might
equal the greatest of your regicides, Cromwell ; and if he were
without regret or remorse, he might be greater than either ; but
being a brave young gentleman of five-and- twenty, pretending , to
nothing '
' Save as a Catholic to the crown of these Protestant realms, my
dear madam.'
1 Enough, sir ; let us talk no more of this,' Bryde would say,
filled witli sudden anger, planting her high heel on the floor, and
THE WHITB COCKADB. 77
ruffling out her flounces, as she turned away in wrath from the
laughing Englishman, who really cared not a rush for the matter,
till lie saw that he was only widening the breach between them.
' On my honour on my knees, if you prefer it, I crave your
pardon. Miss Otterburn.' the good-natured fellow would exclaim ;
'it is indeed most difficult for an Englishman to speak about any-
thing in Scotland, without giving offence to some one.'
' How so, sir ?'
4 It is a land of such devilish whim-whams.'
1 What hath made it so ?' said Bryde, opening and shutting her
fan vigorously.
' May I die if I can ever tell you.'
' Then I shall your southern interference, open and secret for
centuries, alike with church and state, have split, severed and
divided the people ; but a time shall come anon, when these things
shall be amended,' the fiery little Jacobite would add.
Then witli the air of a tragedy queen, she would give Egerton
her ungloved hand to kiss, and he would bow his head over it, like
a courtly young gentleman, as he certainly was, at times, and for a
little space he would be gay and hopeful again.
A few days passed away thus, quietly, rapidly, and pleasantly at
the secluded old manor house of Auldhame.
Egerton, who was extremely anxious to please, played picquet,
cribbage, back-gammon, and the knightly game of chess with Sir
Baldred, to whom he talked much of the new game of billiards,
which had not as yet crossed the Tweed. He delighted most, how-
ever, in a quiet game of primero, at a little side gueridon, with
Bryde. This was a game of Spanish origin, played by two, one
shilling stake, and three for rest i.e., pool and the cards used
were longer and narrower than those of the present day ; but in
this pleasure he was seldom indulged, and on each occasion had
been interrupted by the appearance of the odious Bailie Balcraftie,
with his stealthy eyes and cat-like step, or by the sour Mr. Car-
fuffle, and had to relinquish the game in h:ste, as both minister
and elder were in duty bound to rebuke such a sinful waste of
time, with a reference to the notorious Colonel Charteris, the
gambler and warlock.
But the reader may imagine with what astonishment and dismay
Bryde, in her simple ideas of propriety, heard Captain Wyvil
mention that he had frequently lost large sums to General Wade,
at cards, in public, at the gaming-tables of the Countesses of Mor-
dington and Cassilis, in London, and that he had been present
wl ifii these noble dames resisted the intrusive peace officers in the
preceding year, claiming the privilege of peerage for doing so, a
claim, however, refused by the House of Lords.
' A Douglas of Mordington a Countess of Cassilis !' exclaimed
Miss Otterburn, in actual dismay, at such a prostitution of rank
and position.
78 THE WHITE COCKADE.
' My dear, wee lassie,' her grandfather said cynically ; ' the wirei
of those who sold their country, may surely add to their ill-gottei
gains, by cheating a little at cards.'
Long absent as he had been from his native land, and accustomet
to the sallow women of France, it was impossible for Sir John Mit
chell to be long insensible to the blooming beaufy of Bryde Otter
burn, or not to be charmed as an enthusiastic Scotsman and true
hearted cavalier by her rebellious abandon, her blunt, open, anc
fearless loyalty, for she claimed all the dangerous privilege of he
sex to say whatever she thought ; and, moreover, it was impossibl
for him not to be stirred by her native songs, which she sang witl
great sweetness and power.
Though more than twice her age, poor Mitchell would soon hav
learned to love her more truly, and tenderly than the thoughtles
Egerton, -whose love, perhaps, began in ennui ; but lie saw that sh
was the secret object of Dalquharn's heart, and strove to crush tli
rising flame, that he might prove the more useful subject and sol
dier to his exiled king.
So Bryde had actually four lovers in. her little household circle
and almost unknown to herself.
CHAPTER XV.
BAICBAFTIE OK THE SCENT.
'The fair Matilda dear lie loved,
A maid of beauty rare ;
Even Margaret on the Scottish throne,
Was never half so fair!
'Lanp had he woo'd, lang she refused,
With seeming scorn and pride;
Yet oft her eyes confessed the love,
Her fearful words denied .'Sir James the Most.
No softer emotions lessened the deep and fervent zeal of Sir Johi
Mitchell. Every horse he passed afield or on the highway, he ex
amined with critical eye, that he might ascertain whether it wa
fitted for mounting cavalry, dragging light artillery, the siege-train
or the heavy baggage, services the owner had never reckoned i
should perform. Every feature of the landscape, and every turn o
the road suggested a position to be attacked or defended.
' Among those green whin bushes,' he would say, ' the line o
skirmishers wouldlurk unseen ; on yonder grassy knolls would b<
the field-pieces, unlimbered and loaded ; along the ridge between
would be the first line of infantry, with colours flying; and in tin
hollow beyond would be the reserve and the cavalry, ready to ad
Vance at a moment's notice ; while yonder bog would cover the
right flank, and the bridge of the Tyne, if blown up, would secur<
the other.'
THE WHITE COCKADE, 79
But Sir Baldred would wince at this suggestion, as he had built,
at bis own expense, the bridge referred to.
Mitchell loved merry Bryde, but her bright, laughing eyes never
lured him to forget, even for a moment, the great mission lie had
come upon. He had already paid several visits to influential Jaco-
bites in Edinburgh and its vicinity, absenting himself studiously
from the spells of the little enchantress at Auldhame, and, as the
sequel proved, happy would it have been for the young Lord Dal-
quharn had he done so too.
Sir John with Sir Baldred's horses freely and frequently rode
more than forty miles a day on the king's service, each time return-
ing to Auldhame with a ruddied cheek, a bright eye, and a brave
heart, that beat gaily and anxiously with loyal hope and joy, for he
had cheerful tidings to communicate.
Archibald Stewart, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and some of the
magistrates (though they were mounting new cannon on the walls
and increasing the city guard), Lieutenant-General Joshua Guest,
the new English governor of the Castle, sent specially to supersede
old General Preston, because the latter was a Scot, and could not
be trusted (though he proved the true Hanoverian in the end),
some of the officers of his garrison, Lieutenant-General Peregrine
Lascelles" regiment (47th), these and many others in and around
the capital were all, as their future conduct evinced, in the interest
of the House of Stuart, and who could doubt of success ?
Like the Scots of all classes, Sir Baldred grumbled incessantly at
his share of the English taxes, consequent to the union. Prior to
that event, Scotland, though she had borne her share in the wars of
Flanders and the Spanish succession, had no national debt. That
millstone, round the neck of England, dated from a much earlier
period than 1 707. Of the fourteen years of the reign of William of
Orange, ten were years of uninterrupted war, waged chiefly for the
defence of Holland. Of the thirteen years of Anne, twelve were
years of a war that ended only by the disgraceful treaty of Utrecht ;
and next, the house of Hanover led us into disastrous wars on
behalf of that pitiful Electorate. William, a king totally reckless of
posterity, spent more than forty-four millions in war ; ' and after
all the blood and treasure expended, his ambition and revenge re-
mained unsatisfied, and the ostensible object of the war, the curb-
ing the ambition of Louis XIV., unattained.'*
Smollet says of the strife which ended at the treaty of Uyswick,
' Such was the issue of a long and bloody war, which had drained
England of her wealth and people, almost entirely ruined her com-
merce, debauched her morals, by encouraging venality and cor-
ruption, and entailed upon her the curse of foreign connections, as
well as a national debt, which was gradually increasing to an in-
tolerable burthen.'
Sir Baldred abhorred the heavy taxation and restrictions thoie
* The Extraordinary Black Book.
80 THE WHITE COCKADE.
foreign strifes imposed taxation for which the equivalent paid by
England to Scotland at the union was no recompense, when the
total ruin of the east coast trade is considered ; and he looked for.
ward to an imaginary time, when once again, the Otterburns of
Auldhame, and other gentlemen along the sea-border, might import
their own damask, taffeta, and ironwork from Flanders, and their
claret and brandy from France, without the obnoxious interference
of a custom-house officer, or a king's cruiser.
' Sir John,' said he, after a long visit the latter had paid to Edin-
burgh, ' are you equally well assured that London swarms with
those who are true to the good cause ?'
' Yes with Jacobites, known and secret, who wait but the
prince's advance with a Scottish force ; we have them in the navy
the Lord Muskerry for one we can rely on and in the army, some,
'tis said, in all regiments, but chiefly among our Irish and National
corps, the Greys, the Scots Guards, the Fusileers, and Edinburgh
regiment aye, even among Semples canting Camerouians. We
have them among the merchant princes of London, the privy
council, and the officers of state,' continued poor Sir John, for on
such delusive hopes did the few unfortunate loyalists in Scotland
rely, undeterred by the bitter experiences of 1715. ' Here we may
count upon the dukes of Douglas, Athole, and Hamilton I would
to heaven we could add Argyle ; but that may never be ; the feud
between the Campbells and the Stuarts, is too deeply rooted. Let
the prince but land, as his father's regent, and the nation, long
weary of German wars and Hanoverian subsidies, will rise as one
man, and long ere the snows of Yule are on the mountains, the
bells of Holyrood shall have rung for a coronation, and the Elector
with his hideous mistresses, may be smoking the pipe of peace,
over a mug of beer in Herrenhausen.'
' Pray heaven, this may be so, and no tale of a tub,' said Sir
Baldred, earnestly.
' Something is certainly afoot among the people,' said Captain
"Wy vil, one day, soon after this conversation ; ' and I hope it hath
no reference to the rash young gentleman, who aspires so highly.'
' How so, sir mean you the young Chevalier ?' asked Sir Baldred,
wheeling his easy chair half round, and fronting the Englishman,
whose face wore a somewhat grave expression.
' Yes, good Sir Baldred ; Tony Teesdale, my serjeant, was at the
smith's shop in the hamlet, getting the head of his halbert riveted
anew, and there in a corner lie espied what think you ? A goodly
bundle of sword blades, some long Scots pistols, and so forth.'
'In my young days, 'twas nothing uncommon to see the iron
graith of war in a Scot's smithy ; but now, Captain'
' What now ?'
'This vile incorporating union hath taken alike the honey from
the bee, and the sting from the wasp.'
THE WHITt COCKADE. 81
1 1 am a loyal man,' replied Wyvil, 'and cannot help beholding
the indications of the time, with emotions of sadness and alarm.'
' Sir, you are loyal to those who are on the throne, and I think
you not tlie leas a man of honour. I am loyal to the distant and
the dead to kings in exile and kings in the grave, and whilk think
you is the most unselfish loyalty of the two ?'
' Yours, of course,' eaid Wyvil, smiling ; ' but I pray pou, most
worthy friend, to let this matter drop, and '
'We shall have a pint a Scot's pint of claret on the head
of it!'
In his secret heart, or that ingenious piece of mechanism, which
an anatomist would term so Bailie Reuben Balcraftie far from re-
gretted, he even rejoiced that his acquaintance (he presumed not to
term him friend), Sir Baldred, was compromised, as he felt mo-
rally certain he was, by the presence of two Jacobite emissaries in
bis house. Balcraltie liked to have people in his power, no matter
whom or how ; they might be turned to profit in some way, so he
determined to wait and watcli well.
Too old to take the field himself, and unable to send men, Sir
Baldred resolved to raise some money for the prince's service, and
asked the money-lender to accommodate him with five hundred
pounds, a sum equal to thrice its present value, or more.
' Money again, Auldhame ?' said the Bailie, whose curiosity was
at once roused.
' Yes, money.'
' But how iu the name o' misfortune cometh it to pass, that I
find you again like the unthrifty virgins, who had nae oil in their
lamps ? And in what wild Darien scheme, or South Sea bubble are
you proposing to sink the money ?'
1 You ask too many questions, Mr. Balcraftie,' replied Sir Baldred,
sternly. ' You can give me the money, I suppose, or a wadset,
over the land of Halflongbarns ?'
' True,' said the other, twisting his tiewig about ; ' but the sum
is an unco large one and what want you wi* the siller, for sae sure
as I am a pardoned '
' What is it to thee, fellow, if I require the wretched dross, and
pay you a usurious interest for it ?'
'Your son's funeral, puir fellow, cost enough, I mind, to ruin a
barony,' said the Bailie, still ' angling' to discover the baronet's
purpose.
' My son's funeral !' retorted the other, with flashing eyes ; ' what
is that to thee, either, wretch ? Thy lyke wake will cost less, I
warrant. I remember the funeral of Scougal of Whitekirk 5 there
were the Lords of Council and Session, the advocates and clerks to
the Signet, and the raacers with crape-covered maces, all in mourn-
ing, on foot or on horseback, present, and dost think I would give
my murdered boy a lesser cortege than hia ?'
6
82 THE WHITE COCKADE.
The Bailie changed colour, and his cunning eyes quailed beneath
the fiery glance of the old gentleman, yet he ventured to remark,
' This money would outrig a troop of horse.'
'Perhaps,' said the other, drily ; 'but if you have not the money,
I must apply to old Johnny Screwdriver, the clerk to the Signet, in
Craig's Close, and he, I warrant'
' Ye shall hae the money, Auldhame, ye shall hae the money,'
said the other, hastily; 'I've just had that identical sum repaid me
by Colonel Gardiner, of Banktou, that pious and Christian soldier,
who pores daily over that wonderfu' book, "Heaven, taken by
Storm." '
' He must have a lively time of it,' said Sir Baldred, who had a
great contempt for the gallant officer in question.
' False Carle !' thought the Bailie, as he withdrew, ' thy pride
shall hae a sorrowfu' fa', or my name is no Reuben Balcraftie !'
The heavy wadset or bond w'lich he already held over a portion
of the Auldliame estate, and which has already been referred to, as
consequent to the assassination and robbery of Bryde's father, gave
him a certain hold, or influence over the worthy old baronet, other-
wise he, Reuben Balcraftie, though Bailie of North Berwick, and
elder of St. Andrew's church, had never been tolerated beyond the
corridor or housekeeper's room, by the proud Laird of Auldliame,
who was now, somehow, constrained to receive him as an occasional
guest at his own table.
How such a creature as Balcraftie, a man in his fiftieth year at
least, a smuggler, hypocrite, and usurer, a cringing slave to the
rich, a grinding tyrant to the poor ; a canting, whining, coarse, and
burly fellow, with his sleek bearing, his bushy eyebrows, and dull
pale watery eyes, thin lips, huge feet and hands, his massive stooping
shoulders and stealthy gait, could ever hope to win even one favour-
able ghince from such a girl as Bryde Otterburn ; or how he dared
to imagine that she could ever view him otherwise than with simple
aversion, it is difficult to conceive So is it hard to comprehend
the confidence that made him think of putting himself in compe-
tition with two handsome young men like Tulbot Egerton and the
Lord Dalqii 1 arn ; one he knew tn be of a good old English family,
and the other luiving all t.'ie bearing of what he shrewdly suspected
him to be, the scion of some noble Scottish house. Yet those there
are and have been, whose incongi uities or idiosyncrasies of character
have led them to nurse schemes, or visions, as wild and desperate.
Balcraflie's jealous hate alternated between the two : as for Sir
John Alitcheli, he never thought of him as a competitor, as he
seldom saw him in Bryde's society, either at home or 'abroad.
Having heard ' Captain Douglas' state that he had been at Auld-
hame ten years ago, the Bailie had a perilous clue to his identity,
he followed it up like a snake and soon discovered him.
'So, so,' said he, depositing his tie-wig on a wig-block in his
office, and proceeding to polish his bald pate vigorously with a
1KB WHITE COCKADE. 83
yellow bandanna (one of a bale that had come by the ' Etoile de la
Men'), 'Henry Douglas, Master of Dalquharn, was here ten years
syne, wi' the lord and lady his parents, at the very time Jock Por-
teus was hung on the Dyer's tree. Ho, ho, my Lord Dalquharn,
umquhile of the Holme, I have you fast, my brave man, I have you
fast ! I hope, ere long, to see the black hoodie-craws flapping their
wings owre the horse banes and harn-pans o' you and a' sic popish
traitors ilk ane spiked on a yettlan jagg !' he added, grinding his
sharp fangs. Then a smile stole over his coarse visage a leer of
avarice, and something of lasciviousness and he muttered, while
rubbing his huge hands together with nervous glee : ' Tak' patience,
Reuben, " Better is he who ruleth his spirit, than him who taketh
a city." Patience yet a while, and a' shall be thine, their tents and
their flesh-pots, their gold and their spoils, Auldhame main and
farm, lee and woodland and what is better, the bourne bird Bryde
herael' 1*
CHAPTER XVI.
OULY A>'D
'A promise in the oriel won,
To crown my glowing bliss ;
A drooping bead, a circled waist,
And such a binding kiss 1
Ob, happy time I oh, happy time!
It never has its fellow
The one green leaf that hangs among
So many sere and yellow.
THOUGH I have but to tell ' the old, old story ' of a true love, the
course of which was neither so smooth as glass, or so swift as an
express train (for we could never have a story worth telling without
the element of love) the events to be recorded, happened long ago.
and have in them points whicli are decidedly strange and startling.
Bryde and Lord Dalquharn had all their old haunts to revisit ;
she had no mother to director control her actions, and thus they
could steal away by a little postern gate, and pass down the gleu,
towards the sea, unknown to all, even to the jealous Egerton, for
jealous he won becoming decidedly now !
They visited the ewe-bughts, where they had been wont to see
Bryde' s ewes milked for the making of cheese, and those bughts
are the pleasant theme of many a Scottish song. The Deil's Loan.
with its sombre old trees, the avenue with its gloomy story of the
Spectre Drummer, the old tower of Scougal, of which, but a frag-
ment now remains ; St. Baldred's Well near Tautallon, his cradle,
as a deep fissure in the rocks near Whitberry Point is named, and
his boat, now a rock at the mouth of Auldhame Bay, asserted by
tradition to have been once a dangerous obstruction far at sea these
were each and all, visited in turn,
6-2
84 THE WHITE COCKADE.
' The blessed Baldred,' (according to the History of the Caldees",
a hermit who died amid the solitude of the Bass Rock, on the 6th
March, 607, when Ewen IV. was King of the Scots,) ' moved with
pity by the number of wrecks and disasters, occasioned by this
rock, ordered that he should be placed upon it. This being down,
at his nod the rock was immediately lifted up, and like a ship driven
by a favourable breeze, proceeded to the nearest shore, and hence-
forth remained in the same place as a memorial of this miracle,' at
the mouth of Auldhame Bay, where in rough weather, the fanciful
assert still that it is rocked by the waves and winds. These, and
many other legends of East Lothian, well calculated to
'Deepen the murmur of the falling floods,
And shed a browner horror o'er the woods/
were all well known to Bryde Otterburn, and thus beyond even the
charms of her person and manner, Dalquharn found her a delight-
ful companion. Many a volume of poetry they conned together,
as they walked through the ripening fields, where Bryde's quick
eye espied the prettiest wild- flowers, with which she would make
such charming posies, as few others could have done.
Many of these walks had been taken, but deterred by the tram-
mels of his personal and political circumstances, Dalquharn had
not as yet made known his love to Bryde.
She led him to many a fairy ring, long since obliterated by plough
and forgotten, but where divers persons in those days of simplicity
and old belief in the marvellous, averred the little fairies, or gude
neighbours in green, danced on the eve of St. John, while the
murmur of their tiny harps and voices softly attuned, in the silence
of the place and time, mingled sweetly with the gurgle of the
mountain burn, that wound under the leafy gorse and flourishing
broom towards the sea.
At St. Baldred's Well she shewed him the place where Monk's
cannon liad breached the ramparts of Tantallou, and when the most
of his soldiers, who perished in the attack, had fallen.
' Many a poor wounded and dying Englishman must have lain
here on the green brae side, my lord,' said Bryde, as her tender eyes
filled with emotion at the ideas her vivid fancy suggested. ' Ah, I
hope that the golden broom-bells and the wild guelder roses grew
here then, just as they do now !'
' Why, Miss Otterburn ?'
' That their beauty and their sweet perfume, may have soothed
the last hours of those whose spirits passed away.'
'They were sour and morose Puritans, Miss Otterburn,' replied
Dalquharn, ' and doubtless cared but little for such tranquilising
influences in their parting moments.'
A day had been set apart at Dalquharn's earnest wish, for a visit
to the old chapel of St. Baldred, and the very evening of this day,
Egerton had made up his mind to address Miss Otterburn, if he
THE WHITE COCK1DB. 85
had an eligible opportunity, and if none offered, to seek a formal
interview.
She was just quitting her ivory-mounted spinning-wheel, which
usually stood in one of the drawing-room windows, as Egerton
entered, after having made a most careful toilet, and was about to
speak, all unaware that Dalquharn, who had been superintending
the spinning, was half hidden by the drapery of a little oriel.
Bowing low and reverentially, Egerton touched her hand lightly,
and something in the action and the expression of the young man's
face, gave her an intuitive dread of what he was about to say, for
she said hurriedly to her companion :
' Captain Douglas, have you have you forgotten, our proposed
pilgrimage?'
'To the old Chapel? how could I forget it?" replied Dalqu-
harn, suddenly appearing to Talbot Egerton's intense chagrin,
' I have but to get my gloves, fan, and capauchin they are in
the library, and then I shall show you the tomb of him who won
the old chalice of St. Buldred from the fairies,' saidBryde, laughing
and looking very like a bright fairy herself. 'You must know," she
continued with some precipitation and confusion, ' that long, long
ago, a castle stood by the lonely and rugged shore near North Ber-
wick, on the summit of the great green knoll near the mouth of the
mill-burn, and therein, below the ruins, the fishermen allege, that
Anlaf the Dane, who burned and plundered all the country here-
about, stored up his treasure, which was equal in value to the ransom
of three crowned kings.
' The first Otterburn of Auldhame was riding thence homewards
on St John's Eve, after dining with the Goodman of North Berwick,
and in the moonlight he saw a multitude of grotesque little dwarfs,
and beautiful fairies with long golden hair, dancing hand in hand
among the heaps of treasure that were visible through an opening in
the side of the ruined castle hill.
' Being a stout and brave-hearted fellow, he reined in his horse,
and shouted to them lustily. On this there came forth a quaint,
stunted, and bandy-legged little elf, about only eighteen inches in
height. He wore a conical red cap, a short red mantle, and bore a
large silver cup, under the weight of which he seemed to totter.
' " Sir Knight," quoth he, " drink with us a stirrup cup ere ye go ?"
1 Otterburn courageously took the cup ; its weight was ponderous,
for it seemed as if full of molten gold, so dense and thick was the
yellow liquid which gleamed and bubbled within it a liquid but
little to the liking of the horseman. Firmly lie grasped the cup,
and dashing the contents full into the eyes of the fairy man, he
clapped spurs to his horse, and with an invocation of " God and St.
Baldred!" on his lips, galloped away.
1 With what manner of liquor the cup wns filled no man could say,
but the few drops that fell on the knight's horse, burned into the
bone, through flesh and skin. With shrill shouts aud elfish outcries.
86 THE WHITE COCKADE.
all the fairies rushed from a thousand holes in the hillside, in hot
pursuit; but as the fugitive leaped his maddened horse over the
mill-burn, the running water stopped their course, as no evil thing
can cross a flowing stream, and he bore home the cup, which
proved to be the beaker of Anlaf the Rover, and which he gifted
to the chapel of St. Baldred, where it remained to the Refor-
mation. After that event it was brought hither, and is now
chained to the stone ambre in the hall, where you may still see it,
but none have drank from it since King James VI. passed here on
his way to England. I know you don't care much for such stories,
my dear Mr. Egerton ; thus our ramble would have no charm for
you ; but after tea, we shall have some of our usual music shall we
not?'
Egerton gave a sickly smile ard bowed in silence, for it was per-
haps unwise, if not a little provoking in Bryde, to hint thus broadly
that he was not required to accompany them ; but indeed, the
young man had not the slightest intention of offering to do so.
On getting her walking gear, she thrust the masses of her fail
hair between her soft cheek and her black velvet capuchin or little
hood which was lined with pale blue satin ; drew her tight kid
gloves on her small and well-shaped hands, and went forth with a
bow and a bright smile that sank deep in Egevton's heart and filled
him with jealous fury, as the lovers retired together.
He had come to make a declaration of love, and was left as if
turned to stone, without a word having passed his lips, though he
smiled as they left him smiled to cloak the chagrin, the bitterness
and wounded pride that galled him, and the fury that made him
nearly tear the silver knot from his sword hilt.
She was gone, and with another, but her yoice yet lingered in his
ear!
' I may have some chance yet,' thought the infatuated young fel-
low ; ' Douglas and she may not speak of love. He may be, as I
half suspect, a Jacobite plotter, and women, like Jesuits, are ever
the favourite agents of that party ; and then, perhaps, egad, the man
may be married already !'
Thoughts like these, gave him false hopes and delusive courage,
and he became, for a time, a little more composed ; but still re-
solved, that come what might, he would yet have his interview with
Bryde, and from her own lips learn the secret of his fate, not thut
we fear, however, Mr. Egerton's heart would have been broken in
the least by a rejection of his suit.
On this evening, as on a score of others, the secret of his love, was
hovering on the lips of Dalquharn ; but a sentiment of generosity to
Bryde, and a fear lest he might involve her, and perhaps her family,
in his most unmerited poverty and political ruin, sealed them up
and filled his heart with mingled emotions of love for her and bit-
terness at fate ! and yet they spoke of the expected landing of the
Prince, an event which Dalquharn, who shared that vast and vital
THE WHITE COCKADE. 87
secrets knew was drawing nearer and nearer every day. Speaking
of his own present poverty :
'I am rich,' said he, ' only in lore of country and in loyalty to
our rightful king. Deprived of these inspirations and incentives to
a glorious future, I should be poor indeed ! Kut if I fall, I shall do
so without dishonour,' and he continued bitterly, ' at times I feel
so weary even of my young life, that, as a change, I would almost
welcome death !'
1 On Towerhill, where the noble Derwentwater and your kins-
man, the brave Kenmure, died or at the gates of Carlisle ?'
'Nay, on neither place, Miss Otterburu but on the field of
battle/
' Woe is me, my dear friend, talk not thus !'
c Where else,' he eiclmmed proudly, ' should a Douglas die ? I
thrill leave fpw, none perhaps, to lament me, for I am the last of
my race the old line of the Douglasses of the Holm, and as Orlando
says in the play, in departing, 1 shall " do the world no injury, for
in it I have nothing; only in the world I fill up a place, which may
be better supplied, when I have mude it empty !" '
' Then, if you speak thus bitterly, let me add with Rosalind,
" the little strength I have, I would it were with you," that you
might wrestle the better with your fate,' said Bryde, with one of
her loveliest smiles, as she caressingly patted the arm on which she
leaned; 'you see that I have read the book of the great English
dramatist as well as you, my lord.'
As they walked on, Egerton's presence in the house they had
quitted, even his very existence, was forgotten by Bryde atid her
lover. They passed through the shrubberies and close-clipped
hedgerows, and proceeded towards the venerable fane of Auldhame,
which had been built, no man knows when, upon the Seacliff that
overhangs the waves of the Firth, but it was old, even in the days
of the gracious Duncan, who gifted it to God and St. Cuthbert of
Lindisfarne.
Dalquharn was silent, for hia heart and his eyes were full of lore
as he gazed from time to time, on his alluring and confiding com-
panion.
It was an evening of June, and a lovely one! The purity of the
air, the breeze from the far expanse of blue sea that stretched away
towards the dark bluff of St. Abb ; the bright sunshine and tho
odour of the fresh meadows ; the birds that carolled aloft or twit-
tered in the old green hedgerows, and the gay wild flowers that grew
by the wayside, all conduced to soothe the hearts of Dalquharn and
the young girl, and fill them with a sense of joy and lightness.
Within the mined chapel on the Seacliff, they lingered long.
Impressed, perhaps, by the solemnity of the place, they went hand
in hand now, when deeyphering the epitaphs and other inscriptions,
which the stern hand of time, the storms from the sea, and the ham-
mers of the gloomy iconoclasts of 1559 had spared. The walls were
88 TEE WHITE COCKADE.
time-worn, and covered in some places by emerald green moss j in
others by luxuriant masses of ivy.
Though the vaulted roof yet remained, in some parts the pave-
ment beneath it was sunk and irregular, as if the graves below had
fallen in, and the rank grass, the dock and nettle, grew up between
the slabs, which were covered by quaint Saxon letters, and bore in-
cised marks, where shields and crosses of monumental brass had
been torn away by gipsies and peasants for the mere value of the
metal.
Under an arched vault, profusely decorated with otters' heads, lay
the effigy of a knight (with his mailed feet resting on an otter crouch-
ing) since the days of the Eeformation, minus his helmetted head,
clasped hands and sword hilt ; but an inscription, still traceable,
requested the visitor to pray for the soul of ' Sir Nicholas Otterburn,
nmquhile of Auldhame, slayne in battel be ye Inglis, anno 1513,' for
it was he who had brought the calamity of the Spectre Drummer
upon his posterity.
A new rail surrounded this tomb, and Bryde, in a voice which
grew low and tremulous, informed Dalquharn, that therein her
mother and her murdered father lay. Her head drooped sadly on
one side as she spoke, and somehow, the young lord's arm went
caressingly, in sympathy around her, while his heart rose to his lips.
' Miss Otterburn Bryde, dear, dear, Bryde,' said he, ' I have a
solemn thing to say to you, and what place so fitting as this ?' He
paused, and she trembled, for too well she knew what was about to
come. ' I love you I, homeless, houseless, landless and attainted,
am, I know, most guilty in telling you this ; but I do love you ten-
derly, Bryde and and you are the first and only woman, to whom
I have ever said so.'
Bryde was silent, very pale, and trembling violently. A shower
of tears would have been a great relief, but no tears came.
' Speak, Bryde dearest, speak ?' he urged.
' Oh, my lord !' she began, and instead of withdrawing her hand
from his, their clasp seemed to tighten mutually, as if she sought
support.
'Lord me not, Bryde Otterburn call me Henry Douglas, as ten
years ago, in this very place, you were wont to do,' said he, tenderly.
' In in my heart I have long called you so.'
'May I hope that you you love me then!' he exclaimed, in a
transport of joy.
' Hush,' said she, glancing hastily around, as if even the dead
might hear her, and blushing painfully: 'you know that I do
would I have come here with you else and alone ?'
Her voice was barely audible.
One kiss now, and overcome by the excess of long pent-up emotion,
they tottered as if intoxicated, towards a fragment of the ruined
wall, when he seated her beside him. Her face was crimsoned by
one continued blush j but it was hidden in Dalquharn's breast. His
THE wnrra COCKADE. 89
cheek rested on the tresses of her soft brown hair, for her hood had
fallen back, and his strong, sustaining arm was round her.
Then he took her fair head caressingly between his hands, and
again turned the sweet face upwards to his and somehow, their
lips met again, and they trembled in the very excess of their new-
born joy, as they looked into each other's swimming eyes, and it
might be, into each other's hearts too.
They were long silent and bewildered now, for words no longer
came.
The green leaves rustled pleasantly in the midsummer breeze,
that passed through the open mullions and tracery of the ruined
windows ; the merry birds flew in and out, as they sang and twit-
tered among the wild roses and sweet-briar that grew in masses over
all the chancel arch, and where of old the altar stood ; the sound of
the sea was heard as its white waves climbed the volcanic rocks of
the adjacent shore, and the lovers sat long in silence, while time
seemed to pause, though, in reality, with them it went swifter than
ever.
Words come anon, and then confessions were made, and mental
impressions related ; coincidences of thought and wishes coinci-
dences that seemed truly miraculous ! How and why had their
spirits been apart so long ? How long they had sighed for and
thought of each other ! Their strange dreams, their moments of
doubt, of sorrow and of sadness ; their former, almost childish
days of joyous companionship, with all their dim foreshadow-
ings of the present time of ecstacy, were re-called and compared
with all their minutiae, as indicating the hour that had come;
and never were the pure illusions of youthful life and love more
brilliant to the poor attainted loyalist, than at this time, when
Brydo Otterburn, in the full flush of her blooming beauty, her girl-
hood and her passion, reclined her head on his breast, and acknow-
ledged that she loved him, though he had only sorry we are to
confess it his entire estate, a few Louis d'ors in his pocket!
' And now it is, that I tremble for you, my own beloved Bryde,
whose fate is linked with such a man as an attainted Jacobite an
outlaw whom any man may kill, without the commission of a crime.'
' And I tremble for you, dear Henry, and my poor old grandfather,
who lives so completely in the past. Alas, Henry ! you know me to
be loyal loyal unto death ; but is not the cause of the Elector too
strong for King James to subvert it? oh, if you should if you
should ;' she failed to conclude the sentence, for tears choked her
utterance.
' Fear not for me,' said he, with assumed gaiety ; ' I could deny
you nothing, but my loyalty to the king, beloved Bryde Bryde in
name and purpose is it not so ?'
Could poor Kgerton have seen them then!
It was almost sunset (and the June evenings are long) when
they left the ruined chapel and returned towards the house, hand
90 THE WHITE COCKADE,
in hand, in silence and full of happiness, and then Bryde, anxious
for solitude, and to enjoy a qniet flood of tears, rushed away to her
own room.
On her engaged finger she had a strange ring, -which was in-
scribed
Yours only and Ever,
It had been the betrothal ring given by Dalquharu's father to
his mother, blue-eyed Jessie Gordon, of the loyal House of Ken-
mure, and could a Scottish cavalier desire a better golden hoop to
place on the finger of his affianced bride ?
On the morrow, Dalquharn would inform Sir Balclred of what
had occurred, and crave pardon for abusing his hospitality by seek-
ing to rob him of his grand-daughter.
Alas ! he little knew the terrible events which a few short hours
would bring to pass !
CHAPTER XVII.
MB. EGERTOX PROPOSES.
'Chloe! my precious! why so coy 1
Thou dear provoking jewel!
Why wilt thou still Hiispend my joy,
And still continue cruel ?
'Tims armed with snuff-box, cane, and ring,
And twenty pretty fancies,
Glib nonsense from ray tongue shall spring,
In a-la-mode advances.
'However, if these methods fall,
And have no power to win ye,
I'll only turn about my tail.
And think the devil's in ye !'
Scot's Magazine, 1739.
NBTTHEB Captain Wyvil nor Mr. Egerton graced her tea-board by
their presence in the drawing-room on this evening. Mr. John
Gage, the English exciseman, had come hurriedly to Auldliame,
announcing that there were rumours of the black lugger having
been seen outside the Isle of May, and patrols under Sergeant Tees-
dale were required at certain points, as the ' Fox ' frigate had run
up the river to St. Margaret's Hope, for repairs. Sir John Mitchell,
into whose custody Sir Baldred had placed the five hundred pounds
obtained from Balcraftie, was in Edinburgh, on what errand need
scarcely be explained.
Bryde. when tea was over, found that she was left alone. Dalqu-
harn had swiftly stolen one sweet salute and retired to the library,
having to write letters, which he meant, to dispatch in person, at a
quiet post-house, about two miles distant. They were for the Lords
Elcho and Balmeriuo, and were in cypher, the addresses being ' Mr.
THE WHITE COCitADE. 91
David Wemyss ' and ' Captain Arthur Elphinstone,' to the care of
the Conservator of Scottish Privileges at Campvere.
Sir Baldred had fallen asleep in his wide easy chair, with his
black wig and sword-belt hung on the knobs thereof, and he wore a
purple silk cap pulled over his eyes ; so she kissed the good old
man, kindly and tenderly, and igsued into the garden, which, in
the style of those days was a labyrinth of close walks and yew-
hedges ; and which, though it covered but four acres or so, would
have taken a stranger at least two hours to perambulate and ex-
plore.
Her mind and step were buoyant with happiness. Her thoughts
were turned inward, and she mentally rehearsed again and again
the visit to the ruined chapel, with all its delightful details, while-
seated on a stone sofa, with her drooping head resting on her left
hand, her brown hair falling in bright masses over it, all golden in
the light that yet lingered in the west. Her right hand toyed un-
consciously with her fan ; there was a bright smile playing about
her parted lips ; and she was all unconscious that Egerton stood by,
surveying her with admiration and a passion that did not require
wine to inflame it.
He little knew of what had passed, or of what was then in her
heart ; but pique, and the wine, of which he had been partaking
too freely, gave him a false courage, and a bearing that by turns
was jaunty, gay, maudlin, sad, and bitter ; so when he did ultimately
attract Bryde's attention and address her, she had but one idea,
that he bored her.
Poor Egerton had been at Lucky Scougal's change-house in Auld-
hame, where some of the farmers, or yeomen of the Lord Hadding-
ton, would insist on sharing with him more than one bottle of good
wine, as they were jolly fellows, and simply because he was an Eng-
lish soldier.
1 Many people in East Lothian at that time were Jacobites, and
they were most forward to mix with the soldiers,' says Carlyle of
Inveresk, in his co-teinporaneous autobiography. ' The commons
in general, as well as two-thirds of the gentry, had no aversion to
the family of Stuart; and could their religion have been secured,
would have been very glad to see them on the throne again.'
' Drinking smuggled wine ! 'Twos smuggled, no doubt, in a ras-
cally Scot's change-house, when, this very night twelvemonth, I
was at a ridotta in the Haymarket, with more than fifteen hundred
fashionables, after seeing Mr. Pritchard, Mrs. Clive, and Macklin,
at the play. Demnie, how the world wags!' He was muttering
this, when he suddenly came upon the young lady seated in the
garden, and immersed in happy thoughts as she has just been de-
cribed the flush of delight that thrills in the heart of a young and
romantic girl on first being assured that an ardent and handsome
lover is hers, and hers only!
Jealousy, pride, aud confidence, now prompted Egerton to test
92 THE WHITE COCEADE.
his future fate to put all upon the hazard of the die ; so he at
once seated himself by the side of Miss Otterburn, who would gladly
have avoided him at such a time and in such a private place, lest
Dalquharn might come forth in search of her, and suspect her of
coquetry.
' Has Wyvil told you, Miss Otterburn, that that in three days
only, we in all probability march from this, on our return to head-
quarters ?' he asked.
'I have not seen Captain Wyvil all day," she replied, rather
coldly, and in no way moved by the tidings of their approaching
departure, to Egerton's intense chagrin.
'Ah! I forgot; he has been sending three corporals, with patrols,
along the coast, to assist the officers of excise in their search for
smugglers ; but, most probably, in three days, your amiability and
hospitality will be no longer taxed by our presence.'
' Taxed dear Mr. Egerton ? Pray do not talk so. If we have
served in any way to lessen the too evident tedium of Scottish
quarters to you and good Captain Wyvil, we shall only consider
ourselves too happy.'
' Won't you be sorry, though, when we are all gone ?' asked Eger-
ton, adjusting his wig and hat, which, sooth to say, were both some-
what awry, so much so, that Bryde's merry eyes were laughing at
him mischievously over her fan. Though her sweet mouth was
hidden, lie knew that he was the object of her merriment, and said, ;
with pique in his tone,
' Egad, madam, you are very cruel !'
' Cruel ! How so, sir ?'
'Ah ! don't say, sir.'
1 Ydu called me madam.'
' But your expression chills me,' he continued, twirling his sword
knot.
' Well and I am cruel a veritable cockatrice perhaps ; but in
what way ?'
'To dally to trifle thus, with one who you you know too well,
loves you.'
' Sir !' exclaimed Bryde, in an unmistakeable flutter, shutting her
great green fan, and re-opening it.
' Sir, again ! Pray call me friend chum what you will : surely
my words merit some kindness.'
' Well, my friend,' said Bryde, whose recent and much more
momentous interview with Lord Dalquharn had given her more
decision of manner and independence of spirit than she would
otherwise have possessed at such a crisis as this, ' what do you
mean, Mr. Egerton ?'
'Eryde Miss Otterburn, I mean will you pardon me; but,
egad, there is sometliing I must say to you before I go, and and
you shall hear me now.'
Egerton took her left hand between his own, and she was BO
THE WHITE COCKADE. 98
much agitated that she could not withdraw it, though a heavy, yet
stealthy, step was heard on the gravel of an adjacent walk.
' In three days we shall march, as I said, too probably, and I
shall never be here again unless unless '
1 What, sir ? Oh, speak quickly, pray !'
' You should wish me."
' You, Bryde ; for into your hands I commit my heart, my fate,
my future existence! Bryde Otterburn, I am a straightforward
fellow : do you think that you could love could like me well
euough to marry me. There, egad, the words arc out at last !'
Bryde was flushed, breathless, and silent. Egerton mistook these
for symptoms of yielding, and became more vehement while the
eavesdropper drew nearer.
' You have but one word of three little letters to say, Bryde !'
' Oh, Mr. Egerton, I pray I pray '
' Or say you will try to like me or learn to like me, well enough
to be my wife ; or that you would have me wait a little until you
considered it a day, a week if you will j but say something to
give me a little hope, however slender ?'
Stunned and bewildered now, Bryde knew not what to say ; but
j Egerton's disengaged hand was menacing her waist, she started
up and withdrew a pace or two, trembling with agitation ; for it is
not often that a young lady, even one so charming as our Bryde
Otterburn, receives two such offers in one day.
' Pardon me if I give you pain, my dear sir,' said she, looking
down while she spoke : ' but I can never love you can never marry
you, nor, if you knew all, any man who wears a scarlet uniform,'
she added, to take away the sting of rejection on political grounds.
' Of course,' replied Egerton, with a sudden tinge of bitterness
in his manner ; ' the colour is not popular here I know ; yet it was
worn by all your regiments and guards, horse and foot, long before
this Union, which we find a pill so bitter here that I marvel Sawney
ever swallowed it, though that same pill was pretty well gilded by
John Bull for the purpose.'
It was now Bryde's turn to be piqued by this suddenly-assumed
banter.
' Why should an English gentleman wear the colours of the
German-Elector like you?' she asked.
' 'Tis His Majesty's will and pleasure, madam, that the uniform
of the Kentish Buffs be scarlet, laced with silver and faced with
buff,' said Egerton, in whose head the wine mounted at times, and
made him quaint and absurd ; ' but, egad, madam, I am indepen-
dent of the service. My old grandad God bless him ! left me
two thousand a year clear, from good land in Cheshire. I shall re
sign, quit, sell out, to please you, Miss Otterburn. Bryde, dearest
Bryde ! do you hear me ? though I know my mother and sisters
94 THE WHITE COCKADE.
will all take to hysterics and Hungary water on hearing of my mar'
riage with a Scots girl '
' Poor gentlewomen !' said Bryde, laughing, when she had him
half-melted by his earnestness ; ' I should be so sorry to offend
their fine feelings. But you address me in vain, Mr. Egerton ; my
heart is not my own, nor, perhaps, my hand either, if Sir Baldred
is consulted on the subject.'
' Then, I have no hope,' said the blunderer, sadly.
' None ; but yet let us be friends, my dear Mr. Egerton.'
'Friends, oh yes, for ever and whatever may happen,' he ex-
claimed, and raising his hat, he knelt down and kissed her proffered
hand, with great tenderness.
It was at this very juncture, that the steps which had been crash-
ing among the gravel, approached the end of the walk, where the
stone sofa stood between the hedgerows, and then, at an arch cut
through the dense old yews, Bryde saw the mischievous visage of
Bailie Balcraftie appear for a moment.
' Enough,' said she ; 'rise, Mr. Egerton, and let this matter be
recurred to no more.'
She hurriedly withdrew her hand, and with a glance of scorn and
anger at the intruder a glance which Egerton mistook as being
meant for him sailed away, fanning herself vigorously, with her
hooped train sweeping the gravel behind her.
' Aye aye, Mr. Egerton, and you, my fine madam !' muttered
the Bailie, as he slunk away ; ' sets the wind in that quarter? Sae,
sae, it is you TOP, Mr. Egerton, in the king's livery, the red coat
and cocked hat, I maun beware o', and no the sae called Captain
Douglas ! But I'll mar your game, I'll mar your game, or my name
is no Reuben Balcraftie !'
He continued to mutter thus, while striding away, a fierce gleam
passing over his vile visage in the stai-light. His hands were clutch-
ing convulsively the square skirts of his coat unconsciously, as it
were, for jealousy, stung and disappointed, maddened him. '
Between an opening in the walk, Bryde, when just about to enter
the house, could see Egerton still kneeling by the garden seat, like
one bewildered. She sighed and feared that slie might unwittingly .
have pained the poor fellow, who had been such a pleasant inmate
of Auldhame, her friend and companion too, now for several weeks ;
and it was well that she had those gentle thoughts of pity, even for
a moment, as she was fated never again to hear the pleasant voice
of Talbot Egerton.
111E WHITE COCKADE. 95
CHAPTER XVIII.
1HE QUABBEL.
' He is quick!
His poiut and eye do go together! Scare*
You are marked, you're hit ! his sword is part of him/
Grows to his hand, sir, as his hand to his wrist;
The very moment that your weapons touch,
He is here, and there, and in 1 his lounge, a shot
You see not till 'tis home \' Woman's Wit.
THE mistaken glance of Miss Otter-burn roused all Egerton's pique,
pride, and jealousy. He started to his feet, and thrust his silver-laced
Kevenhuller hat firmly down upon his curly regimental wig, nearly
tearing away its upright feather and black cockade in doing so.
'Oh!' he exclaimed in mingled sorrow and anger; "tia very
well, madam, demme! You Scots have the pride of Lucifer!
What has a plain English squire, like Talbot Egerton, to hope for,
when such a spruce Scottish jockey as this Captain Douglas comes
into the field ? He will have a pedigree beyond the flood, no
doubt, for whether a pedlar, with his pack, or a peer of the realm,
every Scot hath that by right of inheritance. But I'd have you to
know. Miss Otterburn, that the Egertons were Lords of Mai pas
and Egerton, when your James I. was twangliug on his ghittern in
the Tower of Windsor, and that was not yesterday ! And she can
treat me so ! Ah, 1 he added after a pause, ' if I had been a great
man with a star on my coat, or a handle of any kind to my name
even a laird of some black rocks and red heather, and " of that
Ilk " (instead of my fertile acres in Cheshire), more than all, if I
were a rebel, a Jacobite, a Jesuit's toady, an outlaw, a Scots cattle
stealing thief, perhaps '
'What on earth means this farrago, Talbot?' asked Captain
Wyril, who, at that moment, came upon his comrade soliloquizing
angrily in the garden : ' is this a comedy you are rehearsing ?'
'A comedy, 'sdeath! no 'tis more like to prove a tragedy,' re-
plied the other, greatly ruffled, especially at having been surprised
in tin's state of irritation.
' Prythee, man, what is the matter you have been taking too
much wine ; is it not so ?' asked the good humoured Wyvil.
' Like Jack Freelove, in the " Spectator," who was " murdered
by Melissa, in her hair," this fair Scottish lass, in her unpowdered
locks, hath fairly murdered me !*
'Come, come, Talbot, rouse thee, man,' eaid the Captain, taking
his arm, for Egerton's steps were now becoming unsteady ; ' don't
be a moonstruck fool. We shall, too soon, I fear, have other work
cut out for us among the misty, Scottish mountains, than falling in
love, and sighing like furnaces ; and other work even than searching
a wild and rocky shore, and by rugged roads in Indian file, for
mugglers' secret haunts and hoards.'
96 *HE WHITE COCKADE.
' Captain Douglas a pretty fellow, no doubt !' muttered Egerton,
talking to himself ; ' I'll have him out to a game of sharps, though,
I'll have him with sword and pistol !'
' Aha, I see how it is," said Wyvil ; ' our new friend from Hol-
land has turned your flank, my poor beau, Egerton.'
The latter replied only by an incoherent expletive.
' Well, Talbot, after being, as I and all our mess have known you
to be, madly in love with sundry queens, princesses, and fairies of
Covent Garden and Old Drury, cai-rjing even their sedans at night,
and after parading Sir Timothy Tawdry and others of ours at the
back of Montagxie House about them, I do marvel that even the
blooming freshness of this Scots heather belle hath dazzled you j
but '
' This way ! down the avenue come with me,' said Egerton,
hurriedly ; 'I'll have it out witli him I tell you, Marmaduke, I'll
have it out with him,' he threatened for the fourth time, as he saw
Dalquharn approaching, with his head bent on his breast, and ap-
parently full of thought. He was walking quickly, being in haste,
to post the letters he had just penned to two of the leading men of
his party.
He was evidently in deep reverie, as one might well be, whose
mind saw in the future, crumbling thrones and the strife of kings,
bloody fields, and all the horrors of a civil war, the flames of
which his own hand was seeking or aiding to kindle. He saw
neither Wyvil nor Egerton, against whom he stumbled, or by whom
he was roughly jostled, for both started and surveyed each other
with considerable irritation.
' You will apologise, Captain Douglas, if Captain Douglas you
are indeed ?' said Egerton, with undisguised hauteur.
' I apologise ! most assuredly not now ; but I demand an amende
honorable from you, Mr. Egerton, for your offensive bearing and
direct insinuation.'
' Good, demme !' said Egerton, fiercely, cocking his hat over his
right eye ; 'you demand satisfaction, do you?'
' This to me ?' Baid Dalquham, greatly ruffled, as he came for-
ward a pace.
' Td you, or any other man !'
' Zounds, sirrah ! '
' Aud I say zounds, my pretty Scot, as the player says, " I shall
tickle your catastrophe !" You are welcome to a tune on your own
Caledonian cremona, and demme, if I don't make you dance to it.
On guard !' cried Egerton, who now seemed mad with fury, and
to become intoxicated by his own words, as he drew his sword, and
smoothed his long lace ruffles back from the wrist of his right
hand.
' Have the goodness to lend me your hanger, Captain Wyvil !'
said Dalquharn, ' I have nothing, as you see, but a riding rod.'
*HB WHITE COCKADE. 67
'Talbot Talbot Egerton, are you mad!' exclaimed Wyvil j 'is
this bearing courteous this rashness seemly?'
' I care not what they are. so that they suit my humour. On
guard, I say ! lend him your sword, Marmaduke, or I'll split him
like a spring chicken.'
' Nerer shall my sword be drawn in quarrels such as this so put
up yours,' said Wyvil, angrily.
It was fortunate that Dalquharn was unarmed, for every vein
tingled, and every nerve quivered with rage.
'Gentlemen, gentlemen,' exclaimed Bailie Balcraftie, now hurry-
ing forward, and no doubt extremely glad to see those men the
two who stood exactly in the path of his intended plans against
Bryde ready to tilt at each other's throats; 'keep the king's
peace ! would ye draw in the avenue o' Auldhame, and close to the
very door o' your friend and host, Sir Baldred ? A bonnie fray it
is, and beseeming, too !'
'As a magistrate, aid me, Mr. Balcraftie you are au alder-
man '
' A Bailie, sir !' said the other, perking up his head and planting
liis cane on the ground.
' Well, Bailie, aid me to keep the peace here,' said Captain Wyvil.
I Beware, ye sirs," said the Bailie, thus urged ; ' for if one person
assaults another wi' a lethal weapon, either in design to slay, or in
heedlessness o' the bluidy result, the act is held as felony and mur-
der by our Scottish law.'
'Chut! out upon your Scots law; what is it to me? I am a
free-born Englishman, and don't value your Scots law a brass far-
thing not even a tester!'
' But the Lord Advocate may teach you to your cost, my gay
spark, what forethocht-felony is,' said the Bailie, slinking his
stick; ' and know ye not, that they who live by the sword, shall
perish by the sword ? Mairoure, it is weel nigh hainesiicken to
draw blades here !'
'I draw mine whenever, and wherever I am insulted,' said Eger-
ton, still standing on his defence.
I 1 have no blade to draw,' said Dalquharn, with growing rage,
' or this hour would be a dear one for thee, mad fool ! However,
my friend Captain Mitchell '
' A Scots rebel like yourself, I doubt not,' thundered Egerton,
injuriously, and still blindly bent on quarrel and bloodshed.
' Is uy, sir a man of the most unspotted honour !'
' Well and your Captain Mitchell !'
' He, on the morrow, shall arrange a fitting time and place for
our meeting. Enough of this, Mr. Egerton. You must see, Cap-
tain Wyvil, that he is quite beside him -elf to-night, and I should
encounter him, even in the starlight, to his decided disadvantage.'
Egcrtou. laughed scornfully.
7
98 THE WHITE COCKADE.
' Be assured that, when next we meet, there shall be none (o
separate us, till one lies stiff on his mother earth !'
With these impressive words, which were regretfully remembered
at another time, Dalquharn lifted his hat, bowed with great lofti-
ness of bearing, and hastily quitted the avenue, while Balcraftie
followed stealthily a few paces, to learn which way he had gone.
Dalquharn's heart was burning with rage, and agitated by alarm,
for a duel or brawl might lead to his discovery, arrest, and the
total destruction of all his hopes, and those of others at this great
political juncture. But he knew that he must fight now, and that
his honour required it.
' If I fall on the morrow,' thought he, ' I shall die as plain
Captain Douglas, and shall compromise no one ; but if I had been
killed to-night, with the letters and cyphers of Elcho and Balme-
rino upon me, how fatal to the cause of the king !'
"Sdeath, and the devil!' exclaimed Egerton ; 'I'll after that fel-
low, and send him home with his ears in his pocket.'
' To-morrow, my rash friend, this matter shall be settled, but in
presence of selected witnesses,' said Captain Wyvil, sternly, ' I for
one, though very opposite to duels ; but one more word of this
matter to-night, Talbot, and you will make me your enemy."
' My old buck, Marmaduke, to-morrow then be it,' replied Eger-
ton, who was now completely sobered, and shook the captain's
hand ; ' I shall then give our Scottish friend a lesson in carte and
tierce, that will serve him for the remainder of his life.'
' A deuced unpleasant thing it is, however, so have a fracas with
Sir Baldred's most favoured guest, and, apparently, his most par-
ticular friend,' said Wyvil, ' and to run that friend through the
body, is but a poor return for the old man's kindness during our
long visit here. What the devil possessed thee to-night, Talbot ?
Other three days had seen us on the march to head-quarters.'
' I am a perfect swordsman '
'Few better in England, as I know well.'
' And I shall kill him and every man who stands between me
and Bryde Otterburn, now that my hand is in for the game !'
' Hush, for heaven's sake, and don't let that cool-headed fellow,
Balcraftie, hear you see, he comes this way,' whispered Wyvil ;
but the Bailie did hear the melo-dramatic threat, which seemed to
confirm the scene he had witnessed at the garden seat, and it made
his craven heart wince, for he both feared and hated the bold and
reckless young Englishman,.who now said hurriedly,
' Good night, Wyvil zounds ! I can't stay here. Why is ifc
that my heart is always strangely stirred, and that my very flesh
creeps, whenever the cold fishy eyes of that canting Scotsman fall
upon me! Good night, friend Marmaduke, and remember to-
morrow.'
'To-morrow !'
Egerton hurried away. Wyril and the Bailie thought that he
IHE WHITE COCKADE. 00
had gone through the garden hedge-rows to the mansion of Auld-
hame; but the acute magistrate soon discovered that he had re-
turned to the change-house of Lucky Scougal, in the hamlet, to
assuage his wrath by one bottle more of her good smuggled Spanish
wine.
When the gardener came a few minutes after, to secure the gar-
den gate, he found one of his best spades missing. It was a new
one, fresh from Edinburgh, by the cart of the Dunbar carrier ; he
searched everywhere among his flower-beds : but a thief had evi-
dently been there, for his new implement of husbandry could no-
where be found.
CHAPTER XIX.
MYSTEBY
'The afternoon grows dark betimes;
Tbe night winds ere the night are blowing;
And cold grey mists from out the sea,
Along the forest moor are going :
And now she paces through the room ;
And " he will come anon," she sayeth ;
And then she stirs the sleeping fire,
Sore marvelling why he thus delay eth.'!TA Huntet't Linn.
NEXT morning, when the little party assembled at breakfast, iu the
chamber-of-dais, or dining-room, Bryde Otterburn was absent, but
sent a message to the effect that her presence must be excused, as
blie found herself too ill on that morning to leave bed, and her dot-
ing grandfather, who became seriously alarmed about the nervous
and hysterical state in which he found her, despatched a servant on
horseback, with a led horse, for the barber-surgeon of North Ber-
wick, who bled, blistered, and drew teeth, as well as shaved, curled
perriwigs, and dressed toupees, as his striped pole and gilt bason
served to inform all who passed through the High Street.
Mr. Biruiebousle officiated at the tea and coffee board ; Captain
Wyvil presided over the ham, fowl, and other edibles : and now it
was found that another seat was vacant that of Mr. Egerton.
Could he be so silly as to sulk, and not to appear purposely ?
thought Wyvil.
The meal proceeded rapidly, but silently ; Bryde with her smil-
ing, brown eyes, quick small hands, and pretty morning dress, with
its frills all plaited (as if by the fingers of the Brownie), was not
{here to shed radiance over all.
Wyvil's idea was soon dissipated by the butler, who announced
with some astonishment, that Mr. Egerton was not in the house,
that he had not been abed, nor had he been seen since last night \
Captain Mitchell had not yet returned rroin Edinburgh. Wyvil
glanced enquiringly at Dalquharn, and was astonished by the
72
100 TUB WHITE COCKADE.
change in his face, and appearance generally, since last night. He
was paler and actually older looking ; his dark blue eyes were blood-
shot, and he seemed to have passed a sleepless night. He di-ank
little and ate less. He was feverish and nervous, and to the ob-
servant eyes of Wyvil, he seemed to have an intense difficulty in
commanding or fixing his ideas. In short, his once strong, but
keen nervous system, seemed completely unstrung, like one who
was recovering from a long and deep debauch.
Can this young man be afraid of Egerton, and of the proposed
hostile meeting ? thought the captain next, and with some contempt
m his tone, he again asked if Captain Mitchell had returned.
Dalquharn, in a voice that was barely audible, replied, that he .
had not. Sir Baldred was fidgety and alarmed, but knew not why.
' Egad,' he muttered, ' I shall have two patients on my hands ap-
parently. Any word of Mr. Egerton yet?' he asked, as the butler
returned from making fresh enquiries.
He had been last seen with Captain Wyvil in the garden and
avenue ; thieves were supposed to have been about last night, as
the gardener had one of his best shovels stolen, and there were
marks of strange feet among the tulip-beds.
Wyvil now became seriously alarmed. He remembered that he
had heard his grandfather (an old colonel of the Ironsides) relate
many a time at Hurstmonceaux, how Cromwell's men in Scotland,
during the first two or three years of their service there, had been
slain like reptiles by the peasantry. His blood boiled up ; ho stuck
his loaded pistols in his girdle, and went forth to urge the scrutiny
in person.
The day passed slowly on ; Mitchell returned in the evening,
and joined in the search with Dalquharn and others ; the sun drew
westward, but still no trace was found of the missing man.
Woodlands and highways, corn-fields and hedgerows, were
searched and examined ; every flight of crows was deemed ominoua
that he was lying in the spot towards which they winged their way.
Could he have fallen over the rocks into the sea, or otherwise have
committed suicide ? Wyvil loudly asserted that he was not the
man to be guilty either of such folly or such wickedness. Had he
been waylaid by Egyptians (as the gipsies are named in Scotland),
by footpads, for the value of his watch and rings, or by revengeful
smugglers, for Scupperplug's sable craft was alleged to have been
seen in the offing ?
Sergeant Tony Teesdale, who, with all the grenadiers of the de-
tachment, made a close and vigorous pursuit, averred that he had
not seen him at Auldhame hamlet ; and Lucky Scougal asserted
that he had quitted her house about half-past nine, or in the early
part of the gloaming, and that he was then not quite sober, but was
flushed with wine and excitement.
Suspicions of the worst kind seemed verified when Sergeant Tees-
dale aud the drummer arrived at the house, about nightfall, with a
TOE WHITE COCEADE. 101
lace sleeve ruffle and golden link, and with the buff-faced cuff of a
uniform coat, having thereon six flat buttons of plain silver. Though
regimental buttons bore no number or device until 1767, it was at
once recognised as Egerton's and seemed to have been rent away
by violence, like the ruffle, which was spotted with blood !
It was taken to Bryde, who shuddered and wept over it, for she
knew the ruffle only too well, by some stitches she had put in it a
day or so past, at the request of the wearer, who was then in a gay
and flirting mood. These relics had been found on the highway,
near the avenue gate, but this might not indicate the scene of
violence, as they seemed to have been blown hither and thither by
the last night's wind.
Their discovery added greatly to the growing excitement; the
search was resumed with greater vigour, and even Bailie Balcraftie,
who arrived with the Esculapian shaver from North Berwick, took
part therein.
' My brave young friend must have been the victim of some foul
treachery,' exclaimed Captain Wyvil ; ' he was one of the best
swordsmen in all London !'
' Alake the day !' moaned the Bailie ; ' I aye feared that English
lad would come to an evil end !'
' Wherefore thought you so, sir ?' asked Captain Wyvil, sternly ;
' there was not a more harmless fellow in the Buffs, or in all the
king's service.'
' May be sae, but I warrant he never knelt to the blessed book,
and as the song says,
'"He downie sing at the Psalm
For spoiling his mini mini mon;
And tlic lips that King na to God
Should never a maiden woo." '
' Excuse me, sir but d n your song !' said Wyvil, fiercely, ns
he adjusted his sleeve ruffles.
' And then he was sorely addicted to card-playing, to twangling
on the vial, to dancing and blowing on the flute vain snares o* the
man o' sin, and in nae way suiting the man o' God.'
Wyvil could not speak ; he only gave the magistrate a withering
glance of silent and profound scorn.
' Gude forgive me, a weak and erring creature, if I misjudge the
youth, Captain,' continued the Bailie ; and then lifting up his face,
and closing his pale and cunning eyes, he crossed his hands meekly
on his walking cane, and whined out, "Oh, judge not, lest ye be
juclg cd " and, " oh cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nos-
trils, for wherein is he to be accounted of?"
Another day passed, and still there came no tidings pf Egerton.
The spinnet stood open in the drawing room, with some leaves of
Scottish music on the stand, and there lay the poor fellow's flute,
with which, but two or three days ago, he had been accompanying
Bryde, and striving hard to please that beaxitiful and wilful young
102 THE WHITE COCKADE.
lady, by attempting a Jacobite air, ' The auld Stuarts back again,'
winch would have cost him his commission, and more perhaps, if
those in authority had heard him. And now Wyvil looked sadly
at the instrument, and at the tiny flageolet, which had been the
player's gift to Miss Otterburn in a happier hour ; and the honest
and true hearted captain sighed, for he loved his young subaltern
sincerely, and in Scotland, Englishmen still felt as if they were
somewhat in a foreign country.
' Can she have loved him after all and what means all this hor-
rible mystery ?' exclaimed the captain, who on hearing that the
young lady was still unwell and abed, craved that he might have
an interview with her for a few moments ; but Mrs. Porriel
Graliame assured him in language, which to Wyvil was barely intel-
ligible, tliat she was far too ill to see any one.
She had been recovered with difficulty from a succession of faint-
ing fits, by burnt feathers being placed under her nostrils, and by
having poured between her lips the distillation known as Hungary
water, being wine flavor ed with rosemary, after the recipe written
about 1659 by Elizabeth, queen of Hungary.
She was now pale, speechless, and did nothing but moan, weep,
ani refuse all food. It may be added, that the ring, which bore the
significant motto,
Yours only and ever,
the ring placed upon her finger in that delicious hour at St.
Baldraal chapel by Dalquharn,was already withdrawn from her hand.
Why was this ?
An inexplicable change had also come over the bearing of Lord
Dalquharn. Was it the result of the unavenged insults and de-
fiances hurled at him on that eventful evening, or was it the anxiety
for the fate of his foe, which caused this too apparent alteration.
He had now a wistful expression of eye and did not exert himself
much in the search, so thought the sharp-sighted and now suspi-
cious Wyvil or he did so in a hopeless and mechanical way, as if
the inquiry would have no result.
To Sir Baldred it always seemed as if there was something which
the young lord wished to say, but lacked the heart or energy to do
so ; or he was always interrupted by the inopportune arrival or
presence of Balcraftie, of Wyvil, and of inquiring country friends,
who poured from all quarters into Auldhame, to eat and drink,
condole, suggest, and speculate upon the mystery.
There were times when Dalquharn thought himself unobserved,
or when Balcraftie was present, and when the cold but vulture-like
eyes of that individual were upon him, that his pallor he was very
pale now increased, when a spasm would pass over his handsome
features, and even an uncontrollable convulsive shudder shake his
frame.
Once he was seen gnawing his lips, with a glare in his blood-shot
eyes j he frequently sighed heavily, and, strange to say, those indi-
THE WHITE COCKADE. 103
cations of violent emotion were also exhibited by Sir John Mitchell
(that usually jovial and equable guest of Sir Baldred), with whom
Lord Dalquharn was now almost hourly in conversation and earnest
consultation, apart from the rest of the household.
By orders from Sir John Cope, the Lieutenant-General com-
manding in Scotland, Captain Wyvil delayed marching his detach-
ment to head quarters, till more stringent inquiries were made con-
cerning the missing officer; but these, like the rest, were all urged
in vain.
Old Dorriel Grahame was never weary now of discanting on the
many good qualities possessed by ' puir Maister Aigerton,' as she
named him, and made Bryde more feverish and wretched by her
noisy lamentations for his supposed death, on which she dilated
witli all the morbid minutite of her class.
' That pawky auld kimmer, Lucky Scougal, should ken something
o' this black business,' said the Bailie, sententiously.
' Why so ?' asked Captain Wyvil.
' She may have cast her evil eye upon the puir lad, for the carliu
hath but a bad repute in the parish.'
Wyvil knew not what this meant ; but it was averred in the
district that the keeper of the change-house Egertou had last quit-
ted, was one of those who practised witchcraft in secret, and who
levied a species of black mail upon the peasantry, in the shape of
meal, barley, and cheese, to shield them from the power of the evil
eye, or, as the phrase is still in the country, to make her een loot
kindly.
' We must seek aid o' the sheriff, the Procurator- Fiscal, and the
Lord Advocate,' said Balcraftie, who was apparently unremitting in.
his efforts, and certainly suffered all the sorrow of a mute at a
funeral.
' Malediction on the Lord Advocate !' said Sir Baldred ; ' I have
seen the loon at Edinburgh cross, flaunting it with an orange cock-
ade in his hat. Woe is me !' he added, sadly ; ' the winter rime of
many years hath whitened my auld pow'r, but never to a guest of
mine did such a calamity as this occur before, and no such hour of
evil, save when my dear and only son died by the hand of a black
and unknown traitor ! 'Tis strange.' continued the old baronet,
musingly, ' that the greatest calamities usually occur between night
and morning, especially if the wind be high.'
According to the superstitions of the good folks in and about
Auldhame, the mystery involving the fate of Talbot Egerton was
heralded or accompanied by as many omens of evil as might have
-presaged the fate of a more important personage, than a heedless
and half-tipsy young subaltern of the Kentish Buffs ; but then, the
Scots of those days doted dearly on the marvellous.
In the gloaming, the bittern, now no longer an inhabitant of the
wilds and marshes of the lonely Lammermuirs, had been heard
' to sound its dram
Booming from the sedgy fallow.'
104 THE WHITE COCKADE.
The Yoice of 'tlie hedge-pig' had been heard at times near the
close-clipped yew fences of the home farm, and been taken for the
moaning of a disturbed spirit; and about midnight there came a
storm of wind, accompanied by such a roaring and bellowing noise
in the Firth, as had not been heard, Sir Baldred affirmed, ' since
the night the union was signed, when more than fifty whales came
up, madly cai-eering and plunging with the tide, which, at its ebb-
ing, left more than thirty of these monsters stranded and rolling on
the flat sands of Kirkaldy and Tyninghame next morning that
morning when not a cock in all Scotland had been heard to crow !'
' The whales were no bad omen of the future, surely ?' said Cap-
tain Wyvil, smiling.
A description of Egerton's personal appearance and dress, fairly
written in round text by Maister Scoutherdoup, parochial school-
master and precentor of St. Andrew's kirk, was displayed at tho
market-cross of North Berwick, besides Bailie Balcrai'tie's notice of
a preachment thereupon ; and, by the voice of tlie town-drummer,
a reward of fifty guineas (to which the Bailie added ten) was offered
for information concerning him, but all in vain ; and his wonderful
disappearance formed the staple subject of a great discourse, deli-
vered with singular fluency by the Bailie on Midsummer eve, to a
great multitude, on the Links, near the sea ; and there he failed
not to inveigh against the scarlet woman of Babylon (who was then
as great a bugbear to the children of Scotland, as tlie Boo-mau and
Napoleon Bonaparte in later times), then came prelacy, episcopacy,
and all the backsiidings of the times, after which he gave thanks
to heaven that he was not as other men are, and the multitude dis-
persed.
In the sweet long evenings of June, at the song-trystes, when
some twenty or thirty lads and lassies met by agreement at some
farm or cot-house, for song-singing and merriment, as was the cus-
tom, and at the milking of the ewes, Egerton's dark tragedy formed
the subject of many a sad ballad and quaint speculation, in which
our old friends the fairies figured, for there were not a few of the
sturdy plough-lads and shepherd-lassies at the ewe bughts of Auld-
hame and Tyninghame, and Whitekirk too, who thought that the
elves might have spirited away the handsome Englishman, as all the
world knows they did our gallant King James, and the great King
Arthur.
But a short time elapsed before the occurrence of other events of
a more startling nature, committed the brief story of Talbot Egcr-
ton to oblivion.
THE WHITE COCKADE, 106
CHAPTER XX.
THE DEIL'S LOAN.
' Is't guilt alone convicted that keeps silenca?
Guilt, saucy guilt, tliat dares to break the law
Of God and man ? Remember you no case
Where innocence accused hath all at once
Been stricken dumb? Appalled to undergo
The charge of sin, that never could endure
The thought of sin?'
' Sheridan Knowlei.
How was it that, crushed in spirit, and subdued in bearing, the
once proud and lofty Dalquharn had now almost a terror of Reuben
Balcraftie, when before he had only disgust and contempt ? Why
was it that he and Bryde were so suddenly changed, and thaf,
although he knew it not, his ring was no longer worn by her ; and
what was the cause or origin of that grievous and mysterious illness
which had so suddenly prostrated her in body and mind, and which
baffled alike the skill of the poor excited barber-surgeon of North
Berwick, and the deeper wit and greater dexterity of the most
learned of the physicians of Edinburgh, whose Royal College was
then situated at the foot of the Fountain Close ?
On the night that Egerton disappeared, Bryde by an appointment
was to meet Dalquharn at the end of the avenue, as he returned
from despatching his letters at the post-house near Castleton.
Luckily for the lovers, all in Auldhame had retired early to rest ;
the gloaming of the June evening was clear and beautiful ; the air
ambient and calm. She tied her capuchin lightly over her soft,
brown hair; locked up her spaniel lest his barking might betray
her ; and issued forth from the private gate, with a flushed cheek,
a sparkling eye, a light step, and a joyous heart ; for never had the
innocent young girl kept a lover's tryste before.
She looked at her tiny gold watch by the light of the clear, cold,
crescent moon, which was now high in the deep blue sky, above the
flood of amber that still steeped the western clouds. She was
almost too late ! Already Dalquharn must be at the trysting-place,
and awaiting her, she thought, and hurriedly she traversed the walk
that led outside the garden wall to the long and dark avenue, an
umbrageous and leafy tunnel, at the western end of which, and ap-
parently at a vast distance (though but a few miles off), the acute
cone of Berwick Law rose in dark and opaque outline against the
lighted sky.
Dalquharn was not at the gate, each pillar whereof was sur-
mounted by a stone otter, the paws of which rested on a quaint,
old-fashioned shield. She looked out upoa the highway; its far
extent, stretching away in dim perspective, between hedge-rows,
showed no sign of any living thing, save, perhups, an occasional
rabbit or hare flitting across from field to field. The summer ni^ht
106 THE TVniTE COCKADE.
was intensely calm and still, and not a sound was heard now, save
an occasional drop of dew, as it fell heavily, from a yielding and
overcharged leaf, on the thick green sward below.
On her left lay the deep, dark shadows of the Deil's Loan. She
turned her back upon it with a kind of tremor, for it had ever pos-
sessed a species of superstitious terror for her since infancy, as
memories of the old Druid days and their rites of blood had come
down in the shape of calcined bones found in strange clay urns
under a mossy cairn, adders'-heads and elf-arrows, with strange
ornaments of bronze and ivory, that told of other races of men and
of other times ; and there too, in rank luxuriance, grew the large
yellow witchgowan, the stalk of which is filled with a pernicious
sap, which, when placed on the eye-lids, was supposed to cause in-
stant blindness.
Again she looked at her watch ; more than half an hour had
elapsed since Dalquharn should have been at the gate, and why did
he not come ? Was it lover-like to tarry ?
She knew that the errand on which he had returned to Scotland
was indeed a perilous one, and that if discovered or betrayed, he
was a lost man ! She also knew that he was brave, proud, and
high-spirited even reckless ; and she now remembered with a
thrill of alarm that he had gone forth without arms, without pistols,
or even his walking sword ; for she had seen him to the door, and
bade him a tender adieu.
Just as this recollection occurred to her, she seemed to hear his
voice on the still air, and it came to her ear in tones of anger.
From whence ? She listened again ; but the quick beating of
her anxious little heart, and the tingling of her ears, though she
drew back her hood and her thick, heavy hah 1 , scarcely permitted
her to hear.
Again his voice, and louder still !
It came too surely it came, from that unhallowed spot the
Deil's Loan ! She remembered that her dress was dark, and that
the moonlight was but faint, and thus, without a moment's hesita-
tion for, though gentle as a lamb, she was a brave and high-
spirited girl she crept along under the shadow of the hawthorn
hedge, till she found herself close to the gloomy and sombre grove
of ancient trees.
She could distinguish figures as well as voices now ; but she felfc
her blood alternately glow in a fever heat, and then become icy
with apprehension, while a nameless horror, a vague and irresistible
perception that something was wrong, grew strong in her heart.
She drew nearer, and shrunk almost down on her knees as she
peeped through the hedge, and saw between her and the pale moon-
light a figure which she knew to be that of Dalquharn, and with
his the form of another man, bearing a third person between them
a person dead a person whom she instantly knew to be Talbot
Egerton, by his sword and sash, and by his costume, particularly
THE WHITE COCKADE. 107
his pale buff waistcoat, which was covered with black stains ; but
his face she could not see, as his head had fallen back, and was
trailed heavily along the grass !
For one moment she remained as if spell-bound, gazing on tlu's
horrible vision. The next beheld her flying along the avenue, over-
come by a terror that gave wings to her speed, and yet caused her
many times to stumble, to fall, and creep breathlessly on her tender
hands and knees.
Had some fierce national quarrel or political duel ensued, or was
it a vile and vulgar murder under cloud of night ?
IIow she reached home, and secured the postern gate, how she
ascended to her own room, and got to bed, she never knew ; for she
was as if in a dream till the winds of a stormy midnight shook
the tall chimneys and turrets of the house, and roared sullenly
among the old woodlands, when a fever seized her, and ere the
stars paled out, and the dawn came in, she was delirious.
Already was the light bubble burst, already was the cup of happi-
ness dashed from her lips, and already was the sunshine of her
young love overclouded in its dawn, and long ere it reached the
maturity of noon !
Bryde's illness was naturally enough coupled by her friends with
Egerton's disappearance, and added to the excitement of that
sequestered locality. My Lady Haddington, in her two-wheeled
Italian chaise, preceded by two outriders ; the Scougals of that ilk,
in their lumbering coach, drawn by four black Flemish mares ; and
Mr. Carfuffle of Whitekirk, on his nag-tailed cob, and many more,
came dutifully to offer their kind aid and advice ; but Bryde obsti-
nately refused to see any one but her old nurse Porriel G-rahaine.
When sense returned, and the fever passed away, she could not
speak of the events of the night without inculpating Lord Dalquharn
and another whom she knew not ; and as her lover could not visit
her room, in the severely decorous ideas of the times, they could
have no mutual explanation of that terrible mystery.
' Could it be a dream ?' she often asked of herself ; but she re-
membered how the wind blew, and how the pale grey dawn replaced
the short twilight of the June night : ' a dream! impossible ; for
I never slept !'
Then Egerton's disappearance was a dreadful corroboration of
the episode she had witnessed. Was there indeed blood on the
hands of her loved Henry Douglas ? and who was that other, by
whom the body of the victim was borne ? He was too short in
stature to be Sir John Mitchell, and too sturdy in figure to be
another dreadful thought ner aged grandfather ; for a duel, the
result of some political dispute, was ever hovering before her.
Three days the poor girl fevered and raved, and at times seemed
on the eve of losing her senses ; and now, leaving her -for a time,
with affectionate old Sir Baldred wringing his withered hands, and
108 THE WHITE COCKADE.
worthy nurse Dorriel weeping over her, let us follow the move-
ments of Lord Dalquharn on the night in question that night so
fruitful in events.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE DEATH SHOT.
'A falcon towering in liis pride of place,
\Vaa by a mousing owl hawked at and killed !'
Macbeth.
IT was, as already related, the twilight of a glorious evening in
June. The lark had gone to its nest in the woodlands, and the
stag was in his lair among the long green feathery ferns in Bin-
ning Wood ; the dew was falling softly, and so gentle was the wind
that it would scarcely have stirred the downy beard of the wild
thistle by the wayside. The stars were coming out clear and
bright, and in the streams the grey salmon and the bull trout were
leaving their deep, dark pools lor the shallower places.
It was indeed an evening for two lovers to meet, and Dalquharn
as he hastened on his secret errand, with those letters which he
could entrust to no other hand, though still ruffled by his recent
angry interview with Egerton, and deeply regretting the hostile
contingency of the morrow, felt his own happiness in the love of
Bryde so much, that he trembled for the perils that might menace
it ; or was this tremor but a dim foreshadowing of the future ?
Perhaps so, for there is no emotion that is BO sensitive as true
affection.
He felt all the luxurious joy of being a successful lover, and
trembled lest he should be wakened roughly from his delicious
dream.
With a prayer almost on his lips for the success of the great
matter in hand, he left the enigmatical letters for the two Jacobite
lords at the post-house, and hurried back to meet Bryde as he ex-
pected, at the gate which had the two heraldic otters' heads.
When passing the skirts of the old thicket known as the Deil's
Loan, the dark trees of which stood up like masses of bronze
against the amber-coloured sky, he suddenly heard a shot, and
almost immediately afterwards, a pistol, as if hurled towards him
by an unseen hand, fell at his feet. He picked it up, and the
barrel was still warm with the recent discharge. It was a rough
weapon, of common aspect, with a brass butt, and seemed to be of
that kind usually called a ship-pistol, as the ramrod was secured to
the stock by a lanyard of tarry twine.
All was still after this, and never did Dnlquharn more deeply
regret the thoughtlessness, which, on this occasion, brought him.
forth unarmed ; but he was naturally too brave to pass on without
ascertaining what was the meaning of a shot fired in such a time
TEE WHITE COCKADE. 100
and place, and clubbing the pistol as a weapon for defence, he
forced a passage through the hedge, and went boldly towards the
spot from whence the report had come.
He had not proceeded twenty yards through the fern, gorse and
thick grass which grew under the old trees, when he came upon the
body of a man, in a scarlet coat, lying on his face, quite dead.
It. was Talbot Egerton, weltering in his blood killed by a shot
through the head !
Horror and astonishment were the first emotions of Dalquharn ;
sorrow and alarm were the next sorrow for the fate, so untimely
and sudden, of this young and gallant Englishman, and alarm lest
he might personally be compromised by the event or its discovery.
He was not left long in doubt as to the latter, for the sound of
footsteps was heard, and Bailie Balcraftie appeared, armed with a
spade.
' In the name of heaven, Mr. Balcraftie,' exclaimed Dalquharu,
' who has done this foul act !'
The other started, raised the spade as if to defend himself, but
recovering from his emotion, whatever it was, he replied very
calmly
' It ill becomes you, sir, to ask sic a question, seeing that you
stand by his side, and armed mairoure by the very weapon that
has cost the puir young gentleman his life, as sure as I'm a par-
doned sinner!'
' Bailie Balcraftie !'
' O, waes me, puir Mr. Egerton ! truly, truly in the midst o' life
we are in death, and as for man, his days, as the blessed Psalmist
saitli, are as grass yea, as a flower o" the field so he perisheth.'
' Canting villain !' exclaimed Dalquharn, hurling the empty
pistol with such violence at the Bailie's head, that had he not
eluded it by adroitly ducking, he had assuredly been stretched by
the side of the dead man ; ' villain, I repeat, dare you attempt to
fix your odious crime on me ?'
' My odious crime !' chuckled the other, with an obnoxious grin ;
1 weel, weel, you are a bold man to say this to me, a merchant o'
substance, a magistrate and elder, senior Bailie, nae less o' the
royal burgh o' North Berwick ! Ken you the worth o' your head,
or the length o' your neck, that you daur to breathe a word o' sic
an aspersion ?'
' Then who has done it ?' said Dalquharn, almost staggered by
the Bailie's self-possession ; ' you heard the shot, I presume ?'
' I am coming through the wood, I hear the explosion o' fire-
arms ; I come further on, and find what, sir ? Mr. Egerton dead,
and the so-called Captain Douglas bending over him wi' a pistol in
his hand! Yea, I beheld him,' whined Balcraftie, lifting up his
eyes and hands, ' as if "I beheld Satan as lightning fa' frae
heaven;" wae's me! and then I bethink me of the bitter and
deadly words uttered in the hearing o' the worthy Captain Wyvil,
110 THE WHITE COCKADE.
no two hours sin syne, that you and Mr. Egerton would " meet
when there would le none to separate you, until one lay stiff on his
mother earth .'" Ye have met, and behold the awful end !'
' Silence, fellow silence, lest I strangle thee !' said Dalquharn,
who felt his flesh creep, while a clamorous fluttering came about
his bold heart, at the apprehension these words and this mysterious
crime aroused.
' Do you daur again to threaten a Bailie a magistrate, an elder
o' the kirk, sir ?'
c Eeuben Balcraftie, there is no greater villain than thee under
the canopy of heaven or the keystone of hell ! What diabolical
motive has induced you to commit this crime, I know not ; but I
can laugh to scorn your wicked attempt to inculpate me with a
deed so dark and bloody. Moreover, sirrah, I know that this is not
the first crime of which you have been guilty."
Dalquharn referred merely to the smuggling and to his appearance
in disguise on board the lugger ; but the poet tells us that
' Many a shaft at random senf/
Finds mark the archer never meant,'
80 these words had a wonderful effect on Balcraftie, whose visage
grew pale and became suffused with beads of perspiration which
almost glittered in the moonlight, as it streamed between the still
and drooping foliage of the wood. His eyes wore a startled ex-
pression of rage and alarm, and he raised the spade, as if he meant
to cleave the speaker down.
' Attempt to strike, at your peril,' said Dalquharn ; ' stand off,
fellow you know not whom you speak to !'
' I ken owre weel, may be,' replied the other, taking off his hat
and making a mock bow, with the most profound insolence ; ' a
cavalier, a Jacobite in disguise, a popish plotter against kirk and
law, as is most likely.'
'Oh, that I had my sword!' exclaimed Dalquharn, in a low
voice of concentrated passion ; and then losing all sense of caution,
' Back, dog !' he thundered out, ' I am Henry Douglas, Lord Dal-
quharn of the Holm !'
'I kenned as muckle three weeks ago,' replied the Bailie,
changing his bearing entirely, relinquishing his sanctimonious
whine, and adopting a bearing which somewhat reminded Dalqu-
harn of that of Scupperplug, or of the Dutch mate, Vander Pier-
boom. 'Noo stand ye there, my Lord Dalquharn o' the Holm, in
the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and obey me, lest I denounce ye
obey me, I say !' he added, assuming an air of ferocious autho-
rity, as he tore open his coat, and showed that he had beneath it a
pair of double-barrelled pistols, in a broad leathern girdle. ' It
will be a hard thing for you, I doubt not, if just on the eve o' a
rising whilk you hope may be successful, you lose your head, your
title, and, for a' that I ken, your braw leman at the Loan-end,
Bryde Otterburn, and a' by a word frae my mouth eh ?'
1HE WHITE COCKADE. Ill
Dalquharn clenched his hand and groaned, for he felt himself
more and more in the power or the toils of this human snake. He
stooped over Egerton, and felt his hands and pulse, cold and still ;
poor corpse ! the heart had quite ceased to beat.
' This evening he was in the garden, on his knees before bonnie
Bryde Otterburn ha ! ha! on his knees he is lower noo, and a
bluidy tryste hath it been,' chuckled Balcraftie.
' Her name on your foul lips may drive me mad !' exclaimed the
young lord, furiously, as he remembered the interrupted meeting,
and was about to spring upon his tormentor, when, quick as light-
ning, that personage cocked and levelled one of his double-barrelled
pistols straight at his head.
' The grave to be dug here will haud twa, as well as ane,' said
Balcraftie ; ' but I'm no done wi' you yet, my braw man. You
have been at the Post-house near Castleton ?' he asked, categori-
cally, and keeping his pistol still levelled at the young peer's head ;
' speak !'
' I have but how know you that ?'
' I saw you go, after your last fatal threat to this puir fellow
go to post letters, doubtless, addressed to Captain Elphinstone and
Mr. David Wemyss, in answer to those you received some tliree
days gane by, from the attainted traitors, Balmerino and Elcho
letters o' whilk the duplicates are now in my office, where your an-
swers will be duly inspected to-morrow morning, and a braw sum
the Lord Advocate and the Secretary o' State will pay for your
correspondence. Oh, my gallant Lord Dalquharn, I ken you weel,
but I wouldna like to stand in your lordship's boots.'
' If I must condescend to reply to such a reptile as you, I may
inform you that the letters to which you refer, and to which you
huve had access, by most villainously tampering with the mail-bags,
are worthless ever to you, without the cypher '
' But that I possess, my gay birkie that I possess. 1
' Impossible !'
1 1 have heard o' sic things as secret papers being wrapped round
a sword blade, and so hid in the scabbard.'
Dalquharn started, and felt the blood rush back upon his heart.
'I examined yours, my lord, when you were at breakfast in my
house, and left sword and belt, like an unwary fule, in your bed-
room. The cypher was wrapped round the blade, and could be
left there or drawn forth at pleasure, and on the blade I read the
motto, no union; we a' ken what that means. The cypher I copied
and restored, ere we set out for Auldhame ; and noo I hae in my
grip you and a score o' others, proud, braw, noble and handsome
as ye deem yoursel's, ha! ha! unco galling a' this maun be to
you, nae doubt, nae doubt; but there'll be balm in Gilead, I sup-
pose, balm in Gilead, even for hellicate cavaliers,' he added, with a
touch of his general manner and character, for, as we have shown,
this pillar of ' the kirk and state' had two a public and a private
one.
112 THE WHITE COCKADfi.
CHAPTER XXII.
IS THE TOILS.
"Tis not impossible,
But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground,
May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute,
As Angelo; even so may Angelo,
In all his dressings, charactH, titles, forms,
Be an arch-villain : believe it, royal prince,
If he be less, lie's nothing ; but he's more,
Had I more name for baduess.' Measure for Measure.
LOKD DALQTJHABN was, for a time, completely silenced, and filled
by a horror and alarm, which increased every moment, the more he
realised and considered his situation, and the conviction that so
many gallant gentlemen, whose names were in his letters men of
high birth and long descent, of great estates and irreproachable
loyalty were thus compromised, and placed in the power of a
wretch so venal and corrupt as this man, Eeuben Balcraftie.
In his dread of what might be their fate, and the fortune even of
the Prince's intended attempt that summer, he forgot his present
peril, he forgot his tryst with Bryde Otterburn, he forgot all but
the desire for vengeance, and sprang across the dead body of Eger-
ton, intending to close in with his more wary tormentor ; but the
latter, who possessed more strength than his youthful assailant
could have imagined, thrust him furiously back, with the barrels of
his loaded pistols, for he had one in each hand now, and never was
the life of Dalquharn in greater jeopardy than at that moment.
' Stand, I bid you stand off and harken,' said Balcruftie, sternly ;
' outlawed and attainted as you are, even as your father was before
you, for adherence to a popish and perjured tyrant a double-dyed
traitor to the House o' Hanover, I might lay you dead beside him
who lies here, and nae man in a' the land, frae Tweed to Thule,
could ask me why or wherefore. I could, this instant, if I chose,
shoot you dead through the brain-pan, and cast these pistols beside
him and you, and after what passed in the garden, and these awfu'
words uttjred in the hearing o' Captain Wyvil, forby arid attour
other mair moving political causes, would the procurator fiscal, or
ony man in his senses, doubt, when your bodies and weapons were
found, that ye had perished otherwise than in a just and lawfu'
duel ? It's a braw thocht a braw thocht and a tempting one !'
and his eyes shone aud his teeth too, as he grinned a horrible
smile.
' Subtle villain,' exclaimed Dalquharu, with sudden despair in his
gallant heart ; ' fire, if you dare !'
'And lose the price o' your lordship's head, when the time comes
to exchange it for a cheque on the Treasury ; oh, no Heuben Bal-
craftie is a pruclont and a wary man too.!
THE WHITE COCKADE.
113
Dalquharn was almost suffocating : he felt himself to be com-
pletely and utterly in this man's power, for the future, as well as the
present, perhaps ; and for the present he had no resource but to
comply with his orders.
' In the meantime I'll lend you a hand to hide your braw night's
work from the gleds and hoodiecraws,' said Balcraftie, still affecting
to implicate Dalquharn in the commission of that crime, for which
the young lord yet failed to comprehend the motive. ' Suppose
you did it, my lord,' he continued, seeing the start of passion given
by the other, ' I only say suppose, my lord I may gie you a title
here, whar nae human ears can hear us, what matter is it, whether
you killed him here or in the field of battle ? 'Twill come to gun-
powder ere lang, I suppose, and he'll sleep just as weel here in the
Deil's Loan, as if he lay on Penrith Moor, on the braes o' Dum-
blane, or Glenshiel, or wherever else you Jacobites hae crossed steel
with King George's red coats.'
While the Bailie said this he had replaced his pistols in his girdle,
and after compelling his companion to stand some paces distant, he
proceeded adroitly to cut and roll over some large and tough green
sods, keeping apparently one stealthy eye on his work, and the
other on Dalquharn, whose slightest movement he watched, and
every half minute his hands were on the pistols again. The soil was
soft, and he scooped out a grave about a foot deep, scattering each
shovel of earth far and wide, tossing it even over the tree tops,
while Dalquharn looked on as one in a dreadful dream ; but vowing
again and again, that whatever might come of it he would yet
avenge, with his own hand, perhaps, the foul murder of the young
English officer.
' This night he was birling the cogue and drinking the bluid red
wine at untimeous and unlawfu' hours in Lucky Scougal's,' said
Balcraftie, with somewhat of his usual conventional whine ; ' and
noo noo, here stark and stiff in the Deil's Loan ! Truly, man's
days are as grass ; but alake, sir, help me to lift the body ?'
Dalquliarn folded his arms, drew himself up to his full height,
and gave the speaker a frown of hatred and disgust.
Help me to lift the body in here,' said Balcraftie, in a low hiss-
ing voice, while cocking a pistol ; ' or, by heaven and by hell, I lay
you beside him, and leave ye baith, as I threatened, together!'
Thus constrained, Dalquharn, with something like a sob in his
throat a sob of sorrow, rage, and humiliation, turned poor Egerton
on his back, and felt his heart deeply moved at the sight of his pale
face, the fallen jaws, full of coagulated blood, the ice-cold lips, the
glazed and open eyes, which he had last seen sparkle with anima-
tion and fury against himself eyes which he had seen beaming
with frolic and merriment in many an idle hour.
Seizing the dead body brutally by the throat, with his right hand,
Balcraftie now, with a pistol in the left, covered Dalquharn, who
8
114 THE WHITE COCKADB.
toot up Egerton's feet, but, overcome by conflicting emotions, let
them drop upon the grass.
' Hist and harken !' said Balcraftie, starting, and in a fierce
whisper ; ' something stirred by the hedge side !'
In fact, the sound at that moment was caused by Bryde Otter-
burn, who had peeped fearfully through, and then fled, like a
startled fawn, in terror and despair, towards the avenue gate.
Again the threatening pistol was levelled at his head, and once
more compelled to stoop to his odious task, Dalquharn assisted Bal-
craftie to lay Egerton in his scantily scooped grave, over which the
latter carefully deposited the green sods, with the spade, and beat
them down. He then tore a branch from a tree, and brushed all
the grass round for several feet, to remove any traces of footsteps or
blood that might remain, after which, with a caution, which showed
he was no new hand in such nefarious work, he tossed the spade
from him, far among the growing corn of a neighbouring field,
where he knew it would remain undiscovered till the reapers came
in harvest time.
' My Lord Dalquharn, we now ken the terms o' our mutual
silence anent this black night's wark. I shall speak not o' your
secret character, if you venture not to speak o' mine ; but if you
would take heed o* yoursel', quit Auldhame without delay, for the
countryside may soon be owre hot for you ; and now gude night,
my lord, gude night, I am your lordship's maist humble servitor.'
With a species of mock salute, and a cruel glare in his horrid
eyes, Bailie Balcraftie departed for his home, on the way to which
he discovered, with some consternation, that he had dropped his
breeches Bible during his recent occupation dropped it, perhaps,
near the scene of his crime ; and on a fly-leaf of it were his auto-
graph, address, and a short prayer, or invocation, in his own hand-
writing.
*****
How Dalquharn reached his apartment in Auldhame, somewhat
like poor Bryde (from whose misery he was only separated by a
wall), he scarcely knew: but his altered bearing on the morrow has
thus been sufficiently accounted for.
To Sir John Mitchell he related all that had occurred, and long
and earnest were the consultations they held together ; but mutual
dread of the future, and of Balcraftie's great local power and influ-
ence, sealed their lips. To denounce him, to accuse him of the
crime, and say where the body of his victim lay to accuse him, an
active whig magistrate, unwearying in his search after Papists,
Jacobites, and all manner of recusants, a leading elder, and zealous
and rather noisy professor of religion, in whose household every
day began and ended with prayer could but serve to bring the
wrath of an incredulous neighbourhood upon themselves. It might,
moreover, lead to a suspicion that they were the criminals, and not
he ; while, in revenge, he might anticipate the coming catastrophe
THE WHITE COCKADE. 115
by denouncing them and their friends to the Lord Advocate, in-
eluding Sir Baldred, whom they deemed too old, blundering, and
unwary to entrust with the key they possessed to the secret life of
his money-lending acquaintance.
There were times when Dalquharn and Mitchell actually con-
ceived the rash idea of visiting the reptile Balcraftie, and pistolling
him on his own hearthstone, after the fashion of some of the wild
Scottish raiders of the preceding century ; or, to use a more modern
term, to ' lynch him,' as an act of retributive justice, and so end the
game of villainy he was playing, and the terror he gave them.
But cooler reflection showed that little would be gained by an
act so reckless and perilous, while their letters, or the copies of
them and of the cypher, remained among the papers of this man,
who added to his many other perquisites and means of acquiring
money and power, the then lucrative one, of being a Scottish
government spy.
The five hundred pounds borrowed by Sir Baldred, at usurious
interest, over the lands of Half-longbarns, for the Prince's use and
service, were still in Sir John's hands ; but if a portion of this
sum, or even the whole of it (then equal to more than a thousand
pounds in the present day), were offered to Balcraftie as a bribe for
the papers he possessed, they knew he was too wary to give up the
originals, or all the copies he might possess : he would pocket the
money, and betray them still !
With all these anxieties, there was a crowning one he might
already have been in communication with the Government officials
on the subject, and, like the sword of Damocles, the terror of
arrest hung hourly over tlie heads of both.
When Dalquliarn took his friend Mitchell next day to the place
in the thicket where the missing man lay in his lowly bed, he could
scarcely recognize the exact spot, for four reasons : the turfs bad
been very carefully relaid, rain had drenched the ground, after the
wind had swept it, and the strong gusts of midnight had over-
thrown a large tree, the summer foliage, branches, and ruin of
which lay immediately over poor Talbot Egerton's unhallowed
grave; and from the evil reputation which the wood possessed,
there was but little chance of any stroller, gamekeeper, or even
poacher, passing near the place of his last repose.
116 THE WHITE COCKADE.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE ABI/ED BBIDE.
"No more upon these lips of mine
Shall lover's kiss be pressed ;
No uiore held fast within his arms,
And folded to his breast,
Shall my heart find a hiding place
To nestle down and rest.
And I must check the thoughts as sin,
Which bade my heart rejoice,
Whene'er I heard, like some sweet chord,
The music of his voice.'
THESE lines describe somewhat of the emotions of poor Bryde
Otterburn, after the terrible discovery which she believed she had
made on that eventful night of Egerton's disappearance. Was
Dalquharn actually implicated in th'e deed of slaughter ? It was
impossible to discredit the evidence of her own senses ; and by his
strange employment about the body, he seemed to be at least heart
and part in the affair, and that involves the penalty of death by the
law of Scotland !
Oil, never more should his hand touch hers, for the blood of that
unfortunate English stranger, their household guest, was on it !
But could he actually be guilty of such a deed he so nobly born
and highly bred, so gallant, so gentle, and kind ? She felt that im-
peratively she must love him no more, but thrust his image from
her heart : and if lie was the vile person, appearances made him, it
should not be difficult to do so ; and yet and yet the wrench, the
effort, c-ost her a terrible pang, and many a flood of bitter, bitter,
silent, and unseen tears.
Never more must she listen to his once loved voice ; and Bryde
hoped, when on the seventh or eighth day she left her chamber and
appeared in the drawing-room, that he would be gone ; but it was
not so ; the guests were all there, save Egerton, and now it seemed
that doubt, fear, and wrath hovered in the atmosphere of Auld-
hame, and these emotions were all most visibly to be read by turns
in the grave, expressive faces of Mitchell and Dalquharn.
Bryde quailed beneath the loving and enquiring eye of the latter,
and shuddered when he touched her shrinking hand. She dared
not speak of what she had seen, and she dared not denounce him,
without discovering his real name, rank, and purpose, and thereby
inculpating her dear, doting, old grandfather, and breaking her own
heart.
At the first glance as they met, Dalquharn saw that there was
some other mystery to torture him, for his ring was no longer on
her engaged finger ; her whole manner and appearance were changed
from laughing brightness and espieglerie, to pale, chilling, and
statuesque coldness j arid now a sickening fear came over his soul,
THE WHITE COCEJLDE. 117
that she had, after all, in her secret heart, lored the lost Eger-
ton!
Old Dorriel Grahame believed that her pet-mistress was under
some warlock's evil spell, and insisted on tying round her white
and delicate neck a string of roman-berry heads, and she hung over
the watch-pocket in her bed-curtains, an elf-cup, a most approved
charm against cantrips, being one of those little stones which are
perforated by friction, and were believed to be the workmanship of
the elves, though they are usually found under waterfalls.
These and other charms of equal value and power were placed
around her, but in vain, for Brycle continued to be, after all, pale,
wan, preoccupied, and listless.
Dalquharn, though acting his part in the search for Egerton, was
somewhat in the same condition ; and there were times when, like
a phantasmagoria of the brain, the memory of the terrible episode
of that fatal night came before him so vividly, that he almost im-
agined himself to have had a share in the death of Egerton ; and
to be the custodier of such a secret, would have maddened him,
had lie not made his friend, Sir John Mitchell, a participator of it ;
and like himself, the sturdy baronet longed intensely for the time
when they might with safety denounce and punish Balcraftie, whose
dreaded denunciation of themselves tied up their tongues at present,
and filled them with perpetual alarm.
To be at the mercy of this man, whom they deemed the living
embodiment of all the vilest qualities of the venal, subtle, and cant-
ing Lowland whig of that age false to king, to country, and to
God ready alike to sell all to the highest bidder, even as his party
had sold Montrose, King Charles, and their national name and
fame, was galling, indeed, to such proud and restless spirits as those
of Lord Dalquhara and his compatriot.
He was burning for action for some excitement without, to
counteract the rage and shame, the terror and sorrow, that gnawed
his heart within ; rage and shame for his false position, even in his
own eyes, a terror of Balcraftie's ulterior purpose, and a deep sorrow
for the cold blight that had come upon his once successful love.
A dozen of times at least were the searches close upon the humble
grave of Egerton, but it was passed unnoticed and unheeded, for
the rain and wind of the subsequent night, and the fallen tree, com-
pletely concealed all trace that the sods had been broken. A blood-
hound would soon have solved the mystery : but these dogs were
no longer used in the Lowlands ; and now, puzzled and piqued by
Bryde's unexpected and unexplained coldness, and dreading Bal-
craftie's threats, Dalquharn resolved to take his departure from
Auldhame at an early period, and in some loyal household in the
North, to await the landing of Prince Charles Edward.
He came to this conclusion, as he walked to and fro in the garden,
alone, on the evening of the seventh or eighth unhappy day.
In great sullen masses of unpurpled brown, the clouds were
118 tHE WHITE COCKADE.
gathered in the westward over the hills of Fifeshire, and beneath
thoso masses, the red sun of June glared through bars of fiery
vapour, as its great disc sank slowly behind the darkening ridges.
It shone with crimson sheen on the foam-flecked waters of the
Forth, and the summer wind, which waved the ripening corn,
rustled pleasantly among the heavy foliage of the old copsewood.
As Dalquharn turned into one of those soft and smoothly trim-
med grass-walks which were so common in old Scottish gardens, his
heart leaped, as he came suddenly upon Miss Otterburn, who was
standing sunk in reverie, sadly, and alone, near the pedestal of a
dancing fawn. She was playing with a large moss rose, plucking
it to pieces, leaf by leaf, and apparently unconscious of what she
did, for her eyes were bent on the grass, or rather on vacancy. They
were reddened by recent tears, but they were seldom otherwise now.
How beautiful she looked ! She had no headdress, and on the
summer wind, the masses of her right brown hair rippled and waved
over her shoulders.
The sad preoccupation of her manner told plainly the tenor of
her thoughts ; but Dalquharn jealously construed it after a fashion
of his own.
Henceforth thought poor Bryde must love be dead in her
heart the love of him at least ; but could she live without it, or
ever admit the love of another? So the first passionate dream of
her romantic and girlish heart was passing away ; its joy changed
to sorrow ; its brilliance to blackness and gloom. In the sweet
spring time of life, she already felt the autumn of the heart. Oh
this horrible mystery ! Was Dalquharn guilty ? If not, why was
lie so silent and so reserved ? Why did he not address her as of
old, and seek that explanation of her coldness to which their mutual
relation entitled him ?
As if in echo to her thoughts, at that moment
' Bryde !' said a voice that thrilled tenderly in her ear ; ' Miss
Otterburn, why are you so changed to nie why are we so altered
to each other ? Surely grief for the loss of a a mere friend, can-
not alone, have done this ?'
1 It has not it has not,' said Bryde, after a slight cry of alarm
had escaped her, and then without looking at the speaker, she
covered her face with her handkerchief.
Dalquharn leaned against the pedestal and regarded her with
mournful interest.
' Miss Otterburn Bryde,' said he, putting his lips so near her,
that her hair touched them, as the wind lifted it j ' have you have
yon already ceased to love me ?'
' Oh no oh no but would to heaven that I did !' replied Bryde,
in a voice half stifled by her tears.
'You love me still!'
Her voice was gone now, but her sobs were deeper.
Why this enigma what means this change?' gaid he gently
THE WHITE COCKAD& 119
and tenderly, as he attempted to fold .one of her hands in his ; but
she shrank from him saving, hurriedly, almost angrily
' T)o not, I pray you, touch me!"
She withdrew a pace or two ; the hectic of a moment crossed the
face of Balquharn, and he said with measured calmness
1 Your changed demeanour towards me, fills my heart with the
deepest grief, and believe me, Bryde Otterburn, that if you knew
all all the black sorrows it suffers already, you would, perhaps,
spare it these pangs ; but I do not mean to upbraid you now, or
torment you longer by my presence here, as I leave Auldhame to-
morrow.'
' To-morrow !'
I Yes.'
' And for whence, my Lord ?'
I 1 scarcely know, being, as you are awaro, alike landless and
homeless ; but if the fate of a poor wanderer such as I, can interest
one so fickle, my steps shall be bent northward, for the house of
the loyal and aged Keppoch, or the castle of Mingarry ; though
others change, I change not, and shall wait with patience the arrival
of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.'
Brvde's clear and beautiful deep brown eyes were bent earnestly
and enquiringly on his, as if she would search his soul. The eyes
of Dalquharn were full of sadness and of great sweetness too ; and
after a deep sigh which seemed to pain him, for he placed his right
hand within the breast of his coat, the same faded green one in
which he had come from Dunkirk, he said
' If grief for the fate of poor Mr. Egerton, has in any way les-
sened your regard for me, or if the mystery that involves it, has
developed, as I rather suspect it has, some secret passion greater
than you professed for me, and greater than you were aware of pos-
sessing, I shall only do my duty in disclosing 'to you, the secret of
his story ; though by doing so, if your discretion fail me, I shall
perhaps covet my own ruin.'
It was now Bryde's turn to flush for a moment, but only a mo-
ment, for her marble paleness returned, while her enquiring eyes
seemed to dilate with surprise at this remarkable preamble.
' Come this way, and bo seated,' said he, pointing to a bower of
sweet-briar, roses, and ivy : ' permit me to lead you.'J
Still she withheld her hand, on which he lifted his hat, and bow-
ing with studious politeness, placed it under his arm, saying,
' As you will, madame as you will ! I am perhaps not worthy
to touch one so good and pure as you.'
This extreme humility, while it seemed to corroborate her suspi-
cions, grieved and distressed her. She seated herself in the bower,
and looked up at him with earnest and beseeching eyes, her lips half
parted, her chesnnt hair rolling in shining masses over her graceful
shoulders, her white hands folded on her knees to stay their trem-
bling, while her blue satin skirt, being partly lifted by her hoop
120 *HB WHITE COCKADE.
shewed one taper ankle and pretty foot that beat the turf with im
patience.
' As my presence, Miss Otterburn, appears now to excite only re-
pugnance in your breast and impatience in your manner, I shall be
as brief as I can in my narrative, and then, trouble you no more.'
' I too have a secret, which, alas ! may break my poor heart in the
keeping of it, for I have none now, with whom to share my sorrow.'
' Not even me ?'
' Not even you !'
Dalquharn clasped his hands.
' Say on, sir you were about to explain '
' My reason for failing to meet you in the avenue on that unhappy
night. You remember that we were to have met there ?'
' Too well alas, too well !'
Dalquharn stood in the entrance of the bower, and looking down
upon her, with eyes expressive of great love and grief, related the
whole story of his quarrel with Egerton, and the threats exchanged
between them, in the presence of Captain Wyvil and Bailie Bal-
craftie ; he thence passed to his return from the post-house, the shot
he heard in the wood, and the assassination (as he could not doubt
it must have been) by the hand of Balcraftie, whose mischievous face
Bryde now remembered to have seen in the garden walk, at the
moment when Egerton knelt to kiss her hand ; and she recalled,
too, that the very peculiar expression of that coarse visage had star-
tled and impressed her at the time.
She flushed with indignation at that part of the narrative, iu
which, under threats of instant death or future shame, the hypocrite
and dissembler compelled Lord Dalquharn to obey his obnoxious
orders implicitly ; and she shed abundance of silent tears, when he
related the manner of Egerton 's interment, and described the place
where his poor remains lay hidden, unhonoured and unurned.
' At that terrible moment, you heard a sound near the hedge,
did you not ?' she asked.
' Yes and it thoroughly alarmed the watchful villain, whose vic-
tim I am likely to be next.'
' 'Twas I who was there.'
' You you, Bryde ?'
On this, she related rapidly the share she had borne in the adven-
tures of the night, and holding forth her hands to him, added in a
voice, touching and tremulous with emotion
' Forgive my thoughts, Dalquharu forgive me ! my love my
own love, I am not worthy of you, for had I loved you with truth
and tenderness, I could not, even for a moment, have mistrusted
you. Oh, assuredly, it is only perfect love that casteth out all fear !'
And Bryde clung to him sobbing, caressing his face and hair with
her kind little hands, as he knelt down by her side.
1 1 am your arled bride' she added, using a plaintive Scottish
phrase, ' your own betrothed Bryde Otterburn. Kiss me and pet
THE WHITE COCKADE. 121
me, Henry, to show that you forgive me I have been so miserable
80 heart-broken!" and she laid her head upon his shoulder.
' I dread your discretion in keeping this secret, on which our
lives, and even the success of the good cause, in some measure de-
pend,' said he after a time.
' Oh trust me trust me !'
' But Balcraftie '
' Horror ! I shall dissemble, even to him.'
'A canting hypocrite, with the stamp of perdition on his fore-
head !'
' Dead dead poor Mr. Egerton dead !* murmured Bryde, with
a fresh burst of tears ; ' he, so merry and so handsome, to be so
foully slain, and we shall never, never see him more ! And must he
lie in that horrid place '
' Till things are settled and vengeance done, dear Bryde ; and then
my own hands, if heaven spares me amid the dangers that are to
come, shall lay Talbot Egerton in a worthier tomb.'
' And you leave us for the Highlands, you said ?'
1 Not if you wish me to stay.'
' And yet, my own love, Henry, you might be safer there than
here, and from thence, by letter, you could denounce this Reuben
Balcraftie, and say where the body of his victim is hidden.'
1 All of which would be deemed as proofs that I or we, poor
Jack Mitchell and I rebels and outlaws, had murdered a king's
officer, adding thus to our crime of treason, by seeking to fix the
stigma of our guilt upon a wealthy, pious, and irreproachable magis-
trate and stout upholder of kirk and king, as by law established. It
would never do, sweet ladybird Bryde ; besides, my silence is at
present the price of his withholding from government the letters and
papers of which he has surreptitiously possessed himself, and these
concern deeply the safety of many gallant gentlemen, and the suc-
cess of King James's cause. 1
' Oh, that we could, by any means, get those papers from Bal-
craftie !'
' One might as well hope to take a lamb gently from a famished
wolf.'
From that evening Bryde's health and spirit seemed to improve ;
she became content now, and even placid. Old Dorriel Qrahame
was convinced that the roinan-berry necklet and the elf-cup had
wrought the charm, and said so to Sir Baldred, whose affectionate
old heart became joyous again in the sunshine of his grand-daugh-
ter's face ; he took a deeper horn of wine at night, and again en-
' gttged Captain Wyvil in more than one dispute concerning the
merits and demerits ' of the vile, unnatural, and incorporating
Union.'
122 THE WHITE COCKADE.
CHAPTER XXIV.
DEPAKTUBE OP WITH.
'Oh spare the living, judge them leniently,
Exact not all the honour that is due :
The cold exterior and the calm proud eye
Hide many a gnawing, rankling grief from view.
Thou see'st but the outward act and deed,
The motive and the thought thou canst not read ;
Oh, spare the living, judge them leniently!' Thistledown.
1 WOUNDS heal rapidly in a heart of two-and-twenty,' says the
worthy Colonel Esmond ; ' hopes revive daily, and courage rallies in
spite of a man.' Dalquharn was five-and-twenty, and three years
more experience of life had not lessened the natural buoyance of his
spirit. He was now much happier, or at least more resigned to the
course of events, when he knew and felt assured how much Bryde
still loved him; and one morning, after breakfast, he resolved to
have an explanation with Captain Wyvil, whose marked coldness of
manner, and whose bearing, which amounted to ill-concealed aver-
sion and suspicion, galled and fretted the proud and generous spirit
of Lord Dalquharn.
But the time was awkwardly chosen, for the captain and his host
were then engaged in a high dispute high, at least, on the part of
the latter, concerning his great grievance, the Union, and the total
ruin it had brought upon all the cities and towns of the east coast,
the, as yet, non-development of trade on the west ; the desertion ot
the capital, where the grass was growing around the market cross,
and before the porch of Holyrood.
Some satirical remarks and coarse national reflections copied by
the ' Caledonian Mercury,' from an old number of ' Fog's Journal,'
had put the old cavalier on his mettle, and he was enraged to a pitch
that required all the captain's bonhommie and general good humour
to enable him to keep his ground ; and Bryde's playfulness, which
whilom was wont to turn their arguments into laughter, by a verse
of a droll Jacobite song, was no longer in existence. Sir Baldred
was particularly severe on the king and ministry, for permitting the
London press to be constantly reviling, without cause, their Scottish
fellow subjects. He boasted of the time when King James VI. had
sent a Scottish herald to the Duke of Pomerania, demanding the
life of a Pole, who wrote a book against the Scots, and how the duke
immediately hung the audacious scribbler in the city of Dantzig;
there was no such sharp justice now, he added, and on Q-eorge II.
he was bitter to the verge of ferocity.
'But loyalty, my dear sir," urged tho captain, 'loyalty should
prevent you speaking thus, and equity too, for the king cannot con-
trol all the quills in Grub Street.'
' To whom should I be loyal the Elector of Hanover ?'
' To the King oil the throne of Great Britain.'
THE WHITE COCKADE. 123
' Know you not, sir,' said Sir Balclred, adjusting his black wig
angrily with one hand, and striking his cane on the floor with the
other. ' Know you not, sir, that the House of Hanover came to tha
throne of these realms by the mutual treaty of union. Now, every
article of that treaty which was for the good of Scotland, hath been
broken by the overwhelming majorities of the so-called British par-
liament witness the restoration of patronage which hath split the
kirk in twain ; hence the treaty is null ; I say null, for no treaty can
be binding on one party only. Then, where is the right of your
Elector, though he swears by his coronation oath to keep it inviolate?'
' These are dangerous words, sir, especially at such a time, when
the whole air teems with rumours of Jacobite plots and conspiracies,'
said the captain, smiling at the fervour of the old man, for whom he
was really no match on these subjects.
' We were not wont to choose and pick our words in my young
days, Captain.'
' But, my dear Sir Baldred, as brother Britons '
' We are brother Britons when you wish to wheedle us out of
men and money for the wicked wars in Germany, but 'tis all oat-
ineal and brimstone, and beggarly Scots, at other times. I tell you,
sir, " the name of Briton suits Welshmen only we were born Scots,
and Scots we shall remain.' That was the shout of the Union Mobs
on that terrible night, when the High Street of Edinburgh was all
aflame with tarbnrrels and rockets, and when I saved the vile Lord
Chancellor Seafleld, just as the rioters tore him from his coach by
the throat, and would have rent him limb from limb in the face of
all the Grey Dragoons and Foot Guards ; "but I and a few members
of the opposition, with our armed valets, rescued him at sword's
point, yet minus coat and wig, and ho fled for England next morn-
ing, like a craven as he was. But we shall be Scots, Captain Wyvil,
like our forefathers even as our old land charters say, while grass
grows and water runs !'*
And effectually, to prevent the captain making any of his jocular
responses, the old gentleman walked away, punching the floor with
his cane as emphatically as if the Elector and all Grub Street were
under it. It was now that Dalquharn, who took no part in the dis-
cussion, and who had been looking dreamily from a window at the
sea, where some Dutch and Norwegian schooners were beating into
the river against a fresh west wind, came forward, just as Captain
Wyvil was assuming his hat and sword, apparently as if about to
go abroad.
an obscure tavern in the High Street of Edinburgh. So blind were our an<
tors to the advantages of this Union, which saved the Scots from thmselval
124 THE WHITE COCKADE.
' Captain Wyvil may I have a few words with you ?' he asked.
'"Servant, sir servant certainly,' said Wyvil, curtly and
haughtily, while smoothing his upright regimental feather, which
was stuck into the black silk cockade of the house of Hanover.
' Captain Wyvil,' said Dalquharn without heeding his stiff, dry
manner, ' you are I know an English gentleman of good family, and
a man of honour.'
' I trust so, sir ; I have served in the four quarters of the globe
and borne His Majesty's commission these twenty years, without
reproach,' replied the officer bowing still more stiffly ; ' but what
have I done to merit the flattery of so distinguished a person as
as Captain Douglas of excuse me, but I don't quite know the
regiment ?'
' I pass over the too evident sneer in your tone.'
1 'Tis well you do, sir ; but to the point ? I am in haste, my men
parade in the hamlet at eleven, (here the Captain looked at his
watch) and we inarch from this in half an hour after.'
' The knowledge of that, makes me feel that I can no longer de-
lay, and that I must confide in you and cast myself upon your
generosity.'
The Captain coughed dubiously, and again toyed with the feather
in his hat, so Dalquharn added
' I know the fate of your friend Mr. Egerton, and have known it
all this while.'
' Even when assisting us '
' In that mock search yes.'
' I suspected as much death and the devil, sir, I suspected as
much!' said the Captain, sternly, but otherwise quite unmoved.
' Suspected it by what ?'
'Your change of manner since the catastrophe ; your abstraction,
your paleness and so forth. I heard your quarrel and his insulting
defiance; you killed him in a fan- duel I hope, for if so, tell me ?
In the heat of duelling, we cannot always have our wits about us.
Not that I ever fought a duel, nor ever shall, with God's help and
guidance, for like my friend Colonel Gardiner of the Light Dra-
goons, I have religious objections to all such tests of the divine
favour. So you killed him ?'
' We are alone and none can hear us now, so do not misunder-
stand me, sir.'
1 Do you threaten me, egad !' exclaimed the Captain, changing
colour.
' Far from it,' said the other gravely and firmly ! ' but I am about
to trust to your honour and generosity. In me, Captain Wyvil,
you see an attainted peer of Scotland Henry Douglas, the Lord
Dalquharn.'
The Captain started, and then bowed low, saying,
'By my soul I always suspected something of that kind too
that you were one of those luckless gentlemen who adhere so ob-
THE WHITE COCKADB. 125
etinately to a fated cause ; to this unhappy House of Stuart in its
downfall ; but, be assured, my lord, that your secret at least, is
safe with Marmaduke Wyvil safe as if I sheltered you in my
own house at Hurstmonceaux, where, though we are old rumpers
and whigs, more than one cavalier friend hath found safe hiding,
as many a sliding pannel and secret stair, had they tongues, could
testify.'
' And Heaven will reward your hoxise for the succour it gave to
the unfortunate in the hour when treason triumphed.'
'My grandfather defended Wem in old Noll's time, when there
were little else within its walls but women and children as a gar
rison, hence to this day, the milkmaid in Salop sings how
" Tlie women of Wem and a few musketeers,
Beat the Lord Capel and his cavaliers."
But, concerning my poor friend Egerton ?'
' He was most foully murdered !'
' Murdered ?' exclaimed Wyvil in a low and earnest voice, as ho
laid his hand on his sword.
'I say so, with sincere sorrow; I saw him as he lay dead, and
scarcely cold, at my feet.'
' Yours ?'
' Yes."
' And yet you made no effort to succour or defend him ?'
' I was without arms even a walking cane, as you may remem-
ber, on the night in question.'
' True, now that I bethink me j but by whom was he mur-
dered ?'
' To tell you by whom he was shot down in cold blood, or to say
where now he lies, would but serve to imperil my own safety and
liberty even my life, and the lives and liberties, the estates and
titles of many dear friends, which are all at the mercy of him who
slew Egerton.'
"Tis an enigma this, and all High Dutch to me!' said the Cap-
tain in great wrath.
' But if you will trust me so far, Captain Wyvil, as to believe in
me implicitly, I swear to you by my hopes of heaven, by my father's
and mother's bones in their distant graves graves which are now,
alas ! my sole inheritance that in three months' time, I may ex-
plain all this to you, and avenge your countryman openly.'
' Three months,' said Wyvil pausing and pondering ; ' but in
doing this do I not condone a crime, and obstruct the ends of jus-
tice ; hence I know not if I am bound to abide '
' By your word of honour that you would keep my secret ?' urged
Dalquharn, anxiously.
' True odd though this compact is, Zounds, I'll agree to it,' re-
plied the confiding Englishman.
Ere the time stated, Dalquharn hoped that the standard of the
prince the same standard which he had seen sonic fair and royal
126 THE WHITE COCKADE.
fingers embroidering at Versailles would be floating over the palace
of Holyrood, and that the wiles and espionage of Balcraftie would
be futile.
' I could not see you march from here, Captain, viewing me as
you did, with cold and suspicious eyes, without having this expla-
nation ; and, as a pledge of my truth, I have placed my personal
safety in your hands.'
' And you may trust me : I shall be true to you, as this blade to
its hilt,' exclaimed Wy vil presenting his hand. ' Come Egad !
though our good old friend here, will storm and argue with me, be-
cause I cannot see Scottish affairs from his point of view, I have a
kindly feeling at times for your countrymen. When I served in
1741, under Vernon and Wentworth, on that unfortunate expedi-
tion to Carthagena, where, after the battle of St. Lazare, the army
was so reduced by fever, that in two short April days more than
three thousand four hundred and forty men died under canvas, I
too had perished, but for the exertions of a Scots surgeon's mate of
the " Elizabeth/' seventy gun ship, one Tobias Smollet, a native of
Dunbartonshire, who tended me well and kindly ; and with him, I
remember, this same Union was a very sore subject, and when I was
well, he sent me a challenge for d ning it and the Scots, too,
which, in a moment of anger, I had done with all my heart. Then,
as for your Highlanders, I think them fine, manly fellows, for I
served with some of them against the Indians in Carolina and
Georgia, and I shall be truly sorry if there is another rising in the
north for King James. I was on the staff of his Excellency General
Wade in the Highlands in 1727, when we all took to the trade of
making roads and building bridges, and I remember when first his
coach and six came along the highways, the astonishment it excited
among the poor, simple fellows, who all took off their bonnets with
the greatest respect to the coachman but to him only.'
' You will then trust me, sir, until this dark matter is cleared up,
by myself.'
' I shall ; we march for Stirling, and we may be at least four
days en route. There are rumours of expected disturbances north
of the Highland frontier disturbances for which you are, perhaps,
unfortunately too cognisant. I shall be some time, no doubt, in
Stirling Castle, where any letters addressed to Captain Wyvil,
Howard's Foot, or the Old Buffs, will be sure to find me.'
It was long before Dalquharn was able to communicate the truth
to Wyvil, and before they both learned the secret motive which
animated the assassin of Egerton.
Sir Baldred was too hospitable and too warm-hearted to part
without regret from his English antagonist in so many games of
chess and primero, and so many political discussions ; and now he
ordered the butler to broach a runlet of rare old wine that had lain
among cobwebs and dust in a deep, dark binn of the cellar since
1715 erer since His Grace John Duke of Mar (for duke he was
THE WHITE COCKADE. 127
always styled by the Jacobites, as liis patent was signed at St. Ger-
mains) marched to Sheriffmuir ' to hand the "Whigs in order.'
Mitchell was again in Edinburgh ; indeed, the worthy fellow ab-
sented himself as much as possible to avoid the witchery of Bryde's
society ; for, in secret, he loved this gentle and loveable girl, and
dreaded to become the rival of his friend.
Thus, like Orlando, he was feeling how
' Ills passion Imngeth weights upon his tongue,
He cannot speak to her should she urge conferences ;'
And that his friendship for Dalquharn hung weights thereon that
were heavier still.
Home-brewed ale, bread, and bannocks of barley-meal, were
liberally supplied to the soldiers, who filled their canvas havresacks,
and drank to the health of Sir Baldred ' 'towd S quoir,' as most
of them called him with three hearty English cheers for the
'yoong ladie ;' and the old baronet's face lit up with kindness and
enthusiasm as he saw them for the last time ; for with him, at
heart, it was not that he ' loved England less, but Scotland more}
' A long farewell, Miss Otterburn, and God be wi* ye," Wyvil,
said, as he lifted his hat and kissed Bryde's hand. ' Adieu, Cap-
tain Douglas ; may our next meeting be as peaceful as our parting.
Farewell, my brave old cavalier,' he added, waving his hat to Sir
Baldred ; ' with all your antique ways, egad, I can't help liking
you ; and I hope some day to crack a bottle of good old port, or
drain a crown bowl of punch with you, at my old manor of Hurst-
monceaux, and there ret urn -your many hospitalities.'
Sergeant Teesdale advanced his halberd ; the drum and fife
struck up ; and the fine grenadiers of the old BufFa, with their
knapsacks and crossbelts, their square-skirted coats buttoned back
to display their pipe-clayed small clothes, their sugar-loaf caps,
queues, ruffles, and long black gaiters, once more made a brave
show, with their sloped arms and fixed bayonets flashing in the
sun, as they marched down the long shady avenue, and wheeled to
the right upon the highway to Castleton, where the sound of their
drum soon died away in the distance, as they trod to their route
towards the laud of the Gael, leaving, we may presume, the usual
number of soft and sorrowing hearts behind them.
128 fllJJ \VUITE COCKADJS,
CHAPTER XXV.
BEYDE'S ENTEBPEISE.
'Oae tell thy master, frae this arm
Mine answer will I gi'e ;
Remind him of his tyrant deeds,
And bid him answer me.
'Wha was't they slew my father dear;
That bared my castle wa' ?
Wha was't that bade wild ruin hruid
Whar' pipes did glad the ha' ?' Old Ballad.
NOTWITHSTANDING- the full explanation which had taken place be-
tween Bryde and Lord Dalquharn, and between the latter and
Captain Wyvil, even after the departure of that officer and his
grenadiers, a cloud seemed to hover darkly above the little circle at
Auldhame. It was not the secret of an unhallowed grave close by
their baronial gates, or of an unavenged crime alone, that caused
this general gloom, but the incessant doubt and dread lest Bal-
craftie, who had them all at his mercy, might put a climax to his
villainy by betraying Dalquharn, Mitchell, and many others, through
the simple act of placing the intercepted correspondence in the
hands of the authorities, which he was quite likely to do, the mo-
ment that a sum sufficiently tempting was offered him, though the
act would destroy for ever his chances of again setting foot within
the door of Auldhame, in his present capacity at least.
Anticipation of misfortune is often worse than the reality thereof.
' Imaginary evils,' says Dean Swift, ' soon become real ones by
indulging our reflections on them ; as he who, in a melancholy
fancy, sees something like a face on the wall or wainscot, can, by
two or three touches of a lead pencil, make visible, and agreeing
with what he had seen.'
Singular to say, the Bailie still daringly continued his visits to
Auldhame, but at longer intervals. He conceived his terrible
secret was known only to Dalquharn, but he found himself avoided
by all save Sir Baldred, who was totally ignorant of all this under-
plot, and was too old, and had too little discretion, to be trusted
with it. Forced by policy to dissemble the intense repugnance
with which his presence inspired her, Bryde grew pale, stern, and
all but ill, when the Bailie appeared ; and at such times, she ob-
served now, that his cringing smile, his cat-like attempts to gain
her favour, failed him and that even his diabolical courage seemed
quite to die away.
' Why do you wince and shrink from me now, Bailie ?' she once
asked, with her eyes half-closed in disdain, and her head thrown
haughtily back, as if she felt her advantage and power the power
of birth, innocence, and purity, over lowly station, when combined
with black guilt and subtle hypocrisy.
THE WHITE COCKADE. 129
'I dinna ken, Miss Otterburn ; but times there are when
when '
' When what, sir V she asked impatiently, and making her spin-
ning-wheel fly ag she spoke.
' You remind me sorely o' one who hath gane to his place of rest.
O o oh ! blessed are the dead who '
' I remind you of my poor father, you would say ?'
4 Ye' yes puir young man !'
' I am thought to be like him ; for his hair was a light brown,
and his eyes hazel, with black lashes.'
'Even sae, Miss Otterburn,' murmured the Bailie, while smooth-
ing the nap of his huge triangular beaver, and lowering his stealthy
eyes.
' It was an evil night that on which you and he rode homeward
from the Bank of Scotland, Reuben Balcraftie.'
' Evil was it indeed !' he rejoined, cowering still more beneath
the keen flashing glance of her beautiful eyes, in which a strange
light was now shining j ' but Luffness Muir hath the reputation o'
being a fatal spot to the Otterburns of Auldhame, as you ken weel.
To-morrow,' lie added hurriedly, to change the subject, ' I am to
attend a meeting o' the Synod of Lothian and Tweedale, anent that
flagrant violation o' the Treaty of Union the restoration o' kirk
patronage, Sir Baldred.'
The baronet did not care much about that special violation, as it
restored to his family the patronage of the ancient parish church of
St. Buldred, which they had possessed since the Reformation and
plunder of the temporalities, during the regency of Mary of Guise ;
but a reference to the Union was quite sufficient to make him
mount his hobby, and begin an angry dissertation, which the Bailie
evidently preferred to continuing the conversation on that midnight
ride over Luffness Muir.
Bryde had remarked this more than once the Bailie's reluctance
to speak of an episode that would certainly have formed a natural
subject for morbid relish to one so vulgar as he, and it set her
thinking.
The Synod met in Edinburgh ; the Bailie, she expected, would
be absent at least two days from his house in the Burgh-town, and
Bryde resolved to visit it and reconnoitre.
' You take horse for Edinburgh to-morrow, Bailie ?' she asked,
making a violent effort, and addressing him again.
' By eight hours o' the morning, Deo Volente, I shall be going
forth on a pious nnrl righteous errand, Miss Otterburn,' lie replied,
bowing low, while tilting up the ties of his huge wig, and planting
the heels of his square-toed shoes together on the carpet ; ' I shall
tarry at Kam^ay's stables in the Horse Wynd. Can I do nught for
you in the Lawn-market, Miss Otterburn ; though I can but little
anent a la modrs and lutestring-', ponipccis and pjarlings ?'
Evcu while shrinking Irom him with loathing, Brydo smiled at
9
130 THE WHITE COCKADB.
her own thoughts, as she retired to join Dalquharn, who could not
abide the presence of Balcraftie, if he could by any means avoid it ;
and while the latter looked after her retreating figure admiringly,
till the dining-room door closed over it, there came into his pale
eyes an avaricious glitter. Then he turned to the woodlands, and
the yellow fields, which, from the windows, could be seen stretching
far eastward in the sunshine, and he rubbed his hands and mut-
tered,
' The estate shall he mine, mine MINE ! Tower and fortalice,
kirk and doocot, main and farm, bake and brewhouse, outfang thief
and infang thief, sae surely as the field o' Ephrou, which was in
Machpelah, and a' the trees which were in that field, were given
nnto Abraham ! and mair than a', you shall be mine too, madam,
for a hand-fast, a bond-maiden, it may be, for wi* a' your pride,
your scorn and braw airs, Reuben Balcraftie may see you at his
feet yet!'
The attainder of Auldhame (to which he confidently looked for-
ward) on the one hand, his secret services to the government, and
the wadsets he personally held on the other, would ensure him a
strong chance of obtaining possession of the whole, and thus Bryde
would be placed by poverty and humility, completely in his power ;
so, like a coiled-up snake, he bided the time ' to hurl at once his
venom and his strength* bided slowly, surely, greedily and
warily !
About five hours after the Bailie and Mr. Carfuffle, of Whitekirk,
took horse next day at the Otterburn Arms, and set out for Edin-
burgh, Bryde ordered her pad to be saddled, and an armed groom to
accompany her, as she meant to ride a few miles.
Without acquainting her grandfather or Dalquharn of her pur-
pose, she stole away by the private door, holding up the gathered
skirt of her riding habit, which was light blue trimmed with silver,
a white ostrich feather floating from her broad hat behind her, and
her riding switch pressed against her rosy lips, as if she would im-
press silence on herself. There was a flush in her now usually pale
cheek, and a sparkle in her clear brown eye, that made her face,
though an irregr'ar one, full of glorious beauty.
' Praise be blest ! my bonnie lamb my ain cushie-doo, the roses
are coining back to your cheeks again ! ' said Dorriel, as she saw
her setting forth, and whip up her pad to a gallop, as she sped
towards Castleton, followed by a trusty fellow, the butler's oldest
on, Archie, armed with a hanger and pair of holster pistols.
Her purpose, that forenoon, was to visit the house of Balcraftie
in his absence, and endeavour by force, if bribery or stratagem
failed her, to secure those dangerous papers, which might cause
alike the ruin of her lover, her own family, and, perhaps, the prince's
cause.
Where their personal feelings are so keenly, so terribly excited as
those of Bryde were, women, being generally given more to sudden
THE WHITB COCKADE. 131
impulse than to subtle casuistry, are not apt to consider nicely or
maturely, how the law may view their proceedings ; thus, to Bryde
Otterburn's mind, to commit invasion on (he premises ef Bailie
Balcraftie, risking even the charge of hame-sncken and violence, even
to the wrenching open of his most secret places, seemed bxit an act
of fair reprisal, retributive justice and patriotism in King James's
cause.
' Balcraftie is a villain, and worse than a villain ! ' she kept re-
peating, while whipping her horse ; ' then why dally, delay or trifle
with him? Time presses and such an opportunity may not occur again."
She neither armed herself with a loaded pistol or sharp poniard ;
neither was she furnished with a sleeping drug, a dark lantern, or
any of the melo-dramatic accessories usually adopted by ladies of
high enterprise in sensational romance. She was simply resolved
to see what she could do, at all personal risks, to recover those dan-
gerous documents.
Her heart beat painfully with growing excitement, as she ap-
proached the little town, with its ruined church on the rocks beside
the sea ; and checking the pace of her horse, she permitted the
reins to drop on his neck.
The noon of the summer day was bright and beautiful: the
woods tossed on the wind their dense green foliage ; the bearded
grain was yellowing in the sun, and the black crows were cawing
in the quaint belfry of the parish church, whose shadow falls on the
grave of many a martyr and resolute covenanter ; and they were
wheeling in flights above the turrets and walls of the old Cistercian
nunnery, which Malcolm Macdnff, son of Duncan, Earl of Fife,
built and consecrated to the blessed Virgin Mary, when Alexander
II. filled the Scottish throne a shattered ruin, at the altar of
which, three fair young ladies of her house, at different times, had
taken the veil, when their lovers fell in battle for their country at
Sark, at Arkinholrae and Pinkeycleugh ; and Bryde thought of
them sadly, and of their sorrows begun and ended, all so long ago,
when, in this age of utility and desecration, she saw the corn of the
thrifty Presbyterian farmer (who was not troubled by* many poetical
compunctions), growing deepest and richest, where, in the days of
old, the convent graveyard lay.
There was a great bustle in and around the narrow main street of
the quaint little town of North Berwick, and the beating of a hoarse,
ill-braced drum was heard at times. At the market cross thera
stood, by sentence of the Lords of Justiciary, a degraded merchant
burgess, with his hands tied behind his back, which was bared to
the long lash of the public executioner, while a placard on his
breast bore the following in capital letters :
'Convicted of withdrawing His Majesty King George's weight*
and using false ones, in place thereof.' Underneath was written in
the hand of Balcraftie, the text so well known, 'Eeuder unto
Cssar,' ic.
9 o
132 TEE WHITE COCKADE.
The town-drummer beat a roll, and the first of twenty stripes to
be administered drew a yell from the culprit, and a varied murmur
from the crowd ; at the same time it made Bryde gallop on to the
mansion of Balcraftie.
Dismounting and telling the groom to take the horses to the
Otterburn Arms, and await her there, she advanced straight to the
house of her foe, with her heart beating every moment more pain-
fully and rapidly.
With several other gossips, whose presence and observation
Bryde would rather have avoided, the housekeeper of Balcraftie, a
shrivelled and wrinkled crone, whose hooked nose and prominent
chin (under her close crimped curchie, with its black band), met
like nutcrackers, stood on the steps of his door, curiously and mor-
bidly observant of the bustle and punishment at the cross, though
the good folks of those days were treated, at very short periods, to
the sight of hanging, lashing, nailing of ears and boring of tongues,
for various crimes, and drumming of scolding wives through the
streets at a cart-tail.
She received the young lady of Auldhame with a profusion of
smiles and low curtsies.
The Bailie, she said, a little pompously, had just ridden that
morning to Edinburgh, with the worthy Mr. Carfuffle, to attend a
meeting of the Synod, anent the abomination of Patronage, and
would be absent two, may be, three days ; but Jabez Starvieston
(the poor anatomy was well named) his clerk, was at the cross,
reading the sentence on the dealer with false weights a vile
Seceder loon, who upheld the ' Marrow of Modern Divinity ' but
Jabez would be back anon to attend to her ladyship's pleasure.
Annoyed by the fawning manner and repeated curtsies of this
wrinkled crone, Bryde said briefly that she did not require the
clerk, a poor starveling and slave, whose shrunken limbs and cada-
verous aspect she had often pitied, the pittance he received from
his hard task-master, affording but few of the necessaries, and cer-
tainly none of the luxuries of life ; she would write a note for the
Bailie, and with the good dame's permission, would step into his
office and make use of his writing materials.
The old housekeeper, with all the officiousness, loquacity, and
gossip of her class, accompanied Bryde into that celebrated apart-
ment winch the reader may, perhaps, remember, the same in which
Mr. Gage and the armed tidesmen brought Dalquharn and Mitchell
before the Dionysius of North Berwick ; and had the young lady
not dismissed her peremptorily, by remarking that she must be left
alone, and would be some time in writing, she might as well have
tarried in Auldhame, as have hoped to investigate the archives of
Balcraftie without observation or interruption.
The housekeeper hurried back to rejoin the gossips on the steps
outside, their conversation now having 7ie\v food in the discussion
of HissOlterburn's appearance, bearing, and dress; and the iustaut
THE WHITE COCKADE. 183
she was gone, our heroine turned the key in the door, and looked
curiously and anxiously about her.
She remembered tlie room and all its gloomy features but too
well, for she had been in it more than once, when poor Sir Baldred
had come hither in the hard times and dear years, during the cattle
disease, and bad crops, and so forth, to screw money out of the
grasping usurer's ill won hoards.
Its windows were barred like those of a prison, and faced the
wide expanse of sand, the rocky isle of Craigleith, which so closely
resembles a vast lion, with its chin resting on its fore paws ; the
ceiling was low, and discoloured by stains ; the grate was rusty,
and full of wasto paper, carefully torn into very minute bits, and a
damp and earthy odour, like that of a tomb, pervaded the place.
Vague ideas of alarm caine over Bryde, and she shuddered, she
knew not why.
Those documents of such vast consequence to the lives of those
she held most dear, might be nay, must be, Brjde knew within
arm's length of her ; but where, in what drawer, in what coffer, ill
what exact spot ? Could her eyes but pierce those boxes and pan-
nels.
What if Balcraftie had on that day taken the papers with him to
Edinburgh, cither to secure or surrender them ? Even at that
moment he might be in conference with the crown officials concern-
inn; them ; to-morrow the warrants might be out, and the criminal
oflicers and a guard of horse might secure nil the avenues from
Auldhame. There was despair in that thought !
Off her nervous little hands, which seemed so white and babyish,
for the work to be done, she drew her tight and well-fitting riding
gauntlets, and cast them with her switch on the black oak table.
It was littered by books, docquets, and musty papers ; but she
knew too well that those she longed for, would not be lying openly
there.
On the maps and charts by Herman Moll, the bills of wreckage,
salvage, of the weekly waggon, and the Bailie's next preachment
on the links, ' Deo Volente,' and so forth, her eyes wandered
rapidly.
His oak lettron, or desk, massively bound and fenced about with,
brass, was before her ; might the papers be there ?
An old-fashioned bureau, which surmounted a mahogany chest of
drawers, with hanging handles of brass a piece of double furni-
ture still to be seen in remote Scottish country houses stood in an
arched recess, that, somehow, suggested security. She stepped to-
wards it ; the sloping-lid of the bureau was locked, and now a
gound startled her. It was only a mob hooting the culprit at the
market cross.
The drawers of this bureau were all unfastened save one. She
pulled them all open, and shut them in quick succession, not be-
cuuse she expected the paper .to be there, but rather in nervous
13 i THE WTTITE COCKADE.
anxiety to be doing something before the clerk returned. They
were crammed with bundles of old invoices, accounts, bills of lad-
ing, and other written rubbish, tied up with red tape, and seemed
of no value, as they referred to long past transactions.
The lower one was locked ; this excited alike the suspicion and
irritability of Bryde, and she exerted all her strength to pull it
open. The wood was old, worm-eaten, and rotten ; the lock fell
into the drawer, which came suddenly out, and seemed empty.
Bryde was about to shut it, when something caught her eye, which
made her cheek grow pale, and her heart to die away in her breast.
She drew it forth that something, the sight of which almost
suffocated her with emotion.
Covered with the dust of years, and faded in hue, it was a small
maroquin case, or pocket-book, of scarlet leather, which bore the
arms of the Otterburns of Auldhame stamped thereon, in gold. It
was originally wont to be fastened by a curious clnsp of steel, which
she remembered well, but this means of security had been rent com-
pletely away. Trembling in every limb, Bryde opened it, and saw
on the inside the autograph of her father, in whose hands she had
many times seen this case the" identical one of which he had been
robbed, with all its contents, on the night when he was so foully
slain by a shot from behind, on Luffness Muir!
The dark spots upon it his blood, doubtless filled her heart
with emotions of rage and sorrow.
' This pocket-book how came it into Balcraftie's possession ?
How, but with the notes it contained !' she whispered in her heart.
Another black link in the secret life of Balcraftie was here taken
up, and, swift as light, a hundred suspicions now flashed on the
mind of Bryde. She now knew beyond a doubt, that Reuben Bal-
craftie, incited by robbery and avarice, was the author of her
father's assassination, and, by that deed, the breaker of her mother's
heart.
She remembered the long night of suspense and anxiety that
preceded the knowledge of the crime ; the alarm and dismay that
the cold grey morning brought to all their hearts ; her mother, dis-
hevelled and wild with grief, embracing the stiffened corpse, as it
was borne by sorrowing vassals into Auldhame, muffled in a roque-
laure pale, and covered with hideous blood gouts.
Wliat if the author of that foul crime were to return now, and
find her with the proofs of it in her possession I Quick, quick, she
thought, there is no time to lose!
1 Traitor !' she exclaimed, ' corrupt and hypocrite as you are, and
cunning and wary though you be, I shall make you suffer torments
yet, greater than you have ever caused to the hearts of those who
were good, gallant, and true ! "We shall yet be revenged on thee,
wretch!'
She remembered the expression which Balcraftie at times alleged
he bad seen in her face, a something that reminded him of her
THE WHITE COCKADS. 135
father, and winch bewildered and terrified him ; and she remem-
bered too of I lie wadset which hud been principally paid in some of
the same notes of which her father had been robbed. To her it
was all as clear now as sunshine at noon !
There is something mysterious in the persistence of imprestinw.
' There is reason to believe that no idea which ever existed in the
mind can be lost,' says a modern writer ; ' it may seem to ourselves
to be gone, since we have no power to recall it, as is the case with
the vast majority of our thoughts. But numerous facts show that
it needs only some change in our physical or intellectual condition
to restore the long lost impression ;' and in the mind of Bryde, a
flood of past thoughts and suspicious gathered or returned with
fresh intensity.
Nerved thus anew, and thereby with less repugnance than ever,
ho looked about for some lever, wherewith to wrench open the
bureau, and every other lock-fast place in this assassin's den. In
the cautious Scottish fashion of the preceding century, the fire-irons
wero chained to the jambs of the mantle-piece, not so much to pre-
vent their abstraction as the dangerous use of them in any sudden
brawl, so they could not avail her.
She looked anxiously round, for time was most precious and was
passing quickly.
The rusty head of an old halbert (broken in some row or tulzie
in the burgh), witli about three feet of the shaft adhering to it,
lay in a corner, and Bryde found that it would suit her purpose
exactly.
The strong steel head she inserted under the sloping lid of the
bureau for some inches, and then bending upon it with all her
weight, the wood parted from the lock with a great crash, and the
slab of mahogany fell at her feet. A double row of pigeon-holes,
filled with docquets of letters, was now visible, and many bundles
of paper, tied and labelled, lay on the desk of the bureau, and to
these, while her temples throbbed and her hands trembled, she ad-
dressed herself in rapid succession.
The old wadset over a portion of the home-farm of Auldhame
and other places, with the more recent one for money for the
Prince's service, borrowed over the land of Halflongbarns, met her
eye, and these she might have taken and destroyed ; but they were
carefully recorded in the sheriff court book of the Counting of Had-
dirgton, so their destruction would have availed little; besides,
Bryde had other views.
' Jlah what is this?' she exclaimed, as a foolscap document
came to her hand, recently written, at some length and docquetted
thus :
'Information for His Majesty's Advocate for His Majesty's Inter-
est, anent Dalquharn and Mitchell, emissaries of the Popish Pre-
tender and Spies of the French King, with evidence that they cam*
from Dunkirk last, in the " Etoile de la Mer " imuggler, in time of
136 IHE WHITE COCEADB.
war, eluding the fleet of Admiral Byng. Cyphers and intercepted
correspondence between the aforesaid forfeited traitors, and the
Lords Bahnerino, Lovat, Elcho, the Earl of Kilmarnock, and the
(so-called) Duke of Perth and Melfort, numbered from one to
twelve, together with an account of the secret murther of an Eng-
lish officer, Lieutenant Egerton, of Howard's Foot, and the compli-
city of Sir Baldred Otterburn therewith, as the body is now buried
near his mansion of Auldhame, &c.'
This document was dated but yesterday, and the ink was barely
dry ! Tied up with red tape, and ready for transmission to tlie
hands of the Public Prosecutor at Edinburgh, the docquet was
bulky.
Bi-yde had now all she wanted ; she threw her riding skirt over
her left arm to conceal the papers and the recovered pocket-book,
and grasping her riding-switch, as if it was a weapon for defence,
sallied from the house like one in a dream, and reached the inn-
yard, where the armed groom awaited her with the horses.
Ten minutes more beheld her flying homeward with her spoil,
almost at racing speed. The poor girl's heart and head seemed
alike on fire ! She cared not what might be thought of the adven-
ture, which the Bailie's household would soon make known over all
the country ; for all those noble peers, whose names were mentioned
in the correspondence, and some of whose holograph letters were
there, ' numbered from one to twelve,' were saved by her from im-
mediate destruction ; her lover too, the brave and devoted Dalqxi-
harn, Sir John Mitchell too, and, though mentioned last, not least,
her poor old, loving grandfather, whom this man Balcraftie had
robbed and so deeply wronged.
Sir Baldred she resolved not to consult, as yet, on this discovery ;
his impatience and impotent wrath would be too great even for the
occasion, and might seriously affect his health. She enquired for
Lord Dalquharn the moment she reached Auldhame, breathless by
her ride, and alternately flushed by her triumph, and then pallid
at the contemplation of the danger they all escaped, and by her
courage and prudence alone.
Lord Dalquharn was nowhere to be found, though evening was
at hand, and the dinner bell had long since been rung. He had
gone forth with Mr. John G-age, the English custom-house officer,
taking with him his sword and pistols, and had not returned.
' Whither had he gone in what direction ?' she asked. Some
said towards Tantallan ; others said, towards Tyninghame in the
opposite direction ; in short, no one knew with certainty.
The evening drew on, and Bryde's anxiety became, erelong, an
agony, She had gained a great victory ; and he in whose cause the
essay had chiefly been made, was not here to share her triumph or
her secret the new and terrible secret, that she had discovered the
assassin of her father !
To Sir John Mitchell, Bryde related, with all ita details, the
THE WHITE COCKADE. 137
story of her adventure. He read over the ' Information for His
Majesty's Advocate,' -while his brows were knit with rage and fury;
for "they had all been toppling on the brink of a precipice, from
which Bryde's hand had saved them, but he laughed and kissed it,
and could he have dared so great a liberty, he would have pressed
the dear girl to his breast, as she hung with a species of sisterly
regard on his arm, and looked into his kind eyes for approbation of
her courage and conduct, which he praised loudly.
'And now, my dear and gallant Miss Otterburn,' said he, 'as we
never know what a moment may bring forth, these papers must all,
with your permission, be put out of existence.'
1 Before Dalquharn sees them ?'
' Yes, and especially before others might see them. I have not
lived in exile since the battle of Sheriffmuir, without learning
caution, my dear young lady. 1
Procuring a light from the silver tinder box, which., as a habitual
smoker, he always carried for using his pipe, they were speedily
torn to shreds and blazing in the dining-room grate. He and Bryde
stood by watching the conflagration in silence, until the last glowing
spark of redness had flickered out and died away among the black
and impalpable ashes, and then he again caressed Bryde's delicate
hand, tenderly, and bent his lip upon it. Mitchell could do so in
safety then, for the secret that he loved her, with all the affection
of lover, brother, and friend, was known to himself alone.
As the light of the burned papers passed away, the two lookers-
on became aware how far the twilight had advanced, and that Lord
Dalquharn was still unaccounted for.
He had never before been absent so long, without some known
and just excuse, and was so regular in his habits, that the present
affair seemed extraordinary, and rapidly became alarming: for the
night drew on, and still there was no appearance of him. Sir Bal-
dred dispatched a mounted servant to the residence of Mr. Q-agc,
a pretty cottage in the westgate of North Berwick, to make en-
quiries, but that official had not returned either ; however, as his
habits were somewhat erratic and nocturnal, in consequence of his
peculiar avocation, his absence created little alarm in the mind of
his buxom little English wife, who seemed to have no doubt that
' he would turn up somewhere between the night and morning he
always 'ad 'itherto.'
Absent absent, even as Egerton had been he had gone forth
into the darkness of the night, and leaving only wild surmise and
mystery behind ; so thought Bryde, who had a very active imagi-
' nation, with a great aptitude for tormenting herself. Oh, what had
happened now ? Scotland and England, too, were still somewhat
lawless ; there were no regular police, and the roads were often
beset by broken men, gypsies, foot-pads, and sturdy beggars ; and
human life and humau suffering were both of much less account
than they are now.
103 THE WHITE COCKADE.
Why was he absent thus from her who lored him as her own
soul ? Once again her tears were falling fast and bitterly. H
might have heard of danger, Mitchell kindly suggested, and so have
fled somewhere for concealment, ' and in that case,' added the
baronet, 'we shall soon hear of him. for though the post-boys appear
to be strangely tampered with, he would not leave you in suspense,
and me in the lurch.'
It could not be a danger menaced by Balcraftie, as the perilous
papers ne longer existed ; but what business could he have had with
Mr. Gage, an Englishman a government official. It was very
perplexing.
So the night passed away at Auldhame without Lord Dalquharn
appearing ; it was, though a midsummer one, a long long night
of tears and apprehension to Bryde Otterburn, who heard every
hour and half hour, chimed in dreary monotony by the old brass
clock in the chamber-of-dais.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE SEQUEL.
'Fell spectre of the haggard eye,
Wild gesture and erected hair,
Quick from my presence fly 1
Base ease awhile my heart opprest,
Lest, lost and woebegone, Despair
Should seal me for her own,
And reason banished from her throne,
To madness should resign my tortured breast.'
Ode to Terror.
LATE that night Bailie Balcraftie caine galloping home, and to the
great surprise of his small household, presented himself at an hour,
when he and other members of the Synod of Lothian and Tweedale
were supposed to be sitting round a snug crown bowl of steaming
whiskey punch at Katnsay the vintner's, in St. Mary's Wynd. He
had returned, he said briefly, for some papers of importance ; in
fact, for a right royal sum, he had agreed to place in the hands of
the Lord Advocate (of course an unscrupulous ministerial placeman)
the carefully numbered correspondence, and the precious ' informa-
tion' which Mitchell had, a short time before, quite as carefully
committed to the flames. Thus, the Bailie had preferred a ride in
the dark, even by Q-ulane Links and Luffness Muir, to enjoying a
pipe and bowl, and the society of such men as Home, the author
of 'Douglas,' Blair, who wrote ' The Grave,' the witty Carlyle of
Inveresk, and others among whose society his profound hypocrisy
enabled him to move.
In the hurry of his arrival and in the lust of gratified avarice, and
the triumph of anticipated revenge on IJalquharn, Mitchell, and Sir
Baldred, all of whom he cordially hated in his heart, he failed to
observe at first the pale terror and painful tribulation of Mr. Jabez
THE WHITE COCKADE. 130
, his clerk, a poor, famished, and overtasked creature,
whose services were rewarded by the reversion of the Bailie's ward-
robe, and (lie crumbs that fell from his table, and whose pale watery
eyes and cunning leer gave him a resemblance so close to our enter-
prisir.g magistrate, that a few evil minded persons Tories and
nonjurora were wont to affirm that there was a very near relation-
ship between them, more especially as in babyhood, the starveling
clerk had been found one morning tied in a bundle of rags, to the
handle of the risp Bailie's front door.
This abject creature, who regarded Balcraftie with a strange fear,
and stranger regard, blended with the most abject submission, the
result of long force of habit, after having his intellects brightened
by a smart application from a rattan wielded unsparingly by
Balcraftie, informed him that Miss Otterburn had been there that
day.
'Here Bryde Otterburn, here?' exclaimed Balcraftie, astonished
by a circumstance so unusual.
' Yes in the office, saying she would would would leave a
note, but but '
' But what speak, you gomeral you puir cockle-headed loon !'
Jabez could only gasp like a dying cod-fish, and cower under the
uplifted rattan.
' A licht, Lucky, a licht!' said the Baily, snatching a candle from
his scared housekeeper, and hurrying into his sanctum. He has-
tened instinctively to the bureau ; it was open ; the halberd head
was lying among the littered papers with it, and split in two, the lid
lay on the floor.
A film passed over his eyesight ; a sickness came into lu's avari-
cious heart ; and ho would have sunk down, for his knees gave way
beneath him, but he clung to the bureau.
His precious papers, the double instruments of wealth and tri-
umph were gone gone gone !
And Bryde had taken them ! There was no note, for none had
been written ; it was all a snare, a pretence to take advantage of his
absence, on that expedition to Edinburgh, of which he had so care-
fully informed her ; and there lay her tiny gloves, just where she
had cast them on the table, and forgotten them in the hurry of her
departure. He tore them with his teeth ; he trod them under foot,
in his impotent rage trod them as he would have done her own
lender neck had it been there.
Then came the bitter reflection, that had he but taken the papers
when he went to town that morning, her scheme would have been
baffli-d ; but now she had confounded and defeated him.
' Curses on her!" lie gasped out hoarsely and huskily, as he sank
into his black leather elbow chair, which never felt so uncomfortable
as at, that particular moment ; ' curses on her!" he repeated while
depositing his wig on the wig-block, for his brain seemed on fire ;
' how cauie she to do this, a deed so bauld and tough. she, a delicate
1-10 THE WHITE COCKADB.
woman, barelj past her lassiehood, wi' her saft hazel eyen, and her
a' but a bairn's i'uce ? Curse her .'* he added, more deep and hoarsely,
as he clenched his sharp fangs, and his great coarse and misshapen
hands.
When the first paroxysm of fury was past, Jabez Starvieston, who
wore a scratch wig made of a dog-skin, which did not improve his
lean and hunger-eyed visage, drew timidly nigh, with the whispered
information, that the lugger of Sanders Scupperplug had been seen
in the offing from Scougal Point.
The Bailie groaned, and then said, after a pause
1 Was a lantern hung out in the gloaming, to shew that the coast
was clear, and the pestilent-red coats departed ?'
' Aye, and at Whitberry, and I shewed the red flag on Tantallan
for weel nigh five minutes.'
' Five minutes owre lang, for that English loon, Gage, hath
the eyen o' a lynx ; in this matter you have dune your best ; in the
other you werena to blame. But get me my night gear, and we
shall gae forth; the run will be made mare than three miles frae
this.'
Groaning again, as he recurred to his loss
' She hath been guilty o' rank hamesucken,' said he ; ' and I shall
hae the law o' her the law if it is to be had in braid Scotland !'
There was no family worship, and no psalm sung that night in the
house of Reuben Balcraftie.
*****
The next moining came, but brought with it no tidings of Lord
Dalquharn to Auldhame. Witli the first blush of sunrise, Bryde
left her couch sleepless as when she had lain down upon it. Sh ;
issued into the garden, where the brightness of the summer morn-
ing, the perfume of the opening flowers, and the music of the merry
birds soothed and revived her. She clung to Sir John Mitchell's
idea, that urged by some alarm, Dalquharn had fled somewhere for
concealment ; but she was impatient to despatch another horseman
to the house of Mr. Gage, to learn how and when that person had
seen his Lordship last.
She heard the sound of hoofs upon the distant highway ; a horse
was approaching at a gallop ; her heart bounded more and inoro
with expectation with mingled hope and alarm when the change
of sound distinctly announced that the horse was coming down the
avenue She rushed to the garden gate, and was met face to face by
Bailie Balcraftie !
That personage dismounted from his Galloway cob, and grasping
the reins, stood some six paces distant, surveying her with a daring
glance of hate and spite in his pale and now colourless face. Could
a glance have slain, Bryde had been reduced to tinder on the spot!
Balcraftie had regained much of his external composure, but the tires
of unsatisfied vengeance and of disappointed avarice were yet smoul-
dering in hia heart.
THE WHITE COCKADE. 141
Her becoming morning toilet, a rich negligee ; her slender -waist
and curved bust being charmingly defined by a. long and well-shaped
boddice; her masses of bright brown hair, gathered carelest-ly and
hastily in rippling waves behind, so as to show her delicately-fanned
ears, and the long sparkling pendants, which her great grandmother
had worn at the coronation of King Charles, in Scone ; her paleness
and the alluring character of her beauty for Bryde was beautiful,
though her nose was in the faintest degree retrousse, and the envious
alleged that her mouth was too large all failed to aH'ect the .bailie,
or move his stubborn heart, while her extreme apparent self-posses-
sion infuriated him.
' He dare not assault me, I presume,' thought Bryde, so she con-
fronted him calmly, boldly, and scornfully.
' 'Sdeath, madam,' he hissed through his set teeth. 'You are the
very person I came hither to see.'
' And to what am I indebted for the honour of this early visit
from the worthy and excellent Mr. Balcraftie ?' she asked, carefully
keeping her hand on the lock of the garden gate, ready to close it
in an instant, for she feared this man, and knew not what his pur-
pose might be there at an hour so early, and when so few of the
household were stirring.
1 1 am come to dispel your vapours, madam, as you shall ken ere
long, and your pride too.'
Bryde laughed, though her poor fluttering heart grew sick with
apprehension.
4 You committed an invasion o' my premises yesterday morn,
breaking lockfast places hamesucken, felony and had you com-
mitted slaughter, even as Ishbosheth was slain by felons and hame-
suckers in his ain dwelling, it would barely aggravate the crime, as
we find in second Samuel,' said he in measured and stern tones ; ' but
I'll hae you precognosced before the Fiscal, and I'll try it on the
floor of the Parliament House if he fails me, for I'll hae vengeance
and justice, if they are to be got out o' the wigs o' the fifteen Judges !'
' Begone, sir, or I shall order the keeper to let loose the dogs on
you, and 1 know we have one mastiff at least, whose tusks will not
respect your rank as a bailie, or your position as an elder.'
Balcraftie surveyed her with a terrible expression, but the girl
laughed scornfully and bitterly.
' You would like to strangle me, I know,' said she.
1 Yes,' he said through his grinding teeth ; ' that J should, indeed !'
' Or marry me ? eh, assassin ! Oh, we know each other perfectly,
My dear father's pocket-book, which I found in the lower drawer of
. your bureau yesterday, told me a terrible story.'
At these words, which detailed another abstraction of which he
was before ignorant, the perspiration started in cold drops upon the
brow of Balcraftie. What species of folly or insanity was it. wliich
caused him to omit the destruction of that record of his ariuie?
' Where is that pocket-book ?' he asked hoarsely.
142 J.a.iS WillTB CO UK. AWE.
' Safe in Auldhame house,' said she, closing the gate of iron bars,
for he made a pace towards her with more of menace in his cruel
eyes. ' And now I shall give you my terms of secresy.'
' We understand each other,' said he, pale and tremhling with
suppressed passion, hate, and fear ; ' and your terms '
' Am, the instant release of the two wadsets. which you hold over
the lands of Auldhame each release to be fully and truly written
by a notary-public, and stamped ; and that you quit Scotland for
ever, within a week from, this date.'
1 Otherwise ? '
' I shall hand over that bloodspotted pocket-book to the sheriff at
Haddington, that he may elucidate how it, and the bank notes it
once contained, came into your possession ; and with it shall be
given a statement, signed by Lord Dalquharn and myself, of your
last deed of blood in yonder thicket, for I too was there on that
fatal night, and saw your murderous hands on Mr. Egerton.'
' You you ? ' he exclaimed, in a voice like a scream, for he
knew not how much or how little she knew.
But for the pomander ball which she raised at times from her
chaterlain to her nostrils, the girl must have fainted during this
obnoxious colloquy, yet she bore up bravely.
'Ha ha!' she said; 'so, wretch, the money for which you
hoped to sell us to the Lord Advocate and the Marquis of Tweedale,*
has turned into dried leaves like that of the witches or fairies !
But now begone, and pollute this place no longer by your infamous
presence. You know my terms ! Begone, I say,' she continued,
stamping the ground with her foot, ' or I shall summon the servants,
John Archie, Hob, and the old butler, with whips and dogs. I
should like to see a bailie baited as well as a badger, especially where
the burn is deepest ; and we have more than one man here, who
cares as little for risking his life, as for taking the life of another in
the service of the House of Otterburn especially of such a worm as
thee ! More than all, beware how you come under the hands of
the Lord Dalquharn ! '
'Frae sic hands as his, I, at least, am safe enough/ replied Bal-
craftie, with a glare of malignant triumph in his eye. ' Ken you
where this other gay leman is now ? '
' Would that I could know.'
' Shall I tell you where ? '
Bryde shuddered as he spoke for his bearing chilled and ap-
palled her.
' He is chained like a wild beast in the prisons on the Bass ! '
said he, pointing northward with his left hand.
'It is false!'
' It is true true as that the sun shines owre us.'
' On what charge ? ' she asked, faintly.
1 Charges o' treason and murder ; are they enough for you. I
* Secretary of State for Scotland from 1742 till 1746.
THE WHITE COCKADE. 143
kont your pride would hae a fa', and the hour is come ! ha ! ha ! '
cried Balcraftie, as he mounted and galloped away.
Bryde had acted her part gallantly while face to face with the
foe ; but now that he had gone, and in departing had planted this
Parthian shot in her heart, her spirit broke completely down ; her
sobs and tears refused to come, and she sank fainting and breath-
less 011 the garden walk.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE BLACK LCGGEB.
" When paltry rogues by stealth, deceit or forca,
Hazard their necks, ambitious of your purse ;
For these the hangman wreathes his trusty gin,
And lets the gallows expiate their sin:
But lo a ruffian whose portentous crimes
Like plagues and earthquakes terrify the times
Triumphs through life, from legal judgment free,
For hell may hatch what law could ne'er foresee ! "Veraet, 1759.
A SHOBT time before Bryde returned with the captured papers,
Dalquharn, as already stated, had taken his sword and pistols (the
same from which he had effaced his crest and coronet, the better to
conceal his name and rank) and gone forth with Mr. John Gage.
That official had come in search of Sir Baldred, who had ridden that
day to Haddington to attend a county meeting, summoned by the
Earl of that name, inconsequence of a communication received from
the Marquis of Tweedale ' anent the dark and nefarious designs of
the Popish Pretender,' though the Earl knew well the secret hopes
of the old Laird of Auldhame, and the latter had no faith in the
Earl, who, baring recently married a beautiful English girl, a
daughter of Rowland Holt of Redgrave Hall, he deemed lost for
ever to his country.
Gage now confided his troubles and doubts to Dalquharn, who
now never passed the boundary walls of Auldhame, without his
arms loaded, aa he knew not what a day, even an hour, might bring
forth.
1 1 am sorry, Captain Douglas, that I have missed Sir Baldred,'
said Gage, ' more especially as Captain WyviFs party have marched ;
I thought the good baronet, who hath, a brave name in these parts,
might assist me.'
4 In what way ? ' asked Dalquharn, who, in accompanying Gage,
walked with him, insensibly towards the coast.
' By getting a few armed men to help me in the King's name,
though the peasantry hereabout are not much to be trusted, when
a poor devil of an English exciseman is in a strait. You must
know, sir, that a red lantern, the signal when a run is to be made
in these parts, waa seen on Scougal Point for a few minutes last
H4 THE WHITE COCKADE.
night. I can have no aid from the ' Fox,' as she is still under re-
pair at St. Margaret's Hope, well nigh thirty miles up the river,
and if old ' Puerto-de-la-Plata' shews fight '
' If, say you ? the old desperado is as certain to shew fight, as an
English bull-dog. How many men have you under your orders ? '
' That I can depend upon ? *
'Yes of course.*
' Tidesmen and boat's crew fourteen in all.'
' Fifteen counting me.'
1 You, sir ? '
'Yes I'll go with you,' said Dalquharn, who was longing for
some active work, and who was not without hope of discovering
somewhat of the antecedents of Bailie Balcraftie or Father Testi-
mony.
' I'm glad your honour don't think the worse of me for that night's
work, when I arrested you and your friend Iwas only doing my duty.'
Mr. Gage pronounced the last word ' dooty,' and touched the
forecock of his hat.
' You introduced us to a precious scoundrel, from whose face I
hope to tear the mask.'
' Bailie Balcraftie you mean ? '
1 Right the same.'
' Well he is a bit of a canter and psalinsinger ; but in these parts
they all take to religion, as they take their grog '
' How is that ? '
' Uncommon strong but I beg pardon, sir I forgot your honour
was a Scotsman.'
' Yes, a Scotsman, but neither a prickeared hypocrite, or a trucu-
lent whig, ready to sell my birthright, as Esau sold his, for a mess
of pottage.'
' Well, sir, these smugglers have some powerful friends along
shore here, for many a valuable run is made between St. Abb's
Head and North Berwick, in defiance of all our care and watching.
If we had only six of Captain Wy vil's grenadiers here they would
alter our chances, for we'll have a brush to-night sure as my name's
Jack Gage, I have laid my plans so well ; but I am short-handed
enough to face such a murdering gang.'
' We shall be almost man to man.'
' True, sir but then we don't fight with halters round our necks ;
while they do,' replied Gage, as he swept the horizon to seaward
with a telescope which lie carried in a case slung over his shoulder :
' but if it is the black lugger, as that ere signal was hung out for
though the waves are beginning to break and shew white in the
offing 'tain't much as her skipper or crew care for a breeze. She
sails like some of those old Scotch witches, as used to go a voyaging
hereabouts in sieves and eggshells, and don't care a dump for wind
or weather.'
' But where, and how, do you expect this run to be made ? '
THE WHITE COCKADE. 14o
' Why you must know, sir, that last voyage when outward bound
for Dunkirk, old Scupperplug and his Dutch mate quarrelled with
one of their men, and after a sound ropes-ending they threw him
overboard in the night, just as if they were cruising off the Spanish
Main, and not off the coast of Fife.'
' Was the man drowned ?' asked Dalquharn, who now began to
have a personal interest in the matter.
' No, for he was a strong swimmer and struck out bravely towards
a vessel that was in sight, about a quarter of a mile off, as he could
judge by the light in the poop lantern ; but she had too much way
on her, or her watch were careless, for instead of heaving to, or
cutting away the life buoy, they hove him an old hencoop, on which
he contrived to ride out the night, and he was picked up by my
boat's crew, who were pretending to be fishing below the May,
though keeping a bright look out for strange craft all the while."
1 Well, and this fellow ?'
' Peached on the whole Jot of 'em 'fore Q-eorge he did, sir !'
What?" asked Dalqunarn to whom some portions of Gage's
phraseology proved unintelligible.
' Split on 'em in revenge, and he says as there is one, Father
Testimony in the secret, to whom the runs are generally consigned.
He is to be with us to-night.'
' Who Testimony ?'
' No the rescued smuggler, and he asserts on his solemn 'davy,
that the next run was to be made in a little bay to the west'ard of
Tantallan, where a long, narrow ravine leads right up to a vault in
the old ruins, known now only to this Father Testimony the con-
signee ; so sir, I never had a better chance since I've been in Scot-
laud, of cutting a dash before the commissioners of the customs, if
I can but capture the lugger and her gang to boot !'
After a pause, during which he had been looking anxiously sea-
ward, from the high ground near the ruins of St. Baldred's
chapel
' See !' exclaimed Gage, ' see, sir ! I was rightly informed ; 'fore
George, yonder is the lugger in the offing about nine miles off, just
clearing the south end of the Isle of May her starboard tacks well
aft, her yards mast headed, and her lug sails spread to catch all tui-
wind she can get for it is falling light now, or comes only in angry
puffs that give hints of a squally night. But we must not be seen
here, for we can't say whose eyes may be watching us even now,
from the ruins of Tantallan, from under those bushes or holes in
the rocks. I have known of more than one look-out man being shot
down like old junk, by a pistol-ball that came from what seemed
but a rabbit hole in the earthen bank.'
They drew near the ruined chapel wall, where the buttresses and
a mass of fallen masonry concealed them. There, adjusting the
telescope, Dalquharn could distinctly see the ' Etoile de la Mer,'
whose black hull and raking musts he remembered so well, standing
10
146 THE WHITE COCKADE.
slowly and cautiously, as on that eventful evening, up the estuary
of the Forth ; and again in fancy he seemed to see the squat, but
powerful forms, and hideously scarred visages, of the skipper uud
his Dutch mate.
The river's broad expanse was all empurpled now by the splen-
dour of the settirg sun, which was sinking amid bright clouds of
crimson and amber; though dun and dark masses were hanking up
to the windward, and the waves were beginning to curl their white-
ning crests beneath a breeze, which, though faintly felt as yet on
the headland, was freshening fast in the offing, and rolling the Ger-
man Sea in foam against the precipitous cliffs of the May.
They Dalquharn and Gage knew that, as on the previous oc-
casion, Captain Scupperplug would allow the evening to be far
advanced before he came within pistol-shot of Scougal Point; and
Gage had arranged, that while lie and four of his men, with their .
new ally, all well armed, each with sword or cutlas and a brace of
double-barrelled pistols, made a dash at the smugglers, when the
cargo was half landed, the remaining ten, all equally well armed,
were to creep in the boat, with muffled oars, alongside the lugger,
and capture her, sword in hand, guided by the seaman whom the
smugglers had so barbarously tossed overboard.
It was rightly conceived that the confusion consequent to the
double attack, would insure success.
As most of the crew would be on shore, the boarding of the
lugger was deemed the least desperate, though the most important
feature in the affair, which Dalquharn now began to perceive, might
prove fraught with more danger to himself than the discovery of
Balcraftie's complicity with these outlaws would reward ; but he
had given his promise to Gage, and could not recede.
' Here she comes on the larboard tack now, bringing the gathering
scud and the squally night with her,' said Gage, rubbing his hands
while his ruddy cheek glowed, and his clear blue eyes sparkled, with
excitement and anticipated triumph ; for he was a bold and fearless
fellow ' the darker the better for his operations, and for ours too.
Gadso ! I hope to pick up sumniut in this scrimmage for my little *.
missus at home.'
' I seek but to unmask Father Testimony,' said Dalquham, look-
ing to the flints in his pistola.
' Them religious codgers are often the deepest knaves, after all,' ]
said Gage. ' When I was a tidesman at Dover, some twelve years
by past, there came one day a long, lean parson wearing an apron
and shovel hat. He had a hearse and four men in sad-coloured
cloaks, with mourning bands and black gumphions rigged aloft or
poles, and stated that he had come, by order of the Archbishop
Canterbury, to receive the body of a lady of high rank who had diet
at Boulogne. It was to be landed by the ' Queen Anne ' packet, whic"
was just entering the harbour. I wasn't frightened by hearing
the Archbishop Lord love you, sir, not I : though he of the shove
tHB WHITE COCKADE. 147
hat and square toes mentioned him a score of times. I had my
suspicions about that ere coffin, I had, and insisted on having it
opened, just to see what the body was like. Our parson stormed gad,
that he did ; threatened me with prosecution for desecration, felony,
and eo forth ; but jumped into his hearse and beat a speedy retreat
when the coffin was opened, and found to be choke full of the finest
French and Flanders lace. My little woman and I were just about
to be spliced then ; so out of that ere coffin I got her on the sly, a
dress that would have graced the Duchess of Devonshire. But,
undeterred by this, what think you, sir, happened in the very next
year ? 'twas '32, the same year when the Act was passed to prevent
the exportation of beaver hats from North America when the
body of the loyal and brave old Bishop Atterbury came from Calais
to England for interment, the High Bailiff of Westminster crammed
into the coffin seven thousand pounds worth of contraband goods,*
which I had the good luck to seize at Dover ; for I suspected the
poor bishop's corpse to be a swindle like 'tother. So I was re-
warded by being promoted and sent north here a change which
my poor little wife, who thinks this a main wild and mountainous
country, thought very ungrateful on the part of the Customs,
though they said handsomely enough that Scotland was just the
placs for so enterprising an officer.'
' Why do you not obtain assistance of a party from the garrison
on the Bass ? Livingstone of Saltcoates, and young Congalton of
that ilk, are in command there.'
' Too late, sir too late !' said Gage, shaking his head.
' Why too late ?'
' Because, no doubt the garrison ou the Bass is preciously well
watched by them night-hawks 'long shore, even now ; and if a
boat-load of the Guards were to come off, by some well-known
signal, the run would be made elsewhere, and we should be bilked.'
While they were speaking, a painful but plaintive bleating was
heard close by ; and among the furze bushes they perceived a young
lamb, on which a huge and ravenous hoodiecrow had pounced, and
was deliberately tearing out its eyes. Gage whooped aloud, and
threw his hat at the foul bird, which instantly soared into the air ;
but, quick as thought, Dalquharn unhooked one of the pistols from
his girdle fired, and the sable marauder came toppling down, with
wings outspread, and a bullet in its body.
' That was rash, sir,' said Gaze, looking hastily round.
1 Bash ! How ?' asked Dalquharn.
' Because we don't know where scouts may be hidden ; and I am
o well known in these parts j but it was 'nation fine practice any-
how.'
' I hope it is an omen of how we shall puniflh another black crow
we wot of.'
* Facts.
10-2
148 THE WHITE COCtADfi.
' Talking of that, captain, 'fore G-eorge, you'll find some practice
for your trigger finger after dark, or my name ain't Jack Gage.'
When the evening closed in, the latter was joined by his four
men, well armed, who announced that their boat, with its armed
crew, and the swivel gun loaded with musket-shot, had gone osten-
sibly up the river, to deceive the people of North Berwick ; but
that, according to Q-age's orders, they would drop quietly down with
the ebb-tide in the twilight, and be off the cove, with muffled oars,
when the lugger crept in with her sweeps.
' The townspeople,' added one who spoke for the rest, ' have
enough to occupy and lament about without minding our affairs ;
for news came this afternoon that one of the largest craft belonging
to them had been taken in the gut of Gibraltar by a rascally Sallee
rover, and that all her crew had been carried into slavery.'
The tidesman muttered some heavy maledictions as he said this ;
for they were all seafaring men 'a fellow feeling makes us won-
drous kind ' and those Algerine rovers were, until recently, the
scourge of European commerce.
CHAPTER XXVIII,
THE BAVIltE.
' " A way my men 1" the captain cried,
" 'Tis just the time to board ;"
Upon her decks we jumped amain
With tomahawk and sword.
The conflict now was sharp and fierce,
For clemency had fled,
And streams of blood marked every blow,
The dying and the dead.' Ballad,
DABKNESS set in unusually fast for a summer evening ; the masses
of dun-coloured vapour that came from the seaward soon mingled
with the bright clouds that had enveloped the setting sun, changing
their hue to dull and sombre grey. The wind was blowing now in
whistling gusts, and a few warm rain-drops plashed heavily on the
grass, as Gage and his five comrades crept close to the eastern end
of the vast ruined fortress of the Douglasses, which was anciently
named Duntallan, and, lying on their faces, peered seaward over the
steep cliffs on which the castle is built.
The whole estuary of the Forth was now shrouded by vapour,
through which, as through a gauze curtain, the foam-tipped crests
of the waves could be seen rising and falling. In vain did Gage
search and sweep that curtain of vapour, and re-arrange the focus
of his glass, 'to pick up the lugger,' as he said ; but unless a red
spark that appeared once or twice and then vanished in the gloom,
indicated her approach, as she crept in between the Bass Rock and
THE WHITE COCKADE. 149
the headland of Tantallan, there was no sign or sound of her where-
abouts.
' Look to your priming, lads,' said he, ' and follow me, if you
please, Captain Douglas," he added, in a more deferential manner ;
' we'll make for the creek now.'
The creek, as he called it, is a deep rocky ravine or glen, into
which the water then entered ; narrow, dark, and steep, it slopes
upwards from the sea shore, towards the front trenches and gates
of Tantallan, in the lower walls of which we can yet see the round
gun-ports of the cannon that once swept it to the westward.
On one side of this ravine, and close to the ruins of the north-
western tower, grew a clump of wild whin bushes, amid which the
six lurkers concealed themselves and lay down flat, and only Justin
time, for the moment they were concealed, two persons could bo
discerned making their way stealthily up the gorge from the sea-
shore. One who was picking his steps cautiously with the aid of a
stout staff, carried what appeared to be a dark lantern, but its light
was carefully concealed.
The watchers could perceive that his costume was dark, that he
wore a voluminous white wig, over which his cocked hat was un-
flapped, for a disguise that was further aided by his having a large
handkerchief tied round it and under his chin, to prevent his entire
headgear being carried away by the blasts of wind that were surg-
ing up and down the hollow. Dalquharn alternately panted with
eagerness, and held his breath with caution, as this personage
passed him, for he remembered ' Father Testimony,' who boarded
the lugger on the night that he and Mitchell landed from Dunkirk.
His companion, who wore a long frieze overcoat, with a deep cape,
and huge double cuffs, a broad lowland bonnet drawn well over his
eyes, seemed a long-legged, lean, and cadaverous creature, for his
wide skirts were wrapped and flapped by the wind about his bony
and shrunken figure. Scrambling silently through an opening in
the ruins, they disappeared, but a red light that flashed fitfully on
the walls at times, as they passed through the deserted and grass-
grown chambers and corridors, showed that now the lantern wag
uncovered.
All was yet still in the ravine below.
The curiosity of Dalquharn was irrepressible, and despite the
warnings of Gage, he clambered up a portion of the fallen wall to
peep into a place from whence a light was now issuing in sudden
and uncertain gleams. The arrow-hole for it was nothing more,
to which he applied his eye perforated a wall of enormous thick-
ness, and opened into a square vault, arched with stone ; it was
then half sunk in gloomy shadow, and half filled with ruddy light
from a torch which was stuck between the stones, and which the
lean, cadaverous fellow he of the bonnet and long frieze coat
was igniting or blowing up, by means of a pluff, a piece of bored
bour-tree, then used in Scotland for kindling up fires ; and, as the
150 TilE \VU1TE COCKADE.
gleams fell on his hollow features, he recognised Jabez Starvieston,
the hunger-eyed clerk of Keuben Balcraftie ; so the plot was
thickening !
It was only one of the numerous vaults and dungeons which
form the substructure of this vast old castle, which was built in
ancient times, by the descendants of Macduff, Earl of Fife ; but
there were already in it a few casks and bales of goods, shewing
that it was one of the places where the smugglers stowed their
contraband cargoes, until the consignee could get them conveyed
inland, and in detail on horseback, or otherwise under cloud of
night, to his customers in various parts of the country.
The figure of the other man in this vault, was between Dalquharn
mid the murky light of the torch ; thus his features could not be
discerned ; and now a sudden stop was put to further scrutiny, by
Starvieston stuffing his broad blue bonnet into the loop-hole, to pre-
vent the light being seen from a distance. But ere this was done,
Dalquharn, who was familiar with the grand old ruins, having many
a time explored them with Bryde Otterburn, marked well the lo-
cality of the place, and knew where the long stair that led to the
secret vault must be.
He had barely time to get back to his place of concealment
among the whins that overhung the ravine, when a voice was
heard to 'hilloah' out of the vapour.
Gage now drew forth the cylindrical case of a rocket, and pro-
ceeded to lash it to a staff, as he intended to use it for the double
purpose of signalling to his boat, and alarming the smugglers.
Amid the excitement of the time, Dalquharn had frequently
thought with great compunction, of the anxiety his unusual and
prolonged absence would certainly cause to Bryde Otterburn ; but
there was now a romance, and mystery in the whole affair, which,
together with its too evident peril, soothed and delighted his ardent
temperament.
High overhead amid rugged wildness, crowning the highest
point of a mass of rough, brown, insulated rock, against the base of
which the German Sea, far down below, was hurling its snow-white
breakers rose the mighty masses of the Douglasses' ruined strong-
hold, the scene of many a great event in Scotland's stirring times,
and of many a raw-head-and-bloody-bone legend now, with its long
frontage of lofty curtain wall, and loftier flanking towers, and its
great central keep, with turrets and battlements, gunports and
loopholes, row on row
' Broad, massive, higli, and stretching far
And lield impregnable in war,
On a projecting ruck tliey rose,
And round three sides the ocean flows ;
The f"Ui ili did battled walls enclose,
And double mound and fosse.'
Great breaches yawned, where Monk's shot and shell, a hundred
years before, had taught its cavalier garrison, that the same walls
THB WHITB COCKADE. 151
which defied the armies of the middle ages were no longer im-
pregnable in the days of ' the villainous saltpetre.'
There was no sound in the air, but the booming of the breakers,
which came upward, from where they rolled against the castled
cliff far down below. A strange and preternatural silence hovered
in and about the colossal masses of Tantallan, which seemed to
blend with the murl-y clouds. Even the cawing of the countless
jackdaws that built their nests therein, and shared its naked cham-
bers with the red-beaked puffin and the snow-white gannet, had died
away.
Amid this silence, it was strange to know and to feel, that infal-
libly, in some five minutes or so, startling events would occur ; that
wounds would be dealt, lives lost and taken, amid all the hurly-
burly of a midnight skirmish, in that grassy ravine, where the Scot-
tish bluebell, the seapink and the wild violets were earliest found
by the wanderer or the truant school boy.
' At last we have 'em steady, lads, steady !' said Gage, as the
sound of oars came upward, together with the noise caused by the
rush of a rope-cable (those of chain were then unknown), through
a hawse hole, and the rattle of the parrels or iron collars which con-
fined the yards to the masts, when the lugsails were hauled down
and all made snug on board the lugger, which was evidently close
iu shore under the lee of the cliff, and was all ready for starting her
cargo.
As yet the watchers could see nothing ; but out of the gloom
below, they could hear old Scupperplug storming and swearing in
Scotch, Dutch and Spanish at his noseless mate, the little French
mulatto, and all his ruffianly crew
' Bear a hand, gude friends,' cried a voice which Dalquharn could
not mistake ; ' cheerily wi' these blessed tubs, which shall never be
degraded by the iron brand o' an English gauger.'
' Meaning me,' said Gage, passing a thumb nail over the edge 01
his flints ; ' but, gadso, you may be mistaken, my friend.'
' Ready, my hearties, ready, and heaven's blessing on your work !'
said the voice again.
' Stow your infernal twaddle, old Testimony, and bear a hand
yourself,' bellowed Scupperplug ; ' I've promised the hands a stoup
o' skiedam when the run is complete, so look sharp. I never liked
this place for sending a cargo ashore ; Seacliff cave, or even Tyning-
hame sands are worth a score of it.'
1 Aye, aye, Sanders, but we canna aye choose for oursel's when the
devils o' gnugers are on the look out.'
Under his breath Balcraftie, as we may name him now, uttered
many a bilter imprecation on the head of Bryde Otterburn ; he was
in a fearful temper, and astonished even his compatriot Scupperplug ;
but from the ferocity that inspired them, his maledictions as they
flew up to heaven, would have no tears dropped on them ' by the
recording angel/
152 THE WHITE COCKADE.
Through the gloom below, figures were soon visible, and it became
evident that the crew were carrying ashore a strong warp, whereon
to run the kegs ; some were seen standing up to their waist, others
who were nearer the shore, to their knees in the water. Several
ascended the ravine, thus forming a chain, which passed upward
from hand to hand the brandy kegs and little sherry runlets, as they
were to use a nautical phrase guyed ashore, along the warp, and
some thirty or forty were thus borne upward, and into the vault,
within a yard or two of the place where Q-age and hia five followers
were concealed.
'Now sir,' he whispered to Dalquharnj 'now, my lads, is our
time !'
'Quick wid de gegs donner and blitzen! anodder dubb an-
odder dubb !' they heard Vander Pierboom say, as if through where
his nose was wont to be; 'quick Jules Leroux, you Vreuuh mite
ob Belzebub, bear along de gegs !'
Gage lit the touch paper and applied it to the rocket. With a
terrible hiss it soared into the sky, describing a fiery arc, revealing
for an instant the fierce, bewhiskcred and weatherbeaten visage* of
the smugglers in the ravine ; the kegs tliat were being passed so
smartly upward from hand to hand ; the towering castle-walls and
gaping windows, from whence the black jackdaws and white gan-
nets flew hither and thither. High into mid-air it soared and burst,
and then, as the shower of sparkles fell downward to the seething
sea below, the entire outline of the Black Lugge, tossing and strain-
ing at her anchor, was visible as she rode with her head to the ebb
tide.
A dreadful imprecation burst from Scupperplug, who was stand-
ing on her gangway to guy the kegs ; but it was drowned in the
cheer set np by Gage and his brave followers.
' Forward, marines and small-arm men boarders away ! Hur-
rah, my fighting Foxes'* he cried in a clear and stentorian voice, as
he sprang with his drawn cutlass in hand, on the straggling line of
men in the ravine, who believed themselves to be attacked by the
crew of the ' Fox.'
The rocket and the ruse were most successful !
Firing their pistols, Dalquharn, Gage and the four tidesmen fell
on, sword in hand, and six of the smugglers were instantly put hors
de combat ; the rest flung themselves into the water to reach the
lugger ; but a cheer rose from her deck, and a fire of pistols, flash-
ing through the gloom along her gunnel, announced that she had
been successfully captured from her starboard side, and was in pos-
session of the enemy. Hemmed in, as they seemed to be, by a cross
fire on botli sides, and ignorant alike of the number and character
of their assailants (whose united force was only equal to their own,)
the smugglers abandoned the cargo and all idea of resistance, seek-
ing only to escape.
'Xwo who were on board the lugger hoisting out the kegs leaped
TITE WHITE COCKADS. 153
into the sea and disappeared under her counter. Those who were
on the land, and were not already cut down, fired their pistols at
random, waking a thousand echoes in the winding shore below, atid
the open ruins above, and also sprang into the sea to reach their
quarter boat. Blind with fury, Scupperplug laid about him witli a
hatchet, and inflicted some terrible wounds on his assailants. Seizing
one of the boarders the same seaman whom he had so barbarously
flung overboard near the Isle of May, and to whose spirit of ven-
geance the victory was chiefly due he wreathed the strong fingers
of his left hand iu the poor fellow's long, queued hair, drew his neck
backwards across the gunnel of the lugger, and slashed off his head
by one tremendous stroke. He then hurled both the head and the
hatchet at the victors, and escaping several pistol shots, leaped over-
board, and was dragged into the stern boat, by six of his men who
had got possession of it, and cast off the painter.
The huze favoured their escape ; they pulled away, no man knew
whither, and vanished into the darkness of the night. Jules Leroux
and five others of the crew were found wounded or dying in the
ravine, when the day broke, and the huge bulky frame of Vander
Pierboom, slashed sorely by cutlasses, was cast ashore in Auldhame
Bay, three days afterwards.
By sunrise the Black Lugger the famous " Etoil da la Mer," was
safely moored in the little harbour of North Berwick, with the king's
colours flying at her foremast head.
Only one of Gage's men was killed, he who fell by the hatchet of
the terrible Scupperplug ; several were severely wounded ; but the
events of the night did not eud with the rout of the smugglers and
the capture of their craft.
Dalquharn'a whole faculties were absorbed in the desire to seize
and unmask Balcraftie. For a time it was impossible to distinguish
him from the rest in the sudden and decisive scuffle ; but, as he
could not escape by sea, and there was no avenue by land, save up
the ravine, the rocks on all sides being precipitous, sheer like a wall,
and very lofty, he caught the eye of Dalquharn now accustomed to
the darkness as he stole cautiously up the same path he had
hitherto pursued with his starveling clerk.
1 Here is our man here is Father Testimony,' he exclaimed ;
' follow me some of you.'
Rapidly the dark figure glided upward on hearing this alarm ; and
disappeared ; but Dalquharn knew or shrewdly suspected where he
had gone, and hastened towards the vault.
More than a hundred steps led, and still lead to it. These were
all arched over and enclosed then, and descended at an angle south-
ward from the north-western tower. The narrow passage is open
now and gaping to the light of day, for the roof has fallen in ; but
the vault itself still remains unchanged, and may easily be found by
the explorer who seeks it.
154 THE WHITE COCKADE,
CHAPTER XXIX,
THE TATTLI OS TANTALUM.
' Good name in man or woman, dear my lord,
la tlia immediate jewel of their souls :
Who steals my purse, steals trash ; 'tis something, nothing;
' I'was mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands ;
But he who pilches from me my good name,
Robs me of that, which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.'
Shakespeare.
DESCENDING the long and damp flight of steps, from the bottom of
which the torchlight shed a wavering gleam, that played upward on
the slimy walls, and stumbling over bales and kegs that had been
suddenly abandoned when the rocket went up, Lord Dalquharn,
closely followed by Gage, reached the vault successfully.
There, by the light of the torch which he was striving to extin-
guish and tread out, they discovered Bailie Reuben Balcraftie,
minus hat and wig, and accompanied by Jules Leroux, the little
mulatto cabin boy, who had fled thither instead of attempting to
reach the lugger, the hopeless scene of his suffering and slavery.
The starved clerk was no longer there. At the first alarm he had
fled vanished like a ghost at cock crow.
' Behold him, Gage,' exclaimed Dalquharn, with fierce derision ;
' we have at last discovered and unmasked the most sanctimonious
villain and hypocrite !'
' Tore George ! who'd have thought it,' said Gage, half breath-
less, and wholly bewildered ; ' but after my Dover parson, I don't
wonder at anything.'
' So, sirrah what have you to say. for yourself eh ?' demanded
Dalquharn.
There was a terrible expression in the pale eyes and livid face of
Balcraftie ; discovered, and at bay, he seemed to be on the verge of
insanity. At that moment, Jules Leroux, maddened by the- paiu
of a sword wound in his chest, and by the terror of an immediate
apprehension, that might lead he knew not to what a terrible
death, or an existence worse than that he had led on board the
' Etoile de la Mer,' levelled a pistol, with which he was armed,
and shot poor Gage ; the bullet pierced his brain, and he fell dead
upon the spot.
At the same instant Dalquharn fired at the tawny imp Leroux,
who missed the shot by darting from the vault in the smoke of his
own weapon, and escaping those who were rather cautiously de-
scending the long flight of steps, he fell in the ravine, exhausted by'
loss of blood, and was found there next day, quite dead.
Beady ia resolve, and quick aa light in the perpetration of
THE WHITE COCKADE. 155
wickedness the long habit of turning all men and things to some
profitable account Balcraftie, who was also armed with pistols,
saw the situation in all its features, and took his plans accordingly.
To shoot Dalquharn (for whom he had other views) was no part of
these ; but at the moment that four or five tidesmen, flushed with
their recent victory, on hearing the explosion of firearms, hurried
into the vault, where Gage's body lay, with the blood oozing from
it, he snatched up the smouldering torch, and pointing to the be-
wildered Dalquharn, exclaimed
' By the soul o' my body, gentlemen, and as sure as I am a par-
doned sinner, there stands the murderer, with his empty pistol and
dumb-foundered look ! There stands the committer o' the deed
the Cain, the skyer o' him who's bluid crieth for vengeance frae
the ground! Awa wi' him, that justice may be done upon him
sevenfold, even as it was done on the first murderer in Eden ! Oh,
waly and wae's me, that I should behold sic a foul deed done on
the body o 1 worthy Maister Gage, wha appointed wi' me to meet
him here to-night a gude and trusty friend to king and country
king and country !'
The custom-house officers, who had heard nothing of the ap-
pointment so artfully indicated to explain the reason of his appear-
ance there, surveyed, with a greatly bewildered and doubtful
expression, their recent comrade Dalquharn, who certainly had a
recently discharged pistol in his hand, and a terrible air of wrath
and disdain in his eyes and bearing.
' Hypocrite and double-dyed villain !' he exclaimed; 'dare you
go thus far with me?'
' Yea, and farther,' shouted the Bailie, whose voice rose almost
to a scream, as an excess of rage and spite, not unmixed with fear,
filled his heart ; ' grip and bind the foul slaughterer ! I denounce
him, as Henry Douglas, umquhile Lord Dalquharn, of the Holm,
an attainted traitor, and the son of an attainted traitor ; a popish
recusant, a spy of the hellicate king o' France, and an emissary of the
vile Pretender ! Gyves to the heels, and hemp to the craig o' him !
Awa wi' him to the Tolbooth o' the Burgh, and in the morning
I'll make a' clear wi' this vile felon, who hath on his hands the
bluid of twa brave and leal English gentlemen. He has been taen
in the act, sirs taen in the act, and by the law of Scotland, being
Red Hand, may be legally strung to the gallows tree within twenty-
four hours o' his crime.'
Struck by th" Bailie's earnestness, his volubility, and apparent
sincerity, the tidesmen began to look at each other in doubt, and
to cock their pistols. Dalquharn might have shot Balcraftie, and
cut short the preceding farrago of words ; but that would only
have served to make his affairs more complicated, and worse than
they now seemed to be.
' Gentlemen/ said lie, with a forced air of coolness, which cost
him a severe effort, ''twas bis own ally and compatriot, Julei
156 THE WHITE COCKADE.
Leroux, a mulatto boy of the lugger, who committed this dastardly
crime. I am, as he has said, the Lord Dalquharn, a peer of the
realm (for I deny the right of any Hanoverian Elector to attaint
the title I inherit from the kings of Scotland), and on my honour
as such, and as a gentleman of the House of Douglas, a name that
should have an echo in Tantallan here, I am totally innocent of all
that he has dared to allege. What motive could I have for the
committal of an act so foul ? The poor fellow was my friend.'
'Friend ha! ha! Motive ha! ha!' yelled Balcraftie, in a
voice which became more shrill, while his eyes shone with a white
gleam in their cavernous sockets ; ' motive enough for arresting
him and his companion, Sir John Mitchell, another attainted and
popish recusant, and bringing baith before me, as some of you gen-
tlemen may i*ecollect.'
'Likely enough I remember now,' said a tidesman to the others,
and their looks became darker and more suspicious.
Dalquharn was choking with conflicting emotion on finding him-
self in this predicament, of which he truly feared he had not yet
seen the end ; and with such a terrible charge against him, with
the apparent proofs of it, his first thoughts were of Bryde gentle,
loving Bryde and of Captain Wyvil. If he heard of it, that
gallant and generous English gentleman to whom he had pledged
his word to unravel the mystery of Egerton's death he must
alike mistrust and disdain him now!
The custom-house officials were conferring together, and lingering
irresolutely, when the sound of footsteps were heard heavily de-
scending in measured tramp the long and winding stair ; arid now,
to increase the hubbub, appeared ten men of the 3rd Foot Guards,
in their long scarlet coats and sugar-loaf caps, having the thistle
and circle of St. Andrew embroidered on the front flips thereof,
and with muskets loaded and bayonets fixed. They had come off
from the Bass Rock (where a party of the regiment was always
stationed), under Ensign Congalton, of that ilk, having been dis-
patched by Livingstone, of Saltooates, the commander, on seeing
the rocket ascend, and the subsequent explosion of firearms in the
ravine, which that officer immediately associated with a sudden
landing of the French, the perpetual bugbear of those and later
times.
To Ensign and Lieutenant Congalton for then, as now, the
Guards had household rank a blase and roue looking young man,
who we are sorry to record it seemed to have imbibed at least
his second bottle, Balcraftie noisily and fussily repeated his version
of the affair, adding, with what he conceived to be a convincing
grandeur of manner, while displaying his gold chain of office
'Ye maun a* ken me, sirs I'm Reuben Balcraftie, a merchant
and magistrate o' the Royal Burgh o' North Berwick, and a jus-
tice o' the peace, for the County o' Haddington ; so arrest that
niL WHIIE cockiDi. 157
traitor loon, I say arrest him in the king's name, or disobey at
the peril o* your necks.'
Ere Dalquhara could speak, the tidesmen closed in upon him
and wrenched away his pistols, on which he drew his sword, and
stood like a lion at bay.
'You have heard, sirs, the Bailie's false charge against me,' he
said, while boiling with rage and fury at his false position, and all
the dangerous features of the affair ; ' but, perhaps, this worthy
magistrate and justice of the peace will say what purpose brought
him here to-night ?'
' Egad, yes very proper very proper,' said Mr. Congalton,
while balancing himself on each leg alternately, and cocking his hat
over the right eye.
' The purpose that brought me here, I shall explain when the
proper time comes for doing sae,' replied Balcraftie, who saw that
intense coolness and assurance only would carry him through this
unpleasant episode ; ' but in the meantime, and in the name of the
king, I charge you, Mr. Congalton, to remove that traitor to ward
in the Tolbooth.'
As he spoke, several soldiers brought their bayonets to the
charge.
' Under these circumstances, my Lord Dalquhara,' said Ensign
Congalton, who, though tipsy, and a king's officer, was too much of
a Scotsman, and, perhaps, a Jacobite at heart, to omit giving his
full title to an attainted peer ; ' I trust you will see the folly of
resistance, and give up your sword to me.'
' No, sir not even to you, though the representative of a family
perhaps older than my own,' replied Dalquharn, in a hoarse voice ;
' this sword was the farewell gift of him, who may one day sit upon
the British throne, and shall never be drawn by other hands than
mine.'
He snapped the blade across his knee, and cast the fragments
from him.
A few minutes more saw the whole party out of the vault, and
quitting the stupendous ruins of Tantallan for the highway. Dal-
quharn, and Gage's dead body, borne by his men, surrounded by
the guardsmen with bayonets fixed ; Balcraftie and the officer
bringing up the rear, engaged in a close and earnest conversation,
which enabled the former to explain everything his own way, hence
the bearing of Congalton, who was the representative of one of the
best and old families in Lothian, became cold, haughty, and dis-
tasteful to his prisoner.
The clouds of night were dispersing now, and the early summer
morning was dawning on the land and sea.
Dalquharn's blood was on fire ! In the blindness of his impotent
wrath and the depth of his unmeritsd shame, he almost forgot his
betrothed love, Bryde, then tossing sleepless on a tear-wetted
pillow ; his heart throbbed wildly, and he frequently placed his
158 THE WHITE COCKADE.
hands upon it, as if a pain was there, for it seemed full to the verga
of bursting. He bared his temples to the cool west wind, and
sought thereby relief in vain. Stormy were the passions at work
within him ; but he could only hope against hope itself, that his
day for vengeance would yet come !
Beautifully the early summer morn came in ; the great green
mountain cone that overhangs the little town, then all silent in
slumber, rose against the blue sky, and the woods that clothe its
eastern slope, waved all their foliage in the gentle breeze. From
many a cottage chimney the faint smoke of the griesoch or gathered
peat of the overnight fire, rose in light puffs skyward. The black
rooks were circling in the clear blue welkin. The broad waters of
the Forth, dotted by the brown sails of a fisher fleet, bound home-
ward for Anster, Crail, or Newhaven, laden with the netted spoil of
the deep, stretched far away in distance ; but clothed in silvery
haze, the Fifeshire coast looked dim and indistinct. Three miles
off, the giant Bass towered to the clouds, and the outline of Tan-
tallan loomed blackly against the golden blaze of the morning sky
to the eastward.
Dalquharn felt the cold shudder of irrepressible disgust pass over
him, as he was marched near the gibbet, where the incendiary hung
in chains at the town-end. The miserable remains were now re-
duced to a mere skeleton, which even the crows had abandoned,
and the head was gone. It had been taken in the night by the
barber-chirurgeon in the main street (the same shaving Sangrado
who had ministered to Bryde in her illness), and after being well
boiled, it ornamented his window, with a tuft of moss surmounting
it, to indicate that he dispensed drugs, for such was the usual and
ghastly sign of an apothecary in Scotland (and, perhaps, in Eng-
land too) until 1750.
'That gallows-tree will be empty just in time, I'm thinking,'
chuckled Balcraftie, with savage significance and glee.
' Silence, sirrah !' said Mr. Congalton, who felt some sympathy
for Dalquharn, whose gentlemanly bearing and nobility of air could
not fail to impress him. ' 'Sblood, Mr. Balcraftie ! the alleged
crime has to be proved yet, and I won't allow any unfortunate gen-
tleman to be insulted in my presence by such a low-born churl as
thee. If he shot your precious gauger, perhaps he had good reason
to do so.'
4 That will be proved in time, sirs proved in time ; but here is
the Tolbooth tirl at the pin, some o' ye, and rouse the gude-
man.'
The Tolbooth was a miserable little vaulted place, with thickly-
grated windows, just below the town-house or council-chamber,
which was a plain, unsightly edifice, having crowstepped gables,
four large casements, a flight of stone steps that led to its entrance,
and was surmounted by a louvre-boarded belfrey and antique
dial.
THE WHITE COCKADE. 159
On the strong and nail-studded Tolbootli door, as he entered,
Dalquliarn saw affixed a placard of Balcraftie, announcing a preach-
ment, (D.V.), on the Links, that same afternoon !
'Farewell, my lord," said Ensign Congalton, lifting his hat and
bowing stiffly ; ' I hope, for your sake, that this dark matter may
be cleared up satisfactorily.'
Pale, and almost speechless with emotion, Dalquharn could only
bow with equal coldness, as the ponderous prison door, clanking
with bolts, bars, and chains, was closed upon him, and he found
himself, for some hours, until the magistrates could assemble, the
companion of several unfortunate wretches, some of whom con-
trived to rob him of all he possessed, his purse containing three
Louis, and a Portugal piece of thirty-six shillings value.
Among these were two gypsies for child-stealing ; three strollers
for 'riot and spulzie,' in ward till they could be handed over to a
recruiting sergeant ; and two fishermen, for absenting themselves
from the church and church ordinances, iu ward at the instance of
Bailie Balcraftie ; a suspected papist, and some sheep-stealers.
By this time, the ' blood-holtered' remains of brave and honest
Jack Gage had been carried to the abode of his poor little English
wife, in the Westgate, who now thought that her worst ideas of
the barbarous Scots were terribly realised ; and instead of listening
to the exhortations of Balcraftie, who quoted much scripture in the
most approved nasal fashion, she called down Heaven's vengeance,
not on the real destroyer of her husband, but on the unfortunate
victim of circumstances, Lord Dalquharn.
Erelong, the tolling of an old cracked bell, that had whilom hung
in the tower of the ruined church beside the sea, announced at an
unusually early hour that the magnates of the burgh were assem-
bled in solemn council, and Dalquharn was brought before them, in
a dingy wainscotted apartment, the windows of which were barred
by crossed iron gratings.
There the Provost, the Bailies, the treasurer and nine councillors
of the little town, were assembled in awful state, attended by two
red-nosed halberdiers, and a drummer, all three in a semi-sober
condition, and fully arrayed in the livery of the burgh ; but Dalqu-
harn, proud, fiery, and now infuriated beyond all endurance, treated
those grave, potent (pious) and reverend seniors, with terrible scorn,
as their recorded minutes attest.
By that august assembly of ' Baxters, Websters, Spurriers,' * and
other merchants, he was voted obdurate as James Grabame of
Montrose ; as hellicate a cavalier as the bloody Claverhouse ; as
false as Cromwell the blaspheming sectary ; as proud as the Paip
his master, and so forth. They remembered well that his father, a
'ioble Scottish patriot, had been fairly hunted out of Scotland (where
true patriotism has long ceased to be known or valued) by the Lord
Isla, who then mismanaged the affairs of that country, under Sir
* Anglici bakers, weavers, and spur makers.
160 SUE WHITE COCKADE.
Robert Walpole ; but the remembrance availed him nothing when
in the hands of these resolute whigs.
Balcraftie loudly asserted that Dalquharn, having been taken
Red-hand, should, by the law of Scotland, be convicted and executed,
within twenty-four hours of the crime, without privilege of peerage,
'he being an attainted rebel at the King's Majesty's horn ;' but the
provost ' douce man,' was fortunately a Douglas, and failed to see
any necessity for this extreme haste and severity ; so he ordained
that the accused should be committed to ward then Balcraftie
successfully urged on the Bass Rock ; as Edinburgh was full of
Jacobites ; the city guard were all Celts, and a rescue might be
made, the unlawful seizure of Sir Hector Maclean and the Laird of
Castlehill, and their transmittal in chains to London, by the servile
Lord Advocate, having set the blood of the people on fire.
Perhaps Provost Douglas might not have been sorry for a rescue ;
but he dared not say so, and in silence signed the warrant which
consigned Dalquharn to the terrible and hopeless prisons of the
Bass.
'Awa' wi* him to the auld Craig!' said Balcraftie, while his
vulture-like eyes glared with their most malignant expression, and
he waved his hand triumphantly ; ' a fitting place it is, that vile
prison, where the sighs o" the Sancts o" God, sighs deep as ever
rose frae the Jews place o' wailing at Jerusalem, hae gone forth owre
the salt sea the last sighs o' many that sleep in the bosom o'
Abrawham and under the shadow o' North Berwick kirk. Awa'
wi" him, I say, and keep him there, as fast as yettan bars and chains
o' steel can gird him, till the red hand o' the deemster is laid on his
iieck, and the rooks flap their wings over his harupan.'
And now, it is recorded, that the tipsy drummer went through
the burgh ' tonkering on ye drum,' to announce to the people the
final dictum of those twelve Magnates Scotise.
But the gentle Provost pitied the fallen cavalier Lord and could
not forget the nobler days of old, when the Red Heart emblem of
that glorious heart which the good Sir James carried at the Moorish
field of Teba waved above Tantallau ; and he secretly ordered a
refreshment of wine and food for his clansman before he was con-
veyed away by boat to the Isle, and to what proved, a long and
weary captivity.
'Again in the toils of this man Balcraftie !'
Oh, it was madness ! Dalquharn staggered like a drunken man ;
he was stunned and sick with rage. The veins of his temples were
swollen, there was a bubbling sound in his ears, a crushing misery,
the panting of futile rage and noble scorn in his heart scorn of the
mean and loathly.
A prisoner in such a place, on such charges, and at the behest of
such a man as Reuben Balcraftie !
He strove to remember the adage that he who loses may part
with anything j but it proved a bitter solace.
THE \V1IITE COCKADE. 161
CHAPTER
THE PEISONS OF THE BASS.
' Near to that place where the sea rock, immense,
Amazing Bass, looks o'er a fertile laud,
if impairing time
Haa'not effaced the image of a place,
Once perfect in my breast, there is a wild
Which lies to westward of that mighty rock,
And seems by nature formed for the camp
Of water-wafted armies, whose chief strength
Lies in firm fo<* uuflauked with warlike h >rse.'
Home's Douglas.
IT was a gloriously beautiful day when Dalquharn, in a swift boat
with an armed escort, left the town, near the ruins of the old
church beside the sea, the identical spot on which he and Mitchell
had been landed in the dusk of that evening in May, and before he
knew that the world contained a being destined to become so dear
to him as Bryde Otterburn was now.
The sea was like crystal and the sky a cloudless blue ; but Dal-
quharn truly felt ' what a mockery there is in the smile of the bright
sun, when it shines on the wretched.' The sturdy boatmen bent to
their oars in silence, as if they little liked the errand, and his escort,
a corporal and three soldiers of the Third or Scots Guards, smoked
in silence too, and without the ceremony of asking his consent ;
and, as the shore they had left receded and lessened, the vast insu-
lated rock named the Bass, became more and more stupendous in
detail and proportions.
It stands in the Firth of Forth, three miles and a half distent
from North Berwick, and is about seven acres in extent. In form
it resembles the base of a sugar loaf, cut across at an angle of forty-
five degrees. A flagstaff and a large piece of cannon as a signal
gun, crowned its apex, which is a sheer cliff four hundred and
twenty feet above the water ; a strong castle, containing a series of
state prisons, frowns above the sea along the lower portion of the
steep slope.
It was the last piece of British soil that surrendered to William
of Orange, and tradition says that it was once a bluff of the main-
land ; but that some mighty throe of nature, or the wand of the
Gyrecarlin, which, (as Cromek tells us) ' like the miraculous rod of
Moses, could convert water into rocks, and sea into solid land,'
achieved the separation, so the Basa is now an island, two miles
distant from the cliffs of Tantallan.
Precipitous and sheer on all sides, the only landing-place is a
little shelf of rock overlooked by the long line of crenelated ram-
parts, where twenty-one pieces of heavy cannon faced and defended
the narrow strait. However calm the weather, a strong surf ia
11
1G2 THE WHITE COCKADE.
always boiling round the Bass, and boatmen have to cling hard to
iron rings and cramps in the rock, when parties land, lest their
craft should be staved and dashed to pieces- Steep and slippery,
the landing-place is only a species of fissure or chasm, and leads to
a plateau of naked and arid red rock, which is always covered by
dead gannets and Norwegian rabbits, in all stages of corruption and
decay ; and these, together with the rank odour of the guano, which
covers all the Isle and literally forms its soil, taint most obnoxi-
ously even the keen sea breeze.
To the left of this perilous landing-place, and guarded by a well
loopholed tower which rises sheer from the sea, are still the remains
of the iron crane used by the garrison for raising their boat to the
outer wall, where two sentinels were always posted.
Three strong gates, a portcullis, and a lofty spur, that projects
southward at a right angle from the main-line of the fortifications,
and has within it a covered gallery, loopholed on both sides for
musketry, to infalade the whole place, are its chief securities. The
castle of the Bass was never taken by storm, and defied a blockade
by sea and land for four years after the battle of Killycrankie.
The British government still retain the right (pertaining of old
to the Scottish) of fortifying the rock in time of war, and a garrison,
furnished in consequence of some old custom, by the Scots Foot
Guards, was always in its castle till after the middle of the last
century, fully more than fifty years after the permanent removal of
the regiment to London. The soldiers of this detachment received
a small addition to their daily pay, the service being literally one of
banishment.
Prisoners have frequently escaped from the Chateau d'lf, from
the Tower of London, and (thanks to the gentle ties of clanship)
more frequently still from the castle of Edinburgh ; but no state
captive ever escaped from the terrible prisons of the Bass, though
at one time, between the years 1673 and 1684, no less than fifty
gentlemen, chiefly clergymen, were incarcerated in its dungeons,
and some of these were resolute fellows, such as James Mitchell, a
Master of Arts, one of the assassins of Archbishop Sharpe, and
young Gordon, of Earlston, whose father was slain when on his way
to join the covenanters at the battle of Bothwell Bridge.
When on the island last year, we found in what had been the
soldiers' garden, many a shrub and flower, particularly the common
daffodil and pale narcissus, and many a potherb growing rank and
wild ; and their seeds having been blown about by the wind, they
flourish in all the nooks and corners of the ruined walls ; and there,
too, in a place almost inaccessible, is lying half embedded in the
guano, a great iron cannon, just where the garrison of 1694 had
hurled it over, prior to their surrender and departure to France.
This ' sea rock immense' has forty fathoms of water all round it ;
thus, its entire height, in a sheer line from the summit to its base
in ocean, averages six hundred feet. A myriad of enow-white gan-
THE \VHITE COCKADE. 163
nets and otber sea birds cover all its sides, and hold a perpetual
jubilee in tbe air around it, giving the Bass somewhat the aspect of
an enchanted island.
' The surface is almost wholly covered during the months of May
and June with nests, eggs, and young birds,' says a quaint old
English naturalist, in 1651, ' so that it is scarcely possible to walk
without treading on them ; and their noise is such, that you cannot
without difficulty hear your next neighbour's voice. If you look
down upon the sea from the top of the precipice, you will see it on
every side covered with infinite numbers of birds of different kinds,
swimming and hunting for their prey. If in sailing round the
island you survey the hanging cliff, you see in every crag and fissure
innumerable birds of various sorts and sizes, more than the stars of
heaven when viewed in a serene night. If from afar you see the
distant flocks, either flying to or from the island, you would imagine
them to be a vast swarm of bees.'
At the eastern end of the ramparts stood that edifice, which was
originally the stronghold of the Lauder family, built by the good
Sir Kobert Lauder, ' great lord of Congalton and the Bass,' as his
epitaph has it, and therein his descendant, the famous ' Maggie,' of
the old song, is said to have first seen the light.
On this tower the union jack was hoisted, and it was flapping
lazily in the wind, as the boat, tossing and heaving on the white
surge, reached the landing-place. Then the faces of the soldiers
appeared at the embrasures beside the cannon, and at the little
grated windows in the rough and massive walls, which the strong
sea breeze and the storms of many centuries have coloured a dark
and sombre brown. The little garrison were all curious to see the
state prisoner, for such an inmate was quite a rarity here, and had
been so since the revolution of 1688.
The boat hooks were inserted in the ring-bolts, which are fastened
in the rocks for that purpose ; eight sturdy rowers held her steady
and close in, while Dalquharn and his escort, the latter slinging
their muskets, scrambled on their hands and knees up to the plateau,
where, at the outer gate, stood Ensign Congleton and Lieutenant
Livingstone, of Saltcoates, a pleasant and rather gentleman-like
officer, clad in a suit of very tarnished uniform ; an old unpowdered
wig, and minus ruffles, buckles, and other finery, such not being so
requisite on the Bass Rock, as they would be if he had to appear in
Pall Mall, or mount guard, at St. James's.
As the corporal handed over his prisoner with the warrant for
his detention, until the instructions of the Scottish Secretary of
State and Lord Advocate were received, Livingston surveyed Dalqu-
harn, (who, after the events of the past night, looked pale, blanched,
and weary,) with some commiseration, and bowing low, said,
' Your servant, my Lord Dalquharn. I am sorry to have your
Lordship's society in this cheerless place, on such grave charges as
these. In treason, which is but a difference in politicg, there is no
112
161 THE WHITE COCKADE.
great disgrace in these days of ours ; but an assassination ! and as
this seems to have been a most cold-blooded one '
' Enough, Mr. Livingstone !' said Dalquharn, haughtily ; ' let it
suffice that I declare myself as innocent of one charge as of the
other. Traitor I am none, but a true and loyal man to my exiled
king and degraded country. That loyalty and truth I am ready to
seal with my blood, even as my kinsman Kenmure did, on the
Tower Hill of London !'
The iron gates jarred heavily, and the grated portcullis went
clanging down in its groves of stone, as he ascended the steep stone
stair that leads to the interior of the cashle ; and then, indeed, did
he feel himself a hopeless and u helpless prisoner.
Above the inner gate were then the royal crest and national
motto of Scotland ; but the well known line from Dante's Inferno,
might with more truth have been carved upon the lintel,
'All hope abandon, ye who enter here :'
and within those walls many a poor nonjuring clergyman, and
many a stern and gallant covenanter, have abandoned hope and life
together.
CHAPTER XXXI.
PIBST DAT OP CAPTIVITY.
'Let to-morrow take care of to-morrow :
Short and dark as our life may appear,
We may make it still darker by sorrow
Still shorter by folly and fear t
Half our troubles are half our inventions,
/ And often from blessings conferred,
Have we shrunk in the wild apprehension
Of evils that never occurred 1'
C. Swain.
TEN years previous to this, Dalquharn had been on the IB dungek,
but under very different auspices. He was then the Mai MitcheUl-
quharn, a brave and thoughtless boy, and the companio Sha^xfryde
Otterburn, then a heedless and joyous girl at home for tln^ holidays
from the bondage of prim Madam Strai ton's educational establish-
ment in the Canongate, and all the details of their boating adven-
ture, in which he saved her life by his strength and courage, came
vividly back to memory.
Dalquharn dined with Lieutenant Livingstone and Ensign Con-
galton, who occupied the best rooms in the castle, those used so
long ago as 1405, by the future James I. They had Bass-fed mut-
ton, which is always a dainty, and in honour of the visitor a
solan goose, a culinary horror he could very well have spared.
'Onions and garlick were dainties, it seems, in Egypt,' says Defoe ;
'horseflesh is so to this day in Tartar j, and much more may a solan
goose be so iu other places,"
TEE WHITE COCK1DB. 165
The little dining-hali was vaulted, and its windows afforded a
view of the estuary and coast that stretched away in distance to
Dunbar. Though the season was summer, the island castle was
damp and cool ; thus a fire of wood and coal was blazing in the
arched chimney which yet remains. The furniture was all of plain-
est and rudest description, dating from days before the Restora-
tion, some of it being taken out of English prizes, when the Laird
of Waughton was captain of the Isle. There was no lack of provi-
sions, and plenty of wine.
The hosts, though both proprietors of the small estates of Salt-
coates and Congalton, in the opposite shire of Haddington, were
deeply dipped in debt, the result of their Guards life in London ;
and they found their temporary service in the castle of the Bass, a
fortunate relief from the importunities of their creditors in Eng-
land, and a mode for recruiting their exchequer by prudence. Liv-
ingstone's family was one of very great antiquity.
In the thirteenth century, nearly all the shire of Haddington was
covered with wood. The whole line of the Peffer (which in Eng-
lish means ' the sluggish river ') from Tyningame Sands to North
Berwick, was covered by wild forest, and large oaks have frequently
been found inhumed in the moss, with their tops lying towards the
south, as if some mighty blast or flood had uprooted them, and in
the bed of the river, there have been discovered great numbers of
stag-horns.
The strath was then a vast morass, and the whole district was in-
fested by wild animals, particularly boars. One of the latter was
the terror and destruction of the district, and created as much con-
sternation as the hideous serpent or worm that was slain by the
Laird of Lairiston, or, as the famous wolf of Languedoc, did in the
last century.
A tract of land, extending all the way from Berwick-law to
Gulane Links, was offered for the head of the monster, and a knight
of courage, named Livingstone, undertook the enterprise. He armed
himself with a strong spear and a gauntlet of peculiar construction.
After a long search in the forest and morass, he roused it from its
lair, near a small stream on the north side of the Peffer, which is
still named Livingstone's Ford, and after a terrible encounter, he
slew and beheaded it. He thus acquired the estate of Saltcoates in
the parish of Dirlton. His spear and gauntlet were preserved as
heirlooms by the Livingstones, until the demise of the Lieutenant
Livingstone (to whom we have just introduced the reader) when
the family became extinct about the middle of the last century.
The knight's helmet hung, till very recently, in the family aisle of
Dirlton church, and a good painting of the conflict is said by the
statistical account to be still preserved by an old retainer of the
family.
Dalquharn was a peer, though an attainted one ; rank still goes
a long way to win favour in democratic Scotland ; but it was almost
166 THE WHITE COCKADE.
worshipped then, and a little homicide, even if he was guilty of it,
was not much of a blot on the Scottish escutcheon in those days.
Though neither of these officers were much to his taste, and his
circumstances were now perfectly desperate, he strove to keep down
the many terrible thoughts that agitated him, and to share, with
some appearance of composure and equanimity, the strong bowl of
brandy punch which Patrick Livingstone proceeded to brew, when
the servants who were Foot-Guards-men removed the cloth.
' A quaint old castle this,' said Dalquharn, looking at the grated
windows, past which the white "solan geese were revolving in noisy
flocks.
' Bah !' said Congalton, as he hung his wig on the knob of his
chair, lit a long clay pipe, and proceeded by the undoing of sundry
buttons to make himself comfortable ; ' my love of antiquity is con-
fined only to wine. Zounds ! I don't care how old the port and
canary are ; but, my lord, I am sick of this place, and begin to
wonder if the Colonel has forgotten me, and if I shall ever again
turn a card at White's, or crack a bottle of red wine at old Hick-
upp's, the vintner, beside Charing Cross.'
' As for me,' said Livingstone, ' I shall certainly quit the Guards
and the service too, and return like Cincinnatus (or who the devil
was it ?), to my paternal acres at Saltcoates.'
' If such be your mood of mind,' observed Dalquharn, with a
sickly smile, ' by permitting me to escape, you might '
' Certainly be shot for so doing,' interrupted the Lieutenant,
sharply ; ' no, no ; harkee, my Lord Dalquharn, and don't mis-
understand me. I am come of an old whig family ; my grand-
father fought against Tom Dalyell at Bullion Green and served at
Both well Brig ; so, I take my stand upon the Revolution Settle-
ment and treaty of Union.'
'D n both, with all my heart, say I,' exclaimed Congalton,
whose family had always been Tories.
' Both are pretty well violated by this time,' said Dalquharn ;
' but to change the subject, how long have you been here, gentle
men ?'
' I came hither on command a year ago,' replied the Laird of
Saltcoates, 'just at the time our first battalion embarked for ser-
vice in Flanders, under my Lord Stair.'
' And I in March last,' said Congalton, with something between
a sigh and a hickup. ' On the night of the 7th, I saw Garrick play
Othello for his benefit, at Drury Lane. He wore a full flowing
Ratnillies wig and suit of the Coldstream uniform, so, with his
blackened face, he looked the jealous Moor to the life! Next
morning saw me under weigh for the Bass Eock, on beard the
' Electress Sophia,' a Leith letter of marque, carrying eight twelve
Sunders, and we had a narrow escape from the French fleet under
. Thurot.'
Though pleasant and jovial enough in their manner, it soon be-
THE WHITE COCKADE. 167
came evident to Dalquharn that both Lieutenant Livingstone and
his Ensign were a couple of reckless roue's, alike cold-hearted and
selfish, so that from them at least, he had nothing to hope for ; and
he sighed as he came to this conclusion.
' By Jove, I hope you are not in love, to add to your troubles ?'
said the Ensign, laughing and winking to his commander.
' Why ?' asked Dalquharn, simply.
' Because every one on this rock, from Patrick Livingstone to the
drumboy, is vowed or condemned to celibacy, like its patron, St.
Baldred of old.'
' Yet, surely, I saw something like petticoats '
' Hush I shall faint at the idea ? We are all priests of Vesta
here, though rather addicted to pipe-clay and black-ball tobacco
and brandy punch.'
' I fear you are a wild dog, Congalton.'
' We certainly thought him so, at the college of St. Andrews,'
said Livingstone as he proceeded to brew another bowl of punch ;
1 1 would the holy well of St. Baldred yielded brandy," he added,
referring to the spring which flows in the upper part of the isle. ' I
remember that Congalton was twice whipped at the Buttery-hatch,
to the great joy of the students.'
1 First, for kissing the Principal's house-maid, on a fast-day '
' And rivalling me as I can remember.'
' Secondly, for repeatedly translating the barbarous Latin word
" quidditas " into classical English, as " whattity ;" but then John
Milton, he of the " Paradise Lost," underwent the same kind of
punishment in a similar place, the Buttery-hatch, I know not for
what reason, so the episode is quite classical. Gadso ! this punch
is nectar, Saltcoates, but lacks another dash of the lime.'
' And so, my lord, you saw petticoats fluttering about our rock,
did you ?' said the Lieutenant, with a waggish smUe of intelligence
to his brother officer.
' Yes at least one fardingale of very approved fashion.'
' Ah our circle of female society is necessarily narrow, on an
island of some seven acres, albeit they are Scottish in extent,' said
the Ensign, whose utterance was becoming a little thick.
' But here luckily, we are almost beyond the reach of the law,'
said Livingstone, laughing loudly.
' Law and morality are certainly dreadful bores,' observed Con-
galton, with a mock sigh j ' the first is suited only for prigs, and
the second for parsons.'
'But, surely, both are excellent things in their ways?' said
Dalquharn, whom the strange humour of these roues rather
amused.
' Perhaps, but I don't affect them, my lord ; and as for marriage,
'tis all very well if I meet witli a blooming heiress, or a well-join-
tured widow, with her arms in a lozenge, on a Spring-garden coach ;
that I may become a willing sacrifice at the altar of mammon. Yet,
1G8 THE WUITE COCKADE.
as Quivedo saya in his ' Visions,' " an unlucky hit with a wife
giveth a man as much right to take rank in the catalogue of mar-
tyrs, as if he had ended his days at the stake." '
' You live in rather a wicked world of your own conceit,' said
Dalquharn.
' Well as some writer has it, "The world will reproduce itself
in a teacup ;" why then, should it not do so on the seven acres of
the Bass Rock ?'
' And you have been living for some time past at Auldhame ?'
asked Livingstone, after a paxise.
' Yes,' replied Dalquharn, curtly, and with some reserve of
manner.
1 There is, we understand, a charmer there '
' Sir ?' exclaimed Dalquharn, hastily.
'A charming young lady, is there not ?' asked Livingstone, quietly
altering his speech on perceiving the change in his prisoner's
manner ; ' but we have seen little of her, for we lead the lives of
hermits here.'
' A couple of veritable St. Baldreds, by Jove ?' said the Ensign,
shaking his head tipsily, for the brandy punch was rapidly pro-
ducing its effects now ; ' his namesake, the old baronet, did not
approve of us, somehow ; sink me ! no so we were never invited.
Perhaps he was afraid that his grand-daughter, this charming Miss
Otterburn '
' I do not understand you, Mr. Congalton,' said Dalquharn, with
an air of unmistakable annoyance, all the greater that he received
on his own shin the warning which the more prudent Livingstone
meant for that of the Ensign.
' Every Eve, who is in her teens, is on the look out for an Adam
'tis human nature. Men have a thousand things to think of: the
woman of fashion, but one marriage, and sometimes, egad, they
think of it all the more when their chances are gone, and the grand
climacteric passed. Then there was Miss Otterburn's friend, Lady
Haddington, in her confounded old-fashioned glass coach a raw-
boned Scotchwoman, who believes that her peculiar mission in this
world is the repression of immorality, and jollity too ; she does not
approve of the two hermits of the Bass, either.'
' Thus, you were not visitors at Auldhame ?'
' No, sirik-me, I fear the venerable put there deemed us what the
Grub Street writers usually term brutal and licentious soldiery.'
Two ladies, whose figures now attracted the attention of Dal-
quharn, as he saw them descending the steep and ladderlike path-
way from the Hermitage, in the upper part of the isle, sufficiently
accounted for the hospitable house of Auldhame being closed
against those two officers of the Guards. The girls were English,
as he could detect by their voices, and were laug.'iing loudly. They
were exceedingly pretty, highly rouged and patched, and with their
tiny niob-caps and gathered skirts, had a kind of Polly Peachum
THE vrnm COCKADE. 160
air about them. Their dresses were rich, bnt excessively tawdry ;
they wore enormous hoops, and while they continued to descend
they purposely displayed to the admiring sentinels on the guu-
platform below, rather more than modesty intended, of their very
handsome and tapered limbs.
They both tapped with their fans on the windows of the dining-
hall, and peered laughingly in with bright and saucy smiles, kissing
their ungloved hands to Livingstone, to Congalton, and especially to
Lord Dalquharn.
' You will think that we lead the lives of Arcadians rather than
saints,' said Livingstone, with a smile, after he had angrily warned
the girls to begone, with something that sounded very like an oath ;
' we are quite pastoral.'
' But prefer our shepherdesses from London to those we might
find on the Lammermuirs," said the Ensign, who was now lurching
about ou his chair, and evidently would soon be under the table.
' If the bailies of North Berwick had sent us another prisoner, we
might have a quiet rubber without the ladies, over a pipe and bottle
to boot ; for I grow deadly sick of playing primero and whist with
double dummy ! '
A few minutes after this, Congalton of that ilk, was fast asleep on
a bench. Livingstone seemed to be, as he elegantly phrased it, ' a
more seasoned cask,' and though flushed, was perfectly sober ; but
then, in this mood, he was always unpleasantly full of zeal, strict
attention to duty, and fussy authority. His appearance on the
gun-battery with wig and waistcoat awry, and his features inflamed,
usually made the sentinels more alert, though environed by steep
cliffs and the deep sea, there was nothing in reality to guard ; and
all who were not on duty sedulously avoided him, for the vile old
Dutch fashion of batooning the soldiers still existed in our service,
and if Livingstone rose from table in an ill humour, some poor
private's shoulders were sure to smart for it.
' I must show you the quarters prepared for yon, my Lord,' said
ho, after they had imbibed a cup of coffee, dashed with & petit verre
of brandy. ' You are to have the Blackadder vault, which has no
less than three windows. They are not very large, certainly ; but
through the bars you will be able to see all the coast of Haddiug-
tonshire, and,' he added with a keen smile, ' even your late resi-
dence, the house of Auldhame.'
As he followed Livingstone towards the western end of the castle,
he saw fully how complete and complicated, by art and nature
combined, were the means of detention and security on that steep
island prison ; that, indeed, it was a vast lock, that barred him in
from aU the outer world.
From the Bass there was no escape save by death alone !
Under the full conviction of this Dalquharu's spirit might have
sunk, but for a lofty sense of his own conscious rectitude, and a keen
one of the foul injustice done him. To these were added the fiery
170 THE WHITE COCKADE.
sentiments of wounded honour, and of devoted loyalty to that hand-
some prince, whose parting smile was still before him, whose gra-
cious farewell yet lingered in his ear, and whose coming and whose
conquest alone could save him now !
And with all this, as he was neither a saint nor a fool, there was
in his mind a considerable longing for just and honest retribution
to bear him up, though ' the desire of revenge for its own sake is
dying away, along with the other heroic virtues ;' and he bore up
bravely, but a heavy sigh, almost a groan, escaped him when left
by Steinie Lockyett, the warder of the garrison, to his own reflec-
tions in the Blackadder vault.
CHAPTER XXXII.
BBYDE'S SOBBOW AGAIN.
1 Onward, then onward, by river and sea/
Wayworn and weary, though oft I may be,
O'er desert by fountain, 'mid dark scenes and gay,
The Pilgrim of Life may not halt on his way :
And well do I know, where'er I may be,
My bright angel guardian keeps watch over me.' Thistledown.
HEAVEN knows with what pure, true, and brotherly tenderness, Sir
John Mitchell (who, in his anxiety concerning his friend's absence,
had also come forth early in the morning), raised the fainting
Bryde Otterburn, chafed her clenched hands, and kissed her cold,
pale cheek, when he found her in the garden walk, prone on her
face, crushed and overwhelmed by the taunts and the tidings of
the venomous Keuben Balcraftie, for his love for Bryde was all the
more deep and tender, that it was completely hidden ; but that love
was the great master secret of his soul.
The intelligence which he gathered from her, amid tears and
sobs, he was almost inclined to disbelieve ; but, ere long, the ser-
vants of the household and the labourers at the home-farm, were
all cognisant of the fray on the beach and in the vault of Tantallan,
together with the capture of the famous Black Lugger, in all their
details, with all the various exaggerations peculiar to the taste of
the commonalty; and the intense distress of Bryde was only
equalled by the honest sorrow and commiseration of Mitchell for
the fate of Dalquharn, with whom, he had no doubt, the measures
of the government and the legal authorities, their paid hirelings in
Scotland, would be sharp and decisive !
But with the stolidity peculiar to age, and more especially to one,
whose earlier years were spent in stirring and dangerous times, Sir
Baldred heard, the news with singular equanimity.
'Shot the English gauger, did he humph!' he muttered ; ' well,
THE WHITE COCKADB. 171
there is one of that brood less in the world ; and I suppose he did
it in self-defence.'
1 But he denies having done so, dearest grandfather ; do you not
hear them all say that he denies it, and accuses a smuggler of the
act ?' exclaimed Bryde, as she clung to his neck ; ' but whatever
was the motive, or whoever the conimitter of the crime, he is now
under ward in the prisons of the Bass, and unless he escape, is a
lost man a lost man, dearest grandfather ; for good Sir John
Mitchell says, that the Marquis of Tweedale will lose no time in
having him transmitted by sea to Berwick, or under an escort of
horse, to the Castle of Carlisle.'
'Escape from the Bass, lassie, and who ever did so, unless in the
shape of a kittiwake ?' said Sir Baldred, while Bryde wrung her
white hands, and mournfully surveyed Dalquharn's betrothal ring,
while she prayed in her heart that he might be detained there until
the landing of Prince Charles turned all things in Scotland topsy-
turvy.
To add to her distress, she was now deprived of another friend
and counsellor, for the arrest of Dalquharn, and the consequent
public discovery of his rank, name and purpose, together with those
of his companion, rendered the residence of the latter at Auldhame
no longer safe. Ere noon, he was compelled to bid Bryde and Sir
Baldred a hasty adieu. He took horse, by his host's desire, select-
ing one of the best in the stables (for future service), and giving
out that he was going to the English borders, turned aside from the
highway, near Whitekirk, and rode straight for the Castle of Cal-
lender, in the Torwood, nearly fifty miles distant, the seat of the
Earl of Kilmarnock, a peer whose loyalty to the House of Stuart
was yet to cost him dear ; and there he remained in safety and
concealment, endeavouring, secretly, to aid his friend through the
influence of the Earl with the Marquis of Tweedale, and it is sup-
posed that, to secret favour, the detention of Dalquharn on the
Bass, instead of his immediate transmission, perhaps to the Tower
of London, a lawless measure which the crown officers frequently
condoned, is due.
The terms offered by Bryde to Balcraftic, viz.: the release of the
wadsets over the Auldhame property, and his voluntary exile from
Scotland, were, of course, not accepted now, as he felt, that though
the intercepted correspondence, which he hoped to turn to such
profit and honour, had gone out of his hands, and was doubtless
destroyed, that fortune had changed in his favour, and that while
Lord Dalquharn was in his power, he yet held a trump card.
Inspired by the hope of freeing her lover, true to her threats
against Balcraftie, and urged by that spirit of revenge, which Lord
Byron has told us, " is sweet, especially to women," Bryde, in a long
and carefully devised letter, written in her pretty Italian hand, ad-
dressed the Lord Advocate, concerning the assassination of Mr.
Egerton, and more especially of her father, and she forwarded to
172 THE WHITE COCKADE.
him the pocket-hook, which was spotted with his Wood, honestly
telling his lordship how it came into her possession. Thrice she
wrote to that official, by the hands of trusty and mounted messen-
gers ; but a Lord Advocate is always the slave of his party, and the
affair made no progress. Perhaps some incoherent scrawls by poor
old Sir Baldred, whose shaky handwriting 'resembled the dying
autograph of a spider that has just escaped from the inkpot,' made
matters worse : he was neither particular in his phraseology, or in
the care of concealing his wild and fiery political sentiments, as he
considered all the authorities in Scotland to be but the paid hire-
lings and truculent tools of an English ministry, and, indeed, he
was, perhaps, not far wrong.
Balcraftie was certainly questioned on the subject ; but denied
all knowledge of the affairs referred to, or that the pocket-book had
ever been in his possession denied it solemnly with upturned eyes
and nasal accents, ' as he beh'eved himself to be a pardoned sinner.'
The Bailie was too firmly fixed in the good opinion of all, as a pious,
upright and worthy (better than all, a wealthy) member of society,
and of a great Christian community, to have his fair fame sullied by
any accusations emanating from the Otterburns of Auldhame, and
he threatened an action for damages, which he took particular good
care should be a threat only, as lawyers frequently elicit unpleasant
facts. He had been through life, as he modestly said, ' a terror to
evil doers, but a praise and a record to those that did well.' The
cavalier principles of Sir Baldred, his well-known laxity on most
matters appertaining to kirks, presbyteries and synods ; his unde-
niable leanings ' to the abomination o' prelacy ;' the residence of
Lord Dalquharn and Sir John Mitchell, attainted and outlawed
rebels, at Auldhame, and the yet unaccounted for disappearance of
Lieutenant Egerton of Howard's Foot, made the authorities cold in
pressing the strong charges preferred against Balcraftie (who was
considered a whig martyr to kirk and king) and suspicious of those
whom they deemed the inventors thereof so suspicious, that the
crown officers at one time, thought of laying up Sir Baldred in the
Castle of Edinburgh, for a term, in mere distrust.
So for a time did these cloudy matters rest.
The delay was fraught with sorrow, irritation and intense anxiety
to Bryde, as she knew not the day or the hour, when tidings might
arrive that Dalquharn had been removed from his islet-prison by
sea or land to England ; and even if he managed to clear himself of
all share in the death of Gage, he would still have the pretended
crime of treason to answer for, and the fate of his kinsman, Viscount
Kenmure, the gallant Derwentwater and others, was fresh in the
memory of all their party.
Old Dorriel Grahame tormented her too ; she was perpetually
seeing shrouds appended to the candles, or coffins jumping out of
the fire ; and she was always hearing in her ears, the sound of the
dead-bells, as that aural tinkling is named by the Scottish peasantry,
THE WHITE COCKADE. 173
who regard it as the secret warning the sure forerunner of a dear
friend's death.
A fortnight of this prolonged anxiety rendered Bryde thin, pale,
and sad-looking. Her grandfather dozed away the days moodily
now, for the old house, where all lived in expectation of something,
they knew not what, was silent and lonely ; he only warmed up
after his bowl of punch or tankard of mulled port after dinner ;
then he and his old butler, John Birniebousle, wove all manner of
strange plans for attacking the castle on the Bass, and rescuing the
prisoner for having a raid on North Berwick, and hanging Bal-
craftie like a thievish cat, on the risp of his own door plans which,
though feasible- enough in the days of the Eevolution, the brave
and lawless old Scottish times of ' rugging and riving,' were some-
what too wild for adoption, since the accession of the House of
Hanover.
Bryde's once happy and joyous nature was completely changed ;
her spirit sunk ; so her kind friend, the old Countess of Hadding-
ton, whose advice and assistance she frequently asked, arrived one
day in her great glass coach, with all its carving and gilding ; its
pages and out-riders, and her Master of the Horse, Sir John
Hamilton, of Trabrown, armed with sword and pistols, galloping in
front ; and leaving old Sir Baldred to the sure care of his faithful and
ancient household, she bore the pretty sufferer away with her, across
the Lammermuirs, to spend a few weeks at the fashionable Spa of
Dunse, which, though now entirely forgotten and neglected, was
then in high repute among the Scottish noblesse, some of whom
had summer lodgings near the bowling-green of that quaint old
border town in 1633, the Campus Martins of the Covenanters.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
SEVENTEEN HTNDBED AND POETY-FIVE.
'Oar thistles flourished fresh and fair,
And bonnie bloomed our roses,
But the whigs came like a frost in June,
And withered a' our posies. ,
' Our Scottish crowd's fa'n in the dust,
Deil blind them with the stour o't ;
And write their names in Hell's black book,
Wha gaed to whigs the power o't I' Jacobite Sony,
THE Scotland of the days of our story would seem almost a foreign
country, when contrasted with the rich, populous, and thriving
Scotland, which yearly welcomes Queen Victoria to her Higliland
home beside the Dee ; and while we leave Dalquharn to brood over
his mishaps on the Bass Eock, and pretty Bryde Otterburn to drink
the waters of the Dunse Spa, a little glance at the state of the
17 i THE WHITE COCKADE.
country may serve to explain or illustrate many points of our nar-
rative to the reader.
Time seemed to stand still in Scotland then ; twenty, thirty, or
forty years made little difference in habits, dress, or customs in
manners or ideas.
London was seven days' journey distant, and foot-pads, pit-falls,
floods, fords, lack of bridges and wretched roads, rendered travelling
arduous and perilous work. The great Duke of Argyle and Green-
wich, when posting north to take command of the troops against
the Earl of Mar, in 1715, was six days and six nights on the way ;
and so small was the intercourse between the two kingdoms, that in
the year of our story, the mail-bag is known to have come from
London with only one letter in it, and that was addressed to the
British Linen Company. In those days there were only eight
officials in the General Post Office at Edinburgh, and it was not
until 1750, that letters were conveyed from stage to stage by regular
relays of fresh horses and post-boys, the greater portion being borne
by the foot-runners, and the cadgers and carriers, in spite of the
laws against them, were secretly entrusted with more letters than
His Majesty's Post Office.
Incessant rumours of French descents upon the coast were then
current, and such continued to startle and harass the people until
1803. The county of the clans was a terra incognito even to Low-
landers, and an English tourist would as soon have thought of ex-
ploring the crater of Vesuvius as venturing through the Highland
passes, for black-mail was still levied, and cattle freely lifted along
the Highland border. Witches and warlocks were still a legitimate
source of hatred and terror, though the iron branks and the piles
of tar barrels were no longer resorted to by the Lords of Justi-
ciary.
The slaughter of Glencoe and the foul treachery at Darien
rankled bitterly in the hearts of our people, and men of all factions
never ceased to inveigh against what they elaborately designated
'the land-ruining, God-provoking, soul-destroying, posterity-en-
snaring, and enslaving union with England.'*
By that event the east coast of Scotland was totally ruined ; many
royal burghs passed completely away, and great depopulation ensueil
along the Borders. This was consequent to the new facilities af-
forded for emigration ; but the stout and warlike burghers of Jed-
burgh pointed with sorrow and rage to the ruins of forty great malt-
barns, which had been full and teeming in 1706, and they muttered
and thought of the days of old, when axes and spears were lifted i
the shout of ' Jetharts here !'
The rumour currently believed in, that the crown and other re-
galia had been stolen to England and destroyed, long added to the
rancorous feelings of the nation ; nor was it fully known until the
* Domestic Annals,
THE WHITE COCKADE. 175
accession of George IV., that those old honours, in defence of which,
from first to last, perhaps a million of Scottish men laid down their
lives in battle, had been lying neglected, but not forgotten, and safe
in the old black chest of James III., in the vaulted crown room of
Edinburgh Castle.
After 1684, when the Duke of Albany and York (to give him
his Scottish title) left Edinburgh with his family, Catholic though
he was, the city sorrowed for him. ' In six years more he was lost
both to her and to Britain, and " a stranger filled the Stuart's
throne" a stranger under whose dynasty poor Scotland pined long
in undeserved reprobation.'
He left, however, religious rancour in full vigour behind him, and
for years no human virtue was recognised, but a sour pharisaical
observance of * the Sabbath,' and the shadow of that spirit lingers
yet in the land.
The great fire which took place in Edinburgh on a Sunday in
1701, was duly announced from the pulpit to be 'a fearful rebuke
of God, as Sabbath breaking so much abounded ;' the Bank of
Scotland was burned, there was no insurance office to repay the
damage done, and when the dearth that followed in the harvest
caused many poor persons to die, it was again alleged that certain
men had once more provoked God by their wickedness and lavish
prodigality ; so there are some points in which, under Her Majesty
Queen Victoria's loving sway, Scotland stands exactly where she did
under William of Orange.
Girt by walls and battled ports, her capital was the same quaint
old city of the middle ages, ' piled deep and massy, close and high,'
unchanged in all its features, since it had seen the little King James
II. escaping on a sumpter horse, packed among his mother's clothes ;
James IV. ride forth with his chivalry to Flodden-field ; Earnley's
shattered corpse borne through the gate of the Dominicans ; and
poor Mary wringing her hands, with dishevelled hair, at the window
of the Black Turnpike. It was unchanged, we say, in its features,
but the union had absorbed the nobles, the grass was growing in
the palace yard and round the market-cross, and sour and gloomy
grew the isolated people.
Except the circulating library kept by Allan Ramsay at the sign
of the Ben Jonson's Head, in the Luckenbooths, there was, we
believe, none in Scotland ; and save when some strollers occasion-
ally performed in the Tailor's Hall, in the Cowgate of Edinburgh,
in all the kindom, from sea to sea, there was not a single theatre or
other place of amusement ; so in the year 1745, the Land of Cakes
could not have been a very lively place of residence. The theatre,
opened by the adventurous author of ' The Gentle Shepherd ' in
1736, was rather roughly shut up by those wise and pious Solon?,
the magistrates of the city. It had been the Signora Violanta's
theatre, at the foot of Carubbers Close, a place since occupied as a
meeting-house by successive tribes of sectaries. The Carfufflea and
176 THE WHITE COCKADE.
Balcrafties of the Presbytery of Edinburgh represented the ' play-
house as the actual temple of the Devil, where he frequently ap-
peared clothed in corporeal substance, and possessed the spectators
whom he held as his worshippers." So the house was closed ; but
in the same year the citizens were regaled by a long procession of
courtesans, having the town drums beaten before them.*
The same spirit of intolerance predominated in Glasgow, where a
theatre erected in 1752, was demolished two years after by a mob
who had heard Whitfield, the Englishman, preach against it.
The clergy never ceased to revile theatricals ; yet the reverend
deputation of the G-eneral Assembly of the Kirk, which went to
London to pay their respects to George I. in 1714, took especial
good care, en route, to see ' Love for Love,' acted at Kendal.
Yet the habits of the people were very simple in the memorable
year of our story. In the pleasant memoirs of Carlyle, the good
old minister of Inveresk, we are told that ' the second tavern in
Haddington, where the Presbytery dined, had knives and forks on
the table ; but ten or twelve years before that time, my father used
to carry a shagreen case, with a knife, fork, and spoon, as, perhaps,
they do still in many parts of the continent.'
Blue bonnets were, of course, worn in lieu of the hideous modern
hat, plaids in lieu of cloaks, and by women of the humbler class at
church and market. Then, as now, mere tradesmen were styled
merchants, to the surprise of Englishmen ; all food was dressed in
the French fashion, and served up by bareheaded and barefooted '
damsels. The cathedrals and abbey churches were in ruins, and God
was worshipped in hideous parochial barns. Yet, strange as it may
seem, there were then Turkish baths, or hummums, at Edinburgh,
a railroad, two miles long, at Port Seton, a penny post, and similar
novelties, which even England knew not, twenty years before the
period we write of.
Literature in the north, like literature in the south, was then
made a truckling slave to peers and patrons of i-ank and wealth, and
scarcely a book ever came forth without some fulsome dedication,
like that which is prefixed to ' Hawthornden's History of the Five
Jameses,' ' Unto the Right Honourable, my very good Lord and
chief, the Earl of Perth,' &c., &c.
The barbarous severities practised after 1715 ; the incessant sneers
and pasquils of Grub Street writers ; the studied policy of English
statesmen to obliterate Scottish nationality ; the cold neglect of the
legislature ; the abuses at home ; the lack of influence in the im-
perial parliament, where, if a Scotsman ventured to speak, his very
accent was greeted with derision ; the total destruction of the east
coast trade, while the west was yet undeveloped ; the restoration of
lay patronage in the church ; local wants ignored ; grants never
given, while taxation was extorted to the uttermost, all led many to
* ' Mercury/ 10th July, 1736.
1'HB WHITE COCKADE. 177
wish a repeal of the union, which would have made matters infinitely
worse, as, from their sectarian views, Scotsmen now could never
govern Scotland. These were all solid grievances, but the most
bitter were the sentimental ones ; and, in the minds of the Scottish
cavaliers, the grand panacea for all things was the restoration of the
House of Stuart, and the expulsion of the Elector of Hanover.
Amid all the popular bigotry of the country in favour of that
personage, it is indeed remarkable that Scotland has NEVEB pro-
duced even ONE song in defence of his rights, or in praise of their
sanguinary upholder, the Duke of Cumberland. In the cause of the
House of Stuart, the whole land burst forth into song and ballad-
sad, or fiercely sarcastic ; and in its ranks have all our poets of the
least note ranged themselves, from the days of James VII. down to
those of Burns, Thomas Campbell, and Edmonston Aytoune. ' With
the Revolution,' says Cromek, ' commences the era of Jacobite song.
The romantic spirit of warrior adventure had begun to leave the
Scotch. It hovered round them like a decaying flame, after the
quenching of those deadly feuds which feasted on the richest blood
of the sister kingdom.'
Scotland, though always possessing more of the sturdy, industrial,
and self-supporting classes, than any country in the world (percent,
of her population), has often been taunted with her poverty; yet
there was more specie to be found in it in the year 1707,* than in
1772, after sixty-five years of political copartnery 5 for Scotland had
to sink, ere she could rise again.
And now, quitting this somewhat dry sketch of the state of
Scotland at the time of our story, we shall return to Lord Dalquharn
in his loneliness.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
GLOOM.
'The earth was BO quiet and the heaven was'so still,
That I heard ilka sound on the wood and'the hill ;
The hameless burds sang with ane doleful moan,
That the deep-wood boweris o' summer were gone ;
And I thought on myself and I mixed with ane sigh,
The mournful murmur of echo's reply ;
But I grat when I thought on the lonely tree,
That flung its last leaf on the wateris free
For I thought 'twas likest my true love and me.'
The Songe of Contlancte.
THE Blackadder vault was a bleak and desolate chamber, the bare
stone walls of which were without wainscoting or even plaster, and
were blackened by smoke from the securely grated fire-place, and
discoloured by the damp sea breeze that whistled through the
equally well-grated windows. Of the latter there were three au
* Diplomats et Xutnlsmatica Scotia.
178 THE WHITE COCKADE.
unusual luxury in the prisons of the Bass very small, however,
and made safe by crossed bars of iron, basket-formed, built into the
massive walls, and coeval with the castle itself.
Sheer down some seventy or eighty feet below, the sea was foam-
ing on the rocks.
An oak bedstead, a stool or two, a little oval mirror, with an old
chest or arnbre, were all the furniture, to which some English prize
of the days of the Commonwealth some unwai-y ship that had
ventured within range of cannon shot had evidently furnished its
quota. A black jack full of water, a hand bell to ring when he re-
quired attendance, and an iron cruise of antique form, filled with
the fetid oil of the solan goose, amid which, a wick that gave a
sickly light, was sputtering, were placed upon the little tripod table
by Steinie Lockyett, the warder, who then withdrew, after a re-
spectful reverence, for he could not forget that Dalquharn was a
lord, and was so far paroled, that he had the whole castle and the
rock itself, to ramble about, whenever he felt disposed to do so.
But another sentinel was now posted at the inner gate, as Living-
stone was resolved to watch well his only prisoner ; and the men
on guard, who had mounted hitherto, with the swords only, then
worn by all private soldiers, now paraded with bayonets fixed, and
muskets loaded.
On the walls he could trace sentences scratched by the hand of
some poor martyr of the oppressed kirk and broken covenant.
' Death is but the period of your life, as the first moment of your
birth is the beginning of your death. Remember the glorious sab-
bath day of Drumclog, and the discomfiture of the godless. lie-
member the 1st of June, 1679.'
Elsewhere was written in a bolder hand
' Dost thou know the value of a day, or even of a minute ?'
' Too well,' thought the poor prisoner, and keenly he felt in his
heart, how English aggression from without, and the foi tlielis-
government of Lauderdale at home, had driven a noble p<a, aiv'to
madness, and to that which never failed their fathers in thtr'end
the sword!
In that same vault, after a long, weary, and unmerited captivity,
for his resistance of episcopacy, and after enduring great bodily
suffering, and all the misery of ' hope deferred,' the Reverend
John Blackadder, minister of Troqueer, died in his seventieth year,
in the cold, bleak winter of 1685, and amid the tears of many sur-
viving sufferers. His poor corpse was lowered by the iron crane
from the gun battery, into a boat, for conveyance to North Berwick
churchyard, where his grave may yet be seen.
And in fancy as the evening darkened, Dalquharn pictured to
himself, that gentle and worthy upholder of religious freedom,
sitting with his infant son upon his knee he, who in future years,
was to lead our Cameronian regiment to many a glorious charge at
Blenheim and at Ramillies teaching him to be a steadfast man,
and true to his country, and never to forget the fifty years war of
the covenant and then came in fancy, too, the hist solemn scene of
all, the aged minister's death, on that quaint old bedstead, with all
his children kneeling round him.
Then Dalquharn shuddered, either by the force of his own ideas,
or because the place was chill and cheerless.
' The Bass,' wrote Blackadder's son, ' was a base, cold, and un-
wholesome prison, all the rooms being ordinarily full of smoke, like
to suffocate and choke us, so that my father and other prisoners
were necessitated many a time to thrust head and shoulders out
of the window to recover breath. They were obliged to drink tho
twopenny ale of the governor's brewing, scarcely worth a halfpenny
the pint, and several times were sorely in want of victuals, for ten
or twelve days together, the boats not daring to venture to them by
reason of the stormy weather.'
The light in the iron cruise sank lower, and the discolorued
patches on the wall seemed to assume stranger forms. At hist the
flame died out, and he was left in total darkness, for even the bright
starlight scarcely found way through the small grated apertures.
He threw himself on his bed, full of gloomy, fierce, and terrible
thoughts.
Past the window gratings, the sea breeze moaned with something
of the JEolian sound we hear in the wires of the telegraph, and iii
his ears it mingled dreamily with the chafing of the sea far down
below.
Like the spirit of the Geni, who was bottled up in a flask under
the seal of Solomon, till netted by the fisherman in the Arabian
Nights, Dalquharn in heart, grew every moment more savage and
gloomy, under an imprisonment so secure, obloquy so false, and
wrongs so foul !
If not removed to England, he had no hope now but to wait the
landing of the prince, and to pray that his career would be a rapid
and a victorious one. But the prince might never land ; storms
and destiny had often ere then, proved hostile to the plans of that
fated royal family ; and if he actually did land, his attempt might
end only in defeat to himself, and destruction to all his followers.
If his march proved one of victory, oh, what agony to Dalquharn,
to be secluded on that island Bock, while all his friends were play-
ing the great historical game of a second Restoration ; but if they
failed, what would be left him, save black despair and a horrible
death!
Dalquharn knew that he was as innocent of rebellion as of the
death of Gage ; but what would that innocence avail him, as the
party in power were then constituted ?
The doom accorded to a traitor was hanging over him ; death,
certainly, but not a death of shame and the hour of his martyrdom
might be very close, indeed ! To-morrow, he might hear a gun
122
180 THE WHITE COCKADE.
from a king's ship, and see her lying off the Bass with shortened
sail, and with an order to receive him on board.
Seated on the knee of his tender and gentle mother, in their once
happy home, far away in pastoral G-alloway, where the black waters
of the Dee roll down through heathy hills ; and afterwards, in the
years of their humble exile in other lands, he had heard her tell,
again and again, while her dark eyes kindled, and her proud lip
quivered with sorrow and indignation, how their kinsman, the dash-
ing Viscount of Kenmure, and the Earl of Derwentwater botli
alike gallant and resolute, gentle and true had died on the scaffold
for their exiled king ; and the oft repeated story filled his boyish
heart with a loathing of then- cold-blooded destroyers, and with
something of dismay too. And now the time had come, when the
same dark fate seemed awaiting him.
London's assembled thousands, hushed in silence and in pity ;
the slow march of the Horse Grenadiers, with their black horses
and sugar-loaf caps ; the Beefeaters, in their quaint costume, with
partisan and sword ; the tolling of the muffled bells ; Tower Hill
with all its past and present terrors ; the scaffold with its sanded
floor ; the bare-armed executioner with axe and knife, all came be-
fore him in fancy now, with the grave's black gulf beyond.
To the unthinking and the stolid, such a fate was horrible ; to be
decapitated and mangled to have head cut off, and heart torn out,
that both might be exposed reeking to the gaping rabble of London,
as the head and heart of a traitor he a Scottish peer, a Douglas,
loyal a la morte, to his king through twenty generations of landed
and noble men yea, loyal as he was to that sweet Bryde, he never
more might see he a traitor, who upheld that right divine, which
God had said was the right of the first-born ?
He, full of youth and strength, of vitality, and high hope at times,
was he quietly to endure all this, and through the success*"! wiles
and machinations of a triumphant human serpent like B? ^ 01 t' 1 ^ ?
To be thrust into a common coffin, and buried, not where' P'/ 1 ) ar ng
line of his proud ancestors lay, in the old fane of St. CiiDb'ert, by
the Dee ; not by the side of his beloved mother in the land of her
exile ; but thrust, perhaps, into a hole in the Tower ditch, beside
the fetid and muddy Thames !
A transport of rage seized him ; he sprang from his pallet ; threw
open one of the little windows and let the cool breeze of the mid-
night sea, play upon his flushed face. In his impotent wrath, he
clutched, wrenched and swung on the rusty bars ; each was thick
as his wrist, and immovable as the foundations of the Bass, in the
ocean, hundreds of feet below.
Then, often, after a sleepless and restless night, such as this, the
morning dawned the bright early summer morning, and, as it
streamed through his prison bars, revealing everything with pro-
voking distinctness, it would find him still nervously awake and
brooding on his wrongs.
THE WHITE COCKADE. 181
Broad, red and glorious, each morning, the summer sun came
upward from the eastern sea ; afar off the long stretch of rocky coast
that joined the fertile Merse, and the curving lines of the Lammer-
muirs were steeped in ruddy light ; and then North Berwick's won-
drous cone seemed a pyramid of flame, while the rugged cliffs and
Tantallan, and all its shattered towers, wore the same glowing tints.
Close at hand were the ever restless seabirds rerolving with their
incessant cry of ' kittiwake ' from which they take their name.
There are few who have not proved or felt when there has been a
great grief or violent wrench of the heart, the slow but sure erasure
of the past existence from the mind ; and that it seems to fade, or
become confused and dim, until the present appears the only one we
seem to have known.
Thus there were times when Dalquharn, as the monotonous days
rolled on, marvelled in his soul if Bryde Otterburn, with her clear
brown eyes and rich brown hair, her bright complexion and ringing
laugh, really existed, and for him ! Their past life, their vows and
love seemed almost doubtful now, and their memory hovered vaguely
in his mind at times, like the recollection of dreams he once had 
