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WAVERLEY NOVELS

HOUSEHOLD EDITION.

GUY MANNERING.

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BO STON:
TIOKNOR AND FIELDS.

M DCCC LVII.

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STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY

H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.

GUY MANNERINGj

OR,

THE ASTROLOGER.

>Tis said that words and signs have power,
O'er sprites in planetary hour;
But scarce I praise their venturous part,
Who tamper with such dangerous art.

LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL.

45X1143

GUY MANNERINGj

OB,

THE ASTROLOGER.

CHAPTER XXX.

Renounce your defiance; if you parley so roughly, I'll barricade my gates

against you. — Do you see yon bay window? Storm, — I care not, serving the

good Duke of Norfolk.

Merry Devil or Edmonton.

JULIA MANNERING TO MATILDA MARCHMONT.

" I rise from a sick-bed, my dearest Matilda, to com-
municate the strange and frightful scenes which have just
passed. Alas, how little we ought to jest with futurity !
I closed my letter to you in high spirits, with some flip-
pant remarks on your taste for the romantic and extraor-
dinary in fictitious narrative. How little I expected to
have had such events to record in the course of a few
days ! And to witness scenes of terror, or to contemplate
them in description, is as different, my dearest Matilda, as
to bend over the brink of a precipice holding by the frail
tenure of a half-rooted shrub, or to admire the same

•4
v. -t

6 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

precipice as represented in the landscape of Salvator.
But I will not anticipate my narrative.

" The first part of my story is frightful enough, though
it had nothing to interest my feelings. You must know
that this country is particularly favourable to the com-
merce of a set of desperate men from the Isle of Man,
which is nearly opposite. These smugglers are numer-
ous, resolute, and formidable, and have at different times
become the dread of the neighbourhood when any one has
interfered with their contraband trade. The local magis-
trates, from timidity or worse motives, have become shy
of acting against them, and impunity has rendered them
equally daring and desperate. With all this, my father,
a stranger in the land, and invested with no official au-
thority, had, one would think, nothing to do. But it must
be owned, that, as he himself expresses it, he was born
when Mars was lord of his ascendant, and that strife and
bloodshed find him out in circumstances and situations the
most retired and pacific.

" About eleven o'clock on last Tuesday morning, while
Hazlewood and my father were proposing to walk to a
little lake about three miles' distance, for the purpose of
shooting wild ducks, and while Xucy and I were busied
with arranging our plan of work and study for the day,
we were alarmed by the sound of horses' feet, advancing
very fast up. the avenue. The ground was hardened by
a severe frost, which made the clatter of the hoofs sound
yet louder and sharper. In a moment two or three men,
armed, mounted, and each leading a spare horse loaded
with packages, appeared on the lawn, and, without keep-
ing upon the road, which makes a small sweep, pushed
right across for the door of the house. Their appearance
was in the utmost degree hurried and disordered, and they

GUT MANNERIKG. 7

frequently looked back like men who apprehended a close
and deadly pursuit. My father and Hazlewood hurried
to the front door to demand who they were, and what was
their business. They were revenue officers, they stated,
who had seized these horses, loaded with contraband arti-
cles, at a place about three miles off. But the smugglers
had been reinforced, and were now pursuing them with
the avowed purpose of recovering the goods, and putting
to death the officers who had presumed to do their duty.
The men said, that their horses being loaded, and the
pursuers gaining ground upon them, they had fled to
Woodbourne, conceiving, that as my father had served
the king, he would not refuse to protect the servants of
Government, when threatened to be murdered in the dis-
charge of their duty.

" My father, to whom, in his enthusiastic feelings of
military loyalty, even a dog would be of importance if he
came in the king's name, gave prompt orders for securing
the goods in the hall, arming the servants, and defending
the house in case it should be necessary. Hazlewood
seconded him with great spirit, and even the strange an-
imal they call Sampson stalked out of his den, and seized
upon a fowling-piece, which my father had laid aside, to
take what they call a rifle-gun, with which they shoot
tigers, &c. in the East. The piece went off in the awk-
ward hands of the poor parson, and very nearly shot one
of the excisemen. At this unexpected and involuntary
explosion of his weapon, the Dominie (such is his nick-
name) exclaimed, ' Prodigious ! ' which is his usual ejacu-
lation when astonished. But no power could force the
man to part with his discharged piece, so they \fere con-
tent to let him retain it, with the precaution of trusting
him with no ammunition. This (excepting the alarm

8 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

occasioned by the report) escaped my notice at the time,
you may easily believe ; but in talking over the scene
afterwards, Hazlewood made us very merry with the
Dominie's ignorant but zealous valour.

" When my father had got everything into proper
order for defence, and his people stationed at the windows
with their fire-arms, he wanted to order us out of danger
— into the cellar, I believe — but we could not be pre-
vailed upon to stir. Though terrified to death, I have so
much of his own spirit, that I would look upon the peril
which threatens us, rather than hear it rage around me
without knowing its nature or its progress. Lucy, look-
ing as pale as a marble statue, and keeping her eyes fixed
on Hazlewood, seemed not even to hear the prayers with
which he conjured her to leave the front of the house.
But, in truth, unless the hall-door should be forced, we
were in little danger — the windows being almost blocked
up with cushions and pillows, and, what the Dominie
most lamented, with folio volumes, brought hastily from
the library, leaving only spaces through which the defend-
ers might fire upon the assailants.

" My father had now made his dispositions, and we sat
in breathless expectation in the darkened apartment, the
men remaining all silent upon their posts, in anxious con-
templation probably of the approaching danger. My
father, who was quite at home in such a scene, walked
from one to another, and reiterated his orders, that no one
should presume to fire until he gave the word. Hazle-
wood, who seemed to catch courage from his eye, acted
as his aide-de-camp, and displayed the utmost alertness in
bearing his directions from one place to another, and
seeing them properly carried into execution. Our force,
with the strangers included, might amount to about twelve
men.

GUT MANNERING. 9

u At length the silence of this awful period of expecta*
tion was broken by a sound, which, at a distance, was like
the rushing of a stream of water, but, as it approached,
we distinguished the thick-beating clang of a number of
horses advancing very fast. I had arranged a loop-hole
for myself, from which I could see the approach of the
enemy. The noise increased and came nearer, and at
length thirty horsemen and more rushed at once upon the
lawn. You never saw such horrid wretches ! Notwith-
standing the severity of the season, they were most of
them stripped to their shirts and trowsers, with silk hand-
kerchiefs knotted about their heads, and all well armed
with carbines, pistols, and cutlasses. I, who am a sol-
dier's daughter, and accustomed to see war from my in-
fancy, was never so terrified in my life as by the savage
appearance of these ruffians, their horses reeking with the
speed at which they had ridden, and their furious excla-
mations of rage and disappointment when they saw them-
selves baulked of their prey. They paused, however,
when they saw the preparations made to receive them,
and appeared to hold a moment's consultation among
themselves. At length, one of the party, his face black-
ened with gunpowder by way of disguise, came forward
with a white handkerchief on the end of his carbine, and
asked to speak with Colonel Mannering. My father, to
my infinite terror, threw open a window near which he
was posted, and demanded what he wanted. ' We want
our goods, which we have been robbed of by these
sharks,' said the fellow ; ' and our lieutenant bids me say,
that if they are delivered, we'll go off for this bout with-
out clearing scores with the rascals who took them ; but
if not, we'll burn the house, and have the heart's blood
of every one in it ; ' — a threat which he repeated more

10 "WAVERLEY NOVELS.

than once, graced by a fresh variety of imprecations, and
the most horrid denunciations that cruelty could suggest.

" * And which is your lieutenant ? ' said my father in
reply.

" ' That gentleman on the grey horse,' said the miscre-
ant, * with the red handkerchief bound about his brow/

" ' Then be pleased to tell that gentleman, that if he,
and the scoundrels who are with him, do not ride off the
lawn this instant, I will fire upon them without ceremony.'
So saying, my father shut the window, and broke short
the conference.

" The fellow no sooner regained his troop, than, with a
loud hurra, or rather a savage yell, they fired a volley
against our garrison. The glass of the windows was
shattered in every direction, but the precautions already
noticed saved the party within from suffering. Three
such volleys were fired without a shot being returned
from within. My father then observed them getting
hatchets and crows, probably to assail the hall door, and
called aloud, * Let none fire but Hazlewood and me—
Hazlewood, mark the ambassador ! ' He himself aimed
at the man on the grey horse, who fell on receiving his
shot. Hazlewood was equally successful. He shot the
spokesman, who had dismounted, and was advancing with
an axe in his hand. Their fall discouraged the rest, who
began to turn round their horses : and a few shots fired
at them soon sent them off, bearing along with them their
slain or wounded companions. We could not observe
that they suffered any farther loss. Shortly after their
retreat, a party of soldiers made their appearance, to my
infinite relief. These men were quartered at a village
some miles distant, and had marched on the first rumour
of the skirmish. A part of them escorted the terrified

GUT MANNERING. 11

revenue officers and their seizure to a neighbouring sea-
port as a place of safety, and at my earnest request two
or three files remained with us for that and the following
day, for the security of the house from the vengeance of
these banditti.

" Such, dearest Matilda, was my first alarm. I must
not forget to add, that the ruffians left, at a cottage on
the road-side, the man whose face was blackened with
powder, apparently because he was unable to bear trans-
portation. He died in about half an hour after. On ex-
amining the corpse, it proved to be that of a profligate
boor in the neighbourhood, a person notorious as a poacher
and smuggler. We received many messages of congrat-
ulation from the neighbouring families, and it was gener*
ally allowed that a few such instances of spirited resistance
would greatly check the presumption of these lawless
men. My father distributed rewards among his servants,
and praised Hazlewood's courage and coolness to the
skies. Lucy and I came in for a share of his applause,
because we had stood fire with firmness, and had not dis-
turbed him with screams or expostulations. As for the
Dominie, my father took an opportunity of begging to
exchange snuff-boxes with him. The honest gentleman
was much flattered with the proposal, and extolled the
beauty of his new snuff-box excessively. ' It looked,' he
said ' as well as if it were real gold from Ophir.' Indeed
it would be odd if it should not, being formed in fact of
that very metal ; but, to do this honest creature justice, I
believe the knowledge of its real value would not enhance
his sense of my father's kindness, supposing it, as he does,
to be pinchbeck gilded. He has had a hard task re-
placing the folios which were used in the barricade,
smoothing out the creases and dogs-ears, and repairing

12 "WAVERLEY NOVELS.

the other disasters they have sustained during their ser-
vice in the fortification. He brought us some pieces of
lead and bullets, which these ponderous tomes had inter-
cepted during the action, and which he had extracted
with great care ; and, were I in spirits, I could give you
a comic account of his astonishment at the apathy with
which we heard of the wounds and mutilation suffered by
Thomas Aquinas, or the venerable Chrysostom. But I
am not in spirits, and I have yet another and a more in-
teresting incident to communicate. I feel, however, so
much fatigued with my present exertion, that I cannot
resume the pen till to-morrow. I will detain this letter,
notwithstanding, that you may not feel any anxiety upon
account of your own

"Julia Mannering."

GUT MANNERING. 13

CHAPTER XXXI.

Here's a good world!

Knew you of this feir work?

Kino John.

JULIA MANNERING TO MATILDA MARCHMONT.

" I must take up the threa'd of my story, my dearest
Matilda, where I broke off yesterday.

" For two or three days we talked of nothing but our
siege and its probable consequences, and dinned into my
father's unwilling ears a proposal to go to Edinburgh, or
at least to Dumfries, where there is remarkably good
society, until the resentment of these outlaws should blow
over. He answered, with great composure, that he had
no mind to have his landlord's house and his own prop-
erty at Woodbourne destroyed ; that, with our good leave,
he had usually been esteemed competent to taking mea-
sures for the safety or protection of his family ; that if
he remained quiet at home, he conceived the welcome the
villains had received was not of a nature to invite a second
visit, but should he shew any signs of alarm, it would be
the sure way to incur the very risk which we were afraid
of. Heartened by his arguments, and by the extreme
indifference with wliich he treated the supposed danger,
we began to grow a little bolder, and to walk about as
usual. Only the gentlemen were sometimes invited to

14 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

take their guns when they attended us ; and I observed
that my father for several nights paid particular attention
to having the house properly secured, and required his
domestics to keep their arms in readiness in case of ne-
cessity.

" But three days ago chanced an occurrence, of a
nature which alarmed me more by far than the attack of
the smugglers.

" I told you there was a small lake at some distance
from Woodbourne, where the gentlemen sometimes go to
shoot wild-fowl. I happened at breakfast to say I should
like to see this place in its present frozen state, occupied
by skaters and curlers, as they call those who play a par-
ticular sort of game upon the ice. There is snow on the
ground, but frozen so hard that I thought Lucy and I
might venture to that distance, as the footpath leading
there was well beaten by the repair of those who fre-
quented it for pastime. Hazlewood instantly offered to
attend us, and we stipulated that he should take his fowl-
ing piece. He laughed a good deal at the idea of going
a-shooting in the snow; but, to relieve our tremors,
desired that a groom, who acts as gamekeeper occasion-
ally, should follow us with his gun. As for Colonel Man-
nering, he does not like crowds or sights of any kind
where human figures make up the show, unless indeed it
were a military review — so he declined the party.

" We set out unusually early, on a fine frosty, exhila-
rating morning, and we felt our minds, as well as our
nerves, braced by the elasticity of the pure air. Our
walk to the lake was delightful, or at least the difficulties
were only such as diverted us, — a slippery descent, for
instance, or a frozen ditch to cross, — which made Hazle-
wood's assistance absolutely necessary. I don't think

GUY MANNERING. 15

Lucy liked her walk the less for these occasional embar-
rassments.

" The scene upon the lake was beautiful. One side of
it is bordered by a steep crag, from which hung a thou-
sand enormous icicles, all glittering in the sun ; on the
other side was a little wood, now exhibiting that fantastic
appearance which the pine trees present when their
branches are loaded with snow. On the frozen bosom
of the lake itself were a multitude of moving figures,
some flitting along with the velocity of swallows, some
sweeping in the most graceful circles, and others deeply
interested in a less active pastime, crowding round the
spot where the inhabitants of two rival parishes contended
for the prize at curling, — an honour of no small importance,
if we were to judge from the anxiety expressed both by
the players and bystanders. We walked round the little
lake, supported by Hazlewpod, who lent us each an arm.
He spoke, poor fellow, with great kindness, to old and
young, and seemed deservedly popular among the assem-
bled crowd. At length we thought of retiring.

u Why do I mention these trivial occurrences ? — not,
Heaven knows, from the interest I can now attach to
them — but because, like a drowning man who catches at
a brittle twig, I seize every apology for delaying the
subsequent and dreadful part of my narrative. But it
must be communicated — I must have the sympathy of at
least one friend under this heart-rending calamity.

" We were returning home by a footpath which led
through a plantation of firs. Lucy had quitted Hazle-
wood's arm — it is only the plea of absolute necessity
which reconciles her to accept his assistance. I still
leaned upon his other arm. Lucy followed us close, and
the servant was two or three paces behind us. Such was

16 "WAVERLET NOVELS.

our position, when at once, and as if he had started out of
the earth, Brown stood before us at a short turn of the
road! He was very plainly, I might say coarsely,
dressed, and his whole appearance had in it something
wild and agitated. I screamed between surprise and
terror — Hazlewood mistook the nature of my alarm, and,
when Brown advanced towards me as if to speak, com-
manded him haughtily to stand back, and not to alarm
the lady. Brown replied, with equal asperity, he had no
occasion to take lessons from him how to behave to that
or any other lady. I rather believe that Hazlewood, im-
pressed with the idea that he belonged to the band of
smugglers, and had some bad purpose in view, heard and
understood him imperfectly. He snatched the gun from
the servant, who had come up on a line with us, and,
pointing the muzzle at Brown, commanded him to stand
off at his peril. My screams, for my terror prevented
my finding articulate language, only hastened the catas-
trophe. Brown, thus menaced, sprung upon Hazlewood,
grappled with him, and had nearly succeeded in wrench-
ing the fowling-piece from his grasp, -when the gun went
off in the struggle, and the contents were lodged in
Hazlewood's shoulder, who instantly fell. I saw no
more, for the whole scene reeled before my eyes, and I
fainted away ; but, by Lucy's report, the unhappy perpe-
trator of this action gazed a moment on the scene before
him, until her screams began to alarm the people upon
the lake, several of whom now came in sight. He then
bounded over a hedge which divided the footpath from
the plantation, and has not since been heard of. The
servant made no attempt to stop or secure him, and the
report he made of the matter to those who came up to us,
induced them rather to exercise their humanity in recall-

GUT MANNERING. 17

ing me to life, than show their courage by pursuing a
desperado, described by the groom as a man of tremendous
personal strength, and completely armed.

" Hazlewood was conveyed home, — that is, to Wood-
bourne, in safety ; I trust his wound will prove in no
respect dangerous, though he suffers much. But to
Brown the consequences must be most disastrous. He
is already the object of my father's resentment, and he
has now incurred danger from the law of the country, as
well as from the clamorous vengeance of the father of
Hazlewood, who threatens to move heaven and earth
against the author of fctfs son's wound. How will he be
able to shroud himself from the vindictive activity of the
pursuit? — how to defend himself, if taken, against the
severity of laws which I am told may even affect his life ?
and how can I find means to warn him of his danger?
Then poor Lucy's ill-concealed grief, occasioned by her
lover's wound, is another source of distress to me, and
everything round me appears to bear witness against that
indiscretion which has occasioned this calamity.

" For two days I was very ill indeed. The news that
Hazlewood was recovering, and that the person who had
shot him was nowhere to be traced, only that for certain
he was one of the leaders of the gang of smugglers, gave
me some comfort. The suspicion and pursuit being
directed towards those people, must naturally facilitate
Brown's escape, and, I trust, has ere this insured it.
But patrols of horse and foot traverse the country in
all directions, and I am tortured by a thousand con-
fused and unauthenticated rumours of arrests and dis-
coveries.

" Meanwhile, my greatest source of comfort is the
generous candour of Hazlewood, who persists in declar-

VOL. IV. 2

18 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

ing, that with whatever intentions the person by whom
he was wounded approached our party, he is convinced
the gun went off in the struggle by accident, and that the
injury he received was undesigned. The groom, on the
other hand, maintains that the piece was wrenched out of
Hazlewood's hands, and deliberately pointed at his body,
— and Lucy inclines to the same opinion. I do not
suspect them of wilful exaggeration; yet such is the
fallacy of human testimony, for the unhappy shot was
most unquestionably discharged unintentionally. Per-
haps it would be the best way to confide the whole
secret to Hazlewood — but he is very young, and I feel
the utmost repugnance to communicate to him my folly,
I once thought of disclosing the mystery to Lucy, and
began by asking what she recollected of the person and
features of the man whom we had so unfortunately met ;
— but she ran out into such a horrid description of a
hedge-ruffian, that I was deprived of all courage and dis-
position to own my attachment to one of such appearance
as she attributed to him. I must say Miss Bertram is
strangely biassed by her prepossessions, for there are few
handsomer men than poor Brown. I had not seen him
for a long time; and even in his strange and sudden
apparition on this unhappy occasion, and under every
disadvantage, his form seems tp me, on reflection, im-
proved in grace, and his features in expressive dignity. —
Shall we ever meet again ? Who can answer that ques-
tion? — Write to me kindly, my dearest Matilda — But
when did you otherwise ? — Yet, again, write to me soon,
and write to me kindly. I am not in a situation to profit
by advice or reproof, nor have I my usual spirits to parry
them by raillery. I feel the terrors of a child who has,
in heedless sport, put in motion some powerful piece of

GUT MANNERING. 19

machinery ; and, while he beholds wheels revolvingj
chains clashing, cylinders rolling around him, is equally
astonished at the tremendous powers which his weak
agency has called into action, and terrified for the conse-
quences which he is compelled to await, without the
possibility of averting them.

" I must not omit to say that my father is very kind
and affectionate. The alarm which I have received forms
a sufficient apology for my nervous complaints. My
hopes are, that Brown has made his escape into the sister
kingdom of England, or perhaps to Ireland, or the Isle
of Man. In either case, he may wait the issue of Hazle-
wood's, wound with safety and with patience, for the com-
munication of these countries with Scotland for the
purpose of justice, is not (thank Heaven) of an intimate
nature. The consequences of his being apprehended
would be terrible at this moment. — I endeavour to
strengthen my mind by arguing against the possibility
of such a calamity. Alas ! how soon have sorrows and
fears, real as well as severe, followed the uniform and
tranquil state of existence at which so lately I was dis-
posed to repine ! But I will not oppress you any longer
with my complaints. Adieu, my dearest Matilda !

" Julia Mannering."

20 WAVBBLBT NOVELS.

CHAPTER XXXTL

A man may see how this world goes with no eyes.— Look with thine ears :
See how yon justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark in thine ear—Chang*
places; and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?

Euro Lbab.

Among those who took the most lively interest in
endeavouring to discover the person by whom young
Charles Hazlewood had been waylaid and wounded, was

Gilbert Glossin, Esquire, late writer in , now Laird

of Ellangowan, and one of the worshipful commission of
justices of the peace for the county of . His mo-
tives for exertion on this occasion were manifold ; but we
presume that our readers, from what they already know
of this gentleman, will acquit him of being actuated by
any zealous or intemperate love of abstract justice.

The truth was, that this respectable personage felt
himself less at ease than he had expected, after his
machinations put him in possession of his benefactor's
estate. His reflections within doors, where so much
occurred to remind him of former times, were not always
the self-congratulations of successful stratagem. And
when he looked abrpad, he could not but be sensible that
he was excluded from the society of the gentry of the
county, to whose rank he conceived he had raised him-
self. He was not admitted to their clubs ; and at meet-
ings of a public nature, from which he could not be

GUT MANNERING. 21

altogether excluded, he found himself thwarted and
looked upon with coldness and contempt. Both principle
and prejudice co-operated in creating this dislike ; foir
the gentlemen of the county despised him for the lowness
of his birth, while they hated him for the means by which
he had raised his fortune. With the common people his
reputation stood still worse. They would neither yield
him the territorial appellation of Ellangowan, nor the
usual compliment of Mr, Glossin ; — with them he was
bare Glossin ; and so incredibly was his vanity interested
by this trifling circumstance, that he was known to give
half-a-crown to a beggar because he had thrice called
him Ellangowan, in beseeching him for a penny. He
therefore felt acutely the general want of respect, and
particularly when he contrasted his own character and
reception in society with those of Mr. Mac-Morlan, who,
in far inferior worldly circumstances, was beloved and
respected both by rich and poor, and was slowly but
securely laying the foundation of a moderate fortune,
with the general good-will and esteem of all who knew
him.

Glossin, while he repined internally at what he would
fain have called the prejudices and prepossessions of the
country, was too wise to make any open complaint. He
was sensible his elevation was too recent to be imme-
diately forgotten, and the means by which he had attained
it too odious to be soon forgiven. But time (thought he)
diminishes wonder and palliates misconduct. With the
dexterity, therefore, of one who made his fortune by study-
ing the weak points of human nature, he determined to
lie by for opportunities to make himself useful even to
those who most disliked him ; trusting that his own
abilities, the disposition of country gentlemen to get into

22 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

quarrels, when a lawyer's advice becomes precious, and
a thousand other contingencies, of which, with patience
and address, he doubted not to be able to avail himself,
would soon place him in a more important and respectable
light to his neighbours, and perhaps raise him to the emi-
nence sometimes attained by a shrewd, worldly, bustling
man of business, when, settled among a generation of
country gentlemen, he becomes, in Burns's language,

The tongue of the trump to them a\*

The attack on Colonel Mannering's house, followed by
the accident of Hazlewood's wound, appeared to Glossin
a proper opportunity to impress upon the country at large
the service which could be rendered by an active magis-
trate (for he had been in the commission for some
time), well acquainted with the law, and no less so with
the haunts and habits of the illicit traders. He had
acquired the latter kind of experience by a former close
alliance with some of the most desperate smugglers, in
consequence of which he had occasionally acted, some-
times as partner, sometimes as legal adviser, with these
persons. But the connexion had been dropped many
years ; nor, considering how short the race of eminent
characters of this description, and the frequent circum-
stances which occur to make them retire from particular
scenes of action, had he the least reason to think that his
present researches could possibly compromise any old
friend who might possess means of retaliation. The
having been concerned in these practices abstractedly,
was a circumstance which, according to his opinion,
ought in no respect to interfere with his now using his

* The tongue of the trump is the wire of the Jew's harp, that
which gives sound to the whole instrument.

GUY MANNERING. 23

experience in behalf of the public,— or rather to further
his own private views. To acquire the good opinion and
countenance of Colonel Mannering, would be no small
object to a gentleman who was much disposed to escape
from Coventry ; and to gain the favour of old Hazlewood,
who was a leading man in the county, was of more im-
portance still. Lastly, if he should succeed in discovering,
apprehending, and convicting the culprits, he would have
the satisfaction of mortifying, and in some degree dis-
paraging Mac-Morlan, to whom, as Sheriff-substitute of
the county, this sort of investigation properly belonged,
and who would certainly suffer in public opinion, should
the voluntary exertions of Glossin be more successful
than his own.

Actuated by motives so stimulating, and well acquainted
with the lower retainers of the law, Glossin set every
spring in motion to detect and apprehend, if possible,
some of the gang who had attacked Woodbourne, and
more particularly the individual who had wounded
Charles Hazlewood. He promised high rewards, he
suggested various schemes, and used his personal interest
among his old acquaintances who favoured the trade,
urging that they had better make sacrifice of an under-
strapper or two, than incur the odium of having favoured
such atrocious proceedings. But for some time all these
exertions were in vain. The common people of the
country either favoured or feared the smugglers too much
to" afford any evidence against them. At length, this
busy magistrate obtained information, that a man, having
the dress and appearance of the person who had wounded
Hazlewood, had lodged on the evening before the ren-
contre at the Gordon- Arms in Kippletringan. Thither
Mr. Glossin immediately went, for the purpose of inter-
rogating our old acquaintance, Mrs. Mac-Candlish.

24 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

The reader may remember that Mr. Glossin did not,
according to this good woman's phrase, stand high in her
books. She therefore attended his summons to the par-
lour slowly and reluctantly, and, on entering the room,
paid her respects in the coldest possible manner. The
dialogue then proceeded as follows : —

" A fine frosty morning, Mrs. Mac-Candlish. ,,

" Ay, sir ; the morning's weel eneugh," answered the
landlady, drily.

" Mrs. Mac-Candlish, I wish to know if the justices are
to dine here as usual after the business of the court on
Tuesday ? "

"I believe — I fancy sae, sir — as usual" — (about to
leave the room.)

" Stay a moment, Mrs. Mac-Candlish — why, you are
in a prodigious hurry, my good friend ! I have been
thinking a club dining here once a month would be a
very pleasant thing."

" Certainly, sir ; a club of respectable gentlemen."

" True, true," said Glossin, " I mean landed proprie-
tors and gentlemen of weight in the county ; and I should
like to set such a thing a-going."

The short dry cough with which Mrs. Mac-Candlish
received this proposal, by no means indicated any dislike
to the overture abstractedly considered, but inferred much
doubt how far it would succeed under the auspices of the
gentleman by whom it was proposed. It was not a cough
negative, but a cough dubious, and as such Glossin felt it ;
but it was not his cue to take offence.

" Have there been brisk doings on the road, Mrs. Mac-
Candlish ? plenty of company, I suppose ? "

" Pretty weel, sir, — but I believe I am wanted at the
bar."

GUY MANNERING. 25

rt No, no, — stop one moment, cannot you, to oblige an
old customer? Pray, do you remember a remarkably
tall young man, who lodged one night in your house last
week ? "

u Troth, sir, I canna weel say — I never take heed
whether my company be lang or short, if they make a
lang bill."

" And if they do not, you can do that for them, eh,
Mrs. Mac-Candlish ? — ha ! ha ! ha ! — But this young man
that I inquire after was upwards of six feet high, had a
dark frock, with metal buttons, light-brown hair unpow-
dered, blue eyes, and a straight nose, travelled on foot,
had no servant or baggage — you surely can remember
having seen such a traveller ? "

"Indeed, sir," answered Mrs. Mac-Candlish, bent on
baffling his inquiries, " I canna charge my memory about
the matter — there's mair to do in a house like this, I trow,
than to look after passengers' hair, or their een, or noses
either."

" Then, Mrs. Mac-Candlish, I must tell you in plain
terms, that this person is suspected of having been guilty
of a crime ; and it is in consequence of these suspicions
that I, as a magistrate, require this information from you
— and if you refuse to answer my questions, I must put
you upon your oath."

" Troth, sir, I am no free to swear* — we ay gaed to
the Antiburgher meeting — it's very true, in Bailie Mac-
Candlish's time (honest man) we keepit the kirk, whilk
was most seemingly in his station, as having office — but
after his being called to a better place than Kippletringan,
I hae gaen back to worthy Maister Mac-Grainer. And

* Some of the strict dissenters decline taking an oath before a civil
magistrate.

26 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

so ye see, sir, I am no clear to swear without speaking to
the minister — especially against ony sackless puir young
thing that's gaun through the country, stranger and
freendless like."

" I shall relieve your scruples, perhaps, without troub-
ling Mr. Mac-Grainer, when I tell you that this fellow
whom I inquire after is the man who shot your young
friend Charles Hazlewood."

" Gudeness I wha could hae thought the like o' that o*
him ? — Na, if it had been for debt, or e'en for a bit tuilzie
wi' the gauger, the deil o* Nelly Mac-Candlish's tongue
should ever hae wranged him. But if he really shot
young Hazlewood — But I canna think it, Mr. Glossin ;
this will be some o' your skits * now — I canna think it o'
sae douce a lad ; — na, na, this is just some o' your auld
skits — ye'll be for having a horning or a caption after
him."

"I see you have no confidence in me, Mrs. Mac-
Candlish ; but look at these declarations, signed by the
persons who saw the crime committed, and judge your-
self if the description of the ruffian be not that of your
guest."

He put the papers into her hand, which she perused
very carefully, often taking off her spectacles to cast her
eyes up to heaven, or perhaps to wipe a tear from them,
for young Hazlewood was an especial favourite with the
good dame. " Aweel, aweel," she said, when she had
concluded her examination, " since it's e'en sae, I gie him
up, the villain — But O, we are erring mortals ! — I never
saw a face I liked better, or a lad that was mair douce
and canny — I thought he had been some gentleman under
trouble. — But I gie him up, the villain ! — to shoot Charles

* Tricks.

GUY MANNERING. 27

Hazlewood — and before the young ladies, — poor innocent
things ! — I gie him up."

" So you admit, then, that such a person lodged here
the night before this vile business ? "

" Troth did he, sir, and a* the house were taen wi* hiin,
he was sic a frank, pleasant young man. It wasna for
his spending, Fm sure, for he just had a mutton-chop,
and a mug of ale, and maybe a glass or twa o' wine —
and I asked him to drink tea wi' mysell, and didna put
that into the bill ; and he took nae supper, for he said he
was defeat wi' travel a* the night afore — I dare sae now
it had been on some hellicat errand or other."

" Did you by any chance learn his name ? "
v " I wot weel did I," said the landlady, now as eager to
communicate her evidence as formerly desirous to sup-
press it " He telTd me his name was Brown, and he
said it was likely that an auld woman like a gipsy wife
might be asking for him. Ay, ay ! tell me your company,
and Fll tell you wha ye are ! O the villain ! — Aweel, sir,
when he gaed away in the morning, he paid his bill very
honestly and gae something to the chambermaid, nae
doubt, for Grizy has naething frae me, by twa pair o' new
shoon, ilka year, and maybe a bit compliment at Hansel
Monanday " Here Glossin found it necessary to inter-
fere, and bring the good woman back to the point.

" Ou then, he just said, if there comes such a person
to inquire after Mr. Brown, you will say I am gone to
look at the skaters on Loch Creeran, as you call it, and I
will be back here to dinner — But he never came back —
though I expected him sae faithfully, that I gae a look to
making the friar's chicken mysell, and to the crappit-heads
too, and that's what I dinna do for ordinary, Mr. Glossin
— But little did I think what skating wark he was gaun
about — to shoot Mr. Charles, the innocent lamb ! "

*

28 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Mr. Glossin, having, like a prudent examinator, suffered
his witness to give vent to all her surprise and indignation,
now began to inquire whether the suspected person had
left any property or papers about the inn.

"Troth, he put a parcel — a sma' parcel, under my
charge, and he gave me some siller, and desired me to get
him half-a-dozen ruffled sarks, and Peg Pasley's in hands
wi' them e'en now — they may serve him to gang up the
Lawn-market* in, the scoundrel ! " Mr. Glossin then
demanded to see the packet, but here mine hostess
demurred.

" She didna ken — she wad not say but justice should
take its course — but when a thing was trusted to ane in
her way, doubtless they were responsible — but she suld
cry in Deacon Bearcliff, and if Mr. Glossin liked to tak
an inventar o* the property, and gie her a receipt before
the Deacon — or, what she wad like muckle better, an it
could be sealed up and left in Deacon Bearcliff 's hands,
it wad mak her mind easy — she was for naething but
justice on a' sides."

Mrs. Mac-Candlish's natural sagacity and acquired
suspicion being inflexible, Glossin sent for Deacon Bear-
cliff, to speak " anent the villain that had shot Mr. Charles
Hazlewood." The Deacon accordingly made his appear-
ance, with his wig awry, owing to the hurry with which,
at this summons of the Justice, he had exchanged it for
the Kilmarnock-cap in which he usually attended Ms
customers. Mrs. Mac-Candlish then produced the parcel

* The procession of the criminals to the gallows of old took that
direction, moving, as the schoolboy rhyme had it —

Up the Lawnmarket,
Down the West Bow,
Up the lang ladder,
And down the little tow.

GUY MANNERING. 29

deposited with her by Brown, in which was found the
gipsy's purse. On perceiving the value of the miscella-
neous contents, Mrs. Mac-Candlish internally congrat-
ulated herself upon the precautions she had taken before
delivering them up to Glossin, while he, with an appear-
ance of disinterested candour, was the first to propose
they should be properly inventoried, and deposited with
Deacon BearclifF, until they should be sent to the Crown-
office. " He did not," he observed, " like to be personally
responsible for articles which seemed of considerable
value, and had doubtless been acquired by the most
nefarious practices."

He then examined the paper in which the purse had
been wrapt up. It was the back of a letter addressed to
V. Brown, Esquire, but the rest of the address was torn
away. The landlady, — now as eager to throw light upon
the criminal's escape as she had formerly been desirous
of withholding it, for the miscellaneous contents of the
purse argued strongly to her mind that all was not right,
— Mrs. Mac-Candlish, I say, now gave Glossin to under-
stand, that her postilion and hostler had both seen the
stranger upon the ice that day when young Hazlewood
was wounded. 1

Our reader's old acquaintance, Jock Jabos, was first
summoned, and admitted frankly that he had seen and
conversed upon the ice that morning with a stranger, who,
he understood, had lodged at the Gordon- Arms the night
before.

" What turn did your conversation take ? " said Glossin.

" Turn ?— ou, we turned nae gate at a', but just keepit
straight forward upon the ice like."

" Well, but what did ye speak about ? "

"Ou, he just asked questions like ony ither stranger,"

30 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

answered the postilion, possessed, as it seemed, with the
refractory and uncommunicative spirit which had left his
mistress.

" But about what ? " said Glossin.

" Ou, just about the folk that was playing at the curl-
ing, and about auld Jock Stevenson that was at the cock,
and about the leddies, and sic like."

" What ladies ? and what did he ask about them,
Jock ? " said the interrogator.

" What leddies ? ou, it was Miss Jowlia Mannering
and Miss Lucy Bertram, that ye ken fii' weel yoursell,
Mr. Glossin — they were walking wi' the young Laird of
Hazlewood upon the ice."

" And what did you tell him about them ? " demanded
Glossin.

" Tut, we just said that was Miss Lucy Bertram of
Ellangowan, that should ance have had a great estate in
the country, — and that was Miss Jowlia Mannering, that
was to be married to young Hazlewood — See as she was
hinging on his arm. We just spoke about our country
clashes like — he was a very frank man."

" Well, and what did he say in answer ? "

" Ou, he just stared at the young leddies very keen
like, and asked if it was for certain that the marriage was
to be between Miss Mannering and young Hazlewood —
and I answered him that it was for positive and absolute
certain, as I had an undoubted right to say sae — for my
third cousin Jean Clavers (she's a relation o' your ain,
Mi*. Glossin — ye wad ken Jean lang syne ?) she's sib to
the housekeeper at Woodbourne, and she's tell'd me mair
than ance that there was naething could be mair likely."

" And what did the stranger say when you told him all
this ? " said Glossin.

GUT MANNERING. 31

" Say ? " echoed the postilion, " he said naething at a —
he just stared at them as they walked round the loch upon
the ice, as if he could have eaten them, and he never took
his ee aff them, or said another word, or gave another
glance at the Bonspiel, though there was the finest fun
amang the curlers ever was seen — and he turned round
and gaed aff the loch by the kirk-stile tLxough Wood-
bourne fir-plantings, and we saw nae mair o' him."

" Only think," said Mrs. Mac-Candlish, " what a hard
heart he maun hae had, to think o' hurting the poor young
gentleman in the very presence of the leddy he was to be
married to ! "

" O, Mrs. Mac-Candlish," said Glossin, " there's been
many cases such as that on the record : doubtless he was
seeking revenge where it would be deepest and sweetest."

"God pity us!" said Deacon Bearcliff; "we're puir
frail creatures when left to oursells ! — ay, he forgot wha
said, ' Vengeance is mine, and I will repay it' "

" Weel, aweel, sirs," said Jabos, .whose hard-headed and
uncultivated shrewdness seemed sometimes to start the
game when others beat the bush — " weel, weel, ye may
be a' mista'en yet — I'll never believe that a man would
lay a plan to shoot another wi' his ain gun. Lord help
ye, I was the keeper's assistant down at the Isle mysell,
and I'll uphaud it, the biggest man in Scotland shouldna
take a gun frae me or I had weized the slugs through
him, though I'm but sic a little feckless body, fit for
naething but the outside o' a saddle and the fore-end o' a
poschay — na, na, nae living man wad venture on that.
I'll wad my best buckskins, and they were new coft at
Kirkcudbright fair, it's been a chance job after a'. But
if ye hae naething mair to say to me, I am thinking I

maun gang and see my beasts fed " and he departed

accordingly.

32 WAVERLET NOVELS.

The hostler, who had accompanied him, gave evidence
to the same purpose. He and Mrs. Mac-Candlish were
then re-interrogated, whether Brown had no arms with
him on that unhappy morning. " None," they said, " but
an ordinary bit cutlass or hanger by his side."

" Now," said the Deacon, taking Glossin by the button,
(for, in considering this intricate subject, he had forgot
Glossin's new accession of rank) — " this is but doubtfu'
after a', Maister Gilbert — for it was not sae dooms likely
that he would go down into battle wi' sic sma' means."

Glossin extricated himself from the Deacon's grasp,
and from the discussion, though not with rudeness; for it
was his present interest to buy golden opinions from all
sorts of people. He inquired the price of tea and sugar,
and spoke of providing himself for the year ; he gave
Mrs. Mac-Candlish directions to have a handsome enter-
tainment in readiness for a party of five friends, whom he
intended to invite to dine with him at the Gordon- Arms
next Saturday week ; and, lastly, he gave a half-crown to
Jock Jabos, whom the hostler had deputed to hold his
steed.

" Weel," said the Deacon to Mrs. Mac-Candlish, as he
accepted her offer of a glass of bitters at the bar, " the
deil's no sae ill as he's ca'd. It's pleasant to see a gentle-
man pay the regard to the business o' the county that
Mr. Glossin does."

" Ay, 'deed is't, Deacon," answered the landlady ; " and
yet I wonder our gentry leave their ain wark to the like
o' him. — But as lang as siller's current, Deacon, folk
mauna look ower nicely at what king's head's on't."

" I doubt Glossin will prove but shandy* after a', mis-
tress," said Jabos, as he passed through the little lobby
beside the bar ; " but this is a gude half-crown ony way.'*

* Cant expression for base coin.

GUT MANNERING. 83

CHAPTER XXXin.

A man that apprehends death to be no more dreadful but as a drunken
Bleep; careless, reckless, and fearless of what's past, present, or to come,
insensible of- mortality, and desperately mortal.

Measure foe Measure.

Glossin had made careful minutes of the information
derived from these examinations. They threw little light
upon the story, so far as he understood its purport ; but
the better informed reader has received, through means
of this investigation, an account of Brown's proceedings,
between the moment when we left him upon his walk to
Kippletringan, and the time when, stung by jealousy, he
so rashly and unhappily presented himself before Julia
Mannering, and well-nigh brought to a fatal termination
the quarrel which his appearance occasioned.

Glossin rode slowly back to EUangowan, pondering on
what he had heard, and more and more convinced that
the active and successful prosecution of this mysterious
business was an opportunity of ingratiating himself with
Hazlewood and Mannering, to be on no account neglected.
Perhaps, also, he felt his professional acuteness interested
in bringing it to a successful close. It was, therefore,
with great pleasure that on his return to his house from
Kippletringan, he heard his servants announce hastily,
" that Mac-Guffog, the thief-taker, and twa or three con-
currents, had a man in hands in the kitchen waiting for

his honour."

voi*. iv. 8

34 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

He instantly jumped from horseback, and hastened into
the house. " Send my clerk here directly ; ye'll find him
copying the survey of the estate in the little green parlour.
Set things to rights in my study, and wheel the great
leathern chair up to the writing-table— -set a stool for Mr.
Scrow. — Scrow," (to the clerk as he entered the presence-
chamber,) " hand down Sir George Mackenzie on Crimes ;
open it at the section Vis Publico, et Privata, and fold
down a leaf at the passage 'anent the bearing of unlawful
weapons/ Now lend me a hand off with my muckle-
coat, and hang it up in the lobby, and bid them bring up
the prisoner — I trow I'll sort him ; — but stay — first send
up Mac-Guffog. — Now, Mac-Guffog, where did ye find
thischield?"

Mac-Guffog, a stout bandy-legged fellow, with a neck
like a bull, a face like a fire-brand, and a most portentous
squint of the left eye, began, after various contortions by
way of courtesy to the Justice, to tell his story, eking it
out by sundry sly nods and knowing winks, which ap-
peared to bespeak an intimate correspondence of ideas
between the narrator and his principal auditor. " Your
honour sees I went down to yon place that your honour
spoke o', that's kept by her that your honour kens o' by
the sea-side. — So says she, what are you wanting here ?
ye'll be come wi' a broom in your pocket frae Ellan-
gowan ? — So says I, deil a broom will come frae there
awa, for ye ken, says I, his honour Ellangowan himsell
in former times " •

" Well, well," said Glossin, " no occasion to be par-
ticular — tell the essentials."

" Weel, so we sat niffering about some brandy that I
said I wanted, till he came in."

"Who?"

GUY MANNERING. 35

tt He," pointing with his thumb inverted to the kitchen,
where the prisoner was in custody. "So he had his
griego wrapped close round him, and I judged he was not
dry-handed * — so I thought it was best to speak proper,
and so he believed I was a Manks man, and I kept ay
between him and her, for fear she had whistled.t And
then we began to drink about, and then I betted he would
not drink out a quartern of Hollands without drawing
breath — and then he tried it — and just then Slounging
Jock and Dick Spur'em came in, and we clinked the
darbies J on him, took him as quiet as a lamb — and now
he's had his bit sleep out, and is as fresh as a May gowan,
to answer what your honour likes to speir." This nar-
rative, delivered with a wonderful quantity of gesture
and grimace, received at the conclusion the thanks and
praises which the narrator expected.

" Had he no arms ? " asked the Justice.

" Ay, ay, they are never without barkers and slashers. ,,

" Any papers ? "

" This bundle," delivering a dirty pocket-book.

" Go down stairs, then, Mac-Guffog, and be in wait-
ing." The officer left the room.

The clink of irons was immediately afterwards heard
upon the stair, and in two or three minutes a man was
introduced, handcuffed and fettered. He was thick,
brawny, and muscular, and although his shagged and
grizzled hair marked an age somewhat advanced, and his
stature was rather low, he appeared, nevertheless, a
person whom few would have chosen to cope with in
personal conflict. His coarse and savage features were
still flushed, and his eye still reeled under the influence

* Unarmed. f Given information to the party concerned.

X Handcuffs.

36 WAVEBLEY NOVELS.

of the strong potation which had proved the immediate
cause of his seizure. But the sleep, though short, which
Mac-Guffog had allowed him, and still more a sense of
the peril of his situation, had restored to him the full use
of his faculties. The worthy judge, and the no less
estimable captive, looked at each other steadily for a long
time without speaking. Glossin apparently recognised
his prisoner, but seemed at a loss how to proceed with
his investigation. At length he broke silence. "Soh,
Captain, this is you ? — you have been a stranger on this
coast for some years."

" Stranger ! " replied the other ; " strange enough, I
think — for hold me der deyvil, if I been ever here
before."

" That won't pass, Mr. Captain."

" That must pass, Mr. Justice — sapperment ! "

" And who will you be pleased to call yourself, then,
for the present," said Glossin, "just until I shall bring
some other folks to refresh your memory concerning who
you are, or at least who you have been ? "

" What bin I ?— donner and blitzen ! I bin Jans
Janson, from Cuxhaven — what sail Ich bin ? "

Glossin took from a case which was in the apartment
a pair of small pocket pistols, which he loaded with
ostentatious care. " You may retire," said he to his clerk,
" and carry the people with you, Scrow — but wait in the
lobby within call.

The clerk would have offered some remonstrances to
his patron on the danger of remaining alone with such a
desperate character, although ironed beyond the possibility
of active exertion, but Glossin waved him off impatiently.
When he had left the room, the Justice took two short
turns through the apartment, then drew his chair opposite

GUT MANNERING. 37

to the prisoner, so as to confront him fully, placed the
pistols before him in readiness, and said in a steady voice,
" You are Dirk Hatteraick of Flushing, are you not ? "

The prisoner turned his eye instinctively to the door,
as if he apprehended some one was listening. Glossin
rose, opened the door, so that from the chair in which his
prisoner sate he might satisfy himself there was no
eavesdropper within hearing, then shut it, resumed his
seat, and repeated his question — "You are Dirk Hat-
teraick, formerly of the Yungfrauw Haagenslaapen, are
you not ? "

" Tousand deyvils ! — and if you know that, why ask
me ? " said the prisoner.

" Because I am surprised to see you in the very last
place where you ought to be, if you regard your safety,"
observed Glossin, coolly.

" Der deyvil ! — no man regards his own safety that
speaks so to me ! "

" What ? unarmed, and in irons ! — well said, Captain !"
replied Glossin, ironically. " But, Captain, bullying
won't do— you'll hardly get out of this country without
accounting for a little accident that happened at Warroch
Point a few years ago."

Hatteraick's looks grew black as midnight.

" For my part," continued Glossin, " I have no par-
ticular wish to be hard upon an old acquaintance — but I
must do my duty — I shall send you off to Edinburgh in
a post-chaise and four this very day."

" Poz donner ! you would not do that ? " said Hat-
teraick, in a lower and more humbled tone ; " why, you
had the matter of half a cargo in bills on Vanbeest and
Vanbruggen."

"It is so long since, Captain Hatteraick," answered

38 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Glossin, superciliously, " that I really forget how I was
recompensed for my trouble."

" Your trouble ? your silence, you mean."

"It was an affair in the course of business," said
Glossin, "and I have retired from business for some
time."

" Ay, but I have a notion that I could make you go
steady about, and try the old course again," answered
Dirk Hatteraick. u Why, man, hold me der deyvil, but
I meant to visit you, and tell you something that concerns
you."

" Of the boy ? " said Glossin, eagerly.

" Yaw, Mynheer," replied the Captain, coolly.

" He does not live, does he ? "

" As lifelich as you or I," said Hatteraick.

" Good God ! — But in India ? " exclaimed Glossin.

" No — tousand deyvils ! here— on this dirty coast of
yours," rejoined the prisoner.

" But, Hatteraick, this, — that is, if it be true, which I
do not believe, — this will ruin us both, for he cannot but
remember your neat job ; and for me — it will be pro-
ductive of the worst consequences ! It will ruin us both,
I tell you."

" I tell you," said the seaman, " it will ruin none but
you — for I am done up already, and if I must strap for
it, all shall out"

" Zounds ! " said the Justice, impatiently, u what
brought you back to this coast like a madman ? "

" Why, all the gelt was gone, and the house was shak-
ing, and I thought the job was clayed over and forgotten,"
answered the worthy skipper.

" Stay — what can be done ? " said Glossin anxiously.
" I dare not discharge you — but might you not be rescued

GUY MANNERING. 89

in the way — ay sure ? a word to Lieutenant Brown, —
and I would send the people with you by the coast-road.*'

" No, no ! that won't do — Brown's dead — shot — laid
in the locker, man — the devil has the picking of him."

u Dead ? — shot ? — at Woodbourne, I suppose ? " replied
Glossin.

u Yaw, Mynheer."

Glossin paused — the sweat broke upon his brow with
the agony of his feelings, while the hard-featured mis-
creant who sat opposite, coolly rolled his tobacco in his
cheek, and squirted the juice into the fire-grate. "It
would be ruin," said Glossin to himself, " absolute ruin,
if the heir should re-appear — and then what might be the
consequence of conniving with these men ? — yet there is
so little time to take measures. — Hark you, Hatteraick ;
I can't set you at liberty — but I can put you where you
may set yourself at liberty — I always like to assist an old
friend. I shall confine you in the old castle for to-night,
and give these people double allowance of grog. Mac-
Guffog will fall in the trap in which he caught you. The
stancheons on the window of the strong room, as they
call it, are wasted to pieces, and it is not above twelve
feet from the level of the ground without, and the snow
lies thick."

" But the darbies," said Hatteraick, looking upon his
fetters.

u Hark ye," said Glossin, going to a tool chest, and
taking out a small file, " there's a friend for you, and you
know the road to the sea by the stairs."

Hatteraick shook his chains in ecstasy, as if he were
already at liberty, and strove to extend his fettered hand
towards his protector. Glossin laid his finger upon his
lips with a cautious glance at the door, and then proceeded

40 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

in his instructions. " When you escape, you had better
go to the Kaim of Derncleugh."

" Donner ! that howff is blown."

" The devil ! — well, then, you may steal my skiff that
lies on the beach there, and away. But you must remain
snug at the Point of Warroch till I come to see you."

" The Point of Warroch ? " said Hatteraick, his coun-
tenance again falling — " what, in the cave, I suppose ? — I
would rather it were anywhere else ; — es spuckt da ! —
they say for certain that he walks. — But, donner and
blitzen ! I never shunned him alive, and I won't shun
him dead. — Strafe mich helle ! it shall never be said
Dirk Hatteraick feared either dog or devil ! — So I am to
wait there till I see you ? "

"Ay, ay," answered Glossin, "and now I must call in
the men." He did so accordingly.

" I can make nothing of Captain Janson, as he calls
himself, Mac-Guffog, and itfs now too late to bundle him
off to the county jail. Is there not a strong room up
yonder in the old castle ? "

" Ay is there, sir ; my uncle the constable ance kept a
man there for three days in auld Ellangowan's time. But
there was an unco dust about it — it was tried in the Inner-
house afore the feifteen."

" I know all that, but this person will not stay there
very long — it's only a makeshift for a night — a mere
lock-up house till farther examination. There is a small
room through which , it opens ; you may light a fire for
yourselves there, and 111 send you plenty of stuff to make
you comfortable. But be sure you lock the door upon
the prisoner ; and, hark ye, let him have a fire in the
strong room too — the season requires it Perhaps he'll
make a clean breast to-morrow."

GUT MANNERING. 41

With these instructions, and with a large allowance of
food and liquor, the Justice dismissed his party to keep
guard for the night in the old castle, under the full hope
and belief that they would neither spend the night in
watching nor prayer.

There was little fear that Glossin himself should that
night sleep over-sound. His situation was perilous in the
extreme, for the schemes of a life of villany seemed at
once to be crumbling around and above him. He laid
himself to rest, and tossed upon his pillow for a long time
in vain. At length he fell asleep, but it was only to
dream of his patron, — now, as he had last seen him, with
the paleness of death upon his features, then again trans-
formed into all the vigour and comeliness of youth, ap-
proaching to expel him from the mansion-house of his
fathers. Then he dreamed, that after wandering long
over a wild heath, he came at length to an inn, from
which sounded the voice of revelry ; and that when he
entered, the first person he met was Frank Kennedy, all
smashed and gory, as he had lain on the beach at War-
roch Point, but with a reeking punch-bowl in his hand.
Then the scene changed to a dungeon, where he heard
Dirk Hatteraick, whom he imagined to be under sentence
of death, confessing his crimes to a clergyman. — " After
the bloody deed was done/' said the penitent, " we re-
treated into a cave close beside, the secret of which was
known but to one man in the country : we were debating
what to do with the child, and we thought of giving it up
to the gipsies, when we heard the cries of the pursuers
hallooing to each other. One man alone came straight
to our cave, and it was that man who knew the secret —
but we made him our friend at the expense of half the
value of the goods saved. By his advice we carried off

42 WAVEBLEY NOVELS.

the child to Holland in our consort, which came the fol-
lowing night to take us from the coast. That man

was "-

" No, I deny it ! — it was not I ! " said Glossin, in half-
uttered accents ; and, struggling in his agony to express
his denial more distinctly, he awoke.

It was, however, conscience that had prepared this
mental phantasmagoria. The truth was. that knowing
much better than any other person the haunts of the
smugglers, he had, while the others were searching in
different directions, gone straight to the cave, even before
he had learned the murder of Kennedy, whom he ex-
pected to find their prisoner. He came upon them with
some idea of mediation, but found them in the midst of
their guilty terrors, while the rage, which had hurried
them on to murder, began, with all but Hatteraick, to
sink into remorse and fear. Glossin was then indigent,
and greatly in debt, but he was already possessed of Mr.
Bertram's ear, and, aware of the facility of his disposi-
tion, he saw no difficulty in enriching himself at his ex-
pense, provided the heir-male were removed ; in which
case the estate became the unlimited property of the weak
and prodigal father. Stimulated by present gain and the
prospect of contingent advantage, he accepted the bribe
which the smugglers offered in their terror, and connived
at, or rather encouraged, their intention of carrying away
the child of his benefactor, who, if left behind, was old
enough to have described the scene of blood which he had
witnessed. The only palliative which the ingenuity of
Glossin could offer to his conscience was, that the temp-
tation was great, and came suddenly upon him, embracing
as it were the very advantages on which his mind had so
long rested, and promising to relieve him from distresses

OUT MANNERING. 43

which must have otherwise speedily overwhelmed him.
Besides, he endeavoured to think that self-preservation
rendered his conduct necessary. He was, in some degree,
in the power of the robbers, and pleaded hard with his
conscience, that, had he declined their offers, the assist-
ance which he could have called for, though not dis-
tant, might not have arrived in time to save him from
men who, on less provocation, had just committed
murder.

Galled with the anxious forebodings of a guilty con-
science, G-lossin now arose, and looked out upon the night.
The scene which we have already described in the third
chapter of this story, was now covered with snow, and the
brilliant, though waste, whiteness of the land, gave to the
sea by contrast a dark and livid tinge. A landscape cov-
ered with snow, though abstractedly it may be called beau-
tiful, has, both from the association of cold and barren-
ness, and from its comparative infrequency, a wild,
strange, and desolate appearance. Objects, well known
to us in their common state, have either disappeared, or
are so strangely varied and disguised, that we seem gazing
on an unknown world. But it was not with such reflec-
tions that the mind of this bad man was occupied. His
eye was upon the gigantic and gloomy outlines of the old
castle, where, in a flanking tower of enormous size and
thickness, glimmered two lights, — one from the window
of the strong room where Hatteraick was confined, the
other from that of the adjacent apartment occupied by his
keepers. Has he made his escape, or will he be able to
do so? — Have these men watched, who never watched
before, in order to complete my ruin ? — If morning finds
him there, he must be committed to prison ; Mac-Mor-
lan or some other person will take the matter up— he

44 WAVEBLEY NOVELS.

will be detected — convicted — and will tell all in re-
venge ! "

While these racking thoughts glided rapidly through
Glossin's mind, he observed one of the lights obscured,
as by an opaque body placed at the window. What a
moment of interest ! — " He has got clear of his irons ! —
he is working at the stancheons of the window — they are
surely quite decayed, they must give way — O God ! they
have fallen outward ; I heard them clink among the
stones ! — the noise cannot fail to wake them — furies seize
his Dutch awkwardness — The light burns free again —
They have torn him from the window, and are binding
him in the room ! — No ! he had only retired an instant
on the alarm of the falling bars — he is at the window
again — and the light is quite obscured now — he is getting
out!"-

A heavy sound, as of a body dropped from a height
among the snow, announced that Hatteraick had com-
pleted his escape, and shortly after Glossin beheld a dark •
figure, like a shadow, steal along the whitened beach, and
reach the spot where the skiff lay. New cause for fear !
— " His single strength will be unable to float her," said
Glossin to himself — " I must go to the rascal's assistance.
But no ! he has got her off, and now, thank God ! her
sail is spreading' itself against the moon — ay, he has got
the breeze now — would to heaven it were a tempest, to
sink him to the bottom ! "

After this last cordial wish, he continued watching the
progress of the boat as it stood away towards the Point
of Warroch, until he could no longer distinguish the
dusky sail from the gloomy waves over which it glided.
Satisfied then that the immediate danger was averted, he
retired with somewhat more composure to his guilty pillow.

GUY MANNEKING. 45

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Why dost not comfort me, and help me out
From this unhallowed and blood-stained hole?

Thus Andronicus.

On the next morning, great was the alarm and confu-
sion of the officers when they discovered the escape of
their prisoner. Mac-Guffog appeared before Glossin
with a head perturbed with brandy and fear, and in-
curred a most severe reprimand for neglect of duty.
The resentment of the Justice appeared only to be
suspended by his anxiety to recover possession of the
prisoner, and the thief-takers, glad to escape from his
awful and incensed presence, were sent off in every direc-
tion (except the right one) to recover their prisoner, if
possible. Glossin particularly recommended a careful
search at the Kaim of Derncleugh, which was occa-
sionally occupied under night by vagrants of different
descriptions. Having thus dispersed his myrmidons in
various directions, he himself hastened by devious paths
through the Wood of Warroch, to his appointed interview
with Hatteraick, from whom he hoped to learn at more
leisure than last night's conference admitted, the circum-
stances attending the return of the heir of Ellangowan to
his native country.

"With manoeuvres like those of a fox when he doubles
to avoid the pack, Glossin strove to approach the place

46 WAVEBLEY NOVELS.

of appointment in a manner which should leave no dis-
tinct track of his course. " Would to Heaven it would
snow," he said, looking upward, " and hide these foot-
prints. Should one of the officers light upon them, he
would run the scent up like a blood-hound, and surprise
us. I must get down upon the seabeach, and contrive to
creep along beneath the rocks."

And accordingly he descended from the cliffs with some
difficulty, and scrambled along between the rocks and the
advancing tide ; now looking up to see if his motions
were watched from the rocks above him, now casting a
jealous glance to mark if any boat appeared upon the
sea, from which his course might be discovered.

But even the feelings of selfish apprehension were for
a time superseded, as Glossin passed the spot where
Kennedy's body had been found. It was marked by the
fragment of a rock which had been precipitated from the
cliff above, either with the body or after it. The mass
was now encrusted with small shell-fish, and tasselled with
tangle and sea-weed ; but still its shape and substance
were different from those of the other rocks which lay
scattered around. His voluntary walks, it will readily be
believed, had never led to this spot ; so that finding him-
self now there for the first time after the terrible catas-
trophe, the scene at once recurred to his mind with all
its accompaniments of horror. He remembered how,
like a guilty thing, gliding from the neighbouring place
of concealment, he had mingled with eagerness, yet with
caution, among the terrified group who surrounded the
corpse, dreading lest any one should ask from whence he
came. He remembered, too, with what conscious fear he
had avoided gazing upon that ghastly spectacle. The
wild scream of his patron, "My bairn! my bairn l"

GUT MANNERING. 47

again rang in his ears. " Good God ! " he exclaimed,
"and is all I have gained worth the agony of that
moment, and the thousand anxious fears and horrors
which have since embittered my life! — O how I wish
that I lay where that wretched man lies, and that he
stood here in life and health ! But these regrets are all
too late."

Stifling, therefore, his feelings, he crept forward to the
cave, which was so near the spot where the body was
found, that the smugglers might have heard from their
hiding-place the various conjectures of the bystanders
concerning the fate of their victim. But nothing could
be more completely concealed than the entrance to their
asylum. The opening, not larger than that of a fox-
earth, lay in the face of the cliff directly behind a large
black rock, or rather upright stone, which served at once
to conceal it from strangers, and as a mark to point out
its situation to those who used it as a place of retreat.
The space between the stone and the cliff was exceedingly
narrow, and being heaped with sand and other rubbish,
the most minute search would not have discovered the
mouth of the cavern, without removing those substances
which the tide had drifted before it. For the purpose of
further concealment, it was usual with the contraband
traders who frequented this haunt, after they had entered,
to stuff the mouth with withered sea-weed, loosely piled
together as if carried there by the waves. Dirk Hat-
teraick had not forgotten this precaution.

Glossin, though a bold and hardy man, felt his heart
throb, and his knees knock together, when he prepared
to enter this den of secret iniquity, in order to hold con-
ference with a felon, whom he justly accounted one of the
most desperate and depraved of men. " But he has no

48 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

interest to injure me," was his consolatory reflection. He
examined his pocket-pistols, however, before removing
the weeds and entering the cavern, which he did upon
hands and knees. The passage, which at first was low
and narrow, just admitting entrance to a man in a creep-
ing posture, expanded after a few yards into a high
arched vault of considerable width. The bottom, ascend-
ing gradually, was covered with the purest sand. Ere
Glossin had got upon his feet, the hoarse yet suppressed
voice of Hatteraick growled through the recesses of the
cave.

" Hagel and donner ! — be'st du ! "

" Are you in the dark? "

" Dark ? der dey vil ! ay," said Dirk Hatteraick ;
" where should I have a glim?"

"I have brought light;" and Glossin accordingly
produced a tinder-box, and lighted a small lantern.

" You must kindle some fire too, for hold mich der
dey vil, Ich bin ganz gefrorne ! "

" It is a cold place, to be sure," said Glossin, gathering
together some decayed staves of barrels and pieces of
wood, which had perhaps lain in the cavern since Hat-
teraick was there last

" Cold ? Snow-wasser and hagel ! — it's perdition— I
could only keep myself alive by rambling up and down
this d — d vault, and thinking about the merry rouses we
have had in it."

The flame then began to blaze brightly, and Hatteraick
hung his bronzed visage, and expanded his hard and
sinewy hands over it, with an avidity resembling that of
a famished wretch to whom food is exposed. The light
shewed his savage and stern features, and the smoke,
which in his agony of cold he seemed to endure almost

GUT MANNERING. 49

to suffocation, after circling round his head, rose to the
dim and rugged roof of the cave, through which it escaped
by some secret rents or clefts in the rock ; the same
doubtless that afforded air to the cavern when the tide
was in, at which time the aperture *to the sea was filled
with water.

u And now I have brought you some breakfast," said
Glossin, producing some cold meat and a flask of spirits.
The latter Hatteraick eagerly seized upon, and applied
to his mouth ; and, after a hearty draught, he exclaimed,
with great rapture, " Das schmeckt ; — that is good — that
warms the liver ! " THen broke into the fragment of a
High-Dutch song,

" Saufen Bier und Brante-wein,
Schmeissen alle die Fenstern ein ;
Ich bin liederlich,
Du bist liederlich ;
Sind wir nicht liederliche Leute a! "

" Well said, my hearty Captain ! " cried Glossin, en-
deavouring to catch the tone of revelry^ —

" Gin by pailfuls, wine in rivers,
Dash the window-glass to shivers !

For three wild lads were we, brave boys,
And three wild lads were we ;
Thou on the land, and I on the sand,
And Jack on the gallows-tree !

That's it, my bully-boy ! Why, you're alive again now !
And now let us talk about our business."

" Toter business, if you please," said Hatteraick ; " hagel
and donner ! — mine was done when I got out of the bil-
boes."

" Have patience, my good friend ; — Til convince you

our interests are just the same."
VOL. iv. 4

50 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Hatteraick gave a short dry cough, and Glossin, after
a pause, proceeded.

" How came you to let the boy escape ? "

" Why, fluch and blitzen ! he was no charge of mine.
Lieutenant Brown gave him to his cousin that's in the
Middleburgh house of Vanbeest and Vanbruggen, and
told him some goose's gazette about his being taken in a
skirmish with the land-sharks — he gave him for a foot-
boy. Me let him escape ! — the bastard kinchin should
have walked the plank ere I troubled myself about him."

" Well, and was he bred a foot-boy then ? "

"Nein, nein; the kinchin got about the old man's
heart, and he gave him his own name, and bred him up
in the office, and then sent him to India — I believe he
would have packed him back here, but his nephew told
him it would do up the free trade for many a day, if the
youngster got back to Scotland."

" Do you think the younker knows much of his own
origin now ? "

" Deyvil ! " replied Hatteraick, " how should I tell
what he knows now ? But he remembered something of
it long. When he was but ten years old, he persuaded
another Satan's limb of an English bastard like himself
to steal my lugger's khan — boat — what do you call it —
to return to his country, as he called it — fire him ! Be-
fore we could overtake them, they had the skiff out of
channel as far as the Deurloo— the boat might have been
lost"

" I wish to Heaven she had — with him in her ! " ejac-
ulated Glossin.

" Why, I was so angry myself, that, sapperment ! I did
give him a tip over the side — but split him — the comical
little devil swam like a duck ; so I made him swim astern

GUT MANNERING. 51

for a mile to teach him manners, and then took him in
when he was sinking. By the knocking Nicholas ! he'U
plague you, now he's come over the herring-pond ! When
he was so high he had the spirit of thunder and light-
ning." %

" How did he get back from India ? "

" Why, how should I know ? — the house there was
done up, and that gave us a shake at Middleburgh, I think
— so they sent me again to see what could be done among
my old acquaintances here — for we held old stories were
done away and forgotten. So I had got a pretty trade
on foot within the last two trips ; but that stupid hounds-
foot schelm, Brown, has knocked it on the head again, I
suppose, with getting himself] shot by the colonel-man."

" Why were not you with them ? "

" Why, you see — sapperment ! I fear nothing — but it
was too far within land, and I might have been scented."

" True. But to return to this youngster "

" Ay, ay, donner and blitzen ! he's your affair," said the
Captain.

" — How do you really know that he is in this coun-
try?"

" Why, Gabriel saw him up among the hills."

" Gabriel ! who is he ? "

" A fellow from the gipsies, that, about eighteen years
since, was pressed on board that d — d fellow Pritchard's
sloop-of-w&r. It was he came off and gave us warning
that the Shark was coming round upon us the day Ken- .
nedy was done ; and he told us how Kennedy had given
the information. The gipsies and Kennedy had some
quarrel besides. This Gab went to the East Indies in
the same ship with your younker, and, sapperment ! knew
him well, though the other did not remember him. Gab

52 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

kept out of his eye though, as he had served the States
against England, and was a deserter to boot ; and he sent
n* word directly, that we might know of his being here
— though it does not concern us a rope's end."

" So, then, really, and in sober earnest, he is actually
in this country, Hatteraick, between friend and friend ? "
asked Glossin, seriously.

" Wetter and donner ! yaw. What do you take me
for?"

For a blood-thirsty, fearless miscreant ! thought Glos-
sin internally ; but said aloud, " And which of your
people was it that shot young Hazlewood ? "

" Sturm-wetter ! " said the Captain, " do ye think we
were mad ? none of us, man. Gott ! the country was
too hot for the trade already with that d — d frolic of
Brown's, attacking what you call Woodbourne House."

" Why, I am told," said Glossin, " it was Brown who
shot Hazlewood ? "

" Not our lieutenant, I promise you ; for he was laid
six feet deep at Derncleugh the day before the thing
happened. Tausend deyvils, man ! do ye think that he
could rise out of the earth to shoot another man ? "

A light here began to break upon Glossin's confusion
of ideas. " Did you not say that the younker, as you
call him, goes by the name of Brown ? "

" Of Brown ? yaw — Vanbeest Brown ; old Vanbeest
Brown, of our Vanbeest and Vanbruggeh, gave him his
own name — he did."

" Then," said Glossin, rubbing his hands, " it is he, by
Heaven, who has committed this crime ! "

"And what have we to do with that?" demanded
Hatteraick.

Glossin paused ; and, fertile in expedients, hastily ran

GUT MANNERING. 53

over his project in his own mind, and then drew near the
smuggler with a confidential air. " You know, my dear
Hatteraick, it is our principal business to get rid of this
young man ? "

" Umph ! " answered Dirk Hatteraick.

" Not," continued Glossin — " not that I would wish any
personal harm to him — if — if — if we can do without.
Now, he is liable to be seized upon by justice, both as
bearing the same name with your lieutenant, who was
engaged in that affair at Woodbourne, and for firing at
young Hazlewood with intent to kill or wound."

" Ay, ay," said Dirk Hatteraick ; " but what good will
that do you ? He'll be loose again as soon as he shows
himself to carry other colours."

" True, my dear Dirk — well noticed, my friend Hat-
teraick ! But there is ground enough for a temporary
imprisonment till he fetch his proofs from England or
elsewhere, my good friend. I understand the law, Cap-
tain Hatteraick, and Til take it upon me, simple Gilbert
Glossin of Ellangowan, justice of peace for the county

of , to refuse his bail, if he should offer the best in

the country, until he is brought up for a second examina-
tion — now where d'ye think Til incarcerate him ? "

" Hagel and wetter ! what do I care ? "

" Stay, my friend — you do care a great deal. Do you
know your goods, that were seized and carried to Wood-
bourne, are now lying in the Custom-house at Portan-
ferry ? " (a small fishing-town.) " Now I will commit
this younker "

" When you have caught him ? "

"Ay, ay, when I have caught him — I shall not be
long about that — I will commit him to the Workhouse,
or Bridewell, which you know is beside the Custom-
house."

54 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

u Yaw, the Rasp-house, I know it very well."

" I will take care that the red-coats are dispersed
through the country ; you land at night with the crew
of your lugger, receive your own goods, and carry the
younker Brown with you back to Flushing. Won't
that do ? "

" Ay, carry him to Flushing," said the Captain, " or —
to America ? "

" Ay, ay, my friend."

« Or— to Jericho ? "

" Psha ! Wherever you have a mind."

" Ay, or — pitch him overboard ? "

" Nay, I advise no violence."

" Nein, nein — you leave that to me. Sturm-wetter !
I know you of old. But, hark ye, what am I, Dirk
Hatteraick, to be the better of this ? "

" Why, is it not your interest as well as mine ? " said
Glossin : " besides, I set you free this morning."

" You set me free ! — Donner and dey vil ! I set myself
free. Besides, it was all in the way of your profession,
and happened a long time ago, ha ! ha ! ha ! "

" Pshaw ! pshaw ! don't let us jest ; I am not against
making a handsome compliment — but it's your affair as
well as mine."

" What do you talk of my affair ? is it not you that
keep the younker's whole estate from him ? Dirk Hat-
teraick never touched a stiver of his rents."

" Hush ! hush ! — I tell you it shall be a joint business."

" Why, will ye give me half the kitt ? "

" What, half the estate ? — d'ye mean we should set up
house together at Elian gowan, and take the barony, ridge
about ? "

" Sturm-wetter, no ! but you might give me half the

GUY MANNERING. 55

value — half the gelt. Live with you ? — nein — I would
have a lusthaus of mine own on the Middleburgh dyke,
and a blumengarten like a burgomaster's."

"Ay, and a wooden lion at the door, and a painted
sentinel in the garden, with a pipe in his mouth ! — But,
hark ye, Hatteraick — what will all the tulips, and flower-
gardens, and pleasure-houses in the Netherlands do for
you, if you are hanged here in Scotland ? "

Hatteraick's countenance fell. " Der Dey vil ! —
hanged ? "

" Ay, hanged, meinheer Captain. The devil can scarce
save Dirk Hatteraick from being hanged for a murderer
and kidnapper, if the younker of Ellangowan should
settle in this country,, and if the gallant Captain chances
to be caught here re-establishing his fair trade ! And I
won't say, but, as peace is now so much talked of, th'eir
High Mightinesses may not hand him over to oblige their
new allies, even if he remained in faderland."

" Poz hagel blitzen and donner ! I — I doubt you say
true."

" Not," said Glossin, perceiving he had made the
desired impression, " not that I am against being civil ; "
and he slid into Hatteraick's passive hand a bank-note of
some value.

u Is this all ? " said the smuggler ; " you had the price
of half a cargo for winking at our job, and made us do
your business too."

" But, my good friend, you forget — in this case you
will recover all your own goods."

" Ay, at the risk of all our own necks — we could do
that without you."

" I doubt that, Captain Hatteraick," said Glossin drily,
u because you would probably find a dozen red-coats at

56 WAVERLET NOVELS.

the Custom-house, whom it must be my business, if we
agree about this matter, to have removed. Come, come,
I will be as liberal as I* can, but you should have a
conscience."

" Now strafe mich der deyfel ! — this provokes me more
than all the rest ! — You rob and you murder, and you
want me to rob and murder, and play the silver-cooper,
or kidnapper, as you call it, a dozen a times over, and then,
hagel and winds turm ! you speak to me of conscience !
Can you think of no fairer way of getting rid of this
unlucky lad ? "

" No, meinheer ; but as I commit him to your
charge "

" To my charge — to the charge of steel and gunpow-
der ! and — well, if it must be, it must — but you have a
tolerably good guess what's like to come of it."

u O, my dear friend, I trust no degree of severity will
be necessary," replied Glossin.

" Severity ! " said the fellow with a kind of groan.
" I wish you had had my dreams when I first came to
this dog-hole, and tried to sleep among the dry sea-weed.
First, there was that d — d fellow there, with his broken
back, sprawling as he did when I hurled the rock over
a-top on him — ha ! ha ! — you would have sworn he was
lying on the floor where you stand, wriggling like a
crushed frog — and then "

" Nay, my friend," said Glossin, interrupting him,
" what signifies going over this nonsense ? — If you are
turned chicken-hearted, why, the game's up, that's all —
the game's up with us both."

" Chicken-hearted ? — No. I have not lived so J>ng
upon the account to start at last, neither for devil nor
Dutchman."

GUT MANNERING. 57

" Well, then, take another schnaps — the cold's at your
heart still.— rAnd now tell me, are any of your old crew
with you ? "

" Nein — all dead, shot, hanged, drowned, and damned.
Brown was the last — all dead but Gipsy Gab, and he
would go off the country for a spill of money — or he'll
be quiet for his own sake— or old Meg, his aunt, will
keep him quiet for hers."

" Which Meg ? "

" Meg Merrilies, the old devil's limb of a gipsy witch."

" Is she still alive ? "

« Yaw."

" And in this country ? "

" And in this country. She was at the Kaim of Dern-
cleugh, at Vanbeest Brown's last wake, as they call it, the
other night, with two of my people, and some of her own
blasted gipsies."

" That's another breaker a-head, Captain ! Will she
not squeak, think ye ? "

" Not she — she won't start — she swore by the salmon,*
if we did the kinchin no harm, she would never tell how
the gauger got it. Why, man, though I gave her a wipe
with my hanger in the heat of the matter, and cut her
arm, and though she was so long after in trouble about it
up at your borough-town there, der deyvil ! old Meg was
as true as steel."

"Why, that's true, as you say," replied Glossin.
" And yet if she could be carried over to Zealand, or
Hamburgh, or— or — anywhere else, you know, it were as
well."

Hatteraick jumped upright upon his feet, and looked
at Glossin from head to heel. — "I don't see the goat's

* The great and inviolable oath of the strolling tribes.

58 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

fool," he said ; — " and jet he must be the very dey vil ! —
But Meg Merrilies is closer yet with the Eobold than
you are — ay, and I had never such weather as after
having drawn her blood. — Nein, nein, I'll meddle with
her no more — she's a witeh of the fiend — a real deyvil's-
kind — but that's her affair. Donner and wetter! Til
neither make nor meddle — that's her work. — But for the
rest — why, if I thought the trade would not suffer, I
would soon rid you of the younker, if you send me word
when he's under embargo."

In brief and under tones the two worthy associates
concerted their enterprise, and agreed at which of his
haunts Hatteraick should be heard of. The stay of his
lugger on the coast was not difficult, as there were no king's
vessels there at the time.

gut Bannering. 59

CHAPTER XXXV.

Yon are one of those that will not serve God If the devil bids you. —
Because we come to do you service, you think we are ruffians.

Othello.

When Glossin returned home, he found, among other
letters and papers sent to him, one of considerable im-
portance. It was signed by Mr. Protocol, an attorney in
Edinburgh, and, addressing him as the agent for Godfrey
Bertram, Esq., late of Ellangowan, and his representa-
tives, acquainted him with the sudden death of Mrs.
Margaret Bertram of Singleside, requesting him to
inform his clients thereof, in case they should judge it
proper to have any person present for their interest at
opening the repositories of the deceased. Mr. Glossin
perceived at once that the letter-writer was unacquainted
with the breach which had taken place between him and
his late patron. The estate of the deceased lady should
by rights, as he well knew, descend to Lucy 'Bertram ;
but it was a thousand to one that the caprice of the old
lady might have altered its destination. After running
over contingencies and probabilities in his fertile mind,
to ascertain what sort of personal advantage might accrue
to him from this incident, he could not perceive any mode
of availing himself of it, except in so far as it might go to
assist his plan of recovering, or rather creating, a charac-
ter, the want of which he had already experienced, and

60 WAVERLET NOVELS.

was likely to feel yet more deeply. " I must place my-
self," he thought, " on strong ground, that if anything
goes wrong with Dirk Hatteraick's project, I may have
prepossessions in my favour at least." — Besides, to do
Glossin justice, bad as he was, he might feel some desire
to compensate to Miss Bertram in a small degree, and in
a case in which his own interest did not interfere with
hers, the infinite mischief which he had occasioned to her
family. He therefore resolved early the next morning
to ride over to Woodbourne.

It was not without hesitation that he took this step,
having the natural reluctance to face Colonel Mannering,
which fraud and villany have to encounter honour and
probity. But he had great confidence in his own savoir
faire. His talents were naturally acute, and by no
means confined to the line of his profession. He had at
different times resided a good deal in England, and his
address was free both from country rusticity and profes-
sional pedantry ; so that he had considerable powers both
of address and persuasion, joined to an unshaken effron-
tery, which he affected to disguise under plainness of
manner. Confident, therefore, in himself, he appeared
at Woodbourne, about ten in the morning, and was
admitted as a gentleman come to wait upon Miss Ber-
tram.

He did not announce himself untij he was at the door
of the breakfast-parlour, when the servant, by his desire,
said aloud — " Mr. Glossin, to wait upon Miss Bertram."
Lucy, remembering the last scene of her father's exist-
ence, turned as pale as death, and had well-nigh fallen
from her chair. Julia Mannering flew to her assistance,
and they left the room together. There remained Colo-
nel Mannering, Charles Hazlewood, with his arm in a

GUT MANNERING. 61

sling, and the Dominie, whose gaunt visage and wall-eyes
assumed a most hostile aspect on recognising Glossin.

That honest gentleman, though somewhat abashed by
the effect of his first introduction, advanced with con-
fidence, and hoped he did not intrude upon the ladies.
Colonel Mannering, in a very upright and stately man-
ner, observed, that he did not know to what he was to
impute the honour of a visit from Mr. Glossin.

" Hem ! hem ! — I took the liberty to wait upon Miss
Bertram, Colonel Mannering, on account of a matter of
business."

" If it can be communicated to Mr. Mac-Morlan, her
agent, sir, I believe it will be more agreeable to Miss
Bertram."

" I beg pardon, Colonel Mannering," said Glossin,
making a wretched attempt at an easy demeanour ; " you
are a man of the world — there are some cases in which
it is most prudent for all parties to treat with principals."

" Then," replied Mannering, with a repulsive air, " if
Mr. Glossin will take the trouble to state his object in a
letter, I will answer that Miss Bertram pays proper
attention to it."

" Certainly," stammered Glossin ; — " but there are cases
in which a viva voce conference — Hem ! I perceive — I
know — that Colonel Mannering has adopted some prej-
udices which may make my visit appear intrusive ; but
I submit to his good sense, whether he ought to exclude
me from a hearing without knowing the purpose of my
visit, or of how much consequence it may be to the
young lady whom he honours with his protection."

" Certainly, sir, I have not the least intention to do
so," replied the Colonel. " I will learn Miss Bertram's
pleasure on the subject, and acquaint Mr. Glossin, if he

62 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

can spare time to wait for her answer." So saving, he
left the room.

Glossin had still remained standing in the midst of
the apartment. Colonel Mannering had made not the
slightest motion to invite him to sit, and indeed had re-
mained standing himself during their short interview.
When he left the room, however, Glossin seized upon a
chair, and threw himself into it witli an air between em-
barrassment and effrontery. He felt the silence of his
companions disconcerting and oppressive, and resolved to
interrupt it.

" A fine day, Mr. Sampson."

The Dominie answered with something between an
acquiescent grunt and an indignant groan.

" You never come down to see your old acquaintance
on the Ellangowan property, Mr. Sampson — You would
find most of the old stagers still stationary there. I have
too much respect for the late family to disturb old resi-
denters, even under pretence of improvement. Besides
it's not my way— I don't like it — I believe, Mr. Sampson,
Scripture particularly condemns those who oppress the
poor, and remove landmarks."

" Or who devour the substance of orphans," subjoined
the Dominie. " Anathema ! Maranatha ! " So saying,
he rose, shouldered the folio which he had been perusing,
faced to the right about, and marched out of the room
with the strides of a grenadier.

Mr. Glossin, no way disconcerted, at least feeling it
necessary not to appear so, turned to young Hazlewood,
who was apparently busy with the newspaper. "Any
news, sir ? " Haelewood raised his eyes, looked at him,
and pushed the paper towards him, as if to a stranger in
a coffee-house, then rose, and was about to leave the

k

GUY MANNERING. 63

*

room. " I beg pardon, Mr. Hazlewood — but I can't help
wishing you joy of getting so easily over that infernal
accident" This was answered by a sort of inclination
of the head, as slight and stiff as could well be imagined.
Yet it encouraged our man of law to proceed. " I can
promise you, Mr. Hazlewood, few people have taken the
interest in that matter which I have done, both for the
sake of the country, and on account of my particular
respect for your family, which have so high a stake in it ;
indeed so very high a stake, that, as Mr. Featherhead is
turning old now, and as there's a talk, since his last
stroke, of his taking the Chiltern Hundreds, it might be
worth your while to look about you. I speak as a friend,
Mr. Hazlewood, and as one who understands the roll ;
and if in going over it together "

" I beg pardon, sir, but I have no views in which your
assistance could be useful."

" Oh, very well — perhaps you are right — it's quite
time enough, and I love to see a young gentleman cau-
tious. But I was talking of your wound — I think I have
got a clew to that business — I think I have — and if I
don't bring the fellow to condign punishment ! "

" I beg your pardon, sir, once more ; but your zeal
outruns my wishes. I have every reason to think the
wound was accidental — certainly it was not premeditated.
Against ingratitude and premeditated treachery, should
you find any one guilty of them, my resentment will be
as warm as your own." This was Hazlewood's answer.

" Another rebuff," thought Glossin ; " I must try hiui

upon the other tack. Right, sir ; very nobly said ! I

would have no more mercy on an ungrateful man than I
would on a woodcock. — And now we talk of sport," (this
was a sort of diverting of the conversation which Glossin

64 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

had learned from his former patron,) " I see you often
carry a gun, and I hope you will be soon able to take the
field again. I observe you confine yourself always to
your own side of the Hazleshaws-burn. I hope, my dear
sir, you will make no scruple of following your game to
the Ellangowan bank : I believe it is rather the best
exposure of the two for woodcocks, although both are
capital."

As this offer only excited a cold and constrained bow,
Glossin was obliged to remain silent, and was presently
afterwards somewhat relieved by the entrance of Colonel
Mannering.

" I have detained you some time, I fear, -sir," said he,
addressing Glossin : " I wished to prevail upon Miss
Bertram to see you, as, in my opinion, her objections
ought to give way to the necessity of hearing in her own
person what is stated to be of importance that she should
know. But I find that circumstances of recent occur-
rence, and not easily to be forgotten, have rendered her
so utterly repugnant to a personal interview with Mr.
Glossin, that it would be cruelty to insist upon it : and
she has deputed me to receive his commands, or proposal
— or, in short, whatever he may wish to say to her."

" Hem, hem ! I am sorry, sir — I am very sorry, Colonel
Mannering, that Miss Bertram should suppose — that
any prejudice, in short — or idea that anything on my
part"

" Sir," said the inflexible Colonel, " where no accusa-
tion is made, excuses or explanations are unnecessary.
Have you any objection to communicate to me, as Miss
Bertram's temporary guardian, the circumstances which
you conceive to interest her ? "

"None, Colonel Mannering; she could not choose a

GUT MANNERING. * 65

more respectable friend, or one with whom I, in partic-
ular, would more anxiously wish to communicate frankly."

" Have the goodness to speak to the point, sir, if you
please."

"Why, sir, it is not so easy all at once — but Mr.
Hazlewood need not leave the room, — I mean so well to
Miss Bertram, that I could wish the whole world to hear
my part of the conference."

" My friend Mr. Charles Hazlewood will not probably
be anxious, Mr. Glossin, to listen to what cannot concern
him — and now, when he has left us alone, let me pray
you to be short and explicit in what you have to say. I
am a soldier, sir, somewhat impatient of forms and intro-
ductions." So saying, he drew himself up in his chair,
and waited for Mr. Glossin's communication.

" Be pleased to look at that letter," said Glossin, put-
ting Protocol's epistle into Mannering's hand, as the
shortest way of stating his business.

The Colonel read it, and returned it, after pencilling
the name of the writer in his memorandum-book. " This,
sir, does not seem to require much discussion — I will see
that Miss Bertram's interest is attended to."

" But, sir, — but, Colonel Mannering," added Glossin,

" there is another matter which no one can explain but

myself. This lady — this Mrs. Margaret Bertram, to my

certain knowledge, made a general settlement of her

affairs in Miss Lucy Bertram's favour while she lived

with my old friend, Mr. Bertram, at Ellangowan. The

Dominie — that was the name by which my deceased

friend always called that very respectable man Mr.

Sampson — he and I witnessed the deed. And she had

full power at that time to make such a settlement, for she

was in fee of the estate of Singleside even then, although
vol. rv. 5

66 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

it was life-rented by an elder sister. It was a whimsical
settlement of old Singleside's, sir ; he pitted the two cats
his daughters against each other, — ha ! ha ! N ha ! "

" Well, sir," said Mannering, without the slightest smile
of sympathy — " but to the purpose. You say that this
lady had power to settle her estate on Miss Bertram, and
that she did so ? "

" Even so, Colonel," replied Glossin. tt I think I should

understand the law — I have followed it for many years,

and though I have given it up to retire upon a handsome

competence, I did not throw away that knowledge which

is pronounced better than house and land, and which I

take to be the knowledge of the law, since, as our common

rhyme has it,

'Tis most excellent,

To win the land that's gone and spent,

No, no, — I love the smack of the whip — I have a little, a
very little law yet, at the service of my friend8. ,,

Glossin ran on in this manner, thinking he had made
a favourable impression on Mannering. The Colonel
indeed reflected that this might be a most important crisis
for Miss Bertram's interest, and resolved that his strong
inclination to throw Glossin out at window, or at door,
should not interfere with it. He put a strong curb on his
temper, and resolved to listen with patience at least, if
without complacency. He therefore let Mr. Glossin get
to the end of his self-congratulations, and then asked him
if he knew where the deed was ?

" I know — that is, I think — I believe I can recover it.
In such cases custodiers have sometimes made a charge."

"We won't differ as to that, sir," said the Colonel,
taking out his pocket-book.

" But, my dear sir, you take me so very short — I said

GUT MANNERING. 67

some persons might make such a claim — I mean for pay-
ment of the expenses of the deed, trouble in the affair,
&c. But I, for my own part, only wish Miss Bertram
and her friends to be satisfied that I am acting towards
her with honour. There's the paper, sir ! It would have
been a satisfaction to me to have delivered it into Miss
Bertram's own hands, and to have wished her joy of the
prospects which it opens. But since her prejudices on
the subject are invincible, it only remains for me to trans-
mit her my best wishes through you, Colonel Mannering,
and to express that I shall willingly give my testimony in
support of that deed when I shall be called upon. I have
the honour to wish you a good morning, sir."

This parting speech was so well got up, and had so
much the tone of conscious integrity unjustly suspected,
that even Colonel Mannering was staggered in his bad
opinion. He followed him two or three steps, and took
leave of him with more politeness (though still cold and
formal) than he had paid during his visit. Glossin left
the house, half pleased with the impression he had made,
half mortified by the stern caution and proud reluctance
with which he had been received. a Colonel Mannering
might have had more politeness," he said to himself — " it
is not every man that can bring a good chance of £400 a
year to a penniless girl. Singleside must be up to £400
a year now — there's Reilageganbeg, Gillifidget, Loverless,
Liealone, and the Spinster's Knowe — good £400 a year.
Some people might have made their own of it in my
place — and yet, to own the truth, after much consid-
eration, I don't see how that is possible."

Glossin was no sooner mounted and gone, than the
Colonel despatched a groom for Mr. Mac-Morlan, and
putting the deed into his hand, requested to know if it

68 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

was likely to be available to his friend Lucy Bertram.
Mr. Mac-Morlan perused it with eyes that sparkled with
delight, snapped his fingers repeatedly, and at length
exclaimed, "Available! — it's as tight as a glove — nae-
body could make better wark than Glossin, when he didna
let down a steek on purpose. But" (his countenance

falling) " the auld b , that I should say so, might

alter at pleasure ! "

" Ah ! And how shall we know whether she has done
so?"

" Somebody must attend on Miss Bertram's part, when
the repositories of the deceased are opened."

" Can you go ? " said the Colonel.

" I fear I cannot," replied Mac-Morlan ; " I must attend
a jury trial before our court."

" Then I will go myself," said the Colonel ; " Til set
out to-morrow. Sampson shall go with me — he is witness
to this settlement. But I shall want a legal adviser."

" The gentleman that was lately sheriff of this county
is high in reputation as a barrister ; I will give you a
card of introduction to him."

" What I like about you, Mr. Mac-Morlan," said the
Colonel, " is, that you always come straight to the point ;
— let me have it instantly. Shall we tell Miss Lucy her
chance of becoming an heiress ? "

" Surely, because you must have some powers from
her, which I will instantly draw out. Besides, I will be
caution for her prudence, and that she will consider it
only in the light of a chance."

Mr. Mac-Morlan judged well. It could not be dis-
cerned from Miss Bertram's manner, that she founded
exulting hopes upon the prospect thus unexpectedly open-
ing before her. She did, indeed, in the course of the

GUT MANNERING.

69

evening, ask Mr. Mac-Morlan, as if by accident, what
might be the annual income of the Hazlewood property ;
but shall we therefore aver for certain that she was con-
sidering whether an heiress of four hundred a year might
be a suitable match for the young Laird ?

70 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Give me a cup of sack, to make mine eyes look red— for I must speak in pas-
sion, and I Trill do it in King Cambyses' yein.

HxmtTlY. Parti.

Mannering, with Sampson for his companion, lost no
time in his journey to Edinburgh. They travelled in the
Colonel's post-chariot, who knowing his companion's
habits of abstraction, did not choose to lose him out
of his own sight, far less to trust him on horseback,
where, in all probability, a knavish stable-boy might with
little address have contrived to mount him with his face
to the tail. Accordingly, with the aid of his valet, who
attended on horseback, he contrived to bring Mr. Samp-
son safe to an inn in Edinburgh, — for hotels in those days
there were none, — without any other accident than arose
from his straying twice upon the road. On one occasion
he was recovered by Barnes, who understood his humour,
when, after engaging in close colloquy with the school-
master of Moffat, respecting a disputed quantity in
Horace's seventh Ode, Book II., the dispute led on to
another controversy, concerning the exact meaning of the
word Malobathro, in that lyric effusion. His second
escapade was made for the purpose of visiting the field
of Rullion-green, which was dear to his Presbyterian
predilections. Having got out of the carriage for an in-
stant, he saw the sepulchral monument of the slain at the

GUT MANNERING. 71

distance of about a mile, and was arrested by Barnes in
his progress up the Pentland Hills, having on both occa-
sions forgot his friend, patron, and fellow-traveller, as
completely as if he had been in the East Indies. On
being reminded that Colonel Mannering was waiting for
him, he uttered his usual ejaculation of " Prodigious ! — I
was oblivious," and then strode back to his post. Barnes
was surprised at his master's patience on both occasions,
knowing by experience how little he brooked neglect or
delay ; but the Dominie was in every respect a privileged
person. His patron and he were never for a moment in
each other's way, and it seemed obvious that they were
formed to be companions through life. If Mannering
wanted a particular book, the Dominie could bring it ; if
he wished to have accounts summed up or checked, his
assistance was equally ready ; if he desired to recall a
particular passage in the classics, he could have recourse
to the Dominie as to a dictionary ; and all the while, this
walking statue was neither presuming when noticed, nor
sulky when left to himself. To a proud, shy, reserved
man, and such in many respects was Mannering, this sort
of living catalogue, and animated automaton, had all the
advantages of a literary dumb-waiter.

As soon as they arrived in Edinburgh, and were
established at the George Inn, near Bristo-Port, then
kept by old Cockburn, (I love to be particular,) the
Colonel desired the waiter to procure him a guide to Mr.
Pleydell's, the advocate, for whom he had a letter of in-
troduction from Mr. Mac-Morlan. He then commanded
Barnes to have an eye to the Dominie, and walked
forth with a chairman, who was to usher him to the man
of law.

The period was near the end of the American war.

72 WAVERLET NOVELS.

The desire of room, of air, and of decent accommodation,
had not as yet made very much progress in the capital of
Scotland. Some efforts had been made on the south side
of the town towards building houses within themselves, as
they are emphatically termed ; and the New Town on the
north, since so much extended, was then just commenced.
But the great bulk of the better classes, and particularly
those connected with the law, still lived in flats or dun-
geons of the Old Town. The manners also of some of
the veterans of the law had not admitted innovation.
One or two eminent lawyers still saw their clients in
taverns, as was the general custom fifty years before;
and although their habits were already considered as old-
fashioned by the younger barristers, yet the custom of
mixing wine and revelry with serious business was still
maintained by those senior counsellors, who loved the old
road, either because it was such, or because they had got
too well used to it to travel any other. Among those
praisers of the past time, who with ostentatious obstinacy
affected the manners of a former generation, was this
same Paulus Pleydell, Esq., otherwise a good scholar, an
excellent lawyer, and a worthy man.

Under the guidance of his trusty attendant, Colonel
Mannering, after threading a dark lane or two, reached
the High Street, then clanging with the voices of oyster-
women and the bells of pie-men ; for it had, as his guide
assured him, just " chappit eight upon the Tron." It was
long since Mannering had been in the street of a crowded
metropolis, which, with its noise and clamour, its sounds
of trade, of revelry and of license, its variety of . lights,
and the eternally changing bustle of its hundred groups,
offers, by night especially, a spectacle which, though
composed of the most vulgar materials when they are

GUT MANNERING. 73

separately considered, has, when they are combined, a
striking and powerful effect on the imagination. The
extraordinary height of the houses was marked by lights,
which, glimmering irregularly along their front, ascended
so high among the attics, that they seemed at length to
twinkle in the middle sky. This coup d'oeil, which still
subsists in a certain degree, was then more imposing,
owing to the uninterrupted range of buildings on each
side, which, broken only at the space where the North
Bridge joins the main street, formed a superb and uniform
Place, extending from the front of the Luckenbooths to
the head of the Canongate, and corresponding in breadth
and length to the uncommon height of the buildings on
either side.

Mannering had not much time to look and to admire.
His conductor hurried him across this striking scene, and
suddenly dived with him into a very steep paved lane.
Turning to the right, they entered a scale-staircase, as it
is called, the state of which, so far as it could be judged
of by one of his senses, annoyed Mannering's delicacy not
a little. When they had ascended cautiously to a con-
siderable height, they heard a heavy rap at a door, still
two stories above them. The door opened, and imme-
diately ensued the sharp and worrying bark of a dog,
the squalling of a woman, the screams of an assaulted
cat, and the hoarse voice of a man, who cried in a most
imperative tone, "Will ye, Mustard? will ye?-— down
sir! down!"

" Lord preserve us ! " said the female voice, " an he
had worried our cat, Mr. Pleydell would ne'er hae for-
gi'en me ! "

u Aweel, my doo, the cat's no a prin the waur — So he's
no in, ye say ? "

74 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" Na, Mr. Pleydell's ne'er in the house on Saturday at
e'en," answered the female voice.

" And the morn's Sabbath too," said the querist ; " I
dinna ken what will be done."

By this time Mannering appeared, and found a tall
strong countryman, clad in a coat of pepper-and-salt
coloured mixture, with huge metal buttons, a glazed hat
and boots, and a large horsewhip beneath his arm, in
colloquy with a slip-shod damsel, who had in one hand
the lock of the door, and in the other a pail of whiting, or
camstane, as, it is called, mixed with water — a circum-
stance which indicates Saturday night in Edinburgh.

" So Mr. Pleydell is not at home, my good girl ? " said
Mannering.

" Ay, sir, he's at hame, but he's no in the house : he's
aye out on Saturday at e'en."

" But, my good girl, I am a stranger, and my business
express. — Will you tell me where I can find him ? "

" His honour," said the chairman, " will be at Cleri-
hugh's about this time — Hersell could hae tell'd ye that,
but she thought ye wanted to see his house."

" Well, then, show me to this tavern — I suppose he
will see me, as I come on business of some conse-
quence ? "

" I dinna ken, sir," said the girl ; " he disna like to be
disturbed on Saturdays wi' business — but he's aye civil
to strangers."

" I'll gang to the tavern too," said our friend Dinmont,
"for I am a stranger also, and on business e'en sic
like."

" Na," said' the handmaiden, " an he see the gentleman,
he'll see the simple body too — but, Lord's sake, dinna say
it was me sent ye there ! "

GUT MANNERING. * 75

" Atweel, Tin a simple body, that's true, hinney, but I
am no come to steal ony o' his skeel for naething," said
the farmer in his honest pride, and strutted away down
stairs, followed by Mannering and the cadie. Manner-
ing could not help admiring the determined stride with
which the stranger who preceded them divided the
press, shouldering from him, by the mere weight and
impetus of his motion, both drunk and sober passengers.
"He'll be a Teviotdale tup tat ane," said the chair-
man, " tat's for keeping ta crown o' ta causeway tat
gate ; he'll no gang far or he'll get somebody to bell ta cat
wi' him."

His shrewd augury, however, was not fulfilled. Those
who recoiled from the colossal weight of Dinmont, on
looking up at his size and strength, apparently judged
him too heavy metal to be rashly encountered, and suf-
fered him to pursue his course unchallenged. Follow-
ing in the wake of this first-rate, Mannering proceeded
till the farmer made a pause, and, looking back to the
chairman, said, "I'm thinking this will be the close,
friend ? "

" Ay, ay," replied Donald, u tat's ta close."

Dinmont descended confidently, then turned into a dark
alley — then up a dark stair — and then into an open door.
While he was whistling shrilly for the waiter, as if he had
been one of his collie dogs, Mannering looked round him,
and could hardly conceive how a gentleman of a liberal
profession, and good society, should choose such a scene
for. social indulgence. Besides the miserable entrance,
the house itself seemed paltry and half ruinous. The
passage in which they stood had a window to the close,
which admitted a little light during the day-time, and a
villanous compound of smells at all times, but more espe-

76 WAYERLEY NOYELS.

dally towards evening. Corresponding to this window
was a borrowed light on the other side of the passage,
looking into the kitchen, which had no direct communica-
tion with the free air, but received in the day-time, at
second-hand, such straggling and obscure light as found
its way from the lane through the window opposite. At
present, the interior of the kitchen was visible by its own
huge fires — a sort of Pandemonium, where men and
women, half undressed, were busied in baking, broiling,
roasting oysters, and preparing devils on the gridiron;
the mistress of the place, with her shoes slip-shod, and
her hair straggling like that of Megaera from under a
round-eared cap, toiling, scolding, receiving orders, giving
them, and obeying them all at once, seemed the presiding
enchantress of that gloomy and fiery region.

Loud and repeated bursts of laughter, from different

»

quarters of the house, proved that her labours were ac-
ceptable, and not unrewarded by a generous public
With some difficulty a waiter was prevailed upon to show
Colonel Mannering and Dinmont the room where their
friend, learned in the law, held his hebdomadal carousals.
The scene which it exhibited, and particularly the attitude
of the counsellor himself, the principal figure therein,
struck his two clients with amazement.

Mr. Pleydell was a lively, sharp-looking gentleman,
with a professional shrewdness in his eye, and, generally
speaking, a professional formality in his manners. But
this, like his three-tailed wig and black coat, he could slip
off on a Saturday evening, when surrounded by a party
of jolly companions, and disposed for what he called his
altitudes. On the present occasion, the revel had lasted
since four o'clock, and at length, under the direction of a
venerable compotator, who had shared the sports and fes-

GUT MANNERING. , 77

tivity of three generations, the frolicsome company had
begun to practise the ancient and now forgotten pastime
of High Jinks, This game was played in several differ-
ent ways. Most frequently the dice were thrown by the
company, and those upon whom the lot fell were obliged
to assume and maintain for a time, a certain fictitious
character, or to repeat a certain number of fescennine
verses in a particular order. If they departed from the
characters assigned, or if their memory proved treacher-
ous in the repetition, they incurred forfeits, which were
either compounded for by swallowing an additional
bumper, or by paying a small sum towards the reckoning.
At this sport the jovial company were closely engaged,
when Mannering entered the room.

Mr. Counsellor Pleydell, such as we have described
him, was enthroned, as a monarch, in an elbow-chair,
placed on the dining-table, his scratch wig on one side, his
head crowned with a bottle-slider, his eye leering with an
expression betwixt fun and the effects of wine, while his
court around him resounded with such crambo scraps of
verse as these :

Where is Gerunto now? and what's become of him?
Gerunto's drowned because he could not swim, &c. &c.

Such, O Themis, were anciently the sports of thy Scot-
tish children ! Dinmont was first in the room. He
stood aghast a moment, — and then exclaimed, " It's him,
sure enough — Deil o' the like o' that ever I saw ! "

At the sound of " Mr. Dinmont and Colonel Manner-
ing wanting to speak to you, sir," Pleydell turned his
head, and blushed a little when he saw the very genteel
figure of the English stranger. He was, however, of
the opinion of FaJstaff, "Out, ye villains, play out the

78 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

play ! " wisely judging it the better way to appear totally
unconcerned. " Where be our guards ? " exclaimed this
second Justinian; "see ye not a stranger knight from
foreign parts arrived at this our court of Holyrood, — with
our bold yeoman Andrew Dinmont, who has succeeded
to the keeping of our royal flocks within the forest of
Jedwood, where, thanks to our royal care in the adminis-
tration of justice, they feed as safe as if they were within
the bounds of Fife ? Where be our heralds, our pursui-
vants, our Lyon, our Marchmount, our Carrick, and our
Snowdown ? Let the strangers be placed at our board,
and regaled as beseemeth their quality, and this our high
holiday — to-morrow we will hear their tidings."

" So please you, my liege, to-morrow's Sunday," said
one of the company.

" Sunday, is it ? then we will give no offence to the
assembly of the kirk — on Monday shall be their audi-
ence."

Mannering, who had stood at first uncertain whether to
advance or retreat, now resolved to enter for the moment
into the whim of the scene, though internally fretting at
Mac-Morlan for sending him to consult with a crack-
brained humourist. He therefore advanced with three
profound congees, and craved permission to lay his cre-
dentials at the feet of the Scottish monarch, in order to
be' perused at his best leisure. The gravity with which
he accommodated himself to the humour of the moment,
and the deep and humble inclination with which he had
at first declined, and then accepted, a seat presented by
the master of the ceremonies, procured him three rounds
of applause.

" Deil hae me, if they arena a* mad thegither ! " said
Dinmont, occupying with less ceremony a seat at the

GUY MANNERING. 79

bottom of the table, " or else they hae taen Yule before
it comes, and are gaun a-guisarding."

A large glass of claret was offered to Mannering, who
drank it to the heajth of the reigning prince. " You are,
I presume to guess," said the monarch, " that celebrated
Sir Miles Mannering, so renowned in the French wars,
and may well pronounce to us if the wines of Gascony
lose their flavour in our more northern realm."

Mannering, agreeably flattered by this allusion to the
fame of his celebrated ancestor, replied, by professing
himself only a distant relation of the preux chevalier,
and added, " that in his opinion the wine was superla-
tively good."

" It's ower cauld for my stamach," said Dinmont, set-
ting down the glass (empty, however.)

" We will correct that quality," answered King Paulus,
the first of the name ; " we have not forgotten that the
moist and humid air of our valley of Liddel inclines to
stronger potations. — Seneschal, let our faithful yeoman
have a cup of brandy ; it will be more germain to the
matter."

" And now," said Mannering, " since we have unwa-
rily intruded upon your majesty at a moment of mirthful
retirement, be pleased to say when you will indulge a
stranger with an audience on those affairs of weight
which have brought him to your northern capital."

The monarch opened Mac-Morlan's letter, and, run-
ning it hastily over, exclaimed with his natural voice and
manner, " Lucy Bertram of Ellangowan, poor dear las-
sie ! "

"A forfeit! a forfeit!" exclaimed a dozen voices;
" his majesty has forgot his kingly character."

" Not a whit ! not a whit ! " replied the king ; — " I'll

80 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

be judged by this courteous knight. May not a monarch
love a maid of low degree ? Is not King Cophetua and
the Beggar-maid an adjudged case in point ? "

" Professional ! professional ! — another forfeit ! " ex-
claimed the tumultuary nobility.

" Had not our royal predecessors," continued the mon-
arch, exalting his sovereign voice to drown these dis-
affected clamours, — " had they not their Jean Logies,
their Bessie Carmichaels, their Oliphants, their Sandi-
lands, and their Weirs, and shall it be denied to us even
to name a maiden whom we delight to honour ? Nay,
then, sink state, and perish sovereignty ! for, like a second
Charles V., we will abdicate, and seek in the private
shades of life those pleasures which are denied to a
throne."

So saying he flung away his crown, and sprung from
his exalted station with more agility than could have been
expected from his age, ordered lights and a wash-hand
basin and towel, with a cup of green tea, into another
room, and made a sign to Mannering to accompany him.
In less than two minutes he washed his face and hands,
settled his wig in the glass, and, to Mannering's great
surprise, looked quite a different man from the childish
Bacchanal he had seen a moment before.

" There are folks," he said, " Mr. Mannering, before
whom one should take care how they play the fool —
because they have either too much malice, or too little
wit, as the poet says. The best compliment I can pay
Colonel Mannering, is to show I am not ashamed to
expose myself before him — and truly I think it is a com-
pliment I have not spared to-night on your good-nature. —
But what's that great strong fellow wanting ? "

Dinmont, who had pushed after Mannering into the

GUT MANNERING. 81

room, began with a scrape of his foot and a scratch of
his head in unison. " I am Dandie Dinmont, sir, of the
Charlies-hope — the Liddesdale lad — ye'll mind me ? It
was for me you won yon grand plea."

" What plea, you loggerhead ? " said the lawyer ;
" d'ye think I can remember all the fools that come to
plague me ? "

" Lord, sir, it was the grand plea about the grazing o'
the Langtae-head," said the farmer.

" Well, curse thee, never mind ; — give me the memo-
rial,* and come to me on Monday at ten," replied the
learned counsel.

" But, sir, I haena got ony distinct memorial."

" No memorial, man ? " said Pleydell.

" Na, sir, nae memorial," answered Dandie ; " for your
honour said before, Mr. Pleydell, ye'll mind, that ye
liked best to hear us hill-folk tell our ain tale by word o'
mouth."

" Beshrew my tongue that said so ! " answered the
counsellor ; " it will cost my ears a dinning. — Well, say
in two words what you've got to say — you see the gentle-
man waits."

u Ou, sir, if the gentleman likes he may play his ain
spring first ; it's a' ane to Dandie."

" Now, you looby," said the lawyer, " cannot you con-
ceive" that your business can be nothing to Colonel Man-
nering, but that he may not choose to have these great
ears of thine regaled with his matters ? "

" Aweel, sir, just as you and he like, so ye see to my
business," said Dandie, not a whit disconcerted by the
roughness of this reception. " We're at the auld wark
o' the marches again, Jock o' Dawston Cleugh and me.

* The Scottish memorial corresponds to the English brief.

VOL. IV. 6

82 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Ye see we march on the tap o' Touthop-rigg after we
pass the Pomoragrains ; for the Pomoragrains, and
Slackenspool, and Bloodylaws, they come in there, and
they belang to the Peel ; but after ye pass Pomoragrains
at a muckle great saucer-headed cutlugged stane, that
they ca' Charlies Chuckie, there Dawston Cleugh and
Charlies-hope they march. Now, I say, the march rins
on the tap o' the hill where the wind and water shears ; but
Jock o' Dawston Cleugh again, he contravenes that, and
says that it hauds down by the auld drove-road that gaes
awa by the Knot o' the Gate ower to Keeldar-ward —
and that makes an unco difference."

" And what difference does it make friend ? " said
Pleydell. " How many sheep will it feed ? "

"Ou, no mony," said Dandie, scratching his head;
"it's lying high and exposed — it may feed a hog, or
aiblins twa in a good year."

" And for this grazing, which may be worth about five
shillings a-year, you are willing to throw away a hundred
pound or two ? "

" Na, sir, it's no for the value of the grass," replied
Dinmont, " it's for justice."

" My good friend," said Pleydell, "justice, like charity,
should begin at home. Do you justice to your wife and
family, and think no more about the matter."

Dinmont still lingered, twisting his hat in his hand —
" It's no for that, sir, — but I would like ill to be bragged
wi' him ; — he threeps he'll bring a score o' witnesses and
mair — and I'm sure there's as mony will swear for me
as for him, folk that lived a' their days upon the Charlies-
hope, and wadna like to see the land lose its right"

" Zounds, man, if it be a point of honour," said the
lawyer, " why don't your landlords take it up ? "

GUT MANNERING. 83

u I dinna ken, sir," (scratching his head again ;)
u there's been nae election-dusts lately, and the lairds are
unco neighbourly, and Jock and me cannot get them to
yoke thegither about it a* that we can say ; but if ye
thought we might keep up the rent "

" No ! no ! that will never do," said Pleydell ; — " con-
found you, why don't you take good cudgels, and settle
it?"

" Od, sir," answered the farmer, " we tried that three
times already — that's twice on the land and ance at Lock-
erby fair. But I dinna ken — we're baith gey good at
single-stick, and it couldna weel be judged."

" Then take broadswords, and be d— d to you, as your
fathers did before you," said the counsel learned in the
law.

" Aweel, sir, if ye think it wadna be again the law, it's
a' ane to Dandie."

" Hold ! hold ! " exclaimed Pleydell, a we shall have
another Lord Soulis' mistake — Pr'ythee, man, compre-
hend me ; I wish you to consider how very trifling and
foolish a lawsuit you wish to engage in."

" Ay, sir ? " said Dandie, in a disappointed tone. " So
ye winna take on wi' me, I'm doubting ? "

" Me ! not I — Go home, go home, take a pint and
agree." Dandie looked but half contented, and still
remained stationary. " Anything more, my friend ? "

" Only, sir, about the succession of this leddy that's
dead, — auld Miss Margaret Bertram o' Singleside."

" Ay, what about her ? " said the counsellor, rather
surprised.

" Ou, we have nae connexion at a' wi' the Bertrams,"
said Dandie — " they were grand folk by the like o' us. —
But Jean Liltup, that was auld Singleside's housekeeper,

84 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

and the mother of these twa young ladies that are gane —
the last o' them's dead at a ripe age, I trow — Jean Liltup
came out o' Liddel water, and she was as near our con-
nexion as second cousin to my mother's half-sister. She
drew up wi' Singleside, nae doubt, when she was his
housekeeper, and it was a sair vex and grief to a' her kith
and kin. But he acknowledged a marriage, and satisfied
the kirk — and now I wad ken frae you if we hae not
some claim by law ? *

" Not the shadow of a claim."

" Aweel, we're nae puirer," said Dandie, — " but she
may hae thought on us if she was minded to make a
testament. — Weel, sir, I've said my say — I'se e'en wish
you good-night, and " putting his hand in his pocket

" No, no, my friend ; I never take fees on Saturday
night, or without a memorial — away with you, Dandie."
And Dandie made his reverence, and departed ac-
cordingly.

GUT MANNERING. 85

CHAPTER XXXVII.

But this poor farce has neither truth, nor art,
To please the fancy or to touch the heart.
Dark but not awful, dismal but yet mean,
With anxious bustle moves the cumbrous scene;
Presents no objects tender or profound,
But spreads its cold unmeaning gloom around.

Parish Register.

u Your majesty," said Mannering, laughing, " has
solemnized your abdication by an act of mercy and
charity. — That fellow will scarce think of going to law."

a Oh, you are quite wrong/' said the experienced law-
yer. " The only difference is, I have lost my client and
my fee. He'll never rest till he finds somebody to en-
courage him to commit the folly he has predetermined. —
No ! no ! I have only shown you another weakness of my
character — I always speak truth of a Saturday night."

" And sometimes through the week, I should think,"
said Mannering, continuing the same tone.

" Why, yes ; as far as my vocation will permit. I am,
as Hamlet says, indifferent honest, when my clients and
their solicitors do not make me the medium of conveying
their double-distilled lies to the bench. But oportet vi-
vere ! it is a sad thing. — And now to our business. I am
glad my old friend Mac-Morlan has sent you to me ; he
is an active, honest, and intelligent man, long sheriff-
substitute of the county of under me, and still holds

86 WAVERLET NOVELS.

the office. He knows I have a regard for that .unfor-
tunate family of Ellangowan, and for poor Lucy. I have
not seen her since she was twelve years old, and she was
then a sweet pretty girl under the management of a very
silly father. But my interest in her is of an early date.
I was called upon, Mr. Mannering, being then sheriff of
that county, to investigate the particulars of a murder
which had been committed near Ellangowan the day on
which this poor child was born ; and which, by a strange
combination that I was unhappily not able to trace, in-
volved the death or abstraction of her only brother, a boy
of about five years old. No, Colonel, I shall never forget
the misery of the house of Ellangowan that morning ! —
the father half-distracted — the mother dead in premature
travail — the helpless infant, with scarce any one to attend
it, coming wawling and crying into this miserable world
at such a moment of unutterable misery. We lawyers
are not of iron, sir, or of brass, any more than you
soldiers are of steel. We are conversant with the crimes
and distresses of civil society, as you are with those that
occur in a state of war — and to do our duty in either
case, a little apathy is perhaps necessary. — But the devil
take a soldier whose heart can be as hard as his sword,
and his dam catch the lawyer who bronzes his bosom
instead of his forehead! — But come, I am losing my
Saturday at e'en — will you have the kindness to trust me
with these papers which relate to Miss Bertram's busi-
ness? — And stay — to-morrow you'll take a bachelor's
dinner with an old lawyer, — I insist upon it, at three
precisely — and come an hour sooner. — The old lady is to
be buried on Monday ; it is the orphan's cause, and we'll
borrow an hour from the Sunday to talk over this busi-
ness — although I fear nothing can be done if she has

GUT MANNERING. 87

altered her settlement — unless perhaps it occurs within
the sixty days, and then if Miss Bertram can show that
she possesses the character of heir-at-law, why

" But, hark ! my lieges are impatient of their interreg-
num — I do not invite you to rejoin us, Colonel ; it would
be a trespass on your complaisance, unless you had begun
the day with us, and gradually glided on from wisdom to
mirth, and from mirth to — to— to — extravagance. — Good-
night — Harry, go home with Mr. Mannering to his
lodging. — Colonel, I expect you at a little past two
to-morrow."

The Colonel returned to his inn, equally surprised at
the childish frolics in which he had found his learned
counsellor engaged, at the candour and sound sense which
he had in a moment summoned up to meet the exigencies
of his profession, and at the tone of feeling which he
displayed when he spoke of the friendless orphan.

In the morning, while the Colonel and his most quiet
and silent of all retainers, Dominie Sampson, were finish-
ing the breakfast which Barnes had made and poured
out, after the Dominie had scalded himself in the attempt,
Mr. Pleydell was suddenly ushered in. A nicely-dressed
bob-wig, upon every hair of which a zealous and careful
barber had bestowed its proper allowance of powder ; a
well-brushed black suit, with very clean shoes and gold
buckles and stock-buckle ; a manner rather reserved and
formal than intrusive, but, withal, showing only the for-
mality of manner, by no means that of awkwardness ; a
countenance, the expressive and somewhat comic features
of which were in complete repose, — all showed a being
perfectly different from the choice spirit of the evening
before. A glance of shrewd and piercing fire in his eye
was the only marked expression which recalled the man
hi " Saturday' at e'en."

$8 TTAVERLET NOVELS.

u I am come," said he, with a very polite address, a to
use my regal authority in your behalf in spirituals as
well as temporals— can I accompany you to the Presby-
terian kirk, or Episcopal meeting-house ? Tro% Tyriusve
— a lawyer, you know is of both religions, or rather I
should say of both forms — or can I assist in passing the
forenoon otherwise? You'll excuse my old-fashioned
importunity — I was born in a time when a Scotchman
was thought inhospitable if he left a guest alone a
moment, except when he slept — but I trust you will tell
me at once if I intrude."

"Not at all, my dear sir," answered Colonel Mannering
— " I am delighted to put myself under your pilotage. I
should wish much to hear some of your Scottish preachers
whose talents have done such honour to your country —
your Blair, your Robertson, or your Henry ; and I em-
brace your kind offer with all my heart. — Only," drawing
the lawyer a little aside, and turning his eye towards
Sampson, " my worthy friend there in the reverie is a
little helpless and abstracted, and my servant, Barnes,
who is his pilot in ordinary, cannot well assist him here,
especially as he has expressed his determination of going
to some of your darker and more remote places of
worship."

The lawyer's eye glanced at Dominie Sampson. u A
curiosity worth preserving — and I'll find you a fit custo-
dier. — Here you, sir," (to the waiter,) " go to Luckie
Finlayson's in the Cowgate for Miles Macfin the cadie —
he'll be there about this time, — and tell him I wish to
speak to him."

The person wanted soon arrived. u I will commit your
friend to this man's charge," said Pleydell ; " he'll attend
him, or conduct him, wherever he chooses to go, with a

GUT MANNERING. 89

happy indifference as to kirk or market, meeting or court
of justice, or — any other place whatever, and bring him
safe home at whatever hour you appoint ; so that Mr.
Barnes there may be left to the freedom of his own will."

This was easily arranged, and the Colonel committed
the Dominie to the charge of this man while they should
remain in Edinburgh.

" And now, sir, if you please, we shall go to the Grey-
friars church, to hear our historian of Scotland, of the
Continent, and of America."

They were disappointed — he did not preach that
morning. — " Never mind," said the counsellor, " have a
moment's patience, and we shall do very well."

The colleague of Dr. Robertson ascended the pulpit.*
His external appearance was not prepossessing. A re-
markably fair complexion, strangely contrasted with a black
wig without a grain of powder ; a narrow chest and a
stooping posture ; hands which, placed like props on either
side of the pulpit, seemed necessary rather to support the
person than to assist the gesticulation of the preacher, — no
gown, not even that of Geneva, a tumbled band, and a
gesture which seemed scarce voluntary, were the first cir-
cumstances which struck a stranger. "The preacher
seems a very ungainly person," whispered Mannering to
his new friend.

"Never fear; he's the son of an excellent Scottish
lawyer f — he'll show blood, I'll warrant him."

The learned counsellor predicted truly. A lecture was

* This was the celebrated Dr. Erskine, a distinguished clergyman,
and a most excellent man.

f The father of Dr. Erskine was an eminent lawyer, and his Insti-
tutes of the Law of Scotland are to this day the text-book of students
of that science.

90 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

delivered, fraught with new, striking, and entertaining
views of Scripture history— a sermon, in which the Cal-
vinism of the Kirk of Scotland was ably supported, yet
made the basis of a sound system of practical morals,
which should neither shelter the sinner under the cloak
of speculative faith or of peculiarity of opinion, nor leave
him loose to the waves of unbelief and schism. Some-
thing there was of an antiquated turn of argument and
metaphor, but it only served to give zest and peculiarity
to the style of elocution. The sermon was not read — a
scrap of paper containing the heads of the discourse was
occasionally referred to, and the enunciation, which at
first seemed imperfect and embarrassed, became, as the
preacher warmed in his progress, animated and distinct ;
and although the discourse could not be quoted as a cor-
rect specimen of pulpit eloquence, yet Mannering had
seldom heard so much learning, metaphysical acuteness,
and energy of argument, brought into the service of
Christianity.

" Such," he said, going out of the church, " must have
been the preachers to whose unfearing minds, and acute,
though sometimes rudely exercised talents, we owe the
Reformation."

"And yet that reverend gentleman," said Pleydell,
"whom I love for his father's sake and his own, has
nothing of the sour or pharisaical pride which has been
imputed to some of the early fathers of the Calvinistic
Kirk of Scotland. His colleague and he differ, and head
different parties in the kirk, about particular points of
church discipline, but without for a moment losing per-
sonal regard or respect for each other, or suffering ma-
lignity to interfere in an opposition, steady, constant, and
apparently conscientious on both sides."

GUY MANNERING. 91

" And you, Mr. Pleydell, what do you think of their
points of difference ? "

" Why, I hope, Colonel, a plain man may go to heaven
without thinking about them at all ; — besides, inter nos, I
am a member of the suffering and Episcopal Church of
Scotland — the shadow of a shade now, and fortunately
so ; — but I love to pray where my fathers prayed before
me, without thinking worse of the Presbyterian forms
because they do not affect me with the same associations."
And with this remark they parted until dinner-time.

From the awkward access to the lawyer's mansion,
Mannering was induced to form very moderate expecta-
tions of the entertainment which he was to receive. The
approach looked even more dismal by day-light than on
the preceding evening. The houses on each side of the
lane were so close, that the neighbours might have shaken
hands with each other from the different sides, and occa-
sionally the space between was traversed by wooden
galleries, and thus entirely closed up. The stair, the
scale-stair, was not well cleaned ; and on entering the
house, Mannering was struck with the narrowness and
meanness of the wainscotted passage. But the library,
into which he was shown by an elderly respectable look-
ing man-servant, was a complete contrast to these un-
promising appearances. It was a well-proportioned room,
hung with a portrait or two of Scottish characters of
eminence, by Jamieson, the Caledonian Vandyke, and
surrounded with books, the best editions of the best
authors, and in particular, an admirable collection of
classics.

" These," said Pleydell, " are my tools of trade. A
lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere
working mason ; if he possesses some knowledge of these,
he may venture to call himself an architect."

92 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

But Mannering was chiefly delighted with the view
from the windows, which commanded that incomparable
prospect of the ground between Edinburgh and the sea;
the Frith of Forth, with its islands; the embayment
which is terminated by the Law of North Berwick ; and
the varied shores of Fife to the northward, indenting
with a hilly outline the clear blue horizon.

When Mr. Pleydell had sufficiently enjoyed the sur-
prise of his guest, he called his attention to Miss Ber-
tram's affairs. " I was in hopes," he said, " though but
faint, to have discovered some means of ascertaining her
indefeasible right to this property of Singleside ; but my
researches have been in vain. The old lady was cer-
tainly absolute fiar, and might dispose of it in full right
of property. All that we have to hope is, that the devil
may not have tempted her to alter this very proper set-
tlement. You must attend the old girl's funeral to-mor-
row, to which you will receive an invitation, for I have
acquainted her agent with your being here on Miss Ber-
tram's part ; and I will meet you afterwards at the house
she inhabited, and be present to see fair play at the open-
ing of the settlement. The old cat had a little girl, the
orphan of some relation, who lived with her as a kind of
slavish companion. I hope she has had the conscience
to make her independent, in consideration of the peine
forte et dure to which she subjected her during her life-
time."

Three gentlemen now appeared, and were introduced
to the stranger. They were men of good sense, gaiety,
and general information, so that the day passed very
pleasantly over ; and Colonel Mannering assisted, about
eight o'clock at night, in discussing the landlord's bottle,
which was, of course, a magnum. Upon his return to

GUT MANNERING. 93

the inn, he found a card inviting him to the funeral of
Miss Margaret Bertram, late of Singleside, which was to
proceed from her own house to the place of interment in
the Greyfriars churchyard, at one o'clock, afternoon.

At the appointed hour, Mannering went to a small
house in the suburbs to the southward of the city, where
he found the place of mourning, indicated, as usual, in
Scotland, by two rueful figures with long black cloaks,
white crapes and hat-bands, holding in their hands poles,
adorned with melancholy streamers of the same descrip-
tion. By two other mutes, who, from their visages,
seemed suffering under the pressure of some strange
calamity, he was ushered into the dining-parlour of the
defunct, where the company were assembled for the
funeral

In Scotland, the custom, now disused in England, of
inviting the relations of the deceased to the interment,
is universally retained. On many occasions this has a
singular and striking effect, but it degenerates into mere
empty form and grimace, in cases where the defunct has
had the misfortune to live unbeloved and die unlamented.
— The English service for the dead, one of the most
beautiful and impressive parts of the ritual of the church,
would have, in such cases, the effect of fixing the atten-
tion, and uniting the thoughts and feelings of the audience
present, in an exercise of devotion so peculiarly adapted
to such an occasion. But, according to the Scottish
custom, if there be not real feeling among the assistants,
there is nothing to supply the deficiency, and exalt or
rouse the attention ; so that a sense of tedious form, and
almost hypocritical restraint, is too apt to pervade the
company assembled for the mournful solemnity. Mrs.
Margaret Bertram was unluckily one of those whose

94 WAVERLET NOVELS.

good qualities had attached no general friendship. She
had no near relations who might have mourned from
natural affection, and therefore her funeral exhibited
merely the exterior trappings of sorrow.

Mannering, therefore, stood among this lugubrious
company of cousins in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth
degree, composing his countenance to the decent solem-
nity of all who were around him, and looking as much
concerned on Mrs. Margaret Bertram's account, as if the
deceased lady of Singleside had been his own sister or
mother. After a deep and awful pause, the company
began to talk aside — under their breaths, however, and
as if in the chamber of a dying person.

" Our poor friend," said one grave gentleman, scarcely
opening his mouth, for fear of deranging the necessary
solemnity of his features, and sliding his whisper from
between his lips, which were as little unclosed as possible
— " our poor friend has died well to pass in the world."

" Nae doubt," answered the person addressed, with half-
closed eyes ; " poor Mrs. Margaret was aye careful of the
gear."

" Any news to-day, Colonel Mannering ? " said one of
the gentlemen whom he had dined with the day before,
but in a tone which might, for its impressive gravity, have
communicated the death of his whole generation.

" Nothing particular, I believe, sir," said Mannering,
in the cadence which was, he observed, appropriated to
the house of mourning.

"I understand," continued the first speaker, emphat-
ically, and with the air of one who is well informed — " I
understand there is a settlement."

" And what does little Jenny Gibson get ? "

" A hundred, and the auld repeater."

GUY MANNERING. 95

" That's but a sma' gear, puir thing ; she had a sair
time o't with the auld leddy. But it's ill waiting for dead
folk's shoon."

" I am afraid," said the politician, who was close by
Mannering, " we have not done with your old friend
Tippoo Saib yet — I doubt he'll give the Company more
plague ; and I am told — but you'll know for certain —
that East India Stock is not rising."

" I trust it will, sir, soon."

" Mrs. Margaret," said another person, mingling in the
conversation, " had some India bonds. I know that, for
I drew the interest for her — it would be desirable now
for the trustees and legatees to have the Colonel's advice
about the time and mode of converting them into money.
For my part I think — But there's Mr. Mortcloke to tell
us they are gaun to lift."

Mr. Mortcloke the undertaker did accordingly, with a
visage of professional length and most grievous solemnity,
distribute among the pall-bearers little cards, assigning
their respective situations in attendance upon the coffin.
As this precedence is supposed to be regulated by pro-
pinquity to the defunct, the undertaker, however skilful a
master of these lugubrious ceremonies, did not escape
giving some offence. To be related to Mrs. Bertram
was to be of kin to the lands of Singleside, and was a
propinquity of which each relative present at that mo-
ment was particularly jealous. Some murmurs there
were on the occasion, and our friend Dinmont gave more
open offence, being unable either to repress his discon-
tent, or to utter it in the key properly modulated to the
solemnity. " I think ye might hae at least gi'en me a
leg o' her to carry," he exclaimed, in a voice considerably
louder than propriety admitted. " God ! an it hadna

96 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

been for the rigs o' land, I would hae gotten her a' to
carry mysell, for as mony gentles as are here."

A score of frowning and reproving brows were bent
upon the unappalled yeoman, who, having given vent to
his displeasure, stalked sturdily down stairs with the rest
of the company, totally disregarding the censures of those
whom his remarks had scandalized.

And then the funeral pomp set forth ; saulies with
their batons, and gumphions of tarnished white crape, in
honour of the well-preserved maiden fame of Mrs. Mar-
garet Bertram. Six starved horses, themselves the very
emblems of mortality, well cloaked and plumed, lugging
along the hearse with its dismal emblazonry, crept in
slow state towards the place of interment, preceded by
Jamie Duff, an idiot, who with weepers and cravat made
of white paper, attended on every funeral, and followed
by six mourning coaches, filled with the company. —
Many of these now gave more free loose to their tongues,
and discussed with unrestained earnestness the amount
of the succession, and the probability of its destination.
The principal expectants, however, kept a prudent
silence, indeed ashamed to express hopes which might
prove fallacious; and the agent, or man of business,
who alone knew exactly how matters stood, maintained
a countenance of mysterious importance, as if determined
to preserve the full interest of anxiety and suspense.

At length they arrived at the churchyard gates, and
from thence, amid the gaping of two or three dozen of
idle women with infants in their arms, and accompanied
by some twenty children, who ran gambolling and
screaming alongside of the sable procession, they finally
arrived at the burial-place of the Singleside family. This
was a square enclosure in the Greyfriars churchyard,

GUT MANNERING. 97

guarded on one side by a veteran angel, without a nose,
and having only one wing, who had the merit of having
maintained his post for a century, while his comrade
cherub, who had stood sentinel on the corresponding
pedestal, lay a broken trunk among the hemlock, burdock,
and nettles, which grew in gigantic luxuriance around the
walls of the mausoleum. A moss-grown and broken
inscription informed the reader, that in the year 1650
Captain Andrew Bertram, first of Singleside, descended
of the very ancient and honourable house of Ellangowan,
had caused this monument to be erected for himself and
his descendants. A reasonable number of scythes and
hour-glasses, and death's-heads, and cross-bones, garnished
the following sprig of sepulchral poetry, to the memory
of the founder of the mausoleum : —

Nathaniel's heart, Bezaleel's hand,

If ever any had,
These boldly do I say had he,

Who lieth in this bed.

Here then, amid the deep black fat loam into which
her ancestors were now resolved, they deposited the body
of Mrs. Margaret Bertram ; and, like soldiers returning
from a military funeral, the nearest relations who might
be interested in the settlements of the lady, urged the
dog-cattle of the hackney coaches to all the speed of
which they were capable, in order to put an end to farther
suspense on that interesting topic

VOIj. rv.

* 98 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

CHAPTER XXXVm.

Die and endow a college or a oat.

Pop*.

There is a fable told by Lucian, that while a troop of
monkeys, well drilled by an intelligent manager, were
performing a tragedy with great applause, the decorum
of the whole scene was at once destroyed, and the natural
passions of the actors called forth in a very indecent and
active emulation, by a wag who threw a handful of nuts
upon the stage. In like manner, the approaching crisis
stirred up among the expectants feelings of a nature very
different from those of which, under the superintendence
of Mr. Mortcloke, they had but now been endeavouring
to imitate the expression. Those eyes which were lately
devoutly cast up to heaven, or with greater humility
bent solemnly upon earth, were now sharply and alertly
darting their glances through shuttles, and trunks, and
drawers, and cabinets, and all the odd corners of an old
maiden lady's repositories. Nor was their search with-
out interest, though they did not find the will of which
they were in quest.

Here was a promissory-note for £20 by the minister
of the nonjuring chapel, interest marked ,as paid to
Martinmas last, carefully folded up in a new set of words
to the old tune of " Over the Water to Charlie ; " — there,
was a curious love correspondence between the deceased

GUT MANNERING. 99

and a certain Lieutenant O'Kean, of a marching regiment
of foot ; and tied up with the letters was a document,
which at once explained to the relatives why a connexion
that boded them little good had been suddenly broken
off, being the Lieutenant's bond for two hundred pounds,
upon which no interest whatever appeared to have been
paid. Other bills and bonds to a larger amount, and
signed by better names (I mean commercially) than
those of the worthy divine and gallant soldier, also oc-
curred in the course of their researches, besides a hoard
of coins of every size and denomination, and scraps of
broken gold and silver, old ear-rings, hinges of cracked
snuff-boxes, mountings of spectacles, &c. &c &c Still
no will made its appearance, and Colonel Mannering
began full well to hope that the settlement which he had
obtained from Glossin contained the ultimate arrange-
ment of the old lady's affairs. But his friend Pleydell,
who now came into the room, cautioned him against
entertaining this belief.

" I am well acquainted with the gentleman," he said,
" who is conducting the search, and I guess from his
manner that he knows something more of the matter than
any of us." Meantime, while the search proceeds, let us
take a brief glance at one or two of the company, who
seem most interested.

Of Dinmont, who, with his large hunting-whip under
his arm, stood poking his great round face over the
shoulder of the komme d'affaires it is unnecessary to
say any thing. That thin-looking oldish person, in a
most correct and gentleman-like suit of mourning, is Mac-
Casquil, formerly of Drumquag, who was ruined by hav-
ing a legacy bequeathed to him of two shares in, the Ayr
bank. His hopes on the present occasion are founded on

3££4£ftft

100 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

>

a very distant relationship, upon his sitting in the same
pew with the deceased every Sunday, and upon his play-
ing at cribbage with her regularly on the Saturday
evenings — taking great care never to come off a winner.
That other coarse-looking man, wearing his own greasy
hair tied in a leathern cue more greasy still, is a tobac-
conist, a relation of Mrs. Bertram's mother, who, having
a good stock in trade when the colonial war broke out,
trebled the price of his commodity to all the world, Mrs.
Bertram alone excepted, whose tortoise-shell snuff-box N
was weekly filled with the best rappee at the old prices,
because the maid brought it to the shop with Mrs. Ber-
tram's respects to her cousin Mr. Quid. That young
fellow, who has not had the decency to put off his boots
and buck-skins, might have stood as forward as most of
them in the graces of the old lady, who loved to look upon
a comely young man ; but it is thought he has forfeited
the moment of fortune, by sometimes neglecting her tea-
table when solemnly invited ; sometimes appearing there,
when he had been dining with blither company ; twice
treading upon her cat's tail, and once affronting her
parrot

To Mannering, the most interesting of the group was
the poor girl, who had been a sort of humble companion
of the deceased, as a subject upon whom she could at all
times expectorate her bad humour. She was for form's
sake dragged into the room by the deceased's favourite
female attendant, where, shrinking into a corner as soon
as possible, she saw with wonder and affright the intrusive
researches of the strangers amongst those recesses to
which from childhood she had looked with awful venera-
tion. This girl was regarded with an unfavourable eye
by all the competitors, honest Dinmont only excepted ;

GUT MANNERING. 101

the rest conceived they should find in her a formidable
competitor, whose claims might at least encumber and
diminish their chance of succession. Yet she was the
only person present who seemed really to feel sorrow
for the deceased. Mrs. Bertram had been her protectress,
although from selfish motives, — and her capricious tyranny
was forgotten at the moment while the tears followed each
other fast down the cheeks of her frightened and friend-
less dependent " There's ower muckle saut water there,
Drumquag," said the tobacconist to the ex-proprietor, " to
bode ither folk muckle gude. Folk seldom greet that
gate but they ken what it's for." Mr. Mac-Casquil only
replied with a nod, feeling the propriety of asserting his
superior gentry in presence of Mr. Pleydell and Colonel
Mannering.

" Very queer if there suld be nae will, after a', friend,"
said Dinmont, who began to grow impatient, to the man
of business.

" A moment's patience, if you please — she was a good
and prudent woman, Mrs. Margaret Bertram— a good
and prudent and well-judging woman, and knew how to
choose friends and depositories ; she may have put her
last will and testament, or rather her mortis causa settle-
ment, as it relates to heritage, into the Sands of some safe
friend."

" I'll bet a rump and dozen," said Pleydell, whispering
to the Colonel, " he has got it in his own pocket ; " — then
addressing the man of law, " Come, sir, we'll cut this short
if you please — here is a settlement of the estate of Single-
side, executed several years ago, in favour of Miss Lucy
Bertram of Ellangowan " The company stared fear-
fully wild. " You, I presume, Mr. Protocol, can inform
us if there is a later deed ? "

102 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" Please to favour me, Mr. Pleydell ; " — and so saying,
lie took the deed out of the learned counsel's hand, and
glanced his eye over the contents.

" Too cool," said Pleydell, " too cool by half — he has
another deed in his pocket still."

" Why does he not show it then, and be d — d to him ! "
said the military gentleman, whose patience began to wax
threadbare.

" Why, how should I know ? " answered the barrister —
" why does a cat not kill a mouse when she takes him ? —
the consciousness of power and the love of teasing, I sup-
pose. — Well, Mr. Protocol, what say you to that deed ? "

" Why, Mr. Pleydell, the deed is a well-drawn deed,
properly authenticated and tested in forms of the statute."

" But recalled or superseded by another of posterior
date in your possession, eh ? " said the counsellor.

" Something of the sort, I confess, Mr. Pleydell," re-
joined the man of business, producing a bundle tied with
tape, and sealed at each fold and ligation with black wax.
" That deed, Mr. Pleydell, which you produce and found
upon, is dated 1st June, 17 — ; but this" — breaking the
seals and unfolding the document slowly — " is dated the
20th — no, I see it is the 21st, of April of this present
year, being ten years posterior."

" Marry, hang her, brock ! " said the counsellor, borrow-
ing an exclamation from Sir Toby Belch — "just the
month in which Ellangowan's distresses became generally
public. But let us hear what she has done."

Mr. Protocol accordingly, having required silence,
began to read the settlement aloud in a slow, steady,
business-like tone. The group around, in whose eyes
hope alternately awakened and faded, and who were
straining their apprehensions to get at the drift of the

GUT MANNERING. 103

testator's meaning through the mist of technical language
in which the conveyance had involved it, might have
made a study for Hogarth.

The deed was of an unexpected nature. It set forth
with conveying and disponing all and whole the estate
and lands of Singleside and others, with the lands of
Loverless, Liealone, Spinster's Knowe, and heaven knows
what beside, "to and in favours of" (here the reader
softened his voice to a gentle and modest piano) " Peter
Protocol, clerk to the signet, having the fullest confidence
in his capacity and integrity, — (these are the very words-
which my worthy deceased friend insisted upon my insert-
ing,) — But in trust always," (here the reader recovered
his voice and style, and the visages of several of the hear-
ers, which had attained a longitude that Mr. Mortcloke
might have envied, were perceptibly shortened,) "in
trust always, and for the uses, ends, and purposes
hereinafter mentioned."

In these " uses, ends, and purposes," lay the cream of
the affair. The first was introduced by a preamble set-
ting forth, that the testatrix was lineally descended from
the ancient house of Ellangowan, her respected great-
grandfather, Andrew Bertram, first of Singleside, of happy
memory, having been second son to Allan Bertram, fif-
teenth Baron of Ellangowan. It proceeded to state, that
Henry Bertram, son and heir of Godfrey Bertram, now
of Ellangowan, had been stolen from his parents in in-
fancy, but that she, the testatrix, was well assured that he
was yet alive in foreign parts, and by the providence of
heaven would be restored to the possessions of his ancestors
— =in which case the said Peter Protocol was bound and
obliged, likeas he bound and obliged himself, by accept-
ance of these presents, to denude himself of the said lands

104 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

of Singleside and others, and of all the other effects
thereby conveyed (excepting always a proper gratification
for his own trouble) to and in favour of the said Henry
Bertram, upon his return to his native country. And
during the time of his residing in foreign parts, or in case
of his never again returning to Scotland, Mr. Peter Pro-
tocol, the trustee, was directed to distribute the rents of
the land, and interest of the other funds, (deducting always
a proper gratification for his trouble in the premises,)
in equal portions, among four charitable establishments
,pointed out in the will. The power of management, of
letting leases, of raising and lending out money, in short,
the full authority of a proprietor, was vested in this confi-
dential trustee, and, in the event of his death, went to
certain official persons named in the deed. There were
jonly two legacies,— one of a hundred pounds to a favour-
ite waiting-maid, another of the like sum to Janet Gibson,
(whom the deed stated to have been supported by the
charity of the testatrix,) for the purpose of binding her
an apprentice to some honest trade.

A settlement in mortmain is in Scotland termed a
mortification, and in one great borough (Aberdeen, if I
remember rightly) there is a municipal officer who takes
care of these public endowments, and is thence called the
Master of Mortifications. One would almost presume
that the term had its origin in the effect which such
settlements usually produce upon the kinsmen of those
by whom they are executed. Heavy at least was the
mortification which befell the audience, who, in the late
Mrs. Margaret Bertram's parlour, had listened to this
unexpected destination of the lands of Singleside.
There was a profound silence after the deed had been
read over.

GUY MANNERING. 105

Mr. Pleydell was the first to speak. He begged to
look at the deed, and having satisfied himself that it was
correctly drawn and executed, he returned it without any
observation, only saying aside to Mannering, " Protocol
is not worse than other people, I believe ; but this old
lady has determined, that if he do not turn rogue, it shall
not be for want of temptation. ,,

" I really think," said Mr. Mac-Casquil of Drumquag,
who, having gulped down one half of his vexation, de-
termined to give vent to the rest — " I really think this is
an extraordinary case ! I should like now to know from
Mr. Protocol, who, being sole and unlimited trustee, must
have been consulted upon this occasion — I should like, I
say, to know, how Mrs. Bertram could possibly believe
in the existence of a boy, that a* the world kens was
murdered many a year since ? "

u Really, sir," said Mr. Protocol, " I do not conceive it
is possible for me to explain her motives more than she
has done herself. Our excellent deceased friend was a
good woman, sir — a pious woman — and might have
grounds for confidence in the boy's safety which are not
accessible to us, sir."

" Hout," said the tobacconist, " I ken very weel what
were her grounds for confidence. There's Mrs. Rebecca
(the maid) sitting there, has tell'd me a hundred times in
my ain shop, there was nae kenning how her leddy wad
settle her affairs, for an auld gipsy witch wife at Gilsland
had possessed her with a notion, that the callant — Harry
Bertram ca's she him ? — would come alive again some
day after a' — ye'll no deny that, Mrs. Rebecca ? — though
I dare to say ye forgot to put your mistress in mind of
what ye promised to say when I gied ye mony a half-
crown — But ye'll no deny what I am saying now, lass ? "

106 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" I ken naething at a* about it," answered Rebecca,
doggedly, and looking straight forward with the firm
countenance of one not disposed to be compelled to
remember more than was agreeable to her.

" Weel said, Rebecca ! ye're satisfied wi* your ain share,
ony way," rejoined the tobacconist.

The buck of the second-head, for a buck of the first-
head he was not, had hitherto been slapping his boots
with his switch-whip, and looking like a spoiled child that
has lost its supper. His murmurs, however, were all
vented inwardly, or at most in a soliloquy such as this —
u I am sorry, by G — d, I ever plagued myself about her
— I came here, by G — d, one night to drink tea, and I left
King, and the Duke's rider, Will Hack. They were
toasting a round of running horses ; by G— d, I might
have got leave to wear the jacket as well as other folk,
if I had carried it on with them — and she has not so
much as left me that hundred ! "

tt We'll make the payment of the note quite agreeable,"
said Mr. Protocol, who had no wish to increase at that
moment the odium attached to his office — "And now,
gentlemen, I fancy we have no more to wait for here,
and — I shall put the settlement of my excellent and
worthy friend on record to-morrow, that every gentleman
may examine the contents, and have free access to take
an extract ; and " — he proceeded to lock up the repos-
itories of the deceased with more speed than he had
opened them — " Mrs. Rebecca, ye'll be so kind as to keep
all right here until we can let the house — I had an offer
from a tenant this morning, if such a thing should be,
and if I was to have any management."

Our friend Dinmont, having had his hopes as well as
another, had hitherto sate sulky enough in the arm-chair

GUT MANNERING. 107

formerly appropriated to the deceased, and in which she
would have been not a little scandalized to have seen this
colossal specimen of the masculine gender lolling at
length. His employment had been rolling up, into the
form of a coiled snake, the long lash of his horse-whip,
and then by a jerk causing it to unroll itself into the
middle of the floor. The first words he said when he
had digested the shock, contained a magnanimous declara-
tion, which he probably was not conscious of having
uttered aloud — " Weel — blude's thicker than water — she's
welcome to the cheeses and the hams just the same."
But when the trustee had made the above-mentioned
motion for the mourners to depart, and talked of the
house being immediately let, honest Dinmont got upon
his feet, and stunned the company with this blunt ques-
tion, " And what's to come o' this poor lassie then — Jenny
Gibson? Sae mony o'.us as thought oursells sib to the
family when the gear was parting, we may do something
for her amang us surely."

This proposal seemed to dispose most of the assembly
instantly to evacuate the premises, although upon Mr.
Protocol's motion they had lingered as if around the grave
of their disappointed hopes. Drumquag said, or rather
muttered, something of having a family of his own, and
took precedence, in virtue of his gentle blood, to depart
as fast as possible. The tobacconist sturdily stood for-
ward, and scouted the motion — " A little huzzie like that
was weel eneugh provided for already ; and Mr. Protocol,
at ony rate was the proper person to take direction
of her, as he had charge of her legacy;" and after
uttering such his opinion in a steady and decisive tone of
voice, he also left the place. The buck made a stupid
and brutal attempt at a jest upon Mrs. Bertram's recom-

108 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

mendation that the poor girl should be taught some honest
trade ; but encountered a scowl from Colonel Mannering's
darkening eye (to whom, in his ignorance of the tone of
good society, he had looked for applause) that made him
ache to the very back-bone. He shuffled down stairs,
therefore, as fast as possible.

Protocol, who was really a good sort of man, next
expressed his intention to take a temporary charge of the
young lady, under protest always, that his so doing should
be considered as merely eleemosynary ; when Dinmont
at length got up, and, having shaken his huge dread-
nought great-coat, as a Newfoundland dog does his shaggy
hide when he comes out of the water, ejaculated, " Weel,
deil hae me then, if ye hae ony fash wi' her, Mr. Protocol
—if she likes to gang hame wi' me, that is. Ye see,
Ailie and me we're weel to pass, and we would like the
lassies to hae a wee bit mair lair than oursells, and to be
neighbour-like — that wad we. — And ye see Jenny canna
miss but to ken inanners, and the like o* reading books,
and sewing seams — having lived sae lang wi' a grand
lady like Lady Singleside ; or if she disna ken onything
about it, Fm jealous that our bairns will like her a' the
better. And Til take care o' the bits o' claes, and what
spending siller she maun hae ; so the hundred pound may
rin on in your hands, Mr. Protocol, and Til be adding
something tilTt, till she'll maybe get a Liddlesdale joe
that wants something to help to buy the hirsel.* — What
d'ye say to that, hinney ? I'll take out a ticket for ye in
the fly to Jethart. — Od, but ye maun take a powny after
that o'er the Limestane-rig — deil a wheeled carriage ever
gaed into Liddesdale.| — And I'll be very glad if Mrs.

* The stock of sheep.

f The roads of Liddosdale, in Dandie Dinmont's days, could not be

GUT MANNERING. 109

Rebecca comes wi* you, hinney, and stays a month or twa
while ye're stranger-like." *

While Mrs. Rebecca was courtseying, and endeavouring
to make the poor orphan girl courtesy instead of crying,
and while Dandie, in his rough way, was encouraging
them both, old Pleydell had recourse to his snuff-box.
" It's meat and drink to me, now, Colonel, ,, he said, as he

recovered himself, " to see a clown like this 1 must

gratify him in his own way — must assist him to ruin
himself ; — there's no help for it. Here you Liddesdale
Dandie — Charlies-hope — what do they call you ? "

The farmer turned, infinitely gratified even by this sort
of notice ; for in his heart, next to his own landlord he
honoured a lawyer in high practice.

" So you will not be advised against trying that ques-
tion about your marches ? "

" No — no, sir — naebody likes to lose their right, and
to be laughed at down the haill water. But since your
honour's no agreeable, and is may be a friend to the other
side like, we maun try some other advocate."

a There — I told you so, Colonel Mannering ! — Well,
sir, if you must needs be a fool, the business is to give
you the luxury of a lawsuit at the least possible expense,
and to bring you off conqueror if possible. Let Mr.
Protocol send me your papers, and I will advise him how
to conduct your cause. I don't see, after all, why you
should not have your lawsuits too, and your feuds in the

said to exist, and the district was only accessible through a succession
of tremendous morasses. About thirty years ago, the author himself
was the first person who ever drove a little open carriage into these
wilds; the excellent roads by which they are now traversed being
then in some progress. The people stared with no small wonder
at a sight which many of them had never witnessed in their lives
before.

110 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Court of Session, as well as your forefathers had their
manslaughters and fire-raisings."

" Very natural, to be sure, sir. We wad just take the
auld gate as readily, if it werena for the law. And as
the law binds us, the law should loose us. Besides, a
man's aye the better thought o* in our country for having
been afore the Feifteen."

" Excellently argued, my friend ! Away with you, and
send your papers to me. — Come, Colonel, we have no
more to do here."

" God, we'll ding Jock o* Dawston Cleugh now, after
a'!" said Dinmont, slapping his thigh in great exul-
tation.

GUT MANNERING. Ill

CHAPTER XXXIX.

—I am going to the parliament;
Ton understand this bag. If you have any business
Depending there, be short, and let me hear it,
And pay your fees.

Little French Lawyer.

" Shall you be able to carry this honest fellow's cause
for him ? " said Mannering.

" Why, I don't know ; the battle is not to the strong,
but he shall come off triumphant over Jock of Dawston
if we can make it out. I owe him something. It is the
pest of our profession, that we seldom see the best side
of human nature. People come to us with every selfish
feeling, newly pointed and grinded ; they turn down the
very caulkers of their animosities and prejudices, as
smiths do with horses' shoes in a white frost Many a
man has come to my garret yonder, that I have at first
longed to pitch out at the window, and yet, at length,
have discovered that he was only doing as I might have
done in his case, being very angry, and, of course, very
unreasonable. I have now satisfied myself, that if our
profession sees more of human folly and human roguery
than others, it is because we witness them acting in that
channel in which they can most freely vent themselves.
In civilized society, law is the chimney through which
all that smoke discharges itself that used to circulate
through the whole house, and put every one's eyes out —

112 * WAVERLEY NOVELS.

no wonder, therefore,, that the vent itself should some-
times get a little sooty. But we will take care our Lid-
desdale man's cause is well conducted and well argued,
so all unnecessary expense will be saved — he shall have
his pine-apple at wholesale price."

" Will you do me the pleasure," said Mannering, as
they parted, " to dine with me at my lodgings ? my land-
lord says he has a bit of red-deer vension, and some ex-
cellent wine."

" Venison — eh ? " answered the counsellor alertly, but
presently added — " But no ! it's impossible — and I can't
ask you home neither. Monday's a sacred day — so's
Tuesday — and, Wednesday, we are to be heard in the
great teind case in presence — But stay — it's frosty
weather, and if you don't leave town, and that venison
would keep till Thursday " — —

" You will dine with me that day ? "

" Under certification."

" Well, then, I will indulge a thought I had of spend-
ing a week here ; and if the venison will not keep, why
we will see what else our landlord can do for us."

" Oh, the venison will keep," said Pleydell. " And
now, good-by ; — look at these two or three notes, and
deliver them if you like the addresses ; I wrote them for
you this morning. Farewell; my clerk has been wait-
ing this hour to begin a d — d information." — And away
walked Mr. Pleydell with great activity, diving through
closes and ascending covered stairs, in order to attain the
High Street by an access, which, compared to the com-
mon route, was what the Straits of Magellan are to the
more open but circuitous passage round Cape Horn.

On looking at the notes of introduction which Pleydell
had thrust into his hand, Mannering was gratified with

GUT MANNERING. 113

seeing that they were addressed to some of the first
literary characters of Scotland — " To David Hume, Esq."
" To John Home, Esq." " To Dr. Ferguson." " To Dr.
Black." " To Lord Kaimes." " To Mr. Hutton." " To
John Clerk, Esq. of Eldin." " To Adam Smith Esq."
" To Dr. Eobertson."

" Upon my word, my legal friend has a good selection
of acquaintances — these are names pretty widely blown
indeed. An East Indian must rub up his faculties a
little, and put his mind in order, before he enters this sort
of society."

Mannering gladly availed himself of these introduc-
tions ; and we regret deeply it is not in our power to
give the reader an account of the pleasure and informa-
tion which he received, in admission to a circle never
closed against strangers of sense and information, and
which has perhaps at no period been equalled, consider-
ing the depth and variety of talent which it embraced and
concentrated.

Upon the Thursday appointed, Mr. Pleydell made his
appearance at the inn where Colonel Mannering lodged.
The venison proved in high order, the claret excellent ;
and the learned counsel, a professed amateur in the affairs
of the table, did distinguished honour to both. I am un-
certain, however, if even the good cheer gave him more
satisfaction than the presence of Dominie Sampson, from
whom, in his own juridical style of wit, he contrived to
extract great amusement, both for himself and one or two
friends whom the Colonel regaled on the same occasion.
The grave and laconic simplicity of Sampson's answers
to the insidious questions, of the barrister, placed the bon-
hommie of his character in a more luminous point of view
than Mannering had yet seen it. Upon the same occa-

VOL. IV. 8

114 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

sion he drew forth a strange quantity of miscellaneous
and abstruse, though, generally speaking, useless learning.
The lawyer afterwards compared his mind to the maga-
zine of a pawnbroker, stowed with goods of every
description, but so cumbrously piled together, and in
such total disorganization, that the owner can never lay
his hands upon any one article at the moment he has
occasion for it.

As for the advocate himself, he afforded at least as
much exercise to Sampson as he extracted amusement
from him. When the man of law began to get into his
altitudes, and his wit, naturally shrewd and dry, became
more lively and poignant, the Dominie looked upon him
with that sort of surprise with which we can conceive a
tame bear might regard his future associate, the monkey,
on their being first introduced to each other. It was
Mr. PleydelTs delight to state in grave and serious argu-
ment some position which he knew the Dominie would
be inclined to dispute. He then beheld with exquisite
pleasure the internal labour with which the honest man
arranged his ideas for reply, and tasked his inert and
sluggish powers to bring up all the heavy artillery of his
learning for demolishing the schismatic or heretical
opinion which had been stated — when, behold ! before
the ordnance could be discharged, the foe had quitted
the post, and appeared in a new position of annoyance on
the Dominie's flank or rear. Often did he exclaim
" Prodigious ! " when, marching up to the enemy in full
confidence of victory, he found the field evacuated ; and
it may be supposed that it cost him no little labour to
attempt a new formation. u He was like a native Indian'
army," the Colonel said, " formidable by numerical
strength and size of ordnance, but liable to be thrown

GUT MANNEBING. 115

into irreparable confusion by a movement to take them
in flank." — On the whole, however, the Dominie, though
somewhat fatigued with these mental exertions, made
at unusual speed and upon the pressure of the moment,
reckoned this one of the white days of his life, and
always mentioned Mr. Pleydell as a very erudite and
fa-ce-ti-ous person.

By degrees the rest of the party dropped off, and left
these three gentlemen together. Their conversation
turned to Mrs. Bertram's settlements. — " Now what could
drive it into the noddle of that old harridan/ 1 said
Pleydell, " to disinherit poor Lucy Bertram, under pre-
tence of settling her property on a boy who has been so
long dead and gone ? — I ask your pardon, Mr. Sampson
— I forgot what an affecting case this was for you ; — I
remember taking your examination upon it — and I never
had so much trouble to make any one speak three words
consecutively. — You may talk of your Pythagoreans, or
your silent Brahmins, Colonel — go to, I tell you this
learned gentleman beats them all in taciturnity — but the
words of the wise are precious, and not to be thrown away
lightly."

"Of a surety," said the Dominie, taking his blue-
checqued handkerchief from his eyes, " that was a bitter
day with me indeed ; ay, and a day of grief hard to be
borne — but He giveth strength who layeth on the load."

Colonel Mannering took this opportunity to request
Mr. Pleydell to inform him of the particulars attending
the loss of the boy ; and the counsellor, who was fond of
talking upon subjects of criminal jurisprudence, especially
when connected with his own experience, went through
the circumstances at full length. "And what is your
opinion upon the result of the whole ? "

116 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"Oh, that Kennedy was murdered: it's an old case
which has occurred on that coast before now — the case of
Smuggler versus Exciseman."

" What, then, is your conjecture concerning the fate of
the child?"

" Oh, murdered too, doubtless," answered Pleydell.
" He was old enough to tell what he had seen, and these
ruthless scoundrels would not scruple committing a second
Bethlehem massacre, if they thought their interest re-
quired it."

The Dominie groaned deeply, and ejaculated, " Enor-
mous ! "

" Yet there was mention of gipsies in the business too,
counsellor," said Mannering, " and from what that vulgar-
looking fellow said after the funeral "

"Mrs. Margaret Bertram's idea that the child was
alive was founded upon the report of a gipsy," said
Pleydell, catching at the half-spoken hint — " I envy you
the concatenation, Colonel, — it is a shame to me not to
have drawn the same conclusion. We'll follow this busi-
ness up instantly — Here, hark ye, waiter, — go down to
Luckie Wood's in the Cowgate ; ye'll find my clerk
Driver ; he'll be set down to High-Jinks by this time,
(for we and our retainers, Colonel, are exceedingly regu-
lar in our irregularities ;) tell him to come here instantly,
and I will pay his forfeits."

" He won't appear in character, will he ?" said Man-
nering.

" Ah ! no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me," said
Pleydell. " But we must have some news from the land
of Egypt, if possible. O, if I had but hold of the slight-
est thread of this complicated skein, you should see how
I would unravel it ! I would work the truth out of your

GUT MANNERING. 117

Bohemian, as the French call them, better than a Mont-
toire, or a Plainte de Toumelle : I know how to manage
a refractory witness."

While Mr. Pleydell was thus vaunting his knowledge
of his profession, the waiter re-entered with Mr. Driver,
• his mouth still greasy with mutton pies, and the froth of
the last draught of twopenny yet unsubsided on his upper
lip, with such speed had he obeyed the commands of his
principal. " Driver, you must go instantly and find out
the woman who was old Mrs. Margaret Bertram's maid-
Inquire for her everywhere ; but if you find it necessary
to have recourse to Protocol, Quid the tobacconist, or any
other of these folks, you will take care not to appear your-
self, but send some woman of your acquaintance — I dare
say you know enough that may be so condescending as
to oblige you. When you have found her out, engage
her to come to my chambers to-morrow at eight o'clock
precisely."

" What shall I say to make her forthcoming ? " asked
the aide-de-camp.

" Anything you choose," replied the lawyer. " Is it
my business to make lies for you, do you think ? But let
her be in prcesentia by eight o'clock, as I have said be-
fore." The clerk grinned, made his reverence, and exit.

" That's a useful fellow," said the counsellor ; — " I
don't believe his match ever carried a process. He'll
write to my dictating three nights in the week without
sleep, or, what's the same thing, he writes as well and
correctly when he's asleep as when he's awake. Then
he's such a steady fellow — some of them are always
changing their alehouses, so that they have twenty cadies
sweating after them, like the bare-headed captains trav-
ersing the taverns of East-Cheap in search of Sir John

118 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Falstaff. But this is a complete fixture ; — he has his
winter seat by the fire, and his summer seat by the
window, in Luckie Wood's, betwixt which seats are his
only migrations — there he's to be found at all times when
he is off duty. It is my opinion he never puts off his
clothes or goes to sleep ; — sheer ale supports him under
everything ; it is meat, drink, and clothing, bed, board,
and washing."

" And is he always fit for duty upon a sudden turn-
out ? I should distrust it, considering his quarters."

" Oh, drink never disturbs him, Colonel ; he can write
for hours after he cannot speak. I remember being
called suddenly to draw an appeal case. I had been
dining, and it was Saturday night, and I had ill will to
begin to it ; however, they got me down to Clerihugh's, and
there we sat birling till I had a fair tappit hen * under
my belt, and then they persuaded me to draw the paper.
Then we had to seek Driver, and it was all that two men
could do to bear him in, for, when found, he was, as it
happened, both motionless and speechless. But no sooner
was his pen put between his fingers, his paper stretched
before him, and he heard my voice, than he began to
write like a scrivener — and, excepting that we were
obliged to have somebody to dip his pen in the ink, for he
could not see the standish, I never saw a thing scrolled
more handsomely."

* The Tappit Hen contained three quarts of claret—

Weel she lo'ed a Hawick gill,
And tough to see a Tappit Hen.

I have seen one of these formidable stoups at Provost Has well's, at
Jedburgh, in the days of yore. It was a pewter measure, the claret
being in ancient days served from the tap, and had the figure of a hen
upon the lid. In later times, the name was given to a glass bottle of
the same dimensions. These are rare apparitions among the degener-
ate topers of modern days.

GUT MANNERING. 119

"But how did your joint production look the next
morning ? " said the Colonel.

" Wheugh ! capital — not three words required to be
altered ; * it was sent off by that day's post But you'll
come and breakfast with me to-morrow, and hear this
woman's examination ? "

* The account given by Mr. Pleydell, of his sitting down in the
midst of a revel to draw an appeal case, was taken from a story told
me by an aged gentleman, of the elder President Dundas of Arniston,
(father of the younger President, and of Lord Melville.) It had been
thought very desirable, while that distinguished lawyer was King's
counsel, that his assistance should be obtained in drawing an appeal
case, which, as occasion for such writings then rarely occurred, was
held to be matter of great nicety. The Solicitor employed for the ap-
pellant, attended by my informant acting as his clerk, went to the Lord
Advocate's chambers in the Fishmarket Close, as I think. It was Sat-
urday at noon, the Court was just dismissed, the Lord Advocate had
changed his dress and booted himself, and his servant and horses were
at the foot of the close to carry him to Arniston. It was scarcely pos-
sible to get him to listen to a word respecting business. The wily
agent, however, on pretence of asking one or two questions, which
would not detain him half an hour, drew his Lordship, who was no
less an eminent bon vivanl than a lawyer of unequalled talent, to take
a whet at a celebrated tavern, when the learned counsel became grad-
ually involved in a spirited discussion of the law points of the case.
At length it occurred to him that he might as well ride to Arniston
in the cool of the evening. The horses were directed to be put in the
stable, but not to be unsaddled. Dinner was ordered, the law was laid
aside for a time, and the bottle circulated very freely. At nine o'clock
at night, after he had been honouring Bacchus for so many hours,
the Lord Advocate ordered his horses to be unsaddled, — paper, pen,
and ink were brought — he began to dictate the appeal case — and con-
tinued at his task till four o'clock the next morning. By next day's
post, the solicitor sent the case to London, a chef-cFauvre of its kind,
and in which, my informant assured me, it was not necessary on revt-
sal to correct five words. I am not, therefore, conscious of having
overstepped accuracy in describing the manner in which Scottish law-
yers of the old time occasionally united the worship of Bacchus with
that of Themis. My informant was Alexander Keith, Esq., grandfather
to my friend, the present Sir Alexander Keith of Bavelstone, and ap-
prentice at the time to the writer who conducted the cause.

120 WAYERLEY NOVELS.

" Why, your hour is rather early."

" Can't make it later. If I were not on the boards of
the Outer-House precisely as the nine-hours bell rings,
there would be a report that I had got an apoplexy, and
I should feel the effects of it all the rest of the session."

" Well, I will make an exertion to wait upon you."

Here the company broke up for the evening.

In the morning, Colonel Mannering appeared at the
counsellor's chambers, although cursing the raw air of a
Scottish morning in December. Mr. Pleydell had got
Mrs. Rebecca installed on one side of his fire, accom-
modated her with a cup of chocolate, and was already
deeply engaged in conversation with her. " O no, I
assure you, Mrs. Rebecca, there is no intention to chal-
lenge your mistress's will ; and I give you my word of
honour that your legacy is quite safe. You have de-
served it by your conduct to your mistress, and I wish it
had been twice as much."

" Why, to be sure, sir, it's no right to mention what is
said before ane — ye heard how that dirty body Quid cast
up to me the bits o' compliments he gied me, and tell'd
ower again ony loose cracks I might hae had wi' him ; —
now if ane was talking loosely to your honour, there's
nae saying what might come o't."

"I assure you, my good Rebecca, my character and
your own age and appearance are your security, if you
should talk as loosely as an amatory poet."

" Aweel, if your honour thinks I am safe — the story is
just this. — Ye see, about a year ago, or no just sae lang,
my leddy was advised to go to Gilsland for a while, for
her spirits were distressing her sair. Ellangowan's trou-
bles began to be spoken o' publicly, and sair vexed she
was ; for she was proud o' her family. For Ellangowan

GUT MANNERING. 121

himsell and her, they sometimes 'greed, and sometimes
no ; but at last they didna 'gree at a' for twa or three
year — for he was aye wanting to borrow siller, and that
was what she couldna bide at no hand, and she was
aye wanting it paid back again, and that the Laird he
liked as little. So, at last, they were clean aff thegither.
And then some of the company at Gilsland tells her that
the estate was to be selTd ; and ye wad hae thought she
had taen an ill will at Miss Lucy Bertram frae that
moment, for mony a time she cried to me, ' O Becky, O
Becky, if that useless peenging thing o' a lassie there at
Ellangowan, that canna keep her ne'er-do-weel father
within bounds — if she had been but a lad-bairn, they
couldna hae selTd the auld inheritance for that fool body's
debts ; ' — and she would rin on that way till I was just
wearied and sick to hear her ban the puir lassie, as if she
wadna hae been a lad-bairn, and keepit the land, if it had
been in her will to change her sect. And ae day at the
spaw-well, below the craig at Gilsland, she was seeing a
very bonny family o' bairns — they belanged to ane Mac-
Crosky — and she broke out — ' Is not it an oddlike thing
that ilka waf carle * in the country has a son and heir,
and that the house of Ellangowan is without male
succession ? ' There was a gipsy wife stood ahint and
heard her — a muckle stour fearsome-looking wife she was
as ever I set een on. ' Wha is it,' says she, ' that dare
say the house of Ellangowan will perish without male
succession ? ' My mistress just turned on her ; she was
a high-spirited woman, and aye ready wi' an answer to a'
body. ' It's me that says it,' says she, ' that may say it
with a sad heart' Wi' that the gipsy wife gripped till
her hand : * I ken you weel eneugh,' says she, i though

* Every insignificant churl.

122 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

ye kenna me — But as sure as that sun's in heaven, and
as sure as that water's rinning to the sea, and as sure as
there's an ee that sees, and an ear that hears us baith, —
Harry Bertram, that was thought to perish at Warroch
Point, never did die there. He was to have a weary
weird o't till his ane-and-twentieth year, that was aye said
o' him — but if ye live and I live, ye'll hear mair o' him
this winter before the snaw lies twa days on the Dun of
Singleside. I want nane o' your siller,' she said, 'to
make ye think I am blearing your ee. Fare ye weel till
after Martinmas.' And there she left us standing."

" Was she a very tall woman ? " interrupted Manner-
ing.

" Had she black hair, black eyes, and a cut above the
brow ? " added the lawyer.

" She was the tallest woman I ever saw, and her hair
was as black as midnight, unless where it was grey, and
she had a scar abune the brow, that ye might hae laid
the lith of your finger in. Naebody that's seen her will
ever forget her ; and I am morally sure that it was on
the ground o' what that gipsy-woman said that my mis-
tress made her will, having taen a dislike at the young
leddy o' Ellangowan ; and she liked her far waur after
she was obliged to send her £20, — for she said Miss
Bertram, no content wi' letting the Ellangowan property
pass into strange hands, owing to her being a lass and no
a lad, was coming, by her poverty, to be a burden and a
disgrace to Singleside too. — But I hope my mistress's is
a good will for a' that, for it would be hard on me to lose
the wee bit legacy — I served for little fee and bountith,
weel I wot."

The counsellor relieved her fears on this head, then
inquired after Jenny Gibson, and understood she had

\

GUT MANNEBING. 123

accepted Mr. Dinmont's offer; and "I have done sae
mysell too, since he was sae discreet as to ask me," said
Mrs. Rebecca ; " they are very decent folk the Dinmonts,
though my lady didna dow to hear muckle about the
friends on that side the house. But she liked the Charlies-
hope hams, and the cheeses and the muir-fowl, that they
were aye sending, and the lamb's-wool hose and mittens
— she liked them weel eneuch."

Mr. Pleydell now dismissed Mrs. Rebecca. When she
was gone, " I think I know the gipsy-woman," said the
lawyer.

" I was just going to say the same," replied Mannering.

" And her name," said Pleydell

" Is Meg Merrilies," answered the Colonel.

" Are you avised of that ? " said the counsellor, looking
at his military friend with a comic expression of surprise.

Mannering answered, " that he had known such a
woman when he was at Ellangowan upwards of twenty
years before;" and then made his learned friend ac-
quainted with all the remarkable particulars of his first
visit there*

Mr. Pleydell listened with great attention, and then
replied, " I congratulated myself upon having made the
acquaintance of a profound theologian in your chaplain ;
but I really did not expect to find a pupil of Albumazar
or Messahala in his patron. I have a notion, however,
this gipsy could tell us some more of the matter than she
derives from astrology or second-sight — I had her through
hands once, and could then make little of her; but I
must write to Mac-Morlan to stir heaven and earth to

find her out. I will gladly come to shire myself to

assist at her examination. I am still in the commission
of the peace there, though I have ceased to be sheriff. I

124 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

never had anything more at heart in my life than tracing
that murder, and the fate of the child. I must write to
the sheriff of Roxburghshire too, and to an active justice
of peace in Cumberland."

" I hope when you come to the country you will make
Woodbourne your head-quarters ? w

" Certainly ; I was afraid you were going to forbid me
— But we must go to breakfast now, or I shall be too
late."

On the following day the new friends parted, and the
Colonel rejoined his family without any adventure worthy
of being detailed in these chapters.

GUT MANNERING. 125

CHAPTER XL.

Can no rest find me, no private place secure me,
But still my miseries like bloodhounds haunt me?
Unfortunate young man, which way now guides thee,
Guides thee from death? The country's laid around for thee.

Women Pleased.

Our narrative now recalls us for a moment to the
period when young Hazlewood received his wound.
That accident had no sooner happened, than the conse-
quences to Miss Mannering and to himself rushed upon
Brown's mind. From the manner in which the muzzle
of the piece was pointed when it went off, he had no
great fear that the consequences would be fatal. But an
arrest in a strange country, and while he was unprovided
with any means of establishing his rank and character,
was at least to be avoided. He therefore resolved to
escape for the present to the neighbouring coast of Eng-
land, and to remain concealed there, if possible, until he
should receive letters from his regimental friends, and
remittances from his agent ; and then to resume his own
character, and offer to young Hazlewood and his friends
any explanation or satisfaction they might desire. With
this purpose he walked stoutly forward, after leaving the
spot where the accident had happened, and reached with-
out adventure the village which we have called Portan-
ferry (but which the reader will in vain seek for under

126 "WAVERLEY NOVELS.

that name in the county map.) A large open boat was
just about to leave the quay, bound for the little sea-port
of Allonby, in Cumberland. In this vessel Brown em-
barked, and resolved to make that place his temporary
abode, until he should receive letters and money from
England.

In the course of their short voyage he entered into
some conversation with the steersman, who was also
owner of the boat, — a jolly old man, who had occasionally
been engaged in the smuggling trade, like most fishers
on the coast After talking about objects of less interest,
Brown endeavoured to turn the discourse toward the
Mannering family. The sailor had heard of the attack
upon the house at Woodbourne, but disapproved of the
smugglers' proceedings.

a Hands off is fair play. Zounds ! they'll bring the
whole country down upon them. Na, na ! when I was
in that way, I played at giff-gaff with the officers : here a
cargo taen — vera weel, that was their luck ; — there another
carried clean through, that was mine. Na, na ! hawks
shouldna pike out hawks' een."

" And this Colonel Mannering," said Brown.

" Troth, he's nae wise man neither, to interfere. No
that I blame him for saving the gaugers' lives — that was
very right ; but it wasna like a gentleman to be fighting
about the poor folk's pocks o' tea and brandy kegs ; how-
ever, he's a grand man and an officer man, and they do
what they like wi' the like o' us."

u And his daughter," said Brown, with a throbbing
heart, " is going to be married into a great family too, as
I have heard ? "

" What, into the Hazlewood's ? " said the pilot u Na,
na, that's but idle clashes— every Sabbath-day, as regu-

GUT MANNERING. 127

larly as it came round, did the young man ride name wi*
the daughter of the late Ellangowan ; — and my daughter
Peggy's in the service up at Woodbourne, and she says
she's sure young Hazlewood thinks nae mair of Miss
Mannering than you do."

Bitterly censuring his own precipitate adoption of a
contrary belief, Brown yet heard with delight that the
suspicions of Julia's fidelity, upon which he had so rashly
acted, were probably void of foundation. How must he
in the meantime be suffering in her opinion ? or what
could she suppose of conduct, which must have made
him appear to her regardless alike of her peace of mind,
and of the interests of their affection ? The old man's
connexion with the family at Woodbourne seemed to offer
a safe mode of communication, of which he determined
to avail himself.

u Your daughter is a maid-servant at Woodbourne ? —
I knew Miss Mannering in India, and though I am at
present in an inferior rank of life, I have great reason to
hope she would interest herself in my favour. I had a
quarrel unfortunately with her father, who was my com-
manding-officer, and I am sure the young lady would
endeavour to reconcile him to me. Perhaps your daugh-
ter could deliver a letter to her upon the subject, without
making mischief between her father and her ? "

The old man, a friend to smuggling of every kind,
readily answered for the letter's being faithfully and se-
cretly delivered ; and, accordingly, as soon as they arrived
at Allonby, Brown wrote to Miss Mannering, stating the
utmost contrition for what had happened through his
rashness, and conjuring her to let him have an oppor-
tunity of pleading his own cause, and obtaining forgive-
ness for his indiscretion. He did not judge it safe to go

128 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

into any detail concerning the circumstances by which he
had been misled, and upon the whole endeavoured to
express himself with such ambiguity, that if the letter
should fall into wrong hands, it would be difficult either
to understand its real purport, or to trace the writer.
This letter the old man undertook faithfully to deliver to
his daughter at Woodbourne ; and, as his trade would
speedily again bring him or his boat to Allonby, he prom-
ised farther to take charge of any answer with which the
young lady might entrust him. ,

And now our persecuted traveller landed at Allonby,
and sought for such accommodations as might at once
suit his temporary poverty, and his desire of remaining
as much unobserved as possible. With this view he as-
sumed the name and profession of his friend Dudley,
having command enough of the pencil to verify his pre-
tended character to his host of Allonby. His baggage
he pretended to expect from Wigton ; and keeping him-
self as much within doors as possible, awaited the return
of the letters which he had sent to his agent, to Delaserre,
and to his Lieutenant-Colonel. From the first he re-
quested a supply of money ; he conjured Delaserre, if
possible, to join him in Scotland ; and from the Lieuten-
ant Colonel he required such testimony of his rank and
conduct in the regiment, as should place his character as
a gentleman and officer beyond the power of question.
The inconvenience of being run short in his finances
struck him so strongly, that he wrote to Dinmont on that
subject, requesting a small temporary loan, having no
doubt that, being within sixty or seventy miles of his
residence, he should receive a speedy as well as favour-
able answer to his request of pecuniary accommodation,
which was owing, as he stated, to his having been robbed

GUT MANNERING. 129

after their parting. And then, with impatience enough,
though without any serious apprehension, he waited the
answers of these various letters.

It must be observed, in excuse of his correspondents,
that the post was then much more tardy than since Mr.
Palmer's ingenious invention has taken place ; and with
respect to honest Dinmont in particular, as he rarely re-
ceived above one letter a quarter, (unless during the tim-i
of his being engaged in a law-suit, when he regularly
sent to the post-town,) his correspondence usually re-
mained for a month or two sticking in the postmaster's
window, among pamphlets, gingerbread, rolls, or ballads,
according to the trade which the said postmaster exer-
cised. Besides, there was then a custom, not yet wholly
obsolete, of causing a letter, from one town to another,
perhaps within the distance of thirty miles, perform a
circuit of two hundred miles before delivery ; which had
the combined advantage of airing the epistle thoroughly,
of adding some pence to the revenue of the post-office,
and of exercising the patience of the correspondents.
Owing to these circumstances, Brown remained several
days in Allonby without any answers whatever ; and his
stock of money, though husbanded with the utmost econ-
omy, began to wear very low, when he received, by the
hands of a young fisherman, the following letter : —

" You have acted with the most cruel indiscretion ; you
have shown how little I can trust to your declarations
that my peace and happiness are dear to you ; and your
rashness has nearly occasioned the death of a young man
of the highest worth and honour. Must I say more ? —
must I add, that I have been myself very ill in conse-
quence of your violence and its effects ? And, alasJ

vol. rv. 9

130 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

need I say still farther, that I have thought anxiously
upon them as they are likely to affect you, although you
have given me such slight cause to do so ? The C. is
gone from home for several days ; Mr. H. is almost qui* e
recovered ; and I have reason to think that the blame is laid
in a quarter different from that where it is deserved. Yet
do not think of venturing here. Our fate has been crossed
by accidents of a nature too violent and terrible to permit
me to think of renewing a correspondence which has so
often threatened the most dreadful catastrophe. Fare-
well, therefore, and believe that no one can wish your
happiness more sincerely than " J. M. M

This letter contained that species of advice which is
frequently given for the precise purpose that it may lead
to a directly opposite conduct from that which it recom-
mends. At least so thought Brown, who immediately
asked the young fisherman if he came from Portanferry.

" Ay," said the lad ; " I am auld Willie Johnstone's
son, and I got that letter frae my sister Peggy, that's
laundry-maid at Woodbourne."

" My good friend, when do you sail ? n

" With the tide this evening."

u I'll return with you ; — but as I do not desire to go to
Portanferry, I wish you could put me on shore somewhere
on the coast"

" We can easily do that," said the lad.

Although the price of provisions, &c, was then very
moderate, the discharging his lodgings, and the expense
of his living, together with that of a change of dress,
which safety, as well as a proper regard to his external
appearance, rendered necessary, brought Brown's purse
to a very low ebb. He left directions at the post-office

GUT MANNERING. 131

that his letters should be forwarded to Kippletringan,
whither he resolved to proceed, and reclaim the treasure
which he had deposited in the hands of Mrs. Mac-
Candlish. He also felt it would be his duty to assume
his proper character as soon as he should receive the
necessary evidence for supporting it, and, as an officer
in the king's service, give and receive every explanation
which might be necessary with young Hazlewood. " If
he is not very wrong-headed indeed," he thought, " he
must allow the manner in which I acted to have been
the necessary consequence of his own overbearing con-
duct."

And now we must suppose him once more embarked
on the Solway Frith. The wind was adverse, attended
by some rain, and they struggled against it without much
assistance from the tide. The boat was heavily laden
with goods, (part of which were probably contraband,)
and laboured deep in the sea. Brown, who had been
bred a sailor, and was indeed skilled in most athletic
exercises, gave his powerful and effectual assistance in
rowing, or occasionally in steering the boat, and his advice
in the management, which became the more delicate as
the wind increased, and, being opposed to the very rapid
tides of that coast, made the voyage perilous. At length,
after spending the whole night upon the frith, they were
at morning within sight of a beautiful bay upon the Scot-
tish coast The weather was now more mild. The snow,
which had been for some time waning, had given way
entirely under the fresh gale of the preceding night.
The more distant hills, indeed, retained their snowy
mantle, but all the open country was cleared, unless where
a few white patches indicated that it had been drifted to
an uncommon depth. Even under its wintry appearance,

132 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

the shore was highly interesting. The line of sea-coast,
with all its varied curves, indentures, and embayments,
swept away from the sight on either hand, in that varied,
intricate, yet graceful and easy line, which the eye loves
so well to pursue. And it was no less relieved and varied
in elevation than in outline, by the different forms of the
shore ; the beach in some places being edged by steep
rocks, and in others rising smoothly from the sands in
easy and swelling slopes. — Buildings of different kinds
caught and reflected the wintry sunbeams of a December
morning, and the woods, though now leafless, gave relief
and variety to the landscape. Brown felt that lively and
awakening interest which taste and sensibility always
derive from the beauties of nature, when opening sud-
denly to the eye, after the dulness and gloom of a night
voyage. Perhaps — for who can presume to analyze that
inexplicable feeling which binds the person born in a
mountainous country* to his native hills — perhaps some
early associations, retaining their effect long after the
cause was forgotten, mingled in the feelings of pleasure
with which he regarded the scene before him.

" And what," said Brqwn to the boatman, " is the name
of that fine cape, that stretches into the sea with its sloping
banks and hillocks of wood, and forms the right side of
the bay ? "

" Warroch Point," answered the lad.

" And that old castle, my friend, with the modern house
situated just beneath it ? It seems at this distance a very
large building."

" That's the Auld Place, sir ; and that's the New Place
below it. We'll land you there, if you like."

" I should like it of all things. I must visit that ruin
before I continue my journey."

GUT MANNERING. 133

" Ay, it's a queer auld bit," said the fisherman ; " and
that highest tower is a gude land-mark as far as Ramsay
in Man, and the Point of Ayr ; — there was muckle fight-
ing about the place langsyne."

Brown would have inquired into farther particulars,
but a fisherman is seldom an antiquary. His boatman's
local knowledge was summed up in the information
already given, u that it was a grand land-mark, and that
there had been muckle fighting about the bit langsyne."

" I shall learn more of it," said Brown to himself,
u when I get ashore."

The boat continued its course close under the point
upon which the castle was situated, which frowned from
the summit of its rocky site upon the still agitated waves
of the bay beneath. "I believe," said the steersman,
" ye'll get ashore here as dry as ony gate. There's a
place where their berlins and galleys, as they ca'd them,
used to lie in langsyne, but it's no used now, because it's
ill carrying gudes up the narrtw stairs, or ower the rocks.
Whiles of a moonlight night I have landed articles there,
though."

While he thus spoke, they pulled round a point of rock,
and found a very small harbour, partly formed by nature,
partly by the indefatigable labour of the ancient inhabi-
tants of the castle, who, as the fisherman observed, had
found it essential for the protection of their boats and
small craft, though it could not receive vessels of any
burden. The two points of rock which formed the access
approached each other so nearly, that only one boat could
enter at a time. On each side were still remaining two
immense iron rings, deeply morticed into the solid rock.
Through these, according to tradition, there was nightly
drawn a huge chain, secured by an immense padlock, for

134 WAVERLET NOVELS.

the protection of the haven, and the armada which it
contained. A ledge of rock had, by the assistance of the
chisel and pickaxe, been formed into a sort of quay.
The rock was of extremely hard consistence, and the
task so difficult, that, according to the fisherman, a
labourer who wrought at the work might in the evening
have carried home in his bonnet all the shivers which he
had struck from the mass in the course of the day. This
little quay communicated with a rude staircase, already
repeatedly mentioned, which descended from the old
castle. There was also a communication between the
beach and the quay, by scrambling over the rocks.

"Ye had better land here," said the lad, "for the surf's
running high at the Shellicoat-stane, and there will no be
a dry thread amang us or we get the cargo out. — Na !
na ! " (in answer to an offer of money,) " ye have wrought
for your passage, and wrought far better than ony o' us.
Gude-day to ye : I wuss ye weel."

So saying, he pushed o% in order to land his cargo on
the opposite side of the bay ; and Brown, with a small
bundle in his hand, containing the trifling stock of neces-
saries which he had been obliged to purchase at Allonby,
was left on the rocks beneath the ruin.

And thus, unconscious as the most absolute stranger,
and in circumstances which, if not destitute, were for the
present highly embarrassing ; without the countenance of
a friend within the circle of several hundred miles;
accused of a heavy crime, and, what was as bad as* all
the rest, being nearly penniless, did the harassed wan-
derer, for the first time after the interval of so many
years, approach the remains of the castle where his an-
cestors had exercised all but regal dominion.

GUY MANNERING. 135

CHAPTER XLL

Yes, ye moss-green walls,

Ye towers defenceless, I reyisit ye
Shame-stricken! Where are all your trophies now?
Your thronged courts, the rerelry, the tumult,
That spoke the grandeur of my house, the homage
• Of neighbouring Barons ?

Mysterious Mother.

Entering the castle of Ellangowan by a postern door-
way, which showed symptoms of having been once secured
with the most jealous care, Brown (whom, since he has
set foot upon the property of his fathers, we shall here-
after call by his father's name of Bertram) wandered
from one ruined apartment to another, surprised at the
massive strength of some parts of the building, the rude
and impressive magnificence of others, and the great
extent of the whole. In two of these rooms, close beside
each other, he saw signs of recent habitation. In one
small apartment were empty bottles, half-gnawed bones,
and dried fragments of bread. In the vault which ad-
joined, and which was defended by a strong door, then
left open, he observed a considerable quantity of straw ;
and in both were the relics of recent fires. How little
was it possible for Bertram to conceive, that such trivial
circumstances were closely connected with incidents
affecting his prosperity, his honour, perhaps his life !

After satisfying his curiosity by a hasty glance through

136 WAVERLET NOVELS.

the interior of the castle, Bertram now advanced through
the great gateway which opened to the land, and paused
to look upon the noble landscape which it commanded.
Having in vain endeavoured to guess the position of
Woodbourne, and having nearly ascertained that of
Kippletringan, he turned to take a parting look at the
stately ruins which he had just traversed. He admired
the massive and picturesque effect of the huge round
towers, which, flanking the gateway, gave a double por-
tion of depth and majesty to the high yet gloomy arch
under which it opened. The carved stone escutcheon of
the ancient family, bearing for their arms three wolves'
heads, was hung diagonally beneath the helmet and crest,
the latter being a wolf couchant pierced with an arrow.
On either side stood as supporters, in full human size, or
larger, a salvage man proper, to use the language of
heraldry, wreathed and cinctured, and holding in his hand
an oak-tree eradicated, that is, torn up by the roots.

" And the powerful barons who owned this blazonry,"
thought Bertram, pursuing the usual train of ideas which
flows upon the mind at such scenes, — " do their posterity
continue to possess the lands which they had laboured to
fortify so strongly ? or are they wanderers, ignorant per-
haps even of the fame or power of their forefathers,
while their hereditary possessions are held by a race of
strangers ? Why is it," he thought, continuing to follow
out the succession of ideas which the scene prompted,
— " why is it that some scenes awaken thoughts which
belong as it were to dreams of early and shadowy recol-
lection, such as my old Brahmin Moonshie would have
ascribed to a state of previous existence? Is it the
visions of our sleep that float confusedly in our memory,
and are recalled by the appearance of such real objects as

GUT MANNERING. 137

in any respect correspond to the phantoms they presented
to our imagination ? How often do we find ourselves in
society which we have never before met, and yet feel im-
pressed with a mysterious and ill-defined consciousness,
that neither the scene, the speakers, nor the subject, are
entirely new ; nay, feel as if we could anticipate that part
of the conversation which has not yet taken place ! It is
even so with me while I gaze upon that ruin; — nor can I
divest myself of the idea, that these massive towers, and
that dark gateway, retiring through its deep-vaulted and
ribbed arches, and dimly lighted by the court-yard
beyond, are not entirely strange to me. Can it be, that
they have been familiar to me in infancy,, and that I am
to seek in their vicinity those friends of whom my child-
hood has still a tender though faint remembrance, and
whom I early exchanged for such severe taskmasters ?
Yet Brown, wh© I think would not have deceived me,
always told me I was brought off from the eastern coast,
after a skirmish in which my father was killed ; — and I
do remember enough of a horrid scene of violence to
strengthen his account."

It happened that the spot upon which young Bertram
chanced to station himself for the better viewing the
castle, was nearly the same on which his father had died.
It was marked by a large old oak-tree, the only one on
the esplanade, and which, having been used for executions
by the barons of Ellangowan, was called the Justice-Tree.
It chanced, and the coincidence was remarkable, that
Grlossin was this morning engaged with a person whom
he was in the habit of consulting in such matters, con-
cerning some projected repairs, and a large addition to
the house of Ellangowan, — and that, having no great
pleasure in remains so intimately connected with the

138 WAVERLET NOVELS.

grandeur of the former inhabitants, he had resolved to
use the stones of the ruinous castle in his new edifice.
Accordingly he came up the bank, followed by the land-
surveyor mentioned on a former occasion, who was also
in the habit of acting as a sort of architect in case of
necessity. In drawing the plans, &c, Glossin was in the
custom of relying upon his own skill. Bertram's back
was towards them as they came up the ascent, and he
was quite shrouded by the branches of the large tree, so
that Glossin was not aware of the presence of the stranger
till he was close upon him.

" Yes, sir, as I have often said before to you, the Old
Place is a perfect quarry of hewn stone, and it would be
better for the estate if it were all down, since it is only a
den for smugglers."

At this instant Bertram turned short round upon Glos-
sin at the distance of two yards only, and said, " Would
you destroy this fine old castle, sir ? "

His face, person, and voice, were so exactly those of
his father in his best days, that Glossin, hearing his ex-
clamation, and seeing such a sudden apparition in the
shape of his patron, and on nearly the very spot where he
had expired, almost thought the grave had given up its
dead ! He staggered back two or three paces, as if he
had received a sudden and deadly wound. He instantly
recovered, however, his presence of mind, stimulated by
the thrilling reflection that it was no inhabitant of the
other world which stood before him, but an injured man,
whom the slightest want of dexterity on his part might
lead to acquaintance with his rights, and the means of
asserting them to his utter destruction. Yet his ideas
were so much confused by the shock he had received, that
his first question partook of the alarm.

GUY MANNERING. 139

"In tke name of God, how came you here?" said
Glossin.

" How came I here ? " repeated Bertram, surprised at
the solemnity of the address. " I landed a' quarter of an
hour since in the little harbour beneath the castle, and
was employing a moment's leisure in viewing these fine
ruins. I trust there is no intrusion ? "

" Intrusion, sir ? No, sir," said Glossin, in some
degree recovering his breath, and then whispered a
few words into his companion's ear, who immediately
left him and descended towards the house. " Intrusion,
sir? No, sir, you or any gentleman are welcome to
satisfy your curiosity."

a I thank you, sir," said Bertram. " They call this the
Old Place, I am informed ? "

" Yes, sir ; in distinction to the New Place, my house
there, below."

Glossin, it must be remarked, was, during the fol-
lowing dialogue, on the one hand eager to learn what
local recollections young Bertram had retained of the
scenes of his infancy, and, on the other, compelled to be
extremely cautious in his replies, lest he should awaken
or assist, by some name, phrase, or anecdote, the slum-
bering train of association. He suffered, indeed, during
the whole scene, the agonies which he so richly deserved ;
yet his pride and interest, like the fortitude of a North
American Indian, manned him to sustain the tortures
inflicted at once by the contending stings of a guilty con-
science, of hatred, of fear, and of suspicion.

" I wish to ask the name, sir," said Bertram, " of the
family to whom this stately ruin belongs ? "

u It is my property, sir — my name is Glossin."

"Glossin? — Glossin?" repeated Bertram, as if the

140 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

answer were somewhat different from what he expected.
" I beg your pardon, Mr. Glossin ; I am apt to be very
absent. May I ask if the castle has been, long in your
family ? "

" It was built, I believe, long ago, by a family called
Mac-Dingawaie," answered Glossin; suppressing, for
obvious reasons, the more familiar sound of Bertram,
which might have awakened the recollections which he
was anxious to lull to rest, and slurring with an evasive
answer the question concerning the endurance of his own
possession.

" And how do you read the half-defaced motto, sir,"
said Bertram, " which is upon that scroll above the en-
tablature with the arms ? "

" I — I — I really do not exactly know," replied Glossin.

" I should be apt to make it out, Our Right makes our
Might."

" I believe it is something of that kind," said Glossin.

" May I ask, sir," said the stranger, " if it is your
family motto ? "

" N — n — no — -no — not ours. That is, I believe, the
motto of the former people — mine is — mine is — in fact I
have had some correspondence with Mr. Cumming of
the Lyon Office in Edinburgh about mine. He writes
me, the Glossins anciently bore for a motto, * He who
takes it, makes it' " •

" If there be any uncertainty, sir, and the case were
mine," said Bertram, " I would assume the old motto,
which seems to me the better of the two,"

Glossin, whose tongue by this time clove to the roof
of his mouth, only answered by a nod.

" It is odd enough," said Bertram, fixing his eye upon
the arms and gateway, and partly addressing Glossin,

GUT MANNEBING. 141

partly as it were thinking aloud — " It is odd the tricks
which our memory plays us. The remnants of an old
prophecy, or song, or rhyme, of some kind or other,
return to my recollection on hearing that motto— Stay —
it is a strange jingle of sounds :

The dark shall be light,

And the wrong made right,

When Bertram's right and Bertram's might

Shall meet on

I cannot rememher the last line — on some particular
he\ght-r-height is the rhyme, I am sure; but I cannot
hit upon the preceding word."

" Confound your memory," muttered Glossin, — " you
remember by far too much of it ! "

" There are other rhymes connected with these early
recollections," continued the young man : — " Pray, sir, is
there any song current in this part of the world respect-
ing a daughter of the King of the Isle of Man eloping
with a Scottish knight ? "

" I am the worst person in the world to consult upon
legendary antiquities," answered Glossin.

" I could sing such a ballad," said Bertram, " from one
end to another, when I was a boy. — You must know I
left Scotland, which is my native country, very young,
and those who brought me up discouraged all my attempts
to preserve recollection of my native land,— on account, I
believe, of a boyish wish which I had to escape from
their charge."

" Very natural/* said Glossin, but speaking as if his
utmost efforts were unable to unseal his lips beyond the
width of a quarter of an inch, so that his whole utterance
was a kind of compressed muttering, very different from
the round, bold, bullying voice with which he usually

142 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

spoke. Indeed his appearance and demeanour during
all this conversation seemed to diminish even his strength
and stature; so that he appeared to wither into the
shadow of himself, now advancing one foot, now the
other, now stooping and wriggling his shoulders, now
fumbling with the buttons of his waistcoat, now clasping
his hands together, — in short, he was the picture of a
mean-spirited shuffling rascal in the very agonies of
detection. To these appearances Bertram was totally
inattentive, being dragged on as it were by the current
of his own associations. Indeed, although he addressed
Glossin, he was not so much thinking of him, as arguing
upon the embarrassing state of his own feelings and
recollection. " Yes," he said, " I preserved my language
among the sailors, most of whom spoke English, and when
I could get into a corner by myself, I used to sing all
that song over from beginning to end. — I have forgot it
all now — but I remember the tune well, though I cannot
guess what should at present so strongly recall it to my
memory."

He took his* flageolet from his pocket, and played a
simple melody. Apparently the tune awoke the corre-
sponding associations of a damsel, who, close beside a fine
spring about halfway down the descent, and which had
once supplied the castle with water, was engaged in
bleaching linen. She immediately took up the song :

" Are these the Links of Forth, she said,
Or are they the crooks of Dee,
Or the bonny woods of Warroch-Head
That I so fain would see ? "

" By heaven," said Bertram, " it is the very ballad ! I
must learn these words from the girl."

" Confusion ! " thought Glossin ; " if I cannot put a

GUT MANNERING. 143

stop to this, all will be out. Oh the devil take all ballads,
and ballad-makers, and ballad-singers ! and that d— d

jade too, to set up her pipe ! You will have time

enough for this on some other occasion/' he said aloud ;
" at present " — (for now he saw his emissary with two or
three men coming up the bank) — " at present we must
have some more serious conversation together."

" How do you mean, sir ? " said Bertram, turning
short upon him, and not liking the tone which he made
use of.

" Why, sir, as to that — I believe your name is Brown ? "
said Glossin.

" And what of that, sir ? "

Glossin looked over his shoulder to see how near his
party had approached ; they were coming fast on. " Van-
beest Brown ? if I mistake not"

u And what of that, sir ? " said Bertram, with increas-
ing astonishment and displeasure.

" Why, in that case," said Glossin, observing his friends
had now got upon the level space close beside them — " in
that case you are my prisoner in the king's name ! " At
the same time he stretched his hand towards Bertram's
collar, while two of the men who had come up seized
upon his arms ; he shook himself, however, free of their
grasp by a violent effort, in which he pitched the most
pertinacious down the bank, and, drawing his cutlass,
stood on the defensive, while those who had felt his
strength recoiled from his presence, and gazed at a safe
distance. " Observe," he called out at the same time,
" that I have no purpose to resist legal authority ; satisfy
me that you have a magistrate's warrant, and are author-
ized to make this arrest, and I will obey it quietly ; but
let no man who loves his life venture to approach me, till

144 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

I am satisfied for what crime, and by whose authority, I
am apprehended."

Glossin then caused one of the officers to show a war-
rant for the apprehension of Vanbeest Brown, accused of
the crime of wilfully and maliciously shooting at Charles
Hazlewood, younger of Hazlewood, with an intent to kill,
and also of other crimes and misdemeanours, and which
appointed him, having been so apprehended, to be brought
before the next magistrate for examination. The war-
rant being formal, and the fact such as he could not deny,
Bertram threw down his weapon, and submitted himself
to the officers, who, flying on him with eagerness corre-
sponding to their former pusillanimity, were about to load
him with irons, alleging the strength and activity which
he had displayed, as a justification of this severity. But
Glossin was ashamed or afraid to permit this unnecessary
insult, and directed the prisoner to be treated with all the
decency, and even respect, that was consistent with
safety. Afraid, however, to introduce him into his own
house, where still further subjects of recollection might
have been suggested, and anxious at the same time to
cover his own proceedings by the sanction of another's
authority, he ordered his carriage (for he had lately set
up a carriage) to be got ready, and in the meantime
directed refreshments to be given to the prisoner and the
officers, who were consigned to one of the rooms in the
old castle, until the means of conveyance for examination
before a magistrate should be provided.

8

<mG9

OUT MAXNEBING. 145

CHAPTER XLIL

Bring in the evidence

Thou robed man of justice, take thy place,

And thou, his yoke-lellow of equity,

Bench by his side— you are of the commission,

Sit you too.

Kino Lkab.

While the carriage was getting ready, Glossin had a
letter to compose, about which he wasted no small time.
It was to his neighbour, as he was fond of calling him,
Sir Robert Hazlewood of Hazlewood, the head of an
ancient and powerful interest in the county, which had,
in the decadence of the Ellangowan family, gradually
succeeded to much of their authority and influence. The
present representative of the family was an elderly man,
dotingly fond of his own family, which was limited to an
only son and daughter, and stoically indifferent to the fate
of all mankind besides. For the rest, he was honourable
in his general dealings, because he was afraid to suffer
the censure of the world, and just from a better motive.
He was presumptuously over-conceited on the score of
family pride and importance — a feeling considerably en-
hanced by his late succession to the title of a Nova Scotia
Baronet ; and he hated the memory of the Ellangowan
family, though now a memory only, because a certain
baron of that house was traditionally reported to have
caused the founder of the Hazlewood family hold his

vol. rv. 10

l

146 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

stirrup until he mounted into his saddle. In his general
deportment he was pompous and important, affecting a
species of florid elocution which often became ridiculous
from his misarranging the triads and quaternions with
which he loaded his sentences.

To this personage Glossin was now to write in such a
conciliatory style as might be most acceptable to his
vanity and family pride, and the following was the form
of his note : —

" Mr. Gilbert Glossin " (he longed to add of Ellan-
gowan, but prudence prevailed, and he suppressed that
territorial designation) — "Mr. Gilbert Glossin has the
honour to offer his most respectful compliments to Sir
Robert Hazlewood, and to inform him, that he has this
morning been fortunate enough to secure the person who
wounded Mr. C. Hazlewood. As Sir Robert Hazlewood
may probably choose to conduct the examination of this
criminal himself, Mr. G. Glossin will cause the man to be
carried to the inn at Kippletringan, or to Hazlewood-
House, as Sir Robert Hazlewood may be pleased to
direct : And, with Sir Robert Hazlewood's permission,
Mr. G. Glossin will attend him at either of these places
with the proofs and declarations which he has been so
fortunate as to collect respecting this atrocious business."
Addressed,
" Sir Robert Hazlewood of Hazlewood, Bart.
" Hazlewood House, &c. &c

Tuesday." ]

This note he despatched by a servant on horseback,
and having given the man some time to get a-head, and
desired him to ride fast, he ordered two officers of justice

GUT MANNERING. 147

to get into the carriage with Bertram ; and he himself,
mounting his horse, accompanied them at a slow pace to
the point where the roads to Kippletringan and Hazle-
wood House separated, and there awaited the return of
his messenger, in order that his farther route might be
determined by the answer he should receive from the
Baronet. In about half an hour his servant returned
with the following answer, handsomely folded and sealed
with the Hazlewood arms, having the Nova, Scotia badge
depending from the shield : —

" Sir Robert Hazlewood of Hazlewood returns Mr. G.
Glossin's compliments, and thanks him for the trouble he
has taken in a matter affecting the safety of Sir Robert's
family. Sir R. H. requests Mr. G. G. will have .the
goodness to bring the prisoner to Hazlewood House for
examination, with the other proofs or declarations which
he mentions. And after the business is over, in case Mr.
G. G. is not otherwise engaged, Sir R. and Lady Hazle-
wood request his company to dinner."
Addressed,

u Mr. Gilbert Glossin, &c.

}

" Hazlbwood-House,
Tuesday."

" Soh ! " thought Mr. Glossin, " here is one finger in
at least, and that I will make the means of introducing my
whole hand. But I must first get clear of this wretched
young fellow. — I think I can manage Sir Robert. He is
dull and pompous, and will be alike disposed to listen to
my suggestions upon the law of the case, and to assume
the credit of acting upon them as his own proper motion.
So I shall have the advantage of being the real magis-
trate, without the odium of responsibility."

148 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

As he cherished these hopes and expectations, the car-
riage approached Hazlewood House through a noble
avenue of old oaks, which shrouded the ancient abbey-
resembling building so called. It was a large edifice built
at different periods, part having actually been a priory,
upon the suppression of which, in the time of Queen
Mary, the first of the family had obtained a gift of the
house and surrounding lands from the crown. It was
pleasantly situated in a large deer park, on the banks of
the river we have before mentioned. The scenery around
was of a dark, solemn, and somewhat melancholy cast,
according well with the architecture of the house. Every
thing appeared to be kept in the highest possible order,
and announced the opulence and rank of the proprietor.

As Mr. Glossin's carriage stopped at the door of the
hall, Sir Robert reconnoitred the new vehicle from the
windows. According to his aristocratic feelings, there
was a degree of presumption in this novus homo, this Mr.

Gilbert Glossin, late writer in , presuming to set

up such an accommodation at all ; but his wrath was
mitigated when he observed that the mantle upon the
panels only bore a plain cipher of G. G. This apparent
modesty was indeed solely owing to the delay of Mr.
Cumming of the Lyon Office, who, being at that time
engaged in discovering and matriculating the arms of two
commissaries from North America, three English-Irish
peers, and two great Jamaica traders, had been more slow
than usual in finding an escutcheon for the new Laird of
Ellangowan. But his delay told to the advantage of
Glossin in the opinion of the proud Baronet.

While the officers of justice detained their prisoner in
a sort of steward's room, Mr. Glossin was ushered into
what was called the great oak-parlour, a long room,

GUT MANNERING. 149

panelled with well-varnished wainscot, and adorned with
the grim portraits of Sir Robert Hazlewood's ancestry.
The visitor, who had no internal consciousness of worth
to balance that of meanness of birth, felt his inferiority,
and by the depth of his bow and the obsequiousness of
his demeanour, showed that the Laird of Ellangowan was
sunk for the time in the old and submissive habits of the
quondam retainer of the law. He would have persuaded
himself, indeed, that he was only humouring the pride of
the old Baronet, for the purpose of turning it to his own
advantage 5 — but his feelings were of a mingled nature,
and he felt the influence of those very prejudices which
he pretended to flatter.

The Baronet received his visitor with that condescend-
ing parade which was meant at once to assert his own
vast superiority, and to show the generosity and courtesy
with which he could waive it, and descend to the level of
ordinary conversation with ordinary men. He thanked
Glossin for his attention to a matter in which " young
Hazlewood " was so intimately concerned, and, pointing
to his family pictures, observed, with a gracious smile,
u Indeed these venerable gentlemen, Mr. Glossin, are as
much obliged as I am in this case, for the labour, pains,
care, and trouble which you have taken in their behalf ;
and I have no doubt, were they capable of expressing
themselves, would join me, sir, in thanking you for the
favour you have conferred upon the house of Hazlewood,
by taking care, and trouble, sir, and interest, in behalf of
the young gentleman who is to continue their name and
family."

Thrice bowed Glossin, and each time more profoundly
than before ; once in honour of the knight who stood up-
right before him, once in respect to the quiet personages

150 WAVEBLEY NOVELS.

who patiently hung upon the wainscot, and a third time in
deference to the young gentleman who was to carry on the
name and family. Roturier as he was, Sir Robert was
gratified by the homage which he rendered, and pro-
ceeded, in a tone of gracious familiarity — " And now, Mr.
Glossin, my exceeding good friend, you must allow me
to avail myself of your knowledge of law in our proceed-
ings in this matter. I am not much in the habit of acting
as a justice of the peace ; it suits better with other gen-
tlemen, whose domestic and family affairs require less
constant superintendence, attention, and management,
than mine."

Of course, whatever small assistance Mr. Glossin could
render was entirely at Sir Robert Hazlewood's service ;
but, as Sir Robert Hazlewood's name stood high in the
list of the faculty, the said Mr. Glossin could not presume
to hope it could be either necessary or useful.

" Why, my good sir, you will understand me only to
mean, that I am something deficient in the practical
knowledge of the ordinary details of justice-business. I
was indeed educated to the bar, and might boast perhaps
at one time, that I had made some progress in the spec-
ulative, and abstract, and abstruse doctrines of our
municipal code ; but there is in the present day so little
opportunity of a man of family and fortune rising to that
eminence at the bar, which is attained by adventurers
who are as willing to plead for John-a-Nokes as for the
first noble of the land, that I was really early disgusted
with practice. The first case, indeed, which was laid on
my table, quite sickened me ; it respected a bargain, sir,
of tallow, between a butcher and a candlemaker ; and I
found it was expected that I should grease my mouth, !
not only with their vulgar names, but with all the tech- \

I

GUT MANNERIXG. 151

nical terms, and phrases, and peculiar language, of their
dirty arts. Upon my honour, my good sir, I have never
been able to bear the smell of a tallow-candle since."

Pitying, as seemed to be expected, the mean use to
which the Baronet's faculties had been degraded on this
melancholy occasion, Mr. Glossin offered to officiate as
clerk or assessor, or in any way in which he could be
most useful. " And with a view to possessing you of the
whole business, and in the first place, there will, I believe,
be no difficulty in proving the main fact, that this was the
person who fired the unhappy piece. Should he deny it,
it can be proved by Mr. Hazlewood, I presume ? "

" Young Hazlewood is not at home to-day, Mr. Glos-
sin."

" But we can have the oath of the servant who at-
tended him," said the ready Mr. Glossin ; " indeed I
hardly think the fact will be disputed. I am more appre-
hensive, that, from the too favourable and indulgent
manner in which I have understood that Mr. Hazlewood
has been pleased to represent the business, the assault
may be considered as accidental, and the injury as unin-
tentional, so that the fellow may be immediately set at
liberty, to do more mischief."

u I have not the honour to know the gentleman who
now holds the office of king's advocate," replied Sir
Robert, gravely ; " but I presume, sir— ^nay, I am confi-
dent, that he will consider the mere fact of having
wounded young Hazlewood of Hazlewood, even by inad-
vertency, to take the matter in its mildest and gentlest, and
in its most favourable and improbable light, as a crime
which will be too easily atoned by imprisonment, and as
more deserving of deportation."

"Indeed, Sir Robert," said his assenting brother in

152 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

justice, "I am entirely of your opinion; but, I don't
know how it is, I have observed the Edinburgh gentlemen
of the bar, and even the officers of the crown, pique
themselves upon an indifferent administration of justice,
without respect to rank and family; and I should
fear"

" How, sir, without respect to rank and family ? Will
you tell me that doctrine can be held by men of birth and
legal education ? No, sir, if a trifle stolen in the street
is termed mere pickery, but is elevated into sacrilege if
the crime be committed in a church, so, according to the
just gradations of society, the guilt of an injury is en-
hanced by the rank of the person to whom it is offered,
done, or perpetrated, sir."

Glossin bowed low to this declaration ex cathedra, but
observed, that in case of the very worst, and of such
unnatural doctrines being actually held as he had already
hinted, "the law had another hold on Mr. Vanbeest
Brown."

" Vanbeest Brown ! is that the fellow's name ? Good
God ! that young Hazlewood of Hazlewood should have
had his life endangered, the clavicle of his right shoulder
considerably lacerated and dislodged, several large drops
or slugs deposited in the acromion process, as the account
of the family surgeon expressly bears, — and all by an
obscure wretch named Vanbeest Brown ! *

" Why, really, Sir Robert, it is a thing which one can
hardly bear to think of ; but, begging ten thousand par-
dons for resuming what I was about to say, a person of
the same name is, as appears from these papers," (pro-
ducing Dirk Hatteraick's pocket-book,) "mate to the
smuggling vessel who offered such violence at Wood-
bourne, and I have no doubt that this is the same indi-

GUT MANNERING. 153

vidual; which, however, your acute discrimination will
easily be able to ascertain."

u The same, my good sir, he must assuredly be — it
would be injustice even to the meanest of the people, to
suppose there could be found among them two persons
doomed to bear a name so shocking to one's ears as this
of Vanbeest Brown."

u True, Sir Robert ; most unquestionably ; there can-
not be a shadow of doubt of it. But you see farther,
that this circumstance accounts for the man's desperate
conduct. You, Sir Robert, will discover the motive for
his crime — you, I say, will discover it without difficulty,
on your giving your mind to the examination ; for my part,
I cannot help suspecting the moving spring to have been
revenge for the gallantry with which Mr. Hazlewood,
with all the spirit of his renowned forefathers, defended
the house at Woodbourne against this villain and his
lawless companions."

u I will inquire into it, my good sir," said the learned
Baronet. u Yet even now I venture to conjecture that I
shall adopt the solution or explanation of this riddle,
enigma, or mystery, which you have in some degree thus
started. Yes ! revenge it must be — and, good Heaven !
entertained by and against whom ? — entertained, fostered,
cherished against young Hazlewood of Hazlewood, and
in part carried into effect, executed, and implemented, by
the hand of Vanbeest Brown ! These are dreadful days
indeed, my worthy neighbour " (this epithet indicated a
rapid advance in the Baronet's good graces) — " days when
the bulwarks of society are shaken to their mighty base,
and that rank, which forms, as it were, its highest grace
and ornament, is mingled and confused with the viler
parts of the architecture. Oh my good Mr. Gilbert

154

WAVEBLEY NOVELS.

Glossin, in my time, sir, the use of swords and pistols,
and such honourable arms, was reserved by the nobil-
ity and gentry to themselves, and the disputes of the
vulgar were decided by the weapons which nature had
given them, or by cudgels, cut, broken, or hewed out of
the next wood. But now, sir, the clouted shoe of the
peasant galls the kibe of the courtier. The lower ranks
have their quarrels, sir, and their points of honour, and
their revenges, which they must bring, forsooth, to fatal
arbitrament But well, well! it will last my time — let
us have in this fellow, this Yanbeest Brown, and make
an end of him at least f6r the present"

GUY MANNERING. 155

CHAPTER XLm.

'Twashe

Gave heat unto the injury, which returned.
Like a petard ill lighted, into the bosom
Of him gave fire to't. Yet I hope his hurt
Is not so dangerous but he may recover.

Fair Maid of thi Inn.

The prisoner was now presented before the two wor-
shipful magistrates. Glossin, partly from some compunc-
tious visitings, and partly out of his cautious resolution
to suffer Sir Robert Hazlewood to be the ostensible man-
ager of the whole examination, looked down upon the
table, and busied himself with reading and arranging
the papers respecting the business, only now and then
throwing in a skilful catchword as prompter, when he saw
the principal, and apparently most active, magistrate
stand in need of a hint As for Sir Robert Hazlewood,
he assumed, on his part, a happy mixture of the austerity
of the justice, combined with the display of personal dig-
nity appertaining to the Baronet of ancient family.

" There, constables, let him stand there at the bottom
of the table. — Be so good as look me in the face, sir, and
raise your voice as you answer the questions which I am
going to put to you."

u May I beg, in the first place, to know, sir, who it is
that takes the trouble to interrogate me ? " said the pris-
oner ; " for the honest gentlemen who have brought me

156 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

here, have not been pleased to furnish any information
upon that point. 1 '

"And pray, sir," answered Sir Robert, "what has my
name and quality to do with the questions I am about to
ask you ? "

"Nothing, perhaps, sir," replied Bertram; "but it
may considerably influence my disposition to answer
them."

" Why, then, sir, you will please to be informed that
you are in the presence of Sir Robert Hazlewood of
Hazlewood, and another justice of peace for this county
—that's all."

As this intimation produced a less stunning effect upon
the prisoner than he had anticipated, Sir Robert pro-
ceeded in his investigation with an increasing dislike to
the object of it.

" Is your name Vanbeest Brown, sir ? "

" It is," answered the prisoner.

" So far well ; — and how are we to design you farther,
sir ? " demanded the Justice.

"Captain in his Majesty's regiment of horse,"

answered Bertram.

" The Baronet's ears received this intimation with as-
tonishment ; but he was refreshed in courage by an incred-
ulous look from Glossin, and by hearing him gently utter
a sort of interjectional whistle, in a note of surprise and
contempt. " I believe, my friend," said Sir Robert, " we
shall find for you, before we part, a more humble title."

" If you do, sir," replied his prisoner, " I shall wil-
lingly submit to any punishment which such an imposture
shall be thought to deserve."

" Well, sir, we shall see," continued Sir Robert " Do
you know young Hazlewood of Hazlewood ? "

GUT MANNERING. 157

a I never saw the gentleman who I am informed bears
that name excepting once, and I regret that it was under
very unpleasant circumstances."

a You mean to acknowledge, then," said the Baronet,
" that you inflicted upon young Hazlewood of Hazlewood
that wound which endangered his life, considerably lacer-
ated the clavicle of his right shoulder, and deposited, as
the family surgeon declares, several large drops or slugs
in the acromion process ? "

" Why, sir," replied Bertram, " I can only say I am
equally ignorant of and sorry for the extent of the damage
which the young gentleman has sustained. I met him in
a narrow path, walking with two ladies and a servant, and
before I could either pass them or address them, this
young Hazlewood took his gun from his servant, pre-
sented it against my body, and commanded me in the
most haughty tone to stand back. I was neither inclined
to submit to his authority, nor to leave him in possession
of the means to injure me, which he seemed disposed to
use with such rashness. I therefore closed with him for
the purpose of disarming him; and just as' I had nearly
effected my purpose, the piece went off accidentally, and,
to my regret then and since, inflicted upon the young gen-
tleman a severer chastisement than I desired, though I
am glad to understand it is like to prove no more than
his unprovoked folly deserved."

" And so, sir," said the Baronet, every feature swollen
with offended dignity, — " you, sir, admit, sir, that it was
your purpose, sir, and your intention, sir, and the real jet
and object of your assault, sir, to disarm young Hazle-
wood of Hazlewood of his gun, sir, or his fowling-piece,
or his fuzee, or whatever you please to call it, sir,
upon the king's highway, sir? — I think this will do,

158 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

my worthy neighbour I I think he should stand com-
mitted ? "

"You are by far the best judge, Sir Robert," said
Glossin, in his most insinuating tone; "1rat if I might
presume to hint, there was something about these smug-
glers."

ft Very true, good sir. — And besides, sir, you, Van-
beest Brown, who call yourself a captain in his Majesty's
service, are no better or worse than a rascally mate of a
smuggler ! "

" Really, sir," said Bertram, " you are an old gentle-
man, and acting under some strange delusion, otherwise I
should be very angry with you."

a Old gentleman, sir ! — strange delusion, sir ! " said Sir
Robert, colouring with indignation — " I protest and de-
clare Why, sir, have you any papers or letters that

can establish your pretended rank, and estate, and com-
mission ? "

a None at present, sir," answered Bertram ; — u but in
the return of a post or two "

" And how do you, sir," continued the Baronet, u if you
are a captain in his Majesty's service, how do you chance
to be travelling in Scotland without letters of introduction,
credentials, baggage, or anything belonging to your pre-
tended rank, estate, and condition, as I said before ? "

" Sir," replied the prisoner, " I had the misfortune to
be robbed of my clothes and baggage."

u Oho ! then you are the gentleman who took a post-
chaise from to Kippletringan, gave the boy the slip

on the road, and sent two of your accomplices to beat the
boy and bring away the baggage ? "

" I was, sir, in a carriage as you describe, was obliged
to alight in the snow, and lost my way endeavouring to

OUT MANNERING. 159

find the road to Kippletringan. The landlady of the inn
will inform you that on my arrival there the next day, my
first inquiries were after the hoy."

"Then give me leave to ask where you spent the
night ? — not in the snow, I presume ? you do not suppose
that will pass, or be taken, credited, and received ? "

u I beg leave," said Bertram, his recollection turning
to the gipsy female, and to the promise he had given her,
" I beg leave to decline answering that question."

u I thought as much," said Sir Robert. — " Were you
not, during that night, in the ruins of Derncleugh ? — in
the ruins of Derncleugh, sir ? "

" I have told you that I do not intend answering that
question," replied Bertram.

u Well, sir, then you will stand committed, sir," said Sir
Robert, " and be sent to prison, sir, that's all, sir. — Have
the goodness to look at these papers : are you the Van-
beest Brown who is there mentioned ? "

It must be remarked that Glossin had shuffled among
the papers some writings which really did belong to Ber-
tram, and which had been found by the officers in the old
vault where his portmanteau was ransacked.

" Some of these papers," said Bertram, looking over
them, " are mine, and were in my portfolio when it was
stolen from the postrchaise. They are memoranda of
little value, and, I see, have been carefully selected as
affording no evidence of my rank or character, which
many of the other papers would have established fully.
They are mingled with ship-accounts and other papers,
belonging apparently to a person of the same name."

u And wilt thou attempt to persuade me, friend," de-
manded Sir Robert, " that there are two persons in this
country, at the same time, of thy very uncommon and
awkwardly sounding name ? "

160 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" I really do not see, sir, as there is an old Hazlewood
and a young Hazlewood, why there should not be an old
and a young Vanbeest Brown. And to speak seriously,
I was educated in Holland, and I know that this name,
however uncouth it may sound in British ears "

Glossin, conscious that the prisoner was now about to
enter upon dangerous ground, interfered, though the
interruption was unnecessary, for the purpose of divert-
ing the attention of Sir Robert Hazlewood, who was
speechless and motionless with indignation at the pre-
sumptuous comparison implied in Bertram's last speech.
In fact, the veins of his throat and of his temples swelled
almost to bursting, and he sat with the indignant and dis-
concerted air of one who has received a mortal insulc
from a quarter to which he holds it unmeet and in-
decorous to make any reply. While with a bent brow
and an angry eye he was drawing in his breath slowly
and majestically, and puffing it forth again with deep and
solemn exertion, Glossin stepped in to his assistance. " I
should think, now, Sir Robert, with great submission,
that this matter may be closed. One of the constables,
besides the pregnant proof already produced, offers to
make oath, that the sword of which the prisoner was this
morning deprived (while using it, by the way, in resist-
ance to a legal warrant) was a cutlass taken from him in
a fray between the officers and smugglers, just previous
to their attack upon Woodbourne. And yet," he added,
" I would not have you form any rash construction upon
that subject ; perhaps the young man can explain how he
came by that weapon."

" That question, sir," said Bertram, " I shall also leave
unanswered."

"There is yet another circumstance to be inquired

GUT MANNERING. 161

into, always under Sir Robert's leave," insinuated Glossin.
" This prisoner put into the hands of Mrs. MaoCandlish
of Kippletringan, a parcel containing a variety of gold
coins and valuable articles of different kinds. Perhaps,
Sir Robert, ytfu might think it right to ask, how he came
by property of a description which seldom occurs."

"You, sir — Mr. Vanbeest Brown, sir, — you hear the
question, sir, which the gentleman asks you ? "

" I have particular reasons for declining to answer that
question," answered Bertram.

" Then I am afraid, sir," said Glossin, who had
brought matters to the point he desired to reach, "our
duty must lay us under the necessity to sign a warrant of
committal."

" As you please, sir," answered Bertram : " take care,
however, what you do. Observe, that I inform you that

I am a captain in his Majesty's regiment, and that

I am just returned from India, and therefore cannot pos-
sibly be connected with any of those contraband traders
you talk of; that my Lieutenant-Colonel is now at Not-
tingham, the Major, with the officers of my corps, at
Kingston-upon-Thames. I offer before you both to sub-
mit to any degree of ignominy, if, within the return of the
Kingston and Nottingham posts, I am not able to establish
these points. Or you may write to the agent for the
regiment, if you please, and "

a This is all very well, sir," said Glossin, beginning to
fear lest the firm expostulation of Bertram should make
some impression on Sir Robert, who would almost have
died of shame at committing such a solecism as sending a
captain of horse to jail — " This is all very well, sir ;
but is there no person nearer whom you could refer to ? "

" There are only two persons in this country who know

vol. rv. 11

162 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

anything of me," replied the prisoner. " One is a plain'
Liddesdale sheep-farmer, called Dinmont of Charlies-
hope ; but he knows nothing more of me than what I told
him, and what I now tell you."

" Why, this is well enough, Sir Robert ! * said Glossin.
"I suppose he would bring forward this thick-skulled
fellow to give his oath of credulity, Sir Robert, ha!
ha! ha!"

"And what is your other witness, friend ?" said the
Baronet.

" A gentleman whom I have some reluctance to men-
tion, because of certain private reasons ; but under whose
command I served some time in India, and who is too
much a man of honour to refuse his testimony to my
character as a soldier and gentleman."

" And who is this doughty witness, pray, sir ? " said Sir
Robert, — "some half-pay quarter-master or sergeant, I
suppose?"

" Colonel Guy Mannering, late of the regiment,

in which, as I told you, I have a troop."

" Colonel Guy Mannering ! " thought Glossin, — " who
the devil could have guessed this ? "

" Colonel Guy Mannering ! " echoed the Baronet con-
siderably shaken in his opinion. — " My good sir," — apart
to Glossin, "the young man with a dreadfully plebeian
name, and a good deal of modest assurance, has, never-
theless, something of the tone, and manners, and feeling
of a gentleman, of one at least who has lived in good
society; — they do give commissions very loosely, and
carelessly, and inaccurately, in India ; — I think we had
better pause till Colonel Mannering shall return ; he is
now, I believe at Edinburgh."

" You are in every respect the best judge, Sir Robert,"

GUY MANNERING. 163

answered Glossin, " in every possible respect I would
only submit to you, that we are certainly hardly entitled
to dismiss this man upon an assertion which cannot be
satisfied by proof, and that we snail incur a heavy re-
sponsibility by detaining him in private custody, without
committing him to a public jail. Undoubtedly, however,
you are the best judge, Sir Robert ;— and I would only
say, for my own part, that I very lately incurred severe
censure by detaining a person in a place which I thought
perfectly secure, and under the custody of the proper
officers. The man made his escape, and I have no doubt

4

my own character for attention and circumspection as a
magistrate has in some degree suffered — I only hint this
— I will join in any step yoUj Sir Robert, think most ad-
visable." But Mr. Glossin was well aware that such a
hint was of power sufficient to decide the motions of his
self-important, but not self-relying colleague. So that Sir
Robert Hazlewood summed up the business in the fol-
lowing speech, which proceeded partly upon the sup-
position of the prisoner being really a gentleman, and
partly upon the opposite belief that he was a villain and
an assassin.

" Sir, Mr. Vanbeest Brown — I would call you Captain
Brown if there was the least reason, or cause, or grounds
to suppose that you are a captain, or had a troop in the
very respectable corps you mention, or indeed in any
other corps in his Majesty's service, as to which circum-
stance I beg to be understood to give no positive, settled,
or unalterable judgment, declaration, or opinion. I say
therefore, sir, Mr. Brown, we have determined, consider-
ing the unpleasant predicament in which you now stand,
having been robbed, as you say, an assertion as to which
I suspend my opinion, and being possessed of much and

164 WAVERLEY KOTELS.

valuable treasure, and of a brass-handled cutlass besides,
as to your obtaining which you will favour us with no
explanation — I say, sir, we have determined and re-
solved, and made up our minds, to commit you to jail,
or rather to assign you an apartment therein, in order
that you may be forthcoming upon Colonel Mannering's
return from Edinburgh."

" With humble submission, Sir Robert/' said G-lossin,
" may I inquire if it is your purpose to send this young
gentleman to the county jail ? — for if that were not your
settled intention, I would take the liberty to hint, that
there would be less hardship in sending him to the
Bridewell at Portanferry, where he can be secured
without public exposure, — a circumstance which, on the
mere chance of his story being really true, is much to be
avoided."

" Why, there is a guard of soldiers at Portanferry,
to be sure, for protection of the goods in the Custom-
house ; and upon the whole, considering everything, and
that the place is comfortable for such a place — I say, all
things considered, we will commit this person, I would
rather say authorize him to be detained, in the workhouse
at Portanferry."

The warrant was made out accordingly, and Bertram
was informed he was next morning to be removed to his
place of confinement, as Sir Robert had determined he
should not be taken there under cloud of night, for fear
of rescue. He was, during the interval, to be detained at
Hazlewood-House.

"It cannot be so hard as my imprisonment by the
Looties in India," he thought ; nor can it last so long.
But the deuce take the old formal dunderhead, and his
more sly associate, who speaks always under his breath,

GUT MANNERING. 165

— they cannot understand a plain man's story when it is
told them."

In the meanwhile Glossin took leave of the Baronet,
with a thousand respectful bows and cringing apologies
for not accepting his invitation to dinner, and venturing
to hope he might be pardoned in paying his respects to
him, Lady Hazlewood, and young Mr. Hazlewood, on
some future occasion.

" Certainly, sir," said the Baronet, very graciously.
u I hope our family was never at any time deficient in
civility to our neighbours ; and when I ride that way,
good Mr. Glossin, I will convince you of this by calling
at your house as familiarly as is consistent — that is, as
can be hoped or expected."

" And now," said Glossin to himself, " to find Dirk
Hatteraick and his people, — to get the guard sent off
from the Custom-house,— rand then for the grand cast of
the dice. Everything must depend upon speed. How
lucky that Mannering has betaken himself to Edinburgh !
His knowledge of this young fellow is a most perilous
addition to my dangers," — here he suffered his horse to
slacken his pace. " What if I should try to compound
with the heir ? It's likely he might be brought to pay
a round sum for restitution, and I could give up Hatter-
aick, — But no, no, no ! there were too many eyes on me,
— Hatteraick himself, and the gipsy sailor, and that old
hag. — No, no ! I must stick to my original plan." And
with that he struck his spurs against his horse's flanks,
and rode forward at a hard trot to put his machines in
mption.

166 WAVERLET NOVELS.

CHAPTER XLIV.

A prison is a house of care,
A place where none can thrive,
A touchstone true to try a friend,
A grave for one alive.
Sometimes a place of right,
Sometimes a place of wrong,
Sometimes -a place of rogues and thieves,
And honerft men among.

Inscription on Edinburgh Tolbooth.

Early on the following morning, the carriage which
had brought Bertram to Hazle wood-House, was, with his
two silent and surly attendants, appointed to convey him
to his place of confinement at Portanferry. This build-
ing adjoined to the Custom-house established at that little
sea-port, and both were situated so close to the sea-beach,
that it was necessary to defend the back part with a large
and strong rampart or bulwark of huge stones, disposed
in a slope towards the surf, which often reached and
broke upon them. The front was surrounded by a high
wall, enclosing a small court-yard, within which the
miserable inmates of the mansion were occasionally per-
mitted to take exercise and air. The prison was used as
a House of Correction, and sometimes as a chapel of ease
to the county jail, which was old, and far from being con-
veniently situated with reference to the Kippletringan
district of the county. Mac-Guffog, the officer by whom
Bertram had at first been apprehended, and who was

GUT MANNERING. 167

now in attendance upon him, was keeper of this palace
of little-ease. He caused the carriage to be drawn close
up to the outer gate, and got out himself to summon the
warders. The noise of his rap alarmed some twenty or
thirty ragged boys, who left off sailing their mimic sloops
and frigates in the little pools of salt water left by the
receding tide, and hastily crowded round the vehicle to
see what luckless being was to be delivered to the prison-
house out of " Glossin's braw new carriage." The door
of the court-yard, after the heavy clanking of many chains
and bars, was opened by Mrs. Mac-Guffog — an awful
spectacle, being a woman for strength and resolution
capable of maintaining order among her riotous inmates,
and of administering the discipline of the house, as it was
called, during the absence of her husband, or when he
chanced to have taken an over-dose of the creature. The
growling voice of this Amazon, which rivalled in harsh-
ness the crashing music of her own bolts and bars, soon
dispersed in every direction the little varlets who had
thronged around her threshold, and she next addressed
her amiable helpmate : —

" Be sharp, man, and get out the swell, canst thou
not ? "

" Hold your tongue and be d— d, you ! " an-
swered her loving husband, with two additional epithets
of great energy, but which we beg to be excused from
repeating. Then, addressing Bertram, — " Come, will
you get out, my handy lad, or must we lend you a lift ? "

Bertram came out of the carriage, and, collared by the
constable as he put his foot on the ground, was dragged,
though he offered no resistance, across the threshold,
amid the continued shouts of the little sans culottes, who
looked on at such distance as their fear of Mrs. Mac-

\

168 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Guffog permitted. The instant his foot had crossed the
fatal porch, the portress again dropped her chains, drew
her bolts, and turning with both hands an immense key,
took it from the lock, and thrust it into a huge side-
pocket of red cloth.

Bertram was now in the small court already men-
tioned. Two or three prisoners were sauntering along
the pavement, and deriving as it were a feeling of
refreshment from the momentary glimpse with which the
opening door had extended their prospect to the other
side of a dirty street. Nor can this be thought surpris-
ing, when it is considered, that, unless on such occasions,
their view was confined to the grated front of their prison,
the high and sable walls of the court-yard, the heaven
above them, and the pavement beneath their feet; a
sameness of landscape, which, to use the poet's expres-
sion, " lay like a load on the wearied eye," and had
fostered in some a callous and dull misanthropy, in others
that sickness of the heart which induces him who is im-
mured already in a living grave, to wish for a sepulchre
yet more calm and sequestered.

Mac- Guffog, when they entered the court-yard, suf-
fered Bertram to pause for a minute, and look upon his
companions in affliction. When he had cast his eye
around, on faces on which guilt, and despondence, and
low excess, had fixed their stigma — upon the spendthrift,
and the swindler, and the thief, the bankrupt debtor, the
"moping idiot, and the madman gay," whom a paltry
spirit of economy congregated to share this dismal habi-
tation, he felt his heart recoil with inexpressible loathing
from enduring the contamination of their society even for
a moment.

" I hope, sir," he said to the keeper, " you intend to
assign me a place of confinement apart ? "

GUY MANSTEBING. 169

•

" And what should I be the better of that ? "

" Why, sir, I can but be detained here a day or two,
and it would be very disagreeable to me to mix in the
sort of company this place affords."

u And what do I care for that ? "

" Why, then, sir, to speak to your feelings, ,, said Ber-
tram, "I should be willing to make you a handsome
compliment for this indulgence."

" Ay, but when, Captain ? when and how ? that's the
question, or rather the twa questions," said the jailor.

" When I am delivered, and get my remittances from
England," answered the prisoner.

Mac-GufFog shook his head incredulously.

u Why, friend, you do not pretend to believe that I am
really a malefactor ? " said Bertram.

u Why, I no ken," said the fellow ; " but if you are on
the account, ye're nae sharp ane, that's the day-light oV

" And why do you say I am no sharp one ? "

" Why, wha but a crack-brained greenhorn wad hae
let them keep up the siller that ye left at the Gordon-
Arms ? " said the constable. " Deil fetch me, but I wad
have had it out o' their wames ! Ye had nae right to be
strippit o' your money and sent to jail without a mark to
pay your fees ; they might have keepit the rest o' the
articles for evidence. But why, for a blind bottle-head,
did not ye ask the guineas? and I kept winking and
nodding a' the time, and the donnert deevil wad never
ance look my way ! "

u Well, sir," replied Bertram, " if I have a title to have
that property delivered up to me, I shall apply for it ;
and there is a good deal more than enough to pay any
demand you can set up."

" I dinna ken a bit about that," said MaoGuffog ; " ye

170 WAVEBLEY NOVELS.

may be here lang eneugh. And then the gieing credit
maun be considered in the fees. But, however, as ye do
seem to be a chap by common, though my wife says I
lose by my good-nature, if ye gie me an order for my
fees upon that money — I dare say Glossin will make it
forthcoming — I ken something about an escape from
Ellangowan — ay, ay, he'll be glad to carry me through,
and be neighbour-like."

" Well, sir," replied Bertram, " if I am not furnished
in a day or two otherwise, you shall have such an order. ,,

" Weel, weel, then ye shall be put up like a prince,"
said Mac-Guffog. "But mark ye me, friend, that we
may have nae colly -shangie afterhend, these are the fees
that I always charge a swell that must have his lib-ken
to himsell — Thirty shillings a-week for lodgings, and a
guinea for garnish ; half-a-guinea a-week for a single bed,
and I dinna get the whole of it, for I must gie half-a-
crown out of it to Donald Ladder that's in for sheep-
stealing, that should sleep with you by rule, and he'll
expect clean strae, and maybe some whisky beside. So
I make little upon that."

" Well, sir, go on." %

" Then for meat and liquor, ye may have the best, and
I never charge abune twenty per cent ower tavern price
for pleasing a gentleman that way — and that's little
eneugh for sending in and sending out, and wearing the
lassie's shoon out And then if ye're dowie, J will sit wi'
you a gliff in the evening mysell, man, and help ye out
wi' your bottle ; — I have drank mony a glass wi' Glossin,
man, that did you up, though he's a Justice now. And
then Fse warrant ye'll be for fire thir cauld nights, or if
ye want candle, that's an expensive article, for it's against
the rules. And now I've tell'd ye the head articles of

GUT MANNERING. 171

the charge, and I dinna think there's muckle mair, though
there will aye be some odd expenses ower and abune."

" Well, sir, I must trust to your conscience, if ever you
happened to hear of such a thing — I cannot help myself."

"Na, na, sir," answered the cautipus jailor, "Til no
permit you to be saying that — I'm forcing naething upon
ye; — an ye dinna like the price, ye needna take the
article — I force no man; I was only explaining what
civility was : but if ye like to take the common run of
the house, it's a' ane to me — I'll be saved trouble,
that's a'."

u Nay, my friend, I have, as I suppose you may easily
guess, no inclination to dispute your terms upon such a
penalty," answered Bertram. " Come, show me where I
am to be, for I would fain be alone for a little while."

" Ay, ay, come along then, Captain," said the fellow,
with a contortion of visage which he intended to be a
smile. " And I'll tell you now, — to show you that I have
a conscience, as ye ca't, d — n me if I charge ye abune
sixpence a-day for the freedom o' the court, and ye may
walk in't very near three hours a-day, and play at pitch-
and-toss, and handba', and what not."

With this gracious promise, he ushered Bertram into
the house, and showed him up a steep and narrow stone
staircase, at the top of which was a strong door, clenched
with iron and studded with nails. Beyond this door was
a narrow passage or gallery^having three cells on each
side, wretched vaults, with iron bed-frames and straw
mattresses. But at the farther end was a small apart-
ment, of rather a more decent appearance, — that is, having
less the air of a place of confinement, since, unless for
the large lock and chain upon the door, and the crossed
and ponderous stanchions upon the window, it rather

172 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

resembled the " worst inn's worst room." It was designed
as a sort of infirmary for prisoners whose state of health
required some indulgence ; and, in fact, Donald Laider,
Bertram's destined chum, had been just dragged out of
one of the two beds which it contained, to try whether
clean straw and whisky might not have a better chance
to cure his intermitting fever. This process of ejection
had been carried into force by Mrs. Mac-Guffog while
her husband parleyed with Bertram in the court-yard,
that good lady having a distinct presentiment of the
manner in which the treaty must necessarily terminate.
Apparently the expulsion had not taken place without
some application of the strong hand, for one of the bed-
posts of a sort of tent-bed was broken down, so that the
tester and curtains hung forward into the middle of the
narrow chamber, like the banner of a chieftain, half sink-
ing amid the confusion of a combat.

" Never mind that being out o' sorts, Captain," said
Mrs. Mac-Guffog, who now followed them into the room;
then turning her back to the prisoner, with as much deli-
cacy as the action admitted, she whipped from her knee
her ferret garter, and applied it to splicing and fastening
the broken bed-post — then used more pins than her
apparel could well spare to fasten up the bed-curtains in
festoons — then shook the bed-clothes into something like
form — then flung over all a tattered patch-work quilt, and
pronounced that things were now " something purpose-
like." " And there's your bed, Captain," pointing to a
massy four-posted hulk, which, owing to the inequality
of the floor, that had sunk considerably, (the house, though
new, having been built by contract,) stood on three legs,
and held the fourth aloft as if pawing the air, and in the
attitude of advancing like an elephant passant upon the

GUT MANNERING. 173

panel of a coach — " There's your bed and the blankets ;
but if ye want sheets, or bowster, or pillow, or ony sort
o' napery for the table, or for your hands, ye'll hae to
speak to me about it, for that's out o' the gudeman's line,"
(Mac-Guffog had by this time left the room, tp avoid,
probably, any appeal which might be made to him upon
this new exaction,) " and he never engages for onything
like that."

" In God's name," said Bertram, " let me have what is
decent, and make any charge you please."

u Aweel, aweel, that's sune settled ; we'll no excise you
neither, though we live sae near the Custom-house. And
I maun see to get you some fire and some dinner too, I'se
warrant ; but your dinner will be«but a puir ane the day,
no expecting company that would be nice and fashious." —
So saying, and in all haste, Mrs. Mac-Guffog fetched a
scuttle of live coals, and having replenished " the rusty
grate, unconscious of a fire " for months before, she pro-
ceeded with unwashed hands to arrange the stipulated
bed-linen, (alas, how different from Ailie Dinmont's !)
and, muttering to herself as she discharged her task,
seemed, in inveterate spleen of temper, to grudge even
those accommodations for which she was to receive pay-
ment. At length, however, she departed, grumbling
between her teeth, that " she wad rather lock up a haill
ward than be fiking about thae niff-naffy gentles that gae
eae muckle fash wi' their fancies."

When she was gone, Bertram found himself reduced
to the alternative of pacing his little apartment for exer-
cise, or gazing out upon the sea in such proportions as
could be seen from the narrow panes of his window, ob-
scured by dirt and by close iron-bars, or reading over the
records of brutal wit and blackguardism which despair

174 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

had scrawled upon the half-whitened walls. The sounds
were as uncomfortable as the objects of sight ; the sullen
dash of the tide, which was now retreating, and the occa-
sional opening and shutting of a door, with all its accom-
paniments of jarring bolts and creaking hinges, mingling
occasionally with the dull monotony of the retiring ocean.
Sometimes, too, he could hear the hoarse growl of the
keeper, or the shriller strain of his helpmate, almost
always in the tone of discontent, anger, or insolence. At
other times the large mastiff, chained in the court-yard,
answered with furious bark the insults of the idle loiterers
who made a sport of incensing him.

At length the tedium of this weary space was broken
by the entrance of a dirty-looking serving wench, who
made some preparations for dinner by laying a half-dirty
cloth upon a whole-dirty deal table. A knife and fork,
which had not been worn out by overcleaning, flanked a
cracked delf-plate ; a nearly-empty mustard-pot placed on
one side of the table, balanced a salt-cellar, containing an
article of a greyish, or rather a blackish mixture, upon
the other, both of stone-ware, and bearing too obvious
marks of recent service. Shortly after, the same Hebe
brought up a plate of beef-collops, done in the frying-pan,
with a huge allowance of grease floating in an ocean of
lukewarm water ; and having added a coarse loaf to these
savoury viands, she requested to know what liquors the
gentleman chose to order. The appearance of this fare
was not very inviting ; but Bertram endeavoured to mend
his commons by ordering wine, which he found tolerably
good, and, with the assistance of some indifferent cheese,
made his dinner chiefly off the brown loaf. When his
meal was over, the girl presented her master's compli-
ments, and, if agreeable to the gentleman, he would help

GUT MANNERING. 175

him to spend the evening. Bertram desired to be excused,
and begged, instead of this gracious society, that he might
be furnished with paper, pen, ink, and candles. The
light appeared in the shape of one long broken tallow-
candle, inclining over a tin candlestick coated with grease ;
as for the writing materials, the prisoner was informed
that he might have them the next day if he chose to send
out to buy them. Bertram next desired the maid to
procure him a book, and enforced his request with a shil-
ling ; in consequence of which, after long absence, she
reappeared with two odd volumes of the Newgate Cal-
endar, which she had borrowed from Sam Silverquill, an
idle apprentice, who was imprisoned under a charge of
forgery. Having laid the books on the table, she retired,
and left Bertram to studies which were not ill adapted to
his present melancholy situation.

176 "WAVEBLEY NOVELS.

CHAPTER XLV.

But if thou shouldst be dragged in scorn

To yonder ignominious tree,
Thou shalt not want one faithful friend

To share the cruel fate's decree.

SHUrSTONl.

Plunged in the gloomy reflections which were natu-
rally excited by his dismal reading, and disconsolate
situation, Bertram, for the first time in his life, felt himself
affected with a disposition to low spirits. u I have been
in worse situations than this too," he said; — "more
dangerous, for here is no danger — more dismal in pros-
pect, for my present confinement must necessarily be
short — more intolerable for the time, for here at least I
have fire, food, and shelter. Yet with reading these
bloody tales of crime and misery, in a place so corre-
sponding to the ideas which they excite, and in listening
to these sad sounds, I feel a stronger disposition to mel-
ancholy than in my life I ever experienced. But I will
not give way to it — Begone, thou record of guilt and
infamy ! " he said, flinging the book upon the spare bed ;
" a Scottish jail shall not break, on the very first day, the
spirits which have resisted climate, and want, and penury,
and disease, and imprisonment, in a foreign land. I have
fought many a hard battle with dame Fortune, and she
shall not beat me now if I can help it."

Then bending his mind to a strong effort, he endeav-

GUT MANNERING. 177

oured to view his situation in the most favourable light.
Delaserre must soon be in Scotland ; the certificates from
his commanding-officer must soon arrive ; nay, if Man-
nering were first applied to, who could say but the effect
might be a reconciliation between them ? He had often
observed, and now remembered, that when his former
colonel took the part of any one, it was never by halves,
and that he seemed to love those persons most who had
lain under obligation to him. In the present case, a fa-
vour, which could be asked with honour and granted with
readiness, might be the means of reconciling them to
each other. From this his feelings naturally turned
towards Julia; and, without very nicely measuring the
distance between a soldier of fortune, who expected that
her father's attestation would deliver him from confine-
ment, and the heiress of that father's wealth and expecta-
tions, he was building the gayest castle in the clouds, and
varnishing it with all the tints of a summer-evening sky,
when his labour was interrupted by a loud knocking at
the outer-gate, answered by the barking of the gaunt
half-starved mastiff, which was quartered in the court-
yard as an addition to the garrison. After much scru-
pulous precaution the gate was opened, and some person
admitted. The house-door was next unbarred, unlocked,
and unchained, a dog's feet pattered up stairs in great
haste, and the animal was heard scratching and whining
at the door of the room. Next a heavy step was heard
lumbering up, and Mac-Guffog's voice in the character
of pilot — " This way, this way ; take care of the step ;—
that's the room." — Bertram's door was then unbolted,
and, to his great surprise and joy, his terrier Wasp

rushed into the apartment, and almost devoured him with
voi* IV. 12

178 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

caresses, followed by the massy form of his friend from
Charlies-hope.

" Eh whow ! Eh whow ! " ejaculated the honest farmer,
as he looked round upon his friend's miserable apartment
and wretched accommodation — " What's this o't ! what's
this o't ! "

" Just a trick of Fortune, my good friend," said Ber-
tram, rising and shaking him heartily by the hand,
"that's all."

" But what will be done about it ? — or what can be
done about it ? " said honest Dandie : " is't for debt, or
what is't for ? "

" Why, it is not for debt," answered Bertram ; " and
if you have time to sit down, I'll tell you all I know of
the matter myself."

u If I hae time ? " said Dandie, with an accent on the
word that sounded like a howl of derision — " Ou, what
the deevil am I come here for, man, but just ance errand
to see about it ? But ye'll no be the waur o' something
to eat, I trow ; — it's getting late at e'en — I tell'd the folk
at the Change, where I put up Dumple, to send ower my
supper here, and the chield Mac-GufFog is agreeable to
let it in — I hae settled a' that. — And now* let's hear your
story — Whisht, Wasp, man ! wow but he's glad to see
you, poor thing ! "

Bertram's story, being confined to the accident of Ha-
zlewood, and the confusion made between his own identity
and that of one of the smugglers who had been active in
the assault of Woodbourne, and chanced to bear the same
name, was soon told. Dinmont listened very attentively.
" Aweel," he said, " this suld be nae sic dooms-desperate
business surely — the lad's doing weel again that was hurt,
and what signifies twa or three lead draps in his shouther ?

GUT MANNERmG. 179

if ye had putten out his ee, it would hae been another
case. But eh, as I wuss auld Sherra Pleydell was to the
fore here ! — Od, he was the man for sorting them, and
the queerest rough-spoken deevil too that ever ye heard ! "

" But now tell me, my excellent friend, how did you
find out I was here ? "

" Od, lad, queerly eneugh," said Dandie ; " but 111 tell
ye that after we are done wi' our supper, for it will
maybe no be sae weel to speak about it while that \smg-
lugged limmer o' a lass is gaun flisking in and out o' the
room."

Bertram's curiosity was in some degree put to rest by
the appearance of the supper which his friend had
ordered, which, although homely enough, had the appe-
tizing cleanliness in which Mrs. Mac-Guffog's cookery
was so eminently deficient. Dinmont also, premising he
had ridden the whole day since breakfast-time, without
tasting anything " to speak of," which qualifying /phrase
related to about three pounds of cold roast mutton which
he had discussed at his mid-day stage, — Dinmont, I say,
fell stoutly upon the, good cheer, and, like one of Homer's
heroes, said little, either good or bad, till the rage of
thirst and hunger was appeased. At length, after a
draught of home-brewed ale, he began by observing,
" Aweel, aweel, that hen," looking upon the lamentable
relics of what had been once a large fowl, " wasna a bad
ane to be bred at a town end, though it's no like our barn-
door chuckies at Charlies-hope — and I am glad to see
that this vexing job hasna taen awa your appetite,
Captain."

" Why really, my dinner was not so excellent, Mr.
Dinmont, as to spoil my supper."

" I daur say no— I daur say no," said Dandie. — " But

180 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

now, hinny, that ye hae brought us the brandy, and the
mug wi' the het water, and the sugar, and a* right, ye
may steek the door, ye see, for we wad hae some o' our
ain cracks." The damsel accordingly retired, and shut
the door of the apartment, to which she added the pre-
caution of drawing a large bolt on the outside.

As soon as she was gone, Dandie reconnoitred the
premises, listened at the key-hole as if he had been listen-
ing for the blowing of an otter, — and having satisfied him-
self that there were no eavesdroppers, returned to the
table ; and making himself what he called a gey stiff
cheerer, poked the fire, and began his story in an
undertone of gravity and importance not very osual
with him.

" Ye see, Captain, I had been in Edinbro' for twa or
three days, looking after the burial of a friend that we
hae lost, and may be I suld hae had something for my
ride ; but there's disappointments in a' things, and wha
can help the like o' that ? And I had a wee bit law
business besides, but that's neither here nor there. In
short, I had got my matters settled, and hame I cam ;
and the morn awa to the muirs to see what the herds had
been about, and I thought I might as weel gie a look to
the Tout-hope head, where Jock o' Dawston and me has
the outcast about a march. Weel, just as I was coming
upon the bit, I saw a man afore me that I kenn'd was
nane o' our herds, and it's a wild bit to meet ony other
body, so when I cam up to him, it was Tod Gabriel the
fox-hunter. So I says to him, rather surprised like,
' What are ye doing up amang the craws here, without
your hounds, man ? are ye seeking the fox without the
dogs ? ' So he said, ' Na, gudeman, but I wanted to see
yoursell.'

GUY MANNERING. 181

K * Ay/ said I, ' and ye'll be wanting eilding now, or
something to pit ower the winter ? '

" ' Na, na/ quo* he, 'it's no that I'm seeking ; but ye
tak an unco concern in that Captain Brown that was
staying wi' you, d'ye no ? '

u ' Troth do I, Gabriel/ says I ; ' and what about him,
lad?'

" Says he, * There's mair tak an interest in him than
you, and some that I am bound to obey ; and it's no just
on my ain will that I'm here to tell you something about
him that will no please you.'

" ' Faith, naething will please me/ quo' I, ' that's no
pleasing to him.'

" ' And then/ quo' he, ' ye'll be ill-sorted to hear that
he's like to be in the prison at Portanferry, if he disna
tak a' the better care o' himsell, for there's been warrants
out to tak him as soon as he comes ower the water frae
Allonby. And now, gudeman, an ever ye wish him weel,
ye maun ride down to Portanferry, and let nae grass grow
at the nag's heels ; and if ye find him in confinement, ye
maun stay beside him night and day, for a day or twa, for
he'll want friends that hae baith heart and hand ; and if
ye neglect this, ye'll never rue but ance, for it will be for
a' your life/

" ' But, safe us, man/ quo' I, ' how did ye learn a' this ?
— it's an unco way between this and Portanferry.'

u i Never ye mind that/ quo' he ; * them that brought
us the news rade night and day, and ye maun be aff in-
stantly if ye wad do* ony gude — and sae I have naething
mair to tell ye.' Sae he sat himsell doun and hirselled
doun into the glen, where it wad hae been ill following
him wi' the beast, and I cam back to Charlies-hope to tell
the gudewife, for I was uncertain what to do. It wad

182 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

look unco-like, I thought, just to be sent out on a hunt-
the-gowk errand wi' a land-louper like that. But, Lord !
as the gudewife set up her throat about it, and said what
a shame it wad be if ye was to come to ony wrang, an I
could help ye ; — and then in cam your letter that con-
firmed it So I took to the kist, and out wi' the pickle
notes in case they should be needed, and a' the bairns ran
to saddle Dumple. By great luck I had taen the other
beast to Edinbro', sae Dumple was as fresh as a rose.
Sae aff I set, and Wasp wi' me, for ye wad really hae
thought he kenn'd where I was gaun, puir beast; and
here I am after a trot o' sixty mile, or near by. But
Wasp rade thirty o' them afore me on the saddle, and the
puir doggie balanced itsell as ane of the weans wad hae
dune, whether I trotted or cantered."

In this strange story Bertram obviously saw, supposing
the warning to be true, some intimation of danger more
violent and imminent than could be likely to arise from a
few days' imprisonment At the same time it was equally
evident that some unknown friend was working in his
behalf. " Did you not say," he asked Dinmont, " that
this man Gabriel was of gipsy blood ? "

" It was e'en judged sae," said Dinmont, " and I think
this maks it likely ; for they aye ken where the gangs o'
ilk ither are to be found, and they can gar news flee like
a foot-ba' through the country an they like. An' I forgat
to tell ye, there's been an unco inquiry after the auld wife
that we saw in Bewcastle ; the sheriff's had folk ower
the Limestane Edge after her, and down the Hermitage
and Liddel, and a' gates, and a reward offered for her
to appear, o' fifty pound sterling, nae less ; and Justice
Forster, he's had out warrants, as I am tell'd, in Cumber-
land, and an unco ranging and riping they have had a'

GUT MAXNEBING. 183

gates seeking for her — but she'll no be taen wi' them
unless she likes, for a' that,"

<f And how comes that?" said Bertram.

" Ou, I dinna ken ; I daur say it's nonsense, but they
say she has gathered the fern-seed, and can gang ony
gate she likes, like Jock-the-Giant-killer in the ballant,
wi' his coat o' darkness and his shoon o' swiftness. Ony
way she's a kind o' queen amang the gipsies ; she is mair
than a hundred year auld, folk say, and minds the coming
in o' the moss-troopers in the troublesome times when the
Stuarts were put awa. Sae, if she canna hide hersell,
she kens them that can hide her weel eneugh, ye needna
doubt that. Od, an I had kenn'd it had been Meg
Merrilies yon night at Tibb Mumps's, I wad taen care
how I crossed her."

Bertram listened with great attention to this account,
which tallied so well in many points with what he had
himself seen of this gipsy sibyl. After a moment's con-
sideration, he concluded it would be no breach of faith to
mention what he had seen at Derncleugh to a person who
held Meg in such reverence as Dinmont obviously did.
He told his story accordingly, often interrupted by ejacu-
lations, such as, " Weel, the like o' that now ! " or, " Na,
deil an that's no something now ! "

When our Liddesdale friend had heard the whole to an
end, he shook his great black head — " Weel, I'll uphaud
there's baith gude and ill amang the gipsies, and, if they
deal wi' the Enemy, it's a' their ain business, and no ours.
I ken what the streeking the corpse wad be, weel eneugh.
Thae smuggler deevils, when ony o' them's killed in a
fray, they'll send for a wife like Meg far eneugh to dress
the corpse — od, it's a' the burial they ever think o' ! and
. then to be 'put into the ground without ony decency, just

184 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

like dogs. But they stick to it that they'll be streekit
and hae an auld wife when they're dying, to rhyme ower
prayers, and ballants, and charms, as they ca' them, rather
than they'll hae a minister to come and pray wi' them —
that's an auld threep o' theirs ; and I am thinking the
man that died will hae been ane o' the folk that was shot
when they burnt Woodbourne."

" But, my good friend, Woodbourne is not burnt," said
Bertram.

" Weel, the better for them that bides in't" — answered
the store-farmer. " Od; we had it up the water wi' us,
that there wasna a stane on the tap o' anither. But there
was fighting, ony way ; I daur to say, it would be fine fun !
And, as I said, ye may take it on trust, that that's been
ane o' the men killed there, and that it's been the gipsies
that took your pockmanky when they fand the chaise
stickin' in the snaw — they wadna pass the like o' that —
it wad just come to their hand like the bowl o' a pint
stoup." *

" But if this woman is a sovereign among them, why
was she not able to afford me open protection, and to get
me back my property ? "

" Ou, wha kens ? she has muckle to say wi' them, but
whiles they'll tak their ain way for a' that, when they're
under temptation. And then there's the smugglers that
they're aye leagued wi' ; she maybe couldna manage them
sae weel — they're aye banded thegither. I've heard that
the gipsies ken when the smugglers will come afF, and
where they're to land, better than the very merchants that
deal wi' them. And then, to the boot o' that, she's whiles
crack-brained, and has a bee in her head ; they say that

* The handle of a stoup of liquor; than which, our proverb seems
to infer t there is nothing oomes more readily to the grasp.

GTJT HANNWNG. 185

whether her spaeings and fortune-tellings be true or no,
for certain she believes in them a* hersell, and is aye
guiding hersell by some queer prophecy or anither. So
she disna aye gang the straight road to the well. — But
deil o' sic a story as yours, wi' glamour and dead folk and
losing ane's gate, I ever heard out o' the tale-botks !—
But whisht, I hear the keeper coming."

Mac-Guffog accordingly interrupted their discourse by
the harsh harmony of the bolts and bars, and showed his
bloated visage at the opening door. " Come, Mr. Din-
mont, we have put off locking up for an hour to oblige
ye ; ye must go to your quarters."

" Quarters, man ? I intend to sleep here the night.
There's a spare bed in the Captain's room."

" It's impossible ! " answered the keeper.

" But I say it is possible, and that I winna stir — and
there's a dram t'ye."

Mac-Guffog drank off the spirits, and resumed his ob-
jection. " But it's against rule, sir ; ye have committed
nae malefaction."

"I'll break your head," said the sturdy Liddesdale
man, u if ye say ony mair about it, and that will be mal-
efaction eneugh to entitle me to ae night's lodging wi' you,
ony way."

" But I tell ye, Mr. Dinmont, reiterated the keeper,
" it's against rule, and I behoved to lose my post."

" Weel, Mac-Guffog," said Dandie, " I hae just twa
things to say. Ye ken wha I am weel eneugh, and that
I wadna loose a prisoner."

" And how do I ken that ? " answered the jailor.

" Weel, if ye dinna ken that," said the resolute farmer,
" ye ken this ; — ye ken ye're whiles obliged to be up our
water in the way o' your business ; now, if ye let me stay

186 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

quietly here the night wi' the Captain, I'se pay ye double
fees for the room ; and if ye say no, ye shall hae the best
sark-fu' o' sair banes that ever ye had in your life, the
first time ye set a foot by Liddel-moat ! "

" Aweel, aweel, gudeman," said Mac-G-uffog, u a wilfu'
man rfaun hae his way ; but if I am challenged for it by
the justices, I ken wha sail bear the wyte ; " and having
sealed this observation with a deep oath or two, he re-
tired to bed, after carefully securing all the doors of the
Bridewell. The bell from the town steeple tolled nine
just as the ceremony was concluded.

" Although it's but early hours," said the farmer, who
had observed that his friend looked somewhat pale and
fatigued, u I think we had better lie down, Captain, if
ye're no agreeable to another cheerer. But troth, ye're
nae glass-breaker ; and neither am I, unless it be a screed
wi' the neighbours, or when I'm on a ramble."

Bertram readily assented to the motion of his faithful
friend, but, on looking at the bed, felt repugnance to trust
himself undressed to Mrs. Mac-GufFogfs clean sheets.

" I'm muckle o' your opinion, Captain," said Dandie.
" Od, this bed looks as if a' the colliers in Sanquhar had
been in't thegither. But it'll no win through my muckle
coat" So saying, he flung himself upon the frail bed
with a force that made all its timbers crack, and in a few
moments gave audible signal that he was fast asleep.
Bertram slipped off his coat and boots, and occupied the
other dormitory. The strangeness of his destiny, and the
mysteries which appeared to thicken around him, while
he seemed alike to be persecuted and protected by secret
enemies and friends, arising out of a class of people with
whom he had no previous connexion, for some time occu-
pied his thoughts. Fatigue, however, gradually com-

GUT MASfJEEINQ. 187

posed his mind, and in a short time he was as fast asleep
as his companion. And in this comfortable slate of ob-
livion we must leave them, until we acquaint the reader
with some olher circumstances which occurred about the
same period.

188 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

CHAPTER XLVL

Say from whence

Ton owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath yon stop our way
With such prophetic greeting? —
Speak, I charge you.

Macbbth.

Upon the evening of the day when Bertram's exami-
nation had taken place, Colonel Mannering arrived at
Woodbourne from Edinburgh. He found his family in.
their usual state, which probably, so far as Julia was con-
cerned, would not have been the case had she learned the
news of Bertram's arrest But as, during the Colonel's
absence, the two young ladies lived much retired, this cir-
cumstance fortunately had not reached Woodbourne. A
letter had already made Miss Bertram acquainted with
the downfall of the expectations which had been formed
upon the bequest of her kinswoman. Whatever hopes
that news might have dispelled, the disappointment did
not prevent her from joining her friend in affording a
cheerful reception to the Colonel, to whom she thus en-
deavoured to express the deep sense she entertained of
his paternal kindness. She touched on her regret, that
at such a season of the year he should have made, upon
her account, a journey so fruitless.

" That it was fruitless to you, my dear," said the Colo-
nel, " I do most deeply lament ; but for my own share, I

GUT MANNEBING. 189

have made some valuable acquaintances, and have spent
the time I have been absent in Edinburgh with peculiar
satisfaction ; so that, on that score, there is nothing to be
regretted. Even our friend the Dominie is returned
thrice the man he was, from having sharpened his wits in
controversy with the geniuses of the northern metrop-
olis."

" Of a surety," said the Dominie, with great compla-
cency, " I did wrestle, and was not overcome, though my
adversary was cunning in his art/'

" I presume," said Miss Mannering, " the contest was
somewhat fatiguing, Mr. Sampson ? "

"Very much, young lady — howbeit, I girded up my
loins and strove against him."

" I can bear witness," said the Colonel, " I never saw
an affair better contested. The enemy was like the
Mahratta cavalry ; he assailed on all sides, and presented
no fair mark for artillery ; but Mr. Sampson stood to his
guns, notwithstanding, and fired away, now upon the en-
emy, and now upon the dust which he had raised. But
we must not fight our battles over again to-night — to-
morrow we shall have the whole at breakfast."

The next morning at breakfast, however, the Dominie
did not make his appearance. He had walked out, a ser-
vant said, early in the morning ; — it was so common for
him to forget his meals, that his absence never deranged
the family. The housekeeper, a decent old-fashioned
Presbyterian matron, having, as such, the highest respect
for Sampson's theological acquisitions, had it in charge on
these occasions to take care that he was no sufferer by his
absence of mind, and therefore usually waylaid him on
his return, to remind him of his sublunary wants, and to
minister to their relief. It seldom, however, happened

190 "WAVERLEY NOVELS.

that he was absent from two meals together, as was the
case in the present instance. We must explain the cause
of this unusual occurrence.

The conversation which Mr. Pleydell had held with
Mr. Mannering on the subject of the loss of Harry Ber-
tram, had awakened all the painful sensations which that
event had inflicted upon Sampson. The affectionate
heart of the poor Dominie had always reproached him,
that his negligence in leaving the child in the care of
Frank Kennedy had been the proximate cause of the
murder of the one, the loss of the other, the death of
Mrs. Bertram, and the ruin of the family of his patron.
It was a subject which he never conversed upon, — if in-
deed his mode of speech could be called conversation at
any time, — but it was often present to his imagination.
The sort of hope so strongly affirmed and asserted in
Mrs. Bertram's last settlement, had excited a correspond-
ing feeling in the Dominie's bosom, which was exasper-
ated into a sort of sickening anxiety, by the discredit
with which Pleydell had treated it — " Assuredly," thought
Sampson to himself, " he is a man of erudition, and well
skilled in the weighty matters of the law ; but he is also
a man of humorous levity and inconsistency of speech ;
and wherefore should he pronounce ex cathedra, as it
were, on the hope expressed by worthy Madam Margaret
Bertram of Singleside ? "

All this, I say, the Dominie thought to himself ; for had
he uttered half the sentences, his jaws would have ached
for a month under the unusual fatigue of such a continued
exertion. The result of these cogitations was a resolution
to go and visit the scene of the tragedy at Warroch Point,
where he had not been for many years — not, indeed, since
the fatal accident had happened. The walk was a long

GUT MANNERING. 191

one, for the Point of Warroch lay on the farther side of
the Ellangowan property, which was interposed between
it and Woodbourne. Besides, the Dominie went astray
more than once, and met with brooks swollen into torrents
by the melting of the snow, where he, honest man, had
only the summer-recollection of little trickling rills.

At length, however, he reached the woods which he
had made the object of his excursion, and traversed them
with care, muddling his disturbed brains with vague
efforts, to recall every circumstance of the catastrophe.
It will readily be supposed that the influence of local
situation and association was inadequate to produce con-
clusions different from those which he had formed under
the immediate pressure of the occurrences themselves.
" With many a weary sigh, therefore, and many a groan,"
the poor Dominie returned from his hopeless pilgrimage,
and wearily plodded his way towards Woodbourne, de-
bating at times in his altered mind a question which was
forced upon him by the cravings of an appetite rather of
the keenest, namely, whether, he had breakfasted that
morning or no? — It was in this twilight humour, now
thinking of the loss of the child, then involuntarily com-
pelled to meditate upon the somewhat incongruous subject
of hung-beef, rolls, and butter, that his route, which was
different from that which he had taken in the morning,
conducted him past the small ruined tower, or rather
vestige of a tower, called by the country people the Kaim
of Derncleugh.

The reader may recollect the description of this ruin
in the twenty-seventh chapter of this narrative, as the
vault in which young Bertram, under the auspices of Meg
Merrilies, witnessed the death of Hatteraick's lieutenant.
The tradition of the country added ghostly terrors to the

192 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

natural awe inspired by the situation of this place — which
terrors the gipsies, who so long inhabited the vicinity, had
probably invented, or at least propagated, for their own
advantage. It was said, that during the times of the
Galwegian independence, one Hanlon Mac-Dingawaie,
brother to the reigning chief, Knarth Mac-Dingawaie,
murdered his brother and sovereign, in order to usurp
the principality from his infant nephew, and that being
pursued for vengeance by the faithful allies and retainers
of the house, who espoused the cause of the lawful heir,
he was compelled to retreat with a few followers whom
he had involved in his crime, to this impregnable tower
called the Kaim of Derncleugh, where he defended him-
self until nearly reduced by famine, when, setting fire to
the place, he and the small remaining garrison desperately
perished by their own- swords, rather than fall into the
hands of their exasperated enemies. This tragedy, which,
considering the wild times wherein it was placed, might
have some foundation in truth, was larded with many
legends of superstition and diablerie, so that most of the
peasants of the neighbourhood, if benighted, would rather
have chosen to make a considerable circuit, than pass
these haunted walls. The lights, often seen around the
tower when used as the rendezvous of the lawless char-
acters by whom it was occasionally frequented, were
accounted for, under authority of these tales of witchery,
in a manner at once convenient for the private parties
concerned, and satisfactory to the public.

Now it must be confessed that our friend Sampson,
although a profound scholar and mathematician, had not
travelled so far in philosophy as to doubt the reality of
witchcraft or apparitions. Born indeed at a time when a
doubt in the existence of witches was interpreted as

GUT MANXERING. 193

equivalent to a justification of their infernal practices, a
belief of such legends had been impressed upon the
Dominie as an article indivisible from his religious faith ;
and perhaps it would have been equally difficult to have
induced him to doubt the one as the other. With these
feelings, and in a thick misty day, which was already
drawing to its close, Dominie Sampson did not pass, the
Kaim of Deracleugh without some feelings of tacit
horror.

What, then, was his astonishment, when, on passing
the door — that door which was supposed to have been
placed there by one of the latter Lairds of Ellangowan
to prevent presumptuous strangers from incurring the
dangers of the haunted vault — that door, supposed to be
always locked, and the key of which was popularly said
to be deposited with the presbytery — that door, that very
door, opened suddenly, and the figure of Meg Merrilies,
well known, though not seen for many a revolving year,
was placed at once before the eyes of the startled Do-
minie ! She stood immediately before him in the footpath,
confronting him so absolutely, that he could not avoid her
except by fairly turning back, which his manhood pre-
vented him from thinking of.

" I kenn'd ye wad be here," she said, with her harsh
and hollow voice : " I ken wha ye seek ; but ye maun
do my bidding."

" Get thee, behind me ! " said the alarmed Dominie
— — u Avoid ye ! — Oonjuro te, scelestissima — nequissima
— spurcissima — iniquissima — atque miserrima — conjuro

tear 9

Meg stood her ground against this tremendous volley
of superlatives, which Sampson hawked up from the pit

VOL. IV. 18

194 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

of his stomach, and hurled at her in thunder. " Is the
carl daft," she said, " wi' his glamour ? "

" Conjuro" continued the Dominie, " abfitro, conteetor,
atque virUiter impero tibi ! " —

" What in the name of Sathan, are ye feared for, wi'

your French gibberish, that would make a dog sick?

Listen, ye stickit stibbler, to what I tell ye, or ye sail rue

it while there's a limb o' ye hings to anither! Tell

Colonel Mannering that I ken he's seeking me. He

kens, and I ken, that the blood will be wiped out, and the

lost will be found,

And Bertram's right and Bertram's might
Shall meet on Ellangowan height.

Hae, there's a letter to him ; I was gaun to send it in
another way. — I canna write mysell ; but I hae them that
will baith write and read, and ride and rin for me. Tell
him the time's coming now, and the weird's dreed, and
the wheel's turning. Bid him look at the stars as he has
looked at them before. — Will ye mind a' this ? "

" Assuredly," said the Dominie, " I am dubious — for,
woman, I am perturbed at thy words, and my flesh quakes
to hear thee."

" They'll do you nae ill though, and maybe muckle
gude."

"Avoid ye ! I desire no good that comes by unlawful
means."

" Fule-body that thou art ! " said Meg, stepping up to
him with a frown of indignation that made her dark eyes
flash like lamps from under her bent brows — "Fule-body!
if I meant ye wrang, couldna I clod ye ower that craig,
and wad man ken how ye cam by your end mair than
Frank Kennedy ? Hear ye that, ye worricow ? "

" In the name of all that is good," said the Dominie,

GUY MANNERENG. 195

recoiling, and pointing bis long pewter-headed walking-
cane like a javelin at the supposed sorceress, — " in the
name of all that is good, bide off hands ! I will not be
handled — woman, stand off, upon thine own proper peril !
—desist, I say — I am strong — lo, I will resist ! " Here
his speech was cut short; for Meg, armed with super-
natural strength, (as the Dominie asserted,) broke in
upon his guard, put by & thrust which he made at her
with his cane, and lifted him into the vault, " as easily,"
said he, " as I could sway a Kitchen's Atlas."

" Sit down there," she said, pushing the half-throttled
preacher with some violence against a broken chair —
" sit down there, and gather your wind and your senses,
ye black barrow-tram o' the kirk that ye are ! — Are ye
fou or fasting ? "

" Fasting — from all but sin," answered the Dominie,
who, recovering his voice, and finding his exorcisms only
served to exasperate the intractable sorceress, thought it
best to affect complaisance and submission, inwardly
conning over, however, the wholesome conjurations which
he durst no longer utter aloud. But as the Dominie's
brain was by no means equal to carry on two trains of
ideas at the same time, a word or two of his mental
exercise sometimes escaped, and mingled with his uttered
speech in a manner ludicrous enough, especially as the
poor man shrunk himself together after every escape of
the kind, from terror of the effect it might produce upon
the irritable feelings of the witch.

Meg, in the meanwhile, went to a great black cauldron
that was boiling on a fire on the floor, and, lifting the
lid, an odour was diffused through the vault, which, if the
vapours of a witch's cauldron could in aught be trusted,
promised better things than the hell-broth whicn such

196 "WAVERLEY NOVELS.

vessels are usually supposed to contain. It was in fact
the savour of a goodly stew, composed of fowls, hares,
partridges, and moorgame, boiled in a large mess with
potatoes, onions, and leeks, and, from the size of the
cauldron, appeared to be prepared for half a dozen of
people at least

" So ye hae eat naething a' day ? * said Meg, heaving
a large portion of this mess into a brown dish, and strew-
ing it savourily with salt and pepper *

" Nothing," answered the Dominie — " scelestissima I —
that is — gudewife."

" Hae, then" said she, placing the dish before him,
" there's what will warm your heart."

"I do not hunger — malejica — that is to say — Mrs.
Merrilies ! " for he said unto himself, " the savour is
sweet, but it hath been cooked by a Canidia or an
Ericthoe."

" If ye dinna eat instantly, and put some saul in ye, by
the bread and the salt, I'll put it down your throat wi' the
cutty spoon, scaulding as it is, and whether ye will or no.
Gape, sinner, and swallow ! "

* We must again have recourse to the contribution to Blackwood's
Magazine, April 1817 : —

" To the admirers of good eating, gipsy cookery seems to have little
to recommend it. I can assure you, however, that the cook of a noble-
man of high distinction, a person who never reads even a novel with-
out an eye to the enlargement of the culinary science, has added to
the Almanach des Gourmands, a certain Potage a la Meg Mennlies de
Dernckugh, consisting of game and poultry of all kinds, stewed with
vegetables into a soup, which rivals in savour and richness the gallant
messes of Camacho's wedding; and which the Baron of Bradwardine
would certainly have reckoned among the Epulcs lautiores."

The artist alluded to in this passage, is Mons. Florence, cook to
Henry and Charles, late Dukes of Buccleuch, and of high distinction
in his profession.

GUY MANXERING. 197

Sampson, afraid of eye of newt, and toe of frog,
tigers' chaudrons, and so forth, had determined not to
venture ; but the smell of the stew was fast melting his
obstinacy, which flowed from his chops as it were in
streams of water, and the witch's threats decided him to
feed. Hunger and fear are excellent casuists.

u Saul," said Hunger, " feasted with the witch of
Endor." — " And," quoth Fear, " the salt which she
sprinkled upon the food showeth plainly it is not a
necromantic banquet, in which that seasoning never
occurs." — "And besides," says Hunger, after the first
spoonful, " it is savoury and refreshing viands."

" So ye like the meat ? " said the hostess.

"Yea," answered the Dominie, "and I give thee
thanks — scderatissima! — which means — Mrs. Margaret"

" Aweel, eat your fill ; but an ye kenn'd how it was
gotten, ye maybe wadna like it sae weel." Sampson's
spoon dropped, in the act of conveying its load to his
mouth. " There's been mony a moonlight watch to bring
a' that trade thegither," continued Meg, — " the folk that
are to eat that dinner thought little o' your game-laws."

" Is that all ? " thought Sampson, resuming his spoon,
and shovelling away manfully ; " I will not lack my food
upon that argument."

" Now, ye maun tak a dram."

" I will," quoth Sampson — " conjuro te — that is, I
thank you heartily," for he thought to himself, in for a
penny in for a pound; and he fairly drank the witch's
health in a cupful of brandy. When he had put this
cope-stone upon Meg's good cheer, he felt, as he said,
u mightily elevated, and afraid of no evil which could
befall unto him."

" Will ye remember my errand now ? " said Meg Mer-

198 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

rilies ; " I ken by the cast o' your ee that ye're anither
man than when you cam in."

" I will, Mrs. Margaret," repeated Sampson, stoutly ;
" I will deliver unto him the sealed yepistle, and will add
what you please to send by word of mouth."

" Then Til make it short," says Meg. " Tell him to
look at the stars without fail this night, and to do what I
desire him in that letter, as he would wish

That Bertram' 8 right and Bertram's might
Should meet on Ellangowan height.

I have seen him twice when he saw na me ; I ken when
he was in this country first, and I ken what's brought him
back again. Up, an' to the gate ! ye're ower lang here —
follow me."

Sampson followed the sibyl accordingly, who guided
him about a quarter of a mile through the woods, by a
shorter cut than he could have found for himself; they
then entered upon the common, Meg still marching before
him at a great pace, until she. gained the top of a small,
hillock which overhung the road.

" Here," she said, " stand still here. Look how the
setting sun breaks through yon cloud that's been darken-
ing the lift a' day. See where the first stream o' light
fa's — it's upon Donagild's round tower — the auldest tower
in the Castle o' Ellangowan — that's no for naething ! —
See as it's glooming to seaward abune yon sloop in the bay
— that's no for naething neither. — Here I stood on this
very spot," said she, drawing herself up so as not to lose
one hair-breadth of her uncommon height, and stretching
out her long sinewy arm and clenched hand — " here I
stood when I tauld the last Laird o' Ellangowan what
was coming on his house ; — and did that fa' to the ground ?

GUT MANNEBING. 199

Na — it hit even ower sair ! And here, where I brake
the wand of peace ower him — here I stand again — to
bid God bless and prosper the just heir of Ellangowan,
that will sune be brought to his ain ; and the best laird
he shall be that Ellangowan has seen for three hundred
years. I'll no live to see it, maybe ; but there will be
mony a blythe ee see it, though mine be closed. And
now, Abel Sampson, as ever ye lo'ed the house of Ellan-
gowan, away wi* my message to the English Colonel, as
if life and death were upon your haste ! "

So saying, she turned suddenly from the amazed
Dominie, and regained with swift and long strides the
shelter of the wood from which she had issued, at the
point where it most encroached upon the common. Samp-
son gazed after her for a moment in utter astonishment,
and then obeyed her directions, hurrying to Woodbourne
at a pace very unusual for him, exclaiming three times,
u Prodigious ! prodigious ! pro-di-gi-ous ! "

200 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

CHAPTER XLVH.

It Is not madness

That I have uttered ; bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from.

Hamlet.

As Mr. Sampson crossed the hall with a bewildered
look, Mrs. Allan, the good housekeeper, who, with the
reverent attention which is usually rendered to the clergy
in Scotland, was on the watch for his return, sallied forth
to meet him — " What's this o't now, Mr. Sampson ; this
is waur than ever ! — ye'll really do yourself some injury
wi' these lang fasts — naething's sae hurtful to the stamach,
Mr. Sampson ; — if ye would but put some peppermint
draps in your pocket, or let Barnes cut ye a sandwich."

" Avoid thee ! " quoth the Dominie, his mind running
still upon his interview with Meg Merrilies, and making
for the dining-parlour.

" Na, ye needna gang in there — the cloth's been re-
moved an hour syne, and the Colonel's at his wine : but
just step into my room — I have a nice steak that the
cook will do in a moment."

" Exorciso te!" said Sampson, — "that is, I have
dined."

" Dined ! it'p impossible — wha can ye hae dined wi',
you that gangs out nae gate ? "

" With Beelzebub, I believe," said the minister.

GUY MANNERING. 201

" Na, then he's bewitched for certain," said the house-
keeper, letting go her hold ; " he's bewitched, or he's daft,
and ony way the Colonel maun just guide him his ain
gate. Wae's me ! Hech, sirs ! It's a sair thing to see
learning bring folk to this ! " And with this compassion-
ate ejaculation she retreated into her own premises.

The object of her commiseration had by this time en-
tered the dining-parlour, where his appearance gave great
surprise. He was mud up to the shoulders, and the nat-
ural paleness of his hue was twice as cadaverous as usual,
through terror, fatigue, and perturbation of mind. " What
on earth is the meaning of this, Mr. Sampson?" said
Mannering, who observed Miss Bertram looking much
alarmed for her simple but attached friend.

" Exorciso? — said the Dominie.

" How, sir ? " replied the astonished Colonel.

" I crave pardon, honourable sir ! but my wits " —

"Are gone a wool-gathering, I think. Pray, Mr.
Sampson, collect yourself, and let me know the meaning
of all this."

Sampson was about to reply, but finding his Latin
formula of exorcism still came most readily to his tongue,
he prudently desisted from the attempt, and put the scrap
of paper which he had received from the gipsy into Man-
nering' s hand, who broke the seal and read it with sur-
prise. " This seems to be some jest," he said, " and a
very dull one."

" It came from no jesting person,* said Mr. Sampson.

" From whom then did it come ? " demanded Man-
nering.

The Dominie, who often displayed some delicacy of
recollection in cases where Miss Bertram had an interest,
remembered the painful circumstances connected with

202 WAVBKLET NOVELS.

Meg Merrilies, looked at the young ladies, and remained
.silent. " We will join you at the tea-table in an instant,
Julia/' said the Colonel ; " I see that Mr. Sampson wishes
to speak to me alone. — And now they are gone, what, in
Heaven's name, Mr. Sampson, is the meaning of all
this ? "

" It may be a message from Heaven," said the Domi-
nie, " but it came by Beelzebub's postmistress. It was
that witch, Meg Merrilies, who should have been burned
with a tar-barrel twenty years since, for a harlot, thief,
witch, and gipsy."

"Are you sure it was she?" said the Colonel, with
great interest.

" Sure, honoured sir ? Of a truth she is one not to be
forgotten — the like o* Meg Merrilies is not to be seen in
any land."

The Colonel paced the room rapidly, cogitating with
himself. " To send out to apprehend her — but it is too
distant to send to Mac-Morlan, and Sir Robert Hazle-
wood is a pompous coxcomb ; besides the chance of not
finding her upon the spot, or that the humour of silence
that seized her before may again return ; — no, I will not,
to save being thought a fool, neglect the course she points
out Many of her class set out by being impostors, and
end by becoming enthusiasts, or hold a kind of darkling
conduct between both lines, unconscious almost when they
are cheating themselves, or when imposing on others.
Well, my course is a plain one at any rate ; and if my
efforts are fruitless, it shall not be owing to over-jealousy
of my own character for wisdom."

With this he rang the bell, and ordering Barnes into
his private sitting-room, gave him some orders, with the
result of which the reader may be made hereafter

GUT MANNEKING. 203

acquainted. We must now take up another adventure,
which is also to be woven into the story of this remark-
able day.

Charles Hazlewood had not ventured to make a visit
at Woodbourne during the absence of the Colonel. In-
deed, Mannering's whole behaviour had impressed upon
him an opinion that this would be disagreeable ; and such
was the ascendency which the successful soldier and ac-
complished gentleman had attained over the young man's
conduct, that in no respect would he have ventured to
offend him. He saw, or thought he saw, in Colonel Man-
nering's general conduct, an approbation of his attachment
to Miss Bertram. But then he saw still more plainly the
impropriety of any attempt at a private correspondence,
of which his parents could not be supposed to approve,
and he respected this barrier interposed betwixt them,
both on Mannering's account, and as he was the liberal
and zealous protector of Miss Bertram. " No," said he
to himself, " I will not endanger the comfort of my Lucy's
present retreat, until I can offer her a home of her own."

With this valorous resolution, which he maintained,
although his horse, from constant habit, turned his head
down the avenue of Woodbourne, and although he him-
self passed the lodge twice every day, Charles Hazle-
wood withstood a strong inclination to ride down, just to
ask how the young ladies were, and whether he could be
of any service to them during Colonel Mannering's ab-
sence. But on the second occasion he felt the temptation
so severe, that he resolved not to expose himself to it a
third time ; and, contenting himself with sending hopes
and inquiries, and so forth, to Woodbourne, he resolved
to make a visit long promised to a family at some distance,
and to return in such time as to be one of the earliest

204 WAVERLET NOVELS.

among Mannering's visitors who should congratulate his
safe arrival from his distant and hazardous expedition to
Edinburgh. Accordingly, he made out his visit, and
having arranged matters so as to be informed within a few
hours after Colonel Mannering reached home, he finally
resolved to take leave of the friends with whom he had
spent the intervening time, with the intention of dining at
Woodbourne, where he was in a great measure domesti-
cated ; and this (for he thought much more deeply on the
subject than was necessary) would, he flattered himself,
appear a simple, natural, and easy mode of conducting
himself.

Fate, however, of which lovers make so many com-
plaints, was in this case unfavourable to Charles Hazle-
wood. His horse's shoes required an alteration, in
consequence of the fresh weather having decidedly com-
menced. The lady of the house where he was a visitor,
chose to indulge in her own room till a very late break-
fast hour. His friend also insisted on showing him a litter
of puppies, which his favourite pointer bitch had pro-
duced that morning. The colours had occasioned some
doubts about the paternity, — a weighty question of legit-
imacy, to the decision of which Hazlewood's opinion was
called in as arbiter between his friend and his groom, and
which inferred in its consequences which of the litter
should be drowned, which saved. Besides, the Laird
himself delayed our young lover's departure for a consid-
erable time, endeavouring, with long and superfluous
rhetoric, to insinuate to Sir Robert Hazlewood, through
the medium of his son, his own particular ideas respecting
the line of a meditated turnpike road. It is greatly to
the shame of our young lover's apprehension, that after
the tenth reiterated account of the matter, he could not

GUT MANNERING, 205

see the advantage to be obtained by the proposed road
passing over the Lang-hirst, Windy-knowe, the Good-
house-park, Hailziecroft, and then crossing the river at
Simon's Pool, and so by the road to Kippletringan — and
the less eligible line pointed out by the English surveyor,
which would go clear through the main enclosures at Ha-
zlewood, and cut within a mile, or nearly so, of the house
itself, destroying the privacy and pleasure, as his informer
contended, of the grounds.

In short, the adviser (whose actual interest was to have
the bridge built as near as possible to a farm of his own)
failed in every effort to attract young Hazlewood's atten-
tion, until he mentioned by chance that the proposed line
was favoured by " that fellow Glossin," who pretended to
take a lead in the county. On a sudden, young Hazle-
wood became attentive and interested ; and having satis-
fied himself which was the line that Glossin patronized,
assured his friend it should not be his fault if his father
did not countenance any other instead of that. But these
various interruptions consumed the morning. Hazlewood
got on horseback at least three hours later than he in-
tended, and, cursing fine ladies, pointers, puppies, and
turnpike acts of parliament, saw himself detained beyond
the time when he could, with propriety, intrude upon the
family at Woodbourne.

He had passed, therefore, the turn of the road which
led to that mansion, only edified by the distant appear-
ance of the blue smoke curling against the pale sky of the
winter evening, when he thought he beheld the Dominie
taking a footpath for the house through the woods. He
called after him, — but in vain ; for that honest gentleman,
never the most susceptible of extraneous impressions, had
just that moment parted from Meg Merrilies, and was

20& WAVERLEY NOVELS.

too deeply wrapped up in pondering upon her vaticina-
tions, to make any answer to Hazlewood's call. He was
therefore obliged to let him proceed without inquiry after
the health of the young ladies, or any other fishing ques-
tion, to which he might, by good chance, have had an
answer returned wherein Miss Bertram's name might
have been mentioned. All cause for haste was now over,
— and, slackening the reins upon his horse's neck, he
permitted the animal to ascend at his own leisure the
steep sandy track between two high banks, which, rising
to a considerable height, commanded, at length, an exten-
sive view of the neighbouring country.

Hazlewood was, however, so far from eagerly looking
forward to this prospect, though it had the recommenda-
tion that great part of the land was his father's, and must
necessarily be his own, that his head still turned back-
ward towards the chimneys of Woodbourne, although, at
every step his horse made, the difficulty of employing his
eyes in that direction became greater. From the reverie
in which he was sunk, he was suddenly roused by a voice
too harsh to be called female, yet too shrill for a man : —
" What's kept you on the road sae lang ? — maun ither
folk do your wark? "

He looked up ; the spokeswoman was very tall, had a
voluminous handkerchief rolled round her head, grizzled
hair flowing in elf-locks from beneath it, a long red cloak,
and a staff in her hand, headed with a sort of spear-point
— it was, in short, Meg Merrilies. Hazlewood had never
seen this remarkable figure before ; he drew up his reins
in astonishment at her appearance, and made a full stop,
" I think," continued she, " they that hae taen interest in
the house of Ellangowan suld sleep nane this night ; three
men hae been seeking ye, and you are gaun hame to

GUT MANNERING. 207

sleep in your bed. — D'ye think if the lad-balm fa's, the
sister will do weel ? Na, na ! "

* I don't understand you, good woman," said Hazle-

wood. " If you speak of Miss , I mean of any of

the late Ellangowan family, tell me what I can do for
them."

" Of the late Ellangowan family ! " she answered with
great vehemence — "of the late Ellangowan family! —
and when was there ever, or when will there ever be, a
family of Ellangowan, but bearing the gallant name of the
bauld Bertrams ? "

" But what do you mean, good woman ? "

" I am nae good woman — a' the country kens I am bad
eneugh, and baith they and I may be sorrow eneugh that
I am nae better. But I can do what good women canna
and d&urna do— I can do what would freeze the blood o'
them that is bred in biggit wa's for naething but to bind
bairns' heads, and to hap them in the cradle. Hear me 2
The guard's drawn off at the Custom-house at Portanferry,
and it's brought up to Hazlewood-House by your father's
orders, because he thinks his house is to be attacked this
night by the smugglers ; there's naebody means to touch
his house ; he has gude blood and gentle blood — I say
little o' him for himsell, but there's naebody thinks him
worth meddling wi\ Send the horsemen back to their
post, cannily and quietly-^see an they winna hae wark
the nights-ay will they — the guns will flash and the
swords will glitter in the braw moon."

u Good God ! what do you mean ? " said young Hazle-
wood ; " your words and manner would persuade me you
are mad, and yet there is a strange combination in what
you say."

" I am not mad ! " exclaimed the gipsy ; u I hav*

208 WAVEKLEY NOVELS.

been imprisoned for mad — scourged fbr mad — banished
for mad — but mad I am not. Hear ye, Charles Hazle-
wood of Hazlewood : d'ye bear malice against him that
wounded you ? "

" No, dame, God forbid ! My arm is quite well, and I
have always said the shot was discharged by accident I
should be glad to tell the young man so himself."

" Then do what I bid ye," answered Meg Merrilies,
" and ye'll do him mair gude than ever he did you ill ; for
if he was left to his ill-wishers he would be a bloody
corpse ere morn, or a banished man — but there's ane
abune a'. — Do as I bid you ; send back the soldiers to
Portanferry. There's nae mair fear o' Hazlewood-House
than there's o' Cruffelfell." And she vanished with her
usual celerity of pace.

It would seem that the appearance of this female, and
the mixture of frenzy and enthusiasm in her manner,
seldom failed to produce the strongest impression upon
those whom she addressed. Her words, though wild,
were too plain and intelligible for actual madness, and yet
too vehement and extravagant for sober-minded commu-
nication. She seemed acting under the influence of an
imagination rather strongly excited than deranged ; and
it is wonderful how palpably the difference, in such cases,
is impressed upon the mind of the . auditor. This may
account for the attention with which her strange and
mysterious hints were heard and acted upon. It is cer-
tain, at least, that young Hazlewood was strongly im-
pressed by her sudden appearance and imperative tone.
He rode to Hazlewood at a brisk pace. It had been
dark for some time before he reached the house, and on
his arrival there, he saw a confirmation of what the sibyl
had hinted.

GUY MANNERING. 209

Thirty dragoon horses stood under a shed near the
offices, with their bridles linked together ; — three or four
soldiers attended as a guard, while others stamped up and
down with their long broadswords and heavy boots in
front of the house. Hazlewood asked a non-commissioned
officer " from whence they came ? "

" From Portanferry."

" Had they left any guard there ? "

" No ; — 4hey had been drawn off by order of Sir Robert
Hazlewood for defence of his house, against an attack
which was threatened by the smuggler3. ,,

Charles Hazlewood instantly went in quest of his
father, and, having paid his respects to him upon his
return, requested to know upon what account he had
thought it necessary to send for a military escort Sir
Robert assured his son in reply, " that from the informa-
tion, intelligence, and tidings, which had been communi-
cated to, and laid before him, he had the deepest reason
to believe, credit, and be convinced, that a riotous assault
would that night be attempted and perpetrated against
Hazlewood-House, by a set of smugglers, gipsies, and
other desperadoes."

" And what, my dear sir," said his son, " should direct
the fury of such persons against ours rather than any
other house in the country ? "

"I should rather think, suppose, and be of opinion,
sir," answered Sir Robert, " with deference to your wis-
dom and experience, that on these occasions and times,
the vengeance of such persons is directed or levelled
against the most important and distinguished in point of
rank, talent, birth, and situation, who have checked, in-
terfered with, and discountenanced their unlawful and
illegal and criminal actions or deeds."

VOL. IV. 14

210 "WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Young Hazlewood, who knew his father's foible,
answered, «" that the cause of his surprise did not lie
where Sir Robert apprehended, but that he only won-
dered they should think of attacking a house where there
were so many servants and where a signal to the neigh-
bouring tenants could call in such strong assistance;"
and added, " that he doubted much whether the reputa-
tion of the family would not in some degree suffer from
calling soldiers from their duty at the Custom-house to
protect them, as if they were not sufficiently strong to
defend themselves upon any ordinary occasion." He
even hinted, " that in case their house's enemies should
observe that this precaution had been taken unnecessarily,
there would be no end of their sarcasms."

Sir Robert Hazlewood was rather puzzled at this inti-
mation, for, like most dull men, he heartily hated and
feared ridicule. He gathered himself up, and looked
with a sort of pompous embarrassment, as if he wished
to be thought to despise the opinion of the public, which
in reality he dreaded.

" I really should Itfave thought," he said, " that the
injury which had already been aimed at my house in
your person, being the next heir and representative of the
Hazlewood family, failing me — I should have thought and
believed, I say, that this would have justified me suffi-
ciently in the eyes of the most respectable and the greater
part of the people, for taking such precautions as are cal-
culated to prevent and impede a repetition of outrage."

" Really, sir," said Charles, " I must remind you of what
I have often said before, that I am positive the discharge
of the piece was accidental."

" Sir, it was not accidental," said his father, angrily :— ■
" but you will be wiser than your elders."

GUT MANNERING. 211

" Really, sir," replied Hazlewood, " in what so inti-
mately concerns myself"

u Sir, it does not concern you but in a very secondary
degree — that is, it does not concern you, as a giddy young
fellow, who takes pleasure in contradicting his father ; but
it concerns the country, sir ; and the county, sir ; and the
public, sir ; and the kingdom of Scotland, in so far as the
interest of the Hazlewood family, sir, is committed, and
interested, and put in peril, in, by, and through you, sir.
And the fellow is in safe custody, and Mr. Glossin
thinks "

" Mr. Glossin, sir ? "

"Yes, sir, the gentleman who has purchased Ellan-
gowan — you know who I mean, I suppose ? "

" Yes, sir," answered the young man ; " but I should
hardly have expected to hear you quote such authority.
Why, this fellow 1 — all the world knows him to be sordid,
mean, tricking; and I suspect him to be worse. And
you yourself, my dear sir, when did you call such a per-
son a gentleman in your life before ? "

" Why, Charles, I did not mean gentleman in the
precise sense and meaning, and restricted and proper use,
to which, no doubt, the phrase ought legitimately to be
confined; but I meant to use it relatively, as marking
something of that state to which he has elevated and
raised himself — as designing, in short, a decent and
wealthy and estimable sort of a person."

" Allow me to ask, sir," said Charles, " if it was by this
man's orders that the guard was drawn from Portan-
ferry ? »'

" Sir," replied the Baronet, " I do apprehend that Mr.
Glossin would not presume to give orders, or even an
opinion, unless asked, in a matter in which Hazlewood-

212 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

House and the House of Hazlewood — meaning by the
one this mansion-house of my family, and by the other,
typically, metaphorically, and parabolically, the family
itself — I say, then, where the House of Hazlewood, or
Hazlewood-House, was so immediately concerned."

" I presume, however, sir," said the son, " this Glossin
approved of the proposal ? "

" Sir," replied his father, " I thought it decent and right
and proper to consult him as the nearest magistrate, as
soon as report of the intended outrage reached my ears ;
and although he declined, out of deference and respect,
as became our relative situations, to concur in the order,
yet he did entirely approve of my arrangement."

At this moment a horse's feet were heard coming very
fest up the avenue. In a few minutes the door opened,
and Mr. Mac-Morlan presented himself. — " I am under
great concern to intrude, Sir Robert, but "

" Give me leave, Mr. Mac-Morlan," said Sir Robert,
with a gracious flourish of welcome ; " this is no intrusion,
sir ; — for your situation as Sheriff-substitute calling upon
you to attend to the peace of the county, (and you, doubt-
less, feeling yourself particularly called upon to protect
Hazlewood-House,) you have an acknowledged, and ad-
mitted, and undeniable right, sir, to enter the house of the
first gentleman in Scotland, uninvited — always presuming
you to be called there by the duty of your office."

" It is, indeed, the duty of my office," said Mac-Morlan,
who waited with impatience an opportunity to speak,
" that makes me an intruder."

" No intrusion ! " reiterated the Baronet, gracefully
waving his hand.

" But permit me to say, Sir Robert," said the Sheriff-
substitute, " I do not come with the purpose of remaining

GUY MANNERING. 213

here, but to recall these soldiers to Portanferry, and to
assure you that I will answer for the safety of your
house."

" To withdraw the guard from Hazlewood-House ! "
exclaimed the proprietor, in mingled displeasure and sur-
prise ; " and you will be answerable for it ! And pray,
who are you, sir, that I should take your security, and
caution, and pledge, official or personal, for the safety of
Hazlewood-House. ? — I think, sir, and believe, sir, and am
of opinion, sir, that if any one of these family pictures
were deranged, or destroyed, or injured, it would be
difficult for me to make up the loss upon the guarantee
which you so obligingly offer me."

"In that case I shall be sorry for it, Sir Robert,"
answered the downright Mac-Morlan ; " but I presume I
may escape the pain of feeling my conduct the cause of
such irreparable loss, as I can assure you there will be no
attempt upon Hazlewood-House whatever, and I have
received information which induces me to suspect that
the rumour was put afloat merely in order to occasion the
removal of the soldiers from Portanferry. And under
this strong belief and conviction, I must exert my author-
ity as sheriff and chief magistrate of police, to order the
whole, or greater part of them, back again. I regret
much, that by my accidental absence a good deal of delay
has already taken place, and we shall not now reach
Portanferry until it is late."

As Mr. Mac-Morlan was the superior magistrate, and
expressed himself peremptory in the purpose of acting
as such, the Baronet, though highly offended, could only
say, " Very well, sir, it is very well. Nay, sir, take them
all with you — I am far from desiring any to be left here,
*ir. We, sir, can protect ourselves, sir. But you will

214 WAVEBLEY NOVELS.

have the goodness to observe, sir, that you are acting on
your own proper risk, sir, and peril, sir, and responsibility,
sir, if anything shall hafpen or befall to Hazlewodd-
House, sir, or the inhabitants, sir, or to the furniture and
paintings, sir. ,,

" I am acting to the best of my judgment and informa-
tion, Sir Robert," said Mac-Morlan, " and I must pray
of you to believe so, and to pardon me accordingly. I
beg you to observe it is no time for ceremony — it is
already very late."

But Sir Robert, without deigning to listen to his apol-
ogies, immediately employed himself with much parade
in arming and arraying his domestics. Charles Hazle-
wood longed to accompany the military, which were about
to depart for Portanferry, and which were now drawn up
and mounted by direction, and under the guidance of Mr.
Mac-Morlan, as the civil magistrate. But it would have
given just pain and offence to his father to have left him
at a moment when he conceived himself and his mansion-
house in danger. Young Hazlewood therefore gazed
from a window with suppressed regret and displeasure,
until he heard the officer give the word of command.
" From the right to the front, by files, m-a-rch. Leading
file, to the right wheel — Trot." — The whole party of
soldiers then getting into a sharp and uniform pace, were
soon lost among the trees, and the noise of the hoofs died
speedily away in the distance.

GUT MANNERING. 215

CHAPTER XLVin.

i Wi' coulters and wi' fbrehammers

We garr'd the bars bang merrily,
Until we came to the inner prison,
Where Willie o' Kinmont he did lie.

Old Bordxr Ballad.

We return to Portanferry and to Bertram and his
honest-hearted friend, whom we left most innocent inhabi-
tants of a place built for the guilty. The slumbers of the
farmer were as sound as it was possible.

But Bertram's first heavy sleep passed away long be-
fore midnight, nor could he again recover that state of
* oblivion. Added to the uncertain and uncomfortable
state of his mind, his body felt feverish and oppressed.
This was chiefly owing to the close and confined air of
the small apartment in which they slept. After enduring
for some time the broiling and suffocating feeling attend-
ant upon such an atmosphere, he rose to endeavour to
open the window of the apartment, and thus to procure a
change of air. Alas ! the first trial reminded him that
he was in jail, and that the building being contrived for
security, not comfort, the means of procuring fresh air
were not left at the disposal of the wretched inhabitants.

Disappointed in this attempt, he stood by the un-
manageable window for some time. Little Wasp, though
oppressed with the fatigue of his journey on the preced-
ing day, crept out of bed after his master, and stood by

216 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

him rubbing his shaggy coat against his legs, and ex-
pressing, by a murmuring sound, the delight which he
felt at being restored to him. Thus accompanied, and
waiting until the feverish feeling which at present agi-
tated his blood should subside into a desire for warmth
and slumber, Bertram remained for some time looking
out upon the sea.

The tide was now nearly full, and dashed hoarse and
near, below the base of the building. Now and then a
large wave reached even the barrier or bulwark which
defended the foundation of the house, and was flung upon
it with greater force and noise than those which only
broke upon the sand. Far in the distance, Mnder the
indistinct light of a hazy and often over-clouded moon,
the ocean rolled its multitudinous complication of waves,
crossing, bursting, and mingling with each other.

" A wild and dim spectacle," said Bertram to himself,
" like those crossing tides of fate which have tossed me
about the world from my infancy upwards ! When will
this uncertainty cease, and how soon shall I be permitted
to look out for a tranquil home, where I may cultivate in
quiet, and without dread and perplexity, those arts of
peace from which my cares have been hitherto so forcibly
diverted ? The ear of Fancy, it is said, can discover the
voice of sea-nymphs and tritons amid the bursting mur-
murs of the ocean ; would that I could do so, and that
some siren or Proteus would arise from these billows, to
unriddle for me the strange maze of fate in which I am
so deeply entangled ! — Happy friend ! " he said, looking
at? the bed where Dinmont had deposited his bulky per-
son, " thy cares are confined to the narrow round of a
healthy and thriving occupation ! — thou canst lay them
aside at pleasure, and enjoy the deep repose of body

GUY MANNERING. 217

and mind which wholesome labour has prepared for
thee ! "

At this moment his reflections were broken by little
Wasp, who, attempting to spring up against the window,
began to yelp and bark most furiously. The sounds
reached Dinmont's ears, but without dissipating the illu-
sion which had transported him from this wretched
apartment to the free ,air of his own green hills. " Hoy,
Yarrow, man ! — far yaud — far yaud ! " he muttered
between his teeth, imagining doubtless that he was calling
to his sheep-dog, and hounding him in shepherds' phrase
against some intruders on the grazing. The continued
barking of the terrier within was answered by the angry
challenge of the mastiff in the court-yard, which had for
a long time been silent, excepting only an occasional
short and deep note, uttered when the moon shone sud-
denly from among the clouds. Now, his clamour was
continued and furious, and seemed to be excited by some
disturbance distinct from the barking of Wasp, which had
first given him the alarm, and which, with much trouble,
his master had contrived to still into an angry note of
low growling.

At last Bertram, whose attention was now fully
awakened, conceived that he saw a boat upon the sea,
and heard in good earnest the sound of oars and of
human voices mingling with the dash of the billows.
" Some benighted fishermen," he thought, " or perhaps
some of the desperate traders from the Isle of Man.
They are very hardy, however, to approach so near to
the Custom-house, where there must be sentinels. It is
a large boat, like a long-boat, and full of people ; per-
haps it belongs to the revenue 8ervice. ,, Bertram was
confirmed in this last opinion, by observing that the boat

218 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

made for a little quay which ran into the sea behind the
Custom-house, and, jumping ashore one after another, the
crew, to the number of twenty hands, glided secretly up
a smalL lane which divided the Custom-house from the
Bridewell, and disappeared from his sight, leaving only
two persons to take care of the boat

The dash of these men's oars at first, and latterly the
suppressed sounds of their voices, had excited the wrath
of the wakeful sentinel in the court-yard, who now
exalted his deep voice into such a horrid and continuous
din, that it awakened his brute master, as savage a ban-
dog as himself. His cry from the window, of "How
now, Tearum, what's the matter, sir ? — down, d — n ye !
down ! " produced no abatement of Tearum's vocifera-
tion, which in part prevented his master from hearing
the sounds of alarm which his ferocious vigilance was in
the act of challenging. But the mate of the two-legged
Cerberus was gifted with sharper ears than her husband.
She also was now at the window — " B — t ye, gae down
and let loose the dog," she said ; " they're sporting the
door of the Custom-house, and the auld sap at Hazlewood
House has ordered off the guard. But ye hae nae mair
heart than a cat." And down the amazon sallied to per-
form the task herself, while her helpmate, more jealous
of insurrection within doors, than of storm from without,
went from cell to cell to see that the inhabitants of each
were carefully secured.

These latter sounds, with which we have made the
reader acquainted, had their origin in the front of the
house, and were consequently imperfectly heard by
Bertram, whose apartment, as we have already noticed,
looked from the back part of the building upon
the sea. He heard, however, a stir and tumult in the

GUT MANNERING. 219

house, which did not seem to accord with the stern
seclusion of a prison at the hour of midnight, and, con-
necting them with the arrival of an armed boat at that
dead hour, could not but suppose that something extra-
ordinary was about to take place. In this belief he shook
Dinmont by the shoulder — " Eh ! — Ay ! — Oh ! — Ailie,
woman, it's no time to get up yet," groaned the sleeping
man of the mountains. More roughly shaken, however,
he gathered himself up, shook his ears, and asked, " In
the name of Providence, what's the matter ? "

" That I can't tell you," replied Bertram ; " but either
the place is on fire, or some extraordinary thing is about
to happen. Are you not sensible of a smell of fire ? Do
you not hear what a noise there is of clashing doors
within the house, and of hoarse voices, murmurs, and
distant shouts on the outside ? Upon my word, I believe
something very extraordinary has taken place. — Get up,
for the love of Heaven, and let us be on our guard."

Dinmont rose at the idea of danger, as intrepid and
undismayed as any of his ancestors when the beacon-light
was kindled. " Od, Captain, this is a queer place ! —
they winna let ye out in the day, and they winna let ye
sleep in the night. Deil, but it wad break my heart in a
fortnight. But, Lordsake, what a racket they're making
now! — Od, I wish we had some light. — Wasp— r Wasp,
whisht, hinny — whisht, my bonnie man, and let's hear
what they're doing. — Deil's in ye, will ye whisht ? "

They sought in vain among the embers the means of
lighting their candle, and the noise without still continued.
Dinmont in his turn had recourse to the window — " Lord-
sake, Captain ! come here. Od, they hae broken the
Custom-house ! "

Bertram hastened to the window, and plainly saw a

220 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

miscellaneous crowd of smugglers, and blackguards of
different descriptions, some carrying lighted torches,
others bearing packages and barrels down the lane to the
boat that was lying at the quay, to which two or three
other fisher-boats were now brought round. They were
loading each of these in their turn, and one or two had
already put off to seaward. " This speaks for itself,"
said Bertram ; " but I fear something worse has hap-
pened. Do you perceive a strong smell of smoke, or is
it my fancy ? "

" Fancy ? " answered Dinmont — " there's a reek like a
killogie. Od, if they burn the Custom-house, it will catch
here, and we'll lunt like a tar-barrel a' thegither. — Eh !
it wad be fearsome to be burnt alive for naething, like as
if ane had been a warlock ! — Mac-Guffog, hear ye ! " —
roaring at the top of his voice ; — " an ye wad ever hae
a haill bane in your skin, let's out, man ! let's out ! "

The fire began now to rise high, and thick clouds of
smoke rolled past the window at which Bertram and Din-
mont were stationed. Sometimes, as the wind pleased,
the dim shroud of vapour hid everything from their
sight ; sometimes, a red glare illuminated both land and
sea, and shone full on the stern and fierce figures, who,
wild with ferocious activity, were engaged in loading the
boats. The fire was at length triumphant, and spouted
in jets of flame out at each window of the burning build-
ing, while huge flakes of flaming materials came driving
on the wind against the adjoining prison, and rolling a
dark canopy of smoke over all the neighbourhood. The
shouts of a furious mob resounded far and wide ; for the
smugglers, in their triumph, were joined by all the rabble
of the little town and neighbourhood, now aroused, and
in complete agitation, notwithstanding the lateness of the

OUT MATTERING. 221

hour ; — some from interest in the free trade, and most
from the general love of mischief and tumult, natural to
a vulgar populace.

Bertram began to be seriously anxious for their fate.
There was no stir in the house ; it seemed as if the jailor
had deserted his charge, and left the prison with its
wretched inhabitants to the mercy of the conflagration
which was spreading towards them. In the meantime a
new and fierce attack was heard upon the outer gate of
the Correction-house, which, battered with sledge-hammers
and crows, was soon forced. The keeper, as great a
coward as a bully, with his more ferocious wife, had fled ;
their servants readily surrendered the keys. The liber-
ated prisoners, celebrating their deliverance with the
wildest yells of joy, mingled among the mob which had
given them freedom.

In the midst of the confusion that ensued, three or
four of the principal smugglers hurried to the apartment
of Bertram with lighted torches, and armed with cutlasses
and pistols. — " Der deyvil," said the leader, " here's our
mark ! " and two of them seized on Bertram ; but one
whispered in his ear, " Make no resistance till you are in
the street." The same individual found an instant to say
to Dinmont — " Follow your friend, and help when you
see the time come."

In the hurry of the moment, Dinmont obeyed and fol-
lowed close. The two smugglers dragged Bertram along
the passage, down stairs, through the court-yard, now
illuminated by the glare of fire, and into the narrow street
to which the gate opened, where, in the confusion, the
gang were necessarily in some degree separated from
each other. A rapid noise, as of a body of horse ad-
vancing, seemed to add to the disturbance. " Hagel and

222 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

wetter ! what is that ? " said the leader ; " keep together,
kinder — look to the prisoner." But in spite of his charge,
the two who held Bertram were the last of the party.

The sounds and signs of violence were heard in front.
The press became furiously agitated, while some endeav-
oured to defend themselves, others to escape ; shots were
fired, and the glittering broadswords of the dragoons
began to appear flashing above the heads of the rioters.
" Now," said the warning whisper of the man who held
Bertram's left arm, the same who had spoken before,
" shake off that fellow, and follow me."

Bertram, exerting his strength suddenly and effectually,
easily burst from the grasp of the man who held his
collar on the right side. The fellow attempted to draw a
pistol, but was prostrated by a blow of Dinmont's fist,
which an ox could hardly have received without the same
humiliation. " Follow me quick," said the friendly par-
tisan, and dived through a very narrow and dirty lane
which led from the main street.

No pursuit took place. The attention of the smugglers
had been otherwise and very disagreeably engaged by
the sudden appearance of Mac-Morlan and the party of
horse. The loud manly voice of the provincial magis-
trate was heard proclaiming the riot act, and charging
" all those unlawfully assembled to disperse at their own
proper peril." This interruption would indeed have hap-
pened in time sufficient to have > prevented the attempt,
had not the magistrate received upon the road some false
information, which led him to think that the smugglers
were to land at the Bay of Ellangowan. Nearly two
hours were lost in consequence of this false intelligence,
which it may be no lack of charity to suppose that Glos-
sin, so deeply interested in the issue of that night's daring

GUY MANNERING. 223

attempt, had contrived to throw in Mac-Morlan's way,
availing himself of the knowledge that the soldiers had
left Hazlewood-House, which would soon reach an ear so
anxious as his.

In the meantime, Bertram followed his guide, and was
in his turn followed by Dinmont The shouts of the
mob, the trampling of the horses, the dropping pistol-
shots, sunk more and more faintly upon their ears ; when
at the end of the dark lane they found a post-chaise with
four horses. " Are you here, in God's name ? " said the
guide to the postilion who drove the leaders.

" Ay, troth am I," answered Jock Jabos, u and I wish
I were ony gate else."

" Open the carriage, then — You, gentlemen, get into
it ; — in a short time you'll be in a place of safety — and "
(to Bertram) " remember your promise to the gipsy
wife I " .

Bertram, resolving to be passive in the hands of a
person who had just rendered him such a distinguished
piece of service, got into the chaise as directed. Din-
mont followed; Wasp, who had kept close by them,
sprung in at the same time, and the carriage drove off
very fast. " Have a care o' me," said Dinmont, " but
this is the queerest thing yet ! — Od, I trust they'll no
coup us — and then what's to come o' Dumple ! I would
rather be on his back than in the Deuke's coach, God
bless him."

Bertram observed, that they could not go at that rapid
rate to any very great distance without changing horses,
and that they might insist upon remaining till day-light
at the first inn they stopped at, or at least upon being
made acquainted with the purpose and termination of
their journey, and Mr. Dinmont might there give direc-

224 WATERTiET NOVELS.

tions about his faithful horse, which would probably be
safe at the stables where he had left him. — " Aweel,
aweel, e'en sae be it for Dandie. — Od, if we were ance
out o' this trindling kist o' a thing; I am thinking they
wad find it hard wark to gar us gang ony gate but where
we liked oursells."

While he thus spoke, the carriage making a sudden
turn, showed them, through the left window, the village
at some distance, still widely beaconed by the fire, which,
having reached a storehouse wherein spirits were depos-
ited, now rose high into the air, a wavering column of
brilliant light. They had not long time to admire this
spectacle, for another turn of the road carried them into
a close lane between plantations, through which the chaise-
proceeded in nearly total darkness, but with unabated
speed.

GUY MANNERING. 225

CHAPTER XLIX.

The night drave on wi' sangs and clatter,
And aye the ale was growing better.

Tax o' Shantir.

We must now return to Woodbourne, which, it may
be remembered, we left just after the Colonel had given
some directions to his confidential servant. When he
returned, his absence of mind, and an unusual expression
of thought and anxiety upon his features, struck the
ladies whom he joined in the drawing-room. Mannering
was not, however, a man to be questioned, even by those
whom he most loved, upon the cause of the mental
agitation which these signs expressed. The hour of tea
arrived, and the party were partaking of that refreshment
in silence, when a carriage drove up to the door, and the
bell announced the arrival of a visitor. " Surely," said
Mannering, " it is too soon by some hours." —

There was a short pause, when Barnes, opening the
door of the saloon, announced Mr. Pleydell. In marched
the lawyer, whose well-brushed black coat, and well-
powdered wig, together with his point ruffles, brown silk
stockings, highly varnished shoes, and gold buckles, ex-
hibited the pains which the old gentleman had taken to
prepare his person for the ladies' society. He was wel-
comed by Mannering with a hearty shake by the hand—

u The very man I wished to see at this moment ! "
VOL. iv. 16 .

226 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" Yes," said the counsellor, " I told you I would take
the first opportunity ; so I have ventured to leave the
Court for a week in session time — no common sacrifice —
but I had a notion I could be useful, and I was to attend
a proof here about the same time. But will you not
introduce me to the young ladies ? — Ah ! there is one I
should have known at once, from her family likeness !
Miss Lucy Bertram, my love, I am most happy to see
you." — And he folded her in his arms, and gave her a
hearty kiss on each side of the face, to which Lucy
submitted in blushing resignation.

" On n'arrete pas dans un si beau chemin" continued
the gay old gentleman, and, as the Colonel presented him
to Julia, took the same liberty with that fair lady's cheek.
Julia laughed, coloured, and disengaged herself. " I beg
a thousand pardons," said the lawyer, with a bow which
was not at all professionally awkward; — "age and old
fashions give privileges, and I can hardly say whether I
am most sorry just now at being too well entitled to claim
them at all, or happy in having such an opportunity to
exercise them so agreeably ."

" Upon my word, sir," said Miss Mannering, laughing,
" if you make such flattering apologies, we shall begin to
doubt whether we can admit you to shelter yourself
under your alleged qualifications."

" I can assure you, Julia," said the Colonel, " you are
perfectly right ; my friend the counsellor is a dangerous
person ; the last time I had the pleasure of seeing him,
he was closeted with a fair lady, who had granted him a
tete-d-tete at eight in the morning."

" Ay, but Colonel," said the counsellor, " you should
add, I was more indebted to my chocolate than my charm3
for so distinguished a favour, from a person of such pro-
priety of demeanour as Mrs. Rebecca."

GUY HANKERING. 227

"And that should remind me, Mr. Pleydell," said JuKa,
u to offer you tea — that is, supposing you have dined."

"Anything, Miss Mannering, from your hands," an-
swered the gallant jurisconsult; "yes, I have dined —
that is to say, as people dine at a Scotch inn."

" And that is indifferently enough," said the Colonel,
with his hand upon the bell-handle ; — " give me leave to
order something."

" Why, to say truth," replied Mr. Pleydell, " I had rather
not ; I have been inquiring into that matter, for you must
know I stopped an instant below to pull off my boot-hose,
' a world too wide for my shrunk shanks,' " glancing down
with some complacency upon limbs which looked very
well for his time of life, " and I had some conversation
with your Barnes, and a very intelligent person whom I
presume to be the housekeeper ; and it was settled among
us — tota re perspecta — I beg Miss Mannering's pardon
for my Latin — that the old lady should add to your light .
family-supper the more substantial refreshment of a brace .
of wild-ducks. I told her (always under deep submis-
sion) my poor thoughts about the sauce, which concurred
exactly with her own ; and, if you please, I would rather
wait till they are ready before eating anything solid."

" And we will anticipate our usual hour of supper,"
said the Colonel.

" With all my heart," said Pleydell, " providing I do
not lose the ladies' company a moment the sooner. I am
of counsel with my old friend Burnet,* I love the ccma>

* The Burnet, whose taste for the evening meal of the ancients is
quoted by Mr. Pleydell, was the celebrated metaphysician and excel*
lent man, Lord Monboddo, whose ccbtub will not be soon forgotten by
those who have shared his classic hospitality. As a Scottish Judge,
he took the designation of his family estate. His philosophy, as is
well known, was of a fanciful and somewhat fantastic character; but

228 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

the sapper of the ancients, the pleasant meal and social
glass that wash out of one's mind the cobwebs that busi-
ness or gloom have been spinning in our brains all day."

The vivacity of Mr. PleydelTs look and manner, and
the quietness with which he made himself at home on the
subject of his little epicurean comforts, amused the ladies,
but particularly Miss Mannering, who immediately gave
the counsellor a great deal of flattering attention ; and
more pretty things were said on both sides during the
service of the tea-table than we have leisure to repeat

As soon as this was over, Mannering led the counsellor
by the arm into a small study which opened from the
saloon, and where, according to the custom of the family,
there were always lights and a good fire in the evening.

" I see," said Mr. Pleydell, " you have got something
to tell me about the Ellangowan business — Is it terrestrial
or celestial ? What says my military Albumazar ? Have
you calculated the course of futurity ? have you consulted
your Ephemerides, your Almochoden, your Almuten ? "

" No, truly, counsellor," replied Mannering — " you are
the only Ptolemy I intend to resort to upon the present
occasion. A second Prospero, I have broken my staff,

his learning was deep, and he was possessed of a singular power of
eloquence, which reminded the hearer of the os rotundwn of the Grove
or Academe. Enthusiastically partial to classic habits, his enter-
tainments were always given in the evening, when there was a circu-
lation of excellent Bourdeaux, in flasks garlanded with roses, which
were also strewed on the table after the manner of Horace. The best -
society, whether in respect of rank or literary distinction, was always
to be found in St. John's Street, Canongate. The conversation of the
excellent old man, his high, gentleman-like, and chivalrous spirit, the
learning and wit with which he defended his fanciful paradoxes, and
the kind and liberal spirit of his hospitality, must render these noctet
ceonaque dear to all who, like the author, (though then young,) had the
honour of sitting at his board.

GUY MANNERING. 229

and drowned my book far beyond plummet depth. But
I have great news notwithstanding. Meg Merrilies, our
Egyptian sibyl, has appeared to the Dominie this very
day, and, as I conjecture, has frightened the honest man
not a little."

" Indeed ! "

u Ay, and she has done me the honour to open a cor-
respondence with me, supposing me to be as deep in
astrological mysteries as when we first met. Here is her
scroll, delivered to me by the Dominie."

Pleydell put on his spectacles. — "A vile greasy scrawl,
indeed — and the letters are uncial or semi-uncial, as
somebody calls your large text hand, and in size and
perpendicularity resemble the ribs of a roasted pig — I
can hardly make it out."

" Read aloud," said Mannering.

" I will try," answered the lawyer, " * You are a good
seeker, but a bad finder ; you set yourself to prop a falling
house, but had a gey guess it would rise again. Lend your
hand to the wark that's near, as you lent your ee to the
weird that was far. Have a carriage this night by ten
o'clock, at the end of the Crooked Dykes at Portanferry,
and let it bring the folk to Woodbourne that shall ask them,
if they be there in God's name/ Stay, here follows
some poetry —

* Dark shaU be light,

And wrong done to right.

When Bertram's right and Bertram's might

ShaU meet on EUangowaris height?

A most mystic epistle truly, and closes in a vein of poetry
worthy of the Cumsean sibyl. — And what have you
done ? "

"Why," said Mannering, rather reluctantly, "I was

230 WAVEELET NOVELS.

loth to risk any opportunity of throwing light on this
business. The woman is perhaps crazed, and these
effusions may arise only from visions of her imagination ;
— but you were of opinion that she knew more of that
strange story than she ever told."

" And so," said Pleydell, " you sent a carriage to the
place named ? "

" You will laugh at me if I own I did," replied the
Colonel. ♦

" Who, I ? " replied the advocate — " No, truly ; I think
it was the wisest thing you could do."

"Yes," answered Mannering, well pleased to have
escaped the ridicule he apprehended; "you know the
worst is paying the chaise-hire ; — I sent a post-chaise and
four from Kippletringan, with instructions corresponding
to the letter. The horses will have a long and cold
station on the out-posts to-night if our intelligence be
false."

" Ay, but I think it will prove otherwise," said the
lawyer. " This woman has played a part till she believes
it ; or, if she be a thorough-paced impostor, without a
single grain of self-delusion to qualify her knavery, still
she may think herself bound to act in character. This I
know, that I could get nothing out of her by the common
modes of interrogation, and the wisest thing we can do is
to give her an opportunity of making the discovery her
own way. And now have you more to say, or shall we
go to the ladies ? "

" Why, my mind is uncommonly agitated," answered
the Colonel, " and — but I really have no more to say —
only I shall count the minutes till the carriage returns ;
but you cannot be expected to be so anxious."

" Why, no— use is all in all," said the more experienced

GUY MANNERING. 231

lawyer. "lam much interested, certainly, but I think I
shall be able to survive the interval, if the ladies will
afford us some music."

"And with the assistance of the wild-ducks by and
by ? " suggested Mannering.

" True, Colonel ; a lawyer's anxiety about the fate of
the most interesting cause has seldom spoiled either his
sleep or digestion.* And yet I shall be very eager to
hear the rattle of these wheels on their return, notwith-
8tanding. ,,

So saying, he rose and led the way into the next room,
where Miss Mannering, at his request, took her seat at
the harpsichord. Lucy Bertram, who sung her native
melodies very sweetly, was accompanied by her friend
upon the instrument, and Julia afterwards performed
some of Scarlatti's sonatas with great brilliancy. The
old lawyer, scraping a little upon the violoncello, and
being a member of the gentlemen's concert in Edinburgh,
was so greatly delighted with this mode of spending the
evening, that I doubt if he once thought of the wild-
ducks until Barnes informed the company that supper
was ready.

"Tell Mrs. Allan to have something in readiness,"
said the Colonel — " I expect — that is, I hope — perhaps

* It is probably true, as observed by Counsellor Pleydell, that a
lawyer's anxiety about his case, supposing him to have been some
timo in practice will seldom disturb his rest or digestion. Clients will,
however, sometimes fondly entertain a different opinion. I was told
by an excellent judge, now no more, of a country gentleman, who,
addressing his leading counsel, my informer, then an advocate in great
practice, on the morning of the day on which the case was to be
pleaded, said, with singular bonhomie, " Weel, my lord," (the counsel
was Lord Advocate,) " the awful day is come at last. I have nae
been able to sleep a wink for thinking of it — nor, I dare say, your
Lordship either/'

282 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

some company may be here to-night ; and let the men sit
up, and do not lock the upper gate on the lawn until I
desire you."

" Lord, sir," said Julia, " whom can you possibly expect
to-night ? "

" Why, some persons, strangers to me, talked of calling
in the evening on business," answered her father, not
without embarrassment, for he would little have brooked
a disappointment which might have thrown ridicule on
his judgment ; " it is quite uncertain."

" Well, we shall not pardon them for disturbing our
party," said Julia, "unless they bring as much good
humour, and as susceptible hearts, as my friend and
admirer — for so he has dubbed himself — Mr. Pleydell."

" Ah, Miss Julia," said Pleydell, offering his arm with
an air of gallantry to conduct her into the eating-room,
" the time has been — when I returned from Utrecht in
the year 1738 "—

" Pray, don't talk of it," answered the young lady —
"we like you much better as you are. Utrecht, in
Heaven's name ! — I dare say you have spent all the
intervening years in getting rid so completely of the
effects of your Dutch education."

" O forgive me, Miss Man^ering," said the lawyer ;
" the Dutch are a much more accomplished people in
point of gallantry than their volatile neighbours are
willing to admit. They are constant as clock-work in
their attentions."

" I should tire of that," said Julia.

"Imperturbable in their good temper," continued
Pleydell.

" Worse and worse," said the young lady.

" And then," said the old beau garpon, " although for

GUY MANNERING. 238

six times three hundred and sixty-five days your swain
has placed the capuchin round your neck, and the stove
under your feet, and driven your little sledge upon the
ice in the winter, and your cabriole through the dust in
summer, you may dismiss him at once, without reason or
apology, upon the two thousand one hundred and ninetieth
day, which, according to my hasty calculation, and without
reckoning leap-years, will complete the cycle of the sup-
posed adoration, and that without your amiable feelings
having the slightest occasion to be alarmed for the con-
sequences to those of Mynheer."

" Well," replied Julia, " that last is truly a Dutch
recommendation, Mr. Pleydell— crystal and hearts would
lose all their merit in the world, if it were not for their
fragility."

" Why, upon that point of the argument, Miss Man-
nering, it is as difficult to find a heart that will break, as
a glass that will not ; and for that reason I would press
the value of mine own — were it not that I see Mr.
Sampson's eyes have been closed, and his hands clasped
for some time, attending the end of our conference to
begin the grace — And, to say the truth, the appearance
of the wild-ducks is very appetizing." So saying, the
worthy counsellor sat himself to table, and laid aside his
gallantry for awhile, to do honour to the good things
placed before him. Nothing further is recorded of him
for some time, excepting an observation that the ducks
were roasted to a single turn, and that Mrs. Allan's sauce,
of claret, lemon, and cayenne, was beyond praise.

" I see," said Miss Mannering, " I have a formidable
rival in Mr. Pley dell's favour, even on the very first
night of his avowed admiration."

u Pardon me, my fair lady," answered the counsellor,—

234 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" your avowed rigour alone has induced me to commit
the solecism of eating a good supper in your presence ;
how shall I support your frowns without reinforcing my
strength ? Upon the same principle, and no other, I will
ask permission to drink wine with you."

" This is the fashion of Utrecht also, I suppose, Mr.
Pleydell ? "

" Forgive me, madam," answered the counsellor ; " the
French themselves, the patterns of all that is gallant,
term their tavern-keepers restaurateurs, alluding, doubt-
less, to the relief they afford to the disconsolate lover,
when bowed down to the earth by his mistress's severity.
My own case requires so much relief, that I must trouble
you for that other wing, Mr. Sampson, without prejudice
to my afterwards applying to Miss Bertram for a tart ; —
be pleased to tear the wing, sir, instead of cutting it off —
Mr. Barnes will assist you, Mr. Sampson, — thank you,
sir, — and, Mr. Barnes, a glass of ale, if you please."

While the old gentleman, pleased with Miss Manner-
ing's liveliness and attention, rattled away for her amuse-
ment and his own, the impatience of Colonel Mannering
began to exceed all bounds. He declined sitting down at
table, under pretence that he never ate supper; and
traversed the parlour, in which they were, with hasty and
impatient steps, now throwing up the window to gaze
upon the dark lawn, now listening for the remote sound
of the carriage advancing up the avenue. At length, in
a feeling of uncontrollable impatience, he left the room,
took his hat and cloak, and pursued his walk up the
avenue, as if his so doing would hasten the approach of
those whom he desired to see.

" I really wish," said Miss Bertram, " Colonel Man-
nering would not venture out after night-fall. You

GUY MANNERING. 235

must have heard, Mr. Pleydell, what a cruel fright we
had?"

" Oh, with the smugglers ? " replied the advocate.
u They are old friends of mine ; — I was the means of
bringing some of them to justice a long time since, when
sheriff of this county." '

" And then the alarm we had immediately afterwards,"
added Miss Bertram, " from the vengeance of one of
these wretches."

- " When young Hazlewood was hurt — I heard of that
too."

" Imagine, my dear Mr. Pleydell," continued Lucy,
" how much Miss Mannering and I were alarmed, when
a ruffian, equally dreadful for his great strength, and the
sternness of his features, rushed out upon us ! "

" You must know, Mr. Pleydell," said Julia, unable to
suppress her resentment at this undesigned aspersion of
her admirer, " that young Hazlewood is so handsome in
the eyes of the young ladies of this country, that they
think every person shocking who comes near him." %

" Oho ! " thought Pleydell, who was by profession an
observer of tones and gestures, " there's something wrong
here between my young friends. Well, Miss Manner-
ing, I have not seen youjig Hazlewood since he was a
boy, so the ladies may be perfectly right ; but I can as-
sure you, in spite of your scorn, that if you want to
see handsome men you must go to Holland ; the prettiest
fellow I ever saw was a Dutchman, in spite of his being
called Vanbost, or Vanbuster, or some such barbarous
name. He will not be quite so handsome now, to be
sure."

It was now Julia's turn to look a little out of counte-
nance at the chance hit of her learned admirer, but that

236 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

instant the Colonel entered the room. "I can hear
nothing of them yet," he said ; " still, however, we will
not separate. — Where is Dominie Sampson ? "

" Here, honoured sir."

" What is that book you hold in your hand, Mr. Samp-
son ? "

" It's even the learned De Lyra, sir — I would crave
his honour Mr. PleydelTs judgment, always with his best
leisure, to expound a disputed passage."

" I am not in the vein, Mr. Sampson," answered Pley-
dell ; here's metal more attractive — I do not despair to
engage these two young ladies in a glee or a catch,
wherein I, even I myself, will adventure myself for the
bass part Hang De Lyra, man ; keep him for a fitter
season."

The disappointed Dominie shut his ponderous tome,
much marvelling in his mind how a person possessed of
the lawyer's erudition, could give his mind to these friv-
olous toys. But the counsellor, indifferent to the high
character for learning which he was trifling away, filled
himself a large glass of Burgundy, and after preluding a
little with a voice somewhat the worse for the wear, gave
the ladies a courageous invitation to join in " We be three
poor Mariners," and accomplished his own part therein
with great eclat.

" Are you not withering your roses with sitting up so
late, my young ladies ? " said the Colonel.

" Not a bit, sir," answered Julia ; " your friend Mr.
Pleydell, threatens to become a pupil of Mr. Sampson's
to-morrow, so we must make the most of our conquest
to-night."

This led to another musical trial of skill, and that to
lively conversation. At length, when the solitary sound

GUT MANNEBIKG. 287

of one o'clock had long since resounded on the ebon ear
of night, and the next signal of the advance of time was
close approaching, Mannering, whose impatience had long
subsided into disappointment and despair, looked at his
watch, and said, " We must now give them up " — when
at that instant — But what then befell will require a
separate chapter.

238 WAVEELET NOVELS.

CHAPTER L.

Justice. This does indeed confirm each circumstance
The gipsy told

No orphan, nor without a friend art thou -

Jam thy father, here's thy mother, there

Thy uncle This thy first cousin, and these

Are all thy near relations!

Thb Critio.

As Mannering replaced his watch, he heard a distant
and hollow sound — " It is a carriage for certain-r-no, it
is but the sound of the wind among the leafless trees.
Do come to the window, Mr. Pleydell." The counsellor,
who, with his large silk handkerchief in his hand, was
expatiating away to Julia upon some subject which he
thought was interesting, obeyed the summons — first, how-
ever, wrapping the handkerchief round his neck by way
of precaution against the cold air. The sound of wheels
became now very perceptible, and Pleydell, as if he had
reserved all his curiosity till that moment, ran out to the
hall. The Colonel rung for Barnes to desire that the
persons who came in the carriage might be shown into a
separate room, being altogether uncertain whom it might
contain. It stopped, however, at the door, before his pur-
pose could be fully explained. A moment after Mr.
Pleydell called out, " Here's our Liddesdale friend, I
protest, with a strapping young fellow of the same cali-
bre." His voice arrested Dinmont, who recognised him

GUY MANNERING. 239

with equal surprise and pleasure. "Od, if it's your
honour, we'll a' be as right and tight as thack and rape
can make us." *

But while the farmer stopped to make his bow, Ber-
tram, dizzied with the sudden glare of light, and be-
wildered with the circumstances of his situation, almost
unconsciously entered the open door of the parlour, and
confronted the Colonel, who was just advancing towards
it. The strong light of the apartment left no doubt of
his identity, and he himself was as much confounded with
the appearance of those to whom he so unexpectedly
presented himself, as they were by the sight of so utterly
unlooked-for an object. It must be remembered that
each individual present had their own peculiar reasons for
looking with terror upon what seemed at first sight a
spectral apparition. Mannering saw before him the man
whom he supposed he had killed in India ; Julia beheld
her lover in a most peculiar and hazardous situation;
and Lucy Bertram at once knew the person who had
fired upon young Hazlewood. Bertram, who interpreted
the fixed and motionless astonishment of the Colonel
into displeasure at his intrusion, hastened to say that it
was involuntary, since he had been hurried hither with-
out even knowing whither he was to be transported.

" Mr. Brown, I believe ? " said Colonel Mannering.

" Yes, sir," replied the young man, modestly, but with
firmness, " the same you knew in India ; and who ven-
tures to hope, that what you did then know of him is not
such as should prevent his requesting you would favour
him with your attestation to his character, as a gentle-
man and man of honour."

* When a farmer's crop is got safely into the barn-yard, it is said to
be made fast with thack and rape. — Anglic^ straw and rope.

240 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" Mr. Brown — I have been seldom — never — so much
surprised — certainly, sir, in whatever passed between us,
you have a right to command my favourable testimony."

At this critical moment entered the counsellor and
Dinmont. The former beheld, to his astonishment, the
Colonel but just recovering from his first surprise, Lucy
Bertram ready to faint with terror, and Miss Mannering
in an agony of doubt and apprehension, which she in vain
endeavoured to disguise or suppress. " What is the
meaning of all this ? " said he ; " has this young fellow
brought the Gorgon's head in his hand ? — let me look at
him. — By Heaven ! " he muttered to himself, " the very
image of old Ellangowan ! — Yes, the same manly form
and handsome features, but with a world of more intel-
ligence in the face — Yes ! — the witch has kept her word."
Then instantly passing to Lucy, "Look at that man,
Miss Bertram, my dear ; have you never seen any one
like him ? "

Lucy had only ventured one glance at this object of
terror, by which, however, from his remarkable height
and appearance, she at once recognised the supposed as-
sassin of young Hazlewood — a conviction which excluded,
of course, the more favourable association of ideas which
might have occurred on a closer view. — " Don't ask me
about him, sir," said she, turning away her eyes ; " send
him away, for heaven's sake ! . we shall all be mur-
dered ! "

" Murdered ! where's the poker ? " said the advocate
in some alarm. " But nonsense ! — we are three men be-
sides the servants, and there is honest Liddesdale, worth
half-a-dozen to boot — we have the major vis upon our
side. However, here, my friend Dandie — Davie — what
do they call you ? — keep between that fellow and us for
the protection of the ladies."

i

GUT MANNERING. 241

"Lord! Mr. Pleydell," said the astonished farmer,
" that's Captain Brown ; do ye no ken the Captain ? "

" Nay, if he's a friend of yours, we may be safe
enough," answered Pleydell ; " but keep near him."

All this passed with such rapidity, that it was over be-
fore the Dominie had recovered himself from a fit of
absence, shut the book which he had been studying in a
corner, and advancing to obtain a sight of the strangers,
exclaimed at once, upon beholding Bertram, " If the grave
can give up the dead, that is my dear and honoured
master ! "

" We're right after all, by Heaven ! I was sure I was
right," said the lawyer ; — " he is the very image of his
father.— Come, Colonel, what do you think of, that you
do not bid your guest welcome ? I think — I believe — I
trust we're right — never saw such a likeness — But pa-
tience—Dominie, say not a word. — Sit down, young gen-
tleman."

u I beg pardon, sir ; — if I am, as I understand, in Colo-
nel Mannering's house, I should wish first to know if my
accidental appearance here gives offence, or if I am wel-
come ? "

Mannering instantly made an effort "Welcome? —
most certainly, especially if you can point out how I can
serve you. I believe I may have some wrongs to repair
towards you — I have often suspected so ; but your sudden
and unexpected appearance, connected with painful recol-
lections, prevented my saying at first, as I now say, that
whatever has procured me the honour of this visit, it is
an acceptable one."

Bertram bowed with an air of distant, yet civil ac-
knowledgment, to the grave courtesy of Mannering.

u Julia, my love, you had better retire. — Mr. Brown,

VOL. IV. 16

242 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

you will excuse my daughter; there are circumstances
which I perceive rush upon her recollection."

Miss Mannering rose and retired accordingly ; yet, as
she passed Bertram, could not suppress the words, " In-
fatuated ! a second time ! " but so pronounced as to be
heard by him alone. Miss Bertram accompanied her
friend, much surprised, but without venturing a second
glance at the • object of her terror. Some mistake she
saw there was, and was unwilling to increase it by de-
nouncing the stranger as an assassin. He was known,
she saw, to the Colonel, and received as a gentleman :
certainly he either was not the person she suspected, or
Hazlewood was right in supposing the shot accidental.

The remaining part of the company would have formed
no bad group for a skilful painter. Each was too much
embarrassed with his own sensations to observe those of
the others. Bertram most unexpectedly found himself in
the house of one whom he was alternately disposed to dis-
like as his personal enemy, and to respect as the father
of Julia; Mannering was struggling between his high
sense of courtesy and hospitality, his joy at finding him-
self relieved from the guilt of having shed life in a pri-
vate quarrel, and the former feelings of dislike and
prejudice, which revived in his haughty mind at the sight
of the object against whom he had entertained them ;
Sampson, supporting his shaking limbs by leaning on the
back of a chair, fixed his eyes upon Bertram, with a
staring expression of nervous anxiety, which convulsed
his whole visage ; Dinmont, enveloped in his loose shaggy
great-coat, and resembling a huge bear erect upon his
hinder legs, stared on the whole scene with great round
eyes that witnessed his amazement

The counsellor alone was in his element: shrewd,

i

GUY MANNERING. 243

prompt, and active, he already calculated the prospect of
brilliant success in a strange, eventful, and mysterious
law-suit, — and no young monarch, flushed with hopes,
and at the head of a gallant army, could experience more
glee when taking the field on his first campaign. He
bustled about with great energy, and took the arrange-
ment of the whole explanation upon himself.

u Come, come, gentlemen, sit down ; this is all in my
province — you must let me arrange it for you. Sit down,
my dear Colonel, and let me manage; sit down, Mr.
Brown, aut quocunque alio nomine vocaris — Dominie,
take your seat — draw in your chair, honest Liddesdale."

" I dinna ken, Mr. Pleydell s " said Dinmont, looking at
his dreadnought-coat, then at the handsome furniture of
the room, " I had maybe better gang some gate else,
and leave ye till your cracks — I'm no just that weel
put on."

The Colonel, who by this time recognised Dandie, im-
mediately went up and bid him heartily welcome ; assur-
ing him, that from what he had seen of him in Edin-
burgh, he was sure his rough coat and thick-soled boots
would honour a royal drawing-room.

a Na, na, Colonel, we're just plain up-the-country folk ;
but nae doubt I would fain hear ony pleasure that was
gaun to happen the Captain, and I'm sure a' will gae
right if Mr. Pleydell will take his bit job in hand."

" You're right, Dandie — spoke like a Hieland * oracle
— and now be silent. Well, you are all seated at last ;
take a glass of wine till I begin my catechism methodi-

* It may not be unnecessary to tell southern readers, that the moun-
tainous country in the south-western borders of Scotland, is called
Hieland, though totally different from the much more mountainous
and more extensive districts of the north, usually called Hielands.

244 WAVERLET NOVELS.

cally. And now," turning to Bertram, " my dear boy, do
you know who or what you are ? "

In spite of his perplexity, the catechumen could not
help laughing at this commencement, and answered, " In-
deed, sir, I formerly thought I did ; but I own late cir-
cumstances have made me somewhat uncertain."

" Then tell us what you formerly thought yourself."

" Why, I was in the habit of thinking and calling my-
self Vanbeest Brown, who served as a cadet or volunteer

under Colonel Mannering, when he commanded the -

regiment, in which capacity I was not unknown to him."

" There," said the Colonel, " I can assure Mr. Brown
of his identity ; and add, what his modesty may have for-
gotten, that he was distinguished as a young man of talent
and spirit."

" So much the better, my dear sir," said Mr. Pleydell;
u but that is to general character — Mr. Brown must teH
us where he was born."

" In Scotland, I believe, but the place uncertain."

"Where educated?"

" In Holland, certainly."

" Do you remember nothing of your early life before
you left Scotland ? "

u Very imperfectly ; — yet I have a strong idea, perhaps
more deeply impressed upon me by subsequent hard
usage, that I was during my childhood the object of much
solicitude and affection. I have an indisfinct remem-
brance of a good-looking man whom I used to call papa,
and of a lady who was infirm in health, and who, I think,
must have been my mother ; but it is an imperfect and
confused recollection. I remember, too, a tall, thin, kind-
tempered man in black, who used to teach me my let-
ters and walk out with me ; — and I think the very last
time"

GUT MANNERXKG. 245

Here the Dominie could contain no longer. While
every succeeding word served to prove that the child of
his benefactor stood before him, he had struggled with the
utmost difficulty to suppress his emotions ; but, when the
juvenile recollections of Bertram turned towards his tutor
and his precepts, he was compelled to give way to his
feelings. He rose hastily from his chair, and with
clasped hands, trembling limbs, and streaming eyes, called
out aloud, " Harry Bertram ! — look at me — was I not
the man ? "

" Yes ! " said Bertram, starting from .his seat as if a
sudden light had burst in upon his mind, — " Yes — that
was my name ! — and that is the voice and the figure of
my kind old master ! "

The Dominie threw himself into his arms, pressed him
a thousand times to his bosom in convulsions of transport
which shook his whole frame, sobbed hysterically, and at
length, in the emphatic language of Scripture, lifted up
his voice and wept aloud. Colonel Mannering had re-
course to his handkerchief; Pleydell made wry faces and
wiped the glasses of hia spectacles ; and honest Dinmont,
after two loud blubbering explosions, exclaimed, " Deil's
in the man ! he's garr'd me do that I haena done since
my auld mither died."

" Come, come/' said the counsellor at last, " silence in
the court — We have a clever party to contend with ; we
must lose no time in gathering our information — for any-
thing I know, there may be something to be done before
day-break."

" I will order a horse to be saddled if you please," said
the Colonel.

"No, no, time enough — time enough. But come,
Dominie ; — I have allowed you a competent space to ex-

246 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

press your feelings — I must circumduce the term ; you
must let me proceed in my examination."

The Dominie was habitually obedient to anypne who
chose to impose commands upon him ; he sunk back into

»

his chair, spread his checked handkerchief over his face,
to serve, as I suppose, for the Grecian painter's veil, and
from the action of his folded hands, appeared for a time
engaged in the act of mental thanksgiving. He then
raised his eyes over the screen as if to be assured that the
pleasing apparition had not melted into air — then again
sunk them to resume his internal act of devotion, until he
felt himself compelled to give attention to the counsellor,
from the interest which his questions excited.

" And now," said Mr. Pleydell, after several minute
inquiries concerning his recollection of early events —
u and now, Mr. Bertram, for I think we ought in future
to call you by your own proper name, will you have
the goodness to let us know every particular which
you can recollect concerning the mode of your leaving
Scotland ? "

" Indeed, sir, to say the truth, though the terrible out-
lines of that day are strongly impressed upon my memory,
yet somehow the very terror which fixed them there has
in a great measure confounded and confused the details.
I recollect, however, that I was walking somewhere or
other — in a wood, I think "

" O yes, it was in Warroch-wood, my dear," said the
Dominie.

" Hush, Mr. Sampson," said the lawyer.

" Yes, it was in a wood," continued Bertram, as* long
past and confused ideas arranged themselves in his re-
viving recollection ; u and some one was with me — this
worthy and affectionate gentleman, I think."

GUY MANNERING. 247

" O, ay, ay, Harry, Lord bless thee — it was even I
myself."

" Be silent, Dominie, and don't interrupt the evidence,"
said Pleydell. — * And so, sir ? " to Bertram.

" And so, sir," continued Bertram, " like one of the
changes of a dream, I thought I was on horseback before
my guide."

" No, no," exclaimed Sampson, " never did I put my
own limbs, not to say thine, into such peril."

" On my word, this is intolerable ! — Look ye, Dominie,
if you speak another word till I give you leave, I will
read three sentences out of the Black Acts, whisk my
cane round my head three times, undo all the magic of
this night's work, and conjure Harry Bertram back again
into Vanbeest Brown."

" Honoured and worthy sir," groaned out the Dominie,
" I humbly crave pardon ; it was but verbum nolens"

" Well, nolens volens, you must hold your tongue," said
Pleydell.

" Pray, be silent, Mr. Sampson," said the Colonel ; it is
of great consequence to your recovered friend, that, you
permit Mr. Pleydell to proceed in his inquiries."

"lam mute," said the rebuked Dominie.

" On a sudden," continued Bertram, " two or three men
sprung out upon us, and we were pulled from horseback.
I have little recollection of anything else, but that I tried
to escape in the midst of a desperate scuffle, and fell into
the arms of a very tall woman who started from the
bushes, and protected me for some time ; the rest is all
confusion and dread — a dim recollection of a sea-beach
and a cave, and of some strong potion which lulled me to
sleep for a length of time. In short, it is all a blank in
my memory, until I recollect myself first an ill-used and

248 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

half-starved cabin-boy aboard a sloop, and then a school-
boy in Holland, under the protection of an old merchant,
who had taken some fancy for me."

" And what account," said Mr. Pleydell, u did your
guardian give of your parentage ? "

" A very brief one," answered Bertram, " and a charge
to inquire no farther. I was given to understand, that
my father was concerned in the smuggling trade carried
on on the eastern coast of Scotland, and was killed in a
skirmish with the revenue officers ; that his corre-
spondents in Holland had a vessel on the coast at the
time, part of the crew of which were engaged in the
affair, and that they brought me off after it was over,
from a motive of compassion, as I was left destitute by
my father's death. As I grew older, there was much of
this story seemed inconsistent with my own recollections.
But what could I do ? I had no means of ascertaining
my doubts, nor a single friend with whom I could com-
municate or canvass them. The rest of my story is
known to Colonel Mannering; I went out to India to be
a clerk in a Dutch house ; their affairs fell into confu-
sion ; I betook myself to the military profession, and, I
trust, as yet I have not disgraced it."

" Thou art a fine young fellow, I'll be bound for thee,"
said Pleydell ; " and since you have wanted a father so
long, I wish from my heart I could claim the paternity
myself. But this affair of young Hazlewood "

"Was merely accidental," said Bertram. "I was
travelling in Scotland for pleasure, and after a week's
residence with my friend Mr. Dinmont, with whom I
had the good fortune to form an accidental acquaint-
ance "

" It was my gude fortune that," said Dinmont* " Od,

GUY MANNEBING. 249

my brains wad hae been knockit out by twa blackguards,
if it hadna been for his four quarters,"

a Shortly after we parted at the town of , I lost

my baggage by thieves, and it was while residing at Kip-
pletringan that I accidentally met the young gentleman.
As I was approaching to pay my respects to Miss Man-
nering, whom I had known in India, Mr. Hazlewood,
conceiving my appearance none of the most respectable,
commanded me rather haughtily to stand back, and so
gave occasion to the fray in which I had the misfortune
to be the accidental means of wounding him. — And now,
sir, that I have answered all your questions "

" No, no, not quite all," said Pleydell, winking saga-
ciously ; " there are some interrogatories which I shall
delay till to-morrow, for it is time, I believe, to close the
sederunt for this night, or rather morning. ,,

" Well, then, sir," said the young man, " to vary the
phrase, since I have answered all the questions which you
have chosen to ask to-night, will you be so good as to tell
me who you are that take such interest in my affairs, and
whom you take me to be, since my arrival has occasioned
such commotion ?"

u Why, sir, for myself," replied the counsellor, " I am
Paulus Pleydell, an advocate at the Scottish bar ; and for
you, it is not easy to say distinctly who you are at pres-
ent ; but I trust in a short time to hail you by the title
of Henry Bertram, Esq., representative of one of the
oldest families in Scotland, and heir of tailzie and provis-
ion to the estate of Ellangowan. Ay," continued he,
shutting his eyes and speaking to himself, " we must pass
over his father, and . serve him heir to his grandfather
Lewis, the entailer, the only wise man of his family that
I ever heard o£"

250 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

They had now risen to retire to their apartments for
the night, when Colonel Mannering walked up to Ber-
tram, as he stood astonished at the counsellor's words.
" I give you joy," he said, " of the prospects which fate
has opened before you. I was an early friend of your
father, and chanced to be in the house of Ellangowan as
unexpectedly as you are now in mine, upon the very
night on which you were born. I little knew this circum-
stance when — but I trust unkindness will be forgotten
between us. Believe me, your appearance here, as
Mr. Brown, alive and well, has relieved me from most
painful sensations; and your right to the name of an
old friend renders your presence, as Mr. Bertram, doubly
welcome."

" And my parents ! " said Bertram.

"Are both no more — and the family property has
been sold, but I trust, may be recovered. Whatever is
wanted to make your right effectual, I shall be most
happy to supply."

" Nay, you may leave all that to me," said the coun-
sellor; — "'tis my vocation, Hal, I shall make money
of it."

" I'm sure it's no for the like o' me," observed Din-
mont, " to speak to you gentlefolks ; but if siller would
help on the Captain's plea, and they say nae plea gangs
on weel without it "

" Except on Saturday night," said PleydeU.

" Ay, but when your honour wadna take your fee, ye
wadna hae the cause neither ; sae I'll ne'er fash you on a
Saturday at e'en again — But I was saying there's some
siller in the spleuchan * that's like the Captain's ain, for
we've aye counted it such, baith Ailie and me."

* A spleuchan is a tobacco pouch, occasionally used as a purse.

GUY MANNEBIXG. 251

" No, no, Liddesdale — no occasion, no occasion what-
ever — keep thy cash to stock thy farm."

a To stock my farm ? Mr. PleydeU, your honour kens
mony things, but ye dinna ken the farm o' Charlies-hope
— it's sae weel stockit already, that we sell maybe sax
hundred pounds off it ilka year, flesh and fell thegither —
na, na."

" Can't you take another, then ? "

" I dinna ken — the Deuke's no that fond o' led farms,
and he canna bide to put away the auld tenantry ; and
then I wadna like, mysell, to gang about whistling * and
raising the rent on my neighbours."

" What, not upon thy neighbour at Dawston — Devil-
stone — how d'ye call the place ? "

" What, on Jock o' Dawston ? — hout na — he's a cam-
steary f chield, and fasheous J about marches, and we've
had some bits o' splores thegither ; but deil o' me if I
Would wrang Jock o' Dawston neither."

"Thou'rt an honest fellow," said the lawyer; "get
thee to bed ; — thou wilt sleep sounder, I warrant thee,
than many a man that throws off an embroidered coat,
and puts on a laced night-cap. Colonel, I see you are
busy with our Enfant trouvL But Barnes must give me
a summons of wakening at seven to-morrow morning, for
my servant's a sleepy-headed fellow, and I dare say my
clerk, Driver, has had Clarence's fate, and is drowned by
this time in a butt of your ale ; for Mrs. Allan promised

* Whistling, among the tenantry of a large estate, is when an indi-
vidual gives such information to the proprietor, or his managers, as to
occasion the rent of his neighbour's farms being raised, which, for
obvious reasons, is held a very unpopular practice.

f Obstinate and unruly.

X Troublesome.

252 WAVEKLET NOVELS.

to make him comfortable, and she'll soon discover what
he expects from that engagement Good-night, Colonel
— good-night, Dominie Sampson— good-night, Dinmont
the downright — good-night, last of all, to the new-found
representative of the Bertrams, and the Mac-Dingawaies,
the Knarths, the Arths, the Godfreys, the Dennises, and
the Rolands, and, last, and dearest title, heir of tailzie and
provision of the lands and barony of Ellangowan, under
the settlement of Lewis Bertram, Esq., whose represent-
ative you are."

And so saying, the old gentleman took his candle and
left the room; and the company dispersed, after the
Dominie had once more hugged and embraced his " little
Harry Bertram," as he continued to call the young soldier
of six feet high.

GUT MANNEBING. 253

CHAPTEE LI.

My imagination

Carries no fevour in it but Bertram's ;

I am undone j there is no liying, none,

II Bertram be away.

All's well that Ends will.

At the hour which he had appointed the preceding
evening, the indefatigable lawyer was seated by a good
fire and a pair of wax candles, with a velvet cap on his
head and a quilted silk night-gown on his person, busy
arranging his memoranda of proofs and indications con-
cerning the murder of Frank Kennedy. An express had
also been despatched to Mr. Mac-Morlan, requesting his
attendance at Woodbourne as soon as possible, on business
of importance. Dinmont, fatigued with the events of the
evening before, and finding the accommodations of Wood-
bourne much preferable to those of Mac-Guffog, was in
no hurry to rise. The impatience of Bertram might have
put him earlier in motion, but Colonel Mannering had
intimated an intention to visit him in his apartment in
the morning, and he did not choose to leave it Before
this interview he had dressed himself, Barnes having, by
his master's orders, supplied him with every accommoda-
tion of linen, &c, and he now anxiously waited the
promised visit of his landlord.

In a short time a gentle tap announced the Colonel,

254 WAVEBLEY NOTELS.

with whom Bertram held a long and satisfactory conver-
sation. Each, however, concealed from the other one
circumstance. Mannering could not bring himself to
acknowledge the astrological prediction; .and Bertram
was, from motives which may be easily conceived, silent
respecting his love for Julia. In other respects, their
intercourse was frank, and grateful to both, and had lat-
terly, upon the Colonel's part, even an approach to cor-
diality. Bertram careiiilly measured his own conduct by
that of his host, and seemed rather to receive his offered
kindness with gratitude and pleasure, than to press for it
with solicitation.

Miss Bertram was in the breakfast parlour when
Sampson shuffled in, — his face all radiant with smiles ; a
circumstance so uncommon, that Lucy's first idea was,
that somebody had been bantering him with an imposition
which had thrown him into this ecstasy. Having sate for
some time, rolling his eyes and gaping with his mouth
like the great wooden head at Merlin's exhibition, he at
length began — " And what do you think of him, Miss
Lucy ? "

" Think of whom, Mr. Sampson ? " asked the young
lady.

" Of Har — no— of him that you know about ? n again
demanded the Dominie.

" That I know about ? " replied Lucy, totally at a loss
to comprehend his meaning.

" Yes — the stranger, you know, that came last evening
in the post vehicle — he who shot young Hazlewood — ha !
ha ! ho ! " burst forth the Dominie, with a laugh that
sounded like neighing.

" Indeed, Mr. Sampson," said his pupil; " you have
chosen a strange subject for mirth; — I think nothing

i

GUY MANNERING. 255

about the man — only I hope the outrage was accidental,
and that we need not fear a repetition of it"

" Accidental ! — ho ! ho ! ha ! " again whinnied Samp-
son.

" Really, Mr. Sampson," said Lucy, somewhat piqued,
" you are unusually gay this morning.'*

" Yes, of a surety I am ! ha ! ha ! ho ! fa-ce-ti-ous —
ho! ho! ha!"

" So unusually facetious, my dear sir," pursued the
young lady, " that I would wish rather to know the
meaning of your mirth, than to be amused with its effects
only.*

" You shall know it, Miss Lucy," replied poor Abel —
" Do you remember your brother ? "

" Good God ! how can you ask me ? — no one knows
better than you, he was lost the very day I was born."

« y erv true, very true," answered the Dominie, sad-
dening at the recollection ; " I was strangely oblivious —
ay, ay — too true — But you remember your worthy
father ? "

" How should you doubt it, Mr. Sampson ? it is not so
many weeks since "

" True, true — ay, too true," replied the Dominie, his
Houyhnhnm laugh sinking into a hysterical giggle — " I
will be facetious no more under these remembrances — But
look at that young man ! "

Bertram at this instant entered the room. " Yes, look
at him well — he is your father's living image ; and as
God has deprived you of your dear parents — O my chil-
dren, love one another ! "

" It is indeed my father's face and form," said Lucy,
turning very pale. Bertram ran to support her — the
Dominie to fetch water to throw upon her face — (which

256 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

in his haste he took from the boiling tea-urn) — when for-
tunately her colour returning rapidly, saved her from the
application of this ill-judged remedy. " I conjure you to
tell me, Mr. Sampson," she said, in an interrupted yet
solemn voice, u is this my brother ? "

" It is ! it is, Miss Lucy ! — it is little Harry Bertram,
as sure as God's sun is in that heaven ! "

" And this is my sister ? " said Bertram, giving way to
all that family affection which had so long slumbered in
his bosom for want of an object to expand itself upon.

" It is ! it is ! — it is Miss Lucy Bertram ! " ejaculated
Sampson, " whom by my poor aid you will find perfect in
the tongues of France and Italy, and even of Spain — in
reading and writing her vernacular tongue, and in arith-
metic and book-keeping by double and single entry. I
say nothing of her talents of shaping, and hemming, and
governing a household, which, to give every one their,
due, she acquired not from me, but from the house-
keeper ; — nor do I take merit for her performance upon
stringed instruments, whereunto the instructions of an
honourable young lady of virtue and modesty, and very
facetious withal — Miss Julia Mannering — hath not meanly
contributed — Suum cuique tribuito"

" You, then," said Bertram to his sister, " are all that
remains to me ! Last night, but more fully this morning,
Colonel Mannering gave me an account of our family
misfortunes, though without saying I should find my sister
here."

" That," said Lucy, u he left to this gentleman to tell
you,— one of the kindest and most faithful of friends, who
soothed my father's long sickness, witnessed his dying
moments, and amid the heaviest clouds of fortune would
not desert his orphan."

GUY MANNERING. 257

& God bless him for it ! " said Bertram, shaking the
Dominie's hand; "he deserves the love with which I
have always regarded even that dim and imperfect shadow
of his memory which my childhood retained."

"And God bless you both, my dear children !" said
Sampson : " if it had not been for your sake, I would
have been contented (had Heaven's pleasure so been) to
lay my head upon the turf beside my patron."

" But I trust," said Bertram — " I am encouraged to
hope, we shall all see better days. All our wrongs shall
be redressed, since Heaven has sent me means and friends
to assert my right."

" Friends indeed ! " echoed the Dominie, " and sent, as
you truly say, by Him, to whom I early taught you to
look up as the source of all that is good. There is the
great Colonel Mannering from the Eastern Indies, a man
of war from his birth upwards, but who is not the less a
man of great erudition, considering his imperfect oppor-
tunities ; and there is, moreover, the great advocate, Mr.
Pleydell, who is also a man of great erudition, but who
descendeth to trifles unbeseeming thereof; and there is
Mr. Andrew Dinmont, whom I do not understand to
have possession of much erudition, but who, like the
patriarchs of old, is cunning in that which belongeth to
flocks and herds. Lastly, there is even I myself, whose
opportunities of N collecting erudition, as they have been
greater than those of the aforesaid valuable persons, have
not, if it becomes me so to speak, been pretermitted by
me, in so far as my poor faculties have enabled me to
profit by them. Of a surety, little Harry, we must speedily
resume our studies. 1 will begin from the foundation —
yes, I will reform your education upward from the true

VOL. IV. 17

258 WATERLEY NOVELS.

knowledge of English grammar, even to that of the
Hebrew or Chaldaic tongue/'

The reader may observe, that upon this occasion Samp-
son was infinitely more profuse of words than he had
hitherto exhibited himself. The reason was, that in
recovering his pupil, his mind went instantly back to
their original connexion, and he had, in his confusion of
ideas, the strongest desire in the world to resume spelling
lessons, and half-text with young Bertram. This was the
more ridiculous, as towards Lucy he assumed no such
powers of tuition. But she had grown up under his eye,
and had been gradually emancipated from his government
by increase in years and knowledge, and a latent sense
of his own inferior tact in manners, whereas his first ideas
went to take up Harry pretty nearly where he had left
him. From the same feelings of reviving authority, he
indulged himself in what was to him a profusion of lan-
guage; and as people seldom speak more than usual
without exposing themselves, he -gave those whom he
addressed plainly to understand, that while he deferred
implicitly to the opinions and commands, if they chose to
impose them, of almost every one whom he met with, it
was under an internal conviction, that in the article of
e-ru-di-ti-on, as he usually pronounced the word, he was
infinitely superior to them all put together. At present,
however, this intimation fell upon heedless ears, for the
brother and sister were too deeply engaged in asking and
receiving intelligence concerning their former fortunes, to
attend much to the worthy Dominie.

When Colonel Mannering left Bertram, he went to
Julia's dressing-room, and dismissed her attendant. " My
dear sir," she said as he entered, " you have forgot our
vigils last night, and have hardly allowed me time to

GUY MANNERING. 259

comb my hair, although you must be sensible how it stood
on end at the various wonders which took place."

" It is with the inside of your head that I have some
business at present, Julia ; I will return the outside to the
care of your Mrs. Mincing in a few minutes."

" Lord, papa," replied Miss Mannering, " think how
entangled all my ideas are, and you to propose to comb
them out in a few minutes ! If Mincing were to do so in
her department, she would tear half the hair out of my
head."

"WeU then, tell me," said the Colonel, "where the
entanglement lies, which I will try to extricate with due
gentleness."

" Oh, every where," said the young lady — " the whole
is a wild dream."

" Well then, I will try to unriddle it" — He gave a
brief sketch of the fate and prospects of Bertram, to
which Julia listened with an interest which she in vain
endeavoured to disguise — " Well," concluded her father,
u are your ideas on the subject more luminous ? "

" More confused than ever, my dear sir," said Julia —
u Here is this young man come from India, after he had
been supposed dead, like Aboulfouaris the great voyager
to his sister Canzade and his provident brother Hour. I
am wrong in the story, I believe — Canzade was his wife
— but Lucy may represent the one, and the Dominie the
other. And then this lively crack-brained Scotch lawyer
appears like a pantomime at the end of a tragedy — And
then how delightful it will be if Lucy gets back her
fortune ! "

" Now I think," said the Colonel, "that the most mys-
terious part of the business is, that Miss Julia Mannering,
who must have known her father's anxiety about the fate

260 WAVEELET NOVELS.

©f this young man Brown, or Bertram, as we must now
call him, should have met him when Hazlewood's acci-
dent took place, and never once mentioned to her father
a word of the matter, but suffered the search to proceed
against this young gentleman as a suspicious character
and assassin."

Julia, much of whose courage had been hastily assumed
to meet the interview with her father, was now unable to
rally herself; she hung down her head in silence, after in
vain attempting to utter a denial that she recollected
Brown when she met him.

* No answer ! — Well, Julia," continued her father,
gravely but kindly, " allow me to ask you, Is this the
only time you have seen Brown since his return from
India ? — Still no answer. I must then naturally suppose
that it is not the first time ? — Still no reply. Julia Man-
nering, will you have the kindness to answer me ? Was
it this young man who came under your window and con-
versed with you during your residence at Mervyn-Hall?
Julia, I command — I entreat you to be candid."

Miss Mannering raised her head. " I have been, sir —
I believe I am still very foolish ; — and it is perhaps more
hard upon me that I must meet this gentleman, who has
been, though not the cause entirely, yet the accomplice of
my folly, in your presence." — Here she made a full stop.

" I am to understand, then," said Mannering, " that this
was the author of the serenade at Mervyn-Hall? "

There was something in this allusive change of epithet,
that gave Julia a little more courage — " He was indeed,
sir ; and if I am very wrong, as I have often thought, I
have some apology."

" And what is that ? " answered the Colonel, speaking
quick, and with something of harshness.

OUT HAKKERIHO. 261

u I will not venture to name it, sir — but " — She opened
a small cabinet, and put some letters into his hands ; " I
will give you these, that you may see how this intimacy
began, and by whom it was encouraged."

Mannering took the packet to the window — his pride
forbade a more distant retreat He glanced at some pas-
sages of the letters with an unsteady eye and an agitated
mind. His stoicism, however, came in time to his aid — >
that philosophy, which rooted in pride, yet frequently
bears the fruits of virtue. He returned towards his
daughter with as firm an air as his feelings permitted him
to assume.

" There is great apology for you, Julia, as far as I can
judge from a glance at these letters — you have obeyed at
least one parent. Let us adopt the Scotch proverb the
Dominie quoted the other day — * Let bygones be bygones,
and fair play for the future/ — I will never upbraid you
with your past want of confidence— do you judge of my
future intentions by my actions, of which hitherto you
have surely had no reason to complain. Keep these let-
ters — they were never intended for my eye, and I would
not willingly read more of them than I have done, at your
desire and for your exculpation. And now, are we
Mends ? or rather, do you understand me ? "

" O my dear generous father/' said Julia, throwing her-
self into his arms, " why have I ever for an instant mis-
understood you ? "

" No more of that, Julia," said the Colonel : " we have
both been to blame. He that is too proud to vindicate
the affection and confidence which he conceives should be
given without solicitation, must meet much, and perhaps
deserved disappointment. It is enough that one dearest
and most regretted member of my family has gone to

262 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

1

1 1

the grave without knowing me ; let me not lose the con- \

fidence of a child, who ought to love me if she really \

loves herself."

u O ! no danger — no fear ! " answered Julia — u let me
but have your approbation and my own, and there is no
rule you*can prescribe so severe that I will not follow."

" Well, my love," kissing her forehead, " I trust we
shall not call upon you for anything too heroic. With
respect to this young gentleman's addresses, I expect in
the first place that all clandestine correspondence — which
no young woman can entertain for a moment without
lessening herself in her own eyes, and in those of her
lover — I request, I say, that clandestine correspondence
of every kind may be given up, and that you will refer
Mr. Bertram to me for the reason. You will naturally
wish to know what is to be the issue of such a reference.
In the first place, I desire to observe this young gentle-
man's character more closely than circumstances, and
perhaps my own prejudices, have permitted formerly — I
should also be glad to see his birth established. Not that
I am anxious about his getting the estate of Ellangowan,
though such a subject is held in absolute indifference
nowhere except in a novel ; but certainly Henry Ber-
tram, heir x>f Ellangowan, whether possessed of the
property of his ancestors or not, is a very different per-
son from Yanbeest Brown, the son of nobody at all. His
fathers, Mr. Pleydell tells me, are distinguished in history
as following the banners of their native princes, while our
own fought at Cressy and Poictiers. In short, I neither
give nor withhold my approbation, but I expect you will
redeem past errors ; and as you can now unfortunately
have recourse only to one parent, that you will show the
duty of a child, by reposing that confidence in me, which

GUY MANNERING. 263

I will say my inclination to make you happy renders a
filial debt upon your part."

The first part of this speech affected Julia a good deal ;
the comparative merit of the ancestors of the Bertrams
and Mannerings excited a secret smile ; but the conclu-
sion was such as to soften a heart peculiarly open to the
feelings of generosity. " No, my dear sir," she said, ex-
tending her hand, " receive my faith, that from this
moment you shall be the first person consulted respect-
ing what shall pass in future between Brown — I mean
Bertram — and me; and that no engagement shall be
undertaken by me, excepting what you shall immediately
know and approve of. May I ask if Mr. Bertram is to
continue a guest at Woodbourne ? "

" Certainly," said the Colonel, " while his affairs render
it advisable."

" Then, sir, you must be sensible, considering what is
already past, that he will expect some reason for my
withdrawing — I believe I must say the encouragement,
which he may think I have given."

" I expect, Julia," answered Mannering, u that he will
respect my roof, and entertain some sense perhaps of the
services I am desirous to render him, and so will not
insist upon any course of conduct of which I might have
reason to complain ; and I expect of you, that you will
make him sensible of what is due to both."

" Then, sir, I understand you f and you shall be implic-
itly obeyed."

" Thank you, my love ; my anxiety " (kissing her) u is
on your account. — Now wipe these witnesses from your
eyes, and so to breakfast"

264 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

CHAPTER ML

And, Sheriff, I -will engage my word to 7011,
That I will by to-morrow dinner time,
Send him to answer thee, or any man,
For anything he shall be charged withal.

First Part of Henry IV.

When the several by-plays, as they may be termed,
had taken place among the individuals of the Woodbourne
family, as we have intimated in the preceding chapter,
the breakfast party at length assembled, Dandie excepted,
who had consulted his taste in viands, and perhaps in
society, by partaking of a cup of tea with Mrs. Allan, just
laced with two tea-spoonsful of Cogniac, and reinforced
with various slices from a huge round of beef. He had
a kind of feeling that he could eat twice as much, and
speak twice as much, with this good dame and Barnes, as
with the grand folk in the parlour. Indeed, the meal of
this less distinguished party was much more mirthful than
that in the higher circle, where there was an obvious air
of constraint on the greater part of the assistants. Julia
dared not raise her voice in asking Bertram if he chose
another cup of tea. Bertram felt embarrassed while
eating his toast and butter under the eye of Mannering.
Lucy, while she indulged to the uttermost her affection
for her recovered brother, began to think of the quarrel
betwixt him and Hazlewood. The Colonel felt the pain-
ful anxiety natural to a proud mind, when it deems its

GUY MANNERING. 265

slightest action subject for a moment to the watchfal con-
struction of others. The lawyer, while sedulously but-
tering his roll, had an aspect of unwonted gravity, arising,
perhaps, from the severity of his morning studies. As
for the Dominie, his state of mind was ecstatic ! — He
looked at Bertram — he looked at Lucy — he whimpered
— he ^niggled — he grinned — he committed all manner
of solecisms in point of form — poured the whole cream
(no unlucky mistake) upon the plate of porridge which
was his own usual breakfast — threw the slops of what
he called his "crowning dish of tea" into the sugar-dish
instead of the slop-basin, and concluded with spilling the
scalding liquor upon old Plato, the Colonel's favourite
spaniel, who received the libation with, a howl that did
little honour to his philosophy.

The Colonel's equanimity was rather shaken by this
last blunder. " Upon my word, my good friend, Mr.
Sampson, you forget the difference between Plato and
Zenocrates."

" The former was chief of the Academics, the latter of
the Stoics," said the Dominie, with some scorn of the
supposition.

" Yes, my dear sir, but it was Zenocrates, not Plato>
who denied that pain was an evil."

" I should have thought," said Pleydell, " that very
respectable quadruped, which is just now limping out of
the room upon three of his four legs, was rather of the
Cynic school."

" Very well hit off But here comes an answer from

Mac-Morlan."

It was unfavourable. Mrs. Mac-Morlan sent her re*
spectful compliments, and her husband had been, and
wa&, detained by some alarming disturbances which had

266 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

taken place the preceding night at Portanferry, and the
necessary investigation which they had occasioned.

" What's to be done now, counsellor ? " said the Colo-
nel to Pleydell.

" Why, I wish we could have seen Mac-Morlan," said
the counsellor, "who is a sensible fellow himself, and
would, besides, have acted under my advice. But there
is little harm. Our friend here must be made sui juris :
he is at present an escaped prisoner ; the law has an
awkward claim upon him — he must be placed rectus in
curia, — that is the first object For which purpose,
Colonel, I will accompany you in your carriage down to
Hazlewood-House ; — the distance is not great We will
offer our bail ; and I am confident I can easily show

Mr. I beg his pardon — Sir Robert Hazlewood, the

necessity of receiving it"

" With all my heart," said the Colonel j and ringing
the bell, gave the necessary orders. " And what is next
to be done ? *

" We must get hold of Mac-Morlan, and look out for
more proof."

" Proof!" said the Colonel; " the thing is as clear as
daylight; — here are Mr. Sampson and Miss Bertram,
and you yourself, at once recognise the young gentleman
as his father's image ; and he himself recollects all the
very peculiar circumstances preceding his leaving this
country — What else is necessary to conviction ? "

" To moral conviction nothing more, perhaps, ,, said the
experienced lawyer, " but for legal proof a great deaL
Mr. Bertram's recollections are his own recollections
merely ; and therefore are not evidence in his own favour ;
Miss Bertram, the learned Mr. Sampson, and I, can only
say, what every one who knew the late Ellangowan will

GUT MANNERING. 267

readily agree in, that this gentleman is his very picture
— But that will not make him Ellangowan's son, and
give him the estate."

" And what will do so ? " said the Colonel.

" Why, we must have a distinct probation. — There are
these gipsies, — but then, alas ! they are almost infamous
in the eye of law — scarce capable of bearing evidence,
and Meg Merrilies utterly so, by the various accounts
which she formerly gave of the matter, and her impudent
denial of all knowledge of the fact when I myself exam-
ined her respecting it."

" What must be done then ? " asked Mannering.

u We must try," answered the legal sage, " what proof
can be got at in Holland, among the persons by whom
our young friend was educated. — But then the fear of
being called in question for the murder of the gauger
may make them silent ; or if they speak, they are either
foreigners or outlawed smugglers. In short, I see
doubts."

" Under favour, most learned and honoured sir," said
the Dominie, " I trust He, who hath restored little Harry
Bertram to his friends, will not leave his own work im-
perfect."

" I trust so too, Mr. Sampson," said Pleydell ; " but
we must use the means ; and I am afraid we shall have
more difficulty in procuring them than I at first thought
— But a faint heart never won a fair lady — And, by the
way, (apart to Miss Mannering, while Bertram was
engaged with his sister,) " there's a vindication of Hol-
land for you ! — what smart fellows do you think Leyden
and Utrecht must send forth, when such a very genteel
and handsome young man comes from the paltry schools
of Middleburgh ? "

268 WAVEELEY NOVELS.

u Of a verity," said the Dominie, jealous of the reputa-
tion of the Dutch seminary — " of a verity, Mr. Pleydell,
but I make it known to you that I myself laid the founda-
tion of his education."

tt True, my dear Dominie," answered the advocate ;
" that accounts for his proficiency in the graces, without
question. — But here comes your carriage, Colonel. Adieu,
young folks; Miss Julia, keep your heart till I come
back again — let there be nothing done to prejudice my
right, whilst I am non valens agere"

Their reception at Hazlewood-House was more cold
and formal than usual ; for in general the Baronet ex-
pressed great respect for Colonel Mannering, and Mr.
Pleydell, besides being a man of good family and of high
general estimation, was Sir Robert's old friend. But
now he seemed dry and embarrassed in his manner.
" He would willingly," he said, " receive bail, notwith-
standing that the offence had been directly perpetrated,
committed, and done, against young Hazlewood of Hazle-
wood ; but the young man had given him himself a
fictitious description, and was altogether that sort of per-
son who should not be liberated, discharged, or let loose
upon society ; and therefore "

" I hope, Sir Robert Hazlewood," said the Colonel,
" you do not mean to doubt my word, when I assure you
that he served under me as a cadet in India ? "

" By no means or account whatsoever. But you call
him a cadet ; now he says, avers, and upholds, that he
was a captain, or held a troop in your regiment."

" He was promoted since I gave up the command."

** But you must have heard of it ? "

" No. I returned on account of family circumstances
from India, and have not since been solicitous to hear

GUT MAKNERING. 269

particular news from the regiment ; the name of Brown,
too, is so common, that I might have seen his promotion
in the Gazette without noticing it But a day or two
will bring letters from his commanding officer/'

u But 1 am told and informed, Mr. Pleydell," answered
Sir Robert, still hesitating, " that he does not mean to
abide by this name of Brown, but is to set up a claim to
the estate of Ellangowan under the name of Bertram."

" Ay ? who says that ? " said the counsellor.

" Or," demanded the soldier, " whoever says so, does
that give a right to keep him in prison ? "

u Hush, Colonel," said the lawyer ; "I am sure you,
would not, any more than I, countenance him, if he prove
an impostor. — And, among friends, who informed you of
this, Sir Robert ? "

" Why, a person, Mr. Pleydell," answered the Baro-
net, " who is peculiarly interested in investigating, sift-
ing, and clearing out this business to the bottom — you
will excuse my being more particular. , '

tf Oh, certainly," replied Pleydell ; — " well, and he
says ? "

"He says that it is whispered about among tinkers,
gipsies, and other idle persons, that there is such a plan
as I mentioned to you, and that this young man, who is a
bastard or natural son of the late Ellangowan, is pitched
upon as the impostor, from his strong family likeness."

u And was there such a natural son, Sir Robert ? "
demanded the counsellor.

* Oh, certainly, to my own positive knowledge. El-
langowan had him placed as cabin-boy or powder-monkey
on board an armed sloop or yacht belonging to the
revenue, through the interest of the late Commissioner
Bertram, a kinsman of his own."

270 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" Well, Sir Robert/' said the lawyer, taking the word
out of the mouth of the impatient soldier — " you have told
me news ; I shall investigate them, and if I find them
true, certainly Colonel Mannering and I will not coun-
tenance this young man. In the meanwhile, as we are
all willing to make him forthcoming, to answer all com-
plaints against him, I do assure you you will act most
illegally, and incur heavy responsibility, if you refuse our
bail."

" Why, Mr. Pleydell," said Sir Robert, who knew the
high authority of the counsellor's opinion, " as you know
best, and as you promise to give up this young man "

" If he proves an impostor," replied the lawyer, with
some emphasis.

" Ay, certainly — under that condition I will take your
bail ; though I must say, an obliging, well-disposed, and
civil neighbour of mine, who was himself bred to the law,
gave me a hint or caution this morning against doing so.
It was from him I learned that this youth was liberated
and had come abroad, or rather had broken prison. — But
where shall we find one to draw the bail-bond ? "

"Here," said the counsellor, applying himself to the
bell, u send up my clerk, Mr. Driver — it will not do my
character harm if I dictate the needful myself." It was
written accordingly, and signed ; and the Justice having
subscribed a regular warrant for Bertram altos Brown's
discharge, the visitors took their leave.

Each threw himself into his own corner of the post-
chariot, and said nothing for some time. The Colonel
first broke silence : " So you intend to give up this poor
young fellow at the first brush ? "

" Who, I ? " replied the counsellor ; " I will not give
up one hair of his head, though I should follow them to

GUT MANNERING. 271

the court of last resort in his behalf — but what signified
mooting points and showing one's hand to that old ass?
Much better he should report to his prompter, Glossin,
that we are indifferent or lukewarm in the matter. Be-
sides, I wished to have a peep at the enemies' game."

" Indeed ! " said the soldier. " Then I see there are
stratagems in law as well as war. Well, and how do you
like their line of battle ? "

" Ingenious," said Mr. Pleydell, " but I think desper-
ate ; they are finessing too much — a common fault on
such occasions."

During this discourse the carriage rolled rapidly towards
Wbodbourne without anything occurring worthy of the
reader's notice, excepting their meeting with young Hazle-
wood, to whom the Colonel told the extraordinary history
of Bertram's re-appearance, which he heard with high
delight, and then rode on before to pay Miss Bertram his
compliments on an event so happy and so unexpected.

We return to the party at Woodbourne. After the
departure of Mannering, the conversation related chiefly
to the fortunes of the Ellangowan family, their domains,
and their former power. " It was, then, under the towers
of my fathers," said Bertram, " that I landed some days
since, in circumstances much resembling those of a vaga-
bond ? Its mouldering turrets and darksome arches even
then awakened thoughts of the deepest interest, and rec-
ollections which I was unable to decipher. I will now
visit ' them again with other feelings, and, I trust, other
and better hopes."

u Do not go there now," said his sister. " The house
of our ancestors is at present the habitation of a wretch
as insidious as dangerous, whose arts and villany accom-
plished the ruin and broke the heart of our unhappy
father."

272 "WAVEELBY NOVELS.

u You increase my anxiety," replied her brother, u to
confront this miscreant, even in the den he has constructed
for himself— I think I have seen him."

" Bat you must consider," said Julia, " that you are
now left under Lucy's guard and mine, and are responsi-
ble to us for all your motions— consider I have not been
a lawyer's mistress twelve hours for nothing, and I assure
you it would be madness to attempt to go to EUangowan
just now. — The utmost to which I can consent is, that
we shall walk in a body to the head of the Wbodbourae
avenue, and from that perhaps we may indulge you with
our company as far as a rising ground in the common,
whence your eyes may be blessed with a distant prospect
of those gloomy towers, which struck so strongly your
sympathetic imagination."

The party was speedily agreed upon, and the ladies,
having taken their cloaks, followed the route proposed,
under the escort of Captain Bertram. It was a pleasant
winter morning, and the cool breeze served only to
freshen, not to chill, the fair walkers. A secret though
unacknowledged bond of kindness combined the two
ladies ; and Bertram, now hearing the interesting accounts
of his own family, now communicating his adventures in
Europe and in India, repaid the pleasure which he re-
ceived. Lucy felt proud of her brother, as well from the
bold and manly turn of his sentiments, as from the dan-
gers he had encountered, and the spirit with which he
had surmounted them. And Julia, while she pondered
on her father's words, could not help entertaining hopes,
that the independent spirit which had seemed to her
father presumption in the humble and plebeian Brown,
would have the grace of courage, noble bearing, and
high blood, in the far-descended heir of EUangowan.

GUY MANNERINO. 273

They reached at length the little eminence or knoll
upon the highest part of the common, called Gibbie's-
knowe — a spot repeatedly mentioned in this history, as
being on the skirts of the Ellangowan estate. It com-
manded a fair variety of hill and dale, bordered with
natural woods, whose naked boughs at this season relieved
the general ^colour of the landscape with a dark purple
hue ; while in other places the prospect was more for*
mally intersected by lines of plantation, where the Scotch
firs displayed their variety of dusky green. At the dis-
tance of two or, three miles lay the bay of Ellangowan,
its waves rippling under the influence of the western
breeze. The towers of the ruined castle, seen high over
every object in the neighbourhood, received a brighter
colouring from the wintry sun.

" There," said Lucy Bertram, pointing them out in the
distance, " there is the seat of our ancestors. God knows,
my dear brother, I do not covet in your behalf the ex-
tensive power which the lords of these ruins are said to
have possessed so long, and sometimes to have used so
ill. But, O that I might see you in possession of such
relics of their fortune as should give you an honourable
independence, and enable you to stretch your hand for
the protection of the old and destitute dependents of our
family, whom our poor father's death "

" True, my dearest Lucy," answered the young heir of
Ellangowan ; " and I trust, with the assistance of Heaven,
which has so far guided us, and with that of these good
friends, whom their own generous hearts have interested
in my behalf, such a consummation of my hard adven-
tures is now not unlikely. — But as a soldier, I must look
with some interest upon that worm-eaten hold of ragged

VOL. IV. 18

274 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

stone ; and if this undermining scoundrel, who is now in
possession, dare to displace a pebble of it "

He was here interrupted by Dimnont, who came has-
tily after them up the road, unseen till he was near the
party : — " Captain, Captain ! ye're wanted — Ye're wanted
by her ye ken o\"

And immediately Meg Merrilies, as if emerging out
of the earth, ascended from the hollow way, and stood
before them. " I sought ye at the house," she said, " and
found but him," (pointing to Dinmont.) "But ye are
right, and I was wrang ; it is here we should meet — on
this very spot, where my eyes last saw your father.
Remember your promise, and follow me."

GUT MANNERING. 275

CHAPTER LIE

To hail the king in seemly sort

The ladle was full fain,
But King Arthur, all sore amazed,

No answer made again.
" What wight art thou," the ladie said,

" That will not speak to me?
Sir, I may chance to ease thy pain,

Though I be foul to see."

The Marbiage of Sib Gawainb.

The fairy bride of Sir Gawaine, while under the influ-
ence of the spell of her wicked stepmother, was more
decrepit probably, and what is commonly called more
ugly, than Meg Merrilies ; but I doubt if she possessed
that wild sublimity which an excited imagination com-
municated to features, marked and expressive in their own
peculiar character, and to the gestures of a form, which,
her sex considered, might be termed gigantic Accord-
ingly, the Knights of the Round Table did not recoil with
more terror from the apparition of the loathly lady placed
between " an oak and a green holly," than Lucy Bertram
and Julia Mannering did from the appearance of this
Galwegian sibyl upon the common of Ellangowan.

" For God's sake," said Julia, pulling out her purse,
"give that dreadful woman something, and bid her go
away."

" I cannot," said Bertram ; " I must not offend her."

u What keeps you here ? " said Meg, exalting the harsh

276 WAYERLEY NOVELS.

and rough tones of her hollow voice — " why do you not
follow ? — Must your hour call you twice ? Do you
remember your oath ? — were it at kirk or market, wed-
ding or burial," — and she held high her skinny forefinger
in a menacing attitude.

Bertram turned round to his terrified companions.
" Excuse me for a moment ; I am engaged by a promise
to follow this woman."

" Good heavens ! engaged to a madwoman ? " said
Julia.

" Or to a gipsy, who has her band in the wood ready
to murder you ! " said Lucy.

" That was not spoken like a bairn of Ellangowan,"
said Meg, frowning upon Miss Bertram. " It is the ill-
doers are ill-dreaders."

" In short, I must go," said Bertram — " it is absolutely
necessary ; wait for me five minutes on this spot."

" Five minutes ? " said the gipsy, — w five hours may
not bring you here again."

" Do you hear that ? " said Julia ; " for Heaven's sake
do not go ! "

" I must, I must^-Mr. Dinmont will protect you back
to the house."

" No," said Meg, " he must come with you — it is for
that he is here. He maun take part wi' hand and heart ;
and weel his part it is, for redding his quarrel might have
cost you dear."

" Troth, Luckie, it's very true," said the steady farmer ;
" and ere I turn back frae the Captain's side, I'll show
that I haena forgotten't."

" O yes ! " exclaimed both the ladies at onceW le\
Mr. Dinmont go with you, if go you must on this strange
summons."

gut MANNfeHma. 277

" Indeed I must," answered Bertram, " but you see I
am safely guarded — Adieu for a short time ; go home as
fast as you can."

He pressed his sister's hand, and took a yet more affec-
tionate farewell of Julia with his eyes. Almost stupefied
with surprise and fear, the young ladies watched with
anxious looks the course of Bertram, his companion, and
their extraordinary guide. Her tall figure moved across
the wintry heath with steps so swift, so long, and so
steady, that she appeared rather to glide than to walk.
Bertram and Dinmont, both tall men, apparently scarce
equalled her in height, owing to her longer dress and
high head-gear. She proceeded straight across the com-
mon, without turning aside to the winding path, by which
passengers avoided the inequalities and little rills that
traversed it in different directions. Thus the diminishing
figures often disappeared from the eye, as they dived into
such broken ground, and again ascended to sight when
they were past the hollow. There was something fright-
ful and unearthly, as it were, in the rapid and undeviating
course which she pursued, undeterred by any of the im-
pediments which usually incline a traveller from the direct
path. Her way was as straight, and nearly as swift as
that of a bird through the air. At length they reached
those thickets of natural wood which extended from the
skirts of the common towards the glades and brook of
Derncleugh, and were there lost to the view.

" This is very extraordinary ! " said Lucy, after a pause,
and turning round to her companion — " What can he have
to do with that old hag ? "

"It is very frightful," answered Julia, "and almost
reminds me of the tales of sorceresses, witches, and evil
genii, which I have heard in India. They believe there

278 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

is a fascination of the eye, by which those who possess it
control the will and dictate the motions of their victims.
What can your brother have in common with that fearful
woman, that he should leave us, obviously against his
will, to attend to her commands ? "

" At least," said Lucy, " we may hold him safe from
harm ; for she would never have summoned that faithful
creature Dinmont, of whose strength, courage, and steadi-
ness, Henry said so much, to attend upon an expedition
where she projected evil to the person of his friend. And
now let us go back to the house till the Colonel returns ;
— perhaps Bertram may be back first ; at any rate, the
Colonel will judge what is to be done."

Leaning then upon each other's arm, but yet occasion-
ally stumbling, between fear and the disorder of their
nerves, they at length reached the head of the avenue,
when they heard the tread of a horse behind. They
started, for their ears were awake to every sound, and
beheld to their great pleasure young Hazlewood. " The
Colonel will be here immediately," he said ; " I galloped
on before to pay my respects to Miss Bertram, with the
sincerest congratulations upon the joyful event which has
taken place in her family. I long to be introduced to
Captain Bertram, and to thank him for the well-deserved
lesson he gave to my rashness and indiscretion.'*

" He has left us just now," said Lucy, " and in a man-
ner that has frightened us very much."

Just at that moment the Colonel's carriage drove up,
and, on observing the ladies, stopped, while Mannering
and his learned counsel alighted and joined them. They
instantly communicated the new cause of alarm.

" Meg Merrilies again ! " said the Colonel. " She cer-
tainly is a most mysterious and unaccountable personage ;

GUT MANNERING. 279

but I think she must have something to impart to Ber-
tram, to which she does not mean we should be privy."

" The devil take the bedlamite old woman ! " said the
counsellor: "will she not let things take their course,,
prout de lege, but must always be putting in her oar in
her own way ? — Then I fear, from the direction they took,
they are going upon the Ellangowan estate. That rascal
Glossin has shown us what ruffians he has at his disposal
— I wish honest Liddesdale may be guard sufficient."

" If you please," said Hazlewood, " I should be most
happy to ride in the direction which they have taken. I
am so well known in the country, that I scarce think any
outrage will be offered in my presence, and I shall keep
at such a cautious distance as not to appear to watch
Meg, or interrupt any communication which she may
make."

" Upon my word," said Pleydell (aside), " to be a sprig,
whom I remember with a whey face and a satchel not so
very many years ago, I think young Hazlewood grows a
fine fellow. — I am more afraid of a new attempt at legal
oppression than at open violence, and from that this
young man's presence would deter both Glossin and his
understrappers. Hie away then, my boy — peer out —
peer out ; — you'll find them somewhere about Derncleugh,
or very probably in Warroch-wood."

Hazlewood turned his horse. " Come back to us to
dinner, Hazlewood," cried the Colonel. He bowed,
spurred his horse, and galloped off.

We now return to Bertram and Dinmont, who con-
tinued to follow their mysterious guide through the woods
and dingles, between the open common and the ruined
hamlet of Derncleugh. As she led the way, she never
looked back upon her followers, unless to chide them for

280 WAVERLEY NOYELS.

loitering, though the sweat, in spite of the season, poured
from their brows. At other times she spoke to herself in
such broken expressions as these : — " It is to rebuild the
auld house — it is to lay the corner stone — and did I not
warn him ? — I tell'd him I was born to do it, if my father's
head had been the stepping-stane, let alane his. I was
doomed — still I kept my purpose in the cage and in the
stocks ; — I was banished — I kept it in an unco land ; — I
was scourged — I was branded — my resolution lay deeper
than scourge or red iron could reach — and now the hour
is come ! "

" Captain," said Dinmont, in a half whisper, " I wish
she binna uncanny ! her words dinna seem to come in
God's name, or like other folk's. Od, they threep in our
country that there are sic things."

"Don't be afraid, my friend," whispered Bertram in
return.

"Fear'd! fient a haet care I," said the dauntless
farmer ; " be she witch or deevil, it's a' ane to Dandie
Dinmont."

" Haud your peace, gudeman," said Meg, looking
sternly over her shoulder ; " is this a time or place for
you to speak, think ye ? "

" But my good friend," said Bertram, " as I have no
doubt in your good faith, or kindness, which I have expe-
rienced, you should in return have some confidence in me
— I wish to know where you are leading us."

" There's but ae answer to that, Henry Bertram," said
the sibyl. — " I swore my tongue should never tell, but I
never said my finger should never show. Go on and
meet your fortune, or turn back and lose it — that's a' I
hae to say."

" Go on then," answered Bertram ; " I will ask no
more questions."

OUT MANNEKTNG. 281

They descended into the glen about the same place
where Meg had formerly parted from Bertram. She
paused an instant beneath the tall rock where he had wit-
nessed the burial of a dead body, and stamped upon the
ground, which, notwithstanding all the care that had been
taken, showed vestiges of having been recently removed.
" Here rests ane," she said, " he'll maybe hae neibours
sune."

She then moved up the brook until she came to the
ruined hamlet, where, pausing with a look of peculiar and
softened interest before one of the gables which was still
standing, she said, in a tone less abrupt, though as solemn.
as before, " Do you see that blackit and broken end of a
sheeling ? — There my kettle boiled for forty years — there
I bore twelve buirdly sons and daughters — Where are
they now ?— Where are the leaves that were on that auld
ash-tree at Martinmas ! — the west wind has made it bare
— and I'm stripped too.— *-Do you see that saugh-tree ? —
it's but a blackened rotten stump now — I've sat under it
mony a bonnie summer afternoon, when it hung its gay
garlands ower the poppling water — I've sat there, and "
(elevating her voice) " I've held you on my knee, Henry
Bertram, and sung ye sangs of the auld barons and their
bloody wars — It w T ill ne'er be green again, and Meg Mer-
rilies will never sing sangs mair, be they blithe or sad.
But ye'll no forget her ? — and ye'll gar big up the auld
. wa's for her sake ? — and let somebody live there that's
ower gude to fear them of another warld — For if ever
the dead came back amang the living, I'll be seen in this
glen mony a night after these crazed banes are in the
mould."

The mixture of insanity and wild pathos with which
she spoke these last words, with her right arm bare and

282 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

extended, her left bent and shrouded beneath the dark
red drapery of her mantle, might have been a study
worthy of our Siddons herself. " And now," she said, re-
suming at once the short, stern, and hasty tone which was
most ordinary to her — " let us to the wark — let us to the
wark."

She then led the way to the promontory on which the
Kaim of Derncleugh was situated, produced a large key
from her pocket, and unlocked^the door. The interior of
this place was in better order than formerly. " I have
made things decent," she said ; " I may be streekit here
or night. There will be few, few at Meg's lykewake, for
mony of our folk will blame what I hae done, and am
to do ! "

She then pointed to a table, upon which was some cold
meat, arranged with more attention to neatness than could
have been expected from Meg's habits. " Eat," she said,
" eat ; — ye'll need it this night yet."

Bertram, in complaisance, eat a morsel or two ; and
Dinmont, whose appetite was unabated either by wonder,
apprehension, or the meal of the morning, made his usual
figure as a trencher-man. She then offered ,each a single
glass of spirits, which Bertram drank diluted, and his
companion plain.

" Will ye taste naething yoursell, Luckie ? " said Din-
mont.

"I shall not need it," replied their mysterious hostess..
" And now," she said, " ye maun hae arms — ye maunna
gang on dry-handed; — but use them not rashly — take
captive, but save life — let the law hae its ain — he maun
speak ere he die."

" Who is to be taken ? — who is to speak ? " said Ber-
tram, in astonishment, receiving a pair of pistols which

OUT MANNERIXG. 283

she offered him, and which, upon examining, he found
loaded and locked.

" The flints are gude," she said, u and the powder dry
— I ken this wark weel."

Then, without answering his questions, she armed Din-
mont also with a large pistol, and desired them to choose
sticks for themselves, out of a parcel of very suspicious-
looking bludgeons which she brought from a corner.
Bertram took a stout sapling, and Dandie selected a club
which might have served Hercules himself. They then
left the hut together, and, in doing so, Bertram took an
opportunity to whisper to Dinmont, " There's something
inexplicable in all this — But we need not use these arms
unless we see necessity and lawful occasion — take care to
do as you see me do."

Dinmont gave a sagacious nod ; and they continued to
follow, over wet and over dry, through bog and through
fallow, the footsteps of their conductress. She guided
them to the wood of Warroch by the same track which
the late Ellangowan had used when riding to Derncleugh
in quest of his child, on the miserable evening of Ken-
nedy's murder.

When Meg Merrilies had attained these groves,
through which the wintry sea-wind was now whistling
hoarse and shrill, she seemed to pause a moment as if to
recollect the way. " We maun go the precise track," she
said, and continued to go forward, but rather in a zigzag
and involved course, than according to her former steady
and direct line of motion. At length she guided them
through the mazes of the wood to a little open glade of
about a quarter of an acre, surrounded by trees and
bushes, which made a wild and irregular boundary.
Even in winter it was a sheltered and snugly sequestered

284 WATBHLET NOVELS.

spot; but when arrayed in the verdure of spring, the
earth sending forth all its wild flowers, the shrubs spread-
ing their waste of blossom around it, and the weeping
birches, which towered over the underwood, drooping
their long and leafy fibres to intercept the sun, it must
have seemed a place for a youthful poet to study his earli-
est sonnet, or a pair of lovers to exchange their first mu-
tual avowal of affection. Apparently it now awakened
very different recollections. Bertram's brow, when he
had looked round the spot, became gloomy and embar-
rassed. Meg, after uttering to herself, " This is the very
spot ! " looked at him with a ghastly side-glance, — " D'ye
mind it?"

" Yes ! " answered Bertram, " imperfectly I do."

" Ay ! " pursued his guide, u on this very spot the man
fell from his horse — I was behind that bourtree-bush at
the very moment. Sair, sair he strove, and sair he cried
for mercy — but he was in the hands of them that never
kenn'd the word! — Now will I show you the further
track — the last time ye travelled it, was in these arms."

She led them accordingly by a long and winding pas-
sage, almost overgrown with brushwood, until, without
any very perceptible descent, they suddenly found them-
selves by the sea-side. Meg then walked very fast on
between the surf and the rocks, until she came to a re-
markable fragment of rock, detached from the rest.
" Here," she said, in a low and scarcely audible whisper,
" here the corpse was found."

" And the cave," said Bertram, in the same tone, " is
close beside it — are you guiding us there ? "

" Yes," said the gipsy, in a decided tone. " Bend up
both your hearts — follow me as I creep in — I have placed
the fire-wood so as to screen you. Bide behind it for a

OUT MANNERIDTG. 285

glifF till I say, The hour and the man are baith come !
then rin in on him, take his arms, and bind him till the
blood burst frae his finger nails."

" I will, by my soul ! " said Henry — " if he is the man
I suppose — Jansen ? "

" Ay, Jansen, Hatteraick, and twenty mair names are
his."

" Dinmont, you must stand by me now," said Bertram,
" for this fellow is a devil."

" Ye needna doubt that," said the stout yeoman — " But
I wish I could mind a bit prayer or I creep after the
witch into that hole that she's opening — It wad be a sair
thing to leave the blessed sun, and the free air, and gang
and be killed, like a tod that's run to earth, in a dungeon
like that But, my sooth, they will be hard-bitten terriers
will worry Dandie ; so, as I said, deil hae me if I baulk
you." This was uttered in the lowest tone of voice
possible. The entrance was now open. Meg crept in
upon her hands and knees, Bertram followed, and Din-
mont, after giving a rueful glance towards the daylight,
whose blessings he was abandoning, brought up the rear.

286 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

CHAPTER LIV.

Die, prophet, in thy speech!

For this, among the rest, was I ordained.

Hxnbt VI. Part III.

The progress of the Borderer, who, as we have said,
was the last of the party, was fearfully arrested by a
hand, which caught hold of his leg as he dragged his
long limbs after him in silence and perturbation through
the low and narrow entrance of the subterranean passage.
The steel heart of the bold yeoman had well-nigh given
way, and he suppressed with difficulty a shout, which, in
the defenceless posture and situation which they then
occupied, might have cost all their lives. He contented
himself, however, with extricating his foot from the grasp
of this unexpected follower. " Be still," said a voice
behind him, releasing him; "I am a friend — Charles
Hazlewood."

These words were uttered in a very low voice, but
they produced sound enough to startle Meg Merrilies,
who led the van, and who, having already gained the
place where the cavern expanded, had risen upon her
feet She began, as if to confound any listening ear, to
growl, to mutter, and to sing aloud, and at the same time
to make a bustle among some brushwood which was now
heaped in the cave.

u Here — beldam — DeyviTs kind," growled the harsh

GUT MANNERING. 287

voice of Dirk Hatteraick from the inside of his den;
" what makest thou there ? "

" Laying the roughies * to keep the cauld wind frae
you, ye desperate do-nae-good — Ye're e'en ower weel off,
and wots na ; — it will be otherwise soon."

" Have you brought me the brandy, and any news of
my people ? " said Dirk Hatteraick.

" There's the flask for ye. Your people — dispersed —
broken — gone — or cut to ribbands by the red coats."

" Der Dey vil ! — this coast is fatal to me."

" Ye may hae mair reason to say sae."

While this dialogue went forward, Bertram and Din-
mont had both gained the interior of the cave, and
assumed an erect position. The only light which illu-
minated its rugged and sable precincts was a quantity of
wood burnt to charcoal in an iron grate, such as they use
in spearing salmon by night. On these red embers Hat-
teraick from time to time threw a handful of twigs or
splintered wood ; but these, even when they blazed up,
afforded a light much disproportioned to the extent of the
cavern ; and, as its principal inhabitant lay upon the side
of the grate most remote from the entrance, it was not
easy for him to discover distinctly objects which lay in
that direction. The intruders, therefore, whose number
was now augmented unexpectedly to three, stood behind
the* loosely-piled branches with little risk of discovery.
Dinmont had the sense to keep back Hazlewood with
one hand till he whispered to Bertram, " A friend — young
Hazlewood."

It was no time for following up the introduction, and
they all stood as still as the rocks around them, obscured

* Withered boughs.

288 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

behind the pile of brushwood, which had been probably
placed there to break the cold wind from the sea, without
totally intercepting the supply of air. The branches
were laid so loosely above each other, that, looking
through them towards the light of the fire-grate, they
could easily discover what passed in its vicinity, although
a much stronger degree of illumination than it afforded
would not have enabled the persons placed near the
bottom of the cave to have descried them in the position
which they occupied.

The scene, independent of the peculiar moral interest
and personal danger which attended it, had, from the
effect of the light and shade on the uncommon objects
which it exhibited, an appearance emphatically dismal.
The light in the fire-grate was the dark-red glare of char-
coal in a state of ignition, relieved from time to time by
a transient flame of a more vivid or duskier light, as the
fuel with which Dirk Hatteraick fed his fire was better
or worse fitted for his purpose. Now a dark cloud of
stifling smoke rose up to the roof of the cavern, and then
lighted into a reluctant and sullen blaze, which flashed
wavering up the pillar of smoke, and was suddenly
rendered brighter and more lively by some drier fuel, or
perhaps some splintered fir-timber, which at once con-
verted the smoke into flame. By such fitful irradiation,
they could see, more or less distinctly, the form of Hat-
teraick, whose savage and rugged cast of features, now
rendered yet more ferocious by the circumstances of his
situation, and the deep gloom of his mind, assorted well
with the rugged and broken vault which rose in a rude
arch over and around him. The form of Meg Merrilies,
which stalked about him, sometimes in the light, some-
times partially obscured in the smoke or darkness, con-

GUT MANNERING. 289

trasted strongly with the sitting figure of Hatteraick as
he bent over the flame, and from his stationary posture
was constantly visible to the spectator, while that of the
female flitted around, appearing or disappearing like a
spectre. '

Bertram felt his blood boil at the sight of Hatteraick.
He remembered him well under ihe name of Jansen,
which the smuggler had adopted after the death of Ken-
nedy ; and he remembered also, that this Jansen, and his
mate Brown, the same who was shot at Woodbourne,
had been the brutal tyrants of his infancy. Bertram
knew farther, from piecing his own imperfect recollections
with the narratives of Mannering and Pleydell, that this
man was the prime agent in the act of violence which
tore him from his family and country, and had exposed
him to so many distresses and dangers. A thousand
exasperating reflections rose within his bosom ; and he
could hardly refrain from rushing upon Hatteraick and
blowing his brains out.

At the same time this would have been no safe adven-
ture. The flame, as it rose and fell, while it displayed
the strong, muscular, and broad-chested frame of the
ruffian, glanced also upon two brace of pistols in his belt,
and upon the hilt of his cutlass : it was not to be doubted
that his desperation was commensurate with his personal
strength and means of resistance. Both, indeed, were
inadequate to encounter the combined power of two such
men as Bertram himself and his friend Dinmont, without
reckoning their unexpected assistant Hazlewood, who was
unarmed, and of a slighter make ; but Bertram felt, on a
moment's reflection, that there would be neither sense
nor valour in anticipating the hangman's office, and he
considered the importance of making Hatteraick prisoner

VOL. IV. 19

290 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

alive ; — he therefore repressed his indignation, and awaited
what should pass between the ruffian and his gipsy guide.

" And how are ye now ? " said the harsh and discor-
dant tones of his female attendant ; " Said I not it would
come upon you — ay, and in this very cave, where ye har-
boured after the deed ? "

" Wetter and sturm, ye hag ! " replied Hatteraick,
" keep your deyviTs matins till they're wanted. — Have
you seen Glossin ? "

" No," replied Meg Merrilies ; " you've missed your
blow, ye blood-spiller ! and ye have nothing to expect
from the tempter."

" Hagel ! " exclaimed the ruffian, " if I had him but by
the throat ! — And what am I to do then ? "

" Do ? " answered the gipsy ; — u die like a man, or be
hanged like a dog ! "

" Hanged, ye hag of Satan !— the hemp's not sown that
shall hang me."

" It's sown, and it's grown, and it's heckled, and it's
twisted. Did I not tell ye, when ye wad take away the
boy Harry Bertram, in spite of my prayers— did I not
say he would come back when he had dree'd his weird in
foreign land till his twenty-first year ? — did I not say the
auld fire would burn down to a spark, but wad kindle
again ? "

" Well, mother, you did say so," said Hatteraick, in a
tone that had something of despair in its accents ; " and
donner and blitzen ! I believe you spoke the truth — that
younker of Ellangowan has been a rock a-head to me all
my life ! — and now, with Glossin's cursed contrivance, my
crew have been cut off, my boats destroyed, and I dare
say the lugger's taken — there were not men enough left
on board to work her, far less to fight her — a dredge-boat

GUY MANNERING. 291

might have taken her. And what will the owners say ?—
Hagel and sturm ! I shall never dare go back again to
Flushing."

" You'll never need," said the gipsy.

" What are you doing there ? " said her companion ;
" and what makes you say that ? "

During this dialogue, Meg was heaping some flax
loosely together. Before answer to this question, she
dropped a firebrand upon the flax, which had been previ-
ously steeped in some spirituous liquor, for it instantly
caught fire, and rose in a vivid pyramid of the most
brilliant light up to the very top of the vault. As it
ascended, Meg answered the ruffian's question in a firm
and steady voice : — " Because the Hour's come, and the
Man."

At the appointed signal, Bertram and Dinmont sprung
over the brushwood, and rushed upon Hatteraick. Hazle-
wood, unacquainted with their plan of assault, was a
moment later. The ruffian, who instantly saw he was
betrayed, turned his first vengeance on Meg Merrilies, at
whom he discharged a pistol. She fell, with a piercing
and dreadful cry, between the shriek of pain and the
sound of laughter, when at its highest and most suffo-
cating height. " I kenn'd it would be this way," she
said.

Bertram, in his haste, slipped his foot upon the uneven
rock which floored the cave ; — a fortunate stumble, for
Hatteraick's second bullet whistled over him with so true
and steady an aim, that, had he been standing upright, it
must have lodged in his brain. Ere the smuggler could
draw another pistol, Dinmont closed with him, and
endeavoured by main force to pinion down his arms.
Such, however, was the wretch's personal strength, joined

292 -WAVERLET NOVELS.

to the efforts of his despair, that, in spite of the gigantic
force with which the Borderer grappled him, he dragged
Dinmont through the blazing flax, and had almost suc-
ceeded in drawing a third pistol, which might have
proved fatal to the honest farmer, had not Bertram, as
well as Hazlewood, come to his assistance, when, by main
force, and no ordinary exertion of it, they threw Hat-
teraick on the ground, disarmed him, and bound him.
This scuffle, though it takes up some time in the narra-
tive, passed in less than a single minute. When he was
fairly mastered, after one or two desperate and almost
convulsionary struggles, the ruffian lay perfectly still and
silent " He's gaun to die game ony how," said Dinmont :
"weel, I like him na the waur for that."

This observation honest Dandie made while he was
shaking the blazing flax from his rough coat and shaggy
black hair, some of which had been singed in the scuffle.
" He is quiet now," said Bertram ; — " stay by him, and do
not permit him to stir till I see whether the poor woman
be alive or dead." With Hazlewood's assistance he raised
Meg Merrilies.

" I kenn'd it would be this way," she muttered, " and
it's e'en this way that it should be."

The ball had penetrated the breast below the throat
It did not bleed much externally ; but Bertram, accus-
tomed to see gun-shot wounds, thought it the more alarm-
ing. " Good God ! what shall we do for this poor
woman?" said he to Hazlewood, — the circumstances
superseding the necessity of previous explanation or in-
troduction to each other.

"My horse stands tied above in the wood," said
Hazlewood — " I have been watching you these two hours
—I will ride off for some assistance that may be trusted*

OUT MANNERING. 293

Meanwhile, you had better defend the mouth of the
cavern against every one until I return." He hastened
away. Bertram, after binding Meg Merrilies's wound
as well as he could, took station near the mouth of the
cave with a cocked pistol in his hand ; Dinmont con-
tinued to watch Hatteraick, keeping a grasp, like that
of Hercules, on his breast. There was a dead silence in
the cavern, only interrupted by the low and suppressed
moaning of the wounded female, and by the hard breath-
ing of the prisoner.

294 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

CHAPTER LV.

For though seduced and led astray
Thou'st travelled far and wandered long,

Thy God hath seen thee all the way,
And all the turns that led thee wrong.

The Hall of Justice.

After the space of about three quarters of an hour,
which the uncertainty and danger of their situation made
seem almost thrice as long, the voice of young Hazlewood
was heard without. "Here I am," he cried, "with a
sufficient party."

" Come in then," answered Bertram, not a little pleased
to find his guard relieved. Hazlewood then entered, fol-
lowed by two or three countrymen, one of whom acted as
a peace-officer. They lifted Hatteraick up, and carried
him in their arms as far as the entrance of the vault was
high enough to permit them ; then laid him on his back,
and dragged him along as well as they could, for no per-
suasion would induce him to assist the transportation by
any exertion of his own. He lay as silent and inactive
in their hands as a dead corpse, incapable of opposing,
but in no way aiding their operations. When he was
dragged into daylight, and placed erect upon his feet
among three or four assistants, who had remained with-
out the cave, he seemed stupefied and dazzled by the
sudden change from the darkness of his cavern. While
others were superintending the removal of • Meg Mer-

GUY M4NNERING. 295

rilies, those who remained with Hatteraick attempted to
make him sit down upon a fragment of rock which lay-
close upon the high-water mark. A strong shuddering
convulsed his iron frame for an instant, as he resisted
their purpose. "Not there — Hagel! — you would not
make me sit there f "

These were the only words he spoke; but their
import, and the deep tone of horror in which they
were uttered, served to show what was passing in his
mind.

When Meg Merrilies had also been removed from the
cavern, with all the care for her safety that circumstances
admitted, they consulted where she should be carried.
Hazlewood had sent for a surgeon, and proposed that she
should be lifted in the meantime to the nearest cottage.
But the patient exclaimed with great earnestness, " Na,
na, na ! — to the Kaim o* Derncleugh — the Kaim o* Dern-
cleugh ; — the spirit will not free itself o* the flesh but
there."

" You must indulge her, I believe," said Bertram ; —
" her troubled imagination will otherwise aggravate the
fever of the wound."

They bore her accordingly to the vault. On the way
her mind seemed to run more upon the scene which had
just passed, than on her own approaching death. "There
were three of them set upon him ; I brought the twasome
— but wha was the third ? — It would be himaeU returned
to work his ain vengeance ! "

It was evident that the unexpected appearance of
Hazlewood, whose person the outrage of Hatteraick left
her no time to recognise, had produced a strong effect on
her imagination. She often recurred to it. Hazlewood
accounted for his unexpected arrival to Bertram by say-

296 WAVERLE* NOVELS.

ing that he had kept them in view for some time by the
direction of Mannering ; that, observing them disappear
into the cave, he had crept after them, meaning to an-
nounce himself and his errand, when his hand in the
darkness encountering the leg of Dinmont had nearly
produced a catastrophe, which, indeed, nothing but the
presence of mind and fortitude of the bold yeoman could
have averted.

When the gipsy arrived at the hut, she produced the
key ; and when they entered, and were about to deposit her
upon the bed, she said in an anxious tone, " Na, na ! not
that way — the feet to the east ; " and appeared gratified
when they reversed her posture accordingly, and placed
her in that appropriate to a dead body.

" Is there no clergyman near," said Bertram, " to assist
this unhappy woman's devotions ? "

A gentleman, the minister of the parish, who had been
Charles Hazlewood's tutor, had, with many others, caught
the alarm that the murderer of Kennedy was taken on
the spot where the deed had been done so many years
before, and that a woman was mortally wounded. From
curiosity, or rather from the feeling that his duty called
him to scenes of distress, this gentleman had come to the
Kaim of Derncleugh, and now presented himself. The
surgeon arrived at the same time, and was about to probe
the wound ; but Meg resisted the assistance of either.
" It's no what man can do, that will heal my body, or
save my spirit. Let me speak what I have to say, and
then ye may work your will — I'se be nae hinderance.
But where's Henry Bertram?" — The assistants, to
whom this name had been long a stranger, gazed upon
each other. — " Yes ! " she said, in a stronger and harsher
tone, " I said Henry Bertram of EUangowan. Stand
from the light and let me see him."

GUT MANNERING. 297

All eyes were turned towards Bertram, who approached
the wretched couch. The wounded woman took hold of
his hand. " Look at him," she said, " all that ever saw
his father or his grandfather ; and hear witness if he is
not their living image ? " A murmur went through the
crowd — the resemblance was too striking to be denied.
" And now hear me — and let that man," pointing to Hat-
teraick, who was seated with his keepers on a sea-chest
at some distance — " let him deny what I say, if he can.
That is Henry Bertram, son to Godfrey Bertram, um-
quhile of Ellangowan ; that young man is the very lad-
bairn that Dirk Hatteraick carried off from Warroch-wood
the day that he murdered the gauger. I was there like
a wandering spirit — for I longed to see that wood or we
left the country. I saved the bairn's life, and sair, sair I
prigged and prayed they would leave him wi' me — But
they bore him away, and he's been lang ower the sea,
and now he's come for his ain, and what should withstand
him ? I swore to keep the secret till he was ane-an'-
twenty — I kenn'd he behoved to dree his weird till that
day cam — I keepit that oath which I took to them — but
I made another vow to mysell, and if I lived to see the
day of his return, I would set him in his father's seat, if
every step was on a dead man. I have keepit that oath
too ; — I will be ae step mysell — he " (pointing to Hat-
teraick) " will soon be another, and there will be ane
mair yet"

The clergyman now interposing, remarked it was a
pity this deposition was not regularly taken and written
down, and the surgeon urged the necessity of examining
the wound, previously to exhausting her by questions.

When she saw them removing Hatteraick, in order to
clear the room and leave the surgeon to his operations,

298 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

she called out aloud, raising herself at the same time
upon the couch, " Dirk Hatteraick, you and I will never
meet again until we are before the judgment-seat — Will
ye own to what I have said, or will you dare deny it ? "
— He turned his hardened brow upon her, with a look
of dumb and inflexible defiance. " Dirk Hatteraick, dare
ye deny, with my blood upon your hands, one word of
what my dying breath is uttering ? " He looked at her
with the same expression of hardihood and dogged stub-
bornness, and moved his lips, but uttered no sound.
" Then fareweel ! " she said, " and God forgive you ! —
your hand has sealed my evidence. When I was in life,
I was the mad randy gipsy, that had been scourged, and
banished and branded — that had begged from door to
door, and been hounded like a stray tike from parish to
parish — wha would hae minded her tale ? But now I
am a dying woman, and my words will not fall to the
ground, any more than the earth will cover my blood ! "

She here paused, and all left the hut except the surgeon
and two or three women. After a very short examina-
tion, he shook his head, and resigned his post by the
dying woman's side to the clergyman.

A chaise returning empty to Kippletringan had been
stopped on the high-road by a constable, who foresaw it
would be necessary to convey Hatteraick to jail. The
driver understanding what was going on at Derncleugh,
left his horses to the care of a blackguard boy, confiding,
it is to be supposed, rather in the years and discretion of
the cattle, than in those of their keeper, and set off full
speed, to see, as he expressed himself, " whaten a sort o*
fun was gaun on." He arrived just as the group of
tenants and peasants, whose numbers increased every
moment, satiated with gazing upon the rugged features

GUT MANNERING. 299

of Hatteraick, had turned their attention towards Bertram.
Almost all of them, especially the aged men who had
seen Ellangowan in his better days, felt and acknowledged
the justice of Meg Merrilies's appeal. But the Scotch
are a cautious people ; — they remembered there was an-
other in possession of the estate, and they as yet only
expressed their feelings in low whispers to each other.
Our friend Jock Jabos, the postilion, forced his way into
the middle of the circle ; but no sooner cast his eyes upon
Bertram, than he started back in amazement, with a
solemn exclamation, "As sure as there's breath in man,
it's auld Ellangowan arisen from the dead ! "

This public declaration of an unprejudiced witness was
just the spark wanted to give fire to the popular feeling,
which burst forth in three distinct shouts : — " Bertram
forever ! " — " Long life to the heir of Ellangowan ! " —
" God send him his ain, and to live among us as his
forebears did of yore ! "

"I hae been seventy years on the land," said one
person.

" I and mine hae been seventy and seventy to that,"
said another ; " I have a right to ken the glance of a
Bertram."

" I and mine hae been three hundred years here," said
another old man, " and I sail sell my last cow, but Til see
the young laird placed in his right."

The women, ever delighted with the marvellous, and
not less so when a handsome young man is the subject of
the tale, added their shrill acclamations to the general
all-hail. — " Blessings on him — he's the very picture o' his
father ! — the Bertrams were aye the wale o' the country
side ! "

" Eh ! that his puir mother, that died in grief and in

300 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

doubt about bim, had but lived to see this day ! n ex-
claimed some female voices.

" But we'll help him to his am, kimmers," cried others ;
" and before Glossin sail keep the Place of Ellangowan,
we'll howk him out o't wi' our nails ! *

Others crowded around Dinmont, who was nothing
loth to tell what he knew of his friend, and to boast the
honour which he had in contributing to the discovery.
As he was known to several of the principal farmers
present, his testimony afforded an additional motive to the
general enthusiasm. In short, it was one of those mo-
ments of intense feeling, when the frost of the Scottish
people melts like a snow-wreath, and the dissolving tor-
rent carries dam and dyke before it

The sudden shouts interrupted the devotions of the
clergyman ; and Meg, who was in one of those dozing
fits of stupefaction that precede the close of existence,
suddenly started—" Dinna ye hear ?— dinna ye hear ?—
he's owned ! — he's owned ! — I lived but for this. — I am a
sinfu' woman ; but if my curse brought it down, my
blessing has taen it off! And now I wad hae liked to
hae said mair. But it carina be. Stay" — she con-
tinued, stretching her head towards the gleam of light
that shot through the narrow slit which served for a win-
dow — " Is he not there ? — stand out o' the light, and let
me look upon him ance mair. But the darkness is in my
ain een," she said, sinking back, after an earnest gaze
upon vacuity — " it's a' ended now,

Pass breath,
Come death ! "

And, sinking back upon her couch of straw, she expired
without a groan. The clergyman and the surgeon care-

GUT MANNERING. 301

fully noted down all that she had said, now deeply regret-
ting they had not examined her more minutely, but
both remaining morally convinced of the truth of her
disclosure.

Hazlewood was the first to compliment Bertram upon
the near prospect of his being restored to his name and
rank in society. The people around, who now learned
from Jabos that Bertram was the person who had
wounded him, were struck with his generosity, and added
his name to Bertram's in their exulting acclamations.

Some, however, demanded of the postilion how he had
not recognised Bertram when he saw him some time be-
fore at Kippletringan ? — to which he gave the very natu-
ral answer — " Hout, what was I thinking about Ellango-
wan then ? — It was the cry that was rising e'en now that
the | young laird was found, that put me on finding out the
likeness. — There was nae missing it ance ane was set to
look for't"

The obduracy of Hatteraick, during the latter part of
this scene, was in some slight degree shaken. He was
observed to twinkle with his eyelids — to attempt to raise
his bound hands for the purpose of pulling his hat over
his brow — to look angrily and impatiently to the road, as
if anxious for the vehicle which was to remove him from
the spot — At length Mr. Hazlewood, apprehensive that
the popular ferment might take a direction towards the
prisoner, directed he should be taken to the post- chaise,
and so removed to the town of Kippletringan, to be at
Mr. Mac-Morlan's disposal ; at the same time he sent an
express to warn that gentleman of what had happened. —
u And now," he said to Bertram, " I should be happy if
you would accompany me to Hazlewood-House ; but as
that might not be so agreeable just now as I trust it will

302 WAVERLET NOVELS.

be in a day or two, you must allow me to return with you
to Woodbourne. But you are on foot." — " O, if the
young laird would take my horse ! " — " Or mine " — " Or
mine," said half a dozen voices — " Or mine ; he can trot
ten mile an hour without whip or spur, and he's the
young laird's frae this moment, if he likes to take him for
a herezeld,* as they ca'd it lang syne." — Bertram readily
accepted the horse as a loan, and poured forth his thanks
to the assembled crowd for their good wishes, which they
repaid with shouts and vows of attachment.

While the happy owner was directing one lad to " gae
down for the new saddle ;" another, "just to rin the beast
ower wi' a dry wisp o' strae ; " a third, " to hie down and
borrow Dan Dunkieson's plated stirrups," and expressing
his regret " that there was nae time to gie the nag a feed,
that the young laird might ken his mettle," — Bertram,
taking the clergyman by the arm, walked into the vault,
and shut the door immediately after them. He gazed in
silence for some minutes upon the body of Meg Merri-
lies, as it lay before him, with the features sharpened by
death, yet still retaining the stern and energetic character
which had maintained in life her superiority as the wild
ohieftainess of the lawless people amongst whom she was
born. The young soldier dried the tears which involun-
tarily rose on viewing this wreck of one, who might be
said to have died a victim to her fidelity to his person and
family. He then took the clergyman's hand, and asked
solemnly, if she appeared able to give that attention to
his devotions which befitted a departing person.

* This hard word is placed in the mouth of one of the aged tenants.
In the old feudal tenures, the herezeld constituted the best horse or
other animal on the vassals' lands, become the right of the superior.
The only remnant of this custom is what is called the sasine, or a fee
of certain estimated value, paid to the sheriff of the county who gives
possession to the vassals of the crown.

GUT MANNERING. 303

"My dear sir," said the good minister, "I trust this
poor woman had remaining sense to feel and join in the
import of my prayers. But let us humbly hope we are
judged of by our opportunities of religious and moral in-
struction. In some degree she might be considered as an
uninstructed heathen, even in the bosom of a Christian
country ; — and let us remember, that the errors and vices
of an ignorant life were balanced by instances of disin-
terested attachment amounting almost to heroism. To
Him, who can alone weigh our crimes and errors against
our efforts towards virtue, we consign her with awe, but
not without hope."

"May I request," said Bertram, "that you will see
every decent solemnity attended to in behalf of this poor
woman ? I have some property belonging to her in my
hands — at all events, I will be answerable for the expense
— You will hear of me at Woodbourne."

Dinmont, who had been furnished with a horse by one
of his acquaintance, now loudly called out that all was
ready for their return; and Bertram and Hazlewood,
after a strict exhortation to the crowd, which was now in-
creased to several hundreds, to preserve good order in
their rejoicing, as the least ungoverned zeal might be
turned to the disadvantage of the young Laird, as they
termed him, took their leave amid the shouts of the mul-
titude.

As they rode past the ruined cottages at Derncleugh,
Dinmont said, " Fm sure when ye come to your ain, Cap-
tain, ye'll no forget to bigg a bit cot-house there ? Deil
be in me but I wad do't mysell, an it werena in better
hands. I wadna like to live in't though, after what she
said. Od, I wad put in auld Elspeth, the bedraTs widow
— the like o* them's used wi* graves and ghaists, and thae
things."

804 WAVERLEJ NOVELS.

A short but brisk ride brought them to Woodbourne.
The news of their exploit had already flown far and wide,
and the whole inhabitants of the vicinity met them on the
lawn with shouts of congratulation. "That you have
seen me alive," said Bertram to Lucy, who first ran up to
him, though Julia's eyes even anticipated hers, " you must
thank these kind friends."

With a blush expressing at once pleasure, gratitude,
and bashfulness, Lucy courtesied to Hazlewood, but to
Dinmont she frankly extended her hand. The honest
farmer, in the extravagance of his joy, carried his free-
dom farther than the hint warranted, for he imprinted his
thanks on the lady's lips, and was instantly shocked at the
rudeness of his own conduct. " Lord sake, madam, I ask
your pardon," he said ; " I forgot but ye had been a bairn
o' my ain — the Captain's sae hamely, he gars ane forget
himsell."

Old Pleydell now advanced : " Nay, if fees like these
are going,'' he said

" Stop, stop, Mr. Pleydell," said Julia, " you had your
fees beforehand — remember last night."

" Why, I do confess a retainer," said the barrister ;
" but if I don't deserve double fees from both Miss Ber-
tram and you when I conclude my examination of Dirk
Hatteraick to-morrow — Gad, I will so supple him ! — You
shall see, Colonel ; and you, my saucy Misses, though you
may not see, shall hear."

" Ay, that's if we choose to listen, counsellor," replied
Julia.

" And you think," said Pleydell, " it's two" to one you
won't choose that ? But you have curiosity that teaches
you the use of your ears now and then."

"I declare, counsellor," answered the lively damsel,

GUT MANNERING. 305

" that such saucy bachelors as you, would teach us the use
of our fingers now and then."

u Reserve them for the harpsichord, my love," said the
counsellor — " Better for all parties."

While this idle chat ran on, Colonel Mannering intro-
duced to Bertram a plain good-looking man, in a grey
coat and waistcoat, buckskin breeches, and boots. " This,
my dear sir, is Mr. Mac-Morlan."

" To whom," said Bertram, embracing him cordially,
" my sister was indebted for a home, when deserted by
all her natural friends and relations."

The Dominie then pressed forward, grinned, chuckled,
made a diabolical sound in attempting to whistle, and
finally, unable to stifle his emotions, ran away to empty
the feelings of his heart at his eyes.

We shall not attempt to describe the expansion of
heart and glee of this happy evening.

vol. IV. 20

306 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

CHAPTER LVL

How like a hateful ape,

Detected grinning 'midst his pilfered hoard,
A canning man appears, whose secret frauds

Are opened to the day !

Count Basil.

There was a great movement at Woodbourne" early
on the following morning, to attend the examination at
Kippletringan. Mr. Pleydell, from the investigation
which he had formerly bestowed on the dark affair of
Kennedy's death, as well as from the general deference
due to his professional abilities, was requested by Mr.
Mac-Morlan and Sir Robert Hazlewood, and another
justice of peace who attended, to take the situation of
chairman, and the lead in the examination. Colonel
Mannering was invited to sit down with them. The
examination, being previous to trial, was private in other
respects.

The counsellor resumed and re-interrogated former
evidence. He then examined the clergyman and surgeon
respecting the dying declaration of Meg Merrilies. They
stated, that she distinctly, positively, and repeatedly, de-
clared herself an eye-witness of Kennedy's death by the
hands of Hatteraick, and two or three of his crew ; that
her presence was accidental; that she believed their
resentment at meeting him, when they were in the act of

GUT MANNERING. 307

losing their vessel through the means of his information,
led to the commission of the crime ; that she said there
was one witness of the murder, but who refused to par-
ticipate in it, still alive, — her nephew, Gabriel Faa ; and
she had hinted at another person who was an accessory
after, not before, the fact ; but her strength there failed her.
They did not forget to mention her declaration, that she
had saved the child, and that he was torn from her by the
smugglers, for the purpose of carrying him to Holland. —
All these particulars were carefully reduced to writing.

Dirk Hatteraick was then brought in, heavily ironed ;
for he had been strictly secured and guarded, owing to
his former escape. He was asked his name ; he made
no answer: — His profession; he was silent: — Several
other questions were put ; to none of which he returned
any reply. Pleydell wiped the glasses of his spectacles, and
considered the prisoner very attentively. " A very truc-
ulent-looking fellow," he whispered to Mannering ; " but,
as Dogberry says, I'll go cunningly to work with him. —
Here, call in Soles — Soles the shoemaker. — Soles, do you
remember measuring some footsteps imprinted on the

mud at the wood of Warroch, on November 17 — ,

by my orders?" Soles remembered the circumstance
perfectly. — " Look at that paper — is that your note of
the measurement ? " Soles verified the memorandum. —
" Now, there stands a pair of shoes on that table ; measure
them, and see if they correspond with any of the marks
you have noted there." The shoemaker obeyed, and
declared, " that they answered exactly to the largest of
the footprints."

" We shall prove," said the counsellor, aside to Man-
nering, " that these shoes, which were found in the ruins
at Derncleugh, belonged to Brown, the fellow whom you

308 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

shot on the lawn at Woodbourne. — Now, Soles, measure
that prisoner's feet very accurately."

Mannering observed Hatteraick strictly, and could
notice a visible tremour. u Do these measurements cor-
respond with any of the foot-prints ? "

The man looked at the note, then at his foot-rule and
measure — then verified his former measurement by a
second. " They correspond," he said, " within a hair-
breadth, to a foot-mark broader and shorter than the
former."

Hatteraick's genius here deserted him — " Der deyvil ! "
he broke out, " how could there be a foot-mark on the
ground, when it was a frost as hard as the heart of a
Memel log ? "

" In the evening, I grant you, Captain Hatteraick,"
said Pleydell, " but not in the forenoon — Will you favour
me with information where you were upon the day you
remember so exactly?"

Hatteraick saw his blunder, and again screwed up his
hard features for obstinate silence. — " Put down his ob-
servation, however," said Pleydell to the clerk.

At this moment the door opened, and, much to the sur-
prise of most present, Mr. Gilbert Glossin made his ap-
pearance. That worthy gentleman had, by dint of
watching and eaves-dropping, ascertained that he was not
mentioned by name in Meg Merrilies's dying declaration
— a circumstance certainly not owing to any favourable
disposition towards him, but to the delay of taking her
regular examination, and to the rapid approach of death.
He therefore supposed himself safe from all evidence but
such as might arise from Hatteraick's confession ; to pre-
vent which, he resolved to push a bold face, and join his
brethren of the bench during his examination. — " I shall

GUT MANNERING. 309

be able," he thought, " to make the rascal sensible his
safety lies in keeping his own counsel and mine ; and my
presence, besides, will be a proof of confidence and inno-
cence. If I must lose the estate, I must — but I trust
better things."

He entered with a profound salutation to Sir Robert
Hazlewood. Sir Robert, who had rather begun to sus-
pect that his plebeian neighbour had made a cat's paw of
him, inclined his head stiffly, took snuff, and looked another
way.

" Mr. Corsand," said Glossin to the other yoke-fellow
of justice, " your most humble servant."

" Your humble servant, Mr. Glossin," answered Mr.
Corsand, drily, composing his countenance regis ad ex-
emplar, — that is to say, after the fashion of the Baronet.

" Mac-Morlan, my worthy friend," continued Glossin,
" how d'ye do — always on your duty ? "

" Umph," said honest Mac-Morlan, with little respect
either to the compliment or salutation. — " Colonel Man-
nering," (a low bow slightly returned,) " and Mr. Pley-
dell," (another low bow,) " I dared not have hoped for
your assistance to poor country gentlemen at this period
of the session."

Pleydell took snuff, and eyed him with* a glance equally
shrewd and sarcastic — " I'll teach him," he said aside to
Mannering, " the value of the old admonition, Ne acces-
seris in consilium antequam voceris."

" But perhaps I intrude, gentlemen," said Glossin, who
could not fail to observe the coldness of his reception —
" Is this an open meeting ? "

" For my part," said Mr. Pleydell, " so far from con-
sidering your attendance as an intrusion, Mr. Glossin, I
was never so pleased in my life to meet with ^ou ; espec-

310 WATERLET NOYELS.

ially as I think we should, at any rate, have had occasion
to request the favour of your company in the course of
the day."

" Well, then, gentlemen," said Glossin, drawing his
chair to the table, and beginning to bustle about among
the papers, " where are we ? — how far have we got ?
where are the declarations ? "

" Clerk, give me all those papers," said Mr. Pley-
dell. — " I have an odd way of arranging my documents,
Mr. Glossin — another person touching them puts me out ;
— but I shall have occasion for your assistance by and
by."

Glossin, thus reduced to inactivity, stole one glance at
Dirk Hatteraick, but could read nothing in his dark scowl
save malignity and hatred to all around. " But, gentle-
men," said Glossin, " is it quite right to keep this poor
man so heavily ironed, when he is taken up merely for
examination ? "

This was hoisting a kind of friendly signal to the pris-
oner. " He has escaped once before," said Mac-Morlan
drily, and Glossin was silenced.

Bertram was now introduced, and, to Glossin's confu-
sion, was greeted in the most friendly manner by all
present, even by Sir Robert Hazlewood himself. He
told his recollections of his infancy with that candour and
caution of expression which afforded the best warrant for
his good faith. " This seems to be rather a civil than a
criminal question," said Glossin, rising, "anfl as you
cannot be ignorant, gentlemen, of the effect which this
young person's pretended parentage may have on my
patrimonial interest, I would rather beg leave to retire."

u No, my good sir," said Mr. Pleydell — " we can by
no means spare you. But why do you call this young

GUY MANNERING. 811

man's claims pretended ? — I don't mean to fish for your
defences against them, if you have any, but *

" Mr. Pleydell," replied Glossin, " I am always dis-
posed to act above-board, and I think I can explain the
matter at once. This young fellow, whom I take to be a
natural son of the late Ellangowan, has gone about the
country for some weeks under different names, caballing
with a wretched old mad-woman, who, I understand, was
shot in a late scuffle, and with other tinkers, gipsies, and
persons of that description, and a great brute farmer
from Liddesdale, stirring up the tenants against their
landlords, which, as Sir Robert Hazlewood of Hazlewood
knows "

" Not to interrupt you, Mr. Glossin," said Pleydell, w I
ask who you say this young man is ? "

u Why, I say," replied Glossin, " and I believe that
gentleman" (looking at Hatteraick) "knows that the
young man is a natural son of the late Ellangowan by
a girl called Janet Lightoheel, who was afterwards mar-
ried to Hewit, the shipwright, that lived in the neighbour-
hood of Annan. His name is Godfrey Bertram Hewit,
by which name he was entered on board the Royal Caro-
line excise yacht"

" Ay? " said Pleydell, — w that is a very likely story ! —
but not to pause upon some difference of eyes, complexion
and so forth,-— be pleased to step forward, sir." — A young
seafaring man came forward. — "Here," proceeded the
counsellor, " is the real Simon Pure — here's Godfrey
Bertram Hewit, arrived last night from Antigua via
Liverpool, mate of a West Indian, and in a fair way of
doing well in the world, although he came somewhat
irregularly into it."

While some conversation passed between the other

312 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

justices and this young man, Pleydell lifted from among
the papers on the table Hatteraick's old pocket-book. A
peculiar glance of the smuggler's eye induced the shrewd
lawyer to think there* was something here of interest.
He therefore continued the examination of the papers,
laying the book on the table, but instantly perceived that
the prisoner's interest in the research, had cooled. — " It
must be in the book still, whatever it is," thought Pley-
dell ; and again applied himself to the pocket-book, until
he discovered, on a narrow scrutiny, a slit, between the
pasteboard and leather, out of which he drew three small
slips of paper. Pleydell now, turning to Glossin, re-
quested the favour that he would tell them if he had
assisted at the search for the body of Kennedy, and the
child of his patron, on the day when they disappeared."

" I did not — that is — I did," answered the conscience-
struck Glossin.

a It is remarkable, though," said the advocate, " that
connected as you were with the Ellangowan family, I
don't recollect your being examined, or even appearing
before me, while that investigation was proceeding ? "

" I was called to London," answered Glossin, " on most
important business, the morning after that sad affair."

" Clerk," said Pleydell, " minute down that reply. — I
presume the business, Mr. Glossin, was to negociate these
three bills, drawn by you on Messrs. Vanbeest and Van-
bruggen, and accepted by one Dirk Hatteraick in their
name, on the very day of the murder. I congratulate
you on their being regularly retired, as I perceive they
have been. I think the chances were against it." Glos-
sin's countenance fell. "This piece of real evidence,"
continued Mr. Pleydell, " makes good the account given
of your conduct on this occasion by a man called Gabriel

GUY MANNERING. 313

Faa, whom we have now in custody, and who witnessed
the whole transaction between you and that worthy pris-
oner — Have you any explanation to give ? "

"Mr. Pleydell," said Glossin with great composure,
" I presume, if you were my counsel, you would not ad-
vise me to answer upon the spur of the moment to a
charge, which the basest of mankind seem ready to
establish by perjury."

" My advice," said the counsellor, " would be regulated
by my opinion of your innocence or guilt. In your case,
I believe you take the wisest course ; but you are aware
you must stand committed ? "

" Committed ? — for what, sir? " replied Glossin ; " upon
a charge of murder ? "

" No ; only as art and part of kidnapping the child."

" That is a bailable offence."

" Pardon me," said Pleydell, " it is plagium, and pla-
gium is felony."

" Forgive me, Mr. Pleydell ; — there is only one case
upon record, Torrence and Waldie. They were, you
remember, resurrection-women, who had promised to
procure a child's body for some young surgeons. Being
upon honour to their employers, rather than disappoint
the evening lecture of the students, they stole a live child,
murdered it, and sold the body for three shillings and six-
pence. — They were hanged, but for the murder, not for
the plagium.* Your civil law has carried you a little too
far."

" Well, sir ; — but, in the meantime, Mr. Mac-Morlan
must commit you to the county jail, in case this young
man repeats the same story. — Officers, remove Mr.

* This is, in its circumstances and issue, actually a case tried and
reported.

814 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Grlossin and Hatteraick, and guard them in different
apartments."

Gabriel, the gipsy, was then introduced, and gave a
distinct account of his deserting from Captain Pritchard's
vessel and joining the smugglers in the action ; detailed
how Dirk Hatteraick set fire to his ship when he found
her disabled, and under cover of the smoke escaped with
his crew, and as much goods as they could save, into the
cavern, where they proposed to lie till night-fall. Hat-
teraick himself, his mate Yanbeest Brown, and three
others, of whom the declarant was one, went into the
adjacent woods to communicate with some of their friends
in the neighbourhood. They fell in with Kennedy unex-
pectedly, and Hatteraick and Brown, aware that he was
the occasion of their disasters, resolved to murder him.
He stated, that he had seen them lay violent hands on
the officer, and drag him through the woods, but had not
partaken in the assault, nor witnessed its termination.
That he returned to the cavern by a different route,
where he again met Hatteraick and his accomplices ; and
the captain was in the act of giving an account how he
and Brown had pushed a huge crag over, as Kennedy
lay groaning on the beach, when Glossin suddenly ap-
peared among them. To the whole transaction by which
Hatteraick purchased his secrecy he was witness. Re-
specting young Bertram he could give a distinct account
till he went to India, after which he had lost sight of him
until he unexpectedly met with him in Liddesdale.
Gabriel Faa farther stated, that he instantly sent notice
to his aunt Meg Merrilies, as well as to Hatteraick, who
he knew was then upon the coast ; but that he had in-
curred his aunt's displeasure upon the latter account. He
concluded, that his aunt had immediately declared that

GUY MANNERING. 315

she would do all that lay in her power to help young
Ellangowan to his right, even if it should be by informing
against Dirk Hatteraick ; and that many of her people
assisted her besides himself, from a belief that she was
gifted with supernatural inspirations. With the same
purpose, he understood, his aunt had given to Bertram
the treasure of the tribe, of which she had the custody.
Three or four gipsies, by the express command of Meg
Merrilies, had mingled in the crowd when the Custom-
house was attacked, for the purpose of liberating Bertram,
which he had himself effected. He said, that in obeying
Meg's dictates they did not pretend to estimate their
propriety or rationality ; the respect in which she was
held by her tribe precluding all such subjects of specula-
tion. Upon farther interrogation, the witness added, that
his aunt had always said that Harry Bertram carried
that round his neck which would ascertain his birth. It
was a spell, she said, that an Oxford scholar had made
for him, and she possessed the smugglers with an opinion,
that to deprive him of it would occasion the loss of the
vessel.

Bertram here produced a small velvet bag, which he
said he had worn round his neck from his earliest infancy,
and which he had preserved, — first from superstitious
reverence, — and latterly, from the hope that it might
serve one day to aid in the discovery of his birth. The
bag being opened, was found to contain a blue silk case,
from which was drawn a scheme of nativity. Upon in-
specting this paper, Colonel Mannering instantly admitted
it was his own composition, and afforded the strongest
and most satisfactory evidence, that the possessor of it
must necessarily be the young heir of Ellangowan, by
avowing his having first appeared in that country in the
character of an astrologer.

316 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" And now," said Pleydell, " make out warrants of com-
mitment for Hatteraick and Glossin until liberated in
due course of law. Yet," he said, " I am sorry for
Glossin."

" Now, I think," said Mannering, " he's incomparably
the least deserving of pity of the two. The other's a
bold fellow, though as hard as flint."

" Very natural, Colonel," said the advocate, " that you
should be interested in the ruffian, and I in the knave —
that's all professional taste ; but I can tell you, Glossin
would have been a pretty lawyer, had he not had such a
turn for the roguish part of the profession."

" Scandal would say," observed Mannering, " he might
not be the worse lawyer for that."

" Scandal would tell a lie, then," replied Pleydell, " as
she usually does. Law's like laudanum ; it's much more
easy to use it as a quack does, than to learn to apply it
like a physician."

GUY KfANNERING. 317

CHAPTER LVIL

Unfit to lire or die — marble heart!
After him, fellows, drag him to the block.

Mbasube fob Mkasurk.

The jail at the county town of the shire of

was one of those old-fashioned dungeons which disgraced
Scotland until of late years. When the prisoners and
their guard arrived there, Hatteraick, whose violence and
strength were well known, was secured in what was
called the condemned ward. This was a large apartment
near the top of the prison. A round bar of iron, about
the thickness of a man's arm above the elbow, crossed
the apartment horizontally at the height of about six
inches from the floor ; and its extremities were strongly
built into the wall at either end.* Hatteraick's ankles
were secured within shackles, which were connected by a
chain at the distance of about four feet, with a large iron
ring, which travelled upon the bar we have described.
Thus a prisoner might shuffle along the length of the
bar from one side of the room to another, but could not

* This mode of securing prisoners was universally practised in
Scotland after condemnation. When a man received sentence of
death, he was put upon the Gad, as it was called, that is, secured to
the bar of iron in the manner mentioned in the text. The practice
subsisted in Edinburgh till the old jail was taken down some yean
since, and perhaps may be still in use.

318 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

retreat farther from it in any other direction than the
brief length of the chain admitted. When his feet had
been thus secured, the keeper removed his hand-cuffs,
and left his person at liberty in other respects. A pallet-
bed was placed close to the bar of iron, so that the
shackled prisoner might lie down at pleasure, still fast-
ened to the iron-bar in the manner described.

Hatteraick had not been long in this ^)lace of confine-
ment, before Glossin arrived at the same prison-house.
In respect to his comparative rank and education, he was
not ironed, but placed in a decent apartment, under the
inspection of Mac-Guffog, who, since the destruction of
the Bridewell of Portanferry by the mob, had acted here
as an under-turnkey. When Glossin was enclosed within
this room, and had solitude and leisure to calculate all
the chances against him and in his favour, he could not
prevail upon himself to consider the game as desperate.

" The estate is lost," he said, " that must go ; — and,
between Pleydell and Mac-Morlan, they'll cut down my
claim on it to a trifle. My character — but if I get off
with life and liberty, I'll win money yet, and varnish that
over again. I knew not the gaugei^s job until the rascal
had done the deed, and though I had some advantage by
the contraband, that is no felony. But the kidnapping
of the boy — there they touch me closer. Let me see : —
This Bertram was a child at the time — his evidence must
be imperfect — the other fellow is a deserter, a gipsy, and
an outlaw — Meg Merrilies, d — n her, is dead. These
infernal bills ! Hatteraick brought them with him, I
suppose, to have the means of threatening me, or extort-
ing money from me. I must endeavour to see the rascal —
must get him to stand steady — must persuade him to put
some other colour upon the business."

GUY MANNERING. 319

His mind teeming with schemes of future deceit to
cover former villany, he spent the time in arranging and
combining them until the hour of supper. Mac-Guffog
attended as turnkey on this occasion. He was, as we
know, the old and special acquaintance of the prisoner
who was now under his charge. After giving the turn-
key a glass of brandy, and sounding him with one or two
cajoling speeches, Glossin made it his request that he
would help him to an interview with Dirk Hatteraick. —
" Impossible ! utterly impossible ! — it's contrary to the
express orders of Mr. Mac-Morlan, and the captain " (as
the head jailor of a county jail is called in Scotland)
" would never forgie me."

" But why should he know of it ? " said Glossin, slip-
ping a couple of guineas into Mac-Guffog's hand.

The turnkey weighed the gold, and looked sharp at
Glossin. — " Ay, ay, Mr. Glossin, ye ken the ways o' this
place. Lookee, at lock-up hour, I'll return and bring ye
up stairs to him — But ye must stay a' night in his cell,
for I am under needcessity to carry the keys to the
captain for the night, and I cannot let you out again until
morning — then I'll visit the wards half an hour earlier
than usual, and ye may get out, and be snug in your ain
birth when the captain gangs his rounds."

When the hour of ten had pealed from the neighbour-
ing steeple, Mac-Guffog came prepared with a small dark
lantern. He said softly to Glossin, M Slip your shoes off,
and follow me." When Glossin was out of the door,
Mac-Guffog, as if in the execution of his ordinary duty,
and speaking to a prisoner within, called aloud, " Good
night to you, sir," and locked the door, clattering the
bolts with much ostentatious noise. He then guided
Glossin up a steep and narrow stair, at the top of which

320 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

was the door of the condemned ward ; he unbarred and
unlocked it, and giving Glossin the lantern, made a sign to
him to enter, and locked the door behind him with the
same affected accuracy.

In the large dark cell into which he was thus intro-
duced, Glossin's feeble light for some time, enabled him
to discover nothing. At length he could dimly distinguish
the pallet-bed stretched on the floor beside the great iron
bar which traversed the room, and on that pallet reposed
the figure of a man. Glossin approached him—" Dirk
Hatteraick ! "

" Donner and hagel ! it is his voice," said the prisoner,
sitting up and clashing his fetters as he rose : " then my
dream is true ! Begone, and leave me to myself — it will
be your best."

" What ! my good friend," said Glossin, " will you
allow the prospect of a few weeks' confinement to depress
your spirit ? "

" Yes," answered the ruffian, sullenly — " when I am
only to be released by a halter ! — Let me alone — go about
your business, and turn the lamp from my face."

" Psha ! my dear Dirk, don't be afraid," said Glossin ;
a I have a glorious plan to make all right."

" To the bottomless pit with ,your plans ! " replied his
accomplice. u You have planned me out of ship, cargo,
and life ; and I dreamt this moment that Meg Merrilies
dragged you here by the hair, and gave me the long
clasped knife she used to wear. You don't know what
she said — Sturm wetter ! it will be your wisdom not to
tempt me ! "

" But, Hatteraick, my good friend, do but rise and speak
to me," said Glossin.

" I will not ! " answered the savage, doggedly — " you

GUY MANNERING. 321

have caused all the mischief; you would not let Meg
keep the boy — she would have returned him after he had
forgot all."

" Why, Hatteraick, you are turned driveller ! "

" Wetter ! will you deny that all that cursed attempt
at Portanferry, which lost both sloop and crew, was your
device for your own job ? "

" But the goods, you know "

" Curse the goods ! " said the smuggler, — " we could
have got plenty more ; but, der dey vil ! to lose the ship
and the fine fellows, and my own life, for a cursed coward
villain, that always works his own mischief with other
people's hands ! Speak to me no more — I'm dangerous."

"But, Dirk — but, Hatteraick, hear me only a few
words."

" Hagel ! nein ! "

" Only one sentence."

" Tausand curses ! nein ! "

u At least get up, for an obstinate Dutch brute ! " said
Glossin, losing his temper, and pushing Hatteraick with
his foot.

" Donner and blitzen ! " said Hatteraick, springing up
and grappling with him — " you will have it then ? "

Glossin struggled and resisted ; but, owing to his sur-
prise at the fury of the assault, so ineffectually, that he
fell under Hatteraick, the back part of his neck coming
full upon the iron bar with stunning violence. The death-
grapple continued. The room immediately below the
condemned ward, being that of Glossin, was, of course,
empty ; but the inmates of the second apartment beneath
felt the shock of Glossin's heavy fall, and heard a noise
as of struggling and of groans. But all sounds of horror

VOL. IV. 21

322. WAVEBLEY .NOVELS.

were too congenial to this place to excite much curiosity
or interest.

In the morning, faithful to his promise, Mac-GufFog
came—" Mr. Glossin," said he, in a whispering voice.

" Call louder," answered Dirk Hatteraick.

" Mr. Glossin, for God's sake come away ! "

" He'll hardly do that without help," said Hatteraick.

" What are you chattering there for, Mac-Guffog ? "
called out the captain from below.

" Come away, for God's sake, Mr. Glossin ! " repeated
the turnkey.

At this moment the jailor made his appearance with a
light. Great was his surprise, and even horror, to observe
Glossin's body lying doubled across the iron bar, in a pos-
ture that excluded all idea of his being alive. Hatteraick
was quietly stretched upon his pallet within a yard of his
victim. On lifting Glossin, it was found he had been
dead for some hours. His body bore uncommon marks
of violence. The spine, where it joins the skull, had
received severe injury by his first fall. There were dis-
tinct marks of strangulation about the throat, which cor-
responded with the blackened state of his face. The
head was turned backward over the shoulder, as if the.
neck had been wrung round with desperate violence. So
that it would seem that his inveterate antagonist had fixed
a fatal gripe upon the wretch's throat, and never quitted
it while life lasted. The lantern, crushed and broken to
pieces, lay beneath the body.

Mac-Morlan was in the town, and came instantly to
examine the corpse. — " What brought Glossin here ? " he
said to Hatteraick.
. " The devil ! " answered the ruffian.

a And what did you do to him ? "

GUT MANNERING. 323

a Sent him to hell before me," replied the miscreant.

" Wretch ! " said Mac-Morlan, " you have crowned a
life spent without a single virtue, with the murder* of your
own miserable accomplice ! "

" Virtue ? " exclaimed the prisoner — " Donner ! I was.
always faithful to my ship-owners — always accounted for
cargo to the last stiver. Hark ye ! let me have pen and
ink, and I'll write an account of the whole to our house ;
and leave me alone a couple of hours, will ye — and let
them take away that piece of carrion, donner wetter ! "

Mac-Morlan deemed it the best way to humour the
savage ; he was furnished with writing materials, and left
alone. When they again opened the door, it was found
that this determined villain had anticipated justice. He
had adjusted a cord taken from the truckle-bed, and
attached it to a bone, the relic of his yesterday's dinner,
which he had contrived to drive into a crevice between
two stones in the wall, at a height as great as he could
reach standing upon the bar. Having fastened the noose,
he had the resolution to drop his body as if to fall on his
knees, and to retain that posture until resolution was no
longer necessary. The letter he had written to his own-
ers, though chiefly upon the business of their trade, con-
tained many allusions to the younker of Ellangowan, as
he called him, and afforded absolute confirmation of all
Meg Merrilies and her nephew had told.

To dismiss the catastrophe of these two wretched men,
I shall only add, that Mac-Guffog was turned out of office,
notwithstanding his declaration, (which he offered to attest
by oath,) that he had locked Glossin safely in his own
room upon the night preceding his being found dead in
Dirk Hatteraick's cell. His story, however, found faith
with the worthy Mr. Skriegh, and other lovers of the

324

"WAVERLEY NOVELS.

marvellous, who still hold that the Enemy of Mankind
brought these two wretches together upon that night, by
supernatural interference, that they might fill up the
cup of their guilt and receive its meed, by murder and
suicide.

GUY MANNEBING. 825

CHAPTER LVm.

To sum the whole — the close of all.

Dean Swot.

As Glossin died without heirs, and without payment
of the price, the estate of Ellangowan was again thrown
upon the hands of Mr. Godfrey Bertram's creditors, the
right of most of whom was however defeasible, in case
Henry Bertram should establish his character of heir of
entail. This young gentleman put his affairs into the
hands of Mr. Pleydell and Mr. Mac-Morlan, with one
single proviso, that though he himself should be obliged
again to go. to India, every debt, justly and honourably
due by his father, should be made good to the claimant.
Mannering, who heard this declaration, grasped him kindly
by the hand, and from that moment might be dated a
thorough understanding between them.

The hoards of Miss Margaret Bertram, and the liberal
assistance of the Colonel, easily enabled the heir to
make provision for payment of the just creditors of his
father ;— while the ingenuity and research of his law
friends detected, especially in the accounts of Glossin, so
many overcharges as greatly diminished the total amount.
In these circumstances, the creditors did not hesitate to
recognise Bertram's right, and to surrender to him the
house and property of his ancestors. All the party re-
paired from Woodbourne to take possession, amid the

326 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

shouts of the tenantry and the neighbourhood; and so
eager was Colonel Mannering to superintend certain im-
provements which he had recommended to Bertram, that
he removed with his family from Woodbourne to Ellan-
gowan, although at present containing much less and
much inferior accommodation.

The poor Dominie's brain was almost turned with joy
on returning to his old habitation. He posted up stairs,
taking three steps at once, to a little shabby attic, his cell
and dormitory in former days, and which the possession
of his much superior apartment at Woodbourne had never
banished from his memory. Here one sad thought sud-
denly struck the honest man — the books ! — no three rooms
in Ellangowan were capable to contain them. While this
qualifying reflection was passing through his mind, he was
suddenly summoned by Mannering to assist in calculating
some proportions relating to a large and splendid house,
which was to be built on the site of the New Place of
Ellangowan, in a style corresponding to the magnificence
of the ruins in its vicinity. Among the various rooms in
the plan, the Dominie observed that one of the largest
was entitled The Library ; and close beside was a
snug well-proportioned chamber, entitled Mr. Sampson's
Apartment. — " Prodigious, prodigious, prodigious I "
shouted the enraptured Dominie.

Mr. Pleydell had left the party for some time ; but he
returned, according to promise, during the Christmas
recess of the courts. He drove up to Ellangowan when
all the family were abroad but the Colonel, who was busy
with plans of buildings and pleasure-grounds, in which
he was well skilled, and took great delight

" Ah ha ! " said the counsellor, — " so here you are 1
Where are the ladies ? where is the fair Julia ? "

GUT MANNERING. 327

"Walking out with young Hazlewood, Bertram, and
Captain Delaserre, a friend of his, who is with us just
now. They are gone to plan out a cottage at Derncleugh.
Well, have you carried through your law business ? "

" With a wet finger," answered the lawyer ; " got our
youngster's special service retoured into Chancery. We
had him served heir before the macers."

" Macers ? who are they ? "

" Why, it is a kind of judicial Saturnalia. You must
know, that one of the requisites to be a macer, or officer
in attendance upon our supreme court, is, that they shall
be men of no knowledge."

" Very well ! "

" Now, our Scottish legislature, for the joke's sake I
suppose, have constituted those men of no knowledge into
a peculiar court for trying questions of relationship and
descent, such as this business of Bertram, which often
involve the most nice and complicated questions of
evidence."

"The devil they have? — I should think that rather
inconvenient," said Mannering.

" O, we have a practical remedy for the theoretical
absurdity. One or two of the judges act upon such oc-
casions as prompters and assessors to their own door-
keepers. But you know what Cujacius says, Multa sunt
in moribus dissentanea, multa sine ratione.* However,
this Saturnalian court has done our business ; and a glo-
rious batch of claret we had afterwards at Walker's—
Mac-Morlan will stare when he sees the bill."

" Never fear," said the Colonel ; " we'll face the shock,
and entertain the county at my friend Mrs. Mac-Candlish's
to boot."

* The singular inconsistency hinted at is now, in a great degree,
removed.

828 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" And choose Jock Jabos for your master of horse ? "
replied the lawyer.

" Perhaps I may."

" And where is Dandie, the redoubted Lord of Liddes-
dale ? " demanded the advocate.

" Returned to his mountains ; but he has promised
Julia to make a descent in summer, with the goodwife, as
he calls her, and I don't know how many children."

" O, the curlie-headed varlets ! — I must come to play
at Blind Harry and Hy Spy with them. — But what is all
this ? " added Pleydell, taking up the plans ; — " tower in
the centre to be an imitation of the Eagle Tower at
Caernarvon — corps de logis — the devil ! — wings — wings ?
why, the house will take the estate of Ellangowan on its
back, and fly away with it ! "

" Why then, we must ballast it with a few bags of
Sicca rupees, ,, replied the Colonel.

ft Aha ! sits the wind there ? Then I suppose the
young dog carries off my mistress Julia ? "

" Even so, counsellor."

" These rascals, the post-nati, get the better of us of
the old school at every turn," said Mr. Pleydell. " But
she must convey and make over her interest in me to
Lucy."

" To tell you the truth, I am afraid your flank will be
turned there too," replied the Colonel.

« Indeed ? "

" Here has been Sir Robert Hazlewood," said Manner-
ing, "upon a visit to Bertram, thinking, and deeming,
and opining "

" O Lord ! pray spare me t\ie worthy baronet's triads ! "

" Well, sir," continued Mannering ; " to make short, he
conceived that as the property of Singleside lay like a

GUT MANNERING. 329

wedge between two farms of his, and was four or five
miles separated from Ellangowan, something like a sale,
or exchange, or arrangement might take place, to the
mutual convenience of both parties."

" Well, and Bertram "—

" Why, Bertram replied, that he considered the orig-
inal settlement of Mrs. Margaret Bertram as the arrange-
ment most proper in the circumstances of the family, and
that therefore the estate of Singleside was the property
of his sister."

" The rascal ! " said Pleydell, wiping his spectacles,
"he'll steal my heart as well as my mistress — Et
puis f " j

"And then Sir Robert retired, after many gracious
speeches ; but last week he again took the field in force,
with his coach and six horses, his laced scarlet waistcoat,
and best bob-wig — all very grand, as the good-boy books
say."

" Ah ! and what was his overture ? "

" Why he talked in great form of an attachment on the
part of Charles Hazlewood to Miss Bertram."

" Ay, ay ; he respected the little god Cupid when he
saw him perched on the Dun of Singleside. And is poor
Lucy to keep house with that old fool and his wife, who
is just the knight himself in petticoats ? "

"No — we parried that. Singleside-House is to be
repaired for the young people, and to be called hereafter
Mount Hazlewood."

" And do you yourself, Colonel, propose to continue at
Woodbourne ? "

" Only till we carry these plans into effect See, here's
the plan of my Bungalow, with all convenience for being
separate and sulky when I please."

330

WAVERLEY NOVELS.

see, next door to the old

" And, being situated, as I
castle, you may repair Donagild's tower for the nocturnal
contemplation of the celestial bodies ? Bravo, Colonel ! "

" No, no, my dear counsellor ! Here ends The As-

trologer.

n

END OF GUY MANNERLNG.