"But what of that, my good young friend?" said the Marquis. "Your Castle
of Wolf's Crag is at but five or six miles' distance, and will afford
the same hospitality to your kinsman of A----that it gave to this same
Sir William Ashton."

"Sir William took the castle by storm," said Ravenswood, "and, like many
a victor, had little reason to congratulate himself on his conquest."
"Well--well!" said Lord A----, whose dignity was something relaxed by
the wine he had drunk, "I see I must bribe you to harbour me. Come,
pledge me in a bumper health to the last young lady that slept at Wolf's
Crag, and liked her quarters. My bones are not so tender as hers, and I
am resolved to occupy her apartment to-night, that I may judge how hard
the couch is that love can soften."

"Your lordship may choose what penance you please," said Ravenswood;
"but I assure you, I should expect my old servant to hang himself, or
throw himself from the battlements, should your lordship visit him so
unexpectedly. I do assure you, we are totally and literally unprovided."

But his declaration only brought from his noble patron an assurance of
his own total indifference as to every species of accommodation, and his
determination to see the Tower of Wolf's Crag. His ancestor, he
said, had been feasted there, when he went forward with the then Lord
Ravenswood to the fatal battle of Flodden, in which they both fell. Thus
hard pressed, the Master offered to ride forward to get matters put in
such preparation as time and circumstances admitted; but the Marquis
protested his kinsman must afford him his company, and would only
consent that an avant-courier should carry to the desinted seneschal,
Caleb Balderstone, the unexpected news of this invasion.

The Master of Ravenswood soon after accompanied the Marquis in his
carriage, as the latter had proposed; and when they became better
acquainted in the progress of the journey, his noble relation explained
the very liberal views which he entertained for his relation's
preferment, in case of the success of his own political schemes. They
related to a secret and highly important commission beyond sea, which
could only be entrusted to a person of rank, talent, and perfect
confidence, and which, as it required great trust and reliance on the
envoy employed, could but not prove both honourable and advantageous to
him. We need not enter into the nature and purpose of this commission,
farther than to acquaint our readers that the charge was in prospect
highly acceptable to the Master of Ravenswood, who hailed with pleasure
the hope of emerging from his present state of indigence and inaction
into independence and honourable exertion.

While he listened thus eagerly to the details with which the Marquis
now thought it necessary to entrust him, the messenger who had been
despatched to the Tower of Wolf's Crag returned with Caleb Balderstone's
humble duty, and an assurance that "a' should be in seemly order, sic as
the hurry of time permitted, to receive their lordships as it behoved."

Ravenswood was too well accustomed to his seneschal's mode of acting and
speaking to hope much from this confident assurance. He knew that Caleb
acted upon the principle of the Spanish genrals, in the campaign
of ----, who, much to the perplexity of the Prince of Orange, their
commander-in-chief, used to report their troops as full in number,
and possessed of all necessary points of equipment, not considering it
consistent with their dignity, or the honour of Spain, to confess
any deficiency either in men or munition, until the want of both was
unavoidably discovered in the day of battle. Accordingly, Ravenswood
thought it necessary to give the Marquis some hint that the fair
assurance which they had just received from Caleb did not by any means
ensure them against a very indifferent reception.

"You do yourself injustice, Master," said the Marquis, "or you wish
to surprise me agreeably. From this window I see a great light in the
direction where, if I remember aright, Wolf's Crag lies; and, to judge
from the splendour which the old Tower sheds around it, the preparations
for our reception must be of no ordinary description. I remember your
father putting the same deception on me, when we went to the Tower for
a few days' hawking, about twenty years since, and yet we spent our time
as jollily at Wolf's Crag as we could have done at my own hunting seat
at B----."

"Your lordship, I fear, will experience that the faculty of the
present proprietor to entertain his friends is greatly abridged," said
Ravenswood; "the will, I need hardly say, remains the same. But I am as
much at a loss as your lordship to account for so strong and brilliant a
light as is now above Wolf's Crag; the windows of the Tower are few and
narrow, and those of the lower story are hidden from us by the walls of
the court. I cannot conceive that any illumination of an ordinary nature
could afford such a blaze of light."

The mystery was soon explained; for the cavalcade almost instantly
halted, and the voice of Caleb Balderstone was heard at the coach
window, exclaiming, in accents broken by grief and fear, "Och,
gentlemen! Och, my gude lords! Och, haud to the right! Wolf's Crag is
burning, bower and ha'--a' the rich plenishing outside and inside--a'
the fine graith, pictures, tapestries, needle-wark, hangings, and other
decorements--a' in a bleeze, as if they were nae mair than sae mony
peats, or as muckle pease-strae! Haud to the right, gentlemen, I implore
ye; there is some sma' provision making at Luckie Sma'trash's; but oh,
wae for this night, and wae for me that lives to see it!"

Ravenswood was first stunned by this new and unexpected calamity; but
after a moment's recollection he sprang from the carriage, and hastily
bidding his noble kinsman goodnight, was about to ascend the hill
towards the castle, the broad and full conflagration of which now flung
forth a high column of red light, that flickered far to seaward upon the
dashing waves of the ocean.

"Take a horse, Master," exclaimed the Marquis, greatly affected by this
additional misfortune, so unexpectedly heaped upon his young protege;
"and give me my ambling palfrey; and haste forward, you knaves, to see
what can be done to save the furniture, or to extinguish the fire--ride,
you knaves, for your lives!"

The attendants bustled together, and began to strike their horses with
the spur, and call upon Caleb to show them the road. But the voice
of that careful seneschal was heard above the tumult, "Oh, stop sirs,
stop--turn bridle, for the luve of Mercy; add not loss of lives to the
loss of warld's gean! Thirty barrels of powther, landed out of a Dunkirk
dogger in the auld lord's time--a' in the vau'ts of the auld tower,--the
fire canna be far off it, I trow. Lord's sake, to the right, lads--to
the right; let's pit the hill atween us and peril,--a wap wi' a
corner-stane o' Wolf's Crag wad defy the doctor!"

It will readily be supposed that this annunciation hurried the Marquis
and his attendants into the route which Caleb prescribed, dragging
Ravenswood along with them, although there was much in the matter which
he could not possibly comprehend. "Gunpowder!" he exclaimed, laying hold
of Caleb, who in vain endeavoured to escape from him; "what gunpowder?
How any quantity of powder could be in Wolf's Crag without my knowledge,
I cannot possibly comprehend."

"But I can," interrupted the Marquis, whispering him, "I can comprehend
it thoroughly; for God's sake, ask him no more questions at present."

"There it is, now," said Caleb, extricating himself from his master, and
adjusting his dress, "your honour will believe his lordship's honourable
testimony. His lordship minds weel how, in the year that him they ca'd
King Willie died----"

"Hush! hush, my good friend!" said the Marquis; "I shall satisfy your
master upon that subject."

"And the people at Wolf's Hope," said Ravenswood, "did none of them come
to your assistance before the flame got so high?"

"Ay did they, mony ane of them, the rapscallions!" said Caleb; "but
truly I was in nae hurry to let them into the Tower, where there were so
much plate and valuables."

"Confound you for an impudent liar!" said Ravenswood, in uncontrollable
ire, "there was not a single ounce of----"

"Forbye," said the butler, most irreverently raising his voice to a
pitch which drowned his master's, "the fire made fast on us, owing to
the store of tapestry and carved timmer in the banqueting-ha', and the
loons ran like scaulded rats sae sune as they heard of the gunpouther."

"I do entreat," said the Marquis to Ravenswood, "you will ask him no
more questions."

"Only one, my lord. What has become of poor Mysie?"

"Mysie!" said Caleb, "I had nae time to look about ony Mysie; she's
in the Tower, I'se warrant, biding her awful doom." "By heaven," said
Ravenswood, "I do not understand all this! The life of a faithful old
creature is at stake; my lord, I will be withheld no longer; I will at
least ride up, and see whether the danger is as imminent as this old
fool pretends."

"Weel, then, as I live by bread," said Caleb, "Mysie is weel and safe.
I saw her out of the castle before I left it mysell. Was I ganging to
forget an auld fellow-servant?"

"What made you tell me the contrary this moment?" said his master.

"Did I tell you the contrary?" said Caleb; "then I maun hae been
dreaming surely, or this awsome night has turned my judgment; but safe
she is, and ne'er a living soul in the castle, a' the better for them:
they wau have gotten an unco heezy."

The Master of Ravenswood, upon this assurance being solemnly reiterated,
and notwithstanding his extreme wish to witness the last explosion,
which was to ruin to the ground the mansion of his fathers, suffered
himself to be dragged onward towards the village of Wolf's Hope, where
not only the change-house, but that of our well-known friend the cooper,
were all prepared for reception of himself and his noble guest, with a
liberality of provision which requires some explanation.

We omitted to mention in its place, that Lockhard having fished out the
truth concerning the mode by which Caleb had obtained the supplies for
his banquet, the Lord Keeper, amused with the incident, and desirous at
the time to gratify Ravenswood, had recommended the cooper of Wolf''s
Hope to the official situation under government the prospect of which
had reconciled him to the loss of his wild-fowl. Mr. Girder's preferment
had occasioned a pleasing surprise to old Caleb; for when, some days
after his master's departure, he found himself absolutely compelled, by
some necessary business, to visit the fishing hamlet, and was gliding
like a ghost past the door of the cooper, for fear of being summoned to
give some account of the progress of the solicitation in his favour, or,
more probably that the inmates might upbraid him with the false hope
he had held out upon the subject, he heard himself, not without some
apprehension, summoned at once in treble, tenor, and bass--a trio
performed by the voices of Mrs. Girder, old Dame Loup-the-Dyke, and the
goodman of the dwelling--"Mr. Caleb!--Mr. Caleb Balderstone! I hope
ye arena ganging dry-lipped by our door, and we sae muckle indebted to
you?"

This might be said ironically as well as in earnest. Caleb augured the
worst, turned a deaf ear to the trio aforesaid, and was moving doggedly
on, his ancient castor pulled over his brows, and his eyes bent on the
ground, as if to count the flinty pebbles with which the rude pathway
was causewayed. But on a sudden he found himself surrounded in his
progress, like a stately merchantman in the Gut of Gibraltar (I hope
the ladies will excuse the tarpaulin phrase) by three Algerine galleys.
"Gude guide us, Mr. Balderstone!" said Mrs. Girder. "Wha wad hae thought
it of an auld and kenn'd friend!" said the mother.

"And no sae muckle as stay to receive our thanks," said the cooper
himself, "and frae the like o' me that seldom offers them! I am sure I
hope there's nae ill seed sawn between us, Mr. Balderstone. Ony man that
has said to ye I am no gratefu' for the situation of Queen's cooper, let
me hae a whample at him wi' mine eatche, that's a'."

"My good friends--my dear friends," said Caleb, still doubting how the
certainty of the matter might stand, "what needs a' this ceremony? Ane
tries to serve their friends, and sometimes they may happen to prosper,
and sometimes to misgie. Naething I care to be fashed wi' less than
thanks; I never could bide them."

"Faith, Mr. Balderstone, ye suld hae been fashed wi' few o' mine," said
the downright man of staves and hoops, "if I had only your gude-will to
thank ye for: I suld e'en hae set the guse, and the wild deukes, adn the
runlet of sack to balance that account. Gude-will, man, is a geizen'd
tub, that hauds in nae liquor; but gude deed's like the cask, tight,
round, and sound, that will haud liquor for the king."

"Have ye no heard of our letter," said the mother-in-law, "making our
John [Gibbie] the Queen's cooper for certain? and scarce a chield that
had ever hammered gird upon tub but was applying for it?"

"Have I heard!!!" said Caleb, who now found how the wind set, with an
accent of exceeding contempt, at the doubt expressed--"have I heard,
quo'she!!!" and as he spoke he changed his shambling, skulking, dodging
pace into a manly and authoritative step, readjusted his cocked hat,
and suffered his brow to emerge from under it in all the pride of
aristocracy, like the sun from behind a cloud.

"To be sure, he canna but hae heard," said the good woman.

"Ay, to be sure it's impossible but I should," said Caleb; "and sae I'll
be the first to kiss ye, joe, and wish you, cooper, much joy of your
preferment, naething doubting but ye ken wha are your friends, and HAVE
helped ye, and CAN help ye. I thought it right to look a wee strange
upon it at first," added Caleb, "just to see if ye were made of the
right mettle; but ye ring true, lad--ye ring true!"

So saying, with a most lordly air he kissed the women, and abandoned
his hand, with an air of serene patronage, to the hearty shake of
Mr. Girder's horn-hard palm. Upon this complete, and to Caleb most
satisfactory, information he did not, it may readily be believed,
hesitate to accept an invitation to a solemn feast, to which were
invited, not only all the NOTABLES of the village, but even his ancient
antagonist, Mr. Dingwall, himself. At this festivity he was, of course,
the most welcome and most honoured guest; and so well did he ply the
company with stories of what he could do with his master, his master
with the Lord Keeper, the Lord Keeper with the council, and the council
with the king [queen], that before the company dismissed (which was,
indeed, rather at an early hour than a late one), every man of note in
the village was ascending to the top-gallant of some ideal preferment by
the ladder of ropes which Caleb had presented to their imagination. Nay,
the cunning butler regained in that moment not only all the influence he
possessed formerly over the villagers, when the baronial family which
he served were at the proudest, but acquired even an accession of
importance. The writer--the very attorney himself, such is the thirst of
preferment--felt the force of the attraction, and taking an opportunity
to draw Caleb into a corner, spoke, with affectionate regret, of the
declining health of the sheriff-clerk of the county.

"An excellent man--a most valuable man, Mr. Caleb; but fat sall I say!
we are peer feckless bodies, here the day and awa' by cock-screech the
morn; and if he failyies, there maun be somebody in his place; and gif
that ye could airt it my way, I sall be thankful, man--a gluve stuffed
wi gowd nobles; an' hark ye, man something canny till yoursell, and the
Wolf's Hope carles to settle kindly wi' the Master of Ravenswood--that
is, Lord Ravenswood--God bless his lordship!"

A smile, and a hearty squeeze by the hand, was the suitable answer to
this overture; and Caleb made his escape from the jovial party, in order
to avoid committing himself by any special promises.

"The Lord be gude to me," said Caleb, when he found himself in the open
air, and at liberty to give vent to the self-exultation with which
he was, as it were, distended; "did ever ony man see sic a set of
green-gaislings? The very pickmaws and solan-geese out-bye yonder at
the Bass hae ten times their sense! God, an I had been the Lord High
Commissioner to the Estates o' Parliament, they couldna hae beflumm'd
me mair; and, to speak Heaven's truth, I could hardly hae beflumm'd them
better neither! But the writer--ha! ha! ha!--ah, ha! ha! ha! mercy on
me, that I suld live in my auld days to gie the ganag-bye to the very
writer! Sheriff-clerk!!! But I hae an auld account to settle wi' the
carle; and to make amends for bye-ganes, the office shall just cost him
as much time-serving and tide-serving as if he were to get it in gude
earnest, of whilk there is sma' appearance, unless the Master learns
mair the ways of this warld, whilk it is muckle to be doubted that he
never will do."




CHAPTER XXVI.

     Why flames yon far summit--why shoot to the blast
     Those embers, like stars from the firmament cast?
     'Tis the fire-shower of  ruin, all dreadfully driven
     From thine eyrie, that beacons the darkness of Heaven.

     CAMPBELL.

THE circumstances announced in the conclusion of the last chapter will
account for the ready and cheerful reception of the Marquis of A---- and
the Master of Ravenswood in the village of Wolf's Hope. In fact, Caleb
had no sooner announced the conflagration of the tower than the whole
hamlet were upon foot to hasten to extinguish the flames. And although
that zealous adherent diverted their zeal by intimating the formidable
contents of the subterranean apartments, yet the check only turned their
assiduity into another direction. Never had there been such slaughtering
of capons, and fat geese, and barndoor fowls; never such boiling of
"reested" hams; never such making of car-cakes and sweet scones, Selkirk
bannocks, cookies, and petticoat-tails--delicacies little known to the
present generation. Never had there been such a tapping of barrels, and
such uncorking of greybeards, in the village of Wolf's Hope. All the
inferior houses were thrown open for the reception of the Marquis's
dependants, who came, it was thought, as precursors of the shower of
preferment which hereafter was to leave the rest of Scotland dry,
in order to distil its rich dews on the village of Wolf's Hope under
Lammermoor. The minister put in his claim to have the guests of
distinction lodged at the manse, having his eye, it was thought, upon
a neighbouring preferment, where the incumbent was sickly; but Mr.
Balderstone destined that honour to the cooper, his wife, and wife's
mother, who danced for joy at the preferences thus assigned them.

Many a beck and many a bow welcomed these noble guests to as good
entertainment as persons of such rank could set before such visitors;
and the old dame, who had formerly lived in Ravenswood Castle, and
knew, as she said, the ways of the nobility, was in no whit wanting in
arranging matters, as well as circumstances permitted, according to the
etiquette of the times. The cooper's house was so roomy that each guest
had his separate retiring-room, to which they were ushered with all due
ceremony, while the plentiful supper was in the act of being placed upon
the table.

Ravenswood no sooner found himself alone than, impelled by a thousand
feelings, he left the apartment, the house, and the village, and hastily
retraced his steps to the brow of the hill, which rose betwixt the
village and screened it from the tower, in order to view the final fall
of the house of his fathers. Some idle boys from the hamlet had taken
the same direction out of curiosity, having first witnessed the arrival
of the coach and six and its attendants. As they ran one by one past the
Master, calling to each other to "Come and see the auld tower blaw up in
the lift like the peelings of an ingan," he could not but feel himself
moved with indignation. "And these are the sons of my father's vassals,"
he said--"of men bound, both by law and gratitude, to follow our steps
through battle, and fire, and flood; and now the destruction of their
liege lord's house is but a holiday's sight to them."

These exasperating reflections were partly expresssed in the acrimony
with which he exclaimed, on feeling himself pulled by the cloak: "What
do you want, you dog?"

"I am a dog, and an auld dog too," answered Caleb, for it was he who had
taken the freedom, "and I am like to get a dog's wages; but it does not
signification a pinch of sneesing, for I am ower auld a dog to learn new
tricks, or to follow a new master."

As he spoke, Ravenswood attained the ridge of the hill from which Wolf's
Crag was visible; the flames had entirely sunk down, and, to his great
surprise, there was only a dusky reddening upon the clouds immediately
over the castle, which seemed the reflection of the embers of the sunken
fire.

"The place cannot have blown up," said the Master; "we must have heard
the report: if a quarter of the gunpowder was there you tell me of, it
would have been heard twenty miles off."

"It've very like it wad," said Balderstone, composedly.

"Then the fire cannot have reached the vaults?"

"It's like no," answered Caleb, with the same impenetrable gravity.

"Hark ye, Caleb," said his master, "this grows a little too much for
my patience. I must go and examine how matters stand at Wolf's Crag
myself."

"Your honour is ganging to gang nae sic gate," said Caleb, firmly.

"And why not?" said Ravenswood, sharply; "who or what shall prevent me?"

"Even I mysell," said Caleb, with the same determination.

"You, Balderstone!" replied the Master; "you are forgetting yourself, I
think."

"But I think no," said Balderstone; "for I can just tell ye a' about the
castle on this knowe-head as weel as if ye were at it. Only dinna pit
yoursell into a kippage, and expose yoursell before the weans, or before
the Marquis, when ye gang down-bye."

"Speak out, you old fool," replied his master, "and let me know the best
and the worst at once."

"Ou, the best and the warst is, just that the tower is standing hail and
feir, as safe and as empty as when ye left it."

"Indeed! and the fire?" said Ravenswood. "Not a gleed of fire, then,
except the bit kindling peat, and maybe a spunk in Mysie's cutty-pipe,"
replied Caleb.

"But the flame?" demanded Ravenswood--"the broad blaze which might have
been seen ten miles off--what occasioned that?"

"Hout awa'! it's an auld saying and a true--

     Little's the light Will be seen far in a mirk night.

A wheen fern and horse little that I fired in the courtyard, after
sending back the loon of a footman; and, to speak Heaven's truth, the
next time that ye send or bring ony body here, let them ge gentles
allenarly, without ony fremd servants, like that chield Lockhard, to
be gledging and gleeing about, and looking upon the wrang side of ane's
housekeeping, to the discredit of the family, and forcing ane to damn
their souls wi' telling ae lee after another faster than I can count
them: I wad rather set fire to the tower in gude earnest, and burn it
ower my ain head into the bargain, or I see the family dishonoured in
the sort."

"Upon my word, I am infinitely obliged by the proposal, Caleb," said his
master, scarce able to to restrain his laughter, though rather angry at
the same time. "But the gunpowder--is there such a thing in the tower?
The Marquis seemed to know of it." "The pouther, ha! ha! ha!--the
Marquis, ha! ha! ha!" replied Caleb,--"if your honour were to brain me,
I behooved to laugh,--the Marquis--the pouther! Was it there? Ay, it was
there. Did he ken o't? My certie! the Marquis kenn'd o't, and it was the
best o' the game; for, when I couldna pacify your honour wi' a' that I
could say, I aye threw out a word mair about the gunpouther, and garr'd
the Marquis tak the job in his ain hand."

"But you have not answered my question," said the Master, impatiently;
"how came the powder there, and where is it now?"

"Ou, it came there, an ye maun needs ken," said Caleb, looking
mysteriously, and whispering, "when there was like to be a wee bit
rising here; and the Marquis, and a' the great lords of the north, were
a' in it, and mony a gudely gun and broadsword were ferried ower frae
Dunkirk forbye the pouther. Awfu' work we had getting them into the
tower under cloud o' night, for ye maun think it wasna everybody could
be trusted wi' sic kittle jobs. But if ye will gae hame to your supper,
I will tell you a' about it as ye gang down."

"And these wretched boys," said Ravenswood, "is it your pleasure they
are to sit there all night, to wait for the blowing up of a tower that
is not even on fire?"

"Surely not, if it is your honour's pleasure that they suld gang hame;
although," added Caleb, "it wadna do them a grain's damage: they wad
screigh less the next day, and sleep the sounder at e'en. But just as
your honour likes."

Stepping accordingly towards the urchins who manned the knolls near
which they stood, Caleb informed them, in an authoritative tone, that
their honours Lord Ravenswood and the Marquis of A---- had given orders
that the tower was not to be blow up till next day at noon. The boys
dispersed upon this comfortable assurance. One or two, however, followed
Caleb for more information, particularly the urchin whom he had cheated
while officiating as turnspit, who screamed, "Mr. Balderstone!--Mr.
Balderstone! then the castle's gane out like an auld wife's spunk?"

"To be sure it is, callant," said the butler; "do ye think the castle
of as great a lord as Lord Ravenswood wad continue in a bleeze, and him
standing looking on wi' his ain very een? It's aye right," continued
Caleb, shaking off his ragged page, and closing in to his Master, "to
train up weans, as the wise man says, in the way they should go, and,
aboon a', to teach them respect to their superiors."

"But all this while, Caleb, you have never told me what became of the
arms and powder," said Ravenswood.

"Why, as for the arms," said Caleb, "it was just like the bairn's
rhyme--

     Some gaed east and some gaed west,
     And some gaed to the craw's nest.

And for the pouther, I e'en changed it, as occasion served, with the
skippers o' Dutch luggers and French vessels, for gin and brandy, and is
served the house mony a year--a gude swap too, between what cheereth the
soul of man and that which hingeth it clean out of his body; forbye,
I keepit a wheen pounds of it for yoursell when ye wanted to take the
pleasure o' shooting: whiles, in these latter days, I wad hardly hae
kenn'd else whar to get pouther for your pleasure. And now that your
anger is ower, sir, wasna that weel managed o' me, and arena ye far
better sorted doun yonder than ye could hae been in your ain auld ruins
up-bye yonder, as the case stands wi' us now? the mair's the pity!"

"I believe you may be right, Caleb; but, before burning down my castle,
either in jest or in earnest," said Ravenswood, "I think I had a right
to be in the secret."

"Fie for shame, your honour!" replied Caleb; "it fits an auld carle like
me weel eneugh to tell lees for the credit of the family, but it wadna
beseem the like o' your honour's sell; besides, young folk are no
judicious: they cannot make the maist of a bit figment. Now this
fire--for a fire it sall be, if I suld burn the auld stable to make it
mair feasible--this fire, besides that it will be an excuse for asking
ony thing we want through the country, or doun at the haven--this
fire will settle mony things on an honourable footing for the family's
credit, that cost me telling twenty daily lees to a wheen idle chaps
and queans, and, what's waur, without gaining credence." "That was hard
indeed, Caleb; but I do not see how this fire should help your veracity
or your credit."

"There it is now?" said Caleb; "wasna I saying that young folk had a
green judgment? How suld it help me, quotha? It will be a creditable
apology for the honour of the family for this score of years to come, if
it is weel guided. 'Where's the family pictures?' says ae meddling body.
'The great fire at Wolf's Crag,' answers I. 'Where's the family plate?'
says another. 'The great fire,' says I; 'wha was to think of plate,
when life and limb were in danger?' 'Where's the wardrobe and the
linens?--where's the tapestries and the decorements?--beds of state,
twilts, pands and testors, napery and broidered wark?' 'The fire--the
fire--the fire.' Guide the fire weel, and it will serve ye for a' that
ye suld have and have not; and, in some sort, a gude excuse is better
than the things themselves; for they maun crack and wear out, and be
consumed by time, whereas a gude offcome, prudently and creditably
handled, may serve a nobleman and his family, Lord kens how lang!"

Ravenswood was too well acquainted with his butler's pertinacity and
self-opinion to dispute the point with him any farther. Leaving Caleb,
therefore, to the enjoyment of his own successful ingenuity, he returned
to the hamlet, where he found the Marquis and the good women of the
mansion under some anxiety--the former on account of his absence, the
others for the discredit their cookery might sustain by the delay of the
supper. All were now at ease, and heard with pleasure that the fire at
the castle had burned out of itself without reaching the vaults, which
was the only information that Ravenswood thought it proper to give in
public concerning the event of his butler's strategem.

They sat down to an excellent supper. No invitation could prevail on
Mr. and Mrs. Girder, even in their own house, to sit down at table with
guests of such high quality. They remained standing in the apartment,
and acted the part of respectful and careful attendants on the company.
Such were the manners of the time. The elder dame, confident through
her age and connexion with the Ravenswood family, was less scrupulously
ceremonious. She played a mixed part betwixt that of the hostess of an
inn and the mistress of a private house, who receives guests above her
own degree. She recommended, and even pressed, what she thought best,
and was herself easily entreated to take a moderate share of the good
cheer, in order to encourage her guests by her own example. Often she
interrupted herself, to express her regret that "my lord did not eat;
that the Master was pyking a bare bane; that, to be sure, there was
naething there fit to set before their honours; that Lord Allan, rest
his saul, used to like a pouthered guse, and said it was Latin for a
tass o' brandy; that the brandy came frae France direct; for, for a' the
English laws and gaugers, the Wolf's Hope brigs hadna forgotten the gate
to Dunkirk."

Here the cooper admonished his mother-in-law with his elbow, which
procured him the following special notice in the progress of her speech:

"Ye needna be dunshin that gate, John [Gibbie]," continued the old lady;
"naebody says that YE ken whar the brandy comes frae; and it wadna be
fitting ye should, and you the Queen's cooper; and what signifies't,"
continued she, addressing Lord Ravenswood, "to king, queen, or kaiser
whar an auld wife like me buys her pickle sneeshin, or her drap
brandy-wine, to haud her heart up?"

Having thus extricated herself from her supposed false step, Dame
Loup-the-Dyke proceeded, during the rest of the evening, to supply, with
great animation, and very little assistance from her guests, the funds
necessary for the support of the conversation, until, declining any
further circulation of their glass, her guests requested her permission
to retire to their apartments.

The Marquis occupied the chamber of dais, which, in every house above
the rank of a mere cottage, was kept sacred for such high occasions as
the present. The modern finishing with plaster was then unknown, and
tapestry was confined to the houses of the nobility and superior gentry.
The cooper, therefore, who was a man of some vanity, as well as some
wealth, had imitated the fashion observed by the inferior landholders
and clergy, who usually ornamented their state apartments with hangings
of a sort of stamped leather, manufactured in the Netherlands, garnished
with trees and aminals executed in copper foil, and with many a pithy
sentence of morality, which, although couched in Low Dutch, were perhaps
as much attended to in practice as if written in broad Scotch. The
whole had somewhat of a gloomy aspect; but the fire, composed of
old pitch-barrel staves, blazed merrily up the chimney; the bed was
decorated with linen of most fresh and dazzling whiteness, which had
never before been used, and might, perhaps, have never been used at
all, but for this high occasion. On the toilette beside, stood an
old-fashioned mirror, in a fillagree frame, part of the dispersed finery
of the neighbouring castle. It was flanked by a long-necked bottle of
Florence wine, by which stood a glass enarly as tall, resembling
in shape that which Teniers usually places in the hands of his own
portrait, when he paints himself as mingling in the revels of a country
village. To counterbalance those foreign sentinels, there mounted guard
on the other side of the mirror two stout warders of Scottish lineage;
a jug, namely, of double ale, which held a Scotch pint, and a quaigh,
or bicker, of ivory and ebony, hooped with silver, the work of
John Girder's own hands, and the pride of his heart. Besides these
preparations against thirst, there was a goodly diet-loaf, or sweet
cake; so that, with such auxiliaries, the apartment seemed victualled
against a siege of two or three days.

It only remains to say, that the Marquis's valet was in attendance,
displaying his master's brocaded nightgown, and richly embroidered
velvet cap, lined and faced with Brussels lace, upon a huge leathern
easy-chair, wheeled round so as to have the full advantage of the
comfortable fire which we have already mentioned. We therefore commit
that eminent person to his night's repose, trusting he profited by the
ample preparations made for his accommodation--preparations which we
have mentioned in detail, as illustrative of ancient Scottish manners.

It is not necessary we should be equally minute in describing the
sleeping apartment of the Master of Ravenswood, which was that usually
occupied by the goodman and goodwife themselves. It was comfortably
hung with a sort of warm-coloured worsted, manufactured in Scotland,
approaching in trexture to what is now called shalloon. A staring
picture of John [Gibbie] Girder himself ornamented this dormiory,
painted by a starving Frenchman, who had, God knows how or why, strolled
over from Flushing or Dunkirk to Wolf's Hope in a smuggling dogger. The
features were, indeed, those of the stubborn, opinionative, yet sensible
artisan, but Monsieur had contrived to throw a French grace into the
look and manner, so utterly inconsistent with the dogged gravity of the
original, that it was impossible to look at it without laughing. John
and his family, however, piqued themselves not a little upon this
picture, and were proportionably censured by the neighbourhood, who
pronounced that the cooper, in sitting for the same, and yet more in
presuming to hang it up in his bedchamber, had exceeded his privilege as
the richest man of the village; at once stept beyond the bounds of his
own rank, and encroached upon those of the superior orders; and,
in fine, had been guilty of a very overweening act of vanity and
presumption. Respect for the memory of my deceased friend, Mr. Richard
Tinto, has obliged me to treat this matter at some length; but I spare
the reader his prolix though curious observations, as well upon the
character of the French school as upon the state of painting in Scotland
at the beginning of the 18th century.

The other preparations of the Master's sleeping apartment were similar
to those in the chamber of dais.

At the usual early hour of that period, the Marquis of A---- and his
kinsman prepared to resume their journey. This could not be done
without an ample breakfast, in which cold meat and hot meat, and oatmeal
flummery, wine and spirits, and milk varied by every possible mode of
preparation, evinced the same desire to do honour to their guests which
had been shown by the hospitable owners of the mansion upon the evening
before. All the bustle of preparation for departure now resounded
through Wolf's Hope. There was paying of bills and shaking of hands,
and saddling of horses, and harnessing of carriages, and distributing
of drink-money. The Marquis left a broad piece for the gratification
of John Girder's household, which he, the said John, was for some time
disposed to convert to his own use; Dingwall, the writer, assuring
him he was justified in so doing, seeing he was the disburser of
those expenses which were the occasion of the gratification. But,
notwithstanding this legal authority, John could not find in his heart
to dim the splendour of his late hospitality by picketing anything in
the nature of a gratuity. He only assured his menials he would consider
them as a damned ungrateful pack if they bought a gill of brandy
elsewhere than out of his own stores; and as the drink-money was likely
to go to its legitimate use, he comforted himself that, in this manner,
the Marquis's donative would, without any impeachment of credit and
character, come ultimately into his own exclusive possession.

While arrangements were making for departure, Ravenswood made blythe the
heart of his ancient butler by informing him, cautiously however (for
he knew Caleb's warmth of imagination), of the probably change which was
about to take place in his fortunes. He deposited with Balderstone, at
the same time, the greater part of his slender funds, with an assurance,
which he was obliged to reiterate more than once, that he himself had
sufficient supplies in certain prospect. He therefore enjoined Caleb, as
he valued his favour, to desist from all farther maneouvres against the
inhabitants of Wolf's Hope, their cellars, poultry-yards, and substance
whatsoever. In this prohibition, the old domestic acquiesced more
readily than his master expected.

"It was doubtless," he said, "a shame, a discredit, and a sin to harry
the puir creatures, when the family were in circumstances to live
honourably on their ain means; and there might be wisdom," he added, "in
giving them a while's breathing-time at any rate, that they might be the
more readily brougth forward upon his honour's future occasions."

This matter being settled, and having taken an affectionate farewell of
his old domestic, the Master rejoined his noble relative, who was now
ready to enter his carriage. The two landladies, old and young, having
received in all kindly greeting a kiss from each of their noble guests,
stood simpering at the door of their house, as the coach and six,
followed by its train of clattering horsemen, thundered out of the
village. John Girder also stood upon his threshold, now looking at his
honoured right hand, which had been so lately shaken by a marquis and
a lord, and now giving a glance into the interior of his mansion, which
manifested all the disarray of the late revel, as if balancing
the distinction which he had attained with the expenses of the
entertainment.

At length he opened his oracular jaws. "Let every man and woman here set
about their ain business, as if there was nae sic thing as marquis or
master, duke or drake, laird or lord, in this world. Let the house be
redd up, the broken meat set bye, and if there is ony thing totally
uneatable, let it be gien to the puir folk; and, gude mother and wife, I
hae just ae thing to entreat ye, that ye will never speak to me a single
word, good or bad, anent a' this nonsense wark, but keep a' your cracks
about it to yoursells and your kimmers, for my head is weel-nigh dung
donnart wi' it already."

As John's authority was tolerably absolute, all departed to their usual
occupations, leaving him to build castles in the air, if he had a mind,
upon the court favour which he had acquired by the expenditure of his
worldly substance.




CHAPTER XXVII.

     Why, now I have Dame Fortune by the Forelock,
     And if she escapes my grasp, the fault is mine;
     He that hath buffeted with stern adversity
     Best knows the shape his course to favouring breezes.

     Old Play.

OUR travellers reach Edinburgh without any farther adventure, and the
Master of Ravenswood, as had been previously settled, took up his abode
with his noble friend.

In the mean time, the political crisis which had been expected took
place, and the Tory party obtained in the Scottish, as in the English,
councils of Queen Anne a short-lived ascendency, of which it is not our
business to trace either the cause or consequences. Suffice it to say,
that it affected the different political parties according to the nature
of their principles. In England, many of the High Church party, with
Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, at their head, affected to separate
their principles from those of the Jacobites, and, on that account,
obtained the denomination of Whimsicals. The Scottish High Church party,
on the contrary, or, as they termed themselves, the Cavaliers, were more
consistent, if not so prudent, in their politics, and viewed all the
changes now made as preparatory to calling to the throne, upon the
queen's demise, her brother the Chevalier de St. George. Those who had
suffered in his service now entertained the most unreasonable hopes,
not only of indemnification, but of vengeance upon their political
adversaries; while families attached to the Whig interest saw nothing
before them but a renewal of the hardships they had undergone during the
reigns of Charles the Second and his brother, and a retaliation of the
confiscation which had been inflicted upon the Jacobites during that of
King William.

But the most alarmed at the change of system was that prudential set of
persons, some of whom are found in all governments, but who abound in a
provincial administration like that of Scotland during the period,
and who are what Cromwell called waiters upon Providence, or, in other
words, uniform adherents to the party who are uppermost. Many of these
hastened to read their recantation to the Marquis of A----; and, as
it was easily seen that he took a deep interest in the affairs of
his kinsman, the Master of Ravenswood, they were the first to suggest
measures for retrieving at least a part of his property, and for
restoring him in blood against his father's attainder.

Old Lord Turntippet professed to be one of the most anxious for the
success of these measures; for "it grieved him to the very saul," he
said, "to see so brave a young gentleman, of sic auld and undoubted
nobility, and, what was mair than a' that, a bluid relation of the
Marquis of A----, the man whom," he swore, "he honoured most upon
the face of the earth, brougth to so severe a pass. For his ain
puir peculiar," as he said, "and to contribute something to the
rehabilitation of sae auld ane house," the said Turntippet sent in three
family pictures lacking the frames, and six high-backed chairs, with
worked Turkey cushions, having the crest of Ravenswood broidered
thereon, without charging a penny either of the principal or interest
they had cost him, when he bought them, sixteen years before, at a roup
of the furniture of Lord Ravenswood's lodgings in the Canongate.

Much more to Lord Turntippet's dismay than to his surprise, although
he affected to feel more of the latter than the former, the Marquis
received his gift very drily, and observed, that his lordship's
restitution, if he expected it to be received by the Master of
Ravenswood and his friends, must comprehend a pretty large farm, which,
having been mortgaged to Turntippet for a very inadequate sum, he had
contrived, during the confusion of the family affairs, and by means
well understood by the lawyers of that period, to acquire to himself in
absolute property.

The old time-serving lord winced excessively under the requisition,
protesting to God, that he saw no occasion the lad could have for the
instant possession of the land, seeing he would doubtless now recover
the bulk of his estate from Sir William Ashton, to which he was ready to
contribute by every means in his power, as was just and reasonable; and
finally declaring, that he was willing to settle the land on the young
gentleman after his own natural demise.

But all these excuses availed nothing, and he was compelled to disgorge
the property, on receiving back the sum for which it had been mortgaged.
Having no other means of making peace with the higher powers, he
returned home sorrowful and malcontent, complaining to his confidants,
"That every mutation or change in the state had hitherto been productive
of some sma' advantage to him in his ain quiet affairs; but that the
present had--pize upon it!--cost him one of the best penfeathers o' his
wing."

Similar measures were threatened against others who had profited by
the wreck of the fortune of Ravenswood; and Sir William Ashton, in
particular, was menaced with an appeal to the House of Peers, a court
of equity, against the judicial sentences, proceeding upon a strict and
severe construction of the letter of the law, under which he held the
castle and barony of Ravenswood. With him, however, the Master, as well
for Lucy's sake as on account of the hospitality he had received from
him, felt himself under the necessity of proceeding with great candor.
He wrote to the late Lord Keeper, for he no longer held that office,
stating frankly the engagement which existed between him and Miss
Ashton, requesting his permission for their union, and assuring him of
his willingness to put the settlement of all matters between them upon
such a footing as Sir William himself should think favourable.

The same messenger was charged with a letter to Lady Ashton, deprecating
any cause of displeasure which the Master might unintentionally have
given her, enlarging upon his attachment to Miss Ashton, and the length
to which it had proceeded, and conjuring the lady, as a Douglas in
nature as well as in name, generously to forget ancient prejudices and
misunderstandings, and to believe that the family had acquired a friend,
and she herself a respectful and attached humble servant, in him who
subscribed himself, "Edgar, Master of Ravenswood." A third letter
Ravenswood addressed to Lucy, and the messenger was instructed to find
some secret and secure means of delivering it into her own hands. It
contained the strongest protestations of continued affection, and
dwelt upon the approaching change of the writer's fortunes, as chiefly
valuable by tending to remove the impediments to their union. He related
the steps he had taken to overcome the prejudices of her parents,
and especially of her mother, and expressed his hope they might prove
effectual. If not, he still trusted that his absence from Scotland upon
an important and honourable mission might give time for prejudices to
die away; while he hoped and trusted Miss Ashton's constancy, on which
he had the most implicit reliance, would baffle any effort that might
be used to divert her attachment. Much more there was, which, however
interesting to the lovers themselves, would afford the reader neither
interest nor information. To each of these three letters the Master of
Ravenswood received an answer, but by different means of conveyance, and
certainly couched in very different styles.

Lady Ashton answered his letter by his own messenger, who was not
allowed to remain at Ravenswood a moment longer than she was engaged
in penning these lines.

"For the hand of Mr. Ravenswood of Wolf's Crag--These:

"SIR, UNKNOWN:

"I have received a letter, signed 'Edgar, Master of Ravenswood,'
concerning the writer whereof I am uncertain, seeing that the honours of
such a family were forfeited for high reason in the person of Allan,
late Lord Ravenswood. Sir, if you shall happen to be the person so
subscribing yourself, you will please to know, that I claim the full
interest of a parent in Miss Lucy Ashton, which I have disposed of
irrevocably in behalf of a worthy person. And, sir, were this otherwise,
I would not listen to a proposal from you, or any of your house, seeing
their hand has been uniformly held up against the freedom of the subject
and the immunities of God's kirk. Sir, it is not a flightering blink of
prosperity which can change my constant opinion in this regard, seeing
it has been my lot before now, like holy David, to see the wicked great
in power and flourishing like a green bay-tree; nevertheless I passed,
and they were not, and the place thereof knew them no more. Wishing you
to lay these things to your heart for your own sake, so far as they may
concern you, I pray you to take no farther notice of her who desires to
remain your unknown servant,

"MARGARET DOUGLAS,

"otherwise ASHTON."


About two days after he had received this very unsatisfactory epistle,
the Master of Ravenswood, while walking up the High Street of Edinburgh,
was jostled by a person, in whom, as the man pulled off his hat to make
an apology, he recognized Lockhard, the confidential domestic of
Sir William Ashton. The man bowed, slipt a letter into his hand, and
disappeared. The packet contained four close-written folios, from which,
however, as is sometimes incident to the compositions of great lawyers,
little could be extracted, excepting that the writer felt himself in a
very puzzling predicament.

Sir William spoke at length of his high value and regard for his dear
young friend, the Master of Ravenswood, and of his very extreme high
value and regard for the Marquis of A----, his very dear old friend;
he trusted that any measures that they might adopt, in which he was
concerned, would be carred on with due regard to the sanctity of
decreets and judgments obtained in foro contentioso; protesting, before
men and angels, that if the law of Scotland, as declared in her supreme
courts, were to undergo a reversal in the English House of Lords, the
evils which would thence arise to the public would inflict a greater
wound upon his heart than any loss he might himself sustain by such
irregular proceedings. He flourished much on generosity and forgiveness
of mutual injuries, and hinted at the mutability of human affairs,
always favourite topics with the weaker party in politics. He
pathetically lamented, and gently censured, the haste which had been
used in depriving him of his situation of Lord Keeper, which his
experience had enabled him to fill with some advantage to the public,
without so much as giving him an opportunity of explaining how far his
own views of general politics might essentially differ from those now in
power. He was convinced the Marquis of A---- had as sincere intentions
towards the public as himself or any man; and if, upon a conference,
they could have agreed upon the measures by which it was to be pursued,
his experience and his interest should have gone to support the present
administration. Upon the engagement betwixt Ravenswood and his daughter,
he spoke in a dry and confused manner. He regretted so premature a
step as the engagement of the young people should have been taken, and
conjured the Master to remember he had never given any encouragement
thereunto; and observed that, as a transaction inter minores, and
without concurrence of his daughter's natural curators, the engagement
was inept, and void in law. This precipitate measure, he added, had
produced a very bad effect upon Lady Ashton's mind, which it was
impossible at present to remove. Her son, Colonel Douglas Ashton, had
embraced her prejudices in the fullest extent, and it was impossible for
Sir William to adopt a course disagreeable to them without a fatal and
irreconcilable breach in his family; which was not at present to be
thought of. Time, the great physician, he hoped, would mend all.