'But perhaps I like Miss Bertram more for the accomplishments she
wants than for the knowledge she possesses. She knows nothing of
music whatever, and no more of dancing than is here common to the
meanest peasants, who, by the way, dance with great zeal and
spirit. So that I am instructor in my turn, and she takes with
great gratitude lessons from me upon the harpsichord; and I have
even taught her some of La Pique's steps, and you know he thought
me a promising scholar.

'In the evening papa often reads, and I assure you he is the best
reader of poetry you ever heard; not like that actor who made a
kind of jumble between reading and acting,--staring, and bending
his brow, and twisting his face, and gesticulating as if he were
on the stage and dressed out in all his costume. My father's
manner is quite different; it is the reading of a gentleman, who
produces effect by feeling, taste, and inflection of voice, not by
action or mummery. Lucy Bertram rides remarkably well, and I can
now accompany her on horseback, having become emboldened by
example. We walk also a good deal in spite of the cold. So, upon
the whole, I have not quite so much time for writing as I used to
have.

'Besides, my love, I must really use the apology of all stupid
correspondents, that I have nothing to say. My hopes, my fears, my
anxieties about Brown are of a less interesting cast since I know
that he is at liberty and in health. Besides, I must own I think
that by this time the gentleman might have given me some
intimation what he was doing. Our intercourse may be an imprudent
one, but it is not very complimentary to me that Mr. Vanbeest
Brown should be the first to discover that such is the case, and
to break off in consequence. I can promise him that we might not
differ much in opinion should that happen to be his, for I have
sometimes thought I have behaved extremely foolishly in that
matter. Yet I have so good an opinion of poor Brown, that I cannot
but think there is something extraordinary in his silence.

'To return to Lucy Bertram. No, my dearest Matilda, she can never,
never rival you in my regard, so that all your affectionate
jealousy on that account is without foundation. She is, to be
sure, a very pretty, a very sensible, a very affectionate girl,
and I think there are few persons to whose consolatory friendship
I could have recourse more freely in what are called the real
evils of life. But then these so seldom come in one's way, and one
wants a friend who will sympathise with distresses of sentiment as
well as with actual misfortune. Heaven knows, and you know, my
dearest Matilda, that these diseases of the heart require the balm
of sympathy and affection as much as the evils of a more obvious
and determinate character. Now Lucy Bertram has nothing of this
kindly sympathy, nothing at all, my dearest Matilda. Were I sick
of a fever, she would sit up night after night to nurse me with
the most unrepining patience; but with the fever of the heart,
which my Matilda has soothed so often, she has no more sympathy
than her old tutor. And yet what provokes me is, that the demure
monkey actually has a lover of her own, and that their mutual
affection (for mutual I take it to be) has a great deal of
complicated and romantic interest. She was once, you must know, a
great heiress, but was ruined by the prodigality of her father and
the villainy of a horrid man in whom he confided. And one of the
handsomest young gentlemen in the country is attached to her; but,
as he is heir to a great estate, she discourages his addresses on
account of the disproportion of their fortune.

'But with all this moderation, and self-denial, and modesty, and
so forth, Lucy is a sly girl. I am sure she loves young Hazlewood,
and I am sure he has some guess of that, and would probably bring
her to acknowledge it too if my father or she would allow him an
opportunity. But you must know the Colonel is always himself in
the way to pay Miss Bertram those attentions which afford the best
indirect opportunities for a young gentleman in Hazlewood's
situation. I would have my good papa take care that he does not
himself pay the usual penalty of meddling folks. I assure you, if
I were Hazlewood I should look on his compliments, his bowings,
his cloakings, his shawlings, and his handings with some little
suspicion; and truly I think Hazlewood does so too at some odd
times. Then imagine what a silly figure your poor Julia makes on
such occasions! Here is my father making the agreeable to my
friend; there is young Hazlewood watching every word of her lips,
and every motion of her eye; and I have not the poor satisfaction
of interesting a human being, not even the exotic monster of a
parson, for even he sits with his mouth open, and his huge round
goggling eyes fixed like those of a statue, admiring Mess
Baartram!

'All this makes me sometimes a little nervous, and sometimes a
little mischievous. I was so provoked at my father and the lovers
the other day for turning me completely out of their thoughts and
society, that I began an attack upon Hazlewood, from which it was
impossible for him, in common civility, to escape. He insensibly
became warm in his defence,--I assure you, Matilda, he is a very
clever as well as a very handsome young man, and I don't think I
ever remember having seen him to the same advantage,--when,
behold, in the midst of our lively conversation, a very soft sigh
from Miss Lucy reached my not ungratified ears. I was greatly too
generous to prosecute my victory any farther, even if I had not
been afraid of papa. Luckily for me, he had at that moment got
into a long description of the peculiar notions and manners of a
certain tribe of Indians who live far up the country, and was
illustrating them by making drawings on Miss Bertram's work-
patterns, three of which he utterly damaged by introducing among
the intricacies of the pattern his specimens of Oriental costume.
But I believe she thought as little of her own gown at the moment
as of the Indian turbands and cummerbands. However, it was quite
as well for me that he did not see all the merit of my little
manoeuvre, for he is as sharp-sighted as a hawk, and a sworn enemy
to the slightest shade of coquetry.

'Well, Matilda, Hazlewood heard this same halfaudible sigh, and
instantly repented his temporary attentions to such an unworthy
object as your Julia, and, with a very comical expression of
consciousness, drew near to Lucy's work-table. He made some
trifling observation, and her reply was one in which nothing but
an ear as acute as that of a lover, or a curious observer like
myself, could have distinguished anything more cold and dry than
usual. But it conveyed reproof to the self-accusing hero, and he
stood abashed accordingly. You will admit that I was called upon
in generosity to act as mediator. So I mingled in the
conversation, in the quiet tone of an unobserving and uninterested
third party, led them into their former habits of easy chat, and,
after having served awhile as the channel of communication through
which they chose to address each other, set them down to a pensive
game at chess, and very dutifully went to tease papa, who was
still busied with his drawings. The chess-players, you must
observe, were placed near the chimney, beside a little work-table,
which held the board and men, the Colonel at some distance, with
lights upon a library table; for it is a large old-fashioned room,
with several recesses, and hung with grim tapestry, representing
what it might have puzzled the artist himself to explain.

'"Is chess a very interesting game, papa?"

'"I am told so," without honouring me with much of his notice.

'"I should think so, from the attention Mr. Hazlewood and Lucy are
bestowing on it."

'He raised his head "hastily and held his pencil suspended for an
instant. Apparently he saw nothing that excited his suspicions,
for he was resuming the folds of a Mahratta's turban in
tranquillity when I interrupted him with--"How old is Miss
Bertram, sir?"

"'How should I know, Miss? About your own age, I suppose."

'"Older, I should think, sir. You are always telling me how much
more decorously she goes through all the honours of the tea-table.
Lord, papa, what if you should give her a right to preside once
and for ever!"

'"Julia, my dear," returned papa, "you are either a fool outright
or you are more disposed to make mischief than I have yet believed
you."

'"Oh, my dear sir! put your best construction upon it; I would not
be thought a fool for all the world."

'"Then why do you talk like one?" said my father.

'"Lord, sir, I am sure there is nothing so foolish in what I said
just now. Everybody knows you are a very handsome man" (a smile
was just visible), "that is, for your time of life" (the dawn was
overcast), "which is far from being advanced, and I am sure I
don't know why you should not please yourself, if you have a mind.
I am sensible I am but a thoughtless girl, and if a graver
companion could render you more happy--"

'There was a mixture of displeasure and grave affection in the
manner in which my father took my hand, that was a severe reproof
to me for trifling with his feelings. "Julia," he said, "I bear
with much of your petulance because I think I have in some degree
deserved it, by neglecting to superintend your education
sufficiently closely. Yet I would not have you give it the rein
upon a subject so delicate. If you do not respect the feelings of
your surviving parent towards the memory of her whom you have
lost, attend at least to the sacred claims of misfortune; and
observe, that the slightest hint of such a jest reaching Miss
Bertram's ears would at once induce her to renounce her present
asylum, and go forth, without a protector, into a world she has
already felt so unfriendly."

'What could I say to this, Matilda? I only cried heartily, begged
pardon, and promised to be a good girl in future. And so here am I
neutralised again, for I cannot, in honour or common good-nature,
tease poor Lucy by interfering with Hazlewood, although she has so
little confidence in me; and neither can I, after this grave
appeal, venture again upon such delicate ground with papa. So I
burn little rolls of paper, and sketch Turks' heads upon visiting
cards with the blackened end--I assure you I succeeded in making a
superb Hyder-Ally last night--and I jingle on my unfortunate
harpsichord, and begin at the end of a grave book and read it
backward. After all, I begin to be very much vexed about Brown's
silence. Had he been obliged to leave the country, I am sure he
would at least have written to me. Is it possible that my father
can have intercepted his letters? But no, that is contrary to all
his principles; I don't think he would open a letter addressed to
me to-night, to prevent my jumping out of window to-morrow. What
an expression I have suffered to escape my pen! I should be
ashamed of it, even to you, Matilda, and used in jest. But I need
not take much merit for acting as I ought to do. This same Mr.
Vanbeest Brown is by no means so very ardent a lover as to hurry
the object of his attachment into such inconsiderate steps. He
gives one full time to reflect, that must be admitted. However, I
will not blame him unheard, nor permit myself to doubt the manly
firmness of a character which I have so often extolled to you.
Were he capable of doubt, of fear, of the shadow of change, I
should have little to regret.

'And why, you will say, when I expect such steady and unalterable
constancy from a lover, why should I be anxious about what
Hazlewood does, or to whom he offers his attentions? I ask myself
the question a hundred times a day, and it only receives the very
silly answer that one does not like to be neglected, though one
would not encourage a serious infidelity.

'I write all these trifles because you say that they amuse you,
and yet I wonder how they should. I remember, in our stolen
voyages to the world of fiction, you always admired the grand and
the romantic,--tales of knights, dwarfs, giants, and distressed
damsels, oothsayers, visions, beckoning ghosts, and bloody hands;
whereas I was partial to the involved intrigues of private life,
or at farthest to so much only of the supernatural as is conferred
by the agency of an Eastern genie or a beneficent fairy. YOU would
have loved to shape your course of life over the broad ocean, with
its dead calms and howling tempests, its tornadoes, and its
billows mountain-high; whereas I should like to trim my little
pinnace to a brisk breeze in some inland lake or tranquil bay,
where there was just difficulty of navigation sufficient to give
interest and to require skill without any sensible degree of
danger. So that, upon the whole, Matilda, I think you should have
had my father, with his pride of arms and of ancestry, his
chivalrous point of honour, his high talents, and his abstruse and
mystic studies. You should have had Lucy Bertram too for your
friend, whose fathers, with names which alike defy memory and
orthography, ruled over this romantic country, and whose birth
took place, as I have been indistinctly informed, under
circumstances of deep and peculiar interest. You should have had,
too, our Scottish residence, surrounded by mountains, and our
lonely walks to haunted ruins. And I should have had, in exchange,
the lawns and shrubs, and green-houses and conservatories, of Pine
Park, with your good, quiet, indulgent aunt, her chapel in the
morning, her nap after dinner, her hand at whist in the evening,
not forgetting her fat coach-horses and fatter coachman. Take
notice, however, that Brown is not included in this proposed
barter of mine; his good-humour, lively conversation, and open
gallantry suit my plan of life as well as his athletic form,
handsome features, and high spirit would accord with a character
of chivalry. So, as we cannot change altogether out and out, I
think we must e'en abide as we are.'




CHAPTER XXX

     I 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 of Edmonton.


JULIA MANNERING to MATILDA MARCHMONT

'I rise from a sick-bed, my dearest Matilda, to communicate 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 flippant remarks on your taste for the
romantic and extraordinary 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 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 commerce of a set of desperate
men from the Isle of Man, which is nearly opposite. These
smugglers are numerous, 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 magistrates,
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 authority, 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
Lucy 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 keeping 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 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 articles, 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 discharge 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 animal 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,
etc., in the East. The piece went off in the awkward 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 nickname) exclaimed, "Prodigious!" which is his usual
ejaculation when astonished. But no power could force the man to
part with his discharged piece, so they were content to let him
retain it, with the precaution of trusting him with no ammunition.
This (excepting the alarm 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 firearms, he
wanted to order us out of danger--into the cellar, I believe--but
we could not be prevailed 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, looking 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 defenders 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 contemplation 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. Hazlewood,
who seemed to catch courage from his eye, acted as his aid-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.

'At length the silence of this awful period of expectation 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 loophole 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! Notwithstanding the severity of
the season, they were most of them stripped to their shirts and
trowsers, with silk handkerchiefs knotted about their heads, and
all well armed with carbines, pistols, and cutlasses. I, who am a
soldier's daughter, and accustomed to see war from my infancy, 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 exclamations of rage and disappointment
when they saw themselves 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 blackened 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 without 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 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 miscreant, "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 revenue officers and their seizure to a
neighbouring seaport 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 roadside, the man
whose face was blackened with powder, apparently because he was
unable to bear transportation. He died in about half an hour
after. On examining 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 congratulation
from the neighbouring families, and it was generally 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
disturbed 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 replacing the
folios which were used in the barricade, smoothing out the creases
and dog's-ears, and repairing the other disasters they have
sustained during their service in the fortification. He brought us
some pieces of lead and bullets which these ponderous tomes had
intercepted 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 interesting 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.'




CHAPTER XXXI

    Here's a good world!
     Knew you of this fair work?

          King John.


JULIA MANNERING to MATILDA MARCHMONT

'I must take up the thread 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 property at
Woodbourne destroyed; that, with our good leave, he had usually
been esteemed competent to taking measures 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 show 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 which 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 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
necessity.

'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 particular 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 frequented it for
pastime. Hazlewood instantly offered to attend us, and we
stipulated that he should take his fowling-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
occasionally, should follow us with his gun. As for Colonel
Mannering, 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, exhilarating
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 Hazlewood's assistance absolutely necessary.
I don't think Lucy liked her walk the less for these occasional
embarrassments.

'The scene upon the lake was beautiful. One side of it is bordered
by a steep crag, from which hung a thousand 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 Hazlewood, who lent us each an arm. He
spoke, poor fellow, with great kindness to old and young, and
seemed deservedly popular among the assembled crowd. At length we
thought of retiring.

'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 Hazlewood'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
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,
commanded 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, impressed 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 rinding articulate language,
only hastened the catastrophe. Brown, thus menaced, sprung upon
Hazlewood, grappled with him, and had nearly succeeded in
wrenching 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 perpetrator 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 recalling 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 Woodbourne, 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 his
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 ensured it. But patrols
of horse and foot traverse the country in all directions, and I am
tortured by a thousand confused and unauthenticated rumours of
arrests and discoveries.

'Meanwhile my greatest source of comfort is the generous candour
of Hazlewood, who persists in declaring 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.
Perhaps 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 hedgeruffian,
that I was deprived of all courage and disposition 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 to me, on reflection, improved in grace and his features in
expressive dignity. Shall we ever meet again? Who can answer that
question? 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 machinery; and, while he beholds wheels revolving, 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 consequences 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 await the issue
of Hazlewood's wound with safety and with patience, for the
communication 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 disposed to repine!
But I will not oppress you any longer with my complaints. Adieu,
my dearest Matilda! 'JULIA MANNERING.'



END OF VOLUME I







GUY MANNERING

BY SIR WALTER SCOTT


VOLUME II




GUY MANNERING

OR

THE ASTROLOGER


CHAPTER XXXII

     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: Change places; and, handy-dandy, which
     is the justice, which is the thief?

          --King Lear.


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 motives 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 abroad 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 himself. He was not admitted to
their clubs, and at meetings of a public nature, from which he
could not be altogether excluded, he found himself thwarted and
looked upon with coldness and contempt. Both principle and
prejudice cooperated in creating this dislike; for 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 immediately 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 studying 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 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 eminence
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 magistrate (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, sometimes as a 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 circumstances
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 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
importance still. Lastly, if he should succeed in discovering,
apprehending, and convicting the culprits, he would have the
satisfaction of mortifying, and in some degree disparaging, 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 understrapper 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 rencontre at the Gordon Arms in Kippletringan. Thither Mr.
Glossin immediately went, for the purpose of interrogating our old
acquaintance Mrs. Mac-Candlish.

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 parlour 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 proprietors 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.'

'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?'

'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 unpowdered, 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; [Footnote: Some of the strict
dissenters decline taking an oath before a civil magistrate.] 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
seemly 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 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 troubling 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! 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 yourself 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 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' him, he was sic
a frank, pleasant young man. It wasna for his spending, I'm 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 daresay now it had been on
some hellicat errand or other.'

'Did you by any chance learn his name?'

'I wot weel did I,' said the landlady, now as eager to communicate
her evidence as formerly desirous to suppress it. 'He tell'd 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 I'll 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 Grizzy has
naething frae me, by twa pair o' new shoo ilka year, and maybe a
bit compliment at Hansel Monanday--' Here Glossin found it
necessary to interfere and bring the good woman back to the point.