CHAPTER XLVI

     Say from whence
     You owe this strange intelligence? or why
     Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
     With such prophetic greeting?
     Speak, I charge you.

          Macbeth.


Upon the evening of the day when Bertram's examination had taken
place, Colonel Mannering arrived at Woodbourne from Edinburgh. He
found his family in their usual state, which probably, so far as
Julia was concerned, would not have been the case had she learned
the news of Bertram's arrest. But as, during the Colonel's
absence, the two young ladies lived much retired, this
circumstance fortunately had not reached Woodbourne. A letter had
already made Miss Bertram acquainted with the downfall of the
expectations which had been formed upon the bequest of her
kinswoman. Whatever hopes that news might have dispelled, the
disappointment did not prevent her from joining her friend in
affording a cheerful reception to the Colonel, to whom she thus
endeavoured to express the deep sense she entertained of his
paternal kindness. She touched on her regret that at such a season
of the year he should have made, upon her account, a journey so
fruitless.

'That it was fruitless to you, my dear,' said the Colonel, 'I do
most deeply lament; but for my own share, I have made some
valuable acquaintances, and have spent the time I have been absent
in Edinburgh with peculiar satisfaction; so that on that score
there is nothing to be regretted. Even our friend the Dominie is
returned thrice the man he was, from having sharpened his wits in
controversy with the geniuses of the northern metropolis.'

'Of a surety,' said the Dominie, with great complacency, 'I did
wrestle, and was not overcome, though my adversary was cunning in
his art.'

'I presume,' said Miss Mannering, 'the contest was somewhat
fatiguing, Mr. Sampson?'

'Very much, young lady; howbeit I girded up my loins and strove
against him.'

'I can bear witness,' said the Colonel; 'I never saw an affair
better contested. The enemy was like the Mahratta cavalry: he
assailed on all sides, and presented no fair mark for artillery;
but Mr. Sampson stood to his guns notwithstanding, and fired away,
now upon the enemy and now upon the dust which he had raised. But
we must not fight our battles over again to-night; to-morrow we
shall have the whole at breakfast.'

The next morning at breakfast, however, the Dominie did not make
his appearance. He had walked out, a servant said, early in the
morning. It was so common for him to forget his meals that his
absence never deranged the family. The housekeeper, a decent old-
fashioned Presbyterian matron, having, as such, the highest
respect for Sampson's theological acquisitions, had it in charge
on these occasions to take care that he was no sufferer by his
absence of mind, and therefore usually waylaid him on his return,
to remind him of his sublunary wants, and to minister to their
relief. It seldom, however, happened that he was absent from two
meals together, as was the case in the present instance. We must
explain the cause of this unusual occurrence.

The conversation which Mr. Pleydell had held with Mr. Mannering on
the subject of the loss of Harry Bertram had awakened all the
painful sensations which that event had inflicted upon Sampson.
The affectionate heart of the poor Dominie had always reproached
him that his negligence in leaving the child in the care of Frank
Kennedy had been the proximate cause of the murder of the one, the
loss of the other, the death of Mrs. Bertram, and the ruin of the
family of his patron. It was a subject which he never conversed
upon, if indeed his mode of speech could be called conversation at
any time; but it was often present to his imagination. The sort of
hope so strongly affirmed and asserted in Mrs. Bertram's last
settlement had excited a corresponding feeling in the Dominie's
bosom, which was exasperated into a sort of sickening anxiety by
the discredit with which Pleydell had treated it. 'Assuredly,'
thought Sampson to himself, 'he is a man of erudition, and well
skilled in the weighty matters of the law; but he is also a man of
humorous levity and inconsistency of speech, and wherefore should
he pronounce ex cathedra, as it were, on the hope expressed by
worthy Madam Margaret Bertram of Singleside?'

All this, I say, the Dominie THOUGHT to himself; for had he
uttered half the sentence, his jaws would have ached for a month
under the unusual fatigue of such a continued exertion. The result
of these cogitations was a resolution to go and visit the scene of
the tragedy at Warroch Point, where he had not been for many
years; not, indeed, since the fatal accident had happened. The
walk was a long one, for the Point of Warroch lay on the farther
side of the Ellangowan property, which was interposed between it
and Woodbourne. Besides, the Dominie went astray more than once,
and met with brooks swoln into torrents by the melting of the
snow, where he, honest man, had only the summer recollection of
little trickling rills.

At length, however, he reached the woods which he had made the
object of his excursion, and traversed them with care, muddling
his disturbed brains with vague efforts to recall every
circumstance of the catastrophe. It will readily be supposed that
the influence of local situation and association was inadequate to
produce conclusions different from those which he had formed under
the immediate pressure of the occurrences themselves. 'With many a
weary sigh, therefore, and many a groan,' the poor Dominie
returned from his hopeless pilgrimage, and weariedly plodded his
way towards Woodbourne, debating at times in his altered mind a
question which was forced upon him by the cravings of an appetite
rather of the keenest, namely, whether he had breakfasted that
morning or no? It was in this twilight humour, now thinking of the
loss of the child, then involuntarily compelled to meditate upon
the somewhat incongruous subject of hung beef, rolls, and butter,
that his route, which was different from that which he had taken
in the morning, conducted him past the small ruined tower, or
rather vestige of a tower, called by the country people the Kaim
of Derncleugh.

The reader may recollect the description of this ruin in the
twenty-seventh chapter, as the vault in which young Bertram, under
the auspices of Meg Merrilies, witnessed the death of Hatteraick's
lieutenant. The tradition of the country added ghostly terrors to
the natural awe inspired by the situation of this place, which
terrors the gipsies who so long inhabited the vicinity had
probably invented, or at least propagated, for their own
advantage. It was said that, during the times of the Galwegian
independence, one Hanlon Mac-Dingawaie, brother to the reigning
chief, Knarth Mac-Dingawaie, murdered his brother and sovereign,
in order to usurp the principality from his infant nephew, and
that, being pursued for vengeance by the faithful allies and
retainers of the house, who espoused the cause of the lawful heir,
he was compelled to retreat, with a few followers whom he had
involved in his crime, to this impregnable tower called the Kaim
of Derucleugh, where he defended himself until nearly reduced by
famine, when, setting fire to the place, he and the small
remaining garrison desperately perished by their own swords,
rather than fall into the hands of their exasperated enemies. This
tragedy, which, considering the wild times wherein it was placed,
might have some foundation in truth, was larded with many legends
of superstition and diablerie, so that most of the peasants of the
neighbourhood, if benighted, would rather have chosen to make a
considerable circuit than pass these haunted walls. The lights,
often seen around the tower, when used as the rendezvous of the
lawless characters by whom it was occasionally frequented, were
accounted for, under authority of these tales of witchery, in a
manner at once convenient for the private parties concerned and
satisfactory to the public.

Now it must be confessed that our friend Sampson, although a
profound scholar and mathematician, had not travelled so far in
philosophy as to doubt the reality of witchcraft or apparitions.
Born, indeed, at a time when a doubt in the existence of witches
was interpreted as equivalent to a justification of their infernal
practices, a belief of such legends had been impressed upon the
Dominie as an article indivisible from his religious faith, and
perhaps it would have been equally difficult to have induced him
to doubt the one as the other. With these feelings, and in a thick
misty day, which was already drawing to its close, Dominie Sampson
did not pass the Kaim of Derncleugh without some feelings of tacit
horror.

What, then, was his astonishment when, on passing the door--that
door which was supposed to have been placed there by one of the
latter Lairds of Ellangowan to prevent presumptuous strangers from
incurring the dangers of the haunted vault--that door, supposed to
be always locked, and the key of which was popularly said to be
deposited with the presbytery--that door, that very door, opened
suddenly, and the figure of Meg Merrilies, well known, though not
seen for many a revolving year, was placed at once before the eyes
of the startled Dominie! She stood immediately before him in the
footpath, confronting him so absolutely that he could not avoid
her except by fairly turning back, which his manhood prevented him
from thinking of.

'I kenn'd ye wad be here,' she said, with her harsh and hollow
voice; 'I ken wha ye seek; but ye maun do my bidding.'

'Get thee behind me!' said the alarmed Dominie. 'Avoid ye! Conjuro
te, scelestissima, nequissima, spurcissima, iniquissima atque
miserrima, conjuro te!!!'

Meg stood her ground against this tremendous volley of
superlatives, which Sampson hawked up from the pit of his stomach
and hurled at her in thunder. 'Is the carl daft,' she said, 'wi'
his glamour?'

'Conjuro,' continued the Dominie, 'abjuro, contestor atque
viriliter impero tibi!'

'What, in the name of Sathan, are ye feared for, wi' your French
gibberish, that would make a dog sick? Listen, ye stickit
stibbler, to what I tell ye, or ye sail rue it while there's a
limb o' ye hings to anither! Tell Colonel Mannering that I ken
he's seeking me. He kens, and I ken, that the blood will be wiped
out, and the lost will be found,

     And Bertram's right and Bertram's might
     Shall meet on Ellangowan height.

Hae, there's a letter to him; I was gaun to send it in another
way. I canna write mysell; but I hae them that will baith write
and read, and ride and rin for me. Tell him the time's coming now,
and the weird's dreed, and the wheel's turning. Bid him look at
the stars as he has looked at them before. Will ye mind a' this?'

'Assuredly,' said the Dominie, 'I am dubious; for, woman, I am
perturbed at thy words, and my flesh quakes to hear thee.'

'They'll do you nae ill though, and maybe muckle gude.'

'Avoid ye! I desire no good that comes by unlawful means.'

'Fule body that thou art,' said Meg, stepping up to him, with a
frown of indignation that made her dark eyes flash like lamps from
under her bent brows--'Fule body! if I meant ye wrang, couldna I
clod ye ower that craig, and wad man ken how ye cam by your end
mair than Frank Kennedy? Hear ye that, ye worricow?'

'In the name of all that is good,' said the Dominie, recoiling,
and pointing his long pewter-headed walking cane like a javelin at
the supposed sorceress--'in the name of all that is good, bide off
hands! I will not be handled; woman, stand off, upon thine own
proper peril! Desist, I say; I am strong; lo, I will resist!' Here
his speech was cut short; for Meg, armed with supernatural
strength (as the Dominie asserted), broke in upon his guard, put
by a thrust which he made at her with his cane, and lifted him
into the vault, 'as easily,' said he, 'as I could sway a Kitchen's
Atlas.'

'Sit down there,' she said, pushing the half-throttled preacher
with some violence against a broken chair--'sit down there and
gather your wind and your senses, ye black barrow-tram o' the kirk
that ye are. Are ye fou or fasting?'

'Fasting, from all but sin,' answered the Dominie, who, recovering
his voice, and finding his exorcisms only served to exasperate the
intractable sorceress, thought it best to affect complaisance and
submission, inwardly conning over, however, the wholesome
conjurations which he durst no longer utter aloud. But as the
Dominie's brain was by no means equal to carry on two trains of
ideas at the same time, a word or two of his mental exercise
sometimes escaped and mingled with his uttered speech in a manner
ludicrous enough, especially as the poor man shrunk himself
together after every escape of the kind, from terror of the effect
it might produce upon the irritable feelings of the witch.

Meg in the meanwhile went to a great black cauldron that was
boiling on a fire on the floor, and, lifting the lid, an odour was
diffused through the vault which, if the vapours of a witch's
cauldron could in aught be trusted, promised better things than
the hell-broth which such vessels are usually supposed to contain.
It was, in fact, the savour of a goodly stew, composed of fowls,
hares, partridges, and moor-game boiled in a large mess with
potatoes, onions, and leeks, and from the size of the cauldron
appeared to be prepared for half a dozen of people at least. 'So
ye hae eat naething a' day?' said Meg, heaving a large portion of
this mess into a brown dish and strewing it savourily with salt
and pepper. [Footnote: See Note 4.]

'Nothing,' answered the Dominie, 'scelestissima!--that is,
gudewife.'

'Hae then,' said she, placing the dish before him, 'there's what
will warm your heart.'

'I do not hunger, malefica--that is to say, Mrs. Merrilies!' for
he said unto himself,' the savour is sweet, but it hath been
cooked by a Canidia or an Ericthoe.'

'If ye dinna eat instantly and put some saul in ye, by the bread
and the salt, I'll put it down your throat wi' the cutty spoon,
scaulding as it is, and whether ye will or no. Gape, sinner, and
swallow!'

Sampson, afraid of eye of newt, and toe of frog, tigers'
chaudrons, and so forth, had determined not to venture; but the
smell of the stew was fast melting his obstinacy, which flowed
from his chops as it were in streams of water, and the witch's
threats decided him to feed. Hunger and fear are excellent
casuists.

'Saul,' said Hunger, 'feasted with the witch of Endor.' 'And,'
quoth Fear, 'the salt which she sprinkled upon the food showeth
plainly it is not a necromantic banquet, in which that seasoning
never occurs.' 'And, besides,' says Hunger, after the first
spoonful, 'it is savoury and refreshing viands.'

'So ye like the meat?' said the hostess.

'Yea,' answered the Dominie, 'and I give thee thanks,
sceleratissima!--which means, Mrs. Margaret.'

'Aweel, eat your fill; but an ye kenn'd how it was gotten ye maybe
wadna like it sae weel.' Sampson's spoon dropped in the act of
conveying its load to his mouth. 'There's been mony a moonlight
watch to bring a' that trade thegither,' continued Meg; 'the folk
that are to eat that dinner thought little o' your game laws.'

'Is that all?' thought Sampson, resuming his spoon and shovelling
away manfully; 'I will not lack my food upon that argument.'

'Now ye maun tak a dram?'

'I will,' quoth Sampson, 'conjuro te--that is, I thank you
heartily,' for he thought to himself, in for a penny in for a
pound; and he fairly drank the witch's health in a cupful of
brandy. When he had put this copestone upon Meg's good cheer, he
felt, as he said, 'mightily elevated, and afraid of no evil which
could befall unto him.'

'Will ye remember my errand now?' said Meg Merrilies; 'I ken by
the cast o' your ee that ye're anither man than when you cam in.'

'I will, Mrs. Margaret,' repeated Sampson, stoutly; 'I will
deliver unto him the sealed yepistle, and will add what you please
to send by word of mouth.'

'Then I'll make it short,' says Meg. 'Tell him to look at the
stars without fail this night, and to do what I desire him in that
letter, as he would wish

     That Bertram's right and Bertram's might
     Should meet on Ellangowan height.

I have seen him twice when he saw na me; I ken when he was in this
country first, and I ken what's brought him back again. Up an' to
the gate! ye're ower lang here; follow me.'

Sampson followed the sibyl accordingly, who guided him about a
quarter of a mile through the woods, by a shorter cut than he
could have found for himself; then they entered upon the common,
Meg still marching before him at a great pace, until she gained
the top of a small hillock which overhung the road.

'Here,' she said, 'stand still here. Look how the setting sun
breaks through yon cloud that's been darkening the lift a' day.
See where the first stream o' light fa's: it's upon Donagild's
round tower, the auldest tower in the Castle o' Ellangowan; that's
no for naething! See as it's glooming to seaward abune yon sloop
in the bay; that's no for naething neither. Here I stood on this
very spot,' said she, drawing herself up so as not to lose one
hair-breadth of her uncommon height, and stretching out her long
sinewy arm and clenched hand--'here I stood when I tauld the last
Laird o' Ellangowan what was coming on his house; and did that fa'
to the ground? na, it hit even ower sair! And here, where I brake
the wand of peace ower him, here I stand again, to bid God bless
and prosper the just heir of Ellangowan that will sune be brought
to his ain; and the best laird he shall be that Ellangowan has
seen for three hundred years. I'll no live to see it, maybe; but
there will be mony a blythe ee see it though mine be closed. And
now, Abel Sampson, as ever ye lo'ed the house of Ellangowan, away
wi' my message to the English Colonel, as if life and death were
upon your haste!'

So saying, she turned suddenly from the amazed Dominie and
regained with swift and long strides the shelter of the wood from
which she had issued at the point where it most encroached upon
the common. Sampson gazed after her for a moment in utter
astonishment, and then obeyed her directions, hurrying to
Woodbourne at a pace very unusual for him, exclaiming three times,
'Prodigious! prodigious! pro-di-gi-ous!'




CHAPTER XLVII

     It is not madness
     That I have utter'd, bring me to the test,
     And I the matter will re-word, which madness
     Would gambol from.
          Hamlet.


As Mr. Sampson crossed the hall with a bewildered look, Mrs.
Allan, the good housekeeper, who, with the reverent attention
which is usually rendered to the clergy in Scotland, was on the
watch for his return, sallied forth to meet him--'What's this o't
now, Mr. Sampson, this is waur than ever! Ye'll really do yoursell
some injury wi' these lang fasts; naething's sae hurtful to the
stamach, Mr. Sampson. If ye would but put some peppermint draps in
your pocket, or let Barnes cut ye a sandwich.'

'Avoid thee!' quoth the Dominie, his mind running still upon his
interview with Meg Merrilies, and making for the dining-parlour.

'Na, ye needna gang in there, the cloth's been removed an hour
syne, and the Colonel's at his wine; but just step into my room, I
have a nice steak that the cook will do in a moment.'

'Exorciso te!' said Sampson; 'that is, I have dined.'

'Dined! it's impossible; wha can ye hae dined wi', you that gangs
out nae gate?'

'With Beelzebub, I believe,' said the minister.

'Na, then he's bewitched for certain,' said the housekeeper,
letting go her hold; 'he's bewitched, or he's daft, and ony way
the Colonel maun just guide him his ain gate. Wae's me! Hech,
sirs! It's a sair thing to see learning bring folk to this!' And
with this compassionate ejaculation she retreated into her own
premises.

The object of her commiseration had by this time entered the
dining-parlour, where his appearance gave great surprise. He was
mud up to the shoulders, and the natural paleness of his hue was
twice as cadaverous as usual, through terror, fatigue, and
perturbation of mind.

'What on earth is the meaning of this, Mr. Sampson?' said
Mannering, who observed Miss Bertram looking much alarmed for her
simple but attached friend.

'Exorciso,' said the Dominie.

'How, sir?' replied the astonished Colonel.

'I crave pardon, honourable sir! but my wits---'

'Are gone a wool-gathering, I think; pray, Mr. Sampson, collect
yourself, and let me know the meaning of all this.'

Sampson was about to reply, but finding his Latin formula of
exorcism still came most readily to his tongue, he prudently
desisted from the attempt, and put the scrap of paper which he had
received from the gipsy into Mannering's hand, who broke the seal
and read it with surprise. 'This seems to be some jest,' he said,
'and a very dull one.'

'It came from no jesting person,' said Mr. Sampson.

'From whom then did it come?' demanded Mannering.

The Dominie, who often displayed some delicacy of recollection in
cases where Miss Bertram had an interest, remembered the painful
circumstances connected with Meg Merrilies, looked at the young
ladies, and remained silent. 'We will join you at the tea-table in
an instant, Julia,' said the Colonel; 'I see that Mr. Sampson
wishes to speak to me alone. And now they are gone, what, in
Heaven's name, Mr. Sampson, is the meaning of all this?'

'It may be a message from Heaven,' said the Dominie, 'but it came
by Beelzebub's postmistress. It was that witch, Meg Merrilies, who
should have been burned with a tar-barrel twenty years since for a
harlot, thief, witch, and gipsy.'

'Are you sure it was she?' said the Colonel with great interest.

'Sure, honoured sir? Of a truth she is one not to be forgotten,
the like o' Meg Merrilies is not to be seen in any land.'

The Colonel paced the room rapidly, cogitating with himself. 'To
send out to apprehend her; but it is too distant to send to Mac-
Morlan, and Sir Robert Hazlewood is a pompous coxcomb; besides,
the chance of not finding her upon the spot, or that the humour of
silence that seized her before may again return. No, I will not,
to save being thought a fool, neglect the course she points out.
Many of her class set out by being impostors and end by becoming
enthusiasts, or hold a kind of darkling conduct between both
lines, unconscious almost when they are cheating themselves or
when imposing on others. Well, my course is a plain one at any
rate; and if my efforts are fruitless, it shall not be owing to
over-jealousy of my own character for wisdom.'

With this he rang the bell, and, ordering Barnes into his private
sitting-room, gave him some orders, with the result of which the
reader may be made hereafter acquainted.

We must now take up another adventure, which is also to be woven
into the story of this remarkable day.

Charles Hazlewood had not ventured to make a visit at Woodbourne
during the absence of the Colonel. Indeed, Mannering's whole
behaviour had impressed upon him an opinion that this would be
disagreeable; and such was the ascendency which the successful
soldier and accomplished gentleman had attained over the young
man's conduct, that in no respect would he have ventured to offend
him. He saw, or thought he saw, in Colonel Mannering's general
conduct, an approbation of his attachment to Miss Bertram. But
then he saw still more plainly the impropriety of any attempt at a
private correspondence, of which his parents could not be supposed
to approve, and he respected this barrier interposed betwixt them
both on Mannering's account and as he was the liberal and zealous
protector of Miss Bertram. 'No,' said he to himself, 'I will not
endanger the comfort of my Lucy's present retreat until I can
offer her a home of her own.'

With this valorous resolution, which he maintained although his
horse, from constant habit, turned his head down the avenue of
Woodbourne, and although he himself passed the lodge twice every
day, Charles Hazlewood withstood a strong inclination to ride down
just to ask how the young ladies were, and whether he could be of
any service to them during Colonel Mannering's absence. But on the
second occasion he felt the temptation so severe that he resolved
not to expose himself to it a third time; and, contenting himself
with sending hopes and inquiries and so forth to Woodbourne, he
resolved to make a visit long promised to a family at some
distance, and to return in such time as to be one of the earliest
among Mannering's visitors who should congratulate his safe
arrival from his distant and hazardous expedition to Edinburgh.
Accordingly he made out his visit, and, having arranged matters so
as to be informed within a few hours after Colonel Mannering
reached home, he finally resolved to take leave of the friends
with whom he had spent the intervening time, with the intention of
dining at Woodbourne, where he was in a great measure
domesticated; and this (for he thought much more deeply on the
subject than was necessary) would, he flattered himself, appear a
simple, natural, and easy mode of conducting himself.

Fate, however, of which lovers make so many complaints, was in
this case unfavourable to Charles Hazlewood. His horse's shoes
required an alteration, in consequence of the fresh weather having
decidedly commenced. The lady of the house where he was a visitor
chose to indulge in her own room till a very late breakfast hour.
His friend also insisted on showing him a litter of puppies which
his favourite pointer bitch had produced that morning. The colours
had occasioned some doubts about the paternity--a weighty question
of legitimacy, to the decision of which Hazlewood's opinion was
called in as arbiter between his friend and his groom, and which
inferred in its consequences which of the litter should be
drowned, which saved. Besides, the Laird himself delayed our young
lover's departure for a considerable time, endeavouring, with long
and superfluous rhetoric, to insinuate to Sir Robert Hazlewood,
through the medium of his son, his own particular ideas respecting
the line of a meditated turnpike road. It is greatly to the shame
of our young lover's apprehension that, after the tenth reiterated
account of the matter, he could not see the advantage to be
obtained by the proposed road passing over the Lang Hirst, Windy
Knowe, the Goodhouse Park, Hailziecroft, and then crossing the
river at Simon's Pool, and so by the road to Kippletringan; and
the less eligible line pointed out by the English surveyor, which
would go clear through the main enclosures at Hazlewood, and cut
within a mile or nearly so of the house itself, destroying the
privacy and pleasure, as his informer contended, of the grounds.
In short, the adviser (whose actual interest was to have the
bridge built as near as possible to a farm of his own) failed in
every effort to attract young Hazlewood's attention until he
mentioned by chance that the proposed line was favoured by 'that
fellow Glossin,' who pretended to take a lead in the county. On a
sudden young Hazlewood became attentive and interested; and,
having satisfied himself which was the line that Glossin
patronised, assured his friend it should not be his fault if his
father did not countenance any other instead of that. But these
various interruptions consumed the morning. Hazlewood got on
horseback at least three hours later than he intended, and,
cursing fine ladies, pointers, puppies, and turnpike acts of
parliament, saw himself detained beyond the time when he could
with propriety intrude upon the family at Woodbourne.

He had passed, therefore, the turn of the road which led to that
mansion, only edified by the distant appearance of the blue smoke
curling against the pale sky of the winter evening, when he
thought he beheld the Dominie taking a footpath for the house
through the woods. He called after him, but in vain; for that
honest gentleman, never the most susceptible of extraneous
impressions, had just that moment parted from Meg Merrilies, and
was too deeply wrapt up in pondering upon her vaticinations to
make any answer to Hazlewood's call. He was therefore obliged to
let him proceed without inquiry after the health of the young
ladies, or any other fishing question, to which he might by good
chance have had an answer returned wherein Miss Bertram's name
might have been mentioned. All cause for haste was now over, and,
slackening the reins upon his horse's neck, he permitted the
animal to ascend at his own leisure the steep sandy track between
two high banks, which, rising to a considerable height, commanded
at length an extensive view of the neighbouring country.

Hazlewood was, however, so far from eagerly looking forward to
this prospect, though it had the recommendation that great part of
the land was his father's, and must necessarily be his own, that
his head still turned backward towards the chimneys of Woodbourne,
although at every step his horse made the difficulty of employing
his eyes in that direction become greater. From the reverie in
which he was sunk he was suddenly roused by a voice, too harsh to
be called female, yet too shrill for a man: 'What's kept you on
the road sae lang? Maun ither folk do your wark?'

He looked up. The spokeswoman was very tall, had a voluminous
handkerchief rolled round her head, grizzled hair flowing in elf-
locks from beneath it, a long red cloak, and a staff in her hand,
headed with a sort of spear-point; it was, in short, Meg
Merrilies. Hazlewood had never seen this remarkable figure before;
he drew up his reins in astonishment at her appearance, and made a
full stop. 'I think,' continued she, 'they that hae taen interest
in the house of Ellangowan suld sleep nane this night; three men
hae been seeking ye, and you are gaun hame to sleep in your bed.
D' ye think if the lad-bairn fa's, the sister will do weel? Na,
na!'

'I don't understand you, good woman,' said Hazlewood. 'If you
speak of Miss---, I mean of any of the late Ellangowan family,
tell me what I can do for them.'

'Of the late Ellangowan family?' she answered with great
vehemence--'of the LATE Ellangowan family! and when was there
ever, or when will there ever be, a family of Ellangowan but
bearing the gallant name of the bauld Bertrams?'

'But what do you mean, good woman?'

'I am nae good woman; a' the country kens I am bad eneugh, and
baith they and I may be sorry eneugh that I am nae better. But I
can do what good women canna, and daurna do. I can do what would
freeze the blood o' them that is bred in biggit wa's for naething
but to bind bairns' heads and to hap them in the cradle. Hear me:
the guard's drawn off at the custom-house at Portanferry, and it's
brought up to Hazlewood House by your father's orders, because he
thinks his house is to be attacked this night by the smugglers.
There's naebody means to touch his house; he has gude blood and
gentle blood--I say little o' him for himsell--but there's naebody
thinks him worth meddling wi'. Send the horsemen back to their
post, cannily and quietly; see an they winna hae wark the night,
ay will they: the guns will flash and the swords will glitter in
the braw moon.'

'Good God! what do you mean?' said young Hazlewood; 'your words
and manner would persuade me you are mad, and yet there is a
strange combination in what you say.'

'I am not mad!' exclaimed the gipsy; 'I have been imprisoned for
mad--scourged for mad--banished for mad--but mad I am not. Hear
ye, Charles Hazlewood of Hazlewood: d'ye bear malice against him
that wounded you?'

'No, dame, God forbid; my arm is quite well, and I have always
said the shot was discharged by accident. I should be glad to tell
the young man so himself.'

'Then do what I bid ye,' answered Meg Merrilies, 'and ye 'll do
him mair gude than ever he did you ill; for if he was left to his
ill-wishers he would be a bloody corpse ere morn, or a banished
man; but there's Ane abune a'. Do as I bid you; send back the
soldiers to Portanferry. There's nae mair fear o' Hazlewood House
than there's o' Cruffel Fell.' And she vanished with her usual
celerity of pace.

It would seem that the appearance of this female, and the mixture
of frenzy and enthusiasm in her manner, seldom failed to produce
the strongest impression upon those whom she addressed. Her words,
though wild, were too plain and intelligible for actual madness,
and yet too vehement and extravagant for sober-minded
communication. She seemed acting under the influence of an
imagination rather strongly excited than deranged; and it is
wonderful how palpably the difference in such cases is impressed
upon the mind of the auditor. This may account for the attention
with which her strange and mysterious hints were heard and acted
upon. It is certain, at least, that young Hazlewood was strongly
impressed by her sudden appearance and imperative tone. He rode to
Hazlewood at a brisk pace. It had been dark for some time before
he reached the house, and on his arrival there he saw a
confirmation of what the sibyl had hinted.

Thirty dragoon horses stood under a shed near the offices, with
their bridles linked together. Three or four soldiers attended as
a guard, while others stamped up and down with their long
broadswords and heavy boots in front of the house. Hazlewood asked
a non-commissioned officer from whence they came.

'From Portanferry.'

'Had they left any guard there?'

'No; they had been drawn off by order of Sir Robert Hazlewood for
defence of his house against an attack which was threatened by the
smugglers.'

Charles Hazlewood instantly went in quest of his father, and,
having paid his respects to him upon his return, requested to know
upon what account he had thought it necessary to send for a
military escort. Sir Robert assured his son in reply that, from
the information, intelligence, and tidings which had been
communicated to, and laid before him, he had the deepest reason to
believe, credit, and be convinced that a riotous assault would
that night be attempted and perpetrated against Hazlewood House by
a set of smugglers, gipsies, and other desperadoes.

'And what, my dear sir,' said his son, 'should direct the fury of
such persons against ours rather than any other house in the
country?'

'I should rather think, suppose, and be of opinion, sir,' answered
Sir Robert, 'with deference to your wisdom and experience, that on
these occasions and times the vengeance of such persons is
directed or levelled against the most important and distinguished
in point of rank, talent, birth, and situation who have checked,
interfered with, and discountenanced their unlawful and illegal
and criminal actions or deeds.'

Young Hazlewood, who knew his father's foible, answered, that the
cause of his surprise did not lie where Sir Robert apprehended,
but that he only wondered they should think of attacking a house
where there were so many servants, and where a signal to the
neighbouring tenants could call in such strong assistance; and
added, that he doubted much whether the reputation of the family
would not in some degree suffer from calling soldiers from their
duty at the custom-house to protect them, as if they were not
sufficiently strong to defend themselves upon any ordinary
occasion. He even hinted that, in case their house's enemies
should observe that this precaution had been taken unnecessarily,
there would be no end of their sarcasms.

Sir Robert Hazlewood was rather puzzled at this intimation, for,
like most dull men, he heartily hated and feared ridicule. He
gathered himself up and looked with a sort of pompous
embarrassment, as if he wished to be thought to despise the
opinion of the public, which in reality he dreaded.

'I really should have thought,' he said, 'that the injury which
had already been aimed at my house in your person, being the next
heir and representative of the Hazlewood family, failing me--I
should have thought and believed, I say, that this would have
justified me sufficiently in the eyes of the most respectable and
the greater part of the people for taking such precautions as are
calculated to prevent and impede a repetition of outrage.'

'Really, sir,' said Charles, 'I must remind you of what I have
often said before, that I am positive the discharge of the piece
was accidental.'

'Sir, it was not accidental,' said his father, angrily; 'but you
will be wiser than your elders.'

'Really, sir,' replied Hazlewood, 'in what so intimately concerns
myself---'

'Sir, it does not concern you but in a very secondary degree; that
is, it does not concern you, as a giddy young fellow who takes
pleasure in contradicting his father; but it concerns the country,
sir, and the county, sir, and the public, sir, and the kingdom of
Scotland, in so far as the interest of the Hazlewood family, sir,
is committed and interested and put in peril, in, by, and through
you, sir. And the fellow is in safe custody, and Mr. Glossin
thinks---'

'Mr. Glossin, sir?'

'Yes, sir, the gentleman who has purchased Ellangowan; you know
who I mean, I suppose?'

'Yes, sir,' answered the young man; 'but I should hardly have
expected to hear you quote such authority. Why, this fellow--all
the world knows him to be sordid, mean, tricking, and I suspect
him to be worse. And you yourself, my dear sir, when did you call
such a person a gentleman in your life before?'

'Why, Charles, I did not mean gentleman in the precise sense and
meaning, and restricted and proper use, to which, no doubt, the
phrase ought legitimately to be confined; but I meant to use it
relatively, as marking something of that state to which he has
elevated and raised himself; as designing, in short, a decent and
wealthy and estimable sort of a person.'

'Allow me to ask, sir,' said Charles, 'if it was by this man's
orders that the guard was drawn from Portanferry?'

'Sir,' replied the Baronet, 'I do apprehend that Mr. Glossin would
not presume to give orders, or even an opinion, unless asked, in a
matter in which Hazlewood House and the house of Hazlewood--
meaning by the one this mansion-house of my family, and by the
other, typically, metaphorically, and parabolically, the family
itself,--I say, then, where the house of Hazlewood, or Hazlewood
House, was so immediately concerned.'

'I presume, however, sir,' said the son, 'this Glossin approved of
the proposal?'

'Sir,' replied his father, 'I thought it decent and right and
proper to consult him as the nearest magistrate as soon as report
of the intended outrage reached my ears; and although he declined,
out of deference and respect, as became our relative situations,
to concur in the order, yet he did entirely approve of my
arrangement.'

At this moment a horse's feet were heard coming very fast up the
avenue. In a few minutes the door opened, and Mr. Mac-Morlan
presented himself. 'I am under great concern to intrude, Sir
Robert, but---'

'Give me leave, Mr. Mac-Morlan,' said Sir Robert, with a gracious
flourish of welcome; 'this is no intrusion, sir; for, your
situation as sheriff-substitute calling upon you to attend to the
peace of the county, and you, doubtless, feeling yourself
particularly called upon to protect Hazlewood House, you have an
acknowledged and admitted and undeniable right, sir, to enter the
house of the first gentleman in Scotland uninvited--always
presuming you to be called there by the duty of your office.'

'It is indeed the duty of my office,' said Mac-Morlan, who waited
with impatience an opportunity to speak, 'that makes me an
intruder.'

'No intrusion!' reiterated the Baronet, gracefully waving his
hand.

'But permit me to say, Sir Robert,' said the sheriff-substitute,
'I do not come with the purpose of remaining here, but to recall
these soldiers to Portanferry, and to assure you that I will
answer for the safety of your house.'

'To withdraw the guard from Hazlewood House!' exclaimed the
proprietor in mingled displeasure and surprise; 'and YOU will be
answerable for it! And, pray, who are you, sir, that I should take
your security and caution and pledge, official or personal, for
the safety of Hazlewood House? I think, sir, and believe, sir, and
am of opinion, sir, that if any one of these family pictures were
deranged or destroyed or injured it would be difficult for me to
make up the loss upon the guarantee which you so obligingly offer
me.'

'In that case I shall be sorry for it, Sir Robert,' answered the
downright Mac-Morlan; 'but I presume I may escape the pain of
feeling my conduct the cause of such irreparable loss, as I can
assure you there will be no attempt upon Hazlewood House whatever,
and I have received information which induces me to suspect that
the rumour was put afloat merely in order to occasion the removal
of the soldiers from Portanferry. And under this strong belief and
conviction I must exert my authority as sheriff and chief
magistrate of police to order the whole, or greater part of them,
back again. I regret much that by my accidental absence a good
deal of delay has already taken place, and we shall not now reach
Portanferry until it is late.'

As Mr. Mac-Morlan was the superior magistrate, and expressed
himself peremptory in the purpose of acting as such, the Baronet,
though highly offended, could only say, 'Very well, sir; it is
very well. Nay, sir, take them all with you; I am far from
desiring any to be left here, sir. We, sir, can protect ourselves,
sir. But you will have the goodness to observe, sir, that you are
acting on your own proper risk, sir, and peril, sir, and
responsibility, sir, if anything shall happen or befall to
Hazlewood House, sir, or the inhabitants, sir, or to the furniture
and paintings, sir.'

'I am acting to the best of my judgment and information, Sir
Robert,' said Mac-Morlan, 'and I must pray of you to believe so,
and to pardon me accordingly. I beg you to observe it is no time
for ceremony; it is already very late.'

But Sir Robert, without deigning to listen to his apologies,
immediately employed himself with much parade in arming and
arraying his domestics. Charles Hazlewood longed to accompany the
military, which were about to depart for Portanferry, and which
were now drawn up and mounted by direction and under the guidance
of Mr. Mac-Morlan, as the civil magistrate. But it would have
given just pain and offence to his father to have left him at a
moment when he conceived himself and his mansion-house in danger.
Young Hazlewood therefore gazed from a window with suppressed
regret and displeasure, until he heard the officer give the word
of command--'From the right to the front, by files, m-a-rch.
Leading file, to the right wheel. Trot.' The whole party of
soldiers then getting into a sharp and uniform pace, were soon
lost among the trees, and the noise of the hoofs died speedily
away in the distance.




CHAPTER XLVIII

     Wi' coulters and wi' forehammers
     We garr'd the bars bang merrily,
     Until we came to the inner prison,
     Where Willie o' Kinmont he did lie.

          Old Border Ballad.


We return to Portanferry, and to Bertram and his honest-hearted
friend, whom we left most innocent inhabitants of a place built
for the guilty. The slumbers of the farmer were as sound as it was
possible.

But Bertram's first heavy sleep passed away long before midnight,
nor could he again recover that state of oblivion. Added to the
uncertain and uncomfortable state of his mind, his body felt
feverish and oppressed. This was chiefly owing to the close and
confined air of the small apartment in which they slept. After
enduring for some time the broiling and suffocating feeling
attendant upon such an atmosphere, he rose to endeavour to open
the window of the apartment, and thus to procure a change of air.
Alas! the first trial reminded him that he was in jail, and that
the building being contrived for security, not comfort, the means
of procuring fresh air were not left at the disposal of the
wretched inhabitants.

Disappointed in this attempt, he stood by the unmanageable window
for some time. Little Wasp, though oppressed with the fatigue of
his journey on the preceding day, crept out of bed after his
master, and stood by him rubbing his shaggy coat against his legs,
and expressing by a murmuring sound the delight which he felt at
being restored to him. Thus accompanied, and waiting until the
feverish feeling which at present agitated his blood should
subside into a desire for warmth and slumber, Bertram remained for
some time looking out upon the sea.

The tide was now nearly full, and dashed hoarse and near below the
base of the building. Now and then a large wave reached even the
barrier or bulwark which defended the foundation of the house, and
was flung up on it with greater force and noise than those which
only broke upon the sand. Far in the distance, under the
indistinct light of a hazy and often overclouded moon, the ocean
rolled its multitudinous complication of waves, crossing,
bursting, and mingling with each other.

'A wild and dim spectacle,' said Bertram to himself, 'like those
crossing tides of fate which have tossed me about the world from
my infancy upwards. When will this uncertainty cease, and how soon
shall I be permitted to look out for a tranquil home, where I may
cultivate in quiet, and without dread and perplexity, those arts
of peace from which my cares have been hitherto so forcibly
diverted? The ear of Fancy, it is said, can discover the voice of
sea-nymphs and tritons amid the bursting murmurs of the ocean;
would that I could do so, and that some siren or Proteus would
arise from these billows to unriddle for me the strange maze of
fate in which I am so deeply entangled! Happy friend!' he said,
looking at the bed where Dinmont had deposited his bulky person,
'thy cares are confined to the narrow round of a healthy and
thriving occupation! Thou canst lay them aside at pleasure, and
enjoy the deep repose of body and mind which wholesome labour has
prepared for thee!'

At this moment his reflections were broken by little Wasp, who,
attempting to spring up against the window, began to yelp and bark
most furiously. The sounds reached Dinmont's ears, but without
dissipating the illusion which had transported him from this
wretched apartment to the free air of his own green hills. 'Hoy,
Yarrow, man! far yaud, far yaud!' he muttered between his teeth,
imagining, doubtless, that he was calling to his sheep-dog, and
hounding him in shepherds' phrase against some intruders on the
grazing. The continued barking of the terrier within was answered
by the angry challenge of the mastiff in the courtyard, which had
for a long time been silent, excepting only an occasional short
and deep note, uttered when the moon shone suddenly from among the
clouds. Now his clamour was continued and furious, and seemed to
be excited by some disturbance distinct from the barking of Wasp,
which had first given him the alarm, and which, with much trouble,
his master had contrived to still into an angry note of low
growling.

At last Bertram, whose attention was now fully awakened, conceived
that he saw a boat upon the sea, and heard in good earnest the
sound of oars and of human voices mingling with the dash of the
billows. 'Some benighted fishermen,' he thought, 'or perhaps some
of the desperate traders from the Isle of Man. They are very
hardy, however, to approach so near to the custom-house, where
there must be sentinels. It is a large boat, like a long-boat, and
full of people; perhaps it belongs to the revenue service.'
Bertram was confirmed in this last opinion by observing that the
boat made for a little quay which ran into the sea behind the
custom-house, and, jumping ashore one after another, the crew, to
the number of twenty hands, glided secretly up a small lane which
divided the custom-house from the bridewell, and disappeared from
his sight, leaving only two persons to take care of the boat.

The dash of these men's oars at first, and latterly the suppressed
sounds of their voices, had excited the wrath of the wakeful
sentinel in the courtyard, who now exalted his deep voice into
such a horrid and continuous din that it awakened his brute
master, as savage a ban-dog as himself. His cry from a window, of
'How now, Tearum, what's the matter, sir? down, d--n ye, down!'
produced no abatement of Tearum's vociferation, which in part
prevented his master from hearing the sounds of alarm which his
ferocious vigilance was in the act of challenging. But the mate of
the two-legged Cerberus was gifted with sharper ears than her
husband. She also was now at the window. 'B--t ye, gae down and
let loose the dog,' she said; 'they're sporting the door of the
custom-house, and the auld sap at Hazlewood House has ordered off
the guard. But ye hae nae mair heart than a cat.' And down the
Amazon sallied to perform the task herself, while her helpmate,
more jealous of insurrection within doors than of storm from
without, went from cell to cell to see that the inhabitants of
each were carefully secured.

These latter sounds with which we have made the reader acquainted
had their origin in front of the house, and were consequently
imperfectly heard by Bertram, whose apartment, as we have already
noticed, looked from the back part of the building upon the sea.
He heard, however, a stir and tumult in the house, which did not
seem to accord with the stern seclusion of a prison at the hour of
midnight, and, connecting them with the arrival of an armed boat
at that dead hour, could not but suppose that something
extraordinary was about to take place. In this belief he shook
Dinmont by the shoulder. 'Eh! Ay! Oh! Ailie, woman, it's no time
to get up yet,' groaned the sleeping man of the mountains. More
roughly shaken, however, he gathered himself up, shook his ears,
and asked, 'In the name of Providence what's the matter?'

'That I can't tell you,' replied Bertram; 'but either the place is
on fire or some extraordinary thing is about to happen. Are you
not sensible of a smell of fire? Do you not hear what a noise
there is of clashing doors within the house and of hoarse voices,
murmurs, and distant shouts on the outside? Upon my word, I
believe something very extraordinary has taken place. Get up, for
the love of Heaven, and let us be on our guard.'