'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 II
    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.'






CHAPTER III
     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.

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

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

'Troth, he put a parcel--a sma' parcel--under my charge, and he gave me
some siller, and desired me to get him half-a-dozen ruffled sarks, and
Peg Pasley's in hands wi' them e'en now; they may serve him to gang up
the Lawnmarket [Footnote: The procession of the criminals to the gallows
of old took that direction, moving, as the school-boy rhyme had it, Up
the Lawnmarket, Down the West Bow, Up the lang ladder, And down the
little tow.] in, the scoundrel!' Mr. Glossin then demanded to see the
packet, but here mine hostess demurred.

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

Mrs. Mac-Candlish's natural sagacity and acquired suspicion being
inflexible, Glossin sent for Deacon Bearcliff, to speak 'anent the
villain that had shot Mr. Charles Hazlewood.' The Deacon accordingly made
his appearance with his wig awry, owing to the hurry with which, at this
summons of the Justice, he had exchanged it for the Kilmarnock cap in
which he usually attended his customers. Mrs. Mac-Candlish then produced
the parcel deposited with her by Brown, in which was found the gipsy's
purse. On perceiving the value of the miscellaneous contents, Mrs.
Mac-Candlish internally congratulated herself upon the precautions she
had taken before delivering them up to Glossin, while he, with an
appearance of disinterested candour, was the first to propose they should
be properly inventoried, and deposited with Deacon Bearcliff, until they
should be sent to the Crown-office. 'He did not,' he observed, 'like to
be personally responsible for articles which seemed of considerable
value, and had doubtless been acquired by the most nefarious practices.'

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

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

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

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

'Well, but what did ye speak about?'

'Ou, he just asked questions like ony ither stranger,' answered the
postilion, possessed, as it seemed, with the refractory and
uncommunicative spirit which had left his mistress.

'But about what?' said Glossin.

'Ou, just about the folk that was playing at the curling, and about auld
Jock Stevenson that was at the cock, and about the leddies, and sic
like.'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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






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

          --Measure for Measure.


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

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

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

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

'Well, well,' said Glossin, 'no occasion to be particular, tell the
essentials.'

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

'Who?'

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

'Had he no arms?' asked the Justice.

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

'Any papers?'

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

'Go downstairs then, Mac-Guffog, and be in waiting.' The officer left the
room.

The clink of irons was immediately afterwards heard upon the stair, and
in two or three minutes a man was introduced, handcuffed and fettered. He
was thick, brawny, and muscular, and although his shagged and grizzled
hair marked an age somewhat advanced, and his stature was rather low, he
appeared, nevertheless, a person whom few would have chosen to cope with
in personal conflict. His coarse and savage features were still flushed,
and his eye still reeled under the influence of the strong potation which
had proved the immediate cause of his seizure. But the sleep, though
short, which Mac-Guffog had allowed him, and still more a sense of the
peril of his situation, had restored to him the full use of his
faculties. The worthy judge and the no less estimable captive looked at
each other steadily for a long time without speaking. Glossin apparently
recognised his prisoner, but seemed at a loss how to proceed with his
investigation. At length he broke silence.--'Soh, Captain, this is you?
you have been a stranger on this coast for some years.'

'Stranger?' replied the other. 'Strange enough, I think; for hold me der
deyvil, if I been ever here before.'

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

'That MUST pass, Mr. Justice, sapperment!'

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

'What bin I? donner and blitzen! I bin Jans Jansen, from Cuxhaven; what
sall Ich bin?'

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

The clerk would have offered some remonstrances to his patron on the
danger of remaining alone with such a desperate character, although
ironed beyond the possibility of active exertion, but Glossin waved him
off impatiently. When he had left the room the Justice took two short
turns through the apartment, then drew his chair opposite to the
prisoner, so as to confront him fully, placed the pistols before him in
readiness, and said in a steady voice, 'You are Dirk Hatteraick of
Flushing, are you not?'

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

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

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

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

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

Hatteraick's looks grew black as midnight.

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

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

'It is so long since, Captain Hatteraick,' answered Glossin,
superciliously, 'that I really forget how I was recompensed for my
trouble.'

'Your trouble? your silence, you mean.'

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

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

'Of the boy?' said Glossin, eagerly.

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

'He does not live, does he?'

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

'Good God! But in India?' exclaimed Glossin.

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

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

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

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

'Why, all the gelt was gone, and the house was shaking, and I thought the
job was clayed over and forgotten,' answered the worthy skipper.

'Stay; what can be done?' said Glossin, anxiously. 'I dare not discharge
you; but might you not be rescued in the way? Ay sure! a word to
Lieutenant Brown, and I would send the people with you by the
coast-road.'

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

'Dead? shot? At Woodbourne, I suppose?' replied Glossin.

'Yaw, Mynheer.'

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

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

'Hark ye,' said Glossin, going to a tool chest, and taking out a small
file,'there's a friend for you, and you know the road to the sea by the
stairs.' Hatteraick shook his chains in ecstasy, as if he were already at
liberty, and strove to extend his fettered hand towards his protector.
Glossin laid his finger upon his lips with a cautious glance at the door,
and then proceeded in his instructions. 'When you escape, you had better
go to the Kaim of Derncleugh.'

'Donner! that howff is blown.'

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

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