CHAPTER XII
Reputation! that's man's idol Set up against God, the Maker of all laws, Who hath commanded us we should not kill, And yet we say we must, for Reputation! What honest man can either fear his own, Or else will hurt another's reputation? Fear to do base unworthy things is valour; If they be done to us, to suffer them Is valour too.
BEN JONSON.
The Colonel was walking pensively up and down the parlour when theofficious landlady reentered to take his commands. Having given them inthe manner he thought would be most acceptable 'for the good of thehouse,' be begged to detain her a moment.
'I think,' he said, 'madam, if I understood the good people right, Mr.Bertram lost his son in his fifth year?'
'O ay, sir, there's nae doubt o' that, though there are mony idleclashes about the way and manner, for it's an auld story now, andeverybody tells it, as we were doing, their ain way by the ingleside.But lost the bairn was in his fifth year, as your honour says, Colonel;and the news being rashly tell'd to the leddy, then great with child,cost her her life that samyn night; and the Laird never throve afterthat day, but was just careless of everything, though, when hisdaughter Miss Lucy grew up, she tried to keep order within doors; butwhat could she do, poor thing? So now they're out of house and hauld.'
'Can you recollect, madam, about what time of the year the child waslost?' The landlady, after a pause and some recollection, answered,'she was positive it was about this season'; and added some localrecollections that fixed the date in her memory as occurring about thebeginning of November 17--.
The stranger took two or three turns round the room in silence, butsigned to Mrs. Mac-Candlish not to leave it.
'Did I rightly apprehend,' he said, 'that the estate of Ellangowan isin the market?'
'In the market? It will be sell'd the morn to the highestbidder--that's no the morn, Lord help me! which is the Sabbath, but onMonday, the first free day; and the furniture and stocking is to beroupit at the same time on the ground. It's the opinion of the haillcountry that the sale has been shamefully forced on at this time, whenthere's sae little money stirring in Scotland wi' this weary Americanwar, that somebody may get the land a bargain. Deil be in them, that Ishould say sae!'--the good lady's wrath rising at the supposedinjustice.
'And where will the sale take place?'
'On the premises, as the advertisement says; that's at the house ofEllangowan, your honour, as I understand it.'
'And who exhibits the title-deeds, rent-roll, and plan?'
'A very decent man, sir; the sheriff-substitute of the county, who hasauthority from the Court of Session. He's in the town just now, if yourhonour would like to see him; and he can tell you mair about the lossof the bairn than ony body, for the sheriff-depute (that's hisprincipal, like) took much pains to come at the truth o' that matter,as I have heard.'
'And this gentleman's name is--'
'Mac-Morlan, sir; he's a man o' character, and weel spoken o'.'
'Send my compliments--Colonel Mannering's compliments to him, and Iwould be glad he would do me the pleasure of supping with me, and bringthese papers with him; and I beg, good madam, you will say nothing ofthis to any one else.'
'Me, sir? ne'er a word shall I say. I wish your honour (a courtesy), orony honourable gentleman that's fought for his country (anothercourtesy), had the land, since the auld family maun quit (a sigh),rather than that wily scoundrel Glossin, that's risen on the ruin ofthe best friend he ever had. And now I think on't, I'll slip on my hoodand pattens, and gang to Mr. Mac-Morlan mysell, he's at hame e'en now;it's hardly a step.'
'Do so, my good landlady, and many thanks; and bid my servant step herewith my portfolio in the meantime.'
In a minute or two Colonel Mannering was quietly seated with hiswriting materials before him. We have the privilege of looking over hisshoulder as he writes, and we willingly communicate its substance toour readers. The letter was addressed to Arthur Mervyn, Esq., of MervynHall, Llanbraithwaite, Westmoreland. It contained some account of thewriter's previous journey since parting with him, and then proceeded asfollows:--
'And now, why will you still upbraid me with my melancholy, Mervyn? Doyou think, after the lapse of twenty-five years, battles, wounds,imprisonment, misfortunes of every description, I can be still the samelively, unbroken Guy Mannering who climbed Skiddaw with you, or shotgrouse upon Crossfell? That you, who have remained in the bosom ofdomestic happiness, experience little change, that your step is aslight and your fancy as full of sunshine, is a blessed effect of healthand temperament, cooperating with content and a smooth current down thecourse of life. But MY career has been one of difficulties and doubtsand errors. From my infancy I have been the sport of accident, and,though the wind has often borne me into harbour, it has seldom beeninto that which the pilot destined. Let me recall to you--but the taskmust be brief--the odd and wayward fates of my youth, and themisfortunes of my manhood.
'The former, you will say, had nothing very appalling. All was not forthe best; but all was tolerable. My father, the eldest son of anancient but reduced family, left me with little, save the name of thehead of the house, to the protection of his more fortunate brothers.They were so fond of me that they almost quarrelled about me. My uncle,the bishop, would have had me in orders, and offered me a living; myuncle, the merchant, would have put me into a counting-house, andproposed to give me a share in the thriving concern of Mannering andMarshall, in Lombard Street. So, between these two stools, or ratherthese two soft, easy, well-stuffed chairs of divinity and commerce, myunfortunate person slipped down, and pitched upon a dragoon saddle.Again, the bishop wished me to marry the niece and heiress of the Deanof Lincoln; and my uncle, the alderman, proposed to me the onlydaughter of old Sloethorn, the great wine-merchant, rich enough to playat span-counter with moidores and make thread-papers of bank-notes; andsomehow I slipped my neck out of both nooses, and married--poor, poorSophia Wellwood.
'You will say, my military career in India, when I followed my regimentthere, should have given me some satisfaction; and so it assuredly has.You will remind me also, that if I disappointed the hopes of myguardians, I did not incur their displeasure; that the bishop, at hisdeath, bequeathed me his blessing, his manuscript sermons, and acurious portfolio containing the heads of eminent divines of the churchof England; and that my uncle, Sir Paul Mannering, left me sole heirand executor to his large fortune. Yet this availeth me nothing; I toldyou I had that upon my mind which I should carry to my grave with me, aperpetual aloes in the draught of existence. I will tell you the causemore in detail than I had the heart to do while under your hospitableroof. You will often hear it mentioned, and perhaps with different andunfounded circumstances. I will therefore speak it out; and then letthe event itself, and the sentiments of melancholy with which it hasimpressed me, never again be subject of discussion between us.
'Sophia, as you well know, followed me to India. She was as innocent asgay; but, unfortunately for us both, as gay as innocent. My own mannerswere partly formed by studies I had forsaken, and habits of seclusionnot quite consistent with my situation as commandant of a regiment in acountry where universal hospitality is offered and expected by everysettler claiming the rank of a gentleman. In a moment of peculiarpressure (you know how hard we were sometimes run to obtain white facesto countenance our line-of-battle), a young man named Brown joined ourregiment as a volunteer, and, finding the military duty more to hisfancy than commerce, in which he had been engaged, remained with us asa cadet. Let me do my unhappy victim justice: he behaved with suchgallantry on every occasion that offered that the first vacantcommission was considered as his due. I was absent for some weeks upona distant expedition; when I returned I found this young fellowestablished quite as the friend of the house, and habitual attendant ofmy wife and daughter. It was an arrangement which displeased me in manyparticulars, though no objection could be made to his manners orcharacter. Yet I might have been reconciled to his familiarity in myfamil
y, but for the suggestions of another. If you read over--what Inever dare open--the play of "Othello," you will have some idea of whatfollowed--I mean of my motives; my actions, thank God! were lessreprehensible. There was another cadet ambitious of the vacantsituation. He called my attention to what he led me to term coquetrybetween my wife and this young man. Sophia was virtuous, but proud ofher virtue; and, irritated by my jealousy, she was so imprudent as topress and encourage an intimacy which she saw I disapproved andregarded with suspicion. Between Brown and me there existed a sort ofinternal dislike. He made an effort or two to overcome my prejudice;but, prepossessed as I was, I placed them to a wrong motive. Feelinghimself repulsed, and with scorn, he desisted; and as he was withoutfamily and friends, he was naturally more watchful of the deportment ofone who had both.
'It is odd with what torture I write this letter. I feel inclined,nevertheless, to protract the operation, just as if my doing so couldput off the catastrophe which has so long embittered my life. But--itmust be told, and it shall be told briefly.
'My wife, though no longer young, was still eminently handsome,and--let me say thus far in my own justification-she was fond of beingthought so--I am repeating what I said before. In a word, of her virtueI never entertained a doubt; but, pushed by the artful suggestions ofArcher, I thought she cared little for my peace of mind, and that theyoung fellow Brown paid his attentions in my despite, and in defianceof me. He perhaps considered me, on his part, as an oppressivearistocratic man, who made my rank in society and in the army the meansof galling those whom circumstances placed beneath me. And if hediscovered my silly jealousy, he probably considered the fretting me inthat sore point of my character as one means of avenging the pettyindignities to which I had it in my power to subject him. Yet an acutefriend of mine gave a more harmless, or at least a less offensive,construction to his attentions, which he conceived to be meant for mydaughter Julia, though immediately addressed to propitiate theinfluence of her mother. This could have been no very flattering orpleasing enterprise on the part of an obscure and nameless young man;but I should not have been offended at this folly as I was at thehigher degree of presumption I suspected. Offended, however, I was, andin a mortal degree.
'A very slight spark will kindle a flame where everything lies open tocatch it. I have absolutely forgot the proximate cause of quarrel, butit was some trifle which occurred at the card-table which occasionedhigh words and a challenge. We met in the morning beyond the walls andesplanade of the fortress which I then commanded, on the frontiers ofthe settlement. This was arranged for Brown's safety, had he escaped. Ialmost wish he had, though at my own expense; but he fell by the firstfire. We strove to assist him; but some of these looties, a species ofnative banditti who were always on the watch for prey, poured in uponus. Archer and I gained our horses with difficulty, and cut our waythrough them after a hard conflict, in the course of which he receivedsome desperate wounds. To complete the misfortunes of this miserableday, my wife, who suspected the design with which I left the fortress,had ordered her palanquin to follow me, and was alarmed and almost madeprisoner by another troop of these plunderers. She was quickly releasedby a party of our cavalry; but I cannot disguise from myself that theincidents of this fatal morning gave a severe shock to health alreadydelicate. The confession of Archer, who thought himself dying, that hehad invented some circumstances, and for his purposes put the worstconstruction upon others, and the full explanation and exchange offorgiveness with me which this produced, could not check the progressof her disorder. She died within about eight months after thisincident, bequeathing me only the girl of whom Mrs. Mervyn is so goodas to undertake the temporary charge. Julia was also extremely ill; somuch so that I was induced to throw up my command and return to Europe,where her native air, time, and the novelty of the scenes around herhave contributed to dissipate her dejection and restore her health.
'Now that you know my story, you will no longer ask me the reason of mymelancholy, but permit me to brood upon it as I may. There is, surely,in the above narrative enough to embitter, though not to poison, thechalice which the fortune and fame you so often mention had prepared toregale my years of retirement.
'I could add circumstances which our old tutor would have quoted asinstances of DAY FATALITY,--you would laugh were I to mention suchparticulars, especially as you know I put no faith in them. Yet, sinceI have come to the very house from which I now write, I have learned asingular coincidence, which, if I find it truly established bytolerable evidence, will serve as hereafter for subject of curiousdiscussion. But I will spare you at present, as I expect a person tospeak about a purchase of property now open in this part of thecountry. It is a place to which I have a foolish partiality, and I hopemy purchasing may be convenient to those who are parting with it, asthere is a plan for buying it under the value. My respectfulcompliments to Mrs. Mervyn, and I will trust you, though you boast tobe so lively a young gentleman, to kiss Julia for me. Adieu, dearMervyn.--Thine ever, GUY MANNERING.'
Mr. Mac-Morlan now entered the room. The well-known character ofColonel Mannering at once disposed this gentleman, who was a man ofintelligence and probity, to be open and confidential. He explained theadvantages and disadvantages of the property. 'It was settled,' hesaid, 'the greater part of it at least, upon heirs-male, and thepurchaser would have the privilege of retaining in his hands a largeproportion of the price, in case of the reappearance, within a certainlimited term, of the child who had disappeared.'
'To what purpose, then, force forward a sale?' said Mannering.Mac-Morlan smiled. 'Ostensibly,' he answered, 'to substitute theinterest of money instead of the ill-paid and precarious rents of anunimproved estate; but chiefly it was believed, to suit the wishes andviews of a certain intended purchaser, who had become a principalcreditor, and forced himself into the management of the affairs bymeans best known to himself, and who, it was thought, would find itvery convenient to purchase the estate without paying down the price.'
Mannering consulted with Mr. Mac-Morlan upon the steps for thwartingthis unprincipled attempt. They then conversed long on the singulardisappearance of Harry Bertram upon his fifth birthday, verifying thusthe random prediction of Mannering, of which, however, it will readilybe supposed he made no boast. Mr. Mac-Morlan was not himself in officewhen that incident took place; but he was well acquainted with all thecircumstances, and promised that our hero should have them detailed bythe sheriff-depute himself, if, as he proposed, he should become asettler in that part of Scotland. With this assurance they parted, wellsatisfied with each other and with the evening's conference.
On the Sunday following, Colonel Mannering attended the parish churchwith great decorum. None of the Ellangowan family were present; and itwas understood that the old Laird was rather worse than better. JockJabos, once more despatched for him, returned once more without hiserrand; but on the following day Miss Bertram hoped he might be removed.