GUY MANNERING
OR
THE ASTROLOGER
CHAPTER I I renounce your defiance; if you parley so roughly I'll barricade my gates against you. Do you see yon bay window? Storm, I care not, serving the good Duke of Norfolk
Merry Devil of Edmonton.
JULIA MANNERING to MATILDA MARCHMONT
'I rise from a sick-bed, my dearest Matilda, to communicate the strangeand frightful scenes which have just passed. Alas! how little we ought tojest with futurity! I closed my letter to you in high spirits, with someflippant remarks on your taste for the romantic and extraordinary infictitious narrative. How little I expected to have had such events torecord in the course of a few days! And to witness scenes of terror, orto contemplate them in description, is as different, my dearest Matilda,as to bend over the brink of a precipice holding by the frail tenure of ahalf-rooted shrub, or to admire the same precipice as represented in thelandscape of Salvator. But I will not anticipate my narrative.
'The first part of my story is frightful enough, though it had nothing tointerest my feelings. You must know that this country is particularlyfavourable to the commerce of a set of desperate men from the Isle ofMan, which is nearly opposite. These smugglers are numerous, resolute,and formidable, and have at different times become the dread of theneighbourhood when any one has interfered with their contraband trade.The local magistrates, from timidity or worse motives, have become shy ofacting against them, and impunity has rendered them equally daring anddesperate. With all this my father, a stranger in the land, and investedwith no official authority, had, one would think, nothing to do. But itmust be owned that, as he himself expresses it, he was born when Mars waslord of his ascendant, and that strife and bloodshed find him out incircumstances and situations the most retired and pacific.
'About eleven o'clock on last Tuesday morning, while Hazlewood and myfather were proposing to walk to a little lake about three miles'distance, for the purpose of shooting wild ducks, and while Lucy and Iwere busied with arranging our plan of work and study for the day, wewere alarmed by the sound of horses' feet advancing very fast up theavenue. The ground was hardened by a severe frost, which made the clatterof the hoofs sound yet louder and sharper. In a moment two or three men,armed, mounted, and each leading a spare horse loaded with packages,appeared on the lawn, and, without keeping upon the road, which makes asmall sweep, pushed right across for the door of the house. Theirappearance was in the utmost degree hurried and disordered, and theyfrequently looked back like men who apprehended a close and deadlypursuit. My father and Hazlewood hurried to the front door to demand whothey were, and what was their business. They were revenue officers, theystated, who had seized these horses, loaded with contraband articles, ata place about three miles off. But the smugglers had been reinforced, andwere now pursuing them with the avowed purpose of recovering the goods,and putting to death the officers who had presumed to do their duty. Themen said that, their horses being loaded, and the pursuers gaining groundupon them, they had fled to Woodbourne, conceiving that, as my father hadserved the King, he would not refuse to protect the servants ofgovernment when threatened to be murdered in the discharge of their duty.
'My father, to whom, in his enthusiastic feelings of military loyalty,even a dog would be of importance if he came in the King's name, gaveprompt orders for securing the goods in the hall, arming the servants,and defending the house in case it should be necessary. Hazlewoodseconded him with great spirit, and even the strange animal they callSampson stalked out of his den, and seized upon a fowling-piece which myfather had laid aside to take what they call a rifle-gun, with which theyshoot tigers, etc., in the East. The piece went off in the awkward handsof the poor parson, and very nearly shot one of the excisemen. At thisunexpected and involuntary explosion of his weapon, the Dominie (such ishis nickname) exclaimed, "Prodigious!" which is his usual ejaculationwhen astonished. But no power could force the man to part with hisdischarged piece, so they were content to let him retain it, with theprecaution of trusting him with no ammunition. This (excepting the alarmoccasioned by the report) escaped my notice at the time, you may easilybelieve; but, in talking over the scene afterwards, Hazlewood made usvery merry with the Dominie's ignorant but zealous valour.
'When my father had got everything into proper order for defence, and hispeople stationed at the windows with their firearms, he wanted to orderus out of danger--into the cellar, I believe--but we could not beprevailed upon to stir. Though terrified to death, I have so much of hisown spirit that I would look upon the peril which threatens us ratherthan hear it rage around me without knowing its nature or its progress.Lucy, looking as pale as a marble statue, and keeping her eyes fixed onHazlewood, seemed not even to hear the prayers with which he conjured herto leave the front of the house. But in truth, unless the hall-doorshould be forced, we were in little danger; the windows being almostblocked up with cushions and pillows, and, what the Dominie mostlamented, with folio volumes, brought hastily from the library, leavingonly spaces through which the defenders might fire upon the assailants.
'My father had now made his dispositions, and we sat in breathlessexpectation in the darkened apartment, the men remaining all silent upontheir posts, in anxious contemplation probably of the approaching danger.My father, who was quite at home in such a scene, walked from one toanother and reiterated his orders that no one should presume to fireuntil he gave the word. Hazlewood, who seemed to catch courage from hiseye, acted as his aid-de-camp, and displayed the utmost alertness inbearing his directions from one place to another, and seeing themproperly carried into execution. Our force, with the strangers included,might amount to about twelve men.
'At length the silence of this awful period of expectation was broken bya 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 numberof horses advancing very fast. I had arranged a loophole for myself, fromwhich I could see the approach of the enemy. The noise increased and camenearer, and at length thirty horsemen and more rushed at once upon thelawn. You never saw such horrid wretches! Notwithstanding the severity ofthe season, they were most of them stripped to their shirts and trowsers,with silk handkerchiefs knotted about their heads, and all well armedwith carbines, pistols, and cutlasses. I, who am a soldier's daughter,and accustomed to see war from my infancy, was never so terrified in mylife as by the savage appearance of these ruffians, their horses reekingwith the speed at which they had ridden, and their furious exclamationsof rage and disappointment when they saw themselves baulked of theirprey. They paused, however, when they saw the preparations made toreceive them, and appeared to hold a moment's consultation amongthemselves. At length one of the party, his face blackened with gunpowderby way of disguise, came forward with a white handkerchief on the end ofhis carbine, and asked to speak with Colonel Mannering. My father, to myinfinite terror, threw open a window near which he was posted, anddemanded what he wanted. "We want our goods, which we have been robbed ofby 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 scoreswith the rascals who took them; but if not, we'll burn the house, andhave the heart's blood of every one in it,"--a threat which he repeatedmore than once, graced by a fresh variety of imprecations, and the mosthorrid 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 redhandkerchief bound about his brow."
'"Then be pleased to tell that gentleman that, if he and the scoundrelswho are with him do not ride off the lawn this instant, I will fire uponthem without ceremony." So saying, my father shut the window and brokeshort the conference.
'The fellow no sooner regained his troop than, with a loud hurra, orrather a savage yell, they fired a volley against our garrison. The glassof the windows was shattered in every direction, but the precauti
onsalready noticed saved the party within from suffering. Three such volleyswere fired without a shot being returned from within. My father thenobserved them getting hatchets and crows, probably to assail thehall-door, and called aloud, "Let none fire but Hazlewood and me;Hazlewood, mark the ambassador." He himself aimed at the man on the greyhorse, who fell on receiving his shot. Hazlewood was equally successful.He shot the spokesman, who had dismounted and was advancing with an axein his hand. Their fall discouraged the rest, who began to turn roundtheir horses; and a few shots fired at them soon sent them off, bearingalong with them their slain or wounded companions. We could not observethat they suffered any farther loss. Shortly after their retreat a partyof soldiers made their appearance, to my infinite relief. These men werequartered at a village some miles distant, and had marched on the firstrumour of the skirmish. A part of them escorted the terrified revenueofficers and their seizure to a neighbouring seaport as a place ofsafety, and at my earnest request two or three files remained with us forthat and the following day, for the security of the house from thevengeance of these banditti.
'Such, dearest Matilda, was my first alarm. I must not forget to add thatthe ruffians left, at a cottage on the roadside, the man whose face wasblackened with powder, apparently because he was unable to beartransportation. He died in about half an hour after. On examining thecorpse, it proved to be that of a profligate boor in the neighbourhood, aperson notorious as a poacher and smuggler. We received many messages ofcongratulation from the neighbouring families, and it was generallyallowed that a few such instances of spirited resistance would greatlycheck the presumption of these lawless men. My father distributed rewardsamong his servants, and praised Hazlewood's courage and coolness to theskies. Lucy and I came in for a share of his applause, because we hadstood fire with firmness, and had not disturbed him with screams orexpostulations. As for the Dominie, my father took an opportunity ofbegging to exchange snuff-boxes with him. The honest gentleman was muchflattered with the proposal, and extolled the beauty of his new snuff-boxexcessively. "It looked," he said, "as well as if it were real gold fromOphir." Indeed, it would be odd if it should not, being formed in fact ofthat very metal; but, to do this honest creature justice, I believe theknowledge of its real value would not enhance his sense of my father'skindness, supposing it, as he does, to be pinchbeck gilded. He has had ahard task replacing the folios which were used in the barricade,smoothing out the creases and dog's-ears, and repairing the otherdisasters they have sustained during their service in the fortification.He brought us some pieces of lead and bullets which these ponderous tomeshad intercepted during the action, and which he had extracted with greatcare; and, were I in spirits, I could give you a comic account of hisastonishment at the apathy with which we heard of the wounds andmutilation suffered by Thomas Aquinas or the venerable Chrysostom. But Iam not in spirits, and I have yet another and a more interesting incidentto communicate. I feel, however, so much fatigued with my presentexertion that I cannot resume the pen till to-morrow. I will detain thisletter notwithstanding, that you may not feel any anxiety upon account ofyour own
'JULIA MANNERING.'