CHAPTER XVIII 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, thegood housekeeper, who, with the reverent attention which is usuallyrendered 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 iswaur than ever! Ye'll really do yoursell some injury wi' these langfasts; naething's sae hurtful to the stamach, Mr. Sampson. If ye wouldbut put some peppermint draps in your pocket, or let Barnes cut ye asandwich.'
'Avoid thee!' quoth the Dominie, his mind running still upon hisinterview with Meg Merrilies, and making for the dining-parlour.
'Na, ye needna gang in there, the cloth's been removed an hour syne, andthe Colonel's at his wine; but just step into my room, I have a nicesteak 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 naegate?'
'With Beelzebub, I believe,' said the minister.
'Na, then he's bewitched for certain,' said the housekeeper, letting goher hold; 'he's bewitched, or he's daft, and ony way the Colonel maunjust guide him his ain gate. Wae's me! Hech, sirs! It's a sair thing tosee learning bring folk to this!' And with this compassionate ejaculationshe retreated into her own premises.
The object of her commiseration had by this time entered thedining-parlour, where his appearance gave great surprise. He was mud upto the shoulders, and the natural paleness of his hue was twice ascadaverous as usual, through terror, fatigue, and perturbation of mind.
'What on earth is the meaning of this, Mr. Sampson?' said Mannering, whoobserved Miss Bertram looking much alarmed for her simple but attachedfriend.
'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 exorcismstill came most readily to his tongue, he prudently desisted from theattempt, and put the scrap of paper which he had received from the gipsyinto 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 caseswhere Miss Bertram had an interest, remembered the painful circumstancesconnected with Meg Merrilies, looked at the young ladies, and remainedsilent. 'We will join you at the tea-table in an instant, Julia,' saidthe Colonel; 'I see that Mr. Sampson wishes to speak to me alone. And nowthey are gone, what, in Heaven's name, Mr. Sampson, is the meaning of allthis?'
'It may be a message from Heaven,' said the Dominie, 'but it came byBeelzebub's postmistress. It was that witch, Meg Merrilies, who shouldhave 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 likeo' Meg Merrilies is not to be seen in any land.'
The Colonel paced the room rapidly, cogitating with himself. 'To send outto apprehend her; but it is too distant to send to Mac-Morlan, and SirRobert Hazlewood is a pompous coxcomb; besides, the chance of not findingher upon the spot, or that the humour of silence that seized her beforemay again return. No, I will not, to save being thought a fool, neglectthe course she points out. Many of her class set out by being impostorsand end by becoming enthusiasts, or hold a kind of darkling conductbetween both lines, unconscious almost when they are cheating themselvesor 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-jealousyof my own character for wisdom.'
With this he rang the bell, and, ordering Barnes into his privatesitting-room, gave him some orders, with the result of which the readermay be made hereafter acquainted.
We must now take up another adventure, which is also to be woven into thestory of this remarkable day.
Charles Hazlewood had not ventured to make a visit at Woodbourne duringthe absence of the Colonel. Indeed, Mannering's whole behaviour hadimpressed upon him an opinion that this would be disagreeable; and suchwas the ascendency which the successful soldier and accomplishedgentleman had attained over the young man's conduct, that in no respectwould he have ventured to offend him. He saw, or thought he saw, inColonel Mannering's general conduct, an approbation of his attachment toMiss Bertram. But then he saw still more plainly the impropriety of anyattempt at a private correspondence, of which his parents could not besupposed to approve, and he respected this barrier interposed betwixtthem both on Mannering's account and as he was the liberal and zealousprotector of Miss Bertram. 'No,' said he to himself, 'I will not endangerthe comfort of my Lucy's present retreat until I can offer her a home ofher own.'
With this valorous resolution, which he maintained although his horse,from constant habit, turned his head down the avenue of Woodbourne, andalthough he himself passed the lodge twice every day, Charles Hazlewoodwithstood a strong inclination to ride down just to ask how the youngladies were, and whether he could be of any service to them duringColonel Mannering's absence. But on the second occasion he felt thetemptation so severe that he resolved not to expose himself to it a thirdtime; and, contenting himself with sending hopes and inquiries and soforth to Woodbourne, he resolved to make a visit long promised to afamily at some distance, and to return in such time as to be one of theearliest among Mannering's visitors who should congratulate his safearrival from his distant and hazardous expedition to Edinburgh.Accordingly he made out his visit, and, having arranged matters so as tobe informed within a few hours after Colonel Mannering reached home, hefinally resolved to take leave of the friends with whom he had spent theintervening time, with the intention of dining at Woodbourne, where hewas in a great measure domesticated; and this (for he thought much moredeeply 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 caseunfavourable to Charles Hazlewood. His horse's shoes required analteration, in consequence of the fresh weather having decidedlycommenced. The lady of the house where he was a visitor chose to indulgein her own room till a very late breakfast hour. His friend also insistedon showing him a litter of puppies which his favourite pointer bitch hadproduced that morning. The colours had occasioned some doubts about thepaternity--a weighty question of legitimacy, to the decision of whichHazlewood's opinion was called in as arbiter between his friend and hisgroom, and which inferred in its consequences which of the litter shouldbe drowned, which saved. Besides, the Laird himself delayed our younglover's departure for a considerable time, endeavouring, with long andsuperfluous rhetoric, to insinuate to Sir Robert Hazlewood, through themedium of his son, his own particular ideas respecting the line of ameditated turnpike road. It is greatly to the shame of our young lover'sapprehension that, after the tenth reiterated account of the matter, hecould not see the advantage to be obtained by the proposed road passingover the Lang Hirst, Windy Knowe, the Goodhouse Park, Hailziecroft, andthen crossing the river at Simon's Pool, and so by the road toKippletringan; and the less eligible line pointed out by the Englishsurveyor, which would go clear through the main enclosures at Hazlewood,and cut within a mile or nearly so of the house itself, destroying theprivacy and pleasure, as his informer contended, of the grounds. Inshort, the adviser (whose actual interest was to have the bridge built asnear as possible to a farm of his own) failed in every effort to attractyoung Hazlewood's attention until he menti
oned by chance that theproposed line was favoured by 'that fellow Glossin,' who pretended totake a lead in the county. On a sudden young Hazlewood became attentiveand interested; and, having satisfied himself which was the line thatGlossin patronised, assured his friend it should not be his fault if hisfather did not countenance any other instead of that. But these variousinterruptions consumed the morning. Hazlewood got on horseback at leastthree hours later than he intended, and, cursing fine ladies, pointers,puppies, and turnpike acts of parliament, saw himself detained beyond thetime 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 againstthe pale sky of the winter evening, when he thought he beheld the Dominietaking a footpath for the house through the woods. He called after him,but in vain; for that honest gentleman, never the most susceptible ofextraneous impressions, had just that moment parted from Meg Merrilies,and was too deeply wrapt up in pondering upon her vaticinations to makeany answer to Hazlewood's call. He was therefore obliged to let himproceed without inquiry after the health of the young ladies, or anyother fishing question, to which he might by good chance have had ananswer returned wherein Miss Bertram's name might have been mentioned.All cause for haste was now over, and, slackening the reins upon hishorse's neck, he permitted the animal to ascend at his own leisure thesteep sandy track between two high banks, which, rising to a considerableheight, commanded at length an extensive view of the neighbouringcountry.
Hazlewood was, however, so far from eagerly looking forward to thisprospect, though it had the recommendation that great part of the landwas his father's, and must necessarily be his own, that his head stillturned backward towards the chimneys of Woodbourne, although at everystep his horse made the difficulty of employing his eyes in thatdirection become greater. From the reverie in which he was sunk he wassuddenly roused by a voice, too harsh to be called female, yet too shrillfor a man: 'What's kept you on the road sae lang? Maun ither folk do yourwark?'
He looked up. The spokeswoman was very tall, had a voluminoushandkerchief rolled round her head, grizzled hair flowing in elf-locksfrom beneath it, a long red cloak, and a staff in her hand, headed with asort of spear-point; it was, in short, Meg Merrilies. Hazlewood had neverseen this remarkable figure before; he drew up his reins in astonishmentat her appearance, and made a full stop. 'I think,' continued she, 'theythat hae taen interest in the house of Ellangowan suld sleep nane thisnight; three men hae been seeking ye, and you are gaun hame to sleep inyour 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 ofMiss---, I mean of any of the late Ellangowan family, tell me what I cando for them.'
'Of the late Ellangowan family?' she answered with great vehemence--'ofthe LATE Ellangowan family! and when was there ever, or when will thereever be, a family of Ellangowan but bearing the gallant name of the bauldBertrams?'
'But what do you mean, good woman?'
'I am nae good woman; a' the country kens I am bad eneugh, and baith theyand I may be sorry eneugh that I am nae better. But I can do what goodwomen canna, and daurna do. I can do what would freeze the blood o' themthat is bred in biggit wa's for naething but to bind bairns' heads and tohap them in the cradle. Hear me: the guard's drawn off at thecustom-house at Portanferry, and it's brought up to Hazlewood House byyour father's orders, because he thinks his house is to be attacked thisnight by the smugglers. There's naebody means to touch his house; he hasgude blood and gentle blood--I say little o' him for himsell--but there'snaebody thinks him worth meddling wi'. Send the horsemen back to theirpost, cannily and quietly; see an they winna hae wark the night, ay willthey: the guns will flash and the swords will glitter in the braw moon.'
'Good God! what do you mean?' said young Hazlewood; 'your words andmanner would persuade me you are mad, and yet there is a strangecombination in what you say.'
'I am not mad!' exclaimed the gipsy; 'I have been imprisoned formad--scourged for mad--banished for mad--but mad I am not. Hear ye,Charles Hazlewood of Hazlewood: d'ye bear malice against him that woundedyou?'
'No, dame, God forbid; my arm is quite well, and I have always said theshot was discharged by accident. I should be glad to tell the young manso himself.'
'Then do what I bid ye,' answered Meg Merrilies, 'and ye 'll do him mairgude than ever he did you ill; for if he was left to his ill-wishers hewould be a bloody corpse ere morn, or a banished man; but there's Aneabune a'. Do as I bid you; send back the soldiers to Portanferry. There'snae mair fear o' Hazlewood House than there's o' Cruffel Fell.' And shevanished with her usual celerity of pace.
It would seem that the appearance of this female, and the mixture offrenzy and enthusiasm in her manner, seldom failed to produce thestrongest impression upon those whom she addressed. Her words, thoughwild, were too plain and intelligible for actual madness, and yet toovehement and extravagant for sober-minded communication. She seemedacting under the influence of an imagination rather strongly excited thanderanged; and it is wonderful how palpably the difference in such casesis impressed upon the mind of the auditor. This may account for theattention with which her strange and mysterious hints were heard andacted upon. It is certain, at least, that young Hazlewood was stronglyimpressed by her sudden appearance and imperative tone. He rode toHazlewood at a brisk pace. It had been dark for some time before hereached the house, and on his arrival there he saw a confirmation of whatthe sibyl had hinted.
Thirty dragoon horses stood under a shed near the offices, with theirbridles linked together. Three or four soldiers attended as a guard,while others stamped up and down with their long broadswords and heavyboots in front of the house. Hazlewood asked a non-commissioned officerfrom whence they came.
'From Portanferry.'
'Had they left any guard there?'
'No; they had been drawn off by order of Sir Robert Hazlewood for defenceof his house against an attack which was threatened by the smugglers.'
Charles Hazlewood instantly went in quest of his father, and, having paidhis respects to him upon his return, requested to know upon what accounthe had thought it necessary to send for a military escort. Sir Robertassured his son in reply that, from the information, intelligence, andtidings which had been communicated to, and laid before him, he had thedeepest reason to believe, credit, and be convinced that a riotousassault would that night be attempted and perpetrated against HazlewoodHouse by a set of smugglers, gipsies, and other desperadoes.
'And what, my dear sir,' said his son, 'should direct the fury of suchpersons against ours rather than any other house in the country?'
'I should rather think, suppose, and be of opinion, sir,' answered SirRobert, 'with deference to your wisdom and experience, that on theseoccasions and times the vengeance of such persons is directed or levelledagainst the most important and distinguished in point of rank, talent,birth, and situation who have checked, interfered with, anddiscountenanced their unlawful and illegal and criminal actions ordeeds.'
Young Hazlewood, who knew his father's foible, answered, that the causeof his surprise did not lie where Sir Robert apprehended, but that heonly wondered they should think of attacking a house where there were somany servants, and where a signal to the neighbouring tenants could callin such strong assistance; and added, that he doubted much whether thereputation of the family would not in some degree suffer from callingsoldiers from their duty at the custom-house to protect them, as if theywere not sufficiently strong to defend themselves upon any ordinaryoccasion. He even hinted that, in case their house's enemies shouldobserve that this precaution had been taken unnecessarily, there would beno end of their sarcasms.
Sir Robert Hazlewood was rather puzzled at this intimation, for, likemost dull men, he heartily hated and feared ridicule. He gathered himselfup and looked with a sort of pompous embarrassment, as if he wished to bethought to despise the op
inion of the public, which in reality hedreaded.
'I really should have thought,' he said, 'that the injury which hadalready been aimed at my house in your person, being the next heir andrepresentative of the Hazlewood family, failing me--I should have thoughtand believed, I say, that this would have justified me sufficiently inthe eyes of the most respectable and the greater part of the people fortaking such precautions as are calculated to prevent and impede arepetition of outrage.'
'Really, sir,' said Charles, 'I must remind you of what I have often saidbefore, that I am positive the discharge of the piece was accidental.'
'Sir, it was not accidental,' said his father, angrily; 'but you will bewiser than your elders.'
'Really, sir,' replied Hazlewood, 'in what so intimately concernsmyself---'
'Sir, it does not concern you but in a very secondary degree; that is, itdoes not concern you, as a giddy young fellow who takes pleasure incontradicting his father; but it concerns the country, sir, and thecounty, sir, and the public, sir, and the kingdom of Scotland, in so faras the interest of the Hazlewood family, sir, is committed and interestedand put in peril, in, by, and through you, sir. And the fellow is in safecustody, and Mr. Glossin thinks---'
'Mr. Glossin, sir?'
'Yes, sir, the gentleman who has purchased Ellangowan; you know who Imean, I suppose?'
'Yes, sir,' answered the young man; 'but I should hardly have expected tohear you quote such authority. Why, this fellow--all the world knows himto be sordid, mean, tricking, and I suspect him to be worse. And youyourself, my dear sir, when did you call such a person a gentleman inyour 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 oughtlegitimately to be confined; but I meant to use it relatively, as markingsomething of that state to which he has elevated and raised himself; asdesigning, in short, a decent and wealthy and estimable sort of aperson.'
'Allow me to ask, sir,' said Charles, 'if it was by this man's ordersthat the guard was drawn from Portanferry?'
'Sir,' replied the Baronet, 'I do apprehend that Mr. Glossin would notpresume to give orders, or even an opinion, unless asked, in a matter inwhich Hazlewood House and the house of Hazlewood--meaning by the one thismansion-house of my family, and by the other, typically, metaphorically,and parabolically, the family itself,--I say, then, where the house ofHazlewood, or Hazlewood House, was so immediately concerned.'
'I presume, however, sir,' said the son, 'this Glossin approved of theproposal?'
'Sir,' replied his father, 'I thought it decent and right and proper toconsult him as the nearest magistrate as soon as report of the intendedoutrage reached my ears; and although he declined, out of deference andrespect, as became our relative situations, to concur in the order, yethe 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 graciousflourish of welcome; 'this is no intrusion, sir; for, your situation assheriff-substitute calling upon you to attend to the peace of the county,and you, doubtless, feeling yourself particularly called upon to protectHazlewood House, you have an acknowledged and admitted and undeniableright, sir, to enter the house of the first gentleman in Scotlanduninvited--always presuming you to be called there by the duty of youroffice.'
'It is indeed the duty of my office,' said Mac-Morlan, who waited withimpatience 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 donot come with the purpose of remaining here, but to recall these soldiersto Portanferry, and to assure you that I will answer for the safety ofyour house.'
'To withdraw the guard from Hazlewood House!' exclaimed the proprietor inmingled displeasure and surprise; 'and YOU will be answerable for it!And, pray, who are you, sir, that I should take your security and cautionand pledge, official or personal, for the safety of Hazlewood House? Ithink, sir, and believe, sir, and am of opinion, sir, that if any one ofthese family pictures were deranged or destroyed or injured it would bedifficult for me to make up the loss upon the guarantee which you soobligingly offer me.'
'In that case I shall be sorry for it, Sir Robert,' answered thedownright Mac-Morlan; 'but I presume I may escape the pain of feeling myconduct the cause of such irreparable loss, as I can assure you therewill be no attempt upon Hazlewood House whatever, and I have receivedinformation which induces me to suspect that the rumour was put afloatmerely in order to occasion the removal of the soldiers from Portanferry.And under this strong belief and conviction I must exert my authority assheriff and chief magistrate of police to order the whole, or greaterpart of them, back again. I regret much that by my accidental absence agood deal of delay has already taken place, and we shall not now reachPortanferry until it is late.'
As Mr. Mac-Morlan was the superior magistrate, and expressed himselfperemptory in the purpose of acting as such, the Baronet, though highlyoffended, 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 toobserve, sir, that you are acting on your own proper risk, sir, andperil, sir, and responsibility, sir, if anything shall happen or befallto Hazlewood House, sir, or the inhabitants, sir, or to the furniture andpaintings, 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 meaccordingly. I beg you to observe it is no time for ceremony; it isalready very late.'
But Sir Robert, without deigning to listen to his apologies, immediatelyemployed himself with much parade in arming and arraying his domestics.Charles Hazlewood longed to accompany the military, which were about todepart for Portanferry, and which were now drawn up and mounted bydirection and under the guidance of Mr. Mac-Morlan, as the civilmagistrate. But it would have given just pain and offence to his fatherto have left him at a moment when he conceived himself and hismansion-house in danger. Young Hazlewood therefore gazed from a windowwith suppressed regret and displeasure, until he heard the officer givethe 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 thengetting into a sharp and uniform pace, were soon lost among the trees,and the noise of the hoofs died speedily away in the distance.