He pressed his sister's hand, and took a yet more affectionate farewellof Julia with his eyes. Almost stupefied with surprise and fear, theyoung ladies watched with anxious looks the course of Bertram, hiscompanion, and their extraordinary guide. Her tall figure moved acrossthe wintry heath with steps so swift, so long, and so steady that sheappeared rather to glide than to walk. Bertram and Dinmont, both tallmen, apparently scarce equalled her in height, owing to her longer dressand high head-gear. She proceeded straight across the common, withoutturning aside to the winding path by which passengers avoided theinequalities and little rills that traversed it in different directions.Thus the diminishing figures often disappeared from the eye, as theydived into such broken ground, and again ascended to sight when they werepast the hollow. There was something frightful and unearthly, as it were,in the rapid and undeviating course which she pursued, undeterred by anyof the impediments which usually incline a traveller from the directpath. Her way was as straight, and nearly as swift, as that of a birdthrough the air. At length they reached those thickets of natural woodwhich extended from the skirts of the common towards the glades and brookof Derncleugh, and were there lost to the view.
'This is very extraordinary,' said Lucy after a pause, and turning roundto her companion; 'what can he have to do with that old hag?'
'It is very frightful,' answered Julia, 'and almost reminds me of thetales of sorceresses, witches, and evil genii which I have heard inIndia. They believe there in a fascination of the eye by which those whopossess it control the will and dictate the motions of their victims.What can your brother have in common with that fearful woman that heshould leave us, obviously against his will, to attend to her commands?'
'At least,' said Lucy, 'we may hold him safe from harm; for she wouldnever have summoned that faithful creature Dinmont, of whose strength,courage, and steadiness Henry said so much, to attend upon an expeditionwhere she projected evil to the person of his friend. And now let us goback to the house till the Colonel returns. Perhaps Bertram may be backfirst; at any rate, the Colonel will judge what is to be done.'
Leaning, then, upon each other's arm, but yet occasionally stumbling,between fear and the disorder of their nerves, they at length reached thehead of the avenue, when they heard the tread of a horse behind. Theystarted, for their ears were awake to every sound, and beheld to theirgreat pleasure young Hazlewood. 'The Colonel will be here immediately,'he said; 'I galloped on before to pay my respects to Miss Bertram, withthe sincerest congratulations upon the joyful event which has taken placein her family. I long to be introduced to Captain Bertram, and to thankhim for the well-deserved lesson he gave to my rashness andindiscretion.'
'He has left us just now,' said Lucy, 'and in a manner that hasfrightened us very much.'
Just at that moment the Colonel's carriage drove up, and, on observingthe ladies, stopped, while Mannering and his learned counsel alighted andjoined them. They instantly communicated the new cause of alarm.
'Meg Merrilies again!' said the Colonel. 'She certainly is a mostmysterious and unaccountable personage; but I think she must havesomething to impart to Bertram to which she does not mean we should beprivy.'
'The devil take the bedlamite old woman,' said the Counsellor; 'will shenot let things take their course, prout de lege, but must always beputting in her oar in her own way? Then I fear from the direction theytook they are going upon the Ellangowan estate. That rascal Glossin hasshown us what ruffians he has at his disposal; I wish honest Liddesdalemaybe guard sufficient.'
'If you please,' said Hazlewood, 'I should be most happy to ride in thedirection which they have taken. I am so well known in the country that Iscarce think any outrage will be offered in my presence, and I shall keepat such a cautious distance as not to appear to watch Meg, or interruptany communication which she may make.'
'Upon my word,' said Pleydell (aside), 'to be a sprig whom I rememberwith a whey face and a satchel not so very many years ago, I think youngHazlewood grows a fine fellow. I am more afraid of a new attempt at legaloppression than at open violence, and from that this young man's presencewould deter both Glossin and his understrappers.--Hie away then, my boy;peer out--peer out, you 'll find them somewhere about Derncleugh, or veryprobably in Warroch wood.'
Hazlewood turned his horse. 'Come back to us to dinner, Hazlewood,' criedthe Colonel. He bowed, spurred his horse, and galloped off.
We now return to Bertram and Dinmont, who continued to follow theirmysterious guide through the woods and dingles between the open commonand the ruined hamlet of Derncleugh. As she led the way she never lookedback upon her followers, unless to chide them for loitering, though thesweat, in spite of the season, poured from their brows. At other timesshe spoke to herself in such broken expressions as these: 'It is torebuild the auld house, it is to lay the corner-stone; and did I not warnhim? I tell'd him I was born to do it, if my father's head had been thestepping-stane, let alane his. I was doomed--still I kept my purpose inthe cage and in the stocks; I was banished--I kept it in an unco land; Iwas scourged, I was branded--my resolution lay deeper than scourge or rediron could reach;--and now the hour is come.'
'Captain,' said Dinmont, in a half whisper, 'I wish she binna uncanny!her words dinna seem to come in God's name, or like other folks'. Od,they threep in our country that there ARE sic things.'
'Don't be afraid, my friend,' whispered Bertram in return.
'Fear'd! fient a haet care I,' said the dauntless farmer; 'be she witchor deevil, it's a' ane to Dandie Dinmont.'
'Haud your peace, gudeman,' said Meg, looking sternly over her shoulder;'is this a time or place for you to speak, think ye?'
'But, my good friend,' said Bertram, 'as I have no doubt in your goodfaith or kindness, which I have experienced, you should in return havesome confidence in me; I wish to know where you are leading us.'
'There's but ae answer to that, Henry Bertram,' said the sibyl. 'I sworemy tongue should never tell, but I never said my finger should nevershow. Go on and meet your fortune, or turn back and lose it: that's a' Ihae to say.'
'Go on then,' answered Bertram; 'I will ask no more questions.'
They descended into the glen about the same place where Meg had formerlyparted from Bertram. She paused an instant beneath the tall rock where hehad witnessed the burial of a dead body and stamped upon the ground,which, notwithstanding all the care that had been taken, showed vestigesof having been recently moved. 'Here rests ane,' she said; 'he'll maybehae neibours sune.'
She then moved up the brook until she came to the ruined hamlet, where,pausing with a look of peculiar and softened interest before one of thegables which was still standing, she said in a tone less abrupt, thoughas solemn as before, 'Do you see that blackit and broken end of asheeling? There my kettle boiled for forty years; there I bore twelvebuirdly sons and daughters. Where are they now? where are the leaves thatwere on that auld ash tree at Martinmas! The west wind has made it bare;and I'm stripped too. Do you see that saugh tree? it's but a blackenedrotten stump now. I've sate under it mony a bonnie summer afternoon, whenit hung its gay garlands ower the poppling water. I've sat there, and,'elevating her voice, 'I've held you on my knee, Henry Bertram, and sungye sangs of the auld barons and their bloody wars. It will ne'er be greenagain, and Meg Merrilies will never sing sangs mair, be they blythe orsad. But ye'll no forget her, and ye'll gar big up the auld wa's for hersake? And let somebody live there that's ower gude to fear them ofanother warld. For if ever the dead came back amang the living, I'll beseen in this glen mony a night after these crazed banes are in themould.'
The mixture of insanity and wild pathos with which she spoke these lastwords, with her right arm bare and extended, her left bent and shroudedbeneath the dark red drapery of her mantle, might have been a studyworthy of our Siddons herself. 'And now,' she said, resuming at once theshort, stern, and hasty tone which was most ordinary to her, 'let us tothe wark, let us to the wark.'
She then led the way to the promontory on which the Kaim
of Derncleughwas situated, produced a large key from her pocket, and unlocked thedoor. The interior of this place was in better order than formerly. 'Ihave made things decent,' she said; 'I may be streekit here or night.There will be few, few at Meg's lykewake, for mony of our folk will blamewhat I hae done, and am to do!'
She then pointed to a table, upon which was some cold meat, arranged withmore attention to neatness than could have been expected from Meg'shabits. 'Eat,' she said--'eat; ye'll need it this night yet.'
Bertram, in complaisance, eat a morsel or two; and Dinmont, whoseappetite was unabated either by wonder, apprehension, or the meal of themorning, made his usual figure as a trencherman. She then offered each asingle glass of spirits, which Bertram drank diluted, and his companionplain.
'Will ye taste naething yoursell, Luckie?' said Dinmont.
'I shall not need it,' replied their mysterious hostess. 'And now,' shesaid, 'ye maun hae arms: ye maunna gang on dry-handed; but use them notrashly. Take captive, but save life; let the law hae its ain. He maunspeak ere he die.'
'Who is to be taken? who is to speak?' said Bertram, in astonishment,receiving a pair of pistols which she offered him, and which, uponexamining, he found loaded and locked.
'The flints are gude,' she said, 'and the powder dry; I ken this warkweel.'
Then, without answering his questions, she armed Dinmont also with alarge pistol, and desired them to choose sticks for themselves out of aparcel of very suspicious-looking bludgeons which she brought from acorner. Bertram took a stout sapling, and Dandie selected a club whichmight have served Hercules himself. They then left the hut together, andin doing so Bertram took an opportunity to whisper to Dinmont, 'There'ssomething inexplicable in all this. But we need not use these arms unlesswe see necessity and lawful occasion; take care to do as you see me do.'
Dinmont gave a sagacious nod, and they continued to follow, over wet andover dry, through bog and through fallow, the footsteps of theirconductress. She guided them to the wood of Warroch by the same trackwhich the late Ellangowan had used when riding to Derncleugh in quest ofhis child on the miserable evening of Kennedy's murder.
When Meg Merrilies had attained these groves, through which the wintrysea-wind was now whistling hoarse and shrill, she seemed to pause amoment as if to recollect the way. 'We maun go the precise track,' shesaid, and continued to go forward, but rather in a zigzag and involvedcourse than according to her former steady and direct line of motion. Atlength she guided them through the mazes of the wood to a little openglade of about a quarter of an acre, surrounded by trees and bushes,which made a wild and irregular boundary. Even in winter it was asheltered and snugly sequestered spot; but when arrayed in the verdure ofspring, the earth sending forth all its wild flowers, the shrubsspreading their waste of blossom around it, and the weeping birches,which towered over the underwood, drooping their long and leafy fibres tointercept the sun, it must have seemed a place for a youthful poet tostudy his earliest sonnet, or a pair of lovers to exchange their firstmutual avowal of affection. Apparently it now awakened very differentrecollections. Bertram's brow, when he had looked round the spot, becamegloomy and embarrassed. Meg, after uttering to herself, 'This is the veryspot!' looked at him with a ghastly side-glance--'D'ye mind it?'
'Yes!' answered Bertram, 'imperfectly I do.'
'Ay!' pursued his guide, 'on this very spot the man fell from his horse.I was behind that bourtree bush at the very moment. Sair, sair he strove,and sair he cried for mercy; but he was in the hands of them that neverkenn'd the word! Now will I show you the further track; the last time yetravelled it was in these arms.'
She led them accordingly by a long and winding passage, almost overgrownwith brushwood, until, without any very perceptible descent, theysuddenly found themselves by the seaside. Meg then walked very fast onbetween the surf and the rocks, until she came to a remarkable fragmentof rock detached from the rest. 'Here,' she said in a low and scarcelyaudible whisper--'here the corpse was found.'
'And the cave,' said Bertram, in the same tone, 'is close beside it; areyou guiding us there?'
'Yes,' said the gipsy in a decided tone. 'Bend up both your hearts;follow me as I creep in; I have placed the fire-wood so as to screen you.Bide behind it for a gliff till I say, "The hour and the man are baithcome"; then rin in on him, take his arms, and bind him till the bloodburst frae his finger nails.'
'I will, by my soul,' said Henry, 'if he is the man I suppose--Jansen?'
'Ay, Jansen, Hatteraick, and twenty mair names are his.'
'Dinmont, you must stand by me now,' said Bertram, 'for this fellow is adevil.'
'Ye needna doubt that,' said the stout yeoman; 'but I wish I could mind abit prayer or I creep after the witch into that hole that she's opening.It wad be a sair thing to leave the blessed sun and the free air, andgang and be killed like a tod that's run to earth, in a dungeon likethat. But, my sooth, they will be hard-bitten terriers will worry Dandie;so, as I said, deil hae me if I baulk you.' This was uttered in thelowest tone of voice possible. The entrance was now open. Meg crept inupon her hands and knees, Bertram followed, and Dinmont, after giving arueful glance toward the daylight, whose blessings he was abandoning,brought up the rear.