CHAPTER VII
Things needful we have thought on; but the thing Of all most needful--that which Scripture terms, As if alone it merited regard, The ONE thing needful--that's yet unconsider'd. _The Chamberlain._
When the rest of the company had taken their departure from MasterHeriot's house, the young Lord of Glenvarloch also offered to takeleave; but his host detained him for a few minutes, until all were goneexcepting the clergyman.
"My lord," then said the worthy citizen, "we have had our permitted hourof honest and hospitable pastime, and now I would fain delay you foranother and graver purpose, as it is our custom, when we have thebenefit of good Mr. Windsor's company, that he reads the prayers of thechurch for the evening before we separate. Your excellent father, mylord, would not have departed before family worship--I hope the samefrom your lordship."
"With pleasure, sir," answered Nigel; "and you add in the invitation anadditional obligation to those with which you have loaded me. When youngmen forget what is their duty, they owe deep thanks to the friend whowill remind them of it."
While they talked together in this manner, the serving-men had removedthe folding-tables, brought forward a portable reading-desk, and placedchairs and hassocks for their master, their mistress, and the noblestranger. Another low chair, or rather a sort of stool, was placed closebeside that of Master Heriot; and though the circumstance was trivial,Nigel was induced to notice it, because, when about to occupy thatseat, he was prevented by a sign from the old gentleman, and motionedto another of somewhat more elevation. The clergyman took his stationbehind the reading-desk. The domestics, a numerous family both of clerksand servants, including Moniplies, attended, with great gravity, andwere accommodated with benches.
The household were all seated, and, externally at least, composedto devout attention, when a low knock was heard at the door of theapartment; Mrs. Judith looked anxiously at her brother, as if desiringto know his pleasure. He nodded his head gravely, and looked to thedoor. Mrs. Judith immediately crossed the chamber, opened the door, andled into the apartment a beautiful creature, whose sudden and singularappearance might have made her almost pass for an apparition. Shewas deadly pale-there was not the least shade of vital red to enlivenfeatures, which were exquisitely formed, and might, but for thatcircumstance, have been termed transcendently beautiful. Her long blackhair fell down over her shoulders and down her back, combed smoothly andregularly, but without the least appearance of decoration or ornament,which looked very singular at a period when head-gear, as it was called,of one sort or other, was generally used by all ranks. Her dress was ofwhite, of the simplest fashion, and hiding all her person exceptingthe throat, face, and hands. Her form was rather beneath than above themiddle size, but so justly proportioned and elegantly made, thatthe spectator's attention was entirely withdrawn from her size. Incontradiction of the extreme plainness of all the rest of her attire,she wore a necklace which a duchess might have envied, so large andlustrous were the brilliants of which it was composed; and around herwaist a zone of rubies of scarce inferior value.
When this singular figure entered the apartment, she cast her eyes onNigel, and paused, as if uncertain whether to advance or retreat. Theglance which she took of him seemed to be one rather of uncertainty andhesitation, than of bashfulness or timidity. Aunt Judith took her by thehand, and led her slowly forward--her dark eyes, however, continued tobe fixed on Nigel, with an expression of melancholy by which he feltstrangely affected. Even when she was seated on the vacant stool, whichwas placed there probably for her accommodation, she again looked on himmore than once with the same pensive, lingering, and anxious expression,but without either shyness or embarrassment, not even so much as to callthe slightest degree of complexion into her cheek.
So soon as this singular female had taken up the prayer-book, whichwas laid upon her cushion, she seemed immersed in devotional duty; andalthough Nigel's attention to the service was so much disturbed by thisextraordinary apparition, that he looked towards her repeatedly inthe course of the service, he could never observe that her eyes or herthoughts strayed so much as a single moment from the task in which shewas engaged. Nigel himself was less attentive, for the appearance ofthis lady seemed so extraordinary, that, strictly as he had been bred upby his father to pay the most reverential attention during performanceof divine service, his thoughts in spite of himself were disturbed byher presence, and he earnestly wished the prayers were ended, thathis curiosity might obtain some gratification. When the service wasconcluded, and each had remained, according to the decent and edifyingpractice of the church, concentrated in mental devotion for a shortspace, the mysterious visitant arose ere any other person stirred; andNigel remarked that none of the domestics left their places, orevenmoved, until she had first kneeled on one knee to Heriot, who seemed tobless her with his hand laid on her head, and a melancholy solemnity oflook and action. She then bended her body, but without kneeling, to Mrs.Judith, and having performed these two acts of reverence, she left theroom; yet just in the act of her departure, she once more turned herpenetrating eyes on Nigel with a fixed look, which compelled him to turnhis own aside. When he looked towards her again, he saw only the skirtof her white mantle as she left the apartment.
The domestics then rose and dispersed themselves--wine, and fruit, andspices, were offered to Lord Nigel and to the clergyman, and the lattertook his leave. The young lord would fain have accompanied him, in hopeto get some explanation of the apparition which he had beheld, buthe was stopped by his host, who requested to speak with him in hiscompting-room.
"I hope, my lord," said the citizen, "that your preparations forattending Court are in such forwardness that you can go thither the dayafter to-morrow. It is, perhaps, the last day, for some time, that hisMajesty will hold open Court for all who have pretensions by birth,rank, or office to attend upon him. On the subsequent day he goesto Theobald's, where he is so much occupied with hunting and otherpleasures, that he cares not to be intruded on."
"I shall be in all outward readiness to pay my duty," said the youngnobleman, "yet I have little heart to do it. The friends from whom Iought to have found encouragement and protection, have proved cold andfalse--I certainly will not trouble _them_ for their countenance onthis occasion--and yet I must confess my childish unwillingness to enterquite alone upon so new a scene."
"It is bold of a mechanic like me to make such an offer to a nobleman,"said Heriot; "but I must attend at Court to-morrow. I can accompanyyou as far as the presence-chamber, from my privilege as being of thehousehold. I can facilitate your entrance, should you find difficulty,and I can point out the proper manner and time of approaching the king.But I do not know," he added, smiling, "whether these little advantageswill not be overbalanced by the incongruity of a nobleman receiving themfrom the hands of an old smith."
"From the hands rather of the only friend I have found in London," saidNigel, offering his hand.
"Nay, if you think of the matter in that way," replied the honestcitizen, "there is no more to be said--I will come for you to-morrow,with a barge proper to the occasion.--But remember, my good young lord,that I do not, like some men of my degree, wish to take opportunity tostep beyond it, and associate with my superiors in rank, and thereforedo not fear to mortify my presumption, by suffering me to keep mydistance in the presence, and where it is fitting for both of us toseparate; and for what remains, most truly happy shall I be in provingof service to the son of my ancient patron."
The style of conversation led so far from the point which had interestedthe young nobleman's curiosity, that there was no returning to it thatnight. He therefore exchanged thanks and greetings with George Heriot,and took his leave, promising to be equipped and in readiness to embarkwith him on the second successive morning at ten o'clock.
The generation of linkboys, celebrated by Count Anthony Hamilton, aspeculiar to London, had already, in the reign of James I., begun theirfunctions, and the service of one of them with his s
moky torch, hadbeen secured to light the young Scottish lord and his follower to theirlodgings, which, though better acquainted than formerly with the city,they might in the dark have run some danger of missing. This gave theingenious Mr. Moniplies an opportunity of gathering close up to hismaster, after he had gone through the form of slipping his left arm intothe handles of his buckler, and loosening his broadsword in the sheath,that he might be ready for whatever should befall.
"If it were not for the wine and the good cheer which we have had inyonder old man's house, my lord," said this sapient follower, "and thatI ken him by report to be a just living man in many respects, and a realEdinburgh gutterblood, I should have been well pleased to have seen howhis feet were shaped, and whether he had not a cloven cloot under thebraw roses and cordovan shoon of his."
"Why, you rascal," answered Nigel, "you have been too kindly treated,and now that you have filled your ravenous stomach, you are railing onthe good gentleman that relieved you."
"Under favour, no, my lord," said Moniplies,--"I would only like to seesomething mair about him. I have eaten his meat, it is true--more shamethat the like of him should have meat to give, when your lordship andme could scarce have gotten, on our own account, brose and a bearbannock--I have drunk his wine, too."
"I see you have," replied his master, "a great deal more than you shouldhave done."
"Under your patience, my lord," said Moniplies, "you are pleased to saythat, because I crushed a quart with that jolly boy Jenkin, as theycall the 'prentice boy, and that was out of mere acknowledgment for hisformer kindness--I own that I, moreover, sung the good old song of ElsieMarley, so as they never heard it chanted in their lives----"
And withal (as John Bunyan says) as they went on their way, he sung--
"O, do ye ken Elsie Marley, honey-- The wife that sells the barley, honey? For Elsie Marley's grown sae fine, She winna get up to feed the swine.-- O, do ye ken----"
Here in mid career was the songster interrupted by the stern gripeof his master, who threatened to baton him to death if he brought thecity-watch upon them by his ill-timed melody.
"I crave pardon, my lord--I humbly crave pardon--only when I think ofthat Jen Win, as they call him, I can hardly help humming--'O, do yeken'--But I crave your honour's pardon, and will be totally dumb, if youcommand me so."
"No, sirrah!" said Nigel, "talk on, for I well know you would say andsuffer more under pretence of holding your peace, than when you get anunbridled license. How is it, then? What have you to say against MasterHeriot?"
It seems more than probable, that in permitting this license, the younglord hoped his attendant would stumble upon the subject of the younglady who had appeared at prayers in a manner so mysterious. But whetherthis was the case, or whether he merely desired that Moniplies shouldutter, in a subdued and under tone of voice, those spirits which mightotherwise have vented themselves in obstreperous song, it is certain hepermitted his attendant to proceed with his story in his own way.
"And therefore," said the orator, availing himself of his immunity, "Iwould like to ken what sort of carle this Maister Heriot is. He hathsupplied your lordship with wealth of gold, as I can understand; and ifhe has, I make it for certain he hath had his ain end in it, accordingto the fashion of the world. Now, had your lordship your own goodlands at your guiding, doubtless this person, with most of hiscraft--goldsmiths they call themselves--I say usurers--wad be glad toexchange so many pounds of African dust, by whilk I understand gold,against so many fair acres, and hundreds of acres, of broad Scottishland."
"But you know I have no land," said the young lord, "at least none thatcan be affected by any debt which I can at present become obliged for--Ithink you need not have reminded me of that."
"True, my lord, most true; and, as your lordship says, open to themeanest capacity, without any unnecessary expositions. Now, therefore,my lord, unless Maister George Heriot has something mair to allege asa motive for his liberality, vera different from the possession of yourestate--and moreover, as he could gain little by the capture of yourbody, wherefore should it not be your soul that he is in pursuit of?"
"My soul, you rascal!" said the young lord; "what good should my soul dohim?"
"What do I ken about that?" said Moniplies; "they go about roaring andseeking whom they may devour--doubtless, they like the food that theyrage so much about--and, my lord, they say," added Moniplies, drawing upstill closer to his master's side, "they say that Master Heriot has onespirit in his house already."
"How, or what do you mean?" said Nigel; "I will break your head, youdrunken knave, if you palter with me any longer."
"Drunken?" answered his trusty adherent, "and is this the story?--why,how could I but drink your lordship's health on my bare knees, whenMaster Jenkin began it to me?--hang them that would not--I would havecut the impudent knave's hams with my broadsword, that should makescruple of it, and so have made him kneel when he should have found itdifficult to rise again. But touching the spirit," he proceeded, findingthat his master made no answer to his valorous tirade, "your lordshiphas seen her with your own eyes."
"I saw no spirit," said Glenvarloch, but yet breathing thick as one whoexpects some singular disclosure, "what mean you by a spirit?"
"You saw a young lady come in to prayers, that spoke not a word toany one, only made becks and bows to the old gentleman and lady of thehouse--ken ye wha she is?"
"No, indeed," answered Nigel; "some relation of the family, I suppose."
"Deil a bit--deil a bit," answered Moniplies, hastily, "not ablood-drop's kin to them, if she had a drop of blood in her body--I tellyou but what all human beings allege to be truth, that swell within hueand cry of Lombard Street--that lady, or quean, or whatever you chooseto call her, has been dead in the body these many a year, though shehaunts them, as we have seen, even at their very devotions."
"You will allow her to be a good spirit at least," said Nigel Olifaunt,"since she chooses such a time to visit her friends?"
"For that I kenna, my lord," answered the superstitious follower; "I kenno spirit that would have faced the right down hammer-blow of Mess JohnKnox, whom my father stood by in his very warst days, bating a chancetime when the Court, which my father supplied with butcher-meat, wasagainst him. But yon divine has another airt from powerfulMaster Rollock, and Mess David Black, of North Leith, and siclike.--Alack-a-day! wha can ken, if it please your lordship, whethersic prayers as the Southron read out of their auld blethering blackmess-book there, may not be as powerful to invite fiends, as a rightred-het prayer warm fraw the heart, may be powerful to drive them away,even as the Evil Spirit was driven by he smell of the fish's liver fromthe bridal-chamber of Sara, the daughter of Raguel? As to whilk story,nevertheless, I make scruple to say whether it be truth or not, bettermen than I am having doubted on that matter."
"Well, well, well," said his master, impatiently, "we are now near home,and I have permitted you to speak of this matter for once, that we mayhave an end to your prying folly, and your idiotical superstitions, forever. For whom do you, or your absurd authors or informers, take thislady?"
"I can sae naething preceesely as to that," answered Moniplies;"certain it is her body died and was laid in the grave many a day since,notwithstanding she still wanders on earth, and chiefly amongst MaisterHeriot's family, though she hath been seen in other places by them thatwell knew her. But who she is, I will not warrant to say, or how shebecomes attached, like a Highland Brownie, to some peculiar family.They say she has a row of apartments of her own, ante-room, parlour, andbedroom; but deil a bed she sleeps in but her own coffin, and the walls,doors, and windows are so chinked up, as to prevent the least blink ofdaylight from entering; and then she dwells by torchlight--"
"To what purpose, if she be a spirit?" said Nigel Olifaunt.
"How can I tell your lordship?" answered his attendant. "I thank God Iknow nothing of her likings, or mislikings--only her coffin is there;and I leave your lordship to guess what a live person
has to do with acoffin. As little as a ghost with a lantern, I trow."
"What reason," repeated Nigel, "can a creature, so young and sobeautiful, have already habitually to contemplate her bed of last-longrest?"
"In troth, I kenna, my lord," answered Moniplies; "but there is thecoffin, as they told me who have seen it: it is made of heben-wood, withsilver nails, and lined all through with three-piled damask, might servea princess to rest in."
"Singular," said Nigel, whose brain, like that of most active youngspirits, was easily caught by the singular and the romantic; "does shenot eat with the family?"
"Who!--she!"--exclaimed Moniplies, as if surprised at the question;"they would need a lang spoon would sup with her, I trow. Always thereis something put for her into the Tower, as they call it, whilk is awhigmaleery of a whirling-box, that turns round half on the tae side o'the wa', half on the tother."
"I have seen the contrivance in foreign nunneries," said the Lord ofGlenvarloch. "And is it thus she receives her food?"
"They tell me something is put in ilka day, for fashion's sake," repliedthe attendant; "but it's no to be supposed she would consume it, onymair than the images of Bel and the Dragon consumed the dainty viversthat were placed before them. There are stout yeomen and chamber-queansin the house, enow to play the part of Lick-it-up-a', as well as thethreescore and ten priests of Bel, besides their wives and children."
"And she is never seen in the family but when the hour of prayerarrives?" said the master.
"Never, that I hear of," replied the servant.
"It is singular," said Nigel Olifaunt, musing. "Were it not for theornaments which she wears, and still more for her attendance upon theservice of the Protestant Church, I should know what to think, andshould believe her either a Catholic votaress, who, for some cogentreason, was allowed to make her cell here in London, or some unhappyPopish devotee, who was in the course of undergoing a dreadful penance.As it is, I know not what to deem of it."
His reverie was interrupted by the linkboy knocking at the door ofhonest John Christie, whose wife came forth with "quips, and becks, andwreathed smiles," to welcome her honoured guest on his return to hisapartment.