Chapter the Twenty-Third.
'Tis when the wound is stiffening with the cold. The warrior first feels pain--'tis when the heat And fiery fever of his soul is pass'd, The sinner feels remorse. OLD PLAY.
The feelings of compunction with which Halbert Glendinning was visitedupon this painful occasion, were deeper than belonged to an age andcountry in which human life was held so cheap. They fell far shortcertainly of those which might have afflicted a mind regulated by betterreligious precepts, and more strictly trained under social laws; butstill they were deep and severely felt, and divided in Halbert's hearteven the regret with which he parted from Mary Avenel and the tower ofhis fathers.
The old traveller walked silently by his side for some time, and thenaddressed him.--"My son, it has been said that sorrow must speak ordie--Why art thou so much cast down?--Tell me thy unhappy tale, andit may be that my gray head may devise counsel and aid for your younglife."
"Alas!" said Halbert Glendinning, "can you wonder why I am castdown?--I am at this instant a fugitive from my father's house, from mymother, and from my friends, and I bear on my head the blood of a manwho injured me but in idle words, which I have thus bloodily requited.My heart now tells me I have done evil--it were harder than these rocksif it could bear unmoved the thought, that I have sent this man to along account, unhousled and unshrieved."
"Pause there, my son," said the traveller. "That thou hast defaced God'simage in thy neighbour's person--that thou hast sent dust to dust inidle wrath or idler pride, is indeed a sin of the deepest dye--thatthou hast cut short the space which Heaven might have allowed him forrepentance, makes it yet more deadly--but for all this there is balm inGilead."
"I understand you not, father," said Halbert, struck by the solemn tonewhich was assumed by his companion.
The old man proceeded. "Thou hast slain thine enemy--it was a crueldeed: thou hast cut him off perchance in his sins--it is a fearfulaggravation. Do yet by my counsel, and in lieu of him whom thou hastperchance consigned to the kingdom of Satan, let thine efforts wrestanother subject from the reign of the Evil One."
"I understand you, father," said Halbert; "thou wouldst have me atonefor my rashness by doing service to the soul of my adversary--But howmay this be? I have no money to purchase masses, and gladly would Igo barefoot to the Holy Land to free his spirit from purgatory, onlythat--"
"My son," said the old man, interrupting him, "the sinner for whoseredemption I entreat you to labour, is not the dead but the living. Itis not for the soul of thine enemy I would exhort thee to pray--that hasalready had its final doom from a Judge as merciful as he is just; nor,wert thou to coin that rock into ducats, and obtain a mass for each one,would it avail the departed spirit. Where the tree hath fallen, it mustlie. But the sapling, which hath in it yet the vigour and juice of life,may be bended to the point to which it ought to incline."
"Art thou a priest, father?" said the young man, "or by what commissiondost thou talk of such high matters?"
"By that of my Almighty Master," said the traveller, "under whose bannerI am an enlisted soldier."
Halbert's acquaintance with religious matters was no deeper than couldbe derived from the Archbishop of Saint Andrew's Catechism, and thepamphlet called the Twapennie Faith, both which were industriouslycirculated and recommended by the monks of Saint Mary's. Yet, howeverindifferent and superficial a theologian, he began to suspect that hewas now in company with one of the gospellers, or heretics, beforewhose influence the ancient system of religion now tottered to the veryfoundation. Bred up, as may well be presumed, in a holy horror againstthese formidable sectaries, the youth's first feelings were those of aloyal and devoted church vassal. "Old man," he said, "wert thou able tomake good with thy hand the words that thy tongue hath spoken againstour Holy Mother Church, we should have tried upon this moor which of ourcreeds hath the better champion."
"Nay," said the stranger, "if thou art a true soldier of Rome, thou wiltnot pause from thy purpose because thou hast the odds of years and ofstrength on thy side. Hearken to me, my son. I have showed thee how tomake thy peace with Heaven, and thou hast rejected my proffer. I willnow show thee how thou shalt make thy reconciliation with the powers ofthis world. Take this gray head from the frail body which supports it,and carry it to the chair of proud Abbot Boniface; and when thou tellesthim thou hast slain Piercie Shafton, and his ire rises at the deed, laythe head of Henry Warden at his foot, and thou shalt have praise insteadof censure."
Halbert Glendinning stepped back in surprise. "What! are you that HenryWarden so famous among the heretics, that even Knox's name is scarcemore frequently in their mouths? Art thou he, and darest thou toapproach the Halidome of Saint Mary's?"
"I am Henry Warden, of a surety," said the old man, "far unworthy tobe named in the same breath with Knox, but yet willing to venture onwhatever dangers my master's service may call me to."
"Hearken to me, then," said Halbert; "to slay thee, I have no heart--tomake thee prisoner, were equally to bring thy blood on my head--to leavethee in this wild without a guide, were little better. I will conductthee, as I promised, in safety to the Castle of Avenel; but breathe not,while we are on the journey, a word against the doctrines of the holychurch of which I am an unworthy--but though an ignorant, a zealousmember.--When thou art there arrived, beware of thyself--there is ahigh price upon thy head, and Julian Avenel loves the glance of goldbonnet-pieces." [Footnote: A gold coin of James V., the most beautifulof the Scottish series; so called because the effigy of the sovereigntyis represented wearing a bonnet.]
"Yet thou sayest not," answered the Protestant preacher, for such hewas, "that for lucre he would sell the blood of his guest?"
"Not if thou comest an invited stranger, relying on his faith," saidthe youth; "evil as Julian may be, he dare not break the rites ofhospitality; for, loose as we on these marches may be in all otherties, these are respected amongst us even to idolatry, and hisnearest relations would think it incumbent on them to spill his bloodthemselves, to efface the disgrace such treason would bring upon theirname and lineage. But if thou goest self-invited, and without assuranceof safety, I promise thee thy risk is great."
"I am in God's hand," answered the preacher; "it is on His errand that Itraverse these wilds amidst dangers of every kind; while I am useful formy master's service, they shall not prevail against me, and when, likethe barren fig-tree, I can no longer produce fruit, what imports it whenor by whom the axe is laid to the root?"
"Your courage and devotion," said Glendinning, "are worthy of a bettercause."
"That," said Warden, "cannot be--mine is the very best."
They continued their journey in silence, Halbert Glendinning tracingwith the utmost accuracy the mazes of the dangerous and intricatemorasses and hills which divided the Halidome from the barony ofAvenel. From time to time he was obliged to stop, in order to assisthis companion to cross the black intervals of quaking bog, called in theScottish dialect _hags_, by which the firmer parts of the morass wereintersected.
"Courage, old man," said Halbert, as he saw his companion almostexhausted with fatigue, "we shall soon be upon hard ground. And yet softas this moss is, I have seen the merry falconers go through it as lightas deer when the quarry was upon the flight."
"True, my son," answered Warden, "for so I will still call you, thoughyou term me no longer father; and even so doth headlong youth pursue itspleasures, without regard to the mire and the peril of the paths throughwhich they are hurried."
"I have already told thee," answered Halbert Glendinning, sternly, "thatI will hear nothing from thee that savours of doctrine."
"Nay, but, my son," answered Warden, "thy spiritual father himselfwould surely not dispute the truth of what I have now spoken for youredification!"
Glendinning stoutly replied, "I know not how that may be--but I wotwell it is the fashion of your brotherhood to bait your hook with fairdiscourse, and to hold yourselves up as angels of light, that you maythe b
etter extend the kingdom of darkness."
"May God," replied the preacher, "pardon those who have thus reportedof his servants! I will not offend thee, my son, by being instant out ofseason--thou speakest but as thou art taught--yet sure I trust that sogoodly a youth will be still rescued, like a brand from the burning."
While he thus spoke, the verge of the morass was attained, and theirpath lay on the declivity. Green-sward it was, and, viewed from adistance, chequered with its narrow and verdant line the dark-brownheath which it traversed, though the distinction was not so easilytraced when they were walking on it. [Footnote: This sort of path,visible when looked at from a distance, but not to be seen when youare upon it, is called on the Border by the significant name of aBlind-road.] The old man pursued his journey with comparative ease; and,unwilling again to awaken the jealous zeal of his young companionfor the Roman faith, he discoursed on other matters. The tone of hisconversation was still grave, moral, and instructive. He had travelledmuch, and knew both the language and manners of other countries,concerning which Halbert Glendinning, already anticipating thepossibility of being obliged to leave Scotland for the deed he had done,was naturally and anxiously desirous of information. By degrees hewas more attracted by the charms of the stranger's conversation thanrepelled by the dread of his dangerous character as a heretic, andHalbert had called him father more than once, ere the turrets of AvenelCastle came in view.
The situation of this ancient fortress was remarkable. It occupied asmall rocky islet in a mountain lake, or _tarn,_ as such a piece ofwater is called in Westmoreland. The lake might be about a mile incircumference, surrounded by hills of considerable height, which, exceptwhere old trees and brushwood occupied the ravines that divided themfrom each other, were bare and heathy. The surprise of the spectator waschiefly excited by finding a piece of water situated in that high andmountainous region, and the landscape around had features which mightrather be termed wild, than either romantic or sublime; yet the scenewas not without its charms. Under the burning sun of summer, the clearazure of the deep unruffled lake refreshed the eye, and impressed themind with a pleasing feeling of deep solitude. In winter, when the snowlay on the mountains around, these dazzling masses appeared to ascendfar beyond their wonted and natural height, while the lake, whichstretched beneath, and filled their bosom with all its frozen waves, laylike the surface of a darkened and broken mirror around the black androcky islet, and the walls of the gray castle with which it was crowned.
As the castle occupied, either with its principal buildings, or with itsflanking and outward walls, every projecting point of rock, which servedas its site, it seemed as completely surrounded by water as the nest ofa wild swan, save where a narrow causeway extended betwixt the islet andthe shore. But the fortress was larger in appearance than in reality;and of the buildings which it actually contained, many had becomeruinous and uninhabitable. In the times of the grandeur of the Avenelfamily, these had been occupied by a considerable garrison of followersand retainers, but they were now in a great measure deserted; and JulianAvenel would probably have fixed his habitation in a residence bettersuited to his diminished fortunes, had it not been for the greatsecurity which the situation of the old castle afforded to a man of hisprecarious and perilous mode of life. Indeed, in this respect, the spotcould scarce have been more happily chosen, for it could be renderedalmost completely inaccessible at the pleasure of the inhabitant. Thedistance betwixt the nearest shore and the islet was not indeed above anhundred yards; but then the causeway which connected them was extremelynarrow, and completely divided by two cuts, one in the mid-way betweenthe islet and shore, and another close under the outward gate ofthe castle. These formed a formidable, and almost insurmountableinterruption to any hostile approach. Each was defended by a drawbridge,one of which, being that nearest to the castle, was regularly raised atall times during the day, and both were lifted at night. [Footnote:It is in vain to search near Melrose for any such castle as is heredescribed. The lakes at the head of the Yarrow, and those at the rise ofthe water of Ale, present no object of the kind. But in Vetholm Loch, (aromantic sheet of water, in the dry march, as it is called,) thereare the remains of a fortress called Lochside Tower, which, like thesupposed Castle of Avenel, is built upon an island, and connected withthe land by a causeway. It is much smaller than the Castle of Avenel isdescribed, consisting only of a single tower.]
The situation of Julian Avenel, engaged in a variety of feuds, and aparty to almost every dark and mysterious transaction which was on footin that wild and military frontier, required all these precautionsfor his security. His own ambiguous and doubtful course of policy hadincreased these dangers; for as he made professions to both parties inthe state, and occasionally united more actively with either the one orthe other, as chanced best to serve his immediate purpose, he couldnot be said to have either firm allies and protectors, or determinedenemies. His life was a life of expedients and of peril; and while,in pursuit of his interest, he made all the doubles which he thoughtnecessary to attain his object, he often overran his prey, and missedthat which he might have gained by observing a straighter course.
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