The Fortunes of Nigel - Вальтер Скотт 17 стр.

If it were not for the wine and the good cheer which we have had in yonder old mans house, my lord, said this sapient follower, and that I ken him by report to be a just living man in many respects, and a real Edinburgh gutterblood, I should have been well pleased to have seen how his feet were shaped, and whether he had not a cloven cloot under the braw 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 on the good gentleman that relieved you.

Under favour, no, my lord, said Moniplies,  I would only like to see something mair about him. I have eaten his meat, it is true more shame that the like of him should have meat to give, when your lordship and me could scarce have gotten, on our own account, brose and a bear bannock I have drunk his wine, too.

I see you have, replied his master, a great deal more than you should have done.

Under your patience, my lord, said Moniplies, you are pleased to say that, because I crushed a quart with that jolly boy Jenkin, as they call the prentice boy, and that was out of mere acknowledgment for his former kindness I own that I, moreover, sung the good old song of Elsie Marley, so as they never heard it chanted in their lives

And withal (as John Bunyan says) as they went on their way, he sung

Here in mid career was the songster interrupted by the stern gripe of his master, who threatened to baton him to death if he brought the city-watch upon them by his ill-timed melody.

I crave pardon, my lord I humbly crave pardon only when I think of that Jen Win, as they call him, I can hardly help humming O, do ye ken But I crave your honours pardon, and will be totally dumb, if you command me so.

No, sirrah! said Nigel, talk on, for I well know you would say and suffer more under pretence of holding your peace, than when you get an unbridled license. How is it, then? What have you to say against Master Heriot?

It seems more than probable, that in permitting this license, the young lord hoped his attendant would stumble upon the subject of the young lady who had appeared at prayers in a manner so mysterious. But whether this was the case, or whether he merely desired that Moniplies should utter, in a subdued and under tone of voice, those spirits which might otherwise have vented themselves in obstreperous song, it is certain he permitted his attendant to proceed with his story in his own way.

And therefore, said the orator, availing himself of his immunity, I would like to ken what sort of carle this Maister Heriot is. He hath supplied your lordship with wealth of gold, as I can understand; and if he has, I make it for certain he hath had his ain end in it, according to the fashion of the world. Now, had your lordship your own good lands at your guiding, doubtless this person, with most of his craft goldsmiths they call themselves I say usurers wad be glad to exchange so many pounds of African dust, by whilk I understand gold, against so many fair acres, and hundreds of acres, of broad Scottish land.

But you know I have no land, said the young lord, at least none that can be affected by any debt which I can at present become obliged for I think you need not have reminded me of that.

True, my lord, most true; and, as your lordship says, open to the meanest capacity, without any unnecessary expositions. Now, therefore, my lord, unless Maister George Heriot has something mair to allege as a motive for his liberality, vera different from the possession of your estate and moreover, as he could gain little by the capture of your body, 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 do him?

What do I ken about that? said Moniplies; they go about roaring and seeking whom they may devour doubtless, they like the food that they rage so much about and, my lord, they say, added Moniplies, drawing up still closer to his masters side, they say that Master Heriot has one spirit in his house already.

How, or what do you mean? said Nigel; I will break your head, you drunken 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 lordships health on my bare knees, when Master Jenkin began it to me?  hang them that would not I would have cut the impudent knaves hams with my broadsword, that should make scruple of it, and so have made him kneel when he should have found it difficult to rise again. But touching the spirit, he proceeded, finding that his master made no answer to his valorous tirade, your lordship has seen her with your own eyes.

I saw no spirit, said Glenvarloch, but yet breathing thick as one who expects some singular disclosure, what mean you by a spirit?

You saw a young lady come in to prayers, that spoke not a word to any one, only made becks and bows to the old gentleman and lady of the house 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 a blood-drops kin to them, if she had a drop of blood in her body I tell you but what all human beings allege to be truth, that swell within hue and cry of Lombard Street that lady, or quean, or whatever you choose to call her, has been dead in the body these many a year, though she haunts 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 ken no spirit that would have faced the right down hammer-blow of Mess John Knox, whom my father stood by in his very warst days, bating a chance time when the Court, which my father supplied with butcher-meat, was against him. But yon divine has another airt from powerful Master Rollock, and Mess David Black, of North Leith, and sic like.  Alack-a-day! wha can ken, if it please your lordship, whether sic prayers as the Southron read out of their auld blethering black mess-book there, may not be as powerful to invite fiends, as a right red-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 fishs liver from the bridal-chamber of Sara, the daughter of Raguel? As to whilk story, nevertheless, I make scruple to say whether it be truth or not, better men 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 may have an end to your prying folly, and your idiotical superstitions, for ever. For whom do you, or your absurd authors or informers, take this lady?

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 Maister Heriots family, though she hath been seen in other places by them that well knew her. But who she is, I will not warrant to say, or how she becomes attached, like a Highland Brownie, to some peculiar family. They say she has a row of apartments of her own, ante-room, parlour, and bedroom; 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 of daylight 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 I know 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 a coffin. As little as a ghost with a lantern, I trow.

What reason, repeated Nigel, can a creature, so young and so beautiful, have already habitually to contemplate her bed of last-long rest?

In troth, I kenna, my lord, answered Moniplies; but there is the coffin, as they told me who have seen it: it is made of heben-wood, with silver nails, and lined all through with three-piled damask, might serve a princess to rest in.

Singular, said Nigel, whose brain, like that of most active young spirits, was easily caught by the singular and the romantic; does she not 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 there is something put for her into the Tower, as they call it, whilk is a whigmaleery 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 of Glenvarloch. And is it thus she receives her food?

They tell me something is put in ilka day, for fashions sake, replied the attendant; but its no to be supposed she would consume it, ony mair than the images of Bel and the Dragon consumed the dainty vivers that were placed before them. There are stout yeomen and chamber-queans in the house, enow to play the part of Lick-it-up-a, as well as the threescore and ten priests of Bel, besides their wives and children.

And she is never seen in the family but when the hour of prayer arrives? said the master.

Never, that I hear of, replied the servant.

It is singular, said Nigel Olifaunt, musing. Were it not for the ornaments which she wears, and still more for her attendance upon the service of the Protestant Church, I should know what to think, and should believe her either a Catholic votaress, who, for some cogent reason, was allowed to make her cell here in London, or some unhappy Popish 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 of honest John Christie, whose wife came forth with quips, and becks, and wreathed smiles, to welcome her honoured guest on his return to his apartment.

CHAPTER VIII

We must now introduce to the readers acquaintance another character, busy and important far beyond her ostensible situation in society in a word, Dame Ursula Suddlechop, wife of Benjamin Suddlechop, the most renowned barber in all Fleet Street. This dame had her own particular merits, the principal part of which was (if her own report could be trusted) an infinite desire to be of service to her fellow-creatures. Leaving to her thin half-starved partner the boast of having the most dexterous snap with his fingers of any shaver in London, and the care of a shop where starved apprentices flayed the faces of those who were boobies enough to trust them, the dame drove a separate and more lucrative trade, which yet had so many odd turns and windings, that it seemed in many respects to contradict itself.

Its highest and most important duties were of a very secret and confidential nature, and Dame Ursula Suddlechop was never known to betray any transaction intrusted to her, unless she had either been indifferently paid for her service, or that some one found it convenient to give her a double douceur to make her disgorge the secret; and these contingencies happened in so few cases, that her character for trustiness remained as unimpeached as that for honesty and benevolence.

In fact, she was a most admirable matron, and could be useful to the impassioned and the frail in the rise, progress, and consequences of their passion. She could contrive an interview for lovers who could show proper reasons for meeting privately; she could relieve the frail fair one of the burden of a guilty passion, and perhaps establish the hopeful offspring of unlicensed love as the heir of some family whose love was lawful, but where an heir had not followed the union. More than this she could do, and had been concerned in deeper and dearer secrets. She had been a pupil of Mrs. Turner, and learned from her the secret of making the yellow starch, and, it may be, two or three other secrets of more consequence, though perhaps none that went to the criminal extent of those whereof her mistress was accused. But all that was deep and dark in her real character was covered by the show of outward mirth and good-humour, the hearty laugh and buxom jest with which the dame knew well how to conciliate the elder part of her neighbours, and the many petty arts by which she could recommend herself to the younger, those especially of her own sex.

Dame Ursula was, in appearance, scarce past forty, and her full, but not overgrown form, and still comely features, although her person was plumped out, and her face somewhat coloured by good cheer, had a joyous expression of gaiety and good-humour, which set off the remains of beauty in the wane. Marriages, births, and christenings were seldom thought to be performed with sufficient ceremony, for a considerable distance round her abode, unless Dame Ursley, as they called her, was present. She could contrive all sorts of pastimes, games, and jests, which might amuse the large companies which the hospitality of our ancestors assembled together on such occasions, so that her presence was literally considered as indispensable in the families of all citizens of ordinary rank, at such joyous periods. So much also was she supposed to know of life and its labyrinths, that she was the willing confidant of half the loving couples in the vicinity, most of whom used to communicate their secrets to, and receive their counsel from, Dame Ursley. The rich rewarded her services with rings, owches, or gold pieces, which she liked still better; and she very generously gave her assistance to the poor, on the same mixed principles as young practitioners in medicine assist them, partly from compassion, and partly to keep her hand in use.

Dame Ursleys reputation in the city was the greater that her practice had extended beyond Temple Bar, and that she had acquaintances, nay, patrons and patronesses, among the quality, whose rank, as their members were much fewer, and the prospect of approaching the courtly sphere much more difficult, bore a degree of consequence unknown to the present day, when the toe of the citizen presses so close on the courtiers heel. Dame Ursley maintained her intercourse with this superior rank of customers, partly by driving a small trade in perfumes, essences, pomades, head-gears from France, dishes or ornaments from China, then already beginning to be fashionable; not to mention drugs of various descriptions, chiefly for the use of the ladies, and partly by other services, more or less connected with the esoteric branches of her profession heretofore alluded to.