These were very good words, and I could see besides that there was little love, and perhaps a spice of genuine ill-will, between these two who were opposed to me. For all that, it was unmistakable this interview had been designed, perhaps rehearsed, with the consent of both; it was plain my adversaries were in earnest to try me by all methods; and now (persuasion, flattery, and menaces having been tried in vain) I could not but wonder what would be their next expedient. My eyes besides were still troubled, and my knees loose under me, with the distress of the late ordeal; and I could do no more than stammer the same form of words: I put my life and credit in your hands.
Well, well, said he, we must try to save them. And in the meanwhile let us return to gentler methods. You must not bear any grudge upon my friend, Mr. Simon, who did but speak by his brief. And even if you did conceive some malice against myself, who stood by and seemed rather to hold a candle, I must not let that extend to innocent members of my family. These are greatly engaged to see more of you, and I cannot consent to have my young womenfolk disappointed. To-morrow they will be going to Hope Park, where I think it very proper you should make your bow. Call for me first, when I may possibly have something for your private hearing; then you shall be turned abroad again under the conduct of my misses; and until that time repeat to me your promise of secrecy.
I had done better to have instantly refused, but in truth I was beside the power of reasoning; did as I was bid; took my leave I know not how; and when I was forth again in the close, and the door had shut behind me, was glad to lean on a house wall and wipe my face. That horrid apparition (as I may call it) of Mr. Simon rang in my memory, as a sudden noise rings after it is over in the ear. Tales of the mans father, of his falseness, of his manifold perpetual treacheries, rose before me from all that I had heard and read, and joined on with what I had just experienced of himself. Each time it occurred to me, the ingenious foulness of that calumny he had proposed to nail upon my character startled me afresh. The case of the man upon the gibbet by Leith Walk appeared scarce distinguishable from that I was now to consider as my own. To rob a child of so little more than nothing was certainly a paltry enterprise for two grown men; but my own tale, as it was to be represented in a court by Simon Fraser, appeared a fair second in every possible point of view of sordidness and cowardice.
The voices of two of Prestongranges liveried men upon his doorstep recalled me to myself.
Hae, said the one, this billet as fast as ye can link to the captain.
Is that for the cateran back again? asked the other.
It would seem sae, returned the first. Him and Simon are seeking him.
I think Prestongrange is gane gyte, says the second. Hell have James More in bed with him next.
Weel, its neither your affair nor mines, said the first.
And they parted, the one upon his errand, and the other back into the house.
This looked as ill as possible. I was scarce gone and they were sending already for James More, to whom I thought Mr. Simon must have pointed when he spoke of men in prison and ready to redeem their lives by all extremities. My scalp curdled among my hair, and the next moment the blood leaped in me to remember Catriona. Poor lass! her father stood to be hanged for pretty indefensible misconduct. What was yet more unpalatable, it now seemed he was prepared to save his four quarters by the worst of shame and the most foul of cowardly murders murder by the false oath; and to complete our misfortunes, it seemed myself was picked out to be the victim.
I began to walk swiftly and at random, conscious only of a desire for movement, air, and the open country.
CHAPTER VII I MAKE A FAULT IN HONOUR
I came forth, I vow I know not how, on the Lang Dykes [12]. This is a rural road which runs on the north side over against the city. Thence I could see the whole black length of it tail down, from where the castle stands upon its crags above the loch in a long line of spires and gable ends, and smoking chimneys, and at the sight my heart swelled in my bosom. My youth, as I have told, was already inured to dangers; but such danger as I had seen the face of but that morning, in the midst of what they call the safety of a town, shook me beyond experience. Peril of slavery, peril of shipwreck, peril of sword and shot, I had stood all of these without discredit; but the peril there was in the sharp voice and the fat face of Simon, properly Lord Lovat, daunted me wholly.
I sat by the lake side in a place where the rushes went down into the water, and there steeped my wrists and laved my temples. If I could have done so with any remains of self-esteem, I would now have fled from my foolhardy enterprise. But (call it courage or cowardice, and I believe it was both the one and the other) I decided I was ventured out beyond the possibility of a retreat. I had out-faced these men, I would continue to out-face them; come what might, I would stand by the word spoken.
The sense of my own constancy somewhat uplifted my spirits, but not much. At the best of it there was an icy place about my heart, and life seemed a black business to be at all engaged in. For two souls in particular my pity flowed. The one was myself, to be so friendless and lost among dangers. The other was the girl, the daughter of James More. I had seen but little of her; yet my view was taken and my judgment made. I thought her a lass of a clean honour, like a mans; I thought her one to die of a disgrace; and now I believed her father to be at that moment bargaining his vile life for mine. It made a bond in my thoughts betwixt the girl and me. I had seen her before only as a wayside appearance, though one that pleased me strangely; I saw her now in a sudden nearness of relation, as the daughter of my blood foe, and I might say, my murderer. I reflected it was hard I should be so plagued and persecuted all my days for other folks affairs, and have no manner of pleasure myself. I got meals and a bed to sleep in when my concerns would suffer it; beyond that my wealth was of no help to me. If I was to hang, my days were like to be short; if I was not to hang but to escape out of this trouble, they might yet seem long to me ere I was done with them. Of a sudden her face appeared in my memory, the way I had first seen it, with the parted lips; at that, weakness came in my bosom and strength into my legs; and I set resolutely forward on the way to Dean. If I was to hang to-morrow, and it was sure enough I might very likely sleep that night in a dungeon, I determined I should hear and speak once more with Catriona.
The exercise of walking and the thought of my destination braced me yet more, so that I began to pluck up a kind of spirit. In the village of Dean, where it sits in the bottom of a glen beside the river, I inquired my way of a millers man, who sent me up the hill upon the farther side by a plain path, and so to a decent-like small house in a garden of lawns and apple-trees. My heart beat high as I stepped inside the garden hedge, but it fell low indeed when I came face to face with a grim and fierce old lady, walking there in a white mutch with a mans hat strapped upon the top of it.
What do ye come seeking here? she asked.
I told her I was after Miss Drummond.
And what may be your business with Miss Drummond? says she.
I told her I had met her on Saturday last, had been so fortunate as to render her a trifling service, and was come now on the young ladys invitation.
What do ye come seeking here? she asked.
I told her I was after Miss Drummond.
And what may be your business with Miss Drummond? says she.
I told her I had met her on Saturday last, had been so fortunate as to render her a trifling service, and was come now on the young ladys invitation.
O, so youre Saxpence! she cried, with a very sneering manner. A braw gift, a bonny gentleman. And hae ye ony ither name and designation, or were ye bapteesed Saxpence? she asked.
I told my name.
Preserve me! she cried. Has Ebenezer gotten a son?
No, maam, said I. I am a son of Alexanders. Its I that am the Laird of Shaws.
Yell find your work cut out for ye to establish that, quoth she.
I perceive you know my uncle, said I; and I daresay you may be the better pleased to hear that business is arranged.
And what brings ye here after Miss Drummond? she pursued.
Im come after my saxpence, mem, said I. Its to be thought, being my uncles nephew, I would be found a careful lad.
So ye have a spark of sleeness in ye? observed the old lady, with some approval. I thought ye had just been a cuif you and your saxpence, and your lucky day and your sake of Balwhidder from which I was gratified to learn that Catriona had not forgotten some of our talk. But all this is by the purpose, she resumed. Am I to understand that ye come here keeping company?
This is surely rather an early question, said I. The maid is young, so am I, worse fortune. I have but seen her the once. Ill not deny, I added, making up my mind to try her with some frankness, Ill not deny but she has run in my head a good deal since I met in with her. That is one thing; but it would be quite another, and I think I would look very like a fool, to commit myself.
You can speak out of your mouth, I see, said the old lady. Praise God, and so can I! I was fool enough to take charge of this rogues daughter: a fine charge I have gotten; but its mine, and Ill carry it the way I want to. Do ye mean to tell me, Mr. Balfour of Shaws, that you would marry James Mores daughter, and him hanged! Well, then, where theres no possible marriage there shall be no manner of carryings on, and take that for said. Lasses are bruckle things, she added, with a nod; and though ye would never think it by my wrunkled chafts, I was a lassie mysel, and a bonny one.
Lady Allardyce, said I, for that I suppose to be your name, you seem to do the two sides of the talking, which is a very poor manner to come to an agreement. You give me rather a home thrust when you ask if I would marry, at the gallows foot, a young lady whom I have seen but once. I have told you already I would never be so untenty as to commit myself. And yet Ill go some way with you. If I continue to like the lass as well as I have reason to expect, it will be something more than her father, or the gallows either, that keeps the two of us apart. As for my family, I found it by the wayside like a lost bawbee! I owe less than nothing to my uncle and if ever I marry, it will be to please one person: thats myself.
I have heard this kind of talk before ye were born, said Mrs. Ogilvy, which is perhaps the reason that I think of it so little. Theres much to be considered. This James More is a kinsman of mine, to my shame be it spoken. But the better the family, the mair men hanged or headed, thats always been poor Scotlands story. And if it was just the hanging! For my part I think I would be best pleased with James upon the gallows, which would be at least an end to him. Catrines a good lass enough, and a good-hearted, and lets herself be deaved all day with a runt of an auld wife like me. But, ye see, theres the weak bit. Shes daft about that long, false, fleeching beggar of a father of hers, and red-mad about the Gregara, and proscribed names, and King James, and a wheen blethers. And you might think ye could guide her, ye would find yourself sore mistaen. Ye say yeve seen her but the once..
Spoke with her but the once, I should have said, I interrupted. I saw her again this morning from a window at Prestongranges.
This I daresay I put in because it sounded well; but I was properly paid for my ostentation on the return.
Whats this of it? cries the old lady, with a sudden pucker of her face. I think it was at the Advocates door-cheek that ye met her first.
I told her that was so.
Hm, she said; and then suddenly, upon rather a scolding tone, I have your bare word for it, she cries, as to who and what you are. By your way of it, youre Balfour of the Shaws; but for what I ken you may be Balfour of the Deevils oxter. Its possible ye may come here for what ye say, and its equally possible ye may come here for deil care what! Im good enough Whig to sit quiet, and to have keepit all my men-folks heads upon their shoulders. But Im not just a good enough Whig to be made a fool of neither. And I tell you fairly, theres too much Advocates door and Advocates window here for a man that comes taigling after a Macgregors daughter. Ye can tell that to the Advocate that sent ye, with my fond love. And I kiss my loof to ye, Mr. Balfour, says she, suiting the action to the word; and a braw journey to ye back to where ye cam frae.
If you think me a spy, I broke out, and speech stuck in my throat. I stood and looked murder at the old lady for a space, then bowed and turned away.
Here! Hoots! The callants in a creel! she cried. Think ye a spy? what else would I think ye me that kens naething by ye? But I see that I was wrong; and as I cannot fight, Ill have to apologise. A bonny figure I would be with a broadsword. Ay! ay! she went on, youre none such a bad lad in your way; I think yell have some redeeming vices. But, O! Davit Balfour, yere damned countryfeed. Yell have to win over that, lad; yell have to soople your back-bone, and think a wee pickle less of your dainty self; and yell have to try to find out that women-folk are nae grenadiers. But that can never be. To your last day youll ken no more of women-folk than what I do of sow-gelding.
I had never been used with such expressions from a ladys tongue, the only two ladies I had known, Mrs. Campbell and my mother, being most devout and most particular women; and I suppose my amazement must have been depicted in my countenance, for Mrs. Ogilvy burst forth suddenly in a fit of laughter.
Keep me! she cried, struggling with her mirth, you have the finest timber face and you to marry the daughter of a Hieland cateran! Davie, my dear, I think well have to make a match of it if it was just to see the weans. And now, she went on, theres no manner of service in your daidling here, for the young woman is from home, and its my fear that the old woman is no suitable companion for your fathers son. Forbye that I have nobody but myself to look after my reputation, and have been long enough alone with a sedooctive youth. And come back another day for your saxpence! she cried after me as I left.
My skirmish with this disconcerting lady gave my thoughts a boldness they had otherwise wanted. For two days the image of Catriona had mixed in all my meditations; she made their background, so that I scarce enjoyed my own company without a glint of her in a corner of my mind. But now she came immediately near; I seemed to touch her, whom I had never touched but the once; I let myself flow out to her in a happy weakness, and looking all about, and before and behind, saw the world like an undesirable desert, where men go as soldiers on a march, following their duty with what constancy they have, and Catriona alone there to offer me some pleasure of my days. I wondered at myself that I could dwell on such considerations in that time of my peril and disgrace; and when I remembered my youth I was ashamed. I had my studies to complete: I had to be called into some useful business; I had yet to take my part of service in a place where all must serve; I had yet to learn, and know, and prove myself a man; and I had so much sense as blush that I should be already tempted with these further-on and holier delights and duties. My education spoke home to me sharply; I was never brought up on sugar biscuits but on the hard food of the truth. I knew that he was quite unfit to be a husband who was not prepared to be a father also; and for a boy like me to play the father was a mere derision.