ROB ROY


By Sir Walter Scott


Chapter 1

		How have I sinn'd, that this affliction
		Should light so heavy on me? I have no more sons,
		And this no more mine own. - My grand curse
		Hang o'er his head that thus transformed thee! - Travel?
		I'll send my horse to travel next.
								-- Monsieur Thomas.


You have requested me, my dear friend, to bestow some of that leisure, with 
which Providence has blessed the decline of my life, in registering the 
hazards and difficulties which attended its commencement. The recollection 
of those adventures, as you are pleased to term them, has indeed left upon 
my mind a chequered and varied feeling of pleasure and of pain, mingled, I 
trust, with no slight gratitude and veneration to the Disposer of human 
events, who guided my early course through much risk and labour, that the 
ease with which he has blessed my prolonged life might seem softer from 
remembrance and contrast. Neither is it possible for me to doubt, what you 
have often affirmed, that the incidents which befell me among a people 
singularly primitive in their government and manners, have something 
interesting and attractive for those who love to hear an old man's stories 
of a past age.
Still, however, you must remember, that the tale told by one friend, and 
listened to by another, loses half its charms when committed to paper; and 
that the narratives to which you have attended with interest, as heard from 
the voice of him to whom they occurred, will appear less deserving of 
attention when perused in the seclusion of your study. But your greener age 
and robust constitution promise longer life than will, in all human 
probability, be the lot of your friend. Throw, then, these sheets into some 
secret drawer of your escritoire till we are separated from each other's 
society by an event which may happen at any moment, and which must happen 
within the course of a few - a very few years. When we are parted in this 
world, to meet, I hope, in a better, you will, I am well aware, cherish 
more than it deserves the memory of your departed friend, and will find in 
those details which I am now to commit to paper, matter for melancholy, but 
not unpleasing reflection. Others bequeath to the confidants of their bosom 
portraits of their external features - I put into your hands a faithful 
transcript of my thoughts and feelings, of my virtues and of my failings, 
with the assured hope, that the follies and headstrong impetuosity of my 
youth will meet the same kind construction and forgiveness which have so 
often attended the faults of my matured age.
One advantage, among the many, of addressing my Memoirs (if I may give 
these sheets a name so imposing) to a dear and intimate friend, is, that I 
may spare some of the details, in this case unnecessary, with which I must 
needs have detained a stranger from what I have to say of greater interest. 
Why should I bestow all my tediousness upon you, because I have you in my 
power, and have ink, paper, and time before me? At the same time, I dare 
not promise that I may not abuse the opportunity so temptingly offered me, 
to treat of myself and my own concerns, even though I speak of 
circumstances as well known to you as to myself. The seductive love of 
narrative, when we ourselves are the heroes of the events which we tell, 
often disregards the attention due to the time and patience of the 
audience, and the best and wisest have yielded to its fascination. I need 
only remind you of the singular instance evinced by the form of that rare 
and original edition of Sully's Memoirs, which you (with the fond vanity of 
a book-collector) insist upon preferring to that which is reduced to the 
useful and ordinary form of Memoirs, but which I think curious, solely as 
illustrating how far so great a man as the author was accessible to the 
foible of self-importance. If I recollect rightly, that venerable peer and 
great statesman had appointed no fewer than four gentlemen of his household 
to draw up the events of his life, under the title of Memorials of the Sage 
and Royal Affairs of State, Domestic, Political, and Military, transacted 
by Henry IV., and so forth. These grave recorders, having made their 
compilation, reduced the Memoirs containing all the remarkable events of 
their master's life into a narrative, addressed to himself in propria 
persona. And thus, instead of telling his own story, in the third person, 
like Julius Caesar, or in the first person, like most who, in the hall, or 
the study, undertake to be the heroes of their own tale, Sully enjoyed the 
refined, though whimsical pleasure, of having the events of his life told 
over to him by his secretaries, being himself the auditor, as he was also 
the hero, and probably the author, of the whole book. It must have been a 
great sight to have seen the ex-minister, as bolt upright as a starched 
ruff and laced cassock could make him, seated in state beneath his canopy, 
and listening to the recitation of his compilers, while, standing bare in 
his presence, they informed him gravely, "Thus said the duke - so did the 
duke infer - such were your grace's sentiments upon this important point - 
such were your secret counsels to the king on that other emergency," - 
circumstances, all of which must have been much better known to their 
hearer than to themselves, and most of which could only be derived from his 
own special communication.
My situation is not quite so ludicrous as that of the great Sully, and yet 
there would be something whimsical in Frank Osbaldistone giving Will 
Tresham a formal account of his birth, education, and connections in the 
world. I will, therefore, wrestle with the tempting spirit of P. P., Clerk 
of our Parish, as I best may, and endeavour to tell you nothing that is 
familiar to you already. Some things, however, I must recall to your 
memory, because, though formerly well known to you, they may have been 
forgotten through lapse of time, and they afford the ground-work of my 
destiny.
You must remember my father well; for as your own was a member of the 
mercantile house, you knew him from infancy. Yet you hardly saw him in his 
best days, before age and infirmity had quenched his ardent spirit of 
enterprise and speculation. He would have been a poorer man indeed, but 
perhaps as happy, had he devoted to the extension of science those active 
energies, and acute powers of observation, for which commercial pursuits 
found occupation. Yet, in the fluctuations of mercantile speculation, there 
is something captivating to the adventurer, even independent of the hope of 
gain. He who embarks on that fickle sea, requires to possess the skill of 
the pilot and the fortitude of the navigator, and after all may be wrecked 
and lost, unless the gales of fortune breathe in his favour. This mixture 
of necessary attention and inevitable hazard, - the frequent and awful 
uncertainty whether prudence shall overcome fortune, or fortune baffle the 
schemes of prudence, affords full occupation for the powers, as well as for 
the feelings of the mind, and trade has all the fascination of gambling 
without its moral guilt.
Early in the 18th century, when I (Heaven help me) was a youth of some 
twenty years old, I was summoned suddenly from Bourdeaux to attend my 
father on business of importance. I shall never forget our first interview. 
You recollect the brief, abrupt, and somewhat stern mode in which he was 
wont to communicate his pleasure to those around him. Methinks I see him 
even now in my mind's eye; - the firm and upright figure, - the step, quick 
and determined, - the eye, which shot so keen and so penetrating a glance, 
- the features, on which care had already planted wrinkles, - and hear his 
language, in which he never wasted word in vain, expressed in a voice which 
had sometimes an occasional harshness, far from the intention of the 
speaker.
When I dismounted from my post-horse, I hastened to my father's apartment. 
He was traversing it with an air of composed and steady deliberation, which 
even my arrival, although an only son unseen for four years, was unable to 
discompose. I threw myself into his arms. He was a kind, though not a fond 
father, and the tear twinkled in his dark eye, but it was only for a 
moment.
"Dubourg writes to me that he is satisfied with you, Frank."
"I am happy, sir -"
"But I have less reason to be so" he added, sitting down at his bureau.
"I am sorry, sir -"
"Sorry and happy, Frank, are words that, on most occasions, signify little 
or nothing - Here is your last letter."
He took it out from a number of others tied up in a parcel of red tape, and 
curiously labelled and filed. There lay my poor epistle, written on the 
subject the nearest to my heart at the time, and couched in words which I 
had thought would work compassion if not conviction, - there, I say, it 
lay, squeezed up among the letters on miscellaneous business in which my 
father's daily affairs had engaged him. I cannot help smiling internally 
when I recollect the mixture of hurt vanity, and wounded feeling, with 
which I regarded my remonstrance, to the penning of which there had gone, I 
promise you, some trouble, as I beheld it extracted from amongst letters of 
advice, of credit, and all the commonplace lumber, as I then thought them, 
of a merchant's correspondence. Surely, thought I, a letter of such 
importance (I dared not say, even to myself, so well written) deserved a 
separate place, as well as more anxious consideration, than those on the 
ordinary business of the counting-house.
But my father did not observe my dissatisfaction, and would not have minded 
it if he had. He proceeded, with the letter in his hand. "This, Frank, is 
yours of the 21st ultimo, in which you advise me (reading from my letter), 
that in the most important business of forming a plan, and adopting a 
profession for life, you trust my paternal goodness will hold you entitled 
to at least a negative voice; that you have insuperable - ay, insuperable 
is the word - I wish, by the way, you would write a more distinct current 
hand - draw a score through the tops of your t's, and open the loops of 
your l's - insuperable objections to the arrangements which I have proposed 
to you. There is much more to the same effect, occupying four good pages of 
paper, which a little attention to perspicuity and distinctness of 
expression might have comprised within as many lines. For, after all, 
Frank, it amounts but to this, that you will not do as I would have you."
"That I cannot, sir, in the present instance, not that I will not."
"Words avail very little with me, young man," said my father, whose 
inflexibility always possessed the air of the most perfect calmness of self-
possession. "Can not may be a more civil phrase than will not, but the 
expressions are synonymous where there is no moral impossibility. But I am 
not a friend to doing business hastily; we will talk this matter over after 
dinner. - Owen!"
Owen appeared, not with the silver locks which you were used to venerate, 
for he was then little more than fifty; but he had the same, or an exactly 
similar uniform suit of light-brown clothes, - the same pearl-grey silk 
stockings, - the same stock, with its silver buckle, - the same plaited 
cambric ruffles, drawn down over his knuckles in the parlour, but in the 
counting-house carefully folded back under the sleeves, that they might 
remain unstained by the ink which he daily consumed; - in a word, the same 
grave, formal, yet benevolent cast of features, which continued to his 
death to distinguish the head clerk of the great house of Osbaldistone and 
Tresham.
"Owen," said my father, as the kind old man shook me affectionately by the 
hand, "you must dine with us today, and hear the news Frank has brought us 
from our friends in Bourdeaux."
Owen made one of his stiff bows of respectful gratitude; for, in those 
days, when the distance between superiors and inferiors was enforced in a 
manner to which the present times are strangers, such an invitation was a 
favour of some little consequence.
I shall long remember that dinner-party. Deeply affected by feelings of 
anxiety, not unmingled with displeasure, I was unable to take that active 
share in the conversation which my father seemed to expect from me; and I 
too frequently gave unsatisfactory answers to the questions with which he 
assailed me. Owen, hovering betwixt his respect for his patron, and his 
love for the youth he had dandled on his knee in childhood, like the 
timorous, yet anxious ally of an invaded nation, endeavoured at every 
blunder I made to explain my no-meaning, and to cover my retreat; 
manoeuvres which added to my father's pettish displeasure, and brought a 
share of it upon. my kind advocate, instead of protecting me. I had not, 
while residing in the house of Dubourg, absolutely conducted myself like

		A clerk condemn'd his father's soul to cross,
		Who penn'd a stanza when he should engross; -

but, to say truth, I had frequented the counting-house no more than I had 
thought absolutely necessary to secure the good report of the Frenchman, 
long a correspondent of our firm, to whom my father had trusted for 
initiating me into the mysteries of commerce. In fact, my principal 
attention had been dedicated to literature and manly exercises. My father 
did not altogether discourage such acquirements, whether mental or 
personal. He had too much good sense not to perceive, that they sate 
gracefully upon every man, and he was sensible that they relieved and 
dignified the character to which he wished me to aspire. But his chief 
ambition was, that I should succeed not merely to his fortune, but to the 
views and plans by which he imagined he could extend and perpetuate the 
wealthy inheritance which he designed for me.
Love of his profession was the motive which he chose should be most 
ostensible, when he urged me to tread the same path; but he had others with 
which I only became acquainted at a later period. Impetuous in his schemes, 
as well as skilful and daring, each new adventure, when successful, became 
at once the incentive, and furnished the means, for farther speculation. It 
seemed to be necessary to him, as to an ambitious conqueror, to push on 
from achievement, without stopping to secure, far less to enjoy, the 
acquisitions which he made. Accustomed to see his whole fortune trembling 
in the scales of chance, and dextrous at adopting expedients for casting 
the balance in his favour, his health and spirits and activity seemed ever 
to increase with the animating hazards on which he staked his wealth; and 
he resembled a sailor, accustomed to brave the billows and the foe, whose 
confidence rises on the eve of tempest or of battle. He was not, however, 
insensible to the changes which increasing age or supervening malady might 
make in his own constitution; and was anxious in good time to secure in me 
an assistant, who might take the helm when his hand grew weary, and keep 
the vessel's way according to his counsel and instruction. Paternal 
affection, as well as the furtherance of his own plans, determined him to 
the same conclusion. Your father, though his fortune was vested in the 
house, was only a sleeping partner, as the commercial phrase goes; and 
Owen, whose probity and skill in the details of arithmetic rendered the 
services invaluable as a head clerk, was not possessed either of 
information or talents sufficient to conduct the mysteries of the principal 
management. If my father were suddenly summoned from life, what would 
become of the world of schemes which he had formed, unless his son were 
moulded into a commercial Hercules, fit to sustain the weight when 
relinquished by the falling Atlas? and what would become of that son 
himself, if, a stranger to business of this description, he found himself 
at once involved in the labyrinth of mercantile concerns, without the clew 
of knowledge necessary for his extraction? For all these reasons, avowed 
and secret, my father was determined I should embrace his profession, and 
when he was determined, the resolution of no man was more immovable. I, 
however, was also a party to be consulted, and, with something of his own 
pertinacity, I had formed a determination precisely contrary.
It may, I hope, be some palliative for the resistance which, on this 
occasion, I offered to my father's wishes, that I did not fully understand 
upon what they were founded, or how deeply his happiness was involved in 
them. Imagining myself certain of a large succession in future, and ample 
maintenance in the meanwhile, it never occurred to me that it might be 
necessary, in order to secure these blessings, to submit to labour and 
limitations unpleasant to my taste and temper. I only saw in my father's 
proposal for my engaging in business, a desire that I should add to those 
heaps of wealth which he had himself acquired; and imagining myself the 
best judge of the path to my own happiness, I did not conceive that I 
should increase that happiness by augmenting a fortune which I believed was 
already sufficient, and more than sufficient, for every use, comfort, and 
elegant enjoyment.
Accordingly, I am compelled to repeat, that my time at Bourdeaux had not 
been spent as my father had proposed to himself. What he considered as the 
chief end of my residence in that city, I had postponed for every other, 
and would (had I dared) have neglected it altogether. Dubourg, a favoured 
and benefited correspondent of our mercantile house, was too much of a 
shrewd politician to make such reports to the head of the firm concerning 
his only child, as would excite the displeasure of both; and he might also, 
as you will presently hear, have views of selfish advantage in suffering me 
to neglect the purposes for which I was placed under his charge. My conduct 
was regulated by the bounds of decency and good order, and thus far he had 
no evil report to make, supposing him so disposed; but, perhaps, the crafty 
Frenchman would have been equally complaisant had I been in the habit of 
indulging worse feelings than those of indolence and aversion to mercantile 
business. As it was, while I gave a decent portion of my time to the 
commercial studies he recommended, he was by no means envious of the hours 
which I dedicated to other and more classical attainments, nor did he ever 
find fault with me for dwelling upon Corneille and Boileau, in preference 
to Postlethwayte, (supposing his folio to have then existed, and Monsieur 
Dubourg able to have pronounced his name,) or Savary, or any other writer 
on commercial economy. He had picked up somewhere a convenient expression, 
with which he rounded off every letter to his correspondent, - "I was all," 
he said, "that a father could wish."
My father never quarrelled with a phrase, however frequently repeated, 
provided it seemed to him distinct and expressive; and Addison himself 
could not have found expressions so satisfactory to him as, "Yours 
received, and duly honoured the bills enclosed, as per margin."
Knowing, therefore, very well what he desired me to be, Mr Osbaldistone 
made no doubt, from the frequent repetition of Dubourg's favourite phrase, 
that I was the very thing he wished to see me; when, in an evil hour, he 
received my letter, containing my eloquent and detailed apology for 
declining a place in the firm, and a desk and stool in the corner of the 
dark counting-house in Crane Alley, surmounting in height those of Owen, 
and the other clerks, and only inferior to the tripod of my father himself. 
All was wrong from that moment. Dubourg's reports became as suspicious as 
if his bills had been noted for dishonour. I was summoned home in all 
haste, and received in the manner I have already communicated to you.


Chapter 2

I begin shrewdly to suspect the young man of a terrible taint - Poetry; 
with which idle disease if he be infected, there's no hope of him in a 
state course. Actum est of him for a commonwealth's man, if he go to't in 
rhyme once.
					-- Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair.


My father had, generally speaking, his temper under complete self-command, 
and his anger rarely indicated itself by words, except in a sort of dry 
testy manner, to those who had displeased him. He never used threats, or 
expressions of loud resentment. All was arranged with him on system, and it 
was his practice to do "the needful" on every occasion, without wasting 
words about it. It was, therefore, with a bitter smile that he listened to 
my imperfect answers concerning the state of commerce in France, and 
unmercifully permitted me to involve myself deeper and deeper in the 
mysteries of agio, tariffs, tare and tret; nor can I charge my memory with 
his having looked positively angry, until he found me unable to explain the 
exact effect which the depreciation of the louis d'or had produced on the 
negotiation of bills of exchange. "The most remarkable national occurrence 
in my time," said my father (who nevertheless had seen the Revolution), - 
"and he knows no more of it than a post on the quay!"
"Mr Francis," suggested Owen, in his timid and conciliatory manner, "cannot 
have forgotten, that by an arret of the King of France, dated 1st May 1700, 
it was provided that the porteur, within ten days after due, must make 
demand -"
"Mr Francis," said my father, interrupting him, "will, I dare say, 
recollect for the moment anything you are so kind as hint to him. But, body 
o' me! how Dubourg could permit him! Hark ye, Owen, what sort of a youth is 
Clement Dubourg, his nephew there, in the office, the black-haired lad?"
"One of the cleverest clerks, sir, in the house; a prodigious young man for 
his time," answered Owen; for the gaiety and civility of the young 
Frenchman had won his heart.
"Ay, ay, I suppose he knows something of the nature of exchange. Dubourg 
was determined I should have one youngster at least about my hand who 
understood business. But I see his drift, and he shall find that I do so 
when he looks at the balance-sheet. Owen, let Clement's salary be paid up 
to next quarter-day, and let him ship himself back to Bourdeaux, in his 
father's ship, which is clearing out yonder."
"Dismiss Clement Dubourg, sir?" said Owen, with a faltering voice.
"Yes, sir, dismiss him instantly; it is enough to have a stupid Englishman 
in the counting-house to make blunders, without keeping a sharp Frenchman 
there to profit by them."
I had lived long enough in the territories of the Grand Monarque to 
contract a hearty aversion to arbitrary exertion of authority, even if it 
had not been instilled into me with my earliest breeding; and I could not 
refrain from interposing, to prevent an innocent and meritorious young man 
from paying the penalty of having acquired that proficiency which my father 
had desired for me.
"I beg pardon, sir," when Mr Osbaldistone had done speaking; "but I think 
it but just, that if I have been negligent of my studies, I should pay the 
forfeit myself. I have no reason to charge Monsieur Dubourg with having 
neglected to give me opportunities of improvement, however little I may 
have profited by them; and, with respect to Monsieur Clement Dubourg -"
"With respect to him, and to you, I shall take the measures which I see 
needful," replied my father; "but it is fair in you, Frank, to take your 
own blame on your own shoulders - very fair, that cannot be denied. I 
cannot acquit old Dubourg," he said, looking to Owen, "for having merely 
aftorded Frank the means of useful knowledge, without either seeing that he 
took advantage of them, or reporting to me if he did not. You see, Owen, he 
has natural notions of equity becoming a British merchant."
"Mr Francis," said the head-clerk, with his usual formal inclination of the 
head, and a slight elevation of his right hand, which he had acquired by a 
habit of sticking his pen behind his ear before he spoke - "Mr Francis 
seems to understand the fundamental principle of all moral accounting, the 
great ethic rule of three. Let A do to B, as he would have B do to him; the 
product will give the rule of conduct required."
My father smiled at this reduction of the golden rule to arithmetical form, 
but instantly proceeded.
"All this signifies nothing, Frank; you have been throwing away your time 
like a boy, and in future you must learn to live like a man. I shall put 
you under Owen's care for a few months, to recover the lost ground."
I was about to reply, but Owen looked at me with such a supplicatory and 
warning gesture, that I was involuntarily silent.
"We will then," continued my father, "resume the subject of mine of the 1st 
ultimo, to which you sent me an answer which was unadvised and 
unsatisfactory. So now, fill your glass, and push the bottle to Owen."
Want of courage - of audacity, if you will - was never my failing. I 
answered firmly, "I was sorry that my letter was unsatisfactory, unadvised 
it was not; for I had given the proposal his goodness had made me, my 
instant and anxious attention, and it was with no small pain that I found 
myself obliged to decline it."
My father bent his keen eye for a moment on me, and instantly withdrew it. 
As he made no answer, I thought myself obliged to proceed, though with some 
hesitation, and he only interrupted me by monosyllables. - "It is 
impossible, sir, for me to have higher respect for any character than I 
have for the commercial, even were it not yours."
"Indeed!"
"It connects nation with nation, relieves the wants, and contributes to the 
wealth of all; and is to the general commonwealth of the civilised world 
what the daily intercourse of ordinary life is to private society, or 
rather, what air and food are to our bodies."
"Well, sir?"
"And yet, sir, I find myself compelled to persist in declining to adopt a 
character which I am so ill qualified to support."
"I will take care that you acquire the qualifications necessary. You are no 
longer the guest and pupil of Dubourg."
"But, my dear sir, it is no defect of teaching which I plead, but my own 
inability to profit by instruction."
"Nonsense. - Have you kept your journal in the terms I desired?"
"Yes, sir."
"Be pleased to bring it here."
The volume thus required was a sort of commonplace book, kept by my 
father's recommendation, in which I had been directed to enter notes of the 
miscellaneous information which I had acquired in the course of my studies. 
Foreseeing that he would demand inspection of this record, I had been 
attentive to transcribe such particulars of information as he would most 
likely be pleased with, but too often the pen had discharged the task 
without much correspondence with the head. And it had also happened, that, 
the book being the receptacle nearest to my hand, I had occasionally jotted 
down memoranda which had little regard to traffic. I now put it into my 
father's hand, devoutly hoping he might light on nothing that would 
increase his displeasure against me. Owen's face, which had looked 
something blank when the question was put, cleared up at my ready answer, 
and wore a smile of hope when I brought from my apartment, and placed 
before my father, a commercial looking volume, rather broader than it was 
long, having brazen clasps and a binding of rough calf. This looked 
business-like, and was encouraging to my benevolent well-wisher. But he 
actually smiled with pleasure as he heard my father run over some part of 
the contents, muttering his critical remarks as he went on.
"Brandies - Barils and barricants, also tonneaux. - At Nants 29 - Velles to 
the barique at Cognac and Rochelle 27 - At Bourdeaux 32 - Very right, Frank 
- Duties on tonnage and custom-house, see Saxbys Tables - That's not well; 
you should have transcribed the passage; it fixes the thing in the memory - 
Reports outward and inward - Corn debentures - Over-sea Cockets - Linens - 
Isingham - Gentish - Stock-fish - Titling - Cropling - Lub-fish. You should 
have noted that they are all, nevertheless, to be entered as titlings. - 
How many inches long is a titling?"
Owen seeing me at fault, hazarded a whisper, of which I fortunately caught 
the import.
"Eighteen inches, sir -"
"And a lub-fish is twenty-four - very right. It is important to remember 
this, on account of the Portuguese trade. - But what have we here? - 
Bourdeaux founded in the year - Castle of the Trompette - Palace of 
Gallienus - Well, well, that's very right too. - This is a kind of waste-
book, Owen, in which all the transactions of the day, emptions, orders, 
payments, receipts, acceptances, draughts, commissions, and advices, are 
entered miscellaneously."
"That they may be regularly transferred to the day-book and ledger," 
answered Owen: "I am glad Mr Francis is so methodical."
I perceived myself getting so fast into favour, that I began to fear the 
consequence would be my father's more obstinate perseverance in his 
resolution that I must become a merchant; and, as I was determined on the 
contrary, I began to wish I had not, to use my friend Mr Owen's phrase, 
been so methodical. But I had no reason for apprehension on that score; for 
a blotted piece of paper dropped out of the book, and, being taken up by my 
father, he interrupted a hint from Owen, on the propriety of securing loose 
memoranda with a little paste, by exclaiming, "To the memory of Edward the 
Black Prince - What's all this? - verses! - by Heaven, Frank, you are a 
greater blockhead than I supposed you!"
My father, you must recollect, as a man of business, looked upon the labour 
of poets with contempt; and as a religious man, and of the dissenting 
persuasion, he considered all such pursuits as equally trivial and profane. 
Before you condemn him, you must recall to remembrance how too many of the 
poets in the end of the seventeenth century had led their lives and 
employed their talents. The sect also to which my father belonged, felt, or 
perhaps affected, a puritanical aversion to the lighter exertions of 
literature. So that many causes contributed to augment the unpleasant 
surprise occasioned by the ill-timed discovery of this unfortunate copy of 
verses. As for poor Owen, could the bob-wig which he then wore have 
uncurled itself, and stood on end with horror, I am convinced the morning's 
labour of the friseur would have been undone, merely by the excess of his 
astonishment at this enormity. An inroad on the strong-box, or an erasure 
in the ledger, or a mis-summation in a fitted account, could hardly have 
surprised him more disagreeably. My father read the lines sometimes with an 
affectation of not being able to understand the sense - sometimes in a 
mouthing tone of mock heroic - always with an emphasis of the most bitter 
irony, most irritating to the nerves of an author.

	"Oh for the voice of that wild horn,
	On Fontarabian echoes borne,
			The dying hero's call,
	That told imperial Charlemagne,
	How Paynim sons of swarthy Spain
			Had wrought his champion's fall.

"Fontarabian echoes!" continued my father, interrupting himself; "the 
Fontarabian Fair would have been more to the purpose. - Paynim. - What's 
Paynim? - Could you not say Pagan as well, and write English at least, if 
you must needs write nonsense?

	"Sad over earth and ocean sounding,
	And England's distant cliffs astounding,
			Such are the notes should say
	How Britain's hope, and France's fear,
	Victor of Cressy and Poitier,
			In Bourdeaux dying lay.

"Poitiers, by the way, is always spelt with an s, and I know no reason why 
orthography should give place to rhyme. -

	"'Raise my faint head, my squires,' he said,
	And let the casement be displayed,
			That I may see once more
	The splendour of the setting sun
	Gleam on thy mirrored wave, Garonne,
			And Blaye's empurpled shore.'

"Garonne and sun is a bad rhyme. Why, Frank, you do not even understand the 
beggarly trade you have chosen. -

	"'Like me, he sinks to Glory's sleep,
	His fall the dews of evening steep,
			As if in sorrow shed.
	So soft shall fall the tricking tear,
	When England's maids and matrons hear
			Of their Black Edward dead.

	And though my sun of glory set,
	Nor France, nor England shall forget
			The terror of my name;
	And oft shall Britain's heroes rise,
	New planets in these southern skies,
			Through clouds of blood and flame.'

"A cloud of flame is something new - Good morrow, my masters all, and a 
merry Christmas to you! - Why, the bellman writes better lines." He then 
tossed the paper from him with an air of superlative contempt, and 
concluded - "Upon my credit, Frank, you are a greater blockhead than I took 
you for."
What could I say, my dear Tresham? There I stood, swelling with indignant 
mortification, while my father regarded me with a calm but stern look of 
scorn and pity; and poor Owen, with uplifted hands and eyes, looked as 
striking a picture of horror as if he had just read his patron's name in 
the Gazette. At length I took courage to speak, endeavouring that my tone 
of voice should betray my feelings as little as possible.
"I am quite aware, sir, how ill qualified I am to play the conspicuous part 
in society you have destined for me; and, luckily, I am not ambitious of 
the wealth I might acquire. Mr Owen would be a much more effective 
assistant." I said this in some malice, for I considered Owen as having 
deserted my cause a little too soon.
"Owen!"said my father - "The boy is mad -actually insane. And pray, sir, if 
I may presume to inquire, having coolly turned me over to Mr Owen (although 
I may expect more attention from any one than from my son), what may your 
own sage projects be?"
"I should wish, sir," I replied, summoning up my courage, "to travel for 
two or three years, should that consist with your pleasure; otherwise, 
although late, I would willingly spend the same time at Oxford or 
Cambridge."
"In the name of common sense! was the like ever heard? - to put yourself to 
school among pedants and Jacobites, when you might be pushing your fortune 
in the world! Why not go to Westminster or Eton at once, man, and take to 
Lilly's Grammar and Accidence, and to the birch, too, if you like it?"
"Then, sir, if you think my plan of improvement too late, I would willingly 
return to the Continent."
"You have already spent too much time there to little purpose, Mr Francis."
"Then I would choose the army, sir, in preference to any other active line 
of life."
"Choose the d--l!"answered my father hastily, and then checking himself - 
"I profess you make me as great a fool as you are yourself. Is he not 
enough to drive one mad, Owen?" - Poor Owen shook his head, and looked 
down. "Hark ye, Frank," continued my father, "I will cut all this matter 
very short. I was at your age when my father turned me out of doors, and 
settled my legal inheritance on my younger brother. I left Osbaldistone 
Hall on the back of a broken-down hunter, with ten guineas in my purse. I 
have never crossed the threshold again, and I never will. I know not, and I 
care not, if my fox-hunting brother is alive, or has broken his neck; but 
he has children, Frank, and one of them shall be my son if you cross me 
farther in this matter."
"You will do your pleasure," I answered, rather, I fear, with more sullen 
indifference than respect, "with what is your own."
"Yes, Frank, what I have is my own, if labour in getting, and care in 
augmenting, can make a right of property; and no drone shall feed on my 
honeycomb. Think on it well: what I have said is not without reflection, 
and what I resolve upon I will execute."
"Honoured sir! - dear sir!" exclaimed Owen, tears rushing into his eyes, 
"you are not wont to be in such a hurry in transacting business of 
importance. Let Mr Francis run up the balance before you shut the account; 
he loves you, I am sure; and when he puts down his filial obedience to the 
per contra, I am sure his objections will disappear."
Do you think I will ask him twice," said my father sternly, "to be my 
friend, my assistant, and my confidant? - to be a partner of my cares and 
of my fortune? - Owen, I thought you had known me better." He looked at me 
as if he meant to add something more, but turned instantly away, and left 
the room abruptly. I was, I own, affected by this view of the case, which 
had not occurred to me; and my father would probably have had little reason 
to complain of me, had he commenced the discussion with this argument.
But it was too late. I had much of his own obduracy of resolution, and 
Heaven had decreed that my sin should be my punishment, though not to the 
extent which my transgression merited. Owen, when we were left alone, 
continued to look at me with eyes which tears from time to time moistened, 
as if to discover, before attempting the task of intercessor, upon what 
point my obstinacy was most assailable. At length he began, with broken and 
disconcerted accents, - "O L--d, Mr Francis! - Good heavens, sir! - My 
stars, Mr Osbaldistone! - that I should ever have seen this day - and you 
so young a gentleman, sir! - For the love of Heaven! look at both sides of 
the account. Think what you are going to lose - a noble fortune, sir, - 
one of the finest houses in the City, even under the old firm of Tresham & 
Trent, and now Osbaldistone & Tresham - You might roll in gold, Mr Francis- 
And, my dear young Mr Frank, if there was any particular thing in the 
business of the house which you disliked, I would" (sinking his voice to a 
whisper) "put it in order for you termly, or weekly, or daily, if you will 
- Do, my dear Mr Francis, think of the honour due to your father, that your 
days may be long in the land."
"I am much obliged to you, Mr Owen," said I, - "very much obliged indeed; 
but my father is best judge how to bestow his money. He talks of one of my 
cousins: let him dispose of his wealth as he pleases - I will never sell my 
liberty for gold."
"Gold, sir? - I wish you saw the balance-sheet of profits at last term - It 
was in five figures - five figures to each partner's sum total, Mr Frank - 
And all this is to go to a Papist, and a north-country booby, and a 
disaffected person besides - It will break my heart, Mr Francis, that have 
been toiling more like a dog than a man, and all for love of the firm. 
Think how it will sound, Osbaldistone, Tresham & Osbaldistone - or perhaps, 
who knows" (again lowering his voice), "Osbaldistone, Osbaldistone & 
Tresham, for our Mr Osbaldistone can buy them all out."
"But, Mr Owen, my cousin's name being also Osbaldistone the name of the 
company will sound every bit as well in your ears."
"Oh fie upon you, Mr Francis, when you know how well I love you - Your 
cousin, indeed! - a Papist, no doubt, like his father, and a disaffected 
person to the Protestant succession - that's another item, doubtless."
"There are many very good men Catholics, Mr Owen," rejoined I.
As Owen was about to answer with unusual animation, my father re-entered 
the apartment.
"You were right," he said, "Owen, and I was wrong; we will take more time 
to think over this matter. - Young man, you will prepare to give me an 
answer on this important subject this day month."
I bowed in silence, sufficiently glad of a reprieve, and trusting it might 
indicate some relaxation in my father's determination.
The time of probation passed slowly, umnarked by any accident whatever. I 
went and came, and disposed of my time as I pleased, without question or 
criticism on the part of my father. Indeed, I rarely saw him, save at meal 
times, when he studiously avoided a discussion which you may well suppose I 
was in no hurry to press onward. Our conversation was of the news of the 
day, or on such general topics as strangers discourse upon to each other; 
nor could any one have guessed, from its tenor, that there remained 
undecided betwixt us a dispute of such importance. It haunted me, however, 
more than once, like the nightmare. Was it possible he would keep his word, 
and disinherit his only son in favour of a nephew whose very existence he 
was not perhaps quite certain of? My grandfather's conduct, in similar 
circumstances, boded me no good, had I considered the matter rightly. But I 
had formed an erroneous idea of my father's character, from the importance 
which I recollected I maintained with him and his whole family before I 
went to France. I was not aware that there are men who indulge their 
children at an early age, because to do so interests and amuses them, and 
who can yet be sufficiently severe when the same children cross their 
expectations at a more advanced period. On the contrary, I persuaded 
myself, that all I had to apprehend was some temporary alienation of 
affection - perhaps a rustication of a few weeks, which I thought would 
rather please me than otherwise, since it would give me an opportunity of 
setting about my unfinished version of Orlando Furioso, a poem which I 
longed to render into English verse. I suffered this belief to get such 
absolute possession of my mind, that I had resumed my blotted papers, and 
was busy in meditation on the oft-recurring rhymes of the Spenserian 
stanza, when I heard a low and cautious tap at the door of my apartment. 
"Come in," I said, and Mr Owen entered. So regular were the motions and 
habits of this worthy man, that in all probability this was the first time 
he had ever been in the second storey of his patron's house, however 
conversant with the first; and I am still at a loss to know in what manner 
he discovered my apartment.
"Mr Francis," he said, interrupting my expression of surprise and pleasure 
at seeing him, "I do not know if I am doing well in what I am about to say 
- it is not right to speak of what passes in the compting-house out of 
doors - one should not tell, as they say, to the post in the warehouse, how 
many lines there are in the ledger. But young Twineall has been absent from 
the house for a fortnight and more, until two days since."
"Very well, my dear sir, and how does that concern us?"
"Stay, Mr Francis; - your father gave him a private commission; and I am 
sure he did not go down to Falmouth about the pilchard affair; and the 
Exeter business with Blackwell and Company has been settled; and the mining 
people in Cornwall, Trevanion & Treguilliam, have paid all they are likely 
to pay; and any other matter of business must have been put through my 
books: - in short, it's my faithful belief that Twineall has been down in 
the north."
"Do you really suppose so?" said I, somewhat startled.
"He has spoken about nothing, sir, since he returned, but his new boots, 
and his Ripon spurs, and a cock-fight at York - it's as true as the 
multiplication-table. Do, Heaven bless you, my dear child, make up your 
mind to please your father, and to be a man and a merchant at once."
I felt at that instant a strong inclination to submit, and to make Owen 
happy by requesting him to tell my father that I resigned myself to his 
disposal. But pride - pride, the source of so much that is good and so much 
that is evil in our course of life, prevented me. My acquiescence stuck in 
my throat; and while I was coughing to get it up, my father's voice 
summoned Owen. He hastily left the room, and the opportunity was lost.
My father was methodical in everything. At the very same time of the day, 
in the same apartment, and with the same tone and manner which he had 
employed an exact month before, he recapitulated the proposal he had made 
for taking me into partnership, and assigning me a department in the 
counting-house, and requested to have my final decision. I thought at the 
time there was something unkind in this; and I still think that my father's 
conduct was injudicious. A more conciliatory treatment would, in all 
probability, have gained his purpose. As it was, I stood fast, and, as 
respectfully as I could, declined the proposal he made to me. Perhaps, - 
for who can judge of their own heart? - I felt it unmanly to yield on the 
first summons, and expected farther solicitation, as at least a pretext for 
changing my mind. If so, I was disappointed; for my father turned coolly to 
Owen, and only said, "You see it is as I told you. - Well, Frank" 
(addressing me), "you are nearly of age, and as well qualified to judge of 
what will constitute your own happiness as you ever are like to be; 
therefore, I say no more. But as I am not bound to give in to your plans, 
any more than you are compelled to submit to mine, may I ask to know if you 
have formed any which depend on my assistance?"
I answered, not a little abashed, "That being bred to no profession, and 
having no funds of my own, it was obviously impossible for me to subsist 
without some allowance from my father; that my wishes were very moderate; 
and that I hoped my aversion for the profession to which he had designed 
me, would not occasion his altogether withdrawing his paternal support and 
protection."
"That is to say, you wish to lean on my arm, and yet to walk your own way? 
That can hardly be, Frank; - however, I suppose you mean to obey my 
directions, so far as they do not cross your own humour?"
I was about to speak - "Silence, if you please," he continued. "Supposing 
this to be the case, you will instantly set out for the North of England, 
to pay your uncle a visit, and see the state of his family. I have chosen 
from among his sons (he has six, I believe) one who, I understand, is most 
worthy to fill the place I intended for you in the counting-house. But some 
farther arrangements may be necessary, and for these your presence may be 
requisite. You shall have farther instructions at Osbaldistone Hall, where 
you will please to remain until you hear from me. Everything will be ready 
for your departure tomorrow morning."
With these words my father left the apartment.
"What does all this mean, Mr Owen?" said I to my sympathetic friend, whose 
countenance wore a cast of the deepest dejection.
"You have ruined yourself, Mr Frank, that's all. When your father talks in 
that quiet determined manner, there will be no more change in him than in a 
fitted account."
And so it proved; for the next morning, at five o'clock, I found myself on 
the road to York, mounted on a reasonably good horse, and with fifty 
guineas in my pocket; travelling, as it would seem, for the purpose of 
assisting in the adoption of a successor to myself in my father's house and 
favour, and, for aught I knew, eventually in his fortune also.


Chapter 3

		The slack sail shifts from side to side,
		The boat, untrimmed, admits the tide,
		Borne down, adrift, at random tost,
		The oar breaks short, the rudder's lost.
							-- Gay's Fables.

I have tagged with rhyme and blank verse the subdivisions of this important 
narrative, in order to seduce your continued attention by powers of 
composition of stronger attraction than my own. The preceding lines refer 
to an unfortunate navigator, who daringly unloosed from its moorings a 
boat, which he was unable to manage, and thrust it off into the full tide 
of a navigable river. No schoolboy, who, betwixt frolic and defiance, has 
executed a similar rash attempt, could feel himself, when adrift in a 
strong current, in a situation more awkward than mine, when I found myself 
driving, without a compass, on the ocean of human life. There had been such 
unexpected ease in the manner in which my father slipt a knot, usually 
esteemed the strongest which binds society together, and suffered me to 
depart as a sort of outcast from his family, that it strangely lessened the 
confidence in my own personal accomplishments, which had hitherto sustained 
me. Prince Prettyman, now a prince, and now a fisher's son, had not a more 
awkward sense of his degradation. We are so apt, in our engrossing egotism, 
to consider all those accessories which are drawn around us by prosperity, 
as pertaining and belonging to our own persons, that the discovery of our 
unimportance, when left to our own proper resources, becomes inexpressibly 
mortifying. As the hum of London died away on my ear, the distant peal of 
her steeples more than once sounded to my ears the admonitory "Turn again," 
erst heard by her future Lord Mayor; and when I looked back from Highgate 
on her dusky magnificence, I felt as if I were leaving behind me comfort, 
opulence, the charms of society, and all the pleasures of cultivated life.
But the die was cast. It was indeed by no means probable that a late and 
ungracious compliance with my father's wishes would have reinstated me in 
the situation which I had lost. On the contrary, firm and strong of purpose 
as he himself was, he might rather have been disgusted than conciliated by 
my tardy and compulsory acquiescence in his desire that I should engage in 
commerce. My constitutional obstinacy came also to my aid, and pride 
whispered how poor a figure I should make, when an airing of four miles 
from London had blown away resolutions formed during a month's serious 
deliberation. Hope, too, that never forsakes the young and hardy, lent her 
lustre to my future prospects. My father could not be serious in the 
sentence of foris-familiation, which he had so unhesitatingly pronounced;- 
it must be but a trial of my disposition, which, endured with patience and 
steadiness on my part, would raise me in his estimation, and lead to an 
amicable accommodation of the point in dispute between us. I even settled 
in my own mind how far I would concede to him, and on what articles of our 
supposed treaty I would make a firm stand; and the result was, according to 
my computation, that I was to be reinstated in my full rights of filiation, 
paying the easy penalty of some ostensible compliances to atone for my past 
rebellion.
In the meanwhile, I was lord of my person, and experienced that feeling of 
independence which the youthful bosom receives with a thrilling mixture of 
pleasure and apprehension. My purse, though by no means amply replenished, 
was in a situation to supply all the wants and wishes of a traveller. I had 
been accustomed, while at Bourdeaux, to act as my own valet; my horse was 
fresh, young, and active, and the buoyancy of my spirits soon surmounted 
the melancholy reflections with which my journey commenced.
I should have been glad to have journeyed upon a line of road better 
calculated to afford reasonable objects of curiosity, or a more interesting 
country, to the traveller. But the north road was then, and perhaps still 
is, singularly deficient in these respects; nor do I believe you can travel 
so far through Britain in any other direction without meeting more of what 
is worthy to engage the attention. My mental ruminations, notwithstanding 
my assumed confidence, were not always of an unchequered nature. The Muse 
too - the very coquette who had led me into this wilderness - like others 
of her sex, deserted me in my utmost need; and I should have been reduced 
to rather an uncomfortable state of dulness, had it not been for the 
occasional conversation of strangers who chanced to pass the same way. But 
the characters whom I met with were of a uniform and uninteresting 
description. Country parsons, jogging homewards after a visitation; 
farmers, or graziers, returning from a distant market; clerks of traders, 
travelling to collect what was due to their masters in provincial towns; 
with now and then an officer going down into the country upon the 
recruiting service, were, at this period, the persons by whom the turnpikes 
and tapsters were kept in exercise. Our speech, therefore, was of tithes 
and creeds, of beeves and grain, of commodities wet and dry, and the 
solvency of the retail dealers, occasionally varied by the description of a 
siege, or battle, in Flanders, which, perhaps, the narrator only gave me at 
second hand. Robbers, a fertile and alarming theme, filled up every 
vacancy; and the names of the Golden Farmer, the Flying Highwayman, Jack 
Needham, and other Beggars' Opera heroes, were familiar in our mouths as 
household words. At such tales, like children closing their circle round 
the fire when the ghost story draws to its climax, the riders drew near to 
each other, looked before and behind them, examined the priming of their 
pistols, and vowed to stand by each other in case of danger; an engagement 
which, like other offensive and defensive alliances, sometimes glided out 
of remembrance when there was an appearance of actual peril.
Of all the fellows whom I ever saw haunted by terrors of this nature, one 
poor man, with whom I travelled a day and a half, afforded me most 
amusement. He had upon his pillion a very small, but apparently a very 
weighty portmanteau, about the safety of which he seemed particularly 
solicitous: never trusting it out of his own immediate care, and uniformly 
repressing the officious zeal of the waiters and ostlers, who offered their 
services to carry it into the house. With the same precaution he laboured 
to conceal, not only the purpose of his journey, and his ultimate place of 
destination, but even the direction of each day's route. Nothing 
embarrassed him more than to be asked by any one, whether he was travelling 
upwards or downwards, or at what stage he intended to bait. His place of 
rest for the night he scrutinised with the most anxious care, alike 
avoiding solitude, and what he considered as bad neighbourhood; and at 
Grantham, I believe, he sate up all night to avoid sleeping in the next 
room to a thick-set squinting fellow, in a black wig, and a tarnished gold-
laced waistcoat. With all these cares on his mind, my fellow traveller, to 
judge by his thews and sinews, was a man who might have set danger at 
defiance with as much impunity as most men. He was strong, and well-built; 
and, judging from his gold-laced hat and cockade, seemed to have served in 
the army, or at least to belong to the military profession in one capacity 
or other. His conversation also, though always sufficiently vulgar, was 
that of a man of sense, when the terrible bugbears which haunted his 
imagination for a moment ceased to occupy his attention. But every 
accidental association recalled them. An open heath, a close plantation, 
were alike subjects of apprehension; and the whistle of a shepherd lad was 
instantly converted into the signal of a depredator. Even the sight of a 
gibbet, if it assured him that one robber was safely disposed of by 
justice, never failed to remind him how many remained still unhanged. I 
should have wearied of this fellow's company, had I not been still more 
tired of my own thoughts. Some of the marvellous stories, however, which he 
related, had in themselves a cast of interest, and another whimsical point 
of his peculiarities afforded me the occasional opportunity of amusing 
myself at his expense. Among his tales, several of the unfortunate 
travellers who fell among thieves incurred that calamity from associating 
themselves on the road with a well-dressed and entertaining stranger, in 
whose company they trusted to find protection as well as amusement; who 
cheered their Journey with tale and song, protected them against the evils 
of overcharges and false reckonings, until at length, under pretext of 
showing a near path over a desolate common, he seduced his unsuspicious 
victims from the public road into some dismal glen, where, suddenly blowing 
his whistle, he assembled his comrades from their lurking-place, and 
displayed himself in his true colours - the captain, namely, of the band of 
robbers to whom his unwary fellow-travellers had forfeited their purses, 
and perhaps their lives. Towards the conclusion of such a tale, and when my 
companion had wrought himself into a fever of apprehension by the progress 
of his own narrative, I observed that he usually eyed me with a glance of 
doubt and suspicion, as if the possibility occurred to him, that he might, 
at that very moment, be in company with a character as dangerous as that 
which his tale described. And ever and anon, when such suggestions pressed 
themselves on the mind of this ingenious self-tormentor, he drew off from 
me to the opposite side of the high-road, looked before, behind, and around 
him, examined his arms, and seemed to prepare himself for flight or 
defence, as circumstances might require.
The suspicion implied on such occasions seemed to me only momentary, and 
too ludicrous to be offensive. There was, in fact, no particular reflection 
on my dress or address, although I was thus mistaken for a robber. A man in 
those days might have all the external appearance of a gentleman, and yet 
turn out to be a highwayman. For the division of labour in every department 
not having then taken place so fully as since that period, the profession 
of the polite and accomplished adventurer, who nicked you out of your money 
at White's, or bowled you out of it at Marybone, was often united with that 
of the professed ruffian, who on Bagshot Heath, or Finchley Common, 
commanded his brother beau to stand and deliver. There was also a touch of 
coarseness and hardness about the manners of the times, which has since, in 
a great degree, been softened and shaded away. It seems to me, on 
recollection, as if desperate men had less reluctance then than now, to 
embrace the most desperate means of retrieving their fortune. The times 
were indeed past, when Anthony-a-Wood mourned over the execution of two 
men, goodly in person, and of undisputed courage and honour, who were 
hanged without mercy at Oxford, merely because their distress had driven 
them to raise contributions on the highway. We were still farther removed 
from the days of "the mad Prince and Poins." And yet, from the number of 
unenclosed and extensive heaths in the vicinity of the metropolis, and from 
the less populous state of remote districts, both were frequented by that 
species of mounted highwaymen, that may possibly become one day unknown, 
who carried on their trade with something like courtesy; and, like Gibbet 
in the Beaux' Stratagem, piqued themselves on being the best behaved men on 
the road, and on conducting themselves with all appropriate civility in the 
exercise of their vocation. A young man, therefore, in my circumstances, 
was not entitled to be highly indignant at the mistake which confounded him 
with this worshipful class of depredators.
Neither was I offended. On the contrary, I found amusement in alternately 
exciting, and lulling to sleep, the suspicions of my timorous companion, 
and in purposely so acting as still farther to puzzle a brain which nature 
and apprehension had combined to render none of the clearest. When my free 
conversation had lulled him into complete security, it required only a 
passing inquiry concerning the direction of his journey, or the nature of 
the business which occasioned it, to put his suspicions once more in arms. 
For example, a conversation on the comparative strength and activity of our 
horses, took such a turn as follows -
"Oh, sir," said my companion," for the gallop I grant you; but allow me to 
say, your horse (although he is a very handsome gelding - that must be 
owned) has too little bone to be a good roadster. The trot, sir" (striking 
his Bucephalus with his spurs - "the trot is the true pace for a hackney; 
and, were we near a town, I should like to try that daisy-cutter of yours 
upon a piece of level road (barring canter) for a quart of claret at the 
next inn."
"Content, sir," replied I; "and here is a stretch of ground very 
favourable."
"Hem, ahem," answered my friend with hesitation; "I make it a rule of 
travelling never to blow my horse between stages; one never knows what 
occasion he may have to put him to his mettle: and besides, sir, when I 
said I would match you, I meant with even weight; you ride four stone 
lighter than I."
"Very well; but I am content to carry weight. Pray, what may that 
portmanteau of yours weigh?"
"My p - p- portmanteau?" replied he, hesitating - "Oh, very little - a 
feather - just a few shirts and stockings."
"I should think it heavier, from its appearance. I'll hold you the quart of 
claret it makes the odds betwixt our weight."
"You're mistaken, sir, I assure you - quite mistaken," replied my friend, 
edging off to the side of the road, as was his wont on these alarming 
occasions.
"Well, I'm willing to venture the wine; or, I will bet you ten pieces to 
five, that I carry your portmanteau on my croup, and outtrot you into the 
bargain."
This proposal raised my friend's alarm to the uttermost. His nose changed 
from the natural copper hue which it had acquired from many a comfortable 
cup of claret or sack, into a palish brassy tint, and his teeth chattered 
with apprehension at the unveiled audacity of my proposal, which seemed to 
place the barefaced plunderer before him in full atrocity. As he faltered 
for an answer, I relieved him in some degree by a question concerning a 
steeple, which now became visible, and an observation that we were now so 
near the village as to run no risk from interruption on the road. At this 
his countenance cleared up; but I easily perceived that it was long ere he 
forgot a proposal which seemed to him so fraught with suspicion as that 
which I had now hazarded. I trouble you with this detail of the man's 
disposition, and the manner in which I practised upon it, because, however 
trivial in themselves, these particulars were attended by an important 
influence on future incidents which will occur in this narrative. At the 
time, this person's conduct only inspired me with contempt, and confirmed 
me in an opinion which I already entertained, that of all the propensities 
which teach mankind to torment themselves, that of causeless fear is the 
most irritating, busy, painful, and pitiable.





Chapter 4

		The Scots are poor, cries surly English pride.
		True is the charge nor by themselves denied.
		Are they not, then, in strictest reason clear,
		Who wisely come to mend their fortunes here?
								-- Churchill.


There was, in the days of which I write, an old-fashioned custom on the 
English road, which I suspect is now obsolete, or practised only by the 
vulgar. Journeys of length being made on horseback, and, of course, by 
brief stages, it was usual always to make a halt on the Sunday in some town 
where the traveller might attend divine service, and his horse have the 
benefit of the day of rest, the institution of which is as humane to our 
brute labourers as profitable to ourselves. A counterpart to this decent 
practice, and a remnant of old English hospitality, was, that the landlord 
of a principal inn laid aside his character of a publican on the seventh 
day, and invited the guests who chanced to be within his walls to take a 
part of his family beef and pudding. This invitation was usually complied 
with by all whose distinguished rank did not induce them to think 
compliance a derogation; and the proposal of a bottle of wine after dinner, 
to drink the landlord's health, was the only recompense ever offered or 
accepted.
I was born a citizen of the world, and my inclination led me into all 
scenes where my knowledge of mankind could be enlarged; I had, besides, no 
pretensions to sequester myself on the score of superior dignity, and 
therefore seldom failed to accept of the Sunday's hospitality of mine host, 
whether of the Garter, Lion, or Bear. The honest publican, dilated into 
additional consequence by a sense of his own importance, while presiding 
among the guests on whom it was his ordinary duty to attend, was in himself 
an entertaining spectacle; and around his genial orbit, other planets of 
inferior consequence performed their revolutions. The wits and humorists, 
the distinguished worthies of the town or village, the apothecary, the 
attorney, even the curate himself, did not disdain to partake of this 
hebdomadal festivity. The guests, assembled from different quarters, and 
following different professions, formed, in language, manners, and 
sentiments, a curious contrast to each other, not indifferent to those who 
desired to possess a knowledge of mankind in its varieties.
It was on such a day, and such an occasion, that my timorous acquaintance 
and I were about to grace the board of the ruddy-faced host of the Black 
Bear, in the town of Darlington, and bishopric of Durham, when our landlord 
informed us, with a sort of apologetic tone, that there was a Scotch 
gentleman to dine with us.
"A gentleman! - what sort of a gentleman?" said my companion, somewhat 
hastily - his mind, I suppose, running on gentlemen of the pad, as they 
were then termed.
"Why, a Scotch sort of a gentleman, as I said before," returned mine host; 
"they are all gentle, ye mun know, though they ha' narra shirt to back; but 
this is a decentish hallion - a canny North Briton as e'er cross'd Berwick 
Bridge - I trow he's a dealer in cattle."
"Let us have his company, by all means," answered my companion; and then, 
turning to me, he gave vent to the tenor of his own reflections. "I respect 
the Scotch, sir; I love and honour the nation for their sense of morality. 
Men talk of their filth and their poverty: but commend me to sterling 
honesty, though clad in rags, as the poet saith. I have been credibly 
assured, sir, by men on whom I can depend, that there was never known such 
a thing in Scotland as a highway robbery."
"That's because they have nothing to lose," said mine host, with the 
chuckle of a self-applauding wit.
"No, no, landlord," answered a strong deep voice behind him, "it's e'en 
because your English gaugers and supervisors, that you have sent down 
benorth the Tweed, have taen up the trade of thievery over the heads of the 
native professors."
"Well said, Mr Campbell," answered the landlord; "I did not think thoud'st 
been sae near us, mon. But thou kens I'm an outspoken Yorkshire tyke. And 
how go markets in the south?"
"Even in the ordinar," replied Mr Campbell; "wise folks buy and sell, and 
fools are bought and sold."
"But wise men and fools both eat their dinner," answered our jolly 
entertainer; "and here a comes - as prime a buttock of beef as e'er hungry 
mon stuck fork in."
So saying, he eagerly whetted his knife, assumed his seat of empire at the 
head of the board, and loaded the plates of his sundry guests with his good 
cheer.
This was the first time I had heard the Scottish accent, or, indeed, that I 
had familiarly met with an individual of the ancient nation by whom it was 
spoken. Yet from an early period, they had occupied and interested my 
imagination. My father, as is well known to you, was of an ancient family 
in Northumberland, from whose seat I was, while eating the aforesaid 
dinner, not very many miles distant. The quarrel betwixt him and his 
relatives was such, that he scarcely ever mentioned the race from which he 
sprung, and held as the most contemptible species of vanity, the weakness 
which is commonly termed family pride. His ambition was only to be 
distinguished as William Osbaldistone, the first, at least one of the 
first, merchants on Change; and to have proved him the lineal 
representative of William the Conqueror, would have far less flattered his 
vanity than the hum and bustle which his approach was wont to produce among 
the bulls, bears, and brokers of Stock Alley. He wished, no doubt, that I 
should remain in such ignorance of my relatives and descent as might insure 
a correspondence between my feelings and his own on this subject. But his 
designs, as will happen occasionally to the wisest, were, in some degree at 
least, counteracted by a being whom his pride would never have supposed of 
importance adequate to influence them in any way. His nurse, an old 
Northumbrian woman, attached to him from his infancy, was the only person 
connected with his native province for whom he retained any regard; and 
when fortune dawned upon him, one of the first uses which he made of her 
favours, was to give Mabel Rickets a place of residence within his 
household. After the death of my mother, the care of nursing me during my 
childish illnesses, and of rendering all those tender attentions which 
infancy excacts from female affection, devolved on old Mabel. Interdicted 
by her master from speaking to him on the subject of the heaths, glades, 
and dales of her beloved Northumberland, she poured herself forth to my 
infant ear in descriptions of the scenes of her youth, and long narratives 
of the events which tradition declared to have passed amongst them. To 
these I inclined my ear much more seriously than to graver, but less 
animated instructors. Even yet, methinks I see old Mabel, her head slightly 
agitated by the palsy of age, and shaded by a close cap, as white as the 
driven snow, - her face wrinkled, but still retaining the healthy tinge 
which it had acquired in rural labour - I think I see her look around on 
the brick walls and narrow street which presented themselves before our 
windows, as she concluded with a sigh the favourite old ditty, which I then 
preferred, and - why should I not tell the truth? - which I still prefer to 
all the opera airs ever minted by the capricious brain of an Italian Mus. 
D. -

	Oh, the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy tree,
	They flourish best at home in the North Courtry!

Now, in the legends of Mabel, the Scottish nation was ever freshly 
remembered, with all the embittered declamation of which the narrator was 
capable. The inhabitants of the opposite frontier served in her narratives 
to fill up the parts which ogres and giants with seven-leagued boots occupy 
in the ordinary nursery tales. And how could it be otherwise? Was it not 
the Black Douglas who slew with his own hand the heir of the Osbaldistone 
family the day after he took possession of his estate, surprising him and 
his vassals while solemnising a feast suited to the occasion? Was it not 
Wat the Devil who drove all the year-old hogs off the braes of Lanthorn-
side, in the very recent days of my grandfather's father? And had we not 
many a trophy, but, according to old Mabel's version of history, far more 
honourably gained, to mark our revenge of these wrongs? Did not Sir Henry 
Osbaldistone, fifth baron of the name, carry off the fair maid of 
Fairnington, as Achilles did his Chryseis and Briseis of old, and detain 
her in his fortress against all the power of her friends, supported by the 
most mighty Scottish chiefs of warlike fame? And had not our swords shone 
foremost at most of those fields in which England was victorious over her 
rival? All our family renown was acquired - all our family misfortunes were 
occasioned - by the northern wars.
Warmed by such tales, I looked upon the Scottish people during my 
childhood, as a race hostile by nature to the more southern inhabitants of 
this realm; and this view of the matter was not much corrected by the 
language which my father sometimes held with respect to them. He had 
engaged in some large speculations concerning oak-woods, the property of 
Highland proprietors, and alleged, that he found them much more ready to 
make bargains, and extort earnest of the purchase-money, than punctual in 
complying on their side with the terms of the engagements. The Scottish 
mercantile men, whom he was under the necessity of employing as a sort of 
middlemen on these occasions, were also suspected by my father of having 
secured, by one means or other, more than their own share of the profit 
which ought to have accrued. In short, if Mabel complained of the Scottish 
arms in ancient times, Mr Osbaldistone inveighed no less against the arts 
of these modern Sinons; and between them, though without any fixed purpose 
of doing so, they impressed my youthful mind with a sincere aversion to the 
northern inhabitants of Britain, as a people bloodthirsty in time of war, 
treacherous during truce, interested, selfish, avaricious, and tricky in 
the business of peaceful life, and having few good qualities, unless there 
should be accounted such, a ferocity which resembled courage in martial 
affairs, and a sort of wily craft which supplied the place of wisdom in the 
ordinary commerce of mankind. In justification, or apology, for those who 
entertained such prejudices, I must remark, that the Scotch of that period 
were guilty of similar injustice to the English, whom they branded 
universally as a race of purse-proud arrogant epicures. Such seeds of 
national dislike remained between the two countries, the natural 
consequences of their existence as separate and rival states. We have seen 
recently the breath of a demagogue blow these sparks into a temporary 
flame, which I sincerely hope is now extinguished in its own ashes.
It was, then, with an impression of dislike, that I contemplated the first 
Scotchman I chanced to meet in society. There was much about him that 
coincided with my previous conceptions. He had the hard features and 
athletic form said to be peculiar to his country, together with the 
national intonation and slow pedantic mode of expression, arising from a 
desire to avoid peculiarities of idiom or dialect. I could also observe the 
caution and shrewdness of his country in many of the observations which he 
made, and the answers which he returned. But I was not prepared for the air 
of easy self-possession and superiority with which he seemed to predominate 
over the company into which he was thrown, as it were by accident. His 
dress was as coarse as it could be, being still decent; and, at a time when 
great expense was lavished upon the wardrobe, even of the lowest who 
pretended to the character of gentleman, this indicated mediocrity of 
circumstances, if not poverty. His conversation intimated that he was 
engaged in the cattle trade, no very dignified professional pursuit. And 
yet, under these disadvantages, he seemed, as a matter of course, to treat 
the rest of the company with the cool and condescending politeness which 
implies a real, or imagined, superiority over those towards whom it is 
used. When he gave his opinion on any point, it was with that easy tone of 
confidence used by those superior to their society in rank or information, 
as if what he said could not be doubted, and was not to be questioned. Mine 
host and his Sunday guests, after an effort or two to support their 
consequence by noise and bold averment, sunk gradually under the authority 
of Mr Campbell, who thus fairly possessed himself of the lead in the 
conversation. I was tempted, from curiosity, to dispute the ground with him 
myself, confiding in my knowledge of the world, extended as it was by my 
residence abroad, and in the stores with which a tolerable education had 
possessed my mind. In the latter respect he offered no competition, and it 
was easy to see that his natural powers had never been cultivated by 
education. But I found him much better acquainted than I was myself with 
the present state of France, the character of the Duke of Orleans, who had 
just succeeded to the regency of that kingdom, and that of the statesmen by 
whom he was surrounded; and his shrewd, caustic, and somewhat satirical 
remarks, were those of a man who had been a close observer of the affairs 
of that country.
On the subject of politics, Campbell observed a silence and moderation 
which might arise from caution. The divisions of Whig and Tory then shook 
England to her very centre, and a powerful party, engaged in the Jacobite 
interest, menaced the dynasty of Hanover, which had been just established 
on the throne. Every alehouse resounded with the brawls of contending 
politicians, and as mine host's politics were of that liberal description 
which quarrelled with no good customer, his hebdomadal visitants were often 
divided in their opinion as irreconcilably as if he had feasted the Common 
Council. The curate and the apothecary, with a little man, who made no 
boast of his vocation, but who, from the flourish and snap of his fingers, 
I believe to have been the barber, strongly espoused the cause of High 
Church and the Stuart line. The exciseman, as in duty bound, and the 
attorney, who looked to some petty office under the Crown, together with my 
fellow-traveller, who seemed to enter keenly into the contest, staunchly 
supported the cause of King George and the Protestant succession. Dire was 
the screaming - deep the oaths! Each party appealed to Mr Campbell, 
anxious, it seemed, to elicit his approbation.
"You are a Scotchman, sir; a gentleman of your country must stand up for 
hereditary right," cried one party.
"You are a Presbyterian," assumed the other class of disputants; "you 
cannot be a friend to arbitrary power."
"Gentlemen," said our Scotch oracle, after having gained, with some 
difficulty, a moment's pause, "I havena much dubitation that King George 
weel deserves the predilection of his friends; and if he can haud the grip 
he has gotten, why, doubtless, he may make the gauger, here, a commissioner 
of the revenue, and confer on our friend, Mr Quitam, the preferment of 
solicitor-general; and he may also grant some good deed or reward to this 
honest gentleman who is sitting Upon his portmanteau, which he prefers to a 
chair: and, questionless, King James is also a grateful person, and when he 
gets his hand in play, he may, if he be so minded, make this reverend 
gentleman archprelate of Canterbury, and Dr Mixit chief physician to his 
household, and commit his royal beard to the care of my friend Latherum. 
But as I doubt mickle whether any of the competing sovereigns would give 
Rob Campbell a tass of aquavitae, if he lacked it, I give my vote and 
interest to Jonathan Brown, our landlord, to be the King and Prince of 
Skinkers, conditionally that he fetches us another bottle as good as the 
last."
This sally was received with general applause, in which the landlord 
cordially joined; and when he had given orders for fulfilling the condition 
on which his preferment was to depend, he failed not to acquaint them, 
"that, for as peaceable a gentleman as Mr Campbell was, he was, moreover, 
as bold as a lion - seven highwaymen had he defeated with his single arm, 
that beset him as he came from Whitson-Tryste."
"Thou art deceived, friend Jonathan," said Campbell, interrupting him; 
"they were but barely two, and two cowardly loons as man could wish to meet 
withal."
"And did you, sir, really," said my fellow-traveller, edging his chair (I 
should have said his portmanteau) nearer to Mr Campbell, "really and 
actually beat two highwaymen yourself alone?"
"In troth did I, sir," replied Campbell; "and I think it nae great thing to 
make a sang about."
"Upon my word, sir," replied my acquaintance, "I should be happy to have 
the pleasure of your company on my journey - I go northward, sir." This 
piece of gratuitous information concerning tne routeh he proposed to 
himself, the first I had heard my companion bestow upon any one, failed to 
excite the corresponding confidence of the Scotchman.
"We can scarce travel together," he replied dryly. "You, sir, doubtless, 
are well mounted, and I, for the present, travel on foot, or on a Highland 
shelty, that does not help me much faster forward."
So saying, he called for a reckoning for the wine, and throwing down the 
price of the additional bottle which he had himself introduced, rose as if 
to take leave of us. My companion made up to him, and taking him by the 
button, drew him aside into one of the windows. I could not help 
overhearing him pressing something - I supposed his company upon the 
journey, which Mr Campbell seemed to decline.
"I will pay your charges, sir," said the traveller, in a tone as if he 
thought the argument should bear down all opposition.
"It is quite impossible," said Campbell, somewhat contemptuously; "I have 
business at Rothbury."
"But I am in no great hurry; I can ride out of the way, and never miss a 
day or so for good company."
"Upon my faith, sir," said Campbell, "I cannot render you the service you 
seem to desiderate. I am," he added, drawing himself up haughtily, 
"travelling on my own private affairs, and if ye will act by my advisement, 
sir, ye will neither unite yomself with an absolute stranger on the road, 
nor communicate your line of journey to those who are asking ye no 
questions about it." He then extricated his button, not very ceremoniously, 
from the hold which detained him, and coming up to me as the company were 
dispersing, observed, "Your friend, sir, is too communicative, considering 
the nature of his trust."
"That gentleman," I replied, looking towards the traveller, "is no friend 
of mine, but an acquaintance whom I picked up on the road. I know neither 
his name nor business, and you seem to be deeper in his confidence than I 
am."
"I only meant," he replied hastily, "that he seems a thought rash in 
conferring the honour of his company on those who desire it not."
"The gentleman," replied I, "knows his own affairs best, and I should be 
sorry to constitute myself a judge of them in any respect."
Mr Campbell made no farther observation, but merely wished me a good 
journey, and the party dispersed for the evening.
Next day I parted company with my timid companion, as I left the great 
northern road to turn more westerly in the direction of Osbaldistone Manor, 
my uncle's seat. I cannot tell whether he felt relieved or embarrassed by 
my departure, considering the dubious light in which he seemed to regard 
me. For my own part, his tremors ceased to amuse me, and, to say the truth, 
I was heartily glad to get rid of him.




Chapter 5

		How melts my beating heart as I behold
		Each lovely nymph, our island's boast and pride,
		Push on the generous steed, that sweeps along
		O'er rough, o'er smooth, nor heeds the steepy hill
		Nor falters in the extended vale below!
							-- The Chase

I approached my native north, for such I esteemed it, with that enthusiasm 
which romantic and wild scenery inspires in the lovers of Nature. No longer 
interrupted by the babble of my companion, I could now remark the 
difference which the country exhibited from that through which I had 
hitherto travelled. The streams now more properly deserved the name, for, 
instead of slumbering stagnant among reeds and willows, they brawled along 
beneath the shade of natural copsewood; were now hurried down declivities, 
and now purled more leisurely, but still in active motion, through little 
lonely valleys, which, opening on the road from time to time, seemed to 
invite the traveller to explore their recesses. The Cheviots rose before me 
in frowning majesty; not, indeed, with the sublime variety of rock and 
cliff which characterises mountains of the primary class, but huge, round-
headed, and clothed with a dark robe of russet, gaining, by their extent 
and desolate appearance, an influence upon the imagination, as a desert 
district possessing a character of its own.
The abode of my fathers, which I was now approaching, was situated in a 
glen, or narrow valley, which ran up among those hills. Extensive estates, 
which once belonged to the family of Osbaldistone, had been long dissipated 
by the misfortunes or misconduct of my ancestors; but enough was still 
attached to the old mansion, to give my uncle the title of a man of large 
property. This he employed (as I was given to understand by some inquiries 
which I made on the road) in maintaining the prodigal hospitality of a 
northern squire of the period, which he deemed essential to his family 
dignity.
From the summit of an eminence, I had already had a distant view of 
Osbaldistone Hall, a large and antiquated edifice, peeping out from a 
Druidical grove of huge oaks; and I was directing my course towards it, as 
straightly and as speedily as the indings of a very indifferent road would 
permit, when my horse, tired as he was, pricked up his ears at the 
enlivening notes of a pack of hounds in full cry, cheered by the occasional 
bursts of a French horn, which in those days was a constant accompaniment 
to the chase. I made no doubt that the pack was my uncle's, and drew up my 
horse with the purpose of suffering the hunters to pass without notice, 
aware that a hunting-field was not the proper scene to introduce myself to 
a keen sportsman, and determined, when they had passed on, to proceed to 
the mansion-house at my own pace, and there to await the return of the 
proprietor from his sport. I paused, therefore, on a rising ground, and, 
not unmoved by the sense of interest which that species of silvan sport is 
so much calculated to inspire (although my mind was not at the moment very 
accessible to impressions of this nature), I expected with some eagerness 
the appearance of the huntsmen.
The fox, hard run, and nearly spent, first made his appearance from the 
copse which clothed the right-hand side of the valley. His drooping brush, 
his soiled appearance, and jaded trot, proclaimed his fate impending; and 
the carrion crow, which hovered over him, already considered poor Reynard 
as soon to be his prey. He crossed the stream which divides the little 
valley, and was dragging himself up a ravine on the other side of its wild 
banks, when the headmost hounds, followed by the rest of the pack in full 
cry, burst from the coppice, followed by the huntsman and three or four 
riders. The dogs pursued the trace of Reynard with unerring instinct; and 
the hunters followed with reckless haste, regardless of the broken and 
diffcult nature of the ground. They were tall, stout young men, well 
mounted, and dressed in green and red, the uniform of a sporting 
association, formed under the auspices of old Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone. 
- "My cousins!" thought I, as they swept past me. The next reflection was, 
what is my reception likely to be among these worthy successors of Nimrod? 
and how improbable is it that I, knowing little or nothing of rural sports, 
shall find myself at ease, or happy, in my uncle's family. A vision that 
passed me interrupted these reflections.
It was a young lady, the loveliness of whose very striking features was 
enhanced by the animation of the chase and the glow of the exercise, 
mounted on a beautiful horse, jet black, unless where he was flecked by 
spots of the snow-white foam which embossed his bridle. She wore, what was 
then somewhat unusual, a coat, vest, and hat, resembling those of a man, 
which fashion has since called a riding-habit. The mode had been introduced 
while I was in France, and was perfectly new to me. Her long black hair 
streamed on the breeze, having in the hurry of the chase escaped from the 
ribbon which bound it. Some very broken ground, through which she guided 
her horse with the most admirable address and presence of mind, retarded 
her course, and brought her closer to me than any of the other riders had 
passed. I had, therefore, a full view of her uncommonly fine face and 
person, to which an inexpressible charm was added by the wild gaiety of the 
scene, and the romance of her singular dress and unexpected appearance. As 
she passed me, her horse made, in his impetuosity, an irregular movement, 
just while, coming once more upon open ground, she was again putting him to 
his speed. It served as an apology for me to ride close up to her, as if to 
her assistance. There was, however, no cause for alarm; it was not a 
stumble, nor a false step; and, if it had, the fair Amazon had too much 
self-possession to have been deranged by it. She thanked my good 
intentions, however, by a smile, and I felt encouraged to put my horse to 
the same pace, and to keep in her immediate neighbourhood. The clamour of 
"Whoop! dead! dead I" - and the corresponding flourish of the French horn, 
soon announced to us that there was no more occasion for haste, since the 
chase was at a close. One of the young men whom we had seen approached us, 
waving the brush of the fox in triumph, as if to upbraid my fair companion.
"I see," she replied, - "I see; but make no noise about it: if Phobe," she 
said, patting the neck of the beautiful animal on which she rode, "had not 
got among the cliffs, you would have had little cause for boasting."
They met as she spoke, and I observed them both look at me, and converse a 
moment in an undertone, the young lady apparently pressing the sportsman to 
do something which he declined shyly, and with a sort of sheepish 
sullenness. She instantly turned her horse's head towards me, saying - 
"Well, well, Thornie, if you won't, I must, that's all. - Sir," she 
continued, addressing me, "I have been endeavouring to persuade this 
cultivated young gentleman to make inquiry of you whether, in the course of 
your travels in these parts, you have heard anything of a friend of ours, 
one Mr Francis Osbaldistone, who has been for some days expected at 
Osbaldistone Hall?"
I was too happy to acknowledge myself to be the party inquired after, and 
to express my thanks for the obliging inquiries of the young lady.
"In that case, sir," she rejoined," as my kinsman's politeness seems to be 
still slumbering, you will permit me (though I suppose it is highly 
improper) to stand mistress of ceremonies, and to present to you young 
Squire Thorncliff Osbaldistone, your cousin, and Die Vernon, who has also 
the honour to be your accomplished cousin's poor kinswoman."
There was a mixture of boldness, satire, and simplicity in the manner in 
which Miss Vernon pronounced these words. My knowledge of life was 
sufficient to enable me to take up a corresponding tone as I expressed my 
gratitude to her for her condescension, and my extreme pleasure at having 
met with them. To say the truth, the compliment was so expressed, that the 
lady might easily appropriate the greater share of it, for Thorncliff 
seemed an arrant country bumpkin, awkward, shy, and somewhat sulky withal. 
He shook hands with me, however, and then intimated his intention of 
leaving me that he might help the huntsman and his brothers to couple up 
the hounds, - a purpose which he rather communicated by way of information 
to Miss Vernon than as apology to me.
"There he goes," said the young lady, following him with eyes in which 
disdain was admirably painted - "the prince of grooms and cock-fighters, 
and blackguard horse-coursers. But there is not one of them to mend 
another. - Have you read Markham?" said Miss Vernon.
"Read whom, ma'am? - I do not even remember the author's name."
"O lud! on what a strand are you wrecked!" replied the young lady. "A poor 
forlorn and ignorant stranger, unacquainted with the very Alcoran of the 
savage tribe whom you are come to reside among - Never to have heard of 
Markham, the most celebrated author on farriery! then I fear you are 
equally a stranger to the more modern names of Gibson and Bartlett?"
"I am, indeed, Miss Vernon."
"And do you not blush to own it?" said Miss Vernon. "Why, we must forswear 
your alliance. Then, I suppose, you can neither give a ball, nor a mash, 
nor a horn!"
"I confess I trust all these matters to an ostler, or to my groom."
"Incredible carelessness! - And you cannot shoe a horse, or cut his mane 
and tail; or worm a dog, or crop his ears, or cut his dew-claws; or reclaim 
a hawk, or give him his casting-stones, or direct his diet when he is 
sealed; or -"
"To sum up my insignificance in one word," replied I, "I am profoundly 
ignorant in all these rural accomplishments."
"Then, in the name of Heaven, Mr Francis Osbaldistone, what can you do?"
"Very little to the purpose, Miss Vernon; something, however, I can pretend 
to - When my groom has dressed my horse I can ride him, and when my hawk is 
in the field I can fly him."
"Can you do this?" said the young lady, putting her horse to a canter.
There was a sort of rude overgrown fence crossed the path before us, with a 
gate composed of pieces of wood rough from the forest; I was about to move 
forward to open it, when Miss Vernon cleared the obstruction at a flying 
leap. I was bound, in point of honour, to follow, and was in a moment again 
at her side. "There are hopes of you yet," she said. "I was afraid you had 
been a very degenerate Osbaldistone. But what on earth brings you to Cub 
Castle? - for so the neighbours have christened this hunting-hall of ours. 
You might have stayed away, I suppose, if you would?"
I felt I was by this time on a very intimate footing with my beautiful 
apparition, and therefore replied, in a confidential undertone - "Indeed, 
my dear Miss Vernon, I might have considered it as a sacrifice to be a 
temporary resident in Osbaldistone Hall, the inmates being such as you 
describe them; but I am convinced there is one exception that will make 
amends for all deficiencies."
"Oh, you mean Rashleigh?" said Miss Vernon.
"Indeed I do not; I was thinking - forgive me - of some person much nearer 
me."
"I suppose it would be proper not to understand your civility? - But that 
is not my way - I don't make a courtesy for it because I am sitting on 
horseback. But, seriously, I deserve your exception, for I am the only 
conversable being about the Hall, except the old priest and Rashleigh."
"And who is Rashleigh, for Heaven's sake?"
"Rashleigh is one who would fain have every one like him for his own sake. 
He is Sir Hildebrand's youngest son - about your own age, but not so - not 
well looking, in short. But nature has given him a mouthful of common 
sense, and the priest has added a bushelful of learning; he is what we call 
a very clever man in this country, where clever men are scarce. Bred to the 
Church, but in no hurry to take orders."
"To the Catholic Church?"
"The Catholic Church! what Church else?" said the young lady. "But I forgot 
- they told me you are a heretic. Is that true, Mr Osbaldistone?"
"I must not deny the charge."
"And yet you have been abroad, and in Catholic countries?"
" For nearly four years."
"You have seen convents?"
"Often; but I have not seen much in them which recommended the Catholic 
religion."
"Are not the inhabitants happy?"
"Some are unquestionably so, whom either a profound sense of devotion, or 
an experience of the persecutions and misfortunes of the world, or a 
natural apathy of temper, has led into retirement. Those who have adopted a 
life of seclusion from sudden and overstrained enthusiasm, or in hasty 
resentment of some disappointment or mortification, are very miserable. The 
quickness of sensation soon returns, and like the wilder animals in a 
menagerie, they are restless under confinement, while others muse or fatten 
in cells of no larger dimensions than theirs."
"And what," continued Miss Vernon, "becomes of those victims who are 
condemned to a convent by the will of others? what do they resemble? 
especially, what do they resemble, if they are born to enjoy life, and feel 
its blessings?"
"They are like imprisoned singing-birds," replied I, "condemned to wear out 
their lives in confinement, which they try to beguile by the exercise of 
accomplishments, which would have adorned society had they been left at 
large."
"I shall be," returned Miss Vernon - "that is," said she, correcting 
herself - "I should be rather like the wild hawk, who, barred the free 
exercise of his soar through heaven, will dash himself to pieces against 
the bars of his cage. But to return to Rashleigh," said she, in a more 
lively tone, "you will think him the pleasantest man you ever saw in your 
life, Mr Osbaldistone, - that is, for a week at least. If he could find out 
a blind mistress, never man would be so secure of conquest; but the eye 
breaks the spell that enchants the ear. - But here we are in the court of 
the old Hall, which looks as wild and old-fashioned as any of its inmates. 
There is no great toilette kept at Osbaldistone Hall, you must know; but I 
must take off these things, they are so unpleasantly warm, - and the hat 
hurts my forehead, too," continued the lively girl, taking it off, and 
shaking down a profusion of sable ringlets, which, half laughing, half 
blushing, she separated with her white slender fingers, in order to clear 
them away from her beautiful face and piercing hazel eyes. If there was any 
coquetry in the action, it was well disguised by the careless indifference 
of her manner. I could not help saying, "that, judging of the family from 
what I saw, I should suppose the toilette a very unnecessary care."
"That's very politely said - though, perhaps, I ought not to understand in 
what sense it was meant," replied Miss Vernon; "but you will see a better 
apology for a little negligence, when you meet the Orsons you are to live 
amongst, whose forms no toilette could improve. But, as I said before, the 
old dinnerbell will clang, or rather clank, in a few minutes - it cracked 
of its own accord on the day of the landing of King Willie, and my uncle, 
respecting its prophetic talent, would never permit it to be mended. So do 
you hold my palfrey, like a duteous knight, until I send some more humble 
squire to relieve you of the charge."
She threw me the rein as if we had been acquainted from our childhood, 
jumped trom her saddle, tripped across the courtyard, and entered at a side-
door, leaving me in admiration of her beauty, and astonished with the over-
frankness of her manners, which seemed the more extraordinary at a time 
when the dictates of politeness, flowing from the court of the Grand 
Monarque Louis XIV., prescribed to the fair sex an unusual severity of 
decorum. I was left awkwardly enough stationed in the centre of the court 
of the old Hall, mounted on one horse, and holding another in my hand.
The building afforded little to interest a stranger, had I been disposed to 
consider it attentively; the sides of the quadrangle were of various 
architecture, and with their stone-shafted latticed windows, projecting 
turrets, and massive architraves, resembled the inside of a convent, or of 
one of the older and less splendid colleges of Oxford. I called for a 
domestic, but was for some time totally unattended to; which was the more 
provoking, as I could perceive I was the object of curiosity to several 
servants, both male and female, from different parts of the building, who 
popped out their heads and withdrew them, like rabbits in a warren, before 
I could make a direct appeal to the attention of any individual. The return 
of the huntsmen and hounds relieved me from my embarrassment, and with some 
difficulty I got one clown to relieve me of the charge of the horses, and 
another stupid boor to guide me to the presence of Sir Hildebrand. This 
service he performed with much such grace and good-will, as a peasant who 
is compelled to act as guide to a hostile patrol; and in the same manner I 
was obliged to guard against his deserting me in the labyrinth of low 
vaulted passages which conducted to "Stun Hall," as he called it, where I 
was to be introduced to the gracious presence of my uncle.
We did, however, at length reach a long vaulted room, floored with stone, 
where a range of oaken tables, of a weight and size too massive ever to be 
moved aside, were already covered for dinner. This venerable apartment, 
which had witnessed the feasts of several generations of the Osbaldistone 
family, bore also evidence of their success in field-sports. Huge antlers 
of deer, which might have been trophies of the hunting of Chevy Chase, were 
ranged around the walls, interspersed with the stuffed skins of badgers, 
otters, martins, and other animals of the chase. Amidst some remnants of 
old armour, which had, perhaps, served against the Scotch, hung the more 
valued weapons of silvan war, cross-bows, guns of various device and 
construction, nets, fishing-rods, otter-spears, hunting-poles, with many 
other singular devices and engines for taking or killing game. A few old 
pictures, dimmed with smoke, and stained with March beer, hung on the 
walls, representing knights and ladies, honoured, doubtless, and renowned 
in their day; those frowning fearfully from huge bushes of wig and of 
beard; and these looking delightfully with all their might at the roses 
which they brandished in their hands.
I had just time to give a glance at these matters, when about twelve blue-
coated servants burst into the hall with much tumult and talk, each rather 
employed in directing his comrades than in discharging his own duty. Some 
brought blocks and billets to the fire, which roared, blazed, and ascended, 
half in smoke, half in flame, up a huge tunnel, with an opening wide enough 
to accommodate a stone seat within its ample vault, and which was fronted, 
by way of chimney-piece, with a huge piece of heavy architecture, where the 
monsters of heraldry, embodied by the art of some Northumbrian chisel, 
grinned and ramped in red freestone, now japanned by the smoke of 
centuries. Others of these old-fashioned serving-men bore huge smoking 
dishes, loaded with substantial fare; others brought in cups, flagons, 
bottles, yea barrels of liquor. All tramped, kicked, plunged, shouldered 
and jostled, doing as little service with as much tumult as could well be 
imagined. At length, while the dinner was, after various efforts, in the 
act of being arranged upon the board, "the clamour much of men and dogs," 
the cracking of whips, calculated for the intimidation of the latter, 
voices loud and high, steps which, impressed by the heavy-heeled boots of 
the period, clattered like those in the statue of the Festin de Pierre, 
announced the arrival of those for whose benefit the preparations were 
made. The hubbub among the servants rather increased than diminished as 
this crisis approached. Some called to make haste, - others to take time, - 
some exhorted to stand out of the way, and make room for Sir Hildebrand and 
the young squires, - some to close round the table, and be in the way, - 
some bawled to open, some to shut, a pair of folding-doors which divided 
the hall from a sort of gallery, as I afterwards learned, or withdrawing-
room, fitted up with black wainscot. Opened the doors were at length, and 
in rushed curs and men, - eight dogs, the domestic chaplain, the village 
doctor, my six cousins, and my uncle.



Chapter 6

		The rude hall rocks - they come, they come, -
		The din of voices shakes the dome; -
		In stalk the various forms, and, drest
		In varying morion, varying vest,
		All march with haughty step - all proudly shake the crest.
										-- Penrose

If Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone was in no hurry to greet his nephew, of 
whose arrival he must have been informed for some time, he had important 
avocations to allege in excuse. "Had seen thee sooner, lad," he exclaimed, 
after a rough shake of the hand, and a hearty welcome to Osbaldistone Hall, 
"but had to see the hounds kennelled first. Thou art welcome to the Hall, 
lad - here is thy cousin Percie, thy cousin Thornie, and thy cousin John - 
your cousin Dick, your cousin Wilfred, and - stay, where's Rashleigh - ay, 
here's Rashleigh - take thy long body aside, Thornie, and let's see thy 
brother a bit - your cousin Rashleigh. So, thy father has thought on the 
old Hall, and old Sir Hildebrand at last - better late than never - Thou 
art welcome, lad, and there's enough. Where's my little Die? - ay, here she 
comes - this is my niece Die, my wife's brother's daughter - the prettiest 
girl in our dales, be the other who she may - and so now let's to the 
sirloin."
To gain some idea of the person who held this language, you must suppose, 
my dear Tresham, a man aged about sixty, in a hunting suit which had once 
been richly laced, but whose splendour had been tarnished by many a 
November and December storm. Sir Hildebrand, notwithstanding the abruptness 
of his present manner, had, at one period of his life, known courts and 
camps; had held a commission in the army which encamped on Hounslow Heath 
previous to the Revolution - and, recommended perhaps by his religion, had 
been knighted about the same period by the unfortunate and ill - advised 
James II. But the Knight's dreams of further preferment, if he ever 
entertained any, had died away at the crisis which drove his patron from 
the throne, and since that period he had spent a sequestered life upon his 
native domains. Notwithstanding his rusticity, however, Sir Hildebrand 
retained much of the exterior of a gentleman, and appeared among his sons 
as the remains of a Corinthian pillar, defaced and overgrown with moss and 
lichen, might have looked, if contrasted with the rough unhewn masses of 
upright stones in Stonehenge, or any other Druidical temple. The sons were, 
indeed, heavy unadorned blocks as the eye would desire to look upon. Tall, 
stout, and comely, all and each of the five eldest seemed to want alike the 
Promethean fire of intellect, and the exterior grace and manner, which, in 
the polished world, sometimes supply mental deficiency. Their most valuable 
moral quality seemed to be the good-humour and content which was expressed 
in their heavy features, and their only pretence to accomplishment was 
their dexterity in field sports, for which alone they lived. The strong 
Gyas, and the strong Cloanthus, are not less distinguished by the poet, 
than the strong Percival, the strong Thorncliff, the strong John, Richard, 
and Wilfred Osbaldistones, were by outward appearance.
But, as if to indemnify herself for a uniformity so uncommon in her 
productions, Dame Nature had rendered Rashleigh Osbaldistone a striking 
contrast in person and manner, and, as I afterwards learned, in temper and 
talents, not only to his brothers, but to most men whom I had hitherto met 
with. When Percie, Thornie, and Co. had respectively nodded, grinned, and 
presented their shoulder rather than their hand, as their father named them 
to their new kinsman, Rashleigh stepped forward, and welcomed me to 
Osbaldistone Hall, with the air and manner of a man of the world. His 
appearance was not in itself prepossessing. He was of low stature, whereas 
all his brethren seemed to be descendants of Anak; and while they were 
handsomely formed, Rashleigh, though strong in person, was bull-necked and 
cross-made, and from some early injury in his youth had an imperfection in 
his gait, so much resembling an absolute halt, that many alleged that it 
formed the obstacle to his taking orders; the Church of Rome, as is well 
known, admitting none to the clerical profession who labours under any 
personal deformity. Others, however, ascribed this unsightly defect to a 
mere awkward habit, and contended that it did not amount to a personal 
disqualification from holy orders.
The features of Rashleigh were such, as, having looked upon, we in vain 
wish to banish. from our memory, to which they recur as objects of painful 
curiosity, although we dwell upon them with a feeling of dislike, and even 
of disgust. It was not the actual plainness of his face, taken separately 
from the meaning which made this strong impression. His features were, 
indeed, irregular, but they were by no means vulgar; and his keen dark 
eyes, and shaggy eyebrows, redeemed his face from the charge of commonplace 
ugliness. But there was in these eyes an expression of art and design, and, 
on provocation, a ferocity tempered by caution, which Nature had made 
obvious to the most ordinary physiognomist, perhaps with the same intention 
that she has given the rattle to the poisonous snake. As if to compensate 
him for these disadvantages of exterior, Rashleigh Osbaldistone was 
possessed of a voice the most soft, mellow, and rich in its tones that I 
ever heard, and was at no loss for language of every sort suited to so fine 
an organ. His first sentence of welcome was hardly ended, ere I internally 
agreed with Miss Vernon, that my new kinsman would make an instant conquest 
of a mistress whose ears alone were to judge his cause. He was about to 
place himself beside me at dinner, but Miss Vernon, who, as the only female 
in the family, arranged all such matters according to her own pleasure, 
contrived that I should sit betwixt Thorncliff and herself; and it can 
scarce be doubted that I favoured this more advantageous arrangement.
"I want to speak with you," she said, "and I have placed honest Thornie 
betwixt Rashleigh and you on purpose. He will be like -

			Feather-bed 'twixt castle wall
			And heavy brunt of cannon ball,

while I, your earliest acquaintance in this intellectual family, ask of you 
how you like us all?"
"A very comprehensive question, Miss Vernon, considering how short while I 
have been at Osbaldistone Hall."
"Oh, the philosophy of our family lies on the surface - there are minute 
shades distinguishing the individuals, which require the eye of an 
intelligent observer; but the species, as naturalists I believe call it, 
may be distinguished and characterised at once."
"My five elder cousins, then, are, I presume, of pretty nearly the same 
character?"
"Yes, they form a happy compound of sot, gamekeeper, bully, horse-jockey, 
and fool; but as they say there cannot be found two leaves on the same tree 
exactly alike, so these happy ingredients, being mingled in somewhat 
various proportions in each individual, make an agreeable variety for those 
who like to study character."
"Give me a sketch, if you please, Miss Vernon."
"You shall have them all in a family-piece, at full length - the favour is 
too easily granted to be refused. Percie, the son and heir, has more of the 
sot than of the gamekeeper, bully, horse-jockey, or fool - My precious 
Thornie is more of the bully than the sot, gamekeeper, jockey, or fool - 
John, who sleeps whole weeks amongst the hills, has most of the gamekeeper 
- The jockey is powerful with Dickon, who rides two hundred miles by day 
and night to be bought and sold at a horse race - And the fool predominates 
so much over Wilfred's other qualities, that he may be termed a fool 
positive."
"A goodly collection, Miss Vernon, and the individual varieties belong to a 
most interesting species. But is there no room on the canvas for Sir 
Hildebrand?"
"I love my uncle," was her reply: "I owe him some kindness (such it was 
meant for at least), and I will leave you to draw his picture yourself, 
when you know him better."
"Come," thought I to myself, "I am glad there is some forbearance. After 
all, who would have looked for such bitter satire from a creature so young, 
and so exquisitely beautiful?"
"You are thinking of me," she said, bending her dark eyes on me, as if she 
meant to pierce through my very soul.
"I certainly was," I replied, with some embarrassment at the determined 
suddenness of the question, and then, endeavouring to give a complimentary 
turn to my frank avowal - "How is it possible I should think of anything 
else, seated as I have the happiness to be?"
She smiled with such an expression of concentrated haughtiness as she alone 
could have thrown into her countenance. "I must inform you at once, Mr 
Osbaldistone, that compliments are entirely lost upon me; do not, 
therefore, throw away your pretty sayings - they serve fine gentlemen who 
travel in the country, instead of the toys, beads, and bracelets which 
navigators carry to propitiate the savage inhabitants of newly discovered 
lands. Do not exhaust your stock-in-trade; you will find natives in 
Northumberland to whom your fine things will recommend you - on me they 
would be utterly thrown away, for I happen to know their real value."
I was silenced and confounded.
"You remind me at this moment," said the young lady, resuming her lively 
and indifferent manner, "of the fairy tale, where the man finds all the 
money which he had carried to market suddenly exchanged into pieces of 
slate. I have cried down and ruined your whole stock of complimentary 
discourse by one unlucky observation. - But come, never mind it - You are 
belied, Mr Osbaldistone, unless you have much better conversation than 
these fadeurs, which every gentleman with a toupet thinks himself obliged 
to recite to an unfortunate girl, merely because she is dressed in silk and 
gauze, while he wears superfine cloth with embroidery. Your natural paces, 
as any of my five cousins might say, are far preferable to your 
complimentary amble. Endeavour to forget my unlucky sex; call me Tom 
Vernon, if you have a mind, but speak to me as you would to a friend and 
companion; you have no idea how much I shall like you."
"That would be a bribe indeed," returned I.
"Again!" replied Miss Vernon, holding up her finger; "I told you I would 
not bear the shadow of a compliment. And now, when you have pledged my 
uncle, who threatens you with what he calls a brimmer, I will tell you what 
you think of me."
The bumper being pledged by me, as a dutiful nephew, and some other general 
intercourse of the table having taken place, the continued and business-
like clang of knives and forks, and the devotion of cousin Thorncliff on my 
right hand, and cousin Dickon, who sate on Miss Vernon's left, to the huge 
quantities of meat with which they heaped their plates, made them serve as 
two occasional partitions, separating us from the rest of the company, and 
leaving us to our tete-a-tete. And now," said I, "give me leave to ask you 
frankly, Miss Vernon, what you suppose I am thinking of you! - I could tell 
you what I really do think, but you have interdicted praise."
"I do not want your assistance. I am conjurer enough to tell your thoughts 
without it. You need not open the casement of your bosom; I see through it. 
You think me a strange bold girl, half coquette, half romp; desirous of 
attracting attention by the freedom of her manners and loudness of her 
conversation, because she is ignorant of what the Spectator calls the 
softer graces of the sex; and perhaps you think I have some particular plan 
of storming you into admiration. I should be sorry to shock your self-
opinion, but you were never more mistaken. All the confidence I have 
reposed in you, I would have given as readily to your father, if I thought 
he could have understood me. I am in this happy family as much secluded 
from intelligent listeners as Sancho in the Sierra Morena, and when 
opportunity offers, I must speak or die. I assure you I would not have told 
you a word of all this curious intelligence, had I cared a pin who knew it 
or knew it not."
"It is very cruel in you, Miss Vernon, to take away all particular marks of 
favour from your communications, but I must receive them on your own terms. 
- You have not included Mr Rashleigh Osbaldistone in your domestic 
sketches."
She shrunk, I thought, at this remark, and hastily answered, in a much 
lower tone, "Not a word of Rashleigh! His ears are so acute when his 
selfishness is interested, that the sounds would reach him even through the 
mass of Thorncliff's person, stuffed as it is with beef, venison-pasty, and 
pudding."
"Yes," I replied; "but peeping past the living screen which divides us, 
before I put the question, I perceived that Mr Rashleigh's chair was empty 
- he has left the table."
"I would not have you be too sure of that," Miss Vernon replied." Take my 
advice, and when you speak of Rashleigh, get up to the top of Otterscope 
Hill, where you can see for twenty miles round you in every direction - 
stand on the very peak, and speak in whispers; and, after all, don't be too 
sure that the bird of the air will not carry the matter. Rashleigh has been 
my tutor for four years; we are mutually tired of each other, and we shall 
heartily rejoice at our approaching separation."
"Mr Rashleigh leaves Osbaldistone Hall, then?"
"Yes, in a few days; - did you not know that? - your father must keep his 
resolutions much more secret than Sir Hildebrand. Why, when my uncle was 
informed that you were to be his guest for some time, and that your father 
desired to have one of his hopeful sons to fill up the lucrative situation 
in his counting-house which was vacant by your obstinacy, Mr Francis, the 
good knight held a cour pleniere of all his family, including the butler, 
housekeeper, and gamekeeper. This reverend assembly of the peers and 
household officers of Osbaldistone Hall was not convoked, as you may 
suppose, to elect your substitute, because, as Rashleigh alone possessed 
more arithmetic than was necessary to calculate the odds on a fighting 
cock, none but he could be supposed qualified for the situation. But some 
solemn sanction was necessary for transforming Rashleigh's destination from 
starving as a Catholic priest, to thriving as a wealthy banker; and it was 
not without some reluctance that the acquiescence of the assembly was 
obtained to such an act of degradation."
"I can conceive the scruples - but how were they got over?"
"By the general wish, I believe, to get Rashleigh out of the house," 
replied Miss Vernon. "Although youngest of the family, he has somehow or 
other got the entire management of all the others; and every one is 
sensible of the subjection, though they cannot shake it off. If any one 
opposes him, he is sure to rue having done so before the year goes about; 
and if you do him a very important service, you may rue it still more."
"At that rate," answered I, smiling, "I should look about me; for I have 
been the cause, however unintentionally, of his change of situation."
"Yes; and whether he regards it as an advantage or disadvantage, he will 
owe you a grudge for it - But here comes cheese, radishes, and a bumper to 
Church and king, the hint for chaplains and ladies to disappear; and I, the 
sole representative of womanhood at Osbaldistone Hall, retreat, as in duty 
bound."
She vanished as she spoke, leaving me in astonishment at the mingled 
character of shrewdness, audacity, and frankness, which her conversation 
displayed. I despair conveying to you the least idea of her manner, 
although I have, as nearly as I can remember, imitated her language. In 
fact, there was a mixture of untaught simplicity, as well as native 
shrewdness and haughty boldness in her manner, and all were modified and 
recommended by the play of the most beautiful features I had ever beheld. 
It is not to be thought that, however strange and uncommon I might think 
her liberal and unreserved communications, a young man of two-and-twenty 
was likely to be severely critical on a beautiful girl of eighteen, for not 
observing a proper distance towards him. On the contrary, I was equally 
diverted and flattered by Miss Vernon's confidence, and that 
notwithstanding her declaration of its being conferred on me solely because 
I was the first auditor who occurred, of intelligence enough to comprehend 
it. With the presumption of my age, certainly not diminished by my 
residence in France, I imagined that well-formed features, and a handsome 
person, both which I conceived myself to possess, were not unsuitable 
qualifications for the confidant of a young beauty. My vanity thus enlisted 
in Miss Vernon's behalf, I was far from judging her with severity, merely 
for a frankness which I supposed was in some degree justified by my own 
personal merit - and the feelings of partiality, which her beauty, and the 
singularity of her situation, were of themselves calculated to excite, were 
enhanced by my opinion of her penetration and judgment in her choice of a 
friend.
After Miss Vernon quitted the apartment, the bottle circulated, or rather 
flew, around the table in unceasing revolution. My foreign education had 
given me a distaste to intemperance, then and yet too common a vice among 
my countrymen. The conversation which seasoned such orgies was as little to 
my taste, and if anything could render it more disgusting, it was the 
relationship of the company. I therefore seized a lucky opportunity, and 
made my escape through a side-door, leading I knew not whither, rather than 
endure any longer the sight of father and sons practising the same 
degrading intemperance, and holding the same coarse and disgusting 
conversation. I was pursued, of course, as I had expected, to be reclaimed 
by force, as a deserter from the shrine of Bacchus. When I heard the whoop 
and hollo, and the tramp of the heavy boots of my pursuers on the winding 
stair which I was descending, I plainly foresaw I should be overtaken 
unless I could get into the open air. I therefore threw open a casement in 
the staircase, which looked into an old-fashioned garden, and as the height 
did not exceed six feet, I jumped out without hesitation, and soon heard, 
far behind, the "hey whoop! stole away! stole away!" of my baffled 
pursuers. I ran down one alley, walked fast up another; and then, 
conceiving myself out of all danger of pursuit, I slackened my pace into a 
quiet stroll, enjoying the cool air, which the heat of the wine I had been 
obliged to swallow, as well as that of my rapid retreat, rendered doubly 
grateful. As I sauntered on, I found the gardener hard at his evening 
employment, and saluted him, as I paused to look at his work.
"Good even, my friend."
"Gude e'en-gude e'en t'ye," answered the man, without looking up, and in a 
tone which at once indicated his northern extraction.
"Fine weather for your work, my friend."
"It's no that muckle to be compleened o'," answered the man, with that 
limited degree of praise which gardeners and farmers usually bestow on the 
very best weather. Then raising his head, as if to see who spoke to him, he 
touched his Scotch bonnet with an air of respect, as he observed, "Eh, gude 
safe us! - it's a sight for sair een, to see a gold-laced jeistiecor in the 
Ha' garden sae late at e'en."
"A gold-laced what, my good friend?"
"Ou, a jeistiecor - that's a jacket like your ain, there. T'hey hae other 
things to do wi' them up yonder - unbuttoning them to make room for the 
beef and the bag-puddings, and the claret wine, nae doubt - that's the 
ordinary for evening lecture on this side the border."
"There's no such plenty of good cheer in your country, my good friend," I 
replied, "as to tempt you to sit so late at it."
"Hout, sir, ye ken little about Scotland; it's no for want of gude vivers - 
the best of fish, flesh, and fowl hae we, by sybos, ingans, turneeps, and 
other garden fruit. But we hae mense and discretion, and are moderate of 
our mouths; - but here, frae the kitchen to the ha', it's fill and fetch 
mair, frae the tae end of the four-and-twenty till the tother. Even their 
fast days - they ca' it fasting when they hae the best o' sea-fish frae 
Hartlepool and Sunderland by land carriage, forbye trouts, grilses, salmon, 
and a' the lave o't, and so they make their very fasting a kind of luxury 
and abomination; and then the awfu' masses and matins of the puir deceived 
souls - But I shouldna speak about them, for your honour will be a Roman, 
I'se warrant, like the lave."
"Not I, my friend; I was bred an English Presbyterian, or dissenter."
"The right hand of fellowship to your honour, then," quoth the gardener, 
with as much alacrity as his hard features were capable of expressing, and, 
as if to show that his good-will did not rest on words, he plucked forth a 
huge horn snuff-box, or mull, as he called it, and proffered a pinch with a 
most fraternal grin.
Having accepted his courtesy, I asked him if he had been long a domestic at 
Osbaldistone Hall - "I have been fighting with wild beasts at Ephesus," 
said he, looking towards the building, "for the best part of these four-and-
twenty years, as sure as my name's Andrew Fairservice."
"But, my excellent friend Andrew Fairservice, if your religion and your 
temperance are so much offended by Roman rituals and southern hospitality, 
it seems to me that you must have been putting yourself to an unnecessary 
penance all this while, and that you might have found a service where they 
eat less, and are more orthodox in their worship. I dare say it cannot be 
want of skill which prevented your being placed more to your satisfaction."
"It doesna become me to speak to the point of my qualifications," said 
Andrew, looking round him with great complacency; "but nae doubt I should 
understand my trade of horticulture, seeing I was bred in the parish of 
Dreepdaily, where they raise lang-kale under glass, and force the early 
nettles for their spring kale. And, to speak truth, I hae been fitting 
every term these four-and-twenty years; but when the time comes, there's 
aye something to saw that I would like to see sawn, - or something to maw 
that I would like to see mawn, - or something to ripe that I would like to 
see ripen, - and sae I e'en daiker on wi' the family frae year's end to 
year's end. And I wad say for certain, that I am gaun to quit at Cannlemas, 
only I was just as positive on it twenty years syne, and I find mysell 
still turning up the mouls here, for a' that. Forbye that, to tell your 
honour the evendown truth, there's nae better place ever offered to Andrew. 
But if your honour wad wush me to ony place where I wad hear pure doctrine, 
and hae a free cow's grass, and a cot, and a yard, and mair than ten punds 
of annual fee, and where there's nae leddy about the town to count the 
apples, I'se hold mysell muckle indebted t'ye."
"Bravo, Andrew! I perceive you'll lose no preferment for want of asking 
patronage."
"I canna see what for I should," replied Andrew; "it's no a generation to 
wait till ane's worth's discovered, I trow."
"But you are no friend, I observe, to the ladies."
"Na, by my troth, I keep up the first gardener's quarrel to them. They're 
fasheous bargains - aye crying for apricocks, pears, plums, and apples, 
summer and winter, without distinction o' seasons; but we hae nae slices o' 
the spare rib here, be praised fort! except auld Martha, and shes weel 
eneugh pleased wi' the freedom o' the berry-bushes to her sisters weans, 
when they come to drink tea in a holiday in the housekeeper's room, and wi' 
a wheen codlings now and then for her ain private supper."
"You forget your young mistress."
"What mistress do I forget? - whae's that?"
"Your young mistress, Miss Vernon."
"What! the lassie Vernon? - She's nae mistress o' mine, man. I wish she was 
her ain mistress; and I wish she mayna be some other body's mistress or 
it's lang - She's a wild slip that."
"Indeed!" said I, more interested than I cared to own to myself, or to show 
to the fellow - "why, Andrew, you know all the secrets of this family."
"If I ken them, I can keep them," said Andrew; "they winna work in my wame 
like barm in a barrel, I'se warrant ye. Miss Die is - but it's neither beef 
nor brose o' mine."
And he began to dig with a great semblance of assiduity.
"What is Miss Vernon, Andrew? I am a friend of the family, and should like 
to know."
"Other than a gude ane, I'm fearing," said Andrew, closing one eye hard, 
and shaking his head with a grave and mysterious look - "something glee'd - 
your honour understands me?"
"I cannot say I do," said I, "Andrew; but I should like to hear you explain 
yourself;" and therewithal I slipped a crown piece into Andrew's horn - 
hard hand. The touch of the silver made him grin a ghastly smile, as he 
nodded slowly, and thrust it into his breeches pocket; and then, like a man 
who well understood that there was value to be returned, stood up, and 
rested his arms on his spade, with his features composed into the most 
important gravity, as for some serious communication.
"Ye maun ken, then, young gentleman, since it imports you to know, that 
Miss Vernon is "
Here breaking off, he sucked in both his cheeks, till his lantern jaws and 
long chin assumed the appearance of a pair of nut-crackers; winked hard 
once more, frowned, shook his head, and seemed to think his physiognomy had 
completed the information which his tongue had not fully told.
"Good God!" said I - "so young, so beautiful, so early lost!"
"Troth ye may say sae - she's in a manner lost, body and saul; forby being 
a Papist, I'se uphaud her for" - and his northern caution prevailed, and he 
was again silent.
"For what, sir?" said I sternly. "I insist on knowing the plain meaning of 
all this."
"Ou, just for the bitterest Jacobite in the haill shire."
"Pshaw! a Jacobite? - is that all?"
Andrew looked at me with some astonishment, at hearing his information 
treated so lightly; and then muttering, "Aweel it's the warst thing I ken 
aboot the lassie, howsoe'er, ' he resumed his spade, like the King of the 
Vandals in Marmontel's late novel.



Chapter 7

	Bardolph. The sheriff, with a monstrous watch, is at the door.
								-- Henry IV. First Part.


I found out with some difficulty the apartment which was destined for my 
accommodation; and having secured myself the necessary good-will and 
attention from my uncle's domestics, by using the means they were most 
capable of comprehending, I secluded myself there for the remainder of the 
evening, conjecturing, from the fair way in which I had left my new 
relatives, as well as from the distant noise which continued to echo from 
the stone-hall (as their banqueting-room was called), that they were not 
likely to be fitting company for a sober man.
What could my father mean by sending me to be an inmate in this strange 
family? was my first and most natural reflection. My uncle, it was plain, 
received me as one who was to make some stay with him, and his rude 
hospitality rendered him as indifferent as King Hal to the number of those 
who fed at his cost. But it was plain my presence or absence would be of as 
little importance in his eyes as that of one of his blue-coated serving-
men. My cousins were mere cubs, in whose company I might, if I liked it, 
unlearn whatever decent manners, or elegant accomplishments, I had 
acquired, but where I could attain no information beyond what regarded 
worming dogs, rowelling horses, and following foxes. I could only imagine 
one reason, which was probably the true one. My father considered the life 
which was led at Osbaldistone Hall as the natural and inevitable pursuits 
of all country gentlemen, and he was desirous, by giving me an opportunity 
of seeing that with which he knew I should be disgusted, to reconcile me, 
if possible, to take an active share in his own business. In the meantime, 
he would take Rashleigh Osbaldistone into the counting-house. But he had an 
hundred modes of providing for him, and that advantageously, whenever he 
chose to get rid of him. So that, although I did feel a certain qualm of 
conscience at having been the means of introducing Rashleigh, being such as 
he was described by Miss Vernon, into my father's business - perhaps into 
his confidence - I subdued it by the reflection that my father was complete 
master of his own affairs - a man not to be imposed upon, or influenced by 
any one - and that all I knew to the young gentleman's prejudice was 
through the medium of a singular and giddy girl, whose communications were 
made with an injudicious frankness, which might warrant me in supposing her 
conclusions had been hastily or inaccurately formed. Then my mind naturally 
turned to Miss Vernon herself; her extreme beauty; her very peculiar 
situation, relying solely upon her reflections, and her own spirit, for 
guidance and protection; and her whole character offering that variety and 
spirit which piques our curiosity, and engages our attention in spite of 
ourselves. I had sense enough to consider the neighbourhood of this 
singular young lady, and the chance of our being thrown into very close and 
frequent intercourse, as adding to the dangers, while it relieved the 
dulness, of Osbaldistone Hall; but I could not, with the fullest exertion 
of my prudence, prevail upon myself to regret excessively this new and 
particular hazard to which I was to be exposed. This scruple I also settled 
as young men settle most difficulties of the kind - I would be very 
cautious, always on my guard, consider Miss Vernon rather as a companion 
than an intimate; and all would do well enough. With these reflections I 
fell asleep, Miss Vernon, of course, forming the last subject of my 
contemplation.
Whether I dreamed of her or not, I cannot satisfy you, for I was tired and 
slept soundly. But she was the first person I thought of in the morning, 
when waked at dawn by the cheerful notes of the hunting horn. To start up, 
and direct my horse to be saddled, was my first movement; and in a few 
minutes I was in the courtyard, where men, dogs, and horses, were in full 
preparation. My uncle, who, perhaps, was not entitled to expect a very 
alert sportsman in his nephew, bred as he had been in foreign parts, seemed 
rather surprised to see me, and I thought his morning salutation wanted 
something of the hearty and hospitable tone which distinguished his first 
welcome. "Art there, lad? - ay, youth's aye rathe - but look to thysell - 
mind the old song, lad -

		He that gallops his horse on Blackstone edge
		May chance to catch a fall."

I believe there are few young men, and those very sturdy moralists, who 
would not rather be taxed with some moral peccadillo than with want of 
knowledge in horsemanship. As I was by no means deficient either in skill 
or courage, I resented my uncle's insinuation accordingly, and assured him 
he would find me up with the hounds.
"I doubtna, lad," was his reply; "thou'rt a rank rider, I'se warrant thee - 
but take heed. Thy father sent thee here to me to be bitted, and I doubt I 
must ride thee on the curb, or we'll hae some one to ride thee on the 
halter, if I takena the better heed."
As this speech was totally unintelligible to me - as, besides, it did not 
seem to be delivered for my use, or benefit, but was spoken as it were 
aside, and as if expressing aloud something which was passing through the 
mind of my much-honoured uncle, I concluded it must either refer to my 
desertion of the bottle on the preceding evening, or that my uncle's 
morning hours being a little discomposed by the revels of the night before, 
his temper had suffered in proportion. I only made the passing reflection, 
that if he played the ungracious landlord, I would remain the shorter while 
his guest, and then hastened to salute Miss Vernon, who advanced cordially 
to meet me. Some show of greeting also passed between my cousins and me; 
but as I saw them maliciously bent upon criticising my dress and 
accoutrements, from the cap to the stirrup-irons, and sneering at whatever 
had a new or foreign appearance, I exempted myself from the task of paying 
them much attention; and assuming, in requital of their grins and whispers, 
an air of the utmost indifference and contempt, I attached myself to Miss 
Vernon, as the only person in the party whom I could regard as a suitable 
companion. By her side, therefore, we sallied forth to the destined cover, 
which was a dingle or copse on the side of an extensive common. As we rode 
thither, I observed to Diana, "that I did not see my cousin Rashleigh in 
the field;" to which she replied, - "O no - he's a mighty hunter, but it's 
after the fashion of Nimrod, and his game is man."
The dogs now brushed into the cover, with the appropriate encouragement 
from the hunters - all was business, bustle, and activity. My cousins were 
soon too much interested in the business of the morning to take any further 
notice of me, unless that I overheard Dickon the horse-jockey whisper to 
Wilfred the fool - "Look thou, an our French cousin be nat off a' first 
burst."
To which Wilfred answered, "Like enow, for he has a queer outlandish 
binding on's castor."
Thorncliff, however, who in his rude way seemed not absolutely insensible 
to the beauty of his kinswoman, appeared determined to keep us company more 
closely than his brothers, - perhaps to watch what passed betwixt Miss 
Vernon and me - perhaps to enjoy my expected mishaps in the chase. In the 
last particular he was disappointed. After beating in vain for the greater 
part of the morning, a fox was at length found, who led us a chase of two 
hours, in the course of which, notwithstanding the ill-omened French 
binding upon my hat, I sustained my character as a horseman to the 
admiration of my uncle and Miss Vernon, and the secret disappointment of 
those who expected me to disgrace it. Reynard, however, proved too wily for 
his pursuers, and the hounds were at fault. I could at this time observe in 
Miss Vernon's manner an impatience of the close attendance which we 
received from Thorncliff Osbaldistone; and, as that active-spirited young 
lady never hesitated at taking the readiest means to gratify any wish of 
the moment, she said to him, in a tone of reproach - "I wonder, Thornie, 
what keeps you dangling at my horse's crupper all this morning, when you 
know the earths above Woolverton-mill are not stopt."
"I know no such an thing then, Miss Die, for the miller swore himself as 
black as night, that he stopt them at twelve o'clock midnight that was."
"O fie upon you, Thornie! would you trust to a miller's word? - and these 
earths, too, where we lost the fox three times this season! and you on your 
grey mare, that can gallop there and back in ten minutes!"
"Well, Miss Die, I'se go to Woolverton then, and if the earths are not 
stopt, I'se raddle Dick the miller's bones for him."
"Do, my dear Thornie; horsewhip the rascal to purpose - via - fly away, and 
about it;" - Thorncliff went off at the gallop - "or get horsewhipt 
yourself, which will serve my purpose just as well. - I must teach them all 
discipline and obedience to the word of command. I am raising a regiment, 
you must know. Thornie shall be my sergeant-major, Dickon my riding-master, 
and Wilfred, with his deep dub-a-dub tones, that speak but three syllables 
at a time, my kettle-drummer."
"And Rashleigh?"
"Rashleigh shall be my scout-master."
"And will you find no employment for me, most lovely colonel?"
"You shall have the choice of being pay-master, or plunder-master, to the 
corps. But see how the dogs puzzle about there. Come, Mr Frank, the scent's 
cold; they won't recover it there this while; follow me, I have a view to 
show you."
And in fact, she cantered up to the top of a gentle hill, commanding an 
extensive prospect. Casting her eyes around, to see that no one was near 
us, she drew up her horse beneath a few birch-trees, which screened us from 
the rest of the hunting-field - "Do you see yon peaked, brown, heathy hill, 
having something like a whitish speck upon the side?"
"Terminating that long ridge of broken moorish uplands? - I see it 
distinctly."
"That whitish speck is a rock called Hawkesmore-crag, and Hawkesmore-crag 
is in Scotland."
"Indeed! I did not think we had been so near Scotland."
"It is so, I assure you, and your horse will carry you there in two hours."
"I shall hardly give him the trouble; why, the distance must be eighteen 
miles as the crow flies."
"You may have my mare, if you think her less blown - I say that in two 
hours you may be in Scotland."
"And I say that I have so little desire to be there, that if my horse's 
head were over the Border, I would not give his tail the trouble of 
following. What should I do in Scotland?"
"Provide for your safety, if I must speak plainly. Do you understand me 
now, Mr Frank?"
"Not a whit; you are more and more oracular."
"Then, on my word, you either mistrust me most unjustly, and are a better 
dissembler than Rashleigh Osbaldistone himself, or you know nothing of what 
is imputed to you; and then no wonder you stare at me in that grave manner, 
which I can scarce see without laughing."
"Upon my word of honour, Miss Vernon," said I, with an impatient feeling of 
her childish disposition to mirth, "I have not the most distant conception 
of what you mean. I am happy to afford you any subject of amusement, but I 
am quite ignorant in what it consists."
"Nay, there's no sound jest after all," said the young lady, composing 
herself; "only one looks so very ridiculous when he is fairly perplexed. 
But the matter is serious enough. Do you know one Moray, or Morris, or some 
such name?"
"Not that I can at present recollect."
"Think a moment. Did you not lately travel with somebody of such a name?"
"The only man with whom I travelled for any length of time was a fellow 
whose soul seemed to lie in his portmanteau."
"Then it was like the soul of the licentiate Pedro Garcias, which lay among 
the ducats in his leathern purse. That man has been robbed, and he has 
lodged an information against you, as connected with the violence done to 
him."
"You jest, Miss Vernon!"
"I do not, I assure you - the thing is an absolute fact."
"And do you," said I, with strong indignation, which I did not attempt to 
suppress, "do you suppose me capable of meriting such a charge?"
"You would call me out for it, I suppose, had I the advantage of being a 
man - You may do so as it is, if you like it - I can shoot flying, as well 
as leap a five-barred gate."
"And are colonel of a regiment of horse besides," replied I, reflecting how 
idle it was to be angry with her - "But do explain the present jest to me."
"There's no jest whatever," said Diana; "you are accused of robbing this 
man, and my uncle believes it as well as I did."
"Upon my honour, I am greatly obliged to my friends for their good 
opinion!"
"Now do not, if you can help it, snort, and stare, and snuff the wind, and 
look so exceedingly like a startled horse - There's no such offence as you 
suppose - you are not charged with any petty larceny or vulgar felony - by 
no means. This fellow was carrying money from Government, both specie and 
bills, to pay the troops in the north; and it is said he has been also 
robbed of some despatches of great consequence."
"And so it is high treason, then, and not simple robbery, of which I am 
accused!"
"Certainly - which, you know, has been in all ages accounted the crime of a 
gentleman. You will find plenty in this country, and one not far from your 
elbow, who think it a merit to distress the Hanoverian government by every 
means possible."
"Neither my politics nor my morals, Miss Vernon, are of a description so 
accommodating."
"I really begin to believe that you are a Presbyterian and Hanoverian in 
good earnest. But what do you propose to do?"
"Instantly to refute this atrocious calumny. - Before whom," I asked, "was 
this extraordinary accusation laid."
"Before old Squire Inglewood, who had sufficient unwillingness to receive 
it. He sent tidings to my uncle, I suppose, that he might smuggle you away 
into Scotland, out of reach of the warrant. But my uncle is sensible that 
his religion and old predilections render him obnoxious to Government, and 
that, were he caught playing booty, he would be disarmed, and probably 
dismounted (which would be the worse evil of the two), as a Jacobite, 
papist, and suspected person."
"I can conceive that, sooner than lose his hunters, he would give up his 
nephew."
"His nephew, nieces, sons - daughters, if he had them, and whole 
generation," said Diana; - "therefore trust not to him, even for a single 
moment, but make the best of your way before they can serve the warrant."
"That I shall certainly do; but it shall be to the house of this Squire 
Inglewood - Which way does it lie?"
"About five miles off, in the low ground, behind yonder plantations - you 
may see the tower of the clock-house."
"I will be there in a few minutes," said I, putting my horse in motion.
"And I will go with you, and show you the way," said Diana, putting her 
palfrey also to the trot.
"Do not think of it, Miss Vernon," I replied. "It is not - permit me the 
freedom of a friend - it is not proper, scarcely even delicate, in you to 
go with me on such an errand as I am now upon."
"I understand your meaning," said Miss Vernon, a slight blush crossing her 
haughty brow; - "it is plainly spoken;" and after a moment's pause she 
added, "and I believe kindly meant."
"It is indeed, Miss Vernon. Can you think me insensible of the interest you 
show me, or ungrateful for it?" said I, with even more earnestness than I 
could have wished to express. "Yours is meant for true kindness, shown best 
at the hour of need. But I must not, for your own sake - for the chance of 
misconstruction - suffer you to pursue the dictates of your generosity; 
this is so public an occasion - it is almost like venturing into an open 
court of justice."
"And if it were not almost, but altogether entering into an open court of 
justice, do you think I would not go there if I thought it right, and 
wished to protect a friend? You have no one to stand by you - you are a 
stranger; and here, in the outskirts of the kingdom, country justices do 
odd things. My uncle has no desire to embroil himself in your affair; 
Rashleigh is absent, and were he here, there is no knowing which side he 
might take; the rest are all more stupid and brutal one than another. I 
will go with you, and I do not fear being able to serve you. I am no fine 
lady, to be terrified to death with law-books, hard words, or big wigs."
"But my dear Miss Vernon -"
"But my dear Mr Francis, be patient and quiet, and let me take my own way; 
for when I take the bit between my teeth, there is no bridle will stop me."
Flattered with the interest so lovely a creature seemed to take in my fate, 
yet vexed at the ridiculous appearance I should make, by carrying a girl of 
eighteen along with me as an advocate, and seriously concerned for the 
misconstruction to which her motives might be exposed, I endeavoured to 
combat her resolution to accompany me to Squire Inglewood's. The self-
willed girl told me roundly, that my dissuasions were absolutely in vain; 
that she was a true Vernon, whom no consideration, not even that of being 
able to do but little to assist him, should induce to abandon a friend in 
distress; and that all I could say on the subject might be very well for 
pretty, well-educated, well-behaved misses from a town boarding-school, but 
did not apply to her, who was accustomed to mind nobody's opinion but her 
own.
While she spoke thus, we were advancing hastily towards Inglewood Place, 
while, as if to divert me from the task of further remonstrance, she drew a 
ludicrous picture of the magistrate and his clerk. - Inglewood was - 
according to her description - a white-washed Jacobite; that is, one who, 
having been long a non-juror, like most of the other gentlemen of the 
country, had lately qualified himself to act as a justice, by taking the 
oaths to Government. "He had done so," she said, "in compliance with the 
urgent request of most of his brother squires, who saw, with regret, that 
the palladium of silvan sport, the game-laws, were likely to fall into 
disuse for want of a magistrate who would enforce them; the nearest acting 
justice being the Mayor of Newcastle, and he, as being rather inclined to 
the consumption of the game when properly dressed, than to its preservation 
when alive, was more partial, of course, to the cause of the poacher than 
of the sportsman. Resolving, therefore, that it was expedient some one of 
their number should sacrifice the scruples of Jacobitical loyalty to the 
good of the community, the Northumbrian country gentlemen imposed the duty 
on Inglewood, who, being very inert in most of his feelings and sentiments, 
might, they thought, comply with any political creed without much 
repugnance. Having thus procured the body of justice, they proceeded," 
continued Miss Vernon, "to attach to it a clerk, by way of soul, to direct 
and animate its movements. Accordingly they got a sharp Newcastle attorney, 
called Jobson, who, to vary my metaphor, finds it a good thing enough to 
retail justice at the sign of Squire Inglewood, and, as his own emoluments 
depend on the quantity of business which he transacts, he hooks in his 
principal for a great deal more employment in the justice line than the 
honest squire had ever bargained for; so that no apple-wife within the 
circuit of ten miles can settle her account with a coster-monger without an 
audience of the reluctant Justice and his alert clerk, Mr Joseph Jobson. 
But the most ridiculous scenes occur when affairs come before him, like our 
business of today, having any colouring of politics. Mr Joseph Jobson (for 
which, no doubt, he has his own very sufficient reasons) is a prodigious 
zealot for the Protestant religion, and a great friend to the present 
establishment in church and state. Now, his principal, retaining a sort of 
instinctive attachment to the opinions which he professed openly until he 
relaxed his political creed with the patriotic view of enforcing the law 
against unauthorised destroyers of black-game, grouse, partridges, and 
hares, is peculiarly embarrassed when the zeal of his assistant involves 
him in judicial proceedings connected with his earlier faith; and, instead 
of seconding his zeal, he seldom fails to oppose to it a double dose of 
indolence and lack of exertion. And this inactivity does not by any means 
arise from actual stupidity. On the contrary, for one whose principal 
delight is in eating and drinking, he is an alert, joyous, and lively old 
soul, which makes his assumed dulness the more diverting. So you may see 
Jobson on such occasions, like a bit of a broken down blood-tit condemned 
to drag an overloaded cart, puffing, strutting, and spluttering, to get the 
Justice put in motion, while, though the wheels groan, creak, and revolve 
slowly, the great and preponderating weight of the vehicle fairly 
frustrates the efforts of the willing quadruped, and prevents its being 
brought into a state of actual progression. Nay more, the unfortunate pony, 
I understand, has been heard to complain that this same car of justice, 
which he finds it so hard to put in motion on some occasions, can on others 
run fast enough down hill of its own accord, dragging his reluctant self 
backwards along with it, when anything can be done of service to Squire 
Inglewood's quondam friends. And then Mr Jobson talks big about reporting 
his principal to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if it were 
not for his particular regard and friendship for Mr Inglewood and his 
family."
As Miss Vernon concluded this whimsical description, we found ourselves in 
front of Inglewood Place, a handsome, though old-fashioned building. which 
showed the consequence of the family.


Chapter 8

		"Sir," quoth the Lawyer, "not to flatter ye,
		You have as good and fair a battery
		As heart could wish, and need not shame
		The proudest man alive to claim."
								-- Butler.


Our horses were taken by a servant in Sir Hildebrand's livery, whom we 
found in the courtyard, and we entered the house. In the entrance-hall I 
was somewhat surprised, and my fair companion still more so, when we met 
Rashleigh Osbaldistone, who could not help showing equal wonder at our 
rencontre.
"Rashleigh," said Miss Vernon, without giving him time to ask any question, 
"you have heard of Mr Francis Osbaldistone's affair, and you have been 
talking to the Justice about it?"
"Certainly," said Rashleigh, composedly - "it has been my business here. - 
I have been endeavouring," he said, with a bow to me, "to render my cousin 
what service I can. But I am sorry to meet him here."
"As a friend and relation, Mr Osbaldistone, you ought to have been sorry to 
have met me anywhere else, at a time when the charge of my reputation 
required me to be on this spot as soon as possible."
"True; but judging from what my father said, I should have supposed a short 
retreat into Scotland - just till matters should be smoothed over in a 
quiet way -"
I answered with warmth, "That I had no prudential measures to observe, and 
desired to have nothing smoothed over; - on the contrary, I was come to 
inquire into a rascally calumny, which I was determined to probe to the 
bottom."
"Mr Francis Osbaldistone is an innocent man, Rashleigh," said Miss Vernon, 
"and he demands an investigation of the charge against him, and I intend to 
support him in it."
"You do, my pretty cousin? - I should think, now, Mr Francis Osbaldistone 
was likely to be as effectually, and rather more delicately, supported by 
my presence than by yours."
"Oh, certainly; but two heads are better than one, you know."
"Especially such a head as yours, my pretty Die," advancing and taking her 
hand with a familiar fondness, which made me think him fifty times uglier 
than nature had made him. She led him, however, a few steps aside; they 
conversed in an under voice, and she appeared to insist upon some request 
which he was unwilling or unable to comply with. I never saw so strong a 
contrast betwixt the expression of two faces. Miss Vernon's, from being 
earnest, became angry; her eyes and cheeks became more animated, her colour 
mounted, she clenched her little hand, and stamping on the ground with her 
tiny foot, seemed to listen with a mixture of contempt and indignation to 
the apologies, which, from his look of civil deference, his composed and 
respectful smile, his body rather drawing back than advanced, and other 
signs of look and person, I concluded him to be pouring out at her feet. At 
length she flung away from him, with "I will have it so."
"It is not in my power - there is no possibility of it. - Would you think 
it, Mr Osbaldistone?" said he, addressing me -
"You are not mad?" said she, interrupting him.
"Would you think it?" said he, without attending to her hint - "Miss Vernon 
insists, not only that I know your innocence (of which, indeed, it is 
impossible for any one to be more convinced), but that I must also be 
acquainted with the real perpetrators of the outrage on this fellow - if 
indeed such an outrage has been committed. Is this reasonable, Mr 
Osbaldistone?"
"I will not allow any appeal to Mr Osbaldistone, Rashleigh," said the young 
lady; "he does not know, as I do, the incredible extent and accuracy of 
your information on all points."
"As I am a gentleman, you do me more honour than I deserve."
"Justice, Rashleigh - only justice: - and it is only justice which I expect 
at your hands."
"You are a tyrant, Diana," he answered, with a sort of sigh - "a capricious 
tyrant, and rule your friends with a rod of iron. Still, however, it shall 
be as you desire. But you ought not to be here - you know you ought not; - 
you must return with me."
Then turning from Diana, who seemed to stand undecided, he came up to me in 
the most friendly manner, and said, "Do not doubt my interest in what 
regards you, Mr Osbaldistone. If I leave you just at this moment, it is 
only to act for your advantage. But you must use your influence with your 
cousin to return; her presence cannot serve you, and must prejudice 
herself."
"I assure you, sir," I replied, "you cannot be more convinced of this than 
I; I have urged Miss Vernon's return as anxiously as she would permit me to 
do."
"I have thought on it," said Miss Vernon after a pause, "and I will not go 
till I see you safe out of the hands of the Philistines. Cousin Rashleigh, 
I dare say, means well; but he and I know each other well. Rashleigh, I 
will not go; - I know," she added, in a more soothing tone, "my being here 
will give you more motive for speed and exertion."
"Stay then, rash, obstinate girl," said Rashleigh; "you know but too well 
to whom you trust;" and hastening out of the hall, we heard his horse's 
feet a minute afterwards in rapid motion.
"Thank Heaven he is gone!" said Diana. "And now let us seek out the 
Justice."
"Had we not better call a servant?"
"Oh, by no means; I know the way to his den - we must burst on him suddenly 
- follow me."
I did follow her accordingly, as she tripped up a few gloomy steps, 
traversed a twilight passage, and entered a sort of ante-room, hung round 
with old maps, architectural elevations, and genealogical trees. A pair of 
folding-doors opened from this into Mr Inglewood's sitting apartment, from 
which was heard the fag-end of an old ditty, chanted by a voice which had 
been in its day fit for a jolly bottle-song.

		"O, in Skipton-in-Craven
		Is never a haven,
			But many a day foul weather;
		And he that would say
		A pretty girl nay,
			I wish for his cravat a tether."

"Heyday!" said Miss Vernon, "the genial Justice must have dined already - I 
did not think it had been so late."
It was even so. Mr Inglewood's appetite having been sharpened by his 
official investigations, he had antedated his meridian repast, having dined 
at twelve instead of one o'clock, then the general dining hour in England. 
The various occurrences of the morning occasioned our arriving some time 
after this hour, to the Justice the most important of the four-and-twenty, 
and he had not neglected the interval.
"Stay you here," said Diana. "I know the house, and I will call a servant; 
your sudden appearance might startle the old gentleman even to choking;" 
and she escaped from me, leaving me uncertain whether I ought to advance or 
retreat. It was impossible for me not to hear some part of what passed 
within the dinner apartment, and particularly several apologies for 
declining to sing, expressed in a dejected croaking voice, the tones of 
which, I conceived, were not entirely new to me.
"Not sing, sir? by our Lady! but you must - What! you have cracked my 
silver-mounted cocoa-nut of sack, and tell me that you cannot sing! - Sir, 
sack will make a cat sing, and speak too; so up with a merry stave, or 
trundle yourself out of my doors! - Do you think you are to take up all my 
valuable time with your d-d declarations, and then tell me you cannot 
sing?"
"Your worship is perfectly in rule," said another voice, which, from its 
pert conceited accent, might be that of the cleric, "and the party must be 
conformable; he hath canet written on his face in court hand."
"Up with it then," said the Justice, "or by St. Christopher, you shall 
crack the cocoa-nut full of salt-and-water, according to the statute for 
such effect made and provided."
Thus exhorted and threatened, my quondam fellow-traveller, for I could no 
longer doubt that he was the recusant in question, uplifted, with a voice 
similar to that of a criminal singing his last psalm on the scaffold, a 
most doleful stave to the following effect: -

		"Good people all, I pray give ear,
		A woeful story you shall hear,
		'Tis of a robber as stout as ever
		Bade a true man stand and deliver.
			With his foodle doo fa loodle loo.

		"This knave, most worthy of a cord,
		Being armed with pistol and with sword,
		'Twixt Kensington and Brentford then
		Did boldly stop six honest men.
			With his foodle doo, etc.

		"These honest men did at Brentford dine,
		Having drank each man his pint of wine,
		When this bold thief, with many curses,
		Did say, You dogs, your lives or purses.
			With his foodle doo," etc.

I question if the honest men, whose misfortune is commemorated in this 
pathetic ditty, were more startled at the appearance of the bold thief than 
the songster was at mine; for, tired of waiting for some one to announce 
me, and finding my situation as a listener rather awkward, I presented 
myself to the company just as my friend Mr Morris, for such, it seems, was 
his name, was uplifting the fifth stave of his doleful ballad. The high 
tone with which the tune started died away in a quaver of consternation on 
finding himself so near one whose character he supposed to be little less 
suspicious than that of the hero of his madrigal, and he remained silent, 
with a mouth gaping as if I had brought the Gorgon's head in my hand.
The Justice, whose eyes had closed under the influence of the somniferous 
lullaby of the song, started up in his chair as it suddenly ceased, and 
stared with wonder at the unexpected addition which the company had 
received while his organs of sight were in abeyance. The clerk, as I 
conjectured him to be from his appearance, was also commoved; for, sitting 
opposite to Mr Morris, that honest gentleman's terror communicated itself 
to him, though he wotted not why.
I broke the silence of surprise occasioned by my abrupt entrance. - "My 
name, Mr Inglewood, is Francis Osbaldistone; I understand that some 
scoundrel has brought a complaint before you, charging me with being 
concerned in a loss which he says he has sustained."
"Sir," said the Justice, somewhat peevishly, "these are matters I never 
enter upon after dinner; - there is a time for everything, and a justice of 
peace must eat as well as other folks."
The goodly person of Mr Inglewood, by the way, seemed by no means to have 
suffered by any fasts, whether in the service of the law or of religion.
"I beg pardon for an ill-timed visit, sir; but as my reputation is 
concerned, and as the dinner appears to be concluded -"
"It is not concluded, sir," replied the magistrate; "man requires digestion 
as well as food, and I protest I cannot have benefit from my victuals 
unless I am allowed two hours of quiet leisure, intermixed with harmless 
mirth, and a moderate circulation of the bottle."
"If your honour will forgive me," said Mr Jobson, who had produced and 
arranged his writing implements in the brief space that our conversation 
afforded; "as this is a case of felony, and the gentleman seems something 
impatient, the charge is contra pacem domini regis -"
"Damn dominie regis!" said the impatient Justice - "I hope it's no treason 
to say so; but it's enough to made one mad to be worried in this way. Have 
I a moment of my life quiet for warrants, orders, directions, acts, bails, 
bonds, and recognisances? - I pronounce to you, Mr Jobson, that I shall 
send you and the justiceship to the devil one of these days."
"Your honour will consider the dignity of the office one of the quorum and 
custos rotulorum, an office of which Sir Edward Coke wisely saith, The 
whole Christian world hath not the like of it, so it be duly executed."
"Well," said the Justice, partly reconciled by this eulogium on the dignity 
of his situation, and gulping down the rest of his dissatisfaction in a 
huge bumper of claret, "let us to this gear then, and get rid of it as fast 
as we can. - Here you, sir - you, Morris - you, knight of the sorrowful 
countenance - is this Mr Francis Osbaldistone the gentleman whom you charge 
with being art and part of felony?"
"I, sir?" replied Morris, whose scattered wits had hardly yet reassembled 
themselves; "I charge nothing - I say nothing against the gentleman,"
"Then we dismiss your complaint, sir, that's all, and a good riddance - 
Push about the bottle - Mr Osbaldistone, help yourself."
Jobson, however, was determined that Morris should not back out of the 
scrape so easily. "What do you mean, Mr Morris? - Here is your own 
declaration - the ink scarce dried - and you would retract it in this 
scandalous manner!"
"How do I know," whispered the other in a tremulous tone, "how many rogues 
are in the house to back him? I have read of such things in Johnson's Lives 
of the Highwaymen. I protest the door opens -"
And it did open, and Diana Vernon entered - "You keep fine order here, 
Justice - not a servant to be seen or heard of."
"Ah!" said the Justice, starting up with an alacrity which showed that he 
was not so engrossed by his devotions to Themis or Comus, as to forget what 
was due to beauty - "Ah, ha! Die Vernon, the heath-bell of Cheviot, and the 
blossom of the Border, come to see how the old bachelor keeps house? Art 
welcome, girl, as flowers in May."
"A fine, open, hospitable house you do keep, Justice, that must be allowed 
- not a soul to answer a visitor."
"Ah, the knaves! they reckoned themselves secure of me for a couple of 
hours - But why did you not come earlier? - Your cousin Rashleigh dined 
here, and ran away like a poltroon after the first bottle was out - But you 
have not dined - we'll have something nice and ladylike - sweet and pretty 
like yourself, tossed up in a trice."
"I may eat a crust in the ante-room before I set out," answered Miss Vernon 
- "I have had a long ride this morning; but I can't stay long, Justice - I 
came with my cousin, Frank Osbaldistone, there, and I must show him the way 
back again to the Hall, or he'll lose himself in the wolds."
"Whew! sits the wind in that quarter?" inquired the Justice -

		"' She showed him the way, she showed him the way,
		She showed him the way to woo.'

What! no luck for old fellows, then, my sweet bud of the wilderness?"
"None whatever, Squire Inglewood; but if you will be a good kind Justice, 
and despatch young Frank's business, and let us canter home again, I'll 
bring my uncle to dine with you next week, and we'll expect merry doings."
"And you shall find them, my pearl of the Tyne - Zookers, lass, I never 
envy these young fellows their rides and scampers, unless when you come 
across me. But I must not keep you just now, I suppose? - I am quite 
satisfied with Mr Francis Osbaldistone's explanation - here has been some 
mistake, which can be cleared at greater leisure."
"Pardon me, sir," said I; "but I have not heard the nature of the 
accusation yet."
"Yes, sir," said the clerk, who, at the appearance of Miss Vernon, had 
given up the matter in despair, but who picked up courage to press farther 
investigation on finding himself supported from a quarter whence assuredly 
he expected no backing - "Yes, sir, and Dalton saith, That he who is 
apprehended as a felon shall not be discharged upon any man's discretion, 
but shall be held either to bail or commitment, paying to the clerk of the 
peace the usual fees for recognisance or commitment."
The Justice, thus goaded on, gave me at length a few words of explanation.
It seems the tricks which I had played to this man Morris had made a strong 
impression on his imagination; for I found they had been arrayed against me 
in his evidence, with all the exaggerations which a timorous and heated 
imagination could suggest. It appeared also, that on the day he parted from 
me, he had been stopped on a solitary spot and eased of his beloved 
travelling-companion, the portmanteau, by two men, well mounted and armed, 
having their faces covered with vizards.
One of them, he conceived, had much of my shape and air, and in a 
whispering conversation which took place betwixt the freebooters, he heard 
the other apply to him the name of Osbaldistone. The declaration farther 
set forth, that upon inquiring into the principles of the family so named, 
he, the said declarant, was informed that they were of the worst 
description, the family, in all its members, having been Papists and 
Jacobites, as he was given to understand by the dissenting clergyman at 
whose house he stopped after his rencontre, since the days of William the 
Conqueror.
Upon all and each of these weighty reasons, he charged me with being 
accessory to the felony committed upon his person; he, the said declarant, 
then travelling in the special employment of Government, and having charge 
of certain important papers, and also a large sum in specie, to be paid 
over, according to his instructions, to certain persons of official trust 
and importance in Scotland.
Having heard this extraordinary accusation, I replied to it, that the 
circumstances on which it was founded were such as could warrant no 
justice, or magistrate, in any attempt on my personal liberty. I admitted 
that I had practised a little upon the terrors of Mr Morris, while we 
travelled together, but in such trifling particulars as could have excited 
apprehension in no one who was one whit less timorous and jealous than 
himself. But I added, that I had never seen him since we parted, and if 
that which he feared had really come upon him, I was in nowise accessory to 
an action so unworthy of my character and station in life. That one of the 
robbers was called Osbaldistone, or that such a name was mentioned in the 
course of the conversation betwixt them, was a trifling circumstance, to 
which no weight was due. And concerning the disaffection alleged against 
me, I was willing to prove, to the satisfaction of the Justice, the clerk, 
and even the witness himself, that I was of the same persuasion as his 
friend the dissenting clergyman; had been educated as a good subject in the 
principles of the Revolution, and as such now demanded the personal 
protection of the laws which had been assured by that great event.
The Justice fidgeted, took snuff, and seemed considerably embarrassed, 
while Mr Attorney Jobson, with all the volubility of his profession, ran 
over the statute of the 34 Edward III., by which justices of the peace are 
allowed to arrest all those whom they find by indictment or suspicion, and 
to put them into prison. The rogue even turned my own admissions against 
me, alleging, "that since I had confessedly, upon my own showing, assumed 
the bearing or deportment of a robber or malefactor, I had voluntarily 
subjected myself to the suspicions of which I complained, and brought 
myself within the compass of the act, having wilfully clothed my conduct 
with all the colour and livery of guilt."
I combated both his arguments and his jargon with much indignation and 
scorn, and observed, "That I should, if necessary, produce the bail of my 
relations, which I conceived could not be refused, without subjecting the 
magistrate in a misdemeanour."
"Pardon me, my good sir - pardon me," said the insatiable clerk; "this is a 
case in which neither bail nor mainprize can be received, the felon who is 
liable to be committed on heavy grounds of suspicion, not being 
replevisable under the statute of the 3d of King Edward, there being in 
that act an express exception of such as be charged of commandment, or 
force, and aid of felony done;" and he hinted that his worship would do 
well to remember that such were no way replevisable by common writ, nor 
without writ.
At this period of the conversation a servant entered, and delivered a 
letter to Mr Jobson. He had no sooner run it hastily over, than he 
exclaimed, with the air of one who wished to appear much vexed at the 
interruption, and felt the consequence attached to a man of multifarious 
avocations - "Good God! - why, at this rate, I shall have neither time to 
attend to the public concerns nor my own - no rest - no quiet - I wish to 
Heaven another gentleman in our line would settle here!"
"God forbid!" said the Justice in a tone of sotto-voce deprecation; "some 
of us have enough of one of the tribe."
"This is a matter of life and death, if your worship pleases."
"In God's name! no more justice business, I hope," said the alarmed 
magistrate.
"No - no," replied Mr Jobson, very consequentially; "old Gaffer Rutledge of 
Grime's Hill is subpoenaed for the next world; he has sent an express for 
Dr Killdown to put in bail - another for me to arrange his worldly 
affairs."
"Away with you, then," said Mr Inglewood, hastily; "his may not be a 
replevisable case under the statute, you know, or Mr Justice Death may not 
like the doctor for a main pernor, or bailsman."
"And yet," said Jobson, lingering as he moved towards the door, "if my 
presence here be necessary - I could make out the warrant for committal in 
a moment, and the constable is below - And you have heard," he said, 
lowering his voice, "Mr Rashleigh's opinion" - the rest was lost in a 
whisper.
The Justice replied aloud, "I tell thee no, man, no - we'll do nought till 
thou return, man; 'tis but a four-mile ride - Come, push the bottle, Mr 
Morris - Don't be cast down, Mr Osbaldistone - And you, my rose of the 
wilderness - one cup of claret to refresh the bloom of your cheeks."
Diana started, as if from a reverie, in which she appeared to have been 
plunged while we held this discussion. "No, Justice - I should be afraid of 
transferring the bloom to a part of my face where it would show to little 
advantage; but I will pledge you in a cooler beverage;" and filling a glass 
with water, she drank it hastily, while her hurried manner belied her 
assumed gaiety.
I had not much leisure to make remarks upon her demeanour, however, being 
full of vexation at the interference of fresh obstacles to an instant 
examination of the disgraceful and impertinent charge which was brought 
against me. But there was no moving the Justice to take the matter up in 
absence of his clerk, an incident which gave him apparently as much 
pleasure as a holiday to a schoolboy. He persisted in his endeavours to 
inspire jollity into a company, the individuals of which, whether 
considered with reference to each other, or to their respective situations, 
were by no means inclined to mirth. "Come, Master Morris, you're not the 
first man that's been robbed, I trow - grieving ne'er brought back loss, 
man. And you, Mr Frank Osbaldistone, are not the first bully-boy that has 
said stand to a true man. There was Jack Winterfield, in my young days, 
kept the best company in the land - at horse-races and cock-fights who but 
he - hand and glove was I with Jack. Push the bottle, Mr Morris, it's dry 
talking - Many quart bumpers have I cracked, and thrown many a merry main 
with poor Jack - good family - ready wit - quick eye - as honest a fellow, 
barring the deed he died for - we'll drink to his memory, gentlemen - Poor 
Jack Winterfield - And since we talk of him, and of those sort of things, 
and since that damned clerk of mine has taken his gibberish elsewhere, and 
since we're snug among ourselves, Mr Osbaldistone, if you will have my best 
advice, I would take up this matter - the law's hard - very severe - hanged 
poor Jack Winterfield at York, despite family connections and great 
interest, all for easing a fat west-country grazier of the price of a few 
beasts - Now, here is honest Mr Morris, has been frightened, and so forth - 
Damn it, man, let the poor fellow have back his portmanteau, and end the 
frolic at once."
Morris's eyes brightened up at this suggestion, and he began to hesitate 
forth an assurance that he thirsted for no man's blood, when I cut the 
proposed accommodation short, by resenting the Justice's suggestion as an 
insult, that went directly to suppose me guilty of the very crime which I 
had come to his house with the express intention of disavowing. We were in 
this awkward predicament when a servant, opening the door, announced, "A 
strange gentleman to wait upon his honour;" and the party whom he thus 
described entered the room without farther ceremony.



Chapter 9

		One of the thieves come back again! I'll stand close,
		He dares not wrong me now, so near the house,
		And call in vain 'tis, till I see him offer it.
							-- The Widow.


"A stranger!" echoed the Justice - "not upon business, I trust, for I'll be 
-"
His protestation was cut short by the answer of the man himself. "My 
business is of a nature somewhat onerous and particular," said my 
acquaintance, Mr Campbell - for it was he, the very Scotchman whom I had 
seen at Northallerton - "and I must solicit your honour to give instant and 
heedful consideration to it. - I believe, Mr Morris," he added, fixing his 
eye on that person with a look of peculiar firmness and almost ferocity - 
"I believe ye ken brawly what I am - I believe ye cannot have forgotten 
what passed at our last meeting on the road?" Morris's jaw dropped - his 
countenance became the colour of tallow - his teeth chattered, and he gave 
visible signs of the utmost consternation. "Take heart of grace, man," said 
Campbell, "and dinna sit clattering your jaws there like a pair of 
castanets! I think there can be nae difficulty in your telling Mr Justice, 
that ye have seen me of yore, and ken me to be a cavalier of fortune, and a 
man of honour. Ye ken fu' weel ye will be some time resident in my 
vicinity, when I may have the power, as I will possess the inclination, to 
do you as good a turn."
"Sir - sir - I believe you to be a man of honour, and, as you say, a man of 
fortune. Yes, Mr Inglewood," he added, clearing his voice, "I really 
believe this gentleman to be so."
"And what are this gentleman's commands with me?" said the Justice, 
somewhat peevishly. "One man introduces another, like the rhymes in the 
'house that Jack built,' and I get company without either peace or 
conversation!"
"Both shall be yours, sir," answered Campbell, "in a brief period of time. 
I come to release your mind from a piece of troublesome duty, not to make 
increment to it."
"Body o' me! then you are welcome as ever Scot was to England, and that's 
not saying much. But get on, man - let's hear what you have got to say at 
once."
"I presume, this gentleman," continued the North Briton, "told you there 
was a person of the name of Campbell with him, when he had the mischance to 
lose his valise?"
"He has not mentioned such a name, from beginning to end of the matter," 
said the Justice.
"Ah! I conceive - I conceive," replied Mr Campbell; - "Mr Morris was kindly 
afeared of committing a stranger into collision wi' the judicial forms of 
the country; but as I understand my evidence is necessary to the 
compurgation of one honest gentleman here, Mr Francis Osbaldistone, wha has 
been most unjustly suspected, I will dispense with the precaution. Ye will 
therefore" (he added addressing Morris with the same determined look and 
accent) "please tell Mr Justice Inglewood, whether we did not travel 
several miles together on the road, in consequence of your own anxious 
request and suggestion, reiterated ance and again, baith on the evening 
that we were at Northallerton, and there declined by me, but afterwards 
accepted, when I overtook ye on the road near Cloberry Allers, and was 
prevailed on by you to resign my ain intentions of proceeding to Rothbury; 
and, for my misfortune, to accompany you on your proposed route."
"It's a melancholy truth," answered Morris, holding down his head, as he 
gave this general assent to the long and leading question which Campbell 
put to him, and seemed to acquiesce in the statement it contained with 
rueful docility.
"And I presume you can also asseverate to his worship, that no man is 
better qualified than I am to bear testimony in this case, seeing that I 
was by you, and near you, constantly during the whole occurrence."
"No man better qualified, certainly," said Morris, with a deep and 
embarrassed sigh.
"And why the devil did you not assist him, then," said the Justice, "since, 
by Mr Morris's account, there were but two robbers; so you were two to two, 
and you are both stout likely men?"
"Sir, if it please your worship," said Campbell, "I have been all my life a 
man of peace and quietness, no ways given to broils or batteries. Mr 
Morris, who belongs, as I understand, or hath belonged, to his Majesty's 
army, might have used his pleasure in resistance, he travelling, as I also 
understand, with a great charge of treasure; but, for me, who had but my 
own small peculiar to defend, and who am, moreover, a man of a pacific 
occupation, I was unwilling to commit myself to hazard in the matter."
I looked at Campbell as he muttered these words, and never recollect to 
have seen a more singular contrast than that between the strong daring 
sternness expressed in his harsh features, and the air of composed meekness 
and simplicity which his language assumed. There was even a slight ironical 
smile lurking about the corners of his mouth, which seemed, involuntarily 
as it were, to intimate his disdain of the quiet and peaceful character 
which he thought proper to assume, and which led me to entertain strange 
suspicions that his concern in the violence done to Morris had been 
something very different from that of a fellow-sufferer, or even of a mere 
spectator.
Perhaps some suspicious crossed the Justice's mind at the moment, for he 
exclaimed, as if by way of ejaculation, "Body o' me! but this is a strange 
story."
The North Briton seemed to guess at what was passing in his mind; for he 
went on, with a change of manner and tone, dismissing from his countenance 
some part of the hypocritical affectation of humility which had made him 
obnoxious to suspicion, and saying, with a more frank and unconstrained 
air, "To say the truth, I am just ane o' those canny folks wha care not to 
fight but when they hae gotten something to fight for, which did not chance 
to be my predicament when I fell in wi' these loons. But that your worship 
may know that I am a person of good fame and character, please to cast your 
eye over that billet."
Mr Inglewood took the paper from his hand, and read, half aloud, "These are 
to certify, that the bearer, Robert Campbell of - of some place which I 
cannot pronounce," interjected the Justice - "is a person of good lineage, 
and peaceable demeanour, travelling towards England on his own proper 
affairs, etc. etc. etc. Given under our hand, at our Castle of Inver - Invera 
- rara - Argyle."
"A slight testimonial, sir, which I thought fit to impetrate from that 
worthy nobleman" (here he raised his hand to his head, as if to touch his 
hat), "MacCallum More."
"MacCallum who, sir?" said the Justice.
"Whom the Southern call the Duke of Argyle."
"I know the Duke of Argyle very well to be a nobleman of great worth and 
distinction, and a true lover of his country. I was one of those that stood 
by him in 1714, when he unhorsed the Duke of Marlborough out of his 
command. I wish we had more noblemen like him. He was an honest Tory in 
those days, and hand and glove with Ormond. And he has acceded to the 
present Government, as I have done myself, for the peace and quiet of his 
country; for I cannot presume that great man to have been actuated, as 
violent folks pretend, with the fear of losing his places and regiment. His 
testimonial, as you call it, Mr Campbell, is perfectly satisfactory; and 
now, what have you got to say to this matter of the robbery?"
"Briefly this, if it please your worship, - that Mr Morris might as weel 
charge it against the babe yet to be born, or against myself even, as 
against this young gentleman, Mr Osbaldistone; for I am not only free to 
depone that the person whom he took for him was a shorter man, and a 
thicker man, but also, for I chanced to obtain a glisk of his visage, as 
his fauseface slipped aside, that he was a man of other features and 
complexion than those of this young gentleman, Mr Osbaldistone. And I 
believe," he added, turning round with a natural, yet somewhat sterner air, 
to Mr Morris, "that the gentleman will allow I had better opportunity to 
take cognisance wha were present on that occasion than he, being, I 
believe, much the cooler o' the twa."
"I agree to it, sir - I agree to it perfectly," said Morris, shrinking back 
as Campbell moved his chair towards him to fortify his appeal - "And I 
incline, sir," he added, addressing Mr Inglewood, "to retract my 
information as to Mr Osbaldistone; and I request, sir, you will permit him, 
sir, to go about his business, and me to go about mine also; your worship 
may have business to settle with Mr Campbell, and I am rather in haste to 
be gone."
"Then, there go the declarations," said the Justice, throwing them into the 
fire - "And now you are at perfect liberty, Mr Osbaldistone. And you, Mr 
Morris, are set quite at your ease."
"Ay," said Campbell, eyeing Morris as he assented with a rueful grin to the 
Justice's observations, "much like the ease of a toad under a pair of 
harrows - But fear nothing, Mr Morris; you and I maun leave the house 
thegither. I will see you safe - I hope you will not doubt my honour, when 
I say sae - to the next highway, and then we part company; and if we do not 
meet as friends in Scotland, it will be your ain fault."
With such a lingering look of terror as the condemned criminal throws, when 
he is informed that the cart awaits him, Morris arose; but when on his 
legs, appeared to hesitate. "I tell thee, man, fear nothing," reiterated 
Campbell; "I will keep my word with you - Why, thou sheep's heart, how do 
ye ken but we may can pick up some speerings of your valise, if ye will be 
amenable to gude counsel? - Our horses are ready. Bid the Justice fareweel, 
man, and show your Southern breeding."
Morris, thus exhorted and encouraged, took his leave, under the escort of 
Mr Campbell; but, apparently, new scruples and terrors had struck him 
before they left the house, for I heard Campbell reiterating assurances of 
safety and protection as they left the ante-room - "By the soul of my body, 
man, thou'rt as safe as in thy father's kail-yard - Zounds! that a chield 
wi' sic a black beard should hae nae mair heart than a hen-partridge! - 
Come on wi' ye, like a frank fallow, anes and for aye."
The voices died away, and the subsequent trampling of their horses 
announced to us that they had left the mansion of Justice Inglewood.
The joy which that worthy magistrate received at this easy conclusion of a 
matter which threatened him with some trouble in his judicial capacity, was 
somewhat damped by reflection on what his clerk's views of the transaction 
might be at his return. "Now, I shall have Jobson on my shoulders about 
these damned papers - I doubt I should not have destroyed them, after all - 
But hang it! it is only paying his fees, and that will make all smooth - 
And now, Miss Die Vernon, though I have liberated all the others, I intend 
to sign a writ for committing you to the custody of Mother Blakes, my old 
housekeeper, for the evening, and we will send for my neighbour Mrs 
Musgrave, and the Miss Dawkins, and your cousins, and have old Cobs the 
fiddler, and be as merry as the maids; and Frank Osbaldistone and I will 
have a carouse that will make us fit company for you in half-an-hour."
"Thanks, most worshipful," returned Miss Vernon; "but, as matters stand, we 
must return instantly to Osbaldistone Hall, where they do not know what has 
become of us, and relieve my uncle of his anxiety on my cousin's account, 
which is just the same as if one of his own sons were concerned."
"I believe it truly," said the Justice; "for when his eldest son, Archie, 
came to a bad end, in that unlucky affair of Sir John Fenwick's, old 
Hildebrand used to hollo out his name as readily as any of the remaining 
six, and then complain that he could not recollect which of his sons had 
been hanged. So, pray hasten home, and relieve his paternal solicitude, 
since go you must. But hark thee hither, heath-blossom," he said, pulling 
her towards him by the hand, and in a good-humoured tone of admonition, 
"another time let the law take its course, without putting your pretty 
finger into her old musty pie, all full of fragments of law gibberish - 
French and dog-Latin - And, Die, my beauty, let young fellows show each 
other the way through the moors, in case you should lose your own road, 
while you are pointing out theirs, my pretty Will o' the Wisp."
With this admonition, he saluted and dismissed Miss Vernon, and took an 
equally kind farewell of me.
"Thou seems to be a good tight lad, Mr Frank, and I remember thy father too 
- he was my playfellow at school. Hark thee, lad, - ride early at night, 
and don't swagger with chance passengers on the king's highway. What, man! 
all the king's liege subjects are not bound to understand joking, and it's 
ill cracking jests on matters of felony. And here's poor Die Vernon too - 
in a manner alone and deserted on the face of this wide earth, and left to 
ride, and run, and scamper, at her own silly pleasure. Thou must be careful 
of Die, or, egad, I will turn a young fellow again on purpose, and fight 
thee myself, although I must own it would be a great deal of trouble. And 
now, get ye both gone, and leave me to my pipe of tobacco, and my 
meditations; for what says the song -

		The Indian leaf doth briefly burn;
		So doth man's strength to weakness turn
		The fire of youth extinguished quite,
		Comes age, like embers, dry and white.
			Think of this as you take tobacco."

I was much pleased with the gleams of sense and feeling which escaped from 
the Justice through the vapours of sloth and self-indulgence, assured him 
of my respect to his admonitions, and took a friendly farewell of the 
honest magistrate and his hospitable mansion.
We found a repast prepared for us in the ante-room, which we partook of 
slightly, and rejoined the same servant of Sir Hildebrand who had taken our 
horses at our entrance, and who had been directed, as he informed Miss 
Vernon, by Mr Rashleigh, to wait and attend upon us home. We rode a little 
way in silence, for, to say truth, my mind was too much bewildered with the 
events of the morning, to permit me to be the first to break it. At length 
Miss Vernon exclaimed, as if giving vent to her own reflections, "Well, 
Rashleigh is a man to be feared and wondered at, and all but loved; he does 
whatever he pleases, and makes all others his puppets - has a player ready 
to perform every part which he imagines, and an invention and readiness 
which supply expedients for every emergency."
"You think, then," said I, answering rather to her meaning, than to the 
express words she made use of, "that this Mr Campbell, whose appearance was 
so opportune, and who trussed up and carried off my accuser as a falcon 
trusses a partridge, was an agent of Mr Rashleigh Osbaldistone's?"
"I do guess as much," replied Diana; "and shrewdly suspect, moreover, that 
he would hardly have appeared so very much in the nick of time, if I had 
not happened to meet Rashleigh in the hall at the Justice's."
"In that case, my thanks are chiefly due to you, my fair preserver."
"To be sure they are," returned Diana; "and pray, suppose them paid, and 
accepted with a gracious smile, for I do not care to be troubled with 
hearing them in good earnest, and am much more likely to yawn than to 
behave becoming. In short, Mr Frank, I wished to serve you, and I have 
fortunately been able to do so, and have only one favour to ask in return, 
and that is, that you will say no more about it. - But who comes here to 
meet us, 'bloody with spurring, fiery-red with haste?' It is the 
subordinate man of law, I think - no less than Mr Joseph Jobson."
And Mr Joseph Jobson it proved to be, in great haste, and, as it speedily 
appeared, in most extreme bad humour. He came up to us, and stopped his 
horse, as we were about to pass with a slight salutation.
"So, sir - so, Miss Vernon - ay, I see well enough how it is - bail put in 
during my absence, I suppose - I should like to know who drew the 
recognisance, that's all. If his worship uses this form of procedure often, 
I advise him to get another clerk, that's all, for I shall certainly 
demit."
"Or suppose he get this present clerk stitched to his sleeve, Mr Jobson," 
said Diana; "would not that do as well? And pray, how does Farmer Rutledge, 
Mr Jobson? I hope you found him able to sign, seal, and deliver?"
This question seemed greatly to increase the wrath of the man of law. He 
looked at Miss Vernon with such an air of spite and resentment, as laid me 
under a strong temptation to knock him off his horse with the butt-end of 
my whip, which I only suppressed in consideration of his insignificance.
"Farmer Rutledge, ma'am?" said the clerk, as soon as his indignation 
permitted him to articulate, "Farmer Rutledge is in as handsome enjoyment 
of his health as you are - it's all a bam, ma'am - all a bamboozle and a 
bite, that affair of his illness; and if you did not know as much before, 
you know it now, ma'am."
"La you there now!" replied Miss Vernon, with an affectation of extreme and 
simple wonder, "sure you don't say so, Mr Jobson?"
"But I do say so, ma'am," rejoined the incensed scribe; "and moreover I say 
that the old miserly clod-breaker called me pettifogger - pettifogger, 
ma'am - and said I came to hunt for a job, ma'am - which I have no more 
right to have said to me than any other gentleman of my profession, ma'am - 
especially as I am clerk to the peace, having and holding said office under 
Trigesimo Septimo Henricj Octavi and Primo Gulielmi, the first of King 
William, ma'am, of glorious and immortal memory - our immortal deliverer 
from papists and pretenders, and wooden shoes and warming pans, Miss 
Vernon."
"Sad things, these wooden shoes and warming pans," retorted the young lady, 
who seemed to take pleasure in augmenting his wrath; - "and it is a comfort 
you don't seem to want a warming pan at present, Mr Jobson. I am afraid 
Gaffer Rutledge has not confined his incivility to language - Are you sure 
he did not give you a beating?"
"Beating, ma'am! - no" - (very shortly) - "no man alive shall beat me, I 
promise you, ma'am."
"That is according as you happen to merit, sir," said I: "for your mode of 
speaking to this young lady is so unbecoming, that, if you do not change 
your tone, I shall think it worth while to chastise you myself."
"Chastise, sir? and - me, sir? - Do you know whom you speak to, sir?"
"Yes, sir," I replied; "you say yourself you are clerk of peace to the 
county; and Gaffer Rutledge says you are a pettifogger; and in neither 
capacity are you entitled to be impertinent to a young lady of fashion."
Miss Vernon laid her hand on my arm, and exclaimed, "Come, Mr Osbaldistone, 
I will have no assaults and battery on Mr Jobson; I am not in sufficient 
charity with him to permit a single touch of your whip - why, he would live 
on it for a term at least. Besides, you have already hurt his feelings 
sufficiently - you have called him impertinent."
"I don't value his language, Miss," said the clerk, somewhat crestfallen: 
"besides, impertinent is not an actionable word; but pettifogger is slander 
in the highest degree, and that I will make Gaffer Rutledge know to his 
cost, and all who maliciously repeat the same, to the breach of the public 
peace, and the taking away of my private good name."
"Never mind that, Mr Jobson," said Miss Vernon; "you know, where there is 
nothing, your own law allows that the king himself must lose his rights; 
and for the taking away of your good name, I pity the poor fellow who gets 
it, and wish you joy of losing it with all my heart."
"Very well, ma'am - good evening, ma'am - I have no more to say - only 
there are laws against papists, which it would be well for the land were 
they better executed. There's third and fourth Edward VI., of antiphoners, 
missals, grailes, professionals, manuals, legends, pies, portuasses, and 
those that have such trinkets in their possession, Miss Vernon - and 
there's summoning of papists to take the oaths - and there are popish 
recusant convicts under the first of his present Majesty - ay, and there 
are penalties for hearing mass - See twenty-third of Queen Elizabeth, and 
third James First, chapter twenty-fifth. And there are estates to be 
registered, and deeds and wills to be enrolled, and double taxes to be 
made, according to the acts in that case made and provided -"
"See the new edition of the Statutes at Large, published under the careful 
revision of Joseph Jobson, Gent., Clerk of the Peace," said Miss Vernon.
"Also, and above all," continued Jobson, - "for I speak to your warning - 
you, Diana Vernon, spinstress, not being a femme couverte, and being a 
convict popish recusant, are bound to repair to your own dwelling, and that 
by the nearest way, under penalty of being held felon to the king - and 
diligently to seek for passage at common ferries, and to tarry there but 
one ebb and flood; and unless you can have it in such places, to walk every 
day into the water up to the knees, assaying to pass over."
"A sort of Protestant penance for my Catholic errors, I suppose," said Miss 
Vernon, laughing. - "Well, I thank you for the information, Mr Jobson, and 
will hie me home as fast as I can, and be a better housekeeper in time 
coming. Good-night, my dear Mr Jobson, thou mirror of clerical courtesy."
"Good-night, ma'am, and remember the law is not to be trifled with."
And we rode on our separate ways.
"There he goes for a troublesome mischief-making tool," said Miss Vernon, 
as she gave a glance after him; it is hard that persons of birth and rank 
and estate should be subjected to the official impertinence of such a 
paltry pickthank as that, merely for believing as the whole world believed 
not much above a hundred years ago - for certainly our Catholic Faith has 
the advantage of antiquity at least."
"I was much tempted to have broken the rascal's head," I replied.
"You would have acted very like a hasty young man," said Miss Vernon; "and 
yet, had my own hand been an ounce heavier than it is, I think I should 
have laid its weight upon him. Well, it does not signify complaining, but 
there are three things for which I am much to be pitied, if any one thought 
it worth while to waste any compassion upon me."
"And what are these three things, Miss Vernon, may I ask?"
"Will you promise me your deepest sympathy, if I tell you?"
"Certainly; - can you doubt it?" I replied, closing my horse nearer to hers 
as I spoke, with an expression of interest which I did not attempt to 
disguise.
"Well, it is very seducing to be pitied, after all; so here are my three 
grievances: In the first place, I am a girl, and not a young fellow, and 
would be shut up in a mad-house if I did half the things that I have a mind 
to; - and that, if I had your happy prerogative of acting as you list, 
would make all the world mad with imitating and applauding me."
"I can't quite afford you the sympathy you expect upon this score," I 
replied; "the misfortune is so general, that it belongs to one half of the 
species; and the other half -"
"Are so much better cared for, that they are jealous of their 
prerogatives," interrupted Miss Vernon - "I forgot you were a party 
interested. Nay," she said, as I was going to speak, "that soft smile is 
intended to be the preface of a very pretty compliment respecting the 
peculiar advantages which Die Vernon's friends and kinsmen enjoy, by her 
being born one of their Helots; but spare me the utterance, my good friend, 
and let us try whether we shall agree better on the second count of my 
indictment against fortune, as that quill-driving puppy would call it. I 
belong to an oppressed sect and antiquated religion, and, instead of 
getting credit for my devotion, as is due to all good girls beside, my kind 
friend, Justice Inglewood, may send me to the house of correction, merely 
for worshipping God in the way of my ancestors, and say, as old Pembroke 
did to the Abbess of Wilton, when he usurped her convent and establishment, 
Go spin, you jade, - Go spin.'"
"This is not a cureless evil," said I gravely. "Consult some of our learned 
divines, or consult your own excellent understanding, Miss Vernon; and 
surely the particulars in which our religious creed differs from that in 
which you have been educated -"
"Hush!" said Diana, placing her forefinger on her mouth, - "Hush! no more 
of that. Forsake the faith of my gallant fathers! I would as soon, were I a 
man, forsake their banner when the tide of battle pressed hardest against 
it, and turn, like a hireling recreant, to join the victorious enemy."
"I honour your spirit, Miss Vernon; and as to the inconveniences to which 
it exposes you, I can only say that wounds sustained for the sake of 
conscience carry their own balsam with the blow."
"Ay; but they are fretful and irritating, for all that. But I see, hard of 
heart as you are, my chance of beating hemp, or drawing out flax into 
marvellous coarse thread, affects you as little as my condemnation to coif 
and pinners, instead of beaver and cockade; so I will spare myself the 
fruitless pains of telling my third cause of vexation."
"Nay, my dear Miss Vernon, do not withdraw your confidence, and I will 
promise you, that the threefold sympathy due to your very unusual causes of 
distress shall be all duly and truly paid to account of the third, 
providing you assure me, that it is one which you neither share with all 
womankind, nor even with every Catholic in England, who, God bless you, are 
still a sect more numerous than we Protestants, in our zeal for church and 
state, would desire them to be."
"It is indeed," said Diana, with a manner greatly altered, and more serious 
than I had yet seen her assume, "a misfortune that well merits compassion. 
I am by nature, as you may easily observe, of a frank and unreserved 
disposition - a plain true-hearted girl, who would willingly act openly and 
honestly by the whole world, and yet fate has involved me in such a series 
of nets and toils, and entanglements, that I dare hardly speak a word for 
fear of consequences - not to myself, but to others."
"That is indeed a misfortune, Miss Vernon, which I do most sincerely 
compassionate, but which I should hardly have anticipated. "
"O, Mr Osbaldistone, if you but knew - if any one knew, what difficulty I 
sometimes find in hiding an aching heart with a smooth brow, you would 
indeed pity me. I do wrong, perhaps, in speaking to you even thus far on my 
own situation; but you are a young man of sense and penetration - you 
cannot but long to ask me a hundred questions on the events of this day - 
on the share which Rashleigh has in your deliverance from this petty scrape 
- upon many other points which cannot but excite your attention; and I 
cannot bring myself to answer with the necessary falsehood and finesse - I 
should do it awkwardly, and lose your good opinion, if I have any share of 
it, as well as my own. It is best to say at once, Ask me no questions, - I 
have it not in my power to reply to them."
Miss Vernon spoke these words with a tone of feeling which could not but 
make a corresponding impression upon me. I assured her she had neither to 
fear my urging her with impertinent questions, nor my misconstruing her 
declining to answer those which might in themselves be reasonable, or at 
least natural.
"I was too much obliged," I said, "by the interest she had taken in my 
affairs, to misuse the opportunity her goodness had afforded me of prying 
into hers - I only trusted and entreated, that if my services could at any 
time be useful, she would command them without doubt or hesitation."
"Thank you - thank you," she replied; "your voice does not ring the cuckoo 
chime of compliment, but speaks like that of one who knows to what he 
pledges himself. If - but it is impossible - but yet, if an opportunity 
should occur, I will ask you if you remember this promise; and I assure 
you, I shall not be angry if I find you have forgotten it, for it is enough 
that you are sincere in your intentions just now - much may occur to alter 
them ere I call upon you, should that moment ever come, to assist Die 
Vernon, as if you were Die Vernon's brother."
"And if I were Die Vernon's brother," said I, "there could not be less 
chance that I should refuse my assistance - And now I am afraid I must not 
ask whether Rashleigh was willingly accessory to my deliverance?"
"Not of me; but you may ask it of himself, and depend upon it, he will say 
yes; for rather than any good action should walk through the world like an 
unappropriated adjective in an ill-arranged sentence, he is always willing 
to stand noun substantive to it himself."
"And I must not ask whether this Campbell be himself the party who eased Mr 
Morris of his portmanteau, - or whether the letter, which our friend the 
attorney received, was not a finesse to withdraw him from the scene of 
action, lest he should have marred the happy event of my deliverance? And I 
must not ask -"
"You must ask nothing of me," said Miss Vernon; "so it is quite in vain to 
go on putting cases. You are to think just as well of me as if I had 
answered all these queries, and twenty others besides, as glibly as 
Rashleigh could have done; and observe, whenever I touch my chin just so, 
it is a sign that I cannot speak upon the topic which happens to occupy 
your attention. I must settle signals of correspondence with you, because 
you are to be my confidant and my counsellor, only you are to know nothing 
whatever of my affairs."
"Nothing can be more reasonable," I replied, laughing; "and the extent of 
your confidence will, you may rely upon it, only be equalled by the 
sagacity of my counsels."
This sort of conversation brought us, in the highest good-humour with each 
other, to Osbaldistone Hall, where we found the family far advanced in the 
revels of the evening.
"Get some dinner for Mr Osbaldistone and me in the library," said Miss 
Vernon to a servant. - "I must have some compassion upon you," she added, 
turning to me, "and provide against your starving in this mansion of brutal 
abundance; otherwise I am not sure that I should show you my private 
haunts. This same library is my den - the only corner of the Hall-house 
where I am safe from the Ourang-Outangs, my cousins. They never venture 
there, I suppose for fear the folios should fall down and crack their 
skulls; for they will never affect their heads in any other way - So follow 
me."
And I followed through hall and bower, vaulted passage and winding stair, 
until we reached the room where she had ordered our refreshments.



Chapter 10

		In the wide pile, by others heeded not,
		Hers was one sacred solitary spot,
		Whose gloomy aisles and bending shelves contain
		For moral hunger food, and cures for moral pain.
								-- Anonymous.


The library at Osbaldistone Hall was a gloomy room, whose antique oaken 
shelves bent beneath the weight of the ponderous folios so dear to the 
seventeenth century, from which, under favour be it spoken, we have 
distilled matter for our quartos and octavos, and which, once more 
subjected to the alembic, may, should our sons be yet more frivolous than 
ourselves, be still farther reduced into duodecimos and pamphlets. The 
collection was chiefly of the classics, as well foreign as ancient history, 
and, above all, divinity. It was in wretched order. The priests, who in 
succession had acted as chaplains at the Hall, were, for many years, the 
only persons who entered its precincts, until Rashleigh's thirst for 
reading had led him to disturb the venerable spiders, who had muffled the 
fronts of the presses with their tapestry. His destination for the church 
rendered his conduct less absurd in his father's eyes, than if any of his 
other descendants had betrayed so strange a propensity, and Sir Hildebrand 
acquiesced in the library receiving some repairs, so as to fit it for a 
sitting-room. Still an air of dilapidation, as obvious as it was 
uncomfortable, pervaded the large apartment, and announced the neglect from 
which the knowledge which its walls contained had not been able to exempt 
it. The tattered tapestry, the worm-eaten shelves, the huge and clumsy, yet 
tottering, tables, desks, and chairs, the rusty grate, seldom gladdened by 
either sea-coal or faggots, intimated the contempt of the lords of 
Osbaldistone Hall for learning, and for the volumes which record its 
treasures.
"You think this place somewhat disconsolate, I suppose?" said Diana, as I 
glanced my eye round the forlorn apartment; "but to me it seems like a 
little paradise, for I call it my own, and fear no intrusion. Rashleigh was 
joint proprietor with me, while we were friends."
"And are you no longer so?" was my natural question. Her forefinger 
immediately touched her dimpled chin, with an arch look of prohibition.
"We are still allies," she continued, "bound, like other confederate 
powers, by circumstances of mutual interest; but I am afraid, as will 
happen in other cases, the treaty of alliance has survived the amicable 
dispositions in which it had its origin. At any rate, we live less 
together; and when he comes through that door there, I vanish through this 
door here; and so, having made the discovery that we two were one too many 
for this apartment, as large as it seems, Rashleigh, whose occasions 
frequently call him elsewhere, has generously made a cession of his rights 
in my favour; so that I now endeavour to prosecute alone the studies in 
which he used formerly to be my guide."
"And what are those studies, if I may presume to ask?"
"Indeed you may, without the least fear of seeing my forefinger raised to 
my chin. Science and history are my principal favourites; but I also study 
poetry and the classics."
"And the classics? Do you read them in the original?"
"Unquestionably; Rashleigh, who is no contemptible scholar, taught me Greek 
and Latin, as well as most of the languages of modern Europe. I assure you, 
there has been some pains taken in my education, although I can neither sew 
a tucker, nor work cross-stitch, nor make a pudding, nor, as the vicar's 
fat wife, with as much truth as elegance, good-will, and politeness, was 
pleased to say in my behalf, do any other useful thing in the varsal 
world."
"And was this selection of studies Rashleigh's choice, or your own, Miss 
Vernon?" I asked.
"Um!" said she, as if hesitating to answer my question, - "it's not worth 
while lifting my finger about, after all - why, partly his and partly mine. 
As I learned out of doors to ride a horse, and bridle and saddle him in 
case of necessity, and to clear a five-barred gate, and fire a gun without 
winking, and all other of those masculine accomplishments that my brute 
cousins run mad after, I wanted, like my rational cousin, to read Greek and 
Latin within doors, and make my complete approach to the tree of knowledge, 
which you men-scholars would engross to yourselves, in revenge, I suppose, 
for our common mother's share in the great original transgression."
"And Rashleigh readily indulged your propensity to learning?"
"Why, he wished to have me for his scholar, and he could but teach me that 
which he knew himself - he was not likely to instruct me in the mysteries 
of washing lace-ruffles, or hemming cambric-handkerchiefs, I suppose."
"I admit the temptation of getting such a scholar, and have no doubt that 
it made a weighty consideration on the tutor's part."
"O, if you begin to investigate Rashleigh's motives, my finger touches my 
chin once more. I can only be frank where my own are enquired into. But to 
resume - he has resigned the library in my favour, and never enters without 
leave had and obtained: and so I have taken the liberty to make it the 
place of deposit for some of my own goods and chattels, as you may see by 
looking round you."
"I beg pardon, Miss Vernon, but I really see nothing around these walls 
which I can distinguish as likely to claim you as mistress."
"That is, I suppose, because you neither see a shepherd or shepherdess 
wrought in worsted, and handsomely framed in black ebony, - or a stuffed 
parrot, - or a breeding-cage, full of canary-birds, - or a housewife-case, 
broidered with tarnished silver, - or a toilette-table, with a nest of 
japanned boxes, with as many angles as Christmas minced-pies, - or a broken-
backed spinet, - or a lute with three strings, - or rock-work, - or shell-
work, - or needle-work, or work of any kind, - or a lapdog, with a litter 
of blind puppies - None of these treasures do I possess," she continued, 
after a pause, in order to recover the breath she had lost in enumerating 
them - "But there stands the sword of my ancestor Sir Richard Vernon, slain 
at Shrewsbury, and sorely slandered by a sad fellow called Will 
Shakespeare, whose Lancastrian partialities, and a certain knack at 
embodying them, has turned history upside down, or rather inside out; - and 
by that redoubted weapon hangs the mail of the still older Vernon, squire 
to the Black Prince, whose fate is the reverse of his descendant's, since 
he is more indebted to the bard, who took the trouble to celebrate him, for 
good-will than for talents, -

		"Amiddes the route you might discern one
		Brave knight, with pipes on shield, ycleped Vernon; 		 		Like a borne 
fiend along the plain he thundered,
		Prest to be carving throtes, while others plundered."

Then there is a model of a new martingale, which I invented myself - a 
great improvement on the Duke of Newcastle's; and there are the hood and 
bells of my falcon Cheviot, who spitted himself on a heron's bill at 
Horsely-moss - poor Cheviot, there is not a bird on the perches below, but 
are kites and riflers compared to him; and there is my own light fowling-
piece, with an improved firelock; with twenty other treasures, each more 
valuable than another - And there, that speaks for itself."
She pointed to the carved oak-frame of a full-length portrait by Vandyke, 
on which were inscribed, in Gothic letters, the words Vernon semper viret. 
I looked at her for explanation - "Do you not know," said she, with some 
surprise, "our motto - the Vernon motto, where,

		"Like the solemn vice, Iniquity,
		We moralise two meanings in one word"

And do you not know our cognisance, the pipes?" pointing to the armorial 
bearings sculptured on the oaken scutcheon, around which the legend was 
displayed.
"Pipes! - they look more like penny-whistles - But, pray, do not be angry 
with my ignorance," I continued, observing the colour mount to her cheeks, 
"I can mean no affront to your armorial bearings, for I do not even know my 
own."
"You an Osbaldistone, and confess so much!" she exclaimed. "Why, Percie, 
Thornie, John, Dickon - Wilfred himself, might be your instructor-Even 
ignorance itself is a plummet over you."
"With shame I confess it, my dear Miss Vernon, the mysteries couched under 
the grim hieroglyphics of heraldry are to me as unintelligible as those of 
the pyramids of Egypt."
"What! is it possible? - Why, even my uncle reads Gwillym sometimes of a 
winter night - Not know the figures of heraldry! - of what could your 
father be thinking?"
"Of the figures of arithmetic," I answered; "the most insignificant unit of 
which he holds more highly than all the blazonry of chivalry. But, though I 
am ignorant to this inexpressible degree, I have knowledge and taste enough 
to admire that splendid picture, in which I think I can discover a family 
likeness to you. What ease and dignity in the attitude - what richness of 
colouring - what breadth and depth of shade!"
"Is it really a fine painting?" she asked.
"I have seen many works of the renowned artist," I replied, "but never 
beheld one more to my liking!"
"Well, I know as little of pictures as you do of heraldry," replied Miss 
Vernon; "yet I have the advantage of you, because I have always admired the 
painting without understanding its value."
"While I have neglected pipes and tabors, and all the whimsical 
combinations of chivalry, still I am informed that they floated in the 
fields of ancient fame. But you will allow their exterior appearance is not 
so peculiarly interesting to the uninformed spectator as that of a fine 
painting. - Who is the person here represented?"
"My grandfather - he shared the misfortunes of Charles I.; and, I am sorry 
to add, the excesses of his son. Our patrimonial estate was greatly 
impaired by his prodigality, and was altogether lost by his successor, my 
unfortunate father. But peace be with them who have got it - it was lost in 
the cause of loyalty."
"Your father, I presume, suffered in the political dissensions of the 
period?"
"He did indeed; he lost his all. And hence is his child a dependent orphan; 
eating the bread of others; subjected to their caprices, and compelled to 
study their inclinations: Yet prouder of having had such a father, than if, 
playing a more prudent but less upright part, he had left me possessor of 
all the rich and fair baronies which his family once possessed."
As she thus spoke, the entrance of the servants with dinner cut off all 
conversation but that of a general nature.
When our hasty meal was concluded, and the wine placed on the table, the 
domestic informed us, "that Mr Rashleigh had desired to be told when our 
dinner was removed."
"Tell him," said Miss Vernon, "we shall be happy to see him if he will step 
this way - place another wine-glass and chair, and leave the room, - You 
must retire with him when he goes away," she continued, addressing herself 
to me; "even my liberality cannot spare a gentleman above eight hours out 
of the twenty-four; and I think we have been together for at least that 
length of time."
"The old scythe-man has moved so rapidly," I answered, "that I could not 
count his strides."
"Hush!" said Miss Vernon, "here comes Rashleigh;" and she drew off her 
chair, to which I had approached mine rather closely, so as to place a 
greater distance between us.
A modest tap at the door, - a gentle manner of opening when invited to 
enter, - a studied softness and humility of step and deportment, announced 
that the education of Rashleigh Osbaldistone at the College of St. Omers 
accorded well with the ideas I entertained of the manners of an 
accomplished Jesuit. I need not add, that, as a sound Protestant, these 
ideas were not the most favourable. "Why should you use the ceremony of 
knocking," said Miss Vernon, "when you knew that I was not alone?"
This was spoken with a burst of impatience, as if she had felt that 
Rashleigh's air of caution and reserve covered some insinuation of 
impertinent suspicion. "You have taught me the form of knocking at this 
door so perfectly, my fair cousin," answered Rashleigh, without change of 
voice or manner, "that habit has become a second nature."
"I prize sincerity more than courtesy, sir, and you know I do," was Miss 
Vernon's reply.
"Courtesy is a gallant gay, a courtier by name and by profession," replied 
Rashleigh, "and therefore most fit for a lady's bower."
"But Sincerity is the true knight," retorted Miss Vernon, "and therefore 
much more welcome, cousin. But, to end a debate not over amusing to your 
stranger kinsman, sit down, Rashleigh, and give Mr Francis Osbaldistone 
your countenance to his glass of wine. I have done the honours of the 
dinner, for the credit of Osbaldistone Hall."
Rashleigh sate down, and filled his glass, glancing his eye from Diana to 
me, with an embarrassment which his utmost efforts could not entirely 
disguise. I thought he appeared to be uncertain concerning the extent of 
confidence she might have reposed in me, and hastened to lead the 
conversation into a channel which would sweep away his suspicion that Diana 
might have betrayed any secrets which rested between them. "Miss Vernon," I 
said, "Mr Rashleigh has recommended me to return my thanks to you for my 
speedy disengagement from the ridiculous accusation of Morris; and, 
unjustly fearing my gratitude might not be warm enough to remind me of this 
duty, she has put my curiosity on its side, by referring me to you for an 
account, or rather explanation, of the events of the day."
"Indeed?" answered Rashleigh; "I should have thought," (looking keenly at 
Miss Vernon,) "that the lady herself might have stood interpreter;" and his 
eye, reverting from her face, sought mine, as if to search, from the 
expression of my features, whether Diana's communication had been as 
narrowly limited as my words had intimated. Miss Vernon retorted his 
inquisitorial glance with one of decided scorn; while I, uncertain whether 
to deprecate or resent his obvious suspicion, replied, "If it is your 
pleasure, Mr Rashleigh, as it has been Miss Vernon's, to leave me in 
ignorance, I must necessarily submit; but, pray, do not withhold your 
information from me, on the ground of imagining that I have already 
obtained any on the subject. For I tell you as a man of honour, I am as 
ignorant as that picture of any thing relating to the events I have 
witnessed today, excepting that I understand from Miss Vernon that you have 
been kindly active in my favour."
"Miss Vernon has overrated my humble efforts," said Rashleigh, "though I 
claim full credit for my zeal. The truth is that as I galloped back to get 
some one of our family to join me in becoming your bail, which was the most 
obvious, or, indeed, I may say, the only way of serving you which occurred 
to my stupidity, I met the man Cawmil - Colville - Campbell, or whatsoever 
they call him. I had understood from Morris that he was present when the 
robbery took place, and had the good fortune to prevail on him (with some 
difficulty, I confess) to tender his evidence in your exculpation - which I 
presume was the means of your being released from an unpleasant situation."
"Indeed? - I am much your debtor for procuring such a seasonable evidence 
in my behalf. But I cannot see why (having been, as he said, a fellow-
sufferer with Morris) it should have required much trouble to persuade him 
to step forth and bear evidence, whether to convict the actual robber, or 
free an innocent person."
"You do not know the genius of that man's country, sir," answered 
Rashleigh; - "discretion, prudence, and foresight, are their leading 
qualities; these are only modified by a narrow-spirited, but yet ardent 
patriotism, which forms as it were the outmost of the concentric bulwarks 
with which a Scotchman fortifies himself against all the attacks of a 
generous philanthropical principle. Surmount this mound, you find an inner 
and still dearer barrier - the love of his province, his village, or, most 
probably, his clan; storm this second obstacle, you have a third - his 
attachment to his own family - his father, mother, sons, daughters, uncles, 
aunts, and cousins, to the ninth generation. It is within these limits that 
a Scotchman's social affection expands itself, never reaching those which 
are outermost, till all means of discharging itself in the interior circles 
have been exhausted. It is within these circles that his heart throbs, each 
pulsation being fainter and fainter, till, beyond the widest boundary, it 
is almost unfelt. And what is worst of all, could you surmount all these 
concentric outworks, you have an inner citadel, deeper, higher, and more 
efficient than them all - a Scotchman's love for himself."
"All this is extremely eloquent and metaphorical, Rashleigh," said Miss 
Vernon, who listened with unrepressed impatience; "there are only two 
objections to it: first, it is not true; secondly, if true, it is nothing 
to the purpose."
"It is true, my fairest Diana," returned Rashleigh; "and moreover, it is 
most instantly to the purpose. It is true, because you cannot deny that I 
know the country and people intimately, and the character is drawn from 
deep and accurate consideration - and it is to the purpose, because it 
answers Mr Osbaldistone's question, and shows why this same wary Scotchman, 
considering our kinsman to be neither his countryman, nor a Campbell, nor 
his cousin in any of the inextricable combinations by which they extend 
their pedigree; and, above all, seeing no prospect of personal advantage, 
but, on the contrary, much hazard of loss of time and delay of business -"
"With other inconveniences, perhaps, of a nature yet more formidable," 
interrupted Miss Vernon.
"Of which, doubtless, there might be many," said Rashleigh, continuing in 
the same tone - "In short, my theory shows why this man, hoping for no 
advantage, and afraid of some inconvenience, might require a degree of 
persuasion ere he could be prevailed on to give his testimony in favour of 
Mr Osbaldistone."
"It seems surprising to me," I observed, "that during the glance I cast 
over the declaration, or whatever it is termed, of Mr Morris, he should 
never have mentioned that Campbell was in his company when he met the 
marauders."
"I understood from Campbell, that he had taken his solemn promise not to 
mention that circumstance," replied Rashleigh; "his reason for exacting 
such an engagement you may guess from what I have hinted - he wished to get 
back to his own country undelayed and unembarrassed by any of the judicial 
enquiries which he would have been under the necessity of attending, had 
the fact of his being present at the robbery taken air while he was on this 
side of the Border. But let him once be as distant as the Forth, Morris 
will, I warrant you, come forth with all he knows about him, and, it may 
be, a good deal more. Besides, Campbell is a very extensive dealer in 
cattle, and has often occasion to send great droves into Northumberland; 
and, when driving such a trade, he would be a great fool to embroil himself 
with our Northumbrian thieves, than whom no men who live are more 
vindictive."
"I dare be sworn of that," said Miss Vernon, with a tone which implied 
something more than a simple acquiescence in the proposition.
"Still," said I, resuming the subject, "allowing the force of the reasons 
which Campbell might have for desiring that Morris should be silent with 
regard to his promise when the robbery was committed, I cannot yet see how 
he could attain such an influence over the man, as to make him suppress his 
evidence in that particular, at the manifest risk of subjecting his story 
to discredit."
Rashleigh agreed with me, that it was very extraordinary, and seemed to 
regret that he had not questioned the Scotchman more closely on that 
subject, which he allowed looked extremely mysterious. "But," he asked, 
immediately after this acquiescence, "are you very sure the circumstance of 
Morris's being accompanied by Campbell, is really not alluded to in his 
examination?"
"I read the paper over hastily," said I; "but it is my strong impression, 
that no such circumstance is mentioned; at least, it must have been touched 
on very slightly, since it failed to catch my attention."
"True, true," answered Rashleigh, forming his own inference while he 
adopted my words; "I incline to think with you, that the circumstance must 
in reality have been mentioned, but so slightly that it failed to attract 
your attention. And then, as to Campbell's interest with Morris, I incline 
to suppose that it must have been gained by playing upon his fears. This 
chicken-hearted fellow, Morris, is bound, I understand, for Scotland, 
destined for some little employment under government; and, possessing the 
courage of the wrathful dove, or most magnanimous mouse, he may have been 
afraid to encounter the ill-will of such a kill-cow as Campbell, whose very 
appearance would be enough to fright him out of his little wits. You 
observed that Mr Campbell has at times a keen and animated manner - 
something of a martial cast in his tone and bearing."
"I own," I replied, "that his expression struck me as being occasionally 
fierce and sinister, and little adapted to his peaceable professions. Has 
he served in the army?"
"Yes - no - not, strictly speaking, served; but he has been, I believe, 
like most of his countrymen, trained to arms. Indeed, among the hills, they 
carry them from boyhood to the grave. So, if you know anything of your 
fellow-traveller, you will easily judge, that, going to such a country, he 
will take care to avoid a quarrel, if he can help it, with any of the 
natives. - But, come, I see you decline your wine - and I too am a 
degenerate Osbaldistone, so far as respects the circulation of the bottle. 
If you will go to my room, I will hold you a hand at piquet."
We rose to take leave of Miss Vernon, who had from time to time suppressed, 
apparently with difficulty, a strong temptation to break in upon 
Rashleigh's details. As we were about to leave the room, the smothered fire 
broke forth.
"Mr Osbaldistone," she said, "your own observation will enable you to 
verify the justice, or injustice, of Rashleigh's suggestions concerning 
such individuals as Mr Campbell and Mr Morris. But, in slandering Scotland, 
he has borne false witness against a whole country; and I request you will 
allow no weight to his evidence."
"Perhaps," I answered, "I may find it somewhat difficult to obey your 
injunction, Miss Vernon; for I must own I was bred up with no very 
favourable idea of our northern neighbours."
"Distrust that part of your education, sir," she replied, "and let the 
daughter of a Scotchwoman pray you to respect the land which gave her 
parent birth, until your own observation has proved them to be unworthy of 
your good opinion. Preserve your hatred and contempt for dissimulation, 
baseness, and falsehood, wheresoever they are to be met with. You will find 
enough of all without leaving England. - Adieu, gentlemen, - I wish you 
good evening."
And she signed to the door, with the manner of a princess dismissing her 
train.
We retired to Rashleigh's apartment, where a servant brought us coffee and 
cards. I had formed my resolution to press Rashleigh no farther on the 
events of the day. A mystery, and, as I thought, not of a favourable 
complexion, appeared to hang over his conduct; but to ascertain if my 
suspicions were just, it was necessary to throw him off his guard. We cut 
for the deal, and were soon earnestly engaged in our play. I thought I 
perceived in this trifling for amusement (for the stake which Rashleigh 
proposed was a mere trifle) something of a fierce and ambitious temper. He 
seemed perfectly to understand the beautiful game at which he played, but 
preferred, as it were on principle, the risking bold and precarious strokes 
to the ordinary rules of play; and neglecting the minor and better balanced 
chances of the game, he hazarded everything for the chance of piqueing, 
repiqueing, or capoting his adversary. So soon as the intervention of a 
game or two at piquet, like the music between the acts of a drama, had 
completely interrupted our previous course of conversation, Rashleigh 
appeared to tire of the game, and the cards were superseded by discourse, 
in which he assumed the lead.
More learned than soundly wise - better acquainted with men's minds than 
with the moral principles that ought to regulate them, he had still powers 
of conversation which I have rarely seen equalled, never excelled. Of this 
his manner implied some consciousness; at least, it appeared to me that he 
had studied hard to improve his natural advantages of a melodious voice, 
fluent and happy expression, apt language, and fervid imagination. He was 
never loud, never overbearing, never so much occupied with his own thoughts 
as to outrun either the patience or the comprehension of those he conversed 
with. His ideas succeeded each other with the gentle but unintermitting 
flow of a plentiful and bounteous spring; while I have heard those of 
others, who aimed at distinction in conversation, rush along like the 
turbid gush from the sluice of a mill-pond, as hurried, and as easily 
exhausted. It was late at night ere I could part from a companion so 
fascinating; and, when I gained my own apartment, it cost me no small 
effort to recall to my mind the character of Rashleigh, such as I had 
pictured him previous to this tete-a-tete.
So effectual, my dear Tresham, does the sense of being pleased and amused 
blunt our faculties of perception and discrimination of character, that I 
can only compare it to the taste of certain fruits, at once luscious and 
poignant, which renders our palate totally unfit for relishing or 
distinguishing the viands which are subsequently subjected to its 
criticisms.



Chapter 11

			What gars ye gaunt, my merrymen a'?
				What gars ye look sae dreary?
			What gars ye hing your head sae sair
				In the castle of Balwearie?
							-- Old Scotch Ballad.


The next morning chanced to be Sunday, a day peculiarly hard to be got rid 
of at Osbaldistone Hall; for after the formal religious service of the 
morning had been performed, at which all the family regularly attended, it 
was hard to say upon which individual, Rashleigh and Miss Vernon excepted, 
the fiend of ennui descended with the most abundant outpouring of his 
spirit. To speak of my yesterday's embarrassment amused Sir Hildebrand for 
several minutes, and he congratulated me on my deliverance from Morpeth or 
Hexham jail, as he would have done if I had fallen in attempting to clear a 
five-barred gate, and got up without hurting myself.
"Hast had a lucky turn, lad; but do na be over venturous again. What, man! 
the king's road is free to all men, be they Whigs, be they Tories."
"On my word, sir, I am innocent of interrupting it; and it is the most 
provoking thing on earth, that every person will take it for granted that I 
am accessory to a crime which I despise and detest, and which would, 
moreover, deservedly forfeit my life to the laws of my country."
"Well, well, lad; even so be it; I ask no questions - no man bound to tell 
on himsell - that's fair play, or the devil's in't."
Rashleigh here came to my assistance; but I could not help thinking that 
his arguments were calculated rather as hints to his father to put on a 
show of acquiescence in my declaration of innocence, than fully to 
establish it.
"In your own house, my dear sir - and your own nephew - you will not surely 
persist in hurting his feelings by seeming to discredit what he is so 
strongly interested in affirming. No doubt, you are fully deserving of all 
his confidence, and I am sure, were there anything you could do to assist 
him in this strange affair, he would have recourse to your goodness. But my 
cousin Frank has been dismissed as an innocent man, and no one is entitled 
to suppose him otherwise. For my part, I have not the least doubt of his 
innocence; and our family honour, I conceive, requires that we should 
maintain it with tongue and sword against the whole country."
"Rashleigh," said his father, looking fixedly at him, "thou art a sly loon 
- thou hast ever been too cunning for me, and too cunning for most folks. 
Have a care thou provena too cunning for thysell - two faces under one hood 
is no true heraldry. And since we talk of heraldry, I'll go and read 
Gwillym."
This resolution he intimated with a yawn, resistless as that of the Goddess 
in the Dunciad, which was responsively echoed by his giant sons, as they 
dispersed in quest of the pastimes to which their minds severally inclined 
them - Percie to discuss a pot of March beer with the steward in the 
buttery, - Thorncliff to cut a pair of cudgels, and fix them in their 
wicker hilts, - John to dress May-flies, - Dickon to play at pitch and toss 
by himself, his right hand against his left, - and Wilfred to bite his 
thumbs and hum himself into a slumber which should last till dinner-time, 
if possible. Miss Vernon had retired to the library.
Rashleigh and I were left alone in the old hall, from which the servants, 
with their usual bustle and awkwardness, had at length contrived to hurry 
the remains of our substantial breakfast. I took the opportunity to upbraid 
him with the manner in which he had spoken of my affair to his father, 
which I frankly stated was highly offensive to me, as it seemed rather to 
exhort Sir Hildebrand to conceal his suspicions, than to root them out.
"Why, what can I do, my dear friend?" replied Rashleigh "my father's 
disposition is so tenacious of suspicions of all kinds, when once they take 
root (which, to do him justice, does not easily happen), that I have always 
found it the best way to silence him upon such subjects, instead of arguing 
with him. Thus I get the better of the weeds which I cannot eradicate, by 
cutting them over as often as they appear, until at length they die away of 
themselves. There is neither wisdom nor profit in disputing with such a 
mind as Sir Hildebrand's, which hardens itself against conviction, and 
believes in its own inspirations as firmly as we good Catholics do in those 
of the Holy Father of Rome."
"It is very hard, though, that I should live in the house of a man, and he 
a near relation too, who will persist in believing me guilty of a highway 
robbery."
"My father's foolish opinion, if one may give that epithet to any opinion 
of a father's, does not affect your real innocence; and as to the disgrace 
of the fact, depend on it, that, considered in all its bearings, political 
as well as moral, Sir Hildebrand regards it as a meritorious action - a 
weakening of the enemy - a spoiling of the Amalekites; and you will stand 
the higher in his regard for your supposed accession to it."
"I desire no man's regard, Mr Rashleigh, on such terms as must sink me in 
my own; and I think these injurious suspicions will afford a very good 
reason for quitting Osbaldistone Hall, which I shall do whenever I can 
communicate on the subject with my father."
The dark countenance of Rashleigh, though little accustomed to betray its 
master's feelings, exhibited a suppressed smile, which he instantly 
chastened by a sigh.
"You are a happy man, Frank - you go and come, as the wind bloweth where it 
listeth. With your address, taste, and talents, you will soon find circles 
where they will be more valued, than amid the dull inmates of this mansion; 
while I -" he paused.
"And what is there in your lot that can make you or any one envy mine, - an 
outcast, as I may almost term myself, from my father's house and favour?"
"Ay, but," answered Rashleigh, "consider the gratified sense of 
independence which you must have attained by a very temporary sacrifice, - 
for such I am sure yours will prove to be; consider the power of acting as 
a free agent, of cultivating your own talents in the way to which your 
taste determines you, and in which you are well qualified to distinguish 
yourself. Fame and freedom are cheaply purchased by a few weeks' residence 
in the North, even though your place of exile be Osbaldistone Hall. A 
second Ovid in Thrace, you have not his reasons for writing Tristia."
"I do not know," said I, blushing as became a young scribbler, "how you 
should be so well acquainted with my truant studies."
"There was an emissary of your father's here some time since, a young 
coxcomb, one Twineall, who informed me concerning your secret sacrifices to 
the muses, and added, that some of your verses had been greatly admired by 
the best judges."
Tresham, I believe you are guiltless of having ever essayed to build the 
lofty rhyme; but you must have known in your day many an apprentice and 
fellow-craft, if not some of the master-masons, in the temple of Apollo. 
Vanity is their universal foible, from him who decorated the shades of 
Twickenham, to the veriest scribbler whom he has lashed in his Dunciad. I 
had my own share of this common failing, and without considering how little 
likely this young fellow Twineall was, by taste and habits, either to be 
acquainted with one or two little pieces of poetry, which I had at times 
insinuated into Button's coffee-house, or to report the opinion of the 
critics who frequented that resort of wit and literature, I almost 
instantly gorged the bait; which Rashleigh perceiving, improved his 
opportunity by a diffident, yet apparently very anxious request to be 
permitted to see some of my manuscript productions.
"You shall give me an evening in my own apartment," he continued; "for I 
must soon lose the charms of literary society for the drudgery of commerce, 
and the coarse every-day avocations of the world. I repeat it, that my 
compliance with my father's wishes for the advantage of my family, is 
indeed a sacrifice, especially considering the calm and peaceful profession 
to which my education destined me."
I was vain, but not a fool, and this hypocrisy was too strong for me to 
swallow. "You would not persuade me," I replied, that you really regret to 
exchange the situation of an obscure Catholic priest, with all its 
privations, for wealth and society, and the pleasures of the world?"
Rashleigh saw that he had coloured his affectation of moderation too 
highly, and, after a second's pause, during which, I suppose, he calculated 
the degree of candour which it was necessary to use with me (that being a 
quality of which he was never needlessly profuse), he answered, with a 
smile - "At my age, to be condemned, as you say, to wealth and the world, 
does not, indeed, sound so alarming as perhaps it ought to do. But, with 
pardon be it spoken, you have mistaken my destination - a Catholic priest, 
if you will, but not an obscure one. No, sir, - Rashleigh Osbaldistone will 
be more obscure, should he rise to be the richest citizen in London, than 
he might have been as a member of a church, whose ministers, as some one 
says, 'set their sandall'd feet on princes.' My family interest at a 
certain exiled court is high, and the weight which that court ought to 
possess, and does possess, at Rome is yet higher - my talents not 
altogether inferior to the education I have received. In sober judgement, I 
might have looked forward to high eminence in the church - in the dream of 
fancy, to the very highest. Why might not" - (he added, laughing, for it 
was part of his manner to keep much of his discourse apparently betwixt 
jest and earnest) - "why might not Cardinal Osbaldistone have swayed the 
fortunes of empires, well-born and well-connected, as well as the low-born 
Mazarin, or Alberoni, the son of an Italian gardener?"
"Nay, I can give you no reason to the contrary; but in your place I should 
not much regret losing the chance of such precarious and invidious 
elevation."
"Neither would I," he replied, "were I sure that my present establishment 
was more certain; but that must depend upon circumstances which I can only 
learn by experience - the disposition of your father, for example."
"Confess the truth without finesse, Rashleigh; you would willingly know 
something of him from me?"
"Since, like Die Vernon, you make a point of following the banner of the 
good knight Sincerity, I reply - certainly."
"Well, then, you will find in my father a man who has followed the paths of 
thriving more for the exercise they afforded to his talents, than for the 
love of the gold with which they are strewed. His active mind would have 
been happy in any situation which gave it scope for exertion, though that 
exertion had been its sole reward. But his wealth has accumulated, because, 
moderate and frugal in his habits, no new sources of expense have occurred 
to dispose of his increasing income. He is a man who hates dissimulation in 
others; never practises it himself; and is peculiarly alert in discovering 
motives through the colouring of language. Himself silent by habit, he is 
readily disgusted by great talkers; the rather, that the circumstances by 
which he is most interested, afford no great scope for conversation. He is 
severely strict in the duties of religion; but you have no reason to fear 
his interference with yours, for he regards toleration as a sacred 
principle of political economy. But if you have any Jacobitical 
partialities, as is naturally to be supposed, you will do well to suppress 
them in his presence, as well as the least tendency to the highflying or 
Tory principles; for he holds both in utter detestation. For the rest, his 
word is his own bond, and must be the law of all who act under him. He will 
fail in his duty to no one, and will permit no one to fail towards him; to 
cultivate his favour, you must execute his commands, instead of echoing his 
sentiments. His greatest failings arise out of prejudices connected with 
his own profession, or rather his exclusive devotion to it, which makes him 
see little worthy of praise or attention, unless it be in some measure 
connected with commerce."
"O rare-painted portrait!" exclaimed Rashleigh, when I was silent - 
"Vandyke was a dauber to you, Frank. I see thy sire before me in all his 
strength and weakness; loving and honouring the King as a sort of lord 
mayor of the empire, or chief of the board of trade - venerating the 
Commons, for the acts regulating the export trade - and respecting the 
Peers, because the Lord Chancellor sits on a woolsack."
"Mine was a likeness, Rashleigh; yours is a caricature. But in return for 
the carte du pays which I have unfolded to you, give me some lights on the 
geography of the unknown lands" -
"On which you are wrecked," said Rashleigh. "It is not worth while; it is 
no Isle of Calypso, umbrageous with shade and intricate with silvan 
labyrinth - but a bare ragged Northumbrian moor, with as little to interest 
curiosity as to delight the eye; you may descry it in all its nakedness in 
half an hour's survey, as well as if I were to lay it down before you by 
line and compass."
"O, but something there is, worthy a more attentive survey - What say you 
to Miss Vernon? Does not she form an interesting object in the landscape, 
were all round as rude as Iceland's coast?"
I could plainly perceive that Rashleigh disliked the topic now presented to 
him; but my frank communication had given me the advantageous title to make 
inquiries in my turn. Rashleigh felt this, and found himself obliged to 
follow my lead, however difficult he might find it to play his cards 
successfully. "I have known less of Miss Vernon," he said, "for some time, 
than I was wont to do formerly. In early age I was her tutor; but as she 
advanced towards womanhood, my various avocations, - the gravity of the 
profession to which I was destined, - the peculiar nature of her 
engagements, - our mutual situation, in short, rendered a close and 
constant intimacy dangerous and improper. I believe Miss Vernon might 
consider my reserve as unkindness, but it was my duty; I felt as much as 
she seemed to do, when compelled to give way to prudence. But where was the 
safety in cultivating an intimacy with a beautiful and susceptible girl, 
whose heart, you are aware, must be given either to the cloister or to a 
betrothed husband?"
"The cloister or a betrothed husband?" I echoed - "Is that the alternative 
destined for Miss Vernon?"
"It is indeed," said Rashleigh, with a sigh. "I need not, I suppose, 
caution you against the danger of cultivating too closely the friendship of 
Miss Vernon; - you are a man of the world, and know how far you can indulge 
yourself in her society with safety to yourself, and justice to her. But I 
warn you, that, considering her ardent temper, you must let your experience 
keep guard over her as well as yourself, for the specimen of yesterday may 
serve to show her extreme thoughtlessness and neglect of decorum."
There was something, I was sensible, of truth, as well as good sense, in 
all this; it seemed to be given as a friendly warning, and I had no right 
to take it amiss; yet I felt I could with pleasure have run Rashleigh 
Osbaldistone through the body all the time he was speaking.
"The deuce take his insolence!" was my internal meditation. "Would he wish 
me to infer that Miss Vernon had fallen in love with that hatchet-face of 
his, and become degraded so low as to require his shyness to cure her of an 
imprudent passion? I will have his meaning from him," was my resolution, 
"if I should drag it out with cart-ropes."
For this purpose, I placed my temper under as accurate a guard as I could, 
and observed, "That, for a lady of her good sense and acquired 
accomplishments, it was to be regretted that Miss Vernon's manners were 
rather blunt and rustic."
"Frank and unreserved, at least, to the extreme," replied Rashleigh: "yet, 
trust me, she has an excellent heart. To tell you the truth, should she 
continue her extreme aversion to the cloister, and to her destined husband, 
and should my own labours in the mine of Plutus promise to secure me a 
decent independence, I shall think of reviewing our acquaintance and 
sharing it with Miss Vernon."
"With all his fine voice, and well-turned periods," thought I, "this same 
Rashleigh Osbaldistone is the ugliest and most conceited coxcomb I ever met 
with!"
"But," continued Rashleigh, as if thinking aloud, "I should not like to 
supplant Thorncliff."
"Supplant Thorncliff! - Is your brother Thorncliff," I inquired, with great 
surprise, "the destined husband of Diana Vernon?"
"Why, ay, her father's commands, and a certain family-contract, destined 
her to marry one of Sir Hildebrand's sons. A dispensation has been obtained 
from Rome to Diana Vernon to marry Blank Osbaldistone, Esq., son of Sir 
Hildebrand Osbaldistone, of Osbaldistone Hall, Bart., and so forth; and it 
only remains to pitch upon the happy man whose name shall fill the gap in 
the manuscript. Now, as Percie is seldom sober, my father pitched on 
Thorncliff, as the second prop of the family, and therefore most proper to 
carry on the line of the Osbaldistones."
"The young lady," said I, forcing myself to assume an air of pleasantry, 
which, I believe, became me extremely ill, "would perhaps have been 
inclined to look a little lower on the family-tree, for the branch to which 
she was desirous of clinging."
"I cannot say," he replied. "There is room for little choice in our family; 
Dick is a gambler, John a boor, and Wilfred an ass. I believe my father 
really made the best selection for poor Die, after all."
"The present company," said I, "being always excepted."
"Oh, my destination to the church placed me out of the question; otherwise 
I will not affect to say that, qualified by my education both to instruct 
and guide Miss Vernon, I might not have been a more creditable choice than 
any of my elders."
"And so thought the young lady, doubtless?"
"You are not to suppose so," answered Rashleigh, with an affectation of 
denial which was contrived to convey the strongest affirmation the case 
admitted of: "friendship - only friendship - formed the tie betwixt us, and 
the tender affection of an opening mind to its only instructor - Love came 
not near us - I told you I was wise in time."
I felt little inclination to pursue this conversation any farther, and 
shaking myself clear of Rashleigh, withdrew to my own apartment, which I 
recollect I traversed with much vehemence of agitation, repeating aloud the 
expressions which had most offended me. - "Susceptible - ardent - tender 
affection - Love - Diana Vernon, the most beautiful creature I ever beheld, 
in love with him, the bandy-legged, bull-necked, limping scoundrel! Richard 
the Third in all but his hump-back! - And yet the opportunities he must 
have had during his cursed course of lectures; and the fellow's flowing and 
easy strain of sentiment; and her extreme seclusion from every one who 
spoke and acted with common sense; ay, and her obvious pique at him, mixed 
with admiration of his talents, which looked as like the result of 
neglected attachment as anything else - Well, and what is it to me, that I 
should storm and rage at it? Is Diana Vernon the first pretty girl that has 
loved and married an ugly fellow? And if she were free of every 
Osbaldistone of them, what concern is it of mine? - a Catholic - a Jacobite 
- a termagant into the boot - for me to look that way were utter madness."
By throwing such reflections on the flame of my displeasure, I subdued it 
into a sort of smouldering heart-burning, and appeared at the dinner-table 
in as sulky a humour as could well be imagined.



Chapter 12

		Drunk? - and speak parrot? - and squabble? - swagger? -
		Swear? - and discourse fustian with one's own shadow?
									-- Othello.


I have already told you, my dear Tresham, what probably was no news to you, 
that my principal fault was an unconquerable pitch of pride, which exposed 
me to frequent mortification. I had not even whispered to myself that I 
loved Diana Vernon; yet no sooner did I hear Rashleigh talk of her as a 
prize which he might stoop to carry off, or neglect, at his pleasure, than 
every step which the poor girl had taken, in the innocence and openness of 
her heart, to form a sort of friendship with me, seemed in my eyes the most 
insulting coquetry. - "Soh! she would secure me as a pis aller, I suppose, 
in case Mr Rashleigh Osbaldistone should not take compassion upon her! But 
I will satisfy her that I am not a person to be trepanned in that manner - 
I will make her sensible that I see through her arts, and that I scorn 
them."
I did not reflect for a moment, that all this indignation, which I had no 
right whatever to entertain, proved that I was anything but indifferent to 
Miss Vernon's charms; and I sate down to table in high ill-humour with her 
and all the daughters of Eve.
Miss Vernon heard me, with surprise, return ungracious answers to one or 
two playful strokes of satire which she threw out with her usual freedom of 
speech; but, having no suspicion that offence was meant, she only replied 
to my rude repartees with jests somewhat similar, but polished by her good 
temper, though pointed by her wit. At length she perceived I was really out 
of humour, and answered one of my rude speeches thus: -
"They say, Mr Frank, that one may gather sense from fools - I heard cousin 
Wilfred refuse to play any longer at cudgels the other day with cousin 
Thornie, because cousin Thornie got angry, and struck harder than the rules 
of amicable combat, it seems, permitted. 'Were I to break your head in good 
earnest,' quoth honest Wilfred, 'I care not how angry you are, for I should 
do it so much the more easily but it's hard I should get raps over the 
costard, and only pay you back in make-believes' - Do you understand the 
moral of this, Frank?"
"I have never felt myself under the necessity, madam, of studying how to 
extract the slender portion of sense with which this family season their 
conversation."
"Necessity! and madam! - You surprise me, Mr Osbaldistone."
"I am unfortunate in doing so."
"Am I to suppose that this capricious tone is serious? or is it only 
assumed, to make your good-humour more valuable?"
"You have a right to the attention of so many gentlemen in this family, 
Miss Vernon, that it cannot be worth your while to inquire into the cause 
of my stupidity and bad spirits."
"What!" she said, "am I to understand, then, that you have deserted my 
faction, and gone over to the enemy?"
Then, looking across the table, and observing that Rashleigh, who was 
seated opposite, was watching us with a singular expression of interest on 
his harsh features, she continued,

			"Horrible thought! - Ay, now I see 'tis true,
			For the grim-visaged Rashleigh smiles on me,
			And points at thee for his! -

Well, thank Heaven, and the unprotected state which has taught me 
endurance, I do not take offence easily; and that I may not be forced to 
quarrel, whether I like it or no, I have the honour, earlier than usual, to 
wish you a happy digestion of your dinner and your bad humour."
And she left the table accordingly.
Upon Miss Vernon's departure, I found myself very little satisfied with my 
own conduct. I had hurled back offered kindness, of which circumstances had 
but lately pointed out the honest sincerity, and I had but just stopped 
short of insulting the beautiful, and, as she had said with some emphasis, 
the unprotected being by whom it was proffered. My conduct seemed brutal in 
my own eyes. To combat or drown these painful reflections, I applied myself 
more frequently than usual to the wine which circulated on the table.
The agitated state of my feelings combined with my habits of temperance to 
give rapid effect to the beverage. Habitual topers, I believe, acquire the 
power of soaking themselves with a quantity of liquor that does little more 
than muddy those intellects which in their sober state are none of the 
clearest; but men who are strangers to the vice of drunkenness as a habit, 
are more powerfully acted upon by intoxicating liquors. My spirits, once 
aroused, became extravagant; I talked a great deal, argued upon what I knew 
nothing of, told stories of which I forgot the point, then laughed 
immoderately at my own forgetfulness; I accepted several bets without 
having the least judgement; I challenged the giant John to wrestle with me, 
although he had kept the ring at Hexham for a year, and I never tried so 
much as a single fall.
My uncle had the goodness to interpose and prevent this consummation of 
drunken folly, which, I suppose, would have otherwise ended in my neck 
being broken.
It has even been reported by maligners, that I sung a song while under this 
vinous influence; but, as I remember nothing of it, and never attempted to 
turn a tune in all my life before or since, I would willingly hope there is 
no actual foundation for the calumny. I was absurd enough without this 
exaggeration. Without positively losing my senses, I speedily lost all 
command of my temper, and my impetuous passions whirled me onward at their 
pleasure. I had sate down sulky and discontented, and disposed to be silent 
- the wine rendered me loquacious, disputatious, and quarrelsome. I 
contradicted whatever was asserted, and attacked, without any respect to my 
uncle's table, both his politics and his religion. The affected moderation 
of Rashleigh, which he well knew how to qualify with irritating 
ingredients, was even more provoking to me than the noisy and bullying 
language of his obstreperous brothers. My uncle, to do him justice, 
endeavoured to bring us to order; but his authority was lost amidst the 
tumult of wine and passion. At length, frantic at some real or supposed 
injurious insinuation, I actually struck Rashleigh with my fist. No Stoic 
philosopher, superior to his own passion and that of others, could have 
received an insult with a higher degree of scorn. What he himself did not 
think it apparently worth while to resent, Thorncliff resented for him. 
Swords were drawn, and we exchanged one or two passes, when the other 
brothers separated us by main force; and I shall never forget the 
diabolical sneer which writhed Rashleigh's wayward features, as I was 
forced from the apartment by the main strength of two of these youthful 
Titans. They secured me in my apartment by locking the door, and I heard 
them, to my inexpressible rage, laugh heartily as they descended the 
stairs. I essayed in my fury to break out; but the window-grates, and the 
strength of a door clenched with iron, resisted my efforts. At length I 
threw myself on my bed, and fell asleep amidst vows of dire revenge to be 
taken in the ensuing day.
But with the morning cool repentance came. I felt, in the keenest manner, 
the violence and absurdity of my conduct, and was obliged to confess that 
wine and passion had lowered my intellects even below those of Wilfred 
Osbaldistone, whom I held in so much contempt. My uncomfortable reflections 
were by no means soothed by meditating the necessity of an apology for my 
improper behaviour, and recollecting that Miss Vernon must be a witness of 
my submission. The impropriety and unkindness of my conduct to her 
personally, added not a little to these galling considerations, and for 
this I could not even plead the miserable excuse of intoxication.
Under all these aggravating feelings of shame and degradation, I descended 
to the breakfast hall, like a criminal to receive sentence. It chanced that 
a hard frost had rendered it impossible to take out the hounds, so that I 
had the additional mortification to meet the family, excepting only 
Rashleigh and Miss Vernon, in full divan, surrounding the cold venison 
pasty and chine of beef. They were in high glee as I entered, and I could 
easily imagine that the jests were furnished at my expense. In fact, what I 
was disposed to consider with serious pain, was regarded as an excellent 
good joke by my uncle, and the greater part of my cousins. Sir Hildebrand, 
while he rallied me on the exploits of the preceding evening, swore he 
thought a young fellow had better be thrice drunk in one day, than sneak 
sober to bed like a Presbyterian, and leave a batch of honest fellows, and 
a double quart of claret. And to back this consolatory speech, he poured 
out a large bumper of brandy, exhorting me to swallow "a hair of the dog 
that had bit me."
"Never mind these lads laughing, nevoy," he continued; "they would have 
been all as great milksops as yourself, had I not nursed them, as one may 
say, on the toast and tankard."
Ill-nature was not the fault of my cousins in general; they saw I was vexed 
and hurt at the recollections of the preceding evening, and endeavoured, 
with clumsy kindness, to remove the painful impression they had made on me. 
Thorncliff alone looked sullen and unreconciled. This young man had never 
liked me from the beginning; and in the marks of attention occasionally 
shown me by his brothers, awkward as they were, he alone had never joined. 
If it was true, of which, however, I began to have my doubts, that he was 
considered by the family, or regarded himself, as the destined husband of 
Miss Vernon, a sentiment of jealousy might have sprung up in his mind from 
the marked predilection which it was that young lady's pleasure to show for 
one whom Thorncliff might, perhaps, think likely to become a dangerous 
rival.
Rashleigh at last entered, his visage as dark as mourning weed - brooding, 
I could not but doubt, over the unjustifiable and disgraceful insult I had 
offered to him. I had already settled in my own mind how I was to behave on 
the occasion, and had schooled myself to believe, that true honour 
consisted not in defending, but in apologising for, an injury so much 
disproportioned to any provocation I might have to allege.
I therefore hastened to meet Rashleigh, and to express myself in the 
highest degree sorry for the violence with which I had acted on the 
preceding evening. "No circumstances," I said, "could have wrung from me a 
single word of apology, save my own consciousness of the impropriety of my 
behaviour. I hoped my cousin would accept of my regrets so sincerely 
offered, and consider how much of my misconduct was owing to the excessive 
hospitality of Osbaldistone Hall."
"He shall be friends with thee, lad," cried the honest knight, in the full 
effusion of his heart; "or damn me, if I call him son more! - Why, Rashie, 
dost stand there like a log? Sorry for it is all a gentleman can say, if he 
happens to do anything awry, especially over his claret. I served in 
Hounslow, and should know something, I think, of affairs of honour. Let me 
hear no more of this, and we'll go in a body and rummage out the badger in 
Birkenwood-bank."
Rashleigh's face resembled, as I have already noticed, no other countenance 
that I ever saw. But this singularity lay not only in the features, but in 
the mode of changing their expression. Other countenances, in altering from 
grief to joy, or from anger to satisfaction, pass through some brief 
interval, ere the expression of the predominant passion supersedes entirely 
that of its predecessor. There is a sort of twilight, like that between the 
clearing up of the darkness and the rising of the sun, while the swollen 
muscles subside, the dark eye clears, the forehead relaxes and expands 
itself, and the whole countenance loses its sterner shades, and becomes 
serene and placid. Rashleigh's face exhibited none of these gradations, but 
changed almost instantaneously from the expression of one passion to that 
of the contrary. I can compare it to nothing but the sudden shifting of a 
scene in the theatre, where, at the whistle of the prompter, a cavern 
disappears, and a grove arises.
My attention was strongly arrested by this peculiarity on the present 
occasion. At Rashleigh's first entrance, "black he stood as night!" With 
the same inflexible countenance he heard my excuse and his father's 
exhortation; and it was not until Sir Hildebrand had done speaking, that 
the cloud cleared away at once, and he expressed, in the kindest and most 
civil terms, his perfect satisfaction with the very handsome apology I had 
offered.
"Indeed," he said, "I have so poor a brain myself, when I impose on it the 
least burden beyond my usual three glasses, that I have only, like honest 
Cassio, a very vague recollection of the confusion of last night - remember 
a mass of things, but nothing distinctly - a quarrel, but nothing wherefore 
- So, my dear Cousin," he continued, shaking me kindly by the hand, 
"conceive how much I am relieved by finding that I have to receive an 
apology, instead of having to make one - I will not have a word said upon 
the subject more; I should be very foolish to institute any scrutiny into 
an account, when the balance, which I expected to be against me, has been 
so unexpectedly and agreeably struck in my favour. You see, Mr 
Osbaldistone, I am practising the language of Lombard Street, and 
qualifying myself for my new calling."
As I was about to answer, and raised my eyes for the purpose, they 
encountered those of Miss Vernon, who, having entered the room unobserved 
during the conversation, had given it her close attention. Abashed and 
confounded, I fixed my eyes on the ground, and made my escape to the 
breakfast-table, where I herded among my busy cousins.
My uncle, that the events of the preceding day might not pass out of our 
memory without a practical moral lesson, took occasion to give Rashleigh 
and me his serious advice to correct our milksop habits, as he termed them, 
and gradually to inure our brains to bear a gentlemanlike quantity of 
liquor, without brawls or breaking of heads. He recommended that we should 
begin piddling with a regular quart of claret per day, which, with the aid 
of March beer and brandy, made a handsome competence for a beginner in the 
art of toping. And for our encouragement, he assured us that he had known 
many a man who had lived to our years without having drunk a pint of wine 
at a sitting, who yet, by falling into honest company, and following hearty 
example, had afterwards been numbered among the best good fellows of the 
time, and could carry off their six bottles under their belt quietly and 
comfortably, without brawling or babbling, and be neither sick nor sorry 
the next morning.
Sage as this advice was, and comfortable as was the prospect it held out to 
me, I profited but little by the exhortation - partly, perhaps, because, as 
often as I raised my eyes from the table, I observed Miss Vernon's looks 
fixed on me, in which I thought I could read grave compassion blended with 
regret and displeasure. I began to consider how I should seek a scene of 
explanation and apology with her also, when she gave me to understand she 
was determined to save me the trouble of soliciting an interview. "Cousin 
Francis," she said, addressing me by the same title she used to give to the 
other Osbaldistones, although I had, properly speaking, no title to be 
called her kinsman, "I have encountered this morning a difficult passage in 
the Divina Commedia of Dante; will you have the goodness to step to the 
library and give me your assistance? and when you have unearthed for me the 
meaning of the obscure Florentine, we will join the rest at Birkenwood-
bank, and see their luck at unearthing the badger."
I signified, of course, my readiness to wait upon her. Rashleigh made an 
offer to accompany us. "I am something better skilled," he said, "at 
tracking the sense of Dante through the metaphors and elisions of his wild 
and gloomy poem, than at hunting the poor inoffensive hermit yonder out of 
his cave."
"Pardon me, Rashleigh," said Miss Vernon, "but as you are to occupy Mr 
Francis's place in the counting-house, you must surrender to him the charge 
of your pupil's education at Osbaldistone Hall. We shall call you in, 
however, if there is any occasion; so pray do not look so grave upon it. 
Besides, it is a shame to you not to understand field-sports - What will 
you do should our uncle in Crane-Alley ask you the signs by which you track 
a badger?"
"Ay, true, Die, - true," said Sir Hildebrand, with a sigh, "I misdoubt 
Rashleigh will be found short at the leap when he is put to the trial. An 
he would ha' learned useful knowledge like his brothers, he was bred up 
where it grew, I wuss; but French antics, and book-learning, with the new 
turnips, and the rats, and the Hanoverians, ha' changed the world that I 
ha' known in Old England - But come along with us, Rashie, and carry my 
hunting-staff, man; thy cousin lacks none of thy company as now, and I 
wonna ha' Die crossed - It's ne'er be said there was but one woman in 
Osbaldistone Hall, and she died for lack of her will."
Rashleigh followed his father, as he commanded, not, however, ere he had 
whispered to Diana, "I suppose I must in discretion bring the courtier, 
Ceremony, in my company, and knock when I approach the door of the 
library?"
"No, no, Rashleigh," said Miss Vernon; "dismiss from your company the false 
archimage Dissimulation, and it will better ensure your free access to our 
classical consultations."
So saying, she led the way to the library, and I followed - like a 
criminal, I was going to say, to execution; but, as I bethink me, I have 
used the simile once, if not twice before. Without any simile at all, then, 
I followed, with a sense of awkward and conscious embarrassment, which I 
would have given a great deal to shake off. I thought it a degrading and 
unworthy feeling to attend one on such an occasion, having breathed the air 
of the Continent long enough to have imbibed the notion that lightness, 
gallantry, and something approaching to well-bred self-assurance, should 
distinguish the gentleman whom a fair lady selects for her companion in a 
tete-a-tete.
My English feelings, however, were too many for my French education, and I 
made, I believe, a very pitiful figure, when Miss Vernon, seating herself 
majestically in a huge elbow-chair in the library, like a judge about to 
hear a cause of importance, signed to me to take a chair opposite to her 
(which I did, much like the poor fellow who is going to be tried), and 
entered upon conversation in a tone of bitter irony.



Chapter 13

		Dire was his thought, who first in poison steeped
		The weapon formed for slaughter - direr his,
		And worthier of damnation, who instilled
		The mortal venom in the social cup,
		To fill the veins with death instead of life.
								-- Anonymous.


"Upon my Word, Mr Francis Osbaldistone," said Miss Vernon, with the air of 
one who thought herself fully entitled to assume the privilege of ironical 
reproach, which she was pleased to exert, "your character improves upon us, 
sir - I could not have thought that it was in you. Yesterday might be 
considered as your assay-piece, to prove yourself entitled to be free of 
the corporation of Osbaldistone Hall. But it was a masterpiece."
"I am quite sensible of my ill-breeding, Miss Vernon, and I can only say 
for myself that I had received some communications by which my spirits were 
unusually agitated. I am conscious I was impertinent and absurd."
"You do yourself great injustice," said the merciless monitor - "you have 
contrived, by what I saw and have since heard, to exhibit in the course of 
one evening a happy display of all the various masterly qualifications 
which distinguish your several cousins; - the gentle and generous temper of 
the benevolent Rashleigh, - the temperance of Percie, - the cool courage of 
Thorncliff, - John's skill in dog-breaking, - Dickon's aptitude to betting, 
- all exhibited by the single individual, Mr Francis, and that with a 
selection of time, place, and circumstance, worthy the taste and sagacity 
of the sapient Wilfred."
"Have a little mercy, Miss Vernon," said I; for I confess I thought the 
schooling as severe as the case merited, especially considering from what 
quarter it came, "and forgive me if I suggest, as an excuse for follies I 
am not usually guilty of, the custom of this house and country. I am far 
from approving of it; but we have Shakspeare's authority for saying, that 
good wine is a good familiar creature, and that any man living may be 
overtaken at some time."
"Ay, Mr Francis, but he places the panegyric and the apology in the mouth 
of the greatest villain his pencil has drawn. I will not, however, abuse 
the advantage your quotation has given me, by overwhelming you with the 
refutation with which the victim Cassio replies to the tempter Iago. I only 
wish you to know, that there is one person at least sorry to see a youth of 
talents and expectations sink into the slough in which the inhabitants of 
this house are nightly wallowing."
"I have but wet my shoe, I assure you, Miss Vernon, and am too sensible of 
the filth of the puddle to step farther in."
"If such be your resolution," she replied, "it is a wise one. But I was so 
much vexed at what I heard, that your concerns have pressed before my own, 
- You behaved to me yesterday, during dinner, as if something had been told 
you which lessened or lowered me in your opinion - I beg leave to ask you 
what it was?"
I was stupified. The direct bluntness of the demand was much in the style 
one gentleman uses to another, when requesting explanation of any part of 
his conduct in a good-humoured yet determined manner, and was totally 
devoid of the circumlocutions, shadings, softenings, and periphrasis, which 
usually accompany explanations betwixt persons of different sexes in the 
higher orders of society.
I remained completely embarrassed; for it pressed on my recollection, that 
Rashleigh's communications, supposing them to be correct, ought to have 
rendered Miss Vernon rather an object of my compassion than of my pettish 
resentment; and had they furnished the best apology possible for my own 
conduct, still I must have had the utmost difficulty in detailing what 
inferred such necessary and natural offence to Miss Vernon's feelings. She 
observed my hesitation, and proceeded, in a tone somewhat more peremptory, 
but still temperate and civil - "I hope Mr Osbaldistone does not dispute my 
title to request this explanation. I have no relative who can protect me; 
it is, therefore, just that I be permitted to protect myself."
I endeavoured with hesitation to throw the blame of my rude behaviour upon 
indisposition - upon disagreeable letters from London. She suffered me to 
exhaust my apologies, and fairly to run myself aground, listening all the 
while with a smile of absolute incredulity.
"And now, Mr Francis, having gone through your prologue of excuses, with 
the same bad grace with which all prologues are delivered, please to draw 
the curtain, and show me that which I desire to see. In a word, let me know 
what Rashleigh says of me; for he is the grand engineer and first mover of 
all the machinery of Osbaldistone Hall."
"But, supposing there was anything to tell, Miss Vernon, what does he 
deserve that betrays the secrets of one ally to another? - Rashleigh, you 
yourself told me, remained your ally, though no longer your friend."
"I have neither patience for evasion, nor inclination for jesting, on the 
present subject. Rashleigh cannot - ought not - dare not, hold any language 
respecting me, Diana Vernon, but what I may demand to hear repeated. That 
there are subjects of secrecy and confidence between us, is most certain; 
but to such, his communications to you could have no relation; and with 
such, I, as an individual, have no concern."
I had by this time recovered my presence of mind, and hastily determined to 
avoid making any disclosure of what Rashleigh had told me in a sort of 
confidence. There was something unworthy in retailing private conversation; 
it could, I thought, do no good, and must necessarily give Miss Vernon 
great pain. I therefore replied, gravely, "that nothing but frivolous talk 
had passed between Mr Rashleigh Osbaldistone and me on the state of the 
family at the Hall; and I protested, that nothing had been said which left 
a serious impression to her disadvantage. As a gentleman," I said, "I could 
not be more explicit in reporting private conversation." She started up 
with the animation of a Camilla about to advance into battle. "This shall 
not serve your turn, sir, - I must have another answer from you." Her 
features kindled - her brow became flushed - her eye glanced wild-fire as 
she proceeded - "I demand such an explanation, as a woman basely slandered 
has a right to demand from every man who calls himself a gentleman - as a 
creature, motherless, friendless, alone in the world, left to her own 
guidance and protection, has a right to require from every being having a 
happier lot, in the name of that God who sent them into the world to enjoy, 
and her to suffer. You shall not deny me - or," she added, looking solemnly 
upwards, "you will rue your denial, if there is justice for wrong either on 
earth or in heaven."
I was utterly astonished at her vehemence, but felt, thus conjured, that it 
became my duty to lay aside scrupulous delicacy, and gave her briefly, but 
distinctly, the heads of the information which Rashleigh had conveyed to 
me.
She sate down and resumed her composure, as soon as I entered upon the 
subject, and when I stopped to seek for the most delicate turn of 
expression, she repeatedly interrupted me with "Go on - pray, go on; the 
first word which occurs to you is the plainest, and must be the best. Do 
not think of my feelings, but speak as you would to an unconcerned third 
party."
Thus urged and encouraged, I stammered through all the account which 
Rashleigh had given of her early contract to marry an Osbaldistone, and of 
the uncertainty and difficulty of her choice; and there I would willingly 
have paused. But her penetration discovered that there was still something 
behind, and even guessed to what it related.
"Well, it was ill-natured of Rashleigh to tell this tale on me. I am like 
the poor girl in the fairy tale, who was betrothed in her cradle to the 
Black Bear of Norway, but complained chiefly of being called Bruin's bride 
by her companions at school. But besides all this, Rashleigh said something 
of himself with relation to me - Did he not?"
"He certainly hinted, that were it not for the idea of supplanting his 
brother, he would now, in consequence of his change of profession, be 
desirous that the word Rashleigh should fill up the blank in the 
dispensation, instead of the word Thorncliff."
"Ay? indeed?" she replied - "was he so very condescending? - Too much 
honour for his humble handmaid, Diana Vernon - And she, I suppose, was to 
be enraptured with joy could such a substitute be effected?"
"To confess the truth, he intimated as much, and even farther insinuated -"
"What? - Let me hear it all!" she exclaimed, hastily.
"That he had broken off your mutual intimacy, lest it should have given 
rise to an affection by which his destination to the church would not 
permit him to profit."
"I am obliged to him for his consideration," replied Miss Vernon, every 
feature of her fine countenance taxed to express the most supreme degree of 
scorn and contempt. She paused a moment, and then said, with her usual 
composure, "There is but little I have heard from you which I did not 
expect to hear, and which I ought not to have expected; because, bating one 
circumstance, it is all very true. But as there are some poisons so active, 
that a few drops, it is said, will infect a whole fountain, so there is one 
falsehood in Rashleigh's communication, powerful enough to corrupt the 
whole well in which Truth herself is said to have dwelt. It is the leading 
and foul falsehood, that, knowing Rashleigh as I have reason too well to 
know him, any circumstance on earth could make me think of sharing my lot 
with him. No," she continued with a sort of inward shuddering that seemed 
to express involuntary horror, "any lot rather than that - the sot, the 
gambler, the bully, the jockey, the insensate fool, were a thousand times 
preferable to Rashleigh: - the convent - the jail - the grave, shall be 
welcome before them all."
There was a sad and melancholy cadence in her voice, corresponding with the 
strange and interesting romance of her situation. So young, so beautiful, 
so untaught, so much abandoned to herself, and deprived of all the support 
which her sex derives from the countenance and protection of female 
friends, and even of that degree of defence which arises from the forms 
with which the sex are approached in civilised life, - it is scarce 
metaphorical to say that my heart bled for her. Yet there was an expression 
of dignity in her contempt of ceremony - of upright feeling in her disdain 
of falsehood - of firm resolution in the manner in which she contemplated 
the dangers by which she was surrounded, which blended my pity with the 
warmest admiration. She seemed a princess deserted by her subjects, and 
deprived of her power, yet still scorning those formal regulations of 
society which are created for persons of an inferior rank; and, amid her 
difficulties, relying boldly and confidently on the justice of Heaven, and 
the unshaken constancy of her own mind.
I offered to express the mingled feelings of sympathy and admiration with 
which her unfortunate situation and her high spirit combined to impress me, 
but she imposed silence on me at once.
"I told you in jest," she said, "that I disliked compliments - I now tell 
you in earnest, that I do not ask sympathy, and that I despise consolation. 
What I have borne, I have borne - What I am to bear I will sustain as I 
may; no word of commiseration can make a burden feel one feather's weight 
lighter to the slave who must carry it. There is only one human being who 
could have assisted me, and that is he who has rather chosen to add to my 
embarrassment - Rashleigh Osbaldistone. - Yes! the time once was that I 
might have learned to love that man - But, great God! the purpose for which 
he insinuated himself into the confidence of one already so forlorn - the 
undeviating and continued assiduity with which he pursued that purpose from 
year to year, without one single momentary pause of remorse or compassion - 
the purpose for which he would have converted into poison the food he 
administered to my mind - Gracious Providence! what should I have been in 
this world, and the next, in body and soul, had I fallen under the arts of 
this accomplished villain!"
I was so much struck with the scene of perfidious treachery which these 
words disclosed, that I rose from my chair hardly knowing what I did, laid 
my hand on the hilt of my sword, and was about to leave the apartment in 
search of him on whom I might discharge my just indignation. Almost 
breathless, and with eyes and looks in which scorn and indignation had 
given way to the most lively alarm, Miss Vernon threw herself between me 
and the door of the apartment.
"Stay!" she said - "stay! - however just your resentment, you do not know 
half the secrets of this fearful prison-house." She then glanced her eyes 
anxiously round the room, and sunk her voice almost to a whisper - "He 
bears a charmed life; you cannot assail him without endangering other 
lives, and wider destruction. Had it been otherwise, in some hour of 
justice he had hardly been safe, even from this weak hand. I told you," she 
said, motioning me back to my seat, "that I needed no comforter. I now tell 
you I need no avenger."
I resumed my seat mechanically, musing on what she said, and recollecting 
also, what had escaped me in my first glow of resentment, that I had no 
title whatever to constitute myself Miss Vernon's champion. She paused to 
let her own emotions and mine subside, and then addressed me with more 
composure.
"I have already said that there is a mystery connected with Rashleigh, of a 
dangerous and fatal nature. Villain as he is. and as he knows he stands 
convicted in my eyes, I cannot - dare not, openly break with or defy him. 
You also, Mr Osbaldistone, must bear with him with patience, foil his 
artifices by opposing to them prudence, not violence; and, above all, you 
must avoid such scenes as that of last night, which cannot but give him 
perilous advantages over you. This caution I designed to give you, and it 
was the object with which I desired this interview; but I have extended my 
confidence farther than I proposed."
I assured her it was not misplaced.
"I do not believe that it is," she replied. "You have that in your face and 
manners which authorises trust. Let us continue to be friends. You need not 
fear," she said, laughing, while she blushed a little, yet speaking with a 
free and unembarrassed voice, "that friendship with us should prove only a 
specious name, as the poet says, for another feeling. I belong, in habits 
of thinking and acting, rather to your sex, with which I have always been 
brought up, than to my own. Besides, the fatal veil was wrapt round me in 
my cradle; for you may easily believe I have never thought of the 
detestable condition under which I may remove it. The time," she added, 
"for expressing my final determination is not arrived, and I would fain 
have the freedom of wild heath and open air with the other commoners of 
nature, as long as I can be permitted to enjoy them. And now that the 
passage in Dante is made so clear, pray go and see what has become of the 
badger-baiters. My head aches so much that I cannot join the party."
I left the library, but not to join the hunters. I felt that a solitary 
walk was necessary to compose my spirits before I again trusted myself in 
Rashleigh's company, whose depth of calculating villainy had been so 
strikingly exposed to me. In Dubourg's family (as he was of the reformed 
persuasion) I had heard many a tale of Romish priests who gratified, at the 
expense of friendship, hospitality, and the most sacred ties of social 
life, those passions, the blameless indulgence of which is denied by the 
rules of their order. But the deliberate system of undertaking the 
education of a deserted orphan of noble birth, and so intimately allied to 
his own family, with the perfidious purpose of ultimately seducing her, 
detailed as it was by the intended victim with all the glow of virtuous 
resentment, seemed more atrocious to me than the worst of the tales I had 
heard at Bourdeaux, and I felt it would be extremely difficult for me to 
meet Rashleigh, and yet to suppress the abhorrence with which he impressed 
me. Yet this was absolutely necessary, not only on account of the 
mysterious charge which Diana had given me, but because I had, in reality, 
no ostensible ground for quarrelling with him.
I therefore resolved, as far as possible, to meet Rashleigh's dissimulation 
with equal caution on my part during our residence in the same family; and 
when he should depart for London, I resolved to give Owen at least such a 
hint of his character as might keep him on his guard over my father's 
interests. Avarice or ambition, I thought, might have as great, or greater 
charms, for a mind constituted like Rashleigh's, than unlawful pleasure; 
the energy of his character, and his power of assuming all seeming good 
qualities, were likely to procure him a high degree of confidence, and it 
was not to be hoped that either good faith or gratitude would prevent him 
from abusing it. The task was somewhat difficult, especially in my 
circumstances, since the caution which I threw out might be imputed to 
jealousy of my rival, or rather my successor, in my father's favour. Yet I 
thought it absolutely necessary to frame such a letter, leaving it to Owen, 
who, in his own line, was wary, prudent, and circumspect, to make the 
necessary use of his knowledge of Rashleigh's true character. Such a 
letter, therefore, I indited, and despatched to the post-house by the first 
opportunity.
At my meeting with Rashleigh, he, as well as I, appeared to have taken up 
distant ground, and to be disposed to avoid all pretext for collision. He 
was probably conscious that Miss Vernon's communications had been 
unfavourable to him, though he could not know that they extended to 
discovering his meditated villainy towards her. Our intercourse, therefore, 
was reserved on both sides, and turned on subjects of little interest. 
Indeed, his stay at Osbaldistone Hall did not exceed a few days after this 
period, during which I only remarked two circumstances respecting him. The 
first was the rapid and almost intuitive manner in which his powerful and 
active mind seized upon and arranged the elementary principles necessary to 
his new profession, which he now studied hard, and occasionally made parade 
of his progress, as if to show me how light it was for him to lift the 
burden which I had flung down from very weariness and inability to carry 
it. The other remarkable circumstance was, that, notwithstanding the 
injuries with which Miss Vernon charged Rashleigh, they had several private 
interviews together of considerable length, although their bearing towards 
each other in public did not seem more cordial than usual.
When the day of Rashleigh's departure arrived, his father bade him farewell 
with indifference; his brothers with the ill-concealed glee of school-boys 
who see their task-master depart for a season, and feel a joy which they 
dare not express; and I myself with cold politeness. When he approached 
Miss Vernon, and would have saluted her she drew back with a look of 
haughty disdain; but said, as she extended her hand to him, "Farewell, 
Rashleigh; God reward you for the good you have done, and forgive you for 
the evil you have meditated."
"Amen, my fair cousin," he replied, with an air of sanctity, which 
belonged, I thought, to the seminary of Saint Omers; "happy is he whose 
good intentions have borne fruit in deeds, and whose evil thoughts have 
perished in the blossom."
These were his parting words. "Accomplished hypocrite!" said Miss Vernon to 
me, as the door closed behind him - "how nearly can what we most despise 
and hate, approach in outward manner to that which we most venerate!"
I had written to my father by Rashleigh, and also a few lines to Owen, 
besides the confidential letter which I have already mentioned, and which I 
thought it more proper and prudent to despatch by another conveyance. In 
these epistles, it would have been natural for me to have pointed out to my 
father and my friend, that I was at present in a situation where I could 
improve myself in no respect, unless in the mysteries of hunting and 
hawking; and where I was not unlikely to forget, in the company of rude 
grooms and horse-boys, any useful knowledge or elegant accomplishments 
which I had hitherto acquired. It would also have been natural that I 
should have expressed the disgust and tedium which I was likely to feel 
among beings whose whole souls were centred in field-sports or more 
degrading pastimes - that I should have complained of the habitual 
intemperance of the family in which I was a guest, and the difficulty and 
almost resentment with which my uncle, Sir Hildebrand, received any apology 
for deserting the bottle. This last, indeed, was a topic on which my 
father, himself a man of severe temperance, was likely to be easily 
alarmed, and to have touched upon this spring would to a certainty have 
opened the doors of my prison-house, and would either have been the means 
of abridging my exile, or at least would have procured me a change of 
residence during my rustication.
I say, my dear Tresham, that, considering how very unpleasant a prolonged 
residence at Osbaldistone Hall must have been to a young man of my age, and 
with my habits, it might have seemed very natural that I should have 
pointed out all these disadvantages to my father, in order to obtain his 
consent for leaving my uncle's mansion. Nothing, however, is more certain, 
than that I did not say a single word to this purpose in my letters to my 
father and Owen. If Osbaldistone Hall had been Athens in all its pristine 
glory of learning, and inhabited by sages, heroes, and poets, I could not 
have expressed less inclination to leave it.
If thou hast any of the salt of youth left in thee, Tresham, thou wilt be 
at no loss to account for my silence on a topic seemingly so obvious. Miss 
Vernon's extreme beauty, of which she herself seemed so little conscious - 
her romantic and mysterious situation - the evils to which she was exposed 
- the courage with which she seemed to face them - her manners, more frank 
than belonged to her sex, yet, as it seemed to me, exceeding in frankness 
only from the dauntless consciousness of her innocence, - above all, the 
obvious and flattering distinction which she made in my favour over all 
other persons, were at once calculated to interest my best feelings, to 
excite my curiosity, awaken my imagination, and gratify my vanity. I dared 
not, indeed, confess to myself the depth of the interest with which Miss 
Vernon inspired me, or the large share which she occupied in my thoughts. 
We read together, walked together, rode together, and sate together. The 
studies which she had broken off upon her quarrel with Rashleigh, she now 
resumed, under the auspices of a tutor whose views were more sincere, 
though his capacity was far more limited.
In truth, I was by no means qualified to assist her in the prosecution of 
several profound studies which she had commenced with Rashleigh, and which 
appeared to me more fitted for a churchman than for a beautiful female. 
Neither can I conceive with what view he should have engaged Diana in the 
gloomy maze of casuistry which schoolmen called philosophy, or in the 
equally abstruse though more certain sciences of mathematics and astronomy; 
unless it were to break down and confound in her mind the difference and 
distinction between the sexes, and to habituate her to trains of subtle 
reasoning, by which he might at his own time invest that which is wrong 
with the colour of that which is right. It was in the same spirit, though 
in the latter case the evil purpose was more obvious, that the lessons of 
Rashleigh had encouraged Miss Vernon in setting at nought and despising the 
forms and ceremonial limits which are drawn round females in modern 
society. It is true, she was sequestrated from all female company, and 
could not learn the usual rules of decorum, either from example or precept; 
yet such was her innate modesty, and accurate sense of what was right and 
wrong, that she would not of herself have adopted the bold uncompromising 
manner which struck me with so much surprise on our first acquaintance, had 
she not been led to conceive that a contempt of ceremony indicated at once 
superiority of understanding and the confidence of conscious innocence. Her 
wily instructor had, no doubt, his own views in levelling those outworks 
which reserve and caution erect around virtue. But for these, and for his 
other crimes, he has long since answered at a higher tribunal.
Besides the progress which Miss Vernon, whose powerful mind readily adopted 
every means of information offered to it, had made in more abstract 
science, I found her no contemptible linguist, and well acquainted both 
with ancient and modern literature. Were it not that strong talents will 
often go farthest when they seem to have least assistance, it would be 
almost incredible to tell the rapidity of Miss Vernon's progress in 
knowledge; and it was still more extraordinary, when her stock of mental 
acquisitions from books was compared with her total ignorance of actual 
life. It seemed as if she saw and knew everything, except what passed in 
the world around her; - and I believe it was this very ignorance and 
simplicity of thinking upon ordinary subjects, so strikingly contrasted 
with her fund of general knowledge and information, which rendered her 
conversation so irresistibly fascinating, and riveted the attention to 
whatever she said or did; since it was absolutely impossible to anticipate 
whether her next word or action was to display the most acute perception, 
or the most profound simplicity. The degree of danger which necessarily 
attended a youth of my age and keen feelings from remaining in close and 
constant intimacy with an object so amiable, and so peculiarly interesting, 
all who remember their own sentiments at my age may easily estimate.



Chapter 14

			Yon lamp its line of quivering light
				Shoots from my lady's bower;
			But why should Beauty's lamp be bright
				At midnight's lonely hour?
							-- Old Ballad


The mode of life at Osbaldistone Hall was too uniform to admit of 
description. Diana Vernon and I enjoyed much of our time in our mutual 
studies; the rest of the family killed theirs in such sports and pastimes 
as suited the seasons, in which we also took a share. My uncle was a man of 
habits, and by habit became so much accustomed to my presence and mode of 
life, that, upon the whole, he was rather fond of me than otherwise. I 
might probably have risen yet higher in his good graces, had I employed the 
same arts for that purpose which were used by Rashleigh, who, availing 
himself of his father's disinclination to business, had gradually 
insinuated himself into the management of his property. But although I 
readily gave my uncle the advantage of my pen and my arithmetic so often as 
he desired to correspond with a neighbour, or settle with a tenant, and 
was, in so far, a more useful inmate in his family than any of his sons, 
yet I was not willing to oblige Sir Hildebrand by relieving him entirely 
from the management of his own affairs; so that, while the good knight 
admitted that nevoy Frank was a steady, handy lad, he seldom failed to 
remark in the same breath, that he did not think he should ha' missed 
Rashleigh so much as he was like to do.
As it is particularly unpleasant to reside in a family where we are at 
variance with any part of it, I made some efforts to overcome the ill-will 
which my cousins entertained against me. I exchanged my laced hat for a 
jockey-cap, and made some progress in their opinion; I broke a young colt 
in a manner which carried me further into their good graces. A bet or two 
opportunely lost to Dickon, and an extra health pledged with Percie, placed 
me on an easy and familiar footing with all the young squires, except 
Thorncliff.
I have already noticed the dislike entertained against me by this young 
fellow, who, as he had rather more sense, had also a much worse temper, 
than any of his brethren. Sullen, dogged, and quarrelsome, he regarded my 
residence at Osbaldistone Hall as an intrusion, and viewed with envious and 
jealous eyes my intimacy with Diana Vernon, whom the effect proposed to be 
given to a certain family-compact assigned to him as an intended spouse. 
That he loved her, could scarcely be said, at least without much 
misapplication of the word; but he regarded her as something appropriated 
to himself, and resented internally the interference which he knew not how 
to prevent or interrupt. I attempted a tone of conciliation towards 
Thorncliff on several occasions; but he rejected my advances with a manner 
about as gracious as that of a growling mastiff, when the animal shuns and 
resents a stranger's attempts to caress him. I therefore abandoned him to 
his ill-humour, and gave myself no further trouble about the matter.
Such was the footing upon which I stood with the family at Osbaldistone 
Hall; but I ought to mention another of its inmates with whom I 
occasionally held some discourse. This was Andrew Fairservice, the gardener 
who (since he had discovered that I was a Protestant) rarely suffered me to 
pass him without proffering his Scotch mull for a social pinch. There were 
several advantages attending this courtesy. In the first place, it was made 
at no expense, for I never took snuff; and secondly, it afforded an 
excellent apology to Andrew (who was not particularly fond of hard labour) 
for laying aside his spade for several minutes. But, above all, these brief 
interviews gave Andrew an opportunity of venting the news he had collected, 
or the satirical remarks which his shrewd northern humour suggested.
"I am saying, sir," he said to me one evening, with a face obviously 
charged with intelligence, "I hae been down at the Trinlay-knowe."
"Well, Andrew, and I suppose you heard some news at the alehouse?"
"Na, sir; I never gang to the yillhouse - that is unless ony neighbour was 
to gie me a pint, or the like o' that; but to gang there on ane's ain coat-
tail, is a waste o' precious time and hard-won siller. - But I was doun at 
the Trinlay-knowe, as I was saying, about a wee bit business o' my ain wi' 
Mattie Simpson, that wants a forpit or twa o' peers that will never be 
missed in the Ha'-house - and when we were at the thrangest o' our bargain, 
wha suld come in but Pate Macready the travelling merchant?"
"Pedlar, I suppose you mean?"
"E'en as your honour likes to ca' him; but it's a creditable calling and a 
gainfu', and has been lang in use wi' our folk. Pate's a far-awa cousin o' 
mine, and we were blythe to meet wi' ane another."
"And you went and had a jug of ale together, I suppose, Andrew? - For 
Heaven's sake, cut short your story."
"Bide a wee - bide a wee; you southrons are aye in sic a hurry, and this is 
something concerns yourself, an ye wad tak patience to hear't - Yill? - 
deil a drap o' yill did Pate offer me; but Mattie gae us baith a drap 
skimmed milk, and ane o' her thick ait jannocks, that was as wat and raw as 
a divot. O for the bonnie girdle cakes o' the north! - and sae we sat doun 
and took out our clavers."
"I wish you would take them out just now. Pray, tell me the news, if you 
have got any worth telling, for I can't stop here all night."
"Than, if ye maun hae't, the folk in Lunnun are a' clean wud about this bit 
job in the north here."
"Clean wood! what's that?"
"Ou, just real daft - neither to haud nor to bind - a' hirdy-girdy - clean 
through ither - the deil's ower Jock Wabster."
"But what does all this mean? or what business have I with the devil or 
Jack Webster?"
"Umph!" said Andrew, looking extremely knowing, "it's just because - just 
that the dirdum's a' about yon man's pokmanty."
"Whose portmanteau? or what do you mean?"
"Ou, just the man Morris's, that he said he lost yonder: but if it's no 
your honour's affair, as little is it mine; and I Maunna lose this gracious 
evening."
And, as if suddenly seized with a violent fit of industry, Andrew began to 
labour most diligently.
My attention, as the crafty knave had foreseen, was now arrested, and 
unwilling, at the same time, to acknowledge any particular interest in that 
affair, by asking direct questions, I stood waiting till the spirit of 
voluntary communication should again prompt him to resume his story. Andrew 
dug on manfully, and spoke at intervals, but nothing to the purpose of Mr 
Macready's news; and I stood and listened, cursing him in my heart, and 
desirous at the same time to see how long his humour of contradiction would 
prevail over his desire of speaking upon the subject which was obviously 
uppermost in his mind.
"Am trenching up the sparry-grass, and am gaun to saw some Misegun beans; 
they winna want them to their swine's flesh, I'se warrant - muckle gude may 
it do them. And siclike dung as the grieve has gien me! - it should be 
wheat-strae, or aiten at the warst o't, and it's pease dirt, as fizzenless 
as chuckie-stanes. But the huntsman guides a' as he likes about the stable-
yard, and he's selled the best o' the litter, I'se warrant. But, howsoever, 
we Maunna lose a turn o' this Saturday at e'en, for the wather's sair 
broken, and if there's a fair day in seven, Sunday's sure to come and lick 
it up - Howsoever, I'm no denying that it may settle, if it be Heaven's 
will, till Monday morning, - and what's the use o' my breaking my back at 
this rate? - I think, I'll e'en awa' hame, for yon's the curfew, as they 
ca' their jowing-in bell."
Accordingly, applying both his hands to his spade, he pitched it upright in 
the trench which he had been digging and, looking at me with the air of 
superiority of one who knows himself possessed of important information, 
which he may communicate or refuse at his pleasure, pulled down the sleeves 
of his shirt, and walked slowly towards his coat, which lay carefully 
folded up upon a neighbouring garden-seat.
"I must pay the penalty of having interrupted the tiresome rascal," thought 
I to myself, "and even gratify Mr Fairservice by taking his communication 
on his own terms." Then raising my voice, I addressed him, - "And after 
all, Andrew, what are these London news you had from your kinsman, the 
travelling merchant?"
"The pedlar, your honour means?" retorted Andrew - "but ca' him what ye 
wull, they're a great convenience in a country-side that's scant o' borough-
towns like this Northumberland - That's no the case, now, in Scotland; - 
there's the kingdom of Fife, frae Culross to the East Nuik, it's just like 
a great combined city - sae mony royal boroughs yoked on end to end, like 
ropes of ingans, with their hie-streets and their booths, nae doubt, and 
their kraemes, and houses of stane and lime and fore-stairs - Kirkcaldy, 
the sell o't, is langer than ony town in England."
"I daresay it is all very splendid and very fine - but you were talking of 
the London news a little while ago, Andrew."
"Ay," replied Andrew; "but I dinna think your honour cared to hear about 
them - Howsoever" (he continued, grinning a ghastly smile), "Pate Macready 
does say that they are sair mistrysted yonder in their Parliament House 
about this rubbery o' Mr Morris, or whatever they ca' the chiel."
"In the House of Parliament, Andrew! - how came they to mention it there?"
"Ou, that's just what I said to Pate; if it like your honour, I'll tell you 
the very words; it's no worth making a lie for the matter - 'Pate,' said I, 
'what ado had the lords and lairds and gentles at Lunnun wi' the carle and 
his walise? - When we had a Scotch Parliament, Pate,' says I (and deil rax 
their thrapples that reft us o't!) 'they sate dousely down and made laws 
for a haill country and kinrick, and never fashed their beards about things 
that were competent to the judge ordinar o' the bounds; but I think,' said 
I, 'that if ae kailwife pou'd aff her neighbour's mutch they wad hae the 
twasome o' them into the Parliament House o' Lunnun. It's just,' said I, 
'amaist as silly as our auld daft laird here and his gomerils o' sons, wi' 
his huntsmen and his hounds, and his hunting cattle and horns, riding haill 
days after a bit beast that winna weigh sax punds when they hae catched 
it.'"
"You argued most admirably, Andrew," said I, willing to encourage him to 
get into the marrow of his intelligence; "and what said Pate?"
"Ou," he said, "what better could be expected of a wheen pock-pudding 
English folk? - But as to the robbery, it's like that when they're a' at 
the thrang o' their Whig and Tory wark, and ca'ing ane anither, like 
unhanged blackguards - up gets ae lang-tongued chield, and he says, that a' 
the north of England were rank Jacobites (and, quietly, he wasna far wrang 
maybe), and that they had levied amaist open war, and a king's messenger 
had been stoppit and rubbit on the highway, and that the best bluid o' 
Northumberland had been at the doing o't - and mickle gowd ta'en aff him, 
and mony valuable papers; and that there was nae redress to be gotten by 
remeed of law for the first justice o' the peace that the rubbit man gaed 
to, he had fund the twa loons that did the deed birling and drinking wi' 
him, wha but they; and the justice took the word o' the tane for the 
compearance o' the tither; and that they e'en gae him leg-bail, and the 
honest man that had lost his siller was fain to leave the country for fear 
that waur had come of it."
"Can this be really true?" said I.
"Pate swears it's as true as that his ellwand is a yard lang - (and so it 
is, just bating an inch, that it may meet the English measure) - And when 
the chield had said his warst, there was a terrible cry for names, and out 
comes he wi' this man Morris's name, and your uncle's, and Squire 
Inglewood's, and other folk's beside" (looking sly at me) - "And then 
another dragon o' a chield got up on the other side, and said, wad they 
accuse the best gentleman in the land on the oath of a broken coward? - for 
it's like that Morris had been drummed out o' the army for rinning awa in 
Flanders; and he said, it was like the story had been made up between the 
minister and him or ever he had left Lunnun; and that, if there was to be a 
search-warrant granted, he thought the siller wad be fund some gate near to 
St. James's Palace. Aweel, they trailed up Morris to their bar, as they 
ca't, to see what he could say to the job; but the folk that were again 
him, gae him sic an awfu' throughgaun about his rinnin' awa, and about a' 
the ill he had ever dune or said for a' the forepart o' his life, that 
Patie says he looked mair like ane dead than living; and they cou'dna get a 
word o' sense out o' him, for downright fright at their growling and 
routing. He maun be a saft sap, wi' a head nae better than a fozy frosted 
turnip - it wad hae ta'en a hantle o' them to scaur Andrew Fairservice out 
o' his tale."
"And how did it all end, Andrew? did your friend happen to learn?"
"Ou, ay; for as his walk is in this country, Pate put aff his journey for 
the space of a week or thereby, because it wad be acceptable to his 
customers to bring down the news. It's just a' gaed aft like moonshine in 
water. The fallow that began it drew in his horns, and said, that though he 
believed the man had been rubbit, yet he acknowledged he might hae been 
mistaken about the particulars. And then the other chield got up, and said, 
he cared na whether Morris was rubbed or no, provided it wasna to become a 
stain on ony gentleman's honour and reputation, especially in the north of 
England; for, said he before them, I come frae the north mysell, and I 
carena a boddle wha kens it. And this is what they ca' explaining - the 
tane gies up a bit, and the tither gies up a bit, and a' friends again. 
Aweel, after the Commons' Parliament had tuggit, and rived, and rugged at 
Morris and his rubbery till they were tired o't, the Lords' Parliament they 
behoved to hae their spell o't. In puir auld Scotland's Parliament they a' 
sate thegither, cheek by choul, and than they didna need to hae the same 
blethers twice ower again. But till't their lordships went wi' as muckle 
teeth and gude-will, as if the matter had been a' speck and span new. 
Forbye, there was something said about ane Campbell, that suld hae been 
concerned in the rubbery, mair or less, and that he suld hae had a warrant 
frae the Duke of Argyle, as a testimonial o' his character. And this put 
MacCallum More's beard in a bleize, as gude reason there was; and he gat up 
wi' an unco bang, and garr'd them a' look about them, and wad ram it even 
doun their throats, there was never ane o' the Campbells but was as wight, 
wise, warlike, and worthy trust, as auld Sir John the Graeme. Now, if your 
honour's sure ye arena a drap's bluid a-kin to a Campbell, as I am nane 
mysell, sae far as I can count my kin, or hae had it counted to me, I'll 
gie ye my mind on that matter."
"You may be assured I have no connection whatever with any gentleman of the 
name."
"Ou, than we may speak it quietly amang oursells. There's baith gude and 
bad o' the Campbells, like other names, But this MacCallum More has an unco 
sway and say baith, amang the grit folk at Lunnun even now; for he canna 
preceesely be said to belang to ony o' the twa sides o' them, sae deil any 
o' them likes to quarrel wi' him; sae they e'en voted Morris's tale a fause 
calumnious libel, as they ca't, and if he hadna gien them leg-bail, he was 
likely to hae ta'en the air on the pillory for leasing-making."
So speaking, honest Andrew collected his dibbles, spades, and hoes, and 
threw them into a wheel-barrow, - leisurely, however, and allowing me full 
time to put any further questions which might occur to me before he 
trundled them off to the tool-house, there to repose during the ensuing 
day. I thought it best to speak out at once, lest this meddling fellow 
should suppose there were more weighty reasons for my silence than actually 
existed.
"I should like to see this countryman of yours, Andrew and to hear his news 
from himself directly. You have probably heard that I had some trouble from 
the impertinent folly of this man Morris" (Andrew grinned a most 
significant grin), "and I should wish to see your cousin the merchant, to 
ask him the particulars of what he heard in London, if it could be done 
without much trouble."
"Naething mair easy," Andrew observed; "he had but to hint to his cousin 
that I wanted a pair or twa o' hose, and he wad be wi' me as fast as he 
could lay leg to the grund."
"O yes, assure him I shall be a customer; and as the night is, as you say, 
settled and fair, I shall walk in the garden until he comes; the moon will 
soon rise over the fells. You may bring him to the little back-gate; and I 
shall have pleasure, in the meanwhile, in looking on the bushes and 
evergreens by the bright frosty moonlight."
"Vara right, vara right - that's what I hae aften said; a kail-blaid, or a 
colliflour, glances sae glegly by moonlight, it's like a leddy in her 
diamonds."
So saying, off went Andrew Fairservice with great glee. He had to walk 
about two miles, a labour he undertook with the greatest pleasure, in order 
to secure to his kinsman the sale of some articles of his trade, though it 
is probable he would not have given him sixpence to treat him to a quart of 
ale. "The good will of an Englishman would have displayed itself in a 
manner exactly the reverse of Andrew's," thought I, as I paced along the 
smooth-cut velvet walks, which, embowered with high, hedges of yew and of 
holly, intersected the ancient garden of Osbaldistone Hall.
As I turned to retrace my steps, it was natural that I should lift up my 
eyes to the windows of the old library; which, small in size, but several 
in number, stretched along the second story of that side of the house which 
now faced me. Light glanced from their casements. I was not surprised at 
this, for I knew Miss Vernon often sat there of an evening, though from 
motives of delicacy I put a strong restraint upon myself, and never sought 
to join her at a time when I knew, all the rest of the family being engaged 
for the evening, our interviews must necessarily have been strictly tete-a-
tete. In the mornings we usually read together in the same room; but then 
it often happened that one or other of our cousins entered to seek some 
parchment duodecimo that could be converted into a fishing-book, despite 
its gildings and illumination, or to tell us of some "sport toward," or 
from mere want of knowing where else to dispose of themselves. In short, in 
the mornings the library was a sort of public room, where man and woman 
might meet as on neutral ground. In the evening it was very different and 
bred in a country where much attention is paid, or was at least then paid, 
to bienseance, I was desirous to think for Miss Vernon concerning those 
points of propriety where her experience did not afford her the means of 
thinking for herself. I made her therefore comprehend, as delicately as I 
could, that when we had evening lessons, the presence of a third party was 
proper.
Miss Vernon first laughed, then blushed, and was disposed to be displeased; 
and then, suddenly checking herself, said, "I believe you are very right; 
and when I feel inclined to be a very busy scholar, I will bribe old Martha 
with a cup of tea to sit by me and be my screen."
Martha, the old housekeeper, partook of the taste of the family at the 
Hall. A toast and tankard would have pleased her better than all the tea in 
China. However, as the use of this beverage was then confined to the higher 
ranks, Martha felt some vanity in being asked to partake of it; and by dint 
of a great deal of sugar, many words scarce less sweet, and abundance of 
toast and butter, she was sometimes prevailed upon to give us her 
countenance. On other occasions, the servants almost unanimously shunned 
the library after nightfall, because it was their foolish pleasure to 
believe that it lay on the haunted side of the house. The more timorous had 
seen sights and heard sounds there when all the rest of the house was 
quiet; and even the young squires were far from having any wish to enter 
these formidable precincts after nightfall without necessity.
That the library had at one time been a favourite resource of Rashleigh - 
that a private door out of one side of it communicated with the sequestered 
and remote apartment which he chose for himself, rather increased than 
disarmed the terrors which the household had for the dreaded library of 
Osbaldistone Hall. His extensive information as to what passed in the world 
- his profound knowledge of science of every kind - a few physical 
experiments which he occasionally showed off, were, in a house of so much 
ignorance and bigotry, esteemed good reasons for supposing him endowed with 
powers over the spiritual world. He understood Greek, Latin, and Hebrew; 
and, therefore, according to the apprehension, and in the phrase of his 
brother Wilfred, needed not to care "for ghaist or barghaist, devil or 
dobbie." Yea, the servants persisted that they had heard him hold 
conversations in the library, when every varsal soul in the family were 
gone to bed; and that he spent the night in watching for bogles, and the 
morning in sleeping in his bed, when he should have been heading the hounds 
like a true Osbaldistone.
All these absurd rumours I had heard in broken hints and imperfect 
sentences, from which I was left to draw the inference; and, as easily may 
be supposed, I laughed them to scorn. But the extreme solitude to which 
this chamber of evil fame was committed every night after curfew time, was 
an additional reason why I should not intrude on Miss Vernon when she chose 
to sit there in the evening.
To resume what I was saying, - I was not surprised to see a glimmering of 
light from the library windows: but I was a little struck when I distinctly 
perceived the shadows of two persons pass along and intercept the light 
from the first of the windows, throwing the casement for a moment into 
shade. "It must be old Martha," thought I, "whom Diana has engaged to be 
her companion for the evening; or I must have been mistaken, and taken 
Diana's shadow for a second person. No, by Heaven! it appears on the second 
window, - two figures distinctly traced; and now it is lost again - it is 
seen on the third - on the fourth - the darkened forms of two persons 
distinctly seen in each window as they pass along the room, betwixt the 
windows and the lights. Whom can Diana have got for a companion?" - The 
passage of the shadows between the lights and the casements was twice 
repeated, as if to satisfy me that my observation served me truly; after 
which the lights were extinguished, and the shades, of course, were seen no 
more.
Trifling as this circumstance was, it occupied my mind for a considerable 
time. I did not allow myself to suppose that my friendship for Miss Vernon 
had any directly selfish view; yet it is incredible the displeasure I felt 
at the idea of her admitting any one to private interviews, at a time, and 
in a place, where, for her own sake, I had been at some trouble to show her 
that it was improper for me to meet with her.
"Silly, romping, incorrigible girl!" said I to myself, "on whom all good 
advice and delicacy are thrown away! I have been cheated by the simplicity 
of her manner, which I suppose she can assume just as she could a straw 
bonnet, were it the fashion, for the mere sake of celebrity. I suppose, 
notwithstanding the excellence of her understanding, the society of half a 
dozen of clowns to play at whisk and swabbers would give her more pleasure 
than if Ariosto himself were to awake from the dead."
This reflection came the more powerfully across my mind, because, having 
mustered up courage to show to Diana my version of the first books of 
Ariosto, I had requested her to invite Martha to a tea-party in the library 
that evening, to which arrangement Miss Vernon had refused her consent, 
alleging some apology which I thought frivolous at the time. I had not long 
speculated on this disagreeable subject, when the back garden-door opened, 
and the figures of Andrew and his country-man - bending under his pack - 
crossed the moonlight alley, and called my attention elsewhere.
I found Mr Macready, as I expected, a tough, sagacious, long-headed 
Scotchman, and a collector of news both from choice and profession. He was 
able to give me a distinct account of what had passed in the House of 
Commons and House of Lords on the affair of Morris, which, it appears, had 
been made by both parties a touchstone to ascertain the temper of the 
Parliament. It appeared also, that, as I had learned from Andrew, by second 
hand, the ministry had proved too weak to support a story involving the 
character of men of rank and importance, and resting upon the credit of a 
person of such indifferent fame as Morris, who was, moreover, confused and 
contradictory in his mode of telling the story. Macready was even able to 
supply me with a copy of a printed journal, or News-Letter, seldom 
extending beyond the capital, in which the substance of the debate was 
mentioned; and with a copy of the Duke of Argyle's speech, printed upon a 
broadside, of which he had purchased several from the hawkers, because, he 
said, it would be a saleable article on the north of the Tweed. The first 
was a meagre statement, full of blanks and asterisks, and which added 
little or nothing to the information I had from the Scotchman; and the 
Duke's speech, though spirited and eloquent, contained chiefly a panegyric 
on his country, his family, and his clan, with a few compliments, equally 
sincere, perhaps, though less glowing, which he took so favourable an 
opportunity of paying to himself. I could not learn whether my own 
reputation had been directly implicated, although I perceived that the 
honour of my uncle's family had been impeached, and that this person 
Campbell, stated by Morris to have been the most active robber of the two 
by whom he was assailed, was said by him to have appeared in the behalf of 
a Mr Osbaldistone, and by the connivance of the Justice procured his 
liberation. In this particular, Morris's story jumped with my own 
suspicions, which had attached to Campbell from the moment I saw him appear 
at Justice Inglewood's. Vexed upon the whole, as well as perplexed, with 
this extraordinary story, I dismissed the two Scotchmen, after making some 
purchases from Macready, and a small compliment to Fairservice, and retired 
to my own apartment to consider what I ought to do in defence of my 
character thus publicly attacked.


Chapter 15

				Whence, and what art you?
								-- Milton.


After exhausting a sleepless night in meditating on the intelligence I had 
received, I was at first inclined to think that I ought, as speedily as 
possible, to return to London, and by my open appearance repel the calumny 
which had been spread against me. But I hesitated to take this course on 
recollection of my father's disposition, singularly absolute in his 
decisions as to all that concerned his family. He was most able, certainly, 
from experience, to direct what I ought to do, and from his acquaintance 
with the most distinguished Whigs then in power, had influence enough to 
obtain a hearing for my cause. So, upon the whole, I judged it most safe to 
state my whole story in the shape of a narrative, addressed to my father; 
and as the ordinary opportunities of intercourse between the Hall and the 
post-town recurred rarely, I determined to ride to the town, which was 
about ten miles' distance, and deposit my letter in the post-office with my 
own hands.
Indeed I began to think it strange that though several weeks had elapsed 
since my departure from home, I had received no letter, either from my 
father or Owen, although Rashleigh had written to Sir Hildebrand of his 
safe arrival in London, and of the kind reception he had met with from his 
uncle. Admitting that I might have been to blame, I did not deserve, in my 
own opinion at least, to be so totally forgotten by my father; and I 
thought my present excursion might have the effect of bringing a letter 
from him to hand more early than it would otherwise have reached me. But 
before concluding my letter concerning the affair of Morris, I failed not 
to express my earnest hope and wish that my father would honour me with a 
few lines, were it but to express his advice and commands in an affair of 
some difficulty, and where my knowledge of life could not be supposed 
adequate to my own guidance. I found it impossible to prevail on myself to 
urge my actual return to London as a place of residence, and I disguised my 
unwillingness to do so under apparent submission to my father's will, 
which, as I imposed it on myself as a sufficient reason for not urging my 
final departure from Osbaldistone Hall, would, I doubted not, be received 
as such by my parent. But I begged permission to come to London, for a 
short time at least, to meet and refute the infamous calumnies which had 
been circulated concerning me in so public a manner. Having made up my 
packet, in which my earnest desire to vindicate my character was strangely 
blended with reluctance to quit my present place of residence, I rode over 
to the post-town, and deposited my letter in the office. By doing so, I 
obtained possession, somewhat earlier than I should otherwise have done, of 
the following letter from my friend Mr Owen: -

"Dear Mr Francis,
"Yours received per favour of Mr R.Osbaldistone, and note the contents. 
Shall do Mr R.O. such civilities as are in my power, and have taken him to 
see the Bank and Custom-house. He seems a sober, steady young gentleman, 
and takes to business; so will be of service to the firm. Could have wished 
another person had turned his mind that way; but God's will be done. As 
cash may be scarce in those parts, have to trust you will excuse my 
enclosing a goldsmith's bill at six days' sight, on Messrs. Hooper and 
Girder of Newcastle, for £100, which I doubt not will be duly honoured. - I 
remain, as in duty bound, dear Mr Frank, your very respectful and obedient 
servant,
								Joseph Owen.

"Postscriptum. - Hope you will advise the above coming safe to hand. Am 
sorry we have so few of yours. Your father says he is as usual, but looks 
poorly."

From this epistle, written in old Owen's formal style, I was rather 
surprised to observe that he made no acknowledgement of that private letter 
which I had written to him, with a view to possess him of Rashleigh's real 
character, although, from the course of post, it seemed certain that he 
ought to have received it. Yet I had sent it by the usual conveyance from 
the Hall, and had no reason to suspect that it could miscarry upon the 
road. As it comprised matters of great importance both to my father and to 
myself, I sat down in the post-office and again wrote to Owen, 
recapitulating the heads of my former letter, and requesting to know, in 
course of post, if it had reached him in safety. I also acknowledged the 
receipt of the bill, and promised to make use of the contents if I should 
have any occasion for money. I thought, indeed, it was odd that my father 
should leave the care of supplying my necessities to his clerk; but I 
concluded it was a matter arranged between them. At any rate, Owen was a 
bachelor, rich in his way, and passionately attached to me, so that I had 
no hesitation in being obliged to him for a small sum, which I resolved to 
consider as a loan, to be returned with my earliest ability, in case it was 
not previously repaid by my father; and I expressed myself to this purpose 
to Mr Owen. A shopkeeper in a little town, to whom the post-master directed 
me, readily gave me in gold the amount of my bill on Messrs. Hooper and 
Girder, so that I returned to Osbaldistone Hall a good deal richer than I 
had set forth. This recruit to my finances was not a matter of indifference 
to me, as I was necessarily involved in some expenses at Osbaldistone Hall; 
and I had seen, with some uneasy impatience, that the sum which my 
travelling expenses had left unexhausted at my arrival there was 
imperceptibly diminishing. This source of anxiety was for the present 
removed. On my arrival at the Hall I found that Sir Hildebrand and all his 
offspring had gone down to the little hamlet, called Trinlay-Knowes, "to 
see," as Andrew Fairservice expressed it, "a wheen midden cocks pike ilk 
ithers harns out."
"It is indeed a brutal amusement, Andrew; I suppose you have none such in 
Scotland?"
"Na, na," answered Andrew boldly; then shaded away his negative with, 
"unless it be on Fastern's-e'en, or the like o' that - But indeed it's no 
muckle matter what the folk do to the midden pootry, for they had siccan a 
skarting and scraping in the yard, that there's nae getting a bean or pea 
keepit for them. - But I am wondering what it is that leaves that turret-
door open; - now that Mr Rashleigh's away, it canna be him, I trow."
The turret-door to which he alluded opened to the garden at the bottom of a 
winding stair, leading down from Mr Rashleigh's apartment. This, as I have 
already mentioned, was situated in a sequestered part of the house, 
communicating with the library by a private entrance, and by another 
intricate and dark vaulted passage with the rest of the house. A long 
narrow turf walk led, between two high holly hedges, from the turret-door 
to a little postern in the wall of the garden. By means of these 
communications Rashleigh, whose movements were very independent of those of 
the rest of his family, could leave the Hall or return to it at pleasure, 
without his absence or presence attracting any observation. But during his 
absence the stair and the turret-door were entirely disused, and this made 
Andrew's observation somewhat remarkable.
"Have you often observed that door open?" was my question.
"No just that often neither; but I hae noticed it ance or twice. I'm 
thinking it maun hae been the priest, Father Vaughan, as they ca' him. 
Ye'll no catch ane o' the servants gauging up that stair, puir frightened 
heathens that they are, for fear of bogles and brownies, and lang-nebbit 
things frae the neist world. But Father Vaughan thinks himself a privileged 
person - set him up and lay him down! - I'se be caution the warst stibbler 
that ever stickit a sermon out ower the Tweed yonder, wad lay a ghaist 
twice as fast as him, wi' his holy water and his idolatrous trinkets. I 
dinna believe he speaks gude Latin neither; at least he disna take me up 
when I tell him the learned names o' the plants."
Of Father Vaughan, who divided his time and his ghostly care between 
Osbaldistone Hall and about half a dozen mansions of Catholic gentlemen in 
the neighbourhood, I have as yet said nothing, for I had seen but little. 
He was aged about sixty - of a good family, as I was given to understand, 
in the north - of a striking and imposing presence, grave in his exterior, 
and much respected among the Catholics of Northumberland as a worthy and 
upright man. Yet Father Vaughan did not altogether lack those peculiarities 
which distinguish his order. There hung about him an air of mystery, which, 
in Protestant eyes, savoured of priestcraft. The natives (such they might 
be well termed) of Osbaldistone Hall looked up to him with much more fear, 
or at least more awe, than affection. His condemnation of their revels was 
evident, from their being discontinued in some measure when the priest was 
a resident at the Hall. Even Sir Hildebrand himself put some restraint upon 
his conduct at such times, which, perhaps, rendered Father Vaughan's 
presence rather irksome than otherwise. He had the well-bred, insinuating, 
and almost flattering address peculiar to the clergy of his persuasion, 
especially in England, where the lay Catholic, hemmed in by penal laws, and 
by the restrictions of his sect and recommendation of his pastor, often 
exhibits a reserved, and almost a timid manner in the society of 
Protestants; while the priest, privileged by his order to mingle with 
persons of all creeds, is open, alert, and liberal in his intercourse with 
them, desirous of popularity, and usually skilful in the mode of obtaining 
it.
Father Vaughan was a particular acquaintance of Rashleigh's, otherwise, in 
all probability, he would scarce have been able to maintain his footing at 
Osbaldistone Hall. This gave me no desire to cultivate his intimacy, nor 
did he seem to make any advances towards mine; so our occasional 
intercourse was confined to the exchange of mere civility. I considered it 
as extremely probable that Mr Vaughan might occupy Rashleigh's apartment 
during his occasional residence at the Hall; and his profession rendered it 
likely that he should occasionally be a tenant of the library. Nothing was 
more probable than that it might have been his candle which had excited my 
attention on a preceding evening. This led me involuntarily to recollect 
that the intercourse between Miss Vernon and the priest was marked with 
something like the same mystery which characterised her communications with 
Rashleigh. I had never heard her mention Vaughan's name, or even allude to 
him, excepting on the occasion of our first meeting, when she mentioned the 
old priest and Rashleigh as the only conversable beings, besides herself, 
in Osbaldistone Hall. Yet although silent with respect to Father Vaughan, 
his arrival at the Hall never failed to impress Miss Vernon with an anxious 
and fluttering tremor, which lasted until they had exchanged one or two 
significant glances.
Whatever the mystery might be which overclouded the destinies of this 
beautiful and interesting female, it was clear that Father Vaughan was 
implicated in it; unless, indeed, I could suppose that he was the agent 
employed to procure her settlement in the cloister, in the event of her 
rejecting a union with either of my cousins, - an office which would 
sufficiently account for her obvious emotion at his appearance. As to the 
rest, they did not seem to converse much together, or even to seek each 
other's society. Their league, if any subsisted between them, was of a 
tacit and understood nature, operating on their actions without any 
necessity of speech. I recollected, however, on reflection, that I had once 
or twice discovered signs pass betwixt them, which I had at the time 
supposed to bear reference to some hint concerning Miss Vernon's religious 
observances, knowing how artfully the Catholic clergy maintain, at all 
times and seasons, their influence over the minds of their followers. But 
now I was disposed to assign to these communications a deeper and more 
mysterious import. Did he hold private meetings with Miss Vernon in the 
library? was a question which occupied my thoughts; and if so, for what 
purpose? And why should she have admitted an intimate of the deceitful 
Rashleigh to such close confidence?
These questions and difficulties pressed on my mind with an interest which 
was greatly increased by the impossibility of resolving them. I had already 
begun to suspect that my friendship for Diana Vernon was not altogether so 
disinterested as in wisdom it ought to have been. I had already felt myself 
becoming jealous of the contemptible lout Thorncliff, and taking more 
notice, than in prudence or dignity of feeling I ought to have done, of his 
silly attempts to provoke me. And now I was scrutinising the conduct of 
Miss Vernon with the most close and eager observation, which I in vain 
endeavoured to palm on myself as the offspring of idle curiosity. All 
these, like Benedick's brushing his hat of a morning, were signs that the 
sweet youth was in love; and while my judgement still denied that I had 
been guilty of forming an attachment so imprudent, she resembled those 
ignorant guides, who, when they have led the traveller and themselves into 
irretrievable error, persist in obstinately affirming it to be impossible 
that they can have missed the way.


Chapter 16

It happened one day about noon, going to my boat, I was exceedingly 
surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very 
plain to be seen on the sand.
							-- Robinson Crusoe.


With the blended feelings of interest and jealousy which were engendered by 
Miss Vernon's singular situation, my observations of her looks and actions 
became acutely sharpened, and that to a degree which, notwithstanding my 
efforts to conceal it, could not escape her penetration. The sense that she 
was observed, or, more properly speaking, that she was watched by my looks, 
seemed to give Diana a mixture of embarrassment, pain, and pettishness. At 
times it seemed that she sought an opportunity of resenting a conduct which 
she could not but feel as offensive, considering the frankness with which 
she had mentioned the difficulties that surrounded her. At other times she 
seemed prepared to expostulate upon the subject. But either her courage 
failed, or some other sentiment impeded her seeking an eclaircissement. Her 
displeasure evaporated in repartee, and her expostulations died on her 
lips. We stood in a singular relation to each other, - spending, and by 
mutual choice, much of our time in close society with each other, yet 
disguising our mutual sentiments, and jealous of, or offended by, each 
other's actions. There was betwixt us intimacy without confidence; - on one 
side, love without hope or purpose, and curiosity without any rational or 
justifiable motive; and on the other, embarrassment and doubt, occasionally 
mingled with displeasure. Yet I believe that this agitation of the passions 
(such is the nature of the human bosom), as it continued by a thousand 
irritating and interesting, though petty circumstances, to render Miss 
Vernon and me the constant objects of each other's thoughts, tended, upon 
the whole, to increase the attachment with which we were naturally disposed 
to regard each other. But although my vanity early discovered that my 
presence at Osbaldistone Hall had given Diana some additional reason for 
disliking the cloister, I could by no means confide in an affection which 
seemed completely subordinate to the mysteries of her singular situation. 
Miss Vernon was of a character far too formed and determined, to permit her 
love for me to overpower either her sense of duty or of prudence, and she 
gave me a proof of this in a conversation which we had together about this 
period.
We were sitting together in the library. Miss Vernon, in turning over a 
copy of the Orlando Furioso, which belonged to me, shook a piece of writing 
paper from between the leaves. I hastened to lift it, but she prevented me. 
- "It is verse," she said, on glancing at the paper; and then unfolding it, 
but as if to wait my answer before proceeding - "May I take the liberty? - 
Nay, nay, if you blush and stammer, I must do violence to your modesty, and 
suppose that permission is granted."
"It is not worthy your perusal - a scrap of a translation - My dear Miss 
Vernon, it would be too severe a trial, that you, who understand the 
original so well, should sit in judgement."
"Mine honest friend," replied Diana, "do not, if you will be guided by my 
advice, bait your hook with too much humility; for, ten to one, it will not 
catch a single compliment. You know I belong to the unpopular family of 
Tell-truths, and would not flatter Apollo for his lyre."
She proceeded to read the first stanza, which was nearly to the following 
purpose: -

		"Ladies, and knights, and arms, and love's fair flame,
			Deeds of emprize and courtesy, I sing;
		What time the Moors from sultry Africk came,
			Led on by Agramant, their youthful king -
		He whom revenge and hasty ire did bring
			O'er the broad wave, in France to waste and war;
		Such ills from old Trojano's death did spring,
			Which to avenge he came from realms afar,
		And menaced Christian Charles, the Roman Emperor.

		"Of dauntless Roland, too, my strain shall sound,
			In import never known in prose or rhyme,
		How He, the chief, of judgement deemed profound,
			For luckless love was crazed upon a time -

"There is a great deal of it," said she, glancing along the paper, and 
interrupting the sweetest sounds which mortal ears can drink in, - those of 
a youthful poet's verses, namely, read by the lips which are dearest to 
him.
"Much more than ought to engage your attention, Miss Vernon," I replied, 
something mortified; and I took the verses from her unreluctant hand - "And 
yet," I continued, "shut up as I am in this retired situation, I have felt 
sometimes I could not amuse myself better than by carrying on - merely for 
my own amusement, you will of course understand - the version of this 
fascinating author, which I began some months since when I was on the banks 
of the Garonne."
"The question would only be," said Diana, gravely, "whether you could not 
spend your time to better purpose?"
"You mean in original composition?" said I, greatly flattered - "But, to 
say truth, my genius rather lies in finding words and rhymes than ideas; 
and therefore I am happy to use those which Ariosto has prepared to my 
hand. However, Miss Vernon, with the encouragement you give -"
"Pardon me, Frank - it is encouragement not of my giving, but of your 
taking. I meant neither original composition nor translation, since I think 
you might employ your time to far better purpose than in either. You are 
mortified," she continued, "and I am sorry to be the cause."
"Not mortified, - certainly not mortified," said I, with the best grace I 
could muster, and it was but indifferently assumed; "I am too much obliged 
by the interest you take in me."
"Nay, but," resumed the relentless Diana, "there is both mortification and 
a little grain of anger in that constrained tone of voice; do not be angry 
if I probe your feelings to the bottom - perhaps what I am about to say 
will affect them still more."
I felt the childishness of my own conduct. and the superior manliness of 
Miss Vernon's, and assured her, that she need not fear my wincing under 
criticism which I knew to be kindly meant.
"That was honestly meant and said," she replied; "I knew full well that the 
fiend of poetical irritability flew away with the little preluding cough 
which ushered in the declaration. And now I must be serious - Have you 
heard from your father lately?"
"Not a word," I replied; "he has not honoured me with a single line during 
the several months of my residence here."
"That is strange! - you are a singular race, you bold Osbaldistones. Then 
you are not aware that he has gone to Holland, to arrange some pressing 
affairs which required his own immediate presence?"
"I never heard a word of it until this moment."
"And farther, it must be news to you, and I presume scarcely the most 
agreeable, that he has left Rashleigh in the almost uncontrolled management 
of his affairs until his return."
I started, and could not suppress my surprise and apprehension.
"You have reason for alarm," said Miss Vernon, very gravely; "and were I 
you, I would endeavour to meet and obviate the dangers which arise from so 
undesirable an arrangement."
"And how is it possible for me to do so?"
"Everything is possible for him who possesses courage and activity," she 
said, with a look resembling one of those heroines of the age of chivalry, 
whose encouragement was wont to give champions double valour at the hour of 
need; "and to the timid and hesitating, everything is impossible, because 
it seems so."
"And what would you advise, Miss Vernon?" I replied, wishing, yet dreading, 
to hear her answer.
She paused a moment, then answered firmly - "That you instantly leave 
Osbaldistone Hall, and return to London. You have perhaps already," she 
continued, in a softer tone, "been here too long; that fault was not yours. 
Every succeeding moment you waste here will be a crime. Yes, a crime: for I 
tell you plainly, that if Rashleigh long manages your father's affairs, you 
may consider his ruin as consummated."
"How is this possible?"
"Ask no questions," she said; "but believe me, Rashleigh's views extend far 
beyond the possession or increase of commercial wealth: he will only make 
the command of Mr Osbaldistone's revenues and property the means of putting 
in motion his own ambitious and extensive schemes. While your father was in 
Britain this was impossible; during his absence, Rashleigh will possess 
many opportunities, and he will not neglect to use them."
"But how can I, in disgrace with my father, and divested of all control 
over his affairs, prevent this danger by my mere presence in London?"
"That presence alone will do much. Your claim to interfere is a part of 
your birthright, and it is inalienable. You will have the countenance, 
doubtless, of your father's head-clerk, and confidential friends and 
partners. Above all, Rashleigh's schemes are of a nature that" - (she 
stopped abruptly, as if fearful of saying too much) - "are, in short," she 
resumed, "of the nature of all selfish and unconscientious plans, which are 
speedily abandoned as soon as those who frame them perceive their arts are 
discovered and watched. Therefore, in the language of your favourite poet -

		"To horse! to horse! Urge doubts to those that fear."

A feeling, irresistible in its impulse, induced me to reply - "Ah! Diana, 
can you give me advice to leave Osbaldistone Hall? - then indeed I have 
already been a resident here too long!"
Miss Vernon coloured, but proceeded with great firmness - "Indeed, I do 
give you this advice - not only to quit Osbaldistone Hall, but never to 
return to it more. You have only one friend to regret here," she continued, 
forcing a smile, "and she has been long accustomed to sacrifice her 
friendships and her comforts to the welfare of others. In the world you 
will meet a hundred whose friendship will be as disinterested - more useful 
- less encumbered by untoward circumstances - less influenced by evil 
tongues and evil times."
"Never!" I exclaimed, "never! - the world can afford me nothing to repay 
what I must leave behind me." Here I took her hand, and pressed it to my 
lips.
"This is folly!" she exclaimed - "this is madness!" and she struggled to 
withdraw her hand from my grasp, but not so stubbornly as actually to 
succeed until I had held it for nearly a minute. "Hear me, sir!" she said, 
"and curb this unmanly burst of passion. I am, by a solemn contract, the 
bride of Heaven, unless I could prefer being wedded to villainy in the 
person of Rashleigh Osbaldistone, or brutality in that of his brother. I 
am, therefore, the bride of Heaven, - betrothed to the convent from the 
cradle. To me, therefore, these raptures are misapplied - they only serve 
to prove a farther necessity for your departure, and that without delay." 
At these words she broke suddenly off, and said, but in a suppressed tone 
of voice, "Leave me instantly - we will meet here again, but it must be for 
the last time."
My eyes followed the direction of hers as she spoke, and I thought I saw 
the tapestry shake, which covered the door of the secret passage from 
Rashleigh's room to the library. I conceived we were observed, and turned 
an inquiring glance on Miss Vernon.
"It is nothing," said she, faintly; "a rat behind the arras."
"Dead for a ducat," would have been my reply, had I dared to give way to 
the feelings which rose indignant at the idea of being subjected to an 
eaves-dropper on such an occasion. Prudence, and the necessity of 
suppressing my passion, and obeying Diana's reiterated command of "Leave 
me! leave me!" came in time to prevent my rash action. I left the apartment 
in a wild whirl and giddiness of mind, which I in vain attempted to compose 
when I returned to my own.
A chaos of thoughts intruded themselves on me at once, passing hastily 
through my brain, intercepting and overshadowing each other, and resembling 
those fogs which in mountainous countries are wont to descend in obscure 
volumes, and disfigure or obliterate the usual marks by which the traveller 
steers his course through the wilds. The dark and undefined idea of danger 
arising to my father from the machinations of such a man as Rashleigh 
Osbaldistone - the half declaration of love that I had offered to Miss 
Vernon's acceptance - the acknowledged difficulties of her situation, bound 
by a previous contract to sacrifice herself to a cloister or to an ill-
assorted marriage, - all pressed themselves at once upon my recollection, 
while my judgement was unable deliberately to consider any of them in their 
just light and bearings. But chiefly and above all the rest, I was 
perplexed by the manner in which Miss Vernon had received my tender of 
affection, and by her manner, which, fluctuating betwixt sympathy and 
firmness, seemed to intimate that I possessed an interest in her bosom, but 
not of force sufficient to counterbalance the obstacles to her avowing a 
mutual affection. The glance of fear, rather than surprise, with which she 
had watched the motion of the tapestry over the concealed door, implied an 
apprehension of danger which I could not but suppose well grounded; for 
Diana Vernon was little subject to the nervous emotions of her sex, and 
totally unapt to fear without actual and rational cause. Of what nature 
could those mysteries be, with which she was surrounded as with an 
enchanter's spell, and which seemed continually to exert an active 
influence over her thoughts and actions, though their agents were never 
visible? On this subject of doubt my mind finally rested, as if glad to 
shake itself free from investigating the propriety or prudence of my own 
conduct, by transferring the inquiry to what concerned Miss Vernon. I will 
be resolved, I concluded, ere I leave Osbaldistone Hall, concerning the 
light in which I must in future regard this fascinating being, over whose 
life frankness and mystery seem to have divided their reign, - the former 
inspiring her words and sentiments - the latter spreading in misty 
influence over all her actions.
Joined to the obvious interests which arose from curiosity and anxious 
passion, there mingled in my feelings a strong, though unavowed and 
undefined, infusion of jealousy. This sentiment, which springs up with love 
as naturally as the tares with the wheat, was excited by the degree of 
influence which Diana appeared to concede to those unseen beings by whom 
her actions were limited. The more I reflected upon her character, the more 
I was internally though unwillingly convinced, that she was formed to set 
at defiance all control, excepting that which arose from affection; and I 
felt a strong, bitter, and gnawing suspicion, that such was the foundation 
of that influence by which she was overawed.
These tormenting doubts strengthened my desire to penetrate into the secret 
of Miss Vernon's conduct, and in the prosecution of this sage adventure, I 
formed a resolution, of which, if you are not weary of these details, you 
will find the result in the next chapter.



Chapter 17

				I hear a voice you cannot hear,
				Which says, I must not stay;
				I see a hand you cannot see,
				Which beckons me awry.
							-- Tickell.


I have already told you, Tresham, if you deign to bear it in remembrance, 
that my evening visits to the library had seldom been made except by 
appointment, and under the sanction of old Dame Martha's presence. This, 
however, was entirely a tacit conventional arrangement of my own 
instituting. Of late, as the embarrassments of our relative situation had 
increased, Miss Vernon and I had never met in the evening at all. She had 
therefore no reason to suppose that I was likely to seek a renewal of these 
interviews, and especially without some previous notice or appointment 
betwixt us, that Martha might, as usual, be placed upon duty; but, on the 
other hand, this cautionary provision was a matter of understanding, not of 
express enactment. The library was open to me, as to the other members of 
the family, at all hours of the day and night, and I could not be accused 
of intrusion, however suddenly and unexpectedly I might made my appearance 
in it. My belief was strong, that in this apartment Miss Vernon 
occasionally received Vaughan, or some other person, by whose opinion she 
was accustomed to regulate her conduct, and that at the times when she 
could do so with least chance of interruption. The lights which gleamed in 
the library at unusual hours - the passing shadows which I had myself 
remarked - the footsteps which might be traced in the morning-dew from the 
turret-door to the postern-gate in the garden - sounds and sights which 
some of the servants, and Andrew Fairservice in particular, had observed, 
and accounted for in their own way, - all tended to show that the place was 
visited by some one different from the ordinary inmates of the hall. 
Connected as this visitant probably must be with the fates of Diana Vernon, 
I did not hesitate to form a plan of discovering who or what he was, - how 
far his influence was likely to produce good or evil consequences to her on 
whom he acted; - above all, though I endeavoured to persuade myself that 
this was a mere subordinate consideration, I desired to know by what means 
this person had acquired or maintained his influence over Diana, and 
whether he ruled over her by fear or by affection. The proof that this 
jealous curiosity was uppermost in my mind, arose from my imagination 
always ascribing Miss Vernon's conduct to the influence of some one 
individual agent, although, for aught I knew about the matter, her advisers 
might be as numerous am Legion. I remarked this over and over to myself; 
but I found that my mind still settled back in my original conviction, that 
one single individual, of the masculine sex, and in all probability young 
and handsome, was at the bottom of Miss Vernon's conduct; and it was with a 
burning desire of discovering, or rather of detecting, such a rival, that I 
stationed myself in the garden to watch the moment when the lights should 
appear in the library windows.
So eager, however, was my impatience, that I commenced my watch for a 
phenomenon, which could not appear until darkness, a full hour before the 
daylight disappeared, on a July evening. It was Sabbath, and all the walks 
were still and solitary. I walked up and down for some time, enjoying the 
refreshing coolness of a summer evening, and meditating on the probable 
consequences of my enterprise. The fresh and balmy air of the garden, 
impregnated with fragrance, produced its usual sedative effects on my over-
heated and feverish blood. As these took place, the turmoil of my mind 
began proportionally to abate, and I was led to question the right I had to 
interfere with Miss Vernon's secrets, or with those of my uncle's family. 
What was it to me whom my uncle might choose to conceal in his house, where 
I was myself a guest only by tolerance? And what title had I to pry into 
the affairs of Miss Vernon, fraught, as she had avowed them to be, with 
mystery, into which she desired no scrutiny?
Passion and self-will were ready with their answers to these questions. In 
detecting this secret, I was in all probability about to do service to Sir 
Hildebrand, who was probably ignorant of the intrigues carried on in his 
family - and a still more important service to Miss Vernon, whose frank 
simplicity of character exposed her to so many risks in maintaining a 
private correspondence, perhaps with a person of doubtful or dangerous 
character. If I seemed to intrude myself on her confidence, it was with the 
generous and disinterested (yes, I even ventured to call it the 
disinterested) intention of guiding, defending, and protecting her against 
craft - against malice, - above all, against the secret counsellor whom she 
had chosen for her confidant. Such were the arguments which my will boldly 
preferred to my conscience, as coin which ought to be current, and which 
conscience, like a grumbling shopkeeper, was contented to accept, rather 
than come to an open breach with a customer, though more than doubting that 
the tender was spurious.
While I paced the green alleys, debating these things pro and con, I 
suddenly alighted upon Andrew Fairservice, perched up like a statue by a 
range of bee-hives, in an attitude of devout contemplation - one eye, 
however, watching the motions of the little irritable citizens, who were 
settling in their straw-thatched mansion for the evening, and the other 
fixed on a book of devotion, which much attrition had deprived of its 
corners, and worn into an oval shape; a circumstance which, with the close 
print and dingy colour of the volume in question, gave it an air of most 
respectable antiquity.
"I was e'en taking a spell o' worthy Mess John Quackleben's Flower of a 
Sweet Savour sawn on the Middenstead of this World," said Andrew, closing 
his book at my appearance, and putting his horn spectacles, by way of mark, 
at the place where he had been reading.
"And the bees, I observe, were dividing your attention, Andrew, with the 
learned author?"
"They are a contumacious generation," replied the gardener; "they hae sax 
days in the week to hive on, and yet it's a common observe that they will 
aye swarm on the Sabbath-day, and keep folk at hame frae hearing the word - 
But there's nae preaching at Graneagain chapel the e'en - that's aye ae 
mercy."
"You might have gone to the parish church as I did, Andrew, and heard an 
excellent discourse."
"Clauts o' cauld parritch - clauts o' cauld parritch," replied Andrew, with 
a most supercilious sneer, - "gude aneuch for dogs, begging your honour's 
pardon - Ay! I might nae doubt hae heard the curate linking awa at it in 
his white sark yonder, and the musicians playing on whistles, mair like a 
penny-wedding than a sermon - and to the boot of that, I might hae gane to 
evensong, and heard Daddie Docharty mumbling his mass - muckle the better I 
wad hae been o' that!"
"Docharty!" said I (this was the name of an old priest, an Irishman, I 
think, who sometimes officiated at Osbaldistone Hall) - "I thought Father 
Vaughan had been at the Hall. He was here yesterday."
"Ay," replied Andrew; "but he left it yestreen, to gang to Greystock, or 
some o' thae west-country haulds. There's an unco stir among them a' 
e'enow. They are as busy as my bees are - God sain them! that I suld even 
the puir things to the like o' papists. Ye see this is the second swarm, 
and whiles they will swarm off in the afternoon. The first swarm set off 
sune in the morning. - But I am thinking they are settled in their skeps 
for the night; sae I wuss your honour good-night, and grace, and muckle 
o't."
So saying, Andrew retreated, but often cast a parting glance upon the 
skeps, as he called the bee-hives.
I had indirectly gained from him an important piece of information, that 
Father Vaughan, namely, was not supposed to be at the Hall. If, therefore, 
there appeared light in the windows of the library this evening, it either 
could not be his, or he was observing a very secret and suspicious line of 
conduct. I waited with impatience the time of sunset and of twilight. It 
had hardly arrived, ere a gleam from the windows of the library was seen, 
dimly distinguishable amidst the still enduring light of the evening. I 
marked its first glimpse, however, as speedily as the benighted sailor 
descries the first distant twinkle of the lighthouse which marks his 
course. The feelings of doubt and propriety, which had hitherto contended 
with my curiosity and jealousy, vanished when an opportunity of gratifying 
the former was presented to me. I re-entered the house, and avoiding the 
more frequented apartments with the consciousness of one who wishes to keep 
his purpose secret, I reached the door of the library - hesitated for a 
moment as my hand was upon the latch - heard a suppressed step within - 
opened the door - and found Miss Vernon alone.
Diana appeared surprised, - whether at my sudden entrance, or from some 
other cause, I could not guess; but there was in her appearance a degree of 
flutter, which I had never before remarked, and which I knew could only be 
produced by unusual emotion. Yet she was calm in a moment; and such is the 
force of conscience, that I, who studied to surprise her, seemed myself the 
surprised, and was certainly the embarrassed person.
"Has anything happened?" said Miss Vernon - "has any one arrived at the 
Hall?"
"No one that I know of," I answered, in some confusion; "I only sought the 
Orlando."
"It lies there," said Miss Vernon, pointing to the table. In removing one 
or two books to get at that which I pretended to seek, I was, in truth, 
meditating to make a handsome retreat from an investigation to which I felt 
my assurance inadequate, when I perceived a man's glove lying upon the 
table. My eyes encountered those of Miss Vernon, who blushed deeply.
"It is one of my relics," she said with hesitation, replying not to my 
words but to my looks; "it is one of the gloves of my grandfather, the 
original of the superb Vandyke which you admire."
As if she thought something more than her bare assertion was necessary to 
prove her statement true, she opened a drawer of the large oaken table, and 
taking out another glove, threw it towards me. - When a temper naturally 
ingenuous stoops to equivocate, or to dissemble, the anxious pain with 
which the unwonted task is laboured, often induces the hearer to doubt the 
authenticity of the tale. I cast a hasty glance on both gloves, and then 
replied gravely - "The gloves resemble each other, doubtless, in form and 
embroidery; but they cannot form a pair, since they both belong to the 
right hand."
She bit her lip with anger, and again coloured deeply.
"You do right to expose me," she replied, with bitterness: "some friends 
would have only judged from what I said, that I chose to give no particular 
explanation of a circumstance which calls for none - at least to a 
stranger. You have judged better, and have made me feel, not only the 
meanness of duplicity, but my own inadequacy to sustain the task of a 
dissembler. I now tell you distinctly, that that glove is not the fellow, 
as you have acutely discerned, to the one which I just now produced; - it 
belongs to a friend yet dearer to me than the original of Vandyke's picture 
- a friend by whose counsels I have been, and will be, guided - whom I 
honour - whom I -" she paused.
I was irritated at her manner, and filled up the blank in my own way - 
"Whom she loves, Miss Vernon would say."
"And if I do say so," she replied haughtily, "by whom shall my affection be 
called to account?"
"Not by me, Miss Vernon, assuredly - I entreat you to hold me acquitted of 
such presumption. - But," I continued, with some emphasis, for I was now 
piqued in return, "I hope Miss Vernon will pardon a friend, from whom she 
seems disposed to withdraw the title, for observing -"
"Observe nothing, sir," she interrupted with some vehemence, except that I 
will neither be doubted nor questioned. There does not exist one by whom I 
will be either interrogated or judged; and if you sought this unusual time 
of presenting yourself in order to spy upon my privacy, the friendship or 
interest with which you pretend to regard me, is a poor excuse for your 
uncivil curiosity."
"I relieve you of my presence," said I, with pride equal to her own; for my 
temper has ever been a stranger to stooping, even in cases where my 
feelings were most deeply interested - "I relieve you of my presence. I 
awake from a pleasant, but a most delusive dream; and - but we understand 
each other."
I had reached the door of the apartment, when Miss Vernon, whose movements 
were sometimes so rapid as to seem almost instinctive, overtook me, and, 
catching hold of my arm, stopped me with that air of authority which she 
could so whimsically assume, and which, from the naÔvete and simplicity of 
her manner, had an effect so peculiarly interesting.
"Stop, Mr Frank," she said, "you are not to leave me in that way neither; I 
am not so amply provided with friends, that I can afford to throw away even 
the ungrateful and the selfish. Mark what I say, Mr Francis Osbaldistone. 
You shall know nothing of this mysterious glove," and she held it up as she 
spoke - "nothing - no, not a single iota more than you know already; and 
yet I will not permit it to be a gauntlet of strife and defiance betwixt 
us. My time here," she said, sinking into a tone somewhat softer, "must 
necessarily be very short; yours must be still shorter: we are soon to part 
never to meet again; do not let us quarrel, or make any mysterious miseries 
the pretext for farther embittering the few hours we shall ever pass 
together on this side of eternity."
I do not know, Tresham, by what witchery this fascinating creature obtained 
such complete management over a temper which I cannot at all times manage 
myself. I had determined on entering the library, to seek a complete 
explanation with Miss Vernon. I had found that she refused it with 
indignant defiance, and avowed to my face the preference of a rival; for 
what other construction could I put on her declared preference of her 
mysterious confidant? And yet, while I was on the point of leaving the 
apartment, and breaking with her for ever, it cost her but a change of look 
and tone, from that of real and haughty resentment to that of kind and 
playful despotism, again shaded off into melancholy and serious feeling, to 
lead me back to my seat, her willing subject, on her own hard terms.
"What does this avail?" said I, as I sate down. "What can this avail, Miss 
Vernon? Why should I witness embarrassments which I cannot relieve, and 
mysteries which I offend you even by attempting to penetrate? Inexperienced 
as you are in the world, you must still be aware that a beautiful young 
woman can have but one male friend. Even in a male friend I will be jealous 
of a confidence shared with a third party unknown and concealed; but with 
you, Miss Vernon -"
"You are, of course, jealous, in all the tenses and moods of that amiable 
passion? But, my good friend, you have all this time spoke nothing but the 
paltry gossip which simpletons repeat from play-books and romances, till 
they give mere cant a real and powerful influence over their minds. Boys 
and girls prate themselves into love; and when their love is like to fall 
asleep, they prate and tease themselves into jealousy. But you and I, 
Frank, are rational beings, and neither silly nor idle enough to talk 
ourselves into any other relation than that of plain honest disinterested 
friendship. Any other union is as far out of our reach as if I were man, or 
you woman - To speak truth," she added, after a moment's hesitation, "even 
though I am so complaisant to the decorum of my sex as to blush a little at 
my own plain dealing, we cannot marry if we would; and we ought not if we 
could."
And certainly, Tresham, she did blush most angelically, as she made this 
cruel declaration. I was about to attack both her positions, entirely 
forgetting those very suspicions which had been confirmed in the course of 
the evening, but she proceeded with a cold firmness which approached to 
severity - "What I say is sober and indisputable truth, on which I will 
neither hear question nor explanation. We are therefore friends, Mr 
Osbaldistone - are we not?" She held out her hand, and taking mine, added - 
"And nothing to each other now, or henceforward, except as friends."
She let go my hand. I sunk it and my head at once, fairly overcrowed, as 
Spenser would have termed it, by the mingled kindness and firmness of her 
manner. She hastened to change the subject.
"Here is a letter," she said, "directed for you, Mr Osbaldistone, very duly 
and distinctly; but which, notwithstanding the caution of the person who 
wrote and addressed it, might perhaps never have reached your hands, had it 
not fallen into the possession of a certain Pacolet, or enchanted dwarf of 
mine, whom, like all distressed damsels of romance, I retain in my secret 
service."
I opened the letter and glanced over the contents. The unfolded sheet of 
paper dropped from my hands, with the involuntary exclamation of "Gracious 
Heaven! my folly and disobedience have ruined my father!"
Miss Vernon rose with looks of real and affectionate alarm - "You grow pale 
- you are ill - shall I bring you a glass of water? Be a man, Mr 
Osbaldistone, and a firm one. Is your father - is he no more?"
"He lives," said I, "thank God! but to what distress and difficulty -"
"If that be all, despair not, May I read this letter?" she said, taking it 
up.
I assented, hardly knowing what I said. She read it with great attention.
"Who is this Mr Tresham, who signs the letter?"
"My father's partner" - (your own good father, Will) - "but he is little in 
the habit of acting personally in the business of the house."
"He writes here," said Miss Vernon, "of various letters sent to you 
previously."
"I have received none of them," I replied.
"And it appears," she continued, "that Rashleigh, who has taken the full 
management of affairs during your father's absence in Holland, has some 
time since left London for Scotland, with effects and remittances to take 
up large bills granted by your father to persons in that country, and that 
he has not since been heard of."
"It is but too true."
"And here has been," she added, looking at the letter, "a head-clerk, or 
some such person, - Owenson - Owen - despatched to Glasgow, to find out 
Rashleigh, if possible, and you are entreated to repair to the same place, 
and assist him in his researches."
"It is even so, and I must depart instantly."
"Stay but one moment," said Miss Vernon. "It seems to me that the worst 
which can come of this matter, will be the loss of a certain sum of money; 
- and can that bring tears into your eyes? For shame, Mr Osbaldistone!"
"You do me injustice, Miss Vernon," I answered. "I grieve not for the loss 
of the money, but for the effect which I know it will produce on the 
spirits and health of my father, to whom mercantile credit is as honour; 
and who, if declared insolvent, would sink into the grave, oppressed by a 
sense of grief, remorse, and despair, like that of a soldier convicted of 
cowardice or a man of honour who had lost his rank and character in 
society. All this I might have prevented by a trifling sacrifice of the 
foolish pride and indolence which recoiled from sharing the labours of his 
honourable and useful profession. Good Heaven! how shall I redeem the 
consequences of my error?"
"By instantly repairing to Glasgow, as you are conjured to do by the friend 
who writes this letter."
"But if Rashleigh," said I, "has really formed this base and 
unconscientious scheme of plundering his benefactor, what prospect is there 
that I can find means of frustrating a plan so deeply laid?'
"The prospect," she replied, "indeed, may be uncertain; but, on the other 
hand, there is no possibility of your doing any service to your father by 
remaining here. Remember, had you been on the post destined for you, this 
disaster could not have happened: hasten to that which is now pointed out, 
and it may possibly be retrieved. - Yet stay - do not leave this room until 
I return." She left me in confusion and amazement; amid which, however, I 
could find a lucid interval to admire the firmness, composure, and presence 
of mind which Miss Vernon seemed to possess on every crisis, however 
sudden.
In a few minutes she returned with a sheet of paper in her hand, folded and 
sealed like a letter, but without address. "I trust you," she said, "with 
this proof of my friendship, because I have the most perfect confidence in 
your honour. If I understand the nature of your distress rightly, the funds 
in Rashleigh's possession must be recovered by a certain day - the 12th of 
September, I think is named - in order that they may be applied to pay the 
bills in question; and, consequently, that if adequate funds be provided 
before that period, your father's credit is safe from the apprehended 
calamity."
"Certainly - I so understand Mr Tresham" - I looked at your father's letter 
again, and added, "There cannot be a doubt of it."
"Well," said Diana, "in that case my little Pacolet may be of use to you. 
You have heard of a spell contained in a letter. Take this packet; do not 
open it until other and ordinary means have failed. If you succeed by your 
own exertions, I trust to your honour for destroying it without opening or 
suffering it to be opened; - but if not, you may break the seal within ten 
days of the fated day, and you will find directions which may possibly be 
of service to you. Adieu, Frank; we never meet more - but sometimes think 
of your friend Die Vernon."
She extended her hand, but I clasped her to my bosom. She sighed as she 
extricated herself from the embrace which she permitted - escaped to the 
door which led to her own apartment - and I saw her no more.


Chapter 18

			And hurry, hurry, off they rode,
				As fast as fast might be;
			Hurra, hurra, the dead can ride,
				Dost fear to ride with me?
							-- Burgher.


There is one advantage in an accumulation of evils, differing in cause and 
character, that the distraction which they afford by their contradictory 
operation prevents the patient from being overwhelmed under either. I was 
deeply grieved at my separation from Miss Vernon, yet not so much so as I 
should have been, had not my father's apprehended distresses forced 
themselves on my attention; and I was distressed by the news of Mr Tresham, 
yet less so than if they had fully occupied my mind. I was neither a false 
lover nor an unfeeling son; but man can give but a certain portion of 
distressful emotions to the causes which demand them; and if two operate at 
once, our sympathy, like the funds of a compounding bankrupt, can only be 
divided between them. Such were my reflections when I gained my apartment - 
it seems, from the illustration, they already began to have a twang of 
commerce in them.
I set myself seriously to consider your father's letter. It was not very 
distinct, and referred for several particulars to Owen, whom I was 
entreated to meet with as soon as possible at a Scotch town called Glasgow; 
being informed, moreover, that my old friend was to be heard of at Messrs. 
MacVittie, MacFin, and Company, merchants in the Gallowgate of the said 
town. It likewise alluded to several letters, - which, as it appeared to 
me, must have miscarried or have been intercepted, and complained of my 
obdurate silence, in terms which would have, been highly unjust, had my 
letters reached their purposed destination. I was amazed as I read. That 
the spirit of Rashleigh walked around me, and conjured up these doubts and 
difficulties by which I was surrounded, I could not doubt for one instant; 
yet it was frightful to conceive the extent of combined villainy and power 
which he must have employed in the perpetration of his designs. Let me do 
myself justice in one respect. The evil of parting from Miss Vernon, 
however distressing it might in other respects and at another time have 
appeared to me, sunk into a subordinate consideration when I thought of the 
dangers impending over my father. I did not myself set a high estimation on 
wealth, and had the affectation of most young men of lively imagination, 
who suppose that they can better dispense with the possession of money, 
than resign their time and faculties to the labour necessary to acquire it. 
But in my father's case, I knew that bankruptcy would be considered as an 
utter and irretrievable disgrace, to which life would afford no comfort, 
and death the speediest and sole relief.
My mind, therefore, was bent on averting this catastrophe, with an 
intensity which the interest could not have produced had it referred to my 
own fortunes; and the result of my deliberation was a firm resolution to 
depart from Osbaldistone Hall the next day and wend my way without loss of 
time to meet Owen at Glasgow. I did not hold it expedient to intimate my 
departure to my uncle, otherwise than by leaving a letter of thanks for his 
hospitality, assuring him that sudden and important business prevented my 
offering them in person. I knew the blunt old knight would readily excuse 
ceremony; and I had such a belief in the extent and decided character of 
Rashleigh's machinations, that I had some apprehension of his having 
provided means to intercept a journey which was undertaken with a view to 
disconcert them, if my departure were publicly announced at Osbaldistone 
Hall.
I therefore determined to set off on my journey with daylight on the 
ensuing morning, and to gain the neighbouring kingdom of Scotland before 
any idea of my departure was entertained at the Hall. But one impediment of 
consequence was likely to prevent that speed which was the soul of my 
expedition. I did not know the shortest, nor indeed any road to Glasgow; 
and as, in the circumstances in which I stood, despatch was of the greatest 
consequence, I determined to consult Andrew Fairservice on the subject, as 
the nearest and most authentic authority within my reach. Late as it was, I 
set off with the intention of ascertaining this important point, and after 
a few minutes' walk reached the dwelling of the gardener.
Andrew's dwelling was situated at no great distance from the exterior wall 
of the garden - a snug comfortable Northumbrian cottage, built of stones 
roughly dressed with the hammer, and having the windows and doors decorated 
with huge heavy architraves, or lintels, as they are called, of hewn stone, 
and its roof covered with broad grey flags, instead of slates, thatch, or 
tiles. A jargonelle pear-tree at one end of the cottage, a rivulet and 
flower-plot of a rood in extent in front, and a kitchen-garden behind; a 
paddock for a cow, and a small field, cultivated with several crops of 
grain, rather for the benefit of the cottager than for sale, announced the 
warm and cordial comforts which Old England, even at her most northern 
extremity, extends to her meanest inhabitants.
As I approached the mansion of the sapient Andrew, I heard a noise, which, 
being of a nature peculiarly solemn, nasal, and prolonged, led me to think 
that Andrew, according to the decent and meritorious custom of his 
countrymen, had assembled some of his neighbours to join in family 
exercise, as he called evening devotion. Andrew had indeed neither wife, 
child, nor female inmate in his family. "The first of his trade," he said, 
"had had eneugh o' thae cattle." But, notwithstanding, he sometimes 
contrived to form an audience for himself out of the neighbouring Papists 
and Church-of-England-men - brands, as he expressed it, snatched out of the 
burning, on whom he used to exercise his spiritual gifts, in defiance alike 
of Father Vaughan, Father Docharty, Rashleigh, and all the world of 
Catholics around him, who deemed his interference on such occasions an act 
of heretical interloping. I conceived it likely, therefore, that the well-
disposed neighbours might have assembled to hold some chapel of ease of 
this nature. The noise, however, when I listened to it more accurately, 
seemed to proceed entirely from the lungs of the said Andrew; and when I 
interrupted it by entering the house, I found Fairservice alone, combating 
as he best could, with long words and hard names, and reading aloud, for 
the purpose of his own edification, a volume of controversial divinity.
"I was just taking a spell," said he, laying aside the huge folio volume as 
I entered, "of the worthy Doctor Lightfoot."
"Lightfoot!" I replied, looking at the ponderous volume with some surprise; 
"surely your author was unhappily named."
"Lightfoot was his name, sir; a divine he was, and another kind of a divine 
than they hae nowadays. Always, I crave your pardon for keeping ye standing 
at the door, but having been mistrysted (gude preserve us!) with ae bogle 
the night already, I was dubious o' opening the yett till I had gane 
through the e'ening worship; and I had just finished the fifth chapter of 
Nehemiah - if that winna gar them keep their distance, I wotna what will."
"Trysted with a bogle!" said I; "what do you mean by that, Andrew?"
"I said mistrysted," replied Andrew; "that is as muckle as to say, fley'd 
wi' a ghaist - Gude preserve us, I say again!"
"Flay'd by a ghost, Andrew! how am I to understand that?"
"I did not say flay'd," replied Andrew, "but fley'd, - that is, I got a 
fleg, and was ready to jump out o' my skin, though naebody offered to whirl 
it aff my body as a man wad bark a tree."
"I beg a truce to your terrors in the present case, Andrew, and I wish to 
know whether you can direct me the nearest way to a town in your country of 
Scotland, called Glasgow?"
"A town ca'd Glasgow!" echoed Andrew Fairservice. "Glasgow's a ceety, man. 
- And is't the way to Glasgow ye were speering if I kenned? - What suld ail 
me to ken it? - it's no that dooms far frae my ain parish of Dreepdaily, 
that lies a bittock farther to the west. But what may your honour be gaun 
to Glasgow for?"
"Particular business," replied I.
"That's as muckle as to say, Speer nae questions, and I'll tell ye nae 
lees. - To Glasgow?" - he made a short pause - "I am thinking ye wad be the 
better o' some ane to show you the road."
"Certainly, if I could meet with any person going that way."
"And your honour, doubtless, wad consider the time and trouble?"
"Unquestionably - my business is pressing, and if you can find any guide to 
accompany me, I'll pay him handsomely."
"This is no a day to speak o' carnal matters," said Andrew, casting his 
eyes upwards; "but if it werena Sabbath at e'en, I wad speer what ye wad be 
content to gie to ane that wad bear ye pleasant company on the road, and 
tell ye the names of the gentlemen's and noblemen's seats and castles, and 
count their kin to ye?"
"I tell you, all I want to know is the road I must travel; I will pay the 
fellow to his satisfaction - I will give him anything in reason."
"Ony thing," replied Andrew, "is naething; and this lad that I am speaking 
o' kens a' the short cuts and queer by-paths through the hills, and -"
"I have no time to talk about it, Andrew; do you make the bargain for me 
your own way."
"Aha! that's speaking to the purpose," answered Andrew. - "I am thinking, 
since sae be that sae it is, I'll be the lad that will guide you mysell."
"You, Andrew? - how will you get away from your employment?"
"I tell'd your honour a while syne, that it was lang that I hae been 
thinking o' flitting, maybe as lang as frae the first year I came to 
Osbaldistone Hall; and now I am o' the mind to gang in gude earnest - 
better soon as syne - better a finger aff as aye wagging."
"You leave your service, then? - but will you not lose your wages?"
"Nae doubt there will be a certain loss; but then I hae siller o' the 
laird's in my hands that I took for the apples in the auld orchyard - and a 
sair bargain the folk had that bought them - a wheen green trash - and yet 
Sir Hildebrand's as keen to hae the siller (that is, the steward is as 
pressing about it) as if they had been a' gowden pippins - and then there's 
the siller for the seeds - I'm thinking the wage will be in a manner 
decently made up. - But doubtless your honour will consider my risk of loss 
when we win to Glasgow - and ye'll be for setting out forthwith?"
"By daybreak in the morning," I answered.
"That's something o' the suddenest - whare am I to find a naig? - Stay - I 
ken just the beast that will answer me."
"At five in the morning, then, Andrew, you will meet me at the head of the 
avenue."
"Deil a fear o' me (that I suld say sae) missing my tryste," replied 
Andrew, very briskly; "and if I might advise, we wad be aff twa hours 
earlier. I ken the way, dark or light, as weel as blind Ralph Ronaldson, 
that's travelled ower every moor in the country-side, and disna ken the 
colour of a heather-cowe when a's dune."
I highly approved of Andrew's amendment on my original proposal, and we 
agreed to meet at the place appointed at three in the morning. At once, 
however, a reflection came across the mind of my intended travelling 
companion.
"The bogle! the bogle! what if it should come out upon us? - I downa 
forgather wi' thae things twice in the four-and-twenty hours."
"Pooh! pooh!" I exclaimed, breaking away from him, "fear nothing from the 
next world - the earth contains living fiends, who can act for themselves 
without assistance, were the whole host that fell with Lucifer to return to 
aid and abet them."
With these words, the import of which was suggested by my own situation, I 
left Andrew's habitation, and returned to the Hall.
I made the few preparations which were necessary for my proposed journey, 
examined and loaded my pistols, and then threw myself on my bed, to obtain, 
if possible, a brief sleep before the fatigue of a long and anxious 
journey. Nature, exhausted by the tumultuous agitations of the day, was 
kinder to me than I expected, and I stink into a deep and profound slumber, 
from which, however, I started as the old clock struck two from a turret 
adjoining to my bedchamber. I instantly arose, struck a light, wrote the 
letter I proposed to leave for my uncle, and leaving behind me such 
articles of dress as were cumbrous in carriage, I deposited the rest of my 
wardrobe in my valise, glided down stairs, and gained the stable without 
impediment. Without being quite such a groom as any of my cousins, I had 
learned at Osbaldistone Hall to dress and saddle my own horse, and in a few 
minutes I was mounted and ready for my sally.
As I paced up the old avenue, on which the waning moon threw its light with 
a pale and whitish tinge, I looked back with a deep and boding sigh towards 
the walls which contained Diana Vernon, under the despondent impression 
that we had probably parted to meet no more. It was impossible, among the 
long and irregular lines of Gothic casements, which now looked ghastly 
white in the moonlight, to distinguish that of the apartment which she 
inhabited. "She is lost to me already," thought I, as my eye wandered over 
the dim and indistinguishable intricacies of architecture offered by the 
moonlight view of Osbaldistone Hall - "She is lost to me already, ere I 
have left the place which she inhabits! What hope is there of my 
maintaining any correspondence with her, when leagues shall lie between?"
While I paused in a reverie of no very pleasing nature, the "iron tongue of 
time told three upon the drowsy ear of night," and reminded me of the 
necessity of keeping my appointment with a person of a less interesting 
description and appearance - Andrew Fairservice.
At the gate of the avenue I found a horseman stationed in the shadow of the 
wall, but it was not until I had coughed twice, and then called "Andrew," 
that the horticulturist replied, "I'se warrant it's Andrew."
"Lead the way, then," said I, "and be silent if you can, till we are past 
the hamlet in the valley."
Andrew led the way accordingly, and at a much brisker pace than I would 
have recommended. - and so well did he obey my injunctions of keeping 
silence, that he would return no answer to my repeated inquiries into the 
cause of such unnecessary haste. Extricating ourselves by short cuts, known 
to Andrew, from the numerous stony lanes and by-paths which intersected 
each other in the vicinity of the Hall, we reached the open heath and 
riding swiftly across it, took our course among the barren hills which 
divide England from Scotland on what are called the Middle Marches. The 
way, or rather the broken track which we occupied, was a happy interchange 
of bog and shingles; nevertheless, Andrew relented nothing of his speed, 
but trotted manfully forward at the rate of eight or ten miles an hour. I 
was both surprised and provoked at the fellow's obstinate persistence, for 
we made abrupt ascents and descents over ground of a very break-neck 
character, and traversed the edge of precipices, where a slip of the 
horse's feet would have consigned the rider to certain death. The moon, at 
best, afforded a dubious and imperfect light; but in some places we were so 
much under the shade of the mountain as to be in total darkness, and then I 
could only trace Andrew by the clatter of his horse's feet, and the fire 
which they struck from the flints. At first, this rapid motion, and the 
attention which, for the sake of personal safety, I was compelled to give 
to the conduct of my horse, was of service, by forcibly diverting my 
thoughts from the various painful reflections which must otherwise have 
pressed on my mind. But at length, after hallooing repeatedly to Andrew to 
ride slower, I became seriously incensed at his impudent perseverance in 
refusing either to obey or to reply to me. My anger was, however, quite 
impotent. I attempted once or twice to get up alongside of my self-willed 
guide, with the purpose of knocking him off his horse with the butt-end of 
my whip; but Andrew was better mounted than I, and either the spirit of the 
animal which he bestrode, or more probably some presentiment of my kind 
intentions towards him, induced him to quicken his pace whenever I 
attempted to make up to him. On the other hand, I was compelled to exert my 
spurs to keep him in sight, for without his guidance I was too well aware 
that I should never find my way through the howling wilderness which we now 
traversed at such an unwonted pace. I was so angry at length, that I 
threatened to have recourse to my pistols, and send a bullet after the 
Hotspur Andrew, which should stop his fiery-footed career, if he did not 
abate it of his own accord. Apparently this threat made some impression on 
the tympanum of his ear, however deaf to all my milder entreaties; for he 
relaxed his pace upon hearing it, and, suffering me to close up to him, 
observed, "There wasna muckle sense in riding at sic a daft-like gate."
"And what did you mean by doing so at all, you self-willed scoundrel?" 
replied I; for I was in a towering passion, - to which, by the way, nothing 
contributes more than the having recently undergone a spice of personal 
fear, which, like a few drops of water flung on a glowing fire, is sure to 
inflame the ardour which it is insufficient to quench.
"What's your honour's wull?" replied Andrew, with impenetrable gravity.
"My will, you rascal? - I have been roaring to you this hour to ride 
slower, and you have never so much as answered me - Are you drunk or mad to 
behave so?"
"An it like your honour, I am something dull o' hearing; and I'll no deny 
but I might have maybe taen a stirrup-cup at parting frae the auld bigging 
whare I hae dwelt sae lang; and having naebody to pledge, nae doubt I was 
obliged to do mysell reason, or else leave the end o' the brandy stoup to 
thae papists - and that wad be a waste, as your honour kens."
This might be all very true, - and my circumstances required that I should 
be on good terms with my guide; I therefore satisfied myself with requiring 
of him to take his directions from me in future concerning the rate of 
travelling.
Andrew, emboldened by the mildness of my tone, elevated his own into the 
pedantic, conceited octave, which was familiar to him on most occasions.
"Your honour winna persuade me, and naebody shall persuade me, that it's 
either halesome or prudent to tak the night air on thae moors without a 
cordial o' clow-gilliflower water, or a tass of brandy or aquavitae, or sic-
like creature-comfort. I hae taen the bent ower the Otterscrape-rigg a 
hundred times, day and night, and never could find the way unless I had 
taen my morning; mair by token that I had whiles twa bits o' ankers o' 
brandy on ilk side o' me." -
"In other words, Andrew," said I, "you were a smuggler - how does a man of 
your strict principles reconcile yourself to cheat the revenue?"
"It's a mere spoiling o' the Egyptians," replied Andrew; "puir auld 
Scotland suffers eneugh by thae blackguard loons o' excisemen and gaugers, 
that hae come down on her like locusts since the sad and sorrowfu' Union; 
it's the part of a kind son to bring her a soup o' something that will keep 
up her auld heart, - and that will they nill they, the ill-fa'ard thieves!"
Upon more particular inquiry, I found Andrew had frequently travelled these 
mountain-paths as a smuggler, both before and after his establishment at 
Osbaldistone Hall - a circumstance which was so far of importance to me, as 
it proved his capacity as a guide, notwithstanding the escapade of which he 
had been guilty at his outset, Even now, though travelling at a more 
moderate pace, the stirrup-cup, or whatever else had such an effect in 
stimulating Andrew's motions, seemed not totally to have lost its 
influence. He often cast a nervous and startled look behind him; and 
whenever the road seemed at all practicable, showed symptoms of a desire to 
accelerate his pace, as if he feared some pursuit from the rear. These 
appearances of alarm gradually diminished as we reached the top of a high 
bleak ridge, which ran nearly east and west for about a mile, with a very 
steep descent on either side. The pale beams of the morning were now 
enlightening the horizon, when Andrew cast a look behind him, and not 
seeing the appearance of a living being on the moors which he had 
travelled, his hard features gradually unbent, as he first whistled, then 
sung, with much glee and little melody, the end of one of his native songs:

		"Jenny, lass! I think I hae her
		Ower the moor amang the heather,
		All their clan shall never get her."

He patted at the same time the neck of the horse which had carried him so 
gallantly; and my attention being directed by that action to the animal, I 
instantly recognised a favourite mare of Thorncliff Osbaldistone. "How is 
this, sir?" said I sternly; "that is Mr Thorncliff's mare!"
"I'll no say but she may aiblins hae been his honour's Squire Thorncliff's 
in her day - but she's mine now."
"You have stolen her, you rascal."
"Na, na, sir - nae man can wyte me wi' theft. The thing stands this gate, 
ye see. Squire Thorncliff borrowed ten punds o' me to gang to York Races - 
deil a boddle wad he pay me back again, and spake o' raddling my banes, as 
he ca'd it, when I asked him but for my ain back again; - now I think it 
will riddle him or he gets his horse ower the Border again - unless he pays 
me plack and bawbee, he sall never see a hair o' her tail. I ken a canny 
chield at Loughmaben, a bit writer lad, that will put me in the way to sort 
him. Steal the mear! na, na, far be the sin o' theft frae Andrew 
Fairservice - I have just arrested her jurisdictionis fandandy causey. Thae 
are bonny writer words - amaist like the language o' huz gardeners and 
other learned men - it's a pity they're sae dear; - thae three words were 
a' that Andrew got for a lang law-plea and four ankers o' as gude brandy as 
was e'er coupit ower craig - Hech, sirs! but law's a dear thing."
"You are likely to find it much dearer than you suppose, Andrew, if you 
proceed in this mode of paying yourself, without legal authority."
"Hout tout, we're in Scotland now (be praised for't!) and I can find baith 
friends and lawyers, and judges too, as weel as ony Osbaldistone o' them 
a'. My mither's mither's third cousin was cousin to the Provost o' 
Dumfries, and he winna see a drap o' her blude wranged. Hout awa! the laws 
are indifferently administered here to a' men alike; it's no like on yon 
side, when a chield may be whuppit awa' wi' ane o' Clerk Jobson's warrants, 
afore he kens where he is. But they will hae little enough law amang them 
by and by, and that is ae grand reason that I hae gi'en them gude-day."
I was highly provoked at the achievement of Andrew, and considered it as a 
hard fate, which a second time threw me into collision with a person of 
such irregular practices. I determined, however, to buy the mare of him, 
when he should reach the end of our journey, and send her back to my cousin 
at Osbaldistone Hall; and with this purpose of reparation I resolved to 
make my uncle acquainted from the next post-town. It was needless, I 
thought, to quarrel with Andrew in the meantime, who had, after all, acted 
not very unnaturally for a person in his circumstances. I therefore 
smothered my resentment, and asked him what he meant by his last 
expressions, that there would be little law in Northumberland by and by?
"Law!" said Andrew, "hout, ay - there will be club-law eneugh. The priests 
and the Irish officers, and thae papist cattle that hae been sodgering 
abroad, because they durstna bide at hame, are a' fleeing thick in 
Northumberland e'enow; and thae corbies dinna gather without they smell 
carrion. As sure as ye live, his honour Sir Hildebrand is gaun to stick his 
horn in the bog - there's naething but gun and pistol, sword and dagger, 
amang them - and they'll be laying on, I'se warrant; for they're fearless 
fules the young Osbaldistone squires, aye craving your honour's pardon."
This speech recalled to my memory some suspicions that I myself had 
entertained, that the Jacobites were on the eve of some desperate 
enterprise. But, conscious it did not become me to be a spy on my uncle's 
words and actions, I had rather avoided than availed myself of any 
opportunity which occurred of remarking upon the signs of the times. - 
Andrew Fairservice felt no such restraint, and doubtless spoke very truly 
in stating his conviction that some desperate plots were in agitation, as a 
reason which determined his resolution to leave the Hall.
"The servants," he stated, "with the tenantry and others, had been all 
regularly enrolled and mustered, and they wanted me to take arms also. But 
I'll ride in nae siccan troop - they little kenned Andrew that asked him. 
I'll fight when I like mysell, but it sall neither be for the hure o' 
Babylon, nor any hure in England."


Chapter 19

			Where longs to fall yon rifted spire,
				As weary of the insulting air, -
			The poet's thoughts, the warrior's fire,
				The lover's sighs, are sleeping there.
								-- Langhorne.


At the first Scotch town which we reached, my guide sought out his friend 
and counsellor, to consult upon the proper and legal means of converting 
into his own lawful property the "bonny creature," which was at present his 
own only by one of those sleight-of-hand arrangements which still sometimes 
took place in that once lawless district. I was somewhat diverted with the 
dejection of his looks on his return. He had, it seems, been rather too 
communicative to his confidential friend, the attorney; and learned with 
great dismay, in return for his unsuspecting frankness, that Mr Touthope 
had, during his absence, been appointed clerk to the peace of the county, 
and was bound to communicate to justice all such achievements as that of 
his friend Mr Andrew Fairservice. There was a necessity, this alert member 
of the police stated, for arresting the horse, and placing him in Bailie 
Trumbull's stable, therein to remain at livery, at the rate of twelve 
shillings (Scotch) per diem, until the question of property was duly tried 
and debated. He even talked as if, in strict and rigorous execution of his 
duty, he ought to detain honest Andrew himself; but on my guide's most 
piteously entreating his forbearance, he not only desisted from this 
proposal, but made a present to Andrew of a broken-winded and spavined 
pony, in order to enable him to pursue his journey. It is true, he 
qualified this act of generosity by exacting from poor Andrew an absolute 
cession of his right and interest in the gallant palfrey of Thorncliff 
Osbaldistone - a transference which Mr Touthope represented as of very 
little consequence, since his unfortunate friend, as he facetiously 
observed, was likely to get nothing of the mare excepting the halter.
Andrew seemed woeful and disconcerted, as I screwed out of him these 
particulars; for his northern pride was cruelly pinched by being compelled 
to admit that attorneys were attorneys on both sides of the Tweed; and that 
Mr Clerk Touthope was not a farthing more sterling coin than Mr Clerk 
Jobson.
"It wadna hae vexed him half sae muckle to hae been cheated out o' what 
might amaist be said to be won with the peril o' his craig, had it happened 
amang the Inglishers; but it was an unco thing to see hawks pike out hawks' 
e'en, or ae kindly Scot cheat anither. But nae doubt things were strangely 
changed in his country sin' the sad and sorrowfu' Union;" an event to which 
Andrew referred every symptom of depravity or degeneracy which he remarked 
among his countrymen, more especially the inflammation of reckonings, the 
diminished size of pint-stoups, and other grievances, which he pointed out 
to me during our journey.
For my own part, I held myself, as things had turned out, acquitted of all 
charge of the mare, and wrote to my uncle the circumstances under which she 
was carried into Scotland, concluding with informing him that she was in 
the hands of justice, and her worthy representatives, Bailie Trumbull and 
Mr Clerk Touthope, to whom I referred him for farther particulars. Whether 
the property returned to the Northumbrian fox-hunter, or continued to bear 
the person of the Scottish attorney, it is unnecessary for me at present to 
say.
We now pursued our journey to the north-westward, at a rate much slower 
than that at which we had achieved our nocturnal retreat from England. One 
chain of barren and uninteresting hills succeeded another, until the more 
fertile vale of Clyde opened upon us; and, with such despatch as we might, 
we gained the town, or, as my guide pertinaciously termed it, the city, of 
Glasgow. Of late years, I understand, it has fully deserved the name, 
which, by a sort of political second sight, my guide assigned to it. An 
extensive and increasing trade with the West Indies and American colonies, 
has, if I am rightly informed, laid the foundation of wealth and 
prosperity, which, if carefully strengthened and built upon, may one day 
support an immense fabric of commercial prosperity; but in the earlier time 
of which I speak, the dawn of this splendour had not arisen. The Union had, 
indeed, opened to Scotland the trade of the English colonies; but, betwixt 
want of capital, and the national jealousy of the English, the merchants of 
Scotland were as yet excluded, in a great measure, from the exercise of the 
privileges which that memorable treaty conferred on them. Glasgow lay on 
the wrong side of the island for participating in the east country or 
continental trade, by which the trifling commerce as yet possessed by 
Scotland chiefly supported itself. Yet, though she then gave small promise 
of the commercial eminence to which, I am informed, she seems now likely 
one day to attain, Glasgow, as the principal central town of the western 
district of Scotland, was a place of considerable rank and importance. The 
broad and brimming Clyde, which flows so near its walls, gave the means of 
an inland navigation of some importance. Not only the fertile plains in its 
immediate neighbourhood, but the districts of Ayr and Dumfries regarded 
Glasgow as their capital, to which they transmitted their produce, and 
received in return such necessaries and luxuries as their consumption 
required.
The dusky mountains of the western Highlands often sent forth wilder tribes 
to frequent the marts of St. Mungo's favourite city. Hordes of wild shaggy, 
dwarfish cattle and ponies, conducted by Highlanders, as wild, as shaggy, 
and sometimes as dwarfish, as the animals they had in charge, often 
traversed the streets of Glasgow. Strangers gazed with surprise on the 
antique and fantastic dress, and listened to the unknown and dissonant 
sounds of their language, while the mountaineers, armed, even while engaged 
in this peaceful occupation, with musket and pistol, sword, dagger, and 
target, stared with astonishment on the articles of luxury of which they 
knew not the use, and with an avidity which seemed somewhat alarming on the 
articles which they knew and valued. It is always with unwillingness that 
the Highlander quits his deserts, and at this early period it was like 
tearing a pine from its rock, to plant him elsewhere. Yet even then the 
mountain glens were over-peopled, although thinned occasionally by famine 
or by the sword, and many of their inhabitants strayed down to Glasgow - 
there formed settlements - there sought and found employment, although 
different, indeed, from that of their native hills. This supply of a hardy 
and useful population was of consequence to the prosperity of the place, 
furnished the means of carrying on the few manufactures which the town 
already boasted, and laid the foundation of its future prosperity.
The exterior of the city corresponded with these promising circumstances. 
The principal street was broad and important, decorated with public 
buildings, of an architecture rather striking than correct in point of 
taste, and running between rows of tall houses, built of stone, the fronts 
of which were occasionally richly ornamented with mason-work - a 
circumstance which gave the street an imposing air of dignity and grandeur, 
of which most English towns are in some measure deprived, by the slight, 
insubstantial, and perishable quality and appearance of the bricks with 
which they are constructed.
In the western metropolis of Scotland, my guide and I arrived on a Saturday 
evening, too late to entertain thoughts of business of any kind. We 
alighted at the door of a jolly hostler-wife, as Andrew called her, - the 
Ostelere of old father Chaucer, by whom we were civilly received.
On the following morning the bells pealed from every steeple, announcing 
the sanctity of the day. Notwithstanding, however, what I had heard of the 
severity with which the Sabbath is observed in Scotland, my first impulse, 
not unnaturally, was to seek out Owen; but on inquiry I found that my 
attempt would be in vain, "until kirk time was ower." Not only did my 
landlady and guide jointly assure me that "there wadna be a living soul 
either in the counting-house or dwelling-house of Messrs. MacVittie, 
MacFin, and Company," to which Owen's letter referred me, but, moreover, 
"far less would I find any of the partners there. They were serious men, 
and wad be where a' gude Christians ought to be at sic a time, and that was 
in the Barony Laigh Kirk."
Andrew Fairservice, whose disgust at the law of his country had fortunately 
not extended itself to the other learned professions of his native land, 
now sung forth the praises of the preacher who was to perform the duty, to 
which my hostess replied with many loud amens. The result was, that I 
determined to go to this popular place of worship, as much with the purpose 
of learning, if possible, whether Owen had arrived in Glasgow, as with any 
great expectation of edification. My hopes were exalted by the assurance, 
that if Mr Ephraim MacVittie (worthy man) were in the land of life, he 
would surely honour the Barony Kirk that day with his presence; and if he 
chanced to have a stranger within his gates, doubtless he would bring him 
to the duty along with him. This probability determined my motions, and 
under the escort of my faithful Andrew, I set forth for the Barony Kirk.
On this occasion, however, I had little need of his guidance; for the 
crowd, which forced its way up a steep and rough-paved street, to hear the 
most popular preacher in the west of Scotland, would of itself have swept 
me along with it. On attaining the summit of the hill, we turned to the 
left, and a large pair of folding doors admitted us, amongst others, into 
the open and extensive burying-place which surrounds the Minster or 
Cathedral Church of Glasgow. The pile is of a gloomy and massive, rather 
than of an elegant, style of Gothic architecture; but its peculiar 
character is so strongly preserved, and so well suited with the 
accompaniments that surround it, that the impression of the first view was 
awful and solemn in the extreme. I was indeed so much struck, that I 
resisted for a few minutes all Andrew's efforts to drag me into the 
interior of the building, so deeply was I engaged in surveying its outward 
character.
Situated in a populous and considerable town, this ancient and massive pile 
has the appearance of the most sequestered solitude. High walls divide it 
from the buildings of the city on one side; on the other it is bounded by a 
ravine, at the bottom of which, and invisible to the eye, murmurs a 
wandering rivulet, adding, by its gentle noise, to the imposing solemnity 
of the scene. On the opposite side of the ravine rises a steep bank, 
covered with fir-trees closely planted, whose dusky shade extends itself 
over the cemetery with an appropriate and gloomy effect. The churchyard 
itself had a peculiar character; for though in reality extensive, it is 
small in proportion to the number of respectable inhabitants who are 
interred within it, and whose graves are almost all covered with 
tombstones. There is therefore no room for the long rank grass, which, in 
most cases, partially clothes the surface of those retreats where the 
wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. The broad flat 
monumental stones are placed so close to each other, that the precincts 
appear to be flagged with them, and, though roofed only by the heavens, 
resemble the floor of one of our old English churches, where the pavement 
is covered with sepulchral inscriptions. The contents of these sad records 
of mortality, the vain sorrows which they preserve, the stern lesson which 
they teach of the nothingness of humanity, the extent of ground which they 
so closely cover, and their uniform and melancholy tenor, reminded me of 
the roll of the prophet, which was "written within and without, and there 
was written therein lamentations and mourning and woe."
The Cathedral itself corresponds in impressive majesty with these 
accompaniments. We feel that its appearance is heavy, yet that the effect 
produced would be destroyed were it lighter or more ornamental. It is the 
only metropolitan church in Scotland, excepting, as I am informed, the 
Cathedral of Kirkwall, in the Orkneys, which remained uninjured at the 
Reformation; and Andrew Fairservice, who saw with great pride the effect 
which it produced upon my mind, thus accounted for its preservation - "Ah! 
it's a brave kirk - nane o' yere whigmaleeries and curliewurlies and open-
steek hems about it - a' solid, weel-jointed mason-wark, that will stand as 
lang as the warld, keep hands and gunpowther aff it. It had amaist a 
douncome lang syne at the Reformation, when they pu'd doun the kirks of St. 
Andrews and Perth, and thereawa', to cleanse them o' Papery, and idolatry, 
and image worship, and surplices, and sic like rags o' the muckle hure that 
sitteth on seven hills, as if ane wasna braid eneugh for her auld hinder 
end. Sae the commons o' Renfrew, and o' the Barony, and the Gorbals and a' 
about, they behoved to come into Glasgow no fair morning, to try their hand 
on purging the High Kirk o' Popish nick-nackets. But the townsmen o' 
Glasgow, they were feared their auld edifice might slip the girths in gaun 
through siccan rough physic, sae they rang the common bell, and assembled 
the train-bands wi' took o' drum. By good luck, the worthy James Rabat was 
Dean o' Guild that year - (and a gude mason he was himself, made him the 
keener to keep up the auld bigging) - and the trades assembled, and offered 
downright battle to the commons, rather than their kirk should coup the 
crans as others had done elsewhere. It wasna for luve o' Paperie - na, na! 
- nane could ever say that o' the trades o' Glasgow - Sae they sune came to 
an agreement to take a' the idolatrous statues of sants (sorrow be on them) 
out o' their neuks - and sae the bits o' stane idols were broken in pieces 
by Scripture warrant, and flung into the Molendinar burn, and the auld kirk 
stood as crouse as a cat when the flaes are kaimed aff her, and a' body was 
alike pleased. And I hae heard wise folk say that if the same had been done 
in ilka kirk in Scotland, the Reform wad just hae been as pure as it is 
e'en now, and we wad hae mair Christian-like kirks; for I hae been sae lang 
in England, that naething will drived out o' my head, that the dog-kennel 
at Osbaldistone Hall is better than mony a house o' God in Scotland."
Thus saying, Andrew led the way into the place of worship.



Chapter 20

							It strikes an awe
			And terror on my aching sight; the tombs
			And monumental caves of death look cold,
			And shoot a chillness to the trembling heart.
							-- Mourning Bride.


Notwithstanding the impatience of my conductor, I could not forbear to 
pause and gaze for some minutes on the exterior of the building, rendered 
more impressively dignified by the solitude which ensued when its hitherto 
open gates were closed, after having, as it were, devoured the multitude 
which had lately crowded the churchyard, but now, enclosed within the 
building, were engaged, as the choral swell of voices from within announced 
to us, in the solemn exercises of devotion. The sound of so many voices 
united by the distance into one harmony, and freed from those harsh 
discordances which jar the ear when heard more near, combining with the 
murmuring brook, and the wind which sung among the old firs, affected me 
with a sense of sublimity. All nature, as invoked by the Psalmist whose 
verses they chanted, seemed united in offering that solemn praise in which 
trembling is mixed with joy as she addressed her Maker. I had heard the 
service of high mass in France, celebrated with all the eclat which the 
choicest music, the richest dresses, the most imposing ceremonies, could 
confer on it; yet it fell short in effect of the simplicity of the 
Presbyterian worship. The devotion in which every one took a share seemed 
so superior to that which was recited by musicians as a lesson which they 
had learned by rote, that it gave the Scottish worship all the advantage of 
reality over acting.
As I lingered to catch more of the solemn sound, Andrew, whose impatience 
became ungovernable, pulled me by the sleeve - "Come awa', sir - come awa'; 
we maunna be late o' gaun in to disturb the worship; if we bide here the 
searchers will be on us, and carry us to the guard-house for being idlers 
in kirk-time."
Thus admonished, I followed my guide, but not, as I had supposed, into the 
body of the cathedral. "This gate - this gate, sir," he exclaimed, dragging 
me off as I made towards the main entrance of the building - "There's but 
cauldrife law-work gaun on yonder - carnal morality, as dow'd and as 
fusionless as rue leaves at Yule - Here's the real savour of doctrine."
So saying, we entered a small low-arched door, secured by a wicket, which a 
grave-looking person seemed on the point of closing, and descended several 
steps as if into the funeral vaults beneath the church. It was even so; for 
in these subterranean precincts, - why chosen for such a purpose I knew 
not, - was established a very singular place of worship.
Conceive, Tresham, an extensive range of low-browed, dark, and twilight 
vaults, such as are used for sepulchres in other countries, and had long 
been dedicated to the same purpose in this, a portion of which was seated 
with pews, and used as a church. The part of the vaults thus occupied, 
though capable of containing a congregation of many hundreds, bore a small 
proportion to the darker and more extensive caverns which yawned around 
what may be termed the inhabited space. In those waste regions of oblivion, 
dusky banners and tattered escutcheons indicated the graves of those who 
were once, doubtless, "princes in Israel." Inscriptions, which could only 
be read by the painful antiquary, in language as obsolete as the act of 
devotional charity which they employed, invited the passengers to pray for 
the souls of those whose bodies rested beneath. Surrounded by these 
receptacles of the last remains of mortality, I found a numerous 
congregation engaged in the act of prayer. The Scotch perform this duty in 
a standing instead of a kneeling posture, more, perhaps, to take as broad a 
distinction as possible from the ritual of Rome than for any better reason; 
since I have observed, that in their family worship, as doubtless in their 
private devotions, they adopt, in their immediate address to the Deity, 
that posture which other Christians use as the humblest and most 
reverential. Standing, therefore, the men being uncovered, a crowd of 
several hundreds of both sexes, and all ages, listened with great reverence 
and attention to the extempore, at least the unwritten, prayer of an aged 
clergyman, who was very popular in the city. Educated in the same religious 
persuasion, I seriously bent my mind to join in the devotion of the day; 
and it was not till the congregation resumed their seats, that my attention 
was diverted to the consideration of the appearance of all around me.
At the conclusion of the prayer, most of the men put on their hats or 
bonnets, and all who had the happiness to have seats sate down. Andrew and 
I were not of this number, having been too late of entering the church to 
secure such accommodation. We stood among a number of other persons in the 
same situation, forming a sort of ring around the seated part of the 
congregation. Behind and around us were the vaults I have already 
described; before us the devout audience, dimly shown by the light which 
streamed on their faces through one or two low Gothic windows, such as give 
air and light to charnel-houses. By this were seen the usual variety of 
countenances which are generally turned towards a Scotch pastor on such 
occasions, almost all composed to attention, unless where a father or 
mother here and there recalls the wandering eyes of a lively child, or 
disturbs the slumbers of a dull one. The high-boned and harsh countenance 
of the nation, with the expression of intelligence and shrewdness which it 
frequently exhibits, is seen to more advantage in the act of devotion, or 
in the ranks of war, than on lighter and more cheerful occasions of 
assemblage. The discourse of the preacher was well qualified to call forth 
the various feelings and faculties of his audience.
Age and infirmities had impaired the powers of a voice originally strong 
and sonorous. He read his text with a pronunciation somewhat inarticulate; 
but when he closed the Bible, and commenced his sermon, his tones gradually 
strengthened, as he entered with vehemence into the arguments which he 
maintained. They related chiefly to the abstract points of the Christian 
faith, - subjects grave, deep, and fathomless by mere human reason, but for 
which, with equal ingenuity and propriety, he sought a key in liberal 
quotations from the inspired writings. My mind was unprepared to coincide 
in all his reasoning, nor was I sure that in some instances I rightly 
comprehended his positions. But nothing could be more impressive than the 
eager enthusiastic manner of the good old man, and nothing more ingenious 
than his mode of reasoning. The Scotch, it is well known, are more 
remarkable for the exercise of their intellectual powers, than for the 
keenness of their feelings; they are, therefore, more moved by logic than 
by rhetoric, and more attracted by acute and argumentative reasoning on 
doctrinal points, than influenced by the enthusiastic appeals to the heart 
and to the passions, by which popular preachers in other countries win the 
favour of their hearers.
Among the attentive group which I now saw, might be distinguished various 
expressions similar to those of the audience in the famous cartoon of Paul 
preaching at Athens. Here sat a zealous and intelligent Calvinist, with 
brows bent just as much as to indicate profound attention; lips slightly 
compressed; eyes fixed on the minister with an expression of decent pride, 
as if sharing the triumph of his argument; the forefinger of the right hand 
touching successively those of the left, as the preacher, from argument to 
argument, ascended towards his conclusion. Another, with fiercer and 
sterner look, intimated at once his contempt of all who doubted the creed 
of his pastor, and his joy at the appropriate punishment denounced against 
them. A third, perhaps belonging to a different congregation, and present 
only by accident or curiosity, had the appearance of internally impeaching 
some link of the reasoning; and you might plainly read, in the slight 
motion of his head, his doubts as to the soundness of the preacher's 
argument. The greater part listened with a calm, satisfied countenance, 
expressive of a conscious merit in being present, and in listening to such 
an ingenious discourse, although perhaps unable entirely to comprehend it. 
The women in general belonged to this last division of the audience; the 
old, however, seeming more grimly intent upon the abstract doctrines laid 
before them; while the younger females permitted their eyes occasionally to 
make a modest circuit around the congregation; and some of them, Tresham 
(if my vanity did not greatly deceive me), contrived to distinguish your 
friend and servant, as a handsome young stranger and an Englishman. As to 
the rest of the congregation, the stupid gaped, yawned, or slept, till 
awakened by the application of their more zealous neighbours' heels to 
their shins; and the idle indicated their inattention by the wandering of 
their eyes, but dared give no more decided token of weariness. Amid the 
Lowland costume of coat and cloak, I could here and there discern a 
Highland plaid, the wearer of which, resting on his basket-hilt, sent his 
eyes among the audience with the unrestrained curiosity of savage wonder; 
and who, in all probability, was inattentive to the sermon for a very 
pardonable reason - because he did not understand the language in which it 
was delivered. The martial and wild look, however, of these stragglers, 
added a kind of character which the congregation could not have exhibited 
without them. They were more numerous, Andrew afterwards observed, owing to 
some cattle-fair in the neighbourhood.
Such was the group of countenances, rising tier on tier, discovered to my 
critical inspection by such sunbeams as forced their way through the narrow 
Gothic lattices of the Laigh Kirk of Glasgow; and, having illuminated the 
attentive congregation, lost themselves in the vacuity of the vaults 
behind, giving to the nearer part of their labyrinth a sort of imperfect 
twilight, and leaving their recesses in an utter darkness, which gave them 
the appearance of being interminable.
I have already said that I stood with others in the exterior circle, with 
my face to the preacher, and my back to those vaults which I have so often 
mentioned. My position rendered me particularly obnoxious to any 
interruption which arose from any slight noise occurring amongst these 
retiring arches, where the least sound was multiplied by a thousand echoes. 
The occasional sound of rain-drops, which, admitted through some cranny in 
the ruined roof, fell successively, and splashed upon the pavement beneath, 
caused me to turn my head more than once to the place from whence it seemed 
to proceed, and when my eyes took that direction, I found it difficult to 
withdraw them; such is the pleasure our imagination receives from the 
attempt to penetrate as far as possible into an intricate labyrinth, 
imperfectly lighted, and exhibiting objects which irritate our curiosity, 
only because they acquire a mysterious interest from being undefined and 
dubious. My eyes became habituated to the gloomy atmosphere to which I 
directed them, and insensibly my mind became more interested in their 
discoveries than in the metaphysical subtleties which the preacher was 
enforcing.
My father had often checked me for this wandering mood of mind, arising 
perhaps from an excitability of imagination to which he was a stranger; and 
the finding myself at present solicited by these temptations to 
inattention, recalled the time when I used to walk, led by his hand, to Mr 
Shower's chapel, and the earnest injunctions which he then laid on me to 
redeem the time, because the days were evil. At present, the picture which 
my thoughts suggested, far from fixing my attention, destroyed the portion 
I had yet left, by conjuring up to my recollection the peril in which his 
affairs now stood. I endeavoured, in the lowest whisper I could frame, to 
request Andrew to obtain information, whether any of the gentlemen of the 
firm of MacVittie & Co. were at present in the congregation. But Andrew, 
wrapped in profound attention to the sermon, only replied to my suggestion 
by hard punches with his elbow, as signals to me to remain silent. I next 
strained my eyes, with equally bad success, to see if, among the sea of up-
turned faces which bent their eyes on the pulpit as a common centre, I 
could discover the sober and business-like physiognomy of Owen. But not 
among the broad beavers of the Glasgow citizens, or the yet broader brimmed 
Lowland bonnets of the peasants of Lanarkshire, could I see anything 
resembling the decent periwig, starched ruffles, or the uniform suit of 
light-brown garments appertaining to the head-clerk of the establishment of 
Osbaldistone and Tresham. My anxiety now returned on me with such violence 
as to overpower not only the novelty of the scene around me, by which it 
had hitherto been diverted, but moreover my sense of decorum. I pulled 
Andrew hard by the sleeve, and intimated my wish to leave the church, and 
pursue my investigation as I could. Andrew, obdurate in the Laigh Kirk of 
Glasgow as on the mountains of Cheviot, for some time deigned me no answer; 
and it was only when he found I could not otherwise be kept quiet, that he 
condescended to inform me, that, being once in the church, we could not 
leave it till service was over, because the doors were locked so soon as 
the prayers began. Having thus spoken in a brief and peevish whisper, 
Andrew again assumed the air of intelligent and critical importance, and 
attention to the preacher's discourse.
While I endeavoured to make a virtue of necessity, and recall my attention 
to the sermon, I was again disturbed by a singular interruption. A voice 
from behind whispered distinctly in my ear, "You are in danger in this 
city." - I turned round, as if mechanically.
One or two starched and ordinary-looking mechanics stood beside and behind 
me, - stragglers, who, like ourselves, had been too late in obtaining 
entrance. But a glance at their faces satisfied me, though I could hardly 
say why, that none of these was the person who had spoken to me. Their 
countenances seemed all composed to attention to the sermon, and not one of 
them returned any glance of intelligence to the inquisitive and startled 
look with which I surveyed them. A massive round pillar, which was close 
behind us, might have concealed the speaker the instant he uttered his 
mysterious caution; but wherefore it was given in such a place, or to what 
species of danger it directed my attention, or by whom the warning was 
uttered, were points on which my imagination lost itself in conjecture. It 
would, however, I concluded, be repeated, and I resolved to keep my 
countenance turned towards the clergyman, that the whisperer might be 
tempted to renew his communication under the idea that the first had passed 
unobserved.
My plan succeeded. I had not resumed the appearance of attention to the 
preacher for five minutes, when the same voice whispered, "Listen, but do 
not look back." I kept my face in the same direction. "You are in danger in 
this place," the voice proceeded; "so am I - meet me tonight on the Brigg, 
at twelve preceesely - keep at home till the gloaming, and avoid 
observation."
Here the voice ceased, and I instantly turned my head. But the speaker had, 
with still greater promptitude, glided behind the pillar, and escaped my 
observation. I was determined to catch a sight of him, if possible, and 
extricating myself from the outer circle of hearers, I also stepped behind 
the column. All there was empty; and I could only see a figure wrapped in a 
mantle, whether a Lowland cloak, or Highland plaid, I could not 
distinguish, which traversed, like a phantom, the dreary vacuity of vaults 
which I have described.
I made a mechanical attempt to pursue the mysterious form, which glided 
away and vanished in the vaulted cemetery, like the spectre of one of the 
numerous dead who rested within its precincts. I had little chance of 
arresting the course of one obviously determined not to be spoken with; but 
that little chance was lost by my stumbling and falling before I had made 
three steps from the column. The obscurity which occasioned my misfortune, 
covered my disgrace; which I accounted rather lucky, for the preacher, with 
that stern authority which the Scottish ministers assume for the purpose of 
keeping order in their congregations, interrupted his discourse, to desire 
the "proper officer" to take into custody the causer of this disturbance in 
the place of worship. As the noise, however, was not repeated, the beadle, 
or whatever else he was called, did not think it necessary to be rigorous 
in searching out the offender. so that I was enabled, without attracting 
farther observation, to place myself by Andrew's side in my original 
position. The service proceeded, and closed without the occurrence of 
anything else worthy of notice.
As the congregation departed and dispersed, my friend Andrew exclaimed, 
"See, yonder is worthy Mr MacVittie, and Mrs MacVittie, and Miss Alison 
MacVittie, and Mr Thamas MacFin, that they say is to marry Miss Alison, if 
a' bowls row right - she'll hae a hantle siller, if she's no that bonny."
My eyes took the direction he pointed out. Mr MacVittie was a tall, thin, 
elderly man, with hard features, thick grey eyebrows, light eyes, and, as I 
imagined, a sinister expression of countenance, from which my heart 
recoiled. I remembered the warning I had received in the church, and 
hesitated to address this person, though I could not allege to myself any 
rational ground of dislike or suspicion.
I was yet in suspense, when Andrew, who mistook my hesitation for 
bashfulness, proceeded to exhort me to lay it aside. "Speak till him - 
speak till him, Mr Francis - he's no provost yet, though they say he'll be 
my lord neist year. Speak till him, then - he'll gie ye a decent answer for 
as rich as he is, unless ye were wanting siller frae him - they say he's 
dour to draw his purse."
It immediately occurred to me, that if this merchant were really of the 
churlish and avaricious disposition which Andrew intimated, there might be 
some caution necessary in making myself known, as I could not tell how 
accounts might stand between my father and him. This consideration came in 
aid of the mysterious hint which I had received, and the dislike which I 
had conceived at the man's countenance. Instead of addressing myself 
directly to him, as I had designed to have done, I contented myself with 
desiring Andrew to inquire at Mr MacVittie's house the address of Mr Owen, 
an English gentleman; and I charged him not to mention the person from whom 
he received the commission, but to bring me the result to the small inn 
where we lodged. This Andrew promised to do. He said something of the duty 
of my attending the evening service; but added with a causticity natural to 
him, that "in troth, if folk couldna keep their legs still, but wad needs 
be couping the creels ower throughstanes, as if they wad raise the very 
dead folk wi' the clatter, a kirk wi' a chimley in't was fittest for them."


Chapter 21

			On the Rialto, every night at twelve,
			I take my evening's walk of meditation:
			There we two will meet.
						 -- Venice Preserved.


Full of sinister augury, for which, however, I could assign no satisfactory 
cause, I shut myself up in my apartment at the inn, and having dismissed 
Andrew, after resisting his importunity to accompany him to St. Enoch's 
Kirk, where, he said, "a soul-searching divine was to haud forth," I set 
myself seriously to consider what were best to be done. I never was what is 
properly called superstitious; but I suppose that all men, in situations of 
peculiar doubt and difficulty, when they have exercised their reason to 
little purpose, are apt, in a sort of despair, to abandon the reins to 
their imagination, and be guided altogether by chance, or by those 
whimsical impressions which take possession of the mind, and to which we 
give way as if to involuntary impulses. There was something so singularly 
repulsive in the hard features of the Scotch trader, that I could not 
resolve to put myself into his hands without transgressing every caution 
which could be derived from the rules of physiognomy; while, at the same 
time, the warning voice, the form which flitted away like a vanishing 
shadow through those vaults, which might be termed "the valley of the 
shadow of death," had something captivating for the imagination of a young 
man, who, you will farther please to remember, was also a young poet.
If danger was around me, as the mysterious communication intimated, how 
could I learn its nature, or the means of averting it, but by meeting my 
unknown counsellor, to whom I could see no reason for imputing any other 
than kind intentions. Rashleigh and his machinations occurred more than 
once to my remembrance; - but so rapid had my journey been, that I could 
not suppose him apprised of my arrival in Glasgow, much less prepared to 
play off any stratagem against my person. In my temper also I was bold and 
confident, strong and active in person, and in some measure accustomed to 
the use of arms, in which the French youth of all kinds were then 
initiated. I did not fear any single opponent; assassination was neither 
the vice of the age nor of the country; the place selected for our meeting 
was too public to admit any suspicion of meditated violence. In a word, I 
resolved to meet my mysterious counsellor on the bridge, as he had 
requested, and to be afterwards guided by circumstances. Let me not conceal 
from you, Tresham, what at the time I endeavoured to conceal from myself - 
the subdued, yet secretly-cherished hope, that Diana Vernon might - by what 
chance I knew not - through what means I could not guess - have some 
connection with this strange and dubious intimation conveyed at a time and 
place, and in a manner so surprising. She alone - whispered this insidious 
thought - she alone knew of my journey; from her own account, she possessed 
friends and influence in Scotland; she had furnished me with a talisman, 
whose power I was to invoke when all other aid failed me; who then but 
Diana Vernon possessed either means, knowledge, or inclination, for 
averting the dangers, by which, as it seemed, my steps were surrounded? 
This flattering view of my very doubtful case pressed itself upon me again 
and again. It insinuated itself into my thoughts, though very bashfully, 
before the hour of dinner; it displayed its attractions more boldly during 
the course of my frugal meal, and became so courageously intrusive during 
the succeeding half-hour (aided perhaps by the flavour of a few glasses of 
most excellent claret), that, with a sort of desperate attempt to escape 
from a delusive seduction, to which I felt the danger of yielding, I pushed 
my glass from me, threw aside my dinner, seized my hat, and rushed into the 
open air with the feeling of one who would fly from his own thoughts. Yet 
perhaps I yielded to the very feelings from which I seemed to fly, since my 
steps insensibly led me to the bridge over the Clyde, the place assigned 
for the rendezvous by my mysterious monitor.
Although I had not partaken of my repast until the hours of evening church-
service were over, - in which, by the way, I complied with the religious 
scruples of my landlady, who hesitated to dress a hot dinner between 
sermons, and also with the admonition of my unknown friend, to keep my 
apartment till twilight, - several hours had still to pass away betwixt the 
time of my appointment and that at which I reached the assigned place of 
meeting. The interval, as you will readily credit, was wearisome enough; 
and I can hardly explain to you how it passed away. Various groups of 
persons, all of whom, young and old, seemed impressed with a reverential 
feeling of the sanctity of the day, passed along the large open meadow 
which lies on the northern bank of the Clyde, and serves at once as a 
bleaching-field and pleasure-walk for the inhabitants, or paced with slow 
steps the long bridge which communicates with the southern district of the 
county. All that I remember of them was the general, yet not unpleasing, 
intimation of a devotional character impressed on each little party - 
formally assumed perhaps by some, but sincerely characterising the greater 
number - which hushed the petulant gaiety of the young into a tone of more 
quiet, yet more interesting, interchange of sentiments, and suppressed the 
vehement argument and protracted disputes of those of more advanced age. 
Notwithstanding the numbers who passed me, no general sound of the human 
voice was heard; few turned again to take some minutes' voluntary exercise, 
to which the leisure of the evening, and the beauty of the surrounding 
scenery, seemed to invite them: all hurried to their homes and resting-
places. To one accustomed to the mode of spending Sunday evenings abroad, 
even among the French Calvinists, there seemed something Judaical, yet, at 
the same time striking and affecting, in this mode of keeping the Sabbath 
holy. Insensibly I felt my mode of sauntering by the side of the river, and 
crossing successively the various persons who were passing homeward, and 
without tarrying or delay, must expose me to observation at least, if not 
to censure; and I slunk out of the frequented path, and found a trivial 
occupation for my mind in marshalling my revolving walk in such a manner as 
should least render me obnoxious to observation. The different alleys lined 
out through this extensive meadow, and which are planted with trees, like 
the Park of St. James's in London, gave me facilities for carrying into 
effect these childish manoeuvres.
As I walked down one of these avenues, I heard, to my surprise, the sharp 
and conceited voice of Andrew Fairservice, raised by a sense of self-
consequence to a pitch somewhat higher than others seemed to think 
consistent with the solemnity of the day. To slip behind the row of trees 
under which I walked was perhaps no very dignified proceeding; but it was 
the easiest mode of escaping his observation, and perhaps his impertinent 
assiduity, and still more intrusive curiosity. As he passed, I heard him 
communicate to a grave-looking man, in a black coat, a slouched hat, and 
Geneva cloak, the following sketch of a character, which my self-love, 
while revolting against it as a caricature, could not, nevertheless, refuse 
to recognise as a likeness.
"Ay, ay, Mr Hammorgaw, it's e'en as I tell ye. He's no a'thegither sae void 
o' sense neither; he has a gloaming sight o' what's reasonable - that is 
anes and awa' - a glisk and nae mair; but he's crack-brained and cockle-
headed about his nipperty-tipperty poetry nonsense - He'll glower at an 
auld-warld barkit aik-snag as if it were a queez-maddam in full bearing; 
and a naked craig, wi' a bum jawing ower't, is unto him as a garden 
garnisht with flowering knots and choice pot-herbs. Then he wad rather 
claver wi' a daft quean they ca' Diana Vernon (weel I wet they might ca' 
her Diana of the Ephesians, for she's little better than a heathen - 
better? she's waur - a Roman, a mere Roman) - he'll claver wi' her, or any 
ither idle slut, rather than hear what might do him gude a' the days of his 
life, frae you or me, Mr Hammorgaw, or ony ither sober and sponsible 
person. Reason, sir, is what he canna endure - he's a' for your vanities 
and volubilities; and he ance tell'd me (puir blinded creature!) that the 
Psalms of David were excellent poetry! as if the holy Psalmist thought o' 
rattling rhymes in a blether, like his ain silly clinkum-clankum things 
that he ca's verse. Gude help him! - twa lines o' Davie Lindsay would ding 
a' he ever clerkit."
While listening to this perverted account of my temper and studies, you 
will not be surprised if I meditated for Mr Fairservice the unpleasant 
surprise of a broken pate on the first decent opportunity. His friend only 
intimated his attention by "Ay, ay!" and "Is't e'en sae?" and suchlike 
expressions of interest, at the proper breaks in Mr Fairservice's harangue, 
until at length, in answer to some observation of greater length, the 
import of which I only collected from my trusty guide's reply, honest 
Andrew answered, "Tell him a bit o' my mind, quoth ye? Wha wad be fule then 
but Andrew? He's a red-wad deevil, man - He's like Giles Heathertap's auld 
boar; - ye need but shake a clout at him to make him turn and gore. Bide 
wi' him, say ye? - Troth, I kenna what for I bide wi' him mysell. But the 
lad's no a bad lad after a'; and he needs some carefu' body to look after 
him. He hasna the right grip o' his hand - the gowd slips through't like 
water, man; and it's no that ill a thing to be near him when his purse is 
in his hand, and it's seldom out o't. And then he's come o' guid kith and 
kin - My heart warms to the poor thoughtless callant, Mr Hammorgaw - and 
then the penny fee -"
In the latter part of this instructive communication, Mr Fairservice 
lowered his voice to a tone better beseeming the conversation in a place of 
public resort on a Sabbath evening, and his companion and he were soon 
beyond my hearing. My feelings of hasty resentment soon subsided, under the 
conviction that, as Andrew himself might have said, "A harkener always 
hears a bad tale of himself," and that whoever should happen to overhear 
their character discussed in their own servants'-hall, must prepare to 
undergo the scalpel of some such anatomist as Mr Fairservice. The incident 
was so far useful, as, including the feelings to which it gave rise, it 
sped away a part of the time which hung so heavily on my hand.
Evening had now closed, and the growing darkness gave to the broad, still, 
and deep expanse of the brimful river, first a hue sombre and uniform - 
then a dismal and turbid appearance, partially lighted by a waning and 
pallid moon. The massive and ancient bridge which stretches across the 
Clyde was now but dimly visible, and resembled that which Mirza, in his 
unequalled vision, has described as traversing the valley of Bagdad. The 
low-browed arches, seen as imperfectly as the dusky current which they 
bestrode, seemed rather caverns which swallowed up the gloomy waters of the 
river, than apertures contrived for their passage. With the advancing night 
the stillness of the scene increased. There was yet a twinkling light 
occasionally seen to glide along by the stream, which conducted home one or 
two of the small parties, who, after the abstinence and religious duties of 
the day, had partaken of a social supper - the only meal at which the rigid 
Presbyterians made some advance to sociality on the Sabbath. Occasionally, 
also, the hoofs of a horse were heard, whose rider, after spending the 
Sunday in Glasgow, was directing his steps towards his residence in the 
country. These sounds and sights became gradually of more rare occurrence; 
at length they altogether ceased, and I was left to enjoy my solitary walk 
on the shores of the Clyde in solemn silence, broken only by the tolling of 
the successive hours from the steeples of the churches.
But as the night advanced my impatience at the uncertainty of the situation 
in which I was placed increased every moment, and became nearly 
ungovernable. I began to question whether I had been imposed upon by the 
trick of a fool, the raving of a madman, or the studied machinations of a 
villain, and paced the little quay or pier adjoining the entrance to the 
bridge, in a state of incredible anxiety and vexation. At length the hour 
of twelve o'clock swung its summons over the city from the belfry of the 
metropolitan church of St. Mungo, and was answered and vouched by all the 
others like dutiful diocesans. The echoes had scarcely ceased to repeat the 
last sound, when a human form - the first I had seen for two hours - 
appeared passing along the bridge from the southern shore of the river. I 
advanced to meet him with a feeling as if my fate depended on the result of 
the interview, so much had my anxiety been wound up by protracted 
expectation. All that I could remark of the passenger as we advanced 
towards each other, was that his frame was rather beneath than above the 
middle size, but apparently strong, thick-set, and muscular; his dress a 
horseman's wrapping coat. I slackened my pace, and almost paused as I 
advanced in expectation that he would address me. But to my inexpressible 
disappointment he passed without speaking, and I had no pretence for being 
the first to address one who, notwithstanding his appearance at the very 
hour of appointment, might nevertheless be an absolute stranger. I stopped 
when he had passed me, and looked after him, uncertain whether I ought not 
to follow him. The stranger walked on till near the northern end of the 
bridge, then paused, looked back, and turning round, again advanced towards 
me. I resolved that this time he should not have the apology for silence 
proper to apparitions, who, it is vulgarly supposed, cannot speak until 
they are spoken to. "You walk late, sir," said I, as we met a second time.
"I bide tryste," was the reply; "and so I think do you, Mr Osbaldistone."
"You are then the person who requested to meet me here at this unusual 
hour?"
"I am," he replied. "Follow me, and you shall know my reasons."
"Before following you, I must know your name and purpose," I answered.
"I am a man," was the reply; "and my purpose is friendly to you."
"A man!" I repeated; - "that is a very brief description."
"It will serve for one who has no other to give," said the stranger. "He 
that is without name, without friends, without coin, without country, is 
still at least a man; and he that has all these is no more."
"Yet this is still too general an account of yourself, to say the least of 
it, to establish your credit with a stranger."
"It is all I mean to give, howsoe'er; you may choose to follow me, or to 
remain without the information I desire to afford you."
"Can you not give me that information here?" I demanded.
"You must receive it from your eyes, not from my tongue - you must follow 
me, or remain in ignorance of the information which I have to give you."
There was something short, determined, and even stern, in the man's manner, 
not certainly well calculated to conciliate undoubting confidence.
"What is it you fear?" he said impatiently. "To whom, think ye, is your 
life of such consequence, that they should seek to bereave ye of it?"
"I fear nothing," I replied firmly, though somewhat hastily. "Walk on - I 
attend you."
We proceeded, contrary to my expectation, to re-enter the town, and glided 
like mute spectres, side by side, up its empty and silent streets. The high 
and gloomy stone fronts, with the variegated ornaments and pediments of the 
windows, looked yet taller and more sable by the imperfect moonshine. Our 
walk was for some minutes in perfect silence. At length my conductor spoke.
"Are you afraid?"
"I retort your own words," I replied: "wherefore should I fear?"
"Because you are with a stranger - perhaps an enemy, in a place where you 
have no friends and many enemies."
"I neither fear you nor them; I am young, active, and armed."
"I am not armed," replied my conductor: "but no matter, a willing hand 
never lacked weapon. You say you fear nothing; but if you knew who was by 
your side, perhaps you might underlie a tremor."
"And why should I?" replied I. "I again repeat, I fear nought that you can 
do."
"Nought that I can do? - Be it so. But do you not fear the consequences of 
being found with one whose very name whispered in this lonely street would 
make the stones themselves rise up to apprehend him - on whose head half 
the men in Glasgow would build their fortune as on a found treasure, had 
they the luck to grip him by the collar - the sound of whose apprehension 
were as welcome at the Cross of Edinburgh as ever the news of a field 
stricken and won in Flanders?"
"And who then are you, whose name should create so deep a feeling of 
terror?" I replied.
"No enemy of yours, since I am conveying you to a place, where, were I 
myself recognised and identified, iron to the heels and hemp to the craig 
would be my brief dooming."
I paused and stood still on the pavement, drawing back so as to have the 
most perfect view of my companion which the light afforded me, and which 
was sufficient to guard against any sudden motion of assault.
"You have said," I answered, "either too much or too little - too much to 
induce me to confide in you as a mere stranger, since you avow yourself a 
person amenable to the laws of the country in which we are - and too 
little, unless you could show that you are unjustly subjected to their 
rigour."
As I ceased to speak, he made a step towards me. I drew back instinctively, 
and laid my hand on the hilt of my sword.
"What!" said he - "on an unarmed man, and your friend?"
"I am yet ignorant if you are either the one or the other," I replied; "and 
to say the truth, your language and manner might well entitle me to doubt 
both."
"It is manfully spoken," replied my conductor; "and I respect him whose 
hand can keep his head. - I will be frank and free with you - I am 
conveying you to prison."
"To prison!" I exclaimed - "by what warrant or for what offence? - You 
shall have my life sooner than my liberty - I defy you, and I will not 
follow you a step farther."
"I do not," he said, "carry you there as a prisoner; I am," he added, 
drawing himself haughtily up, "neither a messenger nor sheriff's officer. I 
carry you to see a prisoner from whose lips you will learn the risk in 
which you presently stand. Your liberty is little risked by the visit; mine 
is in some peril; but that I readily encounter on your account, for I care 
not for risk, and I love a free young blood, that kens no protector but the 
cross o' the sword."
While he spoke thus, we had reached the principal street, and were pausing 
before a large building of hewn stone, garnished, as I thought I could 
perceive, with gratings of iron before the windows.
"Muckle," said the stranger, whose language became more broadly national as 
he assumed a tone of colloquial freedom - "Muckle wad the provost and 
bailies o' Glasgow gie to hae him sitting with iron garters to his hose 
within their tolbooth that now stands wi' his legs as free as the red-
deer's on the outside on't. And little wad it avail them; for an if they 
had me there wi' a stane's weight o' iron at every ankle, I would show them 
a toom room and a lost lodger before tomorrow - But come on, what stint ye 
for?"
As he spoke thus, he tapped at a low wicket, and was answered by a sharp 
voice, as of one awakened from a dream or reverie, - "Fa's tat? - Wha's 
that, I wad say? - and fat a deil want ye at this hour at e'en? - Clean 
again rules - clean again rules, as they ca' them."
The protracted tone in which the last words were uttered, betokened that 
the speaker was again composing himself to slumber. But my guide spoke in a 
loud whisper - "Dougal, man! hae ye forgotten Ha nun Gregarach?"
"Deil a bit, deil a bit," was the ready and lively response, and I heard 
the internal guardian of the prison-gate bustle up with great alacrity. A 
few words were exchanged between my conductor and the turnkey in a language 
to which I was an absolute stranger. The bolts revolved, but with a caution 
which marked the apprehension that the noise might be overheard, and we 
stood within the vestibule of the prison of Glasgow, - a small, but strong 
guard-room, from which a narrow staircase led upwards, and one or two low 
entrances conducted to apartments on the same level with the outward gate, 
all secured with the jealous strength of wickets, bolts, and bars. The 
walls, otherwise naked, were not unsuitably garnished with iron fetters, 
and other uncouth implements, which might be designed for purposes still 
more inhuman, interspersed with partisans, guns, pistols of antique 
manufacture, and other weapons of defence and offence.
At finding myself so unexpectedly, fortuitously, and, as it were, by 
stealth, introduced within one of the legal fortresses of Scotland, I could 
not help recollecting my adventure in Northumberland, and fretting at the 
strange incidents which again, without any demerits of my own, threatened 
to place me in a dangerous and disagreeable collision with the laws of a 
country which I visited only in the capacity of a stranger.


Chapter 22

	Look round thee, young Astolpho: Here's the place
	Which men (for being poor) are sent to starve in;
	Rude remedy, I trow, for sore disease.
	Within these walls, stifled by damp and stench,
	Doth Hope's fair torch expire; and at the snuff,
	Ere yet 'tis quite extinct, rude, wild, and way-ward,
	The desperate revelries of wild despair,
	Kindling their hell-born cressets, light to deeds
	That the poor captive would have died ere practised,
	Till bondage sunk his soul to his condition.
						-- The Prison, Scene III. Act I.


At my first entrance I turned an eager glance towards my conductor; but the 
lamp in the vestibule was too low in flame to give my curiosity any 
satisfaction by affording a distinct perusal of his features. As the 
turnkey held the light in his hand, the beams fell more full on his own 
scarce less interesting figure. He was a wild shock-headed looking animal, 
whose profusion of red hair covered and obscured his features, which were 
otherwise only characterised by the extravagant joy that affected him at 
the sight of my guide. In my experience I have met nothing so absolutely 
resembling my idea of a very uncouth, wild, and ugly savage, adoring the 
idol of his tribe. He grinned, he shivered, he laughed, he was near crying, 
if he did not actually cry. He had a "Where shall I go? - What can I do for 
you?" expression of face; the complete, surrendered, and anxious 
subservience and devotion of which it is difficult to describe, otherwise 
than by the awkward combination which I have attempted. The fellow's voice 
seemed choking in his ecstasy, and only could express itself in such 
interjections as "Oigh! oigh! - Ay! ay! - it's lang since she's seen ye!" 
and other exclamations equally brief, expressed in the same unknown tongue 
in which he had communicated with my conductor while we were on the outside 
of the jail door. My guide received all this excess of joyful gratulation 
much like a prince too early accustomed to the homage of those around him 
to be much moved by it, yet willing to requite it by the usual forms of 
royal courtesy. He extended his hand graciously towards the turnkey, with a 
civil inquiry of "How's a' wi' you, Dougal?"
"Oigh! oigh!" exclaimed Dougal, softening the sharp exclamations of his 
surprise as he looked around with an eye of watchful alarm - "Oigh! to see 
you here - to see you here! - Oigh! - what will come o' ye gin the bailies 
suld come to get witting - ta filthy, gutty hallions, tat they are?"
My guide placed his finger on his lip, and said, "Fear nothing, Dougal; 
your hands shall never draw a bolt on me."
"Tat sall they no," said Dougal; "she suld - she wad - that is, she wishes 
them hacked aff by the elbows first - But when are ye gaun yonder again? 
and ye'll no forget to let her ken - she's your puir cousin, God kens, only 
seven times removed."
"I will let you ken, Dougal, as soon as my plans are settled."
"And, by her sooth, when you do, an it were twal o' the Sunday at e'en, 
she'll fling her keys at the provost's head or she gie them anither turn, 
and that or ever Monday morning begins - see if she winna."
My mysterious stranger cut his acquaintance's ecstasies short by again 
addressing him, in what I afterwards understood to be the Irish, Earse, or 
Gaelic, explaining, probably, the services which he required at his hand. 
The answer, "Wi' a' her heart - wi' a' her soul," with a good deal of 
indistinct muttering in a similar tone, intimated the turnkey's 
acquiescence in what he proposed. The fellow trimmed his dying lamp, and 
made a sign to me to follow him.
"Do you not go with us?" said 1, looking to my conductor.
"It is unnecessary," he replied; "my company may be inconvenient for you, 
and I had better remain to secure our retreat."
"I do not suppose you mean to betray me to danger," said I.
"To none but what I partake in doubly," answered the stranger, with a voice 
of assurance which it was impossible to mistrust.
I followed the turnkey, who, leaving the inner wicket unlocked behind him, 
led me up a turnpike (so the Scotch call a winding stair), then along a 
narrow gallery - then opening one of several doors which led into the 
passage, he ushered me into a small apartment, and casting his eye on the 
pallet-bed which occupied one corner, said with an under voice, as he 
placed the lamp on a little deal table, "She's sleeping."
"She! - who? - can it be Diana Vernon in this abode of misery?"
I turned my eye to the bed, and it was with a mixture of disappointment 
oddly mingled with pleasure, that I saw my first suspicion had deceived me. 
I saw a head neither young nor beautiful, garnished with a grey beard of 
two days' growth, and accommodated with a red nightcap. The first glance 
put me at ease on the score of Diana Vernon; the second, as the slumberer 
awoke from a heavy sleep, yawned, and rubbed his eyes, presented me with 
features very different indeed - even those of my poor friend Owen. I drew 
back out of view an instant, that he might have time to recover himself; 
fortunately recollecting that I was but an intruder on these cells of 
sorrow, and that any alarm might be attended with unhappy consequences.
Meantime, the unfortunate formalist, raising himself from the pallet-bed 
with the assistance of one hand, and scratching his cap with the other, 
exclaimed in a voice in which as much peevishness as he was capable of 
feeling, contended with drowsiness, "I'll tell you what, Mr Dug-well, or 
whatever your name may be, the sum-total of the matter is, that if my 
natural rest is to be broken in this manner, I must complain to the lord 
mayor."
"Shentlemans to speak wi' her," replied Dougal, resuming the true dogged 
sullen tone of a turnkey, in exchange for the shrill clang of Highland 
congratulation with which he had welcomed my mysterious guide; and, turning 
on his heel, he left the apartment.
It was some time before I could prevail upon the unfortunate sleeper 
awakening to recognise me; and when he did so, the distress of the worthy 
creature was. extreme, at supposing, which he naturally did, that I had 
been sent thither as a partner of his captivity.
"O, Mr Frank, what have you brought yourself and the house to? - I think 
nothing of myself, that am a mere cipher, so to speak; but you, that was 
your father's sum-total - his omnium, - you that might have been the first 
man in the first house in the first city, to be shut up in a nasty Scotch 
jail, where one cannot even get the dirt brushed off their clothes!"
He rubbed, with an air of peevish irritation, the once stainless brown 
coat, which had now shared some of the impurities of the floor of his 
prison-house, - his habits of extreme punctilious neatness acting 
mechanically to increase his distress. - "O Heaven be gracious to us!" he 
continued. "What news this will be on 'Change! There has not the like come 
there since the battle of Almanza, where the total of the British loss was 
summed up to five thousand men killed and wounded, besides a floating 
balance of missing - but what will that be to the news that Osbaldistone 
and Tresham have stopped!"
I broke in on his lamentations to acquaint him that I was no prisoner, 
though scarce able to account for my being in that place at such an hour. I 
could only silence his inquiries by persisting in those which his own 
situation suggested; and at length obtained from him such information as he 
was able to give me. It was none of the most distinct; for, however clear-
headed in his own routine of commercial business, Owen, you are well aware, 
was not very acute in comprehending what lay beyond that sphere.
The sum of his information was, that of two correspondents of my father's 
firm at Glasgow, where, owing to engagements in Scotland formerly alluded 
to, he transacted a great deal of business, both my father and Owen had 
found the house of MacVittie, MacFin, and Company, the most obliging and 
accommodating. They had deferred to the great English house on every 
possible occasion; and in their bargains and transactions acted, without 
repining, the part of the jackall, who only claims what the lion is pleased 
to leave him. However small the share of profit allotted to them, it was 
always, as they expressed it, "enough for the like of them;" however large 
the portion of trouble, "they were sensible they could not do too much to 
deserve the continued patronage and good opinion of their honoured friends 
in Crane Alley."
The dictates of my father were to MacVittie and MacFin the laws of the 
Medes and Persians, not to be altered, innovated, or even discussed; and 
the punctilios exacted by Owen in their business transactions, for he was a 
great lover of form, more especially when he could dictate it ex cathedra, 
seemed scarce less sanctimonious in their eyes. This tone of deep and 
respectful observance went all currently down with Owen; but my father 
looked a little closer into men's bosoms, and whether suspicious of this 
excess of deference, or, as a lover of brevity and simplicity in business, 
tired with these gentlemen's long-winded professions of regard, he had 
uniformly resisted their desire to become his sole agents in Scotland. On 
the contrary, he transacted many affairs through a correspondent of a 
character perfectly different - a man whose good opinion of himself 
amounted to self-conceit, and who, disliking the English in general as much 
as my father did the Scotch, would hold no communication but on a footing 
of absolute equality; jealous, moreover; captious occasionally; as 
tenacious of his own opinions in point of form as Owen could be of his; and 
totally indifferent though the authority of all Lombard Street had stood 
against his own private opinion.
As these peculiarities of temper rendered it difficult to transact business 
with Mr Nicol Jarvie, - as they occasioned at times disputes and coldness 
between the English house and their correspondent, which were only got over 
by a sense of mutual interest, - as, moreover, Owen's personal vanity 
sometimes suffered a little in the discussions to which they gave rise, you 
cannot be surprised, Tresham, that our old friend threw at all times the 
weight of his influence in favour of the civil, discreet, accommodating 
concern of MacVittie and MacFin, and spoke of Jarvie as a petulant, 
conceited Scotch pedlar, with whom there was no dealing.
It was also not surprising, that in these circumstances, which I only 
learned in detail some time afterwards, Owen, in the difficulties to which 
the house was reduced by the absence of my father, and the disappearance of 
Rashleigh, should, on his arrival in Scotland, which took place two days 
before mine, have recourse to the friendship of those correspondents, who 
had always professed themselves obliged, gratified, and devoted to the 
service of his principal. He was received at Messrs. MacVittie and MacFin's 
counting-house in the Gallowgate, with something like the devotion a 
Catholic would pay to his tutelar saint. But, alas! this sunshine was soon 
overclouded, when, encouraged by the fair hopes which it inspired, he 
opened the difficulties of the house to his friendly correspondents, and 
requested their counsel and assistance. MacVittie was almost stunned by the 
communication; and MacFin, ere it was completed, was already at the ledger 
of their firm, and deeply engaged in the very bowels of the multitudinous 
accounts between their house and that of Osbaldistone and Tresham, for the 
purpose of discovering on which side the balance lay. Alas! the scale 
depressed considerably against the English firm; and the faces of MacVittie 
and MacFin, hitherto only blank and doubtful, became now ominous, grim, and 
lowering. They met Mr Owen's request of countenance and assistance with a 
counter-demand of instant security against imminent hazard of eventual 
loss; and at length, speaking more plainly, required that a deposit of 
assets, destined for other purposes, should be placed in their hands for 
that purpose. Owen repelled this demand with great indignation, as 
dishonourable to his constituents, unjust to the other creditors of 
Osbaldistone and Tresham, and very ungrateful on the part of those by whom 
it was made.
The Scotch partners gained, in the course of this controversy, what is very 
convenient to persons who are in the wrong, an opportunity and pretext for 
putting themselves in a violent passion, and for taking, under the pretext 
of the provocation they had received, measures to which some sense of 
decency, if not of conscience, might otherwise have deterred them from 
resorting.
Owen had a small share, as I believe is usual, in the house to which he 
acted as head-clerk, and was therefore personally liable for all its 
obligations. This was known to Messrs. MacVittie and MacFin; and, with a 
view of making him feel their power, or rather in order to force him, at 
this emergency, into those measures in their favour, to which he had 
expressed himself so repugnant, they had recourse to a summary process of 
arrest and imprisonment, - which it seems the law of Scotland (therein 
surely liable to much abuse) allows to a creditor, who finds his conscience 
at liberty to make oath that the debtor meditates departing from the realm. 
Under such a warrant had poor Owen been confined to durance on the day 
preceding that when I was so strangely guided to his prison-house.
Thus possessed of the alarming outline of facts, the question remained, 
what was to be done and it was not of easy determination. I plainly 
perceived the perils with which we were surrounded, but it was more 
difficult to suggest any remedy. The warning which I had already received 
seemed to intimate, that my own personal liberty might be endangered by an 
open appearance in Owen's behalf. Owen entertained the same apprehension, 
and, in the exaggeration of his terror, assured me that a Scotchman, rather 
than run the risk of losing a farthing by an Englishman, would find law for 
arresting his wife, children, man-servant, maidservant, and stranger within 
his household. The laws concerning debt, in most countries, are so 
unmercifully severe, that I could not altogether disbelieve his statement; 
and my arrest, in the present circumstances, would have been a coup-de-
grace to my father's affairs. In this dilemma, I asked Owen if he had not 
thought of having recourse to my father's other correspondent in Glasgow, 
Mr Nicol Jarvie?
"He had sent him a letter," he replied, "that morning; but if the smooth-
tongued and civil house in the Gallowgate had used him thus, what was to be 
expected from the cross-grained crab-stock in the Salt-Market? You might as 
well ask a broker to give up his percentage, as expect a favour from him 
without the per contra. He had not even," Owen said, "answered his letter 
though it was put into his hand that morning as he went to church." And 
here the despairing man-of-figures threw himself down on his pallet, 
exclaiming, - "My poor dear master! My poor dear master! O Mr Frank, Mr 
Frank, this is all your obstinacy! - But God forgive me for saying so to 
you in your distress! It's God's disposing, and man must submit."
My philosophy, Tresham, could not prevent my sharing in the honest 
creature's distress, and we mingled our tears, - the more bitter on my 
part, as the perverse opposition to my father's will, with which the kind-
hearted Owen forbore to upbraid me, rose up to my conscience as the cause 
of all this affliction.
In the midst of our mingled sorrow, we were disturbed and surprised by a 
loud knocking at the outward door of the prison. I ran to the top of the 
staircase to listen, but could only hear the voice of the turnkey, 
alternately in a high tone, answering to some person without, and in a 
whisper, addressed to the person who had guided me hither - "She's coming - 
she's coming," aloud; then in a low key, "O hon-a-ri! O hon-a-ri! what'll 
she do now? - Gang up ta stair, and hide yourself ahint ta Sassenach 
shentleman's ped. - She's coming as fast as she can. - Ahellanay! it's my 
lord provosts, and ta pailies, and ta guard - and ta captain's coming toon 
stairs too - Got press her! gang up or he meets her. - She's coming - she's 
coming - ta lock's sair roosted."
While Dougal, unwillingly, and with as much delay as possible, undid the 
various fastenings to give admittance to those without, whose impatience 
became clamorous, my guide ascended the winding stair, and sprang into 
Owen's apartment, into which I followed him. He cast his eyes hastily 
round, as if looking for a place of concealment; then said to me, "Lend me 
your pistols - yet it's no matter, I can do without them - Whatever you 
see, take no heed, and do not mix your hand in another man's feud - This 
gear's mine, and I must manage it as I dow; but I have been as hard bested, 
and worse, than I am even now."
As the stranger spoke these words, he stripped from his person the cumbrous 
upper coat in which he was wrapt, confronted the door of the apartment, on 
which he fixed a keen and determined glance, drawing his person a little 
back to concentrate his force, like a fine horse brought up to the leaping-
bar. I had not a moment's doubt that he meant to extricate himself from his 
embarrassment, whatever might be the cause of it, by springing full upon 
those who should appear when the doors opened, and forcing his way through 
all opposition into the street; - and such was the appearance of strength 
and agility displayed in his frame, and of determination in his look and 
manner, that I did not doubt a moment but that he might get clear through 
his opponents, unless they employed fatal means to stop his purpose. It was 
a period of awful suspense betwixt the opening of the outward gate and that 
of the door of the apartment, when there appeared - no guard with bayonets 
fixed, or watch with clubs, bills, or partisans, but a good-looking young 
woman, with grogram petticoats, tucked up for trudging through the streets, 
and holding a lantern in her hand. This female ushered in a more important 
personage, in form, stout, short, and somewhat corpulent; and by dignity, 
as it soon appeared, a magistrate, bobwigged, bustling, and breathless with 
peevish impatience. My conductor, at his appearance, drew back as if to 
escape observation; but he could not elude the penetrating twinkle with 
which this dignitary reconnoitered the whole apartment.
"A bonny thing it is, and a beseeming, that I should be kept at the door 
half an hour, Captain Stanchells," said he, addressing the principal 
jailor, who now showed himself at the door as if in attendance on the great 
man, "knocking as hard to get into the tolbooth as ony body else wad to get 
out of it, could that avail them, poor fallen creatures! - And how's this? 
- how's this? - strangers in the jail after lock-up hours, and on the 
Sabbath evening! - I shall look after this, Stanchells, you may depend on't 
- Keep the door locked, and I'll speak to these gentlemen in a gliffing - 
But first I maun hae a crack wi' an auld acquaintance here. - Mr Owen, Mr 
Owen, how's a' wi' ye, man?"
"Pretty well in body, I thank you, Mr Jarvie," drawled out poor Owen, "but 
sore afflicted in spirit."
"Nae doubt, nae doubt - ay, ay - it's an awfu' whummle - and for ane that 
held his head sae high too - human nature, human nature - Ay ay, we're a' 
subject to a downcome. Mr Osbaldistone is a gude honest gentleman; but I 
aye said he was ane o' them wad make a spune or spoil a horn, as my father 
the worthy deacon used to say. The deacon used to say to me, 'Nick - young 
Nick' (his name was Nicol as weel as mine; sae folk ca'd us in their 
daffin', young Nick and auld Nick) - 'Nick,' said he, 'never put out your 
arm farther than ye can draw it easily back again.' I hae said sae to Mr 
Osbaldistone, and he didna seem to take it a'thegither sae kind as I wished 
- but it was weel meant - weel meant."
This discourse, delivered with prodigious volubility, and a great 
appearance of self-complacency, as he recollected his own advice and 
predictions, gave little promise of assistance at the hands of Mr Jarvie. 
Yet it soon appeared rather to proceed from a total want of delicacy than 
any deficiency of real kindness; for when Owen expressed himself somewhat 
hurt that these things should be recalled to memory in his present 
situation, the Glaswegian took him by the hand, and bade him "Cheer up a 
gliff! D'ye think I wad hae comed out at twal o'clock at night, and amaist 
broken the Lord's day, just to tell a fa'en man o' his backslidings? Na, 
na, that's no Bailie Jarvie's gate, nor was't his worthy father's the 
deacon afore him. Why, man! it's my rule never to think on warldly business 
on the Sabbath, and though I did a' I could to keep your note that I gat 
this morning out o' my head, yet I thought mair on it a' day, than on the 
preaching - And it's my rule to gang to my bed wi' the yellow curtains 
preceesely at ten o'clock - unless I were eating a haddock wi' a neighbour, 
or a neighbour wi' me - ask the lass-quean there, if it isna a fundamental 
rule in my household; and here hae I sitten up reading gude books, and 
gaping as if I wad swallow St. Enox Kirk, till it chappit twal, whilk was a 
lawfu' hour to gie a look at my ledger, just to see how things stood 
between us; and then, as time and tide wait for no man, I made the lass get 
the lantern, and came slipping my ways here to see what can be dune anent 
your affairs. Bailie Jarvie can command entrance into the tolbooth at ony 
hour, day or night; - sae could my father the deacon in his time, honest 
man, praise to his memory."
Although Owen groaned at the mention of the ledger, leading me grievously 
to fear that here also the balance stood in the wrong column; and although 
the worthy magistrate's speech expressed much self-complacency, and some 
ominous triumph in his own superior judgement, yet it was blended with a 
sort of frank and blunt good-nature, from which I could not help deriving 
some hopes. He requested to see some papers he mentioned, snatched them 
hastily from Owen's hand, and sitting on the bed, to "rest his shanks," as 
he was pleased to express the accommodation which that posture afforded 
him, his servant girl held up the lantern to him, while, pshawing, 
muttering, and sputtering, now at the imperfect light, now at the contents 
of the packet, he ran over the writings it contained.
Seeing him fairly engaged in this course of study, the guide who had 
brought me hither seemed disposed to take an unceremonious leave. He made a 
sign to me to say nothing, and intimated, by his change of posture, an 
intention to glide towards the door in such a manner as to attract the 
least possible observation. But the alert magistrate (very different from 
my old acquaintance, Mr Justice Inglewood) instantly detected and 
interrupted his purposes. "I say, look to the door, Stanchells - shut and 
lock it, and keep watch on the outside."
The stranger's brow darkened, and he seemed for an instant again to 
meditate the effecting his retreat by violence; but ere he had determined, 
the door closed, and the ponderous bolt revolved. He muttered an 
exclamation in Gaelic, strode across the floor, and then, with an air of 
dogged resolution, as if fixed and prepared to see the scene to an end, 
sate himself down on the oak table, and whistled a strathspey.
Mr Jarvie, who seemed very alert and expeditious in going through business, 
soon showed himself master of that which he had been considering, and 
addressed himself to Mr Owen in the following strain: - "Weel, Mr Owen, 
weel - your house are awin' certain sums to Messrs. MacVittie and MacFin 
(shame fa' their souple snouts! they made that and mair out o' a bargain 
about the aik-woods at Glen-Cailziechat, that they took out atween my teeth 
- wi' help o' your gude word, I maun needs say, Mr Owen - but that makes 
nae odds now) - Weel, sir, your house awes them this siller; and for this, 
and relief of other engagements they stand in for you, they hae putten a 
double turn o' Stanchells' muckle key on ye. - Weel, sir, ye awe this 
siller - and maybe ye awe some mair to some other body too - maybe ye awe 
some to myself, Bailie Nicol Jarvie."
"I cannot deny, sir, but the balance may of this date be brought out 
against us, Mr Jarvie," said Owen; "but you'll please to consider -"
"I hae nae time to consider e'enow, Mr Owen - Sae near Sabbath at e'en, and 
out o' ane's warm bed at this time o' night, and a sort o' drow in the air 
besides - there's nae time for considering - But, sir, as I was saying, ye 
awe me money - it winna deny - ye awe me money, less or mair, I'll stand by 
it. But then, Mr Owen, I canna see how you, an active man that understands 
business, can redd out the business ye're come down about, and clear us a' 
aff - as I have gritt hope ye will - if ye're keepit lying here in the 
tolbooth of Glasgow. Now, sir, if you can find caution judicio sisti, - 
that is, that ye winna flee the country, but appear and relieve your 
caution when ca'd for in our legal courts, ye may be set at liberty this 
very morning."
"Mr Jarvie," said Owen, "if any friend would become surety for me to that 
effect, my liberty might be usefully employed, doubtless, both for the 
house and all connected with it."
"Aweel, sir," continued Jarvie, "and doubtless such a friend wad expect ye 
to appear when ca'd on, and relieve him o' his engagement."
"And I should do so as certainly, bating sickness or death, as that two and 
two make four."
"Aweel, Mr Owen," resumed the citizen of Glasgow, "I dinna misdoubt ye, and 
I'll prove it, sir - I'll prove it. I am a carefu' man, as is weel kenned, 
and industrious, as the hale town can testify; and I can win my crowns, and 
keep my crowns, and count my crowns, wi' ony body in the Saut Market, or it 
may be in the Gallowgate. And I'm a prudent man, as my father the deacon 
was before me; - but rather than an honest civil gentleman, that 
understands business, and is willing to do justice to all men, should lie 
by the heels this gate, unable to help himsell or ony body else - why, 
conscience, man! I'll be your bail myself - But ye'll mind it's a bail 
judicio sisti, as our town-clerk says, not judicatum solvi; ye'll mind 
that, for there's muckle difference."
Mr Owen assured him, that as matters then stood, he could not expect any 
one to become surety for the actual payment of the debt, but that there was 
not the most distant cause for apprehending loss from his failing to 
present himself when lawfully called upon.
"I believe ye - I believe ye. Eneugh said - eneugh said. We'se hae your 
legs loose by breakfast-time. - And now let's hear what thir chamber chiels 
o' yours hae to say for themselves, or how, in the name of unrule, they got 
here at this time o' night."



Chapter 23

			Hame came our gudeman at e'en,
				And hame came he,
			And there he saw a man
				Where a man suldna be.
			"How's this now, kimmer?
				How's this?" quo he, -
			"How came this carle here
				Without the leave o' me?"
						-- Old Song.

The magistrate took the light out of the servant-maid's hand, and advanced 
to his scrutiny, like Diogenes in the street of Athens, lantern-in-hand, 
and probably with as little expectation as that of the cynic, that he was 
likely to encounter any especial treasure in the course of his researches. 
The first whom he approached was my mysterious guide, who, seated on a 
table as I have already described him, with his eyes firmly fixed on the 
wall, his features arranged into the utmost inflexibility of expression, 
his hands folded on his breast with an air betwixt carelessness and 
defiance, his heel patting against the foot of the table, to keep time with 
the tune which he continued to whistle, submitted to Mr Jarvie's 
investigation with an air of absolute confidence and assurance which, for a 
moment, placed at fault the memory and sagacity of the acute investigator.
"Ah! - Eh! - Oh!" exclaimed the Bailie. "My conscience! - it's impossible! 
- and yet - no! - Conscience! - it canna be! - and yet again - Deil hae me, 
that I suld say sae! - Ye robber - ye cateran - ye born deevil that ye are, 
to a' bad ends and nae gude ane! - can this be you?"
"E'en as ye see, Bailie," was the laconic answer.
"Conscience! if I am na clean bumbaized - you, ye cheat-the-wuddy rogue - 
you here on your venture in the tolbooth o' Glasgow? - What d'ye think's 
the value o' your head?"
"Umph! - why, fairly weighed, and Dutch weight, it might weigh down one 
provost's, four bailies', a town-clerk's, six deacons', besides 
stentmasters' -"
"Ah, ye reiving villain!" interrupted Mr Jarvie. "But tell ower your sins, 
and prepare ye, for if I say the word -"
"True, Bailie," said he who was thus addressed, folding his hands behind 
him with the utmost nonchalance, "but ye will never say that word."
"And why suld I not, sir?" exclaimed the magistrate - "Why suld I not? 
Answer me that - why suld I not?"
"For three sufficient reasons, Bailie Jarvie. - First, for auld langsyne; 
second, for the sake of the auld wife ayont the fire at Stuckavrallachan, 
that made some mixture of our bluids, to my own proper shame be it spoken! 
that has a cousin wi' accounts, and yarn winnles, and looms and shuttles, 
like a mere mechanical person; and lastly, Bailie, because if I saw a sign 
o' your betraying me, I would plaster that wa' with your harns ere the hand 
of man could rescue you!"
"Ye're a bauld desperate villain, sir," retorted the undaunted Bailie; "and 
ye ken that I ken ye to be sae, and that I wadna stand a moment for my ain 
risk."
"I ken weel," said the other, "ye hae gentle bluid in your veins, and I wad 
be laith to hurt my ain kinsman. But I'll gang out here as free as I came 
in, or the very wa's o' Glasgow tolbooth shall tell o't these ten years to 
come."
"Weel, weel," said Mr Jarvie, "bluid's thicker than water; and it liesna in 
kith, kin, and ally, to see motes in ilka other's een if other een see them 
no. It wad be sair news to the auld wife below the Ben of Stuckavrallachan, 
that you, ye Hieland limmer, had knockit out my harns, or that I had kilted 
you up in a tow. But ye'll own, ye dour deevil, that were it no your very 
sell, I wad hae grippit the best man in the Hielands."
"Ye wad hae tried, cousin," answered my guide, "that I wot weel; but I 
doubt ye wad hae come aff wi' the short measure; for we gang-there-out 
Hieland bodies are an unchancy generation when you speak to us o' bondage. 
We downa bide the coercion of gude braid-cloth about our hinderlans, let a 
be breeks o' free-stone, and garters o' iron."
"Ye'll find the stane breeks and the airn garters - ay, and the hemp 
cravat, for a' that, neighbour," replied the Bailie. "Nae man in a 
civilised country ever played the pliskies ye hae done - but e'en pickle in 
your ain pock-neuk - I hae gi'en ye wanting."
"Well, cousin," said the other, "ye'll wear black at my burial."
"Deil a black cloak will be there, Robin, but the corbies and the hoodie-
craws, I'se gie ye my hand on that. But whar's the gude thousand pund Scots 
that I lent ye, man, and when am I to see it again?"
"Where it is," replied my guide, after the affectation of considering for a 
moment, "I cannot justly tell - probably where last year's snaw is."
"And that's on the tap of Schehallion, ye Hieland dog," said Mr Jarvie; 
"and I look for payment frae you where ye stand."
"Ay," replied the Highlander, "but I keep neither snaw nor dollars in my 
sporran. And as to when you'll see it - why, just when the king enjoys his 
ain again, as the auld sang says."
"Warst of a', Robin," retorted the Glaswegian, - "I mean, ye disloyal 
traitor - Warst of a'! - Wad ye bring popery in on us, and arbitrary power, 
and a foist and a warming-pan, and the set forms, and the curates, and the 
auld enormities o' surplices and cerements? Ye had better stick to your 
auld trade o' theft-boot, blackmail, spreaghs, and gillravaging - better 
stealing nowte than ruining nations."
"Hout, man - whisht wi' your whiggery," answered the Celt; "we hae kenned 
ane anither mony a lang day. I'se take care your counting-room is no 
cleaned out when the Gillon-a-naillie come to redd up the Glasgow buiths, 
and clear them o' their auld shop-wares. And, unless it just fa' in the 
preceese way o' your duty, ye maunna see me oftener, Nicol, than I am 
disposed to be seen."
"Ye are a dauring villain, Rob," answered the Bailie; "and ye will be 
hanged, that will be seen and heard tell o'; but I'se ne'er be the ill bird 
and foul my nest, set apart strong necessity and the skreigh of duty, which 
no man should hear and be inobedient. And wha the deevil's this?" he 
continued, turning to me - "Some gillravager that ye hae listed, I daur 
say. He looks as if he had a bauld heart to the highway, and a lang craig 
for the gibbet."
"This, good Mr Jarvie," said Owen, who, like myself, had been struck dumb 
during this strange recognition, and no less strange dialogue, which took 
place betwixt these extraordinary kinsmen - "This, good Mr Jarvie, is young 
Mr Frank Osbaldistone, only child of the head of our house, who should have 
been taken into our firm at the time Mr Rashleigh Osbaldistone, his cousin, 
had the luck to be taken into it" - (Here Owen could not suppress a groan) 
- "But howsoever -"
"Oh, I have heard of that smaik," said the Scotch merchant, interrupting 
him; "it is he whom your principal, like an obstinate auld fule, wad make a 
merchant o', wad he or wad he no, - and the lad turned a strolling stage-
player, in pure dislike to the labour an honest man should live by. Weel, 
sir, what say you to your handiwork? Will Hamlet the Dane, or Hamlet's 
ghost, be good security for Mr Owen, sir?"
"I don't deserve your taunt," I replied, "though I respect your motive, and 
am too grateful for the assistance you have afforded Mr Owen, to resent it. 
My only business here was to do what I could (it is perhaps very little) to 
aid Mr Owen in the management of my father's affairs. My dislike of the 
commercial profession is a feeling of which I am the best and sole judge."
"I protest," said the Highlander, "I had some respect for this callant even 
before I kenned what was in him; but now I honour him for his contempt of 
weavers and spinners, and sic-like mechanical persons and their pursuits."
"Ye're mad, Rob," said the Bailie - "mad as a March hare - though wherefore 
a hare suld be mad at March mair than at Martinmas, is mair than I can weel 
say. Weavers! Deil shake ye out o' the web the weaver craft made. Spinners! 
ye'll spin and wind yourself a bonny pirn. And this young birkie here, that 
ye're hoying and hounding on the shortest road to the gallows and the 
deevil, will his stage-plays and his poetries help him here, dye think, ony 
mair than your deep oaths and drawn dirks, ye reprobate that ye are? - Will 
Tityre tu patulae, as they ca' it, tell him where Rashleigh Osbaldistone 
is?, or Macbeth, and all his kernes and galla-glasses, and your awn to 
boot, Rob, procure him five thousand pounds to answer the bills which fall 
due ten days hence, were they a' rouped at the Cross, - basket-hilts, Andra-
Ferraras, leather targets, brogues, brochan, and sporrans?"
"Ten days," I answered, and instinctively drew out Diana Vernon's packet; 
and the time being elapsed during which I was to keep the seal sacred, I 
hastily broke it open. A sealed letter fell from a blank enclosure, owing 
to the trepidation with which I opened the parcel. A slight current of 
wind, which found its way through a broken pane of the window, wafted the 
letter to Mr Jarvie's feet, who lifted it, examined the address with 
unceremonious curiosity, and, to my astonishment, handed it to his Highland 
kinsman, saying, "Here's a wind has blown a letter to its right owner, 
though there were ten thousand chances against its coming to hand."
The Highlander, having examined the address, broke the letter open without 
the least ceremony. I endeavoured to interrupt his proceeding.
"You must satisfy me, sir," said I, "that the letter is intended for you 
before I can permit you to peruse it."
"Make yourself quite easy, Mr Osbaldistone," replied the mountaineer with 
great composure. - "remember Justice Inglewood, Clerk Jobson, Mr Morris - 
above all, remember your vera humble servant, Robert Cawmil, and the 
beautiful Diana Vernon. Remember all this, and doubt no longer that the 
letter is for me."
I remained astonished at my own stupidity. - Through the whole night, the 
voice, and even the features of this man, though imperfectly seen, haunted 
me with recollections to which I could assign no exact local or personal 
associations. But now the light dawned on me at once; this man was Campbell 
himself. His whole peculiarities flashed on me at once, - the deep strong 
voice - the inflexible, stern, yet considerate cast of features - the 
Scottish brogue, with its corresponding dialect and imagery, which, 
although he possessed the power at times of laying them aside, recurred at 
every moment of emotion, and gave pith to his sarcasm, or vehemence to his 
expostulation. Rather beneath the middle size than above it, his limbs were 
formed upon the very strongest model that is consistent with agility, while 
from the remarkable ease and freedom of his movements, you could not doubt 
his possessing the latter quality in a high degree of perfection. Two 
points in his person interfered with the rules of symmetry; his shoulders 
were so broad in proportion to his height, as, notwithstanding the lean and 
lathy appearance of his frame, gave him something the air of being too 
square in respect to his stature; and his arms, though round, sinewy, and 
strong, were so very long as to be rather a deformity. I afterwards heard 
that this length of arm was a circumstance on which he prided himself; that 
when he wore his native Highland garb, he could tie the garters of his hose 
without stooping; and that it gave him great advantage in the use of the 
broad-sword, at which he was very dextrous. But certainly this want of 
symmetry destroyed the claim he might otherwise have set up, to be 
accounted a very handsome man; it gave something wild, irregular, and, as 
it were, unearthly, to his appearance, and reminded me involuntarily of the 
tales which Mabel used to tell of the old Picts who ravaged Northumberland 
in ancient times, who, according to her tradition, were a sort of half-
goblin half-human beings, distinguished, like this man, for courage, 
cunning, ferocity, the length of their arms, and the squareness of their 
shoulders.
When, however, I recollected the circumstances in which we formerly met, I 
could not doubt that the billet was most probably designed for him. He had 
made a marked figure among those mysterious personages over whom Diana 
seemed to exercise an influence, and from whom she experienced an influence 
in her turn. It was painful to think that the fate of a being so amiable 
was involved in that of desperadoes of this man's description; - yet it 
seemed impossible to doubt it. Of what use, however, could this person be 
to my father's affairs? - I could think only of one. Rashleigh Osbaldistone 
had, at the instigation of Miss Vernon, certainly found means to produce Mr 
Campbell when his presence was necessary to exculpate me from Morris's 
accusation - Was it not possible that her influence, in like manner, might 
prevail on Campbell to produce Rashleigh? Speaking on this supposition, I 
requested to know where my dangerous kinsman was, and when Mr Campbell had 
seen him. The answer was indirect.
"It's a kittle cast she has gien me to play; but yet it's fair play, and I 
winna baulk her. Mr Osbaldistone, I dwell not very far from hence - my 
kinsman can show you the way - Leave Mr Owen to do the best he can in 
Glasgow - do you come and see me in the glens, and it's like I may pleasure 
you, and stead your father in his extremity. I am but a poor man; but wit's 
better than wealth - and, cousin" (turning from me to address Mr Jarvie), 
"if ye daur venture sae muckle as to eat a dish of Scotch collops, and a 
leg o' red-deer venison wi' me, come ye wi' this Sassenach gentleman as far 
as Drymen or Bucklivie, - or the Clachan of Aberfoil will be better than 
ony o' them, - and I'll hae somebody waiting to weise ye the gate to the 
place where I may be for the time - What say ye, man? There's my thumb, 
I'll ne'er beguile thee."
"Na, na, Robin," said the cautious burgher, "I seldom like to leave the 
Gorbals; I have nae freedom to gang among your wild hills, Robin, and your 
kilted red-shanks - it disna become my place, man."
"The devil damn your place and you baith!" reiterated Campbell. "The only 
drap o' gentle bluid that's in your body was our great-grand-uncle's that 
was justified at Dumbarton, and you set yourself up to say ye wad derogate 
frae your place to visit me! Hark thee, man, I owe thee a day in harst - 
I'll pay up your thousan pund Scots, plack and bawbee, gin ye'll be an 
honest fallow for anes, and just daiker up the gate wi' this Sassenach."
"Hout awa' wi' your gentility," replied the Bailie; "carry your gentle 
bluid to the Cross, and see what ye'll buy wi't. But, if I were to come, 
wad ye really and soothfastly pay me the siller?"
"I swear to ye," said the Highlander, "upon the halidome of him that sleeps 
beneath the grey stane at Inch-Cailleach."
"Say nae mair, Robin - say nae mair - We'll see what may be dune. But ye 
maunna expect me to gang ower the Highland line - I'll gae beyond the line 
at no rate. Ye maun meet me about Bucklivie or the Clachan of Aberfoil, - 
and dinna forget the needful."
"Nae fear - nae fear," said Campbell; "I'll be as true as the steel blade 
that never failed its master. But I must be budging, cousin, for the air o' 
Glasgow tolbooth is no that ower salutary to a Highlander's constitution."
"Troth," replied the merchant, "and if my duty were to be dune, ye couldna 
change your atmosphere, as the minister ca's it, this ae wee while. - 
Ochon, that I sud ever be concerned in aiding and abetting an escape frae 
justice! it will be a shame and disgrace to me and mine, and my very 
father's memory, for ever."
"Hout tout, man! let that flee stick in the wa'," answered his kinsman; 
"when the dirt's dry it will rub out - Your father, honest man, could look 
ower a friend's fault as weel as anither."
"Ye may be right, Robin," replied the Bailie, after a moment's reflection; 
"he was a considerate man the deacon; he kenned we had a' our frailties, 
and he lo'ed his friends - Ye'll no hae forgotten him, Robin?" This 
question he put in a softened tone, conveying as much at least of the 
ludicrous as the pathetic.
"Forgotten him!" replied his kinsman - "what suld ail me to forget him? - a 
wapping weaver he was, and wrought my first pair o' hose. - But come awa', 
kinsman,

		Come fill up my cap, come fill up my cann,
		Come saddle my horses, and call up my man;
		Come open your gates, and let me gae free,
		I daurna stay langer in bonny Dundee."

"Whisht, sir!" said the magistrate, in an authoritative tone - "lilting and 
singing sae near the latter end o' the Sabbath! This house may hear ye sing 
anither tune yet - Aweel, we hae a' backslidings to answer for - 
Stanchells, open the door."
The jailor obeyed, and we all sallied forth. Stanchells looked with some 
surprise at the two strangers, wondering, doubtless, how they came into 
these premises without his knowledge; but Mr Jarvie's "Friends o' mine, 
Stanchells - friends o' mine," silenced all disposition to inquiries. We 
now descended into the lower vestibule, and hallooed more than once for 
Dougal, to which summons no answer was returned; when Campbell observed 
with a sardonic smile, "That if Dougal was the lad he kent him, he would 
scarce wait to get thanks for his ain share of the night's wark, but was in 
all probability on the full trot to the pass of Ballamaha -"
"And left us - and, abune a', me, mysell, locked up in the tolbooth a' 
night!" exclaimed the Bailie, in ire and perturbation. "Ca' for 
forehammers, sledgehammers, pinches, and coulters; send for Deacon Yettlin, 
the smith, an let him ken that Bailie Jarvie's shut up in the tolbooth by a 
Highland blackguard, whom he'll hang up as high as Haman -"
"When ye catch him," said Campbell, gravely; "but stay - the door is surely 
not locked."
Indeed, on examination, we found that the door was not only left open, but 
that Dougal in his retreat had, by carrying off the keys along with him, 
taken care that no one should exercise his office of porter in a hurry.
"He has glimmerings o' common sense now, that creature Dougal," said 
Campbell. - "he kenned an open door might hae served me at a pinch."
We were by this time in the street.
"I tell you, Robin," said the magistrate, "in my puir mind, if ye live the 
life ye do, ye suld hae ane o' your gillies door-keeper in every jail in 
Scotland, in case o' the warst."
"Ane o' my kinsmen a bailie in ilka burgh will just do as weel, cousin 
Nicol - So, gude-night or gude-morning to ye; and forget not the Clachan of 
Aberfoil."
And without waiting for an answer, he sprung to the other side of the 
street, and was lost in darkness. Immediately on his disappearance, we 
heard him give a low whistle of peculiar modulation, which was instantly 
replied to.
"Hear to the Hieland deevils," said Mr Jarvie; "they think themselves on 
the skirts of Ben Lomond already, where they may gang whewing and whistling 
about without minding Sunday or Saturday." Here he was interrupted by 
something which fell with a heavy clash on the street before us - "Gude 
guide us what's this mair o't? - Mattie, haud up the lantern - Conscience 
if it isna the keys! - Weel, that's just as weel - they cost the burgh 
siller, and there might hae been some clavers about the loss o' them. O, an 
Bailie Grahame were to get word o' this night's job, it would be a sair 
hair in my neck!"
As we were still but a few steps from the tolbooth door, we carried back 
these implements of office, and consigned them to the head jailor, who, in 
lieu of the usual mode of making good his post by turning the keys, was 
keeping sentry in the vestibule till the arrival of some assistant, whom he 
had summoned in order to replace the Celtic fugitive Dougal.
Having discharged this piece of duty to the burgh, and my road lying the 
same way with the honest magistrate's, I profited by the light of his 
lantern, and he by my arm, to find our way through the streets, which, 
whatever they may now be, were then dark, uneven, and ill-paved. Age is 
easily propitiated by attentions from the young. The Bailie expressed 
himself interested in me, and added, "That since I was nane o' that play-
acting and play-ganging generation, whom his saul hated, he wad be glad if 
I wad eat a reisted haddock or a fresh herring, at breakfast wi' him the 
morn, and meet my friend, Mr Owen, whom, by that time, he would place at 
liberty."
"My dear sir," said I, when I had accepted of the invitation with thanks, 
"how could you possibly connect me with the stage?"
"I watna," replied Mr Jarvie; - "it was a bletherin' phrasin' chield they 
ca' Fairservice, that cam at e'en to get an order to send the crier through 
the toun for ye at skreigh o' day the morn. He tell't me whae ye were, and 
how ye were sent frae your father's house because ye wadna be a dealer, and 
that ye mightna disgrace your family wi' ganging on the stage. Ane 
Hammorgaw, our precentor, brought him here, and said he was an auld 
acquaintance; but I sent them both away wi' a flae in their lug for 
bringing me sic an errand, on sic a night. But I see he's a fule-creature 
a'thegither, and clean mista'en about ye. I like ye, man," he continued; "I 
like a lad that will stand by his friends in trouble - I aye did it mysell, 
and sae did the deacon my father, rest and bless him! But ye suldna keep 
ower muckle company wi' Hielandmen and thae wild cattle. Can a man touch 
pitch and no be defiled? - aye mind that. Nae doubt, the best and wisest 
may err - Once, twice, and thrice have I backslidden, man, and dune three 
things this night - my father wadna hae believed his een if he could hae 
looked up and seen me do them."
He was by this time arrived at the door of his own dwelling. He paused, 
however, on the threshold, and went on in a solemn tone of deep contrition, 
- "Firstly, I hae thought my ain thoughts on the Sabbath - secondly, I hae 
gi'en security for an Englishman - and, in the third and last place, well-a-
day! I hae let an ill-doer escape from the place of imprisonment - But 
there's balm in Gilead, Mr Osbaldistone - Mattie, I can let mysell in - see 
Mr Osbaldistone to Luckie Flyter's, at the corner o' the wynd. - Mr 
Osbaldistone" - in a whisper - "ye'll offer nae incivility to Mattie - 
she's an honest man's daughter, and a near cousin o' the Laird o' 
Limmerfield's."



Chapter 24

"Will it please your worship to accept of my poor service? I beseech that I 
may feed upon your bread, though it be the brownest, and drink of your 
drink, though it be of the smallest; for I will do your Worship as much 
service for forty shillings as another man shall for three pounds."
							-- Greene's Tu Quoque.


I remembered the honest Bailie's parting charge, but did not conceive there 
was any incivility in adding a kiss to the half-crown with which I 
remunerated Mattie's attendance; - nor did her "Fie for shame, sir!" 
express any very deadly resentment of the affront. Repeated knocking at Mrs 
Flyter's gate awakened in due order, first, one or two stray dogs, who 
began to bark with all their might; next two or three night-capped heads, 
which were thrust out of the neighbouring windows to reprehend me for 
disturbing the solemnity of the Sunday night by that untimely noise. While 
I trembled lest the thunders of their wrath might dissolve in showers like 
that of Xantippe, Mrs Flyter herself awoke, and began, in a tone of 
objurgation not unbecoming the philosophical spouse of Socrates, to scold 
one or two loiterers in her kitchen, for not hastening to the door to 
prevent a repetition of my noisy summons.
These worthies were, indeed, nearly concerned in the fracas which their 
laziness occasioned, being no other than the faithful Mr Fairservice, with 
his friend Mr Hammorgaw, and another person, whom I afterwards found to be 
the town-crier, who were sitting over a cog of ale, as they called it (at 
my expense, as my bill afterwards informed me), in order to devise the 
terms and style of a proclamation to be made through the streets the next 
day, in order that "the unfortunate young gentleman," as they had the 
impudence to qualify me, might be restored to his friends without farther 
delay. It may be supposed that I did not suppress my displeasure at this 
impertinent interference with my affairs; but Andrew set up such 
ejaculations of transport at my arrival, as fairly drowned my expressions 
of resentment. His raptures, perchance, were partly political; and the 
tears of joy which he shed had certainly their source in that noble 
fountain of emotion, the tankard. However, the tumultuous glee which he 
felt, or pretended to feel, at my return, saved Andrew the broken head 
which I had twice destined him; - first, on account of the colloquy he had 
held with the precentor on my affairs; and secondly, for the impertinent 
history he had thought proper to give of me to Mr Jarvie. I however 
contented myself with slapping the door of my bedroom in his face as he 
followed me, praising Heaven for my safe return, and mixing his joy with 
admonitions to me to take care how I walked my own ways in future. I then 
went to bed, resolving my first business in the morning should be to 
discharge this troublesome, pedantic, self-conceited coxcomb, who seemed so 
much disposed to constitute himself rather a preceptor than a domestic.
Accordingly in the morning I resumed my purpose, and calling Andrew into 
my, apartment, requested to know his charge for guiding and attending me as 
far as Glasgow. Mr Fairservice looked very blank at this demand, justly 
considering it as a presage to approaching dismission.
"Your honour," he said, after some hesitation, "wunna think - wunna think 
-"
"Speak out, you rascal, or I'll break your head," said I, as Andrew, 
between the double risk of losing all by asking too much, or a part, by 
stating his demand lower than what I might be willing to pay, stood gasping 
in the agony of doubt and calculation.
Out it came with a bolt, however, at my threat; as the kind violence of a 
blow on the back sometimes delivers the windpipe from an intrusive morsel. 
- "Aughteen pennies sterling per diem - that is, by the day - your honour 
wadna think unconscionable."
"It is double what is usual, and treble what you merit, Andrew; but there's 
a guinea for you, and get about your business."
"The Lord forgi'e us! Is your honour mad?" exclaimed Andrew.
"No; but I think you mean to make me so - I give you a third above your 
demand, and you stand staring and expostulating there as if I were cheating 
you. Take your money, and go about your business."
"Gude safe us!" continued Andrew, "in what can I hae offended your honour? 
Certainly a' flesh is but as the flowers of the field; but if a bed of 
camomile hath value in medicine, of a surety the use of Andrew Fairservice 
to your honour is nothing less evident - it's as muckle as your life's 
worth to part wi' me."
"Upon my honour," replied I, "it is difficult to say whether you are more 
knave or fool. So you intend then to remain with me whether I like it or 
no?"
"Troth, I was e'en thinking sae," replied Andrew, dogmatically; "for if 
your honour disna ken when ye hae a gude servant, I ken when I hae a gude 
master, and the deil be in my feet gin I leave ye - and there's the brief 
and the lang o't besides I hae received nae regular warning to quit my 
place."
"Your place, sir!" said I; - "why, you are no hired servant of mine, - you 
are merely a guide, whose knowledge of the country I availed myself of on 
my road."
"I am no just a common servant, I admit, sir," remonstrated Mr Fairservice; 
"but your honour kens I quitted a gude place at an hour's notice, to comply 
wi' your honour's solicitations. A man might make honestly, and wi' a clear 
conscience, twenty sterling pounds per annum, weel counted siller, o' the 
garden at Osbaldistone Hall, and I wasna likely to gi'e up a' that for a 
guinea, I trow - I reckoned on staying wi' your honour to the term's end at 
the least o't; and I account my wage, board-wage, fee and bountith, - ay, 
to that length o't at the least."
"Come, come, sir," replied I, "these impudent pretensions won't serve your 
turn; and if I hear any more of them, I shall convince you that Squire 
Thorncliff is not the only one of my name that can use his fingers."
While I spoke thus, the whole matter struck me as so ridiculous, that, 
though really angry, I had some difficulty to forbear laughing at the 
gravity with which Andrew supported a plea so utterly extravagant. The 
rascal, aware of the impression he had made on my muscles, was encouraged 
to perseverance. He judged it safer, however, to take his pretensions a peg 
lower, in case of overstraining at the same time both his plea and my 
patience.
"Admitting that my honour could part with a faithful servant, that had 
served me and mine by day and night for twenty years, in a strange place, 
and at a moment's warning, he was weel assured," he said, "it wasna in my 
heart, nor in no true gentleman's, to pit a puir lad like himself, that had 
come forty or fifty, or say a hundred miles out o' his road purely to bear 
my honour company, and that had nae handing but his penny-fee, to sic a 
hardship as this comes to."
I think it was you, Will, who once told me, that, to be an obstinate man, I 
am in certain things the most gullible and malleable of mortals. The fact 
is, that it is only contradiction which makes me peremptory, and when I do 
not feel myself called on to give battle to any proposition, I am always 
willing to grant it, rather than give myself much trouble. I knew this 
fellow to be a greedy, tiresome, meddling coxcomb; still, however, I must 
have some one about me in the quality of guide and domestic, and I was so 
much used to Andrew's humour, that on some occasions it was rather amusing. 
In the state of indecision to which these reflections led me, I asked 
Fairservice if he knew the roads, towns, etc., in the north of Scotland, to 
which my father's concerns with the proprietors of Highland forests were 
likely to lead me. I believe if I had asked him the road to the terrestrial 
paradise, he would have at that moment undertaken to guide me to it; so 
that I had reason afterwards to think myself fortunate in finding that his 
actual knowledge did not fall very much short of that which he asserted 
himself to possess. I fixed the amount of his wages, and reserved to myself 
the privilege of dismissing him when I chose, on paying him a week in 
advance. I gave him finally a severe lecture on his conduct of the 
preceding day, and then dismissed him rejoicing at heart, though somewhat 
crestfallen in countenance, to rehearse to his friend the precentor, who 
was taking his morning draught in the kitchen, the mode in which he had 
"cuitled up the daft young English squire."
Agreeable to appointment, I went next to Bailie Nicol Jarvie's, where a 
comfortable morning's repast was arranged in the parlour, which served as 
an apartment of all hours, and almost all work, to that honest gentleman. 
The bustling and benevolent magistrate had been as good as his word. I 
found my friend Owen at liberty, and, conscious of the refreshments and 
purification of brush and basin, was of course a very different person from 
Owen a prisoner, squalid, heart-broken, and hopeless. Yet the sense of 
pecuniary difficulties arising behind, before, and around him, had 
depressed his spirit, and the almost paternal embrace which the good man 
gave me, was embittered by a sigh of the deepest anxiety. And when he sate 
down, the heaviness in his eye and manner, so different from the quiet 
composed satisfaction which they usually exhibited, indicated that he was 
employing his arithmetic in mentally numbering up the days, the hours, the 
minutes, which yet remained as an interval between the dishonour of bills 
and the downfall of the great commercial establishment of Osbaldistone and 
Tresham. It was left to me, therefore, to do honour to our landlord's 
hospitable cheer - to his tea, right from China, which he got in a present 
from some eminent ship's-husband at Wapping - to his coffee, from a snug 
plantation of his own, as he informed us with a wink, called Saltmarket 
Grove, in the island of Jamaica - to his English toast and ale, his Scotch 
dried salmon, his Lochfine herrings, and even to the double-damask table-
cloth, "wrought by no hand, as you may guess," save that of his deceased 
father the worthy Deacon Jarvie.
Having conciliated our good-humoured host by those little attentions which 
are great to most men, I endeavoured in my turn to gain from him some 
information which might be useful for my guidance, as well as for the 
satisfaction of my curiosity. We had not hitherto made the least allusion 
to the transactions of the preceding night, a circumstance which made my 
question sound somewhat abrupt, when, without any previous introduction of 
the subject, I took advantage of a pause when the history of the table-
cloth ended, and that of the napkins was about to commence, to inquire, 
"Pray, by the by, Mr Jarvie, who may this Mr Robert Campbell be, whom we 
met with last night?"
The interrogatory seemed to strike the honest magistrate, to use the vulgar 
phrase, "all of a heap," and instead of answering, he returned the question 
- "Whae's Mr Robert Campbell? - ahem! ahay! Whae's Mr Robert Campbell, quo' 
he?"
"Yes," said I, "I mean who and what is he?"
"Why, he's - ahay! - he's - ahem! - Where did ye meet with Mr Robert 
Campbell, as ye ca' him?"
"I met him by chance," I replied, "some months ago in the north of 
England."
"Ou then, Mr Osbaldistone," said the Bailie, doggedly, "ye'll ken as muckle 
about him as I do."
"I should suppose not, Mr Jarvie," I replied; - "you are his relation, it 
seems, and his friend."
"There is some cousin-red between us, doubtless," said the Bailie 
reluctantly; "but we hae seen little o' ilk other since Rob gae tip the 
cattle-line o' dealing, poor fallow! he was hardly guided by them might hae 
used him better - and they haena made their plack a bawbee o't neither. 
There's mony ane this day wad rather they had never chased puir Robin frae 
the Cross o' Glasgow - there's mony ane wad rather see him again at the 
tale o' three hundred kyloes, than at the head o' thirty waur cattle."
"All this explains nothing to me, Mr Jarvie, of Mr Campbell's rank, habits 
of life, and means of subsistence," I replied.
"Rank?" said Mr Jarvie; "he's a Hieland gentleman, nae doubt - better rank 
need nane to be; - and for habit, I judge he wears the Hieland habit amang 
the hills, though he has breeks on when he comes to Glasgow; - and as for 
his subsistence, what needs we care about his subsistence, sae lang as he 
asks naething frae us, ye ken? But I hae nae time for clavering about him 
e'en now, because we maun look into your father's concerns wi' all speed."
So saying, he put on his spectacles, and sate down to examine Mr Owen's 
states, which the other thought it most prudent to communicate to him 
without reserve. I knew enough of business to be aware that nothing could 
be more acute and sagacious than the views which Mr Jarvie entertained of 
the matters submitted to his examination; and, to do him justice, it was 
marked by much fairness, and even liberality. He scratched his ear indeed 
repeatedly on observing the balance which stood at the debit of 
Osbaldistone and Tresham in account with himself personally.
"It may be a dead loss," he observed; "and, conscience! whate'er ane o' 
your Lombard Street goldsmiths may say to it, it's a snell ane in the Saut-
Market o' Glasgow. It will be a heavy deficit - a staff out o' my bicker, I 
trow. But what then? - I trust the house wunna coup the crane for a' that's 
come and gane yet; and if it does, I'll never bear sae base a mind as thae 
corbies in the Gallowgate - an I am to lose by ye, I'se ne'er deny I hae 
won by ye mony a fair pund sterling - Sae, an it come to the warst, I'se 
een lay the head o' the sow to the tail o' the grice."
I did not altogether understand the proverbial arrangement with which Mr 
Jarvie consoled himself, but I could easily see that he took a kind and 
friendly interest in the arrangement of my father's affairs, suggested 
several expedients, approved several plans proposed by Owen, and by his 
countenance and counsel greatly abated the gloom upon the brow of that 
afflicted delegate of my father's establishment.
As I was an idle spectator on this occasion, and, perhaps, as I showed some 
inclination more than once to return to the prohibited, and apparently the 
puzzling subject of Mr Campbell, Mr Jarvie dismissed me with little 
formality, with an advice to "gang up the gate to the college, where I wad 
find some chields could speak Greek and Latin weel - at least they got 
plenty o' siller for doing deil haet else, if they didna do that; and where 
I might read a spell o' the worthy Mr Zachary Boyd's translation o' the 
Scriptures - better poetry need nane to be, as he had been tell'd by them 
that kenned or suld hae kenned about sic things." But he seasoned this 
dismission with a kind and hospitable invitation "to come back and take 
part o' his family-chack at ane preceesely - there wad be a leg o' mutton, 
and, it might be, a tup's head, for they were in season;" but above all, I 
was to return at "ane o'clock preceesely - it was the hour he and the 
deacon his father aye dined at - they pat it off for naething nor for 
naebody."


Chapter 25

		So stands the Thracian herdsman with his spear
		Full in the gap, and hopes the hunted bear;
		And hears him in the rustling wood, and sees
		His course at distance by the bending trees,
		And thinks - Here comes my mortal enemy,
		And either he must fall in fight, or I.
							-- Palamon and Arcite.


I took the route towards the college, as recommended by Mr Jarvie, less 
with the intention of seeking for any object of interest or amusement, than 
to arrange my own ideas, and meditate on my future conduct. I wandered from 
one quadrangle of old-fashioned buildings to another, and from thence to 
the College-yards, or walking ground, where, pleased with the solitude of 
the place, most of the students being engaged in their classes, I took 
several turns, pondering on the waywardness of my own destiny.
I could not doubt, from the circumstances attending my first meeting with 
this person Campbell, that he was engaged in some strangely desperate 
courses; and the reluctance with which Mr Jarvie alluded to his person or 
pursuits, as well as all the scene of the preceding night, tended to 
confirm these suspicions. Yet to this man Diana Vernon had not, it would 
seem, hesitated to address herself in my behalf; and the conduct of the 
magistrate himself towards him showed an odd mixture of kindness, and even 
respect, with pity and censure. Something there must be uncommon in 
Campbell's situation and character; and what was still more extraordinary, 
it seemed that his fate was doomed to have influence over, and connection 
with, my own. I resolved to bring Mr Jarvie to close quarters on the first 
proper opportunity, and learn as much as was possible on the subject of 
this mysterious person, in order that I might judge whether it was possible 
for me, without prejudice to my reputation, to hold that degree of farther 
correspondence with him to which he seemed to invite.
While I was musing on these subjects, my attention was attracted by three 
persons who appeared at the upper end of the walk through which I was 
sauntering, seemingly engaged in very earnest conversation. That intuitive 
impression which announces to us the approach of whomsoever we love or hate 
with intense vehemence, long before a more indifferent eye can recognise 
their persons, flashed upon my mind the sure conviction that the midmost of 
these three men was Rashleigh Osbaldistone. To address him was my first 
impulse; - my second was, to watch him until he was alone, or at least to 
reconnoitre his companions before confronting him. The party was still at 
such distance, and engaged in such deep discourse, that I had time to step 
unobserved to the other side of a small hedge, which imperfectly screened 
the alley in which I was walking. It was at this period the fashion of the 
young and gay to wear, in their morning walks, a scarlet cloak, often laced 
and embroidered, above their other dress, and it was the trick of the time 
for gallants occasionally to dispose it so as to muffle a part of the face. 
The imitating this fashion, with the degree of shelter which I received 
from the hedge, enabled me to meet my cousin, unobserved by him or the 
others, except perhaps as a passing stranger. I was not a little startled 
at recognising in his companions that very Morris on whose account I had 
been summoned before Justice Inglewood, and Mr MacVittie the merchant, from 
whose starched and severe aspect I had recoiled on the preceding day.
A more ominous conjunction to my own affairs, and those of my father, could 
scarce have been formed. I remembered Morris's false accusation against me, 
which he might be as easily induced to renew as he had been intimidated to 
withdraw; I recollected the inauspicious influence of MacVittie over my 
father's affairs, testified by the imprisonment of Owen; - and I now saw 
both these men combined with one, whose talent for mischief I deemed little 
inferior to those of the great author of all ill, and my abhorrence of whom 
almost amounted to dread.
When they had passed me for some paces, I turned and followed them 
unobserved. At the end of the walk they separated, Morris and MacVittie 
leaving the gardens, and Rashleigh returning alone through the walks. I was 
now determined to confront him, and demand reparation for the injuries he 
had done my father, though in what form redress was likely to be rendered 
remained to be known. This, however, I trusted to chance; and flinging back 
the cloak in which I was muffled, I passed through a gap of the low hedge, 
and presented myself before Rashleigh, as, in a deep reverie, he paced down 
the avenue.
Rashleigh was no man to be surprised or thrown off his guard by sudden 
occurrences. Yet he did not find me thus close to him, wearing undoubtedly 
in my face the marks of that indignation which was glowing in my bosom, 
without visibly starting at an apparition so sudden and menacing.
"You are well met, sir," was my commencement; "I was about to take a long 
and doubtful journey in quest of you."
"You know little of him you sought then," replied Rashleigh, with his usual 
undaunted composure. "I am easily found by my friends - still more easily 
by my foes; - your manner compels me to ask in which class I must rank Mr 
Francis Osbaldistone?"
"In that of your foes, sir," I answered - "in that of your mortal foes, 
unless you instantly do justice to your benefactor, my father, by 
accounting for his property."
"And to whom, Mr Osbaldistone," answered Rashleigh, "am I, a member of your 
father's commercial establishment, to be compelled to give any account of 
my proceedings in those concerns, which are in every respect identified 
with my own? - Surely not to a young gentleman whose exquisite taste for 
literature would render such discussions disgusting and unintelligible."
"Your sneer, sir, is no answer; I will not part with you until I have full 
satisfaction concerning the fraud you meditate - you shall go with me 
before a magistrate."
"Be it so," said Rashleigh, and made a step or two as if to accompany me; 
then pausing, proceeded - "Were I inclined to do so as you would have me, 
you should soon feel which of us had most reason to dread the presence of a 
magistrate. But I have no wish to accelerate your fate. Go, young man! 
amuse yourself in your world of poetical imaginations, and leave the 
business of life to those who understand and can conduct it."
His intention, I believe, was to provoke me, and he succeeded. "Mr 
Osbaldistone," I said, "this tone of calm insolence shall not avail you. 
You ought to be aware that the name we both bear never submitted to insult, 
and shall not in my person be exposed to it."
"You remind me," said Rashleigh, with one of his blackest looks, "that it 
was dishonoured in my person! - and you remind me also by whom! Do you 
think I have forgotten the evening at Osbaldistone Hall when you cheaply 
and with impunity played the bully at my expense? For that insult - never 
to be washed out but by blood! - for the various times you have crossed my 
path, and always to my prejudice - for the persevering folly with which you 
seek to traverse schemes, the importance of which you neither know nor are 
capable of estimating, - for all these, sir, you owe me a long account, for 
which there shall come an early day of reckoning."
"Let it come when it will," I replied, "I shall be willing and ready to 
meet it. Yet you seem to have forgotten the heaviest article - that I had 
the pleasure to aid Miss Vernon's good sense and virtuous feeling in 
extricating her from your infamous toils."
I think his dark eyes flashed actual fire at this home-taunt, and yet his 
voice retained the same calm expressive tone with which he had hitherto 
conducted the conversation.
"I had other views with respect to you, young man," was his answer: "less 
hazardous for you, and more suitable to my present character and former 
education. But I see you will draw on yourself the personal chastisement 
your boyish insolence so well merits. Follow me to a more remote spot, 
where we are less likely to be interrupted."
I followed him accordingly, keeping a strict eye on his motions, for I 
believed him capable of the very worst actions. We reached an open spot in 
a sort of wilderness, laid out in the Dutch taste, with clipped hedges, and 
one or two statues. I was on my guard, and it was well with me that I was 
so; for Rashleigh's sword was out and at my breast ere I could throw down 
my cloak, or get my weapon unsheathed, so that I only saved my life by 
springing a pace or two backwards. He had some advantage in the difference 
of our weapons; for his sword, as I recollect, was longer than mine, and 
had one of those bayonet or three-cornered blades which are now generally 
worn; whereas mine was what we then called a Saxon blade - narrow, flat, 
and two-edged, and scarcely so manageable as that of my enemy. In other 
respects we were pretty equally matched: for what advantage I might possess 
in superior address and agility, was fully counterbalanced by Rashleigh's 
great strength and coolness. He fought, indeed, more like a fiend than a 
man - with concentrated spite and desire of blood, only allayed by that 
cool consideration which made his worst actions appear yet worse from the 
air of deliberate premeditation which seemed to accompany them. His obvious 
malignity of purpose never for a moment threw him off his guard, and he 
exhausted every feint and stratagem proper to the science of defence; 
while, at the same time, he meditated the most desperate catastrophe to our 
rencounter.
On my part, the combat was at first sustained with more moderation. My 
passions, though hasty, were not malevolent; and the walk of two or three 
minutes' space gave me time to reflect that Rashleigh was my father's 
nephew, the son of an uncle, who after his fashion had been kind to me, and 
that his falling by my hand could not but occasion much family distress. My 
first resolution, therefore, was to attempt to disarm my antagonist - a 
manoeuvre in which, confiding in my superiority of skill and practice, I 
anticipated little difficulty. I found, however, I had met my match; and 
one or two foils which I received, and from the consequences of which I 
narrowly escaped, obliged me to observe more caution in my mode of 
fighting. By degrees I became exasperated at the rancour with which 
Rashleigh sought my life, and returned his passes with an inveteracy 
resembling in some degree his own; so that the combat had all the 
appearance of being destined to have a tragic issue. That issue had nearly 
taken place at my expense. My foot slipped in a full lounge which I made at 
my adversary, and I could not so far recover myself as completely to parry 
the thrust with which my pass was repaid. Yet it took but partial effect, 
running through my waistcoat, grazing my ribs, and passing through my coat 
behind. The hilt of Rashleigh's sword, so great was the vigour of his 
thrust, struck against my breast with such force as to give me great pain, 
and confirm me in the momentary belief that I was mortally wounded. Eager 
for revenge, I grappled with my enemy, seizing with my left hand the hilt 
of his sword, and shortening my own with the purpose of running him through 
the body. Our death-grapple was interrupted by a man who forcibly threw 
himself between us, and pushing us separate from each other, exclaimed, in 
a loud and commanding voice, "What! the sons of those fathers who sucked 
the same breast shedding each others bluid as it were strangers'! - By the 
hand of my father, I will cleave to the brisket the first man that mints 
another stroke!"
I looked up in astonishment. The speaker was no other than Campbell. He had 
a basket-hilted broadsword drawn in his hand, which he made to whistle 
around his head as he spoke, as if for the purpose of enforcing his 
mediation. Rashleigh and I stared in silence at this unexpected intruder, 
who proceeded to exhort us alternately: - "Do you, Maister Francis, opine 
that ye will re-establish your father's credit by cutting your kinsman's 
thrapple, or getting your ain sneckit instead thereof in the College-yards 
of Glasgow? - Or do you, Mr Rashleigh, think men will trust their lives and 
fortunes wi' ane, that, when in point of trust and in point of confidence 
wi' a great political interest, gangs about brawling like a drunken gillie? 
- Nay, never look gash or grim at me, man - if ye're angry, ye ken how to 
turn the buckle o' your belt behind you."
"You presume on my present situation," replied Rashleigh, "or you would 
have hardly dared to interfere where my honour is concerned."
"Hout! tout! tout! - Presume? And what for should it be presuming? - Ye may 
be the richer man, Mr Osbaldistone, as is maist likely; and ye may be the 
mair learned man, whilk I dispute not: but I reckon ye are neither a 
prettier man nor a better gentleman than mysell - and it will be news to me 
when I hear ye are as gude. And dare too? Muckle daring there's about it - 
I trow, here I stand, that hae slashed as het a haggis as ony o' the twa o' 
ye, and thought nae muckle o' my morning's wark when it was dune. If my 
foot were on the heather as it's on the causeway, or this pickle gravel, 
that's little better, I hae been waur mistrysted than if I were set to gie 
ye baith your ser'ing o't."
Rashleigh had by this time recovered his temper completely. "My kinsman," 
he said, "will acknowledge he forced this quarrel on me. It was none of my 
seeking. I am glad we are interrupted before I chastised his forwardness 
more severely."
"Are ye hurt, lad?" inquired Campbell of me, with some appearance of 
interest.
"A very slight scratch," I answered, "which my kind cousin would not long 
have boasted of had not you come between us."
"In troth, and that's true, Maister Rashleigh," said Campbell; "for the 
cauld iron and your best bluid were like to hae become acquaint when I 
mastered Mr Frank's right hand. But never look like a sow playing upon a 
trump for the luve of that, man - come and walk wi' me. I hae news to tell 
ye, and ye'll cool and come to yourself, like McGibbon's crowdy, when he 
set it out at the window-bole."
"Pardon me, sir," said I. "Your intentions have seemed friendly to me on 
more occasions than one; but I must not, and will not, quit sight of this 
person until he yields up to me those means of doing justice to my father's 
engagements, of which he has treacherously possessed himself."
"Ye're daft, man," replied Campbell; "it will serve ye naething to follow 
us e'enow; ye hae just enow o' ae man - wad ye bring twa on your head, and 
might bide quiet?"
"Twenty," I replied, "if it be necessary."
I laid my hand on Rashleigh's collar, who made no resistance, but said, 
with a sort of scornful smile, "You hear him, MacGregor! he rushes on his 
fate - will it be my fault if he falls into it? - The warrants are by this 
time ready, and all is prepared."
The Scotchman was obviously embarrassed. He looked around, and before, and 
behind him, and then said - "The ne'er a bit will I yield my consent to his 
being ill-guided for standing up for the father that got him - and I gie 
God's malison and mine to a' sort o' magistrates, justices, bailies., 
sheriffs, sheriff-officers, constables, and sic-like black cattle, that hae 
been the plagues o' puir auld Scotland this hunder year. - it was a merry 
warld when every man held his ain gear wi' his ain grip, and when the 
country side wasna fashed wi' warrants and poindings and apprizings, and a' 
that cheatry craft. And ance mair I say it, my conscience winna see this 
puir thoughtless lad ill-guided, and especially wi' that sort o' trade. I 
wad rather ye fell till't again, and fought it out like douce honest men."
"Your conscience, MacGregor!" said Rashleigh; "you forget how long you and 
I have known each other."
"Yes, my conscience," reiterated Campbell, or MacGregor, or whatever was 
his name; "I hae such a thing about me, Maister Osbaldistone; and therein 
it may weel chance that I hae the better o' you. As to our knowledge of 
each other, - if ye ken what I am, ye ken what usage it was made me what I 
am; and, whatever you may think, I would not change states with the 
proudest of the oppressors that hae driven me to tak the heather-bush for a 
beild. What you are, Maister Rashleigh, and what excuse ye hae for being 
what you are, is between your ain heart and the lang day. - And now, 
Maister Francis, let go his collar; for he says truly, that ye are in mair 
danger from a magistrate than he is, and were your cause as straight as an 
arrow, he wad find a way to put you wrang - So let go his craig, as I was 
saying."
He seconded his words with an effort so sudden and unexpected, that he 
freed Rashleigh from my hold, and securing me, notwithstanding my 
struggles, in his own Herculean gripe, he called out - "Take the bent, Mr 
Rashleigh - Make ae pair o' legs worth twa pair o' hands; ye hae dune that 
before now."
"You may thank this gentleman, kinsman," said Rashleigh, "if I leave any 
part of my debt to you unpaid; and if I quit you now, it is only in the 
hope we shall soon meet again without the possibility of interruption."
He took up his sword, wiped it, sheathed it, and was lost among the bushes.
The Scotchman, partly by force, partly by remonstrance, prevented my 
following him; indeed I began to be of opinion my doing so would be to 
little purpose.
"As I live by bread," said Campbell, when, after one or two struggles in 
which he used much forbearance towards me, he perceived me inclined to 
stand quiet, "I never saw sae daft a callant! I wad hae gien the best man 
in the country the breadth o' his back gin he had gien me sic a kemping as 
ye hae dune. What wad ye do? - Wad ye follow the wolf to his den? I tell 
ye, man, he has the auld trap set for ye - He has got the collector-
creature Morris to bring up a' the auld story again, and ye maun look for 
nae help frae me here, as ye got at Justice Inglewood's; - it isna good for 
my health to come in the gate o' the whigamore bailie bodies. Now gang your 
ways hame, like a gude bairn - jouk and let the jaw gae by - Keep out o' 
sight o' Rashleigh, and Morris, and that MacVittie animal - Mind the 
Clachan of Aberfoil, as I said before, and by the word of a gentleman, I 
wunna see ye wranged. But keep a calm sough till we meet again - I maun gae 
and get Rashleigh out o' the town afore waur comes o't, for the neb o' 
him's never out o' mischief - Mind the Clachan of Aberfoil."
He turned upon his heel, and left me to meditate on the singular events 
which had befallen me. My first care was to adjust my dress and reassume my 
cloak, disposing it so as to conceal the blood which flowed down my right 
side. I had scarcely accomplished this, when, the classes of the college 
being dismissed, the gardens began to be filled with parties of the 
students. I therefore left them as soon as possible; and in my way towards 
Mr Jarvie's, whose dinner hour was now approaching, I stopped at a small 
unpretending shop, the sign of which intimated the indweller to be 
Christopher Neilson, surgeon and apothecary. I requested of a little boy 
who was pounding some stuff in a mortar, that he would procure me an 
audience of this learned pharmacopolist. He opened the door of the back 
shop, where I found a lively elderly man, who shook his head incredulously 
at some idle account I gave him of having been wounded accidentally by the 
button breaking off my antagonist's foil while I was engaged in a fencing 
match. When he had applied some lint and somewhat else he thought proper to 
the trifling wound I had received, he observed - "There never was button on 
the foil that made this hurt. Ah! young blood! young blood! - But we 
surgeons are a secret generation - If it werena for hot blood and ill 
blood, what wad become of the twa learned faculties?"
With which moral reflection he dismissed me; and I experienced very little 
pain or inconvenience afterwards from the scratch I had received.



Chapter 26

			An iron race the mountain-cliffs maintain,
			Foes to the gentler genius of the plain.
...........

			Who while their rocky ramparts round they see,
			The rough abode of want and liberty,
			As lawless force from confidence will grow,
			Insult the plenty of the vales below.
								-- Gray.


"What made ye sae late?" said Mr Jarvie, as I entered the dining-parlour of 
that honest gentleman; "it is chappit ane the best feck o' five minutes by-
gane. Mattie has been twice at the door wi' the dinner, and weel for you it 
was a tup's head, for that canna suffer by delay. A sheep's head ower 
muckle boiled is rank poison, as my worthy father used to say - he lickit 
the lug o' ane weel, honest man."
I made a suitable apology for my breach of punctuality, and was soon seated 
at table, where Mr Jarvie presided with great glee and hospitality, 
compelling, however, Owen and myself to do rather more justice to the 
Scottish dainties with which his board was charged, than was quite 
agreeable to our southern palates. I escaped pretty well, from having those 
habits of society which enable one to elude this species of well-meant 
persecution. But it was ridiculous enough to see Owen, whose ideas of 
politeness were more rigorous and formal, and who was willing, in all acts 
of lawful compliance, to evince his respect for the friend of the firm, 
eating with rueful complaisance mouthful after mouthful of singed wool, and 
pronouncing it excellent, in a tone in which disgust almost overpowered 
civility.
When the cloth was removed, Mr Jarvie compounded with his own hands a very 
small bowl of brandy-punch, the first which I had ever the fortune to see.
"The limes," he assured us, "were from his own little farm yonder-awa" 
(indicating the West Indies with a knowing shrug of his shoulders), "and he 
had learned the art of composing the liquor from auld Captain Coffinkey, 
who acquired it," he added in a whisper, "'as maist folk thought, among the 
Buccaniers. But it's excellent liquor," said he, helping us round; "and 
good ware has aften come frae a wicked market. And as for Captain 
Coffinkey, he was a decent man when I kent him, only he used to swear 
awfully - But he's dead, and gane to his account, and I trust he's accepted 
- I trust he's accepted."
We found the liquor exceedingly palatable, and it led to a long 
conversation between Owen and our host on the opening which the Union had 
afforded to trade between Glasgow and the British Colonies in America and 
the West Indies, and on the facilities which Glasgow possessed of making up 
sortable cargoes for that market. Mr Jarvie answered some objection which 
Owen made on the difficulty of sorting a cargo for America, without buying 
from England, with vehemence and volubility.
"Na, na, sir, we stand on our ain bottom - we pickle in our ain pock-neuk - 
We hae our Stirling serges, Musselburgh stuffs, Aberdeen hose, Edinburgh 
shalloons, and the like, for our woollen or worsted goods - and we hae 
linens of a' kinds better and cheaper than you hae in Lunnon itsell - and 
we can buy your north o' England wares, as Manchester wares, Sheffield 
wares, and Newcastle earthenware, as cheap as you can at Liverpool - And we 
are making a fair spell at cottons and muslins - Na, na! let every herring 
hing by its ain head, and every sheep by its ain shank, and ye'll find, 
sir, us Glasgow folk no sae far ahint but what we may follow. - This is but 
poor entertainment for you, Mr Osbaldistone" (observing that I had been for 
some time silent); "but ye ken cadgers maun aye be speaking about cart-
saddles."
I apologised, alleging the painful circumstances of my own situation, and 
the singular adventures of the morning, as the causes of my abstraction and 
absence of mind. In this manner I gained what I sought - an opportunity of 
telling my story distinctly and without interruption. I only omitted 
mentioning the wound I had received, which I did not think worthy of 
notice. Mr Jarvie listened with great attention and apparent interest, 
twinkling his little grey eyes, taking snuff, and only interrupting me by 
brief interjections. When I came to the account of the rencounter, at which 
Owen folded his hands and cast up his eyes to Heaven, the very image of 
woeful surprise, Mr Jarvie broke in upon the narration with "Wrang now - 
clean wrang - to draw a sword on your kinsman is inhibited by the laws o' 
God and man; and to draw a sword on the streets of a royal burgh is 
punishable by fine and imprisonment - and the College-yards are nae better 
privileged - they should be a place of peace and quietness, I trow. The 
College didna get gude £600 a year out o' bishops' rents (sorrow fa' the 
brood o' bishops and their rents too!), nor yet a lease o' the 
Archbishopric o' Glasgow the sell o't, that they suld let folk tuilzie in 
their yards, or the wild callants bicker there wi' snawba's as they whiles 
do, that when Mattie and I gae through, we are fain to make a baik and a 
bow, or run the risk o' our harns being knocked out - it suld be looked to. 
- But come awa' wi' your tale - what fell neist?"
On my mentioning the appearance of Mr Campbell, Jarvie arose in great 
surprise, and paced the room, exclaiming, "Robin again! - Robert's mad - 
clean wud, and waur - Rob will be hanged, and disgrace a' his kindred, and 
that will be seen and heard tell o'. My father the deacon wrought him his 
first hose - odd, I am thinking Deacon Threeplie, the rape-spinner, will be 
twisting his last cravat. Ay, ay, puir Robin is in a fair way o' being 
hanged - But come awa', come awa' - let's hear the lave o't."
I told the whole story as pointedly as I could; but Mr Jarvie still found 
something lacking to make it clear, until I went back, though with 
considerable reluctance, on the whole story of Morris, and of my meeting 
with Campbell at the house of Justice Inglewood. Mr Jarvie inclined a 
serious ear to all this, and remained silent for some time after I had 
finished my narrative.
"Upon all these matters I am now to ask your advice, Mr Jarvie, which, I 
have no doubt, will point out the best way to act for my father's advantage 
and my own honour."
"Ye're right, young man - ye're right," said the Bailie. "Aye take the 
counsel of those who are aulder and wiser than yourself, and binna like the 
godless Rehoboam, who took the advice o' a wheen beardless callants, 
neglecting the auld counsellors who had sate at the feet o' his father 
Solomon, and, as it was weel put by Mr Meiklejohn, in his lecture on the 
chapter, were doubtless partakers of his sapience. But I maun hear naething 
about honour - we ken naething here but about credit. Honour is a homicide 
and a bloodspiller, that gangs about making frays in the street; but Credit 
is a decent honest man, that sits at hame and makes the pat play."
"Assuredly, Mr Jarvie," said our friend Owen, "credit is the sum total; and 
if we can but save that, at whatever discount -"
"Ye are right, Mr Owen - ye are right; ye speak weel and wisely; and I 
trust bowls will row right, though they are a wee ajee e'enow. But touching 
Robin, I am of opinion he will befriend this young man if it is in his 
power. He has a gude heart, puir Robin; and though I lost a matter o' twa 
hundred punds wi' his former engagements, and haena muckle expectation ever 
to see back my thousand punds Scots that he promises me e'enow, yet I will 
never say but what Robin means fair by men."
"I am then to consider him," I replied, "as an honest man?"
"Umph!" replied Jarvie, with a precautionary sort of cough - "Ay, he has a 
kind o' Hieland honesty - he's honest after a sort, as they say. My father 
the deacon used aye to laugh when he tauld me how that by-word came up. Ane 
Captain Costlett was cracking crouse about his loyalty to King Charles, and 
Clerk Pettigrew (ye'll hae heard mony a tale about him) asked him after 
what manner he served the king, when he was fighting again him at Wor'ster 
in Cromwell's army; and Captain Costlett was a ready body, and said that he 
served him after a sort. My honest father used to laugh weel at that sport 
- and sae the by-word came up."
"But do you think," I said, "that this man will be able to serve me after a 
sort, or should I trust myself to this place of rendezvous which he has 
given me?"
"Frankly and fairly, it's worth trying. Ye see yourself there's some risk 
in your staying here. This bit body Morris has gotten a custom-house place 
doun at Greenock - that's a port on the Firth doun by here; and tho' a' the 
world kens him to be but a twa-leggit creature, wi' a goose's head and a 
hen's heart, that goes about on the quay plaguing folk about permits, and 
cockits, and dockits, and a' that vexatious trade, yet if he lodge an 
information - ou, nae doubt a man in magisterial duty maun attend to it, 
and ye might come to be clapped up between four wa's, whilk wad be ill-
convenient to your father's affairs."
"True," I observed; "yet what service am I likely to render him by leaving 
Glasgow, which, it is probable, will be the principal scene of Rashleigh's 
machinations, and committing myself to the doubtful faith of a man of whom 
I know little but that he fears justice, and has doubtless good reasons for 
doing so; and that, for some secret, and probably dangerous purpose, he is 
in close league and alliance with the very person who is like to be the 
author of our ruin?"
"Ah, but ye judge Rob hardly," said the Bailie, "ye judge him hardly, puir 
chield; and the truth is, that ye ken naething about our hill country, or 
Hielands, as we ca' them. They are clean anither set frae the like o' huz; 
- there's nae bailie-courts amang them - nae magistrates that dinna bear 
the sword in vain, like the worthy deacon that's awa', and, I may say't, 
like mysell and other present magistrates in this city - But it's just the 
laird's command, and the loon maun loup; and the never another law hae they 
but the length o' their dirks - the broadsword's pursuer, or plaintiff, as 
you Englishers ca' it, and the target is defender; the stoutest head bears 
langest out; - and there's a Hieland plea for ye."
Owen groaned deeply; and I allow that the description did not greatly 
increase my desire to trust myself in a country so lawless as he described 
these Scottish mountains.
"Now, sir," said Jarvie, "we speak little o' thae things, because they are 
familiar to oursells; and where's the use o' vilifying ane's country, and 
bringing a discredit on ane's kin, before southrons and strangers? It's an 
ill bird that files its ain nest."
"Well, sir, but as it is no impertinent curiosity of mine, but real 
necessity, that obliges me to make these inquiries, I hope you will not be 
offended at my pressing for a little farther information. I have to deal, 
on my father's account, with several gentlemen of these wild countries, and 
I must trust your good sense and experience for the requisite lights upon 
the subject."
This little morsel of flattery was not thrown out in vain.
"Experience!" said the Bailie "I hae had experience, nae doubt, and I hae 
made some calculations - Ay, and to speak quietly amang oursells, I hae 
made some perquisitions through Andrew Wylie, my auld clerk; he's wi' 
MacVittie & Co. now - but he whiles drinks a gill on the Saturday 
afternoons wi' his auld master. And since ye say ye are willing to be 
guided by the Glasgow weaver-body's advice, I am no the man that will 
refuse it to the son of an auld correspondent, and my father the deacon was 
nane sic afore me. I have whiles thought o' letting my lights burn before 
the Duke of Argyle, or his brother Lord Ilay (for wherefore should they be 
hidden under a bushel?), but the like o' thae grit men wadna mind the like 
o' me, a puir wabster body - they think mair o' wha says a thing, than o' 
what the thing is that's said. The mair's the pity - mair's the pity. Not 
that I wad speak ony ill of this MacCallum More - 'Curse not the rich in 
your bedchamber,' saith the son of Sirach, 'for a bird of the air shall 
carry the clatter, and pint-stoups hae lang lugs.'"
I interrupted these prolegomena, in which Mr Jarvie was apt to be somewhat 
diffuse, by praying him to rely upon Mr Owen and myself as perfectly secret 
and safe confidants.
"It's no for that," he replied, "for I fear nae man - what for suld I? - I 
speak nae treason - Only thae Hielandmen hae lang grips, and I whiles gang 
a wee bit up the glens to see some auld kinsfolks, and I wadna willingly be 
in bad blude wi' ony o' their clans. Howsumever, to proceed - ye maun 
understand I found my remarks on figures, whilk as Mr Owen here weel kens, 
is the only true demonstrable root of human knowledge."
Owen readily assented to a proposition so much in his own way, and our 
orator proceeded.
"These Hielands of ours, as we ca' them, gentlemen, are but a wild kind of 
warld by themsells, full of heights and howes, woods, caverns, lochs, 
rivers, and mountains, that it wad tire the very deevil's wings to flee to 
the tap o' them. And in this country, and in the isles, whilk are little 
better, or, to speak the truth, rather waur than the mainland, there are 
about twa hunder and thirty parochines, including the Orkneys, where, 
whether they speak Gaelic or no I wotna, but they are an uncivilised 
people. Now, sirs, I sall haud ilk parochine at the moderate estimate of 
eight hunder examinable persons, deducting children under nine years of 
age, and then adding one-fifth to stand for bairns of nine years auld, and 
under, the whole population will reach to the sum of - let us add one-fifth 
to 800 to be the multiplier, and 230 being the multiplicand -"
"The product," said Mr Owen, who entered delightedly into these statistics 
of Mr Jarvie, "will be 230,000."
"Right, sir - perfectly right; and the military array of this Hieland 
country, were a' the men-folk between aughteen and fifty-six brought out 
that could bear arms, couldna come weel short of fifty-seven thousand five 
hundred men. Now, sir, it's a sad and awfu' truth, that there is neither 
wark, nor the very fashion nor appearance of wark, for the tae half of thae 
puir creatures; that is to say that the agriculture, the pasturage, the 
fisheries, and every species of honest industry about the country, cannot 
employ the one moiety of the population, let them work as lazily as they 
like, and they do work as if a pleugh or a spade burnt their fingers. 
Aweel, sir, this moiety of unemployed bodies, amounting to -"
"To one hundred and fifteen thousand souls," said Owen, "being the half of 
the above product."
"Ye hae't, Mr Owen - ye hae't - whereof there may be twenty-eight thousand 
seven hundred able-bodied gillies fit to bear arms, and that do bear arms, 
and will touch or look at nae honest means of livelihood even if they could 
get it - which, lack-a-day! they cannot."
"But is it possible," said I, "Mr Jarvie, that this can be a just picture 
of so large a portion of the island of Britain?"
"Sir, I'll make it as plain as Peter Pasley's pike-staff. I will allow that 
ilk parochine, on an average, employs fifty pleughs, whilk is a great 
proportion in sic miserable soil as thae creatures hae to labour, and that 
there may be pasture enough for pleugh-horses, and owsen, and forty or 
fifty cows; now, to take care o' the pleughs and cattle, we'se allow 
seventy-five families of six lives in ilk family, and we'se add fifty mair 
to make even numbers, and ye hae five hundred souls, the tae half o' the 
population, employed and maintained in a sort o' fashion, wi' some chance 
of sour-milk and crowdie; but I wad be glad to ken what the other five 
hunder are to do?"
"In the name of God!" said I, "what do they do, Mr Jarvie? It makes me 
shudder to think of their situation."
"Sir," replied the Bailie, "ye wad maybe shudder mair if ye were living 
near hand them. For, admitting that the tae half of them may make some 
little thing for themsells honestly in the Lowlands by shearing in harst, 
droving, hay-making, and the like; ye hae still mony hundreds and thousands 
o' lang-legged Hieland gillies that will neither work nor want, and maun 
gang thigging and sorning about on their acquaintance, or live by doing the 
laird's bidding, be't right or be't wrang. And mair especially, mony 
hundreds o' them come down to the borders of the low country, where there's 
gear to grip, and live by stealing, reiving, lifting cows, and the like 
depredations - a thing deplorable in ony Christian country! - the mair 
especially, that they take pride in it, and reckon driving a spreagh (whilk 
is, in plain Scotch, stealing a herd of nowte) a gallant, manly action, and 
mair befitting of pretty men (as sic reivers will ca' themselves), than to 
win a day's wage by ony honest thrift. And the lairds are as bad as the 
loons; for if they dinna bid them gae reive and harry, the deil a bit they 
forbid them; and they shelter them, or let them shelter themselves, in 
their woods and mountains, and strongholds, whenever the thing's dune. And 
every ane o' them will maintain as mony o' his ane name, or his clan, as we 
say, as he can rap and rend means for; or, whilk's the same thing, as mony 
as can in ony fashion, fair or foul, mainteen themsells. And there they are 
wi' gun and pistol, dirk and dourlach, ready to disturb the peace o' the 
country whenever the laird likes; and that's the grievance of the Hielands, 
whilk are, and hae been for this thousand years by-past, a bike o' the 
maist lawless unchristian limmers that ever disturbed a douce, quiet, God-
fearing neighbourhood, like this o' ours in the west here."
"And this kinsman of yours, and friend of mine, is he one of those great 
proprietors who maintain the household troops you speak of?" I inquired.
"Na, na," said Bailie Jarvie; "he's nane o' your great grandees o' chiefs, 
as they ca' them, neither. Though he is weel born, and lineally descended 
frae auld Glenstrae - I ken his lineage - indeed he is a near kinsman, and, 
as I said, of gude gentle Hieland blude, though ye may think weel that I 
care little about that nonsense - it's a' moonshine in water - waste 
threads and thrums, as we say - But I could show ye letters frae his 
father, that was the third aff Glenstrae, to my father Deacon Jarvie (peace 
be wi' his memory!) beginning, Dear Deacon, and ending, your loving kinsman 
to command, - they are amaist a' about borrowed siller, sae the gude 
deacon, that's dead and gane, keepit them as documents and evidents - He 
was a carefu' man."
"But if he is not," I resumed, "one of their chiefs or patriarchal leaders, 
whom I have heard my father talk of, this kinsman of yours has, at least, 
much to say in the Highlands, I presume?"
"Ye may say that - nae name better kenned between the Lennox and 
Breadalbane. Robin was ance a weel-doing, painstaking drover, as ye wad see 
amang ten thousand - It was a pleasure to see him in his belted plaid and 
brogues, wi' his target at his back, and claymore and dirk at his belt, 
following a hundred Highland stots, and a dozen o' the gillies, as rough 
and ragged as the beasts they drave. And he was baith civil and just in his 
dealings; and if he thought his chapman had made a hard bargain, he wad gie 
him a luck-penny to the mends. I hae kenned him gie back five shillings out 
o' the pund sterling."
"Twenty-five per cent," said Owen - "a heavy discount."
"He wad gie it though, sir, as I tell ye; mair especially if he thought the 
buyer was a puir man, and couldna stand by a loss. But the times cam hard, 
and Rob was venturesome. It wasna my faut - it wasna my faut; he canna wyte 
me - I aye tauld him o't - And the creditors, mair especially some grit 
neighbours o' his, gripped to his living and land; and they say his wife 
was turned out o' the house to the hill-side, and sair misguided to the 
boot. Shamefu'! shamefu'! - I am a peacefu' man and a magistrate, but if 
ony ane had guided sae muckle as my servant quean, Mattie, as it's like 
they guided Rob's wife, I think it suld hae set the shabble that my father 
the deacon had at Bothwell brig a-walking again. Weel, Rob cam hame, and 
fand desolation, God pity us! where he left plenty; he looked east, west, 
south, north, and saw neither hauld nor hope - neither beild nor shelter; 
sae he e'en pu'd the bonnet ower his brow, belted the broadsword to his 
side, took to the brae-side, and became a broken man."
The voice of the good citizen was broken by his contending feelings. He 
obviously, while he professed to contemn the pedigree of his Highland 
kinsman, attached a secret feeling of consequence to the connection, and he 
spoke of his friend in his prosperity with an overflow of affection, which 
deepened his sympathy for his misfortunes, and his regret for their 
consequences.
"Thus tempted and urged by despair," said I, seeing Mr Jarvie did not 
proceed in his narrative, "I suppose your kinsman became one of those 
depredators you have described to us?"
"No sae bad as that," said the Glaswegian, - "no a'thegither and outright 
sae bad as that; but he became a levier of blackmail, wider and farther 
than ever it was raised in our day, a through the Lennox and Menteith, and 
up to the gates o' Stirling Castle."
"Blackmail? - I do not understand the phrase," I remarked.
"Ou, ye see, Rob soon gathered an unco band o' blue-bonnets at his back, 
for he comes o' a rough name when he's kent by his ain, and a name that's 
held its ain for mony a lang year, baith again king and parliament, and 
kirk too, for aught I ken - an auld and honourable name, for as sair as it 
has been worried and hadden down and oppressed. My mother was a MacGregor - 
I carena wha kens it - And Rob had soon a gallant band; and as it grieved 
him (he said) to see sic hership and waste and depredation to the south o' 
the Hieland line, why, if ony heritor or farmer wad pay him four punds 
Scots out of each hundred punds of valued rent, whilk was doubtless a 
moderate consideration, Rob engaged to keep them scaithless; - let them 
send to him if they lost sae muckle as a single cloot by thieving, and Rob 
engaged to get them again, or pay the value - and he aye keepit his word - 
I canna deny but he keepit his word - a' men allow Rob keeps his word."
"This is a very singular contract of assurance," said Mr Owen.
"It's clean again our statute law, that must be owned," said Jarvie, "clean 
again law; the levying and the paying blackmail are baith punishable: but 
if the law canna protect my barn and byre, whatfor suld I no engage wi' a 
Hieland gentleman that can? - answer me that."
"But," said I, "Mr Jarvie, is this contract of blackmail, as you call it, 
completely voluntary on the part of the landlord or farmer who pays the 
insurance? or what usually happens, in case any one refuses payment of this 
tribute?"
"Aha, lad!" said the Bailie, laughing, and putting his finger to his nose, 
"ye think ye hae me there. Troth, I wad advise ony friends o' mine to gree 
wi' Rob; for, watch as they like, and do what they like, they are sair apt 
to be harried when the lang nights come on. Some o' the Grahame and Cohoon 
gentry stood out; but what then? - they lost their haill stock the first 
winter; sae maist folks now think it best to come into Rob's terms. He's 
easy wi' a' body that will be easy wi' him; but if ye thraw him, ye had 
better thraw the deevil."
"And by his exploits in these vocations," I continued, "I suppose he has 
rendered himself amenable to the laws of the country?"
"Amenable? - ye may say that; his craig wad ken the weight o' his hurdies 
if they could get haud o' Rob. But he has gude friends amang the grit 
folks; and I could tell ye o' ae grit family that keeps him up as far as 
they decently can, to be a them in the side of another. And then he's sic 
an auld-farran lang-headed chield as never took up the trade o' cateran in 
our time; mony a daft reik he has played - mair than wad fill a book, and a 
queer ane it wad be - as gude as Robin Hood, or William Wallace - a' fu' o' 
venturesome deeds and escapes, sic as folk tell ower at a winter ingle in 
the daft days. It's a queer thing o' me, gentlemen, that am a man o' peace 
mysell, and a peacefu man's son - for the deacon my father quarrelled wi' 
nane out o' the town-council - it's a queer thing, I say, but I think the 
Hieland blude o' me warms at thae daft tales, and whiles I like better to 
hear them than a word o' profit, gude forgie me! But they are vanities - 
sinfu' vanities - and, moreover, again the statute law - again the statute 
and gospel law."
I now followed up my investigation, by inquiring what means of influence 
this Mr Robert Campbell could possibly possess over my affairs, or those of 
my father.
"Why, ye are to understand," said Mr Jarvie in a very subdued tone - "I 
speak amang friends, and under the rose - Ye are to understand, that the 
Hielands hae been keepit quiet since the year aughty-nine - that was 
Killiecrankie year. But how hae they been keepit quiet, think ye? By 
siller, Mr Owen - by siller, Mr Osbaldistone. King William caused 
Breadalbane distribute twenty thousand gude punds sterling amang them, and 
it's said the auld Hieland Earl keepit a lang lug o't in his ain sporran. 
And then Queen Anne, that's dead, gae the chiefs bits o' pensions, sae they 
had wherewith to support their gillies and caterans that work nae wark, as 
I said afore; and they lay by quiet eneugh, saying some spreagherie on the 
Lowlands, whilk is their use and wont, and some cutting o' thrapples amang 
themsells, that nae civilised body kens or cares ony thing anent. - Weel, 
but there's a new warld come up wi' this King George (I say, God bless him, 
for ane) - there's neither like to be siller nor pensions gaun amang them; 
they haena the means o' mainteening the clans that eat them up, as ye may 
guess frae what I said before; their credit's gane in the Lowlands; and a 
man that can whistle ye up a thousand or feifteen hundred linking lads to 
do his will, wad hardly get fifty punds on his band at the Cross o' Glasgow 
- This canna stand lang - there will be an outbreak for the Stuarts - there 
will be an outbreak - they will come down on the low country like a flood, 
as they did in the waefu' wars o' Montrose, and that will be seen and heard 
tell o' ere a twalmonth gangs round."
"Yet still," I said, "I do not see how this concerns Mr Campbell, much less 
my father's affairs."
"Rob can levy five hundred men, sir, and therefore war suld concern him as 
muckle as maist folk," replied the Bailie; "for it is a faculty that is far 
less profitable in time o' peace. Then, to tell ye the truth, I doubt he 
has been the prime agent between some o' our Hieland chiefs and the 
gentlemen in the north o' England. We a' heard o' the public money that was 
taen frae the chield Morris somewhere about the fit o' Cheviot by Rob and 
ane o' the Osbaldistone lads; and, to tell ye the truth, word gaed that it 
was yoursell Mr Francis, - and sorry was I that your father's son suld hae 
taen to sic practices - Na, ye needna say a word about it - I see weel I 
was mista'en; but I wad believe ony thing o' a stage-player, whilk I 
concluded ye to be. But now, I doubtna, it has been Rashleigh himself or 
some other o' your cousins - they are a' tarred wi' the same stick - rank 
Jacobites and papists, and wad think the government siller and government 
papers lawfu' prize. And the creature Morris is sic a cowardly caitiff, 
that to this hour he daurna say that it was Rob took the portmanteau aff 
him; and troth he's right, for your custom-house and excise cattle are ill 
liket on a' sides, and Rob might get a back-handed lick at him, before the 
Board, as they ca't, could help him."
"I have long suspected this, Mr Jarvie," said I, "and perfectly agree with 
you. But as to my father's affairs -"
"Suspected it? - it's certain - it's certain - I ken them that saw some of 
the papers that were taen aff Morris - it's needless to say where. But to 
your father's affairs - Ye maun think that in thae twenty years by-gane, 
some o' the Hieland lairds and chiefs hae come to some sma' sense o' their 
ain interest - your father and others hae bought the woods of Glen-
Disseries, Glen Kissoch, Tober-na-Kippoch, and mony mair besides, and your 
father's house has granted large bills in payment, - and as the credit o' 
Osbaldistone and Tresham was gude - for I'll say before Mr Owen's face, as 
I wad behind his back, that, bating misfortunes o' the Lord's sending, nae 
men could be mair honourable in business - the Hieland gentlemen, holders 
o' thae bills, hae found credit in Glasgow and Edinburgh - (I might amaist 
say in Glasgow wholly, for it's little the pridefu' Edinburgh folk do in 
real business) - for all, or the greater part of the contents o' thae 
bills. So that - Aha! d'ye see me now?"
I confessed I could not quite follow his drift.
"Why," said he, "if these bills are not paid, the Glasgow merchant comes on 
the Hieland lairds, whae hae deil a boddle o' siller, and will like ill to 
spew up what is item a' spent - They will turn desperate - five hundred 
will rise that might hae sitten at hame - the deil will gae ower Jock 
Wabster - and the stopping of your father's house will hasten the outbreak 
that's been sae lang biding us."
"You think, then," said I, surprised at this singular view of the case, 
"that Rashleigh Osbaldistone has done this injury to my father, merely to 
accelerate a rising in the Highlands, by distressing the gentlemen to whom 
these bills were originally granted?"
"Doubtless - doubtless - it has been one main reason, Mr Osbaldistone. I 
doubtna but what the ready money he carried off wi' him might be another. 
But that makes comparatively but a sma' part o' your father's loss, though 
it might make the maist part o' Rashleigh's direct gain. The assets he 
carried off are of nae mair use to him than if he were to light his pipe 
wi' them. He tried if MacVittie & Co. wad gie him siller on them - that I 
ken by Andro Wylie - but they were ower auld cats to draw that strae afore 
them - they keepit aff, and gae fair words. Rashleigh Osbaldistone is 
better kenned than trusted in Glasgow, for he was here about some 
jacobitical papistical troking in seventeen hundred and seven, and left 
debt ahint him. Na, na - he canna pit aff the paper here; folk will 
misdoubt him how he came by it. Na, na - he'll hae the stuff safe at some 
o' their haulds in the Hielands, and I daur say my cousin Rob could get at 
it gin he liked."
"But would he be disposed to serve us in this pinch, Mr Jarvie?" said I. 
"You have described him as an agent of the Jacobite party, and deeply 
connected in their intrigues: will he be disposed for my sake, or, if you 
please, for the sake of justice, to make an act of restitution, which, 
supposing it in his power, would, according to your view of the case, 
materially interfere with their plans?"
"I canna preceesely speak to that: the grandees among them are doubtfu' o' 
Rob, and he's doubtfu' o' them. - And he's been weel friended wi' the 
Argyle family, wha stand for the present model of government. If he was 
freed o' his hornings and captions, he would rather be on Argyle's side 
than he wad be on Breadalbane's, for there's auld ill-will between the 
Breadalbane family and his kin and name. The truth is, that Rob is for his 
ain hand, as Henry Wynd feught - he'll take the side that suits him best; 
if the deil was laird, Rob wad be for being tenant; and ye canna blame him, 
puir fallow, considering his circumstances. But there's ae thing sair again 
ye - Rob has a grey mear in his stable at hame."
"A grey mare?" said I. "What is that to the purpose?"
"The wife, man - the wife, - an awfu' wife she is. She downa bide the sight 
o' a kindly Scot, if he come frae the Lowlands, far less of an Inglisher, 
and she'll be keen for a' that can set up King James, and ding down King 
George."
"It is very singular," I replied, "that the mercantile transactions of 
London citizens should become involved with revolutions and rebellions."
"Not at a', man - not at a'," returned Mr Jarvie; "that's a' your silly 
prejudications. I read whiles in the lang dark nights, and I hae read in 
Baker's Chronicle that the merchants o' London could gar the Bank of Genoa 
break their promise to advance a mighty sum to the King o' Spain, whereby 
the sailing of the Grand Spanish Armada was put aff for a haill year - What 
think you of that, sir?"
"That the merchants did their country golden service, which ought to be 
honourably remembered in our histories."
"I think sae too; and they wad do weel, and deserve weal baith o' the state 
and o' humanity, that wad save three or four honest Hieland gentlemen frae 
louping heads ower heels into destruction, wi' a' their puir sackless 
followers, just because they canna pay back the siller they had reason to 
count upon as their ain - and save your father's credit - and my ain gude 
siller that Osbaldistone and Tresham awes me into the bargain. I say, if 
ane could manage a' this, I think it suld be done and said unto him, even 
if he were a puir ca'-the-shuttle body, as unto one whom the king 
delighteth to honour."
"I cannot pretend to estimate the extent of public gratitude," I replied; 
"but our own thankfulness, Mr Jarvie, would be commensurate with the extent 
of the obligation."
"Which," added Mr Owen, "we would endeavour to balance with a per contra, 
the instant our Mr Osbaldistone returns from Holland."
"I doubtna - I doubtna - he is a very worthy gentleman, and a sponsible, 
and wi' some o' my lights might do muckle business in Scotland - Weel, sir, 
if these assets could be redeemed out o' the hands o' the Philistines, they 
are gude paper - they are the right stuff when they are in the right hands, 
and that's yours, Mr Owen. And I'se find ye three men in Glasgow, for as 
little as ye may think o' us, Mr Owen - that's Sandie Steenson in the 
Trade's-Land, and John Pirie in Candleriggs, and another that sall be 
nameless at this present, sall advance what soums are sufficient to secure 
the credit of your house, and seek nae better security."
Owen's eyes sparkled at this prospect of extrication; but his countenance 
instantly fell on recollecting how improbable it was that the recovery of 
the assets, as he technically called them, should be successfully achieved.
"Dinna despair, sir - dinna despair," said Mr Jarvie; "I hae taen sae 
muckle concern wi' your affairs already, that it maun een be ower shoon 
ower boots wi' me now. I am just like my father the deacon (praise be wi' 
him!) I canna meddle wi' a friend's business, but I aye end wi' making it 
my ain - Sae, I'll e'en pit on my boots the morn, and be jogging ower 
Drymen-Muir wi' Mr Frank here; and if I canna mak Rob hear reason, and his 
wife too, I dinna ken wha can - I hae been a kind freend to them afore now, 
to say naething o' ower-looking him last night, when naming his name wad 
hae cost him his life - I'll be hearing o' this in the council maybe frae 
Bailie Grahame. and MacVittie, and some o' them. They hae coost up my 
kindred to Rob to me already - set up their nashgabs! I tauld them I wad 
vindicate nae man's faults; but set apart what he had done again the law o' 
the country, and the hership o' the Lennox, and the misfortune o' some folk 
losing life by him, he was an honester man than stood on ony o' their 
shanks - And whatfor suld I mind their clavers? If Rob is an outlaw, to 
himsell be it said - there is nae laws now about reset of inter-communed 
persons, as there was in the ill times o' the last Stuarts - I trow I hae a 
Scotch tongue in my head - if they speak, I'se answer."
It was with great pleasure that I saw the Bailie gradually surmount the 
barriers of caution, under the united influence of public spirit and good-
natured interest in our affairs, together with his natural wish to avoid 
loss and acquire gain, and not a little harmless vanity. Through the 
combined operation of these motives, he at length arrived at the doughty 
resolution of taking the field in person, to aid in the recovery of my 
father's property. His whole information led me to believe, that if the 
papers were in possession of this Highland adventurer, it might be possible 
to induce him to surrender what he could not keep with any prospect of 
personal advantage; and I was conscious that the presence of his kinsman 
was likely to have considerable weight with him. I therefore cheerfully 
acquiesced in Mr Jarvie's proposal that we should set out early next 
morning.
That honest gentleman was indeed as vivacious and alert in preparing to 
carry his purpose into execution, as he had been slow and cautious in 
forming it. He roared to Mattie to "air his trot-cosey, to have his jack-
boots greased and set before the kitchen-fire all night, and to see that 
his beast be corned, and a' his riding gear in order." Having agreed to 
meet him at five o'clock next morning, and having settled that Owen, whose 
presence could be of no use to us upon this expedition, should await our 
return at Glasgow, we took a kind farewell of this unexpectedly zealous 
friend. I installed Owen in an apartment in my lodgings, contiguous to my 
own, and, giving orders to Andrew Fairservice to attend me next morning at 
the hour appointed, I retired to rest with better hopes than it had lately 
been my fortune to entertain.


Chapter 27

			Far as the eye could reach no tree was seen,
			Earth, clad in russet, scorned the lively green;
			No birds, except as birds of passage flew;
			No bee was heard to hum, no dove to coo;
			No streams, as amber smooth - as amber clear,
			Were seen to glide, or heard to warble here.
						-- Prophecy of Famine.


It was in the bracing atmosphere of a harvest morning, that I met by 
appointment Fairservice, with the horses, at the door of Mr Jarvie's house, 
which was but little space distant from Mrs Flyter's hotel. The first 
matter which caught my attention was, that whatever were the deficiencies 
of the pony which Mr Fairservice's legal adviser, Clerk Touthope, 
generously bestowed upon him in exchange for Thorncliff's mare, he had 
contrived to part with it, and procure in its stead an animal with so 
curious and complete a lameness, that it seemed only to make use of three 
legs for the purpose of progression, while the fourth appeared as if meant 
to be flourished in the air by way of accompaniment. "What do you mean by 
bringing such a creature as that here, sir? and where is the pony you rode 
to Glasgow upon?" were my very natural and impatient inquiries.
"I sell't it, sir. It was a slink beast, and wad hae eaten its head aff, 
standing at Luckie Flyter's at livery. And I hae bought this on your 
honour's account. It's a grand bargain - cost but a pund sterling the foot 
- that's four a'thegither. The stringhalt will gae aff when it's gane a 
mile; it's a weel-kenned ganger; they call it Souple Tam."
"On my soul, sir," said I, "you will never rest till my supple-jack and 
your shoulders become acquainted, If you do not go instantly and procure 
the other brute, you shall pay the penalty of your ingenuity."
Andrew, notwithstanding my threats, continued to battle the point, as he 
said it would cost him a guinea of rue-bargain to the man who had bought 
his pony, before he could get it back again. Like a true Englishman, though 
sensible I was duped by the rascal, I was about to pay his exaction rather 
than lose time, when forth sallied Mr Jarvie, cloaked, mantled, hooded, and 
booted, as if for a Siberian winter, while two apprentices, under the 
immediate direction of Mattie, led forth the decent ambling steed which had 
the honour on such occasions to support the person of the Glasgow 
magistrate. Ere he "clombe to the saddle," an expression more descriptive 
of the Bailie's mode of mounting than that of the knights-errant to whom 
Spenser applies it, he inquired the cause of the dispute betwixt my servant 
and me. Having learned the nature of honest Andrew's manoeuvre he instantly 
cut short all debate, by pronouncing, that if Fairservice did not forthwith 
return the three-legged palfrey, and produce the more useful quadruped 
which he had discarded, he would send him to prison, and amerce him in half 
his wages. "Mr Osbaldistone," said he, "contracted for the service of both 
your horse and you - twa brutes at ance - ye unconscionable rascal! - but 
I'se look weel after you during this journey."
"It will be nonsense fining me," said Andrew, doughtily, "that hasna a grey 
groat to pay a fine wi' - it's ill taking the breeks aff a Hielandman."
"If ye hae nae purse to fine, ye hae flesh to pine," replied the Bailie, 
"and I will look weel to ye getting your deserts the tae way or the 
tither."
To the commands of Mr Jarvie, therefore, Andrew was compelled to submit, 
only muttering between his teeth, "Ower mony maisters, - ower mony 
maisters, as the paddock said to the harrow, when every tooth gae her a 
tig."
Apparently he found no difficulty in getting rid of Supple Tam, and 
recovering possession of his former Bucephalus, for he accomplished the 
exchange without being many minutes absent; nor did I hear further of his 
having paid any smart-money for breach of bargain.
We now set forward, but had not reached the top of the street in which Mr 
Jarvie dwelt, when a loud hallooing and breathless call of "Stop, stop!" 
was heard behind us. We stopped accordingly, and were overtaken by Mr 
Jarvie's two lads, who bore two parting tokens of Mattie's care for her 
master. The first was conveyed in the form of a voluminous silk 
handkerchief, like the mainsail of one of his own West-Indiamen, which Mrs 
Mattie particularly desired he would put about his neck, and which, thus 
entreated, he added to his other integuments. The second youngster brought 
only a verbal charge (I thought I saw the rogue disposed to laugh as he 
delivered it) on the part of the housekeeper, that her master would take 
care of the waters. "Pooh! pooh! silly hussy," answered Mr Jarvie; but 
added, turning to me, "it shows a kind heart though - it shows a kind heart 
in sae young a quean - Mattie's a carefu' lass." So speaking, he pricked 
the sides of his palfrey, and we left the town without farther 
interruption.
While we paced easily forward, by a road which conducted us north-eastward 
from the town, I had an opportunity to estimate and admire the good 
qualities of my new friend. Although, like my father, he considered 
commercial transactions the most important objects of human life, he was 
not wedded to them so as to undervalue more general knowledge. On the 
contrary, with much oddity and vulgarity of manner, - with a vanity which 
he made much more ridiculous by disguising it now and then under a thin 
veil of humility, and devoid as he was of all the advantages of a learned 
education, Mr Jarvie's conversation showed tokens of a shrewd, observing, 
liberal, and, to the extent of its opportunities, a well-improved mind. He 
was a good local antiquary, and entertained me, as we passed along, with an 
account of remarkable events which had formerly taken place in the scenes 
through which we passed. And as he was well acquainted with the ancient 
history of his district, he saw with the prospective eye of an enlightened 
patriot, the buds of many of those future advantages which have only 
blossomed and ripened within these few years. I remarked also, and with 
great pleasure, that although a keen Scotchman, and abundantly zealous for 
the honour of his country, he was disposed to think liberally of the sister 
kingdom. When Andrew Fairservice (whom, by the way, the Bailie could not 
abide) chose to impute the accident of one of the horses casting his shoe 
to the deteriorating influence of the Union, he incurred a severe rebuke 
from Mr Jarvie.
"Whisht, sir! - whisht! it's ill-scraped tongues like yours, that make 
mischief atween neighbourhoods and nations. There's naething sae gude on 
this side o' time but it might hae been better, and that may be said o' the 
Union. Nane were keener against it than the Glasgow folk, wi' their 
rabblings and their risings, and their mobs, as they ca' them nowadays. But 
it's an ill wind blaws naebody gude - Let ilka ane roose the ford as they 
find it - I say let Glasgow flourish! whilk is judiciously and elegantly 
putten round the town's arms, by way of by-word. - Now, since St. Mungo 
catched herrings in the Clyde, what was ever like to gar us flourish like 
the sugar and tobacco trade? Will ony body tell me that, and grumble at the 
treaty that opened us a road west-awa' yonder?"
Andrew Fairservice was far from acquiescing in these arguments of 
expedience, and even ventured to enter a grumbling protest, "That it was an 
unco change to hae Scotland's laws made in England; and that, for his 
share, he wadna for a' the herring-barrels in Glasgow, and a' the tobacco-
casks to boot, hae gien up the riding o' the Scots Parliament, or sent awa' 
our crown, and our sword, and our sceptre, and Mons Meg, to be keepit by 
thae English pock-puddings in the Tower o' Lunnon. What wad Sir William 
Wallace, or auld Davie Lindsay, hae said to the Union, or them that made 
it?"
The road which we travelled, while diverting the way with these 
discussions, had become wild and open, as soon as we had left Glasgow a 
mile or two behind us, and was growing more dreary as we advanced. Huge 
continuous heaths spread before, behind, and around us, in hopeless 
barrenness - now level and interspersed with swamps, green with treacherous 
verdure, or sable with turf, or, as they call them in Scotland, peat-bogs, 
- and now swelling into huge heavy ascents, which wanted the dignity and 
form of hills, while they were still more toilsome to the passenger. There 
were neither trees nor bushes to relieve the eye from the russet livery of 
absolute sterility. The very heath was of that stinted imperfect kind which 
has little or no flower, and affords the coarsest and meanest covering, 
which, as far as my experience enables me to judge, mother Earth is ever 
arrayed in. Living thing we saw none, except occasionally a few straggling 
sheep of a strange diversity of colours, as black, bluish, and orange. The 
sable hue predominated, however, in their faces and legs. The very birds 
seemed to shun these wastes, and no wonder, since they had an easy method 
of escaping from them; - at least I only heard the monotonous and plaintive 
cries of the lapwing and curlew, which my companions denominated the 
peasweep and whaup.
At dinner, however, which we took about noon, at a most miserable alehouse, 
we had the good fortune to find that these tiresome screamers of the morass 
were not the only inhabitants of the moors. The goodwife told us, that "the 
gudeman had been at the hill;" and well for us that he had been so, for we 
enjoyed the produce of his chasse in the shape of some broiled moor-game, - 
a dish which gallantly eked out the ewe-milk cheese, dried salmon, and 
oaten bread, being all besides that the house afforded. Some very 
indifferent two-penny ale, and a glass of excellent brandy, crowned our 
repast; and as our horses had, in the meantime, discussed their corn, we 
resumed our journey with renovated vigour.
I had need of all the spirits a good dinner could give, to resist the 
dejection which crept insensibly on my mind, when I combined the strange 
uncertainty of my errand with the disconsolate aspect of the country 
through which it was leading me. Our road continued to be, if possible, 
more waste and wild than that we had travelled in the forenoon. The few 
miserable hovels that showed some marks of human habitation, were now of 
still rarer occurrence; and at length, as we began to ascend an 
uninterrupted swell of moorland, they totally disappeared. The only 
exercise which my imagination received was, when some particular turn of 
the road gave us a partial view, to the left, of a large assemblage of dark-
blue mountains stretching to the north and north-west, which promised to 
include within their recesses a country as wild perhaps, but certainly 
differing greatly in point of interest, from that which we now travelled. 
The peaks of this screen of mountains were as wildly varied and 
distinguished, as the hills which we had seen on the right were tame and 
lumpish; and while I gazed on this Alpine region, I felt a longing to 
explore its recesses, though accompanied with toil and danger, similar to 
that which a sailor feels when he wishes for the risks and animation of a 
battle or a gale, in exchange for the insupportable monotony of a 
protracted calm. I made various inquiries of my friend Mr Jarvie respecting 
the names and positions of these remarkable mountains; but it was a subject 
on which he had no information, or did not choose to be communicative. 
"They're the Hieland hills - the Hieland hills - Ye'll see and hear eneugh 
about them before ye see Glasgow Cross again - I downa look at them - I 
never see them but they gar me grew. It's no for fear - no for fear, but 
just for grief, for the puir blinded half-starved creatures that inhabit 
them - but say nae mair about it - it's ill speaking o' Hielandmen sae near 
the line. I hae kenned mony an honest man wadna hae ventured this length 
without he had made his last will and testament - Mattie had ill-will to 
see me set awa' on this ride, and grat awee, the sillie tawpie; but it's 
nae mair ferlie to see a woman greet than to see a goose gang barefit."
I next attempted to lead the discourse on the character and history of the 
person whom we were going to visit; but on this topic Mr Jarvie was totally 
inaccessible, owing perhaps in part to the attendance of Mr Andrew 
Fairservice, who chose to keep so close in our rear that his ears could not 
fail to catch every word which was spoken, while his tongue assumed the 
freedom of mingling in our conversation as often as he saw an opportunity. 
For this he occasionally incurred Mr Jarvie's reproof.
"Keep back, sir, as best sets ye," said the Bailie, as Andrew pressed 
forward to catch the answer to some question I had asked about Campbell. - 
"ye wad fain ride the fore-horse, an ye wist how. - That chield's aye for 
being out o' the cheese-fat he was moulded in. - Now, as for your 
questions, Mr Osbaldistone, now that chield's out of ear-shot, I'll just 
tell you it's free to you to speer, and it's free to me to answer, or no - 
Gude I canna say muckle o' Rob, puir chield; ill I winna say o' him, for, 
forby that he's my cousin, we're coming near his ain country, and there may 
be ane o' his gillies ahint every whin-bush, for what I ken - And if ye'll 
be guided by my advice, the less ye speak about him, or where we are gaun, 
or what we are gaun to do, we'll be the mair likely to speed us in our 
errand. For it's like we may fa' in wi' some o' his unfreends - there are 
e'en ower mony o' them about - and his bonnet sits even on his brow yet for 
a' that; but I doubt they'll be upsides wi' Rob at the last - air day or 
late day, the fox's hide finds aye the flaying knife."
"I will certainly," I replied, "be entirely guided by your experience."
"Right, Mr Osbaldistone - right. But I maun speak to this gabbling skyte 
too, for bairns and fules speak at the Cross what they hear at the ingle-
side. - D'ye hear, you, Andrew - what's your name? - Fairservice!"
Andrew, who at the last rebuff had fallen a good way behind, did not choose 
to acknowledge the summons.
"Andrew, ye scoundrel!" repeated Mr Jarvie; "here, sir here!"
"Here is for the dog." said Andrew, coming up sulkily.
"I'll gie you dog's wages, ye rascal, if ye dinna attend to what I say t'ye 
- We are gaun into the Hielands a bit -"
"I judged as muckle," said Andrew.
"Haud your peace, ye knave, and hear what I have to say till ye - We are 
gaun a bit into the Hielands -"
"Ye tauld me sae already," replied the incorrigible Andrew.
"I'll break your head," said the Bailie, rising in wrath, "if ye dinna haud 
your tongue."
"A hadden tongue," replied Andrew, "makes a slabbered mouth."
It was now necessary I should interfere, which I did by commanding Andrew, 
with an authoritative tone, to be silent at his peril.
"I am silent," said Andrew. "I'se do a' your lawfu' bidding without a nay-
say. My puir mother used aye to tell me,

				"Be it better, be it worse,
				Be ruled by him that has the purse."

Sae ye may e'en speak as lang as ye like, baith the tane and the tither o' 
you, for Andrew."
Mr Jarvie took the advantage of his stopping after quoting the above 
proverb, to give him the requisite instructions. "Now, sir, it's as muckle 
as your life's worth - that wad be dear o' little siller, to be sure - but 
it is as muckle as a' our lives are worth, if ye dinna mind what I sae to 
ye. In this public whar we are gaun to, and whar it is like we may hae to 
stay a' night, men o' a' clans and kindred - Hieland and Lawland - tak up 
their quarters - And whiles there are mair drawn dirks than open Bibles 
amang them, when the usquebaugh gets uppermost. See ye neither meddle nor 
mak, nor gie nae offence wi' that clavering tongue o' yours, but keep a 
calm sough, and let ilka cock fight his ain battle."
"Muckle needs to tell me that," said Andrew, contemptuously, "as if I had 
never seen a Hielandman before, and kenned nae how to manage them. Nae man 
alive can cuitle up Donald better than mysell - I hae bought wi' them, 
sauld wi' them, eaten wi' them, drucken wi' them -"
"Did ye ever fight wi' them?" said Mr Jarvie.
"Na, na," answered Andrew, "I took care o' that: it wad ill hae set me, 
that am an artist and half a scholar to my trade, to be fighting amang a 
wheen kilted loons that dinna ken the name o' a single herb or flower in 
braid Scots, let abee in the Latin tongue."
"Then," said Mr Jarvie, "as ye wad keep either your tongue in your mouth, 
or your lugs in your head (and ye might miss them, for as saucy members as 
they are), I charge ye to say nae word, gude or bad, that ye can weel get 
by, to ony body that may be in the Clachan. And ye'll specially understand 
that ye're no to be bleezing and blasting about your master's name and 
mine, or saying that this is Mr Bailie Nicol Jarvie o' the Saut Market, son 
o' the worthy Deacon Nicol Jarvie, that a' body has heard about; and this 
is Mr Frank Osbaldistone, son of the managing partner of the great house of 
Osbaldistone and Tresham, in the City."
"Eneuch said," answered Andrew - "eneuch said. What need ye think I wad be 
speaking about your names for? - I hae mony things o' mair importance to 
speak about, I trow."
"It's thae very things of importance that I am feared for, ye blethering 
goose; ye maunna speak ony thing, gude or bad, that ye can by any 
possibility help."
"If ye dinna think me fit," replied Andrew, in a huff, "to speak like ither 
folk, gie me my wages and my board-wages, and I'se gae back to Glasgow - 
There's sma' sorrow at our parting, as the auld mear said to the broken 
cart."
Finding Andrew's perverseness again rising to a point which threatened to 
occasion me inconvenience, I was under the necessity of explaining to him, 
that he might return if he thought proper, but that in that case I would 
not pay him a single farthing for his past services. The argument ad 
crumenam, as it has been called by jocular logicians, has weight with the 
greater part of mankind, and Andrew was in that particular far from 
affecting any trick of singularity. He "drew in his horns," to use the 
Bailie's phrase, on the instant, professed no intention whatever to 
disoblige, and a resolution to be guided by my commands, whatever they 
might be.
Concord being thus happily restored to our small party, we continued to 
pursue our journey. The road, which had ascended for six or seven English 
miles, began now to descend for about the same space, through a country 
which neither in fertility nor interest could boast any advantage over that 
which we had passed already, and which afforded no variety, unless when 
some tremendous peak of a Highland mountain appeared at a distance. We 
continued, however, to ride on without pause and even when night fell and 
overshadowed the desolate wilds which we traversed, we were, as I 
understood from Mr Jarvie, still three miles and a bittock distant from the 
place where we were to spend the night.


Chapter 28

				Baron of Bucklivie,
				May the foul fiend drive ye,
				And a' to pieces rive ye,
				For building sic a town,
		Where there's neither horse meat, nor man's meat, nor a chair to sit 
down.
					-- Scottish Popular Rhymes on a bad Inn.


The night was pleasant, and the moon afforded us good light for our 
journey. Under her rays, the ground over which we passed assumed a more 
interesting appearance than during the broad daylight, which discovered the 
extent of its wasteness. The mingled light and shadows gave it an interest 
which naturally did not belong to it; and, like the effect of a veil flung 
over a plain woman, irritated our curiosity on a subject which had in 
itself nothing gratifying.
The descent, however, still continued, turned, winded, left the more open 
heaths, and got into steeper ravines, which promised soon to lead us to the 
banks of some brook or river, and ultimately made good their presage. We 
found ourselves at length on the bank of a stream, which rather resembled 
one of my native English rivers than those I had hitherto seen in Scotland. 
It was narrow, deep, still, and silent; although the imperfect light, as it 
gleamed on its placid waters, showed also that we were now among the lofty 
mountains which formed its cradle. "That's the Forth," said the Bailie, 
with an air of reverence, which I have observed the Scotch usually pay to 
their distinguished rivers. The Clyde, the Tweed, the Forth, the Spey, are 
usually named by those who dwell on their banks with a sort of respect and 
pride, and I have known duels occasioned by any word of disparagement. I 
cannot say I have the least quarrel with this sort of harmless enthusiasm. 
I received my friend's communication with the importance which he seemed to 
think appertained to it. In fact, I was not a little pleased, after so long 
and dull a journey, to approach a region which promised to engage the 
imagination. My faithful squire, Andrew, did not seem to be quite of the 
same opinion, for he received the solemn information, "That is the Forth," 
with a "Umph! - an he had said that's the public-house, it wad hae been 
mair to the purpose."
The Forth, however, as far as the imperfect light permitted me to judge, 
seemed to merit the admiration of those who claimed an interest in its 
stream. A beautiful eminence of the most regular round shape, and clothed 
with copsewood of hazels, mountain-ash, and dwarf-oak, intermixed with a 
few magnificent old trees, which, rising above the underwood, exposed their 
forked and bared branches to the silver moonshine, seemed to protect the 
sources from which the river sprung. If I could trust the tale of my 
companion, which, while professing to disbelieve every word of it, he told 
under his breath, and with an air of something like intimidation, this 
hill, so regularly formed, so richly verdant, and garlanded with such a 
beautiful variety of ancient trees and thriving copsewood, was held by the 
neighbourhood to contain, within its unseen caverns, the palaces of the 
fairies - a race of airy beings, who formed an intermediate class between 
men and demons, and who, if not positively malignant to humanity, were yet 
to be avoided and feared, on account of their capricious, vindictive, and 
irritable disposition.
"They ca' them," said Mr Jarvie, in a whisper, "Daoine Schie, - whilk 
signifies, as I understand, men of peace; meaning thereby to make their 
gude-will. And we may e'en as weel ca' them that too, Mr Osbaldistone, for 
there's nae gude in speaking ill o' the laird within his ain bounds." But 
he added presently after, on seeing one or two lights which twinkled before 
us, "It's deceits o' Satan, after a', and I fearna to say it - for we are 
near the manse now, and yonder are the lights in the Clachan of Aberfoil."
I own I was well pleased at the circumstance to which Mr Jarvie alluded; 
not so much that it set his tongue at liberty, in his opinion, with all 
safety to declare his real sentiments with respect to the Daoine Schie, or 
fairies, as that it promised some hours' repose to ourselves and our 
horses, of which, after a ride of fifty miles and upwards, both stood in 
some need.
We crossed the infant Forth by an old-fashioned stone bridge, very high and 
very narrow. My conductor, however, informed me, that to get through this 
deep and important stream, and to clear all its tributary dependencies, the 
general pass from the Highlands to the southward lay by what was called the 
Fords of Frew, at all times deep and difficult of passage, and often 
altogether unfordable. Beneath these fords, there was no pass of general 
resort until so far east as the bridge of Stirling; so that the river of 
Forth forms a defensible line between the Highlands and Lowlands of 
Scotland, from its source nearly to the Firth, or inlet of the ocean, in 
which it terminates. The subsequent events which we witnessed led me to 
recall with attention what the shrewdness of Bailie Jarvie suggested in his 
proverbial expression, that "Forth bridles the wild Highlandman."
About half a mile's riding, after we crossed the bridge, placed us at the 
door of the public-house where we were to pass the evening. It was a hovel 
rather worse than better than that in which we had dined; but its little 
windows were lighted up, voices were heard from within, and all intimated a 
prospect of food and shelter, to which we were by no means indifferent. 
Andrew was the first to observe that there was a peeled willow-wand placed 
across the half-open door of the little inn. He hung back and advised us 
not to enter. "For," said Andrew, "some of their chiefs and grit men are 
birling at the usquebaugh in by there, and dinna want to be disturbed; and 
the least we'll get, if we gang ram-stam in on them, will be a broken head, 
to learn us better havings, if we dinna come by the length of a cauld dirk 
in our wame, whilk is just as likely."
I looked at the Bailie, who acknowledged, in a whisper, "that the gowk had 
some reason for singing, ance in the year."
Meantime a staring half-clad wench or two came out of the inn and the 
neighbouring cottages, on hearing the sound of our horses' feet. No one 
bade us welcome, nor did any one offer to take our horses, from which we 
had alighted; and to our various inquiries, the hopeless response of "Ha 
niel Sassenach," was the only answer we could extract. The Bailie, however, 
found (in his experience) a way to make them speak English. "If I gie ye a 
bawbee," said he to an urchin of about ten years old, with a fragment of a 
tattered plaid about him, "will you understand Sassenach?"
"Ay, ay, that will I," replied the brat, in very decent English. "Then gang 
and tell your mammy, my man, there's twa Sassenach gentlemen come to speak 
wi' her."
The landlady presently appeared, with a lighted piece of split fir blazing 
in her hand. The turpentine in this species of torch (which is generally 
dug from out the turf-bogs) makes it blaze and sparkle readily, so that it 
is often used in the Highlands in lieu of candles. On this occasion such a 
torch illuminated the wild and anxious features of a female, pale, thin, 
and rather above the usual size, whose soiled and ragged dress, though 
aided by a plaid or tartan screen, barely served the purposes of decency, 
and certainly not those of comfort. Her black hair, which escaped in 
uncombed elf-locks from under her coif, as well as the strange and 
embarrassed look with which she regarded us, gave me the idea of a witch 
disturbed in the midst of her unlawful rites. She plainly refused to admit 
us into the house. We remonstrated anxiously, and pleaded the length of our 
journey, the state of our horses, and the certainty that there was not 
another place where we could be received nearer than Callander, which the 
Bailie stated to be seven Scots miles distant. How many these may exactly 
amount to in English measurement, I have never been able to ascertain, but 
I think the double ratio may be pretty safely taken as a medium 
computation. The obdurate hostess treated our expostulation with contempt. 
"Better gang farther than fare waur," she said, speaking the Scottish 
Lowland dialect, and being indeed a native of the Lennox district - "Her 
house was taen up wi' them wadna like to be intruded on wi' strangers. She 
didna ken wha mair might be there - red-coats, it might be, frae the 
garrison." (These last words she spoke under her breath, and with very 
strong emphasis.) "The night," she said, "was fair abune head - a night 
amang the heather wad caller our bloods - we might sleep in our claes, as 
mony a gude blade does in the scabbard - there wasna muckle flowmoss in the 
shaw, if we took up our quarters right, and we might pit up our horses to 
the hill, naebody wad say naething against it."
"But, my good woman," said I, while the Bailie groaned and remained 
undecided, "it is six hours since we dined, and we have not taken a morsel 
since. I am positively dying with hunger, and I have no taste for taking up 
my abode supperless among these mountains of yours. I positively must 
enter; and make the best apology you can to your guests for adding a 
stranger or two to their number. Andrew, you will see the horses put up."
The Hecate looked at me with surprise, and then ejaculated - "A wilfu' man 
will hae his way - them that will to Cupar maun to Cupar! - To see thae 
English belly-gods! he has had ae fu' meal the day already, and he'll 
venture life and liberty, rather than he'll want a het supper! Set roasted 
beef and pudding on the opposite side o' the pit o' Tophet, and an 
Englishman will mak a spang at it - But I wash my hands o't - Follow me 
sir" (to Andrew), "and I'se show ye where to pit the beasts."
I own I was somewhat dismayed at my landlady's expressions, which seemed to 
be ominous of some approaching danger. I did not, however, choose to shrink 
back after having declared my resolution, and accordingly I boldly entered 
the house; and after narrowly escaping breaking my shins over a turf back 
and a salting tub, which stood on either side of the narrow exterior 
passage, I opened a crazy half-decayed door, constructed not of plank, but 
of wicker, and, followed by the Bailie, entered into the principal 
apartment of this Scottish caravansary.
The interior presented a view which seemed singular enough to southern 
eyes. The fire, fed with blazing turf and branches of dried wood, blazed 
merrily in the centre; but the smoke, having no means to escape but through 
a hole in the roof, eddied round the rafters of the cottage, and hung in 
sable folds at the height of about five feet from the floor. The space 
beneath was kept pretty clear by innumerable currents of air which rushed 
towards the fire from the broken panel of basket-work which served as a 
door - from two square holes, designed as ostensible windows, through one 
of which was thrust a plaid, and through the other a tattered great-coat - 
and moreover, through various less distinguishable apertures in the walls 
of the tenement, which, being built of round stones and turf, cemented by 
mud, let in the atmosphere at innumerable crevices.
At an old oaken table, adjoining to the fire, sat three men, guests 
apparently, whom it was impossible to regard with indifference. Two were in 
the Highland dress; the one, a little dark-complexioned man, with a lively, 
quick, and irritable expression of features, wore the trews, or close 
pantaloons wove out of a sort of chequered stocking stuff. The Bailie 
whispered me, that "he behoved to be a man of some consequence, for that 
naebody but their Duinhewassels wore the trews - they were ill to weave 
exactly to their Highland pleasure."
The other mountaineer was a very tall, strong man, with a quantity of 
reddish hair, freckled face, high cheek-bones, and long chin - a sort of 
caricature of the national features of Scotland. The tartan which he wore 
differed from that of his companion, as it had much more scarlet in it, 
whereas the shades of black and dark-green predominated in the chequers of 
the other. The third, who sate at the same table, was in the Lowland dress, 
- a bold, stout-looking man, with a cast of military daring in his eye and 
manner, his riding-dress showily and profusely laced, and his cocked hat of 
formidable dimensions. His hanger and a pair of pistols lay on the table 
before him. Each of the Highlanders had their naked dirks stuck upright in 
the board beside him, - an emblem, I was afterwards informed, but surely a 
strange one, that their computation was not to be interrupted by any brawl. 
A mighty pewter measure, containing about an English quart of usquebaugh, a 
liquor nearly as strong as brandy, which the Highlanders distil from malt, 
and drink undiluted in excessive quantities, was placed before these 
worthies. A broken glass, with a wooden foot, served as a drinking cup to 
the whole party, and circulated with a rapidity, which, considering the 
potency of the liquor, seemed absolutely marvellous. These men spoke loudly 
and eagerly together, sometimes in Gaelic, at other times in English. 
Another Highlander, wrapt in his plaid, reclined on the floor, his head 
resting on a stone, from which it was only separated by a wisp of straw, 
and slept or seemed to sleep, without attending to what was going on around 
him, He also was probably a stranger, for he lay in full dress, and 
accoutred with the sword and target, the usual arms of his countrymen when 
on a journey. Cribs there were of different dimensions beside the walls, 
formed, some of fractured boards, some of shattered wicker-work or plaited 
boughs, in which slumbered the family of the house, men, women, and 
children, their places of repose only concealed by the dusky wreaths of 
vapour which arose above, below, and around them.
Our entrance was made so quietly, and the carousers I have described were 
so eagerly engaged in their discussions, that we escaped their notice for a 
minute or two. But I observed the Highlander who lay beside the fire raise 
himself on his elbow as we entered, and, drawing his plaid over the lower 
part of his face, fix his look on us for a few seconds, after which he 
resumed his recumbent posture, and seemed again to betake himself to the 
repose which our entrance had interrupted,
We advanced to the fire, which was an agreeable spectacle after our late 
ride, during the chillness of an autumn evening among the mountains, and 
first attracted the attention of the guests who had preceded us, by calling 
for the landlady. She approached, looking doubtfully and timidly, now at 
us, now at the other party, and returned a hesitating and doubtful answer 
to our request to have something to eat.
"She didna ken," she said, "she wasna sure there was ony thing in the 
house," and then modified her refusal with the qualification - "that is, 
ony thing fit for the like of us."
I assured her we were indifferent to the quality of our supper; and looking 
round for the means of accommodation, which were not easily to be found, I 
arranged an old hen-coop as a seat for Mr Jarvie, and turned down a broken 
tub to serve for my own. Andrew Fairservice entered presently afterwards, 
and took a place in silence behind our backs. The natives, as I may call 
them, continued staring at us with an air as if confounded by our 
assurance, and we, at least I myself, disguised as well as we could, under 
an appearance of indifference, any secret anxiety we might feel concerning 
the mode in which we were to be received by those whose privacy we had 
disturbed.
At length, the lesser Highlander, addressing himself to me said, in very 
good English, and in a tone of great haughtiness, "Ye make yourself at 
home, sir, I see."
"I usually do so," I replied, "when I come into a house of public 
entertainment."
"And did she na see," said the taller man, "by the white wand at the door, 
that gentlemans had taken up the public-house on their ain business?"
"I do not pretend to understand the customs of this country but I am yet to 
learn," I replied, "how three persons should be entitled to exclude all 
other travellers from the only place of shelter and refreshment for miles 
round."
"There's nae reason for't, gentlemen," said the Bailie; "we mean nae 
offence - but there's neither law nor reason for't; but as far as a stoup 
o' gude brandy wad make up the quarrel, we, being peaceable folk, wad be 
willing."
"Damn your brandy, sir!" said the Lowlander, adjusting his cocked hat 
fiercely upon his head; "we desire neither your brandy nor your company," 
and up he rose from his seat. His companions also arose, muttering to each 
other, drawing up their plaids, and snorting and snuffing the air after the 
mariner of their countrymen when working themselves into a passion.
"I tauld ye what wad come, gentlemen," said the landlady, "an ye wad hae 
been tauld: - get awa' wi' ye out o' my house, and make nae disturbance 
here - there's nae gentleman be disturbed at Jeanie MacAlpine's an she can 
hinder. A wheen idle English loons, gaun about the country under cloud o' 
night, and disturbing honest peaceable gentlemen that are drinking their 
drap drink at the fireside!"
At another time I should have thought of the old Latin adage

		"Dat veniam corvis, vexat censure columbas -"

But I had not any time for classical quotation, for there was obviously a 
fray about to ensue, at which, feeling myself indignant at the inhospitable 
insolence with which I was treated, I was totally indifferent, unless on 
the Bailie's account, whose person and qualities were ill qualified for 
such an adventure. I started up, however, on seeing the others rise, and 
dropped my. cloak from my shoulders, that I might be ready to stand on the 
defensive.
"We are three to three," said the lesser Highlander, glancing his eyes at 
our party: "if ye be pretty men, draw!" and unsheathing his broadsword, he 
advanced on me. I put myself in a posture of defence, and aware of the 
superiority of my weapon, a rapier or small-sword, was little afraid of the 
issue of the contest. The Bailie behaved with unexpected mettle. As he saw 
the gigantic Highlander confront him with his weapon drawn, he tugged for a 
second or two at the hilt of his shabble, as he called it; but finding it 
loth to quit the sheath, to which it had long been secured by rust and 
disuse, he seized, as a substitute, on the red-hot coulter of a plough 
which had been employed in arranging the fire by way of a poker, and 
brandished it with such effect, that at the first pass he set the 
Highlander's plaid on fire, and compelled him to keep a respectful distance 
till he could get it extinguished. Andrew, on the contrary, who ought to 
have faced the Lowland champion, had, I grieve to say it, vanished at the 
very commencement of the fray. But his antagonist, crying "Fair play, fair 
play!" seemed courteously disposed to take no share in the scuffle. Thus we 
commenced our rencontre on fair terms as to numbers. My own aim was, to 
possess myself, if possible, of my antagonist's weapon; but I was deterred 
from closing, for fear of the dirk which he held in his left hand, and used 
in parrying the thrusts of my rapier. Meantime the Bailie, notwithstanding 
the success of his first onset, was sorely bested. The weight of his 
weapon, the corpulence of his person, the very effervescence of his own 
passions, were rapidly exhausting both his strength and his breath, and he 
was almost at the mercy of his antagonist, when up started the sleeping 
Highlander from the floor on which he reclined, with his naked sword and 
target in his hand, and threw himself between the discomfited magistrate 
and his assailant, exclaiming, "Her nainsell has eaten the town pread at 
the Cross o' Glasgow, and py her troth she'll fight for Bailie Sharvie at 
the Clachan of Aberfoil - tat will she e'en!" And seconding his words with 
deeds, this unexpected auxiliary made his sword whistle about the ears of 
his tall countryman, who, nothing abashed, returned his blows with 
interest. But being both accoutred with round targets made of wood, studded 
with brass, and covered with leather, with which they readily parried each 
other's strokes, their combat was attended with much more noise and clatter 
than serious risk of damage. It appeared, indeed, that there was more of 
bravado than of serious attempt to do us any injury; for the Lowland 
gentleman, who, as I mentioned, had stood aside for want of an antagonist 
when the brawl commenced, was now pleased to act the part of moderator and 
peacemaker.
"Hand your hands! haud your hands! - eneugh done! - eneugh done! the 
quarrel's no mortal. The strange gentlemen have shown themselves men of 
honour, and gien reasonable satisfaction. I'll stand on mine honour as 
kittle as ony man, but I hate unnecessary bloodshed."
It was not, of course, my wish to protract the fray - my adversary seemed 
equally disposed to sheathe his sword - the Bailie, gasping for breath, 
might be considered as hors de combat, and our two sword-and-buckler men 
gave up their contest with as much indifference as they had entered into 
it.
"And now," said the worthy gentleman who acted as umpire, "let us drink and 
gree like honest fellows - The house will haud us a'. I propose that this 
good little gentleman, that seems sair forfoughen, as I may say, in this 
tuilzie, shall send for a tass o' brandy and I'll pay for another, by way 
of archilowe, and then we'll birl our bawbees a' round about, like 
brethren."
"And fa's to pay my new ponnie plaid," said the larger Highlander, "wi' a 
hole burnt in't ane might put a kail-pat through? Saw ever ony body a 
decent gentleman fight wi' a firebrand before?"
"Let that be nae hinderance," said the Bailie, who had now recovered his 
breath, and was at once disposed to enjoy the triumph of having behaved 
with spirit, and avoid the necessity of again resorting to such hard and 
doubtful arbitrement - "Gin I hae broken the head," he said, "I sall find 
the plaister. A new plaid sall ye hae, and o' the best - your ain clan-
colours, man, - an ye will tell me where it can be sent t'ye frae Glasco."
"I needna name my clan - I am of a king's clan, as is weel kenned," said 
the Highlander; "but ye may tak a bit o' the plaid - figh! she smells like 
a singit sheep's head! - and that'll learn ye the sett - and a gentleman, 
that's a cousin o' my ain, that carries eggs doun frae Glencroe, will ca' 
for't about Martimas, an ye will tell her where ye bide. But, honest 
gentleman, neist time ye fight, an ye hae ony respect for your athversary, 
let it be wi' your sword, man, since ye wear ane, and no wi' thae het 
culters and fireprands, like a wild Indian."
"Conscience!" replied the Bailie, "every man maun do as he dow. My sword 
hasna seen the light since Bothwell Brigg, when my father that's dead and 
gane, ware it; and I kenna weel if it was forthcoming then either, for the 
battle was o' the briefest - At ony rate, it's glued to the scabbard now 
beyond my power to part them; and, finding that, I e'en grippit at the 
first thing I could make a fend wi'. I trow my fighting days is done, 
though I like ill to take the scorn, for a' that. - But where's the honest 
lad that tuik my quarrel on himself sae frankly? - I'se bestow a gill o' 
aquavitae on him, an I suld never ca' for anither."
The champion for whom he looked around was, however, no longer to be seen. 
He had escaped unobserved by the Bailie, immediately when the brawl was 
ended, yet not before I had recognised, in his wild features and shaggy red 
hair, our acquaintance Dougal, the fugitive turnkey of the Glasgow jail. I 
communicated this observation in a whisper to the Bailie, who answered in 
the same tone, "Weel, weel, - I see that him that ye ken o' said very 
right; there is some glimmering o' common sense about that creature Dougal; 
I maun see and think o' something will do him some gude."
Thus saying, he sat down, and fetching one or two deep aspirations, by way 
of recovering his breath, called to the landlady - "I think, Luckie, now 
that I find that there's nae hole in my wame, whilk I had muckle reason to 
doubt frae the doings o' your house, I wad be the better o' something to 
pit intill't."
The dame, who was all officiousness so soon as the storm had blown over, 
immediately undertook to broil something comfortable for our supper. 
Indeed, nothing surprised me more, in the course of the whole matter, than 
the extreme calmness with which she and her household seemed to regard the 
martial tumult that had taken place. The good woman was only heard to call 
to some of her assistants - "Steek the door! steek the door! kill or be 
killed, let naebody pass out till they hae paid the lawin." And as for the 
slumberers in those lairs by the wall, which served the family for beds, 
they only raised their shirtless bodies to look at the fray, ejaculated, 
"Oigh! oigh!" in the tone suitable to their respective sex and ages, and 
were, I believe, fast asleep again, ere our swords were well returned to 
their scabbards.
Our landlady, however, now made a great bustle to get some victuals ready, 
and, to my surprise, very soon began to prepare for us in the frying-pan a 
savoury mess of venison collops, which she dressed in a manner that might 
well satisfy hungry men, if not epicures. In the meantime the brandy was 
placed on the table, to which the Highlanders, however partial to their 
native strong waters, showed no objection, but much the contrary; and the 
Lowland gentleman, after the first cup had passed round, became desirous to 
know our profession, and the object of our journey.
"We are bits o' Glasgow bodies, if it please your honour," said the Bailie, 
with an affectation of great humility, "travelling to Stirling to get in 
some siller that is awing us."
I was so silly as to feel a little disconcerted at the unassuming account 
which he chose to give of us; but I recollected my promise to be silent, 
and allow the Bailie to manage the matter his own way. And really, when I 
recollected, Will, that I had not only brought the honest man a long 
journey from home, which even in itself had been some inconvenience (if I 
were to judge from the obvious pain and reluctance with which he took his 
seat, or arose from it), but had also put him within a hair's-breadth of 
the loss of his life, I could hardly refuse him such a compliment. The 
spokesman of the other party, snuffing up his breath through his nose, 
repeated the words with a sort of sneer; - "You Glasgow tradesfolks hae 
naething to do but to gang frae the tae end o' the west o' Scotland to the 
ither, to plague honest folks that may chance to be awee ahint the hand, 
like me."
"If our debtors were a' sic honest gentlemen as I believe you to be, 
Garschattachin," replied the Bailie, "conscience! we might save ourselves a 
labour, for they wad come to seek us."
"Eh! what! how!" exclaimed the person whom he had addressed, - "as I shall 
live by bread (not forgetting beef and brandy), it's my auld friend Nicol 
Jarvie, the best man that ever counted doun merks on a band till a 
distressed gentleman. Were ye na coming up my way? - were ye na coming up 
the Endrick to Garschattachin?"
"Troth no, Maister Galbraith," replied the Bailie, "I had other eggs on the 
spit - and I thought ye wad be saying I cam to look about the annual rent 
that's due on the bit heritable band that's between us."
"Damn the annual rent!" said the laird, with an appearance of great 
heartiness - "Deil a word o' business will you or I speak, now that ye're 
so near my country. To see how a trot-cosey and a joseph can disguise a man 
- that I suldna ken my auld feal friend the deacon!"
"The Bailie, if ye please," resumed my companion; "but I ken what gars ye 
mistak - the band was granted to my father that's happy, and he was deacon; 
but his name was Nicol as weel as mine. I dinna mind that there's been a 
payment of principal sum or annual rent on it in my day, and doubtless that 
has made the mistake."
"Weel, the devil take the mistake and all that occasioned it!" replied Mr 
Galbraith. "But I am glad ye are a bailie. Gentlemen, fill a brimmer - this 
is my excellent friend, Bailie Nicol Jarvie's health - I kenned him and his 
father these twenty years. Are ye a' cleared kelty aff? - Fill anither. 
Here's to his being sune provost - I say provost - Lord Provost Nicol 
Jarvie! - and them that affirms there's a man walks the Hie-street o' 
Glasgow that's fitter for the office, they will do weel not to let me, 
Duncan Galbraith of Garschattachin, hear them say sae - that's all." And 
therewith Duncan Galbraith martially cocked his hat, and placed it on one 
side of his head with an air of defiance.
The brandy was probably the best recommendation of there complimentary 
toasts to the two Highlanders, who drank them without appearing anxious to 
comprehend their purport. They commenced a conversation with Mr Galbraith 
in Gaelic, which he talked with perfect fluency, being, as I afterwards 
learned, a near neighbour to the Highlands.
"I kenned that Scant-o'-grace weel eneugh frae the very outset," said the 
Bailie, in a whisper to me; "but when blude was warm, and swords were out 
at ony rate, wha kens what way he might hae thought o' paying his debts? it 
will be lang or he does it in common form. But he's an honest lad, and has 
a warm heart too; he disna come often to the Cross o' Glasgow, but mony a 
buck and blackcock he sends us doun frae the hills. And I can want my 
siller weel eneugh. My father the deacon had a great regard for the family 
of Garschattachin."
Supper being now nearly ready, I looked round for Andrew Fairservice; but 
that trusty follower had not been seen by any one since the beginning of 
the rencontre. The hostess, however, said that she believed our servant had 
gone into the stable, and offered to light me to the place, saying that "no 
entreaties of the bairns or hers could make him give any answer; and that 
truly she caredna to gang into the stable herself at this hour. She was a 
lone woman, and it was weel kenned how the Brownie of Ben-ye-gask guided 
the gudewife of Ardnagowan; and it was aye judged there was a Brownie in 
our stable, which was just what garr'd me gie ower keeping an hostler."
As, however, she lighted me towards the miserable hovel into which they had 
crammed our unlucky steeds, to regale themselves on hay, every fibre of 
which was as thick as an ordinary goose-quill, she plainly showed me that 
she had another reason for drawing me aside from the company than that 
which her words implied. "Read that," she said, slipping a piece of paper 
into my hand, as we arrived at the door of the shed; "I bless God I am rid 
o't. Between sogers and Saxons, and caterans and cattle-lifters, and 
hership and bluidshed, an honest woman wad live quieter in hell than on the 
Hieland line."
So saying, she put the pine-torch into my hand, and returned into the 
house,


Chapter 29

			Bagpipes, not lyres, the Highland hills adorn,
			MacLean's loud hollo, and MacGregor's horn.
				-- John Cooper's Reply to Allan Ramsay.


I stopped in the entrance of the stable, if indeed a place be entitled to 
that name where horses were stowed away along with goats, poultry, pigs, 
and cows, under the same roof with the mansion-house; although, by a degree 
of refinement unknown to the rest of the hamlet, and which I afterwards 
heard was imputed to an overpride on the part of Jeanie MacAlpine, our 
landlady, the apartment was accommodated with an entrance different from 
that used by her biped customers. By the light of my torch, I deciphered 
the following billet, written on a wet, crumpled, and dirty piece of paper, 
and addressed - "For the honoured hands of Mr F. O., a Saxon young 
gentleman - These." The contents were as follows:

"Sir,
"There are night-hawks abroad, so that I cannot give you and my respected 
kinsman, B.N.J., the meeting at the Clachan of Aberfoil, whilk was my 
purpose. I pray you to avoid unnecessary communication with those you may 
find there, as it may give future trouble. The person who gives you this is 
faithful and may be trusted, and will guide you to a place where, God 
willing, I may safely give you the meeting, when I trust my kinsman and you 
will visit my poor house, where, in despite of my enemies, I can still 
promise sic cheer as ane Hielandman may gie his friends, and where we will 
drink a solemn health to a certain D.V., and look to certain affairs whilk 
I hope to be your aidance in; and I rest, as is wont among gentlemen, your 
servant to command, R.M.C."

I was a good deal mortified at the purport of this letter, which seemed to 
adjourn to a more distant place and date the service which I had hoped to 
receive from this man Campbell. Still, however, it was some comfort to know 
that he continued to be in my interest, since without him I could have no 
hope of recovering my father's papers. I resolved, therefore, to obey his 
instructions; and, observing all caution before the guests, to take the 
first good opportunity I could find to procure from the landlady directions 
how I was to obtain a meeting with this mysterious person.
My next business was to seek out Andrew Fairservice, whom I called several 
times by name, without receiving any answer, surveying the stable all 
round, at the same time, not without risk of setting the premises on fire, 
had not the quantity of wet litter and mud so greatly counterbalanced two 
or three bunches of straw and hay. At length my repeated cries of "Andrew 
Fairservice! Andrew! fool! - ass! where are you?" produced a doleful 
"Here," in a groaning tone, which might have been that of the Brownie 
itself. Guided by this sound, I advanced to the corner of a shed, where, 
ensconced in the angle of the wall, behind a barrel full of the feathers of 
all the fowls which had died in the cause of the public for a month past, I 
found the manful Andrew; and partly by force, partly by command and 
exhortation, compelled him forth into the open air. The first words he 
spoke were, "I am an honest lad, sir."
"Who the devil questions your honesty?" said I, "or what have we to do with 
it at present? I desire you to come and attend us at supper."
"Yes," reiterated Andrew, without apparently understanding what I said to 
him, "I am an honest lad, whatever the Bailie may say to the contrary. I 
grant the warld and the warld's gear sits ower near my heart whiles, as it 
does to mony a ane - But I am an honest lad; and, though I spak o' leaving 
ye in the muir, yet God knows it was far frae my purpose, but just like 
idle things folk says when they're driving a bargain, to get it as far to 
their ain side as they can - And I like your honour weel for sae young a 
lad, and I wadna part wi' ye lightly."
"What the deuce are you driving at now?" I replied. "Has not everything 
been settled again and again to your satisfaction? And are you to talk of 
leaving me every hour, without either rhyme or reason?"
"Ay, - but I was only making fashion before," replied Andrew; "but it's 
come on me in sair earnest now - Lose or win, I daur gae nae farther wi' 
your honour; and if ye'll tak my foolish advice, ye'll bide by a broken 
tryste, rather than gang forward yoursell. I hae a sincere regard for ye, 
and I'm sure ye'll be a credit to your friends if ye live to saw out your 
wild aits, and get some mair sense and steadiness - But I can follow ye nae 
farther, even if ye suld founder and perish from the way for lack of 
guidance and counsel. To gang into Rob Roy's country is a mere tempting o' 
Providence."
"Rob Roy?" said I, in some surprise; "I know no such person. What new trick 
is this, Andrew?"
"It's hard," said Andrew - "very hard, that a man canna be believed when he 
speaks Heaven's truth, just because he's whiles owercome, and tells lees a 
little when there is necessary occasion. Ye needna ask whae Rob Roy is, the 
reiving lifter that he is - God forgie me! I hope naebody hears us - when 
ye hae a letter frae him in your pouch. I heard ane o' his gillies bid that 
auld rudas jaud of a gudewife gie ye that. They thought I didna understand 
their gibberish; but, though I canna speak it muckle, I can gie a gude 
guess at what I hear them say - I never thought to hae tauld ye that, but 
in a fright a' things come out that suld be keepit in. O, Maister Frank! a' 
your uncle's follies, and a' your cousin's pliskies, were naething to this! 
Drink clean cap out, like Sir Hildebrand; begin the blessed morning with 
brandy sops, like Squire Percy; swagger, like Squire Thorncliff; rin wud 
amang the lasses, like Squire John; gamble, like Richard; win souls to the 
Pope and the deevil, like Rashleigh; rive, rant, break the Sabbath, and do 
the Pope's bidding, like them a' put thegither - But, merciful Providence! 
take care o' your young bluid, and gang nae near Rob Roy!"
Andrew's alarm was too sincere to permit me to suppose he counterfeited. I 
contented myself, however, with telling him, that I meant to remain in the 
alehouse that night, and desired to have the horses well looked after. As 
to the rest, I charged him to observe the strictest silence upon the 
subject of his alarm, and he might rely upon it I would not incur any 
serious danger without due precaution. He followed me with a dejected air 
into the house, observing between his teeth, "Man suld be served afore 
beast - I haena had a morsel in my mouth, but the rough legs o' that auld 
muircock, this haill blessed day."
The harmony of the company seemed to have suffered some interruption since 
my departure, for I found Mr Galbraith and my friend the Bailie high in 
dispute.
"I'll hear nae sic language," said Mr Jarvie, as I entered, "respecting the 
Duke o' Argyle and the name o' Campbell. He's a worthy public-spirited 
nobleman, and a credit to the country, and a friend and benefactor to the 
trade o' Glasgow."
"I'll sae naething against MacCallum More and the Slioch-nan-Diarmid," said 
the lesser Highlander, laughing. "I live on the wrang side of Glencroe to 
quarrel with Inverara."
"Our loch ne'er saw the Cawmil lymphads," said the bigger Highlander. 
"She'll speak her mind and fear naebody - She doesna value a Cawmil mair as 
a Cowan, and ye may tell MacCallum More that Allan Iverach said sae - It's 
a far cry to Lochow."
Mr Galbraith, on whom the repeated pledges which he had quaffed had 
produced some influence, slapped his hand on the table with great force, 
and said, in a stern voice, "There's a bloody debt due by that family, and 
they will pay it one day - The banes of a loyal and a gallant Grahame hae 
lang rattled in their coffin for vengeance on thae Dukes of Guile and Lords 
for Lorn. There ne'er was treason in Scotland but a Cawmil was at the 
bottom o't; and now that the wrang side's uppermost, wha but the Cawmils 
for keeping down the right? But this warld winna last lang, and it will be 
time to sharp the maiden for shearing o' craigs and thrapples. I hope to 
see the auld rusty lass linking at a bluidy harst again."
"For shame, Garschattachin!" exclaimed the Bailie; "fy for shame, sir! Wad 
ye say sic things before a magistrate, and bring yoursell into trouble? - 
How d'ye think to mainteen your family and satisfy your creditors (mysell 
and others), if ye gang on in that wild way, which cannot but bring you 
under the law, to the prejudice of a' that's connected wi' ye?"
"Damn my creditors!" retorted the gallant Galbraith, "and you if ye be ane 
o' them! I say there will be a new warld sune - And we shall hae nae 
Cawmils cocking their bonnet sae hie, and hounding their dogs where they 
daurna come themsells, nor protecting thieves, nor murderers, and 
oppressors, to harry and spoil better men and mair loyal clans than 
themsells."
The Bailie had a great mind to have continued the dispute, when the savoury 
vapour of the broiled venison, which our landlady now placed before us, 
proved so powerful a mediator, that he betook himself to his trencher with 
great eagerness, leaving the strangers to carry on the dispute among 
themselves.
"And tat's true," said the taller Highlander - whose name I found was 
Stewart - "for we suldna be plagued and worried here wi' meetings to pit 
down Rob Roy, if the Cawmils didna gie him refutch. I was ane o' thirty o' 
my ain name - part Glenfinlas, and part men that came down frae Appine. We 
shased the MacGregors as ye wad shase rae-deer, till we came into 
Glenfalloch's country, and the Cawmils raise, and wadna let us pursue nae 
farder, and sae we lost our labour; but her wad gie twa and a plack to be 
as near Rob as she was tat day."
It seemed to happen very unfortunately, that in every topic of discourse 
which these warlike gentlemen introduced, my friend the Bailie found some 
matter of offence. "Ye'll forgie me speaking my mind, sir; but ye wad maybe 
hae gien the best bowl in your bonnet to hae been as far awa frae Rob as ye 
are e'en now - Odd! my het pleugh-culter wad hae been naething to his 
claymore."
"She had better speak nae mair about her culter, or, by G-! her will gar 
her eat her words, and twa handfuls o' cauld steel to drive them ower wi'!" 
And, with a most inauspicious and menacing look, the mountaineer laid his 
hand on his dagger.
"We'll hae nae quarrelling, Allan," said his shorter companion; "and if the 
Glasgow gentleman has ony regard for Rob Roy, he'll maybe see him in cauld 
irons the night, and playing tricks on a tow the morn; for this country has 
been ower lang plagued wi' him, and his race is near-hand run - And it's 
time, Allan, we were ganging to our lads."
"Hout awa, Inverashalloch," said Galbraith; - "Mind the auld saw, man - 
It's a bauld moon, quoth Bennygask - another pint, quoth Lesley; - we'll no 
start for another chappin."
"I hae had chappins eneugh," said Inverashalloch; "I'll drink my quart of 
usquebaugh or brandy wi' ony honest fellow, but the deil a drap mair when I 
hae wark to do in the morning. And, in my puir thinking, Garschattachin, ye 
had better be thinking to bring up your horsemen to the Clachan before day, 
that we may ay start fair."
"What the deevil are ye in sic a hurry for?" said Garschattachin; "meat and 
mass never hindered wark. An it had been my directing, deil a bit o' me wad 
hae fashed ye to come down the glens to help us. The garrison and our ain 
horse could hae taen Rob Roy easily enough. There's the hand," he said, 
holding up his own, "should lay him on the green, and never ask a 
Hielandman o' ye a' for his help."
"Ye might hae loot us bide still where we were, then," said Inverashalloch. 
"I didna come sixty miles without being sent for. But an ye'll hae my 
opinion, I redd ye keep your mouth better steekit, if ye hope to speed. 
Shored folk live lang, and sae may him ye ken o'. The way to catch a bird 
is no to fling your bannet at her. And also thae gentlemen hae heard some 
things they suldna hae heard, an the brandy hadna been ower bauld for your 
brain, Major Galbraith. Ye needna cock your hat and bully wi' me, man, for 
I will not bear it."
"I hae said it," said Galbraith, with a solemn air of drunken gravity, 
"that I will quarrel no more this night either with broadcloth or tartan. 
When I am off duty I'll quarrel with you or ony man in the Hielands or 
Lowlands, but not on duty - no - no. I wish we heard o' these red-coats. If 
it had been to do ony thing against King James, we wad hae seen them lang 
syne - but when it's to keep the peace o' the country they can lie as lound 
as their neighbours."
As he spoke we heard the measured footsteps of a body of infantry on the 
march; and an officer, followed by two or three files of soldiers, entered 
the apartment. He spoke in an English accent, which was very pleasant to my 
ears, now so long accustomed to the varying brogue of the Highland and 
Lowland Scotch. - "You are, I suppose, Major Galbraith, of the squadron of 
Lennox Militia, and these are the two Highland gentlemen with whom I was 
appointed to meet in this place?"
They assented, and invited the officer to take some refreshments, which he 
declined. - "I have been too late, gentlemen, and am desirous to make up 
time. I have orders to search for and arrest two persons guilty of 
treasonable practices."
"We'll wash our hands o' that," said Inverashalloch. "I came here wi' my 
men to fight against the red MacGregor that killed my cousin, seven times 
removed, Duncan MacLaren, in Invernenty; but I will hae nothing to do 
touching honest gentlemen that may be gaun through the country on their ain 
business."
"Nor I neither," said Iverach.
Major Galbraith took up the matter more solemnly, and, premising his 
oration with a hiccup, spoke to the following purpose: -
"I shall say nothing against King George, Captain, because, as it happens, 
my commission may rin in his name - But one commission being good, sir, 
does not make another bad; and some think that James may be just as good a 
name as George. There's the king that is - and there's the king that suld 
of right be - I say, an honest man may and suld be loyal to them both, 
Captain. But I am of the Lord Lieutenant's opinion for the time, as it 
becomes a militia officer and a depute-lieutenant - and about treason and 
all that, it's lost time to speak of it - least said is sunest mended."
"I am sorry to see how you have been employing your time, sir," replied the 
English officer - as indeed the honest gentleman's reasoning had a strong 
relish of the liquor he had been drinking - "and I could wish, sir, it had 
been otherwise on an occasion of this consequence. I would recommend to you 
to try to sleep for an hour. - Do these gentlemen belong to your party?" - 
looking at the Bailie and me, who, engaged in eating our supper, had paid 
little attention to the officer on his entrance.
"Travellers, sir," said Galbraith - "lawful travellers by sea and land, as 
the prayer-book hath it."
"My instructions." said the Captain, taking a light to survey us closer, 
"are to place under arrest an elderly and a young person - and I think 
these gentlemen answer nearly the description."
"Take care what you say, sir," said Mr Jarvie; "it shall not be your red 
coat nor your laced hat shall protect you, if you put any affront on me. 
I'se convene ye baith in an action of scandal and false imprisonment - I am 
a free burgess and a magistrate o' Glasgow; Nicol Jarvie is my name, sae 
was my father's afore me - I am a bailie, be praised for the honour, and my 
father was a deacon."
"He was a prick-eared cur," said Major Galbraith, "and fought agane the 
King at Bothwell Brigg."
"He paid what he ought and what he bought, Mr Galbraith," said the Bailie, 
"and was an honester man than ever stude on your shanks."
"I have no time to attend to all this," said the officer; "I must 
positively detain you, gentlemen, unless you can produce some respectable 
security that you are loyal subjects."
"I desire to be carried before some civil magistrate," said the Bailie - 
"the sherra or the judge of the bounds; - I am not obliged to answer every 
red-coat that speers questions at me."
"Well, sir, I shall know how to manage you if you are silent - And you, 
sir" (to me), "what may your name be?"
"Francis Osbaldistone, sir."
"What, a son of Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone of Northumberland?"
"No, sir," interrupted the Bailie; "a son of the great William Osbaldistone 
of the House of Osbaldistone and Tresham, Crane-Alley, London."
"I am afraid, sir," said the officer, "your name only increases the 
suspicions against you, and lays me under the necessity of requesting that 
you will give up what papers you have in charge."
I observed the Highlanders look anxiously at each other when this proposal 
was made.
"I had none," I replied, "to surrender."
The officer commanded me to be disarmed and searched. To have resisted 
would have been madness. I accordingly gave up my arms, and submitted to a 
search, which was conducted as civilly as an operation of the kind well 
could. They found nothing except the note which I had received that night 
through the hand of the landlady.
"This is different from what I expected," said the officer; "but it affords 
us good grounds for detaining you. Here I find you in written communication 
with the outlawed robber, Robert MacGregor Campbell, who has been so long 
the plague of this district - How do you account for that?"
"Spies of Rob!" said Inverashalloch. "We wad serve them right to strap them 
up till the neist tree."
"We are gaun to see after some gear o' our ain, gentlemen," said the 
Bailie, "that's fa'en into his hands by accident - there's nae law agane a 
man looking after his ain, I hope?"
"How did you come by this letter?" said the officer, addressing himself to 
me.
I could not think of betraying the poor woman who had given it to me, and 
remained silent.
"Do you know anything of it, fellow?" said the officer, looking at Andrew, 
whose jaws were chattering like a pair of castanets at the threats thrown 
out by the Highlander.
"O ay, I ken a' about it - it was a Hieland loon gied the letter to that 
lang-tongued jaud the gudewife there; I'll be sworn my maister kenned 
naething about it. But he's wilfu' to gang up the hills and speak wi' Rob; 
and oh, sir, it wad be a charity just to send a wheen o' your red-coats to 
see him safe back to Glasgow again whether he will or no - And ye can keep 
Mr Jarvie as lang as ye like - He's responsible enough for ony fine ye may 
lay on him - and so's my master for that matter; for me, I'm just a puir 
gardener lad, and no worth your steering."
"I believe," said the officer, "the best thing I can do is to send these 
persons to the garrison under an escort. They seem to be in immediate 
correspondence with the enemy, and I shall be in no respect answerable for 
suffering them to be at liberty. Gentlemen, you will consider yourselves as 
my prisoners. So soon as dawn approaches, I will send you to a place of 
security. If you be the persons you describe yourselves, it will soon 
appear, and you will sustain no great inconvenience from being detained a 
day or two. I can hear no remonstrances," he continued, turning away from 
the Bailie, whose mouth was open to address him; "the service I am on gives 
me no time for idle discussions."
"Aweel, aweel, sir," said the Bailie, "you're welcome to a tune on your ain 
fiddle; but see if I dinna gar ye dance till't afore a's dune."
An anxious consultation now took place between the officer and the 
Highlanders, but carried on in so low a tone, that it was impossible to 
catch the sense. So soon as it was concluded they all left the house. At 
their departure, the Bailie thus expressed himself: - "Thae Hielandmen are 
o' the westland clans, and just as light-handed as their neighbours, an a' 
tales be true, and yet ye see they hae brought them frae the head o' 
Argyleshire to make war wi' puir Rob for some auld ill-will that they hae 
at him and his sirname. And there's the Grahames, and the Buchanans, and 
the Lennox gentry, a' mounted and in order - It's weel kenned their 
quarrel; and I dinna blame them - naebody likes to lose his kye. And then 
there's sodgers, puir things, hoyed out frae the garrison at a' body's 
bidding - Puir Rob will hae his hands fu' by the time the sun comes ower 
the hill. Weel - it's wrang for a magistrate to be wishing ony thing agane 
the course o' justice, but deil o' me an I wad break my heart to hear that 
Rob had gien them a' their paiks!"


Chapter 30

								General,
		Hear me, and mark me well, and look upon me
		Directly in my face - my woman's face -
		See if one fear, one shadow of a terror,
		One paleness dare appear, but from my anger,
		To lay hold on your mercies.
							-- Bonduca.


We were permitted to slumber out the remainder of the night in the best 
manner that the miserable accommodations of the alehouse permitted. The 
Bailie, fatigued with his journey and the subsequent scenes - less 
interested also in the event of our arrest, which to him could only be a 
matter of temporary inconvenience - perhaps less nice than habit had 
rendered me about the cleanliness or decency of his couch, - tumbled 
himself into one of the cribs which I have already described, and soon was 
heard to snore soundly. A broken sleep, snatched by intervals, while I 
rested my head upon the table, was my only refreshment. In the course of 
the night I had occasion to observe that there seemed to be some doubt and 
hesitation in the motions of the soldiery. Men were sent out, as if to 
obtain intelligence, and returned apparently without bringing any 
satisfactory information to their commanding officer. He was obviously 
eager and anxious, and again despatched small parties of two or three men, 
some of whom, as I could understand from what the others whispered to each 
other, did not return again to the Clachan.
The morning had broken, when a corporal and two men rushed into the hut, 
dragging after them, in a sort of triumph, a Highlander, whom I immediately 
recognised as my acquaintance the ex-turnkey. The Bailie, who started up at 
the noise with which they entered, immediately made the same discovery, and 
exclaimed - "Mercy on us! they hae grippit the puir creature Dougal. - 
Captain, I will put in bail - sufficient bail, for that Dougal creature."
To this offer, dictated undoubtedly by a grateful recollection of the late 
interference of the Highlander in his behalf, the Captain only answered by 
requesting Mr Jarvie to "mind his own affairs, and remember that he was 
himself for the present a prisoner."
"I take you to witness, Mr Osbaldistone," said the Bailie, who was probably 
better acquainted with the process in civil than in military cases, "that 
he has refused sufficient bail. It's my opinion that the creature Dougal 
will have a good action of wrongous imprisonment and damages agane him, 
under the Act seventeen hundred and one, and I'll see the creature 
righted."
The officer, whose name I understood was Thornton, paying no attention to 
the Bailie's threats or expostulations, instituted a very close inquiry 
into Dougal's life and conversation, and compelled him to admit, though 
with apparent reluctance, the successive facts, - that he knew Rob Roy 
MacGregor - that he had seen him within these twelve months - within these 
six months - within this month - within this week; in fine, that he had 
parted from him only an hour ago. All this detail came like drops of blood 
from the prisoner, and was, to all appearance, only extorted by the threat 
of a halter and the next tree, which Captain Thornton assured him should be 
his doom, if he did not give direct and special information.
"And now, my friend," said the officer, "you will please inform me how many 
men your master has with him at present."
Dougal looked in every direction except at the querist, and began to 
answer, "She canna just be sure about that."
"Look at me, you Highland dog," said the officer, "and remember your life 
depends on your answer. How many rogues had that outlawed scoundrel with 
him when you left him?"
"Ou, no aboon sax rogues when I was gane."
"And where are the rest of his banditti?"
"Gane wi' the Lieutenant agane ta westland carles."
"Against the westland clans?" said the Captain. "Umph - that is likely 
enough; and what rogue's errand were you despatched upon?"
"Just to see what your honour and ta gentlemen red-coats were doing doun 
here at ta Clachan."
"The creature will prove fause-hearted, after a'," said the Bailie, who by 
this time had planted himself close behind me; "it's lucky I didna pit 
mysell to expenses anent him."
"And now, my friend," said the Captain, "let us understand each other. You 
have confessed yourself a spy, and should string up to the next tree - But 
come, if you will do me one good turn, I will do you another. You, Donald - 
you shall just, in the way of kindness, carry me and a small party to the 
place where you left your master, as I wish to speak a few words with him 
on serious affairs; and I'll let you go about your business, and give you 
five guineas to boot."
"Oigh! oigh!" exclaimed Dougal, in the extremity of distress and 
perplexity; "she canna do tat - she canna do tat; she'll rather be hanged."
"Hanged, then, you shall be, my friend" said the officer; "and your blood 
be upon your own head. Corporal Cramp, do you play Provost-Marshal - away 
with him!"
The corporal had confronted poor Dougal for some time, ostentatiously 
twisting a piece of cord which he had found in the house into the form of a 
halter. He now threw it about the culprit's neck, and, with the assistance 
of two soldiers, had dragged Dougal as far as the door, when, overcome with 
the terror of immediate death, he exclaimed, "Shentlemans, stops - stops! 
She'll do his honour's bidding - stops!"
"Awa' wi' the creature!" said the Bailie, "he deserves hanging mair now 
than ever; awa' wi' him, corporal. Why dinna ye tak him awa'?"
"It's my belief and opinion, honest gentleman," said the corporal, "that if 
you were going to be hanged yourself, you would be in no such damned 
hurry.'
This by-dialogue prevented my hearing what passed between the prisoner and 
Captain Thornton; but I heard the former snivel out, in a very subdued 
tone, "And ye'll ask her to gang nae farther than just to show ye where the 
MacGregor is? - Ohon! ohon!"
"Silence your howling, you rascal - No; I give you my word I will ask you 
to go no farther. - Corporal, make the men fall in, in front of the houses. 
Get out these gentlemen's horses; we must carry them with us. I cannot 
spare any men to guard them here. Come, my lads, get under arms."
The soldiers bustled about, and were ready to move. We were led out, along 
with Dougal, in the capacity of prisoners. As we left the hut, I heard our 
companion in captivity remind the Captain of "ta foive kuineas."
"Here they are for you," said the officer, putting gold into his hand; "but 
observe, that if you attempt to mislead me, I will blow your brains out 
with my own hand."
"The creature," said the Bailie, "is waur than I judged him - it is a 
warldly and a perfidious creature. O the filthy lucre of gain that men gies 
themsells up to! My father the deacon used to say, the penny siller slew 
mair souls than the naked sword slew bodies."
The landlady now approached, and demanded payment of her reckoning, 
including all that had been quaffed by Major Galbraith and his Highland 
friends. The English officer remonstrated, but Mrs MacAlpine declared, if 
"she hadna trusted to his honour's name being used in their company, she 
wad never hae drawn them a stoup o' liquor; for Mr Galbraith, she might see 
him again, or she might no, but weel did she wot she had sma' chance of 
seeing her siller - and she was a puir widow, had naething but her custom 
to rely on."
Captain Thornton put a stop to her remonstrances by paying the charge, 
which was only a few English shillings, though the amount sounded very 
formidable in Scottish denominations. The generous officer would have 
included Mr Jarvie and me in this general acquittance; but the Bailie, 
disregarding an intimation from the landlady to "make as muckle of the 
Inglishers as we could, for they were sure to gie us plague eneugh," went 
into a formal accounting respecting our share of the reckoning, and paid it 
accordingly. The Captain took the opportunity to make us some slight 
apology for detaining us. "If we were loyal and peaceable subjects," he 
said, "we would not regret being stopt for a day, when it was essential to 
the king's service; if otherwise, he was acting according to his duty."
We were compelled to accept an apology which it would have served no 
purpose to refuse, and we sallied out to attend him on his march.
I shall never forget the delightful sensation with which I exchanged the 
dark, smoky, smothering atmosphere of the Highland hut, in which we had 
passed the night so uncomfortably, for the refreshing fragrance of the 
morning air, and the glorious beams of the rising sun, which, from a 
tabernacle of purple and golden clouds, were darted full on such a scene of 
natural romance and beauty as had never before greeted my eyes. To the left 
lay the valley, down which the Forth wandered on its easterly course, 
surrounding the beautiful detached hill, with all its garland of woods. On 
the right, amid a profusion of thickets, knolls, and crags, lay the bed of 
a broad mountain lake, lightly curled into tiny waves by the breath of the 
morning breeze, each glittering in its course under the influence of the 
sunbeams. High hills, rocks, and banks, waving with natural forests of 
birch and oak, formed the borders of this enchanting sheet of water; and, 
as their leaves rustled to the wind and twinkled in the sun, gave to the 
depth of solitude a sort of life and vivacity. Man alone seemed to be 
placed in a state of inferiority, in a scene where all the ordinary 
features of nature were raised and exalted. The miserable little bourocks, 
as the Bailie termed them, of which about a dozen formed the village called 
the Clachan of Aberfoil, were composed of loose stones, cemented by clay 
instead of mortar, and thatched by turfs, laid rudely upon rafters formed 
of native and unhewn birches and oaks from the woods around. The roofs 
approached the ground so nearly, that Andrew Fairservice observed we might 
have ridden over the village the night before, and never found out we were 
near it, unless our horses' feet had "gane through the riggin'."
From all we could see, Mrs MacAlpine's house, miserable as were the 
quarters it afforded, was still by far the best in the hamlet; and I dare 
say (if my description gives you any curiosity to see it) you will hardly 
find it much improved at the present day, for the Scotch are not a people 
who speedily admit innovation, even when it comes in the shape of 
improvement.
The inhabitants of these miserable dwellings were disturbed by the noise of 
our departure; and as our party of about twenty soldiers drew up in rank 
before marching off, we were reconnoitred by many a beldam from the half-
opened door of her cottage. As these sibyls thrust forth their grey heads, 
imperfectly covered with close caps of flannel, and showed their shrivelled 
brows, and long skinny arms, with various gestures, shrugs, and muttered 
expressions in Gaelic addressed to each other, my imagination recurred to 
the witches of Macbeth, and I imagined I read in the features of these 
crones the malevolence of the weird sisters. The little children also, who 
began to crawl forth, some quite naked, and others very imperfectly covered 
with tatters of tartan stuff, clapped their tiny hands, and grinned at the 
English soldiers, with an expression of national hate and malignity which 
seemed beyond their years. I remarked particularly that there were no men, 
nor so much as a boy of ten or twelve years old, to be seen among the 
inhabitants of a village which seemed populous in proportion to its extent; 
and the idea certainly occurred to me, that we were likely to receive from 
them, in the course of our journey, more effectual tokens of ill-will than 
those which lowered on the visages, and dictated the murmurs, of the women 
and children. It was not until we commenced our march that the malignity of 
the elder persons of the community broke forth into expressions. The last 
file of men had left the village, to pursue a small broken track, formed by 
the sledges in which the natives transported their peats and turfs, and 
which led through the woods that fringed the lower end of the lake, when a 
shrilly sound of female exclamation broke forth, mixed with the screams of 
children, the whooping of boys, and the clapping of hands, with which the 
Highland dames enforce their notes, whether of rage or lamentation. I asked 
Andrew, who looked as pale as death, what all this meant.
"I doubt we'll ken that ower sune," said he. "Means? It means that the 
Highland wives are cursing and banning the red-coats, and wishing ill-luck 
to them, and ilka ane that ever spoke the Saxon tongue. I have heard wives 
flyte in England and Scotland - it's nae marvel to hear them flyte ony 
gate; but sic ill-scrapit tongues as thae Highland carlines' - and sic 
grewsome wishes, that men should be slaughtered like sheep - and that they 
may lapper their hands to the elbows in their heart's blude - and that they 
suld dee the death of Walter Cuming of Guiyock, wha hadna as muckle o' him 
left thegither as would supper a messan-dog - sic awsome language as that I 
ne'er heard out o' a human thrapple; - and, unless the deil wad rise amang 
them to gie them a lesson, I thinkna that their talent at cursing could be 
amended. The warst o't is, they bid us aye gang up the loch, and see what 
we'll land in."
Adding Andrew's information to what I had myself observed, I could scarce 
doubt that some attack was meditated upon our party. The road, as we 
advanced, seemed to afford every facility for such an unpleasant 
interruption. At first it winded apart from the lake through marshy meadow 
ground, overgrown with copsewood, now traversing dark and close thickets 
which would have admitted an ambuscade to be sheltered within a few yards 
of our line of march, and frequently crossing rough mountain torrents, some 
of which took the soldiers up to the knees, and ran with such violence, 
that their force could only be stemmed by the strength of two or three men 
holding fast by each other's arms. It certainly appeared to me, though 
altogether unacquainted with military affairs, that a sort of half-savage 
warriors, as I had heard the Highlanders asserted to be, might, in such 
passes as these, attack a party of regular forces with great advantage. The 
Bailie's good sense and shrewd observation had led him to the same 
conclusion, as I understood from his requesting to speak with the captain, 
whom he addressed nearly in the following terms: - "Captain, it's no to 
fleech ony favour out o' ye, for I scorn it - and it's under protest that I 
reserve my action and pleas of oppression and wrongous imprisonment; - but, 
being a friend to King George and his army, I take the liberty to speer - 
Dinna ye think ye might tak a better time to gang up this glen? If ye are 
seeking Rob Roy, he's kenned to be better than half a hunder men strong 
when he's at the fewest; an if he brings in the Glengyle folk, and the 
Glenfinlas and Balquidder lads, he may come to gie you your kail through 
the reek; and it's my sincere advice, as a king's friend, ye had better tak 
back again to the Clachan, for thae women at Aberfoil are like the scarts 
and sea-maws at the Cumries - there's aye foul weather follows their 
skirting."
"Make yourself easy, sir," replied Captain Thornton; "I am in the execution 
of my orders. And as you say you are a friend to King George, you will be 
glad to learn that it is impossible that this gang of ruffians, whose 
license has disturbed the country so long, can escape the measures now 
taken to suppress them. The horse squadron of militia, commanded by Major 
Galbraith, is already joined by two or more troops of cavalry, which will 
occupy all the lower passes of this wild country; three hundred 
Highlanders, under the two gentlemen you saw at the inn, are in possession 
of the upper part, and various strong parties from the garrison are 
securing the hills and glens in different directions. Our last accounts of 
Rob Roy correspond with what this fellow has confessed, that, finding 
himself surrounded on all sides, he had dismissed the greater part of his 
followers, with the purpose either of lying concealed, or of making his 
escape through his superior knowledge of the passes."
"I dinna ken," said the Bailie; "there's mair brandy than brains in 
Garschattachin's head this morning - And I wadna, an I were you, Captain, 
rest my main dependence on the Hielandmen - hawks winna pike out hawks' 
een. They may quarrel among themsells, and gie ilk ither ill names, and 
maybe a slash wi' a claymore; but they are sure to join in the lang run, 
against a' civilised folk, that wear breeks on their hinder ends, and hae 
purses in their pouches."
Apparently these admonitions were not altogether thrown away on Captain 
Thornton. He reformed his line of march, commanded his soldiers to unsling 
their firelocks and fix their bayonets, and formed an advanced and rear-
guard, each consisting of a non-commissioned officer and two soldiers, who 
received strict orders to keep an alert look-out. Dougal underwent another 
and very close examination, in which he steadfastly asserted the truth of 
what he had before affirmed; and being rebuked on account of the suspicious 
and dangerous appearance of the route by which he was guiding them, he 
answered with a sort of testiness that seemed very natural, "Her nainsell 
didna mak ta road; an shentlemans likit grand roads, she suld hae pided at 
Glasco."
All this passed off well enough, and we resumed our progress.
Our route, though leading towards the lake, had hitherto been so much 
shaded by wood, that we only from time to time obtained a glimpse of that 
beautiful sheet of water. But the road now suddenly emerged from the forest 
ground, and, winding close by the margin of the loch, afforded us a full 
view of its spacious mirror, which now, the breeze having totally subsided, 
reflected in still magnificence the high dark heathy mountains, huge grey 
rocks, and shaggy banks, by which it is encircled. The hills now sunk on 
its margin so closely, and were so broken and precipitous, as to afford no 
passage except just upon the narrow line of the track which we occupied, 
and which was overhung with rocks, from which we might have been destroyed 
merely by rolling down stones, without much possibility of offering 
resistance. Add to this, that, as the road winded round every promontory 
and bay which indented the lake, there was rarely a possibility of seeing a 
hundred yards before us. Our commander appeared to take some alarm at the 
nature of the pass in which he was engaged, which displayed itself in 
repeated orders to his soldiers to be on the alert, and in many threats of 
instant death to Dougal, if he should be found to have led them into 
danger. Dougal received these threats with an air of stupid 
impenetrability, which might arise either from conscious innocence, or from 
dogged resolution.
"If shentlemans were seeking ta Red Gregarach," he said, "to be sure they 
couldna expect to find her without some wee danger."
Just as the Highlander uttered these words, a halt was made by the corporal 
commanding the advance, who sent back one of the file who formed it, to 
tell the Captain that the path in front was occupied by Highlanders, 
stationed on a commanding point of particular difficulty. Almost at the 
same instant a soldier from the rear came to say that they heard the sound 
of a bagpipe in the woods through which we had just passed. Captain 
Thornton, a man of conduct as well as courage, instantly resolved to force 
the pass in front, without waiting till he was assailed from the rear; and, 
assuring his soldiers that the bagpipes which they heard were those of the 
friendly Highlanders who were advancing to their assistance, he stated to 
them the importance of advancing and securing Rob Roy, if possible, before 
these auxiliaries should come up to divide with them the honour, as well as 
the reward which was placed on the head of this celebrated freebooter. He 
therefore ordered the rearguard to join the centre, and both to close up to 
the advance, doubling his files so as to occupy with his column the whole 
practicable part of the road, and to present such a front as its breadth 
admitted. Dougal, to whom he said in a whisper, "You dog, if you have 
deceived me, you shall die for it!" was placed in the centre, between two 
grenadiers, with positive orders to shoot him if he attempted an escape. 
The same situation was assigned to us, as being the safest, and Captain 
Thornton, taking his half-pike from the soldier who carried it, placed 
himself at the head of his little detachment, and gave the word to march 
forward.
The party advanced with the firmness of English soldiers. Not so Andrew 
Fairservice, who was frightened out of his wits; and not so, if truth must 
be told, either the Bailie or I myself, who, without feeling the same 
degree of trepidation, could not with stoical indifference see our lives 
exposed to hazard in a quarrel with which we had no concern. But there was 
neither time for remonstrance nor remedy.
We approached within about twenty yards of the spot where the advanced 
guard had seen some appearance of an enemy. It was one of those 
promontories which run into the lake, and round the base of which the road 
had hitherto winded in the manner I have described. In the present case, 
however, the path, instead of keeping the water's edge, sealed the 
promontory by one or two rapid zigzags, carried in a broken track along the 
precipitous face of a slaty grey rock, which would otherwise have been 
absolutely inaccessible. On the top of this rock, only to be approached by 
a road so broken, so narrow, and so precarious, the corporal declared he 
had seen the bonnets and long-barrelled guns of several mountaineers, 
apparently couched among the long heath and brushwood which crested the 
eminence. Captain Thornton ordered him to move forward with three files, to 
dislodge the supposed ambuscade, while, at a more slow but steady pace, he 
advanced to his support with the rest of his party.
The attack which he meditated was prevented by the unexpected apparition of 
a female upon the summit of the rock.
"Stand!" she said, with a commanding tone, "and tell me what ye seek in 
MacGregor's country?"
I have seldom seen a finer or more commanding form than this woman. She 
might be between the term of forty and fifty years, and had a countenance 
which must once have been of a masculine cast of beauty; though now, 
imprinted with deep lines by exposure to rough weather, and perhaps by the 
wasting influence of grief and passion, its features were only strong, 
harsh, and expressive. She wore her plaid, not drawn around her head and 
shoulders, as is the fashion of the women in Scotland, but disposed around 
her body as the Highland soldiers wear theirs. She had a man's bonnet, with 
a feather in it, an unsheathed sword in her hand, and a pair of pistols at 
her girdle.
"It's Helen Campbell, Rob's wife," said the Bailie, in a whisper of 
considerable alarm; "and there will be broken heads amang us or it's lang."
"What seek ye here?" she asked again of Captain Thornton, who had himself 
advanced to reconnoitre.
"We seek the outlaw, Rob Roy MacGregor Campbell," answered the officer, 
"and make no war on women; therefore offer no vain opposition to the king's 
troops, and assure yourself of civil treatment."
"Ay," retorted the Amazon, "I am no stranger to your tender mercies. Ye 
have left me neither name nor fame - my mother's bones will shrink aside in 
their grave when mine are laid beside them - Ye have left me neither house 
nor hold, blanket nor bedding, cattle to feed us, or flocks to clothe us - 
Ye have taken from us all - all! - The very name of our ancestors have ye 
taken away, and now ye come for our lives."
"I seek no man's life," replied the Captain; "I only execute my orders. If 
you are alone, good woman, you have nought to fear - if there are any with 
you so rash as to offer useless resistance, their own blood be on their own 
heads. Move forward, sergeant."
"Forward! march!" said the non-commissioned officer. "Huzza, my boys, for 
Rob Roy's head and a purse of gold."
He quickened his pace into a run, followed by the six soldiers; but as they 
attained the first traverse of the ascent, the flash of a dozen of 
firelocks from various parts of the pass parted in quick succession and 
deliberate aim. The sergeant, shot through the body, still struggled to 
gain the ascent, raised himself by his hands to clamber up the face of the 
rock, but relaxed his grasp, after a desperate effort, and falling, rolled 
from the face of the cliff into the deep lake, where he perished. Of the 
soldiers, three fell, slain or disabled; the others retreated on their main 
body, all more or less wounded.
"Grenadiers, to the front!" said Captain Thornton. - You are to recollect, 
that in those days this description of soldiers actually carried that 
destructive species of firework from which they derive their name. The four 
grenadiers moved to the front accordingly. The officer commanded the rest 
of the party to be ready to support them, and only saying to us, "Look to 
your safety, gentlemen," gave, in rapid succession, the word to the 
grenadiers - "Open your pouches - handle your grenades - blow your matches 
- fall on."
The whole advanced with a shout, headed by Captain Thornton, - the 
grenadiers preparing to throw their grenades among the bushes where the 
ambuscade lay, and the musketeers to support them by an instant and close 
assault. Dougal, forgotten in the scuffle, wisely crept into the thicket 
which overhung that part of the road where we had first halted, which he 
ascended with the activity of a wild cat. I followed his example, 
instinctively recollecting that the fire of the Highlanders would sweep the 
open track. I clambered until out of breath; for a continued spattering 
fire, in which every shot was multiplied by a thousand echoes, the hissing 
of the kindled fuses of the grenades, and the successive explosion of those 
missiles, mingled with the huzzas of the soldiers, and the yells and cries 
of their Highland antagonists, formed a contrast which added - I do not 
shame to own it - wings to my desire to reach a place of safety. The 
difficulties of the ascent soon increased so much, that I despaired of 
reaching Dougal, who seemed to swing himself from rock to rock, and stump 
to stump, with the facility of a squirrel, and I turned down my eyes to see 
what had become of my other companions. Both were brought to a very awkward 
standstill.
The Bailie, to whom I suppose fear had given a temporary share of agility, 
had ascended about twenty feet from the path, when his foot slipping, as he 
straddled from one huge fragment of rock to another, he would have 
slumbered with his father the deacon, whose acts and words he was so fond 
of quoting, but for a projecting branch of a ragged thorn, which, catching 
hold of the skirts of his riding-coat, supported him in mid-air, where he 
dangled not unlike to the sign of the Golden Fleece over the door of a 
mercer in the Trongate of his native city.
As for Andrew Fairservice, he had advanced with better success, until he 
had attained the top of a bare cliff, which, rising above the wood, exposed 
him, at least in his own opinion, to all the dangers of the neighbouring 
skirmish, while, at the same time, it was of such a precipitous and 
impracticable nature, that he dared neither to advance nor retreat. Footing 
it up and down upon the narrow space which the top of the cliff afforded 
(very like a fellow at a country-fair dancing upon a trencher), he roared 
for mercy in Gaelic and English alternately, according to the side on which 
the scale of victory seemed to predominate, while his exclamations were 
only answered by the groans of the Bailie, who suffered much, not only from 
apprehension, but from the pendulous posture in which he hung suspended by 
the loins.
On perceiving the Bailie's precarious situation, my first idea was to 
attempt to render him assistance; but this was impossible without the 
concurrence of Andrew, whom neither sign, nor entreaty, nor command, nor 
expostulation, could inspire with courage to adventure the descent from his 
painful elevation, where, like an unskilful and obnoxious minister of 
state, unable to escape from the eminence to which he had presumptuously 
ascended, he continued to pour forth piteous prayers for mercy, which no 
one heard, and to skip to and fro, writhing his body into all possible 
antic shapes to avoid the balls which he conceived to be whistling around 
him.
In a few minutes this cause of terror ceased, for the fire, at first so 
well sustained, now sunk at once - a sure sign that the conflict was 
concluded. To gain some spot from which I could see how the day had gone 
was now my object, in order to appeal to the mercy of the victors, who, I 
trusted (whichever side might be gainers), would not suffer the honest 
Bailie to remain suspended, like the coffin of Mahomet, between heaven and 
earth, without lending a hand to disengage him. At length, by dint of 
scrambling, I found a spot which commanded a view of the field of battle. 
It was indeed ended; and, as my mind already augured, from the place and 
circumstances attending the contest, it had terminated in the defeat of 
Captain Thornton. I saw a party of Highlanders in the act of disarming that 
officer, and the scanty remainder of his party. They consisted of about 
twelve men most of whom were wounded, who, surrounded by treble their 
number, and without the power either to advance or retreat, exposed to a 
murderous and well-aimed fire, which they had no means of returning with 
effect, had at length laid down their arms by the order of their officer, 
when he saw that the road in his rear was occupied, and that protracted 
resistance would be only wasting the lives of his brave followers. By the 
Highlanders, who fought under cover, the victory was cheaply bought, at the 
expense of one man slain and two wounded by the grenades. All this I 
learned afterwards. At present I only comprehended the general result of 
the day, from seeing the English officer, whose face was covered with 
blood, stripped of his hat and arms, and his men, with sullen and dejected 
countenances which marked their deep regret, enduring, from the wild and 
martial figures who surrounded them, the severe measures to which the laws 
of war subject the vanquished for security of the victors.



Chapter 31

		"Woe to the vanquished!" was stern Brenno's word,
		When sunk proud Rome beneath the Gallic sword -
		"Woe to the vanquished!" when his massive blade
		Bore down the scale against her ransom weigh'd;
		And on the field of foughten battle still,
		Woe knows no limits save the victor's will.
								-- The Gaulliad.


I anxiously endeavoured to distinguish Dougal among the victors. I had 
little doubt that the part he had played was assumed, on purpose to lead 
the English officer into the defile, and I could not help admiring the 
address with which the ignorant, and apparently half-brutal savage, had 
veiled his purpose, and the affected reluctance with which he had suffered 
to be extracted from him the false information which it must have been his 
purpose from the beginning to communicate. I foresaw we should incur some 
danger on approaching the victors in the first flush of their success, 
which was not unstained with cruelty; for one or two of the soldiers, whose 
wounds prevented them from rising, were poniarded by the victors, or rather 
by some ragged Highland boys who had mingled with them. I concluded, 
therefore, it would be unsafe to present ourselves without some mediator; 
and as Campbell, whom I now could not but identify with the celebrated 
freebooter Rob Roy, was nowhere to be seen, I resolved to claim the 
protection of his emissary, Dougal.
After gazing everywhere in vain, I at length retraced my steps to see what 
assistance I could individually render to my unlucky friend, when, to my 
great joy, I saw Mr Jarvie delivered from his state of suspense; and though 
very black in the face, and much deranged in the garments, safely seated 
beneath the rock, in front of which he had been so lately suspended. I 
hastened to join him and offer my congratulations, which he was at first 
far from receiving in the spirit of cordiality with which they were 
offered. A heavy fit of coughing scarce permitted him breath enough to 
express the broken hints which he threw out against my sincerity.
"Uh! uh! uh! uh! - they say a friend - uh! uh! - a friend sticketh closer 
than a brither - uh! uh! uh! When I came up here, Maister Osbaldistone, to 
this country, cursed of God and man - uh! uh - Heaven forgie me for 
swearing - on nae man's errand but yours, d'ye think it was fair - uh! uh! 
uh! - to leave me, first, to be shot or drowned atween red-wad Highlanders 
and red-coats; and next to be hung up between heaven and earth, like an 
auld potato-bogle, without sae muckle as trying - uh! uh! - sae muckle as 
trying to relieve me?"
I made a thousand apologies, and laboured so hard to represent the 
impossibility of my affording him relief by my own unassisted exertions, 
that at length I succeeded, and the Bailie, who was as placable as hasty in 
his temper, extended his favour to me once more. I next took the liberty of 
asking him how he had contrived to extricate himself.
"Me extricate! I might hae hung there till the day of judgement or I could 
hae helped mysell, wi' my head hinging down on the tae side, and my heels 
on the tother, like the yarn-scales in the weigh-house. It was the creature 
Dougal that extricated me, as he did yestreen; he cuttit aff the tails o' 
my coat wi' his durk, and another gillie and him set me on my legs as 
cleverly as if I had never been aff them. But to see what a thing gude 
braid cloth is! Had I been in ony o' your rotten French camlets now, or 
your drab-de-berries, it would hae screeded like an auld rag wi' sic a 
weight as mine. But fair fa' the weaver that wrought the weft o't - I swung 
and bobbit yonder as safe as a gabbart that's moored by a three-ply cable 
at the Broomielaw."
I now inquired what had become of his preserver.
"The creature," so he continued to call the Highlandman, "contrived to let 
me ken there wad be danger in gaun near the leddy till he came back, and 
bade me stay here. I am o' the mind," he continued, "that he's seeking 
after you - it's a considerate creature - and troth, I wad swear he was 
right about the leddy, as he ca's her, too - Helen Campbell was nane o' the 
maist douce maidens, nor meekest wives neither, and folk say that Rob 
himsell stands in awe o' her. I doubt she winna ken me, for it's mony years 
since we met - I am clear for waiting for the Dougal creature or we gang 
near her."
I signified my acquiescence in this reasoning; but it was not the will of 
fate that day that the Bailie's prudence should profit himself or any one 
else.
Andrew Fairservice, though he had ceased to caper on the pinnacle upon the 
cessation of the firing, which had given occasion for his whimsical 
exercise, continued, as perched on the top of an exposed cliff, too 
conspicuous an object to escape the sharp eyes of the Highlanders, when 
they had time to look a little around them. We were apprised he was 
discovered, by a wild and loud halloo set up among the assembled victors, 
three or four of whom instantly plunged into the copsewood, and ascended 
the rocky side of the hill in different directions towards the place where 
they had discovered this whimsical apparition.
Those who arrived first within gunshot of poor Andrew, did not trouble 
themselves to offer him any assistance in the ticklish posture of his 
affairs, but levelling their long Spanish-barrelled guns, gave him to 
understand, by signs which admitted of no misconstruction, that he must 
contrive to come down and submit himself to their mercy, or to be marked at 
from beneath, like a regimental target set up for ball-practice. With such 
a formidable hint for venturous exertion, Andrew Fairservice could no 
longer hesitate; the more imminent peril overcame his sense of that which 
seemed less inevitable, and he began to descend the cliff at all risks, 
clutching to the ivy and oak stumps, and projecting fragments of rock, with 
an almost feverish anxiety, and never failing, as circumstances left him a 
hand at liberty, to extend it to the plaided gentry below in an attitude of 
supplication, as if to deprecate the discharge of their levelled firearms. 
In a word, the fellow, under the influence of a counteracting motive for 
terror, achieved a safe descent from his perilous eminence, which, I verily 
believe, nothing but the fear of instant death could have moved him to 
attempt. The awkward mode of Andrew's descent greatly amused the 
Highlanders below, who fired a shot or two while he was engaged in it, 
without the purpose of injuring him, as I believe, but merely to enhance 
the amusement they derived from his extreme terror, and the superlative 
exertions of agility to which it excited him.
At length he attained firm and comparatively level ground - or rather, to 
speak more correctly, his foot slipping at the last point of descent, he 
fell on the earth at his full length, and was raised by the assistance of 
the Highlanders, who stood to receive him, and who, ere he gained his legs, 
stripped him not only of the whole contents of his pockets, but of periwig, 
hat, coat, doublet, stockings, and shoes, performing the feat with such 
admirable celerity, that, although he fell on his back a well-clothed and 
decent burgher-seeming serving-man, he arose a forked, uncased, bald-pated, 
beggarly-looking scarecrow. Without respect to the pain which his 
undefended toes experienced from the sharp encounter of the rocks over 
which they hurried him, those who had detected Andrew proceeded to drag him 
downward towards the road through all the intervening obstacles.
In the course of their descent, Mr Jarvie and I became exposed to their 
lynx-eyed observation, and instantly half-a-dozen of armed Highlanders 
thronged around us, with drawn dirks and swords pointed at our faces and 
throats, and cocked pistols presented against our bodies. To have offered 
resistance would have been madness, especially as we had no weapons capable 
of supporting such a demonstration. We therefore submitted to our fate; and 
with great roughness on the part of those who assisted at our toilette, 
were in the act of being reduced to as unsophisticated a state (to use King 
Lear's phrase) as the plume-less biped Andrew Fairservice, who stood 
shivering between fear and cold at a few yards' distance. Good chance, 
however, saved us from this extremity of wretchedness; for, just as I had 
yielded up my cravat (a smart Steinkirk, by the way, and richly laced), and 
the Bailie had been disrobed of the fragments of his riding-coat - enter 
Dougal, and the scene was changed. By a high tone of expostulation, mixed 
with oaths and threats, as far as I could conjecture the tenor of his 
language from the violence of his gestures, he compelled the plunderers, 
however reluctant, not only to give up their further depredations on our 
property, but to restore the spoil they had already appropriated. He 
snatched my cravat from the fellow who had seized it, and twisted it (in 
the zeal of his restitution) around my neck with such suffocating energy as 
made me think that he had not only been, during his residence at Glasgow, a 
substitute of the jailor, but must moreover have taken lessons as an 
apprentice of the hangman. He flung the tattered remnants of Mr Jarvie's 
coat around his shoulders, and as more Highlanders began to flock towards 
us from the high road, he led the way downwards, directing and commanding 
the others to afford us, but particularly the Bailie, the assistance 
necessary to our descending with comparative ease and safety. It was, 
however, in vain that Andrew Fairservice employed his lungs in obsecrating 
a share of Dougal's protection, or at least his interference to procure 
restoration of his shoes.
"Na, na," said Dougal in reply, "she's nae gentle body, I trow; her petters 
hae ganged parefoot, or she's muckle mista'en." And, leaving Andrew to 
follow at his leisure, or rather at such leisure as the surrounding crowd 
were pleased to indulge him with, he hurried us down to the pathway in 
which the skirmish had been fought, and hastened to present us as 
additional captives to the female leader of his band.
We were dragged before her accordingly, Dougal fighting, struggling, 
screaming, as if he were the party most apprehensive of hurt, and 
repulsing, by threats and efforts, all those who attempted to take a nearer 
interest in our capture than he seemed to do himself. At length we were 
placed before the heroine of the day, whose appearance, as well as those of 
the savage, uncouth, yet martial figures who surrounded us, struck me, to 
own the truth, with considerable apprehension. I do not know if Helen 
MacGregor had personally mingled in the fray, and indeed I was afterwards 
given to understand the contrary; but the specks of blood on her brow, her 
hands and naked arms, as well as on the blade of her sword which she 
continued to hold in her hand - her flushed countenance, and the disordered 
state of the raven locks which escaped from under the red bonnet and plume 
that formed her head-dress, seemed all to intimate that she had taken an 
immediate share in the conflict. Her keen black eyes and features expressed 
an imagination inflamed by the pride of gratified revenge, and the triumph 
of victory. Yet there was nothing positively sanguinary, or cruel, in her 
deportment; and she reminded me, when the immediate alarm of the interview 
was over, of some of the paintings I had seen of the inspired heroines in 
the Catholic churches of France. She was not, indeed, sufficiently 
beautiful for a Judith, nor had she the inspired expression of features 
which painters have given to Deborah, or to the wife of Heber the Kenite, 
at whose feet the strong oppressor of Israel, who dwelled in Harosheth of 
the Gentiles, bowed down, fell, and lay a dead man. Nevertheless, the 
enthusiasm by which she was agitated gave her countenance and deportment, 
wildly dignified in themselves, an air which made her approach nearly to 
the ideas of those wonderful artists who gave to the eye the heroines of 
Scripture history.
I was uncertain in what terms to accost a personage so uncommon, when Mr 
Jarvie, breaking the ice with a preparatory cough (for the speed with which 
he had been brought into her presence had again impeded his respiration), 
addressed her as follows: - "Uh! uh! etc. etc. I am very happy to have this 
joyful opportunity" (a quaver in his voice strongly belied the emphasis 
which he studiously laid on the word joyful) - "this joyful occasion," he 
resumed, trying to give the adjective a more suitable accentuation, "to 
wish my kinsman Robin's wife a very good morning - Uh! uh! - How's a' wi' 
ye?" (by this time he had talked himself into his usual jog-trot manner, 
which exhibited a mixture of familiarity and self-importance) - "How's a' 
wi' ye this lang time? Ye'll hae forgotten me, Mrs MacGregor Campbell, as 
your cousin - uh! uh! - but ye'll mind my father, Deacon Nicol Jarvie, in 
the Saut Market o' Glasgow? - an honest man he was, and a sponsible, and 
respectit you and yours. Sae, as I said before, I am right glad to see you, 
Mrs MacGregor Campbell, as my kinsman's wife. I wad crave the liberty of a 
kinsman to salute you, but that your gillies keep such a dolefu' fast haud 
o' my arms, and, to speak Heaven's truth and a magistrate's, ye wadna be 
the waur of a cogfu' o' water before ye welcomed your friends."
There was something in the familiarity of this introduction which ill 
suited the exalted state of temper of the person to whom it was addressed, 
then busied with distributing dooms of death, and warm from conquest in a 
perilous encounter.
"What fellow are you," she said, "that dare to claim kindred with the 
MacGregor, and neither wear his dress nor speak his language? - What are 
you, that have the tongue and the habit of the hound, and yet seek to lie 
down with the deer?"
"I dinna ken," said the undaunted Bailie, "if the kindred has ever been 
weel redd out to you yet, cousin - but it's kenned, and can be proved. My 
mother, Elspeth MacFarlane, was the wife of my father, Deacon Nicol Jarvie 
- peace be wi' them baith! - and Elspeth was the daughter of Parlane 
MacFarlane, at the Sheeling o' Loch Sloy. Now, this Parlane MacFarlane, as 
his surviving daughter Maggy MacFarlane, alias MacNab, wha married Duncan 
MacNab o' Stuckavrallachan, can testify, stood as near to your gudeman, 
Robert MacGregor, as in the fourth degree of kindred, for -"
The virago lopped the genealogical tree, by demanding haughtily, "If a 
stream of rushing water acknowledged any relation with the portion 
withdrawn from it for the mean domestic uses of those who dwelt on its 
banks?"
"Vera true, kinswoman," said the Bailie; "but for a' that, the burn wad be 
glad to hae the milldam back again in simmer, when the chuckie-stanes are 
white in the sun. I ken weel eneugh you Hieland folk haud us Glasgow people 
light and cheap for our language and our claes; - but everybody speaks 
their native tongue that they learned in infancy; and it would be a daft-
like thing to see me wi' my fat wame in a short Hieland coat, and my puir 
short houghs gartered below the knee, like ane o' your lang-legged gillies. 
Mair by token, kinswoman," he continued, in defiance of various intimations 
by which Dougal seemed to recommend silence, as well as of the marks of 
impatience which the Amazon evinced at his loquacity, "I wad hae ye to mind 
that the king's errand whiles comes in the cadger's gate, and that, for as 
high as ye may think o' the gudeman, as it's right every wife should honour 
her husband - there's Scripture warrant for that - yet as high as ye haud 
him, as I was saying, I hae been serviceable to Rob ere now; - forbye a set 
o' pearlins I sent yourself when ye was gaun to be married, and when Rob 
was an honest weel-doing drover, and nane o' this unlawfu' wark, wi' 
fighting, and flashes, and fluf-gibs, disturbing the king's peace and 
disarming his soldiers."
He had apparently touched on a key which his kinswoman could not brook. She 
drew herself up to her full height, and betrayed the acuteness of her 
feelings by a laugh of mingled scorn and bitterness.
"Yes," she said, "you, and such as you, might claim a relation to us, when 
we stooped to be the paltry wretches fit to exist under your dominion, as 
your hewers of wood and drawers of water - to find cattle for your 
banquets, and subjects for your laws to oppress and trample on. But now we 
are free - free by the very act which left us neither house nor hearth, 
food nor covering - which bereaved me of all - of all - and makes me groan 
when I think I must still cumber the earth for other purposes than those of 
vengeance. And I will carry on the work, this day has so well commenced, by 
a deed that shall break all bands between MacGregor and the Lowland churls. 
Here Allan - Dougal - bind these Sassenachs neck and heel together, and 
throw them into the Highland Loch to seek for their Highland kinsfolk."
The Bailie, alarmed at this mandate, was commencing an expostulation, which 
probably would have only inflamed the violent passions of the person whom 
he addressed, when Dougal threw himself between them, and in his own 
language, which he spoke with a fluency and rapidity strongly contrasted by 
the slow, imperfect, and idiot-like manner in which he expressed himself in 
English, poured forth what I doubt not was a very animated pleading in our 
behalf.
His mistress replied to him, or rather cut short his harangue, by 
exclaiming in English (as if determined to make us taste in anticipation 
the full bitterness of death) - "Base dog, and son of a dog, do you dispute 
my commands? Should I tell ye to cut out their tongues and put them into 
each other's throats, to try which would there best knap Southron, or to 
tear out their hearts and put them into each other's breasts, to see which 
would there best plot treason against the MacGregor - and such things have 
been done of old in the day of revenge, when our fathers had wrongs to 
redress - Should I command you to do this, would it be your part to dispute 
my orders?"
"To be sure, to be sure," Dougal replied, with accents of profound 
submission; "her pleasure suld be done - tat's but reason; but an it were - 
tat is, an it could be thought the same to her to coup the ill-faured loon 
of ta red-coat Captain, and hims corporal Cramp, and twa three o' the red-
coats, into the loch, herself wad do't wi' muckle mair great satisfaction 
than to hurt ta honest civil shentlemans as were friends to the Gregarach, 
and came up on the Chiefs assurance, and not to do no treason, as herself 
could testify."
The lady was about to reply, when a few wild strains of a pibroch were 
heard advancing up the road from Aberfoil, the same probably which had 
reached the ears of Captain Thornton's rear-guard, and determined him to 
force his way onward rather than return to the village, on finding the pass 
occupied. The skirmish being of very short duration, the armed men who 
followed this martial melody, had not, although quickening their march when 
they heard the firing, been able to arrive in time sufficient to take any 
share in the rencontre. The victory, therefore, was complete without them, 
and they now arrived only to share in the triumph of their countrymen.
There was a marked difference betwixt the appearance of these new comers 
and that of the party by which our escort had been defeated - and it was 
greatly in favour of the former. Among the Highlanders who surrounded the 
Chieftainess, if I may presume to call her so without offence to grammar, 
were men in the extremity of age, boys scarce able to bear a sword, and 
even women - all, in short, whom the last necessity urges to take up arms; 
and it added a shade of bitter shame to the defection which clouded 
Thornton's manly countenance, when he found that the numbers and position 
of a foe, otherwise so despicable, had enabled them to conquer his brave 
veterans. But the thirty or forty Highlanders who now joined the others, 
were all men in the prime of youth or manhood, active clean-made fellows, 
whose short hose and belted plaids set out their sinewy limbs to the best 
advantage. Their arms were as superior to those of the first party as their 
dress and appearance. The followers of the female Chief had axes, scythes, 
and other antique weapons, in aid of their guns; and some had only clubs, 
daggers, and long knives. But of the second party, most had pistols at the 
belt, and almost all had dirks hanging at the pouches which they wore in 
front. Each had a good gun in his hand, and a broadsword by his side, 
besides a stout round target, made of light wood, covered with leather, and 
curiously studded with brass, and having a steel spike screwed into the 
centre. These hung on their left shoulder during a march, or while they 
were engaged in exchanging fire with the enemy, and were worn on their left 
arm when they charged with sword in hand.
But it was easy to see that this chosen band had not arrived from a victory 
such as they found their ill-appointed companions possessed of. The pibroch 
sent forth occasionally a few wailing notes expressive of a very different 
sentiment from triumph; and when they appeared before the wife of their 
Chieftain, it was in silence, and with downcast and melancholy looks. They 
paused when they approached her, and the pipes again sent forth the same 
wild and melancholy strain.
Helen rushed towards them with a countenance in which anger was mingled 
with apprehension. - "What means this, Allaster?" she said to the minstrel 
- "why a lament in the moment of victory? - Robert - Hamish - where's the 
MacGregor? - where's your father?"
Her sons, who led the band, advanced with slow and irresolute steps towards 
her, and murmured a few words in Gaelic, at hearing which she set up a 
shriek that made the rocks ring again, in which all the women and boys 
joined, clapping their hands and yelling as if their lives had been 
expiring in the sound. The mountain echoes, silent since the military 
sounds of battle had ceased, had now to answer these frantic and discordant 
shrieks of sorrow, which drove the very night-birds from their haunts in 
the rocks, as if they were startled to hear orgies more hideous and ill-
omened than their own, performed in the face of open day.
"Taken!" repeated Helen, when the clamour had subsided - "Taken! - captive! 
- and you live to say so? - Coward dogs! did I nurse you for this, that you 
should spare your blood on your father's enemies? or see him prisoner, and 
come back to tell it?"
The sons of MacGregor, to whom this expostulation was addressed, were 
youths, of whom the eldest had hardly attained his twentieth year. Hamish, 
or James, the elder of these youths, was the tallest by a head, and much 
handsomer than his brother; his light-blue eyes, with a profusion of fair 
hair, which streamed from under his smart blue bonnet, made his whole 
appearance a most favourable specimen of the Highland youth. The younger 
was called Robert; but, to distinguish him from his father, the Highlanders 
added the epithet Oig, or the young. Dark hair, and dark features, with a 
ruddy glow of health and animation, and a form strong and well-set beyond 
his years, completed the sketch of the young mountaineer.
Both now stood before their mother with countenances clouded with grief and 
shame, and listened, with the most respectful submission, to the reproaches 
with which she loaded them. At length when her resentment appeared in some 
degree to subside, the eldest, speaking in English, probably that he might 
not be understood by their followers, endeavoured respectfully to vindicate 
himself and his brother from his mother's reproaches. I was so near him as 
to comprehend much of what he said; and, as it was of great consequence to 
me to be possessed of information in this strange crisis, I failed not to 
listen as attentively as I could.
"The MacGregor," his son stated, "had been called out upon a trysting with 
a Lowland hallion, who came with a token from" - he muttered the name very 
low, but I thought it sounded like my own. "The MacGregor," he said, 
"accepted of the invitation, but commanded the Saxon who brought the 
message to be detained, as a hostage that good faith should be observed to 
him. Accordingly he went to the place of appointment" (which had some wild 
Highland name that I cannot remember), "attended only by Angus Breck and 
Little Rory, commanding no one to follow him. Within half an hour Angus 
Breck came back with the doleful tidings that the MacGregor had been 
surprised and made prisoner by a party of Lennox militia, under Galbraith 
of Garschattachin." He added, "that Galbraith, on being threatened by 
MacGregor, who upon his capture menaced him with retaliation on the person 
of the hostage, had treated the threat with great contempt, replying, 'Let 
each side hang his man; we'll hang the thief, and your catherans may hang 
the gauger, Rob, and the country will be rid of two damned things at once, 
a wild Highlander and a revenue officer.' Angus Breck, less carefully 
looked to than his master, contrived to escape from the hands of the 
captors, after having been in their custody long enough to hear this 
discussion, and to bring off the news."
"And did you learn this, you false-hearted traitor," said the wife of 
MacGregor, "and not instantly rush to your father's rescue, to bring him 
off, or leave your body on the place?"
The young MacGregor modestly replied, by representing the very superior 
force of the enemy, and stated, that as they made no preparation for 
leaving the country, he had fallen back up the glen with the purpose of 
collecting a band sufficient to attempt a rescue with some tolerable chance 
of success. At length he said, "the militiamen would quarter, he 
understood, in the neighbouring house of Gartartan, or the old castle in 
the port of Monteith, or some other stronghold, which, although strong and 
defensible, was nevertheless capable of being surprised, could they but get 
enough of men assembled for the purpose."
I understood afterwards that the rest of the freebooter's followers were 
divided into two strong bands, one destined to watch the remaining garrison 
of Inversnaid, a party of which, under Captain Thornton, had been defeated; 
and another to show front to the Highland clans who had united with the 
regular troops and Lowlanders in this hostile and combined invasion of that 
mountainous and desolate territory, which lying between the lakes of Loch 
Lomond, Loch Katrine, and Loch Ard, was at this time currently called Rob 
Roy's, or the MacGregor country. Messengers were despatched in great haste, 
to concentrate, as I supposed, their forces, with a view to the purposed 
attack on the Lowlanders; and the dejection and despair, at first visible 
on each countenance, gave place to the hope of rescuing their leader, and 
to the thirst of vengeance. It was under the burning influence of the 
latter passion that the wife of MacGregor commanded that the hostage 
exchanged for his safety should be brought into her presence. I believe her 
sons had kept this unfortunate wretch out of her sight, for fear of the 
consequences; but if it was so, their humane precaution only postponed his 
fate. They dragged forward at her summons a wretch already half dead with 
terror, in whose agonised features I recognised, to my horror and 
astonishment, my old acquaintance Morris.
He fell prostrate before the female Chief with an effort to clasp her 
knees, from which she drew back, as if his touch had been pollution, so 
that all he could do in token of the extremity of his humiliation, was to 
kiss the hem of her plaid. I never heard entreaties for life poured forth 
with such agony of spirit. The ecstasy of fear was such, that instead of 
paralysing his tongue, as on ordinary occasions, it even rendered him 
eloquent; and, with cheeks pale as ashes, hands compressed in agony, eyes 
that seemed to be taking their last look of all mortal objects, he 
protested, with the deepest oaths, his total ignorance of any design on the 
person of Rob Roy, whom he swore he loved and honoured as his own soul. In 
the inconsistency of his terror, he said he was but the agent of others, 
and he muttered the name of Rashleigh. He prayed but for life - for life he 
would give all he had in the world: it was but life he asked - life, if it 
were to be prolonged under tortures and privations: he asked only breath, 
though it should be drawn in the damps of the lowest caverns of their 
hills.
It is impossible to describe the scorn, the loathing, and contempt, with 
which the wife of MacGregor regarded this wretched petitioner for the poor 
boon of existence.
"I could have bid ye live," she said, "had life been to you the same weary 
and wasting burden that it is to me - that it is to every noble and 
generous mind. But you - wretch! you could creep through the world 
unaffected by its various disgraces, its ineffable miseries, its constantly 
accumulating masses of crime and sorrow: you could live and enjoy yourself, 
while the noble-minded are betrayed - while nameless and birthless villains 
tread on the neck of the brave and the long-descended: you could enjoy 
yourself, like a butcher's dog in the shambles, battening on garbage, while 
the slaughter of the oldest and best went on around you! This enjoyment you 
shall not live to partake of! - you shall die, base dog! and that before 
yon cloud has passed over the sun."
She gave a brief command in Gaelic to her attendants, two of whom seized 
upon the prostrate suppliant, and hurried him to the brink of a cliff which 
overhung the flood. He set up the most piercing and dreadful cries that 
fear ever uttered - I may well term them dreadful, for they haunted my 
sleep for years afterwards. As the murderers, or executioners, call them as 
you will, dragged him along, he recognised me even in that moment of 
horror, and exclaimed, in the last articulate words I ever heard him utter, 
"Oh, Mr Osbaldistone, save me! - save me!"
I was so much moved by this horrid spectacle, that, although in momentary 
expectation of sharing his fate, I did attempt to speak in his behalf, but, 
as might have been expected, my interference was sternly disregarded. The 
victim was held fast by some, while others, binding a large heavy stone in 
a plaid, tied it round his neck, and others again eagerly stripped him of 
some part of his dress. Half-naked, and thus manacled, they hurled him into 
the lake, there about twelve feet deep, with a loud halloo of vindictive 
triumph, - above which, however, his last death-shriek, the yell of mortal 
agony, was distinctly heard. The heavy burden splashed in the dark-blue 
waters, and the Highlanders, with their pole-axes and swords, watched an 
instant to guard, lest, extricating himself from the load to which he was 
attached, the victim might have struggled to regain the shore. But the knot 
had been securely bound - the wretched man sunk without effort; the waters, 
which his fall had disturbed, settled calmly over him, and the unit of that 
life for which he had pleaded so strongly, was for ever withdrawn from the 
sum of human existence.


Chapter 32

		And be he safe restored ere evening set,
		Or, if there's vengeance in an injured heart,
		And power to wreak it in an armed hand,
		Your land shall ache for't.
							-- Old Play.


I know not why it is that a single deed of violence and cruelty affects our 
nerves more than when these are exercised on a more extended scale. I had 
seen that day several of my brave countrymen fall in battle: it seemed to 
me that they met a lot appropriate to humanity, and my bosom, though 
thrilling with interest, was affected with nothing of that sickening horror 
with which I beheld the unfortunate Morris put to death without resistance, 
and in cold blood. I looked at my companion, Mr Jarvie, whose face 
reflected the feelings which were painted in mine. Indeed he could not so 
suppress his horror, but that the words escaped him in a low and broken 
whisper, -
"I take up my protest against this deed, as a bloody and cruel murder - it 
is a cursed deed, and God will avenge it in his due way and time."
"Then you do not fear to follow?" said the virago, bending on him a look of 
death, such as that with which a hawk looks at his prey ere he pounces.
"Kinswoman," said the Bailie, "nae man willingly wad cut short his thread 
of life before the end o' his pirn was fairly measured off on the yarn-
winles - And I hae muckle to do, an I be spared, in this warld - public and 
private business, as weel that belonging to the magistracy as to my ain 
particular; and nae doubt I hae some to depend on me, as puir Mattie, wha 
is an orphan - She's a far-awa' cousin o' the Laird o' Limmerfield. Sae 
that, laying a' this thegither - skin for skin, yea all that a man hath, 
will he give for his life."
"And were I to set you at liberty," said the imperious dame, "what name 
could you give to the drowning of that Saxon dog?"
"Uh! uh! - hem! hem!" said the Bailie, clearing his throat as well as he 
could, "I suld study to say as little on that score as might be - least 
said is sunest mended."
"But if you were called on by the courts, as you term them, of justice," 
she again demanded, "what then would be your answer?"
The Bailie looked this way and that way, like a person who meditates an 
escape, and then answered in the tone of one who, seeing no means of 
accomplishing a retreat, determines to stand the brunt of battle - "I see 
what you are driving me to the wa' about. But I'll tell you't plain, 
kinswoman, - I behoved just to speak according to my ain conscience; and 
though your ain gudeman, that I wish had been here for his ain sake and 
mine, as wool as the puir Hieland creature Dougal, can tell ye that Nicol 
Jarvie can wink as hard at a friend's failings as ony body, yet I'se tell 
ye, kinswoman, mine's ne'er be the tongue to belie my thought; and sooner 
than say that yonder puir wretch was lawfully slaughtered, I wad consent to 
be laid beside him - though I think ye are the first Hieland woman wad mint 
sic a doom to her husband's kinsman but four times removed."
It is probable that the tone and firmness assumed by the Bailie in his last 
speech was better suited to make an impression on the hard heart of his 
kinswoman than the tone of supplication he had hitherto assumed, as gems 
can be cut with steel, though they resist softer metals. She commanded us 
both to be placed before her. "Your name," she said to me, "is 
Osbaldistone? - the dead dog, whose death you have witnessed, called you 
so."
"My name is Osbaldistone," was my answer.
"Rashleigh, then, I suppose, is your Christian name?" she pursued.
"No, - my name is Francis."
"But you know Rashleigh Osbaldistone," she continued. "He is your brother, 
if I mistake not, - at least your kinsman and near friend."
"He is my kinsman," I replied, "but not my friend. We were lately engaged 
together in a rencontre, when we were separated by a person whom I 
understand to be your husband. My blood is hardly yet dried on his sword, 
and the wound on my side is yet green. I have little reason to acknowledge 
him as a friend."
"Then," she replied, "if a stranger to his intrigues, you can go in safety 
to Garschattachin and his party without fear of being detained, and carry 
them a message from the wife of the MacGregor?"
I answered that I knew no reasonable cause why the militia gentlemen should 
detain me; that I had no reason, on my own account, to fear being in their 
hands; and that if my going on her embassy would act as a protection to my 
friend and servant, who were here prisoners, I was ready to set out 
directly." I took the opportunity to say, "That I had come into this 
country on her husband's invitation, and his assurance that he would aid me 
in some important matters in which I was interested; that my companion, Mr 
Jarvie, had accompanied me on the same errand."
"And I wish Mr Jarvie's boots had been fu' o' boiling water when he drew 
them on for sic a purpose," interrupted the Bailie.
"You may read your father," said Helen MacGregor, turning to her sons, "in 
what this young Saxon tells us - Wise only when the bonnet is on his head, 
and the sword is in his hand, he never exchanges the tartan for the broad-
cloth, but he runs himself into the miserable intrigues of the Lowlanders, 
and becomes again, after all he has suffered, their agent - their tool - 
their slave."
"Add, madam," said I, "and their benefactor."
"Be it so," she said; "for it is the most empty title of them all, since he 
has uniformly sown benefits to reap a harvest of the most foul ingratitude. 
- But enough of this. I shall cause you to be guided to the enemy's 
outposts. Ask for their commander, and deliver him this message from me, 
Helen MacGregor; - that if they injure a hair of MacGregor's head, and if 
they do not set him at liberty within the space of twelve hours, there is 
not a lady in the Lennox but shall before Christmas cry the coronach for 
them she will be loath to lose, - there is not a farmer but shall sing well-
a-wa over a burnt barnyard and an empty byre, - there is not a laird nor 
heritor shall lay his head on the pillow at night with the assurance of 
being a live man in the morning, - and, to begin as we are to end, so soon 
as the term is expired, I will send them this Glasgow Bailie, and this 
Saxon Captain, and all the rest of my prisoners, each bundled in a plaid, 
and chopped into as many pieces as there are checks in the tartan."
As she paused in her denunciation, Captain Thornton, who was within 
hearing, added, with great coolness, "Present my compliments - Captain 
Thornton's of the Royals, compliments - to the commanding officer, and tell 
him to do his duty and secure his prisoner, and not waste a thought upon 
me. If I have been fool enough to have been led into an ambuscade by these 
artful savages, I am wise enough to know how to die for it without 
disgracing the service. I am only sorry for my poor fellows," he said, 
"that have fallen into such butcherly hands."
"Whist! whist!" exclaimed the Bailie; "are ye weary o' your life? - Ye'll 
gie my service to the commanding officer, Mr Osbaldistone - Bailie Nicol 
Jarvie's service, a magistrate o' Glasgow, as his father the deacon was 
before him - and tell him, here are a wheen honest men in great trouble, 
and like to come to mair; and the best thing he can do for the common good, 
will be just to let Rob come his wa's up the glen, and nae mair about it. 
There's been some ill dune here already; but as it has lighted chiefly on 
the gauger, it winna be muckle worth making a stir about."
With these very opposite injunctions from the parties chiefly interested in 
the success of my embassy, and with the reiterated charge of the wife of 
MacGregor to remember and detail every word of her injunctions, I was at 
length suffered to depart; and Andrew Fairservice, chiefly, I believe, to 
get rid of his clamorous supplications, was permitted to attend me. 
Doubtful, however, that I might use my horse as a means of escape from my 
guides, or desirous to retain a prize of some value, I was given to 
understand that I was to perform my journey on foot, escorted by Hamish 
MacGregor, the elder brother, who, with two followers, attended, as well to 
show me the way, as to reconnoitre the strength and position of the enemy. 
Dougal had been at first ordered on this party, but he contrived to elude 
the service, with the purpose, as we afterwards understood, of watching 
over Mr Jarvie, whom, according to his wild principles of fidelity, he 
considered as entitled to his good offices, from having once acted in some 
measure as his patron or master.
After walking with great rapidity about an hour, we arrived at an eminence 
covered with brushwood, which gave us a commanding prospect down the 
valley, and a full view of the post which the militia occupied. Being 
chiefly cavalry, they had judiciously avoided any attempt to penetrate the 
pass which had been so unsuccessfully essayed by Captain Thornton. They had 
taken up their situation with some military skill, on a rising ground in 
the centre of the little valley of Aberfoil, through which the river Forth 
winds its earliest course, and which is formed by two ridges of hills, 
faced with barricades of limestone rock, intermixed with huge masses of 
brescia, or pebbles imbedded in some softer substance which has hardened 
around them like mortar; and surrounded by the more lofty mountains in the 
distance. These ridges, however, left the valley of breadth enough to 
secure the cavalry from any sudden surprise by the mountaineers and they 
had stationed sentinels and outposts at proper distances from this main 
body, in every direction, so that they might secure full time to mount and 
get under arms upon the least alarm. It was not, indeed, expected at that 
time, that Highlanders would attack cavalry in an open plain, though late 
events have shown that they may do so with success. When I first knew the 
Highlanders, they had almost a superstitious dread of a mounted trooper, 
the horse being so much more fierce and imposing in his appearance than the 
little shelties of their own hills, and moreover being trained, as the more 
ignorant mountaineers believed, to fight with his feet and his teeth.
The appearance of the picqueted horses, feeding in this little vale - the 
forms of the soldiers, as they sate, stood, or walked, in various groups in 
the vicinity of the beautiful river, and of the bare yet romantic ranges of 
rock which hedge in the landscape on either side, - formed a noble 
foreground; while far to the eastward the eye caught a glance of the lake 
of Menteith; and Stirling Castle, dimly seen along with the blue and 
distant line of the Ochill Mountains, closed the scene.
After gazing on this landscape with great earnestness, young MacGregor 
intimated to me that I was to descend to the station of the militia and 
execute my errand to their commander, - enjoining me at the same time, with 
a menacing gesture, neither to inform them who had guided me to that place, 
nor where I had parted from my escort. Thus tutored, I descended towards 
the military post, followed by Andrew, who, only retaining his breeches and 
stockings of the English costume, without a hat, bare-legged, with brogues 
on his feet, which Dougal had given him out of compassion, and having a 
tattered plaid to supply the want of all upper garments, looked as if he 
had been playing the part of a Highland Tom-of-Bedlam. We had not proceeded 
far before we became visible to one of the videttes, who, riding towards 
us, presented his carabine and commanded me to stand. I obeyed, and when 
the soldier came up, desired to be conducted to his commanding-officer. I 
was immediately brought where a circle of officers, sitting upon the grass, 
seemed in attendance upon one of superior rank. He wore a cuirass of 
polished steel, over which were drawn the insignia of the ancient Order of 
the Thistle. My friend Garschattachin, and many other gentlemen, some in 
uniform, others in their ordinary dress, but all armed and well attended, 
seemed to receive their orders from this person of distinction. Many 
servants in rich liveries, apparently a part of his household, were also in 
waiting.
Having paid to this nobleman the respect which his rank appeared to demand, 
I acquainted him that I had been an involuntary witness to the king's 
soldiers having suffered a defeat from the Highlanders at the pass of Loch-
Ard (such I had learned was the name of the place where Mr Thornton was 
made prisoner), and that the victors threatened every species of extremity 
to those who had fallen into their power, as well as to the Low Country in 
general, unless their Chief, who had that morning been made prisoner, were 
returned to them uninjured. The Duke (for he whom I addressed was of no 
lower rank) listened to me with great composure, and then replied, that he 
should be extremely sorry to expose the unfortunate gentlemen who had been 
made prisoners to the cruelty of the barbarians into whose hands they had 
fallen, but that it was folly to suppose that he would deliver up the very 
author of all these disorders and offences, and so encourage his followers 
in their license. "You may return to those who sent you," he proceeded, 
"and inform them, that I shall certainly cause Rob Roy Campbell, whom they 
call MacGregor, to be executed, by break of day, as an outlaw taken in 
arms, and deserving death by a thousand acts of violence; that I should be 
most justly held unworthy of my situation and commission did I act 
otherwise; that I shall know how to protect the country against their 
insolent threats of violence; and that if they injure a hair of the head of 
any of the unfortunate gentlemen whom an unlucky accident has thrown into 
their power, I will take such ample vengeance, that the very stones of 
their glens shall sing woe for it this hundred years to come!"
I humbly begged leave to remonstrate respecting the honourable mission 
imposed on me, and touched upon the obvious danger attending it, when the 
noble commander replied, "that such being the case, I might send my 
servant."
"The deil be in my feet," said Andrew, without either having respect to the 
presence in which he stood, or waiting till I replied - "the deil be in my 
feet, if I gang my tae's length. Do the folk think I hae another thrapple 
in my pouch after John Highlandman's sneeked this ane wi' his joctaleg? or 
that I can dive doun at the tae side of a Highland loch and rise at the 
tother, like a shell-drake? Na, na - ilk ane for himsell, and God for us 
a'. Folk may just make a page o' their ain age, and serve themsells till 
their bairns grow up, and gang their ain errands for Andrew. Rob Roy never 
came near the parish of Dreepdaily, to steal either pippin or pear frae me 
or mine."
Silencing my follower with some difficulty, I represented to the Duke the 
great danger Captain Thornton and Mr Jarvie would certainly be exposed to, 
and entreated he would make me the bearer of such modified terms as might 
be the means of saving their lives. I assured him I should decline no 
danger if I could be of service; but from what I had heard and seen, I had 
little doubt they would be instantly murdered should the chief of the 
outlaws suffer death.
The Duke was obviously much affected. "It was a hard case," he said, "and 
he felt it as such; but he had a paramount duty to perform to the country - 
Rob Roy must die!"
I own it was not without emotion that I heard this threat of instant death 
to my acquaintance Campbell, who had so often testified his good-will 
towards me. Nor was I singular in the feeling, for many of those around the 
Duke ventured to express themselves in his favour. "It would be more 
advisable," they said, "to send him to Stirling Castle, and there detain 
him a close prisoner, as a pledge for the submission and dispersion of his 
gang. It were a great pity to expose the country to be plundered, which, 
now that the long nights approached, it would be found very difficult to 
prevent, since it was impossible to guard every point, and the Highlanders 
were sure to select those that were left exposed." They added, that there 
was great hardship in leaving the unfortunate prisoners to the almost 
certain doom of massacre denounced against them, which no one doubted would 
be executed in the first burst of revenge.
Garschattachin ventured yet farther, confiding in the honour of the 
nobleman whom he addressed, although he knew he had particular reasons for 
disliking their prisoner. "Rob Roy," he said, "though a kittle neighbour to 
the Low Country, and particularly obnoxious to his Grace, and though he 
maybe carried the catheran trade farther than ony man o' his day, was an 
auld-farrand carle, and there might be some means of making him hear 
reason; whereas his wife and sons were reckless fiends, without either fear 
or mercy about them, and, at the head of a' his limmer loons, would be a 
worse plague to the country than ever he had been."
"Pooh! pooh!" replied his Grace, "it is the very sense and cunning of this 
fellow which has so long maintained his reign - a mere Highland robber 
would have been put down in as many weeks as he has flourished years. His 
gang, without him, is no more to be dreaded as a permanent annoyance - it 
will no longer exist - than a wasp without its head, which may sting once 
perhaps, but is instantly crushed into annihilation."
Garschattachin was not so easily silenced. "I am sure, my Lord Duke," he 
replied, "I have no favour for Rob, and he as little for me, seeing he has 
twice cleaned out my ain byres, beside skaith amang my tenants; but, 
however -"
"But, however, Garschattachin," said the Duke, with a smile of peculiar 
expression, "I fancy you think such a freedom may be pardoned in a friend's 
friend, and Rob's supposed to be no enemy to Major Galbraith's friends over 
the water."
"If it be so, my lord," said Garschattachin, in the same tone of 
jocularity, "it's no the warst thing I have heard of him. But I wish we 
heard some news from the clans, that we have waited for sae lang. I vow to 
God they'll keep a Hielandman's word wi' us - I never kenned them better - 
it's ill drawing boots upon trews."
"I cannot believe it," said the Duke. "These gentlemen are known to be men 
of honour, and I must necessarily suppose they are to keep their 
appointment. Send out two more horse-men to look for our friends. We 
cannot, till their arrival, pretend to attack the pass where Captain 
Thornton has suffered himself to be surprised, and which, to my knowledge, 
ten men on foot might make good against a regiment of the best horse in 
Europe - Meanwhile let refreshments be given to the men."
I had the benefit of this last order, the more necessary and acceptable, as 
I had tasted nothing since our hasty meal at Aberfoil the evening before. 
The videttes who had been despatched returned without tidings of the 
expected auxiliaries, and sunset was approaching, when a Highlander 
belonging to the clans whose co-operation was expected, appeared as the 
bearer of a letter, which he delivered to the Duke with a most profound 
conge.
"Now will I wad a hogshead of claret," said Garschattachin, "that this is a 
message to tell us that these cursed Highlandmen, whom we have fetched here 
at the expense of so much plague and vexation, are going to draw off, and 
leave us to do our own business if we can."
"It is even so, gentlemen," said the Duke, reddening with indignation, 
after having perused the letter, which was written upon a very dirty scrap 
of paper, but most punctiliously addressed, "For the much-honoured hands of 
Ane High and Mighty Prince, the Duke," etc. etc. etc. "Our allies," continued 
the Duke, "have deserted us, gentlemen, and have made a separate peace with 
the enemy."
"It's just the fate of all alliances," said Garschattachin, "the Dutch were 
gaun to serve us the same gate, if we had not got the start of them at 
Utrecht."
"You are facetious, air," said the Duke, with a frown which showed how 
little he liked the pleasantry; "but our business is rather of a grave cut 
just now. - I suppose no gentleman would advise our attempting to penetrate 
farther into the country, unsupported either by friendly Highlanders, or by 
infantry from Inversnaid?"
A general answer announced that the attempt would be perfect madness.
"Nor would there be great wisdom," the Duke added, "in remaining exposed to 
a night-attack in this place. I therefore propose that we should retreat to 
the house of Duchray and that of Gartartan, and keep safe and sure watch 
and ward until morning. But before we separate, I will examine Rob Roy 
before you all, and make you sensible, by your own eyes and ears, of the 
extreme unfitness of leaving him space for farther outrage." He gave orders 
accordingly, and the prisoner was brought before him, his arms belted down 
above the elbow, and secured to his body by a horse-girth buckled tight 
behind him. Two non-commissioned officers had hold of him, one on each 
side, and two file of men with carabines and fixed bayonets attended for 
additional security.
I had never seen this man in the dress of his country, which set in a 
striking point of view the peculiarities of his form. A shock-head of red 
hair, which the hat and periwig of the Lowland costume had in a great 
measure concealed, was seen beneath the Highland bonnet, and verified the 
epithet of Roy, or Red, by which he was much better known in the Low 
Country than by any other, and is still, I suppose, best remembered. The 
justice of the appellation was also vindicated by the appearance of that 
part of his limbs, from the bottom of his kilt to the top of his short 
hose, which the fashion of his country dress left bare, and which was 
covered with a fell of thick, short, red hair, especially around his knees, 
which resembled in this respect, as well as from their sinewy appearance of 
extreme strength, the limbs of a red-coloured Highland bull. Upon the 
whole, betwixt the effect produced by the change of dress, and by my having 
become acquainted with his real and formidable character, his appearance 
had acquired to my eyes something so much wilder and more striking than it 
before presented, that I could scarce recognise him to be the same person.
His manner was bold, unconstrained unless by the actual bonds, haughty, and 
even dignified. He bowed to the Duke, nodded to Garschattachin and others, 
and showed some surprise at seeing me among the party.
"It is long since we have met, Mr Campbell," said the Duke.
"It is so, my Lord Duke; I could have wished it had been" (looking at the 
fastening on his arms) "when I could have better paid the compliments I owe 
to your Grace; - but there's a gude time coming."
"No time like the time present, Mr Campbell," answered the Duke, "for the 
hours are fast flying that must settle your last account with all mortal 
affairs. I do not say this to insult your distress; but you must be aware 
yourself that you draw near the end of your career. I do not deny that you 
may sometimes have done less harm than others of your unhappy trade, and 
that you may occasionally have exhibited marks of talent, and even of a 
disposition which promised better things. But you are aware how long you 
have been the terror and the oppressor of a peaceful neighbourhood, and by 
what acts of violence you have maintained and extended your usurped 
authority. You know, in short, that you have deserved death, and that you 
must prepare for it."
"My Lord," said Rob Roy, "although I may well lay my misfortunes at your 
Grace's door, yet I will never say that you yourself have been the wilful 
and witting author of them. My Lord, if I had thought sae, your Grace would 
not this day have been sitting in judgement on me; for you have been three 
times within good rifle distance of me when you were thinking but of the 
red deer, and few people have kenned me miss my aim. But as for them that 
have abused your Grace's ear, and set you up against a man that was ance as 
peacefu' a man as ony in the land, and made your name the warrant for 
driving me to utter extremity, - I have had some amends of them, and, for 
a' that your Grace now says, I expect to live to hae mair."
"I know," said the Duke, in rising anger, "that you are a determined and 
impudent villain, who will keep his oath if he swears to mischief; but it 
shall be my care to prevent you. You have no enemies but your own wicked 
actions."
"Had I called myself Grahame, instead of Campbell, I might have heard less 
about them," answered Rob Roy, with dogged resolution.
"You will do well, sir," said the Duke, "to warn your wife and family and 
followers, to beware how they use the gentlemen now in their hands, as I 
will requite tenfold on them, and their kin and allies, the slightest 
injury done to any of his Majesty's liege subjects."
"My Lord," said Roy in answer, "none of my enemies will allege that I have 
been a bloodthirsty man, and were I now wi' my folk, I could rule four or 
five hundred wild Hielanders as easy as your Grace those eight or ten 
lackeys and foot-boys - But if your Grace is bent to take the head away 
from a house, ye may lay your account there will be misrule amang the 
members. - However, come o't what like, there's an honest man, a kinsman o' 
my ain, maun come by nae skaith. Is there ony body here wad do a gude deed 
for MacGregor? - he may repay it, though his hands be now tied."
The Highlander who had delivered the letter to the Duke replied, "I'll do 
your will for you, MacGregor; and I'll gang back up the glen on purpose."
He advanced, and received from the prisoner a message to his wife, which, 
being in Gaelic, I did not understand, but I had little doubt it related to 
some measures to be taken for the safety of Mr Jarvie.
"Do you hear the fellow's impudence?" said the Duke; "he confides in his 
character of a messenger. His conduct is of a piece with his master's, who 
invited us to make common cause against these freebooters, and have 
deserted us so soon as the MacGregors have agreed to surrender the 
Balquidder lands they were squabbling about.

		"No truth in plaids, no faith in tartan trews!
		Chameleon-like, they change a thousand hues."

"Your great ancestor never said so, my Lord," answered Major Galbraith; - 
"and, with submission, neither would your Grace have occasion to say it, 
wad ye but be for beginning justice at the well-head - Gie the honest man 
his mear again - Let every head wear it's ane bannet, and the distractions 
o' the Lennox wad be mended wi' them o' the land."
"Hush! hush! Garschattachin," said the Duke; "this is language dangerous 
for you to talk to any one, and especially to me; but I presume you reckon 
yourself a privileged person. Please to draw off your party towards 
Gartartan; I shall myself see the prisoner escorted to Duchray, and send 
you orders tomorrow. You will please grant no leave of absence to any of 
your troopers."
"Here's auld ordering and counter-ordering," muttered Garschattachin 
between his teeth. "But patience! patience! - we may ae day play at change 
seats, the king's coming."
The two troops of cavalry now formed, and prepared to march off the ground, 
that they might avail themselves of the remainder of daylight to get to 
their evening quarters. I received an intimation, rather than an 
invitation, to attend the party; and I perceived, that, though no longer 
considered as a prisoner, I was yet under some sort of suspicion. The times 
were indeed so dangerous, - the great party questions of Jacobite and 
Hanoverian divided the country so effectually, - and the constant disputes 
and jealousies between the Highlanders and Lowlanders, besides a number of 
inexplicable causes of feud which separated the great leading families in 
Scotland from each other, occasioned such general suspicion, that a 
solitary and unprotected stranger was almost sure to meet with something 
disagreeable in the course of his travels.
I acquiesced, however, in my destination with the best grace I could, 
consoling myself with the hope that I might obtain from the captive 
freebooter some information concerning Rashleigh and his machinations. I 
should do myself injustice did I not add, that my views were not merely 
selfish. I was too much interested in my singular acquaintance not to be 
desirous of rendering him such services as his unfortunate situation might 
demand, or admit of his receiving.


Chapter 33

			And when he came to broken brigg,
				He bent his bow and swam;
			And when he came to grass growing,
				Set down his feet and ran.
							-- Gil Morrice.


The echoes of the rocks and ravines, on either side, now rang to the 
trumpets of the cavalry, which, forming themselves into two distinct 
bodies, began to move down the valley at a slow trot. That commanded by 
Major Galbraith soon took to the right hand, and crossed the Forth, for the 
purpose of taking up the quarters assigned them for the night, when they 
were to occupy, as I understood, an old castle in the vicinity. They formed 
a lively object while crossing the stream, but were soon lost in winding up 
the bank on the opposite side, which was clothed with wood.
We continued our march with considerable good order. To ensure the safe 
custody of the prisoner, the Duke had caused him to be placed on horseback 
behind one of his retainers, called, as I was informed, Ewan of Brigglands, 
one of the largest and strongest men who were present. A horse-belt, passed 
round the bodies of both, and buckled before the yeoman's breast, rendered 
it impossible for Rob Roy to free himself from his keeper. I was directed 
to keep close beside them, and accommodated for the purpose with a troop-
horse. We were as closely surrounded by the soldiers as the width of the 
road would permit, and had always at least one, if not two, on each side, 
with pistol in hand. Andrew Fairservice, furnished with a Highland pony, of 
which they had made prey somewhere or other, was permitted to ride among 
the other domestics, of whom a great number attended the line of march, 
though without falling into the ranks of the more regularly trained 
troopers.
In this manner we travelled for a certain distance, until we arrived at a 
place where we also were to cross the river. The Forth, as being the outlet 
of a lake, is of considerable depth, even where less important in point of 
width, and the descent to the ford was by a broken precipitous ravine, 
which only permitted one horseman to descend at once. The rear and centre 
of our small body halting on the bank while the front files passed down in 
succession, produced a considerable delay, as is usual on such occasions, 
and even some confusion; for a number of those riders, who made no proper 
part of the squadron, crowded to the ford without regularity, and made the 
militia cavalry, although tolerably well drilled, partake in some degree of 
their own disorder.
It was while we were thus huddled together on the bank that I heard Rob Roy 
whisper to the man behind whom he was placed on horseback, "Your father, 
Ewan, wadna hae carried an auld friend to the shambles, like a calf, for a' 
the Dukes in Christendom."
Ewan returned no answer, but shrugged, as one who would express by that 
sign that what he was doing was none of his own choice.
"And when the MacGregors come down the glen, and ye see toom faulds, a 
bluidy hearthstone, and the fire flashing out between the rafters o' your 
house, ye may be thinking then, Ewan, that were your friend Rob to the 
fore, you would have had that safe which it will make your heart sair to 
lose."
Ewan of Brigglands again shrugged and groaned, but remained silent.
"It's a sair thing," continued Rob, sliding his insinuations so gently into 
Ewan's ear that they reached no other but mine, who certainly saw myself in 
no shape called upon to destroy his prospects of escape - "It's a sair 
thing, that Ewan of Brigglands, whom Roy MacGregor has helped with hand, 
sword, and purse, suld mind a gloom from a great man mair than a friend's 
life."
Ewan seemed sorely agitated, but was silent. - We heard the Duke's voice 
from the opposite bank call, "Bring over the prisoner."
Ewan put his horse in motion, and just as I heard Roy say, "Never weigh a 
MacGregor's bluid against a broken whang o' leather, for there will be 
another accounting to gie for it baith here and hereafter," they passed me 
hastily, and dashing forward rather precipitately, entered the water.
"Not yet, sir - not yet," said some of the troopers to me, as I was about 
to follow, while others pressed forward into the stream.
I saw the Duke on the other side, by the waning light, engaged in 
commanding his people to get into order, as they landed dispersedly, some 
higher, some lower. Many had crossed, some were in the water, and the rest 
were preparing to follow, when a sudden splash warned me that MacGregor's 
eloquence had prevailed on Ewan to give him freedom and a chance for life. 
The Duke also heard the sound, and instantly guessed its meaning. "Dog!" he 
exclaimed to Ewan as he landed, "where is your prisoner?" and, without 
waiting to hear the apology which the terrified vassal began to falter 
forth, he fired a pistol at his head, whether fatally I know not, and 
exclaimed, "Gentlemen, disperse and pursue the villain - An hundred guineas 
for him that secures Rob Roy!"
All became an instant scene of the most lively confusion. Rob Roy, 
disengaged from his bonds, doubtless by Ewan's slipping the buckle of his 
belt, had dropped off at the horse's tail, and instantly dived, passing 
under the belly of the troop-horse which was on his left hand. But as he 
was obliged to come to the surface an instant for air, the glimpse of his 
tartan plaid drew the attention of the troopers, some of whom plunged into 
the river, with a total disregard to their own safety, rushing, according 
to the expression of their country, through pool and stream, sometimes 
swimming their horses, sometimes losing them and struggling for their own 
lives. Others, less zealous or more prudent, broke off in different 
directions, and galloped up and down the banks, to watch the places at 
which the fugitive might possibly land. The hollowing, the whooping, the 
calls for aid at different points, where they saw, or conceived they saw, 
some vestige of him they were seeking, - the frequent report of pistols and 
carabines, fired at every object which excited the least suspicion, - the 
sight of so many horsemen riding about, in and out of the river, and 
striking with their long broadswords at whatever excited their attention, 
joined to the vain exertions used by their officers to restore order and 
regularity, - and all this in so wild a scene, and visible only by the 
imperfect twilight of an autumn evening, made the most extraordinary hubbub 
I had hitherto witnessed. I was indeed left alone to observe it, for our 
whole cavalcade had dispersed in pursuit, or at least to see the event of 
the search. Indeed, as I partly suspected at the time, and afterwards 
learned with certainty, many of those who seemed most active in their 
attempts to waylay and recover the fugitive, were, in actual truth, least 
desirous that he should be taken, and only joined in the cry to increase 
the general confusion, and to give Rob Roy a better opportunity of 
escaping.
Escape, indeed, was not difficult for a swimmer so expert as the 
freebooter, as soon as he had eluded the first burst of pursuit. At one 
time he was closely pressed, and several blows were made which flashed in 
the water around him; the scene much resembling one of the otter-hunts 
which I had seen at Osbaldistone Hall, where the animal is detected by the 
hounds from his being necessitated to put his nose above the stream to vent 
or breathe, while he is enabled to elude them by getting under water again 
so soon as he has refreshed himself by respiration. MacGregor, however, had 
a trick beyond the otter; for he contrived, when very closely pursued, to 
disengage himself unobserved from his plaid, and suffer it to float down 
the stream, where in its progress it quickly attracted general attention; 
many of the horsemen were thus put upon a false scent, and several shots or 
stabs were averted from the party for whom they were designed.
Once fairly out of view, the recovery of the prisoner became almost 
impossible, since, in so many places, the river was rendered inaccessible 
by the steepness of its banks, or the thickets of alders, poplars, and 
birch, which, overhanging its banks, prevented the approach of horsemen. 
Errors and accidents had also happened among the pursuers, whose task the 
approaching night rendered every moment more hopeless. Some got themselves 
involved in the eddies of the stream, and required the assistance of their 
companions to save them from drowning. Others, hurt by shots or blows in 
the confused melee, implored help or threatened vengeance, and in one or 
two instances such accidents led to actual strife. The trumpets, therefore, 
sounded the retreat, announcing that the commanding officer, with 
whatsoever unwillingness, had for the present relinquished hopes of the 
important prize which had thus unexpectedly escaped his grasp, and the 
troopers began slowly, reluctantly, and brawling with each other as they 
returned, again to assume their ranks. I could see them darkening, as they 
formed on the southern bank of the river, - whose murmurs, long drowned by 
the louder cries of vengeful pursuit, were now heard hoarsely mingling with 
the deep, discontented, and reproachful voices of the disappointed 
horsemen.
Hitherto I had been as it were a mere spectator, though far from an 
uninterested one, of the singular scene which had passed. But now I heard a 
voice suddenly exclaim, "Where is the English stranger? - It was he gave 
Rob Roy the knife to cut the belt."
"Cleave the pock-pudding to the chafts!" cried one voice.
"Weize a brace of balls through his harn-pan!" said a second.
"Drive three inches of cauld airn into his brisket!" shouted a third.
And I heard several horses galloping to and fro, with the kind purpose, 
doubtless, of executing these denunciations. I was immediately awakened to 
the sense of my situation, and to the certainty that armed men, having no 
restraint whatever on their irritated and inflamed passions, would probably 
begin by shooting or cutting me down, and afterwards investigate the 
justice of the action. Impressed by this belief, I leaped from my horse, 
and turning him loose, plunged into a bush of alder-trees, where, 
considering the advancing obscurity of the night, I thought there was 
little chance of my being discovered. Had I been near enough to the Duke to 
have invoked his personal protection, I would have done so; but he had 
already commenced his retreat, and I saw no officer on the left bank of the 
river, of authority sufficient to have afforded protection, in case of my 
surrendering myself. I thought there was no point of honour which could 
require, in such circumstances, an unnecessary exposure of my life. My 
first idea, when the tumult began to be appeased, and the clatter of the 
horses' feet was heard less frequently in the immediate vicinity of my 
hiding-place, was to seek out the Duke's quarters when all should be quiet, 
and give myself up to him, as a liege subject, who had nothing to fear from 
his justice, and a stranger, who had every right to expect protection and 
hospitality. With this purpose I crept out of my hiding-place, and looked 
around me.
The twilight had now melted nearly into darkness; a few or none of the 
troopers were left on my side of the Forth, and of those who were already 
across it, I only heard the distant trample of the horses' feet, and the 
wailing and prolonged sound of their trumpets, which rung through the woods 
to recall stragglers, Here, therefore, I was left in a situation of 
considerable difficulty. I had no horse, and the deep and wheeling stream 
of the river, rendered turbid by the late tumult of which its channel had 
been the scene, and seeming yet more so under the doubtful influence of an 
imperfect moonlight, had no inviting influence for a pedestrian by no means 
accustomed to wade rivers, and who had lately seen horsemen weltering, in 
this dangerous passage, up to the very saddle-laps. At the same time, my 
prospect, if I remained on the side of the river on which I then stood, 
could be no other than of concluding the various fatigues of this day and 
the preceding night, by passing that which was now closing in, al fresco on 
the side of a Highland hill.
After a moment's reflection, I began to consider that Fairservice, who had 
doubtless crossed the river with the other domestics, according to his 
forward and impertinent custom of putting himself always among the 
foremost, could not fail to satisfy the Duke, or the competent authorities, 
respecting my rank and situation; and that, therefore, my character did not 
require my immediate appearance, at the risk of being drowned in the river 
- of being unable to trace the march of the squadron in case of my reaching 
the other side in safety - or, finally, of being cut down, right or wrong, 
by some straggler, who might think such a piece of good service a 
convenient excuse for not sooner rejoining his ranks. I therefore resolved 
to measure my steps back to the little inn, where I had passed the 
preceding night. I had nothing to apprehend from Rob Roy. He was now at 
liberty, and I was certain, in case of my falling in with any of his 
people, the news of his escape would ensure me protection. I might thus 
also show, that I had no intention to desert Mr Jarvie in the delicate 
situation in which he had engaged himself chiefly on my account. And 
lastly, it was only in this quarter that I could hope to learn tidings 
concerning Rashleigh and my father's papers, which had been the original 
cause of an expedition so fraught with perilous adventure. I therefore 
abandoned all thoughts of crossing the Forth that evening; and, turning my 
back on the Fords of Frew, began to retrace my steps towards the little 
village of Aberfoil.
A sharp frost-wind, which made itself heard and felt from time to time, 
removed the clouds of mist which might otherwise have slumbered till 
morning on the valley; and, though it could not totally disperse the clouds 
of vapour, yet threw them in confused and changeful masses, now hovering 
round the heads of the mountains, now filling, as with a dense and 
voluminous stream of smoke, the various deep gullies where masses of the 
composite rock, or brescia, tumbling in fragments from the cliffs, have 
rushed to the valley, leaving each behind its course a rent and torn ravine 
resembling a deserted water-course. The moon, which was now high, and 
twinkled with all the vivacity of a frosty atmosphere, silvered the 
windings of the river and the peaks and precipices which the mist left 
visible, while her beams seemed as it were absorbed by the fleecy whiteness 
of the mist, where it lay thick and condensed; and gave to the more light 
and vapoury specks, which were elsewhere visible, a sort of filmy 
transparency resembling the lightest veil of silver gauze. Despite the 
uncertainty of my situation, a view so romantic, joined to the active and 
inspiring influence of the frosty atmosphere, elevated my spirits while it 
braced my nerves. I felt an inclination to cast care away, and bid defiance 
to danger, and involuntarily whistled, by way of cadence to my steps, which 
my feeling of the cold led me to accelerate, and I felt the pulse of 
existence beat prouder and higher in proportion as I felt confidence in my 
own strength, courage, and resources. I was so much lost in these thoughts, 
and in the feelings which they excited, that two horsemen came up behind me 
without my hearing their approach, until one was on each side of me, when 
the left-hand rider, pulling up his horse, addressed me in the English 
tongue - "So ho, friend! whither so late?"
"To my supper and bed at Aberfoil," I replied.
"Are the passes open?" he inquired, with the same commanding tone of voice.
"I do not know," I replied; "I shall learn when I get there. But," I added, 
the fate of Morris recurring to my recollection, "if you are an English 
stranger, I advise you to turn back till daylight; there has been some 
disturbance in this neighbourhood, and I should hesitate to say it is 
perfectly safe for strangers."
"The soldiers had the worst? - had they not?" was the reply.
"They had indeed; and an officer's party were destroyed or made prisoners."
"Are you sure of that?" replied the horseman.
"As sure as that I hear you speak," I replied. "I was an unwilling 
spectator of the skirmish."
"Unwilling!" continued the interrogator. "Were you not engaged in it then?"
"Certainly no," I replied; "I was detained by the king's officer."
"On what suspicion? and who are you? or what is your name?" he continued.
"I really do not know, sir," said I, "why I should answer so many questions 
to an unknown stranger. I have told you enough to convince you that you are 
going into a dangerous and distracted country. If you choose to proceed, it 
is your own affair; but as I ask you no questions respecting your name and 
business, you will oblige me by making no inquiries after mine."
"Mr Francis Osbaldistone," said the other rider, in a voice the tones of 
which thrilled through every nerve of my body, "should not whistle his 
favourite airs when he wishes to remain undiscovered."
And Diana Vernon - for she, wrapped in a horseman's cloak, was the last 
speaker - whistled in playful mimicry the second part of the tune which was 
on my lips when they came up.
"Good God!" I exclaimed, like one thunderstruck, "can it be you, Miss 
Vernon, on such a spot - at such an hour - in such a lawless country - in 
such -"
"In such a masculine dress, you would say. - But what would you have? The 
philosophy of the excellent Corporal Nym is the best after all; things must 
be as they may - pauca verba."
While she was thus speaking, I eagerly took advantage of an unusually 
bright gleam of moonshine, to study the appearance of her companion; for it 
may be easily supposed, that finding Miss Vernon in a place so solitary, 
engaged in a journey so dangerous, and under the protection of one 
gentleman only, were circumstances to excite every feeling of jealousy, as 
well as surprise. The rider did not speak with the deep melody of 
Rashleigh's voice; his tones were more high and commanding; he was taller, 
moreover, as he sate on horseback, than that first-rate object of my hate 
and suspicion. Neither did the stranger's address resemble that of any of 
my other cousins; it had that indescribable tone and manner by which we 
recognise a man of sense and breeding, even in the first few sentences he 
speaks.
The object of my anxiety seemed desirous to get rid of my investigation.
"Diana," he said, in a tone of mingled kindness and authority, "give your 
cousin his property, and let us not spend time here."
Miss Vernon had in the meantime taken out a small case, and leaning down 
from her horse towards me, she said, in a tone in which an effort at her 
usual quaint lightness of expression contended with a deeper and more grave 
tone of sentiment, "You see, my dear coz, I was born to be your better 
angel. Rashleigh has been compelled to yield up his spoil, and had we 
reached this same village of Aberfoil last night, as we purposed, I should 
have found some Highland sylph to have wafted to you all these 
representatives of commercial wealth. But there were giants and dragons in 
the way; and errant-knights and damsels of modern times, bold though they 
be, must not, as of yore, run into useless danger - Do not you do so 
either, my dear coz."
"Diana," said her companion, "let me once more warn you that the evening 
waxes late, and we are still distant from our home."
"I am coming, sir, I am coming - Consider," she added, with a sigh, "how 
lately I have been subjected to control - besides, I have not yet given my 
cousin the packet, and bid him fare-well - for ever. Yes, Frank," she said, 
"for ever! - there is a gulf between us - a gulf of absolute perdition; - 
where we go, you must not follow - what we do, you must not share in - 
Farewell - be happy!"
In the attitude in which she bent from her horse, which was a Highland 
pony, her face, not perhaps altogether unwillingly, touched mine. She 
pressed my hand, while the tear that trembled in her eye found its way to 
my cheek instead of her own. It was a moment never to be forgotten - 
inexpressibly bitter, yet mixed with a sensation of pleasure so deeply 
soothing and affecting, as at once to unlock all the flood-gates of the 
heart. It was but a moment, however; for, instantly recovering from the 
feeling to which she had involuntarily given way, she intimated to her 
companion she was ready to attend him, and putting their horses to a brisk 
pace, they were soon far distant from the place where I stood.
Heaven knows, it was not apathy which loaded my frame and my tongue so 
much, that I could neither return Miss Vernon's half embrace, nor even 
answer her farewell. The word, though it rose to my tongue, seemed to choke 
in my throat like the fatal guilty, which the delinquent who makes it his 
plea, knows must be followed by the doom of death. The surprise - the 
sorrow, almost stupified me. I remained motionless with the packet in my 
hand, gazing after them, as if endeavouring to count the sparkles which 
flew from the horses' hoofs. I continued to look after even these had 
ceased to be visible, and to listen for their footsteps long after the last 
distant trampling had died in my ears. At length, tears rushed to my eyes, 
glazed as they were by the exertion of straining after what was no longer 
to be seen. I wiped them mechanically, and almost without being aware that 
they were flowing - but they came thicker and thicker; I felt the 
tightening of the throat and breast - the hysterica passio of poor Lear; 
and sitting down by the wayside, I shed a flood of the first and most 
bitter tears which had flowed from my eyes since childhood.


Chapter 34

Dangle. - Egad, I think the interpreter is the harder to be understood of 
the two.
									-- Critic.


I had scarce given vent to my feelings in this paroxysm, ere was ashamed of 
my weakness. I remembered that I had been for some time endeavouring to 
regard Diana Vernon, when her idea intruded itself on my remembrance, as a 
friend, for whose welfare I should indeed always be anxious, but with whom 
I could have little further communication. But the almost unrepressed 
tenderness of her manner, joined to the romance of our sudden meeting where 
it was so little to have been expected, were circumstances which threw me 
entirely off my guard. I recovered, however, sooner than might have been 
expected, and without giving myself time accurately to examine my motives. 
I resumed the path on which I had been travelling when overtaken by this 
strange and unexpected apparition.
"I am not," was my reflection, "transgressing her injunction so 
pathetically given, since I am but pursuing my own journey by the only open 
route. - If I have succeeded in recovering my father's property, it still 
remains incumbent on me to see my Glasgow friend delivered from the 
situation in which he has involved himself on my account; besides, what 
other place of rest can I obtain for the night excepting at the little inn 
of Aberfoil? They also must stop there, since it is impossible for 
travellers on horseback to go farther - Well, then, we shall meet again - 
meet for the last time perhaps - But I shall see and hear her - I shall 
learn who this happy man is who exercises over her the authority of a 
husband - I shall learn if there remains, in the difficult course in which 
she seems engaged, any difficulty which my efforts may remove, or aught 
that I can do to express my gratitude for her generosity - for her 
disinterested friendship."
As I reasoned thus with myself, colouring with every plausible pretext 
which occurred to my ingenuity my passionate desire once more to see and 
converse with my cousin, I was suddenly hailed by a touch on the shoulder; 
and the deep voice of a Highlander, who, walking still faster than I, 
though I was proceeding at a smart pace, accosted me with, "A braw night, 
Maister Osbaldistone - we have met at the mirk hour before now."
There was no mistaking the tone of MacGregor; he had escaped the pursuit of 
his enemies, and was in full retreat to his own wilds and to his adherents. 
He had also contrived to arm himself, probably at the house of some secret 
adherent, for he had a musket on his shoulder, and the usual Highland 
weapons by his side. To have found myself alone with such a character in 
such a situation, and at this late hour in the evening, might not have been 
pleasant to me in any ordinary mood of mind; for, though habituated to 
think of Rob Roy in rather a friendly point of view, I will confess frankly 
that I never heard him speak but that it seemed to thrill my blood. The 
intonation of the mountaineers gives a habitual depth and hollowness to the 
sound of their words, owing to the guttural expression so common in their 
native language, and they usually speak with a good deal of emphasis. To 
these national peculiarities Rob Roy added a sort of hard indifference of 
accent and manner, expressive of a mind neither to be daunted, nor 
surprised, nor affected by what passed before him, however dreadful, 
however sudden, however afflicting. Habitual danger, with unbounded 
confidence in his own strength and sagacity, had rendered him indifferent 
to fear, and the lawless and precarious life he led had blunted, though its 
dangers and errors had not destroyed, his feelings for others. And it was 
to be remembered that I had very lately seen the followers of this man 
commit a cruel slaughter on an unarmed and suppliant individual.
Yet such was the state of my mind, that I welcomed the company of the 
outlaw leader as a relief to my own overstrained and painful thoughts; and 
was not without hopes that through his means I might obtain some clew of 
guidance through the maze in which my fate had involved me. I therefore 
answered his greeting cordially, and congratulated him on his late escape 
in circumstances when escape seemed impossible.
"Ay," he replied, "there is as much between the craig and the woodie as 
there is between the cup and the lip. But my peril was less than you may 
think, being a stranger to this country. Of those that were summoned to 
take me, and to keep me, and to retake me again, there was a moiety, as 
cousin Nicol Jarvie calls it, that had nae will that I suld be either taen, 
or keepit fast, or retaen; and of tother moiety, there was as half was 
feared to stir me; and so I had only like the fourth part of fifty or sixty 
men to deal withal."
"And enough, too, I should think," replied I.
"I dinna ken that," said he; "but I ken, that turn every ill-willer that I 
had amang them out upon the green before the Clachan of Aberfoil, I wad 
find them play with broadsword and target, one down and another come on."
He now inquired into my adventures since we entered his country, and 
laughed heartily at my account of the battle we had in the inn, and at the 
exploits of the Bailie with the red-hot poker.
"Let Glasgow Flourish!" he exclaimed. "The curse of Cromwell on me, if I 
wad hae wished better sport than to see cousin Nicol Jarvie singe Iverach's 
plaid, like a sheep's head between a pair of tongs. But my cousin Jarvie," 
he added, more gravely, "has some gentleman's bluid in his veins, although 
he has been unhappily bred up to a peaceful and mechanical craft, which 
could not but blunt any pretty man's spirit. - Ye may estimate the reason 
why I could not receive you at the Clachan of Aberfoil as I purposed. They 
had made a fine hosenet for me when I was absent twa or three days at 
Glasgow, upon the king's business - But I think I broke up the league about 
their lugs - they'll no be able to hound one clan against another as they 
hae dune. I hope soon to see the day when a' Hielandmen will stand shouther 
to shouther. But what chanced next?"
I gave him an account of the arrival of Captain Thornton and his party, and 
the arrest of the Bailie and myself under pretext of our being suspicious 
persons; and upon his more special inquiry, I recollected the officer had 
mentioned that, besides my name sounding suspicious in his ears, he had 
orders to secure an old and young person, resembling our description. This 
again moved the outlaw's risibility.
"As man lives by bread," he said, "the buzzards have mista'en my friend the 
Bailie for his Excellency, and you for Diana Vernon - O, the most egregious 
night-howlets!"
"Miss Vernon?" said I, with hesitation, and trembling for the answer - 
"Does she still bear that name? She passed but now, along with a gentleman 
who seemed to use a style of authority."
"Ay, ay," answered Rob, "she's under lawfu' authority now; and full time, 
for she was a daft hempie - But she's a mettle quean. It's a pity his 
Excellency is a thought eldern. The like o' yourself, or my son Hamish, wad 
be mair sortable in point of years."
Here, then, was a complete downfall of those castles of cards which my 
fancy had, in despite of my reason, so often amused herself with building. 
Although in truth I had scarcely anything else to expect, since I could not 
suppose that Diana could be travelling in such a country, at such an hour, 
with any but one who had a legal title to protect her, I did not feel the 
blow less severely when it came; and MacGregor's voice, urging me to pursue 
my story, sounded in my ears without conveying any exact import to my mind.
"You are ill," he said at length, after he had spoken twice without 
receiving an answer; "this day's wark has been ower muckle for ane 
doubtless unused to sic things."
The tone of kindness in which this was spoken, recalling me to myself, and 
to the necessities of my situation, I continued my narrative as well as I 
could. Rob Roy expressed great exultation at the successful skirmish in the 
pass.
"They say," he observed, "that king's chaff is better than other folk's 
corn; but I think that canna be said o' king's soldiers, if they let 
themselves be beaten wi' a wheen auld carles that are past fighting, and 
bairns that are no come till't, and wives wi' their rocks and distaffs, the 
very wally-draigles o' the countryside. And Dougal Gregor, too - wha wad 
hae thought there had been as muckle sense in his tatty-pow, that ne'er had 
a better covering than his ain shaggy hassock of hair! - But say away - 
though I dread what's to come neist - for my Helen's an incarnate devil 
when her bluid's up - puir thing, she has ower muckle reason."
I observed as much delicacy as I could in communicating to him the usage we 
had received, but I obviously saw the detail gave him great pain.
"I wad rather than a thousand merks," he said, "that I had been at hame! To 
misguide strangers, and forbye a', my ain natural cousin, that had showed 
me sic kindness - I wad rather they had burned half the Lennox in their 
folly! But this comes o' trusting women and their bairns, that have neither 
measure nor reason in their dealings. However, it's a' owing to that dog of 
a gauger, wha betrayed me by pretending a message from your cousin 
Rashleigh, to meet him on the king's affairs, whilk I thought was very like 
to be anent Garschattachin and a party of the Lennox declaring themselves 
for King James. Faith! but I kenned I was clean beguiled when I heard the 
Duke was there; and when they strapped the horse-girth ower my arms, I 
might hae judged what was biding me; for I kenned your kinsman, being, wi' 
pardon, a slippery loon himself, is prone to employ those of his ain kidney 
- I wish he mayna hae been at the bottom o' the ploy himsell - I thought 
the chield Morris looked devilish queer when I determined he should remain 
a wad, or hostage, for my safe back-coming. But I am come back, nae thanks 
to him, or them that employed him; and the question is, how the collector 
loon is to win back himsell - I promise him it will not be without a 
ransom."
"Morris," said I, "has already paid the last ransom which mortal man can 
owe."
"Eh! What?" exclaimed my companion hastily; "what d'ye say? I trust it was 
in the skirmish he was killed?"
"He was slain in cold blood after the fight was over, Mr Campbell."
"Cold blood? - Damnation!" he said, muttering betwixt his teeth - "How fell 
that, sir? Speak out, sir, and do not Maister or Campbell me - my foot is 
on my native heath, and my name is MacGregor!"
His passions were obviously irritated; but without noticing the rudeness of 
his tone, I gave him a short and distinct account of the death of Morris. 
He struck the butt of his gun with great vehemence against the ground, and 
broke out - "I vow to God, such a deed might make one forswear kin, clan, 
country, wife, and bairns! And yet the villain wrought long for it. And 
what is the difference between warsling below the water wi' a stane about 
your neck, and wavering in the wind wi' a tether round it? - it's but 
choking after a', and he drees the doom he ettled for me. I could have 
wished, though, they had rather putten a ball through him, or a dirk; for 
the fashion of removing him will give rise to mony idle clavers - But every 
wight has his weird, and we maun a' dee when our day comes - And naebody 
will deny that Helen MacGregor has deep wrongs to avenge."
So saying, he seemed to dismiss the theme altogether from his mind, and 
proceeded to inquire how I got free from the party in whose hands he had 
seen me.
My story was soon told; and I added the episode of my having recovered the 
papers of my father, though I dared not trust my voice to name the name of 
Diana.
"I was sure ye wad get them," said MacGregor; - "the letter ye brought me 
contained his Excellency's pleasure to that effect and nae doubt it was my 
will to have aided in it. And I asked ye up into this glen on the very 
errand. But it's like his Excellency has foregathered wi' Rashleigh sooner 
than I expected."
The first part of this answer was what most forcibly struck me.
"Was the letter I brought you, then, from this person you call his 
Excellency? Who is he? and what is his rank and proper name?"
"I am thinking," said MacGregor, "that since ye dinna ken them already they 
canna be o' muckle consequence to you, and sae I shall say naething on that 
score. But weel I wot the letter was frae his ain hand, or, having a sort 
of business of my ain on my hands, being, as ye weel may see, just as much 
as I can fairly manage, I canna say I would hae fashed mysell sae muckle 
about the matter."
I now recollected the lights seen in the library - the various 
circumstances which had excited my jealousy - the glove - the agitation of 
the tapestry which covered the secret passage from Rashleigh's apartment; 
and, above all, I recollected that Diana retired in order to write, as I 
then thought, the billet to which I was to have recourse in case of the 
last necessity. Her hours, then, were not spent in solitude, but in 
listening to the addresses of some desperate agent of Jacobitical treason, 
who was a secret resident within the mansion of her uncle! Other young 
women have sold themselves for gold, or suffered themselves to be seduced 
from their first love from vanity; but Diana had sacrificed my affections 
and her own to partake the fortunes of some desperate adventurer - to seek 
the haunts of freebooters through midnight deserts, with no better hopes of 
rank or fortune than that mimicry of both which the mock court of the 
Stuarts at St. Germains had in their power to bestow.
"I will see her," I said internally, "if it be possible, once more. I will 
argue with her as a friend - as a kinsman - on the risk she is incurring, 
and I will facilitate her retreat to France, where she may, with more 
comfort and propriety, as well as safety, abide the issue of the turmoils 
which the political trepanner, to whom she has united her fate, is 
doubtless busied in putting into motion."
"I conclude, then," I said to MacGregor, after about five minutes' silence 
on both sides, "that his Excellency, since you give me no other name for 
him, was residing in Osbaldistone Hall at the same time with myself?"
"To be sure - to be sure - and in the young lady's apartment, as best 
reason was." This gratuitous information was adding gall to bitterness. 
"But few," added MacGregor, "kenned he was derned there, save Rashleigh and 
Sir Hildebrand; for you were out o' the question; and the young lads haena 
wit eneugh to ca' the cat frae the cream - But it's a bra' auld-fashioned 
house, and what I specially admire is the abundance o' holes and bores and 
concealments - ye could put twenty or thirty men in ae corner, and a family 
might live a week without finding them out - whilk, nae doubt, may on 
occasion be a special convenience. I wish we had the like o' Osbaldistone 
Hall on the braes o' Craig-Royston - But we maun gar woods and caves serve 
the like o' us puir Hieland bodies."
"I suppose his Excellency," said I, "was privy to the first accident which 
befell -"
I could not help hesitating a moment.
"Ye were going to say Morris," said Rob Roy coolly, for he was too much 
accustomed to deeds of violence for the agitation he had at first expressed 
to be of long continuance. "I used to laugh heartily at that reik; but I'll 
hardly hae the heart to do't again, since the ill-far'd accident at the 
Loch. Na, na - his Excellency kenned nought o' that ploy - it was a' 
managed atween Rashleigh and mysell. But the sport that came after - and 
Rashleigh's shift o' turning the suspicion aff himself upon you, that he 
had nae grit favour to frae the beginning - and then Miss Die, she maun hae 
us sweep up a' our spiders' webs again, and set you out o' the Justice's 
claws - and then the frightened craven Morris, that was scared out o' his 
seven senses by seeing the real man when he was charging the innocent 
stranger - and the gowk of a clerk - and the drunken carle of a justice - 
Ohon! ohon! - mony a laugh that job's gien me - and now, a' that I can do 
for the puir devil is to get some messes said for his soul."
"May I ask," said I, "how Miss Vernon came to have so much influence over 
Rashleigh and his accomplices as to derange your projected plan?"
"Mine! it was none of mine. No man can say I ever laid my burden on other 
folk's shoulders - it was a' Rashleigh's doings. But, undoubtedly, she had 
great influence wi' us baith on account of his Excellency's affection, as 
weel as that she kenned far ower mony secrets to be lightlied in a matter 
o' that kind. - Deil tak him," he ejaculated, by way of summing up, "that 
gies women either secret to keep or power to abuse - fules shouldna hae 
chapping-sticks."
We were now within a quarter of a mile from the village, when three 
Highlanders, springing upon us with presented arms, commanded us to stand 
and tell our business. The single word Gregaragh, in the deep and 
commanding voice of my companion, was answered by a shout, or rather yell, 
of joyful recognition. One, throwing down his firelock, clasped his leader 
so fast round the knees, that he was unable to extricate himself, 
muttering, at the same time, a torrent of Gaelic gratulation, which every 
now and then rose into a sort of scream of gladness. The two others, after 
the first howling was over, set off literally with the speed of deers, 
contending which should first carry to the village, which a strong party of 
the MacGregors now occupied, the joyful news of Rob Roy's escape and 
return. The intelligence excited such shouts of jubilation, that the very 
hills rung again, and young and old, men, women, and children, without 
distinction of sex or age, came running down the vale to meet us, with all 
the tumultuous speed and clamour of a mountain torrent. When I heard the 
rushing noise and yells of this joyful multitude approach us, I thought it 
a fitting precaution to remind MacGregor that I was a stranger, and under 
his protection. He accordingly held me fast by the hand, while the 
assemblage crowded around him with such shouts of devoted attachment, and 
joy at his return, as were really affecting; nor did he extend to his 
followers what all eagerly sought, the grasp, namely, of his hand, until he 
had made them understand that I was to be kindly and carefully used.
The mandate of the Sultan of Delhi could not have been more promptly 
obeyed. Indeed, I now sustained nearly as much inconvenience from their 
well-meant attentions as formerly from their rudeness. They would hardly 
allow the friend of their leader to walk upon his own legs, so earnest were 
they in affording me support and assistance upon the way; and at length, 
taking advantage of a slight stumble which I made over a stone, which the 
press did not permit me to avoid, they fairly seized upon me, and bore me 
in their arms in triumph towards Mrs MacAlpine's.
On arrival before her hospitable wigwam, I found power and popularity had 
its inconveniences in the Highlands, as everywhere else; for, before 
MacGregor could be permitted to enter the house where he was to obtain rest 
and refreshment, he was obliged to relate the story of his escape at least 
a dozen times over, as I was told by an officious old man, who chose to 
translate it at least as often for my edification, and to whom I was in 
policy obliged to seem to pay a decent degree of attention. The audience 
being at length satisfied, group after group departed to take their bed 
upon the heath, or in the neighbouring huts, some cursing the Duke and 
Garschattachin, some lamenting the probable danger of Ewan of Brigglands, 
incurred by his friendship to MacGregor, but all agreeing that the escape 
of Rob Roy himself lost nothing in comparison with the exploit of any one 
of their chiefs since the days of Dougal-Ciar, the founder of his line.
The friendly outlaw, now taking me by the arm, conducted me into the 
interior of the hut. My eyes roved round its smoky recesses in quest of 
Diana and her companion; but they were nowhere to be seen, and I felt as if 
to make inquiries might betray some secret motives, which were best 
concealed. The only known countenance upon which my eyes rested was that of 
the Bailie, who, seated on a stool by the fireside, received with a sort of 
reserved dignity, the welcomes of Rob Roy, the apologies which he made for 
his indifferent accommodation, and his inquiries after his health.
"I am pretty weel, kinsman," said the Bailie - "indifferent weel, I thank 
ye; and for accommodations, ane canna expect to carry about the Saut Market 
at his tail, as a snail does his caup; - and I am blythe that ye hae gotten 
out o' the hands o' your unfreends."
"Weel, weel, then," answered Roy, "what is't ails ye, man - a's weel that 
ends weel! - the warld will last our day - Come, take a cup o' brandy - 
your father the deacon could take ane at an orra time."
"It might be he might do sae, Robin, after fatigue - whilk has been my lot 
mair ways than ane this day. But," he continued, slowly filling up a little 
wooden stoup which might hold about three glasses, "he was a moderate man 
of his bicker, as I am mysell - Here's wussing health to ye, Robin" (a 
sip), "and your weelfare here and hereafter" (another taste), "and also to 
my cousin Helen - and to your twa hopefu' lads, of whom mair anon."
So saying, he drank up the contents of the cup with great gravity and 
deliberation, while MacGregor winked aside to me, as if in ridicule of the 
air of wisdom and superior authority which the Bailie assumed towards him 
in their intercourse, and which he exercised when Rob was at the head of 
his armed clan, in full as great, or a greater degree, than when he was at 
the Bailie's mercy in the Tolbooth of Glasgow. It seemed to me, that 
MacGregor wished me, as a stranger, to understand, that if he submitted to 
the tone which his kinsman assumed, it was partly out of deference to the 
rights of hospitality, but still more for the jest's sake.
As the Bailie set down his cup he recognised me, and giving me a cordial 
welcome on my return, he waived farther communication with me for the 
present. - "I will speak to your matters anon; I maun begin, as in reason, 
wi' those of my kinsman. - I presume, Robin, there's naebody here will 
carry aught o' what I am gaun to say, to the town-council or elsewhere, to 
my prejudice or to yours?"
"Make yourself easy on that head, cousin Nicol," answered MacGregor; "the 
tae half o' the gillies winna ken what ye say, and the tother winna care - 
besides that, I wad stow the tongue out o' the head o' any o' them that 
suld presume to say ower again ony speech held wi' me in their presence."
"Aweel, cousin, sic being the case, and Mr Osbaldistone here being a 
prudent youth, and a safe friend - I'se plainly tell ye, ye are breeding up 
your family to gang an ill gate." Then, clearing his voice with a 
preliminary hem, he addressed his kinsman, checking, as Malvolio proposed 
to do when seated in his state, his familiar smile with an austere regard 
of control. - "Ye ken yourself ye haud light by the law - and for my cousin 
Helen, forbye that her reception o' me this blessed day - whilk I excuse on 
account of perturbation of mind, was muckle on the north side o' friendly, 
I say (outputting this personal reason of complaint) I hae that to say o' 
your wife -"
"Say nothing of her, kinsman," said Rob, in a grave and stern tone, "but 
what is befitting a friend to say, and her husband to hear. Of me you are 
welcome to say your full pleasure."
"Aweel, aweel," said the Bailie, somewhat disconcerted, "we'se let that be 
a pass-over - I dinna approve of making mischief in families. But here are 
your twa sons, Hamish and Robin, whilk signifies, as I'm gien to 
understand, James and Robert - I trust ye will call them sae in future - 
there comes nae gude o' Hamishes, and Eachines, and Angusses, except that 
they're the names ane aye chances to see in the indictments at the Western 
Circuits for cow-lifting, at the instance of his majesty's advocate for his 
majesty's interest. Aweel, but the twa lads, as I was saying, they haena 
sae muckle as the ordinar grunds, man, of liberal education - they dinna 
ken the very multiplication table itself, whilk is the root of a' usefu' 
knowledge, and they did naething but laugh and fleer at me when I tauld 
them my mind on their ignorance - It's my belief they can neither read, 
write, nor cipher, if sic a thing could be believed o' ane's ain 
connections in a Christian land."
"If they could, kinsman," said MacGregor, with great indifference, "their 
learning must have come o' free will, for whar the deil was I to get them a 
teacher? - wad ye hae had me put on the gate o' your Divinity Hall at 
Glasgow College, 'Wanted, a tutor for Rob Roy's bairns?'"
"Na, kinsman," replied Mr Jarvie, "but ye might hae sent the lads whar they 
could hae learned the fear o' God, and the usages of civilised creatures. 
They are as ignorant as the kyloes ye used to drive to market, or the very 
English churls that ye sauld them to, and can do naething whatever to 
purpose."
"Umph!" answered Rob; "Hamish can bring doun a black-cock when he's on the 
wing wi' a single bullet, and Rob can drive a dirk through a twa-inch 
board."
"Sae muckle the waur for them, cousin! - sae muckle the waur for them 
baith!" answered the Glasgow merchant in a tone of great decision; "an they 
ken naething better than that, they had better no ken that neither. Tell me 
yourself, Rob, what has a' this cutting, and stabbing, and shooting, and 
driving of dirks, whether through human flesh or fir deals, dune for 
yourself? - and werena ye a happier man at the tail o' your nowte-bestial, 
when ye were in an honest calling, than ever ye hae been since, at the head 
o' your Hieland kernes and gally-glasses?"
I observed that MacGregor, while his well-meaning kinsman spoke to him in 
this manner, turned and writhed his body like a man who indeed suffers 
pain, but is determined no groan shall escape his lips; and I longed for an 
opportunity to interrupt the well-meant, but, as it was obvious to me, 
quite mistaken strain, in which Jarvie addressed this extraordinary person. 
The dialogue, however, came to an end without my interference.
"And sae," said the Bailie, "I hae been thinking, Rob, that as it may be ye 
are ower deep in the black book to win a pardon, and ower auld to mend 
yourself, that it wad be a pity to bring up twa hopefu' lads to sic a 
godless trade as your ain, and I wad blithely tak them for prentices at the 
loom, as I began mysell, and my father the deacon afore me, though, praise 
to the Giver, I only trade now as wholesale dealer - And - and -"
He saw a storm gathering on Rob's brow, which probably induced him to throw 
in, as a sweetener of an obnoxious proposition, what he had reserved to 
crown his own generosity, had it been embraced as an acceptable one; - "and 
Robin, lad, ye needna look sae glum, for I'll pay the prentice-fee, and 
never plague ye for the thousand merks neither."
"Ceade millia diaoul, hundred thousand devils!" exclaimed Rob, rising and 
striding through the hut, "My sons weavers! - Millia molligheart! - but I 
wad see every loom in Glasgow, beam, traddles, and shuttles, burnt in hell-
fire sooner!"
With some difficulty I made the Bailie, who was preparing a reply, 
comprehend the risk and impropriety of pressing our host on this topic, and 
in a minute he recovered, or reassumed, his serenity of temper.
"But ye mean weel - ye mean weel," said he; "so gie me your hand, Nicol, 
and if ever I put my sons apprentice, I will gie you the refusal o' them. 
And, as you say, there's the thousand merks to be settled between us. - 
Here, Eachin MacAnaleister, bring me my sporran."
The person he addressed, a tall, strong mountaineer, who seemed to act as 
MacGregor's lieutenant, brought from some place of safety a large leathern 
pouch, such as Highlanders of rank wear before them when in full dress, 
made of the skin of the sea-otter, richly garnished with silver ornaments 
and studs.
"I advise no man to attempt opening this sporran till he has my secret," 
said Rob Roy; and then twisting one button in one direction, and another in 
another, pulling one stud upward, and pressing another downward, the mouth 
of the purse, which was bound with massive silver plate, opened and gave 
admittance to his hand. He made me remark, as if to break short the subject 
on which Bailie Jarvie had spoken, that a small steel pistol was concealed 
within the purse, the trigger of which was connected with the mounting, and 
made part of the machinery, so that the weapon would certainly be 
discharged, and in all probability its contents lodged in the person of any 
one, who, being unacquainted with the secret, should tamper with the lock 
which secured his treasure. "This," said he touching the pistol - "this is 
the keeper of my privy purse."
The simplicity of the contrivance to secure a furred pouch, which could 
have been ripped open without any attempt on the spring, reminded me of the 
verses in the Odyssey, where Ulysses, in a yet ruder age, is content to 
secure his property by casting a curious and involved complication of 
cordage around the sea-chest in which it was deposited.
The Bailie put on his spectacles to examine the mechanism, and when he had 
done, returned it with a smile and a sigh, observing - "Ah! Rob, had ither 
folk's purses been as weel guarded, I doubt if your sporran wad hae been as 
weel filled as it kythes to be by the weight."
"Never mind, kinsman," said Rob, laughing; "it will aye open for a friend's 
necessity, or to pay a just due - and here," he added, pulling out a 
rouleau of gold, "here is your ten hundred merks - count them, and see that 
you are full and justly paid."
Mr Jarvie took the money in silence, and weighing it in his hand for an 
instant, laid it on the table, and replied, "Rob, I canna tak it - I downa 
intromit with it - there can nae gude come o't - I hae seen ower weel the 
day what sort of a gate your gowd is made in - ill-got gear ne'er 
prospered; and, to be plain wi' you, I winna meddle wi't - it looks as 
there might be bluid on't."
"Troutsho!" said the outlaw, affecting an indifference which perhaps he did 
not altogether feel; "it's gude French gowd, and ne'er was in Scotchman's 
pouch before mine. Look at them, man - they are a' louis-d'ors, bright and 
bonnie as the day they were coined."
"The waur, the waur - just sae muckle the waur, Robin," replied the Bailie, 
averting his eyes from the money, though, like Caesar on the Lupercal, his 
fingers seemed to itch for it - "Rebellion is waur than witchcraft, or 
robbery either; there's gospel warrant for't."
"Never mind the warrant, kinsman," said the freebooter; "you come by the 
gowd honestly, and in payment of a just debt - it came from the one king, 
you may gie it to the other, if ye like; and it will just serve for a 
weakening of the enemy, and in the point where puir King James is weakest 
too, for, God knows, he has hands and hearts eneugh, but I doubt he wants 
the siller."
"He'll no get mony Hielanders then, Robin," said Mr Jarvie, as, again 
replacing his spectacles on his nose, he undid the rouleau, and began to 
count its contents.
"Nor Lowlanders neither," said MacGregor, arching his eyebrow, and, as he 
looked at me, directing a glance towards Mr Jarvie, who, all unconscious of 
the ridicule, weighed each piece with habitual scrupulosity; and having 
told twice over the sum, which amounted to the discharge of his debt, 
principal and interest, he returned three pieces to buy his kinswoman a 
gown, as he expressed himself, and a brace more for the twa bairns, as he 
called them, requesting they might buy anything they liked with them except 
gunpowder. The Highlander stared at his kinsman's unexpected generosity, 
but courteously accepted his gift, which he deposited for the time in his 
well-secured pouch.
The Bailie next produced the original bond for the debt, on the back of 
which he had written a formal discharge, which, having subscribed himself, 
he requested me to sign as a witness. I did so, and Bailie Jarvie was 
looking anxiously around for another, the Scottish law requiring the 
subscription of two witnesses to validate either a bond or acquittance. 
"You will hardly find a man that can write save ourselves within these 
three miles," said Rob, "but I'll settle the matter as easily;" and, taking 
the paper from before his kinsman, he threw it in the fire. Bailie Jarvie 
stared in his turn, but his kinsman continued, "That's a Hieland settlement 
of accounts. The time might come, cousin, were I to keep a' these charges 
and discharges, that friends might be brought into trouble for having dealt 
with me."
The Bailie attempted no reply to this argument, and our supper now appeared 
in a style of abundance, and even delicacy, which, for the place, might be 
considered as extraordinary. The greater part of the provisions were cold, 
intimating they had been prepared at some distance; and there were some 
bottles of good French wine to relish pasties of various sorts of game, as 
well as other dishes. I remarked that MacGregor, while doing the honours of 
the table with great and anxious hospitality, prayed us to excuse the 
circumstance that some particular dish or pasty had been infringed on 
before it was presented to us. "You must know," said he to Mr Jarvie, but 
without looking towards me, "you are not the only guests this night in the 
MacGregor's country, whilk, doubtless, ye will believe, since my wife and 
the twa lads would otherwise have been maist ready to attend you, as weel 
beseems them."
Bailie Jarvie looked as if he felt glad at any circumstance which 
occasioned their absence; and I should have been entirely of his opinion, 
had it not been that the outlaw's apology seemed to imply they were in 
attendance on Diana and her companion, whom even in my thoughts I could not 
bear to designate as her husband.
While the unpleasant ideas arising from this suggestion counteracted the 
good effects of appetite, welcome, and good cheer, I remarked that Rob 
Roy's attention had extended itself to providing us better bedding than we 
had enjoyed the night before. Two of the least fragile of the bedsteads, 
which stood by the wall of the hut, had been stuffed with heath, then in 
full flower, so artificially arranged, that, the flowers being uppermost, 
afforded a mattress at once elastic and fragrant. Cloaks, and such bedding 
as could be collected, stretched over this vegetable couch, made it both 
soft and warm. The Bailie seemed exhausted by fatigue. I resolved to 
adjourn my communication to him until next morning; and therefore suffered 
him to betake himself to bed so soon as he had finished a plentiful supper. 
Though tired and harassed, I did not myself feel the same disposition to 
sleep, but rather a restless and feverish anxiety, which led to some 
farther discourse betwixt me and MacGregor.



Chapter 35

		A hopeless darkness settles o'er my fate;
		I've seen the last look of her heavenly eyes, -
		I've heard the last sound of her blessed voice, -
		I've seen her fair form from my sight depart;
		My doom is closed.
						-- Count Basil.


"I ken not what to make of you, Mr Osbaldistone," said MacGregor, as he 
pushed the flask towards me. "You eat not, you show no wish for rest; and 
yet you drink not, though that flask of Bourdeaux might have come out of 
Sir Hildebrand's ain cellar. Had you been always as abstinent, you would 
have escaped the deadly hatred of your cousin Rashleigh."
"Had I been always prudent," said I, blushing at the scene he recalled to 
my recollection, "I should have escaped a worse evil - the reproach of my 
own conscience."
MacGregor cast a keen and somewhat fierce glance on me, as if to read 
whether the reproof, which he evidently felt, had been intentionally 
conveyed. He saw that I was thinking of myself, not of him, and turned his 
face towards the fire with a deep sigh. I followed his example, and each 
remained for a few minutes wrapt in his own painful reverie. All in the hut 
were now asleep, or at least silent, excepting ourselves.
MacGregor first broke silence, in the tone of one who takes up his 
determination to enter on a painful subject. "My cousin Nicol Jarvie means 
well," he said, "but he presses ower hard on the temper and situation of a 
man like me, considering what I have been - what I have been forced to 
become - and, above all, that which has forced me to become what I am."
He paused; and, though feeling the delicate nature of the discussion in 
which the conversation was likely to engage me, I could not help replying, 
that I did not doubt his present situation had much which must be most 
unpleasant to his feelings.
"I should be happy to learn," I added, "that there is an honourable chance 
of your escaping from it."
"You speak like a boy," returned MacGregor, in a low tone that growled like 
distant thunder - "like a boy, who thinks the auld gnarled oak can be 
twisted as easily as the young sapling. Can I forget that I have been 
branded as an outlaw - stigmatised as a traitor - a price set on my head as 
if I had been a wolf - my family treated as the dam and cubs of the hill-
fox, whom all may torment, vilify, degrade, and insult - the very name 
which came to me from a long and noble line of martial ancestors, 
denounced, as if it were a spell to conjure up the devil with?"
As he went on in this manner, I could plainly see, that, by the enumeration 
of his wrongs, he was lashing himself up into a rage, in order to justify 
in his own eyes the errors they had led him into. In this he perfectly 
succeeded; his light grey eyes contracting alternately and dilating their 
pupils, until they seemed actually to flash with flame, while he thrust 
forward and drew back his foot, grasped the hilt of his dirk, extended his 
arm, clenched his fist, and finally rose from his seat.
"And they shall find," he said, in the same muttered but deep tone of 
stifled passion, "that the name they have dared to proscribe - that the 
name of MacGregor - is a spell to raise the wild devil withal. They shall 
hear of my vengeance, that would scorn to listen to the story of my wrongs 
- The miserable Highland drover, bankrupt, barefooted, - stripped of all, 
dishonoured and hunted down, because the avarice of others grasped at more 
than that poor all could pay, shall burst on them in an awful change. They 
that scoffed at the grovelling worm, and trode upon him, may cry and howl 
when they see the stoop of the flying and fiery-mouthed dragon. - But why 
do I speak of all this?" he said, sitting down again, and in a calmer tone 
- "Only ye may opine it frets my patience, Mr Osbaldistone, to be hunted 
like an otter, or a sealgh, or a salmon upon the shallows, and that by my 
very friends and neighbours; and to have as many sword-cuts made, and 
pistols flashed at me, as I had this day in the ford of Avondow, would try 
a saint's temper, much more a Highlander's, who are not famous for that 
gude gift, as ye may hae heard, Mr Osbaldistone. - But as thing bides wi' 
me o' what Nicol said; - I'm vexed for the bairns - I'm vexed when I think 
o' Hamish and Robert living their father's life." And yielding to 
despondence on account of his sons, which he felt not upon his own, the 
father rested his head upon his hand.
I was much affected, Will. All my life long I have been more melted by the 
distress under which a strong, proud, and powerful mind is compelled to 
give way, than by the more easily excited sorrows of softer dispositions. 
The desire of aiding him rushed strongly on my mind, notwithstanding the 
apparent difficulty, and even impossibility, of the task.
"We have extensive connections abroad," said I: "might not your sons, with 
some assistance - and they are well entitled to what my father's house can 
give - find an honourable resource in foreign service?"
I believe my countenance showed signs of sincere emotion; but my companion, 
taking me by the hand, as I was going to speak farther, said - "I thank - I 
thank ye - but let us say nae mair o' this. I did not think the eye of man 
would again have seen a tear on MacGregor's eyelash." He dashed the 
moisture from his long grey eyelash and shaggy red eyebrow with the back of 
his hand. "Tomorrow morning," he said, "we'll talk of this, and we will 
talk, too, of your affairs - for we are early starters in the dawn, even 
when we have the luck to have good beds to sleep in. Will ye not pledge me 
in a grace cup?" I declined the invitation.
"Then, by the soul of St. Maronoch! I must pledge myself," and he poured 
out and swallowed at least half-a-quart of wine.
I laid myself down to repose, resolving to delay my own inquiries until his 
mind should be in a more composed state. Indeed, so much had this singular 
man possessed himself of my imagination, that I felt it impossible to avoid 
watching him for some minutes after I had flung myself on my heath mattress 
to seeming rest. He walked up and down the hut, crossed himself from time 
to time, muttering over some Latin prayer of the Catholic church; then 
wrapped himself in his plaid, with his naked sword on one side, and his 
pistol on the other, so disposing the folds of his mantle that he could 
start up at a moment's warning, with a weapon in either hand, ready for 
instant combat. In a few minutes his heavy breathing announced that he was 
fast asleep. Overpowered by fatigue, and stunned by the various unexpected 
and extraordinary scenes of the day, I, in my turn, was soon overpowered by 
a slumber deep and overwhelming, from which, notwithstanding every cause 
for watchfulness, I did not awake until the next morning.
When I opened my eyes, and recollected my situation, I found that MacGregor 
had already left the hut. I awakened the Bailie, who, after many a snort 
and groan, and some heavy complaints of the soreness of his bones, in 
consequence of the unwonted exertions of the preceding day, was at length 
able to comprehend the joyful intelligence, that the assets carried off by 
Rashleigh Osbaldistone had been safely recovered. The instant he understood 
my meaning, he forgot all his grievances, and, bustling up in a great 
hurry, proceeded to compare the contents of the packet which I put into his 
hands, with Mr Owen's memorandums, muttering, as he went on, "Right, right 
- the real thing - Bailie and Whittington - where's Bailie and Whittington? 
- seven hundred, six, and eight - exact to a fraction - Pollock and Peelman 
- twenty-eight, seven - exact - Praise be blest! - Grub and Grinder - 
better men cannot be - three hundred and seventy - Gliblad - twenty; I 
doubt Gliblad's ganging - Slipprytongue; Slipprytongue's gane - but they 
are sma' sums - sma' sums - the rest's a' right - Praise be blest! we have 
got the stuff, and may leave this doleful country. I shall never think on 
Loch-Ard but the thought will gar me grew again"
"I am sorry, cousin," said MacGregor, who entered the hut during the last 
observation, "I have not been altogether in the circumstances to make your 
reception sic as I could have desired - natheless, if you would condescend 
to visit my puir dwelling -"
"Muckle obliged, muckle obliged," answered Mr Jarvie, very hastily - "But 
we maun be ganging - we maun be jogging, Mr Osbaldistone and me - business 
canna wait."
"Aweel, kinsman," replied the Highlander, "ye ken our fashion - foster the 
guest that comes - further him that maun gang. But ye cannot return by 
Drymen - I must set you on Loch Lomond, and boat ye down to the Ferry o' 
Balloch, and send your nags round to meet ye there. It's a maxim of a wise 
man never to return by the same road he came, providing another's free to 
him."
"Ay, ay, Rob," said the Bailie, "that's ane o' the maxims ye learned when 
ye were a drover; - ye caredna to face the tenants where your beasts had 
been taking a rug of their moorland grass in the by-ganging, and I doubt 
your road's waur marked now than it was then."
"The mair need not to travel it ower often, kinsman," replied Rob; "but 
I'se send round your nags to the ferry wi' Dougal Gregor, wha is converted 
for that purpose into the Bailie's man, coming - not, as ye may believe, 
from Aberfoil or Rob Roy's country, but on a quiet jaunt from Stirling. 
See, here he is."
"I wadna hae kenned the creature," said Mr Jarvie; nor indeed was it easy 
to recognise the wild Highlander, when he appeared before the door of the 
cottage, attired in a hat, periwig, and riding-coat, which had once called 
Andrew Fairservice master, and mounted on the Bailie's horse, and leading 
mine. He received his last orders from his master to avoid certain places 
where he might be exposed to suspicion - to collect what intelligence he 
could in the course of his journey, and to await our coming at an appointed 
place, near the Ferry of Balloch.
At the same time, MacGregor invited us to accompany him upon our own road, 
assuring us that we must necessarily march a few miles before breakfast, 
and recommending a dram of brandy as a proper introduction to the journey, 
in which he was pledged by the Bailie, who pronounced it "an unlawful and 
perilous habit to begin the day wi' spirituous liquors, except to defend 
the stomach (whilk was a tender part) against the morning mist; in whilk 
case his father the deacon had recommended a dram, by precept and example."
"Very true, kinsman," replied Rob, "for which reason we, who are Children 
of the Mist, have a right to drink brandy from morning till night."
The Bailie, thus refreshed, was mounted on a small Highland pony; another 
was offered for my use, which, however, I declined; and we resumed, under 
very different guidance and auspices, our journey of the preceding day.
Our escort consisted of MacGregor, and five or six of the handsomest, best 
armed, and most athletic mountaineers of his band, and whom he had 
generally in immediate attendance upon his own person.
When we approached the pass, the scene of the skirmish of the preceding 
day, and of the still more direful deed which followed it, MacGregor 
hastened to speak, as if it were rather to what he knew must be necessarily 
passing in my mind, than to any thing I had said - he spoke, in short, to 
my thoughts, and not to my words.
"You must think hardly of us, Mr Osbaldistone, and it is not natural that 
it should be otherwise. But remember, at least, we have not been 
unprovoked. We are a rude and an ignorant, and it may be a violent and 
passionate, but we are not a cruel people. The land might be at peace and 
in law for us, did they allow us to enjoy the blessings of peaceful law. 
But we have been a persecuted generation."
"And persecution," said the Bailie, "maketh wise men mad."
"What must it do then to men like us, living as our fathers did a thousand 
years since, and possessing scarce more lights than they did? Can we view 
their bluidy edicts against us - their hanging, heading, hounding, and 
hunting down an ancient and honourable name - as deserving better treatment 
than that which enemies give to enemies? - Here I stand, have been in 
twenty frays, and never hurt man but when I was in het bluid; and yet they 
wad betray me and hang me like a masterless dog, at the gate of ony great 
man that has an ill will at me."
I replied, "that the proscription of his name and family sounded in English 
ears as a very cruel and arbitrary law;" and having thus far soothed him, I 
resumed my propositions of obtaining military employment for himself, if he 
chose it, and his sons, in foreign parts. MacGregor shook me very cordially 
by the hand, and detaining me, so as to permit Mr Jarvie to precede us, a 
manoeuvre for which the narrowness of the road served as an excuse, he said 
to me - "You are a kind-hearted and an honourable youth, and understand, 
doubtless, that which is due to the feelings of a man of honour. But the 
heather that I have trode upon when living, must bloom ower me when I am 
dead - my heart would sink, and my arm would shrink and wither like fern in 
the frost, were I to lose sight of my native hills; nor has the world a 
scene that would console me for the loss of the rocks and cairns, wild as 
they are, that you see around us. - And Helen - what could become of her, 
were I to leave her the subject of new insult and atrocity? - or how could 
she bear to be removed from these scenes, where the remembrance of her 
wrongs is aye sweetened by the recollection of her revenge? - I was once so 
hard put at by my Great enemy, as I may well ca' him, that I was forced 
e'en to gie way to the tide, and removed myself and my people and family 
from our dwellings in our native land, and to withdraw for a time into 
MacCallum More's country - and Helen made a Lament on our departure, as 
weel as MacRimmon himsell could hae framed it - and so piteously sad and 
waesome, that our hearts amaist broke as we sate and listened to her - it 
was like the wailing of one that mourns for the mother that bore him - the 
tears came down the rough faces of our gillies as they hearkened; and I wad 
not have the same touch of heartbreak again, no, not to have all the lands 
that ever were owned by MacGregor."
"But your sons," I said - "they are at the age when your countrymen have 
usually no objection to see the world?"
"And I should be content," he replied, "that they pushed their fortune in 
the French or Spanish service, as is the wont of Scottish cavaliers of 
honour; and last night your plan seemed feasible eneugh - But I hae seen 
his Excellency this morning before ye were up."
"Did he then quarter so near us?" said I, my bosom throbbing with anxiety.
"Nearer than ye thought," was MacGregor's reply; "but he seemed rather in 
some shape to jalouse your speaking to the young leddy; and so you see -"
"There was no occasion for jealousy," I answered, with some haughtiness; - 
"I should not have intruded on his privacy."
"But ye must not be offended, or look out from amang your curls then, like 
a wildcat out of an ivy-tod, for ye are to understand that he wishes most 
sincere weel to you, and has proved it. And it's partly that whilk has set 
the heather on fire e'en now."
"Heather on fire?" said I. "I do not understand you."
"Why," resumed MacGregor, "ye ken weel eneugh that women and gear are at 
the bottom of a' the mischief in this warld. I hae been misdoubting your 
cousin Rashleigh since ever he saw that he wasna to get Die Vernon for his 
marrow, and I think he took grudge at his Excellency mainly on that 
account. But then came the splore about the surrendering your papers - and 
we hae now gude evidence, that, sae soon as he was compelled to yield them 
up, he rade post to Stirling, and tauld the Government all and mair than 
all, that was gaun doucely on amang us hill-folk; and, doubtless, that was 
the way that the country was laid to take his Excellency and the leddy, and 
to make sic an unexpected raid on me. And I hae as little doubt that the 
poor deevil Morris, whom he could gar believe ony thing, was egged on by 
him, and some of the Lowland gentry, to trepan me in the gate he tried to 
do. But if Rashleigh Osbaldistone were baith the last and best of his name, 
and granting that he and I ever forgather again, the fiend go down my 
weasand with a bare blade at his belt, if we part before my dirk and his 
best blude are weel acquainted thegither!"
He pronounced the last threat with an ominous frown, and the appropriate 
gesture of his hand upon his dagger.
"I should almost rejoice at what has happened," said I, "could I hope that 
Rashleigh's treachery might prove the means of preventing the explosion of 
the rash and desperate intrigues in which I have long suspected him to be a 
prime agent."
"Trow ye na that," said Rob Roy; "traitor's word never yet hurt honest 
cause. He was ower deep in our secrets, that's true; and had it not been 
so, Stirling and Edinburgh Castles would have been baith in our hands by 
this time, or briefly hereafter, whilk is now scarce to be hoped for. But 
there are ower mony engaged, and far ower gude a cause to be gien up for 
the breath of a traitor's tale, and that will be seen and heard of ere it 
be lang. And so, as I was about to say, the best of my thanks to you for 
your offer anent my sons, whilk last night I had some thoughts to have 
embraced in their behalf. But I see that this villain's treason will 
convince our great folks that they must instantly draw to a head, and make 
a blow for it, or be taen in their houses, coupled up like hounds, and 
driven up to London like the honest noblemen and gentlemen in the year 
seventeen hundred and seven. Civil war is like a cockatrice; - we have 
sitten hatching the egg that held it for ten years, and might hae sitten on 
for ten years mair, when in comes Rashleigh, and chips the shell, and out 
bangs the wonder amang us, and cries to fire and sword. Now in sic a matter 
I'll hae need o' a' the hands I can mak; and, nae disparagement to the 
Kings of France and Spain, whom I wish very weel to, King James is as gude 
a man as ony o' them, and has the best right to Hamish and Rob, being his 
natural-born subjects."
I easily comprehended that these words boded a general national convulsion; 
and, as it would have been alike useless and dangerous to have combated the 
political opinions of my guide, at such a place and moment, I contented 
myself with regretting the promiscuous scene of confusion and distress 
likely to arise from any general exertion in favour of the exiled royal 
family.
"Let it come, man - let it come," answered MacGregor; "ye never saw dull 
weather clear without a shower; and if the world is turned upside down, 
why, honest men have the better chance to cut bread out of it."
I again attempted to bring him back to the subject of Diana; but although 
on most occasions and subjects he used a freedom of speech which I had no 
great delight in listening to, yet upon that alone which was most 
interesting to me, he kept a degree of scrupulous reserve, and contented 
himself with intimating, "that he hoped the leddy would be soon in a 
quieter country than this was like to be for one while." I was obliged to 
be content with this answer, and to proceed in the hope that accident 
might, as on a former occasion, stand my friend, and allow me at least the 
sad gratification of bidding farewell to the object which had occupied such 
a share of my affections, so much beyond even what I had supposed, till I 
was about to be separated from her for ever.
We pursued the margin of the lake for about six English miles, through a 
devious and beautifully variegated path, until we attained a sort of 
Highland farm, or assembly of hamlets, near the head of that fine sheet of 
water, called, if I mistake not, Lediart, or some such name. Here a 
numerous party of MacGregor's men were stationed in order to receive us. 
The taste as well as the eloquence of tribes in a savage, or, to speak more 
properly, in a rude state, is usually just, because it is unfettered by 
system and affectation; and of this I had an example in the choice these 
mountaineers had made of a place to receive their guests. It has been said 
that a British monarch would judge well to receive the embassy of a rival 
power in the cabin of a man-of-war; and a Highland leader acted with some 
propriety in choosing a situation where the natural objects of grandeur 
proper to his country might have their full effect on the minds of his 
guests.
We ascended about two hundred yards from the shores of the lake, guided by 
a brawling brook, and left on the right hand four or five Highland huts, 
with patches of arable land around them, so small as to show that they must 
have been worked with the spade rather than the plough, cut as it were out 
of the surrounding copsewood, and waving with crops of barley and oats. 
Above this limited space the hill became more steep; and on its edge we 
descried the glittering arms and waving drapery of about fifty of 
MacGregor's followers. They were stationed on a spot, the recollection of 
which yet strikes me with admiration. The brook, hurling its waters 
downwards from the mountain, had in this spot encountered a barrier rock, 
over which it had made its way by two distinct leaps. The first fall, 
across which a magnificent old oak, slanting out from the farther bank, 
partly extended itself as if to shroud the dusky stream of the cascade, 
might be about twelve feet high; the broken waters were received in a 
beautiful stone basin, almost as regular as if hewn by a sculptor; and 
after wheeling around its flinty margin, they made a second precipitous 
dash, through a dark and narrow chasm, at least fifty feet in depth, and 
from thence, in a hurried, but comparatively a more gentle course, escaped 
to join the lake.
With the natural taste which belongs to mountaineers, and especially to the 
Scottish Highlanders, whose feelings, I have observed, are often allied 
with the romantic and poetical, Rob Roy's wife and followers had prepared 
our morning repast in a scene well calculated to impress strangers with 
some feelings of awe. They are also naturally a grave and proud people, 
and, however rude in our estimation, carry their ideas of form and 
politeness to an excess that would appear overstrained, except from the 
demonstration of superior force which accompanies the display of it; for it 
must be granted that the air of punctilious deference and rigid etiquette 
which would seem ridiculous in an ordinary peasant, has, like the salute of 
a corps-de-garde, a propriety when tendered by a Highlander completely 
armed. There was, accordingly, a good deal of formality in our approach and 
reception.
The Highlanders, who had been dispersed on the side of the hill, drew 
themselves together when we came in view, and, standing firm and 
motionless, appeared in close column behind three figures, whom I soon 
recognised to be Helen MacGregor and her two sons. MacGregor himself 
arranged his attendants in the rear, and, requesting Mr Jarvie to dismount 
where the ascent became steep, advanced slowly, marshalling us forward at 
the head of the troop. As we advanced, we heard the wild notes of the 
bagpipes, which lost their natural discord from being mingled with the 
dashing sound of the cascade. When we came close, the wife of MacGregor 
came forward to meet us. Her dress was studiously arranged in a more 
feminine taste than it had been on the preceding day, but her features wore 
the same lofty, unbending, and resolute character; and as she folded my 
friend the Bailie in an unexpected and apparently unwelcome embrace, I 
could perceive by the agitation of his wig, his back, and the calves of his 
legs, that he felt much like to one who feels himself suddenly in the gripe 
of a she-bear, without being able to distinguish whether the animal is in 
kindness or in wrath.
"Kinsman," she said, "you are welcome - and you, too, stranger," she added, 
releasing my alarmed companion, who instinctively drew back and settled his 
wig, and addressing herself to me - "you also are welcome. You came," she 
added, "to our unhappy country, when our bloods were chafed, and our hands 
were red. Excuse the rudeness that gave you a rough welcome, and lay it 
upon the evil times, and not upon us." All this was said with the manners 
of a princess, and in the tone and style of a court. Nor was there the 
least tincture of that vulgarity, which we naturally attach to the Lowland 
Scottish. There was a strong provincial accentuation, but, otherwise, the 
language rendered by Helen MacGregor, out of the native and poetical 
Gaelic, into English, which she had acquired as we do learned tongues, but 
had probably never heard applied to the mean purposes of ordinary life, was 
graceful, flowing, and declamatory. Her husband, who had in his time played 
many parts, used a much less elevated and emphatic dialect; - but even his 
language rose in purity of expression, as you may have remarked, if I have 
been accurate in recording it, when the affairs which he discussed were of 
an agitating and important nature; and it appears to me in his case, and in 
that of some other Highlanders whom I have known, that, when familiar and 
facetious, they used the Lowland Scottish dialect, - when serious and 
impassioned, their thoughts arranged themselves in the idiom of their 
native language; and in the latter case, as they uttered the corresponding 
ideas in English, the expressions sounded wild, elevated, and poetical. In 
fact, the language of passion is almost always pure as well as vehement, 
and it is no uncommon thing to hear a Scotchman, when overwhelmed by a 
countryman with a tone of bitter and fluent upbraiding, reply by way of 
taunt to his adversary, "You have gotten to your English."
Be this as it may, the wife of MacGregor invited us to a refreshment spread 
out on the grass, which abounded with all the good things their mountains 
could offer, but was clouded by the dark and undisturbed gravity which sat 
on the brow of our hostess, as well as by our deep and anxious recollection 
of what had taken place on the preceding day. It was in vain that the 
leader exerted himself to excite mirth; - a chill hung over our minds, as 
if the feast had been funereal; and every bosom felt light when it was 
ended.
"Adieu, cousin," she said to Mr Jarvie, as we rose from the entertainment; 
"the best wish Helen MacGregor can give to a friend is, that he may see her 
no more."
The Bailie struggled to answer, probably with some commonplace maxim of 
morality; - but the calm and melancholy sternness of her countenance bore 
down and disconcerted the mechanical and formal importance of the 
magistrate. He coughed, - hemmed, - bowed, - and was silent.
"For you, stranger," she said, "I have a token, from one whom you can never 
-"
"Helen!" interrupted MacGregor, in a loud and stern voice, "what means 
this? - have you forgotten the charge?"
"MacGregor," she replied, "I have forgotten nought that is fitting for me 
to remember. It is not such hands as these," and she stretched forth her 
long, sinewy, and bare arm, "that are fitting to convey love-tokens, were 
the gift connected with aught but misery. Young man," she said, presenting 
me with a ring, which I well remembered as one of the few ornaments that 
Miss Vernon sometimes wore, "this comes from one whom you will never see 
more. If it is a joyless token, it is well fitted to pass through the hands 
of one to whom joy can never be known. Her last words were - Let him forget 
me for ever."
"And can she," I said, almost without being conscious that I spoke, 
"suppose that is possible?"
"All may be forgotten," said the extraordinary female who addressed me, - 
"all - but the sense of dishonour, and the desire of vengeance."
"Seid suas!" cried the MacGregor, stamping with impatience. The bagpipes 
sounded, and with their thrilling and jarring tones cut short our 
conference. Our leave of our hostess was taken by silent gestures; and we 
resumed our journey with an additional proof on my part, that I was beloved 
by Diana, and was separated from her for ever.



Chapter 36

	 Farewell to the land where the clouds love to rest,
	Like the shroud of the dead, on the mountain's cold breast
	To the cataract's roar where the eagles reply,
	And the lake her lone bosom expands to the sky.


Our route lay through a dreary, yet romantic country, which the distress of 
my own mind prevented me from remarking particularly, and which, therefore, 
I will not attempt to describe. The lofty peak of Ben Lomond, here the 
predominant monarch of the mountains, lay on our right hand, and served as 
a striking landmark. I was not awakened from my apathy, until, after a long 
and toilsome walk, we emerged through a pass in the hills, and Loch Lomond 
opened before us. I will spare you the attempt to describe what you would 
hardly comprehend without going to see it. But certainly this noble lake, 
boasting innumerable beautiful islands, of every varying form and outline 
which fancy can frame, - its northern extremity narrowing until it is lost 
among dusky and retreating mountains, - while, gradually widening as it 
extends to the southward, it spreads its base around the indentures and 
promontories of a fair and fertile land, affords one of the most 
surprising, beautiful, and sublime spectacles in nature. The eastern side, 
peculiarly rough and rugged, was at this time the chief seat of MacGregor 
and his clan, - to curb whom, a small garrison had been stationed in a 
central position betwixt Loch Lomond and another lake. The extreme strength 
of the country, however, with the numerous passes, marshes, caverns, and 
other places of concealment or defence, made the establishment of this 
little fort seem rather an acknowledgement of the danger, than an effectual 
means of securing against it.
On more than one occasion, as well as on that which I witnessed, the 
garrison suffered from the adventurous spirit of the outlaw and his 
followers. These advantages were never sullied by ferocity when he himself 
was in command; for, equally good-tempered and sagacious, he understood 
well the danger of incurring unnecessary odium. I learned with pleasure 
that he had caused the captives of the preceding day to be liberated in 
safety; and many traits of mercy, and even of generosity, are recorded of 
this remarkable man on similar occasions.
A boat waited for us in a creek beneath a huge rock, manned by four lusty 
Highland rowers; and our host took leave of us with great cordiality, and 
even affection. Betwixt him and Mr Jarvie, indeed, there seemed to exist a 
degree of mutual regard, which formed a strong contrast to their different 
occupations and habits. After kissing each other very lovingly, and when 
they were just in the act of parting, the Bailie, in the fulness of his 
heart, and with a faltering voice, assured his kinsman, "that if ever an 
hundred pund, or even twa hundred, would put him or his family in a settled 
way, he need but just send a line to the Saut-Market;" and Rob, grasping 
his basket-hilt with one hand, and shaking Mr Jarvie's heartily with the 
other, protested, "that if ever anybody should affront his kinsman, an he 
would but let him ken, he would stow his lugs out of his head, were he the 
best man in Glasgow."
With these assurances of mutual aid and continued good-will, we bore away 
from the shore, and took our course for the south-western angle of the 
lake, where it gives birth to the river Leven. Rob Roy remained for some 
time standing on the rock from beneath which we had departed, conspicuous 
by his long gun, waving tartans, and the single plume in his cap, which in 
those days denoted the Highland gentleman and soldier; although I observe 
that the present military taste has decorated the Highland bonnet with a 
quantity of black plumage resembling that which is borne before funerals. 
At length, as the distance increased between us, we saw him turn and go 
slowly up the side of the hill, followed by his immediate attendants or 
bodyguard.
We performed our voyage for a long time in silence, interrupted only by the 
Gaelic chant which one of the rowers sung in low irregular measure, rising 
occasionally into a wild chorus, in which the others joined.
My own thoughts were sad enough; - yet I felt something soothing in the 
magnificent scenery with which I was surrounded; and thought, in the 
enthusiasm of the moment, that had my faith been that of Rome, I could have 
consented to live and die a lonely hermit in one of the romantic and 
beautiful islands amongst which our boat glided.
The Bailie had also his speculations, but they were of somewhat a different 
complexion; as I found when, after about an hour's silence, during which he 
had been mentally engaged in the calculations necessary, he undertook to 
prove the possibility of draining the lake, and "giving to plough and 
harrow many hundred, ay, many a thousand acres, from whilk no man could get 
earthly gude e'enow, unless it were a gedd, or a dish of perch now and 
then."
Amidst a long discussion, which he "crammed into mine ear against the 
stomach of my sense," I only remember, that it was part of his project to 
preserve a portion of the lake just deep enough and broad enough for the 
purposes of water-carriage, so that coal-barges and gabbards should pass as 
easily between Dumbarton and Glenfalloch as between Glasgow and Greenock.
At length we neared our distant place of landing, adjoining to the ruins of 
an ancient castle, and just where the lake discharges its superfluous 
waters into the Leven. There we found Dougal with the horses. The Bailie 
had formed a plan with respect to "the creature," as well as upon the 
draining of the lake; and, perhaps in both cases, with more regard to the 
utility than to the practical possibility of his scheme. "Dougal," he said, 
"ye are a kindly creature, and hae the sense and feeling o' what is due to 
your betters - and I'm e'en wae for you, Dougal, for it canna be but that 
in the life ye lead you suld get a Jeddart cast ae day, suner or later. I 
trust, considering my services as a magistrate, and my father the deacon's 
afore me, I hae interest eneugh in the council to gar them wink a wee at a 
waur faut than yours. Sae I hae been thinking, that if ye will gang back to 
Glasgow wi' us, being a strong-backit creature, ye might be employed in the 
warehouse till something better suld cast up."
"Her nainsell muckle obliged till the Bailie's honour," replied Dougal; 
"but teil be in her shanks fan she gangs on a causewayed street, unless she 
be drawn up the Gallowgate wi' tows, as she was before."
In fact, I afterwards learned that Dougal had originally come to Glasgow as 
a prisoner, from being concerned in some depredation, but had somehow found 
such favour in the eyes of the jailor, that, with rather overweening 
confidence, he had retained him in his service as one of the turnkeys; a 
task which Dougal had discharged with sufficient fidelity, so far as was 
known, until overcome by his clannish prejudices on the unexpected 
appearance of his old leader.
Astonished at receiving so round a refusal to so favourable an offer, the 
Bailie, turning to me, observed, that the "creature was a natural-born 
idiot." I testified my own gratitude in a way which Dougal much better 
relished, by slipping a couple of guineas into his hand. He no sooner felt 
the touch of the gold, than he sprung twice or thrice from the earth with 
the agility of a wild buck, flinging out first one heel and then another, 
in a manner which would have astonished a French dancing-master. He ran to 
the boatmen to show them the prize, and a small gratuity made them take 
part in his raptures. He then, to use a favourite expression of the 
dramatic John Bunyan, "went on his way, and I saw him no more."
The Bailie and I mounted our horses, and proceeded on the road to Glasgow. 
When we had lost the view of the lake, and its superb amphitheatre of 
mountains, I could not help expressing with enthusiasm, my sense of its 
natural beauties, although I was conscious that Mr Jarvie was a very 
uncongenial spirit to communicate with on such a subject.
"Ye are a young gentleman," he replied, "and an Englishman, and a' this may 
be very fine to you; but for me, wha am a plain man, and ken something o' 
the different values of land, I wadna gie the finest sight we hae seen in 
the Hielands, for the first keek o' the Gorbals o' Glasgow; and if I were 
ance there, it suldna be every fule's errand, begging your pardon, Mr 
Francis, that suld take me out o' sight o' Saint Mungo's steeple again!"
The honest man had his wish; for, by dint of travelling very late, we 
arrived at his own house that night, or rather on the succeeding morning. 
Having seen my worthy fellow-traveller safely consigned to the charge of 
the considerate and officious Mattie, I proceeded to Mrs Flyter's, in whose 
house, even at this unwonted hour, light was still burning. The door was 
opened by no less a person than Andrew Fairservice himself, who, upon the 
first sound of my voice, set up a loud shout of joyful recognition, and, 
without uttering a syllable, ran up stairs towards a parlour on the second 
floor, from the windows of which the light proceeded. Justly conceiving 
that he went to announce my return to the anxious Owen, I followed him upon 
the foot. Owen was not alone, there was another in the apartment - it was 
my father.
The first impulse was to preserve the dignity of his usual equanimity, - 
"Francis, I am glad to see you." The next was to embrace me tenderly, - "My 
dear - dear son!" - Owen secured one of my hands, and wetted it with his 
tears, while he joined in gratulating my return. These are scenes which 
address themselves to the eye and to the heart rather than to the ear - My 
old eyelids still moisten at the recollection of our meeting; but your kind 
and affectionate feelings can well imagine what I should find it impossible 
to describe.
When the tumult of our joy was over, I learnt that my father had arrived 
from Holland shortly after Owen had set off for Scotland. Determined and 
rapid in all his movements, he only stopped to provide the means of 
discharging the obligations incumbent on his house. By his extensive 
resources, with funds enlarged, and credit fortified, by eminent success in 
his continental speculation, he easily accomplished what perhaps his 
absence alone rendered difficult, and set out for Scotland to exact justice 
from Rashleigh Osbaldistone, as well as to put order to his affairs in that 
country. My father's arrival in full credit, and with the ample means of 
supporting his engagements honourably, as well as benefiting his 
correspondents in future, was a stunning blow to MacVittie and Company, who 
had conceived his star set for ever. Highly incensed at the usage his 
confidential clerk and agent had received at their hands, Mr Osbaldistone 
refused every tender of apology and accommodation; and having settled the 
balance of their account, announced to them that, with all its numerous 
contingent advantages, that leaf of their ledger was closed for ever.
While he enjoyed this triumph over false friends, he was not a little 
alarmed on my account. Owen, good man, had not supposed it possible that a 
journey of fifty or sixty miles, which may be made with so much ease and 
safety in any direction from London, could be attended with any particular 
danger. But he caught alarm, by sympathy, from my father, to whom the 
country, and the lawless character of its inhabitants, were better known.
These apprehensions were raised to agony, when, a few hours before I 
arrived, Andrew Fairservice made his appearance, with a dismal and 
exaggerated account of the uncertain state in which he had left me. The 
nobleman with whose troops he had been a sort of prisoner, had, after 
examination, not only dismissed him, but furnished him with the means of 
returning rapidly to Glasgow, in order to announce to my friends my 
precarious and unpleasant situation.
Andrew was one of those persons who have no objection to the sort of 
temporary attention and woeful importance which attaches itself to the 
bearer of bad tidings, and had therefore by no means smoothed down his tale 
in the telling, especially as the rich London merchant himself proved 
unexpectedly one of the auditors. He went at great length into an account 
of the dangers I had escaped, chiefly, as he insinuated, by means of his 
own experience, exertion, and sagacity.
"What was to come of me now, when my better angel, in his (Andrew's) 
person, was removed from my side, it was," he said, "sad and sair to 
conjecture; that the Bailie was nae better than just naebody at a pinch, or 
something waur, for he was a conceited body - and Andrew hated conceit - 
but certainly, atween the pistols and the carabines of the troopers, that 
rappit aff the tane after the tother as fast as hail, and the dirks and 
claymores o' the Hielanders, and the deep waters and weils o' the Avondow, 
it was to be thought there wad be a puir account of the young gentleman."
This statement would have driven Owen to despair, had he been alone and 
unsupported; but my father's perfect knowledge of mankind enabled him 
easily to appreciate the character of Andrew, and the real amount of his 
intelligence. Stripped of all exaggeration, however, it was alarming enough 
to a parent. He determined to set out in person to obtain my liberty by 
ransom or negotiation, and was busied with Owen till a late hour, in order 
to get through some necessary correspondence, and devolve on the latter 
some business which should be transacted during his absence; and thus it 
chanced that I found them watchers.
It was late ere we separated to rest, and, too impatient long to endure 
repose, I was stirring early the next morning. Andrew gave his attendance 
at my levee, as in duty bound, and, instead of the scarecrow figure to 
which he had been reduced at Aberfoil, now appeared in the attire of an 
undertaker, a goodly suit, namely, of the deepest mourning. It was not till 
after one or two queries, which the rascal affected as long as he could to 
misunderstand, that I found out he "had thought it but decent to put on 
mourning, on account of my inexpressible loss; and as the broker at whose 
shop he had equipped himself, declined to receive the goods again, and as 
his own garments had been destroyed or carried off in my honour's service, 
doubtless I and my honourable father, whom Providence had blessed wi' the 
means, wadna suffer a puir lad to sit down wi' the loss; a stand o' claes 
was nae great matter to an Osbaldistone (be praised for't!), especially to 
an old and attached servant o' the house."
As there was something of justice in Andrew's plea of loss in my service, 
his finesse succeeded; and he came by a good suit of mourning, with a 
beaver and all things conforming, as the exterior signs of woe for a master 
who was alive and merry.
My father's first care, when he arose, was to visit Mr Jarvie, for whose 
kindness he entertained the most grateful sentiments, which he expressed in 
very few, but manly and nervous terms. He explained the altered state of 
his affairs, and offered the Bailie, on such terms as could not but be both 
advantageous and acceptable, that part in his concerns which had been 
hitherto managed by MacVittie and Company. The Bailie heartily 
congratulated my father and Owen on the changed posture of their affairs, 
and, without affecting to disclaim that he had done his best to serve them, 
when matters looked otherwise, he said, "He had only just acted as he wad 
be done by - that, as to the extension of their correspondence, he frankly 
accepted it with thanks. Had MacVittie's folk behaved like honest men," he 
said, "he wad hae liked ill to hae come in ahint them, and out afore them 
this gate. But it's otherwise, and they maun e'en stand the loss."
The Bailie then pulled me by the sleeve into a corner, and, after again 
cordially wishing me joy, proceeded, in rather an embarrassed tone - "I wad 
heartily wish, Maister Francis, there suld be as little said as possible 
about the queer things we saw up yonder awa. There's nae gude, unless ane 
were judicially examinate, to say ony thing about that awfu' job o' Morris 
- and the members o' the council wadna think it creditable in ane of their 
body to be fighting wi' a wheen Hielandmen, and singeing their plaidens - 
And abune a', though I am a decent sponsible man, when I am on my right 
end, I canna but think I maun hae made a queer figure without my hat and my 
periwig, hinging by the middle like bawdrons, or a cloak flung ower a cloak-
pin. Bailie Grahame wad hae an unco hair in my neck an he got that tale by 
the end."
I could not suppress a smile when I recollected the Bailie's situation, 
although I certainly thought it no laughing matter at the time. The good-
natured merchant was a little confused, but smiled also when he shook his 
head - "I see how it is - I see how it is. But say naething about it - 
there's a gude callant; and charge that lang-tongued, conceited, upsetting 
serving man o' yours, to sae naething neither. I wadna for ever sae muckle 
that even the lassock Mattie kenned ony thing about it. I wad never hear an 
end o't."
He was obviously relieved from his impending fears of ridicule, when I told 
him it was my father's intention to leave Glasgow almost immediately. 
Indeed he had now no motive for remaining, since the most valuable part of 
the papers carried off by Rashleigh had been recovered. For that portion 
which he had converted into cash and expended in his own or on political 
intrigues, there was no mode of recovering it but by a suit at law, which 
was forthwith commenced, and proceeded, as our law-agents assured us, with 
all deliberate speed.
We spent, accordingly, one hospitable day with the Bailie, and took leave 
of him, as this narrative now does. He continued to grow in wealth, honour, 
and credit, and actually rose to the highest civic honours in his native 
city. About two years after the period I have mentioned, he tired of his 
bachelor life, and promoted Mattie from her wheel by the kitchen fire to 
the upper end of his table, in the character of Mrs Jarvie. Bailie Grahame, 
the MacVitties, and others (for all men have their enemies, especially in 
the council of a royal burgh), ridiculed this transformation. "But," said 
Mr Jarvie, "let them say their say. I'll ne'er fash mysell, nor lose my 
liking for sae feckless a matter as a nine days' clash. My honest father 
the deacon had a byword,

				"Brent brow and lily skin,
				A loving heart, and a leal within,
				Is better than gowd or gentle kin."

Besides," as he always concluded, "Mattie was nae ordinary lassock-quean; 
she was akin to the Laird o' Limmerfield."
Whether it was owing to her descent or her good gifts, I do not presume to 
decide; but Mattie behaved excellently in her exaltation, and relieved the 
apprehensions of some of the Bailie's friends, who had deemed his 
experiment somewhat hazardous. I do not know that there was any other 
incident of his quiet and useful life worthy of being particularly 
recorded.



Chapter 37

		 "Come ye hither my 'six' good sons,
			Gallant men I trow ye be,
		How many of you, my children dear,
			Will stand by that good Earl and me?"

		"Five" of them did answer make -
			"Five" of them spoke hastily,
		"O father, till the day we die,
			We'll stand by that good Earl and thee."
						-- The Rising in the North.


On the morning when we were to depart from Glasgow, Andrew Fairservice 
bounced into my apartment like a madman, jumping up and down, and singing, 
with more vehemence than tune,

		The kiln's on fire - the kiln's on fire -
		The kiln's on fire - she's a' in a lowe.

With some difficulty I prevailed on him to cease his confounded clamour, 
and explain to me what the matter was. He was pleased to inform me, as if 
he had been bringing the finest news imaginable, "that the Hielands were 
clean broken out, every man o' them, and that Rob Roy, and a' his breekless 
bands, wad be down upon Glasgow or twenty-four hours o' the clock gaed 
round."
"Hold your tongue," said I, "you rascal! You must be drunk or mad; and if 
there is any truth in your news, is it a singing matter, you scoundrel?"
"Drunk or mad? nae doubt," replied Andrew, dauntlessly; "ane's aye drunk or 
mad if he tells what grit folks dinna like to hear - Sing? odd, the clans 
will make us sing on the wrang side o' our mouth, if we are sae drunk or 
mad as to bide their coming."
I rose in great haste, and found my father and Owen also on foot, and in 
considerable alarm.
Andrew's news proved but too true in the main. The great rebellion which 
agitated Britain in the year 1715 had already broken out, by the 
unfortunate Earl of Mar's setting up the standard of the Stuart family in 
an ill-omened hour, to the ruin of many honourable families, both in 
England and Scotland. The treachery of some of the Jacobite agents 
(Rashleigh among the rest), and the arrest of others, had made George the 
First's Government acquainted with the extensive ramifications of a 
conspiracy long prepared, and which at last exploded prematurely, and in a 
part of the kingdom too distant to have any vital effect upon the country, 
which, however, was plunged into much confusion.
This great public event served to confirm and elucidate the obscure 
explanations I had received from MacGregor; and I could easily see why the 
westland clans, who were brought against him, should have waived their 
private quarrel, in consideration that they were all shortly to be engaged 
in the same public cause. It was a more melancholy reflection to my mind, 
that Diana Vernon was the wife of one of those who were most active in 
turning the world upside down, and that she was herself exposed to all the 
privations and perils of her husband's hazardous trade.
We held an immediate consultation on the measures we were to adopt in this 
crisis, and acquiesced in my father's plan, that we should instantly get 
the necessary passports, and make the best of our way to London. I 
acquainted my father with my wish to offer my personal service to the 
Government in any volunteer corps, several being already spoken of. He 
readily acquiesced in my proposal; for though he disliked war as a 
profession, yet, upon principle, no man would have exposed his life more 
willingly in defence of civil and religious liberty.
We travelled in haste and in peril through Dumfriesshire and the 
neighbouring counties of England. In this quarter, gentlemen of the Tory 
interest were already in motion, mustering men and horses, while the Whigs 
assembled themselves in the principal towns, armed the inhabitants, and 
prepared for civil war. We narrowly escaped being stopped on more occasions 
than one, and were often compelled to take circuitous routes to avoid the 
points where forces were assembling.
When we reached London, we immediately associated with those bankers and 
eminent merchants who agreed to support the credit of Government, and to 
meet that run upon the funds, on which the conspirators had greatly founded 
their hopes of furthering their undertaking, by rendering the Government, 
as it were, bankrupt. My father was chosen one of the members of this 
formidable body of the monied interest, as all had the greatest confidence 
in his zeal, skill, and activity. He was also the organ by which they 
communicated with Government, and contrived, from funds belonging to his 
own house, or over which he had command, to find purchasers for a quantity 
of the national stock, which was suddenly flung into the market at a 
depreciated price when the rebellion broke out. I was not idle myself, but 
obtained a commission, and levied, at my father's expense, about two 
hundred men, with whom I joined General Carpenter's army.
The rebellion, in the meantime, had extended itself to England. The 
unfortunate Earl of Derwentwater had taken arms in the cause, along with 
General Foster. My poor uncle, Sir Hildebrand, whose estate was reduced to 
almost nothing by his own carelessness and the expense and debauchery of 
his sons and household, was easily persuaded to join that unfortunate 
standard. Before doing so, however, he exhibited a degree of precaution of 
which no one could have suspected him - he made his will!
By this document he devised his estates at Osbaldistone Hall, and so forth, 
to his sons successively, and their male heirs, until he came to Rashleigh, 
whom, on account of the turn he had lately taken in politics, he detested 
with all his might, - he cut him off with a shilling, and settled the 
estate on me as his next heir. I had always been rather a favourite of the 
old gentleman; but it is probable that, confident in the number of gigantic 
youths who now armed around him, he considered the destination as likely to 
remain a dead letter, which he inserted chiefly to show his displeasure at 
Rashleigh's treachery, both public and domestic. There was an article, by 
which he, bequeathed to the niece of his late wife, Diana Vernon, now Lady 
Diana Vernon Beauchamp, some diamonds belonging to her late aunt, and a 
great silver ewer, having the arms of Vernon and Osbaldistone quarterly 
engraven upon it.
But Heaven had decreed a more speedy extinction of his numerous and healthy 
lineage, than, most probably, he himself had reckoned on. In the very first 
muster of the conspirators, at a place called Green-Rigg, Thorncliff 
Osbaldistone quarrelled about precedence with a gentleman of the 
Northumbrian border, to the full as fierce and intractable as himself. In 
spite of all remonstrances, they gave their commander a specimen of how far 
their discipline might be relied upon, by fighting it out with their 
rapiers, and my kinsman was killed on the spot. His death was a great loss 
to Sir Hildebrand, for, notwithstanding his infernal temper, he had a grain 
or two of more sense than belonged to the rest of the brotherhood, 
Rashleigh always excepted.
Perceval, the sot, died also in his calling. He had a wager with another 
gentleman (who, from his exploits in that line, had acquired the formidable 
epithet of Brandy Swalewell), which should drink the largest cup of strong 
liquor when King James was proclaimed by the insurgents at Morpeth. The 
exploit was something enormous. I forget the exact quantity of brandy which 
Percie swallowed, but it occasioned a fever, of which he expired at the end 
of three days, with the word, water, water, perpetually on his tongue.
Dickon broke his neck near Warrington Bridge, in an attempt to show off a 
foundered blood-mare which he wished to palm upon a Manchester merchant who 
had joined the insurgents. He pushed the animal at a five-barred gate; she 
fell in the leap, and the unfortunate jockey lost his life.
Wilfred the fool, as sometimes befalls, had the best fortune of the family. 
He was slain at Proud Preston, in Lancashire, on the day that General 
Carpenter attacked the barricades, fighting with great bravery, though I 
have heard he was never able exactly to comprehend the cause of quarrel, 
and did not uniformly remember on which king's side he was engaged. John 
also behaved very boldly in the same engagement, and received several 
wounds, of which he was not happy enough to die on the spot.
Old Sir Hildebrand, entirely broken-hearted by these successive losses, 
became, by the next day's surrender, one of the unhappy prisoners, and was 
lodged in Newgate with his wounded son John.
I was now released from my military duty, and lost no time, therefore, in 
endeavouring to relieve the distresses of these new relations. My father's 
interest with Government, and the general compassion excited by a parent 
who had sustained the successive loss of so many sons within so short a 
time, would have prevented my uncle and cousin from being brought to trial 
for high treason. But their doom was given forth from a greater tribunal. 
John died of his wounds in Newgate, recommending to me in his last breath, 
a cast of hawks which he had at the Hall, and a black spaniel bitch called 
Lucy.
My poor uncle seemed beaten down to the very earth by his family 
calamities, and the circumstances in which he unexpectedly found himself. 
He said little, but seemed grateful for such attentions as circumstances 
permitted me to show him. I did not witness his meeting with my father for 
the first time for so many years, and under circumstances so melancholy; 
but, judging from my father's extreme depression of spirits, it must have 
been melancholy in the last degree. Sir Hildebrand spoke with great 
bitterness against Rashleigh, now his only surviving child; laid upon him 
the ruin of his house, and the deaths of all his brethren, and declared, 
that neither he nor they would have plunged into political intrigue, but 
for that very member of his family, who had been the first to desert them. 
He once or twice mentioned Diana, always with great affection; and once he 
said, while I sate by his bedside - "Nevoy, since Thorncliff and all of 
them are dead, I am sorry you cannot have her."
The expression affected me much at the time; for it was a usual custom of 
the poor old baronet's, when joyously setting forth upon the morning's 
chase, to distinguish Thorncliff, who was a favourite, while he summoned 
the rest more generally; and the loud jolly tone in which he used to hollo, 
"Call Thornie - call all of them," contrasted sadly with the woebegone and 
self-abandoning note in which he uttered the disconsolate words which I 
have above quoted. He mentioned the contents of his will, and supplied me 
with an authenticated copy; - the original he had deposited with my old 
acquaintance Mr Justice Inglewood, who, dreaded by no one, and confided in 
by all as a kind of neutral person, had become, for aught I know, the 
depository of half the wills of the fighting men of both factions in the 
county of Northumberland.
The greater part of my uncle's last hours were spent in the discharge of 
the religious duties of his church, in which he was directed by the 
chaplain of the Sardinian ambassador, for whom, with some difficulty, we 
obtained permission to visit him. I could not ascertain by my own 
observation, or through the medical attendants, that Sir Hildebrand 
Osbaldistone died of any formed complaint bearing a name in the science of 
medicine. He seemed to me completely worn out and broken down by fatigue of 
body and distress of mind, and rather ceased to exist, than died of any 
positive struggle, - just as a vessel, buffeted and tossed by a succession 
of tempestuous gales, her timbers overstrained, and her joints loosened, 
will sometimes spring a leak and founder, when there are no apparent causes 
for her destruction.
It was a remarkable circumstance that my father, after the last duties were 
performed to his brother, appeared suddenly to imbibe a strong anxiety that 
I should act upon the will, and represent his father's house, which had 
hitherto seemed to be the thing in the world which had least charms for 
him. But formerly, he had been like the fox in the fable, contemning what 
was beyond his reach; and, moreover, I doubt not that the excessive dislike 
which he entertained against Rashleigh (now Sir Rashleigh) Osbaldistone, 
who loudly threatened to attack his father Sir Hildebrand's will and 
settlement, corroborated my father's desire to maintain it.
"He had been most unjustly disinherited," he said, "by his own father - his 
brother's will had repaired the disgrace, if not the injury, by leaving the 
wreck of his property to Frank, the natural heir, and he was determined the 
bequest should take effect."
In the meantime, Rashleigh was not altogether a contemptible personage as 
an opponent. The information he had given to Government was critically well-
timed, and his extreme plausibility, with the extent of his intelligence, 
and the artful manner in which he contrived to assume both merit and 
influence, had, to a certain extent, procured him patrons among Ministers. 
We were already in the full tide of litigation with him on the subject of 
his pillaging the firm of Osbaldistone and Tresham; and, judging from the 
progress we made in that comparatively simple lawsuit, there was a chance 
that this second course of litigation might be drawn out beyond the period 
of all our natural lives.
To avert these delays as much as possible, my father, by the advice of his 
counsel learned in the law, paid off and vested in my person the rights to 
certain large mortgages affecting Osbaldistone Hall. Perhaps, however, the 
opportunity to convert a great share of the large profits which accrued 
from the rapid rise of the funds upon the suppression of the rebellion, and 
the experience he had so lately had of the perils of commerce, encouraged 
him to realise, in this manner, a considerable part of his property. At any 
rate, it so chanced, that, instead of commanding me to the desk, as I fully 
expected, having intimated my willingness to comply with his wishes, 
however they might destine me, I received his directions to go down to 
Osbaldistone Hall, and take possession of it as the heir and representative 
of the family. I was directed to apply to Squire Inglewood for the copy of 
my uncle's will deposited with him, and take all necessary measures to 
secure that possession which sages say makes nine points of the law.
At another time I should have been delighted with this change of 
destination. But now Osbaldistone Hall was accompanied with many painful 
recollections. Still, however, I thought, that in that neighbourhood only I 
was likely to acquire some information respecting the fate of Diana Vernon. 
I had every reason to fear it must be far different from what I could have 
wished it. But I could obtain no precise information on the subject.
It was in vain that I endeavoured, by such acts of kindness as their 
situation admitted, to conciliate the confidence of some distant relations 
who were among the prisoners in Newgate. A pride which I could not condemn, 
and a natural suspicion of the Whig Frank Osbaldistone, cousin to the 
double-distilled traitor Rashleigh, closed every heart and tongue, and I 
only received thanks, cold and extorted, in exchange for such benefits as I 
had power to offer. The arm of the law was also gradually abridging the 
numbers of those whom I endeavoured to serve, and the hearts of the 
survivors became gradually more contracted towards all whom they conceived 
to be concerned with the existing Government. As they were led gradually, 
and by detachments, to execution, those who survived lost interest in 
mankind, and the desire of communicating with them. I shall long remember 
what one of them, Ned Shafton by name, replied to my anxious inquiry, 
whether there was any indulgence I could procure him? "Mr Frank 
Osbaldistone, I must suppose you mean me kindly, and therefore I thank you. 
But, by G-, men cannot be fattened like poultry, when they see their 
neighbours carried off day by day to the place of execution, and know that 
their own necks are to be twisted round in their turn."
Upon the whole, therefore, I was glad to escape from London, from Newgate, 
and from the scenes which both exhibited, to breathe the free air of 
Northumberland. Andrew Fairservice had continued in my service more from my 
father's pleasure than my own. At present there seemed a prospect that his 
local acquaintance with Osbaldistone Hall and its vicinity might be useful; 
and, of course, he accompanied me on my journey, and I enjoyed the prospect 
of getting rid of him, by establishing him in his old quarters. I cannot 
conceive how he could prevail upon my father to interest himself in him, 
unless it were by the art, which he possessed in no inconsiderable degree, 
of affecting an extreme attachment to his master; which theoretical 
attachment he made compatible in practice with playing all manner of tricks 
without scruple, providing only against his master being cheated by any one 
but himself.
We performed our journey to the North without any remarkable adventure, and 
we found the country, so lately agitated by rebellion, now peaceful and in 
good order. The nearer we approached to Osbaldistone Hall, the more did my 
heart sink at the thought of entering that deserted mansion; so that, in 
order to postpone the evil day, I resolved first to make my visit at Mr 
Justice Inglewood's.
That venerable person had been much disturbed with thoughts of what he had 
been, and what he now was; and natural recollections of the past had 
interfered considerably with the active duty which in his present situation 
might have been expected from him. He was fortunate, however, in one 
respect; he had got rid of his clerk Jobson, who had finally left him in 
dudgeon at his inactivity, and become legal assistant to a certain Squire 
Standish, who had lately commenced operations in those parts as a justice, 
with a zeal for King George and the Protestant succession, which, very 
different from the feelings of his old patron, Mr Jobson had more occasion 
to restrain within the bounds of the law, than to stimulate to exertion.
Old Justice Inglewood received me with great courtesy, and readily 
exhibited my uncle's will, which seemed to be without a flaw. He was for 
some time in obvious distress, how he should speak and act in my presence; 
but when he found, that though a supporter of the present Government upon 
principle, I was disposed to think with pity on those who had opposed it on 
a mistaken feeling of loyalty and duty, his discourse became a very 
diverting medley of what he had done, and what he had left undone, - the 
pains he had taken to prevent some squires from joining, and to wink at the 
escape of others, who had been so unlucky as to engage in the affair.
We were tete-a-tete, and several bumpers had been quaffed by the Justice's 
special desire, when, on a sudden, he requested me to fill a bona fide 
brimmer to the health of poor dear Die Vernon, the rose of the wilderness, 
the heath-bell of Cheviot, and the blossom that's transplanted to an 
infernal convent.
"Is not Miss Vernon married, then?" I exclaimed, in great astonishment. "I 
thought his Excellency -"
"Pooh! pooh! his Excellency and his Lordship's all a humbug now, you know - 
mere St. Germains titles - Earl of Beauchamp, and ambassador 
plenipotentiary from France, when the Duke Regent of Orleans scarce knew 
that he lived, I dare say. But you must have seen old Sir Frederick Vernon 
at the Hall, when he played the part of Father Vaughan?"
"Good Heavens! then Vaughan was Miss Vernon's father?"
"To be sure he was," said the Justice coolly; - "there's no use in keeping 
the secret now, for he must be out of the country by this time - otherwise, 
no doubt, it would be my duty to apprehend him. - Come, off with your 
bumper to my dear lost Die!

		"And let her health go round, around, around,
			And let her health go round;
		For though your stocking be of silk,
			Your knees near kiss the ground, aground, aground."

I was unable, as the reader may easily conceive, to join in the Justice's 
jollity. My head swam with the shock I had received. "I never heard," I 
said, "that Miss Vernon's father was living."
"It was not our Government's fault that he is," replied Inglewood, "for the 
devil a man there is whose head would have brought more money. He was 
condemned to death for Fenwick's plot, and was thought to have had some 
hand in the Knightsbridge affair, in King William's time; and as he had 
married in Scotland a relation of the house of Breadalbane, he possessed 
great influence with all their chiefs. There was a talk of his being 
demanded to be given up at the peace of Ryswick, but he shammed ill, and 
his death was given publicly out in the French papers. But when he came 
back here on the old score, we old cavaliers knew him well, - that is to 
say, I knew him, not as being a cavalier myself, but no information being 
lodged against the poor gentleman, and my memory being shortened by 
frequent attacks of the gout, I could not have sworn to him, you know."
"Was he, then, not known at Osbaldistone Hall?" I inquired.
"To none but to his daughter, the old knight, and Rashleigh, who had got at 
that secret as he did at every one else, and held it like a twisted cord 
about poor Die's neck. I have seen her one hundred times she would have 
spit at him, if it had not been fear for her father, whose life would not 
have been worth five minutes' purchase if he had been discovered to the 
Government. - But don't mistake me, Mr Osbaldistone; I say the Government 
is a good, a gracious, and a just Government; and if it has hanged one half 
of the rebels, poor things, all will acknowledge they would not have been 
touched had they staid peaceably at home."
Waiving the discussion of these political questions, I brought back Mr 
Inglewood to his subject, and I found that Diana, having positively refused 
to marry any of the Osbaldistone family, and expressed her particular 
detestation of Rashleigh, he had from that time begun to cool in zeal for 
the cause of the Pretender; to which, as the youngest of six brethren, and 
bold, artful, and able, he had hitherto looked forward as the means of 
making his fortune. Probably the compulsion with which he had been forced 
to render up the spoils which he had abstracted from my father's counting-
house by the united authority of Sir Frederick Vernon and the Scottish 
Chiefs, had determined his resolution to advance his progress by changing 
his opinions and betraying his trust. Perhaps also - for few men were 
better judges where his interest was concerned - he considered their means 
and talents to be, as they afterwards proved, greatly inadequate to the 
important task of overthrowing an established Government. Sir Frederick 
Vernon, or, as he was called among the Jacobites, his Excellency Viscount 
Beauchamp, had, with his daughter, some difficulty in escaping the 
consequences of Rashleigh's information. Here Mr Inglewood's information 
was at fault; but he did not doubt, since we had not heard of Sir Frederick 
being in the hands of the Government, he must be by this time abroad, 
where, agreeably to the cruel bond he had entered into with his brother-in-
law, Diana, since she had declined to select a husband out of the 
Osbaldistone family, must be confined to a convent. The original cause of 
this singular agreement Mr Inglewood could not perfectly explain; but he 
understood it was a family compact, entered into for the purpose of 
securing to Sir Frederick the rents of the remnant of his large estates, 
which had been vested in the Osbaldistone family by some legal manoeuvre; 
in short, a family compact, in which, like many of those undertaken at that 
time of day, the feelings of the principal parties interested were no more 
regarded than if they had been a part of the livestock upon the lands.
I cannot tell, - such is the waywardness of the human heart, - whether this 
intelligence gave me joy or sorrow. It seemed to me, that, in the knowledge 
that Miss Vernon was eternally divided from me, not by marriage with 
another, but by seclusion in a convent, in order to fulfil an absurd 
bargain of this kind, my regret for her loss was aggravated rather than 
diminished. I became dull, low-spirited, absent, and unable to support the 
task of conversing with Justice Inglewood, who in his turn yawned, and 
proposed to retire early. I took leave of him overnight, determining the 
next day, before breakfast, to ride over to Osbaldistone Hall.
Mr Inglewood acquiesced in my proposal. "It would be well," he said, "that 
I made my appearance there before I was known to be in the country, the 
more especially as Sir Rashleigh Osbaldistone was now, he understood, at Mr 
Jobson's house, hatching some mischief, doubtless. They were fit company," 
he added, "for each other, Sir Rashleigh having lost all right to mingle in 
the society of men of honour; but it was hardly possible two such damned 
rascals should collogue together without mischief to honest people."
He concluded, by earnestly recommending a toast and tankard, and an attack 
upon his venison pasty, before I set out in the morning, just to break the 
cold air on the words.



Chapter 38

		His master's gone, and no one now
			Dwells in the halls of Ivor;
		Men, dogs, and horses, all are dead,
			He is the sole survivor.
						-- Wordsworth.


There are few more melancholy sensations than those with which we regard 
scenes of past pleasure when altered and deserted. In my ride to 
Osbaldistone Hall, I passed the same objects which I had seen in company 
with Miss Vernon on the day of our memorable ride from Inglewood Place. Her 
spirit seemed to keep me company on the way; and when I approached the spot 
where I had first seen her, I almost listened for the cry of the hounds and 
the notes of the horn, and strained my eye on the vacant space, as if to 
descry the fair huntress again descend like an apparition from the hill. 
But all was silent, and all was solitary. When I reached the Hall, the 
closed doors and windows, the grass-grown pavement, the courts, which were 
now so silent, presented a strong contrast to the gay and bustling scene I 
had so often seen them exhibit, when the merry hunters were going forth to 
their morning sport, or returning to the daily festival. The joyous bark of 
the foxhounds as they were uncoupled, the cries of the huntsmen, the clang 
of the horses' hoofs, the loud laugh of the old knight at the head of his 
strong and numerous descendants, were all silenced now and for ever.
While I gazed round the scene of solitude and emptiness, I was 
inexpressibly affected, even by recollecting those whom, when alive, I had 
no reason to regard with affection. But the thought that so many youths of 
goodly presence, warm with life, health, and confidence, were within so 
short a time cold in the grave, by various, yet all violent and unexpected 
modes of death, afforded a picture of mortality at which the mind trembled. 
It was little consolation to me, that I returned a proprietor to the halls 
which I had left almost like a fugitive. My mind was not habituated to 
regard the scenes around as my property, and I felt myself an usurper, at 
least an intruding stranger, and could hardly divest myself of the idea, 
that some of the bulky forms of my deceased kinsmen were, like the gigantic 
spectres of a romance, to appear in the gateway, and dispute my entrance.
While I was engaged in these sad thoughts, my follower Andrew, whose 
feelings were of a very different nature, exerted himself in thundering 
alternately on every door in the building, calling, at the same time, for 
admittance, in a tone so loud as to intimate, that he, at least, was fully 
sensible of his newly acquired importance, as squire of the body to the new 
lord of the manor. At length, timidly and reluctantly, Anthony Syddall, my 
uncle's aged butler and major-domo, presented himself at a lower window, 
well fenced with iron bars, and inquired our business.
"We are come to tak your charge aff your hand, my auld friend," said Andrew 
Fairservice; "ye may gie up your keys as sune as ye like - ilka dog has his 
day. I'll tak the plate and napery aff your hand. Ye hae had your ain time 
o't, Mr Syddall; but ilka bean has its black, and ilka path has its puddle; 
and it will just set you henceforth to sit at the board-end, as weel as it 
did Andrew lang syne."
Checking with some difficulty the forwardness of my follower, I explained 
to Syddall the nature of my right, and the title I had to demand admittance 
into the Hall, as into my own property. The old man seemed much agitated 
and distressed, and testified manifest reluctance to give me entrance, 
although it was couched in a humble and submissive tone. I allowed for the 
agitation of natural feelings, which really did the old man honour; but 
continued peremptory in my demand of admittance, explaining to him that his 
refusal would oblige me to apply for Mr Inglewood's warrant, and a 
constable.
"We are come from Mr Justice Inglewood's this morning," said Andrew, to 
enforce the menace; - "and I saw Archie Rutledge, the constable, as I came 
up by; - the country's no to be lawless as it has been, Mr Syddall, letting 
rebels and papists gang on as they best listed."
The threat of the law sounded dreadful in the old man's ears, conscious as 
he was of the suspicion under which he himself lay, from his religion and 
his devotion to Sir Hildebrand and his sons. He undid, with fear and 
trembling, one of the postern entrances, which was secured with many a bolt 
and bar, and humbly hoped that I would excuse him for fidelity in the 
discharge of his duty. - I reassured him, and told him I had the better 
opinion of him for his caution.
"Sae have not I," said Andrew; "Syddall is an auld sneck-drawer; he wadna 
be looking as white as a sheet, and his knees knocking thegither, unless it 
were for something mair than he's like to tell us."
"Lord forgive you, Mr Fairservice," replied the butler, "to say such things 
of an old friend and fellow-servant! - Where" - following me humbly along 
the passage - "where would it be your honour's pleasure to have a fire 
lighted? I fear me you will find the house very dull and dreary - But 
perhaps you mean to ride back to Inglewood Place to dinner?"
"Light a fire in the library," I replied.
"In the library!" answered the old man; - "nobody has sat there this many a 
day, and the room smokes, for the daws have built in the chimney this 
spring, and there were no young men about the Hall to pull them down."
"Our ain reek's better than other folk's fire," said Andrew. "His honour 
likes the library; - he's nane o' your Papishers, that delight in blinded 
ignorance, Mr Syddall."
Very reluctantly as it appeared to me, the butler led the way to the 
library, and, contrary to what he had given me to expect, the interior of 
the apartment looked as if it had been lately arranged, and made more 
comfortable than usual. There was a fire in the grate, which burned 
clearly, notwithstanding what Syddall had reported of the vent. Taking up 
the tongs, as if to arrange the wood, but rather perhaps to conceal his own 
confusion, the butler observed, "it was burning clear now, but had smoked 
woundily in the morning."
Wishing to be alone, till I recovered myself from the first painful 
sensations which everything around me recalled, I desired old Syddall to 
call the land-steward, who lived at about a quarter of a mile from the 
Hall. He departed with obvious reluctance. I next ordered Andrew to procure 
the attendance of a couple of stout fellows upon whom he could rely, the 
population around being Papists, and Sir Rashleigh, who was capable of any 
desperate enterprise, being in the neighbourhood. Andrew Fairservice 
undertook this task with great cheerfulness, and promised to bring me up 
from Trinlay-Knowe, "twa true-blue Presbyterians like himself, that would 
face and outface baith the Pope, the Devil, and the Pretender - and blythe 
will I be o' their company mysell, for the very last night that I was at 
Osbaldistone Hall, the blight be on ilka blossom in my bit yard, if I didna 
see that very picture" (pointing to the full-length portrait of Miss 
Vernon's grandfather) "walking by moonlight in the garden! I tauld your 
honour I was fleyed wi' a bogle that night, but ye wadna listen to me - I 
aye thought there was witchcraft and deevilry amang the Papishers, but I 
ne'er saw't wi' bodily een till that awfu' night."
"Get along, sir," said I, "and bring the fellows you talk of; and see they 
have more sense than yourself, and are not frightened at their own shadow."
"I hae been counted as gude a man as my neighbours ere now," said Andrew, 
petulantly; "but I dinna pretend to deal wi' evil spirits." And so he made 
his exit, as Wardlaw the land-steward made his appearance.
He was a man of sense and honesty, without whose careful management my 
uncle would have found it difficult to have maintained himself a 
housekeeper so long as he did. He examined the nature of my right of 
possession carefully, and admitted it candidly. To any one else the 
succession would have been a poor one, so much was the land encumbered with 
debt and mortgage. Most of these, however, were already vested in my 
father's person, and he was in a train of acquiring the rest; his large 
gains by the recent rise of the funds having made it a matter of ease and 
convenience for him to pay off the debt which affected his patrimony.
I transacted much necessary business with Mr Wardlaw, and detained him to 
dine with me. We preferred taking our repast in the library, although 
Syddall strongly recommended our removing to the stone-hall, which he had 
put in order for the occasion. Meantime Andrew made his appearance with his 
true-blue recruits, whom he recommended in the highest terms, as "sober 
decent men, weel founded in doctrinal points, and, above all, as bold as 
lions." I ordered them something to drink, and they left the room. I 
observed old Syddall shake his head as they went out, and insisted upon 
knowing the reason.
"I maybe cannot expect," he said, "that your honour should put confidence 
in what I say, but it is Heaven's truth for all that - Ambrose Wingfield is 
as honest a man as lives, but if there is a false knave in the country, it 
is his brother Lancie; - the whole country knows him to be a spy for Clerk 
Jobson on the poor gentlemen that have been in trouble - But he's a 
dissenter, and I suppose that's enough nowadays."
Having thus far given vent to his feelings, - to which, however, I was 
little disposed to pay attention, - and having placed the wine on the 
table, the old butler left the apartment.
Mr Wardlaw having remained with me until the evening was somewhat advanced, 
at length bundled up his papers, and removed himself to his own habitation, 
leaving me in that confused state of mind in which we can hardly say 
whether we desire company or solitude. I had not, however, the choice 
betwixt them; for I was left alone in the room of all others most 
calculated to inspire me with melancholy reflections.
As twilight was darkening the apartment, Andrew had the sagacity to advance 
his head at the door, - not to ask if I wished for lights, but to recommend 
them as a measure of precaution against the bogles which still haunted his 
imagination. I rejected his proffer somewhat peevishly, trimmed the wood-
fire, and placing myself in one of the large leathern chairs which flanked 
the old Gothic chimney, I watched unconsciously the bickering of the blaze 
which I had fostered. "And this," said I alone, "is the progress and the 
issue of human wishes! Nursed by the merest trifles, they are first kindled 
by fancy - nay, are fed upon the vapour of hope, till they consume the 
substance which they inflame; and man, and his hopes, passions, and 
desires, sink into a worthless heap of embers and ashes!"
There was a deep sigh from the opposite side of the room, which seemed to 
reply to my reflections. I started up in amazement - Diana Vernon stood 
before me, resting on the arm of a figure so strongly resembling that of 
the portrait so often mentioned, that I looked hastily at the frame, 
expecting to see it empty. My first idea was, either that I had gone 
suddenly distracted, or that the spirits of the dead had arisen and been 
placed before me. A second glance convinced me of my being in my senses, 
and that the forms which stood before me were real and substantial. It was 
Diana herself, though paler and thinner than her former self; and it was no 
tenant of the grave who stood beside her, but Vaughan, or rather Sir 
Frederick Vernon, in a dress made to imitate that of his ancestor, to whose 
picture his countenance possessed a family resemblance. He was the first 
that spoke, for Diana kept her eyes fast fixed on the ground, and 
astonishment actually riveted my tongue to the roof of my mouth.
"We are your suppliants, Mr Osbaldistone," he said, "and we claim the 
refuge and protection of your roof till we can pursue a journey where 
dungeons and death gape for me at every step."
"Surely," I articulated with great difficulty - "Miss Vernon cannot suppose 
- you, sir, cannot believe, that I have forgot your interference in my 
difficulties, or that I am capable of betraying any one, much less you?"
"I know it," said Sir Frederick; "yet it is with the most inexpressible 
reluctance that I impose on you a confidence, disagreeable perhaps - 
certainly dangerous - and which I would have specially wished to have 
conferred on some one else. But my fate, which has chased me through a life 
of perils and escapes, is now pressing me hard, and I have no alternative."
At this moment the door opened, and the voice of the officious Andrew was 
heard - "I'm bringing in the caunles - Ye can light them gin ye like - Can 
do is easy carried about wi' ane."
I ran to the door, which, as I hoped, I reached in time to prevent his 
observing who were in the apartment, I turned him out with hasty violence, 
shut the door after him, and locked it - then instantly remembering his two 
companions below, knowing his talkative humour, and recollecting Syddall's 
remark, that one of them was supposed to be a spy, I followed him as fast 
as I could to the servants' hall, in which they were assembled. Andrew's 
tongue was loud as I opened the door, but my unexpected appearance silenced 
him.
"What is the matter with you, you fool?" said I; "you stare and look wild, 
as if you had seen a ghost."
"N - n - no - nothing," said Andrew. - "but your worship was pleased to be 
hasty."
"Because you disturbed me out of a sound sleep, you fool. Syddall tells me 
he cannot find beds for these good fellows tonight, and Mr Wardlaw thinks 
there will be no occasion to detain them. Here is a crown-piece for them to 
drink my health, and thanks for their good-will. You will leave the Hall 
immediately, my good lads."
The men thanked me for my bounty, took the silver, and withdrew, apparently 
unsuspicious and contented. I watched their departure until I was sure they 
could have no further intercourse that night with honest Andrew. And so 
instantly had I followed on his heels, that I thought he could not have had 
time to speak two words with them before I interrupted him. But it is 
wonderful what mischief may be done by only two words. On this occasion 
they cost two lives.
Having made these arrangements, the best which occurred to me upon the 
pressure of the moment, to secure privacy for my guests, I returned to 
report my proceedings, and added, that I had desired Syddall to answer 
every summons, concluding that it was by his connivance they had been 
secreted in the Hall. Diana raised her eyes to thank me for the caution.
"You now understand my mystery," she said; - "you know, doubtless, how near 
and dear that relative is, who has so often found shelter here; and will be 
no longer surprised that Rashleigh, having such a secret at his command, 
should rule me with a rod of iron."
Her father added, "that it was their intention to trouble me with their 
presence as short a time as was possible."
I entreated the fugitives to waive every consideration but what affected 
their safety, and to rely on my utmost exertions to promote it. This led to 
an explanation of the circumstances under which they stood.
"I always suspected Rashleigh Osbaldistone," said Sir Frederick; "but his 
conduct towards my unprotected child, which with difficulty I wrung from 
her, and his treachery in your father's affairs, made me hate and despise 
him. In our last interview I concealed not my sentiments, as I should in 
prudence have attempted to do; and in resentment of the scorn with which I 
treated him, he added treachery and apostasy to his catalogue of crimes. I 
at that time fondly hoped that his defection would be of little 
consequence. The Earl of Mar had a gallant army in Scotland, and Lord 
Derwentwater, with Forster, Kenmure, Winterton, and others, were assembling 
forces on the Border. As my connections with these English nobility and 
gentry were extensive, it was judged proper that I should accompany a 
detachment of Highlanders, who, under Brigadier MacIntosh of Borlum, 
crossed the Firth of Forth, traversed the low country of Scotland, and 
united themselves on the Borders with the English insurgents. My daughter 
accompanied me through the perils and fatigues of a march so long and 
difficult."
"And she will never leave her dear father!" exclaimed Miss Vernon, clinging 
fondly to his arm.
"I had hardly joined our English friends, when I became sensible that our 
cause was lost. Our numbers diminished instead of increasing, nor were we 
joined by any except of our own persuasion. The Tories of the High Church 
remained in general undecided, and at length we were cooped up by a 
superior force in the little town of Preston. We defended ourselves 
resolutely for one day. On the next, the hearts of our leaders failed, and 
they resolved to surrender at discretion. To yield myself up on such terms, 
were to have laid my head on the block. About twenty or thirty gentlemen 
were of my mind: we mounted our horses, and placed my daughter, who 
insisted on sharing my fate, in the centre of our little party. My 
companions, struck with her courage and filial piety, declared that they 
would die rather than leave her behind. We rode in a body down a street 
called Fishergate, which leads to a marshy ground or meadow, extending to 
the river Ribble, through which one of our party promised to show us a good 
ford. This marsh had not been strongly invested by the enemy, so that we 
had only an affair with a patrol of Honeywood's dragoons, whom we dispersed 
and cut to pieces. We crossed the river, gained the high road to Liverpool, 
and then dispersed to seek several places of concealment and safety. My 
fortune led me to Wales, where there are many gentlemen of my religious and 
political opinions. I could not, however, find a safe opportunity of 
escaping by sea, and found myself obliged again to draw towards the North. 
A well-tried friend has appointed to meet me in this neighbourhood, and 
guide me to a seaport on the Solway, where a sloop is prepared to carry me 
from my native country for ever. As Osbaldistone Hall was for the present 
uninhabited, and under the charge of old Syddall, who had been our 
confidant on former occasions, we drew to it as to a place of known and 
secure refuge. I resumed a dress which had been used with good effect to 
scare the superstitious rustics, or domestics, who chanced at any time to 
see me; and we expected from time to time to hear by Syddall of the arrival 
of our friendly guide, when your sudden coming hither, and occupying this 
apartment, laid us under the necessity of submitting to your mercy."
Thus ended Sir Fredericks story, whose tale sounded to me like one told in 
a vision; and I could hardly bring myself to believe that I saw his 
daughter's form once more before me in flesh and blood, though with 
diminished beauty and sunk spirits. The buoyant vivacity with which she had 
resisted every touch of adversity, had now assumed the air of composed and 
submissive, but dauntless resolution and constancy. Her father, though 
aware and jealous of the effect of her praises on my mind, could not 
forbear expatiating upon them.
"She has endured trials," he said, "which might have dignified the history 
of a martyr; - she has faced danger and death in various shapes; - she has 
undergone toil and privation, from which men of the strongest frame would 
have shrunk; - she has spent the day in darkness, and the night in vigil, 
and has never breathed a murmur of weakness or complaint. In a word, Mr 
Osbaldistone," he concluded, "she is a worthy offering to that God, to 
whom" (crossing himself) "I shall dedicate her, as all that is left dear or 
precious to Frederick Vernon."
There was a silence after these words, of which I well understood the 
mournful import. The father of Diana was still as anxious to destroy my 
hopes of being united to her now as he had shown himself during our brief 
meeting in Scotland.
"We will now," said he to his daughter, "intrude no farther on Mr 
Osbaldistone's time, since we have acquainted him with the circumstances of 
the miserable guests who claim his protection."
I requested them to stay, and offered myself to leave the apartment. Sir 
Frederick observed, that my doing so could not but excite my attendant's 
suspicion; and that the place of their retreat was in every respect 
commodious, and furnished by Syddall with all they could possibly want. "We 
might perhaps have even contrived to remain there, concealed from your 
observation; but it would have been unjust to decline the most absolute 
reliance on your honour."
"You have done me but justice," I replied. - "To you, Sir Frederick, I am 
but little known; but Miss Vernon, I am sure, will bear me witness that -"
"I do not want my daughter's evidence," he said, politely, but yet with an 
air calculated to prevent my addressing myself to Diana, "since I am 
prepared to believe all that is worthy of Mr Francis Osbaldistone. Permit 
us now to retire; we must take repose when we can, since we are absolutely 
uncertain when we may be called upon to renew our perilous journey."
He drew his daughter's arm within his, and with a profound reverence, 
disappeared with her behind the tapestry.



Chapter 39

		 But now the hand of fate is on the curtain,
		And gives the scene to light.
							-- Don Sebastian.


I felt stunned and chilled as they retired. Imagination, dwelling on an 
absent object of affection, paints her not only in the fairest light, but 
in that in which we most desire to behold her. I had thought of Diana as 
she was, when her parting tear dropped on my cheek - when her parting 
token, received from the wife of MacGregor, augured her wish to convey into 
exile and conventual seclusion the remembrance of my affection. I saw her; 
and her cold passive manner, expressive of little except composed 
melancholy, disappointed, and, in some degree, almost offended me.
In the egotism of my feelings, I accused her of indifference - of 
insensibility. I upbraided her father with pride - with cruelty - with 
fanaticism, - forgetting that both were sacrificing their interest, and 
Diana her inclination, to the discharge of what they regarded as their 
duty.
Sir Frederick Vernon was a rigid Catholic, who thought the path of 
salvation too narrow to be trodden by an heretic; and Diana, to whom her 
father's safety had been for many years the principal and moving spring of 
thoughts, hopes, and actions, felt that she had discharged her duty in 
resigning to his will, not alone her property in the world, but the dearest 
affections of her heart. But it was not surprising that I could not, at 
such a moment, fully appreciate these honourable motives; yet my spleen 
sought no ignoble means of discharging itself.
"I am contemned, then," I said, when left to run over the tenor of Sir 
Frederick's communications - "I am contemned, and thought unworthy even to 
exchange words with her. Be it so; they shall not at least prevent me from 
watching over her safety. Here will I remain as an outpost, and, while 
under my roof at least, no danger shall threaten her, if it be such as the 
arm of one determined man can avert."
I summoned Syddall to the library. He came, but came attended by the 
eternal Andrew, who, dreaming of great things in consequence of my taking 
possession of the Hall and the annexed estates, was resolved to lose 
nothing for want of keeping himself in view; and, as often happens to men 
who entertain selfish objects, overshot his mark, and rendered his 
attentions tedious and inconvenient.
His unrequired presence prevented me from speaking freely to Syddall, and I 
dared not send him away for fear of increasing such suspicions as he might 
entertain from his former abrupt dismissal from the library. "I shall sleep 
here, sir," I said, giving them directions to wheel nearer to the fire an 
old-fashioned day-bed, or settee. "I have much to do, and shall go late to 
bed."
Syddall, who seemed to understand my look, offered to procure me the 
accommodation of a mattress and some bedding. I accepted his offer, 
dismissed my attendant, lighted a pair of candles, and desired that I might 
not be disturbed till seven in the ensuing morning.
The domestics retired, leaving me to my painful and ill-arranged 
reflections, until nature, worn out, should require some repose.
I endeavoured forcibly to abstract my mind from the singular circumstances 
in which I found myself placed. Feelings which I had gallantly combated 
while the exciting object was remote, were now exasperated by my immediate 
neighbourhood to her whom I was so soon to part with for ever. Her name was 
written in every book which I attempted to peruse; and her image forced 
itself on me in whatever train of thought I strove to engage myself. It was 
like the officious slave of Prior's Solomon, -

			Abra was ready ere I named her name,
			And when I called another, Abra came.

I alternately gave way to these thoughts, and struggled against them, 
sometimes yielding to a mood of melting tenderness of sorrow which was 
scarce natural to me, sometimes arming myself with the hurt pride of one 
who had experienced what he esteemed unmerited rejection. I paced the 
library until I had chafed myself into a temporary fever. I then threw 
myself on the couch, and endeavoured to dispose myself to sleep; - but it 
was in vain that I used every effort to compose myself - that I lay without 
movement of finger or of muscle, as still as if I had been already a corpse 
- that I endeavoured to divert or banish disquieting thoughts, by fixing my 
mind on some act of repetition or arithmetical process. My blood throbbed, 
to my feverish apprehension, in pulsations which resembled the deep and 
regular strokes of a distant fulling-mill, and tingled in my veins like 
streams of liquid fire.
At length I arose, opened the window, and stood by it for some time in the 
clear moonlight, receiving, in part at least, that refreshment and 
dissipation of ideas from the clear and calm scene, without which they had 
become beyond the command of my own volition. I resumed my place on the 
couch - with a heart, Heaven knows, not lighter but firmer, and more 
resolved for endurance. In a short time a slumber crept over my senses; 
still, however, though my senses slumbered, my soul was awake to the 
painful feelings of my situation, and my dreams were of mental anguish and 
external objects of terror.
I remember a strange agony, under which I conceived myself and Diana in the 
power of MacGregor's wife, and about to be precipitated from a rock into 
the lake; the signal was to be the discharge of a cannon, fired by Sir 
Frederick Vernon, who, in the dress of a Cardinal, officiated at the 
ceremony. Nothing could be more lively than the impression which I received 
of this imaginary scene. I could paint, even at this moment, the mute and 
courageous submission expressed in Diana's features - the wild and 
distorted faces of the executioners, who crowded around us with "mopping 
and mowing;" grimaces ever changing, and each more hideous than that which 
preceded. I saw the rigid and inflexible fanaticism painted in the face of 
the father - I saw him lift the fatal match - the deadly signal exploded - 
It was repeated again and again and again, in rival thunders, by the echoes 
of the surrounding cliffs, and I awoke from fancied horror to real 
apprehension.
The sounds in my dream were not ideal. They reverberated on my waking ears, 
but it was two or three minutes ere I could collect myself so as distinctly 
to understand that they proceeded from a violent knocking at the gate. I 
leaped from my couch in great apprehension, took my sword under my arm, and 
hastened to forbid the admission of any one. But my route was necessarily 
circuitous, because the library looked not upon the quadrangle, but into 
the gardens. When I had reached a staircase, the windows of which opened 
upon the entrance court, I heard the feeble and intimidated tones of 
Syddall expostulating with rough voices, which demanded admittance, by the 
warrant of Justice Standish, and in the King's name, and threatened the old 
domestic with the heaviest penal consequences if he refused instant 
obedience. Ere they had ceased, I heard, to my unspeakable provocation, the 
voice of Andrew bidding Syddall stand aside, and let him open the door.
"If they come in King George's name, we have naething to fear - we hae 
spent baith bluid and gowd for him - We dinna need to darn ourselves like 
some folks, Mr Syddall - we are neither Papists nor Jacobites, I trow."
It was in vain I accelerated my pace down stairs; I heard bolt after bolt 
withdrawn by the officious scoundrel, while all the time he was boasting 
his own and his master's loyalty to King George; and I could easily 
calculate that the party must enter before I could arrive at the door to 
replace the bars. Devoting the back of Andrew Fairservice to the cudgel so 
soon as I should have time to pay him his deserts, I ran back to the 
library, barricaded the door as I best could, and hastened to that by which 
Diana and her father entered, and begged for instant admittance. Diana 
herself undid the door. She was ready dressed, and betrayed neither 
perturbation nor fear.
"Danger is so familiar to us," she said, "that we are always prepared to 
meet it. My father is already up - he is in Rashleigh's apartment. We will 
escape into the garden, and thence by the postern-gate (I have the key from 
Syddall in case of need.) into the wood - I know its dingles better than 
any one now alive. Keep them a few minutes in play. And, dear, dear Frank, 
once more fare-thee-well!"
She vanished like a meteor to join her father, and the intruders were 
rapping violently, and attempting to force the library door by the time I 
had returned into it.
"You robber dogs!" I exclaimed, wilfully mistaking the purpose of their 
disturbance, "if you do not instantly quit the house I will fire my 
blunderbuss through the door."
"Fire a fule's bauble!" said Andrew Fairservice; "it's Mr Clerk Jobson, 
with a legal warrant -"
"To search for, take, and apprehend," said the voice of that execrable 
pettifogger, "the bodies of certain persons in my warrant named, charged of 
high treason under the 13th of King William, chapter third."
And the violence on the door was renewed. "I am rising, gentlemen," said I, 
desirous to gain as much time as possible - "commit no violence - give me 
leave to look at your warrant, and, if it is formal and legal, I shall not 
oppose it."
"God save great George our King!" ejaculated Andrew. "I tauld ye that ye 
would find nae Jacobites here."
Spinning out the time as much as possible, I was at length compelled to 
open the door, which they would otherwise have forced.
Mr Jobson entered, with several assistants, among whom I discovered the 
younger Wingfield, to whom, doubtless, he was obliged for his information, 
and exhibited his warrant, directed not only against Frederick Vernon, an 
attainted traitor, but also against Diana Vernon, spinster, and Francis 
Osbaldistone, gentleman, accused of misprision of treason. It was a case in 
which resistance would have been madness; I therefore, after capitulating 
for a few minutes' delay, surrendered myself a prisoner.
I had next the mortification to see Jobson go straight to the chamber of 
Miss Vernon, and I learned that from thence, without hesitation or 
difficulty, he went to the room where Sir Frederick had slept. "The hare 
has stolen away," said the brute, "but her form is warm - the greyhounds 
will have her by the haunches yet."
A scream from the garden announced that he prophesied too truly. In the 
course of five minutes, Rashleigh entered the library with Sir Frederick 
Vernon and his daughter as prisoners.
"The fox," he said, "knew his old earth, but he forgot it could be stopped 
by a careful huntsman. - I had not forgot the garden-gate, Sir Frederick - 
or, if that title suits you better, most noble Lord Beauchamp."
"Rashleigh," said Sir Frederick, "thou art a detestable villain!"
"I better deserved the name, Sir Knight, or my Lord, when, under the 
direction of an able tutor, I sought to introduce civil war into the bosom 
of a peaceful country. But I have done my best," said he, looking upwards, 
"to atone for my errors."
I could hold no longer. I had designed to watch their proceedings in 
silence, but I felt that I must speak or die. "If hell," I said, "has one 
complexion more hideous than another, it is where villainy is masked by 
hypocrisy."
"Ha! my gentle cousin," said Rashleigh, holding a candle towards me, and 
surveying me from head to foot; "right welcome to Osbaldistone Hall! - I 
can forgive your spleen - It is hard to lose an estate and a mistress in 
one night; for we shall take possession of this poor manor-house in the 
name of the lawful heir, Sir Rashleigh Osbaldistone."
While Rashleigh braved it out in this manner, I could see that he put a 
strong force upon his feelings, both of anger and shame. But his state of 
mind was more obvious when Diana Vernon addressed him. "Rashleigh," she 
said, "I pity you - for, deep as the evil is which you have laboured to do 
me, and the evil you have actually done, I cannot hate you so much as I 
scorn and pity you. What you have now done may be the work of an hour, but 
will furnish you with reflection for your life - of what nature I leave to 
your own conscience, which will not slumber for ever."
Rashleigh strode once or twice through the room, came up to the side-table, 
on which wine was still standing, and poured out a large glass with a 
trembling hand; but when he saw that we observed his tremor, he suppressed 
it by a strong effort, and, looking at us with fixed and daring composure, 
carried the bumper to his head without spilling a drop. "It is my father's 
old burgundy," he said, looking to Jobson; "I am glad there is some of it 
left. - You will get proper persons to take care of old butler, and that 
foolish Scotch rascal. Meanwhile we will convey these persons to a more 
proper place of custody. I have provided the old family coach for your 
convenience," he said, "though I am not ignorant that even the lady could 
brave the night-air on foot or on horseback, were the errand more to her 
mind."
Andrew wrung his hands. - "I only said that my master was surely speaking 
to a ghaist in the library - and the villain Lancie to betray an auld 
friend, that sang aff the same Psalm-book wi' him every Sabbath for twenty 
years!"
He was turned out of the house, together with Syddall, without being 
allowed to conclude his lamentation. His expulsion, however, led to some 
singular consequences. Resolving, according to his own story, to go down 
for the night where Mother Simpson would give him a lodging for old 
acquaintance' sake, he had just got clear of the avenue, and into the old 
wood, as it was called, though it was now used as a pasture-ground rather 
than woodland, when he suddenly lighted on a drove of Scotch cattle, which 
were lying there to repose themselves after the day's journey. At this 
Andrew was in no way surprised, it being the well-known custom of his 
countrymen, who take care of those droves, to quarter themselves after 
night upon the best unenclosed grass-ground they can find, and depart 
before daybreak to escape paying for their night's lodgings. But he was 
both surprised and startled, when a Highlander, springing up, accused him 
of disturbing the cattle, and refused him to pass forward till he had 
spoken to his master. The mountaineer conducted Andrew into a thicket, 
where he found three or four more of his countrymen. "And," said Andrew, "I 
saw sune they were ower mony men for the drove; and from the questions they 
put to me, I judged they had other tow on their rock."
They questioned him closely about all that had passed at Osbaldistone Hall, 
and seemed surprised and concerned at the report he made to them.
"And troth," said Andrew, "I tauld them a' I kenned; for dirks and pistols 
were what I could never refuse information to in a' my life."
They talked in whispers among themselves, and at length collected their 
cattle together, and drove them close up to the entrance of the avenue, 
which might be half a mile distant from the house. They proceeded to drag 
together some felled trees which lay in the vicinity, so as to make a 
temporary barricade across the road, about fifteen yards beyond the avenue. 
It was now near daybreak, and there was a pale eastern gleam mingled with 
the fading moonlight, so that objects could be discovered with some 
distinctness. The lumbering sound of a coach drawn by four horses, and 
escorted by six men on horseback, was heard coming up the avenue. The 
Highlanders listened attentively. The carriage contained Mr Jobson and his 
unfortunate prisoners. The escort consisted of Rashleigh, and of several 
horsemen, peace-officers and their assistants. So soon as we had passed the 
gate at the head of the avenue, it was shut behind the cavalcade by a 
Highland-man, stationed there for that purpose. At the same time the 
carriage was impeded in its farther progress by the cattle, amongst which 
we were involved, and by the barricade in front. Two of the escort 
dismounted to remove the felled trees, which they might think were left 
there by accident or carelessness. The others began with their whips to 
drive the cattle from the road.
"Who dare abuse our cattle?" said a rough voice. - "Shoot him, Angus!"
Rashleigh instantly called out - "A rescue! a rescue!" and, firing a 
pistol, wounded the man who spoke.
"Claymore!" cried the leader of the Highlanders, and a scuffle instantly 
commenced. The officers of the law, surprised at so sudden an attack, and 
not usually possessing the most desperate bravery, made but an imperfect 
defence, considering the superiority of their numbers. Some attempted to 
ride back to the Hall, but on a pistol being fired from behind the gate, 
they conceived themselves surrounded, and at length galloped of in 
different directions. Rashleigh, meanwhile, had dismounted, and on foot had 
maintained a desperate and single-handed conflict with the leader of the 
band. The window of the carriage, on my side, permitted me to witness it. 
At length Rashleigh dropped.
"Will you ask forgiveness for the sake of God, King James, and auld 
friendship?" said a voice which I knew right well.
"No, never!" said Rashleigh, firmly.
"Then, traitor, die in your treason!" retorted MacGregor, and plunged his 
sword in his prostrate antagonist.
In the next moment he was at the carriage door - handed out Miss Vernon, 
assisted her father and me to alight, and dragging out the attorney, head 
foremost, threw him under the wheel.
"Mr Osbaldistone," he said, in a whisper, "you have nothing to fear - I 
must look after those who have - Your friends will soon be in safety - 
Farewell, and forget not the MacGregor."
He whistled - his band gathered round him, and, hurrying Diana and her 
father along with him, they were almost instantly lost in the glades of the 
forest. The coachman and postillion had abandoned their horses, and fled at 
the first discharge of firearms; but the animals, stopped by the barricade, 
remained perfectly still; and well for Jobson that they did so, for the 
slightest motion would have dragged the wheel over his body. My first 
object was to relieve him, for such was the rascal's terror that he never 
could have risen by his own exertions. I next commanded him to observe, 
that I had neither taken part in the rescue, nor availed myself of it to 
make my escape, and enjoined him to go down to the Hall, and call some of 
his party, who had been left there, to assist the wounded. - But Jobson's 
fears had so mastered and controlled every faculty of his mind, that he was 
totally incapable of moving. I now resolved to go myself, but in my way I 
stumbled over the body of a man, as I thought, dead or dying. It was, 
however, Andrew Fairservice, as well and whole as ever he was in his life, 
who had only taken this recumbent posture to avoid the slashes, stabs, and 
pistol-balls, which for a moment or two were flying in various directions. 
I was so glad to find him, that I did not inquire how he came thither, but 
instantly commanded his assistance.
Rashleigh was our first object. He groaned when I approached him, as much 
through spite as through pain, and shut his eyes, as if determined, like 
Iago, to speak no word more. We lifted him into the carriage, and performed 
the same good office to another wounded man of his party, who had been left 
on the field. I then with difficulty made Jobson understand that he must 
enter the coach also, and support Sir Rashleigh upon the seat. He obeyed, 
but with an air as if he but half comprehended my meaning. Andrew and I 
turned the horses' heads round, and opening the gate of the avenue, led 
them slowly back to Osbaldistone Hall.
Some fugitives had already reached the Hall by circuitous routes, and 
alarmed its garrison by the news that Sir Rashleigh, Clerk Jobson, and all 
their escort, save they who escaped to tell the tale, had been cut to 
pieces at the head of the avenue by a whole regiment of wild Highlanders. 
When we reached the mansion, therefore, we heard such a buzz as arises when 
bees are alarmed, and mustering in their hives. Mr Jobson, however, who had 
now in some measure come to his senses, found voice enough to make himself 
known. He was the more anxious to be released from the carriage, as one of 
his companions (the peace-officer) had, to his inexpressible terror, 
expired by his side with a hideous groan.
Sir Rashleigh Osbaldistone was still alive, but so dreadfully wounded that 
the bottom of the coach was filled with his blood, and long traces of it 
left from the entrance-door into the stone-hall, where he was placed in a 
chair, some attempting to stop the bleeding with cloths, while others 
called for a surgeon, and no one seemed willing to go to fetch one. 
"Torment me not," said the wounded man - "I know no assistance can avail me 
- I am a dying man." He raised himself in his chair, though the damps and 
chill of death were already on his brow, and spoke with a firmness which 
seemed beyond his strength. "Cousin Francis," he said, "draw near to me." I 
approached him as he requested. - "I wish you only to know that the pangs 
of death do not alter I one iota of my feelings towards you. I hate you!" 
he said, the expression of rage throwing a hideous glare into the eyes 
which were soon to be closed for ever - "I hate you with a hatred as 
intense, now while I lie bleeding and dying before you, as if my foot trode 
on your neck."
"I have given you no cause, sir," I replied, - "and for your own sake I 
could wish your mind in a better temper."
"You have given me cause," he rejoined. "In love, in ambition, in the paths 
of interest, you have crossed and blighted me at every turn. I was born to 
be the honour of my father's house - I have been its disgrace - and all 
owing to you. My very patrimony has become yours - Take it," he said, "and 
may the curse of a dying man cleave to it!"
In a moment after he had uttered this frightful wish, he fell back in the 
chair; his eyes became glazed, his limbs stiffened, but the grin and glare 
of mortal hatred survived even the last gasp of life. I will dwell no 
longer on so painful a picture, nor say any more of the death of Rashleigh, 
than that it gave me access to my rights of inheritance without farther 
challenge, and that Jobson found himself compelled to allow, that the 
ridiculous charge of misprision of high treason was got up on an affidavit 
which he made with the sole purpose of favouring Rashleigh's views, and 
removing me from Osbaldistone Hall. The rascal's name was struck off the 
list of attorneys, and he was reduced to poverty and contempt.
I returned to London when I had put my affairs in order at Osbaldistone 
Hall, and felt happy to escape from a place which suggested so many painful 
recollections. My anxiety was now acute to learn the fate of Diana and her 
father. A French gentleman who came to London on commercial business, was 
entrusted with a letter to me from Miss Vernon, which put my mind at rest 
respecting their safety.
It gave me to understand that the opportune appearance of MacGregor and his 
party was not fortuitous. The Scottish nobles and gentry engaged in the 
insurrection, as well as those of England, were particularly anxious to 
further the escape of Sir Frederick Vernon, who, as an old and trusted 
agent of the house of Stuart, was possessed of matter enough to have ruined 
half Scotland. Rob Roy, of whose sagacity and courage they had known so 
many proofs, was the person whom they pitched upon to assist his escape, 
and the place of meeting was fixed at Osbaldistone Hall. You have already 
heard how nearly the plan had been disconcerted by the unhappy Rashleigh. 
It succeeded, however, perfectly; for when once Sir Frederick and his 
daughter were again at large, they found horses prepared for them, and, by 
MacGregor's knowledge of the country - for every part of Scotland, and of 
the north of England, was familiar to him - were conducted to the western 
sea-coast, and safely embarked for France. The same gentleman told me that 
Sir Frederick was not expected to survive for many months a lingering 
disease, the consequence of late hardships and privations. His daughter was 
placed in a convent, and although it was her father's wish she should take 
the veil, he was understood to refer the matter entirely to her own 
inclinations.
When these news reached me, I frankly told the state of my affections to my 
father, who was not a little startled at the idea of my marrying a Roman 
Catholic. But he was very desirous to see me "settled in life," as he 
called it; and he was sensible that, in joining him with heart and hand in 
his commercial labours, I had sacrificed my own inclinations. After a brief 
hesitation, and several questions asked and answered to his satisfaction, 
he broke out with - "I little thought a son of mine should have been Lord 
of Osbaldistone Manor, and far less that he should go to a French convent 
for a spouse. But so dutiful a daughter cannot but prove a good wife. You 
have worked at the desk to please me, Frank; it is but fair you should wive 
to please yourself."
How I sped in my wooing, Will Tresham, I need not tell you. You know, too, 
how long and happily I lived with Diana. You know how I lamented her; but 
you do not - cannot know, how much she deserved her husband's sorrow.
I have no more of romantic adventure to tell, nor, indeed, anything to 
communicate farther, since the latter incidents of my life are so well 
known to one who has shared, with the most friendly sympathy, the joys, as 
well as the sorrows, by which its scenes have been chequered. I often 
visited Scotland, but never again saw the bold Highlander who had such an 
influence on the early events of my life. I learned, however, from time to 
time, that he continued to maintain his ground among the mountains of Loch 
Lomond, in despite of his powerful enemies, and that he even obtained, to a 
certain degree, the connivance of Government to his self-elected office of 
protector of the Lennox, in virtue of which he levied blackmail with as 
much regularity as the proprietors did their ordinary rents. It seemed 
impossible that his life should have concluded without a violent end. 
Nevertheless he died in old age and by a peaceful death, some time about 
the year 1733, and is still remembered in his country as the Robin Hood of 
Scotland - the dread of the wealthy, but the friend of the poor - and 
possessed of many qualities, both of head and heart, which would have 
graced a less equivocal profession than that to which his fate condemned 
him.
Old Andrew Fairservice used to say that "There were many things ower bad 
for blessing, and ower gude for banning, like ROB ROY."

Here the original manuscript ends somewhat abruptly. I have reason to think 
that what followed related to private a affairs.