The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 2 Page 17

  CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH.

  Wilt thou go on with me? The moon is bright, the sea is calm, And I know well the ocean paths . . . Thou wilt go on with me! Thalaba.

  The fatigue and agitation of these various scenes had agitated Jeanie somuch, notwithstanding her robust strength of constitution, that Archibaldjudged it necessary that she should have a day's repose at the village ofLongtown. It was in vain that Jeanie protested against any delay. TheDuke of Argyle's man of confidence was of course consequential; and as hehad been bred to the medical profession in his youth (at least he usedthis expression to describe his having, thirty years before, pounded forsix months in the mortar of old Mungo Mangleman, the surgeon atGreenock), he was obstinate whenever a matter of health was in question.

  In this case he discovered febrile symptoms, and having once made a happyapplication of that learned phrase to Jeanie's case, all fartherresistance became in vain; and she was glad to acquiesce, and even to goto bed, and drink water-gruel, in order that she might possess her soulin quiet and without interruption.

  Mr. Archibald was equally attentive in another particular. He observedthat the execution of the old woman, and the miserable fate of herdaughter, seemed to have had a more powerful effect upon Jeanie's mind,than the usual feelings of humanity might naturally have been expected tooccasion. Yet she was obviously a strong-minded, sensible young woman,and in no respect subject to nervous affections; and therefore Archibald,being ignorant of any special connection between his master's prote'ge'eand these unfortunate persons, excepting that she had seen Madge formerlyin Scotland, naturally imputed the strong impression these events hadmade upon her, to her associating them with the unhappy circumstances inwhich her sister had so lately stood. He became anxious, therefore, toprevent anything occurring which might recall these associations toJeanie's mind.

  Archibald had speedily an opportunity of exercising this precaution. Apedlar brought to Longtown that evening, amongst other wares, a largebroad-side sheet, giving an account of the "Last Speech and Execution ofMargaret Murdockson, and of the barbarous Murder of her Daughter,Magdalene or Madge Murdockson, called Madge Wildfire; and of her piousconversation with his Reverence Archdeacon Fleming;" which authenticpublication had apparently taken place on the day they left Carlisle, andbeing an article of a nature peculiarly acceptable to such country-folkas were within hearing of the transaction, the itinerant bibliopolist hadforthwith added them to his stock in trade. He found a merchant soonerthan he expected; for Archibald, much applauding his own prudence,purchased the whole lot for two shillings and ninepence; and the pedlar,delighted with the profit of such a wholesale transaction, instantlyreturned to Carlisle to supply himself with more.

  The considerate Mr. Archibald was about to commit his whole purchase tothe flames, but it was rescued by the yet more considerate dairy-damsel,who said, very prudently, it was a pity to waste so much paper, whichmight crepe hair, pin up bonnets, and serve many other useful purposes;and who promised to put the parcel into her own trunk, and keep itcarefully out of the sight of Mrs. Jeanie Deans: "Though, by-the-bye, shehad no great notion of folk being so very nice. Mrs. Deans might have hadenough to think about the gallows all this time to endure a sight of it,without all this to-do about it."

  Archibald reminded the dame of the dairy of the Duke's particular charge,that they should be attentive and civil to Jeanie as also that they wereto part company soon, and consequently would not be doomed to observingany one's health or temper during the rest of the journey. With whichanswer Mrs. Dolly Dutton was obliged to hold herself satisfied. On themorning they resumed their journey, and prosecuted it successfully,travelling through Dumfriesshire and part of Lanarkshire, until theyarrived at the small town of Rutherglen, within about four miles ofGlasgow. Here an express brought letters to Archibald from the principalagent of the Duke of Argyle in Edinburgh.

  He said nothing of their contents that evening; but when they were seatedin the carriage the next day, the faithful squire informed Jeanie, thathe had received directions from the Duke's factor, to whom his Grace hadrecommended him to carry her, if she had no objection, for a stage or twobeyond Glasgow. Some temporary causes of discontent had occasionedtumults in that city and the neighbourhood, which would render itunadvisable for Mrs. Jeanie Deans to travel alone and unprotected betwixtthat city and Edinburgh; whereas, by going forward a little farther, theywould meet one of his Grace's subfactors, who was coming down from theHighlands to Edinburgh with his wife, and under whose charge she mightjourney with comfort and in safety.

  Jeanie remonstrated against this arrangement. "She had been lang," shesaid, "frae hame--her father and her sister behoved to be very anxious tosee her--there were other friends she had that werena weel in health. Shewas willing to pay for man and horse at Glasgow, and surely naebody wadmeddle wi' sae harmless and feckless a creature as she was.--She wasmuckle obliged by the offer; but never hunted deer langed for itsresting-place as I do to find myself at Saint Leonard's."

  The groom of the chambers exchanged a look with his female companion,which seemed so full of meaning, that Jeanie screamed aloud--"O Mr.Archibald--Mrs. Dutton, if ye ken of onything that has happened at SaintLeonard's, for God's sake--for pity's sake, tell me, and dinna keep me insuspense!"

  "I really know nothing, Mrs. Deans," said the groom of the chambers.

  "And I--I--I am sure, I knows as little," said the dame of the dairy,while some communication seemed to tremble on her lips, which, at aglance of Archibald's eye, she appeared to swallow down, and compressedher lips thereafter into a state of extreme and vigilant firmness, as ifshe had been afraid of its bolting out before she was aware.

  Jeanie saw there was to be something concealed from her, and it was onlythe repeated assurances of Archibald that her father--her sister--all herfriends were, as far as he knew, well and happy, that at all pacified heralarm. From such respectable people as those with whom she travelled shecould apprehend no harm, and yet her distress was so obvious, thatArchibald, as a last resource, pulled out, and put into her hand, a slipof paper, on which these words were written:--

  "Jeanie Deans--You will do me a favour by going with Archibald and myfemale domestic a day's journey beyond Glasgow, and asking them noquestions, which will greatly oblige your friend, 'Argyle & Greenwich.'"

  Although this laconic epistle, from a nobleman to whom she was bound bysuch inestimable obligations, silenced all Jeanie's objections to theproposed route, it rather added to than diminished the eagerness of hercuriosity. The proceeding to Glasgow seemed now no longer to be an objectwith her fellow-travellers. On the contrary, they kept the left-hand sideof the river Clyde, and travelled through a thousand beautiful andchanging views down the side of that noble stream, till, ceasing to holdits inland character, it began to assume that of a navigable river.

  "You are not for gaun intill Glasgow then?" said Jeanie, as she observedthat the drivers made no motion for inclining their horses' heads towardsthe ancient bridge, which was then the only mode of access to St. Mungo'scapital.

  "No," replied Archibald; "there is some popular commotion, and as ourDuke is in opposition to the court, perhaps we might be too wellreceived; or they might take it in their heads to remember that theCaptain of Carrick came down upon them with his Highlandmen in the timeof Shawfield's mob in 1725, and then we would be too ill received.* And,at any rate, it is best for us, and for me in particular, who may besupposed to possess his Grace's mind upon many particulars, to leave thegood people of the Gorbals to act according to their own imaginations,without either provoking or encouraging them by my presence."

  * In 1725, there was a great riot in Glasgow on account of the malt-tax.Among the troops brought in to restore order, was one of the independentcompanies of Highlanders levied in Argyleshire, and distinguished, in alampoon of the period, as "Campbell of Carrick and his Highland thieves."It was called Shawfield's Mob,
because much of the popular violence wasdirected against Daniel Campbell, Esq. of Shawfield, M. P., Provost ofthe town.

  To reasoning of such tone and consequence Jeanie had nothing to reply,although it seemed to her to contain fully as much self-importance astruth.

  The carriage meantime rolled on; the river expanded itself, and graduallyassumed the dignity of an estuary or arm of the sea. The influence of theadvancing and retiring tides became more and more evident, and in thebeautiful words of him of the laurel wreath, the river waxed--

  A broader and yet broader stream. The cormorant stands upon its shoals, His black and dripping wings Half open'd to the wind. [From Southey's _Thalaba,_ Book xi. stanza 36.]

  "Which way lies Inverary?" said Jeanie, gazing on the dusky ocean ofHighland hills, which now, piled above each other, and intersected bymany a lake, stretched away on the opposite side of the river to thenorthward. "Is yon high castle the Duke's hoose?"

  "That, Mrs. Deans?--Lud help thee," replied Archibald, "that's the oldcastle of Dumbarton, the strongest place in Europe, be the other what itmay. Sir William Wallace was governor of it in the old war with theEnglish, and his Grace is governor just now. It is always entrusted tothe best man in Scotland."

  "And does the Duke live on that high rock, then?" demanded Jeanie.

  "No, no, he has his deputy-governor, who commands in his absence; helives in the white house you see at the bottom of the rock--His Gracedoes not reside there himself."

  "I think not, indeed," said the dairy-woman, upon whose mind the road,since they had left Dumfries, had made no very favourable impression,"for if he did, he might go whistle for a dairy-woman, an he were theonly duke in England. I did not leave my place and my friends to comedown to see cows starve to death upon hills as they be at that pig-styeof Elfinfoot, as you call it, Mr. Archibald, or to be perched upon thetop of a rock, like a squirrel in his cage, hung out of a three pair ofstairs' window."

  Inwardly chuckling that these symptoms of recalcitration had not takenplace until the fair malcontent was, as he mentally termed it, under histhumb, Archibald coolly replied, "That the hills were none of his making,nor did he know how to mend them; but as to lodging, they would soon bein a house of the Duke's in a very pleasant island called Roseneath,where they went to wait for shipping to take them to Inverary, and wouldmeet the company with whom Jeanie was to return to Edinburgh."

  "An island?" said Jeanie, who, in the course of her various andadventurous travels, had never quitted terra firma, "then I am doubtingwe maun gang in ane of these boats; they look unco sma', and the wavesare something rough, and"

  "Mr. Archibald," said Mrs. Dutton, "I will not consent to it; I was neverengaed to leave the country, and I desire you will bid the boys driveround the other way to the Duke's house."

  "There is a safe pinnace belonging to his Grace, ma'am, close by,"replied Archibald, "and you need be under no apprehensions whatsoever."

  "But I am under apprehensions," said the damsel; "and I insist upon goinground by land, Mr. Archibald, were it ten miles about."

  "I am sorry I cannot oblige you, madam, as Roseneath happens to be anisland."

  "If it were ten islands," said the incensed dame, "that's no reason why Ishould be drowned in going over the seas to it."

  "No reason why you should be drowned certainly, ma'am," answered theunmoved groom of the chambers, "but an admirable good one why you cannotproceed to it by land." And, fixed his master's mandates to perform, hepointed with his hand, and the drivers, turning off the high-road,proceeded towards a small hamlet of fishing huts, where a shallop,somewhat more gaily decorated than any which they had yet seen, having aflag which displayed a boar's head, crested with a ducal coronet, waitedwith two or three seamen, and as many Highlanders.

  The carriage stopped, and the men began to unyoke their horses, while Mr.Archibald gravely superintended the removal of the baggage from thecarriage to the little vessel. "Has the Caroline been long arrived?" saidArchibald to one of the seamen.

  "She has been here in five days from Liverpool, and she's lying down atGreenock," answered the fellow.

  "Let the horses and carriage go down to Greenock then," said Archibald,"and be embarked there for Inverary when I send notice--they may stand inmy cousin's, Duncan Archibald the stabler's.--Ladies," he added, "I hopeyou will get yourselves ready; we must not lose the tide."

  "Mrs. Deans," said the Cowslip of Inverary, "you may do as youplease--but I will sit here all night, rather than go into that therepainted egg-shell.--Fellow--fellow!" (this was addressed to a Highlanderwho was lifting a travelling trunk), "that trunk is _mine,_ and thatthere band-box, and that pillion mail, and those seven bundles, and thepaper-bag; and if you venture to touch one of them, it shall be at yourperil."

  The Celt kept his eye fixed on the speaker, then turned his head towardsArchibald, and receiving no countervailing signal, he shouldered theportmanteau, and without farther notice of the distressed damsel, orpaying any attention to remonstrances, which probably he did notunderstand, and would certainly have equally disregarded whether heunderstood them or not, moved off with Mrs. Dutton's wearables, anddeposited the trunk containing them safely in the boat.

  The baggage being stowed in safety, Mr. Archibald handed Jeanie out ofthe carriage, and, not without some tremor on her part, she wastransported through the surf and placed in the boat. He then offered thesame civility to his fellow-servant, but she was resolute in her refusalto quit the carriage, in which she now remained in solitary state,threatening all concerned or unconcerned with actions for wages andboard-wages, damages and expenses, and numbering on her fingers the gownsand other habiliments, from which she seemed in the act of beingseparated for ever. Mr. Archibald did not give himself the trouble ofmaking many remonstrances, which, indeed, seemed only to aggravate thedamsel's indignation, but spoke two or three words to the Highlanders inGaelic; and the wily mountaineers, approaching the carriage cautiously,and without giving the slightest intimation of their intention, at onceseized the recusant so effectually fast that she could neither resist norstruggle, and hoisting her on their shoulders in nearly a horizontalposture, rushed down with her to the beach, and through the surf, andwith no other inconvenience than ruffling her garments a little,deposited her in the boat; but in a state of surprise, mortification, andterror, at her sudden transportation, which rendered her absolutely mutefor two or three minutes. The men jumped in themselves; one tall fellowremained till he had pushed off the boat, and then tumbled in upon hiscompanions. They took their oars and began to pull from the shore, thenspread their sail, and drove merrily across the firth.

  "You Scotch villain!" said the infuriated damsel to Archibald, "how dareyou use a person like me in this way?"

  "Madam," said Archibald, with infinite composure, "it's high time youshould know you are in the Duke's country, and that there is not one ofthese fellows but would throw you out of the boat as readily as into it,if such were his Grace's pleasure."

  "Then the Lord have mercy on me!" said Mrs. Dutton. "If I had had any onmyself, I would never have engaged with you."

  "It's something of the latest to think of that now, Mrs. Dutton," saidArchibald; "but I assure you, you will find the Highlands have theirpleasures. You will have a dozen of cow-milkers under your own authorityat Inverary, and you may throw any of them into the lake, if you have amind, for the Duke's head people are almost as great as himself."

  "This is a strange business, to be sure, Mr. Archibald," said the lady;"but I suppose I must make the best on't.--Are you sure the boat will notsink? it leans terribly to one side, in my poor mind."

  "Fear nothing," said Mr. Archibald, taking a most important pinch ofsnuff; "this same ferry on Clyde knows us very well, or we know it, whichis all the same; no fear of any of our people meeting with any accident.We should have crossed from the opposite shore, but for the disturbancesat Glasgow, which made it improper for his Grace's peop
le to pass throughthe city."

  "Are you not afeard, Mrs. Deans," said the dairy-vestal, addressingJeanie, who sat, not in the most comfortable state of mind, by the sideof Archibald, who himself managed the helm.--"are you not afeard of thesewild men with their naked knees, and of this nut-shell of a thing, thatseems bobbing up and down like a skimming-dish in a milk-pail?"

  "No--no--madam," answered Jeanie with some hesitation, "I am not feared;for I hae seen Hielandmen before, though never was sae near them; and forthe danger of the deep waters, I trust there is a Providence by sea aswell as by land."

  "Well," said Mrs. Dutton, "it is a beautiful thing to have learned towrite and read, for one can always say such fine words whatever shouldbefall them."

  Archibald, rejoicing in the impression which his vigorous measures hadmade upon the intractable dairymaid, now applied himself, as a sensibleand good-natured man, to secure by fair means the ascendency which he hadobtained by some wholesome violence; and he succeeded so well inrepresenting to her the idle nature of her fears, and the impossibilityof leaving her upon the beach enthroned in an empty carriage, that thegood understanding of the party was completely revived ere they landed atRoseneath.