The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 1 Read online

  CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH.

  To man, in this his trial state, The privilege is given, When tost by tides of human fate, To anchor fast on heaven. Watts's _Hymns._

  It was with a firm step that Deans sought his daughter's apartment,determined to leave her to the light of her own conscience in the dubiouspoint of casuistry in which he supposed her to be placed.

  The little room had been the sleeping apartment of both sisters, andthere still stood there a small occasional bed which had been made forEffie's accommodation, when, complaining of illness, she had declined toshare, as in happier times, her sister's pillow. The eyes of Deans restedinvoluntarily, on entering the room, upon this little couch, with itsdark-green coarse curtains, and the ideas connected with it rose so thickupon his soul as almost to incapacitate him from opening his errand tohis daughter. Her occupation broke the ice. He found her gazing on a slipof paper, which contained a citation to her to appear as a witness uponher sister's trial in behalf of the accused. For the worthy magistrate,determined to omit no chance of doing Effie justice, and to leave hersister no apology for not giving the evidence which she was supposed topossess, had caused the ordinary citation, or _subpoena,_ of the Scottishcriminal court, to be served upon her by an officer during his conferencewith David.

  This precaution was so far favourable to Deans, that it saved him thepain of entering upon a formal explanation with his daughter; he onlysaid, with a hollow and tremulous voice, "I perceive ye are aware of thematter."

  "O father, we are cruelly sted between God's laws and man's laws--Whatshall we do?--What can we do?"

  Jeanie, it must be observed, had no hesitation whatever about the mereact of appearing in a court of justice. She might have heard the pointdiscussed by her father more than once; but we have already noticed thatshe was accustomed to listen with reverence to much which she wasincapable of understanding, and that subtle arguments of casuistry foundher a patient, but unedified hearer. Upon receiving the citation,therefore, her thoughts did not turn upon the chimerical scruples whichalarmed her father's mind, but to the language which had been held to herby the stranger at Muschat's Cairn. In a word, she never doubted but shewas to be dragged forward into the court of justice, in order to placeher in the cruel position of either sacrificing her sister by telling thetruth, or committing perjury in order to save her life. And so stronglydid her thoughts run in this channel, that she applied her father'swords, "Ye are aware of the matter," to his acquaintance with the advicethat had been so fearfully enforced upon her. She looked up with anxioussurprise, not unmingled with a cast of horror, which his next words, asshe interpreted and applied them, were not qualified to remove.

  "Daughter," said David, "it has ever been my mind, that in things of anedoubtful and controversial nature, ilk Christian's conscience suld be hisain guide--Wherefore descend into yourself, try your ain mind withsufficiency of soul exercise, and as you sall finally find yourself clearto do in this matter--even so be it."

  "But, father," said Jeanie, whose mind revolted at the construction whichshe naturally put upon his language, "can this-this be a doubtful orcontroversial matter?--Mind, father, the ninth command--'Thou shalt notbear false witness against thy neighbour.'"

  David Deans paused; for, still applying her speech to his preconceiveddifficulties, it seemed to him as if _she,_ a woman, and a sister, wasscarce entitled to be scrupulous upon this occasion, where he, a man,exercised in the testimonies of that testifying period, had givenindirect countenance to her following what must have been the naturaldictates of her own feelings. But he kept firm his purpose, until hiseyes involuntarily rested upon the little settle-bed, and recalled theform of the child of his old age, as she sate upon it, pale, emaciated,and broken-hearted. His mind, as the picture arose before him,involuntarily conceived, and his tongue involuntarily uttered--but in atone how different from his usual dogmatical precision!--arguments forthe course of conduct likely to ensure his child's safety.

  "Daughter," he said, "I did not say that your path was free fromstumbling--and, questionless, this act may be in the opinion of some atransgression, since he who beareth witness unlawfully, and against hisconscience, doth in some sort bear false witness against his neighbour.Yet in matters of compliance, the guilt lieth not in the compliance saemuckle, as in the mind and conscience of him that doth comply; and,therefore, although my testimony hath not been spared upon publicdefections, I haena felt freedom to separate mysell from the communion ofmany who have been clear to hear those ministers who have taken the fatalindulgence because they might get good of them, though I could not."

  When David had proceeded thus far, his conscience reproved him, that hemight be indirectly undermining the purity of his daughter's faith, andsmoothing the way for her falling off from strictness of principle. He,therefore, suddenly stopped, and changed his tone:--"Jeanie, I perceivethat our vile affections,--so I call them in respect of doing the will ofour Father,--cling too heavily to me in this hour of trying sorrow, topermit me to keep sight of my ain duty, or to airt you to yours. I willspeak nae mair anent this overtrying matter--Jeanie, if ye can, wi' Godand gude conscience, speak in favour of this puir unhappy"--(here hisvoice faltered)--"She is your sister in the flesh--worthless and castawayas she is, she is the daughter of a saint in heaven, that was a mother toyou, Jeanie, in place of your ain--but if ye arena free in conscience tospeak for her in the court of judicature, follow your conscience, Jeanie,and let God's will be done." After this adjuration he left the apartment,and his daughter remained in a state of great distress and perplexity.

  It would have been no small addition to the sorrows of David Deans, evenin this extremity of suffering, had he known that his daughter wasapplying the casuistical arguments which he had been using, not in thesense of a permission to follow her own opinion on a dubious and disputedpoint of controversy, but rather as an encouragement to transgress one ofthose divine commandments which Christians of all sects and denominationsunite in holding most sacred.

  "Can this be?" said Jeanie, as the door closed on her father--"Can thesebe his words that I have heard, or has the Enemy taken his voice andfeatures to give weight unto the counsel which causeth to perish?--asister's life, and a father pointing out how to save it!--O God, deliverme!--this is a fearfu' temptation."

  Roaming from thought to thought, she at one time imagined her fatherunderstood the ninth commandment literally, as prohibiting false witness_against_ our neighbour, without extending the denunciation againstfalsehood uttered _in favour_ of the criminal. But her clear andunsophisticated power of discriminating between good and evil, instantlyrejected an interpretation so limited, and so unworthy of the Author ofthe law. She remained in a state of the most agitating terror anduncertainty--afraid to communicate her thoughts freely to her father,lest she should draw forth an opinion with which she could notcomply,--wrung with distress on her sister's account, rendered the moreacute by reflecting that the means of saving her were in her power, butwere such as her conscience prohibited her from using,--tossed, inshort, like a vessel in an open roadstead during a storm, and, like thatvessel, resting on one only sure cable and anchor,--faith in Providence,and a resolution to discharge her duty.

  Butler's affection and strong sense of religion would have been herprincipal support in these distressing circumstances, but he was stillunder restraint, which did not permit him to come to St. Leonard's Crags;and her distresses were of a nature, which, with her indifferent habitsof scholarship, she found it impossible to express in writing. She wastherefore compelled to trust for guidance to her own unassisted sense ofwhat was right or wrong. It was not the least of Jeanie's distresses,that, although she hoped and believed her sister to be innocent, she hadnot the means of receiving that assurance from her own mouth.

  The double-dealing of Ratcliffe in the matter of Robertson had notprevented his being rewarded, as double-dealers frequentl
y have been,with favour and preferment. Sharpitlaw, who found in him something of akindred genius, had been intercessor in his behalf with the magistrates,and the circumstance of his having voluntarily remained in the prison,when the doors were forced by the mob, would have made it a hard measureto take the life which he had such easy means of saving. He received afull pardon; and soon afterwards, James Ratcliffe, the greatest thief andhousebreaker in Scotland, was, upon the faith, perhaps, of an ancientproverb, selected as a person to be entrusted with the custody of otherdelinquents.

  When Ratcliffe was thus placed in a confidential situation, he wasrepeatedly applied to by the sapient Saddletree and others, who took someinterest in the Deans family, to procure an interview between thesisters; but the magistrates, who were extremely anxious for theapprehension of Robertson, had given strict orders to the contrary,hoping that, by keeping them separate, they might, from the one or theother, extract some information respecting that fugitive. On this subjectJeanie had nothing to tell them. She informed Mr. Middleburgh, that sheknew nothing of Robertson, except having met him that night byappointment to give her some advice respecting her sister's concern, thepurport of which, she said, was betwixt God and her conscience. Of hismotions, purposes, or plans, past, present, or future, she knew nothing,and so had nothing to communicate.

  Effie was equally silent, though from a different cause. It was in vainthat they offered a commutation and alleviation of her punishment, andeven a free pardon, if she would confess what she knew of her lover. Sheanswered only with tears; unless, when at times driven into pettishsulkiness by the persecution of the interrogators, she made them abruptand disrespectful answers.

  At length, after her trial had been delayed for many weeks, in hopes shemight be induced to speak out on a subject infinitely more interesting tothe magistracy than her own guilt or innocence, their patience was wornout, and even Mr. Middleburgh finding no ear lent to farther intercessionin her behalf, the day was fixed for the trial to proceed.

  It was now, and not sooner, that Sharpitlaw, recollecting his promise toEffie Deans, or rather being dinned into compliance by the unceasingremonstrances of Mrs. Saddletree, who was his next-door neighbour, andwho declared it was heathen cruelty to keep the twa brokenheartedcreatures separate, issued the important mandate, permitting them to seeeach other.

  On the evening which preceded the eventful day of trial, Jeanie waspermitted to see her sister--an awful interview, and occurring at a mostdistressing crisis. This, however, formed a part of the bitter cup whichshe was doomed to drink, to atone for crimes and follies to which she hadno accession; and at twelve o'clock noon, being the time appointed foradmission to the jail, she went to meet, for the first time for severalmonths, her guilty, erring, and most miserable sister, in that abode ofguilt, error, and utter misery.