Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since Read online

  CHAPTER XXIV

  A STAG-HUNT, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

  Shall this be a long or a short chapter?--This is a question in whichyou, gentle reader, have no vote, however much you may be interested inthe consequences; just as you may (like myself) probably have nothing todo with the imposing a new tax, excepting the trifling circumstance ofbeing obliged to pay it. More happy surely in the present case, since,though it lies within my arbitrary power to extend my materials asI think proper, I cannot call you into Exchequer if you do not thinkproper to read my narrative. Let me therefore consider. It is true, thatthe annals and documents in my hands say but little of this Highlandchase; but then I can find copious materials for description elsewhere.There is old Lindsay of Pitscottie ready at my elbow, with his Atholehunting, and his 'lofted and joisted palace of green timber; with allkind of drink to be had in burgh and land, as ale, beer, wine, muscadel,malvaise, hippocras, and aquavitae; with wheat-bread, main-bread,ginge-bread, beef, mutton, lamb, veal, venison, goose, grice, capon,coney, crane, swan, partridge, plover, duck, drake, brissel-cock,pawnies, black-cock, muir-fowl, and capercailzies;' not forgetting the'costly bedding, vaiselle, and napry,' and least of all the 'excellingstewards, cunning barters, excellent cooks, and pottingars, withconfections and drugs for the desserts.' Besides the particulars whichmay be thence gleaned for this Highland feast (the splendour of whichinduced the Pope's legate to dissent from an opinion which he hadhitherto held, that Scotland, namely, was the--the--the latter end ofthe world)--besides these, might I not illuminate my pages with Taylorthe Water Poet's hunting in the braes of Mar, where,

  Through heather, mosse, 'mong frogs, and bogs, and fogs, 'Mongst craggy cliffs and thunder-battered hills, Hares, hinds, bucks, roes, are chased by men and dogs, Where two hours' hunting fourscore fat deer kills. Lowland, your sports are low as is your seat; The Highland games and minds are high and great.

  But without further tyranny over my readers, or display of the extent ofmy own reading, I shall content myself with borrowing a single incidentfrom the memorable hunting at Lude, commemorated in the ingenious Mr.Gunn's Essay on the Caledonian Harp, and so proceed in my story withall the brevity that my natural style of composition, partaking ofwhat scholars call the periphrastic and ambagitory, and the vulgar thecircumbendibus, will permit me.

  The solemn hunting was delayed, from various causes, for about threeweeks. The interval was spent by Waverley with great satisfaction atGlennaquoich; for the impression which Flora had made on his mind attheir first meeting grew daily stronger. She was precisely the characterto fascinate a youth of romantic imagination. Her manners, her language,her talents for poetry and music, gave additional and varied influenceto her eminent personal charms. Even in her hours of gaiety, she was inhis fancy exalted above the ordinary daughters of Eve, and seemed onlyto stoop for an instant to those topics of amusement and gallantry whichothers appear to live for. In the neighbourhood of this enchantress,while sport consumed the morning, and music and the dance led onthe hours of evening, Waverley became daily more delighted with hishospitable landlord, and more enamoured of his bewitching sister.

  At length, the period fixed for the grand hunting arrived, and Waverleyand the Chieftain departed for the place of rendezvous, which was aday's journey to the northward of Glennaquoich. Fergus was attendedon this occasion by about three hundred of his clan, well armed, andaccoutred in their best fashion. Waverley complied so far with thecustom of the country as to adopt the trews (he could not be reconciledto the kilt), brogues, and bonnet, as the fittest dress for the exercisein which he was to be engaged, and which least exposed him to be staredat as a stranger when they should reach the place of rendez-vous. Theyfound, on the spot appointed, several powerful Chiefs, to all of whomWaverley was formally presented, and by all cordially received. Theirvassals and clansmen, a part of whose feudal duty it was to attend onthese parties, appeared in such numbers as amounted to a small army.These active assistants spread through the country far and near, forminga circle, technically called the TINCHEL, which, gradually closing,drove the deer in herds together towards the glen where the Chiefsand principal sportsmen lay in wait for them. In the meanwhile, thesedistinguished personages bivouacked among the flowery heath, wrapped upin their plaids; a mode of passing a summer's night which Waverley foundby no means unpleasant.

  For many hours after sunrise, the mountain ridges and passes retainedtheir ordinary appearance of silence and solitude; and the Chiefs, withtheir followers, amused themselves with various pastimes, in which thejoys of the shell, as Ossian has it, were not forgotten. 'Others apartsat on a hill retired;' probably as deeply engaged in the discussion ofpolitics and news, as Milton's spirits in metaphysical disquisition.At length signals of the approach of the game were descried and heard.Distant shouts resounded from valley to valley, as the various partiesof Highlanders, climbing rocks, struggling through copses, wadingbrooks, and traversing thickets, approached more and more near to eachother, and compelled the astonished deer, with the other wild animalsthat fled before them, into a narrower circuit. Every now and then thereport of muskets was heard, repeated by a thousand echoes. The bayingof the dogs was soon added to the chorus, which grew ever louder andmore loud. At length the advanced parties of the deer began to showthemselves; and as the stragglers came bounding down the pass by twoor three at a time, the Chiefs showed their skill by distinguishing thefattest deer, and their dexterity in bringing them down with their guns.Fergus exhibited remarkable address, and Edward was also so fortunate asto attract the notice and applause of the sportsmen.

  But now the main body of the deer appeared at the head of the glen,compelled into a very narrow compass, and presenting such a formidablephalanx, that their antlers appeared at a distance, over the ridge ofthe steep pass, like a leafless grove. Their number was very great, andfrom a desperate stand which they made, with the tallest of the red-deerstags arranged in front, in a sort of battle array, gazing on the groupwhich barred their passage down the glen, the more experienced sportsmenbegan to augur danger. The work of destruction, however, now commencedon all sides. Dogs and hunters were at work, and muskets and fuseesresounded from every quarter. The deer, driven to desperation, made atlength a fearful charge right upon the spot where the more distinguishedsportsmen had taken their stand. The word was given in Gaelic to flingthemselves upon their faces; but Waverley, on whose English ears thesignal was lost, had almost fallen a sacrifice to his ignorance of theancient language in which it was communicated. Fergus, observing hisdanger, sprang up and pulled him with violence to the ground, justas the whole herd broke down upon them. The tide being absolutelyirresistible, and wounds from a stag's horn highly dangerous, theactivity of the Chieftain may be considered, on this occasion, as havingsaved his guest's life. [The thrust from the tynes, or branches, of thestag's horns, was accounted far more dangerous than those of the boar'stusk:--

  If thou be hurt with horn of stag, it brings thee to thy bier, But barber's hand shall boar's hurt heal; thereof have thou no fear.]

  He detained him with a firm grasp until the whole herd of deer hadfairly run over them. Waverley then attempted to rise, but found thathe had suffered several very severe contusions; and, upon a furtherexamination, discovered that he had sprained his ankle violently.

  This checked the mirth of the meeting, although the Highlanders,accustomed to such incidents, and prepared for them, had suffered noharm themselves. A wigwam was erected almost in an instant, where Edwardwas deposited on a couch of heather. The surgeon, or he who assumed theoffice, appeared to unite the characters of a leech and a conjurer. Hewas an old smoke-dried Highlander, wearing a venerable grey beard,and having for his sole garment a tartan frock, the skirts of whichdescended to the knee; and, being undivided in front, made the vestmentserve at once for doublet and breeches. [This garb, which resembledthe dress often put on children in Scotland, called a polonie (i.e.polonaise), is a very ancient modification of the Highland garb. It
was,in fact, the hauberk or shirt of mail, only composed of cloth instead ofrings of armour.] He observed great ceremony in approaching Edward;and though our hero was writhing with pain, would not proceed to anyoperation which might assuage it until he had perambulated his couchthree times, moving from east to west, according to the course of thesun. This, which was called making the DEASIL, [Old Highlanders willstill make the deasil around those whom they wish well to. To go round aperson in the opposite direction, or wither-shins (German WIDER-SHINS),is unlucky, and a sort of incantation.] both the leech and theassistants seemed to consider as a matter of the last importance to theaccomplishment of a cure; and Waverley, whom pain rendered incapable ofexpostulation, and who indeed saw no chance of its being attended to,submitted in silence.

  After this ceremony was duly performed, the old Esculapius let hispatient blood with a cupping-glass with great dexterity, and proceeded,muttering all the while to himself in Gaelic, to boil on the firecertain herbs, with which he compounded an embrocation. He then fomentedthe parts which had sustained injury, never failing to murmur prayers orspells, which of the two Waverley could not distinguish, as his ear onlycaught the words GASPER-MELCHIOR-BALTHAZAR-MAX-PRAX-FAX, and similargibberish. The fomentation had a speedy effect in alleviating the painand swelling, which our hero imputed to the virtue of the herbs, orthe effect of the chafing, but which was by the bystanders unanimouslyascribed to the spells with which the operation had been accompanied.Edward was given to understand, that not one of the ingredients had beengathered except during the full moon, and that the herbalist had, whilecollecting them, uniformly recited a charm, which in English ran thus:--

  Hail to thee, thou holy herb, That sprung on holy ground! All in the Mount Olivet First wert thou found: Thou art boot for many a bruise, And healest many a wound; In our Lady's blessed name, I take thee from the ground.' [This metrical spell, or something very like it, is preserved by Reginald Scott, in his work on Witchcraft.]

  Edward observed, with some surprise, that even Fergus, notwithstandinghis knowledge and education, seemed to fall in with the superstitiousideas of his countrymen, either because he deemed it impolitic to affectscepticism on a matter of general belief, or more probably because, likemost men who do not think deeply or accurately on such subjects, he hadin his mind a reserve of superstition which balanced the freedom ofhis expressions and practice upon other occasions. Waverley made nocommentary, therefore, on the manner of the treatment, but rewarded theprofessor of medicine with a liberality beyond the utmost conceptionof his wildest hopes. He uttered, on the occasion, so many incoherentblessings in Gaelic and English, that Mac-Ivor, rather scandalized atthe excess of his acknowledgements, cut them short, by exclaiming, 'CEUDMILE MHALLOICH ART ORT!' i.e. 'A hundred thousand curses on you!' and sopushed the helper of men out of the cabin.

  After Waverley was left alone, the exhaustion of pain and fatigue,--forthe whole day's exercise had been severe,--threw him into a profound,but yet a feverish sleep, which he chiefly owed to an opiate draughtadministered by the old Highlander from some decoction of herbs in hispharmacopoeia.

  Early the next morning, the purpose of their meeting being over, andtheir sports damped by the untoward accident, in which Fergus and allhis friends expressed the greatest sympathy, it became a question how todispose of the disabled sportsman. This was settled by Mac-Ivor, who hada litter prepared, of 'birch and hazel grey,'

  [On the morrow they made their biers, of birch and hazel grey.--CHEVY CHASE.]

  which was borne by his people with such caution and dexterity as rendersit not improbable that they may have been the ancestors of some ofthose sturdy Gael, who have now the happiness to transport the bellesof Edinburgh, in their sedan chairs, to ten routs in one evening.When Edward was elevated upon their shoulders, he could not help beinggratified with the romantic effect produced by the breaking up of thissylvan camp. [The author has been sometimes accused of confoundingfiction with reality. He therefore thinks it necessary to state, thatthe circumstance of the hunting described in the text as preparatory tothe insurrection of 1745, is, so far as he knows, entirely imaginary.But it is well known such a great hunting was held in the Forest ofBraemar, under the auspices of the Earl of Mar, as preparatory to theRebellion of 1715; and most of the Highland Chieftains who afterwardsengaged in that civil commotion were present on this occasion.]

  The various tribes assembled, each at the pibroch of their native clan,and each headed by their patriarchal ruler. Some, who had already begunto retire, were seen winding up the hills, or descending the passeswhich led to the scene of action, the sound of their bagpipes dyingupon the ear. Others made still a moving picture upon the narrow plain,forming various changeful groups, their feathers and loose plaids wavingin the morning breeze, and their arms glittering in the rising sun. Mostof the Chiefs came to take farewell of Waverley, and to express theiranxious hope they might again, and speedily, meet; but the care ofFergus abridged the ceremony of taking leave. At length, his own menbeing completely assembled and mustered. Mac-Ivor commenced his march,but not towards the quarter from which they had come. He gave Edward tounderstand, that the greater part of his followers, now on the field,were bound on a distant expedition, and that when he had depositedhim in the house of a gentleman, who he was sure would pay him everyattention, he himself should be under the necessity of accompanying themthe greater part of the way, but would lose no time in rejoining hisfriend.

  Waverley was rather surprised that Fergus had not mentioned thisulterior destination when they set out upon the hunting-party; but hissituation did not admit of many interrogatories. The greater part of theclansmen went forward under the guidance of old Ballenkeiroch and EvanDhu Maccombich, apparently in high spirits. A few remained for thepurpose of escorting the Chieftain, who walked by the side of Edward'slitter, and attended him with the most affectionate assiduity. Aboutnoon, after a journey which the nature of the conveyance, the painof his bruises, and the roughness of the way, rendered inexpressiblypainful, Waverley was hospitably received into the house of a gentlemanrelated to Fergus, who had prepared for him every accommodation whichthe simple habits of living, then universal in the Highlands, put in hispower. In this person, an old man about seventy, Edward admired a relicof primitive simplicity. He wore no dress but what his estate afforded.The cloth was the fleece of his own sheep, woven by his own servants,and stained into tartan by the dyes produced from the herbs and lichensof the hills around him. His linen was spun by his daughters andmaid-servants, from his own flax, nor did his table, though plentiful,and varied with game and fish, offer an article but what was of nativeproduce.

  Claiming himself no rights of clanship or vassalage, he was fortunatein the alliance and protection of Vich Ian Vohr and other bold andenterprising Chieftains, who protected him in the quiet unambitious lifehe loved. It is true, the youth born on his grounds were often enticedto leave him for the service of his more active friends; but a few oldservants and tenants used to shake their grey locks when they heardtheir master censured for want of spirit, and observed, 'When the windis still, the shower falls soft.' This good old man, whose charity andhospitality were unbounded, would have received Waverley with kindness,had he been the meanest Saxon peasant, since his situation requiredassistance. But his attention to a friend and guest of Vich Ian Vohr wasanxious and unremitted. Other embrocations were applied to the injuredlimb, and new spells were put in practice. At length, after moresolicitude than was perhaps for the advantage of his health, Fergus tookfarewell of Edward for a few days, when, he said, he would return toTomanrait, and hoped by that time Waverley would be able to ride oneof the Highland ponies of his landlord, and in that manner return toGlennaquoich.

  The next day, when his good old host appeared, Edward learned that hisfriend had departed with the dawn, leaving none of his followers exceptCallum Beg, the sort of foot-page who used to attend his person, andwho had it now in charge to wait upon Waverley. On asking his host
ifhe knew where the Chieftain was gone, the old man looked fixedly at him,with something mysterious and sad in the smile which was his onlyreply. Waverley repeated his question, to which his host answered in aproverb,--

  What sent the messengers to hell, Was asking what they knew full well.' [Corresponding to the Lowland saying, 'Mony ane speirs the gate they ken fu' weel.]

  He was about to proceed, but Callum Beg said, rather pertly, as Edwardthought, that 'Ta Tighearnach (i.e. the Chief) did not like ta SassenaghDuinhe-wassel to be pingled wi' mickle speaking, as she was na tatweel.' From this Waverley concluded he should disoblige his friend byinquiring of a stranger the object of a journey which he himself had notcommunicated.

  It is unnecessary to trace the progress of our hero's recovery. Thesixth morning had arrived, and he was able to walk about with a staff,when Fergus returned with about a score of his men. He seemed inthe highest spirits, congratulated Waverley on his progress towardsrecovery, and finding he was able to sit on horseback, proposed theirimmediate return to Glennaquoich, Waverley joyfully acceded, for theform of his fair mistress had lived in his dreams during all the time ofhis confinement.

  Now he has ridden o'er moor and moss, O'er hill and many a glen.

  Fergus, all the while, with his myrmidons, striding stoutly by his side,or diverging to get a shot at a roe or a heath-cock. Waverley's bosombeat thick when they approached the old tower of Ian nan Chaistel, andcould distinguish the fair form of its mistress advancing to meet them.

  Fergus began immediately, with his usual high spirits, to exclaim, 'Openyour gates, incomparable princess, to the wounded Moor Abindarez, whomRodrigo de Narvez, constable of Antiquera, conveys to your castle; oropen them, if you like it better, to the renowned Marquis of Mantua, thesad attendant of his half-slain friend, Baldovinos of the Mountain.--Ah,long rest to thy soul, Cervantes! without quoting thy remnants, howshould I frame my language to befit romantic ears!'

  Flora now advanced, and welcoming Waverley with much kindness, expressedher regret for his accident, of which she had already heard theparticulars, and her surprise that her brother should not have takenbetter care to put a stranger on his guard against the perils of thesport in which he engaged him. Edward easily exculpated the Chieftain,who, indeed, at his own personal risk, had probably saved his life.

  This greeting over, Fergus said three or four words to his sister inGaelic. The tears instantly sprang to her eyes, but they seemed to betears of devotion and joy, for she looked up to heaven, and folded herhands as in a solemn expression of prayer or gratitude. After thepause of a minute, she presented to Edward some letters which had beenforwarded from Tully-Veolan during his absence, and, at the same time,delivered some to her brother. To the latter she likewise gave threeor four numbers of the CALEDONIAN MERCURY, the only newspaper which wasthen published to the north of the Tweed.

  Both gentlemen retired to examine their dispatches, and Edward speedilyfound that those which he had received contained matters of very deepinterest.