The Bride of Lammermoor Page 27

  CHAPTER XXVI.

  Why flames yon far summit--why shoot to the blast Those embers, like stars from the firmament cast? 'Tis the fire-shower of ruin, all dreadfully driven From thine eyrie, that beacons the darkness of Heaven.

  CAMPBELL.

  THE circumstances announced in the conclusion of the last chapter willaccount for the ready and cheerful reception of the Marquis of A---- andthe Master of Ravenswood in the village of Wolf's Hope. In fact, Calebhad no sooner announced the conflagration of the tower than the wholehamlet were upon foot to hasten to extinguish the flames. And althoughthat zealous adherent diverted their zeal by intimating the formidablecontents of the subterranean apartments, yet the check only turned theirassiduity into another direction. Never had there been such slaughteringof capons, and fat geese, and barndoor fowls; never such boiling of"reested" hams; never such making of car-cakes and sweet scones, Selkirkbannocks, cookies, and petticoat-tails--delicacies little known to thepresent generation. Never had there been such a tapping of barrels, andsuch uncorking of greybeards, in the village of Wolf's Hope. All theinferior houses were thrown open for the reception of the Marquis'sdependants, who came, it was thought, as precursors of the shower ofpreferment which hereafter was to leave the rest of Scotland dry,in order to distil its rich dews on the village of Wolf's Hope underLammermoor. The minister put in his claim to have the guests ofdistinction lodged at the manse, having his eye, it was thought, upona neighbouring preferment, where the incumbent was sickly; but Mr.Balderstone destined that honour to the cooper, his wife, and wife'smother, who danced for joy at the preferences thus assigned them.

  Many a beck and many a bow welcomed these noble guests to as goodentertainment as persons of such rank could set before such visitors;and the old dame, who had formerly lived in Ravenswood Castle, andknew, as she said, the ways of the nobility, was in no whit wanting inarranging matters, as well as circumstances permitted, according to theetiquette of the times. The cooper's house was so roomy that each guesthad his separate retiring-room, to which they were ushered with all dueceremony, while the plentiful supper was in the act of being placed uponthe table.

  Ravenswood no sooner found himself alone than, impelled by a thousandfeelings, he left the apartment, the house, and the village, and hastilyretraced his steps to the brow of the hill, which rose betwixt thevillage and screened it from the tower, in order to view the final fallof the house of his fathers. Some idle boys from the hamlet had takenthe same direction out of curiosity, having first witnessed the arrivalof the coach and six and its attendants. As they ran one by one past theMaster, calling to each other to "Come and see the auld tower blaw up inthe lift like the peelings of an ingan," he could not but feel himselfmoved with indignation. "And these are the sons of my father's vassals,"he said--"of men bound, both by law and gratitude, to follow our stepsthrough battle, and fire, and flood; and now the destruction of theirliege lord's house is but a holiday's sight to them."

  These exasperating reflections were partly expresssed in the acrimonywith which he exclaimed, on feeling himself pulled by the cloak: "Whatdo you want, you dog?"

  "I am a dog, and an auld dog too," answered Caleb, for it was he who hadtaken the freedom, "and I am like to get a dog's wages; but it does notsignification a pinch of sneesing, for I am ower auld a dog to learn newtricks, or to follow a new master."

  As he spoke, Ravenswood attained the ridge of the hill from which Wolf'sCrag was visible; the flames had entirely sunk down, and, to his greatsurprise, there was only a dusky reddening upon the clouds immediatelyover the castle, which seemed the reflection of the embers of the sunkenfire.

  "The place cannot have blown up," said the Master; "we must have heardthe report: if a quarter of the gunpowder was there you tell me of, itwould have been heard twenty miles off."

  "It've very like it wad," said Balderstone, composedly.

  "Then the fire cannot have reached the vaults?"

  "It's like no," answered Caleb, with the same impenetrable gravity.

  "Hark ye, Caleb," said his master, "this grows a little too much formy patience. I must go and examine how matters stand at Wolf's Cragmyself."

  "Your honour is ganging to gang nae sic gate," said Caleb, firmly.

  "And why not?" said Ravenswood, sharply; "who or what shall prevent me?"

  "Even I mysell," said Caleb, with the same determination.

  "You, Balderstone!" replied the Master; "you are forgetting yourself, Ithink."

  "But I think no," said Balderstone; "for I can just tell ye a' about thecastle on this knowe-head as weel as if ye were at it. Only dinna pityoursell into a kippage, and expose yoursell before the weans, or beforethe Marquis, when ye gang down-bye."

  "Speak out, you old fool," replied his master, "and let me know the bestand the worst at once."

  "Ou, the best and the warst is, just that the tower is standing hail andfeir, as safe and as empty as when ye left it."

  "Indeed! and the fire?" said Ravenswood. "Not a gleed of fire, then,except the bit kindling peat, and maybe a spunk in Mysie's cutty-pipe,"replied Caleb.

  "But the flame?" demanded Ravenswood--"the broad blaze which might havebeen seen ten miles off--what occasioned that?"

  "Hout awa'! it's an auld saying and a true--

  Little's the light Will be seen far in a mirk night.

  A wheen fern and horse little that I fired in the courtyard, aftersending back the loon of a footman; and, to speak Heaven's truth, thenext time that ye send or bring ony body here, let them ge gentlesallenarly, without ony fremd servants, like that chield Lockhard, tobe gledging and gleeing about, and looking upon the wrang side of ane'shousekeeping, to the discredit of the family, and forcing ane to damntheir souls wi' telling ae lee after another faster than I can countthem: I wad rather set fire to the tower in gude earnest, and burn itower my ain head into the bargain, or I see the family dishonoured inthe sort."

  "Upon my word, I am infinitely obliged by the proposal, Caleb," said hismaster, scarce able to restrain his laughter, though rather angry atthe same time. "But the gunpowder--is there such a thing in the tower?The Marquis seemed to know of it." "The pouther, ha! ha! ha!--theMarquis, ha! ha! ha!" replied Caleb,--"if your honour were to brain me,I behooved to laugh,--the Marquis--the pouther! Was it there? Ay, it wasthere. Did he ken o't? My certie! the Marquis kenn'd o't, and it was thebest o' the game; for, when I couldna pacify your honour wi' a' that Icould say, I aye threw out a word mair about the gunpouther, and garr'dthe Marquis tak the job in his ain hand."

  "But you have not answered my question," said the Master, impatiently;"how came the powder there, and where is it now?"

  "Ou, it came there, an ye maun needs ken," said Caleb, lookingmysteriously, and whispering, "when there was like to be a wee bitrising here; and the Marquis, and a' the great lords of the north, werea' in it, and mony a gudely gun and broadsword were ferried ower fraeDunkirk forbye the pouther. Awfu' work we had getting them into thetower under cloud o' night, for ye maun think it wasna everybody couldbe trusted wi' sic kittle jobs. But if ye will gae hame to your supper,I will tell you a' about it as ye gang down."

  "And these wretched boys," said Ravenswood, "is it your pleasure theyare to sit there all night, to wait for the blowing up of a tower thatis not even on fire?"

  "Surely not, if it is your honour's pleasure that they suld gang hame;although," added Caleb, "it wadna do them a grain's damage: they wadscreigh less the next day, and sleep the sounder at e'en. But just asyour honour likes."

  Stepping accordingly towards the urchins who manned the knolls nearwhich they stood, Caleb informed them, in an authoritative tone, thattheir honours Lord Ravenswood and the Marquis of A---- had given ordersthat the tower was not to be blow up till next day at noon. The boysdispersed upon this comfortable assurance. One or two, however, followedCaleb for more information, particularly the urchin whom he had cheatedwhile officiating as turnspit, who screamed, "Mr. Balderstone!--Mr.Balderstone! then the castle'
s gane out like an auld wife's spunk?"

  "To be sure it is, callant," said the butler; "do ye think the castleof as great a lord as Lord Ravenswood wad continue in a bleeze, and himstanding looking on wi' his ain very een? It's aye right," continuedCaleb, shaking off his ragged page, and closing in to his Master, "totrain up weans, as the wise man says, in the way they should go, and,aboon a', to teach them respect to their superiors."

  "But all this while, Caleb, you have never told me what became of thearms and powder," said Ravenswood.

  "Why, as for the arms," said Caleb, "it was just like the bairn'srhyme--

  Some gaed east and some gaed west, And some gaed to the craw's nest.

  And for the pouther, I e'en changed it, as occasion served, with theskippers o' Dutch luggers and French vessels, for gin and brandy, and isserved the house mony a year--a gude swap too, between what cheereth thesoul of man and that which hingeth it clean out of his body; forbye,I keepit a wheen pounds of it for yoursell when ye wanted to take thepleasure o' shooting: whiles, in these latter days, I wad hardly haekenn'd else whar to get pouther for your pleasure. And now that youranger is ower, sir, wasna that weel managed o' me, and arena ye farbetter sorted doun yonder than ye could hae been in your ain auld ruinsup-bye yonder, as the case stands wi' us now? the mair's the pity!"

  "I believe you may be right, Caleb; but, before burning down my castle,either in jest or in earnest," said Ravenswood, "I think I had a rightto be in the secret."

  "Fie for shame, your honour!" replied Caleb; "it fits an auld carle likeme weel eneugh to tell lees for the credit of the family, but it wadnabeseem the like o' your honour's sell; besides, young folk are nojudicious: they cannot make the maist of a bit figment. Now thisfire--for a fire it sall be, if I suld burn the auld stable to make itmair feasible--this fire, besides that it will be an excuse for askingony thing we want through the country, or doun at the haven--thisfire will settle mony things on an honourable footing for the family'scredit, that cost me telling twenty daily lees to a wheen idle chapsand queans, and, what's waur, without gaining credence." "That was hardindeed, Caleb; but I do not see how this fire should help your veracityor your credit."

  "There it is now?" said Caleb; "wasna I saying that young folk had agreen judgment? How suld it help me, quotha? It will be a creditableapology for the honour of the family for this score of years to come, ifit is weel guided. 'Where's the family pictures?' says ae meddling body.'The great fire at Wolf's Crag,' answers I. 'Where's the family plate?'says another. 'The great fire,' says I; 'wha was to think of plate,when life and limb were in danger?' 'Where's the wardrobe and thelinens?--where's the tapestries and the decorements?--beds of state,twilts, pands and testors, napery and broidered wark?' 'The fire--thefire--the fire.' Guide the fire weel, and it will serve ye for a' thatye suld have and have not; and, in some sort, a gude excuse is betterthan the things themselves; for they maun crack and wear out, and beconsumed by time, whereas a gude offcome, prudently and creditablyhandled, may serve a nobleman and his family, Lord kens how lang!"

  Ravenswood was too well acquainted with his butler's pertinacity andself-opinion to dispute the point with him any farther. Leaving Caleb,therefore, to the enjoyment of his own successful ingenuity, he returnedto the hamlet, where he found the Marquis and the good women of themansion under some anxiety--the former on account of his absence, theothers for the discredit their cookery might sustain by the delay of thesupper. All were now at ease, and heard with pleasure that the fire atthe castle had burned out of itself without reaching the vaults, whichwas the only information that Ravenswood thought it proper to give inpublic concerning the event of his butler's strategem.

  They sat down to an excellent supper. No invitation could prevail onMr. and Mrs. Girder, even in their own house, to sit down at table withguests of such high quality. They remained standing in the apartment,and acted the part of respectful and careful attendants on the company.Such were the manners of the time. The elder dame, confident throughher age and connexion with the Ravenswood family, was less scrupulouslyceremonious. She played a mixed part betwixt that of the hostess of aninn and the mistress of a private house, who receives guests above herown degree. She recommended, and even pressed, what she thought best,and was herself easily entreated to take a moderate share of the goodcheer, in order to encourage her guests by her own example. Often sheinterrupted herself, to express her regret that "my lord did not eat;that the Master was pyking a bare bane; that, to be sure, there wasnaething there fit to set before their honours; that Lord Allan, resthis saul, used to like a pouthered guse, and said it was Latin for atass o' brandy; that the brandy came frae France direct; for, for a' theEnglish laws and gaugers, the Wolf's Hope brigs hadna forgotten the gateto Dunkirk."

  Here the cooper admonished his mother-in-law with his elbow, whichprocured him the following special notice in the progress of her speech:

  "Ye needna be dunshin that gate, John [Gibbie]," continued the old lady;"naebody says that YE ken whar the brandy comes frae; and it wadna befitting ye should, and you the Queen's cooper; and what signifies't,"continued she, addressing Lord Ravenswood, "to king, queen, or kaiserwhar an auld wife like me buys her pickle sneeshin, or her drapbrandy-wine, to haud her heart up?"

  Having thus extricated herself from her supposed false step, DameLoup-the-Dyke proceeded, during the rest of the evening, to supply, withgreat animation, and very little assistance from her guests, the fundsnecessary for the support of the conversation, until, declining anyfurther circulation of their glass, her guests requested her permissionto retire to their apartments.

  The Marquis occupied the chamber of dais, which, in every house abovethe rank of a mere cottage, was kept sacred for such high occasions asthe present. The modern finishing with plaster was then unknown, andtapestry was confined to the houses of the nobility and superior gentry.The cooper, therefore, who was a man of some vanity, as well as somewealth, had imitated the fashion observed by the inferior landholdersand clergy, who usually ornamented their state apartments with hangingsof a sort of stamped leather, manufactured in the Netherlands, garnishedwith trees and animals executed in copper foil, and with many a pithysentence of morality, which, although couched in Low Dutch, were perhapsas much attended to in practice as if written in broad Scotch. Thewhole had somewhat of a gloomy aspect; but the fire, composed ofold pitch-barrel staves, blazed merrily up the chimney; the bed wasdecorated with linen of most fresh and dazzling whiteness, which hadnever before been used, and might, perhaps, have never been used atall, but for this high occasion. On the toilette beside, stood anold-fashioned mirror, in a fillagree frame, part of the dispersed fineryof the neighbouring castle. It was flanked by a long-necked bottle ofFlorence wine, by which stood a glass nearly as tall, resemblingin shape that which Teniers usually places in the hands of his ownportrait, when he paints himself as mingling in the revels of a countryvillage. To counterbalance those foreign sentinels, there mounted guardon the other side of the mirror two stout warders of Scottish lineage;a jug, namely, of double ale, which held a Scotch pint, and a quaigh,or bicker, of ivory and ebony, hooped with silver, the work ofJohn Girder's own hands, and the pride of his heart. Besides thesepreparations against thirst, there was a goodly diet-loaf, or sweetcake; so that, with such auxiliaries, the apartment seemed victualledagainst a siege of two or three days.

  It only remains to say, that the Marquis's valet was in attendance,displaying his master's brocaded nightgown, and richly embroideredvelvet cap, lined and faced with Brussels lace, upon a huge leatherneasy-chair, wheeled round so as to have the full advantage of thecomfortable fire which we have already mentioned. We therefore committhat eminent person to his night's repose, trusting he profited by theample preparations made for his accommodation--preparations which wehave mentioned in detail, as illustrative of ancient Scottish manners.

  It is not necessary we should be equally minute in describing thesleeping apartment of the Master of Ravenswood, which was that usuallyoccupied by the
goodman and goodwife themselves. It was comfortablyhung with a sort of warm-coloured worsted, manufactured in Scotland,approaching in trexture to what is now called shalloon. A staringpicture of John [Gibbie] Girder himself ornamented this dormiory,painted by a starving Frenchman, who had, God knows how or why, strolledover from Flushing or Dunkirk to Wolf's Hope in a smuggling dogger. Thefeatures were, indeed, those of the stubborn, opinionative, yet sensibleartisan, but Monsieur had contrived to throw a French grace into thelook and manner, so utterly inconsistent with the dogged gravity of theoriginal, that it was impossible to look at it without laughing. Johnand his family, however, piqued themselves not a little upon thispicture, and were proportionably censured by the neighbourhood, whopronounced that the cooper, in sitting for the same, and yet more inpresuming to hang it up in his bedchamber, had exceeded his privilege asthe richest man of the village; at once stept beyond the bounds of hisown rank, and encroached upon those of the superior orders; and,in fine, had been guilty of a very overweening act of vanity andpresumption. Respect for the memory of my deceased friend, Mr. RichardTinto, has obliged me to treat this matter at some length; but I sparethe reader his prolix though curious observations, as well upon thecharacter of the French school as upon the state of painting in Scotlandat the beginning of the 18th century.

  The other preparations of the Master's sleeping apartment were similarto those in the chamber of dais.

  At the usual early hour of that period, the Marquis of A---- and hiskinsman prepared to resume their journey. This could not be donewithout an ample breakfast, in which cold meat and hot meat, and oatmealflummery, wine and spirits, and milk varied by every possible mode ofpreparation, evinced the same desire to do honour to their guests whichhad been shown by the hospitable owners of the mansion upon the eveningbefore. All the bustle of preparation for departure now resoundedthrough Wolf's Hope. There was paying of bills and shaking of hands,and saddling of horses, and harnessing of carriages, and distributingof drink-money. The Marquis left a broad piece for the gratificationof John Girder's household, which he, the said John, was for some timedisposed to convert to his own use; Dingwall, the writer, assuringhim he was justified in so doing, seeing he was the disburser ofthose expenses which were the occasion of the gratification. But,notwithstanding this legal authority, John could not find in his heartto dim the splendour of his late hospitality by picketing anything inthe nature of a gratuity. He only assured his menials he would considerthem as a damned ungrateful pack if they bought a gill of brandyelsewhere than out of his own stores; and as the drink-money was likelyto go to its legitimate use, he comforted himself that, in this manner,the Marquis's donative would, without any impeachment of credit andcharacter, come ultimately into his own exclusive possession.

  While arrangements were making for departure, Ravenswood made blythe theheart of his ancient butler by informing him, cautiously however (forhe knew Caleb's warmth of imagination), of the probable change which wasabout to take place in his fortunes. He deposited with Balderstone, atthe same time, the greater part of his slender funds, with an assurance,which he was obliged to reiterate more than once, that he himself hadsufficient supplies in certain prospect. He therefore enjoined Caleb, ashe valued his favour, to desist from all farther maneouvres against theinhabitants of Wolf's Hope, their cellars, poultry-yards, and substancewhatsoever. In this prohibition, the old domestic acquiesced morereadily than his master expected.

  "It was doubtless," he said, "a shame, a discredit, and a sin to harrythe puir creatures, when the family were in circumstances to livehonourably on their ain means; and there might be wisdom," he added, "ingiving them a while's breathing-time at any rate, that they might be themore readily brought forward upon his honour's future occasions."

  This matter being settled, and having taken an affectionate farewell ofhis old domestic, the Master rejoined his noble relative, who was nowready to enter his carriage. The two landladies, old and young, havingreceived in all kindly greeting a kiss from each of their noble guests,stood simpering at the door of their house, as the coach and six,followed by its train of clattering horsemen, thundered out of thevillage. John Girder also stood upon his threshold, now looking at hishonoured right hand, which had been so lately shaken by a marquis anda lord, and now giving a glance into the interior of his mansion, whichmanifested all the disarray of the late revel, as if balancingthe distinction which he had attained with the expenses of theentertainment.

  At length he opened his oracular jaws. "Let every man and woman here setabout their ain business, as if there was nae sic thing as marquis ormaster, duke or drake, laird or lord, in this world. Let the house beredd up, the broken meat set bye, and if there is ony thing totallyuneatable, let it be gien to the puir folk; and, gude mother and wife, Ihae just ae thing to entreat ye, that ye will never speak to me a singleword, good or bad, anent a' this nonsense wark, but keep a' your cracksabout it to yoursells and your kimmers, for my head is weel-nigh dungdonnart wi' it already."

  As John's authority was tolerably absolute, all departed to their usualoccupations, leaving him to build castles in the air, if he had a mind,upon the court favour which he had acquired by the expenditure of hisworldly substance.