The Bride of Lammermoor Page 29

  CHAPTER XXVIII.

  Was ever woman in this humor wooed? Was ever woman in this humour won? I'll have her.

  Richard III.

  TWELVE months had passed away since the Master of Ravenswood's departurefor the continent, and, although his return to Scotland had beenexpected in a much shorter space, yet the affairs of his mission,or, according to a prevailing report, others of a nature personal tohimself, still detained him abroad. In the mean time, the altered stateof affairs in Sir William Ashton's family may be gathered from thefollowing conversation which took place betwixt Bucklaw and hisconfidential bottle companion and dependant, the noted CaptainCraigengelt. They were seated on either side of the hugesepulchral-looking freestone chimney in the low hall at Girnington.A wood fire blazed merrily in the grate; a round oaken table, placedbetween them, supported a stoup of excellent claret, two rummer glasses,and other good cheer; and yet, with all these appliances and meansto boot, the countenance of the patron was dubious, doubtful, andunsatisfied, while the invention of his dependant was taxed to theutmost to parry what he most dreaded, a fit, as he called it, ofthe sullens, on the part of his protector. After a long pause, onlyinterrupted by the devil's tattoo, which Bucklaw kept beating againstthe hearth with the toe of his boot, Craigengelt at last ventured tobreak silence. "May I be double distanced," said he, "if ever I saw aman in my life have less the air of a bridegroom! Cut me out of feather,if you have not more the look of a man condemned to be hanged!"

  "My kind thanks for the compliment," replied Bucklaw; "but I suppose youthink upon the predicament in which you yourself are most likely to beplaced; and pray, Captain Craigengelt, if it please your worship, whyshould I look merry, when I'm sad, and devilish sad too?"

  "And that's what vexes me," said Craigengelt. "Here is this match, thebest in the whole country, and which were so anxious about, is on thepoint of being concluded, and you are as sulky as a bear that has lostits whelps."

  "I do not know," answered the Laird, doggedly, "whether I shouldconclude or not, if it was not that I am too far forwards to leap back."

  "Leap back!" exclaimed Craigengelt, with a well-assumed air ofastonishment, "that would be playing the back-game with a witness! Leapback! Why, is not the girl's fortune----"

  "The young lady's, if you please," said Hayston, interrupting him.

  "Well--well, no disrespect meant. Will Miss Ashton's tocher not weighagainst any in Lothian?"

  "Granted," answered Bucklaw; "but I care not a penny for her tocher; Ihave enough of my own."

  "And the mother, that loves you like her own child?"

  "Better than some of her children, I believe," said Bucklaw, "or therewould be little love wared on the matter."

  "And Colonel Sholto Douglas Ashton, who desires the marriage above allearthly things?"

  "Because," said Bucklaw, "he expects to carry the county of ---- throughmy interest."

  "And the father, who is as keen to see the match concluded as ever Ihave been to win a main?"

  "Ay," said Bucklaw, in the same disparaging manner, "it lies with SirWilliam's policy to secure the next best match, since he cannot barterhis child to save the great Ravenswood estate, which the English Houseof Lords are about to wrench out of his clutches."

  "What say you to the young lady herself?" said Craigengelt; "the finestyoung woman in all Scotland, one that you used to be so fond of when shewas cross, and now she consents to have you, and gives up her engagementwith Ravenswood, you are for jibbing. I must say, the devil's in ye,when ye neither know what you would have nor what you would want."

  "I'll tell you my meaning in a word," answered Bucklaw, getting up andwalking through the room; "I want to know what the devil is the cause ofMiss Ashton's changing her mind so suddenly?"

  "And what need you care," said Craigengelt, "since the change is in yourfavour?"

  "I'll tell you what it is," returned his patron, "I never knew much ofthat sort of fine ladies, and I believe they may be as capricious as thedevil; but there is something in Miss Ashton's change a devilish dealtoo sudden and too serious for a mere flisk of her own. I'll be bound,Lady Ashton understands every machine for breaking in the humanmind, and there are as many as there are cannon-bit, martingales, andcavessons for young colts."

  "And if that were not the case," said Craigengelt, "how the devil shouldwe ever get them into training at all?"

  "And that's true too," said Bucklaw, suspending his march through thedining-room, and leaning upon the back of a chair. "And besides,here's Ravenswood in the way still, do you think he'll give up Lucy'sengagement?"

  "To be sure he will," answered Craigengelt; "what good can it do him torefuse, since he wishes to marry another woman and she another man?"

  "And you believe seriously," said Bucklaw, "that he is going to marrythe foreign lady we heard of?"

  "You heard yourself," answered Craigengelt, "what Captain Westenho saidabout it, and the great preparation made for their blythesome bridal."

  "Captain Westenho," replied Bucklaw, "has rather too much of your owncast about, Craigie, to make what Sir William would call a 'famouswitness.' He drinks deep, plays deep, swears deep, and I suspect can lieand cheat a little into the bargain; useful qualities, Craigie, ifkept in their proper sphere, but which have a little too much of thefreebooter to make a figure in a court of evidence."

  "Well, then," said Craigengelt, "will you believe Colonel DouglasAshton, who heard the Marquis of A---- say in a public circle, but notaware that he was within ear-shot, that his kinsman had made abetter arrangement for himself than to give his father's land for thepale-cheeked daughter of a broken-down fanatic, and that Bucklaw waswelcome to the wearing of Ravenswood's shaughled shoes."

  "Did he say so, by heavens!" cried Bucklaw, breaking out into one ofthose incontrollable fits of passion to which he was constitutionallysubject; "if I had heard him, I would have torn the tongue out of histhroat before all his peats and minions, and Highland bullies into thebargain. Why did not Ashton run him through the body?"

  "Capot me if I know," said the Captain. "He deserved it sure enough; buthe is an old man, and a minister of state, and there would be more riskthan credit in meddling with him. You had more need to think of makingup to Miss Lucy Ashton the disgrace that's like to fall upon her than ofinterfering with a man too old to fight, and on too high a tool for yourhand to reach him."

  "It SHALL reach him, though, one day," said Bucklaw, "and his kinsmanRavenswood to boot. In the mean time, I'll take care Miss Ashtonreceives no discredit for the slight they have put upon her. It's anawkward job, however, and I wish it were ended; I scarce know how totalk to her,--but fill a bumper, Craigie, and we'll drink her health.It grows late, and a night-cowl of good claret is worth all theconsidering-caps in Europe."