The Black Dwarf Read online

  CHAPTER III.

  Brown Dwarf, that o'er the moorland strays, Thy name to Keeldar tell! "The Brown Man of the Moor, that stays Beneath the heather-bell."--JOHN LEYDEN

  The object which alarmed the young farmer in the middle of his valorousprotestations, startled for a moment even his less prejudiced companion.The moon, which had arisen during their conversation, was, in the phraseof that country, wading or struggling with clouds, and shed only adoubtful and occasional light. By one of her beams, which streamed uponthe great granite column to which they now approached, they discovereda form, apparently human, but of a size much less than ordinary, whichmoved slowly among the large grey stones, not like a person intendingto journey onward, but with the slow, irregular, flitting movement of abeing who hovers around some spot of melancholy recollection, utteringalso, from time to time, a sort of indistinct muttering sound. This somuch resembled his idea of the motions of an apparition, that HobbieElliot, making a dead pause, while his hair erected itself upon hisscalp, whispered to his companion, "It's Auld Ailie hersell! Shall I gieher a shot, in the name of God?"

  "For Heaven's sake, no," said his companion, holding down the weaponwhich he was about to raise to the aim--"for Heaven's sake, no; it'ssome poor distracted creature."

  "Ye're distracted yoursell, for thinking of going so near to her," saidElliot, holding his companion in his turn, as he prepared to advance."We'll aye hae time to pit ower a bit prayer (an I could but mind ane)afore she comes this length--God! she's in nae hurry," continued he,growing bolder from his companion's confidence, and the little noticethe apparition seemed to take of them. "She hirples like a hen on a hetgirdle. I redd ye, Earnscliff" (this he added in a gentle whisper), "letus take a cast about, as if to draw the wind on a buck--the bog is noabune knee-deep, and better a saft road as bad company." [The Scots usethe epithet soft, IN MALAM PARTEM, in two cases, at least. A SOFT roadis a road through quagmire and bogs; and SOFT weather signifies thatwhich is very rainy.]

  Earnscliff, however, in spite of his companion's resistance andremonstrances, continued to advance on the path they had originallypursued, and soon confronted the object of their investigation.

  The height of the figure, which appeared even to decrease as theyapproached it, seemed to be under four feet, and its form, as far as theimperfect light afforded them the means of discerning, was very nearlyas broad as long, or rather of a spherical shape, which could onlybe occasioned by some strange personal deformity. The young sportsmanhailed this extraordinary appearance twice, without receiving anyanswer, or attending to the pinches by which his companion endeavouredto intimate that their best course was to walk on, without givingfarther disturbance to a being of such singular and preternaturalexterior. To the third repeated demand of "Who are you? What do you hereat this hour of night?"--a voice replied, whose shrill, uncouth, anddissonant tones made Elliot step two paces back, and startled even hiscompanion, "Pass on your way, and ask nought at them that ask nought atyou."

  "What do you do here so far from shelter? Are you benighted on yourjourney? Will you follow us home ('God forbid!' ejaculated HobbieElliot, involuntarily), and I will give you a lodging?"

  "I would sooner lodge by mysell in the deepest of the Tarras-flow,"again whispered Hobbie.

  "Pass on your way," rejoined the figure, the harsh tones of his voicestill more exalted by passion. "I want not your guidance--I want notyour lodging--it is five years since my head was under a human roof, andI trust it was for the last time."

  "He is mad," said Earnscliff.

  "He has a look of auld Humphrey Ettercap, the tinkler, that perishedin this very moss about five years syne," answered his superstitiouscompanion; "but Humphrey wasna that awfu' big in the bouk."

  "Pass on your way," reiterated the object of their curiosity, "thebreath of your human bodies poisons the air around me--the sound of pourhuman voices goes through my ears like sharp bodkins."

  "Lord safe us!" whispered Hobbie, "that the dead should bear sie fearfu'ill-will to the living!--his saul maun be in a puir way, I'm jealous."

  "Come, my friend," said Earnscliff, "you seem to suffer under somestrong affliction; common humanity will not allow us to leave you here."

  "Common humanity!" exclaimed the being, with a scornful laugh thatsounded like a shriek, "where got ye that catch-word--that noose forwoodcocks--that common disguise for man-traps--that bait which thewretched idiot who swallows, will soon find covers a hook with barbs tentimes sharper than those you lay for the animals which you murder foryour luxury!"

  "I tell you, my friend," again replied Earnscliff, "you are incapable ofjudging of your own situation--you will perish in this wilderness, andwe must, in compassion, force you along with us."

  "I'll hae neither hand nor foot in't," said Hobbie; "let the ghaist takehis ain way, for God's sake!"

  "My blood be on my own head, if I perish here," said the figure; and,observing Earnscliff meditating to lay hold on him, he added, "Andyour blood be upon yours, if you touch but the skirt of my garments, toinfect me with the taint of mortality!"

  The moon shone more brightly as he spoke thus, and Earnscliff observedthat he held out his right hand armed with some weapon of offence, whichglittered in the cold ray like the blade of a long knife, or the barrelof a pistol. It would have been madness to persevere in his attempt upona being thus armed, and holding such desperate language, especially asit was plain he would have little aid from his companion, who had fairlyleft him to settle matters with the apparition as he could, and hadproceeded a few paces on his way homeward. Earnscliff, however, turnedand followed Hobbie, after looking back towards the supposed maniac,who, as if raised to frenzy by the interview, roamed wildly around thegreat stone, exhausting his voice in shrieks and imprecations, thatthrilled wildly along the waste heath.

  The two sportsmen moved on some time in silence, until they were outof hearing of these uncouth sounds, which was not ere they had gained aconsiderable distance from the pillar that gave name to the moor. Eachmade his private comments on the scene they had witnessed, until HobbieElliot suddenly exclaimed, "Weel, I'll uphaud that yon ghaist, if itbe a ghaist, has baith done and suffered muckle evil in the flesh, thatgars him rampauge in that way after he is dead and gane."

  "It seems to me the very madness of misanthropy," said Earnscliff;following his own current of thought.

  "And ye didna think it was a spiritual creature, then?" asked Hobbie athis companion.

  "Who, I?--No, surely."

  "Weel, I am partly of the mind mysell that it may be a live thing--andyet I dinna ken, I wadna wish to see ony thing look liker a bogle."

  "At any rate," said Earnscliff, "I will ride over to-morrow and see whathas become of the unhappy being."

  "In fair daylight?" queried the yeoman; "then, grace o' God, I'se bewi' ye. But here we are nearer to Heugh-foot than to your house by twamile,--hadna ye better e'en gae hame wi' me, and we'll send the callanton the powny to tell them that you are wi' us, though I believe there'snaebody at hame to wait for you but the servants and the cat."

  "Have with you then, friend Hobbie," said the young hunter; "and as Iwould not willingly have either the servants be anxious, or puss forfeither supper, in my absence, I'll be obliged to you to send the boy as youpropose."

  "Aweel, that IS kind, I must say. And ye'll gae hame to Heugh-foot?They'll be right blithe to see you, that will they."

  This affair settled, they walked briskly on a little farther, when,coming to the ridge of a pretty steep hill, Hobbie Elliot exclaimed,"Now, Earnscliff, I am aye glad when I come to this very bit--Ye seethe light below, that's in the ha' window, where grannie, the gash auldcarline, is sitting birling at her wheel--and ye see yon other lightthat's gaun whiddin' back and forrit through amang the windows? that'smy cousin, Grace Armstrong,--she's twice as clever about the house as mysisters, and sae they say themsells, for they're good-natured lasses asever trode on heather; but they confess themsells, and sae does grannie,that she has far m
aist action, and is the best goer about the toun, nowthat grannie is off the foot hersell.--My brothers, ane o' them's awayto wait upon the chamberlain, and ane's at Moss-phadraig, that's our ledfarm--he can see after the stock just as weel as I can do."

  "You are lucky, my good friend, in having so many valuable relations."

  "Troth am I--Grace make me thankful, I'se never deny it.--But willye tell me now, Earnscliff, you that have been at college, and thehigh-school of Edinburgh, and got a' sort o' lair where it was tobe best gotten--will ye tell me--no that it's ony concern of mine inparticular,--but I heard the priest of St. John's, and our minister,bargaining about it at the Winter fair, and troth they baith spak veryweel--Now, the priest says it's unlawful to marry ane's cousin; but Icannot say I thought he brought out the Gospel authorities half sae weelas our minister--our minister is thought the best divine and the bestpreacher atween this and Edinburgh--Dinna ye think he was likely to beright?"

  "Certainly marriage, by all protestant Christians, is held to be as freeas God made it by the Levitical law; so, Hobbie, there can be no bar,legal or religious, betwixt you and Miss Armstrong."

  "Hout awa' wi' your joking, Earnscliff," replied his companion,--"yeare angry aneugh yoursell if ane touches you a bit, man, on the soothside of the jest--No that I was asking the question about Grace, for yemaun ken she's no my cousin-germain out and out, but the daughter ofmy uncle's wife by her first marriage, so she's nae kith nor kin tome--only a connexion like. But now we're at the Sheeling-hill--I'll fireoff my gun, to let them ken I'm coming, that's aye my way; and if I haea deer I gie them twa shots, ane for the deer and ane for mysell."

  He fired off his piece accordingly, and the number of lights wereseen to traverse the house, and even to gleam before it. Hobbie Elliotpointed out one of these to Earnscliff, which seemed to glide from thehouse towards some of the outhouses-"That's Grace hersell," said Hobbie."She'll no meet me at the door, I'se warrant her--but she'll be awa',for a' that, to see if my hounds' supper be ready, poor beasts."

  "Love me, love my dog," answered Earnscliff. "Ah, Hobbie, you are alucky young fellow!"

  This observation was uttered with something like a sigh, whichapparently did not escape the ear of his companion.

  "Hout, other folk may be as lucky as I am--O how I have seen Miss IsabelVere's head turn after somebody when they passed ane another at theCarlisle races! Wha kens but things may come round in this world?"

  Earnscliff muttered something like an answer; but whether in assent ofthe proposition, or rebuking the application of it, could not easily bediscovered; and it seems probable that the speaker himself was willinghis meaning should rest in doubt and obscurity. They had now descendedthe broad loaning, which, winding round the foot of the steep bank,or heugh, brought them in front of the thatched, but comfortable,farm-house, which was the dwelling of Hobbie Elliot and his family.

  The doorway was thronged with joyful faces; but the appearance of astranger blunted many a gibe which had been prepared on Hobbie's lackof success in the deer-stalking. There was a little bustle among threehandsome young women, each endeavouring to devolve upon another the taskof ushering the stranger into the apartment, while probably all wereanxious to escape for the purpose of making some little personalarrangements, before presenting themselves to a young gentleman in adishabille only intended for their brother.

  Hobbie, in the meanwhile, bestowing some hearty and general abuse uponthem all (for Grace was not of the party), snatched the candle from thehand of one of the rustic coquettes, as she stood playing pretty withit in her hand, and ushered his guest into the family parlour, or ratherhall; for the place having been a house of defence in former times, thesitting apartment was a vaulted and paved room, damp and dismal enoughcompared with the lodgings of the yeomanry of our days, but which, whenwell lighted up with a large sparkling fire of turf and bog-wood, seemedto Earnscliff a most comfortable exchange for the darkness and bleakblast of the hill. Kindly and repeatedly was he welcomed by thevenerable old dame, the mistress of the family, who, dressed in hercoif and pinners, her close and decent gown of homespun wool, but with alarge gold necklace and ear-rings, looked, what she really was, the ladyas well as the farmer's wife, while, seated in her chair of wicker, bythe corner of the great chimney, she directed the evening occupationsof the young women, and of two or three stout serving wenches, who sateplying their distaffs behind the backs of their young mistresses.

  As soon as Earnscliff had been duly welcomed, and hasty orders issuedfor some addition to the evening meal, his grand-dame and sisters openedtheir battery upon Hobbie Elliot for his lack of success against thedeer.

  "Jenny needna have kept up her kitchen-fire for a' that Hobbie hasbrought hame," said one sister.

  "Troth no, lass," said another; "the gathering peat, if it was weelblawn, wad dress a' our Hobbie's venison." [The gathering peat is thepiece of turf left to treasure up the secret seeds of fire, without anygenerous consumption of fuel; in a word, to keep the fire alive.]

  "Ay, or the low of the candle, if the wind wad let it hide steady," saida third; "if I were him, I would bring hame a black craw, rather thancome back three times without a buck's horn to blaw on."

  Hobbie turned from the one to the other, regarding them alternatelywith a frown on his brow, the augury of which was confuted by thegood-humoured laugh on the lower part of his countenance. He then stroveto propitiate them, by mentioning the intended present of his companion.

  "In my young days," said the old lady, "a man wad hae been ashamedto come back frae the hill without a buck hanging on each side o' hishorse, like a cadger carrying calves."

  "I wish they had left some for us then, grannie," retorted Hobbie;"they've cleared the country o' them, thae auld friends o' yours, I'mthinking."

  "We see other folk can find game, though you cannot, Hobbie," said theeldest sister, glancing a look at young Earnscliff.

  "Weel, weel, woman, hasna every dog his day, begging Earnscliff'spardon for the auld saying--Mayna I hae his luck, and he mine, anothertime?--It's a braw thing for a man to be out a' day, and frighted--na, Iwinna say that neither but mistrysted wi' bogles in the hame-coming, an'then to hae to flyte wi' a wheen women that hae been doing naething a'the live-lang day, but whirling a bit stick, wi' a thread trailing atit, or boring at a clout."

  "Frighted wi' bogles!" exclaimed the females, one and all,--for greatwas the regard then paid, and perhaps still paid, in these glens, to allsuch fantasies.

  "I did not say frighted, now--I only said mis-set wi' the thing--Andthere was but ae bogle, neither--Earnscliff, ye saw it; as weel as Idid?"

  And he proceeded, without very much exaggeration, to detail, in his ownway, the meeting they had with the mysterious being at Mucklestane-Moor,concluding, he could not conjecture what on earth it could be, unless itwas either the Enemy himsell, or some of the auld Peghts that held thecountry lang syne.

  "Auld Peght!" exclaimed the grand-dame; "na, na--bless thee frae scathe,my bairn, it's been nae Peght that--it's been the Brown Man of theMoors! O weary fa' thae evil days!--what can evil beings be coming forto distract a poor country, now it's peacefully settled, and living inlove and law--O weary on him! he ne'er brought gude to these lands orthe indwellers. My father aften tauld me he was seen in the year o' thebloody fight at Marston-Moor, and then again in Montrose's troubles, andagain before the rout o' Dunbar, and, in my ain time, he was seen aboutthe time o' Bothwell-Brigg, and they said the second-sighted Laird ofBenarbuck had a communing wi' him some time afore Argyle's landing,but that I cannot speak to sae preceesely--it was far in the west.--O,bairns, he's never permitted but in an ill time, sae mind ilka ane o' yeto draw to Him that can help in the day of trouble."

  Earnscliff now interposed, and expressed his firm conviction that theperson they had seen was some poor maniac, and had no commission fromthe invisible world to announce either war or evil. But his opinionfound a very cold audience, and all joined to deprecate his purpose ofreturning to the spot the next day.r />
  "O, my bonny bairn," said the old dame (for, in the kindness ofher heart, she extended her parental style to all in whom she wasinterested)---"You should beware mair than other folk--there's been aheavy breach made in your house wi' your father's bloodshed, and wi'law-pleas, and losses sinsyne;--and you are the flower of the flock, andthe lad that will build up the auld bigging again (if it be His will)to be an honour to the country, and a safeguard to those that dwellin it--you, before others, are called upon to put yoursell in no rashadventures--for yours was aye ower venturesome a race, and muckle harmthey have got by it."

  "But I am sure, my good friend, you would not have me be afraid of goingto an open moor in broad daylight?"

  "I dinna ken," said the good old dame; "I wad never bid son or friend o'mine haud their hand back in a gude cause, whether it were a friend's ortheir ain--that should be by nae bidding of mine, or of ony body that'scome of a gentle kindred--But it winna gang out of a grey head likemine, that to gang to seek for evil that's no fashing wi' you, is cleanagainst law and Scripture."

  Earnscliff resigned an argument which he saw no prospect of maintainingwith good effect, and the entrance of supper broke off the conversation.Miss Grace had by this time made her appearance, and Hobbie, not withouta conscious glance at Earnscliff, placed himself by her side. Mirthand lively conversation, in which the old lady of the house took thegood-humoured share which so well becomes old age, restored to thecheeks of the damsels the roses which their brother's tale of theapparition had chased away, and they danced and sung for an hour aftersupper as if there were no such things as goblins in the world.