Old Mortality, Volume 1. Read online

  CHAPTER II.

  Summon an hundred horse, by break of day, To wait our pleasure at the castle gates. Douglas.

  Under the reign of the last Stewarts, there was an anxious wish on thepart of government to counteract, by every means in their power, thestrict or puritanical spirit which had been the chief characteristic ofthe republican government, and to revive those feudal institutions whichunited the vassal to the liege lord, and both to the crown. Frequentmusters and assemblies of the people, both for military exercise and forsports and pastimes, were appointed by authority. The interference, inthe latter case, was impolitic, to say the least; for, as usual on suchoccasions, the consciences which were at first only scrupulous, becameconfirmed in their opinions, instead of giving way to the terrors ofauthority; and the youth of both sexes, to whom the pipe and tabor inEngland, or the bagpipe in Scotland, would have been in themselves anirresistible temptation, were enabled to set them at defiance, from theproud consciousness that they were, at the same time, resisting an act ofcouncil. To compel men to dance and be merry by authority, has rarelysucceeded even on board of slave-ships, where it was formerly sometimesattempted by way of inducing the wretched captives to agitate their limbsand restore the circulation, during the few minutes they were permittedto enjoy the fresh air upon deck. The rigour of the strict Calvinistsincreased, in proportion to the wishes of the government that it shouldbe relaxed. A judaical observance of the Sabbath--a superciliouscondemnation of all manly pastimes and harmless recreations, as well asof the profane custom of promiscuous dancing, that is, of men and womendancing together in the same party (for I believe they admitted thatthe exercise might be inoffensive if practised by the partiesseparately)--distinguishing those who professed a more than ordinaryshare of sanctity, they discouraged, as far as lay in their power, eventhe ancient wappen-schaws, as they were termed, when the feudal array ofthe county was called out, and each crown-vassal was required to appearwith such muster of men and armour as he was bound to make by his fief,and that under high statutory penalties. The Covenanters were the morejealous of those assemblies, as the lord lieutenants and sheriffs underwhom they were held had instructions from the government to spare nopains which might render them agreeable to the young men who were thussummoned together, upon whom the military exercise of the morning, andthe sports which usually closed the evening, might naturally be supposedto have a seductive effect.

  The preachers and proselytes of the more rigid presbyterians laboured,therefore, by caution, remonstrance, and authority, to diminish theattendance upon these summonses, conscious that in doing so, theylessened not only the apparent, but the actual strength of thegovernment, by impeding the extension of that esprit de corps which soonunites young men who are in the habit of meeting together for manlysport, or military exercise. They, therefore, exerted themselvesearnestly to prevent attendance on these occasions by those who couldfind any possible excuse for absence, and were especially severe uponsuch of their hearers as mere curiosity led to be spectators, or love ofexercise to be partakers, of the array and the sports which took place.Such of the gentry as acceded to these doctrines were not always,however, in a situation to be ruled by them. The commands of the law wereimperative; and the privy council, who administered the executive powerin Scotland, were severe in enforcing the statutory penalties against thecrown-vassals who did not appear at the periodical wappen-schaw. Thelandholders were compelled, therefore, to send their sons, tenants, andvassals to the rendezvous, to the number of horses, men, and spears, atwhich they were rated; and it frequently happened, that notwithstandingthe strict charge of their elders, to return as soon as the formalinspection was over, the young men-at-arms were unable to resist thetemptation of sharing in the sports which succeeded the muster, or toavoid listening to the prayers read in the churches on these occasions,and thus, in the opinion of their repining parents, meddling with theaccursed thing which is an abomination in the sight of the Lord.

  The sheriff of the county of Lanark was holding the wappen-schaw of awild district, called the Upper Ward of Clydesdale, on a haugh or levelplain, near to a royal borough, the name of which is no way essential tomy story, on the morning of the 5th of May, 1679, when our narrativecommences. When the musters had been made, and duly reported, the youngmen, as was usual, were to mix in various sports, of which the chief wasto shoot at the popinjay, an ancient game formerly practised witharchery, but at this period with fire-arms.

  [Note: Festival of the Popinjay. The Festival of the Popinjay is still, I believe, practised at Maybole, in Ayrshire. The following passage in the history of the Somerville family, suggested the scenes in the text. The author of that curious manuscript thus celebrates his father's demeanour at such an assembly.

  "Having now passed his infancie, in the tenth year of his age, he was by his grandfather putt to the grammar school, ther being then att the toune of Delserf a very able master that taught the grammar, and fitted boyes for the colledge. Dureing his educating in this place, they had then a custome every year to solemnize the first Sunday of May with danceing about a May-pole, fyreing of pieces, and all manner of ravelling then in use. Ther being at that tyme feu or noe merchants in this pettie village, to furnish necessaries for the schollars sports, this youth resolves to provide himself elsewhere, so that he may appear with the bravest. In order to this, by break of day he ryses and goes to Hamiltoune, and there bestowes all the money that for a long tyme before he had gotten from his freinds, or had otherwayes purchased, upon ribbones of diverse coloures, a new hatt and gloves. But in nothing he bestowed his money more liberallie than upon gunpowder, a great quantitie whereof he buyes for his owne use, and to supplie the wantes of his comerades; thus furnished with these commodities, but ane empty purse, he returnes to Delserf by seven a clock, (haveing travelled that Sabbath morning above eight myles,) puttes on his cloathes and new hatt, flying with ribbones of all culloures; and in this equipage, with his little phizie (fusee) upon his shoulder, he marches to the church yaird, where the May-pole was sett up, and the solemnitie of that day was to be kept. There first at the foot-ball he equalled any one that played; but in handleing his piece, in chargeing and dischargeing, he was so ready, and shott so near the marke, that he farre surpassed all his fellow schollars, and became a teacher of that art to them before the thretteenth year of his oune age. And really, I have often admired his dexterity in this, both at the exercizeing of his soulders, and when for recreatione. I have gone to the gunning with him when I was but a stripeling myself; and albeit that passetyme was the exercize I delighted most in, yet could I never attaine to any perfectione comparable to him. This dayes sport being over, he had the applause of all the spectatores, the kyndnesse of his fellow-condisciples, and the favour of the whole inhabitants of that little village."]

  This was the figure of a bird, decked with party-coloured feathers, so asto resemble a popinjay or parrot. It was suspended to a pole, and servedfor a mark, at which the competitors discharged their fusees andcarabines in rotation, at the distance of sixty or seventy paces. Hewhose ball brought down the mark, held the proud title of Captain of thePopinjay for the remainder of the day, and was usually escorted intriumph to the most reputable change-house in the neighbourhood, wherethe evening was closed with conviviality, conducted under his auspices,and, if he was able to sustain it, at his expense.

  It will, of course, be supposed, that the ladies of the country assembledto witness this gallant strife, those excepted who held the strictertenets of puritanism, and would therefore have deemed it criminal toafford countenance to the profane gambols of the malignants. Landaus,barouches, or tilburies, there were none in those simple days. The lordlieutenant of the county (a personage of ducal rank) alone pretended tothe magnificence of a wheel-carriage, a thing covered with
tarnishedgilding and sculpture, in shape like the vulgar picture of Noah's ark,dragged by eight long-tailed Flanders mares, bearing eight insides andsix outsides. The insides were their graces in person, two maids ofhonour, two children, a chaplain stuffed into a sort of lateral recess,formed by a projection at the door of the vehicle, and called, from itsappearance, the boot, and an equerry to his Grace ensconced in thecorresponding convenience on the opposite side. A coachman and threepostilions, who wore short swords, and tie-wigs with three tails, hadblunderbusses slung behind them, and pistols at their saddle-bow,conducted the equipage. On the foot-board, behind this movingmansion-house, stood, or rather hung, in triple file, six lacqueys inrich liveries, armed up to the teeth. The rest of the gentry, men andwomen, old and young, were on horseback followed by their servants; butthe company, for the reasons already assigned, was rather select thannumerous.

  Near to the enormous leathern vehicle which we have attempted todescribe, vindicating her title to precedence over the untitled gentry ofthe country, might be seen the sober palfrey of Lady Margaret Bellenden,bearing the erect and primitive form of Lady Margaret herself, decked inthose widow's weeds which the good lady had never laid aside, since theexecution of her husband for his adherence to Montrose.

  Her grand-daughter, and only earthly care, the fair-haired Edith, who wasgenerally allowed to be the prettiest lass in the Upper Ward, appearedbeside her aged relative like Spring placed close to Winter. Her blackSpanish jennet, which she managed with much grace, her gay riding-dress,and laced side-saddle, had been anxiously prepared to set her forth tothe best advantage. But the clustering profusion of ringlets, which,escaping from under her cap, were only confined by a green ribbon fromwantoning over her shoulders; her cast of features, soft and feminine,yet not without a certain expression of playful archness, which redeemedtheir sweetness from the charge of insipidity, sometimes brought againstblondes and blue-eyed beauties,--these attracted more admiration from thewestern youth than either the splendour of her equipments or the figureof her palfrey.

  The attendance of these distinguished ladies was rather inferior to theirbirth and fashion in those times, as it consisted only of two servants onhorseback. The truth was, that the good old lady had been obliged to makeall her domestic servants turn out to complete the quota which her baronyought to furnish for the muster, and in which she would not for theuniverse have been found deficient. The old steward, who, in steel capand jack-boots, led forth her array, had, as he said, sweated blood andwater in his efforts to overcome the scruples and evasions of themoorland farmers, who ought to have furnished men, horse, and harness, onthese occasions. At last, their dispute came near to an open declarationof hostilities, the incensed episcopalian bestowing on the recusants thewhole thunders of the commination, and receiving from them, in return,the denunciations of a Calvinistic excommunication. What was to be done?To punish the refractory tenants would have been easy enough. The privycouncil would readily have imposed fines, and sent a troop of horse tocollect them. But this would have been calling the huntsman and houndsinto the garden to kill the hare.

  "For," said Harrison to himself, "the carles have little eneugh gear atony rate, and if I call in the red-coats and take away what little theyhave, how is my worshipful lady to get her rents paid at Candlemas, whichis but a difficult matter to bring round even in the best of times?"

  So he armed the fowler, and falconer, the footman, and the ploughman, atthe home farm, with an old drunken cavaliering butler, who had servedwith the late Sir Richard under Montrose, and stunned the family nightlywith his exploits at Kilsythe and Tippermoor, and who was the only man inthe party that had the smallest zeal for the work in hand. In thismanner, and by recruiting one or two latitudinarian poachers andblack-fishers, Mr Harrison completed the quota of men which fell to theshare of Lady Margaret Bellenden, as life-rentrix of the barony ofTillietudlem and others. But when the steward, on the morning of theeventful day, had mustered his _troupe dore_ before the iron gate of thetower, the mother of Cuddie Headrigg the ploughman appeared, loaded withthe jackboots, buff coat, and other accoutrements which had been issuedforth for the service of the day, and laid them before the steward;demurely assuring him, that "whether it were the colic, or a qualm ofconscience, she couldna tak upon her to decide, but sure it was, Cuddiehad been in sair straits a' night, and she couldna say he was mucklebetter this morning. The finger of Heaven," she said, "was in it, and herbairn should gang on nae sic errands." Pains, penalties, and threats ofdismission, were denounced in vain; the mother was obstinate, and Cuddie,who underwent a domiciliary visitation for the purpose of verifying hisstate of body, could, or would, answer only by deep groans. Mause, whohad been an ancient domestic in the family, was a sort of favourite withLady Margaret, and presumed accordingly. Lady Margaret had herself setforth, and her authority could not be appealed to. In this dilemma, thegood genius of the old butler suggested an expedient.

  "He had seen mony a braw callant, far less than Guse Gibbie, fight brawlyunder Montrose. What for no tak Guse Gibbie?"

  This was a half-witted lad, of very small stature, who had a kind ofcharge of the poultry under the old henwife; for in a Scottish family ofthat day there was a wonderful substitution of labour. This urchin beingsent for from the stubble-field, was hastily muffled in the buff coat,and girded rather to than with the sword of a full-grown man, his littlelegs plunged into jack-boots, and a steel cap put upon his head, whichseemed, from its size, as if it had been intended to extinguish him. Thusaccoutred, he was hoisted, at his own earnest request, upon the quietesthorse of the party; and, prompted and supported by old Gudyill thebutler, as his front file, he passed muster tolerably enough; the sheriffnot caring to examine too closely the recruits of so well-affected aperson as Lady Margaret Bellenden.

  To the above cause it was owing that the personal retinue of LadyMargaret, on this eventful day, amounted only to two lacqueys, with whichdiminished train she would, on any other occasion, have been much ashamedto appear in public. But, for the cause of royalty, she was ready at anytime to have made the most unreserved personal sacrifices. She had losther husband and two promising sons in the civil wars of that unhappyperiod; but she had received her reward, for, on his route through thewest of Scotland to meet Cromwell in the unfortunate field of Worcester,Charles the Second had actually breakfasted at the Tower of Tillietudlem;an incident which formed, from that moment, an important era in the lifeof Lady Margaret, who seldom afterwards partook of that meal, either athome or abroad, without detailing the whole circumstances of the royalvisit, not forgetting the salutation which his majesty conferred on eachside of her face, though she sometimes omitted to notice that he bestowedthe same favour on two buxom serving-wenches who appeared at her back,elevated for the day into the capacity of waiting gentlewomen.

  Tillietudlem Castle--128]

  These instances of royal favour were decisive; and if Lady Margaret hadnot been a confirmed royalist already, from sense of high birth,influence of education, and hatred to the opposite party, through whomshe had suffered such domestic calamity, the having given a breakfast tomajesty, and received the royal salute in return, were honours enough ofthemselves to unite her exclusively to the fortunes of the Stewarts.These were now, in all appearance, triumphant; but Lady Margaret's zealhad adhered to them through the worst of times, and was ready to sustainthe same severities of fortune should their scale once more kick thebeam. At present she enjoyed, in full extent, the military display of theforce which stood ready to support the crown, and stifled, as well as shecould, the mortification she felt at the unworthy desertion of her ownretainers.

  Many civilities passed between her ladyship and the representatives ofsundry ancient loyal families who were upon the ground, by whom she washeld in high reverence; and not a young man of rank passed by them in thecourse of the muster, but he carried his body more erect in the saddle,and threw his horse upon its haunches, to display his own horsemanshipand the perfect bitting of his steed to the best advanta
ge in the eyes ofMiss Edith Bellenden. But the young cavaliers, distinguished by highdescent and undoubted loyalty, attracted no more attention from Ediththan the laws of courtesy peremptorily demanded; and she turned anindifferent ear to the compliments with which she was addressed, most ofwhich were little the worse for the wear, though borrowed for the noncefrom the laborious and long-winded romances of Calprenede and Scuderi,the mirrors in which the youth of that age delighted to dress themselves,ere Folly had thrown her ballast overboard, and cut down her vessels ofthe first-rate, such as the romances of Cyrus, Cleopatra, and others,into small craft, drawing as little water, or, to speak more plainly,consuming as little time as the little cockboat in which the gentlereader has deigned to embark. It was, however, the decree of fate thatMiss Bellenden should not continue to evince the same equanimity till theconclusion of the day.