The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 2 Read online

  CHAPTER SEVENTH.

  So free from danger, free from fear They crossed the court--right glad they were. Christabel.

  Pursuing the path which Madge had chosen, Jeanie Deans observed, to herno small delight, that marks of more cultivation appeared, and thethatched roofs of houses, with their blue smoke arising in littlecolumns, were seen embosomed in a tuft of trees at some distance. Thetrack led in that direction, and Jeanie, therefore, resolved, while Madgecontinued to pursue it, that she would ask her no questions; having hadthe penetration to observe, that by doing so she ran the risk ofirritating her guide, or awakening suspicions, to the impressions ofwhich, persons in Madge's unsettled state of mind are particularlyliable.

  Madge, therefore, uninterrupted, went on with the wild disjointed chatwhich her rambling imagination suggested; a mood in which she was muchmore communicative respecting her own history, and that of others,than when there was any attempt made, by direct queries, orcross-examinations, to extract information on these subjects.

  "It's a queer thing," she said, "but whiles I can speak about the bitbairn and the rest of it, just as if it had been another body's, and nomy ain; and whiles I am like to break my heart about it--Had you ever abairn, Jeanie?"

  Jeanie replied in the negative.

  "Ay; but your sister had, though--and I ken what came o't too."

  "In the name of heavenly mercy," said Jeanie, forgetting the line ofconduct which she had hitherto adopted, "tell me but what became of thatunfortunate babe, and"

  Madge stopped, looked at her gravely and fixedly, and then broke into agreat fit of laughing--"Aha, lass,--catch me if you can--I think it'seasy to gar you trow ony thing.--How suld I ken onything o' your sister'swean? Lasses suld hae naething to do wi' weans till they are married--andthen a' the gossips and cummers come in and feast as if it were theblithest day in the warld.--They say maidens' bairns are weel guided. Iwot that wasna true of your tittie's and mine; but these are sad tales totell.--I maun just sing a bit to keep up my heart--It's a sang thatGentle George made on me lang syne, when I went with him to Lockingtonwake, to see him act upon a stage, in fine clothes, with the player folk.He might hae dune waur than married me that night as he promised--betterwed over the mixen* as over the moor, as they say in Yorkshire--

  * A homely proverb, signifying better wed a neighbour than one fetchedfrom a distance.--Mixen signifies dunghill.

  he may gang farther and fare waur--but that's a' ane to the sang,

  'I'm Madge of the country, I'm Madge of the town, And I'm Madge of the lad I am blithest to own-- The Lady of Beeve in diamonds may shine, But has not a heart half so lightsome as mine.

  'I am Queen of the Wake, and I'm Lady of May, And I lead the blithe ring round the May-pole to-day; The wildfire that flashes so fair and so free, Was never so bright, or so bonny, as me.'

  "I like that the best o' a' my sangs," continued the maniac, "because hemade it. I am often singing it, and that's maybe the reason folk ca' meMadge Wildfire. I aye answer to the name, though it's no my ain, forwhat's the use of making a fash?"

  "But ye shouldna sing upon the Sabbath at least," said Jeanie, who, amidall her distress and anxiety, could not help being scandalised at thedeportment of her companion, especially as they now approached near tothe little village.

  "Ay! is this Sunday?" said Madge. "My mother leads sic a life, wi'turning night into day, that ane loses a' count o' the days o' the week,and disna ken Sunday frae Saturday. Besides, it's a' your whiggery--inEngland, folk sings when they like--And then, ye ken, you are Christianaand I am Mercy--and ye ken, as they went on their way, they sang."--Andshe immediately raised one of John Bunyan's ditties:--

  "He that is down need fear no fall, He that is low no pride, He that is humble ever shall Have God to be his guide.

  "Fulness to such a burthen is That go on pilgrimage; Here little, and hereafter bliss, Is best from age to age."

  "And do ye ken, Jeanie, I think there's much truth in that book, thePilgrim's Progress. The boy that sings that song was feeding his father'ssheep in the Valley of Humiliation, and Mr. Great-heart says, that helived a merrier life, and had more of the herb called heart's-ease in hisbosom, than they that wear silk and velvet like me, and are as bonny as Iam."

  Jeanie Deans had never read the fanciful and delightful parable to whichMadge alluded. Bunyan was, indeed, a rigid Calvinist, but then he wasalso a member of a Baptist congregation, so that his works had no placeon David Deans's shelf of divinity. Madge, however, at some time of herlife, had been well acquainted, as it appeared, with the most popular ofhis performances, which, indeed, rarely fails to make a deep impressionupon children, and people of the lower rank.

  "I am sure," she continued, "I may weel say I am come out of the city ofDestruction, for my mother is Mrs. Bat's-eyes, that dwells at Deadman'scorner; and Frank Levitt, and Tyburn Tam, they may be likened to Mistrustand Guilt, that came galloping up, and struck the poor pilgrim to theground with a great club, and stole a bag of silver, which was most ofhis spending money, and so have they done to many, and will do to more.But now we will gang to the Interpreter's house, for I ken a man thatwill play the Interpreter right weel; for he has eyes lifted up toHeaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of truth written on hislips, and he stands as if he pleaded wi' men--Oh, if I had minded what hehad said to me, I had never been the cutaway creature that I am!--But itis all over now.--But we'll knock at the gate, and then the keeper willadmit Christiana, but Mercy will be left out--and then I'll stand at thedoor, trembling and crying, and then Christiana--that's you, Jeanie--willintercede for me; and then Mercy--that's me, ye ken, will faint; and thenthe Interpreter--yes, the Interpreter, that's Mr. Staunton himself, willcome out and take me--that's poor, lost, demented me--by the hand, andgive me a pomegranate, and a piece of honeycomb, and a small bottle ofspirits, to stay my fainting--and then the good times will come backagain, and we'll be the happiest folk you ever saw."

  In the midst of the confused assemblage of ideas indicated in thisspeech, Jeanie thought she saw a serious purpose on the part of Madge, toendeavour to obtain the pardon and countenance of some one whom she hadoffended; an attempt the most likely of all others to bring them oncemore into contact with law and legal protection. She, therefore, resolvedto be guided by her while she was in so hopeful a disposition, and actfor her own safety according to circumstances.

  They were now close by the village, one of those beautiful scenes whichare so often found in merry England, where the cottages, instead of beingbuilt in two direct lines on each side of a dusty high-road, stand indetached groups, interspersed not only with large oaks and elms, but withfruit-trees, so many of which were at this time in flourish, that thegrove seemed enamelled with their crimson and white blossoms. In thecentre of the hamlet stood the parish church, and its little Gothictower, from which at present was heard the Sunday chime of bells.

  "We will wait here until the folk are a' in the church--they ca' the kirka church in England, Jeanie, be sure you mind that--for if I was gaunforward amang them, a' the gaitts o' boys and lasses wad be crying atMadge Wildfire's tail, the little hell-rakers! and the beadle would be ashard upon us as if it was our fault. I like their skirting as ill as hedoes, I can tell him; I'm sure I often wish there was a het peat dountheir throats when they set them up that gate."

  Conscious of the disorderly appearance of her own dress after theadventure of the preceding night, and of the grotesque habit anddemeanour of her guide, and sensible how important it was to secure anattentive and impatient audience to her strange story from some one whomight have the means to protect her, Jeanie readily acquiesced in Madge'sproposal to rest under the trees, by which they were still somewhatscreen
ed, until the commencement of service should give them anopportunity of entering the hamlet without attracting a crowd aroundthem. She made the less opposition, that Madge had intimated that thiswas not the village where her mother was in custody, and that the twosquires of the pad were absent in a different direction.

  She sate herself down, therefore, at the foot of an oak, and by theassistance of a placid fountain, which had been dammed up for the use ofthe villagers, and which served her as a natural mirror, she began--nouncommon thing with a Scottish maiden of her rank--to arrange hertoilette in the open air, and bring her dress, soiled and disordered asit was, into such order as the place and circumstances admitted.

  She soon perceived reason, however, to regret that she had set about thistask, however decent and necessary, in the present time and society.Madge Wildfire, who, among other indications of insanity, had a mostoverweening opinion of those charms, to which, in fact, she had owed hermisery, and whose mind, like a raft upon a lake, was agitated and drivenabout at random by each fresh impulse, no sooner beheld Jeanie begin toarrange her hair, place her bonnet in order, rub the dust from her shoesand clothes, adjust her neck-handkerchief and mittans, and so forth, thanwith imitative zeal she began to bedizen and trick herself out withshreds and remnants of beggarly finery, which she took out of a littlebundle, and which, when disposed around her person, made her appearanceten times more fantastic and apish than it had been before.

  Jeanie groaned in spirit, but dared not interfere in a matter sodelicate. Across the man's cap or riding hat which she wore, Madge placeda broken and soiled white feather, intersected with one which had beenshed from the train of a peacock. To her dress, which was a kind ofriding-habit, she stitched, pinned, and otherwise secured, a largefurbelow of artificial flowers, all crushed, wrinkled and dirty, whichhad at first bedecked a lady of quality, then descended to her Abigail,and dazzled the inmates of the servants' hall. A tawdry scarf of yellowsilk, trimmed with tinsel and spangles, which had seen as hard service,and boasted as honourable a transmission, was next flung over oneshoulder, and fell across her person in the manner of a shoulder-belt, orbaldrick. Madge then stripped off the coarse ordinary shoes, which shewore, and replaced them by a pair of dirty satin ones, spangled andembroidered to match the scarf, and furnished with very high heels. Shehad cut a willow switch in her morning's walk, almost as long as a boy'sfishing-rod. This she set herself seriously to peel, and when it wastransformed into such a wand as the Treasurer or High Steward bears onpublic occasions, she told Jeanie that she thought they now lookeddecent, as young women should do upon the Sunday morning, and that, asthe bells had done ringing, she was willing to conduct her to theInterpreter's house.

  Jeanie sighed heavily, to think it should be her lot on the Lord's day,and during kirk time too, to parade the street of an inhabited villagewith so very grotesque a comrade; but necessity had no law, since,without a positive quarrel with the madwoman, which, in thecircumstances, would have been very unadvisable, she could see no meansof shaking herself free of her society.

  As for poor Madge, she was completely elated with personal vanity, andthe most perfect satisfaction concerning her own dazzling dress, andsuperior appearance. They entered the hamlet without being observed,except by one old woman, who, being nearly "high-gravel blind," was onlyconscious that something very fine and glittering was passing by, anddropped as deep a reverence to Madge as she would have done to acountess. This filled up the measure of Madge's self-approbation. Sheminced, she ambled, she smiled, she simpered, and waved Jeanie Deansforward with the condescension of a noble _chaperone,_ who has undertakenthe charge of a country miss on her first journey to the capital.

  Jeanie followed in patience, and with her eyes fixed on the ground, thatshe might save herself the mortification of seeing her companion'sabsurdities; but she started when, ascending two or three steps, shefound herself in the churchyard, and saw that Madge was making straightfor the door of the church. As Jeanie had no mind to enter thecongregation in such company, she walked aside from the pathway, and saidin a decided tone, "Madge, I will wait here till the church comesout--you may go in by yourself if you have a mind."

  As she spoke these words, she was about to seat herself upon one of thegrave-stones.

  Madge was a little before Jeanie when she turned aside; but, suddenlychanging her course, she followed her with long strides, and, with everyfeature inflamed with passion, overtook and seized her by the arm. "Do yethink, ye ungratefu' wretch, that I am gaun to let you sit doun upon myfather's grave? The deil settle ye doun, if ye dinna rise and come intothe Interpreter's house, that's the house of God, wi' me, but I'll riveevery dud aft your back!"

  She adapted the action to the phrase; for with one clutch she strippedJeanie of her straw bonnet and a handful of her hair to boot, and threwit up into an old yew-tree, where it stuck fast. Jeanie's first impulsewas to scream, but conceiving she might receive deadly harm before shecould obtain the assistance of anyone, notwithstanding the vicinity ofthe church, she thought it wiser to follow the madwoman into thecongregation, where she might find some means of escape from her, or atleast be secured against her violence. But when she meekly intimated herconsent to follow Madge, her guide's uncertain brain had caught anothertrain of ideas. She held Jeanie fast with one hand, and with the otherpointed to the inscription on the grave-stone, and commanded her to readit. Jeanie obeyed, and read these words:--

  "This Monument was erected to the Memory of Donald Murdockson of the King's xxvi., or Cameronian Regiment, a sincere Christian, a brave Soldier, and a faithful Servant, by his grateful and sorrowing master, Robert Staunton."

  "It's very weel read, Jeanie; it's just the very words," said Madge,whose ire had now faded into deep melancholy, and with a step which, toJeanie's great joy, was uncommonly quiet and mournful, she led hercompanion towards the door of the church.

  Madge and Jennie--103]

  It was one of those old-fashioned Gothic parish churches which arefrequent in England, the most cleanly, decent, and reverential places ofworship that are, perhaps, anywhere to be found in the Christian world.Yet, notwithstanding the decent solemnity of its exterior, Jeanie was toofaithful to the directory of the Presbyterian kirk to have entered aprelatic place of worship, and would, upon any other occasion, havethought that she beheld in the porch the venerable figure of her fatherwaving her back from the entrance, and pronouncing in a solemn tone,"Cease, my child, to hear the instruction which causeth to err from thewords of knowledge." But in her present agitating and alarming situation,she looked for safety to this forbidden place of assembly, as the huntedanimal will sometimes seek shelter from imminent danger in the humanhabitation, or in other places of refuge most alien to its nature andhabits. Not even the sound of the organ, and of one or two flutes whichaccompanied the psalmody, prevented her from following her guide into thechancel of the church.

  No sooner had Madge put her foot upon the pavement, and become sensiblethat she was the object of attention to the spectators, than she resumedall the fantastic extravagance of deportment which some transient touchof melancholy had banished for an instant. She swam rather than walked upthe centre aisle, dragging Jeanie after her, whom she held fast by thehand. She would, indeed, have fain slipped aside into the pew nearest tothe door, and left Madge to ascend in her own manner and alone to thehigh places of the synagogue; but this was impossible, without a degreeof violent resistance, which seemed to her inconsistent with the time andplace, and she was accordingly led in captivity up the whole length ofthe church by her grotesque conductress, who, with half-shut eyes, a primsmile upon her lips, and a mincing motion with her hands, whichcorresponded with the delicate and affected pace at which she was pleasedto move, seemed to take the general stare of the congregation, which suchan exhibition necessarily excited, as a high compliment, and which shereturned by nods and half-courtesies to individuals amongst the audience,whom she seemed to distinguish as acquaintances
. Her absurdity wasenhanced in the eyes of the spectators by the strange contrast which sheformed to her companion, who, with dishevelled hair, downcast eyes, and aface glowing with shame, was dragged, as it were in triumph after her.

  Madge's airs were at length fortunately cut short by her encountering inher progress the looks of the clergyman, who fixed upon her a glance, atonce steady, compassionate, and admonitory. She hastily opened an emptypew which happened to be near her, and entered, dragging in Jeanie afterher. Kicking Jeanie on the shins, by way of hint that she should followher example, she sunk her head upon her hand for the space of a minute.Jeanie, to whom this posture of mental devotion was entirely new, did notattempt to do the like, but looked round her with a bewildered stare,which her neighbours, judging from the company in which they saw her,very naturally ascribed to insanity. Every person in their immediatevicinity drew back from this extraordinary couple as far as the limits oftheir pew permitted; but one old man could not get beyond Madge's reach,ere, she had snatched the prayer-book from his hand, and ascertained thelesson of the day. She then turned up the ritual, and with the mostoverstrained enthusiasm of gesture and manner, showed Jeanie the passagesas they were read in the service, making, at the same time, her ownresponses so loud as to be heard above those of every other person.

  Notwithstanding the shame and vexation which Jeanie felt in being thusexposed in a place of worship, she could not and durst not omit rallyingher spirits so as to look around her, and consider to whom she ought toappeal for protection so soon as the service should be concluded. Herfirst ideas naturally fixed upon the clergyman, and she was confirmed inthe resolution by observing that he was an aged gentleman, of a dignifiedappearance and deportment, who read the service with an undisturbed anddecent gravity, which brought back to becoming attention those youngermembers of the congregation who had been disturbed by the extravagantbehaviour of Madge Wildfire. To the clergyman, therefore, Jeanie resolvedto make her appeal when the service was over.

  It is true she felt disposed to be shocked at his surplice, of which shehad heard so much, but which she had never seen upon the person of apreacher of the word. Then she was confused by the change of postureadopted in different parts of the ritual, the more so as Madge Wildfire,to whom they seemed familiar, took the opportunity to exercise authorityover her, pulling her up and pushing her down with a bustling assiduity,which Jeanie felt must make them both the objects of painful attention.But, notwithstanding these prejudices, it was her prudent resolution, inthis dilemma, to imitate as nearly as she could what was done around her.The prophet, she thought, permitted Naaman the Syrian to bow even in thehouse of Rimmon. Surely if I, in this streight, worship the God of myfathers in mine own language, although the manner thereof be strange tome, the Lord will pardon me in this thing.

  In this resolution she became so much confirmed, that, withdrawingherself from Madge as far as the pew permitted, she endeavoured to evinceby serious and composed attention to what was passing, that her mind wascomposed to devotion. Her tormentor would not long have permitted her toremain quiet, but fatigue overpowered her, and she fell fast asleep inthe other corner of the pew.

  Jeanie, though her mind in her own despite sometimes reverted to hersituation, compelled herself to give attention to a sensible, energetic,and well-composed discourse, upon the practical doctrines ofChristianity, which she could not help approving, although it was everyword written down and read by the preacher, and although it was deliveredin a tone and gesture very different from those of Boanerges Stormheaven,who was her father's favourite preacher. The serious and placid attentionwith which Jeanie listened, did not escape the clergyman. MadgeWildfire's entrance had rendered him apprehensive of some disturbance, toprovide against which, as far as possible, he often turned his eyes tothe part of the church where Jeanie and she were placed, and became soonaware that, although the loss of her head-gear, and the awkwardness ofher situation, had given an uncommon and anxious air to the features ofthe former, yet she was in a state of mind very different from that ofher companion. When he dismissed the congregation, he observed her lookaround with a wild and terrified look, as if uncertain what course sheought to adopt, and noticed that she approached one or two of the mostdecent of the congregation, as if to address them, and then shrunk backtimidly, on observing that they seemed to shun and to avoid her. Theclergyman was satisfied there must be something extraordinary in allthis, and as a benevolent man, as well as a good Christian pastor, heresolved to inquire into the matter more minutely.