The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 2 Page 8

  CHAPTER EIGHTH.

  There governed in that year A stern, stout churl--an angry overseer. Crabbe.

  While Mr. Staunton, for such was this worthy clergyman's name, was layingaside his gown in the vestry, Jeanie was in the act of coming to an openrupture with Madge.

  "We must return to Mummer's barn directly," said Madge; "we'll be owerlate, and my mother will be angry."

  "I am not going back with you, Madge," said Jeanie, taking out a guinea,and offering it to her; "I am much obliged to you, but I maun gang my ainroad."

  "And me coming a' this way out o' my gate to pleasure you, ye ungratefu'cutty," answered Madge; "and me to be brained by my mother when I ganghame, and a' for your sake!--But I will gar ye as good"

  "For God's sake," said Jeanie to a man who stood beside them, "keep heroff!--she is mad."

  "Ey, ey," answered the boor; "I hae some guess of that, and I trow thoube'st a bird of the same feather.--Howsomever, Madge, I redd thee keephand off her, or I'se lend thee a whisterpoop."

  Several of the lower class of the parishioners now gathered round thestrangers, and the cry arose among the boys that "there was a-going to bea fite between mad Madge Murdockson and another Bess of Bedlam." Butwhile the fry assembled with the humane hope of seeing as much of the funas possible, the laced cocked-hat of the beadle was discerned among themultitude, and all made way for that person of awful authority. His firstaddress was to Madge.

  "What's brought thee back again, thou silly donnot, to plague thisparish? Hast thou brought ony more bastards wi' thee to lay to honestmen's doors? or does thou think to burden us with this goose, that's ashare-brained as thysell, as if rates were no up enow? Away wi' thee tothy thief of a mother; she's fast in the stocks at Barkston town-end--Away wi' ye out o' the parish, or I'se be at ye with the ratan."

  Madge stood sulky for a minute; but she had been too often taughtsubmission to the beadle's authority by ungentle means to feel courageenough to dispute it.

  "And my mother--my puir auld mother, is in the stocks at Barkston!--Thisis a' your wyte, Miss Jeanie Deans; but I'll be upsides wi' you, as sureas my name's Madge Wildfire--I mean Murdockson--God help me, I forget myvery name in this confused waste!"

  So saying, she turned upon her heel, and went off, followed by all themischievous imps of the village, some crying, "Madge, canst thou tell thyname yet?" some pulling the skirts of her dress, and all, to the best oftheir strength and ingenuity, exercising some new device or other toexasperate her into frenzy.

  Jeanie saw her departure with infinite delight, though she wished that,in some way or other, she could have requited the service Madge hadconferred upon her.

  In the meantime, she applied to the beadle to know whether "there was anyhouse in the village where she could be civilly entertained for hermoney, and whether she could be permitted to speak to the clergyman?"

  "Ay, ay, we'se ha' reverend care on thee; and I think," answered the manof constituted authority, "that, unless thou answer the Rector all thebetter, we'se spare thy money, and gie thee lodging at the parish charge,young woman."

  "Where am I to go then?" said Jeanie, in some alarm.

  "Why, I am to take thee to his Reverence, in the first place, to gie anaccount o' thysell, and to see thou comena to be a burden upon theparish."

  "I do not wish to burden anyone," replied Jeanie; "I have enough for myown wants, and only wish to get on my journey safely."

  "Why, that's another matter," replied the beadle, "and if it be true--andI think thou dost not look so polrumptious as thy playfellow yonder--Thouwouldst be a mettle lass enow, an thou wert snog and snod a bid better.Come thou away, then--the Rector is a good man."

  "Is that the minister," said Jeanie, "who preached"

  "The minister? Lord help thee! What kind o' Presbyterian art thou?--Why,'tis the Rector--the Rector's sell, woman, and there isna the like o' himin the county, nor the four next to it. Come away--away with thee--wemaunna bide here."

  "I am sure I am very willing to go to see the minister," said Jeanie;"for though he read his discourse, and wore that surplice, as they callit here, I canna but think he must be a very worthy God-fearing man, topreach the root of the matter in the way he did."

  The disappointed rabble, finding that there was like to be no farthersport, had by this time dispersed, and Jeanie, with her usual patience,followed her consequential and surly, but not brutal, conductor towardsthe rectory.

  This clerical mansion was large and commodious, for the living was anexcellent one, and the advowson belonged to a very wealthy family in theneighbourhood, who had usually bred up a son or nephew to the church forthe sake of inducting him, as opportunity offered, into this verycomfortable provision. In this manner the rectory of Willingham hadalways been considered as a direct and immediate appanage of WillinghamHall; and as the rich baronets to whom the latter belonged had usually ason, or brother, or nephew, settled in the living, the utmost care hadbeen taken to render their habitation not merely respectable andcommodious, but even dignified and imposing.

  It was situated about four hundred yards from the village, and on arising ground which sloped gently upward, covered with small enclosures,or closes, laid out irregularly, so that the old oaks and elms, whichwere planted in hedge-rows, fell into perspective, and were blendedtogether in beautiful irregularity. When they approached nearer to thehouse, a handsome gateway admitted them into a lawn, of narrow dimensionsindeed, but which was interspersed with large sweet chestnut trees andbeeches, and kept in handsome order. The front of the house wasirregular. Part of it seemed very old, and had, in fact, been theresidence of the incumbent in Romish times. Successive occupants had madeconsiderable additions and improvements, each in the taste of his ownage, and without much regard to symmetry. But these incongruities ofarchitecture were so graduated and happily mingled, that the eye, farfrom being displeased with the combinations of various styles, sawnothing but what was interesting in the varied and intricate pile whichthey displayed. Fruit-trees displayed on the southern wall, outerstaircases, various places of entrance, a combination of roofs andchimneys of different ages, united to render the front, not indeedbeautiful or grand, but intricate, perplexed, or, to use Mr. Price'sappropriate phrase, picturesque. The most considerable addition was thatof the present Rector, who, "being a bookish man," as the beadle was atthe pains to inform Jeanie, to augment, perhaps, her reverence for theperson before whom she was to appear, had built a handsome library andparlour, and no less than two additional bedrooms.

  "Mony men would hae scrupled such expense," continued the parochialofficer, "seeing as the living mun go as it pleases Sir Edmund to willit; but his Reverence has a canny bit land of his own, and need not lookon two sides of a penny."

  Jeanie could not help comparing the irregular yet extensive andcommodious pile of building before her to the "Manses" in her owncountry, where a set of penurious heritors, professing all the while thedevotion of their lives and fortunes to the Presbyterian establishment,strain their inventions to discover what may be nipped, and clipped, andpared from a building which forms but a poor accommodation even for thepresent incumbent, and, despite the superior advantage of stone-masonry,must, in the course of forty or fifty years, again burden theirdescendants with an expense, which, once liberally and handsomelyemployed, ought to have freed their estates from a recurrence of it formore than a century at least.

  Behind the Rector's house the ground sloped down to a small river, which,without possessing the romantic vivacity and rapidity of a northernstream, was, nevertheless, by its occasional appearance through theranges of willows and poplars that crowned its banks, a very pleasingaccompaniment to the landscape. "It was the best trouting stream," saidthe beadle, whom the patience of Jeanie, and especially the assurancethat she was not about to become a burden to the parish, had renderedrather communicative, "the best trouting stream in all Lincolnshire; forwhen you got lower, there was nought to
be done wi' fly-fishing."

  Turning aside from the principal entrance, he conducted Jeanie towards asort of portal connected with the older part of the building, which waschiefly occupied by servants, and knocking at the door, it was opened bya servant in grave purple livery, such as befitted a wealthy anddignified clergyman.

  "How dost do, Tummas?" said the beadle--"and how's young MeasterStaunton?"

  "Why, but poorly--but poorly, Measter Stubbs.--Are you wanting to see hisReverence?"

  "Ay, ay, Tummas; please to say I ha' brought up the young woman as cameto service to-day with mad Madge Murdockson seems to be a decentish koindo' body; but I ha' asked her never a question. Only I can tell hisReverence that she is a Scotchwoman, I judge, and as flat as the fens ofHolland."

  Tummas honoured Jeanie Deans with such a stare, as the pampered domesticsof the rich, whether spiritual or temporal, usually esteem it part oftheir privilege to bestow upon the poor, and then desired Mr. Stubbs andhis charge to step in till he informed his master of their presence.

  The room into which he showed them was a sort of steward's parlour, hungwith a county map or two, and three or four prints of eminent personsconnected with the county, as Sir William Monson, James York theblacksmith of Lincoln,* and the famous Peregrine, Lord Willoughby, incomplete armour, looking as when he said in the words of the legend belowthe engraving,--

  * [Author of the _Union of Honour,_ a treatise on English Heraldry.London, 1641.]

  "Stand to it, noble pikemen, And face ye well about; And shoot ye sharp, bold bowmen, And we will keep them out.

  "Ye musquet and calliver-men, Do you prove true to me, I'll be the foremost man in fight, Said brave Lord Willoughbee."

  A "Summat" to Eat and Drink--113]

  When they had entered this apartment, Tummas as a matter of courseoffered, and as a matter of course Mr. Stubbs accepted, a "summat" to eatand drink, being the respectable relies of a gammon of bacon, and a_whole whiskin,_ or black pot of sufficient double ale. To these eatablesMr. Beadle seriously inclined himself, and (for we must do him justice)not without an invitation to Jeanie, in which Tummas joined, that hisprisoner or charge would follow his good example. But although she mighthave stood in need of refreshment, considering she had tasted no foodthat day, the anxiety of the moment, her own sparing and abstemioushabits, and a bashful aversion to eat in company of the two strangers,induced her to decline their courtesy. So she sate in a chair apart,while Mr. Stubbs and Mr. Tummas, who had chosen to join his friend inconsideration that dinner was to be put back till after the afternoonservice, made a hearty luncheon, which lasted for half-an-hour, and mightnot then have concluded, had not his Reverence rung his bell, so thatTummas was obliged to attend his master. Then, and no sooner, to savehimself the labour of a second journey to the other end of the house, heannounced to his master the arrival of Mr. Stubbs, with the othermadwoman, as he chose to designate Jeanie, as an event which had justtaken place. He returned with an order that Mr. Stubbs and the youngwoman should be instantly ushered up to the library. The beadle bolted inhaste his last mouthful of fat bacon, washed down the greasy morsel withthe last rinsings of the pot of ale, and immediately marshalled Jeaniethrough one or two intricate passages which led from the ancient to themore modern buildings, into a handsome little hall, or anteroom,adjoining to the library, and out of which a glass door opened to thelawn.

  "Stay here," said Stubbs, "till I tell his Reverence you are come."

  So saying, he opened a door and entered the library. Without wishing tohear their conversation, Jeanie, as she was circumstanced, could notavoid it; for as Stubbs stood by the door, and his Reverence was at theupper end of a large room, their conversation was necessarily audible inthe anteroom.

  "So you have brought the young woman here at last, Mr. Stubbs. I expectedyou some time since. You know I do not wish such persons to remain incustody a moment without some inquiry into their situation."

  "Very true, your Reverence," replied the beadle; "but the young woman hadeat nought to-day, and so Measter Tummas did set down a drap of drink anda morsel, to be sure."

  "Thomas was very right, Mr. Stubbs; and what has, become of the othermost unfortunate being?"

  "Why," replied Mr. Stubbs, "I did think the sight on her would but vexyour Reverence, and soa I did let her go her ways back to her mother, whois in trouble in the next parish."

  "In trouble!--that signifies in prison, I suppose?" said Mr. Staunton.

  "Ay, truly; something like it, an it like your Reverence."

  "Wretched, unhappy, incorrigible woman!" said the clergyman. "And whatsort of person is this companion of hers?"

  "Why, decent enow, an it like your Reverence," said Stubbs; "for aught Isees of her, there's no harm of her, and she says she has cash enow tocarry her out of the county."

  "Cash! that is always what you think of, Stubbs--But, has she sense?--hasshe her wits?--has she the capacity of taking care of herself?"

  "Why, your Reverence," replied Stubbs, "I cannot just say--I will besworn she was not born at Witt-ham;* for Gaffer Gibbs looked at her allthe time of service, and he says, she could not turn up a single lessonlike a Christian, even though she had Madge Murdockson to help her--butthen, as to fending for herself, why, she's a bit of a Scotchwoman, yourReverence, and they say the worst donnot of them can look out for theirown turn--and she is decently put on enow, and not bechounched liket'other."

  * A proverbial and punning expression in that county, to intimate that aperson is not very clever.

  "Send her in here, then, and do you remain below, Mr. Stubbs."

  This colloquy had engaged Jeanie's attention so deeply, that it was notuntil it was over that she observed that the sashed door, which, we havesaid, led from the anteroom into the garden, was opened, and that thereentered, or rather was borne in by two assistants, a young man, of a verypale and sickly appearance, whom they lifted to the nearest couch, andplaced there, as if to recover from the fatigue of an unusual exertion.Just as they were making this arrangement, Stubbs came out of thelibrary, and summoned Jeanie to enter it. She obeyed him, not withouttremor; for, besides the novelty of the situation, to a girl of hersecluded habits, she felt also as if the successful prosecution of herjourney was to depend upon the impression she should be able to make onMr. Staunton.

  It is true, it was difficult to suppose on what pretext a persontravelling on her own business, and at her own charge, could beinterrupted upon her route. But the violent detention she had alreadyundergone, was sufficient to show that there existed persons at no greatdistance who had the interest, the inclination, and the audacity,forcibly to stop her journey, and she felt the necessity of having somecountenance and protection, at least till she should get beyond theirreach. While these things passed through her mind, much faster than ourpen and ink can record, or even the reader's eye collect the meaning ofits traces, Jeanie found herself in a handsome library, and in presenceof the Rector of Willingham. The well-furnished presses and shelves whichsurrounded the large and handsome apartment, contained more books thanJeanie imagined existed in the world, being accustomed to consider as anextensive collection two fir shelves, each about three feet long, whichcontained her father's treasured volumes, the whole pith and marrow, ashe used sometimes to boast, of modern divinity. An orrery, globes, atelescope, and some other scientific implements, conveyed to Jeanie animpression of admiration and wonder, not unmixed with fear; for, in herignorant apprehension, they seemed rather adapted for magical purposesthan any other; and a few stuffed animals (as the Rector was fond ofnatural history) added to the impressive character of the apartment.

  Mr. Staunton spoke to her with great mildness. He observed, that,although her appearance at church had been uncommon, and in strange, andhe must add, discreditable society, and calculated, upon the whole, todisturb the congregation during divine worship,
he wished, nevertheless,to hear her own account of herself before taking any steps which his dutymight seem to demand. He was a justice of peace, he informed her, as wellas a clergyman.

  "His Honour" (for she would not say his Reverence) "was very civil andkind," was all that poor Jeanie could at first bring out.

  "Who are you, young woman?" said the clergyman, more peremptorily--"andwhat do you do in this country, and in such company?--We allow nostrollers or vagrants here."

  "I am not a vagrant or a stroller, sir," said Jeanie, a little roused bythe supposition. "I am a decent Scots lass, travelling through the landon my own business and my own expenses and I was so unhappy as to fall inwith bad company, and was stopped a' night on my journey. And this puircreature, who is something light-headed, let me out in the morning."

  "Bad company!" said the clergyman. "I am afraid, young woman, you havenot been sufficiently anxious to avoid them."

  "Indeed, sir," returned Jeanie, "I have been brought up to shun evilcommunication. But these wicked people were thieves, and stopped me byviolence and mastery."

  "Thieves!" said Mr. Staunton; "then you charge them with robbery, Isuppose?"

  "No, sir; they did not take so much as a boddle from me," answeredJeanie; "nor did they use me ill, otherwise than by confining me."

  The clergyman inquired into the particulars of her adventure, which shetold him from point to point.

  "This is an extraordinary, and not a very probable tale, young woman,"resumed Mr. Staunton. "Here has been, according to your account, a greatviolence committed without any adequate motive. Are you aware of the lawof this country--that if you lodge this charge, you will be bound over toprosecute this gang?"

  Jeanie did not understand him, and he explained, that the English law, inaddition to the inconvenience sustained by persons who have been robbedor injured, has the goodness to intrust to them the care and the expenseof appearing as prosecutors.

  Jeanie said, "that her business at London was express; all she wantedwas, that any gentleman would, out of Christian charity, protect her tosome town where she could hire horses and a guide; and finally," shethought, "it would be her father's mind that she was not free to givetestimony in an English court of justice, as the land was not under adirect gospel dispensation."

  Mr. Staunton stared a little, and asked if her father was a Quaker.

  "God forbid, sir," said Jeanie--"He is nae schismatic nor sectary, norever treated for sic black commodities as theirs, and that's weel kend o'him."

  "And what is his name, pray?" said Mr. Staunton.

  "David Deans, sir, the cowfeeder at Saint Leonard's Crags, nearEdinburgh."

  A deep groan from the anteroom prevented the Rector from replying, and,exclaiming, "Good God! that unhappy boy!" he left Jeanie alone, andhastened into the outer apartment.

  Some noise and bustle was heard, but no one entered the library for thebest part of an hour.