by Walter Scott
CHAPTER TWENTIETH.
"Come ye hither my 'six' good sons, Gallant men I trow ye be, How many of you, my children dear, Will stand by that good Earl and me?"
"Five" of them did answer make-- "Five" of them spoke hastily, "O father, till the day we die, We'll stand by that good Earl and thee." The Rising in the North.
On the morning when we were to depart from Glasgow, Andrew Fairservicebounced into my apartment like a madman, jumping up and down, andsinging, with more vehemence than tune,
The kiln's on fire--the kiln's on fire-- The kiln's on fire--she's a' in a lowe.
With some difficulty I prevailed on him to cease his confounded clamour,and explain to me what the matter was. He was pleased to inform me, as ifhe had been bringing the finest news imaginable, "that the Hielands wereclean broken out, every man o' them, and that Rob Roy, and a' hisbreekless bands, wad be down upon Glasgow or twenty-four hours o' theclock gaed round."
"Hold your tongue," said I, "you rascal! You must be drunk or mad; and ifthere is any truth in your news, is it a singing matter, you scoundrel?"
"Drunk or mad? nae doubt," replied Andrew, dauntlessly; "ane's aye drunkor mad if he tells what grit folks dinna like to hear--Sing? Od, theclans will make us sing on the wrang side o' our mouth, if we are saedrunk or mad as to bide their coming."
I rose in great haste, and found my father and Owen also on foot, and inconsiderable alarm.
Andrew's news proved but too true in the main. The great rebellion whichagitated Britain in the year 1715 had already broken out, by theunfortunate Earl of Mar's setting up the standard of the Stuart family inan ill-omened hour, to the ruin of many honourable families, both inEngland and Scotland. The treachery of some of the Jacobite agents(Rashleigh among the rest), and the arrest of others, had made George theFirst's Government acquainted with the extensive ramifications of aconspiracy long prepared, and which at last exploded prematurely, and ina part of the kingdom too distant to have any vital effect upon thecountry, which, however, was plunged into much confusion.
This great public event served to confirm and elucidate the obscureexplanations I had received from MacGregor; and I could easily see whythe westland clans, who were brought against him, should have waivedtheir private quarrel, in consideration that they were all shortly to beengaged in the same public cause. It was a more melancholy reflection tomy mind, that Diana Vernon was the wife of one of those who were mostactive in turning the world upside down, and that she was herself exposedto all the privations and perils of her husband's hazardous trade.
We held an immediate consultation on the measures we were to adopt inthis crisis, and acquiesced in my father's plan, that we should instantlyget the necessary passports, and make the best of our way to London. Iacquainted my father with my wish to offer my personal service to theGovernment in any volunteer corps, several being already spoken of. Hereadily acquiesced in my proposal; for though he disliked war as aprofession, yet, upon principle, no man would have exposed his life morewillingly in defence of civil and religious liberty.
We travelled in haste and in peril through Dumfriesshire and theneighbouring counties of England. In this quarter, gentlemen of the Toryinterest were already in motion, mustering men and horses, while theWhigs assembled themselves in the principal towns, armed the inhabitants,and prepared for civil war. We narrowly escaped being stopped on moreoccasions than one, and were often compelled to take circuitous routes toavoid the points where forces were assembling.
When we reached London, we immediately associated with those bankers andeminent merchants who agreed to support the credit of Government, and tomeet that run upon the funds, on which the conspirators had greatlyfounded their hopes of furthering their undertaking, by rendering theGovernment, as it were, bankrupt. My father was chosen one of the membersof this formidable body of the monied interest, as all had the greatestconfidence in his zeal, skill, and activity. He was also the organ bywhich they communicated with Government, and contrived, from fundsbelonging to his own house, or over which he had command, to findpurchasers for a quantity of the national stock, which was suddenly flunginto the market at a depreciated price when the rebellion broke out. Iwas not idle myself, but obtained a commission, and levied, at myfather's expense, about two hundred men, with whom I joined GeneralCarpenter's army.
The rebellion, in the meantime, had extended itself to England. Theunfortunate Earl of Derwentwater had taken arms in the cause, along withGeneral Foster. My poor uncle, Sir Hildebrand, whose estate was reducedto almost nothing by his own carelessness and the expense and debaucheryof his sons and household, was easily persuaded to join that unfortunatestandard. Before doing so, however, he exhibited a degree of precautionof which no one could have suspected him--he made his will!
By this document he devised his estates at Osbaldistone Hall, and soforth, to his sons successively, and their male heirs, until he came toRashleigh, whom, on account of the turn he had lately taken in politics,he detested with all his might,--he cut him off with a shilling, andsettled the estate on me as his next heir. I had always been rather afavourite of the old gentleman; but it is probable that, confident in thenumber of gigantic youths who now armed around him, he considered thedestination as likely to remain a dead letter, which he inserted chieflyto show his displeasure at Rashleigh's treachery, both public anddomestic. There was an article, by which he, bequeathed to the niece ofhis late wife, Diana Vernon, now Lady Diana Vernon Beauchamp, somediamonds belonging to her late aunt, and a great silver ewer, having thearms of Vernon and Osbaldistone quarterly engraven upon it.
But Heaven had decreed a more speedy extinction of his numerous andhealthy lineage, than, most probably, he himself had reckoned on. In thevery first muster of the conspirators, at a place called Green-Rigg,Thorncliff Osbaldistone quarrelled about precedence with a gentleman ofthe Northumbrian border, to the full as fierce and intractable ashimself. In spite of all remonstrances, they gave their commander aspecimen of how far their discipline might be relied upon, by fighting itout with their rapiers, and my kinsman was killed on the spot. His deathwas a great loss to Sir Hildebrand, for, notwithstanding his infernaltemper, he had a grain or two of more sense than belonged to the rest ofthe brotherhood, Rashleigh always excepted.
Perceval, the sot, died also in his calling. He had a wager with anothergentleman (who, from his exploits in that line, had acquired theformidable epithet of Brandy Swalewell), which should drink the largestcup of strong liquor when King James was proclaimed by the insurgents atMorpeth. The exploit was something enormous. I forget the exact quantityof brandy which Percie swallowed, but it occasioned a fever, of which heexpired at the end of three days, with the word, _water, water,_perpetually on his tongue.
Dickon broke his neck near Warrington Bridge, in an attempt to show off afoundered blood-mare which he wished to palm upon a Manchester merchantwho had joined the insurgents. He pushed the animal at a five-barredgate; she fell in the leap, and the unfortunate jockey lost his life.
Wilfred the fool, as sometimes befalls, had the best fortune of thefamily. He was slain at Proud Preston, in Lancashire, on the day thatGeneral Carpenter attacked the barricades, fighting with great bravery,though I have heard he was never able exactly to comprehend the cause ofquarrel, and did not uniformly remember on which king's side he wasengaged. John also behaved very boldly in the same engagement, andreceived several wounds, of which he was not happy enough to die on thespot.
Old Sir Hildebrand, entirely brokenhearted by these successive losses,became, by the next day's surrender, one of the unhappy prisoners, andwas lodged in Newgate with his wounded son John.
I was now released from my military duty, and lost no time, therefore, inendeavouring to relieve the distresses of these new relations. Myfather's interest with Government, and th
e general compassion excited bya parent who had sustained the successive loss of so many sons within soshort a time, would have prevented my uncle and cousin from being broughtto trial for high treason. But their doom was given forth from a greatertribunal. John died of his wounds in Newgate, recommending to me in hislast breath, a cast of hawks which he had at the Hall, and a blackspaniel bitch called Lucy.
My poor uncle seemed beaten down to the very earth by his familycalamities, and the circumstances in which he unexpectedly found himself.He said little, but seemed grateful for such attentions as circumstancespermitted me to show him. I did not witness his meeting with my fatherfor the first time for so many years, and under circumstances somelancholy; but, judging from my father's extreme depression of spirits,it must have been melancholy in the last degree. Sir Hildebrand spokewith great bitterness against Rashleigh, now his only surviving child;laid upon him the ruin of his house, and the deaths of all his brethren,and declared, that neither he nor they would have plunged into politicalintrigue, but for that very member of his family, who had been the firstto desert them. He once or twice mentioned Diana, always with greataffection; and once he said, while I sate by his bedside--"Nevoy, sinceThorncliff and all of them are dead, I am sorry you cannot have her."
The expression affected me much at the time; for it was a usual custom ofthe poor old baronet's, when joyously setting forth upon the morning'schase, to distinguish Thorncliff, who was a favourite, while he summonedthe rest more generally; and the loud jolly tone in which he used tohollo, "Call Thornie--call all of them," contrasted sadly with thewoebegone and self-abandoning note in which he uttered the disconsolatewords which I have above quoted. He mentioned the contents of his will,and supplied me with an authenticated copy;--the original he haddeposited with my old acquaintance Mr. Justice Inglewood, who, dreaded byno one, and confided in by all as a kind of neutral person, had become,for aught I know, the depositary of half the wills of the fighting men ofboth factions in the county of Northumberland.
The greater part of my uncle's last hours were spent in the discharge ofthe religious duties of his church, in which he was directed by thechaplain of the Sardinian ambassador, for whom, with some difficulty, weobtained permission to visit him. I could not ascertain by my ownobservation, or through the medical attendants, that Sir HildebrandOsbaldistone died of any formed complaint bearing a name in the scienceof medicine. He seemed to me completely worn out and broken down byfatigue of body and distress of mind, and rather ceased to exist, thandied of any positive struggle,--just as a vessel, buffeted and tossed bya succession of tempestuous gales, her timbers overstrained, and herjoints loosened, will sometimes spring a leak and founder, when there areno apparent causes for her destruction.
It was a remarkable circumstance that my father, after the last dutieswere performed to his brother, appeared suddenly to imbibe a stronganxiety that I should act upon the will, and represent his father'shouse, which had hitherto seemed to be the thing in the world which hadleast charms for him. But formerly, he had been like the fox in thefable, contemning what was beyond his reach; and, moreover, I doubt notthat the excessive dislike which he entertained against Rashleigh (nowSir Rashleigh) Osbaldistone, who loudly threatened to attack his fatherSir Hildebrand's will and settlement, corroborated my father's desire tomaintain it.
"He had been most unjustly disinherited," he said, "by his ownfather--his brother's will had repaired the disgrace, if not the injury,by leaving the wreck of his property to Frank, the natural heir, and hewas determined the bequest should take effect."
In the meantime, Rashleigh was not altogether a contemptible personage asan opponent. The information he had given to Government was criticallywell-timed, and his extreme plausibility, with the extent of hisintelligence, and the artful manner in which he contrived to assume bothmerit and influence, had, to a certain extent, procured him patrons amongMinisters. We were already in the full tide of litigation with him on thesubject of his pillaging the firm of Osbaldistone and Tresham; and,judging from the progress we made in that comparatively simple lawsuit,there was a chance that this second course of litigation might be drawnout beyond the period of all our natural lives.
To avert these delays as much as possible, my father, by the advice ofhis counsel learned in the law, paid off and vested in my person therights to certain large mortgages affecting Osbaldistone Hall. Perhaps,however, the opportunity to convert a great share of the large profitswhich accrued from the rapid rise of the funds upon the suppression ofthe rebellion, and the experience he had so lately had of the perils ofcommerce, encouraged him to realise, in this manner, a considerable partof his property. At any rate, it so chanced, that, instead of commandingme to the desk, as I fully expected, having intimated my willingness tocomply with his wishes, however they might destine me, I received hisdirections to go down to Osbaldistone Hall, and take possession of it asthe heir and representative of the family. I was directed to apply toSquire Inglewood for the copy of my uncle's will deposited with him, andtake all necessary measures to secure that possession which sages saymakes nine points of the law.
At another time I should have been delighted with this change ofdestination. But now Osbaldistone Hall was accompanied with many painfulrecollections. Still, however, I thought, that in that neighbourhood onlyI was likely to acquire some information respecting the fate of DianaVernon. I had every reason to fear it must be far different from what Icould have wished it. But I could obtain no precise information on thesubject.
It was in vain that I endeavoured, by such acts of kindness as theirsituation admitted, to conciliate the confidence of some distantrelations who were among the prisoners in Newgate. A pride which I couldnot condemn, and a natural suspicion of the Whig Frank Osbaldistone,cousin to the double-distilled traitor Rashleigh, closed every heart andtongue, and I only received thanks, cold and extorted, in exchange forsuch benefits as I had power to offer. The arm of the law was alsogradually abridging the numbers of those whom I endeavoured to serve, andthe hearts of the survivors became gradually more contracted towards allwhom they conceived to be concerned with the existing Government. As theywere led gradually, and by detachments, to execution, those who survivedlost interest in mankind, and the desire of communicating with them. Ishall long remember what one of them, Ned Shafton by name, replied to myanxious inquiry, whether there was any indulgence I could procure him?"Mr. Frank Osbaldistone, I must suppose you mean me kindly, and thereforeI thank you. But, by G--, men cannot be fattened like poultry, when theysee their neighbours carried off day by day to the place of execution,and know that their own necks are to be twisted round in their turn."
Upon the whole, therefore, I was glad to escape from London, fromNewgate, and from the scenes which both exhibited, to breathe the freeair of Northumberland. Andrew Fairservice had continued in my servicemore from my father's pleasure than my own. At present there seemed aprospect that his local acquaintance with Osbaldistone Hall and itsvicinity might be useful; and, of course, he accompanied me on myjourney, and I enjoyed the prospect of getting rid of him, byestablishing him in his old quarters. I cannot conceive how he couldprevail upon my father to interest himself in him, unless it were by theart, which he possessed in no inconsiderable degree, of affecting anextreme attachment to his master; which theoretical attachment he madecompatible in practice with playing all manner of tricks without scruple,providing only against his master being cheated by any one but himself.
We performed our journey to the North without any remarkable adventure,and we found the country, so lately agitated by rebellion, now peacefuland in good order. The nearer we approached to Osbaldistone Hall, themore did my heart sink at the thought of entering that deserted mansion;so that, in order to postpone the evil day, I resolved first to make myvisit at Mr. Justice Inglewood's.
That venerable person had been much disturbed with thoughts of what hehad been, and what he now was; and natural recollections of the past hadinterfered considerably with the active duty which in h
is presentsituation might have been expected from him. He was fortunate, however,in one respect; he had got rid of his clerk Jobson, who had finally lefthim in dudgeon at his inactivity, and become legal assistant to a certainSquire Standish, who had lately commenced operations in those parts as ajustice, with a zeal for King George and the Protestant succession,which, very different from the feelings of his old patron, Mr. Jobson hadmore occasion to restrain within the bounds of the law, than to stimulateto exertion.
Old Justice Inglewood received me with great courtesy, and readilyexhibited my uncle's will, which seemed to be without a flaw. He was forsome time in obvious distress, how he should speak and act in mypresence; but when he found, that though a supporter of the presentGovernment upon principle, I was disposed to think with pity on those whohad opposed it on a mistaken feeling of loyalty and duty, his discoursebecame a very diverting medley of what he had done, and what he had leftundone,--the pains he had taken to prevent some squires from joining, andto wink at the escape of others, who had been so unlucky as to engage inthe affair.
We were _tete-a'-tete,_ and several bumpers had been quaffed by theJustice's special desire, when, on a sudden, he requested me to fill a_bona fide_ brimmer to the health of poor dear Die Vernon, the rose ofthe wilderness, the heath-bell of Cheviot, and the blossom that'stransplanted to an infernal convent.
"Is not Miss Vernon married, then?" I exclaimed, in great astonishment."I thought his Excellency"--
"Pooh! pooh! his Excellency and his Lordship's all a humbug now, youknow--mere St. Germains titles--Earl of Beauchamp, and ambassadorplenipotentiary from France, when the Duke Regent of Orleans scarce knewthat he lived, I dare say. But you must have seen old Sir FrederickVernon at the Hall, when he played the part of Father Vaughan?"
"Good Heavens! then Vaughan was Miss Vernon's father?"
"To be sure he was," said the Justice coolly;--"there's no use inkeeping the secret now, for he must be out of the country by thistime--otherwise, no doubt, it would be my duty to apprehend him.--Come,off with your bumper to my dear lost Die!
And let her health go round, around, around, And let her health go round; For though your stocking be of silk, Your knees near kiss the ground, aground, aground."*
* This pithy verse occurs, it is believed, in Shadwell's play of BuryFair.
I was unable, as the reader may easily conceive, to join in the Justice'sjollity. My head swam with the shock I had received. "I never heard," Isaid, "that Miss Vernon's father was living."
"It was not our Government's fault that he is," replied Inglewood, "forthe devil a man there is whose head would have brought more money. He wascondemned to death for Fenwick's plot, and was thought to have had somehand in the Knightsbridge affair, in King William's time; and as he hadmarried in Scotland a relation of the house of Breadalbane, he possessedgreat influence with all their chiefs. There was a talk of his beingdemanded to be given up at the peace of Ryswick, but he shammed ill, andhis death was given publicly out in the French papers. But when he cameback here on the old score, we old cavaliers knew him well,--that is tosay, I knew him, not as being a cavalier myself, but no information beinglodged against the poor gentleman, and my memory being shortened byfrequent attacks of the gout, I could not have sworn to him, you know."
"Was he, then, not known at Osbaldistone Hall?" I inquired.
"To none but to his daughter, the old knight, and Rashleigh, who had gotat that secret as he did at every one else, and held it like a twistedcord about poor Die's neck. I have seen her one hundred times she wouldhave spit at him, if it had not been fear for her father, whose lifewould not have been worth five minutes' purchase if he had beendiscovered to the Government.--But don't mistake me, Mr. Osbaldistone; Isay the Government is a good, a gracious, and a just Government; and ifit has hanged one-half of the rebels, poor things, all will acknowledgethey would not have been touched had they staid peaceably at home."
Waiving the discussion of these political questions, I brought back Mr.Inglewood to his subject, and I found that Diana, having positivelyrefused to marry any of the Osbaldistone family, and expressed herparticular detestation of Rashleigh, he had from that time begun to coolin zeal for the cause of the Pretender; to which, as the youngest of sixbrethren, and bold, artful, and able, he had hitherto looked forward asthe means of making his fortune. Probably the compulsion with which hehad been forced to render up the spoils which he had abstracted from myfather's counting-house by the united authority of Sir Frederick Vernonand the Scottish Chiefs, had determined his resolution to advance hisprogress by changing his opinions and betraying his trust. Perhapsalso--for few men were better judges where his interest was concerned--heconsidered their means and talents to be, as they afterwards proved,greatly inadequate to the important task of overthrowing an establishedGovernment. Sir Frederick Vernon, or, as he was called among theJacobites, his Excellency Viscount Beauchamp, had, with his daughter,some difficulty in escaping the consequences of Rashleigh's information.Here Mr. Inglewood's information was at fault; but he did not doubt,since we had not heard of Sir Frederick being in the hands of theGovernment, he must be by this time abroad, where, agreeably to the cruelbond he had entered into with his brother-in-law, Diana, since she haddeclined to select a husband out of the Osbaldistone family, must beconfined to a convent. The original cause of this singular agreement Mr.Inglewood could not perfectly explain; but he understood it was a familycompact, entered into for the purpose of securing to Sir Frederick therents of the remnant of his large estates, which had been vested in theOsbaldistone family by some legal manoeuvre; in short, a family compact,in which, like many of those undertaken at that time of day, the feelingsof the principal parties interested were no more regarded than if theyhad been a part of the live-stock upon the lands.
I cannot tell,--such is the waywardness of the human heart,--whether thisintelligence gave me joy or sorrow. It seemed to me, that, in theknowledge that Miss Vernon was eternally divided from me, not by marriagewith another, but by seclusion in a convent, in order to fulfil an absurdbargain of this kind, my regret for her loss was aggravated rather thandiminished. I became dull, low-spirited, absent, and unable to supportthe task of conversing with Justice Inglewood, who in his turn yawned,and proposed to retire early. I took leave of him overnight, determiningthe next day, before breakfast, to ride over to Osbaldistone Hall.
Mr. Inglewood acquiesced in my proposal. "It would be well," he said,"that I made my appearance there before I was known to be in the country,the more especially as Sir Rashleigh Osbaldistone was now, he understood,at Mr. Jobson's house, hatching some mischief, doubtless. They were fitcompany," he added, "for each other, Sir Rashleigh having lost all rightto mingle in the society of men of honour; but it was hardly possible twosuch d--d rascals should collogue together without mischief to honestpeople."
He concluded, by earnestly recommending a toast and tankard, and anattack upon his venison pasty, before I set out in the morning, just tobreak the cold air on the words.