by John Galt
CHAPTER XI
At this time an ancient controversy between the Archbishops of StAndrews and of Glasgow, touching their respective jurisdictions, hadbeen resuscitated with great acrimony, and in the debates concerning thesame the Glasgow people took a deep interest, for they are stoutheartedand of an adventurous spirit, and cannot abide to think that they ortheir town should, in anything of public honour, be deemed either slackor second to the foremost in the realm, and none of all the worthyburgesses thereof thought more proudly of the superiority and renown oftheir city than did Deacon Sword. So it came to pass, as he was sittingat supper with my grandfather, that he enlarged and expatiated on theinordinate pretensions of the Archbishop of St Andrews, and tookoccasion to diverge from the prelate's political ambition to speak ofthe enormities of his ecclesiastical government, and particularly ofthat heinous and never-to-be-forgotten act, the burning of an aged manof fourscore and two years, whose very heresies, as the deaconmercifully said, ought rather to have been imputed to dotage thancharged as offences.
My grandfather was well pleased to observe such vigour of principle andbravery of character in one having such sway and weight in so great acommunity as to be the chief captain of the crafts who were banded withthe hammermen, namely, the cartwrights, the saddlers, the masons, thecoopers, the mariners, and all whose work required the use ofedge-tools, the hardiest and buirdliest of the trades, and he allowedhimself to run in with the deacon's humour, but without letting woteither in whose service he was, or on what exploit he was bound, sowinghowever, from time to time, hints as to the need that seemed to begrowing of putting a curb on the bold front wherewith the Archbishop ofSt Andrews, under the pretext of suppressing heresies, butted with thehorns of oppression against all who stood within the reverence of hisdispleasure.
Deacon Sword had himself a leaning to the reformed doctrines, which,with his public enmity to the challenger of his own Archbishop, made himtake to those hints with so great an affinity, that he vowed to God,shaking my grandfather by the hand over the table, that if some stepswere not soon taken to stop such inordinate misrule, there were notwanting five hundred men in Glasgow who would start forward with weaponsin their grip at the first tout of a trump to vindicate the liberties ofthe subject, and the wholesome administration by the temporal judges ofthe law against all offenders as of old. And, giving scope to hisardour, he said there was then such a spirit awakened in Glasgow thatmen, women and children thirsted to see justice executed on thechurchmen, who were daily waxing more and more wroth and insatiableagainst everyone who called their doctrines or polity in question.
Thus out of the very devices which had been devised by those about theQueen Regent to intercept the free communion of the people with oneanother was the means brought about whereby a chosen emissary of theCongregation came to get at the emboldening knowledge of the sense ofthe citizens of Glasgow with regard to the great cause which at thatperiod troubled the minds and fears of all men.
My grandfather was joyfully heartened by what he heard, and beforecoming away from the deacon who, with the hospitality common to histownsmen, would fain have had him to prolong their sederunt over thegardevine, he said that if Glasgow were as true and valiant as it wasthought, there could be no doubt that her declaration for the Lords ofthe Congregation would work out a great redress of public wrongs. For,from all he could learn and understand, those high and pious noblemenhad nothing more at heart than to procure for the people the freeexercise of their right to worship God according to their conscience andthe doctrines of the Old and New Testaments.
But though over the liquor-cup the deacon had spoken so dreadless andlike a manly citizen, my grandfather resolved with himself to departbetimes for Kilmarnock, in case of any change in his temper.Accordingly, he requested the hostler of the hostel where he had takenhis bed, to which his day's hard journey early inclined him, to have hishorse in readiness before break of day. But this hostel, which wascalled the Cross of Rhodes, happened to be situated at the Water-port,and besides being a tavern and inn, was likewise the great ferryhouse ofthe Clyde when the tide was up, or the ford rendered unsafe by thetorrents of the speats and inland rains--the which caused it to be muchfrequented by the skippers and mariners of the barks that traded toFrance and Genoa with the Renfrew salmon, and by all sorts of travellersat all times even to the small hours of the morning. In short it was aboisterous house, the company resorting thereto of a sort little inunison with the religious frame of my grandfather. As soon, therefore,as he came from the deacon's, he went to bed without taking off hisclothes, in order that he might be fit for the road as he intended; andhis bed being in the public room, with sliding doors, he drew them uponhim, hoping to shut out some of the din and to win a little repose. Butscarcely had he laid his head on the pillow when he heard the voice ofone entering the room, and listening eagerly, he discovered that it wasno other than the traitor Winterton's, the which so amazed him withapprehension that he shook as he lay, like the aspen leaf on the tree.
Winterton called like a braggart for supper and hot wine, boasting hehad ridden that day from Edinburgh, and that he must be up and acrosshis horse by daylight in the morning, as he had need to be in Kilmarnockby noon. In this, which vanity made him tell in bravado, my grandfathercould not but discern a kind Providence admonishing himself, for he hadno doubt that Winterton was in pursuit of him, and thankful he was thathe had given no inkling to anyone in the house as to whence he had comeand where he was going. But had this thought not at once entered hishead, he would soon have had cause to think it, for while Winterton waseating his supper he began to converse with their host, and to inquirewhat travellers had crossed the river. Twice or thrice, in as it were anoff-hand manner, he spoke of one whom he called a cousin, but, indescribing his garb, he left no doubt in my grandfather's bosom that itwas regarding him he seemed at once both so negligent and so anxious.Most providential therefore it was that my grandfather had altered hisdress before leaving Edinburgh, for the marks which Winterton gave ofhim were chiefly drawn from his ordinary garb, and by them their host inconsequence said he had seen no such person.
When Winterton had finished his repast, and was getting his secondstoup of wine heated, he asked where he was to sleep, to the whichquestion the host replied that he feared he would, like others, beobligated to make a bench by the fireside his couch, all the beds in thehouse being already bespoke or occupied. "Every one of them is double,"said the man, "save only one, the which is paid for by a young man thatgoes off at break of day and who is already asleep."
At this Winterton swore a dreadful oath that he would not sleep by thefire after riding fifty miles while there was half a bed in the house,and commanded the host to go and tell the young man that he must halfblankets with him.
My grandfather knew that this could only refer to him; so, when theirhost came and opened the sliding doors of the bed, he feigned himself tobe very fast asleep at the back of the bed, and only groaned indrowsiness when he was touched.
"O, let him alane," cried Winterton, "I ken what it is to be tired; so,as there's room enough at the stock, when I have drank my posset I'lle'en creep in beside him."
My grandfather, weary as he was, lay panting with apprehension, notdoubting that he should be speedily discovered; but when Winterton hadfinished his drink and came swaggering and jocose to be his bedfellow,he kept himself with his face to the wall, and snored like one who wasin haste to sleep more than enough, insomuch that Winterton, when he laydown, gave him a deg with his elbow and swore at him to be quiet. Hisown fatigue, however, soon mastered the disturbance which my grandfathermade, and he began himself to echo the noise in defenceless sincerity.
On hearing him thus fettered by sleep, my grandfather began to considerwith himself what he ought to do, being both afraid and perplexed heknew not wherefore; and he was prompted by a power that he durst not andcould not reason with to rise and escape from the jeopardy wherein hethen was. But how could this be done, for the house was still open, and
travellers and customers were continually going and coming. Truly hissituation was one of great tribulation, and escape therefrom a thingseemingly past hope and the unaided wisdom of man.