by John Galt
CHAPTER XXVI
Although my grandfather had sustained a severe bruise by his fall, hewas still enabled, after he got on his legs, to superintend thedemolishment of the abbey till it was complete. But in the evening, whenhe took up his quarters in the house of Theophilus Lugton with DominickCallender, who had brought on a party of the Paisley Reformers, he wasso stiff and sore that he thought he would be incompetent to go overnext day with the force that the Earl missioned to herry the Carmelyteconvent at Irvine. Dominick Callender had, however, among other things,learnt, in the abbey at Paisley, the salutary virtues of many herbs, andhow to decoct from them their healing juices; and he instructed DameLugton to prepare an efficacious medicament, that not only mitigated theanguish of the pain, but so suppled the stiffness that my grandfatherwas up by break of day, and ready for the march, a renewed man.
In speaking of this, he has been heard to say, it was a thing much to belamented, that when the regular abolition of the monastries was decreed,no care was taken to collect the curious knowledges and ancienttraditionary skill preserved therein, especially in what pertained tothe cure of maladies; for it was his opinion--and many were of the samemind--that among the friars were numbers of potent physicians, and anart in the preparation of salves and syrups, that has not been surpassedby the learning of the colleges. But it is not meet that I should detainthe courteous reader with such irrelevancies; the change, however, whichhas taken place in the realm in all things pertaining to life, laws,manners and conduct since the extirpation of the Roman idolatry, is,from the perfectest report, so wonderful, that the inhabitants canscarcely be said to be the same race of people; and, therefore, I havethought that such occasional ancestral intimations might, though theyproved neither edifying nor instructive, be yet deemed worthy ofnotation in the brief spaces which they happen herein to occupy. Butnow, returning from this digression, I will take up again the thread andclue of my story.
The Earl of Glencairn, after the abbey of Kilwinning was sacked, wentand slept at Eglinton Castle, then a stalwart square tower, environedwith a wall and moat, of a rude and unknown antiquity, standing on agentle rising ground in the midst of a bleak and moorland domain. Andhis Lordship having ordered my grandfather to come to him betimes in themorning with twenty chosen men, the discreetest of the force, for aspecial service in which he meant to employ him, he went thitheraccordingly, taking with him Dominick Callender and twelve godly ladsfrom Paisley, with seven others, whom he had remarked in the march fromGlasgow, as under the manifest guidance of a sedate and pious temper.
When my grandfather with his company arrived at the castle yett, and hewas admitted to the Earl his patron, his Lordship said to him, more as afriend than a master,--
"I am in the hope, Gilhaize, that, after this day, the toilsome andperilous errands on which, to the weal of Scotland and the true church,you have been so meritoriously missioned ever since you were retained inmy service, will soon be brought to an end, and that you will enjoy inpeace the reward you have earned so well, that I am better pleased inbestowing it than you can be in the receiving. But there is yet one taskwhich I must put upon you. Hard by to this castle, less than a mileeastward, stands a small convent of nuns, who have been for time out ofmind under the protection of the Lord Eglinton's family, and he, havinggot a grant of the lands belonging to their house, is desirous that theyshould be flitted in an amiable manner to a certain street in Irvinecalled the Kirkgate, where a lodging is provided for them. To do thiskindly I have bethought myself of you, for I know not in all my forceany one so well qualified. Have you provided yourself with the twentydouce men that I ordered you to bring hither?"
My grandfather told his Lordship that he had done as he was ordered."Then," resumed the Earl, "take them with you, and this mandate to thesuperior, and one of Eglinton's men to show you the way; and when youhave conveyed them to their lodging, come again to me."
So my grandfather did as he was directed by the Earl, and marchedeastward with his men till he came to the convent, which was a humbleand orderly house, with a small chapel and a tower, that in after times,when all the other buildings were erased, was called the Stane Castle,and is known by that name even unto this day. It stood within a highwall, and a little gate, with a stone cross over the same, led to theporch.
Compassionating the simple and silly sisterhood within, who, by theirsequestration from the world, were become as innocent as birds in acage, my grandfather halted his men at some distance from the yett, andgoing forward, rung the bell; to the sound of which an aged womananswered, who, on being told he had brought a letter to the superior,gave him admittance, and conducted him to a little chamber, on the oneside of which was a grating, where the superior, a short, corpulentmatron, that seemed to bowl rather than to walk as she moved along, soonmade her appearance within.
He told her in a meek manner, and with some gentle prefacing, thepurpose of his visit, and showed her the Earl's mandate; to all which,for some time, she made no reply, but she was evidently much moved; atlast she gave a wild skreigh, which brought the rest of the nuns, to thenumber of thirteen, all rushing into the room. Then ensued a dreadfultempest of all feminine passions and griefs, intermingled withsupplications to many a saint; but the powers and prerogatives of theirsaints were abolished in Scotland, and they received no aid.
Though their lamentation, as my grandfather used to say, could not berecited without moving to mirth, it was yet so full of maidenly fearsand simplicity at the time to him, that it seemed most tender, and hewas disturbed at the thought of driving such fair and helpless creaturesinto the bad world; but it was his duty;--so, after soothing them aswell as he could, and representing how unavailing their refusal to gowould be, the superior composed her grief, and exhorting the nuns to beresigned to their cruel fate, which, she said, was not so grievous asthat which many of the saints had in their day suffered, they all becamecalm and prepared for the removal.
My grandfather told them to take with them whatsoever they best liked inthe house; and it was a moving sight to see their simplicity therein.One was content with a flower-pot; another took a cage in which she hada lintie; some of them half-finished patterns of embroidery. One agedsister, of a tall and spare form, brought away a flask of eye-waterwhich she had herself distilled; but, saving the superior, none of themthought of any of the valuables of the chapel, till my grandfatherreminded them, that they might find the value of silver and goldhereafter, even in the spiritual-minded town of Irvine.
There was one young and graceful maiden among them who seemed but littlemoved by the event; and my grandfather was melted to sympathy and sorrowby the solemn serenity of her deportment, and the little heed she tookof anything. Of all the nuns she was the only one who appeared to havenothing to care for; and when they were ready, and came forth to thegate, instead of joining in their piteous wailings as they bade theirpeaceful home a long and last farewell, she walked forward alone. Nosooner, however, had she passed the yett, than, on seeing the armedcompany without, she stood still like a statue, and, uttering a shrillcry, fainted away, and fell to the ground. Every one ran to herassistance; but when her face was unveiled to give her air, DominickCallender, who was standing by, caught her in his arms, and wasenchanted by a fond and strange enthusiasm. She was indeed no other thanthe young maiden of Paisley, for whom he had found his monastic rows theheavy fetters of a bondage that made life scarcely worth possessing; andwhen she was recovered, an interchange of great tenderness took placebetween them, at which the superior of the convent waxed very wroth, andthe other nuns were exceedingly scandalised. But Magdalene Sauchie, forso she was called, heeded them not; for, on learning that popery was putdown in the land by law, she openly declared that she renounced hervows; and during the walk to Irvine, which was jimp a mile, she leantupon the arm of her lover: and they were soon after married, Dominicksettling in that town as a doctor of physic, whereby he afterwardsearned both gold and reputation.
But to conclude the history of the convent, which my g
randfather had inthis gentle manner herret, the nuns, on reaching the foot of theKirkgate, where the Countess of Eglinton had provided a house for them,began to weep anew with great vehemence, fearing that their holy lifewas at an end, and that they would be tempted of men to enter into thetemporalities of the married state; but the superior, on hearing thismournful apprehension, mounted upon the steps of the Tolbooth stair,and, in the midst of a great concourse of people, she lifted her handson high, and exclaimed, as with the voice of a prophetess, "Fear not, mychaste and pious dochters; for your sake and for my sake, I have anassurance at this moment from the Virgin Mary herself, that the calamityof the marriage-yoke will never be known in the Kirkgate of Irvine, butthat all maidens who hereafter may enter, or be born to dwell therein,shall live a life of single blessedness unasked and untempted of men."Which delightful prediction the nuns were so happy to hear, that theydried their tears, and chanted their Ave Maria, joyfully proceedingtowards their appointed habitation. It stood, as I have been told, onthe same spot where King James the Sixth's school was afterwardserected, and endowed out of the spoils of Carmelytes' monastery, which,on the same day, was, by another division of the Earl of Glencairn'spower, sacked and burnt to the ground.