Ringan Gilhaize, or, The Covenanters

by John Galt

  CHAPTER LXXX

  During the season that the malady continued upon me, through theunsuspected agency of Robin Brown, a paction was entered into withcertain of my neighbours, to take the lands of Quharist on tack amongthem, and to pay me a secret stipend, by which means were obtained tomaintain me in a decency when I was able to be removed into Glasgow. Andwhen my strength was so far restored that I could bear the journey, thesame good man entered into a stipulation with Mrs Aird, the relict of aGospel minister, to receive me as a lodger, and he carried me in on hiscart to her house at the foot of the Stockwell.

  With that excellent person I continued several months unmolested, butwithout hearing any tidings of my son. Afflicting tales were however offrequent occurrence, concerning the rigour wherewith the Cameronianswere hunted; so that what with anxiety, and the backwardness of natureto rally in ailments ayont fifty, I continued to languish, incapable ofdoing anything in furtherance of the vow of vengeance that I had vowed.Nor should I suppress, that in my infirmity there was often a wildnessabout my thoughts, by which I was unfitted at times to hold communionwith other men.

  On these occasions I sat wondering if the things around me were not thesubstanceless imageries of a dream, and fancying that those terribletruths whereof I can yet only trust myself to hint, might be thefallacies of a diseased sleep. And I contested as it were with thereality of all that I saw, touched, and felt, and struggled like oneoppressed with an incubus, that I might awake and find myself again atQuharist in the midst of my family.

  At other times I felt all the loneliness of the solitude into which mylot was then cast, and it was in vain that I tried to appease my cravingaffections with the thought, that in parting with my son I had given himto the Lord. I durst not say to myself there was aught of frenzy in thatconsecration; but when I heard of Cameronians shot on the hills orbrought to the scaffold, I prayed that I might receive some token of anaccepted offering in what I had done.

  Sterner feelings too had their turns of predominance. I recalled themanifold calamities which withered my native land--the guiltyprovocations that the people had received--the merciless avarice andrapacious profligacy that had ruined so many worthies--the crimes thathad scattered so many families--and the contempt with which all ourwrongs and woes were regarded; and then I would remember my avengingvow, and supplicate for health.

  At last, one day Mrs Aird, who had been out on some household cares,returned home in great distress of mind, telling me that the soldiershad got hold of Mr Cargill, and had brought him into the town.

  This happened about the ninth or tenth of July, in the afternoon; andthe day being very sultry, the heat had oppressed me with langour, and Iwas all day as one laden with sleep. But no sooner had Mrs Aird told methis, than I felt the langour depart from me, as if a cumbrous cloak hadbeen taken away, and I rose up a recruited and reanimated man. It was somuch the end of my debility of body and sorrowing of mind, that she wasloquacious with her surprise when she saw me, as it were, with amiraculous restoration, prepare myself to go out in order to learn, ifpossible, some account of my son.

  When, however, I went into the street, and saw a crowd gathered aroundthe guard-house, my heart failed me a little, not for fear, but becausethe shouts of the multitude were like the yells and derisions of insult;and I thought they were poured upon the holy sufferer. It was not,however, so; the Gospel-taught people of Glasgow were, notwithstandingtheir prelatic thraldom, moved far otherwise, and their shouts andscoffings were against a townsman of their own, who had reviled the manof God on seeing him a prisoner among the soldiers in the guard-house.

  Not then knowing this I halted, dubious if I should go forward; andwhile standing in a swither at the corner of the Stockwell, a cart cameup from the bridge, driven by a stripling. I saw that the cart and horsewere Robin Brown's, and before I had time to look around, my son had meby the hand.

  We said little, but rejoiced to see each other again. I observed,however, that his apparel was become old and that his eyes were grownquick and eager like those of the hunted Cameronians whom I saw atKingswell.

  "We hae ta'en Robin Brown's cart frae him," said he; "that I might comewi't unjealoused into the town, to hear what's to be done wi' theminister; but I maun tak it back the night, and maybe we'll fa' inthegither again when I hae done my errand."

  With that he parted from me, and giving the horse a touch with his whip,drove it along towards the guard-house, whistling like a blithe countrylad that had no care.

  As soon as he had so left me I went back to Mrs Aird, and providingmyself with what money I had in the house, I went to a shop and boughtcertain articles of apparel, which having made up into a bundle, Irequested, the better to disguise my intent, the merchant to carry ithimself to Robin Brown the Ayr carrier's cart, and give it to the ladwho was with it, to take to Joseph Gilhaize,--a thing easy to be done,both the horse and cart being well known in those days to the chiefmerchants then in Glasgow.

  When I had done this, I went to the bridge, and leaning over it, lookedinto the peaceful flowing tide, and there waited for nearly an hourbefore I saw my son returning; and when at last he came, I couldperceive, as he was approaching, that he did not wish I should speak tohim, while at the same time he edged towards me, and in passing, said asit were to himself, "The bundle's safe, and he's for Edinburgh;" bywhich I knew that the apparel I had bought for him was in his hands, andthat he had learnt Mr Cargill was to be sent to Edinburgh.

  This latter circumstance, however, opened to me a new light with respectto the Cameronians, and I guessed that they had friends in the town withwhom they were in secret correspondence. But, alas! the espionage wasnot all on their part, as I very soon was taught to know by experience.

  Though the interviews with Joseph my son passed, as I have hereinnarrated, they had not escaped observance. For some time before, thoughI was seen but as I was, an invalid man, somewhat unsettled in his mind,there were persons who marvelled wherefore it was that I dwelt in suchsequestration with Mrs Aird; and their marvelling set the espial of theprelacy upon me. And it so fell out that some of those evil persons,who, for hire or malice, had made themselves the beagles of thepersecutors, happened to notice the manner in which my son came up to mewhen he entered the city driving Robert Brown's cart, and they jealousedsomewhat of the truth.

  They followed him unsuspected, and saw in what manner he mingled withthe crowd; and they traced him returning out of the town with seeminglyno other cause for having come into it, than to receive the little storeof apparel that I had provided for him. This was ground enough tojustify any molestation against us, and accordingly the same night I wasarrested, and carried next morning to Edinburgh. The cruel officerswould have forced me to walk with the soldiers, but every one who beheldmy pale face and emaciated frame, cried out against it, and a cart wasallowed to me.

  On reaching Edinburgh, I was placed in the tolbooth, where many othersufferers for the cause of the Gospel were then lying. It was a foul andan unwholesome den: many of the guiltless inmates were so wasted thatthey were rather like frightful effigies of death than living men. Theirskins were yellow, and their hands were roped and warpt with veins andsinews in a manner very awful to see. Their eyes were vivid with astrange distemperature, and there was a charnel-house anatomy in themelancholy with which they welcomed a new brother in affliction, thatmade me feel, when I entered among them, as if I had come into the darkabode of spectres, and manes, and dismal shadows.

  The prison was crowded over-much, and though life was to many not worththe care of preservation, they yet esteemed it as the gift of theirMaker, and as such considered it their duty to prolong for His sake. Itwas, therefore, a rule with them to stand in successive bands at thewindows, in order that they might taste of the living air from without;and knowing from dismal experience, that those who came in the lastsuffered at first more than those who were before, it was a charitableself-denial among them to allow to such a longer period of the window,their only solace.

  Th
us it was that on the morning of the third day after I had beenimmured in that doleful place, I was standing with several othersbehind a party of those who were in possession of the enjoyment, inorder that we might take their places when the hour expired; and whilewe were thus awaiting in patience the tedious elapse of the wearymoments, a noise was heard in the streets, as of the approach of amultitude.

  There was something in the coming sound of that tumult unlike the noiseof any other multitude;--ever and anon a feeble shouting, and then theroll of a drum; but the general sough was a murmur of horror followed bya rushing as if the people were scared by some dreadful sight.

  The noise grew louder and nearer, and hoarse bursts of aversion andanger, mingled with lamentations, were distinctly heard. Every one inthe prison pressed to the window, wondering what hideous processioncould occasion the expression of such contrarious feelings in thepopulace, and all eager to catch a glimpse of the dismal pageant,expecting that it was some devoted victim, who, according to thepractice of the time, was treated as a sentenced criminal, even as hewas conveyed to his trial.

  "What do you see?" said I to one of the prisoners, who clung to the barsof iron with which the window near where I stood was grated, and whothereby saw farther down the street.

  "I can see but the crowd coming," said he, "and every one is looking asif he grewed at something not yet in sight."

  At that moment, and while he was speaking, there was a sudden silence inthe street.

  "What has happened?" said one of the sufferers near me: my heart beat sowildly that I would not myself inquire.

  "They have stopped," was the answer; "but now they come. I see themagistrates. Their guard is before them,--the provost is first--they arecoming two and two--and they look very sorrowful."

  "Are there but the magistrates?" said I, making an effort to press incloser to the window.

  "Aye, now it is at hand," said the man who was clinging to the gratingof the window. "The soldiers are marching on each side--I see theprisoners;--their hands are tied behind, ilk loaded wi' a goad ofiron--they are bareheaded--ane--twa--three--four--five--they are fivefatherly-looking men."

  "They are Cameronians," said I, somewhat released, I know not wherefore,unless it was because he spoke of no youth being among them.

  "Hush!" said he, "here is another--He is on horseback--I see the horse'shead--Oh! the sufferer is an old grey-headed minister--his head isuncovered--he is placed with his face to the horse's tail--his hands aretied, and his feet are fastened with a rope beneath the horse'sbelly.--Hush! they are passing under the window."

  At that moment a shriek of horror rose from all then looking out, andevery one recoiled from the window. In the same instant a bloody head ona halbert was held up to us.--I looked--I saw the ghastly features, andI would have kissed those lifeless lips; for, O! they were my son's.