by Walter Scott
Chapter the Fourteenth.
Nay, let me have the friends who eat my victuals, As various as my dishes.--The feast's naught, Where one huge plate predominates. John Plaintext, He shall be mighty beef, our English staple; The worthy Alderman, a butter'd dumpling; Yon pair of whisker'd Cornets, ruffs and rees: Their friend the Dandy, a green goose in sippets. And so the hoard is spread at once and fill'd On the same principle--Variety. NEW PLAY.
"And what brave lass is this?" said Hob Miller, as Mary Avenel enteredthe apartment to supply the absence of Dame Elspeth Glendinning.
"The young Lady of Avenel, father," said the Maid of the Mill, droppingas low a curtsy as her rustic manners enabled her to make. The Miller,her father, doffed his bonnet, and made his reverence, not altogether solow perhaps as if the young lady had appeared in the pride of rank andriches, yet so as to give high birth the due homage which the Scotch fora length of time scrupulously rendered to it.
Indeed, from having had her mother's example before her for so manyyears, and from a native sense of propriety and even of dignity,Mary Avenel had acquired a demeanour, which marked her title toconsideration, and effectually checked any attempt at familiarity on thepart of those who might be her associates in her present situation, butcould not be well termed her equals. She was by nature mild, pensive,and contemplative, gentle in disposition, and most placable whenaccidentally offended; but still she was of a retired and reservedhabit, and shunned to mix in ordinary sports, even--when the rareoccurrence of a fair or wake gave her an opportunity of minglingwith companions of her own age. If at such scenes she was seen for aninstant, she appeared to behold them with the composed indifference ofone to whom their gaiety was a matter of no interest, and who seemedonly desirous to glide away from the scene as soon as she possiblycould.
Something also had transpired concerning her being born on All-hallowEve, and the powers with which that circumstance was supposed to investher over the invisible world. And from all-these particulars combined,the young men and women of the Halidome used to distinguish Mary amongthemselves by the name of the Spirit of Avenel, as if the fair butfragile form, the beautiful but rather colourless cheek, the dark blueeye, and the shady hair, had belonged rather to the immaterial thanthe substantial world. The general tradition of the White Lady, who wassupposed to wait on the fortunes of the family of Avenel, gave a sort ofzest to this piece of rural wit. It gave great offence, however, tothe two sons of Simon Glendinning; and when the expression was intheir presence applied to the young lady, Edward was wont to check thepetulance of those who used it by strength of argument, and Halbert bystrength of arm. In such cases Halbert had this advantage, that althoughho could render no aid to his brother's argument, yet when circumstancesrequired it, he was sure to have that of Edward, who never indeedhimself commenced a fray, but, on the other hand, did not testify anyreluctance to enter into combat in Halbert's behalf or in his rescue.
But the zealous attachment of the two youths, being themselves, fromthe retired situation in which they dwelt, comparative strangers inthe Halidome, did not serve in any degree to alter the feelings of theinhabitants towards the young lady, who seemed to have dropped amongstthem from another sphere of life. Still, however, she was regarded withrespect, if not with fondness; and the attention of the Sub-Prior to thefamily, not to mention the formidable name of Julian Avenel, which everynew incident of those tumultuous times tended to render more famous,attached to his niece a certain importance. Thus some aspired to heracquaintance out of pride while the more timid of the feuars wereanxious to inculcate upon their children the necessity of beingrespectful to the noble orphan. So that Mary Avenel, little lovedbecause little known, was regarded with a mysterious awe, partly derivedfrom fear of her uncle's moss-troopers, and partly from her own retiredand distant habits, enhanced by the superstitious opinions of the timeand country.
It was not without some portion of this awe, that Mysie felt herselfleft alone in company with a young person so distant in rank, and sodifferent in bearing, from herself; for her worthy father had takenthe first opportunity to step out unobserved, in order to mark how thebarnyard was filled, and what prospect it afforded of grist to the mill.In youth, however, there is a sort of free-masonry, which, without muchconversation, teaches young persons to estimate each other's character,and places them at ease on the shortest acquaintance. It is only whentaught deceit by the commerce of the world, that we learn to shroud ourcharacter from observation, and to disguise our real sentiments fromthose with whom we are placed in communion.
Accordingly, the two young women were soon engaged in such objects ofinterest as best became their age. They visited Mary Avenel's pigeons,which she nursed with the tenderness of a mother; they turned over herslender stores of finery, which yet contained some articles that excitedthe respect of her companion, though Mysie was too good-humouredto nourish envy. A golden rosary, and some female ornaments markingsuperior rank, had been rescued in the moment of their utmost adversity,more by Tibb Tacket's presence of mind, than by the care of theirowner,--who was at that sad period too much sunk in grief to payany attention to such circumstances. They struck Mysie with a deepimpression of veneration; for, excepting what the Lord Abbot and theconvent might possess, she did not believe there was so much real goldin the world as was exhibited in these few trinkets, and Mary, howeversage and serious, was not above being pleased with the admiration of herrustic companion.
Nothing, indeed, could exhibit a stronger contrast than the appearanceof the two girls;--the good-humoured laughter-loving countenance ofthe Maid of the Mill, who stood gazing with unrepressed astonishmenton whatever was in her inexperienced eye rare and costly, and with anhumble, and at the same time cheerful acquiescence in her inferiority,asking all the little queries about the use and value of the ornaments,while Mary Avenel, with her quiet composed dignity and placidityof manner, produced them one after another for the amusement of hercompanion.
As they became gradually more familiar, Mysie of the Mill was justventuring to ask, why Mary Avenel never appeared at the May-pole, and toexpress her wonder when the young lady said she disliked dancing, whena trampling of horses at the gate of the tower interrupted theirconversation.
Mysie flew to the shot-window in the full ardour of unrestrained femalecuriosity. "Saint Mary! sweet lady! here come two well-mounted gallants;will you step this way to look at them ?"
"No," said Mary Avenel, "you shall tell me who they are."
"Well, if you like it better," said Mysie--"but how shall I knowthem?---Stay, I do know one of them, and so do you, lady; he is a blitheman, somewhat light of hand, they say, but the gallants of these daysthink no great harm of that. He is your uncle's henchman, that they callChristie of the Clinthill; and he has not his old green jerkin and therusty blackjack over it, but a scarlet cloak, laid down with silver lacethree inches broad, and a breast-plate you might see to dress your hairin, as well as in that keeking-glass in the ivory frame that you showedme even now. Come, dear lady, come to the shot-window and see him."
"If it be the man you mean, Mysie," replied the orphan of Avenel, "Ishall see him soon enough, considering either the pleasure or comfortthe sight will give me."
"Nay, but if you will not come to see gay Christie," replied the Maid ofthe Mill, her face flushed with eager curiosity, "come and tell me whothe gallant is that is with him, the handsomest, the very lovesomestyoung man I ever saw with sight."
"It is my foster-brother, Halbert Glendinning," said Mary, with,apparent indifference; for she had been accustomed to call the sons ofElspeth her foster-brethren, and to live with them as if they had beenbrothers in earnest.
"Nay, by Our Lady, that it is not," said Mysie; "I know the favourof both the Glendinnings well, and I think this rider be not of ourcountry. He has a crimson velvet bonnet, and long brown hair fallingdown under it, and a beard on his upper lip, and his chin clean andclose shaved, save a small patch on the point of the chin, and asky-blue jer
kin slashed and lined with white satin, and trunk-hose tosuit, and no weapon but a rapier and dagger--Well, if I was a man, Iwould never wear weapon but the rapier! it is so slender and becoming,instead of having a cartload of iron at my back, like my father'sbroad-sword with its great rusty basket-hilt. Do you not delight in therapier and poniard, lady?"
"The best sword," answered Mary, "if I must needs answer a question ofthe sort, is that which is drawn in the best cause, and which is bestused when it is out of the scabbard."
"But can you not guess who this stranger should be?" said Mysie.
"Indeed, I cannot even attempt it; but to judge by his companion, it isno matter how little he is known," replied Mary.
"My benison on his bonny face," said Mysie, "if he is not going toalight here! Now, I am as much pleased as if my father had given me thesilver earrings he has promised me so often;--nay, you had as well cometo the window, for you must see him by and by whether you will or not."I do not know how much sooner Mary Avenel might have sought the pointof observation, if she had not been scared from it by the unrestrainedcuriosity expressed by her buxom friend; but at length the same feelingprevailed over her sense of dignity, and satisfied with having displayedall the indifference that was necessary in point of decorum, she nolonger thought herself bound to restrain her curiosity.
From the outshot or projecting window, she could perceive that Christieof the Clinthill was attended on the present occasion by a very gay andgallant cavalier, who, from the nobleness of his countenance and manner,his rich and handsome dress, and the showy appearance of his horse andfurniture, must, she agreed with her new friend, be a person of someconsequence.
Christie also seemed conscious of something, which made him call outwith more than his usual insolence of manner, "What, ho! so ho!the house! Churl peasants, will no one answer when I call?--Ho!Martin,--Tibb,--Dame Glendinning--a murrain on you, must we standkeeping our horses in the cold here, and they steaming with heat, whenwe have ridden so sharply?"
At length he was obeyed, and old Martin made his appearance. "Ha!" saidChristie, "art thou there, old Truepenny? here, stable me these steeds,and see them well bedded, and stretch thine old limbs by rubbing themdown; and see thou quit not the stable till there is not a turned hairon either of them."
Martin took the horses to the stable as commanded, but suppressed nothis indignation a moment after he could vent it with safety. "Would notany one think," he said to Jasper, an old ploughman, who, in coming tohis assistance, had heard Christie's imperious injunctions, "that thisloon, this Christie of the Clinthill, was laird or lord at least of him?No such thing, man! I remember him a little dirty turnspit boy in thehouse of Avenel, that every body in a frosty morning like this warmedhis fingers by kicking or cuffing! and now he is a gentleman, andswears, d--n him and renounce him, as if the gentlemen could not somuch as keep their own wickedness to themselves, without the like ofhim going to hell in their very company, and by the same road. I have asmuch a mind as ever I had to my dinner, to go back and tell him to sorthis horse himself, since he is as able as I am."
"Hout tout, man!" answered Jasper, "keep a calm sough; better to fleecha fool than fight with him."
Martin acknowledged the truth of the proverb, and, much comfortedtherewith, betook himself to cleaning the stranger's horse with greatassiduity, remarking, it was a pleasure to handle a handsome nag,and turned over the other to the charge of Jasper. Nor was it untilChristie's commands were literally complied with that he deemed itproper, after fitting ablutions, to join the party in the spence; notfor the purpose of waiting upon them, as a mere modern reader mightpossibly expect, but that he might have his share of dinner in theircompany.
In the meanwhile, Christie had presented his companion to DameGlendinning as Sir Piercie Shafton, a friend of his and of his master,come to spend three or four days with little din in the tower. The gooddame could not conceive how she was entitled to such an honour, andwould fain have pleaded her want of every sort of convenience toentertain a guest of that quality. But, indeed, the visiter, whenhe cast his eyes round the bare walls, eyed the huge black chimney,scrutinized the meagre and broken furniture of the apartment, andbeheld the embarrassment of the mistress of the family, intimated greatreluctance to intrude upon Dame Glendinning a visit, which could scarce,from all appearances, prove otherwise than an inconvenience to her, anda penance to himself.
But the reluctant hostess and her guest had to do with an inexorableman, who silenced all expostulations with, "such was his master'spleasure. And, moreover," he continued, "though the Baron of Avenel'swill must, and ought to prove law to all within ten miles around him,yet here, dame," he said, "is a letter from your petticoated baron, thelord-priest yonder, who enjoins you, as you regard his pleasure, thatyou afford to this good knight such decent accommodation as is in yourpower, suffering him to live as privately as he shall desire.--Andfor you, Sir Piercie Shafton," continued Christie, "you will judge foryourself, whether secrecy and safety is not more your object even now,than soft beds and high cheer. And do not judge of the dame's goodsby the semblance of her cottage; for you will see by the dinner she isabout to spread for us, that the vassal of the kirk is seldom found withher basket bare." To Mary Avenel, Christie presented the stranger, afterthe best fashion he could, as to the niece of his master the baron.
While he thus laboured to reconcile Sir Piercie Shafton to his fate, thewidow, having consulted her son Edward on the real import of the LordAbbot's injunction, and having found that Christie had given a trueexposition, saw nothing else left for her but to make that fate as easyas she could to the stranger. He himself also seemed reconciled to hislot by some feeling probably of strong necessity, and accepted witha good grace the hospitality which the dame offered with a veryindifferent one.
In fact, the dinner, which soon smoked before the assembled guests,was of that substantial kind which warrants plenty and comfort. DameGlendinning had cooked it after her best manner; and, delighted with thehandsome appearance which her good cheer made when placed on the table,forgot both her plans and the vexations which interrupted them, in thehospitable duty of pressing her assembled visiters to eat and drink,watching every trencher as it waxed empty, and loading it with freshsupplies ere the guest could utter a negative.
In the meanwhile, the company attentively regarded each other's motions,and seemed endeavouring to form a judgment of each other's character.Sir Piercie Shafton condescended to speak to no one but to Mary Avenel,and on her he conferred exactly the same familiar and compassionate,though somewhat scornful sort of attention, which a pretty fellow ofthese days will sometimes condescend to bestow on a country miss, whenthere is no prettier or more fashionable woman present. The mannerindeed was different, for the etiquette of those times did not permitSir Piercie Shafton to pick his teeth, or to yawn, or to gabble like thebeggar whose tongue (as he says) was cut out by the Turks, or to affectdeafness or blindness, or any other infirmity of the organs. But thoughthe embroidery of his conversation was different, the groundwork was thesame, and the high-flown and ornate compliments with which the gallantknight of the sixteenth century inter-larded his conversation, were asmuch the offspring of egotism and self-conceit, as the jargon of thecoxcombs of our own days.
The English knight was, however, something daunted at finding that MaryAvenel listened with an air of indifference, and answered with wonderfulbrevity, to all the fine things which ought, as he conceived, to havedazzled her with their brilliancy, and puzzled her by their obscurity.But if he was disappointed in making the desired, or rather the expectedimpression, upon her whom he addressed, Sir Piercie Shafton's discoursewas marvellous in the ears of Mysie the Miller's daughter, and not theless so that she did not comprehend the meaning of a single word whichhe uttered. Indeed, the gallant knight's language was far too courtly tobe understood by persons of much greater acuteness than Mysie's.
It was about this period, that the "only rare poet of his time, thewitty, comical, facetiously-quick, and quickly-face
tious, John Lylly--hethat sate at Apollo's table, and to whom Phoebus gave a wreath of hisown bays without snatching" [Footnote: Such, and yet more extravagant,are the compliments paid to this author by his editor, Blount.Notwithstanding all exaggeration, Lylly was really a man of wit andimagination, though both were deformed by the most unnatural affectationthat ever disgraced a printed page.]--he, in short, who wrote thatsingularly coxcomical work, called _Euphues and his England_, was in thevery zenith of his absurdity and his reputation. The quaint, forced,and unnatural style which he introduced by his "Anatomy of Wit," hada fashion as rapid as it was momentary--all the court ladies were hisscholars, and to _parler Euphuisme_, was as necessary a qualification toa courtly gallant, as those of understanding how to use his rapier, orto dance a measure.
It was no wonder that the Maid of the Mill was soon as effectuallyblinded by the intricacies of this erudite and courtly style ofconversation, as she had ever been by the dust of her father's ownmeal-sacks. But there she sate with her mouth and eyes as open as themill-door and the two windows, showing teeth as white as her father'sbolted flour, and endeavouring to secure a word or two for her ownfuture use out of the pearls of rhetoric which Sir Piercie Shaftonscattered around him with such bounteous profusion.
For the male part of the company, Edward felt ashamed of his own mannerand slowness of speech, when he observed the handsome young courtier,with an ease and volubility of which he had no conception, run overall the commonplace topics of high-flown gallantry. It is true the goodsense and natural taste of young Glendinning soon informed him that thegallant cavalier was speaking nonsense. But, alas! where is the man ofmodest merit, and real talent, who has not suffered from being outshonein conversation and outstripped in the race of life, by men of lessreserve, and of qualities more showy, though less substantial? and wellconstituted must the mind be, that can yield up the prize without envyto competitors more worthy than himself.
Edward Glendinning had no such philosophy. While he despised the jargonof the gay cavalier, he envied the facility with which he could run on,as well as the courtly tone and expression, and the perfect ease andelegance with which he offered all the little acts of politeness towhich the duties of the table gave opportunity. And if I am to speaktruth, I must own that he envied those qualities the more as theywere all exercised in Mary Avenel's service, and, although only sofar accepted as they could not be refused, intimated a wish on thestranger's part to place himself in her good graces, as the only personin the room to whom he thought it worth while to recommend himself. Histitle, rank, and very handsome figure, together with some sparks of witand spirit which flashed across the cloud of nonsense which he uttered,rendered him, as the words of the old song say, "a lad for a lady'sviewing;" so that poor Edward, with all his real worth and acquiredknowledge, in his home-spun doublet, blue cap, and deerskin trowsers,looked like a clown beside the courtier, and, feeling the fullinferiority, nourished no good-will to him by whom he was eclipsed.
Christie, on the other hand, as soon as he had satisfied to the full acommodious appetite, by means of which persons of his profession could,like the wolf and eagle, gorge themselves with as much food at one mealas might serve them for several days, began also to feel himself more inthe back-ground than he liked to be. This worthy had, amongst his othergood qualities, an excellent opinion of himself; and, being of a boldand forward disposition, had no mind to be thrown into the shade byany one. With an impudent familiarity which such persons mistake forgraceful ease, he broke in upon the knight's finest speeches with aslittle remorse as he would have driven the point of his lance through alaced doublet. Sir Piercie Shafton, a man of rank and high birth, by nomeans encouraged or endured this familiarity, and requited the intrudereither with total neglect, or such laconic replies as intimated asovereign contempt for the rude spearman, who affected to converse withhim upon terms of equality.
The Miller held his peace; for, as his usual conversation turned chieflyon his clapper and toll-dish, he had no mind to brag of his wealth inpresence of Christie of the Clinthill, or to intrude his discourse onthe English cavalier.
A little specimen of the conversation may not be out of place, were itbut to show young ladies what fine things they have lost by living whenEuphuism is out of fashion.
"Credit me, fairest lady," said the knight, "that such is the cunningof our English courtiers, of the hodiernal strain, that, as theyhave infinitely refined upon the plain and rusticial discourse ofour fathers, which, as I may say, more beseemed the mouths of countryroisterers in a May-game than that of courtly gallants in a galliard,so I hold it ineffably and unutterably impossible, that those who maysucceed us in that garden of wit and courtesy shall alter or amend it.Venus delighted but in the language of Mercury, Bucephalus will stoop tono one but Alexander, none can sound Apollo's pipe but Orpheus."
"Valiant sir," said Mary, who could scarcely help laughing, "we havebut to rejoice in the chance which hath honoured this solitude with aglimpse of the sun of courtesy, though it rather blinds than enlightensus."
"Pretty and quaint, fairest lady," answered the Euphuist. "Ah, that Ihad with me my Anatomy of Wit--that all-to-be-unparalleled volume--thatquintessence of human wit--that treasury of quaintinvention--that exquisitively-pleasant-to-read, andinevitably-necessary-to-be-remembered manual, of all that is worthyto be known--which indoctrines the rude in civility, the dull inintellectuality, the heavy in jocosity, the blunt in gentility, thevulgar in nobility, and all of them in that unutterable perfection, ofhuman utterance, that eloquence which no other eloquence is sufficientto praise, that art which, when we call it by its own name of Euphuism,we bestow on it its richest panegyric."
"By Saint Mary," said Christie of the Clinthill, "if your worshiphad told me that you had left such stores of wealth as you talk of atPrudhoe Castle, Long Dickie and I would have had them off with us if manand horse could have carried them; but you told us of no treasure I wotof, save the silver tongs for turning up your mustachoes."
The knight treated this intruder's mistake--for certainly Christie hadno idea that all these epithets which sounded so rich and splendid,were lavished upon a small quarto volume--with a stare, and then turningagain to Mary Avenel, the only person whom he thought worthy to address,he proceeded in his strain of high-flown oratory, "Even thus," said he,"do hogs contemn the splendour of Oriental pearls; even thus are thedelicacies of a choice repast in vain offered to the long-eared grazerof the common, who turneth from them to devour a thistle. Surely asidle is it to pour forth the treasures of oratory before the eyes of theignorant, and to spread the dainties of the intellectual banquet beforethose who are, morally and metaphysically speaking, no better thanasses."
"Sir Knight, since that is your quality," said Edward, "we cannot strivewith you in loftiness of language; but I pray you in fair courtesy,while you honour my father's house with your presence, to spare us suchvile comparisons."
"Peace, good villagio," said the knight, gracefully waving his hand, "Iprithee peace, kind rustic; and you, my guide, whom I may scarce callhonest, let me prevail upon you to imitate the laudable taciturnity ofthat honest yeoman, who sits as mute as a mill-post, and of thatcomely damsel, who seems as with her ears she drank in what she did notaltogether comprehend, even as a palfrey listening to a lute, whereof,howsoever, he knoweth not the gamut."
"Marvellous fine words," at length said Dame Glendinning, who began tobe tired of sitting so long silent, "marvellous fine words, neighbourHapper, are they not?"
"Brave words--very brave words--very exceeding pyet words," answered theMiller; "nevertheless, to speak my mind, a lippy of bran were worth abushel of them."
"I think so too, under his worship's favour," answered Christie of theClinthill. "I well remember that at the race of Morham, as we callit, near Berwick, I took a young Southern fellow out of saddle with mylance, and cast him, it might be, a gad's length from his nag; and so,as he had some gold on his laced doublet, I deemed he might ha' the likeon it in his pocket too, though tha
t is a rule that does not aye holdgood--So I was speaking to him of ransom, and out he comes with ahandful of such terms as his honour there hath gleaned up, and craved mefor mercy, as I was a true son of Mars, and such like."
"And obtained no mercy at thy hand, I dare be sworn," said the knight,who deigned not to speak Euphuism excepting to the fair sex.
"By my troggs," replied Christie, "I would have thrust my lance down histhroat, but just then they flung open that accursed postern-gate, andforth pricked old Hunsdon, and Henry Carey, and as many fellows at theirheels as turned the chase northward again. So I e'en pricked Bayard withthe spur, and went off with the rest; for a man should ride when he maynot wrestle, as they say in Tynedale."
"Trust me," said the knight, again turning to Mary Avenel, "if I donot pity you, lady, who, being of noble blood, are thus in a mannercompelled to abide in the cottage of the ignorant, like the preciousstone in the head of the toad, or like a precious garland on the brow ofan ass.--But soft, what gallant have we here, whose garb savoureth moreof the rustic than doth his demeanour, and whose looks seem more loftythan his habit; even as--"
"I pray you, Sir Knight," said Mary, "to spare your courtly similitudesfor refined ears, and give me leave to name unto you my foster-brother,Halbert Glendinning."
"The son of the good dame of the cottage, as I opine," answered theEnglish knight; "for by some such name did my guide discriminatethe mistress of this mansion, which you, madam, enrich with yourpresence.--And yet, touching this juvenal, he hath that about him whichbelongeth to higher birth, for all are not black who dig coals--"
"Nor all white who are millers," said honest Happer, glad to get in aword, as they say, edgeways.
Halbert, who had sustained the glance of the Englishman with someimpatience, and knew not what to make of his manner and language,replied with some asperity, "Sir Knight, we have in this land ofScotland an ancient saying, 'Scorn not the bush that bields you'--youare a guest of my father's house to shelter you from danger, if I amrightly informed by the domestics. Scoff not its homeliness, nor that ofits inmates--ye might long have abidden at the court of England, erewe had sought your favour, or cumbered you with our society. Since yourfate has sent you hither amongst us, be contented with such fare andsuch converse as we can afford you, and scorn us not for our kindness;for the Scots wear short patience and long daggers."
All eyes were turned on Halbert while he was thus speaking, andthere was a general feeling that his countenance had an expression ofintelligence, and his person an air of dignity, which they had neverbefore observed. Whether it were that the wonderful Being with whomhe had so lately held communication, had bestowed on him a grace anddignity of look and bearing which he had not before, or whether thebeing conversant in high matters, and called to a destiny beyond thatof other men, had a natural effect in giving becoming confidence to hislanguage and manner, we pretend not to determine. But it was evidentto all, that, from this day, young Halbert was an altered man; thathe acted with the steadiness, promptitude, and determination,which belonged to riper years, and bore himself with a manner whichappertained to higher rank.
The knight took the rebuke with good humour. "By my mine honour," hesaid, "thou hast reason on thy side, good juvenal--nevertheless, I spokenot as in ridicule of the roof which relieves me, but rather in your ownpraise, to whom, if this roof be native, thou mayst nevertheless risefrom its lowliness; even as the lark, which maketh its humble nestin the furrow, ascendeth towards the sun, as well as the eagle whichbuildeth her eyry in the cliff."
This high-flown discourse was interrupted by Dame Glendinning, who, withall the busy anxiety of a mother, was loading her son's trencher withfood, and dinning in his ear her reproaches on account of his prolongedabsence. "And see," she said, "that you do not one day get such a sightwhile you are walking about among the haunts of them that are not of ourflesh and bone, as befell Mungo Murray when he slept on the greenswardring of the Auld Kirkhill at sunset, and wakened at daybreak in the wildhills of Breadalbane. And see that, when you are looking for deer, thered stag does not gall you as he did Diccon Thorburn, who neverovercast the wound that he took from a buck's horn. And see, when you goswaggering about with a long broadsword by your side, whilk itbecomes no peaceful man to do, that you dinna meet with them that havebroadsword and lance both--there are enow of rank riders in this land,that neither fear God nor regard man."
Here her eye "in a fine frenzy rolling," fell full upon that of Christieof the Clinthill, and at once her fears for having given offenceinterrupted the current of maternal rebuke, which, like rebukematrimonial, may be often better meant than timed. There was somethingof sly and watchful significance in Christie's eye, an eye gray, keen,fierce, yet wily, formed to express at once cunning, and malice, whichmade the dame instantly conjecture she had said too much, while shesaw in imagination her twelve goodly cows go lowing down the glen in amoonlight night, with half a score of Border spearsmen at their heels.
Her voice, therefore, sunk from the elevated tone of maternal authorityinto a whimpering apologetic sort of strain, and she proceeded to say,"It is no that I have ony ill thoughts of the Border riders, for TibbTacket there has often heard me say that I thought spear and bridle asnatural to a Borderman as a pen to a priest, or a feather-fan to a lady;and--have you not heard me say it, Tibb?"
Tibb showed something less than her expected alacrity in attesting hermistress's deep respect for the freebooters of the southland hills; but,thus conjured, did at length reply, "Hout ay, mistress, I'se warrant Ihave heard you say something like that."
"Mother!" said Halbert, in a firm and commanding tone of voice, "whator whom is it that you fear under my father's roof?--I well hope thatit harbours not a guest in whose presence you are afraid to say yourpleasure to me or my brother? I am sorry I have been detained so late,being ignorant of the fair company which I should encounter on myreturn.--I pray you let this excuse suffice: and what satisfies you,will, I trust, be nothing less than acceptable to your guests."
An answer calculated so jistly betwixt the submission due to his parent,and the natural feeling of dignity in one who was by birth master ofthe mansion, excited universal satisfaction. And as Elspeth herselfconfessed to Tibb on the same evening, "She did not think it had been inthe callant. Till that night, he took pets and passions if he was spoketo, and lap through the house like a four-year-auld at the least word ofadvice that was minted at him, but now he spoke as grave and as douce asthe Lord Abbot himself. She kendna," she said, "what might be the upshotof it, but it was like he was a wonderfu' callant even now."
The party then separated, the young men retiring to their apartments,the elder to their household cares. While Christie went to see his horseproperly accommodated, Edward betook himself to his book, and Halbert,who was as ingenious in employing his hands as he had hitherto appearedimperfect in mental exertion, applied himself to constructing a placeof concealment in the floor of his apartment by raising a plank, beneathwhich he resolved to deposit that copy of the Holy Scriptures which hadbeen so strangely regained from the possession of men and spirits.
In the meanwhile Sir Piercie Shafton sate still as a stone, in the chairin which he had deposited himself, his hands folded on his breast, hislegs stretched straight out before him and resting upon the heels, hiseyes cast up to the ceiling as if he had meant to count every mesh ofevery cobweb with which the arched roof was canopied, wearing at thesame time a face of as solemn and imperturbable gravity, as if hisexistence had depended on the accuracy of his calculation.
He could scarce be roused from his listless state of contemplativeabsorption so as to take some supper, a meal at which the youngerfemales appeared not. Sir Piercie stared around twice or thrice as if hemissed something; but he asked not for them, and only evinced his senseof a proper audience being wanting, by his abstraction and absence ofmind, seldom speaking until he was twice addressed, and then replying,without trope or figure, in that plain English which nobody could speakbetter when he had a mind.
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Christie, finding himself in undisturbed possession of the conversation,indulged all who chose to listen with details of his own wild andinglorious warfare, while Dame Elspeth's curch bristled with horror,and Tibb Tacket, rejoiced to find herself once more in the company ofa jackman, listened to his tales, like Desdemona to Othello's, withundisguised delight. Meantime the two young Glendinnings were eachwrapped up in his own reflections, and only interrupted in them by thesignal to move bedward.
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