by Walter Scott
'If it be only your purpose to see the gentleman to the beach,' said General Campbell, 'I will myself go with you. My presence among you, unarmed, and in your power, will be a pledge of my friendly intentions, and will overawe, should such be offered, any interruption on the part of officious persons.'
'Be it so,' said the Adventurer, with the air of a prince to a subject, not of one who complied with the request of an enemy too powerful to be resisted.
They left the apartment—they left the house—an unauthenticated and dubious, but appalling, sensation of terror had already spread itself among the inferior retainers, who had so short time before strutted, and bustled, and thronged the doorway and the passages. A report had arisen, of which the origin could not be traced, of troops advancing towards the spot in considerable numbers; and men who, for one reason or other, were most of them amenable to the arm of power, had either shrunk into stables or corners, or fled the place entirely. There was solitude on the landscape excepting the small party which now moved towards the rude pier, where a boat lay manned, agreeably to Redgauntlet's orders previously given.
The last heir of the Stuarts leant on Redgauntlet's arm as they walked towards the beach; for the ground was rough, and he no longer possessed the elasticity of limb and of spirit which had, twenty years before, carried him over many a Highland hill as light as one of their native deer. His adherents followed, looking on the ground, their feelings struggling against the dictates of their reason.
General Campbell accompanied them with an air of apparent ease and indifference, but watching, at the same time, and no doubt with some anxiety, the changing features of those who acted in this extraordinary scene.
Darsie and his sister naturally followed their uncle, whose violence they no longer feared, while his character attracted their respect, and Alan Fairford attended them from interest in their fate, unnoticed in a party where all were too much occupied with their own thoughts and feelings, as well as with the impending crisis, to attend to his presence.
Half-way betwixt the house and the beach, they saw the bodies of Nanty Ewart and Cristal Nixon blackening in the sun.
'That was your informer?' said Redgauntlet, looking back to General Campbell, who only nodded his assent.
'Caitiff wretch!' exclaimed Redgauntlet;—'and yet the name were better bestowed on the fool who could be misled by thee.'
'That sound broadsword cut,' said the general, 'has saved us the shame of rewarding a traitor.'
They arrived at the place of embarkation. The prince stood a moment with folded arms, and looked around him in deep silence. A paper was then slipped into his hands—he looked at it, and said, 'I find the two friends I have left at Fairladies are apprised of my destination, and propose to embark from Bowness. I presume this will not be an infringement of the conditions under which you have acted?'
'Certainly not,' answered General Campbell; 'they shall have all facility to join you.'
'I wish, then,' said Charles, 'only another companion. Redgauntlet, the air of this country is as hostile to you as it is to me. These gentlemen have made their peace, or rather they have done nothing to break it. But you—come you and share my home where chance shall cast it. We shall never see these shores again; but we will talk of them, and of our disconcerted bull-fight.'
'I follow you, sire, through life,' said Redgauntlet, 'as I would have followed you to death. Permit me one moment.'
The prince then looked round, and seeing the abashed countenances of his other adherents bent upon the ground, he hastened to say, 'Do not think that you, gentlemen, have obliged me less because your zeal was mingled with prudence, entertained, I am sure, more on my own account and on that of your country, than from selfish apprehensions.'
He stepped from one to another, and, amid sobs and bursting tears, received the adieus of the last remnant which had hitherto supported his lofty pretensions, and addressed them individually with accents of tenderness and affection.
The general drew a little aloof, and signed to Redgauntlet to speak with him while this scene proceeded. 'It is now all over,' he said, 'and Jacobite will be henceforward no longer a party name. When you tire of foreign parts, and wish to make your peace, let me know. Your restless zeal alone has impeded your pardon hitherto.'
'And now I shall not need it,' said Redgauntlet. 'I leave England for ever; but I am not displeased that you should hear my family adieus.—Nephew, come hither. In presence of General Campbell, I tell you, that though to breed you up in my own political opinions has been for many years my anxious wish, I am now glad that it could not be accomplished. You pass under the service of the reigning monarch without the necessity of changing your allegiance—a change, however,' he added, looking around him, which sits more easy on honourable men than I could have anticipated; but some wear the badge of their loyalty on their sleeve, and others in the heart. You will, from henceforth, be uncontrolled master of all the property of which forfeiture could not deprive your father—of all that belonged to him—excepting this, his good sword' (laying his hand on the weapon he wore), 'which shall never fight for the House of Hanover; and as my hand will never draw weapon more, I shall sink it forty fathoms deep in the wide ocean. Bless you, young man! If I have dealt harshly with you, forgive me. I had set my whole desires on one point,—God knows, with no selfish purpose; and I am justly punished by this final termination of my views, for having been too little scrupulous in the means by which I pursued them.—Niece, farewell, and may God bless you also!'
'No, sir,' said Lilias, seizing his hand eagerly. 'You have been hitherto my protector,—you are now in sorrow, let me be your attendant and your comforter in exile.'
'I thank you, my girl, for your unmerited affection; but it cannot and must not be. The curtain here falls between us. I go to the house of another. If I leave it before I quit the earth, it shall be only for the House of God. Once more, farewell both! The fatal doom,' he said, with a melancholy smile, 'will, I trust, now depart from the House of Redgauntlet, since its present representative has adhered to the winning side. I am convinced he will not change it, should it in turn become the losing one.'
The unfortunate Charles Edward had now given his last adieus to his downcast adherents. He made a sign with his hand to Redgauntlet, who came to assist him into the skiff. General Campbell also offered his assistance, the rest appearing too much affected by the scene which had taken place to prevent him.
'You are not sorry, general, to do me this last act of courtesy,' said the Chevalier; 'and, on my part, I thank you for it. You have taught me the principle on which men on the scaffold feel forgiveness and kindness even for their executioner. Farewell!'
They were seated in the boat, which presently pulled off from the land. The Oxford divine broke out into a loud benediction, in terms which General Campbell was too generous to criticize at the time, or to remember afterwards;—nay, it is said, that, Whig and Campbell as he was, he could not help joining in the universal Amen! which resounded from the shore.
CONCLUSION, BY DR. DRYASDUST
IN A LETTER TO THE AUTHOR OF WAVERLEY
I am truly sorry, my worthy and much-respected sir, that my anxious researches have neither, in the form of letters, nor of diaries or other memoranda, been able to discover more than I have hitherto transmitted, of the history of the Redgauntlet family. But I observe in an old newspaper called the WHITEHALL GAZETTE, of which I fortunately possess a file for several years, that Sir Arthur Darsie Redgauntlet was presented to his late Majesty at the drawing-room, by Lieut.-General Campbell—upon which the editor observes, in the way of comment, that we were going, REMIS ATQUE VELIS, into the interests of the Pretender, since a Scot had presented a Jacobite at Court. I am sorry I have not room (the frank being only uncial) for his further observations, tending to show the apprehensions entertained by many well-instructed persons of the period, that the young king might himself be induced to become one of the Stuarts' faction,—a catastrophe from which it has pleased He
aven to preserve these kingdoms.
I perceive also, by a marriage-contract in the family repositories, that Miss Lilias Redgauntlet of Redgauntlet, about eighteen months after the transactions you have commemorated, intermarried with Alan Fairford, Esq., Advocate, of Clinkdollar, who, I think, we may not unreasonably conclude to be the same person whose name occurs so frequently in the pages of your narration. In my last excursion to Edinburgh, I was fortunate enough to discover an old caddie, from whom, at the expense of a bottle of whisky and half a pound of tobacco, I extracted the important information, that he knew Peter Peebles very well, and had drunk many a mutchkin with him in Caddie Fraser's time. He said 'that he lived ten years after King George's accession, in the momentary expectation of winning his cause every day in the session time, and every hour in the day, and at last fell down dead, in what my informer called a 'perplexity fit,' upon a proposal for a composition being made to him in the Outer House. I have chosen to retain my informer's phrase, not being able justly to determine whether it is a corruption of the word apoplexy, as my friend Mr. Oldbuck supposes, or the name of some peculiar disorder incidental to those who have concern in the courts of law, as many callings and conditions of men have diseases appropriate to themselves. The same caddie also remembered Blind Willie Stevenson, who was called Wandering Willie, and who ended his days 'unco beinly, in Sir Arthur Redgauntlet's ha' neuk.' 'He had done the family some good turn,' he said, 'specially when ane of the Argyle gentlemen was coming down on a wheen of them that had the "auld leaven" about them, and wad hae taen every man of them, and nae less nor headed and hanged them. But Willie, and a friend they had, called Robin the Rambler, gae them warning, by playing tunes such as "The Campbells are coming" and the like, whereby they got timeous warning to take the wing.' I need not point out to your acuteness, my worthy sir, that this seems to refer to some inaccurate account of the transactions in which you seem so much interested.
Respecting Redgauntlet, about whose subsequent history you are more particularly inquisitive, I have learned from an excellent person who was a priest in the Scottish Monastery of Ratisbon, before its suppression, that he remained for two or three years in the family of the Chevalier, and only left it at last in consequence of some discords in that melancholy household. As he had hinted to General Campbell, he exchanged his residence for the cloister, and displayed in the latter part of his life, a strong sense of the duties of religion, which in his earlier days he had too much neglected, being altogether engaged in political speculations and intrigues. He rose to the situation of prior, in the house which he belonged to, and which was of a very strict order of religion. He sometimes received his countrymen, whom accident brought to Ratisbon, and curiosity induced to visit the Monastery of ———. But it was remarked, that though he listened with interest and attention, when Britain, or particularly Scotland, became the subject of conversation, yet he never either introduced or prolonged the subject, never used the English language, never inquired about English affairs, and, above all, never mentioned his own family. His strict observation of the rules of his order gave him, at the time of his death, some pretensions to be chosen a saint, and the brethren of the Monastery of ——— made great efforts for that effect, and brought forward some plausible proofs of miracles. But there was a circumstance which threw a doubt over the subject, and prevented the consistory from acceding to the wishes of the worthy brethren. Under his habit, and secured in a small silver box, he had worn perpetually around his neck a lock of-hair, which the fathers avouched to be a relic. But the Avvocato del Diabolo, in combating (as was his official duty) the pretensions of the candidate for sanctity, made it at least equally probable that the supposed relic was taken from the head of a brother of the deceased prior, who had been executed for adherence to the Stuart family in 1745-6; and the motto, HAUD OBLIVISCENDUM, seemed to intimate a tone of mundane feeling and recollection of injuries, which made it at least doubtful whether, even in the quiet and gloom of the cloister, Father Hugo had forgotten the sufferings and injuries of the House of Redgauntlet.
June 10, 1824,
GLOSSARY
ABOON, above.
AD LITEM, in law.
AD VINDICTAM PUBLICAM, for the public defence.
ADUST, looking as if burned or scorched.
AE, one.
AFFLATUS, breath, inspiration.
AIRT, direct.
ALCANDER, a Greek soothsayer.
ALDEBORONTIPHOSCOPHORNIO, a courtier in H. Carey's burlesque,
CHRONONHOTONTHOLOGOS.
ALIMENTARY, nourishing.
ALQUIFE, an enchanter in the mediaeval romances of knight-errantry.
AMADIS, a hero of the romances, especially in Amadis of Gaul.
ANENT, about.
ANES, once.
ANNO DOMINI, in the year of the Lord.
ARGUMENTUM AD HOMINEM, AD FEMINAM, lit. 'the argument to a man, to a woman,' refutation of a man's argument by an example drawn from his own conduct.
ARIES, earnest-money, a gift.
ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS, art is long, life short.
ARS MEDENDI, art of medicine.
APPROBATE, approve.
ATLANTES, a character in ORLANDO FURIOSO.
AULD REEKIE, Edinburgh.
ADVOCATO DEL DIABOLO, lit. 'the devil's advocate', one whose duty it is to oppose the canonization of a person on whose behalf claims to sanctity are made.
AWSOME, awful, fearful.
BACK-GANGING, behind hand in paying.
BACKSPAUL, the back of the shoulder.
BALLANT, a ballad, a fable.
BANNOCK, a flat, round cake.
BARLEY-BROO, barley-broth.
BARON-OFFICER, the magistrate's officer in a burgh of barony.
BARTIZAN, a small overhanging turret, the battlements.
BEAUFET, cupboard.
BEAVER, the lower part of the helmet.
BEIN, comfortable.
BELISARIUS, a general of the Eastern Empire ungratefully treated by the Emperor Justinian.
BENEDICTE, bless you.
BETIMES THE MORN, early in the morning.
BICKER, a wooden vessel for holding drink; a quarrel.
BILLIE, a term of familiarity, comrade.
BIRKIE, a smart fellow.
BIRLING, merry-making.
BIT, small.
BLATE, shy, bashful.
BLAWING, flattering.
BLEEZING, bragging.
BLUE-CAP, a Scotsman.
BOGLE, a ghost, a scarecrow.
BON VIVANTS, lovers of good living.
BONA ROBA, a showy wanton.
BONUS SOCIUS, good comrade.
BORREL, common, rude.
BRAID, broad.
BRASH, a sudden storm, an attack.
BRATTLE, a clattering noise, as of a horse going at full speed.
BRAW, brave, fine.
BRENT BROO, high brow.
BROCARD, maxim.
BROSE, oatmeal which has had boiling water poured upon it.
BROWN, a famous landscape gardener.
BROWST, a brewing.
BUCEPHALUS, the favourite horse of Alexander the Great.
BUCKIE, an imp, a fellow with an evil twist in his character.
BUFF NOR STYE, neither one thing nor another.
BUFFERS, pistols.
BUSK, deck up.
BY ORDINAR, extraordinary, uncommon.
BYE AND ATTOUR, over and above.
CADGER, a travelling dealer.
CADDIE, a porter, an errand-boy.
CAETERA PRORSUS IGNORO, in short, I know nothing of the rest.
CALLANT, a young lad.
CALLER, cool, fresh.
CANNY, shrewd, prudent, quiet.
CANTLE, fragment.
CAPERNOITED, crabbed, foolish.
CAPRICCIOS, a fanciful composition.
CAPRIOLE, a leap made by a horse without advancing.
CARDINAL, a woman's cloak.
CARLINES, old women.
CATILINA OMNIUM, ETC. Catilina had surrounded himself with the
most vile and criminal company.
CAUSEWAY, path, roadway.
CAVALIERE SERVENTE, gentleman in attendance.
CAVE NE LITERAS, ETC. take care that you are not carrying
Bellerophon's letters (letters unfavourable to the bearer).
CHACK, a slight repast.
CHANCY, safe, auspicious.
CHANGE-HOUSE, a small inn or ale-house.
CHANTER, the tenor or treble pipe in a bag-pipe.
CHAPE, a thin metal blade at the end of a scabbard.
CHAPEAU BRAS, a low, three-cornered hat.
CHOUGH, a bird of the crow family.