At War with Society; or, Tales of the Outcasts

by Rodrigues Ottolengui

  The Blue-Bells of Scotland.

  There are apparently two reasons that influence some of our Edinburghgentry in locking up their houses and ticketing a window with directionsabout keys when they go to the country. The first is, that they save thewages of a woman to take charge of the house; and the second, that theymay tell their less lucky neighbours that they are able to go to thecountry and enjoy themselves. No doubt they trust to the watchfulness ofa policeman, forgetting that the man has no more than two eyes and twolegs, with too often a small portion of brains, which he uses in silentmeditation--a kind of "night thoughts," not always about housebreakersand thieves. I have heard of some of the latter making fun out of theseinviting locked-up mansions. "Bill, there's a ticket in the window aboutkeys, but it's too far off to be read, and besides, you know, _we can'tread_." "No, and so we'll use a key of our own; we can't help themthings."

  I don't suppose that Mr Jackson, of Coates Crescent, entertained anysuch notions when, in June 1843, he locked up his house on the occasionof a short absence of some five or six days; but certain it is, thatwhen he returned he found all outside precisely as he had leftit--blinds down, shutters close, doors locked. All right, he thought, ashe applied the key and opened the door; but this confidence lasted nolonger than a few minutes, when he discovered that his top-coats whichhung in the lobby were gone. Now alarmed, he hurried through the house,and wherever he went he found almost every lock of press, cabinet, anddrawer, either picked by skeleton keys or wrenched off, wood andall--the splinters of the torn mahogany lying on the carpets. All right!yes, outside. If he had been cool enough he might have thought of thegood man's cheese of three stones, laid upon the shelf for thechristening, and when taken down (all right outside) weighed only theavoirdupois of the skin, the inside having been enjoyed by artistsscarcely more velvet-footed; and yet the parallel would not have beentrue, for the thieves here had been most fastidious gentry--evenrefined, for, in place of carrying off most valuable articles offurniture, they had been contented with only the fine bits of jewellery,gold, and precious stones, such as they could easily carry away, andeasily dispose of.

  Finding his elegant lockfast pieces of furniture thus torn up, MrJackson had no patience to make inquiry into the extent of thedepredations before coming to the Office and reporting the state inwhich he had found his house. When I saw him he was wroth, not so muchat what might turn out to have been stolen as at the recklessdestruction; but the truth was, as I told him, that there was no_unnecessary_ breakage. The thieves behoved to steal, and they behovedto get at what they wanted to steal. Few people understand the regularhousebreaker. In almost all cases the clay is moulded, in infancy,moistened with the sap of stolen candy or fruit, and the glare of angryeyes only tends to harden it. We always forget that the thief-shape isthe _natural_ one, for can it be denied that we are all born thieves? Iknow at least that I was, and I suspect you were no better. If you arenot a thief now, it's because you were by good monitors twisted and tornout of that devil's form; and how much pains were taken to get you intoanother, so that it is only at best a second nature with you to behonest. In short, the thief is a more natural being than you are,although you think him a monster. Nor is it any wonder he's perfect, foryour laws and habits have only wrought as a direct help of the characterhe got from the mother of us all, and probably his own mother inparticular. Any obstruction he meets with is, therefore, something thatought to give way, simply because it shouldn't be there; for how can youprove to him that an act of parliament has greater authority than theinstinct with which he was born. No doubt he won't argue with you. Ifyou say you have a right to lock up, he won't say that he has a rightto unlock down, but he'll do it, and not only without compunction, butwith the same feeling of right that the tiger has when he seizes on anintruder upon the landmarks of his jungle and tears him to pieces.

  On proceeding to Coates Crescent, I ascertained that the thieves hadobtained entrance by opening the outer main-door with keys orpick-locks, and all the rest was easy. The scene inside was just what MrJackson had described it--there wasn't a lock to an escritoir or drawerthat was not punched off. Every secret place intended for holdingvaluables had been searched; and it soon appeared that these _artistes_had been very assiduous, if not a long time at the work. It would not beeasy for me to enumerate the booty--valuable gold rings, earrings withprecious stones, brooches of fine material and workmanship, silverornaments of price, pieces of plate, and articles of foreign bijouterie.They had wound up with things they stood in need of for personalwear--top-coats, boots, and stockings; and, to crown all, as manybottles of fine wine as would suffice to make a jolly bout when theyreached their home. I have not mentioned a small musical box, because bybringing it in as I now do at the end, I want to lay some stress uponit, to the effect of getting it to play a tune.

  I soon saw that I had a difficult case in hand, and I told Mr Jackson asmuch. The thieves were of the regular mould. I had no personal tracesto trust to, and the articles taken away were of so meltable ortransferable a nature that it might not be easy to trace them. My bestchance lay in the articles of dress, for, as I have already hinted,thieves deriving their right from nature have all a correspondingambition to be gentlemen. There's something curious here. Those who worktheir way up by honest industry seldom think of strutting about in fineclothes. Social feelings have taken the savage out of 'em. It is thenatural-born gentleman who despises work that adorns our promenades andball-rooms. 'Tis because they have a diploma from nature; and so thethieves who work by natural instinct come slap up to them and claim anequality. Certain it is, anyhow, I never knew a regular thief who didn'tthink he was a gentleman, and as for getting him to forego a nobby coatfrom a pin, he would almost be hanged first. I have found this my cuepretty often.

  I had, therefore, some hope from the coats, but while getting adescription of them and the other articles I felt a kind of curiosityabout the peculiarities of the musical box.

  "A small thing," said Mr Jackson, "some six inches long and threebroad."

  "Too like the others of its kind," said I; and giving way to a whim atthe moment, "What tunes does it play?"

  "Why, I can hardly tell," replied he, "for it belongs rather to thefemales. But I think I recollect that 'The Blue-Bells of Scotland' isamong them."

  "Perhaps," said I, keeping up the humour of the thing, "I may therebyget an answer to the question, 'Where, tell me where, does my highlandladdie dwell?'"

  Mr Jackson smiled even in the midst of the wreck of his house.

  "I fear," he said, "that unless you have some other clue than the tune,you won't get me back my property."

  "I have done more by less than a tune," said I, not very serious, butwithout giving up my hope, which I have never done in any case till itgave up me.

  So with my list completed, and a promise to the gentleman thatindependently of the joke about the box I would do my best to get holdof the robbers, as well as the property, I left him. I felt that it wasnot a job to be taken lightly, or rather, I should say, that Iconsidered my character somewhat at stake, insomuch as the gentlemanseemed to place faith in my name. There is an amount of routine in allinquiries of this kind. The brokers, the 'big uncles,' (the largepawns,) and the 'half uncles,' (the wee pawns,) were all to be gonethrough, and they were with that dodging assiduity so necessary to thesuccess of our calling. No trace in these places, and as for seeing oneof my natural gentlemen in a grand blue beaver top-coat, I couldencounter no such figure. I not only could not find where my highlandladdie dwelt, but I did not even know my lover. Nor did I succeed anybetter with those who are fond of rings, for that the jewellery hadfound its way among the Fancies I had little doubt. How many very softhands I took hold of in a laughing way, to know whether they werejewelled with my cornelians or torquoises, I can't tell; but then theirconfidence as yet wanted the ripening of time, and I must wait upon apower that has no pity for detectives any more than for lovers.

  And I did wait, yet not so long as that the tune of "Th
e Blue-Bells ofScotland" had passed away, scared though it was by the hoarse screamsand discords of crime and misery. One evening I was on thewatch-saunter, still the old dodging way by which I have earned morethan ever I did by sudden jerks of enthusiasm. I turned downBlackfriars' Wynd, and proceeded till I came to the shop of Mr HenryDevlin, who kept in that quarter a tavern, which, without reproach tothe landlord, was haunted by those gentlemen who owe so much to nature.Now, I pray you, don't think I am a miracle-monger. I make the statementdeliberately, and defy your suspicions when I say, that just as I cameto the door of the tavern, which was open, and by the door of which Icould see into a small room off the bar, my attention was arrested by alow and delicate sound. I placed my head by the edge of the open doorand listened. The sound was that of a musical box. The tune was so lowand indistinct that I held my breath, as if thereby I could increase thewatchfulness of my ear. "It is! it is!" I muttered. Yes, it was "TheBlue-Bells of Scotland." The charmed instrument ceased; and so enamouredhad I been for the few seconds, that I found myself standing in theattitude of a statue for minutes after the cause of my enchantment hadrenounced its power.

  With a knowledge of what you here anticipate, I claim the liberty of apause, to enable me to remark, that though utterly unfit to touchquestions of so ticklish a nature, I have had reason to think, in myblunt way, that in nine cases out of ten there is something mysteriousin the way of Providence towards the discovery of crime. Just run up thehistory of almost any detective you please, and you will come to thesemblance of a trace so very minute that you may view it either as anatural or a mysterious thing, just according to your temperament andyour point of view. As a philosopher, and a little hardened against thesupernatural, you may treat my credulity as you think proper. I don'tcomplain, provided you admit that I am entitled to my weakness; butbearing in mind at the same time, that there are always working powerswhich make a considerable fool of our reasoning. Take it as you may, andgoing no further than the musical box, explain to me how I should havethat night gone down Blackfriars' Wynd, and come to Henry Devlin's doorjust as "The Blue-Bells of Scotland" was being played by that littlebit of machinery. You may go on with your thoughts as I proceed to tellyou, that recovering myself from my surprise I entered the house. I didnot stop at the bar where Mrs Devlin was, but proceeded direct into theroom into which I could see from the door, and there, amidst emptytankards, I found the little instrument which had so entranced me, muteand tuneless, just as if it had been conscious that it had done someduty imposed upon it, and left the issue to the Power that watches overthe fortunes of that ungrateful creature, man.

  Taking up the monitor, which on the instant became dead to me,

  "How came this here?" I said to the landlady, who seemed to be watchingmy movements.

  "Indeed, I can hardly tell, Mr M'Levy," replied she, "unless it was leftby the twa callants wha were in drinking, and gaed out just before youcam in. Did you no meet them?"

  "No."

  "Then they maun hae gaen towards the Cowgate as you cam by the HighStreet."

  I paused an instant as an inconsistency occurred to me.

  "But they couldn't have forgotten a thing that was making sounds at thevery moment they left?"

  "Aye, but they did though," replied the woman. "The thing had been keptplayin' a' the time they were drinking, and was playin' when they paidtheir score, and the sound being drowned in the clatter o' the payment,they had just forgotten it even as I did. It plays twa or three tunes,"she added, "and among the lave 'The Blue-Bells of Scotland,' a tune Iaye liked, for ye ken I'm Scotch."

  "And I like it too," replied I, "though I'm Irish; but do you know thelads?"

  "Weel--I do, and I dinna. Ane o' them has been here afore, and if youwere to mention his name, I think I could tell you if it was the rightane."

  "Shields," said I.

  "The very name," said she, "and if I kenned whaur he lived I would sendthe box to him."

  "I will save you that trouble, Mrs Devlin," said I, as I put it in mypocket.

  "I never took you for a thief, Mr M'Levy," said she, in a half humorousway. "I aye took ye for a thief catcher."

  "And it's just to catch the thief I take the box," said I. "You canspeak to the men if I bring them here?"

  "Brawly."

  And so I left the tavern. I had got my trace, and knew where to go formy men, and I had, moreover, a well-grounded suspicion not only asregarded him whose name I had mentioned, but also his companion. I sentimmediately for two constables, and having procured these, and beenjoined by my assistant, I proceeded to Brodie's Close in the Cowgate.Arriving at the foot of a stair, I planted there my constables, andmounted till I came to a door familiar to me on prior occasions. I gavemy quiet knock,--a signal so regular, that, as I have sometimes heard,it was known as "M'Levy's warning." Whether known as such now, or not, Icannot say, but it was quickly enough responded to by no less apersonage than the famous Lucky Shields herself. The moment she saw meshe recoiled, but only for an instant, and then tried to detain me--theordinary sign that I should be in. Without saying a word I pushed herback, and making my way forward, got at once into the middle of one ofthose scenes of which the quiet normal people of the world have no moreidea than they have of what is going on in the molten regions of themiddle of the earth, on the surface of which they are plucking roses. Alarge room, where the grandees of a former time drank their claret tothe tune of "Lewie Gordon;" all about the sides a number of beds--one ortwo rattled up of pine stumps--another with black carved legs, which hadsupported fair dames long since passed away, alongside another with nomore pretensions to decayed grandeur than could be put forth by a sackof chaff and a horsecloth. Close to that a ragged arm-chair, with abundle of hay rolled up in an old napkin, to serve when there was anadditional lodger. A number of chairs, marrowless, broken, and rickety;a white table in the midst of all, covered with glasses and tankards,all replete with the ring of drinking echoes, and shining in the hazeof tobacco smoke, illuminated by bright gas.

  My ears were more bewildered than my eyes; for the room, with itsstrange furniture, was familiar enough to me; but I had some difficultyfor a minute or two in distinguishing the living articles. Round the firtable sat my hero of the box, Patrick Shields; alongside of him, HenryPreger,--so true an associate of Shields, as to render it impossible forme to doubt his participation in the affair at Coates Crescent; andalong with these Daniel O'Hara, a gentleman with a peculiar turn ofthought, which induced him to believe that a watch in another man'spocket was out of its proper place. The two first were still fuming withthe effects of Mrs Devlin's whisky, and O'Hara seemed to be great, asmaster of the new-brewed potation, whisky-punch, which he had beenhanding round to the young women. I don't want to paint vividly, in myslap-dash way, where picturesqueness is only to be effected at theexpense of the decencies of life, and you don't want pictures of vice.Then, what boots it to describe such women. Their variety is only acombination of traces which are as uniform as the features ofsensuality. Yes, these young women, who were quite familiar to me--AgnesMarshall, Jessie Ronald, Elizabeth Livingstone, Hannah Martin, JuliaShields--were simply representatives of thousands bearing the samemarks,--one, a demure but cunning catcher of hearts and purses;another, a fair and comely living temple, with a Dagon of vice stuck upin it; another, never sober except when in a police cell, and neversilent except when asleep, and scarcely then, for I have heard the cryof her wild spirit as it floated in drunken dreams; and another, thebest resetter in the city, from whom a century of years in prison wouldnot have extorted a Brummagem ring of the value of a glass of whisky. IfI force so much of a picture upon you, it is because, as a part ofsociety, you deserve to know what your laws and usages produce.

  It was not for a little time after I entered that the confusion oftongues ceased. Their spirits had received such an impetus from theeffects of the spirituous, that the speed could not be stopped; and evenwhen the noise was hushed, it was only after the muttering of oaths.Meanwhile, a glance told me I
had got into the very heart of thereset-box of Mr Jackson's fine jewellery. Finger and ear-rings glitteredin the gas-light, and the expensive coats, at the top of the fashion,made Shields and Preger look like gentlemen who had called in fromPrinces Street to see the jewelled beauties. I have always had my ownway of dealing with such gentry. I took out my musical box, and pullingthe string, set it agoing. I have heard of music that drew stones--minedrew bricks. Shields and Preger fixed their eyes wildly upon me; and thewomen, who knew nothing of the meaning of M'Levy's music, first shot outinto a yell of laughter, and then, rising, began, in the madness oftheir drunkenness, to dance like so many furies, keeping time, so far asthey could, to the tune of the instrument. I could account for thisinsensibility to danger by no other way than by supposing that they hadnot previously seen the box, and did not see the consequences that werelikely to result from my visit.

  After the hubbub ceased, I addressed my man in the first instance.

  "Patrick," said I, "I am come to return your box."

  "It's not mine," replied the youth; "I have nothing to do with it."

  "It's mine anyhow," cried the unwary mother, who all this time waslooking through the smoke like a tigress. "The spaking thing is mineanyhow, for didn't me own Julia get it from a raal gintleman to learnher to sing, and isn't what's hers mine?"

  And how much more of this Irish howl I might have heard, I can't say, ifthe son had not shot a look into her which brought her to a sense of herimprudence.

  "And it's not my box afther all, ye vagabond," she cried, in trying toretreat from her error; "for wasn't mine an ivory one, and didn't itplay raal Irish tunes? Come here, Julia; is that your box?"

  "No," said Julia.

  "And wasn't yours raal ivory?"

  "Yes," replied the girl.

  "Now, didn't I tell you, you murtherin' thief, it wasn't my box. Awaywid you, and never shew your ugly face here again among dacent people."

  The ordinary gabble of all such interviews. I gave a nod to myassistant, and in a few minutes the constables were at my back.

  "Well," said I, addressing the men, "you can carry the top-coats on yourbacks to the office; but as for you, ladies, there are certain fingerand ear ornaments about you which, for fear you lose them, I must take."

  These few simple words quieted the turmoil in an instant. I have oftenproduced the same effect by a quiet exercise of authority. Theboisterousness of vice, with no confidence to support it, runs back andoppresses the heart, which has no channel for it in the right direction;the channel has been long dried and seared.

  "Search them," said I.

  A process which, as regards women, we generally leave to our femalesearchers, but which I was obliged to have recourse to here in asuperficial way to guard valuables, so easily secreted or cast away, anda process which requires promptness even to the instant; for on such anoccasion, the cunning of women is developed with a subtlety transcendingall belief. The hair, the hollow of the cheek, under the tongue, in theear, up the nostrils, even the stomach being often resorted to as thereceptacles of small but valuable articles. We contrived all four todart upon the creatures at once, each seizing his prey. The suddennessof the onset took them by surprise, and in the course of a few minutes,we had collected into a shining heap nearly the whole of Mr Jackson'smost valuable jewels.

  We then marched the whole nine up to the Police-Office, I carrying themagic box, which, if I had been vainglorious, I would have set agoing asan appropriate accompaniment to our march up the High Street.

  They were all tried on the 25th July 1843; Preger got fourteen years,and Shields ten. The women got off on the admission that they got thejewellery from Shields and Preger. I remember that, after the trial, MrJackson addressed me something in these terms:--

  "Mr M'Levy, I owe the recovery of my property to you. I will retain myjewels, but as for the articles of apparel, I am afraid that were I towear them I might myself become a thief; so you may dispose of them, andtake the proceeds, with my thanks. The musical box I will keep as auseful secret informer; so that in the event of my house being robbedagain, it may have a chance, through its melody, of recovering myproperty."