The Antiquary - Volume II

Chapter 7

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--This ring.--

This little ring, with necromantic force,

Has raised the ghost of pleasure to my fears,

Conjured the sense of honour and of love

Into such shapes, they fright me from myself.

The Fatal Marriage.

The ancient forms of mourning were observed in Glenallan House,

notwithstanding the obduracy with which the members of the family were

popularly supposed to refuse to the dead the usual tribute of

lamentation. It was remarked, that when she received the fatal letter

announcing the death of her second, and, as was once believed, her

favourite son, the hand of the Countess did not shake, nor her eyelid

twinkle, any more than upon perusal of a letter of ordinary business.

Heaven only knows whether the suppression of maternal sorrow, which her

pride commanded, might not have some effect in hastening her own death.

It was at least generally supposed that the apoplectic stroke, which so

soon afterwards terminated her existence, was, as it were, the vengeance

of outraged Nature for the restraint to which her feelings had been

subjected. But although Lady Glenallan forebore the usual external signs

of grief, she had caused many of the apartments, amongst others her own

and that of the Earl, to be hung with the exterior trappings of woe.

The Earl of Glenallan was therefore seated in an apartment hung with

black cloth, which waved in dusky folds along its lofty walls. A screen,

also covered with black baize, placed towards the high and narrow window,

intercepted much of the broken light which found its way through the

stained glass, that represented, with such skill as the fourteenth

century possessed, the life and sorrows of the prophet Jeremiah. The

table at which the Earl was seated was lighted with two lamps wrought in

silver, shedding that unpleasant and doubtful light which arises from the

mingling of artificial lustre with that of general daylight. The same

table displayed a silver crucifix, and one or two clasped parchment

books. A large picture, exquisitely painted by Spagnoletto, represented

the martyrdom of St. Stephen, and was the only ornament of the apartment.

The inhabitant and lord of this disconsolate chamber was a man not past

the prime of life, yet so broken down with disease and mental misery, so

gaunt and ghastly, that he appeared but a wreck of manhood; and when he

hastily arose and advanced towards his visitor, the exertion seemed

almost to overpower his emaciated frame. As they met in the midst of the

apartment, the contrast they exhibited was very striking. The hale cheek,

firm step, erect stature, and undaunted presence and bearing of the old

mendicant, indicated patience and content in the extremity of age, and in

the lowest condition to which humanity can sink; while the sunken eye,

pallid cheek, and tottering form of the nobleman with whom he was

confronted, showed how little wealth, power, and even the advantages of

youth, have to do with that which gives repose to the mind, and firmness

to the frame.

The Earl met the old man in the middle of the room, and having commanded

his attendant to withdraw into the gallery, and suffer no one to enter

the antechamber till he rung the bell, awaited, with hurried yet fearful

impatience, until he heard first the door of his apartment, and then that

of the antechamber, shut and fastened by the spring-bolt. When he was

satisfied with this security against being overheard, Lord Glenallan came

close up to the mendicant, whom he probably mistook for some person of a

religious order in disguise, and said, in a hasty yet faltering tone, "In

the name of all our religion holds most holy, tell me, reverend father,

what am I to expect from a communication opened by a token connected with

such horrible recollections?"

The old man, appalled by a manner so different from what he had expected

from the proud and powerful nobleman, was at a loss how to answer, and in

what manner to undeceive him. "Tell me," continued the Earl, in a tone of

increasing trepidation and agony--"tell me, do you come to say that all

that has been done to expiate guilt so horrible, has been too little and

too trivial for the offence, and to point out new and more efficacious

modes of severe penance?--I will not blench from it, father--let me

suffer the pains of my crime here in the body, rather than hereafter in

the spirit!"

Edie had now recollection enough to perceive, that if he did not

interrapt the frankness of Lord Glenallan's admissions, he was likely to

become the confidant of more than might be safe for him to know. He

therefore uttered with a hasty and trembling voice--"Your lordship's

honour is mistaken--I am not of your persuasion, nor a clergyman, but,

with all reverence, only puir Edie Ochiltree, the king's bedesman and

your honour's."

This explanation be accompanied by a profound bow after his manner, and

then, drawing himself up erect, rested his arm on his staff, threw back

his long white hair, and fixed his eyes upon the Earl, as he waited for

an answer.

"And you are not then," said Lord Glenallan, after a pause of surprise--

"You are not then a Catholic priest?"

"God forbid!" said Edie, forgetting in his confusion to whom he was

speaking; "I am only the king's bedesman and your honour's, as I said

before."

The Earl turned hastily away, and paced the room twice or thrice, as if

to recover the effects of his mistake, and then, coming close up to the

mendicant, he demanded, in a stern and commanding tone, what he meant by

intruding himself on his privacy, and from whence he had got the ring

which he had thought proper to send him. Edie, a man of much spirit, was

less daunted at this mode of interrogation than he had been confused by

the tone of confidence in which the Earl had opened their conversation.

To the reiterated question from whom he had obtained the ring, he

answered composedly, "From one who was better known to the Earl than to

him."

"Better known to me, fellow?" said Lord Glenallan: "what is your

meaning?--explain yourself instantly, or you shall experience the

consequence of breaking in upon the hours of family distress."

"It was auld Elspeth Mucklebackit that sent me here," said the beggar,

"in order to say"--

"You dote, old man!" said the Earl; "I never heard the name--but this

dreadful token reminds me"--

"I mind now, my lord," said Ochiltree, "she tauld me your lordship would

be mair familiar wi' her, if I ca'd her Elspeth o' the Craigburnfoot--she

had that name when she lived on your honour's land, that is, your

honour's worshipful mother's that was then--Grace be wi' her!"

"Ay," said the appalled nobleman, as his countenance sunk, and his cheek

assumed a hue yet more cadaverous; "that name is indeed written in the

most tragic page of a deplorable history. But what can she desire of me?

Is she dead or living?"

"Living, my lord; and entreats to see your lordship before she dies, for

she has something to communicate that hangs upon her very soul, and she

says she canna flit in peace until she sees you."

"Not until she sees me!--what can that mean? But she is doting with age

and infirmity. I tell thee, friend, I called at her cottage myself, not a

twelvemonth since, from a report that she was in distress, and she did

not even know my face or voice."

"If your honour wad permit me," said Edie, to whom the length of the

conference restored a part of his professional audacity and native

talkativeness--"if your honour wad but permit me, I wad say, under

correction of your lordship's better judgment, that auld Elspeth's like

some of the ancient ruined strengths and castles that ane sees amang the

hills. There are mony parts of her mind that appear, as I may say, laid

waste and decayed, but then there's parts that look the steever, and the

stronger, and the grander, because they are rising just like to fragments

amaong the ruins o' the rest. She's an awful woman."

"She always was so," said the Earl, almost unconsciously echoing the

observation of the mendicant; "she always was different from other women

--likest perhaps to her who is now no more, in her temper and turn of

mind.--She wishes to see me, then?"

"Before she dies," said Edie, "she earnestly entreats that pleasure."

"It will be a pleasure to neither of us," said the Earl, sternly, "yet

she shall be gratified. She lives, I think, on the sea-shore to the

southward of Fairport?"

"Just between Monkbarns and Knockwinnock Castle, but nearer to Monkbarns.

Your lordship's honour will ken the laird and Sir Arthur, doubtless?"

A stare, as if he did not comprehend the question, was Lord Glenallan's

answer. Edie saw his mind was elsewhere, and did not venture to repeat a

query which was so little germain to the matter.

"Are you a Catholic, old man?" demanded the Earl.

"No, my lord," said Ochiltree stoutly; for the remembrance of the unequal

division of the dole rose in his mind at the moment; "I thank Heaven I am

a good Protestant."

"He who can conscientiously call himself _good,_ has indeed reason to

thank Heaven, be his form of Christianity what it will--But who is he

that shall dare to do so!"

"Not I," said Edie; "I trust to beware of the sin of presumption."

"What was your trade in your youth?" continued the Earl.

"A soldier, my lord; and mony a sair day's kemping I've seen. I was to

have been made a sergeant, but"--

"A soldier! then you have slain and burnt, and sacked and spoiled?"

"I winna say," replied Edie, "that I have been better than my

neighbours;--it's a rough trade--war's sweet to them that never tried

it."

"And you are now old and miserable, asking from precarious charity the

food which in your youth you tore from the hand of the poor peasant?"

"I am a beggar, it is true, my lord; but I am nae just sae miserable

neither. For my sins, I hae had grace to repent of them, if I might say

sae, and to lay them where they may be better borne than by me; and for

my food, naebody grudges an auld man a bit and a drink--Sae I live as I

can, and am contented to die when I am ca'd upon."

"And thus, then, with little to look back upon that is pleasant or

praiseworthy in your past life--with less to look forward to on this side

of eternity, you are contented to drag out the rest of your existence?

Go, begone! and in your age and poverty and weariness, never envy the

lord of such a mansion as this, either in his sleeping or waking moments

--Here is something for thee."

The Earl put into the old man's hand five or six guineas. Edie would

perhaps have stated his scruples, as upon other occasions, to the amount

of the benefaction, but the tone of Lord Glenallan was too absolute to

admit of either answer or dispute. The Earl then called his servant--"See

this old man safe from the castle--let no one ask him any questions--and

you, friend, begone, and forget the road that leads to my house."

"That would be difficult for me," said Edie, looking at the gold which he

still held in his hand, "that would be e'en difficult, since your honour

has gien me such gade cause to remember it."

Lord Glenallan stared, as hardly comprehending the old man's boldness in

daring to bandy words with him, and, with his hand, made him another

signal of departure, which the mendicant instantly obeyed.

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