The Antiquary Part 11

In a few distinct words, evincing how much her resolution had surmounted even the mortal fear of so agitating a hazard, she explained the nature of the situation beneath, and the wishes of Lovel and Ochiltree.

"Right, right, that's right too--I should like to see the son of Sir Gamelyn de Guardover on dry land myself--I have a notion he would sign the abjuration oath, and the Ragman-roll to boot, and acknowledge Queen Mary to be nothing better than she should be, to get alongside my bottle of old port that he ran away from, and left scarce begun. But he's safe now, and here a' comes"--(for the chair was again lowered, and Sir Arthur made fast in it, without much consciousness on his own part)--"here a'

comes--Bowse away, my boys! canny wi' him--a pedigree of a hundred links is hanging on a tenpenny tow--the whole barony of Knockwinnock depends on three plies of hemp--respice finem, respice funem--look to your end--look to a rope's end.--Welcome, welcome, my good old friend, to firm land, though I cannot say to warm land or to dry land. A cord for ever against fifty fathom of water, though not in the sense of the base proverb--a fico for the phrase,--better _sus. per funem_, than _sus. per coll_."

While Oldbuck ran on in this way, Sir Arthur was safely wrapped in the close embraces of his daughter, who, a.s.suming that authority which the circ.u.mstances demanded, ordered some of the a.s.sistants to convey him to the chariot, promising to follow in a few minutes, She lingered on the cliff, holding an old countryman's arm, to witness probably the safety of those whose dangers she had shared.

"What have we here?" said Oldbuck, as the vehicle once more ascended--"what patched and weather-beaten matter is this?" Then as the torches illumed the rough face and grey hairs of old Ochiltree,--"What!

is it thou?--Come, old Mocker, I must needs be friends with thee--but who the devil makes up your party besides?"

"Ane that's weel worth ony twa o' us, Monkbarns;--it's the young stranger lad they ca' Lovel--and he's behaved this blessed night as if he had three lives to rely on, and was willing to waste them a' rather than endanger ither folk's. Ca' hooly, sirs, as ye, wad win an auld man's blessing!--mind there's naebody below now to haud the gy--Hae a care o'

the Cat's-lug corner--bide weel aff Crummie's-horn!"

"Have a care indeed," echoed Oldbuck. "What! is it my rara avis--my black swan--my phoenix of companions in a post-chaise?--take care of him, Mucklebackit."

"As muckle care as if he were a graybeard o' brandy; and I canna take mair if his hair were like John Harlowe's.--Yo ho, my hearts! bowse away with him!"

Lovel did, in fact, run a much greater risk than any of his precursors.

His weight was not sufficient to render his ascent steady amid such a storm of wind, and he swung like an agitated pendulum at the mortal risk of being dashed against the rocks. But he was young, bold, and active, and, with the a.s.sistance of the beggar's stout piked staff, which he had retained by advice of the proprietor, contrived to bear himself from the face of the precipice, and the yet more hazardous projecting cliffs which varied its surface. Tossed in empty s.p.a.ce, like an idle and unsubstantial feather, with a motion that agitated the brain at once with fear and with dizziness, he retained his alertness of exertion and presence of mind; and it was not until he was safely grounded upon the summit of the cliff, that he felt temporary and giddy sickness. As he recovered from a sort of half swoon, he cast his eyes eagerly around.

The object which they would most willingly have sought, was already in the act of vanis.h.i.+ng. Her white garment was just discernible as she followed on the path which her father had taken. She had lingered till she saw the last of their company rescued from danger, and until she had been a.s.sured by the hoa.r.s.e voice of Mucklebackit, that "the callant had come off wi' unbrizzed banes, and that he was but in a kind of dwam."

But Lovel was not aware that she had expressed in his fate even this degree of interest,--which, though nothing more than was due to a stranger who had a.s.sisted her in such an hour of peril, he would have gladly purchased by braving even more imminent danger than he had that evening been exposed to. The beggar she had already commanded to come to Knockwinnock that night. He made an excuse.--"Then to-morrow let me see you."

The old man promised to obey. Oldbuck thrust something into his hand--Ochiltree looked at it by the torchlight, and returned it--"Na, na! I never tak gowd--besides, Monkbarns, ye wad maybe be rueing it the morn." Then turning to the group of fishermen and peasants--"Now, sirs, wha will gie me a supper and some clean pease-strae?"

"I," "and I," "and I," answered many a ready voice.

"Aweel, since sae it is, and I can only sleep in ae barn at ance, I'll gae down with Saunders Mucklebackit--he has aye a soup o' something comfortable about his begging--and, bairns, I'll maybe live to put ilka ane o' ye in mind some ither night that ye hae promised me quarters and my awmous;" and away he went with the fisherman.

Oldbuck laid the band of strong possession on Lovel--"Deil a stride ye's go to Fairport this night, young man--you must go home with me to Monkbarns. Why, man, you have been a hero--a perfect Sir William Wallace, by all accounts. Come, my good lad, take hold of my arm;--I am not a prime support in such a wind--but Caxon shall help us out--Here, you old idiot, come on the other side of me.--And how the deil got you down to that infernal Bessy's-ap.r.o.n, as they call it? Bess, said they? Why, curse her, she has spread out that vile pennon or banner of womankind, like all the rest of her s.e.x, to allure her votaries to death and headlong ruin."

"I have been pretty well accustomed to climbing, and I have long observed fowlers practise that pa.s.s down the cliff."

"But how, in the name of all that is wonderful, came you to discover the danger of the pettish Baronet and his far more deserving daughter?"

"I saw them from the verge of the precipice."

"From the verge!--umph--And what possessed you dumosa pendere procul de rupe?--though dumosa is not the appropriate epithet--what the deil, man, tempted ye to the verge of the craig?"

"Why--I like to see the gathering and growling of a coming storm--or, in your own cla.s.sical language, Mr. Oldbuck, suave mari magno--and so forth--but here we reach the turn to Fairport. I must wish you good-night."

"Not a step, not a pace, not an inch, not a shathmont, as I may say,--the meaning of which word has puzzled many that think themselves antiquaries. I am clear we should read salmon-length for shathmont's-length. You are aware that the s.p.a.ce allotted for the pa.s.sage of a salmon through a dam, dike, or weir, by statute, is the length within which a full-grown pig can turn himself round. Now I have a scheme to prove, that, as terrestrial objects were thus appealed to for ascertaining submarine measurement, so it must be supposed that the productions of the water were established as gauges of the extent of land.--Shathmont--salmont--you see the close alliance of the sounds; dropping out two h's, and a t, and a.s.suming an l, makes the whole difference--I wish to heaven no antiquarian derivation had demanded heavier concessions."

"But, my dear sir, I really must go home--I am wet to the skin."

"Shalt have my night-gown, man, and slippers, and catch the antiquarian fever as men do the plague, by wearing infected garments. Nay, I know what you would be at--you are afraid to put the old bachelor to charges.

But is there not the remains of that glorious chicken-pie--which, meo arbitrio, is better cold than hot--and that bottle of my oldest port, out of which the silly brain-sick Baronet (whom I cannot pardon, since he has escaped breaking his neck) had just taken one gla.s.s, when his infirm noddle went a wool-gathering after Gamelyn de Guardover?"

So saying he dragged Lovel forward, till the Palmer's-port of Monkbarns received them. Never, perhaps, had it admitted two pedestrians more needing rest for Monkbarns's fatigue had been in a degree very contrary to his usual habits, and his more young and robust companion had that evening undergone agitation of mind which had hara.s.sed and wearied him even more than his extraordinary exertions of body.

CHAPTER NINTH.

"Be brave," she cried, "you yet may be our guest, Our haunted room was ever held the best.

If, then, your valour can the sight sustain Of rustling curtains and the clinking chain If your courageous tongue have powers to talk, When round your bed the horrid ghost shall walk If you dare ask it why it leaves its tomb, I'll see your sheets well air'd, and show the Room."

True Story.

They reached the room in which they had dined, and were clamorously welcomed by Miss Oldbuck.

"Where's the younger womankind?" said the Antiquary.

"Indeed, brother, amang a' the steery, Maria wadna be guided by me she set away to the Halket-craig-head--I wonder ye didna see her."

"Eh!--what--what's that you say, sister?--did the girl go out in a night like this to the Halket-head?--Good G.o.d! the misery of the night is not ended yet!"

"But ye winna wait, Monkbarns--ye are so imperative and impatient"--

"t.i.ttle-tattle, woman," said the impatient and agitated Antiquary, "where is my dear Mary?"

"Just where ye suld be yoursell, Monkbarns--up-stairs, and in her warm bed."

"I could have sworn it," said Oldbuck laughing, but obviously much relieved--"I could have sworn it;--the lazy monkey did not care if we were all drowned together. Why did you say she went out?"

"But ye wadna wait to hear out my tale, Monkbarns--she gaed out, and she came in again with the gardener sae sune as she saw that nane o' ye were clodded ower the Craig, and that Miss Wardour was safe in the chariot; she was hame a quarter of an hour syne, for it's now ganging ten--sair droukit was she, puir thing, sae I e'en put a gla.s.s o' sherry in her water-gruel."

"Right, Grizel, right--let womankind alone for coddling each other. But hear me, my venerable sister--start not at the word venerable; it implies many praiseworthy qualities besides age; though that too is honourable, albeit it is the last quality for which womankind would wish to be honoured--But perpend my words: let Lovel and me have forthwith the relics of the chicken-pie, and the reversion of the port."

"The chicken-pie! the port!--ou dear! brother--there was but a wheen banes, and scarce a drap o' the wine."

The Antiquary's countenance became clouded, though he was too well bred to give way, in the presence of a stranger, to his displeased surprise at the disappearance of the viands on which he had reckoned with absolute certainty. But his sister understood these looks of ire. "Ou dear! Monkbarns, what's the use of making a wark?"

"I make no wark, as ye call it, woman."

"But what's the use o' looking sae glum and glunch about a pickle banes?--an ye will hae the truth, ye maun ken the minister came in, worthy man--sair distressed he was, nae doubt, about your precarious situation, as he ca'd it (for ye ken how weel he's gifted wi' words), and here he wad bide till he could hear wi' certainty how the matter was likely to gang wi' ye a'--He said fine things on the duty of resignation to Providence's will, worthy man! that did he."

Oldbuck replied, catching the same tone, "Worthy man!--he cared not how soon Monkbarns had devolved on an heir-female, I've a notion;--and while he was occupied in this Christian office of consolation against impending evil, I reckon that the chicken-pie and my good port disappeared?"

"Dear brother, how can you speak of sic frivolities, when you have had sic an escape from the craig?"

"Better than my supper has had from the minister's craig, Grizzle--it's all discussed, I suppose?"

"Hout, Monkbarns, ye speak as if there was nae mair meat in the house--wad ye not have had me offer the honest man some slight refreshment after his walk frae the manse?"

Oldbuck half-whistled, half-hummed, the end of the old Scottish ditty,

O, first they eated the white puddings, And then they eated the black, O, And thought the gudeman unto himsell, The deil clink down wi' that, O!

His sister hastened to silence his murmurs, by proposing some of the relies of the dinner. He spoke of another bottle of wine, but recommended in preference a gla.s.s of brandy which was really excellent.

As no entreaties could prevail on Lovel to indue the velvet night-cap and branched morning-gown of his host, Oldbuck, who pretended to a little knowledge of the medical art, insisted on his going to bed as soon as possible, and proposed to despatch a messenger (the indefatigable Caxon) to Fairport early in the morning, to procure him a change of clothes.