CHAPTER X
NARRATIVE OF ALAN FAIRFORD
The reader ought, by this time, to have formed some idea of thecharacter of Alan Fairford. He had a warmth of heart which the studyof the law and of the world could not chill, and talents which they hadrendered unusually acute. Deprived of the personal patronage enjoyed bymost of his contemporaries, who assumed the gown under the protection oftheir aristocratic alliances and descents, he early saw that he shouldhave that to achieve for himself which fell to them as a right of birth.He laboured hard in silence and solitude, and his labours were crownedwith success. But Alan doted on his friend Darsie, even more than heloved his profession, and, as we have seen, threw everything aside whenhe thought Latimer in danger; forgetting fame and fortune, and hazardingeven the serious displeasure of his father, to rescue him whom he lovedwith an elder brother's affection. Darsie, though his parts were morequick and brilliant than those of his friend, seemed always to thelatter a being under his peculiar charge, whom he was called uponto cherish and protect in cases where the youth's own experience wasunequal to the exigency; and now, when, the fate of Latimer seemingworse than doubtful, Alan's whole prudence and energy were to be exertedin his behalf, an adventure which might have seemed perilous to mostyouths of his age had no terrors for him. He was well acquainted withthe laws of his country, and knew how to appeal to them; and, besideshis professional confidence, his natural disposition was steady, sedate,persevering, and undaunted. With these requisites he undertook a questwhich, at that time, was not unattended with actual danger, and had muchin it to appal a more timid disposition.
Fairford's first inquiry concerning his friend was of the chiefmagistrate of Dumfries, Provost Crosbie, who had sent the informationof Darsie's disappearance. On his first application, he thought hediscerned in the honest dignitary a desire to get rid of the subject.The provost spoke of the riot at the fishing station as an 'outbreakamong those lawless loons the fishermen, which concerned the sheriff,'he said, 'more than us poor town council bodies, that have enough to doto keep peace within burgh, amongst such a set of commoners as the townare plagued with.'
'But this is not all, Provost Crosbie,' said Mr. Alan Fairford; 'A younggentleman of rank and fortune has disappeared amongst their hands--youknow him. My father gave him a letter to you--Mr. Darsie Latimer.'
'Lack-a-day, yes! lack-a-day, yes!' said the provost; 'Mr. DarsieLatimer--he dined at my house--I hope he is well?'
'I hope so too,' said Alan, rather indignantly; 'but I desire morecertainty on that point. You yourself wrote my father that he haddisappeared.'
'Troth, yes, and that is true,' said the provost. 'But did he not goback to his friends in Scotland? it was not natural to think he wouldstay here.'
'Not unless he is under restraint,' said Fairford, surprised at thecoolness with which the provost seemed to take up the matter.
'Rely on it, sir,' said Mr. Crosbie, 'that if he has not returned to hisfriends in Scotland, he must have gone to his friends in England.'
'I will rely on no such thing,' said Alan; 'if there is law or justicein Scotland, I will have the thing cleared to the very bottom.'
'Reasonable, reasonable,' said the provost, 'so far as is possible; butyou know I have no power beyond the ports of the burgh.'
'But you are in the commission besides, Mr. Crosbie; a justice of peacefor the county.'
'True, very true--that is,' said the cautious magistrate, 'I will notsay but my name may stand on the list, but I cannot remember that I haveever qualified.' [By taking the oaths to government.]
'Why, in that case,' said young Fairford, 'there are ill-natured peoplemight doubt your attachment to the Protestant line, Mr. Crosbie.'
'God forbid, Mr. Fairford! I who have done and suffered in theForty-five. I reckon the Highlandmen did me damage to the amount of100l. Scots, forby all they ate and drank--no, no, sir, I stand beyondchallenge; but as for plaguing myself with county business, let themthat aught the mare shoe the mare. The commissioners of supply would seemy back broken before they would help me in the burgh's work, and allthe world kens the difference of the weight between public business inburgh and landward. What are their riots to me? have we not riots enoughof our own?--But I must be getting ready, for the council meets thisforenoon. I am blithe to see your father's son on the causeway of ourancient burgh, Mr. Alan Fairford. Were you a twelve-month aulder, wewould make a burgess of you, man. I hope you will come and dine withme before you go away. What think you of to-day at two o'clock--just aroasted chucky and a drappit egg?'
Alan Fairford resolved that his friend's hospitality should not, as itseemed the inviter intended, put a stop to his queries. 'I must delayyou for a moment,' he said, 'Mr. Crosbie; this is a serious affair; ayoung gentleman of high hopes, my own dearest friend, is missing--youcannot think it will be passed over slightly, if a man of your highcharacter and known zeal for the government do not make some activeinquiry. Mr. Crosbie, you are my father's friend, and I respect you assuch--but to others it will have a bad appearance.'
The withers of the provost were not unwrung; he paced the room in muchtribulation, repeating, 'But what can I do, Mr. Fairford? I warrantyour friend casts up again--he will come back again, like the illshilling--he is not the sort of gear that tynes--a hellicat boy, runningthrough the country with a blind fiddler and playing the fiddle toa parcel of blackguards, who can tell where the like of him may havescampered to?'
'There are persons apprehended, and in the jail of the town, as Iunderstand from the sheriff-substitute,' said Mr. Fairford; 'youmust call them before you, and inquire what they know of this younggentleman.'
'Aye, aye--the sheriff-depute did commit some poor creatures, Ibelieve--wretched ignorant fishermen bodies, that had been quarrellingwith Quaker Geddes and his stake-nets, whilk, under favour of your gownbe it spoken, Mr. Fairford, are not over and above lawful, and the townclerk thinks that they may be lawfully removed VIA FACTI--but that is bythe by. But, sir, the creatures were a' dismissed for want of evidence;the Quaker would not swear to them, and what could the sheriff and medo but just let them loose? Come awa, cheer up, Master Alan, and take awalk till dinner-time--I must really go to the council.'
'Stop a moment, provost,' said Alan; 'I lodge a complaint before you asa magistrate, and you will find it serious to slight it over. You musthave these men apprehended again.'
'Aye, aye--easy said; but catch them that can,' answered the provost;'they are ower the march by this time, or by the point of Cairn.--Lordhelp ye! they are a kind of amphibious deevils, neither land nor waterbeasts neither English nor Scots--neither county nor stewartry, as wesay--they are dispersed like so much quicksilver. You may as well try towhistle a sealgh out of the Solway, as to get hold of one of them tillall the fray is over.'
'Mr. Crosbie, this will not do,' answered the young counsellor; 'thereis a person of more importance than such wretches as you describeconcerned in this unhappy business--I must name to you a certain Mr.Herries.'
He kept his eye on the provost as he uttered the name, which he didrather at a venture, and from the connexion which that gentleman, andhis real or supposed niece, seemed to have with the fate of DarsieLatimer, than from any distinct cause of suspicion which he entertained.He thought the provost seemed embarrassed, though he showed much desireto assume an appearance of indifference, in which he partly succeeded.
'Herries!' he said--'What Herries?--There are many of that name--notso many as formerly, for the old stocks are wearing out; but there isHerries of Heathgill, and Herries of Auchintulloch, and Herries'--
'To save you further trouble, this person's designation is Herries ofBirrenswork.'
'Of Birrenswork?' said Mr. Crosbie; 'I have you now, Mr. Alan. Could younot as well have said, the Laird of Redgauntlet?'
Fairford was too wary to testify any surprise at this identification ofnames, however unexpected. 'I thought,' said he, 'he was more generallyknown by the name of Herries. I have seen and been in company with himunder that n
ame, I am sure.'
'Oh aye; in Edinburgh, belike. You know Redgauntlet was unfortunate agreat while ago, and though he was maybe not deeper in the mire thanother folk, yet, for some reason or other, he did not get so easilyout.'
'He was attainted, I understand; and has no remission,' said Fairford.
The cautious provost only nodded, and said, 'You may guess, therefore,why it is so convenient he should hold his mother's name, which is alsopartly his own, when he is about Edinburgh. To bear his proper namemight be accounted a kind of flying in the face of government, yeunderstand. But he has been long connived at--the story is an oldstory--and the gentleman has many excellent qualities, and is of a veryancient and honourable house--has cousins among the great folk--countskin with the advocate and with the sheriff--hawks, you know, Mr. Alan,will not pike out hawks' een--he is widely connected--my wife is afourth cousin of Redgauntlet's.'
HINC ILLAE LACHRYMAE! thought Alan Fairford to himself; but the hintpresently determined him to proceed by soft means and with caution. 'Ibeg you to understand,' said Fairford, 'that in the investigation I amabout to make, I design no harm to Mr. Herries, or Redgauntlet--call himwhat you will. All I wish is, to ascertain the safety of my friend. Iknow that he was rather foolish in once going upon a mere frolic, indisguise, to the neighbourhood of this same gentleman's house. In hiscircumstances, Mr. Redgauntlet may have misinterpreted the motives, andconsidered Darsie Latimer as a spy. His influence, I believe, is greatamong the disorderly people you spoke of but now?'
The provost answered with another sagacious shake of his head, thatwould have done honour to Lord Burleigh in the CRITIC.
'Well, then,' continued Fairford,' is it not possible that, in themistaken belief that Mr. Latimer was a spy, he may, upon such suspicion,have caused him to be carried off and confined somewhere? Such thingsare done at elections, and on occasions less pressing than when menthink their lives are in danger from an informer.'
'Mr. Fairford,' said the provost, very earnestly, 'I scarce think sucha mistake possible; or if, by any extraordinary chance, it should havetaken place, Redgauntlet, whom I cannot but know well, being as I havesaid my wife's first cousin (fourth cousin, I should say) is altogetherincapable of doing anything harsh to the young gentleman--he might sendhim ower to Ailsay for a night or two, or maybe land him on the northcoast of Ireland, or in Islay, or some of the Hebrides; but depend uponit, he is incapable of harming a hair of his head.'
'I am determined not to trust to that, provost,' answered Fairfordfirmly; 'and I am a good deal surprised at your way of talking solightly of such an aggression on the liberty of the subject. You areto consider, and Mr. Herries or Mr. Redgauntlet's friends would do verywell also to consider, how it would sound in the ears of an EnglishSecretary of State, that an attainted traitor (for such is thisgentleman) has not only ventured to take up his abode in thisrealm--against the king of which he has been in arms--but is suspectedof having proceeded, by open force and violence, against the personof one of the lieges, a young man who is neither without friends norproperty to secure his being righted.'
The provost looked at the young counsellor with a face in whichdistrust, alarm, and vexation seemed mingled. 'A fashious job,' he saidat last, 'a fashious job; and it will be dangerous meddling with it.I should like ill to see your father's son turn informer against anunfortunate gentleman.'
'Neither do I mean it,' answered Alan, 'provided that unfortunategentleman and his friends give me a quiet opportunity of securing myfriend's safety. If I could speak with Mr. Redgauntlet, and hear his ownexplanation, I should probably be satisfied. If I am forced, to denouncehim to government, it will be in his new capacity of a kidnapper. I maynot be able, nor is it my business, to prevent his being recognized inhis former character of an attainted person, excepted from the generalpardon.'
'Master Fairford,' said the provost, 'would ye ruin the poor innocentgentleman on an idle suspicion?'
'Say no more of it, Mr. Crosbie; my line of conduct isdetermined--unless that suspicion is removed.'
'Weel, sir,' said the provost, 'since so it be, and since you say thatyou do not seek to harm Redgauntlet personally, I'll ask a man to dinewith us to-day that kens as much about his matters as most folk. Youmust think, Mr. Alan Fairford, though Redgauntlet be my wife's nearrelative, and though, doubtless, I wish him weel, yet I am not theperson who is like to be intrusted with his incomings and outgoings. Iam not a man for that--I keep the kirk, and I abhor Popery--I have stoodup for the House of Hanover, and for liberty and property--I carriedarms, sir, against the Pretender, when three of the Highlandmen'sbaggage-carts were stopped at Ecclefechan; and I had an especial loss ofa hundred pounds'--
'Scots,' interrupted Fairford. 'You forget you told me all this before.'
'Scots or English, it was too much for me to lose,' said the provost;so you see I am not a person to pack or peel with Jacobites, and suchunfreemen as poor Redgauntlet.'
'Granted, granted, Mr. Crosbie; and what then?' said Alan Fairford.
'Why, then, it follows, that if I am to help you at this pinch, ifcannot be by and through my ain personal knowledge, but through somefitting agent or third person.'
'Granted again,' said Fairford. 'And pray who may this third person be?'
'Wha but Pate Maxwell of Summertrees--him they call Pate-in-Peril.'
'An old Forty-five man, of course?' said Fairford.
'Ye may swear that,' replied the provost--'as black a Jacobite as theauld leaven can make him; but a sonsy, merry companion, that none of usthink it worth while to break wi' for all his brags and his clavers.You would have thought, if he had had but his own way at Derby, he wouldhave marched Charlie Stuart through between Wade and the Duke, as athread goes through the needle's ee, and seated him in Saint James'sbefore you could have said haud your hand. But though he is a windy bodywhen he gets on his auld-warld stories, he has mair gumption in him thanmost people--knows business, Mr. Alan, being bred to the law; but nevertook the gown, because of the oaths, which kept more folk out then thanthey do now--the more's the pity.'
'What! are you sorry, provost, that Jacobitism is upon the decline?'said Fairford.
'No, no,' answered the provost--'I am only sorry for folks losing thetenderness of conscience which they used to have. I have a son breedingto the bar, Mr. Fairford; and, no doubt, considering my services andsufferings, I might have looked for some bit postie to him; but if themuckle tykes come in--I mean a' these Maxwells, and Johnstones, andgreat lairds, that the oaths used to keep out lang syne--the bits o'messan doggies, like my son, and maybe like your father's son, Mr. Alan,will be sair put to the wall.'
'But to return to the subject, Mr. Crosbie,' said Fairford, 'do youreally think it likely that this Mr. Maxwell will be of service in thismatter?'
'It's very like he may be, for he is the tongue of the trump to thewhole squad of them,' said the provost; 'and Redgauntlet, though he willnot stick at times to call him a fool, takes more of his counsel thanany man's else that I am aware of. If Fate can bring him to a communing,the business is done. He's a sharp chield, Pate-in-Peril.'
'Pate-in-Peril!' repeated Alan; 'a very singular name.'
'Aye, and it was in as queer a way he got it; but I'll say naethingabout that,' said the provost, 'for fear of forestalling his market;for ye are sure to hear it once at least, however oftener, before thepunch-bowl gives place to the teapot.--And now, fare ye weel; for thereis the council-bell clinking in earnest; and if I am not there before itjows in, Bailie Laurie will be trying some of his manoeuvres.'
The provost, repeating his expectation of seeing Mr. Fairford at twoo'clock, at length effected his escape from the young counsellor, andleft him at a considerable loss how to proceed. The sheriff, it seems,had returned to Edinburgh, and he feared to find the visible repugnanceof the provost to interfere with this Laird of Birrenswork, orRedgauntlet, much stronger amongst the country gentlemen, many ofwhom were Catholics as well as Jacobites, and most others unwilling toquarrel with kin
smen and friends, by prosecuting with severity politicaloffences which had almost run a prescription.
To collect all the information in his power, and not to have recourseto the higher authorities until he could give all the light of whichthe case was capable, seemed the wiser proceeding in a choice ofdifficulties. He had some conversation with the procurator-fiscal, who,as well as the provost, was an old correspondent of his father. Alanexpressed to that officer a purpose of visiting Brokenburn, but wasassured by him, that it would be a step attended with much danger to hisown person, and altogether fruitless; that the individuals who hadbeen ringleaders in the riot were long since safely sheltered in theirvarious lurking-holes in the Isle of Man, Cumberland, and elsewhere; andthat those who might remain would undoubtedly commit violence on anywho visited their settlement with the purpose of inquiring into the latedisturbances.
There were not the same objections to his hastening to Mount Sharon,where he expected to find the latest news of his friend; and therewas time enough to do so, before the hour appointed for the provost'sdinner. Upon the road, he congratulated himself on having obtained onepoint of almost certain information. The person who had in a mannerforced himself upon his father's hospitality, and had appeared desirousto induce Darsie Latimer to visit England, against whom, too, a sort ofwarning had been received from an individual connected with and residingin his own family, proved to be a promoter of the disturbance in whichDarsie had disappeared.
What could be the cause of such an attempt on the liberty of aninoffensive and amiable man? It was impossible it could be merely owingto Redgauntlet's mistaking Darsie for a spy; for though that was thesolution which Fairford had offered to the provost, he well knew that,in point of fact, he himself had been warned by his singular visitor ofsome danger to which his friend was exposed, before such suspicion couldhave been entertained; and the injunctions received by Latimer from hisguardian, or him who acted as such, Mr. Griffiths of London, pointed tothe same thing. He was rather glad, however, that he had not let ProvostCrosbie into his secret further than was absolutely necessary; since itwas plain that the connexion of his wife with the suspected party waslikely to affect his impartiality as a magistrate.
When Alan Fairford arrived at Mount Sharon, Rachel Geddes hastened tomeet him, almost before the servant could open the door. She drew backin disappointment when she beheld a stranger, and said, to excuse herprecipitation, that 'she had thought it was her brother Joshua returnedfrom Cumberland.'
'Mr. Geddes is then absent from home?' said Fairford, much disappointedin his turn.
'He hath been gone since yesterday, friend,' answered Rachel, once morecomposed to the quietude which characterizes her sect, but her palecheek and red eye giving contradiction to her assumed equanimity.
'I am,' said Fairford, hastily, 'the particular friend of a young mannot unknown to you, Miss Geddes--the friend of Darsie Latimer--andam come hither in the utmost anxiety, having understood from ProvostCrosbie, that he had disappeared in the night when a destructive attackwas made upon the fishing-station of Mr. Geddes.'
'Thou dost afflict me, friend, by thy inquiries,' said Rachel, moreaffected than before; 'for although the youth was like those of theworldly generation, wise in his own conceit, and lightly to be moved bythe breath of vanity, yet Joshua loved him, and his heart clave to himas if he had been his own son. And when he himself escaped from the sonsof Belial, which was not until they had tired themselves with reviling,and with idle reproach, and the jests of the scoffer, Joshua, mybrother, returned to them once and again, to give ransom for theyouth called Darsie Latimer, with offers of money and with promise ofremission, but they would not hearken to him. Also, he went before thehead judge, whom men call the sheriff, and would have told him of theyouth's peril; but he would in no way hearken to him unless he wouldswear unto the truth of his words, which thing he might not do withoutsin, seeing it is written, Swear not at all--also, that our conversationshall be yea or nay. Therefore, Joshua returned to me disconsolate,and said, "Sister Rachel, this youth hath run into peril for my sake;assuredly I shall not be guiltless if a hair of his head be harmed,seeing I have sinned in permitting him to go with me to the fishingstation when such evil was to be feared. Therefore, I will take myhorse, even Solomon, and ride swiftly into Cumberland, and I will makemyself friends with Mammon of Unrighteousness, among the magistrates ofthe Gentiles, and among their mighty men; and it shall come to pass thatDarsie Latimer shall be delivered, even if it were at the expense ofhalf my substance." And I said, "Nay, my brother, go not, for theywill but scoff at and revile thee; but hire with thy silver one of thescribes, who are eager as hunters in pursuing their prey, and he shallfree Darsie Latimer from the men of violence by his cunning, and thysoul shall be guiltless of evil towards the lad." But he answered andsaid, "I will not be controlled in this matter." And he is gone forthand hath not returned, and I fear me that he may never return; forthough he be peaceful, as becometh one who holds all violence as offenceagainst his own soul, yet neither the floods of water, nor the fear ofthe snare, nor the drawn sword of the adversary brandished in the path,will overcome his purpose. Wherefore the Solway may swallow him up, orthe sword of the enemy may devour him--nevertheless, my hope is betterin Him who directeth all things, and ruleth over the waves of the sea,and overruleth the devices of the wicked, and who can redeem us even asa bird from the fowler's net.'
This was all that Fairford could learn from Miss Geddes; but he heardwith pleasure that the good Quaker, her brother, had many friends amongthose of his own profession in Cumberland, and without exposing himselfto so much danger as his sister seemed to apprehend, he trusted he mightbe able to discover some traces of Darsie Latimer. He himself rode backto Dumfries, having left with Miss Geddes his direction in thatplace, and an earnest request that she would forward thither whateverinformation she might obtain from her brother.
On Fairford's return to Dumfries, he employed the brief interval whichremained before dinner-time, in writing an account of what had befallenLatimer and of the present uncertainty of his condition, to Mr. SamuelGriffiths, through whose hands the remittances for his friend's servicehad been regularly made, desiring he would instantly acquaint him withsuch parts of his history as might direct him in the search which hewas about to institute through the border counties, and which he pledgedhimself not; to give up until he had obtained news of his friend, aliveor dead, The young lawyer's mind felt easier when he had dispatched thisletter. He could not conceive any reason why his friend's life should beaimed at; he knew Darsie had done nothing by which his liberty couldbe legally affected; and although, even of late years, there had beensingular histories of men, and women also, who had been trepanned,and concealed in solitudes and distant islands in order to serve sometemporary purpose, such violences had been chiefly practised by the richon the poor, and by the strong on the feeble; whereas, in the presentcase, this Mr. Herries, or Redgauntlet, being amenable, for more reasonsthan one, to the censure of the law, must be the weakest in any strugglein which it could be appealed to. It is true, that his friendly anxietywhispered that the very cause which rendered this oppressor lessformidable, might make him more desperate. Still, recalling hislanguage, so strikingly that of the gentleman, and even of the manof honour, Alan Fairford concluded, that though, in his feudal pride,Redgauntlet might venture on the deeds of violence exercised by thearistocracy in other times, he could not be capable of any action ofdeliberate atrocity. And in these convictions he went to dine withProvost Crosbie, with a heart more at ease than might have beenexpected. [See Note 7.]