CHAPTER XXIV.
Hamlet: Has this fellow no feeling of his business? he sings at grave making. Horatio: Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness. Hamlet: 'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.
Hamlet, Act V. Scene 1.
THE sleep of Ravenswood was broken by ghastly and agitating visions, andhis waking intervals disturbed by melancholy reflections on the past andpainful anticipations of the future. He was perhaps the only travellerwho ever slept in that miserable kennel without complaining of hislodgings, or feeling inconvenience from their deficiencies. It is when"the mind is free the body's delicate." Morning, however, found theMaster an early riser, in hopes that the fresh air of the dawn mightafford the refreshment which night had refused him. He took his waytowards the solitary burial-ground, which lay about half a mile from theinn.
The thin blue smoke, which already began to curl upward, and todistinguish the cottage of the living from the habitation of the dead,apprised him that its inmate had returned and was stirring. Accordingly,on entering the little churchyard, he saw the old man labouring in ahalf-made grave. "My destiny," thought Ravenswood, "seems to lead me toscenes of fate and of death; but these are childish thoughts, and theyshall not master me. I will not again suffer my imagination to beguilemy senses." The old man rested on his spade as the Master approachedhim, as if to receive his commands; and as he did not immediately speak,the sexton opened the discourse in his own way.
"Ye will be a wedding customer, sir, I'se warrant?"
"What makes you think so, friend?" replied the Master.
"I live by twa trades, sir," replied the blythe old man--"fiddle, sir,and spade; filling the world, and emptying of it; and I suld ken baithcast of customers by head-mark in thirty years' practice."
"You are mistaken, however, this morning," replied Ravenswood.
"Am I?" said the old man, looking keenly at him, "troth and it may be;since, for as brent as your brow is, there is something sitting upon itthis day that is as near akin to death as to wedlock. Weel--weel; thepick and shovel are as ready to your order as bow and fiddle."
"I wish you," said Ravenswood, "to look after the decent intermentof an old woman, Alice Gray, who lived at the Graigfoot in RavenswoodPark."
"Alice Gray!--blind Alice!" said the sexton "and is she gane at last?that's another jow of the bell to bid me be ready. I mind when HabbieGray brought her down to this land; a likely lass she was then,and looked ower her southland nose at us a'. I trow her pride got adowncome. And is she e'en gane?"
"She died yesterday," said Ravenswood; "and desired to be buried herebeside her husband; you know where he lies, no doubt?"
"Ken where he lies!" answered the sexton, with national indirection ofresponse. "I ken whar a'body lies, that lies here. But ye were speakingo' her grave? Lord help us, it's no an ordinar grave that will haud herin, if a's true that folk said of Alice in her auld days; and if I gaeto six feet deep--and a warlock's grave shouldna be an inch mair ebb,or her ain witch cummers would soon whirl her out of her shroud for a'their auld acquaintance--and be't six feet, or be't three, wha's to paythe making o't, I pray ye?"
"I will pay that, my friend, and all other reasonable charges."
"Reasonable charges!" said the sexton "ou, there's grundmail--andbell-siller, though the bell's broken, nae doubt--and the kist--and myday's wark--and my bit fee--and some brandy and yill to the dirgie, I amno thinking that you can inter her, to ca' decently, under saxteen pundScots."
"There is the money, my friend," said Ravenswood, "and something over.Be sure you know the grave."
"Ye'll be ane o' her English relations, I'se warrant," said the hoaryman of skulls; "I hae heard she married far below her station. It wasvery right to let her bite on the bridle when she was living, and it'svery right to gie her a decent burial now she's dead, for that's amatter o' credit to yoursell rather than to her. Folk may let theirkindred shift for themsells when they are alive, and can bear the burdenof their ain misdoings; but it's an unnatural thing to let them beburied like dogs, when a' the discredit gangs to the kindred. What kensthe dead corpse about it?"
"You would not have people neglect their relations on a bridal occasionneither?" said Ravenswood, who was amused with the professionallimitation of the grave-digger's philanthropy.
The old man cast up his sharp grey eyes with a shrewd smile, as if heunderstood the jest, but instantly continued, with his former gravity:"Bridals--wha wad neglect bridals that had ony regard for plenishingthe earth? To be sure, they suld be celebrated with all manner of goodcheer, and meeting of friends, and musical instruments--harp,sackbut, and psaltery; or gude fiddle and pipes, when these auld-warldinstruments of melody are hard to be compassed."
"The presence of the fiddle, I dare say," replied Ravenswood, "wouldatone for the absence of all the others."
The sexton again looked sharply up at him, as he answered. "Naedoubt--nae doubt, if it were weel played; but yonder," he said, as ifto change the discourse, "is Halbert Gray's lang hame, that ye werespeering after, just the third bourock beyond the muckle through-stanethat stands on sax legs yonder, abune some ane of the Ravenswoods; forthere is mony of their kin and followers here, deil lift them! though itisna just their main burial-place."
"They are no favourites, then, of yours, these Ravenswoods?" said theMaster, no much pleased with the passing benediction which was thusbestowed on his family and name.
"I kenna wha should favour them," said the grave-digger; "when theyhad lands and power, they were ill guides of them baith, and now theirhead's down, there's few care how lang they may be of lifting it again."
"Indeed!" said Ravenswood; "I never heard that this unhappy familydeserved ill-will at the hands of their country. I grant their poverty,if that renders them contemptible."
"It will gang a far way till't" said the sexton of Hermitage, "ye maytak my word for that; at least, I ken naething else that suld mak myselfcontemptible, and folk are far frae respecting me as they wad do if Ilived in a twa-lofted sclated house. But as for the Ravenswoods, I haeseen three generations of them, and deil ane to mend other."
"I thought they had enjoyed a fair character in the country," said theirdescendant.
"Character! Ou, ye see, sir," said the sexton, "as for the auld gudesirebody of a lord, I lived on his land when I was a swanking young chield,and could hae blawn the trumpet wi' ony body, for I had wind eneughthen; and touching this trumpeter Marine that I have heard play aforethe lords of the circuit, I wad hae made nae mair o' him than of a bairnand a bawbee whistle. I defy him to hae played 'Boot and saddle,'or 'Horse and away,' or 'Gallants, come trot,' with me; he hadna thetones."
"But what is all this to old Lord Ravenswood, my friend?" said theMaster, who, with an anxiety not unnatural in his circumstances, wasdesirous of prosecuting the musician's first topic--"what had his memoryto do with the degeneracy of the trumpet music?"
"Just this, sir," answered the sexton, "that I lost my wind in hisservice. Ye see I was trumpeter at the castle, and had allowance forblawing at break of day, and at dinner time, and other whiles whenthere was company about, and it pleased my lord; and when he raised hismilitia to caper awa' to Bothwell Brig against the wrang-headed westlandWhigs, I behoved, reason or name, to munt a horse and caper awa' wi'them."
"And very reasonable," said Ravenswood; "you were his servant andvassal."
"Servitor, say ye?" replied the sexton, "and so I was; but it was toblaw folk to their warm dinner, or at the warst to a decent kirkyard,and no to skirl them awa' to a bluidy braeside, where there was deil abedral but the hooded craw. But bide ye, ye shall hear what cam o't, andhow far I am bund to be bedesman to the Ravenswoods. Till't, ye see, wegaed on a braw simmer morning, twenty-fourth of June, saxteen hundredand se'enty-nine, of a' the days of the month and year--drums beat, gunsrattled, horses kicked and trampled. Hackstoun of Rathillet keepit thebrig wi' mustket and carabine and pike, sword and scythe for what I ken,and we hor
semen were ordered down to cross at the ford,--I hate fordsat a' times, let abee when there's thousands of armed men on the otherside. There was auld Ravenswood brandishing his Andrew Ferrara at thehead, and crying to us to come and buckle to, as if we had been gaun toa fair; there was Caleb Balderstone, that is living yet, flourishing inthe rear, and swearing Gog and Magog, he would put steel through the gutsof ony man that turned bridle; there was young Allan Ravenswood, thatwas then Master, wi' a bended pistol in his hand--it was a mercy it gaedna aff!--crying to me, that had scarce as much wind left as serve thenecessary purpose of my ain lungs, 'Sound, you poltroon!--sound, youdamned cowardly villain, or I will blow your brains out!' and, to besure, I blew sic points of war that the scraugh of a clockin-hen wasmusic to them."
"Well, sir, cut all this short," said Ravenswood.
"Short! I had like to hae been cut short mysell, in the flower of myyouth, as Scripture says; and that's the very thing that I compleen o'.Weel! in to the water we behoved a' to splash, heels ower head, sit orfa'--ae horse driving on anither, as is the way of brute beasts, andriders that hae as little sense; the very bushes on the ither side werea-bleeze wi' the flashes of the Whig guns; and my horse had just taen thegrund, when a blackavised westland carle--I wad mind the face o' him ahundred years yet--an ee like a wild falcon's, and a beard as broadas my shovel--clapped the end o' his lang black gun within a quarter'slength of my lug! By the grace o' Mercy, the horse swarved round, and Ifell aff at the tae side as the ball whistled by at the tither, and thefell auld lord took the Whig such a swauk wi' his broadsword that hemade twa pieces o' his head, and down fell the lurdance wi' a' his boukabune me."
"You were rather obliged to the old lord, I think," said Ravenswood.
"Was I? my sartie! first for bringing me into jeopardy, would I nould I,and then for whomling a chield on the tap o' me that dang the very windout of my body? I hae been short-breathed ever since, and canna gangtwenty yards without peghing like a miller's aiver."
"You lost, then, your place as trumpeter?" said Ravenswood.
"Lost it! to be sure I lost it," replied the sexton, "for I couldna haeplayed pew upon a dry hemlock; but I might hae dune weel eneugh, forI keepit the wage and the free house, and little to do but play on thefiddle to them, but for Allan, last Lord Ravenswood, that was far waurthan ever his father was."
"What," said the Master, "did my father--I mean, did his father'sson--this last Lord Ravenswood, deprive you of what the bounty of hisfather allowed you?"
"Ay, troth did he," answered the old man; "for he loot his affairs gangto the dogs, and let in this Sir William Ashton on us, that will gienaething for naething, and just removed me and a' the puir creaturesthat had bite and soup at the castle, and a hole to put our heads in,when things were in the auld way."
"If Lord Ravenswood protected his people, my friend, while he had themeans of doing so, I think they might spare his memory," replied theMaster.
"Ye are welcome to your ain opinion, sir," said the sexton "but yewinna persuade me that he did his duty, either to himsell or to huz puirdependent creatures, in guiding us the gate he has done; he might haegien us life-rent tacks of our bits o' houses and yards; and me, that'san auld man, living in yon miserable cabin, that's fitter for the deadthan the quick, and killed wi' rheumatise, and John Smith in my daintybit mailing, and his window glazen, and a' because Ravenswood guided hisgear like a fule!"
"It is but too true," said Ravenswood, conscience-struck; "the penaltiesof extravagance extend far beyond the prodigal's own sufferings.""However," said the sexton, "this young man Edgar is like to avenge mywrangs on the haill of his kindred." "Indeed?" said Ravenswood; "whyshould you suppose so?"
"They say he is about to marry the daughter of Leddy Ashton and let herleddyship get his head ance under her oxter, and see you if she winnagie his neck a thraw. Sorra a bit, if I were him! Let her alane forhauding a'thing in het water that draws near her. Sae the warst wish Ishall wish the lad is, that he may take his ain creditable gate o't, andally himsell wi' his father's enemies, that have taken his broad landsand my bonny kail-yard from the lawful owners thereof."
Cervantes acutely remarks, that flattery is pleasing even from the mouthof a madman; and censure, as well as praise, often affects us, while wedespise the opinions and motives on which it is founded and expressed.Ravenswood, abruptly reiterating his command that Alice's funeral shouldbe attended to, flung away from the sexton, under the painful impressionthat the great as well as the small vulgar would think of his engagementwith Lucy like this ignorant and selfish peasant.
"And I have stooped to subject myself to these calumnies, and amrejected notwithstanding! Lucy, your faith must be true and perfect asthe diamond to compensate for the dishonour which men's opinions, andthe conduct of your mother, attach to the heir of Ravenswood!"
As he raised his eyes, he beheld the Marquis of A----, who, havingarrived at the Tod's Hole, had walked forth to look for his kinsman.
After mutual greetings, he made some apology to the Master for notcoming forward on the preceding evening. "It was his wish," he said,"to have done so, but he had come to the knowledge of some matters whichinduced him to delay his purpose. I find," he proceeded, "there has beena love affair here, kinsman; and though I might blame you for nothaving communicated with me, as being in some degree the chief of yourfamily----"
"With your lordship's permission," said Ravenswood, "I am deeplygrateful for the interest you are pleased to take in me, but _I_ am thechief and head of my family."
"I know it--I know it," said the Marquis; "in a strict heraldic andgenealogical sense, you certainly are so; what I mean is, that being insome measure under my guardianship----"
"I must take the liberty to say, my lord----" answered Ravenswood, andthe tone in which he interrupted the Marquis boded no long duration tothe friendship of the noble relatives, when he himself was interruptedby the little sexton, who cam puffing after them, to ask if theirhonours would choose music at the change-house to make up for shortcheer.
"We want no music," said the Master, abruptly.
"Your honour disna ken what ye're refusing, then," said the fiddler,with the impertinent freedom of his profession. "I can play, 'Wilt thoudo't again,' and 'The Auld Man's Mear's Dead,' sax times better thanever Patie Birnie. I'll get my fiddle in the turning of a coffin-screw."
"Take yourself away, sir," said the Marquis.
"And if your honour be a north-country gentleman," said the perseveringminstrel, "whilk I wad judge from your tongue, I can play 'LiggeramCosh,' and 'Mullin Dhu,' and 'The Cummers of Athole.'"
"Take yourself away, friend; you interrupt our conversation."
"Or if, under your honour's favour, ye should happen to be athought honest, I can play (this in a low and confidential tone)'Killiecrankie,' and 'The King shall hae his ain,' and 'The Auld Stuartsback again'; and the wife at the change-house is a decent, discreetbody, neither kens nor cares what toasts are drucken, and what tunesare played, in her house: she's deaf to a'thing but the clink o' thesiller."
The Marquis, who was sometimes suspected of Jacobitism, could not helplaughing as he threw the fellow a dollar, and bid him go play to theservants if he had a mind, and leave them at peace.
"Aweel, gentlemen," said he, "I am wishing your honours gude day. I'llbe a' the better of the dollar, and ye'll be the waur of wanting music,I'se tell ye. But I'se gang hame, and finish the grave in the tuning o'a fiddle-string, lay by my spade, and then get my tother bread-winner,and awa' to your folk, and see if they hae better lugs than theirmasters."