CHAPTER XV
A CREAGH, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES [A CREAGH was an incursion for plunder,termed on the Borders a raid.]
When Edward had been a guest at Tully-Veolan nearly six weeks,he descried one morning, as he took his usual walk before thebreakfast-hour, signs of uncommon perturbation in the family. Fourbare-legged dairymaids, with each an empty milk-pail in her hand, ranabout with frantic gestures, and uttering loud exclamations of surprise,grief, and resentment. From their appearance, a pagan might haveconceived them a detachment of the celebrated Belides, just come fromtheir baling penance. As nothing was to be got from this distractedchorus, excepting 'Lord guide us!' and 'Eh, sirs!' ejaculations whichthrew no light upon the cause of their dismay, Waverley repaired to theforecourt, as it was called, where he beheld Bailie Macwheeble canteringhis white pony down the avenue with all the speed it could muster. Hehad arrived, it would seem, upon a hasty summons and was followed byhalf a score of peasants from the village, who had no great difficultyin keeping pace with him.
The Bailie, greatly too busy, and too important, to enter intoexplanations with Edward, summoned forth Mr. Saunderson, who appearedwith a countenance in which dismay was mingled with solemnity, and theyimmediately entered into close conference. Davie Gellatley was alsoseen in the group, idle as Diogenes at Sinope, while his countrymen werepreparing for a siege. His spirits always rose with anything, goodor bad, which occasioned tumult, and he continued frisking, hopping,dancing, and singing the burden of an old ballad,
Our gear's a' gane,
until, happening to pass too near the Bailie, he received an admonitoryhint from his horsewhip, which converted his songs into lamentation.
Passing from thence towards the garden, Waverley beheld the Baron inperson, measuring and re-measuring, with swift and tremendous strides,the length of the terrace; his countenance clouded with offended prideand indignation, and the whole of his demeanour such as seemed toindicate, that any inquiry concerning the cause of his discomposurewould give pain at least, if not offence. Waverley therefore glided intothe house, without addressing him, and took his way to the breakfastparlour, where he found his young friend Rose, who, though she neitherexhibited the resentment of her father, the turbid importance of BailieMacwheeble, nor the despair of the hand-maidens, seemed vexed andthoughtful. A single word explained the mystery. 'Your breakfast willbe a disturbed one, Captain Waverley, A party of Caterans have come downupon us, last night, and have driven off all our milch cows.'
'A party of Caterans?'
'Yes; robbers from the neighbouring Highlands. We used to be quite freefrom them while we paid blackmail to Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr;but my father thought it unworthy of his rank and birth to pay it anylonger, and so this disaster has happened. It is not the value of thecattle, Captain Waverley, that vexes me; but my father is so much hurtat the affront, and is so bold and hot, that I fear he will try torecover them by the strong hand; and if he is not hurt himself, he willhurt some of these wild people, and then there will be no peace betweenthem and us perhaps for our lifetime; and we cannot defend ourselves asis old times, for the government have taken all our arms; and my dearfather is so rash--Oh, what will become of us!'--Here poor Rose lostheart altogether, and burst into a flood of tears.
The Baron entered at this moment, and rebuked her with more asperitythan Waverley had ever heard him use to any one. 'Was it not a shame,'he said, 'that she should exhibit herself before any gentleman in sucha light, as if she shed tears for a drove of horned nolt and milch kine,like the daughter of a Cheshire yeoman! Captain Waverley, I must requestyour favourable construction of her grief, which may, or ought toproceed, solely from seeing her father's estate exposed to spulzie anddepredation from common thieves and sornars, [Sornars may be translatedsturdy beggars, more especially indicating those unwelcome visitors whoexact lodgings and victuals by force, or something approaching to it.]while we are not allowed to keep half a score of muskets, whether fordefence or rescue.'
Bailie Macwheeble entered immediately afterwards, and by his report ofarms and ammunition confirmed this statement, informing the Baron, ina melancholy voice, that though the people would certainly obey hishonour's orders, yet there was no chance of their following the gear toony guid purpose, in respect there were only his honour's body servantswho had swords and pistols, and the depredators were twelve Highlanders,completely armed after the manner of their country.--Having deliveredthis doleful annunciation, he assumed a posture of silent dejection,shaking his head slowly with the motion of a pendulum when it is ceasingto vibrate, and then remained stationary, his body stooping at a moreacute angle than usual, and the latter part of his person projecting inproportion.
The Baron, meanwhile, paced the room in silent indignation, and atlength fixing his eye upon an old portrait, whose person was clad inarmour, and whose features glared grimly out of a huge bush of hair,part of which descended from his head to his shoulders, and part fromhis chin and upper-lip to his breastplate,--'That gentleman, CaptainWaverley, my grandsire,' he said, 'with two hundred horse, whom helevied within his own bounds, discomfited and put to the rout morethan five hundred of these Highland reivers, who have been ever LAPISOFFENSIONIS, ET PETRA SCANDALI, a stumbling-block and a rock of offenceto the Lowland vicinage--he discomfited them, I say, when they had thetemerity to descend to harry this country, in the time of the civildissensions, in the year of grace sixteen hundred forty and two. Andnow, sir, I, his grandson, am thus used at such unworthy hands!'
Here there was an awful pause; after which all the company, as is usualin cases of difficulty, began to give separate and inconsistent counsel.Alexander ab Alexandro proposed they should send some one to compoundwith the Caterans, who would readily, he said, give up their prey for adollar a head. The Bailie opined that this transaction would amount totheft-boot, or composition of felony; and he recommended that some CANNYHAND should be sent up to the glens to make the best bargain he could,as it were for himself, so that the laird might not be seen in such atransaction. Edward proposed to send off to the nearest garrison for aparty of soldiers and a magistrate's warrant; and Rose, as far as shedared, endeavoured to insinuate the course of paying the arrears oftribute money to Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr, who, they all knew,could easily procure restoration of the cattle, if he were properlypropitiated.
None of these proposals met the Baron's approbation. The idea ofcomposition, direct or implied, was absolutely ignominious; thatof Waverley only showed that he did not understand the state of thecountry, and of the political parties which divided it; and, standingmatters as they did with Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr, the Baron wouldmake no concession to him, were it, he said, to procure restitution ININTEGRUM of every stirk and stot that the chief, his forefathers, andhis clan, had stolen since the days of Malcolm Canmore.'
In fact, his voice was still for war, and he proposed to send expressesto Balmawhapple, Killancureit, Tulliellum, and other lairds, who wereexposed to similar depredations, inviting them to join in the pursuit;'and then, sir, shall these NEBULONES NEQUISSIMI, as Leslaeus callsthem, be brought to the fate of their predecessor Cacus,
Elisos oculos, et siccum sanguine guttur.'
The Bailie, who by no means relished these warlike counsels, here pulledforth an immense watch, of the colour, and nearly of the size, of apewter warming-pan, and observed it was now past noon, and that theCaterans had been seen in the pass of Bally-Brough soon after sunrise;so that before the allied forces could assemble, they and their preywould be far beyond the reach of the most active pursuit, and shelteredin those pathless deserts where it was neither advisable to follow, norindeed possible to trace them.
This proposition was undeniable. The council therefore broke upwithout coming to any conclusion, as has occurred to councils of moreimportance; only it was determined that the Bailie should send his ownthree milk-cows down to the Mains for the use of the Baron's family,and brew small ale, as a substitute for milk, in his own. To thisarrangement, which was
suggested by Saunderson, the Bailie readilyassented, both from habitual deference to the family, and an internalconsciousness that his courtesy would, in some mode or other, be repaidtenfold.
The Baron having also retired to give some necessary directions,Waverley seized the opportunity to ask, whether this Fergus, with theunpronounceable name, was the chief thief-taker of the district.
'Thief-taker!' answered Rose, laughing; 'he is a gentleman of greathonour and consequence; the chieftain of an independent branch of apowerful Highland clan, and is much respected, both for his own power,and that of his kith, kin, and allies.'
'And what has he to do with the thieves, then? is he a magistrate, or inthe commission of the peace?' asked Waverley.
The commission of war rather, if there be such a thing,' said Rose; 'forhe is a very unquiet neighbour to his un-friends, and keeps a greaterFOLLOWING on foot than many that have thrice his estates. As to hisconnexion with the thieves, that I cannot well explain; but the boldestof them will never steal a hoof from any one that pays blackmail to VichIan Vohr.'
'And what is blackmail?'
'A sort of protection-money that Low-country gentlemen and heritors,lying near the Highlands, pay to some Highland chief, that he mayneither do them harm himself, nor suffer it to be done to them byothers; and then, if your cattle are stolen, you have only to send himword, and he will recover them; or it may be, he will drive away cowsfrom some distant place, where he has a quarrel, and give them to you tomake up your loss.'
'And is this sort of Highland Jonathan Wild admitted into society, andcalled a gentleman?'
'So much so,' said Rose, 'that the quarrel between my father and FergusMac-Ivor began at a county meeting, where he wanted to take precedenceof all the Lowland gentlemen then present, only my father would notsuffer it. And then he upbraided my father that he was under his banner,and paid him tribute; and my father was in a towering passion, forBailie Macwheeble, who manages such things his own way, had contrived tokeep this blackmail a secret from him, and passed it in his account forcess-money. And they would have fought; but Fergus Mac-Ivor said, verygallantly, he would never raise his hand against a grey head that wasso much respected as my father's. Oh, I wish, I wish they had continuedfriends!'
'And did you ever see this Mr. Mac-Ivor, if that be his name, MissBradwardine?'
'No, that is not his name; and he would consider MASTER as a sort ofaffront, only that you are an Englishman, and know no better. But theLowlanders call him, like other gentlemen, by the name of his estate,Glennaquoich; and the Highlanders call him Vich Ian Vohr, that is, theson of John the Great; and we upon the braes here call him by both namesindifferently.'
I am afraid I shall never bring my English tongue to call him by eitherone or other.'
'But he is a very polite, handsome man,' continued Rose; 'and his sisterFlora is one of the most beautiful and accomplished young ladies in thiscountry: she was bred in a convent in France, and was a great friendof mine before this unhappy dispute. Dear Captain Waverley, try yourinfluence with my father to make matters up. I am sure this is but thebeginning of our troubles; for Tully-Veolan has never been a safe orquiet residence when we have been at feud with the Highlanders. WhenI was a girl about ten, there was a skirmish fought between a party oftwenty of them, and my father and his servants, behind the Mains; andthe bullets broke several panes in the north windows, they were so near.Three of the Highlanders were killed, and they brought them in, wrappedin their plaids, and laid them on the stone floor of the hall; andnext morning, their wives and daughters came, clapping their hands, andcrying the coronach, and shrieking, and carried away the dead bodies,with the pipes playing before them. I could not sleep for six weekswithout starting, and thinking I heard these terrible cries, and sawthe bodies lying on the steps, all stiff and swathed up in their bloodytartans. But since that time there came a party from the garrison atStirling, with a warrant from the Lord Justice-Clerk, or some suchgreat man, and took away all our arms; and now, how are we to protectourselves if they come down in any strength?'
Waverley could not help starting at a story which bore so muchresemblance to one of his own day-dreams. Here was a girl scarceseventeen, the gentlest of her sex, both in temper and appearance, whohad witnessed with her own eyes such a scene as he had used to conjureup in his imagination, as only occurring in ancient times, and spoke ofit coolly, as one very likely to recur. He felt at once the impulse ofcuriosity, and that slight sense of danger which only serves to heightenits interest. He might have said with Malvolio, '"I do not now foolmyself, to let imagination jade me!" I am actually in the land ofmilitary and romantic adventures, and it only remains to be seen whatwill be my own share in them.'
The whole circumstances now detailed concerning the state of thecountry, seemed equally novel and extraordinary. He had indeed oftenheard of Highland thieves, but had no idea of the systematic mode inwhich their depredations were conducted; and that the practice wasconnived at, and even encouraged, by many of the Highland chieftains,who not only found the creaghs, or forays, useful for the purpose oftraining individuals of their clan to the practice of arms, but alsoof maintaining a wholesome terror among their Lowland neighbours,and levying, as we have seen, a tribute from them, under colour ofprotection-money.
Bailie Macwheeble, who soon afterwards entered, expatiated still more atlength upon the same topic. This honest gentleman's conversation was soformed upon his professional practice, that Davie Gellatley once saidhis discourse was like 'a charge of horning.' He assured our hero, that'from the maist ancient times of record, the lawless thieves, limmers,and broken men of the Highlands, had been in fellowship together byreason of their surnames, for the committing of divers thefts, reifs,and herships upon the honest men of the Low Country, when they not onlyintromitted with their whole goods and gear, corn, cattle, horse, nolt,sheep, outsight and insight plenishing, at their wicked pleasure, butmoreover made prisoners, ransomed them, or concussed them into givingborrows (pledges) to enter into captivity again: all which was directlyprohibited in divers parts of the Statute Book, both by the act onethousand five hundred and sixty-seven, and various others; the whilkstatutes, with all that had followed and might follow thereupon, wereshamefully broken and vilipended by the said sornars, limmers, andbroken men, associated into fellowships, for the aforesaid purposes oftheft, stouthreef, fire-raising, murther, RAPTUS MULIERUM, or forcibleabduction of women, and such like as aforesaid.'
It seemed like a dream to Waverley that these deeds of violence shouldbe familiar to men's minds, and currently talked of, as falling withinthe common order of things, and happening daily in the immediatevicinity, without his having crossed the seas, and while he was yet inthe otherwise well-ordered island of Great Britain. [10]