CHAPTER XV
THE LAD WITH THE SILVER BUTTON THROUGH THE ISLE OF MULL
The Ross of Mull, which I had now got upon, was rugged and trackless,like the isle I had just left; being all bog, and briar, and big stone.There may be roads for them that know that country well; but for my partI had no better guide than my own nose, and no other landmark than BenMore.
I aimed as well as I could for the smoke I had seen so often from theisland; and with all my great weariness and the difficulty of the waycame upon the house in the bottom of a little hollow about five or sixat night. It was low and longish, roofed with turf, and built ofunmortared stones; and on a mound in front of it an old gentleman satsmoking his pipe in the sun.
With what little English he had, he gave me to understand that myshipmates had got safe ashore, and had broken bread in that very houseon the day after.
"Was there one," I asked, "dressed like a gentleman?"
He said they all wore rough great-coats; but to be sure, the first ofthem, the one that came alone, wore breeches and stockings, while therest had sailors' trousers.
"Ah," said I, "and he would have a feathered hat?"
He told me, no, that he was bareheaded like myself.
At first I thought Alan might have lost his hat; and then the rain camein my mind, and I judged it more likely he had it out of harm's wayunder his great-coat. This set me smiling, partly because my friend wassafe, partly to think of his vanity in dress.
And then the old gentleman clapped his hand to his brow, and cried outthat I must be the lad with the silver button.
"Why, yes!" said I, in some wonder.
"Well, then," said the old gentleman, "I have a word for you, that youare to follow your friend to his country, by Torosay."
He then asked me how I had fared, and I told him my tale. Asouth-country man would certainly have laughed; but this old gentleman(I call him so because of his manners, for his clothes were dropping offhis back) heard me all through with nothing but gravity and pity. When Ihad done, he took me by the hand, led me into his hut (it was no better)and presented me before his wife, as if she had been the Queen and I aduke.
The good woman set oat-bread before me and a cold grouse, patting myshoulder and smiling to me all the time, for she had no English; and theold gentleman (not to be behind) brewed me a strong punch out of theircountry spirit. All the while I was eating, and after that when I wasdrinking the punch, I could scarce come to believe in my good fortune;and the house, though it was thick with the peat-smoke and as full ofholes as a colander, seemed like a palace.
The punch threw me in a strong sweat and a deep slumber; the good peoplelet me lie; and it was near noon of the next day before I took the road,my throat already easier and my spirits quite restored by good fare andgood news. The old gentleman, although I pressed him hard, would take nomoney, and gave me an old bonnet for my head; though I am free to own Iwas no sooner out of view of the house than I very jealously washed thisgift of his in a wayside fountain.
Thought I to myself: "If these are the wild Highlanders, I could wish myown folk wilder."
I not only started late, but I must have wandered nearly half the time.True, I met plenty of people, grubbing in little miserable fields thatwould not keep a cat, or herding little kine about the bigness of asses.The Highland dress being forbidden by law since the rebellion, and thepeople condemned to the Lowland habit, which they much disliked, it wasstrange to see the variety of their array. Some went bare, only for ahanging cloak or great-coat, and carried their trousers on their backslike a useless burthen: some had made an imitation of the tartan withlittle parti-coloured stripes patched together like an old wife's quilt;others, again, still wore the Highland philabeg, but by putting a fewstitches between the legs, transformed it into a pair of trousers like aDutchman's. All those makeshifts were condemned and punished, for thelaw was harshly applied, in hopes to break up the clan spirit; but inthat out-of-the-way, sea-bound isle, there were few to make remarks andfewer to tell tales.
They seemed in great poverty; which was no doubt natural, now thatrapine was put down, and the chiefs kept no longer an open house; andthe roads (even such a wandering, country by-track as the one Ifollowed) were infested with beggars. And here again I marked adifference from my own part of the country. For our Lowlandbeggars--even the gownsmen themselves, who beg by patent--had a louting,flattering way with them, and if you gave them a plack and asked change,would very civilly return you a boddle. But these Highland beggars stoodon their dignity, asked alms only to buy snuff (by their account) andwould give no change.
To be sure, this was no concern of mine, except in so far as itentertained me by the way. What was much more to the purpose, few hadany English, and these few (unless they were of the brotherhood ofbeggars) not very anxious to place it at my service. I knew Torosay tobe my destination, and repeated the name to them and pointed; butinstead of simply pointing in reply, they would give me a screed of theGaelic that set me foolish; so it was small wonder if I went out of myroad as often as I stayed in it.
At last, about eight at night, and already very weary, I came to a lonehouse where I asked admittance, and was refused until I bethought me ofthe power of money in so poor a country, and held up one of my guineasin my finger and thumb. Thereupon, the man of the house, who hadhitherto pretended to have no English, and driven me from his door bysignals, suddenly began to speak as clearly as was needful, and agreedfor five shillings to give me a night's lodging and guide me the nextday to Torosay.
I slept uneasily that night, fearing I should be robbed; but I mighthave spared myself the pain; for my host was no robber, only miserablypoor and a great cheat. He was not alone in his poverty; for the nextmorning we must go five miles about to the house of what he called arich man to have one of my guineas changed. This was perhaps a rich manfor Mull; he would have scarce been thought so in the south; for it tookall he had--the whole house was turned upside down, and a neighbourbrought under contribution, before he could scrape together twentyshillings in silver. The odd shilling he kept for himself, protesting hecould ill afford to have so great a sum of money lying "locked up." Forall that he was very courteous and well spoken, made us both sit downwith his family to dinner, and brewed punch in a fine china bowl, overwhich my rascal guide grew so merry that he refused to start.
I was for getting angry, and appealed to the rich man (Hector Macleanwas his name), who had been a witness to our bargain and to my paymentof the five shillings. But Maclean had taken his share of the punch, andvowed that no gentleman should leave his table after the bowl wasbrewed; so there was nothing for it but to sit and hear Jacobite toastsand Gaelic songs, till all were tipsy and staggered off to the bed orthe barn for their night's rest.
Next day (the fourth of my travels) we were up before five upon theclock; but my rascal guide got to the bottle at once, and it was threehours before I had him clear of the house, and then (as you shall hear)only for a worse disappointment.
As long as we went down a heathery valley that lay before Mr. Maclean'shouse all went well; only my guide looked constantly over his shoulder,and, when I asked him the cause, only grinned at me. No sooner, however,had we crossed the back of a hill, and got out of sight of the housewindows, than he told me Torosay lay right in front, and that a hill-top(which he pointed out) was my best land-mark.
"I care very little for that," said I, "since you are going with me."
The impudent cheat answered me in the Gaelic that he had no English.
"My fine fellow," I said, "I know very well your English comes and goes.Tell me what will bring it back? Is it more money you wish?"
"Five shillings mair," said he, "and hersel' will bring ye there."
I reflected a while and then offered him two, which he acceptedgreedily, and insisted on having in his hands at once--"for luck," as hesaid, but I think it was rather for my misfortune.
The two shillings carried him not quite as many miles; at the end ofwhich distance he sat
down upon the wayside and took off his broguesfrom his feet, like a man about to rest.
I was now red-hot. "Ha!" said I, "have you no more English?"
He said impudently, "No."
At that I boiled over, and lifted my hand to strike him; and he, drawinga knife from his rags, squatted back and grinned at me like a wild cat.At that, forgetting everything but my anger, I ran in upon him, putaside his knife with my left, and struck him in the mouth with theright. I was a strong lad, and very angry, and he but a little man; andhe went down before me heavily. By good luck, his knife flew out of hishand as he fell.
I picked up both that and his brogues, wished him a good morning, andset off upon my way, leaving him barefoot and disarmed. I chuckled tomyself as I went, being sure I was done with that rogue, for a varietyof reasons. First, he knew he could have no more of my money; next, thebrogues were worth in that country only a few pence; and lastly, theknife, which was really a dagger, it was against the law for him tocarry.
In about half an hour of walk I overtook a great, ragged man, movingpretty fast, but feeling before him with a staff. He was quite blind,and told me he was a catechist, which should have put me at my ease. Buthis face went against me; it seemed dark and dangerous and secret; andpresently, as we began to go on alongside, I saw the steel butt of apistol sticking from under the flap of his coat-pocket. To carry such athing meant a fine of fifteen pounds sterling upon a first offence, andtransportation to the colonies upon a second. Nor could I quite see whya religious teacher should go armed, or what a blind man could be doingwith a pistol.
I told him about my guide, for I was proud of what I had done, and myvanity for once got the heels of my prudence. At the mention of the fiveshillings he cried out so loud that I made up my mind I should saynothing of the other two, and was glad he could not see my blushes.
"Was it too much?" I asked, a little faltering.
"Too much!" cries he. "Why, I will guide you to Torosay myself for adram of brandy. And give you the great pleasure of my company (me thatis a man of some learning) in the bargain."
I said I did not see how a blind man could be a guide: but at that helaughed aloud, and said his stick was eyes enough for an eagle.
"In the Isle of Mull, at least," says he, "where I knew every stone andheather-bush by mark of head. See, now," he said, striking right andleft, as if to make sure, "down there a burn is running; and at the headof it there stands a bit of a small hill with a stone cocked upon thetop of that; and it's hard at the foot of the hill that the way runs byto Torosay; and the way here, being for droves, is plainly trodden, andwill show grassy through the heather."
I had to own he was right in every feature, and told my wonder.
"Ha!" says he, "that's nothing. Would ye believe me now, that before theAct came out, and when there were weepons in this country, I couldshoot? Ay could I!" cries he and then with a leer: "If ye had such athing as a pistol here to try with, I would show you how it's done."
I told him I had nothing of the sort, and gave him a wider berth. If hehad known, his pistol stuck at that time quite plainly out of hispocket, and I could see the sun twinkle on the steel of the butt. But,by the better luck for me, he knew nothing, thought all was covered, andlied on in the dark.
He then began to question me cunningly, where I came from, whether I wasrich, whether I could change a five-shilling piece for him (which hedeclared he had that moment in his sporran), and all the time he keptedging up to me and I avoiding him. We were now upon a sort of greencattle-track which crossed the hills towards Torosay, and we keptchanging sides upon that like dancers in a reel. I had so plainly theupper hand that my spirits rose, and indeed I took a pleasure in thisgame of blindman's-buff; but the catechist grew angrier and angrier, andat last began to swear in Gaelic and to strike for my legs with hisstaff.
Then I told him that, sure enough, I had a pistol in my pocket as wellas he, and if he did not strike across the hill due south I would evenblow his brains out.
He became at once very polite; and after trying to soften me for sometime, but quite in vain, he cursed me once more in Gaelic and tookhimself off. I watched him striding along through bog and briar, tappingwith his stick, until he turned the end of a hill and disappeared in thenext hollow. Then I struck on again for Torosay, much better pleased tobe alone than to travel with that man of learning. This was an unluckyday; and these two, of whom I had just rid myself, one after the other,were the two worst men I met with in the Highlands.
At Torosay, on the Sound of Mull, and looking over to the mainland ofMorven, there was an inn with an innkeeper, who was a Maclean, itappeared, of a very high family; for to keep an inn is thought even moregenteel in the Highlands than it is with us, perhaps as partaking ofhospitality, or perhaps because the trade is idle and drunken. He spokegood English, and, finding me to be something of a scholar, tried mefirst in French, where he easily beat me, and then in the Latin, inwhich I don't know which of us did best. This pleasant rivalry put us atonce upon friendly terms; and I sat up and drank punch with him (or, tobe more correct, sat up and watched him drink it), until he was so tipsythat he wept upon my shoulder.
I tried him, as if by accident, with a sight of Alan's button; but itwas plain he had never seen or heard of it. Indeed, he bore some grudgeagainst the family and friends of Ardshiel, and before he was drunk heread me a lampoon, in very good Latin, but with a very ill meaning,which he had made in elegiac verses upon a person of that house.
When I told him of my catechist, he shook his head, and said I was luckyto have got clear off. "That is a very dangerous man," he said; "DuncanMackiegh is his name; he can shoot by the ear at several yards, and hasbeen often accused of highway robberies, and once of murder."
"The cream of it is," says I, "that he called himself a catechist."
"And why should he not?" says he, "when that is what he is. It wasMaclean of Duart gave it to him because he was blind. But perhaps it wasa peety," says my host, "for he is always on the road, going from oneplace to another to hear the young folk say their religion, anddoubtless that is a great temptation to the poor man."
At last, when my landlord could drink no more, he showed me to a bed,and I lay down in very good spirits; having travelled the greater partof that big and crooked Island of Mull, from Earraid to Torosay, fiftymiles as the crow flies, and (with my wanderings) much nearer a hundred,in four days and with little fatigue. Indeed, I was by far in betterheart and health of body at the end of that long tramp than I had beenat the beginning.