CHAPTER X.
Dark on their journey lour'd the gloomy day, Wild were the hills, and doubtful grew the way; More dark, more gloomy, and more doubtful, show'd The mansion, which received them from the road. --THE TRAVELLERS, A ROMANCE.
Angus M'Aulay was charged with a message which he seemed to find somedifficulty in communicating; for it was not till after he had framed hisspeech several different ways, and blundered them all, that he succeededin letting Sir Duncan Campbell know, that the cavalier who was toaccompany him was waiting in readiness, and that all was prepared forhis return to Inverary. Sir Duncan Campbell rose up very indignantly;the affront which this message implied immediately driving out of hisrecollection the sensibility which had been awakened by the music.
"I little expected this," he said, looking indignantly at Angus M'Aulay."I little thought that there was a Chief in the West Highlands, who, atthe pleasure of a Saxon, would have bid the Knight of Ardenvohr leavehis castle, when the sun was declining from the meridian, and ere thesecond cup had been filled. But farewell, sir, the food of a churl doesnot satisfy the appetite; when I next revisit Darnlinvarach, it shall bewith a naked sword in one hand, and a firebrand in the other."
"And if you so come," said Angus, "I pledge myself to meet you fairly,though you brought five hundred Campbells at your back, and to affordyou and them such entertainment, that you shall not again complain ofthe hospitality of Darnlinvarach."
"Threatened men," said Sir Duncan, "live long. Your turn forgasconading, Laird of M'Aulay, is too well known, that men of honourshould regard your vaunts. To you, my lord, and to Allan, who havesupplied the place of my churlish host, I leave my thanks.--And to you,pretty mistress," he said, addressing Annot Lyle, "this little token,for having opened a fountain which hath been dry for many a year."So saying, he left the apartment, and commanded his attendants to besummoned. Angus M'Aulay, equally embarrassed and incensed at thecharge of inhospitality, which was the greatest possible affront to aHighlander, did not follow Sir Duncan to the court-yard, where, mountinghis palfrey, which was in readiness, followed by six mounted attendants,and accompanied by the noble Captain Dalgetty, who had also awaited him,holding Gustavus ready for action, though he did not draw his girths andmount till Sir Duncan appeared, the whole cavalcade left the castle.
The journey was long and toilsome, but without any of the extremeprivations which the Laird of M'Aulay had prophesied. In truth, SirDuncan was very cautious to avoid those nearer and more secret paths,by means of which the county of Argyle was accessible from the eastward;for his relation and chief, the Marquis, was used to boast, that hewould not for a hundred thousand crowns any mortal should know thepasses by which an armed force could penetrate into his country.
Sir Duncan Campbell, therefore, rather shunned the Highlands, andfalling into the Low-country, made for the nearest seaport in thevicinity, where he had several half-decked galleys, or birlings, asthey were called, at his command. In one of these they embarked, withGustavus in company, who was so seasoned to adventure, that land and seaseemed as indifferent to him as to his master.
The wind being favourable, they pursued their way rapidly with sails andoars; and early the next morning it was announced to Captain Dalgetty,then in a small cabin beneath the hall-deck, that the galley was underthe walls of Sir Duncan Campbell's castle.
Ardenvohr, accordingly, rose high above him, when he came upon the deckof the galley. It was a gloomy square tower, of considerable size andgreat height, situated upon a headland projecting into the salt-waterlake, or arm of the sea, which they had entered on the precedingevening. A wall, with flanking towers at each angle, surrounded thecastle to landward; but, towards the lake, it was built so near thebrink of the precipice as only to leave room for a battery of sevenguns, designed to protect the fortress from any insult from that side,although situated too high to be of any effectual use according to themodern system of warfare.
The eastern sun, rising behind the old tower, flung its shadow far onthe lake, darkening the deck of the galley, on which Captain Dalgettynow walked, waiting with some impatience the signal to land. Sir DuncanCampbell, as he was informed by his attendants, was already within thewalls of the castle; but no one encouraged the Captain's proposal offollowing him ashore, until, as they stated, they should receive thedirect permission or order of the Knight of Ardenvohr.
In a short time afterwards the mandate arrived, while a boat, with apiper in the bow, bearing the Knight of Ardenvohr's crest in silver uponhis left arm, and playing with all his might the family march, entitled"The Campbells are coming," approached to conduct the envoy of Montroseto the castle of Ardenvohr. The distance between the galley and thebeach was so short as scarce to require the assistance of the eightsturdy rowers, in bonnets, short coats, and trews, whose efforts sentthe boat to the little creek in which they usually landed, before onecould have conceived that it had left the side of the birling. Two ofthe boatmen, in spite of Dalgetty's resistance, horsed the Captain onthe back of a third Highlander, and, wading through the surf with him,landed him high and dry upon the beach beneath the castle rock. Inthe face of this rock there appeared something like the entrance of alow-browed cavern, towards which the assistants were preparing to hurryour friend Dalgetty, when, shaking himself loose from them with somedifficulty, he insisted upon seeing Gustavus safely landed before heproceeded one step farther. The Highlanders could not comprehend what hemeant, until one who had picked up a little English, or rather LowlandScotch, exclaimed, "Houts! it's a' about her horse, ta useless baste."Farther remonstrance on the part of Captain Dalgetty was interruptedby the appearance of Sir Duncan Campbell himself, from the mouth ofthe cavern which we have described, for the purpose of inviting CaptainDalgetty to accept of the hospitality of Ardenvohr, pledging his honour,at the same time, that Gustavus should be treated as became the herofrom whom he derived his name, not to mention the important personto whom he now belonged. Notwithstanding this satisfactory guarantee,Captain Dalgetty would still have hesitated, such was his anxiety towitness the fate of his companion Gustavus, had not two Highlandersseized him by the arms, two more pushed him on behind, while a fifthexclaimed, "Hout awa wi' the daft Sassenach! does she no hear the Lairdbidding her up to her ain castle, wi' her special voice, and isna thatvery mickle honour for the like o' her?"
Thus impelled, Captain Dalgetty could only for a short space keep areverted eye towards the galley in which he had left the partner of hismilitary toils. In a few minutes afterwards he found himself involved inthe total darkness of a staircase, which, entering from the low-browedcavern we have mentioned, winded upwards through the entrails of theliving rock.
"The cursed Highland salvages!" muttered the Captain, half aloud; "whatis to become of me, if Gustavus, the namesake of the invincible Lion ofthe Protestant League, should be lamed among their untenty hands!"
"Have no fear of that," said the voice of Sir Duncan, who was nearer tohim than he imagined; "my men are accustomed to handle horses, both inembarking and dressing them, and you will soon see Gustavus as safe aswhen you last dismounted from his back."
Captain Dalgetty knew the world too well to offer any fartherremonstrance, whatever uneasiness he might suppress within his ownbosom. A step or two higher up the stair showed light and a door, andan iron-grated wicket led him out upon a gallery cut in the open faceof the rock, extending a space of about six or eight yards, until hereached a second door, where the path re-entered the rock, and which wasalso defended by an iron portcullis. "An admirable traverse," observedthe Captain; "and if commanded by a field-piece, or even a few muskets,quite sufficient to ensure the place against a storming party."
Sir Duncan Campbell made no answer at the time; but, the momentafterwards, when they had entered the second cavern, he struck with thestick which he had in his hand, first on the one side, and then on theother of the wicket, and the sullen ringing sound which replied to theblows, made Captain Dalgetty sensible that there was a gun placed oneach si
de, for the purpose of raking the gallery through which they hadpassed, although the embrasures, through which they might be fired onoccasion, were masked on the outside with sods and loose stones. Havingascended the second staircase, they found themselves again on an openplatform and gallery, exposed to a fire both of musketry and wall-guns,if, being come with hostile intent, they had ventured farther. A thirdflight of steps, cut in the rock like the former, but not caverned over,led them finally into the battery at the foot of the tower. This laststair also was narrow and steep, and, not to mention the fire whichmight be directed on it from above, one or two resolute men, with pikesand battle-axes, could have made the pass good against hundreds; for thestaircase would not admit two persons abreast, and was not secured byany sort of balustrade, or railing, from the sheer and abrupt precipice,on the foot of which the tide now rolled with a voice of thunder. Sothat, under the jealous precautions used to secure this ancient Celticfortress, a person of weak nerves, and a brain liable to become dizzy,might have found it something difficult to have achieved the entrance tothe castle, even supposing no resistance had been offered.
Captain Dalgetty, too old a soldier to feel such tremors, had no soonerarrived in the court-yard, than he protested to God, the defences of SirDuncan's castle reminded him more of the notable fortress of Spandau,situated in the March of Brandenburg, than of any place whilk it hadbeen his fortune to defend in the course of his travels. Nevertheless,he criticised considerably the mode of placing the guns on the batterywe have noticed, observing, that "where cannon were perched, like toscarts or sea-gulls on the top of a rock, he had ever observed thatthey astonished more by their noise than they dismayed by the skaith ordamage which they occasioned."
Sir Duncan, without replying, conducted the soldier into the tower; thedefences of which were a portcullis and ironclenched oaken door, thethickness of the wall being the space between them. He had no soonerarrived in a hall hung with tapestry, than the Captain prosecuted hismilitary criticism. It was indeed suspended by the sight of an excellentbreakfast, of which he partook with great avidity; but no sooner had hesecured this meal, than he made the tour of the apartment, examining theground around the Castle very carefully from each window in the room.He then returned to his chair, and throwing himself back into it at hislength, stretched out one manly leg, and tapping his jack-boot with theriding-rod which he carried in his hand, after the manner of a half-bredman who affects ease in the society of his betters, he delivered hisunasked opinion as follows:--"This house of yours, now, Sir Duncan, is avery pretty defensible sort of a tenement, and yet it is hardly such asa cavaliero of honour would expect to maintain his credit by holding outfor many days. For, Sir Duncan, if it pleases you to notice, your houseis overcrowed, and slighted, or commanded, as we military men say, byyonder round hillock to the landward, whereon an enemy might stellsuch a battery of cannon as would make ye glad to beat a chamade withinforty-eight hours, unless it pleased the Lord extraordinarily to showmercy."
"There is no road," replied Sir Duncan, somewhat shortly, "by whichcannon can be brought against Ardenvohr. The swamps and morasses aroundmy house would scarce carry your horse and yourself, excepting by suchpaths as could be rendered impassable within a few hours."
"Sir Duncan," said the Captain, "it is your pleasure to suppose so; andyet we martial men say, that where there is a sea-coast there is alwaysa naked side, seeing that cannon and munition, where they cannot betransported by land, may be right easily brought by sea near to theplace where they are to be put in action. Neither is a castle, howeversecure in its situation, to be accounted altogether invincible, or, asthey say, impregnable; for I protest t'ye, Sir Duncan, that I have knowntwenty-five men, by the mere surprise and audacity of the attack, win,at point of pike, as strong a hold as this of Ardenvohr, and put to thesword, captivate, or hold to the ransom, the defenders, being ten timestheir own number."
Notwithstanding Sir Duncan Campbell's knowledge of the world, and hispower of concealing his internal emotion, he appeared piqued and hurtat these reflections, which the Captain made with the most unconsciousgravity, having merely selected the subject of conversation as one uponwhich he thought himself capable of shining, and, as they say, of layingdown the law, without exactly recollecting that the topic might not beequally agreeable to his landlord.
"To cut this matter short," said Sir Duncan, with an expression of voiceand countenance somewhat agitated, "it is unnecessary for you totell me, Captain Dalgetty, that a castle may be stormed if it is notvalorously defended, or surprised if it is not heedfully watched.I trust this poor house of mine will not be found in any of thesepredicaments, should even Captain Dalgetty himself choose to beleaguerit."
"For all that, Sir Duncan," answered the persevering commander, "I wouldpremonish you, as a friend, to trace out a sconce upon that roundhill, with a good graffe, or ditch, whilk may be easily accomplished bycompelling the labour of the boors in the vicinity; it being the customof the valorous Gustavus Adolphus to fight as much by the spade andshovel, as by sword, pike, and musket. Also, I would advise you tofortify the said sconce, not only by a foussie, or graffe, but also bycertain stackets, or palisades."--(Here Sir Duncan, becoming impatient,left the apartment, the Captain following him to the door, and raisinghis voice as he retreated, until he was fairly out of hearing.)--"Thewhilk stackets, or palisades, should be artificially framed withre-entering angles and loop-holes, or crenelles, for musketry, whereofit shall arise that the foeman--The Highland brute! the old Highlandbrute! They are as proud as peacocks, and as obstinate as tups--and herehe has missed an opportunity of making his house as pretty an irregularfortification as an invading army ever broke their teeth upon.--But Isee," he continued, looking own from the window upon the bottom of theprecipice, "they have got Gustavus safe ashore--Proper fellow! I wouldknow that toss of his head among a whole squadron. I must go to see whatthey are to make of him."
He had no sooner reached, however, the court to the seaward, and puthimself in the act of descending the staircase, than two Highlandsentinels, advancing their Lochaber axes, gave him to understand thatthis was a service of danger.
"Diavolo!" said the soldier, "and I have got no pass-word. I could notspeak a syllable of their salvage gibberish, an it were to save me fromthe provost-marshal."
"I will be your surety, Captain Dalgetty," said Sir Duncan, who hadagain approached him without his observing from whence; "and we will gotogether, and see how your favourite charger is accommodated."
He conducted him accordingly down the staircase to the beach, and fromthence by a short turn behind a large rock, which concealed the stablesand other offices belonging to the castle, Captain Dalgetty becamesensible, at the same time, that the side of the castle to the land wasrendered totally inaccessible by a ravine, partly natural and partlyscarped with great care and labour, so as to be only passed by adrawbridge. Still, however, the Captain insisted, not withstanding thetriumphant air with which Sir Duncan pointed out his defences, that asconce should be erected on Drumsnab, the round eminence to the east ofthe castle, in respect the house might be annoyed from thence by burningbullets full of fire, shot out of cannon, according to the curiousinvention of Stephen Bathian, King of Poland, whereby that princeutterly ruined the great Muscovite city of Moscow. This invention,Captain Dalgetty owned, he had not yet witnessed, but observed, "thatit would give him particular delectation to witness the same put tothe proof against Ardenvohr, or any other castle of similar strength;"observing, "that so curious an experiment could not but afford thegreatest delight to all admirers of the military art."
Sir Duncan Campbell diverted this conversation by carrying the soldierinto his stables, and suffering him to arrange Gustavus according tohis own will and pleasure. After this duty had been carefully performed,Captain Dalgetty proposed to return to the castle, observing, it was hisintention to spend the time betwixt this and dinner, which, he presumed,would come upon the parade about noon, in burnishing his armour, whichhaving sustained some injury
from the sea-air, might, he was afraid,seem discreditable in the eyes of M'Callum More. Yet, while they werereturning to the castle, he failed not to warn Sir Duncan Campbellagainst the great injury he might sustain by any sudden onfall of anenemy, whereby his horses, cattle, and granaries, might be cut off andconsumed, to his great prejudice; wherefore he again strongly conjuredhim to construct a sconce upon the round hill called Drumsnab, andoffered his own friendly services in lining out the same. To thisdisinterested advice Sir Duncan only replied by ushering his guest tohis apartment, and informing him that the tolling of the castle bellwould make him aware when dinner was ready.