CHAPTER XII Reputation! that's man's idol Set up against God, the Maker of all laws, Who hath commanded us we should not kill, And yet we say we must, for Reputation! What honest man can either fear his own, Or else will hurt another's reputation? Fear to do base unworthy things is valour; If they be done to us, to suffer them Is valour too.
BEN JONSON.
The Colonel was walking pensively up and down the parlour when theofficious landlady reentered to take his commands. Having given them inthe manner he thought would be most acceptable 'for the good of thehouse,' he begged to detain her a moment.
'I think,' he said, 'madam, if I understood the good people right, Mr.Bertram lost his son in his fifth year?'
'O ay, sir, there's nae doubt o' that, though there are mony idle clashesabout the way and manner, for it's an auld story now, and everybody tellsit, as we were doing, their ain way by the ingleside. But lost the bairnwas in his fifth year, as your honour says, Colonel; and the news beingrashly tell'd to the leddy, then great with child, cost her her life thatsamyn night; and the Laird never throve after that day, but was justcareless of everything, though, when his daughter Miss Lucy grew up, shetried to keep order within doors; but what could she do, poor thing? Sonow they're out of house and hauld.'
'Can you recollect, madam, about what time of the year the child waslost?' The landlady, after a pause and some recollection, answered, 'shewas positive it was about this season'; and added some localrecollections that fixed the date in her memory as occurring about thebeginning of November 17--.
The stranger took two or three turns round the room in silence, butsigned to Mrs. Mac-Candlish not to leave it.
'Did I rightly apprehend,' he said, 'that the estate of Ellangowan is inthe market?'
'In the market? It will be sell'd the morn to the highest bidder--that'sno the morn, Lord help me! which is the Sabbath, but on Monday, the firstfree day; and the furniture and stocking is to be roupit at the same timeon the ground. It's the opinion of the haill country that the sale hasbeen shamefully forced on at this time, when there's sae little moneystirring in Scotland wi' this weary American war, that somebody may getthe land a bargain. Deil be in them, that I should say sae!'--the goodlady's wrath rising at the supposed injustice.
'And where will the sale take place?'
'On the premises, as the advertisement says; that's at the house ofEllangowan, your honour, as I understand it.'
'And who exhibits the title-deeds, rent-roll, and plan?'
'A very decent man, sir; the sheriff-substitute of the county, who hasauthority from the Court of Session. He's in the town just now, if yourhonour would like to see him; and he can tell you mair about the loss ofthe bairn than ony body, for the sheriff-depute (that's his principal,like) took much pains to come at the truth o' that matter, as I haveheard.'
'And this gentleman's name is--'
'Mac-Morlan, sir; he's a man o' character, and weel spoken o'.'
'Send my compliments--Colonel Mannering's compliments to him, and I wouldbe glad he would do me the pleasure of supping with me, and bring thesepapers with him; and I beg, good madam, you will say nothing of this toany one else.'
'Me, sir? ne'er a word shall I say. I wish your honour (a courtesy), orony honourable gentleman that's fought for his country (anothercourtesy), had the land, since the auld family maun quit (a sigh), ratherthan that wily scoundrel Glossin, that's risen on the ruin of the bestfriend he ever had. And now I think on't, I'll slip on my hood andpattens, and gang to Mr. Mac-Morlan mysell, he's at hame e'en now; it'shardly a step.'
'Do so, my good landlady, and many thanks; and bid my servant step herewith my portfolio in the meantime.'
In a minute or two Colonel Mannering was quietly seated with his writingmaterials before him. We have the privilege of looking over his shoulderas he writes, and we willingly communicate its substance to our readers.The letter was addressed to Arthur Mervyn, Esq., of Mervyn Hall,Llanbraithwaite, Westmoreland. It contained some account of the writer'sprevious journey since parting with him, and then proceeded as follows:--
'And now, why will you still upbraid me with my melancholy, Mervyn? Doyou think, after the lapse of twenty-five years, battles, wounds,imprisonment, misfortunes of every description, I can be still the samelively, unbroken Guy Mannering who climbed Skiddaw with you, or shotgrouse upon Crossfell? That you, who have remained in the bosom ofdomestic happiness, experience little change, that your step is as lightand your fancy as full of sunshine, is a blessed effect of health andtemperament, cooperating with content and a smooth current down thecourse of life. But MY career has been one of difficulties and doubts anderrors. From my infancy I have been the sport of accident, and, thoughthe wind has often borne me into harbour, it has seldom been into thatwhich the pilot destined. Let me recall to you--but the task must bebrief--the odd and wayward fates of my youth, and the misfortunes of mymanhood.
'The former, you will say, had nothing very appalling. All was not forthe best; but all was tolerable. My father, the eldest son of an ancientbut reduced family, left me with little, save the name of the head of thehouse, to the protection of his more fortunate brothers. They were sofond of me that they almost quarrelled about me. My uncle, the bishop,would have had me in orders, and offered me a living; my uncle, themerchant, would have put me into a counting-house, and proposed to giveme a share in the thriving concern of Mannering and Marshall, in LombardStreet. So, between these two stools, or rather these two soft, easy,well-stuffed chairs of divinity and commerce, my unfortunate personslipped down, and pitched upon a dragoon saddle. Again, the bishop wishedme to marry the niece and heiress of the Dean of Lincoln; and my uncle,the alderman, proposed to me the only daughter of old Sloethorn, thegreat wine-merchant, rich enough to play at span-counter with moidoresand make thread-papers of bank-notes; and somehow I slipped my neck outof both nooses, and married--poor, poor Sophia Wellwood.
'You will say, my military career in India, when I followed my regimentthere, should have given me some satisfaction; and so it assuredly has.You will remind me also, that if I disappointed the hopes of myguardians, I did not incur their displeasure; that the bishop, at hisdeath, bequeathed me his blessing, his manuscript sermons, and a curiousportfolio containing the heads of eminent divines of the church ofEngland; and that my uncle, Sir Paul Mannering, left me sole heir andexecutor to his large fortune. Yet this availeth me nothing; I told you Ihad that upon my mind which I should carry to my grave with me, aperpetual aloes in the draught of existence. I will tell you the causemore in detail than I had the heart to do while under your hospitableroof. You will often hear it mentioned, and perhaps with different andunfounded circumstances. I will therefore speak it out; and then let theevent itself, and the sentiments of melancholy with which it hasimpressed me, never again be subject of discussion between us.
'Sophia, as you well know, followed me to India. She was as innocent asgay; but, unfortunately for us both, as gay as innocent. My own mannerswere partly formed by studies I had forsaken, and habits of seclusion notquite consistent with my situation as commandant of a regiment in acountry where universal hospitality is offered and expected by everysettler claiming the rank of a gentleman. In a moment of peculiarpressure (you know how hard we were sometimes run to obtain white facesto countenance our line-of-battle), a young man named Brown joined ourregiment as a volunteer, and, finding the military duty more to his fancythan commerce, in which he had been engaged, remained with us as a cadet.Let me do my unhappy victim justice: he behaved with such gallantry onevery occasion that offered that the first vacant commission wasconsidered as his due. I was absent for some weeks upon a distantexpedition; when I returned I found this young fellow established quiteas the friend of the house, and habitual attendant of my wife anddaughter. It was an arrangement which displeased me in many particulars,though no objection could be made to his manners or character. Yet Imight have been reconciled to his familiarity in my family, but for thes
uggestions of another. If you read over--what I never dare open--theplay of "Othello," you will have some idea of what followed--I mean of mymotives; my actions, thank God! were less reprehensible. There wasanother cadet ambitious of the vacant situation. He called my attentionto what he led me to term coquetry between my wife and this young man.Sophia was virtuous, but proud of her virtue; and, irritated by myjealousy, she was so imprudent as to press and encourage an intimacywhich she saw I disapproved and regarded with suspicion. Between Brownand me there existed a sort of internal dislike. He made an effort or twoto overcome my prejudice; but, prepossessed as I was, I placed them to awrong motive. Feeling himself repulsed, and with scorn, he desisted; andas he was without family and friends, he was naturally more watchful ofthe deportment of one who had both.
'It is odd with what torture I write this letter. I feel inclined,nevertheless, to protract the operation, just as if my doing so could putoff the catastrophe which has so long embittered my life. But--it must betold, and it shall be told briefly.
'My wife, though no longer young, was still eminently handsome, and--letme say thus far in my own justification-she was fond of being thoughtso--I am repeating what I said before. In a word, of her virtue I neverentertained a doubt; but, pushed by the artful suggestions of Archer, Ithought she cared little for my peace of mind, and that the young fellowBrown paid his attentions in my despite, and in defiance of me. Heperhaps considered me, on his part, as an oppressive aristocratic man,who made my rank in society and in the army the means of galling thosewhom circumstances placed beneath me. And if he discovered my sillyjealousy, he probably considered the fretting me in that sore point of mycharacter as one means of avenging the petty indignities to which I hadit in my power to subject him. Yet an acute friend of mine gave a moreharmless, or at least a less offensive, construction to his attentions,which he conceived to be meant for my daughter Julia, though immediatelyaddressed to propitiate the influence of her mother. This could have beenno very flattering or pleasing enterprise on the part of an obscure andnameless young man; but I should not have been offended at this folly asI was at the higher degree of presumption I suspected. Offended, however,I was, and in a mortal degree.
'A very slight spark will kindle a flame where everything lies open tocatch it. I have absolutely forgot the proximate cause of quarrel, but itwas some trifle which occurred at the card-table which occasioned highwords and a challenge. We met in the morning beyond the walls andesplanade of the fortress which I then commanded, on the frontiers of thesettlement. This was arranged for Brown's safety, had he escaped. Ialmost wish he had, though at my own expense; but he fell by the firstfire. We strove to assist him; but some of these looties, a species ofnative banditti who were always on the watch for prey, poured in upon us.Archer and I gained our horses with difficulty, and cut our way throughthem after a hard conflict, in the course of which he received somedesperate wounds. To complete the misfortunes of this miserable day, mywife, who suspected the design with which I left the fortress, hadordered her palanquin to follow me, and was alarmed and almost madeprisoner by another troop of these plunderers. She was quickly releasedby a party of our cavalry; but I cannot disguise from myself that theincidents of this fatal morning gave a severe shock to health alreadydelicate. The confession of Archer, who thought himself dying, that hehad invented some circumstances, and for his purposes put the worstconstruction upon others, and the full explanation and exchange offorgiveness with me which this produced, could not check the progress ofher disorder. She died within about eight months after this incident,bequeathing me only the girl of whom Mrs. Mervyn is so good as toundertake the temporary charge. Julia was also extremely ill; so much sothat I was induced to throw up my command and return to Europe, where hernative air, time, and the novelty of the scenes around her havecontributed to dissipate her dejection and restore her health.
'Now that you know my story, you will no longer ask me the reason of mymelancholy, but permit me to brood upon it as I may. There is, surely, inthe above narrative enough to embitter, though not to poison, thechalice which the fortune and fame you so often mention had prepared toregale my years of retirement.
'I could add circumstances which our old tutor would have quoted asinstances of DAY FATALITY,--you would laugh were I to mention suchparticulars, especially as you know I put no faith in them. Yet, since Ihave come to the very house from which I now write, I have learned asingular coincidence, which, if I find it truly established by tolerableevidence, will serve as hereafter for subject of curious discussion. ButI will spare you at present, as I expect a person to speak about apurchase of property now open in this part of the country. It is a placeto which I have a foolish partiality, and I hope my purchasing may beconvenient to those who are parting with it, as there is a plan forbuying it under the value. My respectful compliments to Mrs. Mervyn, andI will trust you, though you boast to be so lively a young gentleman, tokiss Julia for me. Adieu, dear Mervyn.--Thine ever, GUY MANNERING.'
Mr. Mac-Morlan now entered the room. The well-known character of ColonelMannering at once disposed this gentleman, who was a man of intelligenceand probity, to be open and confidential. He explained the advantages anddisadvantages of the property. 'It was settled,' he said, 'the greaterpart of it at least, upon heirs-male, and the purchaser would have theprivilege of retaining in his hands a large proportion of the price, incase of the reappearance, within a certain limited term, of the child whohad disappeared.'
'To what purpose, then, force forward a sale?' said Mannering. Mac-Morlansmiled. 'Ostensibly,' he answered, 'to substitute the interest of moneyinstead of the ill-paid and precarious rents of an unimproved estate; butchiefly it was believed, to suit the wishes and views of a certainintended purchaser, who had become a principal creditor, and forcedhimself into the management of the affairs by means best known tohimself, and who, it was thought, would find it very convenient topurchase the estate without paying down the price.'
Mannering consulted with Mr. Mac-Morlan upon the steps for thwarting thisunprincipled attempt. They then conversed long on the singulardisappearance of Harry Bertram upon his fifth birthday, verifying thusthe random prediction of Mannering, of which, however, it will readily besupposed he made no boast. Mr. Mac-Morlan was not himself in office whenthat incident took place; but he was well acquainted with all thecircumstances, and promised that our hero should have them detailed bythe sheriff-depute himself, if, as he proposed, he should become asettler in that part of Scotland. With this assurance they parted, wellsatisfied with each other and with the evening's conference.
On the Sunday following, Colonel Mannering attended the parish churchwith great decorum. None of the Ellangowan family were present; and itwas understood that the old Laird was rather worse than better. JockJabos, once more despatched for him, returned once more without hiserrand; but on the following day Miss Bertram hoped he might be removed.