CHAPTER V Why dost not comfort me, and help me out From this unhallowed and blood-stained hole?
Titus Andronicus.
On the next morning, great was the alarm and confusion of the officerswhen they discovered the escape of their prisoner. Mac-Guffog appearedbefore Glossin with a head perturbed with brandy and fear, and incurred amost severe reprimand for neglect of duty. The resentment of the Justiceappeared only to be suspended by his anxiety to recover possession of theprisoner, and the thief-takers, glad to escape from his awful andincensed presence, were sent off in every direction (except the rightone) to recover their prisoner, if possible. Glossin particularlyrecommended a careful search at the Kaim of Derncleugh, which wasoccasionally occupied under night by vagrants of different descriptions.Having thus dispersed his myrmidons in various directions, he himselfhastened by devious paths through the wood of Warroch to his appointedinterview with Hatteraick, from whom he hoped to learn at more leisurethan last night's conference admitted the circumstances attending thereturn of the heir of Ellangowan to his native country.
With manoeuvres like those of a fox when he doubles to avoid the pack,Glossin strove to approach the place of appointment in a manner whichshould leave no distinct track of his course. 'Would to Heaven it wouldsnow,' he said, looking upward, 'and hide these foot-prints. Should oneof the officers light upon them, he would run the scent up like abloodhound and surprise us. I must get down upon the sea-beach, andcontrive to creep along beneath the rocks.'
And accordingly he descended from the cliffs with some difficulty, andscrambled along between the rocks and the advancing tide; now looking upto see if his motions were watched from the rocks above him, now castinga jealous glance to mark if any boat appeared upon the sea, from whichhis course might be discovered.
But even the feelings of selfish apprehension were for a time superseded,as Glossin passed the spot where Kennedy's body had been found. It wasmarked by the fragment of rock which had been precipitated from the cliffabove, either with the body or after it. The mass was now encrusted withsmall shell-fish, and tasselled with tangle and seaweed; but still itsshape and substance were different from those of the other rocks whichlay scattered around. His voluntary walks, it will readily be believed,had never led to this spot; so that, finding himself now there for thefirst time after the terrible catastrophe, the scene at once recurred tohis mind with all its accompaniments of horror. He remembered how, like aguilty thing, gliding from the neighbouring place of concealment, he hadmingled with eagerness, yet with caution, among the terrified group whosurrounded the corpse, dreading lest any one should ask from whence hecame. He remembered, too, with what conscious fear he had avoided gazingupon that ghastly spectacle. The wild scream of his patron, 'My bairn! mybairn!' again rang in his ears. 'Good God!' he exclaimed, 'and is all Ihave gained worth the agony of that moment, and the thousand anxiousfears and horrors which have since embittered my life! O how I wish thatI lay where that wretched man lies, and that he stood here in life andhealth! But these regrets are all too late.'
Stifling, therefore, his feelings, he crept forward to the cave, whichwas so near the spot where the body was found that the smugglers mighthave heard from their hiding-place the various conjectures of thebystanders concerning the fate of their victim. But nothing could be morecompletely concealed than the entrance to their asylum. The opening, notlarger than that of a fox-earth, lay in the face of the cliff directlybehind a large black rock, or rather upright stone, which served at onceto conceal it from strangers and as a mark to point out its situation tothose who used it as a place of retreat. The space between the stone andthe cliff was exceedingly narrow, and, being heaped with sand and otherrubbish, the most minute search would not have discovered the mouth ofthe cavern without removing those substances which the tide had driftedbefore it. For the purpose of further concealment, it was usual with thecontraband traders who frequented this haunt, after they had entered, tostuff the mouth with withered seaweed, loosely piled together as ifcarried there by the waves. Dirk Hatteraick had not forgotten thisprecaution.
Glossin, though a bold and hardy man, felt his heart throb and his kneesknock together when he prepared to enter this den of secret iniquity, inorder to hold conference with a felon, whom he justly accounted one ofthe most desperate and depraved of men. 'But he has no interest to injureme,' was his consolatory reflection. He examined his pocket-pistols,however, before removing the weeds and entering the cavern, which he didupon hands and knees. The passage, which at first was low and narrow,just admitting entrance to a man in a creeping posture, expanded after afew yards into a high arched vault of considerable width. The bottom,ascending gradually, was covered with the purest sand. Ere Glossin hadgot upon his feet, the hoarse yet suppressed voice of Hatteraick growledthrough the recesses of the cave:--
'Hagel and donner! be'st du?'
'Are you in the dark?'
'Dark? der deyvil! ay,' said Dirk Hatteraick; 'where should I have aglim?'
'I have brought light'; and Glossin accordingly produced a tinder-box andlighted a small lantern.
'You must kindle some fire too, for hold mich der deyvil, Ich bin ganzgefrorne!'
'It is a cold place, to be sure,' said Glossin, gathering together somedecayed staves of barrels and pieces of wood, which had perhaps lain inthe cavern since Hatteraick was there last.
'Cold? Snow-wasser and hagel! it's perdition; I could only keep myselfalive by rambling up and down this d--d vault, and thinking about themerry rouses we have had in it.'
The flame then began to blaze brightly, and Hatteraick hung his bronzedvisage and expanded his hard and sinewy hands over it, with an avidityresembling that of a famished wretch to whom food is exposed. The lightshowed his savage and stern features, and the smoke, which in his agonyof cold he seemed to endure almost to suffocation, after circling roundhis head, rose to the dim and rugged roof of the cave, through which itescaped by some secret rents or clefts in the rock; the same doubtlessthat afforded air to the cavern when the tide was in, at which time theaperture to the sea was filled with water.
'And now I have brought you some breakfast,' said Glossin, producing somecold meat and a flask of spirits. The latter Hatteraick eagerly seizedupon and applied to his mouth; and, after a hearty draught, he exclaimedwith great rapture, 'Das schmeckt! That is good, that warms the liver!'Then broke into the fragment of a High-Dutch song,--
Saufen Bier und Brantewein, Schmeissen alle die Fenstern ein; Ich bin liederlich, Du bist liederlich; Sind wir nicht liederlich Leute a?
'Well said, my hearty Captain!' cried Glossin, endeavouring to catch thetone of revelry,--
'Gin by pailfuls, wine in rivers, Dash the window-glass to shivers! For three wild lads were we, brave boys, And three wild lads were we; Thou on the land, and I on the sand, And Jack on the gallows-tree!
That's it, my bully-boy! Why, you're alive again now! And now let us talkabout our business.'
'YOUR business, if you please,' said Hatteraick. 'Hagel and donner! minewas done when I got out of the bilboes.'
'Have patience, my good friend; I'll convince you our interests are justthe same.'
Hatteraick gave a short dry cough, and Glossin, after a pause, proceeded.
'How came you to let the boy escape?'
'Why, fluch and blitzen! he was no charge of mine. Lieutenant Brown gavehim to his cousin that's in the Middleburgh house of Vanbeest andVanbruggen, and told him some goose's gazette about his being taken in askirmish with the land-sharks; he gave him for a footboy. Me let himescape! the bastard kinchin should have walked the plank ere I troubledmyself about him.'
'Well, and was he bred a foot-boy then?'
'Nein, nein; the kinchin got about the old man's heart, and he gave himhis own name, and bred him up in the office, and then sent him to India;I believe he would have packed him back here, but his nephew told him itwould do up the free trade for many a day if the youngst
er got back toScotland.'
'Do you think the younker knows much of his own origin now?'
'Deyvil!' replied Hatteraick, 'how should I tell what he knows now? Buthe remembered something of it long. When he was but ten years old hepersuaded another Satan's limb of an English bastard like himself tosteal my lugger's khan--boat--what do you call it? to return to hiscountry, as he called it; fire him! Before we could overtake them theyhad the skiff out of channel as far as the Deurloo; the boat might havebeen lost.'
'I wish to Heaven she had, with him in her!' ejaculated Glossin.
'Why, I was so angry myself that, sapperment! I did give him a tip overthe side; but split him! the comical little devil swam like a duck; so Imade him swim astern for a mile to teach him manners, and then took himin when he was sinking. By the knocking Nicholas I he'll plague you, nowhe's come over the herring-pond! When he was so high he had the spirit ofthunder and lightning.'
'How did he get back from India?'
'Why, how should I know? The house there was done up; and that gave us ashake at Middleburgh, I think; so they sent me again to see what could bedone among my old acquaintances here, for we held old stories were doneaway and forgotten. So I had got a pretty trade on foot within the lasttwo trips; but that stupid hounds-foot schelm, Brown, has knocked it onthe head again, I suppose, with getting himself shot by the colonel-man.'
'Why were not you with them?'
'Why, you see, sapperment! I fear nothing; but it was too far withinland, and I might have been scented.'
'True. But to return to this youngster--'
'Ay, ay, donner and blitzen! HE'S your affair,' said the Captain.
'How do you really know that he is in this country?'
'Why, Gabriel saw him up among the hills.'
'Gabriel! who is he?'
'A fellow from the gipsies, that, about eighteen years since, was pressedon board that d--d fellow Pritchard's sloop-of-war. It was he came offand gave us warning that the Shark was coming round upon us the dayKennedy was done; and he told us how Kennedy had given the information.The gipsies and Kennedy had some quarrel besides. This Gab went to theEast Indies in the same ship with your younker, and, sapperment! knew himwell, though the other did not remember him. Gab kept out of his eyethough, as he had served the States against England, and was a deserterto boot; and he sent us word directly, that we might know of his beinghere, though it does not concern us a rope's end.'
'So, then, really, and in sober earnest, he is actually in this country,Hatteraick, between friend and friend?' asked Glossin, seriously.
'Wetter and donner, yaw! What do you take me for?'
'For a bloodthirsty, fearless miscreant!' thought Glossin internally; butsaid aloud, 'And which of your people was it that shot young Hazlewood?'
'Sturmwetter!' said the Captain, 'do ye think we were mad? none of US,man. Gott! the country was too hot for the trade already with that d-dfrolic of Brown's, attacking what you call Woodbourne House.'
'Why, I am told,' said Glossin, 'it was Brown who shot Hazlewood?'
'Not our lieutenant, I promise you; for he was laid six feet deep atDerncleugh the day before the thing happened. Tausend deyvils, man! do yethink that he could rise out of the earth to shoot another man?'
A light here began to break upon Glossin's confusion of ideas. 'Did younot say that the younker, as you call him, goes by the name of Brown?'
'Of Brown? yaw; Vanbeest Brown. Old Vanbeest Brown, of our Vanbeest andVanbruggen, gave him his own name, he did.'
'Then,' said Glossin, rubbing his hands, 'it is he, by Heaven, who hascommitted this crime!'
'And what have we to do with that?' demanded Hatteraick.
Glossin paused, and, fertile in expedients, hastily ran over his projectin his own mind, and then drew near the smuggler with a confidential air.'You know, my dear Hatteraick, it is our principal business to get rid ofthis young man?'
'Umph!' answered Dirk Hatteraick.
'Not,' continued Glossin--'not that I would wish any personal harm tohim--if--if--if we can do without. Now, he is liable to be seized upon byjustice, both as bearing the same name with your lieutenant, who wasengaged in that affair at Woodbourne, and for firing at young Hazlewoodwith intent to kill or wound.'
'Ay, ay,' said Dirk Hatteraick; 'but what good will that do you? He'll beloose again as soon as he shows himself to carry other colours.'
'True, my dear Dirk; well noticed, my friend Hatteraick! But there isground enough for a temporary imprisonment till he fetch his proofs fromEngland or elsewhere, my good friend. I understand the law, CaptainHatteraick, and I'll take it upon me, simple Gilbert Glossin ofEllangowan, justice of peace for the county of---, to refuse his bail, ifhe should offer the best in the country, until he is brought up for asecond examination; now where d'ye think I'll incarcerate him?'
'Hagel and wetter! what do I care?'
'Stay, my friend; you do care a great deal. Do you know your goods thatwere seized and carried to Woodbourne are now lying in the custom-houseat Portanferry? (a small fishing-town). Now I will commit this younker--'
'When you have caught him.'
'Ay, ay, when I have caught him; I shall not be long about that. I willcommit him to the workhouse, or bridewell, which you know is beside thecustom-house.'
'Yaw, the rasp-house; I know it very well.'
'I will take care that the redcoats are dispersed through the country;you land at night with the crew of your lugger, receive your own goods,and carry the younker Brown with you back to Flushing. Won't that do?'
'Ay, carry him to Flushing,' said the Captain, 'or--to America?'
'Ay, ay, my friend.'
'Or--to Jericho?'
'Psha! Wherever you have a mind.'
'Ay, or--pitch him overboard?'
'Nay, I advise no violence.'
'Nein, nein; you leave that to me. Sturmwetter! I know you of old. But,hark ye, what am I, Dirk Hatteraick, to be the better of this?'
'Why, is it not your interest as well as mine?' said Glossin; 'besides, Iset you free this morning.'
'YOU set me free! Donner and deyvil! I set myself free. Besides, it wasall in the way of your profession, and happened a long time ago, ha, ha,ha!'
'Pshaw! pshaw! don't let us jest; I am not against making a handsomecompliment; but it's your affair as well as mine.'
'What do you talk of my affair? is it not you that keep the younker'swhole estate from him? Dirk Hatteraick never touched a stiver of hisrents.'
'Hush! hush! I tell you it shall be a joint business.'
'Why, will ye give me half the kitt?'
'What, half the estate? D'ye mean we should set up house together atEllangowan, and take the barony ridge about?'
'Sturmwetter, no! but you might give me half the value--half the gelt.Live with you? nein. I would have a lusthaus of mine own on theMiddleburgh dyke, and a blumengarten like a burgomaster's.'
'Ay, and a wooden lion at the door, and a painted sentinel in the garden,with a pipe in his mouth! But, hark ye, Hatteraick, what will all thetulips and flower-gardens and pleasure-houses in the Netherlands do foryou if you are hanged here in Scotland?'
Hatteraick's countenance fell. 'Der deyvil! hanged!'
'Ay, hanged, mein Herr Captain. The devil can scarce save Dirk Hatteraickfrom being hanged for a murderer and kidnapper if the younker ofEllangowan should settle in this country, and if the gallant Captainchances to be caught here reestablishing his fair trade! And I won't saybut, as peace is now so much talked of, their High Mightinesses may nothand him over to oblige their new allies, even if he remained infaderland.'
'Poz hagel, blitzen, and donner! I--I doubt you say true.'
'Not,' said Glossin, perceiving he had made the desired impression, 'notthat I am against being civil'; and he slid into Hatteraick's passivehand a bank-note of some value.
'Is this all?' said the smuggler. 'You had the price of half a cargo forwinking at our job, and made us do your business too.'
'B
ut, my good friend, you forget: In this case you will recover all yourown goods.'
'Ay, at the risk of all our own necks; we could do that without you.'
'I doubt that, Captain Hatteraick,' said Glossin, drily;' because youwould probably find a-'dozen'redcoats at the custom-house, whom it mustbe my business, if we agree about this matter, to have removed. Come,come, I will be as liberal as I can, but you should have a conscience.'
'Now strafe mich der deyfel! this provokes me more than all the rest! Yourob and you murder, and you want me to rob and murder, and play thesilver-cooper, or kidnapper, as you call it, a dozen times over, andthen, hagel and windsturm! you speak to me of conscience! Can you thinkof no fairer way of getting rid of this unlucky lad?'
'No, mein Herr; but as I commit him to your charge-'
'To my charge! to the charge of steel and gunpowder! and--well, if itmust be, it must; but you have a tolerably good guess what's like to comeof it.'
'O, my dear friend, I trust no degree of severity will be necessary,'replied Glossin.
'Severity!' said the fellow, with a kind of groan, 'I wish you had had mydreams when I first came to this dog-hole, and tried to sleep among thedry seaweed. First, there was that d-d fellow there, with his brokenback, sprawling as he did when I hurled the rock over a-top on him, ha,ha! You would have sworn he was lying on the floor where you stand,wriggling like a crushed frog, and then--'
'Nay, my friend,' said Glossin, interrupting him, 'what signifies goingover this nonsense? If you are turned chicken-hearted, why, the game'sup, that's all; the game's up with us both.'
'Chicken-hearted? no. I have not lived so long upon the account to startat last, neither for devil nor Dutchman.'
'Well, then, take another schnaps; the cold's at your heart still. Andnow tell me, are any of your old crew with you?'
'Nein; all dead, shot, hanged, drowned, and damned. Brown was the last.All dead but Gipsy Gab, and he would go off the country for a spill ofmoney; or he'll be quiet for his own sake; or old Meg, his aunt, willkeep him quiet for hers.'
'Which Meg?'
'Meg Merrilies, the old devil's limb of a gipsy witch.'
'Is she still alive?'
'Yaw.'
'And in this country?'
'And in this country. She was at the Kaim of Derncleugh, at VanbeestBrown's last wake, as they call it, the other night, with two of mypeople, and some of her own blasted gipsies.'
'That's another breaker ahead, Captain! Will she not squeak, think ye?'
'Not she! she won't start; she swore by the salmon, [Footnote: The greatand invoidable oath of the strolling tribes.] if we did the kinchin noharm, she would never tell how the gauger got it. Why, man, though I gaveher a wipe with my hanger in the heat of the matter, and cut her arm, andthough she was so long after in trouble about it up at your borough-townthere, der deyvil! old Meg was as true as steel.'
'Why, that's true, as you say,' replied Glossin. 'And yet if she could becarried over to Zealand, or Hamburgh, or--or--anywhere else, you know, itwere as well.'
Hatteraick jumped upright upon his feet, and looked at Glossin from headto heel. 'I don't see the goat's foot,' he said, 'and yet he must be thevery deyvil! But Meg Merrilies is closer yet with the kobold than youare; ay, and I had never such weather as after having drawn her blood.Nein, nein, I 'll meddle with her no more; she's a witch of the fiend, areal deyvil's kind,--but that's her affair. Donner and wetter! I'llneither make nor meddle; that's her work. But for the rest--why, if Ithought the trade would not suffer, I would soon rid you of the younker,if you send me word when he's under embargo.'
In brief and under tones the two worthy associates concerted theirenterprise, and agreed at which of his haunts Hatteraick should be heardof. The stay of his lugger on the coast was not difficult, as there wereno king's vessels there at the time.