CHAPTER III Do not the hist'ries of all ages Relate miraculous presages Of strange turns in the world's affairs, Foreseen by astrologers, soothsayers, Chaldeans, learned genethliacs, And some that have writ almanacks?
Hudibras.
The circumstances of the landlady were pleaded to Mannering, first, as anapology for her not appearing to welcome her guest, and for thosedeficiencies in his entertainment which her attention might havesupplied, and then as an excuse for pressing an extra bottle of goodwine. 'I cannot weel sleep,' said the Laird, with the anxious feelings ofa father in such a predicament, 'till I hear she's gotten ower with it;and if you, sir, are not very sleepery, and would do me and the Dominiethe honour to sit up wi' us, I am sure we shall not detain you very late.Luckie Howatson is very expeditious. There was ance a lass that was inthat way; she did not live far from hereabouts--ye needna shake your headand groan, Dominie; I am sure the kirk dues were a' weel paid, and whatcan man do mair?--it was laid till her ere she had a sark ower her head;and the man that she since wadded does not think her a pin the waur forthe misfortune. They live, Mr. Mannering, by the shoreside at Annan, anda mair decent, orderly couple, with six as fine bairns as ye would wishto see plash in a saltwater dub; and little curlie Godfrey--that's theeldest, the come o' will, as I may say--he's on board an excise yacht. Ihae a cousin at the board of excise; that's Commissioner Bertram; he gothis commissionership in the great contest for the county, that ye musthave heard of, for it was appealed to the House of Commons. Now I shouldhave voted there for the Laird of Balruddery; but ye see my father was aJacobite, and out with Kenmore, so he never took the oaths; and I ken notweel how it was, but all that I could do and say, they keepit me off theroll, though my agent, that had a vote upon my estate, ranked as a goodvote for auld Sir Thomas Kittlecourt. But, to return to what I wassaying, Luckie Howatson is very expeditious, for this lass--'
Here the desultory and long-winded narrative of the Laird was interruptedby the voice of some one ascending the stairs from the kitchen story, andsinging at full pitch of voice. The high notes were too shrill for a man,the low seemed too deep for a woman. The words, as far as Mannering coulddistinguish them, seemed to run thus:--
Canny moment, lucky fit! Is the lady lighter yet? Be it lad, or be it lass, Sign wi' cross and sain wi' mass.
'It's Meg Merrilies, the gipsy, as sure as I am a sinner,' said Mr.Bertram. The Dominie groaned deeply, uncrossed his legs, drew in the hugesplay foot which his former posture had extended, placed itperpendicularly, and stretched the other limb over it instead, puffingout between whiles huge volumes of tobacco smoke. 'What needs ye groan,Dominie? I am sure Meg's sangs do nae ill.'
'Nor good neither,' answered Dominie Sampson, in a voice whose untuneableharshness corresponded with the awkwardness of his figure. They were thefirst words which Mannering had heard him speak; and as he had beenwatching with some curiosity when this eating, drinking, moving, andsmoking automaton would perform the part of speaking, he was a good dealdiverted with the harsh timber tones which issued from him. But at thismoment the door opened, and Meg Merrilies entered.
Her appearance made Mannering start. She was full six feet high, wore aman's great-coat over the rest of her dress, had in her hand a goodlysloethorn cudgel, and in all points of equipment, except her petticoats,seemed rather masculine than feminine. Her dark elf-locks shot out likethe snakes of the gorgon between an old-fashioned bonnet called abongrace, heightening the singular effect of her strong andweather-beaten features, which they partly shadowed, while her eye had awild roll that indicated something like real or affected insanity.
'Aweel, Ellangowan,' she said, 'wad it no hae been a bonnie thing, an theleddy had been brought to bed, and me at the fair o' Drumshourloch, nokenning, nor dreaming a word about it? Wha was to hae keepit awa theworriecows, I trow? Ay, and the elves and gyre-carlings frae the bonniebairn, grace be wi' it? Ay, or said Saint Colme's charm for its sake, thedear?' And without waiting an answer she began to sing--
Trefoil, vervain, John's-wort, dill, Hinders witches of their will, Weel is them, that weel may Fast upon Saint Andrew's day.
Saint Bride and her brat, Saint Colme and his cat, Saint Michael and his spear, Keep the house frae reif and wear.
This charm she sung to a wild tune, in a high and shrill voice, and,cutting three capers with such strength and agility as almost to touchthe roof of the room, concluded, 'And now, Laird, will ye no order me atass o' brandy?'
'That you shall have, Meg. Sit down yont there at the door and tell uswhat news ye have heard at the fair o' Drumshourloch.'
'Troth, Laird, and there was muckle want o' you, and the like o' you; forthere was a whin bonnie lasses there, forbye mysell, and deil ane to giethem hansels.'
'Weel, Meg, and how mony gipsies were sent to the tolbooth?'
'Troth, but three, Laird, for there were nae mair in the fair, byemysell, as I said before, and I e'en gae them leg-bail, for there's naeease in dealing wi' quarrelsome fowk. And there's Dunbog has warned theRed Rotten and John Young aff his grunds--black be his cast! he's naegentleman, nor drap's bluid o' gentleman, wad grudge twa gangrel puirbodies the shelter o' a waste house, and the thristles by the roadsidefor a bit cuddy, and the bits o' rotten birk to boil their drap parritchwi'. Weel, there's Ane abune a'; but we'll see if the red cock craw notin his bonnie barn-yard ae morning before day-dawing.'
'Hush! Meg, hush! hush! that's not safe talk.'
'What does she mean?' said Mannering to Sampson, in an undertone.
'Fire-raising,' answered the laconic Dominie.
'Who, or what is she, in the name of wonder?'
'Harlot, thief, witch, and gipsy,' answered Sampson again.
'O troth, Laird,' continued Meg, during this by-talk, 'it's but to thelike o' you ane can open their heart; ye see, they say Dunbog is nae maira gentleman than the blunker that's biggit the bonnie house down in thehowm. But the like o' you, Laird, that's a real gentleman for sae monyhundred years, and never hunds puir fowk aff your grund as if they weremad tykes, nane o' our fowk wad stir your gear if ye had as mony caponsas there's leaves on the trysting-tree. And now some o' ye maun lay downyour watch, and tell me the very minute o' the hour the wean's born, anI'll spae its fortune.'
'Ay, but, Meg, we shall not want your assistance, for here's a studentfrom Oxford that kens much better than you how to spae its fortune; hedoes it by the stars.'
'Certainly, sir,' said Mannering, entering into the simple humour of hislandlord, 'I will calculate his nativity according to the rule of the"triplicities," as recommended by Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Diocles, andAvicenna. Or I will begin ab hora questionis, as Haly, Messahala,Ganwehis, and Guido Bonatus have recommended.'
One of Sampson's great recommendations to the favour of Mr. Bertram was,that he never detected the most gross attempt at imposition, so that theLaird, whose humble efforts at jocularity were chiefly confined to whatwere then called bites and bams, since denominated hoaxes and quizzes,had the fairest possible subject of wit in the unsuspecting Dominie. Itis true, he never laughed, or joined in the laugh which his ownsimplicity afforded--nay, it is said, he never laughed but once in hislife, and on that memorable occasion his landlady miscarried, partlythrough surprise at the event itself, and partly from terror at thehideous grimaces which attended this unusual cachinnation. The onlyeffect which the discovery of such impositions produced upon thissaturnine personage was, to extort an ejaculation of 'Prodigious!' or'Very facetious!' pronounced syllabically, but without moving a muscle ofhis own countenance.
On the present occasion, he turned a gaunt and ghastly stare upon theyouthful astrologer, and seemed to doubt if he had rightly understood hisanswer to his patron.
'I am afraid, sir,' said Mannering, turning towards him, 'you may be oneof those unhappy persons who, their dim eyes being unable to penetratethe starry spheres, and to discern therein the decrees of heaven at adistance, have their
hearts barred against conviction by prejudice andmisprision.'
'Truly,' said Sampson, 'I opine with Sir Isaac Newton, Knight, andumwhile master of his Majesty's mint, that the (pretended) science ofastrology is altogether vain, frivolous, and unsatisfactory.' And here hereposed his oracular jaws.
'Really,' resumed the traveller, 'I am sorry to see a gentleman of yourlearning and gravity labouring under such strange blindness and delusion.Will you place the brief, the modern, and, as I may say, the vernacularname of Isaac Newton in opposition to the grave and sonorous authoritiesof Dariot, Bonatus, Ptolemy, Haly, Eztler, Dieterick, Naibob, Harfurt,Zael, Taustettor, Agrippa, Duretus, Maginus, Origen, and Argol? Do notChristians and Heathens, and Jews and Gentiles, and poets andphilosophers, unite in allowing the starry influences?'
'Communis error--it is a general mistake,' answered the inflexibleDominie Sampson.
'Not so,' replied the young Englishman; 'it is a general andwell-grounded belief.'
'It is the resource of cheaters, knaves, and cozeners,' said Sampson.
'Abusus non tollit usum.--The abuse of anything doth not abrogate thelawful use thereof.'
During this discussion Ellangowan was somewhat like a woodcock caught inhis own springe. He turned his face alternately from the one spokesman tothe other, and began, from the gravity with which Mannering plied hisadversary, and the learning which he displayed in the controversy, togive him credit for being half serious. As for Meg, she fixed herbewildered eyes upon the astrologer, overpowered by a jargon moremysterious than her own.
Mannering pressed his advantage, and ran over all the hard terms of artwhich a tenacious memory supplied, and which, from circumstanceshereafter to be noticed, had been familiar to him in early youth.
Signs and planets, in aspects sextile, quartile, trine, conjoined, oropposite; houses of heaven, with their cusps, hours, and minutes;almuten, almochoden, anabibazon, catabibazon; a thousand terms of equalsound and significance, poured thick and threefold upon the unshrinkingDominie, whose stubborn incredulity bore him out against the pelting ofthis pitiless storm.
At length the joyful annunciation that the lady had presented her husbandwith a fine boy, and was (of course) as well as could be expected, brokeoff this intercourse. Mr. Bertram hastened to the lady's apartment, MegMerrilies descended to the kitchen to secure her share of the groaningmalt and the 'ken-no,' [Footnote: See Note i.] and Mannering, afterlooking at his watch, and noting with great exactness the hour and minuteof the birth, requested, with becoming gravity, that the Dominie wouldconduct him to some place where he might have a view of the heavenlybodies.
The schoolmaster, without further answer, rose and threw open a door halfsashed with glass, which led to an old-fashioned terrace-walk behind themodern house, communicating with the platform on which the ruins of theancient castle were situated. The wind had arisen, and swept before itthe clouds which had formerly obscured the sky. The moon was high, and atthe full, and all the lesser satellites of heaven shone forth incloudless effulgence. The scene which their light presented to Manneringwas in the highest degree unexpected and striking.
We have observed, that in the latter part of his journey our travellerapproached the sea-shore, without being aware how nearly. He nowperceived that the ruins of Ellangowan Castle were situated upon apromontory, or projection of rock, which formed one side of a small andplacid bay on the sea-shore. The modern mansion was placed lower, thoughclosely adjoining, and the ground behind it descended to the sea by asmall swelling green bank, divided into levels by natural terraces, onwhich grew some old trees, and terminating upon the white sand. The otherside of the bay, opposite to the old castle, was a sloping and variedpromontory, covered chiefly with copsewood, which on that favoured coastgrows almost within water-mark. A fisherman's cottage peeped from amongthe trees. Even at this dead hour of night there were lights moving uponthe shore, probably occasioned by the unloading a smuggling lugger fromthe Isle of Man which was lying in the bay. On the light from the sasheddoor of the house being observed, a halloo from the vessel of 'Ware hawk!Douse the glim!' alarmed those who were on shore, and the lightsinstantly disappeared.
It was one hour after midnight, and the prospect around was lovely. Thegrey old towers of the ruin, partly entire, partly broken, here bearingthe rusty weather-stains of ages, and there partially mantled with ivy,stretched along the verge of the dark rock which rose on Mannering'sright hand. In his front was the quiet bay, whose little waves, crispingand sparkling to the moonbeams, rolled successively along its surface,and dashed with a soft and murmuring ripple against the silvery beach. Tothe left the woods advanced far into the ocean, waving in the moonlightalong ground of an undulating and varied form, and presenting thosevarieties of light and shade, and that interesting combination of gladeand thicket, upon which the eye delights to rest, charmed with what itsees, yet curious to pierce still deeper into the intricacies of thewoodland scenery. Above rolled the planets, each, by its own liquid orbitof light, distinguished from the inferior or more distant stars. Sostrangely can imagination deceive even those by whose volition it hasbeen excited, that Mannering, while gazing upon these brilliant bodies,was half inclined to believe in the influence ascribed to them bysuperstition over human events. But Mannering was a youthful lover, andmight perhaps be influenced by the feelings so exquisitely expressed by amodern poet:--
For fable is Love's world, his home, his birthplace: Delightedly dwells he 'mong fays, and talismans, And spirits, and delightedly believes Divinities, being himself divine The intelligible forms of ancient poets, The fair humanities of old religion, The power,the beauty, and the majesty, That had their haunts in dale, or piny mountain, Or forest, by slow stream, or pebbly spring, Or chasms and wat'ry depths--all these have vanish'd; They live no longer in the faith of reason! But still the heart doth need a language, still Doth the old instinct bring back the old names. And to yon starry world they now are gone, Spirits or gods, that used to share this earth With man as with their friend, and to the lover Yonder they move, from yonder visible sky Shoot influence down; and even at this day 'T is Jupiter who brings whate'er is great, And Venus who brings everything that's fair.
Such musings soon gave way to others. 'Alas!' he muttered, 'my good oldtutor, who used to enter so deep into the controversy between Heydon andChambers on the subject of astrology, he would have looked upon the scenewith other eyes, and would have seriously endeavoured to discover fromthe respective positions of these luminaries their probable effects onthe destiny of the new-born infant, as if the courses or emanations ofthe stars superseded, or at least were co-ordinate with, DivineProvidence. Well, rest be with him! he instilled into me enough ofknowledge for erecting a scheme of nativity, and therefore will Ipresently go about it.' So saying, and having noted the position of theprincipal planetary bodies, Guy Mannering returned to the house. TheLaird met him in the parlour, and, acquainting him with great glee thatthe boy was a fine healthy little fellow, seemed rather disposed to pressfurther conviviality. He admitted, however, Mannering's plea ofweariness, and, conducting him to his sleeping apartment, left him torepose for the evening.