CHAPTER XV
A CREAGH, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
When Edward had been a guest at Tully-Veolan nearly six weeks, hedescried, one morning, as he took his usual walk before thebreakfast hour, signs of uncommon perturbation in the family. Fourbare-legged dairy-maids, with each an empty milk-pail in her hand,ran about with frantic gestures, and uttering loud exclamations ofsurprise, grief, and resentment. From their appearance, a paganmight have conceived them a detachment of the celebrated Belides,just come from their baling penance. As nothing was to be got fromthis distracted chorus, excepting 'Lord guide us!' and 'Eh sirs!'ejaculations which threw no light upon the cause of their dismay,Waverley repaired to the fore-court, as it was called, where hebeheld Bailie Macwheeble cantering his white pony down the avenuewith all the speed it could muster. He had arrived, it would seem,upon a hasty summons, and was followed by half a score of peasantsfrom the village who had no great difficulty in keeping pace withhim.
The Bailie, greatly too busy and too important to enter intoexplanations with Edward, summoned forth Mr. Saunderson, whoappeared with a countenance in which dismay was mingled withsolemnity, and they immediately entered into close conference.Davie Gellatley was also seen in the group, idle as Diogenes atSinope while his countrymen were preparing for a siege. Hisspirits always rose with anything, good or bad, which occasionedtumult, and he continued frisking, hopping, dancing, and singingthe burden of an old ballad--
'Our gear's a' gane,'
until, happening to pass too near the Bailie, he received anadmonitory hint from his horse-whip, which converted his songsinto lamentation.
Passing from thence towards the garden, Waverley beheld the Baronin person, measuring and re-measuring, with swift and tremendousstrides, the length of the terrace; his countenance clouded withoffended pride and indignation, and the whole of his demeanoursuch as seemed to indicate, that any inquiry concerning the causeof his discomposure would give pain at least, if not offence.Waverley therefore glided into the house, without addressing him,and took his way to the breakfast-parlour, where he found hisyoung friend Rose, who, though she neither exhibited theresentment of her father, the turbid importance of BailieMacwheeble, nor the despair of the handmaidens, seemed vexed andthoughtful. A single word explained the mystery. 'Your breakfastwill be a disturbed one, Captain Waverley. A party of Cateranshave come down upon us last night, and have driven off all ourmilch cows.'
'A party of Caterans?'
'Yes; robbers from the neighbouring Highlands. We used to be quitefree from them while we paid blackmail to Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich IanVohr; but my father thought it unworthy of his rank and birth topay it any longer, and so this disaster has happened. It is notthe value of the cattle, Captain Waverley, that vexes me; but myfather is so much hurt at the affront, and is so bold and hot,that I fear he will try to recover them by the strong hand; and ifhe is not hurt himself, he will hurt some of these wild people,and then there will be no peace between them and us perhaps forour life-time; and we cannot defend ourselves as in old times, forthe government have taken all our arms; and my dear father is sorash--O what will become of us!'--Here poor Rose lost heartaltogether, and burst into a flood of tears.
The Baron entered at this moment, and rebuked her with moreasperity than Waverley had ever heard him use to any one. 'Was itnot a shame,' he said, 'that she should exhibit herself before anygentleman in such a light, as if she shed tears for a drove ofhorned nolt and milch kine, like the daughter of a Cheshireyeoman!--Captain Waverley, I must request your favourableconstruction of her grief, which may, or ought to proceed, solelyfrom seeing her father's estate exposed to spulzie and depredationfrom common thieves and sorners, while we are not allowed to keephalf a score of muskets, whether for defence or rescue.'
Bailie Macwheeble entered immediately afterwards, and by hisreport of arms and ammunition confirmed this statement, informingthe Baron, in a melancholy voice, that though the people wouldcertainly obey his honour's orders, yet there was no chance oftheir following the gear to ony guid purpose, in respect therewere only his honour's body servants who had swords and pistols,and the depredators were twelve Highlanders, completely armedafter the manner of their country. Having delivered this dolefulannunciation, he assumed a posture of silent dejection, shakinghis head slowly with the motion of a pendulum when it is ceasingto vibrate, and then remained stationary, his body stooping at amore acute angle than usual, and the latter part of his personprojecting in proportion.
The Baron, meanwhile, paced the room in silent indignation, and atlength fixing his eye upon an old portrait, whose person was cladin armour, and whose features glared grimly out of a huge bush ofhair, part of which descended from his head to his shoulders, andpart from his chin and upper-lip to his breast-plate,--'Thatgentleman, Captain Waverley, my grandsire,' he said, 'with twohundred horse,--whom he levied within his own bounds, discomfitedand put to the rout more than five hundred of these Highlandreivers, who have been ever lapis offensionis et petra scandali, astumbling-block and a rock of offence, to the Lowland vicinage--hediscomfited them, I say, when they had the temerity to descend toharry this country, in the time of the civil dissensions, in theyear of grace sixteen hundred forty and two. And now, sir, I, hisgrandson, am thus used at such unworthy hands.'
Here there was an awful pause; after which all the company, as isusual in cases of difficulty, began to give separate andinconsistent counsel. Alexander ab Alexandro proposed they shouldsend some one to compound with the Caterans, who would readily, hesaid, give up their prey for a dollar a head. The Bailie opinedthat this transaction would amount to theft-boot, or compositionof felony; and he recommended that some canny hand should be sentup to the glens to make the best bargain he could, as it were forhimself, so that the Laird might not be seen in such atransaction. Edward proposed to send off to the nearest garrisonfor a party of soldiers and a magistrate's warrant; and Rose, asfar as she dared, endeavoured to insinuate the course of payingthe arrears of tribute money to Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr,who, they all knew, could easily procure restoration of thecattle, if he were properly propitiated.
None of these proposals met the Baron's approbation. The idea ofcomposition, direct or implied, was absolutely ignominious; thatof Waverley only showed that he did not understand the state ofthe country, and of the political parties which divided it; and,standing matters as they did with Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr,the Baron would make no concession to him, were it, he said, 'toprocure restitution in integrum of every stirk and stot that thechief, his forefathers, and his clan, had stolen since the days ofMalcolm Canmore.'
In fact his voice was still for war, and he proposed to sendexpresses to Balmawhapple, Killancureit, Tulliellum, and otherlairds, who were exposed to similar depredations, inviting them tojoin in the pursuit; 'and then, sir, shall these nebulonesnequissimi, as Leslaeus calls them, be brought to the fate oftheir predecessor Cacus,
"Elisos oculos, et siccum sanguine guttur."'
The Bailie, who by no means relished these warlike counsels, herepulled forth an immense watch, of the colour, and nearly of thesize, of a pewter warming-pan, and observed it was now past noon,and that the Caterans had been seen in the pass of Ballybroughsoon after sunrise; so that, before the allied forces couldassemble, they and their prey would be far beyond the reach of themost active pursuit, and sheltered in those pathless deserts,where it was neither advisable to follow, nor indeed possible totrace them.
This proposition was undeniable. The council therefore broke upwithout coming to any conclusion, as has occurred to councils ofmore importance; only it was determined that the Bailie shouldsend his own three milkcows down to the mains for the use of theBaron's family, and brew small ale, as a substitute for milk, inhis own. To this arrangement, which was suggested by Saunderson,the Bailie readily assented, both from habitual deference to thefamily, and an internal consciousness that his courtesy would, insome mode or other, be repaid tenfold.
The Baron having also retired to give
some necessary directions,Waverley seized the opportunity to ask, whether this Fergus, withthe unpronounceable name, was the chief thief-taker of thedistrict?
'Thief-taker!' answered Rose, laughing; 'he is a gentleman ofgreat honour and consequence, the chieftain of an independentbranch of a powerful Highland clan, and is much respected, bothfor his own power and that of his kith, kin, and allies.'
'And what has he to do with the thieves, then? Is he a magistrate,or in the commission of the peace?' asked Waverley.
'The commission of war rather, if there be such a thing,' saidRose; 'for he is a very unquiet neighbour to his unfriends, andkeeps a greater following on foot than many that have thrice hisestate. As to his connection with the thieves, that I cannot wellexplain; but the boldest of them will never steal a hoof from anyone that pays black-mail to Vich lan Vohr.'
'And what is black-mail?'
'A sort of protection-money that Low-Country gentlemen andheritors, lying near the Highlands, pay to some Highland chief,that he may neither do them harm himself, nor suffer it to be doneto them by others; and then if your cattle are stolen, you haveonly to send him word, and he will recover them; or it may be, hewill drive away cows from some distant place, where he has aquarrel, and give them to you to make up your loss.' [Footnote:See note 13.]
'And is this sort of Highland Jonathan Wild admitted into society,and called a gentleman?'
'So much so,' said Rose, 'that the quarrel between my father andFergus Mac-Ivor began at a county meeting, where he wanted to takeprecedence of all the Lowland gentlemen then present, only myfather would not suffer it. And then he upbraided my father thathe was under his banner, and paid him tribute; and my father wasin a towering passion, for Bailie Macwheeble, who manages suchthings his own way, had contrived to keep this black-mail a secretfrom him, and passed it in his account for cess-money. And theywould have fought; but Fergus Mac-Ivor said, very gallantly, hewould never raise his hand against a grey head that was so muchrespected as my father's.--O I wish, I wish they had continuedfriends!'
'And did you ever see this Mr. Mac-Ivor, if that be his name, MissBradwardine?'
'No, that is not his name; and he would consider MASTER as a sortof affront, only that you are an Englishman, and know no better.But the Lowlanders call him, like other gentlemen, by the name ofhis estate, Glennaquoich; and the Highlanders call him Vich IanVohr, that is, the son of John the Great; and we upon the braeshere call him by both names indifferently.'
'I am afraid I shall never bring my English tongue to call him byeither one or other.'
'But he is a very polite, handsome man,' continued Rose; 'and hissister Flora is one of the most beautiful and accomplished youngladies in this country; she was bred in a convent in France, andwas a great friend of mine before this unhappy dispute. DearCaptain Waverley, try your influence with my father to makematters up. I am sure this is but the beginning of our troubles;for Tully-Veolan has never been a safe or quiet residence when wehave been at feud with the Highlanders. When I was a girl aboutten, there was a skirmish fought between a party of twenty of themand my father and his servants behind the mains; and the bulletsbroke several panes in the north windows, they were so near. Threeof the Highlanders were killed, and they brought them in wrappedin their plaids, and laid them on the stone floor of the hall; andnext morning, their wives and daughters came, clapping theirhands, and crying the coronach, and shrieking, and carried awaythe dead bodies, with the pipes playing before them. I could notsleep for six weeks without starting and thinking I heard theseterrible cries, and saw the bodies lying on the steps, all stiffand swathed up in their bloody tartans. But since that time therecame a party from the garrison at Stirling, with a warrant fromthe Lord Justice Clerk, or some such great man, and took away allour arms; and now, how are we to protect ourselves if they comedown in any strength?'
Waverley could not help starting at a story which bore so muchresemblance to one of his own day-dreams. Here was a girl scarceseventeen, the gentlest of her sex, both in temper and appearance,who had witnessed with her own eyes such a scene as he had used toconjure up in his imagination, as only occurring in ancient times,and spoke of it coolly, as one very likely to recur. He felt atonce the impulse of curiosity, and that slight sense of dangerwhich only serves to heighten its interest. He might have saidwith Malvolio, '"I do not now fool myself, to let imagination jademe!" I am actually in the land of military and romanticadventures, and it only remains to be seen what will be my ownshare in them.'
The whole circumstances now detailed concerning the state of thecountry seemed equally novel and extraordinary. He had indeedoften heard of Highland thieves, but had no idea of the systematicmode in which their depredations were conducted; and that thepractice was connived at, and even encouraged, by many of theHighland chieftains, who not only found the creaghs, or forays,useful for the purpose of training individuals of their clan tothe practice of arms, but also of maintaining a wholesome terroramong their Lowland neighbours, and levying, as we have seen, atribute from them, under colour of protection-money.
Bailie Macwheeble, who soon afterwards entered, expatiated stillmore at length upon the same topic. This honest gentleman'sconversation was so formed upon his professional practice, thatDavie Gellatley once said his discourse was like a 'charge ofhorning.' He assured our hero, that 'from the maist ancient timesof record, the lawless thieves, limmers, and broken men of theHighlands, had been in fellowship together by reason of theirsurnames, for the committing of divers thefts, reifs, and hershipsupon the honest men of the Low Country, when they not onlyintromitted with their whole goods and gear, corn, cattle, horse,nolt, sheep, outsight and insight plenishing, at their wickedpleasure, but moreover made prisoners, ransomed them, or concussedthem into giving borrows (pledges) to enter into captivity again;--all which was directly prohibited in divers parts of the StatuteBook, both by the act one thousand five hundred and sixty-seven,and various others; the whilk statutes, with all that had followedand might follow thereupon, were shamefully broken and vilipendedby the said sorners, limmers, and broken men, associated intofellowships, for the aforesaid purposes of theft, stouthreef,fire-raising, murther, raptus mulierum, or forcible abduction ofwomen, and such like as aforesaid.'
It seemed like a dream to Waverley that these deeds of violenceshould be familiar to men's minds, and currently talked of asfalling within the common order of things, and happening daily inthe immediate vicinity, without his having crossed the seas, andwhile he was yet in the otherwise well-ordered island of GreatBritain.