"Now dame," quoth he, "Je vous dis sans doute, Had I nought of a capon but
the liver, And of your white bread nought but a shiver, And after that a roasted
pigge's head (But I ne wold for me no beast were dead), Then had I with you
homely sufferaunce."
CHAUCER, Sumner's Tale.
IT was not without some secret misgivings that Caleb set out upon his
exploratory expedition. In fact, it was attended with a treble difficulty. He
dared not tell his mast the offence which he had that morning given to Bucklaw,
just for the honour of the family; he dared not acknowledge he had been too
hasty in refusing the purse; and, thirdly, he was somewhat apprehensive of
unpleasant consequences upon his meeting Hayston under the impression of an
affront, and probably by this time under the influence also of no small quantity
of brandy.
Caleb, to do him justice, was as bold as any lion where the honour of the
family of Ravenswood was concerned; but his was that considerate valour which
does not delight in unnecessary risks. This, however, was a secondary
consideration; the main point was to veil the indigence of the housekeeping at
the castle, and to make good his vaunt of the cheer which his resources could
procure, without Lockhard's assistance, and without supplies from his master.
This was as prime a point of honour with him as with the generous elephant with
whom we have already compared him, who, being overtasked, broke his skull
through the desperate exertions which he made to discharge his duty, when he
perceived they were bringing up another to his assistance.
The village which they now approached had frequently afforded the distressed
butler resources upon similar emergencies; but his relations with it had been of
late much altered.
It was a little hamlet which straggled along the side of a creek formed by
the discharge of a small brook into the sea, and was hidden from the castle, to
which it had been in former times an appendage, by the entervention of the
shoulder of a hill forming a projecting headland. It was called Wolf's Hope
(i.e. Wolf's Haven), and the few inhabitants gained a precarious subsistence by
manning two or three fishing-boats in the herring season, and smuggling gin and
brandy during the winter months. They paid a kind of hereditary respect to the
Lords of Ravenswood; but, in the difficulties of the family, most of the
inhabitants of Wolf's Hope had contrived to get feu-rights to their little
possessions, their huts, kail-yards, and rights of commonty, so that they were
emancipated from the chains of feudal dependence, and free from the various
exactions with which, under every possible pretext, or without any pretext at
all, the Scottish landlords of the period, themselves in great poverty, were
wont to harass their still poorer tenants at will. They might be, on the whole,
termed independent, a circumstance peculiarly galling to Caleb, who had been
wont to exercise over them the same sweeping authority in levying contributions
which was exercised in former times in England, when "the royal purveyors,
sallying forth from under the Gothic portcullis to purchase provisions with
power and prerogative, instead of money, brought home the plunder of an hundred
markets, and all that could be seized from a flying and hiding country, and
deposited their spoil in an hundred caverns."
Caleb loved the memory and resented the downfall of that authority, which
mimicked, on a petty scale, the grand contributions exacted by the feudal
sovereigns. And as he fondly flattered himself that the awful rule and right
supremacy, which assigned to the Barons of Ravenswood the first and most
effective interest in all productions of nature within five miles of their
castle, only slumbered, and was not departed for ever, he used every now and
then to give the recollection of the inhabitants a little jog by some petty
exaction. These were at first submitted to, with more or less readiness, by the
inhabitants of the hamlet; for they had been so long used to consider the wants
of the Baron and his family as having a title to be preferred to their own, that
their actual independence did not convey to them an immediate sense of freedom.
They resembled a man that has been long fettered, who, even at liberty, feels in
imagination the grasp of the handcuffs still binding his wrists. But the
exercise of freedom is quickly followed with the natural consciousness of its
immunities, as the enlarged prisoner, by the free use of his limbs, soon dispels
the cramped feeling they had acquired when bound.
The inhabitants of Wolf's Hope began to grumble, to resist, and at length
positively to refuse compliance with the exactions of Caleb Balderstone. It was
in vain he reminded them, that when the eleventh Lord Ravenswood, called the
Skipper, from his delight in naval matters, had encouraged the trade of their
port by building the pier (a bulwark of stones rudely piled together), which
protected the fishing-boats from the weather, it had been mattter of
understanding that he was to have the first stone of butter after the calving of
every cow within the barony, and the first egg, thence called the Monday's egg,
laid by every hen on every Monday in the year.
The feuars heard and scratched their heads, coughed, sneezed, and being
pressed for answer, rejoined with one voice, "They could not say"--the universal
refuge of a Scottish peasant when pressed to admit a claim which his conscience
owns, or perhaps his feelings, and his interest inclines him to deny.
Caleb, however, furnished the notables of Wolf's Hope with a note of the
requisition of butter and eggs, which he claimed as arrears of the aforesaid
subsidy, or kindly aid, payable as above mentioned; and having intimated that he
would not be averse to compound the same for goods or money, if it was
inconvenient to them to pay in kind, left them, as he hoped, to debate the mode
of assessing themselves for that purpose. On the contrary, they met with a
determined purpose of resisting the exaction, and were only undecided as to the
mode of grounding their opposition, when the cooper, a very important person on
a fishing-station, and one of the conscript fathers of the village, observed,
"That their hens had caickled mony a day for the Lords of Ravenswood, and it was
time they suld caickle for those that gave them roosts and barley." An unanimous
grin intimated the assent of the assembly. "And," continued the orator, "if it's
your wull, I'll just tak a step as far as Dunse for Davie Dingwall, the writer,
that's come frae the North to settle amang us, and he'll pit this job to rights,
I'se warrant him."
A day was accordingly fixed for holding a grand palaver at Wolf's Hope on the
subject of Caleb's requisitions, and he was invited to attend at the hamlet for
that purpose.
He went with open hands and empty stomach, trusting to fill the one on his
master's account and the other on his own score, at the expense of the feuars of
Wolf's Hope. But, death to his hopes! as he entered the eastern end of the
straggling village, the awful form of Davie Dingwall, a sly, dry, hard-fisted,
shrewd country attorney, who had already acted against the family of Ravenswood,
and was a principal agent of Sir William Ashton, trotted in at the western
extremity, bestriding a leathern portmanteau stuffed with the feu-charters of
the hamlet, and hoping he had not kept Mr. Balderstone waiting, "as he was
instructed and fully empowered to pay or receive, compound or compensat, and, in
fine, to age as accords respecting all mutual and unsettled claims whatsoever,
belonging or competent to the Honourable Edgar Ravenswood, commonly called the
Master of Ravenswood----"
"The RIGHT Honourable Edgar LORD RAVENSWOOD," said Caleb, with great
emphasis; for, though conscious he had little chance of advantage in the
conflict to ensue, he was resolved not to sacrifice one jot of honour.
"Lord Ravenswood, then," said the man of business--"we shall not quarrel with
you about titles of courtesy--commonly called Lord Ravenswood, or Master of
Ravenswood, heritable proprietor of the lands and barony of Wolf's Crag, on othe
ne part, and to John Whitefish and others, feuars in the town of Wolf's Hope,
within the barony aforesaid, on the other part."
Caleb was conscious, from sad experience, that he would wage a very different
strife with this mercenary champion than with the individual feuars themselves,
upon whose old recollections, predilections, and habits of thinking he might
have wrought by an hundred indirect arguments, to which their
deputy-representative was totally insensible. The issue of the debate proved the
reality of his apprehensions. It was in vain he strained his eloquence and
ingenuity, and collected into one mass all arguments arising from antique custom
and hereditary respect, from the good deeds done by the Lords of Ravenswood to
the community of Wolf's Hope in former days, and from what might be expected
from them in future. The writer stuck to the contents of his feu-charters; he
could not see it: 'twas not in the bond. And when Caleb, determined to try what
a little spirit would do, deprecated the consequences of Lord Ravenswood's
withdrawing his protection from the burgh, and even hinted in his using active
measures of resentment, the man of law sneered in his face.
"His clients," he said, "had determined to do the best they could for their
own town, and he thought Lord Ravenwood, since he was a lord, might have enough
to do to look after his own castle. As to any threats of stouthrief oppression,
by rule of thumb, or via facti, as the law termed it, he would have Mr.
Balderstone recollect, that new times were not as old times; that they lived on
the south of the Forth, and far from the Highlands; that his clients thought
they were able to protect themselves; but should they find themselves mistaken,
they would apply to the government for the protection of a corporal and four
red-coats, who," said Mr. Dingwall, with a grin, "would be perfectly able to
secure them against Lord Ravenswood, and all that he or his followers could do
by the strong hand."
If Caleb could have concentrated all the lightnings of aristocracy in his
eye, to have struck dead this contemner of allegiance and privilege, he would
have launched them at his head, without respect to the consequences. As it was,
he was compelled to turn his course backward to the castle; and there he
remained for full half a day invisible and inaccessible even to Mysie,
sequestered in his own peculiar dungeon, where he sat burnishing a single pewter
plate and whistling "Maggie Lauder" six hours without intermission.
The issue of this unfortunate requisition had shut against Caleb all
resources which could be derived from Wolf's Hope and its purlieus, the El
Dorado, or Peru, from which, in all former cases of exigence, he had been able
to extract some assistance. He had, indeed, in a manner vowed that the deil
should have him, if ever he put the print of his foot within its causeway again.
He had hitherto kept his word; and, strange to tell, this secession had, as he
intended, in some degree, the effect of a punishment upon the refractory feuars.
Mr. Balderstone had been a person in their eyes connected with a superior order
of beings, whose presence used to grace their little festivities, whose advice
they found useful on many ocassions, and whose communications gave a sort of
credit to their village. The place, they ackowledged, "didna look as it used to
do, and should do, since Mr. Caleb keepit the castle sae closely; but doubtless,
touching the eggs and butter, it was a most unreasonable demand, as Mr. Dingwall
had justly made manifest."
Thus stood matters betwixt the parties, when the old butler, though it was
gall and wormwood to him, found himself obliged either to ackowledge before a
strange man of quality, and, what was much worse, before that stranger's
servant, the total inability of Wolf's Crag to produce a dinner, or he must
trust to the compassion of the feuars of Wofl's Hope. It was a dreadful
degradation; but necessity was equally imperious and lawless. With these
feelings he entered the street of the village.
Willing to shake himself from his companion as soon as possible, he directed
Mr. Lockhard to Luckie Sma-trash's change-house, where a din, proceeding from
the revels of Bucklaw, Craigengelt, and their party, sounded half-way down the
street, while the red glare from the window overpowered the grey twilight which
was now settling down, and glimmered against a parcel of old tubs, kegs, and
barrels, piled up in the cooper's yard, on the other side of the way.
"If you, Mr. Lockhard," said the old butler to his companion, "will be
pleased to step to the change-house where that light comes from, and where, as I
judge, they are now singing 'Cauld Kail in Aberdeen,' ye may do your master's
errand about the venison, and I will do mine about Bucklaw's bed, as I return
frae getting the rest of the vivers. It's no that the venison is actually
needfu'," he added, detaining his colleague by the button, "to make up the
dinner; but as a compliment to the hunters, ye ken; and, Mr. Lockhard, if they
offer ye a drink o' yill, or a cup o' wine, or a glass o' brandy, ye'll be a
wise man to take it, in case the thunner should hae soured ours at the castle,
whilk is ower muckle to be dreaded."
He then permitted Lockhard to depart; and with foot heavy as lead, and yet
far lighter than his heart, stepped on through the unequal street of the
straggling village, meditating on whom he ought to make his first attack. It was
necessary he should find some one with whom old acknowledged greatness should
weigh more than recent independence, and to whom his application might appear an
act of high dignity, relenting at once and soothing. But he could not recollect
an inhabitant of a mind so constructed. "Our kail is like to be cauld eneugh
too," he reflected, as the chorus of "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen" again reached his
ears. The minister--he had got his presentation from the late lord, but they had
quarrelled about teinds; the brewster's wife--she had trusted long, and the bill
was aye scored up, and unless the dignity of the family should actually require
it, it would be a sin to distress a widow woman. None was so able--but, on the
other hand, none was likely to be less willing--to stand his friend upon the
present occasion, than Gibbie Girder, the man of tubs and barrels already
mentioned, who had headed the insurrection in the matter of the egg and butter
subsidy. "But a' comes o' taking folk on the right side, I trow," quoted Caleb
to himself; "and I had ance the ill hap to say he was but a Johnny New-come in
our town, and the carle bore the family an ill-will ever since. But he married a
bonny young quean, Jean Lightbody, auld Lightbody's daughter, him that was in
the steading of Loup-the-Dyke; and auld Lightbody was married himsell to Marion,
that was about my lady in the family forty years syne. I hae had mony a day's
daffing wi' Jean's mither, and they say she bides on wi' them. The carle has
Jacobuses and Georgiuses baith, an ane could get at them; and sure I am, it's
doing him an honour him or his never deserved at our hand, the ungracious sumph;
and if he loses by us a'thegither, he is e'en cheap o't: he can spare it
brawly." Shaking off irresolution, therefore, and turning at once upon his heel,
Caleb walked hastily back to the cooper's house, lifted the latch withotu
ceremony, and, in a moment, found himself behind the "hallan," or partition,
from which position he could, himself unseen, reconnoitre the interior of the
"but," or kitchen apartment, of the mansion.
Reverse of the sad menage at the Castle of Wolf's Crag, a bickering fire
roared up the cooper's chimney. His wife, on the one side, in her pearlings and
pudding-sleeves, put the last finishing touch to her holiday's apparel, while
she contemplated a very handsome and good-humoured face in a broken mirror,
raised upon the "bink" (the shelves on which the plates are disposed) for her
special accommodation. Her mother, old Luckie Loup-the- Dyke, "a canty carline"
as was within twenty miles of her, according to the unanimous report of the
"cummers," or gossips, sat by the fire in the full glory of a grogram gown,
lammer beads, and a clean cockernony, whiffing a snug pipe of tobacco, and
superintending the affairs of the kitchen; for--sight more interesting to the
anxious heart and craving entrails of the desponding seneschal than either buxom
dame or canty cummer-- there bubbled on the aforesaid bickering fire a huge pot,
or rather cauldron, steaming with beef and brewis; while before it revolved two
spits, turned each by one of the cooper's apprentices, seated in the opposite
corners of the chimney, the one loaded with a quarter of mutton, while the other
was graced with a fat goose and a brace of wild ducks. The sight and scent of
such a land of plenty almost wholly overcame the drooping spirits of Caleb. He
turned, for a moment's space to reconnoitre the "ben," or parlour end of the
house, and there saw a sight scarce less affecting to his feelings--a large
round table, covered for ten or twelve persons, decored (according to his own
favourite terms) with napery as white as snow, grand flagons of pewter,
intermixed with one or two silver cups, containing, as was probable, something
worthy the brilliancy of their outward appearance, clean trenchers, cutty
spoons, knives and forks, sharp, burnished, and prompt for action, which lay all
displayed as for an especial festival.
"The devil's in the peddling tub-coopering carl!" muttered Caleb, in all the
envy of astonishment; "it's a shame to see the like o' them gusting their gabs
at sic a rate. But if some o' that gude cheer does not find its way to Wolf's
Crag this night, my name is not Caleb Balderstone."
So resolving, he entered the apartment, and, in all courteous greeting,
saluted both the mother and the daughter. Wolf's Crag was the court of the
barony, Caleb prime minister at Wolf's Crag; and it has ever been remarked that,
though the masculine subject who pays the taxes sometimes growls at the
courtiers by whom they are imposed, the said courtiers continue, nevertheless,
welcome to the fair sex, to whom they furnish the newest small-talk and the
earliest fashions. Both the dames were, therefore, at once about old Caleb's
neck, setting up their throats together by way of welcome.
"Ay, sirs, Mr. Balderstone, and is this you? A sight of you is gude for sair
een. Sit down--sit down; the gudeman will be blythe to see you--ye nar saw him
sae cadgy in your life; but we are to christen our bit wean the night, as ye
will hae heard, and doubtless ye will stay and see the ordinance. We hae killed
a wether, and ane o' our lads has been out wi' his gun at the moss; ye used to
like wild-fowl."
"Na, na, gudewife," said Caleb; "I just keekit in to wish ye joy, and I wad
be glad to hae spoken wi' the gudeman, but----" moving, as if to go away.
"The ne'er a fit ye's gang," said the elder dame, laughing and holding him
fast, with a freedom which belonged to their old acquaintance; "wha kens what
ill it may bring to the bairn, if ye owerlook it in that gate?"
"But I'm in a preceese hurry, gudewife," said the butler, suffering himself
to be dragged to a seat without much resistance; "and as to eating," for he
observed the mistress of the dwelling bustling about to place a trencher for
him-- "as for eating--lack-a-day, we are just killed up yonder wi' eating frae
morning to night! It's shamefu' epicurism; but that's what we hae gotten frae
the English pock-puddings." "Hout, never mind the English pock-puddings," said
Luckie Lightbody; "try our puddings, Mr. Balderstone; there is black pudding and
white-hass; try whilk ye like best."
"Baith gude--baith excellent--canna be better; but the very smell is eneugh
for me that hae dined sae lately (the faithful wretch had fasted since
daybreak). But I wadna affront your housewifeskep, gudewife; and, with your
permission, I'se e'en pit them in my napkin, and eat them to my supper at e'en,
for I am wearied of Mysie's pastry and nonsense; ye ken landward dainties aye
pleased me best, Marion, and landward lasses too (looking at the cooper's wife).
Ne'er a bit but she looks far better than when she married Gilbert, and then she
was the bonniest lass in our parochine and the neist till't. But gawsie cow,
goodly calf."
The women smiled at the compliment each to herself, and they smiled again to
each other as Caleb wrapt up the puddings in a towel which he had brought with
him, as a dragoon carries his foraging bag to receive what my fall in his way.
"And what news at the castle?" quo' the gudewife.
"News! The bravest news ye ever heard--the Lord Keeper's up yonder wi' his
fair daughter, just ready to fling her at my lord's head, if he winna tak her
out o' his arms; and I'se warrant he'll stitch our auld lands of Ravenswood to
her petticoat tail."
"Eh! sirs--ay!--and will hae her? and is she weel-favoured? and what's the
colour o' her hair? and does she wear a habit or a railly?" were the questions
which the females showered upon the butler.
"Hout tout! it wad tak a man a day to answer a' your questions, and I hae
hardly a minute. Where's the gudeman?"
"Awa' to fetch the minister," said Mrs. Girder, "precious Mr. Peter
Bide-the-Bent, frae the Mosshead; the honest man has the rheumatism wi' lying in
the hills in the persecution."
"Ay! Whig and a mountain-man, nae less!" said Caleb, with a peevishness he
could not suppress. "I hae seen the day, Luckie, when worthy Mr. Cuffcushion and
the service-book would hae served your turn (to the elder dame), or ony honest
woman in like circumstances."
"And that's true too," said Mrs. Lightbody, "but what can a body do? Jean
maun baith sing her psalms and busk her cockernony the gate the gudeman likes,
and nae ither gate; for he's maister and mair at hame, I can tell ye, Mr.
Balderstone."
"Ay, ay, and does he guide the gear too?" said Caleb, to whose projects
masculine rule boded little good. "Ilka penny on't; but he'll dress her as dink
as a daisy, as ye see; sae she has little reason to complain: where there's ane
better aff there's ten waur."
"Aweel, gudewife," said Caleb, crestfallen, but not beaten off, "that wasna
the way ye guided your gudeman; bt ilka land has its ain lauch. I maun be
ganging. I just wanted to round in the gudeman's lug, that I heard them say
up-bye yonder that Peter Puncheon, that was cooper to the Queen's stores at the
Timmer Burse at Leith, is dead; sae I though that maybe a word frae my lord to
the Lord Keeper might hae served Gilbert; but since he's frae hame----"
"O, but ye maun stay his hame-coming," said the dame. "I aye telled the
gudeman ye meant weel to him; but he taks the tout at every bit lippening word."
"Aweel, I'll stay the last minute I can."
"And so," said the handsome young spouse of Mr. Girder, "ye think this Miss
Ashton is weel-favoured? Troth, and sae should she, to set up for our young
lord, with a face and a hand, and a seat on his horse, that might become a
king's son. D'ye ken that he aye glowers up at my window, Mr. Balderstone, when
he chaunces to ride thro' the town? Sae I hae a right to ken what like he is, as
weel as ony body."
"I ken that brawly," said Caleb, "for I hae heard his lordship say the
cooper's wife had the blackest ee in the barony; and I said, 'Weel may that be,
my lord, for it was her mither's afore her, as I ken to my cost.' Eh, Marion?
Ha, ha, ha! Ah! these were merry days!"
"Hout awa', auld carle," said the old dame, "to speak sic daffing to young
folk. But, Jean--fie, woman, dinna ye hear the bairn greet? I'se warrant it's
that dreary weid has come ower't again."
Up got mother and grandmother, and scoured away, jostling each other as they
ran, into some remote corner of the tenement, where the young hero of the
evening was deposited. When Caleb saw the coast fairly clear, he took an
invigorating pinch of snuff, to sharpen and confirm his resolution.
"Cauld be my cast," thought he, "if either Bide-the-Bent or Girder taste that
broach of wild-fowl this evening"; and then addressing the eldest turnspit, a
boy of about eleven years old, and putting a penny into his hand, he said, "Here
is twal pennies, my man; carry that ower to Mrs. Sma'trash, and bid her fill my
mill wi' snishing, and I'll turn the broche for ye in the mean time; and she
will gie ye a ginge-bread snap for your pains."
No sooner was the elder boy departed on this mission than Caleb, looking the
remaining turnspit gravely and steadily in the face, removed from the fire the
spit bearing the wild-fowl of which he had undertaken the charge, clapped his
hat on his head, and fairly marched off with it. he stopped at the door of the
change-house only to say, in a few brief words, that Mr. Hayston of Bucklaw was
not to expect a bed that evening in the castle.
If this message was too briefly delivered by Caleb, it became absolute
rudeness when convenyed through the medium of a suburb landlady; and Bucklaw
was, as a more calm and temperate man might have been, highly incensed. Captain
Craigengelt proposed, with the unanimous applause of all present, that they
should course the old fox (meaning Caleb) ere he got to cover, and toss him in a
blanket. But Lockhard intimated to his master's servants and those of Lord
Bittlebrains, in a tone of authority, that the slightest impertinence to the
Master of Ravenswood's domestic would give Sir William Ashton the highest
offence. And having so said, in a manner sufficient to prevent any aggression on
their part, he left the public-house, taking along with him two servants loaded
with such provisions as he had been able to procure, and overtook Caleb just
when he had cleared the village.
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