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The Surgeon's Daughter

by Walter Scott · English · Gutenberg #6428 · 407,267 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: The Surgeon's Daughter

Author: Walter Scott


        
Release date: September 1, 2004 [eBook #6428]
                Most recently updated: February 27, 2018

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SURGEON'S DAUGHTER ***




Produced by D Garcia, David Moynihan, Charles Franks and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team









THE SURGEON'S DAUGHTER.

CHRONICLES OF THE CANONGATE.

By Sir Walter Scott


SIC ITUR AD ASTRA.




INTRODUCTION.--(1831.)

The tale of the Surgeon's Daughter formed part of the second series of
Chronicles of the Canongate, published in 1827; but has been separated
from the stories of the Highland Widow, &c., which it originally
accompanied, and deferred to the close of this collection, for reasons
which printers and publishers will understand, and which would hardly
interest the general reader.

The Author has nothing to say now in reference to this little Novel, but
that the principal incident on which it turns, was narrated to him one
morning at breakfast by his worthy friend, Mr. Train, of Castle Douglas,
in Galloway, whose kind assistance he has so often had occasion to
acknowledge in the course of these prefaces; and that the military
friend who is alluded to as having furnished him with some information
as to Eastern matters, was Colonel James Ferguson of Huntly Burn, one of
the sons of the venerable historian and philosopher of that name--which
name he took the liberty of concealing under its Gaelic form of
_Mac-Erries_.

Abbotsford, _September_ 1831.





APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION.

[Mr. Train was requested by Sir Walter Scott to give him in writing the
story as nearly as possible in the shape in which he had told it; but
the following narrative, which he drew up accordingly, did not reach
Abbotsford until July 1832]

In the old Stock of Fife, there was not perhaps an individual whose
exertions were followed by consequences of such a remarkable nature as
those of Davie Duff, popularly called “The Thane of Fife,” who, from a
very humble parentage, rose to fill one of the chairs of the magistracy
of his native burgh. By industry and economy in early life, he obtained
the means of erecting, solely on his own account, one of those ingenious
manufactories for which Fifeshire is justly celebrated. From the day on
which the industrious artisan first took his seat at the Council Board,
he attended so much to the interests of the little privileged community,
that civic honours were conferred on him as rapidly as the Set of the
Royalty [Footnote: The Constitution of the Borough.] could legally
admit.

To have the right of walking to church on holy-days, preceded by a
phalanx of halberdiers, in habiliments fashioned as in former times,
seems, in the eyes of many a guild brother, to be a very enviable pitch
of worldly grandeur. Few persons were ever more proud of civic honours
than the Thane of Fife, but he knew well how to turn his political
influence to the best account. The council, court, and other business
of the burgh, occupied much of his time, which caused him to intrust
the management of his manufactory to a near relation, whose name was
D------, a young man of dissolute habits; but the Thane, seeing at last,
that by continuing that extravagant person in that charge, his affairs
would, in all probability, fall into a state of bankruptcy, applied to
the member of Parliament for that district to obtain a situation for his
relation in the civil department of the state. The knight, whom it is
here unnecessary to name, knowing how effectually the Thane ruled the
little burgh, applied in the proper quarter, and actually obtained an
appointment for D------ in the civil service of the East India Company.

A respectable surgeon, whose residence was in a neighbouring village,
had a beautiful daughter named Emma, who had long been courted by
D------. Immediately before his departure to India, as a mark of mutual
affection, they exchanged miniatures, taken by an eminent artist in
Fife, and each set in a locket, for the purpose of having the object of
affection always in view.

The eyes of the old Thane were now turned towards Hindostan with much
anxiety; but his relation had not long arrived in that distant quarter
of the globe before he had the satisfaction of receiving a letter,
conveying the welcome intelligence of his having taken possession of
his new station in a large frontier town of the Company's dominions,
and that great emoluments were attached to the situation; which was
confirmed by several subsequent communications of the most gratifying
description to the old Thane, who took great pleasure in spreading the
news of the reformed habits and singular good fortune of his intended
heir. None of all his former acquaintances heard with such joy the
favourable report of the successful adventurer in the East, as did the
fair and accomplished daughter of the village surgeon; but his previous
character caused her to keep her own correspondence with him secret from
her parents, to whom even the circumstance of her being acquainted with
D------ was wholly unknown, till her father received a letter from
him, in which he assured him of his attachment to Emma long before
his departure from Fife; that having been so happy as to gain her
affections, he would have made her his wife before leaving his native
country, had he then had the means of supporting her in a suitable rank
through life; and that, having it now in his power to do so, he only
waited the consent of her parents to fulfil the vow he had formerly
made.

The Doctor having a large family, with a very limited income to support
them, and understanding that D------ had at last become a person of
sober and industrious habits, he gave his consent, in which Emma's
mother fully concurred.

Aware of the straitened circumstances of the Doctor, D------ remitted a
sum of money to complete at Edinburgh Emma's Oriental education, and
fit her out in her journey to India; she was to embark at Sheerness, on
board one of the Company's ships, for a port in India, at which place,
he said, he would wait her arrival, with a retinue suited to a person of
his rank in society.

Emma set out from her father's house just in time to secure a passage,
as proposed by her intended husband, accompanied by her only
brother, who, on their arrival at Sheerness, met one C------, an old
schoolfellow, captain of the ship by which Emma was to proceed to India.

It was the particular desire of the Doctor that his daughter should be
committed to the care of that gentleman, from the time of her leaving
the shores of Britain, till the intended marriage ceremony was duly
performed on her arrival in India; a charge that was frankly undertaken
by the generous sea-captain.

On the arrival of the fleet at the appointed port, D------, with a large
cavalcade of mounted Pindarees, was, as expected, in attendance, ready
to salute Emma on landing, and to carry her direct into the interior
of the country. C------, who had made several voyages to the shores
of Hindostan, knowing something of Hindoo manners and customs, was
surprised to see a private individual in the Company's service with so
many attendants; and when D------ declined having the marriage ceremony
performed according to the rites of the Church, till he returned to the
place of his abode, C------, more and more confirmed in his suspicion
that all was not right, resolved not to part with Emma till he had
fulfilled, in the most satisfactory manner, the promise he had made
before leaving England, of giving her duly away in marriage. Not
being able by her entreaties to alter the resolution of D------, Emma
solicited her protector C------ to accompany her to the place of her
intended destination, to which he most readily agreed, taking with him
as many of his crew as he deemed sufficient to ensure the safe custody
of his innocent protege, should any attempt be made to carry her away by
force.

Both parties journeyed onwards till they arrived at a frontier town,
where a native Rajah was waiting the arrival of the fair maid of Fife,
with whom he had fallen deeply in love, from seeing her miniature
likeness in the possession of D------, to whom he had paid a large sum
of money for the original, and had only intrusted him to convey her in
state to the seat of his government.

No sooner was this villanous action of D------ known to C------, than
he communicated the whole particulars to the commanding officer of a
regiment of Scotch Highlanders that happened to be quartered in that
part of India, begging at the same time, for the honour of Caledonia,
and protection of injured innocence, that he would use the means in his
power, of resisting any attempt that might be made by the native chief
to wrest from their hands the virtuous female who had been so shamefully
decoyed from her native country by the worst of mankind. Honour occupies
too large a space in the heart of the Gael to resist such a call of
humanity.

The Rajah, finding his claim was not to be acceded to, and resolving to
enforce the same, assembled his troops, and attacked with great fury
the place where the affrighted Emma was for a time secured by her
countrymen, who fought in her defence with all their native valour,
which at length so overpowered their assailants, that they were forced
to retire in every direction, leaving behind many of their slain, among
whom was found the mangled corpse of the perfidious D------.

C------ was immediately afterwards married to Emma, and my informant
assured me he saw them many years afterwards, living happily together in
the county of Kent, on the fortune bequeathed by the “Thane of Fife.”

J. T.


CASTLE DOUGLAS, _July_, 1832.





MR. CROFTANGRY'S PREFACE.


  Indite, my muse indite,
    Subpoena'd is thy lyre,
  The praises to requite
    Which rules of court require.
               PROBATIONARY ODES.

The concluding a literary undertaking, in whole or in part, is, to the
inexperienced at least, attended with an irritating titillation, like
that which attends on the healing of a wound--a prurient impatience,
in short, to know what the world in general, and friends in particular,
will say to our labours. Some authors, I am told, profess an oyster-like
indifference upon this subject; for my own part, I hardly believe in
their sincerity. Others may acquire it from habit; but, in my poor
opinion, a neophyte like myself must be for a long time incapable of
such _sang froid_.

Frankly, I was ashamed to feel how childishly I felt on the occasion. No
person could have said prettier things than myself upon the importance
of stoicism concerning the opinion of others, when their applause or
censure refers to literary character only; and I had determined to
lay my work before the public, with the same unconcern with which the
ostrich lays her eggs in the sand, giving herself no farther trouble
concerning the incubation, but leaving to the atmosphere to bring forth
the young, or otherwise, as the climate shall serve. But though an
ostrich in theory, I became in practice a poor hen, who has no sooner
made her deposit, but she runs cackling about, to call the attention of
every one to the wonderful work which she has performed.

As soon as I became possessed of my first volume, neatly stitched up and
boarded, my sense of the necessity of communicating with some one became
ungovernable. Janet was inexorable, and seemed already to have tired
of my literary confidence; for whenever I drew near the subject, after
evading it as long as she could, she made, under some pretext or other,
a bodily retreat to the kitchen or the cockloft, her own peculiar and
inviolate domains. My publisher would have been a natural resource; but
he understands his business too well, and follows it too closely, to
desire to enter into literary discussions, wisely considering, that
he who has to sell books has seldom leisure to read them. Then my
acquaintance, now that I have lost Mrs. Bethune Baliol, are of
that distant and accidental kind, to whom I had not face enough to
communicate the nature of my uneasiness, and who probably would only
have laughed at me had I made any attempt to interest them in my
labours.

Reduced thus to a sort of despair, I thought of my friend and man of
business, Mr. Fairscribe. His habits, it was true, were not likely to
render him indulgent to light literature, and, indeed, I had more than
once noticed his daughters, and especially my little songstress, whip
into her reticule what looked very like a circulating library volume, as
soon as her father entered the room. Still he was not only my assured,
but almost my only friend, and I had little doubt that he would take an
interest in the volume for the sake of the author, which the work itself
might fail to inspire. I sent him, therefore, the book, carefully sealed
up, with an intimation that I requested the favour of his opinion upon
the contents, of which I affected to talk in the depreciatory style,
which calls for point-blank contradiction, if your correspondent possess
a grain of civility.

This communication took place on a Monday, and I daily expected (what I
was ashamed to anticipate by volunteering my presence, however sure of
a welcome) an invitation to eat an egg, as was my friend's favourite
phrase, or a card to drink tea with Misses Fairscribe, or a provocation
to breakfast, at least, with my hospitable friend and benefactor, and to
talk over the contents of my enclosure. But the hours and days passed on
from Monday till Saturday, and I had no acknowledgment whatever that
my packet had reached its destination. “This is very unlike my good
friend's punctuality,” thought I; and having again and again vexed
James, my male attendant, by a close examination concerning the time,
place, and delivery, I had only to strain my imagination to conceive
reasons for my friend's silence. Sometimes I thought that his opinion
of the work had proved so unfavourable that he was averse to hurt my
feelings by communicating it--sometimes, that, escaping his hands to
whom it was destined, it had found its way into his writing-chamber, and
was become the subject of criticism to his smart clerks and conceited
apprentices. “'Sdeath!” thought I, “if I were sure of this, I would”--

“And what would you do?” said Reason, after a few moment's reflection.
“You are ambitious of introducing your book into every writing and
reading-chamber in Edinburgh, and yet you take fire at the thoughts
of its being criticised by Mr. Fairscribe's young people? Be a little
consistent--for shame!”

“I will be consistent,” said I, doggedly; “but for all that, I will call
on Mr. Fairscribe this evening.”

I hastened my dinner, donn'd my great-coat (for the evening threatened
rain,) and went to Mr. Fairscribe's house. The old domestic opened the
door cautiously, and before I asked the question, said, “Mr. Fairscribe
is at home, sir; but it is Sunday night.” Recognising, however, my face
and voice, he opened the door wider, admitted me, and conducted me to
the parlour, where I found Mr. Fairscribe and the rest of his family
engaged in listening to a sermon by the late Mr. Walker of Edinburgh,
[Footnote: Robert Walker, the colleague and rival of Dr. Hugh Blair,
in St. Giles's Church Edinburgh] which was read by Miss Catherine with
unusual distinctness, simplicity, and judgment. Welcomed as a friend of
the house, I had nothing for it but to take my seat quietly, and making
a virtue of necessity, endeavour to derive my share of the benefit
arising from an excellent sermon. But I am afraid Mr. Walker's force
of logic and precision of expression were somewhat lost upon me. I was
sensible I had chosen an improper time to disturb Mr. Fairscribe, and
when the discourse was ended, I rose to take my leave, somewhat hastily,
I believe. “A cup of tea, Mr. Croftangry?” said the young lady.
“You will wait and take part of a Presbyterian supper?” said Mr.
Fairscribe.--“Nine o'clock--I make it a point of keeping my father's
hours on Sunday at e'en. Perhaps Dr.----(naming an excellent clergyman)
may look in.”

I made my apology for declining his invitation; and I fancy my
unexpected appearance, and hasty retreat, had rather surprised my
friend, since, instead of accompanying me to the door, he conducted me
into his own apartment.

“What is the matter,” he said, “Mr. Croftangry? This is not a night
for secular business, but if any thing sudden or extraordinary has
happened”--

“Nothing in the world,” said I, forcing myself upon confession, as the
best way of clearing myself out of the scrape,--“only--only I sent you
a little parcel, and as you are so regular in acknowledging letters and
communications, I--I thought it might have miscarried--that's all.”

My friend laughed heartily, as if he saw into and enjoyed my motives and
my confusion. “Safe?--it came safe enough,” he said. “The wind of the
world always blows its vanities into haven. But this is the end of
the session, when I have little time to read any thing printed except
Inner-House papers; yet if you will take your kail with us next
Saturday, I will glance over your work, though I am sure I am no
competent judge of such matters.”

With this promise I was fain to take my leave, not without half
persuading myself that if once the phlegmatic lawyer began my
lucubrations, he would not be able to rise from them till he had
finished the perusal, nor to endure an interval betwixt his reading the
last page, and requesting an interview with the author.

No such marks of impatience displayed themselves. Time, blunt or keen,
as my friend Joanna says, swift or leisurely, held his course; and on
the appointed Saturday, I was at the door precisely as it struck four.
The dinner hour, indeed, was five punctually; but what did I know but my
friend might want half an hour's conversation with me before that time?
I was ushered into an empty drawing-room, and, from a needle-book and
work-basket hastily abandoned, I had some reason to think I interrupted
my little friend, Miss Katie, in some domestic labour more praiseworthy
than elegant. In this critical age, filial piety must hide herself in a
closet, if she has a mind to darn her father's linen.

Shortly after, I was the more fully convinced that I had been too early
an intruder when a wench came to fetch away the basket, and recommend to
my courtesies a red and green gentleman in a cage, who answered all my
advances by croaking out, “You're a fool--you're a fool, I tell you!”
 until, upon my word, I began to think the creature was in the right. At
last my friend arrived, a little overheated. He had been taking a turn
at golf, to prepare him for “colloquy sublime.” And wherefore not? since
the game, with its variety of odds, lengths, bunkers, tee'd balls, and
so on, may be no inadequate representation of the hazards attending
literary pursuits. In particular, those formidable buffets, which make
one ball spin through the air like a rifle-shot, and strike another down
into the very earth it is placed upon, by the mal-adroitness, or the
malicious purpose of the player--what are they but parallels to the
favourable or depreciating notices of the reviewers, who play at golf
with the publications of the season, even as Altisidora, in her approach
to the gates of the infernal regions, saw the devils playing at racket
with the new books of Cervantes' days.

Well, every hour has its end. Five o'clock came, and my friend, with his
daughters, and his handsome young son, who, though fairly buckled to
the desk, is every now and then looking over his shoulder at a smart
uniform, set seriously about satisfying the corporeal wants of nature;
I, stimulated by a nobler appetite after fame, wished that the touch of
a magic wand could, without all the ceremony of picking and choosing,
carving and slicing, masticating and swallowing, have transported a
_quantum sufficit_ of the good things on my friend's hospitable board,
into the stomachs of those who surrounded it, to be there at leisure
converted into chyle, while their thoughts were turned on higher
matters. At length all was over. But the young ladies sat still, and
talked of the music of the Freischutz, for nothing else was then thought
of; so we discussed the wild hunter's song, and the tame hunter's song,
&c. &c., in all which my young friends were quite at home. Luckily for
me, all this horning and hooping drew on some allusion to the Seventh
Hussars, which gallant regiment, I observe, is a more favourite theme
with both Miss Catherine and her brother than with my old friend, who
presently looked at his watch, and said something significantly to Mr.
James about office hours. The youth got up with the ease of a youngster
that would be thought a man of fashion rather than of business, and
endeavoured, with some success, to walk out of the room, as if the
locomotion was entirely voluntary; Miss Catherine and her sisters left
us at the same time, and now, thought I, my trial comes on.

Reader, did you ever, in the course of your life, cheat the courts
of justice and lawyers, by agreeing to refer a dubious and important
question to the decision of a mutual friend? If so, you may have
remarked the relative change which the arbiter undergoes in your
estimation, when raised, though by your own free choice, from an
ordinary acquaintance, whose opinions were of as little consequence to
you as yours to him, into a superior personage, on whose decision your
fate must depend _pro tanto_, as my friend Mr. Fairscribe would say. His
looks assume a mysterious if not a minatory expression; his hat has a
loftier air, and his wig, if he wears one, a more formidable buckle.

I felt, accordingly, that my good friend Fairscribe, on the present
occasion, had acquired something of a similar increase of
consequence. But a week since, he had, in my opinion, been indeed an
excellent-meaning man, perfectly competent to every thing within his
own profession, but immured, at the same time, among its forms and
technicalities, and as incapable of judging of matters of taste as any
mighty Goth whatsoever, of or belonging to the ancient Senate-House of
Scotland. But what of that? I had made him my judge by my own election;
and I have often observed, that an idea of declining such a reference,
on account of his own consciousness of incompetency, is, as it perhaps
ought to be, the last which occurs to the referee himself. He that has
a literary work subjected to his judgment by the author, immediately
throws his mind into a critical attitude, though the subject be one
which he never before thought of. No doubt the author is well qualified
to select his own judge, and why should the arbiter whom he has chosen
doubt his own talents for condemnation or acquittal, since he has been
doubtless picked out by his friend, from his indubitable reliance on
their competence? Surely, the man who wrote the production is likely to
know the person best qualified to judge of it.

Whilst these thoughts crossed my brain, I kept my eyes fixed on my good
friend, whose motions appeared unusually tardy to me, while he ordered
a bottle of particular claret, decanted it with scrupulous accuracy with
his own hand, caused his old domestic to bring a saucer of olives, and
chips of toasted bread, and thus, on hospitable thoughts intent, seemed
to me to adjourn the discussion which I longed to bring on, yet feared
to precipitate.

“He is dissatisfied,” thought I, “and is ashamed to show it, afraid
doubtless of hurting my feelings. What had I to do to talk to him about
any thing save charters and sasines?--Stay, he is going to begin.”

“We are old fellows now, Mr. Croftangry,” said my landlord; “scarcely so
fit to take a poor quart of claret between us, as we would have been in
better days to take a pint, in the old Scottish liberal acceptation of
the phrase. Maybe you would have liked me to have kept James to help us.
But if it is not a holyday or so, I think it is best he should observe
office hours.”

Here the discourse was about to fall. I relieved it by saying, Mr. James
was at the happy time of life, when he had better things to do than to
sit over the bottle. “I suppose,” said I, “your son is a reader.”

“Um--yes--James may be called a reader in a sense; but I doubt there
is little solid in his studies--poetry and plays, Mr. Croftangry, all
nonsense--they set his head a-gadding after the army, when he should be
minding his business.”

“I suppose, then, that romances do not find much more grace in your eyes
than dramatic and poetical compositions?”

“Deil a bit, deil a bit, Mr. Croftangry, nor historical productions
either. There is too much fighting in history, as if men only were
brought into this world to send one another out of it. It nourishes
false notions of our being, and chief and proper end, Mr. Croftangry.”

Still all this was general, and I became determined to bring our
discourse to a focus. “I am afraid, then, I have done very ill to
trouble you with my idle manuscripts, Mr. Fairscribe; but you must do me
the justice to remember, that I had nothing better to do than to amuse
myself by writing the sheets I put into your hands the other day. I may
truly plead--

  'I left no calling for this idle trade.'”

“I cry your mercy, Mr. Croftangry,” said my old friend, suddenly
recollecting--“yes, yes, I have been very rude; but I had forgotten
entirely that you had taken a spell yourself at that idle man's trade.”

“I suppose,” replied I, “you, on your side, have been too _busy_ a man
to look at my poor Chronicles?”

“No, no,” said my friend, “I am not so bad as that neither. I have read
them bit by bit, just as I could get a moment's time, and I believe, I
shall very soon get through them.”

“Well, my good friend?” said I, interrogatively.

And “_Well_, Mr. Croftangry,” cried he, “I really think you have got
over the ground very tolerably well. I have noted down here two or three
bits of things, which I presume to be errors of the press, otherwise it
might be alleged, perhaps, that you did not fully pay that attention to
the grammatical rules, which one would desire to see rigidly observed.”

I looked at my friend's notes, which, in fact, showed, that in one or
two grossly obvious passages, I had left uncorrected such solecisms in
grammar.

“Well, well, I own my fault; but, setting apart these casual errors, how
do you like the matter and the manner of what I have been writing, Mr.
Fairscribe?”

“Why,” said my friend, pausing, with more grave and important hesitation
than I thanked him for, “there is not much to be said against the
manner. The style is terse and intelligible, Mr. Croftangry, very
intelligible; and that I consider as the first point in every thing that
is intended to be understood. There are, indeed, here and there some
flights and fancies, which I comprehended with difficulty; but I got
to your meaning at last. There are people that are like ponies; their
judgments cannot go fast, but they go sure.”

“That is a pretty clear proposition, my friend; but then how did you
like the meaning when you did get at it? or was that like some ponies,
too difficult to catch, and, when caught, not worth the trouble?”

“I am far from saying that, my dear sir, in respect it would be
downright uncivil; but since you ask my opinion, I wish you could have
thought about something more appertaining to civil policy, than all this
bloody work about shooting and dirking, and downright hanging. I am
told it was the Germans who first brought in such a practice of choosing
their heroes out of the Porteous Roll; [Footnote: List of criminal
indictments, so termed in Scotland.] but, by my faith, we are like to be
upsides with them. The first was, as I am credibly informed, Mr. Scolar,
as they call him; a scholar-like piece of work he has made of it, with
his robbers and thieves.”

“Schiller,” said I, “my dear sir, let it be Schiller.”

“Schiller, or what you like,” said Mr. Fairscribe; “I found the
book where I wish I had found a better one, and that is, in Kate's
work-basket. I sat down, and, like an old fool, began to read; but
there, I grant, you have the better of Schiller, Mr. Croftangry.”

“I should be glad, my dear sir, that you really think I have
_approached_ that admirable author; even your friendly partiality ought
not to talk of my having _excelled_ him.”

“But I do say you have excelled him, Mr. Croftangry, in a most material
particular. For surely a book of amusement should be something that one
can take up and lay down at pleasure; and I can say justly, I was never
at the least loss to put aside these sheets of yours when business came
in the way. But, faith, this Schiller, sir, does not let you off so
easily. I forgot one appointment on particular business, and I wilfully
broke through another, that I might stay at home and finish his
confounded book, which, after all, is about two brothers, the greatest
rascals I ever heard of. The one, sir, goes near to murder his own
father, and the other (which you would think still stranger) sets about
to debauch his own wife.”

“I find, then, Mr. Fairscribe, that you have no taste for the romance of
real life--no pleasure in contemplating those spirit-rousing impulses,
which force men of fiery passions upon great crimes and great virtues?”

“Why, as to that, I am not just so sure. But then to mend the matter,”
 continued the critic, “you have brought in Highlanders into every story,
as if you were going back again, _velis et remis_, into the old days of
Jacobitism. I must speak my plain mind, Mr. Croftangry. I cannot tell
what innovations in Kirk and State may now be proposed, but our fathers
were friends to both, as they were settled at the glorious Revolution,
and liked a tartan plaid as little as they did a white surplice. I wish
to Heaven, all this tartan fever bode well to the Protestant succession
and the Kirk of Scotland.”

“Both too well settled, I hope, in the minds of the subject,” said I,
“to be affected by old remembrances, on which we look back as on the
portraits of our ancestors, without recollecting, while we gaze on them,
any of the feuds by which the originals were animated while alive. But
most happy should I be to light upon any topic to supply the place of
the Highlands, Mr. Fairscribe. I have been just reflecting that the
theme is becoming a little exhausted, and your experience may perhaps
supply”----

“Ha, ha, ha!--_my_ experience supply!” interrupted Mr. Fairscribe,
with a laugh of derision;--“why, you might as well ask my son James's
experience to supply a case” about thirlage. No, no, my good friend, I
have lived by the law, and in the law, all my life; and when you seek
the impulses that make soldiers desert and shoot their sergeants
and corporals, and Highland drovers dirk English graziers, to prove
themselves men of fiery passions, it is not to a man like me you should
come. I could tell you some tricks of my own trade, perhaps, and a queer
story or two of estates that have been lost and recovered. But, to tell
you the truth, I think you might do with your Muse of Fiction, as you
call her, as many an honest man does with his own sons in flesh and
blood.”

“And how is that, my dear sir?”

“Send her to India, to be sure. That is the true place for a Scot to
thrive in; and if you carry your story fifty years back, as there is
nothing to hinder you, you will find as much shooting and stabbing there
as ever was in the wild Highlands. If you want rogues, as they are so
much in fashion with you, you have that gallant caste of adventurers,
who laid down their consciences at the Cape of Good Hope as they went
out to India, and forgot to take them up again when they returned.
Then, for great exploits, you have in the old history of India, before
Europeans were numerous there, the most wonderful deeds, done by the
least possible means, that perhaps the annals of the world can afford.”

“I know it,” said I, kindling at the ideas his speech inspired. “I
remember in the delightful pages of Orme, the interest which mingles in
his narratives, from the very small number of English which are engaged.
Each officer of a regiment becomes known to you by name, nay, the
non-commissioned officers and privates acquire an individual share of
interest. They are distinguished among the natives like the Spaniards
among the Mexicans. What do I say? They are like Homer's demigods among
the warring mortals. Men, like Clive and Caillaud, influenced great
events, like Jove himself. Inferior officers are like Mars or Neptune;
and the sergeants and corporals might well pass for demigods. Then
the various religious costumes, habits, and manners of the people of
Hindustan,--the patient Hindhu, the warlike Rajahpoot, the haughty
Moslemah, the savage and vindictive Malay--Glorious and unbounded
subjects! The only objection is, that I have never been there, and know
nothing at all about them.”

“Nonsense, my good friend. You will tell us about them all the better
that you know nothing of what you are saying; and come, we'll finish
the bottle, and when Katie (her sisters go to the assembly) has given
us tea, she will tell you the outline of the story of poor Menie Gray,
whose picture you will see in the drawing-room, a distant relation of
my father's, who had, however, a handsome part of cousin Menie's
succession. There are none living that can be hurt by the story now,
though it was thought best to smother it up at the time, as indeed even
the whispers about it led poor cousin Menie to live very retired. I
mind her well when a child. There was something very gentle, but rather
tiresome, about poor cousin Menie.”

When we came into the drawing-room, my friend pointed to a picture which
I had before noticed, without, however, its having attracted more than a
passing look; now I regarded it with more attention. It was one of those
portraits of the middle of the eighteenth century, in which artists
endeavoured to conquer the stiffness of hoops and brocades; by throwing
a fancy drapery around the figure, with loose folds like a mantle
or dressing gown, the stays, however, being retained, and the bosom
displayed in a manner which shows that our mothers, like their
daughters, were as liberal of their charms as the nature of the dress
might permit. To this, the well-known style of the period, the features
and form of the individual added, at first sight, little interest. It
represented a handsome woman of about thirty, her hair wound simply
about her head, her features regular, and her complexion fair. But
on looking more closely, especially after having had a hint that the
original had been the heroine of a tale, I could observe a melancholy
sweetness in the countenance that seemed to speak of woes endured,
and injuries sustained, with that resignation which women can and do
sometimes display under the insults and ingratitude of those on whom
they have bestowed their affections.

“Yes, she was an excellent and an ill-used woman,” said Mr. Fairscribe,
his eye fixed like mine on the picture--“She left our family not less,
I dare say, than five thousand pounds, and I believe she died worth four
times that sum; but it was divided among the nearest of kin, which was
all fair.”

“But her history, Mr. Fairscribe,” said I--“to judge from her look, it
must have been a melancholy one.”

“You may say that, Mr. Croftangry. Melancholy enough, and extraordinary
enough too--But,” added he, swallowing in haste a cup of the tea which
was presented to him, “I must away to my business--we cannot be gowfling
all the morning, and telling old stories all the afternoon. Katie knows
all the outs and the ins of cousin Menie's adventures as well as I do,
and when she has given you the particulars, then I am at your service,
to condescend more articulately upon dates or particulars.”

Well, here was I, a gay old bachelor, left to hear a love tale from my
young friend Katie Fairscribe, who, when she is not surrounded by a bevy
of gallants, at which time, to my thinking, she shows less to advantage,
is as pretty, well-behaved, and unaffected a girl as you see tripping
the new walks of Prince's Street or Heriot Row. Old bachelorship so
decided as mine has its privileges in such a _tete-a-tete_, providing
you are, or can seem for the time, perfectly good-humoured and
attentive, and do not ape the manners of your younger years, in
attempting which you will only make yourself ridiculous. I don't pretend
to be so indifferent to the company of a pretty young woman as was
desired by the poet, who wished to sit beside his mistress--

  --“As unconcern'd as when
    Her infant beauty could beget
  Nor happiness nor pain.”

On the contrary, I can look on beauty and innocence, as something of
which I know and esteem the value, without the desire or hope to make
them my own. A young lady can afford to talk with an old stager like me
without either artifice or affectation; and we may maintain a species of
friendship, the more tender, perhaps, because we are of different sexes,
yet with which that distinction has very little to do.

Now, I hear my wisest and most critical neighbour remark, “Mr.
Croftangry is in the way of doing a foolish thing, He is well to
pass--Old Fairscribe knows to a penny what he is worth, and Miss Katie,
with all her airs, may like the old brass that buys the new pan. I
thought Mr. Croftangry was looking very cadgy when he came in to play a
rubber with us last night. Poor gentleman, I am sure I should be sorry
to see him make a fool of himself.”

Spare your compassion, dear madam, there is not the least danger. The
_beaux yeux de ma casette_ are not brilliant enough to make amends for
the spectacles which must supply the dimness of my own. I am a little
deaf, too, as you know to your sorrow when we are partners; and if I
could get a nymph to marry me with all these imperfections, who
the deuce would marry Janet McEvoy? and from Janet McEvoy Chrystal
Croftangry will not part.

Miss Katie Fairscribe gave me the tale of Menie Gray with much taste and
simplicity, not attempting to suppress the feelings, whether of grief or
resentment, which justly and naturally arose from the circumstances of
the tale. Her father afterwards confirmed the principal outlines of the
story, and furnished me with some additional circumstances, which
Miss Katie had suppressed or forgotten. Indeed, I have learned on this
occasion, what old Lintot meant when he told Pope, that he used to
propitiate the critics of importance, when he had a work in the press,
by now and then letting them see a sheet of the blotted proof, or a
few leaves of the original manuscript. Our mystery of authorship has
something about it so fascinating, that if you admit any one, however
little he may previously have been disposed to such studies, into
your confidence, you will find that he considers himself as a party
interested, and, if success follows, will think himself entitled to no
inconsiderable share of the praise.

The reader has seen that no one could have been naturally less
interested than was my excellent friend Fairscribe in my lucubrations,
when I first consulted him on the subject; but since he has contributed
a subject to the work, he has become a most zealous coadjutor; and
half-ashamed, I believe, yet half-proud of the literary stock-company,
in which he has got a share, he never meets me without jogging my elbow,
and dropping some mysterious hints, as, “I am saying--when will you give
us any more of yon?”--or, “Yon's not a bad narrative--I like yon.”

Pray Heaven the reader may be of his opinion.




THE SURGEON'S DAUGHTER.


CHAPTER THE FIRST.


  When fainting Nature call'd for aid,
    And hovering Death prepared the blow,
  His vigorous remedy display'd
    The power of art without the show;
  In Misery's darkest caverns known,
    His useful care was ever nigh,
  Where hopeless Anguish pour'd his groan,
    And lonely Want retired to die;
  No summons mock'd by cold delay,
    No petty gains disclaim'd by pride,
  The modest wants of every day
    The toil of every day supplied.
                           SAMUEL JOHNSON.

The exquisitely beautiful portrait which the Rambler has painted of
his friend Levett, well describes Gideon Gray, and many other village
doctors, from whom Scotland reaps more benefit, and to whom she is
perhaps more ungrateful than to any other class of men, excepting her
schoolmasters.

Such a rural man of medicine is usually the inhabitant of some pretty
borough or village, which forms the central point of his practice. But,
besides attending to such cases as the village may afford, he is day and
night at the service of every one who may command his assistance within
a circle of forty miles in diameter, untraversed by roads in many
directions, and including moors, mountains, rivers, and lakes. For late
and dangerous journeys through an inaccessible country for services of
the most essential kind, rendered at the expense, or risk at least, of
his own health and life, the Scottish village doctor receives at best
a very moderate recompense, often one which is totally inadequate, and
very frequently none whatever. He has none of the ample resources proper
to the brothers of the profession in an English town. The burgesses of
a Scottish borough are rendered, by their limited means of luxury,
inaccessible to gout, surfeits, and all the comfortable chronic diseases
which are attendant on wealth and indolence. Four years, or so, of
abstemiousness, enable them to stand an election dinner; and there is no
hope of broken heads among a score or two of quiet electors, who settle
the business over a table. There the mothers of the state never make
a point of pouring, in the course of every revolving year, a certain
quantity of doctor's stuff through the bowels of their beloved children.
Every old woman, from the Townhead to the Townfit, can prescribe a dose
of salts, or spread a plaster; and it is only when a fever or a palsy
renders matters serious, that the assistance of the doctor is invoked by
his neighbours in the borough.

But still the man of science cannot complain of inactivity or want
of practice. If he does not find patients at his door, he seeks them
through a wide circle. Like the ghostly lover of Burger's Leonora, he
mounts at midnight and traverses in darkness, paths which, to those less
accustomed to them, seem formidable in daylight, through straits where
the slightest aberration would plunge him into a morass, or throw him
over a precipice, on to cabins which his horse might ride over without
knowing they lay in his way, unless he happened to fall through the
roofs. When he arrives at such a stately termination of his journey,
where his services are required, either to bring a wretch into the
world, or prevent one from leaving it, the scene of misery is often
such, that, far from touching the hard-saved shillings which are
gratefully offered to him, he bestows his medicines as well as his
attendance--for charity. I have heard the celebrated traveller Mungo
Park, who had experienced both courses of life, rather give the
preference to travelling as a discoverer in Africa, than to wandering by
night and day the wilds of his native land in the capacity of a country
medical practitioner. He mentioned having once upon a time rode forty
miles, sat up all night, and successfully assisted a woman under
influence of the primitive curse, for which his sole remuneration was
a roasted potato and a draught of buttermilk. But his was not the heart
which grudged the labour that relieved human misery. In short, there is
no creature in Scotland that works harder and is more poorly requited
than the country doctor, unless perhaps it may be his horse. Yet the
horse is, and indeed must be, hardy, active, and indefatigable, in spite
of a rough coat and indifferent condition; and so you will often find in
his master, under an unpromising and blunt exterior, professional skill
and enthusiasm, intelligence, humanity, courage, and science.

Mr. Gideon Gray, surgeon in the village of Middlemas, situated in one
of the midland counties of Scotland, led the rough, active, and
ill-rewarded course of life which we have endeavoured to describe. He
was a man between forty and fifty, devoted to his profession, and of
such reputation in the medical world, that he had been more than once,
as opportunities occurred, advised to exchange Middlemas and its meagre
circle of practice, for some of the larger towns in Scotland, or for
Edinburgh itself. This advice he had always declined. He was a plain
blunt man, who did not love restraint, and was unwilling to subject
himself to that which was exacted in polite society. He had not himself
found out, nor had any friend hinted to him, that a slight touch of the
cynic, in manner and habits, gives the physician, to the common eye,
an air of authority which greatly tends to enlarge his reputation. Mr.
Gray, or, as the country people called him, Doctor Gray, (he might hold
the title by diploma for what I know, though he only claimed the rank
of Master of Arts,) had few wants, and these were amply supplied by
a professional income which generally approached two hundred pounds a
year, for which, upon an average, he travelled about five thousand miles
on horseback in the course of the twelve months. Nay, so liberally did
this revenue support himself and his ponies, called Pestle and Mortar,
which he exercised alternately, that he took a damsel to share it, Jean
Watson, namely, the cherry-cheeked daughter of an honest farmer, who
being herself one of twelve children who had been brought up on an
income of fourscore pounds a year, never thought there could be poverty
in more than double the sum; and looked on Gray, though now termed
by irreverent youth the Old Doctor, as a very advantageous match. For
several years they had no children, and it seemed as if Doctor Gray, who
had so often assisted the efforts of the goddess Lucina, was never to
invoke her in his own behalf. Yet his domestic roof was, on a remarkable
occasion, decreed to be the scene where the goddess's art was required.

Late of an autumn evening three old women might be observed plying their
aged limbs through the single street of the village at Middlemas towards
the honoured door, which, fenced off from the vulgar causeway, was
defended by a broken paling, enclosing two slips of ground, half arable,
half overrun with an abortive attempt at shrubbery. The door itself was
blazoned with the name of Gideon Gray, M. A. Surgeon, &c. &c. Some of
the idle young fellows, who had been a minute or two before loitering
at the other end of the street before the door of the alehouse, (for the
pretended inn deserved no better name,) now accompanied the old dames
with shouts of laughter, excited by their unwonted agility; and with
bets on the winner, as loudly expressed as if they had been laid at
the starting post of Middlemas races. “Half a mutchkin on Luckie
Simson!”--“Auld Peg Tamson against the field!”--“Mair speed, Alison
Jaup, ye'll tak the wind out of them yet!”--“Canny against the hill,
lasses, or we may have a burstern auld earline amang ye!” These, and a
thousand such gibes, rent the air, without being noticed, or even heard,
by the anxious racers, whose object of contention seemed to be, which
should first reach the Doctor's door.

“Guide us, Doctor, what can be the matter now?” said Mrs. Gray, whose
character was that of a good-natured simpleton; “Here's Peg Tamson, Jean
Simson, and Alison Jaup, running a race on the hie street of the burgh!”

The Doctor, who had but the moment before hung his wet great-coat before
the fire, (for he was just dismounted from a long journey,) hastened
down stairs, arguing some new occasion for his services, and happy,
that, from, the character of the messengers, it was likely to be within
burgh, and not landward.

He had just reached the door as Luckie Simson, one of the racers,
arrived in the little area before it. She had got the start, and kept
it, but at the expense, for the time, of her power of utterance; for
when she came in presence of the Doctor, she stood blowing like a
grampus, her loose toy flying back from her face, making the most
violent effort to speak, but without the power of uttering a single
intelligible word. Peg Thompson whipped in before her.

“The leddy, sir, the leddy!”

“Instant help, instant help!”--screeched rather than uttered, Alison
Jaup; while Luckie Simson, who had certainly won the race, found words
to claim the prize which had set them all in motion.

“And I hope, sir, you will recommend me to be the sick-nurse; I was here
to bring you the tidings lang before ony o' thae lazy queans.”

Loud were the counter-protestations of the two competitors, and loud the
laugh of the idle _loons_ who listened at a little distance.

“Hold your tongue, ye flyting fools,” said the Doctor; “and you, ye idle
rascals, if I come out among you.” So saying, he smacked his long-lashed
whip with great emphasis, producing much the effect of the celebrated
_Quos ego_ of Neptune in the first AEneid.--“And now,” said the Doctor,
“where, or who, is this lady?”

The question was scarce necessary; for a plain carriage, with four
horses, came at a foot's pace towards the door of the Doctor's
house, and the old women, now more at their ease, gave the Doctor to
understand, that the gentleman thought the accommodation of the Swan
Inn totally unfit for his lady's rank and condition, and had, by their
advice, (each claiming the merit of the suggestion,) brought her here,
to experience the hospitality of the _west room;_--a spare apartment, in
which Doctor Gray occasionally accommodated such patients, as he desired
to keep for a space of time under his own eye.

There were two persons only in the vehicle. The one, a gentleman in
a riding dress, sprung out, and having received from the Doctor an
assurance that the lady would receive tolerable accommodation in his
house, he lent assistance to his companion to leave the carriage, and
with great apparent satisfaction, saw her safely deposited in a decent
sleeping apartment, and under the respectable charge of the Doctor and
his lady, who assured him once more of every species of attention. To
bind their promise more firmly, the stranger slipped a purse of twenty
guineas (for this story chanced in the golden age) into the hand of the
Doctor, as an earnest of the most liberal recompense, and requested he
would spare no expense in providing all that was necessary or desirable
for a person in the lady's condition, and for the helpless being to whom
she might immediately be expected to give birth. He then said he would
retire to the inn, where he begged a message might instantly acquaint
him with the expected change in the lady's situation.

“She is of rank,” he said, “and a foreigner; let no expense be spared.
We designed to have reached Edinburgh, but were forced to turn off the
road by an accident.” Once more he said, “Let no expense be spared, and
manage that she may travel as soon as possible.”

“That,” said the Doctor, “is past my control. Nature must not be
hurried, and she avenges herself of every attempt to do so.”

“But art,” said the stranger, “can do much,” and he proffered a second
purse, which seemed as heavy as the first.

“Art,” said the Doctor, “may be recompensed, but cannot be purchased.
You have already paid me more than enough to take the utmost care I
can of your lady; should I accept more money, it could only be for
promising, by implication at least, what is beyond my power to perform.
Every possible care shall be taken of your lady, and that affords the
best chance of her being speedily able to travel. Now, go you to the
inn, sir, for I may be instantly wanted, and we have not yet provided
either an attendant for the lady, or a nurse for the child; but both
shall be presently done.”

“Yet a moment, Doctor--what languages do you understand?”

“Latin and French I can speak indifferently, and so as to be understood;
and I read a little Italian.”

“But no Portuguese or Spanish?” continued the stranger.

“No, sir.”

“That is unlucky. But you may make her understand you by means
of French. Take notice, you are to comply with her request in
everything--if you want means to do so, you may apply to me.”

“May I ask, sir, by what name the lady is to be”--

“It is totally indifferent,” said the stranger, interrupting the
question; “You shall know it at more leisure.”

So saying, he threw his ample cloak about him, turning himself half
round to assist the operation, with an air which the Doctor would have
found it difficult to imitate, and walked down the street to the little
inn. Here he paid and dismissed the postilions, and shut himself up
in an apartment, ordering no one to be admitted till the Doctor should
call.

The Doctor, when he returned to his patient's apartment, found his wife
in great surprise, which, as is usual with persons of her character, was
not unmixed with fear and anxiety.

“She cannot speak a word like a Christian being,” said Mrs. Gray.

“I know it,” said the Doctor.

“But she threeps to keep on a black fause-face, and skirls if we offer
to take it away.”

“Well then, let her wear it--What harm will it do?”

“Harm, Doctor!” Was ever honest woman brought to bed with a fause-face
on?”

“Seldom, perhaps. But, Jean, my dear, those who are not quite honest
must be brought to bed all the same as those who are, and we are not to
endanger the poor thing's life by contradicting her whims at present.”

Approaching the sick woman's bed, he observed that she indeed wore a
thin silk mask, of the kind which do such uncommon service in the elder
comedy; such as women of rank still wore in travelling, but certainly
never in the situation of this poor lady. It would seem she had
sustained importunity on the subject, for when she saw the Doctor,
she put her hand to her face, as if she was afraid he would insist on
pulling off the vizard.

He hastened to say, in tolerable French, that her will should be a law
to them in every respect, and that she was at perfect liberty to wear
the mask till it was her pleasure to lay it aside. She understood him;
for she replied, by a very imperfect attempt, in the same language, to
express her gratitude for the permission, as she seemed to regard it, of
retaining her disguise.

The Doctor proceeded to other arrangements; and, for the satisfaction
of those readers who may love minute information, we record, that Luckie
Simson, the first in the race, carried as a prize the situation of
sick-nurse beside the delicate patient; that Peg Thomson was permitted
the privilege of recommending her good-daughter, Bet Jamieson, to be
wet-nurse; and an _oe_, or grandchild, of Luckie Jaup was hired to
assist in the increased drudgery of the family; the Doctor thus, like a
practised minister, dividing among his trusty adherents such good things
as fortune placed at his disposal.

About one in the morning the Doctor made his appearance at the Swan Inn,
and acquainted the stranger gentleman, that he wished him joy of being
the father of a healthy boy, and that the mother was, in the usual
phrase, as well as could be expected.

The stranger heard the news with seeming satisfaction, and then
exclaimed, “He must be christened, Doctor! he must be christened
instantly!”

“There can be no hurry for that,” said the Doctor.

“_We_ think otherwise,” said the stranger, cutting his argument short.
“I am a Catholic, Doctor, and as I may be obliged to leave this place
before the lady is able to travel, I desire to see my child received
into the pale of the Church. There is, I understand, a Catholic priest
in this wretched place?”

“There is a Catholic gentleman, sir, Mr. Goodriche, who is reported to
be in orders.”

“I commend your caution, Doctor,” said the stranger; “it is dangerous to
be too positive on any subject. I will bring that same Mr. Goodriche to
your house to-morrow.”

Gray hesitated for a moment. “I am a Presbyterian Protestant, sir,” he
said, “a friend to the constitution as established in Church and State,
as I have a good right, having drawn his Majesty's pay, God bless him,
for four years, as surgeon's mate in the Cameronian regiment, as my
regimental Bible and commission can testify. But although I be bound
especially to abhor all trafficking or trinketing with Papists, yet I
will not stand in the way of a tender conscience. Sir, you may call with
Mr. Goodriche, when you please, at my house; and undoubtedly, you being,
as I suppose, the father of the child, you will arrange matters as you
please; only, I do not desire to be though an abettor or countenancer of
any part of the Popish ritual.”

“Enough, sir,” said the stranger haughtily, “we understand each other.”

The next day he appeared at the Doctor's house with Mr. Goodriche, and
two persons understood to belong to that reverend gentleman's communion.
The party were shut up in an apartment with the infant, and it may
be presumed that the solemnity of baptism was administered to the
unconscious being, thus strangely launched upon the world. When the
priest and witnesses had retired, the strange gentleman informed Mr.
Gray, that, as the lady had been pronounced unfit for travelling for
several days, he was himself about to leave the neighbourhood, but
would return thither in the space of ten days, when he hoped to find his
companion able to leave it.

“And by what name are we to call the child and mother?”

“The infant's name is Richard.”

“But it must have some sirname--so must the lady--She cannot reside in
my house, yet be without a name.”

“Call them by the name of your town here--Middlemas, I think it is?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, Mrs. Middlemas is the name of the mother, and Richard Middlemas
of the child--and I am Matthew Middlemas, at your service. This,” he
continued, “will provide Mrs. Middlemas in every thing she may wish to
possess--or assist her in case of accidents.” With that he placed
L100 in Mr. Gray's hand, who rather scrupled receiving it, saying, “He
supposed the lady was qualified to be her own purse-bearer.”

“The worst in the world, I assure you, Doctor,” replied the stranger.
“If she wished to change that piece of paper, she would scarce know how
many guineas she should receive for it. No, Mr. Gray, I assure you you
will find Mrs. Middleton--Middlemas--what did I call her--as ignorant of
the affairs of this world as any one you have met with in your practice:
So you will please to be her treasurer and administrator for the time,
as for a patient that is incapable to look after her own affairs.”

This was spoke, as it struck Dr. Gray, in rather a haughty and
supercilious manner. The words intimated nothing in themselves, more
than the same desire of preserving incognito, which might be gathered
from all the rest of the stranger's conduct; but the manner seemed to
say, “I am not a person to be questioned by any one--what I say must
be received without comment, how little soever you may believe or
understand it.” It strengthened Gray in his opinion, that he had before
him a case either of seduction, or of private marriage, betwixt persons
of the very highest rank; and the whole bearing, both of the lady and
the gentleman, confirmed his suspicions. It was not in his nature to be
troublesome or inquisitive, but he could not fail to see that the lady
wore no marriage-ring; and her deep sorrow, and perpetual tremor, seemed
to indicate an unhappy creature, who had lost the protection of parents,
without acquiring a legitimate right to that of a husband. He was
therefore somewhat anxious when Mr. Middlemas, after a private
conference of some length with the lady, bade him farewell. It is true,
he assured him of his return within ten days, being the very shortest
space which Gray could be prevailed upon to assign for any prospect of
the lady being moved with safety.

“I trust in Heaven that he will return,” said Gray to himself, “but
there is too much mystery about all this, for the matter being a plain
and well-meaning transaction. If he intends to treat this poor thing, as
many a poor girl has been used before, I hope that my house will not be
the scene in which he chooses to desert her. The leaving the money has
somewhat a suspicious aspect, and looks as if my friend were in the act
of making some compromise with his conscience. Well--I must hope the
best. Meantime, my path plainly is to do what I can for the poor lady's
benefit.”

Mr. Gray visited his patient shortly after Mr. Middlemas's departure--as
soon, indeed, as he could be admitted. He found her in violent
agitation. Gray's experience dictated the best mode of relief and
tranquillity. He caused her infant to be brought to her. She wept over
it for a long time, and the violence of her agitation subsided under the
influence of parental feelings, which, from her appearance of extreme
youth, she must have experienced for the first time.

The observant physician could, after this paroxysm, remark that his
patient's mind was chiefly occupied in computing the passage of the
time, and anticipating the period when the return of her husband--if
husband he was--might be expected. She consulted almanacks, enquired
concerning distances, though so cautiously as to make it evident she
desired to give no indication of the direction of her companion's
journey, and repeatedly compared, her watch with those of others;
exercising, it was evident, all that delusive species of mental
arithmetic by which mortals attempt to accelerate the passage of Time
while they calculate his progress. At other times she wept anew over her
child, which was by all judges pronounced as goodly an infant as needed
to be seen; and Gray sometimes observed that she murmured sentences
to the unconscious infant, not only the words, but the very sound and
accents of which were strange to him, and which, in particular, he knew
not to be Portuguese.

Mr. Goodriche, the Catholic priest, demanded access to her upon one
occasion. She at first declined his visit, but afterwards received it,
under the idea, perhaps, that he might have news from Mr. Middlemas, as
he called himself. The interview was a very short one, and the priest
left the lady's apartment in displeasure, which his prudence could
scarce disguise from Mr. Gray. He never returned, although the lady's
condition would have made his attentions and consolations necessary, had
she been a member of the Catholic Church.

Our Doctor began at length to suspect his fair guest was a Jewess, who
had yielded up her person and affections to one of a different religion;
and the peculiar style of her beautiful countenance went to enforce this
opinion. The circumstance made no difference to Gray, who saw only her
distress and desolation, and endeavoured to remedy both to the utmost
of his power. He was, however, desirous to conceal it from his wife,
and the others around the sick person, whose prudence and liberality
of thinking might be more justly doubted. He therefore so regulated her
diet, that she could not be either offended, or brought under suspicion,
by any of the articles forbidden by the Mosaic law being presented to
her. In other respects than what concerned her health or convenience, he
had but little intercourse with her.

The space passed within which the stranger's return to the borough had
been so anxiously expected by his female companion. The disappointment
occasioned by his non-arrival was manifested in the convalescent by
inquietude, which was at first mingled with peevishness, and afterwards
with doubt and fear. When two or three days had passed without message
or letter of any kind, Gray himself became anxious, both on his own
account and the poor lady's, lest the stranger should have actually
entertained the idea of deserting this defenceless and probably injured
woman. He longed to have some communication with her, which might enable
him to judge what enquiries could be made, or what else was most fitting
to be done. But so imperfect was the poor young woman's knowledge of the
French language, and perhaps so unwilling she herself to throw any light
on her situation, that every attempt of this kind proved abortive. When
Gray asked questions concerning any subject which appeared to approach
to explanation, he observed she usually answered him by shaking her
head, in token of not understanding what he said; at other times by
silence and with tears, and sometimes referring him to _Monsieur_.

For _Monsieur's_ arrival, then, Gray began to become very impatient, as
that which alone could put an end to a disagreeable species of mystery,
which the good company of the borough began now to make the principal
subject of their gossip; some blaming Gray for taking foreign
_landloupers_ [Footnote: Strollers.] into his house, on the subject
of whose morals the most serious doubts might be entertained; others
envying the “bonny hand” the doctor was like to make of it, by having
disposal of the wealthy stranger's travelling funds; a circumstance
which could not be well concealed from the public, when the honest
man's expenditure for trifling articles of luxury came far to exceed its
ordinary bounds.

The conscious probity of the honest Doctor enabled him to despise this
sort of tittle-tattle, though the secret knowledge of its existence
could not be agreeable to him. He went his usual rounds with his usual
perseverance, and waited with patience until time should throw light on
the subject and history of his lodger. It was now the fourth week after
her confinement, and the recovery of the stranger might be considered
as perfect, when Gray, returning from one of his ten-mile visits, saw
a post-chaise and four horses at the door. “This man has returned,” he
said, “and my suspicions have done him less than justice.” With that
he spurred his horse, a signal which the trusty steed obeyed the more
readily, as its progress was in the direction of the stable door. But
when, dismounting, the Doctor hurried into his own house, it seemed to
him, that the departure as well as the arrival of this distressed lady
was destined to bring confusion to his peaceful dwelling. Several idlers
had assembled about his door, and two or three had impudently thrust
themselves forward almost into the passage, to listen to a confused
altercation which was heard from within.

The Doctor hastened forward, the foremost of the intruders retreating
in confusion on his approach, while he caught the tones of his wife's
voice, raised to a pitch which he knew, by experience, boded no good;
for Mrs. Gray, good-humoured and tractable in general, could sometimes
perform the high part in a matrimonial duet. Having much more confidence
in his wife's good intentions than her prudence, he lost no time in
pushing into the parlour, to take the matter into his own hands. Here he
found his helpmate at the head of the whole militia of the sick lady's
apartment, that is, wet nurse, and sick nurse, and girl of all
work, engaged in violent dispute with two strangers. The one was a
dark-featured elderly man, with an eye of much sharpness and severity of
expression, which now seemed partly quenched by a mixture of grief and
mortification. The other, who appeared actively sustaining the dispute
with Mrs. Gray, was a stout, bold-looking, hard-faced person, armed
with pistols, of which he made rather an unnecessary and ostentatious
display.

“Here is my husband, sir,” said Mrs. Gray, in a tone of triumph, for
she had the grace to believe the Doctor one of the greatest men
living,--“Here is the Doctor--let us see what you will say now.”

“Why just what I said before, ma'am,” answered the man, “which is, that
my warrant must be obeyed. It is regular, ma'am, regular.”

So saying, he struck the forefinger of his right hand against a paper
which he held towards Mrs. Gray with his left.

“Address yourself to me, if you please, sir,” said the Doctor, seeing
that he ought to lose no time in removing the cause into the proper
court. “I am the master of this house, sir, and I wish to know the cause
of this visit.”

“My business is soon told,” said the man. “I am a king's messenger, and
this lady has treated me as if I was a baron-bailie's officer.”

“That is not the question, sir,” replied the Doctor. “If you are a
king's messenger, where is your warrant, and what do you propose to
do here?” At the same time he whispered the little wench to call Mr.
Lawford, the town-clerk, to come thither as fast as he possibly could.
The good-daughter of Peg Thomson started off with an activity worthy of
her mother-in-law.

“There is my warrant,” said the official, “and you may satisfy
yourself.”

“The shameless loon dare not tell the Doctor his errand,” said Mrs. Gray
exultingly.

“A bonny errand it is,” said old Lucky Simson, “to carry away a lying-in
woman as a gled [Footnote: Or Kite.] would do a clocking-hen.”

“A woman no a month delivered”--echoed the nurse Jamieson.

“Twenty-four days eight hours and seven minutes to a second,” said Mrs.
Gray.

The Doctor having looked over the warrant, which was regular, began to
be afraid that the females of his family, in their zeal for defending
the character of their sex, might be stirred up into some sudden fit of
mutiny, and therefore commanded them to be silent.

“This,” he said, “is a warrant for arresting the bodies of Richard
Tresham, and of Zilia de Moncada on account of high treason. Sir, I
have served his Majesty, and this is not a house in which traitors are
harboured. I know nothing of any of these two persons, nor have I ever
heard even their names.”

“But the lady whom you have received into your family,” said the
messenger, “is Zilia de Moncada, and here stands her father, Matthias de
Moncada, who will make oath to it.”

“If this be true,” said Mr. Gray, looking towards the alleged officer,
“you have taken a singular duty on you. It is neither my habit to deny
my own actions, nor to oppose the laws of the land. There is a lady in
this house slowly recovering from confinement, having become under this
roof the mother of a healthy child. If she be the person described in
this warrant, and this gentleman's daughter, I must surrender her to the
laws of the country.”

Here the Esculapian militia were once more in motion.

“Surrender, Dr. Gray! It's a shame to hear you speak, and you that
lives by women and weans, abune your other means!” so exclaimed his fair
better part.

“I wonder to hear the Doctor!” said the younger nurse; “there's no a
wife in the town would believe it o' him.”

“I aye thought the Doctor was a man till this moment,” said Luckie
Simson; “but I believe him now to be an auld wife, little baulder than
mysell; and I dinna wonder that poor Mrs. Gray”--

“Hold your peace, you foolish woman,” said the Doctor. “Do you think
this business is not bad enough already, that you are making it worse
with your senseless claver? [Footnote: Tattling.]--Gentlemen, this is
a very sad case. Here is a warrant for a high crime against a poor
creature, who is little fit to be removed from one house to another,
much more dragged to a prison. I tell you plainly, that I think the
execution of this arrest may cause her death. It is your business, sir,
if you be really her father, to consider what you can do to soften this
matter, rather than drive it on.”

“Better death than dishonour,” replied the stern-looking old man, with a
voice as harsh as his aspect; “and you, messenger,” he continued, “look
what you do, and execute the warrant at your peril.”

“You hear,” said the man, appealing to the Doctor himself, “I must have
immediate access to the lady.”

“In a lucky time,” said Mr. Gray, “here comes the town-clerk.--You are
very welcome, Mr. Lawford. Your opinion here is much wanted as a man of
law, as well as of sense and humanity. I was never more glad to see you
in all my life.”

He then rapidly stated the case; and the messenger, understanding the
new-comer to be a man of some authority, again exhibited his warrant.

“This is a very sufficient and valid warrant, Dr. Gray,” replied the man
of law. “Nevertheless, if you are disposed to make oath, that instant
removal would be unfavourable to the lady's health, unquestionably she
must remain here, suitably guarded.”

“It is not so much the mere act of locomotion which I am afraid of,”
 said the surgeon; “but I am free to depone, on soul and conscience, that
the shame and fear of her father's anger, and the sense of the affront
of such an arrest, with terror for its consequences, may occasion
violent and dangerous illness--even death itself.”

“The father must see the daughter, though they may have quarrelled,”
 said Mr. Lawford; “the officer of justice must execute his warrant
though it should frighten the criminal to death; these evils are only
contingent, not direct and immediate consequences. You must give up the
lady, Mr. Gray, though your hesitation is very natural.”

“At least, Mr. Lawford, I ought to be certain that the person in my
house is the party they search for.”

“Admit me to her apartment,” replied the man whom the messenger termed
Moncada.

The messenger, whom the presence of Lawford had made something more
placid, began to become impudent once more. He hoped, he said, by
means of his female prisoner, to acquire the information necessary to
apprehend the more guilty person. If more delays were thrown in his way,
that information might come too late, and he would make all who were
accessary to such delay responsible for the consequences.

“And I,” said Mr. Gray, “though I were to be brought to the gallows for
it, protest, that this course may be the murder of my patient.--Can bail
not be taken, Mr. Lawford?”

“Not in cases of high treason,” said the official person; and then
continued in a confidential tone, “Come, Mr. Gray, we all know you to
be a person well affected to our Royal Sovereign King George and the
Government; but you must not push this too far, lest you bring yourself
into trouble, which every body in Middlemas would be sorry for. The
forty-five has not been so far gone by, but we can remember enough of
warrants of high treason--ay, and ladies of quality committed upon such
charges. But they were all favourably dealt with--Lady Ogilvy, Lady
Macintosh, Flora Macdonald, and all. No doubt this gentleman knows what
he is doing, and has assurances of the young lady's safety--So you must
jouk and let the jaw gae by, as we say.”

“Follow me, then, gentleman,” said Gideon, “and you shall see the
young lady;” and then, his strong features working with emotion at
anticipation of the distress which he was about to inflict, he led the
way up the small staircase, and opening the door, said to Moncada, who
had followed him, “This is your daughter's only place of refuge, in
which I am, alas! too weak to be her protector. Enter, sir, if your
conscience will permit you.”

The stranger turned on him a scowl, into which it seemed as if he would
willingly have thrown the power of the fabled basilisk. Then stepping
proudly forward, he stalked into the room. He was followed by Lawford
and Gray at a little distance. The messenger remained in the doorway.
The unhappy young woman had heard the disturbance, and guessed the cause
too truly. It is possible she might even have seen the strangers on
their descent from the carriage. When they entered the room, she was
on her knees, beside an easy chair, her face in a silk wrapper that
was hung over it. The man called Moncada uttered a single word; by the
accent it might have been something equivalent to _wretch;_ but none
knew its import. The female gave a convulsive shudder, such as that by
which a half-dying soldier is affected on receiving a second wound. But,
without minding her emotion, Moncada seized her by the arm, and with
little gentleness raised her to her feet, on which she seemed to stand
only because she was supported by his strong grasp. He then pulled from
her face the mask which she had hitherto worn. The poor creature still
endeavoured to shroud her face, by covering it with her left hand, as
the manner in which she was held prevented her from using the aid of
the right. With little effort her father secured that hand also, which
indeed was of itself far too little to serve the purpose of concealment,
and showed her beautiful face, burning with blushes and covered with
tears.

“You, Alcalde, and you, Surgeon,” he said to Lawford and Gray, with a
foreign action and accent, “this woman is my daughter, the same Zilia
Moncada who is signal'd in that protocol. Make way, and let me carry her
where her crimes may be atoned for.”

“Are you that person's daughter?” said Lawford to the lady.

“She understands no English,” said Gray; and addressing his patient in
French, conjured her to let him know whether she was that man's daughter
or not, assuring her of protection if the fact were otherwise. The
answer was murmured faintly, but was too distinctly intelligible--“He
was her father.”

All farther title of interference seemed now ended. The messenger
arrested his prisoner, and, with some delicacy, required the assistance
of the females to get her conveyed to the carriage in waiting.

Gray again interfered.--“You will not,” he said, “separate the mother
and the infant?”

Zilia de Moncada heard the question, (which, being addressed to the
father, Gray had inconsiderately uttered in French,) and it seemed as if
it recalled to her recollection the existence of the helpless creature
to which she had given birth, forgotten for a moment amongst the
accumulated horrors of her father's presence. She uttered a shriek,
expressing poignant grief, and turned her eyes on her father with the
most intense supplication.

“To the parish with the bastard!”--said Moncada; while the helpless
mother sunk lifeless into the arms of the females, who had now gathered
round her.

“That will not pass, sir,” said Gideon.--“If you are father to that
lady, you must be grandfather to the helpless child; and you must settle
in some manner for its future provision, or refer us to some responsible
person.”

Moncada looked towards Lawford, who expressed himself satisfied of the
propriety of what Gray said.

“I object not to pay for whatever the wretched child may require,” said
he; “and if you, sir,” addressing Gray, “choose to take charge of him,
and breed him up, you shall have what will better your living.”

The Doctor was about to refuse a charge so uncivilly offered; but after
a moment's reflection, he replied, “I think so indifferently of the
proceedings I have witnessed, and of those concerned in them, that if
the mother desires that I should retain the charge of this child, I will
not refuse to do so.”

Moncada spoke to his daughter, who was just beginning to recover from
her swoon, in the same language in which he had at first addressed her.
The proposition which he made seemed highly acceptable, as she started
from the arms of the females, and, advancing to Gray, seized his hand,
kissed it, bathed it in her tears, and seemed reconciled, even in
parting with her child, by the consideration, that the infant was to
remain under his guardianship.

“Good, kind man,” she said in her indifferent French, “you have saved
both mother and child.”

The father, meanwhile, with mercantile deliberation, placed in Mr.
Lawford's hands notes and bills to the amount of a thousand pounds,
which he stated was to be vested for the child's use, and advanced in
such portions as his board and education might require. In the event of
any correspondence on his account being necessary, as in case of death
or the like, he directed that communication should be made to Signor
Matthias Moncada, under cover to a certain banking house in London.

“But beware,” he said to Gray, “how you trouble me about these concerns,
unless in case of absolute necessity.”

“You need not fear, sir,” replied Gray; “I have seen nothing to-day
which can induce me to desire a more intimate correspondence with you
than may be indispensable.”

While Lawford drew up a proper minute of this transaction, by which he
himself and Gray were named trustees for the child, Mr. Gray attempted
to restore to the lady the balance of the considerable sum of money
which Tresham (if such was his real name) had formally deposited with
him. With every species of gesture, by which hands, eyes, and even
feet, could express rejection, as well as in her own broken French, she
repelled the reimbursement, while she entreated that Gray would consider
the money as his own property; and at the same time forced upon him a
ring set with brilliants, which seemed of considerable value. The father
then spoke to her a few stern words, which she heard with an air of
mingled agony and submission.

“I have given her a few minutes to see and weep over the miserable being
which has been the seal of her dishonour,” said the stern father. “Let
us retire and leave her alone.--You,” to the messenger, “watch the door
of the room on the outside.”

Gray, Lawford, and Moncada, retired to the parlour accordingly, where
they waited in silence, each busied with his own reflections, till,
within the space of half an hour, they received information that the
lady was ready to depart.

“It is well,” replied Moncada; “I am glad she has yet sense enough left
to submit to that which needs must be.”

So saying, he ascended the stair, and returned leading down his
daughter, now again masked and veiled. As she passed Gray, she uttered
the words--“My child, my child!” in a tone of unutterable anguish; then
entered the carriage, which was drawn up as close to the door of the
doctor's house as the little enclosure would permit. The messenger,
mounted on a led horse, and accompanied by a servant and assistant,
followed the carriage, which drove rapidly off, taking the road which
leads to Edinburgh. All who had witnessed this strange scene, now
departed to make their conjectures, and some to count their gains; for
money had been distributed among the females who had attended on the
lady, with so much liberality, as considerably to reconcile them to the
breach of the rights of womanhood inflicted by the precipitate removal
of the patient.




CHAPTER THE SECOND.


The last cloud of dust which the wheels of the carriage had raised was
dissipated, when dinner, which claims a share of human thoughts even in
the midst of the most marvellous and affecting incidents, recurred to
those of Mrs. Gray.

“Indeed, Doctor, you will stand glowering out of the window till some
other patient calls for you, and then have to set off without your
dinner;--and I hope Mr. Lawford will take pot-luck with us, for it
is just his own hour; and indeed we had something rather better than
ordinary for this poor lady--lamb and spinage, and a veal Florentine.”

The surgeon started as from a dream, and joined in his wife's hospitable
request, to which Lawford willingly assented.

We will suppose the meal finished, a bottle of old and generous Antigua
upon the table, and a modest little punch-bowl, judiciously replenished
for the accommodation of the Doctor and his guest. Their conversation
naturally turned on the strange scene which they had witnessed, and the
Townclerk took considerable merit for his presence of mind.

“I am thinking, Doctor,” said he, “you might have brewed a bitter browst
to yourself if I had not come in as I did.”

“Troth, and it might very well so be,” answered Gray; “for, to tell you
the truth, when I saw yonder fellow vapouring with his pistols among the
woman-folk in my own house, the old Cameronian spirit began to rise in
me, and little thing would have made me cleek to the poker.”

“Hoot, hoot! that would never have done. Na, na,” said the man of law,
“this was a case where a little prudence was worth all the pistols and
pokers in the world.”

“And that was just what I thought when I sent to you, Clerk Lawford,”
 said the Doctor.

“A wiser man he could not have called on to a difficult case,” added
Mrs. Gray, as she sat with her work at a little distance from the table.

“Thanks t'ye, and here's t'ye, my good neighbour,” answered the scribe;
“will you not let me help you to another glass of punch, Mrs. Gray?”
 This being declined, he proceeded. “I am jalousing that the messenger
and his warrant were just brought in to prevent any opposition. Ye saw
how quietly he behaved after I had laid down the law--I'll never believe
the lady is in any risk from him. But the father is a dour chield;
depend upon it, he has bred up the young filly on the curb-rein, and
that has made the poor thing start off the course. I should not be
surprised that he took her abroad, and shut her up in a convent.”

“Hardly,” replied Doctor Gray, “if it be true, as I suspect, that both
the father and daughter are of the Jewish persuasion.”

“A Jew!” said Mrs. Gray; “and have I been taking a' this fyke about a
Jew?--I thought she seemed to gie a scunner at the eggs and bacon that
Nurse Simson spoke about to her. But I thought Jews had aye had lang
beards, and yon man's face is just like one of our ain folk's--I have
seen the Doctor with a langer beard himsell, when he has not had leisure
to shave.”

“That might have been Mr. Moncada's case,” said Lawford, “for he seemed
to have had a hard journey. But the Jews are often very respectable
people, Mrs. Gray--they have no territorial property, because the law
is against them there, but they have a good hank in the money
market--plenty of stock in the funds, Mrs. Gray, and, indeed, I think
this poor young woman is better with her ain father, though he be a Jew
and a dour chield into the bargain, than she would have been with the
loon that wranged her, who is, by your account, Dr. Gray, baith a papist
and a rebel. The Jews are well attached to government; they hate the
Pope, the Devil, and the Pretender, as much as any honest man among
ourselves.”

“I cannot admire either of the gentlemen,” said Gideon. “But it is but
fair to say, that I saw Mr. Moncada when he was highly incensed, and to
all appearance not without reason. Now, this other man Tresham, if that
be his name, was haughty to me, and I think something careless of the
poor young woman, just at the time when he owed her most kindness, and
me some thankfulness. I am, therefore, of your opinion, Clerk Lawford,
that the Christian is the worse bargain of the two.”

“And you think of taking care of this wean yourself, Doctor? That is
what I call the good Samaritan.”

“At cheap cost. Clerk; the child, if it lives, has enough to bring it up
decently, and set it out in life, and I can teach it an honourable and
useful profession. It will be rather an amusement than a trouble to me,
and I want to make some remarks on the childish diseases, which, with
God's blessing, the child must come through under my charge; and since
Heaven has sent us no children”----

“Hoot, hoot!” said the Town-Clerk, “you are in ower great hurry now--you
have na been sae lang married yet.--Mrs. Gray, dinna let my daffing
chase you away--we will be for a dish of tea believe, for the Doctor and
I are nae glass-breakers.”

Four years after this conversation took place, the event happened,
at the possibility of which the Town-Clerk had hinted; and Mrs. Gray
presented her husband with an infant daughter. But good and evil are
strangely mingled in this sublunary world. The fulfilment of his anxious
longing for posterity was attended with the loss of his simple and
kind-hearted wife; one of the most heavy blows which fate could inflict
on poor Gideon, and, his house was made desolate even by the event which
had promised for months before to add new comforts to its humble roof.
Gray felt the shock as men of sense and firmness feel a decided
blow, from the effects of which they never hope again fully to raise
themselves. He discharged the duties of his profession with the same
punctuality as ever, was easy, and even to appearance, cheerful in his
intercourse with society; but the sunshine of existence was gone. Every
morning he missed the affectionate charges which recommended to him to
pay attention to his own health while he was labouring to restore that
blessing to his patients. Every evening, as he returned from his weary
round, it was without the consciousness of a kind and affectionate
reception from one eager to tell, and interested to hear, all the little
events of the day. His whistle, which used to arise clear and strong so
soon as Middlemas steeple was in view, was now for ever silenced, and
the rider's head drooped, while the tired horse, lacking the stimulus
of his master's hand and voice, seemed to shuffle along as if it
experienced a share of his despondency. There were times when he was so
much dejected as to be unable to endure even the presence of his little
Menie, in whose infant countenance he could trace the lineaments of the
mother, of whose loss she had been the innocent and unconscious cause.
“Had it not been for this poor child”--he would think; but, instantly
aware that the sentiment was sinful, he would snatch the infant to his
breast, and load it with caresses--then hastily desire it to be removed
from the parlour.

The Mahometans have a fanciful idea, that the true believer, in his
passage to Paradise, is under the necessity of passing barefooted over a
bridge composed of red-hot iron. But on this occasion, all the pieces
of paper which the Moslem has preserved during his life, lest some holy
thing being written upon them might be profaned, arrange themselves
between his feet and the burning metal, and so save him from injury.
In the same manner, the effects of kind and benevolent actions are
sometimes found, even in this world, to assuage the pangs of subsequent
afflictions.

Thus, the greatest consolation which poor Gideon could find after his
heavy deprivation, was in the frolic fondness of Richard Middlemas, the
child who was in so singular a manner thrown upon his charge. Even at
this early age he was eminently handsome. When silent or out of humour,
his dark eyes and striking countenance presented some recollections of
the stern character imprinted on the features of his supposed father;
but when he was gay and happy, which was much more frequently the
case, these clouds were exchanged for the most frolicsome, mirthful
expression, that ever dwelt on the laughing and thoughtless aspect of
a child. He seemed to have a tact beyond his years in discovering and
conforming to the peculiarities of human character. His nurse, one prime
object of Richard's observance, was Nurse Jamieson, or, as she was more
commonly called for brevity, and _par excellence_, Nurse. This was the
person who had brought him up from infancy. She had lost her own child,
and soon after her husband, and being thus a lone woman, had, as used to
be common in Scotland, remained a member of Dr. Gray's family. After the
death of his wife, she gradually obtained the principal superintendence
of the whole household; and being an honest and capable manager, was a
person of very great importance in the family.

She was bold in her temper, violent in her feelings, and, as often
happens with those in her condition, was as much attached to Richard
Middlemas, whom she had once nursed at her bosom, as if he had been her
own son. This affection the child repaid by all the tender attentions of
which his age was capable.

Little Dick was also distinguished by the fondest and kindest attachment
to his guardian and benefactor Dr. Gray. He was officious in the right
time and place, quiet as a lamb when his patron seemed inclined to study
or to muse, active and assiduous to assist or divert him whenever it
seemed to be wished, and, in choosing his opportunities, he seemed to
display an address far beyond his childish years.

As time passed on, this pleasing character seemed to be still more
refined. In everything like exercise or amusement, he was the pride and
the leader of the boys of the place, over the most of whom his strength
and activity gave him a decided superiority. At school his abilities
were less distinguished, yet he was a favourite with the master, a
sensible and useful teacher.

“Richard is not swift,” he used to say to his patron, Dr. Gray, “but
then he is sure; and it is impossible not to be pleased with a child who
is so very desirous to give satisfaction.”

Young Middlemas's grateful affection to his patron seemed to increase
with the expanding of his faculties, and found a natural and pleasing
mode of displaying itself in his attentions to little Menie [Footnote:
Marion.] Gray. Her slightest hint was Richard's law, and it was in vain
that he was summoned forth by a hundred shrill voices to take the lead
in hye-spye, or at foot-ball, if it was little Menie's pleasure that he
should remain within, and build card-houses for her amusement. At other
times he would take the charge of the little damsel entirely under
his own care, and be seen wandering with her on the borough common,
collecting wild flowers, or knitting caps made of bulrushes. Menie
was attached to Dick Middlemas, in proportion to his affectionate
assiduities; and the father saw with pleasure every new mark of
attention to his child on the part of his protege.

During the time that Richard was silently advancing from a beautiful
child into a fine boy, and approaching from a fine boy to the time when
he must be termed a handsome youth, Mr. Gray wrote twice a-year with
much regularity to Mr. Moncada, through the channel that gentleman had
pointed out. The benevolent man thought, that if the wealthy grandfather
could only see his relative, of whom any family might be proud, he would
be unable to persevere in his resolution of treating as an outcast one
so nearly connected with him in blood, and so interesting in person and
disposition. He thought it his duty, therefore, to keep open the slender
and oblique communication with the boy's maternal grandfather, as that
which might, at some future period, lead to a closer connexion. Yet the
correspondence could not, in other respects, be agreeable to a man of
spirit like Mr. Gray. His own letters were as short as possible, merely
rendering an account of his ward's expenses, including a moderate board
to himself, attested by Mr. Lawford, his co-trustee; and intimating
Richard's state of health, and his progress in education, with a few
words of brief but warm eulogy upon his goodness of head and heart.
But the answers he received were still shorter. “Mr. Moncada,” such
was their usual tenor, “acknowledges Mr. Gray's letter of such a date,
notices the contents, and requests Mr. Gray to persist in the plan which
he has hitherto prosecuted on the subject of their correspondence.” On
occasions where extraordinary expenses seemed likely to be incurred, the
remittances were made with readiness.

That day fortnight after Mrs. Gray's death, fifty pounds were received,
with a note, intimating that it was designed to put the child R. M. into
proper mourning. The writer had added two or three words, desiring that
the surplus should be at Mr. Gray's disposal, to meet the additional
expenses of this period of calamity; but Mr. Moncada had left the phrase
unfinished, apparently in despair of turning it suitably into English.
Gideon, without farther investigation, quietly added the sum to the
account of his ward's little fortune, contrary to the opinion of Mr.
Lawford,--who, aware that he was rather a loser than a gainer by the
boy's residence in his house, was desirous that his friend should not
omit an opportunity of recovering some part of his expenses on that
score. But Gray was proof against all remonstrances.

As the boy advanced towards his fourteenth year, Dr. Gray wrote a more
elaborate account of his ward's character, acquirements, and capacity.
He added that he did this for the purpose of enabling Mr. Moncada to
judge how the young man's future education should be directed. Richard,
he observed, was arrived at the point where education, losing its
original and general character, branches off into different paths of
knowledge, suitable to particular professions, and when it was therefore
become necessary to determine which of them it was his pleasure that
young Richard should be trained for; and he would, on his part, do all
he could to carry Mr. Moncada's wishes into execution, since the amiable
qualities of the boy made him as dear to him, though but a guardian, as
he could have been to his own father.

The answer, which arrived in the course of a week or ten days, was
fuller than usual, and written in the first person.--“Mr. Gray,” such
was the tenor, “our meeting has been under such circumstances as could
not make us favourably known to each other at the time. But I have
the advantage of you, since, knowing your motives for entertaining an
indifferent opinion of me, I could respect them, and you at the same
time; whereas you, unable to comprehend the motives--I say, you, being
unacquainted with the infamous treatment I had received, could not
understand the reasons that I have for acting as I have done. Deprived,
sir, by the act of a villain, of my child, and she despoiled of honour,
I cannot bring myself to think of beholding the creature, however
innocent, whose look must always remind me of hatred and of shame. Keep
the poor child by you--educate him to your own profession, but take heed
that he looks no higher than to fill such a situation in life as you
yourself worthily occupy, or some other line of like importance. For the
condition of a farmer, a country lawyer, a medical practitioner, or some
such retired course of life, the means of outfit and education shall be
amply supplied. But I must warn him and you, that any attempt to intrude
himself on me further than I may especially permit, will be attended
with the total forfeiture of my favour and protection. So, having made
known my mind to you, I expect you will act accordingly.”

The receipt of this letter determined Gideon to have some explanation
with the boy himself, in order to learn if he had any choice among the
professions thus opened to him; convinced at the same time, from his
docility of temper, that he would refer the selection to his (Dr.
Gray's) better judgment.

He had previously, however, the unpleasing task of acquainting Richard
Middlemas with the mysterious circumstances attending his birth, of
which he presumed him to be entirely ignorant, simply because he himself
had never communicated them, but had let the boy consider himself as the
orphan child of a distant relation. But though the Doctor himself was
silent, he might have remembered that Nurse Jamieson had the handsome
enjoyment of her tongue, and was disposed to use it liberally.

From a very early period, Nurse Jamieson, amongst the variety of
legendary lore which she instilled into her foster-son, had not
forgotten what she called the awful season of his coming into the
world--the personable appearance of his father, a grand gentleman, who
looked as if the whole world lay at his feet--the beauty of his mother,
and the terrible blackness of the mask which she wore, her een that
glanced like diamonds, and the diamonds she wore on her fingers, that
could be compared to nothing but her own een, the fairness of her skin,
and the colour of her silk rokelay, with much proper stuff to the same
purpose. Then she expatiated on the arrival of his grandfather, and
the awful man, armed with pistol, dirk, and claymore, (the last
weapons existed only in Nurse's imagination,) the very Ogre of a fairy
tale--then all the circumstances of the carrying off his mother, while
bank-notes were flying about the house like screeds of brown paper,
and gold guineas were as plenty as chuckie-stanes. All this, partly
to please and interest the boy, partly to indulge her own talent for
amplification, Nurse told with so many additional circumstances, and
gratuitous commentaries, that the real transaction, mysterious and odd
as it certainly was sunk into tameness before the Nurse's edition, like
humble prose contrasted with the boldest nights of poetry.

To hear all this did Richard seriously incline, and still more was
he interested with the idea of his valiant father coming for him
unexpectedly at the head of a gallant regiment, with music playing and
colours flying, and carrying his son away on the most beautiful pony
eyes ever beheld; Or his mother, bright as the day, might suddenly
appear in her coach-and-six, to reclaim her beloved child; or his
repentant grandfather, with his pockets stuffed out with banknotes,
would come to atone for his past cruelty, by heaping his neglected
grandchild with unexpected wealth. Sure was Nurse Jamieson, “that it
wanted but a blink of her bairn's bonny ee to turn their hearts, as
Scripture sayeth; and as strange things had been, as they should come
a'thegither to the town at the same time, and make such a day as had
never been seen in Middlemas; and then her bairn would never be called
by that Lowland name of Middlemas any more, which sounded as if it
had been gathered out of the town gutter; but would be called Galatian
[Footnote: Galatian is a name of a person famous in Christmas gambols.],
or Sir William Wallace, or Robin Hood, or after some other of the great
princes named in story-books.”

Nurse Jamieson's history of the past, and prospects of the future, were
too flattering not to excite the most ambitious visions in the mind of a
boy, who naturally felt a strong desire of rising in the world, and was
conscious of possessing the powers necessary to his advancement. The
incidents of his birth resembled those he found commemorated in the
tales which he read or listened to; and there seemed no reason why his
own adventures should not have a termination corresponding to those of
such veracious histories. In a word, while good Doctor Gray imagined
that his pupil was dwelling in utter ignorance of his origin, Richard
was meditating upon nothing else than the time and means by which he
anticipated his being extricated from the obscurity of his present
condition, and enabled to assume the rank, to which, in his own opinion,
he was entitled by birth.

So stood the feelings of the young man, when, one day after dinner, the
Doctor snuffing the candle, and taking from his pouch the great leathern
pocketbook in which he deposited particular papers, with a small
supply of the most necessary and active medicines, he took from it Mr.
Moncada's letter, and requested Richard Middlemas's serious attention,
while he told him some circumstances concerning himself, which it
greatly imported him to know. Richard's dark eyes flashed fire--the
blood flushed his broad and well-formed forehead--the hour of
explanation was at length come. He listened to the narrative of Gideon
Gray, which, the reader may believe, being altogether divested of the
gilding which Nurse Jamieson's imagination had bestowed upon it, and
reduced to what mercantile men termed the _needful_, exhibited little
more than the tale of a child of shame, deserted by its father and
mother, and brought up on the reluctant charity of a more distant
relation, who regarded him as the living though unconscious evidence of
the disgrace of his family, and would more willingly have paid for the
expenses of his funeral, than that of the food which was grudgingly
provided for him. “Temple and tower,” a hundred flattering edifices of
Richard's childish imagination, went to the ground at once, and the pain
which attended their demolition was rendered the more acute, by a sense
of shame that he should have nursed such reveries. He remained while
Gideon continued his explanation, in a dejected posture, his eyes fixed
on the ground, and the veins of his forehead swoln with contending
passions.

“And now, my dear Richard,” said the good surgeon, “you must think what
you can do for yourself, since your grandfather leaves you the choice
of three honourable professions, by any of which, well and wisely
prosecuted, you may become independent if not wealthy, and
respectable if not great. You will naturally desire a little time for
consideration.”

“Not a minute,” said the boy, raising his head, and looking boldly at
his guardian. “I am a free-born Englishman, and will return to England
if I think fit.”

“A free-born fool you are,”--said Gray; “you were born, as I think, and
no one can know better than I do, in the blue room of Stevenlaw's
Land, in the Town-head of Middlemas, if you call that being a free-born
Englishman.”

“But Tom Hillary,”--this was an apprentice of Clerk Lawford, who had of
late been a great friend and adviser of young Middlemas--“Tom Hillary
says that I am a free-born Englishman, notwithstanding, in right of my
parents.”

“Pooh, child! what do we know of your parents?--But what has your being
an Englishman to do with the present question?”

“Oh, Doctor!” answered the boy bitterly, “you know we from the south
side of Tweed cannot scramble so hard as you do. The Scots are too
moral, and too prudent, and too robust, for a poor pudding-eater to live
amongst them, whether as a parson, or as a lawyer, or as a doctor--with
your pardon, sir.”

“Upon my life, Dick,” said Gray, “this Tom Hillary will turn your brain.
What is the meaning of all this trash?”

“Tom Hillary says that the parson lives by the sins of the people, the
lawyer by their distresses, and the doctor by their diseases--always
asking your pardon, sir.”

“Tom Hillary,” replied the Doctor, “should be drummed out of the
borough. A whipper-snapper of an attorney's apprentice, run away from
Newcastle! If I hear him talking so, I'll teach him to speak with more
reverence of the learned professions. Let me hear no more of Tom Hillary
whom you have seen far too much of lately. Think a little, like a lad of
sense, and tell me what answer I am to give to Mr. Moncada.”

“Tell him,” said the boy, the tone of affected sarcasm laid aside, and
that of injured pride substituted in its room, “Tell him that my soul
revolts at the obscure lot he recommends to me. I am determined to
enter my father's profession, the army, unless my grandfather chooses to
receive me into his house, and place me in his own line of business.”

“Yes, and make you his partner, I suppose, and acknowledge you for his
heir?” said Dr. Gray; “a thing extremely likely to happen, no doubt,
considering the way in which he has brought you up all along, and the
terms in which he now writes concerning you.”

“Then, sir, there is one thing which I can demand of you,” replied the
boy. “There is a large sum of money in your hands belonging to me; and
since it is consigned to you for my use, I demand you should make the
necessary advances to procure a commission in the army--account to me
for the balance--and so, with thanks for past favours, I will give you
no trouble in future.”

“Young man,” said the Doctor, gravely, “I am very sorry to see that your
usual prudence and good humour are not proof against the disappointment
of some idle expectations which you had not the slightest reason to
entertain. It is very true that there is a sum, which, in spite of
various expenses, may still approach to a thousand pounds or better,
which remains in my hands for your behoof. But I am bound to dispose
of it according to the will of the donor; and at any rate, you are not
entitled to call for it until you come to years of discretion; a period
from which you are six years distant, according to law, and which, in
one sense, you will never reach at all, unless you alter your present
unreasonable crotchets. But come, Dick, this is the first time I have
seen you in so absurd a humour, and you have many things, I own, in
your situation to apologize for impatience even greater than you have
displayed. But you should not turn your resentment on me, that am no way
in fault. You should remember that I was your earliest and only friend,
and took charge of you when every other person forsook you.”

“I do not thank you for it,” said Richard, giving way to a burst
of uncontrolled passion. “You might have done better for me had you
pleased.”

“And in what manner, you ungrateful boy?” said Gray, whose composure was
a little ruffled.

“You might have flung me under the wheels of their carriages as they
drove off, and have let them trample on the body of their child, as they
have done on his feelings.”

So saying, he rushed out of the room, and shut the door behind him
with great violence, leaving his guardian astonished at his sudden and
violent change of temper and manner.

“What the deuce can have possessed him? Ah, well. High-spirited, and
disappointed in some follies which that Tom Hillary has put into his
head. But his is a case for anodynes, and shall be treated accordingly.”

While the Doctor formed this good-natured resolution, young Middlemas
rushed to Nurse Jamieson's apartment, where poor Menie, to whom his
presence always gave holyday feelings, hastened to exhibit, for his
admiration, a new doll, of which she had made the acquisition. No one,
generally, was more interested in Menie's amusements than Richard; but
at present, Richard, like his celebrated namesake, was not i'the vein.
He threw off the little damsel so carelessly, almost so rudely, that the
doll flew out of Menie's hand, fell on the hearth-stone, and broke
its waxen face. The rudeness drew from Nurse Jamieson a rebuke, even
although the culprit was her darling.

“Hout awa', Richard--that wasna like yoursell, to guide Miss Menie
that gate.--Haud your tongue, Miss Menie, and I'll soon mend the baby's
face.”

But if Menie cried, she did not cry for the doll; and while the tears
flowed silently down her cheeks, she sat looking at Dick Middlemas with
a childish face of fear, sorrow, and wonder. Nurse Jamieson was soon
diverted from her attention to Menie Gray's distresses, especially as
she did not weep aloud, and her attention became fixed on the altered
countenance, red eyes, and swoln features of her darling foster-child.
She instantly commenced an investigation into the cause of his distress,
after the usual inquisitorial manner of matrons of her class. “What
is the matter wi' my bairn?” and “Wha has been vexing my bairn?” with
similar questions, at last extorted this reply:

“I am not your bairn--I am no one's bairn--no one's son. I am an outcast
from my family, and belong to no one. Dr. Gray has told me so himself.”

“And did he cast up to my bairn that he was a bastard?--troth he was na
blate--my certie, your father was a better man than ever stood on the
Doctor's shanks--a handsome grand gentleman, with an ee like a gled's,
and a step like a Highland piper.”

Nurse Jamieson had got on a favourite topic, and would have expatiated
long enough, for she was a professed admirer of masculine beauty, but
there was something which displeased the boy in her last simile; so he
cut the conversation short, by asking whether she knew exactly how much
money his grandfather had left with Dr. Gray for his maintenance. “She
could not say--didna ken--an awfu' sum it was to pass out of ae man's
hand--She was sure it wasna less than ae hundred pounds, and it might
weel be twa.” In short, she knew nothing about the matter; “but she was
sure Dr. Gray would count to him to the last farthing; for everybody
kend that he was a just man where siller was concerned. However, if her
bairn wanted to ken mair about it, to be sure the Town-clerk could tell
him all about it.”

Richard Middlemas arose and left the apartment, without saying more.
He went immediately to visit the old Town-clerk, to whom he had made
himself acceptable, as, indeed, he had done to most of the dignitaries
about the burgh. He introduced the conversation by the proposal which
had been made to him for choosing a profession, and, after speaking of
the mysterious circumstances of his birth, and the doubtful prospects
which lay before him, he easily led the Town-clerk into conversation as
to the amount of the funds, and heard the exact state of the money in
his guardian's hands, which corresponded with the information he had
already received. He next sounded the worthy scribe on the possibility
of his going into the army; but received a second confirmation of the
intelligence Mr. Gray had given him; being informed that no part of the
money could be placed at his disposal till he was of age; and then not
without the especial consent of both his guardians, and particularly
that of his master. He therefore took leave of the Town-clerk, who,
much approving the cautious manner in which he spoke, and his prudent
selection of an adviser at this important crisis of his life, intimated
to him, that should he choose the law, he would himself receive him into
his office, upon a very moderate apprentice-fee, and would part with Tom
Hillary to make room for him, as the lad was “rather pragmatical, and
plagued him with speaking about his English practice, which they had
nothing to do with on this side of the Border--the Lord be thanked!”

Middlemas thanked him for his kindness, and promised to consider his
kind offer, in case he should determine upon following the profession of
the law.

From Tom Hillary's master, Richard went to Tom Hillary himself, who
chanced then to be in the office. He was a lad about twenty, as smart
as small, but distinguished for the accuracy with which he dressed his
hair, and the splendour of a laced hat and embroidered waistcoat, with
which he graced the church of Middlemas on Sundays. Tom Hillary had been
bred an attorney's clerk in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but, for some reason or
other, had found it more convenient of late years to reside in Scotland,
and was recommended to the Town-clerk of Middlemas, by the accuracy and
beauty with which he transcribed the records of the burgh. It is not
improbable that the reports concerning the singular circumstances
of Richard Middlemas's birth, and the knowledge that he was actually
possessed of a considerable sum of money, induced Hillary, though
so much his senior, to admit the lad to his company, and enrich his
youthful mind with some branches of information, which in that retired
corner, his pupil might otherwise have been some time in attaining.
Amongst these were certain games at cards and dice, in which the pupil
paid, as was reasonable, the price of initiation by his losses to his
instructor. After a long walk with this youngster, whose advice, like
the unwise son of the wisest of men, he probably valued more than that
of his more aged counsellors, Richard Middlemas returned to his lodgings
in Stevenlaw's Land, and went to bed sad and supperless.

The next morning Richard arose with the sun, and his night's rest
appeared to have had its frequent effect, in cooling the passions and
correcting the understanding. Little Menie was the first person to whom
he made the _amende honorable;_ and a much smaller propitiation than
the new doll with which he presented her would have been accepted as
an atonement for a much greater offence. Menie was one of those pure
spirits, to whom a state of unkindness, if the estranged person has been
a friend, is a state of pain, and the slightest advance of her friend
and protector was sufficient to regain all her childish confidence and
affection.

The father did not prove more inexorable than Menie had done. Mr. Gray,
indeed, thought he had good reason to look cold upon Richard at their
next meeting, being not a little hurt at the ungrateful treatment which
he had received on the preceding evening. But Middlemas disarmed him at
once, by frankly pleading that he had suffered his mind to be carried
away by the supposed rank and importance of his parents, into an
idle conviction that he was one day to share them. The letter of his
grandfather, which condemned him to banishment and obscurity for life,
was, he acknowledged, a very severe blow; and it was with deep sorrow
that he reflected, that the irritation of his disappointment had led him
to express himself in a manner far short of the respect and reverence
of one who owed Mr. Gray the duty and affection of a son, and ought to
refer to his decision every action of his life. Gideon, propitiated
by an admission so candid, and made with so much humility, readily
dismissed his resentment, and kindly enquired of Richard, whether he
had bestowed any reflection upon the choice of profession which had
been subjected to him; offering, at the same time, to allow him all
reasonable time to make up his mind.

On this subject. Richard Middlemas answered with the same promptitude
and candour.--“He had,” he said, “in order to forming his opinion more
safely, consulted with his friend, the Town-clerk.” The Doctor nodded
approbation. “Mr. Lawford had, indeed, been most friendly, and had
even offered to take him into his own office. But if his father and
benefactor would permit him to study, under his instructions, the noble
art in which he himself enjoyed such a deserved reputation, the mere
hope that he might by-and-by be of some use to Mr. Gray in his business,
would greatly overbalance every other consideration. Such a course of
education, and such a use of professional knowledge when he had acquired
it, would be a greater spur to his industry than the prospect even of
becoming Town-clerk of Middlemas in his proper person.”

As the young man expressed it to be his firm and unalterable choice, to
study medicine under his guardian, and to remain a member of his family,
Dr. Gray informed Mr. Moncada of the lad's determination; who, to
testify his approbation, remitted to the Doctor the sum of L100 as
apprentice fee, a sum nearly three times as much as Gray's modesty had
hinted at as necessary.

Shortly after, when Dr. Gray and the Town-clerk met at the small club
of the burgh, their joint theme was the sense and steadiness of Richard
Middlemas.

“Indeed,” said the Town-clerk, “he is such a friendly and disinterested
boy, that I could not get him to accept a place in my office, for fear
he should be thought to be pushing himself forward at the expense of Tam
Hillary.”

“And, indeed, Clerk,” said Gray, “I have sometimes been afraid that he
kept too much company with that Tam Hillary of yours; but twenty Tam
Hillarys would not corrupt Dick Middlemas.”




CHAPTER THE THIRD.


 Dick was come to high renown
   Since he commenced physician;
 Tom was held by all the town
   The better politician.
                   TOM AND DICK.

At the same period when Dr. Gray took under his charge his youthful
lodger Richard Middlemas, he received proposals from the friends of one
Adam Hartley, to receive him also as an apprentice. The lad was the son
of a respectable farmer on the English side of the Border, who educating
his eldest son to his own occupation, desired to make his second a
medical man, in order to avail himself of the friendship of a great
man, his landlord, who had offered to assist his views in life, and
represented a doctor or surgeon as the sort of person to whose advantage
his interest could be most readily applied. Middlemas and Hartley were
therefore associated in their studies. In winter they were boarded in
Edinburgh, for attending the medical classes which were necessary for
taking their degree. Three or four years thus passed on, and, from being
mere boys, the two medical aspirants shot up into young men, who, being
both very good-looking, well dressed, well bred, and having money in
their pockets, became personages of some importance in the little town
of Middlemas, where there was scarce any thing that could be termed an
aristocracy, and in which beaux were scarce and belles were plenty.

Each of the two had his especial partizans; for though the young men
themselves lived in tolerable harmony together, yet, as usual in such
cases, no one could approve of one of them, without at the same time
comparing him with, and asserting his superiority over his companion.

Both were gay, fond of dancing, and sedulous attendants on the
_practeezings_, as he called them, of Mr. McFittoch, a dancing master,
who, itinerant during the summer, became stationary in the winter
season, and afforded the youth of Middlemas the benefit of his
instructions at the rate of twenty lessons for five shillings sterling.
On these occasions, each of Dr. Gray's pupils had his appropriate
praise. Hartley danced with most spirit--Middlemas with a better grace.
Mr. McFittoch would have turned out Richard against the country-side in
the minuet, and wagered the thing dearest to him in the world, (and that
was his kit,) upon his assured superiority; but he admitted Hartley was
superior to him in hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys, and reels.

In dress, Hartley was most expensive, perhaps because his father
afforded him better means of being so; but his clothes were neither so
tasteful when new, nor so well preserved when they began to grow old,
as those of Richard Middlemas. Adam Hartley was sometimes fine, at other
times rather slovenly, and on the former occasions looked rather too
conscious of his splendour. His chum was at all times regularly neat
and well dressed; while at the same time he had an air of good-breeding,
which made him appear always at ease; so that his dress, whatever it
was, seemed to be just what he ought to have worn at the time.

In their persons there was a still more strongly marked distinction.
Adam Hartley was full middle size, stout, and well limbed; and an open
English countenance, of the genuine Saxon mould, showed itself among
chestnut locks, until the hair-dresser destroyed them. He loved the
rough exercises of wrestling, boxing, leaping, and quarterstaff,
and frequented, when he could obtain leisure, the bull-baitings and
foot-ball matches, by which the burgh was sometimes enlivened.

Richard, on the contrary, was dark, like his father and mother, with
high features, beautifully formed, but exhibiting something of a foreign
character; and his person was tall and slim, though muscular and active.
His address and manners must have been natural to him, for they were, in
elegance and ease, far beyond any example which he could have found
in his native burgh. He learned the use of the small-sword while in
Edinburgh, and took lessons from a performer at the theatre, with the
purpose of refining his mode of speaking. He became also an amateur of
the drama, regularly attending the playhouse, and assuming the tone of
a critic in that and other lighter departments of literature. To fill up
the contrast, so far as taste was concerned, Richard was a dexterous
and successful angler--Adam, a bold and unerring shot. Their efforts
to surpass each other in supplying Dr. Gray's table, rendered his
housekeeping much preferable to what it had been on former occasions;
and, besides, small presents of fish and game are always agreeable
amongst the inhabitants of a country town, and contributed to increase
the popularity of the young sportsmen.

While the burgh was divided, for lack of better subject of disputation,
concerning the comparative merits of Dr. Gray's two apprentices, he
himself was sometimes chosen the referee. But in this, as on other
matters, the Doctor was cautious. He said the lads were both good lads,
and would be useful men in the profession, if their heads were not
carried with the notice which the foolish people of the burgh took of
them, and the parties of pleasure that were so often taking them away
from their business. No doubt it was natural for him to feel more
confidence in Hartley, who came of ken'd folk, and was very near as
good as a born Scotsman. But if he did feel such a partiality, he blamed
himself for it, since the stranger child, so oddly cast upon his hands,
had peculiar good right to such patronage and affection as he had to
bestow; and truly the young man himself seemed so grateful, that it was
impossible for him to hint the slightest wish, that Dick Middlemas did
not hasten to execute.

There were persons in the burgh of Middlemas who were indiscreet enough
to suppose that Miss Menie must be a better judge than any other person
of the comparative merits of these accomplished personages, respecting
which the public opinion was generally divided. No one even of her
greatest intimates ventured to put the question to her in precise terms;
but her conduct was narrowly observed, and the critics remarked, that
to Adam Hartley her attentions were given more freely and frankly. She
laughed with him, chatted with him, and danced with him; while to Dick
Middlemas her conduct was more shy and distant. The premises seemed
certain, but the public were divided in the conclusions which were to be
drawn from them.

It was not possible for the young men to be the subject of such
discussions without being sensible that they existed; and thus,
contrasted together by the little society in which they moved, they must
have been made of better than ordinary clay, if they had not themselves
entered by degrees into the spirit of the controversy, and considered
themselves as rivals for public applause.

Nor is it to be forgotten, that Menie Gray was by this time shot up
into one of the prettiest young women, not of Middlemas only, but of the
whole county, in which the little burgh is situated. This, indeed, had
been settled by evidence, which could not be esteemed short of decisive.
At the time of the races, there were usually assembled in the burgh some
company of the higher classes from the country around, and many of the
sober burghers mended their incomes, by letting their apartments, or
taking in lodgers of quality for the busy week. All the rural thanes and
thanesses attended on these occasions; and such was the number of cocked
hats and silken trains, that the little town seemed for a time totally
to have changed its inhabitants. On this occasion persons of a certain
quality only were permitted to attend upon the nightly balls which were
given in the old Town-house, and the line of distinction excluded Mr.
Gray's family.

The aristocracy, however, used their privileges with some feelings of
deference to the native beaux and belles of the burgh, who were thus
doomed to hear the fiddles nightly, without being permitted to dance
to them. One evening in the race-week, termed the Hunter's ball,
was dedicated to general amusement, and liberated from the usual
restrictions of etiquette. On this occasion all the respectable families
in the town were invited to share the amusement of the evening, and to
wonder at the finery, and be grateful for the condescension, of their
betters. This was especially the case with the females, for the number
of invitations to the gentlemen of the town was much more limited. Now,
at this general muster, the beauty of Miss Gray's face and person had
placed her, in the opinion of all competent judges, decidedly at the
head of all the belles present, saving those with whom, according to the
ideas of the place, it would hardly have been decent to compare her.

The Laird of the ancient and distinguished house of Louponheight did not
hesitate to engage her hand during the greater part of the evening;
and his mother, renowned for her stern assertion of the distinctions of
rank, placed the little plebeian beside her at supper, and was heard
to say, that the surgeon's daughter behaved very prettily indeed, and
seemed to know perfectly well where and what she was. As for the young
Laird himself, he capered so high, and laughed so uproariously, as
to give rise to a rumour, that he was minded to “shoot madly from his
sphere,” and to convert the village Doctor's daughter into a lady of his
own ancient name.

During this memorable evening, Middlemas and Hartley, who had found room
in the music gallery, witnessed the scene, and, as it would seem, with
very different feelings. Hartley was evidently annoyed by the excess
of attention which the gallant Laird of Louponheight, stimulated by the
influence of a couple of bottles of claret, and by the presence of a
partner who danced remarkably well, paid to Miss Menie Gray. He saw from
his lofty stand all the dumb show of gallantry, with the comfortable
feelings of a famishing creature looking upon a feast which he is not
permitted to share, and regarded every extraordinary frisk of the jovial
Laird, as the same might have been looked upon by a gouty person, who
apprehended that the dignitary was about to descend on his toes. At
length, unable to restrain his emotion, he left the gallery and returned
no more.

Far different was the demeanour of Middlemas. He seemed gratified and
elevated by the attention which was generally paid to Miss Gray, and
by the admiration she excited. On the valiant Laird of Louponheight he
looked with indescribable contempt, and amused himself with pointing out
to the burgh dancing-master, who acted _pro tempore_ as one of the band,
the frolicsome bounds and pirouettes, in which that worthy displayed a
great deal more of vigour than of grace.

“But ye shouldna laugh sae loud, Master Dick,” said the master of
capers; “he hasna had the advantage of a real gracefu' teacher, as ye
have had; and troth, if he listed to tak some lessons, I think I could
make some hand of his feet, for he is a souple chield, and has a gallant
instep of his ain; and sic a laced hat hasna been seen on the causeway
of Middlemas this mony a day.--Ye are standing laughing there, Dick
Middlemas; I would have you be sure he does not cut you out with your
bonny partner yonder.”

“He be----!” Middlemas was beginning a sentence which he could not have
concluded with strict attention to propriety, when the master of
the band summoned McFittoch to his post, by the following ireful
expostulation:--“What are ye about, sir? Mind your bow-hand. How the
deil d'ye think three fiddles is to keep down a bass, if yin o' them
stands girning and gabbling as ye're doing? Play up, sir!”

Dick Middlemas, thus reduced to silence, continued, from his lofty
station, like one of the gods of the Epicureans, to survey what passed
below, without the gaieties which he witnessed being able to excite more
than a smile, which seemed, however, rather to indicate a good-humoured
contempt for what was passing, than a benevolent sympathy with the
pleasures of others.




CHAPTER THE FOURTH.


  Now hold thy tongue, Billy Bewick, he said,
    Of peaceful talking: let me be;
  But if thou art a man, as I think thou art,
    Come ower the dyke and fight with me.
                           BORDER MINSTRELSY.


On the morning after this gay evening, the two young men were labouring
together in a plot of ground behind Stevenlaw's Land, which the Doctor
had converted into a garden, where he raised, with a view to pharmacy
as well as botany, some rare plants, which obtained the place from the
vulgar the sounding name of the Physic Garden. [Footnote: The Botanic
Garden is so termed by the vulgar of Edinburgh.] Mr. Gray's pupils
readily complied with his wishes, that they would take some care of this
favourite spot, to which both contributed their labours, after which
Hartley used to devote himself to the cultivation of the kitchen garden,
which he had raised into this respectability from a spot not excelling
a common kail-yard, while Richard Middleman did his utmost to decorate
with flowers and shrubs a sort of arbour, usually called Miss Menie's
bower.

At present they were both in the botanic patch of the garden, when Dick
Middlemas asked Hartley why he had left the ball so soon the evening
before?

“I should rather ask you,” said Hartley, “what pleasure you felt
in staying there?--I tell you, Dick, it is a shabby low place this
Middlemas of ours. In the smallest burgh in England, every decent
freeholder would have been asked if the Member gave a ball.”

“What, Hartley!” said his companion, “are you, of all men, a candidate
for the honour of mixing with the first-born of the earth? Mercy on us!
How will canny Northumberland [throwing a true northern accent on the
letter R] acquit himself? Methinks I see thee in thy pea-green suit,
dancing a jig with the honourable Miss Maddie MacFudgeon, while chiefs
and thanes around laugh as they would do at a hog in armour!”

“You don't, or perhaps you won't, understand me.” said Hartley. “I am
not such a fool as to desire to be hail-fellow-well-met with these fine
folks--I care as little for them as they do for me. But as they do not
choose to ask us to dance, I don't see what business they have with our
partners.”

“Partners, said you!” answered Middlemas; “I don't think Menie is very
often yours.”

“As often as I ask her,” answered Hartley, rather haughtily.

“Ay? Indeed?--I did not think that.--And hang me, if I think so yet.”
 said Middlemas, with the same sarcastic tone. “I tell thee, Adam, I will
bet you a bowl of punch, that Miss Gray will not dance with you the next
time you ask her. All I stipulate, is to know the day.”

“I will lay no bets about Miss Gray,” said Hartley; “her father is my
master, and I am obliged to him--I think I should act very scurvily, if
I were to make her the subject of any idle debate betwixt you and me.”

“Very right,” replied Middlemas; “you should finish one quarrel before
you begin another. Pray, saddle your pony, ride up to the gate of
Louponheight Castle, and defy the Baron to mortal combat, for having
presumed to touch the fair hand of Menie Gray.”

“I wish you would leave Miss Gray's name out of the question, and take
your defiances to your fine folks in your own name, and see what they
will say to the surgeon's apprentice.”

“Speak for yourself, if you please, Mr. Adam Hartley. I was not born a
clown like some folks, and should care little, if I saw it fit, to talk
to the best of them at the ordinary, and make myself understood too.”

“Very likely,” answered Hartley, losing patience: “you are one of
themselves, you know--Middlemas of that Ilk.”

“You scoundrel!” said Richard, advancing on him in fury, his taunting
humour entirely changed into rage.

“Stand back,” said Hartley, “or you will come by the worst; if you will
break rude jests, you must put up with rough answers.”

“I will have satisfaction for this insult, by Heaven!”

“Why so you shall, if you insist on it,” said Hartley; “but better, I
think, to say no more about the matter. We have both spoken what would
have been better left unsaid. I was in the wrong to say what I said
to you, although you did provoke me. And now I have given you as much
satisfaction as a reasonable man can ask.”

“Sir,” repeated Middlemas, “the satisfaction which I demand, is that of
a gentleman--the Doctor has a pair of pistols.”.

“And a pair of mortars also, which are heartily at your service,
gentlemen,” said Mr. Gray, coming forward from behind a yew hedge, where
he had listened to the whole or greater part of this dispute. “A fine
story it would be of my apprentices shooting each other with my own
pistols! Let me see either of you fit to treat a gunshot wound, before
you think of inflicting one. Go, you are both very foolish boys, and I
cannot take it kind of either of you to bring the name of my daughter
into such disputes as these. Hark ye, lads, ye both owe me, I think,
some portion of respect, and even of gratitude--it will be a poor
return, if instead of living quietly with this poor motherless girl,
like brothers with a sister, you should oblige me to increase my
expense, and abridge my comfort, by sending my child from me, for the
few months that you are to remain here. Let me see you shake hands, and
let us have no more of this nonsense.”

While their master spoke in this manner, both the young men stood before
him in the attitude of self-convicted criminals. At the conclusion of
his rebuke, Hartley turned frankly round, and, offered his hand to his
companion, who accepted it, but after a moment's hesitation. There was
nothing farther passed on the subject, but the lads never resumed the
same sort of intimacy which had existed betwixt them in their earlier
acquaintance. On the contrary, avoiding every connexion not absolutely
required by their situation, and abridging as much as possible even
their indispensable intercourse in professional matters, they seemed as
much estranged from each other as two persons residing in the same small
house had the means of being.

As for Menie Gray, her father did not appear to entertain the least
anxiety upon her account, although from his frequent and almost daily
absence from home, she was exposed to constant intercourse with two
handsome young men, both, it might be supposed, ambitious of pleasing
her more than most parents would have deemed entirely prudent. Nor was
Nurse Jamieson,--her menial situation, and her excessive partiality for
her foster-son, considered,--altogether such a matron as could afford
her protection. Gideon, however, knew that his daughter possessed, in
its fullest extent, the upright and pure integrity of his own character,
and that never father had less reason to apprehend that a daughter
should deceive his confidence; and justly secure of her principles, he
overlooked the danger to which he exposed her feelings and affections.

The intercourse betwixt Menie and the young men seemed now of a guarded
kind on all sides. Their meeting was only at meals, and Miss Gray was
at pains, perhaps by her father's recommendation, to treat them with the
same degree of attention. This, however, was no easy matter; for Hartley
became so retiring, cold, and formal, that it was impossible for her to
sustain any prolonged intercourse with him; whereas Middlemas, perfectly
at his ease, sustained his part as formerly upon all occasions that
occurred, and without appearing to press his intimacy assiduously,
seemed nevertheless to retain the complete possession of it.

The time drew nigh at length when the young men, freed from the
engagements of their indentures, must look to play their own independent
part in the world. Mr. Gray informed Richard Middlemas that he had
written pressingly upon the subject to Moncada, and that more than once,
but had not yet received an answer; nor did he presume to offer his own
advice, until the pleasure of his grandfather should be known. Richard
seemed to endure this suspense with more patience than the
Doctor thought belonged naturally to his character. He asked no
questions--stated no conjectures--showed no anxiety, but seemed to await
with patience the turn which events should take. “My young gentleman,”
 thought Mr. Gray, “has either fixed on some course in his own mind, or
he is about to be more tractable than some points of his character have
led me to expect.”

In fact, Richard had made an experiment on this inflexible relative, by
sending Mr. Moncada a letter full of duty, and affection, and gratitude,
desiring to be permitted to correspond with him in person, and promising
to be guided in every particular by his will. The answer to this appeal
was his own letter returned, with a note from the bankers whose cover
had been used, saying, that any future attempt to intrude on Mr.
Moncada, would put a final period to their remittances.

While things were in this situation in Stevenlaw's Land, Adam Hartley
one evening, contrary to his custom for several months, sought a private
interview with his fellow-apprentice. He found him in the little arbour,
and could not omit observing, that Dick Middlemas, on his appearance,
shoved into his bosom a small packet, as if afraid of its being seen,
and snatching up a hoe, began to work with great devotion, like one who
wished to have it thought that his whole soul was in his occupation.

“I wished to speak with you, Mr. Middlemas,” said Hartley; “but I fear I
interrupt you.”

“Not in the least,”' said the other, laying down his hoe; “I was only
scratching up the weeds which the late showers have made rush up so
numerously. I am at your service.”

Hartley proceeded to the arbour, and seated himself. Richard imitated
his example, and seemed to wait for the proposed communication.

“I have had an interesting communication with Mr. Gray”--said Hartley,
and there stopped, like one who finds himself entering upon a difficult
task.

“I hope the explanation has been satisfactory?” said Middlemas.

“You shall judge.--Doctor Gray was pleased to say something to me very
civil about my proficiency in the duties of our profession; and, to my
great astonishment, asked me, whether, as he was now becoming old, I had
any particular objection to continue in my present situation, but with
some pecuniary advantages, for two years longer; at the end of which he
promised to me that I should enter into partnership with him.”

“Mr. Gray is an undoubted judge,” said Middlemas, “what person will best
suit him as a professional assistant. The business may be worth L200
a-year, and an active assistant might go nigh to double it, by riding
Strath-Devan and the Carse. No great subject for division after all, Mr.
Hartley.”

“But,” continued Hartley, “that is not all. The Doctor says--he
proposes--in short, if I can render myself agreeable, in the course
of these two years, to Miss Menie Gray, he proposes, that when they
terminate, I should become his son as well as his partner.”

As he spoke, he kept his eye fixed on Richard's face, which was for a
moment, strongly agitated; but instantly recovering, he answered, in
a tone where pique and offended pride vainly endeavoured to disguise
themselves under an affectation of indifference. “Well, Master Adam, I
cannot but wish you joy of the patriarchal arrangement. You have served
five years for a professional diploma--a sort of Leah, that privilege of
killing and curing. Now you begin a new course of servitude for a lovely
Rachel. Undoubtedly--perhaps it is rude in me to ask--but undoubtedly
you have accepted so flattering an arrangement?”

“You cannot but recollect there was a condition annexed,” said Hartley,
gravely.

“That of rendering yourself acceptable to a girl you have known for
so many years?” said Middlemas with a half-suppressed sneer. “No great
difficulty in that, I should think, for such a person as Mr. Hartley,
with Doctor Gray's favour to back him. No, no-there could be no great
obstacle there.”

“Both you and I know the contrary, Mr. Middlemas,” said Hartley, very
seriously.

“I know?--How should I know any thing more than yourself about the state
of Miss Gray's inclinations?” said Middlemas. “I am sure we have had
equal access to know them.”

“Perhaps so; but some know better how to avail themselves of
opportunities. Mr. Middlemas, I have long suspected that you have
had the inestimable advantages of possessing Miss Gray's affections,
and”----

“I?” interrupted Middlemas; “you are jesting, or you are jealous. You
do yourself less, and me more, than justice; but the compliment is so
great, that I am obliged to you for the mistake.”

“That you may know,” answered Hartley, “I do not speak either by guess,
or from what you call jealousy, I tell you frankly, that Menie Gray
herself told me the state of her affections. I naturally communicated to
her the discourse I had with her father. I told her I was but too well
convinced that at the present moment I did not possess that interest in
her heart, which alone might entitle me to request her acquiescence in
the views which her father's goodness held out to me; but I entreated
her not at once to decide against me, but give me an opportunity to make
way in her affections, if possible, trusting that time, and the services
which I should render to her father, might have an ultimate effect in my
favour.”

“A most natural and modest request. But what did the young lady say in
reply?”

“She is a noble-hearted girl, Richard Middlemas; and for her frankness
alone, even without her beauty and her good sense, deserves an emperor.
I cannot express the graceful modesty with which she told me, that
she knew too well the kindliness, as she was pleased to call it, of my
heart, to expose me to the protracted pain of an unrequited passion.
She candidly informed me that she had been long engaged to you in
secret--that you had exchanged portraits;--and though without her
father's consent she would never become yours, yet she felt it
impossible that she should ever so far change her sentiments as to
afford the most distant prospect of success to another.”

“Upon my word,” said Middlemas, “she has been extremely candid indeed,
and I am very much obliged to her!”

“And upon _my_ honest word, Mr. Middlemas,” returned Hartley, “you do
Miss Gray the greatest injustice--nay, you are ungrateful to her, if you
are displeased at her making this declaration. She loves you as a woman
loves the first object of her affection--she loves you better”--He
stopped, and Middlemas completed the sentence.

“Better than I deserve, perhaps?--Faith, it may well be so, and I love
her dearly in return. But after all, you know, the secret was mine as
well as hers, and it would have been better that she had consulted me
before making it public.”

“Mr. Middlemas,” said Hartley, earnestly, “if the least of this feeling,
on your part, arises from the apprehension that your secret is less safe
because it is in my keeping, I can assure you that such is my grateful
sense of Miss Gray's goodness, in communicating, to save me pain, an
affair of such delicacy to herself and you, that wild horses should tear
me limb from limb before they forced a word of it from my lips.”

“Nay, nay, my dear friend,” said Middlemas, with a frankness of manner
indicating a cordiality that had not existed between them for some time,
“you must allow me to be a little jealous in my turn. Your true lover
cannot have a title to the name, unless he be sometimes unreasonable;
and somehow, it seems odd she should have chosen for a confidant one
whom I have often thought a formidable rival; and yet I am so far from
being displeased, that I do not know that the dear sensible girl
could after all have made a better choice. It is time that the foolish
coldness between us should be ended, as you must be sensible that its
real cause lay in our rivalry. I have much need of good advice, and
who can give it to me better than the old companion, whose soundness of
judgment I have always envied, even when some injudicious friends have
given me credit for quicker parts?”

Hartley accepted Richard's proffered hand, but without any of the
buoyancy of spirit with which it was offered.

“I do not intend,” he said, “to remain many days in this place, perhaps
not very many hours. But if, in the meanwhile, I can benefit you, by
advice or otherwise, you may fully command me. It is the only mode in
which I can be of service to Menie Gray.”

“Love my mistress, love me; a happy _pendant_ to the old proverb, Love
me, love my dog. Well, then, for Menie Gray's sake, if not for Dick
Middlemas's, (plague on that vulgar tell-tale name,) will you, that are
a stander-by, tell us, who are the unlucky players, what you think of
this game of ours?”

“How can you ask such a question, when the field lies so fair before
you? I am sure that Dr. Gray would retain you as his assistant upon the
same terms which he proposed to me. You are the better match, in all
worldly respects, for his daughter, having some capital to begin the
world with.”

“All true--but methinks Mr. Gray has showed no great predilection for me
in this matter.”

“If he has done injustice to your indisputable merit,” said Hartley,
dryly, “the preference of his daughter has more than atoned for it.”

“Unquestionably; and dearly, therefore, do I love her; otherwise, Adam,
I am not a person to grasp at the leavings of other people.”

“Richard,” replied Hartley, “that pride of yours, if you do not check
it, will render you both ungrateful and miserable. Mr. Gray's ideas are
most friendly. He told me plainly that his choice of me as an assistant,
and as a member of his family, had been a long time balanced by his
early affection for you, until he thought he had remarked in you a
decisive discontent with such limited prospects as his offer contained,
and a desire to go abroad into the world, and push, as it is called,
your fortune. He said, that although it was very probable that you might
love his daughter well enough to relinquish these ambitious ideas for
her sake, yet the demons of Ambition and Avarice would return after
the exorciser Love had exhausted the force of his spells, and then
he thought he would have just reason to be anxious for his daughter's
happiness.”

“By my faith, the worthy senior speaks scholarly and wisely,” answered
Richard--“I did not think he had been so clear-sighted. To say
the truth, but for the beautiful Menie Gray, I should feel like a
mill-horse, walking my daily round in this dull country, while other gay
rovers are trying how the world will receive them. For instance, where
do you yourself go?”

“A cousin of my mother's commands a ship in the Company's service. I
intend to go with him as surgeon's mate. If I like the sea service, I
will continue in it; if not, I will enter some other line.” This Hartley
said with a sigh.

“To India!” answered Richard; “Happy dog--to India! You may well bear
with equanimity all disappointments sustained on this side of the globe.
Oh, Delhi! oh, Golconda! have your names no power to conjure down idle
recollections?--India, where gold is won by steel; where a brave man
cannot pitch his desire for fame and wealth so high, but that he may
realize it, if he have fortune to his friend? Is it possible that the
bold adventurer can fix his thoughts on you, and still be dejected at
the thoughts that a bonny blue-eyed lass looked favourably on a less
lucky fellow than himself? Can this be?”

“Less lucky?” said Hartley. “Can you, the accepted lover of Menie Gray,
speak in that tone, even though it be in jest!”

“Nay, Adam,” said Richard, “don't be angry with me, because, being
thus far successful, I rate my good fortune not quite so rapturously as
perhaps you do, who have missed the luck of it. Your philosophy should
tell you, that the object which we attain, or are sure of attaining,
loses, perhaps, even by that very certainty, a little of the extravagant
and ideal value, which attached to it while the object of feverish
hopes and aguish fears. But for all that, I cannot live without my sweet
Menie. I would wed her to-morrow, with all my soul, without thinking a
minute on the clog which so early a marriage would fasten on our heels.
But to spend two additional years in this infernal wilderness, cruising
after crowns and half-crowns, when worse men are making lacs and crores
of rupees--It is a sad falling off, Adam. Counsel me, my friend,--can
you not suggest some mode of getting off from these two years of
destined dulness?”

“Not I,” replied Hartley, scarce repressing his displeasure; “and if
I could induce Dr. Gray to dispense with so reasonable a condition, I
should be very sorry to do so. You are but twenty-one, and if such a
period of probation was, in the Doctor's prudence, judged necessary for
me, who am full two years older, I have no idea that he will dispense
with it in yours.”

“Perhaps not,” replied Middlemas; “but do you not think that these two,
or call them three, years of probation, had better be spent in India,
where much may be done in a little while, than here, where nothing can
be done save just enough to get salt to our broth, or broth to our salt?
Methinks I have a natural turn for India, and so I ought. My father was
a soldier, by the conjecture of all who saw him, and gave me a love
of the sword, and an arm to use one. My mother's father was a rich
trafficker, who loved wealth, I warrant me, and knew how to get it.
This petty two hundred a-year, with its miserable and precarious
possibilities, to be shared with the old gentleman, sounds in the ears
of one like me, who have the world for the winning, and a sword to cut
my way through it, like something little better than a decent kind of
beggary. Menie is in herself a gem--a diamond--I admit it. But then, one
would not set such a precious jewel in lead or popper, but in pure
gold; ay, and add a circlet of brilliants to set it off with. Be a good
fellow, Adam, and undertake the setting my project in proper colours
before the Doctor. I am sure, the wisest thing for him and Menie both,
is to permit me to spend this short time of probation in the land of
cowries. I am sure my heart will be there at any rate, and while I am
bleeding some bumpkin for an inflammation, I shall be in fancy relieving
some nabob, or rajahpoot, of his plethora of wealth. Come--will you
assist, will you be auxiliary? Ten chances but you plead your own cause,
man, for I may be brought up by a sabre, or a bow-string, before I make
my pack up; then your road to Menie will be free and open, and, as you
will be possessed of the situation of comforter _ex officio_, you may
take her 'with the tear in her ee,' as old saws advise.”

“Mr. Richard Middlemas,” said Hartley, “I wish it were possible for me
to tell you, in the few words which I intend to bestow on you, whether
I pity you or despise you, the most. Heaven has placed happiness,
competence, and content within your power, and you are willing to cast
them away, to gratify ambition and avarice. Were I to give any advice on
this subject either to Dr. Gray or his daughter, it would be to break of
all connexion with a man, who, however clever by nature, may soon
show himself a fool, and however honestly brought up, may also, upon
temptation, prove himself a villain.--You may lay aside the sneer, which
is designed to be a sarcastic smile. I will not attempt to do this,
because I am convinced that my advice would be of no use, unless it
could come unattended with suspicion of my motives. I will hasten my
departure from this house, that we may not meet again; and I will leave
it to God Almighty to protect honesty and innocence against the dangers
which must attend vanity and folly.” So saying, he turned contemptuously
from the youthful votary of ambition, and left the garden.

“Stop,” said Middlemas, struck with the picture which had been held
up to his conscience--“Stop, Adam Hartley, and I will confess to
you”----But his words were uttered in a faint and hesitating manner, and
either never reached Hartley's ear, or failed in changing his purpose of
departure.

When he was out of the garden, Middlemas began to recall his usual
boldness of disposition--“Had he staid a moment longer,” he said,
“I would have turned Papist, and made him my ghostly confessor. The
yeomanly churl!--I would give something to know how he has got such a
hank over me. What are Menie Gray's engagements to him? She has given
him his answer, and what right has he to come betwixt her and me? If old
Moncada had done a grandfather's duty, and made suitable settlements
on me, this plan of marrying the sweet girl, and settling here in her
native place, might have done well enough. But to live the life of the
poor drudge her father--to be at the command and call of every boor for
twenty miles round!--why, the labours of a higgler, who travels scores
of miles to barter pins, ribbons, snuff and tobacco, against the
housewife's private stock of eggs, mort-skins, and tallow, is more
profitable, less laborious, and faith I think, equally respectable. No,
no,--unless I can find wealth nearer home, I will seek it where every
one can have it for the gathering; and so I will down to the Swan Inn,
and hold a final consultation with my friend.”




CHAPTER THE FIFTH.


The friend whom Middlemas expected to meet at the Swan, was a person
already mentioned in this history by the name of Tom Hillary, bred an
attorney's clerk in the ancient town of Novum Castrum--_doctus utriusque
juris_, as far as a few months in the service of Mr. Lawford, Town-clerk
of Middlemas, could render him so. The last mention that we made of this
gentleman, was when his gold-laced hat veiled its splendour before the
fresher mounted beavers of the 'prentices of Dr. Gray. That was now
about five years since, and it was within six months that he had made
his appearance in Middlemas, a very different sort of personage from
that which he seemed at his departure.

He was now called Captain; his dress was regimental, and his language
martial. He appeared to have plenty of cash, for he not only, to the
great surprise of the parties, paid certain old debts, which he had left
unsettled behind him, and that notwithstanding his having, as his old
practice told him, a good defence of prescription, but even sent the
minister a guinea, to the assistance of the parish poor. These acts of
justice and benevolence were bruited abroad greatly to the honour of
one, who, so long absent, had neither forgotten his just debts, nor
hardened his heart against the cries of the needy. His merits were
thought the higher, when it was understood he had served the Honourable
East India Company--that wonderful company of merchants, who may indeed,
with the strictest propriety, be termed princes. It was about the middle
of the eighteenth century, and the directors in Leadenhall Street were
silently laying the foundation of that immense empire, which afterwards
rose like an exhalation, and now astonishes Europe, as well as Asia,
with its formidable extent, and stupendous strength. Britain had now
begun to lend a wondering ear to the account of battles fought, and
cities won, in the East; and was surprised by the return of individuals
who had left their native country as adventurers, but now reappeared
there surrounded by Oriental wealth and Oriental luxury, which dimmed
even the splendour of the most wealthy of the British nobility. In this
new-found El Dorada, Hillary had, it seems, been a labourer, and, if he
told truth, to some purpose, though he was far from having completed
the harvest which he meditated. He spoke, indeed, of making investments,
and, as a mere matter of fancy, he consulted his old master, Clerk
Lawford, concerning the purchase of a moorland farm of three thousand
acres, for which he would be content to give three or four thousand
guineas, providing the game was plenty, and the trouting in the brook
such as had been represented by advertisement. But he did not wish to
make any extensive landed purchase at present. It was necessary to keep
up his interest in Leadenhall Street; and in that view, it would be
impolitic to part with his India stock and India bonds. In short, it was
folly to think of settling on a poor thousand or twelve hundred a year,
when one was in the prime of life, and had no liver complaint; and so
he was determined to double the Cape once again, ere he retired to the
chimney corner for life. All he wished was, to pick up a few clever
fellows for his regiment, or rather for his own company; and as in all
his travels he had never seen finer fellows than about Middlemas, he was
willing to give them the preference in completing his levy. In fact, it
was making men of them at once, for a few white faces never failed to
strike terror into these black rascals; and then, not to mention
the good things that were going at the storming of a Pettah, or the
plundering of a Pagoda, most of these tawny dogs carried so much
treasure about their persons, that a won battle was equal to a mine of
gold to the victors.

The natives of Middlemas listened to the noble Captain's marvels with
different feelings, as their temperaments were saturnine or sanguine.
But none could deny that such things had been; and, as the narrator
was known to be a bold dashing fellow, possessed of some abilities,
and according to the general opinion, not likely to be withheld by any
peculiar scruples of conscience, there was no giving any good reason why
Hillary should not have been as successful as others in the field, which
India, agitated as it was by war and intestine disorders, seemed to
offer to every enterprising adventurer. He was accordingly received by
his old acquaintances at Middlemas rather with the respect due to his
supposed wealth, than in a manner corresponding with his former humble
pretensions.

Some of the notables of the village did indeed keep aloof. Among these,
the chief was Dr. Gray, who was an enemy to every thing that approached
to fanfaronade, and knew enough of the world to lay it down as a sort
of general rule, that he who talks a great deal of fighting is seldom
a brave soldier, and he who always speaks about wealth is seldom a
rich man at bottom. Clerk Lawford was also shy, notwithstanding his
_communings_ with Hillary upon the subject of his intended purchase. The
coolness of the Captain's old employer towards him was by some supposed
to arise out of certain circumstances attending their former connexion;
but as the Clerk himself never explained what these were, it is
unnecessary to make any conjectures upon the subject.

Richard Middlemas very naturally renewed his intimacy with his former
comrade, and it was from Hillary's conversation, that he had adopted
the enthusiasm respecting India, which we have heard him express. It was
indeed impossible for a youth, at once inexperienced in the world, and
possessed of a most sanguine disposition, to listen without sympathy
to the glowing descriptions of Hillary, who, though only a recruiting
captain, had all the eloquence of a recruiting sergeant. Palaces rose
like mushrooms in his descriptions; groves of lofty trees, and aromatic
shrubs unknown to the chilly soils of Europe, were tenanted by every
object of the chase, from the royal tiger down to the jackal.
The luxuries of a natch, and the peculiar Oriental beauty of the
enchantresses who perfumed their voluptuous Eastern domes, for the
pleasure of the haughty English conquerors, were no less attractive than
the battles and sieges on which the Captain at other times expatiated.
Not a stream did he mention but flowed over sands of gold, and not a
palace that was inferior to those of the celebrated Fata Morgana. His
descriptions seemed steeped in odours, and his every phrase perfumed in
ottar of roses. The interviews at which these descriptions took place,
often ended in a bottle of choicer wine than the Swan Inn afforded,
with some other appendages of the table, which the Captain, who was
a _bon-vivant_, had procured from Edinburgh. From this good cheer
Middlemas was doomed to retire to the homely evening meal of his master,
where not all the simple beauties of Menie were able to overcome his
disgust at the coarseness of the provisions, or his unwillingness to
answer questions concerning the diseases of the wretched peasants who
were subjected to his inspection.

Richard's hopes of being acknowledged by his father had long since
vanished, and the rough repulse and subsequent neglect on the part of
Moncada, had satisfied him that his grandfather was inexorable, and that
neither then, nor at any future time, did he mean to realize the
visions which Nurse Jamieson's splendid figments had encouraged him to
entertain. Ambition, however, was not lulled to sleep, though it was no
longer nourished by the same hopes which had at first awakened it. The
Indian Captain's lavish oratory supplied the themes which had been
at first derived from the legends of the nursery; the exploits of
a Lawrence and a Clive, as well as the magnificent opportunities of
acquiring wealth to which these exploits opened the road, disturbed the
slumbers of the young adventurer. There was nothing to counteract these
except his love for Menie Gray, and the engagements into which it
had led him. But his addresses had been paid to Menie as much for
the gratification of his vanity, as from any decided passion for that
innocent and guileless being. He was desirous of carrying off the prize,
for which Hartley, whom he never loved, had the courage to contend
with him. Then Menie Gray had been beheld with admiration by men his
superiors in rank and fortune, but with whom his ambition incited him to
dispute the prize. No doubt, though urged to play the gallant at first
rather from vanity than any other cause, the frankness and modesty with
which his suit was admitted, made their natural impression on his
heart. He was grateful to the beautiful creature, who acknowledged the
superiority of his person and accomplishments, and fancied himself as
devotedly attached to her, as her personal charms and mental merits
would have rendered any one who was less vain or selfish than her lover.
Still his passion for the surgeon's daughter ought not, he prudentially
determined, to bear more than its due weight in a case so very important
as the determining his line of life; and this he smoothed over to
his conscience, by repeating to himself, that Menie's interest was as
essentially concerned as his own, in postponing their marriage to the
establishment of his fortune. How many young couples had been ruined by
a premature union!

The contemptuous conduct of Hartley in their last interview, had
done something to shake his comrade's confidence in the truth of this
reasoning, and to lead him to suspect that he was playing a very sordid
and unmanly part, in trifling with the happiness of this amiable and
unfortunate young woman. It was in this doubtful humour that he repaired
to the Swan Inn, where he was anxiously expected by his friend the
Captain.

When they were comfortably seated over a bottle of Paxarete, Middlemas
began, with characteristical caution, to sound his friend about the
ease or difficulty with which an individual, desirous of entering the
Company's service, might have an opportunity of getting a commission. If
Hillary had answered truly, he would have replied, that it was extremely
easy; for, at that time, the East India service presented no charms to
that superior class of people who have since struggled for admittance
under its banners. But the worthy Captain replied, that though, in
the general case, it might be difficult for a young man to obtain a
commission, without serving for some years as a cadet, yet, under his
own protection, a young man entering his regiment, and fitted for such
a situation, might be sure of an ensigncy, if not a lieutenancy, as soon
as ever they set foot in India. “If you, my dear fellow,” continued he,
extending his hand to Middlemas, “would think of changing sheep-head
broth and haggis for mulagatawny and curry, I can only say, that though
it is indispensable that you should enter the service at first simply as
a cadet, yet, by----; you should live like a brother on the passage with
me; and no sooner were we through the surf at Madras, than I would put
you in the way of acquiring both wealth and glory. You have, I think,
some trifle of money--a couple of thousands or so?”

“About a thousand or twelve hundred,” said Richard, affecting the
indifference of his companion, but feeling privately humbled by the
scantiness of his resources.

“It is quite as much as you will find necessary for the outfit and
passage,” said his adviser; “and, indeed, if you had not a farthing, it
would be the same thing; for if I once say to a friend, I'll help you,
Tom Hillary is not the man to start for fear of the cowries. However, it
is as well you have something of a capital of your own to begin upon.”

“Yes,” replied the proselyte. “I should not like to be a burden on any
one. I have some thoughts, to tell you the truth, to marry before I
leave Britain; and in that case, you know, cash will be necessary,
whether my wife goes out with us, or remains behind, till she hear how
luck goes with me. So, after all, I may have to borrow a few hundreds of
you.”

“What the devil is that you say, Dick, about marrying and giving in
marriage?” replied his friend. “What can put it into the head of a
gallant young fellow like you, just rising twenty-one, and six feet high
on your stocking-soles, to make a slave of yourself for life? No, no,
Dick, that will never do. Remember the old song,

  'Bachelor Bluff, bachelor Bluff,
    Hey for a heart that is rugged and tough!'”

“Ay, ay, that sounds very well,” replied Middlemas; “but then one must
shake off a number of old recollections.”

“The sooner the better, Dick; old recollections are like old clothes,
and should be sent off by wholesale; they only take up room in one's
wardrobe, and it would be old-fashioned to wear them. But you look grave
upon it. Who the devil is it that has made such a hole in your heart?”

“Pshaw!” answered Middlemas, “I'm sure you must remember--Menie--my
master's daughter.”

“What, Miss Green, the old pottercarrier's daughter?--a likely girl
enough, I think.”

“My master is a surgeon,” said Richard, “not an apothecary, and his name
is Gray.”

“Ay, ay, Green or Gray--what does it signify? He sells his own drugs, I
think, which we in the south call being a pottercarrier. The girl is a
likely girl enough for a Scottish ball-room. But is she up to any thing?
Has she any _nouz?_”

“Why, she is a sensible girl, save in loving me,” answered Richard; “and
that, as Benedict says, is no proof of her wisdom, and no great argument
of her folly.”

“But has she spirit--spunk--dash--a spice of the devil about her?”

“Not a penny-weight--the kindest, simplest, and most manageable of human
beings,” answered the lover.

“She won't do then,” said the monitor, in a decisive tone. “I am sorry
for it, Dick: but she will never do. There are some women in the world
that can bear their share in the bustling life we live in India--ay,
and I have known some of them drag forward husbands that would otherwise
have stuck fast in the mud till the day of judgment. Heaven knows how
they paid the turnpikes they pushed them through! But these were none
of your simple Susans, that think their eyes are good for nothing but to
look at their husbands, or their fingers but to sew baby-clothes. Depend
on it, you must give up your matrimony, or your views of preferment.
If you wilfully tie a clog round your throat, never think of running a
race; but do not suppose that your breaking off with the lass will make
any very terrible catastrophe. A scene there may be at parting; but you
will soon forget her among the native girls, and she will fall in love
with Mr. Tapeitout, the minister's assistant and successor. She is not
goods for the Indian market, I assure you.”

Among the capricious weaknesses of humanity, that one is particularly
remarkable which inclines us to esteem persons and things not by their
real value, or even by our own judgment, so much as by the opinion of
others, who are often very incompetent judges. Dick Middlemas had been
urged forward, in his suit to Menie Gray, by his observing how much
her partner, a booby laird, had been captivated by her; and she was
now lowered in his esteem, because an impudent low-lived coxcomb had
presumed to talk of her with disparagement. Either of these worthy
gentlemen would have been as capable of enjoying the beauties of Homer,
as judging of the merits of Menie Gray.

Indeed the ascendency which this bold-talking, promise-making soldier
had acquired over Dick Middlemas, wilful as he was in general, was of
a despotic nature; because the Captain, though greatly inferior in
information and talent to the youth whose opinions he swayed, had
skill in suggesting those tempting views of rank and wealth, to which
Richard's imagination had been from childhood most accessible. One
promise he exacted from Middlemas, as a condition of the services which
he was to render him--It was absolute silence on the subject of his
destination for India, and the views upon which it took place. “My
recruits,” said the Captain, “have been all marched off for the depot at
the Isle of Wight; and I want to leave Scotland, and particularly this
little burgh, without being worried to death, of which I must despair,
should it come to be known that I can provide young griffins, as we call
them, with commissions. Gad, I should carry off all the first-born of
Middlemas as cadets, and none are so scrupulous as I am about making
promises. I am as trusty as a Trojan for that; and you know I cannot do
that for every one which I would for an old friend like Dick Middlemas.”

Dick promised secrecy, and it was agreed that the two friends should
not even leave the burgh in company, but that the Captain should set
off first, and his recruit should join him at Edinburgh, where his
enlistment might be attested; and then they were to travel together to
town, and arrange matters for their Indian voyage.

Notwithstanding the definitive arrangement which was thus made for his
departure, Middlemas thought from time to time with anxiety and regret
about quitting Menie Gray, after the engagement which had passed between
them. The resolution was taken, however; the blow was necessarily to be
struck; and her ungrateful lover, long since determined against the life
of domestic happiness, which he might have enjoyed had his views
been better regulated, was now occupied with the means, not indeed of
breaking off with her entirely, but of postponing all thoughts of their
union until the success of his expedition to India.

He might have spared himself all anxiety on this last subject. The
wealth of that India to which he was bound would not have bribed Menie
Gray to have left her father's roof against her father's commands; still
less when, deprived of his two assistants, he must be reduced to the
necessity of continued exertion in his declining life, and therefore
might have accounted himself altogether deserted, had his daughter
departed from him at the same time. But though it would have been her
unalterable determination not to accept any proposal of an immediate
union of their fortunes, Menie could not, with all a lover's power
of self-deception, succeed in persuading herself to be satisfied with
Richard's conduct towards her. Modesty, and a becoming pride, prevented
her from seeming to notice, but could not prevent her from bitterly
feeling, that her lover was preferring the pursuits of ambition to
the humble lot which he might have shared with her, and which promised
content at least, if not wealth.

“If he had loved me as he pretended,” such was the unwilling conviction
that rose on her mind, “my father would surely not have ultimately
refused him the same terms which he held out to Hartley. His objections
would have given way to my happiness, nay, to Richard's importunities,
which would have removed his suspicions of the unsettled cast of
his disposition. But I fear--I fear Richard hardly thought the terms
proposed were worthy of his acceptance. Would it not have been natural
too, that he should have asked me, engaged as we stand to each other,
to have united our faith before his quitting Europe, when I might either
have remained here with my father, or accompanied him to India, in quest
of that fortune which he is so eagerly pushing for? It would have been
wrong--very wrong--in me to have consented to such a proposal, unless
my father had authorised it; but surely it would have been natural that
Richard should have offered it? Alas! men do not know how to love like
women! Their attachment is only one of a thousand other passions and
predilections,--they are daily engaged in pleasures which blunt their
feelings, and in business which distracts them. We--we sit at home to
weep, and to think how coldly our affections are repaid!”

The time was now arrived at which Richard Middlemas had a right to
demand the property vested in the hands of the Town-clerk and Doctor
Gray. He did so, and received it accordingly. His late guardian
naturally enquired what views he had formed in entering on life? The
imagination, of the ambitious aspirant saw in this simple question a
desire, on the part of the worthy man, to offer, and perhaps press
upon him, the same proposal which he had made to Hartley. He hastened,
therefore, to answer dryly, that he had some hopes held out to him which
he was not at liberty to communicate; but that the instant he reached
London, he would write to the guardian of his youth, and acquaint him
with the nature of his prospects, which he was happy to say were rather
of a pleasing character.

Gideon, who supposed that at this critical period of his life, the
father, or grandfather, of the young man might perhaps have intimated a
disposition to open some intercourse with him, only replied,--“You have
been the child of mystery, Richard; and as you came to me, so you leave
me. Then, I was ignorant from whence you came, and now, I know not
whither you are, going. It is not, perhaps, a very favourable point in
your horoscope, that every thing connected with you is a secret. But as
I shall always think with kindness on him whom I have known so long, so
when you remember the old man, you ought not to forget that he has done
his duty to you, to the extent of his means and power, and taught you
that noble profession, by means of which, wherever your lot casts you,
you may always gain your bread, and alleviate at the same time, the
distresses of your fellow creatures.” Middlemas was excited by the
simple kindness of his master, and poured forth his thanks with the
greater profusion, that he was free from the terror of the emblematical
collar and chain, which a moment before seemed to glisten in the hand of
his guardian, and gape to enclose his neck.

“One word more,” said Mr. Gray, producing a small ring-case. “This
valuable ring was forced upon me by your unfortunate mother. I have no
right to it, having been amply paid for my services; and I only accepted
it with the purpose of keeping it for you till this moment should
arrive. It may be useful, perhaps, should there occur any question about
your identity.”

“Thanks, once more, my more than father, for this precious relic, which,
may indeed be useful. You shall be repaid, if India has diamonds left.”

“India, and diamonds!” said Gray. “Is your head turned, child?”

“I mean,” stammered Middlemas, “if London has any Indian diamonds.”

“Pooh! you foolish lad,” answered Gray, “how should you buy diamonds,
or what should I do with them, if you gave me ever so many? Get you gone
with you while I am angry.”--The tears were glistening in the old man's
eyes--“If I get pleased with you again, I shall not know how to part
with you.”

The parting of Middlemas with poor Menie was yet more affecting. Her
sorrow revived in his mind all the liveliness of a first love, and he
redeemed his character for sincere attachment, by not only imploring an
instant union, but even going so far as to propose renouncing his more
splendid prospects, and sharing Mr. Gray's humble toil, if by doing so
he could secure his daughter's hand. But though there was consolation in
this testimony of her lover's faith, Menie Gray was not so unwise as to
accept of sacrifices which might afterwards have been repented of.

“No, Richard,” she said, “it seldom ends happily when people alter, in
a moment of agitated feeling, plans which might have been adopted under
mature deliberation. I have long seen that your views were extended
far beyond so humble a station as this place affords promise of. It is
natural they should do so, considering that the circumstances of your
birth seemed connected with riches and with rank. Go, then, seek that
riches and rank. It is possible your mind may be changed in the
pursuit, and if so, think no more about Menie Gray. But if it should be
otherwise, we may meet again, and do not believe for a moment that there
can be a change in Menie Gray's feelings towards you.”

At this interview, much more was said than it is necessary to repeat,
much more thought than was actually said. Nurse Jamieson, in whose
chamber it took place, folded her _bairns_, as she called them, in her
arms, and declared that Heaven had made them for each other, and that
she would not ask of Heaven to live beyond the day when she should see
them bridegroom and bride.

At length it became necessary that the parting scene should end; and
Richard Middlemas, mounting a horse which he had hired for the journey,
set off for Edinburgh, to which metropolis he had already forwarded his
heavy baggage. Upon the road the idea more than once occurred to
him, that even, yet he had better return to Middlemas, and secure
his happiness by uniting himself at once to Menie Gray, and to humble
competence. But from the moment that he rejoined his friend Hillary at
their appointed place of rendezvous, he became ashamed even to hint at
any change of purpose; and his late excited feelings were forgotten,
unless in so far as they confirmed his resolution, that as soon as he
had attained a certain portion of wealth and consequence, he would haste
to share them with Menie Gray. Yet his gratitude to her father did
not appear to have slumbered, if we may judge from the gift of a very
handsome cornelian seal, set in gold, and bearing engraved upon
it Gules, a lion rampant within a bordure Or, which was carefully
despatched to Stevenlaw's Land, Middlemas, with a suitable letter. Menie
knew the hand-writing and watched her father's looks as he read it,
thinking, perhaps, that it had turned on a different topic. Her father
pshawed and poohed a good deal when he had finished the billet, and
examined the seal.

“Dick Middlemas,” he said, “is but a fool after all, Menie. I am sure
I am not like to forget him, that he should send me a token of
remembrance; add if he would be so absurd, could he not have sent me
the improved lithotomical apparatus? And what have I, Gideon Gray, to do
with the arms of my Lord Gray?--No, no,--my old silver stamp, with the
double G upon it, will serve my turn--But put the bonnie dye [Footnote:
“Pretty Toy”] away, Menie, my dear--it was kindly meant at any rate.”

The reader cannot doubt that the seal was safely and carefully
preserved.




CHAPTER THE SIXTH.


  A lazar-house it seemed, wherein were laid
  Numbers of all diseased.
                                     MILTON.

After the Captain had finished his business, amongst which he did not
forget to have his recruit regularly attested, as a candidate for glory
in the service of the Honourable East India Company, the friends left
Edinburgh. From thence they got a passage by sea to Newcastle, where
Hillary had also some regimental affairs to transact, before he joined
his regiment. At Newcastle the Captain had the good luck to find a small
brig, commanded by an old acquaintance and school-fellow, which was just
about to sail for the Isle of Wight. “I have arranged for our passage
with him,” he said to Middlemas--“for when you are at the depot, you can
learn a little of your duty, which cannot be so well taught on board of
ship, and then I will find it easier to have you promoted.”

“Do you mean,” said Richard, “that I am to stay at the Isle of Wight all
the time that you are jigging it away in London?”

“Ay, indeed do I,” said his comrade, “and it's best for you too;
whatever business you have in London, I can do it for you as well, or
something better than yourself.”

“But I choose to transact my own business myself, Captain Hillary,' said
Richard.

“Then you ought to have remained your own master, Mr. Cadet Middlemas.
At present you are an enlisted recruit of the Honourable East India
Company; I am your officer, and should you hesitate to follow me aboard,
why, you foolish fellow, I could have you sent on board in hand-cuffs.”

This was jestingly spoken; but yet there was something in the tone which
hurt Middlemas's pride and alarmed his fears. He had observed of late,
that his friend, especially when in company of others, talked to him
with an air of command or superiority, difficult to be endured, and yet
so closely allied to the freedom often exercised betwixt two intimates,
that he could not find any proper mode of rebuffing, or resenting it.
Such manifestations of authority were usually followed by an instant
renewal of their intimacy; but in the present case that did not so
speedily ensue.

Middlemas, indeed, consented to go with his companion to the Isle of
Wight, perhaps because if he should quarrel with him, the whole plan
of his Indian voyage, and all the hopes built upon it, must fall to the
ground. But he altered his purpose of intrusting his comrade with his
little fortune, to lay out as his occasions might require, and resolved
himself to overlook the expenditure of his money, which, in the form
of Bank of England notes, was safely deposited in his travelling trunk.
Captain Hillary, finding that some hint he had thrown out on this
subject was disregarded, appeared to think no more about it.

The voyage was performed with safety and celerity; and having coasted
the shores of that beautiful island, which he who once sees never
forgets, through whatever part of the world his future path may lead
him, the vessel was soon anchored off the little town of Ryde; and, as
the waves were uncommonly still, Richard felt the sickness diminish,
which, for a considerable part of the passage, had occupied his
attention more than any thing else.

The master of the brig, in honour to his passengers, and affection to
his old school-fellow, had formed an awning upon deck, and proposed to
have the pleasure of giving them a little treat before they left his
vessel. Lobscous, sea-pie, and other delicacies of a naval description,
had been provided in a quantity far disproportionate to the number of
the guests. But the punch which succeeded was of excellent quality, and
portentously strong. Captain Hillary pushed it round, and insisted upon
his companion taking his full share in the merry bout, the rather that,
as he facetiously said, there had been some dryness between them, which
good liquor would be sovereign in removing. He renewed, with additional
splendours, the various panoramic scenes of India and Indian adventures,
which had first excited the ambition of Middlemas, and assured him, that
even if he should not be able to get him a commission instantly, yet a
short delay would only give him time to become better acquainted with
his military duties; and Middlemas was too much elevated by the liquor
he had drank to see any difficulty which could oppose itself to his
fortunes. Whether those who shared in the compotation were more seasoned
topers--whether Middlemas drank more than they--or whether, as he
himself afterwards suspected, his cup had been drugged, like those
of King Duncan's body-guard, it is certain that, on this occasion, he
passed with unusual rapidity, through all the different phases of the
respectable state of drunkenness--laughed, sung, whooped, and hallooed,
was maudlin in his fondness, and frantic in his wrath, and at length
fell into a fast and imperturbable sleep.

The effect of the liquor displayed itself, as usual, in a hundred wild
dreams of parched deserts, and of serpents whose bite inflicted the
most intolerable thirst--of the suffering of the Indian on the
death-stake--and the torments of the infernal regions themselves; when
at length he awakened, and it appeared that the latter vision was in
fact realized. The sounds which had at first influenced his dreams, and
at length broken his slumbers, were of the most horrible, as well as the
most melancholy description. They came from the ranges of pallet-beds,
which were closely packed together in a species of military hospital,
where a burning fever was the prevalent complaint. Many of the patients
were under the influence of a high delirium, during which they
shouted, shrieked, laughed, blasphemed, and uttered the most horrible
imprecations. Others, sensible of their condition, bewailed it with low
groans, and some attempts at devotion, which showed their ignorance
of the principles, and even the forms of religion. Those who were
convalescent talked ribaldry in a loud tone, or whispered to each other
in cant language, upon schemes which, as far as a passing phrase
could be understood by a novice, had relation to violent and criminal
exploits.

Richard Middlemas's astonishment was equal to his horror. He had but one
advantage over the poor wretches with whom he was classed, and it was
in enjoying the luxury of a pallet to himself--most of the others being
occupied by two unhappy beings. He saw no one who appeared to attend to
the wants, or to heed the complaints, of the wretches around him, or to
whom he could offer any appeal against his present situation. He looked
for his clothes, that he might arise and extricate himself from this den
of horrors; but his clothes were nowhere to be seen, nor did he see his
portmanteau, or sea-chest. It was much to be apprehended he would never
see them more.

Then, but too late, he remembered the insinuations which had passed
current respecting his friend the Captain, who was supposed to have been
discharged by Mr. Lawford, on account of some breach of trust in the
Town-Clerk's service. But that he should have trepanned the friend who
had reposed his whole confidence in him--that he should have plundered
him of his fortune, and placed him in this house of pestilence, with
the hope that death might stifle his tongue--were iniquities not to have
been, anticipated, even if the worst of these reports were true.

But Middlemas resolved not to be awanting to himself. This place must be
visited by some officer, military or medical, to whom he would make
an appeal, and alarm his fears at least, if he could not awaken his
conscience. While he revolved these distracting thoughts, tormented at
the same time by a burning thirst which he had no means of satisfying,
he endeavoured to discover if, amongst those stretched upon the
pallets nearest him, he could not discern some one likely to enter into
conversation with him, and give him some information about the nature
and customs of this horrid place. But the bed nearest him was occupied
by two fellows, who, although to judge from their gaunt cheeks, hollow
eyes, and ghastly looks, they were apparently recovering from the
disease, and just rescued from the jaws of death, were deeply engaged
in endeavouring to cheat each other of a few half-pence at a game of
cribbage, mixing the terms of the game with oaths not loud but deep;
each turn of luck being hailed by the winner as well as the loser with
execrations, which seemed designed to blight both body and soul, now
used as the language of triumph, and now as reproaches against fortune.

Next to the gamblers was a pallet, occupied indeed by two bodies, but
only one of which was living--the other sufferer had been recently
relieved from his agony.

“He is dead--he is dead!” said the wretched survivor.

“Then do you die too, and be d--d,” answered one of the players, “and
then there will be a pair of you, as Pugg says.”

“I tell you he is growing stiff and cold,” said the poor wretch--“the
dead is no bed-fellow for the living--For God's sake help to rid me of
the corpse.”

“Ay, and get the credit of having _done_ him--as may be the case with,
yourself, friend--for he had some two or three hoggs about him”--

“You know you took the last rap from his breeches-pocket not an hour
ago,” expostulated the poor convalescent--“But help me to take the body
out of the bed, and I will not tell the _jigger-dubber_ that you have
been beforehand with him.”

“You tell the _jigger-dubber!_” answered the cribbage player. “Such
another word, and I will twist your head round till your eyes look
at the drummer's handwriting on your back. Hold your peace, and don't
bother our game with your gammon, or I will make you as mute as your
bedfellow.”

The unhappy wretch, exhausted, sunk back beside his hideous companion,
and the usual jargon of the game, interlarded with execrations, went on
as before.

From this specimen of the most obdurate indifference, contrasted with
the last excess of misery, Middlemas became satisfied how little could
be made of an appeal to the humanity of his fellow-sufferers. His heart
sunk within him, and the thoughts of the happy and peaceful home, which
he might have called his own, rose before his over-heated fancy, with a
vividness of perception that bordered upon insanity. He saw before him
the rivulet which wanders through the burgh-muir of Middlemas, where he
had so often set little mills for the amusement of Menie while she was
a child. One draught of it would have been worth all the diamonds of
the East, which of late he had worshipped with such devotion; but that
draught was denied to him as to Tantalus.

Rallying his senses from this passing illusion, and knowing enough
of the practice of the medical art, to be aware of the necessity of
preventing his ideas from wandering if possible, he endeavoured to
recollect that he was a surgeon, and, after all, should not have the
extreme fear for the interior of a military hospital, which its horrors
might inspire into strangers to the profession. But though he strove, by
such recollections, to rally his spirits, he was not the less aware
of the difference betwixt the condition of a surgeon, who might have
attended such a place in the course of his duty, and a poor inhabitant,
who was at once a patient and a prisoner.

A footstep was now heard in the apartment, which seemed to silence all
the varied sounds of woe that filled it. The cribbage party hid their
cards, and ceased their oaths; other wretches, whose complaints had
arisen to frenzy, left off their wild exclamations and entreaties for
assistance. Agony softened her shriek, Insanity hushed its senseless
clamours, and even Death seemed desirous to stifle his parting groan
in the presence of Captain Seelencooper. This official was the
superintendent, or, as the miserable inhabitants termed him, the
Governor of the Hospital. He had all the air of having been originally
a turnkey in some ill-regulated jail--a stout, short, bandy-legged man,
with one eye, and a double portion of ferocity in that which remained.
He wore an old-fashioned tarnished uniform, which did not seem to have
been made for him; and the voice in which this minister of humanity
addressed the sick, was that of a boatswain, shouting in the midst of
a storm. He had pistols and a cutlass in his belt; for his mode of
administration being such as provoked even hospital patients to revolt,
his life had been more than once in danger amongst them. He was followed
by two assistants, who carried hand-cuffs and strait-jackets.

As Seelencooper made his rounds, complaint and pain were hushed, and the
flourish of the bamboo, which he bore in his hand, seemed powerful as
the wand of a magician to silence all complaint and remonstrance.

“I tell you the meat is as sweet as a nosegay--and for the bread, it's
good enough, and too good, for a set of lubbers, that lie shamming
Abraham, and consuming the Right Honourable Company's victuals--I
don't speak to them that are really sick, for God knows I am always for
humanity.”

“If that be the case, sir,” said Richard Middlemas, whose lair the
Captain had approached, while he was thus answering the low and humble
complaints of those by whose bed-side he passed--“if that be the case,
sir, I hope your humanity will make you attend to what I say.”

“And--who the devil are you?” said the Governor, turning on him his
single eye of fire, while a sneer gathered on his harsh features, which
were so well qualified to express it.

“My name is Middlemas--I come from Scotland, and have been sent here
by some strange mistake. I am neither a private soldier, nor am I
indisposed, more than by the heat of this cursed place.”

“Why then, friend, all I have to ask you is, whether you are an attested
recruit or not?”

“I was attested at Edinburgh,” said Middlemas, “but”--

“But what the devil would you have then?--you are enlisted--the Captain
and the Doctor sent you here--surely they know best whether you are
private or officer, sick or well.”

“But I was promised,” said Middlemas, “promised by Tom Hillary”--

“Promised, were you? Why, there is not a man here that has not been
promised something by somebody or another, or perhaps has promised
something to himself. This is the land of promise, my smart fellow,
but you know it is India that must be the land of performance. So, good
morning to you. The Doctor will come his rounds presently and put you
all to rights.”

“Stay but one moment--one moment only--I have been robbed.”

“Robbed! look you there now,” said the Governor--“everybody that comes
here has been robbed.--Egad, I am the luckiest fellow in Europe--other
people in my line have only thieves and blackguards upon their hands;
but none come to my ken but honest, decent, unfortunate gentlemen, that
have been robbed!”

“Take care how you treat this so lightly, sir,” said Middlemas; “I have
been robbed of a thousand pounds.”

Here Governor Seelencooper's gravity was totally overcome, and his laugh
was echoed by several of the patients, either because they wished
to curry favour with the superintendent, or from the feeling which
influences evil spirits to rejoice in the tortures of those who are sent
to share their agony.

“A thousand pounds!” exclaimed Captain Seelencooper, as he recovered his
breath,--“Come, that's a good one--I like a fellow that does not make
two bites of a cherry--why, there is not a cull in the ken that pretends
to have lost more than a few hoggs, and here is a servant to the
Honourable Company that has been robbed of a thousand pounds! Well
done, Mr. Tom of Ten Thousand-you're a credit to the house, and to the
service, and so good morning to you.”

He passed on, and Richard, starting up in a storm of anger and despair,
found, as he would have called after him, that his voice, betwixt thirst
and agitation, refused its office. “Water, water!” he said, laying hold,
at the same time, of one of the assistants who followed Seelencooper by
the sleeve. The fellow looked carelessly round; there was a jug stood by
the side of the cribbage players, which he reached to Middlemas, bidding
him, “Drink and be d----d.”

The man's back was no sooner turned, than the gamester threw himself
from his own bed into that of Middlemas, and grasping firm hold of the
arm of Richard, ere he could carry the vessel to his head, swore he
should not have his booze. It may be readily conjectured, that the
pitcher thus anxiously and desperately reclaimed, contained something
better than the pure element. In fact, a large proportion of it was
gin. The jug was broken in the struggle, and the liquor spilt. Middlemas
dealt a blow to the assailant, which was amply and heartily repaid,
and a combat would have ensued, but for the interference of the
superintendent and his assistants, who, with a dexterity that showed
them well acquainted with such emergencies, clapped a straight-waistcoat
upon each of the antagonists. Richard's efforts at remonstrance only
procured him a blow from Captain Seelencooper's rattan, and a tender
admonition to hold his tongue, if he valued a whole skin.

Irritated at once by sufferings of the mind and of the body, tormented
by raging thirst, and by the sense of his own dreadful situation,
the mind of Richard Middlemas seemed to be on the point of becoming
unsettled. He felt an insane desire to imitate and reply to the groans,
oaths, and ribaldry, which, as soon as the superintendent quitted the
hospital, echoed around him. He longed, though he struggled against the
impulse, to vie in curses with the reprobate, and in sc

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