Stttata, Netu fork 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE 
 
 SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 HENRY W. SAGE 
 
 1891 
 
■fjllf fajf maid of Perth; or, St. Valentine 
 
 3 1924 013 544 584 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013544584 
 
The (ilover and his daiighter go to the Blackfriars Monastery. 
 
 Maid of Perth, Chap, ii,, p. a9. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH 
 
 OR ST. VALENTINE'S DAY 
 
 By SIR WALTER SCOTT, Bart. 
 
 Author of "THE ABBOT," " GUY MANNERING," 
 "IVANHOE," " KENILWORTH," "ROB ROY," 
 "THE TALISMAN," " WAVERLEY," "THE 
 PIRATE," etc., etc '^ >« >« v< >« 
 
 ■ Fair is the damsel, passing fair; 
 
 Sunny at a distance gleams her smile. 
 Approach — the cloud of woful care 
 Hangs trembling in her eyes the while." 
 LuciNDA, A Ballad. 
 
 A. L. BURT COMPANY, J- ^ * ^ ^ 
 j^ Jt ji jt PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK 
 
 n 
 
PiSVCV^c^H- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The ashes here of murder'd kings 
 
 Beneath my footsteps sleep ; 
 And yonder lies the scene of death. 
 
 Where Mary learn'd to weep. 
 
 Captain Mabjoeibankb. 
 
 Evert quarter of Edinburgh has its own peculiar boast, so 
 that the city together combiaes within its precincts, if you 
 take the word of the inhabitants on the subject, as much of 
 historical interest as of natural beauty. Our claims in behalf 
 of the Canongate are not the slightest. The Castle may excel 
 us in extent of prospect and sublimity of site ; the Calton had 
 always the superiority of its unrivalled panorama, and has of 
 late added that of its towers, and triumphal arches, and the 
 pillars of its Parthenon. The High Street, we acknowledge, 
 had the distinguished honour of being defended by fortifica- 
 tions, of which we can show no vestiges. We wiU not de- 
 scend to notice the claims of more upstart districts, called 
 Old New Town and New New Town, not to mention the fa- 
 vourite Moray Place, which is the Newest New Town of all. ' 
 We will not match ourselves except with our equals, and with 
 our equals in age only, for in dignity we admit of one. We 
 boast being the court end of the town, possessiug the Palace 
 and the sepulchral remains of monarchs, and that we have the 
 power to excite, in a degree unknown to the less-honoured 
 quarters of the city, the dark and solemn recollections of an- 
 cient grandeur, which occupied the precincts of our venerable 
 Abbey from the time of St. David tiU her deserted haUs were 
 once more made glad, and her long-silent echoes awakened, 
 by the visit of our present gracious sovereign." 
 
 • See " Newest New Town," Edinburgh. Note 1. 
 ' See George IV.'s Visit to Edinburgh. Note 2. 
 
6 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 My long habitation in the neighhourhood, and the quiet re- 
 spectability of luy habits, have given me a sort of intimacy 
 with good Mrs. Policy, the housekeeper in that most inter- 
 esting part of the old building called Queen Mary's Apart- 
 ments. But a circumstance which lately happened has con- 
 ferred upon me greater privileges ; so that, indeed, I might, I 
 believe, venture on the exploit of Chatelet, who was executed 
 for being found secreted at midnight in the very bed-chamber 
 of Scotland's mistress. 
 
 It chanced that the good lady I have mentioned was, in the 
 discharge of her function, showing the apartments to a 
 cockney from London — not one of your quiet, dull, common- 
 place visitors, who gape, yawn, and listen with an acquiescent 
 " umph" to the information doled out by the provincial cice- 
 rone. No such thing : this was the brisk, alert agent of a 
 great house in the city, who missed no opportunity of doing 
 business, as he termed it — that is, of putting oiJ the goods of 
 his employers, and improving his own account of commission. 
 He had fidgeted through the suite of apartments, without 
 finding the least opportunity to touch upon that which he 
 considered as the principal end of his existence. Even the 
 story of Eizzio's assassination presented no ideas to this emis- 
 sary of commerce, until the housekeeper appealed, in sup- 
 port of her narrative, to the dusky stains of blood upon the 
 floor. 
 
 "These are the stains," she said; "nothing will remove 
 them from the place : there they have been for two hundred 
 and fifty years, and there they wiU remain while the floor 
 is left standing — neither water nor anything else will ever 
 remove them from that spot." 
 
 Now our cockney, amongst other articles, sold Scouring 
 Drops, as they are called, and a stain of two hundred and 
 fifty years' standing was interesting to him, not because it 
 had been caused by the blood of a queen's favourite, slain in 
 her apartment, but because it offered so admirable an oppor- 
 tunity to prove the ef&cacy of his unequalled Detergent Elixir. 
 Down on his knees went our friend, but neither in horror nor 
 devotion. 
 
mTRODUCTORT. 1 
 
 " Two hundred and fifty years, ma'am, and nothing take it 
 away? Why, if it had been five hundred, I have something 
 in my pocket will fetch it out in five minutes. D'ye see this 
 elixir, ma'am? I will show you the stain vanish in a 
 moment." 
 
 Accordingly, wetting one end of his handkerchief with the 
 all-deterging specific, he began to rub away on the planks, 
 without heeding the remonstrances of Mrs. Policy. She, good 
 soul, stood at first in astonishment, like the abbess of St. 
 Bridget's, when a profane visitant drank up the vial of brandy 
 which had long passed muster among the relics of the cloister 
 for the tears of the blessed saint. The venerable guardian of 
 St. Bridget probably expected the interference of her pa- 
 troness; she of Holyrood might, perhaps, hope that David 
 Eizzio's spectre would arise to prevent the profanation. But 
 Mrs. Policy stood not long in the silence of horror. She up- 
 lifted her voice, and screamed as loudly as Queen Mary her- 
 self when the dreadful deed was in the act of perpetration — 
 
 "Harrow, now out, and walawa! " she cried. 
 
 I happened to be taking my morning walk in the adjoining 
 gallery, pondering in my mind why the kings of Scotland, 
 who hung around me, should be each and every one painted 
 with a nose like the knocker of a door, when lo ! the waUs> 
 once more re-echoed with such shrieks as formerly were as 
 often heard in the Scottish palaces as were sounds of revelry 
 and music. Somewhat surprised at such an alarm in a place 
 so solitary, I hastened to the spot, and found the well-mean- 
 ing traveller scrubbing the floor like a housemaid, while Mrs. 
 Policy, dragging him by the skirts of the coat, in vain en- 
 deavoured to divert him. from his sacrilegious purpose. It 
 cost me some trouble to explain to the zealous purifier of silk- 
 stockings, embroidered waistcoats, broadcloth, and deal planks 
 that there were such things in the world as stains which ought 
 to remain indelible, on account of the associations with which 
 they are connected. Our good friend viewed everything of 
 the kind only as the means of displaying the virtue of his 
 vaunted commodity. He comprehended, however, that he 
 
8 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 would not he permitted to proceed to exemplify its powers on 
 the present occasion, as two or three inhabitants appeared, 
 who, like me, threatened to maintain the housekeeper's side 
 of the question. He therefore took his leave, mutteriag that 
 he had always heard the Scots were a nasty people, but had 
 no idea they carried it so far as to choose to have the floors of 
 their palaces blood-boltered, like BancLUo's ghost, when to re- 
 move them would have cost but a hundred drops of the Infal- 
 lible Detergent EltKir, prepared and sold by Messrs. Scrub 
 and Bub, in five shilling and ten shilling bottles, each bottle 
 being marked with the initials of the inventor, to counterfeit 
 which would be to incur the pains of forgery. 
 
 Preed from the odious presence of this lover of cleanliness, 
 my good friend Mrs. Policy was profuse in her expressions of 
 thanks ; and yet her gratitude, instead of exhausting itseH in 
 these declarations, according to the way of the world, con- 
 tinues as lively at this moment as if she had never thanked 
 me at all. It is owing to her recollection of this piece of 
 good service that I have the permission of wandering, like the 
 ghost of some departed gentleman usher, through these de- 
 serted halls, sometimes, as the old Irish ditty expresses it, 
 
 Thinking upon things that are long enough ago ; 
 
 and sometimes wishing I could, with the good-luck of most 
 editors of romantic narrative, light upon some hidden crypt 
 or massive antique cabinet, which should yield to my re- 
 searches an almost illegible manuscript, containing the au- 
 thentic particulars of some of the strange deeds of those wild 
 days of the unhappy Mary. 
 
 My dear Mrs, Baliol used to sympathise with me when I 
 regretted that all godsends of this nature had ceased to occur, 
 and that an author jnight chatter his teeth to pieces by the 
 seaside without a wave ever wafting to him a casket contain- 
 ing such a history as that of Automates; that he might break 
 his sins in stumbling through a hundred vaults without find- 
 ing anything but rats and mice ; and become the tenant of a 
 dozen sets of shabby tenements without finding that they con- 
 tained any manuscript but the weekly bill for board and lodg- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 9' 
 
 Jng. A dairymaid of these degenerate days might aa well 
 wash and de:h her dairy in hopes of finding the fairy testei 
 in her shoe. 
 
 "It is a sad and too true a tale, cousin," said Mrs. Baliol. 
 " I am sure we aU have occasion to regret the want of these 
 ready supplements to a failing invention. But you, most of 
 B^l, have right to complain that the fairest have not favoured 
 your researches — you, who have shown the world that the age 
 of chivalry still exists — you, the knight of Croftangry, who 
 braved the fury of the 'London 'prentice hold,' in behalf of 
 the fair Dame Policy, and the memorial of Eizzio's slaughter! 
 Is it not a pity, cousin, considering the feat of chivalry was 
 otherwise so much according to rule— is it not, I say, a great; 
 pity that the lady had not been a little younger, and the- 
 legend a little older?" 
 
 " Why, as to the age at which a fair dame loses the benefit 
 of chivalry, and is no longer entitled to crave boon of brave 
 knight, that I leave to the statutes of the Order of Errantry; 
 but for the blood of Eizzio I take up the gauntlet, and main- 
 tain against aU and sundry that I hold the stains to be of no 
 modern date, but to have been actually the consequence and 
 the record of that terrible assassination." 
 
 " As I cannot accept the challenge to the field, fair cousin, 
 I am contented to require proof." 
 
 " The unaltered tradition of the Palace, and the correspond- 
 ence of the existing state of things with that tradition." 
 
 "Explain, if you please." 
 
 " I will. The universal tradition bears that, when Eizzio 
 was dragged out of the chamber of the Queen, the heat and 
 fury of the assassins, who struggled which should deal him 
 most wounds, despatched him at the door of the ante-room. 
 At the door of the apartment, therefore, the greater quantity 
 of the ill-fated minion's blood was spilled, and there the 
 marks of it are stUl shown. It is reported further by his- 
 torians, that Mary continued her entreaties for his life, min- 
 gling her prayers with screams and exclamations, until she 
 knew that he was assuredly slain ; on which she wiped her 
 eyes and said, *I will now study revenge.' " 
 
10 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 " All this 13 granted. But the blood — would it not -wash-i 
 out, or waste out, think you, in so many years?" 
 
 "I am coming to that presently. The constant tradition of' 
 the Palace says, that Mary discharged any measures to be- 
 taken to remove the marks of slaughter, which she had re- 
 solved should remain as a memorial to quicken and confirm; 
 her purposed vengeance. But it is added that, satisfied with' 
 the knowledge that it existed, and not desirous to have the -, 
 ghastly evidence always under her eye, she caused a traverse, 
 as it is called (that is, a temporary screen of boards), to be ; 
 drawn along the under part of the ante-room, a few feet from> 
 the door, so as to separate the place stained with the bloodj 
 from the rest of the apartment, and involve it in considerable- 
 obscurity. Now this temporary partition still exists, and, by; 
 running across and iuterrupting the plan of the roof and cor- 
 nices, plainly intimates that it has been intended to serve 
 some temporary purpose, since it disfigures the proportions of: 
 the room, interferes with the ornaments of the ceiling, andl 
 could only have been put there for some such purpose as hid- 
 ing an object too disgreeable to be looked upon. As to the- 
 objection that the blood-stains would have disappeared in. 
 course of time, I apprehend that, if measures to efface them;, 
 were not taken immediately after the affair happened — if the : 
 blood, in other words, were allowed to sink into the wood, thej 
 stain would become almost indelible. Now, not to mention 
 that our Scottish palaces were not particularly well washed in' 
 those days, and that there were no Patent Drops to assist the ■ 
 labours of the mop, I think it very probable that these dark . 
 relics might subsist for a long course of time, even if Mary 
 had not desired or directed that they should be preserved, but; 
 screened by the traverse from public sight. I know several: 
 instances of similar blood-stains remaining for a great many 
 years, and I doubt whether, after a certain time, anything can- 
 remove them save the carpenter's plane. If any seneschal, by 
 way of increasing the interest of the apartments, had, by 
 means of paint, or any other mode of imitation, endeavoured 
 to palm upon posterity supposititious stigmata, I conceive that 
 Hoe impostor would have chosen the Queea's cabinet, and tha 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 11 
 
 bedrooiu lor the scene of his trick, placing his bloody tracery 
 where it could be distinctly seen by visitors, instead of hiding 
 it behind the traverse in this manner. The existence of the 
 said traverse, or temporary partition, is also extremely diffi- 
 cult to be accounted for, if the common and ordinary tradi- 
 tion be rejected. In short, all the rest of this striking locality 
 is so true to the historical fact, that I think it may -well beai 
 .out the additional circumstance of the blood on the floor." 
 
 "I profess to you," answered Mrs. Baliol, "that I am very 
 •-willing to be converted to your faith. We talk of a credulous 
 •vulgar, without always recollecting that there is a vulgar in- 
 credulity, which, in historical matters as well as in those of 
 •religion, finds it easier to doubt than to examine, and en- 
 .deavours to assume the credit of an esprit fort, by denying 
 ^whatever happens to be a little beyond the very limited com- 
 fprehension of the sceptic. And so, that point being settled, 
 rand you possessing, as we understand, the open sesamum into 
 these secret apartments, how, if we may ask, do you intend 
 >ta avail yourself of your privilege? Do you propose to pass 
 the night in the royal bedchamber?" 
 
 "For what purpose, my dear lady? If to improve the 
 rheumatism, this east wind may serve the purpose.-" 
 
 " Improve the rheumatism ! Heaven forbid! that would be 
 worse than adding colours to the violet. No, I mean to rec- 
 ommend a night on the couch of the Rose of Scotland, merely 
 to improve the imagination. "Who knows what dreams might 
 be produced by a night spent in a mansion of so many mem- 
 ories! For aught I know, the iron door of the postern stair 
 might open at the dead hour of midnight, and, as at the time 
 of the conspiracy, forth might saHy the phantom assassins, 
 with stealthy step and ghastly look, to renew the semblance 
 of the deed. There comes the fierce fanatic Euthven, party 
 , hatred enabling him to bear the armour which would other- 
 \wise weigh down a form extenuated by wasting disease. See 
 how his writhen features show under the hollow helmet, like 
 those of a corpse tenanted by a demon, whose vindictive pur- 
 pose looks out at the flashing eyes, while the visage has the 
 stillness of death. Yonder appears the tall form of the boy 
 
12 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 Damley, as goodly in person as vacillating in resolution { 
 yonder he advances with hesitating step, and yet more hesi- 
 tating purpose, his childish fear having already overcome his 
 childish passion. He is in the plight of a mischievous lad 
 who has fired a mine, and who now, expecting the explosion 
 in remorse and terror, would give his life to quench the train 
 
 which his own haud lighted. Yonder — ^yonder But I 
 
 forget the rest of the worthy cut-throats. Help me if you 
 can." 
 
 "Summon up," said I, "the postulate, George Douglas, the 
 most active of the gang. Let him arise at your caU. — the 
 claimaat of wealth which he does not possess, the partaker of 
 the illustrious blood of Douglas, but which in his veins is sul- 
 lied with illegitimacy. Paint him the ruthless, the daring, 
 the ambitious — so nigh greatness, yet debarred from it; so 
 near to wealth, yet excluded from possessing it; a political 
 Tantalus, ready to do or dare anything to terminate his neces- 
 sities and assert his imperfect claims." 
 
 "Admirable, my dear Croftangryl But what is a postu- 
 late?" 
 
 "Pooh, my dear madam, you disturb the current of my 
 ideas. The postulate was, in Scottish phrase, the candidate 
 fop some benefice which he had not yet attained. George 
 Douglas, who stabbed Eizzio, was the postulate for the tem- 
 poral possessions of the rich abbey of Arbroath." 
 
 "I stand informed. Come, proceed; who comes next?" 
 continued Mrs. Baliol. 
 
 "Who comes next? Yon taU, thin-made, savage-looking 
 man, with the petronel in his hand, must be Andrew Ker of 
 Faldonside,* a brother's son, I believe, of the celebrated Sir 
 David Ker of Cessford; his look and bearing those of a Border 
 freebooter, his disposition so savage that, during the fray in 
 the cabinet, he presented his loaded piece at the bosom of the 
 young and beautiful Queen, that queen also being within a 
 few weeks of becoming a mother." 
 
 > For this "stout and zealous promoter of the Reformation," see David 
 Latng's Preface, p. Ixviii., to Knox's Works, vol. vi. 1864. He married in 
 1674 Margaret Stewart, widow of John Knox, the Reformer (.Laing). 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 13 
 
 * Brave, beau cousin I Well, having raised your bevy of 
 phantoms, I hope you do not intend to send them back to their 
 cold beds to warm them? You wiU put them to some action, 
 and since you do threaten the Canongate with your desperate 
 quill, you surely mean to novelise, or to dramatise, if you 
 win, this most singular of all tragedies?" 
 
 " Worse — that is less interesting — periods of history have 
 been, indeed, shown, up, for furnishing amusement to the 
 peaceable ages which have succeeded; but, dear lady, the 
 events are too well known in Mary's days to be used as ve- 
 hides of romautic fiction. What can a better writer than my- 
 self add to the elegant and forcible narrative of Robertson? 
 So adieu to my vision. I awake, like John Bunyan, 'and 
 behold it is a dream.' Well enough that I awake without a 
 sciatica, which would have probably rewarded my slumbers 
 had I profaned Queen Mary's bed by using it as a mechanical 
 resource to awaken a torpid imagination." 
 
 "This win never do, cousin," answered Mrs. Baliol; "you 
 must get over all these scruples, if you would thrive in the 
 character of a romantic historian, which you have determined 
 to embrace. What is the classic Eobertson to you? The 
 light which he carried was that of a lamp to illuminate the 
 dark events of antiquity ; yours is a magic lantern to raise up 
 wonders which never existed. No reader of sense wonders at 
 your historical inaccuracies, any more than he does to see 
 Punch in the show-box seated on the same throne with King 
 Solomon in his glory, or to hear him hallooing out to the 
 patriarch, amid the deluge, 'Mighty hazy weather, Mastet 
 Noah.' " 
 
 "Do not mistake me, my dear madam," said I; 'I am quite 
 conscious of my own immunities as a tale-teUer. But even 
 the mendacious Mr. Tag, in Sheridan's Rivals,' assures us 
 that, though he never scruples to tell a lie at his master's 
 conunand, yet it hurts his conscience to be found out. Now, 
 this is the reason why I avoid in prudence aU well-known 
 paths of history, where every one can read the finger-posts 
 earefully set up to advise them of the right turning: and the 
 > [Act ii. sc. 1 J 
 
14 WAVERLET N0TEL8. 
 
 very boys and girls, who learn the history of Britain by way 
 of question and answer, hoot at a poor author if he abandons 
 the highway." 
 
 " Do not be discouraged, however, cousin Chrystal. There 
 are plenty of wildernesses in Scottish history, through which, 
 unless I am greatly misinformed, no certain paths have been 
 laid down from actual survey, but which are only described 
 by imperfect tradition, which fills up with wonders and with 
 legends the periods in which no real events are recognised to 
 have taken place. Even thus, as Mat Prior says : 
 
 Geographers on pathless downs 
 Place elephants instead of towns. 
 
 " If such be your advice, my dear lady," said I, " the course 
 of my story shall take its rise upon this occasion at a remote 
 period of history, and in a province removed from my natural 
 sphere of the Canongate." 
 
 It was under the influence of those feelings that I under- 
 took the following historical romance, which, often suspended 
 and flung aside, is now arrived at a size too important to be 
 altogether thrown away, although there may be little pru- 
 dence in sending it to the press. 
 
 I have not placed in the mouth of the characters the Low- 
 land Scotch dialect now spoken, because unquestionably the 
 Scottish of that day resembled very closely the Anglo-Saxon, 
 with a sprinkling of French or Norman to enrich it. Those 
 who wish to investigate the subject may consult the Chronicles 
 of Winton and the History of Bruce by Archdeacon Barbour. 
 But supposing my own skill in the ancient Scottish were suffi- 
 cient to invest the dialogue with its peculiarities, a transla- 
 tion must have been necessary for the benefit of the general 
 reader. The Scottish dialect may be therefore considered as 
 laid aside, unless where the use of peculiar words may add 
 emphasis or vivacity to the composition. 
 
(D 
 O) 
 CO 
 CL 
 
 (Ji 
 

 CQ 
 
 Tl 
 
 (Q 
 CD 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In continuing the lucubrations of Clixystal Croftangry, it 
 occurred that, although the press had of late years teemed 
 with works of various descriptions concerniag the Scottish 
 Gael, no attempt had hitherto been made to sketch their man- 
 ners, as these might be supposed to have existed at the period 
 when the statute-book, as well as the page of the chronicler, 
 begins to present constant evidence of the difficulties to which 
 the crown was exposed, while the haughty house of Douglas 
 all but overbalanced its authority on the Southern border, and 
 the North was at the same time torn in pieces by the yet un- 
 tamed savageness of the Highland races, and the dariug 
 loftiness to which some of the remoter chieftains stUl carried 
 their pretensions. The well-authenticated fact of two power- 
 ful clans having deputed each thirty champions to fight out a 
 quarrel of old standiug, in presence of Kiag Robert III., his 
 brother the Duke of Albany, and the whole court of Scotland, 
 at Perth, in the year of grace 1396, seemed to mark with 
 equal distiuctness the rancour of these mountain-feuds and the 
 degraded condition of the general government of the country; 
 and it was fixed upon accordiugly as the point on which the 
 mairi, incidents of a romantic narrative might be made to 
 hinge. The characters of Eobert III., his ambitious brother, 
 and his dissolute son seemed to offer some opportunities oi in- 
 teresting contrast; and the tragic fate of the heir of the 
 throne, with its Immediate consequences, might serve to com- 
 plete the picture of cruelty and lawlessness. 
 
 Two features of the story of this barrier-battle on the Inch 
 of Perth — ^the flight of one of the appointed champions, and 
 the reckless heroism of a townsman, that volimtarily offered 
 for a small piece of coin to supply his place in the mortal en- 
 counter — suggested the imaginary persons, on whom much of 
 
18 WAVBRLET NOVELS. 
 
 the novel is expended. The fugitive Celt might have been 
 ©asUy dealt with, had a ludicrous style of colouring been 
 adopted; but it appeared to the Author that there would be 
 more of novelty, as weU as of serious interest, if he could suc- 
 ceed in gaining for him something of that sympathy which 1» 
 incompatible with the total absence of respect. Miss BaUlie 
 had drawn a coward by nature capable of acting as a hero 
 under the strong impulse of filial affection. It seemed jiot 
 impossible to conceive the case of one constitutionally weak of 
 nerve being supported by feelings of honour and of jealousy 
 up to a certain point, and then suddenly giving way, under 
 circumstances to which the bravest heart could hardly refuse 
 compassion. ' 
 
 The controversy, as to who really were the clans that 
 figured in the barbarous conflict of the Inch has been revived 
 since the publication of the Fair Maid, of Perth, and treated 
 in particular at great length by Mr. EobertMackay of Thurso, 
 in his very curious History of the Mouse and Clan of Mackay.^ 
 Without pretending to say that he has settled any part of the 
 question in the affirmative, this gentleman certainly seems to 
 have quite succeeded in proving that his own worthy sept had 
 no part in the transaction. The Mackays were in that age 
 seated, as they have since continued to be, in the extreme 
 north of the island ; and their chief at the time was a person- 
 age of such importance, that his name and proper designation 
 could not have been omitted in the early narratives of the oc- 
 currence. He on one occasion brought four thousand of his 
 clan to the aid of the royal ba^iuier against the Lord of the 
 Isles. This historian is of opinion that the Clan Quhele of 
 Wyntoun were the Camerons, who appear to have about that 
 period been often designated as Macewans, and to have gained 
 much more recently the name of Camsron, i.e. Wrynose, from 
 a blemish in the physiognomy of some heroic chief of the line 
 of Lochiel. This view of the case is also adopted by Douglas 
 in his Baronage, where he frequently mentions the bitter 
 feuds between Clan Chattan and Clan Kay, and identifies the 
 
 ' [See Lockhart's Ijife of Scott, vol. ix. pp. 222-225,] 
 ' Edinburgh, 4to, 1829. 
 
PREFACE. 19 
 
 latter sept, in reference to tlie events of 1396, witli the Cam- 
 
 erons. It is perhaps impossible to clear up thoroughly this 
 
 controversy, little interesting in itself, at least to readers on 
 
 this side of Inverness. The names, as we have them in 
 
 Wyntoun, are " Clanwhewyl" and "Clachinya," the latter 
 
 probably not correctly transcribed. In the Scoti-Chronicon 
 
 they are " Clanquhele" and " Clankay." Hector Boece writes 
 
 "Clanchattan" and "Clankay," in which he is followed by 
 
 Leslie ; while Buchanan disdains to disfigure his page with 
 
 their Gaelic designations at all, and merely describes them as 
 
 two powerful races in the wild and lawless region beyond the 
 
 Grampians. Out of this jumble what Sassenach can pretend 
 
 dare lucem ? The name Clanwheill appears so late as 1594, 
 
 in an Act of James VI. Is it not possible that it may be, 
 
 after all, a mere corruption of Clan Lochiel? 
 
 The reader may not be displeased to have Wyntoun's original 
 
 rhymes [bk. ix. chap, xvii.] : 
 
 A thousand and thre hundyr yere, 
 Nynty and sex to mak all clere — 
 Of thre-scor wyld Scottis men, 
 Thretty agane thretty then, 
 In felny bolnit of auld fed,' 
 As thare forelderis ware slane to dede. 
 Tha thre-score ware clannys twa, 
 Clahynnhe Qwhewyl and Clachinyha; 
 Of thir twa kynnis ware tha men, 
 Thretty agane thretty then ; 
 And thare thai had than chiftanys twa, 
 Scha' Ferqwharis' son wes ane of tha. 
 The tother Cristy Johnesone. 
 A selconth thing be tha was done. 
 At Sanot Johnestone besid the Preris, 
 All thai entrit in barr^ris 
 Wyth how and ax, knyf and swerd. 
 To deil amang thaim thare last werd. 
 Thare thai laid on that time sa fast, 
 Quha had the ware thare at the last 
 I will noucht say ; bot quha best had, 
 , He wes but dout bathe muth and mad. 
 Fifty or m^ ware slane that day, 
 SuS. few wyth lif than past away. 
 
 ' i.e. Boiled with the cruelty of an old feud. 
 
 » Scha is supposed to be Toshach, i.e. Macintosh : the father of the chief 
 of this sept at the time was named Ferchard. In Bower [the Continuator 
 of Fordun] he is Scheabeg, i.e. Toshach the Little. 
 
20 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 The prior of LocHeven makes no mention either of the eva- 
 sion of one of the Gaelic champions, or of the gallantry of the- 
 Perth artisan, in offering to take a share in the conflict. Both; 
 incidents, however, were introduced, no douht from tradition,- 
 by the Continuator of Fordun [Bower], whose narrative is in. 
 these words : 
 
 Anno Dom, millesimo trecentesimo nonagesimo sexto, magna parsr^ 
 borealis Scotise, trans Alpes, inquietata fuit per duos pestiferos Cateranos, . 
 et eorum sequaces, viz. Scheabeg et suos consanguinarios, qui Clankay, et' 
 Cristi Jonsonem ac suos, qui Clanqwhele dicebantur ; qui nullo pacto vel 
 tractatu pacificari poterant, nullAque arte regis vel gubematoris poterant. 
 edomari, quoadusque nobilis et industriosus Dominus David de Lindesay 
 de Crawford, et Dominus Thomas comes Moraviae, diligentiam et virea 
 apposuerunt, ao inter partes sic tractaverunt, ut coram domino rege certo- 
 die convenirent apud Perth, et alterutra pars eligeret de progenie sua. 
 triginta personas adversus triginta de parte contraria, cum gladiis tantim, 
 et arcubus et sagittis, absque deploidibus, vel armaturis aliis, prseter bi- 
 pennes ; et sic congredientes fiiiem liti ponerent, et terra pace potiretur. 
 Utrique igitur parti sum.m6 placuit contractas, et die lunse proximo ante 
 festum Sancti Michaelis, apud North insulam de Perth, coram rege et gu- 
 bernatore et innumerabill multitudine comparentes, conflictum acerrimum 
 inierunt; ubi de sexaginta interfecti sunt omnes, excepto uno ex parte' 
 Clankay et undecim exceptis ex parte altera. Hoc etiam ibi accidit, qudd 
 omnes in procinctu belli constitati, unus eorum locum dififugii cousiderans,. 
 inter omnes in amnem elabitur, et aquam de Thaya natando transgreditur; 
 h millenis insequitur, sed nusquam apprehenditur. Stant igitur partes 
 attonitse, tanquam non ad conflictum progressuri, . ob defectum evasi: 
 noluit enim para integrum habens numerum sociorum consentire, ut unus 
 de suis demeretur ; nee potuit pars altera quocumque pretio alterum ad 
 Bupplendum vicem fugientis inducere. Stupent igitur omnes hserentes, 
 de damno fugitivi conquerentes. Et cim totum Ulud opus cessare putare- 
 tur, ecce in medio prorupit unus stipulosus vernaculus, staturA modicus. 
 Bed efferus, dicens : Ecce ego I quis me conducet intrare cum operariis istis 
 ad hunc ludum theatralem ? Pro dimidia enira marca ludum experiar, 
 ultra hoc petens, ut si vivus de palsestra evasero, victum k quocumque ves- 
 trrim recipiam dum vixero: quia, sicut dicitur, "Majorem caritatem nemo 
 habet, quS,m ut animam suam ponat suis pro amicis." Quali mercede 
 donabor, qui animam meam pro inimicis reipublicas et regni pono? 
 Quod petiit, k rege et diversis mag jatibua couceditur. Cum hoc arcus ejus 
 extenditur, et primfl sagittam in partem contrariam transmittit, et unum 
 interficit. Confestim hinc inde sagittse volitant, bipennes librant, gladios 
 vibrant, alterutro certant, et veluti carnifices boves in macello, sic incon- 
 stematS ad invicSm se trucidant. Sed nee inter tantos repertus est vel 
 onus, qui, tanquam veoors aut timidus, sive post tergum alterius declinans, 
 seipsum k tanta csede prsetendit excusare. Iste tamen tyro superveniens 
 finaliter illsesus exivit ; et dehinc multo tempore Boreas quievit, nee ibidem 
 ftiit, ut supr^, cateranorum excursus, i 
 
 » See Translation of Continuator of Fordun. Note 3. 
 
PREFACE. 21 
 
 The scene is heigMened with many florid additions hy Boece 
 <uad Leslie, and the contending savages in Buchanan utter 
 speeches after the most approved pattern of Livy. 
 
 The devotion of the young chief of Clan Quhele's foster- 
 father and foster-brethren in the novel is a trait of clannish 
 fidelity, of -which Highland story furnishes many examples. 
 In the battle of Inverkeithing, between the Eoyalists and 
 Oliver Cromwell's troops, a foster-father and seven brave sons 
 are known to have thus sacrificed themselves for Sir Hector 
 Maclean of Duart; the old man, whenever one of his boys feU, 
 thrustiag forward another to fill his place at the right hand of 
 the beloved chief, with the very words adopted in the novel, 
 "Another for Hector 1" 
 
 !N"ay, the f eeliug could outlive generations. The late much- 
 lamented General Stewart of Garth, in his account of the bat- 
 tle of KUliecrankie, informs us that Loehiel was attended on 
 the field by the son of his foster-brother. 
 
 " This faithful adherent followed him like his shadow, ready to assist 
 him with his sword, or cover him from the shot of the enemy. Suddenly 
 the chief missed his friend from his side, and, turning round to look what 
 had become of him, saw him lying on his back with his breast pierced by 
 an arrow. He had hardly breath, before he expired, to tell Loehiel that, 
 seeing an enemy, a Highlander in General Maokay's army, aiming at him 
 with a bow and arrow, he sprung behind him, and thus sheltered him 
 from instant death. This" observes the gallant David Stewart, "is a 
 species of duty not often practised, perhaps, by our aide-de-camps of the 
 present day." — Sketches of the Mghlanders, vol. i. p. 65. 
 
 I have only to add, that the Second Series of Chronicles of 
 the Canongate, with the chapter introductory which precedes, 
 appeared in May, 1828, and had a favourable reception.' 
 
 Abbotsfobd, Aug. 15, 1831. 
 
 • See Mr. Senior's CMtUdam. XotaA 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH 
 
 OR 
 
 ST. VALENTINE'S DAY 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 " Behold the Tiber," the vain Boman cried. 
 Viewing the ample Tay from Baiglie's side; 
 But Where's the Soot that would the vaunt repay. 
 And hail the puny Tiber for the Tay?» 
 
 Among all the provinces in Scotland, if an intelligent 
 stranger ■were asked to describe the most varied and the mosii 
 beautiful, it is probable lie ■would name the county of Perth. 
 A native also of any other district of Caledonia, though his 
 partialities might lead him to prefer his native county in the 
 first instance, -would certainly class that of Perth in the sec- 
 ond, and thus give its inhabitants a fair right to plead that, 
 prejudice apart, Perthshire forms the fairest portion of the 
 Northern kingdom. It is long since Lady Mary Wortley 
 Montagu, -with that excellent taste which characterises her 
 ■writings, expressed her opinion that the most interesting dis- 
 trict of every country, and that -which exhibits the varied 
 beauties of natural scenery in greatest perfection, is that 
 ■where the mountains sink down upon the champaign, or more 
 level land. The most picturescLue, if not the highest, hnis axe 
 also to be found in the county of Perth. The rivers find their 
 way out of the mountainous region by the wildest leaps, and 
 through the most romantic passes connecting the Highlands 
 with the Lowlands. Above, the vegetation of a happier cli- 
 mate and soil is mingled with the magnificent characteristics 
 of mountain scenery, and woods, groves, and thickets in pro- 
 » See Tiber and Tay. Note 5. 
 
24 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 fusion clothe tlie base of the hills, ascend up the ravines, and 
 miagle with the precipices. It is ia such favoured regions 
 that the traveller finds "what the poet Gray, or some one else, 
 has termed beauty lying in the lap of terror. 
 
 Prom the same advantage of situation, this favoured prov- 
 ince presents a variety of the most pleasiug character. Its 
 lakes, woods, and mountains may vie in beauty with any that 
 the Highland tour exhibits ; while Perthshire contains, amidst 
 this romantic scenery, and in some places in connexion with 
 it, many f ertUe and habitable tracts, which may vie with the 
 richness of merry England herself. The county has also been 
 the scene of many remarkable exploits and events, some of 
 historical importance, others interesting to the poet and ro- 
 mancer, though recorded in popular tradition alone. It was 
 ia these vales that the Saxons of the plain and the Gael of the 
 mountains had many a desperate and bloody encounter, in 
 which it was frequently impossible to decide the palm of vic- 
 tory between the mailed chivalry of the low country and the 
 plaided clans whom they opposed. 
 
 Perth, so emiaent for the beauty of its situation, is a place 
 of great antiquity ; and old tradition assigns to the town the 
 importance of a Eoman foundation. That victorious nation, 
 it is said, pretended to recognise the Tiber in the much more 
 magnificent and navigable Tay, and to acknowledge the large 
 level space, well known by the name of the North Inch, as 
 having a near resemblance to their Campus Martins. The 
 city was often the residence of our monarchs, who, although 
 they had no palace at Perth, found the Cistercian convent 
 amply sufficient for the reception of their court. It was here 
 that James the First, one of the wisest and best of the Scottish 
 kings, fell a victim to the jealousy of the vengeful aristocracy. 
 Here also occurred the mysterious conspiracy of Gowrie, the 
 scene of which has only of late been effaced, by the destruc- 
 tion of the ancient palace in which the tragedy was acted. 
 The Antiquarian Society of Perth, with just zeal for the ob- 
 jects of their pursuit, have published' an accurate plan of 
 
 • The first volmne, printed at Perth, 1827, is all that ever appeared 
 (Laing.) 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 26 
 
 this Baemorable mansion, with, some remarks upon its con- 
 nexion with the narrative of 'the plot, which display equal 
 acuteness and candour. 
 
 One of the most beautiful points of view which Britain, or 
 perhaps the world, can. afEord is, or rather we may say was, 
 the prospect from a spot called the Wicks of Baiglie, beiag a 
 species of niche at which the traveller arrived, after a long 
 stage from Kinross, through a waste and uninteresting coun- 
 try, and from which, as forming a pass over the summit of a 
 ridgy eminence which he had gradually surmounted, he beheld, 
 stretching beneath him, the valley of the Tay, traversed by 
 its ample and lordly stream; the town of Perth, with its two 
 large meadows, or inches, its steeples, and its towers; the 
 hills of Moncrieff and Kinnoul faintly rising into picturesque 
 rocks, partly clothed with woods ; the rich margin of the river, 
 studded with elegant mansions ; and the distant view of the 
 huge Grampian mountains, the northern screen of this ex- 
 quisite landscape. The alteration of the road, greatly, it 
 must be owned, to the improvement of general intercourse, 
 avoids this magnificent point of view, and the landscape is in- 
 troduced more gradually and partially to the eye, though the 
 approach must be still considered as extremely beautiful. 
 There is still, we believe, a footpath left open, by which the 
 station at the Wicks of Baiglie may be approached; and the 
 traveller, by quitting his horse or equipage, and walking a 
 few hundred yards, may stDl compare the real landscape with 
 the sketch which we have attempted to give. But it is not 
 in our power to communicate, or in his to receive, the exqui- 
 site charm which surprise gives to pleasure, when so splendid 
 a view arises when least expected or hoped for, and which 
 Chrystal Croftangry experienced when he beheld, for the first 
 time, the matchless scene.' 
 
 Childish wonder, indeed, was an ingredient in my delight, 
 for I was not above fifteen years old ; and as this had been the 
 first excursion which I was permitted to make on a pony of 
 my own, I also experienced the glow of independence, mingled 
 with that degree of anxiety which the most conceited boy 
 • See View from tlie Wicks of Baiglie. Note 6. 
 
26 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 feels when lie ia first abandoned to Ms own undirected coun- 
 sels. I recollect pulling up the reins -without meaning to do 
 so, and gazing on the scene before me as if I had been afraid 
 it would shift like those in a theatre before I could distinctly 
 observe its different parts, or convince myself that what I saw 
 was real. Since that hour, and the period is now more than 
 fifty years past, the recollection of that inimitable landscape 
 has possessed the strongest influence over my mind, and re- 
 tained its place as a memorable thing, when much that was 
 influential on my own fortunes has fled from my recollection. 
 It is therefore unnatural that, whilst deliberating on what 
 might be brought forward for the amusement of the public, I 
 should pitch upon some narrative connected with the splendid 
 scenery which made so much impression on my youthful im- 
 agination, and which may perhaps have that effect in setting 
 off the imperfections of the composition which ladies suppose 
 a fine set of china to possess in heightening the flavotir of 
 indifferent tea." 
 
 The period at which I propose to commence is, however, 
 considerably earlier of the remarkable historical transactions 
 to which I have already alluded, as the events which I am 
 about to recount occurred during the last years of the 14th 
 century, when the Scottish sceptre was swayed by the gentle 
 but feeble hand of John, who, on being called to the throne, 
 assumed the title of Eobert the Third. 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 A conntry Up may have the velvet touch ; 
 Though she's no lady, she may please aa mncb. 
 
 Dbyden. 
 
 Perth, boasting, as we have au-eady mentioned, so large a 
 portion of the beauties of inanimate nature, has at no time 
 been without its own share of those charms which are at onca 
 more interesting and more transient. To be called the Eaii 
 
 ' See Author's Description of Perth. Note 7. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 27 
 
 Maid of Perth would at any period have been a high distinc- 
 tion, and have inferred no mean superiority in beauty, where 
 there were many to claim that much envied attribute. But, in 
 the 'feudal times to which we now call the reader's attention, 
 female beauty was a quality of much higher importance than 
 it has been since the ideas of chivalry have been in a great 
 measure extinguished. The love of the ancient cavaliers was 
 a licensed species of idolatry, which the love of Heaven alone 
 was theoretically supposed to approach in intensity, and which 
 in practice it seldom equalled. God and the ladies were 
 familiarly appealed to in the same breath ; and devotion to 
 the fair sex was as peremptorily enjoined upon the aspirant 
 to the honour of chivalry as that which was due to Heaven. 
 At such a period in society, the power of beauty was almost 
 unlimited. It could level the highest rank with that which 
 was immeasurably inferior. 
 
 It was but in the reign preceding that of Robert III. that 
 beauty alone had elevated a person of inferior rank and indiffer- 
 ent morals to share the Scottish throne ; ' and many women, less 
 artful or less fortunate, had risen to greatness from a state of 
 concubinage, for which the manners of the times made allow- 
 ance and apology. Such views might have dazzled a girl of 
 higher birth than Catharine, or Katie, Glover, who was uni- 
 versally acknowledged to be the most beautiful young woman 
 of the city or its vicinity, and whose renown, as the Pair Maid 
 of Perth, had drawn on her much notice from the young gal- 
 lants of the royal court, when it chanced to be residing in or 
 near Perth ; insomuch that more than one nobleman of the 
 highest rank, and most distinguished for deeds of chivalry, 
 were more attentive to exhibit feats of horsemanship as they 
 passed the door of old Simon Glover, in what was called Cou- 
 vrefew, or Curfew, Street, than to distinguish themselves in 
 the tournaments, where the noblest dames of Scotland were 
 spectators of their address. 
 
 But the glover's daughter — for, as was common with the 
 aitizens and artisans of that early period, her father, Simon, 
 derived his surname from the trade which he practised— 
 * See Scottish Royal Marriages. Note 8. 
 
38 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 sliowed no inclination to listen to any gallantry whicli cama 
 from those of a station highly exalted above that which she 
 herself occupied, and, though probahly in no degree insensible 
 to her personal charms, seemed desirous to confine her Con- 
 quests to those who were within her own sphere of life. In- 
 deed, her beauty being of that kind which we connect mora 
 with the mind than with the person, was, notwithstanding her 
 natural kindness and gentleness of disposition, rather allied 
 to reserve than to gaiety, even when in company with her 
 equals ; and the earnestness with which she attended upon the 
 exercises of devotion induced many to think that Catharine 
 Glover nourished the private wish to retire from the world 
 and bury herself in the recesses of the cloister. But to such 
 a sacrifice, should it be meditated, it was not to be expected 
 her father, reputed a wealthy man and having this only child, 
 would yield a willing consent. 
 
 In her resolution of avoiding the addresses of the gallant 
 courtiers, the reigning beauty of Perth was confirmed by the 
 sentiments of her parent. "Let them go," he said — "let 
 them go, Catharine, those gallants, with their capering horses, 
 their jingling spurs, their plumed bonnets, and their trim, 
 mustachios : they are not of our class, nor wiU we aim at pair- 
 ing with them. To-morrow is St. Valentine's Day, when 
 every bird chooses her mate ; but you wUl not see the linnet 
 pair with the sparrow-hawk, nor the Robin Redbreast with 
 the kite. My father was an honest burgher of Perth, and 
 could use his needle as well as I can. Did there come war to 
 the gates of our fair burgh, down went needles, thread, and 
 shamoy leather, and out came the good head-piece and target 
 from the dark nook, and the long lance from above the chim- 
 ney. Show me a day that either he or I was absent when the 
 provost made his musters I Thus we have led our lives, my 
 girl, working to win our bread, and fighting to defend it. I 
 wiU haye no son-in-law that thinks himseU better than mej 
 and for these lords and knights, I trust thou wilt always re- 
 member thou art too low to be their lawful love, and too high 
 to be their unlawful loon. And now lay by thy work, lass, 
 for it is holytide eve, and it becomes us to go to tha evening 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 29 
 
 Mrvice, and pray tliat Heaven may send tliee a good Yaleu- 
 ti&e to-morro-w," 
 
 So the Fair Maid of Perth laid aside the splendid hawking- 
 glove ■which she was embroidering for the Lady Drummond, 
 and putting on her holyday kirtle, prepared to attend her 
 father to the Blaekfriars monastery, which was adjacent to 
 Couvrefew Street in which they lived. On their passage, 
 Simon Glover, an ancient and esteemed burgess of Perth, 
 somewhat stricken in years and increased in substance, re- 
 ceived from young and old the homage due to his velvet jerkin 
 and his golden chain, while the well-known beauty of Catha- 
 rine, though concealed beneath her screen — ^which resembled 
 the mantilla stiU worn in Flanders — called both obeisances 
 and dofflngs of the bonnet from young and old. 
 
 As the pair moved on arm in arm, they were followed by a 
 tall handsome young man, dressed in a yeoman's habit of the 
 plainest kind, but which showed to advantage his fine limbs, 
 as the handsome countenance that looked out from a quantity 
 of curled tresses, surmounted by a small scarlet bonnet, be- 
 came that species of head-dress. He had no other weapon 
 than a stafE in his hand, it not being thought fit that persons 
 of his degree (for he was an apprentice to the old glover) 
 should appear on the street armed with sword or dagger, a 
 privilege which the jackmen, or military retaiuers of the no- 
 bility, esteemed exclusively their own. He attended his 
 master at holytide, partly in the character of a domestic, or 
 guardian, should there be cause for his interference ; but it 
 was not difllcult to discern, by the earnest attention which 
 he paid to Catharine Glover, that it was to her, rather 
 than to her father, that he desired to dedicate his good 
 offices. Generally speaking, there was no opportunity for 
 his zeal displaying itself; for a common feeling of re- 
 spect induced passengers to give way to the father and 
 daughter. 
 
 But when the steel caps, barrets, and plumes of squires, 
 archers, and men-at-arms began to be seen among the throng, 
 the wearers of these warlike distinctions were more rude in 
 l^ieir demeanour thaa the quiet citizens. More than once, when 
 
30 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 from chance, or pertaps from an assumption of superior im- 
 portance, such an individual took the wall of Simon in pass- 
 ing, the glover's youthful attendant bristled up with a look 
 of defiance, and the air of one who sought to distinguish his 
 zeal in his mistress's service by its ardour. As frequently did 
 Conachar, for such was the lad's name, receive a check from 
 his master, who gave him to understand that he did not wish 
 his interference before he required it. " Poolish boy, " he 
 said, " hast thou not lived long enough in my shop to know 
 that a blow wUl breed a brawl ; that a dirk wiU cut the skin 
 as fast as a needle pierces leather; that I love peace, though 
 I never feared war, and care not which side of the causeway 
 my daughter and I walk upon so we may keep our road in 
 peace and quietness?" 
 
 Conachar excused himself as zealous for his master's hon- 
 our, yet was scarce able to pacify the old citizen, 
 
 " What have we to do with honour?" said Simon Glover. 
 " If thou wouldst remain in my service, thou must think o^ 
 honesty, and leave honour to the swaggering fools who wear 
 steel at their heels and iron on their shoulders. If you wish 
 to wear and use such garniture, you are welcome, but it shall 
 not be in my house or in my company." 
 
 Conachar seemed rather to kindle at this rebuke than to 
 submit to it. But a sign from Catharine, if that slight rais- 
 ing of her little finger was indeed a sign, had more effect 
 than the angry reproof of his master ; and the youth laid aside 
 the military air which seemed natural to him, and relapsed 
 into the humble follower of a quiet burgher. 
 
 Meantime the little party were overtaken by a tall young 
 man wrapped in a cloak, which obscured or mufa.ed a part of 
 his face — a practice often used by the gallants of the time, 
 when they did not wish to be known, or were abroad in quest 
 of adventures. He seemed, in short, one who might say to 
 the world around him. : " I desire, for the present, not to be 
 known or addressed in my own character; but, as I am an- 
 swerable to myself alone for my actions, I wear my incogni- 
 to but for form's sake, and care little whether you see through 
 it Or not." He came on the right side of Catharine, who had 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. SI 
 
 hold of ter father's arm, and slackened Ms pace as if joining 
 their party. 
 
 " Good even to you, goodman.*' 
 
 " The same to your worship, and thants. May I pray you 
 to pass on? Our pace is too slow for that of your lordship, 
 our company too mean for that of your father's son." 
 
 " My father's son can best judge of that, old man. I have 
 business to talk of with you and with my fair St. Catharine 
 here, the loveliest and most obdurate saint in the calendar." 
 
 "With deep reverence, my lord," said the old man, "I 
 would remind you that this is good St. Valentine's Eve, which 
 is no time for business, and that I can have your worshipful 
 commands by a serving-man as early as it pleases you to send 
 them." 
 
 "There is no time like the present," said the persevering 
 youth, whose rank seemed to be a kind which set him above 
 ceremony. "I wish to know whether the buff doublet be 
 finished which I commissioned some time since; and from 
 you, pretty Catharine (here he sank his voice to a whisper), I 
 desire to be informed whether your fair fingers have been em- 
 ployed upon it, agreeably to your promise? But I need not 
 ask you, for my poor heart has felt the pang of each puncture 
 that pierced the garment which was to cover it. Traitress, 
 how wilt thou answer for thus tormenting the heart that loves 
 the so dearly?" 
 
 "Let me entreat you, my lord," said Catharine, "to forego 
 this wild talk: it becomes not you to speak thus, or me to 
 listen. We are of poor rank but honest manners ; and the 
 presence of the father ought to protect the child from such ex- 
 pressions, even from your lordship." 
 
 This she spoke so low, that neither her father nor Conachar 
 could understand what she said. 
 
 "Well, tyrant," answered the persevering gaUant, "I will 
 plague you no longer now, providing you will let me see you 
 from your window to-morrow, when the sun first peeps over 
 the eastern hills, and give me right to be- your Valentine for 
 the year." 
 
 "Not so, my lord; my father but now told me that hawks. 
 
32 WAVBRLET NOVELS. 
 
 far less eagles, pair not with the humble linnet. Seek some 
 court lady, to whom your favours will be honour; to me — 
 your Highness must permit me to speak the plain truth — ^they 
 can be nothing but disgrace." 
 
 As they spoke thus, the party arrived at the gate of the 
 chui'ch. " Your lordship wiU, I trust, permit us here to take 
 leave of you?" said her father. " I am well aware how little 
 you will alter your pleasure for the pain and uneasiness you 
 may give to such as us ; but, from the throng of attendants at 
 the gate, your lordship may see that there axe others in the 
 church to whom even your gracious lordship must pay re- 
 spect." 
 
 * Yes — ^respect; and who pays any respect to me?" said the 
 haughty young lord. "A miserable artisan and his daughter, 
 too much honoured by my slightest notice, have the insolence 
 to teU me that my notice dishonours them. Well, my princess 
 of white doe-skin and blue silk, I will teach you to rue this." 
 
 As he murmured thus, the glover and his daughter entered 
 the Dominican church, and their attendant, Conachar, in at- 
 tempting to follow them closely, jostled, it may be not unwill- 
 ingly, the young nobleman. The gallant, starting from his 
 unpleasing reverie, and perhaps considering this as an inten- 
 tional insult, seized on the young man by the breast, struck 
 him, and threw him. from him. His irritated opponent re- 
 covered himself with difficulty, and grasped towards his own 
 side, as if seekiag a sword or dagger in the place where it was 
 usually worn; but finding none, he made a gesture of disap- 
 pointed rage, and entered the church. During the few seconds 
 he remained, the young nobleman stood with his arms folded 
 on his breast, with a haughty smile, as if defying him to do 
 his worst. When Conachar had entered the church, his op- 
 ponent, adjusting his cloak yet closer about his face, m de a 
 private signal by holding up one of Ms gloves. Ho was in- 
 stantly joined by two men, who, disguised like himself, had 
 waited his motions at a little distance. They spoke together 
 earnestly, after which the young nobleman retired in one di- 
 rection, his friends or followers going off in another 
 
 Simon Glover, before he entered the vdiurch, cast a look 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 33 
 
 towards the group, but had taken his place amoag the congre- 
 gation before they separated themselves. He knelt down with 
 the air of a man who has something burdensome on his mind; 
 but when the service was ended, he seemed free from anxiety, 
 as one who had referred himself and his troubles to the dis- 
 posal of Heaven. The ceremony of High Mass was performed 
 with considerable solemnity, a number of noblemen and ladies 
 of rank being present. Preparations had indeed been made 
 for the reception of the good old King himseK, but some of 
 those infirmities to which he was subject had prevented Kob- 
 ert III. from attending the service as was his wont. When 
 the congregation were dismissed, the glover and his beautiful 
 daughter liogered for some time, for the purpose of making 
 their several shrifts in the confessionals, where the priests had 
 taken their places for discharging that part of their duty. 
 Thus it happened that the night had fallen dark, and the way 
 was solitary, when they returned along the now .deserted 
 streets to their own dwelling. Most persons had betaken 
 themselves to home and to bed. They who stDl lingered in 
 the street were night-walkers or revellers, the idle and swag- 
 gering retainers of the haughty nobles, who were much wont 
 to insult the peaceful passengers, relying on the impunity 
 which their masters' court favour was too apt to secure 
 them. 
 
 It was, perhaps, in apprehension of mischief from some 
 character of this kind that Conachar, stepping up to the 
 glover, said, "Master, walk faster — we are dogg'd." 
 
 "Dogg'd, sayest thou? By whom and by how many?" 
 
 " By one man muffled in his cloak, who follows us like our 
 shadow." 
 
 " Then wUl I never mend my pace along the Couvrefew 
 Street for the best one man that ever trode it." 
 
 "But he has arms," said Conachar. 
 
 " And so have we, and hands, and legs, and feet. Why, 
 sure, Conachar, you are not afraid of one man?" 
 
 "Afraid!" answered Conachar, indignant at the insinua- 
 tion ; " you shall soon know if I am afraid. " 
 
 " Now you are as far on the other side of the mark, thou 
 8 
 
34 WAVERLEY NOVELS, 
 
 foolish boy: thy temper has no middle course; there is no oo« 
 casiou to make a brawl, though we do not run. Walk thou 
 before with Catharine, and I will take thy place. Wo cannos 
 be expo^d to danger so near home as we are." 
 
 The glover fell behind accordingly, and certainly observed 
 a person keep so close to them as, the time and place con- 
 sidered, justified some suspicion. When they crossed the 
 street, he also crossed it, and when they advanced or slack- 
 ened their pace, the stranger's was ia proportion accelerated 
 or diminished. The matter would have been of very little 
 consequence had Simon Glover been alone ; but the beauty of 
 his daughter might render her the object of some profligate 
 scheme, in a country where the laws afforded such slight pro- 
 tection to those who had not the means to defend themselves. 
 Conachar and his fair charge having arrived on the threshold 
 of their own apartment, which was opened to them by an old 
 female servant, the burgher's uneasiness was ended. Deter- 
 mined, however, to aseertaiu, if possible, whether there had 
 been any cause for it, he called out to the man whose motions 
 had occasioned the alarm, and who stood stiU, though he 
 seemed to keep out of reach of the light. " Come, step for- 
 ward, my friend, and do not play at bo-peep ; knowest thou 
 not, that they who walk like phantoms in the dark are apt to 
 encounter the conjuration of a quarter-staff? Step forward, 
 I say, and show us thy shapes, man. " 
 
 "Why, so I can. Master Glover," said one of the deepest 
 voices that ever answered question. " I can show my shapes 
 well enough, only I wish they conld bear the light something 
 better." 
 
 "Body of me," exclaimed Simon, "I should know that 
 voice! And is it thou, in thy bodily person, Harry Gow? 
 Nay, beshrew me if thou passest this door with dry lips. 
 What, man, curfew has not rung yet, and if it had, it were no 
 reason why it should part father and son. Come in, man; 
 Dorothy shall get us something to eat, and we will jiugle a 
 can ere thou leave us. Come in, I say; my daughter Kate 
 will be right glad to see thee." 
 
 JJy this time he had pulled the person, whom he welcomed 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 35 
 
 so cordially, into a sort of kitchen, which served also upon 
 ordinary occasions the office of parlour. Its ornaments were 
 trenchers of pewter, mixed with a silver cup or two, which, 
 in the highest degree of cleanliness, occupied a range of 
 shelves like those of a beauffet, popularly called "the bink." 
 A good fire, with the assistance of a blazing lamp, spread light 
 and cheerfulness through the apartment, and a savoury smell 
 of some victuals which Dorothy was preparing did not at all 
 offend the unrefined noses of those whose appetite they were 
 destined to satisfy. 
 
 Their unlniown attendant now stood in full light among 
 them, and though his appearance was neither dignified nor 
 handsome, his face and figure were not only deserving of at- 
 tention, but seemed in some manner to command it. He was 
 rather below the middle stature, but the breadth of his shoul- 
 ders, length and brawniness of his arms, and the muscular ap- 
 pearance of the whole man, argued a most unusual share of 
 strength, and a frame kept in vigour by constant exercise. 
 His legs were somewhat bent, but not in a manner which 
 could be said to approach to deformity, on the contrary, which 
 seemed to correspond to the strength of his frame, though it 
 injured va some degree its symmetry. His dress was of buff- 
 hide; and he wore in a belt around his waist a heavy broad- 
 sword, and a dirk or poniard, as if to defend his purse, which 
 (burgher-fashion) was attached to the same cincture. The 
 Kead was well proportioned, round, close-cropped, and curled 
 thickly with black hair. There was daring and resolution in. 
 the dark eye, but the other features seemed to express a bash- 
 ful timidity, mingled with good-humour, and obvious satisfac- 
 tion at meeting with his old friends. Abstracted from the 
 bashful expression, which was that of the moment, the fore- 
 head of Henry Gow, or Smith, for he was indifferently so* 
 called, was high and noble, but the lower part of the face was 
 less happily formed. The mouth was large, and well fur- 
 nished with a set of firm and beautiful teeth, the appearance 
 of which corresponded with the air of personal health and 
 muscular strength which the whole frame indicated. A short 
 thick beard, and mustachios which had lately been arranged 
 
86 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 with some caxe, completed the picture. His ago could not 
 exceed eight-aad-twenty. 
 
 The family appeared all well pleased -with the unexpected 
 appearance of an old friend. Simon Glover shook his hand 
 again and again, Dorothy made her compliments, and Catha- 
 rine herself offered freely her hand, which Henry held in his 
 massive grasp, as if he designed to carry it to his lips, but, 
 after a moment's hesitation, desisted, from fear lest the free- 
 dom might be iU taken. ITot that there "was any resistance 
 on the part of the little hand which lay passive in his grasp ; 
 but there was a smile mingled with the blush on her cheek, 
 which seemed to increase the confusion of the gallant. Her 
 father, on his part, called out franMy, as he saw his friend's 
 hesitation : 
 
 " Her lips, man — ^her lips I and that's a proffer I would not 
 make to every one who crosses my threshold. But, by good 
 St. Valentine, whose holyday wiU dawn to-morrow, I am so 
 glad to see thee in the bonny city of Perth again that it 
 would be hard to tell the thing I could refuse thee." 
 
 The smith, for, as has been said, such was the craft of this 
 sturdy artisan, was encouraged modestly to salute the Fair 
 Maid, who yielded the courtesy with a smUe of affection that 
 might have become a sister, saying, at the same time : " Let 
 me hope that I welcome back to Perth a repentant and 
 amended man." 
 
 He held her hand as if about to answer, then suddenly, as 
 one who lost courage at the moment, relinc[uished his grasp ; 
 and drawing back as if afraid of what he had done, his dark 
 countenance glowing with bashfulness, mixed with delight, 
 he sat down by the fire on the opposite side from that which 
 Catharine occupied. 
 
 "Come, Dorothy, speed thee with the food, old woman; 
 and Conaehar — where is Conachar?" 
 
 " He is gone to bed, sir, with a headache," said Catharine, 
 in a hesitating voice. 
 
 "Go, call him, Dorothy, " said the old glover; "I will not 
 be used thus by him : his Highland blood, forsooth, is too 
 gentle to lay a trencher or spread a napkin, and he expects ta 
 
THB FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 37 
 
 enter oux aaoient and honourable craft ■without duly waiting 
 and tending upon his master and teacher in aU matters of 
 lawful obedience. Go, caU him, I say; I ■will not be thus 
 neglected." 
 
 Dorothy was presently heard screaming upstairs, or more 
 probably up a ladder, to the cock-loft, to ■which the recusant 
 apprentice had made an untimely retreat ; a muttered ans-wer 
 was returned, and soon after Conachar appeared in the eating- 
 apartment. There was a gloom of deep sullenness on his 
 haughty, though handsome, features, and as he proceeded to 
 spread the board, and arrange the trenchers, with salt, spices, 
 and other condiments — ^to discharge, in short, the duties of a 
 modern domestic, which the custom of the time imposed upon 
 all apprentices — he was obvioasly disgusted and indignant 
 ■with the mean oiSce imposed upon him. The Fair Maid of 
 Perth looked with some anxiety at him, as if apprehensive 
 that his evident sullenness might increase her father's dis- 
 pleasure ; but it was not till her eyes had sought out his for 
 a second time that Conachar condescended to veil his dis- 
 satisfaction, and throw a greater appearance of willing- 
 ness and submission into the services which he was per- 
 forming. 
 
 And here we must acquaint our reader that, though the pri- 
 vate interchange of looks betwixt Catharine Glover and the 
 young mountaineer indicated some interest on the part of the 
 former in the conduct of the latter, it would have puzzled the 
 strictest observer to discover whether that feeling exce-eded in 
 degree what might have been felt by a yoimg person ttiwards a 
 friend and inmate of the same age, ■with whom she had lived 
 on habits of intimacy. 
 
 " Thou hast had a long journey, son Henry," said Glover, 
 •who had always used that affectionate style of speech, though 
 no ways akin to the young artisan; " ay, and hast seen many 
 a river besides Tay, and many a fair bigging besides St. 
 Johnston." 
 
 " But none that I like half so well, and none that are half 
 so much worth my liking, " answered the smith. " I promise 
 you, father, that, when I crossed the Wicks of Baiglie, and 
 
38 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 saw the bonny city lie stretched fairly before me like a f aiiy 
 queen in romance, whom the knight finds asleep among a 
 wilderness of flowers, I felt even as a bird when it folds its 
 wearied wings to stoop down on its own nest." 
 
 " Ahal so thou canst play the maker ' yet?" said the 
 glover. " What, shall we have our ballets and our roundels 
 again? our lusty carols for Christmas, and our mirthful 
 springs to trip it round the maypole?" 
 
 " Such toys there may be forthcoming, father," said Henry 
 Smith, " though the blast of the bellows and the clatter of the 
 anvil make but coarse company to lays of minstrelsy; but I 
 can afford them no better, since I must mend my fortune^ 
 though I mar my verses." 
 
 "Eight again — my own son just," answered the glover; 
 "and I trust thou hast made a saving voyage of it?" 
 
 "Nay, I made a thriving one, father: I sold the steel 
 habergeon that you wot of for four hundred marks to the Eng- 
 lish Warden of the East Marches, Sir Magnus Eedman." He 
 scarce scrupled a penny after I gave him leave to try a sword- 
 dint upon it. The beggardly Highland thief who bespoke it 
 boggled at haJf the sum, though it had cost me a year's 
 labour." 
 
 " What dost thou start at, Conachar?" said Simon, address- 
 ing himself, by way of parenthesis, to the moimtain disciple ; 
 " wUt thou never learn to mind thy own business, without 
 listening to what is passing round thee? What is it to thee 
 that an Englishman thinks that cheap which a Scottishman 
 may hold dear?" 
 
 Conachar turned round to speak, but, after a moment's con- 
 sideration, looked down, and endeavoured to recover his 
 composure,, which had been deranged by the contemptuous 
 manner in which the smith had spoken of his Highland cus- 
 tomer. 
 
 Henry went on without paying any attention to him. " 1 
 
 • Old Scottish for " poet," and indeed the literal translation of tha 
 original Greek jrotT/T^g. 
 
 • Sir Magnus Redman, sometime Governor of-Berwiok, fell in one of the 
 battles on the Border which followed on the treason of the Earl of March, 
 alluded to hereafter. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 39 
 
 Bold at higli prices some swords and whingers when 1 was at 
 Edinburgh. They expect war there; and if it please God to 
 send it, my merchandise will be worth its price. St. Dunstan 
 make us thankful, for he was of our craft. In short, this 
 fellow (laying his hand on his purse), who, thou knowest, 
 father, was somewhat lank and low in condition when I set 
 out four months since, is now as round and full as a six-weeks' 
 porker." 
 
 " And that other leathern-sheathed, iron-hilted fellow who 
 hangs beside him, " said the glover, " has he been idle all this 
 while? Come, joUy smith, confess the truth — how many 
 brawls hast thou -had since crossing the Tay?" 
 
 " Nay, now you do me wrong, father, to ask me such a 
 question (glancing a look at Cathariue) in such a presence, " 
 answered the armourer: "I make swords, indeed, but I 
 leave it to other people to use them. No — ^no, seldom have I 
 a naked sword in my fist, save when I am turning them on 
 the anvU. or griudstone; and they slandered me to your 
 daughter Catharine, that led her to suspect the quietest 
 burgess in Perth of being a brawler. I wish the best of them 
 would dare say such a word at the HUl of Kinnoul, and never 
 a man on the green but he and I." 
 
 " Ay — ay, " said the glover, laughing, " we should then have 
 a fine sample of your patient sufferance. Out upon you, 
 Henry, that you wDl speak so like a knave to one who knows 
 thee so well I You look at Kate, too, as if she did not know 
 that a man in this country must make his hand keep his head, 
 unless he will sleep in slender security. Come — come, be- 
 shiew me if thou hast not spoiled as many suits of armour as 
 thou hast made." 
 
 "'Why,_he would be a bad armourer, father Simon, that 
 could not with his own blow make proof of his own workman- 
 ship. If I did not sometimes cleave a helmet, or strike a 
 sword's point through a harness, I should not know what 
 strength of fabric to give them ; and might jingle together 
 such pasteboard work as yonder Edinburgh smiths think not 
 shame to put out of their hands." 
 
 " Aha, now would I lay a gold crown thou hast had a 
 
40 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 quarrel with, some Edinburgli 'buin-tlie-wiiid' ' upon thatrery 
 ground?" 
 
 "A quarrel! no, father," replied the Perth armourer, "but 
 a measuring of swords with such a one upon St. Leonard s 
 Crags, for the honour of my bonny city, I confess. Surely 
 you do not think I would quarrel with a brother craftsman?" 
 
 " Ah, to a surety, no. But how did your brother craftman 
 oome off?" 
 
 " Why, as one with a sheet of paper on his bosom might 
 come off from the stroke of a lance; or rather, indeed, he 
 came not off at all, for, when I left him, he was lying in the 
 Hermit's Lodge daily expecting death, for which Father Ger- 
 vis said he was in heavenly preparation." 
 
 "Well, any more measuring of weapons?" said the glover. 
 
 " Why, truly, I fought an Englishman at Berwick besides, 
 on the old question of the supremacy, as they call it — I am 
 sure you would not have me slack at that debate? — and I had 
 the luck to hurt him on the left knee." 
 
 "Well done for St. Andrew! to it again. Whom next had 
 you to deal with?" said Simon, laughing at the exploits of his 
 pacific friend. 
 
 " I fought a Scotchman in the Torwood, " answered Henry 
 Smith, "upon a doubt which was the better swordsman, 
 which, you are aware, could not be known or decided without 
 a trial. The poor fellow lost two fingers." 
 
 " Pretty well for the most peaceful lad in Perth, who never 
 touches a sword but in the way of his profession. Well, 
 anything more to tell us?" 
 
 " Little ; for the drubbing of a Highlandman is a thing not 
 worth mentioning." 
 
 " For what didst thou drub him, man of peace?" inquired 
 the glover. 
 
 "For nothing that 1 can remember," replied the smith, 
 " except his presenting himself on the south side of Stirling 
 Bridge." 
 
 * "Bum-the-wind," an old cant term for blacksmith, appears in Bums; 
 
 Then burnewin came on like death. 
 At every chaup, etc. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 41 
 
 " Well, here is to ttee, and thou art welcome to me aftei 
 all these exploits. Conachar, bestir thee. Let the cans 
 cliak, lad, and thou shalt have a cup of the nut-brown for thy- 
 self, my boy." 
 
 Conachar poured out the good liquor for his master and for 
 Catharine with due observance. But that done, he set the 
 flagon on the table and sat down. 
 
 "How now, sirrah I be these your manners? FiE to my 
 guest, the worshipful Master Henry Smith." 
 
 "Master Smith may fill for himself, if he wishes for 
 liquor, " answered the youthful Celt. " The son of my father 
 has demeaned himself enough already for one evening." 
 
 " That's well crowed for a cockerel, '' said Henry ; " but thoti 
 art so far right, my lad, that the man deserves to die of thirst 
 who will not drink without a cupbearer." 
 
 But his entertainer took not the contumacy of the young 
 apprentice with so much patience. "Now, by my honest 
 word, and by the best glove I ever made," said Simon, "thou 
 shalt help him with liquor from that cup and flagon, if thee 
 and I are to abide under one roof." 
 
 Conachar arose sullenly upon hearing this threat, and| 
 approaching the smith, who had just taken the tankard in hia 
 hand, and was raising, it to his head, he contrived to stumble 
 against him and jostle him so awkwardly, that the foaming 
 ale gushed over his face, person, and dress. Good-natured 
 as the smith, in spite of his warlike propensities, really was 
 in the utmost degree, his patience failed under such a provo- 
 cation. He seized the young man's throat, being the part 
 which came readiest to his grasp, as Conachar arose from the 
 pretended stumble, and pressing it severely as he cast the lad 
 from him, exclaimed: " Had this been in another place, young 
 gallows-bird, I had stowed the lugs out of thy head, as I have 
 done to some of thy clan before thee." 
 
 Conachar recovered his feet with the activity of a tiger, and 
 exclaimed: "Never shall you live to make that boast again!" 
 drew a short, sharp knife from his bosom, and, springing on 
 Henry Smith, attempted to plunge it into his body over the 
 collar-bone, which must have been a mortal wound. But the 
 
42 WAVEKLEY NOVELS. 
 
 object of ttis violence was so ready to defend himself by 
 strikiag up the assailant's hand, that the blow only glanced 
 on the bone, and scarce drew blood. To wrench the dagger 
 from the boy's hand, and to secure him. with a grasp like that 
 of his own iron vice, was, for the powerful smith, the work 
 of a single moment. Conachar felt himself at once in the 
 absolute power of the formidable antagonist whom he had 
 provoked; he became deadly pale, as he had been the moment 
 before glowing red, and stood mute with shame and fear, un- 
 til, relieving htm from his powerful hold, the smith quietly 
 said : " It is well for thee that thou canst not make me angry ; 
 thou art but a boy, and I, a grown man, ought not to have 
 provoked thee. But let this be a warning." 
 
 Conachar stood an instant as if about to reply, and then left 
 the room, ere Simon had collected himself enough to speak. 
 Dorothy was running hither and thither for salves and healing 
 herbs. Catharine had swooned at the sight of the trickling 
 blood. 
 
 " Let me depart, father Simon, " said Henry Smith, mourn- 
 fully, " I might have guessed I should have my old luck, and 
 spread strife and bloodshed where I would wish most to bring 
 peace and happiness. Care not for me. Look to poor Catha- 
 rine ; the fright of such an affray hath killed her, and all 
 through my fault." 
 
 "Thy fault, my son! It was the fault of yon Highland 
 cateran, ' whom it is my curse to be cumbered with ; but he 
 shall go back to his glens to-morrow, or taste the tolbooth of 
 the burgh. An assault upon the life of his master's guest in 
 his master's house! It breaks all bonds between us. But let 
 me see to thy wound." 
 
 " Catharine !" repeateed the armourer — " look to Catharine. " 
 
 "Dorothy wUl see to her," said Simon; " surprise and fear 
 kiU not ; skenes and dirks do. And she is not more the 
 daughter of my blood than thou, my dear Henry, art the son 
 of my affections. Let me see the wound. The skene-occle 
 is an ugly weapon in a Highland hand." 
 
 "I mind it no more than the scratch oi a wildcat," said thg 
 « See Note 9. 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 43 
 
 armourer; "and now that the colour is coming to Catharine's 
 cheek again, you shall see me a sound man in a moment." 
 He turned to a corner in which hung a small mirror, and 
 hastily took from hia purse some dry lint to apply to the 
 slight wound he had received. As he unloosed the leathern 
 jacket from this neck and shoulders, the manly and muscular 
 form which they displayed was not more remarkable than the 
 fairness of his skin, where it had not, as in hands and face, 
 been exposed to the effects of rough weather and of his labori- 
 ous trade. He hastily applied some lint to stop the bleeding, 
 and a little water having removed all other marks of the fray, 
 he buttoned his doublet anew, and turned again to the table, 
 where Catharine, stUl pale and trembling, was, however, re- 
 covered from her fainting-fit. 
 
 "Would you but grant me your forgiveness for having 
 offended you in the very first hour of my return? The lad 
 was foolish to provoke me, and yet I was more foolish to be 
 provoked by such as he. Your father blames me not, Catha- 
 rine, and cannot you forgive me?" 
 
 "I have no power to forgive," answered Catharine, "what 
 1 have no title to resent. If my father chooses to dave his 
 house made the scene of night-brawls, I must witness them — 
 I cannot help myself. Perhaps it was wrong in me to faint 
 and interrupt, it may be, the farther progress of a fair fray. 
 My apology is, that I cannot bear the sight of blood." 
 
 " And is this the manner, " said her father, " in which you 
 receive my friend after his long absence? My friend, did I 
 say? nay, my son. He escapes being murdered by a fellow 
 whom I wiU to-morrow clear this house of, and you treat him 
 as if he had done wrong in dashing from him the snake which 
 was about to sting him!" 
 
 "It is not my part, father," returned the Maid of Perth, 
 "to decide who had the right or wrong in the present brawl; 
 nor did I see what happened distinctly enough to say which 
 was assailant, or which defender. But sure our friend, 
 Master Henry, will not deny that he lives in a perfect atmos- 
 phere of strife, blood, and quarrels. He hears of no swords- 
 man but he envies his reputation, and must needs put his 
 
*4 WAVBRLEY NOVELS. 
 
 valour to the proof. He sees no brawl but lie must strike into 
 the midst of it. Has he friends, he fights with them for love 
 and honour; has he enemies, he fights with them for hatred 
 and revenge. And those men who are neither his friends nor 
 foes, he fights with them because they are on this or that side 
 of a river. His days are days of battle, and, doubtless, he 
 acts them over again in his dreams." 
 
 "Daughter," said Simon, "your tongue wags too freely. 
 Quarrels and fights are men's business, not women's, and it is 
 not maidenly to think or speak of them." 
 
 "But if they are so rudely. enacted in our presence," said 
 Catharine, " it is a little hard to expect us to think or speak 
 of anythiag else. I will grant you, my father, that this val- 
 iant burgess of Perth is one of the best-hearted men that 
 draws breath within its walls : that he would walk a hundred 
 yards out of the way rather than step upon a worm ; that he 
 would be as loth, iu wantonness, to kiU a spider as if he were 
 a kinsman to King Eobert, of happy memory ; ' that in the 
 last quarrel before his departure he fought with four butchers, 
 to prevent their killing a poor mastifE that had misbehaved in 
 the bull-ring, and narrowly escaped the fate of the cur that 
 he was protecting. I will grant you also, that the poor never 
 pass the house of the wealthy armourer but they are relieved 
 with food and alms. But what avails all this, when his 
 sword makes as many starving orphans and mourning widows 
 as his purse relieves?" 
 
 " Nay, but, Catharine, hear me but a word before going on 
 with a string of reproaches against my friend, that sound 
 somethiag like sense, while they are, in. truth, inconsistent 
 with all, we hear and see around us. What," continued the 
 Glover, " do our King and our court, our knights and ladies, 
 our abbots, monks, and priests themselves, so earnestly crowd 
 to see? Is it not to behold the display of chivalry, to witness 
 the gallant actions of brave knights in the tilt and tourney- 
 ground, to look upon deeds of honour and glory achieved by 
 arms and bloodshed? What is it these proud knights do, 
 that differs from what our good Henry Grow works out in hJ« 
 > See Robert Bruce. Note 10. 
 
THE PAIR MAID OP PERTH. 45 
 
 sphere? Wlio ever heard of Lis abusing Ms skill and strength 
 to do evil or forward oppression, and who knows not how 
 often it has been employed as that of a champion ia the good 
 cause of the burgh? And shouldst not thou, of aU women, 
 deem thyself honoured and glorious, that so true a heart and 
 so strong an arm has termed himself thy bachelor? In what 
 do the proudest dames take their loftiest pride, save in the 
 chivalry of their knight ; and has the boldest in Scotland done 
 more gallant deeds than my brave son Henry, though but of 
 low degree? Is he not known to Highland and Lowland as 
 the best armourer that ever made sword, and the truest soldier 
 that ever drew one?" 
 
 "My dearest father," answered Catharine, "your words 
 contradict themselves, if you will permit your child to say so. 
 Let us thank God and the good saints that we are in a peace- 
 ful rank of life, below the notice of those whose high birth, 
 and yet higher pride, lead them to glory in their bloody works 
 of cruelty, which haughty and lordly men term deeds of 
 chivalry. Your wisdom will allow that it would be absurd in 
 us to prank ourselves in their daiaty plumes and splendid gar- 
 ments; why, then, should we imitate their full-blown vices? 
 Why should we assume their hard-hearted pride and relent- 
 less cruelty, to which murder is not only a sport, but a sub- 
 ject of vainglorious triumph? Let those whose rank claims 
 as its right such bloody homage take pride and pleasure ia it ; 
 We, who have no share ia the sacrifice, may the better pity 
 the sufferings of the victim. Let us thank our lowliaess, 
 siace it secures us from temptation. But forgive me, father, 
 if I have stepped over the limits of my duty, in contradictiag 
 the views which you entertaia, with so many others, on these 
 subjects." 
 
 " ISTay, thou hast even too much talk for me, girl," said her 
 father, somewhat angrily. "I am but a poor workman, whose 
 best knowledge is to distinguish the left-hand glove from the 
 right. But if thou wouldst have my forgiveness, say some- 
 thiag of comfort to my poor Henry. There he sits, con- 
 founded and dismayed with all the preachment thou hast 
 heaped together; and he, to whom a trumpet-sound was like 
 
46 WAVERLBY NOVELS. 
 
 the invitation to a feast, is struck down at the sound of a 
 child's whistle." 
 
 The armourer, indeed, while he heard the lips that were 
 dearest to him paint his character in such unfavourable col- . 
 ours, had laid his head down on the table, upon his folded 
 arms, in an attitude of the deepest dejection, or almost de- 
 spair. "I would to Heaven, my dearest father," answered 
 Catharine, " that it were in my power to speak comfort to 
 Henry, without betraying the sacred cause of the truths I 
 have just told you. And I may — ^nay, I must have such a 
 commission, " she continued with somethiug that the earnest- 
 ness with which she spoke and the extreme beauty of her 
 features caused for the moment to resemble inspiration. 
 "The truth of Heaven," she said, iu a solemn tone, "was 
 never committed to a tongue, however feeble, but it gave a 
 right to that tongue to announce mercy, while it declared 
 judgment. Arise, Henry — -rise up, noble'minded, good, and 
 generous, though widely mistaken man. Thy faults are those 
 of this cruel and remorseless age, thy virtues aU thine own." 
 
 While she thus spoke, she laid her hand upon the smith's 
 arm, and extricating it from under his -head by a force which, 
 however gentle, he could not resist, she compelled him to 
 raise towards her his manly face, and the eyes into which her 
 expostulations, mingled with other feeliugs, had summoned 
 tears. " Weep not," she said, "or rather, weep on, but weep 
 as those who have hope. Abjure the sins of pride and anger, 
 which most easily beset thee ; fling from thee the accursed 
 weapons, to the fatal and murderous use of which thou art so 
 easily tempted." 
 
 "You speak to me in vain, Catharine," returned the 
 armourer: "I may, indeed, turn monk and retire from the 
 world, but while I live in. it I must practise my trade ; and 
 while I form armour and weapons for others, I cannot myself 
 withstand the temptation of using them. You would not re- 
 proach me as you do, if you knew how inseparably the means 
 by which I gain my bread are connected with that warlike 
 spirit which you impute to me as a fault, though it is the 
 consequence of inevitable necessity. While I strengthen the 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 4T 
 
 shield or corslet to withstand wounds, must I not have con- 
 stantly in remembrance the manner and strength with which 
 they may be dealt; and when I forge the sword, and temper 
 it for war, is it practicable for me to avoid the reoollectiou of 
 its use?" 
 
 " Then throw from you, my dear Henry," said the enthu- 
 siastic girl, clasping with both her slender hands the nervous 
 strength and weight of one of the muscular armourer's, which 
 they raised with difficulty, permitted by its owner, yet scarcely 
 receiving assistance from his volition — " cast from you, I say, 
 the art which is a snare to you. Abjure the fabrication of 
 weapons which can only be useful to abridge human life, 
 already too short for repentance, or to encourage with a feel- 
 ing of safety those whom fear might otherwise prevent from 
 risking themselves in peril. The art of forming arms, wheth- 
 er offensive or defensive, is alike sinful in one to whose 
 violent and ever vehement disposition the very working upon 
 them proves a sin and a snare. Eesign utterly the manufac- 
 ture of weapons of every description, and deserve the forgive- 
 ness of Heaven, by renouncing all that can lead to the sin 
 which most easUy besets you." 
 
 " And what, " murmured the armourer, " am I to do for my 
 livelihood, when I have given over the art of forging arms for 
 which Henry of Perth is known from the Tay to the Thames?" 
 
 " Your art itself, " said Catharine, " has innocent and laud- 
 able resources. If you renounce the fprging of swords and 
 bucklers, there remains to you the task of forming the harm- 
 less spade, and the honourable as well as useful ploughshare — • 
 of those implements which contribute to the support of life, 
 or to its comforts. Thou canst frame locks and bars to de- 
 fend the property of the weak against the stouthrief and op- 
 pression of the strong. Men will still resort to thee, and 
 repay thy honest industry " 
 
 But here Catharine was interrupted. Her father had heard 
 her declaim, against war and tournaments with a feeling that, 
 though her doctrine were new to him, they might not, never- 
 theless, be entirely erroneous. He felt, indeed, a wish that 
 his proposed son-in-law should not commit himself voluntarily 
 
48 WATERLBY NOVELS. 
 
 to the hazards wMch the daxing character and great personal 
 strength of Henry the Smith had hitherto led him to incur 
 too readily; and so far he would rather have desired thatCath- 
 ariue's arguments should have produced some effect upon 
 the miad of her lover, whom he knew to be as ductUe when 
 influenced by his afiections as he was fierce and intractable 
 when assailed by hostile remonstrances or threats. But hei 
 arguments interfered with his views, when he heard her en- 
 large upon the necessity of his designed son-in-law resigning 
 a trade which brought ia more ready iucome than any at. that 
 time practised in Scotland, and more profit to Henry of Perth 
 in particular than to any armourer in the nation. He had 
 some indistinct idea that it would not be amiss to convert, if 
 possible, Henry the Smith from his too frequent use of arms, 
 even though he felt some pride in beiug connected with on<5 
 who wielded with such superior excellence those weapons, 
 which in that warlike age it was the boast of aU. men to man- 
 age with spirit. But when he heard his daughter recommend, 
 as the readiest road to this pacific state of miud, that her 
 lover should renounce the gainful trade in which he was held 
 nnrivalled, and which, from the constant private differences 
 and public wars of the time, was sure to afford him a large 
 income, he could withhold his wrath no longer. The daughter 
 had scarce recommended to her lover the fabrication of the 
 implements of husbandry, than, f eeliag the certainty of being 
 right, of which in the earlier part of their debate he had been 
 somewhat doubtful, the father broke in with : 
 
 "Locks and bars, plough-graith and harrow-teeth! and why 
 not grates and fire-prongs, and Culross girdles,' and an ass to ■ 
 carry the merchandise through the country, and thou for an- 
 other ass to lead it by the halter? Why, Catharine, girl, has 
 sense altogether forsaken thee, or dost thou think that ia these 
 hard and iron days men will give ready silver for anything 
 save that which can defend their own life, or enable them to 
 take that of their enemy? We want swords to protect our- 
 selves every moment now, thou siUy wench, and not ploughs 
 to dress the ground for the grain we may never see rise. As 
 < See Note U. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 49 
 
 for tlie matter of our daily bread, those wlio are strong seize 
 it, and live ; those who are weak yield it, and die of hunger. 
 Happy is the man who, like my worthy son, has means of 
 obtaining his living otherwise than by the point of the sword 
 which he makes. Preach peace to him as much as thou wilt, 
 I will never be he wDl say thee nay; but as for bidding the 
 first armourer in Scotland forego the forging of swords, curtal 
 axes, and harness, it is enough to drive patience itself mad. 
 Out from my sight! and next morning I prithee remember 
 that, shouldst thou have the luck to see Henry the Smith, 
 which is more than thy usage of him has deserved, you see a 
 man who has not his match in Scotland at the use of broad- 
 sword and battle-axe, and who can work for five hundred 
 marks a-year without breaking a holyday." 
 
 The daughter, on hearing her father speak thus peremp- 
 torily, made a low obeisance, and, without further good-night, 
 withdrew to the chamber which was her usual sleeping-apart- 
 ment. 
 
 CHAPTEE ni. 
 
 Whence cometh Smith, be he knight, lord, or sqtljre, 
 But from the smith that forged In the fire? 
 
 Veestbgau. 
 
 The armourer's heart swelled big with various and contend- 
 ing sensations, so that it seemed as if it would burst the' 
 leathern doublet under which it was shrouded. He arose, 
 turned away his head, and extended his hand towards the 
 glover, whUe he averted his face, as if desirous that his emo- 
 tion should not be read upon his countenance. 
 
 "Nay, hang me if I bid you farewell, man," said Simon, 
 striking the flat of his hand against that which the armourer 
 expanded towards him. " I will shake no hands with you for 
 an hour to come at least. Tarry but a moment, man, and I 
 will explain all this ; and surely a few drops of blood from a 
 scratch, and a few silly words from a foolish wench's lips, 
 are not to part father and son when they have been so long 
 without meeting? Stay, then, man, if ever you would wish 
 4 
 
60 WAVERLEY NOVELS, 
 
 for a father's blessing and St. Valentine's, whose blessed tnre 
 this chaaces to be." 
 
 The glover was soon heard loudly summoning Dorothy, aad, 
 after some clanking of keys and trampling up and down stairs, 
 Dorothy appeared bearing three large rummer cups of green 
 glass, which were then esteemed a great and precious curiosity, 
 and the glover followed with a huge bottle, equal at least to 
 three quarts of these degenerate days. " Here is a cup of 
 wine, Henry, older by half than I am myself ; my father had it 
 in a gift from stout old Crabbe, the Flemish engineer, who de- 
 fended Perth so stoutly in the minority of David the Second. 
 We glovers could always do something in war, though our 
 connexion with it was less than yours who work in steel and 
 iron. And my father had pleased old Crabbe, some other day 
 I will tell you how, and also how long these bottles were con- 
 cealed under ground, to save them from the reiving Southron. 
 So I will empty a cup to the soul's health of my honoured 
 father — ^May his sins be forgiven him I Dorothy, thou shalt 
 drink this pledge, and then be gone to thy cock-loft. I know 
 thine ears are itching, girl, but I have that to say which no 
 one must hear save Henry Smith, the son of mine adoption." 
 
 Dorothy did not venture to remonstrate, but, taking off her 
 glass, or rather her goblet, with good courage, retired to her 
 sleeping-apartment, according to her master's commands. 
 
 The two friends were left alone. 
 
 "It grieves me, friend Henry," said Simon, filling at the 
 same time his own glass and his guest's — " it grieves me from 
 my soul that my daughter retains this silly humour; but also, 
 methinks, thou mightst mend it. Why wouldst thou come 
 hither clattering with thy sword and dagger, when the girl is 
 so silly that she cannot bear the sight of these? Dost thou 
 not remember that thou hadst a sort of quarrel with her even 
 before thy last departure from Perth, because thou wouldst 
 not go like other honest quiet burghers, but must be ever 
 armed, like one of the rascally jaekmen that wait on the no- 
 bility? Sure it is time enough for decent burgesses -to arm 
 at the tolling of the common beU, which calls us out bodiu 
 in effeir of war." • 
 
 * See Kote 12. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 51 
 
 " Wliy, my good father, that was not my fault ; but I had no 
 sooner quitted my nag than I run hither to tell you of my re- 
 turn, thinking, if it were your will to permit me, that I would 
 get your advice about beiag Mistress Catharine's Valentine for 
 the year; and then I heard from Mrs. Dorothy that you were 
 gone to hear mass at the Black Friars. So I thought I would 
 follow thither, partly to hear the same mass with you, and 
 partly — Our Lady and St. Valentine forgive me! — to look 
 upon one who thinks little enough of me. And, as you en- 
 tered the church, methought I saw two or three dangerous- 
 looking men holding Counsel together, and gazing at you and 
 at her, and in especial Sir John Eamorny, whom I knew well 
 enough, for all his disguise, and the velvet patch over his eye, 
 and his cloak so like a serving-man's ; so methought, father 
 Simon, that, as you were old, and yonder slip of a Highlander 
 something too young to do battle, I would even walk quietly 
 after you, not doubting, with the tools I had about me, to 
 bring any one to reason that might disturb you ia your way 
 home. You know that yourself discovered me, and drew me 
 into the house, whether I would or no ; otherwise, I promise 
 you, I would not have seen your daughter till I had donn'd 
 the new jerkin which was made at Berwick after the latest 
 cut; nor would I have appeared before her with these weap- 
 ons, which she dislikes so much. Although, to say truth, so 
 many are at deadly feud with me for one unhappy chance for 
 another, that it is as needful for me as for any man in Scot- 
 land to go by night with weapons about me." 
 
 " The siUy wench never thinks of that," said Simon Glover : 
 " she never has sense to consider, that in our dear native land 
 of Scotland every man deems it his privilege and duty to 
 avenge his own wrong. But, Harry, my boy, thou art to 
 blame for taking her talk so much to heart. I have seen thee 
 bold enough with other wenches, wherefore so stUL and tongue- 
 tied with her?" 
 
 " Because she is something different from other maidens, 
 father Glover — ^because she is not only more beautiful, but 
 wiser, higher, holier, and seems to me as if she were made of 
 better clay than we that approach her. I can hold my head 
 
Sa WAVERLBY NOVELS. 
 
 high enough with the rest of the lasses round the majpola; 
 but somehow, whea I approach Cathariue, I feel myself an 
 earthly, coarse, ferocious creature, scarce worthy to look on 
 her, much less to contradict the precepts which she expounds 
 to me. 
 
 "You are an imprudent merchant, Harry Smith," replied 
 Simon, " and rate too high the goods you wish to purchase. 
 Catharine is a good girl, and my daughter; but if you make 
 her a conceited ape by your bashfulness and your flattery, 
 neither you nor I will see our wishes accomplished." 
 
 "I often fear it, my good father," said the smith j "for I 
 feel how little I am deserving of Catharine." 
 
 " Feel a thread's end!" said the glover; "feel for me, friend 
 Smith — for Catharine and me. Think how the poor thing is 
 beset from morning to night, and by what sort of persons, even 
 though windows be down and doors shut. We were accosted 
 to-day by one too powerful to be named — ay, and he showed his 
 displeasure openly, because I would not permit him to gaUant 
 my daughter in the church itself, when the priest was saying 
 mass. There are others scarce less reasonable. I sometimes 
 wish that Cathariue were some degrees less fair, that she 
 might not catch that dangerous sort of admiration, or some- 
 what less holy, that she might sit down like an honest woman, 
 contented with stout Henry Smith, who could protect his wife 
 against every sprig of chivalry in the court of Scotland." 
 
 "And if I did not," said Henry, thrusting out a hand and 
 arm which might have belonged to a giant for bone and mus- 
 cle, "I would I may never bring hammer upon anvil again! 
 Ay, an it were come but that length, my fair Catharine should 
 see that there is no harm in a man having the trick of de- 
 fence. But I believe she thinks the whole world is one great 
 minster-church, and that aU who live in it should behave as 
 if they were at an eternal mass." 
 
 "¥ay, in truth," said the father, "she has strange influ- 
 ence over those who approach her; the Highland lad, Cona- 
 char, with whom I have been troubled for these two or three 
 years, although you may see he has the natural spirit of hig 
 people, obeys the least sign which Catharine makes him, and^ 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 53 
 
 ibdeed, will hardly be ruled by any one else in the house. 
 She takes much pains with him to bring ^ini from his ruda 
 Highland habits." 
 
 Here Harry Smith became uneasy in his chair, lifted the 
 flagon, set it down, and at length exclaimed: " The devil take 
 the young Highland whelp and his whole kindred 1 What 
 has Catharine to do to instruct such a fellow as he? He wiU 
 be just like the wolf-cub that I was fool enough to train to 
 the ofB.ces of a dog, and every one thought him reclaimed, till, 
 in an ill hour, I went to walk on the hiU of Moncrieff, when 
 he broke loose on the laird's flock, and made a havoc that I 
 might well have rued, had the laird not wanted a harness at 
 the time. And I marvel that you, being a sensible man, fa- 
 ther Glover, will keep this Highland young fellow — a likely 
 one, I promise you — so nigh to Catharine, as if there were no 
 other than your daughter to serve him for a schoolmistress." 
 
 "Fie, my son — fie; now you are jealous," said Simon, "of 
 a poor young fellow who, to tell you the truth, resides here 
 because he may not so well live on the other side of the hill." 
 
 "Ay — ay, father Simon," retorted the smith, who had all 
 the narrow-minded feelings of the burghers of his time, " an 
 it were not for fear of offence, I would say that you have even 
 too much packing and peiling with yonder loons out of burgh." 
 
 "I must get my deer-hides, buck-skins, kid-skins, and so 
 forth somewhere, my good Harry, and Highlandmen give 
 good bargains." 
 
 "They can afford them," replied Henry, drily, "for they 
 sell nothing but stolen gear." 
 
 " Well — well, be that as it may, it is not my business where 
 they get the bestial, so I get the hides. But as I was saying, 
 there are certain considerations why I am willing to oblige the 
 father of this young man, by keeping him here. And he is 
 but half a Highlander neither, and wants a thought of the 
 dour spirit of a 'glune-amie'; ' after all, I have seldom seen 
 him so fierce as he showed himself but now." 
 
 "You could not, unless he had killed his man," replied the 
 smith, in the same dry tone. 
 
 > See Note 13. 
 
64 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 " Nevertheless, if you wish it, Harry, I'll set all other re- 
 spects aside, and send the landlouper to seek other quarters 
 to-morrow morning. " 
 
 "Nay, father," said the smith, "you cannot suppose that 
 Harry Gow cares the value of a smithy-dander for such a cub 
 as yonder cat-a-mountain? I care little, I promise you, though 
 all his clan were coming down the Shoegate" with slogan cry- 
 ing and pipes playing : I would find fifty blades and bucklers 
 would send them back faster than they came. But, to speak 
 truth, though it is a fool's speech too, I care not to see the 
 fellow so much with Catharine. Eemember, father Glover, 
 your trade keeps your eyes and hands close employed, and 
 must have your heedful care, even if this lazy lurdane wrought 
 at it, which you know yourseK he seldom does." 
 
 "And that is true," said Simon: "he cuts aU his gloves out 
 for the right hand, and never could finish a pair in his life." 
 
 "No doubt, his notions of skin-cutting are rather different," 
 said Henry. " But with your leave, father, I would only say 
 that, work he or be he idle, he has no bleared eyes, no hands 
 seared with the hot iron, and welked by the use of the fore- 
 hammer, no hair rusted in the smoke, and singed in the fur- 
 nace, like the hide of a badger, rather than what is fi.t to be 
 covered with a Christian bonnet. Now, let Catharine be as • 
 good a wench as ever lived, and I will uphold her to be the 
 best in Perth, yet she must see and know that these things 
 make a difference betwixt man and man, and that the differ- 
 ence is not in my favour." 
 
 "Here is to thee, with aU my heart, son Harry," said the 
 old man, filling a brimmer to his companion and another to 
 himself; "I see that, good smith as thou art, thou ken'st not 
 the mettle that women are made of. Thou must be bold, 
 Henry; and bear thyself not as if thou wert going to the gal- 
 lows-lee, but like a gay young fellow, who knows his own 
 worth and will not be slighted by the best grandchild Eve 
 ever had. Catharine is a woman like her mother, and thou 
 thinkesi foolishly to suppose they are all set on what pleases 
 the eye. Their ear must be pleased too, man : they must know 
 * A principal street in Perth 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 65 
 
 that he ■whom they favour is bold and buxom, and might have 
 the love of twenty, though he is suing for theirs. Believe an 
 old man, woman walk more by what others think than by 
 what they think themselves ; and when she asks for the bold' 
 est man in Perth, whom shaU she hear named but Harry Burn* 
 the-wind? The best armourer that ever fashioned weapon on 
 anvU? Why, Harry Smith again. The tighest dancer at the 
 maypole? Why, the lusty smith. The gayest troller of bal- 
 lads? Why, who but Harry Gow? The best wrestler, sword- 
 and-buckler player, the king of the weapon-shawing, the breaker 
 of mad horses, the tamer of wild Highlandmen? Evermore 
 it is thee— thee — ^no one but thee. And shall Catharine prefer 
 yonder slip of a Highland boy to thee ? Pshaw! she might as 
 weU. make a steel gauntlet out of kid's leather. I teU thee, 
 Conaehar is nothing to her, but so far as she would fain pre- 
 vent the devil having his due of him, as of other Highland- 
 men. God bless her, poor thing, she would bring aU mankind 
 to better thoughts if she could." 
 
 " In which she will fail to a certainty," said the smith, who, 
 as the reader may have noticed, had no good-will to the High- 
 land race. " I wDl wager on Old Nick, of whom I should know 
 something, he being indeed a worker in the same element with 
 myself, against Cathariae on that debate : the devil wiE have 
 the tartan, that is sure enough." 
 
 "Ay, but Catharine," replied the glover, "hath a second 
 thou knowest little of: Father Clement has taken the young 
 reiver in hand, and he fears a hundred devils as little as I do 
 a flock of geese." 
 
 " Father Clement I" said the smith. " You are always mak- 
 ing some new saint in this godly city of St. Johnston. Pray, 
 who, for a devU's drubber, may he be? One of your hermits 
 that is trained for the work like a wrestler for the ring, 
 and briags himself to trim by fasting and penance, is he 
 not?" 
 
 "No, that is the marvel of it," said Simon: "Father Cle- 
 ment eats, drinks, and lives much like other folks — all the 
 rules of the church, nevertheless, strictly observed." 
 
 "Oh, I comprehend! — a buxom priest that thinks more of 
 
56 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 good living thau of good life, tipples a can on Pastern's Eve, 
 to enable him to face Lent, has a pleasant in principio, and 
 confesses all the prettiest women about the town?" 
 
 "You are on the bow-hand stUl, smith. I tell you, my 
 daughter and I could nose out either a fasting hypocrite or a 
 a full one. But Father Clement is neither the one nor the 
 other." 
 
 "But what is he then, in Heaven's name?" 
 
 " One who is either greatly better than half his brethren of 
 St. Johnston put together, or so much worse than the worst 
 of them, that it is sin and shame that he is suffered to abide 
 in the country. " 
 
 " Methinks it were easy to teU whether he be the one or the 
 other," said the smith. 
 
 "Content you, my friend," said Simon, "with knowing 
 that, if you judge Father Clement by what you see him do 
 aad hear him say, you wDl think of him as the best and kind- 
 est man in the world, with a comfort for every man's grief, a 
 counsel for every man's difficulty, the rich man's surest guide, 
 and the poor man's best friend. But if you listen to what 
 the Domiuicans say of him, he is — Benedicite I (here the glover 
 crossed himself on brow and bosom) — a foul heretic, who 
 ought by means of earthly flames to be sent to those which 
 burn eternally." 
 
 The smith also crossed himself, and exclaimed: "St. Mary! 
 father Simon, and do you, who are so good and prudent that 
 you have been called the Wise Glover of Perth, let your 
 daughter attend the ministry of one who — ^the saints preserve 
 as! — maybe in league with the foul fiend himself! Why, 
 was it not a priest who raised the devil in the Meal Vennel, 
 when Hodge Jackson's house was blown down in the great 
 wind? Did not the devil appear in the midst of the Tay, 
 dressed in a priest's scapular, gambolling like a peUack 
 amongst the waves, the morning when our stately bridge was 
 swept away?" 
 
 "I cannot tell whether he did or no," said the glover; "I 
 only know I saw him not. As to Catharine, she cannot be 
 said to use Father Clement's ministry, seeing her confessor is 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 57 
 
 old Father Francis the Dominican, from whom she had her 
 shrift torday. But women will sometimes be wilful, and sure 
 enough she consults with Father Clement more than I could 
 wish ; and yet when I have spoken with him myself, I have 
 thought him so good and holy a man that I could have trusted 
 my own salvation with him. There are bad reports of him 
 among the Dominicans, that is certain. But what have we 
 laymen to do with such things, my son? Let us pay Mother 
 Church her dues, give our alms, confess and do our penances 
 duly, and the saints wiU bear us out." 
 
 "Ay, truly; and they will have consideration," said the 
 smith, " for any rash and unhappy blow that a man may deal 
 in a fight, when his party was on defence, and standing up to 
 him ; and that's the only creed a man can live upon in Scot- 
 land, let your daughter think what she pleases. Marry, a 
 man must know his fence, or have a short lease of his life, in 
 any place where blows are going so rife. Five nobles to our 
 altar have cleared me for the best man I ever had misfortune 
 with." 
 
 "Let us finish our flask, then," said the old glover; "for I 
 reckon the .Dominican tower is tolling midnight. And hark 
 thee, son Henry; be at the lattice window on our east gable 
 by the very peep of dawn, and make me aware thou art come 
 by whistling the smith's call gently. I will contrive that 
 Catharine shall look out at the window, and thus thou wUt 
 have all the privileges of being a gaUant Valentine through 
 the rest of the year j which, if thou canst not use to thine own 
 advantage, I shall be led to think that,, for all thou be'st cov- 
 ered with the lion's hide, nature has left on thee the long ears 
 of the ass." 
 
 "Amen, father," said the armourer," a hearty good-night to 
 you ; and God's blessing on your roof -tree, and those^ whom it 
 covers. You shall hear the smith's call sound by cock-crow- 
 ing; I warrant I put sir chanticleer to shame." 
 
 So saying, he took his leave ; and, though completely un- 
 daunted, moved through the deserted streets like one upon 
 his guard, to his own dwelling, which was situated in the 
 Mill Wynd, at the western end of Perth. 
 
68 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 What's all this turmoil crammed into onr parte? 
 Faith, but the pit-arpat of poor young hearts. 
 
 Dbtdbn. 
 
 The sturdy armourer was not, it may be believed, slack in 
 keeping the appointment assigned by his intended father-in- 
 law. He went through the process of his toilet with more 
 than ordinary care, throwing, as far as he could, those points 
 which had a military air into the shade. He was far too 
 noted a person to venture to go entirely unarmed in a town 
 where he had indeed many friends, but also, from the char- 
 acter of many of his former exploits, several deadly enemies, 
 at whose hands, should they take him at advantage, he knew 
 he had little mercy to expect. He therefore wore under his 
 jerkin a "secret," or coat of chain-mail, made so light and 
 flexible that it interfered as little with his movements as a 
 modern under-waisteoat, yet of such proof as he might safely 
 depend upon, every ring of it having been wrought and joined 
 by his own hands. Above this he wore, like others of his 
 age and degree, the Flemish hose and doublet, which, in hon- 
 our of the holy tide, were of the best superfine English broad- 
 cloth, light blue in colour, slashed out with black satin, and 
 passamented (laced, that is) with embroidery of black sUk. 
 His walking-boots were of cordovan leather; his cloak of good 
 Scottish grey, which served to conceal a whinger, or couteaa 
 de chasse, that hung at his belt, and was his only offensive 
 weapon, for he carried in his hand but a rod of holly. His 
 black velvet bonnet was lined with steel, quUted between the 
 metal and his head, and thus constituted a means of defence 
 which might safely be trusted to. 
 
 Upon the whole, Henry had the appearance, to which ho 
 was well entitled, of a burgher of wealth and consideration, 
 assuming, in his dress, as much consequence as he could dis- 
 play, without stepping beyond his own rank, and encroaching 
 on that of the gentry. Neither did his frank and manly de* 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 69 
 
 portment, though indicating a total indifference to danger, 
 bear the least resemblance to that of the bravoes or swash- 
 bucklers of the day, amongst whom Henry was sometimes un- 
 justly ranked by those who imputed the frays in which he was 
 so often engaged to a quarrelsome and violent temper, resting 
 upon a consciousness of his personal strength and knowledge 
 of his weapon. On the contrary, every feature bore the easy 
 and good-humoured expression of one who neither thought of 
 inflicting mischief nor dreaded it from others. 
 
 Having attired himself in his best, the honest armourer next 
 placed nearest to his heart (which throbbed at its touch) a 
 little gift which he had long provided for Cathariue Glover, 
 and which his quality of Valentine would presently give him 
 the title to present, and her to receive, without regard to maid- 
 enly scruples. It was a small ruby cut into the form of a 
 heart, transfixed with a golden arrow, and was inclosed in a 
 small purse made of liuks of the finest work in steel, as if it 
 had been designed for a hauberk to a king. Eound the verge 
 of the purse were these words : 
 
 Love's darts 
 Cleave hearts 
 Through maU-shirts. 
 
 This device had cost the armourer some thought, and he 
 was much satisiied with his composition, because it seemed to 
 imply that his skill could defend all hearts saving his own. 
 He wrapped himself iu his cloak, and hastened through the 
 still silent streets, determined to appear at the window ap- 
 pointed a little before dawn. 
 
 With this purpose he passed up the High Street,' and 
 turned down the opening wbere St. John's Church now stands, 
 in order to proceed to Curfew Street;' when it occurred to 
 him, from the appearance of the sky, that he was at least an 
 hour too early for his purpose, and that it would be better not 
 to appear at the place of rendezvous tOl nearer the time as- 
 signed. Other gallants were not unlikely to be on the watch 
 as well as himself about the house of the Fair Maid of Perth; 
 
 ■ See Note li. ' See Note 16. 
 
60 WAVERLEY NOATELS. 
 
 and he knew his own foiUe so well as to be sensible of the 
 great chance of a scuffle arising betwixt them. " I have the 
 advantage," he thought, "by my father Simon's friendship; 
 and why should I stain my fingers with the blood of the poor 
 creatures that are not worthy my notice, since they are so 
 much less fortunate than myself? No — no, I wiLL be wise for 
 once, and keep at a distance from all temptation to a broD.. 
 They shall have no more time to quarrel with me than just 
 what it may require for me to give the signal, and for my 
 father Simon to answer it. I wonder how the old man will 
 contrive to briug her to the wiadow? I fear, if she knew his 
 purpose, he would find it diEB.cult to carry it into execution." 
 
 While these lover-like thoughts were passing through his 
 brain, the armourer loitered in his pace, often turning his 
 eyes eastward, and eyeiug the firmament, in which no slight 
 shades of grey were begimiing to flicker, to announce the ap- 
 proach of dawn, however distant, which, to the impatience of 
 the stout armourer, seemed on that morning to abstain longer 
 than usual from occupying her eastern barbican. He was now 
 passing slowly under the wall of St. Anne's Chapel (not fail- 
 ing to cross himself and say an ave, as he trode the conse- 
 crated ground), when a voice, which seemed to come from be- 
 hind one of the flying buttresses of the chapel, said, " He 
 lingers that has need to run." 
 
 "Who speaks?" said the armourer, looking around him, 
 somewhat startled at an address so im.expected, both in its 
 tone and tenor. 
 
 "No matter who speaks," answered the same voice. "Do 
 thou make great speed, or thou wUt scarce make good speed. 
 Bandy not words, but begone." 
 
 " Saint or sinner, angel or devil," said Henry, crossing him- 
 self, " your advice touches me but too dearly to be neglected. 
 St. Valentine be my speed!" 
 
 So saying, he instantly changed his loitering pace to one 
 with which few people could have kept up, and in an instant 
 was in Couvrefew Street. He had not made three steps tow- 
 ards Simon Glover's, which stood in the midst of the narrow 
 street, when two men started from under the houses on differ* 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 61 
 
 ent sides, and advanced, as it were by concert, to intercept 
 his passage. The imperfect light only permitted him to discern 
 that they wore the Highland mantle, 
 
 " Clear the way, cateran, " said the armourer, in the deep 
 stern voice which corresponded with the breadth of his chest. 
 
 They did not answer, at least intelligibly ; but he could see 
 that they drew their swords, with the purpose of withstand- 
 ing him. by violence. Conjecturing some evil, but of what 
 kind he could not anticipate, Henry instantly determined to 
 make his way through whatever odds, and defend his mis- 
 ';ress, or at least die at her feet. He cast his cloak over his 
 eft arm as a buckler, and advanced rapidly and steadily to 
 she two men. The nearest made a thrust at him, but Henry 
 Smith, parrying the blow with his cloak, dashed his arm in 
 the man's face, and tripping him at the same time, gave him 
 a severe fall on the causeway; while almost at the same in- 
 stant he struck a blow with his whinger at the fellow who was 
 upon his right hand, so severely applied, that he also lay pros- 
 trate by his associate. Meanwhile, the armourer pushed for- 
 ward in alarm, for which the circumstance of the street being 
 guarded or defended by strangers who conducted themselves 
 with such violence afforded sufiEicient reason. He heard a sup- 
 pressed whisper and a bustle under the glover's windows — 
 those very windows from which he had expected to be hailed 
 by Catharine as her Valentine. He kept to the opposite side 
 of the street, that he might reconnoitre their number and pur- 
 pose. But one of the party who were beneath the window, 
 observing or hearing him, crossed the street also, and taking 
 him doubtless for one of the sentinels, asked, in a whisper, 
 "What noise was yonder, Kenneth? why gave you not the 
 signal?" 
 
 "yillain," said Henry, "you are discovered, and you shall 
 die the death." 
 
 As he spoke thus, he dealt the stranger a blow with his 
 weapon, which would probably have made his words good, 
 had not the man, raising his arm, received on his hand the 
 blow meant for his head. The wound must have been a se- 
 vere one, for he staggered and fell with a deep groan. Witli' 
 
62 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 •ut noticing him farther, Henry Smith sprung forward upon 
 a party of men who seemed engaged ia placing a ladder 
 against the lattice window in the gable. Henry did not stop 
 ether to count their numbers or to ascertaiu their purpose. 
 But, crying the alarm-word of the town, and giving the signal 
 at which the burghers were wont to collect, he rushed on the 
 night-walkers, one of whom was in the act of ascending the 
 ladder. The smith seized it by the rounds, threw it down on 
 the pavement, and placiug his foot on the body of the man 
 who had been mounting, prevented him from regainiag his 
 feet. His accomplices struck fiercely at Henry, to extricate 
 their companion. But his mail-coat stood him in good stead, 
 and he repaid their blows with iaterest, shoutiug aloud, 
 "Help — help, for bonny St. Johnston! Bows and blades, 
 brave citizens ! bows and blades ! they break into our houses 
 under cloud of night." 
 
 These words, which resounded far through the streets, were 
 accompanied by as many fierce blows, dealt with good effect 
 among those whom the armourer assailed. In the mean time, 
 the inhabitants of the district began to awaken and appear on 
 the street ia their shirts, with swords and targets, and some 
 of them with torches. The assailants now endeavoured to 
 make their escape, which all of them effected excepting the 
 man who had been thrown down along with the ladder. Him 
 the intrepid armourer had caught by the throat in the scuffle, 
 and held as fast as the greyhound holds the hare. The other 
 wounded men were borne off by their comrades. 
 
 " Here are a sort of knaves breakiug peace within burgh, " 
 said Henry to the neighbours who began to assemble ; " make 
 after the rogues. They cannot all get off, for I have maimed 
 3ome of them : the blood wiU guide you to them. " 
 
 "Some Highland caterans," said the citizens; "up. and 
 chase, neighbours!" 
 
 "Ay, chase — chase! leave me to manage this fellow," con- 
 tiuued the armourer. 
 
 The assistants dispersed in different directions, their lights 
 flashing and their cries resounding through the whole adjacent 
 district. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 63 
 
 In the mean time the armourer's captive entreated for freo" 
 dom, using both promises and threats to obtain it. " As thou 
 art a gentleman," he said, "let me go, and what is past shall 
 be forgiven." 
 
 "I am no gentleman," said Henry — "I am Hal of the 
 Wynd, a burgess of Perth; and I have done nothing to need 
 forgiveness." 
 
 " VUlaia, thou hast done thou knowest not what! But let 
 me go, and I will fill thy bonnet with gold pieces." 
 
 " I shall fill thy bonnet with a cloven head presently, " said 
 the armourer, " unless thou stand stUl as a true prisoner." 
 
 "What is the matter, my son Harry?" said Simon, who 
 now appeared at the window. " I hear thy voice in another 
 tone than I expected. "What is all this noise; and why are 
 the neighbours gathering to the affray?" 
 
 " There have been a proper set of limmers about to scale 
 your windows, father Simon ; but I am like to prove godfather 
 to one of them, whom I hold here, as fast as ever vice held 
 iron." 
 
 "Hear me, Simon Glover," said the prisoner; "let me but 
 speak one word with you in private, and rescue me from the 
 gripe of this iron-fisted and leaden-pated clown, and I wiU. 
 show thee that no harm was designed to thee or thine, and, 
 moreover, tell thee what wUl much advantage thee." 
 
 " I should know that voice, " said Simon Glover, who now 
 came to the door with a dark lantern in his hand. "Son 
 Smith, let this young man speak with me. There is no dan- 
 ger in him, I promise you. Stay but an instant where you 
 are, and let no one enter the house, either to attack or de- 
 fend. I will be answerable that this galliard meant but some 
 St. Valentiue's jest." 
 
 So saying, the old man pulled in the prisoner and shut the 
 door, leaving Henry a little surprised at the unexpected light 
 in which his father-in-law had viewed the affray. "A jest!" 
 he said; "it might have been a strange jest, if they. had got 
 into the maiden's sleeping-room ! And they would have done 
 so, had it not been for the honest friendly voice from betwixt 
 the buttresses, which, if it were not that of the blessed saint 
 
64 WAVERLEY K0VEL8. 
 
 — ^ttough what am I that the holy person should speak to me? 
 — could not sonnd in that place without her permission and 
 assent, and for which I wiU promise her a wax candle at her 
 shrine, as long as my whinger ; and I would I had had my 
 two-handed broadsword instead, both for the sake of St. John- 
 ston and of the rogues, for of a certain those whingers are 
 pretty toys, but more fit for a boy's hand than a man's. Oh, 
 my old two-handed Trojan, hadst thou been in my hands, as 
 thou hang'st presently at the tester of my bed, the legs of 
 those rogues had not carried their bodies so clean off the field. 
 But there come lighted torches and drawn swords. So ho — 
 stand! Are you for St. Johnston? If friends to the bonny 
 burgh, you are well come." 
 
 "We have been but bootless hunters," said the townsmen. 
 " We followed by the tracks of the blood into the Dominican 
 burial-ground, and we started two fellows from amongst the 
 tombs, supporting betwixt them a third, who had probably 
 got some of your marks about him, Harry. They got to the 
 postern gate before we could overtake them, and rang the 
 sanctuary bell ; the gate opened, and in went they. So they 
 are safe in girth and sanctuary, and we may go to our cold 
 beds and warm us." 
 
 "Ay," said one of the party, "the good Dominicans have 
 always some devout brother of their convent sitting up to open 
 the gate of the sanctuary to any poor soul that is in trouble, 
 and desires shelter in the church." 
 
 " Yes, if the poor hunted soul can pay for it," said another; 
 " but, truly, if he be poor in purse as well as in spirit, he 
 may stand on the outside tUl the hounds come up with him." 
 
 A third, who had been poring for a few minutes upon the 
 ground by advantage of his torch, now looked upwards and 
 spoke. He was a brisk, forward, rather corpulent little man, 
 called Oliver Proudfute, reasonably wealthy, and a leading 
 man in his craft, which was that of bonnet-makers ; he, there- 
 fore, spoke as one in authority. " Canst tell us, joUy smith " 
 — ^for they recognised each other by the lights which were 
 brought into the streets — " what manner of fellows they were 
 who raised up this fray within burgh?" 
 
THE KAIR MAID OF PERTH, 65 
 
 " The two that I first saw," answered the armourer, " seemed 
 to me, as well as I could observe them, to have Highland 
 plaids about them." 
 
 "Like enough — ^like enough," answered another citizen, 
 shaking his head, " It's a shame the breaches in our walls 
 are not repaired, and that these landlouping Highland scoun- 
 drels are left at liberty to take honest men and women out of 
 their beds any night that is dark enough." 
 
 "But look here, neighbours," said Oliver Proudfute, show- 
 ing a bloody hand which he had picked up from the ground; 
 "when did such a hand as this tie a Highlandman's brogues? 
 It is large, indeed, and bony, but as fine as a lady's, with a 
 ring that sparkles like a gleaming candle. Simon Glover has 
 made gloves for this hand before now, if I am not much mis- 
 taken, for he works for all the courtiers." The spectators 
 here began to gaze on the bloody token with various comments. 
 
 "If that is the case," said one, "Harry Smith had best 
 show a clean pair of heels for it, since the justiciar will scarce 
 think the protecting a burgess's house an excuse for cutting 
 off a gentleman's hand. There be hard laws against mutila- 
 tion." 
 
 "Fie upon you, that you will say so, Michael Wabster," 
 answered the bonnet-maker ; " are we not representatives and 
 successors of the stout old Eomans, who buUt Perth as like to 
 their own city as they could? And have we not charters from 
 aU our noble kings and progenitors, as being their loving 
 liegemen? And would you have us now yield up our rights, 
 privileges, and immunities, our outfang and infang, our hand- 
 haband, our back-bearand, and our blood-suits, and amercia- 
 ments, escheats, and conunodities, and suffer an honest bur- 
 gess's house to be assaulted without seeking for redress? No, 
 brave citizens, craftsmen, and burgesses, the Tay shall flow 
 back to Dunkeld before we submit to such injustice!" 
 
 "And how can we help it?" said a grave old man, who 
 stood leaning on a two-handed sword. "What would you 
 have us do?" 
 
 " Marry, Bailie CraigdaUie, I wonder that you, of all men, 
 ask the question. I would have you pass like true men from 
 5 
 
66 WAVERLEY NOVELS, 
 
 this very place to the King's Grace's presence, raise him from 
 iiis royal rest, and presenting to him the piteous case of our 
 being called forth from our beds at this season, with little 
 better covering than these shirts, I would show him this 
 bloody token, and know from his Grace's own royal lips 
 whether it is just and honest that his loving lieges should bo 
 thus treated by the knights and nobles of his deboshed court. 
 And this I call pushing our cause warmly." 
 
 " Warndy, sayst thou?" replied the old burgess ; " why, so 
 warmly, that we shall all die of cold, man, before the porter 
 turn a key to let us into the royal presence. Come, friends, 
 the night is bitter, we have kept our watch and ward like 
 men, and our joUy smith hath given a warning to those that 
 would wrong us, which shall be worth twenty proclamations 
 of the King. To-morrow is a new day; we will consult on 
 this matter on this self -same spot, and consider what measures 
 should be taken for discovery and pursuit of the villains. 
 And therefore let us dismiss before the heart's-blood freeze 
 in our veins." 
 
 "Bravo — bravo, neighbour CraigdaUie! St. Johnston for 
 ever!" 
 
 Oliver Proudfute would still have spoken; for he was one 
 of those pitiless orators who think that their eloquence can 
 overcome all inconveniences in time, place, and circum- 
 stances. But no one would listen ; and the citizens dispersed 
 to their own houses by the light of the dawn, which began 
 now to streak the horizon. 
 
 They were scarce gone ere the door of the glover's house 
 opened, and seizing the smith by the hand, the old man pulled 
 him. in. 
 
 " Where is the prisoner?" demanded the armourer. 
 
 "He is gone — escaped— fled — what do I know of him?" 
 said the glover. "He got out at the back door, and so 
 through the little garden. Think not of him, but come and 
 see the Valentine whose honour and life you have saved this 
 morning. " 
 
 "Let me but sheathe my weapon," said the smith, "let me 
 but wash my hands." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 67 
 
 "There is not an instant to lose, she is up and almost 
 dressed. Come on, man. She shall see thee with thy good 
 weapon in thy hand, and with villain's blood on thy fingers, 
 that she may know what is the value of a true man's service. 
 She has stopped my mouth over-long with her pruderies and 
 her scruples. I wiU have her know what a brave man's lore 
 is worth, and a bold burgess's to boot." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Tip ! lady fair, and braid thy hair, 
 
 Aiid rouse thee in the breezy air, 
 
 tip I quit thy bower, late wears the honr. 
 
 Long have the rooks caw'd round the tower. 
 
 Joanna Bailub. 
 
 Staetled from her repose by the noise of the affray, the 
 Fair Maid of Perth had listened in breathless terror to the 
 sounds of violence and outcry which arose from the street. 
 She had sunk on her knees to pray for assistance, and when 
 she distinguished the voices of neighbours and friends col- 
 lected for her protection, she remained in the same posture 
 to return thanks. She was still kneeling when her father 
 almost thrust her champion, Henry Smith, into her apart- 
 ment ; the bashful lover hanging back at first, as if afraid 
 to give offence, and, on observing her posture, from respect 
 to her devotion. 
 
 "Father," said the armourer, "she prays; I dare no more 
 speak to her than to a bishop when he says mass." 
 
 "Now, go thy ways, for a right valiant and courageous 
 blockhead," said her father; and then speaking to his daugh- 
 ter, he added, "Heaven is best thanked, my daughter, by 
 gratitude shown to our fellow-creatures. Here comes the 
 instrument by whom God has rescued thee from death, or 
 perhaps from dishonour worse than death. Eeceive him, 
 Catharine, as thy true Valentine, and him whom I desire to 
 see my aiEectionate sou." 
 
68 WAVEKLEY NOVELS. 
 
 "Not thus — father," replied Catharine. "I caa see — can 
 speak to no one no-w. 1 am not ungrateful — ^perhaps I am 
 too thankful to the instrument of our safety; but let me thank 
 the guardian saint who sent me this timely relief, and giva 
 me but a moment to don my kirtle." 
 
 " Nay, God-a-mercy, wench, it were hard to deny thee time 
 to busk thy body-clothes, since the request is the only words 
 like a woman that thou hast uttered for these ten days. Truly, 
 son Harry, I would my daughter would put off being entirely 
 a saint till the time comes for her being canonised for St. 
 Catherine the Second." 
 
 "Nay, jest not, father; for I will swear she has at least one 
 sincere adorer already, who hath devoted himself to her pleas- 
 ure, so far as sinful man may. Fare-thee-well, then, for the 
 moment, fair maiden," he concluded, raising his voice, "and 
 Heaven send thee dreams as peaceful as thy waking thoughts, 
 I go to watch thy slumbers, and woe with him that shall 
 intrude on theml" 
 
 " Nay, good and brave Henry, whose warm heart is at such 
 variance with thy reckless hand, thrust thyself into no farther 
 quarrels to-night; but take the kindest thanks, and with 
 these, try to assume the peaceful thoughts which you assign 
 to me. To-morrow we will meet, that I may assure you of 
 my gratitude. Farewell." 
 
 "And farewell, lady and light of my heart I" said the ar- 
 mourer, and, descending the stair which led to Catharine's 
 apartment, was about to sally forth into the street, when the 
 glover caught him by the arm. 
 
 "I shall like the rufle of to-night," said he, "better than 
 I ever thought to do the clashing of steel, if it brings my 
 daughter to her senses, Harry, and teaches her what thou art 
 worth. By St. Macgrider! ' I even love these roysterers, and 
 am sorry for that poor lover who will never wear left-handed 
 chevron again. Ay I he has lost that which he will miss all 
 the days of his life, especially when he goes to pull on his 
 
 • A place called vulgarly Ecclesmagirdie {EccUsia Macgirdi), not far 
 from Perth, still preserves the memory of this old Gaelic saint from utter 
 Lethe, 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 69 
 
 gloves ; ay, he will pay but half a fee to my craft in future. 
 Nay, not a step from tMs house to-night," he continued. 
 "Thou dost not leave us, I promise thee, my son," 
 
 "I do not mean it. But 1 will, with your permission, 
 watch in the street. The attack may be renewed." 
 
 "And if it be," said Simon, "thou wilt have better access 
 to drive them back, having the vantage of the house. It is 
 the way of fighting which suits us burghers best — ^that of 
 resisting from behind stone walls. Our duty of watch and 
 ward teaches us that trick; besides, enough are awake and 
 astir to ensure us peace and quiet tiU morning. So come in 
 this way." 
 
 So saying, he drew Henry, nothing loth, into the same 
 apartment where they had supped, and where the old woman, 
 who was on foot, disturbed as others had been by the noc- 
 turnal, affray, soon roused up the fire. 
 
 " And now, my doughty son, " said the glover, " what liquor 
 wilt thou pledge thy father in?" 
 
 Henry Smith had suffered himself to sink mechanically 
 upon a seat of old black oak, and now gazed on the fire, that 
 flashed back a ruddy light over his manly features. He mut- 
 tered to himself half audibly ; " Good Henry — hrave Henry, 
 Ah ! had she but said, dear Henry !" 
 
 "What liquors be these?" Kaid the old glover, laughing. 
 " My cellar holds none such ; but if sack, or Ehenish, or wine 
 of Gascony can serve, why, say the word and the flagon 
 foams, that is all." 
 
 "The kindest thanks," said the armourer, still musing, 
 "that's more than she ever said to me before — the kindest 
 thanks — what may not that stretch to?" 
 
 "It shall stretch like kid's leather, man," said the glover, 
 " if thou wilt but be ruled, and say what thou wilt take for 
 thy morning's draught." 
 
 " Whatever thou wilt, father," answered the armourer, care- 
 lessly, and relapsed into the analysis of Catharine's speech to 
 him. " She spoke of my warm heart j but she also spoke of 
 my reckless hand. What earthly thing can I do to get rid of 
 this fighting fancy? Certainly I were best strike my right 
 
70 "WAVERLEY NOVELS 
 
 hand off, and nail it to the door of a cliurcli, that it may neveT 
 do me discredit more." 
 
 "You have chopped ofE hands enough for one night," said 
 his friend, setting a flagon of wine on the table. " Why dost 
 thou vex thyself, man? She would love thee twice as weU 
 did she not see how thou doatest upon her. But it becomes 
 serious now. I am not to have the risk of my booth being 
 broken and my house plundered by the heU-raking followers 
 of the nobles, because she is called the Tair Maid of Perth, 
 an't please ye. "No, she shall know I am her father, and will 
 have that obedience to which law and gospel give me right. 
 I will have her thy wife, Henry, my heart of gold — thy wife, 
 my man of mettle, and that before many weeks are over. 
 Come — come, here is to thy merry bridal, jolly smith." 
 
 The father quaffed a large cup, and filled it to his adopted 
 son, who raised it slowly to his head; then, ere it had 
 reached his lips, replaced it suddenly on the table and shook 
 his head. 
 
 " Nay, if thou wilt not pledge me to such a health, I know 
 no one who will," said Simon. "What canst thou mean, thou 
 foolish lad? Here has a chance happened, which in a manner 
 places her in thy power, since from one end of the city to the 
 other aU would cry fie on her if she should say thee nay. 
 Here am I, her father, not only consenting to the cutting out 
 of the match, but willing to see you two as closely united 
 together as ever needle stitched buckskin. And with all this 
 on thy side — fortune, father, and all — thou lookest like a dis- 
 tracted lover in a ballad, more like to pitch thyself into the 
 Tay than to woo a lass that may be had for the asking, if you 
 can but choose the lucky minute." 
 
 "Ay, but that lucky minute, father! I question much if 
 Catharine ever has such a moment to glance on earth and its 
 inhabitants as might lead her to listen to a coarse ignorant 
 borrel man like me. I cannot teU how it is, father; else- 
 where I can hold up my head like another man, but with your 
 saintly daughter I lose heart and courage, and I cannot help 
 thinking that it would be wellnigh robbing a holy shrine if 
 I could succeed in surprising her affections. Her thoughts 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 71 
 
 are too much fitted for Heaven to be wasted on such a one 
 as 1 am." 
 
 "E'en as you like, Henry," answered the glover. "My 
 daughter is not courting you any more than I am — a fair offer 
 is no cause of feud; only if you think that I will give in to 
 her foolish notions of a convent, take it with you that I will 
 never listen to them. I love and honour the church," he 
 said, crossing himself. " I pay her rights duly and cheerfully 
 — tithes and alms, wine and wax, I pay them as justly, I say, 
 as any man in Perth of my means doth — but I cannot afford 
 the church my only and single ewe-lamb that I have in the 
 World. Her mother was dear to me on earth, and is now an 
 angel in Heaven. Catharine is all I have to remind me of 
 her I have lost; and if she goes to the cloister, it shall be 
 when these old eyes are closed for ever, and not sooner. But 
 as for you, friend Gow, I pray you will act according to your 
 own best liking. I want to force no wife on you, I promise 
 you. " 
 
 "!N"ay, now, you beat the iron twice over," said Henry. 
 " It is thus we always end, father, by your being testy with 
 me for not doing that thing in the world which would make 
 me happiest, were I to have it in my power. Why, father, I 
 would the keenest dirk I ever forged were sticking in my 
 heart at this moment if there is one single particle in it that 
 is not more your daughter's property than my own. But what 
 can I do? I cannot think less of her, or more of myself, than 
 we both deserve 5 and what seems to you so easy and certain is 
 to me as difBcult as it would be to work a steel hauberk out of 
 hards of flax. But here is to you, father, " he added, in a more 
 cheerful tone; " and here is to my fair saint and Valentine, as 
 I hope your Catharine will be mine for the season. And let 
 me not keep your old head longer from the pillow, but make 
 interest with your feather-bed till daybreak; and then you 
 must be my guide to your daughter's chamber-door, and my 
 apology for entering it, to bid her good-morrow, for the 
 brightest that the sim will awaken in the city or for miles 
 round it." 
 
 "No bad advice, my son," said the honest glover. "But 
 
72 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 you, what will you do? Will you lie down beside me, or 
 take a part of Conachar's bed?" 
 
 "Neither," answered Harry Gow; "I should but prevent 
 your rest, and for me this easy-chair is worth a down bed, 
 and I will sleep like a sentinel, with my graith about me." 
 As he spoke, he laid his hand on his sword. 
 
 " Nay, Heaven send us no more need of weapons. Good- 
 night, or rather good-morrow, till day-peep; and the first who 
 wakes calls up the other. " 
 
 Thus parted the two burghers. The glover retired to his 
 bed, and, it is to be supposed, to rest. The lover was not so 
 fortunate. His bodily frame easily bore the fatigue which he 
 had encountered in the course of the night, but his mind was 
 of a different and more delicate mould. In one point of view, 
 he was but the stout burgher of his period, proud alike of his 
 art in making weapons and wielding them when made; his 
 professional jealousy, personal strength, and skill in the use 
 of arms brought him into many quarrels, which had made Tiitti 
 generally feared, and in some instances disliked. But with 
 these qualities were united the simple good-nature of a child, 
 and at the same time an imaginative and enthusiastic temper, 
 which seemed little to correspond with his labours at the forge 
 or his combats in the field. Perhaps a little of the hare- 
 brained and ardent feeling which he had picked out of old 
 ballads, or from the metrical romances, which were his sole 
 source of information or knowledge, may have been the means 
 of pricking him on to some of his achievements, which had 
 often a rude strain of chivalry in them; at least, it was cer- 
 tain that his love to the fair Catharine had in it a delicacy 
 such as might have become the squire of low degree, who was 
 honoured, if song speaks truth, with the smUes of the King 
 of Hungary's daughter. His sentiments towards her were 
 certainly as exalted as if they had been fixed upon an actual 
 angel, which made old Simon, and others who watched his 
 conduct, think that his passion was too high and devotional 
 to be successful with maiden of mortal mould. They were 
 mistaken, however. Catharine, coy and reserved as she was, 
 had a heart vhicb could feel and understand the nature and 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 73 
 
 depth of the armourer's passion ; aud whether she was able to 
 repay it or not, she had as much secret pride in the attach- 
 ment of the redoubted Henry Gow as a lady of romance may 
 be supposed to have in the company of a tame lion, who fol- 
 lows to provide for and defend her. It was with sentiments 
 of the most sincere gratitude that she recollected, as she 
 awoke at dawn, the services of Henry during the course ol 
 the eventful night, and the first thought which she dwelt upon 
 was the means of making him understand her feelings. 
 
 Arising hastily from bed, and half blushing at her own pur- 
 pose — "I have been cold to him, and perhaps unjust; I will 
 not be ungrateful, " she said to herself, " though I cannot yield 
 to his suit. I wlQ not wait till my father compels me to re- 
 ceive him as my Valentine for the year : I will seek him out, 
 and choose him myself. I have thought other girls bold when 
 they did something like this ; but I shall thus best please my 
 father, and but discharge the rites due to good St. Valentine 
 by showing my gratitude to this brave man." 
 
 Hastily slipping on her dress, which, nevertheless, was left 
 a good deal more disordered than usual, she tripped down- 
 stairs and opened the door of the chamber, in which, as she 
 had guessed, her lover had passed the hours after the fray. 
 Catharine paused at the door, and became half -afraid of exe- 
 cuting her purpose, which not only permitted but enjoined the 
 Valentines of the year to begin their connexion with a kiss of 
 affection. It was looked upon as a peculiarly propitious omen 
 if the one party could find the other asleep, and awaken him 
 or her by performance of this interesting ceremony. 
 
 Kever was a fairer opportunity offered for conunencing this 
 mystic tie than that which now presented itself to Catharine. 
 After many and various thoughts, sleep had at length over- 
 Eome the stout armourer in the chair in which he had depos- 
 ited himself. His features, in repose, had a more firm and 
 manly cast than Catharine had thought, who, having gener- 
 ally seen them fluctuating between shamef acedness and appre- 
 hension of her displeasure, had been used to connect with them 
 some idea of imbecility. 
 
 "He looks very stem," she said; " if he should be angry? 
 
74 -WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 And then when lie awakes — we are alone — if 1 should call 
 Dorothy— if I should wake my father? But no! it is a thing 
 of custom, and done in aU maidenly and sisterly love and 
 honour. I wiU not suppose that Henry can miscoristrue it, 
 and I win not let a childish bashfulness put my gratitude 
 to sleep." 
 
 So saying, she tripped along the floor of the apartment with 
 a light, though hesitating, step, and a cheek crimsoned at her 
 own purpose ; and gliding to the chair of the sleeper, dropped 
 a kiss upon his lips as light as if a rose-leaf had fallen on 
 them. The slumbers must have been slight which such a 
 touch could dispel, and the dreams of the sleeper must needs 
 have been connected with the cause of the interruption, since 
 Henry, instantly starting up, caught the maiden in his arms, 
 and attempted to return in ecstasy the salute which had 
 broken his repose. But Catharine struggled in his embrace; 
 and as her efforts implied alarmed modesty rather than maid- 
 enly coyness, her bashful lover suffered her to escape a grasp 
 from which twenty times her strength could not have extri- 
 cated her. 
 
 " Nay, be not angry, good Henry, " said Catharine, in the 
 kindest tpne, to her surprised lover. " I have paid my vows 
 to St. Valentine, to show how I value the mate which he has 
 sent me for the year. Let but my father be present, and I 
 will not dare to refuse thee the revenge you may claim for 
 a broken sleep." 
 
 "Let not that be a hinderance," said the old glover, rush- 
 ing in ecstasy into the room; "to her, smith — ^to her: strike 
 while the iron is hot, and teach her what it is not to let sleep- 
 ing dogs lie still." 
 
 Thus encouraged, Henry, though perhaps with less alarm- 
 ing vivacity, again seized the blushing maiden in his arms, 
 who submitted with a tolerable grace to receive repayment of 
 her salute, a dozen times repeated, and with an energy very 
 different from that which had provoked such severe retalia- 
 tion. At length she again extricated herself from her lover's 
 arms, and, as if frightened and repenting what she had done, 
 threw herself into a seat, and covered her face with her handst 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 76 
 
 "Cheer up, thou silly girl," said her *ather, "and be not 
 ashamed that thou hast made the two happiest men in Perth, 
 since thy old father is one Of them. Never was kiss so well 
 bestowed, and meet it is that it should be suitably returned. 
 Look up, my darling 1 look up, and let me see thee give but 
 one smile. By my honest word, the sun that now rises over 
 our fair city shows no sight that can give me greater pleasure. 
 What," he continued, in a jocose tone, "thou thoughtst 
 thou hadst Jamie Keddie's ring," and couldst walk invisible? 
 but not so, my fairy of the dawning. Just as I was about to 
 rise, I heard thy chamber-door open, and watched thee down- 
 stairs, not to protect thee against this sleepy-headed Henry, 
 but to see with my own delighted eyes my beloved girl do that 
 which her father most wished. Come, put down these foolish 
 hands, and though thou blushest a little, it will only the bet- 
 ter grace St. Valentine's morn, when blushes best become a 
 maiden's cheek." 
 
 As Simon Glover spoke, he pulled away, with gentle vio- 
 lence, the hands which hid his daughter's face. She blushed 
 deeply indeed, but there was more than maiden's shame in 
 her face, and her eyes were fast filling with tears. 
 
 "What! weeping, love?" continued her father; "nay — 
 nay, this is more than need. Henry, help me to comfort 
 this little fool." 
 
 Catharine made an effort to collect herself and to smile, but 
 the smile was of a melancholy and serious cast. 
 
 " I only meant to say, father," said the Fair Maid of Perth, 
 with continued exertion, "that in choosing Henry Gow for 
 my Valentine, and rendering to him the rights and greeting 
 of the morning, according to wonted custom, I meant but to 
 show my gratitude to him for his manly and faithful service, 
 and my obedience to you. But do not lead him to think — 
 and, oh, dearest father, do not yourself entertain an idea — 
 that I meant more than what the promise to be his faith- 
 ful and affectionate Valentine through the year requires 
 of me." 
 
 "Ay — ay — ay — ay, we understand it all," said Simon, in 
 
 See Note 16. 
 
76 "WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 the soothing tone which nurses apply to children. " We un- 
 derstand what the meaning is ; enough for once — enough for 
 once. Thou shalt not be frightened or hurried. Loving, 
 true, and faithful Valentines are ye, and the rest as Heaven 
 and opportunity shall permit. Come, prithee, have done: 
 wring not thy tiny hands, nor fear farther persecution now. 
 Thou hast done bravely, excellently. And now, away to 
 Dorothy, and call up the old sluggard; we must have a sub- 
 stantial breakfast, after a night of confusion and a morning 
 of joy, and thy hand will be needed to prepare for us some of 
 these delicate cakes which no one can make but thyself j and 
 well hast thou a right to the secret, seeing who taught it thee. 
 Ah I health to the soul of thy dearest mother," he added, with 
 a sigh ; " how blythe would she have been to see this happy 
 St. Valentine's morning!" 
 
 Catharine took the opportunity of escape which was thus 
 given her, and glided from the room. To Henry it seemed as 
 if the sun had disappeared from the heaven at mid-day, and 
 left the world in sudden obscurity. Even the high-swelled 
 hopes with which the late incident had filled him begen to 
 quail, as he reflected upon her altered demeanour — the tears 
 in her eyes, the obvious fear which occupied her features, 
 and the paius she had taken to show, as plainly as delicacy 
 would permit, that the advances which she had made to him 
 were limited to the character with which the rites of the day 
 had invested him. Her father looked on his fallen counte- 
 nance with something like surprise and displeasure. 
 
 " In the name of good St. John, what has befallen you, that 
 makes you look as grave as an owl, when a lad of your spirit, 
 having really such a fancy for this poor gixl as you pretend, 
 ought to be as lively as a lark?" 
 
 "Alas, father!" replied the crestfallen lover, "there is that 
 written on her brow which says she loves me well enough to 
 be my Valentine, especially since you wish it, but not well 
 enough to be my wife." 
 
 "Kow, a plague on thee for a cold, downhearted goose- 
 cap," answered the father. "I can read a woman's brow as 
 weU, and better, than thou, and I can see no such matter on 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 77 
 
 hers. What, the foul fiend, man! there thou wast lying like 
 a lord in thy elbow-chair, as sound asleep as a judge, when, 
 hadst thou been a lover of any spirit, thou wouldst have been 
 watching the east for the first ray of the sun. But there thou 
 layest, snoring I warrant, thinking nought about her, or any- 
 thing else ; and the poor girl rises at peep of day, lest any 
 one else should pick up her most precious and vigUant Valen- 
 tine, and wakes thee with a grace which — so help me, St, 
 Macgrider ! — would have put life in an anvil ; and thou awak- 
 est to hone, and pine, and moan, as if she had drawn a iiot 
 iron across thy lips ! I would to St. John she had sent old 
 Dorothy on the errand, and bound thee for thy Valentine ser- 
 vice to that bundle of dry bones, with never a tooth in her 
 head. She were fittest Valentine in Perth for so craven a 
 wooer." 
 
 "As to craven, father," answered the smith, "there are 
 twenty good cocks, whose combs I have plucked, can tell thee 
 if I am craven or no. And Heaven knows that I would give 
 my good land, held by burgess' tenure, with smithy, bellows, 
 tongs, anvil, and all, providing it would make your view of 
 the matter the true one. But it is not of her coyness or her 
 blushes that I speak; it is of the paleness which so soon fol- 
 lowed the red, and chased it from her cheeks; and it is of the 
 tears which succeeded. It was like the April showers stealing 
 upon and obscuring the fairest dawning that ever beamed over 
 the Tay." 
 
 " Tutti taitti," replied the glover; "neither Eome nor Perth 
 were buUt in a day. Thou hast fished salmon a thousand 
 times, and mightst have taken a lesson. When the fish has 
 taken the fly, to pull a hard strain on the line would snap the 
 tackle to pieces, were it made of wire. Ease your hand, man, 
 and let.him rise ; take leisure, and in half an hour thou layest 
 him. on the bank. There is a beginning as fair as you could 
 wish, unless you expect tha poor wench to come to thy bed- 
 side as she did to thy chair ; and that is not the fashion of 
 modest maidens. But observe me; after we have had our 
 breakfast, I will take care thou hast an opportunity to speak 
 thy mind; only beware thou be neither too backward nor press 
 
78 WAVER LEY NOVELS. 
 
 her too hard. Give her line enough, but do not slack too 
 fast, and my life for yours upon the issue." 
 
 "Do what I can, father," answered Henry, "youwUl al- 
 ways lay the blame on me — either that I give too much head 
 or that I strain the tackle. I would give the best habergeon 
 I ever wrought, that the difla.culty in truth rested with me, 
 for there were then the better chance of its being removed. I 
 own, however, I am but an ass in the trick of bringing about 
 such discourse as is to the purpose for the occasion." 
 
 " Come into the booth with me, my son, and 1 will furnish 
 thee with a fitting theme. Thou knowest the maiden who 
 ventures to kiss a sleeping man wins of him a pair of gloves. 
 Come to my booth ; thou shalt have a pair of delicate kid-skin 
 that will exactly suit her hand and arm. I was thinking of her 
 poor mother when I shaped them," added honest Simon, with 
 a sigh; "and except Catharine, I know not the woman in 
 Scotland whom they would fit, though I have measured most 
 of the high beauties of the court. Come with me, I say, and 
 thou shalt be provided with a theme to wag thy tongue upon, 
 providing thou hast courage and caution to stand by thee in 
 thy wooing." 
 
 CHAPTBE VI. 
 
 Never to man shall Catharine give her hand. 
 
 Taming of the Shrew. 
 
 The breakfast was served, and the thin soft cakes, made of 
 flour and honey according to the family receipt, were not only 
 commended with all the partiality of a father and a lover, but 
 done liberal justice to in the mode which is best proof of cake 
 as weU as pudding. They talked, jested, and laughed^ Cath- 
 arine, too, had recovered her equanimity where the dames and 
 damsels of the period were apt to lose theirs — in the kitchen, 
 namely, and in the superintendence of household affairs, in 
 which she was an adept. I question much if the perusal of 
 Seneca for as long a period would have had equal effect iu 
 composing her mind. . 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 79 
 
 Old Dorothy sat down at the boaxd-end, as was the home- 
 apun fashion of the period; and so much were the two men 
 amused with their own conversation, and Catharine occupied 
 either in attending to them or with her own reflections, that 
 the old woman was the first who observed the absence of the 
 boy Conachar. 
 
 " It is true," said the master glover; " go call him, the idle 
 Highland loon. He was not seen last night during the fray 
 neither, at least I saw him not. Did any of you observe him?" 
 
 The reply was negative ; and Henry's observation followed : 
 
 " There are times when Highlanders can couch like their 
 own deer — ay, and run from danger too as fast. I have seen 
 them do so myself, for the matter of that." 
 
 "And there are times," replied Simon, "when King Arthur 
 and his Round Table could not make stand against them. I 
 wish, Henry, you would speak more reverently of the High- 
 landers. They are often in Perth, both alone and in numbers, 
 and you ought to keep peace with them so long as they will 
 keep peace with you." 
 
 An answer of defiance rose to Henry's lips, but he pru- 
 dently suppressed it. " Why, thou knowest, father," he said, 
 smiling, "that we handicrafts best love the folks we live by; 
 now, my craft provides for valiant and noble knights, gentle 
 squires and pages, stout men-at-arms, and others that wear the 
 weapons which we inake. It is natural I should like the Ruth- 
 vens, the Lindsays, the Ogilvys, the Oliphants, and so many 
 others of our brave and noble neighbours, who are sheathed 
 in steel of my making, like so many paladins, better than 
 those naked, snatching mountaineers, who are ever doing us 
 wrong, especially since no five of each clan have a rusty shirt 
 of mail as old as their brattach; and that is but the work of 
 the clumsy clan smith after aU, who is no member of our hon- 
 ourable mystery, but simply works at the anvil, where his 
 father wrought before him. I say, such people can have no 
 favour in the eyes of an honest craftsman." 
 
 "Well — well," answered Simon; "I prithee let the matter 
 rest even now, for here comes the loitering boy, and, though 
 it is a holyday morn, I want no more bloody puddings." 
 
80 WAVERLET NOVBLB. 
 
 The youth entered accordingly. His face was pale, hit 
 ^es red, and there was an air of discomposure about his 
 whole person. He sat down at the lower end of the table, 
 opposite to Dorothy, and crossed himself, as if preparing for 
 his morning's meal. As he did not help himself to any food, 
 Catharine offered htm a platter containing some of the cakes 
 which had met with such general approbation. At first he 
 rejected her offered kindness rather sullenly; but on her re- 
 peating the offer with a smile of good-wiU, he took a cake in 
 his hand, broke it, and was about to eat a morsel, when the 
 effort to swallow seemed almost too much for him ; and though 
 he succeeded, he did not repeat it. 
 
 '' You have a bad appetite for St. Valentine's morning, Con- 
 achar," said his good-humoured master; " and yet 1 think you 
 must have slept soundly the night before, since I conclude 
 you were not disturbed by the noise of the scufiSe. Why, I 
 thought a lively glune-amie would have been at his master's 
 side, dirk in hand, at the first sound of danger which arose 
 within a mUe of us." 
 
 "I heard but an indistinct noise," said the youth, his face 
 glowing suddenly like a heated coal, " which I took for the 
 shout of some merry revellers ; and you are wont to bid me 
 never open door or window, or alarm the house, on the score 
 of such folly." 
 
 "Well — well," said Simon; "I thought a Highlander would 
 have known better the difference betwixt the clash of swords 
 and the twanging on harps, the wild war-cry and the merry 
 hunt's up. But, let it pass, boy; I am glad thou art losing thy 
 quarrelsome fashions. Eat thy breakfast, any way, as 1 have 
 that to employ thee which requires haste." 
 
 " I have breakfasted already, and am in haste myself. I 
 ma for the hills. Have you any message to my father?" 
 
 " None," replied the glover, in some surprise ; " but art thou 
 beside thyself, boy? or what a vengeance takes thee from the 
 city, like the wing of the whirlwind?" 
 
 "My warning has been sudden," said Conachar, speaking 
 with difficulty but whether arising from the hesitation inci- 
 dental to the use of a foreign language, or whether from soma 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH 81 
 
 other cause^ could not easUy ba distinguislied. " There is to 
 be a meeting — a great hunting " Here he stopped. 
 
 " And when are you to return from this blessed hunting?" 
 Baid the master; "that is, if [ may lake so bold as to ask." 
 
 " I cannot exactly answer, " replied the apprentice. " Per- 
 haps never, if such be my father's pleasure," continued Con- 
 achar, with assumed indifference. 
 
 " I thought, " said Simon Glover, rather seriously, " that all 
 this was to be laid aside, when at earnest intercession I took 
 you under my roof. I thought that when I undertook, being 
 very loth to do so, to teach you an honest trade, we were to 
 hear no more of hunting, or hosting, or clan-gatlieriags, or 
 any matters of the kind?" 
 
 "I was not consulted when I was sent hither," said the lad, 
 haughtily. "I cannot tell what the terms were." 
 
 " But I can tell you, sir Conachar," said the glover, angrily, 
 "that there is no fashion of honesty in binding yourself to an 
 honest craftsman, and spoiling more hides than your own is 
 worth; and now, when you are of age to be of some service, 
 in taking up the disposal of your time at your pleasure, as if 
 it were your own property, not your master's." 
 
 "Eeckon with my father about that," answered Conachar; 
 " he will pay you gallantly — a French mutton for every hide 
 I have spoiled, and a fat cow or bullock for each day I have 
 been absent." 
 
 "Close with him, friend Glover — close with him,'* said the 
 armourer, drily. "Thou wilt be paid gallantly at least, if 
 not honestly. Methinks T would like to know how many 
 purses have been emptied to fill the goat-skin sporran' that 
 is to be BO free to you of its gold, and whose pastures the bul- 
 locks have been calved in that are to be sent down to you from 
 the Grampian passes." 
 
 "You remind me, friend," said the Highland youth, turn- 
 ing haughtily towards the smith, " that I have also a reckoning 
 to hold with you." 
 
 "Keep at arm's-length, then," said Henry, extending his 
 brawny arm : " I will have no more close hugs — ^no more bod- 
 Bee Note 17. 
 « 
 
82 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 kia •work, like last night. I care little for a -wasp's sting, yet 
 I will not allow the insect to come near me if I have warn- 
 ing." 
 
 Conachar smiled contemptuously. " I meant thee no harm, " 
 he said. " My father's son did thee but too much honour to 
 spin such churl's blood. I will pay you for it by the drop, 
 that it may be dried up, and no longer soil my fingers." 
 
 "Peace, thou bragging ape!" said the smith: "the blood 
 of a true man cannot be valued in gold. The only expiation 
 woTild be that thou shouldst come a mile into the Low Coun- 
 try with two of the strongest galloglasses of thy clan; and 
 while I dealt with them, I would leave thee to the correction 
 of my apprentice, little Jankin." 
 
 Here Catharine interposed. "Peace," she said, "my trusty 
 Valentine, whom I have a right to command j and peace you, 
 Conachar, who ought to obey me as your master's daughter. 
 It is ill done to awaken again on the morrow the evil which 
 has been laid to sleep at night." 
 
 "Farewell, then, master," said Conachar, after another look 
 of scorn at the smith, which he only answered with a laugh — 
 "farewell! and I thank you for your kindness, which has 
 been more than I deserve. If I have at times seemed less 
 than thankful, it was the fault of circumstances, and not of 
 
 my will. Catharine " He cast upon the maiden a look 
 
 of strong emotion, in which various feelings were blended. 
 He hesitated, as if to say something, and at length turned 
 away with the single word "farewell." Five minutes after- 
 wards, with Highland buskins on his feet and a small bundle 
 in his hand, he passed through the north gate of Perth, and 
 directed his course to the Highlajids. 
 
 " There goes enough of beggary and of pride for a whole 
 Highland clan," said Henry. " He talks as familiarly of gold 
 pieces as I would of silver pennies, and yet I will be sworn 
 that the thumb of his mother's worsted glove might hold the 
 treasure of the whole clan." 
 
 "Like enough," said the glover, laughing at the idea; "his 
 mother was a large-boned woman, especially in the fingers 
 and wrist." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 83 
 
 "And as for cattle," continued Henry, "I reckon Ms father 
 and brothers steal sheep by one at a time." 
 
 "The less we say of them the better," said the glover, be- 
 coming again grave. "Brothers he hath none; his father is 
 a powerful man — hath long hands — reaches as far as he can, 
 and hears farther than it is necessary to talk of him." 
 
 " And yet he hath bound his only son apprentice to a glover 
 in Perth?" said Henry. "Why, I should have thought tha 
 gentle craft, as it is called, of St. Crispin would have suited 
 him best ; aud that, if the son of some great Mac or O was to 
 become an artisan, it could only be in the craft where priuces 
 set him the example." 
 
 This remark, though ironical, seemed to awaken our friend 
 Simon's sense of professional dignity, which was a prevaU.- 
 iug feeling that marked the manners of the artisans of the 
 time. 
 
 "You err, son Henry," he replied, with much gravity: 
 " the glovers ' are the more honourable craft of the two, in 
 regard they provide for the accommodation of the hands, 
 whereas the shoemakers axid cordwaiuers do but work for 
 the feet." 
 
 "Both equally necessary members of the body corporate," 
 said Henry, whose father had been a cordwainer. 
 
 "It may be so, my son," said the glover; "but not both 
 aUke honourable. Bethink you, that we employ the hands 
 as pledges of friendship and good faith, and the feet have no 
 such privilege. Brave men fight with their hands ; cowards 
 employ their feet in flight. A glove is borne aloft; a shoe is 
 trampled in the mire. A man greets a friend with his open 
 nand; he spurns a dog, or one whom he holds as mean as a 
 dog, with his advanced foot. A glove on the point of a speac 
 is a sign and pledge of faith aU the wide world over, as a 
 gauntlet flung down is a gage of knightly battle ; while I know 
 no other emblem belonging to an old shoe, except that some 
 crones wiU fling them after a man by way of good luck, in 
 which practice I avow myself to entertain no confidence." 
 
 " B"ay," said the smith, amused with his friend's eloquent 
 > See Note IS. 
 
84 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 pleading for the dignity of the art lie practised, " I am not tlia 
 man, I promise you, to disparage the glover's mystery. Be- 
 think you, I am myself a maker of gauntlets. But the dig- 
 nity of your ancient craft removes not my wonder, that the 
 father of this Conachar suffered his son to learn a trade of 
 any kind from a Lowland craftsman, holding us, as they do, 
 altogether beneath their magnificent degree, and a race of 
 contemptible drudges, unworthy of any other fate than to be 
 iU-used and plundered, as often as these bare-breeched dunnie- 
 wassals see safety and convenience for doing so." 
 
 " Ay, " answered the glover, " but there were powerful rea- 
 sons for — ^for " he withheld somethiug which seemed upon 
 
 his lips, and went on : " for Conachar's father acting as he 
 did. Well, I have played fair with him, and I do not doubt 
 but he wiU act honourably by me. But Conachar's sudden 
 leave-taking has put me to some inconvenience. He had 
 things under his charge. I must look through the booth." 
 
 " Can I help you, father?" said Henry Gow, deceived by 
 the earnestness of his manner. 
 
 " You! — no," said Simon, with a dryness which made Henry 
 so sensible of the simplicity of his proposal, that he blushed 
 to the eyes at his own dulaess of comprehension, ia a matter 
 where love ought to have iuduced him to take his cue easily 
 up. "You, Catharine," said the glover, as he left the room, 
 "entertaia your Valentiue for five miuutes, and see he de- 
 parts not till my return. Come hither with me, old Dorothy, 
 and bestir thy limbs in my behalf." 
 
 , He left the room, followed by the old woman; and Henry 
 Smith remained with Cathariue, almost for the first time in 
 his life, entirely alone. There was embarrassment on the 
 maiden's part, and awkwardness on that of the lover, for 
 about a minute ; when Henry, calling up his courage, pulled 
 the gloves out of his pocket with which Simon had supplied 
 him, and asked her to permit one who had been so highly 
 graced that morning to pay the usual penalty for being asleep 
 at the moment when he would have given the slumbers of a 
 whole twelvemonth to be awake for a single miuute. 
 
 "Nay, but," said Cathariue, "the fulfilment of my horn* 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH, 86 
 
 age to St. Valentine infers no siich penalty as you desire to 
 pay, and I cannot therefore think of accepting them. " 
 
 " These gloves," said Henry, advanciag his seat insidiously 
 towards Catharine as he spoke, " were wrought by the hands 
 that are dearest to you; and see — they are shaped for your 
 own." Ho extended them as he spoke, and taking her arm 
 in his robust hand, spread the gloves beside it to show how 
 well they fitted. "Look at that taper arm," he said, "look 
 at these small fingers ; think who sewed these seams of sUk 
 and gold, and think whether the glove and the arm which 
 alone the glove can fit ought to remain separate, because the 
 poor glove has had the misfortune to be for a passing minute 
 in the keeping of a hand so swart and rough as mine." 
 
 " They are welcome as coming from my father, " said Cath- 
 arine ; " and surely not less so as coming from my friend (and 
 there was an emphasis on the word), as well as my Valentine 
 and preserver. " 
 
 " Let me aid to do them on, " said the smith, bringing him- 
 self yet closer to her side; "they may seem a little over-tight 
 at first, and you may require some assistance." 
 
 ".You are skilful ia such service, good Henry Gow," said 
 the maiden, smiling, but at the same time drawiag farther 
 from her lover. 
 
 "In good faith, no," said Henry, shaking his head: "my 
 experience has been in donning steel gauntlets on mailed 
 knights, more than in fitting embroidered gloves upon 
 maidens." 
 
 " I wUl trouble you then no further, and Dorothy shall aid 
 me, though there needs no assistance; my father's eye and 
 fingers are faithful to his craft : what work he puts through 
 his hands is always true to the measure." 
 
 "Let me be convinced of it," said the smith — "let me see 
 that these slender gloves actually match the hands they were 
 made for." 
 
 " Some other time, good Henry," answered the maiden, "I 
 will wear the gloves in honour of St. Valentiue, and the mate 
 he has sent me for the season. I would to Heaven I could 
 pleasure my father as well in weightier matters; at present 
 
86 WAVBELEY NOVELS. 
 
 the perfume of the leather harms the headache I have had 
 since morning." 
 
 " Headache, dearest maiden I" echoed her lover. 
 
 "If you call it heartache, you will not misname it," said 
 Catharine, with a sigh, and proceeded to speak in a very seri- 
 ous tone. " Henry," she said, " I am going perhaps to be as 
 bold as I gave you reason to thiak me this morning ; for I am 
 about to speak the first upon a subject on srhich, it may well 
 be, I ought to wait till I had to answer you. But I cannot, 
 after what has happened this morniug, suffer my feelings 
 towards you to remain unexplained, without the possibility 
 of my being greatly misconceived, l^ay, do not answer 
 till you have heard me out. You are brave, Henry, 
 beyond most men, honest and true as the steel you work 
 upon — — " 
 
 " Stop^stop, Catharine, for mercy's sake! You never said 
 so much that was good concerning me, save to introduce some 
 bitter censure, of which your praises were the harbingers. I 
 am honest, and so forth, you would say, but a hot-brained 
 brawler, and common sworder or stabber." 
 
 " I should injure both myself and you in calling you such, 
 No, Henry, to no common stabber, had he worn a plume in 
 his bonnet and gold spurs on his heels, would Catharine Glover 
 have offered the little grace she has this day voluntarily done 
 to you. If I have at times dwelt severely upon the proneness 
 of your spirit to anger, and of your hand to strife, it is be- 
 cause I would have you, if I could so persuade you, hate in 
 yourself the sins of vanity and wrath by which you are most 
 easily beset. I have spoken on the topic more to alarm your 
 own conscience than to express my opinion. I know as well 
 as my father that, in these forlorn and desperate days, the 
 whole customs of our nation, nay, of every Christian nation, 
 may be quoted in favour of bloody quarrels for trifling causes, 
 of the taking deadly and deep revenge for slight offences, and 
 the slaughter of each other for emulation of honour, or often 
 in mere sport. But I know that for all these things we shall 
 one day be called into judgment ; and fain would I convince 
 thee, my brave and generous friend, to listen oftener to the 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 87 
 
 dictates of thy good heart, and take less pride in the strength 
 and dexterity of thy unspariag arm." 
 
 "I am — I am convinced, Catharine," exclaimed Henry: 
 " thy words shall henceforward be a law to me. I have done 
 enough, far too much, indeed, for proof of my bodily strength 
 and courage ; but it is only from you, Catharine, that I can 
 learn a better way of thinking. Remember, my fair Valen- 
 tine, that my ambition of distinction in arms, and my love of 
 strife, if it can be called such, do not fight even-handed with 
 my reason and my milder dispositions, but have their patrons 
 and sticklers to egg them on. Is there a quarrel, and suppose 
 that I, thinking on your counsels, am something loth to en- 
 gage in it, believe you I am left to decide between peace or 
 war at my own choosing? Kot so, by St. Mary I there are a 
 hundred round me to stir me on. 'Why, how now. Smith, is 
 thy mainspring rusted?' says one. ' JoUy Henry is deaf on 
 the quarrelling ear this morning,' says another. 'Stand to 
 it, for the honour of Perth, ' says my Lord the Provost. 
 'Harry against them for a gold noble,' cries your father, per- 
 haps. Now, what can a poor fellow do, Catharine, when all 
 are hallooing him on in the devil's name, and not a soul put- 
 ting in a word on the other side?" 
 
 "Nay, I know the devil has factors enough to utter his 
 wares," said Catharine; "but it is our duty to despise such 
 idle arguments, though they may be pleaded even by those to 
 whom we owe much love and honour." 
 
 "Then there are the minstrels, with their romaunts and 
 ballads, which place all a man's praise in receiving and re- 
 paying hard blows. It is sad to tell, Catharine, how many of 
 my sins that Blind Harry the Minstrel ' hath to answer for. 
 When I hit a downright blow, it is not — so save me, St. John! 
 . — ^to do any man injury, but only to strike as WUliam Wallace 
 struck." 
 
 The minstrel's namesake spoke this in such a tone of rueful 
 seriousness, that Catharine could scarce forbear smiling; but 
 
 ' The reader need hardly be informed that this is an obvious anachron- 
 ism, the Blind Minstrel having flourished a century later than the time of 
 this narrative ILaina). 
 
88 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 nevertheless she assured him that the danger of his own and 
 other men's lives ought not for a moment to he -weighed 
 against such simple toys. 
 
 "Ay, but," replied Henry, emboldened by her smiles, "me- 
 thinks now the good cause of peace would thrive aU the bet- 
 ter for an advocate. Suppose, for example, that, when I am 
 pressed and urged to lay hand on my weapon, I could have 
 cause to recollect that there was a genlile and guardian angel 
 at home, whose image would seem to whisper, 'Henry, do no 
 violence ; it is my hand which you crimson with blood. Henry, 
 rush upon no idle danger; it is my breast which you expose 
 to injury;' such thoughts would do more to restrain my mood 
 than if every monk in Perth should cry, *Hold thy hand, on 
 pain of bell, book, and candle.' " 
 
 " If such a warniag as could be given by the voice of sis- 
 terly affection can have weight in the debate, " said Cathariae, 
 " do think that, in striking, you empurple this hand, that in 
 receiving wounds you harm this heart." 
 
 The smith took courage at the siucerely affectionate tone in 
 which these words were delivered. 
 
 " And wherefore not stretch your regard a degree beyond 
 these cold limits? Why, since you are so kind and generous 
 as to own some interest in the poor ignorant sinner before 
 you, should you not at once adopt him as your scholar and 
 your husband? Your father desires it; the town expects it; 
 glovers and smiths are preparing their rejoicings ; and you, 
 only you, whose words are so fair and so kind, you wUI not 
 give your consent." 
 
 "Henry," said Catharine, m. a low and tremulous voice, 
 "believe me I should hold it my duty to comply with my 
 father's commands, were there not obstacles invincible to the 
 match which he proposes." 
 
 " Yet think — think but for a moment. I have little to say 
 for myseK ia comparison of you, who can both read and 
 write. But then I wish to hear reading, and could listen to 
 your sweet voice for ever. You love music, and I have been 
 taught to play and sing as well as some minstrels. You love 
 to be charitable, I have enough to give, and enough to keep* 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH 89 
 
 as large a daily alms as a deacon gives would never be missed 
 by me. Your father gets old for daily toilj lie would live 
 with us, as I should truly bold him for my father also. I 
 would be as chary of mixing in causeless strife as of thrusting 
 my hand into my own furnace ; and if there came on us un- 
 lawful Yiolence, its wares would be brought to an ill-chosen 
 market." 
 
 " May you experience all the domestic happiness which yon 
 can conceive, Henry, but with some one more happy thaa 1 
 am!" So spoke, or rather so sobbed, the Pair Maiden of 
 Perth, who seemed choking in the attempt to restrain her 
 tears. 
 
 " You hate me, then?" said the lover, after a pause. 
 
 "Heaven is my witness, no." 
 
 " Or you love some other better?" 
 
 " It is cruel to ask what it cannot avail you to know. But 
 you are entirely inistaken." 
 
 "Yon wildcat, Conachar, perhaps?" said Henry. "I have 
 marked his looks " 
 
 " You avail yourself of this painful situation to insult me, 
 Henry, though I have little deserved it. Conachar is nothing 
 to me, more than the trying to tame his wild spirit by instruc- 
 tion might lead me to take some interest in a mind abandoned 
 to prejudices and passions, and therein, Henry, not unlike 
 your own." 
 
 "It must then be some of these flaunting silk-worm sirs 
 about the court," said the armourer, his natural heat of tem- 
 per kindling from disappointment and vexation — "some of 
 those who think they carry it oif through the height of their 
 plumed bonnets and the jingle of their spurs. I would I 
 knew which it was that, leaving his natural mates, the 
 painted and perfumed dames of the court, comes to take his 
 prey among the simple maidens of the burgher craft. I would 
 I knew but his name and surname!" 
 
 " Henry Smith, " said Catharine, shaking off the weakness 
 which seemed to threaten to overpower her a moment before, 
 " this is the language of an ungrateful fool, or rather of a 
 frantic madman. I have told you already, there was no one 
 
90 "WAVBRLET NOVELS. 
 
 who stood, at the beginning of this conference, more high in 
 my opinion than he who is no-w losing ground with every word 
 he utters in the tone of unjust suspicion and senseless anger. 
 You had no title to know even what I have told you, which, 
 I pray you to observe, implies no preference to you over oth- 
 ers, though it disowns any preference of another to you. It 
 is enough you should be aware that there is as insuperable an 
 objection to what you desire as if an enchanter had a spell 
 over my destiny." 
 
 " SpeUs may be broken by true men," said the smith. "I 
 would it were come to that. Thorbiorn, the Danish armourer, 
 spoke of a spell he had for making breastplates, by singing a 
 certain song while the iron was heating. I told him that his 
 runic rhymes were no proof against the weapons which fought 
 at Loncarty — what farther came of it it is needless to tell; but 
 the corslet and the wearer, and the leech who salved his 
 wound, know if Henry Gow can break a sppU or no." 
 
 Catharine looked at him as if about to return an answer 
 little approving of the exploit he had vaunted, which the 
 downright smith had not recollected was of a kind that ex- 
 posed him to her frequent censure. But ere she had given 
 words to her thoughts, her father thrust his head in at the 
 door. 
 
 "Henry, "he said, "I must interrupt your more pleasing 
 affairs, and request you to come into my working-room in all 
 speed, to consult about certain matters deeply affecting the 
 weal of the burgh." 
 
 Henry, making his obeisance to Catharine, left the apart- 
 ment upon her father's summons. Indeed, it was probably in 
 favour of their future friendly intercourse, that they were 
 parted on this occasion at the turn which the conversation 
 seemed likely to take. For, as the wooer had begun to hold 
 the refusal of the damsel as somewhat capricious and inexplic- 
 able after the degree of encouragement which, in his opinion, 
 she had afforded; Catharine, on the other hand, considered 
 him rather as an encroacher upon the grace which she had 
 shown him than one whose delicacy rendered him deserving 
 of such favour. But there was living in their bosoms towards 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 91 
 
 each other a reciprocal kindness, which, on the termination of 
 the dispute, was sure to revive, inducing the maiden to forget 
 her offended delicacy, and the lover his slighted waxmth of 
 passion. 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 This quarrel may draw blood another day. 
 
 Henry IV. Part L 
 
 The conclave of citizens appointed to meet for investigating 
 the affray of the preceding evening had now assembled. Tha 
 workroom of Simon Glover was fiUed to crowding by person- 
 ages of no little consequence, some of whom wore black vel- 
 vet cloaks, and gold chains around their necks. They were, 
 indeed, the fathers of the city; and there were bailies and 
 deacons in the honoured number. There was an ireful and 
 offended air of importance upon every brow as they conversed 
 together, rather in whisper than aloud or in detaU. Busiest 
 among the busy, the little important assistant of the previous 
 night, Oliver Proudfute by name, and bonnet-maker by pro- 
 fession, was bustling among the crowd, much after the manner 
 of the sea-gull, which flutters, screams, and sputters most at 
 the commencement of a gale of wind, though one can hardly 
 conceive what the bird has better to do than to fly to its nest 
 and remain quiet till the gale is over. 
 
 Be that as it may. Master Proudfute was in the midst of 
 the crowd, his fingers upon every one's button and his mouth 
 in every man's ear, embracing such as were near to his own 
 stature, that he might more closely and mysteriously utter his 
 sentiments ; and standing on tiptoe, and supporting himself by 
 the cloak-collars of tall men, that he might dole out to them 
 also the same share of information. He felt himself one of 
 the heroes of the affair, being conscious of the dignity of su- 
 perior information on the subject as an eye-witness, and much 
 disposed to push his connexion with the scuffle a few points 
 beyond the modesty of truth. It cannot be said that his com- 
 
92 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 munications were in especial curious and important, consisting 
 chiefly of such assertions as ttese : 
 
 "It is all true, by St. Jolm! I was there and saw it my- 
 self — was the first to run to the fray; and if it had not been 
 for me and another stout fellow, who came in about the same 
 time, they had broken into Simon Glover's house, cut his 
 throat, and carried his daughter off" to the mountaius. It is 
 too evil usage — not to be suffered, neighbour Crookshank; not 
 to be endured, neighbour Glass ; not to be borne, neighbours 
 Balueaves, Eollock, and Chrysteson. It was a mercy that I 
 and that stout fellow came in, was it not, neighbour and 
 worthy Bailie Craigdallie?" 
 
 These speeches were dispersed by the busy bonnet-maker 
 into sundry ears. Bailie Craigdallie, a portly guild-brother, 
 the same who had advised the prorogation of their civic councO, 
 to the present place and hour, a big, burly, good-looking man, 
 shook the deacon from his cloak with pretty much the grace 
 with which a large horse shrugs off the importunate fly that 
 has beset him for ten miuutes, and exclaimed, " Silence, good 
 citizens ; here comes Simon Glover, in whom no man ever saw 
 falsehood. We will hear the outrage from his own mouth." 
 
 Simon being called upon to teU his tale, did so with obvious 
 embarrassment, which he imputed to a reluctance that the 
 burgh should be put in deadly feud with any one upon his 
 account. It was, he dared to say, a masking or revel on the 
 part of the young gallants about court; and the worst that 
 might come of it would be, that he would put iron stanchions 
 on his daughter's window, in case of such another frolic. 
 
 "Why, then, if this was a mere masking or mummery," 
 said Craigdallie, " our townsman, Harry of the Wynd, did far 
 wrong to cut off a gentleman's hand for such a harmless pleas- 
 antry, and the town may be brought to a heavy fine for it, 
 unless we secure the person of the mutilator." 
 
 " Our Lady forbidi" said the glover. " Did you know what 
 I do, you would be as much afraid of handling this matter as if 
 it were glowing iron. But, since you wiU needs put your 
 fingers in the fire, truth must be spoken. And come what 
 will, T must say, that the matter might have ended ill for m9 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 93 
 
 aad mine, but for the opportune assistance of Henry Gow, the 
 armourer, well known to you all. " 
 
 "And mine also was not awanting," said Oliver Proudfute, 
 " though I do not profess to be utterly so good a swordsman 
 as our neighbour Henry Gow. You saw me, neighbour 
 Glover, at the beginniug of the fray?" 
 
 "I saw you after the end of it, neighbour," answered the 
 glover, drily. 
 
 " True — true ; I had forgot you were in your house while 
 the blows were going, and could not survey who were dealing 
 them." 
 
 "Peace, neighbour Proudfute — I prithee, peace," saidCraig- 
 dallie, who was obviously tired of the tuneless screeching of 
 the worthy deacon. 
 
 "There is something mysterious here," said the bailie; 
 " but I think I spy the secret. Our friend Simon is, as you 
 all know, a peaceful man, and one that will rather sit down 
 with wrong than put a friend, or say a neighbourhood, in dan- 
 ger to seek his redress. Thou, Henry, who art never wanting 
 where the burgh needs a defender, tell us what thou knowest of 
 this matter." 
 
 Our smith told his story to the same purpose which we have 
 already related; and the meddling maker of bonnets added as 
 before, "And thou sawest me there, honest smith, didst thou 
 not?" 
 
 "ITotl, in good faith, neighbour," answered Henry; "but 
 you are a little man, you know, and I might overlook you." 
 
 This reply produced a laugh at Oliver's expense, who laughed 
 for company, but added doggedly, " I was one of the foremost 
 to the rescue for all that. " 
 
 "Why, where wert thou, then, neighbour?" said the smith ; 
 " for I saw you not, and I would have given the worth of the 
 best suit of armour I ever wrought to have seen as stout a 
 fellow as thou at my elbow. " 
 
 "I was no farther off, however, honest smith; and whilst 
 thou wert laying on blows as if on an anvil, I was parrying 
 those that the rest of the villains aimed at thee behind thy 
 back; and that is the cause thou sawest me not." 
 
94 WAVEELEY NOVELS. 
 
 " I liave heard of smiths of old time who had but one eye," 
 said Henry; "I have two, but they are both set in my fore- 
 head, and so I could not see behind my back, neighbour." 
 
 "The truth is, however," persevered Master Oliver, "there 
 I was, and I will give Master Bailie my account of the mat- 
 ter; for the smith and I were first up to the fray." 
 
 "Enough at present," said the bailie, waving to Master 
 Proudfute an injunction of sUence. "The precognition of 
 Simon Glover and Henry Gow would bear out a matter less 
 worthy of belief. And now, my masters, your opinion what 
 should be done. Here are all our burgher rights broken 
 through and insulted, and you may weU. fancy that it is by 
 some man of power, since no less dared have attempted such 
 an outrage. My masters, it is hard on flesh and blood to sub- 
 mit to this. The laws have framed us of lower rank than 
 the princes and nobles, yet it is against reason to suppose that 
 we will suffer our houses to be broken into, and the honour of 
 our women insulted, without some redress." 
 
 "It is not to be endured!" answered the citizens, unani- 
 inously. 
 
 Here Simon Glover interfered with a very anxious and 
 ominous countenance. " I hope stUl that all was not meant 
 so ill as it seemed to us, my worthy neighbours ; and I for 
 one would cheerfully forgive the alarm and disturbance to my 
 poor house, providing the Fair City were not brought into 
 jeopardy for me. I beseech you to consider who are to be 
 our judges that are to hear the case, and give or refuse re- 
 dress. I speak' among neighbours and friends, and therefore 
 I speak openly. The King, God bless him I is so broken in 
 mind and body, that he wiU but turn us over to some great 
 man amongst his counsellors who shall be in favour for the 
 time. Perchance he will refer us to his brother the Duke of 
 Albany, who wiU make our petition for righting of our wrongs 
 the pretence for sc[ueezing money out of us." 
 
 "We will none of Albany for our judge!" answered the 
 meeting with the same unanimity as before. 
 
 "Or perhaps," added Simon, "he will bid the Duke of 
 Eothsay take charge of it; and the wUd young prince will 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 95 
 
 regard tlie outiaga as something for Ms gay companions to 
 scoff at, and his minstrels to turn into song." 
 
 "Away with Eothsay! he is too gay to be our judge," agaia 
 exclaimed the citizens. 
 
 Shnon, emboldened by seeing he was reaching the point he 
 aimed at, yet pronouncing the dreaded name with a half 
 whisper, next ad(Jed, "Would you like the Black Douglaa 
 better to deal with?" 
 
 There was no answer for a minute. They looked on each 
 other with fallen countenances and blanched lips. 
 
 But Henry Smith spoke out boldly, and in a decided voice, 
 the sentiments which all felt, but none else dared give words 
 to: "The Black Douglas tp judge bewixt a burgher and a 
 gentleman, nay, a nobleman, for all I know or care! The 
 black devil of hell sooner! You are mad, father Simon, so 
 much as to name so wild a proposal." 
 
 There was again a silence of fear and uncertainty, which was 
 at length broken bj' Bailie Craigdallie, who, looking very sig- 
 nificantly to the speaker, replied, " You are confident in a stout 
 doublet, neighbour Smith, or you would not talk so boldly." 
 
 " I am confident of a good heart under my doublet, such as 
 it is, bailie," answered the undaunted Henry; "and though I 
 speak but little, my mouth shall never be padlocked by any 
 noble of them all." 
 
 "Wear a thick doublet, good Henry, or do not speak so 
 loud," reiterated the bailie in the same significant tone. 
 "There are Border men in the town who wear the bloody 
 heart' on their shoulder. But all this is no rede. What 
 shall we do?" 
 
 "Short rede, good rede," said the smith. "Let us to our 
 provost, and demand his countenance and assistance." 
 
 A murmur of applause went through the party, and Oliver 
 Proudf ute exclaimed, " That is what I have been saying for 
 this half -hour, and not one of ye would listen to me. 'Let 
 us go to our provost,' said I. 'He is a gentleman himself, 
 and ought to come between the burgh and the nobles in all 
 matters.'" 
 
 ' The well-known cognizance of the house of Douglas. 
 
96 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 "Husli, neighbours — husli; be -waxy what you say or do," 
 said a thin meagre figure of a man, whose diminutive person 
 seemed still more reduced in size, and more assimilated to a 
 shadow, by Ms efforts to assume an extreme degree of humil- 
 ity, and make himself, to suit his argument, look meaner yet, 
 and yet more insignificant, than nature had made him. 
 
 "Pardon me," said he; "I am but a poor pottingar. 
 Nevertheless, I have been bred in Paris, and learned my 
 humanities and my cursus medendi as "well as some that call 
 themselves learned leeches. Methinks I can tent this wound, 
 and treat it with emollients. Here is our friend Simon 
 Glover, who is, as you all know, a man of worship. Think 
 you he would not be the most willing of us all to pursue harsh 
 courses here, since his family honour is so nearly concerned? 
 And since he blenches away from the charge against these 
 same revellers, consider if he may not have some good reason 
 more than he cares to utter for letting the matter sleep. It 
 is not for me to put my finger on the sore; but, alack! we all 
 know that yoimg maidens are what I call fugitive essences. 
 Suppose now, an honest maiden — I mean in all innocence — 
 leaves her window, unlatched on St. Valentine's morn, that 
 some gallant cavalier may — in all honesty, I mean — ^become 
 her Valentine for the season, and suppose the gallant be dis- 
 covered, may she not scream out as if the visit were unex- 
 pected, and — and — ^bray all this in a mortar, and then con- 
 sider, will it be a matter to place the town in feud for?" 
 
 The pottingar delivered his opinion in a most insinuating 
 manner ; but he seemed to shrink into something less than his 
 natural tenuity when he saw the blood rise in the old cheeks 
 of Simon Glover, and inflame to the temples the complexion 
 of the redoubted smith. 
 
 The last, stepping forward, and turning a stern look on the 
 alarmed pottingar, broke out as follows: "Thou walking 
 skeleton! thou asthmatic gallipot! thou poisoner by profes- 
 sion! if I thought that the puff of vile breath thou hast left 
 could Dlight for the tenth part of a minute the fair fame of 
 Catharine Glover, I would pound thee, quacksalver! in thine 
 own mortar, and beat up thy wretched carrion with flower of 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 97 
 
 brimstone, the only real medicine in thy booth, to make a 
 salve to rub mangy hounds with!" 
 
 " Hold, son Henry — hold!" cried the glover, in a tone of au- 
 thority, " no man has title to speak of this matter but me. 
 Worshipful Bailie Craigdallie, since such is the construction 
 that is put upon my patience, I am willing to pursue this riot 
 to the uttermost; and though the issue may prove that we 
 had better have been patient, you wiU all see that my Catha- 
 rine hath not by any lightness or folly of hers afforded ground* 
 for this great scandal." 
 
 The bailie also interposed. " Keighbour Henry, " said he, 
 " we came here to consult, and not to quarrel. As one of the 
 fathers of the Fair City, I command thee to forego all evil 
 will and mal-talent you may have against Master Pottingar 
 Dwining." 
 
 "He is too poor a creature, baiLie," said Henry Gow, "for 
 me to harbour feud with — I that could destroy him and his 
 booth with one blow of my forehammer." 
 
 " Peace, then, and hear me, " said the official. " We aU are 
 as much believers in the honour of the Fair Maiden of Perth 
 as in that of our Blessed Lady." Here he crossed himself 
 devoutly. " But touching our appeal to our provost, are you 
 agreed, neighbours, to put matter like this into our provost's 
 hand, being against a powerful noble, as is to be feared?" 
 
 " The provost being himself a nobleman, " squeaked the pot- 
 tingar, in some measure released from his terror by the inter- 
 vention of the bailie. " God knows, I speak not to the dis- 
 paragement of an honourable gentleman, whose forebears 
 have held the office he now holds for many years " 
 
 "By free choice of the citizens of Perth," said the smith, 
 interrupting the speaker with the tones of his deep and de- 
 cisive voice. 
 
 "Ay, surely," said the disconcerted orator, "by the voice 
 of the citizens. How else? I pray you, friend Smith, inter- 
 rupt me not. I speak to our worthy and eldest bailie, Craig- 
 dallie, according to my poor mind. I say that, come amongst 
 iis how he wUl, still this Sir Patrick Charteris is a nobleman, 
 and hawks will not pick hawks' eyes out. He may well bear 
 7 
 
98 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 us out in a feud with the HigMandmen, and do the part of oui 
 provost and leader against them ; but whether he that himself 
 wears sUk will take our part against broidered cloak and cloth 
 of gold, though he may do so against tartan and Irish frieze, 
 is something to be questioned. Take a fool's advice. We 
 have saved our Maiden, of whom I never meant to speak 
 harm, as truly I knew none. They have lost one man's hand, 
 at least, thanks to Harry Smith " 
 
 " And to me, " added the little important bonnet-maker. 
 
 " And to Oliver Proudf ute, as he tells us, " continued the 
 pottingar, who contested no man's claim to glory, provided he 
 was not himself compelled to tread the perilous paths which 
 lead to it. " I say, neighbours, since they have left a hand 
 as a pledge they will never come in Couvrefew Street again, 
 why, in my simple mind, we were best to thank our stout 
 townsman, and the town having the honour and these rake- 
 hells the loss, that we should hush the matter up and say no 
 more about it." 
 
 These pacific counsels had their effect with some of the 
 citizens, who began to nod and look exceedingly wise upon 
 the advocate of acquiescence, with whom, notwithstanding the 
 offence so lately given, Simon Glover seemed also to agree in 
 opinion. But not so Henry Smith, who, seeing the consulta- 
 tion at a stand, took up the speech in his usual downright 
 manner. 
 
 " I am neither the oldest nor the richest among you, neigh- 
 bours, and I am not sorry for it. Years will come, if one 
 lives to see them ; and I can win and spend my peimy like 
 another, by the blaze of the furnace and the wind of the bel- 
 lows. But no man ever saw me sit down with wrong done in 
 word or deed to our fair town, if man's tongue and man's 
 hand could right it. Neither will I sit down with this out- 
 rage, if I can help it. I will go to the provost myself, if no 
 one will go with me ; he is a knight, it is true, and a gentle- 
 man of free and trueborn blood, as we all know, since Wal- 
 lace's time, who settled his great-grandsire amongst us. But 
 if he were the proudest nobleman in the land, he is the Pro- 
 vost of Pert^, and for his own honour must see the freedoms 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 99 
 
 and immunities of tlie burgh preserved — ay, and I know ha 
 will. I have made a steel doublet for him, and have a good 
 guess at the kind of heart thab it was meant to cover." 
 
 " Surely," saidBaUie Craigdallie, " it would be to no purpose 
 to stir at court without Sir Patrick Charteris's countenance : 
 the ready answer would be, * Go to your provost, you borrel 
 loons.' So, neighbours and townsmen, if you will stand by 
 my side, I and our pottingar Dwining will repair presently 
 to Kinfauns, with Sim Glover, the jolly smith, and gallant 
 Oliver Proudfute, for witnesses to the onslaught, and speak 
 with Sir Patrick Charteris, in name of the fair town." 
 
 "Nay," said the peaceful man of medicine, "leave me be- 
 hind, I pray you : I lack audacity to speak before a belted 
 knight." 
 
 "Never regard that, neighbour, you must go," said Bailie 
 Craigdallie. "The town hold me a hot-headed carle for a 
 man of threescore ; Sim Glover is the ofEended party ; we all 
 know that Harry Gow spoils more harness with his sword than 
 he makes with his hammer; and our neighbour Proudfute, 
 who, take his own word, is at the beginning and end of every 
 fray in Perth, is of course a man of action. "We must have 
 at least one advocate amongst us for peace and quietness ; and 
 thou, pottingar, must be the man. Away with you, sirs, get 
 your boots and your beasts — horse and hattock, ' I say, and 
 let us meet at the East Port ; that is, if it is your pleasure, 
 neighbours, to trust us with the matter." 
 
 "There can be no better rede, and we will all avouch it," 
 said the citizens. " If the provost take our part, as the Pair 
 Town hath a right to expect, we may bell-the-cat with the 
 best of them." 
 
 "It is well, then, neighbours," answered the bailie; "so 
 said, so shall be done. Meanwhile, I have called the whole 
 town-council together about this hour, and I have little 
 doubt," looking around the company, "that, as so many of 
 them who are in this place have resolved to consult with our 
 provost, the rest wiU be compliant to the same resolution. 
 And, therefore, neighbours, and good burghers of the Fair 
 > See Note 19. 
 
100 WAVEELBY NOVELS. 
 
 City of Perth, horse and hattoek, as I said before, and meet 
 me at the East Port." 
 
 A general acclamation concluded the sitting of this species 
 of privy councU, or Lords of the Articles; and they dispersed, 
 the deputation to prepare for the journey, and the rest to teU 
 their impatient wives and daughters of the measures they had 
 taken to render their chambers safe in future against the in 
 trusion of gallants at unseasonable hours. 
 
 While nags are saddling, and the town-council debating, op 
 rather putting in form what the leading members of their body 
 had already adopted, it may be necessary, for the inform- 
 ation of some readers, to state in distinct terms what is 
 more circuitously intimated in the course of the former dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 It was the custom at this period, when the strength ot iii^ 
 feudal aristocracy controlled the rights, and frequently in- 
 sulted the privileges, of the royal burghs of Scotland, that the 
 latter, where it was practicable, often chose their provost, or 
 chief magistrate, not out of the order of the merchants, shop- 
 keepers, and citizens, who inhabited the town itself, and fiUed 
 up the roll of the ordinary magistracy, but elected to that pre- 
 eminent state some powerful nobleman, or baron, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the burgh, who was expected to stand their friend 
 at court in such matters as concerned their common weal, and 
 to lead their civil militia to fight, whether in general battle or 
 in private feud, reinforcing them with his own feudal retain- 
 ers. This protection was not always gratuitous. The pro- 
 vosts sometimes availed themselves of their situation to an 
 unjustifiable degree, and obtained grants of lands and tene- 
 ments belonging to the common good, or public property of 
 the burgh, and thus made the citizens pay dear for the coun- 
 tenance which they afforded. Others were satisfied to receive 
 the powerful aid oi the townsmen in their own feudal quar- 
 rels, with such other marks of respect and benevolence as the 
 burgh over which they presided were willing to gratify them 
 with, in order to secure their active services in case of neces- 
 sity. The baron, who was the regular protector of a royal 
 burgh, accepted such free-will offerings without scrupie, and 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 101 
 
 repaid them by defending the rights of the town by arguments 
 in the council and by bold deeds in the field. 
 
 The citizens of the town, or, as they loved better to call it, 
 the Fair City, of Perth, had for several generations found a 
 protector and provost of this kind in the knightly family of 
 Charteris, Lords of Kinfauns, in the neighbourhood of the 
 burgh. It was scarce a century (in the time of Robert III.) 
 since the first of this distinguished family had settled in the 
 strong castle which now belonged to them, with the pictur. 
 esq^ue and fertile scenes adjoiniug to it. But the history of 
 the first settler, chivalrous and romantic in itself, was calcu- 
 lated to facilitate the settlement of an alien in the land in 
 which his lot was cast. We relate it as it is given by an 
 ancient and uniform tradition, which carries in it great indi- 
 cations of truth, and is warrant enough, perhaps, for it inser- 
 tion in graver histories than the present. 
 
 During the brief career of the celebrated patriot Sir William 
 Wallace, and when his arms had for a time expelled the Eng- 
 lish invaders from his native country, he is said to have under- 
 taken a voyage to France, with a small band of trusty friends, 
 to try what his presence (for he was respected through all 
 countries for his prowess) might do to iuduce the French 
 monarch to send to Scotland a body of auxOiary forces, or oth- 
 er assistance, to aid the Scots in regaining their independence. 
 
 The Scottish Champion was on board a small vessel, and 
 steering for the port of Dieppe, when a sail appeared in the 
 distance, which the mariners regarded, first with doubt and 
 apprehension, and at last with confusion and dismay. Wal- 
 lace demanded to know what was the cause of their alarm. 
 The captain of the ship informed him that the tall vessel 
 which was bearing down, with the purpose of boarding that 
 which he commanded, was the ship of a celebrated rover, 
 equally famed for his courage, strength of body, and success- 
 ful piracies. It was commanded by a gentleman named 
 Thomas de Longueville, a Frenchman by birth, but by prac- 
 tice one of those pirates who called themselves friends to the 
 sea and enemies to all who sailed upon that element. He at- 
 tacked and plundered vessels of all nations, like one of the 
 
102 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 ancient Korse sea-kings, as they were termed, whose dominion 
 was upon the mountain waves. The master added that no 
 vessel could escape the rover by flight, so speedy was the bark 
 he commanded; and that no crew, however hardy, could hope 
 to resist him, when, as was his usual mode of combat, he 
 threw himself on board at the head of his followers. 
 
 Wallace smUed sternly, while the master of the ship, with 
 alarm in his countenance and tears in his eyes, described to 
 him the certainty of their being captured by the Eed Eover, 
 a name given to De LonguevUle, because he usually displayed 
 the blood-red flag, which he had now hoisted. 
 
 " I wiU clear the narrow seas of this rover, " said Wallace. 
 
 Then caUing together some ten or twelve of his own fol- 
 lowers, Boyd, Kerlie, Seton, and others, to whom the dust of 
 the most desperate battle was like the breath of life, he com- 
 manded them to arm themselves, and lie flat upon the deck, so 
 as to be out of sight. He ordered the mariners below, except- 
 ing such as were absolutely necessary to manage the vessel ; 
 and he gave the master instructions, upon pain of death, so to 
 steer as that, while the vessel had an appearance of attempt- 
 ing to fly, he should in fact permit the Eed Eover to come up 
 with them and do his worst. Wallace himself then lay down 
 on the deck, that nothing might be seen which could intimate 
 any purpose of resistance. In a quarter of an hour De 
 Longueville's vessel ran on board that of the Champion, and 
 the Eed Eover, casting out grappling-irons to make sure of 
 his prize, jumped on the deck in complete armour, followed 
 by his men, who gave a terrible shout, as if victory had been 
 already secured. But the armed Scots started up at once, 
 and the rover found himself unexpectedly engaged with men 
 accustomed to consider victory as secure when they were only 
 opposed as one to two or three. Wallace himself rushed on 
 the pirate captain, and a dreadful strife began betwixt them 
 with such fury that the others suspended their own battle to 
 look on, and seemed by common consent to refer the issue of 
 the strife to the fate of the combat between the two chiefs. 
 The pirate fought as well as man could do; but Wallace's 
 strength was beyond that of ordinary mortals. He dashed the 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTR 103 
 
 sword from the rover's hand, and placed him in such peril that, 
 to avoid being cut down, he was fain to close with the Scot- 
 tish Champion in hopes of overpoweriag him in the grapple. 
 In this also he was foiled. They fell on the deck, locked in 
 each other's arms, but the rrenchman fell undermost; and 
 Wallace, fixing his grasp upon his gorget, compressed it so 
 closely, notwithstanding it was made of the finest steel, that 
 the blood gushed from his eyes, nose, and mouth, and he was 
 only able to ask for quarter by signs. His men threw down 
 their weapons and begged for mercy when they saw their 
 leader thus severely handled. The victor granted them all 
 their lives, but took possession of their vessel, and detained 
 them prisoners. 
 
 "When he came in sight of the French harbour, Wallace 
 alarmed the place by displaying the rover's colours, as if De 
 Longueville was coming to pillage the town. The bells were 
 rung backward, horns were blown, and the citizens were 
 hurrying to arms, when the scene changed. The Scottish 
 Lion on his shield of gold was raised above the piratical flag, 
 and announced that the Champion of Scotland was approach- 
 ing, like a falcon with his prey in his clutch. He landed with 
 his prisoner, and carried him to the court of France, where, 
 at Wallace's request, the robberies which the pirate had com- 
 mitted were forgiven, and the king even conferred the honour 
 of knighthood on Sir Thomas de Longueville, and offered to 
 take him into his service. But the rover had contracted such 
 a friendship for his generous victor, that he insisted on 
 uniting his fortunes with those of Wallace, with whom he 
 returned to Scotland, and fought by his side in many a bloody 
 battle, where the prowess of Sir Thomas de Longueville was 
 remarked as inferior to that of none, save of his heroic con- 
 queror. His fate also was more fortunate than that of his 
 patron. Being distinguished by the beauty as well as strength 
 of his person, he rendered himseK so acceptable to a young 
 lady, heiress of the ancient family of Charteris, that she chose 
 him for her husband, bestowing on him with her hand the fair 
 baronial Castle of Kinfauns, and the domains annexed to it. 
 Their descendants took the name of Charteris, as connecting 
 
104 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 themselves with, their maternal ancestors, the ancient pro- 
 prietors of the property, though the name of Thomas de 
 LonguevUIe was equally honoured amongst themj and the 
 large two-hauded sword with which he mowed the ranks of 
 war was, and is still, preserved among the family muniments. 
 Another account is, that the family name of De Longueville 
 himself was Charteris. The estate afterwards passed to a 
 family of Blairs, and is now the property of Lord Gray. 
 
 These barons of Kinfauns,' from father to son, held, for 
 several generations, the office of Provost of Perth, the vicinity 
 of the castle and town rendering it a very convenient arrange- 
 ment for mutual support. The Sir Patrick of this history had 
 more than once led out the men of Perth to battles and skir- 
 misheswith the restless Highland depredators, and with other 
 enemies, foreign and domestic. True it is, he used sometimes 
 to be weary of the slight and frivolous complaints unnecessar- 
 ily brought before him, and in which he was requested to in- 
 terest himself. Hence he had sometimes incurred the charge 
 of being too proud as a nobleman, or too indolent as a man of 
 wealth, and one who was too much addicted to the pleasures 
 of the field, and the exercise of feudal hospitality, to bestir 
 himself upon all and every occasion when the Fair Town 
 would have desired his active interference. But, notwith- 
 standing that this occasioned some slight murmuring, the citi- 
 zens, upon any serious cause of alarm, were wont to rally 
 around their provost, and were warmly supported by Viitti both 
 in council and action. 
 
 > See Note 20. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. lOS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Within the bounds of Annandale 
 
 The gentle Johnstones ride ; 
 They have been there a thousand years, 
 
 A thousand more they'll bide. 
 
 Old Ballad. 
 
 The character and quality of Sir Patrick Charteris, the Pro- 
 vost of Perth, being such as we have sketched in the last chap- 
 ter, let us now return to the deputation which was in the act 
 of rendezYousing at the East Port,' in order to wait upon that 
 dignitary with their complaints at Kinfauns. 
 
 And first appeared Simon Glover, on a pacing palfrey, which 
 had sometimes enjoyed the honour of bearing the fairer person 
 as well as the lighter weight of his beautiful daughter. His 
 cloak was muffled round the lower part of his face, as a sign, 
 to Ms friends not to interrupt him by any questions while he 
 passed through the streets, and partly, perhaps, on account 
 of the coldness of the weather. The deepest anxiety was 
 seated on Ms brow, as if the more he meditated on the matter 
 he was engaged in, the more diiBcult and perilous it appeared. 
 He only greeted by silent gestures his friends as they came to 
 the rendezvous. 
 
 A strong black horse, of the old Galloway breed, of an under 
 size, and not exceeding fourteen hands, but high-shouldered, 
 strong-limbed, weU-coupled, and round-barrelled, bore to the 
 East Port the gallant smith. A judge of the animal might 
 see in his eye a spark of that vicious temper which is frequent- 
 ly the accompaniment of the form that is most vigorous and 
 enduring; but the weight, the hand, and the seat of the rider, 
 added to the late regular exercise of a long journey, had sub- 
 dued his stubbornness for the present. He was accompanied 
 by the honest bonnet-maker, who being, as the reader is 
 aware, a little round man, and what is vulgarly called duck- 
 legged, had planted himself like a red pincushion (for he was 
 I See Note 21. 
 
106 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 wrapped in a scarlet cloak, over wHcli lie had slung a hawk- 
 ing-pouch), on tlie top of a great saddle, which he might be 
 said rather to be perched upon than to bestride. The saddle 
 and the man were girthed on the ridge-bone of a great tramp- 
 ling Flemish mare, with a nose turned up in the air like a 
 camel, a huge fleece of hair at each foot, and every hoof full 
 as large in circumference as a frying-pan. The contrast be- 
 tween the beast and the rider was so extremely extraordinary, 
 that, whilst chance passengers contented themselves with 
 wondering how he got up, his friends were anticipating with 
 sorrow the perils which must attend his coming down again; 
 for the high-seated horseman's feet did not by any means 
 come beneath the laps of the saddle. He had associated him- 
 seK to the smith, whose motions he had watched for the pur- 
 pose of joining him ; for it was Oliver Pr oudfute's opinion that 
 men of action showed to most advaiitage when beside each 
 other ; and he was delighted when some wag of the lower class 
 had gravity enough to cry out, without laughing outright: 
 " There goes the pride of Perth — there go the slashing crafts- 
 men, the joUy Smith of the Wynd and the bold bonnet- 
 maker!" 
 
 It is true, the fellow who gave this all-haU thrust his tongue 
 in his cheek to some scapegraces like himself; but as the 
 bonnet-maker did not see this by-play, he generously threw 
 him a silver penny to encourage his respect for martialists. 
 This munificence occasioned their being followed by a crowd 
 of boys, laughing and hallooing, until Henry Smith, turning 
 back, threatened to switch the foremost of them — a resolution 
 which they did not wait to see put in execution. 
 
 " Here are we the witnesses, " said the little man on the 
 large horse, as they joined Simon Glover at the East Port; 
 "but where are they that should back us? Ah, brother 
 Henry I authority is a load for an ass rather than a spirited 
 horse : it would but clog the motions of such young fellows as 
 you and me." 
 
 " I could well wish to see you bear ever so little of that 
 same weight, worthy Master Proudf ute, " replied Henry G-ow, 
 " were it but to keep you firm in the saddle ; for you bounce 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. lOT 
 
 about as if you were dancing a jig on your seat, witliout aaj 
 help from your legs." 
 
 "Ay — ay; I raise myself in my stirrups to avoid the jolt- 
 ing. She is cruelly hard set this mare of mine ; but she has 
 carried me ia field and forest, and through some passages that 
 were something perilous ; so Jezabel and I part not, I caU 
 her Jezabel, after the Priaeess of CastUe." 
 
 " Isabel, I suppose you mean, " answered the smith. 
 
 "Ay — Isabel, or Jezabel — iall the same, you know. But 
 here comes BaUie Craigdallie at last, with that poor, creepiug, 
 cowardly creature the pottiagar. They have brought two 
 town-of&cers with their partizans, to guard their fair persons, 
 I suppose. If there is one thing I hate more than another, it 
 is such a sneaking varlet as that Dwiaiag." 
 
 " Have a care he does not hear you say so, " said the smith. 
 " I tell thee, bonnet-maker, that there is more danger in yonder 
 slight wasted anatomy than iu twenty stout fellows like your- 
 self." 
 
 "Pshaw! Bully Smith, you are but jesting with me," said 
 Oliver, softening his voice, however, and looking towards the 
 pottingax, as if to discover in what limb or lineament of his 
 wasted face and form lay any appearance of the menaced dan- 
 ger ; and his examination reassuring him, he answered boldly : 
 'Blades and bucklers, man, I would stand the feud of a dozen 
 such as Dwining. What could he do to any man with blood 
 in his veins?" 
 
 " He could give him a dose of physic," answered the smith, 
 drily. 
 
 They had no time for further colloquy, for Bailie Craigdallie 
 called to them to take the road to Kinfauns, and himself 
 showed the example. As they advanced at a leisurely pace, 
 the discourse turned on the reception which they were to ex- 
 pect from their provost, and the interest which he was likely 
 to take in the aggression which they complained of. The 
 glover seemed particularly desponding, and talked more than 
 once in a manner which implied a wish that they would yet 
 consent to let the matter rest. He did not speak out very 
 plainly, however, fearful, perhaps, of the malignant interpre- 
 
108 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 tation which might be derived from any appearance of his 
 flinching from the assertion of his daughter's reputation. 
 Dwining seemed to agree with him in opiuion, but spoke more 
 cautiously than in the morning. 
 
 "After all," said the bailie, "when I think of all the pro- 
 pines and good gifts which have passed from the good town 
 to my Lord Provost's, I cannot think he wUl be backward to 
 show himself. More than one lusty boat, laden with Bordeaux 
 wine, has left the South Shore to discharge its burden under 
 the Castle of Kinfauns. I have some right to speak of that, 
 whp was the merchant importer." 
 
 " And, " said Dwining, with his squeakiag voice, " I could 
 speak of delicate confections, curious comfits, loaves of was- 
 tel bread, and even cakes of that rare and delicious condi- 
 ment which men call sugar, that have gone thither to help out 
 a bridal banquet, or a kirstening feast, or such-like. But, 
 alack. Bailie Craigdallie, wine is drunk, comfits are eaten, and 
 the gift is forgotten when the flavour is past away. Alas ! 
 neighbour, the banquet of last Christmas is gone like the last 
 year's snow." 
 
 " But there have been gloves full of gold pieces, " said the 
 magistrate. 
 
 "I should know that who wrought them," said Simon, 
 whose professional recollections stm miugled with whatever 
 else might occupy his mind. " One was a hawking-glove for 
 my lady. I made it something wide. Her ladyship found 
 no fault, ia consideration of the intended liniag." 
 
 "Well, go to," said Bailie CraigdalUe, "the less I lie; and 
 if these are not to the fore, it is the provost's fault, and not 
 the town's : they could neither be eat nor drunk in the shape 
 in which he got them." 
 
 "I could speak of a brave armour too," said the smith; 
 " but, cogan na schie ! ' as John Highlandman says — I think 
 the knight of Kinfauns will do his devoir by the burgh in 
 peace or war; and it is needless to be reckoning uhe town's 
 good deeds till we see him thankless for them." 
 
 " So say I," cried our friend Proudfute, from the top of his 
 » Peace or war, I care not 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 109 
 
 mare. " We roystering blades never bear so base a mind as to 
 count for wine and walnuts with a friend like , Sir Patrick 
 Charteris. Nay, trust me, a good woodsman like Sir Patrick 
 will prize the right of hunting and sporting over the lands of 
 the burgh as an high privilege, and one which, his Majesty the 
 King's Grace excepted, is neither granted to lord nor loon 
 save to our provost alone." 
 
 As the bonnet-maker spoke, there was heard on the left 
 hand the cry of, " So so — waw waw — ^haw," being the shout 
 of a falconer to his hawk. 
 
 " Methinks yonder is a feUow using the privilege you men- 
 tion, who, from his appearance, is neither king nor provost," 
 said the smith. 
 
 "Ay, marry, I see him," said the bonnet-maker, who 
 imagined the occasion presented a prime opportunity to win 
 honour. "Thou and I, joUy smith, will prick towards him 
 and put him to the question." 
 
 " Have with you, then, " cried the smith ; and his compan- 
 ion spurred his mare and went off, never doubting that Gow 
 was at his heels. 
 
 But Craigdallie caught Henry's horse by the reins. " Stand 
 fast by the standard," he said; "let us see the luck of ouj 
 light horseman. If he procures himself a broken pate he wiE 
 be quieter for the rest of the day." 
 
 •' From what I already see, " said the smith, " he may easily 
 come by such a boon. Yonder feUow, who stops so impu- 
 dently to look at us, as if he were engaged in the most lawful 
 sport in the world — I guess him, by his trotting hobbler, his 
 rusty head-piece with the cock's feather, and long two-handed 
 sword, to be the follower of some of the southland lords — ■ 
 men who live so near the Southron, that the black-jack is 
 never off their backs, and who are as free of their blows as 
 they are light in their fingers." 
 
 Whilst they were thus speculating on the issue of the ren- 
 counter, the valiant bonnet-maker began to pull up Jezabel, 
 in order that the smith, who he stiU concluded was close be- 
 hind, might overtake him, ajid either advance first or at least 
 abreast of himself. But when he saw him at a, hundred yards' 
 
tlO WAVERLBT NOVELS. 
 
 distance, standing composedly with the rest of the group, the 
 flesh of the champion, like that of the old Spanish general, 
 began to tremble, in anticipation of the dangers into which 
 his own venturous spirit was about to involve it. Yet the 
 consciousness of being countenanced by the neighbourhood of 
 so many friends, the hopes that the appearance of such odds 
 must intimidate the single intruder, and the shame of aban- 
 doning an enterprise in which he had volunteered, and when 
 GO many person must witness his disgrace, surmounted the 
 strong inclination which prompted him to wheel Jezabel to the 
 right about, and return to the friends whose protection he had 
 quitted as fast as her legs could carry them. He accordingly 
 continued his direction towards the stranger, who increased 
 his alarm considerably by putting his little nag in motion, 
 and riding to meet him at a risk trot. On observing this ap- 
 parently offensive movement, our hero looked over his left 
 shoulder more than once, as if reconnoitring the ground for 
 a retreat, and in the mean while came to a decided halt. But 
 the Philistine was upon him ere the bonnet-maker could de- 
 cide^ whether to fight or fly, and a very ominous -looking 
 Philistine he was. His figure was gaunt and lathy, his vis- 
 age marked by two or three ill-favoured scars, and the whole 
 man had much the air of one accustomed to say, " Stand and 
 deliver," to a true man. 
 
 This individual began the discourse by exclaiming, in 
 tones as sinister as his looks, "The devil catch you for 
 a cuckoo, why do you vide across the moor to spoil my 
 sport?" 
 
 " Worthy stranger, " said our friend, in the tone of pacific 
 remonstrance, "I am Oliver Proudfute, a burgess of Perth, 
 and a man of substance ; and yonder is the worshipful Adam 
 CraigdaUie, the oldest bailie of the burgh, with the fighting 
 Smith of the Wynd, and three or four armed men more, who 
 desire to know your name, and how yon come to take your 
 pleasure over these lands belonging to the burgh of Perth; 
 although, natheless, I wOl answer for them, it is not their 
 wish to quarrel with a gentleman, or stranger, for any acci' 
 dental trespass ; only it ia their use and wont not to grant 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. Ill 
 
 siicli leave, unless it is duly asked; and — and — therefore I 
 desire to know your name, worthy sir," 
 
 The grim and loathly aspect with which the falconer had re- 
 garded Oliver Proudfute duriag his harangue had greatly dis- 
 concerted him, and altogether altered the character of the 
 inquiry which, with Henry Gow to back him, he would prob- 
 ably have thought most fitting for the occasion. 
 
 The stranger replied to it, modified as it was, with a most 
 inauspicious gria, which the scars of his visage made appear 
 still more repulsive. "You want to know my name? My 
 name is the Devil's Dick of HeUgarth, weU known in Annan- 
 dale for a gentle Johnstone. I follow the stout Laird of 
 Wamphray, who rides with his kinsman the redoubted Lord 
 of Johnstone, who is banded with the doughty Earl of Doug- 
 las ; and the earl and the lord, . and the laird and I, the es- 
 quire, fly our hawks where we find our game, and ask no man 
 whose ground we ride over. " ' 
 
 " I will do your message, sir, " replied Oliver Proudfute, 
 meekly enough ; for he began to be very desirous to get free 
 of the embassy which he had so rashly undertaken, and was in 
 the act of turning his horse's head, when the Annandale man 
 added : 
 
 " And take you this to boot, to keep you in mind that you 
 met the Devil's Dick, and to teach you another time to beware 
 how you spoil the sport of any one who wears the flying spur 
 on his shoulder." 
 
 With these words he applied two or three smart blows of 
 his riding-rod upon the luckless bonnet-maker's head and 
 person. Some of them lighted upon Jezabel, who, turning 
 sharply round, laid her rider upon the moor, and galloped 
 back towards the party of citizens. 
 
 Proudfute, thus overthrown, began to cry for assistance in 
 no very manly voice, and ahnost in the same breath to whim- 
 per for mercy ; for his antagonist, dismounting almost as soon 
 as he fell, offered a whinger, or large wood-knife, to his 
 throat, while he rifled the pockets of the unlucky citizen, and 
 even examined his hawking-bag, swearing two or three grisly 
 » See Johnstone Family. Note 22. 
 
112 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 oaths, that he would have what it contained, since the wearer 
 had interrupted his sport. He pulled the belt rudely off, ter- 
 rifying the prostrate bonnet-maker still more by the regardless 
 violence which he used, as, instead of taking the pains to un- 
 buckle the strap, he drew tiQ the fastening gave way. But 
 apparently it contained nothing to his mind. He threw it 
 carelessly from him, and at the same time suffered the dis- 
 mounted cavalier to rise, while he himself remounted his 
 hobbler, and looked towards the rest of Oliver's party, who 
 were now advancing. 
 
 When they had seen their delegate overthrown, there was 
 some laughter; so much had the vaunting humour of the 
 bonnet-maker prepared his friends to rejoice when, as Henry 
 Smith termed it, they saw their Oliver meet with a Eowland. 
 But when the bonnet-maker's adversary was seen to bestride 
 him, and handle him in the manner described, the armourer 
 could hold out no longer. " Please you, good Master Bailie, I 
 cannot endure to see our townsman beaten and rifled, and like 
 to be murdered before us all. It reflects upon the "Fair Town ; 
 and if it is neighbour Proudfute's misfortune, it is our shame. 
 I must to his rescue." 
 
 "We wiU all go to his rescue," answered Bailie Craigdallie; 
 " but let no man strike without order from me. We have more 
 feuds on our hands, it is to be feared, than we have strength 
 to bring to good end. And therefore I charge you all, more 
 especially you, Henry of the Wynd, in the name of the Tair 
 City, that you make no stroke but in self-defence." 
 
 They all advanced, therefore, in a body; and the appear- 
 ance of such a number drove the plunderer from his booty. 
 He stood at gaze, however, at some distance, like the wolf, 
 which, though it retreats before the dogs, cannot be brought 
 to absolute flight. 
 
 Henry, seeing this state of things, spurred his horse and 
 advanced far before the rest of the party, up towards the scene 
 of Oliver Proudfute's misfortune. His first task was to catch 
 Jezabel by the flowing rein, and his next to lead her to meet 
 her discomfited master, who was crippling towards him, his 
 clothes much soiled with his fall, his eyes streaming with 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 113 
 
 tears, from pain as ■well as mortification, and altogether ex- 
 hibiting an aspect so unlike the spruce and dapper importance 
 of his ordinary appearance, that the honest smith felt com- 
 passion for the little man, and some remorse at having left 
 him exposed to such disgrace. All men, I believe, enjoy an 
 lE-natuied joke. The difference is, that an ill-natured person 
 can drink out to the very dregs the amusement ■which it 
 affords, -while the better-moulded mind soon loses the sense 
 of the ridiculous in sympathy for the pain of the sufferer. 
 
 " Let me pitch you up to your saddle again, neighbour," said 
 the smith, dismounting at the same time, and assisting Oliver 
 to scramble into his •war-saddle, as a monkey might have 
 done. 
 
 " May God forgive you, neighbour Smith, for not backing of 
 me! I -would not have believed in it, though fifty credible 
 ■witnesses had s-worn it of you." 
 
 Such -were the first -words, spoken in sorrow more than 
 anger, by -which the dismayed Oliver -vented his feelings. 
 
 " The bailie kept hold of my horse by the bridle ; and be- 
 sides, " Henry continued, -with a smile, -which even his compas- 
 sion could not suppress, " I thought you -would have accused 
 me of diminishing your honour, if I brought you aid against a 
 single man. But cheer up! the villain took foul odds of you, 
 your horse not being -well at command." 
 
 "That is true — that is true," said Oliver, eagerly catching 
 at the apology. 
 
 "And yonder stands the faitour, rejoicing at the mischief 
 he has done, and triumphing in your overthrow, like the king 
 in the romance, -who played upon the fiddle -whUst a city -was 
 burning. Come thou -with me, and thou shalt see ho-w -we will 
 handle him. Nay, fear not that I wUl desert thee this time." 
 
 So saying, he caught Jezabel by the rein, and galloping 
 alongside of her, without giving Oliver time to express a neg- 
 ative, he rushed towards the Devil's Dick, who had halted 
 on the top of a rising ground at some distance. The gentle 
 Johnstone, however, either that he thought the contest un- 
 equal, or that he had fought enough for the day, snapping his 
 fingers and throwing his hand out with an air of defiance, 
 8 
 
114 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 spurred his horse into a neighbouring bog, through which he 
 seemed to flutter like a wild duck, swinging his lure round his 
 head, and whistling to his hawk all the while, though any- 
 other horse and rider must have been instantly bogged up to 
 the saddle-girths. 
 
 " There goes a thoroughbred moss-trooper, " said the smith. 
 "That fellow will fight or flee as suits his humour, and 
 there is no use to pursue him, any more than to hunt a wild 
 goose. He has got your purse, I doubt me, for they seldom 
 leave off till they are full-handed.' 
 
 "Ye — ye — yes," said Proudfute, in a melancholy tone, 
 "he has got my purse; but there is less matter since he hath 
 left the hawkiag-bag." 
 
 "Nay, the hawking-bag had been an emblem of personal 
 victory, to be sure — a trophy, as the minstrels call it." 
 
 " There is more in it than that, friend," said Oliver, signifi- 
 cantly. 
 
 " Why, that is well, neighbour : I love to hear you speak 
 in your own scholarly tone again. Cheer up, you have seen 
 the vOain's back, and regained the trophies you had lost 
 when taken at advantage. " 
 
 "Ah, Henry Gow — Henry Gow!" said the bonnet-maker, 
 and stopped short with a deep sigh, nearly amounting to a 
 groan. 
 
 " What is the matter?" asked his friend — " what is it you 
 vex yourself about now?" 
 
 " I have some suspicion, my dearest friend, Henry Smith, 
 that the villain fled for fear of you, not of me." 
 
 "Do not think so," replied the armourer: "he saw two 
 men and fled, and who can tell whether he fled for one or the 
 other? Besides, he knows by experience your strength and 
 activity : we all saw how you kicked and struggled when you 
 were on the ground." 
 
 "Did I?" said poor Proudfute. "I do not remember it, 
 but I know it is my best point : I am a strong dog in the 
 loins. But did they all see it?" 
 
 " All as much as I," said the smith, smothering an inelina* 
 tion to laughter. 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 115 
 
 "But thou wilt remind them of it?" 
 
 "Be assured I will," answered Henry, "and of thy desper- 
 ate rally even now. Mark what I say to Bailie Craigdallie, 
 and make the best of it. " 
 
 " It is not that I require any evidence in thy favour, for I 
 
 am as brave by nature as most men in Perth; but only " 
 
 Here the man of valour paused. 
 
 " But only what?" inquired the stout armourer. 
 
 " But only I am afraid of being killed. To leave my pretty 
 wife and my young family, you know, would be a sad change. 
 Smith. You will know this when it is your own case, and 
 will feel abated in courage." 
 
 "It is like that I may," said the armourer, musing. 
 
 " Then I am so accustomed to the use of arms, and so well 
 breathed, that few men can match me. It's aU here," said 
 the little man, expanding his breast like a trussed fowl, and 
 patting himself with his hands — "here is room for all the 
 wind machinery." 
 
 "I dare say you are long-breathed — long-winded; at least 
 your speech bewrays " 
 
 "My speech! You are a wag But I have got the 
 
 stern post of a dromond brought up the river from Dundee." 
 
 "The stern post of a Drummond!" exclaimed the armourer; 
 " conscience, man, it will put you in feud with the whole clan — 
 not the least wrathful in the country, as I take it. " 
 
 " St. Andrew, man, you put me out! I mean a dromond — 
 that is, a large ship. I have fixed this post in my yard, and 
 had it painted and carved something like a soldan or Saracen, 
 and with him I breathe myself, and will wield my two-handed 
 sword against him, thrust or point, for an hour together." 
 
 "That must make you familiar with the use of your 
 weapon, " said the smith. 
 
 "Ay, laarry does it; and sometimes I will place you a 
 bonnet — an old one, most likely — on my soldan's head, and 
 cleave it with such a downright blow that, in troth, the infidel 
 has but little of his skuU remaining to hit at. " 
 
 "That is unlucky, for you wUl lose your practice," said 
 Henry. " But how say you, bonnet-maker? I wUl put on my 
 
116 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 head-piGce and corslet one day, and you shall hew at me, al« 
 lowing me my broadsword to parry and pay back? Eh, what 
 say you?" 
 
 " By no manner of means, my dear friend. I should do you 
 too much evil; besides, to teU you the truth, I strike far more 
 freely at a helmet or bonnet when it is set on my wooden 
 soldan; then 1 am sure to fetch it down. But when there is 
 a plume of feathers in it that nod, and two eyes gleaming 
 fiercely from under the shadow of the visor, and when the 
 whole is dancing about here and there, I acknowledge it puts 
 out my hand of fence. " 
 
 " So, if men would but stand stock-still like your soldan, 
 you would play the tyrant with them, Master Proudfute?" 
 
 " In time, and with practice, I conclude I might, " answered 
 Oliver. " But here we come up with the rest of them. BaUie 
 CraigdaUie looks angry, but it is not his kind of anger that 
 frightens me." 
 
 You are to recollect, gentle reader, that as soon as the bailie 
 and those who attended him saw that the smith had come up 
 to the forlorn bonnet-maker, and that the stranger had re- 
 treated, they gave themselves no trouble about advancing 
 further to his assistance, which they regarded as quite ensured 
 by the presence of the redoubted Henry Gow. They had 
 resumed their straight road to Kinf auns, desirous that nothing 
 should delay the execution of their mission. As some time 
 had elapsed ere the bonnet-maker and the smith rejoined the 
 party, BaUie CraigdaUie asked them, and Henry Smith in 
 particular, what they meant by dallying away precious time 
 by riding uphill after the falconer. 
 
 " By the mass, it was not my fault, Master Bailie, " replied the 
 smith. " If ye will couple up an ordinary Low Country grey- 
 hound with a Highland wolf-dog, you must not blame the first 
 of them for taking the direction in which it pleases the last to 
 drag him on. It was so, and not otherwise, with my neigh- 
 bour Oliver Proudfute. He no sooner got up from the ground 
 but he mounted his mare like a flash a lightning, and, enraged 
 at the unknightly advantage which yonder rascal had taken of 
 his stumbling horse, he flew after him like a dromedary. I 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 117 
 
 eould not but follo-w, both to prevent a second stumble and 
 secure our over-bold friend and champion from the chance of 
 some ambush at the top of the hUl. But the villaia, who is a 
 follower of some Lord of the Marches, and wears a winged 
 spur for his cognizance, fled from our neighbour like fiye from 
 flint." 
 
 The senior bailie of Perth listenedVith surprise to the legend 
 which it had pleased Gow to circulate ; for, though not much 
 cariug for the matter, he had always doubted the bonnet- 
 maker's romancLug account of his own exploits, which here- 
 after he must hold as in some degree orthodox. 
 
 The shrewd old glover looked closer into the matter. " You 
 wUl drive the poor bonnet-maker mad," he whispered to 
 Henry, " and set him a-ringing his clapper as if he were a 
 town-bell on a rejoicing day, when for order and decency it 
 were better he were silent. " 
 
 "Oh, by Our Lady, father," replied the smith, "I love the 
 poor little braggadocio, and could not think of his sittiag 
 rueful and silent in the provost's hall, while'aU the rest of 
 them, and in especial that venomous pottingar, were telling 
 their mind." 
 
 " Thou art even too good-natured a fellow, Henry, " answered 
 Simon. " But mark the difference betwixt these two men. 
 The harmless little bonnet-maker assumes the airs of a dragon, 
 to disguise his natural cowardice ; while the pottingar wilfully 
 desires to show himself timid, poor-spirited, and humble, to 
 conceal the danger of his temper. The adder is not the less 
 deadly that he fereeps under a stone. I tell thee, son Henry, 
 that, for all his sneaking looks and timorous talking, this 
 wretched anatomy loves mischief more than he fears danger. 
 But here we stand in front of the provost's castle ; and a lordly 
 place is Kinfauns, and a credit to the city it is, to have the 
 owner of such a gallant castle for its chief magistrate." 
 
 " A goodly f ortalice, iudeed, " said the smith, looking at the 
 broad winding Tay, as it swept under the bank on which the 
 castle stood, like its modern successor, and seemed the queen 
 of the valley, although, on the opposite side of the river, the 
 strong walls of Elcho appeared to dispute the pre-eminence. 
 
118 WAVERLEY K0VEL8, 
 
 ELcho, however, was in that age a peaceful nunnery, and the 
 walls with which it was surrounded were the harriers of 
 secluded vestals, not the bulwarks of an armed garrison. 
 "'Tis a brave castle," said the armourer, again looking at the 
 towers .of Kinf auns, " and the breastplate and target of the 
 bonny course of the Tay. It were worth lipping a good blade, 
 before wrong were offered to it." 
 
 The porter of Kinfauns, who knew from a distance the 
 persons and characters of the party, had already opened the 
 courtyard gate for their entrance, and sent notice to Sir 
 Patrick Charteris that the eldest bailie of Perth, with some 
 other good citizens, were approaching the castle. The good 
 knight, who was getting ready for a hawking party, heard 
 the intimation with pretty much the same feelings that the 
 modern representative of a burgh hears of the menaced visi- 
 tation of a party of his worthy electors, at a time rather 
 imseasonable for their reception. That is, he internally 
 devoted the intruders to Mahound and Termagaunt, and out- 
 wardly gave orders to receive them with aU decorum and 
 civility; commanded the sewers to bring hot venison steaks 
 and cold baked meats into the knightly hall with all despatch, 
 and the butler to broach his casks, and do his duty; for if the 
 Pail' City of Perth sometimes filled his cellar, her citizens 
 were always equally ready to assist at emptying his flagons. 
 
 The good burghers were reverently marshalled into the hall, 
 where the knight, who was in a riding-habit, and booted up 
 to the middle of his thighs, received them with a mixture of 
 courtesy and patronising condescension ; wishing them all the 
 while at the bottom of the Tay, on account of the interrup- 
 tion their arrival gave to his proposed amusement of the morn- 
 ing. He met them in the midst of the hall, with bare head 
 and bonnet in hand, and some such salutation as the following: 
 'Ha, my Master Eldest Bailie, and you, worthy Simon 
 Glover, fathers of the Pair City, and you, my learned pottin- 
 gar, and you, stout smith, and my slashing bonnet-maker too, 
 who cracks more skulls than he covers, how come I to have 
 the pleasure of seeing so many friends so early? I was think- 
 ing to see my hawks fly, ^-^^ your company wiU make the 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 119 
 
 sport more pleasant — (Aside, I trust in Our Lady they may 
 break their necks !) — that is, always, unless the city have any 
 commands to lay on me. Butler Gilbert, despatch, thou knave. 
 But I hope you have no more grave errand than to try if the 
 malvoisie holds its flavour?" 
 
 The city delegates answered to their provost's civilities by 
 inclinations and congees, more or less characteristic, of which 
 the pottingar's bow was the lowest and the smith's the least 
 ceremonious. Probably he knew his own value as a fighting 
 man upon occasion. To the general compliment the elder 
 bailie replied. 
 
 "Sir Patrick Chaiteris, and our noble Lord Provost," said 
 Craigdallie, gravely, " had our errand been to enjoy the hospi- 
 tality with which we have been often regaled here, our man- 
 ners would have taught us to tarry tiU your lordship had in- 
 vited us, as on other occasions. And as to hawking, we have 
 had enough on't for one morning; since a wild fellow, who was 
 flying a falcon hard by on the moor, unhorsed and cudgelled 
 our worthy friend Oliver Bonnet-maker, or Proudfute, as some 
 men call him, merely because he questioned him, ia your 
 honour's name, and the town of Perth's, who or what he was 
 that took so much upon him." 
 
 " And what account gave he of himself?" said the provost. 
 "By St. John! I wiU teach him to forestall my sport!" 
 
 " So please your lordship, " said the bonnet-maker, " he did 
 take me at disadvantage. But I got on horseback again after- 
 wards, and pricked after him gallantly. He calls himself 
 Bichardthe Devil." 
 
 " How, man ! he that the rhymes and romances are made 
 on?" said the provost. " I thought that smaik's name had 
 been Eobert." 
 
 "1 trow they be different, my lord. I only graced this 
 fellow with the full title, for indeed he called himself the 
 Devil's Dick, and said he was a Johnstone, and a follower 
 of the lord of that name. But I put him back into the bog, 
 sind recovered my hawking-bag, which he had taken when I 
 was at disadvantage." 
 
 Sir Patrick paused for an instant. "We have heard," said 
 
120 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 he, " of the Lord of Jolmstone, and of his foUowers. Littl« 
 is to be had by meddling with them. Smith, tell me, did you 
 endure this?" 
 
 " Ay, faith did I, Sir Patrick, having command from my 
 betters not to help." 
 
 "Well, if thou satst down -with it," said the provost, "I 
 see not why we should rise up; especially as Master Oliver 
 Proudfute, though taken at advantage at first, has, as he has 
 told us, recovered his reputation and that of the burgh. But 
 here comes the wine at length. FSil round to my good friends 
 and guests tiH the wine leap over the cup. Prosperity to St. 
 Johnston, and a merry welcome to you all, my honest friends 1 
 And now sit you to eat a morsel, for the sun is high up, and 
 it must be long since you thrifty men have broken your fast." 
 
 "Before we eat, my Lord Provost," said the bailie, "let us 
 tell you the pressing cause of our coming, which as yet we have 
 not touched upon." 
 
 "Nay, prithee, bailie," said the provost, "put it off till 
 thou hast eaten. Some complaint against the rascally jack- 
 men and retainers of the nobles, for playing at football on 
 the streets of the burgh, or some such goodly matter." 
 
 "No, my lord," sajd CraigdaUie, stoutly and firmly. "It 
 is the jackmen's masters of whom we complain, for playing 
 at football with the honour of our families, and using as little 
 ceremony with our daughters' sleeping-chambers as if they 
 were in a bordel at Paris. A party of reiving night-walkers 
 — courtiers and men of rank, as there is but too much reason to 
 ijelieve — attempted to scale the windows of Simon Glover's 
 house last night; they stood in their defence with drawn 
 weapons when they were interrupted by Henry Smith, and 
 fought till they were driven off by the rising of the citizens." 
 
 " How I" said Sir Patrick, setting down the cup which he 
 was about to raise to his head. " Cock's-body, make that 
 manifest to me, and, by the soul of Thomas of LongueviUe, I 
 will see you righted with my best power, were it to cost me 
 life and land. Who attests this? Simon Glover, you are 
 held an honest and a cautious man — do yoa take the truth of 
 this charge upon your conscience?'' 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 121 
 
 "My lord," said Simon, "understand I am no willing corn- 
 plainer in this weiglity matter. No damage has arisen, save 
 to the breakers of the peace themselves. I fear only great 
 power could have encouraged such lawless audacity; and I 
 were unwOling to put feud between my native town and some 
 powerful nobleman on my account. But it has been said that, 
 if I hang back in prosecuting this complaint, it wUl be as 
 much as admitting that my daughter expected such a visit, 
 which is a direct falsehood. Therefore, my lord, I wOl tell 
 your lordship what happened, so far as I know, M.d leave 
 further proceeding to your wisdom." He then told) from 
 point to point, all that he had seen of the attack. 
 
 Sir Patrick Charteris, listening with much attention, seemed 
 particularly struck with the escape of the man who had been 
 made prisoner. " Strange, " he said, " that you did not secure 
 him when you had him. Did you not look at him so as to 
 know him again?" 
 
 "I had but the light of a lantern, my Lord Provost; and 
 as to suffering him to escape, I was alone, " said the glover, 
 " and old. But yet I might have kept him, had I not heard 
 my daughter shriek in the upper room; and ere I had returned 
 from her chamber the man had escaped through the garden. " 
 
 " 'Saw, armourer, as a true man and a good soldier, " said 
 Sir Patrick, "tell me what you know of this matter." 
 
 Henry Gow, in his own decided style, gave a brief but clear 
 narrative of the whole affair. 
 
 Honest Proudfute being next caUed upon, began his state- 
 ment with an air of more importance. " Touching this awful 
 and astounding tumult within the burgh, I cannot altogether, 
 it is true, say with Henry Gow that I saw the very beginning. 
 But it wUl not be denied that I beheld a great part of the 
 latter end, and especially that I procured the evidence most 
 effectual to convict the knaves." 
 
 "And what is it, man?" said Sir Patrick Charteris. 
 "Never lose time fumbling and prating about it. What is 
 it?" 
 
 " I have brought your lordship, in this pouch, what one of 
 &e rogues left behind him," said the little man. "It is a 
 
122 WAVERLET 1T0YEL8, 
 
 trophy wMch, in good faitli and tonest truth, I do confess I 
 won not by the blade, but I claim th^ credit of securing it 
 with that presence of mind which few men possess amidst 
 flashing torches and clashing weapons. I secured it, my lord, 
 and here it is." 
 
 So saying, he produced, from the hawking-pouch already 
 mentioned, the stiffened hand which had been found on the 
 scene of the skirmish. 
 
 "Nay, bonnet-maker," said the provost, "I'U warrant thee 
 man enough to secure a rogue's hand after it is cut from the 
 body. What do you look so busily for in your bag?" 
 
 "There should have been — there was — a ring, my lord, 
 which was on the knave's finger. I fear I have been forget- 
 ful, and left it at home, for I took it off to show to my wife, 
 as she cared not to look upon the dead hand, as women love 
 not such sights. But yet I thought I had put it on the finger 
 again. Nevertheless, it must, I bethiuk me, be at home. I 
 will ride back for it, and Henry Sinith will trot along with 
 me." 
 
 "We will aU trot with thee," said Sir Patrick Charteris, 
 " sLcLce I am for Perth myself. Look you, honest burghers 
 and good neighbours of Perth; you may have thought me un- 
 apt to be moved by light complaints and trivial breaches of 
 your privileges, such as small trespasses on your game, the 
 barons' followers playing football in the street, and such-like. 
 But, by the soul of Thomas of LongueviUe, you shall not find 
 Patrick Charteris slothful in a matter of this importance. 
 This hand," he contiuued, holding up the severed joint, "be- 
 longs to one who hath worked no drudgery. We wiU put it 
 in a way to be known and claimed of the owner, if his com- 
 rades of the revel have but one spark of honour in them. 
 Hark you, Gerard; get me some half-score of good men 
 instantly to horse, and let them take jack and spear. Mean- 
 while, neighbours, if feud arise out of this, as is most likely, 
 we must come to each other's support. If my poor house bo 
 attacked, how many men will you bring to my support?" 
 
 The burghers looked at Henry Gow, to whom they instinc- 
 tively turned when such matters were discussed. "I will 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 123 
 
 answer, " said he, " for fifty good fellows to be assembled ere 
 the common bell has rung ten minutes ; for a thousand, in the 
 space of an hour." 
 
 "It is well," answered the gallant provost; "and in the 
 case of need, I will come to aid the Pair City with such men 
 as I can make. And now, good friends, let us to horse." 
 
 CHAPTER rX. 
 
 If I know how to manage these affairs, 
 Thus thrust disorderly upon my hands, 
 
 Never believe me 
 
 Richard II, 
 
 It was early in the afternoon of St. Valentiue's Day tfiat 
 the prior of the Dominicans was engaged in discharge of his 
 duties as confessor to a penitent of no small importance. 
 This was an elderly man, of a goodly presence, a florid and 
 healthful cheek, the imder part of which was shaded by a 
 venerable white beard, which descended over his bosom. The 
 large and clear blue eyes, with the broad expanse of brow, ex- 
 pressed dignity; but it was of a character which seemed more 
 accustomed to receive honours voluntarily paid than to enforce 
 them when they were refused. The good-nature of the ex- 
 pression was so great as to approach to defenceless simplicity 
 or weakness of character, unfit, it might be inferred, to repel 
 intrusion or subdue resistance. Amongst the grey locks of 
 this personage was placed a small circlet or coronet of gold, 
 upon a blue fillet. His beads, which were large and conspicu- 
 ous, were of native gold, rudely enough wrought, but orna- 
 mented with Scottish pearls of rare size and beauty. These 
 were his only ornaments ; and a long crimson robe of silk, tied 
 by a sash of the same colour, formed his attire. His shrift 
 being finished, he arose heavily from the embroidered cushion 
 upon which he kneeled during his confession, and, by the as- 
 sistance of a crutch-headed staff of ebony, moved, lame and 
 ungracefully, and with apparent pain, to a chair of state, 
 
124 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 "which, surmounted by a caiiopy, was placed for his accommo', 
 datiou by the chimney of the lofty and large apartment. 
 
 This -was Robert, third of that name, and the second of the 
 ill-fated family of Stuart who filled the throne of Scotland. 
 He had many virtues, and was not without talent ; but it was 
 his great misfortune that, like others of his devoted line, his 
 merits were not of a kiud suited to the part which he was 
 called upon to perform in life. The king of so fierce a people 
 as the Scots then were ought to have been warlike, prompt, 
 and active, liberal in rewarding services, strict in punishing 
 crimes, one whose conduct should make him feared as well as 
 beloved. The qualities of Eobert the Third were the reverse 
 of all these. In youth he had indeed seen battles ; but, with- 
 out ineurriug disgrace, he had never manifested the chivalrous 
 love of war and peril, or the eager desire to distinguish himself 
 by dangerous achievements, which that age expected from all 
 who were of noble birth and had claims to authority. 
 
 Besides, his military career was very short. Amidst the 
 tumult of a tournament, the young Earl of Carrick, such was 
 then his title, received a kick from the horse of Sir James 
 Douglas of Dalkeith, in consequence of which he was lame for 
 the rest of his life, and absolutely disabled from taking share 
 either in warfare or in the military sports and tournaments 
 which were its image. As Eobert had never testified much 
 predilection for violent exertion, he did not probably much re- 
 gret the incapacities which exempted him from these active 
 scenes. But his misfortune, or rather its consequences, low- 
 ered him in the eyes of a fierce nobility and warlike people. 
 He was obliged to repose the principal charge of his affairs 
 now in one member, now in another, of his f amUy, sometimes 
 with the actual rank, and always with the power, of lieuten- 
 ant-general of the kiagdom. His paternal affection would 
 have induced him to use the assistance of his eldest son, a 
 young man of spirit and talent, whom in fondness he had 
 created Duke of Eothsay," in order to give him the present 
 possession of a dignity next to that of the throne. But the 
 young prince's head was too giddy, and his hand too feeble, 
 > See Pukes in Scotland. Not« 23. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 125 
 
 to wield with dignity the delegated sceptre. However fond 
 of power, pleasure was the Prince's favourite pursuit ; and the 
 court was disturbed, and the country scandalised, by the 
 number of fugitive amours and extravagant revels practised 
 by him who should have set an example of order and regular- 
 ity to the youth of the kingdom. 
 
 The license and impropriety of the Duke of Eothsay's con- 
 duct was the more reprehensible in the public view, that he 
 was a married person ; although some, over whom his youth, 
 gaiety, grace, and good temper had obtained influence, were 
 of opinion that an excuse for his libertinism might be found 
 in the circumstances of the marriage itself. They reminded 
 each other that his nuptials were entirely conducted by his 
 uncle, the Duke of Albany, by whose counsels the infirm and 
 timid King was much governed at the time, and who had the 
 character of managing the temper of his brother and sovereign, 
 so as might be most injurious to the interests and prospects of 
 the young heir. By Albany's machinations the hand of the 
 heir-apparent was in a manner put up to sale, as it was under- 
 stood publicly that the nobleman in Scotland who should give 
 the largest dower to his daughter might aspire to raise her to 
 the bed of the Duke of Eothsay, 
 
 In the contest for preference which ensued, George Earl of 
 Dunbar and March, who possessed, by himself or his vassals, 
 a great part of the eastern frontier, was preferred to other 
 competitors; and his daughter was, with the mutual good- 
 will of the young couple, actually contracted to the Duke of 
 Bothsay. 
 
 But there remained a third party to be consulted, and that 
 was no other than the tremendous Archibald Earl of Douglas, 
 terrible alike from the extent of his lands, from the numerous 
 o£B.ces and jurisdictions with which he was invested, and from 
 his personal qualities of wisdom and valour, mingled with in- 
 domitable pride, and more than the feudal love of vengeance. 
 The Earl was also nearly related to the throne, having married 
 the eldest daughter of the reigning monarch. 
 
 After the espousals of the Duke of Eothsay with the Earl 
 March's daughter, Douglas, aa if he had postponed his share 
 
126 WAVERLEY NOVELS, 
 
 in the negotiation to show that it could not be concluded ■witlj 
 any one but himself, entered the lists to break off the contract. 
 'He tendered a larger dower with his daughter Marjory than 
 the Earl of March had proffered; and, secured by his own 
 cupidity and fear of the Douglas, Albany exerted his influence 
 with the timid monarch tiU he was prevailed upon to break 
 the contract with the Earl of March, and wed his son to Mar- 
 jory Douglas, a woman whom Eothsay could not love. No 
 apology was offered to the Earl of March, excepting that the 
 espousals betwixt the Prtace and Elizabeth of Dunbar had 
 not been approved by the States of Parliament, and that till 
 such ratification the contract was liable to be broken off. 
 The Earl deeply resented the wrong done to himself and his 
 daughter, and was generally understood to study revenge, 
 which his great iufluence on the English frontier was likely to 
 place within his power. 
 
 In the mean time, the Duke of Rothsay,' incensed at the 
 sacrifice of his hand and his incliuations to this state intrigue, 
 took his own mode of venting his displeasure, by neglecting 
 his wife, contemniug his formidable and dangerous father-in- 
 law, and showing little respect to the authority of the King 
 himself, and none whatever to the remonstrances of Albany, 
 his uncle, whom he looked upon as his confirmed enemy. 
 
 Amid these internal dissensions of his family, which ex- 
 tended themselves through his councils and administration, 
 introducing everywhere the baneful effects of uncertainty and 
 disunion, the feeble monarch had for some time been supported 
 by the counsels of his queen, AnnabeUa, a daughter of the 
 noble house of Drununond, gifted with a depth of sagacity 
 and firmness of mind which exercised some restraint over the 
 levities of a son who respected her, and sustained on many 
 occasions the wavering resolution of her royal husband. But 
 after her death the imbecile sovereign resembled nothing so 
 much as a vessel drifted from her anchors, and tossed about 
 amidst contending currents. Abstractedly considered, Eobert 
 might be said to doat upon his son ; to entertain respect and 
 awe for the character of his brother Albany, so much more de- 
 cisive than his own ; to fear the Douglas with a terror 'Trhich 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 127 
 
 was almost instinctive ; and to suspect the constancy of the 
 bold but tickle Earl of Mai-ch. But his feelings towards these 
 various characters were so mixed and complicated, that from 
 time to time they showed entirely different from what they 
 really were ; and according to the interest which had been last 
 exerted over his flexible mind, the King would change from 
 an indulgent to a strict and even cruel father, from a confiding 
 to a jealous brother, or from a benignant and bountiful to a 
 grasping and encroaching sovereign. Like the cameleon, his 
 feeble mind reflected the colour of that firmer character upon 
 which at the time he reposed for counsel and assistance. And 
 when he disused the advice of one of his family, and employed 
 the counsel of another, it was no unwonted thing to see a total 
 change of measures, equally disrespectable to the character of 
 the King and dangerous to the safety of the state. 
 
 It followed as a matter of course that the clergy of the Catho- 
 lic Church acquired influence over a man whose intentions were 
 so excellent, but whose resolutions were so infirm. Eobert 
 was haunted, not only with a due sense of the errors he had 
 really committed, but with the tormenting apprehensions of 
 those peccadilloes which beset a superstitious and timid mind. 
 It is scarcely necessary, therefore, to add, that the churchmen 
 of various descriptions had no small influence over this easy- 
 tempered prince, though, indeed, theirs was, at that period, 
 an influence from which few or none escaped, however reso- 
 lute and firm of purpose in affairs of a temporal character. We 
 now return from this long digression, without which what we 
 have to relate could not perhaps have been well understood. 
 
 The King had moved with ungraceful difficulty to the cush- 
 ioned chair which, under a state or canopy, stood prepared 
 for his accommodation, and upon which he sank down with 
 enjoyment, like an indolent man, who had been for some time 
 confined to a constraiaed position. Wlien seated, the gentle 
 and venerable looks of the good old man showed benevolence. 
 The prior, who now remained standing opposite to the royal 
 seat, with an air of deep deference which cloaked the natural 
 haughtiness of his carriage, was a man betwixt forty and fifty 
 years of age, but every one of whose hairs still retained their 
 
128 WAVERLET NOVELS 
 
 natural dark colour. Acute features aud a penetrating look 
 attested the talents by which the venerable father had ac- 
 quired his high station in the community over which he pre- 
 sided ; and, we may add, in the councils of the kingdom, in 
 whose service they were often exercised. The chief objects 
 which hia education and habits taught him to keep in view 
 were the extension of the dominion and the wealth of the 
 church, and the suppression of heresy, both of which he en- 
 deavoui-ed to accomplish by all the means which his situation 
 afforded him. But he honoured his religion by the sincerity 
 of his own belief, and by the morality which guided his con- 
 duct in all ordinary situations. The faults of the Prior An- 
 selm, though they led him into grievous error, and even 
 cruelty, were perhaps rather those of his age and profession; 
 his virtues were his own. 
 
 " These things done," said the King, " and the lands I have 
 mentioned secured by my gift to this monastery, you are of 
 opinion, father, that I stand as much in the good graces of our 
 Holy Mother Church as to term myself her dutiful son?" 
 
 " Surely, my liege," said the prior; "would to God that all 
 her children brought to the efficacious sacrament of confession 
 as deep a sense of their errors, and as much wiU to make 
 amends for them. But I speak these comforting words, my 
 liege, not to Eobert King of Scotland, but only to my humble 
 and devout penitent, Robert Stuart of Carrick." 
 
 "You surprise me, father," answered the King: "I have 
 little check on my conscience for aught that I have done in 
 my kingly office, seeing that I use therein less mine own opin- 
 ion than the advice of the most wise counsellors." 
 
 "Even therein lieth the danger, my liege, "replied the prior. 
 " The Holy Father recognises in your Grace, in every thought, 
 word, and action, an obedient vassal of the Holy Church. 
 But there are perverse counsellors, who obey the instinct of 
 their wicked hearts, while they abuse the good nature and 
 ductility of their monarch, and, under colour of serving his 
 temporal interests, take steps which are prejudicial to those 
 that last to eternity. " 
 
 King Eobert raised himseK upright in hia chair, and a» 
 
THE FAIR STAID OF PERTH. ' 129 
 
 somed an air of authority, wliicli, though it wall became him, 
 he did not usually display. 
 
 " Prior AnseLm," he said, "if you have discovered auythiag 
 in my conduct, whether as a king or a private individual, 
 which may call down such censures as your words intimate, 
 it is your duty to speak plainly, and I command you to do so." 
 
 "My liege, you shall be obeyed," answered the prior, with 
 an inclination of the body. Then raising himself up, and 
 assuming the dignity of his rank in the church, he said, " Hear 
 from me the words of our Holy Father the Pope, the successor 
 of St. Peter, to whom have descended the keys, both to bind 
 and to unloose. 'Wherefore, Eobert of Scotland, hast thou 
 not received into the see of St. Andrews Henry of Wardlaw, 
 whom the PontiEE hath recommended to fill that see? Why 
 dost thou make profession with thy lips of dutiful service to 
 the Church, when thy actions proclaim the depravity and dis- 
 obedience of thy inward soul? Obedience is better than 
 sacrifice.'" 
 
 " Sir prior," said the monarch, bearing himself in a manner 
 not unbecoming his lofty rank, " we may well dispense with 
 answering you upon this subject, being a matter which con- 
 cerns us and the estates of our kingdom, but does not affect 
 our private conscience." 
 
 "Alas," said the prior, "and whose conscience wUl it con- 
 cern a,t the last day? Which of your belted lords or wealthy 
 burgess,es will then step between their king and the penalty 
 which he has incurred by following of their secular policy in 
 matters ecclesiastical? Know, mighty kiug, that, were all 
 the chivalry of thy realm drawn up to shield thee from the 
 red levin-bolt, they would be consumed like scorched parch- 
 ment before the blaze of a furnace." 
 
 " Good father prior," said the King, on whose timorous con- 
 science this kind of language seldom failed to make an im- 
 pression, "you surely argue over-rigidly in this matter. It 
 was during my last indisposition, whUe the Earl of Douglas 
 held, as lieutenant-general, the regal authority in Scotland, 
 that the obstruction to the reception of the Primate unhappily 
 arose. Do not, therefore, tax me with what happened when I 
 9 
 
130 WAVEELEY NOVELS. 
 
 was unable to conduct the affairs of the kingdom, and com- 
 pelled to delegate my power to another." 
 
 "To your subject, sire, you have said enough," replied the 
 prior. " But, i£ the impediment arose during the lieutenancy 
 of the Earl of Douglas, the legate of his Holiness will demand 
 ■wherefore it has not been instantly removed, when the Kiag 
 resumed in his royal hands the reins of authority? The Black 
 Douglas can do much — ^more perhaps than a subject should 
 have power to do in the kingdom of his sovereign; but he 
 cannot stand betwixt your Grace and your own conscience, or 
 release you from the duties to the Holy Church which your 
 situation as a king imposes upon you." 
 
 "Father," said Eobert, somewhat impatiently, "you are 
 over-peremptory in this matter, and ought at least to wait a 
 reasonable season, until we hava time to consider of some 
 remedy. Such disputes have happened repeatedly in the 
 reigns of our predecessors ; and our royal and blessed ancestor, 
 St. David, did not resign his privileges as a monarch without 
 making a stand iu their defence, even though he was involved 
 in arguments with the Holy Father himself." 
 
 " And thereia was that great and good king neither holy nor 
 saintly," said the prior; " and therefore was he given to be a 
 rout and a spoil to his enemies, when he raised his sword 
 against the banners of St. Peter, and St. Paul, and St. John 
 of Beverley, in the war, as it is stUl called, of the Standard. 
 Well was it for him that, like his namesake, the son of Jesse, 
 his sin was punished upon earth, and not entered against him 
 at the long and dire day of accounting." 
 
 " "Well, good prior — ^weU — enough of this for the present. 
 The Holy See shall, God willing, have no reason to complain 
 of me. I take Our Lady to witness, I would not for the crown 
 I wear take the burden of wronging our Mother Church. We 
 have ever feared that the Earl of Douglas kept his eyes too 
 much fixed on the fame and the temporalities of this frail and 
 passing life to feel altogether as he ought the claims that refer 
 to a future world." 
 
 "It is but lately," said the prior, "that he hath taken up 
 forcible quarters in the monastery of Aberbrothock^ with his 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 131 
 
 retinue of a thousand followers ; and tlie abbot is compelled 
 to f urnisii him with all he needs for horse and man, which the 
 Earl calls exercising the hospitality which he hath a right to 
 expect from the foundation to which his ancestors were con- 
 tributors. Certain, it were better to return to the Douglas 
 his lands than to submit to such exaction, which more resem- 
 bles the masterful license of Highland thiggers and sorners ' 
 Mian the demeanour of a Christian baron." 
 
 " The Black Douglasses," said the King, with a sigh, "are 
 a race which wiU not be said nay. But, father prior, I am 
 ■ myself, it may be, an intruder of this kind; for my sojourn- 
 ing hath been long among you, and my retinue, though far 
 fewer than the Douglas's, are nevertheless enough to cumber 
 you for their daily maintenance ; and though our order is to 
 send out purveyors to lessen your charge as much as may be, 
 yet if there be inconvenience, it were fitting we should remove 
 in time." 
 
 "Now, Our Lady forbid!" said the prior, who, if desirous 
 of power, had nothing meanly covetous in his temper, but was 
 even magnificent in his generous kindness; "certainly the 
 Dominican convent can afford to her sovereign the hospitality 
 which the house offers to every wanderer of whatever condi- 
 tion who will receive it at the hands of the poor servants of 
 our patron. No, my royal liege ; come with ten times your 
 present train, they shall neither want a grain of oats, a pile 
 of straw, a morsel of bread, nor an ounce of food which our 
 convent can supply them. It is one thing to employ the rev- 
 enues of the church, which are so much larger than monks 
 ought to need or wish for, in the suitable and dutiful reception 
 of your royal Majesty, and another to have it wrenched from 
 us by the hands of rude and violent men, whose love of rapine 
 is only limited by the extent of their power. " 
 
 "It is well, good prior," said the King; "and now to turn 
 our thoughts for an instant from state affairs, can thy rever- 
 ence inform us how the good citizens of Perth have begun their 
 Valentine's Day? Gallantly, and merrily, and peacefully, I 
 hope," 
 
 '■ See Note 2i. 
 
132 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 "Tor gallaatly, my liege, I know little of such qualities. 
 Tor peacefully, there were thi'ce or four men, two cruelly 
 wounded, came this morning before daylight to ask the privi- 
 lege of girth and sanctuary, pursued by a hue and cry of citi- 
 zens in their shirts, with clubs, bills, Lochaber axes, and two- 
 handed swords, crying "Kill and slay," each louder than 
 another. Nay, they were not satisfied when our porter and 
 watch told them that those they pursued had taken refuge ia 
 the galilee of the church,' but continued for some minutes 
 clamouring and striking upon the postern door, demanding 
 that the men who had offended should be deliyered up to 
 them. I was afraid their rude noise might have broken your 
 Majesty's rest, and raised some surprise." 
 
 " My rest might have been broken, " said the monarch; " but 
 that sounds of violence should have occasioned surprise.— — 
 Alas I reverend father, there is in Scotland only one place 
 where the shriek of the victim, and threats of the oppressor 
 are not heard, and that, father, is — ^the grave." 
 
 The prior stood in respectful silence, sympathising with the 
 feelings of a monarch whose tenderness of heart suited so iU 
 with the condition and manners of his people. 
 
 " And what became of the fugitives?" asked Eobert, after a 
 minute's pause. 
 
 "Surely, sire," said the prior, "they were dismissed, as 
 they desired to be, before daylight; and after we had sent 
 out to be assured that no ambush of their enemies watched 
 them in the vicinity, they went their way in peace." 
 
 "You know nothing," inquired the King, "who the men 
 were, or the cause of their taking refuge with you?" 
 
 "The cause," said the prior, "was a riot with the towns- 
 men; but how arising is not known to us. The custom of 
 our house is to afford twenty-four hours of uninterrupted ref- 
 uge in the sanctuary of St. Dominic, without asking any ques- 
 tion at the poor unfortunates who have sought relief there. 
 If they desire to remain for a longer space, the cause of their 
 resorting to sanctuary must be put upon the register of the 
 •onvent; and, praised be our holy saint, many persons escape 
 
 See Note 25. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 133 
 
 tlie weight of the law by this temporary protection, whom, 
 did we know the character of their crimes, we might have 
 found ourselves obliged to render up to their pursuers and 
 persecutors." 
 
 As the prior spoke, a dim idea occurred to the monarch, 
 that the privilege of sanctuary thus peremptorily executed 
 must prove a severe interruption to the course of justice 
 through his realm. But he repelled the feeling, as if it had 
 been a suggestion of Satan, and took care that not a single 
 word should escape to betray to the churchman that such a 
 profane thought had ever occupied his bosom; on the contrary, 
 he hasted to change the subject. 
 
 "The sun," he said, "moves slowly on the index. After 
 the painful information you have given me, I expected the 
 Lords of my Council ere now, to take order with the ravelled 
 ajiairs of this unhappy riot. Evil was the fortune which gave 
 me rule over a people among whom it seems to me I am in my 
 own -person the only man who desires rest and tranquillity!" 
 
 " The church always desires peace and tranquOlity, " added 
 the prior, not suffering even so general a proposition to escape 
 the poor king's oppressed miud without insisting on a saving 
 clause for the church's honour. 
 
 "We meant nothing else," said Robert. "But, father 
 prior, you will allow that the church, in quelling strife, as is 
 doubtless her purpose, resembles the busy housewife, who 
 puts in motion the dust which she means to sweep away." 
 
 To this remark the prior would have made some reply, but 
 the door of the apartment was opened, and a gentleman usher 
 announced the Duke of Albany, 
 
134 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Gentle friend. 
 Chide not her mirth, who was sad yesterday. 
 And may be so to-morrow. 
 
 Joanna Baillie. 
 
 The Duke of Albany was, like Ms royal brother, named 
 Robert. The Christian name of the latter had been John 
 until he was called to the throne; when the superstition of 
 the times observed that the name had been connected with 
 misfortune in the lives and reigns of John of England, John 
 of France, and John Baliol of Scotland. It was therefore 
 agreed that, to elude the bad omen, the new king should as- 
 sume the name of Robert, rendered dear to Scotland by the 
 recollections of Robert Bruce. We mention this to account 
 for the existence of two brothers of the same Christian name 
 in one family, which was not certainly an usual occurrence, 
 more than at the present day. 
 
 Albany, also an aged man, was not supposed to be much 
 more disposed for warlike enterprise than the King himself. 
 But if he had not courage, he had wisdom to conceal and cloak 
 over his want of that quality, which, once suspected, would 
 have ruined all the plans which his ambition had formed. 
 He had also pride enough to supply, in extremity, the want 
 of real valour, and command enough over his nerves to con- 
 ceal their agitation. In other respects, he was experienced 
 in the ways of courts, calm, cool, and crafty, fixing upon the 
 points which he desired to attain, while they were yet far re- 
 moved, and never losing sight of them, though the winding 
 paths in which he trode might occasionally seem to point to a 
 different direction. In his person he resembled the King, for 
 he was noble and majestic both in stature and countenance. 
 But he had the advantage of his elder brother, in being unen- 
 cumbered with any infirmity, and in every respect lighter and 
 more active. His dress was rich and grave, as became his 
 age and rank, and, like his royal brother, he wore no arms of 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 136 
 
 any kind, a case of small knives supplying at his girdle 
 the place usually occupied hy a dagger in absence of a 
 sword. 
 
 At the Duke's entrance the prior, after making an obei- 
 sance, respectfully withdrew to a recess in the apartment, at 
 some distance from the royal seat, in order to leave the con- 
 versation of the brothers uncontrolled by the presence of a 
 third person. It is necessary to mention, that the recess was 
 formed by a window, placed in the inner front of the monastic 
 buUdiags, called the palace, from its being the frequent resi- 
 dence of the Kings of Scotland, but which was, unless on 
 such occasions, the residence of the prior or abbot. The win- 
 dow was placed over the principal entrance to the royal apart- 
 ments, and commanded a view of the internal quadrangle of 
 the convent, formed on the right hand by the length of the 
 magnificent church, on the left by a building containing the 
 range of cellars, with the refectory, chapter-house, and other 
 conventual apartments rising above them, for such existed 
 altogether independent of the space occupied by King Eobert 
 and his attendants ; while a fourth row of buildings, showing 
 a noble outward front to the rising sun, consisted of a large 
 hospitium, for ihe reception of strangers and pilgrims, and 
 many subordinate ofB.ces, warehouses, and places of accom- 
 modation, for the ample stores which supplied the magnificent 
 hospitality of the Dominican fathers. A lofty vaulted entrance 
 led through this eastern front into the quadrangle, and was 
 precisely opposite to the window at which Prior Anselm. stood, 
 so that he could see underneath the dark arch, and observe 
 the light which gleamed beneath it from the eastern and open 
 portal ; but, owing to the height to which he was raised, and 
 the depth of the vaulted archway, his eye could but indistinct- 
 ly reach the opposite and extended portal. It is necessary to 
 notice these localities. -- ' 
 
 We return to the conversation between the princely rela- 
 tives. 
 
 "My dear brother," said the King, raising the Duke of 
 Albany, as he stooped to kiss his hand — "my dear, dear 
 brother, wherefore this ceremonial? Are we not both sons 
 
136 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 of the same Stuart of Scotland and of the same Elizaheth. 
 More?" 
 
 "I have not forgot that it is so," said Albany, arising; 
 "but I must not omit, in the familiarity of the brother, the 
 respect that is due to the king." 
 
 " Oh, true — most true, Eobin, " answered the King. " The 
 throne is like a lofty and barren rock, upon which flower or 
 shrub can never take root. All kindly feelings, all tender 
 affections, are denied to a monarch. A king must not fold a 
 brother to his heart — he dare not give way to fondness for a 
 son." 
 
 "Such, in some respects, is the doom of greatness, sire," 
 answered Albany; "but Heaven, who removed to some dis- 
 tance from your Majesty's sphere the members of your own 
 family, has given you a whole people to be your children." 
 
 "Alas! Eobert," answered the monarch, "your heart is 
 better framed for the duties of a sovereign than mine. I see 
 from the height at which fate has placed me that multitudt> 
 whom you call my children. I love them, I wish them well; 
 but they are many, and they are distant from me. Alas ! even 
 the meanest of them has some beloved being whom he can 
 clasp to his heart, and upon whom he can lavish the fondness 
 of a father. But all that a king can give to a people is a 
 smile, such as the sun bestows on the snowy peaks of the 
 Grampian mountains, as distant and as ineffectual. Alas, 
 Eobin ! our father used to caress us, and if he chid us it was 
 with a tone of kindness ; yet he was a monarch as well as I, 
 and wherefore should not I be permitted, like him, to reclaim 
 my poor prodigal by affection as well as severity?" 
 
 " Had affection never been tried, my liege," replied Albany, 
 in the- tone of one who delivers sentiments which he grieves 
 to utter, " means of gentleness ought assuredly to be first made 
 use of. Your Grace is best judge whether they have been 
 long enough persevered in, and whether those of discourage- 
 ment and restraint may not prove a more effectual corrective. 
 It is exclusively in your royal power to take what measures 
 with the Duke of Eothsay you think will be most available to 
 his ultimate benefit, and that of the kingdom." 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH, 137 
 
 "This is unkind, brother," said the King: "you indicate 
 the painful path which you would have me pursue, yet you 
 offer me not your support in treading it." 
 
 " My support your Grace may ever command, " replied Al- 
 hany; "but would it become me, of all men on earth, to 
 prompt to your Grace severe measures against your son and 
 heir? Me, on whom, in case of faEure — which Heaven fore- 
 fend! — of your Grace's family, this fatal crown might de- 
 scend? Would it not be thought and said by the fiery March 
 and the haughty Douglas, that Albany had sown dissension 
 between his royal brother and the heir to the Scottish throne, 
 perhaps to clear the way for the succession of his own family? 
 No, my liege, I can sacrifice my life to your service, but I 
 must not place my honour in danger." 
 
 "You say true, Eobin — you say very true," replied the 
 King, hastening to put his own interpretation upon hia 
 brother's words. "We must not suffer these powerful and 
 dangerous lords to perceive that there is aught like discord 
 in the royal family. That must be avoided of aU things ; and 
 therefore we will still try indulgent measures, ia hopes of cor- 
 reetiag the follies of Eothsay. I behold sparks of hope ia 
 him, Eobin, from time to time, that are well worth cherish- 
 ing. He is young — very young — a prince, and in the heyday 
 of his blood. We will have patience with him, like a good 
 rider with a hot-tempered horse. Let him exhaust this idle 
 humour, and no one wiU. be better pleased with him than your- 
 self. You have censured me in your kiudness for being too 
 gentle, too retired; Eothsay has no such defects." 
 
 " I will pawn my life he has not," replied Albany, drUy, 
 
 " Ajid he wants not reflection as well as spirit," continued 
 the poor king, pleadiug the cause of his son to his brother. 
 " I have sent for him to attend council to-day, and we shall 
 see how he acquits himself of his devoir. You yourself allow, 
 Eobin, that the Prince wants neither shrewdness nor capacity 
 for affairs, when he is in the humour to consider them. " 
 
 "Doubtless, he wants neither, my liege," replied Albany, 
 " when he is in the humour to consider them, " 
 
 "I say so," answered the Kuig'.- "and am heartily glad 
 
138 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 that you agree with me, Eohin, in giving this poor hapless 
 young mau another trial. He has no mother now to plead his 
 cause with an incensed father. That must be remembered, 
 Albany." 
 
 " I trust," said Albany, " the course which is most agreeable 
 to your Grace's feelings will also prore the wisest and the 
 best." 
 
 The Duke well saw the simple stratagem by which the 
 King was endeavouring to escape from the conclusions of his 
 reasoning, and to adopt, imder pretence of his sanction, a 
 course of proceeding the reverse of what it best suited him 
 to recommend. "But though he saw he icould not guide his 
 brother to the line of conduct he desired, he would not aban- 
 don the reias, but resolved to watch for a fitter opportunity of 
 obtaiuiug the sinister advantages to which new quarrels be- 
 twixt the King and Prince were soon, he thought, likely to 
 give rise. 
 
 In the mean time, King Robert, afraid lest his brother 
 should resume the painful subject from which he had just es- 
 caped, called aloud to the prior of the Dominicans, " I hear 
 the trampUng of horse. Your station commands the court- 
 yard, reverend father. Look from the window, and teU us 
 who alights. Eothsay, is it not?" 
 
 " The noble Earl of March, with his followers, " said the prior. 
 
 " Is he strongly accompanied?" said the King. " Do his 
 people enter the inner gate?" 
 
 At the same moment, Albany whispered the King, " Fear 
 nothing, the Brandanes' of your household are under arms." 
 
 The King nodded thanks, while the prior from the window 
 answered the question he had put. " The Earl is attended 
 by two pages, two gentlemen, and four grooms. One page 
 follows him up the main staircase, bearing his lordship's, 
 sword. The others halt in the court, and — Benedicite, how is 
 this? Here is a strolling glee-woman, with her viol, prepar- 
 ing to sing beneath the royal windows, and in the cloister of 
 the Dominicans, as she might in the yard of an hostelriel I 
 wai have her presently thrust forth." 
 
 • See Note 26. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PBRTR 139 
 
 "Not 80, father," said the King. "Let me implore grace 
 for the poor wanderer. The joyous science, as they call it, 
 ■which they profess, mingles sadly with the distresses to 
 which want and calamity condemn a strolling race; and in 
 that they resemble a king, to whom all men cry, 'AU hail!' 
 while he lacks the homage and obedient affection which the 
 poorest yeoman receives from his family. Let the wanderer 
 remain undisturbed, father ; and let her sing if she will to the 
 yeomen and troopers in the court; it will keep them from 
 quarrelling with each other, belonging, as they do, to such 
 unruly and hostile masters." 
 
 So spoke the weU-meanrug and feeble-minded prince, and 
 the prior bowed in acquiescence. As he spoke, the Earl of 
 March entered the haH of audience, dressed' in the ordLaary 
 riding-garb of the time, and wearing his poniard. He had 
 left in the ante-room the page of honour who carried his sword. 
 The Earl was a well-built, handsome man, fair-complexioned, 
 with a considerable profusion of light-coloured hair, and 
 bright blue eyes, which gleamed like those of a falcon. He 
 exhibited ia his countenance, otherwise pleasing, the marks 
 of a hasty and irritable temper, which his situation as a high 
 and powerful feudal lord had given him but too many oppor- 
 tunities of indulging. 
 
 " I am glad to see you, my Lord of March, " said the King, 
 with a gracious inclination of his person. " You have been 
 long absent from our councils." 
 
 "My liege," answered March with a deep reverence to the 
 King, and a haughty and formal inclination to the Duke of 
 Albany, " if I have been absent from your Grace's councils, 
 it is because my place has been supplied by more acceptable, 
 and, I doubt not, abler, couusellors. And now I come but to 
 say to your Highness, that the news from the English frontier 
 make it necessary that I should return without delay to my 
 own estates. Your Grace has your wise and politic brother, 
 my Lord of Albany, with whom to consult, and the mighty 
 and warlike Earl of Douglas to carry your counsels into ef- 
 fect. I am of no use save in my own country; and thither, 
 with your Highness's permission, I am purposed instantly 
 
140 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 to return, to attend my charge, as Warden of the Eastern 
 Marches." 
 
 " You will not deal so unkindly with us, cousin," replied the 
 gentle monarch. " Here are evil tidings on the wind. These 
 unhappy Highland clans are again breaking into general com- 
 motion, and the tranquillity even of our own court requires the 
 wisest of our council to advise, and the bravest of our barons 
 to execute, what may be resolved upon. The descendant of 
 Thomas Eandolph will not surely abandon the grandson of 
 Eobert Bruce at such a period as this?" 
 
 " I leave with him the descendant of the far-famed James 
 of Douglas," answered March. "It is his lordship's boast 
 that he never puts foot in stirrup but a thousand horse mount 
 with him as his daily lifeguard, and I believe the monks of 
 Aberbrothock ' will swear to the fact. Surely, with all the 
 Douglas's chivalry, they are fitter to restrain a disorderly 
 swarm of Highland kerne than I can be to withstand the 
 archery of England and power of Henry Hotspur? And then, 
 here is his Grace of Albany, so jealous in his care of your 
 Highness's person, that he calls your Brandanes to take arms 
 when a dutiful subject like myself approaches the court with 
 a poor haK-score of horse, the retinue of the meanest of the 
 petty barons who own a tower and a thousand acres of barren 
 heath. When such precautions are taken where there is not 
 the slightest chance of peril — since I trust none was to be ap- 
 prehended from me — your royal person will surely be suitably 
 guarded in real danger." 
 
 " My Lord of March, " said the Duke of Albany, " the mean- 
 est of the barons of whom you speak put their followers in 
 arms even when they receive their dearest and nearest friends 
 within the iron gate of their castle; and, if it please Our 
 Lady, I will not care less for the King's person than they do 
 fop their own. The Brandanes are the King's immediate re- 
 tainers and household servants, and an hundred of them is 
 but a small guard round his Grace, when yourself, my lord, 
 as well as the Earl of Douglas, often ride with ten times the 
 numbe'"." 
 
 > See Monks of Arbroath and Earl Douglas. Kote 27. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 141 
 
 "My Lord Duke," replied March, "whea the service of the 
 Kiag requires it, I can ride with ten times as many horse as 
 your Grace has named; but I have never done so either traitor- 
 ously to entrap the King nor boastfully to overawe other 
 nobles." 
 
 "Brother Eobert," said the King, ever anxious to be a 
 peacemaker, " you do wrong even to intimate a suspicion of 
 my Lord of March. And you, cousin of March, misconstrue 
 my brother's caution. But hark — to divert this angry parley — 
 I hear no unpleasing touch of minstrelsy. You know the gay 
 science, my Lord of March, and love it well. Step to yonder 
 window, beside the holy prior, at whom we make no question, 
 touching secular pleasures, and you will tell us if the music 
 and play be worth listening to. The notes are of France, I 
 think. My brother of Albany's judgment is not worth a 
 cockle-shell in such matters, so you, cousin, must report your 
 opinion whether the poor glee-maiden deserves recompense. 
 Our son and the Douglas wiU. presently be here, and then, 
 when our council is assembled, we will treat of graver 
 matters." 
 
 With something like a smUe on his proud brow, March 
 withdrew into the recess of the window, and stood there in 
 silence beside the prior, like one who, while he obeyed the 
 King's command, saw through and despised the timid precau- 
 tion which it implied, as an attempt to prevent the dispute 
 betwixt Albany and himself. The tune, which was played 
 upon a viol, was gay and sprightly in the commencement, 
 with a touch of the wildness of the troubadour music. But, 
 as it proceeded, the faltering tones of the instrument, and of 
 the female voice which accompanied it, became plaintive and 
 interrupted, as if choked by the painful feelings of the min- 
 strel. 
 
 The offended earl, whatever might be his judgment in such 
 matters on which the King had complimented him, paid, it 
 may be supposed, little attention to the music of the female 
 minstrel. His proud heart was struggliag between the alle- 
 giance he owed his sovereign, as well as the love he still found 
 lurking in his bosom for the person of his well-natured king^ 
 
142 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 and a desire of vengeance arising out of his disappointed am- 
 bition, and the disgrace done to him by the substitution of 
 Marjory Douglas to be bride of the heir-apparent, instead of 
 his betrothed daughter. March had the rices and virtues of a 
 hasty and uncertain character, and even now, when he came 
 to bid the King adieu, with the purpose of renouncing his 
 allegiance as soon as he reached his own feudal territories, he 
 felt unwilling, and almost unable, to resolve upon a step so 
 criminal and so fuU of peril. It was with such dangerous 
 cogitations that he was occupied during the beginning of the 
 glee-maiden's lay; but objects which called his attentioii pow- 
 erfully, as the songstress proceeded, affected the current of 
 his thoughts, and riveted them on what was passing in the 
 courtyard of the monastery. The song was in the Provengal 
 dialect, well understood as the language of poetry in all the 
 courts of Europe, and particularly in Scotland. It was more 
 simply turned, however, than was the general cast of the 
 sirventes, and rather resembled the lai of a ^Norman minstrel. 
 It may be translated thus : 
 
 ttbe Xag ot poor 2Loulse. ' 
 
 Ah, poor Louise ! The livelong day 
 She roama from cot to castle gay ; 
 And still her voice and viol say, 
 Ah, maids, beware the woodland way ; 
 
 Think on LonlsB. 
 
 Ah, poor Louise ! The sun was high ; 
 It smirch'd her cheek, it dimm'd her eye. 
 The woodland walk was cool and nigh, 
 Where birds with chiming streamlets vie 
 
 To cheer Loniae. 
 
 Ah, poor Louise ! The savage bear 
 Made ne'er that lovely grove his lair; 
 The wolves molest not paths so fair. 
 But better far had such been there 
 
 For poor tiOti]a& 
 
 Ah, poor Louise ! In woody wold 
 She met a huntsman fair and bold ; 
 Hia baldrick was of silk and gold, 
 And many a witching tale he told 
 
 To poor LoUiiBL 
 
 ' See Note 2S. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTK 143 
 
 Ah, poor Louise 1 Small cause to pine 
 Hadst thou for treasures of the mine; 
 For peace of mind, that gift divine. 
 And spotless innocence, were thine. 
 
 Ah, poor Louiwl 
 
 Ah, poor Louise ! Thy treasure's reft. 
 I know not if by force or theft, 
 Or part by violence, part by gift ; 
 But misery is all that's left 
 
 To poor Lonlae. 
 
 Let poor Louise some succour hare I 
 She will not long your bounty crave. 
 Or tire the gay with warning stave ; 
 For Heaven has grace, and earth a grave 
 
 For poor Louise. 
 
 The song was no sooner finished than, anxious lest the dis- 
 pute should be revived betwixt his brother and the Earl of 
 March, King Eobert called to the latter, " What think you of 
 the minstrelsy, my lord? Methinks, as I heard it even at this 
 distance, it was a wild and pleasing lay." 
 
 " My judgment is not deep, my lord; but the singer may 
 dispense with my approbation, since she seems to have re- 
 ceived that of his Grace of Eothsay, the first judge in Scot- 
 land." 
 
 "How!" said the King in alarm; "is my son below?" 
 
 "He is sitting on horseback by the glee-maiden," said 
 March, with a malicious smile on his cheek, " apparently as 
 much interested by her conversation as her music." 
 
 " How is this, father prior?" said the King. 
 
 But the prior drew back from the lattice. " I have no will 
 to see, my lord, things which it would pain me to repeat." 
 
 "How is all this?" said the King, who coloured deeply, and 
 seemed about to rise from his chair; but changed his mind, 
 as if unwilling, perhaps, to look upon some unbecoming prank 
 of the wild young prince, which he might not have had heart 
 to punish with necessary severity. The Earl of March seemed 
 to have a pleasure in informing him of that of which doubtless 
 lie desired to remain ignorant. 
 
 " My liege," he cried, " this is better and better. The glee- 
 maiden has not only engaged the ear of the Prince of Scotland, 
 
144 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 as -well as of every groom and trooper in tlie court yard, but she 
 has riveted the attention of the Black Douglas, whom we have 
 not known as a passionate admirer of the gay scieuce. But 
 truly, I do not wonder at his astonishment, for the Prince has 
 honoured the fair professor of song and viol with a kiss of 
 approbation." 
 
 " How !" cried the King, " is David of Eothsay trifling with 
 a glee-maiden, and his wife's father in presence? Go, my 
 good father abbot, call the Prince here instantly. Go, my 
 
 dearest brother " And when they had both left the room, 
 
 the King continued, "Go, good cousin of March; there will 
 be mischief, I am assured of it. I pray you go, cousin, and 
 second my lord prior's prayers with my commands." 
 
 "You forget, my liege," said March, with the voice of a 
 deeply-offended person, "the father of Elizabeth of Dunbar 
 were but an unfit intercessor between the Douglas and his 
 royal son-in-law." 
 
 "I crave your pardon, cousin," said the gentle old man. 
 "I own you have had some wrong; but my Eothsay will be 
 murdered — I must go myself." 
 
 But, as he arose precipitately from his chair, the poor king 
 missed a footstep, stumbled, and fell heavily to the ground, in 
 such a manner that, his head striking the corner of the seat 
 from which he had risen, he became for a minute insensible. 
 The sight of the accident at / once overcame March's resent- 
 ment and melted his heart. He ran to the fallen monarch, 
 and replaced him in his seat, using, in the tenderest and most 
 respectful manner, such means as seemed most fit to recall 
 animation. 
 
 Eobert opened his eyes, and gazed around with uncertainty, 
 "What has happened? — are we alone? — who is with us?" 
 
 "Your dutiful subject, March," replied the Earl. 
 
 "Alone with the Earl of March!" repeated the King, his 
 still disturbed intellects receiving some alarm from the name 
 of a powerful chief whom he had reason to believe he had 
 mortally offended. 
 
 " Yes, my gracious liege, with poor George of Dunbar, of 
 whom many have wished your Majesty to think iU, though he 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 146 
 
 will be found truer to your royal person at the last than they 
 wiU." 
 
 " Indeed, cousin, you have had too much wrong; and believe 
 me, we shall strive to redress " 
 
 "If your Grace thinks so, it may yet be righted," inter- 
 rupted the Earl, catching at the hopes which his ambition 
 suggested: "the Prince and Marjory Douglas are nearly re- 
 lated — the dispensation from Eome was informally granted-^— 
 their marriage cannot be lawful — the Pope, who will do much 
 for so godly a prince, can set aside this unchristian union, in 
 respect of the pre-contract. Bethink you well, my liege," 
 continued the Earl, kindling with a new train of ambitious 
 thoughts, to which the unexpected opportunity of pleading his 
 cause presonally had given rise — "bethink you how you choose 
 betwixt the Douglas and me. He is powerful and mighty, I 
 grant. But George of Dunbar wears the keys of Scotland at 
 his belt, and could bring an English army to the gates of 
 Edinburgh ere Douglas could leave the skirts of Carintable to 
 oppose them. Tour royal son loves my poor deserted girl, and 
 hates the haughty Marjory of Douglas. Tour Grace may judge 
 the small account in which he holds her by his toying with a 
 common glee-maiden even in the presence of her father." 
 
 The King had hitherto listened to the Earl's argument with 
 
 the bewildered feelings of a timid horseman, borne away by 
 
 • an impetuous steed, whose course he can neither arrest nor 
 
 direct. But the last words awakened in his recollection the 
 
 eense of his son's immediate danger. 
 
 "Oh, ay, most true — my son — the Douglas! Oh, my dear 
 cousin, prevent blood, and all shall be as you will. Hark, 
 there is a tumult — that was the clash of arms!" 
 
 " By my coronet, by my knightly faith, it is true!" said the 
 Earl, looking from the window upon the inner square of the 
 convent, now filled with armed men and brandished weapons, 
 and resounding with the clash of armour. The deep-vaulted 
 entrance was crowded with warriors at its farthest extremity, 
 and blows seemed to be in the act of being exchanged betwixt 
 some who were endeavouring to shut the gate and others who 
 contended to press in. 
 10 
 
146 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 "I will go instantly," said the Earl of March, "and soon 
 quell this sudden broil. Humbly I pray your Majesty to think 
 on -what I have had the boldness to propose." 
 
 "I wiU— I will, fair cousin," said the King, scarce knowing 
 to what he pledged himseK; "do but prevent tumult and 
 bloodshedl" 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Pair is the damsel, passing fair; 
 Sonny at distance gleams her smile ; 
 Approach — ^the cloud of wo^ul care 
 Hangs trembling in her eye the while. 
 
 iMcinda, a Ballad. 
 
 We must here trace a little more correctly the events which 
 had been iudistinetly seen from the window of the royal apart- 
 ments, and yet more indistinctly reported by those who wit- 
 nessed them. The glee-maiden, already mentioned, had 
 planted herself where a rise of two large broad steps, giving 
 access to the main gateway of the royal apartments, gained 
 her an advantage of a foot and a half in height over those in 
 the court, of whom she hoped to form an audience. She wore 
 the dress of her calling, which was more gaudy than rich, and 
 showed the person more than did the garb of other females. 
 She had laid aside an upper mantle, and a small basket which 
 contained her slender stock of necessaries ; and a little French 
 spaniel dog sat beside them, as their protector. An azure- 
 blue jacket, embroidered with silver, and sitting close to the 
 person, was open in front, and showed several waistcoats of 
 diEferent-coloured silks, calculated to set ofE the symmetry of 
 the shoulders and bosom, and remaining open at the throat. 
 A small silver chain worn around her neck involved itself 
 amongst these brOliant-coloured waistcoats, and was again 
 produced from them, to display a medal of the same metal, 
 which intimated, in the name of some court or guild of min- 
 strels, the degree she had taken in the gay or joyous science. 
 A small scrip, suspended over her shoulders by a blue silk 
 riband, hung on her left side. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 147 
 
 Her sunny complexion, snow-white teeth, brilliant black 
 eyes, and raven locks marked her country lying far in the 
 south of France, and the arch smile and dimpled chin bore the 
 same character. Her luxuriant raven locks, twisted around a 
 small gold bodkin, were kept in their position by a net of silk 
 and gold. Short petticoats, deep-laced with silver, to corre- 
 spond with the jacket, red stockings which were visible so high 
 as near the calf of the leg, and buskins of Spanish leather, 
 completed her adjustment, which, though far from new, had 
 been saved as an untarnished holiday suit, which much care 
 had kept in good order. She seemed about twenty-five years 
 old; but perhaps fatigue and wandering had anticipated the 
 touch of time in obliterating the freshness of early youth. 
 
 We have said the glee-maiden's manner was lively, and we 
 may add that her smile and repartee were ready. But her 
 gaiety was assumed, as a CLuality essentially necessary to her 
 trade, of which it was one of the miseries, that the professors 
 were obliged frequently to cover an achiag heart with a com- 
 pelled smile. This seemed to be the case with Louise, who, 
 whether she was actually the heroine of her own song, or 
 whatever other cause she might have for sadness, showed at 
 times a strain of deep melancholy thought, which interfered 
 with and controlled the natural flow of lively spirits which the 
 practice of the joyous science especially required. She lacked 
 also, even in her gayest sallies, the decided boldness and 
 effrontery of her sisterhood, who were seldom at a loss to retort 
 a saucy jest, or turn the laugh against any who interrupted or 
 interfered with them. 
 
 It may be here remarked, that it was impossible that this 
 class of women, very numerous in that age, could bear a char- 
 acter generally respectable. They were, however, protected 
 by the manners of the time ; and such were the immunities 
 they possessed by the rights of chivalry, that nothing was 
 more rare than to hear of such errant damsels sustaining in- 
 jury or wrong, and they passed and repassed safely, where 
 armed travellers would probably have encountered a bloody 
 opposition. But though licensed and protected in honour of 
 their tuneful art, the wandering minstrels, male or female. 
 
148 WATERLET NOVELS. 
 
 like similar ministers to the public amusement, the itinerant 
 musicians, for instance, and stroLLing comedians of our own 
 day, led a life too irregular and precarious to be accounted a 
 creditable part of society. Indeed, among the stricter Catho- 
 lics, the profession was considered as unlawful. 
 
 Such was the damsel who, with viol in hand, and stationed 
 on the slight elevation we have mentioned, stepped forward to 
 the bystanders and announced herself as a mistress of the gay 
 science, duly qualified by a brief from a Court of Love and 
 Music held at Aix, in Provence, under the countenance of the 
 flower of chivalry, the gallant Count Aymer ; who now prayed 
 that the cavaliers of merry Scotland, who were known over 
 the wide world for bravery and courtesy, would permit a poor 
 stranger to try whether she could afford them any amusement 
 by her art. The love of song was like the love of fight, a 
 common passion of the age, which all at least affected, whether 
 they were actually possessed by it or no ; therefore the ac- 
 quiescence in Louise's proposal was universal. At the same 
 time, an aged, dark-browed monk who was among the by- 
 standers thought it necessary to remind the glee-maiden that, 
 since she was tolerated within these precincts, which was an 
 unusual grace, he trusted nothing would be sung or said in- 
 consistent with the holy character of the place. 
 
 The glee-maiden bent her head low, shook her sable locks, 
 and crossed herself reverentially, as if she disclaimed the pos- 
 bility of such a transgression, and then began the song of 
 "Poor Louise," which we gave at length in the last chapter. 
 
 Just as she commenced, she was stopped by a cry of " Eoom- . 
 room— place for the Duke of Eothsay!" 
 
 "Nay, hurry no man on my score," said a gallant young 
 cavalier, who entered on a noble Arabian horse, which he 
 managed with exquisite grace, though by such slight handling 
 of the reins, such imperceptible pressure of the limbs and 
 sway of the body, that to any eye save that of an experienced 
 horseman the animal seemed to be putting forth his paces for 
 his own amusement, and thus gracefully bearing forward a 
 rider who was too indolent to give himself any trouble about 
 the matter. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 149 
 
 The Prince's apparel, which was very rich, was put on with 
 slovenly carelessness. His form, though his stature was low, 
 and his limbs extremely slight, was elegant in the extreme ; 
 and his features no less handsome. But there was on his brow 
 a haggard paleness, which seemed the effect of care or of dis- 
 sipation, or of both these wasting causes combined. His eyes 
 were sunk and dim, as from late indulgence in revelry on the 
 preceding evening, while his cheek was inflamed with un- 
 natural red, as if either the effect of the Bacchanalian orgies 
 had not passed away from the constitution, or a morning 
 draught had been resorted to, in order to remove the effects 
 of the night's debauchery. 
 
 Such was the Duke of Eothsay, and heir of the Scottish 
 crown, a sight at once of interest and compassion. All un- 
 bonneted and made way for him, while he kept repeating care- 
 lessly, " No haste — no haste : I shall arrive soon enough at the 
 place I am bound for. How's this — a damsel of the joyous 
 science? Ay, by St. Giles ! and a comely wench to boot. Stand 
 still, my merry-men ; never was minstrelsy marred for me. A 
 good voice, by the mass ! Begin me that lay again, sweetheart." 
 
 Louise did not know the person who addressed her ; but the 
 general respect paid by all around, and the easy and indiffer- 
 ent manner in which it was received, showed her she was 
 addressed by a man of the highest quality. She recommenced 
 her lay, and sung her best accordingly ; while the young duke 
 seemed thoughtful and rather affected towards the close of 
 the ditty. But it was not his habit to cherish such melan- 
 choly affections. " This is a plaintive ditty, my nut-brown 
 maid, " said he, chucking the retreating glee-maiden under the 
 chin, and detaining her by the collar of her dress, which was 
 not difficult, as he sat on horseback so close to the steps on 
 which she stood. " But I warrant me you have livelier notes 
 at will, ma hella tenebrosa ; ay, and canst sing in bower as well 
 as wold, and by night as well as day." 
 
 " I am no nightingale, my lord, " said Louise, endeavouring 
 to escape a species of gallantry which ill suited the place and 
 circumstances— a discrepancy to which he who addressed it to 
 her seemed contemptuously indifferent. 
 
150 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 "What hast thou there, darling?" he added, removing his 
 hold from her coUar to the scrip which she carried. 
 
 Glad was Louise to escape his grasp, by slipping the knot of 
 the riband, and leaving the little bag in the Prince's hand, as, 
 retiring back beyond his reach, she answered, "Nuts, my 
 lord, of the last season." 
 
 The Prince pulled out a handful of nuts accordingly. " Nuts, 
 child! they will break thine ivory teeth, hurt thy pretty voice, " 
 said Eothsay, cracking one with his teeth, like a village school- 
 boy. 
 
 " They are not the walnuts of my own sunny clime, my 
 lord," said Louise; "but they hang low, and are within the 
 reach of the poor." 
 
 " You shall have something to afford you better fare, poor 
 wandering ape," said the Duke, in a tone in which feeling 
 predominated more than in the affected and contemptuous 
 gallantry of his first address to the glee-maiden. 
 
 At this moment, as he turned to ask an attendant for his 
 purse, the Prince encountered the stern and piercing look of 
 a tall black man, seated on a powerful iron-grey horse, who 
 had entered the court with attendants while the Duke of 
 Eothsay was engaged with Louise, and now remained stupi- 
 fied and almost turned to stone by his surprise and anger at 
 this unseemly spectacle. Even one who had never seen Archi- 
 bald Earl of Douglas, called the Grim, must have known him 
 by his swart complexion, his gigantic frame, his buff -coat of 
 bull's-hide, and his air of courage, firmness, and sagacity, 
 mixed with indomitable pride. The loss of an eye in battle, 
 though not perceptible at first sight, as the ball of the injured 
 organ remained similar to the other, gave yet a stern, immov- 
 able glare to the whole aspect." 
 
 The meeting of the royal son-in-law with his terrible step- 
 father [father-in-law] was in circumstances which arrested the 
 attention of all present; and the bystanders waited the issue 
 with silence and suppressed breath, lest they should lose any 
 part of what was to ensue. 
 
 When the Duke of Eothsay saw the expression which occu- 
 pied the stem features of Douglas, and remarked that the Earl 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 151 
 
 did not make the least motion towards respectful, or even 
 civil, salutation, he seemed determined to show him how little 
 respect he was disposed to pay to his displeased looks. He 
 took his purse from his chamberlaia. 
 
 "Here, pretty one," he said, "I give thee one gold piece 
 for the song thou hast sung me, another for the nuts I have 
 stolen from thee, and a third for the kiss thou art about to 
 give me. For know, my pretty one, that when fair lips, and 
 thiae for fault of better may be called so, make sweet music 
 for my pleasure, I am sworn to St. Valentiue to press them to 
 mine." 
 
 "My song is recompensed nobly," said Louise, shiinkuig 
 back ; " my nuts are sold to a good market ; farther tra£B.c, my 
 lord, were neither befittiag you nor beseeming me." 
 
 "What! you coy it, my nymph of the highway?" said the 
 Prince, contemptuously. "Know damsel, that one asks you 
 a grace who is unused to denial." 
 
 "It is the Prince of Scotland"— " the Dake of Eothsay," 
 said the courtiers around, to the terrified Louise, pressiug for- 
 ward the trembling young womaa ; " you must not thwart his 
 humour." 
 
 "But I cannot reach your lordship," she said, timidly, 
 " you sit so high on horseback. " 
 
 " If I must alight, " said Eothsay, " t!aere shall be the heav- 
 ier penalty. What does the wench tremble for? Place thy 
 foot on the toe of my boot, give me hold of thy hand. Gal- 
 lantly done!" He kissed her as she stood thus suspended ia 
 ihe air, perched upon his foot and supported by his hand; 
 saying, "There is thy kiss, and there is my purse to pay it; 
 and to grace thee farther, Eothsay wiE wear thy scrip for the 
 day. " He suffered the frightened girl to spring to the ground, 
 and turned his looks from her to bend them contemptuously 
 on the Earl of Douglas, as if he had said, " All this I do ia 
 despite of you and of your daughter's claims." 
 
 " By St. Bride of Douglas !" said the Earl, pressing towards 
 the Prince, "this is too much, unmannered boy, as void of 
 sense as honour ! You know what considerations restrain the 
 hand of Douglas, else had you never dared " 
 
152 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 " Can you play at spang-cockle, my lord?" said the Prince, 
 placing a nut on the second joint of his forefinger, and spin- 
 niug it ofE by a smart application of the thumb. The nut 
 struck on Douglas's broad breast, who burst out into a dread- 
 ful exclamation of wrath, inarticulate, but resembling the 
 growl of a lion in depth and sternness of expression. " I cry 
 your pardon, most mighty lord, " said the Duke of Eothsay^ 
 scornfully, while aU around trembled; "I did not conceive my 
 peUeb could have wounded you, seeing you wear a buff-coat. 
 Surely, I trust, it did not hit your eye?" 
 
 The prior, despatched by the Kiag, as we have seen in the 
 last chapter, had by this time made way through the crowd, 
 and laying hold on Douglas's rein, in a manner that made 
 it impossible for him to advance, reminded him that the 
 Prince was the son of his sovereign, and the husband of his 
 daughter. 
 
 "Pear not, sir prior," said Douglas. "I despise the child- 
 ish boy too much to raise a finger against him. But I wiU 
 return insult for insult. Here, any of you who love the 
 Douglas, spurn me this quean from the monastery gates ; and 
 let her be so scourged that she may bitterly remember to the 
 last day of her life how she gave means to an unrespective 
 boy to affront the Douglas." 
 
 Pour or five retainers instantly stepped forth to execute 
 commands which were seldom uttered in vain, and heavily 
 would Louise have atoned for an offence of which she was 
 alike the innocent, unconscious, and ujiwUling instrument, had 
 not the Duke of Rothsay interfered. 
 
 "Spurn the poor glee- woman!" he said, in high indigna- 
 tion ; " scourge her for obeying my commands ! Spurn thine 
 own oppressed vassals, rude earl — scourge thine own faulty 
 hounds ; but beware how you touch so much as a dog that 
 Rothsay hath patted on the head, far less a female whose lips 
 he hath kissed!" 
 
 Before Douglas could give an answer, which would certainly 
 have been in defiance, there arose that great tumult at the 
 outward gate of the monastery, already noticed, and men both 
 on horseback and on foot began to rush headlong in, not act 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 153 
 
 ually fighting witli eacli other, but certainly in no peaceable 
 manner. 
 
 One of the contending parties, seemingly, were partizans of 
 Douglas, known by the cognizance of the bloody heart; the 
 other were composed of citizens of the town of Perth. It ap- 
 peared they had been skirmishing in earnest when without 
 the gates, but, out of respect to the sanctified ground, they 
 lowered their weapons when they entered, and confined their 
 strife to a war of words and mutual abuse. 
 
 The tumult had this good effect, that it forced asunder, by 
 the weight and press of numbers, the Prince and Douglas, at 
 a moment when the levity of the former and the pride of the 
 latter were urgiag both to the utmost extremity. But now 
 peacemakers interfered on all sides. The prior and the monks 
 threw themselves among the multitude, and commanded peace 
 in the name of Heaven, and reverence to their sacred walls, 
 under penalty of excommunication ; and their expostulations 
 began to be listened to. Albany, who was despatched by his 
 royal brother at the beginning of the fray, had not arrived till 
 now on the scene of action. He instantly applied himself to 
 Douglas, and in his ear conjured him to temper his passion. 
 
 "By St. Bride of Douglas, I wiU be avenged!" said the 
 Earl. " !N"o man shall brook life after he has passed an affront 
 on Douglas." 
 
 " Why, so you may be avenged in fitting time, " said AJbany ; 
 " but let it not be said that, like a peevish woman, the Great 
 Douglas could choose neither time nor place for his vengeance. 
 Bethink you, all that we have laboured at is like to be upset 
 by an accident. George of Dimbar hath had the advantage of 
 an audience with the old man ; and though it lasted but five 
 minutes, I fear it may endanger the dissolution of your family 
 match, which we brought about with so much difficulty. The 
 authority from Eome has not yet been obtained. " 
 
 "A toy!" answered Douglas,, haughtily; "they dare not 
 dissolve it." 
 
 " Not while Douglas is at large, and in possession of his 
 power," answered Albany. "But, noble earl, come with me, 
 and I wDl show you at what disadvantage you stand." 
 
154 WAVERLET NOTELS. 
 
 Douglas dismounted, and followed Ms ■wily accomplice in 
 silence. In a lower hall they saw the ranks of the Brandanes 
 drawn up, well armed in caps of steel and shirts of mail. 
 Their captain, making an obeisance to Albany, seemed t« 
 desire to address him. 
 
 "What now, MacLouis?" said the Duke. 
 
 " We are informed the Duke of Eothsay has been insulted, 
 and I can scarce keep the Brandanes within door." 
 
 "Gallant MacLouis," said Albany, "and you, my trusty 
 Brandanes, the Duke of Eothsay, my princely nephew, is as 
 well as a hopeful gentleman can be. Some scufle there has 
 been, but all is appeased." He continued to draw the Earl of 
 Douglas forward. " You see, my lord, " he said in his ear, 
 "that, if the word 'arrest' was to be once spoken, it would be 
 soon obeyed, and you are aware your attendants are few for 
 resistance." 
 
 Douglas seemed to acquiesce in the necessity of patience for 
 the time. "If my teeth," he said, "should bite through my 
 lips, I will be silent tUl it is the hour to speak out." 
 
 George of March, iu the mean whUe, had a more easy task 
 of pacifying the Prince. "My Lord of Eothsay," he said, 
 approaching him with grave ceremony, " I need not tell you 
 that you owe me something for reparation of honour, though I 
 blame not you personally for the breach of contract which has 
 destroyed the peace of my family. Let me conjure you, by 
 what observance your Highness may owe an iujured man, to 
 f Of ego for the present this scandalous dispute." 
 
 "My lord, I owe you much," replied Eothsay; "but 
 this haughty and all-controlling lord has wounded mine 
 honour." 
 
 "My lord, I can but add, your royal father is ill — ^hatb 
 swooned with terror for your Highness's safety." 
 
 "111!" replied the Prince — "the kind, good old man; 
 swooned, said you, my Lord of March? I am with hi-m m an 
 instant." 
 
 The Duke of Eothsay sprung from his saddle to the ground, 
 and was dashing into the palace like a greyhound, when a 
 feeble grasp was laid on his cloak, and the faint voice of » 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 156 
 
 kneeling female exclaimedj "Protection, my noble prince I — • 
 protection for a helpless stranger!" 
 
 "Hands off, stroUerl" said the Earl of March, thrusting 
 the suppliant glee-maiden aside. 
 
 But the gentler priuce paused. "It is true," he said, "I 
 have brought the vengeance of an unforgiving devil upon this 
 helpless creature. Heaven! what a life is mine, so fatal to 
 all •who approach me! What to do in the hurry? She must 
 not go to my apartments. And all my men are such born 
 reprobates. Ha! thou at miae elbow, honest Harry Smith? 
 What dost thou here?" 
 
 " There has been something of a fight, my lord," answered 
 our acquaintance the smith, " between the townsmen and the 
 Southland loons who ride with the Douglas; and we have 
 swinged them as far as the abbey gate." 
 
 " I am glad of it — ^I am glad of it. And you beat the knaves 
 fairly?" 
 
 "Fairly, does your Highness ask?" said Henry. "Why, 
 ay! We were stronger ia numbers, to be sure; but no men 
 ride better armed than those who follow the Bloody Heart. 
 And so in a sense we beat them fairly ; for, as your Highness 
 knows, it is the smith who makes the man-at-arms, and men 
 with good weapons are a match for great odds." 
 
 While they thus talked, the Earl of March, who had spoken 
 with some one near the palace gate, returned in anxious haste. 
 "My Lord Duke! — my Lord Duke! your father is recovered, 
 and if you haste not speedily, my Lord of Albany and the 
 Douglas wiU have possession of his royal ear." 
 
 " And if my royal father is recovered, " said the thoughtless 
 Prince, " and is holding, or about to hold, counsel with my 
 gracious uncle and the Earl of Douglas, it befits neither your 
 lordship nor me to intrude till we are summoned. So there is 
 time for me to speak of my little business with mine honest 
 armourer here." 
 
 "Does your Highness take it so?" said the Earl, whose 
 sanguine hopes of a change of favour at court had been too 
 hastily excited, and were as speedily checked. " Then so let 
 it be for George of Dunbar." 
 
156 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 He glided away mth a gloomy and displeased aspect; and 
 thus out of the two most powerful noblemen in Scotland, at a 
 time when the aristocracy so closely controlled the throne, the 
 reckless heir-apparent had made two enemies — the one by 
 scornful defiance and the other by careless neglect. He heeded 
 not the Earl of March's departure, however, or rather he felt 
 relieved from his importunity. 
 
 The Prince went on in indolent conversation with our ar- 
 mourer, whose skUl in his art had made him personally known 
 to many of the great lords about the court. 
 
 " I had something to say to thee. Smith. Canst thou take 
 up a fallen link in my Milan hauberk?" 
 
 " As well, please your Highness, as my mother could take 
 up a stitch in the nets she wove. The Milaner shall not know 
 my work from his own." 
 
 "Well, but that was not what I wished of thee just now," 
 said the Prince, recollecting himself : " this poor glee-woman, 
 good Smith, she must be placed in safety. Thou art man 
 enough to be any woman's champion, and thou must conduct 
 her to some place of safety." 
 
 Henry Smith was, as we have seen, sufficiently rash and 
 daring when weapons were in question. But he had also the 
 pride of a decent burgher, and was unwUling to place himself 
 in what might be thought equivocal circumstances by the sober 
 part of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 " May it please your Highness, " he said, " I am but a poor 
 craftsman. But, though my arm and sword are at the King's 
 service and your Highness's, I am, with reverence, no squire 
 of dames. Your Highness wiE find, among your own retinue, 
 knights and lords willing enough to play Sir Pandarus of 
 Troy; it is too knightly a part for poor Hal of the Wynd." 
 
 " TJmph — hah ! " said the Prince. " My purse, Edgar. (His 
 attendant whispered him.) True — true, I gave it to the poor 
 wench. I know enough of your craft, sir smith, and of crafts- 
 men in general, to be aware that men lure not hawks with 
 empty hands ; but I suppose my word may pass for the price 
 of a good armour, and I wiU pay it thee, with thanks to boo1» 
 for this slight service." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 157 
 
 " Your Highness may know other craftsmen, " said the 
 smith; "but, with reverence, you know not Henry Gow. 
 He wUl obey you in making a weapon, or in wielding one, but 
 he knows nothing of this petticoat service. " 
 
 "Hark thee, thou Perthshire mule," said the Prince, yet 
 smiling, while he spoke, at the sturdy punctilio of the honest 
 burgher ; " the wench is as little to me as she is to thee. But 
 in an idle moment, as you may learn from those about thee, if 
 thou sawest it not thyself, I did her a passing grace, which is 
 likely to cost the poor wretch her life. There is no one here 
 whom I can trust to protect her against the discipline of belt 
 and bow-string, with which the Border brutes who foUow 
 Douglas will beat her to death, siuee such is his pleasure." 
 
 " If such be the case, my liege, she has a right to every 
 honest man's protection; and siace she wears a petticoat — 
 though I would it were longer and of a less fanciful fashion — 
 I win answer for her protection as well as a single man may. 
 But where am I to bestow her?" 
 
 "Good faith, I cannot tell," said the Prince. "Take her 
 to Sir John. Ramorny's lodging. But, no — no — ^he is ill at 
 ease, and besides, there are reasons ; take her to the devil if 
 thou wilt, but place her in safety, and oblige David of Eoth- 
 say." 
 
 " My noble Prince, " said the smith, " I think, always with 
 reverence, that I would rather give a defenceless woman to 
 the care of the devil than of Sir John Eamorny. But though 
 the devil be a wo]?ker in fire like myself, yet I know not his 
 haunts, and with aid of Holy Church hope to keep him on 
 terms of defiance. And, moreover, how I am to convey her 
 out of this crowd, or through the streets, in such a mumming 
 habit may be well made a question." 
 
 "For the leaving the convent," said the Prince, "this good 
 monk (seizing upon the nearest by his cowl) — Father ISTicholas 
 or Boniface " 
 
 " Poor brother Cyprian, at your Highness's command, " said 
 the father. 
 
 "Ay — ay, brother Cyprian," continued the Prince — "yes. 
 Brother Cyprian shall let you out at some secret passage which 
 
158 ■WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 he kno-ws of, and I mil see him again to pay a prince's thanks 
 for it." 
 
 The churchman bowed in acquiescence, and poor Louise, 
 who, during this debate, had looked from the one speaker to 
 the other, hastily said, " I will not scandalise this good man 
 with my foolish garb: I have a mantle for ordinary wear." 
 
 "Why, there, Smith, thou hast a friar's hood and a woiij.an's 
 mantle to shroud thee under. I would all my frailties were 
 as well shrouded. Farewell, honest fellow ; I wiU thank thee 
 hereafter. " 
 
 Then, as if afraid of farther objection on the smith's part, 
 he hastened into the palace. , 
 
 Henry Gow remained stupified at what had passed, and at 
 finding himself involved in a charge at once inferring much 
 danger and an equal risk of scandal, both which, joined to a 
 principal share which he had taken, with his usual forward- 
 ness, in the fray, might, he saw, do him no small injury in 
 the suit he pursued most anxiously. At the same time, to 
 leave a defenceless creature to the Ol-usage of the barbarous 
 Galwegians and licentious followers of the Douglas was a 
 thought which his manly heart could not brook for an instant. 
 
 He was roused from his reverie by the voice of the monk, 
 who, sliding out his words with the indifference which the 
 holy fathers entertained, or affected, towards all temporal 
 matters, desired them to follow him. The smith put himself 
 in motion, with a sigh much resembling a groan, and, without 
 appearing exactly connected with the monk's motions, h^ fol" 
 lowed him into a cloister, and through a postern door, which, 
 after looking once behind him, the priest left ajar. Behind 
 them followed Louise, who had hastily assumed her small 
 bundle, and, calling her little four-legged companion, had 
 eagerly followed in the path which opened an escape from what 
 had shortly before seemed a great and inevitable danger. 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 159 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Then up and spak the auld gudewife, 
 And wow I but she was grim : 
 
 " Had e'er your father done the like, 
 
 It had been ill for him." 
 
 Luchg Trumbull. 
 
 The party were now, by a secret passage, admitted witlun 
 the church, the outward doors of which, usually left open, had 
 been closed against every one in consequence of the recent 
 tumult, when the rioters of both parties had endeavoured to 
 rush into it for other purposes than those of devotion. They 
 traversed the gloomy aisles, whose arched roof resounded to 
 the heavy tread of the armourer, but was silent under the san- 
 dalled foot of the monk, and the light step of poor Louise, 
 who trembled excessively, as much from fear as cold. She 
 saw that neither her spiritual nor temporal conductor looked 
 kindly upon her. The former was an austere man, whose 
 aspect seemed to hold the luckless wanderer in some degree of 
 horror, as well as contempt; while the latter, though, as we 
 have seen, one of the best-natured men living, was at present 
 grave to the pitch of sternness, and not a little displeased with 
 having the part he was playing forced upon him, without, as 
 he was constrained to feel, a possibility of his declining it. 
 
 His dislike at his task extended itself to the innocent object 
 of his protection, and he internally said to himself, as he 
 surveyed her scornfully : " A proper queen of beggars to walk 
 the streets of Perth with, and I a decent burgher ! This tawdry 
 miaion must have as ragged a reputation as the rest of her 
 sisterhood, and I am finely sped if my chivalry in her behalf 
 comes to Catharine's ears. I had better have slain a man, 
 were he the best in Perth ; and, by hammer and nails, I would 
 have done it on provocation, rather than convoy this baggage 
 through the city." 
 
 Perhaps Louise suspected the cause of her conductor's anx- 
 iety, for she said, timidly and with hesitation : " Worthy sir, 
 
160 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 were it not better I should stop one instant in that chapel and 
 don my mantle?" 
 
 "Umph, sweetheart, well proposed," said the armourer; but 
 the monk interfered, raising at the same time the linger of 
 interdiction. 
 
 " The chapel of holy St. Madox is no tiring-room for jugglers 
 and strollers to shift their trappings in. I will presently 
 show thee a vestiary more suited to thy condition. " 
 
 The poor young woman hung down her humbled head, and 
 turned from the chapel door which she had approached with 
 the deep sense of self-abasement. Her little spaniel seemed 
 to gather from his mistress's looks and manner that they were 
 tmauthorised intruders on the holy ground which they trode, 
 and hung his ears, and swept the pavement with his tail, as 
 he trotted slowly and close to Louise's heels. 
 
 The monk moved on without a pause. They descended 
 a broad flight of steps, and proceeded through a labyrinth of 
 subterranean passages, dimly lighted. As they passed a low- 
 arched door, the monk turned and said to Louise, with the " 
 same stern voice as before : " There, daughter of folly- — there 
 is a robin g-room, where many before you have deposited their 
 vestments." 
 
 Obeying the least signal with ready and timorous acquies- 
 cence, she pushed the door open, but instantly recoiled with 
 terror. It was a charnel-house, half filled with dry skulls 
 and bones. 
 
 " I fear to change my dress there, and alone. But, if you, 
 father, command it, be it as you wiU." 
 
 "Why, thou child of vanity, the remains on which thou 
 lookest are but the earthly attire of those who, in their day, 
 led or followed in the pursuit of worldly pleasure. And such 
 shalt thou be, for all thy mincing and ambling, thy piping 
 and thy harping — thou, and aU such ministers of frivolous and 
 worldly pleasure, must become like these poor bones, whom 
 thy idle nicety fears and loathes to look upon." 
 
 "Say not with idle nicety, reverend father," answered the 
 glee-maiden, " for, Heaven knows, I covet the repose of these 
 poor bleached relics; and if, by stretching my body upon 
 
THE PAIR MAID OP PERTH. 161 
 
 them, I could, without sin, bring my state to theirs, I would 
 choose that charnel-heap for my place of rest beyond the fair- 
 est and softest coiieh in Scotland." 
 
 " Be patient, and come on, " said the monk, in a milder tone ; 
 " the reaper must not leave the harvest-work till sunset gives 
 the signal that the day's toil is over." 
 
 They walked forward. Brother Cyprian, at the end of a 
 long gallery, opened the door of a small apartment, or perhaps 
 a chapel, for it was decorated with a crucifix, before which 
 burned four lamps. All bent and crossed themselves; and 
 the priest said to the minstrel maiden, poiutiag to the crucifix, 
 " What says that emblem?" 
 
 "That He invites the sumer as well as the righteous to 
 approach." 
 
 " Ay, if the sianer put from him his sin, " said the monk, 
 whose tone of voice was evidently milder. " Prepare thyself 
 here for thy journey." 
 
 Louise remained an instant or two in the chapel, and pres- 
 ently reappeared in a mantle of coarse grey cloth, in which 
 she had closely muffled herself, having put such of her more 
 gaudy habiliments as she had time to take off in the little 
 basket which had before held her ordinary attire. 
 
 The monk presently afterwards unlocked a door which led 
 to the open air. They found themselves in the garden which 
 surrounded the monastery of the Dominicans. " The southern 
 gate is on the latch, and through it you can pass unnoticed, " 
 said the monk. " Bless thee, my son ; and bless thee too, un- 
 happy child. Eememberiug where you put off your idle 
 trinkets, may you take care how you agaiu resume them!" 
 
 "Alas, father!" said Louise, "if the poor foreigner could 
 supply the mere wants of life by any more creditable occupa- 
 tion, she has small wish to profess her idle art. But " 
 
 But the monk had vanished; nay, the very door through 
 which she had just passed appeared to have vanished also, so 
 curiously was it concealed beneath a flying buttress, and 
 among the profuse ornaments of Gothic architecture. " Here 
 is a woman let out by this private postern, sure enough, " was 
 Henry's reflection. " Pray Heaven the good fathers never let 
 11 
 
162 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 any inl The place seems convenient for such games ai, bo- 
 peep. But, benedicite, what is to be done next? I must get 
 rid of this quean as fast as I can; and I must see her safe. 
 For let her be at heart what she may, she looks too modest, 
 now she is in decent dress, to deserve the usage which the 
 wild Scot of Galloway, or the devil's legion from the Liddel, 
 are like to afford her. " 
 
 Louise stood as if she waited his pleasure which way to go. 
 Her little dog, relieved by the exchange of the dark, subter- 
 ranean vault for the open air, sprung in wild gambols through 
 the walks, and jumped upon its mistress, and even, though 
 more timidly, circled close round the smith's feet, to express 
 its satisfaction to him also, and conciliate his favour. 
 
 " Down, Chariot — down !" said the glee-maiden. " You are 
 glad to get into the blessed sunshine; but where shall we rest 
 at night, my poor Chariot?" 
 
 " And now, mistress, " said the smith, not churlishly, for it 
 was not in his nature, but bluntly, as one who is desirous 
 to finish a disagreeable employment, " which way lies your 
 road?" 
 
 Louise looked on the ground and was silent. On being 
 again urged to say which way she desired to be conducted, she 
 again looked down, and said she could not teU. 
 
 " Come — come, " said Henry, " I understand all that : 1 have 
 been a gaUiard — a reveller in my day, but it's best to be plain. 
 As matters are with me now, I am an altered man for these 
 many, many months ; and so, my quean, you and I must part 
 sooner than perhaps a light-o'-love such as you expected to 
 part with — a likely young fellow. " 
 
 Louise wept silently, with her eyes stOl cast on the ground, 
 as one who felt an insult which she had not a right to com- 
 plain of. At length, perceiving that her conductor was grown 
 impatient, she faltered out, " Noble sir " 
 
 "Sir is for a knight," said the impatient burgher, "and 
 noble is for a baron. I am Harry of the Wynd, an honest 
 mechanic, and free of my guild." 
 
 "Good craftsman, then," said the minstrel woman, "you 
 judge me harshly, but not without seeming cause. I would 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 163 
 
 relieve you immediately of my company, -wliich, it may be, 
 brings little credit to good men, did I but know -which way 
 to go." 
 
 "To the next wake or fair, to be sure," said Henry, roughly, 
 having no doubt that this distress was affected for the purpose 
 of palming herself upon him, and perhaps dreadiag to throw 
 himself into the way of temptation; "and that is the feast of 
 St. Madox, at Auchterarder. I warrant thou wilt find the 
 way thither well enough." 
 
 " Aftr — Auchter " repeated the glee-maiden, her South- 
 ern tongue in vain attempting the Celtic accentuation. " I am 
 told my poor plays wiU. not be understood if I go nearer to yon 
 dreadful range of mountains." 
 
 "Will you abide, then, in Perth?" 
 
 "But where to lodge?" said the wanderer. 
 
 "Why, where lodged you last night?" replied the smith. 
 " You know where you came from, surely, though you seem 
 doubtful where you are going?" 
 
 " I slept in the hospital of the convent. But I was only 
 admitted upon great importunity, and I was commanded not 
 to return." 
 
 "Nay, they will never take you in with the ban of the 
 Douglas upon you, that is even too true. But the Prince men- 
 tioned Sir John Eamorny's ; I can take you to his lodgings 
 through bye-streets, though it is short of an honest burgher's 
 office, and my time presses." 
 
 " I will go anywhere ; I know I am a scandal and incum • 
 brance. There was a time when it was otherwise. But this 
 Eamorny, who is he?" 
 
 " A courtly knight, who lives a jolly bachelor's life, and is 
 master of the horse, and privado, as they say, to the young 
 prince. " 
 
 " What! to the wild, scornful young man who gave occasion 
 to yonder scandal? Oh, take me not thither, good friend! 
 Is there no Christian woman who would give a poor creature 
 rest in her cowhouse or barn for one night? I will be gone 
 with early daybreak. I will repay her richly, I have gold; 
 and I will repay you, too, if you will take me where I may be 
 
164 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 safe from that wild reveller, and from the followers of that 
 dark baron, in whose eye was death." 
 
 "Keep your gold for those who lack it, mistress," said 
 Henry, " and do not offer to honest hands the money that is 
 won by violing, and tabouring, and toe-tripping, and perhaps 
 worse pastimes. I teU. you plainly, mistress, I am not to be 
 fooled. I am ready to take you to any place of safety you 
 can name, for my promise is as strong as an iron shackle. But 
 you cannot persuade me that you do not know what earth to 
 make for. You are not so young in your trade as not to know 
 there are hostelries iu every town, much more in a city like 
 Perth, where such as you may be harboured for your money, 
 if you cannot find some gulls, more or fewer, to pay your law- 
 ing. If you have money, mistress, my care about you need 
 be the less ; and truly I see little but pretence in all that ex- 
 cessive grief, and fear of being left alone, in one of your occu- 
 pation." 
 
 Having thus, as he conceived, signified that he was not to 
 be deceived by the ordinary arts of a glee-maiden, Henry 
 walked a few paces sturdily, endeavouring to think he was 
 doing the wisest and most prudent thing in the world. Yet 
 he could not help looking back to see how Louise bore his de- 
 parture, and was shocked to observe that she had sunk upon 
 a bank, with her arms resting on her knees and her head on 
 her arms, in a situation expressive of the utmost desolation. 
 
 The smith tried to harden his heart. " It is all a sham, " 
 he said: "the gouge knows her trade, I'U be sworn, by St, 
 Kiugan. " 
 
 At the instant something pulled the skirts of his cloak; and 
 looking round, he saw the little spaniel, who immediately, as 
 if to plead his mistress's cause, got on his hind-legs and began 
 to dance, whimperiug at the same time, and looking back to 
 Louise, as if to solicit compassion for his forsaken owner. 
 
 " Poor thing, " said the smith, " there may be a trick in this 
 too, for thou dost but as thou art taught. Yet, as I prom- 
 ised to protect this poor creature, I must not leave her in a 
 swoon, if it be one, were it but for manhood's sake." 
 
 Keturning, and approaching his troublesome charge, he was 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 166 
 
 at once assured, from the change of her complexion, either that 
 she was actually in the deepest distress, or had a power of 
 dissimulation beyond the comprehension of man — or ■woman 
 either. 
 
 "Young woman," he said, with more of kindness than he 
 had hitherto been able even to assume, " I will tell you frank- 
 ly how I am placed. This is St. Valentine's Day, and by 
 custom I was to spend it with my fair Valentine. But blows 
 and quarrels have occupied all the morning, save one poor 
 half -hour. Now, you may well understand where my heart 
 and my thoughts are, and where, were it only in mere cour- 
 tesy, my body ought to be." 
 
 The glee-maiden listened, and appeared to comprehend him. 
 
 " If you are a true lover, and have to wait upon a chaste 
 Valentine, God forbid that one like me should make a disturb- 
 ance between you ! Think about me no more. I wiU ask of 
 that great river to be my guide to where it meets the ocean, 
 where I think they said there was a seaport ; I will sail from 
 thence to La Belle France, and wlU. find myself once more in 
 a country in which the roughest peasant would not wrong the 
 poorest female." 
 
 " You cannot go to Dundee to-day," said the smith. " The 
 Douglas people are in motion on both sides of the river, for 
 the alarm of the morning has reached them ere now ; and all 
 this day, and the next, and the whole night which is between, 
 they will gather to their leader's standard, like Highlandmen 
 at the fiery cross. Do you see yonder five or six men who are 
 riding so wUdly on the other side of the river? These are 
 Annandale men : I know them by the length of their lances, 
 and by the way they hold them. An Annandale man never 
 slopes his spear backwards, but always keeps the point up- 
 right, or pointed forward." 
 
 "And what of them?" said the glee-maiden. "They are 
 men-at-arms and soldiers. They would respect me for my 
 viol and my helplessness." 
 
 "I win say them no scandal," answered the smith. "If 
 you were in their own glens, they would use you hospitably, 
 ^d you would have nothing to fear; but they are now on an 
 
166 WAVEKLEY NOVELS. 
 
 expedition. All is fish that comes to their net. There are 
 amongst them who would take your life for the value of your 
 gold earrings. Their whole soul is settled in their eyes to see 
 prey, and in their hands to grasp it. They have no ears either 
 to hear lays of music or listen to prayers for mercy. Besides, 
 their leader's order is gone forth concerniag you, and it is of a 
 kind sure to be obeyed. Ay, great lords are sooner listened to 
 if they say, CBurn a church, ' than if they say, 'Build one."* 
 
 "Then," said the glee- woman, "I were best sit down and 
 die." 
 
 "Do not say so," replied the smith. "If I could but get 
 you a lodgiag for the night, I would carry you the next morn- 
 ing to Our Lady's Stairs, from whence the vessels go down the 
 river for Dundee, and would put you on board with some one 
 bound that way, who should see you safely lodged where you 
 would have fair entertainment and kind usage." 
 
 "Good — excellent — generous man!" said the glee-maiden, 
 " do this, and if the prayers and blessings of a poor unfortu- 
 nate should ever reach Heaven, they will rise thither iu thy 
 behalf. We will meet at yonder postern door, at whatever 
 time the boats take their departure." 
 
 "That is at six in the morning, when the day is but 
 young." 
 
 "Away with you, then, to your Valentine; and if she loves 
 you, oh, deceive her not!" 
 
 "Alas, poor damsel 1 I fear it is deceit hath brought thee 
 to this pass. But I must not leave you thus unprovided. I 
 must know where you are to pass the night." 
 
 "Care not for that," replied Louise: "the heavens are 
 clear — there are bushes and boskets enough by the river-side — 
 Chariot and I can well make a sleeping-room of a green arbour 
 for one night; and to-morrow will, with your promised aid, 
 see me out of reach of injury and wrong. Oh, the night soon 
 passes away when there is hope for to-morrow! Do you still 
 linger, with your Valentine waiting for you? Nay, I shall 
 hold you but a loitering lover, and you know what belongs to 
 a minstrel's reproaches." 
 
 "I cannot leave you, damsel," answered the armourer, now 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH, 167 
 
 completely melted. " It were mere murder to sufEer you to 
 pass the night exposed to the keemiess of a Scottish blast in 
 T"ebruary. No — no, my word would be ill kept in this man- 
 ner ; and if I should incur some risk of blame, it ia but just 
 penance for thinking of thee, and using thee, more accor<ling 
 to my own prejudices, as I now well believe, than thy merits. 
 Come with me, damsel; thou shalt have a sure and honest 
 lodging for the night, whatsoever may be the consequence. 
 It would be an evil compliment to my Catharine, were I to 
 leave a poor creature to be starved to death, that I might 
 enjoy her company an hour sooner." 
 
 So saying, and hardening himself against all anticipations of 
 the ill consequences or scandal which might arise from such a 
 measure, the manly-hearted smith resolved to set evil report 
 at defiance, and give the wanderer a night's refuge in his own 
 house. It must be added, that he did this with extreme re- 
 luctance, and in a sort of enthusiasm of benevolence. 
 
 Ere our stout son of Vulcan had fixed his worship on the 
 Pair Maid of Perth, a certain natural wildness of disposition 
 had placed him under the influence of Venus, as well as that 
 of Mars ; and it was only the effect of a sincere attachment 
 which had withdrawn him entirely from such licentious 
 pleasures. He was therefore justly jealous of his newly- 
 acquired reputation for constancy, which his conduct to this 
 poor wanderer must expose to suspicion; a little doubtful, 
 perhaps, of exposing himself too venturously to temptation; 
 and moreover in despair to lose so much of St. Valentine's 
 Day, which custom not only permitted, but enjoined, him to 
 pass beside his mate for the season. The journey to Kin- 
 fauns, and the various transactions which followed, had con- 
 sumed the day, and it was now nearly evensong time. 
 
 As if to make up by a speedy pace for the time he was com- 
 pelled to waste upon a subject so foreign to that which he had 
 most at heart, he strode on through the Dominicans' gardens, 
 entered the town, and casting his cloak around the lower part 
 of his face, and pulling down his bonnet to conceal the upper, 
 he continued the same celerity of movement through bye- 
 atreets and lanes, hoping to reach his own house in lie Wynd 
 
168 WAVEELBT NOVELS. 
 
 witliout being observed. But wben lie had continued his rate 
 of walking for ten minutes, he began to be sensible it might 
 be too rapid for the young woman to keep up with him. He 
 accordingly looked behind him with a degree of angry impa- 
 tience, which soon turned into compunction, when he saw that 
 she was almost utterly exhausted by the speed which she had 
 exerted. 
 
 "Now, marry, hang me up for a brute," said Henry to him- 
 self. " Was my own haste ever so great, could it give that 
 poor creature wings ? And she loaded with baggage tool I 
 am an ill-nurtured beast, that is certain, wherever women are 
 in question; and always sure to do wrong when I have the 
 best will to act right. Hark thee, damsel; let me carry these 
 things for thee. We shall make better speed that I do so." 
 
 Poor Louise would have objected, but her breath was too 
 much exhausted to express herself; and she permitted her 
 good-natured guardian to take her little basket, which, when 
 the dog beheld, he came straight before Henry, stood up, and 
 shook his fore-paws, whining gently, as if he too wanted to 
 be carried. 
 
 "Nay, then, I must needs lend thee a lift too," said the 
 smith, who saw the creature was tired. 
 
 "Tie, Chariot!" said Louise; "thou knowest I will carry 
 thee myself." 
 
 She endeavoured to take up the little spaniel, but it escaped 
 from her; and going to the other side of the smith, renewed 
 its supplication that he would take it up. 
 
 "Chariot's right," said the smith: "he knows best who is 
 ablest to bear him. This lets me know, my pretty one, that 
 you have not been always the bearer of your own mail : Char- 
 lot can tell tales." 
 
 So deadly a hue came across the poor glee-maiden's counte- 
 nance as Henry spoke, that he was obliged to support her, 
 lest she should have dropped to the ground. She recovered 
 again, however, hi an instant or two, and with a feeble voice 
 requested her guide would go on. 
 
 "Nay — nay," said Henry, as they began to move, "keep 
 Ijold of mj' cloak, or my arm, if it helps you forward better. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 169 
 
 A fair sight we are ; and had I but a rebeck or a guitar at my 
 back, and a jackanapes on my shoulder, we should seem as 
 joyous a brace of strollers as ever touched string at a castle 
 gate. 'Snails!" he ejaculated iuternally, "were any neigh- 
 bour to meet me with this little harlotry's basket at my back, 
 her dog under my arm, and herself hanging on my cloak, what 
 could they think but that I had turned mumper in good ear- 
 nest? I would not for the best harness I ever laid hammer on, 
 that any of our long-tongued neighbours met me in this guise; 
 it were a jest would last from St. Valentine's Day to next 
 Candlemas. " 
 
 Stirred by these thoughts, the smith, although at the risk 
 of making much longer a route which he wished to traverse as 
 swiftly as possible, took the most indirect and private course 
 which he could find, in order to avoid the maru streets, still 
 crowded with people, owing to the late scene of tumult and 
 agitation. But unhappily his policy availed him nothing; 
 for, in turning into an alley, he met a man with his cloak 
 mufHed around his face, from a desire like his own to pass 
 unobserved, though the slight insignificant figure, the spindle- 
 shanks, which showed themselves beneath the mantle, and the 
 small dull eye that blinked over its upper folds, announced the 
 pottingar as distinctly as if he had carried his sign in front of 
 his bonnet. His unexpected and most unwelcome presence 
 overwhelmed the smith with confusion. Eeady evasion was 
 not the property of his bold, blunt temper; and knowing this 
 man to be a curious observer, a malignant tale-bearer, and by 
 no means weU disposed to himseK in particular, no better hope 
 occurred to him than that the worshipful apothecary would 
 give him some pretext to sUence his testimony and secure his 
 discretion by twisting his neck round. 
 
 But, far from doing or saying anything which could warrant 
 such extremities, the pottingar, seeiug himseK so close upon 
 his stalwart townsman that recognition was inevitable, seemed 
 determined it should be as slight as possible; and without ap- 
 pearing to notice anything particular in the company or cir- 
 cumstances in which they met, he barely slid out these words 
 as he passed him, without even a glance towards his compan- 
 
170 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 ion after tte first instant of their meeting : " A merry holiday 
 to you once more, stout smith. What! thou art briaging 
 thy cousin, pretty Mistress Joan Letham, with her mail, from 
 the water-side — fresh from Dundee, I warrant? I heard she 
 was expected at the old cordwainer's." 
 
 As he spoke thus, he looked neither right not left, and ex- 
 changiag a " Save you !" with a salute of the same kind which 
 the smith rather muttered than uttered distinctly, he glided 
 forward on his way like a shadow. 
 
 " The foul fiend catch me, if I can swallow that pill, " said 
 Henry Smith, " how well soever it may be gilded. The knave 
 has a shrewd eye for a kirtle, and knows a wild duck from a 
 tame as well as e'er a man in Perth. He were the last in the 
 Fair City to take sour plums for pears, or my roundabout 
 cousin Joan for this piece of fantastic vanity. I fancy his 
 bearing was as much as to say, 'I wUl not see what you might 
 wish me bliud to' ; and he is right to do so, as he might easily 
 purchase himself a broken pate by meddling with my matters ; 
 and so he will be silent for his own sake. But whom have we 
 next? By St. Dunstan, the chattering, bragging, cowardly 
 knave, Oliver Proudfute!" 
 
 It was, indeed, the bold bonnet-maker whom they next en- 
 countered, who, with his cap on one side, and trolling the 
 ditty of 
 
 " Thou art over long at the pot, Tom, Tom," 
 
 gave plain intimation that he had made no dry meal. 
 
 " Ha! my joUy smith," he said, " have I caught thee in the 
 manner? What, can the true steel bend? Can Vulcan, as 
 the minstrel says, pay Venus back in her own coin? Paith, 
 thou wilt be a gay Valentine before the year's out, that begias 
 \vith the holiday so joUily." 
 
 "Hark ye, Oliver," said the displeased smith, "shut your 
 eyes and pass on, crony. And hark ye again, stir not yoxir 
 tongue about what concerns you not, as you value having an 
 entire tooth ia your head." 
 
 "I betray counsel? I bear tales, and that against my 
 brother martialist? I would not tell it even to my timber 
 Boldaal Why, I can be a wild gaUiard in a corner as well as 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 171 
 
 thou, man. And now I think on't, I •will go with thee some- 
 ■where, and we wiU have a rouse together, and thy Dalilah 
 shall give us a song. Ha! said I not well?" 
 
 " Excellently, " said Henry, longing the whole time to knock 
 his brother martialist down, but wisely taking a more peaceful 
 way to rid himself of the incumbrance of his presence — " ex- 
 cellently well! I may want thy help, too, for here are five or 
 six of the Douglasses before us : they will not fail to try to 
 take the weuch from a poor burgher like myself, so I will be 
 glad of the assistance of a tearer such as thou art." 
 
 "I thank ye — I thank ye," answered the bonnet-maker; 
 " but were I not better run and cause ring the common bell, and 
 get my great sword?" 
 
 " Ay — ay, run home as fast as you can, and say nothing of 
 what you have seen. " 
 
 "Who, I? Nay, fear me not. Pah! I scorn a tale-bear ei." 
 
 "Away with you, then. I hear the clash of armour." 
 
 This put life and mettle into the heels of the bonnet-maker, 
 who, turning his back on the supposed danger, set off at a 
 pace which the smith never doubted would speedily bring him 
 to his own house. 
 
 " Here is another chattering jay to deal with, " thought the 
 smith ; " but I have a hank over him too. The minstrels have 
 ■3^ fabliau of a daw with borrowed feathers — why, this Oliver 
 is the very bird, and, by St. Dunstan, if he lets his chattering 
 tongue run on at my expense, I wiU so pluck him as never 
 hawk plumed a partridge. And this he knows." 
 
 As these reflections thronged on his mind, he had nearly 
 reached the end of his journey ; and, with the glee-maiden still 
 hanging on his cloak, exhausted, partly with fear, partly with 
 fatigue, he at length arrived at the middle of the wynd, which 
 was honoured with his own habitation, and from which, in the 
 uncertainty that then attended the application of surnames, he 
 derived one of his own appellatives. Here, on ordinary days, 
 his furnace was seen to blaze, and four half -stripped knaves 
 stunned the neighbourhood with the clang of hammer and 
 stithy. But St. Valentine's holiday was an excuse for these 
 men of steel having shut the shop, and for the present being 
 
172 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 absent on tlieir own errands of devotion or pleasure. Tli« 
 house whicli adjoined to the smithy called Henry its owner; 
 and though it was small, and situated in a narrow street, yet, 
 as there was a large garden with fruit-trees behind it, it 
 constituted upon the whole a pleasant dwelling. The smith, 
 instead of knocking or calling, which would have di'awn 
 neighbours to doors and windows, drew out a pass-key of his 
 own fabrication, then a great and envied curiosity, and open- 
 ing the door of his house, introduced his companion into his 
 habitation. 
 
 The apartment which received Henry and the glee-maiden 
 was the kitchen, which served amongst those of the smith's 
 station for the family sitting-room, although one or two indi- 
 viduals, like Simon Glover, had an eating-room apart from that 
 in which their victuals were prepared. In the corner of this 
 apartment, which was arranged with an unusual attention to 
 cleanliness, sat an old woman, whose neatness of attire, and 
 the precision with which her scarlet plaid was drawn over her 
 head, so as to descend to her shoulders on each side, might 
 have indicated a higher rank than that of Luckie Shoolbred, 
 the smith's housekeeper. Yet such and no other was her 
 designation; and not having attended mass in the morniag, 
 she was quietly reposing herself by the side of the fire, her 
 beads, half told, hanging over her left arm ; her prayers, half 
 said, loitering upon her tongue ; her eyes, half closed, resign- 
 ing themselves to slumber, while she expected the return of 
 her foster-son, without being able to guess at what hour it was 
 likely to happen. She started up at the sound of his entrance, 
 and bent her eye upon his companion, at first with a look of 
 the atmost surprise, which gradually was exchanged for one 
 expressive of great displeasure. 
 
 "!N"ow the saints bless mine eyesight, Henry Smith!" she 
 exclaimed, very devoutly. 
 
 " Amen, with all my heart. Get some food ready presently, 
 good nurse, for I fear me this traveller hath dined but lightly." 
 
 " And again I pr^y that Our Lady would preserve my eye- 
 sight from the wicked delusions of Satan!" 
 
 " So be it, I teU. you, good woman. But what is the use 
 
THE PAIR MAID OP PERTH. 173 
 
 of all ttis pattering and prayering? Do you not hear me? or 
 will you not do as I bid you?" 
 
 " It must be himself , then, -whaffcever is of it! But, oh I it is 
 more like the foul fiend in his likeness, to have such a baggage 
 hanging upon his cloak. Oh, Harry Smith, men called you a 
 wild lad for less things ; but who would ever have thought that 
 Harry would have brought a light leman under the roof that 
 sheltered his worthy mother, and where his own nurse has 
 dwelt for thirty years?" 
 
 " Hold your peace, old woman, and be reasonable, " said the 
 smith. "This glee-woman is no leman of mine, nor of any 
 other person that I know of; but she is going off for Dundee 
 to-morrow by the boats, and we must give her quarters tiH 
 then." 
 
 " Quarters I" said the old woman. " You may give quarters 
 to such cattle if you like it yourself, Harry Wynd; but the 
 same house shall not quarter that trumpery quean and me, 
 and of that you may assure yourself. " 
 
 " Your mother is angry with me," said Louise, misconstruing 
 the connexion of the parties. " I wiU not remain to give her 
 any offence. If there is a stable or a cowhouse, an empty 
 stall win be bed enough for Chariot and me." 
 
 " Ay — ay, I am thinking it is the quarters you are best used 
 to," said Dame Shoolbred. 
 
 " Harkye, Nurse Shoolbred, " said the smith. " You know 
 I love you for your own sake and for my mother's ; but by St. 
 Dunstan, who was a saint of my own craft, I will have the 
 command of my own house ; and if you leave me without any 
 better reason but your own nonsensical suspicions, you must 
 think how you will have the door open to you when you re- 
 turn; for you shall have no help of mine, I promise you." 
 
 " Aweel, my bairn, and that will never make me risk the 
 honest name I have kept for sixty years. It was never your, 
 mother's custom, and it shall never be mine, to take up with 
 ranters, and jugglers, and singing women ; and I am not so far 
 to seek for a dwelling, that the same roof should cover me and 
 a tramping princess like that." 
 
 With this the refractory gouvernante began in gi?eat hurry to 
 
174 "VTAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 adjust her tartaa mantle for going abroad, by pull!ng it so f ai 
 forwards as to conceal tlie white linen cap, the edges of which 
 bordered her shrivelled but 'still fresh and healthful counte- 
 nance. This done, she seized upon, a staff, the trusty com- 
 panion of her journeys, and was fairly trudging towards the 
 door, when the smith stepped between her and the passage. 
 
 " Wait at least, old woman, till we have cleared scores. I 
 owe you for fee and bountith." 
 
 "An' that's e'en a dream of your own fool's head. What 
 fee or bountith am I to take from the son of your mother, that 
 fed, clad, and bielded me as if I had been a sister?" 
 
 " And well you repay it, nurse, leaving her only child at his 
 utmost need." 
 
 This seemed to strike the obstinate old woman with com- 
 punction. She stopped and looked at her master and the min- 
 strel alternately ; then shook her head, and seemed about to 
 resume her motion towards the door. 
 
 " I only receive this poor wanderer under my roof, " urged 
 the smith, "to save her from the prison and the scourge." 
 
 "And why should you save her?" said the inexorable Dame 
 Shoolbred. " I dare say she has deserved them both as well 
 as ever thief deserved a hempen collar. " 
 
 " Tor aught I know she may or she may not. But she cannot 
 deserve to be scourged to death, or imprisoned till she is 
 starved to death; and that is the lot of them that the Black 
 Douglas bears mal-talent against." 
 
 " And you are going to thraw the Black Douglas for the sake 
 of a glee-woman? This wUl be the worst of your feuds yet. 
 Oh, Henry Gow, there is as much iron in your head as in your 
 anvil!" 
 
 " I have sometimes thought this myself, Mistress Shoolbred; 
 but if I do get a cut or two on this new argument, I wondei 
 who is to cure them, if you run away from me like a scared 
 wild goose? Ay, and, moreover, who is to receive my 
 bonny bride, that I hope to bring lip the wynd one of these 
 days?" 
 
 "Ah, Harry — Harry," said the old woman, shaking her 
 head, "this is not the way to prepare an honest man's house 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 175 
 
 for a young bride : you should be guided by modesty and dis- 
 cretion, and not by chambering and wantonness. " 
 
 " I tell you again., this poor creature is nothing to me. I 
 wish her only to be safely taken care of; and I think the bold- 
 est Bordermaa in Perth will respect the bar of my door as 
 much as the gate of Carlisle Castle. I am going down to Sim 
 Glover's; I may stay there all night, for the Highland cub is 
 run back to the hUls, like a wolf -whelp as he is, and so there 
 is a bed to spare, and father Simon wiU make me welcome to 
 the use of it. You wHL remain with this poor creature, feed 
 her, and protect her during the night, and I will call on her 
 before day; and thou mayst go with her to the boat thyself 
 an thou wilt, and so thou wilt set the last eyes on her at the 
 same time I shall." 
 
 "There is some reason in that," said Dame Shoolbred; 
 " though why you should put your reputation in risk for a creat- 
 ure that would find a lodging for a sUver twopence and less 
 matter is a mystery to me." 
 
 " Trust me with that, old woman, and be kind to the girl." 
 
 " Kinder than she deserves, I warrant you ; and truly, though 
 I little like the company of such cattle, yet I think I am 
 less like to take harm from her than you — unless she be a 
 witch, indeed, which may well come to be the case, as the 
 devil is very powerful with all this wayfaring clanjamfray." 
 
 "No more a witch than I am a warlock," said the honest 
 smith : " a poor, broken-hearted thing, that, if she hath done 
 evil, has dreed a sore weird for it. Be kind to her. And 
 you, my musical damsel, I will call on you to-morrow morn- 
 ing, and carry you to the water-side. This old woman will 
 treat you kindly if you say nothing to her but what becomes 
 honest ears." 
 
 " The poor minstrel had listened to this dialogue without 
 understanding more than its general tendency ; for, though she 
 spoke English well, she had acquired the language iu Eng- 
 land itself ; and the Korthern dialect was then, as now, of a 
 broader and harsher character. She saw, however, that she 
 was to remain with the old lady, and meekly folding lier arms 
 on her bosom, bent her head. with humility. She next looked 
 
176 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 towards the smith with a strong expression of thankfulness, 
 then, raising her eyes to heaven, took his passive hand, and 
 seemed about to kiss the sinewy fingers in token of deep and 
 affectionate gr0,titude. But Dame Shoolbred did not give 
 license to the stranger's mode of expressing her feelings. She 
 thrust in between them, and pushing poor Louise aside, said, 
 " 1^0 — no, I'U have none of that work. Go into the chimney- 
 nook, mistress, and when Harry Smith's gone, if you must 
 have hands to kiss, you shall kiss mine as long as you like. 
 And you, Harry, away down to Sim Glover's, for if pretty 
 Mistress Catharine hears of the company you have brought 
 home, she may chance to like them as little as I do. What's 
 the matter now? is the man demented? are you going out 
 without your buckler, and the whole town in misrule?" 
 
 " You are right, dame, " said the armourer ; and, throwing 
 the buckler over his broad shoulders, he departed from his 
 house without abiding farther question. 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 How in the noon of niglit that pibroch thrills. 
 Savage and shrill ! But with the breath which fills 
 Their mountain pipe, so fill the mountaineers 
 With the fierce native daring which instils 
 The stirring memory of a thousand years. 
 
 Bybob. 
 
 We must now leave the lower parties in our historical 
 drama, to attend to the incidents which took place among 
 those of a higher rank and greater importance. 
 
 We pass from the hut of an armourer to the council-room 
 of a monarch, and resume our story just when, the tumult 
 beneath being settled, the angry chieftains were summoned to 
 the royal presence. They entered, displeased with and lower- 
 ing upon each other, each so exclusively filled with his own 
 fancied injuries as to be equally unwilling and unable to at- 
 tend to reason or argument. Albany alone, calm and crafty, 
 seemed prepared to use their dissatisfaction for his own pur- 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 177 
 
 poses, and turn each incident as it should occur to the further- 
 ance of his own indirect ends. 
 
 The King's irresolution, although it amounted even to timid- 
 ity, did not prevent his assuming the exterior hearing becoming 
 his situation. It was only when hard pressed, as in the pre- 
 ceding scene, that he lost his apparent composure. In gen- 
 eral, he might be driven from his purpose, but seldom from his 
 dignity of manner. He received Albany, Douglas, March, 
 and the prior, those ill-assorted members of his motley coun- 
 cil, with a mixture of courtesy and loftiness, which reminded 
 each haughty peer that he stood in the presence of his sov- 
 ereign, and compelled him to do the beseeming reverence. 
 
 Having received their salutations, the King motioned them 
 to be seated; and they were obeying his commands when Eoth- 
 say entered. He walked gracefully up to his father, and, 
 kneeling at his footstool, requested his blessing. Eobert, 
 with an aspect in which fondness and sorrow were ill dis- 
 guised, made an attempt to assume a look of reproof, as he 
 laid his hand on the youth's head and said, with a sigh, " God 
 bless thee, my thoughtless boy, and make thee a wiser man in 
 thy future years !" 
 
 "Amen, my dearest father!" said Bothsay, in a tone of 
 feeling such as his happier moments often evinced. He then 
 kissed the royal hand, with the reverence of a son and a sub- 
 ject; and, instead of taking a place at the council board, re- 
 mained standing behind the King's chair, in such a position 
 that he might, when he chose, whisper into his father's ear. 
 
 The King next made a sign to the prior of St. Dominic to 
 taie his place at the table, on which there were writing-mate- 
 rials, which, of all the subjects present, Albany excepted, the 
 chuichman was alone able to use." The King then opened 
 the purpose of their meeting by saying, with much dignity: 
 
 " Our business, my lords, respected these unhappy dissen- 
 sions in the Highlands, which, we learn by our latest messen- 
 gers, are about to occasion the waste and destruction of the 
 country, even within a few mUes of this our own court. But, 
 near as this trouble is, our ill-fate, and the instigations of 
 
 ' See Eothsay's Character. Note 29. 
 12 
 
178 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 wicked men, have raised up one yet nearer, by throwing strife 
 and contention among the citizens of Perth and those attend- 
 ants who follow your lordships and others our knights and 
 nobles. I must first, therefore, apply to yourselves, my lords, 
 to know why our court is disturbed by such imseemly con- 
 tendings, and by what means they ought to be repressed? 
 Brother of Albany, do you tell us first your sentiments on this 
 matter." 
 
 "Sir, our royal sovereign and brother," said the Duke, 
 " being in attendance on your Grace's person when the fray 
 began, I am not acquainted with its origin." 
 
 "And for me," said the Prince, "I heard no worse wax-cry 
 than a minstrel wench's ballad, and saw no more dangerous 
 bolts flying than hazel nuts." 
 
 "And I," said the Earl of March, "could only perceive 
 that the stout citizens of Perth had in chase some faiaves who 
 had assumed the Bloody Heart on their shoulders. They ran 
 too fast to be actually the men of the Earl of Douglas." 
 
 Douglas understood the sneer, but only replied to it by 
 one of those withering looks with which he was accustomed to 
 intimate his mortal resentment. He spoke, however, with 
 haughty composure. 
 
 "My liege," he said, "must of course know it is Douglas 
 who must answer to this heavy charge ; for when was there 
 strife or bloodshed in Scotland, but there were foul tongues 
 to asperse a Douglas or a Douglas's man as having given 
 cause to them? We have here goodly witnesses. I speak not 
 of my Lord of Albany, who has only said that he was, as well 
 becomes him, by your Grace's side. And I say nothing of 
 my Lord of Eothsay, who, as befits his rank, years, and 
 tmderstanding, was cracking nuts with a strolling musician. 
 He smiles. Here he may say his pleasure ; I shall not forget 
 a tie which he seems to have forgotten. But here is my 
 Lord of March, who saw my followers flying before the clowns 
 of Perth. I can tell that earl that the followers of the Bloody 
 Heart advance or retreat when their chieftain commands and 
 the good of Scotland requires." 
 
 "And I can answer " exclaimed the equally proud Earl 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PEETH. 179 
 
 of Marcli, his blood rushing into his face, when the King in- 
 terrupted him. 
 
 "Peace! angry lords," said the King, "and rememher in 
 whose presence you stand. And you, my Lord of Douglas, 
 tell us, if you can, the cause of this mutiny, and why your 
 followers, whose general good services we are most willing to 
 acknowledge, were thus active in private brawl." 
 
 "I obey, my lord," said Douglas, slightly stooping a head 
 that seldom bent. " I was passing from my lodgings in the 
 Carthusian convent, through the High Street of Perth, with 
 a few of my ordinary retinue, when I beheld some of the 
 baser sort of citizens crowding around the Cross, against 
 which there was nailed this placard, and that which accom- 
 panies it. " 
 
 He took from a pocket in the bosom of his buff-coat a hu- 
 man hand and a piece of parchment. The King was shocked 
 and agitated. 
 
 "Eead," he said, "good father prior, and let that ghastly 
 spectacle be removed." 
 
 The prior read a placard to the following purpose : 
 
 " Inasmuch as the house of a citizen of Perth was assaulted 
 last night, being St. Valentine's Eve, by a sort of disorderly 
 night-walkers, belonging to some company of the strangers 
 now resident in the Fair City ; and whereas this hand was 
 struck from one of the lawless limmers in the fray that ensued, 
 the provost and magistrates have directed that it should be 
 nailed to the Cross, in scorn and contempt of those by whom 
 such brawl was occasioned. And if any one of knightly de- 
 gree shall say that this our act is wrongfully done, I, Patrick 
 Charteris of Kinfauns, knight, will justify this cartel in 
 knightly weapons, within the barraee; or, if any one of 
 meaner birth shall deny what is here said, he shall be met 
 with by a citizen of the Fair City of Perth, according to his 
 degree. And bo God and St. John protect the Pair City!" 
 
 "You will not wonder, my lord," resumed Douglas, "that, 
 when my almoner had read to me the contents of so insolent a 
 scroll, I caused one of my squires to pluck down a trophy so 
 disgraceful to the chivalry and nobility of Scotland. Where- 
 
180 WAVBRLBY NOVELS. 
 
 upon, it seems some of these saucy burghers took license to' 
 hoot and insult the hindmost of my train, who wheeled their 
 horses on them, and would soon have settled the feud, but for 
 my positive command that they should follow me in as much 
 peace as the rascally vulgar would permit. And thus they 
 arrived here in the guise of flying men, when, with my com- 
 mand to repel force by force, they might have set fire to the 
 four corners of this wretched borough, and stifled the insolent 
 churls, like malicious fox-cubs in a burning brake of furze." 
 
 There was a silence when Douglas had done speaking, until 
 the Duke of Eothsay answered, addressing his father : 
 
 " Since the Earl of Douglas possesses the power of burning 
 the town where your Grace holds your court, so soon as the 
 provost and he diEEer about a night riot, or the terms of a car- 
 tel, I am sure we ought all to be thankful that he has not the 
 will to do so." 
 
 " The Duke of Kothsay," said Douglas, who seemed resolved 
 to maintain command of his temper, "may have reason to 
 thank Heaven in a more serious tone than he now uses that 
 the Douglas is as true as he is powerful. This is a time when 
 the subjects in all countries rise against the law: we have 
 heard of the insurgents of the Jacquerie in Trance ; and of Jack 
 Straw, and Hob MiUer, and Parson BaU, among the South- 
 ron ; and we may be sure there is fuel enough to catch such 
 a flame, were it spreading to our frontiers. When I see 
 peasants challenging noblemen, and nailing the hands of the 
 gentry to their city cross, I will not say \fear mutiny — for 
 that would be false — ^but I foresee, and will stand well prepared 
 for, it." 
 
 "And why does my Lord Douglas say," answered the Earl 
 of March, "that this cartel has been done by churls? I see 
 Sir Patrick Charteris's name there, and he, I ween, is of no 
 churl's blood. The Douglas himself, since he takes the mat- 
 ter so warmly, might lift Sir Patrick's gauntlet without soil- 
 ing of his honour." 
 
 "My Lord of March," replied Douglas, "should speak but 
 of what he understands. I do no injustice to the descendant 
 of the Eed Bover, when I say he is too slight to be weighed 
 
THE PAIR MAID OP PERTH. iSl 
 
 with the Douglas. The heir of Thomas Eaadolph might hare 
 a better claim to his answer." 
 
 " And, by my honour, it shall not miss for want of my 
 asking the grace," said the Earl of March, pulling his 
 glove off. 
 
 " Stay, my lord, " said the King. " Do us not so gross aa 
 injury as to bring your feud to mortal defiance here ; but rath- 
 er offer your ungloved hand in kindness to the noble earl, 
 and embrace in token of your mutual fealty to the crown of 
 Scotland." 
 
 "Not so, myUege," answered March; "your Majesty may 
 command me to return my gauntlet, for that and all the ar- 
 mour it belongs to are at your command, whUe I contiaue to 
 hold my earldom of the crown of Scotland; but when I clasp 
 Douglas, it must be with a mailed hand. Farewell, my liege. 
 My counsels here avail not, nay, are so unfavourably received, 
 that perhaps farther stay were unwholesome for my safety. 
 May God keep your Highness from open enemies and treacher- 
 ous friends! I am for my castle of Dunbar, from whence 
 I think you will soon hear news. Farewell to you, my Lords 
 of Albany and Douglas ; you are playing a high game, look 
 you play it fairly. Farewell, poor thoughtless prince, who 
 art sporting like a fawn within spring of a tiger ! Farewell, 
 all — George of Dunbar sees the evil he cannot remedy. 
 Adieu, all." 
 
 The King would have spoken, but the accents died on his 
 tongue, as he received from Albany a look cautioning him to 
 forbear. The Earl of March left the apartment, receiving 
 the mute sanitations of the members of the council whom he 
 had severally addressed, excepting from Douglas alone, who 
 returned to his farewell speech a glance of contemptuous 
 defiance. 
 
 " The recreant goes to betray us to the Southron," he said; 
 " his pride rests on his possessing that sea- worn hold ' which 
 can admit the English into Lothian. Nay, look not alarmed, 
 my liege, I will hold good what I say. Nevertheless, it is yet 
 time. Speak but the word, my liege — say but 'Arrest him,' 
 ' The castle of Dunbar. 
 
182 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 and Maxch shall not yet cross tlie Earn on his traitoroiia 
 journey." 
 
 "Kay, gallant earl," said Albany, -who wislied rather that 
 the two powerful lords should counterbalance each other than 
 that one should obtain a decisive superiority, " that were too 
 hasty counsel. The Earl of March came hither on the King's 
 warrant of safe-conduct, and it may not consist with my royal 
 brother's honour to break it. Yet, i£ your lordship can bring 
 any detailed proof " 
 
 Here they were interrupted by a flourish of trumpets. 
 
 "His Grace of Albany is unwontedly scrupulous to-day," 
 said Douglas ; " but it skills not wasting words — the time is 
 past — these are March's trumpets, and I warrant me he 
 rides at flight-speed so soon as he passes the South Port. We 
 shall hear of him in time; and if it be as I have conjectured, 
 he shall be met with though all England backed his treachery." 
 
 "Kay, let us hope better of the noble earl," said the King, 
 no way displeased that the quarrel betwixt March and Douglas 
 had seemed to obliterate the traces of the disagreement betwixt 
 Eothsay and his father-in-law ; " he hath a fiery, but not a 
 sullen, temper. In some things he has been — I wUl not say 
 wronged, but disappointed — and something is to be allowed to 
 the resentment of high blood armed with great power. But, 
 thank Heaven, all of ua who remain are of one sentiment, 
 and, I may say, of one house ; so that, at least, our councils 
 cannot now bo thwarted with disunion. Father prior, I pray 
 you take your writing-materials, for you must as usual be our 
 clerk of council. And now to business, my lords ; and our 
 first object of consideration must be this Highland cumber." 
 
 " Between the Clan Chattan and the Clan Quhele, " said the 
 prior, "which, as our last advices from our brethren at 
 Dunkeld inform us, is ready to break out into a more formi- 
 dable warfare than has yet taken place between these sons of 
 Belial, who speak of nothing else than of utterly destroying 
 one another. Their forces are assembling on each side, and 
 not a man claiming in the tenth degree of kindred but must 
 repair to the brattach ' of his tribe, or stand to the punish- 
 > See Note 30. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 183 
 
 ment of fire and sword. Tlie fiery cross hath flitted about 
 jike a meteor in every direction, and awakened strange and 
 unknown tribes beyond the distant Moray Tirth — may Heaven 
 and St. Dominic be our protection! But if your lordships 
 cannot find remedy for evil, it will spread broad and wide, 
 and the patrimony of the church must in every direction be 
 exposed .to the fury of these Amalekites, with whom there is 
 as little devotion to Heaven as there is pity or love to their 
 neighbour' — may Our Lady be our guard! We hear some of 
 them are yet utter heathens, and worship Mahound and Ter- 
 magaunt." 
 
 "My lords and kinsmen," said Kobert, "ye have heard the 
 urgency of this ease, and may desire to know my sentiments 
 before you deliver what your own wisdom shall suggest. 
 And, in sooth, no better remedy occurs to me than to send 
 two commissioners, with full power from us to settle such de- 
 bates as be among them, and at the same time to charge them, 
 as they shall be answerable to the law, to lay down their arms, 
 and forbear all practices of violence against each other." 
 
 "I approve of your Grace's proposal," said Eothsay; "and 
 I trust the good prior wDl not refuse the venerable station of 
 envoy upon this peacemaking errand. And his reverend 
 brother, the abbot of the Carthusian convent, must contend 
 for an honour which will certainly add two most eminent re- 
 cruits to the large army of martyrs, since the Highlanders 
 little regard the distinction betwixt clerk and layman in the 
 ambassadors whom you send to them." 
 
 "My royal Lord of Eothsay," said the prior, "if I am des- 
 tined to the blessed crown of martyrdom, I shall be doubtless 
 directed to the path by which I am to attain it. Meantime, 
 if you speak in jest, may Heaven pardon you, and give you 
 light to perceive that it were better buckle on your arms to 
 guard the possessions of the church, so perilously endangered, 
 than to employ your wit in taunting her ministers and ser- 
 vants." 
 
 "I taunt no one, father prior," said the youth, yawning; 
 "nor have I much objection to taking arms, excepting, that 
 they are a somewhat cumbrous garb, and in February a furred 
 
184 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 mantle is more suiting to the weather than a steel corslet. 
 And it irks me the more to put on cold harness in this nipping 
 ■weather, that, would but the church send a detachment of 
 their saints — and they have some Highland ones well known 
 in this district, and doubtless used to the climate — they might 
 fight their own battles, like merry St. George of England 
 But I know not how it is, we hear of their miracles wher, 
 they are propitiated, and of their vengeance if any one tres- 
 passes on their patrimonies, and these are urged as reasons 
 for extending their lands by large largesses ; and yet, if there 
 come down but a band of twenty Highlanders, bell, book, and 
 candle make no speed, and the belted baron must be fain to 
 maintain the church in possession of the lands which he has 
 given to her, as much as if he himself still enjoyed the frujts 
 of them." 
 
 " Son David, " said the King, " you give an undue license to 
 your tongue." 
 
 "Nay, sir, I am mute," replied the Prince. "I had no 
 purpose to disturb your Higjmess, or displease the father 
 prior, who, with so many miracles at his disposal, wiU not 
 face, as it seems, a handful of Highland caterans." 
 
 " We know, " said the prior, with suppressed indignation, 
 " from what source these vile doctrines are derived, which we 
 hear with horror from the tongue that now utters them. 
 When princes converse with heretics, their minds and manners 
 are alike corrupted. They show themselves in the streets as 
 the companions of maskers and harlots, and in the council as 
 the scorners of the church and of holy things." 
 
 "Peace, good father!" said the King. "Eothsay shall 
 make amends for what he has idly spoken. Alas! let us take 
 counsel in friendly fashion, rather than resemble a mutinous 
 crew of mariners in a sinking vessel, when each is more intent 
 on quarrelling with his neighbours than in assisting the exer- 
 tions of the forlorn master for the safety of the ship. My 
 Lord of Douglas, your house has been seldom to lack when 
 the crown of Scotland desired either wise counsel or manly 
 achievement; I trust you will help us in this strait." 
 
 " I can only wonder that the strait should exist, my lord," 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 185 
 
 answered the haughty Douglas. " When I was entrusted with 
 the lieutenancy of the kingdom, there were some of these wild 
 clans came down from the G-rampians. I troubled not the 
 council ahout the matter, but made the sheriff, Lord Ruthven, 
 get to horse with the forces of the Carse — the Hays, the Lind- 
 says, the OgHvies, and other gentlemen. By St. Bride ! when 
 it was steel coat to frieze mantle, the thieves knew what lances 
 were good for, and whether swords had edges or no. There 
 were some three hundred of their best bonnets, besides that 
 of their chief, Donald Cormac,' left on the moor of Thora 
 and in Eochinroy Wood; and as many were gibbeted at Hough- 
 manstares," which has still the name from the hangman 
 work that was done there. This is the way men deal with 
 thieves in my country; and if gentler methods will succeed 
 better with these Earish knaves, do not blame Douglas for 
 speaking his mind. You smile, my Lord of Eothsay. May 
 I ask how I have a second time become your jest, before I 
 have replied to the first which you passed on me?" 
 
 "ISTay, be not wrathful, my good Lord of Douglas, "answered 
 the Prince ; " I did but smile to think how your princely ret- 
 inue would dwindle if every thief were dealt with as the poor 
 Highlanders at Houghmanstares. " 
 
 The King again interfered, to prevent the Earl from giving 
 an angry reply. " Your lordship, " said he to Douglas, " ad- 
 vises wisely that we should trust to arms when these men 
 come out against our subjects on the fair and level plan; but 
 the difficulty is to put a stop to their disorders while they 
 continue to lurk within their mountains. I need not tell you 
 that the Clan Chattan and the Clan Quhele are great confede- 
 racies, consisting each of various tribes, who are banded to- 
 gether, each to support their own separate league, and who o£ 
 late have had dissensions which have drawn blood wherever 
 they have met, whether individually or in bands. The whole 
 country is torn to pieces by their restless feuds. " 
 
 "I cannot see the evil of this," said the Douglas: "the 
 toffians will destroy each other, and the deer of the High- 
 
 > Some authoriaes place this skirmish so late as 1443, 
 
 »SeeNote(^l 
 
186 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 lands will increase as the men diminisli. We shall gain as 
 hunters the exercise we lose as warriors." 
 
 " Eather say that the wolves will increase as the men dimin- 
 ish," replied the King. 
 
 " I am content, " said Douglas : " better wild wolves than 
 wild caterans. Let there be strong forces maintained along 
 the Earish frontier, to separate the quiet from the disturbed 
 country. Confine the fire of civil war within the Highlands ; 
 let it spend its uncontrolled fury, and it will be soon burnt out 
 for want of fuel. The survivors will be humbled, and wiU. 
 be more obedient to a whisper of your Grace's pleasure than 
 their fathers, or the knaves that now exist, have been to your 
 strictest commands." 
 
 " This is wise but ungodly counsel, " said the prior, shaking 
 his head ; " I cannot take it upon my conscience to recommend 
 it. It is wisdom, but it is the wisdom of Achitophel, crafty 
 at once and cruel." 
 
 " My heart tells me so, " said the King, laying his hand on 
 his breast — " my heart teUs me that it wOl be asked of me at 
 the awful day, 'Eobert Stuart, where are the subjects I have 
 given thee?' it tells me that I must account for them aU, 
 Saxon and Gael, Lowland, Highland, and Border man; that 
 I win not be required to answer for those alone who have 
 wealth and knowledge, but for those also who were robbers be- 
 cause they were poor, and rebels because they were ignorant." 
 
 "Your Highness speaks like a Christian king," said the 
 prior; "but you bear the sword as well as the sceptre, and 
 this present evil is of a kind which the sword must cure." 
 
 "Hark ye, my lords," said the Prince, looking up as if a 
 gay thought had suddenly struck him. " Suppose we teach 
 these savage mountaineers a strata of chivalry? It were no 
 hard matter to bring these two great commanders, the captain 
 of the Clan Chattan and the chief of the no less doughty race 
 of the Clan Quhele, to defy each other to mortal combat. 
 They might fight here in Perth— we would lend them horse 
 and armour ; thus their feud would be stanched by the death 
 of one, or probably both, of the villains, for 1 think both 
 would break their necks in the first charge; my father's godly 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 187 
 
 desire of saving blood would be attained; and we Bbould have 
 the pleasure of seeing sucb a combat between two salvage 
 knights, for the first time in their lives wearing breeches and 
 mounted on horses, as has not been heard of since the days of 
 King Arthur." 
 
 " Shame upon you, David!" said the King. " Do you make 
 the distress of youx native country, and the perplexity of our 
 councils, a subject for buffoonery?" 
 
 "If you will pardon me, royal brother," said Albany, 
 "I think that, though, my princely nephew hath started 
 this thought in a jocular manner, there may be somethiug 
 wrought out of it, which might greatlv remedy this pressing 
 evil." 
 
 " Good brother," replied the King, "it is unkind to expose 
 Eothsay's foUy by pressing further his iU-timed jest. We 
 know the Highland clans have not our customs of chivalry, 
 nor the habit or mode of doing battle which these require." 
 
 " True, your Grace," answered Albany; "yet I speak not in 
 scorn, but in serious earnest. True, the mountaineers have 
 not our forms and mode of doing battle in the lists, but they 
 have those which are as effectual to the destruction of human 
 life : and so that the mortal game is played, and the stake won 
 and lost, what signifies it whether these Gael fight with sword 
 and lance, as becomes belted knights, or with sand-bags, like 
 the crestless churls of England, or butcher each other with 
 knives and skenes, in their own barbarous fashion? Their 
 habits, like our own, refer all disputed rights and claims to 
 the decision of battle. They are as vain, too, as they are 
 fierce ; and the idea that these two clans would be admitted to 
 combat in presence of your Grace and of your court will readily 
 induce them to refer their difference to the fate of battle, even 
 were such rough arbitrement less familiar to their customs, 
 and that in any such numbers as shall be thought most con- 
 venient. We must take care that they approach not the 
 court, save in such a fashion and number that they shall not 
 be able to surprise us ; and that point being provided against, 
 the more that shall be admitted to combat upon either side, 
 the greater will be the slaughter among their bravest and most 
 
188 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 stiiring men, and tlie more the chance of the Highlands being 
 quiet for some time to come." 
 
 " This were a hloody policy, brother," said the King; "and 
 again I say, that I cannot bring my conscience to countenance 
 the slaughter of these rude men, that are so little better than 
 so many benighted heathens." 
 
 "And are their lives more precious," asked Albany, "than 
 those of nobles and gentlemen who by your Grace's license 
 are so frequently admitted to fight in barraee, . either 
 for the satisfying of disputes at law or Bimply to acquire 
 honour?" 
 
 The King, thus hard pressed, had little to say against a 
 custom so engrafted upon the laws of the realm and the usages 
 of chivalrj as the trial by combat; and he only replied: " God 
 knows, I have never granted such license as you urge me with 
 unless with the greatest repugnance ; and that I never saw men 
 have strife together to the effusion of blood, but I could have 
 wished to appease it with the shedding of my own." 
 
 " But, my gracious lord," said the prior, " it seems that, if 
 we follow not some such policy as this of my Lord of Albany, 
 we must have recourse to that of the Douglas ; and, at the 
 risk of the dubious event of battle, and with the certainty of 
 losing many excellent subjects, do, by means of the Lowland 
 swords, that which these wild mountaineers will otherwise 
 perform with their own hand. What says my Lord of Doug- 
 las to the policy of his Grace of Albany?" 
 
 " Douglas, " said the haughty lord, " never counselled that 
 to be done by policy which might be attained by open force. 
 He remaius by his opinion, and is wUling to march at the 
 head of his own followers, with those of the barons of Perth- 
 shire and the Carse, and either bring these Highlanders to 
 reason or subjection, or leave the body of a Douglas among 
 their savage wildernesses." 
 
 "It is nobly spoken, my Lord of Douglas," said Albany; 
 " and well might the King rely upon thy undaunted heart and 
 the courage of thy resolute followers. But see you not how 
 soon you may be called elsewhere, where your presence and 
 services are altogether indispensable to Scotland and her moH* 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 189 
 
 arch? Marked you not the gloomy tone in which tiie fiery 
 March limited his allegiance and faith to our sovereign here 
 present to that space for which he was to remain King Eob- 
 ert's vassal? And did not you yourself suspect that he was 
 plotting a transference of his allegiance to England? Other 
 chiefs, of subordinate power and inferior fame, may do battle 
 with the Highlanders ; but if Dunbar admit the Percies and 
 their Englishmen into our frontiers, who will drive them back 
 if the Douglas be elsewhere?" ' 
 
 " My sword, " answered Douglas, " is equally at the service 
 of his Majesty on the frontier or in the deepest recesses of the 
 Highlands. I have seen the backs of the proud Percy and 
 George of Dunbar ere now, and I may see them again. And, 
 if it is the King's pleasure I should take measures against this 
 probable conjunction of stranger and traitor, I admit that, 
 rather than trust to an inferior or feebler hand the important 
 task of settling the Highlands, I would be disposed to give 
 my opinion in favour of the policy of my Lord of Albany, and 
 suffer those savages to carve each other's limbs, without 
 giving barons and knights the trouble of hunting them 
 down." 
 
 " My Lord of Douglas," said the Prince, who seemed deter- 
 mined to omit no opportunity to gall his haughty i father-in- 
 law, " does not choose to leave to us Lowlanders even the poor 
 crumbs of honour which might be gathered at the expense of 
 the Highland kerne, while he, with his Border chivalry, reaps 
 the full harvest of victory over the English. But Percy hath 
 seen men's backs as well as Douglas ; and I have known as 
 great wonders as that he who goes forth to seek such wool 
 should come back shorn." 
 
 "A phrase," said Douglas, "well becoming a prince whc 
 speaks of honour with a wandering harlot's scrip in his bon- 
 net, by way of favor." 
 
 "Excuse it, my lord," said Eothsay: "men who have 
 matched unfittingly become careless in the choice of those 
 whom they love ;par amours. The chained dog must snatch 
 at the nearest bone." 
 
 •'Eothsay, my unhappy son J" exclaimed the King, "art 
 
190 "WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 thou mad? or wojjldst thou draw down on thee the full storm 
 of a king and father's displeasure?" 
 
 "I am dumb," returned the Prince, "at your Grace's com- 
 mand." 
 
 "WeU, then, my Lord of Albany," said the King, "since 
 such is your advice, and since Scottish blood must flow, how, 
 I pray you, are we to prevail on these fierce men to refer their 
 quarrel to such a combat as you propose?" 
 
 " That, my liege, " said Albany, " must be the result of more 
 mature deliberation. But the task will not be difficult. Gold 
 will be needful to bribe some of the bards and principal coun- 
 sellors and spokesmen. The chiefs, moreover, of both these 
 leagues must be made to understand that, unless they agi'ee to 
 this amicable settlement — — ■" 
 
 "Amicable, brother!" said the King, with emphasis. 
 
 "Ay, amicable, my liege," replied his brother, "since it is 
 better the country were placed in peace, at the expense of los- 
 ing a score or two of Highland kernes, than remain at war till 
 as many thousands are destroyed by sword, fire, famine, and 
 all the extremities of mountain battle. To return to the pur- 
 pose : I think that the first party to whom the accommodation 
 is proposed wUl snatch at it eagerly ; that the other will be 
 ashamed to reject an offer to rest the cause on the swords of 
 their bravest men ; that the national vanity, and factious hate 
 to each other, will prevent them from seeing our purpose in 
 adopting such a rule of decision ; and that they will be more 
 eager to cut each other to pieces than we can be to halloo them 
 on. And now, as our counsels are finished, so far as I can 
 aid, I will withdraw." 
 
 " Stay yet a moment, " said the prior, "for I also have a 
 grief to disclose, of a nature so black and horrible, that your 
 Grace's pious heart wDl hardly credit its existence; and I 
 state it mournfully, because, as certaiu as that I am an un- 
 worthy servant of St. Domiuic, it is the cause of the displeas- 
 ure of Heaven against this poor country, by which our victories 
 are turned into defeat, our gladness into mourning, our coun- 
 cils distracted with disunion, and our country devoured by 
 civil war." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 191 
 
 "Speak, reverend prior," said tlie King; "assuredly, if the 
 cause of such evils be iu me or in my house, I will take instant 
 care to their removal." 
 
 He uttered these words with a faltering voice, and eagerly 
 waited for the prior's reply, in the dread, no doubt, that it 
 might implicate Kothsay in some new charge of folly or vice. 
 His apprehensions perhaps deceived him, when he thought he 
 saw the churchman's eye rest for a moment on the Prince, 
 before he said, in a solemn tone, " Heresy, my noble and gra- 
 cious liege — heresy is among us. She snatches soul after soul 
 from the congregation, as wolves steal lambs from the sheep- 
 fold." 
 
 "There are enough of shepherds to watch the fold," an- 
 swered the Duke of Eothsay. ''Here are four convents of 
 regular monks alone around this poor hamlet of Perth, and all 
 the secular clergy besides. Methinks a town so well garrisoned 
 should be fit to keep out an enemy." 
 
 " One traitor in a garrison, my lord, " answered the prior, 
 "can do much to destroy the security of a city which is 
 guarded by legions; and if that one traitor is, either from 
 levity, or love of novelty, or whatever other motive, protected 
 and fostered by those who should be most eager to expel him 
 from the fortress, his opportunities of working mischief will 
 be incalculably increased." 
 
 " Your words seem to aim at some one in this presence, 
 father prior," said the Douglas; "if at me, they do me foul 
 wrong. I am well aware that the abbot of Aberbrothock hath 
 made some ill-advised complaints, that I suffered not his 
 beeves to become too many for his pastures, or his stock of 
 grain to burst the girnels of the monastery, while my follow- 
 ers lacked beef and their horses corn. But bethink you, the 
 pastures and corniields which produced that plenty were be- 
 stowed by my ancestors on the house of Aberbrothock, surely 
 not with the purpose that their descendant should starve in 
 the midst of it ; and neither will he, by St. Bride ! But for 
 heresy and false doctrine, " he added, striking his large hand 
 heavily on the council-table, "who is it that dare tax the 
 Douglas? I would not have poor men burned for silly 
 
192 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 thouglits ; but my hand and sword are ever ready to maintain 
 the Christian faith." 
 
 "My lordj I doubt it not," said the prior; "so hath it ever 
 been with your most noble house. For the abbot's complaints, 
 they may pass to a second day. But what we now desire is a 
 commission to some noble lord of state, joined to others of 
 Holy Church, to support by strength of hand, if necessary, 
 the inquiries which the reverend official of the bounds, and 
 other grave prelates, my unworthy self being one, are about 
 to make into the cause of the new doctrines, which are now 
 deluding the simple, and depraving the pure and precious 
 faith, approved by the Holy Father and his reverend prede- 
 cessors." 
 
 " Let the Earl of Douglas have a royal commission to this 
 effect," said Albany; "and let there be no exception whatever 
 from his jurisdiction, saving the royal person. For my own 
 part, although conscious that I have neither in act nor thought 
 received or encouraged a doctrine which Holy Church hath not 
 sanctioned, yet I should blush to claim an immunity under 
 the blood royal of Scotland, lest I should seem to be seeking 
 refuge against a crime so horrible." 
 
 " I will have nought to do with it, " said Douglas : " to march 
 against the English, and the Southron traitor March, is task 
 enough for me. Moreover, I am a true Scotsman, and will 
 not give way to aught that may put the Church of Scotland's 
 head farther into the Eoman yoke, or make the baron's coronet 
 stoop to the mitre and cowl. Do you, therefore, most noble 
 Duke of Albany, place your own name in the commission; and 
 I pray your Grace so to mitigate the zeal of the men of Holy 
 Church who may be associated with you, that there be no over- 
 zealous dealings ; for the smell of a fagot on the Tay would 
 bring back the Douglas from the walls of York. " 
 
 The Duke hastened to give the Earl assurance that the 
 commission should be exercised with lenity and moderation, 
 
 " Without a question, " said King Eobert, " the commission 
 must be ample ; and did it consist with the dignity of our 
 crown, we would not ourselves decline its jurisdiction. But 
 we trust that, while the thunders of the church are directed 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 193 
 
 against tlie vile authors of these detestable heresies, there 
 shall be measures of mildness and compassion taken with the 
 unfortunate victims of their delusions." 
 
 " Such is ever the course of Holy Church, my lord," said the 
 prior of St. Dominic's. 
 
 "Why, then, let the commission be expedited with due 
 care, in name of our brother Albany, and such others as shall 
 be deemed convenient, " said the King. " And now once again 
 let us break up our council ; and, Eothsay, come thou with me, 
 and lend me thine arm; I have matter for thy private ear." 
 
 "Ho, la!" here exclaimed the Prince, in the tone in which 
 he would have addressed a managed horse. 
 
 "What means this rudeness, boy?" said the King; "wilt 
 thou never learn reason and courtesy?" 
 
 "Let me not be thought to offend, my liege," said the 
 Prince ; " but we are parting without learning what is to be 
 done in the passing strange adventure of the dead hand, which 
 the Douglas hath so gallantly taken up. We shall sit but un- 
 comfortably here at Perth, if we are at variance with the 
 citizens." 
 
 " Leave that to me, " said Albany. " With some little grant 
 of lands and money, and plenty of fair words, the burghers 
 may be satisfied for this time ; but it were well that the barons 
 and their followers, who are in attendance on the court, were 
 warned to respect the peace within burgh." 
 
 "Surely, we would have it so," said the King; "let strict 
 orders be given accordingly." 
 
 " It is doing the churls but too much grace, " said the Dougf- 
 las ; " but be it at your Highness's pleasure. I take leave to 
 retire." 
 
 " Kot before you taste a flagon of Gascon wine, my lord?" 
 said the King. 
 
 " Pardon, " replied the Earl, " I am not athirst, and I drink 
 not for fashion, but either for need or for friendship." So 
 saying, he departed. 
 
 The King, as if relieved by his absence, turned to Albany, 
 and said : " And now, my lord, we should chide this truant 
 Eothsay of ours ; yet |ie hath served us go well at council, 
 13 
 
194 WAVBRLEY NOVELS. 
 
 thai we mast receive his merits as some atonement for his 
 follies." 
 
 "I am happy to hear it," answered Albany, with a counte- 
 nance of pity and incredulity, as if he knew nothing of the 
 supposed services. 
 
 "Nay, brother, you are dull," said the King, "for I wilt 
 not think you envious. Did you not note that Eothsay was 
 the first to suggest the mode of settling the Highlands, which 
 your experience brought indeed into better shape, and which 
 was generally approved of; and even now we had broken up, 
 leaving a main matter unconsidered, but that he put us in 
 mind of the affray with the citizens?" 
 
 " I nothing doubt, my liege," said the Duke of Albany, with 
 the acquiescence which he saw was expected, " that my royal 
 nephew will soon emulate his father's wisdom." 
 
 " Or, " said the Duke of Eothsay, " I may find it easier to 
 borrow from another member of my family that happy and 
 comfortable cloak of hypocrisy which covers all vices, and 
 then it signifies little whether they exist or not. " 
 
 " My lord prior, " said the Duke, addressing the Dominican, 
 " we will for a moment pray your reverence's absence. The 
 King and I have that to say to the Prince which must have no 
 further audience, not even yours." 
 
 The Dominican bowed and withdrew. 
 
 When the two royal brothers and the Prince were left 
 together, the King seemed in the highest degree embarrassed 
 and distressed, Albany sullen and thoughtful, while Eothsay 
 himself endeavoured to cover some anxiety under his usual 
 appearance of levity. There was a silence of a minute. At 
 length Albany spoke. 
 
 " Eoyal brother, " he said, " my princely nephew entertains 
 with so much suspicion any admonition coming from my 
 mouth, that I must pray your Grace yourself to take the 
 trouble of telling him what it is most fitting he should know. " 
 
 " It must be some unpleasing communication indeed, which 
 my Lord of Albany cannot wrap up in honied words," said the 
 Prince. 
 
 "Peace with thine effrontery, boy," aaswered the King, 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 195 
 
 passionately. " You asked but now of tte quarrel with the 
 citizens. Who caused that quarrel, David? What men were 
 those who scaled the wiudow of a peaceful citizen and liege- 
 man, alai-med the night with torch and outcry, and subjected 
 our subjects to danger and affright?" 
 
 "More fear than danger, I fancy," answered the Prince; 
 " but how can I of all men tell who made this nocturnal dis- 
 turbance?" 
 
 "There was a follower of thine own there," continued the 
 King — " a man of Belial, whom I will have brought to condign 
 punishment." 
 
 " I have no follower, to my knowledge, capable of deserving 
 your Highness's displeasure," answered the Prince. 
 
 " I will have no evasions, boy. Where wert thou on St. 
 Valentine's Eve?" 
 
 " It is to be hoped that I was serving the good saint, as a 
 man of mould might, " answered the young man, carelessly. 
 
 " Will my royal nephew tell us how his master of the horse 
 was employed upon that holy eve?" said the Duke of Albany. 
 
 " Speak, David ; I command thee to speak, " said the King. 
 
 " Eamorny was employed in my service, I think that answer 
 may satisfy my uncle. " 
 
 " But it will not satisfy me, " said the angry father. " God 
 knows, I never coveted man's blood, but that Eamorny's head 
 I will have, if law can give it. He has been the encourager 
 and partaker of all thy numerous vices and foUies. I will 
 take care he shall be so no more. Call MacLouis, with a 
 guard." 
 
 " Do not injure an innocent man, " interposed the Prince, 
 desirous at every sacrifice to preserve his favourite from the 
 menaced danger : " I pledge my word that Eamorny was em- 
 ployed in business of mine, therefore could not be engaged in 
 this brawl." 
 
 "False equivocator that thou art!" said the King, present- 
 ing to the Prince a ring, " behold the signet of Eamorny, lost 
 in the infamous affray ! It fell into the hands of a follower 
 of the Douglas, and was given by the Earl to my brother. 
 Speak not for Eamorny, for he dies ; and go thou from my 
 
196 WAVERLEY JSTOVELS. 
 
 presence, and repent the flagitious counsels whicli could make 
 thee stand before me with a falsehood in thy mouth. Oh, 
 shame, David — shame ! as a son thou hast lied to thy father, 
 as a knight to the head of thy order." 
 
 The Prince stood mute, conscience-struck, and self-con- 
 victed. He then gave way to the honourable feelings which 
 at bottom he really possessed, and threw himself at his father's 
 feet. 
 
 "The false knight," he said, "deserves degradation, the 
 disloyal subject death; but, oh! let the son crave from the 
 father pardon for the servant who did not lead him into guilt, 
 but who reluctantly plunged himseK into it at his command. 
 Let me bear the weight of my own folly, but spare those who 
 -have been my tools rather than my accomplices. Remem- 
 ber, Eamorny was preferred to my service by my sainted 
 mother." 
 
 " ISTame her not, David, I charge thee, " said the King ; " she 
 is happy that she never saw the child of her love stand before 
 her doubly dishonoured by guilt and by falsehood." 
 
 "I am indeed unworthy to name her," said the Prince; 
 " and yet, my dear father, in her name I must petition for 
 Eamorny's life. " 
 
 " If I might offer my counsel, " said the Duke of Albany, 
 vrho saw that a reconciliation would soon take place betwixt 
 the father and son, " I would advise that Ramorny be dis- 
 missed from the Prince's household and society, with such 
 further penalty as his imprudence may seem to merit. The 
 public will be contented with his disgrace, and the matter wiU. 
 be easily accommodated or stifled, so that his Highness do not 
 attempt to screen his servant. " 
 
 "Wilt thou, for my sake, David," said the King, with a 
 faltering voice and the tear in his eye, " dismiss this danger- 
 ous man? — for my sake, who could not refuse thee the heart 
 out of my bosom?" 
 
 "It shall be done, my father — done instantly," the Prince 
 replied; and seizing the pen, he wrote a hasty dismissal of 
 Eamorny from his service, and put it into Albany's hands. 
 " I would I could fulfil all your wishes as easily, my royal 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 197 
 
 father," he added, again throwing himself at the King's feet, 
 who raised him up and fondly folded him ia his arms. 
 
 Albany scowled, but was silent ; and it was not till after the 
 space of a minute or two that he said: " This matter being so 
 happily accommodated, let me ask if your Majesty is pleased 
 to attend the evensong service in the chapel?" 
 
 "Siuely," said the King. "Have I not thanks to pay to 
 God, who has restored union to my family? You will go with 
 us, brother?" 
 
 "So please your Grace to give me leave of absence — no," 
 said the Duke. " I must concert with the Douglas and others 
 the manner in which we may briug these Highland vultures 
 to our lure." 
 
 Albany retired to think over his ambitious prejeets, while 
 the father and son attended divine service, to thank God for 
 their happy reconciliation. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 Will you go to the Hielands, Lizzy Lyndesay, 
 
 Will you go the Hielands wi' me? 
 Will you go to the Hielands, Lizzy Lyndesay, 
 
 My bride and my darling to be? 
 
 Old Ballad. 
 
 A POEMEE chapter opened in the royal confessional; we are 
 now to introduce our readers to a situation somewhat similar, 
 though the scene and persons were very different. Instead of 
 a Gothic and darkened apartment in a monastery, one of the 
 most beautiful prospects in Scotland lay extended beneath the 
 hm of Kinnoul, and at the foot of a rock which com m anded 
 the view in every direction sat the Fair Maid of Perih, listen- 
 ing in an attitude of devout attention to the instructions of a 
 Carthusian monk, in his white gown and scapular, who con- 
 cluded his discourse with prayer, in which his proselyte 
 devoutly joined. 
 
 When they had finished their devotions, the priest sat for 
 eome time with his eyes fixed on the glorious prospect, of 
 
198 WAVEBLET N0VEL6. 
 
 wHcli even the early and chilly season could not conceal the 
 beauties, and it was some time ere he addressed his attentive 
 companion. 
 
 "When I behold," he said at length, "this rich and varied 
 land, with its castles, churches, convents, stately palaces, and 
 fertile fields, these extensive woods, and that noble river, I 
 know not, my daughter, whether most to admire the bounty 
 of God or the ingratitude of man. He hath given us the 
 beauty and fertility of the earth, and we have made the scene 
 of his bounty a charnel-house and a battlefield. He hath 
 given us power over the elements, and skUl td erect houses for 
 comfort and defence, and we have converted them iuto dens 
 for robbers and ruffians." 
 
 " Yet, surely, my father, there is room for comfort," replied 
 Catharine, " even ia the very prospect we look upon. Yonder 
 four goodly convents, with their churches, and their towers, 
 which teU the citizens with brazen voice that they should think 
 on their religious duties ; their inhabitants, who have separated 
 themselves from the world, its pursuits and its pleasures, to 
 dedicate themselves to the service of Heaven — all bear witness 
 that, if Scotland be a bloody and a sinful land, she is yet alive 
 and sensible to the claims which religion demands of the 
 human race." 
 
 "Verily, daughter," answered the priest, "what you say 
 seems truth ; and yet, nearly viewed, too much of the comfort 
 you describe will be found delusive. It is true, there was a 
 period in the Christian world when good men, maintaining 
 themselves by the work of their hands, assembled together, 
 not that they might live easily or sleep softly, but that they 
 might strengthen each other in the Christian faith, and qualify 
 themselves to be teachers of the Word to the people. Doubt- 
 less there are still such to be found in the holy edifices on 
 which we now look. But it is to be feared that the love of 
 many has waxed cold. Our churchmen have become wealthy, 
 as well by the gifts of pious persons as by the bribes which 
 wicked men have given in their ignorance, imagining that they 
 can purchase that pardon by endowments to the church which 
 Heaven has only offered to sincere penitents. And thus, as 
 
THE FAIE MAID OF PERTH, 199 
 
 the churcL. waxeth rich, her doctrines have unhappily become 
 dim and obscure, as a light is less seen if placed in a lamp of 
 chased gold than beheld through a screen of glass. God knows, 
 if I see these things and mark them, it is from no wish of sia- 
 gularity or desire to make myself a teacher ia Israel; but be- 
 cause the fire burns in my bosom, and will not permit me to 
 be silent. I obey the rules of my order, and withdraw not 
 myself from its austerities. Be they essential to our salva- 
 tion, or be they mere formalities, adopted to supply the want 
 of real penitence and sincere devotion, I have promised, nay, 
 vowed, to observe them ; and they shall be respected by me 
 the more, that otherwise I might be charged with regarding 
 my bodUy ease, when Heaven is my witness ■ how lightly I 
 value what I may be called on to act or sufEer, if the purity of 
 the church could be restored, or the discipline of the priest- 
 hood replaced ia its primitive simplicity." 
 
 " But, my father, " said Catharine, " even for these opinions 
 men term you a Lollard and a Wickliifite, and say it is your 
 desire to destroy churches and cloisters, and restore the relig- 
 ion of heathenesse." 
 
 " Even so, my daughter, am I driven to seek refuge ia hills 
 and rocks, and must be presently contented to take my flight 
 amongst the rude Highlanders, who are thus far in a more 
 gracious state than those I leave behiad me, that theirs are 
 crimes of ignorance, not of presumption. I will not omit to 
 take such means of safety and escape from their cruelty as 
 Heaven may open to me ; for, while such appear, I shall ac- 
 count it a sign that I have still a service to accomplish. But 
 when it is my Master's pleasure. He knows how willingly 
 Clement Blair will lay down a vilified life upon earth, in hum- 
 ble hope of a blessed exchange hereafter. But wherefore dost 
 thou look northward so anxiously, my child? Thy young eyes 
 are quicker than mine — dost thou see any one coming?" 
 
 " I look, father, for the Highland youth, Conachar, who will 
 be thy guide to the hills, where his father can afEord thee a 
 safe, if a rude, retreat. This he has often promised, when 
 we spoke of you and of your lessons. I fear he is now iq 
 company where he will soon forget them." 
 
200 WAVBELET NOVELS. 
 
 "The youth hath sparkles of grace in him," said Fathe* 
 Clement ; " although those of his race are usually too much 
 devoted to their own fierce and savage customs to endure with 
 patience either the restraints of religion or those of the social 
 law. Thou hast never told me, daughter, how, contrary to all 
 the usages either of the burgh or of the mountains, this youth 
 came to reside in thy father's house?" 
 
 "All I know touching that matter," said Catharine, "is, 
 that his father is a man of consequence among those hill-men, 
 and that he desired as a favour of my father, who hath had 
 dealings with them in the way of his merchandise, to keep 
 this youth for a certain time ; and that it is only two days since 
 they parted, aS Conaehar was to return home to his own 
 mountains." 
 
 " And why has my daughter, " demanded the priest, " main^ 
 tained such a correspondence with this Highland youth, that 
 she should know how to send for him when she desired to use 
 his services va. my behalf? Surely, this is much influence for 
 a maiden to possess over such a wild colt as this youthful 
 mountaineer." 
 
 Catharine blushed, and answered with hesitation: "If I 
 have had any influence with Conaehar, Heaven be my witness, 
 I have only exerted it to enforce upon his fiery temper compli- 
 ance with the rules of civil life. It is true, I have long ex- 
 pected that you, my father, would be obliged to take to flight, 
 and I therefore had agreed with him that he should meet me 
 at this place, as soon as he should receive a message from 
 me with a token, which I yesterday despatched. The mes- 
 senger was a lightfooted boy of his own clan, whom he used 
 sometimes to send on errands into the Highlands." 
 
 " And am I then to understand, daughter, that this youth, 
 fio fair to the eye, was nothing more dear to you than as you 
 (lesired to enlighten his mind and reform his manners?" 
 
 "It is so, my father, and no otherwise," answered Catha- 
 rine ; " and perhaps I did not do well to hold intimacy with 
 him, even for his instruction and improvement. But my dis- 
 course never led farther. " 
 
 "Then have T been mistaken, my daughter; for I thought 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 201 
 
 I had seen in tliee of late some change of purpose, and some 
 wisMul regards looking back to this world, of which you 
 were at one time resolved to take leave." 
 
 Catharine^hung down her head and blushed more deeply than 
 ever as she said: "Yourself, father, were used to remonstrate 
 against my taking the veil." 
 
 "Nor do I now approve of it, my child," said the priest. 
 "Marriage is an honourable state, appointed by Heaven as 
 the regular means of continuing the race of man ; and T read 
 not in the Scriptures what human inventions have since 
 affirmed concerning the superior excellence of a state of celi- 
 bacy. But I am jealous of thee, my child, as a father is of 
 his only daughter, lest thou shouldst throw thyseK away upon 
 some one unworthy of thee. Thy parent, I know, less nice in 
 thy behalf than I am, countenances the addresses of that fierce 
 and riotous reveller whom they call Henry of the Wynd. He 
 is rich it may be ; but a haunter of idle and debauched com- 
 pany — a common prize-fighter, who has shed human blood like 
 water. Can such a one be a fit mate for Catharine Glover? 
 And yet report says they are soon to be united." 
 
 The Fair Maid of Perth's complexion changed from red to 
 pale, and from pale to red, as she hastily replied : " I thLuk 
 not of him ; though it is true some courtesies have passed be- 
 twixt us of late, both as he is my father's friend and as being, 
 according to the custom of the time, my Valentine." 
 
 "Your Valentine, my ehUd!" said Father Clement. "And 
 can your modesty and prudence have trifled so much with the 
 delicacy of your sex as to place yourself in such a relation to 
 such a man as this artificer? Think you that this Valentine, 
 a godly saint and Christian bishop, as he is said to have been, 
 ever countenanced a siUy and unseemly custom, more likely to 
 have originated in the heathen worship of Flora or Venus, 
 when mortals gave the names of deities to their passions, and 
 studied to excite instead of restraining them?" 
 
 "Father," said Catharine, in a tone of more displeasure 
 than she had ever before assumed to the Carthusian, " I know 
 not upon what ground you tax me thus severely for complying 
 with a general practice, authorised by universal custom and 
 
202 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 sanctioned by my father's authority. I cannot feel it kind 
 that you put such misconstruction upon me." 
 
 "Forgive me, daughter," answered the priest, mildly, "if 
 I have given you offence. But this Henry Gow, or Smith, is 
 a forward, licentious man, to whom you cannot allow any un- 
 common degree of intimacy and encouragement, without ex- 
 posing yourself to worse misconstruction — unless, indeed, it 
 be your purpose to wed him, and that very shortly." 
 
 " Say no more of it, my father, " said Catharine. " You 
 give me more pain than you would desire to do ; and I may be 
 provoked to answer otherwise than as becomes me. Perhaps 
 I have already had cause enough to make me repent my com- 
 pliance with an idle custom. At any rate, believe that Henry 
 Smith is nothing to me, and that even the idle intercourse 
 arising from St. Valentine's Day is utterly broken off." 
 
 " I am rejoiced to hear it, my daughter," replied the Carthu- 
 sian, "and must now prove you on another subject, which 
 renders me most anxious on your behalf. You cannot your- 
 self be ignorant of it, although I could wish it were not neces- 
 sary to speak of a thing so dangerous, even before these 
 surrounding rocks, cliffs, and stones. But it must be said. 
 Catharine, you have a lover in the highest rank of Scotland's 
 sons of honour?" 
 
 " I know it, father, " answered Catharine, composedly. " I 
 would it were not so." 
 
 " So would I also," said the priest, " did I see in my daugh- 
 ter only the child of folly, which most young women are at her 
 age, especially if possessed of the fatal gift of beauty. But 
 as thy charms, to speak the language of an idle world, have 
 attached to thee a lover of such high rank, so I know that thy 
 virtue and wisdom will maintain the influence over the Prince's 
 mind which thy beauty hath acquired." 
 
 "Father," replied Catharine, "the Prince is a licentious 
 gallant, whose notice of me tends only to my disgrace and 
 ruin. Can you, who seemed but now afraid that I acted im- 
 prudently in entering into an ordinary exchange of courtesies 
 with one of my own rank, speak with patience of the sort of 
 correspondence which the heir of Scotland dares to fix upon 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 203 
 
 me? Know that it is but two nigits since he, with a party of 
 his debauched followers, would have carried me by force from 
 my father's house, had I not been rescued by that same rash- 
 spirited Henry Smith, who, if he be too hasty in venturing 
 on danger on slight occasion, is always ready to venture his 
 life in behalf of innocence or in resistance of oppression. It 
 is well my part to do him that justice." 
 
 " I should know something of that matter," said the monk, 
 " since it was my voice that sent him to your assistance. I 
 had seen the party as I passed your door, and was hastening 
 to the civil power in order to raise assistance, when I per- 
 ceived a man's figure coming slowly towards me. Apprehen- 
 sive it might be one of the ambuscade, I stepped behiud the 
 buttresses of the chapel of St. John, and seeing from a nearer 
 view that it was Henry Smith, I guessed which way he was 
 bound, and raised my voice, in an exhortation which made him 
 double his speed." 
 
 "I am beholden to you, father," said Catharine; "but all 
 this, and the Duke of Eothsay's own language to me, only 
 show that the Prince is a profligate young man, who wUl 
 scruple no extremities which may promise to gratify an idle 
 passion, at whatever expense to its object. His emissary, 
 Eamorny, has even had the insolence to tell me that my father 
 shall suffer for it if I dare to prefer being the wife of an hon- 
 est man to becomiag the loose paramour of a married prince. 
 So I see no other remedy than to take the veil, or run the risk 
 of my own ruin and my poor father's. Were there no other 
 reason, the terror of these tlireats, from a man so notoriously 
 capable of keeping his word, ought as much to prevent my 
 becoming the bride of any worthy man as it should prohibit 
 me from imlatching his door to admit murderers. Oh, good 
 father, what a lot is mine! and how fatal am I likely to prove 
 to my affectionate parent, and to any one with whom I might 
 ally my unhappy fortunes!" 
 
 "Be yet of good cheer, my daughter," said the monk; 
 " there is comfort for thee even iu this extremity of apparent 
 distress. Eamorny is a vOlain, and abuses the ear of his pa- 
 tron. The Prince is unhappily a dissipated and idle youth; 
 
204 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 but, unless my grey hairs have been strangely imposed on, his 
 character is beginning to alter. He hath been awakened to 
 Eamomy's baseness, and deeply regrets having followed his 
 evil advice. I believe, nay, I am well convinced, that his 
 passion for you has assumed a nobler and purer character, and 
 that the lessons he has heard from me on the corruptions of 
 the church and of the times will, if enforced from your lips, 
 sink deeply iuto his heart, and perhaps produce fruits for the 
 world to wonder as well as rejoice at. Old prophecies have 
 said that Eome shall fall by the speech of a woman." 
 
 "These are dreams, father," said Catharine— '' the visions 
 of one whose thoughts are too much on better things to admit 
 his thinking justly upon the ordinary affairs of Perth; When 
 we have looked long at the sun, everything else can only be 
 seen indistinctly." 
 
 "Thou art over-hasty, my daughter," said Clement, "and 
 thou shalt be convinced of it. The prospects which I am to 
 open to thee were unfit to be exposed to one of a less firm sense 
 of virtue, or a more ambitious temper. Perhaps it is not fit 
 that, even to you, I should display them ; but my confidence 
 is strong in thy wisdom and thy principles. Know, then, 
 that there is much chance that the Church of Eome will dis- 
 solve the union which she has herself formed, and release the 
 Duke of Eothsay from his marriage with Marjory Douglas." 
 
 Here he paused. 
 
 "And if the church hath power and will to do this," replied 
 the maiden, " what influence can the divorce of the Duke from 
 Ms wife produce on the fortunes of Catharine Glover?" 
 
 She looked at the priest anxiously as she spoke, and he had 
 eome apparent difficulty ia framing his reply, for he looked 
 on the ground while he answered her. 
 
 "What did beauty do for Catharine Logie? Unless our 
 fathers have told us falsely, it raised her to share the throne 
 of David Bruce." 
 
 " Did she live happy or die regretted, good father?" asked 
 Catharine, in the same calm and steady tone. 
 
 " She formed her alliance from temporal, and perhaps crimi- 
 DaJ, ambition," replied Father Clement; "and she found her 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 205 
 
 reward in vanity and vexation of spirit. But had she ■wedded 
 with the purpose that the believing wife should convert the 
 unbelieving, or confirm the doubting, husband, what then had 
 been her reward? Love and honour upon earth, and an ia- 
 heritance in Heaven with Queen Margaret and those heroines 
 who have been the nursing mothers of the church." 
 
 Hitherto Catharine had sat upon a stone beside the priest's 
 feet, and looked up to him as she spoke or listened ; but now, 
 as if animated by calm, yet settled, feelings of disapproba- 
 tion, she rose up, and, extending her hand towards the monk 
 as she spoke, addressed him with a countenance and voice 
 which might have become a cherub, pitying, and even as much 
 as possible sparing, the feelings of the mortal whose errors he 
 is commissioned to rebuke. 
 
 "And is it even so?" she said, "andean so much of the 
 wishes, hopes, and prejudices of this vile world affect him who 
 may be called to-morrow to lay down his life for opposing the 
 corruptions of a wicked age and backsliding priesthood? Can 
 it be the severely-virtuous Father Clement who advises his 
 child to aim at, or even to think of, the possession of a throne 
 and a bed which cannot become vacant but by an act of crying 
 injustice to the present possessor? Can it be the wise re- 
 former of the church who wishes to rest a scheme, in itself so 
 unjust, upon a foundation so precarious? Since when is it, 
 good father, that the principal libertine has altered his morals 
 so much, to be likely to court in honourable fashion the 
 daughter of a Perth artisan? Two days must have wrought 
 this change ; for only that space has passed since he was break- 
 ing into my father's house at midnight, with worse mischief 
 in his mind than that of a common robber. And think you 
 that, if Eothsay's heart could dictate so mean a match, he 
 could achieve such a purpose without endangering both his 
 succession and his life, assailed by the Douglas and March at 
 the same time, for what they must receive as an act of injury 
 and insult to both their houses? Oh! Father Clement, where 
 was your principle, where your prudence, when they suffered 
 you to be bewildered by so strange a dream, and placed the 
 meanest of your disciples in the right thus to reproach you?" 
 
206 WAVERLEY HOTELS. 
 
 The old man's eyes filled with, tears, as Catharine, visibly 
 and painfully affected by what she had said, became at length 
 silent. 
 
 "By the mouths of babes and sucklings," he said, "hath 
 He rebuked those who would seem wise in their generation. 
 I thank Heaven, that hath taught me better thoughts than my 
 own vanity suggested, through the medium of so kind a moni- 
 tress. Yes, Catharine, I must not hereafter wonder or exclaim, 
 when I see those whom I have hitherto judged too harshly 
 struggling for temporal power, and holding all the while the 
 language of religious zeal. I thank thee, daughter, for thy 
 salutary admonition, and I thank Heaven that sent it by thy 
 lips, rather than those of a stem reprover. " 
 
 Catharine had raised her head to reply, and bid the old 
 man, whose humiliation gave her pain, be comforted, when her 
 eyes were arrested by an object close at hand. Among the 
 crags and cliffs which surrounded this place of seclusion, there 
 were two which stood in such close contiguity, that they 
 seemed to have been portions of the same rock, which, ren- 
 dered by lightning or by an earthquake, now exhibited a chasm 
 of about four feet in breadth, betwixt the masses of stone. 
 Into this chasm an oak tree had thrust itself, in one of the 
 fantastic frolics which vegetation often exhibits in such situa- 
 tions. The tree, stunted and ill-fed, had sent its roots along 
 the face of the rock in all directions to seek for supplies, and 
 they lay like military lines of communication, contorted, 
 twisted, and knotted like the immense snakes of the Indian 
 archipelago. As Catharine's look fell upon the curious 6om- 
 plication of knotty branches and twisted roots, she was sud- 
 denly sensible that two large eyes were visible among them, 
 fixed and glaring at her, like those of a wild animal in ambush. 
 She started, and, without speaking, pointed out the object to 
 her companion, and looking herself with more strict atten- 
 tion, could at length trace out the bushy red hair and shaggy 
 beard, which had hitherto been concealed by the drooping 
 branches and twisted roots of the tree. 
 
 When he saw himself discovered, the Highlander, for such 
 he proved, stepped forth from his lurking-place, and, stalking 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 207 
 
 forward, displayed a colossal person, clothed in a purple, red, 
 and green checked plaid, under ■which he -wore a jacket of 
 bull's hide. His how and arrows were at his back, his head 
 was bare, and a large quantity of tangled locks, like the glibbs 
 of the Irish, served to cover the head, and supplied all the 
 purposes of a bonnet. His belt bore a sword and dagger, and 
 he had in his hand a Danish pole-axe, more recently called a 
 Xiochaber axe. Through the same rude portal advanced, one 
 by one, four men more, of similar size, and dressed and armed 
 in the same manner. 
 
 Catharine was too much accustomed to the appearance of 
 the inhabitants of the mountains so near to Perth to permit 
 herself to be alarmed, as another Lowland maiden might have 
 been on the same occasion. She saw with tolerable composure 
 these gigantic forms arrange themselves in a semicircle around 
 and in front of the monk and herself, all bending upon them 
 in silence their large fixed eyes, expressing, as far as she could 
 judge, a wild admiration of her beauty. She inclined her head 
 to them, and uttered imperfectly the usual words of a High- 
 land salutation. The elder and leader of the party returned 
 the greeting, and then again remained silent and motionless. 
 The monk told his beads ; and even Catharine began to have 
 strange fears for her personal safety, and anxiety to know 
 whether they were to consider themselves at personal freedom. 
 She resolved to make the experiment, and moved forward as if 
 to descend the hill; but when she attempted to pass the line 
 of Highlanders, they extended their pole-axes betwixt each 
 other, so as eifectually to occupy each opening through which 
 she could have passed. 
 
 Somewhat disconcerted, yet not dismayed, for she could 
 not conceive that any evil was intended, she sat down upon 
 one of the scattered fragments of rock, and bade the monk, 
 standing by her side, be of good courage. 
 
 " If I fear, " said Father Clement, " it is not for myself; for 
 whether I be brained with the axes of these wild men, like an 
 ox when, worn out by labour, he is condemned to the slaughter, 
 or whether I am bound with their bowstrings, and delivered 
 over to those who will take my life with more cruel ceremony, 
 
208 WAVHRLET novels. 
 
 it ean but little concern me, if they suffer thee, dearest daugli> 
 ter, to escape uninjured." 
 
 " We liave neither of us, " replied the Maiden of Perth, " any 
 cause for apprehending evil ; and here comes Conaohar to assure 
 us of it." 
 
 Yet, as she spoke, she almost doubted her own eyes ; so al 
 tered -were the manner and attire of the handsome, stately, 
 and almost splendidly dressed youth who, spriugiug like a 
 roebuck from a cliff of considerable height, lighted just in 
 front of her. His dress was of the same tartan worn by those 
 who had first made their appearance, but closed at the throat 
 and elbows with a necklace and armlets of gold. The hauberk 
 which he wore over his person was of steel, but so clearly 
 burnished that it shone like silver. His arms were profusely 
 ornamented, and his bonnet, besides the eagle's feather mark- 
 ing the quality of chief, was adorned with a chain of gold, 
 wrapt several times around it, and secured by a large clasp, 
 glistening with pearls. His brooch, by which the tartan 
 mantle, or plaid, as it is now called, was secured on the 
 shoulder, was also of gold, large and curiously carved. He 
 bore no weapon in his hand, exceptiag a small sapling stick 
 with a hooked head. His whole appearance and gait, which 
 used formerly to denote a sullen feeliug of conscious degra- 
 dation, was now bold, forward, and haughty ; and he stood be 
 fore Catharine with smiling confidence, as if fully conscious of 
 his improved appearance, and waiting till she should recog- 
 nise him. 
 
 " Conachar, " said Catharine, desirous to hiesik this state of 
 suspense, " are these your father's men?" 
 
 "IN'o, fair Catharine, " answered the young man. "Cona- 
 char is no more, unless in regard to the wrongs he has sus- 
 tained, and the vengeance which they demand. I am Ian 
 Eachin Maclan, son to the chief of the Clan Quhele. I have 
 moulted my feathers, as you see, when I changed my name. 
 And for these men, they are not my father's followers, but 
 mine. You see only one-half of them collected : they form a 
 band consisting of my foster father and eight sons, who are 
 my body-guard, and the children of my belt, who breathe but 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 209 
 
 to do my will. But Conachar, " lie added, iu a softer tone of 
 voice, " lives again so soon as Catharine desires to see him j 
 and while he is the young chief of the Clan Quhele to aU others, 
 he is to her as humlfle and obedient as when he was Simon 
 Glover's apprentice. See, here is the stick I had from you 
 when we nutted together in the sunny braes of Lednoch, when 
 autumn was young in the year that is gone. I would not ex- 
 change it, Catharine, for the truncheon of my tribe." 
 
 While Eaehin thus spoke, Catharine began to doubt in her 
 own mind whether she had acted prudently in requesting the 
 assistance of a bold young man, elated, doubtless, by his sud- 
 den elevation from a state of servitude to one which she was 
 aware gave him extensive authority over a very lawless body of 
 adherents. 
 
 " You do not fear me, fair Catharine?" said the young chief, 
 taking her hand. " I suffered my people to appear before you 
 for a few minutes, that I might see how you could endure 
 their presence; and methinks you regarded them as if you 
 were born to be a chieftain's wife." 
 
 " I have no reason to fear wrong from Highlanders, " said 
 Catharine, firmly ; " especially as I thought Conachar was with 
 them. Conachar has drunk of our cup and eaten of our bread; 
 and my father has often had traffic with Highlanders, and never 
 was there wrong or quarrel betwixt him and them. " 
 
 "No?" replied Hector, for such is the Saxon equivalent 
 for Eaehin, " what ! never when he took the part of the Gow 
 Chrom (the bandy-legged smith) against Eaehin Maclan? Say 
 nothing to excuse it, and believe it will be your own fault if 
 I ever again allude to it. But you had some command to lay 
 upon me ; speak, and you shall be obeyed. " 
 
 Catharine hastened to reply ; for there was something in the 
 young chief's manner and language which made her desire to 
 shorten the interview. 
 
 " Eaehin," she said, " since Conachar is no longer your name, 
 you ought to be sensible that in claiming, as I honestly might, 
 a service from my equal, I little thought that I was addressing 
 a person of such superior power and consequence. You, as 
 well as I, have been obliged to the religious instruction of this 
 14 
 
iJlO WAVEKLBY NOVELS. 
 
 good man. He is new in great danger : wicked men have ac- 
 cused him with false charges, and he is desirous to remain in 
 safety and concealment till the storm shall pass away." 
 
 "Ha! the good clerk Clement! Ay, the worthy clerk did 
 much for me, and more than my rugged temper was capable to 
 profit by. I wlU be glad to see any one ia the town of Perth 
 persecute one who hath taken hold of Maclan's mantle!" 
 
 " It may not be safe to trust too much to that, " said Catha° 
 rine. "I nothing doubt the power of your tribe; but when 
 the Black Douglas takes up a feud, he is not to be scared by 
 the shaking of a Highland plaid." 
 
 The Highlander disguised his displeasure at this speech 
 with a fprced laugh. 
 
 " The sparrow, " he said, " that is next the eye seems larger 
 than the eagle that is perched on BengoHe. You fear the 
 Douglasses most, because they sit next to you. But be it as 
 you will. You will not believe how wide our hills, and vales, 
 and forests extend beyond the dusky barrier of yonder moun- 
 tains, and you think all the world lies on the banks of the 
 Tay. But this good clerk shall see hills that could hide him. 
 were aU the Douglasses on his quest — ay, and he shall see 
 men enough also to make them glad to get once more south- 
 ward of the Grampians. And wherefore should you not go 
 with the good man? I wUl send a party to bring him in 
 safety from Perth, and we wiO. set up the old trade beyond 
 Loch Tay — only no more cutting out of gloves for me. I wUl 
 find your father in hides, but I wOl not cut them, save when 
 they are on the creatures' backs." 
 
 " My father wiU come one day and see your housekeepiag, ' 
 Conachar — I mean, Hector. But times must be quieter, for 
 there is feud between the town's-people and the followers of 
 the noblemen, and there is speech of war about to break out 
 in the Highlands." 
 
 " Yes, by Our Lady, Catharine ! and were it not for that 
 same Highland war, you should not thus put ofp your High- 
 land visit, my pretty mistress. But the race of the hiUs are 
 no longer to be divided into two nations. They wiU. fight like 
 men for the supremacy, and he who gets it will deal with the 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 211 
 
 King of Scotland as an equal, not as a superior. Pray that 
 the victory may fall to Maclan, my pious St. Catharine, for 
 thou shalt pray for one who loves thee dearly." 
 
 " I wUl pray for the right, " said Catharine ; " or rather, I 
 will pray that there be peace on all sides. Farewell, kind 
 and excellent Father Clement. Believe I shall never forget 
 thy lessons; remember me iu thy prayers. But how wilt 
 thou be able to sustain a journey so toilsome?" 
 
 " They shall carry him if need be, " said Hector, " if we go 
 far without findiug a horse ^or him. But you, Catharine — it 
 is far from hence to Perth. Let me attend you thither as I 
 was wont." 
 
 " If you were as you were wont, I would not refuse your 
 escort. But gold brooche^ and bracelets are perilous company, 
 when the Liddesdale aid Annandale lancers are riding as 
 throng upon the highway as the leaves at Hallowmass ; and 
 there is no safe meeting betwixt Highland tartans and steel 
 jackets." 
 
 She hazarded this remark, as she somewhat suspected that, 
 in casting his slough, young Eachin had not entirely sur- 
 mounted the habits which he had acquired in his humbler 
 state, and that, though he might use bold words, he would not 
 be rash enough to brave the odds of numbers, to which a de- 
 scent into the vicinity of the city would be likely to expose 
 him. It appeared that she judged correctly; for, after a fare- 
 well, in which she compounded for the immunity of her lips 
 by permitting him to kiss her hand, she returned towards 
 Perth, and could obtain at times, when she looked back, an 
 occasional glance of the Highlanders, as, winding through the 
 most concealed and impracticable paths, they bent their way 
 towards the North. 
 
 She felt in part relieved from her immediate anxiety, as the 
 distance increased betwixt her and these men, whose actions 
 were only directed by the will of their chief, and whose chief 
 was a giddy and impetuous boy. She apprehended no insult 
 on her return to Perth from the soldiery of any party whom 
 she might meet ; for the rules of chivalry were in those days 
 a surer protection to a maiden of decent appearance than an 
 
212 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 escort of armed men, whose cognizance might not be aclmowl- 
 edged as friendly by any other party whom they might chance 
 to encounter. But more remote dangers pressed on her appre- 
 hension. The pursuit of the licentious Prince was rendered 
 formidable by threats which his unprincipled counsellor, Ra- 
 morny, had not shunned to utter against her father, if she 
 persevered in her coyness. These menaces, in such an age, 
 and from such a character, were deep grounds for alarm ; nor 
 could she consider the pretensions to her favour which Cona- 
 char had scarce repressed during his state of servitude, and 
 seemed now to avow boldly, as less fraught with evil, since 
 there had been repeated incursions of the Highlanders into the 
 very town of Perth, and citizens had, on more occasions than 
 one, been made prisoners and carried off from their own 
 houses, or had fallen by the claymore in the very streets of 
 their city. She feared, too, her father's importunity on be- 
 half of the smith, of whose conduct on St. Valentine's Day 
 unworthy reports had reached her ; and whose suit, had he 
 stood clear in her good opinion, she dared not listen to, while 
 Eamorny's threats of revenge upon her father rung on her 
 ear. She thought on these various dangers with the deepest 
 apprehension, and an earnest desire to escape from them and 
 herself, by taking refuge in the cloister ; but saw no possibil- 
 ity of obtaining her father's consent to the only course from 
 which she expected peace and protection. 
 
 In the course of these reflections, we cannot discover that 
 she very distinctly regretted that her perils attended her be- 
 cause she was the Fair Maid of Perth. This was one point 
 which marked that she was not yet altogether an angel ; and 
 perhaps it was another that, in despite of Henry Smith's real 
 or supposed delinquencies, a sigh escaped from her bosom 
 when she thought upon St. Valentine's dawn. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 213 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Oh.for a draught of power to steep 
 The soul of agony in sleep I 
 
 Bertha. 
 
 We have shown the secrets of the confessional; those of the 
 aick-chamber are not hidden from us. In a darkened apart- 
 ment, where salves and medicines showed that the leech had 
 been busy in his craft, a taU thin form lay on a bed, arrayed 
 in a nightgown belted around him, with paia on his brow, and 
 a thousand stormy passions agitating his bosom. Everything 
 in the apartment indicated a man of opulence and of expense. 
 Henbane Dwining, the apothecary, who seemed to have the 
 care of the patient, stole with a crafty and eat-like step from 
 one corner of the room to another, busying himself with mix- 
 ing medicines and preparing dressings. The sick man groaned 
 once or twice, on which the leech, advancing to his bedside, 
 asked whether these sounds were a token of the pain of his 
 body or of the distress of his mind. 
 
 " Of both, thou poisoning varlet, " said Sir John Eamorny, 
 " and of being encumbered with thy accursed company." 
 
 " If that is all, I can relieve your knighthood of one of these 
 ills by presently removing myself elsewhere. Thanks to the 
 feuds of this boisterous time, had I twenty hands, instead of 
 these two poor servants of my art (displaying his skinny 
 palms), there is enough of employment for them — well requited 
 employment, too, where thanks and crowns contend which 
 shall best pay my services ; while you. Sir John, wreak upon 
 your chirurgeon the anger you ought only to bear against the 
 author of your wound." 
 
 " Villain, it is beneath me to reply to thee, " said the pa- 
 tient; "but every word of thy malignant tongue is a dirk, in- 
 flicting wounds which set aU the medicines of Arabia at de- 
 fiance." 
 
 " Sir John, I understand you not ; but if you give way to 
 these tempestuous fits of rage, it is impossible but fever and 
 inflammation must be the result." 
 
214 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 "Why then dost thou speak iii a sense to chafe my blood? 
 Why dost thou name the supposition of thy worthless self 
 having more hands than nature gave thee, whUe I, a knight 
 and gentleman, am mutUated like a cripple?" 
 
 "Sir John," replied the chirurgeon, "I am no divine, nor 
 a mainly obstinate believer in some things which divines tell 
 us. Yet I may remind you that you have been kindly dealt 
 with; for if the blow which has done you this injury had 
 lighted On your neck, as it was aimed, it would have swept 
 your head from your shoulders, instead of amputating a less 
 considerable member." 
 
 " I wish it had, Dwining — I wish it had lighted as it was 
 addressed. I should not then have seen a policy which had 
 spun a web so fine as mine burst through by the brute force of a 
 drunken churl. I should not have been reserved to see horses 
 which I must not mount, lists which I must no longer enter, 
 splendours which I cannot hope to share, or battles which I 
 must not take part in. I should not, with a man's passions 
 for power and for strife, be set to keep place among the 
 women, despised by them, too, as a miserable, impotent crip- 
 ple, unable to aim at obtaining the favour of the sex." 
 
 " Supposing all this to be so, I will yet pray of your knight- 
 hood to remark," replied Dwining, still busying himself with 
 arranging the dressings of the wpunds, " that your eyes, which 
 you must have lost with your head, may, being spared to you, 
 present as rich a prospect of pleasure as either ambition, or 
 victory in the list or in the field, or the love of woman itself, 
 could have proposed to you." 
 
 "My sense is too dull to catch thy meaning, leech," replied 
 Eamorny. " What is this precious spectacle reserved to me 
 iu such a shipwreck?" 
 
 " The dearest that mankind knows," replied Dwining; and 
 then, in the accent of a lover who utters the name of his be- 
 loved mistress, and expresses his passion for her in the very 
 tone of his voice, he added the word " Revenge 1" 
 
 The patient had raised himself on his couch to listen with 
 some anxiety for the solution of the physician's enigma. He 
 laid himself down again as he heard it explained, and after a 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 215 
 
 short pause asked, "In what Christian college learned you 
 this morality, good Master Dwining?" 
 
 "lu no Christian college," answered his physician; "for, 
 though it is privately received in most, it is openly and man- 
 fully adopted in none. But I have studied among the sages 
 of Granada, where the fiery-souled Moor lifts high his deadly 
 dagger as it drops with his enemy's blood, and avows the doc- 
 trine which the pallid Christian practises, though coward-like 
 he dare not name it." 
 
 " Thou art then a more high-souled villain than I deemed 
 thee," said Eamomy. 
 
 " Let that pass, " answered Dwining. " The waters that are 
 the stillest are also the deepest ; and the foe is most to he 
 dreaded who never threatens till he strikes. You knights and 
 men-at-arms go straight to your purpose with sword in hand. 
 We who are clerks win our access with a noiseless step and an 
 indirect approach, hut attain our object not less surely." 
 
 "And I," said the knight, "who have trod to my revenge 
 with a mailed foot, which made all echo around it, must now 
 use such a slipper as thine — ha?" 
 
 "He who lacks strength," said the wily mediciner, "must 
 attain his purpose by skill." 
 
 " And teU me sincerely, mediciner, wherefore thou wouldst 
 read me these devil's lessons? Why wouldst thou thrust me 
 faster or farther on to my vengeance than I may seem to thee 
 ready to go of my own accord? I am old in the ways of the 
 world, man ; and I know that such as thou do not drop words 
 in vain, or thrust themselves upon the dangerous confidence 
 of men like me save with the prospect of advancing some pur- 
 pose of their own. What interest hast thou iu the road, 
 whether peaceful or bloody, which I' may pursue on these 
 occurrents?" 
 
 '* In plain dealing, sir knight, though it is what I seldon. 
 use," answered the leech, "my road to revenge is the same 
 with yours." 
 
 " With mme, man?" said Eamomy, with a tone of scornful 
 surprise. "I thought it had been high beyond thy reach. 
 Thou aim at the same revenge with Eamornyl" 
 
216 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 "Ay, truly," replied Dwining, "for the smithy churl under 
 whose blow you have suffered has often done me despite and 
 injury. He has thwarted me in counsel and despised me in 
 action. His brutal and imhesitating bluntness is a living re- 
 proach to the subtlety of my natural disposition. I fear him, 
 and I hate him." 
 
 "And you hope to find an active coadjutor in me?" said 
 Eamomy, in the same supercilious tone as before. "But 
 know, the artisan feUow is too low in degree to be to me 
 either the object of hatred or of fear. Yet he shall not es- 
 cape. We hate not the reptile that has stung us, though we 
 might shake it o£E the wound, and tread upon it. I know the 
 ruffian of old as a stout man-at-arms, and a pretender, as I 
 have heard, to the favour of the scornful puppet whose beau- 
 ties, forsooth, spurred us to our wise and hopeful attempt. 
 Piends that direct thi^ nether world, by what malice have 
 ye decided that the hand which has couched a lance against 
 the bosom of a prince should be struck off like a sapling by 
 the blow of a churl, and during the turmoil of a midnight 
 riot? Well, mediciner, thus far our courses hold together, 
 and I bid thee well believe that I will crush for thee this rep- 
 tile mechanic. But do not thou think to escape me when that 
 part of my revenge is done which ydll be most easily and 
 BpeedUy accomplished." 
 
 "Uot, it may be, altogether so easily accomplished," said 
 the apothecary; " for if your knighthood will credit me, there 
 wDl be found small ease or security in dealing with him. He 
 is the strongest, boldest, and most skUful swordsman in Perth 
 and all the country around it." 
 
 "Fear nothing; he shall be met with had he the strength 
 of Sampson. But then, mark me I Hope not thou to escape 
 my vengeance, unless thou become my passive agent in the 
 scene which is to follow. Mark me, I say once more. I have 
 studied at no Moorish college, and lack some of thy vinbounded 
 appetite for revenge, but yet I wUl have my share of ven- 
 geance. Listen to me, mediciner, while I shall thus far un- 
 fold myself; but beware of treachery, for, powerful as thy 
 fiend is, thou hast taken lessons from a meaner devil than 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 21'i 
 
 mine. Hearken — the master wliom I have served through 
 vice and virtue, with too much zeal for my own character, 
 perhaps, but with unshaken fidelity to him — the very man, 
 to soothe whose frantic foUy I have incurred this irreparable 
 loss, is, at the prayer of his doating father, about to sacrifice 
 me, by turniug me out of his favour, and leaving me at the 
 mercy of the hypocritical relative with whom he seeks a pre- 
 carious reconciliation at my expense. If he perseveres h\ this 
 most ungrateful purpose, thy fiercest Moors, were their com- 
 plexion swarthy as the smoke of heU, shall blush to see their 
 revenge outdone. But I wiU give him one more chance for 
 honour and safety before my wrath shall descend on him in 
 unrelenting and unmitigated fury. There, then, thus far thou 
 hast my confidence. Close hands on our bargain. Close 
 hands, did I say? "Where is the hand that should be the 
 pledge and representative of Eamorny's plighted word? Is 
 it nailed on the public pillory, or flung as offal to the house- 
 less dogs, who are even now snarliug over it? Lay thy finger 
 on the mutilated stump, then, and swear to be a faithful actor 
 in my revenge, as I shall be in yours. How now, sir leech, 
 look you pale — you, who say to death;, stand back or advance, 
 can you tremble to think of him or to hear him named? I 
 have not mentioned your fee, for one who loves revenge for 
 itself requires no deeper bribe ; yet, if broad lands and large 
 sums of gold can increase thy zeal in a brave cause, believe 
 me, these shall not be lacking." 
 
 "They teU for something in my humble wishes," said 
 Dwiuing : " the poor man in this bustling world is thrust down 
 like a dw arf in a crowd, and so trodden under foot ; the rich 
 and powerful rise like giants above the press, and are at ease, 
 while all is turmoil around them." 
 
 " Then shalt thou arise above the press, mediciner, as high 
 as gold can raise thee. This purse is weighty, yet it is but 
 an earnest of thy guerdon." 
 
 "And this Smith, my noble benefactor," said the leech, as 
 he pouched the gratuity — " this Henry of the Wynd, or what- 
 ever is his name — would not the news that he hath paid tie 
 penalty of his action assuage the pain of thy knighthood's 
 
218 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 wound better than the balm of Mecca with which I have 
 salved it?" 
 
 "He is beneath the thoughts of Eamorny; and I have no 
 more resentment agaiast him than I have ill-will at the sense- 
 less weapon which he swayed. But it is jiist thy hate should 
 be vented upon him. Where is he chiefly to be met with?" 
 
 "That also I have considered," said Dwining. "To make 
 the attempt by day in his own house were too open and dan- 
 gerous, for he hath five servants who work with him at the 
 stithy, four of them strong knaves, and all loving to their 
 master. By night were scarce less desperate, for he hath his 
 doors strongly secured with bolt of oak and bar of iron, and 
 ere the fastenings of his house could be forced, the neighbour- 
 hood would rise to his rescue, especially as they are stiU 
 alarmed by the practice on St. Valentine's Even." 
 
 " Oh, ay, true, mediciner," said Kamorny, " for deceit is thy 
 nature even with me : thou knewest my hand and signet, as 
 thou said'st, when that hand was found cast out on the street, 
 like the disgusting refuse of a shambles — why, haviag such 
 knowledge, went'st thou with these jolterheaded citizens to 
 consult that Patrick Charteris, whose spurs should be hacked 
 oif from his heels for the communion which he holds with 
 paltry burghers, and whom thou brought' st here with the fools 
 to do dishonour to the lifeless hand, which, had it held its 
 wonted place, he was not worthy to have touched in peace or 
 faced in war?" 
 
 " My noble patron, as soon as I had reason to know you had 
 been the sufferer, I urged them with all my powers of persua- 
 sion to desist from prosecutiug the feud ; but the swaggering 
 smith, and one or two other hot heads, cried out for vengeance. 
 Your knighthood must know this fellow calls himself bachelor 
 to the Fair Maiden of Perth, and stands upon his honour to 
 follow up her father's quarrel; but I have forestalled his 
 market in that quarter, and that is something in earnest of 
 revenge. " 
 
 " How mean you by that, sir leech?" said the patient. 
 
 "Your knighthood shaU conceive," said the mediciner, 
 "that this smith doth not live within compass, but is aa 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 219 
 
 outlier and a galliard. I met him myself ou St. Valentine's 
 Day, shortly after the afEray between the townsfolk and the 
 followers of Douglas. Yes, I met him sneaking through the 
 lanes and bye-passages with a common minstrel wenoh, with 
 her messan and her viol on his one arm and her buxom self 
 hanging upon the other. What thinks your honour? Is not 
 this a trim, squire, to cross a prince's love with the fairest 
 girl in Perth, strike off the hand of a knight and baron, and 
 become gentleman-usher to a strolling glee-woman, all in the 
 course of the same four-and-twenty hours?" 
 
 " Marry, I think the better of him that he has so much 
 of a gentleman's humour, clown though he be," saidEamorny. 
 " I would he had been a precisian instead of a galliard, and I 
 should have had better heart to aid thy revenge. And such 
 revenge! — revenge on a smith — in the quarrel of a pitiful 
 manufacturer of rotten cheverons ! Pah I And yet it shall be 
 taken in full. Thou hast commenced it. I warrant me, by 
 thine own manoeuvres." 
 
 " In a small degree only, " said the apothecary. " I took 
 care that two or three of the most notorious gossips in Curfew 
 street, who liked not to hear Catharine called the Pair Maid 
 of Perth, should be possessed of this story of her faithful 
 Valentine. They opened on the scent so keenly, that, rather 
 than doubt had fallen on the tale, they would have vouched 
 for it as if their own eyes had seen it. The lover came to her 
 father's within an hour after, and your worship may think 
 what a reception he had from the angry glover, for the dam- 
 sel herself would not be looked upon. And thus your honour 
 sees I had a foretaste of revenge. But I trust to receive the 
 full draught from the hands of your lordship, with whom I 
 am in a brotherly league, which " 
 
 " Brotherly !" said the knight, contemptuously. " But be it 
 so, the priests say we are all of one common earth. I cannot 
 teU, there seems to me some difference ; but the better mould 
 shall keep faith with the baser, and thou shalt have thy re- 
 venge. Call thou my page hither." 
 
 A young man made his appearance from .the ante-room upon 
 the physician's summons. 
 
220 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 "Eviot," said tlie tnight, "does Bonthion -wait? and is he 
 sober?" 
 
 " He is as sober as sleep can make him after a deep drink," 
 answered the page. 
 
 "Then fetch him hither, and do thou shut the door." 
 
 A heavy step presently approached the apartment, and a 
 man entered, whose deficiency of height seemed made up in 
 breadth of shoulders and strength of arm. 
 
 " There is a man thou must deal upon, Bonthron," said the 
 knight. 
 
 The man smoothed his rugged features and grinned a smile 
 of satisfaction. 
 
 " That mediciuer will show thee the party. Take such ad- 
 vantage of time, place, and circumstance as will ensure the re- 
 sult ; and mind you come not by the worst, for the man is the 
 fighting Smith of the Wynd." 
 
 "ItwiU be a tough job," growled the assassiu; "for if I 
 miss my blow, I may esteem myself but a dead man. AU 
 Perth rings with the smith's skill and strength." 
 
 " Take two assistants with thee, " said the knight. 
 
 " Not I, " said Bonthron. " If you double anything, let it 
 be the reward." 
 
 "Account it doubled," said his master; "but see thy work 
 be thoroughly executed." 
 
 "Trust me for that, sir knight: seldom have I failed." 
 
 " Use this sage man's directions," said the wounded knight, 
 pointing to the physician. " And hark thee, await his coming 
 forth, and drink not till the business be done." 
 
 " I will not, " answered the dark satellite ; " my own life de- 
 pends on my blow being steady and sure. I know whom I 
 have to deal with." 
 
 " Vanish, then, tiU he summons you, and have axe and dag- 
 ger in readiness." 
 
 Bonthron nodded and withdrew. 
 
 " Will your knighthood venture to entrust such an act to a 
 single hand?" said the mediciuer, when the assassin had left 
 the room. " May J pray you to remember that yonder party 
 did, two nights since, baffle six armed men?" 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 221 
 
 "Question me not, sir mediciner: a man like Bonthron, who 
 knows time and place, is worth a score of confused revellers. 
 CaU Eviot; thou shalt first exert thy powers of healing, and 
 do not doubt that thou shalt, in the farther work, be aided by 
 one who will match thee in the art bf sudden and unexpected 
 destruction." 
 
 The page Eviot again appeared at the mediciner's summons, 
 and at his master's sign assisted the chirurgeon in removing 
 the dressings from Sir John Eamomy's wounded arm. Dwin- 
 ing viewed the naked stump with a species of professional 
 satisfaction, enhanced, no doubt, by the malignant pleasure 
 which his evil disposition took in the pain and distress of his 
 feUow-creatures, The knight just turned his eye on the 
 ghastly spectacle, and uttered, under the pressure of bodily 
 pain or mental agony, a groan which he would fain have re- 
 pressed. 
 
 "You groan, sir," said the leech, in his soft, insinuating 
 tone of voice, but with a sneer of enjoyment, mixed with 
 scorn, curling upon his lip, which his habitual dissimulation 
 could not altogether disguise — " you groan ; but be comforted. 
 This Henry Smith knows his business : his sword is as true to 
 its aim as his hammer to the anvil. Had a common swords- 
 man struck this fatal blow, he had harmed the bone and dam- 
 aged the muscles, so that even my art might not have been 
 able to repair them. But Henry Smith's cut is clean, and as 
 sure as that with which my own scalpel could have made the 
 amputation. In a few days you will be able, with care and 
 attention to the ordinances of medicine, to stir abroad. " 
 
 " But my hand — ^the loss of my hand " 
 
 " It may/ be kept secret for a time, " said the mediciner. " I 
 have possessed two or three tattling fools, in deep confidence, 
 that the hand which was found was that of your knighthood's 
 groom, Black Quentin, and your knighthood knows that he 
 has parted for Eife, in such sort as to make it generally be- 
 lieved. " 
 
 "1 know well enough," said Eamorny, "that the rumour 
 may stifle the truth for a short time. But what avails this 
 brief delay?" 
 
222 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 " It may be concealed till your knightliood retires for a time 
 from tlie court, and then, when new accidents have darkened 
 the recollection of the present stir, it may be imputed to a 
 wound received from the shivering of a spear, or from a cross- 
 bow bolt. Your slave will find a suitable device, and stand 
 for the truth of it." 
 
 "The thought maddens me," said Eamorny, with anoth- 
 er groan of mental and bodily agony ; " yet I see no better 
 remedy." 
 
 " There is none other, " said the leech, to whose evil nature 
 his patron's distress was delicious nourishment. "In the 
 mean while, it is believed you are confined by the consec[uenees 
 of some bruises, aiding the sense of displeasure at the Prince's 
 having consented to dismiss you from his household at the 
 remonstrance of Albany, which is publicly known." 
 
 "Villain, thou rack'st me!" exclaimed the patient. 
 
 "Upon the whole, therefore," said Dwining, "your knight- 
 hood has escaped well, and, saving the lack of your hand, a 
 mischance beyond remedy, you ought rather to rejoice than 
 complain; for no barber-chirurgeon in France or England 
 could have more ably performed the operation than this churl 
 with one downright blow." 
 
 "I understand my obligation fuUy," said Eamorny, strug- 
 gling with his anger, and affecting composure ; " and if Bon- 
 thron pays him not with a blow equally downright, and 
 rendering the aid of the leech unnecessary, say that John of 
 Eamorny cannot requite an obligation. " 
 
 " That is spoke like yourself, noble knight!" answered the 
 mediciner. " And let me further say, that the operator's skill 
 must have been vain, and the haemorrhage must have dramed 
 your life-veins, but for the bandages, the cautery, and the 
 styptics applied by the good monks, and the poor services of 
 your humble vassal. Henbane Dwining." 
 
 " Peace, " exclaimed the patient, " with thy ill-omened voice 
 and worse-omened name ! Methinks, as thou mentionest the 
 tortures I have tmdergone, my tingling nerves stretch and con- 
 tract themselves as if they still actuated the fingers that once 
 could clutch a dagger." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 223 
 
 " That, " explained the leech, " may it please your knight- 
 hood, is a phenomenon well known to our profession. There 
 have heen those among the ancient sages who have thought 
 that there still remained a sympathy between the severed 
 nerves and those belonging to the amputated limb ; and that 
 the several fingers are seen to quiver and strain, as corre- 
 sponding with the impulse which proceeds from their sympathy 
 with the energies of the living system. Could we recover 
 the hand from the Cross, or from the custody of the Black 
 Douglas, I would be pleased to observe this wonderful 
 operation of occult sympathies. But, I fear me, one might 
 as safely go to wrest the joint from the talons of an hungry 
 eagle." 
 
 "And thou mayst as safely break thy malignant jests on a 
 wounded lion as on John of Ramorny, '' said the knight, raising- 
 himself in uncontrollable indignation. "Caitiff, proceed to 
 thy duty ; and remember, that if my hand can no longer clasp 
 a dagger, I can command an hundred." 
 
 "The sight of one drawn and brandished in anger were 
 sufficient," said Dwining, "to consume the vital powers of 
 your chirurgeon. But who then, " he added in a tone partly 
 insinuating, partly jeering — " who would then relieve the fiery 
 and scorching pain which my patron now suffers, and which 
 renders him exasperated even with his poor servant for quot- 
 ing the rules of healing, so contemptible, doubtless, compared 
 with the power of inflicting wounds ?" 
 
 Then, as daring no longer to trifle with the mood of his 
 dangerous patient, the leech addressed himself seriously to 
 salving the wound, and applied a fragrant balm, the odour of 
 which was diffused through the apartment, while it communi- 
 cated a refreshing coolness, instead of the burning heat — a 
 change so gratifying to the fevered patient, that, as he had 
 before groaned with agony, he could not now help sighing for 
 pleasure, as he sank back on his couch to enjoy the ease which 
 the dressing bestowed. 
 
 " Your knightly lordship now knows who is your friend, " 
 said Dwining ; " had you yielded to a rash impulse, and said, 
 'Slay me this worthless quacksalver,' where, withia the four 
 
224 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 seas of Britain, ■would you have found the man to have minis 
 tared to you as much comfort?" 
 
 " Forget my threats, good leech," said Eamorny, "and be- 
 ware how you tempt me. Such as I brook not jests upon our 
 agony. See thou keep thy scoffs, to pass upon misers ' in the 
 hospital." 
 
 Dwiuiug ventured to say no more, but poured some drops 
 from a phial which he took from his pocket into a small cup 
 of wine allayed with water. 
 
 " This draught," said the mau of art, " is medicated to pro- 
 duce a sleep which must not be iuterrupted. " 
 
 " For how long will it last?" asked the knight. 
 
 "The period of its operation is uncertaia — perhaps till 
 morniug. " 
 
 "Perhaps for ever," said the patient. "Sir mediciuer, 
 taste me that liquor presently, else it passes not my lips." 
 
 The leech obeyed him, with a scornful smile. " I would 
 driak the whole with readiness; but the juice of this Indian 
 gum will bring sleep on the healthy man as well as upon the 
 patient, and the business of the leech requires me to be a 
 watcher. " 
 
 "I crave your pardon, sir leech," said Eamorny, looking 
 downwards, as if ashamed to have manifested suspicion. 
 
 " There is no room for pardon where offence must not be 
 taken," answered the mediciner. "An insect must thank a 
 giant that he does not tread on him. Yet, noble knight, in- 
 sects have their power of harming as well as physicians. 
 What would it have cost me, save a moment's trouble, so to 
 have drugged that balm, as should have made your arm rot to 
 the shoulder joint, and your life-blood curdle in your veins to 
 a corrupted jeUy? What is there that prevented me to use 
 means yet more subtle, and to taint your room with essences, 
 before which the light of life twinkles more and more dimly, 
 tUl it expires, like a torch amidst the foul vapours of some 
 subterranean dungeon? You little estimate my power, if you 
 know not that these and yet deeper modes of destruction stand 
 
 ' That is, miserable persons, as used in Spenser and other writers of hie 
 time, though the sense is now restricted to those who are covetous. 
 
THE VATR MAID OF PERTH, 225 
 
 at command of my art^' But a physician slays not the pa- 
 tient by -whose generosity he lives, and far less •Brill he the 
 breath of whose nostrils is the hope of revenge destroy the 
 vowed ally who is to favour his pursuit of it. Yet one word ; 
 should a necessity occur for rousing yourself — ^for who in Scot- 
 land can promise himself eight hours' uninterrupted repose? 
 —then smell at the strong essence contained in this pouncet- 
 box. And now, farewell, sir knight; and if you cannot think 
 of me as a man of nice conscience, acknowledge me at least as 
 one of reason and of judgment." 
 
 So saying, the mediciner left the room, his usual mean and 
 shuffling gait elevating itself into something more noble, as 
 conscious of a victory over his imperious patient. 
 
 Sir John Eamorny remained sunk in unpleasing reflections, 
 until he began to experience the incipient effects of his sopo- 
 rific draught. He then roused himself for an instant, and 
 summoned his page. 
 
 " Evict ! what ho ! Evict ! I have done Ul to unbosom my- 
 self so far to this poisonous quacksalver. Evict I" 
 
 The page entered. 
 
 " Is the mediciner gone forth?" 
 
 " Yes, so please your knighthood." 
 
 " Alone or accompanied?" 
 
 " Bonthron spoke apart with him, and followed him almost 
 immediately — ^by your lordship's command, as I understood 
 him." 
 
 " Lack-a-day, yes ! he goes to seek some medicaments ; he 
 will return anon. If he be intoxicated, see he comes not near 
 my chamber, and permit him not to enter into converse with 
 any one. He raves when drink has touched his brain. He 
 was a rare fellow before a Southron bill laid his brain-pan 
 bare ; but since that time he talks gibberish whenever the cup 
 has crossed his lips. Said the leech aught to you, Evict?" 
 
 " Kothing, save to reiterate his commands that your honour 
 be not disturbed." 
 
 " Which thou must surely obey," said the knight. " I feel 
 ijie summons to rest, of which I have been deprived since this 
 gee Poisoning. J^'ote 3^, 
 
226 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 unliappy wound. , At least, if I have slept it has been but foi 
 a snatch. Aid me to take off my gown, Eviot." 
 
 "May God and the saiats send you good rest, my lord," 
 said the page, retiring after he had rendered his wounded 
 master the assistance required. 
 
 As Eviot left the room, the knight, whose brain was becom- 
 ing more and more confused, muttered over the page's depart- 
 ing salutation. 
 
 " God — saints — I have slept sound under such a benison. 
 But now, methinks if I awake not to the accomplishment of 
 my proud hopes of power and revenge, the best wish for me is, 
 that the slumbers which now faU. around my head were the 
 forerunners of that sleep which shaU. return my borrowed pow- 
 ers to their original non-existence — I can argue it no farther." 
 
 Thus speaking, he f eU. into a profound sleep. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 On Fastem's E'en when we war fou. 
 
 Scots Song, 
 
 The night which sunk down on the sick-bed of Eamorny 
 was not doomed to be a quiet one. Two hours had passed 
 since curfew-beU, then rung at seven o'clock at night, and in 
 those primitive times aU were retired to rest, excepting such 
 whom devotion, or duty, or debauchery made watchers ; and 
 the evening being that of Shrovetide, or, as it was called in 
 Scotland, Eastern's E'en,' the vigils of gaiety were by far the 
 most frequented of the three. 
 
 The common people had, throughout the day, toiled and 
 struggled at football; the nobles and gentry had fought cocks, 
 and hearkened to the wanton music of the minstrel ; while the 
 citizens had gorged themselves upon pancakes fried in lard, 
 and brose, or brewis— the fat broth, that is, in which salted 
 beef had been boUed, poured upon highly-toasted oatmeal, a 
 ' See Note 32. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH, 227 
 
 dish ■wMcli even now is not ungrateful to simple, old-fashioned 
 Scottish palates. These were all exercises and festive dishes 
 proper to the holiday. It was no less a solemnity of the even- 
 ing that the devout Catholic should drink as much good ale 
 and wine as he had means to procure ; and, if young and able, 
 that he should dance at the ring, or figure among the morrice- 
 dancers, who, in the city of Perth, as elsewhere, wore a pecu- 
 liarly fantastic garb, and distinguished themselves by their ad° 
 dress and activity. All this gaiety took place under the pru- 
 dential consideration that the long term of Lent, now ap- 
 proaching, with its fasts and deprivations, rendered it wise 
 for mortals to cram as much idle and sensual indulgence as 
 they could into the brief space which intervened before its 
 commencement. 
 
 The usual revels had taken place, and in most parts of the 
 city were succeeded by the usual pause. A particular degree 
 of care had been taken by the nobility to prevent any renewal 
 of discord betwixt their followers and the citizens of the town ; 
 so that the revels had proceeded with fewer casualties than 
 usual, embracing only three deaths and certain fractured 
 limbs, which, occurring to individuals of little note, were 
 not accounted worth inquiring into. The carnival was clos- 
 ing quietly in general, but in some places the sport was still 
 kept up. 
 
 One company of revellers, who had been particularly noticed 
 and applauded, seemed unwiUuig to conclude their frolic. 
 The entry, as it was calL'ed, consisted of thirteen persons, hab- 
 ited in the same manner, having doublets of chamois leather 
 sitting close to their bodies, curiously slashed and laced. 
 They wore green caps with silver tassels, red ribands, and 
 white shoes, had bells hung at their knees and around their 
 ankles, and naked swords in their hands. This gallant party, 
 having exhibited a sword-dance before the King, with much 
 clashing of weapons, and fantastic interchange of postures, 
 went on gallantly to repeat their exhibition before the door of 
 Simon Glover, where, having made a fresh exhibition of their 
 agility, they caused wine to be served round to their own com- 
 pany and the bystanders, and with a loud shout drank to the 
 
228 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 health of the Fair Maid of Perth. This summoned old Simon 
 to the door of his habitation, to acknowledge the courtesy of 
 his countrymen, and in his turn to send the wine around in 
 honour of the Merry Morrice-Daneers of Perth. 
 
 " We thank thee, father Simon, " said a voice, which strove 
 to drown iu an artificial squeak the pert, conceited tone of 
 Oliver Proudfute. " But a sight of thy lovely daughter had 
 been more sweet to us young bloods than a whole vintage of 
 Malvoisie. " 
 
 " I thank thee, neighbours, for your good- will, " replied the 
 glover. " My daughter is ill at ease, and may not come forth 
 into the cold night air; but if this gay gaUant, whose voice 
 methinks I should know, will go into my poor house, she will 
 charge him with thanks for the rest of you." 
 
 " Bring them to us at the hostelrie of the Griffin, " cried the 
 vest of the ballet to their favoured companion ; " for there will 
 we ring in Lent, and have another rouse to the health of the 
 lovely Catharine." 
 
 " Have with you ia half an hour, " said Oliver, " and see 
 who will quafE the largest flagon, or sing the loudest 
 glee. !N"ay, I will be merry in what remains of Tastern's 
 Even, should Lent find me with my mouth closed for 
 ever. " 
 
 " Farewell, then, " cried his mates in the morrice — " fare- 
 well, slashing bonnet-maker, till we meet agaia." 
 
 The morrice-dancers accordingly set out upon their further 
 progress, danciug and caroUiug as they went along to the 
 sound of four musicians, who led the joyous band, while Si- 
 mon Glover drew their coryphaeus into his house, and placed 
 iiim. in a chair by his parlour fire. 
 
 " But where is your daughter?" said Oliver. " She is the 
 ■bait for us brave blades." 
 
 "Why, truly, she keeps her apartment, neighbour Oliver; 
 and, to speak plainly, she keeps her bed.", 
 
 " ^Vhy, then will I upstairs to see her in her sorrow ; you 
 have marred my ramble, Gaffer Glover, and you owe me 
 amends — a roviag blade like me ; I wiU. not lose both the lasa 
 and the glass. Keeps her bed, does she? 
 
THE PAIR MAID OP PERTH, 22S 
 
 My dog and I we have a trick 
 To visit maids when they are sick ; 
 When they are sick and like to die, 
 Oh, thither do come my dog and L 
 
 And when I die, as needs must hap, 
 Then bury me under the good ale-tap ; 
 With folded arms there let me lie 
 Cheek for jowl, my dog and L" 
 
 " Canst thou not be serious for a moment, neighbour Proud" 
 fute?" said the glover; "I want a word of conversation with 
 you." 
 
 "Serious!" answered his visitor; "why, I have been serious 
 «11 this day; I can hardly open my mouth, but something 
 comes out about death, a burial, or such-like — ^themost serious 
 subjects that I wot of." 
 
 " St. John, maul" said the glover, "art thou fey?" 
 
 "No, not a whit: it is not my own death which these 
 gloomy fancies foretell. I have a strong horoscope, and shaU 
 live for fifty years to come. But it is the case of the poor fel- 
 low — ^the Douglas-man, whom I struck down at the fray ofSt. 
 Valentine's : he died last night ; it is that wlweh weighs on my 
 conscience, and awakens sad fancies. Ab., iiil.ber Simon, we 
 martialists, that have spilt blood in our choJer, have dark 
 thoughts at times ; I sometimes wish that my knife had cut 
 nothing but worsted thrums." 
 
 "And I wish," said Simon, "that mine had cut nothing but 
 buck's leather, for it has sometimes cut my own fingers. But 
 thou mayst spare thy remorse for this bout: there was but one 
 man dangerously hurt at the affray, and it was he from whom 
 Henry Smith hewed the hand, and he is well recovered. His 
 name is Black Quentin, one of Sir John Eamomy's followers. 
 He has been sent privately back to his own country of 
 Fife." 
 
 " What, Black Quentin? Why, that is the very man that 
 Henry and I, as we ever keep close together, struck at in the 
 same moment, only my blow fell somewhat earlier. I fear 
 further feud will come of it, and so does the provost. And is 
 h/^ recovered? Whyi theui 1 will be jovial, and since thou 
 
230 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 wilt not let me see how Kate becomes her night-gear, I will 
 back to the Griffin to my morrice-dancers." 
 
 " Ifay, stay but one instant. Thou art a comrade of Henry 
 Wynd, and hast done him the service to own one or two deeds, 
 and this last among others. I would thou couldst clear him 
 of other charges with which fame hath loaded him." 
 
 " Nay, I will swear by the hilt of my sword they are as false 
 as heU, father Simon. What — blades and targets I shall not 
 men of the sword stick together?" 
 
 "Nay, neighbour bonnet-maker, be patient; thou mayst do 
 the smith a kind turn, an thou takest this matter the right 
 way. I have chosen thee to consult with anent this matter — 
 not that I hold thee the wisest head in Perth, for should I say 
 eo I should lie." 
 
 "Ay — ay," answered the self-satisfied bonnet-maker; "I 
 know where you think my fault lies: you cool heads think we 
 hot-heads are fools — I have heard men call Henry Wyhd such 
 a score of times." 
 
 "Fool enough and cool enough may rhyme together passing 
 well," said the glover; "but thou art good-natured, and I 
 think lovest this crony of thine. It stands awkwardly with 
 us and him just now," continued Simon. "Thou knowest 
 there hath been some talk of marriage between my daughter 
 Catharine and Henry Gow?" 
 
 " I have heard some such song since St. Valentine's Morn. 
 Ah I he that shall win the Fair- Maid of Perth must be a hap- 
 py man; and yet marriage spoils many a pretty fellow. I 
 myself somewhat regret " 
 
 "Prithee, truce with thy regrets for the present, man," in- 
 terrupted the glover, somewhat peevishly. " You must know, 
 Oliver, that some of these talking women, who I think make 
 all the business of the world their own, have accused Henry 
 of keeping light company with glee-women and such-like. 
 Catharine took it to heart; and I held my child insulted, that 
 he had not waited upon her like a Valentine, but had thrown 
 himself into unseemly society on the very day when, by an- 
 cient custom, he might have had an opportunity to press his 
 interest with my daughter. Therefore, when he came hither 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 231 
 
 late on the evening of St. Valentine's, I, like a hasty old fool, 
 bid him go home to the company he had left, and denied him 
 admittance. I have not seen hiTn since, and I begin to think 
 that I may have been too rash in the matter. She is my only 
 child, and the grave should have her sooner than a debauchee. 
 But I have hitherto thought I knew Henry Gow as if he were 
 my son. I cannot think he would use us thus, and it may be 
 there are means of explaining what is laid to his charge. I 
 was led to ask Dwining, who is said to have saluted the 
 smith while he was walking with this choice mate. If I am 
 to believe his words, this wench was the smith's cousin, Joan 
 Latham.. But thou knowest that the potter-carrier ever speaks 
 one language with his visage and another with his tongue. 
 Now, thou, Oliver, hast too little wit — I mean, too much 
 honesty — to belie the truth, and as Dwining hinted that thou 
 
 also hadst seen her " 
 
 " I see her, Simon Glover! WiU Dwining say that I saw 
 her?" 
 
 "No, not precisely that; but he says you fold him you had 
 met the smith thus accompanied." 
 
 " He lies, and I will pound him into a gallipot!" said Oliver 
 Proudfute. 
 
 " How! Did you never tell hini, then, of such a meeting?" 
 
 " What an if I did?" said the bonnet-maker. " Did not he 
 
 swear that he would never repeat again to living mortal what 
 
 I communicated to him? and therefore, in telling the occur- 
 
 rent to you, he hath made himself a liar." 
 
 "Thou didst not meet the smith, then," said Simon, "with 
 such a loose baggage as fame reports?" 
 
 "Lack-a-day, not I; perhaps I did, perhaps I did not. 
 Think, father Simon — I have been a four-years married man, 
 and can you expect me to remember the turn of a glee-wo' 
 man's ankle, the trip of her toe, the lace upon her petticoat, 
 and such toys? No, I leave that to unmarried wags, like my 
 gossip Henry." 
 
 "The upshot is, then," said the glover, much vexed, "you 
 did meet him on St. Valentine's Day walking the publio 
 streets " 
 
232 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 "Not so, neighbour; I met him in the most distant and 
 dark lane in Perth, steering full for his own house, with bag 
 and baggage, which, as a gallant fellow, he carried ia his 
 arms, the puppy dog on one and the jilt herself — aud to my 
 thought she was a pretty one — ^hanging upon the other." 
 
 "ISTow, by good St. John," said the glover, "this infamy 
 would make a Christian man renounce his faith, and worship 
 Mahound in very anger! But he has seen the last of my 
 daughter. I would rather she went to the wild Highlands 
 with a bare-legged cateran than wed with one who could, at 
 such a season, so broadly forget honour and decency. Out 
 upon him!" 
 
 "Tush — ^tush! father Simon," said the liberal-miaded bon- 
 net-maker, "you consider not the nature of young blood. 
 Their company was not long, for — to speak truth, I did keep 
 a little watch on him — I met him before sunrise, conductiag 
 his errant damsel to the Lady's Stairs, that the wench might 
 embark on the Tay from Perth ; and I kuow for certaiuty, for 
 I made inquiry, that she sailed in a gabbart for Dundee. So 
 you see it was but a slight escape of youth." 
 
 " And he came here, " said Simon, bitterly, " beseeching for 
 admittance to my daughter, while he had his harlot awaiting 
 him at home ! I had rather he had slain a score of men ! It 
 skills not talking, least of all to thee, Oliver Proudfute, who, 
 if thou art not such a one as himseK, would fain be thought 
 so. But " 
 
 "Nay, think not of it so seriously," said Oliver, who began 
 to reflect on the mischief his tattling was likely to occasion to 
 his friend, and on the consequences of Henry Gow's displeas- 
 ure, when he should learn the disclosure which he had made 
 rather in vanity of heart than ia evil intention. " Consider, " 
 lie continued, " that there are follies belonging to youth. Oc- 
 casion provokes men to such frolics, and confession wipes 
 them off. I care not if I tell thee that, though my wife be as 
 goodly a woman as the city has, yet I myself " 
 
 "Peace, silly braggart," said the glover, in high wrath; 
 " thy loves and thy battles are alike apocryphal. If thou must 
 Beeds lie, which I think is thy nature, canst thou invent no 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 233 
 
 falsehood that may at least do thee some credit? Do I not 
 see through thee, as I could see the light through the horn of 
 a base lantern? Do I not know, thou filthy weaver of rotten 
 worsted, that thou durst no more cross the threshold of thy 
 own door, if thy wife heard of thy making such a boast, than 
 thou darest cross naked weapons with a boy of- twelve years 
 old, who has drawn a sword for the first time of his life? By 
 St. John, it were paying you for your tale-beariag trouble to 
 send thy Maudie word of thy gay brags." 
 
 The bonnet-maker, at this threat, started as if a cross-bow 
 bolt had whizzed past his head when least expected. And it 
 was with a trembling voice that he replied: " Nay, good father 
 Glover, thou takest too much credit for thy grey hairs. Con- 
 eider, good neighbour, thou art too old for a young martialist 
 to wrangle with. And in the matter of my Maudie, I can 
 trust thee, for I know no one who would be less wOling than 
 thou to break the peace of families. " 
 
 "Trust thy coxcomb no longer with me," said the incensed 
 glover; "but take thyseK, and the thing thou call'st a head, 
 out of my reach, lest I borrow back five minutes of my youth 
 and break thy pate!" 
 
 "You have had a merry Fastern's Even, neighbour," said 
 the bonnet-maker, " and I wish you a quiet sleep ; we shall 
 meet better friends to-morrow." 
 
 "Out of my doors to-night!" said the glover. "I am 
 ashamed so idle a tongue as thine should have power to move 
 me thus." "Idiot — beast — ^loose-tongued coxcomb!" he ex- 
 claimed, thiowing himself into a chair, as the bonnet-maker 
 disappeared; "that a fellow made up of lies should not have 
 had the grace to frame one when it might have covered the 
 shame of a friend! And I — what am I, that I should, in my 
 secret mind, wish that such a gross insult to me and my child 
 had been glossed over? Yet such was my opinion of Henry, 
 that I would have willingly believed the grossest figment the 
 swaggering ass could have invented. Well, it skills not 
 thinking of it. Our honest name must be maintained, though 
 everything else should go to ruin." 
 
 While the glover thus moralised on the unwelcome confir- 
 
234 WAVBRLEY NOVELS. 
 
 mation of the tale he wished to think untrue, the expelled 
 morrice-daneer had leisure, in the composing air of a cool and 
 dark February night, to meditate on the conseq^uences of the 
 glover's unrestrained anger. 
 
 " But it is nothing, " he bethought himself, " to the wrath of 
 Henry Wynd, who hath killed a man for much less than plac- 
 ing displeasure betwixt him and Catharine, as well as her 
 fiery old father. Certainly I were better hare denied every- 
 thing. But the humour of seeming a knowing gallant, as in 
 truth I am, fairly overcame me? Were I best go to finish the 
 revel at the GrifiOLn? But then Maudie wiU rampauge on my 
 return — ay, and this being holiday even, I may claim a privi- 
 lege. I have it: I wiU not to the Griffin — I wUl to the 
 smith's, who must be at home, since no one hath seen him 
 this day amid the revel. I wOI endeavour to make peace with 
 him, and offer my intercession with the glover. Harry is a 
 simple, downright fellow, and though I think he is my better 
 in a broil, yet in discourse I can turn him my own way. The 
 streets are now quiet, the night, too, is dark, and I may step 
 aside if I meet any rioters. I will to the smith's, and, secur- 
 ing him for my friend, I care little for old Simon. St. Eingan 
 bear me well through this night, and I will clip my tongue 
 out ere it shall run my head into such peril again I Yonder 
 old fellow, when his blood was up, looked more like a carver 
 of bufE-jerkins than a clipper of kid gloves." 
 
 With these reflections, the puissant Oliver walked swiftly, 
 yet with as little noise as possible, towards the wynd in which 
 the smith, as our readers are aware, had his habitation. But 
 his evD. fortune had not ceased to pursue him. As he turned 
 into the High, or principal, Street, he heard a burst of music 
 Yery near him, followed by a loud shout. 
 
 "My merry mates, the morrice-dancers, " thought he; "I 
 would know old Jeremy's rebeck among an hundred. I wiU 
 venture across the street ere they pass on ; if I am espied, I 
 shall have the renown of some private quest, which may do 
 me honour as a roving blade. " 
 
 With these longings for distinction among the gay and gal- 
 lant, combated, however, internally, by more prudential con- 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 235 
 
 siderations, tlie bonnet-maker made an attempt to cross the 
 atreet. But the revellers, -whoever they might be, were accom- 
 panied by torches, the flash of which fell upon Oliver, whose 
 light-coloured habit made him the more distinctly visible. 
 The general shout of " A prize — a prize" overcame the noise 
 of the minstrel, and before the bonnet-maker could determine 
 whether it were better to stand or fly, two active young men, 
 clad in fantastic masking habits, resembling wild men, and 
 holding great clubs, seized upon him, saying, in a tragical 
 tone : " Yield thee, man of bells and bombast — ^yield thee, res- 
 cue or no rescue, or truly thou art but a dead morrice- dancer." 
 
 " To whom shall I yield me?" said the bonnet-maker, with 
 a faltering voice ; for, though he saw he had to do with a 
 party of mummers who were a-foot for pleasure, yet he ob- 
 served at the same time that they were far above his class, 
 and he lost the audacity necessary to support his part in a 
 game where the inferior was likely to come by the worst. 
 
 " Dost thou parley, slave?" answered one of the maskers; 
 " and must I show thee that thou art a captive, by giving thee 
 incontinently the bastinado?" 
 
 "By no means, puissant man of Ind," said the bonnet- 
 maker; "lo, I am conformable to your pleasure." 
 
 "Come, then," said those who had arrested him — "come 
 and do homage to the Emperor of Mimes, King of Caperers, 
 and Grand Duke of the Dark Hours, and explain by what 
 right thou art so presumptuous as to prance and jingle, and 
 wear out shoe-leather, within his dominions without paying 
 him tribute. Know'st thou not thou hast incurred the pains 
 of high-treason?" 
 
 "That were hard, methinks," said poor Oliver, "since I 
 knew not that his Grace exercised the government this even- 
 ing. But I am willing to redeem the forfeit, if the purse of 
 a poor bonnet-maker may, by the mulct of a gallon of wine, 
 or some such matter." 
 
 "Bring him before the emperor," was the universal cry; 
 and the morrice-dancer was placed before a slight, but easy 
 and handsome, figure of a young man, splendidly attired, hav- 
 ing a cincture and tiara of peacock's feathers, then brought 
 
236 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 from the East as a marvellous rarity; a short jacket and 
 under-dress of leopard's skin fitted closely the rest of his per- 
 son, which was attired iu flesh-coloured silk, so as to resemble 
 the ordinary idea of an Indian prince. He wore sandals, fas- 
 tened on with ribands of scarlet silk, and held in his hand a 
 sort of fan, such as ladies then used, composed of the same 
 feathers, assembled into a plume or tuft. 
 
 "■^Vhat mister wight have we here," said the Indian chie^ 
 "who dares to tie the bells of a morrice on the ankles of a dull 
 ass? Hark ye, friend, your dress should make you a subject 
 of ours, since our empire extends over aU Merryland, iaclud- 
 ing mimes and minstrels of every description. What, tongue- 
 tied? He lacks wine; minister to him our nutshell fuU of 
 sack." 
 
 A huge calabash full of sack was offered to the lips of the 
 supplicant, while this prince of revellers exhorted him : 
 
 " Crack me this nut, and do it handsomely, and without wry 
 
 But, however Oliver might have relished a moderate sip of 
 the same good wine, he was terrified at the CLuantity he was 
 required to deal with. He drank a draught, and then en- 
 treated for mercy. 
 
 " So please your princedom, I have yet far to go, and if I 
 were to swallow your Grace's bounty, for which accept my 
 dutiful thanks, I should not be able to stride over the next 
 kennel." 
 
 " Art thou in case to bear thyself like a galliard? NoYr, 
 cut me a caper — ^hal one — two — three — admirable I Again — 
 give him the spur (here a satellite of the Indian gave Oliver a 
 slight touch with his sword). Nay, that is best of all: he 
 sprang like a cat iu a gutter. Tender him the nut once more; 
 nay, no compulsion, he has paid forfeit, and deserves not only 
 free dismissal but reward. Kneel down — ^kneel, and arise Sir 
 Knight of the Calabash! "What is thy name? And one of 
 you lend me a rapier." 
 
 " Oliver, may it please your honour — I mean your princi- 
 pality." 
 
 " Oliver, man! Fay, then thou art one of the 'douze peers* 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 237 
 
 already, and fate has forestalled our intended promotion. 
 Yet rise up, sweet Sir Oliver Thatchpate, Knight of the hon- 
 ourable order of the Pumpkin — rise up, in the name of non- 
 sense, and begone about thine own concerns, and the devil go 
 with thee." 
 
 So sayiug, the prince of the revels bestowed a smart blow 
 with the flat of the weapon across the bonnet-maker's shoul- 
 ders, who sprung to his feet with more alacrity of motion 
 than he had hitherto displayed, and, accelerated by the laugh 
 and halloo which arose behind him, arrived at the smith's 
 house before he stopped, with the same speed with which a 
 hunted fox makes for his den. 
 
 It was not till the affrighted bonnet-maker had struck a 
 blow on the door that he recollected he ought to have be- 
 thought himself beforehand in what manner he was to present 
 himself before Henry, and obtain his forgiveness for his rash 
 communications to Simon Glover. No one answered to his 
 first knock, and, perhaps, as these reflections arose in the mo- 
 mentary pause of recoUectiou which circumstances permitted, 
 the perplexed bonnet-maker might have flinched from his 
 purpose, and made his retreat to his own premises, without 
 venturing upon the interview which he had purposed. But a 
 distant strain of minstrelsy revived his apprehensions of fall- 
 ing once more into the hands of the gay maskers from whom 
 he had escaped, and he renewed his summons on the door of the 
 smith's dweUiag with a hurried, though faltering, hand. He 
 was then appalled by the deep, yet not unmusical, voice of 
 Henry Gow, who answered from within : " Who calls at this 
 hour, and what is it that you want?" 
 
 "It is I — Oliver Proudfute," replied the bonnet-maker; "I 
 have a merry jest to teU you, gossip Henry." 
 
 " Carry thy foolery to some other market. I am in no jest- 
 ing humour," said Henry. "Go hence; I will see no one -to- 
 night." 
 
 " But, gossip — good gossip, " answered the martialist with- 
 out, " I am beset with villains, and beg the shelter of your 
 roof!" 
 
 "Fool that thou art I" replied Henry; "no dunghill cock, 
 
238 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 the most recreant that has fought this Tastern's Eve, -would 
 ruffle his feathers at such a craven as thoa!" 
 
 At this moment another strain of minstrelsy, and, as the 
 bonnet-maker conceited, one which approached much nearer, 
 goaded his apprehensions to the uttermost ; and in a voice the 
 tones of which expressed the undisguised extremity of instant 
 fear he exclaimed: 
 
 "Por the sake of our old gossipred, and for the love of Our 
 Blessed Lady, admit me, Henry, if you -would not have me 
 found a bloody corpse at thy door, slain by the bloody-minded 
 Douglasses !" 
 
 "That -would be a shame to me," thought the good-natured 
 smith; "and sooth to say, his peril may be real. There are 
 roving ha-wks that -will strike at a sparro-w as soon as a heron." 
 
 With these reflections, half -muttered, half-spoken, Henry 
 undid his -well-fastened door, proposing to reconnoitre the 
 reality of the danger before he permitted his un-welcome guest 
 to enter the house. But as he looked abroad to ascertain how 
 matters stood, Oliver bolted in like a scared deer into a thicket, 
 and harboured himself by the smith's kitchen fire before 
 Henry could look up and down the lane, and satisfy himseU 
 there -were no enemies in pursuit of the apprehensive fugitive. 
 He secured his door, therefore, and returned into the kitchen, 
 displeased that he had suffered his gloomy solitude to be in- 
 truded upon by sympathising -with apprehensions -which he 
 thought he might have known -were so easily excited as those 
 of his timid to-wnsman. 
 
 " How no-w !" he said, coldly enough, -when he sa-w the bon- 
 net-maker calmly seated by his hearth. " What foolish revel 
 is this, Master Oliver? 1 see no one near to harm you." 
 
 " Give me a drink, kind gossip, " said Oliver : " I am choked 
 ■with the haste I have made to come hither." 
 
 "I have sworn," said Henry, "that this shall be no revel 
 night in this house : 1 am in my -work-day clothes, as you see, 
 and keep fast, as I have reason, instead of holiday. You 
 have had -wassail enough for the holiday evening, for you 
 speak thick already. If you -wish more ale or -wine you must 
 go elsewhere." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 239 
 
 "I have had over-mucli wassail already," said poor Oliver, 
 " aud have been ■wellnigh drowned in it. That accursed cala- 
 bash! A draught of water, kind gossip — ^you will not surely 
 let me ask for that in vain? or, if it is your will, a cup of cold 
 small ale." ' 
 
 " Kay, if that be all," said Henry, " it shall not be lacking. 
 But it must have been much which brought thee to the pass 
 of asking for either." 
 
 So saying, he filled a quart flagon from a barrel that stood 
 nigh, and presented it to his guest. Oliver eagerly accepted 
 it, raised it to his head with a trembling haiid, imbibed the 
 contents with lips which quivered with emotion, and, though 
 the potation was as thin as he had requested, so much was he 
 exhausted with the combined fears of alarm and of former 
 revelry, that, when he placed the flagon on the oak table, he 
 uttered a deep sigh of satisfaction, and remained silent. 
 
 "Well, now you have had your draught, gossip," said the 
 smith, " what is it you want? Where are those that threat* 
 ened you? I could see no one." 
 
 "Ko — ^but there were twenty chased me into the wynd," 
 said Oliver. " But when they saw us together, you know they 
 lost the courage that brought all of them upon one of us." 
 
 "Nay, do not trifle, friepd Oliver," replied his host; "my 
 mood lies not that way." 
 
 " I jest not, by St. John of Perth. I have been stayed and 
 foully outraged (gliding his hand sensitively over the place 
 affected) by mad David of Eothsay, roaring Ramorny, 
 and the rest of them. They made me drink a firkin of Mal» 
 voisie." 
 
 "Thou speakest foUy, man. Eamorny is sick nigh tv 
 death, as the potter-carrier everywhere reports : they and he 
 cannot surely rise at midnight to do such frolics." 
 
 "I cannot tell," replied Oliver; "but I saw the party by 
 torch-light, and I can make bodily oath tojthe bonnets I made 
 for them since last Innocents'. They are of a quaint device, 
 and I should know my own stitch." 
 
 "Well, thou mayst have had wrong," answered Henry. 
 " If thou art in real danger, I will cause them get a bed for 
 
240 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 thee here. But you must fill it presently, for I am not in tha 
 humour of talking." 
 
 "Nay, I would thank thee for my quarters for a night, only 
 iny Maudie will be angry — that is, not angry, for that I care 
 not for — but the truth is, she is over-anxious on a revel night 
 like this, knowing my humour is like thine for a word and a 
 blow." 
 
 " Why, then, go home," said the smith, "and show her that 
 her treasure is in safety. Master Oliver; the streets are quiet 
 and, to speak a blunt word, I would be alone." 
 
 " ITay, but I have things to speak with thee about of mo- 
 ment, " replied Oliver, who, afraid to stay, seemed yet unwill- 
 ing to go. " There has been a stir in our city council about 
 the affair of St. Valentine's Even. The provost told me not 
 four hours siace, that the Douglas and he had agreed that the 
 feud should be decided by a yeoman on either part, and that 
 cur acquaintance, the Devil's Dick, was to wave his gentry, 
 and take up the cause for Douglas and the nobles, and that 
 you or I should fight for the Fair City. Now, though I am 
 the elder burgess, yet I am wiQing, for the love and kindness 
 we have always borne to each other, to give thee the prece- 
 dence, and content myself with the humbler office of stickler." ' 
 
 Henry Smith, though angry, could scarce forbear a smile. 
 
 " If it is that which breaks thy quiet, and keeps thee out of 
 thy bed at midnight, I will make the matter easy. Thou 
 shalt not lose the advantage offered thee. I have fought a 
 score of duels — ^far, far too many. Thou hast, I think, only 
 encountered with thy wooden soldan : it were unjust — unfair — 
 unkind — in me to abuse thy friendly offer. So go home, 
 good fellow, and let not the fear of losing honour disturb thy 
 slumbers. Rest assured that thou shalt answer the challenge, 
 as good right thou hast, having had injury from this rough- 
 rider." 
 
 " Gramercy, and thank thee kindly," said Oliver, much em- 
 barrassed by his friend's unexpected deference; "thou art the 
 good friend I have always thought thee. But I have as much 
 friendship for Henry Smith as he for Oliver Proudfute. I 
 » See Note 3& 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 241 
 
 swear by St. John, I will not fight in this quarrel to thy prej- 
 udice ; so, having said so, I am beyond the reach of tempta- 
 tion, since thou wouldst not have me manswom, though it were 
 to fight twenty duels." 
 
 " Hark thee, " said the smith, " acknowledge thou art afraid, 
 Oliver : tell the honest truth, at once, otherwise I leave thee 
 to make the best of thy quarrel." 
 
 "Nay, good gossip," replied the bonnet-maker, "thou 
 knowest I am never afraid. But, in sooth, this is a desperate 
 ruffian ; and as I have a wife — poor Maudie, thou knowest — - 
 and a small family, and thou " 
 
 "And I," interrupted Henry, hastily, "have none, and 
 never shall have." 
 
 "Why, truly, such being the case, I would rather thou 
 fought' st this combat than I." 
 
 "Now, by our holidame, gossip," answered the smith, "thou 
 art easily gulled! Know, thou sUly fellow, that Sir Patrick 
 Charteris, who is ever a merry man, hath but jested with thee. 
 Dost thou think he would venture the honour of the city on 
 thy head, or that I would yield thee the precedence in which 
 such a matter was to bo disputed? Lack-a-day, go home, let 
 Maudie tie a warm nightcap on thy head, get thee a warm 
 breakfast and a cup of distilled waters, and thou wUt be ia 
 case to-morrow to fight thy wooden dromond, or soldan, as 
 thou caU'st him, the only thing thou wilt ever lay downright 
 blow upon." 
 
 "Ay, say'st thou so, comiade?" answered Oliver, much re- 
 lieved, yet deeming it necessary to seem in part offended. " I 
 care not for thy dogged humour ; it is weE for thee thou canst 
 iaot wake my patience to the point of falling foul. Enough — 
 we are gossips, and this house is thine. Why should the two 
 best blades ia Perth clash with each other? What! I know 
 thy rugged humour, and can forgive it. But is the feud really 
 soldered up?" 
 
 "As completely as ever hammer fixed rivet," said the 
 smith. " The town hath given the Johnstone a purse of gold, 
 for not ridding them of a troublesome fellow called Oliver 
 Proudf ute, when he had him at his mercy : and this purse of 
 
242 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 gold buys for the provost the Sleepless Isle, which the King 
 grants him, for the King pays all in the long-run. And thus, 
 Sir Patrick gets the comely inch which is opposite to his 
 dwelling, and all honour is saved on both sides, for what is 
 given to the provost is given, you understand, to the town. 
 Besides all this, the Douglas hath left Perth to march against 
 the Southron, who, men say, are called into the marches by 
 the false Earl of March. So the Fair City is quit of him and 
 his cumber." 
 
 "But, in St. John's name, how came all that about," said 
 Oliver, "and no one spoken to about it?" 
 
 " Why, look thee, friend Oliver, this I taie to have been 
 the case. The fellow whom I cropped of a hand is now said 
 to have been a servant of Sir John Eamorny's, who hath fled 
 to his motherland of Pife, to which Sir John himseK is also to 
 be banished, with full consent of every honest man. 'Now, 
 anything which brings in Sir John Eamorny touches a much 
 greater man — I think Simon Glover told as much to Sir Patrick 
 Gharteris. If it be as I guess, I have reason to thank Heaven 
 and all the saints I stabbed him not upon the ladder when I 
 made him prisoner." 
 
 "And I too thank Heaven and all the saints, most de- 
 voutly," said Oliver. "I was behind thee, thou knowest, 
 and " 
 
 "No more of that, if thou be'st wise. There are laws 
 against striking princes," said the smith: "best not handle 
 the horseshoe till it cools. All is hushed up now." 
 
 " If this be so, " said Oliver, partly disconcerted, but still 
 more relieved, by the intelligence he received from his better- 
 informed friend, " I have reason to complain of Sir Patrick 
 Gharteris for jesting with the honour of an honest burgess, 
 being, as he is, provost of our town." 
 
 " Do, Oliver; challenge him. to the field, and he wiU bid his 
 yeoman loose his dogs on thee. But come, night wears apace, 
 wUl you be shogging?" 
 
 " Nay, I had one word more to say to thee, good gossip. 
 But first, another cup of your cold ale. " 
 
 " Pest on thee for a fool ! Thou makest me wish thee where 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 243 
 
 cold liquors axe a scarce commodity. There, swill the barrel- 
 ful an thou wilt." 
 
 Oliver took the second flagon, but drank, or rather seemed 
 to drink, very slowly, in order to gain time for considering 
 how he should introduce his second subject of conversation, 
 which seemed rather delicate for the smith's present state of 
 irritability. At length, nothing better occurred to him than 
 to plunge into the subject at once, with, " I have seen Simon 
 Glover to-day, gossip. " 
 
 " Well, " said the smith, in ' a low, deep, and stern tone of 
 voice, "and if thou hast, what is that to me?" 
 
 " Nothing — nothing, " answered the appalled bonnet-maker. 
 " Only I thought you might like to know that he questioned 
 me close if I had seen thee on St. Valentine's Day, after the 
 uproar at the Dominicans', and in what company thou wert." 
 
 " And I warrant thou told'st him. thou met'st me with a 
 glee-woman in the mirk loaning yonder?" 
 
 " Thou know'st, Henry, I have no gift at lying; but I made 
 it aU up with him." 
 
 "As how, I pray you?" said the smith. 
 
 "Marry, thus: 'Father Simon,' said I, 'you are an old 
 man, and know not the quality of us, in whose veins youth is 
 like quicksilver. You think, now, he cares about this girl,' 
 said I, 'and, perhaps, that he has her somewhere here in Perth 
 in a corner? No such matter; I know,' said I, 'and I will 
 make oath to it, that she left his house early next morning 
 for Dundee. ' Ha ! have I helped thee at need?" 
 
 " Truly, I think thou hast, and if anything could add to my 
 grief and vexation at this moment, it is that, when I am so 
 deep in the mire, an ass like thee should place his clumsy 
 hoof on my head, to sink me entirely. Come, away with 
 thee, and mayst thou have such luck as thy meddling 
 humour deserves; and then I think, thou -wilt be found 
 with a broken neck, in the next gutter. Come, get you 
 out, or I win put you to the door with head and shoulders 
 forward. " 
 
 "Ha — ha!" exclaimed Oliver, laughing with some con- 
 straint; "thou art such a groom! But in sadness, gossip 
 
244 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 Henry, wilt thou not take a turn -with me to my own lieuse, ia 
 the Meal Vennel?" 
 
 " Curse thee, no, " answered the smith. 
 
 "I will bestow the wine on thee if thou wilt go," said 
 Oliver. 
 
 "I will bestow the cudgel on thee if thou stay'st," said 
 Henry. 
 
 " Nay, then, I will don thy buff-coat and cap of steel, and 
 walk with thy swashing step, and whistling thy pibroch of 
 'Broken Bones at Loncarty' ; and if they take me for thee, 
 there dare not four of them come near me." 
 
 " Take all or anything thou wilt, in the fiend's name! only 
 be gone." 
 
 " Well — well, Hal, we shall meet when thou art in better 
 humour," said Oliver, who had put on the dress. 
 
 " Go; and may I never see thy coxcombly face again." 
 
 Oliver at last relieved his host by swaggering off, imitating 
 as well as he could the sturdy step and outward gesture of his 
 redoubted companion, and whistling a pibroch composed on 
 the rout of the Danes at Loncarty, which he had picked up 
 from its being a favourite of the smith's, whom he made a 
 point of imitating as far as he could. But as the innocent, 
 though conceited, fellow stepped out from the entrance of the 
 wynd, where it communicated with the High Street, he re- 
 ceived a blow from behind, against which his head-piece was 
 no defence, and he fell dead upon the spot, an attempt to 
 mutter the name of Henry, to whom he always looked for pro- 
 tection, quivering upon his dying tongue. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Nay, I wiE fit you for a young prince. 
 
 Falstoiff, 
 
 We return to the revellers, who had, half an hour before, 
 witnessed, with such boisterous applause, Oliver's feat of agil- 
 ity, being the last which the poor bonnet -maker was ever to 
 exhibit, and at the hasty retreat which had followed it, ani- 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 245 
 
 mated by tlieir wild shout. After they had laughed their fill, 
 tliey passed ou their mirthful path in frolic and jubilee, stop- 
 ping and frightening some of the people whom they met, but, 
 it must be owned, without doing them any serious injury, 
 either in their persons or feelings. At length, tired with his 
 rambles, their chief gave a signal to his merry-men to close 
 around him. 
 
 " We, my brave hearts and wise counsellors, are, " he said, 
 " the, real king ' over all iu Scotland that is worth command^ 
 ing. We sway the hours when the wine-cup circulates, and 
 when beauty becomes kind, when frolic is awake, and gravity 
 snoring upon his pallet. We leave to our vicegerent, King 
 Eobert, the weary task of controlling ambitious nobles, grati- 
 fying greedy clergymen, subduing wild Highlanders, and 
 composing deadly feuds. And since our empire is one of joy 
 and pleasure, meet it is that we should haste with all our 
 forces to the rescue of such as own our sway, when they 
 chance, by evil fortune, to become the prisoners of care and 
 hypochondriac malady. I speak in relation chiefly to Sir 
 John, whom the vulgar call Eamorny. We have not seen 
 him since the onslaught of Curfew Street, and though wa 
 know he was somedeal hurt in that matter, we cannot see why 
 he should not do homage in leal and duteous sort. Here, 
 you, our Calabash King-at-arms, did you legally summon Sir 
 John to his part of this evening's revels?" 
 
 "I did, my lord." 
 
 " And did you acquaint him that we have for this night 
 suspended his sentence of banishment, that, since higher 
 powers have settled that part, we might at least take a mirth- 
 ful leave of an old friend?" 
 
 "I so delivered it, my lord," answered the mimic herald. 
 
 " And sent he not a word in writing, he that piques himself 
 upon being so great a clerk?" 
 
 " He \ } in bed, my lord, and I might not see him. So far 
 
 as I hear, he hath lived very retired, harmed with some bodily 
 
 bruises, malcontent with your Highness's displeasure, and 
 
 doubting insult in the streets, he having had a narrow escapa 
 
 t See Mumming Dignitaries. Note Si. 
 
246 "WAVERLET J!I0VEL8. 
 
 from the hurgesses, when the churls pursued him and his two 
 servants into the Dominican convent. The servants, too, 
 have been removed to Fife, lest they should tell tales." 
 
 " Why, it was wisely done," said the Prince, who, we need 
 not inform the intelligent reader, had a better title to be so 
 called than arose from the humours of the evening — " it was 
 prudently done to keep light-tongued companions out of the 
 way. But St. John's absenting himself from our solemn rev- 
 els, so long before decreed, is flat mutiny and disclamation of 
 allegiance. Or, if the knight be really the prisoner of illness 
 and melancholy, we must ourself grace him with a visit, see- 
 ing there can be no better cure for those maladies than oar 
 own presence, and a gentle kiss of the calabash. Forward, 
 ushers, minstrels, guard, and attendants! Bear on high the 
 great emblem of our dignity. Up with the calabash, I say! 
 and let the merry-men who carry these firkins, which are to 
 supply the wine-cup with their life-blood, be chosen with re- 
 gard to their state of steadiness. Their burden is weighty and 
 precious, and if the fault is not in our eyes, they seem to us 
 to reel and stagger more than were desirable. Now, move on, 
 sirs, and let our minstrels blow their blythest and boldest." 
 
 On they went with tipsy mirth and jollity, the numerous 
 torches flashing their red light against the small windows of 
 the narrow streets, from whence nightcapped householders, 
 and sometimes their wives to boot, peeped out by stealth to 
 see what wild wassail disturbed the peaceful streets at that 
 unwonted hour. At length the jolly train halted before the 
 door of Sir John Kamomy's house, which a small court di- 
 vided from the street. 
 
 Here they knocked, thundered, and halloo' d, with many 
 denunciations of vengeance against the recusants who refused 
 to open the gates. The least punishment threatened was im- 
 prisonment in an empty hogshead, within the massamore ' of 
 the Prince of Pastimes' feudal palace, videlicet, the ale-cellar. 
 But Evict, Eamomy's page, heard and knew well the charac- 
 ter of the intruders who knocked so boldly, and thought it bet- 
 ter, considering his master's condition, to make no answer at 
 ' See Note 35. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH- 247 
 
 bU, in hopes that the revel would pass on, than to attempt to 
 deprecate their proceediags, which he knew would be to no 
 purpose. His master's bedroom looking into a little garden, 
 his page hoped he might not be disturbed by the noise; and 
 he was confident ia the strength of the outward gate, upon 
 which he resolved they should beat tiU they tired themselves, 
 or till the tone of their drunken humour should changs. 
 The revellers accordingly seemed likely to exhaust themselves 
 in the noise they made by shouting and beating the door, when 
 their mock prince (alasl too really such) upbraided them as 
 lazy and dull followers of the god of wine and of mirth, 
 
 " Bring forward," he said, " our key, yonder it lies, and ap- 
 ply it to this rebellious gate." 
 
 The key he pointed at was a large beam of wood, left on 
 one side of the street, with the usual neglect of order charac- 
 teristic of a Scottish borough of the period. 
 
 The shouting men of Ind instantly raised it in their arms, 
 and, supporting it by their united strength, ran against the 
 door with such force, that hasp, hinge, and staple jingled, and 
 gave fair promise of yielding. Eviot did not choose to wait 
 the extremity of this battery : he came forth into the court, 
 and after some momentary questions for form's sake, caused 
 (he porter to undo the gate, as if he had for the first time rec- 
 ognised the midnight visitors. 
 
 "False slave of an unfaithful master," said the Prince, 
 " where is our disloyal subject, Sir John Eamomy, who has 
 proved recreant to our summons?" 
 
 "My lord," said Eviot, bowing at once to the real and to 
 the assumed dignity of the leader, " my master is just now 
 very much indisposed: he has taken an opiate — and — your 
 Highness must excuse me if I do my duty to him in saying, 
 he cannot be spoken with without danger of his life." 
 
 "Tush I teU me not of danger. Master Teviot — Cheviot — 
 Eviot — what is it they call thee? But show me thy master's 
 chamber, or rather undo me the door of his lodging, and I 
 will make a good guess at it myself. Bear high the calabash, 
 my brave followers, and see that you spiU not a drop of the 
 liquor, which Dan Bacchus has sent for the cure of all diseases 
 
248 WAVERLET NOVELa 
 
 of tlie body and cares of the mind. Advance it, I saj, an4 
 let U3 see the holy rind ■which incloses such precious liquor." 
 
 The Prince made his way into the house accordingly, and, 
 acquainted with its interior, raa upstairs, followed by Eviot, 
 in vain imploring silence, and, with the rest of the rabble 
 rout, burst into the room of the wounded master of tho 
 lodging. 
 
 He who has experienced the sensation of being compelled t» 
 eleep in spite of racking bodily paius by the administration of 
 a strong opiate, and of having been again startled by noise and 
 violence out of the unnatural state of insensibility in which 
 he had been plunged by the potency of the medicine, may be 
 able to imagine the confused and alarmed state of Sir John 
 Ramorny's mind, and the agony of his body, which acted and 
 reacted upon each other. If we add to these feelings the con- 
 sciousness of a criminal command, sent forth and in the act of 
 being executed, it may give us some idea of an awakening to 
 which, in the mind of the party, eternal sleep would be a far 
 preferable doom. The groan which he uttered as the first 
 symptom of returning sensation had something in it so terrific, 
 that even the revellers were awed into momentary silence; and 
 as, from the half-recumbent posture in which he had gone to 
 sleep, he looked around the room, filled with fantastic shapes, 
 rendered stUl more so by hia disturbed intellects, he muttered 
 to himself: 
 
 "It is thus, then, after all, and the legend is true I These 
 are fiends, and I am condemned for ever I The fire is not ex- 
 ternal, but I feel it — I feel it at my heart — burning as if the 
 aovea timea heated furnace were doing its work within!" 
 
 While he cast ghastly looks around him, and struggled to 
 recover some share of recollection, Eviot approached the 
 Prince, and, falling on his knees, implored him to allow the 
 apartment to be cleared. 
 
 "It may," he said, "cost my master his life." 
 
 "iNever fear, Cheviot," replied the Duke of Eothsay; 
 " were he at the gates of death, here is what should make the 
 fiends relinquish their prey. Advance the calabash, my maS' 
 ters^" 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 249 
 
 **Tt is death for Mm to taste it in Ms present state," said 
 Evict: "if he drinks wine he dies." 
 
 " Some one must drink it for him — ^he shall he cured vica- 
 riously; and may our great Dan Bacchus deign to Sir John 
 Eamorny the comfort, the elevation of heart, the lubrication 
 of lungs, and lightness of fancy, which are his choicest gifts, 
 whUe the faithful follower, who quaffs in his stead, shall have 
 the qualms, the sickness, the racking of the nerves, the dim- 
 ness of the eyes, and the throbbing of the brain, with which 
 our great master qualifies gifts which would else make us too 
 like the gods. "What say you, Eviot? will you be the faithful 
 follower that wUl quaff in your lord's behalf, and as his repre- 
 sentative? Do this, and we will hold ourselves contented 
 to depart, for, methinks, our subject doth look something 
 ghastly." 
 
 " I would do anything in my slight power," said Eviot, "to 
 save my master from a draught which may be his death, and 
 your Grace from the sense that you had occasioned it. But 
 here is one who will perform the feat of good-will, and thank 
 your Highness to boot." 
 
 " Whom have we here?" said the Prince, " a butcher, and I 
 think fresh from his office. Do butchers ply their craft on 
 Eastern's Eve? Eoh, how he smells of blood!" 
 
 This was spoken of Bonthron, who, partly surprised at the 
 tumult in the house, where he had expected to find all dark 
 and silent, and partly stupid through the wine which the 
 wretch had drunk in great quantities, stood in the threshold 
 of the door, staring at the scene before him, with his buff-coat 
 splashed with blood, and a bloody axe in his hand, exhibiting 
 a ghastly and disgusting spectacle to the revellers, who felt, 
 though they could not tell why, fear as well as dislike at his 
 presence. 
 
 As they approached the calabash to this ungainly and tru- 
 culent-looking savage, and as he extended a hand soUed, as it 
 seemed, with blood, to grasp ii, the Prince called out : 
 
 "Downstairs with him! let not the wretch drink in our 
 presence ; find him some other vessel than our holy calabash, 
 the emblem of our revels ; a swine's trough were best, if it 
 
250 WATERLET NOVELS. 
 
 could be come by. Away -with Mm! let Wm be drenched to 
 purpose, in atonement for his master's sobriety. Leave me 
 alone with Sir John Eamorny and his page; by my honour, 
 I Mke not yon ruffian's looks." 
 
 The attendants of the Prince left the apartment, and Eviot 
 alone remained. 
 
 "I fear," said the Prince, approaching the bed in different 
 form from that which he had hitherto used — " I fear, my dear 
 Sir John, that this visit has been unwelcome ; but it is your 
 own fault. Although you know our old wont, and were your- 
 self participant of our schemes for the eveniag, you have not 
 come near us since St. Valentiae's ; it is now Pastern's Even, 
 and the desertion is flat disobedience and treason to our king- 
 dom of mirth and the statutes of the calabash." 
 
 Eamorny raised his head, and fixed a wavering eye upon 
 the Prince ; then signed to Eviot to give him something to 
 drink. A large cup of ptisan was presented by the page, 
 which the sick man swallowed with eager and trembling haste. 
 He then repeatedly used the stimulating essence left for the 
 purpose by the leech, and seemed to collect his scattered 
 senses. 
 
 "Let me feel your pulse, dear Eamorny," said the Prince; 
 " I know something of that craft. How ! Do your offer me 
 the left hand. Sir John? that is neither according to the rules 
 of medicine nor of courtesy." 
 
 " The right has already done its last act in your Highness's 
 service," muttered the patient in a low and broken tone. 
 
 " How mean you by that?" said the Prince. " I am aware 
 thy follower. Black Quentin, lost a hand; but he can steal 
 with the other as much as will bring him. to the gallows, so his 
 fate cannot be much altered." 
 
 " It is not that f eUow who has had the loss in your Grace's 
 Service: it is I, John of Eamorny." 
 
 "You!" said the Prince; "you jest with me, or the opiat* 
 still masters your reason." 
 
 " If the juice of all the poppies iu Egypt were blended in 
 one draught, " said Eamorny, " it would lose influence over mo 
 when I look upon this." He drew his right arm from beneath 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 251 
 
 the cover of the bedclothes, and extending it towards the 
 Prince, wrapped as it was in dressings, " Were these undone 
 and removed, " he said, " your Highness would see that a bloody 
 stump is all that remains of a hand ever ready to unsheath 
 the sword at your Grace's slightest bidding." 
 
 Eothsay started back in horror. "This," he said, "must 
 be avenged !" 
 
 " It is avenged in small part," said Eamorny — "that is, I 
 thought I saw Bonthron but now ; or was it that the dream of 
 hell that first arose in my mind when I awakened summoned 
 up an image so congenial? Eviot, call the miscreant — ^that 
 is, if he is fit to appear." 
 
 Eviot retired, and presently returned with Bonthron, whom 
 he had rescued from the penance, to him. no unpleasing inflic- 
 tion, of a second calabash of wine, the brute having gorged 
 the first without much apparent alteration in his demeanour. 
 
 "Eviot," said the Prince, "let not that beast come nigh 
 me. My soul recoils from him in fear and disgust : there is 
 something in his looks alien from my nature, and which I 
 shudder at as at a loathsome snake, from which my instinct 
 revolts." 
 
 " First hear him speak, my lord, " answered Eamorny ; " un- 
 less a wine-skin were to talk, nothing could use fewer words. 
 Hast thou dealt with him, Bonthron?" 
 
 The savage raised the axe which he still held in his hand, 
 and brought it down again edgeways. 
 
 " Good. How knew you your man? the night, I am told, 
 is dark." 
 
 "By sight and sound, garb, gait, and whistle." 
 
 "Enough, vanish! and, Eviot, let him have gold and wine 
 to his brutish contentment. Vanish! and go thou with him." 
 
 " And whose death is achieved?" said the Prince, released 
 from the feelings of disgust and horror under which he suffered 
 whUe the assassin was in presence. " I trust this is but a 
 jest! Else must I call it a rash and savage deed. Who has 
 had the hard lot to be butchered by that bloody and brutal 
 slave?" 
 
 "One little better than himself," said the patient, "a 
 
252 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 wretched artisan, to whom, however, fate gave the power of 
 reducing Ramorny to a mutUated cripple — a curse go with his 
 base spirit! His miserable life is but to my revenge what a 
 drop of water would be to a furnace. I must speak briefly, 
 for my ideas again wander: it is only the necessity of the mo- 
 ment which keeps thein together, as a thong combines a hand- 
 ful of arrows. You are in danger, my lord — I speak it with 
 certainty : you have braved Douglas, and offended your imcle, 
 displeased your father, though that were a trifle, were it not 
 for the rest." 
 
 " I am sorry I have displeased my father, " said the Prince, 
 entirely diverted from so insignificant a thing as the slaughter 
 of an artisan by the more important subject touched upon, " if 
 indeed it be so. But if I live, the strength of the Douglas 
 shall be broken, and the craft of Albany shall little avail 
 him!" 
 
 "Ay — if — if. My lord," said Ramorny, "with suchoppo- 
 sites as you have, you must not rest upon if or hut : you must 
 resolve at once to slay or be slain." 
 
 " How mean you, Ramorny? your fever makes you rave," 
 answered the Duke of Rothsay. 
 
 "No, my lord," said Ramorny, "were my frenzy at the 
 highest, the thoughts that pass through my miud at this mo- 
 ment would qualify it. It may be that regret for my own loss 
 has made me desperate, that anxious thoughts for your High- 
 ness's safety have made me nourish bold designs ; but I have 
 all the judgment with which Heaven has gifted me, when I 
 tell you that, if ever you would brook the Scottish crown, 
 nay, more, if ever you would see another St. Valentine's Day, 
 you must " 
 
 " What is it that I must do, Ramorny?" said the Prince, 
 with an air of dignity ; " nothing unworthy of myself, I hope?" 
 
 " Nothiug, certainly, imworthy or misbecoming a prince of 
 Scotland, if the blood-stained 'annals of our country tell the 
 tale truly ; but that which may well shock the nerves of a 
 prince of mimes and merry-makers." 
 
 " Thou art severe, Sir John Ramorny, " said the Duke of 
 Rothsay, with an air of displeasure ; " but thou hast dearly 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 253 
 
 bought a right to censure us by what thou hast lost in oat 
 cause." 
 
 "My Lord of Eothsay," said the knight, "the chirurgeon 
 who dressed this mutilated stump told me that the more I felt 
 th© pain his knife and brand inflicted, the better was my 
 chance of recovery. I shall not, therefore, hesitate to hurt 
 your feelings, while by doing so I may be able to bring you 
 to a sense of what is necessary for your safety. Your Grace 
 has been the pupil of mirthful f oUy too long ; you must now 
 assume manly policy, or be crushed like a butterfly on the 
 bosom of the flower you are sporting on. " 
 
 " I thiak I know your cast of morals. Sir John : you are 
 weary of merry foUy — ^the churchmen call it vice — and long 
 for a little serious crime. A murder, now, or a massacre, 
 would enhance the flavour of debauch, as the taste of the olive 
 gives zest to wine. But my worst acts are but merry malice : 
 I have no relish for the bloody trade, and abhor to see or hear 
 of its being acted even on the meanest caitiff. Should I ever 
 £01 the throne, I suppose, like my father before me, I must 
 drop my own name, and be dubbed Robert, in honour of the 
 Bruce ; well, an if it be so, every Scots lad shall have his flag- 
 on in one hand and the other around his lass's neck, and maji- 
 hood shall be tried by kisses and bumpers, not by dirks and 
 dourlachs ; and they Shall write on my grave, ' Here lies Eob- 
 ert, fourth of his name. He won not battles like Eobert the 
 First. He rose not from a count to a king like Eobert the 
 Second. He founded not churches like Robert the Third, but 
 was contented to live and die king of good fellows ! ' Of all 
 my two centuries of ancestors, I would only emulate the fame 
 of 
 
 Old King Coul, 
 
 Who had a brown bowl." 
 
 "My gracious lord," said Eamorny, "let me remind you 
 that your joyous revels involve serious evils. If I had lost 
 this hand in fighting to attain for your Grace some important 
 advantage over your too powerful enemies, the loss would 
 never have grieved me. But to be reduced from helmet and 
 steel-coat to biggin and gown in a night-brawl " 
 
264 WAVERLEY NOVELS, 
 
 "Why, there again now, Sir John," interrupted the reckless 
 Prince. " How canst thou be so unworthy as to be for ever 
 flinging thy bloody hand in my face, as the ghost of GaskhaU 
 threw his head at Sir William Wallace? ' Bethink thee, thou 
 art more unreasonable than Tawdyon himself; for wight Wal- 
 lace had swept his head off in somewhat a hasty humour, 
 whereas I would gladly stick thy band on again, were that 
 possible. And, hark thee, since that cannot be, I will get 
 thee such a substitute as. the steel hand of the old knight of 
 Carslogie, with which he greeted his friends, caressed his 
 wife, braved his antagonists, and did all that might be done 
 by a hand of flesh and blood, in offence or defence. Depend 
 on it, John Eamorny, we have much that is superfluous about 
 us. Man can see with one eye, hear with one ear, touch with 
 one hand, smell with one nostril; and why we should have 
 two of each, unless to supply an accidental loss or injury, I 
 for one am at a loss to conceive. " 
 
 Sir John Eamorny turned from the Prince with a low groan. 
 
 "Nay, Sir John," said the Duke, "I am quite serious. 
 Hon know the truth touching the legend of Steel-hand of Cars- 
 logie better than I, since he was your own neighbour. In his 
 time that curious engine could only be made in Rome ; but I 
 will wager an hundred merks with you that, let the Perth ar- 
 mourer have the use of it for a pattern, Henry of the Wynd 
 will execute as complete an imitation as all the smiths in 
 Eome could accomplish, with all the cardinals to bid a bless- 
 ing on the work." 
 
 "I could venture to accept your wager, my lord," an- 
 swered Eamorny, bitterly, " but there is no time for foolery. 
 You have dismissed me from your service, at command of 
 your uncle?" 
 
 "At command of my father," answered the Prince. 
 
 " Upon whom your uncle's commands are imperative," re- 
 plied Eamorny. " I am a disgraced man, thrown aside, as I 
 may now fling away my right-hand glove, as a thing useless. 
 Yet my head might help you, though my hand be gone. Is 
 
 " The passage referred to is perhaps the most poetical one in Blind 
 Harry's " Wallace, " Book v. 170-220. 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 265 
 
 your Grace disposed to listen to me for one word of serious 
 import, for I am much exhausted, and feel my force sinking 
 under me?" 
 
 •'Speak your pleasure," said the Prince; "thy loss binds 
 me to hear thee, thy bloody stump is a sceptre to control me. 
 Speak, then, but be merciful in thy strength of privilege." 
 
 " I will be brief for mine own sake as well as thine; indeed, 
 I have but little to say. Douglas places himself immediately 
 at the head of his vassals. He will assemble, in the name of 
 King Eobert, thirty thousand Borderers, whom he will shortly 
 after lead into the interior, to demand that the Duke of Eoth- 
 say receive, or rather restore, his daughter to the rank and 
 privileges of his Duchess. King Eobert will yield to any con- 
 ditions which may secure peace. What will the Duke do?" 
 
 "The Duke of Eothsay loves peace," said the Prince, 
 haughtily; "but he never' feared war. Ere he takes back 
 yonder proud peat to his table and his bed, at the command of 
 her father, Douglas must be King of Scotland." 
 
 " Be it so ; but even this is the less pressing peril, especially 
 as it threatens open violence, for the Douglas works not in 
 secret." 
 
 " "What is there which presses, and keeps us awake at this 
 late hour? I am a weary man, thou a wounded one, and the 
 very tapers are blinking, as if tired of our conference." 
 
 " TeU me, then, who is it that rules this kingdom of Scot- 
 land?" said Eamorny. 
 
 " Eobert, third of the name, " said the Prince, raising his 
 bonnet as he spoke; "and long may he sway the sceptre!" 
 
 " True, and amen, " answered Eamorny ; " but who sways 
 King Eobert, and dictates almost every measure which the 
 good King pursues?" 
 
 •■'My Lord of Albany, you would say," replied the Prince. 
 " Yes, it is true my father is guided almost entirely by the 
 counsels of his brother; nor can we blame him in our con- 
 sciences, Sir John Eamorny, for little help hath he had from 
 his son." 
 
 " Let us help him now, my lord, " said Eamorny. " I am 
 possessor of a dreadful secret : Albany hath been trafficking 
 
256 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 ■with me, to join him ia taking your Grace's life! He offers 
 full pardon for the past, high favour for the future." 
 
 "How, man — my life? I trust, though, thou dost only 
 mean my kiagdom? It were impious! He is my father's 
 brother — they sat on the knees of the same father — ^lay in the 
 bosom of the same mother. Out on thee, man, what foUies 
 they make thy sick-bed believe !" 
 
 " Believe, indeed!" said Eamomy. "It is new to me to be 
 termed credulous. But the man through whom Albany com- 
 municated his temptations is one whom aU will believe so soon 
 as he hiuts at mischief — even the medicaments which are pre- 
 pared by his hands have a relish of poison." 
 
 "Tush! such a slave would slander a saiut," replied the 
 Prince. " Thou art duped for once, Eamorny, shrewd as thou 
 art. iVCy uncle of Albany is ambitious, and would secure for 
 himself and for his house a larger portion of power and wealth 
 than he ought iu reason to desire. But to suppose he would 
 
 dethrone or slay his brother's son Tie, Eamorny! put 
 
 me not to quote the old saw, that evil doers are evil dreaders. 
 It is your suspicion, not your knowledge, which speaks." 
 
 " Ycrur Grace is fatally deluded. I will put it to an issue. 
 The Dake of Albany is generally hated for his greed and cov- 
 etousuess. Your Highness is, it may be, more beloved 
 than " 
 
 Eamorny stopped, the Prince calmly filled up the blank: 
 " More beloved than I am honoured. It is so I would have it, 
 Eamorny. " 
 
 " At least, " said Eamorny, " you are more beloved than you 
 are feared, and that is no safe condition for a prince. But 
 give me your honour and knightly word that you will not re- 
 sent what good service I shall do in your behalf, and lend me 
 your signet to engage friends in your name, and the Duke of 
 Albany shaU. not assume authority in this court tiU the wasted 
 hand which once terminated this stump shall be again united 
 to the body, and acting in obedience to the dictates of my 
 mind." 
 
 " You would not venture to dip your hands in royal blood?" 
 •aid the Prince, sternly. 
 
THE PAIR MAID OP PERTH. 267 
 
 'Tie, my lord, at no rate. Blood need not be shed; life 
 may, nay, will, be extinguished of itseH. For want of trim 
 ming it with fresh oil, or screening it from a breath of wind, 
 the quiveriag light will die in the socket. To sulfer a man to 
 die is not to kiE him." 
 
 " True — I had forgot that policy. Well, then, suppose my 
 uncle Albany does not continue to lire — -I thiuk that must be 
 the phrase— who then rules the court of Scotland?" 
 
 " Eobert the Third, with consent, advice, and authority of 
 the most mighty David, Duke of Eothsay, Lieutenant of the 
 Kingdom, and alter ego ; in whose favour, indeed, the good 
 King, wearied with the fatigues and troubles of sovereignty, 
 will, I guess, be well disposed to abdicate. So long live our 
 brave young monarch, King David the Third I 
 
 Ille manu fortis 
 
 Anglis ludebit in hortis." 
 
 "And our father and predecessor," said Eothsay, "will 
 he continue to live to pray for us, as our beadsman, by whose 
 favour he holds the privilege of laying his grey hairs in the 
 grave as soon, and no earlier, than the course of nature per- 
 mits ; or must he also encounter some of those negligences in 
 consequence of which men cease to continue to live, and ex- 
 change the limits of a prison, or of a convent resembling 
 one, for the dark and tranquU. cell, where the priests say 
 that the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at 
 rest?" 
 
 "You speak in jest, my lord," replied Eamorny: "to harm 
 the good old King were equally lumatural and impolitic." 
 
 "Why shrink from that, man, when thy whole scheme," 
 answered the Prince, in stern displeasure, " is one lesson of 
 unnatural guHt, mixed with short-sighted ambition? If the 
 King of Scotland can scarcely make head against his nobles, 
 even now when he can hold up before them an unsullied and 
 honourable banner, who would follow a prince that is black- 
 ened with the death of an uncle and the imprisonment of a 
 father? Why, man, thy policy were enough to revolt a 
 heathen divan, tO say nought of the council of a Christian 
 
 i7 
 
258 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 nation. Thou Tcert my tutor, Eamomy, and perhaps I might 
 justly uphraid thy lessons and example for some of the follies 
 ■which men chide in me. Perhaps, if it had not been for 
 thee, I had not been standing at midnight ia this fool's 
 guise (looking at his dress), to hear an ambitious profligate 
 propose to me the murder of an uncle, the dethroniag of the 
 best of fathers. Siuce it is my fault as ■well as thiae that has 
 sunk me so deep in the gulf of infamy, it "were unjust that thou 
 alone shouldst die for it. But dare not to renew this theme 
 to me, on perD. of thy life ! I wiU proclaim thee to my father 
 — to Albany — to Scotland — throughout its length and breadth! 
 As many market crosses as are iu the land shall have mor- 
 sels of the traitor's carcass, who dare counsel such horrors to 
 the heir of Scotland. Well hope I, indeed, that the fever of 
 thy wound, and the iutoxicating influence of the cordials 
 which act on thy iafirm brain, have this night operated on 
 thee, rather than any j&xed purpose." 
 
 "In sooth, my lord," said Eamomy, "if I have said any- 
 thing which could so greatly exasperate your Highness, it must 
 have been by excess of zeal, mingled with imbecility of un- 
 derstaiidiag. Surely I, of all men, am least likely to propose 
 ambitious projects with a prospect of advantage to myself 1 
 Alas ! my only future views must be to exchange lance and 
 saddle for the breviary and the confessional. The convent of 
 Liudores must receive the maimed and impoverished knight 
 of Eamorny, who will there have ample leisure to meditate 
 upon the text, 'Put not thy faith in princes.' " 
 
 " It is a goodly purpose," said the Priuce, " and we will not 
 be lacking to promote it. Our separation, I thought, would 
 have been but for a time. It must now be perpetual. Cer- 
 tainly, after such talk as we have held, it were meet that we 
 should live asunder. But the convent of Lindores, or what- 
 ever other house receives thee, shall be richly endowed and 
 highly favoured by us. And now. Sir John of Eamorny, 
 sleep — sleep — and forget this evil-omened conversation, in 
 which the fever of disease and of wine has rather, I trust, 
 held colloquy than your own proper thoughts. Light to the 
 door. Eviot." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 259 
 
 A call from Eviot summoned the attendants of the Prince, 
 who had been sleeping on the staircase and haU, exhausted 
 by the revels of the evening. 
 
 " Is there none amongst you sober?" said the Duke of Eoth- 
 say, disgusted by the appearance of his attendants. 
 
 " Not a man — not a man, " answered the followers, with a 
 drunken shovit ; " we are none of us traitors to the Emperor 
 of Merry-makers !" 
 
 " And are all of you turned into brutes, then?" said the 
 Prince. 
 
 " In obedience and imitation of your Grace, " answered one 
 fellow ; " or, if we are a little behind your Highness, one pull 
 at the pitcher will " 
 
 "Peace, beast!" said the Duke of Eothsay. "Are there 
 none of you sober, I say?" 
 
 " Yes, my noble liege, " was the answer ; " here is one false 
 brother, Watkins the Englishman." 
 
 " Come hither then, Watkins, and aid me with a torch ; give 
 me a cloak, too, and another bonnet, and take away this trum- 
 pery," throwing down his coronet of feathers. "I would I 
 could throw off all my follies as easily. English Wat, attend 
 me alone, and the rest of you end your revelry, and doff your 
 mumming habits. The holytide is expended, and the fast 
 has begun." 
 
 " Our monarch has abdicated sooner than usual this night, " 
 said one of the revel rout ; but as the Prince gave no encour- 
 agement, such as happened for the time to want the virtue of 
 sobriety endeavoured to assume it as well as they could, and 
 the whole of the late rioters began to adopt the appearance of 
 a set of decent persons, who, having been surprised into in- 
 toxication, endeavoured to disguise their condition by assum- 
 ing a double portion of formality of behaviour. In the in- 
 terim., the Prince, having made a hasty reform in his dress, 
 was lighted to the door by the only sober man of the com- 
 pany, but, in his progress thither, had weUnigh stumbled over 
 the sleeping bulk of the brute Bonthron. 
 
 "How now! is that vile beast in our way once more?" h« 
 said, in anger and disgust. " Here, some of you, toss this 
 
260 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 caitiff iato the horse-trough, that for once in his life he may 
 be washed clean." 
 
 While the train executed his commands, availing themselves 
 of a fountain which was in the outer court, and while Bon- 
 thron underwent a discipline which he was incapable of re- 
 sisting, otherwise than by some inarticulate groans and snorts, 
 like those of a dying boar, the Prince proceeded on his way 
 to his apartments, in a mansion called the Constable's lodg- 
 ings, from the house beiug the property of the Earls of Errol. 
 On the way, to divert his thoughts from the more unpleasing 
 matters, the Prince asked his companion how he came to be 
 sober, when the rest of the party had been so much overcome 
 with liquor. 
 
 " So please your honour's Grace," replied English Wat, "I 
 confess it was very familiar in me to be sober when it was 
 your Grace's pleasure that your train should be mad drunk; 
 but in respect they were all Scottishmen but myself, I thought 
 it argued no policy in getting drunken in their company, see- 
 ing that they only endure me even when we are all sober, and 
 if the wine. were uppermost, I might tell them a, piece of my 
 miiid, and be paid with as many stabs as there are skenes in 
 the good company." 
 
 " So it is your purpose never to join any of the revels of 
 our household?" 
 
 "Under favour, yes; imless it be your Grace's pleasure that 
 the residue of your traia should remain one day sober, to ad- 
 mit Will Watkins to get drunk without terror of his life. " 
 
 " Such occasion may arrive. Where dost thou serve, Wat- 
 kins?" 
 
 " In the stable, so please you." 
 
 " Let our chamberlain bring thee into the household, as a 
 yeoman of the night-watch. I like thy favour, and it is some- 
 thing to have one sober fellow in the house, although he is 
 only such through the fear of death. Attend, therefore, near 
 our person, and thou shalt find sobriety a thriving virtue." 
 
 Meantime a load of care and fear added to the distress of 
 Sir John Eamorny's sick-chamber. His reflections, disordered 
 as they were by the opiatci fell into greal^ confusioo whea th§ 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 261 
 
 Prince, in wtose presence lie had suppressed its effect ty 
 strong resistance, had left the apartment. His consciousness, 
 which he had possessed perfectly during the interview, began 
 to be very much disturbed. He felt a general sense that he 
 had incurred a great danger, that he had rendered the Prince 
 his enemy, and that he had betrayed to him a secret which 
 might affect his own life. In this state of mind and body, it 
 was not strange that he should either dream, or else that his 
 diseased organs should become subject to that species of phan- 
 tasmagoria which is excited by the use of opium. He thought 
 that the shade of Queen Annabella stood by his bedside, and 
 demanded the youth whom she had placed under his charge, 
 simple, virtuous, gay, and innocent. 
 
 " Thou hast rendered him reckless, dissolute, and vicious, " 
 said the shade of pallid Majesty. "Yet I thank thee, John 
 of Eamorny, ungrateful to me, false to thy word, and treach- 
 erous to my hopes. Thy hate shall counteract the evil which 
 thy friendship has done to him. And well do I hope that, 
 now thou art no longer his counsellor, a bitter penance on 
 earth may purchase my ill-fated child pardon and acceptance in 
 a better world." 
 
 Eamorny stretched out his arms after his benefactress, and 
 endeavoured to express contrition and excuse ; but the counte- 
 nance of the apparition became darker and sterner, till it was 
 no longer that of the late Queen, but presented the gloomy 
 and haughty aspect of the Black Douglas ; then the timid and 
 sorrowful face of King Eobert, who seemed to mourn over the 
 approaching dissolution of his royal house; and then a group 
 of fantastic features, partly hideous, partly ludicrous, which 
 moped, and chattered, and twisted themselves into unnatural 
 and extravagant forms, as if ridiculing his endeavour to obtain 
 an exact idea of their lineaments. 
 
262 WAVERLET NOVELa 
 
 CHAPTER XVIIL 
 
 A pnrple land, where law secures not life. 
 
 Bteon. 
 
 The morning of Ash Wednesday arose pale and bleak, as 
 usual at this season in Scotland, where the worst and most 
 inclement weather often occurs in the early spring months. 
 It was a severe day of frost, and the citizens had to sleep 
 away the consequences of the preceding holiday's debauchery. 
 The sun had therefore risen for an hour above the horizon 
 before there was any general appearance of life among the 
 inhabitants of Perth, so that it was some time after daybreak 
 when a citizen, going early to mass, saw the body of the luck- 
 less Oliver Proudfute lying on its face across the kennel in 
 the manner in which he had fallen imder the blow, as our 
 readers wUl easily imagine, of Antony Bonthron, the " boy of 
 the belt " — that is, the executioner of the pleasure — of John 
 of Eamorny. 
 
 This early citizen was Allan Griffin, so termed because he 
 was master of the G-riffln Inn ; and the alarm which he raised 
 soon brought together, first straggling neighbours, and by and 
 by a concourse of citizens. At first, from the circumstance of 
 the well-known buff-coat and the crimson feather in the head- 
 piece, the noise arose that it was the stout smith that lay there 
 slain. This false rumour continued for some time; for the 
 host of the Griffin, who himself had been a magistrate, would 
 not permit the body to be touched or stirred till Bailie Craig- 
 dallie arrived, so that the face was not seen. 
 
 " This concerns the Pair City, my friends, " he said ; " and 
 if it is the stout Smith of the Wynd who lies here, the man lives 
 not in Perth who wiU not risk, land and life to avenge him. 
 Look you, the villains have struck him down behind his back, 
 for there is not a man within ten Scotch miles of Perth, gen- 
 tle or simple. Highland or Lowland, that would have met him 
 face to face with such evil purpose. Oh, brave men of Perth! 
 the flower of your manhood has been cut down, and that by a 
 bage and treacherous hand!" 
 
THE FAIE MAID OF PERTH. 263 
 
 A wild cry of fury arose from the people, wliG were fast 
 assembling. 
 
 " We will take him on our. shoulders, " said a strong butcher ; 
 '' we will carry him to the King's presence at the Dominican 
 convent. " 
 
 "Ay — ay," answered a blacksmith, "neither bolt nor bar 
 shall keep us from the King, neither monk nor mass shall 
 break our purpose. A better armourer never laid hammer on 
 anvil!" 
 
 "To the Dominicans! — to the Dominicans!" shouted the 
 assembled people. 
 
 " Bethhiuk you, burghers, " said another citizen, " our kiag 
 is a good kiug, and loves us like his children. It -is the 
 Douglas and the Duke of Albany that wiU not let good King 
 Eobert hear the distresses of his people." 
 
 " Are we to be slain in our own streets for the King's soft- 
 ness of heart?" said the butcher. " The Bruce did otherwise. 
 If the Kiug wiU not keep us, we will keep ourselves. Ring 
 the bells backward, every bell of them that is made of metal. 
 Cry, and spare not, St. Johnston's hunt is up !" ' 
 
 "Ay," cried another citizen, "and let us to the holds of 
 Albany and the Douglas, and burn them to the ground. Let 
 the fires teU far and near that Perth knew how to avenge her 
 stout Henry Gow. He has fought a score of times for the 
 Fair City's right; let us show we can fight once to avenge his 
 wrong. Hallo! ho! brave citizens, St. Johnston's hunt is up!" 
 
 This cry, the weU-known rallying word amongst the inhabi- 
 tants of Perth, and seldom heard but on occasions of general 
 uproar, was echoed from voice to voice; and one or two neigh- 
 bouring steeples, of which the enraged citizens possessed 
 themselves, either by consent of the priests or in spite of 
 their opposition, began to ring out the ominous alarm notes, 
 in which, as the ordinary succession of the chimes was re- 
 versed, the bells were said to be rung backward. 
 
 Stm, as the crowd thickened, and the roar waxed more 
 universal and louder, Allan Grifl&n, a burly man with a deep 
 voice, and well respected among high and low, kept his sta- 
 i See Note 36. 
 
264 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 tioii as lie bestrode the corpse, and called loudly to the multi- 
 eude to keep back aud wait the arrival of the magistrates. 
 
 " We must proceed by order iu this matter, my masters : we 
 raust have our magistrates at our head. They are duly chosen 
 and elected in our town-hall, good men and true every one; 
 we will not be called rioters, or idle perturbators of the king's 
 peace. Stand you still, and make room, for yonder comes 
 Bailie Craigdallie, ay, and honest Simon Glover, to whom the 
 Fair City is so much bounden. Alas — alas ! my kind towns- 
 men, his beautiful daughter was a bride yesternight; this 
 morning the Fair Maid of Perth is a widow before she has 
 been a wife." 
 
 This new theme of sympathy increased the rage and sorrow 
 of the crowd the more, as many women now mingled with 
 them, who echoed back the alarm cry to the men. 
 
 "Ay — ay, St. Johnston's hunt is up! For the Fair Maid 
 of Perth aud the brave Henry Gow ! Up — up, every one of 
 you, spare not for your skin-cutting ! To the stables ■ — to the 
 stables ! When the horse is gone the man-at-arms is useless ; 
 cut off the grooms and yeomen; lame, maim, and stab the 
 horses; kill the base squires and pages. Let these proud 
 knights meet us on their feet if they dare!" 
 
 " They dare not — they dare not, " answered the men ; " their 
 strength is in their horses and armour ; and yet the haughty 
 and imgrateful villains have slain a man whose skill as an 
 armourer was never matched in Milan or Venice. To arms! 
 ^to arms, brave burghers! St. Johnston's hunt is up!" 
 
 Amid this clamour, the magistrates and superior class of 
 inhabitants with difi&culty obtained room to examine the body, 
 having with them the town-clerk to take an official protocol, 
 or, as it is still called, a precognition, of the condition in 
 which it was found. To these delays the multitude submitted, 
 with a patience and order which strongly marked the national 
 character of a people whose resentment has always been the 
 more deeply dangerous, that they will, without relaxing their 
 determination of vengeance, submit with patience to all delays 
 which are necessary to ensure its attainment. The multitude, 
 therefore, received their magistrates with a loud cry, in. which 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 265 
 
 the thiist of revenge was announeed, together with the defer- 
 ential welcome to the patrons by whose direction they expecfbed 
 to obtain it in right and legal fashion. 
 
 While these accents of welcome still rung above the crowd, 
 who now filled the whole adjacent streets, receiving and cir- 
 culating a thousand varying reports, the fathers of the city 
 caused the body to be raised and more closely examined; when 
 it was instantly perceived, and the truth publicly announced, 
 that not the armourer of the Wynd, so highly and, according 
 to the esteemed qualities of the time, so justly popular among 
 his fellow-citizens, but a man of far less general estimation, 
 though not without his own value in society, lay murdered be- 
 before them — the brisk bonnet-maker, Oliver Proudfute. The 
 resentment of the people had so much turned upon the general 
 opinion that their frank and brave champion, Henry Gow, was 
 the slaughtered person, that the contradiction of the report 
 served to cool the general fury, although, if poor Oliver had 
 been recognised at firstj there is little doubt that the cry of 
 vengeance would have been as unanimous, though no' probably 
 so furious, as in the case of Henry Wynd. ' The first circula- 
 tion of the unexpected intelligence even excited a smile among 
 the crowd, so near are the confines of the ludicrous to those of 
 the terrible. 
 
 " The murderers have without doubt taken him for Henry 
 Smith, " said GrrifiSn, " which must have been a great comfort 
 to him in the circumstances." 
 
 But the arrival of other persons on the scene soon restored 
 its deeply tragic character. 
 
 • See Note ST. 
 
266 WAVERLEY NOVELS 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Who's that that rings the bell ? Diablos, ho 1 
 The town will rise. 
 
 Othello, Act II. Scene IIL 
 
 The wild rumours -which flew through the town, speedilj 
 followed by the toUing of the alarm bells, spread general con- 
 sternation. The nobles and knights, with their followers, 
 gathered in different places of rendezvous, where a defence 
 could best be maintained; and the alarm reached the royal 
 residence, where the young prince was one of the first to ap- 
 pear, to assist, if necessary, in the defence of the old king. 
 The scene of the preceding night ran in his recollection ; and, 
 remembering the blood-stained figure of Bonthron, he con- 
 ceived, though indistinctly, that the ruflan's action had been 
 connected with this uproar. The subsequent and more inter- 
 esting discourse with Sir John Eamorny had, however, been 
 of such an impressive nature as to obliterate all traces of what 
 he had vaguely heard of the bloody act of the assassin, ex- 
 cepting a confused recollection that some one or other had 
 been slain. It was chiefly on his father's account that he 
 had assumed arms with his household train, who, clad in 
 bright armour, and bearing lances in their hands, made now 
 a figure very different from that of the preceding night, when 
 they appeared as intoxicated Bacchanalians. The kind old 
 monarch received this mark of filial attachment with tears of 
 gratitude, and proudly presented his son to his brother Al- 
 bany, who entered shortly afterwards. He took them each by 
 the hand. 
 
 "iN'ow are we three Stuarts," he said, "as inseparable as 
 the holy trefoil ; and, as they say the wearer of that sacred 
 herb mocks at magical delusion, so we, while we are true to 
 each other, may set malice and enmity at defiance." 
 
 The brother and son kissed the kind hand which pressed 
 theirs, while Eobert III. expressed his confidence in their 
 affection. The kiss of the youth was, for the time, sincere," 
 that of the brother was the salute of the apostate Judas. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 267 
 
 In the mean time the bell of St. John's church alarmed, 
 amongst others, the inhabitants of Curfew Street. In the 
 house of Simon Glover, old Dorothy Glover, as she was called 
 (for she also took name from the trade she practised, under 
 her master's auspices), was the first to catch the sound. 
 Though somewhat deaf upon ordinary occasions, her ear for 
 bad news was as sharp as a kite's scent for carrion; for Dor- 
 othy, otherwise an industrious, faithful, and even affectionate 
 creature, had that strong appetite for collecting and retailing 
 sinister intelligence which is often to be marked in the lower 
 classes. Little accustomed to be listened to, they love the 
 attention which a tragic tale ensures to the bearer, and enjoy, 
 perhaps, the temporary equality to which misfortune reduces 
 those who are ordinarily accounted their superiors. Dorothy 
 had no sooner possessed herself of a slight packet of the ru- 
 mours which were flying abroad than she bounced into her 
 master's bedroom, who had taken the privilege of age and the 
 holytide to sleep longer than usual. 
 
 "There he lies, honest man!" said Dorothy, half in a 
 screeching and half in a wailing tone of sympathy — " there 
 he lies ; his best friend slain, and he knowing as little about 
 it as the babe new born, that kens not life from death." 
 
 "How now!" said the glover, starting up out of his bed. 
 " What is the matter, old woman? is my daughter well?" 
 
 " Old woman !" said Dorothy, who, having her fish hooked, 
 chose to let him play a little. " I am not so old, " said she, 
 flouncing out of the room, " as to bide in the place tiU a man 
 rises from his naked bed " 
 
 And presently she was heard at a distance in the parlour 
 beneath, melodiously singing to the scrubbing of her own 
 broom. 
 
 "Dorothy — screech-owl — devil — say but my daughter is 
 weU!" 
 
 "lam well, my father," answered the Pair Mair of Perth, 
 speaking from her bedroom — "perfectly well; but what, for 
 Our Lady's sake, is the matter? The beUs ring backward, 
 and there is shrieking and crying in the streets. " 
 
 " I wUl presently know the cause. Here, Conachar, come 
 
268 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 speedily and tie my poiats. I forgot — the HigUand loon is 
 far beyond Fortingall. Patience, daughter, I will presently 
 bring you news." 
 
 " Ye need not hurry yourself for that, Simon Glover," quoth 
 the obdurate old woman ; " the best and the worst of it may 
 be tauld before you could hobble over your door-stane. I kea 
 the haill story abroad; 'for,' thought I, 'our goodman is so 
 wilful, that he'll be for banging out to the tuilzie, be the 
 cause what it like ; and sae I maun e'en stir my shanks, and 
 learn the cause of aU this, or he will hae his auld nose in 
 the midst of it, and maybe get it nipt off before he knows 
 what for.'" 
 
 "And what is tjhe news, then, old woman?" said the impa- 
 tient glover, still busying 'himself with the hundred points 
 or latchets which were the means of attaching the doublet to 
 the hose. 
 
 Dorothy suffered him to proceed in his task .till she conjec- 
 tured it must be nearly accomplished ; and foresaw that, if she 
 told not the secret herself, her master would be abroad to seek 
 in person for the cause of the disturbance. She, therefore, 
 halloo' d out: " Aweel — aweel, ye canna say it is my fault, if 
 you hear ill news before you have been at the morning mass. 
 I would have kept it from ye till ye had heard the priest's 
 word; but since you must hear it, you have e'en lost the 
 truest friend that ever gave hand to another, and Perth maun 
 mourn for the bravest burgher that ever took a blade in hand!" 
 
 "Harry Smith! Harry Smith!" exclaimed the father and 
 the daughter at once. 
 
 "Oh, ay, there ye hae it at last," said Dorothy; "and 
 whase fault was it but your ain? ye made such a piece of 
 work about his companying with a glee-woman, as if he had 
 companied with a Jewess I" 
 
 Dorothy would have gone on long enough, but her master 
 exclaimed to his daughter, who was still in her own apart- 
 ment: " It is nonsense, Catharine — all the dotage of an old 
 fool. No such thing has happened. I will bring you the 
 true tidings in a moment"; and snatching up his staff, the 
 old man hurried out past Dorothy, and into the street, where 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 269 
 
 the throng of people were rusting towards tlie High. Street. 
 Dorothy, in the mean time, kept muttering to herself : " Thy 
 father is a wise man, take hiB ain word for it. He will come 
 next by some scathe in the hobbleshow, and then it will be, 
 'Dorothy, get the lint,' and, 'Dorothy, spread the plaster'; 
 but now it is nothing but nonsense, and a lie, and impossi- 
 bility, that can come out of Dorothy's mouth. Impossible! 
 Does auld Simon think that Harry Smith's head was as hard 
 as his stithy, and a haill clan of Highlandmen dinging at him?" 
 
 Here she was interrupted by a figure like an angel, who 
 came wandering by her with wild eye, cheek deadly pale, hair 
 dishevelled, and an apparent want of consciousness, which 
 terrified the old woman out of her discontented humour. 
 
 " Our Lady bless my bairn !" said she. " What look you sae 
 wild for?" 
 
 " Did you not say some one was dead?" said Catharine, with 
 a frightful uncertainty of utterance, as if her organs of speech 
 and hearing served her but imperfectly. 
 
 "Dead, hinny! Ay — ay, dead enough; ye'll no hae him to 
 gloom at ony mair." 
 
 "Dead!" repeated Catharine, still with the same uncertainty 
 of voice and manner. "Dead — slain — and by Highlanders?" 
 
 " I'se warrant by Highlanders, the lawless loons. Wha is 
 it else that kills maist of the folks about, unless now and than 
 when the burghers take a tirrivie, and kill ane another, or 
 whiles that the knights and nobles shsd blood? But I'se up- 
 hauld it's been the Highlandmen this bout. The man was 
 no in Perth, laird or loon, durst have faced Henry Smith man 
 toman. There's been sair odds against him; ye'll see that 
 when it's looked into." 
 
 " Highlanders !" repeated Cathariue, as if haunted by some 
 idea which troubled her senses. "Highlanders! Oh, Con- 
 achar — Conachar ! " 
 
 " Indeed, and I dare say you have lighted on the very man, 
 Catharine. They quarrelled, as you saw, on the St. Valen- 
 tine's Even, and had a warstle. A Highlandman has a long 
 memory for the like of that. Gie him a cuff at Martinmas, 
 and his cheek will be tingling at Whitsunday. But what 
 
270 WAVERLE^S NOVELS. 
 
 could have brought iowa. the lang-legged loons to do theii 
 bloody walk within burgh?" 
 
 "Woe's me, it was I," said Catharine — "it was I brought 
 the Highlanders down — I that sent for Conachar, — ay, they 
 have lain in wait — but it was I that brought them within reach 
 of their prey. But I will see with my own eyes — and then — ■ 
 something we will do. Say to my father I will be back 
 anon." 
 
 "Are ye distraught, lassie?" shouted Dorothy, as Catharine 
 made past her towards the street door. " You would not gang 
 into the street with the hair hanging down your haffets in 
 that guise, and you kenn'd for the Fair Maid of Perth? 
 Mass, but she's out in the street, come o't what like, and the 
 auld Glover will be as mad as if I could withhold her, will 
 she nill she, flyte she fling she. This is a brave morning for 
 an Ash Wednesday! What's to be done? If I were to seek 
 my master among the multitude, I were like to, be crushed 
 beneath their feet, and little moan made for the old woman. 
 And am I to run after Catharine, who ere this is out of sight, 
 and far lighter of foot than I am? so I will just down the 
 gate to Nieol Barber's, and tell him a' about it." 
 
 While the trusty Dorothy was putting her prudent resolve 
 into execution, Catharine ran through the streets of Perth in 
 a manner which at another moment would have brought on 
 her the attention of every one who saw her hurrying on with 
 a reckless impetuosity wildly and widely different from the 
 ordinary decency and composure of her step and manner, and 
 without the plaid, scarf, or mantle which "women of good," 
 of. fair character and decent rank, imiversally carried around 
 them, when they went abroad. But, distracted as the people 
 were, every one inquiring or telling the cause of the tumult, 
 and most recounting it different ways, the negligence of her 
 dress and discomposure of her manner made no impression on 
 any one ; and she was suffered to press forward on the path 
 she had chosen without attracting more notice than the other 
 females who, stirred by anxious curiosity or fear, had come 
 out to inquire the cause of an alarm so general — it might be 
 to seek for friends for whose safety they were interested. 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 271 
 
 As Catharine passed along, she felt all the wild influence of 
 the agitating scene, and it was with difficulty she forbore from 
 repeating the cries of lamentation and alarm which were 
 echoed around her. In the mean time, she rushed rapidly 
 on, embarrassed like one in a dream, with a strange sense of 
 dreadful calamity, the precise nature of which she was .unable 
 to define, but which implied the terrible consciousness that 
 the man who loved her so fondly, whose good qualities she so 
 highly esteemed, and whom she now felt to be dearer than 
 perhaps she would before have acknowledged to her own 
 bosom, was murdered, and most probably by her means. The 
 connexion betwixt Henry's supposed death and the descent of 
 Conachar and his followers, though adopted by her in a moment 
 of extreme and engrossing emotion, was sufficiently probable 
 to have been received for truth, even if her understanding 
 had been at leisure to examine its credibility. Without know- 
 ing what she sought, except the general desire to know the 
 worst of the dreadful report, she hurried forward to the very 
 spot which of all others her feelings of the preceding day 
 would have iaduced her to avoid. 
 
 Who would, upon the evening of Shrovetide, have per- 
 suaded the proud, the timid, the shy, the rigidly decorous 
 Catharine Glover that before mass on Ash Wednesday she 
 should rush through the streets of Perth, making her way 
 amidst tumult and confusion, with her hair unbound and her 
 dress disarranged, to seek the house of that same lover who, 
 she had reason to believe, had'so grossly and indelicately ne- 
 glected and affronted her as to pursue a low and licentious 
 amour? Yet so it was ; and her eagerness taking, as if by 
 instinct, the road which was most free, she avoided the High 
 Street, where the pressure was greatest, and reached the wynd 
 by the narrow lanes on the northern skirt of the town, through 
 which Henry Smith had formerly escorted Louise. But even 
 these comparatively lonely passages were now astir with pas- 
 sengers, so general was the alarm. Catharine Glover made 
 her way through them, however, while such as observed her 
 looked on each other and shook their heads in sympathy with 
 her distress. At length, without any distiact idea of her own 
 
272 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 purpose, slie stood before ter lover's door and kriocked foi 
 admittaace. 
 
 The silence whicli succeeded the echoing of her hasty sum- 
 mons increased the alarm which had induced her to take this 
 desperate measure. 
 
 "Open — open, Henry!" she cried. "Open, if you yet live! 
 Open, if you would not find Catharine. Glover dead upon your 
 threshold!" 
 
 As she cried thus frantically to ears which she was taught to 
 believe were stopped by death, the lover she invoked opened 
 the door in person, just in time to prevent her sinking on the 
 ground. The extremity of his ecstatic joy upon an occasion 
 so unexpected was qualified only by the wonder which for- 
 bade him to believe it real, and by his alarm at the closed 
 eyes, half -opened and blanched lips, total absence of com- 
 plexion, and apparently total cessation of breathing. 
 
 Henry had remained at home, in spite of the general alarm, 
 which had reached his ears for a considerable time, fully de- 
 termined to put himself in the way of no brawls that he could 
 avoid; and it was only in compliance with a summons from 
 the magistrates, which, as a burgher, he was bound to obey, 
 that, taking his sword and a spare buckler from the wall, he 
 was about to go forth, for the first time unwillingly, to pay 
 his service, as his tenure bound him, 
 
 "It is hard," he said, "to be put forward in all the town 
 feuds, when the fighting work is so detestable to Catharine. 
 I am sure there are enough of wenches in Perth that say to 
 their gallants, ' Go out, do your devoir bravely, and win your 
 lady's grace' ; and yet they send not for their lovers, but for 
 me, who cannot do the duties of a man to protect a minstrel 
 woman, or of a burgess who fights for the honour of his town, 
 but this peevish Catharine uses me as if I were a brawler and 
 bordeller!" 
 
 Such were the thoughts which occupied his mind, when, as 
 he opened his door to issue forth, the person dearest to his 
 thoughts, but whom he certainly least expected to see, was 
 present to his eyes, and dropped into his arms. 
 
 His mixture of surprise, joy, and anxiety did not deprive 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 273 
 
 him of the presence of mind whieli the occasion demauded. 
 To place Catharine Glover in safety, and recall her to herself, 
 ■was to be thought of before rendering obedience to the sum- 
 mons of the magistrates, however pressingly that had been 
 delivered. He carried his lovely burdeu, as light as a feather, 
 yet more precious than the same quantity of purest gold, into 
 a small bedchamber which had been his mother's. It was 
 the most fit for an invalid, as it looked into the garden, and 
 was separated from the noise of the tumult. 
 
 "Here, Nurse — Nurse Shoolbred — come quick — come for 
 death and life — ^here is one wants thy help!" 
 
 Up trotted the old dame. " If it should but prove any one 
 that wiU. keep thee out of the scuffle," for she also had been 
 aroused by the noise ; but what was her astonishment when, 
 placed in love and reverence on the bed of her late mistress, 
 and supported by the athletic arms of her foster son, she 
 saw the apparently lifeless form of the Fair Maid of Perth. 
 "Catharine Glover!" she said; "and. Holy Mother, a dying 
 woman, as it would seem!" 
 
 "Not so, old woman," said her foster son: "the dear heart 
 throbs — the sweet breath comes and returns! Come thou, 
 that may aid her more meetly than I — bring water — essences 
 — whatever thy old skiU can devis^. Heaven did not place 
 her in my arms to die, but to live for herself and me!" 
 
 With an activity which her age little promised, Nurse 
 Shoolbred collected the means of restoring animation; for, 
 like many women of the period, she understood what was to 
 be done in such cases, nay, possessed a knowledge of treating 
 wounds of an ordinary description, which the warlike propen- 
 sities of her foster son kept in pretty constant exercise. 
 
 " Come now," she said, " son Henry, unfold your arms from 
 about my patient, though she is worth the pressing, and set 
 thy hands at freedom to help me with what I want. Nay, 
 I wUl not insist on youi quitting her hand, if you will 
 beat the palm gently, as the fingers unclose their clenched 
 grasp." 
 
 "I beat her slight, beautiful hand!" said Henry; "you 
 were as well bid me beat a glass cup with a forehammer as 
 18 
 
274 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 tap her fair palm with my horn-hard fingers. But the fingers 
 do unfold, and we will fiiid a better way than beating " ; and 
 he applied his lips to the pretty hand, whose motion indicated 
 returning sensation. One or two deep :sighs succeeded, and 
 the Fair Maid of Perth opened her eyes, fixed them on her 
 lover, as he kneeled by the bedside, and again sunk back on 
 the pillow. As she withdrew not her hand from her lover's 
 hold or from his grasp, we must in charity believe that the 
 return to consciousness was not so complete as to make her 
 aware that he abused the advantage, by pressing it alternately 
 to his lips and his bosom. At the same time we are compelled 
 to own that the blood was colouring in her cheek, and that her 
 breathing was deep and regular, for a minute or two during 
 this relapse. 
 
 The noise at the door began now to grow much louder, and 
 Henry was called for by all his various names of Smith, Gow, 
 and Hal of the Wynd, as heathens used to summon their 
 deities by different epithets. At last, like Portuguese Cath- 
 olics when exhausted with entreating their saints, the crowd 
 without had recourse to vituperative exclamations. 
 
 "Out upon you, Henry! You are a disgraced man, man- 
 sworn to your burgher-oath, and a traitor to the Fair City, 
 unless you come instantly, forth!" 
 
 It would seem that nurse Shoolbred's applications were now 
 so far successful that Catharine's senses were in some measure 
 restored; for, turning her face more towards that of her lover 
 than her former posture permitted, she let her right hand fall 
 on his shoulder, leaving her left stiU. in his possession, and 
 seeming slightly to detain him, while she whispered : " Do not 
 go, Henry — stay with me; they wiU kiE thee, these men of 
 blood." 
 
 It would seem that this gentle invocation, the result of 
 finding the lover alive whom she expected to have only recog- 
 nised as a corpse, though it was spoken so low as scarcely to 
 be intelligible, had more effect to keep Henry Wynd in his 
 present posture than the repeated summons of many voices 
 from without had to bring him downstairs. 
 
 "Mass, townsmen," cried one hardy citizen to his compan- 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 275 
 
 ions, "the saucy smith hut jests with us! Let us into the 
 house, and bring him out by the lug and the horn. " 
 
 "Take care what you are doing," said a more cautious as- 
 sailant. " The maa that presses on Henry Gow's retirement 
 may go into his house with sound bones, but wiU return with 
 ready-made work for the surgeon. But here comes one has 
 good right to do our errand to him, and make the recreant 
 hear reason on both sides of his head." 
 
 The person of whom this was spoken was no other than 
 Simon Glover himself. He had arrived at the fatal spot 
 where the unlucky boimet-maker's body was lying just in 
 time to discover, to his great relief, that, when it was turned 
 with the face upwards by Bailie Craigdallie's orders, the feat- 
 ures of the poor braggart Proudfute were recognised, when 
 the crowd expected to behold those of their favourite cham- 
 pion, Henry Smith. A laugh, or something approaching to 
 one, went among those who remembered how hard Oliver had 
 struggled to obtain the character of a fighting man, however 
 foreign to his nature and disposition, and remarked now that 
 he had met with a mode of death much better suited to his 
 pretensions than to his temper. But this tendency to ill-timed 
 mirth, which savoured of the rudeness of the times, was at 
 once hushed by the voice, and cries, and exclamations of a 
 woman, who struggled through the crowd, screaming at the 
 same time, "Oh, my husband — my husband!" 
 
 Boom was made for the sorrower, who was followed by two 
 or three female friends. Maudie Proudfute had been hitherto 
 only noticed as a good-looking, black-haired woman, believed 
 jo be "dink" and disdainful to those whom she thought 
 meaner or poorer than herself, and lady and empress over her 
 late husband, whom she quickly caused to lower his crest 
 when she chanced to hear him crowing out of season. But 
 now, under the influence of powerful passion, she assumed a 
 far more imposing character. 
 
 "Do you laugh," she said, "you unworthy burghers of 
 Perth, because one of your own citizens has poured his blood 
 into the kennel? or do you laugh because the deadly lot has 
 lighted on my husband? How has he deserved this? Did 
 
276 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 iie not maintain an honest house ty his own in.dustry, and 
 keep a creditable board, where the sick had welcome and the 
 poor had relief? Did he not lend to those who wanted, stand 
 by his neighbours as a friend, keep counsel and do justice like 
 a magistrate?" 
 
 " It is true — it is true," answered the assembly; "his blood 
 is our blood, as much as if it were Henry Gow's." 
 
 "You speak truth, neighbours," said Bailie Craigdalliej 
 ' and this feud cannot be patched up as the former was : citi- 
 zen's blood must not flow unavenged down our kennels, as if 
 it were ditch-water, or we shall soon see the broad Tay crim- 
 soned with it. But this blow was never meant for the poor 
 man on whom it has unhappily fallen. Every one knew what 
 Oliver Proudfute was, how wide he would speak, and how 
 little he would do. He has Henry Smith's buff -coat, target, 
 and h^ad-piece. All the town know them as well as I do : 
 there is no doubt on't. He had the trick, as you know, of 
 trying to imitate the smith in most things. Some one, blind 
 with rage, or perhaps through liquor, has stricken the inno- 
 cent bonnet-maker, whom no msm either hated or feared, or 
 indeed cared either much or little about, instead of the stout 
 smith, who has twenty feuds upon his hands." 
 
 "What, then, is to be done, bailie?" cried the multitude. 
 
 " That, my fi-iends, your magistrates wiU determine for you, 
 as we shall instantly meet together when Sir Patrick Charteris 
 Cometh here, which must be anon. Meanwhile, let the chi- 
 rurgeon Dwining examine that poor piece of clay, that he may 
 teU us how he came by his fatal death ; and then let the corpse 
 be decently swathed in a clean shroud, as becomes an honest 
 citizen, and placed before the high altar in the church of St. 
 John, the patron of the Pair City. Cease all clamour and 
 noise, and every 'defensible man of you, as you would wish 
 well to the Pair Town, keep his weapons in readiness, and be 
 prepared to assemble on the High Street at the tolling of the 
 common bell from the town -house, and we will either revenge 
 the death of our fellow-citizen, or else we shall take such for- 
 tune as Heaven wiU send us. Meanwhile avoid all quarrelling 
 with the knights and their followers till we know the innocent 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. " 277 
 
 from the guilty. But wherefore tarries this knave Smith? 
 He is ready enough iu tumults when his presence is not 
 wanted, and lags he now when his presence may serve the Fair 
 City? What ails him, doth any one know? Hath he been 
 upon the frolic last Eastern's Even?" 
 
 " Eather he is sick or sullen, Master BaiUe, " said one of 
 the city's mairs, or sergeants; "for though he is within door, 
 as his knaves report, yet he will neither answer to us nor ad- 
 mit us." 
 
 " So please ^our worship, Master Bailie, " said Simoa 
 Glover, " I wiU go myself to' fetch Henry Smith. I have 
 some little difference to make up with him. And blessed be 
 Our Lady, who hath so ordered it that I find him alive, as a 
 quarter of an hour since I could never have expected!" 
 
 " Bring the stout smith to the council-house, " said the 
 bailie, as a mounted yeoman pressed through the crowd and 
 whispered in his ear, "Here is a good fellow who says the 
 Knight of Kinf auns is entering the port. " 
 
 Such was the occasion of Simon Glover presenting himself 
 at the house of Henry Gow at the period already noticed. 
 
 Unrestrained by the considerations of doubt and hesitation 
 which influenced others, he repaired to the parlour ; and hav- 
 ing overheard the bustling of Dame Shoolbred, he took the 
 privilege of intimacy to ascend to the bedroom, and, with the 
 slight apology of "I crave your pardon, good neighbour," he 
 opened the door and entered the apartment, where a singular 
 and unexpected sight awaited him. At the sound of his voice. 
 May Catharine experienced a revival much speedier than Dame 
 Shoolbred's restoratives had been able to produce, and the 
 paleness of her complexion changed into a deep glow of the 
 most lovely red. She pushed her lover from her with both 
 her hands, which, until this minute, her want of conscious- 
 ness, or her affection, awakened by the events of the morning, 
 had wellnigh abandoned to his caresses. Henry Smith, bashi 
 f ul as we know him, stumbled as he rose up ; and none of the 
 party were without a share of confusion, excepting Dame 
 Hlioolbred, who was glad to make some pretext to turn her 
 back to the others, in order that she might enjoy a laugh at 
 
278 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 their expense, which she felt herself utterly unable to restrain, 
 and in which the glover, whose surprise, though great, was of 
 short duration, and of a joyful character, sincerely joined. 
 
 " Now, by good St. John, " he said, " I thought I had seen 
 a sight this morning that would cure me of laughter, at least 
 till Lent was over j but this would make me curl my cheek if 
 I were dying. Why, here stands honest Henry Smith, who 
 was lamented as dead, and toU'd out for from every steeple 
 in town, alive, merry, and, as it seems from his ruddy com- 
 plexion, as like to live as any man in Perth. And here is my 
 precious daughter, that yesterday would speak of nothing but 
 the wickedness of the wights that haunt profane sports and 
 protect glee-maidens. Ay, she who set St. Valentine and St. 
 Cupid both at defiance — ^here she is, turned a glee-maiden 
 herself, for what I can see! Truly, I am glad to see that 
 you, my good Dame Shoolbred, who give way to no disorder, 
 have been of this loving party. " 
 
 "You do me wrong, my dearest father," said Catharine, as 
 if about to weep. " I came here with far different expecta- 
 tions than you suppose. I only came because — because " 
 
 " Because you expected to find a dead lover, " said her fa- 
 ther, " and you have found a living one, who can receive the 
 tokens of your regard, and return them. Now, were it not 
 a sin, I could find in my heart to thank Heaven that thou 
 hast been surprised at last into owning thyself a woman. 
 Simon Glover is not worthy to have an absolute saint for his 
 daughter. Nay, look not so piteously, nor expect condolence 
 from me! Only I will try not to look merry, if you will 
 be pleased to stop your tears, or confess them to be tears of 
 joy." 
 
 " If I were to die for such a confession, " said poor Catha- 
 rine, " I could not tell what to call them. Only believe, dear 
 father, and let Henry believe, that I would never have come 
 hither, unless — unless — • — •" 
 
 " Unless you had thought that Henry could not come to 
 you," said her father. "And now, shake hands in peace and 
 concord, and agree as Valentines should. Yesterday was 
 Shrovetide, Henry. "We will hold that thou hast confessed 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 279 
 
 thy follies, hast obtained absolution, and art relieved of all 
 tlie guilt thou stoodest charged with." 
 
 " Nay, touchiag that, father Simon, " said the smith, " now 
 that you are cool enough to heai- me, I can swear on the 
 Gospels, and I can caU my nurse. Dame Shoolbred, to wit- 
 ness " 
 
 "Nay — ^nay," said the glover, "but wherefore rake up 
 differences which should all be forgotten?" 
 
 " Hark ye, Simon! — Simon Glover!" This was now echoed 
 from beneath. 
 
 "True, son Smith," said the glover, seriously, "we have 
 other work in hand. You and I must to the council in- 
 stantly. Catharine shall remain here with Dame Shoolbred, 
 who will take charge of her till we return ; and then, as the 
 town is in misrule, we two, Harry, will carry her home, and 
 they wUl be bold men that cross us." 
 
 "Nay, my dear father," said Catharine, with a smUe, "now 
 you are taking Oliver Proudfute's ofB.ce. That doughty 
 burgher is Henry's brother-at-arms." 
 
 Her father's countenance grew dark. 
 
 " You have spoke a stinging word, daughter ; but you know 
 not what has happened. Kiss him, Catharine, in token of 
 forgiveness." 
 
 "Not so," said Catharine; "I have done him. too much 
 grace already. When he has seen the errant damsel safe 
 home, it will be time enough to claim his reward." 
 
 "Meantime," said Henry, "I will claim, as your host, what 
 you will not allow me on other terms." 
 
 He folded the fair maiden in his arms, and was permitted 
 to take the salute which she had refused to bestow. 
 
 As they descended the stair together, the old man laid his 
 hand on the smith's shoulder, and said: "Henry, my dearest 
 wishes are fulfilled; but it is the pleasure of the saints that 
 it should be in an hour of difficulty and terror." 
 
 "True," said the smith; "but thou knowest, father, if our 
 riots be frequent at Perth, at least they seldom last long. '' 
 
 Then, opening a door which led from the house into the 
 smithy, " here, comrades, " he cried, " Anton, Cuthbert, Ding- 
 
280 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 well, and Eingen! Let none of you stir from the place till I 
 return. Be as true as the weapons I have taught you to 
 forge : a French crown and a Scotch merry-making for you, 
 if you obey my command. I leave a mighty treasure in your 
 charge. Watch the doors well, let little Jannekin scout up 
 and down the wynd, and have your arms ready if any one 
 approaches the house. Open the doors to no man till father 
 Glover or I return; it concerns my life and happiness." 
 
 The strong, swarthy giants to whom he spoke answered: 
 " Death to him who attempts it !" 
 
 " My Catharine is now as safe, " said he to her father, " as 
 if twenty men garrisoned a royal castle ia her cause. We 
 shall pass most quietly to the council-house by walking 
 through the garden." 
 
 He led the way through a little orchard accordiagly, where 
 the birds, which had been sheltered and fed during the win- 
 ter by the good-natured artisan, early in the season as it was, 
 were saluting the precarious smiles of a February sun with a 
 few faint and interrupted attempts at melody. 
 
 " Hear these minstrels, father, " said the smith ; " I laughed 
 at them this morning in the bitterness of my heart, because 
 the little wretches sung, with so much of winter before them. 
 But now, methinks, I could bear a blythe chorus, for I have 
 my Valentine as they have theirs ; and whatever ill may lie 
 before me for to-morrow, I am to-day the happiest man in 
 Perth, city or county, burgh or landward. " 
 
 " Yet I must allay your joy," said the old glover, "though. 
 Heaven knows, I share it. Poor Oliver Proudfute, the inof- 
 fensive fool that you and I knew so well, has been found this 
 m.ornuig dead in the streets." 
 
 "Only .dead drunk, I trust?" said the smith; "nay, a 
 caudle and a dose of matrimonial advice will bring him to 
 iife again." 
 
 " No, Henry — no. He is slain — slain with a battle-axe or 
 some such weapon." 
 
 "Impossible!" replied the smith; "he was light-footed 
 enough, and would not for all Perth have trusted to his hands, 
 when he could extricate himself by his heels." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 281 
 
 "Ko clioice was allowed him. The blow was dealt in the 
 very hack of his head; he who struck must have been a 
 shorter man than himself, and used a horseman's battle-axe, 
 or some such weapon, for a Lochaber-axe must have struck 
 the upper part of his head. But there he lies dead, brained, 
 I may say, by a most frightful wound." 
 
 "This is inconceivable," said Henry Wynd. "He was in 
 my house at midnight, in a morricer's habit; seemed to have 
 been drinking, though not to excess. He told me a tale of 
 having been beset by revellers, and being in danger; but, 
 alas ! you know the man — I deemed it was a swaggering fit, 
 as he sometimes took when he was in liquor ; and, may the 
 Merciful Virgin forgive me ! I let him go without company, 
 in which I did him inhuman wrong. Holy St. John be my 
 witness ! I would have gone with any helpless creature ; and 
 far more with him, with whom I have so often sat at the 
 same board and drunken of the same cup. Who, of the race 
 of man, could have thought of harming a creature so simple 
 and so unoffending, excepting by his idle vaunts?" 
 
 " Henry, he wore thy head-piece, thy buff-coat, thy target. 
 How came he by these?" 
 
 " Why, he demanded the use of them for the night, and I 
 was ill at ease, and well pleased to be rid of his company, 
 having kept no holiday, and being determined to keep none, 
 in respect of our misunderstanding." 
 
 " It is the opinion of Bailie Craigdallie and all our sagest 
 counsellors that the blow was intended for yourself, and that 
 it becomes you to prosecute the due vengeance of our fellow- 
 Tjitizen, who received the death which was meant for you. " 
 
 The smith was for some time silent. They had now left the 
 garden, and were walking in a lonely lane, by which they 
 meant to approach the council-house of the burgh without being 
 exposed to observation or idle inquiry. 
 
 " You are silent, my son, yet we two have much to speak 
 of," said Simon Glover. "Bethink thee that this widowed 
 woman. Maudlin, if she should see cause to bring a charge 
 against any one for the wrong done to her and her orphan 
 children, must support it by a champion, according to law and 
 
282 'WAVBRLET NOVELS. 
 
 custom; for, he the murderer 'wlio he may, we know enougli 
 of these followers of the nobles to be assured that the party 
 suspected will appeal to the combat, in derision, perhaps, of 
 those whom they will call the cowardly burghers. While we 
 are men with blood ia our veins, this must not be, Henry 
 Wynd." 
 
 " I see where you would draw me, father," answered Henry, 
 dejectedly; "and St. John knows I have heard a summons to 
 battle as wiQingly as war-horse ever heard the trumpet. But 
 bethink you, father, -how I have lost Cathariae's favour re- 
 peatedly, and have been driven wellnigh to despair of ever 
 regaining it, for being, if I may say so, even too ready a man 
 of my hands. And here are all our quarrels made up, and 
 the hopes that seemed this morning removed beyond earthly 
 prospect have become nearer and brighter than ever ; and must 
 I, with the dear one's kiss of forgiveness on my lips, engage 
 in a new scene of violence) which you are weU aware will give 
 her the deepest offence?" 
 
 " It is hard for me to advise you, Henry, " said Simon ; " but 
 this I must ask you : Have you, or have you not, reason to 
 think that this poor unfortunate Oliver has been mistaken 
 for you?" 
 
 " I fear it too much," said Henry. " He. was thought some- 
 thing like me, and the poor fool had studied to ape my gestures 
 and manner of walking, nay, the very airs which I have the 
 trick of whistling, that he might increase a resemblance which 
 has cost him dear. I have ill-willers enough, both in burgh 
 and landward, to owe me a shrewd turn ; and he, I think, could 
 have none such." 
 
 " Well, Henry, I cannot say but my daughter wiU be of- 
 fended. She has been much with Father Clement, and has 
 received notions about peace and forgiveness which methinks 
 suit ill with a country where the laws cannot protect us, unless 
 we have spirit to protect ourselves. If you determine for the 
 combat, I will do my best to persuade her to look on the mat- 
 ter as the other good womanhood in the burgh will do ; and 
 if you resolve to let the matter rest — the man who has lost 
 his life for yours remaining unavenged, the widow and the 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 283 
 
 orphans without any reparation for the loss of a husband and 
 father — I wiLl then do you the justice to remember that I, at, 
 least, ought not to thiak the worse of you for your patience, 
 siuce it was adopted for love of my chUd, But, Henry, we 
 must in that ease remove ourselves from bonny St. Johnston, 
 for here we will be but a disgraced family." 
 
 Henry groaned deeply, and was sEent for an instant, then 
 replied: " I would rather be dead than dishonoured, though I 
 should never see her again! Had it been yester evening, I 
 would have met the best blade among these men-at-arms as 
 blythely as ever I danced at a maypole. But to-day, when 
 she had first as good as said, 'Henry Smith, I love thee!' 
 Father Glover, it is very hard. Yet it is aE my own fault. 
 This poor unhappy Oliver! I ought to have allowed him the 
 shelter of my roof, when he prayed me in his agony of fear ; 
 or, had I gone with him, I should then have prevented or 
 shared his fate. But I taunted him, ridiculed htm, loaded 
 him with maledictions, though the saints know they were ut- 
 tered in idle peevishness of impatience. I drove him out from 
 my doors, whom I knew so helpless, to take the fate which 
 was perhaps intended for me. I must avenge him, or be dis- 
 honoured for ever. See, father, I have been called a man 
 hard as the steel I work in. Does burnished steel ever drop 
 tears like these? Shame on me that I should shed them!" 
 
 "It is no shame, my dearest son," said Simon; "thou art 
 as kind as brave, and I have always known it. There is yet 
 a chance for us. Hio one may be discovered to whom suspicion 
 attaches, and where none such is found, the combat cannot 
 take place. It is a hard thing to wish that the innocent blood 
 may not be avenged. But if the perpetrator of this foul mur- 
 der be hidden for the present, thou wilt be saved from the 
 task of seeking that vengeance which Heaven, doubtless, will 
 take at its own proper time." 
 
 As they spoke thus, they arrived at the point of the High 
 Street where the council-house was situated. As they reached 
 the door, and made their way through the multitude who 
 thronged the street, they found the avenues guarded by a 
 select party of armed burghers, and about fifty spears belong- 
 
284 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 ing to the Knight of Kinf auns, who, with his allies the Grays. 
 , Bl?iu-s, Moncrieffs, and others, had brought to Perth a consid- 
 erable body of horse, of which these were a part. So soon 
 as the glover and smith presented themselves, they were 
 admitted to the chamber in which the magistrates were as- 
 sembled. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 A woman wails for justice at the gate, 
 A widow'd woman, wan and desolate. 
 
 Bertha. 
 
 The council-room of Perth' presented a siugular spectacle. 
 In a gloomy apartment, ill and inconveniently lighted by two 
 wiudows of different form and of unequal size, were assem- 
 bled, around a large oaken table, a group of men, of whom 
 those who occupied the higher seats were merchants, that is, 
 guild brethren, or shopkeepers, arrayed iu decent dresses be- 
 coming their station, but most of them bearing, like the Ee- 
 gent York, " signs of war around their aged necks '' — gorgets, 
 namely, and baldricks, which sustained their weapons. The 
 lower places around the table were occupied by mechanics and 
 artisans, the presidents, or deacons, as they were termed, of 
 the working classes, in their ordinary clothes, somewhat better 
 arranged than usual. These, too, wore pieces of armour of 
 various descriptions. Some had the black-jack, or doublet, 
 covered with small plates of iron of a lozenge shape, which, 
 secured through the upper angle, hung in rows above each 
 [other], and which, swaying with the motion of the wearer's 
 person, formed a secure defence to the body. Others had 
 buff -coats, which, as already mentioned, could resist the blow 
 of a sword, and even a lance's point, unless propelled with 
 great force. At the bottom of the table, surrounded as it was 
 with this varied assembly, sat Sir Louis Lundin ; no military 
 man, but a priest and parson of St. John's, arrayed in his 
 canouical dress, and having his pen and ink before him. He 
 was town-clerk of the burgh, and, like all the priests of the 
 ' See Xote 38. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. ii85 
 
 period (wlio -were called from tliat circumstance the Pope's 
 knights), received the honourable title of Dominus, contracted 
 into Dom, or Dan, or translated into Sir, the title of reverence 
 due to the secular chivalry. 
 
 On an elevated seat at the head of the council board was 
 placed Sir Patrick Charteris, in complete armour brightly 
 burnished — a singular contrast to the motley mixture of war- 
 like and peaceful attire exhibited by the burghers, who were 
 only called to arms occasionally. The bearing of the provost, 
 while it completely admitted the intimate connexion which 
 mutual raterests had created betwixt himseK, the burgh, and 
 the magistracy, was at the same time calculated to assert the 
 superiority which, in virtue of gentle blood and chivalrous 
 rank, the opinions of the age assigned to him over the mem- 
 bers of the assembly in which he presided. Two squires stood 
 behind him, one of them holding the knight's pennon, and 
 another his shield, bearing his armorial distinctions, being a 
 hand holding a dagger, or short sword, with the proud motto, 
 " This is my charter. " A handsome page displayed the long 
 sword of his master, and another bore his lance; all which 
 chivalrous emblems and appurtenances were the more scrupu- 
 lously exhibited, that the dignitary to whom they belonged 
 was engaged in discharging the office of a burgh magistrate. 
 In his own person the Knight of Kinfauns appeared to affect 
 something of state and stiffness which did not naturally per- 
 tain to his frank and jovial character. 
 
 " So you are come at length, Henry Smith and Simon 
 Glover, " said the provost. " Know that you have kept us 
 waiting for your attendance. Should it so chance again 
 while we occupy this place, we will lay such a fine on you 
 as you will have small pleasure in paying. Enough — make 
 no excuses. They are not asked now, and another time they 
 wDl not be admitted. Know, sirs, that our reverend clerk 
 hath taken down in writing, and at full length, what I will 
 tell you in brief, that you may see what is to be required of 
 you, Henry Smith, in particular. Our late fellow-citizen, 
 Oliver Proudfute, hath been found dead in the High Street, 
 close by the entrance into the wynd. It seemeth he was slain 
 
286 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 by a heavy blow with a short axe, dealt from behind and at 
 unawares ; and the act by which he fell can only be termed a 
 deed of foul and forethought murder. So much for the crime. 
 The cruninal can only be indicated by circumstances. It is 
 recorded in the protocol of the Eeverend Sir Louis Lundin, 
 that divers well-reputed witnesses saw our deceased citizen, 
 Oliver Proudfute, till a late period accompanying the entry 
 of the morrice-dancers, ' of whom he was one, as far as the 
 house of Simon Glover, in Curfew Street, where they again 
 played their pageant. It is also manifested that at this place 
 he separated from the rest of the band, after some discourse 
 with Simon Glover, and made an appointment to meet with the 
 others of his company at the sign of the Grifiin, there to con- 
 clude the holiday. Now, Simon, I demand of you whether 
 this be truly stated, so far as you know? and further, what 
 was the purport of the defunct Oliver Proiidfute's discourse 
 with you?" 
 
 " My Lord Provost and very worshipful Sir Patrick, " an- 
 swered Simon Glover, " you and this honourable council shall 
 know that, touching certain reports which had been made of 
 the conduct of Henry Smith, some quarrel had arisen between 
 myself and another of my family and the said Smith here 
 present. Now, this our poor fellow-citizen, Oliver Proudfute, 
 having been active in spreading these reports, as indeed his 
 element lay in such gossipred, some words passed betwixt 
 him and me on the subject; and, as I think, he left me with 
 the purpose of visiting Henry Smith, for he broke off from 
 the morrice-dancers, promising, as it seems, to meet them, as 
 your honour has said, at the sign of the Griffin, in order to 
 conclude the evening. But what he actually did, I know not, 
 as I never again saw him in life. " 
 
 "It is enough," said Sir Patrick, "and agrees with all that 
 we have heard. Now, worthy sirs, we next find our poor fel- 
 low-citizen environed by a set of revellers and maskers who 
 had assembled in the High Street, by whom he was shame- 
 fully ill-treated, being compelled to knee) down in the street, 
 and there to quaff huge quantities of liquor against his incli' 
 > See Note 39. 
 
th:e fair maid of perth. 287 
 
 aation, until at length lie escaped from them by flight. This 
 violence was accomplished with drawn swords, loud shouts, 
 and imprecations, so as to attract the attention of seyeral per- 
 sons, who, alarm-ed by the tumult, looked out from their win- 
 dows, as well as of one or two passengers, who, keeping aloof 
 from the light of the torches, lest they also had been mal- 
 treated, beheld the usage which our feUow-citizen received 
 in the High Street of the burgh. And although these revel- 
 lers were disguised, and used vizards, yet their disguises were 
 weU known, being a set of q^uaint masking habits prepared 
 some weeks ago by command of Sir John Eamorny, Master 
 of the Horse to his Eoyal Highness the Duke of Kothsay, 
 Prince Eoyal of Scotland." 
 
 A low groan went through the assembly. 
 
 "Yes, so it is, brave burghers," continued Sir Patrick: 
 " our inquiries have led us into conclusions both melancholy 
 and terrible. But as do one can regret the point at which 
 they seem likely to arrive more than I do, so no man living 
 can dread its consequences less. It is even so ; various ar- 
 tisans employed upon the articles have described the dresses 
 prepared for Sir John Eamorny' s mask as being exactly sim- 
 ilar to those of the men by whom Oliver Proudf ute was ob- 
 served to be maltreated. And one mechanic, being Wingfield 
 the feather-dresser, who saw the revellers when they had our 
 fellow-citizen within their hands, remarked that they wore 
 the cinctures and coronals of painted, feathers which he him- 
 self had made by the order of the Prince's master of the horse. 
 
 " After the moment of his escape from these revellers, we 
 lose aU trace of Oliver; but we can prove that the maskers 
 went to Sir John Eamorny's, where they were admitted, after 
 some show of delay. It is rumoured that thou, Henry Smith, 
 sawest our unhappy feUow-citizen after he had been in the 
 hands of these revellers. What is the truth of that matter?" 
 
 "Ha came to my house in the wynd," said Henry, "about 
 half an hour before midnight ; and I admitted him, something 
 unwUlingly, as he had been keeping carnival while I remained 
 at home; and 'There is ill talk,' says the proverb, 'betwixt a 
 full man and a fasting. ' " 
 
288 WAVEKLEY NOVELS. 
 
 " And in -vrWch plight seemed he when thou didst admit 
 him?" saidthe provost. 
 
 "He seemed," answered the smith, "out of breath, and 
 talked repeatedly of having been endangered by revellers. 1 
 paid but small regard, for he was ever a timorous, chicken- 
 spirited, though well-meaning, man, and I held that he was 
 speaking more from fancy than reality. But I shall always 
 account it for foul offence in myself that I did not give him 
 my company, which he requested; and if I live, I will found 
 masses for his soul, in expiation of my guilt." 
 
 " Did he describe those from whom he received the injury?" 
 said the provost. 
 
 "Eevellers in masking habits," replied Henry. 
 
 "And did he intimate his fear of having to do with them 
 on his return?" again demanded Sir Patrick. 
 
 "He aUuded particularly to his being waylaid, which I 
 treated as visionary, having been able to see no one in the 
 lane." 
 
 " Had he then no help from thee of any kind whatsoever?" 
 said the provost. 
 
 "Yes, worshipful," replied the smith; "he exchanged his 
 morrice dress for my head-piece, buff-coat, and target, which 
 I hear were found upon his body ; and I have at home his 
 morriee-cap and bells, with the jerkin and other things per- 
 taining. He was to return my garb of fence, and get back 
 his own masking suit this day, had the saints so permitted." 
 
 "You saw him not then afterwards?" 
 
 " Never, my lord. " 
 
 " One word more, " said the provost. " Have you any rea- 
 son to think that the blow which slew Oliver Proudfute was 
 meant for another man?" 
 
 "I have," answered the smith; "but it is doubtful, and 
 may be dangerous to add such a conjecture, which is besides 
 only a supposition." 
 
 " Speak it out, on your burgher faith and oath. For whom, 
 think you, was the blow meant?" 
 
 " If I must speak, " replied Henry, " I believe Oliver Proud- 
 fute received the fate which was designed for myself; the 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 289 
 
 rather that, in his folly, Oliver spoke ©£ trying to assume my 
 manner of walking, as well as my dress." 
 
 " Have you feud with any one, that you form such an idea?" 
 said Sir Patrick Charteris. 
 
 "To my shame and sin be it spoken, I have feud with 
 Highland and Lowland, English and Scot, Perth and Angus. 
 I do not believe poor Oliver had feud with a new-hatched 
 chicken. Alas ! he was the more fully prepared for a sudden 
 call!" 
 
 " Hark ye, smith," said the provost, " answer me distinctly: 
 Is there cause of feud between the household of Sir John 
 Eamorny and yourself?" 
 
 "To a certainty, my lord, there is. It is now generally 
 said that Black Quentin, who went over Tay to Fife some 
 days since, was the owner of the hand which was found in 
 Couvrefew Street upon the eve of St. Valentine. It was I 
 who struck ofE that hand with a blow of my broadsword. As 
 this Black Quentin was a chamberlain of Sir John, and much 
 trusted, it is like there must be feud between me and his 
 master's dependants." 
 
 "It bears a likely front, smith," said Sir Patrick Charteris. 
 " And now, good brothers and wise magistrates, there are two 
 suppositions, each of which leads to the same conclusion. 
 The maskers who seized our fellow-citizen, and misused him 
 in a manner of which his body retains some slight marks, may 
 have met with their former prisoner as he returned home- 
 wards, and iinished their iU-usage by taking his life. He 
 himself expressed to Henry Gow fears that this would be the 
 case. If this be really true, one or more of Sir John Ea- 
 morny's attendants must have been the assassins. But I 
 think it more likely that one or two of the revellers may have 
 remained on the field, or returned to it, having changed per- 
 haps their disguise, and that to those men (for Oliver Proud- 
 fute, in his own personal appearance, would only have been, 
 a subject of sport) his apparition in the dress, and assuming, 
 as he proposed to do, the manner, of Henry Smith, was mat- 
 ter of deep hatred; and that, seeing him alone, they had 
 taken, as they thought, a certain and safe mode to rid them- 
 19 
 
290 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 selves of an ensmy so dangerous as all men know Henry 
 Wynd is accounted by those that are his unfriends. The 
 same train of reasoning, again, rests the guilt with the house- 
 hold of Sir John Ramorny. How think you, sirs? Are we 
 not free to charge the crime upon them?" 
 
 The magistrates whispered together for several minutes, 
 and then replied by the voice of Bailie Craigdallie : " Noble 
 knight, and our worthy provost, we agree entirely in what 
 your wisdom has spoken concerning this dark and bloody 
 matter; nor do we doubt your sagacity in tracing to the fel- 
 lowship and the company of John Ramorny of that ilk the 
 villainy which hath been done to our deceased fellow-citizen, 
 whether in his own character and capacity or as mistaking 
 him for our brave townsman, Henry of the Wynd. But Sir 
 John, in his own behalf, and as the Prince's master of the 
 horse, maintains an extensive household; and as, of course, 
 the charge will be rebutted by a denial, we would ask, how 
 we fehaU proceed in that case. It is true, could we find law 
 for firing the lodging, and putting all within it to the sword, 
 the old proverb of 'Short rede, good rede,' might here apply; 
 for a fouler household of defiers of God, destroyers of men, 
 and debauehers of women are nowhere sheltered than are in 
 Ramorny' s band. But I doubt that this summary mode of 
 execution would scarce be borne out by the laws ; and no tittle 
 of evidence which I have heard will tend to fix the crime on 
 any single individual or individuals." 
 
 Before the provost could reply, the town-clerk arose, and, 
 stroking his venerable beard, craved permission to speak; 
 which was instantly granted. ' "Brethren," he said, "as well 
 in our fathers' time as ours, hath God, on being rightly ap- 
 pealed to, condescended to make manifest the crimes of the 
 guilty and the innocence of those who may have been rashly 
 accused. Let us demand from our sovereign lord. King Rob- 
 ert, who, when the wicked do not interfere to pervert his good 
 intentions, is as just and clement a prince as our annals can 
 show in their long line, in the name of the Pair City, and of 
 all the commons in Scotland, that he give us, after the fash- 
 ion of our ancestors, the means of appealing to ^eaven foi 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 291 
 
 light upon this dark murder. We will demand the proof by 
 'bier-right,' often granted in the days of our sovereign's an- 
 cestors, approved of by buUs and decretals, and administered 
 by the great Emperor Charlemagne in France, by King Arthur 
 in Britain, and by Gregory the Great, and the mighty Achaius, 
 in this our land of Scotland." 
 
 "I have heard of the bier-right. Sir Louis," quoth the 
 provost, " and I know we have it in our charters of the Pair 
 City ; but I am something ill-learned in the ancient laws, and 
 would pray you to inform us more distinctly of its nature. " 
 
 "We will demand of the King," said Sir Louis Lundin, 
 " my advice being taken, that the body of our murdered fel- 
 low-citizen be transported into the High Church of St. John, ' 
 and suitable masses said for the benefit of his soul and for the 
 discovery of his foul murder. Meantime, we shall obtain an 
 order that Sir John Eamorny give up a list of such of his 
 household as were in Perth in the course of the night between 
 Pastern's Even and this Ash Wednesday, and become bound to 
 present them on a certain day and hour, to be early named, in 
 the High Church of St. John, there one by one to pass before 
 the bier of our murdered fellow-citizen, and in the form pre- 
 scribed to call upon God and His saints to bear witness that he 
 is innocent of the acting, art or part, of the murder. And 
 credit me, as has been indeed proved by numerous instances, 
 that, if the murderer shaU. endeavour to shroud himself by 
 making such an appeal, the antipathy which subsists between 
 the dead body and the hand' which dealt the fatal blow that di- 
 vorced it from the soul will awaken some imperfect life, under 
 the influence of which the veins of the dead man will pour 
 forth at the fatal wounds the blood which has been so long 
 stagnant in the veins. Or, to speak more certainly, it is the 
 pleasure of Heaven, by some hidden agency which we cannot 
 comprehend, to leave open this mode of discovering the wick- 
 edness of him who has defaced the image of his Creator. " 
 
 "I have heard this law talked of," said Sir Patrick, "and 
 it was enforced in the Bruee's time. This surely is no unfit 
 period to seek, by such a mystic mode of inquiry, the truth, 
 ' See Note 4Q. 
 
f92 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 to ■wMch no ordinary means can give us access, seeing that a 
 general accusation of Sir John's household would full surely 
 be met by a general denial. Yet 1 must crave farther of Sir 
 Louis, our reverend town-clerk, how we shall prevent the 
 guilty person from escaping in the interim?" 
 
 " The burghers wiU maintain a strict watch upon the wall, 
 drawbridges shall be raised and portcullises lowered, from 
 sunset to sunrise, and strong patrols maintained through the 
 night. This guard the burghers will willingly maintain, to 
 secure against the escape of the murderer of their townsman. " 
 
 The rest of the counsellors acquiesced, by word, sign, and 
 look, in this proposal, 
 
 "Again," said the provost, "what if any one of the sus- 
 pected household refuse to submit to the ordeal of bier-right?" 
 
 "He may appeal to that of combat," said the reverend city 
 scribe, " with an opponent of equal rank ; because the accused 
 person must have his choice, in the appeal to the judgment of 
 God, by what ordeal he will be tried. But if he refuses both, 
 he must be held as guilty, and so punished." 
 
 The sages of the council unanimously agreed with the opin- 
 ion of their provost and town-clerk, and resolved, in all for- 
 mality, to petition the King, as a matter of right, that the 
 murder of their fellow-citizen should be inquired into accord- 
 ing to this ancient form, which was held to manifest the truth, 
 and received as matter of evidence in case of murder so late 
 as towards the end of the 17th century. But before the 
 meeting dissolved. Bailie Craigdallie thought it meet to in- 
 quire who was to be the champion of Maudie, or Magdalen, 
 Proudf ute and her two children. 
 
 " There need be little inquiry about that, " said Sir Patrick 
 Charteris ; " we are men, and wear swords, which should be 
 broken over the head of any one amongst us who will not draw 
 it in behalf of the widow and orphans of our murdered f eUow- 
 citizen, and in brave revenge of his death. If Sir John Ea- 
 morny shall personally resent the inquiry, Patrick Charteris 
 of Kinfauns wLU do battle with him to the outrance, whilst 
 horse and man may stand, or spear and blade hold together. 
 But in case the challenger be of yeomanly degree, well wot 
 
THE FAIE MAID OF PERTH. 293 
 
 1 that Magdalea Proudfute may choose her own champioQ 
 among the bravesii burghers of Perth, and shame and dishon- 
 our were it to the Fair City for ever could she light upon one 
 who were traitor and coward enough to say her nayl Bring 
 her hither, that she may make her election." 
 
 Henry Smith heard this with a melancholy anticipation 
 that the poor woman's choice would light upon him, and that 
 his recent reconciliation with his mistress would be again dis- 
 solved, by his being engaged in a fresh quarrel, from which 
 there lay no honourable means of escape, and which, in any 
 other circumstances, he would have welcomed as a glorious 
 opportunity of distinguishing himself, both in sight of the 
 court and of the city. He was aware that, under the tuition 
 of Father Clement, Catharine viewed the ordeal of battle 
 rather as an insult to religion than an appeal to the Deity, 
 and did not consider it as reasonable that superior strength 
 of arm or skiU of weapon should be resorted to as the proof 
 of moral guilt or innocence. He had, therefore, much to Jear 
 from her peculiar opinions in this particular, refined as they 
 were beyond those of the age she lived in. 
 
 While he thus suffered under these contending feelings, 
 Magdalen, the widow of the slaughtered man, entered the 
 court, wrapt in a deep mourning veU, and followed and sup- 
 ported by five or six women of good (that is, of respectability), 
 di'essed in the same melancholy attire. One of her attendants 
 held an infant in her arms, the last pledge of poor Oliver's 
 nuptial affections. Another led a little tottering creature of 
 two years, or thereabouts, which looked with wonder and fear, 
 sometimes on the black dress in which they had mufled him, 
 and sometimes on the scene around him. 
 
 The assembly rose to receive the melancholy group, and sa- 
 luted them with an expression of the deepest sympathy, which 
 Magdalen, though the mate of poor Oliver, returned with an 
 air of dignity, which she borrowed, perhaps, from the extrem- 
 ity of her distress. Sir Patrick Charteris then stepped for- 
 ward, and with the courtesy of a knight to a female, and of a 
 protector to an oppressed and injured widow, took the poor 
 woman's hand, and explained to her briefly by what course 
 
294 WAVEELEY NOVELS. 
 
 the city had resolved to follow out the vengeance due for her 
 husband's slaughter. 
 
 Having, with a softness and gentleness which did not be- 
 long to his general manner, ascertained that the unfortunate 
 woman perfectly understood what was meant, he said aloud to 
 the assembly : " Good citizens of Perth, and f reeborn men of 
 guild and craft, attend to what is about to pass, for it concerns 
 your rights and privileges. Here stands Magdalen Proudfute, 
 desirous to foUow forth the revenge due for the death of her 
 husband, foully murdered, as she sayeth, by Sir John Ea- 
 morny. Knight, of that Ilk, and which she offers to prove, by 
 the evidence of bier-right, or by the body of a man. There- 
 fore, I, Patrick Charteris, being a belted knight and freeborn 
 gentleman, offer myself to do battle in her just quarrel, whilst 
 man and horse may endure, if any one of my degree shall lift 
 my glove. How say you, Magdalen Proudfute, wOl you ac- 
 cept me for your champion?" 
 
 The widow answered with difficulty : " I can desire none 
 nobler," 
 
 Sir Patrick then took her right hand in his, and, kissing 
 her forehead, for such was the ceremony, said solemnly : " So 
 may God and St. John prosper me at my need, as I will do 
 my devoir as your champion, knightly, truly, and manfully. 
 Go now, Magdalen, and enoose at your will among the bur- 
 gesses of the Pair City, present or absent, any one upon whom 
 you desire to rest your challenge, if he against whom you 
 bring plaint shall prove to be beneath my degree." 
 
 AU eyes were turned to Henry Smith, whom the general 
 voice had already pointed out as in every respect the fittest to 
 act as champion on the occasion. But the widow waited not 
 for the general prompting of their looks. As soon as Sir Pat- 
 rick had spoken, she crossed the floor to the place where, near 
 the bottom of the table, the armourer stood among the men of 
 his degree, and took him by the hand. 
 
 "Henry Gow, or Smith," she said, "good burgher and 
 craftsman, my — my " 
 
 "Husband," she would have said, but the word would not 
 oome forth ; she was obliged to change the expression. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 293 
 
 "He who is gone, loved and prized you over all men; ttere- 
 fore meet it is that thou shouldst follow out the quarrel of his 
 widow and orphans." 
 
 If there had been a possibility, which in that age there was 
 not, of Henry's rejecting or escaping from a trust for which 
 all men seemed to destine him, every wish and idea of retreat 
 was cut off when the widow began to address him; and a com- 
 mand from Heaven could hardly have made a stronger impres- 
 sion than did the appeal of the unfortunate Magdalen. Her 
 allusion to his intimacy with the deceased moved him to the 
 soul. During Oliver's life, doubtless, there had been a strain 
 of absurdity in his excessive predilection for Henry, which, 
 considering how very different they were in character, had in 
 it something ludicrous. But all this was now forgotten, and 
 Henry, giving way to his natural ardour, only remembered 
 that Oliver had been his friend and intimate — a man who had 
 loved and honoured him as much as he was capable of en- 
 tertaining such sentiments for any one, and, above all, that 
 there was much reason to suspect that the deceased had fallen 
 victim to a blow meant for Henry himself. 
 
 It was, therefore, with an alacrity which, the minute be- 
 fore, he could scarce have commanded, and which seemed to 
 express a stern pleasure, that, having pressed his lips to the 
 cold brow of the unhappy Magdalen, the armourer replied : 
 
 " I, Henry the Smith, dwelling in the Wynd of Perth, good 
 man and true, and freely born, accept the office of champion 
 to this widow Magdalen and these orphans, and will do battle 
 in their quarrel to the death, with any man whomsoever of my 
 own degree, and that so long as I shall draw breath. So help 
 me at my need God and good St. John!" 
 
 There arose from the audience a half-suppressed cry, ex- 
 pressing the interest which the persons present took in the 
 prosecution of the quarrel, and their confidence in the issue. 
 
 Sir Patrick Charteris then took measures for repairing to 
 the King's presence, and demanding leave to proceed with in- 
 quiry into the murder of Oliver Proudfute, according to the 
 custom of bier-right, and, if necessary, by combat. 
 
 He performed this duty after the town-council had dis* 
 
296 WATBRLEY NOVELS. 
 
 solved, in a private interview between himself and the King^ 
 who heard of this new trouble with much vexation, and ap- 
 pointed next morning, after mass, for Sir Patrick and the par- 
 ties interested to attend his pleasure in councU. In the mean 
 time, a royal pursuivant was despatched to the Constable's 
 lodgings, to call over the roU of Sir John Eamorny's attend- 
 ants, and charge him, with his whole retinue, under high 
 penalties, to abide within Perth until the King's pleasure 
 should be farther known. 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 In God's name, see the lists and all things fit ; 
 There let them end It — God defend the right ! 
 
 Henry IV. Part II. 
 
 In the same council-room of the conventual palace of the 
 Dominicans, King Robert was seated with his brother Albany, 
 whose affected austerity of virtue, and real art and dissimula- 
 tion, maintained so high an influence over the feeble-minded 
 monarch. It was indeed natural that one who seldom saw 
 things according to their real forms and outlines should view 
 them according to the light in which they were presented to 
 him by a bold, astucious man, possessing the claim of such 
 near relationship. 
 
 Ever anxious on account of his misguided and unfortunate 
 son, the King was now endeavouring to make Albany coincide 
 in opinion with him in exculpating Rothsay from any part in 
 the death of the bonnet-maker, the precognition concerning 
 which had been left by Sir Patrick Charteris for his Majesty's 
 sonsideration. 
 
 "This is an unhappy matter, brother Robin," he said — "a 
 most unhappy occurrence, and goes nigh to put strife and 
 quarrel betwixt the nobility and the commons here, as they 
 have been at war together in so many distant lands. I see 
 but one cause of comfort in the matter; and that is, that Sir 
 John Ramorny having received his dismissal from the Duke 
 Qf Kothsay's family, it cannot be said that he o^r ^y of his 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 297 
 
 people who may have done this bloody deed — if it has truly 
 been done by them. — have been encouraged or hounded out 
 upon such an errand by my poor boy. I am sure, brother, 
 you and I can bear witness how readily, upon my entreaties, 
 he agreed to dismiss Eamorny from his service, on account of 
 that brawl in Curfew Street." 
 
 "I remember his doing so," said Albany; "and well do I 
 hope that the connexion betwixt the Prince and Eamorny has 
 not been renewed since he seemed to comply with your Grace's 
 wishes." 
 
 "Seemed to complyl The connexion renewed!" said the 
 King. "What mean you by these expressions, brother? 
 Surely, when David promised to me that, if that unhappy 
 matter of Curfew Street were but smothered up and concealed, 
 he would part with Eamorny, as he was a counsellor thought 
 capable of involving him in similar fooleries, and would ac- 
 quiesce in our inflicting on him either exUe or such punish- 
 inent as it should please us to impose — surely you cannot 
 doubt that he was sincere in his professions, and would keep 
 his word? Eemember you not that, when you advised that a 
 heavy fine should be levied upon his estate in Fife in lieu of 
 banishment, the Prince himself seemed to say that exile would 
 be better for Eamorny, and even for himself?" 
 
 " I remember it well, my royal brother. "Not, truly, could 
 I have suspected Eamorny of having so much influence over 
 the Prince, after having been accessary to placiag him in a 
 situation so perilous, had it not been for my royal kinsman's 
 own confession, alluded to by your Grrace, that, if suffered to 
 remain at court, he might still continue to influence his con- 
 duct. I then regretted I had advised a fine in place of exile. 
 But that time is passed, and now new mischief has occurred, 
 fraught with much peril to your Majesty, as well as to your 
 royal heir, and to the whole kingdom." 
 
 "What mean you, Eobin?" said the weak-minded King. 
 " By the tomb of our parents I by the soul of Bruce, our im- 
 mortal ancestor I I entreat thee, my dearest brother, to take 
 compassion on me. Tell me what evil threatens my son, or 
 my kingdom:?" 
 
298 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 The features of the King, trembling with anxiety, and his 
 eyes brimful of tears, were bent upon his brother, who seemed 
 to assume time for consideration ere he replied. 
 
 " My lord, t*he danger lies here. Your Grace believes that 
 the Prince had no accession to this second aggression upon the 
 citizens of Perth — ^the slaughter of this bonnet-making fellow, 
 about whose death they clamour, as a set of gulls about their 
 comrade, when one of the noisy brood is struck down by a 
 boy's shaft." 
 
 " Their lives," said the King, "are dear to themselves and 
 their friends, Eobiu." 
 
 " Truly, ay, my liege ; and they make them dear to us too, 
 ere we can settle with the knaves for the least blood-wit. 
 But, as I said, your Majesty thinks the Priace had no share in 
 this last slaughter; I will not attempt to shake your belief in 
 that delicate poiut, but will endeavour to believe along with 
 you. What you think is rule for me. Eobert of Albany will 
 never think otherwise than Eobert of broad Scotland." 
 
 "Thank you — thank you," said the' King, taking his broth- 
 er's hand. " I knew I might rely that your affection would do 
 justice to poor heedless Eothsay, who exposes himseK to so 
 much misconstruction that he scarcely deserves the sentiments 
 you feel for him." 
 
 Albany had such an immovable constancy of purpose, that 
 he was able to return the fraternal pressure of the King's 
 hand, while tearing up by the very roots the hopes of the in- 
 dulgent, fond old man. 
 
 " But, alas !" the Duke continued, with a sigh, " this burly, 
 intractable Knight of Kinfauns, and his brawling herd of 
 burghers, will not view the matter as we do. They have the 
 boldness to say that this dead fellow had been misused by 
 Eothsay and his fellows, who were in the street in mask and 
 revel, stopping men and women, compelling them to dance, or 
 to drink huge quantities of wine, with other follies needless to 
 recount ; and they say that the whole party repaired to Sir 
 John Eamorny's, and broke their way into the house in order 
 to conclude their revel there, thus affording good reason to 
 judge that the dismissal of Sir John from the Prince's service 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 299 
 
 was but a feigned stratagem to deceive the public. And 
 hence they urge that, if HI were done that night by Sir John 
 Eamorny or his followers, much it is to be thought that the 
 Duke of Eothsay must have at least been privy to, if he did 
 not authorise, it." 
 
 "Albany, this is dreadful!" said the King. "Would they 
 make a murderer of my boy? would they pretend my David 
 would soil his hands in Scottish blood without having either 
 provocation or purpose? No — ^no, tljiey will not invent calum- 
 nies so broad as these, for they are flagrant and incredible." 
 
 "Pardon, my liege," answered the Duke of Albany; "they 
 say the cause of quarrel which occasioned the riot in Curfew 
 Street, and its consequences, were more proper to the Prince 
 than to Sir John; since none suspects, far less believes, that 
 that hopeful enterprise was conducted for the gratification of 
 the knight of Eamorny." 
 
 "Thou drivest me mad, Eobin!" said the King. 
 
 " I am dumb, " answered his brother ; " I did but speak my 
 poor mind according to your royal order." 
 
 "Thou meanest well, I know," said the King; "but, in- 
 stead of tearing me to pieces with the display of inevitable 
 calamities, were it not kinder, Eobin, to point me out some 
 mode to escape from them?" 
 
 " True, my liege ; but as the only road of extrication is rough 
 and difficult, it is necessary your Grace should be first pos- 
 sessed with the absolute necessity of using it, ere you hear it 
 even described. The chirurgeon must first convince his pa- 
 tient of the incurable condition of a shattered member, ere he 
 venture to name amputation, though it be, the only remedy." 
 
 The King at these words was roused to a degree of alarm 
 and indignation greater than his brother had deemed he could 
 be awakened to. 
 
 "Shattered and mortified member, my Lord of Albany I 
 amputation the only remedy! These are unintelligible words, 
 my lord. If thou appliest them to our son Eothsay, thou 
 must make them good to the letter, else mayst thou have bit- 
 ter cause to rue the consequence." 
 
 "You construe me too literally, my royal liege," said Al- 
 
300 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 bany. "I spoke not of the Prince in such unbeseeming 
 terms ; for I call Heaven to witness that lie is dearer to me as 
 the son of a well-beloved brother than had he been son of my 
 own. But I spoke in regard to separating him from the fol- 
 lies and vanities of life, which holy men say are like to mor- 
 tified members, and ought, like them, to be cut off and thrown 
 from us, as things which interrupt our progress in better 
 things." 
 
 " I imderstand — thou wouldst have this Eamorny, who hath 
 been thought the instrument of my son's follies, exiled from 
 court, " said the relieved monarch, " until these unhappy scan- 
 dals are forgotten, and our subjects are disposed to look upon 
 our son with different and more confiding eyes." 
 
 " That were good counsel, my liege ; but mine went a little — 
 a very little — farther. I would have the Prince himself re- 
 moved for some brief period from court." 
 
 " How, Albany! part with my child, my first-born, the light 
 of my eyes, and — wiKul as he is — ^the darling of my heart! 
 Oh, Eobin! I cannot, and I will not." 
 
 "Nay, I did but suggest, my lord; I am sensible of the 
 wovmd such a proceeding must inflict on a parent's heart, for 
 am I not myself a father?" And he hung his head, as if in 
 hopeless despondency. 
 
 " I could not survive it, Albany. When I think that even 
 our own influence over him, which, sometimes forgotten in 
 our absence, is ever effectual whilst he is with us, is by your 
 plan to be entirely removed, what perils might he not rush 
 upon? I could not sleep in his absence — I should hear his 
 death-groan in every breeze; and you, Albany, though you 
 conceal it better, would be nearly as anxious." 
 
 Thus spoke the facile monarch, willing to conciliate his 
 brother and cheat himself, by taking it for granted that an 
 affection, of which there were no traces, subsisted betwixt the 
 uncle and nephew. 
 
 " Your paternal apprehensions are too easily alarmed, my 
 lord," said Albany. "I do not propose to leave the disposal 
 of the Prince's motions to his own wild pleasure. T under- 
 stand that the Prince is to be placed for a short time under 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH, 301 
 
 some becoming restraint — tliat he sliould be subjected to the 
 charge of some grave counsellor, who must be responsible both 
 for his conduct and his safety, as a tutor for his pupil." 
 
 "Howl a tutor, and ci Eothsay's age!" exclaimed the 
 King : " he is two years beyond the space to which our laws 
 limit the term of nonage." 
 
 "The wiser Eomans," said Albany, "extended it for foui 
 years after the period we assign ; and, in common sense, the 
 right of control ought to last till it be no longer necessary, 
 and so the time ought to vary with the disposition. Here is 
 young Liudsay, the Earl of Crawford, who they say gives pat- 
 ronage to Eamorny on this appeal. He is a lad of fifteen, 
 with the deep passions and fixed purpose of a man of thirty; 
 while my royal nephew, with much more amiable and noble 
 qualities both of head and heart, sometimes shows, at twenty- 
 three years of age, the wanton humours of a boy, towards 
 whom restraint may be kiadness. And do not be discouraged 
 that it is so, my liege, or angry with your brother for telling 
 the truth; siuce the best fruits are those that are slowest in 
 ripening, and the best horses such as give most trouble to the 
 grooms who trara them for the field or lists." 
 
 The Duke stopped, an d, after sufferiag King Eobert to in- 
 dulge for two or three minutes in a reverie which he did not 
 attempt to interrupt, he added, in a more lively tone : " But, 
 cheer up, my noble liege ; perhaps the feud may be made up 
 without farther fighting or difficulty. The widow is poor, for 
 her husband, though he was much employed, had idle and 
 costly habits. The matter may be therefore redeemed for 
 money, and the amount of an assythment may be recovered 
 out of EaJnorny's estate." 
 
 "Nay, that we wiU ourselves discharge," said King Eobert, 
 eagerly catching at the hope of a pacific termination of this 
 nnpleasing debate. " Eamorny's prospects will be destroyed 
 by his being sent from court and deprived of his charge in 
 Eothsay's household, and it would be ungenerous to load a 
 falling man. But here comes our secretary, the prior, to tell 
 us the hour of council approaches. Good morrow, my worthy 
 father." 
 
302 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 " BenedioUe, my royal liege, " answered tHe abbot. 
 
 " K"ow, good father, " contiiiued the King, " -without -waiting 
 for Eothsay, -whose accession to our counsels -we -wiU. ourselves 
 guarantee, proceed -we to the business of our kingdom. What 
 advices have you from the Douglas?" 
 
 " He has arrived at his castle of Tantallon, my liege, and 
 has sent a post to say, that, though the Earl of March remains 
 in sullen seclusion in his fortress of Dunbar, his friends and 
 foUo-wers are gathering and forming an encampment near Cold- 
 ingham, -where it is supposed they intend to a-wait the arrival 
 of a large force of English, -which Hotspur and Sir Ealph 
 Percy are assembling on the English frontier." 
 
 " That is cold news, " said the King ; " and may God forgive 
 George of Dunbar!" The Prince entered as he spoke, and he 
 continued: "Ha! thou art here at length, Eothsay; I saw 
 thee not at mass." 
 
 "I was an idler this morning," said the Prince, "having 
 spent a restless and feverish night. " 
 
 "Ah, foolish boy!" answered the King; "hadst thou not 
 been over-restless on Pastern's Eve, thou hadst not been fe- 
 verish on the night of Ash Wednesday." 
 
 " Let me not interrupt your prayers, my liege, " said the 
 Prince, lightly. " Your Grace was invoking Heaven in behalf 
 of some one — an enemy doubtless, for these have the f recLuent 
 advantage of your orisons." ^ 
 
 " Sit down and be at peace, foolish youth!" said his father, 
 his eye resting at the same time on the handsome face and 
 graceful figure of his favourite son. Eothsay drew a cushion 
 near to his father's feet, and threw himself carelessly down 
 upon it, while the King resumed. 
 
 " I was regretting that the Earl of itf arch, having separated 
 warm from my hand with full assurance that he should receive 
 compensation for everything which he could complain of as 
 injurious, should have been capable of caballing with Korth- 
 tunberland against his o-wn country. Is it possible he could 
 doubt our intentions to make good our word?" 
 
 "I will answer for him — no," said the Prince: "March 
 never doubted your Highness's word. Marry, he may well 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 303 
 
 have made question whether your learned counsellors would 
 leave your Majesty the po-wer of keeping it." 
 
 Eobert the Third had adopted to a great extent the timid 
 policy of not seeming to hear expressions which, being heard, 
 required, even in his own eyes, some display of displeasure. 
 He passed on, therefore, in his discourse, without observ- 
 ing his son's speech; but in private Eothsay's rashness aug- 
 mented the displeasure which his father began to entertain 
 against him. 
 
 " It is weU the Douglas is on the marches," said the King. 
 " His breast, like those of his ancestors, has ever been the best 
 bulwark of Scotland." 
 
 " Then woe betide us if he should turn his back to the ene- 
 my, " said the incorrigible Eothsay. 
 
 " Dare you impeach the courage of Douglas?" replied the 
 King, extremely chafed. 
 
 "No man dare question the Earl's courage," said Eothsay, 
 " it is as certain as his pride ; but his luck may be something 
 doubted." 
 
 "By St. Andrew, David," exclaimed his father, "thou art 
 like a screech-owl, every word thou sayest betokens strife and 
 calamity." 
 
 " I am silent, father, " answered the youth. 
 
 " And what news of our Highland disturbances?" continued 
 the King, addressing the prior. 
 
 "I trust they have assumed a favourable aspect," answered 
 the clergyman. " The fire which threatened the whole coun- 
 try is likely to be drenched out by the blood of some forty or 
 fifty kerne ; for the two great confederacies have agreed, by 
 solemn indenture of arms, to decide their quarrel with such 
 weapons as your Highness may name, and in your royal pres- 
 ence, in such place as shall be appointed, on the 30th of March 
 next to come, being Palm Sunday ; the number of combatants 
 being limited to thirty on each side, and the fight to be main- 
 tained to extremity, since they affectionately make humble 
 suit and petition to your Majesty that you will parentally 
 condescend to wave for the day your royal privilege of inter- 
 rupting the combat, by flinging down of truncheon, or cry 
 
304 'WAVEELET NOVELS. 
 
 ingof *Ho!' until the battle sliall he utterly fought to aa 
 end." 
 
 " The wild savages !" exclaimed the King, " would they limit 
 our best and dearest royal privilege, that of putting a stop to 
 strife, and crying truce to battle? WiU they remove the only 
 motive which could bring me to the butcherly spectacle of 
 their combat? Would they fight like men, or like their own 
 mountain wolves?" 
 
 "My lord," said Albany, "the Earl of Crawford and I had 
 presumed, without consulting you, to ratify that prelimi 
 nary, for the adoption of which we saw much and pressing 
 reason. " 
 
 " How ! the Earl of Crawford!" said the King. " Methihks 
 he is a young counsellor on such grave occurrents." 
 
 " He is, " replied Albany, " notwithstandiag his early years, 
 of such esteem among his Highland neighbours, that I could 
 have done little with them but for his aid and influence." 
 
 "Hear this, young Eothsay!" said the King reproachfully 
 to his heir. 
 
 "I pity Crawford, sire," replied the Prince. "He has too 
 early lost a father whose counsels would have better become 
 such a season as this." 
 
 The Kiag turned next towards Albany with a look of tri- 
 umph, at the filial affection which his son displayed in his 
 reply. 
 
 Albany proceeded without emotion. " It is not the life of 
 these Highlandmen, but their death, which is to be profitable 
 to this commonwealth of Scotland; and truly it seemed to the 
 Earl of Crawford and myself most desirable that the combat 
 should be a strife of extermination. " 
 
 " Marry, " said the Prince, " if such be the juvenile policy 
 of Lindsay, he will be a merciful ruler some ten or twelve 
 years hence! Out upon a boy that is hard of heart before he 
 has hair upon his lip ! Better he had contented himseK with 
 fighting cocks on Eastern's Even than laying schemes for mas- 
 sacring men on Pabn Sunday, as if he were backing a Welsh 
 main, where aU must fight to death." 
 
 "Eothsay is right, Albany," said the King: "it were un* 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PEKTH. SOB 
 
 like a Christian monareli to give way in this point. I cannot 
 consent to see men battle until they are all hewn down like 
 cattle in the shambles. It would sicken me to look at it, and 
 the warder would drop from my hand for mere lack of strength 
 to hold it." 
 
 " It would drop unheeded," said Albany. " Let me entreat 
 your Grace to recollect, that you only give up a royal privilege 
 which, exercised, would win you no respect, since it would 
 receive no obedience. Were your Majesty to throw down your 
 warder when the war is high, and these men's blood is hot, it 
 would meet no more regard than if a sparrow should drop 
 among a herd of battling wolves the straw which he was car- 
 rying to his nest. Kothing will separate them but the ex- 
 haustion of slaughter; and better they sustain it at the hands 
 of each other than from the swords of such troops as might 
 attempt to separate them at your Majesty's commands. An 
 attempt to keep the peace by violence would be construed into 
 an ambush laid for them; both parties would unite to resist 
 it, the slaughter would be the same, and the hoped-for results 
 of future peace would be utterly disappointed." 
 
 " There is even too much truth in what you say, brother 
 Eobin," replied the flexible King. " To little purpose is it to 
 command what I cannot enforce; and, although I have the 
 imhappiness to do so each day of my life, it were needless to 
 give such a very public example of royal impotency before the 
 crowds who may assemble to behold, this spectacle. Let these 
 savage men, therefore, work their bloody will to the uttermost 
 upon each other : I will not attempt to forbid what I cannot 
 prevent them from executing. Heaven help this wretched 
 country'. I wUl to my oratory and pray for her, since to aid 
 her by hand and head is alike denied to me. Father prior, I 
 pray the support of your arm." 
 
 " Nay, but, brother, " said Albany, " forgive me if I remind 
 you that we must hear the matter between the citizens of Pecth 
 and Eamomy, about the death of a townsman " 
 
 "True — ^true," said the monarch, reseating himself; "more 
 violence — more battle. Oh, Scotland! Scotland! if the best 
 blood of thy bravest children could enrich thy barren soil, ' 
 20 
 
306 WATERLET NOVELS. 
 
 what land on earth would excel thee in fertility! When is it 
 that a white hair is seen on the beard of a Scottishman, unless 
 he be some wretch like thy sovereign, protected from murder 
 by impotence, to witness the scenes of slaughter to which he 
 cannot put a period? Let them come in — delay them not. 
 They are in haste to kill, and grudge each other each fresh 
 breath of their Creator's blessed air. The demon of strife 
 and slaughter hath possessed the whole land!" 
 
 As the mUd prince threw himself back on his seat with an 
 air of impatience and anger not very usual with him, the door 
 at the lower end of the room was unclosed, and, advancing 
 from the gallery into which it led (where in perspective was 
 seen a guard of the Bute men, or Brandanes, under arms), 
 came, in mournful procession, the widow of poor Oliver, led 
 by Sir Patrick Charteris, with as much respoct as if she had 
 been a lady of the first rank. Behind them came two women 
 of good, the wives of magistrates of the city, both in mourning 
 garments, one bearing the infant and the other leading the 
 elder child. The smith followed in his best attire, and wear- 
 ing over his bufE-coat a scarf of crape. Bailie Craigdallie and 
 a brother magistrate closed the melancholy procession, exhib- 
 iting similar marks of mourning. 
 
 The good King's transitory passion was gone the instant he 
 looked on the pallid countenance of the sorrowing widow, and 
 beheld the unconsciousness of the innocent orphans who had 
 sustained so great a loss; and when Sir Patrick Charteris had 
 assisted Magdalen Proudfute to kneel down, and, still holding 
 her hand, kneeled himself on one knee, it was with a sympa- 
 thetic tone that King Eobert asked her name and business. 
 She made no answer, but muttered something, looking towards 
 her conductor. 
 
 "Speak for the poor woman. Sir Patrick Charteris," said 
 the King, "and teU. us the cause of her seeking our presence." 
 
 " So please you, my liege, " answered Sir Patrick, rising up, 
 " this woman, and these unhappy orphans, make plaint to your 
 Highness upon Sir John Samorny of Eamorny, Knight, that 
 by him, or by some of his household, her umquhUe husband, 
 Oliver Proudfute, freeman and burgess of Perth, was slaia 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 307 
 
 upon the streets of the city on the eve of Shrove Tuesday or 
 morning of Ash Wednesday." 
 
 "Woman," replied the King, "with much kindness, "thou 
 art gentle by sex, and shouldst be pitiful even by thy aflic- 
 tion; for our own calamity ought to make us — ^nay, I think 
 it doth make us — merciful to others. Thy husband hath only 
 trodden the path appointed to us all." 
 
 " In his case, " said the widow, " my liege must remember 
 it has been a brief and a bloody one." 
 
 " I agree he hath had foul measure. But since I have been 
 unable to protect him, as I confess was my royal duty, I am 
 wUling, in atonement, to support thee and these orphans, as 
 weU. or better than you lived in the days of your husband j 
 only do thou pass from this charge, and be not the occasion of 
 spilling more life. Remember, I put before you the choice 
 betwixt practising mercy and pursuing vengeance, and that 
 betwixt plenty and penury." 
 
 " It is true, my liege, we are poor, " answered the widow, 
 with unshaken firmness ; " but I and my children will feed 
 with the beasts of the field ere we live on the price of my hus- 
 band's blood. I demand the combat by my champion, as you 
 are belted knight and crowned king." 
 
 "I knew it would be so!" said the King, aside to Albany. 
 " In Scotland the first words stammered by an infant and the 
 last uttered by a dying greybeard are * combat — blood — re- 
 venge.' It skills not arguing further. Admit the defen- 
 dants." 
 
 Sir John Eamorny entered the apartment. He was dressed 
 in a long furred robe, such as men of quality wore when they 
 were unarmed. Concealed by the folds of drapery, his 
 wounded arm was supported by a scarf or sling of crimson 
 silk, and with the left arm he leaned on a youth, who, scarcely 
 beyond the years of boyhood, bore on his brow the deep im- 
 pression of early thought and premature passion. This was ' 
 that celebrated Lindsay, Earl of Crawford, who, in his after 
 days, was known by the epithet of the Tiger Earl, and who 
 
 ' Sir David Lyndsay, first Earl of Crawford, and brother-in-law to 
 Eobert III. [The Tiger Earl was Alexander, the fourth earl.] 
 
308 WAVERLBY NOVELS. 
 
 ruled the great and rich valley of Strathmore with the absolute 
 power and unrelenting cruelty of a feudal tjTant. Two or 
 three gentlemen, friends of the Earl, or of his own, counte- 
 nanced Sir John Eamorny by their presence on this occasion. 
 The charge was again stated, and met by a broad denial on 
 the part of the accused; and in reply, the challengers offered 
 to prove their assertion by an appeal to the ordeal of bier- 
 right. 
 
 " I am not bound, " answered Sir John Bamorny, " to sub- 
 mit to this ordeal, since I can prove, by the evidence of my 
 late royal master, that I was in my own lodgings, lying on 
 my bed, ill at ease, while this provost and these bailies pre- 
 tend I was committing a crime to which I had neither will nor 
 temptation. I can therefore be no just object of suspicion." 
 
 " I can aver, " said the Prince, " that I saw and conversed 
 with Sir John Eamorny about some matters concerning my 
 own household on the very night when this murder was 
 a-doing. I therefore know that he was ill at ease, and could 
 not in person commit the deed in question. But I know noth- 
 ing of the employment of his attendants, and will not take it 
 upon me to say that some one of them may not have been 
 guUty of the crime now charged on them." 
 
 Sir John Eamorny had, during the beginning of this speech, 
 looked round with an air of defiance, which was somewhat 
 disconcerted by the concluding sentence of Eothsay's speech. 
 " I thank your Highness, " he said, with a smile, " for your 
 cautious and limited testimony in my behaK. He was wise 
 who wrote, ' Put not your faith in princes. ' " 
 
 " If you have no other evidence of your innocence, Sir John 
 Eamorny, " said the King, " we may not, in respect to your 
 followers, refuse to the injured widow and orphans, the com- 
 plainers, the grant of a proof by ordeal of bier-right, unless 
 any of them should prefer that of combat. Por yourself, you 
 are, by the Prince's evidence, freed from the attaint." 
 
 " My liege, " answered Sir John, " I can take warrant upon 
 myself for the innocence of my household and followers." 
 
 "Why, so a monk or a woman might speak," said Six 
 Patrick Charteris. "In knightly language, wilt thou. Sit 
 
THE FAIE MAID OF PERTH. 309 
 
 John de Eamorny, do battle with me in the behalf of thy 
 followers?" 
 
 " The provost of Perth had not obtained time to name the 
 word combat, " said Eamorny, " ere I would have accepted it. 
 But I am not at present fit to hold a lance." 
 
 " I am glad of it, under your favour. Sir John. There wUl 
 be the less bloodshed," said the King. " You must therefore 
 produce your followers according to your steward's household 
 book, ia the great church of St. John, that, iu presence of all 
 whom it may concern, they may purge themselves of this ac- 
 cusation. See that every man of them do appear at the time 
 of high mass, otherwise your honour may be sorely taiuted." 
 
 "They shall attend to a man," said Sir John Eamorny. 
 Then bowing low to the King, he directed himself to the 
 young Duke of Eothsay, and, making a deep obeisance, spoke 
 so as to be heard by him. alone. " You have used me gener- 
 ously, my lord! One word of your lips could have ended this 
 controversy, and you have refused to speak it." 
 
 " On my life, " whispered the Priuce, " I spake as far a? 
 the extreme verge of truth and conscience would permit. I 
 thiuk thou couldst not expect I should frame lies for thee ; 
 and after all, John, in my broken recollections of that night, 
 I do bethink me of a butcherly-looking mute, with a curtal 
 axe, much like such a one as may have done yonder night- 
 job. Ha! have I touched you, sir knight?" 
 
 Earaorny made no answer, but turned as precipitately as if 
 some one had pressed suddenly on his wounded arm, and re- 
 gaitte,d his lodgings with the Earl of Crawford; to whom, 
 though disposed for anything rather than revelxy, he was 
 obliged to offer a splendid collation, to acknowledge in some 
 degree his sense of the countenance which the young noble 
 had afforded him. 
 
310 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXn. 
 
 In pottingry he wrocht great pyne ; 
 He murdreit mony in medecyne. 
 
 DUNBAB. 
 
 When, after an entertainment the prolonging of which was 
 like torture to the wounded knight, the Earl of Crawford at 
 length took horse, to go to his distant quarters in the Castle 
 of Dupplin, where he resided as a guest, the Knight of Ea- 
 morny retired iuto his sleeping-apartment, agonized by paias 
 of body and anxiety of mind. Here he found Henbane 
 Dwiniag, on whom it was his hard fate to depend for conso- 
 lation ia both respects. The physician, with his affectation 
 of extreme humility, hoped he saw his exalted patient merry 
 and happy. 
 
 " Merry as a mad dog, " said Eamorny, " and happy as the 
 wretch whom the cur hath bitten, and who begins to feel the 
 approach of the ravening madness ! That ruthless boy, Craw- 
 ford, saw my agony, and spared not a single carouse. I must 
 do him. justice, forsooth! If I had done justice to him and to 
 the world, I had thrown him out of window and cut short a 
 career which, if he grew up as he has begun, wUl prove a 
 source of misery to all Scotland, but especially to Tayside. 
 Take heed as thou undoest the ligatures, chirurgeon: the 
 touch of a Cy's wing on that raw glowing stump were like a 
 dagger to me." 
 
 " Fear not, my noble patron, " said the leech, with a chuck- 
 ling laugh of enjoyment, which he vainly endeavoured to dis- 
 guise under a tone of affected sensibility. " We will apply 
 some fresh balsam, and — ^he, he, he! — relieve your knightly 
 honour of the irritation which you sustain so firmly." 
 
 "Eirmly, man!" said Eamomy, grinning with pain; "I 
 sustain it as I would the scorching flames of purgatory. The 
 bone seems made of red-hot iron; thy greasy ointment will 
 hiss as it drops upon the wound. And yet it is December's 
 ice, compared to the fever-fit of my mind!" 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 311 
 
 " We ■will first use our emollieats upon the body, my noble 
 patron," said Dwining; "and then, with your knighthood's 
 permission, your servant will try his art on the troubled mind; 
 though I fain hope even the mental pain also may in some 
 degree depend on the irritation of the wound, and that, abated 
 as I trust the corporeal pangs wUl soon be, perhaps the stormy 
 feelings of the mind may subside of themselves. " 
 
 " Henbane Dwining, " said the patient, as he felt the pain 
 of his wound assuaged, " thou art a precious and invaluable 
 leech, but some things are beyond thy power. Thou canst 
 stupify my bodily sense of this raging agony, but thou canst 
 not teach me to bear the scorn of the boy whom I have brought 
 up — whom I loved, Dwining — for I did love him — dearly love 
 him. ! The worst of my ill deeds have been to flatter his vices ; 
 and he grudged me a word of his mouth, when a word would 
 have allayed this cumber ! He smUed, too — I saw him smUe 
 — when yon paltry provost, the companion and patron of 
 wretched burghers, defied me, whom this heartless prince 
 knew to be unable to bear arms. Ere I forget or forgive it, 
 thou thyself shalt preach up the pardoning of iujuries ! And 
 then the care for to-morrow ! Think' st thou. Henbane Dwin- 
 ing, that, in -very reality, the wounds of the slaughtered corpse 
 win gape and shed tears of fresh blood at the murderer's ap- 
 proach?" 
 
 "I cannot tell, my lord, save by report," said Dwining, 
 "which avouches the fact." 
 
 "The brute Bonthron," said Eamorny, "is startled at the 
 g.pprehension of such a thing, and speaks of being rather will- 
 ing to stand the combat. What think' st thou? He is a feUow 
 of steel." 
 
 "It is the armourer's trade to deal with steel," replied 
 Dwming. 
 
 "Were Bonthron to fall, it would little grieve me," said 
 Eamorny; "though I should miss an useful hand." 
 
 " I well believe your lordship will not sorrow as for that 
 you lost in Curfew Street. Excuse my pleasantry — ^he, he, 
 he ! But what are the useful properties of this fellow Bon- 
 thron?" 
 
312 WAVERLBT NOVELS. 
 
 " Those of a bull-dog, " answered the knight : " he worries 
 ■without harking." 
 
 "You have no fear of his confessing?" said the phy- 
 sician. 
 
 " Who can tell what the dread of approaching death may 
 do?" replied the patient. "He has already shown a timor- 
 ousness entirely alien from his ordinary sullenness of nature; 
 he, that would scarce wash his hands after he had slain ?t 
 man, is now afraid to see a dead body bleed. " 
 
 "Well," said the leech, "I must do something for him if I 
 can, since it was to further my revenge that he struck yonder 
 downright blow, though by ill luck it lighted not where it 
 was intended." 
 
 " And whose fault was that, timid TUIain, " said Bamorny, 
 " save thine own, who marked a rascal deer for a buck of the 
 first head?" 
 
 " Benedicite, noble sir, " replied the mediciner ; " would you 
 have me, who know little save of chamber practice, be as 
 skilful of woodcraft as your noble self, or teU hart from hind, 
 doe from roe, in a glade at midnight? I misdoubted me little 
 when I saw the figure run past us to the smith's habitation in 
 the wynd, habited like a morrice-dancer ; and yet my mind 
 partly misgave me whether it was cur man, for methought 
 he seemed less of stature. But when he came out again, after 
 so much time as to change his dress, and swaggered onwards 
 with buff-coat and steel-cap, whistling after the armourer's 
 wonted fashion, I do own I was mistaken super totam materiem, 
 and loosed your knighthood's bull-dog upon him, who did his 
 devoir most duly, though he pulled down the wrong deer. 
 Therefore, unless the accursed smith kill our poor friend 
 stone-dead on the spot, I am determined, if art may do it, 
 that the ban-dog Bonthion shall not miscarry.'' 
 
 "It will put thine art to the test, man of medicine," said 
 Eamorny; "for know that, having the worst of the combat, 
 if our champion be not kiEed stone-dead in the lists, he will 
 be drawn forth of them by the heels, and without further 
 ceremony knitted up to the gallows, as conAdcted of the muT- 
 der ; and when he hath swung there like a loose tassel for an 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 313 
 
 tour or so, I think thou wilt hardly take it in hand to cure 
 his broken neck." 
 
 " I am of a different opinion, may it please your knight' 
 hood," answered Dwiaing, gently. "I ■wiU. carry him off 
 from the very foot of the gallows into the laud of faery, like 
 King Arthur, or Sir Huon of Bordeaux, or Ugero the Dane; 
 or I will, if I please, suffer him to dangle on the gibbet for a 
 certain number of minutes, or hours, and then whisk him 
 away from the sight of all, with as much ease as the wind 
 wafts away the withered leaf." 
 
 " This is idle boasting, sir leech," replied Eamorny, " The 
 whole mob of Perth will attend him to the gallows, each more 
 eager than another to see the retainer of a nobleman die, for 
 the slaughter of a cuckoldly citizen. There will be a thousand 
 of them round the gibbet's foot," 
 
 " And were there ten thousand, " said Dwining, " shall I, 
 who am a high clerk, and have studied in Spain, and Araby 
 itself, not be able to deceive the eyes of this hoggish herd of 
 citizens, when the pettiest juggler that ever dealt in legerde- 
 main can gull even the sharp observation of your most intelli- 
 gent knighthood? I tell you, I will put the change on them 
 as if I were in possession of Keddie's ring." 
 
 "If thou speakest truth," answered the knight, "and I 
 think thou darest not palter with me on such a theme, thou 
 must have the aid of Satan, and I will have nought to do with 
 him. I disown and defy him." 
 
 Dwining indulged in his internal chuckling laugh when he 
 heard his patron testify his defiance of the foul fiend, and saw 
 him second it by crossing himself. He composed himself, 
 however, upon observing Eamorny's aspect become very stern, 
 and said, with tolerable gravity, though a little interrupted 
 by the effort necessary to suppress his mirthful mood : 
 
 " Confederacy, most devout sir — confederacy is the soul of 
 jugglery. But— he, he, he! — I have not the honour to be — 
 he, he! — an ally of the gentleman of whom you speak — in 
 whose existence I am — ^he, he! — no very profound believer, 
 though your knightship, doubtless, hath better opportunities 
 of acquaintance." 
 
314 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 "Proceed, rascal, and without that sneer, wMcli thou mayst 
 otlierwise dearly pay for. " 
 
 "I win, most undaunted," replied Dwining. "Know that* 
 I have my confederate too, else my skill were little worth." 
 
 "And who may that he, pray you?" 
 
 " Stephen Smotherwell, if it like your honour, loekman ' of 
 this Fair City. I marvel your knighthood knows him not." 
 
 " And I marvel thy knaveship knows him not on profes- 
 gional acquaintance," replied Eamorny; "but. I see thy nose 
 is unslit, thy ears yet uncropped, and if thy shoulders are 
 scarred or branded, thou art wise for using a high-collared 
 jerkin." 
 
 "He, he! your honour is pleasant," said the mediciner. 
 " It is not by personal circumstances that I have acquired the 
 intimacy of Stephen Smotherwell, but on account of a certain 
 traffic betwixt us, in which, an't please you, I exchange certain 
 sums of silver for the bodies, heads, and limbs of those who 
 die by aid of friend Stephen." 
 
 " Wretch!" exclaimed the knight with horror, " is it to com- 
 pose charms and forward works of witchcraft that you trade 
 for these miserable relies of mortality?" 
 
 " He, he, he! No, an it please your knighthood," answered 
 the mediciaer, much amused with the ignorance of his patron ; 
 " but we, who are knights of the scalpel, are accustomed to 
 practise careful carving of the limbs of defunct persons, which 
 we call dissection, whereby we discover, by examination of a 
 dead member, how to deal with one belonging to a living man, 
 which hath become diseased through injury or otherwise. 
 Ah! if your honour saw my poor laboratory, I could show 
 you heads and hands, feet and lungs, which have been long 
 supposed to be rotting in the mould. The skull of Wallace, 
 stolen from London Bridge ; the heart of Sir Simon Fraser,' 
 that never feared man; the lovely skuU of the fair Katie 
 Logie.' Oh, had I but had the fortune to have preserved 
 the chivalrous hand of mine honoured patron!" 
 
 • See Note 41. 
 
 • The famous ancestor of the Lovats, slain at Halidon Hill [executed in 
 ljOndoninl306]. 
 
 ' [Should be Margaret Logie], the beautiful mistress of David II. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 315 
 
 "Out upon thee, slave! Thinkest thou to disgust me with 
 thy catalogue of horrors? Tell me at once where thy dis- 
 course drives. How can thy traffic with the hangdog execu- 
 tioner he of avail to serve me, or to help my servant Bonthron?" 
 
 " Nay, I do not recommend it to your knighthood, save in 
 an extremity," replied Dwining. "But we will suppose the 
 battle fought and our cock heaten. Now we must first pos- 
 sess him with the certainty that, if unable to gain the day, 
 we win at least save him from the hangman, provided he con- 
 fess nothing which can prejudice your knighthood's honour." 
 
 "Ha! ay, a thought strikes me," said Eamorny. "We can 
 do more than this, we can place a word in Bonthron's mouth 
 that win be troublesome enough to him whom I' am bound to 
 curse for being, the cause of my misfortune. Let us to the 
 ban-dog's kennel, and explain to him what is to be done in 
 every view of the question. If we can persuade him to stand 
 the bier-ordeal, it may be a mere bugbear, and in that case we 
 are safe. If he take the combat, he is fierce as a baited bear, 
 and may, perchance, master his opponent ; then we are more 
 than safe, we are revenged. If Bonthron himself is van- 
 quished, we will put thy device in exercise ; and if thou canst 
 manage it cleanly, we may dictate his confession, take the ad- 
 vantage of it, as I will show thee on further conference, and 
 make a giant stride towards satisfaction for my wrongs. Still 
 there remains one hazard. Suppose our mastiff mortally 
 wounded in the lists, who shall prevent his growling out 
 some species of confession different from what we would 
 recommend?" 
 
 "Marry, that can his mediciner," said Dwining. "Let ma 
 wait on him, and have the opportunity to lay but a finger on 
 his wound, and trust me he shall betray no confidence. " 
 
 " Why, there's a willing fiend, that needs neither pushing 
 nor prompting!" said Eamorny. 
 
 " As I trust I shall need neither in your knighthood's ser- 
 vice." 
 
 " We will go indoctrinate our agent," continued the knight. 
 "We shall find him pliant; for, hound as he is, he knows 
 those who feed from those who browbeat him; and he holds 
 
316 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 a late royal master of mine in deep hate for some injurious 
 treatment and base terms wMch he received at his hand. I 
 must also farther concert with thee the particulars of thy 
 practice, for saving the ban-dog from the hands of the herd 
 of citizens." 
 
 We leave this worthy pair of friends to their secret prac- 
 tices, of which we shaU. afterwards see the results. They 
 were, although of different qualities, as well matched for de- 
 vice and execution of criminal projects as the greyhound is 
 to destroy the game which the slowhound raises, or the slow- 
 hound to track the prey which the gazehound discovers by the 
 eye. Pride and selfishness were the characteristics of both; 
 but, from the difference of rank, education, and talents, they 
 had assumed the most different appearance in the two indi- 
 viduals. 
 
 , Nothing could less resemble the high-blown ambition of the 
 favourite courtier, the successful gallant, and the bold warrior 
 than the submissive, imassuming mediciner, who seemed even 
 to court and delight in insult; whilst, in his secret soul, he 
 felt himself possessed of a superiority of knowledge, a power 
 both of science and of mind, which placed the rude nobles of 
 the day infinitely beneath him. So conscious was Henbane 
 Dwining of this elevation, that, like a keeper of wild beasts, 
 he sometimes adventured, for his own amusement, to rouse 
 the stormy passions of such men as Eamorny, trusting, with 
 his humble manner, to elude the turmoil he had excited, as an 
 Indian boy will launch his light canoe, secure from its very 
 fragility, upon a broken surf, in which the boat of an argosy 
 would be assuredly dashed to pieces. That the feudal baron 
 should despise the humble practitioner in medicine was a 
 matter of course ; but Eamorny felt not the less the influence 
 which Dwining exercised over him, and was in the encounter 
 of their wits often mastered by him, as the most eccentric 
 efforts of a fiery horse are overcome by a boy of twelve years 
 old, if he has been bred to the arts of the manege. But the 
 contempt of Dwining for Eamorny was far less qualified. He 
 regarded the knight, in comparison with himself, as scarcely 
 rising above the brute creation ; capable, indeed, of working 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 317 
 
 destruction, as the bull with his horns or the -wolf with his 
 fangs, but mastered by mean prejudices, and a slave to priest- 
 craft, in which phrase Dwining included religion of every 
 kind. On the whole, he considered Eamorny as one whom 
 nature had assigned to him as a serf, to mine for the gold 
 which he worshipped, and the avaricious love of which was 
 his greatest failing, though by no means nis worst vice. He 
 vindicated this sordid tendency ia his own eyes by persuading 
 himself that it had its source in the love of power. 
 
 "Henbane Dwining," he said, as he gazed in delight upon 
 the hoards which he had secretly amassed, and which he vis- 
 ited from time to time, " is no silly miser that doats on those 
 pieces for their golden lustre : it is the power with which they 
 endow the possessor which makes him thus adore them. What 
 is there that these put not within your command? Do you 
 love beauty, and are mean, deformed, infirm, and old? Here 
 is a lure the fairest hawk of them all will stoop to. Are you 
 feeble, weak, subject to the oppression of the powerful? Here 
 is that will arm in your defence those more mighty than the 
 petty tyrant whom you fear. Are you splendid ia your wishes, 
 and desire the outward show of opulence? This dark chest 
 contains many a wide range of hUl and dale, many a fair for- 
 est full of game, the allegiance of a thousand vassals. Wish 
 you for favour in courts, temporal or spiritual? The smiles 
 of kings, the pardon of popes and priests for old crimes, and 
 the indulgence which encourages priest-ridden fools to venture 
 on new ones — all these holy incentives to vice may be pur- 
 chased for gold. Eevenge itself, which the gods are said to 
 reserve to themselves, doubtless because they envy humanity 
 so sweet a morsel — ^revenge itself is to be bought by it. But 
 it is also to be won by superior skill, and that is the nobler 
 mode of reaching it. I will spare, then, my treasure for other 
 uses, and accomplish my revenge gratis ; or rather I will add 
 the luxury of augmented wealth to the triumph of requited 
 wrongs." 
 
 Thus thought Dwining, as, returned from his visit to Sir 
 John Eamorny, he added the gold he had received for his va- 
 rious services to the mass of his treasure ; and, having gloated 
 
318 WAVERLEY KOVELS. 
 
 over the whole for a minute or two, turned tlie key on Ms con- 
 cealed treasure-house, and walked forth on his visits to his 
 patients, yielding the wall to every man whom he met, and 
 bowing and doffing his bonnet to the poorest burgher that 
 owned a petty booth, nay, to the artificers who gained their 
 precarious bread by the labour of their welked hands. 
 
 "Caitiffs," was the thought of his heart while he did such 
 obeisance — "base, sodden-witted mechanics! did you know 
 what this key could disclose, what foul weather from heaven 
 would prevent your unbonneting? what putrid kennel in your 
 wretched hamlet would be disgusting enough to make you 
 scruple to fall down and worship the owner of such wealth? 
 But I will make you feel my power, though it suits my honour 
 to hide the source of it. I will be an incubus to your city, 
 since you have rejected me as a magistrate. Like the night- 
 mare, I will hag-ride ye, yet remain, invisible myseK. This 
 miserable Eamorny, too, he who, in losiug his hand, has, like 
 a poor artisan, lost the only valuable part of his frame, he 
 heaps insulting language on me, as if anything which he can 
 say had power to chafe a constant mind like mine! Yet, 
 while he caUs me rogue, villain, and slave, he acts as wisely 
 as if he should amuse himself by puUing hairs out of my head 
 while my hand had hold of his heart-strings. Every insult I 
 can pay back instantly by a pang of bodily pain or mental 
 agony, and — ^he, he ! — ^I run no long accounts with his knight- 
 hood, that must be allowed. " 
 
 While the mediciner was thus indulgiug his diabolical mus- 
 ing, and passing, iu his creeping manner, along the street, the 
 cry of females was heard behind him. 
 
 "Ay, there he is, Our Lady be praised! — ^there is the most 
 helpful man in Perth," said one voice. 
 
 "They may speak of k'nights and kings for redressing 
 wrongs, as they call it ; but give me worthy Master Dwining 
 the potter-carrier, cummers, " replied another. 
 
 At the same moment, the leech was surrounded and taken 
 hold of by the speakers, good women of the Pair City. 
 
 "How now, what's the matter?" said Dwining, "whoso 
 cow has calved?" 
 
THE FAIK MAID OF PERTH. 319 
 
 " There is no calving in the case, " said one of the women, 
 " but a poor fatherless wean dying ; so come awa' wi' you, for 
 our trust is constant in you, as Bruce said to Donald of the 
 Isles." 
 
 " Opiferque ^er orhem dicor," said Henbane Dwining. 
 " What is the child dying of?" 
 
 " The croup — the croup, " screamed one of the gossips ; " the 
 innocent is rouping like a corbie." 
 
 " Cynanche trachealis — that disease makes brief work. 
 Show me the house instantly, " continued the mediciner, who 
 was in the habit of exercising his profession liberally, not- 
 withstanding his natural ayariee, and humanely, in spite of 
 his natural malignity. As we can suspect him of no better 
 principle, his motive most probably may have been vanity 
 and the love of his art. 
 
 He would nevertheless have declined giving his attendance 
 in the present ease had he known whither the kind gossips 
 were conducting him, in time sufB.cient to frame an apology. 
 But, ere he guessed where he was going, the leech was hurried 
 into the house of the late Oliver Proudfute, from which he 
 heard the chant of the women as they swathed and dressed 
 the corpse of the umquhile bonnet-maker for the ceremony of 
 next morning, of which chant the following verses may be 
 received as a modern imitation : 
 
 Viewless essence, thin and bare, 
 Well nigh melted into atr, 
 Still with fondness hovering near 
 The earthly form thou once didst w 
 
 Pause upon thy pinion's flight ; 
 Be thy course to left or right, 
 Be thou doom'd to soar or sink, 
 Pause upon the awful brink. 
 
 To avenge the deed expelling 
 Thee untimely from thy dwelling, 
 Mystic force thou shalt retain 
 O'er the blood and o'er the brain. 
 
 When the form thou shalt espy 
 That darken' d on thy closing eye. 
 When the footstep thou shalt hear 
 That thriU'd upon thy dying ear. 
 
320 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 Then strange sympathies shall wake, 
 The flesh shall thrill, the nerves shall quake, 
 The wounds renew their clotter'd flood. 
 And every drop cry blood for blood ! 
 
 Hardened as he -was, the physician felt reluctance to pass 
 the threshold of the man to whose death he had been so 
 directly, though, so far as the individual was concerned, mis- 
 takingly, accessary. 
 
 " Let me pass on, women, " he said, " my art can only help 
 the living — the dead are past our power." 
 
 "Nay, but your patient is upstairs — the youngest or- 
 phan " 
 
 Dwining was compelled to go into the house. But ■ he was 
 surprised when, the instant he stepped over the threshold, the 
 gossips, who were busied with the dead body, stinted suddenly 
 in their song, while one said to the others : 
 
 " In God's name, who entered? That was a large gout of 
 blood." 
 
 " Not so, " said another voice, " it is a drop of the liquid 
 balm." 
 
 "Nay, cummer, it was blood. Again I say, who entered 
 the house even now?" 
 
 One looked out from the apartment into the little entrance, 
 where Dwining, under pretence of not distinctly seeing the 
 trap-ladder by which he was to ascend into the upper part of 
 this house of lamentation, was delaying his progress pur- 
 posely, disconcerted with what had reached him of the con- 
 versation. 
 
 "Nay, it is only worthy Master Henbane Dwining," an- 
 swered one of the sibyls. 
 
 "Only Master Dwining," replied the one who had first 
 spoken, in a tone of acquiescence — " our best helper io need ! 
 Then it must have been balm sure enough. " 
 
 "Nay," said the other, "it may have been blood nererthe- 
 less; for the leech, look you, when the body was found, was 
 commanded by the magistrates to probe the wound w'.th his 
 instruments, and how could the poor dead corpse know that 
 that was done with good purpose?" 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 321 
 
 "Ay, truly, cummer; and as poor Oliver often mistook 
 friends for enemies while lie was in life, his judgment cannot 
 be thought to have mended now." 
 
 Dwining heard no more, being now forced upstairs into a 
 species of garret, where Magdalen sat on her widowed bed, 
 clasping to her bosom her infant, which, already black in the 
 face, and uttering the gasping, crowing sound which gives the 
 popular name to the complaint, seemed on the point of render- 
 ing up its brief existence. A Dominican monk sat near the 
 bed, holding the other child in his arms, and seeming from 
 time to time to speak a word or two of spiritual consolation, 
 or intermingle some observation on the child's disorder. 
 
 The mediciner cast upon the good father a single glance, 
 filled with that ineffable disdain which men of science enter- 
 tain against interlopers. His own aid was instant and effi- 
 cacious : he snatched the child from the despairing mother, 
 stripped its throat, and opened a vein, which, as it bled 
 freely, relieved the little patient instantaneously. In a brief 
 space every dangerous symptom disappeared, and Dwining, 
 having bound up the vein, replaced the infant in the arms of 
 the half-distracted mother. 
 
 The poor woman's distress for her husband's loss, which 
 had been suspended during the extremity of the child's dan- 
 ger, now returned on Magdalen with the force of an aug- 
 mented torrent, which has borne down the dam-dike that for 
 a while interrupted its waves. 
 
 "Oh, learned sir," she said, "you see a poor woman of her 
 that you once knew a richer. But the hands that restored 
 this bairn to my arms must not leave this house empty. 
 Generous, kind Master Dwining, accept of his beads; they are 
 made of ebony and silver. He aye liked to have his things as 
 handsome as any gentleman, and liker he was in aU his ways 
 to a gentleman than any one of his standing, and even so came 
 of it." 
 
 With these words, in a mute passion of grief she pressed to 
 her breast and to her lips the chaplet of her deceased hus- 
 band, and proceeded to thrust it into Dwining's hands. 
 
 "Tate it," she said, "for the love of one who loved you 
 21 
 
322 WAVEELEY NOVELS, 
 
 well. Ah, he used ever to say, if ever man could be brought 
 back from the brink of the grave, it must be by Master Dwin- 
 iug's guidance. And his ain bairn is brought back this blessed 
 day, and he is lying there stark and stiff, and kens naething 
 of its health and sickness ! Oh, woe is me, and walawa ! But 
 take the beads, and think on his puir soul, as you put them 
 through your fingers: he will be freed from purgatory the 
 sooner that good people pray to assoilzie him." 
 
 " Take back your beads, cummer ; I know no legerdemain, 
 can do no conjuring tricks," said the mediciner, who, more 
 moved than perhaps his rugged nature had anticipated, en- 
 deavoured to avoid receiving the ill-omened gift. But his 
 last words gave offence to the churchman, whose presence he 
 had not recollected when he uttered them. 
 
 "How now, sir leech!" said the Dominican; "do you caU 
 prayers for the dead juggling tricks? I know that Chaucer, 
 the English maker, says of you mediciners, that your study is 
 but little on the Bible. Our mother, the church, hath nodded 
 of late, but her eyes are now opened to discern friends from 
 foes ; and be well assured " 
 
 "Kay, reverend father," said Dwining, "you take me at 
 too great advantage. I said I could do no miracles, and was 
 about to add that, as the church certainly could work such 
 conclusions, those rich beads should be deposited in your 
 hands, to be applied as they may best benefit the soul of the 
 deceased. " 
 
 He dropped the beads into the Dominican's hand, and es- 
 caped from the house of mourning. 
 
 "This was a strangely-timed visit," he said to himself, 
 when he got safe out of doors, "I hold such . things cheap 
 as any can; yet, though it is but a silly fancy, I am glad I 
 saved the squalling child's life. But I must to my friend 
 Smotherwell, whom I have no doubt to bring to my purpose 
 in the matter of Bonthron; and thus on this occasion I shall 
 save two lives, and have destroyed only one." 
 
THE FAin MAID OF PERTH. 323 
 
 CHAPTER XXm. 
 
 Lo 1 where he lies embalmed in gore, 
 
 His wound to Heaven cries ; 
 The floodgates of his blood implore 
 
 For vengeance from the skies. 
 
 Uranus and Psyche, 
 
 The High Cliurcli of St. John in Perth, being that of the 
 patron saint of the burgh, had been selected by the magis- 
 trates as that in which the community was likely to have most 
 fair play for the display of the ordeal. The churches and 
 convents of the Dominicans, Carthusians, and others of the 
 regular clergy had been highly endowed by the King and 
 nobles, and therefore it was the universal cry of the city- 
 council that " their ain good auld St. John, " of whose good 
 graces they thought themselves sure, ought to be fully con- 
 fided in, and preferred to the new patrons, for whom the 
 Dominicans, Carthusians, Carmelites, and others had founded 
 newer seats around the Fair City. The disputes between the 
 regular and secular clergy added to the jealousy which dic- 
 tated this choice of the spot in which Heaven was to display 
 a species of miracle, upon a direct appeal to the divine decision 
 in a case of doubtful guilt ; and the town-clerk was as anxious 
 that the church of St. John should be preferred as if there 
 had been a faction in the body of saints for and against the 
 interests of the beautiful town of Perth, 
 
 Many, therefore, were the petty intrigues entered into and 
 disconcerted for the purpose of fixing on the church. But 
 the magistrates, considering it as a matter touching in a close 
 degree the honour of the city, determined, with judicious 
 confidence in the justice and impartiality of their patron, to 
 confide the issue to the influence of St. John. 
 
 It was, therefore, after high mass had been performed with 
 the greatest solemnity of which circumstances rendered the 
 ceremony capable, and after the most repeated and fervent 
 prayers had been offered to Heaven by the crowded assembly, 
 that preparations were made for appealing to the direct judg- 
 
324 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 ment of Heaven on the mysterious murder of the unfortunate 
 bonnet-maker. 
 
 The scene presented that effect of imposing solemnity which 
 the rites of the Catholic Church are so well qualified to pro- 
 duce. The eastern window, richly and variously painted, 
 streamed down a torrent of chequered light upon the high 
 altar. On the bier placed before it were stretched the mortal 
 remains of the murdered man, his arms folded on his breast, 
 and his palms joined together, wl^h the fingers pointed up- 
 wards, as if the senseless clay was itself appealiug to Heaven 
 for vengeance against those who had violently divorced the 
 immortal spirit from its mangled tenement. 
 
 Close to the bier was placed the throne which supported 
 Robert of Scotland and his brother Albany. The Prince sat 
 upon a lower stool, beside his father — an arrangement which 
 occasioned some observation, as, Albany's seat being little 
 distinguished from that of the King, the heir-apparent, though 
 of full age, seemed to be degraded beneath his uncle in the 
 sight of the assembled ■ people of Perth. The bier was so 
 placed as to leave the view of the body it sustained open to 
 the greater part of the multitude assembled in the church. 
 
 At the head of the bier stood the Knight of Kinf aims, the 
 challenger, and at the foot the young Earl of Crawford, as 
 representing the defendant. The evidence of the Duke of 
 Rothsay in expurgation, as it was termed, of Sir John Ra- 
 morny, had exempted him from the necessity of attendance 
 as a party subjected to the ordeal; and his illness served as 
 a reason for his remaiaing at home. His household, includ- 
 ing those who, though immediately in waiting upon Sir John, 
 were accounted the Prince's domestics, and had not yet re- 
 ceived their dismissal, amounted to eight or ten persons, most 
 of them esteemed men of profligate habits, and who might 
 therefore be deemed capable, in the riot of a festival evening, 
 of committing the slaughter of the bonnet-maker. They were 
 drawn up in a row on the left side of the church, and wore a 
 species of white cassock, resembling the dress of a penitenti- 
 ary. All eyes being bent on them, several of this band seemed 
 so much disconcerted as to excite araong the spectators strong 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PEBTH. 326 
 
 prepossessions of their guilt. The real murderer had a coun- 
 tenance incapable of betraying him — a suUen, dark look, which 
 neither the feast nor wine-cup could enliven, and which the 
 peril of discovery and death could not render dejected. 
 
 We have already noticed the posture of the dead body. 
 The face was bare, as were the breast and arms. The rest 
 of the corpse was shrouded in a winding-sheet of the finest 
 liuen, so that, if blood should flow from any place which was 
 covered, it could not fail to be instantly manifest. 
 
 High mass having been performed, followed by a solemn 
 invocation to the Deity, that He would be pleased to protect 
 the innocent, and make known the guilty, Eviot, Sir John 
 Eamorny's page, was summoned to undergo the ordeal. ' He 
 advanced with an Ul-assured step. Perhaps he thought his 
 internal consciousness that Bonthron must have been the as- 
 sassin might be sufficient to implicate him in the murder, 
 though he was not directly accessary to it. He paused before 
 the bier ; and his voice faltered, as he swore by all that was 
 created in seven days and seven nights, by heaven, by hell, 
 by his part of paradise, and by the God and author of all, 
 that he was free and sackless of the bloody deed done upon 
 the corpse before which he stood, and on whose breast he 
 made the sign of the cross, in evidence of the appeal. No 
 consequences ensued. The body remained stiff as before, the 
 curdled wounds gave no sign of blood. 
 
 The citizens looked on each other with faces of blank disap- 
 pointment. They had persuaded themselves of Eviot's guilt, 
 and their suspicions had been confirmed by his irresolute man- 
 ner. Their surprise at his escape was therefore extreme. The 
 other followers of Eamorny took heart, and advanced to take 
 the oath with a boldness which increased as one by one they 
 performed the ordeal, and were declared, by the voice of the 
 judges, free and innocent of every suspicion attaching to them 
 on account of the death of Oliver Proudfute. 
 
 But there was one individual who did not partake that in- 
 creasing confidence. The name of "Bonthron — Bonthron!" 
 spunded three times through the aisles of the church; but he 
 » See Ordeal by Fire. Note 42, 
 
326 WAVERLEY NOVELa 
 
 ■who owned it acknowledged tlie call no otherwise than by a 
 sort of shuffling motion with his feet, as if he had been sud- 
 denly affected with a fit of the palsy. 
 
 "Speak, dog," whispered Eviot, "or prepare for a dog's 
 death!" 
 
 But the murderer's brain was so much disturbed by the 
 sight before him, that the judges, beholdiag his deportment, 
 doubted whether to ordain him to be dragged before the bier 
 or to pronounce judgment in default; and it was not until he 
 was asked for the last time whether he would submit to the 
 ordeal, that he answered, with his usual brevity : 
 
 " I wiU not ; what do I know what juggling tricks may be 
 practised to take a poor man's life? I goffer the combat to 
 any man who says I harmed that dead body." 
 
 And, according to usual form, he threw his glove upon the 
 floor of the church. 
 
 Henry Smith stepped forward, amidst the murmured ap- 
 plauses of his fellow-citizens, which even the august presence 
 could not entirely suppress; and, lifting the ruffian's glove, 
 which he placed in his bonnet, laid down his own in the usual 
 form, as a gage of battle. But Bonthron raised it not. 
 
 " He is no match for me, " growled the savage, " nor fit to 
 lift my glove. I follow the Prince of Scotland, in attending 
 on his master of horse. This fellow is a wretched me- 
 chanic. " 
 
 Here the Prince interrupted him. " Thou foUow me, caitiff! 
 I discharge thee from my service on the spot. Take him in 
 hand. Smith, and beat him as thou didst never thump anvU. ! 
 The villain is both guilty and recreant. It sickens me even 
 to look at him ; and if my royal father wiU be ruled by me, 
 he will give the parties two handsome Scottish axes, and we 
 wiU see which of them turns out the best fellow before the 
 day is half an hour older. " 
 
 This was readily assented to by the Earl of Crawford and 
 Sir Patrick Charteris, the godfathers of the parties, who, as 
 the combatants were men of inferior rank, agreed that they 
 should fight in steel caps, buff -jackets, and with axes, and 
 that as soon as they could be prepared for the combat. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 327 
 
 The lists were appointed in the Skinners' Yards ' — a neigh- 
 houring space of ground, occupied by the corporation from 
 which it had the name, and who quickly cleared a space of 
 about thirty feet by twenty-five for the combatants. Thither 
 thronged the nobles, priests, and commons — all excepting the 
 old King, who, detesting such scenes of blood, retired to his 
 residence, and devolved the charge of the field upon the Earl of 
 Errol, Lord High Constable, to whose office it more particularly 
 belonged. The Duke of Albany watched the whole proceeding 
 with a close and wary ey e. His nephew gave the scene the heed- 
 less degree of notice which corresponded with his character. 
 
 AVhen the combatants appeared in the lists, nothing could 
 "be more striking than the contrast betwixt the manly, cheerful 
 countenance of the smith, whose sparkling bright eye seemed 
 already beaming with the victory he hoped for, and the suUen, 
 downcast aspect of the brutal Bonthron, who looked as if he 
 were some obscene bird, driven into sunshine out of the shel- 
 ter of its darksome haunts. They made oath severally, each 
 to the truth of his quarrel — a ceremony which Henry Gow 
 performed with serene and manly confidence, Bonthron with 
 a dogged resolution, which induced the Duke of Eothsay to 
 say to the High Constable : " Didst thou ever, my dear Errol, 
 behold such a mixture of malignity, cruelty, and I think fear, 
 as in that fellow's countenance?" 
 
 "He is not comely," said the Earl, "but a powerful knave 
 as I have seen. " 
 
 " I'U gage a hogshead of wine with you, my good lord, that 
 he loses the day. Henry the armourer is as strong as he, and 
 much more active; and then look at his bold bearing! There 
 is something in that other fellow that is loathsome to look 
 upon. Let them yoke presently, my dear Constable, for I am 
 sick of beholding him." 
 
 The High Constable then addressed the widow, who, in her 
 deep weeds, and having her children still beside her, occupied 
 a chair within the lists : " Woman, do you wHlingly accept of 
 this man, Henry the Smith, to do battle as your champion in 
 this cause?" 
 
 > See Note 43. 
 
328 WAVERLEY NOTELS. 
 
 "I do — I do, most wiUingly," answered Magdalen Prouf, 
 fute ; " and may the blessing of God and St. John give him 
 strength and fortune, since he strikes for the orphan and fa- 
 therless !" 
 
 " Then I pronoimee this a fenced field of battle, " said the 
 Constable aloud, " Let no one dare, upon peril of his life, to 
 interrupt this combat by word, speech, or look. Sound trum- 
 pets, and fight, combatants!" 
 
 The trumpets flourished, and the combatants, advancing 
 from the opposite ends of the lists, with a steady and even 
 pace, looked at each other attentively, well skilled in judging 
 from the motion of the eye the direction in which a blow was 
 meditated. They halted opposite to, and within reach of, 
 each other, and in turn made more than one feint to strike, in 
 order to ascertain the activity and vigilance of the opponent. 
 At length, whether weary of these manoeuvres, or fearing lest 
 in a contest so conducted his unwieldy strengfth would be 
 foiled by the activity of the smith, Bonthron heaved up his 
 axe for a downright blow, adding the whole strength of his 
 sturdy arms to the weight of the weapon in its descent. The 
 smith, however, avoided the stroke by stepping aside ; for it 
 was too forcible to be controlled by any guard which he could 
 have interposed. Ere Bonthron recovered guard, Henry 
 struck him a sidelong blow on the steel head-piece, which 
 prostrated him on the ground. 
 
 "Confess, or die," said the victor, placing his foot on the 
 body of the vanquished, and holding to his throat the point of 
 the axe, which terminated in a spike or poniard. 
 
 " I will confess, " said the villain, glaring wildly upwards on 
 the sky. " Let me rise. " 
 
 "Not tiU you have yielded," said Harry Smith. 
 
 "I do yield," again murmured Bonthron, and Henry pro- 
 claimed aloud that his antagonist was defeated. 
 
 The Dukes of Eothsay and Albany, the High Constable, 
 and the Dominican prior now entered the lists, and, address- 
 ing Bonthron, demanded if he acknowledged himself vaa- 
 quished. 
 
 "I do." answered the njiscreant. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 3,29 
 
 "And guilty of the murder of Oliver Proudfute?" 
 
 "I am; but I mistook him for another." 
 
 "And whom didst thou iatend to slay?" said the prior. 
 "Confess, my son, and merit thy pardon ia another world; 
 for with this thou hast little more to do." 
 
 " I took the slain man, " answered the discomfited comba- 
 tant, " for him whose hand has struck me down, whose foot 
 now presses me." 
 
 " Blessed be the saints !" said the prior ; " now all those who 
 doubt the virtue of the holy ordeal may have their eyes opened 
 to their error. Lo, he is trapped ia the snare which he laicj 
 for the guiltless." 
 
 " I scarce ever saw the man before, " said the smith. '■ I 
 never did wrong to him or his. Ask him, an it please your 
 reverence, why he should have thought of slayrug me treacher- 
 ously." 
 
 " It is a fitting question, " answered the prior. " Give glory 
 where it is due, my son, even though it is manifested by thy 
 shame. For what reason wouldst thou have waylaid this ar- 
 mourer, who says he never wronged thee?" 
 
 " He had wronged him whom I served," answered Bonthion, 
 " and I meditated the deed by his command." 
 
 "By whose command?" asked the prior. 
 
 Bonthron was silent for an iustant, then growled out : " He 
 is too mighty for me to name." 
 
 "Hearken, my son," said the churchman; "tarry but a 
 brief hour, and the mighty and the mean of this earth shall to 
 thee alike be empty sounds. The. sledge is even now prepar- 
 ing to drag thee to the place of execution. Therefore, son, 
 once more I charge thee to consult thy soul's weal by glorify- 
 iug Heaven, and speaking the truth. "Was it thy master. Sir 
 John Eamorny, that stirred thee to so foul a deed?" 
 
 "No," answered the prostrate villaia, "it was a greater 
 than he." And at the same time he pointed with his finger 
 to the Priuce. 
 
 " Wretch!" said the astonished Duke of Eothsay; " do you 
 dare to hint that J was your instigator?" 
 
 "You yourself, my lord," answered the unblushing rufflao, 
 
8S0 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 " Die in thy falsehood, accursed slave !" said the Prince ; and, 
 drawing his sword, he would have pierced his calumniator, had 
 not the Lord High Constable interposed with word and action. 
 
 " Your Grace must forgive my discharging mine office : this 
 caitiff must be delivered into the hands of the executioner. 
 He is unfit to be dealt with by any other, much less by your 
 Highness." 
 
 " What ! noble earl, " said Albany aloud, and with much real 
 or affected emotion, " would you let the dog pass alive from 
 hence, to poison the people's ears with false accusations against 
 the Prince of Scotland? I say, cut him to mammocks upon 
 the spot!" 
 
 "Your Highness will pardon me," said the Earl of Errol; 
 "I must protect him till his doom is executed." 
 
 " Then let him be gagged instantly, " said Albany. " And 
 you, my royal nephew, why stand you there fixed in astonish- 
 ment? Call your resolution up — speak to the prisoner — swear 
 — protest by all that is sacred that you knew not of this felon 
 deed. See how the people look on each other and whisper 
 apart! My life on't that this lie spreads faster than any Gos- 
 pel truth. Speak to them, royal kinsman, no matter what 
 you say, so you be constant in denial." 
 
 "What, sir," said Eothsay, starting from his pause of sur- 
 prise and mortification, and turning haughtily towards his 
 uncle ; " would you have me gage my royal word against that 
 of an abject recreant? Let those who can believe the son of 
 their sovereign, the descendant of Bruce, capable of laying 
 ambush for the life of a pqor mechanic enjoy the pleasure of 
 thinking the villain's tale true." 
 
 "That wUl not I for one," said the smith, bluntly. "I 
 never did aught but what was in honour towards his royal 
 Grace the Duke of Eothsay, and never received unkindness 
 from him in word, look, or deed; and I cannot think he would 
 have given aim to such base practice." 
 
 " Was it in honour that you threw his Highness from the 
 ladder in Curfew Street upon Pastern's [St. Valentine's] 
 Even?" said Bonthron; "or think you the favour was re- 
 ceived kindly or unkindly?" 
 
THE PAIB MAID OF PERTa 331 
 
 This ■was so boldly said, and seemed so plausible, that it 
 shook the smith's opinion of the Prince's innocence. 
 
 "Alas, my lord," said he, looking sorrowfully towards 
 Eothsay, " could your Highness seek an innocent fellow's life 
 for doing his duty by a helpless maiden? I would rather have 
 died in these lists than live to hear it said of the Bruce's 
 heir!" 
 
 "Thou art a good feUow, Smith," said the Prince; "but I 
 cannot expect thee to judge more wisely than others. Away 
 with that convict to the gallows, and gibbet him alive an you 
 wUI, that he may speak falsehood and spread scandal on us to 
 the last prolonged moment of his existence!" 
 
 So saying, the Prince turned away from the lists, disdaining 
 to notice the gloomy looks cast towards him, as the crowd 
 made slow and reluctant way for him to pass, and expressing 
 neither surprise nor displeasure at a deep, hollow murmur, or 
 groan, which accompanied his retreat. Only a few of his own 
 immediate followers attended him from the field, though va- 
 rious persons of distinction had come there in his train. Even 
 the lower class of citizens ceased to follow the unhappy Prince, 
 whose former indifferent reputation had exposed him to so 
 many charges of impropriety and levity, anr) around whom 
 there seemed now darkening suspicions of th most atrocious 
 nature. 
 
 He took his slow and thoughtful way to the church of the 
 Dominicans ; but the ill news, which flies proverbially fast, had 
 reached his father's place of retirement before he himself ap- 
 peared. On entering the palace and inquiring for the King, 
 the Duke of Eothsay was surprised to be informed that he 
 was in deep consultation with the Duke of Albfiny, who, 
 mounting on horseback as the Prince left the lists, had reached 
 the convent before him. He was about to use the privilege 
 of his rank and birth to enter the royal apartment, when Mae- 
 Lewis, the commander of the guard of Brandanes, gave him 
 to understand, in the most respectful terms, that he had spe- 
 cial instructions which forbade his admittance. 
 
 " Go at least, MacLewis, and let them know that I wait 
 their pleasure,'' said the Prince. "If my uncle desires to 
 
332 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 have the credit of shuttmg the father's apartment against the 
 son, it will gratify him to know that I am attending in the 
 outer hall like a lackey." 
 
 "May it please you," said MaoLewis, with hesitation, "if 
 your Highness would consent to retire just now, and to wait 
 a while in patience, I will send to acquaint you when the 
 Duke of Albany goes; and I doubt not that his Majesty wiU 
 then admit your Grace to his presence. At present, your 
 Highness must forgive me, it is impossible you can have 
 access." 
 
 •■'I understand you, MacLewis; but go, nevertheless, and 
 obey my commands." 
 
 The officer went accordingly, and returned with a message 
 that the King was indisposed, and on the point of retiring to 
 his private chamber ; but that the Duke of Albany would pres- 
 ently wait upon the Prince of Scotland. 
 
 It was, however, a full half -hour ere the Duke of Albany 
 appeared — a period of time which Eothsay spent partly in 
 moody silence, and partly in idle talk with MacLewis and the 
 Brandanes, as the levity or irritability of his temper obtained 
 the ascendant. 
 
 At length the Duke came, and with him the Lord High Con- 
 stable, whose countenance expressed much sorrow and embar- 
 rassment. 
 
 "Fair kinsman," said the Duke of Albany, "I grieve to 
 say that it is my royal brother's opinion that it will be best, 
 for the honour of the royal family, that your Eoyal Highness 
 do restrict yourself for a time to the seclusion of the High 
 Constable's lodgings, ' and accept of the noble Earl here pres- 
 ent for your principal, if not sole, companion until the scan- 
 dals which have been this day spread abroad shall be refuted 
 or forgotten." 
 
 ' ' How is this, my Lord of Errol?" said the Prince in aston- 
 ishment. " Is your house to be my jail, and is your lordship 
 to be my jailer?" 
 
 ''The saints forbid, my lord," said the Earl of Errol; "but 
 it is my unhappy duty to obey the commands of your f athei; 
 ' See Earl of Errol' s Lodginas. Note 44 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 333 
 
 by considering your Royal HigLness for some time as being 
 under my ward." 
 
 " The Prince — the heir of Scotland, under the ward of the 
 High Constable! What reason can be given for this? Is the 
 blighting speech of a convicted recreant of strength sufficient 
 to tarnish my royal escutcheon?" 
 
 "While such accusations are not refuted and denied, my 
 kiasman," said the Duke of Albany, "they wUl contamiuate 
 that of a monarch." 
 
 "Denied, my lord I" exclaimed the Priuce; "by "whom are 
 they asserted, save by a vrretch too infamous, even by his 
 own confession, to be credited for a moment, though a beggar's 
 character, not a prince's, were impeached? Fetch him hither, 
 let the rack be shown to him. ; you wUl soon hear him retract 
 the calumny which he dared to assert. " 
 
 " The gibbet has done its work too surely to leave Bonthron 
 sensible to the rack," said the Duke of Albany. "He has 
 been executed an hour since. " 
 
 " And why such haste, my lord?" said the Prince ; " know 
 you it looks as if there were practice in it to bring a stain on 
 my name?" 
 
 " The custom is universal : the defeated combatant in the 
 ordeal of battle is instantly transferred from the lists to the 
 gallows. And yet, fair kinsman," continued the Duke of 
 Albany, " if you had boldly and strongly denied the imputa- 
 tion, I would have judged right to keep the wretch alive for 
 further investigation; but as your Highness was sUent, I 
 deemed it best to stifle the scandal in the breath of him that 
 uttered it." 
 
 "St. Mary, my lord, but this is too insulting! Do you, 
 my uncle and kinsman, suppose me guilty of prompting such 
 an useless and unworthy action as that which the slave con- 
 fessed?" 
 
 " It is not for me to bandy question with your Highness, 
 otherwise I would ask whether you also mean to deny the 
 scarce less unworthy, though less bloody, attack upon the 
 house in Gouvrefew Street? Be not angry with me, kinsman; 
 but, indeed, your sequestering yourself for some brief space 
 
334 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 from tlie court, were it only during tlie King's residence in 
 this city, where so much ofEence has been given, is imperiously 
 demanded. " 
 
 Eothsay paused when he heard this exhortation, and, look- 
 ing at the Duke in a very marked manner, replied : 
 
 " Uncle, you are a good huntsman. You have pitched your 
 toils with much skill; but you would have been foUed, not- 
 withstandmg, had not the stag rushed among the nets of free- 
 will. God speed you, and may you have the profit by this 
 ■matter which your measures deserve. Say to my father, I 
 obey his arrest. My Lord High Constable, I wait only your 
 pleasure to attend you to your lodgings. Since I am to lie 
 in ward, I could not have desired a kinder or more courteous 
 warden. " 
 
 The interview between the uncle and nephew being thus 
 concluded, the Prince retired with the Earl of Errol to his 
 apartments ; the citizens whom they met in the streets pass- 
 ing to the further side when they observed the Duke of Eoth- 
 say, to escape the necessity of saluting one whom they had 
 been taught to consider as a ferocious as well as unprincipled 
 libertine. The Constable's lodgings received the owner and 
 his princely guest, both glad to leave the streets, yet neither 
 feeling easy in the situation which they occupied with regard 
 to each other within doors. 
 
 We must return to the lists after the combat had ceased, 
 and when the nobles had withdrawn. The crowds were now 
 separated into two distinct bodies. That which made the 
 smallest in number was at the same time the most distin- 
 guished for respectability, consisting of the better class of in- 
 habitants of Perth, who were congratulating the successful 
 champion and each other upon the triumphant conclusion to 
 which they had brought their feud with the courtiers. The 
 magistrates were so much elated on the occasion, that they 
 entreated Sir Patrick Charteris's acceptance of a collation in 
 the town-hall. To this Henry, the hero of the day, was of 
 course invited, or he was rather commanded to attend. He 
 listened to the summons with great embarrassment, for it may 
 be readily believed his heart was with Catharine Glover, But 
 
THE PAIR MAID Of PERTH 3^ 
 
 the advice of Ms father Simon decided him. That veteran 
 citizen had a natural and becoming deference for the magis- 
 tracy of the Fair City ; he entertained a high estimation of 
 all honours vfhich flowed from such a source, and thought 
 that his intended son-in-law would do wrong not. to receive 
 them with gratitude. 
 
 " Thou must not think to absent thyself from such a solemn 
 occasion, son Henry, " was his advice. " Sir Patrick Charteris 
 is to be there himseK, and I think it will be a rare occasion 
 for thee to gain his good-wUl. It is like he may order of 
 thee a new suit of harness ; and I myself heard worthy BaUie 
 CraigdaHie say there was a talk of furbishing up the city's 
 armoury. Thou must not neglect the good trade, now that 
 thou takest on thee an expensive family." 
 
 " Tush, father Glover, " answered the embarrassed victor, 
 " I lack no custom ; and thou knowest there is Catharine, who 
 may wonder at my absence, and have her ear abused once 
 more by tales of glee-maidens and I wot not what. " 
 
 "Fear not for that," said the glover, "but go, like an 
 obedient burgess, where thy betters desire to have thee. I 
 do not deny that it will cost thee some trouble to make thy 
 peace with Catharine about this duel ; for she thinks herself 
 wiser in such matters than king and council, kirk and canons, 
 provost and bailies. But I will take up the quarrel with her 
 myself, and wiU. so work for thee, that, though she may re- 
 ceive thee to-morrow with somewhat of a chiding, it shall 
 melt into tears and smHes, like an April morning, that begins 
 with a mild shower. Away with thee, then, my son, and be 
 constant to the time, to-morrow morning after mass. " 
 
 The smith, though reluctantly, was obliged to defer to the 
 reasoning of his proposed f ather-iu-law, and, once determined 
 to accept the honour destined for him by the fathers of the 
 city, he extricated himself from the crowd, and hastened 
 home to put on his best apparel ; in which he presently after- 
 wards repaired to the council-house, where the ponderous oak 
 table seemed to bend imder the massy dishes of choice Tay 
 salmon and delicious sea-fish from Dundee, being the dainties 
 which the fasting season permitted, whilst neither wine, ale. 
 
336 -WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 nor metliegliii were ■wanting to ■wash, them do^wn. The ■waits, 
 or minstrels of the burgh, played during the repast, and ia 
 the intervals of the music one of them recited ■with great em- 
 phasis a long poetical account of the battle of Blackearn-side, 
 fought by Sir William Wallace and his redoubted captain, and 
 friend, Thomas of Longueville, against the English general 
 Se^ward— a theme perfectly familiar to all the guests, "who, 
 nevertheless, more tolerant than their descendants, listened 
 as if it had aU the zest of novelty. It -was complimentary to 
 the ancestor of the Knight of Kinfauns, doubtless, and to 
 other Perthshire families, in passages which the audience ap- 
 plauded vociferously, whilst they pledged each other in 
 mighty draughts to the memory of the heroes who had fought 
 by the side of the Champion of Scotland. The health of 
 Henry Wynd was quaffed with repeated shouts, and the pro- 
 vost announced publicly, that the magistrates were consulting 
 how they might best invest him with some distinguished 
 privilege or honorary reward, to show how highly his fellow- 
 citizens valued his courageous exertions. 
 
 "Nay, take it not thus, an it like your worships," said the 
 smith, with his usual blunt manner, " lest men say that valour 
 must be rare in Perth when they reward a man for fighting 
 for the right of a forlorn widow. I am sure there are many 
 scores of stout burghers in the town who would have done this 
 day's dargue as well or better than I. For, in good sooth, I 
 ought to have cracked yonder fellow's head-piece like an 
 earthen pipkin — ay, and would have done it, too, if it had not 
 been one which I myself tempered for Sir John Kamorny. But, 
 an the Fair City think my service of any worth, I wiU conceive 
 it far more than acquitted by any aid which you may afford 
 from the common good ' to the support of the widow Magdalen 
 and her poor orphans." 
 
 " That may well be done," said Sir Patrick Charteris, " and 
 yet leave the Fair City rich enough to pay her debts to Henry 
 Wynd, of which every man of us is a better judge than him- 
 self, who is blinded with an unav3,iling nicety, which men 
 call modesty. And if the burgh be too poor for this, the pro* 
 • The public property of the burgh. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 337 
 
 vost will beai- his share. The Eover's golden angels have 
 not all taken flight yet." 
 
 The beakers were now circulated, under the name of a cup 
 of comfort to the widow, and anon flowed around once more 
 to the happy memory of the murdered Oliver, now so bravely 
 avenged. In short, it was a feast so jovial that all agreed 
 nothing was wanting to render it perfect but the presence of 
 the bonnet-maker himself, whose calamity had occasioned the 
 meeting, and who had usually furnished the standiag jest at 
 ■such festive assemblies. Had his attendance been possible, 
 it was drily observed by Bailie CraigdaUie, he would certainly 
 have claimed the success of the day, and vouched himself the 
 avenger of his own murder. 
 
 At the sound of the vesper beU the company broke up, 
 some of the graver sort going to evening prayers, where, with 
 half -shut eyes and shiniug countenances, they made a most 
 orthodox and edif yiug portion of a Lenten congregation ; oth- 
 ers to their own homes, to teU over the occurrences of the 
 fight and feast, for the information of the family circle ; and 
 some, doubtless, to the licensed freedoms of some tavern, the 
 door of which Lent did not keep so close shut as the forms of 
 the church required. Henry returned to the wynd, warm with 
 the good wine and the applause of, his fellow-citizens, and 
 fell asleep to dream of perfect happiness and Catharine Glover. 
 
 We have said that, when the combat was decided, the spec- 
 tators were divided into two bodies. Of these, when the more 
 respectable portion attended the victor in joyous procession, 
 much the greater number, or what might be termed the rab- 
 ble, waited upon the subdued and sentenced Bonthron, who 
 was travelling in a different direction, and for a very opposite 
 purpose. Whatever may be thought of the comparative at- 
 tractions of the house of mourniug and of feasting under other 
 circumstances, there can be little doubt which will draw most 
 visitors, when the question is, whether we would witness mis- 
 eries which we are not to share, or festivities of which we 
 are not to partake. Accordingly, the tumbril in which the 
 criminal was conveyed to execution was attended by far the 
 greater proportion of the inhabitants of Perth. 
 22 
 
338 WAVEKLEY NOVELS. 
 
 A friar was seated ip tjie same car with the murderer, to 
 whom he did not hesitate to repeat, under the seal of confes- 
 pipn, the same false asseveration which he had made upon the 
 pl^e of combat, which charged the Duke of Bothsay with 
 being director of the ambuscade by which the unfortunate 
 bonnet-maker had suffered. The same falsehood he dissemi- 
 nated among the crowd, averring, with unblushing effrontery, 
 to those who were nighest to the car, that he owed his death 
 to his having been willing to execute the Duke of Eothsay'a 
 pleasure. For a time he repeated these words, sullenly ajid 
 doggedly, in the manner of one reciting a task, or a liar who 
 endeavours by reiteration to obtain a credit for his words 
 which he is internally sensible they do not deserve. But 
 when he lifted up his eyes, and beheld in the distance the 
 black outline of a gallows, at least forty feet high, with it^ 
 ladder and its fatal cord, rising against the horizon, he became 
 suddenly silent, and the friar could observe that he trembled 
 very much. 
 
 " Be comforted, my son, " said the good priest, " you have 
 confessed the truth, and received absolution. Your penitence 
 win be accepted according to your sincerity ; and though you 
 have been a man of bloody hands ajid cruel heart, yet, by 
 the church's prayers, you shall be in due time assoilzied from 
 the penal fires of purgatory." 
 
 These assurances were calculated rather to augment than to 
 diminish the terrors of the culprit, who was agitated by 
 doubts whether the mode suggested for his preservation from 
 death would to a certaiaty be effectual, and some suspicion 
 whether there was really any purpose of employing them in 
 his favour ; for he knew his master well enough to be aware 
 of the indifference with which he would sacrifice one who 
 might on some future occasion be a dangerous evidence against 
 him. 
 
 His doom, however, was sealed, and there was no escaping 
 from it. They slowly approached the fatal tree, which was 
 erected on a bank by the river's side, about half a mile from 
 the walls of the city — a site chosen that the body of the 
 wretch, which was to remain food for the carrion crows, might 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 339 
 
 be seen from a distance in every direction. Here the priest 
 delivered Bonthron to the executioner, by whom he was 
 assisted up the ladder, and to all appearance despatched 
 according to the usual forms of the law. He seemed to 
 struggle for life for a minute, but soon after hung stUl and in- 
 animate. The executioner, after remaining upon duty for more 
 than half an hour, as if to permit the last spark of life to be ex- 
 tinguished, announced to the admirers of such spectacles that 
 the irons for the permanent suspension of the carcass not hav- 
 ing been got ready, the concluding ceremony of disembowel- 
 ling the dead body and attaching it finally to the gibbet would 
 be deferred till the next morning at sunrise. 
 
 Notwithstanding the early hour which he had named, 
 Master Smotherwell had a reasonable attendance of rabble at 
 the place of execution, to see the final proceedings of justice 
 with its victim. But great was the astonishment and resent- 
 ment of these amateurs to find that the dead body had been 
 removed from the gibbet. They were not, however, long at a 
 loss to guess the cause of its disappearance. Bonthron had 
 been the follower of a baron whose estates lay iu Fife, and 
 was himself a native of that province. What was more 
 natural than that some of the Fife men, whose boats were fre- 
 quently plying on the river, should have clandestinely removed 
 the body of their countryman from the place of public shame? 
 The crowd vented their rage against Smotherwell for not com- 
 pleting his job on the preceding eveniug ; and had not he and 
 his assistant betaken themselves to a boat, and escaped across 
 che Tay, they would have run some risk of beiag pelted to 
 ieath. The event, however, was too much in the spirit of tha 
 times to be much wondered at. Its real cause we shall explain 
 in the following chapter. 
 
340 WAVERLBY NOVELS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Let gallows gape for dogs, let men go free. 
 
 Henry V. 
 
 Thb incidents of a narrative of tMs kind must be adapted 
 to each other, as the wards of a key must tally accurately with 
 those of the lock to which it belongs. The reader, however 
 gentle, will not hold hitnseK obliged to rest satisfied with the 
 mere fact that such and such occurrences took place, which is, 
 generally speaking, all that in ordinary life he can know of what 
 is passing around him; but he is desirous, while reading for 
 amusement, of knowing the interior movements occasioning 
 the course of events. This is a legitimate and reasonable 
 curiosity; for every man hath a right to open and examine 
 the mechanism of his own watch, put together for his proper 
 use, although he is not permitted to pry into the interior of 
 the timepiece which, for general information, is displayed on 
 the town-steeple. 
 
 It would be, therefore, uncourteous to leave my readers 
 under any doubt concerning the agency which removed the 
 assassin Bonthron from the gallows — an event which some of 
 the Perth citizens ascribed to the foul fiend himself, while 
 others were content to lay it upon the natural dislike of Bon- 
 thron's countrymen of Pife| to see him hanging on the river- 
 side, as a spectacle dishonourable to their province. 
 
 About midnight succeeding the day when the execution had 
 taken place, and while the inhabitants of Perth were deeply 
 buried in slumber, three men muffled in their cloaks, and 
 bearing a dark lantern, descended the alleys of a garden 
 which led from the house occupied by Sir John Eamorny to 
 the banks of the Tay, where a small boat lay moored to a 
 landing-place, or little projecting pier. The wind howled in 
 a low and melancholy manner through the leafless shrubs and 
 bushes ; and a pale moon " waded, " as it is termed in Scotland, 
 amongst drifting clouds, which seemed to threaten rain. The 
 three individuals entered the boat with great precaution to 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 341 
 
 escape observation. One of them was a tall, powerful man ; 
 another short and bent downwards; the third middle-sized, 
 and apparently younger than his companions, well made, and 
 active. Thus much the imperfect light could discover. They 
 seated themselves in the boat and immoored it from the pier. 
 
 " We must let her drift with the current tiU we pass the 
 bridge, where the burghers stUl keep guard; and you know 
 the proverb, *A Perth arrow hath a perfect flight,' " said the 
 most youthful of the party, who assumed the ofllce of helms- 
 man, and pushed the boat off from the pier ; whilst the others 
 took the oars, which were muffted, and rowed with all precau- 
 tion till they attained the middle of the river ; they then ceased 
 their efforts, lay upon their oars, and trusted to the steersman 
 for keeping her in mid-channel. 
 
 In this manner they passed unnoticed or disregarded be- 
 neath the stately Gothic arches of the old bridge, erected by 
 the magnificent patronage of Robert Bruce in 1329, and 
 carried away by an inundation in 1621. Although they heard 
 the voices of a civic watch, which, since these disturbances 
 commenced, had been nightly maintained in that important 
 pass, no challenge was given; and when they were so far 
 down the stream as to be out of hearing of'these guardians of 
 the night, they began to row, but stiU with precaution, and 
 to converse, though in a low tone. 
 
 "You have found a new trade, comrade, since I left you," 
 said one of the rowers to the other. " I left you engaged in 
 tending a sick knight, and I find you employed in purloining 
 a dead body from the gallows." 
 
 " A living body, so please your squirehood. Master Buncle, 
 or else my craft hath failed of its purpose." 
 
 " So I am told. Master Potter-carrier ; but, saving your 
 clerkship, unless you tell me your trick, I will take leave to 
 doubt of its success." 
 
 " A simple toy. Master Buncle, not likely to please a genius 
 so acute as that of your valiancie. Marry, thus it is. This 
 suspension of the human body, which the vulgar call hanging, 
 operates death by apoplexia — that is, the blood being unable 
 to return to the heart by the compression of the veins, it 
 
342 ■WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 rushes to the brain, and the man dies. Also, and as an ad- 
 ditional cause of dissolution, the lungs no longer receive the 
 needful supply of the vital air, owing to the ligature of the 
 cord around the thorax; and hence the patient perishes." 
 
 " I understand that \rell enough. But how is such a re- 
 vulsion of blood to the brain to be prevented, sir mediciuer?" 
 said the third person, who was no other than Ramorny's page, 
 Eviot. 
 
 " Marry, then, " replied Dwining, " hang me the patient up 
 iu such fashion that the carotid arteries shall not be com- 
 pressed, and the blood will not determine to the brain, and 
 apoplexia will not take place; and again, if there be no liga- 
 ture around the thorax, the lungs will be supplied with air, 
 whether the man be hanging in the middle heaven or standing 
 on the firm earth." 
 
 "All this I conceive," said Eviot; "but how these precau- 
 tions can be reconciled with the execution of the sentence of 
 hanging is what my dull brain cannot comprehend. " 
 
 " Ah ! good youth, thy valiancie hath spoiled a fair wit. 
 Hadst thou studied with me, thou shouldst have learned things 
 more difficult than this. But here is my trick. I get me cer- 
 tain bandages, madi of the same substance with your young 
 valiancie's horse-girths, having especial care that they are of 
 a kind which will not shrink on being strained, since that 
 would spoil my experiment. One loop of this substance is 
 drawn under each foot, and returns up either side of the leg 
 to a cincture, with which it is united; these cinctures are con- 
 nected by divers straps down the breast and back, in order to 
 divide the weight. And there are sundry other conveniences 
 for easing the patient, but the chief is this: the straps, or 
 ligatures, are attached to a broad steel collar, curving out- 
 wards, and having a hook or two, for the better security of 
 the halter, which the friendly executioner passes around that 
 part of the machine, instead of applying it to the bare throat 
 of the patient. Thus, when thrown off from the ladder, the 
 sufferer wiU. find himself suspended, not by his neck, if it 
 please you, but by the steel circle, which supports the loops 
 in which his feet are placed, and on which his weight really 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 343 
 
 rests, diminished a little by similar supports under each arm. 
 Thus, neither vein nor windpipe being compressed, the man 
 will breathe as free, aad his blood, saving from fright and 
 novelty of situation, will flow as temperately as your vali- 
 ancie's when you stand up in your stirrups to view a field of 
 battle." 
 
 " By my faith, a quaint and rare device!" quoth Buncle. 
 
 "Is it not?" pursued the leech, "and well worth being 
 known to such mounting spirits as your valiancies, since there 
 is no knowing to what height Sir John Eamorny's pupils may 
 airive ; and if these be such that it is necessary to descend 
 from them by a rope, you may find my mode of management 
 more convenient than the common practice. Marry, but you 
 must be provided with a high-collared doublet, to conceal the 
 ring of steel, and, above all, such a bonus soeius as Smother- 
 well to adjust the noose." 
 
 "Base poison-vender," said Evict, "men of our calling die 
 on the field of battle." 
 
 " I will save the lesson, however, " replied Buncle, " in case 
 of some pinching occasion. But what a night the bloody 
 hangdog 'Bonthron must have had of it, dancing a pavise in 
 mid- air to the music of his own shackles, as the night- wind 
 swings him. that way and this !" 
 
 " It were an almp-deed to leave him there, " said Eviot ; " for 
 his descent from the gibbet will but encourage him to new 
 murders. He knows but two elements — drunkenness and 
 bloodshed." 
 
 " Perhaps Sir John Eamorny might have been of your opin- 
 ion, " said Dwining ; " but it would first have been necessary 
 to cut out the rogue's tongue, lest he had told strange tales 
 from his airy height. And there are other reasons that it 
 concerns not your valiancies to know. In truth, I myself 
 have been generous in serving him, for the fellow is built as 
 strong as Edinburgh Castle, and his anatomy would have 
 matched any that is in the chirurgical hall of Padua. But 
 teU me, Master Buncle, what news bring you from the doughty 
 Douglas?" 
 
 " They may tell that know," said Buncle. " I am the dull 
 
344 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 ass that bears tlie message, and kens nought of its purport. 
 The safer for myself, perhaps. I carried letters from the 
 Diike of Albany and from Sir John Eamorny to the Douglas, 
 and he looked black as a northern tempest when he opened 
 them. I brought them answers from the Earl, at which they 
 smiled like the sun when the harvest storm is closing over 
 him. Go to your ephemerides, leech, and conjure the mean- 
 ing out of that. " 
 
 " Methinks I can do so without much cost of wit, " said the 
 chirurgeon ; " but yonder I see in the pale moonlight our dead- 
 alive. Should he have screamed out to any chance passenger, 
 it were a curious interruption to a night- journey to be hailed 
 from the top of such a gallows as that. Hark, methinks I do 
 hear his groans amid the whistling of the wind and the creak- 
 ing of the chains. So — fair and softly; make fast the boat 
 with the grappling, and get out the casket with my matters ; 
 we would be better for a little fire, but the light might bring 
 observation on us. Come on, my men of valour, march warily, 
 for we are bound for the galLows-foot. Follow with the lan- 
 tern; I trust the ladder has been left. 
 
 Sing, three merry-men, and three merry-men. 
 
 And three merry-men are we. 
 Thou on the land, and I on the sand, 
 
 And Jack on the gallows-tree.' 
 
 As they advanced to the gibbet, they could plainly hear 
 groans, though uttered in a low tone. Dwining ventured to 
 give a low cough once or twice, by way of signal ; but recei-? - 
 ing no answer, "We had best make haste," said he to his 
 companions, " for our friend must be in extremis, as he giv«;S 
 no answer to the signal which announces the arrival of help. 
 Come, let us to the gear. I will go up the ladder first and 
 cut the rope. Do you two foUow, one after another, and take 
 fast hold of the body, so that he fall not when the halter Is 
 unloosed. Keep sure gripe, for which the bandages will afford 
 you convenience. Bethink you that, though he plays an owPs- 
 part to-night, he hath no wings, and to fall out of a halter 
 may be as dangerous as to fall into one. " 
 
 While he spoke thus with sneer and gibe, he ascended ths^ 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 345 
 
 ladder, and having ascertained that the men-at-arms who fol- 
 lowed him had the body in their hold, he cut the rope, and 
 then gave his aid to support the almost lifeless form of the 
 crimiaal. 
 
 By a skilful exertion of strength and address, the body of 
 Bonthron was placed safely on the ground; and the faint yet 
 certaia existence of life having been ascertained, it was thence 
 transported to the river-side, where, shrouded by the bank, 
 the party might be best concealed from observation, while the 
 leech employed himself in the necessary means of recalling 
 animation, with which he had taken care to provide himself. 
 
 For this purpose he first freed the recovered person from his 
 shackles, which the executioner had left unlocked on purpose, 
 and at the same time disengaged the complicated envelopes 
 and bandages by which he had been suspended. It was some 
 time ere Dwiniug's efforts succeeded; for, in despite of the 
 skOl with which his machiue had been constructed, the straps 
 designed to support the body had stretched so considerably as 
 to occasion the sense of suffocation becoming extremely over- 
 powering. But the address of the surgeon triumphed over 
 all obstacles ; and, after sneeziug and stretching himself, with 
 one or two brief convulsions, Bonthron gave decided proofs of 
 reanimation, by arresting the hand of the operator as it was 
 in the act of dropping strong waters on his breast and throat, 
 and, directing the bottle which contained-them to his lips, ho 
 took, almost perforce, a considerable gulp of the contents. 
 
 "It is spiritual essence double distilled," said the aston- 
 ished operator, " and would blister the throat and burn the 
 stomach of any other man. But this extraordinary beast is 
 so unlike all other human creatures, that I should not wonder 
 if it brought him to the complete possession of his facul- 
 ties." 
 
 Bonthron seemed to confirm this : he started with a strong 
 convulsion, sat up, stared around, and indicated some con- 
 sciousness of existence. 
 
 "Wine — ^wine," were the first words which he articulated. 
 
 The leech gave him a draught of medicated wine, mixed 
 with water, He rejected it, under the dishonourable epithet 
 
346 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 of "kennel- washings," and again uttered the words, ""Wmie — 
 wine." 
 
 "Nay, take it to thee, i' the devil's name," said the leech, 
 "since none but he can judge of thy constitution." 
 
 A draught, long and deep enough to have discomposed the 
 intellects of any other person, was found effectual in recalling 
 those of Bonthron to a more perfect state; though he betrayed 
 no recollection of where he was or what had befallen him, and 
 in his brief and sullen manner asked why he was brought to 
 the river-side at this time of night. 
 
 " Another frolic of the wild Prince, for drenching me as he 
 did before. Nails and blood, but I would " 
 
 "Hold thy peace," interrupted Eviot, "and be thankful, I 
 pray you, if you have any thankfulness in you, that thy body 
 is not crow's meat and thy soul in a place where water is too 
 scarce to duck thee." 
 
 "I begin to bethink me," said the ruflBan; and raising the 
 flask to his mouth, which he saluted with a long and hearty 
 kiss, he set the empty bottle on the earth, dropped his head 
 on his bosom, and seemed to muse for the purpose of arrang- 
 ing his confused recollections. 
 
 " We can abide the issue of his meditations no longer, " said 
 Dwining; "he wiU be better after he has slept. Up, sir! you 
 have been riding the air these some hours ; try if the water be 
 not an easier mode of conveyance. Your valours must lend 
 me a hand. I can no more lift this mass than I could raise 
 in my arms a slaughtered bull. " 
 
 " Stand upright on thine own feet, Bonthron, now we have 
 placed thee upon them," said Eviot. 
 
 "I cannot," answered the patient. "Every drop of blood 
 tingles in my veins as if it had pin-points, and my knees re- 
 fuse to bear their burden. What can be the meaning of all 
 this? This is some practice of thine, thou dog leech!" 
 
 "Ay — ay, so it is, honest Bonthron," said Dwining — "a 
 practice thou shalt thank me for when thou comest to learn it. 
 In the mean while, stretch down in the stern of that boat, and 
 let me wrap this cloak about thee." Assisted into the boat 
 accordingly, Bonthron was deposited there as conveniently as 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 347 
 
 things admitted of. He answered their attentions with one o-i 
 two snorts resembling the grunt of a boar who has got some 
 food particularly agreeable to him. 
 
 "And now, Buncle," said the chirurgeon, "your valiant 
 squireship knows your charge. You are to carry this lively 
 cargo by the river to Newburgh, where you are to dispose of 
 him as you wot of; meantime, here are his shackles and ban- 
 dages, the marks of his confinement and liberation. Bind 
 them up together, and fling them into the deepest pool you 
 pass over ; for, found in your possession, they might tell tales 
 against us all. This low, light breath of wind from the west 
 will permit you to use a sail as soon as the light comes in and 
 you are tired of rowing. Your other valiancie. Master Page 
 Eviot, must be content to return to Perth with me a-foot, for 
 here severs our fair company. Take with thee the lantern, 
 Buncle, for thou wilt require it more than we, and see thou 
 send me back my flasket." 
 
 As the pedestrians returned to Perth, Eviot expressed his 
 belief that Bonthron's understanding would never recover the 
 shock which terror had inflicted upon it, and which appeared 
 to him to have disturbed aH the faculties of his mind, and in 
 particular his memory. 
 
 " It is not so, an it please your pagehood," said the leech. 
 " Bonthron's intellect, such as it is, hath a solid character : it 
 will but vacillate to and fro like a pendulum which hath been 
 put in motion, and then will rest in its proper point of gravity. 
 Our memory is, of all our powers of m_ind, that which is pe- 
 culiarly liable to be suspended. Deep intoxication or sound 
 sleep alike destroy it, and yet it returns when the drunkard 
 becomes sober or the sleeper is awakened. Terror sometimes 
 produces the same effect. I knew at Paris a criminal con" 
 demned to die by the halter, who suffered the sentence accord- 
 ingly, showing no particular degree of timidity upon the scaf- 
 fold, and behaving and expressing himself as men in the same 
 condition are wont to do. Accident did for him what a little 
 ingenious practice hath done for our amiable friend from whom 
 we but now parted. He was cut down and given to his friends 
 before life was extinct, and I had the good fortune to restore 
 
348 "WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 him. But, though he recovered in other paxticulars, he re- 
 membered but little of his trial and sentence. Of his confes- 
 sion on the morning of his execution — he! he! he! (in his 
 usual chuckling manner) — he remembered him not a word. 
 Neither of leaving the prison, nor of his passage to the Greve, 
 where he suffered, nor of the devout speeches with which he — . 
 he ! he I he ! — edified — he I he ! he ! — so many good Christians, 
 nor of ascending the fatal tree, nor of taking the fatal leap, had 
 my revenant the slightest recollection.' But here we reach 
 the point where we must separate ; for it were unfit, should 
 we meet any of the watch, that we be found together, and it 
 were also prudent that we enter the city by different gates. 
 My profession forms an excuse for my going and coming at all 
 times. Your valiant pagehood will make such explanation as 
 may seem sufficing." 
 
 " I shaU. make my wUl a sufficient excuse if I am interro- 
 gated, " said the haughty young man. " Yet I will avoid in- 
 terruption, if possible. The moon is quite obscured, and the 
 road as black as a wolf's mouth." 
 
 " Tut, " said the physicianer, " let not your valour care for 
 that: we shall tread darker paths ere it be long." 
 
 Without inquiring into the meaning of these evil-boding 
 sentences, and indeed hardly listening to them in the pride 
 and recklessness of his nature, the page of Eamorny parted 
 from his ingenious and dangerous companion,, and each took 
 his own way. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The course of true love never did run smooth. 
 
 Shaesfbabi. 
 
 The ominous anxiety of our armourer had not played him 
 false. When the good glover parted with his intended son- 
 in-law, after the judicial combat had been decided, he found, 
 what he iudeed had expected, that his fair daughter was in no 
 
 See Survival after Hanging. Note 45, 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 349 
 
 favourable disposition towards her lover. But althougli he per- 
 ceived that Catharine was cold, restrained, collected, had cast 
 away the appearance of mortal passion, and listened with a 
 reserve, implying contempt, to the most splendid description 
 he could give her of the combat in the Skinners' Yards, he 
 was determined not to take the least notice of her altered 
 manner, but to speak of her marriage with his son Henry as a 
 thing which must of course take place. At length, when she 
 began, as on a former occasion, to intimate that her attach- 
 ment to the armourer did not exceed the bounds of friendship, 
 that she was resolved never to marry, that the pretended ju- 
 dicial combat was a mockery of the divine will, and of human 
 laws, the glover not unnaturally grew angry. 
 
 " I cannot read thy thoughts, wench ; nor can I pretend to 
 guess under what wicked delusion it is that you kiss a de- 
 clared lover, suffer him to kiss you, run to his house when a 
 report is spread of his death, and fling yourself into his arms 
 when ycu find him alone [alive]. All this shows very well in 
 a girl prepared to obey her parents in a match sanctioned by 
 her father; but such tokens of intimacy, bestowed on one 
 whom a young woman cannot esteem, and is determined not 
 to marry, are uncomely and unmaidenly. You have already 
 been more bounteous of your favours to Henry Smith than 
 your mother, whom God assoilzie, ever was to me before I 
 married her. I teU thee, Catharine, this trifling with the 
 love of an honest man is what I neither can, will, nor ought 
 to endure. I have given my consent to the match, and I in- 
 sist it shall take place without delay, and that you receive 
 Henry Wynd to-morrow, as a man whose bride you are to be 
 with all despatch." 
 
 "A power more potent than yours, father, will say no," 
 replied Catharine. 
 
 " I will risk it ; my power is a lawful one, that of a father 
 over a child, and an erring child, " answered her father. " God 
 and man allow of my influence. " 
 
 " Then, may Heaven help us!" said Catharine; "for, if you 
 are obstinate in your purpose, we are aU lost. " 
 
 "We can expect no help from Heaven," said the glover. 
 
350 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 "■when we act with> indiscretion. I am clerk enough myself 
 to know that; and ttat your causeless resistance to my will is 
 sinful, every priest will inform you. Ay, and more than that, 
 you have spoken degradingly of the blessed appeal to God in 
 the combat of ordeal. Take heed! for the Holy Church is 
 awakened to watch her sheepfold, and to extirpate heresy by 
 fire and steel; so much I warn thee of." 
 
 Catharine uttered a suppressed exclamation ; and, with difiS.- 
 culty compelling herself to assume an appearance of composure, 
 promised her father that, if he would spare her any farther 
 discussion of the subject till to-morrow morning, she would 
 then meet him, determined to make a full discovery of her 
 sentiments. 
 
 With this promise Simon Glover was obliged to remain con- 
 tented, though extremely anxious for the postponed explana- 
 tion. It could not be levity or fickleness of character which 
 induced his daughter to act with so much apparent inconsis- 
 tency towards , the man of his choice, and whom she had so 
 lately imequivocaUy owned to be also the man of her own. 
 What external force there could exist, of a kind powerful 
 enough to change the resolutions she had so decidedly ex- 
 pressed within twenty-four hours, was a matter of complete 
 mystery. 
 
 " But I win be as obstinate as she can be, " thought the 
 glover, "and she shall either marry Henry Smith without 
 farther delay or old Simon Glover will know an excellent 
 -reason to the contrary. " 
 
 The subject was not renewed during the evening ; but early 
 on the next morning, just at sun-rising, Catharine knelt before 
 the bed in which her parent stm slumbered. Her heart sobbed 
 as if it would burst, and her tears fell thick upon her father's 
 face. The good old man awoke, looked up, crossed his child's 
 forehead, and kissed her affectionately. 
 
 " I understand thee, Kate, " he said ; " thou art come to con- 
 fession, and, I trust, art desirous to escape a heavy penance by 
 being sincere." 
 
 Catharine was silent for an instant. 
 
 " I need not ask, my father, if you remember the Carthu' 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 361 
 
 sian monk, Clement, and his preachings and lessons ; at which 
 indeed you assisted so often, that you cannot be ignorant men 
 called you one of his converts, and with greater justice termed 
 me so likewise?" 
 
 " I am aware of both, " said the old man, raising himself on 
 his elbow ; " but I defy foul fame to show that I ever owned 
 him in any heretical proposition, though I loved to hear him 
 talk of the corruptions of the church, the misgovemment of 
 the nobles, and the wild ignorance of the poor, proving, as it 
 seemed to me, that the sole virtue of our commonweal, its 
 strength and its estimation, lay among the burgher craft of 
 the better class, which I received as comfortable doctrine, and 
 creditable to the town. And if he preached other than right 
 doctrine, wherefore did his superiors in the Carthusian con- 
 vent permit it? If the shepherds turn a wolf in sheep's cloth- 
 ing into the flock, they should not blame the sheep for being 
 worried. " 
 
 "They endured his preaching, nay, they encouraged it," 
 said Catharine, " while the vices of the laity, the contentions 
 of the nobles, and the oppression of the poor were the subject 
 of his censure, and they rejoiced in the crowds who, attracted 
 to the Carthusian church, forsook those of the other convents. 
 But the hypocrites — for such they are — joined with the other 
 fraternities in accusing their preacher Clement, when, passing 
 from censuring the crimes of the state, he began to display the 
 pride, ignorance, and luxury of the churchmen themselves, 
 their thirst of power, their usurpation over men's consciences, 
 and their desire to augment their worldly wealth." 
 
 " For God's sake, Catharine," said her father, " speak within 
 doors : your voice rises in tone and your speech in bitterness, 
 your eyes sparkle. It is owing to this zeal in what concerns 
 you no more than others that malicious persons fix upon you 
 the odious and dangerous name of a heretic." 
 
 "You know I speak no more than what is truth," said 
 Catharine, "and which you yourself have avouched often." 
 
 " By needle and buckskin, no !" answered the glover, hastily. 
 " Wouldst thou have me avouch what might cost me life and 
 limb, land and goods? For a full commission hath been 
 
352 WATBRLEY NOVELS. 
 
 granted for taking and trying heretics, upon whom is laid the 
 cause of all late tumults and miscarriages; wherefore, few 
 words are best, wench. I am ever of mind with the old 
 maker : 
 
 Since word is thrall and thought is free, 
 Keep well thy tongue, I counsel thee." • 
 
 "The counsel comes too late, father," answered Catharine, 
 sinking down on a chair by her father's bedside. " The words 
 have been spoken and heard; and it is indited against Simon 
 Glover, burgess in Perth, that he hath spoken irreverent dis- 
 courses of the doctrines of Holy Church." 
 
 "As I live by knife and needle," interrupted Simon, "it 
 is a lie ! I never was so siUy as to speak of what I under- 
 stood not." 
 
 " And hath slandered the anointed of the church, both regu- 
 lar and secular, " continued Catharine, 
 
 "Nay, I will never deny the truth," said the glover: "an 
 idle word I may have spoken at the ale-bench, or over a pot- 
 tle-pot of wine, or in right sure company ; but else, my tongue 
 is not one to run my head into peril." 
 
 " So you think, my dearest father ; but your slightest lan- 
 guage has been espied, your best-meaning phrases have been 
 perverted, and you are in dittay as a gross railer against 
 church and churchmen, and for holding discourse against them 
 with loose and profligate persons, such as the deceased Oliver 
 Proudfute, the smith Henry of the Wynd, and others, set 
 forth as commending the doctrines of Father Clement, whom 
 they charge with seven rank heresies, and seek for with stafP 
 and spear, to try him to the death. But that, " said Catha- 
 rine, kneeling, and looking upwards with the aspect of one of 
 those beauteous saints whom the Catholics have given to the 
 fine arts — " that they shall never do. He hath escaped from 
 the net of the fowler ; and, I thank Heaven, it was by my 
 means." 
 
 " Thy means, girl — art thou mad?" said the amazed glover. 
 
 "I wiU not deny what I glory in," answered Catharine; 
 
 » See Lines of Old Maker. Note 46. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 353 
 
 * it was by my means that Conachar was led to come hither 
 with a party of men and carry off the old man, who is now 
 far beyond the Highland line." 
 
 "Oh, my rash — my unlucky child!" said the glover, "hast 
 thou dared to aid the escape of one accused of heresy, and to 
 invite Highlanders in arms to interfere with the administra- 
 tion of justice within burgh? Alas ! thou hast offended both 
 against the laws of the church and those of the realm. What — 
 what would become of us, were this known?" 
 
 "It is known, my dear father," said the maiden, firmly — 
 " known even to those who will be the most willing avengers 
 of the deed. " 
 
 " This must be some idle notion, Catharine, or some trick 
 of those cogging priests and nuns ; it accords not with thy 
 late cheerful willingness to wed Henry Smith." 
 
 " Alas ! dearest father, remember the dismal surprise occa- 
 sioned by his reported death, and the joyful amazement at • 
 finding him alive ; and deem it not wonder if I permitted my- 
 self, under your protection, to say more than my reflection 
 justified. But then I knew not the worst, and thought the 
 danger exaggerated. Alas! I was yesterday fearfully unde- 
 ceived, when the abbess herself came hither, and with her 
 the Dominican. They showed me the commission, under the 
 broad seal of Scotland, for inquiring into and punishing her- 
 esy ; they showed me your name and my own in a list of sus- 
 pected persons; and it was with tears — real tears, that the 
 abbess conjured me to avert a dreadful fate by a speedy re- 
 treat into the cloister, and that the monk pledged his word 
 that you should not be molested if I complied." 
 
 " The foul fiend take them both for weeping crocodiles !" 
 said the glover. 
 
 "Alas!" replied Catharine, "complaint or anger wO little 
 help us ; but you see I have had real cause for this present 
 alarm." 
 
 "Alarm! call it utter ruin. Alas! my reckless child, where 
 was your prudence when you ran headlong into such a snare?" 
 
 "Hear me, father," said Catharine; "there is stiU one 
 mode of safety held out : it is one which I have often prgr 
 23 
 
354 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 posed, and for wliic!i I have in vain supplicated your permis- 
 sion." 
 
 " I understand you — tlie convent, " said her father. " But, 
 Catharine, what abbess or prioress would dare " 
 
 " That I will explain to you, father, and it will also show 
 the circumstances which have made me seem unsteady of reso- 
 lution to a degree which has brought censure upon me from 
 yourself and others. Our confessor, old Father Francis, whom 
 I chose from the Dominican convent at your command " 
 
 " Ay, truly, " interrupted the glover ; " and I so counselled 
 and commanded thee, in order to take off the report that 
 thy conscience was altogether imder the direction of Father 
 Clement. " 
 
 "Well, this Father Francis has at different times urged 
 and provoked me to converse on such matters as he judged 
 I was likely to learn something of from the Carthusian 
 preacher. Heaven forgive me my blindness ! I fell into the 
 snare, spoke freely, and, as he argued gently, as one who 
 would fain be convinced, I even spoke warmly in defence of 
 what I believed devoutly. The confessor assumed hot his 
 reel aspect and betrayed not his secret purpose untU he had 
 learned all that I had to teU him. It was then that he threat- 
 ened me with temporal punishment and with eternal condem- 
 nation. Had his threats reached me alone, I could have stood 
 firm; for their cruelty on earth I could have endured, and 
 their power beyond this life I have no belief in." 
 
 "For Heaven's sake!" said the glover, who was wellnigh 
 beside himself at perceiving at every new word the increasing 
 extremity of his daughter's danger, " beware of blaspheming 
 the Holy Church, whose arms are as prompt to strike as her 
 ears are sharp to hear." 
 
 "To me," said the Maid of Perth, again looking up, "the 
 terrors of the threatened denunciations would have been of 
 little avail; but when they spoke of involving thee, my fa- 
 ther, in the charge against me, I own I trembled, and desired 
 to compromise. The Abbess Martha, of Elcho nunnery, being 
 my mother's kinswoman, I told her my distresses, and ob- 
 tained her promise that she would receive me, if, renouncing 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 363 
 
 worldly love aad thoughts of wedlock, I would take the veil in 
 her sisterhood. She had conversation on the topic, I doubt 
 not, with the Dominican Francis, and both joined in siaging 
 the same song. ,'Eemain ia the world,' said they, 'and thy 
 father and thou shall be brought to trial as heretics ; assume 
 the veil, and the errors of both shall be forgiven and can- 
 celled.' They spoke not even of recantation of errors of 
 doctrine : all should be peace if I would but enter the con- 
 vent." 
 
 "i doubt not — I doubt not," said Simon: "the old glovei 
 is thought rich, and his wealth would follow his daughter to 
 the convent of Elcho, unless what the Dominicans might claim 
 as their own share. So this was thy call to the veil, these 
 thy objections to Henry Wynd?" 
 
 " Indeed, father, the course was urged on all hands, nor did 
 my own mind recoil from it. Sir John Eamorny threatened 
 me with the powerful vengeance of the young Priace, if I 
 continued to repel his wicked suit ; and as for poor Henry, it 
 is but of late that I have discovered, to my own surprise — 
 that — that I love his virtues more than I dislike his faults. 
 Alas ! the discovery has only been made to render my quitting 
 the world more difficult than when I thought I had thee only 
 to regret." 
 
 She rested her head on her hand and wept bitterly. 
 
 "All this is foUy," said the glover. "Never was there an 
 extremity so piuching, but what a wise man might fmd coun- 
 sel if he was daring enough to act upon it. This has never 
 been the land or the people over whom priests could rule in 
 the name of Eome, without their usurpation beiag controlled. 
 If they are to punish each honest burgher who says the monka 
 love gold, and that the lives of some of them cry shame upon 
 the doctriues they teach, why, truly, Stephen Smotherwell 
 wiU not lack employment; and if all foolish maidens are to 
 be secluded from the world because they follow the errmg 
 doctrines of a popular preaching friar, they must enlarge the 
 nunneries and receive their iumates on slighter composition. 
 Our privileges have been often defended agaiast the Pope 
 himself by our good ittonarchs of yore, and when he pretended 
 
356 WAVERLET K0VBL8- 
 
 to interfere with the temporal goTemment of the kingdom, 
 there wanted not a Scottish Parliament who told him his duty 
 in a letter that should have been written in letters of gold., I 
 have seen the epistle myself, and though I could not read it, 
 the very sight of the seals of the right reverend prelates and 
 nohle and true barons which hung at it made my heart leap 
 for joy. Thou shouldst not have kept this secret, my child — 
 but it is no time to tax thee with thy fault. Go down, get 
 me some food. I will mount instantly, and go to our Lord 
 Provost and have his advice, and, as I trust, his protection 
 and that of other true-hearted Scottish nobles, who wUl not 
 see a true man trodden down for an idle word." 
 
 "Alas! my father," said Catharine, "it was even this im- 
 petuosity which I dreaded. 1 knew if I made my plaint to 
 you there would soon be fire and feud, as if religion, though 
 sent to us by the Father of peace, were fit only to be the 
 mother of discord; and hence I could now — even now — give 
 up the world, and retire with my sorrow among the sisters of 
 Elcho, would you but let me be the sacrifice. Only, father — 
 comfort poor Henry when we are parted for ever; and do not 
 — do not let him think of me too harshly. Say Catharine wiE 
 never vex him more by her remonstrances, but that she wiU 
 never forget him in her prayers." 
 
 "The girl hath a tongue that would make a Saracen weep," 
 said her father, his own eyes sympathising with those of his 
 daughter. "But I will not yield way to this combination 
 between the nun and the priest to rob me of my only child. 
 Away with you, girl, and let me don my clothes ; and prepare 
 yourself to obey me in what I may have to recommend for 
 your safety. Get a few clothes together, and what valuables 
 thou hast ; also, take the keys of my iron box, which poor 
 Henry Smith gave me, and divide what gold you find into 
 two portions ; put the one into a purse for thyself, and the 
 other into the quilted girdle which I made on purpose to wear 
 on journeys. Thus both shall be provided, in case fate should 
 sunder us ; in which event, God send the whirlwind may take 
 the withered leaf and spare the green one ! Let them make 
 ready my horse instantly, and the white' jennet that I boughlj 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 367 
 
 for tHee but a day since, hoping to see thee ride to St. John's 
 ]£irk with maids and matrons, as blythe a bride as ever crossed 
 the holy threshold. But it skills not talking. Away, and re- 
 member that the saints help those who are willing to help 
 themselves. Not a word in answer; begone, I say — no wil- 
 fulness now. The pilot in cahn weather will let a sea-boy 
 trifle with the rudder; but, by my soul, when winds howl and 
 waves arise, he stands by the helm himself. Away — no 
 reply." 
 
 Catharine left the room to execute, as well as she might, 
 the commands of her father, who, gentle in disposition and 
 devotedly attached to his child, suffered her often, as it 
 seemed, to guide and rule both herself and him; yet who, as 
 she knew, was wont to claim filial obedience and exercise 
 parental authority with sufficient strictness when the occasion 
 seemed to require an enforcement of domestic discipline. 
 
 While the fair Catharine was engaged in executing her fa- 
 ther's behests, and the good old glover was hastily attiring 
 himself, as one who was about to take a journey, a horse's 
 tramp was heard in the narrow street. The horseman was 
 wrapped in his riding-cloak, having the cape of it drawn up, 
 as if to hide the under part of his face, while his bonnet was 
 pulled over his brows, and a broad plume obscured his upper 
 features. He sprung from the saddle, and Dorothy had scarce 
 time to reply to his inquiries that the glover was in his bed- 
 room, ere the stranger had ascended the stair and entered the 
 sleeping-apartment. Simon, astonished and alarmed, and dis- 
 posed to see in this early visitant an apparitor or sumner, 
 come to attach him and his daughter, was much relieved 
 when, as the stranger doffed the bonnet and threw the skirt 
 of the mantle from his face, he recognised the knightly provost 
 of the Fair City, a visit from whom at any time was a favour 
 of no ordinary degree, but, being made at such an hour, had 
 something marvellous, and, connected with the circumstances 
 of the times, even alarming. 
 
 " Sir Patrick Charteris !" said the glover. " This high hon 
 our done to your poor beadsman " 
 
 "Hush I" said the knight, "there is no time for idle civili- 
 
368 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 ties. I came hither because a man is, in. trying occasions, his 
 own safest page, and I can remain no longer than to bid thee 
 fly, good glover, since warrants are to be granted this day ia 
 council for the arrest of thy daughter and thee, under charge 
 of heresy; and delay will cost you both your liberly for cer- 
 tain, and perhaps your lives." 
 
 " I have heard something of such a matter," said the glover, 
 " and was this instant setting forth to Kinf auns to plead my 
 innocence of this scandalous charge, to ask your lordship's 
 counsel, and to implore your protection." 
 
 " Thy innocence, friend Simon, wLU avail thee but little be- 
 fore prejudiced judges; my advice is, in one word, to fly, and 
 wait for happier times. As for my protection, we must tarry 
 tin the tide turns ere it will in any sort avail thee. But if 
 thou canst lie concealed for a few days or weeks, I have little 
 doubt that the churchmen, who, by siding with the Duke of 
 Albany in court intrigue, and by alleging the decay of the 
 purity of Catholic doctriue as the sole cause of the present 
 national misfortunes, have, at least for the present hour, an 
 irresistible authority over the King, wiU receive a check. In 
 the mean while, however, know that Kiag Eobert hath not 
 only given way to this general warrant for inquisition after 
 heresy, but hath confii'med the Pope's nomination of Henry 
 Wardlaw to be Archbishop of St. Andrews and Primate of 
 Scotland; ' thus yielding to Eome those freedoms and immu- 
 nities of the Scottish Church which his ancestors, from the 
 time of Malcolm Canmore, have so boldy defended. His 
 brave fathers would have rather subscribed a covenant with 
 the devU than yielded in such a matter to the pretensions of 
 Eome." 
 
 " Alas, and what remedy?" 
 
 "None, old man, save in some sudden court change," said 
 Sir Patrick. " The King is but like a mirror, which, having 
 no light itself, reflects back with equal readiness any which 
 is placed near to it for the time; Now, although the Douglas 
 is banded with Albany, yet the Earl is unfavourable to the 
 high claims of those domineering priests, having quarrelled 
 •See Henry Wardlaw. Note 47. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 369 
 
 Mrith them about the exactions which his retinue hath raised 
 on the Abbot of Arbroath. He wiH come back again with a 
 high hand, for report says the Earl of March hath fled before 
 him. "When he returns we shall have a changed world, for 
 his presence will control Albany; especially as many nobles, 
 and I myself, as I tell you in confidence, axe resolved to league 
 with him to defend the general right. Thy exHe, therefore, 
 wilL end with his return to our court. Thou hast but to seek 
 thee some temporary hiding-place." 
 
 "For that, my lord," said the glover, "I can be at no loss, 
 since I have just title to the protection of the high Highland 
 chief, Gilchrist Maclan, chief of the Clan Quhele." 
 
 " Nay, if thou canst take hold of his mantle thou needs no 
 help of any one else : neither Lowland churchman nor layman 
 finds a free course of justice beyond the Highland frontier." 
 
 " But then my child, noble sir — my Catharine?" said the 
 glover. 
 
 " Let her go with thee, man. The graddan cake will keep 
 her white teeth in order, the goat's whey wUl make the blood 
 spring to her cheek again, which these alarms have banished; 
 and even the Fair Maiden of Perth may sleep soft enough on 
 a bed of Highland breckan." 
 
 " It is not from such idle respects, my lord, that I hesi- 
 tate," said the glover. " Catharine is the daughter of a plain 
 burgher, and knows not nicety of food or lodging. But the 
 son of Maclan hath been for many years a guest in my house, 
 and I am obliged to say that I have observed him looking at 
 my daughter, who is as good as a betrothed bride, in a manner 
 that, though I cared not for it in this lodging in Curfew Street, 
 would give me some fear of consequences in a Highland glen, 
 where I have no friend and Conachar many." 
 
 The knightly provost replied by a long whistle. " Whew I 
 whew! Nay, in that case, I advise thee to send her to the 
 nunnery at Eleho, where the abbess, if I forget not, is some 
 relation of yours. Indeed, she said so herself, adding, that 
 she loved her kinswoman well, together with all that belongs 
 to thee, Simon." 
 
 " Truly, my lord, I do believe that the abbess hath so much 
 
360 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 regard for me, that she -would wDlingly receive the trust of 
 my daughter, and my whole goods and gear, into her sister- 
 hood. Marry, her afieetion is something of a tenacious char- 
 acter, and would be loth to unloose its hold, either upon the 
 wench or her tocher." 
 
 "Whew — whewl" again whistled the Knight of Kinfauas; 
 " by the Thane's Cross, man, but this is an iU-f avoured pirn 
 to wind. Yet it shall never be said the fairest maid in the 
 Fair City was cooped up in a convent, like a kain-hen in a 
 cavey, and she about to be married to the bold burgess Henry 
 Wynd. That tale shall not be told while I wear belt and 
 spurs, and am called Provost of Perth." 
 
 " But what remede, my lord?" asked the glover. 
 
 " We must aU take our share of the risk. Come, get you 
 and your daughter presently to horse. You shall ride with 
 me, and we'll see who dare gloom at you. The summons is 
 not yet served on thee, and if they send an apparitor to Km- 
 fauns without a warrant under the Kiag's own hand, I make 
 mine avow, by the Eed Rover's soul! that he shall eat his 
 writ, both wax and wether-skin. To horse — to horse! and," 
 addressing Catharine, as she entered at the moment, "you 
 too, my pretty maid. 
 
 To horse, and fear not for your quartets ; 
 They thrive in law that trust in Charters." 
 
 In a minute or two the father and daughter were on horse- 
 back, both keeping an arrow's flight before the provost, by 
 his direction, that they might not seem to be of the same 
 company. They passed the eastern gate in some haste, and 
 rode forward roundly until they were out of sight. Sir Pat- 
 rick followed leisurely; but, when he was lost to the view 
 of the warders, he spurred his mettled horse, and soon came 
 up with the glover and Catharine, when a conversation en- 
 sued which throws light upon some previous passages of this 
 history. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 361 
 
 CHAPTER XXVL 
 
 Hail, land of bowmen ! seed of those who scom^ 
 To stoop the neck to wide Imperial Rome — 
 Ob, dearest half of Albion sea-walled ! 
 
 Albania (1737). 
 
 "I HAVE been devising a mode," said the well-meaning 
 
 provost, " by which. I may make you both secure for a week 
 or two from the malice of yortt enemies, when I have little 
 doubt I may see a changed world at court. But that I may 
 the better judge what is to be done, tell me frankly, Simon, 
 the nature of your connexion with Gilchrist Maclan, which 
 leads you to repose such implicit confidence in him. You are 
 a close observer of the rules of the city, and are aware of the 
 severe penalties which they denounce against such burghers as 
 have covine and alliance with the Highland clans." 
 
 " True, my lord; but it is also known to you that our craft, 
 working in skins of cattle, stags, and every other description 
 of hides, have a privilege, and are allowed to transact with 
 those Highlanders, as with the men who can most readily sup- 
 ply us with the means of conducting our trade, to the great 
 profit of the burgh. Thus it hath chanced with me to have 
 great dealings with these men ; and I can take it on my salva- 
 tion, that you nowhere find more just and honourable traffick- 
 ers, or by whom a man may more easUy make an honest penny. 
 I have made in my day several distant journeys into the far 
 Highlands, upon the faith of their chiefs; nor did I ever 
 meet with a people more true to their word, when you can 
 once prevail upon them to plight it in your behalf. And 
 as for the Highland chief, Gilchrist Maclan, saving that 
 he is hasty in homicide and fire-raising towards those with 
 whom he hath deadly feud, I have nowhere seen a man who 
 walketh a more just and upright path." 
 
 "It is more than ever I heard before," said Sir Patrick 
 Charteris. " Yet I have known something of the Highland 
 runagates too." 
 
362 -WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 "They slio-w another favour, and a very different one, to 
 their friends than to their enemies, as your lordship shall un- 
 derstand," said the glover. " However, be that as it may, it 
 chanced me to serve Gilchrist Maclan in a high matter. It is 
 now about eighteen years since, that it chanced, the Clan 
 Quhele and Clan Chattan being at feud, as indeed they are 
 seldom at peace, the former sustained such a defeat as weU- 
 nigh extirpated the family of their chief, Maclan. Seven of 
 his sons were slain in battle and after it, himself put to flight, 
 and his castle taken and given to the flames. His wife, then 
 near the time of giving birth to an infant, fled into the forest, 
 attended by one faithful servant and his daughter. Here, in 
 sorrow and care enough, she gave birth to a boy; and as the 
 misery of the mother's condition rendered her little able to 
 sucMe the infant, he was nursed with the milk of a doe, which 
 the forester who attended her contrived to take alive in a 
 snare. It was not many months afterwards that, in a second 
 encounter of these fierce clans, Maclan defeated his enemies 
 in his turn, and regained possession of the district which he 
 had lost. It was with unexpected rapture that he found his 
 wife and child were in existence, having never expected to see 
 more of them than the bleached bones, from which the wolves 
 and wildcats had eaten the flesh. 
 
 "But a strong and prevailing prejudice, such as is often 
 entertained by these wild people, prevented their chief from 
 enjoying the full happiness arising from having thus regained 
 his only son in safety. An ancient prophecy was current 
 among them, that the power of the tribe should fall by means 
 of a boy born under a bush of holly and suckled by a white 
 doe. The circumstance, unfortunately for the chief, tallied 
 exactly with the birth of the only child which remained to 
 him, and it was demanded of him by the elders of the clan, 
 that the boy should be either put to death or at least removed 
 from the dominions of the tribe and brought up in obscurity. 
 Gilchrist Maclan was obliged to consent; and having made 
 choice of the latter proposal, the child, under the name of 
 Conachar, was brought up in my family, with the purpose, as 
 was at first intended, of concealing from him all knowledge 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 363 
 
 who or what he was, or of his pretensions to authority over a 
 numerous and warlike people. But, as years rolled on, the eld- 
 ers of the tribe, who had exerted so much authority, were re- 
 moved by death, or rendered incapable of interfering in the 
 public affairs by age; while, on the other hand, the influence 
 of Gilchrist Maclan was increased by his successful struggles 
 against the Clan Chattan, in which he restored the equality 
 betwixt the two contending confederacies, which had existed 
 before the calamitous defeat of which I told your honour. 
 Peeling himself thus firmly seated, he naturally became de- 
 sirous to bring home his only son to his bosom and family; 
 and for that purpose caused me to send the young Conachar, 
 as he was called, more than once to the Highlands. He was 
 a youth expressly made, by his form and gallantry of bearing, 
 to gain a father's heart. At length, I suppose the lad either 
 guessed the secret of his birth or something of it was com- 
 municated to him ; and the disgust which the paughty Hieland 
 varlet had always shown for my honest trade became more 
 manifest ; so that I dared not so much as lay my staff over his 
 costard, for fear of receiving a stab with a dirk, as an answer 
 ui Gaelic to a Saxon remark. It was then that I wished to 
 be well rid of him, the rather that he showed so much devo- 
 tion to Catharine, who, forsooth, set herself up to wash the 
 Ethiopian, and teach a wild Hielandman mercy and morals. 
 She knows herself how it ended." 
 
 "Nay, my father," said Catharine, "it was surely but a 
 point of charity to snatch the brand from the burning.'' 
 
 "But a small point of wisdom," said her father, "to risk 
 the burning of your own fingers for such an end. What says 
 my lord to the matter?" 
 
 "My lord would not offend the Fair Maid of Perth," said 
 Sir Patrick ; " and he knows weU. the purity and truth of her 
 miad. And yet I must needs say that, had this nursling of 
 the doe teen shrivelled, haggard, cross-made, and red-haired, 
 like some Highlanders I have known, I question if the Fair 
 Maiden of Perth would have bestowed so much zeal upon his 
 conversion ; and if Cathariae had been as aged, wrinkled, and 
 bent by years as the old woman that opened the door to me 
 
364 "WAVERLEY NOVELS, 
 
 this morning, I would -wager my gold spurs against a pair of 
 Highland brogues that this wild roebuck would never hare 
 listened to a second lecture. You laugh, glover, and Catharine 
 blushes a blush of anger. Let it pass, it is the way of the 
 world." 
 
 "The way in which the men of the world esteem their 
 neighbours, my lord," answered Catharine, with some spirit. 
 
 "Nay, fair sarat, forgive a jest," said the knight; "and 
 thou, Simon, tell us how this tale ended — with Conachar's 
 escape to the Highlands, I suppose?" 
 
 "With his return thither," said the glover, "There was, 
 for some two or three years, a fellow about Perth, a sort of 
 messenger, who came and went under divers pretences, but 
 was, in fact, the means of communication between Gilchrist 
 Maclan and his son, young Conachar, or, as he is now called. 
 Hector, From this gillie I learned, in general, that the ban- 
 ishment of the dault an neigh dhdl, or foster-child of the 
 white doe, was again brought under consideration of the tribe. 
 His foster-father, TorquU of the Oak, the old forester, ap- 
 peared with eight sons, the finest men of the clan, and 
 demanded that the doom of banishment should be revoked. 
 He spoke with the greater authority, as he was himself 
 taishatar, or a seer, and supposed to have communication with 
 the invisible world. He affirmed that he had performed a 
 magical ceremony, termed tine-egan, ' by which he evoked a 
 fiend, from whom he extorted a confession that Conachar, 
 now called Eachin, or Hector, Maclan, was the only man in 
 the approaching combat between the two hostile clans who 
 should come off without blood or blemish. Hence Torquil of 
 the Oak argued that the presence of the fated person was 
 necessary to ensure the victory. 'So much I am possessed of 
 this,' said the forester, ' that, unless Eachin fight in his place 
 in the ranks of the Clan Quhele, neither I, his foster-father, 
 nor any of my eight sons will lift a weapon in the quarrel.' 
 
 " This speech was received with much alarm ; for the defec- 
 tion of nine men, the stoutest of their tribe, would be a serious 
 blow, more especially if the combat, as begins tp be rumoured, 
 1 See Note 48. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. y«>5 
 
 should be decided by a small number from each side. The 
 ancieat superstition concerning the foster-son of the "white 
 doe was counterbalanced by a new and later prejudice, and 
 the father took the opportunity of presenting to the clan his 
 long-hidden son, whose youthful, but handsome and animated, 
 countenance, haughty carriage, and active limbs excited the 
 admiration of the clansmen, who joyfully received him as 
 the heir and descendant of their chief, notwithstandiug the 
 ominous presage attending his birth a.nd nurture. 
 
 "From this tale, my lord," contiuued Simon Glover, "your 
 lordship may easily conceive why 1 myself should be secure 
 of a good reception among the Clan Quhele ; and you may also 
 have reason to judge that it would be very rash iu me to carry 
 Catharine thither. And this, noble lord, is the heaviest of 
 my troubles." 
 
 "We shall lighten the load, then," said Sir Patrick; "and, 
 good glover, I will take risk for thee and this damsel. My 
 alliance with the Douglas gives me some interest with Marjory, 
 Duchess of Eothsay, his daughter, the neglected wife of our 
 wilful Prince. Eely on it, good glover, that in her retinue 
 thy daughter will be as secure as in a fenced castle. The 
 Duchess keeps house now at Falkland, a castle which the 
 Duke of Albany, to whom it belongs, has lent to her for her 
 accommodation. I cannot promise you pleasure. Fair Maiden ; 
 for the Duchess Marjory of Eothsay is unfortunate, and there- 
 fore splenetic, haughty, and overbearing; conscious of the 
 want of attractive qualities, therefore jealous of those women 
 who possess them. But she is firm in faith and noble in 
 spirit, and would fling Pope or prelate into the ditch of her 
 castle who should come to arrest any one under her protection. 
 You will therefore have absolute safety, though you may lack 
 comfort." 
 
 "I have no title to more," said Catharine; "and deeply do 
 I feel the kindness that is willing to secure me such honour- 
 able protection. If she be haughty, I wUl remember she is a 
 Douglas, and hath right, as being such, to entertain as much 
 pride as may become a mortal; if she be fretful, I will recol- 
 lect that she is unfortunate: and if she be unreasonably 
 
566 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 captious, I will not forget that she is my protectress. Heed 
 no longer for me, my lord, when you hare placed me under 
 the noble lady's charge. But my poor father, to be exposed 
 amongst these wild and dangerous people!" 
 
 " Think not of that, Catharine," said the glover : " I am as 
 familiar with brogues and bracken as if I had worn them 
 myself. I have only to fear that the decisive battle may be 
 fought before I can leave this country; and if the clan Quhele 
 lose the combat, I may suffer by the ruin of my protectors." 
 
 " We must have that cared for," said Sir Patrick: " rely on 
 my looking out for your safety. But which party will carry 
 the day, think you?" 
 
 "Frankly, my Lord Provost, I believe the Clan Chattan 
 wUl have the worse : these nine children of the forest form 
 a third nearly of the band surrounding the chief of Clan 
 Quhele, and are redoubted champions." 
 
 " And your apprentice, wUl he stand to it, thinkest thou?" 
 
 "He is hot as fire, Sir Patrick," answered the glover; 
 "but he is also unstable as water. Nevertheless, if he is 
 spared, he seems likely to be one day a brave man." 
 
 "But, as now, he has some of the white doe's milk still 
 lurking about his liver, ha, Simon?" 
 
 " He has little experience, my lord, " said the glover, " and 
 I need not tell an honoured warrior like yourself that danger 
 must be familiar to us ere we can dally with it like a mis- 
 tress." 
 
 This conversation brought them speedily to the Castle of 
 Kinfauns, where, after a short refreshment, it was necessary 
 that the father and the daughter should part, in order to seek 
 their respective places of refuge. It was then first, as she 
 saw that her father's anxiety on her account had drowned all 
 recollections of his friend, that Catharine dropped, as if in a 
 dream, the name of "Henry Gow." 
 
 "True — ^most true," continued her father; "we must 
 possess him of our purposes." 
 
 "Leave that to me," said Sir Patrick. "I will not trust 
 to a messenger, nor will I send a letter, because, if I could 
 write one, 1 think he could not read it. He wiU suffer 
 
THE FAIE MAID OF PERTH. 367 
 
 anxiety in the mean wliile, but I wUl ride to Perth to-morrow 
 by times and acquaint him with your designs." 
 
 The time of separation now approache4. It was a bitter 
 moment, but the manly character of the old burgher, and the 
 devout resignation of Catharine to the will of Providence, 
 made it lighter than might have been expected. The good 
 knight hurried the departure of the burgess, but in the kindest 
 manner ; and even went so far as to offer him some gold pieces 
 in loan, which might, where specie was so scarce, be con- 
 sidered as the ne plus ultra of regard. The glover, however, 
 assured him. he was amply provided, and departed on his 
 journey in a north-westerly direction. The hospitable protec- 
 tion of Sir Patrick Charteris was no less manifested towards 
 his fair guest. She was placed under the charge of a duenna 
 who managed the good knight's household, and was com- 
 pelled to remain several days in Kinfauns, owing to the ob- 
 stacles and delays interposed by a Tay boatman, named Kitt 
 Henshaw, to whose charge she was to be committed, and 
 whom the provost highly trusted. 
 
 Thus were severed the child and parent in a moment of 
 great danger and difficulty, much augmented by circumstances 
 of which they were then ignorant, and which seemed greatly 
 to diminish any chance of safety that remained for them. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVn. 
 
 " This Austin humbly did." " Did he?" quoth h 
 "Austin may do the same again for me." 
 
 Pope's Prologue to Canterbury Tales from Chaucer, 
 
 The course of our story will be best pursued by attending 
 that of Simon Glover. It is not our purpose to indicate the 
 exact local boundaries of the two contending clans, especially 
 since they are not clearly pointed out by the historians who 
 have transmitted accounts of this memorable feud. It is 
 sufficient to say, that the territory of the Clan Chattan ex- 
 tended far and wide, comprehending Caithness and Suther 
 
368 WAYEELET NOYBLS. 
 
 land, and having for their paramount chief the powerful earl 
 of the latter shire, thence called Mohr ar Chat.* In this 
 general sense, the Keiths, the Sinclairs, the Guns, and other 
 families and clans of great power, were included in the con- 
 federacy. These, however, were not engaged in the present 
 quarrel, which was limited to that part of the Clan Chattan 
 occupying the extensive mountainous districts of Perthshire 
 and Inverness-shire, which form a large portion of what is 
 called the northeastern Highlands. It is well known that 
 two large septs, unquestionably known to belong to the Clan 
 Chattan, the MacPhersons and the Macintoshes, dispute to 
 this day which of their chieftains was at the head of this 
 Badenoch branch of the great confederacy, and both have of 
 later times assumed the title of Captain of Clan Chattan. 
 Non nostrum est. But, at aH events, Badenoch must have 
 been the centre of the confederacy, so far as involved in the 
 feud of which we treat. 
 
 Of the rival league of Clan Quhele we have a still less dis- 
 tinct account, for reasons which will appear in the sequel. 
 Some authors have identified them with the numerous and 
 powerful sept of MacKay. If this is done on good authority, 
 which is to be doubted, the MacKays must have shifted their 
 settlements greatly since the reign of Robert III., since they 
 are now to be found (as a clan) in the extreme northern parts 
 of Scotland, in the counties of Ross and Sutherland." We 
 cannot, therefore, be so clear as we would wish in the geog- 
 raphy of the story. Suffice it that, directing his course in 
 A northwesterly direction, the glover travelled for a day's 
 journey in the direction of the Breadalbane country, from 
 which he hoped to reach the castle where Gilchrist Maclan, 
 the captain of the Clan Quhele, and the father of his pupil 
 Conachar, usually held his residence, with a barbarous pomp 
 of attendance and ceremonial suited to his lofty pretensions. 
 
 We need not stop to describe the toU and terrors of such a 
 
 journey, where the path was to be traced among wastes and 
 
 mountains, now ascending precipitous ravines, now plunging 
 
 into inextricable bogs, and often intersected with large brooks, 
 
 • See Note 49. » See MacKays' Country. Note 50. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 369 
 
 and even rivers. But all these perils Simon Glover had be- 
 fore encountered in quest of honest gain; and it was not to 
 be supposed that he shunned or feared them ■where liberty, 
 and life itself, were at stake. 
 
 The danger from the warlike and uncivilised inhabitants 
 of these wilds would have appeared to another at least as for- 
 midable as the perils of the journey. But Simon's knowl- 
 edge of the manners and language of the people assured him 
 on this point also. An appeal to the hospitality of the wild- 
 est Gael was never unsuccessful ; and the kerne, that ia other 
 circumstances would have taken a man's life for the silver 
 button of his cloak, would deprive himseK of a meal to re- 
 lieve the traveller who implored hospitality at the door of his 
 bothy. The art of travelling in the Highlands was to appear 
 as confident and defenceless as possible ; and accordingly the 
 glover carried no arms whatever, journeyed without the least 
 appearance of precaution, and took good care to exhibit noth- 
 ing which might excite cupidity. Another rule which he 
 deemed it prudent to observe was to avoid communication 
 with any of the passengers whom he might chance to meet, 
 except in the interchange of the common civilities of saluta- 
 tion, which the Highlanders rarely omit. Few opportunities 
 occurred of exchanging even such passing greetings. The 
 country, always lonely, seemed now entirely forsaken; and, 
 even in the little straths or valleys which he had occasion to 
 pass or traverse, the hamlets were deserted, and the inhabi- 
 tants had betaken themselves to woods and caves. This was 
 easily accounted for, considering the imminent dangers of a 
 feud which all expected' would become one of the most general 
 signals for plunder and ravage that had ever distracted that 
 unhappy country. 
 
 Simon began to be alarmed at this state of desolation. He 
 had made a halt since he left Kinf auns, to allow his nag some 
 rest; and now he began to be anxious how he was to pass the 
 night. He had reckoned upon spending it at the cottage of 
 an old acquaintance, called Mel Booshalloch (or the cow- 
 herd), because he had charge of numerous herds of cattle be- 
 longing to the captain of Clan Quhele, for which purpose he 
 24, 
 
370 WAVEELET NOVELS. 
 
 had a settlement on the banks of the Tay, not far from the 
 spot where it leaves the lake of the same name. From this 
 his old host and friend, with whom he had transacted many- 
 bargains for hides and furs, the old glover hoped to learn the 
 present state of the country, the prospect of peace or war, and 
 the best measures to be taken for his own safety. It will be 
 remembered that the news of the indentures of battle entered 
 into for diminishing the extent of the feud had only been 
 communicated to King Eobert the day before the glover left 
 Perth, and did not become public till some time afterwards. 
 
 "If Mel Booshalloch hath left his dwelling like the rest of 
 them, I shall be finely holpedup," thought Simon, "since I 
 want not only the advantage of his good advice, but also his 
 interest with Gilchrist Maclan; and, moreover, a night's 
 «[uarters and a supper." 
 
 Thus reflecting, he reached the top of a swelling green hill, 
 and saw the splendid vision of Loch Tay lying beneath him — 
 an immense plate of polished silver, its dark heathy moun- 
 taius and leafless thickets of oak serving as an arabesque frame 
 to a magnificent mirror. 
 
 Indifferent to natural beauty at any time, Simon Glover was 
 now particularly so; and the only part of the splendid land- 
 scape on which he turned his eye was an angle or loop of 
 meadow land where tJie river Tay, rushing in full-swoln 
 dignity from its parent lake, and wheeling arouad a beautiful 
 vaUey of about a mile in breadth, begius his broad course to 
 the southeastward, like a conqueror and a legislator, to subdue 
 and to enrich remote districts. Upon the sequestered spot, 
 which is so beautifully situated between lake, mountain, and 
 river, arose afterwards the feudal castle of the BaUough,' 
 which in our time has been succeeded by the splendid palace 
 of the Earls of Breadalbane. 
 
 But the Campbells, though they had already attained very 
 great power in Argyleshire, had not yet extended themselves 
 so far eastward as Loch Tay, the banks of which were, either 
 by right or by mere occupancy, possessed for the present by 
 the Clan Quhele, whose choicest herds were fattened on the 
 • Balloch is Gaelic for the discharge of a lake into a river. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 371 
 
 margin of tlie lake. la tliia valley, therefore, between the 
 river and the lake, amid extensive forests of oak-wood, hazel, 
 rowan-tree, and larches, arose the humble cottage of Niel 
 BooshaUoch, a village Eumaeus, whose hospitable chimneys 
 were seen to smoke plentifully, to the great encouragement of 
 Simon Glover, who might otherwise have been obliged to 
 spend the night in the open air, to his no small discomfort. 
 
 He reached the door of the cottage, whistled, shouted, and 
 made his approach Jmown. There was a baying of hounds 
 and collies, and presently the master of the hut came forth. 
 There was much care on his brow, and he seemed surprised at 
 the sight of Simon Glover, though the herdsman covered both 
 as well as he might; for nothing in that region could be 
 reckoned more uncivD. than for the landlord to suffer anything 
 to escape him in look or gesture which might induce the 
 visitor to think that his arrival was an impleasing, or even an 
 unexpected, incident. The traveller's horse was conducted to 
 a stable, which was almost too low to receive him, and the 
 glover himself was led into the mansion of the BooshaUoch, 
 where, according to the custom of the country, bread and 
 cheese was placed before the wayfarer, while more solid food 
 was preparing. Simon, who understood all their habits, took 
 no notice of the obvious marks of sadness on the brow of his 
 entertainer and on those of the family, until he had eaten 
 somewhat for form's sake, after which he asked the general 
 question, "Was there any news in the country?" 
 
 "Bad news as ever were told," said the herdsman: "our 
 father is no more." 
 
 "How!" said Simon, greatly alarmed, "is the captain of 
 the Clan Quhele dead?" 
 
 " The captain of the Clan Quhele never dies, " answered the 
 BooshaUoch; "but GEchrist Maclan died twenty hours since, 
 and his son, Eachin Maclan, is now captain." 
 
 " What, Eachin — ^that is Conachar — my apprentice?" 
 
 "As little of that subject as you list, brother Simon," said 
 the herdsman. "It is to be remembered, friend, that your 
 craft, which doth very well for a living in the douce city of 
 Perth, is something too mechanical to be much esteemed at 
 
372 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 the foot of Ben Lawers and on the hanks of Loch Tay. We 
 have not a Gaelic word by which we can even name a maker 
 of gloves." 
 
 " It would be strange if you had, friend Kiel," said Simon, 
 drily, " having so few gloves to wear. I think there be none 
 in the whole Clan Quhele, save those which I myself gave to 
 Gilchrist Maclan, whom God assoilzie, who esteemed them a 
 uhoiee propine. Most deeply do I regret his death, for I was 
 coming to him on express business." 
 
 " You had better turn the nag's head southward with morn- 
 ing light," said the herdsman, "The funeral is instantly to 
 take place, and it must be witK short ceremony; for there is 
 a battle to be fought by the Clan Quhele and the Clan Chattan, 
 thirty champions on a side, as soon as Palm Sunday next, and 
 we have brief time either to lament the dead or honour the 
 living." 
 
 " Yet are my affairs so pressing, that I must needs see the 
 young chief, were it but for a quarter of an hour," said the 
 glover. 
 
 "Hark thee, friend," replied his host, "I think thy busi- 
 ness must be either to gather money or to make traffic. 
 Now, if the chief owe thee anything for upbringing or other- 
 wise, ask him not to pay it when aU the treasures of the tribe 
 are called in for making gallant preparation of arms and 
 equipment for their combatants, that we may meet these 
 proud hill-cats in a fashion to show ourselves their superiors. 
 But if thou comest to practise commerce with us, thy time is 
 atiU. worse chosen. Thou knowest that thou art already 
 envied of many of our tribe, for having had the fosterage of 
 the young chief, which is a thing usually given to the best of 
 the clan." 
 
 "But, St. Mary, man!" exclaimed the glover, "men should 
 remember the office was not conferred on me as a favour 
 which I courted, but that it was accepted by me on impor- 
 tunity and entreaty, to my no small prejudice. This Con- 
 achar, or Hector, of yours, or whatever you caJl him, has 
 destroyed me doe-skins to the amount of many pounds Scots." 
 
 " There again, now," said the Booshalloch, " you have spokeij 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 373 
 
 a word to cost your life : any allusion to skins or hides, oi 
 especially to deer and does, may incur no less a forfeit. The 
 chief is young, and jealous of his rank; none knows the reason 
 better than thou, friend Glover. He will naturally wish that 
 everything concerning the opposition to his succession, and 
 having reference to his exile, should he totally forgotten; 
 and he will not hold him in affection who shall recall the 
 recollection of his people, or force back his own, upon what 
 they must both remember with pain. Think how, at such a 
 moment, they wUl look on the old glover of Perth, to whom 
 the chief was so long apprentice! Come — come, old friend, 
 you have erred in this. You are in over great haste to wor- 
 ship the rising sun, while his beams are yet level with the 
 horizon. Gome thou when he has climbed higher in the 
 heavens, and thou shalt have thy share of the warmth of his 
 noonday height." 
 
 "Niel Booshalloch," said the glover, "we have been old 
 friends, as thou say'st; and as I think thee a true one, I wlLL 
 speak to thee freely, though what I say might be perilous if 
 spoken to others of thy clan. Thou think' st I come hither to 
 make my own profit of thy young chief, and it is natural thou 
 shouldst think so. But I would not, at my years, quit my 
 own chimney corner in Curfew Street to bask me in the beams 
 of the brightest sun that ever shone upon Highland heather. 
 The very truth is, I come hither in extremity : my foes have 
 the advantage of me, and have laid things to my charge 
 whereof I am incapable, even in thought. Nevertheless, doom 
 is like to go forth against me, and there is no remedy but that 
 I must up and fly, or remain and perish. I come to your 
 young chief, as one who had refuge with me in his distress — 
 who ate of my bread and drank of my cup. I ask of him 
 refuge, which, as I trust, I shall need but a short time." 
 
 " That makes a different case," replied the herdsman. " So 
 different, that, if you came at midnight to the gate of Maclan, 
 having the King of Scotland's head in your hand, and a 
 thousand men in pursuit for the avenging of his blood, I could 
 not think it for his honour to refuse you protection. And for 
 your innocence or guilt, it concerns not the case; or rather, 
 
374 WAVBRLEY NOVELS. 
 
 he ought the more to shelter you if guUty, seeing your neces- 
 sity and his risk are both in that case the greater. I must 
 straightway to him, that no hasty tongue tell him of your 
 arriving hither mthout saying the cause." 
 
 " A pity of your trouble," said the glover; " but where lies 
 the chief?" 
 
 " He is quartered about ten miles hence, busied with the 
 affairs of the funeral, and with preparations for the combat — 
 the dead to the grave and the living to battle." 
 
 " It is a long way, and will take you all night to go and 
 come," said the glover; " and I am very sure that Conachar, 
 when he knows it is I who " 
 
 "Forget Conachar," said the herdsman, placing his finger 
 on his lips. " And as for the ten miles, they are but a High- 
 land leap, when one bears a message between his friend and 
 his chief." 
 
 So saying, and committing the traveller to the charge of his 
 eldest son and his daughter, the active herdsman left his house 
 two hours before midnight, to which he returned long before 
 sunrise. He did not disturb his wearied guest, but when the 
 old man had arisen ia the morning he acquainted him that the 
 funeral of the late chieftain was to take place the same day, 
 and that, although Eachia Maclan could not iuvite a Saxon 
 to the funeral, he would be glad to receive him at the enter- 
 tainment which was to follow. 
 
 "His will must be obeyed," said the glover, half-smiling 
 at the change of relation between himself and his late appren- 
 tice. "The man is the master now, and I trust he wiU 
 remember that, when matters were otherwise between us, I 
 did not use my authority ungraciously." 
 
 "Troutsho, friend!" exclaimed the Booshalloch, "the less 
 of that you say the better. You will find yourself a right 
 welcome guest to Eachin, and the deil a man dares stir you 
 within his bounds. But fare you well, for I must go, as 
 beseems me, to the burial of the best chief the clan ever had, 
 and the wisest captain that ever cocked the sweet-gale (bog- 
 myrtle) in his bonnet. Farewell to you for a while, and if 
 you will go to the top of the Tom-an-Lonach behind the house^ 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 375 
 
 you will see a gallaat sight, and hear such a coronach as will 
 reach the top of Ben Lawers. A boat will wait for you, three 
 hours hence, at a wee bit creek about half a mile westward 
 from the head of the I'ay." 
 
 With these words he took his departure, followed by his 
 three sons, to man the boat in which he was to join the rest 
 of the mourners, and two daughters, whose Toices were wanted 
 to join in the lament, which was chanted, or rather screamed, 
 on such occasions of general affliction. 
 
 Simon Glover, finding himself alone, resorted to the stable 
 to look after Ms nag, which, he found, had been well served 
 with graddan, or bread made of scorched barley. Of this 
 kindness he was fully sensible, knowing that, probably, the 
 family had little of this delicacy left to themselves until the 
 next harvest should bring them a scanty supply. In animal 
 food they were well provided, and the lake found them abun- 
 dance of fish for their lenten diet, which they did not observe 
 very strictly; but bread was a delicacy very scanty in the 
 Highlands. The bogs afforded a soft species of hay, none 
 of the best to be sure; but Scottish horses, like their riders, 
 were then accustomed to hard fare. Gauntlet, for this was 
 the name of the palfrey, had his stall crammed fuU of dried 
 fern for litter, and was otherwise as well provided for as 
 Highland hospitality could contrive. 
 
 Simon Glover being thus left to his own painful reflections, 
 nothing better remained, after having seen after the comforts 
 of the dumb companion of his journey, than to follow the 
 herdsman's advice ; and ascending towards the top of an emi- 
 nence called Tom-an-Lonach, or the KnoU of Yew Trees, after 
 a walk of half an hour he reached the summit, and could look 
 down on the broad expanse of the lake, of which the height 
 commanded a noble view. A few aged and scattered yew- 
 trees of great size still vindicated for the beautiful green hill 
 the name attached to it. But a far greater number had fallen 
 a sacrifice to the general demand for bow-staves in that war- 
 like age, the bow being a weapon much used by the moun- 
 taineers, though those which they employed, as well as their 
 arrows, were, in shape and form, and especially in efficacy, 
 
376 WAVERLET NOVBLa 
 
 far inferior to the arcliery of merry England. The daxk and 
 shattered individual yews which remained were like the vet- 
 erans of a broken host, occupying in disorder some post of ad- 
 vantage, with the stern purpose of resisting to the last. Be- 
 hind this^minence, but detached from it, arose a higher hiU, 
 partly covered with copsewood, partly opening into glades of 
 pasture, where the cattle strayed, finding, at this season of 
 the year, a scanty sustenance among the spring-heads and 
 marshy places, where the fresh grass 'began first to arise. 
 
 The opposite or northern shore of the lake presented a far 
 more Alpine prospect than that upon which the glover was 
 stationed. Woods and thickets ran up the sides of the moun- 
 tains, and disappeared among the sinuosities formed by the 
 winding ravines which separated them from each other ; but 
 far above these specimens of a tolerable natural soil arose the 
 swart and bare mountains themselves, in the dark grey deso- 
 lation proper to the season. 
 
 Some were peaked, some broad-crested, some rocky and 
 precipitous, others of a tamer outline; and the clan of Titans 
 seemed to be commanded by their appropriate chieftains — ^the 
 frowning mountain of Ben Lawers, and the still more lofty 
 eminence of Ben Mohr, arising high above the rest, whose 
 peaks retain a dazzling helmet of snow far into the summer sea- 
 son, and sometimes during the whole year. Yet the borders 
 of this wild and silvan region, where the mountains descended 
 upon the lake, intimated, even at that early period, many 
 traces of human habitation. Hamlets were seen, especially on 
 the northern margin of the lake, half hid among the little 
 glens that poured their tributary streams into Loch Tay, 
 which, like many earthly things, made a fair show at a dis- 
 tance, but, when more closely approached, were disgustful and 
 repulsive, from their squalid want of the conveniences which 
 attend even Indian wigwams. They were inhabited by a race 
 who neither cultivated the earth nor cared for the enjoyments 
 which industry procures. The women, although otherwise 
 treated with affection, and even delicacy of respect, discharged 
 all the absolutely necessary domestic labour. The men, ex- 
 cepting some reluctant use of an ill-formed plough, or mor» 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 377 
 
 frequently a spade, grudgingly gone tlnough, as a task infi- 
 nitely beneath them, took no other employment than the 
 charge of the herds of black cattle, in which their wealth con- 
 sisted. At all other times they hunted, fished, or marauded, 
 during the brief intervals of peace, by way of pastime; plun- 
 dering with bolder license, and fightiag with embittered ani- 
 mosity, in time of war, which, public or private, upon a 
 broader or more restricted scale, formed the proper busiaess 
 of their lives, and the only one which they esteemed worthy 
 of them. 
 
 The magnificent bosom of the lake itself was a scene to gaze 
 on with delight. Its noble breadth, with its termination in a 
 full and beautiful run, was rendered yet more picturesque by 
 one of those islets which are often happily situated in the 
 Scottish lakes." The ruins upon that isle, now almost shape- 
 less, being overgrown with wood, rose, at the time we speak 
 of, into the towers and pionacles of a priory, where slumbered 
 the remaias of Sibylla, daughter of Henry I. of England, and 
 consort of Alexander the First of Scotland. This holy place 
 had been deemed of dignity sufieient to be the deposit of the 
 remaias of the captain of the Clan Quhele, at least till times 
 when the removal of the danger, now so imminently pressing, 
 should permit of his body being conveyed to a distiaguished 
 convent in the north, where he was destined ultimately to 
 repose with all his ancestry. 
 
 A number of boats pushed off from various points of the 
 near and more distant shore, many displaying sable banners, 
 and others having their several pipers in the bpw, who from 
 time to time poured forth a few notes of a shrill, plaintive, 
 and wailing character, and intimated to the glover that the 
 ceremony was about to take place. These sounds of lamenta- 
 tion were but the tuning as it were of the instruments, com- 
 pared with the general wail which was speedily to be raised. 
 
 A distant sound was heard from far up the lake, even as it 
 
 seemed from the remote and distant glens out of which the 
 
 Dochart and the Lochy pour their streams into Loch Tay. It 
 
 iras in a wild, inaccessible spot, where the Campbells at a 
 
 ' See Lake Islands. Note 51, 
 
878 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 subsequent period founded their strong fortress of Finlayrigg, 
 that the redoubted commander of the Clan Quhele drew his 
 last breath; and, to give due pomp to his funeral, his corpse 
 ■was noyr to be brought down the loch to the island assigned 
 for his temporary place of rest. The funeral fleet, led by the 
 chieftaiu's barge, from which a huge black banner was dis- 
 played, had made more than two-thirds of its voyage ere it 
 was visible from the emiuence on which Simon Glover stood 
 to overlook the ceremony. The instant the distant waU. of the 
 coronach was heard proceediug from the attendants on the 
 funeral barge, all the subordinate sounds of lamentation were 
 hushed at once, as the raven ceases to croak and the hawk to 
 whistle whenever the scream of the eagle is heard. The 
 boats, which had floated hither and thither upon the lake, like 
 a flock of water-fowl dispersing themselves on its surface, 
 now drew together with an appearance of order, that the 
 funeral flotUla might pass onward, and that they themselves 
 might fall into their proper places. In the mean while the 
 piercing din of the war-pipes became louder and louder, and 
 the cry from the numberless boats which followed that from 
 which the black banner of the chief was displayed rose in 
 wild unison up to the Tom-an-Lonach, from which the glover 
 viewed the spectacle. The galley which headed the procession 
 bore on its poop a species of scaffold, upon which, arrayed in 
 white linen, and with the face bare, was displayed the corpse 
 of the deceased chieftain. His son and the nearest relatives 
 filled the vessel, while a great number of boats, of every de- 
 scription thai; could be assembled, either on Loch Tay itself 
 or brought by land carriage from Loch Earn and otherwise, 
 followed in the rear, some of them of very frail materials. 
 There were even curraghs, composed of ox-hides stretched 
 over hoops of willow, ia the manner of the ancient British; 
 and some committed themselves to rafts formed for the occa« 
 sion, from the readiest materials that occurred, and united in 
 such a precarious manner as to render it probable that, before 
 the accomplishment of the voyage, some of the clansmen of 
 the deceased might be sent to attend their chieftain in thft 
 world of spirits. 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 379 
 
 When the principal flotilla came in sight of the smaller 
 group of boats collected towards the foot of the lake, and 
 bearing ofE from the little island, they hailed each other with 
 a shout so loud and general, and terminating in a cadence so 
 wildly prtdonged, that not only the deer started from their 
 glens for miles around, and sought the distant recesses of the 
 mountains, but even the domestic cattle, accustomed to the 
 voice of man, felt the fuU panic which the human shout 
 etrikes into the wilder tribes, and like them fled from their 
 pasture into morasses and dingles. 
 
 Summoned forth from their convent by those sounds, the 
 monks who inhabited the little islet began to issue from their 
 lowly portal, with cross and banner, and as much of ecclesi- 
 astical state as they had the means of displaying ; their bells 
 at the same time, of which the edifice possessed three, peal- 
 ing the death-toU over the long lake, which came to the ears 
 of the now silent multitude, mingled with the solemn chant 
 of the Catholic Church, raised by the monks in their proces- 
 sion. Various ceremonies were gone through, while the kin- 
 dred of the deceased carried the body ashore, and, placing it 
 on a bank long consecrated to the purpose, made the deasil ' 
 around the departed. When the corpse was uplifted to be 
 borne into the church, another united yell burst from the as- 
 sembled multitude, in which the deep shout of warriors and 
 the shrill wail of females joined their notes with the tremu- 
 lous voice of age and the babbling cry of childhood. The 
 coronach was again, and for the last time, shrieked as the 
 body was carried into the interior of the church, where only 
 the nearest relatives of the deceased and the most distin- 
 guished of the leaders of the clan were permitted to enter.' 
 The last yell of woe was so terribly loud, and answered by so 
 many hundred echoes, that the glover instinctively raised his 
 hands to his ears, to shut out, or deaden at least, a sound so 
 piercing. He kept this attitude while the hawks, owls, and 
 other birds, scared by the wild scream, had begun to settle in 
 their retreats, when, as he withdrew his hands, a voice close 
 by him said: 
 
 ' See Note 62. • Se« Highland Funeral Ceremoniee. Kot* 53. 
 
380 WAVERLET NOVELa 
 
 " Tlunk you this, Simon Glover, tlie hymn of penitence and 
 praise with, which it becomes poor forlorn, man, cast out from 
 his tenement of clay, to be wafted into the presence of his 
 Maker?" 
 
 The glover turned, and in the old man with a long white 
 beard who stood close beside him had no difficulty, from the 
 clear mUd eye and the benevolent cast of features, to recognise 
 the Carthusian monk Father Clement, no longer wearing his 
 monastic habLLiments, but wrapped in a frieze mantle and 
 having a Highland cap on his head. 
 
 It may be recollected that the glover regarded this man 
 with a combined feeling of respect and dislike — respect, which 
 his judgment could not deny to the monk's person and char- 
 acter, and dislike, which arose from Father Clement's peculiar 
 doctrines being the cause of his daughter's exile and his own 
 distress. It was not, therefore, with sentiments of unmixed 
 satisfaction that he returned the greetings of the father, and 
 replied to the reiterated question. What he thought of the 
 funeral rites which were discharged in so wild a manner : " I 
 know not, my good father ; but these men do their duty to 
 their deceased chief according to the fashion of their ances- 
 tors : they mean to express their regret for their friend's loss 
 and their prayers to Heaven in his behalf; and that which is 
 done of good-wiU must, to my thinking, be accepted favour- 
 ably. Had it been otherwise, methinks they had ere now 
 been enlightened to do better." 
 
 " Thou art deceived," answered the monk. " God has sent 
 His light amongst us all, though in various proportions ; but 
 man wilfully shuts his eyes and prefers darkness. This be- 
 nighted people mingle with the ritual of the Roman Church 
 the old heathen ceremonies of their own fathers, and thus 
 unite with the abominations of a church corrupted by wealth 
 and power the cruel and bloody ritual of savage paynims." 
 
 "Father," said Simon, abruptly, "methinks your presence 
 were more useful in yonder chapel, aiding your brethren in 
 the discharge of their clerical duties, than in troubling and 
 unsettling the belief of an humble though ignorant Christiau 
 like myself." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 381 
 
 '• And wherefore say, good brother, tliat I would unfix thy 
 principles of belief?" answered Clement. " So Heaven deal 
 with me, as, were my life-blood necessary to cement the mind 
 of any man to the holy religion he professeth, it should be 
 freely poured out for the purpose." 
 
 "Your speech is fair, father, I grant you," said the glover; 
 " but if I am to judge the doctrine by the fruits, Heaven has 
 punished me by th? hand of the church for having hearkened 
 thereto. Ere I heai-d you, my confessor was little moved 
 though I might have owned to have told a merry tale upon 
 the ale-bench, even if a friar or a nun were the subject. If 
 at a time I had called Father Hubert a better hunter of hares 
 than of souls, I confessed me to the Vicar Vinesauf, who 
 laughed and made me pay a reckoniag for penance; or if I 
 had said that the Vicar Vinesauf was more constant to his cup 
 than to his breviary, I confessed me to Pather Hubert, and a 
 new hawking-glove made aU well again ; and thus I, my con- 
 science, and Mother Church lived together on terms of peace, 
 friendship, and mutual forbearance. But since I have listened 
 to you. Father Clement, this goodly union is broke to pieces, 
 and nothing is thundered in my ear but purgatory in the next 
 world and fire and fagot iu this. Therefore, avoid you, Father 
 Clement, or speak to those who can understand your doctrine. 
 I have no heart to be a martyr : I have never ia my whole life 
 had courage enough so much as to snuff a e^radle with my fin- 
 gers ; and, to speak the truth, I am minded io go back to Perth, 
 sue out my pardon in the spiritual court, carry my fagot to 
 the gallows-foot in token of recantation, and purchase my- 
 self once more the name of a good Catholic, were it at the 
 price of all the worldly wealth that remaias to me." 
 
 "You are angry, my dearest brother," said Clement, "and 
 repent you on the pinch of a little worldly danger and a little 
 worldly loss for the good thoughts which you once enter- 
 tained." 
 
 " You speak at ease, Father Clement, since I think you have 
 long forsworn the wealth and goods of the world, and are pre- 
 pared to yield up your life when it is demanded in exchange 
 for the doctrine you preach and believe. You are as ready to 
 
382 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 put on your pitched shirt and brimstone head-gear as a naked 
 man is to go to his bed, and it would seem you have not much 
 more reluctance to the ceremony. But I still wear that which 
 clings to me. My wealth is stUl my own, and I thank Heavea 
 it is a decent pittance whereon to Uve; my life, too, is that 
 of a hale old man of sixty, who is in no haste to bring it to a 
 close ; and if I were poor as Job and on the edge of the grave, 
 must I not still cling to my daughter, whom your doctrines 
 have already cost so dear?" 
 
 "Thy daughter, friend Simon," said the Carmelite [Car- 
 thusian], "may be truly called an angel upon earth." 
 
 " Ay, and by listening to your doctrines, father, she is now 
 like to be called on to be an angel in heaven, and to be trans- 
 ported thither in a chariot of fire." 
 
 "Nay, my good brother," said Clement, "desist, I pray 
 you, to speak of what you little understand. Since it is wast- 
 ing time to show thee the light that thou chafest against, yet 
 listen to that which I have to say touching thy daughter, 
 whose temporal felicity, though I weigh it not even for an 
 instant in the scale against that which is spiritual, is, never- 
 theless, in its order, as dear to Clement Blair as to her own 
 father." 
 
 The tears stood in the old man's eyes as he spoke, and 
 Simon Glover was in some degree mollified as he again ad- 
 dressed him. 
 
 "One would think thee, Father Clement, the kindest and 
 most amiable of men ; how comes it, then, that thy steps are 
 haunted by general ill-will wherever thou chancest to turn 
 them? I could lay my life thou hast contrived already to 
 offend yonder half -score of poor friars in their water-girdled 
 cage, and that you have been prohibited from attendance on 
 the funeral?" 
 
 "Even so, my son," said the Carthusian, "and I doubt 
 whether their malice will suffer me to remain in this country. 
 I did but speak a few sentences about the superstition and 
 foUy of frequenting St. Fillan's church, to detect theft by 
 means of his bell, of bathing mad patients in his pool, to cure 
 their infirmity of mind; and lo! the persecutors have cast ma 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 383 
 
 forth of tteir communion, as they will speedily cast me out of 
 this life." 
 
 "Lo you there now," said the glover, "see what it is for 
 a man that cannot take a warning! Well, Father Clement, 
 men will not cast me forth unless it were as a companion of 
 yours. I pray you, therefore, tell me what you have to say 
 of my daughter, and let us he less neighbours than we have 
 been." 
 
 " This, then, brother Simon, I have to acquaint you with. 
 This young chief, who is swoln with contemplation of his own 
 power and glory, loves one thing better than it aU, and that is 
 thy daughter." 
 
 "He, Conachar!" exclaimed Simon. " My runagate appren- 
 tice look up to my daughter!" 
 
 " Alas !" said Clement, " how close sits our worldly pride, 
 even as ivy clings to the wall, and cannot be separated ! Look 
 up to thy daughter, good Simon? Alas, no! The captain of 
 Clan Quhele, great as he is, and greater as he soon expects to 
 be, looks down to the daughter of the Perth burgess, and con- 
 siders himself demeaned in doing so. But, to use his own 
 profane expression, Cathariae is dearer to him. than life here 
 and Heaven hereafter: he cannot live without her." 
 
 "Then he may die, if he lists," said Simon Glover, "for 
 she is betrothed to an honest burgess of Perth; and I would 
 not break my word to make my daughter bride to the Prince 
 of Scotland." 
 
 "I thought it would be your answer," replied the monk; 
 " I would, worthy friend, thou couldst carry into thy spiritual 
 concerns some part of that daring and resolved spirit with 
 which thou canst direct thy temporal affairs. " 
 
 " Hush thee — ^hush, Pather Clement!" answered the glover; 
 "when thou fallest into that vein of argument, thy words 
 savour of blazing tar, and that is a scent I like not. As to 
 Catharine, I must manage as I can, so as not to displease the 
 young dignitary; but well is it for me that she is far beyond 
 his reach." 
 
 " She must then be distant indeed, " said the Carmelite 
 [Carthusian]. " And now, brother Simon, since you think it 
 
884 WATERLET NOVELS. 
 
 perilous to own me and my opinions, I must wait alone witii 
 my own doctrines and the dangers they draw on me. But 
 should your eye, less blinded than it now is by worldly hopes 
 and fears, ever turn a glance back on him who soon may be 
 snatched from you, remember, that by nought sare a deep 
 sense of the truth and importance of the doctrine which he 
 taught could Clement Blair have learned to encounter, nay, to 
 provoke, the animosity of the powerful and invetei'ate, to 
 alarm the fears of the jealous and timid, to walk in the world 
 as he belonged not to it, and to be accounted mad of men, 
 that he might, if possible, win souls to God. Heaven be my 
 witness, that I would comply iu all lawful things to conciliate 
 the love and sympathy of my fellow-creatures ! It is no light 
 thing to be shunned by the worthy as an infected patient, to 
 be persecuted by the Pharisees of the day as an unbelieving 
 heretic, to be regarded with horror at once and contempt by 
 the multitude, who consider me as a madman, who may be ex- 
 pected to turn mischievous. But were all those evils multi- 
 plied an hundredfold, the fire within must not be stifled, the 
 voiee which says within me 'Speak' must receive obedience. 
 Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel, even should I at 
 length preach it from amidst the pile of flames I" 
 
 So spoke this bold witness, one of those whom Heaven 
 raised up from time to time to preserve amidst the most igno- 
 rant ages, and to carry down to those which succeed them, a 
 manifestation of unadulterated Christianity, from the time of 
 the Apostles to the age when, favoured by the invention of 
 printing, the Reformation broke out in full splendour. T'he 
 selfish policy of the glover was exposed in his own eyes ;/ and 
 he felt himself contemptible as he saw the Carmelite [Cf jthu- 
 sian] turn from him in all the hallowedness of resignation. 
 He was even conscious of a momentary incliuation to i^ollow the 
 example of the preacher's philanthropy and disinterested zeal; 
 but it glanced like a flash of lightning through a dark vault, 
 where there lies nothing to catch the blaze; and he slowly 
 descended the hill in a direction different from that of the 
 Carthusian, forgetting him and his doctrines, and buried in 
 anxious thoughts about his child's fate and his own. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 385 
 
 CHAPTER XXVni. 
 
 What want these outlaws conquerors should have 
 
 But history's purchased page to call them great, 
 
 A wider space, an ornamented grave? 
 
 Their hopes were not less warm, their souls were full as brave. 
 
 Btrox. 
 
 The funeral obsequies being over, the same flotilla which had 
 proceeded in solemn and sad array down the lake prepared to 
 return with displayed banners, and every demonstration of 
 mirth and joy; for there was but brief time to celebrate festi- 
 vals when the awful conflict betwiKt the Clan Quhele and 
 their most formidable rivals so nearly approached. It had 
 been agreed, therefore, that the funeral feast should be 
 blended with that usually given at the iuauguration of the 
 young chief. 
 
 Some objections were made to this arrangement, as contain- 
 iag an evil omen. But, on the other hand, it had a species of 
 recommendation, from the habits and feelings of the High- 
 landers, who, to this day, are wont to mingle a degree of 
 solemn mirth with their mourniug, and something resembling 
 melancholy with their mirth. The usual aversion to speak or 
 think of those who have been beloved and lost is less known 
 to this grave and enthusiastic race than it is to others. You 
 hear not only the young mention (as is everywhere usual) the 
 merits and the character of parents, who have, in the course 
 of nature, predeceased them ; but the widowed partner speaks, 
 in ordinary conversation, of the lost spouse, and, what is still 
 stranger, the parents allude frequently to the beauty or valour 
 of the child whom they have interred. The Scottish High- 
 landers appear to regard the separation of friends by death as 
 something less absolute and complete than it is generally es- 
 teemed in other countries, and converse of the dear connexions 
 who have sought the grave before them as if they had gone 
 upon a long journey in which they themselves must soon fol- 
 low. The funeral feast, therefore, being a general custom 
 throughout Scotland, was not, in the opinion of those how 
 25 
 
386 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 were to shaxe it, unseemingly mingled, on the present oc- 
 casion, with tlie festivities which hailed the succession to the 
 chieftainship. 
 
 The barge which had lately borne the dead to the grave 
 now conveyed the young Maclan to his new command; and 
 the minstrels sent forth their gayest notes to gratulate Eachin's 
 succession, as they had lately sounded their most doleful 
 dirges when carrying Gilchrist to his grave. Prom the at- 
 tendant flotilla rang notes of triumph and jubilee, instead of 
 those yells of lamentation which had so lately disturbed the 
 echoes of Loch Tay; and a thousand voices hailed the youth- 
 ful chieftain as he stood on the poop, armed at aU points, in 
 the flower of early manhood, beauty, and activity, on the very 
 spot where his father's corpse had so lately been extended, 
 and surrounded by triumphant friends, as that had been by 
 desolate mourners. One boat kept closest of the flotUla to the 
 honoured galley. Torquil of the Oak, a grizzled giant, was 
 steersman; and his eight sons, each exceeding the ordinary 
 stature of mankind, pulled the oars. Like some powerful and 
 favoui-ite wolf-hound, unloosed from his couples, and frolick- 
 ing around a liberal master, the boat of the foster-brethren 
 passed the chieftain's barge, now on one side and now on an- 
 other, and even rowed around it, as i£ in extravagance of joy; 
 while, at the same time, with the jealous vigilance of the 
 animal we have compared it to, they made it dangerous for 
 any other of the flotUla to approach so near as themselves, 
 from the risk of being run down by their impetuous and reck- 
 less manoeuvres. Eaised to an eminent rank in the clan by 
 the succession of their foster-brother to the command of the 
 Clan Quhele, this was the tumultuous and almost terrible 
 mode in which they testified their peculiar share in their 
 chief's triumph. 
 
 Par behind, and with different feelings, on the part of one 
 at least of the company, came the small boat in which, 
 manned by the Booshalloch and one of his sons, Simon Glover 
 was a passenger. 
 
 " If we are bound for the head of the lake," said Simon to 
 his friend, "we shall hardly be there for hours." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 387 
 
 But as he spoke the crew of the boat of the foster-brethren, 
 or leiohtaeh, on a signal from the chief's galley, lay on their 
 oars until the BooshaHoch's boat came up, and throwing on 
 board a rope of hides, which Niel made fast to the head of 
 his skiff, they stretched to their oars once more, and, notwith- 
 standing they had the small boat in tow, swept through the 
 lake with almost the same rapidity as before. The skifE was 
 tugged on with a velocity which seemed to hazard the pulling 
 her under water, or the separation of her head from her other 
 timbers. 
 
 Simon Glover saw with anxiety the reckless fury of their 
 course, and the bows of the boat occasionally brought within 
 an inch or two of the level of the water ; and though his 
 friend, Niel BooshaUoch, assured him it was all done in 
 especial honour, he heartily wished his voyage might have a 
 safe termination. It had so, and much sooner than he appre- 
 hended ; for the place of festivity was not four miles distant 
 from the sepulchral island, being chosen to suit the chieftain's 
 course, which lay to the southeast, so soon as the banquet 
 should be concluded. 
 
 A. bay on the southern side of Loch Tay presented a beau- 
 tiful beach of sparkling sand, on which the boats might land 
 with ease, and a dry meadow, covered with turf, verdant con- 
 sidering the season, behind and around which rose high banks, 
 fringed with copsewood, and displaying the lavish preparations 
 which had been made for the entertainment. 
 
 The Highlanders, well known for ready hatchet-men, had 
 constructed a long arbour or silvan banqueting-room, capable 
 of receiving two hundred men, while a number of smaller huts 
 around seemed intended for sleeping-apartments. The up- 
 rights, the couples, and roof -tree of the temporary hall were 
 eomposed of mountain-pine, stOl covered with its bark. The 
 framework of the sides was of planks or spars of tne same 
 material, closely interwoven with the leafy boughs of the &t 
 and other evergreens, which the neighbouring woods afforded, 
 while the hUls had furnished plenty of heath to form the 
 roof. Within this silvan palace the most important person- 
 9,ges present were invited to hold high festival. Others of 
 
888 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 less note were to feast in various long slieds constructed •with 
 less care; and tables of sod, or rough planks, placed in the 
 open air, were allotted to the numberless multitude. At a 
 distance were to be seen piles of glowing charcoal or blazing 
 wood, around which countless cooks toiled, bustled, and 
 fretted, like so many demons working in their native element. 
 Pits, wrought in the hillside, and lined with heated stones, 
 served as ovens for stewing immense quantities of beef, mut- 
 ton, and venison; wooden spits supported sheep and goats, 
 which were roasted entire ; others were cut into joints, and 
 seethed ia caldrons made of the animal's own skins, sewed 
 hastily together and filled with water; while huge quantities 
 of pike, trout, salmon, and char were broiled with more cere- 
 mony on glowing embers. The glover had seen many a High- 
 land banqugt, but never one the preparations for which were 
 on such a scale of barbarous profusion. 
 
 He had little time, however, to admire the scene around 
 him. ; for, as soon as they landed on the beach, the Booshal- 
 loch observed with some embarrassment, that, as they had 
 not been bidden to the table of the dais, to which he seemed 
 to have expected an invitation, they had best secure a place 
 in one of the inferior bothies or booths ; and was leading the 
 way in that direction, when he was stopped by one of the 
 body-guards, seemiag to act as master of ceremonies, who 
 whispered something in his ear. 
 
 "I thought so," said the herdsman, much relieved — "I 
 thought neither the stranger nor the man that has my charge 
 would be left out at the high table." 
 
 They were conducted accordingly into the ample lodge 
 within which were long ranges of tables already mostly oc- 
 cupied by the guests, while those who acted as domestics were 
 placing upon them the abundant though rude materials of the 
 festival. The young chief, although he certainly saw the 
 glover and the herdsman enter, did not address any personal 
 salute to either, and their places were assigned them in a dis- 
 tant corner, far beneath the salt, a huge piece of antique silver- 
 plate, the only article of value that the table displayed, and 
 which was regarded by the clan as a species of palladium, 
 
THE PAIR MAID OP PERTH. 389 
 
 only produced and used on the most solemn occasions, such aa 
 the present. 
 
 The BooshaUoch, somewhat discontented, muttered to Si- 
 mon as he took his place ; " These are changed days, friend. 
 His father, rest his soul, would have spoken to ns both; but 
 these are bad manners which ho has learned among you Sas- 
 senaehs in the Low Country." 
 
 To this remark the glover did not think it necessary to re- 
 ply; instead of which he adverted to the evergreens, and 
 particularly to the skins and other ornaments with which the 
 interior of the bower was decorated, The most remarkable 
 part of these ornaments was a number of Highland shirts of 
 mail, with steel boimets, battle-axes, and two-handed sworda 
 to match, which hung around the upper part of the room, to- 
 gether with targets highly and richly embossed. Each mail 
 shirt was hung over a well-dressed stag's hide, which at once 
 displayed the armour to advantage and saved it from suffer- 
 ing by damp. 
 
 "These," whispered the Booshalloch, "are the arms of the 
 chosen champi ms of the Clan Quhele. They are twenty-nine 
 in number, as you see, Eachin himself being the thirtieth, who 
 wears his armour to-day, else had there been thirty. And he 
 has not got such a good hauberk after all as he should wear 
 on Palm Sunday. These nine suits of harness, of such large 
 size, are for the leichtach, from whom so much is expected," 
 
 "And these goodly deer-hides," said Simon, the spirit of 
 his profession awakening at the sight of the goods in which 
 he traded—" think you the chief will be disposed to chaffer 
 for them? They are in demand for the doublets which 
 knights wear under their armour." 
 
 "Did I not pray you," said Nial Booshalloch, "to say 
 nothing on that subject?" 
 
 " It is the mail shirts I speak of," said Simon — " may I ask 
 if any of them were made by our celebrated Perth armourer, 
 called Henry of the Wynd?" 
 
 "Thou art more unlucky than before," said Niel: "that 
 man's name is to Eachin's temper like a whirlwind upon th« 
 lake; yet no man knows for what cause." 
 
390 WAVERLEY KOVELS. 
 
 '1 can guess," thought our glover, but gave no utterance to 
 the thought J and, having twice lighted on unpleasant imbjects 
 of conversation, he prepared to apply himself, like tiiose 
 around him, to his food, without starting another topic. 
 
 We have said as much of the preparations as may lead the 
 reader to conclude that the festival, in respect of the qualily 
 of the food, waa cu the most rude description, consisting 
 thiefly of huge joints of meat, whieh were consumed with 
 little respect to the fasting season, although several of the 
 friars of the island convent graced and hallowed the board by 
 their presence. The platters were of wood, and so were the 
 hooped cogues or cups out of which the guests quaffed their 
 liquor, as also the broth or juice of the meat, which was held 
 a delicacy. There were also various preparations of milk 
 which were highly esteemed, and were eaten out, of similar 
 vessels. Bread was the scarcest article at the banquet, but 
 the glover and his patron Niel were served with two small 
 loaves expressly for their own use. In eating, as, indeed, 
 was then the case all over Britain, the guests used their knives 
 called skenes, or the large poniards named dirks, without 
 troubling themselves by the reflection that they might oc- 
 casionally have served different or more fatal purposes. 
 
 At the upper end of the table stood a vacant seat, elevated 
 a step or two above the floor. It was covered with a canopy 
 of hollow boughs and ivy, and there rested against it a 
 sheathed sword and a folded banner. This had been the seat 
 of the deceased chieftain, and was left vacant in honour of 
 him. Eachin occupied a lower chair on the right hand of the 
 place of honour. 
 
 The reader would be greatly mistaken who should follow 
 out this description by supposing that the guests behaved like 
 a herd of hungry wolves, rushing upon a feast rarely offered 
 to them. On the contrary, the Clan Quhele conducted them- 
 selves with that species of courteous reserve and attention to 
 the wants of others which is often found in primitive nations, 
 especially such as are always in arms, because a general ob- 
 servance of the rules of courtesy is necessary to prevent quar- 
 rels, bloodshed, and death. The guests took JShe places «*• 
 
THE FAIK MAID OP PERTH. 391 
 
 signed them by Torquil of the Oak, who, acting as marischdh 
 taeh, i.e. sewer of the mess, touched with a white wand, with- 
 out speaking a word, the place where each was to sit. Thus 
 placed in order, the company patiently waited for the portion 
 assigned them, which was distributed among them by tha 
 leichtaeh ; the bravest men or more distinguished warriors of 
 the tribe being accommodated with a double mess, emphati- 
 cally called hieyfir, or the portion of a man. When the sewers 
 themselves had seen every one served, they resumed their 
 places at the festival, and were each served with one of these 
 larger messes of food. Water was placed within each man's 
 reach, and a handful, of soft moss served the purposes of a 
 table-napkin, so that, as at an Eastern banquet, the hands 
 were washed as often as the mess was changed. For amuse- 
 ment, the bard recited the praises of the deceased chief, and 
 expressed the clan's confidence in the blossoming virtues of 
 his successor. The seannachie recited the genealogy of the 
 tribe, which they traced to the race of the Dalriads ; the harp- 
 ers played within, while the war-pipes cheered the multitude 
 without. The conversation among the guests was grave, sub- 
 dued, and civil ; no jest was attempted beyond the bounds of 
 a very gentle pleasantry, calculated only to excite a passing 
 smile. There were no raised voices, no contentious argu 
 ments ; and Simon Glover had heard a hundred times more 
 noise at a guild-feast in Perth than was made on this occasion 
 by two hundred wild mountaineers. 
 
 Even the liquor itself did not seem to raise the festive party 
 above the same tone of decorous gravity. It was of various 
 kinds. Wine appeared in very small quantities, and was 
 served out only to the principal guests, among which honoured 
 number Simon Glover was again included. The wine and the 
 two wheaten loaves were indeed the only marks of notice 
 which he received during the feast; but Mel Booshalloch, 
 jealous of his master's reputation for hospitality, failed not 
 to enlarge on them as proofs of high distinction. DistUled 
 liquors, since so generally used in the Highlands, were then 
 comparatively unknown. The usquebaugh was circulated in 
 small quantities, and was highly flavoured with a decoction 
 
392 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 of saffron and other herbs, so as to resemble a medicinal 
 potion rather than a festive cordial. Cider and mead vera 
 seen at the entertainment, but ale, brewed in great quantities 
 for the purpose, and flowing round without restriction, was the 
 liquor generally used, and that was drunk with a moderation 
 much less known ajnong the more modern Highlanders. A 
 cup to the memory of the deceased chieftain was the first 
 pledge solemnly proclaimed after the banquet was finished, 
 and a low murmur of benedictions was heard from the com 
 pany, while the monks alone, uplifting their united voices, 
 sung Requiem etemam dona. An unusual silence followed, 
 as if somethiug extraordinary was expected, when Eachin 
 arose with a bold and manly, yet modest, grace, and ascended 
 the vacant seat or throne, saying with dignity and firm- 
 ness: 
 
 " This seat and my father's inheritance I claim as my right 
 . — so prosper me God and St. Barr!" 
 
 "HowwiU. you riile your father's children?" said an old 
 man, the uncle of the deceased. 
 
 " I wUl defend them with my father's sword, and distribute 
 justice to them under my father's banner." 
 
 The old man, with a trembling hand, unsheathed the pon- 
 derous weapon, and, holding it by the blade, offered the hilt 
 to the young chieftain's grasp ; at the same time Torquil of 
 the Oak unfurled the pennon of the tribe, aad swung it repeat- 
 edly over Eachin's head, who, with singular grace and dex- 
 terity, brandished the huge claymore as in its defence. The 
 guests raised a yelling shout to testify their acceptance of the 
 patriarchal chief who claimed their allegiance, nor was there 
 any who, in the graceful and agUe youth before them, was 
 disposed to recollect the subject of sinister vaticinations. As 
 he stood in glittering mail, resting on the long sword, and 
 acknowledging by gracious gestures the acclamations which 
 rent the air within,, without, and around, Simon Glover was 
 tempted to doubt whether this majestic figure was that of the 
 same lad whom he had often treated with little ceremony, and 
 began to have some apprehension of the consequences of hav- 
 ing done so. A general burst of minstrelsy succeeded to tha 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 393 
 
 acclamations, and rock and greenwood rang to harp and pipes, 
 as lately to shout and yell of woe. 
 
 It would be tedious to pursue the progress of the inaugural 
 feast, or detail the pledges that were quaffed to former heroes 
 of the clan, and above all to the twenty-nine brave gallo- 
 glasses who were to fight in the approaching conflict, under 
 the eye and leading of their young chief. The bards, assum- 
 ing in old times the prophetic character combined with their 
 own, ventured to assure them of the most distinguished vic- 
 tory, and to predict the fury with which the blue falcon, the 
 emblem of the Clan Quhele, should rend to pieces the moun- 
 tain cat, the well-known badge of the Clan Chattan. 
 
 It was approaching sunset when a bowl, called the grace- 
 cup, made of oak, hooped with sUver, was handed round the 
 table as the signal of dispersion, although it was left free to 
 any who chose a longer carouse to retreat to any of the outer 
 bothies. As for Simon Glover, the Booshalloch conducted 
 him to a small hut, contrived, it would seem, for the use of a 
 single individual, where a bed of heath and moss was arranged 
 as well as the season would permit, and an ample supply of 
 such delicacies as the late feast afforded showed that all care 
 had been taken for the inhabitant's accommodation. 
 
 " Do not leave this hut, "said the Booshalloch, taking leave 
 of his friend and jyrotege: "this is your place of rest. But 
 apartments are lost on such a night of confusion, and if the 
 badger leaves his hole the tod will creep into it." 
 
 To Simon Glover this arrangement was by no means dis- 
 agreeable. He had been wearied by the noise of the day, and 
 felt desirous of repose. After eating, therefore, a morsel, 
 which his appetite scarce required, and drinking a cup of wine 
 to expel the cold, he muttered his evening prayer, wrapt him- 
 self in his cloak, and lay down on a couch which old acquaint- 
 ance had made familiar and easy to him. The hum and mur- 
 mur, and even the occasional shouts, of some of the festive 
 multitude who continued revelling without did not long inter- 
 rupt his repose, and in about ten minutes he was as fast asleep 
 as if he had lain in his own bed in Curfew Street. 
 
394 WAYERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Still harping on my daughter. 
 
 BamM, 
 
 Two hours before the black-cock crew, Simon Glover wai 
 wakened by a well-known voice, which called him by name. 
 
 "What, Gonachar!" he replied, as he started from sleep, 
 " is the morning so far advanced?" and, raising his eyes, the 
 person of whom he was dreaming stood before him ; and at 
 the same moment, the events of yesterday . rushing on his 
 recollection, he saw with surprise that the vision retained the 
 form which sleep had assigned it, and it was not the mail- 
 clad Highland chief, with claymore in hand, as he had seen 
 him the preceding night, but Gonachar of Curfew Street, in 
 his humble apprentice's garb, holding in his hand a switch of 
 oak. An apparition would not more have surprised our Perth 
 burgher. As he gazed with wonder, the youth turned upon 
 him a piece of lighted bog-wood which he carried in a lantern, 
 and to his waking exclamation replied : 
 
 "Even so, father Simon: it is Gonachar, come to renew 
 our old acquaintance, when our intercourse will attract least 
 notice." 
 
 So saying, he sat down on a tressel which answered the 
 purpose of a chair, and placing the lantern beside him, pro- 
 ceeded in the most friendly tone : 
 
 "I have tasted of thy good cheer many a day, father Simon; 
 I trust thou hast found no lack in my family?" 
 
 "None whatever, Eaehin Maclan," answered the glover, 
 for the simplicity of the Celtic language and manners rejects 
 all honorary titles; "it was even too good for this fasting 
 season, and much too good for me, since I must be ashamed 
 to think how hard you fared in Curfew Street." 
 
 "Even too well, to use your own word," said Gonachar, 
 " for the deserts of an idle apprentice ajad for the wants of 
 a young Highlander. But yesterday, if there was, as I trust, 
 enough of food, found you not, good glover, some lack of 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 396 
 
 courteous welcome? Excuse it not — I know you did so. 
 But I am young in authority with my people, and I must not 
 too early draw their attention to the period of my residence in 
 the Lowlands, which, however, I can never forget." 
 
 "I understand the cause entirely, " said Simon j "and there- 
 fore it is unwillingly, and as it were by force, that I have 
 made so early a visit hither." 
 
 " Hush, father — ^hush ! It is well you are come to see some 
 of my Highland splendour while it yet sparkles. Eeturn 
 after Pahn Sunday, and who knows whom or what you may 
 find in the territories we now possess! The wildcat may 
 have made his lodge where the banqueting-bower of Maclan 
 now stands." 
 
 The young chief was silent, and pressed the top of the rod 
 to his lips, as if to guard against uttering more. 
 
 "There is no fear of that, Eaehin," said Simon, in that 
 vague way in which lukewarm comforters endeavour to turn 
 the reflections of their friends from the consideration of in- 
 evitable danger. 
 
 " There is fear, and there is peril of utter ruin, " answered 
 Eaehin, "and there is positive certainty of great loss. I 
 marvel my father consented to this wily proposal of Albany. 
 I would MacGUlie Chattanach would agree with me, and 
 then, instead of wasting our best blood against each other, we 
 would go down together to Strathmore and km and take 
 possession. I would rule at Perth and he at Dundee, and all 
 the great strath should be our own to the banks of the Firth 
 of Tay. Such is the policy I have caught from your old grey 
 head, father Simon, when holdiug a trencher at thy back, and 
 listeniag to thy eveniag talk with Bailie Craigdallie." 
 
 "The tongue is well called an unruly member," thought 
 the glover. " Here have I been holding a candle to the devil, 
 to show him the way to mischief." 
 
 But he only said aloud: " These plans come too late." 
 
 "Too late indeed!" answered Eaehia. " The indentures of 
 battle are signed by our marks and seals, the burning hate of 
 the Clan Quhele and Clan Chattan is blown up to an inex- 
 tinguishable flame by mutual insults and boasts. Yes, the 
 
396 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 time is passed by. But to thine own affairs, father Glover. 
 It is religion that has brought thee hither, as I learn from 
 Niel Booshalloeh. Surely, my experience of thy prudence 
 did not lead me to suspect thee of any quarrel with Mother 
 Church, As for my old acquaintance, Father Clement, he is 
 one of those who hunt after the crown of martyrdom, and 
 think a stake, surrounded with blazing fagots, better worth 
 embracing than a willing bride. He is a very knight-errant 
 in defence of his religious notions, and does battle wherever 
 he comes. He hath already a quarrel with the monks of 
 Sibyl's Isle yonder about some point of doctrine. Hast seen 
 him?" 
 
 "I have," answered Simon; "but we spoke little together, 
 the time being pressing. " 
 
 " He may have said that there is a third person — one more 
 likely, I think, to be a true fugitive for religion than either 
 you, a shrewd citizen, or he, a wrangling preacher — who. would 
 be right heartily welcome to share our protection? Thou art 
 dull, man, and wilt not guess my meaning — thy daughter, 
 Catharine?" 
 
 These last words the young chief spoke in English ; and he 
 continued the conversation in that language, as if apprehen- 
 sive of being overheard, and, indeed, as if under the sense of 
 some involuntary hesitation. 
 
 "My daughter Catharine," said the glover, remembering 
 what the Carthusian had told him, "is well and safe." 
 
 " But where or with whom?" said the young chief. " And 
 wherefore came she not with you? Think you the Clan 
 Quhele have no cailliachs as active as old Dorothy, whose 
 hand has warmed my haffits before now, to wait upon the 
 daughter of their chieftain's master?" 
 
 "Again I thank you," said the glover, "and doubt neither 
 your power nor your will to protect my daughter, as well as 
 myseK. But an honourable lady, the friend of Sir Patrick 
 Ghajteris, hath offered her a safe place of refuge without the 
 risk of a toilsome journey through a desolate and distracted 
 country. " 
 
 " Oh, ay. Sir Patrick Charteris, " said Eachin, in a more re* 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 397 
 
 served and distant tone; "he must be preferred to all men, 
 without doubt. He is your friend, I thiak?" 
 
 Simon Glover longed to punish this affectation of a boy who 
 had been scolded four times a day for running into the street 
 to see Sir Patrick Charteris ride past; but he checked hia 
 spirit of repartee, and simply said: 
 
 " Sir Patrick Charteris has been provost of Perth for seven 
 years, and it is likely is so stUl, since the magistrates are 
 elected, not in Lent, but at St. Martinmas." 
 
 "Ah, father Glover," said the youth, in his kinder and 
 more familiar mode of address, " you are so used to see the 
 sumptuous shows and pageants of Perth, that you would but 
 little relish our barbarous festival in comparison. What 
 didst thou think of our ceremonial of yesterday?" 
 
 " It was noble and touching, " said the glover ; " and to me, 
 who knew your father, most especially so. When you rested 
 on the sword and looked aroimd you, methought I saw mine 
 old friend Gilchrist Maclan arisen from the dead and renewed 
 in years and in strength. " 
 
 "I played my part there boldly, I trust; and showed little 
 of that paltry apprentice boy whom you used to — use just as 
 he deserved?" 
 
 "Eachin resembles Conachar," said the glover, "no more 
 than a salmon resembles a par, though men say they are the 
 same fish in a different state, or than a butterfly resembles a 
 grub." 
 
 " Thinkest thou that, whUe I was taking upon me the power 
 which all women love, I would have been myself an object for 
 a maiden's eye to rest upon? To speak plain, what would 
 Catharine have thought of me in the ceremonial?" 
 
 "We approach the shallows now," thought Simon Glover, 
 "and without nice pilotage we drive right on shore." 
 
 "Most women like show, Eachin; but I think my daughter 
 Catharine be an exception. She would rejoice in the good 
 fortune of her household friend and playmate ; but she would 
 not value the splendid Maclan, captain of Clan Quhele, more 
 than the orphan Conachar." 
 
 "She is ever generous and disinterested," replied the 
 
iJ98 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 young cMef . " But yourself, father, have seen the world f ot 
 many more years than she has done, and can better form a 
 judgment what power and wealth do for those who enjoy 
 them. Think, and speak sincerely, what would be your own 
 thoughts if you saw your Catharine standing under yonder 
 canopy, with the command over an hundred hills, and the 
 devoted obedience of ten thousand vassals ; and as the price 
 of these advantages, her hand in that of the man who loves 
 her the best in the world?" 
 
 " Meaning in your own, Conaehar?" said Simon. 
 
 " Ay, Conaehar call me : I love the name, since it was by 
 that I have been known to Catharine." 
 
 "Sincerely, then," said the glover, endeavouring to give 
 the least offensive turn to his reply, "my inmost thought 
 would be the earnest wish that Catharine and I were safe in 
 our humble booth in Curfew Street, with Dorothy for our only 
 vassal." 
 
 " And with poor Conaehar also, I trust? You would not 
 leave him to pine away in solitary grandeur?" 
 
 "I would not," answered the glover, "wish so ill to the 
 Clan Quhele, mine ancient friends, as to deprive them, at the 
 moment of emergency, of a brave young chief, and that chief 
 of the fame which he is about to acquire at their head in the 
 approaching conflict." 
 
 Eachin bit his lip to suppress his irritated feelings as he 
 replied : " Words — words — empty words, father Simon. You 
 fear the Clan Quhele more than you love them, and you sup- 
 pose their indignation would be formidable should their chief 
 marry the daughter of a burgess of Perth. " 
 
 " And if I do fear such an issue. Hector Maclan, have I 
 not reason? How have ill-assorted marriages had issue in 
 the house of MacCallanmore, in that of the powerful Mac- 
 Leans — ^nay, of the Lords of the Isles themselves? What 
 has ever come of them but divorce and exheredation, some- 
 times worse fate, to the ambitious intruder? You could not 
 marry my child before a priest, and you could only wed her 
 with your left hand; and I" — ^he checked the strain of im- 
 petuosity which the subject inspired, and concluded, " and I 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 399 
 
 am an honest though humble burgher of Perth, who would 
 rather my child were the lawful and undoubted spouse of a 
 citizen in my own rank than the licensed concubine of a 
 monarch." 
 
 "I wiU wed Catharine before the priest and before the 
 world, before the altar and before the black stones of lona," 
 said the impetuous young man. "She. is the love of my 
 youth, and there is not a tie in religion or honour but I will 
 bindmyself by them! I have sounded my people. If we do 
 but win this combat — and, with the hope of gaining Catharine, 
 we SHALL win it — my heart tells me so — I shall be so much 
 lord over their affections that, were 1 to take a bride from the 
 almshouse, so it was my pleasure, they would hail her as if 
 she were a daughter of MaeCallanmore. But you reject my 
 suit?" said Eachin, sternly. 
 
 " You put words of offence in my mouth," said the old man, 
 " and may next punish me for them, since I am whoUy in 
 your power. But with my consent my daughter shall never 
 wed save in her own degree. Her heart would break amid 
 the constant wars and scenes of bloodshed which connect 
 themselves with your lot. K you really love her, and recol- 
 lect her dread of strife and combat, you would not wish her 
 to be subjected to the train of military horrors in which you, 
 like your father, must needs be inevitably and eternally en- 
 gaged. Choose a bride amongst the daughters of the moun- 
 tain-chiefs, my son, or fiery Lowland nobles. You are fair, 
 young, rich, high-born, and powerful, and will not woo in 
 vain. You will readily find one who wiLl rejoice in your con- 
 quests, and cheer you under defeat. To Catharine, the one 
 would be as frightful as the other. A warrior must wear a 
 steel gauntlet : a glove of kid-skin would be torn to pieces in 
 an hour." 
 
 A dark cloud passed over the face of the young chief, lately 
 animated with so much fire. 
 
 "Farewell," he said, "the only hope which could have 
 lighted me to fame or victory!" He remained for a space 
 silent, and intensely thoughtful, with downcast eyes, a lower- 
 ing brow, and folded arms. At length he raised his hands, 
 
400 -WAVEELEY NOVELS. 
 
 and said: " Father, ^f or such, you have been to me — ^I am 
 about to tell you a secret. Reason and pride both advise me 
 to be silent, but fate urges me, and must be obeyed. I am 
 about to lodge in you the deepest aud dearest secret that man 
 ever confided to man. But beware— end this conference how 
 it will — beware how you ever breathe a syllable of what I am 
 now to trust to youj for know that, were you to do so in the 
 most remote corner of Scotland, I have ears to hear it even 
 there, and a hand and poniard to reach a traitor's bosom. I 
 am — but the word will not out!" 
 
 " Do not speak it then, " said the prudent glover : " a secret 
 is no longer safe when it crosses the lips of him who owns it, 
 and I desire not a confidence so dangerous as you menace me 
 with." 
 
 "Ay, but I must speak, and you must hsar," said the 
 youth. " In this age of battle, father, you have yourself been 
 a combatant?" 
 
 " Once only," replied Simon, "when the Southron assaulted 
 the Fair City. I was summoned to take my part in the de- 
 fence, as my tei.-.ure required, like that of other craftsmen, 
 who are bound to keep watch and ward. " 
 
 " And how felt you upon that matter?" inquired the young 
 chief. 
 
 "What can that import to the present business?" said 
 Simon, in some surprise. 
 
 "Much, else I had not asked the question," answered 
 Eachin, in the tone of haughtiness which from time to time 
 he assumed. 
 
 " An old man is easily brought to speak of olden times, " 
 said Simon, not unwilling, on an instant's reflection, to lead 
 the conversation aVay from the subject of his daughter, "and 
 I must needs confess my feelings were much short of the high, 
 cheerful confidence, nay, the pleasure, with which I have seen 
 other men go to battle. My life and profession were peace- 
 ful, and though I have not wanted the spirit of a man, when 
 the time demanded it, yet I have seldom slept worse than the 
 night before that onslaught. My ideas were harrowed by the 
 tales we were told — ^nothing short of the truth — about the 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 401 
 
 Saxon arciers : how they drew shafts of a cloth-yard length, 
 and used bows a third longer than ours. When I fell into a 
 broken slumber, if but a straw in the mattress pricked my 
 side, I started and waked, thinking an English arrow was 
 quivering in my body. In the morning, as I began for very 
 weariness to siak into some repose, I was waked by the tolling 
 of the common bell, which called us burghers to the walls ; I 
 never heard its sound peal so like a passing kneU before or 
 since." 
 
 " Go on — what further chanced?" demanded Eachin. 
 
 " I did on my harness, " said Simon, " such as it was ; took 
 my mother's blessing, a high-spirited woman, who spoke of 
 my father's actions for the honour of the EaLr Town. This 
 heartened me, and I felt stiU bolder when I found myself 
 ranked among the other crafts, all bowmen, for thou knowest 
 the Perth citizens have good skill in archery. We were dis- 
 persed on the walls, several knights and squires in armour of 
 proof being mingled amongst us, who kept a bold countenance, 
 confident perhaps in their harness, and informed us, for our 
 encouragement, that they would cut down with their swords 
 and axes any of those who should attempt to quit their post. 
 I was kindly assured of this myself by the old Kempe of Kin- 
 fauns, as he was called, this good Sir Patrick's father, then 
 our provost. He was a grandson of the Eed Eover, Tom. of 
 Longueville, and a likely man to keep his word, which he ad- 
 dressed to me in especial, because a night of much discomfort 
 may have made me look paler than usual; and, besides, I 
 was but a lad." 
 
 " And did his exhortation add to your fear or your resolu- 
 tion?" said Eachin, who seemed very attentive. 
 
 " To my resolution, " answered Simon ; " for I think nothing 
 can make a man so bold to face one danger at some distance 
 in his front as the knowledge of another close behind him, to 
 push him forward. Well, I mounted the walls in tolerable 
 heart, and was placed with others on the Spey Tower, being 
 accounted a good bowman. But a very cold fit seized me as I 
 saw the English, in great order, with their archers in front, 
 and their men-at-arms behind, marching forward to the at- 
 
 OR 
 
402 WAVEBLEY NOVELS. 
 
 tack in strong columns, thxee in number. They came on 
 steadily, and some of us would fain have shot at them ; but 
 it was strictly forbidden, and we were obliged to remain 
 motionless, sheltering ourselves behind the battlement as we 
 best might. As the Southron formed their long ranks into 
 lines, each man occupying his place as by magic, and prepar- 
 ing to cover themselves by large shields, called pavesses^ 
 which they planted before them, I again felt a strange breath- 
 lessness, and some desire to go home for a glass of distilled 
 waters. But as I looked aside, I saw the worthy Kempe of 
 Kinf auns bending a large cross-bow, and I thought it pity he 
 should waste the bolt on a true-hearted Scotsman, when so 
 many English were in presence ; so I e'en staid where I was, 
 being in a comfortable angle, formed by two battlements. 
 The English then strode forward, and drew their bow-strings 
 — not to the breast, as your Highland kerne do, but to the 
 ear — and sent off their volleys of swallow-tails before we 
 could call on St. Andrew. I winked when I saw them haul 
 up their tackle, and I believe I started as the shafts began to 
 rattle against the parapet. But looking round me, and seeing 
 none hurt but John SquaJlit, the town-crier, whose jaws were 
 pierced through with a cloth-yard shaft, I took heart of grace, 
 and shot in my turn with good will and good aim. A little 
 man I shot at, who had just peeped out from behind his target, 
 dropt with a shaft through his shoulder. The provost cried, 
 'Well stitched, Simon Glover!' 'St. John, for his own town, 
 my feUow-craftsmenI' shouted I, though I was then but an 
 apprentice. And if you wUl believe me, in the rest of the 
 skirmish, which was ended by the foes drawing off, I drew 
 bowstring and loosed shaft as calmly as if I had been shoot- 
 ing at butts instead of men's breasts. I gained some credit, 
 and I have ever afterwards thought that, in case of necessity 
 ■ — for with me it had never been matter of choice — I should 
 not have lost it again. And this is all I can teU of warlike 
 experience in battle. Other dangers I have had, which I have 
 endeavoured to avoid like a wise man, or, when they were 
 inevitable, I have faced them like a true one. Upon other 
 terms a man cannot live or hold up his head in Scotland." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 403 
 
 "I understand your tale," said Eachin; "but I shall find it 
 difficult to make you credit mine, knowiag the race of which 
 I am descended, and especially that I am the son of him 
 whom we hare this day laid in the tomb — ^well that he lies 
 where he wiE never leam what you are now to hear! Look, 
 my father, the light which I bear grows short and pale, a few 
 minutes will extinguish it; but before it expires, the hideous 
 tale will be told. Father, I am — a coward I It is said at 
 last, and the secret of my disgrace is in keeping of another!" 
 
 The young man sunk back in a species of syncope, produced 
 by the agony of his mind as he made the fatal communica- 
 tion. The glover, moved as well by fear as by compassion, 
 applied himself to recall hun to life, and succeeded in doing 
 so, but not in restoring him to composure. He hid his face 
 with his hands, and his tears flowed plentifully and bitterly. 
 
 "For Our Lady's sake, be composed," said the old man, 
 " and recall the vile word! I know you better than yourself: 
 you are no coward, but only too young and inexperienced, ay, 
 and somewhat too quick of fancy, to have the steady valour 
 of a bearded man. I would hear no other man say that of 
 you, Conaehar, without giving him the lie. You are no 
 coward: I have seen high sparks of spirit fly from you even 
 on slight enough provocation." 
 
 "High sparks of pride and passion!" said the unfortunate 
 youth; "but when saw you them supported by the resolution 
 that should have backed them? The sparks you speak of fell 
 on my dastardly heart as on a piece of ice which could catch 
 fire from nothing: if my offended pride urged me to strike, 
 my weakness of mind prompted me the next moment to fly." 
 
 "Want of habit," said Simon; "it is by clambering over 
 walls that youths learn to scale precipices. Begin with slight 
 feuds ; exercise daily the arms of your country in tourney 
 with your followers." 
 
 "And what leisure is there for this?" exclaimed the young 
 chief, starting as if something horrid had occurred to his im- 
 agination. " How many days are there betwixt this hour and 
 Palm Sunday, and what is to chance then? A list inclosed, 
 from which no man can stir, more than the poor bear who is 
 
404 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 chained to his stake. Sixty living men, the best and fiercest 
 — one alone excepted I — which Albyn can send down from her 
 mountains, aU athirst for each other's blood, while a king 
 and his nobles, and shouting thousands besides, attend, as at 
 a theatre, to encourage their demoniac fury I Blows clang, 
 and blood flows, thicker, faster, redder; they rush on each 
 other like madmen, they tear each other like wild beasts ; the 
 wounded are trodden to death amid the feet of their compan- 
 ions! Blood ebbs, arms become weak; but there must be no 
 parley, no truce, no interruption, while any of the maimed 
 wretches remain alive! Here is no crouching behind battle- 
 ments, no fighting with missile weapons : all is hand to hand, 
 till hands can no longer be raised to maintain the ghastly con- 
 flict! If such a field is so horrible in idea, what think you it 
 win be in reality?" 
 
 The glover remained silent. 
 
 " I say again, what think you?" 
 
 " I can only pity you, Conachar," said Simon. " It is hard 
 to be the descendant of a lofty line — the son of a noble father 
 — the leader by birth of a gallant array, and yet to want, or 
 think you want, for still I trust the fault lies much in a quick 
 fancy, that over-estimates danger — to want that dogged qual- 
 ity which is possessed by every game-cock that is worth a 
 handful of com, every hound that is worth a mess of offal. 
 But how chanced it that, with such a consciousness of inabil- 
 ity to fight in this battle, you proffered even now to share 
 your chief dom with my daughter? Your power must depend 
 on your fighting this combat, and in that Catharine cannot 
 help you." 
 
 "You mistake, old man," replied Eaehin: "were Catharine 
 to look kindly on the earnest love I bear her, it would carry 
 me against the front of the enemies with the mettle of a war- 
 horse. Overwhelming as my sense of weakness is, the feel- 
 ing that Catharine looked on would give me strength. Say 
 yet— oh, say yet — she shall be mine if we gaia the combat, 
 and not the Gow Chrom himself, whose heart is of a piece 
 with his anvU, ever went to battle so light as I shall do ! One 
 strong passion is conquered by another." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 406 
 
 " TMs is folly, Conachax. Cannot the recollections of your 
 interest, your honour, your kindred, do as much to stir your 
 courage as the thoughts of a brent-browed lass? Fie upon 
 you, manl" 
 
 " You tell me butwhatlhaye told myself, but it is in vain," 
 replied Eachin, with a sigh. " It is only whilst the timid 
 stag is paired with the doe that he is desperate and danger™ 
 ous. Be it from constitution ; be it, as our Highland cailliachs 
 will say, from the milk of the white doe; be it from my peace- 
 ful education and the experience of your strict restraint; be 
 it, as you think, from an over-heated fancy, which paints 
 danger yet more dangerous and ghastly than it is in reality, 
 I cannot tell. But I know my faUing, and — ^yes, it must be 
 said I — so sorely dread that I cannot conquer it, that, could I 
 have your consent to my wishes on such terms, I would even 
 here make a pause, renounce the rank I have assumed, and 
 retire into humble life." 
 
 "What, turn glover at last, Conachar?" said Simon. 
 "This beats the legend of St. Crispin. Nay — nay, your 
 hand was not framed for that : you shall spoU me no more 
 doe-skins." 
 
 "Jest not," said Eachin, "I am serious. If I cannot 
 labour, I ■will bring wealth enough to live without it. They 
 wUl proclaim me recreant with horn and war-pipe. Let them 
 do so. Catharine will love me the better that I have preferred 
 the paths of peace to those of bloodshed, and Father Clement 
 shall teach us to pity and forgive the world, which will load 
 us with reproaches that wound not. I shall be the happiest 
 of men ; Catharine wiU. enjoy all that imbounded affection can 
 confer upon her, and will be freed from apprehension of the 
 sights and sounds of horror which your Ul-assorted match 
 would have prepared for her; and you, father Glover, shall 
 occupy your chimney-corner, the happiest and most honoured 
 man that ever " 
 
 "Hold, Eachin — I prithee, hold," said the glover; "the fir 
 light, with which this discourse must terminate, burns very 
 low, and I would speak a word in my turn, and plain dealing 
 is best. Though it may vex, or perhaps enrage, you, let me 
 
406 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 end these visioiis by saying at once : Catharine can never be 
 •yours. A glove is the emblem of faith, and a man of my 
 craft should therefore less than any other break his own. 
 Catharine's hand is promised — promised to a man whom you 
 may hate, but whom you must honour — to Henry the armourer. 
 The match is fitting by degree, agreeable to their mutual 
 wishes, and I have given my promise. It is best to' be plain 
 at once ; resent my refusal as you will — I am wholly in your 
 power. But nothing shall make me break my word." 
 
 The glover spoke thus decidedly, because he was aware 
 from experience that the very irritable disposition of his 
 former apprentice yielded in most cases to stern and decided 
 resolution. Yet, recollecting where he was, it was with some 
 feelings of fear that he saw the dying flame leap up and spread 
 a flash of light on the visage of Eachin, which seemed pale as 
 the grave, while his eye rolled like that of a maniac in his 
 fever fit. The light instantly sunk down and died, and Simon 
 felt a momentary terror lest he should have to dispute for his 
 life with the youth, whom he knew to be capable of violent 
 actions when highly excited, however short a period his nature 
 could support the measures which his passion commenced. 
 He was relieved by the voice of Eachin, who muttered in a 
 hoarse and altered tone : 
 
 " Let what we have spoken this night rest in silence for 
 ever. If thou bring' st it to light, thou wert better dig thine 
 own grave." 
 
 Thus speaking, the door of the hut opened, admitting a 
 gleam of moonshine. The form of the retiring chief crossed 
 it for an iustant, the hurdle was then closed, and the shieling 
 left ia darkness. 
 
 Simon Glover felt relieved when a conversation fraught with 
 offence and danger was thus peaceably terminated. But ha 
 remained deeply affected by the condition of Hector Maclan, 
 whom he had himself bred up, 
 
 " The poor child, " said he, " to be called up to a place of 
 eminence, only to be hurled from it with contempt! What he 
 told me I partly knew, having often remarked that Conachar 
 was more prone to quarrel than to fight. But this overpower 
 
THE FAIE MAID OF PERTH. 407 
 
 ing faint-heartedness, -wliicli neither shame nor necessity can 
 overcome, I, though no Sir William "Wallace, cannot conceive. 
 And to propose himself for a husband to my daughter, as if a 
 bride were to find courage for herself and the bridegroom! 
 No — no, Catharine must wed a mau to whom she may say, 
 'Husband, spare your enemy' ; not one in whose behalf she 
 must cry, 'Generous enemy, spare my husband.'" 
 
 Tired out with these reflections, the old man at length fell 
 asleep. In the morning he was awakened by his friend the 
 Booshalloch, who, with something of a blank visage, proposed 
 to him to return to his abode on the meadow at the Ballough. 
 He apologised that the chief could not see Simon Glover that 
 morning, being busied with things about the expected com- 
 bat; and that Eachin Maelan thought the residence at the 
 Ballough would be safest for Simon Glover's health, and had 
 given charge that every care should be taken for his protec- 
 tion and accommodation. 
 
 Niel Booshalloch dilated on these circumstances, to gloss 
 over the neglect implied in the chief's dismissing his visitor 
 without a particular audience, 
 
 " His father knew better, " said the herdsman. " But where 
 should he have learned manners, poor thing, and bred up 
 among your Perth burghers, who, excepting yourself, neigh- 
 bour Glover, who speak Gaelic as well as I do, are a race in- 
 capable of civility?" 
 
 Simon Glover, it may be well believed, felt none of the 
 want of respect which his friend resented on his account. 
 On the contrary, he greatly preferred the quiet residence of 
 the good herdsman to the tumultuous hospitality of the daily 
 festival of the chief, even if there had not just passed an in- 
 terview with Eachin upon a subject which it would be most 
 painful to revive. 
 
 To the Ballough, therefore, he quietly retreated, where, 
 could he have been secure of Catharine's safety, his leisure 
 was spent pleasantly enough. His amusement was sailing on 
 the lake in a little skiff, which a Highland boy managed, 
 whUe the old man angled. He frequently landed on the lit- 
 tle island, where he mused over the tomb of his old friend 
 
408 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 Gilchrist Maclan, and made friends mth the monks, present- 
 ing the prior with gloves of martens' fur, and the superior 
 officers with each of them a pair made from the skin of the 
 wildcat. The cutting and stitching of these little presents 
 served to beguile the time after sunset, while the family of 
 the herdsman crowded around, admiring his address, and 
 listening to the tales and songs with which the old man had 
 skiU. to pass away a heavy evening. 
 
 It must be confessed that the cautious glover avoided the 
 conversation of Tather Clement, whom he erroneously con- 
 sidered as rather the author of his misfortunes than the guilt- 
 less share of them. " I will not, " he thought, " to please his 
 fancies, lose the good-will of these kind monks, which may 
 be one day useful to me. I have suffered enough ^y his 
 preachments already, I trow. Little the wiser and much the 
 poorer they have made me. No — no, Catharine and Clement 
 may think as they wiU ; but I wiU take the first opportunity 
 to sneak back like a rated hound at the call of his master, 
 submit to a plentiful course of haircloth and whipcord, dis- 
 burse a lusty mulct, and become whole with the church 
 again." 
 
 More than a fortnight had passed since the glover had ar- 
 rived at Ballough, and he began to wonder that he had not 
 heard news of Catharine or of Henry AVynd, to whom he con- 
 cluded the provost had communicated the plan and place of 
 his retreat. He knew the stout smith dared not come up itito 
 the Clan Quhele country, on accgunt of various feuds with the 
 inhabitants, and with Eachin hmself, whUe bearing the name 
 of Conachar ; but yet the glover thought Henry might have 
 found means to send him a message, or a token, by some one 
 of the various couriers who passed and repassed between the 
 court and the headquarters of the Clan Quhele, in order to 
 concert the terms of the impending combat, the march of the 
 parties to Perth, and other particulars requiring previous ad- 
 justment. It was now the middle of March, and the fatal 
 Palm Sunday was fast approaching. 
 
 Whilst time was thus creeping on, the exiled glover had 
 not even once set eyes upon his former apprentice. The care 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 409 
 
 that was taken to attend to his ■ysrants and convenience in 
 every respect showed that he was not forgotten j but yet, 
 when he heard the . chieftain's horn ringing through the 
 woods, he usually made it a point to choose his walk in a 
 different direction. One morning, however, he found him- 
 self unexpectedly in Eachin's close neighbourhood, with 
 scarce leisure to avoid him, and thus it happened. 
 
 As Simon strolled pensively through a little silvan glade, 
 surrounded on either side with tall forest trees, mixed with 
 underwood, a white doe broke from the thicket, closely pur- 
 sued by two deer greyhounds, one of which griped her 
 haunch, the other her throat, and pulled her down within 
 half a furlong of the glover, who was something startled at 
 the suddenness of the incident. The ear and piercing blast 
 of a horn, and the baying of a slowhound, made Simon aware 
 that the hunters were close behind, and on the trace of the 
 deer. Hallooing and the sound of men running through the 
 copse were heard close at hand. A moment's recollection 
 would have satisfied Simon that his best way was to stand 
 fast, or retii-e slowly, and leave it to Eachin to acknowledge 
 his presence or not, as he should see cause. But his desire of 
 shunning the young man had grown into a kind of instinct, 
 and in the alarm of finding him. so near, Simon hid himself 
 in a bush of hazels mixed with holly, which altogether con- 
 cealed him. He had hardly done so ere Eachin, rosy with 
 exercise, dashed from the thicket into the open glade, accom- 
 panied by his foster-father, Torquil of the Oak. The latter, 
 with equal strength and address, turned the struggling hind 
 on her back, and holding her fore-feet in his right hand, 
 while he knelt on her body, offered his skene with the left to 
 the young chief, that he might cut the animal's throat. 
 
 "It may not be, Torquil; do thine office, and take the 
 assay thyseK. I must not kiU the likeness of my fester- 
 mother." 
 
 This was spoken with a melancholy smile, while a tear at 
 the same time stood in the speaker's eye. Torquil stared at 
 his young chief for an instant, then drew his sharp wood- 
 knife across the creature's throat with a cut so swift and 
 
410 WAVBRLEY NOVELS. 
 
 steady that the weapon readied the backbone. Then rising 
 on his feet, and again fixing a long piercing look on his chief, 
 he said: "As much as I have done to that hind would I do 
 to any living man whose ears could have heard my dault 
 (foster-son) so much as name a white doe, and couple the 
 word with Hector's name!" 
 
 If Simon had no reason before to keep himself concealed, 
 this speech of Torc[uil furnished him with a presssing one. 
 
 "It cannot be concealed, father TorquH," said Eachin: "it 
 will aU out to the broad day." 
 
 "What will out? what wiU to broad day?" asked Torquil 
 in surprise. 
 
 "It is the fatal secret," thought Simon; "and now, if this 
 huge privy councUlor cannot keep silence, I shall be made 
 answerable, I suppose, for Eachin's disgrace having been 
 blown abroad." 
 
 Thiakiug thus anxiously, he availed himself at the same 
 time of his position to see as much as he could of what passed 
 between the afflicted chieftain and his confidant, impelled by 
 that spirit of curiosity which prompts us in the most momen- 
 tous, as well as the most trivial, occasions of life, and which 
 is sometimes found to exist ia company with great personal 
 fear. 
 
 As Torquil listened to what Eachin communicated, the 
 young man sank into his arms, and, supporting himself on 
 his shoulder, concluded his confession by a whisper into his 
 ear. Torquil seemed to listen with such amazement as to 
 make him iacapable of crediting his ears. As if to be cer- 
 taiu that it was Eachin who spoke, he gradually roused the 
 youth from his reclining posture, and, holding him up in some 
 measure by a grasp on his shoulder, fixed on him an eye that 
 seemed enlarged, and at the same time turned to stone, by 
 the marvels he listened to. And so wild waxed the old man's 
 visage after he had heard the murmured communication, that 
 Simon Glover apprehended he would cast the youth from him. 
 as a dishonoured thing, in which case he might have lighted 
 among the very copse in which he lay concealed, and occa- 
 sioned his discovery in a manner equally painful and danger- 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 411 
 
 ous. But the passions of TorcLuil, who entertained for his 
 foster-child even a double portion of that passionate fondness 
 which always attends that connexion in the Highlands, took 
 a different turn. 
 
 " I believe it not, " he exclaimed ; " it is false of thy father's 
 child, false of thy mother's son, falsest of my daultl I offer 
 my gage to heaven and hell, and will maintain the combat 
 with him that shall call it true ! Thou hast been speUbound 
 by an evil eye, my darling, and the fainting which you call 
 cowardice is the woi-k of magic. I remember the bat that 
 struck the torch out on the hour that thou wert born — that 
 hour of grief and of joy. Cheer up, my beloved! Thou shalt 
 with me to Zona, and the good St. Columbus, with the whole 
 choir of blessed saints and angels, who ever favoured thy 
 race, shall take from thee the heart of the white doe and re- 
 turn that which they have stolen from thee." 
 
 Eachin listened, with a look as if he would fain have be- 
 lieved the words of the comforter. 
 
 " But, Torc[uil, " he said, " supposing this might avail us, 
 the fatal day approaches, and if I go to the lists, I dread me 
 we shall be shamed." 
 
 "It cannot be — it shall not!" said Torquil. "Hell shall 
 not prevail so far : we will steep thy sword in holy water, 
 place vervain, St. John's-wort, and rowan-tree in thy crest. 
 We will surround thee, I and thy eight brethren : thou shalt 
 be safe as in a castle." 
 
 Again the youth helplessly uttered something, which, from 
 the dejected tone in which it was spoken, Simon could not 
 understand, while Torquil's deep tones in reply fell full and 
 distinct upon his ear. 
 
 " Yes, there may be a chance of withdrawing thee from the 
 conflict. Thou art the youngest who is to draw blade. 
 Kow, hear me, and thou shalt know what it is to have a fos- 
 ter-father's love, and how far it exceeds the love even of 
 kinsmen. The youngest on the indenture of the Clan Chattan 
 is Ferquhard Day. His father slew mine, and the red blood 
 is seething hot between us ; I looked to Palm Sunday as the 
 term that should cool it. But mark! Thou wouldst have 
 
412 WAVEELET NOVELS, 
 
 thought that the blood in the veins of this Terquhard Day 
 and in miae would not have mingled had they be«n put into 
 the same vessel, yet hath he cast the eyes of his love upon 
 my only daughter Eva, the fairest of our maidens. Think 
 with what feelings I heard the news. It was as if a wolf 
 from the skirts of Parragon had said, 'Give me thy child in 
 wedlock, TorquU.' My chUd thought not thus: she loves 
 Ferquhard, and weeps away her colour and strength in dread 
 of the approaching battle. Let her give him but a sign of 
 favour, and well 1 know he will forget kith and kin, forsake 
 the field, and fly with her to the desert." 
 
 " He, the youngest of the champions of Clan Chattan, being 
 absent, I, the youngest of the Clan Quhele, may be excused 
 from combat," said Eachin, blushing at the mean chance of 
 safety thus opened to him. 
 
 "See now, my chief," said TorquU, "and judge my thoughts 
 towards thee : others might give thee their own lives and that 
 of their sons — I sacrifice to thee the honour of my house." 
 
 "My friend— my father," repeated the chief, folding Tor- 
 quil to his bosom, " what a base wretch am I that have a 
 spirit dastardly enough to avail myself of your sacrifice!" 
 
 " Speak not of that. Green woods have ears. Let us back 
 to the camp, and send our gillies for the venison. Back, 
 dogs, and follow at heel." 
 
 The slowhound, or lyme-dog, luckily for Simon, had 
 drenched his nose in the blood of the deer, else he might 
 have found the glover's lair in the thicket; but its more 
 acute properties of scent being lost, it followed tranquilly 
 with the gazehounds. 
 
 When the hunters were out of sight and hearing, the glover 
 arose, greatly relieved by their departure, and begau to move 
 off in the opposite direction as fast as his age permitted. 
 His first reflection was on the fidelity of the foster-father. 
 
 "The wild mountain heart is faithful and true. Yonder 
 man is more like the giants in romaunts than a man of mould 
 like ourselves; and yet Christians might take an example 
 from him for his lealty. A simple contrivance this, though, 
 to finger a man from off their enemies' chequer, as if there 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 413 
 
 would uot be twenty of the wildcats ready to supply his 
 place." 
 
 Thus thought the gloTer, not aware that the strictest proc- 
 lamations were issued, prohibiting any of the two contending 
 clans, their friends, allies, and dependants, from coming with- 
 in fifty miles of Perth, during a week before and a week after 
 the combat, which regulation was to be enforced by armed 
 men. 
 
 So soon as our friend Simon arrived at the habitation of 
 the herdsman, he found other news awaiting him. They 
 were brought by Father Clement, who came in a pilgrim's 
 cloak, or dalmatic, ready to commence his return to the 
 southward, and desirous to take leave of his companion in 
 exile, or to accept him as a travelling companion. 
 
 "But what," said the citizen, "has so suddenly induced 
 you to return within the reach of danger?" 
 
 "Have you not heard," said Father Clement, "that, March 
 and his English allies having retired into England before the 
 Earl of Douglas, the good earl has applied himself to redress 
 the evils of the commonwealth, and hath written to the court 
 letters desiring that the warrant for the High Court of Com- 
 mission against heresy be withdrawn, as a trouble to men's 
 consciences, that the nomination of Henry of Wardlaw to be 
 prelate of St. Andrews be referred to the Parliament, with 
 sundry other things pleasing to the Commons? Now, most 
 of the nobles that are with the King at Perth, and with them 
 Sir Patrick Charteris, your worthy provost, have declared for 
 the proposals of the Douglas. The Duke of Albany had 
 agreed to them — ^whether from good-will or policy I know 
 not. The good King is easily persuaded to mild and gentle 
 courses. And thus are the jaw-teeth of the oppressors dashed 
 to pieces in their sockets, and the prey snatched from their 
 ravening talons. "Will you with me to the Lowlands, or ,do 
 you abide here a little space?" 
 
 Neil Booshalloch saved his friend the trouble of reply. 
 
 "He had the chief's authority," he said, "for saying that 
 Simon Glover should abide until the champions went down to 
 the battle." In this answer the citizen saw something not 
 
414 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 quite consistent ■ypith his own perfect freedom of volition; but 
 lie cared little for it at the time, as it furnished a good apol- 
 ogy' for not traveUiug along with the clergyman. 
 
 " An exemplary man, " he said to his friend Kiel Booshal- 
 loch, as soon as Father Clement had taken leave — "a great 
 scholar and a great saint. It is a pity almost he is no longer 
 in danger to be burned, as his sermon at the stake would con- 
 vert thousands. Niel Booshalloch, Father Clement's pile 
 would be a sweet savouring sacrifice and a beacon to all de- 
 vout Christians! But what would the burniug of a borrel 
 ignorant burgess like me serve? Men offer not up old glove 
 leather for incense, nor are beacons fed with undressed hides, 
 I trow? Sooth to speak, I have too little learning and too 
 much fear to get credit by the affair, aud, therefore, I should, 
 in our homely phrase, have both the scathe and the scorn." 
 
 " True for you," answered the herdsman. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 We must return to the characters of our dramatic narrative 
 whom we left at Perth, when we accompanied the glover and 
 his fair daughter to Kiufauns, aud from that hospitable man- 
 sion traced the course of Simon to Loch Tay ; and the Prince, 
 as the highest personage, claims our immediate attention. 
 
 This rash and inconsiderate young man endured with some 
 impatience his sequestered residence with the Lord High Con- 
 stable, with whose company, otherwise in every respect satis- 
 factory, he became dissatisfied, from no other reason than that 
 he held in some degree the character of his warder. Licensed 
 against his uncle and displeased with his father, he longed, 
 not unnaturally, for the society of Sir John Eamorny, on 
 whom he had been so long accustomed to throw himself for 
 amusement, and, though he would have resented the imputa- 
 tion as an insult, for guidance and direction. He therefore 
 sent him a summons to attend him, providing his health per- 
 mitted; and directed him to come by water to a little pavil- 
 
THE PAIR MAID OP PERTH. 415 
 
 ion in the Higli Constable's garden, which, like that of Sir 
 John's own lodgings, ran down to the Tay. In renewing an 
 intimacy so dangerous, Eothsay only remembered that he had 
 been Sir John Eamorny's munificent friend; while Sir John, 
 on receiving the invitation, only recollected, on his part, the 
 capricious insults he had sustained from his patron, the loss 
 of his hand, and the lightness with which he had treated the 
 subject, and the readiness with which Eothsay had abandoned 
 his causa in the matter of the bonnet-maker's slaughter. He 
 laughed bitterly when he read the Prince's bOlet. 
 
 "Eviot," he said, "man a stout boat with six trusty men — . 
 trusty men, mark me — lose not a moment, and bid Dwining 
 instantly come hither. Heaven smiles On us, my trusty 
 friend," he said to the mediciner. "I was but beatiag my 
 brains how to get access to this fickle boy, and here he sends 
 to invite me." 
 
 "Heml I see the matter very clearly," said Dwining. 
 "Heaven smiles on some untoward consequences — he! he! 
 he!" 
 
 "No matter, the trap is ready; and it is baited, too, my 
 friend, with what would lure the boy from a sanctuary, though 
 a troop with drawn weapons waited him in the churchyard. 
 Yet is it scarce necessary. His own weariness of himself 
 would have done the job. Get thy matters ready — thou goest 
 with us. Write to him, as I cannot, that we come instantly 
 to attend his commands, and do it clerkly. He reads well, 
 and that he owes to me." 
 
 " He will be your valiancie's debtor for more knowledge be- 
 fore he dies — ^he ! he ! he ! But is your bargain sure with the 
 Duke of Albany?" 
 
 " Enough to gratify my ambition, thy avarice, and the re- 
 venge of both. Aboard — aboard, and speedily; let Eviot 
 throw in a few flasks of the choicest wine, and some cold 
 baked meats." 
 
 "But your arm, my lord. Sir John? Does it not pain 
 you?" 
 
 " The throbbing of my heart sUences the paia of my wound, 
 It beats as it would burst my bosom." 
 
416 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 "Heaven forbid 1" said Dwiniag; adding, in a low voice, 
 "It would be a strange sight if it should. I should like ta 
 dissect it, save that its stony case would spoil my best instru- 
 ments." 
 
 In a few minutes they were in the boat, while a speedy 
 messenger carried the note to the Priace. 
 
 Eothsay was seated with the Constable, after their noontide 
 repast. He was sullen and silent; and the earl had just asked 
 whether it was his pleasure that the table should be cleared, 
 when a note, delivered to the Prince, changed at once his 
 aspect. 
 
 "As you wUl," he said. "I go to the pavilion in the gar- 
 den — always with permission of my Lord Constable — to re- 
 ceive my late master of the horse." 
 
 "My lord!" said Lord ErroL 
 
 "Ay, my lord; must I ask permission twice?" 
 
 "No, surely, my lord," answered the Constable; "but has 
 your Eoyal Highness recollected that Sir John Eamorny " 
 
 "Has not the plague, I hope?" replied the Dnke of Eoth- 
 say. " Come, Errol, you would play the surly turnkey, but 
 it is not in your nature; farewell for half an hour." 
 
 "A new folly!" said Errol, as the Prince, fliaging open a 
 lattice of the ground-parlour in which they sat, stept out into 
 the garden — "a new folLy, to call back that villain to his 
 counsels. But he is infatuated. " 
 
 The Prince, ia the mean time, looked back, and said 
 hastily : 
 
 " Your lordship's good housekeeping wiE afford us a flask 
 or two of wine and a slight collation in the pavilion? I love 
 the alfresco of the river." 
 
 The Constable bowed, and gave the necessary orders; so 
 that Sir John found the materials of good cheer ready dis- 
 played, when, landing from his barge, he entered the pavilion. 
 
 " It grieves my heart to see your Highness under restraint," 
 said Eamorny, with a well-executed appearance of sympathy. 
 
 "That grief of thine wiH grieve mine," said the Prince. 
 " I am sure here has Errol, and a right true-hearted lord he 
 iSj so tired me with grave looks, and something like grar* 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 417 
 
 !e8sons, tliat lie has driven me back to thee, thou reprobate, 
 from whom, as I expect nothing good, I may perhaps obtain 
 something entertaining. Yet, ere we say more, it was foul 
 work, that upon the Fastern's Even, Eamorny. I well hope 
 thou gavest not aim to it." 
 
 " On my honour, my lord, a simple mistake of the brute 
 Bonthron, I did hint to him that a dry beatiag would be due 
 to the fellow by whom I had lost a hand ; and lo you, my 
 knave makes a double mistake. He takes one man for an- 
 other, and instead of the baton he uses the axe." 
 
 " It is well that it went no farther. Small matter for the 
 bonnet-maker ; but I had never forgiven you had the armourer 
 fallen — there is not his match in Britain. But I hope they 
 hanged the vUlain high enough?" 
 
 " If thirty feet might serve," replied Eamorny. 
 
 "Pah I no more of him," said Eothsay; "his wretched 
 name makes the good wine taste of blood. And what are the 
 news in Perth, Eamorny? How stands it with the bona robas 
 and the galliards?" 
 
 " Little gaUiardise stirring, my lord, " answered the knight. 
 "All eyes are turned to the motions of the Black Douglas, 
 who comes with five thousand chosen men to put us all to 
 rights, as if he were bound for another Otterbum. It is said 
 he is to be lieutenant again. It is certain many have declared 
 for his faction." 
 
 "It is time, then, my feet were free," said Eothsay, "other- 
 wise I may find a worse warder than Errol." 
 
 "Ah, my lord! were you once away from this place, you 
 might make as bold a head as Douglas." 
 
 "Eamorny," said the Prince, gravely, "I have but a con- 
 fused remembrance of your once having proposed something 
 horrible to me. Beware of such counsel. I would be free — 
 I would have my person at my own disposal ; but I wUl never 
 levy arms against my father, nor those it pleases him to trust." 
 
 " It was only for your Eoyal Highness's personal freedom 
 that I was presuming to speak, " answered Eamorny. " Were 
 I in your Grace's place, I would get me into that good boat 
 ■which hovers on the Tay, and drop quietly down to Fife, 
 
418 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 where you have many friends, and make free to take posses- 
 sion of Falkland. It is a royal castle; and though the King 
 has bestowed it in gift on your uncle, yet surely, even iE the 
 grant were not subject to challenge, your Grace might make 
 free with the residence of so near a relative." 
 
 "He hath made free with mine," said the Duke, "as the 
 stewartry of Eenfrew can tell. But stay, Eamorny — hold; 
 did I not hear Errol say that the Lady Marjory Douglas, 
 whom they call Duchess of Eothsay, is at Falkland? I would 
 neither dwell with that lady nor insult her by dislodging her." 
 
 "The lady was there, my lord," replied Eamorny; "but I 
 have sure advice that she is gone to meet her father." 
 
 "Ha! to animate the Douglas against me? or perhaps to 
 beg him to spare me, providing I come on my knees to her 
 bed, as pilgrims say the emirs and amirals upon whom a Sara- 
 cen soldan bestows a daughter in marriage are bound to do? 
 Eamorny, I will act by the Douglas's own saying, 'It is better 
 to hear the lark sing than the mouse squeak.' ' I wiU keep 
 both foot and hand from fetters." 
 
 "No place fitter than Falkland," replied Eamorny, "I 
 have enough of good yeomen to keep the place ; and should 
 your Highness wish to leave it, a brief ride reaches the sea in 
 three directions." 
 
 "You speak well. But we shall die of gloom yonder. 
 Neither mirth, music, nor maidens — ^ha!" said the heedless 
 Prince. 
 
 "Pardon me, noble Duke; but, though the Lady Marjory 
 Douglas be departed, like an errant dame in romance, to im- 
 plore succour of her doughty sire, there is, I may say, a love- 
 lier, I am sure a younger, maiden, either presently at Falkland 
 or who will soon be on the road thither. Your Highness has 
 not forgotten the Fair Maid of Perth?" 
 
 "Forget the prettiest wench in Scotland! No — any more 
 than thou hast forgotten the hand that thou hadst in the 
 Curfew Street onslaught on St. Valentine's Eve." 
 
 "The hand that I had! Your Highness would say, the 
 
 ' Implying, that it was better to keep the forest than shut themselves up 
 la fortified places. 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 419 
 
 hand ttat I lost. As certain as I shall never regain it, Cath- 
 arine GloTer is, or will soon be, at EaMand. I -vriLl not flat- 
 ter your Highness hy saying she expects to meet you; in truth, 
 she proposes to place herself under the protection of the Lady 
 Marjory." 
 
 " The little traitress, " said the Prince — " she too to turn 
 against me? She deserves punishment, Eamorny." 
 
 "I trust your Grace wLU make her penance a gentle one," 
 replied the knight. 
 
 " Faith, I would have been her father confessor long ago, 
 but I have ever found her coy." 
 
 "Opportunity was lacking, my lord," replied Eamorny; 
 " and time presses even now. " 
 
 "Kay, I am but too apt for a frolic; but my father " 
 
 "He is personally safe," said Eamorny, "and as much at 
 freedom as ever he can be ; while your Highness " 
 
 " Must brook fetters, conjugal or literal — I know it. Yon- 
 der comes Douglas, with his daughter in his hand, as haughty 
 and as harsh-featured as himself, bating touches of age." 
 
 " And at Falkland sits in solitude the fairest wench in Scot- 
 land," said Eamorny. "Here is penance and restraint; 
 yonder is joy and freedom." 
 
 "Thou hast prevailed, most sage counsellor," replied Eoth- 
 say; "but mark you, it shall be the last of my frolics." 
 
 "I trust so," replied Eamorny; "for, when at liberty, you 
 may make a good accommodation with your royal father." 
 
 " I wUl write to him, Eamorny. Get the writing-materials. 
 No, I cannot put my thoughts in words — do thou write." 
 
 "Your Eoyal Highness forgets," said Eamorny, pointing 
 to his mutilated arm. 
 
 "Ah! that cursed hand of yours. What can we do?" 
 
 "So please your Highness," answered his counsellor, "if 
 you would use the hand of the mediciner, Dwining — ^he writes 
 like a clerk." 
 
 "Hath he a hint of the circumstances? Is he possessed of 
 them?" 
 
 "Fully," said Eamorny; and, stepping to the window, he 
 called Dwining from the boat. 
 
420 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 He entered the presence of the Prince of Scotland, creeping 
 as if he trode upon eggs, with downcast eyes, and a frame 
 that seemed shrank up by a sense of awe produced by the 
 occasion. 
 
 " There, fellow, are writing-materials. I will make trial of 
 you; thou know'st the case — ^place my conduct to my father in 
 » fair light." 
 
 Dwining sat down, and in a few minutes wrote a letter, 
 which he handed to Sir John Eamorny. 
 
 "Why, the devU has aided thee, Dwining," said the 
 knight. " Listen, my dear lord. 'Eespected father and liege 
 sovereign — ^Know that important considerations induce me to 
 take my departure from this your court, purposing to make 
 my abode at Falkland, both as the seat of my dearest uncle 
 Albany, with whom I know your Majesty would desire me to 
 use aU familiarity, and as the residence of one from whom I 
 have been too long estranged, and with whom I haste to 
 exchange vows of the closest affection from henceforward. ' " 
 
 The Duke of Eothsay and Eamorny laughed aloud; and the 
 physician, who had listened to his own scroll as if it were a 
 sentence of death, encouraged by their applause, raised his 
 eyes, uttered faintly his chuckling note of " He I he!" and was 
 again grave and silent, as if afraid he had transgressed the 
 bounds of reverent respect. 
 
 " Admirable I" said the Prince — " admirable I The old man 
 will apply all this to the Duchess, as they call her, of Eoth- 
 say, Dwiuing, thou shouldst be a secretis to his Holiness the 
 Pope, who sometimes, it is said, wants a scribe that can make 
 one word record two meanings. I will subscribe it, and have 
 the praise of the device." 
 
 "And now, my lord," said Eamorny, sealing the letter and 
 leaving it behind, " wiU you not to boat?" 
 
 "Not till my chamberlain attends with some clothes and 
 necessaries, and you may eaU my sewer also." 
 
 "My lord," said Eamorny, "time presses, and preparation 
 win but excite suspicion. Tour oflicers wiU follow with the 
 mails to-morrow. For to-night, I trust my poor service may 
 suffice tp wait on you at table wd chamber." 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 421 
 
 "Kay, thh time it is thou who forgets," said the Prince, 
 touching the wounded arm with his waHdng-rod. " Eecollect, 
 man, thou canst neither carve a capon nor tie a point — a 
 goodly sewer or valet of the mouth I" 
 
 Eamomy grinned with rage and pain; for his wound, 
 though in a way of healing, was still highly sensitive, and 
 even the pointing a finger towards it made him tremble. 
 
 "Will your Highness now be pleased to take boat?" 
 
 "Kot till I take leave of the Lord Constable. Eothsay 
 must not slip away^ like a thief from a prison, from the house 
 of Errol. Summon him hither." 
 
 "My Lord Duke," said Eamomy, "it may be dangerous* to 
 our plan." 
 
 "To the devil with danger, thy plan, and thyself! I must 
 and wUl act to Errol as becomes us both." 
 
 The earl entered, agreeable to the Prince's summons. 
 
 "I gave you this trouble, my lord," said Eothsay, with the 
 dignified courtesy which he knew so well how to assume, " to 
 thank you for your hospitality and your good company. I 
 can enjoy them no longer, as pressing affairs call me to Falk- 
 land." 
 
 "My lord," said the Lord High Constable, "I trust your 
 Grace remembers that you are under ward." 
 
 "How! — under ward? If I am a prisoner, speak plainly; 
 if not, I will take my freedom to depart." 
 
 "I would, my lord, your Highness would request his 
 Majesty's permission for this journey. There wiU be much 
 displeasure." 
 
 " Mean you displeasure against yourself, my lord, or against 
 me?" 
 
 "I have abeady said your Highness lies in ward here; but 
 if you determine to break it, I have no warrant — God forbid 
 — to put force on your inclinations. I can but entreat your 
 Highness, for your own sake " 
 
 " Of my own interest I am the best judge. Good evening 
 to you, my lord." 
 
 The wilful Prince stepped into the boat with Dwining and 
 Hamorny, and, waiting for no other attendance, Eviot pushed 
 
422 WAVBRLEY K0VBL8. 
 
 off the vessel, which descended the Tay rapidly by the assist- 
 ance of sail and oar aad of the ebb-tide. 
 
 For some space the Duke of Eothsay appeared silent and 
 moody, nor did his companions interrupt his reflections. Ha 
 raised his head at length and said: "My father loves a jest, 
 and when all is over he wiU take this frolic at no more serious 
 rate than it deserves — a fit of youth, with which he wUl deal 
 as he has with others. Yonder, my masters, shows the old 
 told of Kinfauns, frowning above the Tay. Now, teU me, 
 John Eamomy, how thou hast, dealt to get the Tair Maid of 
 Perth out of the hands of yonder bull-headed provost; for 
 Errol told me it was rumoured that she was under his pro- 
 tection." 
 
 " Truly she was, my lord, with the purpose of being trans- 
 ferred to the patronage of the Duchess — I mean of the Lady 
 Marjory of Douglas. Kow, this beetle-headed provost, who 
 is after all but a piece of blundering valiancy, has, like most 
 such, a retainer of some slyness and cxmning, whom he uses 
 in all his dealings, and whose suggestions he generally con- 
 siders as his own ideas. Whenever I would possess myself of 
 a landward baron, I address myself to such a confidant, who, 
 in the present case, is called Kitt Henshaw, an old skipper 
 upon the Tay, and who, having in his time sailed as far as 
 Campvere, holds with Sir Patrick Charteris the respect due to 
 one who has seen foreign countries. Tihs his agent I have 
 made my own, and by his means have insinuated various 
 apologies in order to postpone the departure of Catharine for 
 Falkland." 
 
 " But to what good purpose?" 
 
 " I know not if it is wise to tell your Highness, lest you 
 should disapprove of my views. I meant the officers of the 
 Commission for inquiry into heretical opinions should have 
 found the Fair Maid at Kinfauns, for our beauty is a peevish, 
 self- willed swerver from the church; and certes, I designed 
 that the knight should have come ia for his share of the fines 
 and confiscations that were about to be inflicted. The monks 
 were eager enough to be at him, seeing he hath had frequent 
 disputes with them about the salmon-tithe." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 423 
 
 " But wherefore wouldst thou have ruined the knight's for- 
 tunes, and brought the beautiful young woman to the stake, 
 perchance?" 
 
 " Pshaw, my Lord Duke ! monks never burn pretty maidens. 
 An old woman might have been in some danger; and as for 
 my Lord Provost, as they call him, if they had clipped off 
 some of his fat acres, it would have been some atonement for 
 the needless brave he put on me in St. John's church." 
 
 " Methinks, John, it was but a base revenge," said Kothsay. 
 
 " Eest ye contented, my lord. He that cannot right himself 
 by the hand must use his head. WeU, that chance was over 
 by the tenderrhearted Douglas's declaring in favour of tender 
 conscience ; and then, my lord, old Henshaw found no further 
 objections to carrying the Fair Maid of Perth to Falkland, 
 not to share the dulness of the Lady Marjory's society, as Sir 
 Patrick Charteris and she herself doth opine, but to keep your 
 Highness from tiring when we return from hunting in the 
 park." 
 
 There was again a long pause, in which the Prince seemed 
 to muse deeply. At length he spoke. " Eamorny, I have a 
 scruple in this matter; but if I name it to thee, the devil of 
 sophistry, with which thou art possessed, will argue it out of 
 me, as it has done many others. This girl is the most beauti- 
 ful, one excepted, whom I ever saw or knew; and I like her 
 the more that she bears some features of — Elizabeth of Dun- 
 bar. But she, I mean Catharine Glover, is contracted, and 
 presently to be wedded, to Henry the armourer, a craftsman 
 unequalled for skill, and a man-at-arms yet unmatched in the 
 barraee. To follow out this intrigue would do a good fellow 
 too much wrong." 
 
 "Tour Highness will not expect me to be very solicitous of 
 Henry Smith's interest," said Eamorny, looking at his wound- 
 ed arm. 
 
 "By St. Andrew with his shored cross, this disaster of 
 thine is too much harped upon, John Eamorny! Others are 
 content with putting a finger into every man's pie, but thou 
 must thrust in thy whole gory hand. It is done, and cannot 
 be xmdone; let it be forgotten." 
 
424 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 "Nay, my lord, you allude to it more frequently ttaii I,* 
 answered the knight — " in derision, it is true ; while I — but I 
 can be silent on the subject if I cannot forget it." 
 
 " Well, then, I tell thee that I have scruple about this in* 
 trigue. Dost thou remember, when we went in a frolic to 
 hear Father Clement preach, or rather to see this fair heretic, 
 that he spoke as touchingly as a minstrel about the rich man 
 taking away the poor man's only ewe lamb?" 
 
 "A great matter, indeed," answered Sir John, "that this 
 churl's wife's eldest son should be fathered by the Prince of 
 Scotland! How many earls would covet the like fate for 
 their fair countesses? and how many that have had such good 
 luck sleep not a grain the worse for it?" 
 
 "And if I might presume to speak," said the mediciner, 
 "the ancient laws of Scotland assigned such a privilege 
 to every feudal lord over his female vassals, though lack of 
 spirit and love of money hath made many exchange it for 
 gold." 
 
 " I require no argument to urge me to be kind to a pretty 
 woman; but this Catharine has been ever cold to me," said 
 the Prince. 
 
 "Nay, my lord," said Eamorny, "if, young, handsome, and 
 a prince, you know not how to make yourself acceptable to a 
 fine woman, it is not for me to say more." 
 
 " And if it were not far too great audacity in me to speak 
 again, I would say," quoth the leech, "that all Perth knows 
 that the Gow Chrom never was the maiden's choice, but fairly 
 forced upon her by her father. I know for certain that she 
 refused him repeatedly." 
 
 "Nay, if thou canst assure us of that, the case is much 
 altered," said Eothsay. "Vulcan was a smith as weE as 
 Harry Wynd; he would needs wed Venus, and our chronicles 
 teU us what came of it." 
 
 " Then long may Lady Venus live and be worshipped," said 
 Sir John Eamorny, " and success to the gallant knight Mars 
 who goes a- wooing to her goddess-ship!" 
 
 The diseoutse took a gay and idle turn for a few minutes ; 
 T?ut the Duke of Eothsay soon dropped, it, '■' I have left," ho 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP- PERTH. 425 
 
 ■aid, "yonder air of the prison-house behind me, and yet my 
 spirits scarce revive. I feel that drowsy, not unpleasing, yet 
 melancholy, mood that comes over us when exhausted by 
 exercise or satiated with pleasure. Some music now, stealing 
 on the ear, yet not loud enough to make us lift the eye, were 
 a treat for the gods." 
 
 " Your Grace has but to speak your wishes, and the nymphs 
 of the Tay are as favourable as the fair ones upon the shore. 
 Hark! it is a lute." 
 
 "A lute!" said the Duke of Eothsay, listening; "it is, and 
 rarely touched. I should remember that dying fall. Steer 
 towards the boat from whence the music comes." 
 
 "It is old Henshaw," said Eamorny, "working up the 
 stream. How, skipper!" 
 
 The boatman answered the haU, and drew up alongside of 
 the Prince's barge. 
 
 "Oh, hoi my old friend!" said the Prince, recognising the 
 figure as well as the appointments of the French glee-woman, 
 Louise. " I think I owe thee something for being the means 
 of thy 'having a fright, at least, upon St. Valentine's Day. 
 Into this boat with thee, lute, puppy dog, scrip and aH; I 
 will prefer thee to a lady's service who shaU feed thy very cur 
 on capons and canary." 
 
 " I trust your Highness will consider " said Eamorny. 
 
 " I will consider nothing but my pleasure, John. Pray, do 
 thou be so complying as to consider it also." 
 
 " Is it indeed to a lady's service you would promote me?" 
 said the glee-maiden. " And where does she dwell?" 
 
 "At Falkland," answered the Prince. 
 
 "Oh, Iliave heard of that great lady!" said Louise; "and 
 will you indeed prefer me to your right royal consort's ser- 
 vice?" 
 
 "I will, by my honour — whenever I receive her as such. 
 Mark that reservation, John," said he aside to Bamorny. 
 
 The persons who were in the boat caught up the tidings, 
 and, concluding a reconciliation was about to take place be- 
 twixt the royal couple, exhorted Louise to profit by her goo3 
 fortune, and add herself to the Duchess of Eothsay's train. 
 
426 WAVEBLEY N0YBL8. 
 
 Several offered her some acknowledgment for the exercise of 
 her talents. 
 
 During this moment of delay, Eamorny -vrlii pered to Dvrin- 
 ing : " Make in, knave, with some objection. This addition is 
 one too many. Kouse thy wits, while I speak a word with 
 Henshaw." 
 
 " If I might presume to speak," said Dwining, " as one who 
 have made my studies both in Spain and Arabia, I would say, 
 my lord, that the sickness has appeared in Edinburgh, and 
 that there may be risk in admitting this young wanderer into 
 your Highness's vicinity." 
 
 "Ah! and what is it to thee," said Eothsay, "whether I 
 choose to be poisoned by the pestilence or the 'potheeary? 
 Must thou, too, needs thwart my humour?" 
 
 While the Prince thus silenced the remonstrances of Dwin- 
 ing, Sir John Eamorny had snatched a moment to learn from 
 Henshaw that the removal of the Duchess of Eothsay from 
 I'aJkland was still kept profoundly secret, and that Catharine 
 Glover would arrive there that evening or the next morning, 
 in expectation of being taken under the noble lady's protection. 
 
 The Duke of Eothsay, deeply plunged in thought, received 
 this intimation so coldly, that Eamorny took the liberty of 
 remonstrating. "This, my lord," he said, "is playing the 
 spoiled child of fortune. You wish for liberty; it comes. 
 You wish for beauty; it awaits you, with just so much delay 
 as to render the boon more precious. Even your slightest 
 desires seem a law to the Fates ; for you desire music when it 
 seems most distant, and the lute and song are at your hand. 
 These things, so sent, should be enjoyed, else we are but like 
 petted children, who break and throw from them the toys they 
 have wept themselves sick for." 
 
 "To enjoy pleasure, Eamorny," said the Prince, "a man 
 should have suffered pain, as it requires fasting to gain a good 
 appetite. We, who can have all for a wish, little enjoy that 
 all when we have possessed it. Seest thou yonder thick cloud, 
 which is about to burst to rain? It seems to Stifle me — the 
 waters look dark and lurid — the shores have lost their beauti' 
 f ul form " 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. *27 
 
 '*My lord, forgive your servant," said Eamorny. "Tou 
 indulge a powerful imagination, as an unskilful horseman 
 permits a fiery steed to rear until he falls back on his master 
 and crushes him. I pray you shake off this lethargy. ShaU 
 the glee-maiden make some music?" 
 
 "Let her; but it must be melancholy: all mirth would at 
 this moment jar on my ear." 
 
 The maiden sung a melancholy dirge in Norman-French; 
 the words, of which the following is an imitation, were united 
 to a tune as doleful as they are themselves : 
 
 Yes, thou mayst sigh, 
 
 And look once more at all around. 
 
 At stream and bank, and sky and ground. 
 
 Thy life its final course has found, 
 
 And thou must die. 
 
 Yes, lay thee down. 
 And while thy struggling pulses flntter. 
 Bid the grey monk his soul-mass mnttOT, 
 And the deep bell its death-tone utter— 
 Xhy life is gone. . 
 
 Be not afraid. 
 
 "Tis but a pang, and then a thtill, 
 A fever fit, and then a chill, 
 And then an end of human ill, 
 For thou art dea^. 
 
 The Prince made no observation on the musioj and the 
 maiden, at Eamorny's beck, went on from time to time with 
 her minstrel craft, until the evening sunk down into rain, first 
 soft and gentle, at length in great quantities, and accompanied 
 by a cold wind. There was neither cloak nor covering for the 
 Prince, and he sullenly rejected that which Bamorny offered. 
 
 "It is not for Bothsay to wear your cast garments. Sir 
 John; this melted snow, which I feel pierce me to the very 
 marrow, I am now encountering by your fault. Why did you 
 presume to put off the boat without my servants and apparel?" 
 
 Eamorny did not attempt an exculpation; for he knew the 
 Prince was in one of those humours, when to enlarge upon a 
 grievance was more pleasing to him than to have his mouth 
 Stopped by any reasonable apology. In sullen sUence, or 
 
428 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 amid unsuppressed chiding, the boat arrived at the fishing 
 village of Kewburgh. The party landed, and found horses in 
 readiness, which, indeed, Eamorny had long since provided 
 for the occasion. Their quality underwent the Prince's bitter 
 sarcasm, expressed to Bamorny sometimes by direct words, 
 oftener by bitter gibes. At length they were mounted, and 
 rode on through the closing night and the falling rain, the 
 Prince leading the way with reckless haste. The glee- 
 maiden, mounted by his express order, attended them; and 
 well for her that, accustomed to severe weather, and exercise 
 both on foot and horseback, she supported as firmly as the 
 men the fatigues of the nocturnal ride. Kamorny was com- 
 pelled to keep at the Prince's rein, being imder no small 
 anxiety lest, in his wayward fit, he might ride off from him 
 entirely, and, takiug refuge in the house of some loyal baron, 
 escape the snare which was spread for him. He therefore suf- 
 ered inexpressibly duriug the ride, both in miad and in body. 
 
 At length the forest of Falkland received them, and a 
 glimpse of the moon showed the dark and huge tower, an ap- 
 pendage of royalty itself, though granted for a season to the 
 Duke of Albany. On a signal given the drawbridge fell. 
 Torches glared in the courtyard, menials attended, and the 
 Prince, assisted from horseback, was ushered into an apart- 
 ment, where Eamorny waited on him, together with Dwining, 
 and entreated him to take the leech's advice. The Duke of 
 Rothsay repulsed the proposal, haughtily ordered his bed to be 
 prepared, and having stood for some time shivering in his 
 dank garments beside a large blazing fire, he retired to his 
 apartment without taiing leave of any one, 
 
 "You see the peevish humour of this childish boy, now," 
 said Eamorny to Dwining; "can you wonder that a servant 
 who has done so much for him as I have should be tired of 
 such a master?" 
 
 " No, truly," said Dwiniag, " that and the promised earldom 
 of Lindores would shake any man's fidelity. But shall we 
 commence with him this evening? He has, if eye and cheek 
 speak true, the foundation of a fever within him, which wiU 
 make our work easy while it will seem the effect of nature." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 429 
 
 "It is an opportunity lost," said Eamorny; "but we must 
 delay our blow tUl lie has seen this beauty, Catharine Glover. 
 She may be hereafter a witness that she saw him in good 
 health, and master of his own motions, a brief space before — 
 jou understand me?" 
 
 Dwining nodded assent, and added: 
 
 "There is no time lost; for there is little difficulty in 
 olighting a flower exhausted from having been made to Moom 
 too soon." 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXL 
 
 Ah, me! in sooth he was a shameless wight. 
 
 Sore given to revel and ungodly glee : 
 
 Few earthly things found favour in his sight, 
 
 Save concubines and carnal companie, 
 
 And flaunting wassailers of high and low degree. 
 
 Bteon. 
 
 With the next morning the humour of the Duke of Eoth- 
 say was changed. He complained, indeed, of pain and fever, 
 but they rather seemed to stimulate than to overwhelm him. 
 He was familiar with Eamorny, and though he said nothing 
 on the subject of the preceding night, it was plain he remem- 
 bered what he desired to obliterate from the memory of his 
 followers — the ill-humour he had then displayed. He was 
 civU to every one, and jested Avith Eamorny on the subject of 
 Catharine's arrival. 
 
 " How surprised wiU. the pretty prude be at seeing herself 
 in a family of men, when she expects to be admitted amongst 
 the hoods and pinners of Dame Marjory's waiting-women! 
 Thou hast not many of the tender sex in thy household, I 
 take it, Eamorny?" 
 
 " Faith, none except the minstrel wench, but a household 
 drudge or two whom we may not dispense with. By the way, 
 she is anxiously inquiring after the mistress your Highness 
 promised to prefer her to. Shall I dismiss her, to hunt for 
 her new mistress at leisure?" 
 
 " By no means, she wiU serve to amuse Catharine. And, 
 
430 WAVBRLEY NOVELS. 
 
 hark you, -were it not -well to receive that coy jiUet wica 
 something of a nmmming?" 
 
 " How mean you, my lord?" 
 
 "Thou art dull, man. We will not disappoiat her, since 
 she expects to find the Duchess of Rothsay ; I will be Duke 
 and Duchess in my own person." 
 
 " Still I do not comprehend." 
 
 "No one so duU as a wit," said the Prince, "when he does 
 not hit off the scent at once. My Duchess, as they call her, 
 has been in as great a hurry to run away from Falkland as I 
 to come hither. We have both left our apparel behind. 
 There is as much female trumpery in the wardrobe adjoining 
 to my sleeping-room as would equip a whole carnival. Look 
 you, I wiU play Dame Marjory, disposed on this day-bed here 
 with a mourning veil and a wreath of wlUow, to show my for- 
 saken plight; thou, John, wilt look starch and stiff enough 
 for her Galwegiau maid of honour, the Countess HermigUd; 
 and Dwining shall present the old Hecate, her nurse — only 
 she hath more beard on her upper lip than Dwiniug on his 
 whole face, and skull to boot. He should have the commodity 
 of a beard to set her forth conformably. Get thy kitchen 
 drudges, and what passable pages thou hast with thee, to 
 make my women of the bedroom. Hear est thou? about it 
 instantly." 
 
 Eamorny hasted into the ante-room, and told Dwining the 
 Priuce's device. 
 
 "Do thou look to humour the fool," he said; "I care not 
 how little I see him, knowing what is to be done." 
 
 "Trust aU. to me," said the physician, shrugging his 
 shoulders. " What sort of a butcher is he that can cut the 
 lamb's throat, yet is afraid to hear it bleat?" 
 
 " Tush, fear not my constancy : I cannot forget that he would 
 have cast me into the cloister with as little regard as if he 
 threw away the truncheon of- a broken lance. Begone — ^yet 
 stay; ere you go to arrange this silly pageant, something 
 must be settled to impose on the thick-witted Charteris. He 
 is like enough, should he be left in the belief that the 
 Duchess of Eothsay is stUl here, and Catharine Glover io 
 
THE PAIR MAID OP PERTH. 431 
 
 attendance on her, to come do\m with offers of servicfe, and 
 the like, when, as I need scarce tell thee, his presence would 
 be inconvenient. Indeed, this is the more likely, that som& 
 folks have given a warmer name to the iron-headed knight's 
 great and tender patronage of this damsel. " 
 
 " With that hint, let me alone to deal with him. I will 
 send him such a letter, that for this month he shall hold him- 
 self as ready for a journey to heU as to Falkland. Can you 
 tell me the name of the Duchess's confessor?" 
 
 " Waltheof, a grey friar." 
 
 "Enough — then here I start." 
 
 In a few minutes, for he was a clerk of rare celerity, Dwin- 
 ing finished a letter, which he placed in Eamorny's hand. 
 
 " This is admirable, and would have made thy fortune with 
 Eothsay. I think I should have been too jealous to trust thee 
 in his household, save that his day is closed." 
 
 "Eead it aloud," said Dwining, "that we may judge if it 
 goes trippingly off. " And Eamorny read as follows : " By 
 command of our high and mighty Princess Marjory, Duchess 
 of Eothsay, and so forth, we Waltheof, unworthy brother 6f 
 the order of St. Francis, do thee, Sir Patrick Chatteris, knight 
 of Kinfauns, to know, that her Highness marvels much at the 
 temerity with which you have sent to her presence a woman 
 of whose fame she can judge but lightly, seeing she hath made 
 her abode, without any necessity, for more than a week in 
 thine own castle, without company of any other female, saving 
 menials; of which foul cohabitation the savour is gone up 
 through Fife, Angus, and Perthshire. Nevertheless, her 
 Highness, considering the case as one of human frailty, hath 
 not caused this wanton one to be scourged with nettles, or 
 otherwise to dree penance; but, as two good brethren of the 
 convent of Lindores, the Fathers Thickskull and Dundermore, 
 have been summoned up to the Highlands upon an espeeiM 
 Call, her Highness hath committed to their care this maiden 
 Catharine, with charge to convey her to her father, whom she 
 States to be residing beside Loch Tay, imder whose protection 
 she will find a situation more fitting her qualities and habits 
 than the Castle of Falkland, while her Highness the Duchess 
 
432 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 of Kothsay abides ttere. She hatli charged the said reverend 
 brothers so to deal with the young woman as may give her a 
 sense of the sin of incontinence, and she commendeth thee to 
 confession and penitence. — Signed, Waltheof, by command of 
 an high and mighty Princess" } and so forth. 
 
 When he had finished, "Excellent — excellent!" Eamornj 
 exclaimed. "This unexpected rebuff will drive Charteris 
 mad! He hath been long making a sort of homage to this 
 lady, and to find himself suspected of incontinence, when he 
 was expecting the full credit of a charitable action, will al- 
 together confound him} and, as thou say'st, it will be long 
 enough ere he come hither to look after the damsel or do 
 honour to the dame. But away to thy pageant, whUe I pre- 
 pare that which shall close the pageant for ever." 
 
 It was an hour before noon, when Catharine, escorted by 
 old Henshaw and a groom of the Knight of Kiof auns, arrived 
 before the lordly tower of Falkland. The broad banner which 
 was displayed from it bore the arms of Kothsay, the servants 
 who appeared wore the colours of the Prince's household, aU 
 confirmiag the general belief that the Duchess stUl resided 
 there. Catharine's heart throbbed, for she had heard that 
 the Duchess had the pride as well as the high courage of the 
 house of Douglas, and felt uncertain touching the reception 
 she was to experience. On entering the castle, she observed 
 that the train was smaller than she had expected, but, as the 
 Duchess lived in close retirement, she was little surprised at 
 thiss. In a species of ante-room she was met by a little old 
 woman, who seemed bent double with age, and supported her- 
 self upon an ebony stafE. 
 
 "Truly thou art welcome, fair daughter," said she, saluting 
 Catharine, "and, as I may say, to an afflicted house; and I 
 trust (once more saluting her) thou wilt be a consolation to my 
 precious and right royal daughter the Duchess. Sit thee 
 down, my child, till I see whether my lady be at leisure to 
 receive thee. Ah, my child, thou art very lovely indeed, if 
 Our Lady hath given to thee a soul to match with so fair a 
 body." 
 
 With that the counterfeit old woman crept into the next 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 433 
 
 apartment, where slie found Eothsay in the masquerading 
 habit he had prepared, and Eamorny, who had evaded taking 
 part in the pageant, in his ordinary attire. 
 
 "Thou art a precious rascal, sir doctor," said the Prince; 
 " by my honour, I think thou couldst find in thy heart to play 
 out the whole play thyself, lover's part and aU." 
 
 " If it were to save yoUr Highness trouble, " said the leech, 
 with his usual subdued laugh. 
 
 "No — no," said Bothsay, "I'll never need thy help, man; 
 and teU me now, how look I, thus disposed on the couch — 
 languishing and ladylike, ha?" 
 
 " Something too fihe-complexioued and soft-featured for the 
 Lady Marjory of Douglas, if I may presume to say so," said 
 the leech. 
 
 "Away, villain, and marshal in this fair frost-piece — fear 
 not she will complain of my effeminacy; and thou, Eamorny, 
 away also." 
 
 As the knight left the apartment by one door, the fictitious 
 old woman ushered in Catharine Glover by another. The 
 room had been carefully darkened to twilight, so that Catharine 
 saw the apparently female figure stretched on the couch with- 
 out the least suspicion. 
 
 "Is that the maiden?" asked Eothsay, in a voice naturally 
 sweet, and now carefully modulated to a whispering tone. 
 "Let her approach, Griselda, and kiss our hand," 
 
 The supposed nurse led the trembling maiden forward to 
 the side of the couch, and signed to her to kneel. Catharine 
 did so, and kissed with much devotion and simplicity the 
 gloved hand which the counterfeit duchess extended to 
 her. 
 
 "Be not afraid," said the same musical voice; "in me you 
 only see a melancholy example of the vanity of human great- 
 ness ; happy those, my child, whose rank places them beneath 
 the storms of state." 
 
 While he spoke, he put his arms around Catharine's neck 
 and drew her towards him, as if to salute her in token of 
 welcome. But the kiss was bestowed with an earnestness 
 which so much overacted the part of the fair patroness, that 
 
434. WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 Catharine, concluding tbe Duchess had lost her seiiae% 
 scieamed aloud. 
 
 "Peace, fool I it is I — David of Rothsay." 
 
 Catharine looked around her ; the nurse was gone, ajid the 
 Duke tearing off his veil, she saw herself in the power of a 
 daxing young libertine. 
 
 "Now be present with me, Heaven!" she said; "and Thou 
 wUt, if I forsake not myself." 
 
 As this resolution daxted through her mind, she repressed 
 her dispositiofi to scream, and, as far as she iijight, strove to 
 conceal her fear. 
 
 "The jest hath been played," she said,, with as much firm- 
 nesa as she could assume; " may I entreat that your Highness 
 win now unhand me?" for he still kept hold of her arm. 
 
 "Nay, my pretty captive, struggle not — why should you 
 fear?" 
 
 " I do not struggle, my lord. As you are pleased to detain 
 me, I will not, by striving, provoke you to use me iU, and 
 give pain to yourself, when you have time to think." 
 
 "Why, thou traitress, thou hast held me captive for 
 months," said the Prince, " and wilt thou not let me hold theft 
 for a moment?" 
 
 " This were gallantry, my lord, were it in the streets of Perth, 
 where I might listen or escape as I listed; it is tyranny here." 
 
 "And if I did let thee go, whither wouldst thou fly?" said 
 Eothsay. " The bridges are up, the portcullis down, and the 
 men who follow me are strangely deaf to a peevish maiden'a 
 squalls. Be kind, therefore, and you shall know what it is to 
 oblige a prince." 
 
 " XJnloose me, then, my lord, and hear me appeal from thy- 
 self to thyself, from Rothsay to the Prince of Scotland. I 
 am the daughter of an humble but honest, citizen. I am, I 
 may weUnigh say, the spouse of a brave and honest man. If 
 I have given your Highness any encouragement for what you 
 have done, it has been unintentional. Thus forewarned, I 
 entreat you to forego your power over me, and suffer me to 
 depart. Your Highness can obtain nothing frosm me, save by 
 means etjually unworthy of knighthood or manhood." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 436 
 
 "You are bold, Catharine," said the Prince, "but neither 
 as a knight nor a man can I avoid accepting a defiance. I 
 must teach you the risk of such challenges." 
 
 While he spoke, he attempted to throw his arms again 
 around her; but she eluded his grasp, and proceeded in the 
 same tone of firm decision. 
 
 "My strength, my lord, is as great to defend myself in an 
 honourable strife as yours can be to assail me with a most dis- 
 honourable pui^ose. Do not shame yourself and me by put- 
 ting it to the combat. You may stun me with blows, or you 
 may call aid to overpow^ me; but otherwise you will fail of 
 your purpose." 
 
 "What a brute you would make me!" said the Prince. 
 " The force I would use ia no more than excuses women in 
 yielding to their own weakness." 
 
 He sat down in some emotion. 
 
 "Then keep it," said Catharine, "for those women who 
 desire such an excuse. My resistance is that of the most de- 
 termined mind which love of honour and fear of shame ever 
 inspired. Alas ! my lord, could you succeed, you would but 
 break every bond between me and life, between yourseK and 
 honour. I have been trained fraudulently here, by what decoys 
 I know not; but were I to go dishonoured, hence, it would be 
 to denounce the destroyer of my happiness to every quarter of 
 Europe. I would take the palmer's staff in my hand, and 
 wherever chivalry is honoured, or the word Scotland has been 
 heard, I would proclaim the heir of a hundred kLugs, the son of 
 the godly Robert Stuart, the heir of the heroic Bruce, a truth- 
 less, faithless man, unworthy of the crown he expects and of 
 the spurs he wears. Every lady in wide Europe would hold 
 your name too foul for her lips ; every worthy knight would 
 hold you a baffled, forsworn caitiff, false to the first vow of 
 arms, the protectioii of woman and the defence of the feeHe." 
 
 Eothsay resumed his seat, and looked at her with a counte- 
 nance in which resentment was mingled with admiration. 
 "You forget to whom you speak, maiden. Know, the dis- 
 tinction I have offered you is one for which hundreds whose 
 trains you are born to bear would feel gratitude." 
 
436 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 "Once more, my lord," resumed Catharine, "keep these 
 favours for, those by whom they are prized; or rather reserve 
 your time and your health for other and nobler pursuits — ^for 
 the defence of your country and the happiness of your sub- 
 jects. Alas, my lord, how willingly would an exulting people 
 receive you for their chief! How gladly would they close 
 around you, did you show desire to head them against the 
 oppression of the mighty, the violence of the lawless, the 
 seduction of the vicious, and the tyranny of the hypocrite!" 
 
 The Duke of Eothsay, whose virtuous feeliugs were as 
 easily excited as they were evanescent, was affected by the 
 enthusiasm with which she spoke. "Forgive me if I have 
 alarmed you, maiden," he said; "thou art too noble-minded 
 to be the toy of passing pleasure, for which my mistake des- 
 tined thee ; and I, even were thy birth worthy of thy noble 
 spirit and transcendent beauty, have no heart to give thee; 
 for by the homage of the heart only should such as thou be 
 wooed. But my hopes have been blighted, Catharine: the 
 only woman I ever loved has been torn from me in the very 
 wantonness of policy, and a wife imposed on me whom I must 
 ever detest, even had she the loveliuess and softness which 
 alone can render a woman amiable in my eyes. My health is 
 fading even in early youth; and all that is left for me is to 
 snatch such flowers as the short passage from life to the grave 
 wUl now present. Look at my hectic cheek; feel, if you 
 will, my intermitting pulse ; and pity me and excuse me if I, 
 whose rights as a prince and as a man have been trampled 
 upon and usurped, feel occasional indifference towards the 
 rights of others, and indulge a selfish desire to gratify the 
 wish of the passing moment. " 
 
 "Oh, my lord!" exclaimed Catharine, with the enthusiasm 
 which belonged to her character — " I will call you my dear 
 lord, for dear must the heir of Bruce be to every child of 
 Scotland — let me not, I pray, hear you speak thus! Your 
 glorious ancestor endured exile, persecution, the night of 
 famine, and the day of unequal combat, to free his country; 
 do you practise the like self-denial to free yourself. Tear 
 yourself from those who find their own way to greatness 
 
THE iPAIR MAID OP PERTH. 437 
 
 armootlied by feeding your follies. Distrust yon dark Ea- 
 morny ! You know it not, I am sure — you could not know ; but 
 the wretch who couid urge the daughter to courses of shame 
 by threatening the life of the aged father is capable of aU that 
 IB vile, all that is treacherous !" 
 
 "Did Eamorny do this?" said the Prince. 
 
 " He did indeed, my lord, and he dares not deny it." 
 
 "It shall be looked to," answered the Duke of Eothsay. 
 "1 have ceased to love him; but he has suffered much for my 
 sake, and I must see his services honourably requited." 
 
 " His services ! Oh, my lord, if chronicles speak true, such 
 services brought Troy to ruins and gave the iufidels possession 
 of Spain." 
 
 "Hush, maiden — speak within compass, I pray you," said 
 the Prince, rising up; "our conference ends here." 
 
 " Yet one word, my Lord Duke of Eothsay," said Catharine, 
 with animation, while her beautiful countenance resembled 
 that of an admonitory angel. "I cannot teU what impels 
 me to speak thus boldly ; but the fire burns within me, and 
 will break out. Leave this castle without an hour's delay; 
 the air is unwholesome for you. Dismiss this Eamorny 
 before the day is ten minutes older; his company is most 
 dangerous." 
 
 " What reason have you for saying this?" 
 
 " None in especial, " answered Catharine, abashed at her 
 own eagerness — " none, perhaps, expecting my fears for your 
 safety." 
 
 " To vague fears the heir of Bruce must not listen. Wh&t, 
 ho! who waits without?" 
 
 Eamorny entered, and bowed low to the Duke and to the 
 maiden, whom, perhaps, he considered as likely to be pre- 
 ferred to the post of favourite sultana, and therefore entitled 
 to a courteous obeisance. 
 
 "Eamorny," said the Prince, "is there in the household 
 any female of reputation who is fit to wait on this young 
 woman tiU we can send her where she may desire to go?" 
 
 " I fear, " replied Eamorny, " if it displease not your Highness 
 to hear the truth, your household is indifferently provided in 
 
438 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 that way ; and that, to speak the very verity, the glee-maidea 
 is the most decorous amongst us." 
 
 "Let her wait upon this young person, then, since better 
 may not be. And take patience, maiden, for a few hours." 
 
 Catharine retired. 
 
 "So, my lord, part you so soon from the Fair Maid of 
 Perth? This is, indeed, the very wantonness of victory." 
 
 " There is neither victory nor defeat in the case, " returned 
 the Prince, drily. "The girl loves me not; nor do I love her 
 well enough to torment myself concerning her scruples." 
 
 "The chaste Malcolm the Maiden revived in one of his 
 descendants!" sd>idBamomy. 
 
 " Favour me, sir, by a truce to your wit, or by choosing a 
 different subject for its career. It is noon, I believe, and you 
 will oblige me by commanding them to serve up dinner." 
 
 Eamorny left the room; but Kothsay thought he discovered 
 a smile upon his countenance, and to be the subject of this 
 man's satire gave him no ordinary degree of pain. He sum- 
 moned, however, the knight to his table, and even admitted 
 Dwining to the same honour. The conversation was of a 
 lively and dissolute cast, a tone encouraged by the Priuce, as 
 if designing to counterbalance the gravity of his morals in the 
 momiug, which Eamorny, who was read in old chronicles, had 
 the boldness to liken to the continence of Seipio. 
 
 The banquet, nothwithstanding the DiAe's indiffereiit 
 health, was protracted in idle wantonness far beyond the rules 
 of temperance ; and, whether owing simply to the strength of 
 the wine which he drank, or the weakness of his constitution, 
 or, as it is probable, because the last wine which he quaffed 
 had been adulterated by Dwining, it so happened that the 
 Prince, towards the end of the repast, fell into a lethargio 
 sleep, from which it seemed impossible to rouse him. Sir 
 John Eamorny and Dwining carried him to his chamber, 
 accepting no other assistance than that of another person, 
 whom we will afterwards give name to. 
 
 Next morning, it was announced that the Prince was taken 
 ill of an infectious disorder; and, to prevent its spreading 
 through the household, no one was admitted to wait on him 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 439 
 
 save his late maater of horse, the physician Dwiniag, and the 
 domestio already mentioaedj one of whom seemed always to 
 remain in the apartment, ■vvhile the others observed a degree 
 of precaution respecting their intercourse -with the rest of the 
 family, so strict as to maintain the belief that he was danger- 
 oufily ill of an infectious disorder. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXn. 
 
 In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire, 
 With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales 
 Of woeful ages, long ago betid : 
 And, ere thou, bid good-night, to quit their grief, 
 Tell thou the lamentable fall of me. 
 
 King Richard II. Act V. Scene I. 
 
 Fab different had been the fate of the misguided heir of 
 Scotland from that ■which was publicly giyen out in the town 
 of Falkland. His ambitious uncle had determined on his 
 death, as the means of removing the first and most formidable 
 barrier betwixt his own family and the throne. James, the 
 younger son of the King, was a mere boy, who might at more 
 leisure be easily set aside. Eamorny's views of aggrandise- 
 ment, and the resentment which he had latterly entertained 
 agaiust his master, made him a willing agent in yoimg Eoth- 
 say's destruction. Dwining's love of gold, and his native 
 malignity of disposition, rendered him equally forward. It 
 had been resolved, with the most ealculating cruelty, that all 
 means which might leave behind marks of violence were to be 
 carefully avoided, and the extinction of life suffered to take 
 place of itself by privation, of every kind acting upon a frail 
 and impaired constitution. The Prince of Scotland was not 
 to be murdered, as Eamorny had expressed himself on an- 
 other occasion, he was only to cease to exist. 
 
 Eothsay's bedchamber in the Tower of Falkland was well 
 adapted for the execution of such a horrible project. A small, 
 narrow staircase, scarce known to exist, opened from theno© 
 by a trap-door to the subterranean dungeons of the castle. 
 
*40 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 through a passage by which the feudal lord was wont to visit, 
 in private and in disguise, the inhabitants of those miserable 
 regions. By this staircase the villains conveyed the insensible 
 PriQce to the lowest dungeon of the castle, so deep in the 
 bowels of the earth, that no cries or groans, it was supposed, 
 could possibly be heard, while the strength of its door and 
 fastenings must for a long time have defied force, even if the 
 entrance could have been discovered. Bonthron, who had 
 been saved from the gallows for the purpose, was the wiUuig 
 agent of Eamorny's unparalleled cruelty to his misled and be- 
 trayed patron. 
 
 This wretch revisited the dungeon at the time when the 
 Prince's lethargy began to wear off, and when, awaking to 
 sensation, he felt himself deadly cold, unable to move, and op- 
 pressed with fetters, which scarce permitted him to stir from 
 the dank straw on which he was laid. His first idea was that 
 he was ia a fearful dream, his next brought a confused augury 
 of the truth. He called, shouted, yelled at length in frenzy j 
 but no assistance came, and he was only answered by the 
 vaulted roof of the dungeon. The agent of hell heard these 
 agonizing screams, and deliberately reckoned them against the 
 taunts and reproaches with which Eothsay had expressed his 
 iastiuctive aversion to him. When, exhausted and hopeless, 
 the unhappy youth remained silent, the savage resolved to 
 present himself before the eyes of his prisoner. The locks 
 were drawn, the chaia fell ; the Prince raised himself as high 
 as his fetters permitted; a red glare, against which he was 
 fain to shut his eyes, streamed through the vault ; and when 
 he opened them agaiu, it was on the ghastly form of one whom 
 he had reason to think dead. He sunk back in horror. " I 
 am judged and condemned," he exclaimed, "and the most 
 abhorred fiend in the infernal regions is sent to torment me I" 
 
 "I live, my lord," said Bonthron; "and that you may live 
 and enjoy life, be pleased to sit up and eat your victuals." 
 
 "Free me from these irons," said the Prince, "release me 
 from this dungeon, and, dog as thou art, thou shalt be the 
 richest man in Scotland." 
 
 " If you would give me the weight of your shackles in gold,* 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 4*1 
 
 said Bonthron, " I would rather see the iron on you than have 
 the treasure myself I But look up; you were wont to love 
 delicate fare — behold how I have catered for you." The 
 wretch, with fiendish glee, unfolded a piece of raw-hide cover- 
 ing the bundle which he bore under his arm, and, passing the 
 light to and fro before it, showed the unhappy Prince a 
 bull's head recently hewn from the trunk, and known in Scot- 
 land as the certain signal of death. He placed it at the foot 
 of the bed, or rather lair, on which the Prince lay. "Be 
 moderate in your food," he said; "it is like to be long ere 
 thou getst another meal." 
 
 " Tell me but one thing, wretch," said the Prince. " Does 
 Eamorny know of this practice?" 
 
 " How else hadst thou been decoyed hither? Poor wood- 
 cock, thou art snared!" answered the murderer. 
 
 With these words, the door shut, the bolts resounded, and 
 the unhappy Prince was left to darkness, solitude, and misery. 
 " Oh, my father !— my prophetic father I The staff I leaned 
 on has indeed proved a spear I" We will not dwell on the sub- 
 sequent hours, nay, days, of bodily agony and mental des- 
 pair. 
 
 But it was not the pleasure of Heaven that so great a crime 
 should be perpetrated with impunity. 
 
 Catharine Glover and the glee-woman, neglected by the 
 other inmates, who seemed to be engaged with the tidiags of 
 the Prince's illness, were, however, refused permission to 
 leave the castle until it should be seen how this alarming dis- 
 ease was to terminate, and whether it was actually an infec- 
 tious sickness. Forced on each other's society, the two deso- 
 late women became companions, if not friends ; and the union 
 drew somewhat closer when Catharine discovered that this 
 was the same female minstrel on whose account Henry Wynd 
 had fallen under her displeasure. She now heard his com- 
 plete vindication, and listened with ardour to the praises which 
 Louise heapfed on her gallant protector. On the other hand, 
 the minstrel, who felt the superiority of Catharine's station 
 and character, willingly dwelt upon a theme which seemed to 
 please her, and recorded her gratitude to the stout smith in the 
 
442 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 little song of "Bold aad True," wMcli was long a favourite 
 in Scotlaad. 
 
 Oh, bold and tnie. 
 In bonnet blue, 
 
 That fear or falsehood never knew. 
 Whose heart was loyal to his word. 
 Whose hand was faithful to his sword- 
 Seek Europe wide from sea to sea, 
 But bonny blue-cap still for me I 
 
 Tve seen Almain's proud champions prancQ 
 Have seen the gallant knights of Prance, 
 TJnrivall'd with the sword and lance, 
 Have seen the sons of England true, 
 Wield the brown bill and bend the yew. 
 Search Prance the fair and England free. 
 But bonny blue-cap still for me ! 
 
 In short, though Louise's disreputable occupation would 
 have been in other circumstances an objection to Catharine's 
 voluntarily frecLuentiag her company, yet, forced together as 
 they now were, she found her a humble and accommodating 
 companion. 
 
 They lived in this manner for four or five days, and, in 
 order to avoid as much as possible the gaze, and perhaps the 
 incivility, of the menials in the offices, they prepared their 
 food in their own apartment. In the absolutely necessary 
 intercourse with domestics, Louise, more accustomed to ex- 
 pedients, bolder by habit, and desirous to please Catharine, 
 willingly took on herself the trouble of gettiag from the 
 pantler the materials of their slender meal, and of arranging 
 it with the dexterity of her country. 
 
 The glee- woman had been abroad for this purpose upon the 
 sixth day, a little before noon; and the desire of fresh air, or 
 the hope to find some sallad or pot-herbs, or at least an early 
 flower or two, with which to deck their board, had carried 
 her into the small garden appertaining to the castle. She re- 
 entered her apartment in the tower with a countenance pale as 
 ashes, and a frame which trembled like an aspen-leaf. Hw 
 terror instantly extended itself to Catharine, who could hardly 
 find words to ask what new misfortune had occurred. 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH 443 
 
 "Is the Duke of Eottsay dead?" 
 
 "Worse! they are starving Mm alive." 
 
 "Madness, ■woman!" 
 
 "No— no — ^no — ^no!" said Louise, speaking under her 
 breath, and huddling her lyords so thick upon each other that 
 Catharine could hardly catch the sense. " I was seeking for 
 flowers to dress your pottage, because you said you loved them 
 Jresterday ; my poor little dog, thrustiug himself into a thicket 
 of yew and hoUy bushes that grow out of some old ruins close 
 to the castle-wall, came back whining and howling. I crept 
 forward to see what might be the cause — and, oh! I heard a 
 groaning as of one in extreme pain, but so faint, that it 
 seemed to arise out of the very depth of the earth. At 
 length, I found it proceeded from a small rent in the wall, 
 covered with ivy ; and when I laid my ear close to the open- 
 ing, I could hear the Prince's voice distinctly say, *It eanuot 
 now last long' ; and then it sunk away in something like a 
 prayer." 
 
 "Gracious Heaven! did you speak to him?" 
 
 "I said, 'Is it you, my lord?' and the answer was, 'Who 
 mocks me with that title?' I asked him if I could help hiw, 
 and he answered with a voice- 1 shall never forget, 'Food — 
 food! I die of famine!' So I came hither to tell you. 
 What is to be done? Shall we alarm the house?" 
 
 "Alas! that were more likely to destroy than to aid him," 
 said Catharine. 
 
 " And what then shall we do?" said Louise. 
 
 "I know not yet," said Catharine, prompt and bold on occa- 
 sions of moment, though yielding to her companion in in- 
 genuity of resource on ordinary occasions : " I know not yet, 
 but something we wiU do : the blood of Bruce shall not die 
 unaided." 
 
 So saying, she seized the small cruise which contained their 
 soup, and the meat of which it was made, wrapped some thia 
 cakes which she had baked into the fold of her plaid, and, 
 beckoning her companion to follow with a vessel of milk, also 
 part of their provisions, she hastened towards the garden. 
 
 " So, our fair vestal is stirring abroad?" said the only man 
 
444 WAVEKLET NOVELS. 
 
 she met, who was one of the menials; but Catharine passed 
 on without notice or reply, and gained the little garden with- 
 out farther interruption. 
 
 Louise indicated to her a heap of ruins, which, covered with 
 underwood, was close to the castle-wall. It had probably 
 been originally a projection from the buOdiag; and the small 
 fissure, which communicated with the dungeon, contrived for 
 air, had terminated within it. But the aperture had been a 
 little enlarged by decay, and admitted a dim ray of light to 
 its recesses, although it could not be observed by those who 
 visited the place with torch-light aids. 
 
 "Here is dead silence," said Catharine, after she had 
 listened attentively for a moment. "Heaven and earth, he 
 is gone!" 
 
 "We must risk something," said her companion, and ran 
 her fingers over the strings of her guitar. 
 
 A sigh was the only answer from the depth of the dungeon. 
 Catharine then ventured to speak. " I am here, my lord — I 
 am here, with food and drink." 
 
 "Hal Eamomyl The jest comes too late; I am dying," 
 was the answer. 
 
 "His brain is turned, and no wonder," thought Catharine; 
 "but whilst there is life, there may be hope." 
 
 "It is I, my lord, Catharine Glover. I have food, if I 
 could pass it safely to you." 
 
 "Heaven bless thee, maiden! I thought the pain was 
 over, but it glows again within me at the name of food." 
 
 " The food is here, but how — ah, how can I pass it to you? 
 tlie chink is so narrow, the wall is so thick! Yet there is a 
 remedy — I have it. Quick, Louise ; cut me a wiUow bough, 
 the tallest you can find." 
 
 The glee-maiden obeyed, and, by means of a cleft in the 
 top of the wand, Catharine transmitted several morsels of the 
 soft cakes, soaked in broth, which served at once for food and 
 for drink. 
 
 The unfortunate yoimg man ate little, and with difficulty, 
 but prayed for a thousand blessings on the head of his com- 
 forter. " I had destined thee to be the slave of my vices," 
 
THE PAIR MAID OP PERTH. 44S 
 
 he saia, " and yet thou triest to become the preserver of my 
 life! But away, and save thyself." 
 
 •"I will return with food as I shall see opportunity," said 
 Catharine, just as the glee-maiden plucked her sleeve and 
 desired her to be silent and stand close. 
 
 Both crouched among the ruins, and they Heard the voices 
 of Ramorny and the mediciner in close conversation. 
 
 "He is stronger than I thought," said the former, in a 
 low, croaking tone. "How long held out Dalwolsy, when 
 the knight of Liddesdale prisoned him in his castle of Her- 
 mitage?" 
 
 "Tor a fortnight," answered Dwining; "but he was a 
 strong man, and had some assistance by grain which fell from 
 a granary above his prison-house." ' 
 
 "Were it not better end the matter more speedily? The 
 Black Douglas comes this way. He is not in Albany's secret. 
 He will demand to see the Prince, and all mtist be over era 
 he comes." 
 
 They passed on in their dark and fatal conversation. 
 
 " Now gain we the tower," said Catharine to her companion, 
 when she saw they had left the garden. " I had a plan of 
 escape for myself; I will turn it into one of rescue for the 
 Prince. The dey-woman enters the castle about vesper time, 
 and usually leaves her cloak in the passage as she goes into 
 the pantlers' office with the milk. Take thou the cloak, 
 muffle thyself close, and pass the warder boldly; he is usually 
 drunken at that hour, and thou wilt go as the dey-woman un- 
 challenged through gate and along bridge, if thou bear thyself 
 with confidence. Then away to meet the Black Douglas ; he 
 is our nearest and only aid." 
 
 "But," said Louise, "is he not that terrible lord who 
 threatened me with shame and punishment?" 
 
 "Believe it," said Catharine, "such as thou or I never 
 dwelt an hour in the Douglas's memory, either for good or 
 evil. Tell him that his son-in-law, the Prince of Scotland 
 dies — treacherously famished — in Falkland Castle, and thou 
 wilt merit not pardon only, but reward." 
 
 • See Grain dropping into Prison. Note 64, 
 
*4* WAVERLEY KOVELS. 
 
 "I care not for reward," said Louise; "the deed vnU 
 reward itself. But methinks to stay is more dangerous than 
 to go. Let me stay, then, and nourish the imhappy^Prince, 
 and do you depart to bring help. If they kill me before you 
 return, I leave you my poor lute, and pray you to be kind to 
 my poor Chariot." 
 
 "No, Louise," replied Catharine, "you are a more privi- 
 leged and experienced wanderer than I — do you go ; and if 
 you find me dead on your return, as may well chance, give 
 my poor father this ring and a lock of my hair, and say, 
 Catharine died in endeavouring to save the blood of Bruce. 
 And give this other lock to Henry; say, Catharine thought of 
 him to the last, and that, if he has judged her too scrupulous 
 touching the blood of others, he wDl then know it was not 
 because she valued her own." 
 
 They sobbed in each other's arms, and the intervening 
 hours till evening were spent in endeavouring to devise some 
 better mode of supplying the captive with nourishment, and 
 in the construction of a tube, composed of hollow reeds, 
 slipping into each other, by which liquids might be conveyed 
 to him. The beU of the vUlage church of Falkland tolled to 
 vespers. The dey, or farm-woman, entered with her pitchers 
 to deliver the milk for the family, and to hear and tell the 
 news stirring. She had scarcely entered the kitchen when 
 the female miustrel, again throwing herself in Catharine's 
 arms, and assuring her of her unalterable fidelity, crept in 
 silence downstairs, the little dog under her arm. A moment 
 after, she was seen by the breathless Catharine, wrapt in the 
 dey-woman's cloak, and walking composedly across the draw- 
 bridge. 
 
 "So," said the warder, "you return early to-night, May 
 Bridget? Small mirth towards in the hall — ha, wench! Sick 
 times ai-e sad times!" 
 
 " I have forgotten my tallies, " said the ready-witted French- 
 woman, " and wDl return in the skimming of a bowie." ' 
 
 She went onward, avoiding the village of Falkland, and 
 took a footpath which led through the park. Catharine 
 ■See Note 53. 
 
THE FAIE MAID OF PERTH. 4*7 
 
 breathed freely, and blessed God vrhen she saw her lost in the 
 distance. It was another anxious hour for Catharine which 
 occurred before the escape of the fugitive was discovered. 
 This happened so soon as the dey-girl, having taken an hour 
 to perform a task which ten minutes might have accomplished, 
 was about to return, and discovered that some one had taken 
 away her grey frieze cloak. A strict search was set on foot; 
 at length the women of the house remembered the glee- 
 maiden, and ventured to suggest her as one not unlikely to 
 exchange an old cloak for a new one. The warder, strictly 
 questioned, averred he saw the dey-woman depart immediately 
 after vespers ; and on this being contradicted by the party 
 herself, he could suggest, as the only alternative, that it 
 must needs have been the devE. 
 
 As, however, the glee-woman could not be found, the real 
 circumstances of the case were easily guessed at; and the 
 steward went to inform Sir John Eamorny and Dwining, 
 who were now scarcely ever separate, of the escape of one of 
 their female captives. Everything awakens the suspicions of 
 the guilty. They looked on each other with faces of dismay, 
 and then went together to the humble apartment of Catharine, 
 that they might take her as much as possible by surprise 
 while they inquired into the facts attending Louise's disap- 
 pearance. 
 
 " Where is your companion, young woman?" said Eamorny, 
 in a. tone of austere gravity. 
 
 " I have no companion here, " answered Catharine, 
 
 "Trifle not," replied the knight; "I mean the glee-maiden, 
 who lately dwelt in this chamber with you." 
 
 "She is gone, they teU me," said Catharine — "gone about 
 an hour since." 
 
 " And whither?" said Dwining. 
 
 "How," answered Catharine, "should I know which way a 
 professed wanderer may choose to travel? She was tired no 
 doubt of a solitary life, so different from the scenes of feast- 
 ing and dancing which her trade leads her to frequent. She 
 is gone, and the only wonder is that she should have stayed 
 80 long." 
 
4*8 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 "This, then," said Ramorny, "is all you have to tell us?" 
 
 "AH that I have to tell you. Sir John," answered Cath- 
 arine, firmly; "and i£ the Prince himself inquire, I can tell 
 him no more." 
 
 " There is little danger of his again doing you the honour to 
 speak to you in person," said Eamorny, "even if Scotland 
 should escape being rendered miserable by the sad event of his 
 decease." 
 
 '- Is the Duke of Eothsay so very O?" asked Catharine. 
 
 "No help, save in Heaven," answered Eamorny, looking 
 upward. 
 
 "Then may there yet be help there," said Catharine, "if 
 human aid prove unavailing!" 
 
 " Amen!" said Eamorny, with the most determined gravity; 
 while Dwining adopted a face fit to echo the feeling, though 
 it seemed to cost him a painful struggle to suppress his sneer- 
 ing yet soft laugh of triumph, which was peculiarly excited 
 by anything having a religious tendency. 
 
 "And it is men — earthly men, and not incarnate devils, 
 who thus appeal to Heaven, while they are devouring by 
 inches the life-blood of their hapless master !" muttered Cath- 
 arine, as her two bafiled inqrisitors left the apartment. 
 "Why sleeps the thimder? But it will roll ere long, and oh I 
 may it be to preserve as well as to punish!" 
 
 The hour of dinner alone afforded a space when, aU in the 
 castle being occupied with that meal, Catharine thought she 
 had the best opportunity of venturing to the breach in the 
 wall, with the least chance of being observed. In waiting 
 for the hour, she observed some stir in the castle, which had 
 been silent as the grave ever since the seclusion of the Duke 
 of Eothsay. The portcullis was lowered and raised, and the 
 creaking of the machinery was intermingled with the tramp 
 of horse, as men-at-arms went out and returned with steeds 
 hard-ridden and covered with foam. She observed, too, that 
 such domestics as she casually saw from her window were in 
 arms. All this made her heart throb high, for it augured the 
 approach of rescue; and besides, the bustle left the little 
 garden more lonely than ever. At length the hour of noou 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 449 
 
 arrived; she had taken care to provide, under pretence of her 
 own wishes, which the pantler seemed disposed to indulge, 
 such articles of food as could be the most easily conveyed to 
 the imhappy captive. She whispered to iutimate her pres- 
 ence; there was no answer; she spoke louder, still there was 
 
 "He sleeps," she muttered these words half -aloud, and 
 with a shuddering which was succeeded by a start and a 
 scream, when a voice replied behind her : 
 
 " Yes, he sleeps; but it is for ever." 
 
 She looked round. Sir John Eamorny stood behind her 
 in complete armour, but the visor of his hehnet was up, and 
 displayed a countenance more resembling one about to die 
 than to fight. He spoke with a grave tone, something between 
 that of a cabn observer of an interesting event and of one who 
 is an agent and partaker in it. 
 
 "Catharine," he said, "all is true which I teU you. He 
 is dead. You have done your best for him; you can do no 
 more." 
 
 " I will not — I cannot believe it," said Catharine. " Heaven 
 be merciful to me! it would make one doubt of Providence, to 
 think so great a crime has been accomplished." 
 
 " Doubt not of Providence, Catharine, though it has suffered 
 the profligate to fall by his own devices. Pollow me; I have 
 that to say which concerns you. I say foUow (for she hesi- 
 tated), unless you prefer being left to the mercies of the brute 
 Bonthron and the mediciner Henbane Dwining." 
 
 " I win follow you, " said Catharine. " You cannot do more 
 to me than you are permitted." 
 
 He led the way into the tower, and mounted staircase after 
 staircase and ladder after ladder. 
 
 Catharine's resolution failed her. "I will follow no 
 farther," she said. " Whither would you lead me? If to my 
 death, I can die here." 
 
 " Only to the battlements of the castle, fool," said Eamorny, 
 
 throwing wide a barred door which opened upon the vaulted 
 
 roof of the castle, where men were bending mangonels, as they 
 
 called them (military engines, that is, for throwing arrows or 
 
 ?9 
 
450 WAVERLEY KOVELS. 
 
 stones), getting ready cross-bows, and piling stones together. 
 But tlie defenders did not exceed twenty in number, and 
 Catharine thought she could observe doubt and irresolution 
 amongst them. 
 
 "Catharine," said Eamorny, "I must not quit this station, 
 which is necessary for my defence ; but I can speaik with you 
 here as well as elsewhere." 
 
 "Say on," answered Catharine, "I am prepared to hear 
 you." 
 
 " You have thrust yourself, Catharine, into a bloody secret. 
 Have you the firmness to keep it?" 
 
 " I do not understand you. Sir John," answered the maiden. 
 
 " Look you. I have slain — ^murdered, if you wiU — my late 
 master, the Duke of Eothsay. The spark of life which your 
 kindness would have fed was easily smothered. His last 
 words called on his father. You are faint — ^bear up — you 
 have more to hear. You know the crime, but you know not 
 the provocation. See! this gauntlet is empty; Host my right 
 hand in his cause, and when I was no longer fit to serve him, 
 I was cast off like a worn-out hound, my loss ridiculed, and a 
 cloister recommended, instead of the halls and palaces in 
 which I had my natural sphere I Think oa this — ^pity and 
 assist me." 
 
 " In what manner can you require my assistance?" said the 
 trembling maiden; "I can neither repair your loss nor cancel 
 your crime." 
 
 " Thou canst be silent, Catharine, on what thou hast seen 
 and heard in yonder thicket. It is but a brief oblivion I ask 
 of you, whose word wUl, I know, be listened to, whether you 
 say such things were or were not. That of your mountebanE 
 companion, the foreigner, none wUl hold to be of a pin-point's 
 value. If you grant me this, I will take your promise for my 
 security, and throw the gate open to those who now approach 
 it. If you will not promise silence, I defend this castle till 
 every one perishes, and I fling you headlong from these batUe- 
 ments. Ay, look at them — it is not a leap to be rashly braved- 
 Seven courses of stairs brought you up hither with fatigue 
 and shortened breath; but you shall go from the top ta the 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 45t 
 
 bottom in briefer time than you can breathe a sigh! Speak 
 the word, fair maid; for you speak to one unwilling to harm 
 you, but determined in his purpose." 
 
 Catharine stood terrified, and without power of answering 
 a man who seemed so desperate; but she was saved the neces- 
 sity of reply by the approach of Dwining. He spoke with 
 the same humble congas which at all times distinguished his 
 manner, and with his usual suppressed ironical sneer, which 
 gave that manner the lie. 
 
 "I do you wrong, noble sir, to intrude on your vali-ancie 
 when engaged with a fair damsel. But I come to ask a tri- 
 fling question." 
 
 "Speak, tormentor!" said Eamorny; "iU news are sport to 
 ^ee even when they affect thyself, so that they concern oth- 
 ers also." 
 
 "Hem! — ^he, he! — I only desired to know if your knight- 
 hood proposed the chivalrous task of defending the castle with 
 your single hand — I crave pardon, I meant your single arm? 
 The question is worth asking, for I am good for little to aid 
 the defence, unless you could prevail on the besiegers to take 
 physic — he, he, he! — ^and Bonthron is as drunk as ale and 
 strong waters can make him; and you, he, and I make up the 
 whole garrison who are disposed for resistance." 
 
 "How! WUl the other dogs not fight?" said Eamorny. 
 
 "Kever saw men who showed less stomach to the work," 
 answered Dwining — "never. But here come a brace of 
 them. Venit extrema dies. He, he, he!" 
 
 Eviot and his companion Buncle now approached with sullen 
 resolution in their faces, like men who had made their minds 
 up to resist that authority which they had so long obeyed. 
 
 "How now!" said Eamorny, stepping forward to meet 
 them. " Wherefore from your posts ? Why have you left the 
 barbican, Eviot? And you other fellow, did I not charge you 
 to look to the mangonels?" 
 
 "We have something to tell you, Sir John Bamomy," 
 answered Eviot. "We will not fight in this quarrel." 
 
 "How — my own squires control me?" exclaimed Eamorny. 
 
 " We were your squires and pages, my lord, while you wore 
 
452 WAVBRLEY NOVELS. 
 
 master of the Duke of Eotlisay's household. It is bruited 
 about the Duke no longer lives; we desire to know the truth." 
 
 "What traitor dares spread such falsehoods?" said Ea- 
 momy. 
 
 " All who have gone out to skirt the forest, my lord, and .1 
 myself among others, bring back the same news. The min- 
 strel woman who left the castle yesterday has spread the 
 report everywhere that the Duke of Eothsay is murdered, or 
 at death's door. The Douglas comes on us with a strong 
 force " 
 
 " And you, cowards, take advantage of an idle report to for- 
 sake your master?" said Eamorny, indignantly. 
 
 "My lord," said Eviot, "letBuncle and myself see the 
 Duke of Eothsay, and receive his personal orders for defence 
 of this castle, and if we do not fight to the death in that 
 quarrel, I will consent to be hanged on its highest turret. 
 But if he be gone by natural disease, we wiU yield up the 
 castle to the Earl of Douglas, who is, they say, the King's 
 lieutenant. Or if — which Heaven f oref end ! — the noble Prince 
 has had foul play, we will not involve ourselves in the guilt 
 of using arms in defence of the murderers, be they who they 
 will." 
 
 "Eviot," said Eamorny, raising his mutilated arm, "had 
 not that glove been empty, thou hadst not lived to utter two 
 words of this insolence," 
 
 " It is as it is," answered Eviot, " and we do but our duty. 
 I have followed you long, my lord, but here I draw bridle." 
 
 " Earewell, then, and a curse light on all of you !" exclaimed 
 the incensed baron. "Let my horse be brought forth!" 
 
 " Our valiancie is about to run away, " said the mediciner, 
 who had crept close to Catharine's side before she was aware. 
 "Catharine, thou art a superstitious fool, like most women; 
 nevertheless thou hast some mind, and I speak to thee as one 
 of more understanding than the buffaloes which are herding 
 about us. These haughty barons who overstride the world, 
 what are they in the day of adversity? Chaff before the 
 wind. Let their sledge-hammer hands or their column- 
 resembling legs ha,ve injury, and bahl the men-a,t-arm8 arq 
 
THE FAIE MAID OF PERTH. 453 
 
 gone. Heart aad courage is nothing to them, lith and limb 
 everything : give them animal strength, what are they better 
 than furious bulls ; take that away, and your hero of chivalry 
 lies grovelling like the brute when he is hamstrung. Not so 
 the sage; while a grain of sense remains in a crushed or 
 mutilated frame, his mind shall be strong as ever. Catharine, 
 this morning I was practising your death; but methinks I 
 now rejoice that you may survive to tell how the poor medic- 
 iner, the pill-gilder, the mortar-pounder, the poison-vender, 
 met his fate, in company with the gallant Knight of Eamomy, 
 Baron in possession and Earl of Lindores in expectation — God 
 save his lordship I" 
 
 " Old man," said Catharine, "if thou be indeed so near the 
 day of thy deserved doom, other thoughts were far wholesomer 
 than the vainglorious ravings of a vain philosophy. Ask to 
 see a holy man " 
 
 "Yes," said D wining, scornfully, "refer myself to a greasy 
 monk, who does not — he ! he ! he ! — understand the barbarous 
 Latin he repeats by rote. Such would be a fitting counsellor 
 to one who has studied both in Spain and Arabia! No, Cath- 
 arine, I wiU choose a confessor that is pleasant to look upon, 
 and you shall be honoured with the office. Now, look yonder 
 at his valiancie: his eyebrow drops with moisture, his lip 
 trembles with agony; for his valiancie — ^hel he! he! — is 
 pleading for his life with his late domestics, and has not elo- 
 quence enough to persuade them to let him slip. See how the 
 fibres of his face work as he implores the ungrateful brutes, 
 whom he has heaped with obligations, to permit him to get 
 such a start for his life as the hare has from the greyhounds 
 when men course her fairly. Look also at the sullen, down- 
 east, dogged faces with which, fluctuating between fear and 
 shame, the domestic traitors deny their lord this poor chance 
 for his life. These thiags thought themselves the superior of 
 a man like mel and you, foolish wench, think so meanly of 
 your Deity as to suppose wretches like tiiem are the work of 
 Omnipotence!" 
 
 "No! man of evil — ^no!" said Catharine, warmly; "the 
 God I worship created these men with the attributes to know 
 
454 WAVBRLET NOVELS. 
 
 and adore Him, to guard and defend tlieir fellow-creatures, to 
 practise holiness and virtue. Their own vices, and the temp- 
 tations of the Evil One, have made them such as they now 
 are. Oh, take the lesson home to thine own heart of adamant ! 
 Heaven made thee wiser than thy fellows, gave thee eyes to 
 look into the secrets of nature, a sagacious heart, and a skil- 
 ful hand ; but thy pride has poisoned aU these fair gifts, and 
 made an ungodly atheist of one who might have been a Chris- 
 tian sage !" 
 
 "Atheist, say'st thou?" answered Dwining. "Perhaps I 
 have doubts on that matter — but they will be soon solved. 
 Yonder comes one who will send me, as he has done thou- 
 sands, to the place where all mysteries shall be cleared." 
 
 Catharine followed the mediciner's eye up one of the forest 
 glades, and beheld it occupied by a body of horsemen advanc- 
 ing at full gallop. In the midst was a pennon displayed, 
 which, though its bearings were not visible to Catharine, was, 
 by a murmur around, acknowledged as that of the Black 
 Douglas. They halted within arrow-shot of the castle, and a 
 herald with two trumpets advanced up to the main portal, 
 where, after a loud flourish, he demanded admittance for the 
 high and dreaded Archibald Earl of Douglas, Lord-Lieutenant 
 of the King, and acting for the time with the plenary authority 
 of his Majesty; commanding, at the same time, that the in- 
 mates of the castle should lay down their arms, all under 
 penalty of high treason. 
 
 " You hear?" said Eviot to Eamorny, who stood sullen and 
 vmdecided. "WiU you give orders to render the castle, or 
 must I " 
 
 "No, vUlain!" interrupted the knight, "to the last I will 
 command you. Open the gates, drop the bridge, and render 
 the castle to the Douglas." 
 
 " Now, that's what may be called a gallant exertion of free- 
 will," said Dwiiiug. "Just as if the pieces of brass that 
 were screaming a minute since should pretend to call those 
 notes their own which are breathed through them by a frowsy 
 trumpeter." 
 
 " Wretched man, " said Catharine, " either be silent or turn 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 465 
 
 thy thoughts to the eternity on the brink of which thou art 
 standing." 
 
 " And what is that to thee?" answered Dwining. " Thou 
 canst not, wench, help hearing what I say to thee, and thou 
 wilt tell it again, for thy sex cannot help that either. Perth 
 and aU Scotland shall know what a man they have lost in 
 Henbane Dwining!" 
 
 The clash of armour now announced that the newcomers had 
 dismounted and entered the castle, and were in the act of dis- 
 arming the small garrison. Earl Douglas himself appeared 
 on the battlements, with a few of his followers, and signed 
 to them to take Eamorny and Dwining into custody. Others 
 dragged from some nook the stupified Bonthron. 
 
 " It was to these three that the custody of the Prince was 
 solely committed during his alleged illness?" said the Douglas, 
 prosecutiag an inquiry which he had commenced in the hall 
 of the castle. 
 
 "No other saw him, my lord," said Eviot, "though I 
 offered my services." 
 
 "Conduct us to the Duke's apartment, and bring the 
 prisoners with us. Also should there be a female in the 
 castle, if she hath not been murdered or spirited away — ^the 
 companion of the glee-maiden who brought the first alarm. " 
 
 " She is here, my lord, " said Eviot, bringing Catharine 
 forward. 
 
 Her beauty and her agitation made some impression even 
 upon the impassible Earl. 
 
 " Pear nothing, maiden," he said; " thou hast deserved both 
 praise and reward. Tell to me, as thou wouldst confess to 
 Heaven, the things thou hast witnessed in this castle." 
 
 Few words served Catharine to unfold the dreadful story. 
 
 "It agrees," said the Douglas, "with the tale of the glea- 
 maiden, from point to point. Now show us the Prince' rf 
 apartment." 
 
 They passed to the room which the unhappy Duke of Eoth- 
 say had been supposed to inhabit ; but the key was not to be 
 found, and the Earl could only obtain entrance by forcing the 
 door. On entering, the wasted and squalid remains of th^ 
 
456 WAVBELEY NOVELS. 
 
 vmliappy Prince were discoyered, flung on the bed as if in 
 haste. The intention of the murderers had apparently been 
 to arrange the dead body so as to resemble a timely-parted 
 corpse, but they had been disconcerted by the alarm occa- 
 sioned by the escape of Louise. Douglas looked on the body 
 of the misguided youth, whose wild passions and caprices had 
 brought him to this fatal and premature catastrophe. 
 
 "I had wrongs to be redressed," he said; "but to see such 
 a sight as this banishes all remembrance of injury!" 
 
 "He! he! It should have been arranged," said Dwiuing, 
 " more to your omnipotence's pleasure ; but you came suddenly 
 on us, and hasty masters make slovenly service." 
 
 Douglas seemed not to hear what his prisoner said, so 
 closely did he examine the wan and wasted features, and stif- 
 fened limbs, of the dead body before him. Catharine, over- 
 come by sickness and fainting, at length obtained permission 
 to retire from the dreadful scene, and, through confusion of 
 every description, found her way to her former apartment, 
 where she was locked in the arms of Louise, who had returned 
 in the interval. 
 
 The investigations of Douglas proceeded. The dying hand 
 of the Prince was found to be clenched upon a lock of hair, 
 resembling, in colour and texture, the eoal-black bristles of 
 Bonthron. Thus, though famine had begun the work, it 
 would seem that Bothsay's death had been finally accom- 
 plished by violence. The private stair to the dungeon, the 
 keys of which were found at the subaltern assassin's belt, the 
 situation of the vault, its communication with the external air 
 by the fissure in the walls, and the wretched lair of straw, 
 with the fetters which remained there, fully confirmed the 
 story of Catharine and of the glee-woman. 
 
 "We will not hesitate an instant," said the Douglas to his 
 near kinsman, the Lord Balveny, as soon as they returned from 
 the dungeon. "Away with the murderers I hang them over 
 the battlements." 
 
 "But, my lord, some trial may be fitting," answered Bal- 
 yeny. 
 
 " To what purpose?" answered Douglas. " I have taken 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 457 
 
 them red-hand; ' my authority will stretch to instant execu- 
 tion. Yet stay — ^have we not some Jedwood men in our 
 troop?" 
 
 "Plenty of Tumbulls, Eutherfords, Ainslies, and so forth," 
 said Balveny. 
 
 "Call me an inquest of these together; they are aU good 
 men and true, saving a little shifting for their living. Do 
 you see to the execution of these felons, while I hold a court 
 in the great hall, and we'll try whether the jury or the pro- 
 vost-marshal do their work first; we wiU have Jedwood jus- 
 tice — hang in haste and try at leisure." 
 
 "Yet stay, my lord," said Eamorny, "you may rue your 
 haste — ^will you grant me a word out of ear-shot?" 
 
 "Not for worlds!" said Douglas; "speak out what thou 
 hast to say before aU that are here present." 
 
 "Know all, then," said Eamorny, aloud, "that this noble 
 Earl had letters from the Duke of Albany and myself, sent 
 him by the hand of yon cowardly deserter, Buncle — ^let him 
 deny it if he dare — counselling the removal of the Duke for a 
 space from court, and his seclusion in this Castle of Falkland." 
 
 "But not a word," replied Douglas, sternly smiling, "of his 
 being flung into a dungeon — famished — strangled. Away 
 with the wretches, Balveny, they poUute God's air too 
 long I" 
 
 The prisoners were dragged off to the battlements. But 
 while the means of execution were in the act of beiag pre- 
 pared, the apothecary expressed so ardent a desire to see 
 Catharine once more, and, as he said, for the good of his soul, 
 that the maiden, in hopes his obduracy might have undergone 
 some change even at the last hour, consented agaia to go to 
 the battlements, and face a scene which her heart recoiled 
 from. A single glance showed her Bonthron, sunk in total 
 and drunken insensibility} Eamorny, stripped of his armour, 
 endeavouring in vain to conceal fear, while he spoke with a 
 priest, whose good offices he had solicited; and D wining, the 
 same humble, obsequious-looking, crouching individual she 
 had always known him. He held in his hand a little sil* 
 • See Note 56. 
 
t58 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 ver pen, with wMcIi he had been writing on a scrap of paxeh* 
 ment. 
 
 " Catharine, " he said — "he, he, he! — I wish to speak to 
 thee on the nature of my religious faith." 
 
 " If such be thy intention, why lose time with me? Speak 
 with this good father." 
 
 "The good father," said Dwining, "is — he, hel — already a 
 worshipper of the deity whom I have served. I therefore 
 prefer to give the altar of mine idol a new worshipper in thee, 
 Catharine. This scrap of parchment will tell thee how to 
 make your way into my chapel, where I have worshipped so 
 often in safety. I leave the imagas which it contains to thee 
 as a legacy, simply because I hate and contemn thee some- 
 thing less than any of the absurd wretches whom I have 
 hitherto been obliged to call fellow-creatures. And now away ! 
 or remain and see if the end of the quacksalver belies his life." 
 
 " Our Lady forbid 1" said Catharine. 
 
 "Kay," said the mediciner, "I have but a single word to 
 ■ay, and yonder nobleman's valiancie may hear it if he will." 
 
 Lord Balveny approached, with some curiosity; for the 
 undaunted resolution of a man who never wielded sword or 
 bore armour, and was in person a poor dwindled dwarf, had 
 to him an air of something resembling sorcery. 
 
 "You see this trifling implement," said the criminal, show- 
 ing the silver pen. " By means of this I can escape the power 
 even of the Black Douglas." 
 
 "Give him no ink nor paper," said Balveny, hastily, "he 
 will draw a spell." 
 
 "Not so, please your wisdom and valiancie — ^he, he, hel" 
 said Dwining, with his usual chuckle, as he unscrewed the top 
 of tha pen, within which was a piece of sponge, or some such 
 
 substance, no bigger than a pea. " Now, mark this " said 
 
 the prisoner, and drew it between his lips. The effect was 
 instantaneous. He lay a dead corpse before them, the con- 
 temptuous sneer stUl on his coimtenance. 
 
 Catharine shrieked and fled, seeking, by a hasty descent^ 
 an escape from a sight so appalling. Lord Balveny was for a 
 moment stupified, and then exclaimed, " This may be glamour! 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 459 
 
 hang liim over the battlements, quick or dead. If his foul 
 spirit hath only withdrawn for a space, it shall return to a 
 body with a dislocated neck." 
 
 His conunands were obeyed. Bamomy and Bonthron were 
 then ordered for execution. The last was hanged before he 
 seemed quite to comprehend what was designed to be done 
 with him. Eajnorny, pale as death, yet with the same spirit 
 of pride which had occasioned his ruin, pleaded his knight- 
 hood, and demanded the privilege of dying by decapitation by 
 the sword, and not by the noose. 
 
 " The Douglas never alters his doom," said Balveny. " But 
 thou shalt have all thy rights. Send the cook hither with a 
 cleaver." The menial whom he called appeared at his sum- 
 mons. "What shakest thou for, fellow?" said Balveny; 
 "here, strike me this man's gilt spurs from his heels with 
 thy cleaver. And now, John Eamomy, thou art no longer a 
 knight, but a knave. To the halter with him, provost- 
 marshal! hang him betwixt his companions, and higher than 
 them if it may be." 
 
 In a quarter of an hour afterwards, Balveny descended to 
 tell the Douglas that the criminals were executed. 
 
 "Then there is no further use in the trial," said the EarL 
 " How say you, good men of inquest, were these men guilty 
 of high treason — ay or no?" 
 
 "GuUty," exclaimed the obsequious inquest, with edifying 
 unanimity, " we need no farther evidence." 
 
 "Soimd trumpets, and to horse then, with our own train 
 cnly; and let each man keep silence on what has chanced 
 here, until the proceedings shall be laid before the King, 
 which cannot conveniently be till the battle of Pahn Sunday 
 BhaU be fought and ended. Select our attendants, and teU 
 each man who either goes with us or remains behind that he 
 who prates dies." 
 
 In a few minutes the Douglas was on horseback, with the 
 followers selected to attend his person. Expresses were sent 
 to his daughter, the widowed Duchess of Eothsay, directing 
 her to take her course to Perth, by the shores of Lochleven, 
 without approaching Falkland, and committing to her charge 
 
460 WAVBRLEY NOVELS. 
 
 Catharine Glover and the gtae-woman, as persons whose safety 
 he tendered. 
 
 As they rode through the forest, they looked hack, and be- 
 held the three bodies hangiag, like'specks darkeniag the walls 
 of the old castle. 
 
 "The hand is punished," said Douglas, "but who shall 
 arraign the head by whose direction the act was done?" 
 
 " You mean the Duke of Albany?" said Balveny. 
 
 " I do, kinsman ; and were I to listen to the dictates of my 
 heart, I would charge him with the deed, which I am certain 
 he has authorised. But there is no proof of it beyond strong 
 suspicion, and Albany has attached to himself the numerous 
 friends of the house of Stuart, to whom, indeed, the imbecility 
 of the King and the HL-regulated habits of Eothsay left no 
 other choice of a leader. Were I, therefore, to break the 
 band which I have so lately formed with Albany, the conse- 
 quence must be civU war, an event ruinous to poor Scotland 
 while threatened by invasion from the activity of the Percy, 
 backed by the treachery of March. No, Balveny, the punish- 
 ment of Albany must rest with Heaven, which, in its own 
 good time, wiU execute judgment on him and on his house." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXin. 
 
 The hour is nigh : now hearts beat high ; 
 
 Bach sword is sharpen'd well ; 
 And who dares die, who stoops to fly. 
 
 To-morrow's light shall tell. 
 
 Sir Ed/wald, 
 
 We are now to recall to our reader's recollection, that 
 riimon Glover and his fair daughter had been hurried from 
 their residence without having time to announce to Henry 
 Smith either their departure or the alarming cause of it. 
 When, therefore, the lover appeared in Curfew Street, on the 
 morning of their flight, mstead of the hearty welcome of the 
 honest burgher, and the April reception, half joy half censure, 
 which he had been promised on the part of his lovely daughter, 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 461 
 
 he received only the astounding intelligence, that her f athei 
 and she had set off early, on the summons of a stranger, who 
 had kept himself carefully mufled from observation. To this, 
 Dorothy, whose talents for forestaUiag evil, and communicat-. 
 ing her views of it, are known to the reader, chose to add, 
 that she had no doubt her master and young mistress were 
 bound for the Highlands, to avoid a visit which had been, 
 made since their departure by two or three apparitors, who, 
 in the name of a Commission appointed by the King, had 
 searched the house, put seals upon such places as were sup- 
 posed to contain papers, and left citations for father and 
 daughter to appear before the Court of Commission, on a day 
 certain, under pain of outlawry. AU these alarming par- 
 ticulars Dorothy took care to state in the gloomiest colours, 
 and the only consolation which she afforded the alarmed lover 
 was, that her master had charged her to tell him to reside 
 quietly at Perth, and that he should soon hear news of them. 
 This checked the smith's first resolve, which was to foUow 
 them instantly to the Highlands, and partake the fate which 
 they might encounter. 
 
 But when he recollected his repeated feuds with divers of 
 the Clan Quhele, and particularly his personal quarrel with 
 Conachar, who was now raised to be a high chief, he could not 
 but think, on reflection, that his intrusion on their place of 
 retirement was more likely to disturb the safety which they 
 might otherwise enjoy there than be of any service to them. 
 He was well acquainted with Simon's habitual intimacy with 
 the chief of the Clan Quhele, and justly augured that the 
 glover would obtain protection, which his own arrival might 
 be likely to disturb, whUe his personal prowess could little 
 avail him in a quarrel with a whole tribe of vindictive moun- 
 taineers. At the same time his heart throbbed with indigna- 
 tion, when he thought of Catharine being within the absolute 
 power of young Conachar, whose rivalry he could not doubt, 
 and who had now so many means of urging his suit. What 
 if the young chief should make the safety of the father 
 depend on the favour of the daughter? He distrusted not 
 Catharine's affections ; but then her mode of thinking was so 
 
i62 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 disinterested, and her attaclunent to her father so tender, tnat, 
 if the love she bore her suitor was weighed against his secur- 
 ity, or perhaps his life, it was matter of deep and awful doubt 
 whether it might not be found light in the balance. Tor- 
 mented by thoughts on which we need not dwell, he resolved 
 aevertheless to remain at home, stifle his anxiety as he might, 
 aaid await the promised intelligence from the old man. It 
 came, but it did not relieve his concern. 
 
 Sir Patrick Charteris had not forgotten his promise to com- 
 municate to the smith the plans of the fugitives. But, amid 
 the bustle occasioned by the movement of troops, he could not 
 himself convey the intelligence. He therefore entrusted to 
 his agent, Kitt Henshaw, the task of making it known. But 
 this worthy person, as the reader knows, was in the interest 
 of Eamorny, whose business it was to conceal from every one, 
 but especially from a lover so active and daring as Henry, the 
 real place of Catharine's residence. Henshaw therefore an- 
 nounced to the anxious smith that his friend the glover was 
 secure in the Highlands ; and though he affected to be more 
 reserved on the subject of Catharine, he said little to contra- 
 dict the belief that she as well as Simon shared the protection 
 of the Clan Quhele. But he reiterated, in the name of Sir 
 Patrick, assurances that father and daughter were both well, 
 and that Henry would best consult his own interest and their 
 safety by remaining quiet and waiting the course of events. 
 
 With an agonized heart, therefore, Henry Gow determined 
 to remain quiet tUl he had more certain intelligence, and em- 
 ployed himself in finishing a shirt of mail, which he intended 
 should be the best tempered and the most finely polished that 
 his skilful hands had ever executed. This exercise of his craft 
 pleased him better than any other occupation which he could 
 have adopted, and served as an apology for secluding himself 
 in his workshop, and shunning society, where the idle reports 
 which were daily circulated served only to perplex and disturb 
 him. He resolved to trust in the warm regard of Simon, the 
 faith of his daughter, and the friendship of the provost, who, 
 having so highly commended his valour in the combat with 
 Bonthron, would never, he thought, desert him at this ex' 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. *63 
 
 iremity of his fortunes. Time, however, passed on day by 
 day; and it was not till Palm Sunday was near approaohiag, 
 that Sir Patrick Charteris, having entered the city to make 
 some arrangements for the ensuing combat, bethought himself 
 of making a visit to the Smith of the Wynd. 
 
 He entered his workshop with an air of sympathy unusual 
 to him, and which made Henry instantly augur that he brought 
 bad news. The smith caught the alarm, and the uplifted 
 hammer was arrested in its descent upon the heated iron, 
 while the agitated arm that wielded it, strong before as that 
 of a giant, became so powerless, that it was with difficulty 
 Henry was able to place the weapon on the ground, instead of 
 dropping it from his hand. 
 
 "My poor Henry," said Sir Patrick, "I bring you but cold 
 news ; they are uncertain, however, and, if true, they are such 
 as a brave man like you should not take too deeply to heart." 
 
 "In God's name, my lord," said Henry, "I trust you bring 
 no evil news of Simon Glover or his daughter?" 
 
 "Touching themselves," said Sir Patrick, "no; they are 
 safe and well. But as to thee, Henry, my tidings are more 
 cold. Kitt Henshaw has, I think, apprised thee that I had 
 endeavoured to provide Catharine Glover with a safe protec- 
 tion in the house of an honourable lady, the Duchess of Eoth- 
 say. But she hath declined the charge, and Catharine hath 
 been sent to her father in the Highlands. What is worst is 
 to come. Thou mayest have heard that Gilchrist Maclan is 
 dead, and that his son Eachin, who was known in Perth as 
 the apprentice of old Simon, by the name of Conachar, is now 
 the chief of Clan Quhele; and I heard from one of my 
 domestics that there is a strong rumour among the Maclans 
 that the young chief seeks the hand of Catharine in marriage. 
 My domestic learned this — as a secret, however — while in tha 
 Breadalbane country, on some arrangements touching the 
 ensuing combat. The thing is uncertain; but, Henry, it 
 wears a face of likelihood. ' 
 
 "Did your lordship's servant see Simon Glover and his 
 daughter?" said Henry, struggling for breath, and coughing 
 to conceal from the provost the excess of his agitation. 
 
464 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 "He did not," said Sir Patrick; "the Highlanders seemed! 
 jealous, and refused to permit him to speak to the old man, 
 and he feared to alarm them by asking to see Catharine. Be- 
 sides, he talks no Gaelic, nor had his informer much English, 
 so there may be some mistake in the matter. Nevertheless, 
 there is such a report, and I thought it best to tell it you. 
 But you may be ■well assured that the ■wedding cannot go on 
 till the affair of Palm Sunday be over; and I advise you to 
 take no step till we learn the circumstances of the matter, for 
 certainty is most desirable, even when it is painful. Go you 
 to the council-house," he added, after a pause, "to speak 
 about the preparations for the lists in the North Inch? You 
 ■win be welcome there." 
 
 "No, my good lord." 
 
 " Well, Smith, I judge by your brief answer that you aie 
 discomposed with this matter; but, after all, women are 
 weathercocks, that is the truth on't. Solomon and others 
 have proved it before you." 
 
 And so Sir Patrick Charteris retired, fully convinced he had 
 discharged the office of a comforter in the most satisfactory 
 manner. 
 
 With very different impressions did the unfortunate lover 
 regard the tidings and listen to the consoling commentary. 
 
 " The provost," he said bitterly to himself, " is an excellent 
 man; marry, he holds his knighthood so high, that, if he 
 speaks nonsense, a poor man must hold it sense, as he must 
 praise dead ale if it be handed to him in his lordship's silver 
 flagon. How would all this soimd in another situation? 
 Suppose I were rolling do'wn the steep descent of the Corrichie 
 Dhu, and before I came to the edge of the rock, comes my 
 Lord Provost, and cries: 'Henry, there is a deep precipice, 
 and I grieve to say you are in the fair way of roUiag over it. 
 But be not do-wncast, for Heaven may send a stone or a bush 
 to stop your progress. However, I thought it would be com- 
 fort to you to know the worst, which you will be presently 
 aware of. I do not know how many hundred feet deep the 
 precipice descends, but you may form a judgment when you 
 are at the bottom, for certainty is certainty, And harkye, 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 465 
 
 yrhen come you to take a game at bowls?' And this gossip is 
 to serve instead of any friendly attempt to save the poor 
 wight's neekl When I think of this, I could go mad, seize 
 my hammer, and break and destroy all around me. But I 
 will be cahn} and if this Highland kite, who calls himself a 
 falcon, should stoop at my turtle-dove, he shall know whether 
 a burgess of Perth can draw a bow or not." 
 
 It was now the Thursday before the fated Palm Sunday, 
 and the champions on either side were expected to arrive the 
 next day, that they might have the interval of Saturday to 
 rest, refresh themselves, and prepare for the combat. Two or 
 three of each of the contending parties were detached to re- 
 ceive directions about the encampment of their little band, and 
 such other instructions as might be necessary to the proper 
 ordering of the field. Henry was not, therefore, surprised at 
 seeing a tall and powerful Highlander peering anxiously about 
 the wynd in which he lived, in the manner in which the 
 natives of a wild country examine the curiosities of one that 
 is more civUized. - The smith's heart rose against the man on 
 account of his country, to which our Perth burgher bore a 
 natural prejudice, and more especially as he observed the in- 
 dividlial wear the plaid peculiar to the Clan Quhele. The 
 sprig of oak-leaves, worked iu silk, intimated also that the 
 individual was one of those personal guards of young Eachin, 
 upon whose exertions in the future battle so much reliance was 
 placed by those of their clan. 
 
 Having observed so much, Henry withdrew into his smithy, 
 for the sight of the man raised his passion; and, knowing 
 that the Highlander came plighted to a solemn combat, and 
 could not be the subject of any inferior quarrel, he was resolved 
 at least to avoid friendly intercourse with him. In a few 
 minutes, however, the door of the smithy flew open, and, flut- 
 tering in his tartans, which greatly magnified his actual size, 
 the Gael entered with the haughty step of a man conscious of 
 a personal dignity superior to anything which he is likely to 
 meet with. He stood looking around him, and seemed to 
 expect to be received with courtesy and regarded with wonder. 
 But Henry had no sort of inclination to indulge his vanity, 
 30 
 
466 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 and kept hammering avay at a breastplate which was ly mg upon 
 his anvil as if he were not aware of his visitor's presence. 
 
 "You are the Gow Chrom?" (the handy-legged smith), 
 said the Highlander. 
 
 " Those that wish to be crook-backed call me so," answered 
 Henry, 
 
 "'Eo offence meant," said the Highlander;, "but her own 
 self comes to buy an armour." 
 
 "Her own self's bare shanks may trot hence with her," 
 answered Henry; "I have none to sell." 
 
 " If it was not within two days of Pabn Sunday, herself 
 would make you sing another song," retorted the G-ael. 
 
 "And being the day it is," said Henry, with the same con- 
 temptuous indifference, " I pray you to stand out of my light." 
 
 " You are an uncivil person ; but her own self is Jir nan ord 
 too; and she knows the smith is fiery when the iron is hot." 
 
 " If her nainseU be hammerman herseU, her nainsell may 
 make her nain harness," replied Henry. 
 
 " And so her nainsell would, and never fash you for the 
 matter; but it is said, Gow Chrom, that you sing and whistle 
 tunes over the swords and hamishes that you work, that have 
 power to make the blades cut steel-links as if they were paper, 
 and the plate and mail turn back steel-lances as if they were 
 boddle prins?" 
 
 " They tell your ignorance any nonsense that Christian men 
 refuse to believe," said Henry. "I whistle at my work 
 whatever comes uppermost, like an honest craftsman, and 
 commonly it is the Highlandman's *Och hone for Houghman- 
 Btares!' ' My hammer goes naturally to that tune." 
 
 " IViend, it is but idle to spur a horse when his legs are 
 hamshackled," said the Highlander, haughtily. "Her own 
 self cannot fight even now, and there is little gallantry in 
 taunting her thus." 
 
 "By naUs and hammer, you are right there," said the 
 smith, altering his tone. " But speak out at once, friend, what 
 is it thou wouldst have of me? I am in no humour for dal' 
 lying." 
 
 'SeeNoteSr 
 
THE FAIB MAID OF PERTH. 467 
 
 "A hauberk for her chief, Eachin Maclan," said the High- 
 lander. 
 
 "You are a hammerman, you say? Are you a judge of 
 this?" said our smith, producing from a chest the mail shirt 
 on which he had been lately employed. 
 
 The Gael handled it with a degree of admiration which had 
 something of envy in it. He looked curiously at every part 
 of its texture, and at length declared it the very best piece of 
 armour that he had ever seen. 
 
 " A hundred cows and bullocks and a good drift of sheep 
 would be e'en ower cheap an offer," said the Highlandman, 
 by way of tentative; "but her nainsell will never bid thee 
 less, come by them how she can." 
 
 "It is a fair proffer," replied Henry; "but gold nor gear 
 wUl never buy that harness. I want to try my own sword on 
 my own armour, and I wiU. not give that mail-coat to any one 
 but who will face me for the best of three blows and a thrust 
 in the fair field; and it is your chief's upon these terms." 
 
 " Hut, prut, man — ^take a drink and go to bed, " said the 
 Highlander, ia great scorn. "Are ye mad? Think ye the 
 captain of the Clan Quhele wiU be brawliag and battling with 
 a bit Perth burgess body like you? Whisht, man, and 
 hearken. Her nainsell will do ye mair credit than ever be- 
 longed to your kin. She wUl fight you for the fair harness 
 hersell." 
 
 " She must first show that she is my match," said Henry, 
 with a grim smile. 
 
 " Howl I, one of Eachin Maclaa's leichtach, and not your 
 natch!" 
 
 " You may try me, if you wUl. You say you are z,jw nan 
 onL Do you know how to cast a sledge-hammer?" 
 
 " Ay, truly — ask the eagle if he can fly over Farragon." 
 
 " But before you strive with me, you must first try a cast 
 with one of mtf leichtach. Here, Dunter, stand forth for the 
 honour of Perth I And now, Highlandman, there stands a 
 row of hammers; choose which you will, and let us to the 
 garden." 
 
 The Highlander, whose name was Norman nan Ord, or 
 
468 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 Norman of the Hammer, showed his title to the epithet by 
 eeleeting the largest hammer of the set, at which Henry 
 emUed. Dunter, the stout journeyman of the smith, made 
 what was called a prodigious cast; but the Highlander, mak- 
 ing a desperate effort, threw beyond it by two or three feet, 
 and looked with an air of triumph to Henry, who again smiled 
 in reply. 
 
 " Win you mend that?" said the Gael, offering our smith 
 the hammer. 
 
 "Not with that child's toy," said Henry, "which has 
 scarce weight to fly against the wind. Jannekin, fetch me 
 Sampson; or one of you help the boy, for Sampson is some- 
 what ponderous." 
 
 The hammer now produced was half as heavy again as that 
 which the Highlander had selected as one of unusual weight. 
 Norman stood astonished; but he was stUl more so when 
 Henry, taking his position, swung the ponderous implement 
 far behind his right haunch joint, and dismissed it from his 
 hand as if it had flown from a warlike engine. The air 
 groaned and whistled as the mass flew through it. Down at 
 length it came, and the iron head sunk a foot into the earth, 
 a full yard beyond the cast of Norman, 
 
 The Highlander, defeated and mortified, went to the spot 
 where the weapon lay, lifted it, poised it in his hand with 
 great wonder, and examined it closely, as if he expected to 
 discover more in it than a common hammer. He at length 
 returned it to the owner with a melancholy smUe, shrugging 
 his shoulders and shaking his head as the smith asked him 
 •whether he would not mend his cast. 
 
 "Norman has lost too much at the sport already," he 
 replied. " She has lost her own name of the Hammerer. 
 But does her own self, the Gow Chrom, work at the anvil 
 with that horse's load of iron?" 
 
 "You shall see, brother," said Henry, leading the way to 
 the smithy. "Dunter," he said, "rax me that bar from the 
 furnace" ; and uplifting Sampson, as he called the monstrous 
 hammer, he plied the metal with a hundred strokes from right 
 to left — now with, the right hand, now with the left, now with 
 
THE PAIR MAID OP PERTH. 469 
 
 both, ■with so much strength at once and dexterity, that ha 
 worked off a small hut beautifully proportioned horse-shoe ia 
 half the time that an ordinary smith would have taken for the 
 same purpose, using a more manageable implement. 
 
 "Oigh — oighl" said the Highlander, "and what for would 
 you be fighting with our young chief, who is far above your 
 standard, though you were the best smith ever wrought with 
 wind and fire?" 
 
 "Hark you!" said Henry; "you seem a good fellow, and 
 I'U tell you the truth. Your master has wronged me, and I 
 give him this harness freely for the chance of fighting him 
 myseK. " 
 
 " Ifay, if he hath wronged you he must meet you, " said the 
 life-guardsman. "To do a man wrong takes the eagle's 
 feather out of the chief's bonnet; and were he the first in the 
 Highlands, and to be sure so is Eachin, he must fight the man 
 he has wronged, or else a rose falls from his chaplet." 
 
 " Will you move him to this," said Henry, " after the fight 
 on Sunday?" 
 
 " Oh, her nainsell will do her best, if the hawks have not 
 got her nainsell' s bones to pick; for you must know, brother, 
 that Clan Chattan's claws pierce rather deep." 
 
 " The armour is your chief's on that condition," said Henry; 
 " but I will disgrace him before king and court if he does not 
 pay me the price." 
 
 " Deil a fear — deU. a fear ; I wiU bring him in to the barrace 
 myself," said Norman, "assuredly." 
 
 "You will do me a pleasure," replied Henry; "and that 
 you may remember your promise, I wiU bestow on you this 
 dirk. Look — if you hold it truly, and can strike between the 
 mail-hood and the collar of your enemy, the surgeon will be 
 needless." 
 
 The Highlander was lavish in his expressions of gratitude, 
 and took his leave. 
 
 "I have given him the best mail harness I ever wrought," 
 said the smith to himself, rather repenting his liberality, " for 
 the poor chance that he wiU bring his chief into a fair field 
 with me: and then let Catharine be his who can win her 
 
470 WAVEBLEY NOVELS. 
 
 fairly. But much. I dread the youth will find some evasion, 
 unless he have such luck on Palm Sunday as may induce him 
 to try another combat. That is some hope, however; for I 
 have often, ere now, seen a raw young fellow shoot up after 
 his first fight from a dwarf into a giant-queUer." 
 
 Thus, with little hope, but with the most determined reso- 
 lution, Henry Smith awaited the time that should decide his 
 fate. What made him augur the worst was the silence both 
 of the glover and of his daughter. " They are ashamed," he 
 said, "to confess the truth to me, and therefore they are 
 Bilent." 
 
 Upon the Priday at noon, the two bands of thirty men 
 each, representing the contending clans, arrived at the several 
 points where they were to halt for refreshments. 
 
 The Clan Quhele was entertained hospitably at the rich 
 abbey of Scone, while ^the provost regaled their rivals at his 
 Castle of Kiufauns, the utmost care being taken to treat both 
 parties with the most punctilious attention, and to afford 
 neither an opportunity of complaining of partiality. All 
 points of etiquette were, in the mean while, discussed and 
 settled by the Lord High Constable Errol and the young Earl 
 of Crawford, the former acting on the part of the Clan Chattan 
 and the latter patronising the Clan Quhele. Messengers were 
 passing continually from the one earl to the other, and they 
 held more than six meetings within thirty hours, before the 
 ceremonial of the field could be exactly arranged. 
 
 Meanwhile, in case of revival of ancient quarrel, many seeds 
 of which existed betwixt the burghers and their mountain 
 neighbours, a proclamation commanded the citizens not to 
 approach within half a mile of the place where the High- 
 landers were quartered; while on their part the intended com- 
 batants were prohibited from approaching Perth without 
 special license. Troops were stationed to enforce this order, 
 who did their charge so scrupulously as to prevent Simon 
 Glover himself, burgess and citizen of Perth, from approach- 
 ing the town, because he owned having come thither at the 
 same time with the champions of Eachin Maclan, and wore a 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 471 
 
 plaid around him of their check or pattern. This interrup- 
 tion prevented Simon from seeking out Henry Wynd, and 
 possessing him with a true knowledge of aU that had happened 
 since their separation, which intercourse, had it taken place, 
 must have materially altered the catastrophe of our narrative. 
 
 On Saturday afternoon another arrival took place, which 
 interested the city almost as much as the preparations for 
 the expected combat. This was the approach of the Earl 
 Douglas, who rode through the town with a troop of only 
 thirty horse, but all of whom were knights and gentlemen of 
 the first consequence. Men's eyes followed this dreaded peer 
 as they pursue the flight of an eagle through the clouds, 
 unable to ken the course of the bird of Jove, yet sUent, atten- 
 tive, and as earnest in observing him as if they could guess 
 the object for which he sweeps through the firmament. He 
 rode slowly through the city, and passed out at the northern 
 gate. He next alighted at the Dominican convent, and desired 
 to see the Duke of Albany. The Earl was introduced in- 
 stantly, and received by the Duke with a manner which was 
 meant to be graceful and conciliatory, but which could not 
 conceal both art and inquietude. "When the first greetings 
 were over, the Earl said with great gravity: "I bring you 
 melancholy news. Your Grace's royal nephew, the Duke of 
 Eothsay, is no more, and I fear hath perished by some foul 
 practices." 
 
 " Practices !" said the Duke, in confusion — " what practices? 
 Who dared practise on the heir of the Scottish throne?" 
 
 *"Tis not for me to state how these doubts arise," said 
 Douglas; "but men say the eagle was killed with an arrow 
 fledged from his own wing, and the oak trunk rent by a wedge 
 of the same wood." 
 
 "Earl of Douglas," said fihe Duke of Albany, "I am no 
 reader of riddles." 
 
 " Nor am I a propounder of them," said Douglas, haughtily. 
 "Your Grace will find particulars in these papers worthy of 
 iperusal. I wiU go for half an hour to the cloister gardo^' 
 tmd then rejoin you." 
 
 * See Gardens of the Dominicans. Note 58, 
 
472 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 « You go not to the King, my lord?" said Albany. 
 
 "1^0," answered Douglas} "I trust your Grace will agre« 
 with me that we should conceal this great family misfortuna 
 from our sovereign till the business of to-morrow be decided." 
 
 "I willingly agree," said Albany. "If the King heard of 
 this loss, he could not witness the combat; and if he appea* 
 not in person, these men axe likely to refuse to fight, and tha 
 whole work is cast loose. But I pray you sit down, my 
 lord, while I read these melancholy papers respecting poor 
 Eothsay." 
 
 He passed the papers through his hands, turning some over 
 with a hasty glance, and dwelliug on others as if their con- 
 tents had been of the last importance. When he had spent 
 nearly a quarter of an hour in this manner, he raised his eyes, 
 and said very gravely: "My lord, in these most melancholy 
 documents, it is yet a comfort to see nothing which can renew 
 the divisions in the King's councils, which were settled by the 
 last solemn agreement between your lordship and ihyself . My 
 unhappy nephew was by that agreement to be set aside, until 
 time should send him a graver judgment. He is now removed 
 by Fate, and our purpose ia that matter is anticipated and 
 rendered unnecessary." 
 
 "If your Grace," replied the Earl, "sees nothing to disturb 
 the good nnderstending which the tranquillity and safety of 
 Scotland require should exist between us, I am not so ill a 
 friend of my country as to look closely for such." 
 
 "I understand you, my Lord of Douglas," said Albany, 
 eagerly. " You hastily judged that I should be offended with 
 your lordship for exercising your powers of lieutenancy, and 
 punishing the detestable murderers within my territory of 
 Falkland. Credit me, on the contrary, I am obliged to your 
 lordship for taking out of my hands the punishment of these 
 wretches, as it would have broken my heart even to have 
 looked on them. The Scottish Parliament will inquire, doubt- 
 less, into this sacrilegious deed; and happy am I that the 
 avenging sword has been iu the hand of a man so important 
 as your lordship. Our conmiunication together, as your lord- 
 ship must well recollect, bore only concerning a proposed re 
 
THE PAIR MAID OP PERTH. 473 
 
 etcaint of my unfortunate nephew until the advance of a, year 
 or two had taught him discretion?" 
 
 " Such fras certainly your Grace's purpose, as expressed to 
 me," said the Earl; "I can safely avouch it." 
 
 " "Why, then, noble ea.' \ we cannot be censured because vil- 
 lains, for their own revengeful ends, appear to have engrafted 
 a bloody termination on our honest purpose?" 
 
 "The Parliament will judge it after their wisdom," said 
 Douglas. "For my part, my conscience acquits me." 
 
 "And mine assoilzies me," said the Duke with solemnity. 
 "Now, my lord, touching the custody of the boy James,' who 
 succeeds to his father's claims of inheritance?" 
 
 "The King must decide it," said Douglas, impatient of the 
 conference. " I will consent to his residence anywhere save 
 at Stirling, Doiine, or Falkland." 
 
 With that he left the apartment abruptly. 
 
 "He is gone," muttered the crafty Albany, "and he must 
 be my ally, yet feels himself disposed to be my mortal foe. 
 No matter, Eothsay sleeps with his fathers, James may follow 
 in time, and then — a crown is the recompense of my per- 
 plexities," 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Thretty for thtetty fancht in barrerlB, 
 At Banct Johnstonn on a day besyde the black ireris. 
 
 Wyntouw. 
 
 Paim Sundat now dawned. At an earlier period of the 
 Christian Church, the use of any of the days of Passion Week 
 for the purpose of combat would have been accounted a pro- 
 fanity worthy of exconmnmication. The Church of Eome, to 
 her iufinite honour, had decided that during the holy season 
 of Easter, when the redemption of man from his fcJlen state 
 was accomplished, the sword of war should be sheathed, and 
 angry monarchs should respect the season termed the Truce of 
 
 • Second son of Robert HI., brother of the unfortunate Duke of Bothsay, 
 •nd afterwards King James I. of Scotland. 
 
474 WAVBRLET K0VEL8. 
 
 God. The ferocious violence of tlie latter wars betwixt Scotlstncl 
 and England had destroyed all observance of this decent and re- 
 ligious ordinance. Very often the most solemn occasions wera 
 chosen by one party for an attack, because they hoped to find 
 the other engaged in religious dutias and unprovided for de- 
 fence. Thus the truce, once considered as proper to the sea- 
 son, had been discontinued; and it became not unusual even 
 to select the sacred festivals of the church for decision of the 
 trial by combat, to which this intended contest bore a consid- 
 erable resemblance. 
 
 On the present occasion, however, the duties of the day 
 were observed with the usual solemnity, and the combatants 
 themselves took share in them. Bearing branches of yew ia 
 their hands, as the readiest substitute for palm boughs, they 
 marched respectively to the Dominican and Carthusian con- 
 vents, to hear High Mass, and, by a show at least of devotion, 
 to prepare themselves for the bloody strife of the day. Great 
 care had of course been taken that, during this march, they 
 should not even come within the soimd of each other's bag- 
 pipes; for it was certain that, like game-cocks exchanging 
 mutual notes of defiance, they would have sought out and at- 
 tacked each other before they arrived at the place of combat. 
 
 The citizens of Perth crowded to see the unusual procession 
 on the streets, and thronged the churches where the two clans 
 attended their devotions, to witness their behaviour, and to 
 form a judgment from th3ir appearance which was most likely 
 to obtain the advantage in the approaching conflict. Their 
 demeanour in the church, although not habitual frequenters 
 of places of devotion, was perfectly decorous; and, notwith- 
 standing their wild and imtamed dispositions, there were few 
 of the mountaineers who seemed affected either with curiosity 
 or wonder. They appeared to *:hihk it beneath their dignity 
 of character to testify either curiosity or surprise at many 
 things which were probably then presented to them for the 
 first time. 
 
 On the issue of the combat, few even of the most competent 
 judges dared venture a prediction ; although the great size of 
 TorquH and his eight stalwart sons induced some who pro' 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. <t75 
 
 fessed ttemselves judges of the thewes and sinews of men to 
 incline to ascribe the advantage to the party of the Claa 
 Quhele. The opinion of the female sex was much decided by 
 the handsome form, noble countenance, and gallant demeanour 
 of Eachin Maclan. There were more than one who imagined 
 they had recollection of his features; but his splendid mili- 
 tary attire rendered the humble glover's apprentice unreoog- 
 inisable in the young Highland chief, saving by one person. 
 
 That person, as may weU. be supposed, was the Smith of 
 the Wynd, who had been the foremost in the crowd that 
 thronged to see the gallant champions of Clan Quhele. It was 
 with mingled feelings of dislike, jealousy, and something ap- 
 proaching to admiration that he saw the glover's apprentice 
 stripped of his mean slough, and blazuig forth as a chieftain, 
 who, by his quick eye and gallant demeanour, the noble shape 
 of his brow and throat, his splendid arms and well-propor- 
 tioned limbs, seemed weU worthy to hold the foremost rank 
 among men selected to live or die for the honour of their 
 race. The smith could hardly think that he looked upon the 
 same passionate boy whom he had brushed off as he might a 
 wasp that stung him, and, in mere compassion, forebore to 
 despatch by treading on him. 
 
 "He looks it gallantly with my noble hauberk," thus mut- 
 tered Henry to himself, " the best I ever wrought. Yet, if 
 he and I stood together where there was neither hand to help 
 nor eye to see, by all that is blessed in this holy church, the 
 good harness should return to its owner I AH that I am worth 
 would I give for three fair blows on his shoulders to undo my 
 own best work; but such happiaess wiU. never be mine. If 
 he escape from the conflict, it wiU be with so high a char- 
 acter for courage, that he may well disdain to put his fortunoj 
 in its freshness, to the risk of an encounter with a poor bur- 
 gess like myself. He will fight by his champion, and turn 
 me over to my fellow-craftsman the hammerer, when all I can 
 reap will be the pleasure of knocking a Highland buUock on 
 the head. If I could but see Simon Glover I I wiU to the 
 other church in quest of him, since for sure he must have 
 come down from the Highlands." 
 
476 WAVEELET NOVELS. 
 
 The congregation was moving from tlie cliurch of tlie Do- 
 minicans wlien the smith formed this determination, which he 
 endeavoured to carry into speedy execution, by thrusting 
 through the crowd as hastily as the solemnity of the place 
 and occasion would permit. In making his way through the 
 press, he was at one instant carried so close to Eachin that 
 their eyes encountered. The smith's hardy and embrowned 
 countenance coloured up like the heated iron on which he 
 wrought, and retained its dark red hue for several minutes. 
 Eachin's features glowed with a brighter blush of indigna' 
 tion, and a glance of fiery hatred was shot from his eyes. 
 But the sudden flush died away in ashy paleness, and his gaze 
 instantly avoided the unfriendly but steady look with which 
 it was encountered. 
 
 Torquil, whose eye never quitted his foster-son, saw his 
 emotion, and looked anxiously around to discover the cause. 
 But Henry was already at a distance, and hastening on his 
 way to the Carthusian convent. Here also the religious ser- 
 vice of the day was ended; and those who had so lately borne 
 pahns in honour of the great event which brought peace on 
 earth and good-will to the children of men were now stream- 
 ing to the place of combat — some prepared to take the lives 
 of their fellow-creatures or to lose their own, others to view 
 the deadly strife with the savage delight which the heathens 
 took in the contests of their gladiators. 
 
 The crowd was so great that any other person might well 
 have despaired of making way through it. But the general 
 deference entertained for Henry of the Wynd, as the cham- 
 pion of Perth, and the universal sense of his ability to force 
 a passage, induced all to unite in yielding room for him, so 
 that he was presently quite close to the warriors of the Clan 
 Chattan. Their pipers marched at the head of their column. 
 Kext followed the weU-known banner, displaying a mountain- 
 cat rampant, with the appropriate caution, "Touch not the 
 cat, but (i.e. without) the glove." The chief followed with 
 his two-handed sword advanced, as if to protect the emblem 
 of the tribe. He was a man of middle stature, more than 
 fifty years old, but betraying neither in features nor form any 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 477 
 
 decay of strength or symptoms of age. His dark red close- 
 curled locks were in part chequered by a few grizzled hairs, 
 but his step and gesture were as light in the dance, in the 
 chase, or in jhe battle as if he had not passed his thirtieth 
 year. His grey eye gleamed with a wild light expressive of 
 valour and ferocity miagled; but wisdom and experience dwelt 
 on the expression of his forehead, eyebrows, and lips. The 
 chosen champions followed by two and two. There was a 
 cast of anxiety on several of their faces, for they had that 
 morning discovered the absence of one of their appoiuted 
 number; and, in a contest so desperate as was expected, the 
 loss seemed a matter of importance to all save to their high- 
 mettled chief, MacGillie Chattanach. 
 
 " Say nothing to the Saxons of his absence," said this bold 
 leader, when the dimiaution of his force was reported to him. 
 " The false Lowland tongues might say that one of Clan Chat- 
 tan was a coward, and perhaps that the rest favoured his es- 
 cape, in order to have a pretence to avoid the battle. I am 
 sure that Ferquhard Day will be found in the ranks ere we 
 are ready for battle; or, if he should not, am not I man 
 enough for two of the Clan Quhele? or would we not £ght 
 them fifteen to thirty, rather than lose the renown that this 
 day wiU bring us?" 
 
 The tribe received the brave speech of their leader with ap- 
 plause, yet there were anxious looks thrown out ia hopes of 
 espying the return of the deserter ; and perhaps the chief him- 
 self was the only one of the determined band who was totally 
 indifferent on the subject. 
 
 They marched on through the streets without seeing any- 
 thing of Ferquhard Day, who, many a mile beyond the moun- 
 tains, was busied in receiving such indemnification as suc- 
 cessful love could bestow for the loss of honour. MacGUlie 
 Chattanach marched on without seeming to observe the ab- 
 sence of the deserter, and entered upon the North Inch, a 
 beautiful and level plain, closely adjacent to the city, and 
 appropriated to the martial exercises of the inhabitants. 
 
 The plain is washed on one side by the deep and swelling 
 Tay. There was erected withia it a strong palisade, inclosing 
 
«78 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 on three sides a space of one hundred and fifty yards in length 
 and seventy-four yards in -width. The fourth side of the lists 
 ■was considered as sufficiently fenced by the river. An amphi* 
 theatre for the accommodation of spectators surrounded the 
 palisade, leaving a large space free to be occupied by armed 
 men on foot and horseback, and for the more ordinary class 
 of spectators. At the extremity of the lists -which -was near- 
 est to the city, there was a range of elevated galleries for the 
 King and his courtiers, so highly decorated -with rustic treil- 
 lage, intermingled -with gilded ornaments, that the spot re- 
 tains to this day the name of the Golden, or Gilded, Arbour. 
 
 The mountain minstrelsy, which sounded the appropriate 
 pibrochs or battle-tunes of the rival confederacies, was silent 
 when they entered on the Inch, for such was the order which 
 had been given. Two stately but aged warriors, each bearing 
 the banner of his tribe, advanced to the opposite extremities 
 of the lists, and, pitching their standards into the earth, pre- 
 pared to be spectators of a fight in which they were not to 
 join. The pipers, who were also to be neutral in the strife, 
 took their places by their respective brattaohs. 
 
 The multitude received both bands with the same general 
 shout with which on similar occasions they welcome those 
 from whose exertion they expect amusement, or what they 
 term sport. The destined combatants returned no answer to 
 this greeting, but each party advanced to the opposite extrem- 
 ities of the lists, where were entrances by which they were to 
 be admitted to the interior. A strong body of men-at-arms 
 guarded either access ; and the Earl Marshal at the one and 
 the Lord High Constable at the other carefully examined each 
 individual, to see whether he had the appropriate arms, being 
 ■teel-cap, mail-shirt, two-handed sword, and dagger. They 
 also examined the numbers of each party; and great was the 
 alarm among the multitude when the Earl of Errol held up 
 his hand and cried: "Hoi The combat cannot proceed, for 
 the Clan Chattan lack one of their number." 
 
 "What reck of that?" said the young Earl of Crawford; 
 "they should have counted better ere they left home." 
 
 The Earl Marshal, however, agreed with the Constable 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 479 
 
 that the fight could not proceed until the inequality should 
 be removed; and a general apprehension was 3xcited in the 
 assembled multitude that, after all the preparation, there 
 would be no battle. 
 
 Of all present there were only two perhaps who rejoiced at 
 the prospect of the combat being adjourned, and these were 
 the captain of the Clan Quhele and the tendor-hearted King 
 Eobert. Meanwhile the two chiefs, each attended by a spe- 
 cial friend and adviser, met in the midst of the lists, having, 
 to assist them in determining what was to be done, the Ear I 
 Marshal, the Lord High Constable, the Earl of Crawford, and 
 Sir Patrick Charteris. The chief of the Clan Chattan de- 
 clared himself willing and desirous of fighting upon the spot, 
 without regard to the disparity of numbers. 
 
 "That," said Torquil of the Oak, "Clan Quhele wiU never 
 consent to. You can never win honour from us with the 
 sword, and you seek but a subterfuge, that you may say 
 when you are defeated, as you know you will be, that it was 
 for want of the number of your band fully counted out. But 
 I make a proposal: Ferquhard Day was the youngest of your 
 band, Eaehin Maclan is the youngest of ours; we wiU set 
 him aside in place of the man who has fled from the combat." 
 
 "A most unjust and unequal proposal," exclaimed Toshach 
 Beg, the second, as he might be termed, of MacGillie Chat- 
 tanach. " The life of the chief is to the clan the breath of 
 our nostrils, nor will we ever consent that our chief shall be 
 exposed to dangers which the captain of Clan Quhele does 
 not share." 
 
 Torquil saw with deep anxiety that his plan was about to 
 fail when the objection was made to Hector's being withdrawn 
 from the battle, and he was meditating how to support his 
 proposal, when Eaehin himself interfered. His timidity, it 
 must be observed, was not of that sordid and selfish nature 
 which induces those who are infected by it calmly to submit 
 to dishonour rather than risk danger. On the contrary, he 
 was morally brave, though constitutionally timid, and the 
 shame of avoiding the combat became at the moment more 
 powerful than the fear of facing it. 
 
480 WAVEBLBY NOVELS. 
 
 "I idll not hear," he said, "of a scheme -which will lears 
 my sword sheathed during this day's glorious combat. If I 
 am young in arms, there are enough of brave men around me 
 whom I may imitate if I cannot equal." 
 
 He spoke these words in a spirit which imposed on Torquil, 
 and perhaps on tha young chi^f himself. 
 
 "Now, God bless his noble heart!" said the foster-father to 
 himself. " I was sure the foul spell would be broken throughy 
 and that the tardy spirit which besieged him would fly at the 
 sound of the pipe and the first flutter of the brattach!" 
 
 " Hear me, Lord Marshal," said the Constable, " The houi 
 of combat may not be much longer postponed, for the day ap- 
 proaches to high noon. Let the chief of Clan Chattan take 
 the half -hour which remains, to find, if he can, a substitute 
 for this deserter; if he cannot, let them fight as they stand." 
 
 "Content I am," said the Marshal, "though, as none of his 
 own clan are nearer than fifty miles, I see not how MacGillie 
 Chattanach is to find an auxiliary." 
 
 "That is his business," said the High Constable; "but, if 
 he offers a high reward, there are enough of stout yeomen 
 surroundiug the lists, who will be glad enough to stretch their 
 limbs in such a game as is expected. I myself, did my qual- 
 ity and charge permit, would blythely take a turn of work 
 amongst these wild fellows, and think it fame won." 
 
 They comrmmicated their decision to the Highlanders, and 
 the chief of the Clan Chattan replied : " You have Judged im- 
 partially and nobly, my lords, and I deem myself obliged to 
 follow your direction. So make proclamation, heralds, that, 
 if any one will take his share with Clan Chattan of the honours 
 and chances of this day, he shall have present payment of a 
 gold crown, and liberty to fight to the death in my ranks." 
 
 "You are something chary of your treasure, chief," said 
 the Earl Marshal : " a gold crown is poor payment for such a 
 campaign as is before you." 
 
 "If there be any man willing to fight for honour," replied 
 MacGillie Chattanach, "the price will be enough; and I want 
 not the service of a fellow who draws his sword for gold 
 alone." 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 481 
 
 The jaeralds had made their progress, moving half-yay 
 round the lists, stoppiag from time to time to make procla- 
 mation as they had been directed, without the least apparent 
 disposition on the part of any one to accept of the proffered 
 enlistment. Some sneered at the poverty of the Highlanders, 
 who set so mean a price upon such a desperate service. Others 
 affected resentment, that they should esteem th> blood of citi' 
 zens so lightly. Kone showed the slightest intention to un" 
 dertake the task proposed, until the sound of the proclamation 
 reached Henry of the Wynd, as he stood without the barrier, 
 speaking from time to time with BaiUie Craigdallie, or rather 
 listening vaguely to what the magistrate was saying to him. 
 
 "Ha! what proclaim they?" he cried out. 
 
 "A liberal offer on the part of MacGiUie Chattanach," said 
 Ishe host of the Griffin, " who proposes a gold crown to any 
 one who will turn wUdcat for the day, and be killed a little 
 in his service! That's aU." 
 
 "How!" exclaimed the smith, eagerly, "do they make proc- 
 lamation for a man to fight against the Clan Quhele?" 
 
 " Ay, marry do they," said Griffin; "but I think they wiU 
 find no such fools in Perth." 
 
 He had hardly said the word, when he beheld the smith 
 clear the barriers at a single bound and alight in the lists, 
 saying: "Here am I, sir herald, Henry of the Wynd, willing 
 to do battle on the part of the Clan Chattan. " 
 
 A cry of admiration ran through the multitude, while the 
 grave burghers, not being able to conceive the slightest reason 
 for Henry's behaviour, concluded that his head must be abso- 
 lutely turned with the love of fighting. The provost was 
 especially shocked. 
 
 "Thou art mad," he said, "Henry! Thou hast neither 
 two-handed sword nor shirt of mail." 
 
 "Truly no," said Henry, "for I parted with a mail-shirt, 
 which I had made for myself, to yonder gay chief of the Clan 
 Quhele, who will soon find on his shoulders with what sort of 
 blows I clink my rivets! As for two-handed sword, why, 
 this boy's brand will serve my turn till I can master a heav- 
 ier one." 
 
 9H 
 
482 WAVEKLEY NOVELS. 
 
 "This must not be," said Errol. "Hark thee, armourer, 
 by St. Mary, thou shalt have my MHaa hauberk and good 
 Spanish sword." 
 
 "I thank your noble earlship. Sir Gilbert Hay, but the 
 yoke with which your brave ancestor turned the battle at 
 Lonearty would serve my turn well enough. I am little used 
 to sword or harness that I have not wrought myself, because 
 I do not well know what blows the one will bear out without 
 being cracked or the other lay on without snapping." 
 
 The cry had in the mean while run through the multitude 
 and passed into the town, that the dauntless smith was about 
 to fight without armour, when, just as the fated hour was ap- 
 proaching, the shrill voice of a female was heard screaming 
 for passage through the crowd. The multitude gave place to 
 her importunity, and she advanced, breathless with haste, 
 under the burden of a mail hauberk and a large two-handed 
 sword. The widow of Oliver Proudfute was soon recognised, 
 and the arms which she bore were those of the smith himself, 
 which, occupied by her husband on the fatal evening when he 
 was murdered, had been naturally conveyed to his house with 
 the dead body, and were now, by the exertions of his grateful 
 widow, brought to the lists at a moment when such proved 
 weapons were of the last consequence to their owner. Henry 
 joyfully received the well-known arms, and the widow with 
 trembling haste assisted in putting them on, and then took 
 leave of him, saying: "God for the champion of the widow 
 and orphan, and ill luck to all who come before him!" 
 
 Confident at feeling himself in his well-proved armour, 
 Henry shook himself as if to settle the steel shirt around him, 
 and, imsheathing the two-handed sword, made it flourish over 
 his head, cutting the air through which it whistled in the form 
 of the figure eight with an ease and sleight of hand that proved 
 how powerfully and skilfully he could wield the ponderous 
 weapon. The champions were now ordered to march in their 
 turns around the lists, crossing so as to avoid meeting each 
 other, and making obeisance as they passed the Golden Ar- 
 bour where the King was seated. 
 
 While this course was performing, most of the spectators 
 
THE FAIE MAID OF PERTH. 483 
 
 were again curiously comparing the stature, limbs, and sinews 
 of the two parties, and endeavouring to form a conjecture as 
 to the probable issue of the combat. The feud of a hundred 
 years, with all its acts of aggression and retaliation, was con- 
 centrated in the bosom of each combatant. Their countenances 
 seemed fiercely writhen into the wildest expression of pride, 
 hate, and a desperate purpose of fighting to the very last. 
 
 The spectators murmured a joyful applause, in high-wrought 
 expectation of the bloody game. Wagers were offered and 
 accepted both on the general issue of the conflict and on the 
 feats of particular champions. The clear, frank, and elated 
 look of Henry Smith rendered him a general favourite among 
 the spectators, and odds, to use the modern expression, were 
 taken that he would kill three of his opponents before he him- 
 self fell. Scarcely was the smith equipped for the combat, 
 when the commands of the chiefs ordered the champions into 
 their places ; and at the same moment Henry heard the voice 
 of Simon Grlover issuing from the crowd, who were now silent 
 with expectation, and calling on him : " Harry Smith — Harry 
 Smith, what madness hath possessed thee?" 
 
 " Ay, he wishes to save his hopeful son-in-law that is, or is 
 to be, from the smith's handling," was Henry's first thought; 
 his second was to turn and speak with him ; and his third, 
 that he could on no pretext desert the band which he had 
 joined, or even seem desirous to delay the fight, consistently 
 with honour. 
 
 He turned himself, therefore, to the business of the hour. 
 Both parties were disposed by the respective chiefs in three 
 lines, each containing ten men. They were arranged with 
 such intervals between each individual as offered him scope 
 to wield his sword, the blade of which was five feet long, not 
 including the handle. The second and third lines were to 
 come up as reserves, in case the first experienced disaster. 
 On the right of the array of Clan Quhele, the chief, Eachin 
 Maelan, placed himself in the second line betwixt two'of his 
 foster-brothers. Four of them occupied the right of the first 
 line, whilst the father and two others protected the rear of 
 the beloved chieftain. Torquil, in particular, kept close be- 
 
484 "WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 hind, for tlie purpose of covering him. Thus Eachia stood 
 iu the centre of nine of the strongest men of his band, having 
 four especial defenders in front, one on each hand, and three 
 ia his rear. 
 
 The line of the Clan Chattan was arranged in precisely the 
 same order, only that the chief occupied the centre of the 
 middle rank, instead of beiag on the extreme right. This 
 induced Henry Smith, who saw in the opposing bands only 
 one enemy, and that was the unhappy Eachin, to propose 
 placing himself on the left of the front rank of the Clan 
 Chattan. But the leader disapproved of this arrangement; 
 and having reminded Henry that he owed him obedience, as 
 haviag taken wages at his hand, he commanded him to occupy 
 the space ia the third line immediately behiud himself — a 
 post of honour, certainly, which Henry could not decline, 
 though he accepted of it with reluctance. 
 
 When the clans were thus drawn up opposed to each other, 
 they intimated their feudal animosity and their eagerness to 
 engage by a wild scream, which, uttered by the Clan Quhele, 
 was answered and echoed back by the Clan Chattan, the whole 
 at the same time shaking their swords and menacing each 
 other, as if they meant to conquer the imagination of their 
 opponents ere they mingled in the actual strife. 
 
 At this trying moment, Torquil, who had never feared for 
 himself, was agitated with alarm on the part of his dault, yet 
 consoled by observing that he kept a determined posture, and 
 that the few words which he spoke to his clan were delivered 
 boldly, and weU. calculated to animate them to combat, as ex- 
 pressing his resolution to partake their fate in death or vic- 
 tory. But there was no time for further observation. The 
 trumpets of the King sounded a charge, the bagpipes blew up 
 their screaming and maddening notes, and the combatants, 
 starting forward in regular order, and increasing their pace 
 tiU they came to a smart run, met together in the centre of the 
 ground, as a furious land torrent encounters an advancing tide. 
 
 For an instant or two the front lines, hewing at each other 
 with their long swords, seemed engaged in a succession of 
 single combats ; but the second and third ranks soon came up 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH, 485 
 
 on. either side, actuated alike by the eagerness of hatred arid 
 the thirst of houour, pressed through the iatervals, and ren- 
 dered the scene a tumultuous chaos, over which the huge 
 swords rose and sunk, some stUl glittering, others streaming 
 with blood, appearing, from the wild rapidity with which 
 they were swayed, rather to be put in motion by some com- 
 plicated machinery than to be wielded by human hands. Some 
 of the combatants, too much crowded together to use those 
 long weapons, had already betaken themselves to their pon- 
 iards, and endeavoured to get within the sword-sweep of those 
 opposed to them. In the mean time, blood flowed fast, and 
 the groans of those who fell began to mingle vith the cries of 
 those who fought ; for, according to the manner of the High- 
 landers at all times, they could hardly be said to shout, but 
 to yell. Those of the spectators whose eyes were best accus- 
 tomed to such scenes of blood and confusion could nevertheless 
 discover no advantage yet acquired by either party. The con- 
 flict swayed, indeed, at different intervals forwards or back- 
 wards, but it was only in momentary superiority, which the 
 party who acquired it almost instantly lost by a corresponding 
 exertion on the other side. The wild notes of the pipers were 
 stiU heard above the tumult, and stimulated to farther exer- 
 tions the fury of the combatants. 
 
 At once, however, and as if by mutual agreement, the in- 
 struments sounded a retreat ; it was expressed in wailing notes, 
 which seemed to imply a dirge for the fallen. The two parties 
 disengaged themselves from each other, to take breath for a 
 few minutes. The eyes of the spectators greedily surveyed 
 the shattered array of the combatants as they drew off from 
 the contest, but found it still impossible to decide which had 
 sustained the greater loss. It seemed as if the Clan Chattan 
 had lost rather fewer men than their antagonists ; but in com- 
 pensation, the bloody plaids and shirts of their party (for sev- 
 eral on both sides had thrown their mantles away) showed more 
 wounded men than the Clan Quhele. About twenty of both 
 sides lay on the field dead or dying j and arms and legs lopped 
 off, heads cleft to the chine, slashes deep through the shoulder 
 into the breast, ^bowre^ at pnc? the fury qf t^^e qombat, tl\§ 
 
486 WAVEKLBY NOVELS. 
 
 ghastly character of the weapons used, and the fatal strength 
 of the arms which wielded them. The chief of the Clan 
 Chattaa had behaved himself with the most determined cour- 
 age, and was slightly wounded. Eachin also had fought with 
 spirit, surrounded by his body-guard. His sword was bloody, 
 his bearing bold and warlike; and he smiled when old Tor- 
 quU, folding him in his arms, loaded him with praises and 
 with blessings. 
 
 The two chiefs, after allowing their followers to breathe for 
 the space of about ten miautes, again drew up in their iUes, 
 diminished by nearly one-third of their original number. 
 They now chose their ground nearer to the river than that on 
 which they had formerly encountered, which was encumbered 
 with the wounded and the slain. Some of the former were 
 observed, from time to time, to raise themselves to gain a 
 glimpse of the field, and sink back, most of them to die from 
 the effusion of blood which poured from the terrific gashes 
 inflicted by the claymore. 
 
 Harry Smith was easily distinguished by his Lowland 
 habit, as well as his remaining on the spot where they had 
 first encountered, where he stood leaning on a sword beside a 
 corpse, whose bonneted head, carried to ten yards' distance 
 from the body by the force of the blow which had swept it 
 off, exhibited the oak-leaf, the appropriate ornament of the 
 body-guard of Eachin Maclan. Since he slew this man, Henry 
 had not struck a blow, but had contented himself with ward- 
 ing off many that were dealt at himself, and some which were 
 aimed at the chief. MacGiUie Chattanach became alarmed, 
 when, having given the signal that his men should again draw 
 together, he observed that his powerful recruit remained at a 
 distance from the ranks, and showed little disposition to join 
 them. 
 
 " What ails thee, man?" said the chief. " Can so strong a 
 body have a mean and cowardly spirit? Come, and make in 
 to the combat." 
 
 "You as good as called me hireling but now," replied 
 Henry. "K I am such," pointing to the headless corpse, 
 "I have done enough for my day's wage." 
 
THE PAIR MAID OP PERTH 487 
 
 "He tliat serves me without counting tis hours,' replied 
 the chief, " I reward him without reckoning wages." 
 
 "Then," said the smith, "I fight as a volunteer, and in 
 the post which best likes me." 
 
 "All that is at your own discretion," replied MacGillie 
 Chattanach, who saw the prudence of humouring an auxiliary 
 of such promise. 
 
 "It is enough," said Henry; and, shouldering his heavy 
 weapon, he joined the rest of the combatants with alacrity, 
 and placed himself opposite to the chief of the Clan Quhele. 
 
 It was then, for the first time, .that Eachia showed some 
 tuicertainty. He had long looked up to Henry as the best 
 combatant which Perth and its neighbourhood could briug into 
 the lists. His hatred to him as a rival was mingled with rec- 
 ollection of the ease with which he had once, though unarmed, 
 foiled his own sudden and desperate attack ; and when he be- 
 held him with his eyes fixed in his direction, the dripping 
 sword in his hand, and obviously meditating an attack on him 
 individually, his courage fell, and he gave symptoms of waver- 
 ing, which did not escape his foster-father. 
 
 It was lucky for Eaehin that Torquil was incapable, from 
 the formation of his own temper, and that of those with whom 
 he had lived, to conceive the idea of one of his own tribe, much 
 less of his chief and foster-son, being deficient in animal cour- 
 age. Could he have imagined this, his grief and rage might 
 have driven him to the fierce extremity of taking Eachin's 
 life, to save him from staining his honour. But his mind re- 
 jected the idea that his dault was a personal coward, as some- 
 thing which was monstrous and unnatural. That he was under 
 the influence of enchantment was a solution which superstition 
 had suggested, and he now anxiously, but in a whisper, de- 
 manded of Hector : " Does the spell now darken thy spirit, 
 Eaehin?" 
 
 "Yes, wretch that I am," answered the unhappy youth; 
 "and yonder stands the feU enchanter!" 
 
 "What!" exclaimed TorquU, "and you wear harness of his 
 making? Norman, miserable boy, why brought you that ao- 
 ouTsed mail?" 
 
488 •WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 " If my arrow has flown astray, I can but stoot my life 
 after it, " answered Norman nan Ord. " Stand firm, you shall 
 see me break ihe spell." 
 
 "Yes, stand firm," said Torquil. "He may be a fell en- 
 chanter; but my own ear has heard, and my own tongue has 
 told, that Eachia shall leave the battle whole, free, and un- 
 wounded; let us see the Saxon wizard who can gainsay that. 
 He may be a strong man, but the fair forest of the oai. shall 
 fall, stock and bough, ere he lay a finger on my dault. Ring 
 around him, my sons ; bos air son Machin /" 
 
 The sons of Torquil shouted back the words, which signify, 
 "Death for Hector." 
 
 Encouraged by their devotion, Eachin renewed his spirit, 
 and called boldly to the minstrels of his clan, " Seid suas "— 
 that is, " Strike up." 
 
 The wild pibroch again sounded the onset; but the two 
 parties approached each other more slowly than at first, as 
 men who knew and respected each other's valour. Henry 
 Wynd, in his impatience to begin the contest, advanced be- 
 fore the Clan Chattan and signed to Eachin to come on. Nor- 
 man, however, sprang forward to cover his foster-brother, and 
 there was a general, though momentary, pause, as if both 
 parties were wiUiag to obtain an omen of the fate of .the day 
 from the event of this duel. The Highlander advanced, with 
 his large sword uplifted, as in act to strike ; but, just as he 
 came within sword's length, he dropt the long and. cumbrous 
 weapon, leapt lightly over the smith's sword, as he fetched 
 a cut at him, drew his dagger, and, being thus within Henry's 
 guard, struck him with the weapon (his own gift) on the side 
 of the throat, directiug the blow downwards into the chest, 
 and calling aloud, at the same time, "You. taught me the 
 stab!" 
 
 But Henry Wynd wore Ms own good hauberk, doubly de- 
 fended with a lining of tempered steel. Had he been less 
 surely armed, his combats had been ended for ever. Even as 
 it was, he was slightly wounded. 
 
 "Fool!" he replied, striking Norman a blow with the pom- 
 jjiel of his long sword, which made him stagger backwardg, 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 489 
 
 "you were taught the thrust, but not the parry"; and, fetch- 
 ing a blow at his antagonist, -which cleft his skull through the 
 steel-cap, he strode over the lifeless body to engage the young 
 chief, who now stood open before him. 
 
 But the sonorous voice of Torquil thundered out, " Far eil 
 air son Eachinl" (Another for Hector!) and the two brethren 
 who flanked their chief on each side thrust forward upon 
 Henry, and, striking both at once, compelled him to keep 'the 
 defensive. 
 
 "Forward, race of the tiger-cat I" cried MacGiUie Chat- 
 tanach. "Save the brave Saxon; let these kites feel your 
 talons!" 
 
 Already much wounded, the chief dragged himself up to 
 the smith's assistance, and cut down one of the leichtach, by 
 whom he was assailed. Henry's own good sword rid him of 
 the other. 
 
 "Heist air son Uaehin!" (Again for Hector!) shouted the 
 faithful foster-father, 
 
 "Bos air son Eachin!" (Death for Hector!) answered two 
 more of his devoted sons, and opposed themselves to the fury 
 of the smith and those who had come to his aid; while 
 Eachin, moving towards the left wing of the battle, sought 
 less formidable adversaries, and again, by some show of val- 
 our, revived the sinking hopes of his foEowers. The two 
 children of the oak, who had covered this movement, shared 
 the fate of their brethren ; for the cry of the Clan Chattan 
 chief had drawn to that part of the field some of his bravest 
 warriors. The sons of Torquil did not fall unavenged, but 
 left dreadful marks of their swords on the persons of the 
 dead and living. But the necessity of keeping their most dis- 
 tinguished soldiers around the person of their chief told to 
 disadvantage on the general event of the combat; and so few 
 were now the number who remained fighting, that it was easy 
 to see that the Clan Chattan had fifteen of their number left, 
 though most of them wounded, and that of the Clan Quhele 
 only about ten remained, of whom there were four of the 
 chief's body-guard, including Torquil himself. 
 
 They fought and struggled on, however, and as thek 
 
490 -WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 strength decayed, their fury seemed to increase. Henry 
 Wynd, now wounded in many places, was still hent on break- 
 ing through, or exterminating, the band of bold hearts who 
 continued to fight around the object of his animosity. But 
 stUl the father's shout of "Another for Hector!" was cheer- 
 fully answered by the fatal countersign, " Death for Hector !" 
 and though the Clan Quhele were now outnumbered, the com- 
 bat seemed stiU dubious. It was bodily lassitude alone that 
 again compelled them to another pause. 
 
 The Clan Chattan were then observed to be twelve in 
 number, but two or three were scarce able to stand without 
 leaning on their swords. Eive were left of the Clan Quhele; 
 TorquU. and his youngest son were of the number, both slightly 
 wounded. Eachin alone had, from the vigHanee used to in- 
 tercept all blows levelled against his person, escaped without 
 injury. The rage of both parties had sunk, through exhaus- 
 tion, into sullen desperation. They walked staggering, as if 
 in their sleep, through the carcasses of the slain, and gazed on 
 them, as if again to animate their hatred towards their sur- 
 viving enemies by viewing the friends they had lost. 
 
 The multitude soon after beheld the survivors of the des- 
 perate conflict drawing together to renew the exterminating 
 feud on the banks of the river, as the spot least slippery with 
 blood, and less encumbered with the bodies of the slain. 
 
 " For God's sake — for the sake of the mercy which we daUy 
 pray for," said the kind-hearted old King to the Duke of 
 Albany, " let this be ended ! Wherefore should these wretched 
 rags and remnants of humanity be suffered to complete their 
 butchery? Surely they will now be ruled, and accept of 
 peace on moderate terms?" 
 
 " Compose yourself, my liege, " said his brother. " These 
 men are the pest of the Lowlands. Both chiefs are stDl liv- 
 ing; if they go back unharmed, the whole day's work is cast 
 away. Eemember your promise to the council, that you would 
 not cry 'hold.' " 
 
 " You compel me to a great crime, Albany, both as a king, 
 who should protect his subjects, and as a Christian man. who 
 respects the brother of his faiths" 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 491 
 
 "You judge wrong, my lord," said the Duke: "these aro 
 not loving subjects, but disobedient rebels, as my Lord of, 
 Crawford can bear witness ; and they are still less Christian 
 men, for the prior of the Dominicans will vouch for me that 
 they axe more than half heathen." 
 
 The King sighed deeply. " You must work your pleasure, 
 and ai'e too wise for me to contend with. I can but turn 
 away and shut my eyes from the sights and sounds of a 
 carnage which makes me sicken. But weU I know that 
 God will punish me even for witnessing this waste of human 
 life." 
 
 "Sound, trumpets," said Albany; " their wounds wUl stif- 
 fen if they dally longer." 
 
 While this was passing, TorquU was embracing and encour- 
 aging his young chief. 
 
 "Resist the witchcraft but a few minutes longer! Be of 
 good cheer : you will come off without either scar or scratch, 
 wem or wound. Be of good cheer!" 
 
 "How can I be of good cheer," said Eachin, "while my 
 brave kinsmen have one by one died at my feet — died all for 
 me, who could never deserve the least of their kindness?" 
 
 " And for what were they born, save to die for their chief?" 
 said Torquil, composedly. " Why lament that the arrow re- 
 turns not to the quiver, providing it hit the mark? Cheer up 
 yet. Here are Tormot and I but little hurt, while the wild- 
 cats drag themselves through the plain. as if they were half 
 throttled by the terriers. Yet one brave stand, and the day 
 shall be your own, though it may well be that you alone re- 
 main alive. Minstrels, sound the gathering. " 
 
 The pipers on both sides blew their charge, and the com- 
 batants again mingled in battle, not indeed with the same 
 strength, but with unabated inveteracy. They were joined by 
 those whose duty it was to have remained neuter, but who now 
 found themselves unable to do so. The two old champions 
 who bore the standards had gradually advanced from the ex- 
 tremity of the lists, and now approached close to the imme- 
 diate scone of action. When they beheld the carnage more 
 nearly, they were mutually impelled by the desire to revenge 
 
492 WAVBRLBY NOVELS. 
 
 their bretlu'eii, or not to surviTe them. They attacked each 
 other furiously with the lances to which the standards were 
 attached, closed after exchanging several deadly thrusts, then 
 grappled in' close strife, still holding their 'banners, until at 
 length, in the eagerness of their conflict, they fell together 
 into the Tay, and were found drowned after the combat, 
 closely locked in each other's arms. The fury of battle, the 
 frenzy of rage and despair, infected next the minstrels. The 
 two pipers, who, during the conflict, had done their utmost to 
 keep up the spirits of their brethren, now saw the dispute well- 
 nigh terminated for want of men to support it. They threw 
 down their instruments, rushed desperately upon each other 
 with their daggers, and each being more intent on despatch- 
 ing his opponent than in defending himself, the piper of Clan 
 Quhele was almost instantly slain and he of Clan Chattan 
 mortally wounded. The last, nevertheless, again grasped his 
 instrument, and the pibroch of the clan yet poured its expir- 
 ing notes over the Clan Chattan, while the dying minstrel had 
 breath to inspire it. The instrument which he used, or at 
 least that part of it called the chanter, is preserved in the 
 family of a Highland chief to this day, and is much honoured 
 under the name of the federan dhu, or "black chanter." ' 
 
 Meanwhile, in the final charge, young Tormot, devoted, like 
 his brethren, by his father Torquil to the protection of his 
 chief, had been mortally wounded by the unsparing sword of 
 the smith. The other two remaining of the Clan Quhele had 
 also fallen, and Torquil, with his foster-son and the wounded 
 Tormot, forced to retreat before eight or ten of the Clan 
 Chattan, made a stand on the bank of the river, while their 
 enemies were making such exertions as their wounds would 
 permit to come up with them. Torquil had just reached the 
 spot where he had resolved to make the stand, when the young 
 Tormot dropped and expired. His death drew from his father 
 the first and only sigh which he had breathed throughout the 
 eventful day. 
 
 "My son Tormot!" he said, "my youngest and dearest! 
 But if I save Hector, I save aU. Kow, my darling dault, 7 
 > See Note 59. 
 
THE PAIR MAID OP PERTH. 493 
 
 iave done for tHee all ttat man may, excepting the last. Let 
 me undo the clasps of that ill-omened armour, and do thou 
 put on that of Tormot; it is light, and will fit thee well 
 While you do so, I wUl rush on these crippled men, and make 
 what play with them I can. I trust I shall have but little to 
 do, for they are following each other like disabled steers. At 
 least, dai-ling of my soul, if I am unable to save thee, I can 
 show thee how a man should die. " 
 
 While Torquil thus spoke, he unloosed the clasps of the 
 young chief's hauberk, in the simple belief that he could thus 
 break the meshes which fear and necromancy had twined 
 about his heart. 
 
 "My father — my father — my more than parent," said the 
 unhappy Eachin, "stay with me! With you by my side, I 
 feel I can fight to the last." 
 
 "It is impossible," said Torquil. "I will stop them com- 
 ing up, while you put on the hauberk. God eternally bless 
 thee, beloved of my soul!" 
 
 And then, brandishiug his sword, Torquil of the Oak rushed 
 forward with the same fatal war-cry which had so often 
 sounded over that bloody field, " Bas air son Eaohin J" The 
 words rung three times in a voice of thunder ; and each time 
 that he cried his war-shout he struck down one of the Clan 
 Chattan as he met them successively straggling towards him. 
 "Brave battle, hawk — well flown, falcon!" exclaimed, the 
 multitude, as they witnessed exertions which seemed, even at 
 this last hour, to threaten a change of the fortunes of the day. 
 Suddenly these cries were hushed into silence, and succeeded 
 by a clashing of swords so dreadful, as if the whole conflict 
 had recommenced in the person of Henry Wynd and Torquil 
 of the Oak. They cut, foined, hewed, and thrust as if they 
 had drawn their blades for the first time that day; and their 
 inveteracy was mutual, for Torquil recognised the foul wizard 
 ,1who, as he supposed, had cast a spell over his child; and 
 Henry gaw before him the giant who, during the whole con- 
 flict, had interrupted the purpose for which alone he had 
 joined the combatants — that of engaging in single comBal: 
 with Hector. They fought with an equality which, perhaps, 
 
494 WAVERLBY NOVELS. 
 
 would not have existed, liad not Heniy, more wounded 
 than his antagonist, been somewhat deprived of his usual 
 agility. 
 
 Meanwhile Eachin, finding himself alone, after a disorderly 
 and vain attempt to put on his foster-brother's harness, be- 
 came animated by an emotion of shame and despair, and 
 hurried forward to support his foster-father in the terrible 
 struggle, ere some other of the Clan Chattan should come up. 
 When he was within five yards, and sternly determined to 
 take his share in the death-fight, his foster-father fell, cleft 
 from the collar-bone wellnigh to the heart, and murmuring 
 with his last breath, " Bas air son Eachin J" The unfortunate 
 youth saw the fall of his last friend, and at the same moment 
 beheld the deadly enemy who had hunted him through the 
 whole field standing within sword's point of him, and bran- 
 dishing the huge weapon which had hewed its way to his life 
 through so many obstacles. Perhaps this was enough to bring 
 his constitutional timidity to its highest point ; or perhaps he 
 recollected at the same moment that he was without defen- 
 sive armour, and that a liae of enemies, halting indeed and 
 crippled, but eager for revenge and blood, were closely ap- 
 proaching. It is enough to say, that his heart sickened, his 
 eyes darkened, his ears tingled, his brain turned giddy, all 
 other considerations were lost in the apprehension of instant 
 death; and, drawing one ineffectual blow at the smith, he 
 avoided that which was aimed at him in return by bounding 
 backward; and, ere the former could recover his weapon, 
 Eachin had plunged into the stream of the Tay. A roar of 
 contumely pursued him as he swam across the river, although, 
 perhaps, not a dozen of those who joined in it would have be- 
 haved otherwise in the like circumstances. Henry looked 
 after the fugitive in silence and surprise, but could not specu- 
 late on the consequences of his flight, on account of the f aint- 
 ness which seemed to overpower him as soon as the animation 
 of the contest had subsided. He sat down on the grassy 
 bank, and endeavoured to stanch such of his wounds as were 
 pouring fastest. 
 
 The victors had the general meed of gratulation. The 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 496 
 
 Duke of Albany and others went down to survey tlie field; 
 and Henry Wynd was honoured with particular notice. 
 
 "If thou wilt foUow me, good fellow," said the Black 
 Douglas, "I will change thy leathern aprou for a knight's 
 girdle, and thy burgage tenement for an hundred-pound land 
 to maintain thy rank withal." 
 
 "I thank you humbly, my lord," said the smith, dejectedly, 
 " but I hare shed blood enough already, and Heaven has pun- 
 ished me by foiling the only purpose for which I entered the 
 combat." 
 
 " How, friend?" said Douglas. " Didst thou not fight for 
 the Clan Chattan, and have they not gained a glorious con- 
 quest?" 
 
 " I fought for my own hand," said the smith, indifferently; 
 and the expression is still proverbial in Scotland.' 
 
 The good King Eobert now came up on an ambling paMrey, 
 having entered the barriers for the purpose of causing the 
 wounded to be looked after. 
 
 "My Lord of Douglas," he said, "you vex the poor man 
 with temporal matters when it seems he may have short time 
 to consider those that are spiritual. Has he no friends here 
 who will bear him where his bodily wounds and the health of 
 his sold, may be both cared for?" 
 
 " He hath as many friends as there are good men in Perth," 
 said Sir Patrick Charteris, " and I esteem myself one of the 
 closest." 
 
 "A churl will savour of churl's kind," said the haughty 
 Douglas, turning his horse aside ; " the proffer of knighthood 
 from the sword of Douglas had recalled him from death's 
 door, had there been a drop of gentle blood in his body." 
 
 Disregarding the taunt of the mighty eail, the Knight of 
 Kinfauns dismounted to take Henry in his arms, as he now 
 sunk back from very faintness. But he was prevented by 
 Simon Glover, who, with other burgesses of consideration, had 
 now entered the barrace. 
 
 "Henry— my beloved son Henry!" said the old man. "Oh, 
 what tempted you to this fatal affray? Dying— speechless?" 
 
 1 Meaning, I did such a thing for my own pleasure, not for your profit. 
 
496 WAYERLET NOVELS. 
 
 « Ifo — not speechless, " said Henry. " Catharine " 
 
 He could utter no more. 
 
 "Catharine is -well, I trust, and shall be thine — that, is, 
 if » 
 
 "If she be safe, thou wouldst say, old man," said the 
 Douglas, who, though something affronted at Henry's rejection 
 of his offer, was too magnanimous not to interest himself in 
 ■what was passing. " She is safe, if Douglas's baamer can pro- 
 tect her — safe, and shall be rich. Douglas can give wealth to 
 those who value it more than honour." 
 
 "For her safety, my lord, let the heartfelt thanks andbless* 
 ings of a father go with the noble Douglas. For wealth, we 
 are rich enough. Gold cannot restore my beloved son. " 
 
 "A marvel!" said the Earl: "a churl refuses nobility, a 
 citizen despises gold!" 
 
 " Under your lordship's favour, " said Sir Patrick, " I, who 
 am knight and noble, take license to say, that such a brave 
 man as Henry Wynd may reject honourable titles, such an 
 honest man as this reverend citizen may dispense with gold." 
 
 " You do well. Sir Patrick, to speak for your town, and I 
 take no offence," said the Douglas. "I force my bounty on 
 no one. But," he added, in a whisper to Albany, "your 
 Grace must withdraw the King from this bloody sight, for he 
 must know that to-night which will ring over broad Scotland 
 when to-morrow dawns. This feud is ended. Yet even 1 
 grieve that so many brave Scottishmen lie here slain, whose 
 brands might have decided a pitched field in their coimtry's 
 cause." 
 
 With difficulty King Eobert was withdrawn from the field, 
 the tears running down his aged cheeks and white beard, as 
 he conjured all around him, nobles and priests, that care 
 should be taken for the bodies and souls of the few wounded 
 survivors, and honourable burial rendered to the slain. The 
 priests who were present answered zealously for both services, 
 and redeemed their pledge faithfully and piously. 
 
 Thus ended this celebrated conflict of the Korth Inch of 
 Perth. Of sixty-four brave men (the minstrels and standard- 
 befgjers included) who strode manfully to the fatal field, seven 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 497 
 
 alone survived, who -were conveyed from thence in litters, in 
 a case little different from the dead and dying around them, 
 and mingled with them in the sad procession which conveyed 
 them from the scene of their strife. Eachin alone had left it 
 void of wounds and void of honour. 
 
 It remains but to say, that not a man of the Clan Quhele 
 survived the bloody combat except the fugitive chief; and the 
 consequence of the defeat was the dissolution of their confed- 
 eracy. The clans of which it consisted are now only matter 
 of nnjecture to the antiquary, for, after this eventful contest, 
 they never assembled under the same banner. The Clan 
 Chattan, on the other hand, continued to increase and flourish; 
 and the best families of the Northern Highlands boast theii 
 descent from the race of the Cat-a-Mouutaiu.' 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 While the King rode slowly back to the convent which he 
 then occupied, Albany, with a discomposed aspect and falter- 
 ing voice, asked the Earl of Douglas : " Will not your lordship, 
 who saw this most melancholy scene at Falkland, communi- 
 cate the tidings to my imhappy brother?" 
 
 "Not for broad Scotland," said the Douglas. "I Would 
 sooner bare my breast, within flight-shot, as a butt to an hun- 
 dred Tynedale bowmen. No, by St. Bride of Douglas! I 
 could but say I saw the ill-fated youth dead. How he came 
 by his death, your Grace can perhaps better explain. Were 
 it not for the rebellion of March and the English war, I would 
 speak my own mind of it." So saying, and making his obei- 
 sance to the King, the Earl rode off to his own lodgings, leav" 
 mg Albany to tell his tale as he best could. 
 
 "The rebellion and the English war!" said the Duke to 
 himself. " Ay, and thine own interest, haughty earl, which, 
 imperious as thou art, thou darest not separate from mine. 
 Well, since the task falls on me, I must and wiU discharge it." 
 
 ' See Combat on the North Inch. Note 60. 
 32 
 
498 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 He followed the King into his apartment. The King looked 
 at him with surprise after lie had assumed his usual seat. 
 
 "Thy countenance is ghastly, Eobin," said the King. "I 
 would thou wouldst think more deeply when blood is to be 
 spilled, since its consequences affect thee so powerfully. And 
 yet, Eobin, I love thee the better that thy fciud nature will 
 sometimes show itself, even through thy reflecting policy." 
 
 " I would to Heaven, my royal brother, " said Albany, with 
 a voice half choked, " that the bloody iield we have seen were 
 the worst we had to see or hear of this day. I should waste 
 little sorrow on the wild kerne who lie piled on it like carrion. 
 But " he paused. 
 
 "How!" exclaimed the King, in terror. "What new evil? 
 Eothsay? It must be — it is Eothsay! Speak out! What 
 new foUy has been done? What fresh mischance?" 
 
 "My lord — my liege, folly and mischance are now ended 
 with my hapless nephew." 
 
 "He is dead! — he is dead!" screamed the agonized parent, 
 
 "Albany, as thy brother, I conjure thee But no; I am 
 
 thy brother no longer. As thy king, dark and subtle man, I 
 charge thee to tell the worst." 
 
 Albany faltered out : " The details are but imperfectly known 
 to me; but the certainty is, that my unhappy nephew was 
 found dead in his apartment last night from sudden illness — 
 as I have heard." 
 
 " Oh, Eothsay!— Oh, my beloved David! Would to God I 
 had died for thee, my son — my son!" 
 
 So spoke, in the emphatic words of Scripture, the helpless 
 and bereft father, tearing his grey beard and hoary hair, 
 •while Albany, speechless and conscience-struck, did not ven- 
 ture to interrupt the tempest of his grief. But the agony of 
 the King's sorrow almost instantly changed to fury — a mood 
 so contrary to the gentleness and timidity of his nature, that 
 the remorse of Albany was drowned in his fear. 
 
 "And this is the end," said the King, "of thy moral saws 
 and religious maxims ! But the besotted 'father who gave the 
 son into thy hands — ^who gave the innocent lamb to the butcher 
 — is a king, and thou shalt know it to thy co.st. Shall the 
 
THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 499 
 
 ■mrderer stand in presence of Ms brother — stained with the 
 blood of that brother's son? No! What ho, without there! 
 MacLouis! — BrandanesI Treachery! Murder! Take arms, 
 if you love the Stuart!" 
 
 MacLouis, with several of the guards, rushed into the 
 apartment. 
 
 "Murder and treason!" exclaimed the miserable King. 
 " Brandanes, your noble Priace " Here his grief and agi- 
 tation interrupted for a moment the fatal information it was 
 his object to convey. At length he resumed his broken 
 speech: "An axe and a block instantly into the courtyard! 
 Arrest " The word choked his utterance. 
 
 " Arrest whom, my noble liege?" said MacLouis, who, ob- 
 serving the King influenced by a tide of passion so different 
 from the gentleness of his ordinary demeanour, almost con- 
 jectured that his brain had been disturbed by the unusual 
 horrors of the combat he had witnessed. "Whom shall I 
 arrest, my liege?" he replied. " Here is none but your Grace's 
 royal brother of Albany." 
 
 "Most true," said the King, his brief fit of viudictive 
 passion soon dying away. " Most true — none but Albany — ■ 
 none but my parent's child — ^none but my brother. God, 
 enable me to queU the sinful passion which glows in this 
 bosom. Sanota Maria, ora pro nobis ! " 
 
 MacLouis cast a look of wonder towards the Duke of 
 Albany, who endeavoured to hide his confusion under an affec- 
 tation of deep sympathy, and muttered to the officer : " The 
 great misfortune has been too much for his understandiag. " 
 
 " What misfortune, please your Grace?" replied MacLouis. 
 ' I have heard of none. " 
 
 " How ! not heard of the death of my nephew Eothsay?" 
 
 "The Duke of Epthsay dead, my Lord of Albany?" ex- 
 claimed the faithful Brandane, with the utmost horror and 
 astonishment. "When, how, and where?" 
 
 " Two days since — ^the manner as yet unknown — at Falk- 
 land." 
 
 MacLouis gazed at the Duke for an iustant; then, with a 
 kindling eye and determined look, said to the King, who 
 
600 WAVEELEY NOVELS. 
 
 seemed deeply engaged in Ms mental devotion : " My liegel 
 a minute or two since you left a ■word — one word — unspoken. 
 Let it pass your lips, and your pleasure is law to your Bran- 
 danes !" 
 
 "I was praying against temptation, MacLouis," said the 
 heart-broken King, " and you bring it to me. Would you arm 
 a madman with a drawn weapon? But oh, Albany! my 
 friend — my brother — my bosom counsellor-^ — ^how — ^how earnest 
 thou by the heart to do this?" 
 
 Albany, seeing that the King's mood was softening, replied 
 with more firmness than before: "My castle has no barrier 
 against the power of death. I have not deserved the foul sus- 
 picions which your Majesty's words imply. I pardon them, 
 from the distraction of a bereaved father. But I am willing 
 to swear by cross and altar, by my share in salvation, by the 
 souls of our royal parents " 
 
 " Be silent, Eobert !" said the Kiug : " add not perjury to 
 murder. And was this all done to gain a step nearer to a 
 crown and sceptre? Take them to thee at once, man; and 
 mayst thou feel as I have done, that they are both of red-hot 
 iron! Oh, Rothsay — Eothsay! thou hast at least escaped 
 being a king!" 
 
 "My liege," said MacLouis, "let me remind you that the 
 crown and sceptre of Scotland are, when your Majesty ceases 
 to bear them, the right of Prince James, who succeeds to his 
 brother's rights." 
 
 "True, MacLouis," said the King, eagerly, "and will suc- 
 ceed, poor chUd, to his brother's perils ! Thanks, MacLouis — 
 thaiiks. You have reminded me that I have stUl work upon 
 earth. Get thy Brandanes under arms with what speed thou 
 canst. Let no man go with us whose truth is not known to 
 thee. None in especial who has trafficked with the Duke of 
 Albany — ^that man, I mean, who calls himself my brother — 
 and order my litter to be instantly prepared. We will to 
 Dunbarton, MacLouis, or to Bute. Precipices, and tides, 
 and my Brandanes' hearts shall defend the child tUl we can 
 put oceans betwixt him and his cruel uncle's ambition. 
 Farewell, Eobert of Albany — farewell for ever, thou hard" 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 601 
 
 learted, bloody man! Enjoy such sliare of power as tha 
 Douglas may permit thee. But seek not to see my face again, 
 far less to approach my remaining child j for, that hour thou 
 dost, my guards shall have orders to stab thee down with 
 their partizans. MacLouis, look it be so directed." 
 
 The Duke of Albany left the presence without attempting 
 further justification or reply. 
 
 What followed is matter of history. In the ensuing Parlia- 
 ment, the Duke of Albany prevailed on that body to declare 
 him innocent of the death of Eothsay, while, at the same time, 
 he showed his own sense of guilt by taking out a remission or 
 pardon for the offence. The unhappy and aged monarch 
 secluded himself in his Castle of Eothsay, in Bute, to mourn 
 over the son he had lost, and watch with feverish anxiety over 
 the life of him who remained. As the best step for the youth- 
 ful James's security, he sent him to France to receive his 
 education at the court of the reigning sovereign. But the 
 vessel in which the Prince of Scotland sailed was taken by aa 
 English cruiser, and, although there was a truce for the 
 moment betwixt the kingdoms, Henry IV. ungenerously de- 
 tained him a prisoner. This last blow completely broke the 
 heart of the unhappy King Eobert III. Vengeance followed, 
 though with a slow pace, the treachery and cruelty of his 
 brother. Eobert of Albany's own grey hairs went, indeed, in 
 peace to the grave, and he transferred the regency which he 
 had so fouUy acquired to his son Murdoch. But, nineteen 
 years after the death of the old King, James I. returned to 
 Scotland, and Duke Murdoch of Albany, with his sons, was 
 brought to the scaffold, in expiation of his father's guilt and 
 his own.' 
 
 ■ See Death of Botbaay. Note 61. 
 
602 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVL 
 
 The honest heart that's free frae a' 
 
 Intended fraud or guile, 
 However Fortune kick the ba'. 
 
 Has aye some cause to smile. 
 
 BUBNS, 
 
 We now return to the Eair Maid of Perth, who had hee* 
 sent from the horrible scene at Falkland, by order of the 
 Douglas, to be placed under the protection of his daughter, 
 the now widowed Duchess of Eothsay. That lady's temporary 
 residence was a religious house called Campsie, the ruins of 
 which still occupy a striking situation on the Tay. It arose 
 on the summit of a ,precipitous rook, which descends on the 
 princely river, there rendered peculiarly remarkable by the 
 cataract called Campsie Linn, where its waters rush tumultu- 
 ously over a range of basaltic rock, which intercepts the cur- 
 rent, like a dike erected by human hands. Delighted with a 
 site so romantic, the monks of the abbey of Cupar reared a 
 structure there, dedicated to an obscure saint, named St. 
 Hunnand, and hither they were wont themselves to retire for 
 pleasure or devotion. It had readily opened its gates to 
 admit the noble lady who was its present inmate, as the coun- 
 try was under the influence of the powerful Lord Drummond, 
 the aUy of the Douglas. There the Earl's letters were pre- 
 sented to the Duchess by the leader of the escort which eon- 
 ducted Catharine and the glee-maiden to Campsie. Whatever 
 reason she might have to complain of Eothsay, his horrible 
 and unexpected end greatly shocked the noble lady, and she 
 spent the greater part of the night in indulging her grief, and 
 in devotional exercises. 
 
 On the next morning, which was that of the memorable 
 Palm S'uiday, she ordered Catharine Glover and the minstrel 
 into her presence. The spirits of both the young women had 
 been much sunk and shaken by the dreadful scenes in which 
 they had so lately been engaged; and the outward appearance 
 of the Duchess Marjory was, like that of her father, more 
 
THE PAIR MAID OF PERTH. 503 
 
 calculated to inspire awe thau confidence. She spoke witli 
 kindness, however, though apparently in deep affliction, and 
 learned from them all which they had to tell concerning the 
 fate of her erring and inconsiderate husband. She appeared 
 grateful for the efforts which Catharine and the glee-maiden 
 had made, at their own extreme peril, to save Eothsay from 
 his horrible fate. She invited them to join in her devotions ; 
 and at the hour of dinner gave them her hand to kiss, and 
 dismissed them to their own refection, assuring both, and 
 Catharine in particular, of her efficient protection, which 
 should include, she said, her father's, and be a wall around 
 them both, so long as she herself lived. 
 
 They retired from the presence of the widowed Princess, 
 and partook of a repast with her duennas and ladies, all of 
 whom, amid their profound sorrow, showed a character of 
 stateliness which chilled the light heart of the frenchwoman, 
 and imposed restraint even on the more serious character of 
 Catharine Glover. The friends, for so we may now term 
 them, were fain, therefore, to escape from the society of these 
 persons, all of them born gentlewomen, who thought them- 
 sleves but ill-assorted with a burgher's daughter and a stroll- 
 ing glee-maiden, and saw them with pleasure go out to walk 
 in the neighbourhood of the convent. A little garden, with 
 its bushes and fruit-trees, advanced on one side of the convent, 
 so as to skirt the precipice, from which it was only separated 
 by a parapet built on the ledge of the rock, so low that the 
 eye might easUy measure the depth of the crag, and gaze on 
 the conflicting waters which foamed, struggled, and chafed 
 over the reef below. 
 
 The Fair Maiden of Perth and her companion walked slowly 
 on a path that ran within this parapet, looked at the romantic 
 prospect, and judged what it must be when the advancing 
 summer should clothe the grove with leaves. They observed 
 for some time a deep sUence. At length the gay and bold 
 spirit of the glee-maiden rose above the circumstances in 
 which she had been and was now placed. 
 
 "Do the horrors of Falkland, fail May, stiU weigh down 
 your spirits? Strive to forget them as I do : we cannot tread 
 
504 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 life's path lightly, if we shake not from our mantles the rain- 
 drops as they fall." 
 
 "These horrors are not to be forgotten," answered Cath- 
 arine. " Yet my mind is at present anxious respecting my 
 father's safety; and I cannot but think how many brave men 
 may be at this instant leaving the world, even within six 
 miles of us, or little farther." 
 
 " You mean the combat betwixt sixty champions, of which 
 the Douglas's equerry told us yesterday? It were a sight for 
 a minstrel to witness. But out upon these womanish eyes of 
 miae — they could never see swords cross each other without 
 being dazzled. But see — ^look yonder. May Catharine— look 
 yonder! That flyiag messenger certainly brings news of the 
 battle." 
 
 "Methinks I should know him who runs so wildly," said 
 Catharine. " But if it be he I think of, some wUd thoughts 
 are urging his speed. " 
 
 As she spoke, the runner directed his course to the garden. 
 Louise's little dog ran to meet him, barking furiously, but 
 came back, to cower, creep, and growl behind its mistress; 
 for even dumb animals can distinguish when men are driven 
 on by the furious energy of irresistible passion, and dread to 
 cross or encounter them in their career. The fugitive rushed 
 into the garden at the same reckless pace. His head was 
 bare, his hair dishevelled; his rich acton and aU his other 
 vestments looked as if they had been lately drenched in water. 
 His leathern buskins were cut and torn, and his feet marked 
 the sod with blood. His countenance was wild, haggard, and 
 highly excited, or, as the Scottish phrase expresses it, much 
 "raised." 
 
 "Conachar!" said Catharine, as he advanced, apparently 
 without seeing what was before him, as hares are said to do 
 when severely pressed by the greyhounds. But he stopped 
 short when he heard his own name. 
 
 "Conachar," said Catharine, "or rather Eachin Maclan, 
 what means all this? Have the Clan Quhele sustained a de- 
 feat?" 
 
 "I have borne such names as this maiden gives me," said 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 605 
 
 tks fugitive, after a moment's recollection. "Yes, I was 
 called Conachar wlien I was happy, and EacMn when I was 
 powerful. But now I have no name, and there is no such clan 
 as thou speak'st of; and thou art a foolish maid to speak of 
 that which is not to one who has no existence." 
 
 "Alas! unfortunate " 
 
 "And why unfortunate, I pray you?" exclaimed the youth. 
 " If I am coward and vOlain, have not vOlainy and cowardice 
 command over the elements? Have I not braved the water 
 without its choking me, and trod the firm earth without its 
 opening to devour me? And shall a mortal oppose my 
 purpose?" 
 
 "He raves, alas!" said Catharine. "Haste to call some 
 help. He wUl not harm me; but I fear he wHL do evil to 
 himself. See how he stares down on the roaring water- 
 fall!" 
 
 The glee-woman hastened to do as she was ordered, and 
 Conachar's half-frenzied spirit seemed relieved by her absence. 
 " Catharine, " he said, " now she is gone, I wDl say I know thee 
 — I know thy love of peace and hatred of war. But hearken; 
 I have, rather than strike a blow at my enemy, given up all 
 that a man calls dearest: I have lost honour, fame, and 
 friends, and such friends! (he placed his hands before his 
 face). Oh! their love surpassed the love of woman! Why 
 should I hide my tears? All know my shame; aU should see 
 my sorrow. Yes, all might see, but who would pity it? 
 Catharine, as I ran like a madman down the strath, man and 
 woman called 'shame' on me! The beggar to whom I flung 
 an alms, that I might purchase one blessing, threw it back in 
 disgust, and with a curse upon the coward! Each bell that 
 tolled rung out, 'Shame on the recreant caitiff!' The brute 
 beasts in their lowing and bleating, the wild winds in their 
 rustling and howling, the hoarse waters in their dash and roar, 
 cried, 'Out upon the dastard!' The faithful nine are still 
 pursuing me ; they cry with feeble voice, ' Strike but one blow 
 in our revenge, we aU died for you!' " 
 
 WhUe the unhappy youth thus raved, a rustling was heard 
 in the bushes. "There is but one way!" he exclaimed, 
 
506 WAVEBLET NOVELS. 
 
 springing upon tlie parapet, but -with a terrified glance to-wards 
 the thicket, through which one or two attendants were steal- 
 ing, with the purpose of surprising him. But the instant he 
 saw a human form emerge from the cover of the bushes, he 
 waved his hands wildly over his head, and shrieking out, 
 "Bos air EachinI" plunged down the precipice into the 
 raging cataract beneath. 
 
 It is needless to say, that aught save thistledown must have 
 been dashed to pieces in such a fall. But the river was 
 swelled, and the remains of the unhappy youth were never 
 seen. A varying tradition has assigned more than one sup- 
 plement to the history. It is said by one account, that the 
 young captain of Clan Quhele swam safe to shore, far below 
 the Linns of Campsie ; and that, wandering disconsolately in 
 the deserts of Eannoch, he met with Father Clement, who had 
 taken up his abode in the wilderness as a hermit, on the prin- 
 ciple of the old Culdees. He converted, it is said, the heart- 
 broken and penitent Conachar, who lived with him in his cell, 
 sharing his devotion and privations, till death removed them 
 in succession. 
 
 Another wilder legend supposes that he was snatched from 
 death by the daione-shie, or fairy-folk, and that he continues 
 to wander through wood and wild, armed like an ancient 
 Highlander, but carrying his sword in his left hand. The 
 phantom appears always in deep grief. Sometimes he seems 
 about to attack the traveller, but, when resisted with courage, 
 always flies. These legends are founded on two peculiar points 
 in his story — his evincing timidity and his committing suicide 
 — ^both of them circumstances almost unexampled in the his- 
 tory of a mountain chief. 
 
 When Simon Glover, having seen his friend Henry duly 
 taken care of in his own house in Curfew Street, arrived that 
 evening at the Place of Campsie, he found his daughter ex- 
 tremely iU of a fever, in consequence of the scenes to which 
 she had lately been a witness, and particularly the catastrophe 
 of her late playmate. The affection of the glee-maiden 
 rendered her so attentive and careful a nurse, that the glover 
 
THE FAIR MAID OP PERTH. 607 
 
 said it should not be tis fault if she ever touched lute again, 
 save for her own amusement. 
 
 It was some time ere Simon ventured to tell his daughter of 
 Henry's late exploits, and his severe wounds; and he took 
 care to make the most of the encouraging circumstance, that 
 her faithful lover had refused both honour and wealth rather 
 than become a professed soldier and follow the Douglas. 
 Catharine sighed deeply and shook her head at the history of 
 bloody Palm Sunday on the North Inch. But apparently she 
 had reflected that men rarely advance in civilisation or refine- 
 ment beyond the ideas of their own age, and that a headlong 
 and exuberant courage, like that of Henry Smith, was, in the 
 iron days in which they lived, preferable to the deficiency 
 which had led to Conachar's catastrophe. If she had any 
 doubts on the subject, they were removed in due time by 
 Henry's protestations, so soon as restored health enabled him 
 to plead his own cause. 
 
 " I should blush to say, Catharine, that I am even sick of 
 the thoughts of doing battle. Yonder last field showed car. 
 nage enough to glut a tiger. I am therefore resolved to hang 
 up my broadsword, never to be drawn more unless against the 
 enemies of Scotland." 
 
 "And should Scotland call for it," said Catharine, "I will 
 buckle it round you." 
 
 "And, Catharine," said the joyful glover, "we will pay 
 largely for soul masses for those who have fallen by Henry's 
 sword; and that will not only cure spiritual flaws, but make 
 us friends with the church again." 
 
 "For that purpose, father," said Catharine, "the hoards of 
 the wretched Dwining may be applied. He bequeathed them 
 to me; but I think you would not mix his base blood-money 
 with your honest gains?" 
 
 "I would bring the plague into my house as soon," said the 
 resolute glover. 
 
 The treasures of the wicked apothecary were distributed 
 accordingly among the four monasteries ; nor was there ever 
 aftei. a breath of suspicion concerning the orthodoxy of old 
 Simon or his daughter. 
 
508 WAVEKLEY NOVELS. 
 
 Henry and Catharine were married witliin four months after 
 the battle of the North Inch, and never did the corpora- 
 tions of the glovers and hammermen trip their sword-dance so 
 featly as at the wedding of the boldest burgess and brightest 
 maiden in Perth. Ten months after, a gallant infant filled 
 the well-spread cradle, and was rocked by Louise to the tune of 
 
 Bold and true, 
 In bonnet blue. 
 
 The names of the boy's sponsors are recorded, as " Ane Hie 
 and Michty Lord, Archibald Erl of Douglas, ane Honorabil 
 and gude Knicht, Schir Patrick Charteris of Kinfauns, and 
 ane Gracious Princess, Marjory Dowaire of his Serene High- 
 ness David, umquhile Duke of Eothsay." Under such patron- 
 age a family rises fast ; and several of the most respected 
 houses in Scotland, but especially in Perthshire, and many 
 individuals distinguished both in arts and arms, record with 
 pride their descent from the Gow Chrom and the Fair Maid 
 of Perth. 
 
NOTES TO FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 
 
 Note 1.—" Newest New Town," Edinbuegh, p. 5. 
 
 This ' Newest New Town,' in case Mr. Croftangry's lucubrations should 
 outlive its possession of any right to that designation, was begun, I think, 
 in 1824, on the park and gardens attached to a quondam pretty suburban 
 residence of the Earls of Moray, from whose diflferent titles, and so forth, 
 the names of the places and streets erected were, of course, taken. Aug. 1831. 
 
 Note 2. — Gboegh IV.'s Visit to Edinburgh, p. 5. 
 
 The visit of George IV. to Scotland, in August 1822, will not soon be 
 forgotten. It satisfied many who had shared Dr. Johnson's doubts on the 
 subject, that the old feelings of loyalty, in spite of all the derision of mod- 
 ern wits, continued firmly rooted, and might be appealed to with confi- 
 dence, even under circumstances apparently the most unfavourable. Who 
 that had observed the state of public feeling with respect to this most ami- 
 able prince's domestic position at a period but a few months earlier would 
 have believed that he should ever witness such scenes of enthusiastic and 
 rapturous devotion to his person as filled up the whole panorama of his 
 fifteen days at Edinburgh 1 Aug. 1831. 
 
 Note 3. — ^Tbahslation of Contikuatob of Foedun, p. 20. 
 
 In the year of our Lord one thousand three hundred and ninety-six, a 
 great part of the north of Scotland, beyond the mountains, was disturbed 
 by two pestilent caterans and their followers ; namely, Scheabeg and his 
 kin, of the Clan Kay, and Cristi Jonson, with his kin, called the Clan 
 Quhele, who by no paction or management could be pacified, and by no 
 art of the King or governor could be subdued, until the noble aud active 
 Lord, David of Lindesay and Crawford, and the Lord Thomas, Earl of 
 Moray, applied to the task . their diligence and powers, and so arranged 
 matters betwixt the parties that they agreed to meet before the King on a 
 certain day at Perth, and each to select thirty of his tribe, to encounter 
 with swords, bows and arrows, and targets, all other weapons and armour 
 excluded, by which encounter an end might be put to the strife of the 
 clans, and the land enjoy peace. This contract highly pleased both parties; 
 and on the next day of the month before the feast of St. Michael, on the 
 North Inch of Perth, before the King, governor, and an immense multitude, 
 they accordingly compeared duly, and entered into a most fierce conflict, 
 in which, out of the sixty, all were killed save one of the Clan Kay and 
 
510 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 eleven of the opposite side. It also fell out there, that, after they were all 
 assembled in the lists, one of them, looking around for a mode of escape, 
 leaped from amongthe whole body into the river Tay, and crossed it by 
 swimming. He was pursued by thousands, but never caught. The two 
 parties stood thereupon astonished, as unable to proceed with the engage- 
 ment on account of the want of the fugitive ; for the party having its num- 
 bers entire would not consent to let one be taken away ; nor could the 
 other party by any reward induce any one to supply the place of the ab- 
 sentee. All stood clustering in stupor, accordingly, complaining of the 
 loss of the fugitive. And that whole business seemed even likely to break 
 short, when lo ! into the midst of the space therebroke a common mechanic, 
 low in stature, but fierce in aspect, saying, " Here am I ! who will induce 
 me to enter with these workmen into this theatric game ? I will try the 
 sport for half-a-mark, asking but this beyond, that, if I come living out of 
 these lists, I shall receive my bread from some of you while I live ; because, 
 as it is said, ' greater love hath no man than that he layeth down his life 
 for his friends.' " With what reward shall I be gifted, then, who [to serve 
 the state] lay down my life for the enemies of the King, and the state? " 
 What he desired was at once promised by the King and several nobles. 
 With that the man drew his bow, and sent the first arrow into the opposite 
 band, kUling one of them. Immediately thereafter the arrows fly, the 
 shields clatter, and the swords vibrate ; and as butchers deal with oxen in 
 the shambles, so ruthlessly and fearlessly do the parties massacre one an- 
 other promiscuously by turns- Nor was there one found among so many 
 who, from want of wUl or heart, sought to shrink behind the backs of 
 others, or to decline the terrible contest. The volunteer before mentioned 
 finally escaped unhurt. After this event the North was quiet for a long 
 time ; nor did the caterans make excursions thence as formerly {Lamg). 
 
 Note 4. — ^Mb. Sekiob's Criticism, p. 21. 
 
 Mr. Senior, in criticising The Fair Maid, "while he picks many holes in 
 the plot, estimates the characters very highly. Of the glee-maiden, he says, 
 ' Louise is a delightful sketch. Nothing can be more exquisite than the 
 manner in which her story is partly told and partly hinted, or thap the 
 contrast between her natural and her professional character " ; and after 
 discussing at some length Rothsay, Henbane, Eamomy, etc., he declares 
 Conachar's character to be " perfectly tragic, neither too bad for sympathy 
 nor so good as to render his calamity revolting ; its great merit is the bold- 
 ness with which we are called upon to sympathise with a deficiency which 
 is generally the subject of unmitigated scorn.' " — ^Lockhart's lafe of Scott, 
 rol. ix. pp. 223, 224. 
 
 Note 5.— Tibee au b Tay, p. 23. 
 
 Such is the Author's opinion, founded perhaps on feelings of national 
 pride, of the relative claims of the classical river and the Scottish one. 
 Should he ever again be a blotter of paper, he hopes to be able to speak on 
 this subject the surer language of personal conviction.' Aug. 1831. 
 
 '[Scott proposed to spend the next winter, 1831-32, at Naples.] 
 
NOTES. fill 
 
 Note 6. — View fkom ths Wicks of Baiqhk, p. 25. 
 
 The following note is supplied by a distinguished local antiquary [Mr. 
 Morrison] : 
 
 "The modern method of conducting the highways through the valleys 
 and along the bases, instead of over the tops of the mountains, as in -^o 
 days when Chrystal Croftaugry travelled, has deprived the stranger of two 
 very striking points of view on the road from Edinburgh to Perth. The 
 first of these presented itself at the summit of one of the Ochills ; and the 
 second, which was, in fact, but a nearer view of a portion of the first, was 
 enjoyed on attaining the western shoulder of the Hill of Moredun, orMon- 
 crieff.' This view from Moncrieff (that which, it is said, made the Romans 
 exclaim that they had found another Field of Mars on the bank of another 
 Tiber), now opens to the traveller in a less abrupt and striking manner 
 than formerly, but it still retains many of those features which Pennant 
 has so warmly eulogised. The view from the Ochills has been less for- 
 tunate, for the road here winds through a narrow, but romantic valley 
 amongst these eminences, and the passing stranger is ushered into Strathem, 
 without an opportunity being offered to him of surveying the magnificent 
 scene which in days of no ancient date every traveller from the South had 
 spread out before him at the Wicks of Baiglie. 
 
 " But in seeking out this spot— and it will repay the toil of the ascent a 
 thousandfold — the admirer of such scenes should not confine his researches 
 to the Wicks of Baiglie, strictly so called, but extend them westward until 
 he gain the old road from Kinross to the church of Drone, being that by 
 which Mr. Croftangry must have journeyed. The point cannot be mis- 
 taken : it is the only one from which Perth itself is visible. To this station, 
 for reasons that the critic will duly appreciate, might with great propriety 
 be applied the language of oneof the guides at Dunkeld, on reaching a bold 
 projecting rock on Craig Vinean : ' Ah, sirs, this is the decisive point !'" 
 
 The pencil of Mr. D. O. Hill was employed to give this celebrated view 
 from the Wicks of Baiglie, as one of the illustrations of this volume in the 
 Collected Edition, 4S vols., of 1829-33. 
 
 Note 7. — Author's Description op Peeth, p. 26. 
 
 Chrystal Croftangry expresses, here the feelings of the Aulhor, as nearly 
 as he could recall them, after such a lapse of years. I am, however, in- 
 formed, by various letters from Perthshire, that I have made some little 
 mistakes about names. Sure enough the general effect of the Valley of the 
 Tay, and the ancient town of Perth, rearing its grey head among the rich 
 pastures, and beside the gleaming waters of that noblest of Scottish streams, 
 must remain so as to justify warmer language than Mr. Croftangry had at 
 his command. Aug. 1831. 
 
 Note 8. — Scottish Royal Mabeiaqes, p. 27. 
 
 David 11., after the death of his Queen Jane [Joanna], married his mis- 
 tress, "ane lusty woman, namit Margaret [Scott writes Catherine] Logie." 
 and though he soon repented, and would fain have repudiated her, the 
 Pope interesting himself in her favour, he found himself bound. As to the 
 next generation, Boece tells us that, "Afore he [King Robert II.] marvit 
 
612 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 the Erie of Rossis douchter, he had Elizabeth Mure [of Rowallan] in place 
 of his wife. ... In the thrid year of King Robert, deceissit Euphame his 
 quene. King Robert incontinent maryit Elizabeth Mure, lemmen afore 
 rehearsit, for the affection that he had to hir barnis." — BeUenden, bk. xvi. 
 chap. 1. 
 Robert III. himself was a son of Elizabeth Mure. 
 
 Note 9. — Cateean, p. 42. 
 
 Cateran, or robber, the usual designation of the Celtic borderers on the 
 lands of the Sassenach. The beautiful Lake of the Trossachs is supposed 
 to have taken its name from the habits of its frequenters. 
 
 Note 10. — Robebt Beuce, p. 44. 
 
 The story of Bruce, when in sore straits, watching a spider near his bed, 
 as it made repeated unsuccessful eiforts, to attach its thread, but, still per- 
 severing, at last attained the object, and drawing from this an augury which 
 encouraged him to proceed in spite of fortune's hard usage, is familiar to 
 the reader of Barbour. It was ever after held a foul crime in any of the 
 name of Bruce, or inheriting gentle King Robert's blood, to injure an in- 
 sect of this tribe. But indeed it is well known that compassion towards 
 the weak formed part of his character through life ; and the beautiful inci- 
 dent of his stopping his army when on the march in circumstances of 
 pressing difficulty in the Ulster campaign, because a poor lavendere (wash- 
 erwoman) was taken with the pains of childbirth, and must have been 
 left, had he proceeded, to the mercy of the Irish kernes, is only one of 
 many anecdotes that to this day keep up a peculiar tenderness, as well as 
 pride of feeling, in the general recollection of this great man, now five hun- 
 dred years mingled with the dust. 
 
 Note 11. — Culeoss Giedles, p. 48. 
 
 The girdle is the thin plate of iron used for the manufacture of the staple 
 luxury of Scotland, the oaten cake. The town of Culross was long cele- 
 brated for its girdles. 
 
 Note 12. — Effeie of Wae, p. 50. 
 
 That is, not in dread of war, but in the guise which effeirs, or belongs, to 
 war; in arms, namely, offensive and defensive. " Bodin infeir of war," a 
 frequent term in old Scottish history and muniments, means arrayed in 
 warlike guise. 
 
 Note 13. — Glunb-amie, p. 53. 
 
 This word has been one of the torments of the lexicographers. There is 
 no doubt that in Perthshire, and wherever the Highlanders and the Low- 
 landers bordered on each other, it was a common term whereby, whether 
 in scorn or honour, the Gaelic race used to be designated. Whether the 
 etymon be, as Celtic scholars say, gluine-amach — i. e. " the gartered " — and 
 certainly the garter has always been a marking feature in " the garb of old 
 Gaul " — or, as Dr. Jamieson seems to insinuate, the word originally means 
 'black cattle." and had been contemptuously applied by the Sassenach to 
 the herdsman, as on an intellectual level with his herd, I shall not pretend 
 to say, more than that adhuc sub judice lis eat. 
 
NOTHa BIS 
 
 NoTB 14.— High Stbbkt, p. 59. 
 
 The two following notes are furnished by a gentleman well versed in the 
 antiquities of bonnie St. Johnston : 
 
 " Some confusion occasionally occurs in the historical records of Perth, 
 from there having been two high or principal streets in that city — the 
 North High street, stUl called the High Street, and the South High Street, 
 known only as the South Street, or Shoegate. An instance of this occurs 
 in the evidence of one of the witnesses on the Go wrie Conspiracie, who de- 
 poned that the Earl of Gowrie ran in from ' the High Street ' ; whereas the 
 earl's house stood in that part of the town now known as the South Street. 
 This circumstance will explain how the smith had to pass St. Ann's 
 chapel and St. John's church on his way from the High Street to Curfew 
 Eow, which edifices he would not have approached if his morning walk 
 had been taken through the more northerly of the two principal streets." 
 
 Note 15. — Cuefbw Stebet, p. 59, 
 
 " Curfew Street or Row, must, at a period not much earlier than that of 
 the story, have formed part of the suburbs of Perth. It was the wynd or 
 row immediately surrounding the castle-yard, and had probably been 
 built, in part at least, soon after the castle was rased, and its moat filled 
 up, by Robert Bruce. There is every probability that in the days of Rob- 
 ert the Third it was of greater extent than at present, the Castle Gable, 
 which now terminates it to the eastward, having then run in a line with 
 the Skinnergate, as the ruins of some walls still bear witness. The shops, 
 as well as the houses, of the glovers were then, as the name implies, chiefly 
 in the Skinnergate ; but the charters in possession of the incorporation 
 show that the members had considerable property in or adjacent to the 
 Curfew Row, consisting not only of fields and gardens, but of dwelling- 
 houses. 
 
 " In the wall of the comer house of the Curfew Row, adjacent to Black 
 Friar's Vennel, there is still to be seen a niche in the wall where the curfew 
 bell hung. This house formed at one time a part of a chapel dedicated to 
 St. Bartholomew, and in it at no very distant period the members of the 
 glover incorporation held their meetings. 
 
 Note 16. — Keddie's Ring, p. 76. 
 
 There is a tradition that one Keddie, a tailor, found in ancient days a 
 ring, possessing the properties of that of Gyges, in a cavern of the romantic 
 Hill of Kinnoul, near Perth. 
 
 Note 17.— Spoeban, p. 81. 
 
 ' The Highland pouch, generally formed of goat-skin, and worn in front 
 ef the garb, is called in Gaelic a sporran, A aporranymoullach is a shaggy 
 pouch, formed, as they usually are, of goat-skin, or some such ma'-erial, 
 witli the rough side outermost. 
 
 33 
 
514 "WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 Note 18.— The Glovees, p. 83. 
 
 Our local antiquary says : " The Perth artisans of this craft were of great 
 repute, and numbered amongst them, from a very early period, men of 
 considerable substance. There are still extant among their records many 
 charters and grants of money and lands to various religious purposes, in 
 particular to the upholding of the altar of St.Bartholomew, one of the rich- 
 est of the many shrines within the parish church of St. John. 
 
 "While alluding to these evidences of the rich possessions of the old 
 glovers of Perth, it ought not to pass unnoticed — as Henry pinched Simon 
 on the subject of his rival artificers in leather, the cordwainers — ^that the 
 chaplain ' aikers of St. Crispin,' on the Leonard Hall property, were 
 afterwards bought up by the glovers. 
 
 " The avocations of this incorporation were not always of a peaceful na- 
 ture. They still show a banner under which their forefathers fought in 
 the troubles of the 17th century. It bears this inscription : ' The perfect 
 honour of a craft or beauty of a trade is not in wealthe but in moral worth, 
 whereby virtue gains renowne ' ; and surmounted by the words, ' Grace 
 and Peace,' the date 1604. 
 
 " The only other relic in the archives of this body which calls for notice 
 in this place is a leathern lash, called ' The whip of St. Bartholomew,' 
 which the craft are often admonished in the records to apply to the back 
 of refractory apprentices. It cannot have existed in the days of our friend 
 the glover, otherwise its frequent application to the shoulders of Conachar 
 would have been matter of record in the history of that family." 
 
 Note 19. — Hoese ahd Hattook, p. 99. 
 
 " Horse and hattock," the well-known cry of the fairies at mounting for 
 a moonlight expedition, came to be familiarly adopted on any occasion of 
 mounting. 
 
 Note 20. — Baeons of Kinfauns, p. 104. 
 
 It is generally believed that the ancient barons of Kinfjauna are now rep- 
 resented in the male line by a once powerful branch of the name, the Char- 
 terises of Amisfield, in Dumfriesshire. The remains of the castle, close to 
 which is their modern residence, attest the former extent of their resources. 
 The name of Sir Thomas LonguevUle, Bart., of Prestatin [Flintshire] 
 stood on the Nova Scotia list within these twenty years, and he and his 
 family claimed to be the true progeny of the Red Rover. 
 
 Note 21. — East Poet, p. 105. 
 
 The following is extracted from a kind communication of the well- 
 known antiquary, Mr. Morrison, of Perth : 
 
 " The port at which the deputation for Kinfauns must have met was a 
 strongly-fortified gate at the east end of the High Street, opening to the 
 bridge. On the north side of the street adjoining the gate stood the chapel 
 of the Virgin, from which the monks had access to the river by a flight of 
 steps, stiU called "Our Lady's Stairs." Some remains of this chapel are 
 yet extant, and one of the towers is in a style of architecture which most 
 
NOTES. SIS 
 
 antiquaries consider peculiar to the age of Robert III. Immediately oppo- 
 site, on the south side of the street, a staircase is still to be seen, evidently 
 of great antiquity, which is said to have formed part of Gowrie's palace. 
 But as Gowrie House stood at the other end of the Watergate, as most of 
 the houses of the nobility were situated between the staircase we now refer 
 to and Gowrie House, and as, singularly enough, this stair is built upon 
 ground which, although in the middle of the town, is not within the 
 burgh lands, some of the local antiquaries do not hesitate to say that it 
 formed part of the royal palace, in which the kings of Scotland resided, 
 until they found more secluded, ;ind probably more comfortable, lodging 
 in the Blackfriars' monastery. Leaving the determination of this question 
 to those who have more leisure for solving it, thus far is certain, that the 
 place of rendezvous for the hero of the tale and his companions was one of 
 some consequence in the town, where their bearing was not likely to pass 
 unobserved. The bridge to which they passed through the gate was a very 
 stately edifice. Major calls it, Pontem Sancti Joannis ingentem apud Perth. 
 The date of its erection is not known, but it was extensively repaired by 
 Robert Bruce, in whose reign it suffered by the repeated sieges to which 
 Perth was subjected, as well as by some of those inundations of the Tay to 
 which it was frequently exposed, and one of which eventually swept it 
 away in 1621." 
 
 Note 22. — Johnstone Family, p. 111. 
 
 Every Scotchman must regret that the name of Johnstone should have 
 disappeared from the peerage, and hope that erelong some one of the many 
 claimants for the minor honours at least of the house of Annandale may 
 make out a claim to the satisfaction of the House of Lords. The great es- 
 tates of the family are still nearly entire, and in worthy hands ; they 
 have passed to a younger branch of the noble house of Hopetoun, one of 
 the claimants of the elder titles. 
 
 Note 23. — DnKES in Scotland, p. 124. 
 
 This creation, and that of the dukedom of Albany, in favour of the 
 King's brother, were the first instances of ducal rank in Scotland. Bu- 
 chanan mentions the innovation in terms which may be considered as 
 showing that even he partook in the general prejudice with which that 
 title was viewed in Scotland down to a much later period. It had, indeed, 
 been in almost every case united with heavy misfortunes, not rarely with 
 tr^e crimes. 
 
 Note 24. — Thiggees and Sokners, p. 131. 
 
 Thiggers and somers — i. e. sturdy beggars, the former, hewever, being, as 
 the word implies, more civil than the latter. 
 
 Note 25.— Galilee of a Church, p, 132. 
 
 The galilee of a Gatholic cathedral is a small side chapel to which ex- 
 communicated persons have access, though they must not enter the body 
 of the church. Mr. Surtees suggests that the name of the place thus ap- 
 propriated to the consolation of miserable penitents was derived from the 
 
516 "WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 teit: " Ite, nunciate fratribus meis ut eant in Galileam ; ibi me videbunt." 
 Matt, xxviii. 10. See History of Durham, vol. i. p. Ivi. Criminals claim- 
 ing sanctuary were, for obvious reasons, accustomed to place themselves in 
 this part of the edifice. 
 
 Note 26. — Beandanes, p. 138. 
 
 The men of the Isle of Bute were called Brandanes ; from what deriva- 
 tion is not quite certain, though the strong probability lies with Dr. Ley- 
 den, who deduces the name from the patron saint of the islands in the 
 Firth of Clyde — viz., St. Brandin. The territory of Bute was the King's 
 own patrimony, and its natives his personal followers. The noble family 
 of Bute, to whom the island now belongs, are an ancient illegitimate 
 branch of the royal house. 
 
 Note 27. — Monks of Aebkoath and Eael Douglas, p. 140. 
 
 The complaint of the monks of Arbroath about the too great honour the 
 Earl of Douglas had paid them in becoming their guest with a train of a 
 thousand men passed into a proverb, and was never forgotten when the 
 old Scots churchmen railed at the nobility, who, in the sequel, demolished 
 the church, out of that earnest yearning they had long felt for her goods. 
 
 Note 28. — Lay of Pooe Louise, p. 142. 
 
 This lay has been set to beautiful music by a lady whose composition, to 
 say nothing of her singing, might make any poet proud of his verses, Mrs. 
 Robert Arkwright, born Miss Kemble.' 
 
 Note 29. — Kothsay's Chaeactee, p. 177. 
 
 Mr. Chrystal Croftangry had not, it must be confessed, when he indited 
 this sentence, exactly recollected the character of Rothsay, as given by the- 
 prior of Lockleven. 
 
 Cunnand into letterature, 
 A seymly persone in stature. 
 Bk. ix. chap. 23. 
 
 Note 30. — Brattack, p. 182. 
 
 Standard— literally, cloth. The Lowland language still retains the wor* 
 " brat," which, however, is only now applicable to a chUd's pinafore, or a 
 coarse towel. To such mean offices may words descend. 
 
 Note 31.— Poisoning, p. 225. 
 
 The extent to which the science of poisoning was carried in the Middle 
 Ages on the continent is well known. The hateful practice was more and 
 more refined, and still more generally adopted, afterwards; and we are 
 toid, among other instances of diabolical cunning, of gloves which could 
 
 ' [See Lpckhart's Ufe of Swtt, xs.. pp. 166, 236, J 
 
NOTEa ojlT 
 
 not be put on without inflicting a mortal disease, of letters which, on being 
 opened, diflfased a fatal vapour, etc., etc. Voltaire justly and candidly 
 mentions it as a distinguishing characteristic of the British that political 
 poisonings made little, if any, figure in their history. 
 
 Note 32.— Fastbbk's E'en, p. 226. 
 
 Fastem's E'en, the evening before the commencement of the fast — An- 
 glici, Shrovetide, the season of being shriven, or of confession and absolu- 
 tion, before beginning the penance of Lent. The cook-fights, etc., still 
 held at this period are relics of the Catholic carnival that preceded th» 
 weeks of abstinence. 
 
 Note 33. — Sticklek, p. 240. 
 
 The seconds in ancient single combat were so called, from the white 
 sticks which they carried, in emblem of their duty, to see fair play between 
 the combatants. 
 
 Note 34. — ^Mummins Diqnitakies, p. 245. 
 
 The Scottish Statute Book affords abundant evidence of the extravagant 
 ftnd often fatal frolics practised among our ancestors under the personages 
 elected to fill the high offices of Queen of May, Prince of Yule (Christmas), 
 Abbot of Unreason, etc., etc., corresponding to the Boy Bishop of England 
 and the French AbbS de lAesse or Abbas LetUiai. Shrovetide was not leas 
 distinguished by such mumming dignitaries. 
 
 Note 35. — Massamoee, p. 246. 
 
 The massamore, or massymore, the principal dungeon of thie feudal 
 castle, is supposed to have derived its name from our intercourse with the 
 Eastern nations at the time of the Crusades. Dr. Jamieson quotes an old 
 Latin itinerary : " Proximus est career subterraneus, sive, ut Mauri appel' 
 lant, mazmorra.'' 
 
 Note 36. — St, Johnston's Hunt is up, p. 263. 
 
 This celebrated slogan or war-cry was often accompanied by a stirring 
 strain of music, which was of much repute in its day, but which has long 
 eluded the search of musical antiquaries. It is described by the local poet 
 [of Perth], Mr. Adamson, as a great inspirer of courage. 
 
 Courage to give, was mightily then blown 
 
 St. Johnston's Hunt's up, since most famous known 
 
 By all musicians 
 
 Muses' Threnodte, 5th Muse. 
 
 Prom the deaciiptioii which follows, one might suppose that it had aluo 
 been accompanied by a kind of war-dance. 
 
 ! how they bend their backs and fingers tirle ! 
 Moving their quivering heads, their brains do whirle 
 With divers moods ; and as with uncouth rapture 
 ■jransported, so do shake their bodies' structure ; 
 
618 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 Their eyes do reel, heads, arms, and shoulders more; 
 Feet, legs, and hands, and all their parts approve 
 That heavenly harmonie ; while as they threw 
 Their browes, mighty strain 1 that's brave I they shcyr 
 
 Great fantasie 
 
 Ibid. Id. 
 
 Note 37. — Henet Smith oe Wtkd, p. 265. 
 
 Mr. Morrison says : " The various designations by which Henry or Hal 
 of the Wynd, the Gow Chrom or Bandy-legged Smith of St. Johnston, was 
 known have left the field open to a great variety of competitors for th« 
 honour of being reckoned among his descendants. The want of early regis- 
 ters, and various other circumstances, prevent our venturing to pronounce 
 any verdict on the comparative strength of these claims, but we shall state 
 them all fairly and briefly. 
 
 " First, we have the Henry or Hendrie families, who can produce many 
 other instances besides their own in which a Christian name has become 
 that of a family or tribe, from the celebrity attached to it through the great 
 deeds of some of their ancestors by whom it was borne. Then follow the 
 Hals, Halls, and Halleys, among whom even some of the ancient and 
 honourable race of the Halkets have ranged thenjselves. All these claims 
 are, however, esteemed very lightly by the Wynds, who to this day pride 
 themselves on their thewes and sinews, and consider that their ancestor 
 being styled 'Henrie Winde ' by the metrical historian of the town, is of 
 itself proof sufficient that their claim is more solid than the name would 
 altogether imply. ; 
 
 " It is rather singular that, in spite of all the ill-will which Henry seems 
 to have borne to the Celts, and the contemptuous terms in which he so 
 often speaks of them in the text, the Gows should be found foremost among 
 the claimants, and that the strife should lie mainly between them and their 
 Saxon namesakes the Smiths, families whose number, opulence, and re- 
 spectability will render it an extremely difficult matter to say which of 
 them are in the direct line, even if it should be clearer than it is that the 
 children of the hero were known by their father's occupation, and not by 
 his residence. 
 
 " It only remains to notice the pretensions of the Chroms, Grooms, 
 Crambs, or Crombies, a name which every schoolboy will associate. If not 
 with the athletic, at least with the gymnastic, exercises for which the Gow 
 Chrom and the grammar school of Perth were equally celebrated. We 
 need scarcely add, that while the Saxon name corresponding with the word 
 " gow ' ' has brought a host of competitors into the field, there has not yet 
 •tarted any claimant resting his pretensions on the quality expressed in 
 the epithet chrom, i.e. ' bandy-legged.' " 
 
 NoTB 38. — The CotmciL-RooM, p. 284. 
 
 Mr. Morrison says ; " The places where the public essemhlies of the citi- 
 zens, or their magistrates, were held were so seldom changed in former 
 times, that there seems every reason to conclude that the meetings of the 
 town-council of Perth were always held in or near the place where they 
 still convene. The room itself is evidently modem, but the adjoining 
 building, which seems to have been reared close to, if it did not actually 
 ftirm a part of, the Chapel of tht- "Virgin, bears many marks of antiquity. 
 
NOTES. 519 
 
 'ifle room in which it is not improbable the council meetings were held 
 about the period of our story had been relieved of part of its gloomy aspect 
 in the reign of the Third James, by the addition of one of those octagonal 
 towers which distinguish the architecture of his favourite Cochrane. The 
 upper part of it and the spire are modern, but the lower structure is a good 
 specimen of that artist's taste. 
 
 " The power of trying criminal cases of the most serious kind, and of in- 
 flicting the highest punishment of the law, was granted by Kobert III. to 
 the magistrates of Perth, and was frequently exercised by them, as tbo 
 records of the town abundantly prove." 
 
 Note 39. — Mokeice-dancees, p. 286. 
 
 Considerable diversity of opinion exists respecting the introduction of 
 the morrice dance into Britain. The name points it out as of Moorish 
 origin ; and so popular has this leaping kind of dancing for many centuries 
 been in this country, that, when Handel was asked to point out the peculiar 
 taste in dancing and music of the several nations of Europe, to the French 
 he ascribed the minuet, to the Spaniard the saraband, to the Italian the 
 arietta, to the English the hornpipe or morrice dance. 
 
 The local antiquary v^hose kindness has already been more than once 
 acknowledged says : I 
 
 "It adds not a little interest to such an inquiry, in connexion with a 
 story in which the fortunes of a Perth glover form so prominent a part, to 
 find that the Glover Incorporation of Perth have preserved entire among 
 their relics the attire of one of the morrice-dancers, who, on some festive 
 occasion, exhibited his paces ' to the jocose recreatment ' of one of the 
 Scottish monarchs, while on a visit to the Pair City. 
 
 "This curious vestment is made of fawn-coloured silk, in the form of a 
 tunic, with trappings of green and red satin. There accompany it two 
 hundred and fifty-two small circular bells, formed into twenty-one sets of 
 twelve bells each, upon pieces of leather, made to fasten to various parts of 
 the body. What is most remarkable about these bells is the perfect into- 
 nation of each set, and the regular musical intervals between the tone of 
 each. The twelve bells on each piece of leather are of various sizes, yet all 
 combining to form one perfect intonation in concord with the leading note 
 in the set. These concords are maintained not only in each set, but also in 
 the intervals between the various pieces. The performer could thus pro- 
 duce, if not a tune, at least a pleasing and musical chime, according as he 
 regulated with skill the movements of his body. This is suflScient evidence 
 that the morrice dance was not quite so absurd and unmeaning as might 
 at first be supposed ; but that a tasteful performer could give pleasure by 
 it to the skilful, as well as amusement to the vulgar." 
 
 Note 40. — High Chuech of St. John, p. 291. 
 
 "There is," says Mr. Morrison, "a simplicity in the internal architecture 
 of the building which bespeaks a very ancient origin, and makes us sus- 
 pect that the changes it has undergone have in a great measure been con- 
 fined to its exterior. Tradition ascribes its foundation to the Picts, and 
 there is no doubt that in the age immediately subsequent to the termination 
 of that monarchy it was famed throughout all Scotlaiwi. It is probably 
 
520 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 that the western part of it was built about that period, and the eastern not 
 long afterwards, and in both divisions there is stUl to be seen a unity and 
 beauty of design which is done little justice to by the broken, irregular, 
 and paltry manner in which the exterior has at various times been patched 
 up. When the three churches into which it is now cut down were in one, 
 the ceilings high and decorated, the aisles enriched by the offerings of the 
 devotees to the various altars which were reared around it, and the arches 
 free from the galleries which now deform all these Gothic buildings, it 
 must have formed a splendid theatre for such a spectacle as that of the 
 trial by bier-right." 
 
 NOTK 41. — LOCKMAN, p. 314. 
 
 Executioner. So called because one of his dues consisted in taking a 
 small ladleful (Scottice, " lock ") of meal out of every caskfal exposed in 
 the market. 
 
 Note 42. — Oedeal by Fiee, p. 325. 
 
 In a volume of miscellanies published in Edinburgh in 1826, under the 
 name of Janits [pp. 44^-49] , there is included a very curious paper illustra- 
 tive of the solemnity with which the Catholic Church in the dark ages su- 
 perintended the appeal to Heaven by the ordeal of fire ; and as the ceremo- 
 nial on occasions such as that in the text was probably much the same as 
 what is there described, an extract may interest the reader. 
 
 CHUECH SEEVICE POE THE OEDEAL BY FIEE. 
 
 We are.all well aware that the ordeal by fire had, during many centuries, 
 the sanction of the church, and, moreover, that, considering in what hands 
 the knowledge of those times lay, this blasphemous horror could never 
 have existed without the connivance, and even actual co-operation, of the 
 priesthood. 
 
 It is only a few years ago, however, that any actual form of ritual, set 
 apart by any ecclesiastical authority for this atrocious ceremony of fraud, 
 has been recovered. Mr. Biisching, the well-known German antiquary, 
 has the merit of having discovered a most extraordinary document of this 
 kind in the course of examining the charter-chest of an ancient Thuringian 
 monastery ; and he has published it in a periodical work, entitled Die 
 Vorzeit, in 1817. We shall translate the prayers, as given in that work, as 
 literally as possible. To those who suspected no deceit, there can be no 
 doubt that this service must have been as awfully impressive as any that is 
 to be found in the formularies of any church ; but words are wanting to 
 express the abject guilt of those who, well knowing the base trickery of the 
 whole matter, who, having themselves assisted in preparing all the appli- 
 ances of legerdemain behind the scenes of the sanctuary-stage, dared to 
 clothe their iniquity in the most solemn phraseology of religion. 
 
 A fire was kindled within the church, not far from the great altar. The 
 person about to undergo the ordeal was placed in front of the fire sur- 
 Toanded by his friends, by all who were in any way interested in the result 
 of the trial, and by the whole clergy of the vicinity. TIpo-n a table near 
 the fire, the coulter over which he was to walk, the bar he was to carry, or, 
 if he were a knight, the steel gloves which, after they had been made red^' 
 hot, h? was to put on his hands, were pl^ed in view of all, 
 
NOTES. ■ 521 
 
 Part of the usual service of the day being performed, a priest advances, 
 and places himself in front of the fire, uttering at the same moment the 
 following prayei', which is the first Mr. Biisching gives : 
 
 " Lord God, bless this place, that herein there maybe health, and holi- 
 ness, and purity, and sarictification, and victory, and humility, and meek- 
 ness, fulfilment of the law, and obedience to God the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost. May thy blessing, O God of purity and justice, be upon 
 this place, and upon all that be therein ; for the sake of Christ, the Re- 
 deemer of the world." 
 
 A second priest now lifts the iron, and bears it towards the fire. A series 
 of prayers follows ; all to be repeated ere the iron is laid on the fire. 
 
 These are the Prayers to be said over the Pire and the Iron. 
 
 "1. Lord God, Almighty Father, Fountain of Light, hear us : enlighten 
 us, thou that dwellest in light unapproachable. Bless this fire, God ; 
 and as from the midst of the fire thou didst of old enlighten Moses, so from 
 this flame enlighten and purify our hearts, that we may be worthy, through 
 Christ our Lord, to come unto thee, and unto the life eternal. 
 
 " 2. Our Father which art in Heaven, etc. 
 
 " 3. Lord, save thy servant. Lord God, send him help out of Zion, thy 
 holy hill. Save him,0 Lord. Hear us, Lord. Lord, be with us. 
 
 " 4. God, Holy and Almighty, hear us. By the majesty of thy most 
 holy name, and by the coming of thy dear Son, and by the gift of the com- 
 fort of thy Holy Spirit, and by the justice of thine eternal seat, hear us, 
 good Lord. Purify this metal, and sanctify it, that all falsehood and de- 
 ceit of the devil may be cast out of it, and utterly removed ; and that the 
 truth of thy righteous judgment may be opened and made manifest to all 
 the faithful that cry unto thee this day, through Jesus Christ, our Lord." 
 
 The iron is now placed in the fire, and sprinkled with consecrated water, 
 both before and after it is so placed. The mass is said while the iron is 
 heating, the introductory Scripture being — " Lord, thou art just, and 
 righteous are all thy judgments." The priest delivers the wafer to the per- 
 son about to be tried, and, ere he communicates, the following prayer is 
 said by the priest and congregation : 
 
 " We pray unto thee, God, that it may please thee to absolve this thy 
 •servant, and to clear him from his sins. Purify him, Heavenly Father, 
 from all the stains of the flesh, and enable him, by thy all-covering and 
 atoning grace, to pass through this fire — ^thy creature — triumphantly, being 
 justified in Christ our Lord." 
 
 Then the Gospel : " Then there came one unto Jesus, who fell upon his 
 knees, and cried out. Good Master, what must I do that I may be saved ? 
 Jesus said, "Why callest thou me good?" etc. 
 
 The chief priest, from the altar, now addresses the accused, who is still 
 kneeling near the fire : 
 
 "By the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and 
 by the Christianity whose name thou bearest, and the baptism in which 
 thou wert born again, and by all the blessed relics of the saints of God that 
 are preserved in this church, I conjure thee, Come not unto this altar, nor 
 eat of this body of Christ, if thou beest guilty of the things that are laid to 
 thy charge ; but if thou beest innocent therein, come, brother, and coma 
 freely." 
 
522 WAVEELEY NOVELS. 
 
 The accused then comes forward and communicates, the priest saying : 
 "This day may the body and blood of Jesus Christ, which were given 
 and shed for thee, by thy protection and thy succour, yea, even in tha 
 midst of the flame." 
 
 The priest now reads this prayer : " O Lord, it hath pleased thee to ac- 
 cept our spiritual sacrifice. May the joyful partaking in this holy sacra- 
 ment be comfortable and useful to all that are here present, and service- 
 able to the removing of the bondage and thraldom of whatsoever sins d» 
 most easily beset us. Grant also, that to this thy servant it may be of ex- 
 ceeding comfort, gladdening his heart, until the truth of thy righteouB 
 judgment be revealed." 
 
 The organ now peals, and Kyrie Eleison and the Litany are sung in full 
 chorus. 
 
 After this comes another prayer : 
 
 " O God I thou that through fire hast shown forth so many signs of thy 
 almighty power ! thou that didst snatch Abraham, thy servant, out of the 
 brands and flames of the Chaldeans, wherein many were consumed I 
 thou that didst cause the bush to burn before the eyes of Moses, and yet 
 not to be consumed ! God, that didst send thy Holy Spirit in the likeness 
 of tongues of fiery flame, to the end that thy faithful servants might be vis- 
 ited and set apart from the unbelieving generation ; God, that didst safely 
 conduct the three children through the flame of the Babylonians ; God, 
 that didst waste Sodom with flre from heaven, and preserve Lot, thy ser- 
 ■>rant, as a sign and a token of thy mercy : God, show forth yet once again 
 *hy visible power, and the majesty of thy unerring judgment. That truth 
 iiiay be made manifest, and falsehood avenged, make thou this fire thy min- 
 ister before us ; powerless be it where is the power of purity, but sorely burn- 
 ing, even to the flesh and the sinews, the hand that hath done evil, and that 
 hath not feared to be lifted up in false swearing. God ! from whose eye 
 nothing can be concealed, make thou this fire thy voice to us thy servants, 
 that it may reveal innocence, or cover iniquity with shame. Judge of all 
 the earth, hear us. Hear us, good Lord, for the sake of Jesus Christ thy 
 Son." 
 
 The priest now dashes once more the holy water over the fire, sajdng, 
 " Upon this fire be the blessing of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost, that it may be a sign to us of the righteous judgment of God." 
 
 The priest pauses ; instantly the accused approaches to the fire, and lifts 
 tha iron, which he carries nine yards from the flame. The moment he 
 lays it down he is surrounded by the priests, and borne by them into the 
 vestry ; there his hands are wrapped in linen cloths, sealed down with the 
 signet of the church. These are removed on the third day, when he is de- 
 clared innocent or guilty, according to the condition in which his hands 
 are found. " Si sinus ruheseens in vestigio ferrireperiatur, culpabilis ducatur. 
 Sin autem mundus reperiatiir, laiis Deo referatur." 
 
 Such is certainly one of the most extraordinary records of the craft, the 
 audacity, and the weakness of mankind. 
 
 The belief that the corpse of a murdered person would bleed on the 
 "'ouch,or at the approach of the murderer, was universal among the Northern 
 nations. We find it seriously urged in the High Court of Justiciary at 
 Edinburgh so late as 1688 as an evidence of guilt. The case was that of 
 Philip Standsfield, accused of the murder of his father, andthispartof the 
 evidence against him is thus stated in the " libel," or indictment. " And 
 
NOTES. 523 
 
 when his father's dead body was sighted and inspected by chimrgeons, 
 and the clear and evident signs of tlie murder had appeared, the body was 
 dewed up, and most carefully cleaned, and his nearest relations and friends 
 were desired to lift his body to the coffin ; and accordingly James Row, 
 merchand (who was in Edinburgh In the time of the murder), having 
 lifted the left side of Sir James his head and shoulder, and the said Philip 
 the right side, his father's body, though carefully cleaned, as said is, so as 
 the least blood was not on it, did (according to God's usual method of dis- 
 covering murders) blood afresh upon him, and defiled all his hands, which 
 struck him with such a terror, that he immediately let his father's head 
 and body fall with violence, and fled from the body, and in consternation 
 and confusion, cried, ' Lord, have mercy upon me ! ' and bowed himself 
 down over a seat in the church (where thecorp were inspected) wiping his 
 father's innocent blood off his own murdering hands upon his cloaths." 
 To this his counsel replied, that " this is but a superstitious observation, 
 without any ground either in law or reason ; and Carpzovius relates that 
 several persons upon that ground had been unjustly challenged." It was, 
 however, insisted on as a link in the chain of evidence, not as a merely 
 singular circumstance, but as a miraculous interposition of Providence ; 
 and it was thus animadverted upon by Sir George Mackenzie, the king's 
 counsel, in his charge to the jury. " But they, fully persuaded that Sir 
 James was murdered by his own son, sent out some chirurgeons and friends, 
 who, having raised the body, did see it bleed miraculously upon his touch- 
 ing it ; in which God Almighty Himself was pleased to bear a share in the 
 testimonies we produce ; that Divine power, which makes the blood circu- 
 late during life, has ofttimes, in all nations, opened a passage to it after 
 death upon such occasions, but most in this case." 
 
 Note 43. — Skinners' Yaeds, p. 327. 
 
 " The Skinners' Yard," says Mr. Morrison, " is still in the possession of 
 that fraternity, and is applied to the purpose which Its name implies. 
 Prior to the time of the peaceable Robert, it was the courtyard of the castle. 
 Part of the gate which opened from the town to the drawbridge of the 
 castle is still to be seen, as well as some traces of the foundation of the 
 keep or donjon, and of the towers which surrounded the castle-yard. The 
 Curfew Row, which now incloses the Skinners' Yard, at that time formed 
 the avenue or street leading from the northern part of the town to th« 
 Dominican monastery." 
 
 Note 44. — Eael of Eeeol's Lodgings, p. 332. 
 
 "The Constable's, or Earl of Errol's, lodgings," says Mr. Morrison, " stood 
 near the south end of the Watergate, the quarter of the town in which 
 mostof the houses of the nobility were placed, amidst gardens which ex- 
 tended to the wall of the city adjoining the river. The families of the Hays 
 had many rich possessions in the neighbourhood, and other residences in 
 the town besides that commonly known as the Constable's Lodgings. 
 Some of these subsequently passed, along with a considerable portion of 
 the carse, to the Ruthven or Gowrie family. The last of those noble resi- 
 dences in Perth which retained any part of its former magnificence (and on 
 that account styled the Palace) was the celebrated Gowrie House, whicfc 
 
524 WATERLET NOVELS. 
 
 was nearly entire in 1805, but of which not a vestige now remains. On the 
 confifscation of the Gowrie estates, it merged into the public property of 
 the town, and in 1746 was presented by the magistrates to the Duke ot 
 Cumberland. His Eoyal Highness, on receiving tliis mark of the attach- 
 ment or servility of the Perth rulers, asked, with sarcastic nonchalance, 
 ' If tb« niece of ground called the Carse of Gowrie went along with it?' " 
 
 Note 45. — Subvitai, aftek Hanging, p. 348. 
 
 An Incident precisely similar to that in the text actually occurred within 
 liie present century at Oxford, in the case of a young woman who under- 
 went the last sentence of the law for child-murder. A learned professor of 
 that university has published an account of his conversation with the girl 
 after her recovery. 
 
 Note 46.— Lines of Old Maker, p. 352. 
 
 These lines are still extant in the ruinous house of an abbot, and are said 
 to be allusive to the holy man having kept a mistress. [The house alluded 
 to is Abbot's House, in May Gate, Dunfermline.] 
 
 Note 47. — Henky Wabulaw, p. 358. 
 
 Mastere Henry of Wardlaw 
 That like til vertew wes to draw, 
 Chantoure that time of Glasgu, 
 Commendit of alkyn vertew. 
 The Pape had in aflfectioune, 
 Baith for his fame and his resowne. 
 
 Sua be this resown speciale 
 Of the threttend Benet Pape, 
 This Mastere Henry wes Bischape 
 Cf Sanct Andrewis with honoure. 
 Of Canone he wes then doctoure. 
 
 Wyntown, bk. li. chap. 23. 
 
 Note 48. — ^Tine-egan, p. 364. 
 
 Tine-egan, or neidfyre, i.e. forced fire. All the fires in the house being 
 extinguished, two men produced a flame of potent virtue by the friction of 
 wood. This charm was used, within the memory of living persons, in the 
 Hebrides, in cases of murrain among cattle. 
 
 Note 49. — Mohb ab Chat, p. 368. 
 
 Mohr ar Chat, i.e. The Great Cat. The county of Caithness is supposed 
 to have its name from Teutonic settlers of the race of the Oatti, and heraldry 
 has not neglected so fair an occasion for that species of painted punning in 
 which she used to delight. "Touch not the cat, but a glove," is the 
 motto of Mackintosh, alluding to his crest, which, as with most of the noT? 
 scattered lepts of the old Clan Chattan, is the mountain-cat. 
 
NOTES. 626 
 
 NoTK 50.— MaoKay's Countkt, p. 368. 
 
 Their territory, commonly called, after the chief of the MacKays. " Lord 
 Eeay's country," has lately passed into the possession of the noble family 
 of Stafford-Sutherland. 
 
 Note 51. — Lake Islands, p. 377. 
 
 The security no less than the beauty of the situations led to the choice 
 of these lake islands for religious establishments. Those in the Highlands 
 were generally of a lowly character, and in many of them the monastic 
 orders were tolerated, and the rites of the Romish Church observed, long 
 after the Reformation had swept both " the rooks and their nests " out of 
 the Lowlands. The priory on Loch Tay was founded by Alexander I., and 
 the care of it committed to a small body of monks ; but the last residents 
 of it were three nuns, who, when they did emerge into society, seemed de- 
 termined to enjoy it in its most complicated and noisy state, for they came 
 out only once a-year, and that to a market at Kenmore. Hence that fair vt 
 still called " Fiell na m'hau maomb," or Holy Woman's Market. 
 
 Note 52. — Deasil, p. 379. 
 
 A very ancient custom, which consists in going three times round the 
 body of a dead or living person, imploring blessings upon him. The 
 deasil must be performed sunways, that is, by moving from right to left. 
 If misfortune is imprecated, the party moves withershins (German, 
 vMerdns), that is, against the sun, from left to right. 
 
 Note 53. — Highland Funeral Cekemonies, p. 379. 
 
 The installation, the marriage, and the funeral of a chieftain were the 
 three periods of his course observed with the highest ceremony by all the 
 clan. The latter was perhaps the most imposing of the three spectacles, 
 from the solemnity of the occasion and the thrilling effect produced by the 
 coronach, sung by hundreds of voices, its melancholy notes undulating 
 through the valleys or reverberating among the hills. All these observ- 
 ances are fading away, and the occasional attempt at a gathering for the 
 funeral of a chief now resembles the dying note of the coronach, faintly 
 echoed for the last time among the rock^. 
 
 Note 54. — Geaih deopping into Peison, p. 445. 
 
 Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie having irritated William Douglas, 
 Lord of Galloway, by obtaining the sheriffship of Teviotdale, which the 
 haughty baron considered due to himself, was surprised in Hawick while 
 exercising his office, and confined in Hermitage Castle until he died of 
 famine in June [July] 1342. [David Hume of] Godscroft [House of Douglas, 
 vol. i. p. 139, ed. 1743] mentions the circumstance of the grain dropping 
 from the corn-loft. 
 
626 WAVERLET NOVELS. 
 
 Note 55.— Milk-bowie, p. 448, 
 
 i.e. A small toilk-pail. One of the sweetest couplets In The Oeittlt 
 Shepherd [Act. U. sc. 4] is— 
 
 To bear the mijk-bowie nae was pain to me, 
 When I at the bughting forgather'd wi' thee. 
 
 Noo) 56.— Red-hand, p. 457. 
 
 Mr. Morrison says: "The case of a person taken ' red-hand ' by the 
 magistrates of Perth and immediately executed was the main cause of the 
 power of trying cases of life and death being taken from them and from all 
 subordinate judicatories. A young English officer connected with some 
 families of rank and influence, who was stationed with a recruiting party 
 at Perth, had become enamoured of a lady there, so young as still to be 
 under the tuition of a dancing-master. Her admirer was, in the habit of 
 following her into the school^ to the great annoyance of the teacher, who, 
 on occasion of a ball given in his class-room in the Kirkgate, stationed 
 himself at the door, determined to resist the entrance of the officer, on ac- 
 count of the scandal to which his visits had given rise. The officer came 
 as a matter of course, and a scuffle ensued, which at last bore so threaten- 
 ing an aspect, that the poor dancing-master fled through the passage, or 
 ' close,' as it is called, by which there was access to the street. He was 
 pursued by the officer with his drawn sword, and was run through the 
 body ere he could reach tha street, where the crowd usually assembled on 
 such occasions might have protected him. The officer was instantly appre- 
 hended, and executed, it is understood, even without any form of trial ; at 
 least there is no notice of it in any of the records where it would withjQost 
 probability have been entered. But the sword is still in the possession of a 
 gentleman whose ancestors held official situations in the town at the time, 
 and the circumstances of the murder and of the execution have been 
 handed down with great minuteness and apparent truth of description 
 from father to son. It was immediately afterwards that the power of the 
 civic magistrates in matters criminal was abridged, it is thought chiefly 
 through the Influence of the friends of this young officer." 
 
 Note 57. — Houohmanstaees, p. 466. 
 
 " This place, twice referred to in the course of our story as hateful to the 
 Highlanders, lies near the Stare dam, a collection of waters in a very deso- 
 late hoUow between the Hill of Birnam and the road from Perth to Dunkeld . 
 The eerieness of the place is indescribable, and is rendered yet more strik- 
 ing from its being within a furlong of one of the loveliest and richest scenes 
 in Scotland — the northwest opening of Strathmore. The ' dam ' has been 
 nearly drained within these few years, but the miserable patches of sickly 
 corn which have with vast labour and cost been obtained look still more 
 melancholy than the solitary tarn which the barren earth seems to have 
 drunk up. The whole aspect of the place fitted it for being the scene of 
 the trial and punishment of one of the most notoriousbands of thieves and 
 outlaws that ever laid the Low Country under contribution. Ruthven, the 
 sheriff, is said to have held his court on a rising ground to the north, still 
 
NOTES, 527 
 
 called the Courtrhill ; and there were lately, or there still may be, at the 
 east end of the Roch-in-roy wood, some oaks on which the Highlanders 
 were hung, and which long went by the name of the Hanged-men's-trees. 
 The hideous appearance of the bodies hanging in chains gave the place a 
 name which to this day grates on the ear of a Celt." — Moeeison. 
 
 Note 58. — Gardens of the Dominioaks, p. 471. 
 
 " The Gardens of the Dominicans surrounded the monastery on all sides, 
 and were of great extent and beauty. Part of them immediately adjoined 
 the North Inch, and covered all that space of ground now occupied by 
 Atholl Place, the Crescent, and Rose Terrace, besides a considerable extent 
 of ground to the west and south, still known by the name of the Black- 
 friars. On a part of these grounds overlooking the North Inch, probably 
 near the south end of the Terrace, a richly decorated summer-house stood, 
 which is frequently mentioned in old writings as the Gilten Arbour. Prom 
 the balconies of this edifice King Robert is supposed to have witnessed the 
 conflict of the clans. What the peculiar forms, construction, or ornaments 
 of this buildinff were, which gained for it this title, is not even hinted at by 
 any of the local chroniclers. It may be mentioned, however, although it 
 is a matter of mere tradition, that the ornaments on the ceiling of the 
 Monks' Tower (a circular watch-tower at the southeast angle of the town) 
 were said to have been copied fiom those on the Gilten Arbour, by orders 
 of the first Earl of Go wrie, at the corner of whose garden the Monks' Tower 
 stood. This tower was taken down at the same time with Go wrie House, 
 and many yet remember the general appearance of the paintings on the 
 ceiling, yet it does not seem to have occurred to any one to have had them 
 copied. They were allegorical and astronomical, representing the virtues 
 and vices, the seasons, the zodiac, andothei subjects commonplace enough ; 
 yet even the surmise that they might have been copied from others still 
 more ancient, if it could not save them from destruction, should have en- 
 titled them to a greater share than they seem to have possessed of the notice 
 of their contemporaries. The patience with which the antiquaries of Perth 
 have submitted to the removal (in many cases the wanton and useless 
 removal) of the historical monuments with which they were at one time 
 surrounded is truly wonderful ! ' ' — Moebisott. 
 
 Note 59.— The Black Chanter, p. 492. 
 
 The present [in 1831] Cluny MacPherson, chief of his clan, is in posses- 
 fion of this ancient trophy of their presence at the North Inch. Another 
 account of it is given by a tradition, which says, that an aerial minstrel 
 appeared over the heads of the Clan Chattan, and, having played some 
 wild strains, let the instrument drop from his hand. Being made of glass 
 it was broken by the fall, excepting only the chanter, which, as usual, was 
 of lignum-vita?.. The MacPherson piper secured this enchanted pipe, and 
 "the possesasion of it is still considered as ensuring the prosperity of the 
 eUm. 
 
628 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 Note 60. — Combat on the Nobth Inch, p. 483, 
 
 The reader may be amused with the account of this onslaught in Boec« 
 [bk. xvi., chap. 9], as translated by Bellenden : 
 
 At this time, mekil of all the north of Scotland was hevely trublit be two - 
 clannis of Irsmen, namit Clankayis and Glenqnhattanis, invading the cun- 
 tre, be thair weris, with ithand slauchter and reif. At last, it was appointit 
 betwix the heidis-men of thir two clannis, be avise of the Brlis of Murray 
 and Crawfurd, that xxx of the prineipall men of the ta clan sal cum, with 
 othir XXX of the tothir clan, arrayit in thair best avise, and sail convene 
 ifore the king at Perth, for decision of al pleis, and fecht with scharp 
 ,v7erdls to the deith, but ony harnes ; and that clan quhare the victory 
 succedit to have perpetuall empire above the tothir. Baith thir clannis, 
 glaid of this condition, came to the North Inche, heside Perth, with jugis 
 set in scaffaldis, to discus the verite, Ane of thir clannis wantit ane man 
 to perfurnis furth the nowmer, and wagit ane carll, for money, to debait 
 thair actioun, howbeit this man pertenit na thing to thaim in blud nor 
 kindnes. Thir two clannis stude arrayit with gret hatrent aganis othir : 
 and, be sound of trumpet, ruschit togidder, takand na respect to thair 
 woundis, sa that thay micht distroy thair ennimes ; and faucht In this 
 manor lang, with uncertane victory ; quhen ane fel, ane othir was put in 
 his rowme. At last the Clankayis war al slane except ane, that swam 
 throw the watter of Tay . Of Glenquhattannis was left ix personis on live ; 
 bot thay war sa hurt, that thay micht nocht bald thair swerdis in thaii 
 handis. This debait was fra the incarnation, mcccxcvi yeris. 
 
 Note 61. — Death of Eothsat, p. 501. 
 
 The death of the Duke of Rothsay is not accompanied with the circum- 
 stances detailed by later writers in Wyntoun. The chronicler of Loch- 
 leven says simply : 
 
 A thousand foure hundyr yeris and twa 
 
 All before as ye herd done 
 
 Oure lord the kingis eldest sone, 
 
 Suete and vertuous, yong and fair, 
 
 And his nerast lauchful ayr. 
 
 Honest, habil, and avenand, 
 
 Oure lord, oure prynce, in all pleasand, 
 
 Cunnand into letterature, 
 
 A seymly persone in stature, 
 
 Schir Davy Duke ef Rothsay, 
 
 Of Marche the sevy n and twenty day 
 
 Yauld his saule til his Creatoure, 
 
 His corg til hallowit sepulture. 
 
 In Lundoris his body lyis, 
 
 His spirite intil Paradys. 
 
 Bk. iz. chap. 23. 
 
 The Oontinnator of Pordun is far more particular, and, though he does 
 Hot positively pronounce on the guilt or Albany, says [lib. xv. cap, 12] 
 enough to show that, when he wrote, the suspicion against him was uni- 
 versal, and that Sir John Ramorny was generally considered as having fol- 
 lowed the dark and double course ascribed to him in the novel. 
 
 Anno Domini millesimo quadringentesimo primo, obiit columna eccle- 
 diae robustissima, vas eloquentiee, et thesaurus scientiee, ac defensor Catho' 
 
NOTES. 529 
 
 liosB fidel, dominus Walterus Treyl, episcopug S. Andrese ; et etiam Dom- 
 ina Anabella regina apud Sconam decessH, et sepulta eat in Dunfermlyne. 
 Hi enim duo, dum viverent, honorem quasi regni exaltabant ; videlicet, 
 principes et magnates in discordiam oonoitatos ad ooncordiam revocantes, 
 alienigenas et extraneos egregiS susoeptantes et convivantes, ac muiiiflc§ 
 dimissos Isetificantes, TJnde quasi proverbialiter tunc dictum exstitit, 
 qudd mortuis regina Scotise, comite de Douglas, et episeopo Sancti Andrece, 
 abiit decus, recessit honor, et honestas obiit Scotias. Eodem anno quarta 
 mortalitas exstitit in regno. Paulo ante dominus rex in consilio deputavit 
 certos consiliarios, valentes barones et milites, juratos ad regendum et con- 
 siliandum, Dominum David Stewart, ducem Eothaaiensem, comitem de 
 Carrik, et principem regni, quia videbatur regi et consilio quod immisce- 
 bat se ssepiiis effrsenatis lusibua et levioribns Indicris ; propter quod et ipse 
 consilio astrictus saniori, juravit se regimini eorum et consilio conformare. 
 Sed mortuS, reginS, ipsius nobili matre, quae eum in multis refrtenabat, tan- 
 quam laqueus contritus fuisset, speravit se liberatum, et, spreto proborum 
 conailio, denuo in priori levitate se totem dedit. Propter qu6d consilium 
 procerum sibi assignatum quitabit ae regi, et si voluisset, non tamen posse s« 
 eum ad gravitatem morum flexisse attestatur. TJnde rex impotens et deorep- 
 itua scripait fratri auo duci Albaniee, gubernatori regni, ut arrestaretur, et 
 ad tempua custodise deputaretur, donee virgS, disciplinse castigatus, seipsum 
 meliiis cognosceret. Non enim osculatur iilium pater, sed allquando 
 castigat. Sed quod rex propoauit ad filii emendam, tendit ei ad noxam. 
 Nam uterque bajulua literse regalis ad gubematorem de facto ostendit, se 
 incentorem et instigatorem regi ut taliter demandaret, quod honori alterius 
 obviaret, sicut experientiS, exitus rei patefecit, Domini enim Willelmus 
 Lindesay de Rosay et Johannea Eemorgeney milites, jregis familiares et 
 conailiarii, nuncii et portatorea erant literarum regis gubernatori : quique 
 etiam, ut dicitur, duci Eotbsaiensi priiis suggesserunt, ut, poat obitum 
 episcopi Sancti Andrese, castrum suum ad usum regis, quousque novus 
 episcopus institueretur, reciperet et servaret ; quique ipsum ducem, nihil 
 mali prsemeditatum, ad castrum Sancti Andrese simpliciter, et cum moder- 
 ata familia, equitantem, inter villam de Nidi et Stratyrum arrestaverunt, et 
 per potentiam eundem ducem ad ipsum caatrum Sancti Andrese, sibi ad 
 deliberandum paratum, induxerunt, et ibidem in custodia tenuerunt, 
 quousque dux Albanise cum suo conailio apud Culros tento, quid de eo 
 facerent, deliberaverunt. Qui quidem dux Albanise, cum domino Archi- 
 baldo II. comite de Douglas, manu valid4 ipsum ad turrim de Faulkland, 
 jumento impoaitum et russeto coUobio chlamidatum transvexerunt ; ubi 
 in quadam honeata camerula eum servandum deputaverunt. In qua tam 
 dlu custoditus, scilicet per Johannem Selkirk et Johannem Wrycht, donee 
 dysenteric, aive, ut alii volunt, fame tabefactus, finem vitse dedit vij. Kal. 
 Aprilis, in vigilia Paschse, serd, sivein die Paschse summo mane, et sepultus 
 est in Londoris. Prasmissus ver6 Johannea Eemorgeney tam principi, 
 qu4m domino regi, erat consiliariua, audax spiritu, et pronunciatione elo- 
 quentiasimus, ac in arduia causia prolocutor regis, et causidicus diaertis- 
 simus ; qui, ut dicitur, ante hsec auggessit ipsi principi duci Eotbsaiensi, nt 
 patruum summ ducem Albanise arrestaret, et, qualicunque occaaione 
 nactC, atatim de medio toUeret ; quod facere oranino princeps refutavit. 
 Istud attendens miles, malitise anse fuligine occsecatua, 8. coeptis desistere 
 nequivit, hujusmodi labe attachiatus ; quia, ut ait Chryaostomua, " Coerceri 
 omnino nequit animus pravC semel voluntate vitiatus." Et ideo, vice 
 34 
 
630 "WAVERLBY NOVELS. 
 
 yersi, pallinm in alterum humerum convertens, hoc idem maleflcium 
 ducem Albanise de nepote suo duce Rothsaiensi facere instruxit ; aliils fine 
 fallo, ut asseruit, dux Eothsaiensis de ipso finem facturus fuisset. Dictus 
 insuper Dominus WUlelmus Lindesay cum ipso Johanne Remorgeney in 
 eandem sententiam forte consentivit, pro eo qu6d dictus dux Rothsaiensis 
 sororem ipsius Domini Willelmi Euphemiam de Lindesay affidavit, sed 
 per sequentia aliarum matrimonia attemptata, sicut et filiam comltis 
 Marchise, sic eandem repudiavit. Ipse enim, ut sestimo, est ille David, de 
 quo vates de Breclyngton sic vaticinatus est, dicens : 
 
 Psalletur gestis David luxuria festis, 
 Quod tenet uxores uxore sua meliores, 
 Deficient mores regales, perdet lionores. 
 
 Paulo ante captionem suam appamit mirabilis cometes, emittens ex se 
 radios crinitos ad aquilonem tendentes. Ad quam visendum, cAm prim6 
 appareret, quodam vespere in castro de Edinburgh cum aliis ipse dux 
 secedens, fertur ipsum sic de stella disseniisse, dicens ; " TJt a mathematicis 
 audivi, hujusmodi cometes, ctra apparet, signat mortem vel mutationem 
 alicujus principis, vel alicujus patriae destructionem." Et sic evenit ut 
 prsedixit. Nam, duce capto, statim in prsejacentem materiam, sicut Deus 
 voluit, redit stella. In hoc pottdt iste dux Sibyllse prophetissee comparaii, 
 de qua sic loquitur Claudiauus ; 
 
 Miror, cur aliis quse fata pandere soles 
 Ad propriam cladem caeca Sibylla taces. 
 
 The narrative of Boece attaches murder distinctly to Albany. After 
 mentioning the death of Queen Annabella Drummond, he thus proceeds 
 [bk. xvi. chap. 13] : — 
 
 Be quhais deith, succedit gret displeseir to hir son, David, Duk of Rothe- 
 say : for, during hir life, he vres haldin in virtews and honest occupatioun ; 
 eftir hir deith, he began to rage in all maner of insolence, and fulyeit 
 virginis, matronis, and nunnis, be his unbridilllt lust. At last. King 
 Robert, informit of his young and insolent maneris, send letteris to his 
 brothir, the Duke of Albany, to intertene his said son, the Duk of Rothesay, 
 and to leir him honest and civill maneris. The Duk of Albany, glaid of 
 thir writingis, tuk the Duk of Rothesay betwix Dnnde and Sanct Androis, 
 and brocht him to Falkland, and inclusit him in the tour thairof, bilt ony 
 meit or drink. It is said, ane woman, havand commiseratioun on this 
 Duk, leit meill fall doun throw the loftis of the toure, be quhilkis his life 
 wes certane dayis savit. This woman, fra it wes knawin, wes put to deith. 
 On the same maner, ane othir woman gaif him milk of hir paup, throw ane 
 lang reid : and wes slane with gret cruelte, fra it wes knawin. Than wes 
 the Duke destitute of all mortall supplie ; and brocht, finalie, to sa misera- 
 ble and hungry appetite, that he eit, nocht allanerlie the filth of the toure 
 quhare he wes, hot his awin figaris, to his gret marterdome. His body wes 
 beryit in Lundoris, and kithit miraklis mony yeris eftir ; quhil, at last, 
 King James the First began to punis his slayaris, and fra that time furth 
 the miraclis ceissit. 
 
 The remission which Albany and Douglas afterwards received at the 
 hands of Robert III. was first printed by Lord Hailes, and is as follows : 
 Robertus, Dei gratia, rex Scotorum, universis, ad quorum notitiam 
 
NOTES. B31 
 
 prsesentes literse pervenerint, salutem in Domino sempiternam — Cum nuper 
 carissimi nobis, Robertus Albanise Dux, Comes de Fife et de Menteth, 
 frater noster germanus, et Archibaldus Comes de Douglas, et Dominus 
 Galwidise, iilius noster secundum legem, ratione filise nostrse quam duxit 
 in uxorem, prsecarisaimum filium nostrum primogenitum David, quondam 
 Ducem Rothsaye ac Comitem de Carrick et Atholise, capi fecerunt, et 
 personaliter arrestari, elin castro Sancti Andrese primo custodiri, deindeque 
 apud Paucland in custodia detineri, ubi ab hac luce, diving providentil, 
 et non aliter, migrasse dignoscitur. Quibus comparentibus coram nobis, 
 in concilio nostro general! apud Edinburgh, deoimo sexto die mensiaMaii, 
 anno Domini millesimo quadringentesimo secundo, inchoatd, et nonnullis 
 diebus continuato, et super hoc interrogatis ex officio nostro regali, sive 
 accusatis, hujusmodi captionem, arrestationem, mortem, ut superius est 
 expressum, confitentes, causas ipsos ad hoc moventes, pro publica, ut 
 asseruerunt, utilitate arctantes, in prsesentia nostra assignfl,runt, quas non 
 duximus prsesentibus inserendas, et ex causS,. Habits deinde super hoc 
 diligenti inquisitione, consideratis omnibus et singulis in hac parte con- 
 siderandis, hujusmodi causam tangentibus, et matura deliberatione Concilii 
 nostri prsehabit^ discussis, prsenotatos Robertum fratrem nostrum ger- 
 manum, Archibaldumque filium nostrum secundum jura, et,eorum in hac 
 parte participes quoscunque, viz. arrestatores, detentores, custodes, con- 
 siliarios, et omnes alios consilium, videlicet, auxilium, vel favorem eisdem 
 prsestantes, sive eorum jussum aut mandatum qualitercunque exsequentes, 
 excusatos habemus ; necnon et ipsos, et eorum quemlibet, a crimine Isesse 
 majestatis nostrse, vel alio quocunque crimine, culpa, injuria, rancore, et 
 offensa, quse eis occasione prsemissorum imputari possent qualitercunque, 
 in dicto consilio nostro palam et public^ declaravimus, pronunciavimt|8, 
 et diifinivimus, tenoreque prsesentium declaramus, pronunciamus, et per 
 hanc diffinitivam nostram sententiam diffinimus, innocentes, innoxios, 
 inculpabiles, quietos, liberos. et immunes, penitus et omnimodo. Et si 
 quam contra ipsos, sive eorum aliquem, aut aliquam vel aliquos, in hoc 
 facto qualitercunque participes, vel eis quomodolibet adhserentes, indigna- 
 tionem, iram, rancorem, vel offensionem, concepimus qualitercunque, illos 
 proprio motu, ex certa scientia, et etiam ex deliberatione concilii nostri jam 
 dicti, annuUamus, removemus, etadnullatosvolumushaberi, inperpetunm. 
 Quare omnibus et singulis subditis nostris, cujusounque status aut con- 
 ditionis exstiterint, districts prsecipimus et mandamus, quatenus ssepe 
 dictis Roberto et Archibaldo, eorumque in hoc facto participibus, consen- 
 tientibus, seu adhaerentibus, ut prsemittitur, verbo non detrahent, neque 
 facto, neo contra eosdem murmurent qualitercunque, unde possit eorum 
 bona fama Isedi, vel aliquod prsejudicium generari, sub omni poena quse 
 exinde competere poterit, quomodolibet ipso jure. Datum, sub testimonio 
 magni sigilli nostri, in monasterio Sanctse Crucis de Edinburgh, vicesimo 
 die mensis Mail praedicti, anno Domini millesimo quadringentesimo 
 secundo, et regni nostri anno tertio decimo. 
 
 Lord Hailes sums up his comment on the document with words which, 
 as Pinkerton says, leave no doubt that he considered the Prince as having 
 been murdered, viz. "The Duke of Albany and the Earl of Douglas ob- 
 tained a remission in terms as ample as if they had actually murdered the 
 heir-apparent." [Annals of Scotland, App. Second, No. IX. (vol. iil. 1797)-' 
 
GLOSSARY 
 
 OP 
 WORDS, PHRASES, AND ALLUSIONS. 
 
 Abbas Letiti^, Abb^ db Liesse. 
 See Liesse, AbbS de 
 
 Abekeeothock, now called Arbroath 
 in Forfarshire 
 
 AcHAins, AnoHY, orEooHA, an early 
 king of Scotland, a contemporary 
 and ally of Charlemagne 
 
 Acton, a quilted vest or tunic, ■vrorn 
 between the coat of mail and the 
 body 
 
 Adhuc sub judice lis est, the mat- 
 ter is still a subject of discussion 
 
 AiEEB, acre, field 
 
 AiN, own 
 
 Albtn, the ancient native name of 
 Scotland 
 
 Alkyn, all kind of 
 
 Allaneblie, only 
 
 Allay, to mix with, dilute 
 
 Almain, br Allemagne, Gtermany 
 
 Almoner, the distributer of alms 
 
 Alter ego, other or second self; 
 hence, a very close intimate 
 
 Amerciament, a fine 
 
 Amibal, admiral 
 
 Ane, one 
 
 Angus, the ancient name of Forfar- 
 shire 
 
 Arietta, an Italian dance 
 
 A SECRETis, a private secretary 
 
 Assay, trial of the fatness (grease) 
 of a deer 
 
 Assoilzie, to acquit, pronounce free 
 from sin 
 
 Assythment, a fine for bloodshed, 
 paid to the nearest relatives of the 
 slain person 
 
 AsTucious, astute, crafty 
 
 Adtomathes, or The Capacity and 
 Extant of the Human Understand- 
 ing, exemplified in the Extraordi- 
 
 nary Case of Automathes, etc., a 
 philosophical romance by John 
 Kirkby (London, 1745) 
 
 Ave, a prayer to the Virgin, begin- 
 ning with this Latin word, which 
 means HaU ! 
 
 AvENAND, elegant in person and 
 manners 
 
 AviSB, feshion, manner ; advice 
 
 Ayb, heir 
 
 Back-beaeand, a thief caught in the 
 
 act of carrying away stolen goods 
 
 on his back 
 Badbnoch, a mountainous district 
 
 in the south-east of Inverness- 
 shire 
 Baillie, Miss Joanna. The allusion 
 
 on p. 18 does not agree with any 
 
 passage in Miss Baillie's dramas 
 
 on Fear — Orra, Osterloo, and Val- 
 
 deverde 
 Ball, Parson, one of the popular 
 
 leaders in Wat Tyler's rebellion, 
 
 1381 ^ 
 Ballets (p. 38), ballads 
 Babbaoe, the lists or inclosure for 
 
 tournaments 
 Baeberis, barriers, lists 
 Bas air son Eachin, death for 
 
 Hector 
 Beadsman, a licensed beggar, public 
 
 almsman 
 Bell-the-cat, to do a bold and 
 
 risky thing. See further Glossary 
 
 to Tlie Betrothed 
 Benedioite, Be ye blessed; bless 
 
 me! 
 Bestial, cattle, sheep, and so forth 
 Betid, happened, came to pass 
 BiELDBS, sheltered, protected 
 
634 
 
 WAVJfiKLBr JMOViiLS. 
 
 BiBTFiB, a doaoie poiiioa of £)0d. 
 BiGQiN, a linen cap^ hood 
 BiGQiNG, a building 
 BiNK, a range of shelves for holding 
 
 dishes, etc. 
 Black-jack, a tough leather jerkin 
 Blood-boltebed, clotted with blood 
 Blood-wit, more correctly blood-- 
 
 wiTE, a penalty for bloodshed, 
 
 paid to the king 
 Boddlb pein, a toilet pin that cost 
 
 a boddle, a small Scotch copper 
 
 coin = J4 d. English 
 Bona eoba, a courtesan, showy 
 
 wanton 
 Bonus sooius, a comrade, mate 
 BoRDELLEE, a frequenter of brothels 
 BoEEEL, rustic, common 
 BouNTiTH, something given over 
 
 and above the usual wages, a 
 
 bounty 
 Bow-hand, the wrong side 
 Bowie, a small wooden milk-pail 
 Brattach, the standard of a High- 
 land clan 
 Beave, a bravado, affront 
 Beeckan, bracken, fern-leaves 
 Beent-erowed, with a smooth and 
 
 beautiful forehead 
 Beewis, bread or toasted oatmeal 
 
 soaked in the fatty scum of broth 
 Bridge (at Peeth) swept away (p. 
 
 56), during a great flood in 1210. 
 
 This refers to an older bridge. 
 
 That standing at the date of this 
 
 tale was erected by Robert Bruce 
 
 in 1329, and was carried away by 
 
 a flood in 1621 
 Brogijes, Highland shoes of un- 
 
 tanned leather 
 Beook, to enjoy, hold 
 Bbose, oatmeal over which boiling 
 
 water has been poured, so as to 
 
 make a coarse porridge 
 Buchanan, George, wrote in Latin 
 
 a History of Scotland (1552) 
 Bughting, the folding of the ewes 
 
 for milking at evening 
 Burgage tenement, property held 
 
 under the crown in a royal burgh 
 Busk, to dress, deck, smarten up 
 
 oneself 
 But (in the motto "Touch not the 
 
 cat but a glove"), without; but 
 
 DOUT, without doubt j but ont 
 
 HARNEs, without defensive armour 
 
 Cailliach, an old woman 
 Cauoixable, a bill on the borders of 
 
 AyrsUre and XjMMHferfdNk en t&» 
 
 northeastern slope of which itood 
 Douglas's castle 
 
 Campveeb, or Camphiee, on the 
 Dutch island of .Walcheren, was 
 the seat of a specially favoured 
 Scottish trading factory from 1444 
 to 1795 
 
 Cable, caell, a fellow, man , . ? i/ 
 
 Caepzovius. There were several 
 eminent German jurists of tjus 
 name in the 16th and 17th cen- 
 turies 
 
 Caesb, a fertile tract of land beside 
 a river, as the Carse of Gowrie, 
 beside the Tay, stretching from 
 Perth to Dundee 
 
 Caesloqie, knight of, an ancestor 
 of the family of Clephane, whose 
 mansion stood at Carslogie near 
 Cupar in Fifeshire 
 
 Cateean, or catheban, a Highland 
 robber 
 
 Cavey, or CAViE, a hen-coop 
 
 Chatelet, or Chastelaed, Pieeeb 
 DE Boscosel de, French poet, 
 executed in 1563 for professing a 
 criminal passion for Mary Queen 
 of Scots 
 
 Chevbon, a glove 
 
 Clanjamfeey, low, worthless peo- 
 ple, trumpeiy folk 
 
 Cocheane, Robeet, an architect 
 originally, became favourite of 
 James III., and reputed Eatl of 
 Mar, slain in 1482 by the SoOttash 
 nobles. See Scott's Talea of a 
 Grandfather, chap. xxii. 
 
 Cogging, cheating, lying, wheed- 
 ling 
 
 Coldinghaii, a town on the coast 
 of Berwickshire 
 
 Commodity (p. 65), material advan- 
 tage 
 
 CoEBiB, a raven 
 
 CoEDWAiNER, a Worker in Cordovan 
 leather, shoemaker 
 
 Corrichie Dhu, the dark glen, corrie 
 
 Costard, the head, a term implying 
 contempt 
 
 CouTEAU DE CHASSE, a hunting-kuife. 
 hanger 
 
 CoviNE, a secret or collusive agree- 
 ment 
 
 Crabbe, the Flemish engineke. A 
 Flemish engineer named Crab 
 defended Berwick against the 
 English after it was captured by 
 the Scots in 1317 
 
GLOSSARY 
 
 035 
 
 fcttippLiiTQ, hobbling, walking 
 
 lamely 
 CuMBEB, a disturbance, embarrass- 
 , ment 
 
 CuMMEB, a gossip, companion 
 Ctjnnakd, skilful, knowing 
 CuBEAGH, a light skiff, made of a 
 
 hide stretched over wicker-work 
 
 or the lopped branches of a tree 
 CuEsus MEDENDi, a coursc of medical 
 
 study 
 CuETAL AXE, a short curved sword 
 
 or cutlass 
 Cynanche teachealis, the croup 
 
 Dalmatic, a loose ecclesiastical 
 vestment with wide sleeves 
 
 Daleiads, an ancient Celtic race of 
 Scots, who passed over from Ire- 
 land into Scotland in the 6th 
 century 
 
 Dan (Bacchus), a title of honour, 
 much used by the old English 
 poets 
 
 Dandee, cinder, refuse of the forge 
 
 Daoine bhie, fairy folk 
 
 Daee ltjcem, to throw light upon, 
 decide positively 
 
 Daegub, or DAEG, a task, work 
 
 Dablt, a foster-son 
 
 Dkasil, circling round a thing the 
 same way as the sun goes, that is, 
 from right to left 
 
 Debait, to strive, fight 
 
 Deboshed, debauched 
 
 Deil, to share, distribute 
 
 Dey-woman, a dairy-maid 
 
 Dinging, knocking, hammering 
 
 Dink, saucy, contemptuous, scorn- 
 ful of others 
 
 DiTTAY, IN, under indictment 
 
 Divan, a council 
 
 DoMiNus, sir 
 
 Donald of the Isles, claimed the 
 power and rank of an independent 
 sovereign over the Western Isles 
 and part of the mainland of Scot- 
 land, was defeated by the Earl of 
 Mar at the battle of Harlaw, in 
 1411 
 
 Douce, fair, honest 
 
 Doue, stubborn, intractable 
 
 Douklach, a Highland knapsack 
 
 DouT, doubt 
 
 Douze, twelve; douze peees, the 
 twelve peers orpaladins of Charle- 
 magne, celebrated in mediseval 
 romance 
 
 Dow AIRE, dowager 
 
 Dreed a soke weikd, paid a severe 
 penalty 
 
 Dromond, a large transport vessel 
 
 DuNNiEWASSAL, a Highland gentle- 
 man 
 
 DuppLiN, Castle of, seat of the Earl 
 of Kinnbul, about 6 miles south- 
 west from Perth 
 
 Eabisb, Ebish, or Esse, Gaelic, 
 Highland 
 
 Eakn, a river of Perthshire, joins 
 the Tay south of Perth 
 
 Entey, an interlude, dance intro- 
 duced between two parts of an 
 entertainment; the persons who 
 dance an entry 
 
 Ephemekides, a table showing the 
 daily positions of the planets 
 
 Eekol, Eaels of, were hereditary 
 Constables of Scotland. ySeeErroI, 
 in Glossary to Redgauntlet 
 
 EsPEiT FORT, a freethinker 
 
 Etymon, the root, original form of 
 a word 
 
 BuM^Us, the swineherd of Odysseus 
 
 ExHEREDATioN, a disinheriting 
 
 Fabliau, a tale in verse, usually 
 satirical 
 
 Faitoue, an evil-doer, scoundrel 
 
 Far eil air son E achin, another for 
 Hector 
 
 Fareaqon, a mountain, 2560 feet 
 high, near Aberfeldy in Perth- 
 shire 
 
 Fastern's E'en, the evening pre- 
 ceding the Lent fast, that is, 
 Shrove Tuesday 
 
 Fauoht, fought 
 
 Fecht, fight 
 
 Fedeean dhu, black chanter (of a 
 bagpipe) 
 
 Feb and bountith, wages and a 
 gratuitous present 
 
 Felny, or felony, wrath, fierceness 
 
 Fey, doomed, predestined 
 
 Fiddle, king who played upon, etc. 
 See King, etc. 
 
 FiELL NA m'hau maomb, holy wo- 
 man's market, that is, Kenmore 
 Fair 
 
 PiEEY CROSS. See Scott's Lady of the 
 Lake, Canto iii. 
 
 FiKLAYEiGG, Or FiNLARiG, near the 
 mouth of the river Lochy, at the 
 west end of Loch Tay 
 
 Fir nan okd, the man of the ham- 
 mer, smith 
 
636 
 
 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 Flasket, a long shallow basket ; a 
 small flask 
 
 Pi/TTB! SHE, FLING sHB, whether she 
 scold or kick, give way to a fit of 
 anger 
 
 FoiN, to thrust, stab 
 
 I'OEEHAMMER, sledge-hammer 
 
 FoETiNGALL, a village near ]Joch 
 Tay, in the north-west of Perth- 
 shire 
 
 Fbeeis, friars 
 
 Frowsy, surly, peevish 
 
 FuLYEiT, defiled 
 
 Gabbaet, or Gabbakd, a kind of 
 heavy lighter 
 
 Gaffee, a contraction of grand- 
 father — a familiar, affectionate 
 title 
 
 Galliaed, a gallant 
 
 Galliaedise, merriment, gaiety 
 
 Galloglass, or gallowglass, a 
 heavy-armed Highlander 
 
 Gallows-lee, the place where the 
 gallows was set up 
 
 Galwegians, natives of Galloway, 
 the old name for the south-west of 
 Scotland, the Douglas's country 
 
 Gazehotind, a hound that bunts by 
 sight 
 
 Geae, goods, property, business, 
 work 
 
 Gentle ceaft of St. Ceispin, the 
 shoemaker's. See further St. 
 Crispin below 
 
 GiENEL, a granary, storehouse 
 
 GiETH, an asylum, sanctuary 
 
 Glibb, or GLIB, a bushy head of hair 
 
 Gloom, to look sullen at, frown at 
 
 GoosEOAP, a silly person 
 
 GossiPEED, intimacy, familiar 
 friendship 
 
 GonoE, a wench 
 
 Gonx, or Goute, a drop 
 
 GoDVEENANTE, a housekeeper 
 
 Gow, Gaelic for "smith"; Gow 
 Cheom, Bandy-legged Smith 
 
 GowEiE, C0N3PIBACY OF, a reputed 
 attempt of the Earl of Gowrie and 
 his brother to kidnap and slay 
 James VI. at Perth in 1600 
 
 Geaddan cake, a cake made of 
 toasted or parched corn 
 
 Geaith, implements, equipment 
 
 Geegoey the Geeat, pope and 
 father of the Chnrcli in the 6th 
 century 
 
 Geeve, the place of public execu- 
 tions in Paris 
 
 GUDE, or GOOD, WOMEN OT, women of 
 respectability 
 
 Gyges, eino OP, made him wha 
 wore it invisible. Gyges wasting 
 of ancient Iiydia in Asia Minor 
 
 Habebgeon, a short coat of ringed 
 
 mail or armour, without sleeves 
 Habil, able, fit 
 
 Haffits, the temples, the face be- 
 tween the cheeks and ears 
 Haill, whole 
 Hallowmass, All Saints' Day, the 
 
 first of November 
 Hand-habend, a thief taken with 
 
 the stolen goods in his possession 
 Hank ovee, means of compulsion 
 
 against, handle against 
 Haeds, refuse, •'coarse ends of flax, 
 
 hemp, wool 
 Haeeow, or HAEO, a cry of distress, 
 
 shout for help 
 Haueeek, a coat of mail without 
 
 sleeves 
 Havand, having 
 Hay, yoke of, at Loncaety, 8e0 
 
 Loncarty, etc. 
 Heidis-men, head-men, chiefs 
 Her n AiNSEL, my own self 
 Hie, high 
 HiNNY, honey, a term of afiection or 
 
 endearment 
 Hobblee, shouldproperly be hobby. 
 
 a strong, active horse, of medium 
 
 size 
 
 HOBBLESHOW, Or HUBBLESHOW, a 
 
 tumult, hubbub 
 
 HoLiDAME, an incorrect form of 
 HALiDOM, something (a relic, 
 saint) that is regarded as holy 
 
 HoLPED uPj helped, supported ; as 
 used ironically on p. 370, embar- 
 rassed 
 
 Hone, to lament, moan 
 
 Hosting, a mustering of armed men 
 
 Hunt's up, a call on the hunting- 
 horn under a sportsman's window 
 of a morning to warn him it's 
 time to be up and off to the hounds 
 
 Illb manu foetis, etc. (p. 257), he. 
 strong of hand, shall play in the 
 English gardens 
 
 Inch, island. The Inch of Perth is 
 not now an island, but a level ex- 
 panse of greensward 
 
 Inolusit, shut up 
 
 In extremis, at the last gasp 
 
 Infang and outfang, the right of a 
 
GLOSSARY 
 
 637 
 
 baron or corporation to try- 
 thieves, equally whether taken 
 (with the Sooty) in or outside of 
 his (its) own jurisdiction 
 
 Iknocents', Innocents' Day, the 28th 
 of December 
 
 In pkincipio, beginning (to speak), 
 manner of speech 
 
 Intbbtenk, to take another into 
 one's own house, maintain 
 
 Ithand, or YTHAND, busy, constant 
 
 Jaokmen, military retainers, men 
 wearing jacks or armour 
 
 Jaoqukbie, a rising of the peasants 
 of central France against the op- 
 pressions of the nobles in 1358 
 
 Jedwood, the district around Jed- 
 burgh 
 
 Jilt, or jillet, a gay, lively young 
 woman 
 
 JoLTERHEADED, stupid, thick-headed 
 
 Kain-hen or CAIN-HEN, a duty in 
 kind (a hen), paid by a tenant to 
 his landlord 
 
 Keddie's kins. See Note 16, p. 513 
 
 Kempe, or KEMP, a champion, war- 
 rior of renown 
 
 Ken, to know 
 
 Kennel, gutter 
 
 Kerne, a light-armed Highlander 
 
 King who played upon the fiddle. 
 etc. (p. 113), the Roman Emperor 
 Nero 
 
 Kiestening, christening, baptizing 
 
 Kit HIT, or ktthed, produced, 
 caused 
 
 Knicht, knight 
 
 La belle Prance, beautiful France 
 
 Lai, a favourite form of song cur- 
 rent amongst the minstrels of the 
 North of France 
 
 Landlouper, an adventurer, va- 
 grant 
 
 Landward, the rural parts of a town 
 parish 
 
 LATJCHFtTL, lawful 
 
 Lavendere, washerwoman 
 
 La WING, an inn reckoning 
 
 Lednoch, or Ltnedoch, a seat in a 
 picturesque situation near the 
 river Almond, a few miles north- 
 west of Perth. It is associated 
 with the memory of Bessy Bell 
 and Mary Gray, celebrated in 
 Scottish song 
 
 Ibichtach, a body-guard 
 
 Leie, or LAEE, to teach 
 
 Levin-bolt, lightning 
 
 Leyden, Dr., poet and Oriental 
 scholar, a friend of Scott 
 
 Liddel, a river in the south of Scot- 
 land, flowing through Eoxburgh- 
 shire and Dumfriesshire 
 
 LiESSB, Abb6 de, a burlesque dig- 
 nitary, elected every season of 
 carnival by a society of Arras in 
 the north of France 
 
 LiMMER, or LiMMAK, a, scoundrel 
 worthless fellow 
 
 LiNDORES, convent OF, now a ruin, 
 stood on the south bank of the 
 Tay, inthe northwest of Fifeshire 
 
 LippiNQ, making notches in 
 
 LiTH, a joint, limb 
 
 Loaning, a narrow street or lane 
 
 Lochaeeb AXE, a bill-like blade, 
 with a hook at the back of it, both 
 mounted on a long shaft 
 
 Lochiel, the territorial designation 
 of the chief of the Cameron clan 
 
 Lockman. See Note 41, p. 520 
 
 Loftis, lofts, storeys 
 
 LoGiE, Catharine, correctly Mar- 
 garet, mistress, afterwards wife, 
 of King David II. 
 
 LoNCABTY, or LuNCABTY, 4 miles 
 from Perth, where in the reign of 
 Kenneth III. (end of 10th cen- 
 tury) the Danes were defeated by 
 the Scots, the victory being prin- 
 cipally due to the prowess of a 
 peasant and his sons, who were 
 ploughing close by, and who used 
 their oxen yokes as weapons. To 
 him the Hays, Earls of Brrol, 
 trace their descent 
 
 LooN, a fellow ; a woman of easy 
 virtue, mistress 
 
 Lord op the Marches, a king's 
 officer charged to defend and gov- 
 ern the Border frontier next Eng- 
 land 
 
 Lords of the Articles, a perma- 
 nent committee of the Scottish 
 Parliament from the end of the 
 14th century to 1690, who drafted 
 such measures as it was proposed 
 to bring before Parliament in the 
 next session 
 
 Lug and the horn, ear and the horn, 
 as if he were an animal 
 
 LuNDORis. See Lindores 
 
 LuRDANE, a good-for-nothing fellow 
 
 Mjt, more 
 
538 
 
 WAVERLEY NOVELS, 
 
 Ma belle tenmbosa, my lovely 
 brunette 
 
 MacCallaumoee, the patronymic of 
 the house of Argyll 
 
 Mahound AMD Teemaqaunt, in the 
 mediaeval mystery plays a couple 
 of refractory devils ; the former 
 being intended to represent the 
 Prophet Mahomet, the latter a 
 Mohammedan devil 
 
 Mail, or mails, baggage, luggage 
 
 Main, a cock-fighting match; 
 Welsh main, a cook-fight of six- 
 teen birds on each side, which was 
 continued winner against winner, 
 until only one was left alive 
 
 Maib, in Scotland, the messenger of 
 a county (sherift's) court 
 
 Maist, most 
 
 Majok, or Maik, John, wrote in 
 Latin a History of Scotland (1521) 
 
 Maker, a poet 
 
 Malcolm the Maiden, Malcolm IV. 
 (1141-1165), king of Scotland 
 
 Mal-talent, ill-humour, resent- 
 ment 
 
 Malvoibie, a sweet wine, grown on 
 the islands of the Mgean, general- 
 ly called malmsey 
 
 Mammock, a fragment, shapeless 
 piece 
 
 Mangonel, a military catapult for 
 hurling stones, etc. 
 
 Maegaket, Queen, great-niece of 
 Edward the Confessor and wife of 
 Malcolm Canmore, king of Scot 
 land, celebrated for her exemplary 
 piety and love for the Church 
 
 Maeischal taeh, sewer or server 
 of the mess 
 
 Mabk, or meek, a coin =in Scotland 
 Is. lid., in England, 13s. 4d. 
 
 Massamoee, the principal dungeon 
 of a feudal castle. CoirapareProxi- 
 mus est, etc., below 
 
 Maun, must 
 
 May, maid, maiden 
 
 Meal Vennel, Meal Alley, a prin- 
 cipal street in Perth 
 
 Mekil, or MUCKLE, much, a great 
 part 
 
 Meek. See Mark 
 
 Messan, a mongrel, cur 
 
 Metheglin, a drink made of honey 
 and water, boiled, fermented, and 
 spiced 
 
 MiEK, dark 
 
 MisTEK, manner of, sort of 
 
 MoHK AE CHAT, the great cat 
 
 Montagu, Lady Mart Woetlbt, s 
 beauty and wit, the friend of Pop« 
 and Addison, and author of cele- 
 brated Letters (1763) 
 
 MuMPEE, a beggar, stroller 
 
 MuiH AND MAD, Utterly exhausted 1b 
 body and spirits 
 
 Mutton, Feenoh, a French gold 
 coin = 6s. 8d., so called from its 
 being impressed with the image of 
 a lamb 
 
 Nain, NAiNseL, HEE, owii, my own 
 self 
 
 Neidftee, forced fire. See Tine- 
 egan 
 
 Neeast, nearest, next 
 
 Noble, an old English gold coin =— 
 6s. 8d. 
 
 NoN N09TEUM EST, it's not OUT busi- 
 ness (to decide the question) 
 
 NowMEE, number 
 
 OccuEEENT, an event, incident, 
 occurrence 
 
 Opifeeque pee oebem dicoe, I am 
 called one that brings aid (i. e. the 
 healer) the world over 
 
 Outfang. See Infang 
 
 OuTLiEE, or ouTLEE, an animal that 
 lies out in the fields, especially in 
 winter • hence one who stays out- 
 side of his own house at night 
 
 Packing and peiling, unfair trad- 
 ing, as when a freeman of a bor- 
 ough grants the use of his name 
 for trading purposes to one who 
 is not a freeman 
 
 Pantlee, the officer who had car* 
 of the bread or the pantry 
 
 Pae amours, in illicit love 
 
 Passemented, ornamented with 
 lace, embroidery 
 
 P A u G H t Y, or pauchtib, proud, 
 haughty, malapert 
 
 Paup, pap, nipple 
 
 Pavesse, a large triangular shield 
 
 Pa VISE, a lively motion, like those 
 of a dancer 
 
 Peat, a wilful and proud yaonf 
 woman 
 
 Pellack, a porpoise 
 
 Pennant, Thomas, traveller and 
 naturalist, visited Scotland in 1768 
 and 1772 
 
 Pekfurnis, to complete, accomplish 
 
 Perth bridge. See Bridge (al 
 Perth), etc. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 539 
 
 PiTBonui., a horseman's pistol, 
 short carbine 
 
 PiNKEETON, JoHB, author of two or 
 three books on the History of Scot- 
 land (1790-1797) 
 
 PiHNEE, a head-dress worn by ladies 
 of rank 
 
 PiBN, TO WIND A, to Unravel a diffi- 
 culty 
 
 Plough-geaith, plough-fittings 
 
 PoNTEM Sanoti, etc. (p. 515), the 
 great bridge of St. John at Perth 
 
 foKT, gate (ft;p, city 
 
 Postulate,, a candidate or petitioner 
 for some ecclesiastical benefice 
 
 PoTTEB-cAKErEE, an apothecary 
 
 PoTTiNGAE, a pottage-maker, cook- 
 in this notel an apothecary ; 
 POTTINGEY, the calling of an 
 apothecary 
 
 Pottle-pot, a large tankard, hold- 
 ing two quarts 
 
 PouNOET-BOX, a bqx for holding per- 
 fumes 
 
 Pound Scots == Is. 8d. English 
 
 Pkank, deck in a showy manner, 
 make ostentatious show 
 
 Pkecisi AN, a strict observer of moral 
 rules 
 
 Peeoognition, a preliminary exam- 
 ination, official inquiry 
 
 Peioe, Mat, a witty poet (1664-1721) 
 
 Peivado, a minion, favourite 
 
 Pbopine, a gift, present "I 
 
 Peoximus est, etc. (p. 517), Next is 
 the subterranean dungfebn, or, as 
 the Moors call it, inaarmorra 
 
 Ptisan, a cooling drink made of 
 barley and other ingredients 
 
 Ptne, pain 
 
 Quean, a wench, woman of doubtfal 
 
 reputation 
 QuHA, who 
 QuHAis, whose 
 QuHAEE, where, to which 
 
 Rampaugb, to storm and scold 
 
 Rannooh, a wild, mountainous dis- 
 trict in the north-west of Perth- 
 shire 
 
 Kaz, to reach, stretch, hand 
 
 Rebeck, a three-stringed musical 
 instrument of the viol class 
 
 Receeatment, entertainment, 
 amusement 
 
 Rede, counsel, advice 
 
 RiiF, or EEivB, robbery 
 
 Rbist aie son jiACHiN, again tot 
 
 Hector 
 Reiving, marauding, plundering; 
 
 EEIVBR, a marauder 
 Remedb, or EEMEID, a remedy 
 Requiem eteenam dona, grnat 
 
 eternal rest 
 Revenant, one that has come back 
 
 to life 
 Robertson, William, author of a 
 
 celebrated History of Scotland 
 
 (1758-59) 
 Robeet the Devil, the first Duke of 
 
 Normandy, called thus because of 
 
 his cruelty and audacity 
 RocHiNEOY Wood. See Note 57, p 
 
 526 
 RoOF-TEEE, the ridge-beam ; the 
 
 roof itself 
 RoupiNG, crying out hoarsely, 
 
 croaking 
 Rouse, a bumper 
 RowAN-TEEE, mouutaiu-ash, a twig 
 
 of which was in Scotland esteemed 
 
 a specific against all kinds of evil 
 
 spirits 
 
 Sackless, innocent 
 
 St. Baee, or Pinbaek, first bishop 
 of Cork, in Ireland, lived in the 
 6th century 
 
 St. Ceispin, though noble-born, 
 made shoes with his own hands, 
 stealing the leather and giving 
 the shoes away to the poor. He 
 lived at Soissons in France in the 
 3d century 
 
 St. Johnston, the old name of Perth 
 
 St. John's-woet, a species of Hyperi- 
 cum, accounted a specific against 
 witchcraft and other malignant 
 infiuences 
 
 St. Lbonaed's Ceags, a part of the 
 
 §lueen's Park, encircling Arthur's 
 eat, Edinburgh, where duels were 
 
 often fought 
 St. Ringan, or Ninian, Scottish 
 
 saint of the 4th and 5th centuries 
 Salvage, rude, uncivilised 
 Sancta Maeia, oea peo nobis. Holy 
 
 Mary, pray for us 
 Saeaband, a Spanish dance 
 Sassenach, Saxon, i.e. Englishman 
 
 or Lowlander of Scotland 
 Scotch mile = about nine ftirlongs 
 Seannachie, a Highland genealogist 
 
 or chronicler 
 Secret, a light and flexible shirt o/ 
 
 chain mail, worn under the jerkia 
 
540 
 
 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 Secketis, a, a private secretary 
 
 Seid suas, strike up (the music) 
 
 Selcouth, strange, unusual 
 
 Semplb, one of humble birth 
 
 Senbca, a Boman philosopher (4 
 B. 0. to 65 A. B.), some of whose 
 writings inculcate the noblest self- 
 sacri&ce and breathe the tenderest 
 consolation 
 
 Shieling, or shealing, a hut 
 
 Shogging, jogging, moving away 
 
 Shoeed cross, a cross that is propped 
 or supported. 
 
 "Signs of wae abound," etc. (p. 
 284), from Richard IT. Act. ii.sc. 2 
 
 Sib Huon of Bobdeaux, hero of a 
 mediaaval romance of chivalry 
 
 Sib Pindaeus of Tboy, represented 
 in the mediaeval romances as a go- 
 between 
 
 SiBVENTE, the favourite form of song 
 .current amongst the troudadours 
 
 Si sinus kubescens, etc. (p. 522), If 
 the hand is reddish where the iron 
 touched, he is esteemed guilty; 
 but if it is whole, praise is ren- 
 dered unto God 
 
 Skene, ok skean, a Highlander's 
 dagger ; skenb-occle, knife of the 
 armpit, the Highlander's stiletto 
 
 Slogan, a war-cry, rallying-cry 
 
 Slowhound, a sleuth-hound, one 
 that hunts by scent 
 
 Smaik, a contemptible fellow 
 
 'Snails, His (i. e. Christ's) nails, 
 with which He was naUed to the 
 Cross 
 
 SoLDAN, or SULTAN, a Mohammedau 
 sovereign 
 
 SoMEDEAL, somewhat, something 
 
 SoBNEB, a sponger, one who exacts 
 free lodgings. See also Note 24, 
 p. 515 
 
 Spain, infidels beought into (p. 
 437). Count Julian invited the 
 Moors into Spain because his 
 sovereign, Roderick, king of the 
 Visi^otlis, ravished his daughter 
 Morinda 
 
 Spobban, a Highlander's purse, 
 pouch 
 
 Steel hand of Caeslogie. See 
 Carslogie 
 
 Stickler, the second in a single 
 combat. See Note 33, p. 517 
 
 Stigmata, marks of blood, . blood- 
 stains 
 
 Stint, to stop 
 
 Stir, to disturb, interfere with 
 
 Stieling Beidge, (p. 40), the con- 
 ventional boundary between tb« 
 Highl;ands and the Lowlands 
 Stouiheeip, theft with violence 
 Stowed the lugs, cropped, cut off 
 
 the ears 
 Steath, a valley through which a 
 river runs ;' Steathebn, otStbath- 
 EAEN, the valley of the river Earn ; 
 Steathmobe, a wide valley lying 
 northwest of the Sidlaw Hills, 
 in Scotland 
 Steaw, Jack, one of the popular 
 leaders in Wat Tyler's rebellion, 
 1381 
 Styptic, a remedy for stopping the 
 
 flow of blood from a wound 
 SuccEDiT, fell, accrued 
 Supbbtotam matebiem, totally, with 
 
 respect to the whole affair 
 Swallow-tails, arrows 
 Swashing, blustering, bragging 
 Sweet-gale, the bog-myrtle 
 Swinged, soundly beaten, chastised 
 
 Ta, the one 
 
 Taishatae, a Highland seer 
 
 Tantallon, on the south shore of 
 the Firth of Forth, near North 
 Berwick 
 
 Tendeeed, regarded with solicitude, 
 cherished 
 
 Tent (a wound), to probe a wound 
 
 Teemagauxt. See Mahound 
 
 Tiestee, an old French silver coin, 
 worth about sixpence 
 
 Thiggeb, a beggar who uses threats 
 and intimidation . See Note 24, p. 
 515 
 
 Thoen, moob op, about 4 miles 
 south-east of Dunkeld. Compara 
 Note 57, p. 526 
 
 Theaw, to thwart, oppose 
 
 Theetty, thirty 
 
 Thbew, to distort, bend 
 
 Theums, loose threads, ends 
 
 TiHE-EGAN, a magical invocation of 
 evil spirits practised in the High- 
 lands 
 
 TiBLE, to twirl 
 
 TlEEiviE, a violent outburst of pas- 
 sion 
 
 Tocheb, a dowry 
 
 Ton, a fox 
 
 TdiBOOTH, a prison 
 
 Tobwood, a forest, now cut down, 
 between Falkirk and Stirling 
 
 Tbbillage, trellis-work 
 
 Troy to euims (p. 437), through the 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 54] 
 
 forcible theft of Helen by Paris 61 
 Troy 
 
 Tbbce or God, from the 10th to the 
 13th century, a mutual agreement 
 to abstain from warfare on certain 
 days and at certain seasons 
 
 TtriLziE, a brawl, street-fight 
 
 TJgero the Dane, or Ogieb the 
 Dahe, hero of a mediseyal ro- 
 mance of chivalry 
 
 TJuquBiLE, late deceased 
 
 Usquebaugh, whisky 
 
 Venit exteema dies, the last day 
 has come 
 
 Vbktain, a kind of verbena, a spe- 
 cific against witchcraft 
 
 Vestiaey, a room for keeping 
 clothes ; a tiring-room 
 
 Wagit, hired 
 
 Walawa, woe 1 lo ! woe ! Now usu- 
 ally written well-a-day I 
 Waee, or WAUE, worse 
 WasiiOck, wizuid 
 
 Wabstle, a wrestle, personal 
 struggle 
 
 Wassail, ale flavoured with sugar 
 and spices, any intoxicating 
 liquor 
 
 Wastel bbead, a kind of fine whita 
 bread 
 
 Wean, a small child 
 
 Wbapon-shawikg, or wapenshaw, a 
 periodical review of arms ; a ren- 
 dezvous for military exercises 
 
 WEiaD. See Dreed a sore weird 
 
 Welked, or WHELKED, marked with 
 whelks or blisters 
 
 Wem, a scar, blemish 
 
 Weed, or weied, fate, doom 
 
 Weeis, wars 
 
 Wight, a fellow, person 
 
 WiNTON, or Wyntoun, Akdeew of, 
 a rhyming chronicler of Scotland 
 of the end of the 14th century 
 
 Women of good, or gude, women of 
 respectability, good reputation 
 
 Wbocht, wrought, caused 
 
 Yadls, yielded, gave up 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abbot's House, Dunfermline, 352, 
 524 
 
 Adamson, Muses' Threnodie, quoted, 
 517 
 
 " Ah I poor Louise I The livelong 
 day," 142 
 
 Albany, Duke of, 125, 135 ; advises 
 regarding Rothsay, 137 ; regarding 
 the clan fight, 187 ; urges Rothsay' s 
 withdrawal to privacy, 300 ; tells 
 him of the King's decision, 332 ; 
 hears of his death from Douglas, 
 471 ; reports the news to the King, 
 498 ; his share in Rothsay's death, 
 528 
 
 Annabella, Queen, 126 
 
 Anselm, Prior, his interview with 
 the King, 123 ; admonishes him, 
 129 ; taunted by Rothsay, 183 : 
 craves a commission against her- 
 esy, 192; attends Bonthron, 328 
 
 Arbroath, Douglas's requisitions on, 
 140, 516 
 
 Author, his Introduction to Chron- 
 icles of the Canongate, Second Se- 
 ries, 5 ; to The Fair Maid of Perth, 
 17 
 
 Baiglie, Wicks of, 25, 511 
 
 Baliol, Mrs. Bethune, 8 
 
 Balveny, Lord, 456 
 
 Bellenden's Boece, quoted, 528, 530 
 
 Bier-right. See Ordeal 
 
 Blair, Clement. See Clement, Father 
 
 Blind Harry, 87 
 
 Boece, quoted, 528, 630 
 
 Bonthron, Anthony, receives his 
 commission, 220 ; murders Proud- 
 fute, 244; ducked by Rothsay's 
 orders, 249 ; reports to Ramorny, 
 251; refuses the bier-ordeal, 325; 
 accuses Rothsay, 329; his execu- 
 tion, 339; rescued from the gal- 
 lows, 345 ; Rothsay's gaoler, 440 ; 
 hanged, 459 
 
 Booshalloch, Niel, the herdsman, 
 369 ; tells Simon Glover the bad 
 news, 371 ; at the festival, 387 
 
 Bowie, a milk-bowl, 446, 526 
 
 Brandanes, 138, 516 
 
 Brattach, 182, 516 
 
 Bruce, Robert, 44, 512 
 
 Buncle, assists in Bonthron's rescue, 
 341 ; refuses to fight for Ramorny, 
 451 
 
 Burh-the-wind, 40 
 
 Cameron, Clan, 18 
 
 Campsie Linn, 502 
 
 Cateran, 42, 512 
 
 Chanter, black, 492, 527 
 
 Chariot, Louise's spaniel, 146, 158,168 
 
 Charteris, Sir Patrick, 97 ; origin of 
 hi» family, 101 ; receives the burgh- 
 ers, 118 ; presides at the Perth 
 council, 285 ; offers to be Maud 
 Proudfute's champion, 292; ap- 
 pears before the King, 306 ; bids 
 the Glovers flyj 358 ; takes Cath- 
 arine Glover under his protection, 
 365 ; conveys bad news to Henry 
 Smith, 463 ; at the clan combat, 
 479 495 
 
 Chattan, Clan, identity of, 18, 183; 
 proposed combat at Perth, 186 ; 
 feud with Clan Quhele, 362 -their 
 territory, 367 ; arrival in Perth, 
 470 ; the combat, 484, 528 
 
 Chattanach, MacGillie, 476 ; calls for 
 a volunteer, 480 ; reproaches 
 Henry Smith, 486 
 
 Chronicles of the Canongate, Second 
 Series, Author's Introduction, 5 
 
 Clans. See Chattan, Quhele, and 
 Highlands 
 
 Clement, Father, described by Simon 
 Glover, 55 ; warns Henry Smith, 
 60 ; his conversation with Cath- 
 arine, 197 ; rebuked by her, 205 ; 
 interview with Simon Glover, 380 
 
544 
 
 WAVERLEY NOVELS. 
 
 ■Conachar, attends Simon and Cath- 
 arine Glover, 29 ; attempts to stab 
 Henry, 41 ; his ill-humour, 80 ; 
 meets Catharine on Kinnoul Hill, 
 308 ; hia birth and early history, 
 362; his body-guard, 386, 474 ; in- 
 terview with Simon Glover, 394 ; 
 his confession to him, 403 ; refuses 
 to kill the white doe, 409 ; his con- 
 feesion to Torquil, 410 ; refuses to 
 leave the lists, 480 ; his share in 
 the combat, 486; his flight, 494; 
 his last interview with Catharine 
 Glover, 504 ; his fate, 506 
 
 Cowardice, Author on, 18 ; Cona- 
 char's confession of, 403, 410 
 
 Crabbe, Flemish engineer, 50 
 
 Craigdallie, Bailie, 65 ; at the Perth 
 council, 92 ; heads the deputation. 
 107, 118 ; advises the crowd, 276 
 
 Crawford, Earl of, 301, 304 ; supports 
 Eamorny, 307 ; acts as marshal of 
 the lists, 470 
 
 Croftangry, Chrystal, 5 
 
 Ciilross girdles, 48, 512 
 
 Cyprian, Brother, 157 
 
 Dalwolsy, or Dalhousle, Sir Alex- 
 ander Ramsay of, 445, 525 
 
 Deasil, the, 379, 525 
 
 Devil's Dick, 109; robs Proudfute, 
 111 
 
 Dominicans, monastery of, in Perth, 
 153 ; charnel-house in, 160 ; gar- 
 den, 471, 527 
 
 Dorothy, Simon Glover's house- 
 keeper, 35, 50 ; her ill tidings, 268 
 
 Douglas, Earl of,'125 ; and the mon- 
 astery of Arbroath, 140, 516 ; in- 
 sulted by Kothsay, 152; at the 
 King's council, 177 ; arrests Ra- 
 morny, 455 ; his interview with 
 Albany, 471; offers to knight 
 Henry Smith, 495 
 
 Douglas, George, 12 
 
 Douglas, Marjory, Duchess of Roth- 
 say, 125 
 
 Dukes, in Scotland, 124, 515 
 
 Dunbar, Elizabeth of, 126 
 
 Dwining, Henbane, his insinua- 
 tions, 96 ; meets Henry Smith and 
 Louise, 169; attends Ramorny, 
 213 ; plots asainst Henry Smith, 
 216 ; helps Ramorny in plotting, 
 310 ; his love of riches, 317 ; called 
 in to Proudfute's child, 318 ; res- 
 cues Bonthroii, 341; helps to de- 
 coy Rothsay, 415 ; writes a letter 
 for him, 420 ; drafts a letter to Sir 
 
 Patrick Charteris 431 ; receive! 
 Catharineat Falkland, 432 ; makes 
 her his confessor, 453 ; his death, 
 458 
 
 Eachin MaoIan. See Conachar 
 
 Edinburgh, districts of, 5, 511 
 
 Effeir of war, 50, 512 
 
 Elizabeth of Dunbar, 126 
 
 Errol, Earl of, superintends the 
 combat between Bonthron and 
 Henry Smith, 327 ; receives charge 
 of Rothsay, 332; his lodgings in 
 Perth, 334 ; protests against Roth- 
 say'a leaving him, 416, 421 
 
 Eviot, Ramorny' s page, 219, 225; 
 tries to protect Ramorny from 
 intrusion, 247 ; undergoes the bier- 
 ordeal, 325 ; helps to rescue Bon- 
 thron, 341 ; refuses to fight for 
 Ramorny, 452 
 
 Faik Maid or Peeth. See Glover, 
 Catharine 
 
 Fair Maid of Perth, the novel, Au- 
 thor's Introduction to, 17 
 
 Falkland Palace, 420 ; dungeon in, 
 440 
 
 Eastern's Even, 226, 517 
 
 Perquhard Day, 411, 477 
 
 Feudal age, female beauty in, 27 ; 
 nobles and towns, 100 ; See further 
 Ordeal 
 
 Fire-ordeal. See Ordeal 
 
 Fordun, Continuator of, quoted, 20, 
 509,528 
 
 Francis, Father, 354 
 
 Eraser, Sir Simon, 314 
 
 Galilee, of a church, 132, 515 
 
 George IV., his visit to Scotland, 5, 
 510 
 
 Glee-maiden. See Louise 
 
 Glossary, 533 
 
 Glover, Catharine, her beauty, 27; 
 accosted by Rothsay, 31 ; re- 
 proaches Henry Smith, 43; res- 
 cued by him, 61 ; makes him her 
 valentine, 74 ; refuses his advances, 
 85 ; her conversation with Father 
 Clement, 197; rebukes him, 205; 
 her meeting with Conachar, 208 ; 
 runs to Hemy Smith's, 270; her 
 explanation to her father, 351; 
 taken under Sir Patrick Charte- 
 ris's protection, 365 ; her arrival at 
 Falkland, 432; scene with Roth- 
 say, 434 ; communicates with him, 
 444 ; questioned by Ramorny, 447 ; 
 
INDEX. 
 
 545 
 
 threatened by him, 450 ; her last 
 meeting with Oonachar, 504; her 
 marriage, 508 
 Glover, Simon, his opinion of the 
 court ^Uants, 28; attends evening 
 worship, 32 ; ctuestiona Henry 
 Smith about his journey, 37; de- 
 fends him against Catharine, 43, 
 48; his conversation with him, 49, 
 66 ; takes in the prisoner, 63 ; en- 
 courages Henry's suit, 69 ; annoy- 
 ance at Conachar's departure, 81 ; 
 tries to hush up the attack, 94 ; 
 disturbed by Proudfute, 228 1 hears 
 of Henry Smith's protection to 
 the glee-maiden, 232 ; is told bad 
 news by Dorothy, 267 : finds Cath- 
 arine at Henry Sinith's, 277 ; 
 urges Henry Smith to avenge 
 Proudfute, 282 ; bids Catharine 
 accept Henry Smith, 353 ; warned 
 by Sir Patrick Charteris, 358 ; takes 
 refuge with the Clan Quhelej 368 ; 
 hears bad news fromBooshalloch, 
 372 ; his interview with Father 
 Clement, 380; at the Highland 
 feast, 388 ; his interview with 
 Conachar, 394 ; his experiences of 
 warfare, 401 ; refuses to give Cath- 
 arine to Eachin, 405 ; sees his dar- 
 ling wish accomplished, 508 
 Glovers' corporation, of Perth, 83, 
 
 514 
 Glune-amie, 53, 512 
 Gow. See Henry the Smith 
 Griffin, Allan, finds Proudfute' s 
 body, 262 ; at the side of the lists, 
 481 
 
 Hailes, Lord, quoted, 530 
 Hanging, survival after, 348, 524 
 Henry the Smith, follows Simon 
 Glover and Catharine, 33 ; his ap- 
 pearance, 34, 58 ; gives an account 
 of his journey, 36; stabbed by 
 Conachar, 41 ; reproached by Cath- 
 arine, 43 ; conversations with 
 Simon Glover, 49, 66 r warned to 
 hasten to the rescue, 60 ; rescues 
 Catharine, 61 ; his affection for her, 
 72; kissed by her, 74 ; his suit to 
 her, 85 ; at the town-council, 93 ; 
 rides with Oliver Proudfute, 105 ; 
 goes to his assistance', 112 ; re- 
 assures him, 114 ; the glee-maiden 
 thrust upon him, 156; takes her 
 homei with him, 167 ; metby Dwin- 
 img, 169 ; by Proudfute, 170 ; ex- 
 ps»tulates TfithLuckieSpoolbred, 
 
 3§ 
 
 173; Dwining's plot against him, 
 216; gives refuge to Proudfute, 
 238; visited by Catharine, 272; 
 urged to avenge Proudfute, 282; 
 his evidence, 287 ; chosen to be 
 Maud Proudfute's champion, 295 ; 
 his combat with Bonthron, 328 • 
 at the town collation, 335 ; is told 
 bad news, 462 ; his interview with 
 Norman nan Ord, 466 ; sends his 
 armour to Eachin, 469; volunteers 
 for the fight, 481 ; slays Norman 
 nan Ord, 488 ; kills Torquil, 493 ; 
 refuses to follow Douglas, 495 ; his 
 marriage, 508 ; his descendants, 
 518 
 
 Henshaw, Kitt, 425, 462 
 
 Heresy, in Scotland, 56, 191 ; a com- 
 mission against, 192, 351 ; the 
 Glovers accused of, 352, 358. See 
 also Clement, Father 
 
 Highlands, Highlanders, devotion 
 of, 21 ; clan feuds, 185, 303, 367 ; 
 superstitions, 362, 364; travelling 
 in, 368 ; funeral of chief, 377, 525 ; 
 feast, 390 ; battle of clans Quhele 
 and Chattan, 484 
 
 Holyrood Palace, sights of, 5 
 
 " Horse and hattock," 99, 514 
 
 Houghmanstares, 466, 526 
 
 luTRODncTiONS, Author's, 5, 17 
 Islands, in Scottish lakes, 377 
 
 James, son of Robert HI., 439, 473, 
 
 501 
 Janus, quoted, 520 
 Jed wood justice, 457 
 Jezabel, Proudfute's mare, 105, 107 
 Johnstone family. 111, 515 
 
 Keddie's kikg, 75, 513 
 Ker of Faldonside, 12 
 Kinfauns, barons of, 104, 514 ; Castle, 
 
 117 
 Kinnonl Hill, Perth, 25 
 
 Lake islands, Scottish, 377 
 
 " Lay of poor Louise;" 142, SIS 
 
 Leichtach, or body-guard, 387 
 
 Lockman, 314. 520 
 
 Logie, Catharine, i. e. Margaret, 204, 
 
 314 
 Longueville, Thomas de; 101 
 Louise, the glee-maiden, intheeourt- 
 yard of the Dominicans, 138, 146 ; 
 lay of, 142 ; noticed by Rothsay, 
 148; put under Henry Smith's 
 protection, 156 ; led into the 
 
646 
 
 WAVBRLET NOVELS. 
 
 charnel-house, 160; taken home 
 by Henry Smith, 167 ; ontheTay, 
 425 ; her song, 427 ; discovers 
 Bothsay, 443 ; escapes from Falk- 
 land, 446 ; with Catharine Glover 
 at Campsie Linn, 502 
 Lundin, Sir Louis, 286; proposes 
 the bier-ordeal, 290 
 
 MacGihie Chattanaoh. See Chat- 
 tanach, MacGillie 
 
 Maclan, Bachin. See Conachar 
 
 Maclan, Gilchrist, 361 ; funeral of, 
 377 
 
 MacKay's country, 368, 525 
 
 MacLean, Sir Hector, 21 
 
 MacLouis, captain of the Brandanes, 
 154 ; detains Eothsay, 331 ; sum- 
 moned to arrest Albany, 499 
 
 March, Earl of, 126 ; waits upon the 
 Kingr, 138 ; his character, 142 ; his 
 ambition, 145 ; at the royal coun- 
 cil, 177 ; his disaffection 302 
 
 Marriages, Scottish royal, 27, 204, 
 511 
 
 Martha, abbess of Elcho, 354 
 
 Massamore, 246, 517 
 
 Minstrels, female, 147 
 
 Mohr ar Chat, 368, 524 
 
 Moncrieff, Hill of, 25 
 
 Morrice - dancers, dignitaries, 245, 
 517 ; of Perth, 228, 286, 519 
 
 Morrison, Mr., quoted, 511, 512, 513, 
 514, 518, 519, 523, 626 
 
 "My dog and I," 229 
 
 NoBMAN NAN Okd, vislts Henry 
 Smith, 466 ; slain by him, 488 
 
 " Oh, bold and true," 442 
 Ordeal, by passing the bier, 290, 325 : 
 by fire, 325, 520 
 
 Palm Sunday, at Perth, 473 
 
 Perth, beauty of, 23 ; Author's de- 
 scription of, 26, 511 ; High Street, 
 59, 513 ; Curfew Street, 59, 513 ; 
 glovers of, 83, 514 ; East Port, 105, 
 514; council-room, 284, 518; St. 
 .Tohn's church, 291, 323, 519; 
 Skinners' Yards, 327, 523 ; Earl of 
 Errol's lodgings, 332, 523; gardens 
 of Dominicans, 471, 627 ; North 
 Inch, 477 ; clan combat on, 484, 
 528 
 
 Perthshire, beauties of, 23 
 
 Poisoning in the Middle Ages, 225, 
 616 
 
 Policy, Mrs., housekeeper of Hoiy- 
 rood, 6 
 
 Prior, Dominican. See Anselm, 
 Prior 
 
 Proudfute, Maud, her grief, 275 ; 
 chooses Henry Smith to be her 
 champion, 295 ; before the King, 
 306; her child saved byDwining, 
 321; brings Henry Smith his 
 armour, 482 
 
 Proudfute, Oliver, at the rescue, 64 ; 
 his busy officiousness, 98 ; on 
 horseback, 105 ; advances upon 
 Devil's Dick, 110 ; robbed. 111 ; his 
 chagrin, 112 ; meets Henry Smith 
 with the glee-maiden, 170; dis- 
 guised as a morrice-dancer, 228 ; 
 tells tales to Simon Glover, 231 ; 
 caught by the morrice-danoers, 
 235 ; takes refuge with Henry 
 Smith, 237 ; murdered, 244 ; his 
 body found, 262 ; the bier-ordeal 
 with it, 325 
 
 QuHELE, Clan, identity of, 18 ; pro- 
 posed combat at Perth, 186 ; feud 
 with Clan Chattan, 367 ; their ter- 
 ritory, 367 ; arrival in Perth, 470 ; 
 the combat, 484, 528 
 
 Eamorny, Sir John, his hand cut 
 off, 61 ; his ring used as evidence, 
 122, 195 ; the hand exhibited at the 
 council, 179 ; dismissed from Roth- 
 say's service, 196 ; attended by 
 Dwining, 213 ; his commission to 
 Bonthron, 220; startled from sleep, 
 248 ; tells a secret to Rothsay, 265 ; 
 his phantasms, 261 ; brought be- 
 fore the King, 307 ; plots against 
 Rothsay, 310 : decoys him to 
 Falkland. 421 ; questions Cath- 
 arine, 447 ; threatens her, 450 ; ar- 
 rested by Douglas, 455; hanged, 
 459 
 Red-hand, to be taken, 457, 526 
 Redman, Sir Magnus, 38 
 Rizzio's blood, at Holyrood, 6 
 Robert III., King, 27 ; his Interview 
 with Prior Anselm, 123: charac- 
 ter of, 126 ; bis name, 128 ; fond- 
 ness for Rothsay, 127 ; promise to 
 the Earl of March, 144; presides at 
 the council, 177 ; in consultation 
 with Albany, 296 ; receives Maud 
 Proudfute, 306 ; his tenderness of 
 heart, 490, 496 ; grief for his son, 
 498 ; anger against Albany, 499 
 
INDEX. 
 
 547 
 
 Aoviisay, Duke of, accosts Catharine, 
 31 ; caught by Henry Smith, 61 ; 
 his licentiousness, 125 ; sports 
 with the glee-maiden, 143, 146; 
 insults Douglas, 152; forces the 
 glee-maiden upon Henry Smith, 
 156; his character, 181, 516 ; atthe 
 royal council, 181 ; twits Prior 
 Anselm, 183 ; with the morrice- 
 dancers, 235 ; intrudes upon Ra- 
 raorny, 246; repels his wicked 
 suggestions, 257 ; promotes Wat- 
 kins, 259 ; attends the King's coun- 
 cil, 302; accused by Bonthron, 
 329; placed under Errol's charge, 
 332 ; sends for Ramorny, 414 ; de- 
 coyed to Falkland, 422 ; meets the 
 glee-maiden on the Tay, 425 ; dis- 
 guised as the Duchess, 433 ; scene 
 with Catharine Glover, 434; in the 
 dungeon, 439; fed by Catharine 
 Glover and the glee-maiden, 444 : 
 his death, 449, 501, 528 
 
 Royal Marriages, Scottish, 27, 204, 
 511 
 
 Ruthven, 12 
 
 " St. Johnston's hunt is up," 263, 
 
 517 
 St. Macgrider, 68 
 St. Valentine's Eve, 28; morning, 
 
 58,73 
 Sanctuary, privilege of, 132 
 Senior, Mr., his criticism of the 
 
 novel, 510 
 
 Shoolbred.Luckie, objects to the glee- 
 maiden, 173; astonished to see 
 Catharine Glover, 273 
 
 Sibylla's island, Loch Tay, 377 
 
 Smith, Henry. See Henry the 
 Smith 
 
 Smotherwell, Stephen, 314, 339 
 
 Sorners, 131, 515 
 
 Sporran, 81, 513 
 
 Stickler 240, 517 
 
 Tay River, 2, 23, 510 ; Loch, 370, 377 
 
 Thiggers and sorners, 131, 515 
 
 Tine-egan, 364, 524 
 
 Tom-an-Lonach, hill, 375 
 
 Tormot of the oak, 492 
 
 Torquil of the Oak, ?64 ; his son's 
 demonstration on the lake, 386; 
 refiises to credit Eachin's confes- 
 sion, 410 ; his proposal to free him 
 from the. fight, 479; his devotion, 
 486 ; death, 494 
 
 " Viewless essence, thin and bare," 
 319 
 
 Wabsteb, Michael, 65 
 
 Wallace, Sir William, enconnte? 
 
 with the Red Rover, 102 
 Wardlaw, Archbishop, 129, 368, 524 
 Watkins, Will, 259 
 Wicks of Baiglie, 25, 511 
 Wyntoun, quoted, 19, 516, 624 
 
 " Yes, thou mayst sigh," 437 
 
 msm OF FAIB MAID OF PERTH.