Waverley

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'A party of Caterans?'

'Yes; robbers from the neighbouring Highlands. We used to be quite free
from them while we paid blackmail to Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr;
but my father thought it unworthy of his rank and birth to pay it any
longer, and so this disaster has happened. It is not the value of the
cattle, Captain Waverley, that vexes me; but my father is so much hurt
at the affront, and is so bold and hot, that I fear he will try to
recover them by the strong hand; and if he is not hurt himself, he will
hurt some of these wild people, and then there will be no peace between
them and us perhaps for our lifetime; and we cannot defend ourselves as
is old times, for the government have taken all our arms; and my dear
father is so rash--Oh, what will become of us!'--Here poor Rose lost
heart altogether, and burst into a flood of tears.

The Baron entered at this moment, and rebuked her with more asperity
than Waverley had ever heard him use to any one. 'Was it not a shame,'
he said, 'that she should exhibit herself before any gentleman in such
a light, as if she shed tears for a drove of horned nolt and milch kine,
like the daughter of a Cheshire yeoman! Captain Waverley, I must request
your favourable construction of her grief, which may, or ought to
proceed, solely from seeing her father's estate exposed to spulzie and
depredation from common thieves and sornars, [Sornars may be translated
sturdy beggars, more especially indicating those unwelcome visitors who
exact lodgings and victuals by force, or something approaching to it.]
while we are not allowed to keep half a score of muskets, whether for
defence or rescue.'

Bailie Macwheeble entered immediately afterwards, and by his report of
arms and ammunition confirmed this statement, informing the Baron, in
a melancholy voice, that though the people would certainly obey his
honour's orders, yet there was no chance of their following the gear to
ony guid purpose, in respect there were only his honour's body servants
who had swords and pistols, and the depredators were twelve Highlanders,
completely armed after the manner of their country.--Having delivered
this doleful annunciation, he assumed a posture of silent dejection,
shaking his head slowly with the motion of a pendulum when it is ceasing
to vibrate, and then remained stationary, his body stooping at a more
acute angle than usual, and the latter part of his person projecting in
proportion.

The Baron, meanwhile, paced the room in silent indignation, and at
length fixing his eye upon an old portrait, whose person was clad in
armour, and whose features glared grimly out of a huge bush of hair,
part of which descended from his head to his shoulders, and part from
his chin and upper-lip to his breastplate,--'That gentleman, Captain
Waverley, my grandsire,' he said, 'with two hundred horse, whom he
levied within his own bounds, discomfited and put to the rout more
than five hundred of these Highland reivers, who have been ever LAPIS
OFFENSIONIS, ET PETRA SCANDALI, a stumbling-block and a rock of offence
to the Lowland vicinage--he discomfited them, I say, when they had the
temerity to descend to harry this country, in the time of the civil
dissensions, in the year of grace sixteen hundred forty and two. And
now, sir, I, his grandson, am thus used at such unworthy hands!'

Here there was an awful pause; after which all the company, as is usual
in cases of difficulty, began to give separate and inconsistent counsel.
Alexander ab Alexandro proposed they should send some one to compound
with the Caterans, who would readily, he said, give up their prey for a
dollar a head. The Bailie opined that this transaction would amount to
theft-boot, or composition of felony; and he recommended that some CANNY
HAND should be sent up to the glens to make the best bargain he could,
as it were for himself, so that the laird might not be seen in such a
transaction. Edward proposed to send off to the nearest garrison for a
party of soldiers and a magistrate's warrant; and Rose, as far as she
dared, endeavoured to insinuate the course of paying the arrears of
tribute money to Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr, who, they all knew,
could easily procure restoration of the cattle, if he were properly
propitiated.

None of these proposals met the Baron's approbation. The idea of
composition, direct or implied, was absolutely ignominious; that
of Waverley only showed that he did not understand the state of the
country, and of the political parties which divided it; and, standing
matters as they did with Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr, the Baron would
make no concession to him, were it, he said, to procure restitution IN
INTEGRUM of every stirk and stot that the chief, his forefathers, and
his clan, had stolen since the days of Malcolm Canmore.'

In fact, his voice was still for war, and he proposed to send expresses
to Balmawhapple, Killancureit, Tulliellum, and other lairds, who were
exposed to similar depredations, inviting them to join in the pursuit;
'and then, sir, shall these NEBULONES NEQUISSIMI, as Leslaeus calls
them, be brought to the fate of their predecessor Cacus,

Elisos oculos, et siccum sanguine guttur.'

The Bailie, who by no means relished these warlike counsels, here pulled
forth an immense watch, of the colour, and nearly of the size, of a
pewter warming-pan, and observed it was now past noon, and that the
Caterans had been seen in the pass of Bally-Brough soon after sunrise;
so that before the allied forces could assemble, they and their prey
would be far beyond the reach of the most active pursuit, and sheltered
in those pathless deserts where it was neither advisable to follow, nor
indeed possible to trace them.

This proposition was undeniable. The council therefore broke up
without coming to any conclusion, as has occurred to councils of more
importance; only it was determined that the Bailie should send his own
three milk-cows down to the Mains for the use of the Baron's family,
and brew small ale, as a substitute for milk, in his own. To this
arrangement, which was suggested by Saunderson, the Bailie readily
assented, both from habitual deference to the family, and an internal
consciousness that his courtesy would, in some mode or other, be repaid
tenfold.

The Baron having also retired to give some necessary directions,
Waverley seized the opportunity to ask, whether this Fergus, with the
unpronounceable name, was the chief thief-taker of the district.

'Thief-taker!' answered Rose, laughing; 'he is a gentleman of great
honour and consequence; the chieftain of an independent branch of a
powerful Highland clan, and is much respected, both for his own power,
and that of his kith, kin, and allies.'

'And what has he to do with the thieves, then? is he a magistrate, or in
the commission of the peace?' asked Waverley.

The commission of war rather, if there be such a thing,' said Rose; 'for
he is a very unquiet neighbour to his un-friends, and keeps a greater
FOLLOWING on foot than many that have thrice his estates. As to his
connexion with the thieves, that I cannot well explain; but the boldest
of them will never steal a hoof from any one that pays blackmail to Vich
Ian Vohr.'

'And what is blackmail?'

'A sort of protection-money that Low-country gentlemen and heritors,
lying near the Highlands, pay to some Highland chief, that he may
neither do them harm himself, nor suffer it to be done to them by
others; and then, if your cattle are stolen, you have only to send him
word, and he will recover them; or it may be, he will drive away cows
from some distant place, where he has a quarrel, and give them to you to
make up your loss.'

'And is this sort of Highland Jonathan Wild admitted into society, and
called a gentleman?'

'So much so,' said Rose, 'that the quarrel between my father and Fergus
Mac-Ivor began at a county meeting, where he wanted to take precedence
of all the Lowland gentlemen then present, only my father would not
suffer it. And then he upbraided my father that he was under his banner,
and paid him tribute; and my father was in a towering passion, for
Bailie Macwheeble, who manages such things his own way, had contrived to
keep this blackmail a secret from him, and passed it in his account for
cess-money. And they would have fought; but Fergus Mac-Ivor said, very
gallantly, he would never raise his hand against a grey head that was
so much respected as my father's. Oh, I wish, I wish they had continued
friends!'

'And did you ever see this Mr. Mac-Ivor, if that be his name, Miss
Bradwardine?'

'No, that is not his name; and he would consider MASTER as a sort of
affront, only that you are an Englishman, and know no better. But the
Lowlanders call him, like other gentlemen, by the name of his estate,
Glennaquoich; and the Highlanders call him Vich Ian Vohr, that is, the
son of John the Great; and we upon the braes here call him by both names
indifferently.'

I am afraid I shall never bring my English tongue to call him by either
one or other.'

'But he is a very polite, handsome man,' continued Rose; 'and his sister
Flora is one of the most beautiful and accomplished young ladies in this
country: she was bred in a convent in France, and was a great friend
of mine before this unhappy dispute. Dear Captain Waverley, try your
influence with my father to make matters up. I am sure this is but the
beginning of our troubles; for Tully-Veolan has never been a safe or
quiet residence when we have been at feud with the Highlanders. When
I was a girl about ten, there was a skirmish fought between a party of
twenty of them, and my father and his servants, behind the Mains; and
the bullets broke several panes in the north windows, they were so near.
Three of the Highlanders were killed, and they brought them in, wrapped
in their plaids, and laid them on the stone floor of the hall; and
next morning, their wives and daughters came, clapping their hands, and
crying the coronach, and shrieking, and carried away the dead bodies,
with the pipes playing before them. I could not sleep for six weeks
without starting, and thinking I heard these terrible cries, and saw
the bodies lying on the steps, all stiff and swathed up in their bloody
tartans. But since that time there came a party from the garrison at
Stirling, with a warrant from the Lord Justice-Clerk, or some such
great man, and took away all our arms; and now, how are we to protect
ourselves if they come down in any strength?'

Waverley could not help starting at a story which bore so much
resemblance to one of his own day-dreams. Here was a girl scarce
seventeen, the gentlest of her sex, both in temper and appearance, who
had witnessed with her own eyes such a scene as he had used to conjure
up in his imagination, as only occurring in ancient times, and spoke of
it coolly, as one very likely to recur. He felt at once the impulse of
curiosity, and that slight sense of danger which only serves to heighten
its interest. He might have said with Malvolio, '"I do not now fool
myself, to let imagination jade me!" I am actually in the land of
military and romantic adventures, and it only remains to be seen what
will be my own share in them.'

The whole circumstances now detailed concerning the state of the
country, seemed equally novel and extraordinary. He had indeed often
heard of Highland thieves, but had no idea of the systematic mode in
which their depredations were conducted; and that the practice was
connived at, and even encouraged, by many of the Highland chieftains,
who not only found the creaghs, or forays, useful for the purpose of
training individuals of their clan to the practice of arms, but also
of maintaining a wholesome terror among their Lowland neighbours,
and levying, as we have seen, a tribute from them, under colour of
protection-money.

Bailie Macwheeble, who soon afterwards entered, expatiated still more at
length upon the same topic. This honest gentleman's conversation was so
formed upon his professional practice, that Davie Gellatley once said
his discourse was like 'a charge of horning.' He assured our hero, that
'from the maist ancient times of record, the lawless thieves, limmers,
and broken men of the Highlands, had been in fellowship together by
reason of their surnames, for the committing of divers thefts, reifs,
and herships upon the honest men of the Low Country, when they not only
intromitted with their whole goods and gear, corn, cattle, horse, nolt,
sheep, outsight and insight plenishing, at their wicked pleasure, but
moreover made prisoners, ransomed them, or concussed them into giving
borrows (pledges) to enter into captivity again: all which was directly
prohibited in divers parts of the Statute Book, both by the act one
thousand five hundred and sixty-seven, and various others; the whilk
statutes, with all that had followed and might follow thereupon, were
shamefully broken and vilipended by the said sornars, limmers, and
broken men, associated into fellowships, for the aforesaid purposes of
theft, stouthreef, fire-raising, murther, RAPTUS MULIERUM, or forcible
abduction of women, and such like as aforesaid.'

It seemed like a dream to Waverley that these deeds of violence should
be familiar to men's minds, and currently talked of, as falling within
the common order of things, and happening daily in the immediate
vicinity, without his having crossed the seas, and while he was yet in
the otherwise well-ordered island of Great Britain. [10]



CHAPTER XVI

AN UNEXPECTED ALLY APPEARS

The Baron returned at the dinner-hour, and had in a great measure
recovered his composure and good humour. He not only confirmed the
stories which Edward had heard from Rose and Bailie Macwheeble, but
added many anecdotes from his own experience, concerning the state of
the Highlands and their inhabitants, The chiefs he pronounced to be,
in general, gentlemen of great honour and high pedigree, whose word was
accounted as a law by all those of their own sept, or clan. 'It did not,
indeed,' he said, 'become them, as had occurred in late instances, to
propone their PROSAPIA, a lineage which rested for the most part on the
vain and fond rhymes of their Seannachies or Barahs, as aequiponderate
with the evidence of ancient charters and royal grants of antiquity,
conferred upon distinguished houses in the Low Country by divers
Scottish monarchs; nevertheless, such was their OUTRECUIDANCE and
presumption, as to undervalue those who possessed such evidents, as if
they held their lands in a sheep's skin.'

This, by the way, pretty well explained the cause of quarrel between
the Baron and his Highland ally. But he went on to state so many
curious particulars concerning the manners, customs, and habits of this
patriarchal race, that Edward's curiosity became highly interested, and
he inquired whether it was possible to make with safety an excursion
into the neighbouring Highlands, whose dusky barrier of mountains had
already excited his wish to penetrate beyond them. The Baron assured his
guest that nothing would be more easy, providing this quarrel were
first made up, since he could himself give him letters to many of the
distinguished chiefs, who would receive him with the utmost courtesy and
hospitality.

While they were on this topic, the door suddenly opened, and, ushered by
Saunders Saunderson, a Highlander, fully armed and equipped, entered the
apartment. Had it not been that Saunders acted the part of master of the
ceremonies to this martial apparition, without appearing to deviate from
his usual composure, and that neither Mr. Bradwardine nor Rose exhibited
any emotion, Edward would certainly have thought the intrusion hostile,
As it was, he started at the sight of what he had not yet happened to
see, a mountaineer in his full national costume. The individual Gael was
a stout, dark, young man, of low stature, the ample folds of whose plaid
added to the appearance of strength which his person exhibited. The
short kilt, or petticoat, showed his sinewy and clean-made limbs; the
goat-skin purse, flanked by the usual defences, a dirk and steel-wrought
pistol, hung before him; his bonnet had a short feather, which indicated
his claim to be treated as a Duinhe-wassel, or sort of gentleman; a
broadsword dangled by his side, a target hung upon his shoulder, and
a long Spanish fowling-piece occupied one of his hands. With the other
hand he pulled off his bonnet, and the Baron, who well knew their
customs, and the proper mode of addressing them, immediately said, with
an air of dignity, but without rising, and much, as Edward thought,
in the manner of a prince receiving an embassy, 'Welcome, Evan Dhu
Maccombich! what news from Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr?'

'Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr,' said the ambassador, in good English,
'greets you well, Baron of Bradwardine and Tully-Veolan, and is sorry
there has been a thick cloud interposed between you and him, which has
kept you from seeing and considering the friendship and alliances that
have been between your houses and forebears of old; and he prays you
that the cloud may pass away, and that things may be as they have been
heretofore between the clan Ivor and the house of Bradwardine, when
there was an egg between them for a flint, and a knife for a sword. And
he expects you will also say, you are sorry for the cloud, and no man
shall hereafter ask whether it descended from the hill to the valley,
or rose from the valley to the hill; for they never struck with the
scabbard who did not receive with the sword; and woe to him who would
lose his friend for the stormy cloud of a spring morning!'

To this the Baron of Bradwardine answered, with suitable dignity, that
he knew the chief of clan Ivor to be a well-wisher to the King, and he
was sorry there should have been a cloud between him and any gentleman
of such sound principles, 'for when folks are banding together, feeble
is he who hath no brother.'

This appearing perfectly satisfactory, that the peace between these
august persons might be duly solemnized, the Baron ordered a stoup of
usquebaugh, and, filling a glass, drank to the health and prosperity of
Mac-Ivor of Glennaquoich; upon which the Celtic ambassador, to requite
his politeness, turned down a mighty bumper of the same generous liquor,
seasoned with his good wishes to the house of Bradwardine.

Having thus ratified the preliminaries of the general treaty of
pacification, the envoy retired to adjust with Mr. Macwheeble some
subordinate articles with which it was not thought necessary to trouble
the Baron. These probably referred to the discontinuance of the subsidy,
and apparently the Bailie found means to satisfy their ally, without
suffering his master to suppose that his dignity was compromised. At
least, it is certain, that after the plenipotentiaries had drunk a
bottle of brandy in single drams, which seemed to have no more effect
upon such seasoned vessels, than if it had been poured upon the two
bears at the top of the avenue, Evan Dhu Maccombich, having possessed
himself of all the information which he could procure respecting the
robbery of the preceding night, declared his intention to set off
immediately in pursuit of the cattle, which he pronounced to be 'not
far off;--they have broken the bone,' he observed, 'but they have had no
time to suck the marrow.'

Our hero, who had attended Evan Dhu during his perquisitions, was much
struck with the ingenuity which he displayed in collecting information,
and the precise and pointed conclusions which he drew from it. Evan Dhu,
on his part, was obviously flattered with the attention of Waverley, the
interest he seemed to take in his inquiries, and his curiosity about the
customs and scenery of the Highlands. Without much ceremony he invited
Edward to accompany him on a short walk of ten or fifteen miles into the
mountains, and see the place where the cattle were conveyed to; adding,
'If it be as I suppose, you never saw such a place in your life, nor
ever will, unless you go with me, or the like of me.'

Our hero, feeling his curiosity considerably excited by the idea of
visiting the den of a Highland Cacus, took, however, the precaution
to inquire if his guide might be trusted. He was assured, that the
invitation would on no account have been given had there been the least
danger, and that all he had to apprehend was a little fatigue; and
as Evan proposed he should pass a day at his Chieftain's house in
returning, where he would be sure of good accommodation and an excellent
welcome, there seemed nothing very formidable in the task he undertook.
Rose, indeed, turned pale when she heard of it; but her father, who
loved the spirited curiosity of his young friend, did not attempt
to damp it by an alarm of danger which really did not exist; and a
knapsack, with a few necessaries, being bound on the shoulders of a sort
of deputy gamekeeper, our hero set forth with a fowling-piece in his
hand, accompanied by his new friend Evan Dhu, and, followed by the
gamekeeper aforesaid, and by two wild Highlanders, the attendants of
Evan, one of whom had upon his shoulder a hatchet at the end of a pole,
called a Lochaber-axe, [The Town-guard of Edinburgh were, till a late
period, armed with this weapon when on their police duty. There was
a hook at the back of the axe, which the ancient Highlanders used to
assist them to climb over walls, fixing the hook upon it, and raising
themselves by the handle. The axe, which was also much used by the
natives of Ireland, is supposed to have been introduced into both
countries from Scandinavia.] and the other a long ducking-gun. Evan,
upon Edward's inquiry, gave him to understand that this martial escort
was by no means necessary as a guard, but merely, as he said, drawing
up and adjusting his plaid with an air of dignity, that he might appear
decently at Tully-Veolan, and as Vich Ian Vohr's foster-brother ought to
do. 'Ah!' said he, 'if you Saxon Duinhe-wassel (English gentlemen) saw
but the Chief with his tail on!'

'With his tail on!' echoed Edward, in some surprise.

'Yes--that is, with all his usual followers, when he visits those of the
same rank. There is,' he continued, stopping and drawing himself proudly
up, while he counted upon his fingers the several officers of his
chief's retinue--'there is his HANCH-MAN, or right-hand man; then his
BARDH, or poet; then his BLADIER, or orator, to make harangues to the
great folks whom he visits; then his GILLY-MORE, or armour-bearer, to
carry his sword and target, and his gun; then his GILLY CASFLIUCH,
who carries him on his back through the sikes and brooks; then his
GILLY-COMSTRIAN, to lead his horse by the bridle in steep and difficult
paths; then his GILLY-TRUSHHARNISH, to carry his knapsack; and the piper
and the piper's man, and it may be a dozen young lads besides, that have
no business, but are just boys of the belt, to follow the laird, and do
his honour's bidding.'

And does your Chief regularly maintain all these men?' demanded
Waverley.

'All these!' replied Evan; 'aye, and many a fair head beside, that would
not ken where to lay itself, but for the mickle barn at Glennaquoich.'

With similar tales of the grandeur of the Chief in peace and war,
Evan Dhu beguiled the way till they approached more closely those huge
mountains which Edward had hitherto only seen at a distance. It was
towards evening as they entered one of the tremendous passes which
afford communication between the High and Low Country; the path, which
was extremely steep and rugged, winded up a chasm between two tremendous
rocks, following the passage which a foaming stream, that brawled far
below, appeared to have worn for itself in the course of ages. A few
slanting beams of the sun, which was now setting, reached the water in
its darksome bed, and showed it partially, chafed by a hundred rocks,
and broken by a hundred falls. The descent from the path to the stream
was a mere precipice, with here and there a projecting fragment of
granite, or a scathed tree, which had warped its twisted roots into the
fissures of the rock. On the right hand, the mountain rose above the
path with almost equal inaccessibility; but the hill on the opposite
side displayed a shroud of copsewood, with which some pines were
intermingled.

'This,' said Evan, 'is the pass of Bally-Brough, which was kept in
former times by ten of the clan Donnochie against a hundred of the Low
Country carles. The graves of the slain are still to be seen in that
little corri, or bottom, on the opposite side of the burn--if your eyes
are good, you may see the green specks among the heather.--See, there
is an earn, which you Southrons call an eagle--you have no such birds
as that in England--he is going to fetch his supper from the Laird of
Bradwardine's braes, but I'll send a slug after him.'

He fired his piece accordingly, but missed the superb monarch of the
feathered tribes, who, without noticing the attempt to annoy him,
continued his majestic flight to the southward. A thousand birds of
prey, hawks, kites, carrion-crows, and ravens, disturbed from the
lodgings which they had just taken up for the evening, rose at the
report of the gun, and mingled their hoarse and discordant notes with
the echoes which replied to it, and with the roar of the mountain
cataracts. Evan, a little disconcerted at having missed his mark, when
he meant to have displayed peculiar dexterity, covered his confusion by
whistling part of a pibroch as he reloaded his piece, and proceeded in
silence up the pass.