Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated) (427 page)

This atmosphere of terror, surrounding, as it did, a man of God of spotless character and orthodoxy, was a common cause of wonder and subject of inquiry among the few strangers who were led by chance or business into that unknown, outlying country.  But many even of the people of the parish were ignorant of the strange events which had marked the first year of Mr. Soulis’s ministrations; and among those who were better informed, some were naturally reticent, and others shy of that particular topic.  Now and again, only, one of the older folk would warm into courage over his third tumbler, and recount the cause of the minister’s strange looks and solitary life.

* * * * *

Fifty years syne, when Mr. Soulis cam first into Ba’weary, he was still a young man — a callant, the folk said — fu’ o’ book learnin’ and grand at the exposition, but, as was natural in sae young a man, wi’ nae leevin’ experience in religion.  The younger sort were greatly taken wi’ his gifts and his gab; but auld, concerned, serious men and women were moved even to prayer for the young man, whom they took to be a self-deceiver, and the parish that was like to be sae ill-supplied.  It was before the days o’ the moderates — weary fa’ them; but ill things are like guid — they baith come bit by bit, a pickle at a time; and there were folk even then that said the Lord had left the college professors to their ain devices, an’ the lads that went to study wi’ them wad hae done mair and better sittin’ in a peat-bog, like their forbears of the persecution, wi’ a Bible under their oxter and a speerit o’ prayer in their heart.  There was nae doubt, onyway, but that Mr. Soulis had been ower lang at the college.  He was careful and troubled for mony things besides the ae thing needful.  He had a feck o’ books wi’ him — mair than had ever been seen before in a’ that presbytery; and a sair wark the carrier had wi’ them, for they were a’ like to have smoored in the Deil’s Hag between this and Kilmackerlie.  They were books o’ divinity, to be sure, or so they ca’d them; but the serious were o’ opinion there was little service for sae mony, when the hail o’ God’s Word would gang in the neuk of a plaid.  Then he wad sit half the day and half the nicht forbye, which was scant decent — writin’, nae less; and first, they were feared he wad read his sermons; and syne it proved he was writin’ a book himsel’, which was surely no fittin’ for ane of his years an’ sma’ experience.

Onyway it behoved him to get an auld, decent wife to keep the manse for him an’ see to his bit denners; and he was recommended to an auld limmer — Janet M’Clour, they ca’d her — and sae far left to himsel’ as to be ower persuaded.  There was mony advised him to the contrar, for Janet was mair than suspeckit by the best folk in Ba’weary.  Lang or that, she had had a wean to a dragoon; she hadnae come forrit  for maybe thretty year; and bairns had seen her mumblin’ to hersel’ up on Key’s Loan in the gloamin’, whilk was an unco time an’ place for a God-fearin’ woman.  Howsoever, it was the laird himsel’ that had first tauld the minister o’ Janet; and in thae days he wad have gane a far gate to pleesure the laird.  When folk tauld him that Janet was sib to the deil, it was a’ superstition by his way of it; an’ when they cast up the Bible to him an’ the witch of Endor, he wad threep it doun their thrapples that thir days were a’ gane by, and the deil was mercifully restrained.

Weel, when it got about the clachan that Janet M’Clour was to be servant at the manse, the folk were fair mad wi’ her an’ him thegether; and some o’ the guidwives had nae better to dae than get round her door cheeks and chairge her wi’ a’ that was ken’t again her, frae the sodger’s bairn to John Tamson’s twa kye.  She was nae great speaker; folk usually let her gang her ain gate, an’ she let them gang theirs, wi’, neither Fair-guid-een nor Fair-guid-day; but when she buckled to, she had a tongue to deave the miller.  Up she got, an’ there wasnae an auld story in Ba’weary but she gart somebody lowp for it that day; they couldnae say ae thing but she could say twa to it; till, at the hinder end, the guidwives up and claught haud of her, and clawed the coats aff her back, and pu’d her doun the clachan to the water o’ Dule, to see if she were a witch or no, soum or droun.  The carline skirled till ye could hear her at the Hangin’ Shaw, and she focht like ten; there was mony a guidwife bure the mark of her neist day an’ mony a lang day after; and just in the hettest o’ the collieshangie, wha suld come up (for his sins) but the new minister.

‘Women,’ said he (and he had a grand voice), ‘I charge you in the Lord’s name to let her go.’

Janet ran to him — she was fair wud wi’ terror — an’ clang to him, an’ prayed him, for Christ’s sake, save her frae the cummers; an’ they, for their pairt, tauld him a’ that was ken’t, and maybe mair.

‘Woman,’ says he to Janet, ‘is this true?’

‘As the Lord sees me,’ says she, ‘as the Lord made me, no a word o’t.  Forbye the bairn,’ says she, ‘I’ve been a decent woman a’ my days.’

‘Will you,’ says Mr. Soulis, ‘in the name of God, and before me, His unworthy minister, renounce the devil and his works?’

Weel, it wad appear that when he askit that, she gave a girn that fairly frichtit them that saw her, an’ they could hear her teeth play dirl thegether in her chafts; but there was naething for it but the ae way or the ither; an’ Janet lifted up her hand and renounced the deil before them a’.

‘And now,’ says Mr. Soulis to the guidwives, ‘home with ye, one and all, and pray to God for His forgiveness.’

And he gied Janet his arm, though she had little on her but a sark, and took her up the clachan to her ain door like a leddy of the land; an’ her scrieghin’ and laughin’ as was a scandal to be heard.

There were mony grave folk lang ower their prayers that nicht; but when the morn cam’ there was sic a fear fell upon a’ Ba’weary that the bairns hid theirsels, and even the men folk stood and keekit frae their doors.  For there was Janet comin’ doun the clachan — her or her likeness, nane could tell — wi’ her neck thrawn, and her heid on ae side, like a body that has been hangit, and a girn on her face like an unstreakit corp.  By an’ by they got used wi’ it, and even speered at her to ken what was wrang; but frae that day forth she couldnae speak like a Christian woman, but slavered and played click wi’ her teeth like a pair o’ shears; and frae that day forth the name o’ God cam never on her lips.  Whiles she wad try to say it, but it michtnae be.  Them that kenned best said least; but they never gied that Thing the name o’ Janet M’Clour; for the auld Janet, by their way o’t, was in muckle hell that day.  But the minister was neither to haud nor to bind; he preached about naething but the folk’s cruelty that had gi’en her a stroke of the palsy; he skelpt the bairns that meddled her; and he had her up to the manse that same nicht, and dwalled there a’ his lane wi’ her under the Hangin’ Shaw.

Weel, time gaed by: and the idler sort commenced to think mair lichtly o’ that black business.  The minister was weel thocht o’; he was aye late at the writing, folk wad see his can’le doon by the Dule water after twal’ at e’en; and he seemed pleased wi’ himsel’ and upsitten as at first, though a’ body could see that he was dwining.  As for Janet she cam an’ she gaed; if she didnae speak muckle afore, it was reason she should speak less then; she meddled naebody; but she was an eldritch thing to see, an’ nane wad hae mistrysted wi’ her for Ba’weary glebe.

About the end o’ July there cam’ a spell o’ weather, the like o’t never was in that country side; it was lown an’ het an’ heartless; the herds couldnae win up the Black Hill, the bairns were ower weariet to play; an’ yet it was gousty too, wi’ claps o’ het wund that rumm’led in the glens, and bits o’ shouers that slockened naething.  We aye thocht it but to thun’er on the morn; but the morn cam, an’ the morn’s morning, and it was aye the same uncanny weather, sair on folks and bestial.  Of a’ that were the waur, nane suffered like Mr. Soulis; he could neither sleep nor eat, he tauld his elders; an’ when he wasnae writin’ at his weary book, he wad be stravaguin’ ower a’ the countryside like a man possessed, when a’ body else was blythe to keep caller ben the house.

Abune Hangin’ Shaw, in the bield o’ the Black Hill, there’s a bit enclosed grund wi’ an iron yett; and it seems, in the auld days, that was the kirkyaird o’ Ba’weary, and consecrated by the Papists before the blessed licht shone upon the kingdom.  It was a great howff o’ Mr. Soulis’s, onyway; there he would sit an’ consider his sermons; and indeed it’s a bieldy bit.  Weel, as he cam ower the wast end o’ the Black Hill, ae day, he saw first twa, an syne fower, an’ syne seeven corbie craws fleein’ round an’ round abune the auld kirkyaird.  They flew laigh and heavy, an’ squawked to ither as they gaed; and it was clear to Mr. Soulis that something had put them frae their ordinar.  He wasnae easy fleyed, an’ gaed straucht up to the wa’s; an’ what suld he find there but a man, or the appearance of a man, sittin’ in the inside upon a grave.  He was of a great stature, an’ black as hell, and his e’en were singular to see.   Mr. Soulis had heard tell o’ black men, mony’s the time; but there was something unco about this black man that daunted him.  Het as he was, he took a kind o’ cauld grue in the marrow o’ his banes; but up he spak for a’ that; an’ says he: ‘My friend, are you a stranger in this place?’  The black man answered never a word; he got upon his feet, an’ begude to hirsle to the wa’ on the far side; but he aye lookit at the minister; an’ the minister stood an’ lookit back; till a’ in a meenute the black man was ower the wa’ an’ rinnin’ for the bield o’ the trees.  Mr. Soulis, he hardly kenned why, ran after him; but he was sair forjaskit wi’ his walk an’ the het, unhalesome weather; and rin as he likit, he got nae mair than a glisk o’ the black man amang the birks, till he won doun to the foot o’ the hill-side, an’ there he saw him ance mair, gaun, hap, step, an’ lowp, ower Dule water to the manse.

Mr. Soulis wasnae weel pleased that this fearsome gangrel suld mak’ sae free wi’ Ba’weary manse; an’ he ran the harder, an’, wet shoon, ower the burn, an’ up the walk; but the deil a black man was there to see.  He stepped out upon the road, but there was naebody there; he gaed a’ ower the gairden, but na, nae black man.  At the hinder end, and a bit feared as was but natural, he lifted the hasp and into the manse; and there was Janet M’Clour before his een, wi’ her thrawn craig, and nane sae pleased to see him.  And he aye minded sinsyne, when first he set his een upon her, he had the same cauld and deidly grue.

‘Janet,’ says he, ‘have you seen a black man?’

‘A black man?’ quo’ she.  ‘Save us a’!  Ye’re no wise, minister.  There’s nae black man in a Ba’weary.’

But she didnae speak plain, ye maun understand; but yam-yammered, like a powney wi’ the bit in its moo.

‘Weel,’ says he, ‘Janet, if there was nae black man, I have spoken with the Accuser of the Brethren.’

And he sat down like ane wi’ a fever, an’ his teeth chittered in his heid.

‘Hoots,’ says she, ‘think shame to yoursel’, minister;’ an’ gied him a drap brandy that she keept aye by her.

Syne Mr. Soulis gaed into his study amang a’ his books.  It’s a lang, laigh, mirk chalmer, perishin’ cauld in winter, an’ no very dry even in the tap o’ the simmer, for the manse stands near the burn.  Sae doun he sat, and thocht of a’ that had come an’ gane since he was in Ba’weary, an’ his hame, an’ the days when he was a bairn an’ ran daffin’ on the braes; and that black man aye ran in his heid like the ower-come of a sang.  Aye the mair he thocht, the mair he thocht o’ the black man.  He tried the prayer, an’ the words wouldnae come to him; an’ he tried, they say, to write at his book, but he could nae mak’ nae mair o’ that.  There was whiles he thocht the black man was at his oxter, an’ the swat stood upon him cauld as well-water; and there was other whiles, when he cam to himsel’ like a christened bairn and minded naething.

The upshot was that he gaed to the window an’ stood glowrin’ at Dule water.  The trees are unco thick, an’ the water lies deep an’ black under the manse; an’ there was Janct washin’ the cla’es wi’ her coats kilted.  She had her back to the minister, an’ he, for his pairt, hardly kenned what he was lookin’ at.  Syne she turned round, an’ shawed her face; Mr. Soulis had the same cauld grue as twice that day afore, an’ it was borne in upon him what folk said, that Janet was deid lang syne, an’ this was a bogle in her clay-cauld flesh.  He drew back a pickle and he scanned her narrowly.  She was tramp-trampin’ in the cla’es, croonin’ to hersel’; and eh!  Gude guide us, but it was a fearsome face.  Whiles she sang louder, but there was nae man born o’ woman that could tell the words o’ her sang; an’ whiles she lookit side-lang doun, but there was naething there for her to look at.  There gaed a scunner through the flesh upon his banes; and that was Heeven’s advertisement.  But Mr. Soulis just blamed himsel’, he said, to think sae ill of a puir, auld afflicted wife that hadnae a freend forbye himsel’; an’ he put up a bit prayer for him and her, an’ drank a little caller water — for his heart rose again the meat — an’ gaed up to his naked bed in the gloaming.

That was a nicht that has never been forgotten in Ba’weary, the nicht o’ the seeventeenth of August, seventeen hun’er’ an twal’.  It had been het afore, as I hae said, but that nicht it was hetter than ever.  The sun gaed doun amang unco-lookin’ clouds; it fell as mirk as the pit; no a star, no a breath o’ wund; ye couldnae see your han’ afore your face, and even the auld folk cuist the covers frae their beds and lay pechin’ for their breath.  Wi’ a’ that he had upon his mind, it was gey and unlikely Mr. Soulis wad get muckle sleep.  He lay an’ he tummled; the gude, caller bed that he got into brunt his very banes; whiles he slept, and whiles he waukened; whiles he heard the time o’ nicht, and whiles a tyke yowlin’ up the muir, as if somebody was deid; whiles he thocht he heard bogles claverin’ in his lug, an’ whiles he saw spunkies in the room.  He behoved, he judged, to be sick; an’ sick he was — little he jaloosed the sickness.

At the hinder end, he got a clearness in his mind, sat up in his sark on the bed-side, and fell thinkin’ ance mair o’ the black man an’ Janet.  He couldnae weel tell how — maybe it was the cauld to his feet — but it cam’ in upon him wi’ a spate that there was some connection between thir twa, an’ that either or baith o’ them were bogles.  And just at that moment, in Janet’s room, which was neist to his, there cam’ a stramp o’ feet as if men were wars’lin’, an’ then a loud bang; an’ then a wund gaed reishling round the fower quarters of the house; an’ then a’ was aince mair as seelent as the grave.