Hue and Cry (26 page)

‘I’m sorry, sir,’ the student said. ‘The truth is that Master Colp misliked me intensely, and I him. He made bad report of my work to my father.’

‘To be fair,’ Robert Black observed mildly, ‘You did no work.’

Duncan Stewart ignored him. ‘He disliked me on account of my breeding and birth. He was a bursar, and his favours he kept for the bursars. They had the best of him, and I will own he did not spare them his attentions. When they were lax, he overlooked
their faults, while for myself, when I had overslept or mistaken my task, his reproaches were most stringent and severe. And when I first came, as a boy, and childishly played in his class, he answered me so cruelly that I thought to leave the college, but for the respect I felt owed to my father and friends here.’

Hew looked at him thoughtfully. ‘Then you accuse him of prejudice?’

‘As I recall,’ mused Robert, ‘your sport consisted in the threatening of the bursars with your pocket knife, if they would not fulfil the task for you, and Nicholas did remonstrate, and took away the knife. Tis a good knife, mark you, I still have it in my room, and if you will not puncture scholars, you may sometime have it back.’

‘Well, well, enough,’ said the principal. ‘
Nil nisi bonum
, what say you, Doctor Locke?’ He gave a look of great meaning, which Giles received, baffled. ‘No more of this, gentlemen. Shall we begin?’

‘We may not proceed,’ the doctor protested, ‘without the New College principal, and without your other regents. Where are they?’

‘Professor Lamb,’ explained Gilchrist patiently, ‘a man of eighty-three, has not left his college rooms for twenty years.’

‘Well then, his depute?’

‘
That
man is an out-and-out papist, under present caution to the Crown. I assure you, his opinion counts as nought. For my regent James Guthrie, he has had a tooth drawn and is sorely afflicted. Poor man, I have sent him back to bed.’

‘That leaves one more.’

‘The regent, Samuel Ross.’ Gilchrist furrowed his brow. ‘Now he has gone to find a haircut. I believe to Perth,’ he concluded in triumph. ‘It’s the fashion, I am told. Enough, now. This meeting is quorate.’ Firmly, he called out a name.

A tall pimpled youth approached nervously. Gilchrist frowned at him

You were a candidate last year, I think?’

‘I was, sir.’

‘Have your circumstances changed?’

‘I have worked very hard at my grammar, sir.’

‘I see. Well, we need not trouble you, I think. We have the reports here. Thank you for coming. Failed to meet the standard,’ he said in an audible whisper. ‘Next boy: William Collins.’

The boy looked very pale. Hew hoped he would not spew. The principal began with him pleasantly enough.

‘Who is your father, William Collins?’

‘He’s a fisherman, sir. We live in St Monans.’

Gilchrist nodded sagely. ‘That’s a very fine pair of boots you’re wearing. New, I think. Were they made in St Monans, I wonder? You must have grand shoemakers there. What do you think, Master Black, shall we go down to St Monans for our shoes? What I am wondering, William Collins, is how a poor fisherman can afford to buy his son so fine a pair of boots?’

‘The shoemaker said he could pay off a herring a catch, sir.’

‘Indeed?’ Gilchrist raised his eyebrows. ‘That is uncommonly kind.’

‘Because, sir,’ the boy had begun to hesitate, ‘I walked here from St Monans, and I had no boots. The shoemaker said it was a fine thing for a fisher boy to go to the university, and if he had a son, sir, he would wish to send him too. I think, really, he gave us the shoes out of kindness.’

‘Did he indeed? Now tell me, who has taught you Latin grammar? Is there a school is St Monans?’

‘Yes, sir. At the minister’s house.’

‘And who pays the minister to school you? Does he do it for kindness? Or does he take fish?’

Hew could hear Duncan Stewart sniggering behind him. He turned round to glare. The boy appeared confused. Then he brightened. ‘But I have testimonials from the minister.’

Sighing heavily, Gilchrist consulted the paper. ‘Yes. He makes good report of your morals and character. You’re well versed in grammar. But you see, William Collins,’ and he wagged a playful
finger, ‘we can’t give bursaries to boys whose fathers have the means for schools and shoes. You must explain to your father that if he cares to work a little harder, and will meet the terms, you may enrol here as a scholar. I should warn, though, we do not take fish.’ He gave a genial smile.

‘But . . . am I not to take the examination?’

‘No point.’ His tone changed abruptly and leaning forward, he said sternly, ‘let not the bursars’ places be diverted to the rich, for would you take provision from a poor but worthy man?’ To the others he said in explanation, ‘Not eligible,’ and bid Duncan Stewart make note of the same. Hew stared, incredulous, at Giles, who began to frown as Gilchrist called, ‘Next boy.’

The third and youngest applicant, after an intervention by Giles Locke, was allowed to proceed to the examination. This was conducted by Robert Black, and consisted of the reading of a random text, here chosen from the Georgics, for analysis of grammar, shape and sense. The boy began well, and was into his flow when Gilchrist said suddenly, ‘Do I not know you?’

‘No, sir.’

‘I know you, I think. Were you not with some boys who threw stones at myself and the magistrands once on the links? Don’t you know the boy, Duncan? Was it not he?’

‘I believe that it was, sir,’ answered Duncan.

Giles muttered something in Latin, beyond the boy’s sphere. The boy began to feel panic, but tried for recovery. ‘You are mistaken, sir. I do not play on the golf links.’ He remembered the boy with the shoes, and said cunningly, ‘For I have not the wherewithal to buy the ball and clubs.’

‘Then I have seen you somewhere else, and up to no good, for I never forget a bad face, and I never,’ the master leaned over him, raising his voice, ‘forgive an ill deed.’

‘I don’t understand, sir.’

‘It’s nothing,’ said Robert Black grimly. ‘Read on.’

The boy sensed that the masters were angry. Two were talking, too quickly, in Latin. Their voices were raised. The regent with
the book turned round to glare at them, and they fell silent. Now all of them were looking at him. He tried to go on. He had continued for a line or two, and had begun to gain confidence when the principal slammed his fist on the table and thundered out, ‘In truth, I have discovered you.’

The other man roared out
intolerantia
, as like a bairn he blurted, ‘Ye canna hae though for I wisna there,’ and to his great shame, he dissolved into tears.

‘I can see, after all, that I may be mistaken,’ Gilchrist allowed, very gently. ‘But you know, at the university, we expect our scholars to be able to argue the case. Think, boy, how would it be if men of law wept in the courts? It would never do. Also, though I scarcely like to mention it, we cannot permit of the tongue that you speak. I fear these young scholars,’ he confided to his colleagues, ‘so far have shown no aptitude in disputation.’

There followed an adjournment, brusquely demanded by Giles, while the masters retired to a corner and whispered together, after which Doctor Locke himself came to the boy and inquired of him kindly, whether he would like to take the test again. He answered, he would not.

The fourth supplicant, following this interlude, was the boy from Holy Trinity, and the minister stepped up with him to the bench. He was, he said, Thomas, named Burns, for on Kinness Burn braes he was discovered a foundling, brought up by the parish since his infancy, fed and schooled and clothed at their expense. He was a pupil at the grammar school, where he had shown exceptional ability. In the hope of sating the boy’s hunger for learning, the minister had taught him the rudiments also of Hebrew and Greek. This was impressive, for the Hebrew tongue was not then taught within the university. Robert had opened his Vergil when Gilchrist stayed his hand.

‘Perhaps we might try young Thomas with Homer, since he is proficient in the Greek. Have you
The Iliad
here?’

The minister protested, ‘He has the basic grammar, scarcely more.’

The boy himself lifted his eyes and said bravely, ‘I am only a beginner, but I should like to try it.’

Robert gave an encouraging smile. ‘Read us a little, and if you can turn it into Latin, we shall be pleased to hear it.’

The boy took the book, and bravely enough he read out the Greek, before turning the verse into Latin.

‘Well then, enough,’ broke in Gilchrist. ‘You are not here to give a lesson, Master Black.

Thank you for your patience, sir,’ he nodded to the minister. ‘You may have our answer by and by.’

‘Are we not to have it now?’ the churchman asked him bluntly,

‘As you can see, there are still other scholars in line.’

‘Then am I to infer that some of them will presently be bursars?’

‘You may infer what you will, but no decisions will be made until we hear the rest. Good day to you.’

Hew Cullan smiled at the boy, ‘That was prettily done. I thought you read well. If you came into my class, I should be glad to have you.’

‘Thank you, sir.’ He blushed a little. ‘I should be glad to come.’

‘Why did you say that?’ Gilchrist protested to Hew as the boy turned away. ‘I may remind you, Master Cullan, yours is not the class in question. You needlessly raise the boy’s hopes.’

‘How so, needlessly?’ inquired Hew. ‘You cannot intend to deny him. He far exceeds the standard.’

‘I agree. Tis a consideration. He may overshadow the other men, put them off their stroke. I do not say no, understand me, but we must give a careful notice to his character. I fear he lacks humility, which is essential in a bursar. I suspect the influence there of the schoolmaster, a most forward sort of man.’

Giles had come dangerously close to him. ‘I have witnessed these proceedings, sir, with increasing abhorrence, and I may say that I intend to make report of them before the chancellor. This is not, as you must be aware, a true interpretation of the bursars’ charter. That boy, and no doubt several others here, are worthy
of election. I suspect you of prejudice, sir, that you fill up their places with sons of the rich.’

‘That is a serious charge.’

‘Then let it be proved. We shall examine all the intrants like for like, both scholars and bursars, and if we find ten bursars who surpass ten of your scholars, then according to the statutes, let them take their place.’

‘No, no,’ said Gilchrist easily, ‘they shall never submit to it.
Pax
, we must put it to vote. What say you to the foundling Thomas Burns? Shall we offer him a place, Master Cullan?’

‘I say aye.’

‘Doctor Locke?’

‘Aye.’

‘Master Black?’

‘Abstention’

‘How droll you are, Robert. Do you wish the boy as bursar in your class or no?’

‘In truth, I should like to include him. In conscience I feel I must not.’

‘Don’t play the fool now,’ hissed Hew, but Robert stood stubborn.

‘Well, we may go by your conscience,’ Gilchrist said smoothly.

‘You may go by my answer, sir. I have abstained.’

‘As you will.’ Gilchrist shrugged. He called to the magistrand. ‘We have a difficulty here. I find I cannot do without the other regents. Hurry to their room, pray, and explain the situation. Bid them come and join us. While we’re waiting, gentlemen, we may perhaps inspect the other candidates.’

No one had quite the heart for it. Hew glowered at Robert, who did not meet his eye. Giles Locke took to reading a book. Eventually, the interviews concluded and the magistrand returned. He had found no trace of Samuel Ross, while Guthrie, in his nightshirt, begged to be excused. His gumboil had tripled in size. If it pleased them, he would place his vote by proxy, as against the foundling boy from Kinness Braes. Giles offered, somewhat
viciously, to seek the fellow out and lance his boil. But Gilchrist gave a smile. ‘Two for, one against, and one abstention. We may I reckon Samuel Ross, being
in absentia
, to have cast his vote upon my side. As principal . . .’

‘And you force this,’ Giles Locke cautioned, ‘I must take it to the chancellor.’

Gilchrist studied him with grave indifference. ‘Since you mention the archbishop, I must warn you, he has spent the last few years abroad, and has had no concern with our affairs. I wonder you are so belligerent. For did I say I had decided to refuse the boy? On the contrary, I propose to award him the bursary. As for the charge of prejudice, I can assure you, nothing could be further from my mind. To prove it, I shall place him in the care of a young friend of mine, who may have much to learn from him. He is newly arrived, and the son of an earl.’

Hew glanced at Robert, who shook his head hopelessly.

‘You hurt me, Doctor Locke,’ their principal went on, ‘and you have caused offence here in my college, where I count you as a guest. I must warn you I hold it amiss. I am, as Master Black will testify, a reasonable man, but be assured you will not like me as an enemy. Good day to you.’

‘I am assured,’ Giles countered testily to Hew, ‘I do not like him as a friend.’

Outside the college, Hew gave voice to a stream of expletives, evenly distributed between the ancient and vernacular. He kicked at the scattering leaves. A small group of students gazed at him curiously. One ventured, ‘
Salve
, magister.’

‘
Salve
,
salvete
,’ Hew muttered savagely, ‘
damn
.’ Giles suppressed a smile and took his arm.

‘Let us vent our spleen a little further from the gate. Walk with me a while. We’ll find a cookshop.’

They bought spiced pastries from the baker in the marketplace and ate them on the sands like truant schoolboys, sucking beads of sugar from their sleeves.

‘Come and see Nicholas,’ suggested Giles. ‘I left him with Paul.’

‘I wonder, was that wise?’

The doctor laughed. ‘Your sister came to nurse him yesterday, and Paul and I were wranglers for the place of best relieved. Poor Paul! If he had glimpsed the devil, he could not be more afeared. We neither of us speak of it, and I, for my part, have made no mention of his rude transgressions. I notice he avoids my books. I bid him, all the while with most sweet and gentle courtesies, to do me this and that, and this and that he does without demur, always providing that I do not ask him to be left alone with Nicholas. The answer then is no; I may not count it wise, and yet I know of no alternative unless your sister stays.’