Rob Roy (26 page)

‘He lives,' said I, ‘thank God; but to what distress and difficulty——'

‘If that be all, despair not. May I read this letter?' she said, taking it up.

I assented, hardly knowing what I said. She read it with great attention.

‘Who is this Mr. Tresham, who signs the letter?'

‘My father's partner,' (your own good father, Will,) ‘but he is little in the habit of acting personally in the business of the house.'

‘He writes here,' said Miss Vernon, ‘of various letters sent to you previously.'

‘I have received none of them,' I replied.

‘And it appears,' she continued, ‘that Rashleigh, who has taken the full management of affairs during your father's absence in Holland, has some time since left London for Scotland, with effects and remittances to take up large bills granted by your father to persons in that country, and that he has not since been heard of.'

‘It is but too true.'

‘And here has been,' she added, looking at the letter, ‘a head-clerk, or some such person,—Owenson—Owen— dispatched to Glasgow, to find out Rashleigh, if possible, and you are entreated to repair to the same place, and assist him in his researches.'

‘It is even so, and I must depart instantly.'

‘Stay but one moment,' said Miss Vernon. ‘It seems to me that the worst which can come of this matter will be the loss of a certain sum of money; and can that bring tears into your eyes? For shame, Mr. Osbaldistone!'

‘You do me injustice, Miss Vernon,' I answered. ‘I grieve not for the loss, but for the effect which I know it will produce
on the spirits and health of my father, to whom mercantile credit is as honour; and who, if declared insolvent, would sink into the grave, oppressed by a sense of grief, remorse, and despair, like that of a soldier convicted of cowardice, or a man of honour who had lost his rank and character in society. All this I might have prevented by a trifling sacrifice of the foolish pride and indolence which recoiled from sharing the labours of his honourable and useful profession. Good Heaven! how shall I redeem the consequences of my error!'

‘By instantly repairing to Glasgow, as you are conjured to do by the friend who writes this letter.'

‘But if Rashleigh,' said I, ‘has really formed this base and unconscientious scheme of plundering his benefactor, what prospect is there that I can find means of frustrating a plan so deeply laid?'

‘The prospect,' she replied, ‘indeed, may be uncertain; but, on the other hand, there is no possibility of your doing any service to your father by remaining here. Remember, had you been on the post destined for you, this disaster could not have happened; hasten to that which is now pointed out, and it may possibly be retrieved.—Yet stay— do not leave this room until I return.'

She left me in confusion and amazement; amid which, however, I could find a lucid interval to admire the firmness, composure, and presence of mind, which Miss Vernon seemed to possess on every crisis, however sudden.

In a few minutes she returned with a sheet of paper in her hand, folded and sealed like a letter, but without address. ‘I trust you,' she said, ‘with this proof of my friendship, because I have the most perfect confidence in your honour. If I understand the nature of your distress rightly, the funds in Rashleigh's possession must be recovered by a certain day—the 12th of September, I think, is named—in order
that they may be applied to pay the bills in question; and consequently, that, if adequate funds be provided before that period, your father's credit is safe from the apprehended calamity.'

‘Certainly—I so understand Mr. Tresham‘—I looked at your father's letter again, and added, ‘There cannot be a doubt of it.'

‘Well,' said Diana, ‘in that case my little Pacolet may be of use to you.—You have heard of a spell contained in a letter. Take this packet; do not open it until other and ordinary means have failed; if you succeed by your own exertions, I trust to your honour for destroying it without opening or suffering it to be opened. But if not, you may break the seal within ten days of the fated day, and you will find directions which may possibly be of service to you.— Adieu, Frank; we never meet more—but sometimes think on your friend Die Vernon.'

She extended her hand, but I clasped her to my bosom. She sighed as she extricated herself from the embrace which she permitted, escaped to the door which led to her own apartment, and I saw her no more.

And hurry, hurry, off they rode,

As fast as fast might be;

Hurra, hurra, the dead can ride,

Dost fear to ride with me?

Burgher

T
HERE
is one advantage in an accumulation of evils, differing in cause and character, that the distraction which they afford by their contradictory operation prevents the patient from being overwhelmed under either. I was deeply grieved at my separation from Miss Vernon, yet not so much so as I should have been, had not my father's apprehended
distresses forced themselves on my attention; and I was distressed by the news of Mr. Tresham, yet less so than if they had fully occupied my mind. I was neither a false lover nor an unfeeling son; but man can give but a certain portion of distressful emotions to the causes which demand them, and if two operate at once, our sympathy, like the funds of a compounding bankrupt, can only be divided between them. Such were my reflections when I gained my apartment—it seems, from the illustration, they already began to have a twang of commerce in them.

I set myself seriously to consider your father's letter. It was not very distinct, and referred for several particulars to Owen, whom I was entreated to meet with as soon as possible at a Scotch town, called Glasgow; being informed, moreover, that my old friend was to be heard of at Messrs. MacVittie, MacFin, and Company, merchants in the Gallowgate of the said town. It likewise alluded to several letters, which, as it appeared to me, must have miscarried or have been intercepted, and complained of my obdurate silence in terms which would have been highly unjust, had my letters reached their purposed destination. I was amazed as I read. That the spirit of Rashleigh walked around me, and conjured up these doubts and difficulties by which I was surrounded, I could not doubt for one instant; yet it was frightful to conceive the extent of combined villainy and power which he must have employed in the perpetration of his designs. Let me do myself justice in one respect; the evil of parting from Miss Vernon, however distressing it might in other respects and at another time have appeared to me, sunk into a subordinate consideration when I thought of the dangers impending over my father. I did not myself set a high estimation on wealth, and had the affectation of most young men of lively imagination, who suppose that they can better dispense with tie possession of money, than
resign their time and faculties to the labour necessary to acquire it. But in my father's case, I knew that bankruptcy would be considered as an utter and irretrievable disgrace, to which life would afford no comfort, and death the speediest and sole relief.

My mind, therefore, was bent on averting this catastrophe, with an intensity which the interest could not have produced had it referred to my own fortunes; and the result of my deliberation was a firm resolution to depart from Osbaldistone Hall the next day, and wend my way without loss of time to meet Owen at Glasgow. I did not hold it expedient to intimate my departure to my uncle, otherwise than by leaving a letter of thanks for his hospitality, assuring him that sudden and important business prevented my offering them in person. I knew the blunt old knight would readily excuse ceremony, and I had such a belief in the extent and decided character of Rashleigh's machinations, that I had some apprehension of his having provided means to intercept a journey which was undertaken with a view to disconcert them, if my departure were publicly announced at Osbaldistone Hall.

I therefore determined to set off on my journey with daylight on the ensuing morning, and to gain the neighbouring kingdom of Scotland before any idea of my departure was entertained at the Hall; but one impediment of consequence was likely to prevent that speed which was the soul of my expedition. I did not know the shortest, nor indeed any road to Glasgow; and as, in the circumstances in which I stood, dispatch was of the greatest consequence, I determined to consult Andrew Fairservice oh the subject, as the nearest and most authentic authority within my reach. Late as it was, I set off with the intention of ascertaining this important point, and after a few minutes' walk reached the dwelling of the gardener.

Andrew's dwelling was situated at no great distance from the exterior wall of the garden, a snug comfortable North-umbrian cottage, built of stones roughly dressed with the hammer, and having the windows and doors decorated with huge heavy architraves, or lintels, as they are called, of hewn stone, and its roof covered with broad grey flags, instead of slates, thatch, or tiles. A jargonelle pear-tree at one end of the cottage, a rivulet, and flower-pot of a rood in extent, in front, and a kitchen-garden behind; a paddock for a cow, and a small field, cultivated with several crops of grain, rather for the benefit of the cottager than for sale, announced the warm and cordial comforts which Old England, even at her most northern extremity, extends to her meanest inhabitants.

As I approached the mansion of the sapient Andrew, I heard a noise, which, being of a nature peculiarly solemn, nasal, and prolonged, led me to think that Andrew, according to the decent and meritorious custom of his countrymen, had assembled some of his neighbours to join in family exercise, as he called evening devotion. Andrew had indeed neither wife, child, nor female inmate in his family. ‘The first of his trade,' he said, ‘had had eneugh o' thae cattle.' But, notwithstanding, he sometimes contrived to form an audience for himself out of the neighbouring Papists and Church-of-England-men, brands, as he expressed it, snatched out of the burning, on whom he used to exercise his spiritual gifts, in defiance alike of Father Vaughan, Father Docharty, Rashleigh, and all the world of Catholics around him, who deemed his interference on such occasions an act of heretical interloping. I conceived it likely, therefore, that the well-disposed neighbours might have assembled to hold some chapel of ease of this nature. The noise, however, when I listened to it more accurately, seemed to proceed entirely from the lungs of the said Andrew; and
when I interrupted it by entering the house I found Fairservice alone, combating, as best he could, with long words and hard names, and reading aloud, for the purpose of his own edification, a volume of controversial divinity. ‘I was just taking a spell,' said he, laying aside the huge folio volume as I entered, ‘of the worthy Doctor Lightfoot.'

‘Lightfoot!' I replied, looking at the ponderous volume with some surprise; ‘surely your author was unhappily named.'

‘Lightfoot was his name, sir; a divine he was, and another kind of a divine than they hae now-a-days. Always, I crave your pardon for keeping ye standing at the door, but having been mistrysted (gude preserve us!) with ae bogle the night already, I was dubious o' opening the yett till I had gaen through the e'ening worship; and I had just finished the fifth chapter of Nehemiah—if that winna gar them keep their distance, I wotna what will.'

‘Trysted with a bogle!' said I; ‘what do you mean by that, Andrew?'

‘I said mistrysted,' replied Andrew; ‘that is as muckle as to say, fley'd wi' a ghaist—gude preserve us, I say again!'

‘Flay'd by a ghost, Andrew! how am I to understand that?'

‘I did not say flay'd,' replied Andrew, ‘but
fley'd
, that is, I got a fleg, and was ready to jump out o' my skin, though naebody offered to whirl it aff my body as a man wad bark a tree.'

‘I beg a truce to your terrors in the present case, Andrew, and I wish to know whether you can direct me the nearest way to a town in your country of Scotland, called Glasgow?'

‘A town ca'd Glasgow!' echoed Andrew Fairservice. ‘Glasgow's a ceety, man.—And is‘t the way to Glasgow ye were speering if I kend?—What suld ail me to ken it?—it's no that dooms far frae my ain parish of Dreepdaily, that lies
a bittock farther to the west. But what may your honour be gaun to Glasgow for?'

‘Particular business,' replied I.

‘That's as muckle as to say, Speer nae questions, and I'll tell ye nae lees.—To Glasgow?'—he made a short pause— ‘I am thinking ye wad be the better o' some ane to show you the road.'

‘Certainly, if I could meet with any person going that way.'

'And your honour, doubtless, wad consider the time and trouble?'

‘Unquestionably—my business is pressing, and if you can find any guide to accompany me, I'll pay him handsomely.'

‘This is no a day to speak o' carnal matters,' said Andrew, casting his eyes upwards; ‘but if it werena Sabbath at e'en, I wad speer what ye wad be content to gie to ane that wad bear ye pleasant company on the road, and tell ye the names of the gentlemen's and noblemen's seats and castles, and count their kin to ye?'

‘I tell you, all I want to know is the road, I must travel; I will pay the fellow to his satisfaction—I will give him any thing in reason.'

‘Ony thing,' replied Andrew, ‘is naething; and this lad that I am speaking o' kens a' the short cuts and queer bye-paths through the hills, and——'

‘I have no time to talk about it, Andrew; do you make the bargain for me your way.'

‘Aha! that's speaking to the purpose,' answered Andrew. —‘I am thinking, since sae be that sae it is, I'll be the lad that will guide you mysell.'

‘You, Andrew? how will you get away from your employment?'

‘I tell'd your honour a while syne, that it was lang that I hae been thinking o' flitting, maybe as lang as frae the first
year I came to Osbaldistone Hall; and now I am o' the mind to gang in gude earnest—better soon as syne—better a finger affas aye wagging.'