Strathcairn

Front matter

STRATHCAIRN. STRATHCAIRN. BY CHAELES ALLSTON COLLINS, AUTHOR OF " A CETJISE UPON WHEELS," ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL II. LONDON : SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON, 14, LTTDGATE HILL. MDCCCLXIT. {The Might of Translation is Reserved.'] HIBKLLD, f'jj^f", LOBDOJ. CONTENTS. PAGB Chapter I. .... 7 Chapter II. . . . 25 Chapter III. . . . .63 Chapter IV. . . . . 93 Chapter V. 117 Chapter VI. .... 151 Chapter VII. .... 177 Chapter VIII. .... 209 Chapter IX. .... 245 Conclusion .... STRATICAIKN.

Chapter I

When I joined my friend Gordon at the little Highland inn, I made no allusion to that strange idea which I have said came into my mind, that Lord Strathcairn and his agent or steward were one and the same person. I had after all no proof with which to support this wild theory, so I thought it best to keep it to myself. I had waited at Strathcairn to see the last of my kind host and the rest of our diminished party. The agent, true to his cause, had at the very last I) VOL. II. B STRATHCAIRN. moment issued from some secret lair, and announced once more his fixed determina tion to exact the very last farthing of his claim, flinging the paper which contained it into the carriage, which was to convey us to the station, just as the vehicle was put in motion. This was infinitely discon certing, and I could see that Sir John was much annoyed.

" We have had very good sport," he said, as we parted at the station, " and a great deal of enjoyment amongst ourselves, but rather than have anything more to do with that intolerable old scoundrel, I'd confine myself to shooting pigeons at Hornsey-wood House for the rest of my life." I think that both Gordon and I were very much afflicted with low spirits during STRATHCAIRN. the few days which we spent at that High land inn. I know that I myself was full of uneasy sensations and I fancy that I in fected my companion. Perhaps the fact that it rained incessantly for three days may have had its share in depressing us ; at any rate, we were both glad when the day came which put a period to our resi dence at the small village of Mucklewater. It was a long day's journey, partly by cross-roads, from Mucklewater to Strath cairn, and we did not arrive at the latter place till evening.

As we stood at the door waiting for admittance, I could not help thinking of a previous occasion when I had waited at that entrance with Sir John Bal main and all his party. I remembered that aged crone who had at last admitted us, and her dreadful words, " There's death in this STRATHCAIRN. house." That prediction had not been ful filled yet. We were admitted to the Castle by no less a person than our old acquaintance Mr. Andrews. This discreet gentleman greeted us with all due solemnity, and with that respect which is engendered by a dull remembrance of past favours, and a very lively sense of favours to come ; but there were signs of amusement lurking mischiev ously about the corners of his mouth, which I could not help observing. These indica tions were more especially obvious when Captain Gordon inquired whether Lord Strathcairn was in the house at the moment.

" Oh, aye," muttered the keeper, "his Lordship's in the hoose and waiting his supper for ye." STRATHCAIRN. 11 And with that Mr. Andrews threw open the door of the dining-hall, and disclosed to view a stout gentleman in a kilt filling up a decanter of sherry with water. The stout gentleman whisked himself round when he heard the door open, and the well known figure of the agent was before me. "A cold hearth and a bare cupboard to you, you graceless deevil," roared the man, addressing our guide. " Is that the way to burst into the room where your master's occupied in — in making ready for his guests. - If you ever do such a brutish thing again, I'll put you out of the hoose, and tak' Sandie, the cow-boy, in to make a body servant of the lad. There, get out, and don't stand there gawking like a sale, but go and fetch up the ' singit heed,' and the bits of vegetables, and let's see no more of STRATHCAIRN. your ugly face till you bring 'em.

And listen, here, you fule," he added in a whisper, which, however, was perfectly audible, " you'll not serve up either the brains or the tongue of the creature, for they'll make a separate dish for to-morrow." This impressive address concluded, it seemed suddenly to occur to the individual who had delivered it, that some sort of at tention might be given to the new arrivals, and it was with something of courtesy, that he held out his hand and said — " Well, gentlemen, since there's nobody here to do the honours betwixt us, I must just tell ye that I'm the master of this hoose; though you," he continued, addressing me more particularly, and with a queer twinkle in his eye, " may perhaps be inclined to doubt it." STRATHCAIRN. "Your friend here," he went on. to Gordon, "has seen that I know how to look after my own affairs, without the intervention of any pettifogging men of business, or agents, or stewards, or such hke cattle, whose business it is to rob both landlord and tenant, to the great prejudice of both parties.

So I look al ways to my own business my own self, and I find that it prospers none the I? worse. I could see that my friend was not a little astonished at what he saw and heard. He scanned the figure before liim from head to foot, and then looked to me as if to ask whether I really believed that this man could be the Lord of Strathcairn, the descendant of one of the most ancient houses in Scotland, and above all — her STRATHCAIRN. father ! As for me, my previous conviction was confirmed, that was all. The sheep's head appeared at this moment, to the relief of our confusion. It was rather a horrible spectacle, as it had been singed with the wool on. It had, moreover, a nose of abnormal length, and a forehead so small as to promise ill for the dish of brains which was to be provided for the morrow.

Still, unhallowed as was the appearance of this dish, I could easily, being desperately hungry, have disposed of it myself, without any assistance either from Gordon or the master of the house. There was an almost savage hunger in the eyes of my friend, and I think that we both watched the proceedings of our host, as he carved, with a greater eagerness than would have been ap- STRATHCAIRN. proved of by the Earl of Chesterfield, deceased. "Tak' it doon, Andrews," said our entertainer, after picking off two very small wedges of cheek for the benefit of Gordon and myself, securing at the same time a portion about four times as large for himself, " Tak' it doon, and bring up the dessert." At the sound of that last word an ex pression of the gauntest famine developed itself on the features of Captain Gordon.

As for me, desperation came to my aid, and I expostulated : — "I am afraid," I said, "that at the risk of being thought very greedy, I must ask for a httle more of the sheep's head, before it goes " "Eh, what?" cried our host, "what STRATHCAIRN. would you deprive the poor servant bodies below of what's left. It's none too much for them." " Oh, if that's all that there is for the servants' supper," I began " All !" interrupted the Earl, " all ! and enough, too. Would you have me fill the stomachs of the creatures till they can't waddle, as you do in England. At the same time — there, tak' it doon, Andrews ; at the same time," he added, as the door closed behind his retainer, " it's my experi ence, that something — it's maistly por ritch — they must have at certain intervals, or the want of it will interfere with their usefulness and acteevity."

Gordon and I looked at each other with rather blank countenances. The dessert, when set upon table, proved to be of the STRATHCAIRN. simplest kind, consisting of a dish of oat cake and half a pot of marmalade. At sight of this, my friend Gordon, de sirous, I suppose, of keeping nature to gether by stimulants in the absence of solid sustenance, made a grasp at the sherry decanter, and was just going to pour out a bumper when the warning voice of the Lord of Strathcairn arrested him — " Stop a bit, young gentleman," said the Earl, "it's but fair and just that I should tell you that the use of sherry and Bordeaux, and the hke precious and ex pensive liquors, is by no means included in the treaty of board and lodgement, which this gentleman " — indicating me — " has signed and ratified in your behalf and in his own."

Captain Gordon stared aghast. He STRATHCAIRN. had not, as I had, enjoyed a previous opportunity of studying the nature of Lord Strathcairn when he appeared in the character of his own agent. The Earl kept his hand still on the decanter, and went on — " The wines in the Strathcairn cellars have always been of the most refined and rare qualities, including the choicest clarets of the great year '34, and of other vintages alike distinguished. Nay, the very wine you was about to drink is such as you should approach with consideration, it being Amontillado of the finest description. YeTl observe that it's pale, almost indeed of a straw-colour when held up to the light, and ye' 11 find in drinking it none of that fiery strength which is the characteristic of common sherries." STRATHCAIRN. " Fiery ! with all that water poured into it," I thought to myself, " no, I should think not."

But our friend had not done yet. " And I've to tell ye both," he went on, " that I've considered it the fairest plan, as well as that most easily carried out, that you shall pay at a uniform rate of sax j)ence the glass for your wine, be that wine what it may ; and considering the enor mous worth of some of the choicer wines in the Strathcairn cellar, ye'll find this a most reasonable demand. Indeed I believe I'll be a loser by it in the long run." And with that the Earl removed his hold from the bottle and bade us fall to. " Great Heaven !" I thought to myself, as I poured out a glass of the sherry and water, and observed that the Earl made a STRATHCAIRN. note of the circumstance in his pocket book. " Great Heaven ! what a man is this, and what a wonderful form of insanity has got possession of this Scottish noble man!"

And now, while we stayed our stomachs with great sheets of oat-cake, and washed it down with the celebrated Amontillado, this extraordinary man seemed to rise from his ordinary low level, and spoke like a gentleman and a scholar. His talk indeed was not alone of his country — with whose history, however, he showed himself to be familiar — nor was it confined to stories and legends in which his ancestry figured as conspicuous characters. Lord Strathcairn had been much abroad in early life, and could talk of the Court at Vienna, or the grand old society of the Faubourg St. STRATHCAIRN. Germain, just as easily as he could haggle over a broken tea-saucer, or extract sixpences for watered sherry. And indeed, talking of that, I remarked that on no occasion was he so absorbed in what he was saying, as to fail in registering every glass of wine which was poured out either by Captain Gordon or myself.

Mad, mean, contemptible as this man might be, there was still that about him which interested one in spite of oneself. There was one subject which I could not help noticing that Lord Strathcairn avoided mechanically. Let the conversa tion wander whither it would, the North Turret and the Lily of Strathcairn were never brought into it by any chance. I could see that my friend Gordon was eagerly on the look-out for any mention of STRATHCAIRN. his daughter on the Earl's part, but it never came. When the hour arrived for retiring for the night, we were each of us presented by Mr. Andrews with a brass candlestick con taining a portion of one of those pecu liarly fragrant tallow candles, which are known to householders by the name of " dips." Lord Strathcairn remained be hind when we went up-stairs, in order that he might lock up the sherry, or perhaps that he might deprive what was left of it of any of that fiery quality to which con noisseurs object so strongly, and which might have survived previous waterings.

The Earl had a word for me at parting. " Oh, you'll find yourself in your old quarters. It was bad enough to have one room ink-splashed, so we've just kept you STRATHCAIRN. 23 there that you mightn't disfigure any of the other apartments. And mind you, we've made a note of every stain at present existing, and if there come any more it's you yourself that will be responsible. As for the old ones, it's Sir John's affair, and they're included in the damages done during his tenantry." " Lord Strathcairn," I said, " I must beg that you will not make Sir John Bal main responsible for my carelessness. It is impossible for me to hear you speak of him without entering my protest against; ' ' " Eh, hoot, botheration ; don't talk to me about protests," interrupted the old man, who was now hiding away his wine and water in a cellaret.

" Get away to bed, lad, and leave the law to tak' its course, VOL. II. STRATHCAIRN. as it shall — as it shall, I tell ye," and hav ing locked up his sideboard the old boy stumped away out of the room without further ceremony, leaving me to make the best of my way, aided by the light of my " dip," to my old apartment. I looked out of my window, as a matter of course, in the direction of the North Tower. The light burnt as usual in that one particular window. She was there then at any rate, and one of us at least was not going through this ordeal of starvation for nothing.

Chapter II

From Gordon's appearance and manner when we met next morning at breakfast, I concluded at once that he had not succeeded in getting a glimpse of the Lady of the Turret. There was a disappointed look about him, which even the shabbiness of the preparations made for our breakfast hardly accounted for. . Neither tea nor coffee appeared upon the board ; there was no sign of anything in the shape of meat, no butter, no bread. In place of these luxuries three huge bowls of porridge smoked upon the table, in the middle of STRATHCAIRN. which there appeared also a great piled-up dish of the inevitable oat-cake. I suppose that I must have involuntarily suffered a certain amount of dissatisfaction to show itself in my appearance, for our host went so far, after looking at me suspiciously, as to mutter something about "the cows giving so little just then, that they could only get butter enough to supply their customers.

The lad went down to the burn," he added, " to get some trout too, but the water was so thick that it was useless." "May be you'd like an egg?" asked the old sinner presently. I firmly beheve that he knew there was not one to be had, or he never would have made the offer. However, he summoned Mr. Andrews, and bade him send the hen- STRATHCAIRN. wife up without delay. A great, gaunt, bony woman, with a cast in her eye, appeared in due time. " Wal, Phemie, how are the hens doing ?" " They're just doing naething, my Lord," said the woman, in a deep bass voice ; and looking at the two strangers while she spoke, " that is, next to naething." "What, won't they lay?" "Naw. We do all we can to make them, but it's to httle purpose ; they're a thankless, unfruitful lot just noo." " Do you mean to say, woman, that you've got no eggs at all ?"

"Nane over and above what it's needful to send into the toon." " Then you can't give these gentlemen, who are not satisfied with their porritch STRATHCAIRN. as you and I are, an egg apiece for their breakfast ?" "Naw, that I cannot," was the em phatic answer ; after dehvering which, Mrs. Phemie stared at us more than ever. " That'll do," said his Lordship. "Aw, if your honour pleases, there's auld Maggie?" " 'Auld Maggie' — well, what about < auld Maggie' ?" " Wal, it's just sax months since she's laid an egg, and I'm thinking she'll be gone barren altogether." " ' Sax months,' you thriftless devil ; and have you, that have the guardianship of the pou'try-yard, allowed my substance, in the shape of grain, to be wasted for sax months on an unprincipled beast, that just STRATHCAIRN. 29 gives naething in return for her keep, any more than you do yourself, you idle, ex travagant hussy."

" I'm not extravagant any more than yourself, Strathcairn, and ye knaw it," said the woman indignantly. "It's naething that the auld creature has received from my hands since she ceased to make herself useful — the gude for naething auld beastie. She's just picked up a living how she could." "Yes, and picked up what the others might have had that are doing their duty. You should have twisted her neck and sold her five months ago." "There's nawbody wad buy 'auld Maggie ' now, remarked the woman sulkily. " She's awful bad, too, with the pip." " Then I'll tell ye what," retorted her STRATHCAIRN. master, after a moment's reflection. "To morrow is the Sawbath, as ye call it, ye heretical devils, so we'll just hae the beast ourselves, and make a meal befitting the day. So go your ways and make short work of her, and see that ye look more carefully after my substance for the future, or it'll be the warse for ye," Seeing that our host was for stumping away out of the room after delivering him self of this speech, my companion made bold to arrest him for a moment and ask whether Andrews, or, if not, somebody else, was in readiness to go with us to the Hill.

But here we were met with new objections. It was not a day for the Hill. It was a bright day, with a good "sough" of wind blowing, and his Lordship felt convinced that the scent would not be good on such STRATHCAIRN. a day. Besides, Andrews had a vast deal of work to do about the place that day, it being the first of our arrival, and nobody else could in the least supply his place — another time he should be in readiness. No, no, it was not a day for the Hill, but instead of that the old man went on to assure us that he himself would go out with us and take us to some real good covers, lying in quite another direction, where we should have a chance of meeting with many varieties of game — plantations where we might get a shot at a roe-deer, turnip fields alive with partridges, and marshy ground where we might meet with a snipe, the sportsman's greatest prize, the Earl added, as he withdrew to get himself in readiness.

We did not suspect then that the great object which this old fox kept STRATHCAIRN. before him now was to save his moor-game, and keep us as much as possible away from the Hill. Left alone for a time, we had now an opportunity of comparing notes a httle, and I am afraid that, as we reviewed the occurrences of the previous night, our re marks were not particularly flattering to our host. Gordon was in a dreadful state at having brought me into the scrape. " One thing, however," he said, " I have done which may alleviate our material wants a httle. I have sent off to Fortnum and Mason directing them to despatch, with all possible speed, a hamper full of all sorts of hams and tongues, and ready-cooked meats, and another supplied with wine and spirits; so that old ruffian shall be deprived of some of the sixpences he counts upon.

STRATHCAIRN. 33 Good Heavens ! to think that that old vagabond should be her father." My friend was interrupted by the en trance of the very person he was speaking of. The Earl was ready to accompany us, he said ; he did not mean, however, him self to shoot, but carried a sturdy walking staff in place of a gun. What a dance the old villain led us that day. He seemed to know no fatigue, and it appeared to me that we were made to walk at least five or six miles before we began to look for game at all. My own firm belief then and now was and is, that he had led us off his own ground altogether, and had seduced us on to the frontier of some neighbouring potentate. I happened to ask how far his property extended in this direction, and his reply was, it must STRATHCAIRN. be owned, of the most evasive kind pos sible : " The boundaries were but ill defined just about here," he said.

" A httle bit this way or that, there was no telling. The Fergusons were ill neighbours, and there was an old lawsuit going on that was not settled, nor likely to be, about this very bit of territory." Whosesoever the land was, there was one thing about it that was most evident, and that was that it did not abound in game. Decidedly we had not good sport. Gordon managed to bring down an ancient black cock, and subsequently, when we got into swampy ground, a snipe, while I was suc cessful in laming a hare, which got away. Lord Strathcairn, accompanied by an old retriever, which stuck to his noble heels and declined to assist any one else, went STRATHCAIRN. off in pursuit of the wounded animal, and we heard him for half an hour belabouring the bushes with his stick, and urging on the dog to hunt in places out of his own reach.

He came back by and by profess ing to have failed in finding the beast, but I could not help observing that the great pocket which ran round the skirts of his shooting-jacket was very full of something, and I also noticed that his clothing was ornamented here and there with tufts of down and specks of blood. I have not a doubt that my hare was sent into the town next day along with other produce from the Castle. The Earl of Strathcairn was in high good-humour as we walked home. He had saved his game for one day at any rate ; the next day was the " Sawbath." There STRATHCAIRN. could be no going to the Hill till Monday at any rate. Altogether the Earl had great cause for rejoicing, and was full of stories and jokes all the way home. His hilarity was not shared by his companions. Cap tain Gordon was as high-spirited a fellow as any you would meet with, and though much less suspicious and analytical in nature than I was, was yet keen enough to see that an attempt was being made to dupe him.

The thought, however, that this old sinner was after all the father of Helen Strathcairn held my friend in check. This Lord of Strathcairn had so much in his power. It would never do to offend him. And that poor girl — what a man was this to have entire dominion over her, to be her sole companion. Alas, we little knew either of us, at that time, how strong was STRATHCAIRN. the girl's allegiance to her father, how great her traditional reverence for her father's ancient house. To that impaired mind this sordid old Scotchman was almost a divinity. And mingled with the daughter's love for the father was a certain element of fear also. To disobey this man, in thought even, was a thing out of the question, as it would be to doubt the wisdom of any decision which he might arrive at. But of all this worship we knew little at the time I am speaking of, and to both of us it appeared a dreadful thing that this mad old miser should be the only companion of the Lily of Strathcairn.

Although Captain Gordon was fettered in his intercourse with Lord Strathcairn by the remembrance that he was the father of his daughter as the French say, this thought did not act so strongly upon me by STRATHCAIRN. many degrees, and I was unable altogether to abstain from grumbling at the failure of our day among what his Lordship called "the debateable covers." The Earl remarked that the said covers ordinarily afforded excellent sport, that to the true sportsman the hunting out his game under circumstances of difficulty gave an additional zest to the sport, and that the common English practice of battue-shooting had the effect of making those who engaged in it dissatisfied and " cross-grained" if the game wasn't driven into their mouths as thick as the hens in a " pou'try yard." But if I was unable to bear in meek silence the non-success of our expedition to the debateable covers, what difficulty had I in repressing the eloquence with which indignation furnished me when I saw STRATHCAIRN. the meal which was set before me and my companion on our return from shooting.

There was a magnificent china tureen full of a broth which seemed to me to be entirely made of vegetables. On becoming more intimately acquainted with it, how ever, I stumbled upon the nasal bone of a sheep, and by a swift process of reasoning reached the conclusion that the " singit heed" of the night before had found its way into the pot, the bones having been first carefully picked, by the servants. After the soup there appeared two dishes. In the middle of one there showed a very small dab of brains, while a sheep's tongue was served up in the other. Dessert followed as on the previous evening. I have said that at the sight of this banquet I had some difficulty in mastering VOL. II. D STRATHCAIRN. my indignation, but the fact is that I did not master it altogether. If we had been Lord Strathcairn' s guests there would have been nothing for it but to submit, but we were not his guests.

We paid for what we had, or rather for what we had not, and paid a good round sum too. I felt, then, a right to expostulate, and I did expostulate in spite of many winks and frowns from my friend. I said that men who had been on their legs all day, and that in Highland air, came back to dinner with good appetites. To this his Lordship made reply that he had observed that such was the case, for we had made a clean sweep of everything on the board. Not to be daunted by this retort, I went on to say that I thought we had some right to complain, the terms we had con sented to pay, in order that we might live STRATHCAIRN. in the Castle, having been liberal ones, and such as would justify us in expecting a better kind of entertainment than that to which we had just sat down. But at this the Earl broke out in unconcealed fury : — "Man, man!" he cried, "what sort of entertainment are you wanting ?

Are ye no aware that the soup you've just partaken of — there's saxpence" — I had just taken a glass of wine desperately, and the Earl thus noted the fact. " Are ye no aware that it's just such a soup or potage as figures at the tables of the ancient nobility of France, and many's the time that I've partaken of such at the magnificent Hotel of the Marquis de la Squelette in times when people thought of other things besides the filling of their bellies from morning till night; the said STRATHCATRN. soup, I'll mention by the way, being infe rior to this of which ye complain, in that it was purely and simply soupe maigre, and was not enriched, as in the present case, with animal matter, and that of a choice and succulent kind. And as to the other dishes — there's saxpence more — it is knoAvn that for the upholding and nourishing of the human frame there's naething compa rable to the cerebrum, or the brain, of any beast that's used for food; insomuch that the ancients were of opinion that there was more nourishment in an ounce of brains than in a pound of solid flesh.