Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

that snood of black silk in your hair? and wherefore do ye sigh while we question ye about him who sat on that old seat of stone?" And the second brother, who had been a soldier from his youth, and endured many hardships, and braved many perils in breach and battle, threw himself across the bench of stone, and said, "Alas! alas! he who loved his sons and his daughters, and guided their youthful footsteps, will never sit on that ancient seat more." And tears came into his eyes, and he looked along the way which winded down the hill side to the parish burialground.

The two maiden sisters looked wistfully upon them-but foreign climates, the vicissitudes of fortune, and the hand of time, had so changed their looks, that they knew not their brethren. Now there lay beneath that bench of stone, nestled warm on a lair of soft hay and long wool, an old sheep-dog-toothless, and nearly footless, gray and almost bald with age,-which was but a whelp of a half-year old at their departure. While those words passed, he uttered something between a cry of pleasure and pain; and coming slowly out from his resting place, looked wistfully on the faces of the strangers; he smelt them, and considered them awhile, and moved his tail swifter and swifter, and then, setting up a long and melancholy howl, endeavoured to leap upon the knees of the elder brother, who had seated himself on the bench. "Ah, Yarrow, my lad," said his old master, "I have heard the cry of a man smitten in a sea fight, the weeping of a woman over her love, and the wailing of an orphan babe-but I never heard a cry so mournful and so pathetic as thine;" and he caught up his old companion and caressed him. "You are my brother-my elder brother!" said the youngest of his sisters, throwing her arms around his neck. "And we also are your brothers," said the other two, "come from a far land to witness the desolation of our father's house." There was silence for a small space then there was weeping and embracing, and interchange of loving looks and kindly hands. Few words passed till they all entered the house, and, scating themselves, learned what had

become of their father and their mother-gone to the kirkyard in the fulness of years. And they were refreshed with food, and had change of apparel given unto them.

"Now kilt your kirtle, Rebecca," said the elder sister," and run over the moor, and tell James Macgee and his wife, and his daughter, that our three brethren are returned. Tell Edom Macgowan also, that the sons of his ancient friend have been spared to his prayers, and wish to see him in their father's house. And tell Barbara Baillie," she added in a whisper not meant to be audible, "that her old lover is come back from the wars, straight and hale, and weel-looking, with a tassel of gold upon his left shoulder-unharmed by sword or bayonet, save a touch of a bullet on his left cheek-and I think," said she, stealing a look at her brother while she spoke," he looks all the more manly for it. And now," she added, "run, lass, and forget not as ye come through the village, that we entertain three beloved brethren, and that something delicate and nice will be wanted to improve our rude moor land cheer." And the younger sister hastened away with a light foot and a lighter heart, and the elder busied herself in comforting and conversing with her brethren. "I have sailed to many a far land," said the elder brother, " and when my indus→ try made me rich, the wind and the whirlwind, the quicksand and the sunken rock, made me poor; I had ships and bold seamen-some have sunk, some have perished, and some have come to port: but I am here myself, my sister, with gold, and with a warm heart which is better than gold, and the afternoon of our life will be calm and pleasant." "And I," said the second brother, "have fought with sword and with gun against the enemies of my country in many a strange land. In battle and in camp have I ever thought of my native home-when I saw a brown hill I thought on Cosincon--when I saw a fair promontory I thought on Caerlaverock-and when I saw a little cottage in a wild place I thought on my father and my sisters; and now am I returned, not undistinguished, to spend my days in peace, and make the hearth-fire of our old house shine to the roof-tree in the winter even

ings." "And here am I, thy younger brother," said the third; "nor tales of perils by land or sea have I to tell, but the humble and curious adventures of one who sought to find out the superstitions, beliefs, and ways and manners of man, and who returns to his native hill with an affectionate heart also, and some of the precious things of this life which gladden and comfort man." "And I receive you, my brethren," answered the elder sister, "with a heart which absence had not rendered cold:-I also have my tale to tell; the history of your father's house is not uninstructive. Dissensions among our rulers, and civil wars, have turned Scotland into a fighting field since your departure; -and even down that green braeside, where the brackens grow so long, have I seen the war horses spurred to battle and their riders bathed in gore. Famine too followed the steps of war, and a pest came among us, and many died-the flocks perished on the hill, the lover on his way to his bride, and the mother even as she gave suck to her fatherless child. Much, my brethren, have I to tell you-you will find the summer day too short for the story of our joys and our sorrows."

It was a pleasant thing, and also a sad, to look on these reliques of their early friendship, summoned to welcome the return of the three brethren, and seated with them at the evening fire. Grey hairs and wrinkled cheeks were there the mirth of youth and the gravity of years, and the mingled joy and sedateness of both. There was frequent interchange of looks and scrutiny of persons; brief histories were told of the fate of old parochial acquaintances-tragical ends, and sudden deaths, and slow and lin gering disorders, had made the churchyard the dwelling-place of many an early friend. "And now, Allan Lorburne," said an old friend of his father's, "listen to me-Thou art a mariner-a seafaring man-one of those who venture in ships and go down to see the wonders of the great deep. Many perils hast thou doubt less braved; for lee-shores and deep quicksands, sudden squalls and midnight tempests, the wind and the whirlwind, the thunder and the fire, work sore mischiefs among shipsthose frail creations of man's wit and

hand. Strong is the faith of him who trusts in the hollow wood and the hempen string when the fierce tempest comes on. Woe, and alas, I had once a son-an only son, who disobeyed his father and went to sea; and whenever the wind sang in our chimney-top I looked sad and my wife wept

and many a tear she shed, but we never heard more of our poor sea-boy. Tell me, therefore, some of your adventures on the waves, I pray you; and when you describe some wild and stormy region with a rough sea and a wild people, I shall think I hear the tongue of my own begotten son telling of the perils he had braved."

[ocr errors]

"You may remember, brethren," said Allan Lorburne, "that on the morning we left our home, and the mother we were never more to see, our father accompanied us to the foot of the little hill where three roads separate. My three fair sons,' he said, it is fore-ordained that we must part-that you must yourselves part, each to pursue his fortune in the world-and something tells me we shall never meet again. Our native land is bare and sterile; the land of the stranger is rich and fertile, flowing with honey and waving with corn, and the women wear as much gold and precious stones in their locks as would buy Glenesling glen, and all the flocks of Fardenrush. Be wise, therefore, and be prudent-the stranger needs your strength-he gets even richer by your understanding-his ships waft home the gold and the spices of foreign parts-he is an ocean-prince, and you would do well to trim your shallop and sail under the protection of his banner. Go, therefore, my sons; and when you have raised a name, and gathered riches together, return to your native hill and spend the remainder of your days in peace, and go quietly to the grave, and have a Scottish sod laid on your bosom. And so my blessing go with you.

"For you, my eldest-born, it is written on your brow that you are to be a sojourner on the sea-an implorer of the western wind for a steady and a propitious breeze, and an entreater of Heaven for a full sea and a prosperous voyage. It is a life of peril; but it is also, to an adventurous and enthusiastic mind, a life of much joy:-joy to him who

loves to visit ancient and renowned lands, and see cities signalized in song and story:-joy to one who wishes to mark the ways and the characters of strange and savage na tions, and who desires to drop anchor on coasts of pearl and of gold. Mark my words: thou wilt have to mingle on the sea with fierce and savage spirits, who delight in fraud and violence-in outrage and in plunder -with men who buy and sell human flesh and blood-who tear the Babe from the mother's breast, and scourge her with a scourge-men who fear not Him in heaven; but, trusting to their winged waggons, go traversing the deep, working woe to the inhabitants of the lonesome isle and the unprotected coast. Restrain when thou canst these base spirits-mingle not in their counsel, partake not in their deeds-they shall surely be punished. I have known such a life myself; and I ever found that the winds and the waves, the sunken rock and the false quicksand, the arrow and the sword, were ministers of vengeance for outrage and deeds of blood. Go, my child, and may Fortune find thee, and Honour adopt thee for her son.'-and parting from my father, I took the left-hand road, which conducted me to a fair city and fine haven, where ships of many nations rode at anchor.

"I had never looked on such a scene before-and though I had often heard of the ocean, and of the ships which wandered upon its waves, and imaged to myself, as the maritime tale went round, a curious structure for wafting man and his luxuries, fancy I found had presented me with nothing so beautiful as the vessels which floated before me. Their swelling and painted sides their tall, and smooth, and tapering masts -their milk-white canvas expanded to the wind, streamers of all colours floating from topmast and prow, and the song of the busy sailors, as they ascended and descended, and trimmed the sails, and prepared for the voyage-formed altogether a sight which threw an enchantment over my youthful mind. I stood with parted lips and wide-opened eyes, devouring the scene spread out in maritime glory before me- and I stood not unobserved. Come, my bonnie youth,' said a captain, whose

[ocr errors]

visage was darkened by many a West Indian sun, Come, my bonnie youth, and I will teach thee how to win thy fortune on the waters: I will teach thee to steer with the compass by day and the stars by night, and show thee the way to gain gold among islands of sugar-canes, and frankincense, and spice. So come with me, my pretty landsman, and we will sail to the shore where the maidens are frank and free, with cheeks like a China orange, and clothes which you might hide in the case of a ridding-comb. Come with me rather, young man,' said another captain, whose cheeks still bore tokens of a maritime battle,→→→→

scorn stowage and pilotage, and brokerage, and barter, and all those petty shifts of inferior spirits which tame down a pretty lad like you ; and come where the cannons roar and the cutlasses flash in boarding our ene mies' ships on the sunny shore of Barbary. Come, and I will teach you to point the cannon and level the boarding pike, and humble those enemies of old Scotland, the Frenchman and the Spaniard.' 'Or rather come with me, my cannie landsman,' said a third captain, and I will teach thee how to steer, and traffic, and fight to sell silks and spice, and brave thy enemy with pistol and cutlass. Come and join the merry crew of the good ship Rover, where every man can count you out as much Spanish gold as would buy half a dozen of these heathy and rocky hills to which you look back with a sigh. There's mickle mirth on the deep and there's no Sunday on five-fathom of water. And if ye love music, and maidens, and red wine, we find these commodities on every shore-ah, merry may the maid be who lays her love on a sailor.' While he continued speaking, a couple of his comrades half conducted and half carried me into a little boat, and soon found myself on the deck of the good ship Rover, Captain Cutawa commander.

" As the morn rose the tide flowed into the bay-not with that slow and almost imperceptible swell which belongs to the ocean on the more southern parts of the coast-but it came on in long ranks of waves in swift and undulating succession, running three feet abreast, and bearing with it a multitude of pellocks,

[ocr errors]

which came shooting forward, and plunging and lifting their coal-black heads above the moon-light waves. The captain gave a shrill whistle-in a moment the sail was spread to the wind, the vessel moved away, and the hills, and shore, and city, began to lessen and subside as we sought our path through the waters. I stood and gazed on the foaming furrow at the stern on the quivering masts and the bellying sail-and then looked on the moon and on the stars, and thought of my native hill and my father's house, over which for many an evening they shone so brightly to me. A blow from a rope's end, laid on with no gentle hand, startled me from this reverie. Come, you gaping and glowring land-louper,' said a squat personage, with a neck brawny and short, an eye savage and overbearing, and brandishing over me a piece of rope, curiously twisted and wrought into a weapon equal to the felling of an ox; Come, come, my handy lad-lay your soft palms to a pitchy rope; you came not here to muse and meditate-stir, man, stir else I will order thee a sousing in salt water, and make thee find thy fins among the foam at the vessel's wake. May the admiralty seek the passage to the pole between my fifth and sixth ribs, if this stripling from the furrow and the furze-bush looks not as if he would strike again. Here, Sam Splicer and Tom Spankem, noose a rope round this chap's waist, and give him a drink out of the Dutchman's pickling-tub;'-and he laid his rope again on my shoulders, and bequeathed me to his two companions. I could never endure insult and blows in the manner of many poor mariners, and I never inflicted them myself. I made a leap almost to the extremity of the vessel, snatched up a short boarding-pike, and with a burning brow, and lips quivering in anger, vowed death to the first man who touched me. The boatswain (for such he was, and his name was Borthwick,) laid his hand on his cutlass, made a step as if resolved to cut me down, and stood and menaced me with a frowning brow, and eyes which grew dark as death. ( Come, my determined chap,' said he, taking his hand from his cutlass' hilt-I like thee all the better for this flash

of native spirit-so drop thy halfpike, and make thyself useful, and

don't run to cold steel for a tickle on the shoulder with the boatswain's tawse. Here, Dick Grogson, bring us a pair of cupfulls of the neat Dutch article-a friendship that's not soldered with strong drink is like a castle wall cemented with sawdust. By the divinity of six fathoms of sea-water, many's the small quarrel I make for the sake of the reconciliation cup.' As he concluded, he seized a large goblet of silver, brimful of smuggled gin, and emptied it off at a draught. Unaccustomed to the use of liquor, I stood with the scarce tasted cup in my hand, and with strong aversion in my looks to take more.-Borthwick laughed and took the cup from me. A true sailor, my sackless lad,' said he, should have a throat sheathed with brass, that could swallow melted brimstone, and a stomach fit to digest a fathom of five-inch cable and the left fluke of of the best bower anchor. Come, my hearty lad, example surpasses precept-did you never see one swallow a mutchkin of Nantz, nor let the cup or the liquor touch his lips? Then, behold, I drink,' and gaping as he spoke, he threw the liquid into his mouth as one casts a bucket of water on a raging fire; and such was his dexterity, that neither liquor nor cup touched his lips. There,' said he, 'Allan Lorburne, of Cosincon--a name as highland as heather-the man who can do that may beat the Dutch, beard the devil, and dread nought that swims on salt water. I mind once, when I was but a raw callant-not much higher than that half coil of cable-I commanded a small smuggling shallop-the size of a cockle-shell or the seven corporations' Punch Bowl. Jock Macgrub, Tam Grunson, and a handy lad or two more, were with me. The sea calm—the air hazy-the hour twelve at night, and the coast of old Kirkcudbright distant a bare pistol shot. I sat like a sleeping gull above an anker of brandy, when who should drop down upon us but black Jock Gripeam, and the fiend's first-born, Davie Elshender, and five other unhallowed limbs of that foul monster, the Customs. Down they came, armed and double armed-in a wellgoing cutter with a full sail. Shall we fight or flee? said Tam Grunson, looking at the flints of his pistols. Fight first, we can flee after, said

I-what! shall we run from a rascally gauger while we have a keg of brandy to brawl for-but first, let us have a mouthful each of the quickening spirit, which priests call consecrated water, and matrons cooling cordial; and they gaped about me in a round robin. I threw a cupful into each, and may Providence forgive the havoc we soon made among some of his most imperfect works. I shall never describe the mischief we did-if a shot or a stab to a gauger be a thing in itself sinful, I have some thing to answer for-and if turning a pretty revenue cutter into a smuggling brig be a matter worthy of repentance, even let me to my knees. But why should I think injuriously of the dispensations respecting future rewards and punishments? There's hope for all, and consolation for every thing to some bare thought is joy, and to me this cup is comfort-So here's to a speedy and a profitable lading, and then, hey! for the land of sugar-cane and spice, with a merry heart and a snoring breeze.' And setting the replenished cup to his lips, he drained it with slow and deliberate delight.

"Much I mused and thought on the step I had thus so rashly taken; and the more I saw of my new comrades the less I felt disposed to like them. The vessel seemed fitted alike for war or merchandize, and the crew appeared a band of maritime desperadoes, long inured to the ocean, and acquainted with scenes of fraud and violence. My father's parting words came strongly upon me-I had oftentimes heard of the fierce piracies of West India ships on the islands and even mainland of Scotland, and how they carried away virgins and boys, and sold them to concubinage or slavery. While these thoughts passed, the vessel with a fair wind and a full sail went sweeping along the western coast of Scotland. The lights, as we flew along, glimmered thick in the distant castles and towns; while here and there a fisherman's hut threw a long faint stream of light on the green and moving waters. At length we drew near to a small green island, which, sloping down to the sea on the south side, towered up towards the north into vast and magnificent rocks where the eagle brought forth her young. Long before we

proached, we heard the unceasing

[ocr errors]

chafing of the waves on the rocky margin of this wild and beautiful isle. The sea-mew and the watercormorant hailed our approach with their unceasing clang, and presently we could observe among the cliffs and caves the islanders following their dangerous and nocturnal trade of fowling-for they draw daily life from fish and feathers. A dozen boats lay moored in the mouth of an immense cavern, with a roof like a vaulted cathedral, and side walls sparkling in a thousand lights which its crystals reflected from the fowlers' torches. Further on, amid the flash of torches, we saw where they had deposited their evening prey; all the birds of the mainland and isles were there-some valuable from the richness and luxuriance of their plumage-others desirable from the sustenance they afforded to the inhabitants.

I

"Shall I go,' said Borthwick to Captain Cutawa, and take the sailor's tithe from the fowler's gains?→→ I should like to carry out a cushion of sea-gulls' feathers to my bonnie Nancie Gunn-she is a native of the Isle of Mull, and might like to lay her head among the down of her native birds;' and, accustomed to share in the captain's command, he proceeded to lower down one of the boats. Stay, stay,' said the captain, have a nest of fowls with far fairer feathers than these to herrie-and I shall not forget thy pretty Nan neither. Old Donald Durk of Capel Courach, the first man that ever taught me to calculate a ship's course, or point a gun, wants a spanking quean with blue eyes or black, and with as many other charms as men may see who make choice in the dark-I should like to please the old man now, since he has laid himself up, and wishes to smell salt water and gunpowder no more. Now I know there are some fine dames among these wild islands-so let us see what fortune will find for us.' With all my heart,' said Borthwick; dames! by my faith, Captain, where will ye find handsome dames, if ye don't find them in Arran, in Mull, or Colonsay→→→ there was Peg Maclean of the mainland, and Florence Frazer of Mull→→→ the two fairest dames that ever made a sailor sigh: many a necklace of pearl and gold old Heaver Maclaver gave to homie Peg, but she married

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »