Redgauntlet: A Tale of the Eighteenth Century by Walter Scott (classic romance novels txt) 📗

the best when I pressed your Majesty to come hither—I never thought that your Majesty, at such a crisis, would have scrupled, when a kingdom was in view, to sacrifice an attachment, which’—

‘Peace, sir!’ said Charles; ‘it is not for you to estimate my feelings upon such a subject.’

Redgauntlet coloured high, and bowed profoundly. ‘At least,’ he resumed, ‘I hoped that some middle way might be found, and it shall—and must.—Come with me, nephew. We will to these gentlemen, and I am confident I will bring back heart-stirring tidings.’

‘I will do much to comply with them, Redgauntlet. I am loath, having again set my foot on British land, to quit it without a blow for my right. But this which they demand of me is a degradation, and compliance is impossible.’

Redgauntlet, followed by his nephew, the unwilling spectator of this extraordinary scene, left once more the apartment of the adventurous Wanderer, and was met on the top of the stairs by Joe Crackenthorp. ‘Where are the other gentlemen?’ he said.

‘Yonder, in the west barrack,’ answered Joe; ‘but Master Ingoldsby,’—that was the name by which Redgauntlet was most generally known in Cumberland,—‘I wish to say to you that I must put yonder folk together in one room.’

‘What folk?’ said Redgauntlet, impatiently.

‘Why, them prisoner stranger folk, as you bid Cristal Nixon look after. Lord love you! this is a large house enow, but we cannot have separate lock-ups for folk, as they have in Newgate or in Bedlam. Yonder’s a mad beggar, that is to be a great man when he wins a lawsuit, Lord help him!—Yonder’s a Quaker and a lawyer charged with a riot; and, ecod, I must make one key and one lock keep them, for we are chokeful, and you have sent off old Nixon that could have given one some help in this confusion. Besides, they take up every one a room, and call for naughts on earth,—excepting the old man, who calls lustily enough,—but he has not a penny to pay shot.’

‘Do as thou wilt with them,’ said Redgauntlet, who had listened impatiently to his statement; ‘so thou dost but keep them from getting out and making some alarm in the country, I care not.’

‘A Quaker and a lawyer!’ said Darsie. ‘This must be Fairford and Geddes.—Uncle, I must request of you’—

‘Nay, nephew,’ interrupted Redgauntlet, ‘this is no time for asking questions. You shall yourself decide upon their fate in the course of an hour—no harm whatever is designed them.’

So saying, he hurried towards the place where the Jacobite gentlemen were holding their council, and Darsie followed him, in the hope that the obstacle which had arisen to the prosecution of their desperate adventure would prove insurmountable and spare him the necessity of a dangerous and violent rupture with his uncle. The discussions among them were very eager; the more daring part of the conspirators, who had little but life to lose, being desirous to proceed at all hazards; while the others, whom a sense of honour and a hesitation to disavow long-cherished principles had brought forward, were perhaps not ill satisfied to have a fair apology for declining an adventure, into which they had entered with more of reluctance than zeal.

Meanwhile Joe Crackenthorp, availing himself of the hasty permission attained from Redgauntlet, proceeded to assemble in one apartment those whose safe custody had been thought necessary; and, without much considering the propriety of the matter, he selected for the common place of confinement, the room which Lilias had, since her brother’s departure, occupied alone. It had a strong lock, and was double-hinged, which probably led to the preference assigned to it, as a place of security.

Into this, Joe, with little ceremony, and a good deal of noise, introduced the Quaker and Fairford; the first descanting on the immorality, the other on the illegality, of his proceedings; and he turned a deaf ear both to the one and the other. Next he pushed in, almost in headlong fashion, the unfortunate litigant, who, having made some resistance at the threshold, had received a violent thrust in consequence, and came rushing forward, like a ram in the act of charging, with such impetus as must have carried him to the top of the room, and struck the cocked hat which sat perched on the top of his tow wig against Miss Redgauntlet’s person, had not the honest Quaker interrupted his career by seizing him by the collar, and bringing him to a stand. ‘Friend,’ said he, with the real good-breeding which so often subsists independently of ceremony, ‘thou art no company for that young person; she is, thou seest, frightened at our being so suddenly thrust in hither; and although that be no fault of ours, yet it will become us to behave civilly towards her. Wherefore come thou with me to this window, and I will tell thee what it concerns thee to know.’

‘And what for should I no speak to the Leddy, friend?’ said Peter, who was now about half seas over. ‘I have spoke to leddies before now, man. What for should she be frightened at me? I am nae bogle, I ween. What are ye pooin’ me that gate for? Ye will rive my coat, and I will have a good action for having myself made SARTUM ATQUE TECTUM at your expenses.’

Notwithstanding this threat, Mr. Geddes, whose muscles were as strong as his judgement was sound and his temper sedate, led Poor Peter under the sense of a control against which he could not struggle, to the farther corner of the apartment, where, placing him, whether he would or no, in a chair, he sat down beside him, and effectually prevented his annoying the young lady, upon whom he had seemed bent upon conferring the delights of his society.

If Peter had immediately recognized his counsel learned in the law, it is probable that not even the benevolent efforts of the Quaker could have kept him in a state of restraint; but Fairford’s back was turned towards his client, whose optics, besides being somewhat dazzled with ale and brandy, were speedily engaged in contemplating a half-crown which Joshua held between his finger and his thumb, saying, at the same time, ‘Friend, thou art indigent and improvident. This will, well employed, procure thee sustentation of nature for more than a single day; and I will bestow it on thee if thou wilt sit here and keep me company; for neither thou nor I, friend, are fit company for ladies.’

‘Speak for yourself, friend,’ said Peter, scornfully; ‘I was ay kend to be agreeable to the fair sex; and when I was in business I served the ladies wi’ anither sort of decorum than Plainstanes, the d—d awkward scoundrel! It was one of the articles of dittay between us.’

‘Well, but, friend,’ said the Quaker, who observed that the young lady still seemed to fear Peter’s intrusion, ‘I wish to hear thee speak about this great lawsuit of thine, which has been matter of such celebrity.’

‘Celebrity! Ye may swear that,’ said Peter, for the string was touched to which his crazy imagination always vibrated. ‘And I dinna wonder that folk that judge things by their outward grandeur, should think me something worth their envying. It’s very true that it is grandeur upon earth to hear ane’s name thunnered out along the long-arched roof of the Outer House,—“Poor Peter Peebles against Plainstanes ET PER CONTRA;” a’ the best lawyers in the house fleeing like eagles to the prey; some because they are in the cause, and some because they want to be thought engaged (for there are