The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 2 by Walter Scott (best e book reader android txt) š
- Author: Walter Scott
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"Why, you must know, Frankābut first taste a snap of right Hollands." She drew a flask from her pocket, and filled the fellow a large bumper, which he pronounced to be the right thing.ā"You must know, then, Frankāwunna ye mend your hand?" again offering the flask.
"No, no,āwhen a woman wants mischief from you, she always begins by filling you drunk. Dān all Dutch courage. What I do I will do soberlyāI'll last the longer for that too."
"Well, then, you must know," resumed the old woman, without any further attempts at propitiation, "that this girl is going to London."
Here Jeanie could only distinguish the word sister.
The robber answered in a louder tone, "Fair enough that; and what the devil is your business with it?"
"Business enough, I think. If the bāqueers the noose, that silly cull will marry her."
"And who cares if he does?" said the man.
"Who cares, ye donnard Neddie! I care; and I will strangle her with my own hands, rather than she should come to Madge's preferment."
"Madge's preferment! Does your old blind eyes see no farther than that? If he is as you say, dye think he'll ever marry a moon-calf like Madge? Ecod, that's a good oneāMarry Madge Wildfire!āHa! ha! ha!"
"Hark ye, ye crack-rope padder, born beggar, and bred thief!" replied the hag, "suppose he never marries the wench, is that a reason he should marry another, and that other to hold my daughter's place, and she crazed, and I a beggar, and all along of him? But I know that of him will hang himāI know that of him will hang him, if he had a thousand livesāI know that of him will hangāhangāhang him!"
She grinned as she repeated and dwelt upon the fatal monosyllable, with the emphasis of a vindictive fiend.
"Then why don't you hangāhangāhang him?" said Frank, repeating her words contemptuously. "There would be more sense in that, than in wreaking yourself here upon two wenches that have done you and your daughter no ill."
"No ill?" answered the old womanā"and he to marry this jail-bird, if ever she gets her foot loose!"
"But as there is no chance of his marrying a bird of your brood, I cannot, for my soul, see what you have to do with all this," again replied the robber, shrugging his shoulders. "Where there is aught to be got, I'll go as far as my neighbours, but I hate mischief for mischiefs sake."
"And would you go nae length for revenge?" said the hagā"for revengeāthe sweetest morsel to the mouth that over was cooked in hell!"
"The devil may keep it for his own eating, then," said the robber; "for hang me if I like the sauce he dresses it with."
"Revenge!" continued the old woman; "why, it is the best reward the devil gives us for our time here and hereafter. I have wrought hard for itāI have suffered for itāand I have sinned for itāand I will have it,āor there is neither justice in heaven or in hell!"
Levitt had by this time lighted a pipe, and was listening with great composure to the frantic and vindictive ravings of the old hag. He was too much, hardened by his course of life to be shocked with themātoo indifferent, and probably too stupid, to catch any part of their animation or energy. "But, mother," he said, after a pause, "still I say, that if revenge is your wish, you should take it on the young fellow himself."
"I wish I could," she said, drawing in her breath, with the eagerness of a thirsty person while mimicking the action of drinkingā"I wish I couldābut noāI cannotāI cannot."
"And why not?āYou would think little of peaching and hanging him for this Scotch affair.āRat me, one might have milled the Bank of England, and less noise about it."
"I have nursed him at this withered breast," answered the old woman, folding her hands on her bosom, as if pressing an infant to it, "and, though he has proved an adder to meāthough he has been the destruction of me and mineāthough he has made me company for the devil, if there be a devil, and food for hell, if there be such a place, yet I cannot take his life.āNo, I cannot," she continued, with an appearance of rage against herself; "I have thought of itāI have tried itābut, Francis Levitt, I canna gang through wi'tāNa, naāhe was the first bairn I ever nurstāill I had beenāand man can never ken what woman feels for the bairn she has held first to her bosom!"
"To be sure," said Levitt, "we have no experience; but, mother, they say you ha'n't been so kind to other bairns, as you call them, that have come in your way.āNay, dān me, never lay your hand on the whittle, for I am captain and leader here, and I will have no rebellion."
The hag, whose first motion had been, upon hearing the question, to grasp the haft of a large knife, now unclosed her hand, stole it away from the weapon, and suffered it to fall by her side, while she proceeded with a sort of smileā"Bairns! ye are joking, ladāwha wad touch bairns? Madge, puir thing, had a misfortune wi' aneāand the t'other"āHere her voice sunk so much, that Jeanie, though anxiously upon the watch, could not catch a word she said, until she raised her tone at the conclusion of the sentenceā"So Madge, in her daffin', threw it into the Nor'-lock, I trow."
Madge, whose slumbers, like those of most who labour under mental malady, had been short, and were easily broken, now made herself heard from her place of repose.
"Indeed, mother, that's a great lie, for I did nae sic thing."
"Hush, thou hellicat devil," said her motherā"By Heaven! the other wench will be waking too."
"That may be dangerous," said Frank; and he rose, and followed Meg Murdockson across the floor.
"Rise," said the hag to her daughter, "or I sall drive the knife between the planks into the Bedlam back of thee!"
Apparently she at the same time seconded her threat by pricking her with the point of a knife, for Madge, with a faint scream, changed her place, and the door opened.
The old woman held a candle in one hand, and a knife in the other. Levitt appeared behind her, whether with a view of preventing, or assisting her in any violence she might meditate, could not be well guessed. Jeanie's presence of mind stood her friend in this dreadful crisis. She had resolution enough to maintain the attitude and manner of one who sleeps profoundly, and to regulate even her breathing, notwithstanding the agitation of instant terror, so as to correspond with her attitude.
The old woman passed the light across her eyes; and although Jeanie's fears were so powerfully awakened by this movement, that she often declared afterwards, that she thought she saw the figures of her destined murderers through her closed eyelids, she had still the resolution to maintain the feint, on which her safety perhaps depended.
Levitt looked at her with fixed attention; he then turned the old woman out of the place, and followed her himself. Having regained the outward apartment, and seated themselves, Jeanie heard the highwayman say, to her no small relief, "She's as fast as if she were in Bedfordshire.āNow, old Meg, dān me if I can understand a glim of this story of yours, or what good it will do you to hang the one wench and torment the other; but, rat me, I will be true to my friend, and serve ye the way ye like it. I see it will be a bad job; but I do think I could get her down to Surfleet on the Wash, and so on board Tom Moonshine's neat lugger, and keep her out of the way three or four weeks, if that will please yeāBut dān me if any one shall harm her, unless they have a mind to choke on a brace of blue plums.āIt's a cruel, bad job, and I wish you and it, Meg, were both at the devil."
"Never mind, hinny Levitt," said the old woman; "you are a ruffler, and will have a' your ain gateāShe shanna gang to heaven an hour sooner for me; I carena whether she live or dieāit's her sisterāay, her sister!"
"Well, we'll say no more about it; I hear Tom coming in. We'll couch a hogshead,* and so better had you."
* Lay ourselves down to sleep.
They retired to repose accordingly, and all was silent in this asylum of iniquity.
Jeanie lay for a long time awake. At break of day she heard the two ruffians leave the barn, after whispering to the old woman for some time. The sense that she was now guarded by persons of her own sex gave her some confidence, and irresistible lassitude at length threw her into slumber.
When the captive awakened, the sun was high in heaven, and the morning considerably advanced. Madge Wildfire was still in the hovel which had served them for the night, and immediately bid her good-morning, with her usual air of insane glee. "And
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