Part 28 (1/2)
Master Veitch came out with a startled face and looked upon me with surprise.
”Is Marjory within?” I cried, ”Marjory! Quick, tell me!”
”Marjory,” he replied, and fell back with a white face. ”Do you seek Marjory? She left here two day's agone to go to you, when you sent for her. Your servant Nicol went after her.”
”O my G.o.d,” I cried, ”I am too late;” and I leaned against my horse in despair.
BOOK IV-THE WESTLANDS
CHAPTER I
I HEAR NO GOOD IN THE INN AT THE FORDS O' CLYDE
For a second I was so filled with despair at Master Veitch's news that my mind was the veriest blank and I could get no thought save that bitterest of all-that my lady was gone. But with a great effort I braced myself to action.
”And what of my servant Nicol?” I asked, and waited breathlessly for the answer.
”Oh, he was away on the hills seeking ye, Master Burnet. When he got no word Marjory was in sic a terror that nothing would suffice her but that he maun off to Tweeddale and seek every heather-buss for word of ye. He hadna been gone twae days when half-a-dozen men, or maybe more, came wi'
horse and a' and a letter frae you yoursel, seekin' the la.s.s. They said that a' was peaceably settled now, and that you had sent them to fetch her to meet you at Lanerick. I hadna a thocht but that it was a' richt and neither had the la.s.s, for she was blithe to gang. Next day, that was yestreen, here comes your servant Nicol wi' a face as red as a sodger's coat, and when he finds Marjory gone he sits down wi' his heid atween his hands and spak never a word to any man. Then aboot the darkening he gets up and eats a dinner as though he hadna seen meat for a twal'month. Then off he gangs, and tells na a soul where he was gaun.” The old man had lost all his fine bearing and correct speech, and stood by the door s.h.i.+vering with age and anxiety.
A whirlwind of thoughts pa.s.sed through my mind. Now that the old order was at end, Gilbert's power had gone with it, and he was likely to find it go hard with him soon. There was but one refuge for him-in his own lands in the west, where, in his great house of Eaglesham or his town dwelling in Glasgow, he might find harborage; for the very fact that they were in the stronghold of the Whigs made them the more secure.
Thither he must have gone if he had any remnant of wit, and thither he had taken my lady. And with the thought my whole nature was steeled into one fierce resolve to follow him and call him to bitter account. My first fit of rage had left me, and a more deadly feeling had taken its place. This earth was too narrow a place for my cousin and me to live in, and somewhere in these Westlands I would meet him and settle accounts once and for all. It was not anger I felt, I give you my word.
Nay, it was a sense of some impelling fate behind driving me forward to meet this mm, who had crossed me so often. The torments of baffled love and frustrated ambition were all sunk in this one irresistible impulse.
I clambered on my horse once more, and a strange sight I must have seemed to the gaping servants and their astonished master.
”I am off on the quest,” I cried, ”but I will give you one word of news ere I go. The king has fled the land, and the Dutch William goes to the throne.” And I turned and galloped down the avenue, leaving a throng of pale faces staring after my horse's tail.
Once on the road I lashed my animal into a mad gallop. Some devil seemed to have possessed me. I had oft thought fondly in the past that my nature was not such as the wild cavaliers whom I had seen, but more that of the calm and reasonable philosopher. Now I laughed bitterly at these vain imaginings. For when a man's heart is stirred to its bottom with love or hatred all surface graces are stripped from it and the old primeval pa.s.sions sway him, which swayed his father before him. But with all my heat I felt a new coolness and self-possession. A desperate calm held me. In a little all things would be settled, for this was the final strife, from which one or other of the combatants would never return.
The dull November eve came on me ere I reached the Clyde. 'Twas no vantage to ford the stream, so I rode down the left bank among the damp haughs and great sedgy pools. In a little I had come to the awful gorge where the water foams over many linns and the roar of the place is like the guns of an army. Here I left the stream side and struck into the country, whence I returned again nearly opposite the town of Lanark, at the broad, shallow place in the river, which folk call the Fords o'
Clyde.
Here there is a clachan of houses jumbled together in a crinkle of the hill, where the way from the Ayrs.h.i.+re moors to the capital comes down to the bank. Here there was an inn, an indifferent place, but quiet and little frequented; and since there was little to be got by going further I resolved to pa.s.s the night in the house. So I rode down the uneven way to where I saw the light brightest, and found the hostel by a swinging lamp over the door. So giving my horse to a stableman, with many strict injunctions as to his treatment, I entered the low doorway and found my way to the inn parlour.
From the place came a great racket of mirth, and as I opened the door a gla.s.s struck against the top and was s.h.i.+vered to pieces. Inside, around the long table, sat a round dozen of dragoons making merry after their boisterous fas.h.i.+on. One would have guessed little indeed from their faces that their occupation was gone, for they birled at the wine as if the times were twenty years back and King Charles (whom G.o.d rest) just come anew to his throne.
I had never seen the soldiers before, but I made a guess that they were disbanded men of my cousin's company, both from their air of exceeding braggadocio which clung to all who had any relation to Gilbert Burnet, and also since there were no soldiers in this special part of the Clyde dale save his. I was in no temper for such a racket, and had there been another room in the house I should have sought it; but the inn was small and little frequented, and the accommodation narrow at the best.
However, I must needs make the most of it, so shutting the door behind I sought a retired corner seat. I was still worn with my exertions of yesterday and weary with long riding, so I was blithe to get my limbs at rest.
But it was clear that three-fourths of the company were in the last state of drunkenness, and since men in liquor can never let well alone, they must needs begin to meddle with me.
”Gidden,” said one, ”what kind o' gentleman hae we here? I havena seen sic a fellow sin' yon steeple-jaick at Brochtoun Fair. D'ye think he wad be willin' to gie us a bit entertainment?”