Part 14 (1/2)

”I canna understand this, neighbour,” answered Saddletree. ”I am an honest Presbyterian of the Kirk of Scotland, and stand by her and the General a.s.sembly, and the due administration of justice by the fifteen Lords o' Session and the five Lords o' Justiciary.”

”Out upon ye, Mr. Saddletree!” exclaimed David, who, in an opportunity of giving his testimony on the offences and backslidings of the land, forgot for a moment his own domestic calamity--”out upon your General a.s.sembly, and the back of my hand to your Court o' Session!--What is the tane but a waefu' bunch o' cauldrife professors and ministers, that sate bien and warm when the persecuted remnant were warstling wi' hunger, and cauld, and fear of death, and danger of fire and sword upon wet brae-sides, peat-haggs, and flow-mosses, and that now creep out of their holes, like bluebottle flees in a blink of suns.h.i.+ne, to take the pu'pits and places of better folk--of them that witnessed, and testified, and fought, and endured pit, prison-house, and transportation beyond seas?--A bonny bike there's o' them!--And for your Court o' Session--”

”Ye may say what ye will o' the General a.s.sembly,” said Saddletree, interrupting him, ”and let them clear them that kens them; but as for the Lords o' Session, forby that they are my next-door neighbours, I would have ye ken, for your ain regulation, that to raise scandal anent them, whilk is termed to _murmur_ again them, is a crime _sui generis,_--_sui generis,_ Mr. Deans--ken ye what that amounts to?”

”I ken little o' the language of Antichrist,” said Deans; ”and I care less than little what carnal courts may call the speeches of honest men.

And as to murmur again them, it's what a' the folk that loses their pleas, and nine-tenths o' them that win them, will be gey sure to be guilty in. Sae I wad hae ye ken that I hand a' your gleg-tongued advocates, that sell their knowledge for pieces of silver--and your worldly-wise judges, that will gie three days of hearing in presence to a debate about the peeling of an ingan, and no ae half-hour to the gospel testimony--as legalists and formalists, countenancing by sentences, and quirks, and cunning terms of law, the late begun courses of national defections--union, toleration, patronages, and Yerastian prelatic oaths.

As for the soul and body-killing Court o' Justiciary--”

The habit of considering his life as dedicated to bear testimony in behalf of what he deemed the suffering and deserted cause of true religion, had swept honest David along with it thus far; but with the mention of the criminal court, the recollection of the disastrous condition of his daughter rushed at once on his mind; he stopped short in the midst of his triumphant declamation, pressed his hands against his forehead, and remained silent.

Saddletree was somewhat moved, but apparently not so much so as to induce him to relinquish the privilege of prosing in his turn afforded him by David's sudden silence. ”Nae doubt, neighbour,” he said, ”it's a sair thing to hae to do wi' courts of law, unless it be to improve ane's knowledge and practique, by waiting on as a hearer; and touching this unhappy affair of Effie--ye'll hae seen the dittay, doubtless?” He dragged out of his pocket a bundle of papers, and began to turn them over. ”This is no it--this is the information of Mungo Marsport, of that ilk, against Captain Lackland, for coming on his lands of Marsport with hawks, hounds, lying-dogs, nets, guns, cross-bows, hagbuts of found, or other engines more or less for destruction of game, sic as red-deer, fallow-deer, cappercailzies, grey-fowl, moor-fowl, paitricks, herons, and sic like; he, the said defender not being ane qualified person, in terms of the statute sixteen hundred and twenty-ane; that is, not having ane plough-gate of land. Now, the defences proponed say, that _non constat_ at this present what is a plough-gate of land, whilk uncertainty is sufficient to elide the conclusions of the libel. But then the answers to the defences (they are signed by Mr. Crossmyloof, but Mr. Younglad drew them), they propone, that it signifies naething, _in hoc statu,_ what or how muckle a plough-gate of land may be, in respect the defender has nae lands whatsoever, less or mair. 'Sae grant a plough-gate'” (here Saddletree read from the paper in his hand) ”'to be less than the nineteenth part of a guse's gra.s.s'--(I trow Mr. Crossmyloof put in that--I ken his style),--'of a guse's gra.s.s, what the better will the defender be, seeing he hasna a divot-cast of land in Scotland?--_Advocatus_ for Lackland duplies, that _nihil interest de possessione,_ the pursuer must put his case under the statute'--(now, this is worth your notice, neighbour),--'and must show, _formaliter et specialiter,_ as well as _generaliter,_ what is the qualification that defender Lackland does _not_ possess--let him tell me what a plough-gate of land is, and I'll tell him if I have one or no. Surely the pursuer is bound to understand his own libel, and his own statute that he founds upon. _t.i.tius_ pursues _Maevius_ for recovery of ane _black_ horse lent to Maevius--surely he shall have judgment; but if t.i.tius pursue Maevius for ane _scarlet_ or _crimson_ horse, doubtless he shall be bound to show that there is sic ane animal _in rerum natura._ No man can be bound to plead to nonsense--that is to say, to a charge which cannot be explained or understood'--(he's wrang there--the better the pleadings the fewer understand them),--'and so the reference unto this undefined and unintelligible measure of land is, as if a penalty was inflicted by statute for any man who suld hunt or hawk, or use lying-dogs, and wearing a sky-blue pair of breeches, without having--'But I am wearying you, Mr. Deans,--we'll pa.s.s to your ain business,--though this cue of Marsport against Lackland has made an unco din in the Outer House. Weel, here's the dittay against puir Effie: 'Whereas it is humbly meant and shown to us,' etc. (they are words of mere style), 'that whereas, by the laws of this and every other well-regulated realm, the murder of any one, more especially of an infant child, is a crime of ane high nature, and severely punishable: And whereas, without prejudice to the foresaid generality, it was, by ane act made in the second session of the First Parliament of our most High and Dread Sovereigns William and Mary, especially enacted, that ane woman who shall have concealed her condition, and shall not be able to show that she hath called for help at the birth in case that the child shall be found dead or amissing, shall be deemed and held guilty of the murder thereof; and the said facts of concealment and pregnancy being found proven or confessed, shall sustain the pains of law accordingly; yet, nevertheless, you, Effie, or Euphemia Deans--'”

”Read no farther!” said Deans, raising his head up; ”I would rather ye thrust a sword into my heart than read a word farther!”

”Weel, neighbour,” said Saddletree, ”I thought it wad hae comforted ye to ken the best and the warst o't. But the question is, what's to be dune?”

”Nothing,” answered Deans firmly, ”but to abide the dispensation that the Lord sees meet to send us. Oh, if it had been His will to take the grey head to rest before this awful visitation on my house and name! But His will be done. I can say that yet, though I can say little mair.”

”But, neighbour,” said Saddletree, ”ye'll retain advocates for the puir la.s.sie? it's a thing maun needs be thought of.”

”If there was ae man of them,” answered Deans, ”that held fast his integrity--but I ken them weel, they are a' carnal, crafty, and warld-hunting self-seekers, Yerastians, and Arminians, every ane o'

them.”

”Hout tout, neighbour, ye mauna take the warld at its word,” said Saddletree; ”the very deil is no sae ill as he's ca'd; and I ken mair than ae advocate that may be said to hae some integrity as weel as their neighbours; that is, after a sort o' fas.h.i.+on' o' their ain.”

”It is indeed but a fas.h.i.+on of integrity that ye will find amang them,”

replied David Deans, ”and a fas.h.i.+on of wisdom, and fas.h.i.+on of carnal learning--gazing, glancing-gla.s.ses they are, fit only to fling the glaiks in folk's een, wi' their pawky policy, and earthly ingine, their flights and refinements, and periods of eloquence, frae heathen emperors and popish canons. They canna, in that daft trash ye were reading to me, sae muckle as ca' men that are sae ill-starred as to be amang their hands, by ony name o' the dispensation o' grace, but maun new baptize them by the names of the accursed t.i.tus, wha was made the instrument of burning the holy Temple, and other sic like heathens!”

”It's Tis.h.i.+us,” interrupted Saddletree, ”and no t.i.tus. Mr. Crossmyloof cares as little about t.i.tus or the Latin as ye do.--But it's a case of necessity--she maun hae counsel. Now, I could speak to Mr.

Crossmyloof--he's weel ken'd for a round-spun Presbyterian, and a ruling elder to boot.”

”He's a rank Yerastian,” replied Deans; ”one of the public and polit.i.tious warldly-wise men that stude up to prevent ane general owning of the cause in the day of power!”

”What say ye to the auld Laird of Cuffabout?” said Saddletree; ”he whiles thumps the dust out of a case gey and well.”

”He? the fause loon!” answered Deans--”he was in his bandaliers to hae joined the ungracious Highlanders in 1715, an they had ever had the luck to cross the Firth.”

”Weel, Arniston? there's a clever chield for ye!” said Bartoline, triumphantly.

”Ay, to bring popish medals in till their very library from that schismatic woman in the north, the d.u.c.h.ess of Gordon.”*

* [James Dundas younger of Arniston was tried in the year 1711 upon charge of leasing-making, in having presented, from the d.u.c.h.ess of Gordon, medal of the Pretender, for the purpose, it was said, of affronting Queen Anne.]

”Weel, weel, but somebody ye maun hae--What think ye o' Kittlepunt?”

”He's an Arminian.”

”Woodsetter?”