Guy Mannering; or The Astrologer — Complete, Page 4

  CHAPTER I He could not deny that, looking round upon the dreary region, and seeing nothing but bleak fields and naked trees, hills obscured by fogs, and flats covered with inundations, he did for some time suffer melancholy to prevail upon him, and wished himself again safe at home.

  --'Travels of Will. Marvel,' IDLER, No. 49.It was in the beginning of the month of November 17--when a young Englishgentleman, who had just left the university of Oxford, made use of theliberty afforded him to visit some parts of the north of England; andcuriosity extended his tour into the adjacent frontier of the sistercountry. He had visited, on the day that opens our history, some monasticruins in the county of Dumfries, and spent much of the day in makingdrawings of them from different points, so that, on mounting his horse toresume his journey, the brief and gloomy twilight of the season hadalready commenced. His way lay through a wide tract of black moss,extending for miles on each side and before him. Little eminences aroselike islands on its surface, bearing here and there patches of corn,which even at this season was green, and sometimes a hut or farm-house,shaded by a willow or two and surrounded by large elder-bushes. Theseinsulated dwellings communicated with each other by winding passagesthrough the moss, impassable by any but the natives themselves. Thepublic road, however, was tolerably well made and safe, so that theprospect of being benighted brought with it no real danger. Still it isuncomfortable to travel alone and in the dark through an unknown country;and there are few ordinary occasions upon which Fancy frets herself somuch as in a situation like that of Mannering.

  As the light grew faint and more faint, and the morass appeared blackerand blacker, our traveller questioned more closely each chance passengeron his distance from the village of Kippletringan, where he proposed toquarter for the night. His queries were usually answered by acounter-challenge respecting the place from whence he came. Whilesufficient daylight remained to show the dress and appearance of agentleman, these cross interrogatories were usually put in the form of acase supposed, as, 'Ye'll hae been at the auld abbey o' Halycross, sir?there's mony English gentlemen gang to see that.'--Or, 'Your honour willbecome frae the house o' Pouderloupat?' But when the voice of the queristalone was distinguishable, the response usually was, 'Where are ye comingfrae at sic a time o' night as the like o' this?'--or, 'Ye'll no be o'this country, freend?' The answers, when obtained, were neither veryreconcilable to each other nor accurate in the information which theyafforded. Kippletringan was distant at first 'a gey bit'; then the 'geybit' was more accurately described as 'ablins three mile'; then the'three mile' diminished into 'like a mile and a bittock'; then extendedthemselves into 'four mile or thereawa'; and, lastly, a female voice,having hushed a wailing infant which the spokeswoman carried in her arms,assured Guy Mannering, 'It was a weary lang gate yet to Kippletringan,and unco heavy road for foot passengers.' The poor hack upon whichMannering was mounted was probably of opinion that it suited him as illas the female respondent; for he began to flag very much, answered eachapplication of the spur with a groan, and stumbled at every stone (andthey were not few) which lay in his road.

  Mannering now grew impatient. He was occasionally betrayed into adeceitful hope that the end of his journey was near by the apparition ofa twinkling light or two; but, as he came up, he was disappointed to findthat the gleams proceeded from some of those farm-houses whichoccasionally ornamented the surface of the extensive bog. At length, tocomplete his perplexity, he arrived at a place where the road dividedinto two. If there had been light to consult the relics of a finger-postwhich stood there, it would have been of little avail, as, according tothe good custom of North Britain, the inscription had been defacedshortly after its erection. Our adventurer was therefore compelled, likea knight-errant of old, to trust to the sagacity of his horse, which,without any demur, chose the left-hand path, and seemed to proceed at asomewhat livelier pace than before, affording thereby a hope that he knewhe was drawing near to his quarters for the evening. This hope, however,was not speedily accomplished, and Mannering, whose impatience made everyfurlong seem three, began to think that Kippletringan was actuallyretreating before him in proportion to his advance.

  It was now very cloudy, although the stars from time to time shed atwinkling and uncertain light. Hitherto nothing had broken the silencearound him but the deep cry of the bog-blitter, or bull-of-the-bog, alarge species of bittern, and the sighs of the wind as it passed alongthe dreary morass. To these was now joined the distant roar of the ocean,towards which the traveller seemed to be fast approaching. This was nocircumstance to make his mind easy. Many of the roads in that country layalong the sea-beach, and were liable to be flooded by the tides, whichrise with great height, and advance with extreme rapidity. Others wereintersected with creeks and small inlets, which it was only safe to passat particular times of the tide. Neither circumstance would have suited adark night, a fatigued horse, and a traveller ignorant of his road.Mannering resolved, therefore, definitively to halt for the night at thefirst inhabited place, however poor, he might chance to reach, unless hecould procure a guide to this unlucky village of Kippletringan.

  A miserable hut gave him an opportunity to execute his purpose. He foundout the door with no small difficulty, and for some time knocked withoutproducing any other answer than a duet between a female and a cur-dog,the latter yelping as if he would have barked his heart out, the otherscreaming in chorus. By degrees the human tones predominated; but theangry bark of the cur being at the instant changed into a howl, it isprobable something more than fair strength of lungs had contributed tothe ascendency.

  'Sorrow be in your thrapple then!' these were the first articulate words,'will ye no let me hear what the man wants, wi' your yaffing?'

  'Am I far from Kippletringan, good dame?'

  'Frae Kippletringan!!!' in an exalted tone of wonder, which we can butfaintly express by three points of admiration. 'Ow, man! ye should haehadden eassel to Kippletringan; ye maun gae back as far as the whaap, andbaud the whaap till ye come to Ballenloan, and then--'

  'This will never do, good dame! my horse is almost quite knocked up; canyou not give me a night's lodgings?'

  'Troth can I no; I am a lone woman, for James he's awa to DrumshourlochFair with the year-aulds, and I daurna for my life open the door to onyo' your gang-there-out sort o' bodies.'

  'But what must I do then, good dame? for I can't sleep here upon the roadall night.'

  'Troth, I kenna, unless ye like to gae down and speer for quarters at thePlace. I'se warrant they'll tak ye in, whether ye be gentle or semple.'

  'Simple enough, to be wandering here at such a time of night,' thoughtMannering, who was ignorant of the meaning of the phrase; 'but how shallI get to the PLACE, as you call it?'

  'Ye maun baud wessel by the end o' the loan, and take tent o' thejaw-hole.'

  'O, if ye get to eassel and wessel again, I am undone! Is there nobodythat could guide me to this Place? I will pay him handsomely.'

  The word pay operated like magic. 'Jock, ye villain,' exclaimed the voicefrom the interior, 'are ye lying routing there, and a young gentlemanseeking the way to the Place? Get up, ye fause loon, and show him the waydown the muckle loaning. He'll show you the way, sir, and I'se warrantye'll be weel put up; for they never turn awa naebody frae the door; andye 'll be come in the canny moment, I'm thinking, for the laird'sservant--that's no to say his body-servant, but the helper like--radeexpress by this e'en to fetch the houdie, and he just staid the drinkingo' twa pints o' tippenny to tell us how my leddy was ta'en wi' herpains.'

  'Perhaps,' said Mannering, 'at such a time a stranger's arrival might beinconvenient?'

  'Hout, na, ye needna be blate about that; their house is muckle eneugh,and decking time's aye canty time.'

  By this time Jock had found his way into all the intricacies of atattered doublet and more tattered pair of breeches, and sallied forth, agreat white-headed, bare-legged, lubberly boy of twelve years old, soexhibited by the glimpse of a rush-light which his half-naked mother heldin such a manner as to get a peep at the stranger without greatlyexposing herself to view in return. Jock moved on westward by the end ofthe house, leading Mannering's horse by the bridle, and piloting withsome dexterity along the little path which bordered the formidablejaw-hole, whose vicinity the stranger was made sensible of by means ofmore organs than one. His guide then dragged the weary hack along abroken and stony cart-track, next over a ploughed field, then broke downa slap, as he called it, in a drystone fence, and lugged the unresistinganimal through the breach, about a rood of the simple masonry giving wayin the splutter with which he passed. Finally, he led the way through awicket into something which had still the air of an avenue, though manyof the trees were felled. The roar of the ocean was now near and full,and the moon, which began to make her appearance, gleamed on a turretedand apparently a ruined mansion of considerable extent. Mannering fixedhis eyes upon it with a disconsolate sensation.

  'Why, my little fellow,' he said, 'this is a ruin, not a house?'

  'Ah, but the lairds lived there langsyne; that's Ellangowan Auld Place.There's a hantle bogles about it; but ye needna be feared, I never sawony mysell, and we're just at the door o' the New Place.'

  Accordingly, leaving the ruins on the right, a few steps brought thetraveller in front of a modern house of moderate size, at which his guiderapped with great importance. Mannering told his circumstances to theservant; and the gentleman of the house, who heard his tale from theparlour, stepped forward and welcomed the stranger hospitably toEllangowan. The boy, made happy with half-a-crown, was dismissed to hiscottage, the weary horse was conducted to a stall, and Mannering foundhimself in a few minutes seated by a comfortable supper, for which hiscold ride gave him a hearty appetite.