John Burnet of Barns Part 24

With a heart beating wildly between excitement and sorrow I found the narrow crevice, and crept upward till I came to the turning which led to the air. Here I might have safely hid for long, and I was just on the point of going back to the old man and forcing him to come with me to the same place of refuge, when I heard the sound of men.

From my vantage-ground I could see the whole cave clearly and well. I could hear the noise of soldiers fumbling about the entrance, and the voice of the informer telling the way. I could hear the feet stumbling along the pa.s.sage, the clink of weapons, and the muttered words of annoyance; and then, as I peered warily forth, I saw the band file into the cave where sat the old man alone. It was as I expected: they were some twenty men of my cousin's company, strangers to me for the most: but what most occupied my thoughts was that Gilbert was not with them.

"By G.o.d, they're off," said the foremost, "and nothing left but this auld dotterel. This is a puir haul. Look you here, you fellow,"

turning to the guide, "you are a liar and a scoundrel, and if your thick hide doesna taste the flat o' my sword ere you're five hours aulder, my name's no Peter Moriston. You," this to the old man, "what's your name, brother well-beloved in the Lord?"

At their first coming he had risen to his feet and taken his stand in the middle of the cave, by the two great stone shafts which kept up the roof, for all the word like the pillars in some mighty temple. There he stood looking over their heads at something beyond, with a strange, almost pitying smile, which grew by degrees into a frown of anger.

"Ye've come here to taunt me," said he, "but the Lord has prepared for you a speedy visitation. Puir fools, ye shall go down quick to the bottomless pit like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and none shall be left to tell the tale of you. Ye have led braw lives. Ye have robbed the widow and the fatherless, ye have slain by your numbers men ye darena have come near singly, ye have been the devil's own braw servants, and, lads, ye'll very soon get your wages. Ye have made thae bonny lands o'

Tweedside fit to spew ye forth for your wickedness. And ye think that there is nae jealous G.o.d in Heaven watching ower you and your doings and biding His time to repay. But, lads, ye're wrang for yince. The men ye thocht to take are by this time far from ye, and there is only one left, an auld f.e.c.kless man, that will no bring muckle credit to ye. But G.o.d has ordained that ye shall never leave here, but mix your banes to a'

time wi' the hillside stanes. G.o.d hae pity on your souls, ye that had nae pity on others in your lives."

And even as I watched, the end came, sudden and awful. Stretching out his great arms, he caught the two stone shafts and with one mighty effort pushed them asunder. I held my breath with horror. With a roar like a world falling the roof came down, and the great hillside sank among a ruin of rock. I was blinded by dust even in my secure seat, and driven half-mad with terror and grief. I know not how I got to the air, but by G.o.d's good providence the pa.s.sage where I lay was distinct from the cave, and a rift in the solid rock. As it was, I had to fight with falling splinters and choking dust all the way. At last-and it seemed ages-I felt free air and a glimmer of light, and with one fresh effort crawled out beneath a tuft of bracken.

And this is why at this day there is no cave at the Cor Water, nothing but the bare side of a hill strewn with stones.

When I gained breath to raise myself and look around, the sight was strange indeed. The vast cloud of dust was beginning to settle and the whole desolation lay clear. I know not how to tell of it. It was like some battlefield of giants of old time. Great rocks lay scattered amid the beds of earth and shingle, and high up toward the brow of the hill one single bald scarp showed where the fall had begun.

A hundred yards away, by his horse's side, gazing with wild eyes at the scene, stood a dragoon, doubtless the one whom the ill-fated company had set for guard. I hastened toward him as fast as my weak knees would carry me, and I saw without surprise that he was the Dutchman, Jan Hamman, whom I had already met thrice before. He scarce was aware of my presence, but stood weeping with weakness and terror, and whimpering like a child. I took him by the shoulder and shook him, until at last I had brought him back to his senses, and he knew me.

"Where are they gone?" and he pointed feebly with his finger to the downfall.

"To their own place," I said, shortly. "But tell me one word. Where is your captain, Gilbert Burnet, that he is not with you to-day?"

The man looked at me curiously.

"He is gone on another errand, down Tweed toward Peebles."

Then I knew he was seeking for Marjory high and low and would never rest till he found her.

"I will let you go," said I to the man, "that you may carry the tidings to the rest. Begone with you quick. I am in no mood to look on such as you this day."

The man turned and was riding off, when he stopped for one word. "You think," he said, "that I am your enemy and your cousin's friend, and that I serve under the captain for his own sweet sake. I will tell you my tale. Three years ago this Captain Gilbert Burnet was in Leyden, and there also was I, a happy, reputable man, prosperous and contented, with the prettiest sweetheart in all the town. Then came this man. I need not tell what he did. In a year he had won over the silly girl to his own desires, and I was a ruined man for evermore. I am a servant in his company who worked my fall. Remember then that the nearer I am to Gilbert Burnet the worse it will fare with him." And he rode off, still pale and shivering with terror.

I mused for some time with myself. Truly, thought I, Gilbert has his own troubles, and it will go hard with him if his own men turn against him. And I set it down in my mind that I would do my best to warn him of the schemes of the foreigner. For though it was my cousin's own ill-doing that had brought him to this, and my heart burned against him for his villainy, it was yet right that a kinsman should protect one of the house against the plots of a common soldier.

CHAPTER XIII

I RUN A NARROW ESCAPE FOR MY LIFE

This was in April, and now the summer began to grow over the land. The days grew longer and the air more mild, the flowers came out on the hills, little mountain pansies and eyebright and whortleberry, and the first early bells of the heath; the birds reared their young and the air was all filled with the cries of them; and in the streams the trout grew full-fleshed and strong.

And all through these days I lay close hid in the wilds, now in one place, now in another, never wandering far from Tweeddale. My first hiding was in a narrow glen at the head of the Polmood Burn in a place called Glenhurn. It was dark and lonesome, but at first the pursuit was hot after me and I had no choice in the matter. I lived ill on the fish of the burn and the eggs of wildfowl, with what meal I got from a shepherd's house at the burn foot. These were days of great contemplation, of long hours spent on my back in the little glen of heather, looking up to the summer sky and watching the great clouds fleeting athwart it. No sound came to disturb me, I had few cares to vex me; it was like that highest state of being which Plotinus spoke of, when one is c.u.mbered not with the toils of living. Here I had much grave communing with myself on the course of my life, now thinking upon it with approval, now much concerned at its futility. I had three very warring moods of mind. One was that of the scholar, who would flee from the roughness of life. This came upon me when I thought of the degradation of living thus in hiding, of sorting with unlettered men, of having no thoughts above keeping body and soul together. The second was that of my father's son, whose pride abhorred to flee before any man and hide in waste places from low-born soldiers and suffer others to devour my patrimony. But the third was the best, and that which I ever sought to keep with me. It was that of the gentleman and cavalier who had a wide, good-humoured outlook upon the world, who cared not for houses and lands, but sought above all things to guard his honour and love. When this was on me I laughed loud at all my misfortunes, and felt brave to meet whatever might come with a light heart.

In this place I abode till near the middle of the month of June. Twice I had gone to the cairn on Caerdon and left a letter, which I wrote with vast difficulty on fragments of paper which I had brought with me, and received in turn Marjory's news. She was well and in cheerful spirits, though always longing for my return. The days pa.s.sed easily in Smitwood, and as none came there she was the better hidden. I wrote my answers to these letters with great delight of mind, albeit much hardship. The ink in the inkhorn which I had always carried with me soon became dry, and my pen, which I shaped from a curlew's feather, was never of the best. Then after the writing came the long journey, crouching in thickets, creeping timorously across the open s.p.a.ces, running for dear life down the hill-slopes, until I came at length to the cairn on Caerdon, and hid the letter 'neath the grey stones.

But about mid June I bethought me that I had stayed long enough in that lonely place and resolved to move my camp. For one thing I wished to get nearer Barns, that I might be within reach of my house for such provisions as I required. Also there were signs that the place was no longer safe. Several times of late I had heard the voice of soldiers on the moors above my hiding, and at any moment a chance dragoon might stray down the ravine. So late one evening about midsummer I bade adieu to the dark Glenhurn, and took off across the wild hills to the lower vale of Tweed.

The place I chose was just at the back of Sc.r.a.pe, between that mountain and a wild height called the Pyke-stone hill. It was a stretch of moss-hags and rough heather, dry as tinder at this time, but, as I well knew, in late autumn and winter a treacherous flow. Thither I had been wont to go to the duck-shooting in the months of November and February, when great flocks of mallard and teal settled among the pools. Then one has to look well to his feet, for if he press on eager and unthinking, he is like to find himself up to the armpits. But if he know the way of the thing, and walk only on the tufted rushes and strips of black peat, he may take the finest sport that I know of. Here then I came, for the place was high and lonesome, and with a few paces I could come to the top of the Little Sc.r.a.pe and see the whole vale of Tweed from Drummelzier to Neidpath. I had the less fear of capture, for the place was almost impa.s.sable for horses; also it was too near the house of Barns to be directly suspected, and the country below it was still loyal and with no taint of whiggery.

Here then I settled myself, and made a comfortable abode in a dry burn-channel, overarched with long heather. The weather was unusually warm and dry, the streams were worn to a narrow thread of silver trickling among grey stones, and the hot sun blazed from morn to night in a cloudless sky. The life, on the whole, was very pleasing. There was cold water from a mossy well hard by when I was thirsty. As for food, I made at once an expedition to the nearest cottage on my lands, where dwelt one Robin Sandilands, who straightway supplied all my needs and gave me much useful information to boot. Afterwards he came every second day to a certain part of the hill with food, which he left there for me to take at my convenience. Hence the fare was something better than I had had in my previous hiding-place. Also it was a cheerful life. Up there on the great flat hill-top, with nothing around me but the sky and the measureless air, with no noises in my ear but the whistle of hill-birds, with no view save great shoulders of mountain, the mind was raised to something higher and freer than of old. Earthly troubles and little squabbles and jealousies seemed of less account.

The more than Catonian gravity of these solemn uplands put to flight all pettiness and small ambition. It has been an immemorial practice in our borderland that those of ruined fortunes, broken men, should take to the hills for concealment, if need be, and in any case for satisfaction.

Verily twelve months of that pure air would make a gentleman of a knave, and a hero of the most sordid trader.

However, ere June had merged in July, I found myself in want of some companion to cheer my solitude. I would have given much for some like-minded fellow-wayfarer, but since that might not be had I was fain to content myself with a copy of Plotinus, which I had got with all the difficulty in the world from the house of Barns. It happened on a warm afternoon, when, as I lay meditating as was my wont in the heather, a great desire came upon me for some book to read in. Nothing would do but that I must straightway set out for Barns at the imminent peril of my own worthless life. It was broad daylight; men were working in the fields at the hay; travellers were pa.s.sing on the highway; and for all I knew soldiers were in the house. But with a mad recklessness I ventured on the quest, and, entering the house boldly, made my way to the library and was choosing books. Then I was startled by the noise of approaching steps, and seizing hastily the first volume I could lay hands on, set off for the hills at the top of my speed. The visit had renewed old recollections, and I spent a bitter evening reflecting upon my altered position.

But toward the end of August, when the nights grew longer and the sunsets stormy, a change came over the weather. The Lammas floods first broke the spell of the drought, and for three clear days the rain fell in torrents, while I lay in my hole, cold and shivering. These were days of suffering and hunger, though I shrink from writing of them and have never told them to anyone. On the fourth I made an incursion down to my own lands to the cottage of my ally. There I heard evil news.

The soldiers had come oftener than of late and the hunt had been renewed. The reward on my head had been doubled, and with much sorrow I had the news that the miller of Holmes Mill had been taken and carried to Edinburgh. In these dim grey days my courage fell, and it took all the consolations of philosophy, all my breeding and manly upbringing to keep up my heart. Also it became more difficult to go at the three weeks' end to the cairn on Caerdon with the letter for Marjory.

It was, as far as I remember, for I did not keep good count, on the second day of September, that I set out for Caerdon on my wonted errand.

I had had word from Robin Sandilands that the countryside was perilous; but better, I thought, that I should run into danger than that my lady should have any care on my account. So I clapped the written letter in my pocket and set out over the hills in a fine storm of wind.

I went down the little burn of Sc.r.a.pe, which flows into Powsail about a mile above the village of Drummelzier. Had I dared I would have crossed the low lands just above the village, and forded Tweed at Merlin's Grave, and so won to Caerdon by Rachan and Broughton. But now it behooved me to be cautious, so I kept straight over the hills; and, striking the source of a stream called Hopecarton, followed it to where it joined the river in the Mossfennan haughs. All the time the wind whistled in my teeth and the sharpest of showers bit into my skin. I was soon soaked to the bone, for which I cared very little, but pushed steadfastly on through the rapidly-rising waters of Tweed, and scrambled up the back of the Wormel. Here it was stiff work, and my legs ached mightily ere I reached the top and flung myself on the damp heather to spy out the Holmes valley.

All seemed quiet. The stream, now changed from its clearness to a muddy brown, was rolling on its way though the fields of stubble. The few houses smoked in peace. The narrow road was empty of travellers....

Without hesitation I ran down the slopes, caring not to look circ.u.mspectly to the left and right....

I had not run far till something before me brought me to a halt and sent me flat among the gra.s.s. Just below the house of Quarter, coming from the cover of the trees, were half a score of soldiers.

My first thought was to turn back and give up the project. My second, to go forward and find a way to cross the valley. Happily the foliage was still there, the heath was still long, the gra.s.s was dense: a man might succeed in crossing under cover.

With a beating heart I crawled through the heather to the rushes beside a little stream. This I followed, slowly, painfully, down to the valley, looking sharply at every bare spot, and running for dear life when under cover of bank or brae. By and by I struck the road, and raised myself for a look. All was quiet. There was no sign of any man about, nothing but the beating of the rain and the ceaseless wind. It was possible that they had gone down the vale, and were by this time out of sight. Or maybe they had gone up the water on their way to the moors of Clyde. Or still again they might have gone back to the house of Quarter, which they doubtless loved better than the rainy out-of-doors.

In any case they were not there, and nothing hindered me from making a bold sally across the open.

I rose and ran through the corn-field, cleaving my way amid the thick stubble. The heavy moisture clung to my soaked clothes and the sweat ran over my face and neck, but I held straight on till I gained the drystone d.y.k.e at the other side and scrambled across it. Here I fell into the stream and was soaked again, but the place was not deep and I was soon through. Now I was direct beneath the house, but somewhat under the cover of the trees; and still there was no sign of man and beast. I began to think that after all my eyes had deceived me, and taken nowt for dragoons. Such a trick was not impossible; I had found it happen before at the winter's shooting. With this pleasing hope I straightened my back and ran more boldly up the planting's side till I gained the moorlands above. Here I paused for a second to enjoy my success and look back upon the house.

Suddenly something cracked in the thicket, and a voice behind me cried, "Stop. Gang another step and I fire." So the cup of safety was dashed from my lips at the very moment of tasting it.

I did not obey, but dashed forward to the high moors with all my speed.

It was conceivable that the men were unmounted and their horses stabled, in which case I might get something of a lead. If not, I should very soon know by the clear convincing proof of a shot in my body.

My guess was right, and it was some little time ere I heard the cries of pursuers behind me. I had made straight for the top of the ridge where the ground was rough for horses, and I knew that they could not follow me with any speed. I was aye a swift runner, having been made long and thin in the shanks and somewhat deep-chested. I had often raced on the lawn at Barns with my cousin for some trifling prize. Now I ran with him again, but for the prize of my own life.

I cannot tell of that race, and to this day the thought of it makes my breath go faster. I only know that I leaped and stumbled and ploughed my way over the hillside, sobbing with weariness and with my heart almost bursting my ribs. I never once looked behind, but I could measure the distance by the sound of their cries. The great, calm face of Caerdon was always before me, mocking my hurry and feebleness. If I could but gain the ridge of it, I might find safety in one of the deep gullies. Now I had hope, now I had lost it and given myself up for as good as dead. But still I kept on, being unwilling that anyone should see me yield, and resolving that if I needs must die I would stave it off as long as might be.

In the end, after hours-or was it minutes?-I reached the crest and crawled down the other side. They were still some distance behind and labouring heavily. Near me was a little ravine down which a slender trickle of flood-water fell in a long cascade. I plunged down it, and coming to a shelter of overlapping rock crawled far in below, and thanked G.o.d for my present safety.

Then I remembered my errand and my letter. I clapped my hand to my pocket to draw it forth. The place was empty-the letter was gone. With a sickening horror I reflected that I had dropped it as I ran, and that my enemies must have found it.

CHAPTER XIV