The Billow and the Rock Part 19

Here was an object too for Lady Ca.r.s.e. She fretted sadly, but not quite idly, about her strength failing just now when boats came to the island so often that she might have had many chances of escape if she could now have borne night watching, and exposure to weather and fatigue. She complained and wept much; but all the time she worked as hard as Annie to prepare Rollo for military service; for her very best chance now appeared to be his seeing Lord President Forbes, and telling him her story. The widow quite agreed in this; and it became the most earnest desire of the whole party,--Helsa's sympathies being drawn in,--that the summons to march might arrive. Somebody was always looking over towards Skye; and there was so much traffic on these seas at present, that some new excitement was perpetually arising. Now a meal bark arrived, telling of the capture of others by the prince's privateer: and next there was a seizure of fish for the king's service. Now all eyes were engaged, for days together, in watching the man-of-war which hovered round the coasts to prevent the rebels being reinforced by water, and arms being landed from foreign vessels: and then there were rumours, and sometimes visions, of suspicious boats skulking among the islands, or a strange sail being visible on the horizon. Such excitements made the island appear a new place, and changed entirely the life of the inhabitants. The brave enjoyed all this: the timid sickened at it; and Lady Ca.r.s.e wept over it as coming too late for her.

"The lady looks ill," the steward observed to the Widow Fleming, one day when, as often happened now, he came without notice. "She is so shrunk, she is not like the same person."

Annie told how she had lost strength and spirits of late. She had not been down even to the harbour for two months.

"Ay, it is a change," said the steward. "I was saying to Macdonald just now that we have been rather careless of late, having had our heads so full of other matters. I almost wondered that she had not slipped through our fingers in the hurry and bustle: but I see now how that is.

However, Macdonald will keep a somewhat stricter watch; for, as I told him, it concerns Sir Alexander's honour all the more that she should not get loose, now that those who committed her to his charge are under suspicion about their politics--Ah! you see the secret is getting out now,--the reason of her punishment. She wanted to ruin them, no doubt, by telling what she knew; and they put her out of the way for safety."

"Is her husband with the Pretender then? And is Lord Lovat on that side? They are the two she is most angry with."

"Lord Ca.r.s.e is safe enough. He is a prudent man. He could not get into favour with the king and the minister:--they knew two much harm of him for that. So he has made himself a courtier of the Prince of Wales. He has no idea of being thrust upon the dangers of rebellion while the event is uncertain; so he attaches himself in a useless way to the reigning family. And if Prince Charlie should succeed, Lord Ca.r.s.e can easily show that he never favoured King George or his minister, or did them any good.--As for Lovat, he is ill and quiet at home."

"Which side is he on?"

"He complains bitterly of his son being disobedient to him, and put upon his disobedience by his Jacobite acquaintance. If the young man joins Prince Charlie, it is thought that his father will stand by King George, that the family estates may be safe whichever way the war ends,--Bless me! what a sigh! One would think--Come now, what's the matter?"

"The wickedness of it!" said Annie.

"Oh! is that all? Lovat's wickedness is nothing new; and what better could you expect from his son? By the same rule, I have great expectations of your son. As you are sound, he will be sound too, and do his king and country good service. You are both on the same side, and not like the master of Lovat and his father."

"We have no estates to corrupt our minds," observed Annie. "We have only our duty to care for."

"Ay, then, you are on the same side."

"Rollo is ready to march with the men of these islands. I am on no side, sir. I do not understand the matter, and I have nothing to do with it. There is no occasion for me to take any side."

"Why yes; as it happens, there is, Mrs Fleming: and that is one of the things that brought me here to-day. Sir Alexander Macdonald desires that you will oblige him by not burning your lamp in the night till the troubles are over."

"I am sorry that there is anything in which I cannot oblige Sir Alexander Macdonald: but I must burn my lamp."

"But hear: you do not know his reasons. There are some suspicious vessels skulking about among these islands; and you ought to show them no favour till they show what they are."

"You do not think, sir, you cannot surely think that anybody on this island is in danger from the enemy. There is nothing to bring them here,--no arms, nor wealth of any kind;--nothing that it would be worth the trouble of coming to take."

"Oh no: you are all safe enough. No enemy would lose their time here.

But that is no reason why you should give them help and comfort with your beacon-light."

"You mean, sir, that if a storm drives them hither, or they lose their way, you would have them perish. Yes; that is what you mean, and that I cannot do. I must burn my lamp."

"But my good friend, consider what you are doing. Consider the responsibility if you should succour the king's enemies!"

"I did consider it well, sir, some years ago, and made up my mind. That was when the pirates were on the coast."

"You don't mean that you would have lighted pirates to sh.o.r.e?"

"I could not refuse to save them from drowning: and He who set me my duty blessed the deed."

"I remember hearing something of that. But if the pirates did no mischief, your neighbours owe you nothing for that. You may thank the poverty of the island."

"Perhaps so," said Annie, smiling. "And if so, I am sure we may thank G.o.d for the poverty of the island which permits us to save men's lives, instead of letting them drown. And now you see, sir--"

"I see you are as wilful on this point as I heard you were. I would not believe it, because I always thought you a superior woman. But now--I wish I could persuade you to see your duty better, Mrs Fleming."

"As my duty appears to me, sir, it is to save people's lives without regard to who they are, and what their business is."

"If the Pretender should come--"

"He would go as he came," said Annie, quietly. "He would get nothing here that could hurt the king, while the men of the island are gone to Inverness."

"Well, to be sure, if you would succour and comfort pirates, there is n.o.body whom you would not help."

"That is true, sir."

"But it is very dangerous, Mrs Fleming. Do you know the consequences of aiding the enemy?"

"I know the consequences of there being no light above the harbour,"

said Annie, in a low voice.

The steward knew it was useless to say more. He thought it better to put into her hand some newspapers which contained a startling account of the progress of the rebels, embellished with many terrifying fictions of their barbarity, such as were greedily received by the alarmists of the time.

"Here," said he. "You can look these over while I go to speak to Macdonald about removing the lady to some remoter place while we have only women on the island. Pray look over these papers, and then you will see what sort of people you may chance to bring upon your neighbours, if you persist in burning your lamp. But Sir Alexander must put forth his authority--even use force, if necessary. What do you say to that?"

"Some old words," said Annie, smiling, "given to those who are brought before governors. It shall be given me in that same hour what I shall speak."

"I will look in for the papers as I return," said the steward. "You are as wilful on your own points as your neighbour. But you must give way, as you preach that she ought--"

"I do not preach that, sir, I a.s.sure you. I wish, for her own peace, that she would yield herself to G.o.d's disposal; but I would have her, in the strength of law and justice, resist the oppression of man."

The steward smiled, nodded, and left Annie to read the newspapers.

The time was short. Lady Ca.r.s.e was asleep; but Annie woke her, and left one paper with her while she went home to read the other. She was absorbed in the narrative of the march of the rebels southwards, and their intention of proceeding to London, eating children, as the newspaper said, after the manner of Highlanders, all the way as they went, when Lady Ca.r.s.e burst in, trembling from head to foot, and unable to speak. She showed to Annie a short paragraph, which told that a vessel chartered by Mr Hope, advocate, of Edinburgh, and bound to the Western Islands, had put into the Horseshoe harbour in Lorn, to land a lady whom the captain refused to carry to her destination through a quarrel on the ground of difference of political sentiment. The lady, wife of a minister of the kirk, had sought the aid of the resident tenant to be escorted home through the disturbed districts in Argyle, while the vessel proceeded on its way--not unwatched, however, as Mr Hope's attachment to the house of Stuart was no secret, etcetera, etcetera.

The widow was perplexed; but Lady Ca.r.s.e knew that Mr Hope, her lawyer and her friend, was a Jacobite--the only fault he had, she declared.

She was persuaded that the lady was Mrs Ruthven, and that the vessel was on its way to rescue her--might arrive at any hour of the day or night.

"But," said Annie, "this lady is loyal to King George, and you reproached the Ruthvens for being on the other side."

"O! I was wrong about her, no doubt. I detest him; but she is a good creature; and I was quite wrong ever to suspect her."

"And you think your loyalty to the king would do you no harm with Mr Hope? You think he would exert himself for you without thinking of your politics?"

"Why, don't you see what is before your eyes?" cried Lady Ca.r.s.e. "Is it not there, as plain as black and white can make it?"

The fact was so, though the lady's reasoning was not good. The vessel, with armed men in it, was sent by Mr Hope to rescue Lady Ca.r.s.e; and Mrs Ruthven was to act as guide. In consequence of a quarrel between the captain and her, she was set ash.o.r.e at the place where the little town of Oban has since arisen; and the vessel sailed on out of sight.

It was an illegal proceeding of Mr Hope's, and resorted to only when his attempts to obtain a warrant from the proper authority to search for and liberate Lady Ca.r.s.e were frustrated by the influence of her husband and his friends.

"He will be coming! Burn the paper!" cried Lady Ca.r.s.e impatiently, looking from the door.

"Better not. Indeed we had better not," said Annie quietly. "They have no suspicion, or they would not have let us see the paper. They do not know that Mr Hope is your agent; and Mrs Ruthven's name is not mentioned. If we do not return both the papers, there will be suspicion; and you will be carried to Saint Kilda. If we quietly return both papers, the danger may pa.s.s."