The Starling Part 20

Adam did not like to confess it; but he was so wearied that he could speak no more without pain, and so thanking the Corporal, he turned round to sleep.

CHAPTER XXIII

CORPORAL d.i.c.k AT THE MANSE

Adam had received his pension-paper, which required to be signed by the parish minister, as certifying that the claimant was in life. d.i.c.k was glad of this opportunity of calling upon the minister to obtain for his friend the required signature. He was known to Mr. Porteous, who had met him once before in Adam's house, and had attacked him rather sharply on his Haldanite principles, the sect being, as he alleged, an uncalled-for opposition to the regular parish clergy.

A short walk brought d.i.c.k to the manse. After a few words of greeting he presented the Sergeant's paper. Mr. Porteous inquired, with rather a sceptical expression on his countenance--

"Is Mr. Mercer really unwell, and unable to come?"

"I have told you the truth, sir," was the Corporal's dignified and short reply.

Mr. Porteous asked what was wrong with him? The Corporal replied that he did not know, but that he was feverish, he thought, and was certainly confined to bed.

"Your friend, the Sergeant, as you are probably aware," remarked the minister, signing the paper and returning it to the Corporal, "has greatly surprised and annoyed me. He seems quite a changed man--changed, I fear, for the worse. Oh! yes, Mr. d.i.c.k," he continued in reply to a protesting wave of the Corporal's hand, "he is indeed. He has become proud and obstinate--very."

"Meek as a lamb, sir, in time of peace, but brave as a lion in time of war, I can a.s.sure you, Mr. Porteous," replied the Corporal.

"I know better!" said the minister.

"Not better than me, sir," replied d.i.c.k; "for tho' ye have kent him as well as me, perhaps, in peace, yet ye didna ken him at all in war, and a truer, better, n.o.bler sodger than Adam Mercer never raised his arms to fight or to pray, for he did baith--that I'll say before the worl', and defy contradiction!"

"Remember, Corporal, you and I belong to different Churches, and we judge men differently. We must have discipline. All Churches are not equally pure."

"There's nane o' them pure, wi' your leave, neither yours nor mine!"

exclaimed the Corporal. "I'm no' pure mysel', and accordingly when I joined my kirk it was pure nae langer; and, wi' a' respec' to you, sir, I'm no' sure if your ain kirk wasna fashed wi' the same diffeeculty when _ye_ joined it."

"Discipline, I say, must be maintained--_must_ be," said Mr. Porteous; "and Adam has come under it most deservedly. _First_ pure, _then_ peaceable, you know."

"If ever a man kept discipline in a regiment, he did! My certes!" said d.i.c.k, "I wad like to see him that wad raggle the regiment when Adam was in't!"

"I am talking of _Church_ discipline, sir!" said the minister, rather irate. "_Church_ discipline, you observe; which--as I hold yours to be not a properly const.i.tuted Church, but a mere self-const.i.tuted sect--you cannot have."

"We're a kin' o' volunteers, I suppose?" interrupted d.i.c.k with a laugh; "the Haldanite volunteers, as ye wad ca' us; but maybe after a' we'll fecht agin the enemy, an' its three corps o' the deevil, the worl', and the flesh, as weel as yours."

"You are not the regular army, anyhow," said the minister, "and I do not recognise your Church."

"The mair's the pity," replied the Corporal, "for I consider it a great blin'ness and misfortin' when ae regiment dislikes anither. An army, minister, is no' ae regiment, but mony. There's cavalry and artillery, light troops and heavy troops, field guns and siege guns in an army, and ilka pairt does its ain wark sae lang as it obeys the commander-in-chief, and fechts for the kingdom. What's the use, then, o' fechtin' agin each ither? In my opinion it's real daft like!"

The minister looked impatiently at his watch, but d.i.c.k went on to say--

"In Spain, I can tell ye, we were a hantle the better o' thae wild chiels the guerillas. Altho' they didna enlist into the gand or ony regular drilled regiment, Scotch or English, the Duke himsel' was thankfu' for them. Noo, Mr. Porteous, altho' ye think us a sort o'

guerillas, let us alane,--let us alane!--dinna forbid us tho' we dinna follow _your_ flag, but fecht the enemy under oor ain."

"Well, well, d.i.c.k, we need not argue about it. My principles are too firm, too long made up, to be shaken at this time of day by the Haldanites," said Mr. Porteous, rising and looking out of the window.

"Weel, weel!" said d.i.c.k. "I'm no' wantin' to shake your principles, but to keep my ain."

At this stage of the conversation Miss Thomasina entered the room, with "I beg pardon", as if searching for something in the press, but yet for no other purpose, in her eager curiosity, than to ascertain what the Corporal was saying, as she knew him to be a friend of the Sergeant's.

Her best attention, with her ear placed close to the door, had made out nothing more than that the rather prolonged conversation had something to do with the great ecclesiastical question of the pa.s.sing hour in Drumsylie.

Almost breathless with indignation that anyone, especially a Haldanite,--for she was quite as "High Church" as her brother,--should presume to take the part of the notorious heretic in the august presence of his great antagonist, she broke in, with what was intended to be a good-humoured smile, but was, to ordinary observers, a bad-natured grin, saying, "Eh! Mr. d.i.c.k, _you_ to stand up for that man--suspended by the Session, and deservedly so--yes, most deservedly so! Him and his starling, forsooth! It's infidelity at the root."

"It's what?" asked the Corporal, with amazement. "Infidelity did you say, my lady?"

The "my lady" rather softened Miss Thomasina, who returned to the charge more softly, saying, "Well, it's pride and stubbornness, and that's as bad. But I hope his illness will be sanctified to the changing of his heart!" she added, with a sigh, intended to express a very deep concern for his spiritual welfare.

"I hope not, wi' your leave!" replied the Corporal.

"Not wish his heart changed?" exclaimed Miss Thomasina.

"No!" said d.i.c.k, emphatically, "not changed, for it's a good Christian heart, and, if changed at all, it wad be changed for the worse."

"A Christian heart, indeed! a heart that would not kill a starling for the sake of the peace of the Session and the Kirk! Wonders will never cease!"

"I hope never," said d.i.c.k, "if that's a wonder. Our Lord never killed in judgment man nor beast; and I suppose they were both much about as bad then as now; and His servants should imitate His example, I take it. He was love."

"But," said Mr. Porteous, chiming in, "love is all very well, no doubt, and _ought_ to be, where possible; but justice _must_ be, love or no love. The one is a principle, the other a feeling."

"I tak' it, with all respect to you, sir, and to madam," said d.i.c.k, "that love will aye do what's right, and will, therefore, aye do what's just and generous. We may miss fire pointing the gun wi' the eye o'

justice, but never wi' the eye o' love. The sight is then always clearer; anyhow to me. Excuse me, Mr. Porteous, if I presume to preach to you. The Haldanites do a little in that line, tho' they're no' a'

ministers! I'm a plain man that speaks my mind, and sin' ye hae gi'en me liberty to speak, let me ax if ye wad hae killed yon fine bird, that was wee Charlie's, wi' yer ain han', minister?"

"Ay, and all the birds under heaven!" replied Mr. Porteous, "if the law of the Church required it."

"I should think so! and so would I," added Miss Thomasina, walking out of the room.

"It wad be a dreich warl' wi'oot a bird in the wuds or in the lifts!"

said the Corporal. "Maybe it's because I'm a Haldanite, but, wi' a'

respect, I think I wad miss the birds mair oot o' the warl' than I wad a' the kirk coorts in the kintra!"

"Drop the subject, drop the subject, Mr. d.i.c.k!" said the minister, impatiently; "you are getting personal."

The Corporal could not see how that was, but he could see that his presence was not desired. So he rose to depart, saying--"I'm feared I hae been impudent, an' that my gun has got raither het firing, but, in candid truth, I wasna meanin't. But jist let me say ae word mair; ye'll alloo this, that a fool may gie an advice tae a wise man, and this is my advice tae you, sir--the advice o' an auld sodger and a Haldanite; no'

muckle worth, ye may think:--Dinna hairm Adam Mercer, or ye'll hairm yer best freen', yer best elder, and yer best parishioner. I beg pardon for my freedom, sir," he added, with a deferential bow.

The minister returned it stiffly, remarking only that Mr. d.i.c.k was ignorant of all the facts and history of the case, or he would have judged otherwise.

Something, however, of what the Corporal had said fell on the heart of the minister, like dew in a cloudy night upon dry ground.