"The treasure I seek," said the stranger, smiling, "will not be envied by princes or n.o.bles,---it is simply the heart of an upright man."
"Ah! I understand you," I answered; "some relic, forgotten in the confusion of the Reformation. I know the value which men of your persuasion put upon the bodies and limbs of saints. I have seen the Three Kings of Cologne."
"The relics which I seek, however," said the Benedictine, "are not precisely of that nature. The excellent relative whom I have already mentioned, amused his leisure hours with putting into form the traditions of his family, particularly some remarkable circ.u.mstances which took place about the first breaking out of the schism of the church in Scotland. He became so much interested in his own labours, that at length he resolved that the heart of one individual, the hero of his tale, should rest no longer in a land of heresy, now deserted by all his kindred. As he knew where it was deposited, he formed the resolution to visit his native country for the purpose of recovering this valued relic. But age, and at length disease, interfered with his resolution, and it was on his deathbed that he charged me to undertake the task in his stead. The various important events which have crowded upon each other, our ruin and our exile, have for many years obliged me to postpone this delegated duty. Why, indeed, transfer the relics of a holy and worthy man to a country, where religion and virtue are become the mockery of the scorner? I have now a home, which I trust may be permanent, if any thing in this earth can be, termed so.
Thither will I transport the heart of the good father, and beside the shrine which it shall occupy, I will construct my own grave."
"He must, indeed, have been an excellent man," replied I, "whose memory, at so distant a period, calls forth such strong marks of regard."
"He was, as you justly term him," said the ecclesiastic, "indeed excellent--excellent in his life and doctrine--excellent, above all, in his self-denied and disinterested sacrifice of all that life holds dear to principle and to friendship. But you shall read his history. I shall be happy at once to gratify your curiosity, and to show my sense of your kindness, if you will have the goodness to procure me the means of accomplishing my object." I replied to the Benedictine, that, as the rubbish amongst which he proposed to search was no part of the ordinary burial-ground, and as I was on the best terms with the s.e.xton, I had little doubt that I could procure him the means of executing his pious purpose.
With this promise we parted for the night; and on the ensuing morning I made it my business to see the s.e.xton, who, for a small gratuity, readily granted permission of search, on condition, however, that he should be present himself, to see that the stranger removed nothing of intrinsic value.
"To banes, and skulls, and hearts, if he can find ony, he shall be welcome," said this guardian of the ruined Monastery, "there"s plenty a" about, an he"s curious of them; but if there be ony picts" (meaning perhaps _pyx_) "or chalishes, or the like of such Popish vesh.e.l.ls of gold and silver, deil hae me an I conneve at their being removed."
The s.e.xton also stipulated, that our researches should take place at night, being unwilling to excite observation, or give rise to scandal.
My new acquaintance and I spent the day as became lovers of h.o.a.r antiquity. We visited every corner of these magnificent ruins again and again during the forenoon; and, having made a comfortable dinner at David"s, we walked in the afternoon to such places in the neighbourhood as ancient tradition or modern conjecture had rendered mark worthy. Night found us in the interior of the ruins, attended by the s.e.xton, who carried a dark lantern, and stumbling alternately over the graves of the dead, and the fragments of that architecture, which they doubtless trusted would have canopied their bones till doomsday.
I am by no means particularly superst.i.tious, and yet there was that in the present service which I did not very much like. There was something awful in the resolution of disturbing, at such an hour, and in such a place, the still and mute sanct.i.ty of the grave. My companions were free from this impression--the stranger from his energetic desire to execute the purpose for which he came--and the s.e.xton from habitual indifference. We soon stood in the aisle, which, by the account of the Benedictine, contained the bones of the family of Glendinning, and were busily employed in removing the rubbish from a corner which the stranger pointed out. If a half-pay Captain could have represented an ancient Border-knight, or an ex-Benedictine of the nineteenth century a wizard monk of the sixteenth, we might have aptly enough personified the search after Michael Scott"s lamp and book of magic power. But the s.e.xton would have been _de trop_ in the group. [Footnote: This is one of those pa.s.sages which must now read awkwardly, since every one knows that the Novelist and the author of the Lay of the Minstrel, is the same person. But before the avowal was made, the author was forced into this and similar offences against good taste, to meet an argument, often repeated, that there was something very mysterious in the Author of Waverley"s reserve concerning Sir Walter Scott, an author sufficiently voluminous at least. I had a great mind to remove the pa.s.sages from this edition, but the more candid way is to explain how they came there.]
Ere the stranger, a.s.sisted by the s.e.xton in his task, had been long at work, they came to some hewn stones, which seemed to have made part of a small shrine, though now displaced and destroyed.
"Let us remove these with caution, my friend," said the stranger, "lest we injure that which I come to seek."
"They are prime stanes," said the s.e.xton, "picked free every ane of them;--wa.r.s.e than the best wad never serve the monks, I"se warrant."
A minute after he had made this observation, he exclaimed, "I hae fund something now that stands again" the spade, as if it were neither earth nor stane."
The stranger stooped eagerly to a.s.sist him.
"Na, na, haill o" my ain," said the s.e.xton; "nae halves or quarters;"--and he lifted from amongst the ruins a small leaden box.
"You will be disappointed, my friend," said the Benedictine, "if you expect any thing there but the mouldering dust of a human heart, closed in an inner case of porphyry."
I interposed as a neutral party, and taking the box from the s.e.xton, reminded him, that if there were treasure concealed in it, still it could not become the property of the finder. I then proposed, that as the place was too dark to examine the contents of the leaden casket, we should adjourn to David"s, where we might have the advantage of light and fire while carrying on our investigation. The stranger requested us to go before, a.s.suring us that he would follow in a few minutes.
I fancy that old Mattocks suspected these few minutes might be employed in effecting farther discoveries amongst the tombs, for he glided back through a side-aisle to watch the Benedictine"s motions, but presently returned, and told me in a whisper that "the gentleman was on his knees amang the cauld stanes, praying like ony saunt."
I stole back, and beheld the old man actually employed as Mattocks had informed me. The language seemed to be Latin; and as, the whispered, yet solemn accent, glided away through the ruined aisles, I could not help reflecting how long it was since they had heard the forms of that religion, for the exercise of which they had been reared at such cost of time, taste, labour, and expense. "Come away, come away," said I; "let us leave him to himself, Mattocks; this is no business of ours."
"My certes, no, Captain," said Mattocks; "ne"ertheless, it winna be amiss to keep an eye on him. My father, rest his saul, was a horse-couper, and used to say he never was cheated in a naig in his life, saving by a west-country whig frae Kilmarnock, that said a grace ower a dram o" whisky. But this gentleman will be a Roman, I"se warrant?"
"You are perfectly right in that, Saunders," said I.
"Ay, I have seen twa or three of their priests that were chased ower here some score o" years syne. They just danced like mad when they looked on the friars" heads, and the nuns" heads, in the cloister yonder; they took to them like auld acquaintance like.--Od, he is not stirring yet, mair than he were a through-stane! [Footnote: A tombstone.] I never kend a Roman, to say kend him, but ane--mair by token, he was the only ane in the town to ken--and that was auld Jock of the Pend. It wad hae been lang ere ye fand Jock praying in the Abbey in a thick night, wi" his knees on a cauld stane. Jock likit a kirk wi" a chimley in"t. Mony a merry ploy I hae had wi" him down at the inn yonder; and when he died, decently I wad hae earded him; but, or I gat his grave weel howkit, some of the quality, that were o" his ain unhappy persuasion, had the corpse whirried away up the water, and buried him after their ain pleasure, doubtless--they kend best. I wad hae made nae great charge. I wadna hae excised Johnnie, dead or alive.--Stay, see--the strange gentleman is coming."
"Hold the lantern to a.s.sist him, Mattocks," said I.--"This is rough walking, sir."
"Yes," replied the Benedictine; "I may say with a poet, who is doubtless familiar to you----"
I should be surprised if he were, thought I internally.
The stranger continued:
"Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night Have my old feet stumbled at graves!"
"We are now clear of the churchyard," said I, "and have but a short walk to David"s, where I hope we shall find a cheerful fire to enliven us after our night"s work."
We entered, accordingly, the little parlour, into which Mattocks was also about to push himself with sufficient effrontery, when David, with a most astounding oath, expelled him by head and shoulders, d--ning his curiosity, that would not let gentlemen be private in their own inn. Apparently mine host considered his own presence as no intrusion, for he crowded up to the table on which I had laid down the leaden box. It was frail and wasted, as might be guessed, from having lain so many years in the ground. On opening it, we found deposited within, a case made of porphyry, as the stranger had announced to us.
"I fancy," he said, "gentlemen, your curiosity will not be satisfied,--perhaps I should say that your suspicions will not be removed,--unless I undo this casket; yet it only contains the mouldering remains of a heart, once the seat of the n.o.blest thoughts."
He undid the box with great caution; but the shrivelled substance which it contained bore now no resemblance to what it might once have been, the means used having been apparently unequal to preserve its shape and colour, although they were adequate to prevent its total decay. We were quite satisfied, notwithstanding, that it was, what the stranger a.s.serted, the remains of a human heart; and David readily promised his influence in the village, which was almost co-ordinate with that of the bailie himself, to silence all idle rumours. He was, moreover, pleased to favour us with his company to supper; and having taken the lion"s share of two bottles of sherry, he not only sanctioned with his plenary authority the stranger"s removal of the heart, but, I believe, would have authorized the removal of the Abbey itself, were it not that it happens considerably to advantage the worthy publican"s own custom.
The object of the Benedictine"s visit to the land of his forefathers being now accomplished, he announced his intention of leaving us early in the ensuing day, but requested my company to breakfast with him before his departure. I came accordingly, and when we had finished our morning"s meal, the priest took me apart, and pulling from his pocket a large bundle of papers, he put them into my hands. "These," said he, "Captain Clutterbuck, are genuine Memoirs of the sixteenth century, and exhibit in a singular, and, as I think, an interesting point of view, the manners of that period. I am induced to believe that their publication will not be an unacceptable present to the British public; and willingly make over to you any profit that may accrue from such a transaction."
I stared a little at this annunciation, and observed, that the hand seemed too modern for the date he a.s.signed to the ma.n.u.script.
"Do not mistake me, sir," said the Benedictine; "I did not mean to say the Memoirs were written in the sixteenth century, but only, that they were compiled from authentic materials of that period, but written in the taste and language of the present day. My uncle commenced this book; and I, partly to improve my habit of English composition, partly to divert melancholy thoughts, amused my leisure hours with continuing and concluding it. You will see the period of the story where my uncle leaves off his narrative, and I commence mine. In fact, they relate in a great measure to different persons, as well as to a different period."
Retaining the papers in my hand, I proceeded to state to him my doubts, whether, as a good Protestant, I could undertake or superintend a publication written probably in the spirit of Popery.
"You will find," he said, "no matter of controversy in these sheets, nor any sentiments stated, with which, I trust, the good in all persuasions will not be willing to join. I remembered I was writing for a land unhappily divided from the Catholic faith; and I have taken care to say nothing which, justly interpreted, could give ground for accusing me of partiality. But if, upon collating my narrative with the proofs to which I refer you--for you will find copies of many of the original papers in that parcel--you are of opinion that I have been partial to my own faith, I freely give you leave to correct my errors in that respect. I own, however, I am not conscious of this defect, and have rather to fear that the Catholics may be of opinion, that I have mentioned circ.u.mstances respecting the decay of discipline which preceded, and partly occasioned, the great schism, called by you the Reformation, over which I ought to have drawn a veil. And indeed, this is one reason why I choose the papers should appear in a foreign land, and pa.s.s to the press through the hands of a stranger."
To this I had nothing to reply, unless to object my own incompetency to the task the good father was desirous to impose upon me. On this subject he was pleased to say more, I fear, than his knowledge of me fully warranted--more, at any rate, than my modesty will permit me to record. At length he ended, with advising me, if I continued to feel the diffidence which I stated, to apply to some veteran of literature, whose experience might supply my deficiencies. Upon these terms we parted, with mutual expressions of regard, and I have never since heard of him.
After several attempts to peruse the quires of paper thus singularly conferred on me, in which I was interrupted by the most inexplicable fits of yawning, I at length, in a sort of despair, communicated them to our village club, from whom they found a more favourable reception than the unlucky conformation of my nerves had been able to afford them. They unanimously p.r.o.nounced the work to be exceedingly good, and a.s.sured me I would be guilty of the greatest possible injury to our flourishing village, if I should suppress what threw such an interesting and radiant light upon the history of the ancient Monastery of Saint Mary.
At length, by dint of listening to their opinion, I became dubious of my own; and, indeed, when I heard pa.s.sages read forth by the sonorous voice of our worthy pastor, I was scarce more tired than I have felt myself at some of his own sermons. Such, and so great is the difference betwixt reading a thing one"s self, making toilsome way through all the difficulties of ma.n.u.script, and, as the man says in the play, "having the same read to you;"--it is positively like being wafted over a creek in a boat, or wading through it on your feet, with the mud up to your knees. Still, however, there remained the great difficulty of finding some one who could act as editor, corrector at once of the press and of the language, which, according to the schoolmaster, was absolutely necessary.
Since the trees walked forth to choose themselves a king, never was an honour so bandied about. The parson would not leave the quiet of his chimney-corner--the bailie pleaded the dignity of his situation, and the approach of the great annual fair, as reasons against going to Edinburgh to make arrangements for printing the Benedictine"s ma.n.u.script. The schoolmaster alone seemed of malleable stuff; and, desirous perhaps of emulating the fame of Jedediah Cleishbotham, evinced a wish to undertake this momentous commission. But a remonstrance from three opulent farmers, whose sons he had at bed, board, and schooling, for twenty pounds per annum a-head, came like a frost over the blossoms of his literary ambition, and he was compelled to decline the service.
In these circ.u.mstances, sir, I apply to you, by the advice of our little council of war, nothing doubting you will not be disinclined to take the duty upon you, as it is much connected with that in which you have distinguished yourself. What I request is, that you will review, or rather revise and correct, the enclosed packet, and prepare it for the press, by such alterations, additions, and curtailments, as you think necessary. Forgive my hinting to you, that the deepest well may be exhausted,--the best corps of grenadiers, as our old general of brigade expressed himself, may be _used up_. A few hints can do you no harm; and, for the prize-money, let the battle be first won, and it shall be parted at the drum-head. I hope you will take nothing amiss that I have said. I am a plain soldier, and little accustomed to compliments. I may add, that I should be well contented to march in the front with you--that is, to put my name with yours on the t.i.tle-page. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your unknown humble Servant, Cuthbert Clutterbuck. Village of Kennaquhair, -- of April, 18--
_For the Author of "Waverley," &c.
care of Mr. John Ballantyne, Hanover Street, Edinburgh._
ANSWER BY "THE AUTHOR OF WAVERLEY,"
TO THE FOREGOING LETTER FROM CAPTAIN CLUTTERBUCK.
DEAR CAPTAIN,
Do not admire, that, notwithstanding the distance and ceremony of your address, I return an answer in the terms of familiarity. The truth is, your origin and native country are better known to me than even to yourself. You derive your respectable parentage, if I am not greatly mistaken, from a land which has afforded much pleasure, as well as profit, to those who have traded to it successfully,--I mean that part of the _terra incognita_ which is called the province of Utopia.