Guy Mannering, Vol. I

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'Aweel, Ellangowan,' she said, 'wad it no hae been a bonnie thing,
an the leddy had been brought to bed, and me at the fair o'
Drumshourloch, no kenning, nor dreaming a word about it? Wha was
to hae keepit awa the worriecows, I trow? Ay, and the elves and
gyre-carlings frae the bonnie bairn, grace be wi' it? Ay, or said
Saint Colme's charm for its sake, the dear?' And without waiting
an answer she began to sing--

Trefoil, vervain, John's-wort, dill,
Hinders witches of their
will, Weel is them, that weel may
Fast upon Saint Andrew's day.

Saint Bride and her brat,
Saint Colme and his cat,
Saint Michael and his spear,
Keep the house frae reif and wear.

This charm she sung to a wild tune, in a high and shrill voice,
and, cutting three capers with such strength and agility as almost
to touch the roof of the room, concluded, 'And now, Laird, will
ye no order me a tass o' brandy?'

'That you shall have, Meg. Sit down yont there at the door and
tell us what news ye have heard at the fair o' Drumshourloch.'

'Troth, Laird, and there was muckle want o' you, and the like o'
you; for there was a whin bonnie lasses there, forbye mysell, and
deil ane to gie them hansels.'

'Weel, Meg, and how mony gipsies were sent to the tolbooth?'

'Troth, but three, Laird, for there were nae mair in the fair, bye
mysell, as I said before, and I e'en gae them leg-bail, for
there's nae ease in dealing wi' quarrelsome fowk. And there's
Dunbog has warned the Red Rotten and John Young aff his grunds--
black be his cast! he's nae gentleman, nor drap's bluid o'
gentleman, wad grudge twa gangrel puir bodies the shelter o' a
waste house, and the thristles by the roadside for a bit cuddy,
and the bits o' rotten birk to boil their drap parritch wi'. Weel,
there's Ane abune a'; but we'll see if the red cock craw not in
his bonnie barn-yard ae morning before day-dawing.'

'Hush! Meg, hush! hush! that's not safe talk.'

'What does she mean?' said Mannering to Sampson, in an undertone.

'Fire-raising,' answered the laconic Dominie.

'Who, or what is she, in the name of wonder?'

'Harlot, thief, witch, and gipsy,' answered Sampson again.

'O troth, Laird,' continued Meg, during this by-talk, 'it's but to
the like o' you ane can open their heart; ye see, they say Dunbog
is nae mair a gentleman than the blunker that's biggit the bonnie
house down in the howm. But the like o' you, Laird, that's a real
gentleman for sae mony hundred years, and never hunds puir fowk
aff your grund as if they were mad tykes, nane o' our fowk wad
stir your gear if ye had as mony capons as there's leaves on the
trysting-tree. And now some o' ye maun lay down your watch, and
tell me the very minute o' the hour the wean's born, an I'll spae
its fortune.'

'Ay, but, Meg, we shall not want your assistance, for here's a
student from Oxford that kens much better than you how to spae its
fortune; he does it by the stars.'

'Certainly, sir,' said Mannering, entering into the simple humour
of his landlord, 'I will calculate his nativity according to the
rule of the "triplicities," as recommended by Pythagoras,
Hippocrates, Diocles, and Avicenna. Or I will begin ab hora
questionis, as Haly, Messahala, Ganwehis, and Guido Bonatus have
recommended.'

One of Sampson's great recommendations to the favour of Mr.
Bertram was, that he never detected the most gross attempt at
imposition, so that the Laird, whose humble efforts at jocularity
were chiefly confined to what were then called bites and bams,
since denominated hoaxes and quizzes, had the fairest possible
subject of wit in the unsuspecting Dominie. It is true, he never
laughed, or joined in the laugh which his own simplicity afforded--nay,
it is said, he never laughed but once in his life, and on
that memorable occasion his landlady miscarried, partly through
surprise at the event itself, and partly from terror at the
hideous grimaces which attended this unusual cachinnation. The
only effect which the discovery of such impositions produced upon
this saturnine personage was, to extort an ejaculation of
'Prodigious!' or 'Very facetious!' pronounced syllabically, but
without moving a muscle of his own countenance.

On the present occasion, he turned a gaunt and ghastly stare upon
the youthful astrologer, and seemed to doubt if he had rightly
understood his answer to his patron.

'I am afraid, sir,' said Mannering, turning towards him, 'you may
be one of those unhappy persons who, their dim eyes being unable
to penetrate the starry spheres, and to discern therein the
decrees of heaven at a distance, have their hearts barred against
conviction by prejudice and misprision.'

'Truly,' said Sampson, 'I opine with Sir Isaac Newton, Knight, and
umwhile master of his Majesty's mint, that the (pretended) science
of astrology is altogether vain, frivolous, and unsatisfactory.'
And here he reposed his oracular jaws.

'Really,' resumed the traveller, 'I am sorry to see a gentleman of
your learning and gravity labouring under such strange blindness
and delusion. Will you place the brief, the modern, and, as I may
say, the vernacular name of Isaac Newton in opposition to the
grave and sonorous authorities of Dariot, Bonatus, Ptolemy, Haly,
Eztler, Dieterick, Naibob, Harfurt, Zael, Taustettor, Agrippa,
Duretus, Maginus, Origen, and Argol? Do not Christians and
Heathens, and Jews and Gentiles, and poets and philosophers, unite
in allowing the starry influences?'

'Communis error--it is a general mistake,' answered the inflexible
Dominie Sampson.

'Not so,' replied the young Englishman; 'it is a general and well-
grounded belief.'

'It is the resource of cheaters, knaves, and cozeners,' said
Sampson.

'Abusus non tollit usum.--The abuse of anything doth not abrogate
the lawful use thereof.'

During this discussion Ellangowan was somewhat like a woodcock
caught in his own springe. He turned his face alternately from the
one spokesman to the other, and began, from the gravity with which
Mannering plied his adversary, and the learning which he displayed
in the controversy, to give him credit for being half serious. As
for Meg, she fixed her bewildered eyes upon the astrologer,
overpowered by a jargon more mysterious than her own.

Mannering pressed his advantage, and ran over all the hard terms
of art which a tenacious memory supplied, and which, from
circumstances hereafter to be noticed, had been familiar to him in
early youth.

Signs and planets, in aspects sextile, quartile, trine, conjoined,
or opposite; houses of heaven, with their cusps, hours, and
minutes; almuten, almochoden, anabibazon, catabibazon; a thousand
terms of equal sound and significance, poured thick and threefold
upon the unshrinking Dominie, whose stubborn incredulity bore him
out against the pelting of this pitiless storm.

At length the joyful annunciation that the lady had presented her
husband with a fine boy, and was (of course) as well as could be
expected, broke off this intercourse. Mr. Bertram hastened to the
lady's apartment, Meg Merrilies descended to the kitchen to secure
her share of the groaning malt and the 'ken-no,' [Footnote: See
Note i.] and Mannering, after looking at his watch, and noting
with great exactness the hour and minute of the birth, requested,
with becoming gravity, that the Dominie would conduct him to some
place where he might have a view of the heavenly bodies.

The schoolmaster, without further answer, rose and threw open a
door half sashed with glass, which led to an old-fashioned
terrace-walk behind the modern house, communicating with the
platform on which the ruins of the ancient castle were situated.
The wind had arisen, and swept before it the clouds which had
formerly obscured the sky. The moon was high, and at the full, and
all the lesser satellites of heaven shone forth in cloudless
effulgence. The scene which their light presented to Mannering was
in the highest degree unexpected and striking.

We have observed, that in the latter part of his journey our
traveller approached the sea-shore, without being aware how
nearly. He now perceived that the ruins of Ellangowan Castle were
situated upon a promontory, or projection of rock, which formed
one side of a small and placid bay on the sea-shore. The modern
mansion was placed lower, though closely adjoining, and the ground
behind it descended to the sea by a small swelling green bank,
divided into levels by natural terraces, on which grew some old
trees, and terminating upon the white sand. The other side of the
bay, opposite to the old castle, was a sloping and varied
promontory, covered chiefly with copsewood, which on that favoured
coast grows almost within water-mark. A fisherman's cottage peeped
from among the trees. Even at this dead hour of night there were
lights moving upon the shore, probably occasioned by the unloading
a smuggling lugger from the Isle of Man which was lying in the
bay. On the light from the sashed door of the house being
observed, a halloo from the vessel of 'Ware hawk! Douse the glim!'
alarmed those who were on shore, and the lights instantly
disappeared.

It was one hour after midnight, and the prospect around was
lovely. The grey old towers of the ruin, partly entire, partly
broken, here bearing the rusty weather-stains of ages, and there
partially mantled with ivy, stretched along the verge of the dark
rock which rose on Mannering's right hand. In his front was the
quiet bay, whose little waves, crisping and sparkling to the
moonbeams, rolled successively along its surface, and dashed with
a soft and murmuring ripple against the silvery beach. To the left
the woods advanced far into the ocean, waving in the moonlight
along ground of an undulating and varied form, and presenting
those varieties of light and shade, and that interesting
combination of glade and thicket, upon which the eye delights to
rest, charmed with what it sees, yet curious to pierce still
deeper into the intricacies of the woodland scenery. Above rolled
the planets, each, by its own liquid orbit of light, distinguished
from the inferior or more distant stars. So strangely can
imagination deceive even those by whose volition it has been
excited, that Mannering, while gazing upon these brilliant bodies,
was half inclined to believe in the influence ascribed to them by
superstition over human events. But Mannering was a youthful
lover, and might perhaps be influenced by the feelings so
exquisitely expressed by a modern poet:--

For fable is Love's world, his home, his birthplace:
Delightedly dwells he 'mong fays, and talismans,
And spirits, and delightedly believes
Divinities, being himself divine
The intelligible forms of ancient poets,
The fair humanities of old religion,
The power, the beauty, and the majesty,
That had their haunts in dale, or piny mountain,
Or forest, by slow stream, or pebbly spring,
Or chasms and wat'ry depths--all these have vanish'd;
They live no longer in the faith of reason!
But still the heart doth need a language, still
Doth the old instinct bring back the old names.
And to yon starry world they now are gone,
Spirits or gods, that used to share this earth
With man as with their friend, and to the lover
Yonder they move, from yonder visible sky
Shoot influence down; and even at this day
'T is Jupiter who brings whate'er is great,
And Venus who brings everything that's fair.

Such musings soon gave way to others. 'Alas!' he muttered, 'my
good old tutor, who used to enter so deep into the controversy
between Heydon and Chambers on the subject of astrology, he would
have looked upon the scene with other eyes, and would have
seriously endeavoured to discover from the respective positions of
these luminaries their probable effects on the destiny of the new-
born infant, as if the courses or emanations of the stars
superseded, or at least were co-ordinate with, Divine Providence.
Well, rest be with him! he instilled into me enough of knowledge
for erecting a scheme of nativity, and therefore will I presently
go about it.' So saying, and having noted the position of the
principal planetary bodies, Guy Mannering returned to the house.
The Laird met him in the parlour, and, acquainting him with great
glee that the boy was a fine healthy little fellow, seemed rather
disposed to press further conviviality. He admitted, however,
Mannering's plea of weariness, and, conducting him to his sleeping
apartment, left him to repose for the evening.

CHAPTER IV

Come and see' trust thine own eyes
A fearful sign stands in the house of life,
An enemy a fiend lurks close behind
The radiance of thy planet O be warned!

COLERIDGE, from SCHILLER

The belief in astrology was almost universal in the middle of the
seventeenth century; it began to waver and become doubtful towards
the close of that period, and in the beginning of the eighteenth
the art fell into general disrepute, and even under general
ridicule. Yet it still retained many partizans even in the seats
of learning. Grave and studious men were both to relinquish the
calculations which had early become the principal objects of their
studies, and felt reluctant to descend from the predominating
height to which a supposed insight into futurity, by the power of
consulting abstract influences and conjunctions, had exalted them
over the rest of mankind.

Among those who cherished this imaginary privilege with undoubting
faith was an old clergyman with whom Mannering was placed during
his youth. He wasted his eyes in observing the stars, and his
brains in calculations upon their various combinations. His pupil,
in early youth, naturally caught some portion of his enthusiasm,
and laboured for a time to make himself master of the technical
process of astrological research; so that, before he became
convinced of its absurdity, William Lilly himself would have
allowed him 'a curious fancy and piercing judgment in resolving a
question of nativity.'

On the present occasion he arose as early in the morning as the
shortness of the day permitted, and proceeded to calculate the
nativity of the young heir of Ellangowan. He undertook the task
secundum artem, as well to keep up appearances as from a sort of
curiosity to know whether he yet remembered, and could practise,
the imaginary science. He accordingly erected his scheme, or
figure of heaven, divided into its twelve houses, placed the
planets therein according to the ephemeris, and rectified their
position to the hour and moment of the nativity. Without troubling
our readers with the general prognostications which judicial
astrology would have inferred from these circumstances, in this
diagram there was one significator which pressed remarkably upon
our astrologer's attention. Mars, having dignity in the cusp of
the twelfth house, threatened captivity or sudden and violent
death to the native; and Mannering, having recourse to those
further rules by which diviners pretend to ascertain the vehemency
of this evil direction, observed from the result that three
periods would be particularly hazardous--his fifth, his tenth, his
twenty-first year.

It was somewhat remarkable that Mannering had once before tried a
similar piece of foolery at the instance of Sophia Wellwood, the
young lady to whom he was attached, and that a similar conjunction
of planetary influence threatened her with death or imprisonment
in her thirty-ninth year. She was at this time eighteen; so that,
according to the result of the scheme in both cases, the same year
threatened her with the same misfortune that was presaged to the
native or infant whom that night had introduced into the world.
Struck with this coincidence, Mannering repeated his calculations;
and the result approximated the events predicted, until at length
the same month, and day of the month, seemed assigned as the
period of peril to both.

It will be readily believed that, in mentioning this circumstance,
we lay no weight whatever upon the pretended information thus
conveyed. But it often happens, such is our natural love for the
marvellous, that we willingly contribute our own efforts to
beguile our better judgments. Whether the coincidence which I have
mentioned was really one of those singular chances which sometimes
happen against all ordinary calculations; or whether Mannering,
bewildered amid the arithmetical labyrinth and technical jargon of
astrology, had insensibly twice followed the same clue to guide
him out of the maze; or whether his imagination, seduced by some
point of apparent resemblance, lent its aid to make the similitude
between the two operations more exactly accurate than it might
otherwise have been, it is impossible to guess; but the impression
upon his mind that the results exactly corresponded was vividly
and indelibly strong.

He could not help feeling surprise at a coincidence so singular
and unexpected. 'Does the devil mingle in the dance, to avenge
himself for our trifling with an art said to be of magical origin?
Or is it possible, as Bacon and Sir Thomas Browne admit, that
there is some truth in a sober and regulated astrology, and that
the influence of the stars is not to be denied, though the due
application of it by the knaves who pretend to practise the art is
greatly to be suspected?' A moment's consideration of the subject
induced him to dismiss this opinion as fantastical, and only
sanctioned by those learned men either because they durst not at
once shock the universal prejudices of their age, or because they
themselves were not altogether freed from the contagious influence
of a prevailing superstition. Yet the result of his calculations
in these two instances left so unpleasing an impression on his
mind that, like Prospero, he mentally relinquished his art, and
resolved, neither in jest nor earnest, ever again to practise
judicial astrology.

He hesitated a good deal what he should say to the Laird of
Ellangowan concerning the horoscope of his first-born; and at
length resolved plainly to tell him the judgment which he had
formed, at the same time acquainting him with the futility of the
rules of art on which he had proceeded. With this resolution he
walked out upon the terrace.

If the view of the scene around Ellangowan had been pleasing by
moonlight, it lost none of its beauty by the light of the morning
sun. The land, even in the month of November, smiled under its
influence. A steep but regular ascent led from the terrace to the
neighbouring eminence, and conducted Mannering to the front of the
old castle. It consisted of two massive round towers projecting
deeply and darkly at the extreme angles of a curtain, or flat
wall, which united them, and thus protecting the main entrance,
that opened through a lofty arch in the centre of the curtain into
the inner court of the castle. The arms of the family, carved in
freestone, frowned over the gateway, and the portal showed the
spaces arranged by the architect for lowering the portcullis and
raising the drawbridge. A rude farm-gate, made of young fir-trees
nailed together, now formed the only safeguard of this once
formidable entrance. The esplanade in front of the castle
commanded a noble prospect.

The dreary scene of desolation through which Mannering's road had
lain on the preceding evening was excluded from the view by some
rising ground, and the landscape showed a pleasing alternation of
hill and dale, intersected by a river, which was in some places
visible, and hidden in others, where it rolled betwixt deep and
wooded banks. The spire of a church and the appearance of some
houses indicated the situation of a village at the place where the
stream had its junction with the ocean. The vales seemed well
cultivated, the little inclosures into which they were divided
skirting the bottom of the hills, and sometimes carrying their
lines of straggling hedgerows a little way up the ascent. Above
these were green pastures, tenanted chiefly by herds of black
cattle, then the staple commodity of the country, whose distant
low gave no unpleasing animation to the landscape. The remoter
hills were of a sterner character, and, at still greater distance,
swelled into mountains of dark heath, bordering the horizon with a
screen which gave a defined and limited boundary to the cultivated
country, and added at the same time the pleasing idea that it was
sequestered and solitary. The sea-coast, which Mannering now saw
in its extent, corresponded in variety and beauty with the inland
view. In some places it rose into tall rocks, frequently crowned
with the ruins of old buildings, towers, or beacons, which,
according to tradition, were placed within sight of each other,
that, in times of invasion or civil war, they might communicate by
signal for mutual defence and protection. Ellangowan Castle was by
far the most extensive and important of these ruins, and asserted
from size and situation the superiority which its founders were
said once to have possessed among the chiefs and nobles of the
district. In other places the shore was of a more gentle
description, indented with small bays, where the land sloped
smoothly down, or sent into the sea promontories covered with
wood.

A scene so different from what last night's journey had presaged
produced a proportional effect upon Mannering. Beneath his eye lay
the modern house--an awkward mansion, indeed, in point of
architecture, but well situated, and with a warm, pleasant
exposure. 'How happily,' thought our hero, 'would life glide on in
such a retirement! On the one hand, the striking remnants of
ancient grandeur, with the secret consciousness of family pride
which they inspire; on the other, enough of modern elegance and
comfort to satisfy every moderate wish. Here then, and with thee,
Sophia!'

We shall not pursue a lover's day-dream any farther. Mannering
stood a minute with his arms folded, and then turned to the ruined
castle.

On entering the gateway, he found that the rude magnificence of
the inner court amply corresponded with the grandeur of the
exterior. On the one side ran a range of windows lofty and large,
divided by carved mullions of stone, which had once lighted the
great hall of the castle; on the other were various buildings of
different heights and dates, yet so united as to present to the
eye a certain general effect of uniformity of front. The doors and
windows were ornamented with projections exhibiting rude specimens
of sculpture and tracery, partly entire and partly broken down,
partly covered by ivy and trailing plants, which grew luxuriantly
among the ruins. That end of the court which faced the entrance
had also been formerly closed by a range of buildings; but owing,
it was said, to its having been battered by the ships of the
Parliament under Deane, during the long civil war, this part of
the castle was much more ruinous than the rest, and exhibited a
great chasm, through which Mannering could observe the sea, and
the little vessel (an armed lugger), which retained her station in
the centre of the bay. [Footnote: The outline of the above
description, as far as the supposed ruins are concerned, will be
found somewhat to resemble the noble remains of Carlaverock
Castle, six or seven miles from Dumfries, and near to Lochar
Moss.] While Mannering was gazing round the ruins, he heard from
the interior of an apartment on the left hand the voice of the
gipsy he had seen on the preceding evening. He soon found an
aperture through which he could observe her without being himself
visible; and could not help feeling that her figure, her
employment, and her situation conveyed the exact impression of an
ancient sibyl.

She sate upon a broken corner-stone in the angle of a paved
apartment, part of which she had swept clean to afford a smooth
space for the evolutions of her spindle. A strong sunbeam through
a lofty and narrow window fell upon her wild dress and features,
and afforded her light for her occupation; the rest of the
apartment was very gloomy. Equipt in a habit which mingled the
national dress of the Scottish common people with something of an
Eastern costume, she spun a thread drawn from wool of three
different colours, black, white, and grey, by assistance of those
ancient implements of housewifery now almost banished from the
land, the distaff and spindle. As she spun, she sung what seemed
to be a charm. Mannering, after in vain attempting to make himself
master of the exact words of her song, afterwards attempted the
following paraphrase of what, from a few intelligible phrases, he
concluded to be its purport:--

Twist ye, twine ye! even so
Mingle shades of joy and woe,
Hope, and fear, and peace, and strife,
In the thread of human life.

While the mystic twist is spinning,
And the infant's life beginning,
Dimly seen through twilight bending,
Lo, what varied shapes attending!

Passions wild, and Follies vain,
Pleasures soon exchanged for pain,
Doubt, and Jealousy, and Fear
In the magic dance appear.

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