We worldly men, when we see friends and kinsmen Past hope sunk in their
fortunes, lend no hand To lift them up, but rather set our feet Upon their heads
to press them to the bottom, As I must yield with you I practised it; But now I
see you in a way to rise, I can and will assist you.
New Way to Pay Old Debts.
THE Lord Keeper carried with him, to a couch harder than he was accustomed to
stretch himself upon, the same ambitious thoughts and political perplexities
which drive sleep from the softest down that ever spread a bed of state. He had
sailed long enough amid the contending tides and currents of the time to be
sensible of their peril, and of the necessity of trimming his vessel to the
prevailing wind, if he would have her escape shipwreck in the storm. The nature
of his talents, and the timorousness of disposition connected with them, had
made him assume the pliability of the versatile old Earl of Northampton, who
explained the art by which he kept his ground during all the changes of state,
from the reign of Henry VIII. to that of Elizabeth, by the frank avowal, that he
was born of the willow, not of the oak. It had accordingly been Sir William
Ashton's policy, on all occasions, to watch the changes in the political
horizon, and, ere yet the conflict was decided, to negotiate some interest for
himself with the party most likely to prove victorious. His time-serving
disposition was well-known, and excited the contempt of the more daring leaders
of both factions in the state. But his talents were of a useful and practical
kind, and his legal knowledge held in high estimation; and they so far
counterbalanced other deficiencies that those in power were glad to use and to
reward, though without absolutely trusting or greating respecting, him.
The Marquis of A---- had used his utmost influence to effect a change in the
Scottish cabinet, and his schemes had been of late so well laid and so ably
supported, that there appeared a very great chance of his proving ultimately
successful. He did not, however, feel so strong or so confident as to neglect
any means of drawing recruits to his standard. The acquisition of the Lord
Keeper was deemed of some importance, and a friend, perfectly acquainted with
his circumstances and character, became responsible for his political
conversion.
When this gentleman arrived at Ravenswood Castle upon a visit, the real
purpose of which was disguised under general courtesy, he found the prevailing
fear which at present beset the Lord Keeper was that of danger to his own person
from the Master of Ravenswood. The language which the blind sibyl, Old Alice,
had used; the sudden appearance of the Master, armed, and within his precincts,
immediately after he had been warned against danger from him; the cold and
haughty return received in exchange for the acknowledgments with which he loaded
him for his timely protection, had all made a strong impression on his
imagination.
So soon as the Marquis's political agent found how the wind sate, he began to
insinuate fears and doubts of another kind, scarce less calculated to affect the
Lord Keeper. He inquired with seeming interest, whether the proceedings in Sir
William's complicated litigation with the Ravenswood family were out of court,
and settled without the possibility of appeal. The Lord Keeper answered in the
affirmative; but his interrogator was too well informed to be imposed upon. He
pointed out to him, by unanswerable arguments, that some of the most important
points which had been decided in his favour against the house of Ravenswood were
liable, under the Treaty of Union, to be reviewed by the British House of Peers,
a court of equity of which the Lord Keeper felt an instinctive dread. This
course came instead of an appeal to the old Scottish Parliament, or, as it was
technically termed, "a protestation for remeid in law."
The Lord Keeper, after he had for some time disputed the legality of such a
proceeding, was compelled, at length, to comfort himself with the improbability
of the young Master of Ravenswood's finding friends in parliament capable of
stirring in so weighty an affair.
"Do not comfort yourself with that false hope," said his wily friend; "it is
possible that, in the next session of Parliament, young Ravenswood may find more
friends and favour even than your lordship."
"That would be a sight worth seeing," said the Keeper, scornfully.
"And yet," said his friend, "such things have been seen ere now, and in our
own time. There are many at the head of affairs even now that a few years ago
were under hiding for their lives; and many a man now dines on plate of silver
that was fain to eat his crowdy without a bicker; and many a high head has been
brought full low among us in as short a space. Scott of Scotsarvet's Staggering
State of Scots Statesmen, of which curious memoir you showed me a manuscript,
has been outstaggered in our time."
The Lord Keeper answered with a deep sigh, "That these mutations were no new
sights in Scotland, and had been witnessed long before the time of the satirical
author he had quoted. It was many a long year," he said, "since Fordun had
quoted as an ancient proverb, 'Neque dives, neque fortis, sed nec sapiens
Scotus, praedominante invidia, diu durabit in terra.'"
"And be assured, my esteemed friend," was the answer, "that even your long
services to the state, or deep legal knowledge, will not save you, or render
your estate stable, if the Marquis of A-- -- comes in with a party in the
British Parliament. You know that the deceased Lord Ravenswood was his near
ally, his lady being fifth in descent from the Knight of Tillibardine; and I am
well assured that he will take young Ravenswood by the hand, and be his very
good lord and kinsman. Why should he not? The Master is an active and stirring
young fellow, able to help himself with tongue and hands; and it is such as he
that finds friends among their kindred, and not those unarmed and unable
Mephibosheths that are sure to be a burden to every one that takes them up. And
so, if these Ravenswood cases be called over the coals in the House of Peers,
you will find that the Marquis will have a crow to pluck with you."
"That would be an evil requital," said the Lord Keeper, "for my long services
to the state, and the ancient respect in which I have held his lordship's
honourable family and person."
"Ay, but," rejoined the agent of the Marquis, "it is in vain to look back on
past service and auld respect, my lord; it will be present service and immediate
proofs of regard which, in these sliddery times, will be expected by a man like
the Marquis."
The Lord Keeper now saw the full drift of his friend's argument, but he was
too cautious to return any positive answer.
"He knew not," he said, "the service which the Lord Marquis could expect from
one of his limited abilities, that had not always stood at his command, still
saving and reserving his duty to his king and country."
Having thus said nothing, while he seemed to say everything, for the
exception was calculated to cover whatever he might afterwards think proper to
bring under it, Sir William Ashton changed the conversation, nor did he again
permit the same topic to be introduced. His guest departed, without having
brought the wily old statesman the length of committing himself, or of pledging
himself to any future line of conduct, but with the certainty that he had
alarmed his fears in a most sensible point, and laid a foundation for future and
farther treaty.
When he rendered an account of his negotiation to the Marquis, they both
agreed that the Keeper ought not to be permitted to relapse into security, and
that he should be plied with new subjects of alarm, especially during the
absence of his lady. They were well aware that her proud, vindictive, and
predominating spirit would be likely to supply him with the courage in which he
was deficient; that she was immovably attached to the party now in power, with
whom she maintained a close correspondence and alliance; and that she hated,
without fearing, the Ravenswood family (whose more ancient dignity threw
discredit on the newly acquired grandeur of her husband) to such a degree that
she would have perilled the interest of her own house to have the prospect of
altogether crushing that of her enemy.
But Lady Ashton was now absent. The business which had long detained her in
Edinburgh had afterwards induced her to travel to London, not without the hope
that she might contribute her share to disconcert the intrigues of the Marquis
at court; for she stood high in favour with the celebrated Sarah Duchesss of
Marlborough, to whom, in point of character, she bore considerable resemblance.
It was necessary to press her husband hard before her return; and, as a
preparatory step, the Marquis wrote to the Master of Ravenswood the letter which
we rehearsed in a former chapter. It was cautiously worded, so as to leave it in
the power of the writer hereafter to take as deep or as slight an interest in
the fortunes of his kinsmen as the progress of his own schemes might require.
But however unwilling, as a statesman, the Marquis might be to commit himself,
or assume the character of a patron, while he had nothing to give away, it must
be said to his honour that he felt a strong inclination effectually to befriend
the Master of Ravenswood, as well as to use his name as a means of alarming the
terrors of the Lord Keeper.
As the messenger who carried this letter was to pass near the house of the
Lord Keeper, he had it in direction that, in the village adjoining to the
park-gate of the castle, his horse should lose a shoe, and that, while it was
replaced by the smith of the place, he should express the utmost regret for the
necessary loss of time, and in the vehemence of his impatience give it to be
understood that he was bearing a message from the Marquis of A---- to the Master
of Ravenswood upon a matter of life and death.
This news, with exaggerations, was speedily carried from various quarters to
the ears of the Lord Keeper, and each reporter dwelt upon the extreme impatience
of the courier, and the surprising short time in which he had executed his
journey. The anxious statesman heard in silence; but in private Lockhard
received orders to watch the courier on his return, to waylay him in the
village, to ply him with liquor, if possible, and to use all means, fair or
foul, to learn the contents of the letter of which he was the bearer. But as
this plot had been foreseen, the messenger returned by a different and distant
road, and thus escaped the snare that was laid for him.
After he had been in vain expected for some time, Mr. Dingwall had orders to
made especial inquiry among his clients of Wolf's Hope, whether such a domestic
belonging to the Marquis of A---- had actually arrived at the neighbouring
castle. This was easily ascertained; for Caleb had been in the village one
morning by five o'clock, to borrow "twa chappins of ale and a kipper" for the
messenger's refreshment, and the poor fellow had been ill for twenty-four hours
at Luckie Sma'trash's, in consequence of dining upon "saut saumon and sour
drink." So that the existence of a correspondence betwixt the Marquis and his
distressed kinsman, which Sir William Ashton had sometimes treated as a bugbear,
was proved beyond the possibility of further doubt.
The alarm of the Lord Keeper became very serious; since the Claim of Right,
the power of appealing from the decisions of the civil court to the Estates of
Parliament, which had formerly been held incompetent, had in many instances been
claimed, and in some allowed, and he had no small reason to apprehend the issue,
if the English House of Lords should be disposed to act upon an appeal from the
Master of Ravenswood "for remeid in law." It would resolve into an equitable
claim, and be decided, perhaps, upon the broad principles of justice, which were
not quite so favourable to the Lord Keeper as those of strict law. Besides,
judging, though most inaccurately, from courts which he had himself known in the
unhappy times preceding the Scottish Union, the Keeper might have too much right
to think that, in the House to which his lawsuits were to be transferred, the
old maxim might prevail which was too well recognised in Scotland in former
times: "Show me the man, and I'll show you the law." The high and unbiassed
character of English judicial proceedings was then little known in Scotland, and
the extension of them to that country was one of the most valuable advantages
which it gained by the Union. But this was a blessing which the Lord Keeper, who
had lived under another system, could not have the means of foreseeing. In the
loss of his political consequence, he anticipated the loss of his lawsuit.
Meanwhile, every report which reached him served to render the success of the
Marquis's intrigues the more probable, and the Lord Keeper began to think it
indispensable that he should look round for some kind of protection against the
coming storm. The timidity of his temper induced him to adopt measures of
compromise and conciliation. The affair of the wild bull, properly managed,
might, he thought, be made to facilitate a personal communication and
reconciliation betwixt the Master and himself. He would then learn, if possible,
what his own ideas were of the extent of his rights, and the means of enforcing
them; and perhaps matters might be brought to a compromise, where one party was
wealthy and the other so very poor. A reconciliation with Ravenswood was likely
to give him an opportunity to play his own game with the Marquis of A----. "And
besides," said he to himself, "it will be an act of generosity to raise up the
heir of this distressed family; and if he is to be warmly and effectually
befriended by the new government, who knows but my virtue may prove its own
reward?"
Thus thought Sir William Ashton, covering with no unusual self- delusion his
interested views with a hue of virtue; and having attained this point, his fancy
strayed still farther. He began to bethink himself, "That if Ravenswood was to
have a distinguished place of power and trust, and if such a union would sopite
the heavier part of his unadjusted claims, there might be worse matches for his
daughter Lucy: the Master might be reponed against the attainder. Lord
Ravenswood was an ancient title, and the alliance would, in some measure,
legitimate his own possession of the greater part of the Master's spoils, and
make the surrender of the rest a subject of less bitter regret."
With these mingled and multifarious plans occupying his head, the Lord Keeper
availed himself of my Lord Bittlebrains's repeated invitation to his residence,
and thus came within a very few miles of Wolf's Crag. Here he found the lord of
the mansion absent, but was couteously received by the lady, who expected her
husband's immediate return. She expressed her particular delight at seeing Miss
Ashton, and appointed the hounds to be taken out for the Lord Keeper's special
amusement. He readily entered into the proposal, as giving him an opportunity to
reconnoitre Wolf's Crag, and perhaps to make some acquaintance with the owner,
if he should be tempted from his desolate mansion by the chase. Lockhard had his
orders to endeavour on his part to make some acquaintance with the inmates of
the castle, and we have seen how he played his part.
The accidental storm did more to further the Lord Keeper's plan of forming a
personal acquaintance with young Ravenswood than his most sanguine expectations
could have anticipated. His fear of the young nobleman's personal resentment had
greatly decreased since he considered him as formidable from his legal claims
and the means he might have of enforcing them. But although he thought, not
unreasonably, that only desperate circumstances drove men on desperate measures,
it was not without a secret terror, which shook his heart within him, that he
first felt himself inclosed within the desolate Tower of Wolf's Crag; a place so
well fitted, from solitude and strength, to be a scene of violence and
vengeance. The stern reception at first given to them by the Master of
Ravenswood, and the difficulty he felt in explaining to that injured nobleman
what guests were under the shelter of his roof, did not soothe these alarms; so
that when Sir William Ashton heard the door of the courtyard shut behind him
with violence, the words of Alice rung in his ears, "That he had drawn on
matters too hardly with so fierce a race as those of Ravenswood, and that they
would bide their time to be avenged."
The subsequent frankness of the Master's hospitality, as their acquaintance
increased, abated the apprehensions these recollections were calculated to
excite; and it did not escape Sir William Ashton, that it was to Lucy's grace
and beauty he owed the change in their host's behavior.
All these thoughts thronged upon him when he took possession of the secret
chamber. The iron lamp, the unfurnished apartment, more resembling a prison than
a place of ordinary repose, the hoarse and ceaseless sound of the waves rushing
against the base of the rock on which the castle was founded, saddened and
perplexed his mind. To his own successful machinations, the ruin of the family
had been in a great measure owing, but his disposition was crafty, and not
cruel; so that actually to witness the desolation and distress he had himself
occasioned was as painful to him as it would be to the humane mistress of a
family to superintend in person the execution of the lambs and poultry which are
killed by her own directions. At the same time, when he thought of the
alternative of restoring to Ravenswood a large proportion of his spoils, or of
adopting, as an ally and member of his own family, the heir of this impoverished
house, he felt as the spider may be supposed to do when his whole web, the
intricacies of whyich had been planned with so much art, is destroyed by the
chance sweep of a broom. And then, if he should commit himself too far in this
matter, it gave rise to a perilous question, which many a good husband, when
under temptation to act as a free agent, has asked himself without being able to
return a satisfactory answer: "What will my wife--what will Lady Ashton say?" On
the whole, he came at length to the resolution in which minds of a weaker cast
so often take refuge. He resolved to watch events, to take advantage of
circumstances as they occurred, and regulate his conduct accordingly. In this
spirit of temporising policy, he at length composed his mind to rest.
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