Embarked on the bosom of Loch Fine,Captain Dalgetty might have admired one of the grandest scenes which nature affords.He might have noticed the rival rivers Aray and Shiray,which pay tribute to the lake,each issuing from its own dark and wooded retreat.He might have marked,on the soft and gentle slope that ascends from the shores,the noble old Gothic castle,with its varied outline,embattled walls,towers,and outer and inner courts,which,so far as the picturesque is concerned,presented an aspect much more striking than the present massive and uniform mansion.He might have admired those dark woods which for many a mile surrounded this strong and princely dwelling,and his eye might have dwelt on the picturesque peak of Duniquoich,starting abruptly from the lake,and raising its scathed brow into the mists of middle sky,while a solitary watch-tower,perched on its top like an eagle's nest,gave dignity to the scene by awakening a sense of possible danger.All these,and every other accompaniment of this noble scene,Captain Dalgetty might have marked,if he had been so minded.But,to confess the truth,the gallant Captain,who had eaten nothing since daybreak,was chiefly interested by the smoke which ascended from the castle chimneys,and the expectations which this seemed to warrant of his encountering an abundant stock of provant,as he was wont to call supplies of this nature.
The boat soon approached the rugged pier,which abutted into the loch from the little town of Inverary,then a rude assemblage of huts,with a very few stone mansions interspersed,stretching upwards from the banks of Loch Fine to the principal gate of the castle,before which a scene presented itself that might easily have quelled a less stout heart,and turned a more delicate stomach,than those of Ritt-master Dugald Dalgetty,titular of Drumthwacket.
CHAPTER XII.
For close designs and crooked counsels fit,Sagacious,bold,and turbulent of wit,Restless,unfix'd in principle and place,In power unpleased,impatient in disgrace.
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL.
The village of Inverary,now a neat country town,then partook of the rudeness of the seventeenth century,in the miserable appearance of the houses,and the irregularity of the unpaved street.But a stronger and more terrible characteristic of the period appeared in the market-place,which was a space of irregular width,half way betwixt the harbour,or pier,and the frowning castle-gate,which terminated with its gloomy archway,portcullis,and flankers,the upper end of the vista.Midway this space was erected a rude gibbet,on which hung five dead bodies,two of which from their dress seemed to have been Lowlanders,and the other three corpses were muffled in their Highland plaids.Two or three women sate under the gallows,who seemed to be mourning,and singing the coronach of the deceased in a low voice.But the spectacle was apparently of too ordinary occurrence to have much interest for the inhabitants at large,who,while they thronged to look at the military figure,the horse of an unusual size,and the burnished panoply of Captain Dalgetty,seemed to bestow no attention whatever on the piteous spectacle which their own market-place afforded.
The envoy of Montrose was not quite so indifferent;and,hearing a word or two of English escape from a Highlander of decent appearance,he immediately halted Gustavus and addressed him,"The Provost-Marshal has been busy here,my friend.May I crave of you what these delinquents have been justified for?"
He looked towards the gibbet as he spoke;and the Gael,comprehending his meaning rather by his action than his words,immediately replied,"Three gentlemen caterans,--God sain them"
(crossing himself)--"twa Sassenach bits o'bodies,that wadna do something that M'Callum More bade them;"and turning from Dalgetty with an air of indifference,away he walked,staying no farther question.
Dalgetty shrugged his shoulders and proceeded,for Sir Duncan Campbell's tenth or twelfth cousin had already shown some signs of impatience.
At the gate of the castle another terrible spectacle of feudal power awaited him.Within a stockade or palisade,which seemed lately to have been added to the defences of the gate,and which was protected by two pieces of light artillery,was a small enclosure,where stood a huge block,on which lay an axe.Both were smeared with recent blood,and a quantity of saw-dust strewed around,partly retained and partly obliterated the marks of a very late execution.
As Dalgetty looked on this new object of terror,his principal guide suddenly twitched him by the skirt of his jerkin,and having thus attracted his attention,winked and pointed with his finger to a pole fixed on the stockade,which supported a human head,being that,doubtless,of the late sufferer.There was a leer on the Highlander's face,as he pointed to this ghastly spectacle,which seemed to his fellow-traveller ominous of nothing good.
Dalgetty dismounted from his horse at the gateway,and Gustavus was taken from him without his being permitted to attend him to the stable,according to his custom.
This gave the soldier a pang which the apparatus of death had not conveyed.--"Poor Gustavus!"said he to himself,"if anything but good happens to me,I had better have left him at Darnlinvarach than brought him here among these Highland salvages,who scarce know the head of a horse from his tail.But duty must part a man from his nearest and dearest--
"When the cannons are roaring,lads,and the colours are flying,The lads that seek honour must never fear dying;
Then,stout cavaliers,let us toil our brave trade in,And fight for the Gospel and the bold King of Sweden."
Thus silencing his apprehensions with the but-end of a military ballad,he followed his guide into a sort of guard-room filled with armed Highlanders.It was intimated to him that he must remain here until his arrival was communicated to the Marquis.
