a little way, till, seating himself on the ground, retaining still the tether in hand, he said, "Now, bonnie lady, feast thy fill on this good greenswardit is halesome and holy, compared to the sward at the doomed cottage of auld Gibbie Gyrape-leave that to smugglers' nags: Willie O'Brandyburn and Roaring Jock O'Kemstane will ca' the haunted ha' a hained bit-they are godless fearnoughts." I looked at the person of the peasant; he was a stout hale old man, with a weather-beaten face, furrowed something by time, and, perhaps, by sorrow. Though summer was at its warmest, he wore a broad chequered mantle, fastened at the bosom with a skewer of steel,-a broad bonnet, from beneath the circumference of which straggled a few thin locks, as white as driven snow, shining like amber, and softer than the finest flax,while his legs were warmly cased in blue-ribbed boot hose. Having laid This charge to the grass, he looked leisurely around him, and espying mea stranger, and dressed above the manner of the peasantry, he acknowledged my presence by touching his bonnet ; and, as if willing to communicate something of importance, he stuck the tether stake in the ground, and came to the old garden fence. Wishing to know the peasant's reasons for avoiding the ruins, I thus addressed him "This is a pretty spot, my aged friend, and the herbage looks so fresh and abundant, that I would advise thee to bring thy charge hither; and while she continued to browze, I would gladly listen to the history of thy white locks, for they seem to have been bleached in many tempests." Aye, aye," said the peasant, shaking his white head with a grave smile, they have braved sundry tempests between sixteen and sixty; but touching this pasture, Sir, I know nobody who would like their cows to crop it-the aged cattle shun the place the bushes bloom, but bear no fruit-the birds never build in the branches the children never come near 66 to play and the aged never choose it for a resting-place; but pointing it out, as they pass, to the young, tell them the story of its desolation. Sae ye see, Sir, having nae good will to such a spot of earth myself, I like little to see a stranger sitting in such an unblessed place; and I would as good as advise ye to come owre with me to the cowslip knoll-there are reasons mony that an honest man should nae sit there." I arose at once, and seating myself beside the peasant on the cowslip knoll, desired to know something of the history of the spot from which he had just warned me. The Caledonian looked on me with an air of embarrassment :-" I am just thinking," said he, " that as ye are an Englishman, I should nae acquaint ye with such a story. Ye'll make it, I'm doubting, a matter of reproach and vaunt, when ye gae hame, how Willie Borlan o' Caerlaverock told ye a tale of Scottish iniquity, that cowed all the stories in southron book or history." This unexpected obstacle was soon reMy sage and considerate friend," I said, "I have the blood in my bosom will keep me from revealing such a tale to the scoffer and scorner. I am something of a Caerlaverock man -the grandson of Marion Stobie of Dookdub.' The peasant seized my hand-"Marion Stobie! bonnie Marion moved. 66 Stobie o' Dookdub-whom I wooed sae sair, and loved sae lang!-Man I love ye for her sake, and well was it for her braw English bridegroom, that William Borlan-frail and faded now-but strong and in manhood then, was a thousand miles from Caerlaverock, rolling on the salt sea, when she was brided:-ye have the glance of her ee,-I could ken't yet amang ten thousand, gray as my head is. I shall tell the grandson of bonnie Marion Stobie ony tale he likes to ask for; and the story of the Ghost and the Gowd Casket shall be foremost." "You may imagine, then," said the old Caerlaverock peasant, rising at once with the commencement of his story from his native dialect into very passable English-" you may imagine these ruined walls raised again in their beauty-whitened, and covered with a coating of green broom; that garden, now desolate, filled with herbs in their season, and with flowers, hemmed round with a fence of cherry and plum-trees; and the whole possessed by a young fisherman, who won a fair subsistence for his wife and children, from the waters of the Solway sea: you may imagine it, too, as far from the present time as fifty years. There are only two persons living now, who remember when the Bonne-Homme-Richard, the first ship ever Richard Faulder commanded, was wrecked on the Pellock sand-one of these persons now addresses you the other is the fisherman who once owned that cottage-whose name ought never to be mentioned, and whose life seems lengthened as a warning to the earth, how fierce God's judgments are. Life changes-all breathing things have their time and their season; but the Solway flows in the same beauty -Criffel rises in the same majestythe light of morning comes, and the full moon arises now, as they did then -but this moralizing matters little. It was about the middle of harvest-I remember the day well-it had been sultry and suffocating, accompanied by rushings of wind,-sudden convulsions of the water, and cloudings of the sun; I heard my father sigh, and say, dool -dool to them found on the deep sea to-night-there will happen strong storm and fearful tempest.' The day closed, and the moon came over Skiddaw all was perfectly clear and stillfrequent dashings and whirling agitations of the sea were soon heard mingling with the hasty clang of the waterfowls' wings, as they forsook the waves, and sought shelter among the hollows of the rocks. The storm was nigh. The sky darkened down at once-clap after clap of thunder followed, and lightning flashed so vividly, and so frequent, that the wide and agitated ex panse of Solway was visible from side to side from St. Bees to Barnhourie. A very heavy rain, mingled with hail, succeeded; and a wind accompanied it, so fierce, and so high, that the white foam of the sea was showered as thick as snow on the summit of Caerlaverock castle. Through this perilous sea, and amid this darkness and tempest, a bark was observed coming swiftly down the middle of the sea— -her sails rent and her decks crowded with people. The carry, as it is called, of the tempest was direct from St. Bees to Caerlaverock; and experienced swains could see that the bark would be driven full on the fatal shoals of the Scottish side but the lightning was so fierce that few dared venture to look on the approaching vessel, or take measures for endeavouring to preserve the lives of the unfortunate mariners. My father stood on the threshold of his door, and beheld all that passed in the bosom of the sea. the sea. The bark approached fasther canvas rent to threads, her masts nearly levelled with the deck, and the sea foaming over her so deep, and so strong, as to threaten to sweep the remains of her crew from the little refuge the broken masts and splintered beams still afforded them. She now seemed within half a mile from the shore, when a strong flash of lightning, that appeared to hang over the bark for a moment, shewed the figure of a lady, richly dressed, clinging to a youth who was pressing her to his bosom. My father exclaimed, Saddle me my black horse, and saddle me my grey, and bring them down to the Deadman's bank'-and swift in action as he was in resolve, he hastened to the shore, his servants following with his horses. The shore of Solway presented then, as it does now, the same varying line of coast-and the house of my father stood in the bosom of a little bay, nearly a mile from where we sit. The remains of an old forest interposed between the bay at Deadman's bank, and the bay at our feet; and mariners had learnt to wish 6 that if it were their doom to be wrecked, it might be in the bay of douce William Borlan, rather than that of Gilbert Gyrape, the proprietor of that ruined cottage. But human wishes are vanities, wished either by sea or land. I have heard my father say he could never forget the cries of the mariners, as the bark smote on the Pellock-bank, and the flood rushed through the chasms made by the concussion-but he would far less forget the agony of a lady-the loveliest that could be looked upon, and the calm and affectionate courage of the young man who supported her, and endeavoured to save her from destruction. Richard Faulder, the only man who survived, has often sat at my fire side, and sung me a very rude, but a very moving ballad, which he made on this accomplished and unhappy pair: and the old mariner assured me he had only added rhymes, and a descriptive line or two, to the language in which Sir William Musgrave endeavoured to soothe and support his wife." It seemed a thing truly singular, that at this very moment two young fishermen, who sat on the margin of the sea below us, watching their halvenets, should sing, and with much sweetness, the very song the old man had described. They warbled verse and verse alternately; and rock and bay seemed to retain, and then release the sound. Nothing is so sweet as a song by the sea-side on a tranquil evening. Sir William Musgrave. FIRST FISHERMAN, "O lady, lady, why do you weep! Though the wind be loosed on the raging deep, SECOND FISHERMAN. "O lady, lady, why do you cry? Though the waves be flashing top-mast bigli, FIRST FISHERMAN, "O lady, lady, weep not, nor wail, "O lady, lady, be bold and brave, The young fishermen having concluded their song, my companion proceeded. "The lightning still flashed vivid and fast, and the storm raged with unabated fury; for between the ship and the shore, the sea broke in frightful undulation, and leaped on the greensward several fathoms deep abreast. My father mounted on one horse, and holding another in his hand, stood prepared to give all the aid that a brave man could, to the unhappy mariners; but neither horse nor man could endure the onset of that tremendous surge. The bark bore for a time the fury of the element, but a strong eastern wind came suddenly upon her, and, crushing her between the wave and the freestone bank, drove her from the entrance of my father's little bay towards the dwelling of Gibbie Gyrape, and the thick forest intervening, she was out of sight in a moment. My father saw, for the last time, the lady and her husband looking shoreward from the side of the vessel, as she drifted along; and as he galloped round the head of the forest, he heard for the last time the outcry of some, and the wail and intercession of others. When he came before the fisherman's house, a fearful sight presented itself; the ship dashed to atoms, covered the shore with its wreck, and with the bodies of the mariners; not a living soul escaped, save Richard Faulder, whom the fiend who guides the spectre-shallop of Solway had rendered proof to perils on the deep. The fisherman himself came suddenly from his cottage, all dripping and drenched, and my father addressed him. 'Oh Gilbert, Gilbert, what a fearful sight is this; has heaven blessed thee with making thee the means of saving a human soul? Nor soul nor body have I saved,' said the fisherman doggedly I have done my best; the storm proved too stark, and the lightning too fierce for me; their boat alone came near with a lady and a casket of gold; but she was swallowed up with the surge.' My father confessed afterwards, that he was touched with the tone in which these words were delivered, and made answer, If thou hast done thy best to save souls to-night, a bright reward will be thine; if thou hast been fonder for gain than for working the mariners' redemption, thou hast much to answer for. As he uttered these words, an immense wave rolled landward as far as the place where they stood; it almost left its foam on their faces, and suddenly receding, deposited at their feet the dead body of the lady. As my father lifted her in his arms, he observed that the jewels which had adorned her hair, at that time worn long, had been forcibly rent away: the diamonds and gold that enclosed her neck, and ornamented the bosom of her rich satin dress, had been torn off; the rings removed from her fingers; and on her neck, lately so lily-white and pure, there appeared the marks of handsnot laid there in love and gentleness, but with a fierce and deadly grasp. The lady was buried with the body of her husband, side by side, in Caerlaverock burial-ground. My father never openly accused Gilbert the fisherman of having murdered the lady for her riches as she reached the shore, preserved, as was supposed, from sinking, by her long, wide, and stiff satin robes; but from that hour till the hour of his death, my father never broke bread with him; never shook him or his by the hand; nor spoke with them in wrath or in love. The fisherman from that time too waxed rich and prosperous; and from being the needy proprietor of a halve-net, and the tenant at will of a rude cottage, he became, by purchase, lord of a handsome inheritance; proceeded to build a bonny mansion, and called it Gyrape-ha'; and became a leading man in a flock of a purer kind of Presbyterians; and a precept and example to the community. "Though the portioner of Gyrapeha' prospered wonderously, his claims to parochial distinction, and the continuance of his fortune, were treated with scorn by many, and with doubt by all: though nothing open or direct was said; looks more cutting at times than the keenest speech, and actions, still more expressive, shewed that the hearts of honest men were alienated; the cause was left to his own interpretation. The peasant scrupled to become his servant; sailors hesitated to receive his grain on board, lest perils should find them on the deep; the beggar ceased to solicit an awmous; the dro ver, and horse couper, an unscrupling generation, found out a more distant mode of concluding bargains than by shaking his hand; his daughters, handsome and blue-eyed, were neither wooed nor married; no maiden would hold tryste with his sons; though maidens were then as little loth as they are now; and the aged peasant, as he passed his new mansion, would shake his head and say The voice of spilt blood will be lifted up against thee; and a spirit shall come up from the waters will make the corner-stone of thy habitation tremble and quake. It happened, during the summer which succeeded this unfortunate shipwreck, that I accompanied my father to the Solway, to examine his nets. It was near midnight the tide was making, and I sat down by his side and watched the coming of the waters. The shore was glittering in star-light as far as the eye could reach. Gilbert, the fisherman, had that morning removed from his cottage to his new mansion; the former was, therefore, untenanted; and the latter 6 from its vantage ground on the crest of the hill, threw down to us the sound of mirth, and music, and dancing; a revelry common in Scotland, on taking possession of a new house. As we lay quietly looking on the swelling sea, and observing the water-fowl swimming and ducking in the encreasing waters, the sound of the merriment became more audible. My father listened to the mirth -looked to the sea-looked to the deserted cottage, and then to the new mansion, and said, My son, I have a counsel to give thee, treasure it in thy heart, and practise it in thy life-the daughters of him of Gyrape-ha' are fair, and have an eye that would wile away the wits of the wisest-their father has wealth-I say nought of the way he came by it-they will have golden portions doubtless. But I would rather Jay thy head aneath the gowans in Caerlaverock kirk-yard, and son have I none beside thee, than see thee lay it on the bridal pillow with the begotten of that man, though she had Nithsdale for her dowry. Let not my words be as seed sown on the ocean. I may not now tell thee why this warning is given. Before that fatal shipwreck, I would have said Prudence Gyrape, in her kirtle, was a better bride than some who have golden dowers. I have long thought some one would see a sight; and often, while holding my halve-net in the midnight tide, have I looked for something to appear-for where blood is shed there doth the spirit haunt for a time, and give warning to man. May I be strengthened to endure the sight! I answered not, being accustomed to regard my father's counsel as a matter not to be debated-as a solemn command; we heard something like the rustling of wings on the water-accompanied by a slight curling motion of the tide. God haud his right hand about us said my father, breathing thick with emotion and awe, and looking on the sea with a gaze so intense that his eyes seemed to dilate, and the hair of his forehead to project forward, and bristle into life. I looked, but observed nothing, save a long line of thin and quivering light, dancing along the surface of the sea: it ascended the bank, on which it seemed to linger for a moment, and then entering the fisherman's cottage, made roof and rafter gleam with a sudden illumination. “I'll tell thee what, Gibbie Gyrape,' said my father, 'I wouldna be the owner of thy heart, and the proprietor of thy right hand, for all the treasures in earth and ocean.' A loud and piercing scream from the cottage made us thrill with fear, and in a moment the figures of three human beings rushed into the open air, and run towards us with a swiftness which supernatural dread alone could inspire. We instantly knew them to be three noted smugglers, who infested the country; and rallying when they found my father maintain his ground they thus mingled their fears and the secrets of their trade-for terror fairly overpowered their habitual caution. "I vow by the night tide, and the crooked timber,' said Willie Weethause, never beheld sic a light as yon since our distillation pipe took fire, and made a burnt, instead of a drink-offering of our spirits. I'll uphold it comes for nae good a warning may be-sae ye may gang on, Wattie Bouseaway, wi' yere wickedness-as for me, I'se gae hame and repent.' "Saulless bodie !' said his companion, whose natural hardihood was considerably supported by his communion with the brandy cup. I Saulless bodie, for a staff o' fire and a maiden's shadow would ye forswear the gallant trade. Saul to gude! but auld Miller Morison shall turn yere thraffle into a drain-pipe to wyse the waste water from his mill, if ye turn back now, and help us nae through with as strong an importation as ever cheered the throat and cheeped on the crapin. Confound the fizzenless bodie! he glowers as if this fine starlight were something frae the warst side of the world, and thae staring e'en o' his are busy shaping heaven's sweetest and balmiest air into. |