If there was a shut eye in the great House of Earlstoun that night, it was neither mine nor my mother's. We lay and thought of them that were over the hill, striving for the Other King and the good cause. And our thoughts were prayers, though there was none to "take the Book" in Earlstoun that night, for I was never gifted that way. So we bedded without sound of singing or voice of prayer, though I think Jean Hamilton had done it for the asking.
I lay in my naked bed and listened all the night with unshut eye. I could hear in my mother's room the boards creak as she rose every quarter hour and looked out into the rayless dark. Maisie Lennox of the Duchrae, old Anton's daughter, now a well grown lass, lay with her. And Sandy's young wife, Jean Hamilton, with her sucking bairn, was in the little angled chamber2 that opens off the turret3 stair near by.
It befell at the back of one, or mayhap betwixt that and two, that there came a sound at the nether4 door that affrighted us all.
"Rise, William! Haste ye," cried my mother with great eagerness in her voice, coming to my door in the dark. "Your father is at the nether door, new lichted doon from off Gay Garland. Rise an' let him in!"
And as I sat up on my elbow and hearkened, I heard as clearly as now I hear the clock strike, the knocking of my father's riding-boots on the step of the outer door. For it was ever his wont6, when he came that way, to knap his toes on the edge of the step, that the room floorings might not be defiled7 with the black peat soil which is commonest about the Earlstoun. I have heard my father tell it a thousand times in his pleasantry, how it was when my mother was a bride but newly come home and notionate, that she learned him these tricks. For otherwise his ways were not dainty, but rather careless—and it might be, even rough.
So, as I listened, I heard very clear outside the house the knocking of my father's feet, and the little hoast he always gave before he tirled at the pin to be let in, when he rode home late from Kirkcudbright. Hearing which we were greatly rejoiced, and I hasted to draw on my knee-breeks, crying "Bide8 a wee, faither, an' briskly I'll be wi' ye to let ye in!"
For I was a little lame9, halting on one foot ever since the affair of Tinkler Marshall, though I think not to any noticeable extent.
My mother at the door of her chamber cried, "Haste ye, William, or I must run mysel'!"
For my father had made her promise that she would not go out of her chamber to meet him at the return, being easily touched in her breast with the night air.
So I hasted and ran down as I was, with my points all untied10, and set wide open the door.
"Faither!" I cried as I undid11 the bolt and pushed the leaves of the door abroad, "Faither, ye are welcome hame!" And I could hear my mother listening above, for his foot over the threshold. Yet he came not within, which was a wonder to me. So I went out upon the step of the nether door, but my father was not there. Only the same strange chill wind went round the house, soughing and moaning blindly as before, and a smoor of white fog blew like muirburn past the door.
Then my hair rose upon my head and the skin of my brow pricked12, because I knew that strange portents13 were abroad that night.
"What for does your faither no come ben the hoose to me?" cried my mother impatiently from the stairhead. I could hear her clasping and unclasping her hands, for my ears are quick at taking sounds.
"I think he must be gone to the stable with Gay Garland, to stall him beside Philiphaugh," I answered, for so my father's old white horse was named, because in his young days my father had been at that place on the day when Montrose and his Highlandmen got their settling. This is what I said to my mother, but indeed my thought was far other.
I lifted a loaded pistol that lay ever in the aumrie by the door-cheek and went off in the direction of the stable. The door was shut, but I undid the pin and went within. My father was not there. The horses were moving restlessly and lifting their feet uneasily as they do on ice or other kittle footing. Then of a truth I knew there was something more than canny14 abroad about Earlstoun that night, and that we should hear ill news or the morning. And when a bundle of reins15 slipped from the shelf and fell on my shoulder like a man's hand clapping on me unaware16, I cried out like a frighted fowl17 and dropped almost to the ground. Yet though I am delicate and not overly well grown in my body, I do not count myself a coward; even though my brother Sandy's courage be not mine. "Blind-eye, hard-head" was ever his sort, but I love to take my danger open-eyed and standing18 up—and as little of it as possible.
As I went back—which I did instantly, leaving the stable door swinging open—I heard my mother's voice again. She was calling aloud and the sound of her voice was yearning19 and full like that of a young woman.
"William!" she called, and again "William!"
Now though that is my name I knew full well that it was not to me, her son, that she called. For that is the voice a woman only uses to him who has been her man, and with her has drunk of the fountain of the joy of youth. Once on a time I shot an eagle on the Millyea, and his mate came and called him even thus, with a voice that was as soft as that of a cushie dove crooning in the tall trees in the early summer, till I could have wept for sorrow at my deed.
Then as I went in, I came upon my mother a step or two from the open door, groping with her arms wide in the darkness.
"Oh," she cried, "William, my William, the Lord be thankit!" and she clasped me to her heart.
But in a moment she flung me from her.
"Oh! it's you," she said bitterly, and went within without another word, her harshness jangling on my heart.
Yet I understood, for my mother was always greatly set on my father. And once when in jest we teased her to try her, telling her the story of the pious20 ?neas, and asking her to prophesy21 to us which one of us she would lift, if so it was that the house of Earlstoun were in a lowe.
"Faith," said my mother, "I wad tak' your faither on my back, gin a' the lave o' ye had to bide and burn!"
So it was ever with my mother. She was my father's sweetheart to her latest hour.
But when I went in I found her sitting, sheet-white and trembling on the settle.
"What's ta'en ye, mither?" I said to her, putting a shawl about her.
"O my man, my bonny man," she said, "there's nane to steek your e'en the nicht! An' Mary Gordon maun lie her leesome lane for evermair!"
"Hoot22, mither," I said, "speak not so. My faither will come his ways hame i' the mornin' nae doot, wi' a' the lads o' the Kenside clatterin' ahint him. Sandy is wi' him, ye ken5."
"Na," she said calmly enough, but as one who has other informations, "Sandy is no wi' him. Sandy gaed through the battle wi' his heid doon and his sword rinnin' reed. I see them a' broken—a' the pride o' the West, an' the dragoons are riding here an' there amang them, an' haggin' them doon. But your faither I canna see—I canna see my man——"
"Mither," I said, mostly, I think, for something to say, "Mind the Guid Cause!"
She flung her hands abroad with a fine gesture as of scorn. "What cause is guid that twines23 a woman frae her ain man—an' we had been thegither three-an'-thirty year!"
In a little I got her to lie down, but the most simple may understand how much more sleep there was in Earlstoun that night. Yet though we listened with all our ears, we heard no other sound than just that blind and unkindly wind reestling and soughing about the house, groping at the doors and trying the lattices. Not a footstep went across the courtyard, not the cry of a bird came over the moors24, till behind the barren ridges25 of the east the morning broke.
Then when in the grey and growing light I went down and again opened the door, lo! there with his nose against the latchet hasp was Gay Garland, my father's war-horse. He stood and trembled in every limb. He was covered with the lair26 of the moss-hags, wherein he had sunk to the girths. But on his saddle leather, towards the left side, there was a broad splash of blood which had run down to the stirrup iron; and in the holster on that side, where the great pistol ought to have been, a thing yet more fearsome—a man's bloody27 forefinger28, taken off above the second joint29 with a clean drawing cut.
My mother came down the turret stair, fully30 dressed, and with her company gown upon her. Yet when she saw Gay Garland standing there at the door with his head between his knees, she did not seem to be astonished or afraid, as she had been during the night. She came near to him and laid a hand on his neck.
"Puir beast," she said, "ye have had sore travel. Take him to the stable for water and corn, and bid Jock o' the Garpel rise."
The dark shades of the night were flown away, and my mother now spoke31 quietly and firmly as was her wont. Much in times bygone had we spoken about sufferings in the House of Earlstoun, and, lo! now they were come home to our own door.
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1
beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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3
turret
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| n.塔楼，角塔 | |
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nether
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| adj.下部的，下面的；n.阴间；下层社会 | |
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ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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6
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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7
defiled
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| v.玷污( defile的过去式和过去分词 )；污染；弄脏；纵列行进 | |
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8
bide
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| v.忍耐；等候；住 | |
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9
lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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10
untied
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| 松开，解开( untie的过去式和过去分词 )； 解除，使自由； 解决 | |
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11
Undid
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| v. 解开, 复原 | |
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12
pricked
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| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
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13
portents
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| n.预兆( portent的名词复数 )；征兆；怪事；奇物 | |
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14
canny
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| adj.谨慎的，节俭的 | |
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15
reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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16
unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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17
fowl
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| n.家禽，鸡，禽肉 | |
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18
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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19
yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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20
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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21
prophesy
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| v.预言；预示 | |
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22
hoot
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| n.鸟叫声，汽车的喇叭声； v.使汽车鸣喇叭 | |
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23
twines
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| n.盘绕( twine的名词复数 )；麻线；捻；缠绕在一起的东西 | |
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24
moors
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| v.停泊，系泊（船只）( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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25
ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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26
lair
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| n.野兽的巢穴；躲藏处 | |
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27
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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28
forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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29
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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30
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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31
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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