The Fortunes of Nigel. Вальтер Скотт

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СКАЧАТЬ shall be in all outward readiness to pay my duty,” said the young nobleman, “yet I have little heart to do it. The friends from whom I ought to have found encouragement and protection, have proved cold and false – I certainly will not trouble them for their countenance on this occasion – and yet I must confess my childish unwillingness to enter quite alone upon so new a scene.”

      “It is bold of a mechanic like me to make such an offer to a nobleman,” said Heriot; “but I must attend at Court to-morrow. I can accompany you as far as the presence-chamber, from my privilege as being of the household. I can facilitate your entrance, should you find difficulty, and I can point out the proper manner and time of approaching the king. But I do not know,” he added, smiling, “whether these little advantages will not be overbalanced by the incongruity of a nobleman receiving them from the hands of an old smith.”

      “From the hands rather of the only friend I have found in London,” said Nigel, offering his hand.

      “Nay, if you think of the matter in that way,” replied the honest citizen, “there is no more to be said – I will come for you to-morrow, with a barge proper to the occasion. – But remember, my good young lord, that I do not, like some men of my degree, wish to take opportunity to step beyond it, and associate with my superiors in rank, and therefore do not fear to mortify my presumption, by suffering me to keep my distance in the presence, and where it is fitting for both of us to separate; and for what remains, most truly happy shall I be in proving of service to the son of my ancient patron.”

      The style of conversation led so far from the point which had interested the young nobleman’s curiosity, that there was no returning to it that night. He therefore exchanged thanks and greetings with George Heriot, and took his leave, promising to be equipped and in readiness to embark with him on the second successive morning at ten o’clock.

      The generation of linkboys, celebrated by Count Anthony Hamilton, as peculiar to London, had already, in the reign of James I., begun their functions, and the service of one of them with his smoky torch, had been secured to light the young Scottish lord and his follower to their lodgings, which, though better acquainted than formerly with the city, they might in the dark have run some danger of missing. This gave the ingenious Mr. Moniplies an opportunity of gathering close up to his master, after he had gone through the form of slipping his left arm into the handles of his buckler, and loosening his broadsword in the sheath, that he might be ready for whatever should befall.

      “If it were not for the wine and the good cheer which we have had in yonder old man’s house, my lord,” said this sapient follower, “and that I ken him by report to be a just living man in many respects, and a real Edinburgh gutterblood, I should have been well pleased to have seen how his feet were shaped, and whether he had not a cloven cloot under the braw roses and cordovan shoon of his.”

      “Why, you rascal,” answered Nigel, “you have been too kindly treated, and now that you have filled your ravenous stomach, you are railing on the good gentleman that relieved you.”

      “Under favour, no, my lord,” said Moniplies, – “I would only like to see something mair about him. I have eaten his meat, it is true – more shame that the like of him should have meat to give, when your lordship and me could scarce have gotten, on our own account, brose and a bear bannock – I have drunk his wine, too.”

      “I see you have,” replied his master, “a great deal more than you should have done.”

      “Under your patience, my lord,” said Moniplies, “you are pleased to say that, because I crushed a quart with that jolly boy Jenkin, as they call the ‘prentice boy, and that was out of mere acknowledgment for his former kindness – I own that I, moreover, sung the good old song of Elsie Marley, so as they never heard it chanted in their lives – ”

      And withal (as John Bunyan says) as they went on their way, he sung —

          “O, do ye ken Elsie Marley, honey —

           The wife that sells the barley, honey?

           For Elsie Marley’s grown sae fine,

           She winna get up to feed the swine. —

               O, do ye ken – ”

      Here in mid career was the songster interrupted by the stern gripe of his master, who threatened to baton him to death if he brought the city-watch upon them by his ill-timed melody.

      “I crave pardon, my lord – I humbly crave pardon – only when I think of that Jen Win, as they call him, I can hardly help humming – ‘O, do ye ken’ – But I crave your honour’s pardon, and will be totally dumb, if you command me so.”

      “No, sirrah!” said Nigel, “talk on, for I well know you would say and suffer more under pretence of holding your peace, than when you get an unbridled license. How is it, then? What have you to say against Master Heriot?”

      It seems more than probable, that in permitting this license, the young lord hoped his attendant would stumble upon the subject of the young lady who had appeared at prayers in a manner so mysterious. But whether this was the case, or whether he merely desired that Moniplies should utter, in a subdued and under tone of voice, those spirits which might otherwise have vented themselves in obstreperous song, it is certain he permitted his attendant to proceed with his story in his own way.

      “And therefore,” said the orator, availing himself of his immunity, “I would like to ken what sort of carle this Maister Heriot is. He hath supplied your lordship with wealth of gold, as I can understand; and if he has, I make it for certain he hath had his ain end in it, according to the fashion of the world. Now, had your lordship your own good lands at your guiding, doubtless this person, with most of his craft – goldsmiths they call themselves – I say usurers – wad be glad to exchange so many pounds of African dust, by whilk I understand gold, against so many fair acres, and hundreds of acres, of broad Scottish land.”

      “But you know I have no land,” said the young lord, “at least none that can be affected by any debt which I can at present become obliged for – I think you need not have reminded me of that.”

      “True, my lord, most true; and, as your lordship says, open to the meanest capacity, without any unnecessary expositions. Now, therefore, my lord, unless Maister George Heriot has something mair to allege as a motive for his liberality, vera different from the possession of your estate – and moreover, as he could gain little by the capture of your body, wherefore should it not be your soul that he is in pursuit of?”

      “My soul, you rascal!” said the young lord; “what good should my soul do him?”

      “What do I ken about that?” said Moniplies; “they go about roaring and seeking whom they may devour – doubtless, they like the food that they rage so much about – and, my lord, they say,” added Moniplies, drawing up still closer to his master’s side, “they say that Master Heriot has one spirit in his house already.”

      “How, or what do you mean?” said Nigel; “I will break your head, you drunken knave, if you palter with me any longer.”

      “Drunken?” answered his trusty adherent, “and is this the story? – why, how could I but drink your lordship’s health on my bare knees, when Master Jenkin began it to me? – hang them that would not – I would have cut the impudent knave’s hams with my broadsword, that should make scruple of it, and so have made him kneel when he should have found it difficult to rise again. But touching the spirit,” he proceeded, finding that his master made no answer to his valorous tirade, “your lordship has seen her with your own eyes.”

      “I СКАЧАТЬ