Kitabı oku: «The Entail», sayfa 33
CHAPTER XCVII
Recalled to their senses by the interruption, both Milrookit and his lawyer saw that their interests and characters were too intimately linked in the consequences of the discovery to allow them to incur the hazards of a public disclosure. Pitwinnoch was the first who recovered his presence of mind, and, with great cleverness, he suddenly turned round, and addressed himself to the Leddy: —
‘Though we have had a few words, Mr. Milrookit is quite sensible that he has not a shadow of reason to withhold the estate from the heir of entail. He will give it up the moment that it is demanded.’
‘Then I demand it this moment,’ exclaimed the Leddy; ‘and out of this house, that was my ain, I’ll no depart till Jamie Walkinshaw, the righteous male-heir, comes to tak possession. It was a most jewdical habit and repute like action o’ you, Walky Milrookit, to reset and keep this fine property on a point of law; and I canna see how ye’ll clear your character o’ the coom ye hae brought on’t by sic a diminishment of the grounds of the case between an heir-male and an heir-female.’
Milrookit, seeing his wife coming into the room, and eager to get the business closed as happily as possible, requested Pitwinnoch to follow him into another apartment; to which they immediately retired, leaving the ladies together.
‘Beenie,’ said the Leddy, with the most ineffable self-satisfied equanimity, ‘I hope ye’ll prepare yoursel to hear wi’ composity the sore affliction that I’m ordain’t to gie you. Eh, Beenie! honesty’s a braw thing; and I’ll no say that your gudeman, my ain oe, hasna been a deevil that should get his dues – what they are, the laws and lawyers as weel as me ken are little short o’ the halter. But, for a’ that, our ain kith and kin, Beenie – we maun jook and let the jawp gae bye. So I counsel you to pack up your ends and your awls, and flit your camp wi’ a’ the speed ye dow; for there’s no saying what a rampageous soldier-officer, whose trade is to shoot folk, may say or do, when Jamie Walkinshaw comes to ken the battle that I hae fought wi’ sic triumphing.’
Mrs. Milrookit, who was totally uninformed either of the circumstances of her situation, or of what had taken place, scarcely felt more amazement than terror at this speech, and in perceiving that her grandmother was acquainted with the business which had brought her husband and Pitwinnoch to such high words, that their voices were heard before the carriage reached the door.
‘What has happened?’ was the anxious exclamation of her alarm.
‘Only a discovery that has been made among the Faculty o’ Advocates, that a dochter’s no a male-heir. So you being but the heir-female of George, the third son, by course o’ nature the property goes back to the son of Charles the eldest son – he being, in the words of the act, an heir-male, and your husband, Walkinshaw Milrookit, being an heir-general of Margaret, the daughter, is, in a sense o’ law, no heir at all, which is the reason that your cousin Jamie comes in for the estate, and that you and Milrookit must take up your bed, and walk to some other dwelling-place; for here, at Kittlestonheugh, ye hae no continued city, Beenie, my dear, and I’m very sorry for you. It’s wi’ a very heavy heart, and an e’e o’ pity, that I’m obligated not to be beautiful on the mountains, but to tell you thir sore news.’
‘Then I’m to understand,’ replied Robina, with a degree of composure that surprised the Leddy, ‘it has been discovered that my uncle Charles’ family were not entirely disinherited, but that James succeeds to the estate? It is only to be regretted that this was not known sooner, before we took up our residence here.’
‘It’s an auld saying, Beenie, and a true saying, as I know from my own experience, that the law is a tether o’ length and durability; so ye need be nane surprised, considering the short time bygane since your father’s death, that the panel was na brought to judgement sooner. Indeed, if it had na been by my instrumentality, and the implementing o’ the case that I gied to Pitwinnoch, there’s no saying how long it would hae been pending afore the Lords.’
While the Leddy was thus delivering what she called her dark sentence o’ legality, Pitwinnoch and Milrookit returned into the room, and the former said to the Leddy, —
‘I’m happy to inform you, Madam, that Mr. Milrookit acts in the handsomest manner. He is quite satisfied that his cousin, Mr. Walkinshaw, is the true heir of entail, and is prepared to resign the estate at once.’
‘Did na I prove to you, Mr. Pitwinnoch, that wi’ baith his feet he had na ae leg in law to stand on; but ye misdootit my judgement,’ replied the Leddy, exultingly.
‘But,’ continued the lawyer, ‘in consideration of this most honourable acquiescence at once on his part, I have undertaken that ye’ll repay the thousand pounds which, you must be sensible, was a most ridiculous sum for six weeks’ bed and board in your house.’
‘Truly, and ye’re no far wrang, Mr. Pitwinnoch. It was a vera ridiculous soom; for, if I had stood out, I might hae got twa thousand, if no mair. But I canna understand how it is possible you can think I’ll part wi’ my lawful won money for naething. – What’s the gieing up o’ the estate to the male heir to me? I’ll get neither plack nor bawbee by’t, unless it please Jamie to gie me a bit present, by way o’ a fee, for counselling you how to set about the precognition that’s gotten him his right. – Na, na, no ae farthing will I faik.’
‘Then, Madam, I shall feel it my duty to advise Mr. Milrookit to revive the question, and take the matter into Court upon a ground of error,’ said the lawyer.
‘Tak it, tak it, pleasure yoursel in that way; ye can do naething mair cordial to me; – but I think ye ought to know, and Milrookit to understand, baith by bed, board, and washing, and heirs-male, what it is to try the law wi’ me.’
The lawyer and his client exchanged looks: the Leddy, however, continued her address, —
‘Howsever, Mr. Pitwinnoch, sure am I there was no mistake in the business; for ye’ll bear in mind that ye made me an offer of twa hundred, the whilk I refused, and then ye brought me my justly due. That settles the point o’ law, – tak my word for ’t.’
‘I am afraid,’ said Pitwinnoch to his rueful client, ‘that there is no chance’ —
‘’Deed no, Mr. Pitwinnoch,’ replied the Leddy; ‘neither pursuer nor respondent has ony chance wi’ me in that plea; so just shake your lugs and lie down again. A’ your barking would prove afore the Lords but as water spilt on the ground; for the money is in an heritable bond, and the whilk bond is in my hands; that’s the strong ground o’ the case, – touch it whan ye may.’
Pitwinnoch could with difficulty keep his gravity, and poor Milrookit, finding he had so overreached himself, said, —
‘Well, but when you make your will, I trust and hope you will then consider how simply I gave you the money.’
‘Mak my will! – that’s a delicate hint to an aged woman. I’ll no forget that, – and as to your simplicity in paying the justly due for bed, board, and washing, – was na every pound got as if it had been a tooth out o’ your head, howkit out by course and force o’ law?’
‘In truth, Leddy,’ said Pitwinnoch, ‘we are all friends here, and it’s just as well to speak freely. I advised Mr. Milrookit to pay you the money, rather than hazard any question that might possibly attract attention to the provisions of the entail; but now since the whole has been brought to an issue, you must be sensible that he suffers enough in losing the estate, and that you ought to give him back the money.’
The Leddy sat for several minutes silent, evidently cogitating an answer, at the end of which she raised her eyes, and said to Pitwinnoch, —
‘I can see as far through a millstane as ye can do through a fir deal, and maybe I may tak it in my head to raise a plea wi’ you in an action of damages, for plotting and libelling in the way that it’s vera visible ye hae done, jointly and severally, in a plea of the crown; and aiblins I’ll no tak less than a thousand pounds; – so, Mr. Pitwinnoch, keep your neck out o’ the woody o’ a law-plea wi’ me, if ye can; for, in the way of business, I hae done wi’ you; and, as soon as Mr. Whitteret comes hame, I’ll see whether I ought not to instruct in a case against you for the art and part conspiracy of the thousand pounds.’
Milrookit himself was obliged to laugh at the look of consternation with which this thunderclap broke over the lawyer, who, unable to withstand the absurdity of the threat, and yet alarmed for the consequences to his reputation, which such an attempt would entail, hastily retired.
CHAPTER XCVIII
The Leddy having so happily brought her second lawsuit to a victorious issue, and already menacing a third, did not feel that her triumph would be complete, until she had obtained the plaudits of the world; and the first person on whom she resolved to levy her exactions of applause was naturally enough the mother of Walkinshaw.
As soon as Pitwinnoch had left the house, she persuaded Milrookit to send the carriage for Mrs. Charles, with injunctions to the coachman not to say a word of what had passed, as she intended herself to have the pleasure of communicating the glad tidings. This he very readily agreed to; for, notwithstanding the grudge which he felt at having been so simply mulcted of so large a sum, he really felt his mind relieved by the result of the discovery; perhaps, in complying, he had some sinister view towards the Leddy’s good-will – some distant vista of his thousand pounds.
Mrs. Charles was a good deal surprised at the message to come immediately to Kittlestonheugh; and her timid and gentle spirit, in consequence of learning from the coachman that the old lady was there, anticipated some disaster to her son. Her fears fluttered as she drove on alone. The broad dark shadows that had crossed the path of her past pilgrimage were remembered with melancholy forebodings, and the twilight of the evening having almost faded into night, she caught gloomy presentiments from the time, and sighed that there was no end to her sorrows.
The season was now advanced into September; and though the air was clear, the darkness of the road, the silence of the fields, and the occasional glimmers of the fire that the horses’ hoofs struck from the stones, awakened associations of doubt, anxiety, and danger; but the serene magnificence of the starry heavens inspired hope, and the all-encompassing sky seemed to her the universal wings of Providence, vigilant and protecting with innumerable millions of eyes.
Still the devotional enthusiasm of that fancy was but a transient glow on the habitual pale cast of her thoughts; and she saw before her, in the remainder of her mortal journey, only a continuance of the same road which she had long travelled – a narrow and a difficult track across a sterile waste, harsh with brambles, and bleak and lonely.
So is it often, under the eclipse of fortune, even with the bravest spirits; forgetting how suddenly before, in the darkest hour, the views of life have changed, they yield to the aspect of the moment, and breathe the mean and peevish complaints of faithlessness and despondency. Let it not, therefore, be imputed as an unworthy weakness, that a delicate and lowly widow, whose constant experience had been an unbroken succession of disappointments and humiliations, should, in such an hour, and shrinking with the sensibilities of a mother, wonder almost to sinning why she had been made to suffer such a constancy of griefs. But the midnight of her fate was now past, and the dawn was soon to open upon her with all its festal attributes of a bright and joyous morning – though our friend the Leddy was not so brisk in communicating the change as we could have wished.
She was sitting alone in the parlour when the carriage returned; and as the trembling mother was shown into the room, she received her with the most lugubrious face that her features could assume.
‘Come awa’, Bell Fatherlans,’ said she, ‘come away, and sit down. O this is a most uncertain world – nothing in it has stability; – the winds blow – the waters run – the grass grows – the snow falls – the day flieth away unto the uttermost parts of the sea, and the night hideth her head in the morning cloud, and perisheth for evermore. Many a lesson we get – many a warning to set our thoughts on things above; but we’re ay sinking, sinking, sinking, as the sparks fly upward. – Bell, Bell, we’re a’ like thorns crackling under a kail-pot.’
‘What has occurred?’ exclaimed Mrs. Charles; ‘I beg you’ll tell me at once.’
‘So I will, when I hae solaced you into a religious frame o’ mind to hear me wi’ a Christian composity o’ temper; for what I maun tell is, though I say’t mysel, a something.’
‘For goodness and mercy, I entreat you to proceed. – Where is Mr. Milrookit? where is Robina?’
‘Ye need na hope to see muckle o’ them the night,’ replied the Leddy. ‘Poor folk, they hae gotten their hands filled wi’ cares. O Bell, Bell – when I think o’t – it’s a judgement – it’s a judgement, Bell Fatherlans, aboon the capacity o’ man! Really, when I consider how I hae been directit – and a’ by my own skill, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding – it’s past a’ comprehension. What would my worthy father hae said had he lived to see the day that his dochter won sic a braw estate by her ain interlocutors? – and what would your gudefather hae said, when he was ay brag bragging o’ the conquest he had made o’ the Kittlestonheugh o’ his ancestors – the whilk took him a lifetime to do – had he seen me, just wi’ a single whisk o’ dexterity, a bit touch of the law, make the vera same conquest for your son Jamie Walkinshaw in less than twa hours?’
‘You astonish me! to what do you allude? I am amazed, and beginning to be confounded,’ said Mrs. Charles.
‘Indeed it is no wonder,’ replied the Leddy; ‘for wha would hae thought it, that I, an aged ’literate grandmother, would hae bamboozlet an Embrough Writer to the Signet on a nice point, and found out the ground of an action for damages against that tod o’ a bodie Pitwinnoch, for intromitting wi’ ane of the four pleas o’ the Crown? Had I kent what I ken now, uncle Watty might still hae been to the fore, and in the full possession of his seven lawful senses – for, woman as I am, I would hae been my own man o’ business, counsel, and executioner, in the concos mentos sederunt – whereby I was so ’frauded o’ my rightful hope and expectation. But Pitwinnoch will soon fin’ the weight o’ the lion’s paw that his doobileecity has roused in me.’
Mrs. Charles, who was much amused by the exultation with which the Leddy had recounted her exploits in the bed and board plea, perceiving that some new triumph equally improbable had occurred, felt her anxieties subside into curiosity; and being now tolerably mistress of her feelings, she again inquired what had happened.
‘I’ll tell you,’ said the Leddy; ‘and surely it’s right and proper you his mother should know, that, through my implementing, it has been discovered that your son is an heir-male according to law!’
‘No possible!’ exclaimed the delighted mother, the whole truth flashing at once on her mind.
‘Aye, that’s just as I might hae expectit – a prophet ne’er got honour in his own country; and so a’ the thank I’m to get for my pains is a no possible!’ said the Leddy offended, mistaking the meaning of the interjection. ‘But it is a true possible; and Milrookit has consentit to adjudicate the estate – so ye see how ye’re raised to pride and affluence by my instrumentality. Firstly, by the bed and board plea, I found a mean to revisidend your ’nuity; and secondly, I hae found the libel proven, that Beenie, being a dochter, is an heir-female, and is, by course of law, obligated to renounce the estate.’
‘This is most extraordinary news, indeed,’ rejoined Mrs. Charles, ‘after for so many years believing my poor children so destitute;’ and a flood of tears happily came to her relief.
‘But, Bell Fatherlans,’ resumed the Leddy, ‘I’ll tak you wi’ the tear in your ee, as both you and Jamie maun be sensible, that, but for my discerning, this great thing never could hae been brought to a come-to-pass. I hope ye’ll confabble thegither anent the loss I sustained by what happened to uncle Watty, and mak me a reasonable compensation out o’ the rents; the whilk are noo, as I am creditably informed, better than fifteen hundred pounds per anno Domini, that’s the legality for the year o’ our Lord; – a sma’ matter will be a great satisfaction.’
‘Indeed,’ said Mrs. Charles, ‘James owes you much; and your kindness in giving him the bill so generously, I know, has made a very deep impression on his heart.’
‘He was ay a blithe and kindly creature,’ exclaimed the Leddy, wiping her eye, as if a tear had actually shot into it – ‘and may be it winna fare the waur wi’ him when I’m dead and gone. For I’ll let you into a secret – it’s my purpose to mak a last will and testament, and cut off Milrookit wi’ a shilling, for his horridable niggerality about the bed and board concern. Na, for that matter, as ye’ll can fen noo without ony ’nuity, but your ain son’s affection, I hae a great mind, and I’ll do’t too – that’s what I will – for fear I should be wheedled into an adversary by my dochter Meg for the Milrookits, – I’ll gie the thousand pound heritable bond to your Mary for a tocher; is not that most genteel of me? I doot few families hae had a grandmother for their ancestor like yours.’
Some further conversation to the same effect was continued, and the injustice which Milrookit had attempted seemed to Mrs. Charles considerably extenuated by the readiness with which he had acknowledged the rights of her son. For, notwithstanding all the Leddy’s triumphant oratory and legal phraseology, she had no difficulty in perceiving the true circumstances of the case.
CHAPTER XCIX
In the opinion of all the most judicious critics, the Iliad terminated with the death of Hector; but, as Homer has entertained us with the mourning of the Trojans, and the funeral of the hero, we cannot, in our present circumstances, do better than adopt the rule of that great example. For although it must be evident to all our readers that the success of the Leddy in her second law-suit, by placing the heir, in despite of all the devices and stratagem of parchments and Pitwinnoch, in possession of the patrimony of his ancestors, naturally closes the Entail, a work that will, no doubt, outlive the Iliad, still there were so many things immediately consequent on that event, that our story would be imperfect without some account of them.
In the first place, then, Walkinshaw, immediately after the receipt of Frazer’s letter, acquainting him with the discovery of the provisions of the deed, returned to Edinburgh, where he arrived on the third day after his friend had heard from Whitteret, the Glasgow writer, that Milrookit, without objection, agreed to surrender the estate. The result of which communication was an immediate and formal declaration from Walkinshaw of his attachment to Ellen, and a cheerful consent from her father, that their marriage, as soon as the necessary preparations could be made, should be celebrated at Glengael.
Upon French Frazer the good fortune of his brother officer was no less decisive, for any scruple that he might have felt in his attachment to Mary, on account of his own circumstances, was removed by an assurance from Walkinshaw that he would, as soon as possible, make a liberal provision both for her and his mother; and in the same letter which Walkinshaw wrote home on his return to Edinburgh, and in which he spoke of his own marriage, he entreated his mother’s consent that Mary should accept the hand of Frazer.
On Mrs. Eadie, the fulfilment, as she called it, of her visions and predictions, had the most lamentable effect. Her whole spirit became engrossed with the most vague and mystical conceptions; and it was soon evident that an irreparable ruin had fallen upon one of the noblest of minds. Over her latter days we shall, therefore, draw a veil, and conclude her little part in our eventful history with simply mentioning that she never returned to Camrachle; but sank into rest in the visionary beatitude of her parental solitudes.
Her husband, now a venerable old man, still resides as contentedly as ever in his parish; and, when we last visited him, in his modest mansion, he informed us that he had acquiesced in the wishes of his elders by consenting to receive a helper and successor in the ministry. So far, therefore, as the best, the most constant, and the kindest friends of the disinherited family are concerned, our task is finished: but we have a world of things to tell of the Leddy and the Milrookits, many of which we must reserve till we shall have leisure to write a certain story of incomparable humour and pathos.
In the meantime, we must proceed to mention, that the Leddy, finding it was quite unnecessary to institute any further proceedings, to eject the Milrookits from Kittlestonheugh, as they of their own accord removed, as soon as they found a suitable house, returned to her residence in the royal city, where she resumed her domestic thrift at the spinning-wheel, having resolved not to go on with her action of damages against Pitwinnoch, till she had seen her grandson, who, prior to his marriage, was daily expected.
‘For,’ as she said to his mother, after consulting with Mr. Whitteret, and stating her grounds of action, ‘it is not so clear a case as my great bed and board plea – and Mr. Whitteret is in some doubt, whether Pitwinnoch should be sent to trial by my instrumentality, or that of Jamie – very sensibly observing – for he’s really a man o’ the heighth o’ discretion yon – that it would be hard for an aged gentlewoman like me, with a straitened jointure, to take up a cause that would, to a moral certainty, be defendit, especially when her grandson is so much better able to afford the expense. The which opinion of counsel has made me sit down with an arrest of judgement for the present, as the only reason I hae for going to law at all is to mak money by it. Howsever, if ye can persuade Jamie to bequeath and dispone to me his right to the damage, which I mean to assess at a thousand pounds, I’ll implement Mr. Whitteret to pursue.’
‘I dare say,’ replied Mrs. Charles, ‘that James will very readily give up to you all his claim; but Mr. Pitwinnoch having rectified the mistake he was in, we should forgive and forget.’
‘A’ weel I wat, Bell Fatherlans, I needna cast my pearls o’ great price before swine, by waring my words o’ wisdom wi’ the like o’ you. In truth, it’s an awfu’ story when I come to think how ye hae been sitting like an effigy on a tomb, wi’ your hands baith alike syde, and menti mori written on your vesture and your thigh, instead o’ stirring your stumps, as ye ought to hae done – no to let your bairns be rookit o’ their right by yon Cain and Abel, the twa cheatrie Milrookits. For sure am I, had no I ta’en the case in hand, ye might hae continued singing Wally, wally, up yon bank, and wally, wally, down yon brae, a’ the days o’ your tarrying in the tabernacles o’ men.’
Her daughter-in-law admitted, that she was, indeed, with all her family, under the greatest obligations to her, – and that, in all probability, but for her happy discovery of the errand on which the writer to the signet had come to Glasgow, they might still have had their rights withheld.
In conversations of this description the time passed at Glasgow, while the preparations for the marriage of Walkinshaw and Ellen were proceeding with all expedient speed at Glengael. Immediately after the ceremony, the happy pair, accompanied by Mary, returned to Edinburgh, where it was determined the marriage of Mary with French Frazer should be celebrated, Mrs. Charles and the old lady being equally desirous of being present.
We should not, however, be doing justice to ourselves, as faithful historians, were we to leave the reader under an impression that the Leddy’s visit to the lawful metropolis was entirely dictated by affectionate consideration for her grandchildren. She had higher and more public objects, worthy, indeed, of the spirit with which she had so triumphantly conducted her causes. But with that remarkable prudence, so conspicuous in her character, she made no one acquainted with the real motives by which she was actuated, – namely, to acquire some knowledge of the criminal law, her father not having, as she said, ‘paid attention to that Court of Justice, his geni being, like her own, more addicted to the civilities of the Court o’ Session.’
She was led to think of embarking in this course of study, by the necessity she was often under of making, as she said, her servants ‘walk the carpet’; or, in other words, submit to receive those kind of benedictions to which servants are, in the opinion of all good administrators of householdry, so often and so justly entitled. It had occurred to her that, some time or another, occasion might require that she should carry a delinquent handmaid before the Magistrates, or even before the Lords; indeed, she was determined to do so on the very first occurrence of transgression, and, therefore, she was naturally anxious to obtain a little insight of the best practice in the Parliament House, that she might, as she said herself, be made capable of implementing her man of business how to proceed.
Walkinshaw, by promising to take every legal step that she herself could take against Pitwinnoch, had evinced, as she considered it, such a commendable respect for her judgement, that he endeared himself to her more than ever. He was, in consequence, employed to conduct her to the Parliament House, that she might hear the pleadings; but by some mistake he took her to that sink of sin the Theatre, when Othello was performing, where, as she declared, she had received all the knowledge of the criminal law she could require, it having been manifestly shown that any woman stealing a napkin ought to be prosecuted with the utmost rigour. But her legal studies were soon interrupted by the wedding festivities; and when she returned to Glasgow, alas! she was not long permitted to indulge her legal pursuits; for various causes combined to deprive the world of our incomparable heroine. Her doleful exit from the tents of Time, Law, and Physic, it is now our melancholy duty to relate, which we shall endeavour to do with all that good-humoured pathos for which we are so greatly and so deservedly celebrated. If nobody says we are so distinguished, we must modestly do it ourselves, never having been able to understand why a candidate for parliament or popularity should be allowed to boast of his virtues more than any other dealer in tales and fictions.
