Kate Carnegie and Those Ministers
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Ian Maclaren >> Kate Carnegie and Those Ministers
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"This way, Kate; it's the old road, and the way I came to kirk with my
mother. Yes, it's narrow, but we'll get through and down below--it is
worth the seeing."
So they forced a passage where the overgrown hedges resisted the
wheels, and the trees, wet with a morning shower, dashed Kate's jacket
with a pleasant spray, and the rail of the dog-cart was festooned with
tendrils of honeysuckle and wild geranium.
"There is the parish kirk of Drumtochty," as they came out and halted
on the crest of the hill, "and though it be not much to look at after
the Norman churches of the south, it's a brave old kirk in our fashion,
and well set in the Glen."
For it stood on a knoll, whence the ground sloped down to the Tochty,
and it lay with God's acre round it in the shining of the sun. Half a
dozen old beeches made a shadow in the summer-time, and beat off the
winter's storms. One standing at the west corner of the kirkyard had a
fuller and sweeter view of the Glen than could be got anywhere save
from the beeches at the Lodge; but then nothing like unto that can be
seen far or near, and I have marvelled why painting men have never had
it on their canvas.
"Our vault is at the east end, where the altar was in the old days, and
there our dead of many generations lie. A Carnegie always prayed to be
buried with his people in Drumtochty, but as it happened, two out of
three of our house have fallen on the field, and so most of us have not
had our wish.
"Black John, my great-grandfather, was out in '45, and escaped to
France. He married a Highland lassie orphaned there, and entered the
French service, as many a Scot did before him since the days of the
Scots Guards. But when he felt himself a-dying, he asked leave of the
English government to come home, and he would not die till he laid
himself down in his room in the tower. Then he gave directions for his
funeral, how none were to be asked of the county folk but Drummonds and
Hays and Stewarts from Blair Athole and such like that had been out
with the Prince. And he made his wife promise that she would have him
dressed for his coffin as he fought on Culloden field, for he had kept
the clothes.
"Then he asked that the window should be opened that he might hear the
lilting of the burn below; and he called for my grandfather, who was
only a young lad, and commanded him to enter one of the Scottish
regiments and be a loyal kingsman, since all was over with the Stewarts.
"He said a prayer and kissed his wife's hand, being a courtly
gentleman, and died listening to the sound of the water running over
the stones in the den below."
"It was as good as dying on the field," said Kate, her face flushing
with pride; "that is an ancestor worth remembering; and did he get a
worthy funeral?"
"More than he asked for; his old comrades gathered from far and near,
and some of the chiefs that were out of hiding came down, and they
brought him up this very road, with the pipers playing before the
coffin. Fifty gentlemen buried John Carnegie, and every man of them
had been out with the Prince.
"When they gathered in the stone hall you 'll see soon, his
friend-in-arms, Patrick Murray, gave three toasts. The first was 'the
king,' and every man bared his head; the second was 'to him that is
gone;' the third was 'to the friends that are far awa';' and then one
of the chiefs proposed another, 'to the men of Culloden;' and after
that every gentleman dashed his glass on the floor. Though he was only
a little lad at the time, my grandfather never forgot the sight.
"He also told me that his mother never shed a tear, but looked prouder
than he ever saw her, and before they left the hall she bade each
gentleman good-bye, and to the chief she spoke in Gaelic, being of
Cluny's blood and a gallant lady.
"Another thing she did also which the lad could not forget, for she
brought down her husband's sword from the room in the turret, and
Patrick Murray, of the House of Athole, fastened it above the big
fireplace, where it hangs unto this day, crossed now with my father's,
as you will see, Kate, unless we stand here all day going over old
stories."
"They 're glorious stories, dad; why did n't you tell them to me
before? I want to get into the spirit of the past and feel the
Carnegie blood swinging in my veins before we come to the Lodge. What
did they do afterwards, or was that all?"
"They mounted their horses in the courtyard, and as each man passed out
of the gate he took off his hat and bowed low to the widow, who stood
in a window I will show you, and watched till the last disappeared into
the avenue; but my grandfather ran out and saw them ride down the road
in order of threes, a goodly company of gentlemen. But this sight is
better than horsemen and swords."
They were now in the hollow between the kirk and the Lodge, a cup of
greenery surrounded by wood. Behind, they still saw the belfry through
the beeches; before, away to the right, the grey stone of a turret
showed among the trees. The burn that sang to Black John ran beneath
them with a pleasant sound, and fifty yards of turf climbed up to the
cottage where the old road joined the new and the avenue of the Lodge
began. Over this ascent the branches met, through which the sunshine
glimmered and flickered, and down the centre came a white and brown cow
in charge of an old woman.
"It's Bell Robb, that lives in the cottage there among the bushes. I
was at the parish school with her, Kate--she 's just my age--for we
were all John Tamson's bairns in those days, and got our learning and
our licks together, laird's son and cottar's daughter.
"People would count it a queer mixture nowadays, but there were some
advantages in the former parish school idea; there were lots of
cleverer subalterns in the old regiment, but none knew his men so well
as I did. I had played and fought with their kind. Would you mind
saying a word to Bell . . . just her name or something?" for this was a
new life to the pride of the regiment, as they called Kate, and
Carnegie was not sure how she might take it. Kate was a lovable lass,
but like every complete woman, she had a temper and a stock of
prejudices. She was good comrade with all true men, although her heart
was whole, and with a few women that did not mince their words or carry
two faces, but Kate had claws inside the velvet, and once she so
handled with her tongue a young fellow who offended her that he sent in
his papers. What she said was not much, but it was memorable, and
every word drew blood. Her father was never quite certain what she
would do, although he was always sure of her love.
"Do you suppose, dad, that I 'm to take up with all your friends of the
jackdaw days? You seem to have kept fine company." Kate was already
out of the dogcart, and now took Bell by the hand.
"I am the General's daughter, and he was telling me that you and he
were playmates long ago. You 'll let me come to see you, and you 'll
tell me all his exploits when he was John Carnegie?"
[Illustration: "I am the General's daughter."]
"To think he minded me, an' him sae lang awa' at the weary wars." Bell
was between the laughing and the crying. "We 're lifted to know oor
laird 's a General, and that he's gotten sic honour. There's nae bluid
like the auld bluid, an' the Carnegies cud aye afford to be hamely.
"Ye're like him," and Bell examined Kate carefully; "but a' can tell
yir mither's dochter, a weel-faured mettlesome lady as wes ever seen;
wae 's me, wae 's me for the wars," at the sight of Carnegie's face;
"but ye 'll come in to see Marjorie. A 'll mak her ready," and Bell
hurried into the cottage.
"Marjorie has been blind from her birth. She was the pet of the
school, and now Bell takes care of her. Davidson was telling me that
she wanted to support Marjorie off the wages she earns as a field hand
on the farms, and the parish had to force half-a-crown a week on them;
but hear this."
"Never mind hoo ye look," Bell was speaking. "A' canna keep them
waitin' till ye be snoddit."
"Gie me ma kep, at ony rate, that the minister brocht frae Muirtown,
and Drumsheugh's shawl; it wudna be respectfu' to oor Laird, an' it his
first veesit;" and there was a note of refinement in the voice, as of
one living apart.
"Yes, I'm here, Marjorie," and the General stooped over the low bed
where the old woman was lying, "and this is my daughter, the only child
left me; you would hear that all my boys were killed."
"We did that, and we were a' wae for ye; a' thocht o' ye and a' saw ye
in yir sorrow, for them 'at canna see ootside see the better inside.
But it 'll be some comfort to be in the hame o' yir people aince mair,
and to ken ye 've dune yir wark weel. It's pleasant for us to think
the licht 'll be burnin' in the windows o' the Lodge again, and that ye
're come back aifter the wars.
"Miss Kate, wull ye lat me pass ma hand ower yir face, an' then a 'll
ken what like ye are better nor some 'at hes the joy o' seein' ye wi'
their een. . . . The Glen 'll be the happier for the sicht o' ye; a'
thank ye for yir kindness to a puir woman."
"If you begin to pay compliments, Marjorie, I 'll tell you what I think
of that cap; for the pink is just the very shade for your complexion,
and it's a perfect shape."
"Ma young minister, Maister Carmichael, seleckit it in Muirtown, an' a'
heard that he went ower sax shops to find one to his fancy; he never
forgets me, an' he wrote me a letter on his holiday. A'body likes him
for his bonnie face an' honest ways."
"Oh, I know him already, Marjorie, for he drove up with us, and I
thought him very nice; but we must go, for you know I 've not yet seen
our home, and I 'm just tingling with curiosity."
"You 'll not leave without breakin' bread; it's little we hae, but we
can offer ye oat-cake an' milk in token o' oor loyalty," and then Bell
brought the elements of Scottish food; and when Marjorie's lips moved
in prayer as they ate, it seemed to Carnegie and his daughter like a
sacrament. So the two went from the fellowship of the poor to their
ancient house.
They drove along the avenue between the stately beeches that stood on
either side and reached out their branches, almost but not quite unto
meeting, so that the sun, now in the south, made a train of light down
which the General and Kate came home. At the end of the beeches the
road wheeled to the right, and Kate saw for the first time the
dwelling-place of her people. Tochty Lodge was of the fourth period of
Scottish castellated architecture, and till it fell into disrepair was
a very perfect example of the sixteenth century mansion-house, where
strength of defence could not yet be dispensed with, for the Carnegies
were too near the Highland border to do without thick walls or to risk
habitation on the ground floor. The buildings had first been erected
on the L plan, and then had been made into a quadrangle, so that on the
left was the main part, with a tower at the south-west corner over the
den, and a wing at the south-east coming out to meet the gate. On the
north-east and north were a tower and rooms now in ruins, and along the
west ran a wall some six feet high with a stone walk three feet from
the top, whence you could look down on the burn. A big gateway, whose
doors were of oak studded with nails, with a grated lattice for
observation, gave entrance to the courtyard. In the centre of the yard
there was an ancient oak and a draw well whose water never failed. The
eastern face was bare of ivy, except at the north corner, where stood
the jackdaws' tower; but the rough grey stone was relieved by the
tendrils and red blossoms of the hardy tropaeolum which despises the
rich soil of the south and the softer air, and grows luxuriantly on our
homely northern houses. As they came to the gateway, the General bade
Kate pull up and read the scroll above, which ran in clear-cut letters--
TRY AND THEN
TRVST BETTER GVDE
ASSVRANCE
BOT TRUST NOT
OR YE TRY FOR FEAR
OF REPENTANCE.
"We 've been a slow dour race, Kit, who never gave our heart lightly,
but having given it, never played the traitor. Fortune has not
favoured us, for acre after acre has gone from our hands, but, thank
God, we 've never had dishonour."
"And never will, dad, for we are the last of the race."
Janet Macpherson was waiting in the deep doorway of the tower, and gave
Kate welcome as one whose ancestors had for four generations served the
Carnegies, since the day Black John had married a Macpherson.
[Illustration: Janet Macpherson was waiting in the deep doorway.]
"Calf of my heart," she cried, and took Kate in her arms. "It is your
foster-mother that will be glad to see you in the home of your people,
and will be praying that God will give you peace and good days."
Then they went up the winding stone stair, with deep, narrow windows,
and came into the dining-hall where the fifty Jacobites toasted the
king and many a gathering had taken place in the olden time. It was
thirty-five feet long by fifteen broad, and twenty-two feet high. The
floor was of flags over arches below, and the bare stone walls showed
at the windows and above the black oak panelling which reached ten feet
from the ground. The fireplace was six feet high, and so wide that two
could sit on either side within. Upon the mantelpiece the Carnegie
arms stood out in bold relief under the two crossed swords. One or two
portraits of dead Carnegies and some curious weapons broke the monotony
of the walls, and from the roof hung a finely wrought iron candelabra.
The western portion of the hall was separated by a screen of open
woodwork, and made a pleasant dining-room. A door in the corner led
into the tower, which had a library, with Carnegie's bedroom above, and
higher still Kate's room, each with a tiny dressing closet. For the
Carnegies always lived together in this tower, and their guests at the
other end of the hall. The library had two windows. From one you
could look down and see nothing but the foliage of the den, with a
gleam of water where the burn made a pool, and from the other you
looked over a meadow with big trees to the Tochty sweeping round a
bend, and across to the high opposite banks covered with brush-wood.
First they visited Carnegie's room.
"Here have we been born, and died if we did not fall in battle, and
it's not a bad billet after all for an old soldier. Yes, that is your
mother when we were married, but I like this one better," and the
General touched his breast, for he carried his love next his heart in a
silver locket of Indian workmanship.
Three fine deerskins lay on the floor, and one side of the room was
hung with tapestry; but the most striking piece of furnishing in the
room was an oak cupboard, sunk a foot into the wall.
"I 'll show you something in that cabinet after luncheon, Kate; but now
let's see your room."
"How beautiful, and how cunning you have been," and then she took an
inventory of the furniture, all new, but all in keeping with the age of
the room. "You have spent far too much on a very self-willed and
bad-tempered girl, and all I can do is to make you promise that you
will come up here sometimes and let me give you tea in this
window-seat, where we can see the woods and the Tochty."
"Well, Donald," said the General at table to his faithful servant, "how
do you think Drumtochty will suit you?"
"Any place where you and Miss Kate will be living iss a good place for
me, and there are six or maybe four men I hef been meeting that hef the
language, but not good Gaelic--just poor Perthshire talk," for Donald
was a West Highlander, and prided himself on his better speech.
"And what about a kirk, Donald? Aren't you Free like Janet?"
"Oh, yes, I am Free; but it iss not to that kirk I will be going most
here, and I am telling Janet that she will be caring more about a man
that hass a pleasant way with him than about the truth."
"What's wrong with things, Donald, since we lay in Edinburgh twenty
years ago, and you used to give me bits of the Free Kirk sermons?"
"It iss all wrong that they hef been going these last years, for they
stand to sing and they sit to pray, and they will be using human himes.
And it iss great pieces of the Bible they hef cut out, and I am told
that they are not done yet, but are going from bad to worse," and
Donald invited questioning.
"What more are they after, man?"
"It will be myself that has found it out, and it iss only what might be
expected, but I am not saying that you will be believing me."
"Out with it, Donald; let's hear what kind of people we 've come
amongst."
"They 've been just fairly left to themselves, and the godless bodies
hef taken to watering the whisky."
CHAPTER IV.
A SECRET CHAMBER.
"The cabinet now, dad, and at once," when they went up the stairs and
were standing in the room. "Just give me three guesses about the
mystery; but first let me examine."
It was pretty to see Kate opening the doors, curiously carved with
hunting scenes, and searching the interior, tapping with her knuckles
and listening for a hollow sound.
"Is it a treasure we are to find? Then that's one point. Not in the
cabinet? I have it; there is a door into some other place; am n't I
right?"
"Where could it be? We're in a tower cut off from the body of the
Lodge, with a room above and a room below;" and the General sat down to
allow full investigation.
After many journeys up and down the stair, and many questions that
brought no light, Kate played a woman's trick up in her room.
"The General wishes to show me the concealed room in this tower, Janet,
or whatever you call it. Would you kindly tell us how to get entrance?
You need n't come down; just explain to me;" and Kate was very pleasant
indeed.
"Yes, I am hearing there iss a room in the tower, Miss Kate, that
strangers will not be able to find; and it would be very curious if the
Carnegies did not have a safe place for an honest gentleman when he
wass in a little trouble. All the good houses will have their secret
places, and it will not be easy to find some of them. Oh no; now I
will remember one at Glamis Castle. . . ."
"Never mind Glamis, nurse, for the General is waiting. Where is the
spring? is it in the oak cabinet?"
"It will be good for the General to be resting himself after his
luncheon, and he will be thinking many things in his room. Oh yes,"
continued Janet, settling herself down to narrative, and giving no heed
to Kate's beguiling ways, "old Mary that died near a hundred would be
often telling me stories of the old days when I wass a little girl, and
the one I liked best wass about the hiding of the Duke of Perth."
"You will tell me that to-morrow, when I come down to see your house,
Janet, and to-day you 'll tell me how to open the spring."
"But it would be a pity not to finish the story about the Duke of
Perth, for it goes well, and it will be good for a Carnegie to hear
it." And Kate flung herself into the window-seat, but was hugely
interested all the same.
"Mary wass sitting at her door in the evening, and that would be three
days after Culloden, for the news had been sent by a sure hand from the
Laird, when a man came riding along the road, and as soon as Mary saw
him she knew he wass somebody; but perhaps it will be too long a
story," and Janet began to arrange dresses in a wardrobe.
"No, no; as you have begun it, I want to hear the end, but quick, for
there 's the room to see and the rest of the Lodge before it grows
dark. What like was he?"
"He wass a man that looked as if he would be commanding, but his
clothes were common grey, and stained with the road. He wass very
tired, and could hardly hold himself up in the saddle, and his horse
wass covered with foam. 'Is this Tochty Lodge?' he asked, softening
his voice as one trying to speak humbly. 'I am passing this way, and
have a message for Mistress Carnegie; think you that I can have speech
of her quietly?'
"So Mary will go up and tell the lady that one wass waiting to see her,
and that he seemed a noble gentleman. When they came down to the
courtyard he had drawn water for his horse from the well, and wass
giving him to drink, thinking more of the beast that had borne him than
of his own need, as became a man of birth.
"At the sight of the lady he took off his bonnet and bowed low, and
asked if he might hef a private audience, to which Mistress Carnegie
replied, 'We are private here,' and asked, 'Have you been with my son?'
"'We fought together for the Prince three days since--my name is Perth.
I am escaping for my life, and desire a brief rest, if it please you,
and bring no danger to your house.'
"'Ye had been welcome, my Lord Duke,' and Mary used to show how her
mistress straightened herself, though you were the poorest soldier that
had drawn his sword for the good cause, and ye will stay here till it
be safe for you to escape to France.'
"He wass four weeks hidden in the room, and although the soldiers
searched all the house, they could never find the place, and Mrs.
Carnegie put scorn upon them, asking why they did her so much honour
and whom they sought. Oh yes, it wass a cunning place for the bad
times, and you will be pleased to see it."
"And the secret, Janet," cried Kate, her hand upon the door; "you know
it quite well."
"So does the General, Catherine of my heart," said Janet, "and he will
be liking to show it himself."
So Kate departed in a rage, and gave orders that there be no more
delay, for she would not spend an afternoon seeking for rat-holes.
"No rat-hole, Kit, but a very fair chamber for a hunted man; it is
twenty years and more since this door opened last, for none knows the
trick of it save Janet and myself. There it goes."
A panel in the back of the cabinet slid aside behind its neighbour and
left a passage through which one could squeeze himself with an effort.
"We go up a stair now, and must have light; a candle will do; the air
is perfectly pure, for there 's plenty of ventilation;" and then they
crept up by steps in the thickness of the walls, till they stood in a
chamber under six feet high, but otherwise as large as the bedroom
below. The walls were lined with wood, and there were two tiny slits
that gave air, but hardly any light. The only furniture in the room
was an oaken chest, clasped with iron and curiously locked.
"Our plate chest, Kit; but there 'a not much silver and gold in it,
worse luck for you, lassie; in fact, we're a pack of fools to set store
by it. There 's nothing in the kist but some old clothes, and perhaps
some buckles and such like. I dare say there is a lock of hair also.
Some day we will have a look inside."
"To-day, instantly," and Kate shook her father. "You are a dreadful
hypocrite, for I can see that you would rather Tochty were burned down
than this box be lost. Are there any relics of Prince Charlie in it?
Quick."
"Be patient; it's a difficult key to turn; there now;" but there was
not much to see--only pieces of woollen cloth tightly folded down.
[Illustration: "It's a difficult key to turn."]
"Call Janet, Kate, for she ought to see this opening, and we 'll carry
everything down to my room, for no one could tell what like things are
in this gloom. Yes, Perth lived here for weeks, and used to go up to
the gallery where Black John's mother sat with her maid; but the son
was hiding in the North, and never reached his house till he came to
die."
First of all they came upon a ball dress of the former time, of white
silk, with a sash of Macpherson tartan, besides much fine lace.
"That is the dress your great-grandmother wore as a bride at the Court
of Versailles in the fifties. She was only a lassie, and seemed like
her husband's daughter. The Prince danced with her, and they counted
the dress something to be kept, and that night Locheil and Cluny also
had a reel with Sheena Carnegie, while Black John looked like a young
man, for he had been too sorely wounded to be able to dance with her
himself." And then the General carried down with his own hands a
Highland gentleman's evening dress, trews of the Royal tartan, and a
velvet coat with silver buttons, and a light plaid of fine cloth.
"And this was her husband's dress that night; but why the Stewart
tartan?"
"No, lassie, that is the suit the Prince wore at Holyrood, where he
gave a great ball after Prestonpans, and danced with the Edinburgh
ladies. It was smuggled across to France at last with other things of
the Prince's, and he gave it to Carnegie. 'It will remind you of our
great days,' he said, 'when the Stewarts saw their friends in Mary's
Palace.'"
Last of all, the General lifted out a casket and laid it on his table.
Within it was a brooch, such as might once have been worn either by a
man or a woman; diamonds set in gold, and in the midst a lock of fair
hair.
"Is it really, father? . . ." And Kate took the jewel in her hand.
"Yes, the Prince's hair--his wedding present to Sheena Macpherson."
Kate kissed it fervently, and passed it to Janet, who placed it
carefully in the box, while the General made believe to laugh.
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