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 Supplements to the General Catalogue are issued M 
 ^ periodically and can be had on application. §
 
 THE 
 
 WHITE COCKADE; 
 
 OR, 
 
 FAITH AND FORTITUDE. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES GEANT, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 **THE YELLOW FEIGATE,'' " SECOND TO NONE," 
 ^*THE king's OWN BORDEEEES," "THE EOMANCE OF WAE,' 
 
 ETC., ETC. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 GEOEGE EOUTLEDGE AND SONS, 
 
 BEOADWAY, LUDGATE. 
 
 NEW YORK: 129, OEAND STREET. 
 
 .. m 1867.
 
 82.3 
 
 V.I 
 
 1 PREFACE. 
 
 311 
 
 (Nl 
 
 In my former novel, " The King's Own 
 
 Borderers/' I endeavoured, in tlie characters 
 
 I of Lord and Lady Rohallion, to depict 
 
 ^ Jacobitism in its decline, or rather when it 
 
 %^ had become identified only with the senility 
 
 v and weakness of enthusiastic old age ; but 
 
 -^ in the following story I have sought to 
 
 i pourtray it in the zenith of its strength, and 
 
 before it had degenerated into mere senti- 
 
 *n mental loyalty to a race of dead monarchs — 
 
 r^f all loyalty perhaps the most pure and un- 
 
 ^ selfish. 
 
 "^ In the progress of my tale, I have had to 
 
 ^4.ntroduce several points of local history, a 
 
 branch of study which, I am sorry to say, is 
 
 now usually the last element thought of in 
 
 ^ Scottish popular education. 
 
 ^^ Scotsmen^ and Englishmen too, have Ion 
 
 g
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 since learned the value of that treaty, which 
 made them equally subjects of a vast united 
 empire, on whose flag the sun never sets ; 
 but Sir Baldred Otterburn will represent a 
 numerous class, who existed even until after 
 the beginning of the present century, and 
 who bitterly resented the Act of Union. 
 
 " The English adherents of the Stuarts 
 had nothing to say against it," says a recent 
 writer ; " but the Scottish Jacobites could 
 scarcely find words sufiiciently strong to ex- 
 press their hatred and horror of a measure 
 which, to their excited patriotism, seemed to 
 be the consummation of all ruin and dis- 
 grace, and the utter annihilation of Scotland 
 as a free and independent country ;"* and 
 singularly enough, a bill for its total repeal 
 in June, 1718, was only lost by a majority 
 of three in the House of Lords. 
 
 As a proof of how the two countries, by 
 previous animosity, obstructed each other's 
 progress, the year 1867 has proved that the 
 revenue of England, since 1707, has in- 
 creased tenfold, and that of Scotland more 
 than sixtyfold ! (Vide Debate on the Eeform 
 Bill in March.) 
 
 * Dr. Charles Mackay. Preface to " Jacobite Songs," &c.
 
 PREFACE. V 
 
 The character of Balcraffcie is neither a 
 solitary one, nor entirely original, for such a 
 composite rogue, the famous Deacon Brodie, 
 actually figured among the Town Councillors 
 of Edinburgh, in the end of the last century, 
 and expiated his many crimes on a gallows, 
 constructed by himself, for the use of the 
 Criminal Court. 
 
 It must be pretty apparent to any student 
 of History, that had the wliole fighting force 
 of the Highlands followed Charles Edward, 
 we might never have heard of a battle of 
 Culloden ; and it is somewhat amusing to 
 observe how the thousands who remained 
 quietly at home, and all their descendants 
 too, have readily adopted the laurels of the 
 little band in whose faith and valour they 
 had no share whatever. 
 
 In all the military details of my story, I 
 have striven to be correct, and have consulted 
 the War Office Eecords of most of the regi- 
 ments engaged at Falkirk and Culloden ; and 
 if, in entering somewhat into the spirit of 
 the time, I have written with a little bitter- 
 ness about the barbarities that followed the 
 extinction of the Insurrection, it has been 
 simply in the genuine hatred of all cruelty
 
 VI PEEFACE. 
 
 and tyranny — oppression and hypocrisy — 
 for " the last expiring wave of Jacobitism 
 has long since broken, and left not even a 
 ripple upon the shore ; and a poet, or a 
 reader, may be a Jacobite in literature, with ■ 
 out being in the smallest degree a Jacobite 
 in politics. 
 
 June, 1867.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 «HAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. l'etoile de la. mer . . .1 
 
 II. ATTAINTED . . .11 
 
 III. TSE TARN OE CAPTAIN SCUPPEEPLUa . 2(f 
 
 IT. FATHEE TESTIMONY , , .34 
 
 V. ON SHORE . . ■ . . 46 
 
 YI. BAILIE EEUBEN BALCEAFTIE . . 57 
 
 VII. THEY SET FOETH . . .74 
 
 VIII. AN OLD SCOTTISH CAVALIER . . 88 
 
 IX. dalquhaen's mission . , .99 
 
 X. THE HOUSE OF AULDHAME . . 110 
 
 XI. BETDE OTTEEBTJEN . . . 118 
 
 XII. THE WITHDEAWINa-EOOM . . 137 
 
 XIIL IN VINO VERITAS . . . 150 
 
 XIV. BRTDE's FOUE LOVERS . , . 160 
 
 XV. BALCEAFTIE ON THE SCENT . 172S
 
 IV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEK 
 
 XVI. TOURS ONLY AND EYER ! 
 
 XYII. MR. EGERTON PROPOSES 
 
 XYIIT. THE QUAEREL 
 
 XIX. MYSTERY . 
 
 XX. THE DEIL's loan 
 
 XXI. THE DEATH SHOT 
 
 XXII. IN THE TOILS 
 
 XXIII. THE ARLED BRIDE 
 
 XXIV. WYVIL's DEPARTURE 
 XXV. BEYDE'S ENTERPRISE 
 
 XXVI. THE SEQUEL 
 
 PAGE 
 
 . 183 
 . 199 
 . 209 
 . 218 
 . 230 
 . 237 
 . 246 
 . 255 
 . 268 
 . 281 
 . 303
 
 '^--.^ 
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 'L^ETOILE DE LA MER/ 
 
 " The sliip is sailing, the moon is shining ; 
 Low on a level with the deck, 
 She swims through the white cloud breakers leaping 
 About her hull as about a wreck. 
 
 " The ship is sailing, my heart is sinking ; 
 
 Ned, you never knew me thus before : *• 
 
 We're home at last ! but I wish 'twere morning — 
 There's something waiting for me ashore." 
 
 Good Words, 1866. 
 
 On a bright mormng in May, a long, low, black 
 lugger was creeping along the German Sea, about 
 thirty miles off the mouth of the Firth of Forth. 
 Sharply prowed and pinck-built, having a round 
 stern finished (by a continuation of the bulwarks 
 aft) with a narrow square part above; she had 
 two large quadrilateral or four-cornered sails, each 
 bent to a strong yard, and confined by well- 
 greased parrels to the slender and taper masts, 
 which were raked well aft. The size of those 
 long sails, suggested that great care was requisite 
 
 VOL. I. 1
 
 2 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 in lowering and shifting them, which was neces- 
 'sary at every tack, for the higger was one of 
 unusual tonnage for her rig, and was decked and 
 armed with two brass guns and several pateraroes 
 or swivels along her gunnel. 
 
 Forward and amid-ships, a mixed crew of sixteen 
 Scotsmen and Dunkirkers, sat smoking or chew- 
 ing pigtail, with their backs to the morning breeze. 
 They were all rough, weatherbeaten, and bushy- 
 whiskered fellows. Their hair, long and dirty, 
 was served round with spun-yarn to keep it tidy, 
 or out of their eyes if they went aloft. All wore 
 coarse pea-jackets and short kilt-like trowsers of 
 canvas, well japanned with tar. They had long 
 knives, with shark-skin sheaths in their girdles, 
 and wore broad square metal buckles on their 
 shoes. 
 
 Though few in number, these men were bold 
 and reckless in aspect and bearing ; for their craft 
 was the ^ Etoile de la Mer,^ a notorious contraband 
 vessel of Dunkirk, and they were sailing on the 
 sea, at a time when smugglers, if taken, had 
 seldom the option of entering the king^s service. 
 In their own phraseology, they sailed " with hal- 
 ters round their necks,^^ and when captured were 
 usually strung up to the yard-arm. 
 
 That his majesty^'s ship, the ^Fox,'' was now on 
 the look-out for the lugger, in those very waters, 
 was an exciting circumstance of which some 
 friendly fisherman had duly informed them over
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 3 
 
 night ; thus a sharp look-out was kept by Captain 
 Scupperplug and his men^ as they crept slowly 
 towards the estuary _, being in no hurry to enter 
 until after sunset, and ere that time, a long sum- 
 mer day, they knew, must intervene, so every sail 
 of any apparent size was carefully edged away 
 from. 
 
 I am doubtful whether the real name of this 
 famous old Scottish smuggler was ever recorded, 
 as, among seamen, he was always known as Cap- 
 tain Sanders Scupperplug, or old Puerto-de-la- 
 Plata, having been one of the five British seamen 
 who took that place by surprise — an event in his 
 life, concerning which, he spun many a tough 
 yarn, over his can of grog ashore, and in the long 
 watches of the night at sea. • 
 
 He was a thick-set, stunted, and truculent, but 
 withal, seaman-like personage ; he wore a low 
 three-cocked hat, edged with tarnished lace ; his 
 thick grizzled hair, of no particular colour, was 
 crusted with saline particles and queued with 
 spunyarn. He had a short blue, stiff-skirted and 
 collarless coat, buttoned up to his throat, and gar- 
 nished with several rows of gilt buttons on the 
 wide cuffs and square flapped pockets. A broad 
 leather belt girt his waist, and sustained a long 
 knife or dagger. 
 
 The slash of a cutlass had traversed his right 
 cheek, imparting a sinister glare to his eyes, by 
 the consequent contraction of the muscles, and 
 
 1—2
 
 4 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 his nose having been carefully slit by the Spa- 
 niardsj when he was a prisoner in Hispaniola, 
 made his aspect unusually repulsive. He looked 
 like a genuine, pirate — a sea-faring bull dog on his 
 hind legs ; and had all the bearing of one who 
 had been, as he sometimes boasted in his cups, a 
 powder-monkey on board the ^ Vulture/ under 
 Captain William Kidd, who was hanged (for 
 piracy and levanting with a king^s ship) at Execu- 
 tion Dock in the year 1701, as all the world knew 
 then. 
 
 The distant and dim blue wavy ridges that rose, 
 on either bow, from the German Sea, were the 
 hills of Fife and of Eastern Lothian, and far 
 away towards them, the green billows rolled mer- 
 rily in the sunshine of the early morning. The 
 sails which appeared at the horizon were chiefly 
 coasters, hugging the land as they crept along, for 
 we were at war with France then, and no vessel 
 of any size or value, unless a privateer or letter 
 of marque, ventured seaward without a convoy. 
 
 '^De vind is veering bore aft,^^ snivelled the 
 mate, Vander Pierboom, who was steering. He 
 was a short, squat and ferocious-looking Hol- 
 lander, who might very well have passed for the 
 twin brother of his captain, as his nasal protu- 
 berance had been hopelessly smashed by a half- 
 spent shot at Puerto-de-la-Plata, and his cheeks 
 had been spritsail-yarded by an arrow on the 
 coast of Africa.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 5 
 
 " More aft/^ exclaimed Seupperplug, with one 
 of the dreadful and useless oaths then in vogue ; 
 '^ and it is freshening too ; Mahoun ! we^U be in- 
 side the bay before the middle watph is over^ and 
 that winna suit our plans. Lower the yards ! — 
 take in sail ; and, hearkee, you young limb of 
 Satan, Jule Leroux — " 
 
 '^ YeSj sare/^ cried a little French mulatto boy, 
 tumbling hurriedly out of the boat where he had 
 been asleep. 
 
 " Shake loose the ensign.^^ 
 
 '^ Which, monsieur ?^' 
 
 " The union, — d — n it, and you too ! Up with 
 it, chock-a-block.^^ 
 
 From a bundle of bunting, composed of the 
 flags of all nations, the boy hurriedly and ner* 
 vously, as if he already felt the captain^s colt 
 across his tawny shoulders, selected one, bearing 
 the red cross of England, behind the white saltire 
 of Scotland (the emerald isle had, as yet, no 
 share in that parti-coloured conglomeration of 
 crosses, the Union Jack), and it was run up to 
 the head of the taper main-mast, for Captain 
 Scupperplug was prepared to pass himself off as 
 a trader from Lerwick, Thurso, or the Hans 
 Towns, if questioned by any one in authority, for 
 ships^ logs and papers were not kept so strictly 
 then as now. 
 
 Hitherto the gallant Captain Scupperplug had 
 been sailing under a most cunningly devised as-
 
 6 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 sortment of colours which belonged to no nation 
 in particular^ and were only intended to mystify, 
 at a distance, any king's officer, but more espe- 
 cially Captain Beaver of the ^ Fox^ frigate, whom it 
 was now the smuggler's chief object to avoid, as 
 in addition to a contraband cargo, he had on board 
 two passengers, who were eminently obnoxious to 
 the British government, and after landing whom 
 in safety, a certain authority at Dunkirk, was to 
 pay him the sum of fifty louis d^or, over and above 
 all expenses. 
 
 Great Britain was then, I have said, at war 
 with France. She had been so since 1744, and 
 also with Spain since 1739 — at war, moreover, for 
 ■ sundry remarkable causes which did not concern 
 the simple and tax-paying people of these realms 
 a single jot. 
 
 The emperor, Charles VI. of Germany, had 
 died in 1740, and the French caused the Bavarian 
 elector to be crowned in his place, thus stripping 
 of her inheritance, his daughter, the famous em- 
 press Queen of Hungary. Prussia pounced on 
 Silesia; France, Saxony, and Bavaria, attacked 
 the rest of her dominions; but Britain with 
 Holland, and soon after, Russia, united in her 
 favour. 
 
 We islanders had no apparent cause to meddle 
 in this continental squabble ; but then the good 
 and well-being of Hanover, and the security of 
 that petty Electorate, so well beloved at tSe Court
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 7 
 
 of St. James^, depended upon a nice balance of 
 the hostile interests of the German Empire. The 
 servile English ministry were "willing to gratify 
 George II. and his hideous mistresses by making 
 an essay in its favour. A few millions of gold, a 
 few thousand British lives, were nothing when 
 Hanover was menaced ; so to war we went, with a 
 will, as usual. Our troops soon made a diversion 
 in favour of Maria Theresa, and the nominal 
 emperor had to fly to Frankfort, where he lived in 
 obscurity — all of which, being history, is perhaps 
 not new to the reader. 
 
 Hanover was preserved, the real object of our 
 interference ; but still the war went on by sea and 
 land, a state of affairs which made no difference 
 to the adventurous Captain Scupperplug, who* 
 favoured by a fog, had stolen out of Dunkirk, 
 and escaping the fleet of Rear- Admiral Byng, then 
 cruising off" the north and east coasts of Scotland, 
 had arrived safely, as yet, with a good cargo of 
 brandy and sherry, almost within sight of the Isle 
 of May. 
 
 " If overhauled by a shark of a king's ship, 
 these passengers of ours will add muckle to our 
 risk o' being tacked up by the craig,'"* remarked the 
 captain, in a growling tone, to his mate ; ^^ and in 
 this bit lugger we canna hide them. Mahoun 
 take it ! the cabin is little better than the saut- 
 backet o' the Crail fisher boat.'' 
 
 '^ Hide dem — no, unless under de vater, vid a
 
 8 THE WHITE COCKADE 
 
 gannon sliot at dere veet/^ suggested tlie cruel 
 Dutcliman ; " dree time, hab I said_, dey liad 
 bedder valk de plank_, dan add to our beril by dere 
 bresence aboard !^^ 
 
 '' No — no, d n it, Vander Pierboom ; tbink 
 
 of the fifty louis d^or; tbey are worth that 
 muckle, ye dour Dutch devil/^ 
 
 " Bud who de Henkers, are dey ?^^ 
 
 ^^Dinna fash your thumb anent that, mate, 
 They are some o^ those will turn the world upside 
 doon, I hope ere long, and then, Mahoun ! we 
 shall have nae ships o^ the German Elector poking 
 their snouts in Scottish waters. The mangy 
 white horse o' Hanover — may the devil gie it the 
 glanders ! — will have to keep ashore, or on its ain 
 side o^ the German sea/^ 
 
 " Oho — I zee — I zee,''^ said the mate, putting a 
 thick finger to where his nose once hid been ; 
 '^ dey are Jagobites — vat you call — eh ? " 
 
 " Aye, aye, just sae — but keep her away, Vander 
 Pierboom,^^ said Scupperplug, who had been look- 
 ing long and intently through an old battered 
 telescope, well served round with spun-yarn, at a 
 grey object that was slowly rising from the hori- 
 zon : '^ keep the coast of East Lothian well 
 aboard, for that is the May already, or Fm a 
 Dutchman ! " 
 
 ^^ Bearing about dwendy vive mile off, or so,^^ 
 said the Hollander, whose flattened nose sorely 
 impeded his pronunciation.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 9 
 
 '^ Exactly — sae keep her away three points 
 more to the southward — par los infernos_, the mair 
 sea-room we gie our bit barky the better/^ added 
 the captain, whose lan^age was a strange com- 
 pound of English and Scotch^ interspersed with 
 foreign oaths, picked np chiefly in the Spanish 
 main ; '^ with the hail o^ a lang summer day 
 before us, every hour adds to our danger, so keep 
 a bright look-out, lads, or by the Henker's horns, 
 we may never see the auld timmer forts o' Dun- 
 kirk again ! Jule Leroux, are those gentlemen 
 below stirring yet ? " 
 
 ^^ Oui — Monsieur le Capitaine,'^ replied the boy, 
 eying the colt, a piece of knotted rope which 
 hung half out of the skipper's right hand pocket. 
 
 ^^Then get ready some coffee, dashed with 
 Nantz ; and look sharp, ye French baboon, or it 
 wiU be the worse for ye ! " 
 
 He now took up his heavy pistols (which were 
 barrelled and mounted with brass) from the 
 binnacle ; after looking carefully to the flints and 
 priming, he placed them in his broad black 
 leather girdle, and buttoned his rough pilot coat 
 over them. He then bellowed something hoarsely 
 down the companion hatch into the little cabin of 
 the lugger. 
 
 Voices responded cheerfully from below, and 
 two gentlemen soon after hurried on deck ; and, 
 with faces expressive of joy and animation, bade 
 him and Mynheer Vander Pierboom good morning.
 
 10 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 all unaware of tlie latter's kind suggestion for 
 dropping them quietly overboard^ each with a cold 
 shot at his heels. 
 
 They then looked eagerly around at the bright 
 green waves dancing merrily past in the summer 
 sunshine, and at the stripe of distant coast, that 
 rose on either bow, as the lugger, under her 
 reduced canvas, bore slowly, but steadily on, 
 rolling a little from side to side, as she was now 
 trimmed before the wind.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 11 
 
 CHAPTEH II. 
 
 ATTAINTED. 
 
 . *' O, tlie tod rules owre the Lion, 
 
 And tlie midden's aboon the moon, 
 So Scotland maun cower and cringe 
 
 To a fause and foreign loon : 
 O weary fa' the piper chiel 
 
 Wha sells his breath sae dear ; 
 And weary fa' the evil time 
 
 The Orange Prince cam' here." ' 
 
 Old Song. • 
 
 In stature both these strangers were above the 
 middle height, and were well built and well knit 
 in figure. One wore his light brown hair unpow- 
 dered, and simply tied by a white ribband; he 
 was dark-blue eyed, and oval-faced, eminently 
 handsome, courtly in bearing, and certainly not 
 more than five-and-twenty years of age. 
 
 The other, who wore a Ramillies wig and jack 
 boots, which seemed to have seen better days, was 
 stouter in form and darker in complexion, having 
 been bronzed by exposure to the weather in many 
 a foreign land. His forehead was well marked by 
 the lines of thought, and his dark eyes wore 
 usually a stern, sharp, and enquiring expression.
 
 12 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 thougli tlie form of his moutli signified extreme 
 good nature. He was more tlian twenty years 
 the senior of his companion, like whom he wore a 
 plain light green frock, without lace or ornament 
 on the pockets or loose wide cuffs, fastened in 
 front by a row of silver clasps, and girt at the 
 waist by a plain black leather girdle, at which 
 hung his sword and a pair of small silver mounted 
 pistols, from two steel hooks. From the chasings 
 of these pistols, a coat of arms had been carefully 
 effaced. 
 
 Though simply known as Captains Douglas and 
 Mitchell — " Captain^^ — as Gibbet has it — "being a 
 good travelling title, and one that kept waiters 
 and ostlers in order," — the younger was Henry 
 Douglas, Lord Dalquharn,"^ of the Holm, in the 
 Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, a near kinsman of 
 the gallant Viscount Kenmure, who perished on 
 the scaffold for the House of Stuart; and the 
 elder was Sir John Mitchell, Bart., of Pitreavie, 
 in former times a Captain of the Scots Grey 
 Dragoons — both attainted and outlawed for their 
 steady adherence to their native line of kings — 
 and both now returning to Scotland on a mission 
 fraught with peril to themselves, for if discovered, 
 the axe and gibbet awaited them. 
 
 Each lifted his little low triangular hat with 
 studious politeness to the squat skipper, and then 
 waved it as if in welcome to the distant coast. 
 * Pronounced Dalwharn, in Scotland.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 13 
 
 '^ So land is in sight at last, my old cock of 
 Puerto-de-la-Plata?" exclaimed Sir John Mit- 
 chell. 
 
 '^ The Lammer-Muirs, Captain Douglas, will 
 soon rise on the port bow ; yonder is the Isle of 
 
 * 
 
 May, and a point or so further north, are Fifeness 
 and Kilmeinie Craig : I daresay you'll ken them. 
 Captain Mitchell," said the smuggler, good 
 naturedly, for he was too much of a Scotsman not 
 to sympathise with the expression which he read 
 in the handsome faces of the returning exiles as 
 they looked towards the land of their birth and of 
 their dearest hopes. 
 
 ^^ Fifeness and Kilmeinie,^' repeated Sir John 
 Mitchell thoughtfully, as he shook his head. 
 
 "Aye, sir — coming from the other side o*» 
 the sea — running south frae the Red Head of 
 Angus, or the Inchcape Eock, weVe to gie that 
 long reef the Carr-rocks a wide berth — north 
 longitude 56^ 16', west latitude 2* 34'. Hech, 
 sirs ! mony a stout ship as ever sailed the sea, hath 
 had her timbers torn on those devil's teeth.'^ 
 
 Without hearing the skipper's remarks, the 
 eyes of the elder passenger were fixed earnestly 
 on the dim blue stripe of coast. 
 
 For thirty years," said he, in a low voice, 
 
 my eyes have looked on other lands ; and now — 
 now I cannot tell what is coming over me, but my 
 heart is very full, Dalquharn — very full, indeed ! 
 Egad — so many things have happened, and I have 

 
 14 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 seen so much of tlie busy world,, that a^es seem 
 to have elapsed since I was out with my Lord the 
 Earl of Mar in the ^15, and now I hope we are 
 on the eve of going out again/' 
 
 Lord Dalquharn smiled at this significant 
 phrase^ which is always used in Scotland to express 
 having joined the House of Stuart, just as in 
 Ireland, to say having been ^^ up/' signified being 
 engaged in the afFau" of '98 ; but Lord Dalquharn's 
 smile was a bitter one, and his ungloved hand was 
 tightly clenched in the carved steel hilt of his 
 slender little walking sword, a farewell gift from 
 Prince Charles Edward. 
 
 The late Lord, his father, had first embroiled 
 himself with the intrigues of the cabinet of St. 
 Germains at the time of the accession of George 
 11. ; some thirteen years before, he had also in his 
 place in Parliament as a representative peer, re- 
 sented too bitterly the severe and shortsighted 
 proceedings of the ministry in the matter of the 
 Porteous mob, and used such strong language in 
 his protest against the removal of the gates and 
 portes of Edinburgh, that he had to make his 
 escape from London. A summons from the privy 
 council he treated with disdain, and repairing to 
 St. Germains with his lady (a Gordon of the 
 House of Kenmure) and their son, the little 
 Master of Dalquharn j ere long he found his title 
 forfeited, his name proscribed, and his estates 
 gifted to a truculent whig-noble, who had been
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 15 
 
 deeply implicated in tlie Glencoe Massacre and 
 the Treaty of Union^ having sold his vote for the 
 same sum as the patriotic Lord Chancellor Sea- 
 field— to wit J490. 
 
 Now, his only hope and heir stood a beggar 
 and a fugitive on the deck of an obscure smug- 
 gling lugger, but full of anticipations of better 
 and more glorious days, when, as his companion 
 — whose hostility to the government was of much 
 older date — ^phrased it, " King Jamie should cock 
 up his beaver in old Holyrood." 
 
 ^'^You are very silent, Dalquharn,'^ said 
 Mitchell ; " of what are you thinking ? ^' 
 
 " I am thinking of my father and of my 
 mother, who sleep by old King Jameses side in the 
 chapel of St. Germain-en-Laye.^' 
 
 " Loyal still in death ! " 
 
 ^^ Yea — loyal still ! If the dead king were to 
 come forth, he might hold royal state again, so 
 many true and gallant Scottish and Irish hearts 
 are mouldering near him — that is, if their blessed 
 spirits do not, as I hope, find eternal rest/' ' 
 
 " Come, come, Gadamercy ! you must not sink 
 into a dolorous mood, with the land in sight and 
 Byng's fleet we know not where. Egad! I can smell 
 the hot coffee of our little yellow friend, Leroux.^^ 
 
 " I have not your elasticity of spirits, my dear 
 Sir John, though twenty years your junior," 
 replied the young lord. ^^ Viewing my country as 
 I do, through the medium of her past history.
 
 16 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 with all lier wrongs and romance, lier heroes and 
 their struggles against the aggressive kings of 
 England — through the medium of her poetry and 
 her music — glorying as I do in the name of a 
 Scottish man, never more than when exiled as a 
 loyal cavalier and desperate soldier of fortune, 
 enduring penury, obloquy and affronts, feeding 
 myself in foreign camps and cities, with the last 
 relic of my inheritance, my sword, the prince's 
 gift, — I now feel swelling up within me a flood of 
 enthusiasm — a crowd of thoughts too deep for 
 utterance, on seeing again those dear old moun- 
 tains rising from the sea, though we are returning, 
 it may be, but to find our graves among them." 
 
 ^^Thoughtless as you deem me, Dalquharn,'^ 
 said the other, as he caught something of the young 
 lord's enthusiasm, " I felt once like you ; I was a 
 boy then, a gallant and joyous boy, at an age 
 when no grief could crush hope, and no sneering 
 monitor could quell or damp the glorious glow of 
 ambition and romance ! Now — '^ 
 
 " WeU— and now ? " 
 
 ^^ Matured, saddened and soured by stern ex- 
 perience, and many a time by grinding poverty, ' 
 I view the world with very different eyes ; yet am 
 I hopeful still, otherwise I should not have come 
 in such doubtful g-uidance, on this, our desperate 
 errand. But zounds ! e'en now, man, I think I 
 can see Pitreavie, my old ancestral home in the 
 cosy East Neuk of Fife, embosomed among deep
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 17 
 
 primeval woods. I can hear the rooks cawing on 
 its huge square chimneys, and the creak of the 
 vanes on its turret tops, mingling with a song my 
 mother used to sing to me long, long ago — to me 
 and my three brave brothers who fell at Sheriff- 
 muir for King James. Black dool and woe be on 
 that day, and yet she grudged them not in such 
 a cause, for she was a Kirkaldy of the House of 
 Grange. The old song is in my ears, and in my 
 heart now, 
 
 " * And with it comes a broken fount 
 Of tears I deemed was dry ; 
 Auld faces, voices, come as wont, 
 And will not pass me by ! * 
 
 C( 
 
 Yet with God's help and King James's favour, 
 we may all brook our own lands again, and lie at 
 last in our forefathers' graves. Sir John.'' » 
 
 "So time will prove, my lord ; I think the 
 cold-blooded massacre in Glencoe, the bankruptcy 
 of Darien, when two thousand Scotchmen perished 
 to gratify Spanish cruelty and English jealousy, 
 the studied violations of the treaty of union, the 
 restoration of patronage, our defeats at Carthagena 
 and elsewhere, have surely given Scotland a surfeit 
 of Dutch stadtholders and German electors ! " 
 
 The homely odour of fried ham and eggs, as- 
 cending from the little cabin of the lugger, 
 coupled with the captain's warning that breakfast 
 awaited them, now lured the friends below. As 
 they descended, Vander Pierboom, who had been 
 
 VOL. I. 2
 
 18 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 ■watcMng them attentively as they stood far 
 aft on the pinck built stern, and who had 
 been endeavouring to follow their conversa- 
 tion, of which, however, he could make nothing^ 
 now twitched one of the captain's wide cuffs as 
 he was about to descend backwards into the 
 cabin. 
 
 '^rSgupperblug," snivelled the noseless Dutch- 
 man in a whisper, "you are to get fifty Louis 
 ober and above your bassage money for dese gen- 
 tilmensh — eh ? '' 
 
 " Yes — fifty Louis, and what then ? " growled 
 his commander impatiently. 
 
 "You might get de Louis at Dunkirk, and 
 ebber so ver moch more here, if — '' 
 
 " If what, you infernal Dutch lubber — out with 
 it, hand owre hand.'^ 
 
 "You zold 'em to de government as voreign 
 spiesh — dis would be to gain doubleonsh on both 
 handsh.^' 
 
 "Nae mair o' this to me, mate, and whisper 
 but a word o't among the crew, and I'll make 
 shark's meat o'ye ! Mahoun — what ? sell the 
 puir fellows to the Elector's shambles, when 
 within sight o' their ain peat reek ! " he added, 
 with a terrible imprecation upon his own eyes and 
 limbs. " Na, na — damme ! I done mony a strange 
 thing in my time in the Spanish main and else- 
 where; but I'll never be Judas enough to act like a 
 vile Scotch whig, and sell the man who trusts me.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 19 
 
 Keep a sharp look out while I'm below^ Vander 
 Pierboom — haul out the jib to keep her steady, 
 and keep silence forward, or cuidado del cuchilla — 
 as we used to say on the Plate river, which in 
 plain Scots, means, beware the jagg o' a Kilmaur's 
 whittle ! " 
 
 With this significant threat, and a very sinister 
 flash in his eyes. Captain Scupperplug's ugly 
 visage vanished through the companion hatch. 
 
 An angry scowl passed over the flat face of the 
 avaricious Dutchman, and he dragged his hat by 
 the fore cock, sullenly over his eyes. He made 
 no reply as he slunk aft, but he had his own 
 thoughts and intentions nevertheless. 
 
 He seated himself on the tafirail, lit his huge 
 pipe, and proceeded to consider how, without mr 
 volving himself with his captain, of whom he had 
 a wholesome terror, he could convert the two 
 unsuspecting " bassengers,^' into the current coin 
 of Great Britain. 
 
 2—2
 
 20 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE YARN OF CAPTAIN SCUPPERPLUG. 
 
 " Oft liad lie sliewn, in climes afar. 
 Each attribute of roving war; 
 The sharpened ear, the piercing eye, 
 The quick resolve in danger nigh ; 
 The speed, that in the flight or chase 
 Outstripped the Charib's rapid race ; 
 On Arawaca's desert shore, 
 Or where La Plata's billows roar, 
 When oft the sons of vengeful Spain 
 Tracked the marauder's steps in vain." 
 
 RoJcehy. 
 
 To avoid all qTiestioning as to their plans or ob- 
 jects in returning home, the two companions were 
 pursuing a course they had conjunctly adopted 
 during their rapid and hitherto safe voyage from 
 Dunkirk, by enquiring of Captain Scupperplug the 
 adventures of his early life, and thus being gene- 
 rally full of himself and his own affairs, lie was 
 never weary of " spinning yarns'' of a very savage 
 nature, certainly, but incident to his voyages in 
 the West Indies and along the Spanish Main 
 between the Isthmus of Panama and the Serpent's 
 Mouth.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 21 
 
 Witli these episodes of reckless piracies by sea, 
 
 of open cities sacked by land, of vast treasures, 
 
 plate, jewels, doubloons and pieces of eight, buried 
 
 on lonely isles, among the sands of Peru or the 
 
 palm forests of Tortuga — buried with a murdered 
 
 Spaniard or Negro, whose spirit was supposed to 
 
 haunt and guard the spot: — stories of 
 
 ** Adventurous hearts ! who bartered bold 
 Their English steel for Spanish gold," 
 
 he mingled superstitions, wild, and gloomy, of 
 haunted ships that sailed in the wind^s eye with 
 all their canvas set, or were manned by demon 
 crews ; of the Flying Dutchman, and St. Elmo^s 
 Light ; of bags of magic wind, sold by ^^ black 
 and midnight hags,''^ in the Scottish Hebrides or 
 Scandinavian Fiords; and many a tale he toM 
 them, too, of the ferocious Buccaneers with whom 
 he had served in the Windward Isles ; of the ter- 
 rible reprisals made on each other by the English 
 and Spaniards, when no mode of cruelty, of mutila- 
 tion or torture was deemed too exquisite or 
 terrible ; and of men marooned on the lonely keys 
 off the mountainous Isle of Hispaniola, or in the 
 mangrove creeks of Tobago, for transgressing the 
 iron statutes of the Buccaneers, and there left to 
 perish miserably of hunger and thirst, or by wild 
 animals. 
 
 ^^A rare ruffian this!" said Dalquharn, in a 
 whisper to his friend ; " I would we were on 
 shore, or safe out of his hands .^^
 
 22 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 His favourite reminiscence^ one to which he 
 was never tired of recurring^ was the capture of 
 Puerto de la Plata in South America ; and on this 
 morning,, when after liberally dashing his coffee 
 with Nantz, he took to imbibing Nantz alone^ or 
 very slightly dashed with water^ he was unusually 
 fluent on the subject. 
 
 "Ye are to ken^ sirs/^ said he, '"'^that in the 
 year after war was declared against Philip V. of 
 Spain, I had shipped on board the ^Rothesay 
 Castle' a Privateer of Glasgow, Captain John 
 Hall, master and owner, a stout mariner and near 
 kinsman to the Laird of Dunglas. She carried 
 eight carriage and fourteen swivel guns, with a 
 crew of forty men, the very flower of the Clyde. 
 By yellow fever, and the fortune (or rather mis- 
 fortune) of war, our crew had dwindled down to 
 only twenty-five hands, when in the spring of the 
 year, we found ourselves cruising off the mouth of 
 the Plate River; but we had aboard plenty of 
 ammunition, powder, and shot, which we took 
 out of a Spanish sloop, that we scuttled with all 
 her hands in her, off the east end of Hispaniola." 
 
 "What — with all her hands on board ?^' said . 
 Lord Dalquharn; " did they make no resistance ?'' 
 
 "Troth did they; but a cold pistol barrel 
 applied to ilka man's ear, and a couple shot down 
 for example, made them mute as herrings,'' re- 
 plied the captain, who relinquished much of his . 
 local dialect, as he warmed with his subject;
 
 \ 
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 23 
 
 " SO down went the ^ San Antonio de las Animas/ 
 witli all her crew/' 
 
 "The poor creatures would swim, of course ?'' 
 
 " May be aye, and may be no/' said the other, 
 laughing. 
 
 "How?'' 
 
 " They might have swam for a time, had we 
 not tied them back to back. Mahoun, sirs ! the 
 loons were only Spaniards, and they sune droon 
 ye ken. Well — then we were off the Puerto de la 
 Plata, and though we had only twenty-five hands on 
 board, Captain Hall resolved to capture the town. 
 Yet it had a petty fort, and about a thousand of 
 a white population." 
 
 "With only twenty-five followers?" exclaimed 
 Sir John Mitchell, incredulously. * 
 
 " He did it with four, of whom I was one, and 
 Vander Pierboom might have been another, but 
 he was our gunner, and was required aboard. 
 Blazes ! we weren't to eat even the Elector's 
 mouldy biscuits, for nothing, and we kenned weel, 
 sirs, that there was a mighty mint of treasure, — 
 gold, silver, and ingots, to say nothing of some 
 black-eyed Spanish wenches, to be had in the 
 town, when once we had made ourselves masters 
 of the port, that commanded it, on a bit knowe, 
 nae bigger than Berwick Law. 
 
 " The weather was hot — so hot that we could 
 scarcely drink our grog, for the water became as 
 bilge in the casks, so we mixed it by the rule of
 
 24 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 tliiiinb,, wMcli gave us three parts of rum to one 
 of water. We were like parched peas ; our pistol 
 barrels grew hot in our girdles^ and our cutlass 
 blades in their leather sheaths. The butter was 
 served out by the purser in pint stoups^ and all 
 alive wi^ cockroaches,, fireflies^ and weevils^ so we 
 longed for a day's run ashore among the wine 
 shops, and our mouths watered, when we thought 
 of the purple grapes and juicy melons, of bright 
 doubloons, and brighter Spanish eyes in La 
 Plata. 
 
 " Under French colours, the three fleurs-de-Iys, 
 we came to anchor with a spring upon our cable, 
 within cannon shot of the town. We had our 
 guns double-shotted with round and grape, but 
 kept all the ports closed, and all the hands, save 
 seven, were sent below, when Captain Hall 
 quitted the ship (which had all the appearance of 
 a quiet merchant trader), taking with him in the 
 jolly boat only four men, of whom, as I have saidj 
 I was one. 
 
 ^^We went straight to the Caza de la Villa, 
 which, in the Spanish lingo, means the town 
 house, and there we saw the Alcalde and Arch- 
 bishop of La Plata, to whom the captain gave 
 himself out to be trader from Martinique in the 
 Windward Isles, laden with a mixed cargo, which 
 he was anxious to sell speedily, to save it from 
 the rascally British privateers, particularly from 
 the 'Kothesay Castle,^ of Glasgow, which had
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 25 
 
 done such damage to the Spanish shipping among 
 the Bahamas, and in the Gnlf of Mexico — and I 
 could see, that at the name of our ship, the 
 Spaniards twisted up the moustachios and ground 
 their teeth. . 
 
 ^^The Captain invited the Archbishop and 
 Alcalde to come on board, and, as our boat was 
 small, and would hold only those two, in addition 
 to ourselves, they were simple enough to come off 
 alone with us. 
 
 "When seated in the cabin, over a glass of 
 Alicant, Captain Hall enquired, as if casually, 
 ' what manner of man, the governor of the fort 
 was — and whether they thought he would pur- 
 chase a portion of the cargo. ^ 
 
 '^ Suspecting no evil and believing in Captain 
 H all's French, which, to say the least of it, was 
 queer enough, the Alcalde wrote a letter to the 
 Sefior Gobernador, whom he averred to be a brave 
 and true Hidalgo from old Spain; and the moment 
 he pouched it. Captain Hall blew his whistle ! 
 Then before our two Don Spaniards knew exactly 
 what had happened, they were both tied back to 
 back, gagged with ropeyarn, and stowed away in 
 the cable-tier^ with their ' legs padlocked in the 
 bilboes. 
 
 *^^ Taking the letter of introduction. Captain 
 Hall and the four of us, all armed with our 
 cutlasses and each with two pair of long Scots 
 iron pistols under our coats, shoved off once more
 
 26 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 in the jolly boat. Round his waist, the Captain 
 wore a British ensign, by way of a sash. 
 
 " ' Now my lads/ said he, ' stand by for squalls, 
 when you see this flying on the fort. Vander 
 Pierboom, have the ports triced up, the guns run 
 out, and ready to heave shot, shell, crossbar, 
 slugs and stinkballs into the town, and fear not, 
 shipmates, the place will be our own, for as long 
 as we want it.^ 
 
 ^^ Though the town had only about a thousand 
 Spanish inhabitants, they possessed sixty times 
 that number of Tributary Indians ; in the neigh- 
 bourhood were many rich mines, and the revenue 
 of the Archbishop was estimated at eighty thou- 
 sand ducats yearly. 
 
 ^' We had, ilk man of us, a stiff jorum of new 
 England rum under our belts, sweet with molasses, 
 fiery and strong ! We were in high spirits and 
 ready to face Mahoun himself, so away we went 
 to the fort, an old stronghold of the Buccaneers, 
 which the Spanish government had rebuilt and 
 strengthened. 
 
 '' Our captain was introduced to the Spanish 
 commandant, a tall, sallow fellow, with long black 
 moustachios, solemn eyes, and a doublet of sad 
 coloured serge slashed with white cotton for 
 coolness. He carefully read the letter of the 
 chief magistrate, made the Captain several low 
 bows, invited him to luncheon, while we kicked 
 our heels in the verandah without and counted
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 37 
 
 the Spanish guard, which we found to consist of 
 twenty ill-armed men — exactly one for each pistol 
 shot we could give. 
 
 " The moment the Captain and Governor were 
 alone_, the former clapped a pistol to the head of 
 the latter, and swore that he would blow his 
 brains out, if he made the least sound or resis- 
 tance. 
 
 '^The Don sullenly gave up his sword, and 
 permitted his hands and his mouth too, to be 
 secured by a few fathoms of line which the 
 Captain had in his pocket. We then rushed on 
 the soldiers of the guard, who, never expecting an 
 attack, were smoking drowsily under the shady 
 verandah. We shot down all who failed to 
 escape ; closed the gates and hoisted the Unioir 
 in place of the Red and Yellow of Castile and 
 Leon. Then we heard a cheer from the ' Rothe- 
 say Castle,' mingling with a murmur from the 
 people in the town below. 
 
 " ' HuiTah, my lads !' cried the Captain, ^ you'll 
 find this better work than loading with boucan at 
 Monte Video, and filling the forehold with hides 
 and horns !' 
 
 " The privateer's ports were now instantly triced 
 up and all her battery brought to bear on the 
 town, while we opened a fire from the guns of the 
 fort. The inhabitants finding themselves exposed 
 to a cannonade by sea and land, and ignorant of 
 the force in possession of the castle, fled from the
 
 28 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 place in great numbers,, and in less than ten 
 minntes^ our shells and rockets set the town in 
 flames. We then spiked the guns in the fort, 
 threw all the arms into a deep well, blew up the 
 magazine, and on being joined by a party of the 
 crew, plundered the town at our leisure, the 
 cowardly Spaniards flying before us in all direc- 
 tions. 
 
 ^^ For twelve hours we were masters of La Plata 
 — we twenty-five British seamen ! 
 
 ^' By shot and shell, we killed more than two 
 hundred persons in the streets, and spared none 
 who came in our way, for you must bear in mind, 
 sirs, that those same Spaniards had cut ofi" the 
 noses, ears and lips of many of our country- 
 men, and thereafter, hanged, drowned, or roasted 
 them, for it was the fashion to use English 
 prisoners so, in that part of the world, and will be 
 so while this war lasts. 
 
 a We got fifty wedges of silver and dollars to 
 the value of £6000 sterling. My own share was 
 but five hundred pistoles, with a gold cup and some 
 silver crucifixes which I found in the cathedral; 
 but I soon lost all my plunder among the slop- 
 dealers and dickybirds at home, who in three 
 hours, stripped me of what took as many years of 
 privateering to gain. 
 
 ^' We brought ofi* a few Spanish girls, but we 
 soon tired of their company and sent them 
 ashore, some days after, together with the Alcalde
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 29 
 
 and tlie Archbisliop, as we rounded the Cabo de 
 Santa Maria, where the old Tower of the Wolves 
 stands ; and then bidding good-bye to the Kiver 
 of Silver, we hauled up for Britain, and bore 
 away with every inch of canvas spread, for if 
 taken, after our late prank, every man of us would 
 have been strung up, or sent in chains to dig in 
 the mines of San Luis de Potosi. 
 
 " After a splendid run of about six weeks we 
 cast anchor in the Clyde, our pockets well lined 
 with Spanish, and luckily just as the last allow- 
 ance of mouldy biscuit and rancid boucan beef 
 was brought from the storeroom ; so that's my 
 yarn, gentlemen, of how we took Puerto de la 
 Plata/'-^ 
 
 Captain Scupperplug had barely concluded his • 
 story of an event which made a great noise in its 
 time, when the deep bass voice of the Dutch mate 
 came hollowly down the companion hatch. 
 
 " Below there ?" 
 
 " Hilloah !" responded his commander. 
 
 " A large square rigged vessel is standing down 
 
 * " If Captain Hall," says a journalist of the time, 
 when writing of this remarkable affair, '* could take 
 the town and fort of JPorto de la Plata with four men onlyt 
 why are not some land forces immediately sent him ? Is 
 there any reason in the world to doubt, but that such a 
 brave and experienced officer, with a file or two of 
 musketeers, which might easily be spared off St. James's 
 Guard, would soon make himself master of aU the Spanish 
 dominions in America, and thereby enable us to command 
 a peace upon our own terms ?"-^Scots Magazine, 1740. •
 
 30 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 the river close hauled wit all her larboard tacks 
 aboard ; and may I never zee de Keysers Graght 
 of Amsterdam^ or smoke a bibe at de Haarl Poort 
 again^ if she be not de Vox Vrigate !" 
 
 " The Fox frigate V said Mitchell. 
 
 ^' The devil !" exclaimed Dalqnharn. 
 
 This startling announcement made Captain 
 Scupperplug and his two passengers spring on 
 deck^ and there sure enough^ about ten miles 
 distant^ was a large square rigged ship, exhibiting 
 a great spread of canvas which shone white as 
 snow in the sunshine against the blended blue of 
 sea and sky. She was running south-east on the 
 4arboard tack, towards the coast of Haddington- 
 shire, and did not display a pennant, but, by the 
 telescope, a broad scarlet ensign could be dis- 
 covered at her gaff peak, and ere long her tier of 
 guns, her three great poop-lanterns, and a colour 
 flying on the jack-staff, which all large vessels 
 had then rigged on the bowsprit, just above the 
 cap or spritsail yard-appertenances, somewhat too 
 man-o'-war like to be pleasant. 
 
 This alarming sight created some consternation 
 on board the lugger ; noon was barely past, and 
 she had been creeping slowly up the Firth, with 
 her lugsails half hoisted to gain time, ere night 
 fell. 
 
 " On a wind she could never overtake us," said 
 Scupperplug, who alone preserved his confidence, 
 for even the faces of Lord Dalquharn and Sir
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 31 
 
 Jolin Mitchell wore an expression of extreme 
 concern. 
 
 " If she should prove to be the ^ Fox/ and insist 
 on over-hauling us V suggested the latter appre- 
 hensively. 
 
 " I've nae wish to come within range of her 
 guns,, for some of our hands might be pressed/' 
 the skipper replied in a low voice, '^'^and then 
 there is no saying what the devil, or the hope of 
 escape, might lead them to discover. Bear away 
 towards Tyningham Sands ! By the horns o' 
 Mahoun, 1^11 beach the lugger and then blow her 
 up, rather than surrender V 
 
 " Her boats might pursue you into shoal water,'^ 
 suggested Lord Dalquharn, whose thoughts ran 
 chiefly on his being taken prisoner, and the blasted^ 
 hopes, the deadly perils that would be sure to 
 follow such a catastrophe, for already the castle of 
 Edinburgh and the Tower of London held in 
 thraldom several of the suspected. 
 
 " Boat or no boat, if yawl or pinnace were to 
 come off wi' marines and small-arm men, I 
 wadna strike my colours without fighting — d — n 
 me if I would !^' exclaimed Scupperplug, whose 
 eyes shot fire, while his face crimsoned with rage, 
 and the sword-cut in his right cheek grew almost 
 black, for he had all the courage of a bull-dog, 
 and his spirit seemed to rise in proportion to the 
 danger; ^^ mast-head the yards — sail trimmers to 
 the tacks and braces ; bring the sheets more aft.
 
 32 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 and keep in shore for Tyningham Sands. Cast 
 loose the guns — load wi^ a round shot^ and a bag 
 of nails and musket bullets in each ! Quick, 
 Vander Pierboom ; and bring up the small arms, 
 lads, hatchets and pikes ; we^H be ready anyway, 
 for we dinna ken what kind o' night-birds may 
 await us in shore, and for a' we see, we may be 
 running out of the latitude of Hell, into that of 
 Hecklebirnie — a place that is hotter still ! " 
 
 The great quadrilateral sails of the lugger were 
 fully hoisted now, and her course was trimmed 
 more southward; the perpendicular cliffs of the 
 Isle of May, all whitened by sea-birds, began to 
 grow fainter on her lee quarter, while the 
 steep green cone of North Berwick Law, the giant 
 precipices of the Bass Bock, and all the iron- 
 bound shore that rises between Tyningham Sands 
 and Tantallon, became more defined and dark 
 ahead. 
 
 Already the bluff promontory of Dunbar, with 
 the red round towers of its ancient castle, and the 
 wild waves foaming white against its rugged rocks, 
 could be discerned, when to the great relief of all 
 on board — of none so much, perhaps, as Lord 
 Dalquharn and his friend, though they were with- 
 out secret papers or cyphers of any kind to com- 
 promise them — save one concealed in the former's 
 scabbard — the headsails of the large ship they 
 were so anxiously avoiding, were seen to shiver 
 in the wind ; the jib sheet was let fly ; her tacks
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 33 
 
 and sheets were lifted; and her yards swung 
 round in rapid succession^ as they were braced on 
 the other tack. She altered her course, bearing 
 away to the northward; and long before the 
 lugger had crept past the promontory, still 
 marked by the old ruined tower of Scougal, and 
 where, as the old legend avers, St. Baldred^s boat 
 remained fixed as a rock amid the surf, she was hull 
 down, and had melted into the evening sea and 
 sky. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 34 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FATHER TESTIMONY. 
 
 •■' Old Linstock, I swear, you are no fair weatlier spark, 
 Your bulldogs, my bleacher, must bite if they bark, 
 We soon may fall in with a custom-house shark, 
 
 Success to the free trade for ever ! 
 
 " I've landed the stuff when the tempest howled high, 
 JSTot a light on the beach, nor a star in the sky ; 
 The cruisers ! — the lubbers, they're aU in my eye, 
 
 Good luck to the free trade for ever ! " 
 
 David Vedder. 
 
 The sun liad sunk beyond the Lomond hills, and 
 the long, lovely and undulating line of the Fife- 
 shire coast looked dark and gloomy ; but the vast 
 expanse of the estuary still reflected the ruddy 
 flush that lingered in the western sky, when the 
 lugger passed through the deep channel that lies 
 between the stupendous Bass Rock and the for- 
 midable bluff, which is crowned by an open and 
 roofless ruin, that in its prouder and earlier days 
 had been a chief stronghold of the turbulent 
 Douglasses. The wild and rugged precipices here
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 35 
 
 are of the darkest iron Ime^ their summit covered 
 by the vast fortress, 
 
 " Broad, massive, high and stretching far, 
 And held impregnable in war ; " 
 
 their bases, whitened in the foam of the ever rest- 
 less German Sea. 
 
 The lugger had fallen to leeward and lost much 
 way, during the supposed chase or escape from 
 the suspected war-ship, and she was now standing 
 up the rirth of Forth, which there is some twelve 
 miles abroad, before a very faint breeze, for the 
 wind had almost died away as the sun went down. 
 The coast was line rapidly becoming dark as indigo 
 against the horizon, but here and there red-lights 
 twinkled in the windows of the cottages and farm-* 
 houses, along the cliffs. 
 
 As she stood along the rocky shore. Captain 
 Sanders Scupperplug and his flat-nosed mate, 
 Mynheer Vander Pierboom, swept it in vain, again 
 and again with their telescopes, for a certain little 
 red flag on Scougal point, or on Tantallon ruins, 
 which lie a Scottish mile further to the westward, 
 and also, as the twilight deepened, for a lantern 
 which was usually waved in a secret and mys- 
 terious manner at Bainslaw, to indicate that tjie 
 coast was clear for a safe run of their cargo into 
 the cavern at Seacliff, and certain other places 
 better known to the smuggler than to the collectors 
 of His Majesty^s customs. They were now round- 
 
 O df
 
 36 . THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 ing the dangerous sunken rocks of Greenlesly, and 
 already the lights of the little town of North 
 Berwick were twinkling on their larboard bow. 
 
 The total absence of all the expected signals 
 filled th6 two worthies with a perplexity which 
 found vent in numerous oaths and imprecations 
 uttered against themselves^ and a personage whom 
 they designated ^' old Father Testimony .^^ 
 
 By the Treaty of Union_, Scotland had imme- 
 diately to cease importing wine^ brandy^ fruit, 
 and everything else produced by France, a nation 
 which the Jacobites were fond of boasting, had 
 been her ally for nearly eight hundred years, or 
 since Charlemagne surrounded the red lion with 
 its double tressure of lilies. To replace this loss, 
 there was no remedy save that which the snfag- 
 glers supplied. A great branch of her commerce 
 was destroyed ; much bitterness was consequently 
 excited, and to cheat the English exciseman to 
 any extent was considered patriotic and perfectly 
 justifiable. 
 
 In their hatred of the obnoxious malt tax, which 
 was thrust upon the Scots in 1724, and in oppO" 
 sition to which, so much blood was shed in 
 Glasgow and elsewhere, the people saw but little 
 harm in smuggling a few runlets of French 
 brandy duty free. Every facility was afibrded to 
 the contrahandistasy and some of the very men who, 
 in open daylight, glorified most in the Protestant 
 succession as by law established, under cloud of
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 87 
 
 night, while the cargo was being safely run in 
 some lonely islet or secluded cave on the sea- 
 shore, consoled themselves by the reflection, that 
 they were only cheating the English who were 
 their ancient enemies, and the Hanoverian elector, 
 who ruled where he had no right to be. 
 
 '^ Ready the ground tackle, mate ! '' cried the 
 still perplexed captain of the lugger, " bend the 
 cable to the anchor, coilaway warps, and look out 
 for breaking bulk. We^ll have to start and run 
 the cargo somewhere before daybreak, e^en should 
 we heave it into the Firth, with the runlets strung 
 to a buoy-rope ! Launch the boat — '' 
 
 '' Vor what burbose ? " growled the mate, 
 through his nose, or rather through what remained 
 of It. ^ 
 
 "That ye shall see,^^ replied Scupperplug, with 
 one of his useless oaths ; " stand by the fall- 
 tackle — jump in, Leroux, you French devil, and 
 clear the falls ! — hoist and lower away — hand- 
 somely a wee bit — bear the boat off the side — 
 push off ! '^ 
 
 The boat was speedily lowered, and again the 
 mate enquired for what reason. 
 
 "The reason is this, ye Dutch lubber — I am 
 pledged to one in Dunkirk, I wad be fain to 
 please, to land these two gentlemen, our passen- 
 gers, safe on Scottish gTound, and it shall be done 
 at once. If we are in dool and. danger, I shall 
 keep them out o' both if I can.^ 
 
 }}
 
 38 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 '^ I thank you^, Captain/^ said Lord Dalquliam, 
 who overheard the explanation ; " I regi'et to find 
 that you deem yonrself in peril_, for soom to say, 
 the presence of myself and friend on board, can 
 bnt add to it.'^ 
 
 ^^ I thocht as mnckle ! '^ exclaimed Scnpperplug, 
 taking the hand of the young lord in his hard and 
 dingy palm ; ^' but ye must have a glass of grog 
 wi^ me ere ye go, gentlemen, to drink success to 
 the good old cause, and the king owre the water ! 
 To Hanover say I, or to Hecklebirnie (and that 
 is farther ben) wi' the Elector, his excise, and his 
 malt tax too ! '' 
 
 '^'^ Why do you apprehend danger?" asked Sir 
 John Mitchell, who now perceived that the whole 
 crew were completely armed with cutlasses and 
 with pistols, which they carefully loaded and 
 flinted, securing all the ramrods with a lanyard, 
 in man-o'-war fashion. 
 
 ^^Nae signal has been made along the shore, 
 bv one who awaits us, and who must have seen us 
 dodging about in the Firth since sunrise — sae we 
 kenna how the night may end," he added, sul- 
 lenly. 
 
 " I hope you will avoid bloodshed — at least 
 while we are in your hands,^^ said the baronet, 
 laughing. 
 
 " I have nae wish, Captain Mitchell, to slay 
 pny X)' God^s creatures, if English excisemen can 
 be reckoned as such. But they shall hae a bluidy
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 39 
 
 lyke-wake wha meddle wi^ me ! Since this 
 vile incorporating Union^ an anker o^ brandy 
 on the sea, or a sheep on a hillside, hae been 
 valued at the price o^ a Scottish man^s life ; — ^bnt 
 a^ things will be righted when King Jamie comes 
 hame !" 
 
 " I hope so/^ whispered Lord Dalquharn to his 
 companion ; " but I shall thank heaven when we 
 are rid of those repulsive wretches/^ 
 
 A voice was now heard hailing the lugger, and a 
 boat pulled by two men, came sheering alongside. 
 
 ^^ Lugger, ahoy ! — ahoy, Sanders Scupperplug V 
 
 '' Who hails ?' 
 
 '^One you may be blithe to see in time, old 
 Puerto-de-la-Plata," replied the other, as he dex- 
 terously caught the slack of a rope which wa^ 
 thrown to him, and, after making it fast to a ring- 
 bolt in the bow of his boat, assisted his companion 
 to scramble on deck. 
 
 ^' By my soul, it^s auld Eather Testimony him- 
 self'/^ exclaimed the smuggler, as this man, who was 
 muffled in a dark roquelaure, and wore a volumi- 
 nous wig, over which his hat (unflapped evidently 
 for disguise) was secured by a large silk handker- 
 chief. '^Why, in the name of Mahoun,'' he 
 added, as they shook hands, '^ did ye show us 
 neither light nor signal V 
 
 " Because the Philistines are along the whole 
 shore frae Scougal Point to the Castle Hill — 
 GagCj the exciseman^ tide-waiters, red-coats, and
 
 40 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 all ! But we shall weather the murdering gang 
 yet. Ye maun e'en run for the auld place outside 
 Craigleithj and lie to, under the lee o' the 
 island." 
 
 " They have a ten-oared boat, with a pateraro 
 in its bow, named after Jack Gage himself." 
 
 ^^ Yes — but the pateraro was spiked, and the 
 boat scuttled, at Garvy Point last night," replied 
 the stranger with a chuckling laugh. " There will 
 be no moon, and the Lord be thanked for a dark 
 and gloomy night !" 
 
 ^^ And there are red-coats, say you !" 
 Even sae, Sanders." 
 
 A curse upon the English Sorners — what seek 
 they here ?" exclaimed the smuggler, bitterly. 
 
 " Our brandy stoups, Sanders, and ourselves, I 
 warrant. But we^U weather the limmers yet, I 
 say — we^ll weather them yet !" said this strange 
 visitor, striking his cane emphatically on the deck. 
 '' They are levying black mail like sae mony hie- 
 land caterans oure a' the country side, in the 
 shape o' victuals and drink, which neither they 
 nor their king will ever pay for, I fear." 
 
 ^^ What is the news along shore ?" 
 
 " There was a lunar rainbow three nights ago, 
 and that aye forebodes something in these times 
 of ours." 
 
 ^^ What can it forebode, you daft carle ?" 
 
 " Heaven forefend, that it bode not a rising o' 

 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 41 
 
 the clans, a plague in the lowlands, or something 
 to the Pagan who ruleth in Rome.^^ 
 
 "And so we musn^t haul up for Canty Bay?*' 
 
 "No, no." 
 
 " And why ?" 
 
 " The shore is watched, and the garrison of the 
 Bass are on the alert. If they saw our lights 
 they might fire on speculation, and alarm the hail 
 country-side.'^ 
 
 " And the auld cove at Seacliff ?'* 
 
 " Waur and waur still, Sanders !" 
 
 " How so ?" 
 
 " It is guarded by Captain "Wyvil, with a party 
 of Howard's foot." 
 
 Deep oaths were muttered by all the crew at 
 this intelligence, but he whom they called " Fathei* 
 Testimony," said : — 
 
 "Then Craigleith it must be, or to sink the 
 kegs somewhere wi' a buoy -rope ; and you maun 
 e'en haul your wind, Sanders — heave and weigh, 
 get out o' this the moment the cargo is run." 
 
 "I fully meant to do so; but wherefore the 
 warning. Father Testimony ?" 
 
 " The ' Fox ' man-o'-war was off Fifeness, this 
 morning " 
 
 "Was that sail to windward of us really a 
 king's ship after all ?^' 
 
 " Yes ; a hawk o' the Elector's." 
 
 Again a chorus of oaths was uttered by the
 
 42 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 smugglers^ who were all Jacobites^ so far as oppo- 
 sition to the laws went. 
 
 " She is heavily armed^ and her captain is a 
 Tartar.'' 
 
 ^^ When she altered her course,, as if to overhaul 
 us^ my heart went tick-tack^ Jike old Mother Von 
 Soaken^s Dutch clock at the Haarl Poort. But 
 her crew must either have failed to see, or to sus- 
 pect us." 
 
 " ^Twas an escape, for ^ were ye swifter than 
 eagles, and stronger than lions/ as David said of 
 Saul and Jonathan, she had overtaken you.'^ 
 
 ^' Clap a stopper on your preaching tackle, old 
 Testimony,'^ said the skipper impatiently. 
 
 ^^ And now, captain, to land de bassenger," said 
 the Dutch mate, coming forward. 
 
 ^^ Passengers ! passengers !" replied he of the 
 wig and unflapped hat, in great trepidation, now 
 perceiving, for the first time, the two travellers, 
 who appeared each with his sword at his side, his 
 pistols hooked to his girdle, and carrying his 
 mail, or small portmanteau. ^^ Where, or how, in 
 the name o' madness, got ye passengers, San- 
 ders T' 
 
 ^^ At Dunkirk, Father Testimony — at Dun- 
 kirk." 
 
 ^^Was it wise or beseeming to hae them on 
 board ?" asked the other with great asperity. 
 
 '^ I dinna ken much about the wisdom o' the 
 proceeding, nor do I care either; but they are
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 43 
 
 gentlemen^ who have behaved and paid as such — 
 paid in good rix-doUars, as ever were picked up -in 
 the Spanish Main." 
 
 " If they land^ they may fa' into the hands o^ 
 those you would be loth should question them/^ 
 whispered the other, in a low, fierce voice. " Keep 
 them under hatch ; knock them on the head — do 
 with them as ye will, but land them not, I say, 
 here, at all events !" 
 
 " By the hand o' my body, but you are as bad 
 as the mate," replied the smuggler ; ^^ but landed 
 they shall be," he added, with one of his terrible 
 oaths, ^' and in safety, too !" 
 
 " Do you ken the value o' your neck, Sanders 
 Scupperplug ?" 
 
 " Troth, do I ! Zounds, man ! before I could" 
 seize a breaching to a ring-bolt or becket a royal, 
 I learned to ken that ; for even as a biscuit-nibbler, 
 under Captain Kidd, I served wi' a halter round 
 it. I never kenned a larned lingo, but I can prick 
 off the luggers course on the chart ; I can handle 
 the tiller as weel as the cutlass — and what mair is 
 needed by me ?" 
 
 '^But, Sanders— if Gage, the English excise- 
 man " 
 
 " Silence, I say !" thundered the other, '^ and 
 tempt me not to be a greater devil than I am. I 
 have a' the danger, and you mair than an honest 
 man^s share o' the doubloons. Farewell, gentle- 
 men/' he added, turning to Lord Dalquharn and
 
 44 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 "Mitcliellj who liad overlieard a portion of this con- 
 versation,, without in the least comprehending it, 
 " we part here, never to meet again likely — but 
 success to you !" 
 
 Scupperplug presented his right hand to each, 
 and with his left took off his old battered cocked 
 hat as they descended into the boat. 
 
 '^ Pull quietly in shore, Vander Pierboom/^ said 
 he over the side, " land then near the auld kirk on 
 the rocks — the tide is far out now : then pull hard 
 for the craig, — we^U need every hand when the 
 hatches are open/^ 
 
 The time was now close upon the hour of nine 
 in the evening ; heavy clouds obscured the sky, 
 and a thick vapour from the east overspread alike 
 the sea and land, most fortunately for the opera- 
 tions of the smugglers, whose lugger stood, slowly 
 and unseen, past the little town of North Berwick, 
 and lay to, close by the north side of Craigleith, 
 one of the four desolate and rocky islets, which 
 are situated about a mile from the mainland. The 
 others are named the Ibris, the Fidra, and the 
 Lumbay, and all are the resort of the puffin or 
 coulternib, the jackdaw and the black rabbit. 
 
 There in some fissure known only to themselves, 
 the lugger's crew resolved to conceal the cargo, 
 while the small boat, pulled by Vander Pierboom 
 and little Jules Leroux, landed their two passen- 
 gers at the place indicated by the captain, a long 
 flat reef of rocks, covered by seaweed, which at
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 45 
 
 low tide extends for several hundred yards sea- 
 ward,, to the east of the old ruined church of 
 North Berwick ; and it was not until they heard 
 the oars dipping in the water, as the Dutchman 
 and French mulatto boy pulled away into the 
 mist (the treacherous intentions of the former 
 personage being baffled in the hurlyburly of run- 
 ning the cargo), that the two forlorn wanderers 
 felt fully aware that they were at last on terra 
 firma, after a long and exciting day — a day of 
 anxiety, risk and peril beyond what they were 
 quite aware of; and they little knew, moreover, 
 that their troubles were only beginning.
 
 46 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 f( . 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON SHORE. 
 
 ■I understand you 
 
 And wisli you happy in your choice ; believe it, 
 I'll be a careful pilot to direct 
 Your yet uncertain bark to a port of safety. 
 Margaret. So shall your honour save two lives, and 
 
 bind us, 
 Your slaves for ever !" 
 
 New Way to Pay Old Debts* 
 
 ^^ On Scottish, ground at last ! '^ exclaimed Lord 
 Dalquharn ; " I was the first to leap ashore^, and 
 so I bid you welcome^ Sir John Mitchell^ ere long 
 I hope^ to be again of Pitreavie/^ 
 
 " And I thank you_, my Lord Dalquharn of the 
 Holm/^ replied the other_, lifting his little feather- 
 bound bat with a politeness that was not all jest, 
 as be grasped his young friend's hand and shook 
 it with genuine warmth. " God bless the dear 
 old land we tread on — the land of our forefathers 
 and our forefathers^ graves ! "'TIS thirty years 
 ago since I stood on a Scottish hill-side or heard 
 the waves of a Scottish sea, Dalquharn ; but all
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 47 
 
 the dreams of many a weary day are not yet 
 realised/' 
 
 ic There are times for all things ; and the time 
 for our long-hoped for realisation will come 
 anon/^ 
 
 ^*' Ah_, Dalquharn_, I cannot describe to you, how 
 my heart was stirred within me, when on the 
 march near Ter Tholen in Zeelynd, I came upon a 
 broom bush, growing by the way-side, with all its 
 golden bells ! It made my thoughts, my heart 
 rush home to the green braes and the haunts and 
 hills of my boyhood — to many a place I never 
 more might see. Balmerino and I each plucked 
 a sprig and stuck them in our hats, and, egad, my 
 lord, I think, they gave us more spirit than a horn 
 of Skiedam, when three days after, we found our-* 
 selves under the cannon of Bergen-op-Zoom ! 
 But," he added, after a pause, " we are our own 
 lacqueys, having our cloaks and mails to carry — 
 we are afoot ; and now which way tend we, for 
 this house of Auldhame ? '' 
 
 "Precisely the matter I was considering; — and 
 zounds ! but the night groweth dark and stormy 
 apace.'' 
 
 For some hundred yards they had to scramble 
 inland, over great and rugged masses of red sand- 
 stone rock, which the ebb-tide had left uncovered, 
 and which were slimy and wet, covered by tufts of 
 seaweed, star-fish and incrustations of limpets. 
 The lugger had disappeared in the thick mist
 
 48 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 which had settled over the sea ; but through the 
 vapour^ as through a curtain of gauze^ there flared 
 at times a gleam from the ancient lighthouse on 
 the Isle of May, nine Scottish miles distant. 
 There, on the summit of a tower forty feet in 
 height, a fire of coals was kept constantly burning 
 by night. This tower had been built by a humane 
 Laird of Barns, in the days of Charles I. ; but his 
 unfortunate architect, when returning after the 
 completion of his work, was drowned in a tempest 
 raised by certain malevolent witches, who expi- 
 atedt he alleged crime at the stake on Gulane 
 Links. 
 
 A little to the right of the impromptu landing- 
 place, between the two exiles and the gloomy sky, 
 rose the pointed gable of a ruined church, upon a 
 ridge of steep and insulated rock. This was the 
 fragment of what is traditionally called "the 
 Auld Kirk'^ of North Berwick, of which the 
 massive porch and the font, are alone remaining 
 now. Then it was surrounded by graves, which 
 year by year the stormy waves of the encroaching 
 German Sea have torn away. Even the great 
 slab which long marked the resting-place of the 
 Landers of the Bass, and under which the good 
 Sir Robert, the comrade of Wallace lay, has lately 
 been swallowed up by the ocean, and the gothic 
 vault in which lay the stone coffin and leaden seal 
 of some forgotten knight, " Willelmi de Douglas,^^ 
 has gone too.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 49 
 
 The white waves were breaking wildly over the 
 beach and amid the graves of the old church ; the 
 shore beyond looked black, desolate and undefined 
 in outline ; but the two friends at last reached the 
 stripe of land that borders the Eastern Links,, (or 
 downs as they would be called in England) where 
 a high and grassy knoll, still named the Castle 
 Hill, bears the foundations of a fortress whose 
 name has long since gone to oblivion. The aroma 
 of the yellow flowers (crow's-foot and lady's-bed 
 straw) which grow there among the rushes and 
 purple-heath bells, filled the night air ; the place 
 was intensely lonely, and no sound broke its 
 stillness, but the white waves climbing the adjacent 
 rocks, or the pipe of the solitary sand-rail among 
 the brown sea ware. < 
 
 ^^ I have been at Auldhame in my boyhood,^' said 
 Lord Dalquham, ^^ and think I should know my 
 way there again ; we are only three miles or so 
 from the place, and there, as I have stated to you 
 often, my father's friend. Sir Baldred Otterbum, 
 a staunch old cavalier and true man, will receive 
 us blithely and hospitably.'' 
 
 " And our path — " 
 
 "Lies eastward, by the old Temple-house of 
 Rhodes, past the Hairlaw, the village of Castle- 
 ton, and the highway that leads to the ancient 
 Hold of Tantallon." 
 
 " I am glad you know our whereabouts so well, 
 my lord ; for Egad ! on being landed thus, we 
 
 VOL. I. 4
 
 50 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 seemed not unlike two Robinson Crusoes, or a 
 couple of those marooned pirates,, of whom our 
 late friend with the euphonious name, told us so 
 many yarns over his flip can o^ nights/^ 
 
 " Your pistols are loaded, I hope ? ''' 
 
 '^ Yes — and yours, my lord ? " 
 
 '^ Are charged carefully and flinted with agates; 
 they were a present from the Count de Saxe at 
 Dunkirk, so I prize them highly/^ 
 
 '^Arms are, unfortunately, necessary, even in 
 our own beloved land, for we know not what 
 night hawks may be abroad ; but lead the way, my 
 lord/' 
 
 The two friends, each carrying his leathern 
 mail, with his roquelaure flung over his left 
 shoulder, now struck into the highway, which was 
 bordered by hedgerows, avoiding the town, which 
 was sunk in silence, and darkness too, for not a 
 light was visible at any of its windows ; not a dog 
 barked; all was still save the dashing of the 
 waves on the rocks of the little harbour, and even 
 these died away as the travellers proceeded inland, 
 feeling as they trod on, with anxious, but yet with 
 happy and hopeful hearts, that this was but the 
 beginning of a great end, for they were somewhat 
 important units in the scheme for organising a 
 rising in favour of the House of Stuart — a rising, 
 which they well knew, was to take place in the 
 north, ere the summer of that year — the memor- 
 able 1745 — was past.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. ,51 
 
 Erelong the road they were pursuing turned to 
 the eastward, and they found themselves again in 
 sight of the sea, and of the dim and distant pharos 
 that flared in the night wind upon the summit of 
 the Isle of May. 
 
 They had barely proceeded half a mile in this 
 direction, when a man, carrying a lantern, ap- 
 peared suddenly in front. 
 
 ^' Yoho, brothers — stand ! '^ he shouted roughly. 
 
 ^^ ^S death, but this is passing strange — a foot- 
 pad, and with a light ! ^' said Dalquharn, as he 
 drew a pistol from his belt ; but Sir John Mit- 
 chell, his superior in years and experience, quickly 
 seized his arm, for several other men, six 
 at least, started from the hedgerows, and the 
 blades of their cutlasses, and the butts of 
 their pistols, were seen to glitter in the rays of 
 the lantern. 
 
 In short the two gentlemen found themselves 
 confronted, surrounded and compelled to submit to 
 a very humiliating interrogation, the end of which 
 they could not foresee. 
 
 ^^ Who are you, sirs, that we find so close to the 
 seashore, and at this time of night?'' asked he of 
 the lantern in a pure English accent. 
 
 ^^ And harkee, fellow, who the devil are you, 
 that dare to ask a question so absurd ?'' demanded 
 Lord Dalquharn haughtily. 
 
 " We are those who have the right to do so,'' 
 replied the other firmly and quietly. 
 
 4—2 
 
 IfPRARY
 
 52 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 ce 
 
 The right — we are yet to learn that V' ex- 
 claimed the young noble furiously. 
 
 ^^ Surrender — we must search those mails you 
 carry ; if you are^ as you seem to be_, gentlemen, 
 it is strange to find you afoot here, with your own 
 cloak bags to carry/^ said the other, who had the 
 aspect and dress — the sunburned visage, the low 
 cocked hat, the peajacket, and loose canvas slops 
 — of a seafaring man. '^ Surrender,^^ he added, 
 placing his cutlass between his teeth, and very 
 deliberately cocking a large ship-pistol. 
 
 "Surrender — zounds! and in whose name?^^ 
 enquired Lord Dalquharn. 
 
 " The name of the law, which we are sworn to 
 maintain.''^ 
 
 " The law be " Mitchell was beginning 
 
 angrily with a hand on his sword, when the 
 Englishman said, 
 
 " In the name of the king, then.^^ 
 
 '^ Agreed — we have nothing either to discover 
 or conceal,'^ said Lord Dalquharn ; " I capitulate, 
 provided you do not disarm us." 
 
 " Agreed, sirs — for we may be under a mistake 
 after all." 
 
 " ^Tis a rascally press-gang, I believe," said Sir 
 John, as he blew the priming from his pistol locks. 
 
 " We are not, sir," replied the man with the 
 lantern. 
 
 " Then, who in the deviPs name are you, and 
 of what do you suspect us?"
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 53 
 
 ''We are custom-liouse officers, who have all 
 day watched a black lugger in the offing, and we 
 suspect you of having left her — that is all, my 
 masters/' said a surly fellow, who had hitherto 
 remained silent. 
 
 For a moment the two friends gazed at each 
 other irresolutely. There was much for them to 
 fear in falling into the hands of any one in autho- 
 rity, and to resist might be dangerous, though the 
 Tacksmen of the customs and their officers, being 
 chiefly Englishmen, were most unpopular func- 
 tionaries, and were not unfrequently destroyed 
 when opportunities offered. There were then no 
 coast-guard or preventive service, but the shore- 
 masters, tide-waiters, and other officials, were 
 always well armed; and those into whose custody 
 our friends were now taken, had close at hand a 
 few seamen of the ' Fox' frigate. 
 
 At this time, every man who came from abroad, 
 — especially from France, — was an object of in- 
 tense suspicion to the authorities in England, and 
 still more to those in Scotland, as he was sup- 
 posed to be infallibly a secret emissary of the 
 Cabinet of St. Germain, or of the Pope; and, 
 moreover, was not unlikely, if a Scotsman, to be 
 an apostate from, and enemy to that gloomy form 
 of religion, established by the hero of Glencofe, 
 and secured by the treaty of union. 
 
 Britain was at war with France from whence 
 they had just come; hence Lord Dalquharn
 
 54 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 and Ms friend found themselves in a very 
 awkward predicament, when seized by those 
 custom-house officials, who had been waiting 
 and watching the lugger from about Canty Bay 
 and Seacliff, where she was usually wont to run 
 her cargoes. 
 
 ^^ I assure you, gentlemen/^ said Lord Dalqu- 
 harn, ^^that your detention of us is quite ille- 
 gal " 
 
 " These mails '* 
 
 " Are merely our personal baggage — a change 
 of linen or so.^^ 
 
 ^' Then in that case you have nothing to fear 
 from their examination.^'' 
 
 '' Nothing ! " 
 
 " You have come from abroad, I think ? '^ 
 
 ^^ We have," said Dalquharn, with chilling 
 hauteur. 
 
 '' And were landed by that lugger of old 
 Puerto de la Plata — of Sanders Scupperplug 
 —eh ? '' 
 
 " Yes—' L'Etoile de la Mer,' of Dunkirk— but 
 we w^ere mere passengers, lawful travellers." 
 
 " You have papers, no doubt " 
 
 " Letters — signed and vizzied by the conser- 
 vator of Scottish privileges at Campvere, and the 
 British ambassador — what the devil, fellow, would 
 you have more ? '* 
 
 " Many a pirate sails under false colours, gen- 
 tlemen, so you must come along with us. The
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 55 
 
 admission that you have sailed aboard of Captain 
 Scnpperplug, is almost a hanging matter in itself. 
 But where is that precious lugger now ? " 
 
 " Afloat^ I hope^ amid yonder mist.^' 
 
 " Much useful information that is ! But you 
 must come with us before Mr. Balcraftie.^^ 
 
 ^^Whoishe?" 
 
 ''^The senior magistrate in the Burgh — a 
 sanctimonious old Scotch Put, who will sift 
 you in a fine fashion, so sure as my name is Jack 
 Gage.'' 
 
 '^ Let . us lose no further time, but go at 
 once/' said Lord Dalquharn, with increasing 
 irritation, as they surrendered their mails and 
 roquelaures. 
 
 ^*^An infernal scrape!'' muttered Sir John( 
 Mitchell ; " 'S death, I would we were well out of 
 it!" 
 
 ^^ And this is our first welcome home to Scot- 
 land — to be taken neck and heels, before some 
 prickeared cur — a canting, psalm-singing Bailie!" 
 exclaimed Lord Dalquharn, with irrepressible 
 bitterness, as they retraced their steps along the 
 dark road, towards North Berwick. " Our first 
 night may be spent as criminals in a Tolbooth — 
 by heavens, a Tolbooth, Sir John." 
 
 They had but two things calculated to excite 
 suspicion as to their character and politics — theii 
 swords, the blades of which were inscribed with 
 the wordS; No Uniorij and which had in the cut-
 
 56 THE WHITE COCKADE. ' 
 
 steelwork of their shells, the letter S., for Stuart, 
 marks by which Scottish gentlemen of the Jaco- 
 bite faction were wont to distinguish each other 
 at once, as readily as if they wore the forbidden 
 badge, the white cockade of King James — the 
 white rose of York — in their hats.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 57 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BAILIE REUBEN BALCRAFTIE. 
 
 '* Leonato.—l must leave you. 
 
 Dogberry. — One word, sir: our watcli, sir, have, in- 
 deed, apprehended two aspicious persons, and we would 
 have them this morning examined before your wor- 
 ship. 
 
 Leon. — Take their examination yourself, and bring it 
 me ; I am now in great haste, as it may appear unt» 
 
 you." 
 
 Much Ado about Nothing. 
 
 Passing by a wooded and sequestered lane_, near 
 the ancient parish churcli of St. Andrew^ a fane 
 more famous in the annals of diablerie than those 
 of religion, as the reputed rendezvous of the 
 wizards and witches of the three Lothians_, and 
 where, in the days of James VI. _, Satan was wont 
 to preach to them from the pulpit, the Excise 
 officials, with their two prisoners, turned to the 
 right, and soon found themselves in the centre of 
 the little town of North Berwick, which then con- 
 sisted simply of two streets^ crossing each other at 
 right angles.
 
 58 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 A quaint and quiet little place^ its houses were 
 chiefly thatched,, and had outside stairs^ and pic- 
 turesque outshots overhanging the street on beams 
 of wood and pillars of stone. It had been made a 
 royal burgh by Robert III., a port in the time of 
 his predecessor, and was once a place of trade, 
 but when no one knows now. It once possessed a 
 castle, the site of which, as I have said, is only 
 marked by the green knoll overlooking the East 
 Links. 
 
 " Had I taken the road by the Blackdyke, instead 
 of the path along the shore, we had escaped those 
 fellows,^^ said Lord Dalquharn ; " on what trifles 
 may the fate of a man rest ! '' 
 
 " True, my lord, and of empires too \" 
 
 ^^ Yes — even of empires ; but for the Molehill — 
 the work of the little man in black velvet who 
 worked underground, a certain white horse had 
 not stumbled, and the Hero of Glencoe and Darien 
 had not died before his time.''^ 
 
 Threading their way in the dark among carts, 
 piles of peat and other fuel which stood in rows 
 before the doors of the street, ere long they found 
 themselves before the mansion of Bailie Reuben 
 Balcraftie, a two-storied edifice slated with stone ; 
 still conspicuous by its round tower and turnpike 
 stair, it stands opposite a building which was 
 then an inn or change-house, and bore the 
 Otterburn arms, creaking in the wind from an 
 iron rod.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 59 
 
 There were lights in the magistrate's windows. 
 The massive iron risp on the door was sharply 
 applied to by Gage the exciseman^ and imme- 
 diately on this a loud and nasal voice was heard 
 at a distance within the house singing a verse of 
 the fifth psalm^ from Andro Hart's edition in 
 Scottish metrcj and quaveringly it came on the 
 gusts of wind : 
 
 ** But let all joy wha trust in thee, 
 And still make shouting noise ; 
 For them thou seest, let all that love 
 Thy name in thee rejoice." 
 
 "By George!" exclaimed Mr. Jack Gage im- 
 patiently, " it is shouting with a vengeance ; the 
 crop-eared Covenanter will keep us waiting here 
 all night!'' • 
 
 Another querulous voice now gave out a verse 
 of the next psalm, and again several persons raised 
 their pipes in mingled and discordant whines : — 
 
 "I with my groaning weary am, 
 And all the night my bed 
 I caus-ed for to swim ; with tears 
 My couch I water-ed." 
 
 Then the discord of ill- attuned voices was heard 
 for a time, rising and falling on the wind that 
 coursed through the panelled passages and stone- 
 paved corridors of the house, and mingling with 
 the chafing of the now flowing tide, on the rocks 
 that gird the harbour. 
 
 A storm of pistol butts now clattered on the
 
 60 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 door, while the excisemen and tidewaiters swore 
 with impatience. On this, the singing ceased ; the 
 shield of an eyelet hole was withdrawn on the 
 inside ; an eye was seen to vizzy them carefully, 
 while a querulous and ill-natured female voice 
 demanded, 
 
 ^^Whatirls at the pin?'' 
 
 ^' Open the door, you infernal Scotch witch — 
 open — open in the king's name, and say that 
 Mr. Gage of the Customs would speak with old 
 Squaretoes — with Bailie Balcraftie." 
 
 Almost immediately after this, the ponderous 
 bolts and bars were shot back, the door was opened, 
 and the magistrate himself, in an accurate suit of 
 black broad cloth, with enormous cut steel buttons, 
 a vast wig, long sleeve ruffles, and huge shoe 
 buckles, appeared with a candle flaring in each 
 hand. He displayed neither surprise nor offended 
 dignity at the noisy and untimeous visit to his 
 house ; but bowed and smirked with considerable 
 obsequiousness and servility. 
 
 '^ Your servant, Mr. Gage — a thousand pardons, 
 sir, and a thousand mair ! I fear you'll liken me 
 to that lord who had charge of the gate at Sa- 
 maria, to keep you sae long at the door; but 
 family worship, ye ken — family worship, above all 
 earthly considerations, must have place ; and, oh, 
 but it is sweet and beseeming, too, so to close a 
 long day of hard and honest labour !" 
 
 " We are in danger," whispered Mitchell to his
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 61 
 
 companion ; ^^ this man is a false villain — I know 
 it!^' 
 
 "How?'' 
 
 " By the whine of him/' 
 
 ^' But^ heyday ! Mr. Gage^ what in the name of 
 the world and of misrule brings yon here at this 
 time o' night ? " 
 
 " We have here two suspicious characters whom 
 we fear are connected with the lugger we have 
 watched all day. In fact, they admit to having 
 been landed by that notorious rascal old Scupper- 
 plug, not two hours since." 
 
 " Suspicious characters — smugglers — smug- 
 glers, said you ? Defrauders o' the revenue and 
 o' their fellowmen ? Let me have a look at the 
 chiels — bring them ben into the office, and I'il 
 talk to them, I warrant ! Smugglers, indeed, and 
 at this time o' night ! " continued the magistrate, 
 with growing indignation. 
 
 At the first sound of his voice, our two friends 
 started and exchanged glances. 
 
 " Where have I heard, or where before, met this 
 man?" said Lord Dalquharn in a whisper. 
 
 " Send for the burgh officer and the Gudeman 
 o' the Tolbooth," resumed the Bailie. "We'll 
 have them laid by the heels instanter, Mr. Gage ; 
 as sure as I am a pardoned sinner." 
 
 " Harkee, sirrah — take care what you are 
 about," said Lord Dalquharn, with a loftiness of 
 bearing peculiar alike to his class and the time ;
 
 62 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 " for so sure as there is a heaven above us^ I may 
 requite this,, by banging you at your own market- 
 cross !" 
 
 The threat or the tone in which it was uttered 
 were not without a due effect upon the magistrate^ 
 who grew deadly pale^ and darted at the speaker 
 a covert glance of wrath and spite. He hastily 
 shut the door and ushered the whole party into a 
 low ceiled room^ in the centre of which was a 
 black oak table_, littered with docquets^, books_, and 
 papers. On the walls, which were panelled with 
 plain white wood, hung charts, maps, bills of 
 lading, and various printed documents. 
 
 The advertisements of " a weekly waggon to 
 leave the Grassmarket of Edinburgh for Inverness 
 every Tuesday God willing, but on Wednesday 
 whether or no ;^^ the salvage of a sloop wrecked at 
 the Yellow Craig; and a cornetcy in Gardiner's 
 Dragoons, " presently quartered in the Canongate, 
 and to be had cheap," showed the multifarious 
 nature of the Bailie's transactions. 
 
 There was a large placard to the effect, that ^^ the 
 Spirit of the Lord had appointed Reuben Bal- 
 craftie to hold forth to the God-fearing folk of the 
 Burgh, at 5 o'clock that afternoon, and, d.v., he 
 would do it, at the ' Auld Kirk.' " 
 
 Close by this, hung the ^^ Orders of the Provost, 
 Bailies, and Council of North Berwick, to be 
 observed by all constables in the discharge of their 
 duties — to arrest all night-walkers, papists, sus-
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 63 
 
 pected priests^ and Egyptians; all persons,, not 
 gentlemen^ wearing pistols or daggers ; all swearers 
 and banners in close and wynd, and to commit 
 them to ward in the Tolbooth." 
 
 Now^ as the magistrate seated himself in a black 
 leather easy chair^ and set down the candles^ which 
 were in square stands of oak^ carved, turned, and 
 mounted with brass. Lord Dalquharn and Sir 
 John Mitchell had an opportunity of examining 
 the face of this personage — the senior Bailie, who, 
 in absence of that other potentate, the Provost, 
 was to decide upon their fate. 
 
 As Reuben Baler aftie plays a somewhat im- 
 portant part, in this our story, some elaboration 
 is necessary in pourtraying him. 
 
 He wore a stiff solid tie wig, (of that fashion 
 introduced by Lord Bolingbroke) the curls of 
 which appeared as if hardened into rollers, while 
 the pendant lumps of hair were tied at the end 
 like horse-tails at a fair. From amid this cum- 
 brous and ugly substitute for hair, his face looked 
 forth, in singular repulsiveness. The small-pox, 
 a dreadful scourge in those days, the destroyer 
 alike of life and beauty, in his earlier years, had 
 seamed the rugged visage of Reuben Balcraftie, 
 rendering him rather more hideous than even 
 freakish Dame Nature had intended him to be. 
 
 Fully past fifty now, his figure was thick set, 
 and he had a considerable stoop in his broad and 
 muscular shoulders ; his eyes, dull, pale-blue and
 
 64 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 watery^ were always more busy tlian his tMn^ cruel 
 lips ; they usually had a film over them ; quiet, 
 heavy, stealthy and watchful, they were the eyes 
 of a human vulture, and seemed to lurk under 
 fierce and shaggy brows of grizzled hair. He was 
 not exactly a vulgar man, being quiet in his ge- 
 neral demeanour, but he was of low extraction, as 
 his great hairy hands, and huge feet showed, for 
 his father had been the Gudeman of the Tolbooth, 
 and his mother a gypsy prisoner — a poor wretch, 
 who had her sentence of drowning in the sea, 
 deferred for a time, that she might bring him into 
 the world. 
 
 He was undoubtedly a sharp man of business, 
 a wonderful arithmetician, but a noisy and osten- 
 tatious holder forth on religion, being, moreover, 
 the ruling elder in the Parish Kirk. He was ever 
 restless in the acquisition of money ; yet his whole 
 household consisted of a half-starved clerk, an old 
 and devoted house-keeper, and a slip-shod ser- 
 vant girl. He was miserly, miserable and savage 
 to the poor; he could drink hard, yet never was 
 known to get tipsy, and he gloried in, and gloated 
 over the possession of several bonds and wadsets, 
 over more than one broad estate in the fertile 
 Constabulary of Haddington. 
 
 While he opened his oak lettron or desk, fussily 
 spread a sheet of paper before him, thriftily 
 smoothed back his huge ruffles under his wide 
 square cufi's to keep them down, and dipped a
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 65 
 
 great quill in the inkhorn to take Mr. Gage^s de- 
 position_, Sir Jolin Mitchell, who had been eyeing 
 him attentively, drew nearer to Dalquharn. 
 
 ^' Ah, my lord/^ he whispered, ^' is the land that 
 is so productive of such worms — of such sancti- 
 monious wretches as this, worth fighting for, or 
 worth returning to ?'^ 
 
 '^ Under favour, my dear Sir John, hypocrisy 
 is not peculiar to any country,^^ urged the young 
 peer. 
 
 " But by all the gods, of late years, hypocrisy 
 has thriven on Scottish earth, like a green bay 
 tree, and seems likely to do so, world without 
 end V 
 
 To Gage, a frank, open featured, jolly looking 
 Englishman, with a ruddy visage and a rough* 
 flaxen wig, who stood twirling his hat upon the 
 forefinger of his left hand, waiting with impati- 
 ence to speak, the Bailie, pointing to his religious 
 placard, said — 
 
 '^ I saw you not at the preaching o' the word, 
 Mr. Gage, when I expounded this evening." 
 
 ^'1 had other matters in hand, off Scougal 
 point; but come, come Bailie Balcraftie — the 
 night wears apace, and I should have been trussed 
 up in my hammock ere now. Stick to what Vwe 
 come about. You won^t convert me, and I think 
 my evil ways, as you call then, are a deuced deal 
 jollier than your sad ones,''"' said the Englishman 
 laughing. 
 
 VOL. I. 5 .
 
 66 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 The Bailie raised his watery vulture-like orbs to 
 the ceilings slowly saying, — 
 
 " Whatever will become of sic a sinner as you, 
 is clean beyond my comprehension; yet a day 
 will arrive, when you may remember the blessed 
 words o^ the scripture, ^ Thou art my hiding 
 place/ " 
 
 " I wonder in what creek, cave, islet or other 
 hiding place along shore, those Scotch and French 
 devils of old Scupperplug stowed the stuflp to- 
 night,^^ said Gage, polishing his pistol butts, with 
 his great square cuff; " I warrant these gentlemen 
 can tell us, if we make ^em/'' 
 
 The Bailie gave him and them a sharp covert 
 scowl, and replied, — 
 
 " Ye are all brands destined for the burning/' 
 A prospect under which, the Englishmen seemed 
 quite easy. 
 
 " As for your prisoners, Mr. Gage, they look as 
 little like smugglers, as Egyptians or popish 
 priests ; yet wha kens ; the vestments, the trinkets 
 and the cruciformed hammer o' Belzebub, may be 
 found in their mails. And so, sirs, you actually and 
 unblushingly admit having landed from the craft o' 
 that nefarious loon — the Captain of the ' Etoile de 
 la Mer,^ of Dunkirk, for whose seizure and appre- 
 hension the Lord Advocate, and the Commissioners 
 of His Majesty's Customs at Edinburgh, are offer- 
 ing a most princely reward T* 
 
 " We do, sir,'' replied Dalquharn, while an evi-
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 67 
 
 dent change came over the visage of the ques- 
 tioner. 
 
 '^ And last from Dunkirk V 
 
 '' Yes, sir.'' 
 
 '^ I trust ye are not spies of that hellicate King 
 of France, Louis XV., or/' continued the Bailie, 
 growing more and more serious, ^^ of that man of 
 Moab, who calls himself James VIII., and that 
 youth of Belial, his pretended son ?" 
 
 Mitchell laughed aloud at this, as if really 
 amused ; but Lord Dalquharn made a gesture of 
 impatient scorn. 
 
 ^' Sirs, I deal not in words that are ide or 
 unprofitable; neither do I smile much, and 
 laugh, yea, but rarely," resumed Balcraftie ; 
 ^'^but hand me their papers, Mr. Gage,'' be 
 added to that functionary, who, after searching 
 the mails of both prisoners, found only a spe- 
 cies of passport in each, but no letters or other 
 documents. 
 
 '^ These are our papers," said Lord Dalquharn, 
 with a hauteur and loftiness of bearing, before 
 which the heavy vulture eyes of the truculent ma- 
 gistrate quailed; " they are duly signetted by tlie 
 British ambassador at the Hague, by the Conser- 
 vator of our Scottish Privileges at Campvere, and 
 shew sufficiently who, and what we are. 
 
 '^ By George, I believe the poor fellows are no 
 smugglers or spies either, but merely exiled 
 Scottish gentlemen," they heard Gage whisper ta 
 
 5—2
 
 68 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 his men ; ^^ I wish we had taken the other road, 
 and not come athwart their hawse; for if they 
 be as I suspect J ^S death, but I wish them Grod 
 speed V 
 
 ^' Thou art a worthy fellow, my English friend,^^ 
 said Lord Dalquharn, as he shook the exciseman^'s 
 hand j " I wish that some of my countrymen had 
 half thine honesty, thy John Bull courage and 
 generosity/'' 
 
 ^' My father was gunner aboard the Duke of 
 York^s ship, on many a day when they were teach- 
 ing the Dutch lubbers to take off their hats on 
 the high seas. — to lower their jacks to us, from 
 Van Staten to Cape Finisterre, and I ain^t for- 
 gotten that, sir — I ain^'t,''"' replied the Englishman 
 with a peculiar glance. 
 
 "I ay suspected you o^ being a Jacobite 
 in secret, Mr. Gage,^^ said the Bailie, "and 
 now as sure as I^m a pardoned sinner, I ken it. 
 You two gentlemen are officers of the Scotch- 
 Dutch V 
 
 " On the half-pay of their High Mightiness, the 
 States General, and late of the regiment of Bri- 
 gadier Mackay, son of the Lord Reay."" 
 
 " But how came ye by the way o^ Dunkirk^ a 
 port now watched by the British fleet T^ 
 
 "A long explanation may be necessary,^^ re- 
 plied Lord Dalquharn, evasively. 
 
 " Your coming here aboard o^ Sanders Scupper- 
 plug, is a bad end to a cloudy beginning , sirs ;
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 69 
 
 but whither were ye bound, when arrested by Mr. 
 Gage and his concurrents T' 
 
 '^ For the house of a friend/^ 
 
 " ''Twouldna be likely, for the house o^ a foe ; 
 but can ye not name that friend T' 
 
 '' We were on our way to the house of Sir Bal- 
 dred Otterburn of Auldhame and Seacliff.^^ 
 
 Another indescribable change came over the 
 features of the Bailie, and the friends who knew 
 not how to construe the expression of his dull, 
 watery, avaricious eyes, felt rather uncomfortable. 
 He seemed fidgety, and for a time sat pondering, 
 while muttering, 
 
 ^^They may be massmongers, Mr. Gage — Jesuits 
 in disguise, for a^ that we ken ; those sons of the 
 Prince of the power of the air — of the crooked anfl 
 slimy serpent — of the roaring lion that goeth 
 about, seeking whom he may devour, take all 
 manner of shapes.^^ 
 
 "Egad, sir,^^ said Sir John Mitchell, with a 
 burst of laughter, in which Gage and his mates 
 joined ; '' I thought I was too old a soldier to be 
 mistaken for a churchman ; and as to my friend, 
 Captain Henry Douglas here, he does not look 
 much like a Jesuit. ^^ 
 
 "Beware, Mr. Balcraftie,'^ said Lord Dalqu- 
 harn, whose wrath was fast increasing. 
 
 " And why should I beware, sir — I, a magis- 
 trate — a free burgess and Bailie of North Berwick 
 — an elder in the Kirk, too ? ^^
 
 70 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 ^'It seems to us, that we have all met be- 
 fore/^ 
 
 "The vulture eyes opeued and shut, and then 
 opened wider than before ; a piteous expression of 
 fear, mingled with spite and rage, passed over the 
 Bailie^s face, and, perceiving his advantage in- 
 stantly, the young lord turned to Gage and said, 
 with a smile, 
 
 " I hope we are not to be compelled to say 
 where the black lugger is just now, and where her 
 cargo of brandy and sherry is being landed, in 
 care of Father Testimony ?^' 
 
 "Undoubtedly not,''-' said Bailie Balcraftie, 
 with precipitation, as he rose from his lettron or 
 desk ; " the laws admit of no compulsion. And 
 now, sirs, that I am satisfied, that ye are captains 
 o"* the gallant Scotch-Dutch, and bound on a visit 
 to my worthy friend. Sir Baldred Otterburn, at 
 Auldhame, whither I shall have the high honour 
 o conducting you to-morrow, I dismiss the 
 charge, Mr. Gage. I shall be answerable for our 
 friends, if called upon. For to-night they shall 
 tarry wi^ me, and to-morrow we will set forth 
 together ; and as a bit of advice to you, Mr. Gage, 
 be not sae ready to seize on strangers again; 
 remember ' thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor 
 oppress him, for ye were strangers in the land of 
 Egypt.' " 
 
 " Egypt be blistered ! — ^never was there, though 
 IVe been at old Gib, and in the Levant with
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 71 
 
 Rear-Admiral Byng/^ said the bewildered ex- 
 ciseman, as he and his party were hurriedly 
 bowed out ; and the Bailie,, with a fierce expres- 
 sion in his stealthy eyes, and something more like 
 a curse than a blessing on his cruel lips, carefully 
 bolted his strong and massive door behind them. 
 
 After a hasty supper, as the hour was late, the 
 companions, who were now the honoured guests 
 of Mr. Reuben Balcraftie, retired to the chamber 
 he had provided for them — a double-bedded one, 
 having two of those oak-panelled recesses, called 
 box beds, which are still used in some parts of 
 Scotland. 
 
 '^ Adieu for this night, gentlemen,^^ said the 
 Bailie, as he deposited the candles on a dressing- 
 table, whereon were a bible and "night-cap ^^ — i.e.y 
 a silver tankard of spiced ale ; " to-morrow, 
 we shall set forth betimes, after a broiled had- 
 die, a rasher o^ bacon, and a dish o' tea, for 
 Auldhame." 
 
 ^' Thanks, and a good night to you, most worthy 
 host,^^ said Dalquharn, with one of his quiet 
 smiles ; " Gad, we live in times of change ! '^ 
 
 '^ Aye, of a verity, as the preacher saith, ^ when 
 the sun is brightest, the stars are darkest ; so the 
 clearer our light, the more gloomy our life with 
 deeds of darkness. Former times were like Leah, 
 blear-eyed but fruitful; the present like unto 
 Rachel — fair but barren.' Aye, truly, we live in 
 sinful and troublesome times/'
 
 72 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 The moment he was gone, Sir John Mitchell 
 secured the door and placed a table against it. 
 He carefully reprimed his pistols, and placed 
 them below his pillow. With the hilt of his 
 sword, he sounded all the panels and flooring, to 
 assure himself there was no secret entrance to 
 the room. He then opened the window, to 
 examine the means of escape, if necessary, and 
 saw, that from the roof of a stable, the ground 
 could easily be reached, for a long life of peril 
 and exile had made him alike suspicious and 
 cautious. 
 
 '^'^ Wherefore all this care. Sir John?" asked 
 Dalquharn. 
 
 " I have an intense distrust of our landlord.*" 
 
 " And I have more than that — a thorough con- 
 viction." 
 
 " The canting, prickeared cur ! I can read in his 
 face the lines of an assassin." 
 
 ^^ And I am convinced, or nearly so, that he, 
 and the man in the unflapped hat, who boarded 
 the lugger — ^in short, that he and Father Testi- 
 mony, are one and the same person !" 
 
 •5f -K- -Jf ^ ^ 
 
 Luckily, only indistinct sounds reached the 
 huge ear of Reuben Balcraftie, which at that 
 moment was placed against the door of their 
 chamber. Of their conversation he could make 
 nothing; but as he glided away with a cat-like 
 step, a bright but malevolent gleam was in his
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 73 
 
 cruel eyes, and he rubbed bis great coarse hands 
 together with satisfaction. 
 
 ^^ Jacobites/^ he muttered, " returned Jacobites, 
 and bound for Auldhame too ! The work gangs 
 bravely on — 1^11 hae the auld knight in my toils, 
 and Miss Bryde too — my bonnie bride that is to 
 be!^^
 
 74 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THEY SET FORTH. 
 
 " May, sweet May, again lias come, 
 May tliat frees tlie land from gloom ; 
 She is in the greenwood shade, 
 Where the nightingale hath made 
 ^, Every branch and every tree 
 
 Ring with her sweet melody, 
 Sing ye, join the chorus gay ; 
 Hail this merry month of May.'* 
 
 From the Germane 
 
 Under the sun of a lonely forenoon in May,, the 
 sea and land wore their brightest hues^ when the 
 Lord Dalqnharn and his friend set forth for 
 Auldhame;, accompanied by Bailie Reuben Balcraf- 
 t\Q, whose society they would rather have been 
 without^ and who — although he knew them simply 
 as Captains Douglas and Mitchell — strongly sus- 
 pected that they bore a higher rank. They were 
 preceded by his half-starved clerk, who carried 
 their mails and roquelaures. 
 
 The shrewd Bailie, who had a secret purpose of 
 his own to serve, was not ill pleased to have an 
 excuse for visiting Auldhame, where, as we shall 
 shew ere long, he was not always a welcome 
 visitor.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 75 
 
 On this occasion, he proved a decided bore alike 
 to Lord Dalquharn and Sir John Mitchell, neither 
 of whom knew how, in his presence, to introduce 
 themselves under their plain titles of Captains 
 Douglas and Mitchell, to Sir Baldred Otterburn. 
 
 Noon was well advanced before they quitted 
 the mansion of the magistrate, who was detained 
 in his office adjudicating on a case of alleged 
 witchcraft, though that crime had almost dis- 
 appeared since the union. 
 
 Eight fisher boats had come into the harbour 
 that morning from the herring ground; two of 
 these had netted over one hundred crans of fish, 
 the rest only averaging twelve crans among them. 
 In consequence of this unequal fortune, an angry 
 scene ensued, and the house of the pious and 
 upright Bailie was beset by the less lucky fisher- 
 men and their families, who alleged that their 
 rivals had succeeded by mere witchcraft, through 
 the devilish spells of an old hag who dwelt at 
 Aldbottle, opposite the Rock of Fidra, and that 
 she had the power of driving the herrings into the 
 nets of her friends, by placing in their boats 
 certain little stones which she found in the ruined 
 chapel of St. Nicholas, on the islet before her 
 hut* 
 
 A general riot in the high street of the borough 
 
 * Similar accusations were made by the fishermen of 
 Ardersier against '* Cluaigh, the Witch of Petty," in the 
 September of 1866. — See Scotsman and Dundee Advertiser,
 
 76 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 was the sequel. Sucli doings had not been known 
 in the country side^ the sufferers alleged^ since 
 the time when the Wise Woman of Keith_, Agnes 
 Simpson^ the Gyre Carlin, or Mother Witch of 
 all Scotland, had landed with two hundred of her 
 compatriots in cives and riddles, and danced on 
 the shore of North Berwick, prior to meeting the 
 devil in the church of St. Andrew, where they 
 opened the graves and desecrated the dead, com- 
 mitting many other enormities, all of which she 
 confessed to King James in the winter of 1590. 
 
 The enraged fishermen assaulted the town- 
 officer, broke his halbert and rent his livery, and 
 the case against them having been aggravated 
 by the circumstance that they had drank some ale 
 at forbidden hours, they were all punished, some 
 by being chained to the jouging-rod in the tol- 
 booth, put in the stocks at the town-end, or 
 whipped through the streets and expelled the 
 burgh ; and it was against the ale drinkers that 
 our upright Bailie inveighed most bitterly, as he 
 drained a good stiff horn of brandy and water, 
 and assumed his tie-wig, large cocked hat, and 
 walking staff, which he termed ^' a wand — a sma' 
 wand, sirs, such as David had, when he went forth 
 to warsle wi' Goliath the mighty." 
 
 i( "VV^ere you not somewhat severe on those poor 
 fellows ?" said Dalquharn, who had been reflecting 
 that if ever he found himself in his place as a
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 77 
 
 peer of the realm^ such tyranny as this should be 
 curbed. 
 
 '^ Severe^ Captain Douglas ? — ca* you justice 
 severity ?" 
 
 ^*^Noj but it may be harshly administered." 
 
 '^ Sir," replied the other, while shaking out his 
 ruffles, erecting the forecock of his hat, and 
 planting his cane emphatically on the causeway, 
 '^ I am a bailie and a justice o' the peace in our 
 constabulary of Haddington; it beseems not, that 
 I should be cowed by a vile mob o' fisher loons, 
 and fear the face o' a feeble human creature, for 
 the judgment delivered is the Lord's, and no 
 mine. I should respect no persons in judgment, 
 saith Deuteronomy, but hear the small as well as 
 the great. As a bailie, I must act wi' honest in- 
 tentions — even as one in the sight o' the Omnis- 
 cient, whose eyes behold me, and whose eyelids 
 try the children of men." 
 
 These quotations he whined in an intoned voice, 
 with his watery eyes half-closed, and a self-satisfied 
 smirk on his coarse visage, while at every second 
 step, he struck the pavement firmly with his cane. 
 
 '^ And you actually whipped and banished from 
 the burgh, those poor fellows, for drinking ale at 
 the ' Auldhame Arms T " exclaimed Sir John Mit- 
 chell, with surprise. 
 
 " Indubitably, Captain Mitchell ; and what for 
 no, sir, — but no chiefly for that. By our law 
 once, no man durst be found in a tavern within a
 
 78 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 burgh^ after the nine-hour bell had been rung, 
 under pain o' the tolbooth ; but that warning was 
 given an hour later by desire o' the Regent Ar- 
 ran^s countess, after whom it was named ' the 
 lady's bell;' but wow people are punished accord- 
 ing to their quality, for public drinking at un- 
 timeous hours. A nobleman payeth twenty 
 pounds Scots, and saeon, down to a serving-man, 
 who payeth twenty shillings toties quoties, one 
 half o^ ilk fine to go to the pious purposes o^ the 
 parish, and the other half to the informer." 
 
 ^' And the poor toper, who hath spent his last 
 penny on ale, and cannot pay your fine — " 
 
 "We punish in their person; and so, sirs, I 
 whipped those loons forth the toun, when I might 
 hae nailed their lugs to the cross." 
 
 The appearance of the town piper (every burgh 
 had one then, with a small allotment of land, 
 still called the " piper's croft '') put a stop to the 
 Bailie's monotonous talk, as the musician struck 
 up " The Braes of Yarrow," and played before 
 them through the streets so far as the Well-tower- 
 mill, where he received a largesse from Dalquharn^ 
 and retired bonnet in hand. 
 
 There, in the bright sunshine, was one of those 
 features, which, in those days, and until a very 
 recent period, made every roadside horrible — a 
 malefactor's corpse, half reduced to a skeleton, 
 with the black crows wheeling around and alight- 
 ing upon it.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 79 
 
 '^ Grad-a-mercy !" said Mitchell^ ^^ here is a gib- 
 bet, to show that we are in a civilised land — a 
 land where justice, or more probably law, is 
 sternly administered/^ 
 
 ^'^A Border Egyptian loon/^ said the Bailie, 
 pointing to the corpse with his cane, '^ hanged by 
 the lords of justiciary, for hamesucken and burning 
 a barn-yard at Dirlton. He asked for a cog of 
 ale before he was turned off the ladder, and drank 
 to the health o' the popish pretender, the black 
 devil, and King George/^ 
 
 ^^ I don^t think, egad, that the old country is 
 much changed since I fought at the battle of 
 Sheriff-Muir V 
 
 " You have served, sir T' began the Bailie, turn- 
 ing sharply round. ^ 
 
 " In the Scots^ Grey Dragoons,^^ replied Mit- 
 chell, haughtily. 
 
 "Aye, sirs, the country is no much changed 
 even since that bluidy day at Dunblane — verily, 
 it is a vale fu^ o^ slime pits,^^ whined the Bailie, 
 '^ even as the vale o^ Siddam was, when the Kings 
 of Sodom and Gomorrah fled !^^ 
 
 The B alliens voice ascended into a roar, as a 
 beggar, one of the king^s beadsmen, in his long 
 blue weed, approached them silently, but bonnet 
 in hand. Sir John Mitchell gave the poor man 
 a small coin ; in doing so, he did not throw it as 
 some might have done, but handed it with polite- 
 ness.
 
 80 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 "This gentleman is in poverty/^ thouglit the 
 quick-witted magistrate ; " none but those akin 
 to beggary slip money sae deftly into a beggar^s 
 palm/^ 
 
 Perhaps he was right, for the poor are usually 
 the kindest to the poor. 
 
 Nearly a thousand feet above the road they tra- 
 versedj rose the steep, vast, isolated, and volcanic 
 cone of North Berwick, on whose summit many a 
 beacon has glared in the war-like times of old. It 
 was covered on every side with the richest ver- 
 dure, and rose amid spacious fields where the 
 young grain was sprouting, and the birds were 
 swarming in the thick old hedgerows. The sky 
 was clear, and the atmosphere light and balmy. 
 High into mid-air ascended the smoke from many 
 a moss-roofed cottage chimney, and many a snug 
 farmhouse, secluded among ancient timber^ in all 
 the leafy glory of summer. 
 
 Broad on their left stretched away for leagues, 
 its waters mingling with the German Sea, the 
 noble estuary of the Forth, with all its green and 
 rocky isles, the chief of which, with all its myriad 
 gannets wheeling in the sunshine, and whitening 
 its cliffs, towered the stupendous clifis of the 
 " storm-defying Bass,^^ — the giant fragment of a 
 former world — the B as tile of the covenanters — 
 with a little red standard, just barely discernible, 
 fluttering on its western ramparts, for it was still
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 81 
 
 garrisoned by a little party furnished yearly by 
 tbe Scots Foot Guards. 
 
 In the offing the ^Fox^ frigate was visible about 
 four miles distant^ standing across tbe estuary 
 before a gentle breeze, but with all her canvas 
 set, even to her royals, and like a giant bird with 
 all its white pinions spread, she shone in a 
 strong relief upon the expanse of blue. Farther 
 oflP in distance the lug sails of a fleet of fisher- 
 boats, marked the faint line where cloud and 
 ocean met. 
 
 By referring frequently to the state of affairs 
 on the continent, such as the armaments at Dun- 
 kirk, the siege of Fribourg, and investment of 
 Tournay, the wily Bailie sought to learn the 
 views, intentions, and politics of his companions ; 
 but they seemed on the alert, and generally con- 
 trived to appear much more interested in the local 
 intelligence he could afford them : such as the 
 Edinburgh mail-bags having being found in the 
 Tyne at Hailes^ Castle — the post-boy and his 
 horse having perished when crossing the river at 
 a treacherous ford ; and then of a herd-laddie at 
 Tyninghame, who had been sorely tormented by 
 an evil spirit in the shape of a hoodie-crow, until 
 released therefrom by the pious offices of the 
 Reverend Mr. Carfuffle, the minister of White- 
 kirk. While the Bailie gabbled of these things. 
 Sir John Mitchell had become silent and thought- 
 ful, and solaced himself by smoking a handsome 
 
 VOL. I. 6
 
 82 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 silver mounted tobacco pipe, which had been pre- 
 sented to him by His Grace the Duke of Ber- 
 wick, whose aid-de-camp he had the honour to be 
 till that fatal day when the duke was killed by a 
 cannon-ball in the trenches at Philipsburg. 
 
 ^'When were you last at Auldhame, Captain 
 Douglas V asked the Bailie, still anxious to 
 gratify his curiosity. 
 
 ^' Not since my boyhood, some years ago ; and 
 then but for a short time. Sir Baldred has a 
 son — " 
 
 " He had.'' 
 
 " You speak in the past tense, Mr. Balcraftie V 
 
 ^' Sorry am I to do sae,^^ said the Bailie in an 
 altered voice. 
 
 " Dead — is the heir of Auldhame dead V ex- 
 claimed Lord Dalquharn. 
 
 " Even sae, sir ; he was shot through the head 
 — assassinated, when riding home from the bank 
 at Edinburgh some years ago. On that dolefu' 
 night, the spectre drummer was heard and seen in 
 the avenue of Auldhame by the Beverend Mr. 
 Carfuffle, as you may see duly minuted in the 
 records o' the Kirk Session ; for whenever evil or 
 fate are nigh the line of Otterburn, ^tis said they 
 have their warning in that form.^^ 
 
 ^' This is most sad — I heard not of it, for I was 
 far away in French Flanders,'^ said the young 
 lord in a tone of real sorrow ; ^^ one stout hand
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 83 
 
 — one gallant heart less in the coming fray^ Sir 
 John/^ he whispered to his friend. 
 
 " He left a daughter/' 
 
 " True, Bailie, I remember the little girl Bryde 
 Otterburn — a flaxen haired romp — a genuine 
 Scottish lassie with a wealth of lint white locks/' 
 
 '^Even sae, sir, but her locks are something 
 between gold and chesnut now. She is the apple 
 o' the auld Baronet's eye, but she hath sair, sair 
 longings after the leaven o' Prelacy and Epis- 
 copacy, if not, as Mr. Carfuffle fears, after the 
 Babylonian scarlet woman, despite a' that I, a 
 usefu' friend o' the house, can say, though a 
 hopefu' and a pardoned sinner." 
 
 Indeed this woman in scarlet was the pretended 
 bugbear, the religious hete-noir of Reuben Bal- 
 craftie's life, as she has been of many a Scottish 
 saint before and since. 
 
 After passing the ruins of Tantallon Castle on 
 the left, they diverged from the bridle path they 
 had hitherto pursued, into a footway through the 
 fields, so narrow that they had, as Sir John said, 
 '^to march in Indian file," with the Bailie in 
 front. 
 
 ^^ How comes Sir Baldred, a man on whom our 
 friends in exile, rely so much, to have dealings or 
 acquaintance with such a scurvy fellow as this !" 
 said Dalquharn in a low voice. 
 
 '^ Some money difficulty hath doubtless brought 
 it to pass; the Bailie has hinted as much — perhaps 
 
 6—2
 
 84 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 wadsets to raise the wind, and lay some devil in 
 the shape of a creditor. Zounds ! I used to 
 have enough of such things in my time, before I 
 went out in ^15. This fellow with the pale 
 vicious eyes, seems a true blue cropear, as 
 scurvy a patch, as if he had sold Montrose or 
 King Charles — or had danced ancle deep in 
 human blood at Philiphaugh or Dunavertie. I 
 warrant him as genuine a Scottish whig as ever 
 shared the compensation gold at the Union ! A 
 rare example of the liberal-minded Scot of the 
 eighteenth century — CromwelFs curse on all 
 such ! It is odd, however, that such as he, should 
 be our first acquaintance and guide hither, return- 
 ing as we do, and on such an errand.** 
 . Doubtless had Bailie Balcraftie adorned the 
 present century instead of the last, he would have 
 been an active Sabbatarian, a vehement opposer 
 of Sunday trains, of bands, Botanic Gardens, and 
 all rational amusements, even to walking in the 
 sunny fields on " the sabbath,^^ and would have 
 put little boys in the stocks for daring on that 
 day to whistle in the streets. He would have 
 enforced the tyrannical ^' Forbes Mackenzie act,"*^ 
 as rigidly as we have seen him do the nineteenth 
 act of the first parliament of King Charles II. 
 held at Edinburgh in 1661 ; he would have foisted 
 up missions to the heathen; shone on the rostrum 
 at revivals, and extorted money on all hands for 
 the evangelization of Bokhara and the South Sea
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 85 
 
 Islands, and been charitable only in printed lists 
 when his name appeared in full for the edifica- 
 tion of his neighbour and the glorification of him- 
 self. 
 
 The fires of a hundred warlike tribes have been 
 • quenched in the glens; the Highlands are a 
 wilderness from Lochness to Lochaber ; but the 
 great family of Balcraftie is still the most flourish- 
 ing of the Scottish clans ! 
 
 After a walk of somewhat less than three miles. 
 Lord Dalquharn recognized the venerable mansion 
 of Auldhame rising before them at the end of a 
 long avenue, and situated at the edge of a steep 
 green bank that sloped downwards to the sea. 
 
 On the south, north and west, a species of 
 barbican wall defended the house. The large 
 gate in this enclosure was of hammered yetlan 
 iron, and the portal in which it hung, was sur- 
 mounted by a kind of Palladian entablature with 
 mouldings of the time of James VI. Several oval 
 loopholes for musketry perforated this massive 
 defence; but long unused for warlike purposes, 
 they were now almost hidden by the luxuriant 
 ivy, the clematis and fragrant honeysuckle. 
 
 The sudden apparition of an infantry soldier, 
 in his red undress jacket, very leisurely pipe- 
 claying his belts in the sunshine, within the open 
 grating of the iron gate, caused our friends to 
 change colour visibly, and a deep smile to twinkle 
 in the cunning and watchful eves of the Bailie.
 
 86 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 '*^ Hey-day — what have we here — soldiers ?'' 
 exclaimed Lord Dalqnham starting back. 
 
 ^' Even sae, my gude sir/' replied Balcraftie ; 
 " a party o' Howard's Foot are quartered at Auld- 
 hame and Tyninghame — '' 
 
 " For what purpose ?" asked Sir John Mitchell 
 with some asperity; and again the eyes of the 
 Bailie twinkled. 
 
 ^^ To aid the officers of excise in watching for 
 smugglers^ for many a keg]o' brandy and Hollands, 
 that never pay duty to King George^ are hidden 
 whiles,, in the caves along shore^ and even in that 
 Tinder the Bass; so Captain Wyvil and Lieutenant 
 Egerton have been invited by Sir Baldred to 
 reside here^ where I warrant they find themsels 
 in clover.'' 
 
 In fact^ the appearance of Captain Wyvil's 
 grenadiers of the Kentish Bufi*s_, marching down 
 the avenue in their Prussian sugar-loaf caps and 
 Ramillie wigSj a little drummer in fronts rattling 
 on the same drum with which he had beaten the 
 " Point of War/' a year or two before, at Dettin- 
 gen and Fontenoy, had been a source of excite- 
 ment at Auldhame, quite as great, as when my 
 Lady Helen Hope, the Countess-Dowager of 
 Haddington, came, as she was wont to do, once 
 yearly, on a state visit, in a gilt coach like a huge 
 apple-pie, with six grey horses, with white roses 
 at their ears, a page of the sirname of Hamilton 
 on each step, Sir John of Trabrown as her master
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 87 
 
 of the horse,, and six armed serving men, all of 
 the name of Hamilton, with the dexter-hounda 
 on their sleeves, riding round her. 
 
 Among the honeysuckle and ivy, which half 
 shrouded the gate, could be seen, about five feet 
 from the ground, the jougs,"^ or iron collar, in 
 which refractory vassals were wont to be confined, 
 and above the entrance carved in stone, the arms 
 of the family, three otters' heads, with a chevron 
 between, and on a chief azure, a crescent or, the 
 coat-armour of the old Otterburns of Redhall and 
 Auldhame. To these were added the arms of 
 Nova Scotia, the Scottish baronetage having 
 been founded to promote the colonization of that 
 province. 
 
 * Yrom ju^um, a yoke. •
 
 88 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 , CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 AN OLD SCOTTISH CAVALIER. 
 
 aw the Stuart race thrust out — nay more, 
 I saw my country sold for English ore ; 
 Such desolations in my time have been, 
 I have the end of all perfection seen !" 
 
 Epitaph at Dunkeld, 1728. 
 
 Painful misgivings crossed the mind of Lord 
 Dalquharn on learning that government troops 
 were not only cantoned on the barony of Sir 
 Baldred Otterburn^ but that their officers were 
 his guest s_, and had been_, as the Bailie said^ for a 
 week past. 
 
 Why or how was this ? 
 
 Had Sir Baldred changed his political views and 
 gone over to the interests of one, whom he had 
 hitherto deemed and stigmatised as a foreign 
 usurper ; or was it mere kindness and hospitality 
 that led him to offer Captain Wyvil and Lieute- 
 nant Egerton of the Kentish Buffs, better quarters 
 than the thatched village hostelry could have af- 
 forded them ? 
 
 If otherwise^ Dalquharn^s mission was a fruit-
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 89 
 
 less one, and he had only lured his friend Sir John 
 Mitchell to his doom. For some moments a sick- 
 ening palsy of the heart came over the young 
 Lord. At Paris they had bade adieu to Prince 
 Charles Edward Stuart, who had come thither 
 from Rome, for the purpose of putting himself at 
 the head of the Due de Roquefeuille^s baffled ex- 
 pedition; he was then projecting, and had con- 
 fided to them, his intended rising in the north, 
 and they had resolved to precede him as a species 
 of avant- couriers to certain of the loyal noblesse 
 in the Lowlands, on whose adherence he could de- 
 pend ; and on old Sir Baldred Otterburn, a friend 
 of his deceased father, the young Lord Dalquharn 
 of the Holm, chiefly relied, for assistance and 
 advice. * 
 
 As for Sir John Mitchell, thirty years of exile 
 had made him almost a stranger in the land of 
 his birth. Those who were aged men in 1715, 
 were now in their graves, and the friends and 
 companions of his youth, had ceased to remember 
 him in many instances ; in others, were dead, or 
 changed in thought and action. Apart from the 
 painful doubts excited by the presence of red 
 coats at Auldhame, Dalquharn remembered the 
 danger, that accrued to himself and his friend, 
 should the officers suspect, or detect in them, two 
 attainted, forfeited and out-lawed men. 
 
 Mr. John Birniebousle, the elderly red-faced 
 butler, who wore a suit of black broad cloth, with
 
 90 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 vast cut steel buttons on his sleeves and pocket 
 flaps, and who, like his betters, indulged himself 
 in wearing an old fashioned bag-wig, received 
 them with many reverential bows, at the door of 
 the mansion — a door that was studded with huge 
 nails, as if it closed a prison, and was guarded 
 moreover, by many locks and bars and loop holes 
 for musketry. 
 
 ^^ Sir Baldred was within, and would see them 
 immediately,^^ Mr. Birniebousle said, as he con- 
 ducted them through the paved entrance hall, 
 which was vaulted with solid stone. 
 
 There in an ambre, also formed of carved stone, 
 and chained to the niche for security, stood an 
 antique silver flagon, of rare and curious work- 
 manship, from which King James VI., the Scottish 
 royal pedant, had drunk a pint of burnt-sack, 
 when in April, 1603, he passed by Auldhame gate, 
 on his way to the throne of England ; and after 
 shaking hands with the then Laird, an aged knight, 
 who had served his royal mother well and valiantly 
 on the field of Langside, passed on to the castle 
 of Dunglass, the residence of my Lord Home, 
 with all his retinue of five-hundred horse ; and it 
 is reported, that as the king departed, the old 
 Laird hid his face in his bonnet and wept, while 
 repeating the ancient prophecy, 
 
 ** A Frenck wyfes tke sonne will be, 
 Sliall bruik all Britain round by sea."
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 91 
 
 for now the time had come^ and Scotland's kings 
 were to pass away. 
 
 His grandson^ the present Baronet, to whom the 
 reader is about to be introduced, was a fine ex- 
 ample of an old Scottish gentleman of his time, 
 one who lived on his own estate, and farmed his 
 own lands, drinking beer and eating bread, that 
 had been made under his own roof; proud of his 
 ancient ancestry because their shield was stainless, 
 and they had all been loyal and honorable men ; 
 quiet and loving to his people, gentle to the poor, 
 and faithful a la morty to a race of kings who were 
 in exile, loving them for the heroic valour and 
 patriotic virtues of their forefathers, rather than 
 their own merits — a cavalier full of old and glori- 
 ous memories, who loved his country not for what , 
 she was, but what she might have been ; a devout 
 and simple believer in the right divine of mon- 
 archs, yet sorely hopeless of ever seeing that 
 fantasy triumphant. 
 
 Born in 1670, when prelacy with its reckless 
 troopers rode rough shod over ^^ a broken covenant 
 and persecuted kirk,'' as a boy he had seen Claver- 
 house's Life Guards flying from Drumclog, and 
 the unfortunate and maddened Covenanters plant 
 their flag in vain on Bothwell Bridge. But even as a 
 boy his sympathies were with the oppressors rather 
 than the oppressed, who sold their king, for he 
 had been baptised by Archbishop Sharp, who was 
 slain on Magus Moor in 1679, and by desire of
 
 92 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 his father_, an old cavalier of tlie Montrose wars, 
 he was named Baldred^ after the apostle and pa- 
 tron saint of East Lothian. In infancy he had 
 been dandled on the knees of the " bloody^' Duke 
 of Lauderdale ; in early years he had been the 
 friend and fellow student of Andrew Fletcher of 
 Saltoun : thus their sentiments were the same, and 
 like the clerical acquaintance of Sir Walter Scott, 
 who for fifty years was never known to preach a 
 sermon, without having '^ a fling at the vile incor- 
 porating imion,^^ it was a fruitful source of com- 
 plaint to our querulous old Scottish tory, who 
 seldom omitted an opportunity of committing all 
 its promoters to the infernal gods. 
 
 Of the three last Stuart kings, he could not in 
 his heart approve, but still less could he approve 
 of their foreign successors, and he was still will- 
 ing to give the old race a trial again, for the sake 
 of those who had fallen in many a battle for Scot- 
 land, and who lay in their graves in Dunfermline 
 and Holyrood. 
 
 Tradition had rendered him more loyal to dead 
 than to living royalty, and many have been so in 
 Scotland since. " "'TIS a wonder to any one who 
 looks back at the Stuart family, to think how they 
 kicked their crowns from them," says the author 
 of ' Esmond -/ " how they flung away chances 
 after chances; what treasures of loyalty they 
 dissipated, and how fatally they were bent on 
 consummating their own ruin. If ever men had
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 93 
 
 fidelity, ^twas they; if ever men squandered op- 
 portunity, 'twas they ; and of all the enemies they 
 had, they themselves were the most fatal/^ 
 
 And most true this is, of the Stuart Kings in 
 England, or after the union of the crowns. 
 
 It is Sir Baldred Otterburn of whom we read a 
 quaint anecdote in Wodrow^s ' Analecta."* Chanc- 
 ing to ride through Jedburgh, when the whig 
 magistrates were proclaiming the Orange Prince, 
 as " King William the Second of Scotland and 
 Third of England,^^ at the Market Cross, they 
 asked him to drink his health. 
 
 " No, sirs,^"* replied the Baronet ; " but I will 
 take a glass of wine with you nevertheless.^' 
 
 So a little round glass was handed to him, as he 
 sat on horseback, with his gold stamped gamba- . 
 does buckled to his girdle, his holster pistols be- 
 fore him and a long rapier by his side. 
 
 ^' As surely, sirs, as this glass will break,'' he 
 exclaimed aloud, " I drink confusion to William 
 of Orange, and hail the restoration of our lawful 
 King and his son !" 
 
 With these words he drained the wine and 
 dashed the glass from him, but it rolled down the 
 steps of the cross, harmlessly and unbroken ! 
 
 A bailie picked it up, impressed his seal upon 
 it with wax ; and as its escape was deemed a great 
 Presbyterian miracle, it was sent, adds the Re- 
 verend Robert Wodrow " with ane attested account 
 to King William.^ 
 
 )}
 
 94 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 Sir Baldred galloped off, followed by the jeers 
 of all '' the prick-eared curs/^ as he called them. 
 The incident^ alike singular and ominous, added 
 fuel to the fire that burned within him ; he joined 
 the Lord Viscount Dundee in the Highlands, and 
 served with him in the victorious, but useless 
 campaign of Killycrankie. 
 
 Some there were who averred, that when the 
 post boy — (a boy, by the way, in his fiftieth year) 
 — was attacked on Hedderwick Muir, on the 
 evening of the 16th August, 1696, by two 
 mounted gentlemen, in black velvet masks, wear- 
 ing, one a grey silk coat, with brown buttons, and 
 the other disguised in " a white English coat, 
 with wrought silver thread buttons,^^ and with 
 cocked pistols, carried off His Majesty's mails, 
 which contained papers of importance for the 
 Scottish Privy Council, and left the said post boy, 
 tied by the heels to his own horse — some there 
 were, we say, who averred, that although one was 
 known to be a son of the Viscount Kingston, that 
 the other was certainly the fiery young baronet of 
 Auldhame. 
 
 A leg broken when hunting on Luffness Muir, 
 had luckily prevented him from joining the Earl 
 of Mar in 1715, and so saved his estate and title ; 
 but since the death of his only son and chief hope, 
 he had become somewhat of a changed man, and 
 invariablv wore black velvet. 
 
 Sir Baldred's heir had been coming from the
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 95 
 
 bank of Scotland,, at Edinburgh, with a large sum 
 in notes, which he carried in a maroquin or scar- 
 let leather case, stamped with the Otterburn arms. 
 He was accompanied by Bailie Balcraftie, and 
 when riding in the twilight at a lonely part of the 
 road, where it crossed Luffness Muir, then an 
 open and desert waste, they were attacked by 
 footpads. The Bailie narrowly escaped a bullet, 
 as a hole in his beaver attested ; but young 
 Otterburn was pistolled from behind, and dying on 
 the spot, was robbed of all the money he carried. 
 
 The loss compelled Sir Baldred to raise a sum on 
 a wadset (or bond) from Mr. Baler aftie, and it was 
 a singular circumstance — a very singular one, in- 
 deed — that he paid it mostly in the notes of which 
 the poor young gentleman had been plundered,* 
 and all of which had come into his hands in the 
 way of business. Hence these murderous foot- 
 pads were supposed to be in the neighbourhood ; 
 but no one answering the description given of 
 them by the indefatigable magistrate could ever be 
 discovered. 
 
 On the night of this foul assassination, his 
 widow, who did not long survive, declared that 
 she heard the solemn sound of the spectres^ warn- 
 ing drum in the avenue, while others declared 
 that the noise was produced by the hollow roaring 
 of the sea upon the rocks known as the Carr and 
 St. Baldred^s Boat. 
 
 Funeral expenses were then enormous, and
 
 96 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 "wlien the heir of Auldhame was buried by torch- 
 light in the chapel of St. Baldred, near the sea- 
 shore^ there was given in the mansion a dredgie, 
 which lasted a month ; cooks and pastrymen were 
 brought from Edinburgh to provide for the 
 guests, and all the pipers in the Three Lothians 
 came and went at their pleasure, drinking claret, 
 ale and usquebaugh, in such quantities, that John 
 Birniebousle, the thrifty old butler, danced on his 
 bob wig in sheer despair. On the night of inter- 
 ment, the funeral procession on foot and horse- 
 back was a mile in length. In those days, a chief 
 mourner, who failed almost to ruin himself, was 
 voted a sorry fellow ; for then as now, people lived 
 for appearances. 
 
 And now this good old Scottish gentleman, the 
 sole hope of whose existence was his charming 
 grand-daughter, the orphan Bryde Otterburn, 
 came forth to the door of the chamber-of-dais, 
 holding back the old russet and green tapestry, 
 out of which the moths were fluttering, and a 
 fine subject for the pencil of Vandyke he would 
 have formed, as the visitors saw him, then in his 
 seventy-fifth year, his grave and handsome face 
 furrowed alike by time and care, though his dark 
 grey eyes were clear and bright. He wore a dark 
 flowing cavalier wig; his long doublet and slops 
 were of the days of the revolution — all of black 
 velvet, faced, trimmed, and tied with purple 
 ribbands, with knots of the same on each shoulder ;
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 97 
 
 a white lace cravat encircled his neck^ with the 
 ends drawn through his grandfather^s thumbring. 
 
 A broad shoulder scarf of purple and black 
 velvet sustained his steel-hilted rapier (for he was 
 never unarmed,, even at his own fireside), and his 
 sturdy old legs were encased in black boots, square 
 toed, with high red heels, and furnished with 
 large silver spurs ; and a fine picture, we say, he 
 formed, as he threw back the arras, and came 
 forth, making three of those grand old bows pecu- 
 liar to his time. > 
 
 This costume of black velvet and purple satin 
 was his general dress, though he varied it by 
 wearing a crape scarf and black feather, on the 
 anniversary of the abdication of King James VII., 
 on which occasion, with somewhat childish 
 loyalty, he would grind an orange under his heel, 
 just as his exuberance led him to give a joyous 
 dinner party, and drink a deep, deep stoup of 
 prime old burgundy on the 10th of June, the birth 
 of the old chevalier. 
 
 Sir Baldred bowed, and then held forth his 
 hand, the flowing curls of his black cavalier wig, 
 which he wore in direct opposition to the white 
 perukes of the Georgian era, waving gracefully to 
 and fro as he did so ; and he managed them well, 
 for, as a quaint writer says, " how to wear a wig 
 was then part of the education of a man of the 
 world, and not to be learned in books. Those who 
 know what witchcraft there is in the handling of 
 
 VOL. I. 7
 
 98 THE WHITE COCKADE. * 
 
 a fan, what dexterity in the nice conduct of a 
 clouded cane, will imagine the wits and gentlemen 
 of old did not suffer the wig to overshadow their 
 temples; and many a country squire must have 
 tried in vain to catch the right toss of the head ; 
 to sport a playful humour in those crisp curls ; to 
 acquire the lofty carriage of the fore- top, or the 
 significant trifling with some obtrusive lock ; and 
 felt as awkward in his new wig as a tailor on 
 horseback, or a fat alderman with a dress-sword 
 dangling between his legs/'
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 99 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DALQUHARN^S MISSION. 
 
 *' You run, my lord, no hazard. 
 Your reputation shall still stand as fair 
 In all good men's opinions as now : 
 For though I did contemn report myself 
 As a mere sound, I still will be so tender 
 Of what concerns you, in aU points of honour, 
 That the immaculate whiteness of your fame 
 Shall ne'er be sullied with one taint or spot. • 
 
 JVew Way to pay old Debts. 
 
 Sir Bald red met tliem in a corridor hung with 
 portraits. There might be seen Miss Bryde 
 Otterburn^s mamma, as a shepherdess in powder, 
 with hooped skirt, a crook with ribbons, and her 
 lambs frisking about her ; and near it was a full 
 length of Sir Baldred^s bride by Sir Peter Lely, 
 as Diana with a crescent on her brow, a short 
 cymar looped at the right knee, a bow bent in her 
 hand, and a view of Auldhame and the Bass Rock 
 in the background. 
 
 The vulture eyes of the Bailie were now in- 
 tently watching the meeting of the baronet and 
 his visitors. 
 
 7— .2
 
 100 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 " Twa friends o^ yours, most worthy Sir Bal- 
 dred, whom I have had the high honour to guide 
 hither/-' said the Bailie, hat in hand, while perpe- 
 trating a series of obsequious bows that threat- 
 ened, each time, to cast his cumbrous tiewig at 
 the feet of the tall old cavalier, who made rather 
 a chilling response. " Captain Douglas and 
 Captain Mitchell of the Scots Brigade in Holland, 
 Sir Baldred.'^ 
 
 " They are welcome,^^ said the other, present- 
 ing his hand with sudden warmth to each; "right 
 heartily welcome to Auldhame — your humble ser- 
 vant, sirs. But you must have been long absent 
 from these parts, or have come from a distance 
 surely, to require a guide.^^ 
 
 " Aye — mony ask the road they ken fu^ well,^^ 
 said the Bailie, rather sarcastically; but he 
 cowered beneath an angry glance from Sir Baldred. 
 
 " We are from Dunkirk last, where we saw a 
 dear and mutual friend, who commends himself 
 unto you,"' said Dalquharn, in a hurried whisper, 
 as he pressed the hand of Sir Baldred, and they 
 exchanged a quick glance full of intelligence ; but 
 quick though it was, it did not escape the vulture 
 eyes, nor did the whisper elude the large atten- 
 tive aural appendages of Balcraftie, who knew too 
 well that the mutual friend referred to, could be 
 
 '^ We will speak of our friend anon, and when 
 
 no other than Prince <^arles Edward Stuart, the 
 heir of these realms.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 101 
 
 more at leisure/' said Sir Baldred, casting an un- 
 mistakably impatient glance at Balcraftie, who lin- 
 gering irresolute^ and cringing in aspect, strove to 
 light up his cold malignant eyes_, with a vapid 
 smile. 
 
 . ^^ Captain Douglas is, I believe, an auld friend 
 o' yours and o' the house o' Auldhame/' said he, 
 still sifting and watching. It was a fine thing, 
 a fact soothing to his malevolent spirit, and 
 promising future profit, to have two such gallant 
 looking men as the strangers, and perhaps the 
 proud old cavalier too, who seldom concealed the 
 scorn he felt, in his power, so he resolved to be 
 wary and watch closely ! 
 
 " An old friend. Captain Douglas cannot be,'' 
 said Sir Baldred smiling, " for he is but a youth, 
 and I am " 
 
 "Like unto Isaac, ^ being old and full of 
 days.' " 
 
 "To speak in your own cant, bailie, the years 
 of my pilgrimage are verging on seventy-five 
 now," responded the other sharply. 
 
 ^^Yet, Sir Baldred," said Dalquharn, in a low 
 and mellow voice, " I had the honour to be once 
 before under your hospitable roof." 
 
 " When ?" 
 
 "At that memorable time when Parliament 
 directed the demolition of the gates of Edin- 
 burgh, after the afi'air of Qie Porteous mob." 
 
 ^^ Just ten years ago come the next eighth o'
 
 102 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 September/^ said the Bailie,, braving another 
 wrathful glare from Sir Baldred. 
 
 "In that year I was here with — my poor 
 father and mother/^ said Dalqnharn^ lowering his 
 voice. 
 
 " And she^, Captain Douglas_,^^ said Sir Baldred, 
 '' and she '' 
 
 " Was^ as yon may remember^ nearly related to 
 two unfortunate gentlemen — the Earl of Dumbar- 
 ton and the Viscount Kenmure.^^ 
 
 " Great heaven, my — do I ? — is it possible ? 
 Excuse me. Captain Douglas, but I remember 
 me now/^ said Sir Baldred hurriedly, and a sudden 
 flush crossed his grave old visage, as he again 
 took Dalquharn's hand — a flush of pleasure at the 
 recognition, oddly mingled with anger, that one 
 whom they dared not trust, stood by observant of 
 all — " she and your noble father are both dead — 
 I know that much.^^ 
 
 " Alas — yes.^^ 
 
 ''^You shall be my guests — you and your 
 friend; bailie, will you oblige me by seeing Mrs. 
 Dorriel, the housekeeper, and also the butler? 
 they would gladly confer with you anent several 
 wants in cellar and buttery; we have other visitors 
 just now, and a few kegs of French sherry and 
 brandy — you understand — were welcome here. 
 See to it at once I pray you, and join us anon at 
 dinner.^^ 
 
 With a deep smile on his inscrutable face, the
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 103 
 
 Bailie,, thougli he knew that he had failed to dis- 
 cover who '^ Captain Douglas " really was, with- 
 drew to dispatch, without delay, his business with 
 Dame Dorriel Grahame, and Mr. Birniebousle, 
 the butler, while Sir Baldred led his visitors into 
 the chamber-of-dais, or great dining-room, and 
 carefully closed the solid oak door, and draped 
 over it the thick arras, which represented the 
 slaughter of the famous wild boar of Gulane. 
 
 "Though young enough to be my grandson, 
 you do me high honour, my Lord Dalquharn of 
 the Holm, in visiting my poor house thus,^^ said 
 the fine old courteous gentleman, as he almost 
 embraced the young peer. " Begad ! but thou^st 
 grown a tall and proper fellow — dark and hand- 
 some, and like thy father, too ! Welcome, and 
 all the more welcome, as I guess the errand on 
 which thou hast come — but I fear ^twill be a boot- 
 less one. And your friend '* 
 
 " Sir John Mitchell of Pitreavie and that ilk in 
 Fifeshire ; a baronetcy of the same year as your 
 own.^' 
 
 " Gadso ! Sir John, your humble servant. I 
 knew your good father well — stout old Sir 
 William of Pitreavie, whilom Chamberlain of 
 Fife and Captain of Burntisland. Many a jolly 
 runlet of claret and sack we have drank together, 
 to the confusion of the Union and all its abettors, 
 in Hughie Blair^s tavern in the Parliament Close. 
 Many a constable we\e bilked there, and many a
 
 104 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 tavern bully we\e pinked and trounced together ! 
 You were in the army ?'' 
 
 " Firstj under her majesty^ the good Queen 
 Anne^ of glorious memory _, in the Scots^ Greys^ 
 then commanded by John Earl of Stair. You 
 are doubtless aware^ Sir Baldred_, that on the 
 night after the battle of Malplacquet^ I^ when a 
 mere boy in his teens, a cornet_, rashly challenged 
 the Duke of Marlborough to meet me with sword 
 and pistol for coarsely reflecting on my country, 
 while I delivered to him a dispatch from Prince 
 Eugene of Savoy. That challenge wrought my 
 ruin in the service ! So my Lord B aimer ino and 
 I went out with the Earl of Mar in 1715, and 
 since the ill-fated battle of Sherifi'muir, I have 
 been, like too many others, a broken and a land- 
 less man V 
 
 " Landless and homeless,"^ said Sir Baldred 
 bitterly; ^'^how many a noble peer and gentle- 
 man of that ilk have been so, since that fatal 
 time when England first relinquished her unavail- 
 ing sword, to insert a golden wedge in the founda- 
 tions of our Scottish throne ?^^ 
 
 The old baronet was now on his hobby, and 
 might have ridden it for an hour, but Dalquharn 
 said : — • 
 
 '^ We are, I trust, the heralds of a brighter 
 era. Ere long, Sir Baldred, his royal highness 
 the Prince of Wales will land in the High- 
 lauds ''
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 105 
 
 ce 
 
 May the blessed God in heaven prosper him V 
 exclaimed the old man, while his eyes filled with 
 tears, as he raised his trembling hands upward;, 
 and the deep earnest loyalty of those days, when 
 the sword and the gibbet were its test, gushed up 
 in his true old Scottish heart. 
 
 '^ In the north we can reckon upon the loyal 
 clans to a man ! Of the lowlands I am very 
 doubtful. Of England — save the border counties 
 and some friends in London — I am totally so/^ 
 
 ^' Unless we strike a good blow first on Scottish 
 ground,^^ said Sir Baldred, cheerfully. 
 
 "The afi'air of ^15 has taught us some wise, 
 but bitter lessons. Little is committed to writing. 
 We carry on our tongues, and in our hearts, the 
 instructions we are to communicate to you, the 
 Earl of Kilmarnock, old Lord Lovat, and all on 
 whom His Majesty King James and the Prince of 
 Wales can rely.^^ 
 
 " Call him Duke of Rothesay, I pray you, my 
 lord/^ 
 
 " One of the chief objects of this earlier mis- 
 sion of Sir John and myself is to see about the 
 establishment of a cavalry force, France furnish- 
 ing the arms, harness, and accoutrements, as we 
 have been promised commissions in the Life 
 Gu.ard of James VIII. , so soon as it has been 
 formed by the Lord Elcho.^^ 
 
 " By what fatality, my lord, did our long ex- 
 pected Dunkirk expedition come to pass away?
 
 106 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 The accounts given ns^ in the ^ Caledonian Mer- 
 cury/ were most meagre/^ 
 
 '^ Prince Charles Edward left Rome disguised 
 as a courier, for everywhere the Elector had his 
 hawks and spies abroad. Reaching Paris undis- 
 coveredj he had a long audience with King 
 Louis ^' 
 
 iC 
 
 Long, long have his family been the dupes of 
 France ! In all ages that nation hath deceived 
 them V' exclaimed Sir Baldred emphatically. 
 
 " France seemed serious then ; fifteen thousand 
 infantry were assembled at Dunkirk, under the 
 immediate orders of His Royal Highness, while 
 the Brest fleet, consisting of twenty-three sail, 
 manned by more than ten thousand seamen, en- 
 tered the Channel, under the flag of Admiral the 
 Due de Roquefeuille, to take them on board. 
 Spies soon informed the ministry of these mea- 
 sures, and when oflp Dungeness the fleet of Adm^ ^ 
 Norris was in sight. Sir John and I weiv^ on 
 board ' Le Neptune^ of 74 guns, commanded by the 
 Chef d^Escadre Monsieur de Carnilly, and saw the 
 alarm and confusion of the French at the superior 
 aspect of the British fleet.'''' 
 
 "In plain words, my lord, the Due de Roque- 
 feuille turned tail and fled?^'' 
 
 " We got under sail at sunset, and stood down 
 the Channel. That night a dreadful storm came 
 on, and we reached Brest in a sorely crippled 
 condition, while many of our transports perished
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 107 
 
 with all on board. So the scheme of a sudden 
 descent under the superintendence of the Count 
 de Saxe was completely frustrated.^^ 
 
 "All the better, sirs/^ said Sir Baldred; "I 
 like not this French intervention in our aflPairs. 
 If the House of Stuart is ever to be restored to 
 the British throne, I vow that I should like to 
 see it done by British hands. ^^ 
 
 '^'^And so thinks His Royal Highness \" said Sir 
 John Mitchell ; " the fearless little boy, whom I, 
 myself, have seen pursuing the cannon balls as 
 they ricochetted past the tent of the Duke of 
 Berwick, and who lately served in the campaign 
 in Flanders, is now a tall and gallant gentleman, 
 the model of a prince, and fortunately for those 
 he hopes to govern, his temper and spirit have 
 been taught moderation by exile, for he has learned 
 many a stern lesson in adversity.^^ 
 
 ' "^re winter be past, he has sworn to be in 
 Holyrdbd, or in his grave ! '' said Dalquharn, in a 
 low but earnest voice ; " his banner, like that 
 which Montrose unfurled at Invercarron, shall 
 have a crown and a coffin, as symbols that he 
 comes to seek one or the other. ^'' 
 
 "Woe is me!^^ said Sir Baldred; "I am old 
 and poor; I can neither aid His Majesty^s service 
 or purpose by men or with my sword; but money he 
 shall have, if that bloated miser Beuben Balcraftie 
 hath it to give, even at 50 per cent. A cheque on 
 our Scottish Treasury may, one day, repay it all ; if
 
 108 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 iiotj there was mair tint at Sheriffmnir — eh, Sir 
 John ? ''Tis a hard time for ns this ; I can scarcely 
 get a penny of rent, in consequence of the terrible 
 cattle plague, which during the last four years 
 hath swept away all our herds. We have empty 
 hyres over all the barony, and in the house a half 
 empty pantry, as Mrs. Dorriel the housekeeper 
 will tell you. Bowie and Kirn are alike empty 
 in all the farm-towns, and our poor cottar folk 
 have sore times, sir — sore times ; but the king is 
 coming, and we shall have less taxes and no more 
 German wars ! Every man owes something to his 
 lawful king and to the land that bore him ; the 
 talents of some; the industry, the gold, and the 
 ralour of others ! But as the old song says — 
 
 " Cock up your beaver, and cock it fu' sprusli, 
 We'll over the Borders and gi'e them a brush ; 
 The Southrons there shall learn better behaviour, 
 And each true-hearted cavalier cock up his beaver !" 
 
 At that moment the arras was withdrawn, the 
 door opened, and the Bailie entered, on which 
 the three gentlemen affected to continue a very 
 animated discussion on the appearance of the 
 weather, and the prospect of rain, though the 
 May-day sky was without a cloud. 
 
 " Soho ! here come Bryde and her English 
 cavaliers ! " exclaimed Sir Baldred, looking from a 
 window (which, like all the rest in Auldhame, 
 was secured from intrusion by a basket grating), 
 as a lovely fair-haired girl in a blue riding habit,
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 109 
 
 with a wliite hat and long ostrich feather, dashed 
 up the long shady avenue, on a splendid bay, 
 attended by two grooms in the Otterburn livery, 
 and accompanied by two officers — Captain Wyvil 
 and Lieutenant Egerton of Howards — who, in 
 their Ramillie wigs and Kevenkuller hats, square 
 fekirts and crimson sashes, worn in what was 
 called the German fashion (round the waist), 
 looked as stiff and odd as infantry officers usually 
 do, even in the present day, when mounted. 
 
 "Ah ! they have been so far as Spott. God be 
 good to us ! It seems like yesterday when I rode 
 over to Spott-loan, on an October evening in the 
 year 1705, with Sir William Mitchell of Pitreavie 
 and my Lord Kingston, to see half a dozen poor 
 old women burned in one huge fire — a pile of tar-» 
 barrels — for witchcraft ! We have put dinner 
 back an hour for those loiterers ; but John 
 Birniebousle shall now ring the house-bell.^^ 
 
 To find that his father's venerable friend was 
 still true to " the good old cause,'' though certain 
 redcoats were received as guests at Auldhame, 
 had lifted a great load of suspicion and anxiety 
 from the heart of the young and enthusiastic Lord 
 Dalquharn.
 
 110 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE HOUSE OF AULDHAME. 
 
 ** Auldliame ! tlie wall-flower's scented bloom, 
 
 Grows lovely on thy turrets grey, 
 And, like the rose strewn on a tomb, 
 
 A fragrance sheds around decay. 
 No harps are murmuring in the hall ; 
 No armour glittering on the wall ; 
 For gone are knight and seneschal, — 
 
 The voice of man is dumb ! 
 And nought but ghosts, so gaunt and tall. 
 
 At dreary midnight come." 
 
 Si. Baldred of the Bass. 
 
 The Otterburns of Auldhame were one of the 
 oldest families in the constabulary of Haddington, 
 though they took their name from a place which 
 is now merely a farm at Longformacus in the 
 Merse ; but the race could trace themselves into 
 the remoter ages of Scottish history; and Sir 
 Baldred was fond of boasting over his flagon of 
 Burgundy or pint of burnt-sack ; that Allan Otter- 
 burn had been secretary to Murdoch, Duke of 
 Albany, when James I. was crowned at Scone ; 
 and that, in the time of James II., Nicholas Otter-
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. Ill 
 
 burn of that ilk was " Clericus Rotolorum Regni 
 Nostri;^'' and he never failed to remember Sir 
 Adam Otterburn of Anldhame, who was one of 
 the first fifteen senators of the College of Justice, 
 and who, in 1544, was Provost of Edinburgh, 
 which he valiantly defended against the English 
 till it was in flames in eight places, repulsing 
 them at the cannon's mouth ; for he inherited all 
 the valour of his father, who fell at Flodden."^ 
 
 Overlooking the sounding sea from its steep 
 green slopes, in view of picturesque and rugged 
 Dunbar, the towering Bass and Tantallon on its 
 precipitous clifi's, that rise like ribs of bronze from 
 waves of snowy foam, Auldhame, though not 
 built for a long defence, unlike most of our 0I4 
 Scottish mansions, had never been assailed save 
 once, when General Monk's cannoniers, on their 
 way to attack the castle of Tantallon, fired a few 
 twelve-pound shot at the barbican wall, in a spirit 
 of mere mischief : and Sir Baldred had heard his 
 mother tell, with mingled wrath and fun, " how 
 the crop-eared Puritans of England, in their 
 steeple-crowned hats and falling collar-bands, 
 calves' leather boots and russet doublets, robbed 
 the hen-roosts, and drained the cellars, and sung 
 psalms with the kitchen wenches ; " but they did 
 no more ; for Cromwell's brave fellows — like him- 
 self — behaved very well while in Scotland. 
 
 * Vide Haig and Brunton.
 
 112 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 Still more uiilike our feudal mansions^ the 
 annals of Auldhame were darkened by no memorial 
 of violence J treachery^ or crime. The family had 
 never been wealthy enough, or sufficiently power- 
 ful,, to take much share in the great, desperate, 
 and bloody game of political parties, which was 
 for ever being played in Scotland, till the rapid 
 progress of events, and the abolition of their 
 hereditary jurisdictions in 1747, saved the land 
 from its chief curse, the intrigues of a degraded, 
 envious, grasping, venal, and treacherous nobility ; 
 thus, no feud, or raid, or midnight foray, no deed 
 of blood, except one in war, cast a shadow on 
 the hospitable hearth of the Otterburns of Auld- 
 hame. 
 
 The family had a death-warning, so local gossips 
 say, in the shape of a spectre-drummer, who beat 
 round the house, up the long shady avenue, or 
 along the solitary sea-shore at midnight, " when 
 fate was nigh '' the line of Otterburn ; and this 
 was alleged to have been the case, ever since Sir 
 Nicholas, who fell at Flodden, slew in cold blood, 
 three days before the battle, a drummer of the 
 Lord Surrey's army. 
 
 The corbelled turrets at the angles of the walls 
 were meant more for decoration or utility than re- 
 sistance : yet each had an arrow-hole in its window 
 sill, and the steep roofs of grey slabbed stone, 
 were thickly spotted with green lichens, which gave 
 a tc"ie of venerable antiquity to the whole edifice. 
 
 I
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 113 
 
 With its gable ts covered with scutcheons and 
 initials, the old mansion formed a heraldic history 
 of the alliances of its successive inmates, cut in 
 solid stone, and in several places appeared the 
 fess-cheque, for Lady Jean Stuart, daughter of 
 John, third Earl of Athol, the wife of John Otter- 
 burn, who carried the king's banner at Solway 
 Moss. 
 
 Many a family festival, kept as such festivals 
 were only kept, in the hearty rough old times — 
 many a Hallow eve, with its tales of witches and 
 glamour ; many a frosty yule, with its green holly 
 branches and red berries, and many a New Year's 
 feast, when the snow lay deep on the far stretching 
 Lammermuirs, and the steep slopes of Dunpender ; 
 many a marriage with its jollity; many a birth^ 
 with all its hopes and tenderness, and many a 
 death, with its noisy dredgie, and its long funeral 
 torchlight procession, have those old walls wit- 
 nessed. 
 
 Some little conspiracies too, as when John 
 Otterburn was official of Lothian in 1477, and the 
 ambassador of Pope Julius 11. came to wheedle 
 James IV. to send troops to the Italian wars ; and 
 in much more recent times, all Haddingtonshire 
 knew, that there was a mighty burnishing up of 
 old holster pistols and snap-lock muskets, and 
 that many a blunted pikehead and notched 
 broadsword were put on the whirring grindstone, 
 on that memorable night in the March of 1708, 
 
 VOL. I. ,8
 
 114 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 when tlie Chevalier de Fourbin^ the Marechal Due 
 de Matignon, King James VIII., with the gallant 
 Irish brigade and Freneh troops, to the number of 
 fifteen thousand bayonets, were all oft' the Red 
 Plead of Angus, and half the money for which 
 Scotland was sold, lay yet in the castle of 
 Edinburgh ! 
 
 The quaint old garden, with its formal grass 
 walks and high yew hedges, stone terraces, and 
 leaden gods and goddesses, was stocked with 
 herbs by the famous Holyrood seedsman, Millar 
 of Craigan Tinnie, less because they were of the 
 best Dutch kind, than because he, worthy Quaker, 
 was hereditary master gardener to the King of 
 Scotland ; for Sir Baldred was loyal even to the 
 carrots and turnips that garnished his platter of 
 Bass-fed mutton; but Miss Bryde^s flower parterres 
 sufifered sorely from the cold blasts of the east, or 
 as the gardener was wont to stigmatise it, " the 
 Hanoverian wind ; " for Sir Baldred affirmed, 
 that it had blown over the German sea, more 
 keenly than ever, since the accession of the House 
 of Guelph. 
 
 In defiance of the lord advocate, many en- 
 gravings of " the king owre the water,^^ and of his 
 family, with all their royal titles below, were to be 
 found in the rooms of Auldhame. 
 
 Westward of the ancient gate by which Lord 
 Dalquharn and Sir John Mitchell approached the 
 mansion^ there was then a grove of giant trees.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 115 
 
 the remnant of one of those old forests wherein 
 our hardy ancestors hunted^ perhaps_, before the 
 world was redeemed, and when its shades formed 
 the home of the Coille-donean or men of the 
 woods. Now, it was locally known as the DeiFs 
 Loan (Anglice, DeviPs-lane)_, for there his satanic 
 majesty was alleged to promenade on certain 
 gloomy evenings, when the sky was black and 
 lowering, an :1 the sea mews fled inland ; and his 
 terrible presence was always heralded by loud 
 and angry gusts of wind, so stormy that they fre- 
 quently laid flat some of the ancient trees, tore 
 the thatch from the cottage roofs, rent the cabers 
 from the walls, and hurled the waves in wild 
 tumult against the ruins of the ^' auld kirk " at 
 North Berwick, at each recession, sucking the 
 dead from their graves, to strew their bones upon 
 the beach. 
 
 Then, " Auld Mahoun,^^ was known to be at his 
 try sting-place, and more than one ill-favoured old 
 woman, in the hamlets of Tyninghame and Auld- 
 hame, was averred to be waiting to receive him 
 and to obey his commands to work mischief by 
 land and sea. 
 
 The chamber-of-dais, or dining-room, wherein 
 Sir Baldred now spent many an hour, telescope in 
 hand, watching the passing ships (chiefly that 
 cruising hawk of the Elector^s, the ' Fox ^ frigate) , 
 as he was too old for much out-of-door exer- 
 cise, and had altogether relinquished hunting, 
 
 8—2
 
 116 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 was carpeted with rusli-work ; the recessed win- 
 dows had velvet cushiong on the stone seats> and 
 these were covered with pretty needlework by 
 Bryde^s industrious little fingers. A large iron 
 grate stood on a square stone blocks within the 
 wide fire-place^ on each side of which were two car- 
 yatides of Egyptian aspect, with quiet_, solemn and 
 stupid faces, supporting a great lintel, inscribed, 
 
 a legend which the Reverend Mr. Aminadab Car- 
 fuffle, of Whitekirk, and Bailie Balcraftie, had 
 more than once hinted the expediency of oblitera- 
 ting, as savouring of popery and the scarlet 
 woman; but Sir Baldred had once sworn in his 
 cups, that ^' the loon who defaced a letter of it, 
 should be nailed by the lugs to the outer gate ! '* 
 
 The ceilings were of that delicate white par- 
 getted plaster work, so common in Scottish 
 mansions which have been repaired during the 
 time of James VI. ; and a cornice of alternate 
 lions and unicorns passant, can still be traced on 
 the time-worn walls. 
 
 There hung the suit of tempered plate armour, 
 with the two-handed sword and barred helmet of 
 Sir Adam Otterburn, who, as we have already 
 stated, so stoutly defended the Scottish capital, 
 when the warlike Earl of Hertford landed with 
 the savage orders of his master, the Royal Blue- 
 Beard, " to utterly raze it, and to spare no living
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 117 
 
 thing — nor woman nor youngling, nor even tlie 
 household dogs ; " but who was driven down 
 Leith Wynd, faster than he came up, leaving 
 nearly all his culverins, sakers and other brass 
 cannon, behind him ; and though he ultimately 
 burned the city, these were long after shown in 
 the castle of Edinburgh as trophies of the war of 
 1544. 
 
 Opposite the armour hung a full length of Sir 
 Baldred, in the then uniform of the royal com- 
 pany of archers, a tartan coat faced with white, a 
 white silk scarf, a blue bonnet, with a St. 
 Andrew^s cross above his black cavalier wig ; for 
 he had, in latter years, been a crack shot among 
 that remarkable bodv, into which none were ad- 
 mittcd save known adherents of the House *of 
 Stuart, as their real object was to learn openly 
 the use of arms without suspicion, and hence this 
 chartered company of bowmen, was merely a 
 secret school to edu.cate officers for the Jacobite 
 cause, though in the happier reign of Victoria, it 
 figures as "The Queen^s Body Guard for 
 Scotland.''
 
 118 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BRYDE OTTERBURN. 
 
 '* How oft iu musing mood my lieart recalls, 
 From grey -beard father Time's oblivious balls, 
 Tbe modes and maxims of my early da}', 
 Long in those dark recesses stow'd away ; 
 Drags once more to the cheerful realms of light 
 Those buckram fashions, long since lost in night, 
 And makes, like Endor's witch, once more to rise 
 My gorgeous grandamcs to my raptured eyes ! 
 
 Salmagundi. 
 
 While tlic sunset of a bright May eA^ening; 
 streaming over the fertile fields and waving wood- 
 lands, came through the tall windows of Auldhame, 
 and lighted up gaily the picturesque old chamber- 
 of-dais, dinner was served there, and with the last 
 clang of the great copper bell that dangled from 
 from one of the gables without, Sir Baldred and 
 his guests sat down to a sumptuous and varied 
 feast, the presiding queen and goddess of whicli 
 was his grand-daughter. Miss Bryde Otterburn, 
 who had just arrived from a gallop with the 
 two English visitors, and now appeared with her 
 natural bloom and radiance, greatly enhanced by 
 exercise.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 119 
 
 When at Auldhame ten years ago, as a mere 
 lad (a time and visit concerning which the curious 
 Bailie Balcraftie resolved to inquire in other 
 quarters). Lord Dalquharn had left Bryde Otter- 
 burn a little flaxen-haired girl, who nursed a 
 waxen doll, gathered flowers by the wayside, and 
 shells on the sea-shore. Now he found her a full 
 grown belle of twenty. Ten years had made a 
 wonderful dift'erence in them both ! 
 
 To please the deceased Lady Dalquharn, who 
 was her mother^s dearest friend, she had been 
 called after St. Bryde, of Kildare, the ancient 
 patron of the house of Douglas, hence her quaint 
 name ; and for this trifling circumstance, as well 
 as certain traits of character, chiefly her gay and 
 happy spirit, poor Bryde was rather — shall we call 
 it " tabooed '' — by the more rigid ladies of East 
 Lothian, her family having always had rather 
 vague ideas of Presbj'tcrianism, with decided 
 leanings towards Prelacy. 
 
 Her eyes and hair were exactly of the same 
 chesnut hue — the former very soft, but clear and 
 deep : the latter very silky and ripply. Her man- 
 ner was animated, and though her features were 
 not regular, she possessed the "best essence of 
 beauty — expression,^' for her clear hazel eyes were 
 full of intelligence, always varying, but ever 
 gentle, winning, and feminine. 
 
 From the colour of her eyes, and their long 
 dark lashes, some might have called Bryde Otter-
 
 120 . THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 burn a brown beauty, tliough she had a wonderful 
 brilliance and fairness of complexion. Some there 
 were who thought her laughing, good-humoured 
 mouth a little too large for the rest of her soft fea- 
 tures ; but none could deny the cherr}^ tint of her 
 beautifully cut lips. 
 
 Bryde had been well educated, according to the 
 ideas of the time in Scotland, having been 
 boarded with Madam Straiton, a fashionable 
 ^^ mistress of manners,'''' in the Canongate of Edin- 
 burgh, whose house adjoined that of His Grace of 
 Queensberry, where she had shared the society of 
 the Earl of Haddington^s grand-daughters, the 
 Ladies Rachel and Grizel, afterwards Countess of 
 Stanhope ; and where, with several other demoi- 
 selles of good family, she had been taught to 
 dance the miftuet and other measures, how to 
 caiTy her vast hoop and long train, to sing the 
 songs of Mr. Allan^s Ramsay^s ' Tea Table Mis- 
 cellany,^ to jjlay on the virginals or spinnet, to 
 paint on satin, to make wax fruits, and filigree 
 work of gilt paper ; in addition to which accom- 
 plishments, she had also been taught spinning and 
 cookery, and how to oversee the pantry and brew- 
 house, like the noble dame, her mother, before her. 
 
 In fact, it was to his darling grand-daughter 
 Bryde, that the confiding old Laird of Auldhame 
 gave almost the entire charge of his property in 
 many instances ; certainly the whole control of 
 his household, the care of his tenants, and of the
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 121 
 
 poor in the hamlet, so Bryde had her pretty little 
 hands quite full, you may be assured ; and a lively 
 time she and old DorrielGrahame,the housekeeper, 
 had of it, when the kain (or tribute) was collected 
 from the tenants, such as a score of meadow geese 
 on old Michaelmas day, and as many fat hens on 
 Fastern's Even, before Shrove Tuesday. 
 
 On this day at dinner, Bryde's beautiful soft 
 hair was unpowdered, and in all its natural glory, 
 fell rippling over her shoulders, from under one of 
 those tiny lace mob-caps, which were then in 
 fashion. A black satin apron, with a ruche of 
 white ribband round it, and round the pocket- 
 holes, formed an important portion of her attire ; 
 but even the long stomacher and enormous hoop 
 fardingale under her blue silk dress (the breast and 
 flounces of which were covered by innumerable 
 little knots of white ribband) were unable to spoil 
 the grace and beauty of her form. 
 
 Among the men of those days the hoop was 
 objected to, quite as much as the crinoline of 
 more recent times; but it also had its defenders, and 
 among others the gentle Allan Bamsay, Avho says — 
 
 " If Nelly's hoop be twice as wide, 
 As her two pretty legs can stride ; 
 Wliat then ? will any man of sense 
 Take umbrage or the least offence ? 
 
 " Do not the handsome of our city, 
 The pious, chaste, the kind and witty. 
 Who can afford it, great and small. 
 Regard a well- shaped fardingale ? "
 
 122 TH E W H ITE COCKADE. 
 
 A very lioiisewif e-like buncli of keys hung at lier 
 cliatelane, and with tliem a silver pomander ball^ 
 perforated by small holes to let out the scent. All 
 her ornaments were chieflv valued because thev 
 had been her niother^s : an etui and little round_, 
 embossed gold watch^ a cut-steel set of mosaics, 
 necklet, bracelets, and girdle of the time of Louis 
 Quatorze. 
 
 Sir John, simply known as yet by all save his 
 host and hostess as Captain Mitchell, handed her 
 to dinner, and sat by her side. Dalquharn sat 
 near Sir Baldred, and the other seats were occu- 
 by Bailie Balcraftie and the two English officers, 
 who were both handsome, pleasant, and gentle- 
 manly men, though the Jacobite emissaries could 
 very well have dispensed with their presence. 
 
 Captain Marmaduke Wyvil, the senior in years 
 and rank, was the beau ideal of a suave, polished, 
 and good-humoured English officer. He had 
 seen much of the world, and was the eldest son of 
 Squire Wyvil, of Hurstmonceaux, in the county 
 of Salop. He had a slight halt in his gait, hav- 
 ing been wounded at Fontenoy in the preceding 
 year. 
 
 Talbot Egerton, his subaltern, was a Londoner, 
 somewhat etourdi in his bearing, not liking the Scots 
 much — in fact, perhaps, hating them, like every 
 ^^ true-born Englishman " of his time ; but he 
 was well enough bred to keep his opinions en- 
 tirely to himself, moreover the national acrimony
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 123 
 
 of future years liacl not been developed by Wilkes, 
 the North Briton, and tlie scurrility of ChurcliilFs 
 provincial pastorals. 
 
 They wore their uniform (which then no militar}^ 
 man ever went without, even when on half-pay) , 
 the ample, flowing, and richly laced coats of the 
 Kentish Buffs, with fiap-waistcoats, and knee- 
 breeches, both of buff-coloured silk. Their white 
 and well-powdered wigs were of the regimental 
 pattern ; and to these gentlemen of the sword, Sir 
 Baldred had simply introduced his secret visitors 
 as "Captains Mitchell and Douglas — friends of 
 mine, fresh from Holland, after vanquishing the 
 French and the buxom toasts and beauties of 
 Haarlem and Amsterdam." 
 
 Captain Wyviland Sir John soon fraternised as 
 old soldiers, who had tasted salt water and smelled 
 gunpowder, and they courteously exchanged snuff- 
 boxes ; but Egerton, who affected to be some- 
 what of a beau, or blood, the " fast man ^' of a 
 very slow age, eyed Dalquharn distrustfully and 
 coldly, and doubtless he had good reason. 
 
 For the entire past week in Auldhame he had 
 been the favoured cavalier of Miss Bryde Otter- 
 burn, and had her society all to himself; but now 
 this stranger in the green frock, witli his fair hair 
 queued back by a blue ribband — this Captain 
 Douglas, who had dropped suddenly among them, 
 as if from the clouds, engrossed all, or nearly all 
 her attention; and to make matters worse, they
 
 124 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 fieemed quite old friends^ with ample and mutual 
 recolleetions of a former intimacy. 
 
 Though the conversation of this little dinner 
 party was general^ the Bailie was reserved and 
 Avatchf ul_, with his pale watery eyes usually fixed 
 on Miss Otterburn and Dalquharn^ while his host 
 €yed him grimly^ and thought — 
 
 " Egad ! in my young days, such a carle as 
 Reuben Balcraftie must have drunk his thin ale 
 out of a pewter stoup below the salt ; now, sink 
 him ! he drinks claret and sherry out of w^ell cut 
 <3rystal, at the same board with his betters. ^^ 
 
 Sir Baldred asked a blessing ; he was afraid to 
 let the Bailie (or " Swivel-eyes/^ as Mr. Egerton 
 called him) do so, lest the viands should be cold, 
 ere he had relieved, by a long out-pouring, his 
 thankful spirit; and then the meal proceeded 
 briskly, old Birniebousle the butler in his bob w ig, 
 and several powdered liverymen, being in attend- 
 ance. Mr. Birniebousle who wore hodden grey in 
 general, was attired in his holiday suit of black 
 broadcloth. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott was quizzed by an English 
 critic, for " always feeding his heroes w^ell,'"* but 
 it must be borne in mind, that dinners a la Russet 
 and of kickshaws, were unknown a century ago 
 in Scotland and in England too. 
 
 Before Bryde towered a great pasty of venison 
 
 stalked in Binning Wood, and at the lower end, 
 
 was a gallant grey salmon from the Tyne; on
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 125 
 
 one side a capon witli pease-pottage ; on the other 
 a steak pie of dainty mutton^, esteemed all the 
 more for being fed on the Island of the Bass ; 
 then the second course consisted of fried sweet- 
 breads,, a platter of roasted powts^ or young muir- 
 fowl, a jugged hare and fricasseed rabbits with 
 custard pies and puddings ; while sherry, port, 
 claret and brandy were all going round the table 
 pell mell : and there was present one small dish 
 which excited universal comment — potatoes — a 
 strange root introduced from Ireland into East 
 Lothian, only four years before, by Hay of 
 Aberlady, as a garden rarity, and sent as a 
 present from him to Auldhame himself ! 
 
 ^' Salmon are unco" scarce in the Tyne, Auld- 
 hame,"" observed the Bailie. 
 
 ^' Everything hath been so, since the Union,"* 
 said Sir Baldred; '^^but anent the salmon, the 
 seals have been swimming about the river mouth, 
 and that is the chief reason. "Odsheart ! I know 
 the Tyne well, and have fished every foot of it, 
 from the Firth up to Middleton Muir, bailie, 
 thirt}'- good Scottish .miles ; but these days are 
 over with me now. I"ve twinges of rheumatism in 
 the leg which I broke in the year "15, when rush- 
 ing my horse at a feal-dyke. "Sdeath ! I protest, 
 I don"t think that dour auld carle Andrew Brown 
 of Dolphinton, though a great medicinar in his 
 time, set that same leg right. He bled me like a 
 sheep, I can remember, and gave nje a powder^
 
 3 26 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 pulverised from the moss that gmw on a human 
 skull in his library ! His lodging was then 
 opposite the mint^ in the CoAvgate,, a genteel, but 
 rather busy thoroughfare. Ugh ! how I wearied 
 of my sojourn tliere^ till I came home by easy 
 stages in my Lady Haddington^s glass coach. 
 Pass round the wine, John — Captain Wyyirs 
 glass is quite cmpty.^^ 
 
 While the dinner proceeded, Dalquharn and 
 Bryde were talking of old times, or rather their 
 younger days, and of some of his adventures since, 
 all of which were full of interest to her ; so poor 
 Mr. Egerton found that he quite failed to attract 
 her by an anecdote about " Sparkish and Sir 
 Timothy TaAvdry of ours, who in an eating house 
 at Charing Cross, met with two subalterns of 
 BarreVs regiment, who had just come home after 
 Eontenoy; that a quarrel ensued about kissing 
 the barmaid — a rosy-cheeked wench, and it all 
 ended in a game of sharps — yes, begad, madam — 
 by the rule of steel, at the back of Montague 
 House, and in both those bucks of BarreFs, being 
 pinked and taken home on shutters by the 
 watch !" and so forth. 
 
 Wyvil and Mitchell were fighting Malplaquet 
 over again, and snuffing prodigiously over their 
 reminiscences ; so Egerton was reduced to endure 
 the conversation of Bii:'lie Balcraftie, whom he 
 only half understood, i wholly detested, and 
 who bored him by elab' fi^Le details of the great
 
 THE WRITE COCKADE. 127 
 
 rinderpest wliicli was then destroying the cattle 
 in all parts of Britain, and Avhicli lie called " 2l 
 plague sent by tlie Lord to carry awa"* the bestial 
 of Jew and Gentile alike/'"' 
 
 Talbot Egerton_, like other young men of his 
 position in society, had made the *^ grand tour/' 
 between the time of leaving Cambridge and join- 
 ing the Kentish Buffs in the Balearic Isles ; he 
 was fond of gaiety, and he who had been sick of 
 service in Scotland — as sick as any of Caesar's 
 Legionaries were long ago — and who had longed 
 for London, with its bustle and society, its coffee- 
 houses, Drury Lane, and Covent Garden and the 
 Mall — to be beating the watch and scouring St. 
 Giles with other young bloods of fire and good- 
 breeding — longing too for cocking matches at 
 Chelsey and other matches at Hocklcy-in-the- 
 Hole, had suddenly become quite reconciled to 
 his country quarters, under the influence of Bryde 
 Otterburn^s society for a week, and had said much 
 less to Wyvil about odious mountain scenery, 
 Scotch mists, cheek bones, oat-meal and brim- 
 stone j and now to make amends for her inatten- 
 tion, she began to rally him upon permitting the 
 smugglers to escape last night. 
 
 * This cattle plague was equally fatal on the Continent 
 in 1745-6. In September of the latter year, the London 
 papers state that " in Essex ' ->ne, upwards of 6000 cattle 
 died of it before the Ist/c .ne last," and that 60,000 
 perished in Denmark before r ~ middle of December.
 
 128 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 On this, lie proceeded to inform Lord Dalqu- 
 harn, with considerable minuteness, that he and 
 Captain Wyvil, had undergone great annoyance, 
 and no small amount of personal peril, when 
 patrolling the dangerous coast between Tantallon 
 and the rocks known as St. Baldred^s Cradle, 
 amid a dense mist, as a run of smuggled goods 
 was expected to be made, by a Dunkirk lugger, 
 which Mr. Gage was unable to board, as all the 
 fisher-boats were at sea, and his own, with her 
 swivel gun, had been scuttled and destroyed by 
 some of the smuggler's confederates on shore. 
 
 Dalquharn and Mitchell covertly smiled at 
 each other, and the uneasiness of the Bailie was 
 only too discernible to them both. 
 
 " Talking of that affair,'"* said Captain Wyvil, 
 setting down his glass of Burgundy, and playing 
 with his ruffles, " I vow. Miss Otterburn, that I am 
 almost glad the Sanders Scupperplug (or whatever 
 is his name) escaped us." 
 
 " Why, Captain Wyvil ?'' asked Bryde, laughing 
 at the odd name. 
 
 " I can forgive the old fellow anything, as one 
 of the five brave British seamen who took the 
 little fort of Puerto-dc -la-Plata and burned the 
 town.'^ 
 
 " But from all I have heard, he must have some 
 confederates in the neighbourhood, and bold ones 
 too. Captain Wyvil.'' 
 
 ''He has, Miss Otterburn, and I'd give a
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 129 
 
 month^s pay to find ^em outj^^ exclaimed Mr. 
 Egerton. 
 
 '^ Because you are tired of this secluded place 
 and of us/' suggested Bryde^ ^^ and long to change 
 your quarters/' 
 
 '^ Ah don't say so^ I pray you^ madam/' im- 
 plored Mr. Egerton,, actually blushing nearly as 
 red as his coat^ while the Bailie's face during this 
 little colloquy was an amusing picture to those 
 who like Dalquharn and Sir John Mitchell could 
 read it. They smiled to each other again, and 
 the latter took a pinch of rappee from a Sevres 
 boxj presented to him by the Duke of Berwick. 
 
 '' Scupperplug is no doubt a nom de guerre j and 
 egad, it is a droll one !" said Egerton, who having 
 made ^' the grand tour" in charge of a bear-leader 
 (as travelling tutors were named) had picked up a 
 little French, a language then very properly des- 
 pised, as Mr. Wilkes might have told us, by all 
 loyal and true-born Britons, as being fitted only for 
 frog-eaters, dancing-masters, barbers, and catgut- 
 scrapers, who wore wooden shoes and adhered to 
 the Pope, the devil, and the Pretender. ^^The 
 whole district hereabout," resumed the Lieutenant, 
 " is deeply interested in the smuggling business, 
 so that I fear we shall have to make short and 
 sharp work with all who fall into our hands and 
 come to the cold iron, without reference to riot 
 acts and so forth." 
 
 " Riot acts — man alive ! don't talk of them/' 
 
 VOL, I. 9 
 
 «?■
 
 130 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 exclaimed Sir Baldred^ with sudden irritation. 
 "In Scotland^ in my time, in the pursuit of a, 
 lawful feud or family quarrel, we could keep the 
 crown of the causeway with sword and pistol, if 
 we so wished, against all comers — sack a farm- 
 town, burn a grange, or blow up a tower ; make a 
 tulzie at kirk or market, on the highway, or in 
 burgh, and there was no more about it ; but now 
 since the accession of this House of Hanover, we 
 have had a riot act passed by the united parlia- 
 ment, expressly to prevent what they termed 
 the disorders, which might be occasioned by that 
 accession, the proclamation of which, in Edin- 
 burgh, I well remember, for it was made to the 
 people under the cannon^s mouth, every gun in the 
 castle being double- shotted and turned on the 
 city, while the Lyon King and his heralds were 
 at the cross ! and so, now a Douglas sits down at 
 the same table with a Hamilton, a Scot with a 
 Kerr, and have no occasion to leave their swords 
 with the butler or tapster, for they cut their coats 
 peaceably now according to the English fashion.''^ 
 Captain Wyvil laughed good humouredly at 
 this odd view of matters taken by the baronet^ 
 whose boyhood went back to the days of King 
 Charles the Second, and certainly of all the many 
 grievances of which he complained, Jthe i estrictions 
 of good government were the most singular; but 
 after Miss Otterburn had retired amid the low 
 bows of all present^ and after the removal of the
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 131 
 
 clotlij Mr. Birniebousle brought in long clay- 
 pipes for tobacco,, and the soothing Nicotian weed 
 became the order of the evening, while the pretty- 
 heiress of Anldhame sighed alone over her tea- 
 board and its best equipage in the drawing- 
 room. 
 
 Fresh decanters and jugs of wine were brought 
 with certain curious old drinking glasses, massive 
 and dwarfish, each with a small gold coin of 
 Francis and Mary, king and queen of France and 
 Scotland, blown into the stem. The butler also, as 
 a matter of custom, placed a tankard of pure water 
 at his master^s right hand. 
 
 '' Fill your glasses, gentlemen — a bumper to 
 the king V said Sir Baldred, passing his glass 
 over the water, and thus, with a clear conscience 
 and a loyal heart, drinking mentally to his lawful 
 king, who was in France beyond the sea. 
 
 '^ This loyal toast is the first always driink at 
 my good father^s table,^^ said Captain Wyvil, who 
 thought he detected something doubtful in the 
 mode Dalquharn drank it. ^^ The old squire was 
 wont to ride once yearly, from Hurstmonceaux to 
 London, for the sole purpose of kissing the hand 
 of King William.^' 
 
 ^^ Ah — the late Prince of Orange,^^ said Dalqu- 
 harn. 
 
 ^^ He was originally Prince of Orange,^^ replied 
 Captain Wyvil, still smiling, for he was quite a 
 man of the world. 
 
 9—2
 
 182 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 ^^ Yes, wlaen lie lurked behind a slmtter at the 
 Hague, and saw the assassination of the De Witts, 
 Cornelius, and John the pensionary of Holland,^' 
 said Sir Baldred, with great bitterness, " and 
 when he beheld the rascal mob, as the History of 
 the United Provinces^ tells us, ^ drag their naked 
 bodies to the common gibbet, where they hung 
 them by the feet and cut off their noses, ears, and 
 fingers, which were sold in the circumjacent parts. 
 Nay, some of the populace cut large pieces of 
 their flesh, which they broiled and eat/ When 
 those fine doings went on at the Hague, he was 
 Prince of Orange ; but he was the ' pio^us, glorious, 
 and immortal King William,^ when he massacred 
 the Clan Donald in cold blood at Glencoe, and 
 sent a warrant here, to torture in the steel boots, 
 and nigh unto death, the poor Englishman, 
 Neville Payne ; and when he betrayed our Scot- 
 tish colonists of New Caledonia to the murdering 
 and merciless Spaniards, he was king assuredly 
 Dei Gratia, and Defender of the Faith ! ■'■' 
 
 Captain Wyvil, who was used to these little 
 outbursts on the part of his old host, again 
 smiled with that imperturbable good humour 
 which is peculiarly English. 
 
 " We shall drop King William,''^ said Captain 
 Wyvil. " We English, less loyal than you Scots, 
 taught the House of Stuart the bitter lesson, that 
 kings were made for their subjects, not subjects for 
 
 * London, 1705.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 133 
 
 their kings ; but I think yon must admit that 
 this new war with France is most just?^^ he 
 added,, to change the topic. 
 
 '^ Of course/^ said his lieutenant ; " egad^ a 
 war with France must always be so.^' 
 
 " Especially when waged^ like this^ in defence 
 of our beloved Electorate of Hanover,^^ said Lord 
 Dalquharn, unguardedly. 
 
 ^^Nay, Captain Douglas/^ replied|Wyvil, eying 
 him sharply; ^^ I think His Majesty, King George, 
 was quite right to declare war after King Louisas 
 notorious breach of all treaties by building the 
 new forts at Dunkirk, by hostilities committed 
 against our fleets in the Mediterranean, and that 
 most insolent affront, by receiving at his court of 
 Versailles, the son of the Popish Pretender — » 
 under favour, gentlemen Scots — I shall call him 
 the young chevalier, for I bear the king^s commis- 
 sion, and can say no more,^^ added the Captain, 
 on seeing the angry flush that crossed three of the 
 faces present, while even the old butler knit his 
 brows and paused, napkin in hand, looking very 
 much as if he would have liked to punch the 
 captain^s head. " Then there was the embarka- 
 tion actually made, of a body of troops, with the 
 Lords Middleton, Dalquharn, and other attainted 
 Scots, at that same devilish place Dunkirk, to 
 fight for the so-called James VIII. of Scotland, 
 and — but zounds ! but I am getting quite warm 
 on the subject/^ said the Englishman, checking
 
 134 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 himself with a little good-humoured langh^ when 
 he saw how the colour came and went in the 
 cheek of old Sir Baldred^ whom he was too polite 
 and amiable to offend. 
 
 So there was an awkward pause here, which the 
 Bailie sought to fill up_, by stupidly remarking 
 that every day brought fresh tidings of a pro- 
 jected landing ^^ among the Highland Ishmaelites, 
 by that infatuated young gentleman,, the Chevalier 
 (he dared not call him Pretender in the presence 
 of Sir Baldred, and feared to say Prince in the 
 hearing of two king^s officers, so he steered the 
 middle course, like many equally cautious and 
 better men) , but believed that he would be, like 
 his father, the victim of Jesuit priests, of artful 
 women and hot headed Irishmen. And only 
 three days ago, when in Edinburgh,^^ he added, 
 '^I saw Sir Hector Maclean and Mr. Bleau, of 
 Castlehill, apprehended by the town guard in the 
 Canongate, and sent in chains to London in a 
 king^s yacht, by order of the Lord Advocate."*^ 
 
 '^And for what?''"' asked Lord Dalquham^ 
 whose brow lowered angrily. 
 
 ^^ Suspicion of being in the French service/^ 
 said the other, slowly, and watching the effect of 
 his words, ^^and of enlisting idle loons for the 
 Pret — Chevalier. Wae is me, that men should 
 meddle wie^ siccan affairs, for ^ better is he that 
 ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city V . 
 
 " ^Twill come to the musket erelong, I fear,''^
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 135 
 
 said Captain "Wyvil, shaking his head sorrowfully; 
 ^^ the Highlands are all unchanged since that 
 flash in the pan at Sheriff Muir/^ 
 
 ^^ Pass the wine^ Bailie/^ said Sir Baldred^ im- 
 patiently. 
 
 '. ^^Gude French claret, this/^ said the Bailie, 
 whose bad breeding appeared pretty often ; ^^ twa 
 shillings the bottle, I suppose — thin bodied, 
 though — 1^11 try the white wine, Sir Baldred. 
 I^se warrant,^^ he added, smacking his thin wicked 
 lips, "ye pay a shilling the mutchkin for that, 
 John Birniebousle?^^ 
 
 " Drink, Bailie, and welcome ; what my butler 
 pays, or does not pay, can matter little to my 
 guests,^^ said Sir Baldred, haughtily. 
 
 " In the outer hall weVe a butt o^t on tap. 
 Bailie, ready for all comers, when sic folks as the 
 Scougals o^ that ilk, keep but a barrel o' two- 
 penny ale,^^ said the old butler with commendable 
 pride. 
 
 ^^ Sneer not at Scougal, John,^^ said his master 
 angrily ; " he lost much in that d — nable Bevolu- 
 tion of '88.'^ 
 
 "And now, sirs,^^ said Sir John Mitchell, 
 rising, "shall we join Miss Otterburn at a dish 
 of tea ? '' 
 
 On this. Lord Dalquharn and Mr. Egerton, 
 whose thoughts had been in the with- drawing- 
 room, for some time past, rose with equal alacrity, 
 and hastened towards the door, the arras of which 
 
 y
 
 136 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 was withdrawn by tlie butler^ and tbongh heavy 
 drinking was then the fashion — and more so among 
 the Jacobites than the more cautions whigs — I 
 am glad to record that not one of the six gentle- 
 men were in a state to make pretty Bryde blush, 
 or tremble for the safety of her tea equipage, 
 though their clothes and perriwigs smelt most 
 odiously of tobacco.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 139 
 
 she still thought with terror of the day^ when she 
 must have perished^ on a boating expedition to 
 the Bass, had he not borne her up bravely, and 
 kissed her, and besought her not to be 
 afraid ! 
 
 The handsome boy who had trussed and plumed 
 her hawks, and trained her long-eared and pug- 
 nosed Bologna spaniel to play a score of pretty 
 tricks j behind whom she had often ridden on a 
 pillion to hear Mr. Carfuffle preach in White- 
 kirk, and once to Edinburgh to see the Tolbooth, 
 . after it had been attacked by the Porteous mob ; 
 and for whom she had wept herself to sleep on the 
 bosom of old Dame Dorriel, many a night, after 
 he went far away to France, beyond the sea, had 
 come to visit them again, a tall, winning, and — • 
 she must acknowledge it — an extremely well- 
 favoured man, with a gravity of carriage, a some- 
 what sad expression of eye, but with a studious 
 politeness and calm reserve beyond his years ; but 
 all the result of an early life of peril, of political 
 intrigue, of exile, and, perhaps, of — poverty. 
 
 It seemed to her, like some of the fairy stories 
 or romances she had read — this unexpected visit. 
 She thought of Amadis de Gaul, of Glorianna, 
 and of Urganda the unknown, and the heroes and 
 heroines of other works, which had been lent to 
 her in secret, by my Lady Haddington, as they 
 both feared Mr. Carfuffle, who hated a romance, 
 .because the name was nearly akin to Romanism.
 
 140 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 Glancing at the mirror (and seldom did it 
 reflect a more winning face or more lovely figure), 
 slie smoothed her bright brown hair, and shook 
 out her hoop, which, Heaven knows, was ample 
 enough. She opened and shut her fan impa- 
 tiently, arranged and re-arranged the tiny cups of 
 Dresden china upon the mahogany tea-board, 
 which stood on a large buhl gueridon, or tripod 
 table. The water hissed in the silver urn. On 
 one massive silver salver was a pile of currant 
 '^ scones,''^ or cakes, the work of Bryde^s own 
 hands, and on another rose a pyramid of petits- 
 gatelles-gateaux — a species of short-cake, still 
 called by the Scots, in homely fashion, " petticoat- 
 tails.^^ 
 
 And now, as the voices of Sir Baldred and his 
 guests were heard in the corridor, Bryde gave a 
 last glance round the drawing-room, the chairs of 
 which were covered with blue Flanders damask, 
 the walls being tapestried at each end and wains - 
 cotted elsewhere ; the wax-lights in the pale 
 bronze chandelier were burning brightly, and all 
 her peculiar domain looked elegant and cheerful, 
 as the gentlemen entered, with the usual apologies 
 for lingering over the bottle; and a charming 
 picture the little heiress of Otterburn made, as 
 she sat in an antique chair, her feet in tiny white 
 slippers with high red heels, resting on a velvet 
 tabourette, and the rich damask curtains festooned 
 as a back-ground, while she dispensed from the
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 141 
 
 gueridon table^ the beverage called tea_, in the 
 smallest of cups and saucers. 
 
 Tea W.B.S still somewhat of a rarity in Scotland^ 
 and had first been brought into that country 
 towards the close of the preceding century by Sir 
 Andrew Kennedy, who was Lord Conservator of 
 the ^Scottish Privileges at Campvere, and had 
 received a small parcel of it_, as a present from 
 the Dutch East India Company. 
 
 ^^ I am assured that Miss Otterburn must have 
 thought us very ungallant in leaving her so long 
 alone/'' said Mr. Egerton, with his most insinua- 
 ting smilcj as he placed himself at once^ by her 
 side. 
 
 ^^ But we were talking of politics. Miss Otter- 
 burn/^ added Dalquharn, " and they grow more* 
 interesting every day.^^ 
 
 ^^ Especially to us/' she replied by an arch 
 glance. 
 
 ^^ Yes — to us, indeed,'^ said Dplquharn, with a 
 smile. 
 
 " And you' were drinking toasts, doubtless, Mr. 
 Egerton, amid loyal and hickupping cheers — oh, I 
 understand.^^ 
 
 "No, indeed, we were not,^^ he replied, 
 earnestly. 
 
 " Then I must give you one,^^ said she, lowering 
 her voice and stooping towards Egerton, who had 
 humbly seated himself on a tabourette similar 
 to that on which her little feet were resting.
 
 142 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 '^ You^ madam ? '' 
 
 '' Yes — I ; do you think it droll ? " 
 
 " And your toast is, prythee — ■'"' 
 
 '^ Long live King James VIII. /^ whispered the 
 pretty rogue, almost into the side curls of Eger- 
 ton^s wig, half-closing her merry brown eyes, and 
 half-stooping towards him ; and as she held aloft 
 a little Dresden cup, displaying a round and taper 
 arm of marvellous whiteness and beauty, bare, 
 save its bracelet, to the dimpled elbow, which 
 emerged from a short sleeve edged by a long fall 
 of lace of Malines, she looked beautiful, brilliant 
 and droll ! '^ Dost hear me, sir ? Ah that I were 
 a man, and wore a sword and perriwig, instead of 
 this mob-cap and fardingale ! Long live King 
 James VIIL, the brother of the good Queen 
 Anne ! ''■' 
 
 " I dare not. Miss Otterburn — I protest to you 
 — I dare not drink it, even in this stuff called 
 tea/"' urged poo:r; Egerton, colouring, and glanc- 
 ing nervously to\/ards Captain Wyvil. 
 
 ^^ Well, I cry you mercy, sir, and crave pardon." 
 - ^' Pardon of me," said he, looking quite radiant. 
 
 '^ Yes ; it was wrong and ungenerous of me to 
 think of putting you inafalse position, even in jest." 
 
 ^^ A la sante de la bonne cause ! " said Egerton, 
 draining his cup, and laughing; '^I think that 
 hath the true ring of the Court of St. Germains — 
 
 eh?" 
 
 Good Captain Wyvil looked smilingly towards
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 143 
 
 them,, and shook his large wig, while saying, 
 ^'^Egadj don^t seek to seduce my subaltern from 
 his allegiance. Miss Otterburn, though I fear 
 many a more loyal man than he hath figured in 
 St. Giles round-house before now. Come, Talbot, 
 though a sprightly spark, don^t forget that your 
 father was a grave whig, a leading member in the 
 Calve^s-head Club, and figured sword in hand in 
 the famous riot that was dispersed by the Foot 
 Guards and the King^s Musketeers.^^ 
 
 ^^ Another cup of tea my — Captain Douglas ? ^' 
 Bryde hesitated and blushed, she had almost ad- 
 dressed him by his title. 
 
 '^ I thank you, yes," said Dalquharn, his sword 
 tilting up, as he made a low bow. 
 
 ^^ My — my what? he?^ Captain Douglas !^^. 
 thought Egerton and the Bailie too, as their eyes 
 met by chance. 
 
 ^^ A rare and beautiful china this ! " observed 
 Dalquharn. 
 
 " Oh, sir, "'tis very poor, be assured," said 
 Bryde, colouring ; " and yet it was my mother^s 
 marriage gift from the exiled Earl Marishal." 
 
 '^ I have seen a set that looked less beautiful 
 and for which a king gave a regiment of horse," 
 said Sir John Mitchell to Captain Wyvil. 
 
 " Yes ; I too have seen it at Dresden, in the 
 Neustadt ; it was given to the Elector Augustus 
 II., hj Frederick I. of Prussia, in exchange for a 
 regiment of Cuirassiers fully equipped. He was
 
 144 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 then founding the military force of his kingdom, 
 and so was parting even with his beloved china/^ 
 
 And now Bryde when she saw the two attainted 
 Jacobites and the two red-coat officers all so blithe 
 and pleasant together,, wondered if the time 
 would really come^ and she trembled for it^ when 
 they might be cutting each other^s throats on the 
 battlefi eld ! 
 
 A volume of the ^ Orpheus Caledonius ' of 
 Allan Ramsay, presented by him to her mother, 
 and dedicated by the poet to the Princess of 
 Walesj Wilhilmina Caroline, of Brandenburg- 
 Anspach (Sir Baldred had torn out that leaf) 
 stood open on the music-stand. 
 
 Our simple grandmothers — aye, and even our 
 mothers too in England, but still more in Scot- 
 land, knew no other songs than those of their na- 
 tive island ; and had neither the ^^ snobbery,^'' nor 
 the bad taste to imitate foreign artistes by attempt- 
 ing opera, or to impose bad German or worse Ita- 
 lian, on an audience which knew, perhaps, not a 
 word of either. Such high accomplishment, or va- 
 garies were all unknown at Madam Straiton^s esta- 
 blishment, ^^ opposite His Grace of Queensberry^s 
 lodgings in the Canongate /^ so now Bryde Otter- 
 burn ran her white fingers over the keys of the 
 wiry- sounding spinnet (an instrument sorely in- 
 ferior to one of Collard^s grand tri-cord pianos), 
 and sang the march of the Viscount Kenmure, just 
 as her mother had taught her — she to whom the
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 145 
 
 handsome cavalier^ so young and gay, had waved a 
 
 farewell with his plumed hat, as he rode forth 
 
 with his troop of two hundred gallant Galwegian 
 
 yeomen for England, to return no more, for he 
 
 sealed his loyalty with his blood on Tower-hill, 
 
 after the memorable rising of 1715. 
 
 " O Kenmure is on and awa, WiUie, 
 O Eennmre is on and awa ! 
 And Kenmurc's Lord is the bravest Lord, 
 That ever Galloway saw ! " 
 
 We are sorry to admit that this song being a 
 
 national one, would only be sung now in the 
 
 kitchen of Bryde's descendants ; but ifc was not so 
 
 then, and the hearts of the two returned exiles 
 
 were stirred within them, by a deep and earnest 
 
 emotion, while the lively girl sang, and especially 
 
 at the last verse — 
 
 " Hero's to liim that's far awa, Willie, 
 Here's victory ovrre his foes ; 
 And here's the flower that I lo'e best, 
 The Eose, the snow tvhite Hose!" 
 
 As she sang, the Bailie, into whose huge but 
 meanly moulded brain, the good wines he had 
 imbibed were mounting, hovered near the spinnet, 
 with his hands vulgarly thrust under his square, 
 buckram- stiffened coat-tails, and with a strange, 
 half-tipsy and half-gloating expression in his pale, 
 cunning eyes, while he regarded the bright, 
 laughing girl, who, without waiting either for ap- 
 plause or invitation, dashed at once into the 
 '^Bonnie briar bush,^^ another high cavalier song, 
 
 VOL. I. 10
 
 146 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 » 
 
 in "wliicli its snowy blossoms are likened to the 
 white cockades of the loyalists ; and he seemed to 
 see two lovely heads^ each crowned by a waggish 
 mob-cap, and four white arms_, with gemmed 
 hands, running swiftly over the keys. 
 
 " Well, Bailie,'^ said Lord Dalquharn, who had 
 been eying him narrowly; ''^how like you the 
 song? think you not that in our national music 
 Miss Otterburn excels T* 
 
 ^'^ Excels ! '' repeated the Bailie, somewhat 
 startled by Dalquliarn^s cool, but lofty manner ; 
 '^ excels — O — O — O ! " he exclaimed with one of 
 those prolonged howls, peculiar to a certain class 
 of canters when quoting Scripture, '^^Many 
 daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest 
 them all,^ Bryde Otterburn, and weel may the 
 words o"* the Proverbs be applied to you/^ 
 
 Bryde, who did not ^' see '' the application, 
 smiled so proudly and disdainfully, that the vul- 
 ture eyes shut and opened, while their proprietor 
 drew back a little way. 
 
 The lofty bearing of the two passengers, who had 
 come so mysteriously, and to his great annoyance 
 by the ^ Etoile de la mer/ puzzled him ; his brain 
 was not in its clearest state at that moment, but 
 he felt convinced that they were something more 
 than mere captains in the Dutch service — in fact, 
 that they were, according to the phraseology of 
 the time, " persons of quality," gens de marque, or 
 men of condition. Bryde^s glance to Dalquharn
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 147 
 
 at the line about " the snow white rose " con- 
 veyed a volume^ a clue if one were wanting, and 
 he would follow it up ! 
 
 '^ A fearless little Jacobite it is ! '' said Captain 
 Wyvil smiling, as he presented his gold snuff-box 
 to Sir Baldred, who sat in his easy chair, beating 
 time on the hilt of his sword, and a bright ex- 
 pression lighting up his old wrinkled face. 
 
 But now the party was to separate for the 
 night. Dalquharn and Mitchell both looked 
 weary, and a stirrup cup of mulled port was 
 ordered, then another and another folloAved ; and 
 it is with some shame we have to record that on 
 this night the poor old baronet got rather disre- 
 putably tipsy, proposed "the health of his sacred^ 
 Majesty Charles II., now reigning,^^ and insisted 
 on singing some very rebellious songs to Captain 
 Wyvil who laughed, good humoured, as he and 
 the butler helped him to bed, where he dosed off 
 to sleep, singing, in a quavering voice — -' 
 
 ** To wanton me, to wanton me(t 
 
 Oh, ken ye what niaist would wanton me ? 
 ■ To see King James at Edinburgh Cross, 
 
 Wi' fifty thousand foot and horse ; 
 Oil, that is what maist would wanton me ! " 
 
 , Dalquharn was not without fears that he and his 
 
 companion might be unwittingly betrayed. To 
 
 drink deep was one of the sins of that time, when 
 
 " a man of fashion (to quote a great writer) often 
 
 passed a quarter of his day at cards, and another 
 
 quarter at drink. I have known many a pretty 
 
 10—2
 
 148 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 fellow, who was a wit too, ready of reparte, and 
 possessed of a thousand graces, who would be puz- 
 zled if he had to write more than his own name." 
 
 The two English officers took their swords, and 
 set forth to visit the village of Auldhame, and as- 
 certain whether their men were all in quarters, if 
 not abed, and the Bailie took his departui'e, staff 
 in hand, to return to North Berwick, a three 
 miles' walk, in the moonlight. 
 
 We have said, that this most wily and watchful 
 personage could drink without ever getting quite 
 inebriated; on this occasion however, it was ap- 
 parent to Mr. Birniebousle, as he somewhat con- 
 temptuously slammed the iron barbican-gate on 
 ushering him out, that the magistrate and elder 
 set forth on his pilgrimage, to what he termed 
 ^' his tents and his flesh pots of Egypt,'' with his 
 tie perriwig, very much over his eyes, and that he 
 seemed to be sorely troubled by the breadth, rather 
 than the length of the road, for even saints and 
 patriarchs ^^ have had their weak moments, long 
 since Father Noah toppled over after discovering 
 the vine." 
 
 ^^ Gin ye tyne the gate and gae owre Tantallan 
 Craigs into the sea, 'twere but a sma' misfortune 
 to the country side," thought the old Butler with 
 a saturnine grin, as the Bailie, whom he liked as 
 little as his master, went unsteadily down the dark 
 avenue, with a mind full of vague ideas that he 
 had a great Jacobite plot to discover — ideas
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 149 
 
 sharpened by avarice^ covetousness and jea- 
 lousy. 
 
 Yes, strange as it may appear, this earthly worm 
 felt a scorching jealousy alike of Dalquharn and 
 Egerton, whom he had left, too evidently as rivals, 
 in possession of the fair fortress at Auldhame !
 
 150 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IN VINO VERITAS. 
 
 *' Davy. — Shame, sir ! He's a soldier, a man of pleasure. 
 A wife would be too lieavj luggage forliimto carry about 
 with him." 
 
 The HigJiland Fair, an opera, 1731. 
 
 Safe in the chyelling of a friend, althougli that 
 dwelling also received two persons who might soon 
 be mortal foes. Lord Dalquharn of the Holm, and 
 Sir John Mitchell, had no need to look to the 
 charges of their pistols on this night. 
 
 Mrs. Dorriel Grahame the housekeeper, with a 
 wax candle in each hand, conducted his Lordship, 
 whom she did not recognise, though he remem- 
 bered her well of old, with her Flemish coif, its 
 long lappets and black silk band, her grey stuff 
 gOAvn and large w^hitc neckerchief, her motherly 
 kindness and her quaint garrulity. 
 
 He remembered the room perfectly too, with 
 its gilt leather hangings, manufactured some fifty 
 years before by the celebrated Bailie Brand of 
 Edinburgh, and its antique pillard oak bed, placed 
 on three steps and canopied like a tomb, the cur- 
 tains being, as Dame Dorriel told him, " shewit
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 151 
 
 "wF pearling on cramozie by the bonnie white 
 hands o^ her ain doo Miss Bryde/' which no doubt 
 gi'eatly enhanced their interest in his eyes ; " it 
 was a featlier bed, mairowre, wi^ double Scottish 
 blankets, forbye twelve others in the house/^ she 
 added, with laudable pride ; " but nane she feared, 
 were cosy or soft enough, for the twa Inglish 
 captains, deevil byde them 1" 
 
 Dalquharn looked earnestly at the old woman, 
 and smiled, as one in a dream. It seemed but 
 yesterday since he last heard her voice and beheld 
 her hale old face, which had not one wrinkle more. 
 She trembled at the idea of ghosts and warlocks, 
 yet wore on one of her fingers a ring made of a 
 coffin hinge as a spell against cramp, and had been 
 cured of a tumour by nine strokes of a dead 
 man^s hand at sunrise — the hand of the poor 
 wretch who hung in chains at the town-end of 
 North Berwick ; and had at her bed head a hag- 
 stone, or perforated pebble, slung on a red-thread, 
 to prevent night-mare by evil spirits sitting on her 
 stomach. 
 
 She saw that the stranger was a comely and 
 handsome young man, and so, surveying him 
 kindly, bade him good night, hoped he would 
 sleep sound, and backed out of the chamber with 
 a low old fashioned courtesy. 
 
 How well Dalquharn remembered this apart- 
 ment, for it had been that of his father and mo- 
 ther, with its walls stamped over with alternate
 
 152 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 thistles and fleurs-de-lys, in heavy gilding, and the 
 deep stone fireplace with its elliptical arch and 
 massive Scottish mouldings, the keystone, being 
 a shield, charged with the three otters' heads of 
 Otterburn. 
 
 In that room, they had slept for months, those 
 beloved parents, and on those pillows, where his 
 own was to lie, their revered heads had reposed — 
 heads lying low enough now, beneath the pavement 
 of the royal chapel at St. Germain, and as he 
 looked around, their figures seemed to rise before 
 him. Nothing here was change save himself, 
 for many years more than were his, seemed to 
 have passed since then — years of stirring action, 
 hot hate and passion, deep intrigue and care — 
 years of wandering and hope, battle and disaster ! 
 
 " I shall dream of bright, laughing Bryde Otter- 
 burn,"^ thought he, as he laid his head on the 
 pillow, " and think only how lovely my little 
 friend of other times has grown."" 
 
 Meanwhile Bryde, who was reposing in her 
 pretty bed, and thinking perhaps of Dalquharn, 
 could little know that she was the subject of a 
 lively conversation elsewhere. 
 
 The new moon was shining high, sharp and 
 clearly, in the blue sky, its pale light mingling 
 with the last red flush of the May sunset, which 
 still lingered beyond the Fifeshire hills ; for the 
 hour was not yet ten ; but people were usually 
 early abed in those days, especially in the country.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 153 
 
 Captain Wyvil and Lienteuant Egerton were 
 returning from the village and home-farm of 
 Auldhame (a quaint old picturesque house is the 
 latter^ and still remarkable for its square and mas- 
 sive chimneys), after having seen Colour- Serge ant 
 Tony Teesdale, and found all their gallant Buffs 
 in quarters; and now as they proceeded home- 
 ward. Captain Wyvil discovered that his subaltern 
 was a little in liquor, and very much in love. 
 
 Egerton had drunk quite enough at dinner, and 
 of the stirrup cup after, to have his tongue loosed, 
 and his steps made a little unsteady, on issuing 
 into the open air. At some distance they passed 
 Bailie Balcraftie, as he quitted the avenue and 
 stumbled along the highway towards Castleton, 
 on his way home. * 
 
 " There goes old Swivel-eyes,''^ said Egerton ; 
 '^ let us avoid him, and strike through the fields 
 to reach home. I hate that sly Scot; and, gad, I 
 feel somehow that he hates me — yes, rot him, 
 hates me ' But to return to what we were saying. 
 Well, Marmaduke Wyvil, Avhat think you of our 
 little Scots beauty here. 
 
 " How now, what mean you ? Think ?'' 
 
 " Yes.^^ 
 
 '^ I think she hath smitten you, friend Taroot."*' 
 
 " Egad, I vow, I protest, that I am quite asto- 
 nished ! Steady — eyes front ! '' stammered Eger- 
 ton, making a lurch against the captain, and nearly 
 tearing one of his epaulettes off. '^As for the
 
 154 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 people of this country, I liate ^em, as every true- 
 born Englisliman should/' 
 
 ''Well?'' said Wyvil, a little impatiently. 
 
 "I came here with some of our old English 
 traditions and family notions in my head. You 
 know that my mother is a grand- daughter of Sir 
 Anthony Weld, who writ a pleasant book of travels 
 in Scotland, which he described to be a wild and 
 moimtainous country, infested, however, 'by no 
 monsters, except women ? ' Well, when I heard 
 that the old ' laird of that ilk,' as the people here 
 call him (whatever the devil it may mean), had 
 a pretty granddaughter, I thought she might 
 solace me during our banishment in this land of 
 bondage and brimstone, smugglers and psalm- 
 singers. I fancied her a freckled, red-headed Scots 
 wench, in neat's leather shoes, and yarn stockings 
 of her own spinning, a linsey-woolsey petticoat, 
 with a calim^nco and high wooden pattens for 
 wet weather ; but, begad sir ! surprised I was 
 indeed to find her in laced slippers, with high 
 French red heels and fine silk clocks ; a hoop like 
 Queen Anne's, some six yards wide at least; and 
 her hair, at times, done over a toupee — all as fine, 
 forsooth, as any lady of quality in Piccadilly, who 
 drinks tea and takes snuff ' a la Pompadour.' " 
 
 " Nay, nay, snuflPs she none, my friend ; but I 
 repeat that you are too evidently smitten in that 
 quarter," said Wyvil, taking the young fellow's 
 arm to steady him.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 155^- 
 
 " Smitten ? Well^ perhaps I am." 
 
 "And with a little Scots girl." 
 
 " What a joke ! I can fancy the dismay at our 
 house in Piccadilly. My father, mother, and 
 sisters, fancy that we are among cannibals here ;. 
 and yet for fashion and bearing this girl might vie 
 Avith any woman in town." 
 
 " So you have surrendered to this Caledonian 
 Sacharissa, this Lindamira, who bakes, brews, and 
 spins ; who is great in the manufacture of scented 
 waters and elder-flower w^ine ; who is as gay and as 
 waggish as any noble shepherdess at the Court of 
 Louis XV. ; and, by Jove, she looks very like one, 
 when she wears powder ! " 
 
 " Surrendered ! Not quite j^et ; nor have I 
 even brought her to the point. I have often tried* 
 to do so, during the short time we have been here ; 
 but we have so many disputes on politics, and then 
 I think she onlv tolerates me. Tolerates me, for- 
 sooth ! And, egad ! Wyvil, I canH help thinking 
 that if things progress as they are doing, between 
 Lowlander and Highlander, we Englishmen here 
 may ere long find ourselves between the hawk and 
 the buzzard. Concerning his nationality, our old 
 friend the Squire of Auldhame is as mad as a 
 March hare." 
 
 " Not more mad than you are, Egerton. You 
 cannot expect him to turn Englishman and adopt 
 your views, which are quite as provincial as his 
 own. You judge of him harshly, too : he is but
 
 156 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 a man of the old school^ and sucli a school has 
 existed in all ages. Perhaps the first Briton who 
 begirt his netherman with a sheepskin^ and built 
 him a wigwam, was despised as effeminate by 
 some noble savage of the old school, who contented 
 him with a coat of blue paint, and a cheap resi- 
 dence in the root of a tree.^^ 
 
 " A queer old cock it is ! " continued Egerton, 
 who, being tipsy, was irate, jealous, and droll by 
 turns. " He actually swore and was indignant 
 because I gave vails to his servants, and they were 
 offended too ! '^ 
 
 "And yet we deem these vScots avaricious and 
 poor, though "tis a land where all men work and 
 all disdain to beg.^^ 
 
 "Then, who is this Captain Douglas? Some 
 poor devil of a Scot, with all his income on his 
 back, or in the plated hilt of his hanger. Gad ! 
 I wonder if he knoweth carte and tierce, and can 
 handle that same hanger ?" 
 
 " To judge by the lack of lace on his frock, I 
 fear me that Douglas is poor,"^ said Captain WyvU, 
 gently. 
 
 "■ Poor ! I should think so,'" resumed Egerton, 
 v/axing more wroth with the conviction that 
 Bryde on this evening had considerably slighted 
 himself; " all his demmed countrymen are ; but 
 there is mischief brewing among them here; I 
 could see it even in the brown eyes of that girl 
 to-night. The devil ! — a proud, prinked-up bag-
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 157 
 
 gage it is, and, for all I know, perhaps as slippery 
 in the tail as handsome l^' 
 
 '^Talbot !^^ exclaimed Captain Wyvil, "beware 
 of letting your jealousy run riot thus/^ 
 
 " When I first came here/^ continued the ill- 
 used Mr. Egerton, " I thought to kiss and slop 
 the maids as we do elsewhere ; but, by Jove, sir, I 
 had my face slapped and a good Ramillie wig torn 
 by a cheek-boned cockatrice, who threatened me 
 with the minister and the ^ Kirk Session,^ whatever 
 that may be; and then, when I said to the Squire, 
 ' demme, old boy, that maid of Miss Bryde^s is 
 decidedly pretty — I rather like her,' he reddened 
 like a turkeycock, and laid a hand on the old- 
 fashioned rapier that is never from his siae — I 
 fancy he sleeps with it — and then begged pardon 
 with a Frenchified bow, saying, that he should 
 not forget I was his guest. But Miss Otterburn 
 is charming ! " added the Lieutenant, relapsing 
 into the maudlin state. "You know, as Defoe 
 says, ' we are forbidden at Highgate to kiss the 
 maid when we may kiss the mistress/ and when 
 I see her hanging about her old grand-dad's neck 
 and kissing him— 
 
 }> 
 
 « 
 
 A very pretty sight. Her filial love quite 
 enchants me,'' said honest Wyvil. 
 
 " It doth me too, Marmaduke — it doth me too ! 
 but I can tell you it sets my heart on fire, and I 
 should like to share some of iHiose filial kisses. 
 Yet, if I do but take her hand, she turns from me
 
 i5S THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 "witli such, a touch-me-not cock of her pretty nose, 
 looks superb, and sweeps away with her hoop 
 inflated, till she well-nigh shows her garters/' 
 
 " A sight which, I suppose, makes the matter 
 worse,^' said Wyvil, laughing outright at the 
 aggrieved tone of his friend and brother officer; 
 '' but harkee. Beau Egerton — take care that our 
 brown-eyed Scots girl don't make a Jacobite of 
 ithee/' 
 
 " In which case " 
 
 " You may lose your head as well as your heart. 
 The best recruiting Serjeants of the Pretender are 
 the fair sex; every woman seems to think she 
 hath an order to beat up in his cause, here in 
 Scotland at least. Be warned by me. I have 
 been in many a garrison town, my friend, in 
 Elanders, and at home in England beyond the 
 Border, so my heart is not likely to catch fire 
 here in Scotland,"" said Wyvil, with less gallantry 
 than he w^ould have exhibited in Bryde's presence. 
 ■*' Suppose the girl would marry you, could you 
 settle down here ? '' 
 
 Egerton steadied himself and took a tipsy 
 survey of the fields that stretched far away 
 westAvard in the clear cold moonlight, the dense 
 woodlands, and the old house, whose quaint 
 turrets rose above them. 
 
 '' Here — demrne, no ! I might hunt my 
 harriers, and lead a kind of respectable jogtrot 
 life like a turnspit-dog, or a squirrel in a cage,
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 159 
 
 till the old boy died ; then 1 should sell oft* the 
 whole place — house, lands, everything, and invest 
 in England, in Surrey, somewhere near London — 
 go into parliament, perhaps — who can say what 
 I might do; but as for a living death in this 
 region of pride and hypocrisy, sour-visaged Sab- 
 batarians, oatmeal and brimstone, it ain^t to be 
 thought of ! The very idea of the thing makes 
 me long for London, ivith its gaieties, its pretty 
 bar-keepers in the taverns and chocolate houses 
 at Covent Garden and Whitehall. Fancy this old 
 tory Put, Sir Baldred, having such a couple of 
 rakehells in his house ! " 
 
 '^ Talbot, you speak for yourself, ''' said Wyvil, 
 seriously. 
 
 " Nay, I speak for you too, slyboots ! ^' ex- 
 claimed Egerton, giving Wyvil a most vigorous 
 poke in the ribs, as they passed through the 
 barbican gate ; " but I must bring matters to an 
 issue — I shall propose to my little Scots charmer 
 on the first opportunity — by Jove, I shall ! "
 
 160 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 BRYDE^S FOUR LOVERS. 
 
 '* Oil lady, lady ! tliat dear place, 
 Tliougli poor of soil, and scant in space, 
 Where she we love, the girl whose grace 
 
 Has with sweet bondage blessed the breast. 
 That spot, where she in pomp doth hide, 
 However mean, o'er all beside, 
 Empires of power, and lands of pride. 
 Is sweetest, richest, fairest, best." 
 
 Tennanfs Poems. 
 
 The opportunity so coveted by Mr. Talbot Eger- 
 ton, of the Kentish Buffs, did not, however, come 
 very readily. 
 
 The acquaintance of Bryde with her early friend 
 Lord Dalquharn, now rapidly ripened into friend- 
 ship, and from friendship it expanded on both 
 sides to a growing — love ! 
 
 Three days in each other's society sufficed to 
 achieve this, and already Dalquharn felt that 
 Bryde Otterburn was to be his fate. When a 
 man of five-and-twenty, good looking, handsome, 
 courageous, and experienced, makes up his mind 
 thus, matters are pretty sure to progress rapidly. 
 
 Yet knowing the deadly game he had to play —
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 161 
 
 tlie perilous errand on which he had come, Dalqu- 
 harn was not without painful doubts, fears, and 
 compunction, about revealing his growing passion 
 to Bryde Otterburn. 
 
 There were actually times, when he almost 
 made up his mind to leave her and Auldhame, and 
 return no more, until the intended rising in the 
 North had been decided for weal or for woe, and 
 until his own destiny was known, for he trembled 
 to involve poor Bryde and the good old enthusiast, 
 her grandfather, in the ruin which too surely fell on 
 all who adhered to the unhappy House of Stuart. 
 
 Thus, many times did this brave and generous 
 young noble struggle with his heart and resolve 
 to go, but the charm, the infatuation of his love 
 for Bryde, was too sweet, too powerful; and a. 
 word, a smile, a touch of her fairy hand, dissipated 
 his greatest resolutions. Daily he said, '^ I shall 
 leave her!^' and day after day found him still 
 lingering at Auldhame. 
 
 The arrival of the two friends, from abroad, 
 too, was an event of the first magnitude, in the 
 usually dull life led by Bryde Otterburn. Books 
 there were few then published in Edinburgh; 
 dull romances were imported from England and 
 read in secret; duller books of devotion were 
 read in public, a little ostentatiously, perhaps. 
 There were few journals to give an account of 
 affairs at home or abroad, and the ^ Scots Maga- 
 zine,' under its coarse blue cover, was not very 
 
 VOL. I, 11
 
 162 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 lively with its '' summary of public affairs — pro- 
 ceedings of the political club — and domestic his- 
 tory/'' Still less lively were the columns of that 
 dingy little quarto, the ^ Caledonian Mercury/ 
 which the riding postboy, or the carrier, brought to 
 Auldhame, every second or third day after its pub- 
 lication, and to which Sir Baldred adhered faith- 
 fully, because it was always in the interest of the 
 good old cause, and had been so since the restoration. 
 Unless in exile, France was forbidden ground 
 to the Scottish gentry now, and a residence at 
 home within the narrow circle of their mountains 
 and glens, contracted their minds and filled them 
 with strange, morose and gloomy prejudices, un- 
 known to their forefathers a few generations back, 
 when the gay ambassadors of France, Spain, and 
 Austria, had their hotels in that fashionable 
 region, the Cowgate of Edinburgh ! 
 
 Poor Bryde saw only the world at church, and 
 what a dismal little world it was ! Yet weekly, it 
 was something to look forward to — the ride to 
 Whitekirk — in all weathers, to hear the Reverend 
 Aminadab Carfuffle expound in nasal tones on 
 the glories of Judea, and the terrors of a certain 
 place with a warmer climate, for two hours by the 
 pulpit sand glass. 
 
 "With her grandfather's prelatical instincts, 
 named as he had been, Baldred, after the patron 
 saint of the district and of his race, and named as she 
 liad been Bryde, by Dalquharn's mother (who was
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 163 
 
 a catholic of the House of Kenmure), the gentle 
 girl, though stunned and bewildered by the harsh 
 and stormy theology of Mr. Carfuffle, and the ex- 
 postulations of the Bailie, could never be thought to 
 think much evil of the ancient creed, as the mass 
 of her countrymen did, when she remembered 
 how many good and pure, true and loyal men and 
 women had died in the faith of their Christian 
 forefathers. In that faith did William Wallace 
 die, and Robert Bruce bequeath his heart to the 
 Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 The family always went mounted to church ; 
 the baronet and two grooms wearing their swords 
 with holster pistols, while Bryde rode her favour- 
 ite pad. She would have disdained alike as too 
 effeminate, the use either of a sedan, like the 
 Lady Haddington, or of a glass coach, like the 
 Laird of Newbyth ; and as for her grandfather, he 
 would as soon have thought of going in a palan- 
 quin or an air baloon (had he ever heard of them) 
 as in either of those conveyances, while he had a 
 good nag in his stable ; and when she went thus 
 abroad, as veils were not then worn, Bryde had her 
 charming face concealed by a little velvet masque. 
 
 When she first appeared at church, escorted by 
 Dalquharn, who looked so handsome and dis- 
 tinguished, he quite divided the attention of the 
 congregation, with my Lady Haddington^s little 
 blackamoor in a Spanish dress, with a silver 
 collar round his neck — a creature she had bought 
 
 11—2
 
 164 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 at Glasgow market, to attend her at service and 
 in her walks abroad ; to carry her muff, fan or 
 bible ; to feed her marmoset and parrot, and comb 
 out the breed of spaniels given to her mother by 
 Charles II. 
 
 Withal, Bryde was a happy and busy creature, 
 and in working at her spinning-wheel, in colouring 
 satin, making wax flowers and embroidery, or 
 tambour-work, in playing on her spinnet (one of 
 Fenton^s best), when she picked up a new song 
 by Mr. Allan Ramsay, she had always employ- 
 ment enough. 
 
 Egerton, who, like most well-bred men of those 
 days, played pretty fairly upon the violin and 
 flute, frequently accompanied her at the spinnet ; 
 and with all his secret and ill-concealed dislike of 
 Scotland and the Scots, he had soon found the 
 impossibility of not striving to please a beautiful 
 young girl ; and, as she knew no other airs than 
 those of her own country, he was compelled to 
 make, what he deemed, a merit of necessity, and 
 acquire them, which he did very readily. 
 
 After the arrival of Lord Dalquharn, there was 
 a change in all this, for save in the evening, and 
 when the iron gates were closed for the night, the 
 spinnet was rarely opened. Between the brown- 
 eyed heiress and the young attainted lord, there 
 was a mutual bond of national and political 
 sympathy, which the young English officer could 
 not comprehend — a secret intelligence of which
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 165 
 
 lie could make nothing, save that it piqued his 
 pride, wounded his somewhat inordinate self- 
 esteem, and, while it confirmed his passion for 
 Bryde, also filled him with a jealous fury. 
 
 Egerton presented her with a silver-mounted 
 flageolet, and in the gallantry of the day, the 
 mouth-piece was obstructed by a piece of paper, 
 on examining which, she found it contained a 
 copy of verses addressed, as it were, by the happy 
 instrument to her coral lips and slender fingers. 
 These had been copied, we are sorry to say, 
 wholesale by Egerton from the ^ London Maga- 
 zine,^ wherein a poetical strephon had sighed them 
 forth, to his real or imaginary Chloe or Lin- 
 damira. Innocent Bryde never doubted that they 
 were the rogue's own production, and declared' 
 them to be " vastly pretty ! ^^ 
 
 But when Dalquharn presented her with a 
 bronze medal, which but two months before, he 
 had received from a certain royal hand, that gift she 
 prized much more, and kissed with the devotion 
 of a pilgrim, who beholds the reliques he has trod 
 a thousand miles to see. 
 
 It bore the effigy of ^^ Charles Prince of Wales, 
 1745,^' and on the reverse, amor et spes around 
 a figure of Britannia standing erect, with a fleet 
 in the background. 
 
 All the purposes and hopes of the royal exiles, 
 the intentions of himself and Sir John Mitchell, 
 he had to narrate to her again and again. He had
 
 166 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 also to describe the king^ the young Prince of 
 Wales and his brother Henry, the Duke of York 
 and Albany (they were studious in giving every 
 title, those sturdy Jacobites), also her majesty the 
 Queen, Maria- Clementina, whom he had often 
 seen, the mother of that " bonnie Prince Charlie,^' 
 who was yet to be embalmed in the hearts and 
 the songs of the people, daughter of Prince James 
 Sobieski, and granddaughter of the Liberator^ 
 Their appearance, their sayings, their eyes, their 
 hair, &c., all he had to describe and relate, for 
 Bryde was never weary of the theme, and listened 
 to him with her loyal heart beating high, the 
 colour in her soft cheek deepened and her brown 
 eyes sparkling; and all these things had to be 
 spoken of, when they were alone, or at least when 
 Wyvil and Egerton were not present, so between 
 the two young visitors, there was now a most de- 
 cided, though as yet unacknowledged, rivalry. 
 
 Talbot Egerton had become even more than 
 usually careful of his hitherto scrupulous toilet ; 
 a greater slave to his mirror, to puffing his regi- 
 mental wig with powder, to the arrangement of his 
 ruffles, his choice of sleeve-links, kneebuckles and 
 brooch, his fall of point-d^Espane ; and nearly 
 drove his valet, a stolid Yorkshire grenadier, 
 crazy, by the adjustment of his side curls and the 
 black silk bag or flash, that hung between his 
 shoulders ; but poor Egerton arrayed himself in 
 vain for conquest now, as Dalquharn, in his some-
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 1G7 
 
 what faded green suit, witli his own fair hair 
 simply queued by a ribband (like the young Prince 
 Charles, whom he was fond of thinking he resem- 
 bled), his soft and tender but manly eyes, his bear- 
 ing so gallant, earnest, and at times pre-occupied 
 and sad, seemed to Bryde the beau-ideal of all she 
 had read or heard sung, that a hero or prince should 
 be — the magnificent young princes of those dear 
 old fairy tales, which have charmed so many 
 generations of boys and girls, and whose authors 
 are scarcely known. 
 
 Egerton^s quotations from Ovid, or from the 
 vapid ^Poetical Essays^ of the London Maga- 
 zine, then published at ^'^the three Flower-de-luces, 
 in St. PauFs Churchyard,''^ or from the poems of 
 Mr. Edmund Waller, whose works he greatly* 
 admired, were not always either apt or happy, 
 and his citations from the latter, by frequently 
 exciting her laughter, greatly annoyed him, for he 
 deemed the author of ^The Gentle Shepherd,^ 
 not worthy to tie the shoe-string of him, who 
 sang of Sacharissa. 
 , When Egerton would quote, 
 
 *' While in the park I sing, the listening deer 
 
 Attend my passion, and forget to fear ; 
 
 When to the beeches I report my flame, 
 ' They bow their heads, as if they felt the same : 
 
 To gods appealing, when I reach their bowers, 
 
 With loud complaints they answer me in showers. 
 • To thee a wild and cruel soul is given, 
 ij More deaf than trees, and prouder than the heaven !''
 
 168 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 Bryde would laugli merrily at the poor poet being 
 rained on^ and at that overstrained hyperbole, 
 which seemed to the amorous Lieutenant of the 
 Buffs_, a singular combination of grandeur and ten- 
 derness. Then^ as no lover likes to be laughed at^ 
 he would leave her in a pet_, or by blundering or 
 committing mistakes,, by talking of the Pretender 
 and the rebels (ever a sad error in Scotland)^ he 
 would irritate the girl he was most desirous of 
 pleasing. 
 
 ^^ This young gentleman hath served a popgun 
 campaign or so^ in Flanders ; but he will never be 
 a hero^^' he once remarked, chiefly to pique 
 Captain Douglas/' who stood near them. 
 
 A hero, perhaps not/' said Bryde, who saw 
 the sudden and painful flush that crossed the 
 cheek of the attainted lord : " had he a heart that 
 knew neither genuine love or honest hatred, he 
 might be like your adored Prince of Orange ; pity 
 nor fear, he might equal the greatest of your regi- 
 cides, Cromwell ; and if he were without regret or 
 remorse, he might be greater than either; but 
 being a brave young gentleman of five-and-twenty, 
 pretending to nothing — " 
 
 " Save as a Catholic to the crown of these Pro- 
 testant realms, my dear madam.'' 
 
 "Enough, sir; let us talk no more of this,'^ 
 Bryde would say, filled with sudden anger, plant- 
 ing her high heel on the floor, and ruffling out her 
 flounces^ as she turned away in wrath from the 
 
 it
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 169 
 
 laughing Englishman^ who really cared not a rush 
 for the matter, till he saw that he was only- 
 widening the breach between them. 
 
 " On my honour — on my knees, if you prefer it, 
 I crave your pardon. Miss Otterburn,^^ the good- 
 natured fellow would exclaim ; '^ it is indeed most 
 difficult for an Englishman to speak about any- 
 thing in Scotland, without giving offence to some 
 one.'^ 
 
 " How so, sir ? '' 
 
 ^^It is a land of — such devilish whim- 
 whams.''^ 
 
 " What hath made it so ? " said Bryde, opening 
 and shutting her fan vigorously. 
 
 " May I die if I can ever tell you.^^ 
 
 " Then I shall — your southern interference * 
 open and secret for centuries, alike with church 
 and state, have split, severed and divided the 
 people ; but a time shall come anon, when these 
 things shall be amended,^^ the fiery little Jacobite 
 would add. 
 
 Then with the air of a tragedy queen, she 
 would give Egerton her ungloved hand to kiss, 
 and he would bow his head over it, like a courtly 
 young gentleman, as he certainly was, at times, 
 and for a little space, he would be gay and hopeful 
 again. 
 
 A few days passed away thus, quietly, rapidly, 
 and pleasantly at the secluded old manor house of 
 Auldhame.
 
 170 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 Egerton^ wlio was extremely anxious to please, 
 played picquet, cribbage, back-gammon_, and the 
 knightly game of chess with Sir Baldred^ to whom 
 te talked much of the new game of billiards, which 
 had not as yet crossed the Tweed. He delighted 
 most, however^ in a quiet game of primero, at a 
 little side gueridon, with Bryde. This was a 
 game of Spanish origin, played by two, one shill.- 
 ing stake, and three for rest — i.e., pool — and the 
 cards used were longer and narrower than those 
 of the present day ; but in this pleasure he was 
 seldom indulged, and on each occasion had been 
 interrupted by the appearance of the odious Bailie 
 Baler aftie, with his stealthy eyes and cat-like 
 step, or by the sour Mr. Carfuffle, and had to re- 
 linquish the game in haste, as both minister and 
 elder were in duty bound to rebuke such a sin- 
 ful waste of time, with a reference to the noto- 
 rious Colonel Charteris, the gambler and warlock. 
 
 But the reader may imagine with what aston- 
 ishment and dismay Bryde, in her simple ideas of 
 propriety, heard Captain Wyvil mention that he 
 had frequently lost large sums to General Wade, 
 at cards, in public, at the gaming-tables of the 
 Countesses of Mordington and Cassilis, in Lon- 
 don, and that he had been present when these noble 
 dames resisted the intrusive peace officers in the 
 preceding year, claiming the privilege of peerage 
 for doing so, a claim, however, refused by the 
 House of Lords.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 171 
 
 " A Douglas of Mordington — a Countess of 
 Cassilis ! '' exclaimed Miss Otterburn^ in actual 
 dismay, at such a prostitution of rank and posi- 
 tion. 
 
 "My dear, wee lassie/^ her grandfather said 
 cynically; "the wives of those who sold their 
 country, may surely add to their illgotten gains, 
 by cheating a little at cards.^^ 
 
 Long absent as he had been from his native 
 land, and accustomed to the sallow women of 
 France, it was impossible for Sir John Mitchell to 
 be long insensible to the blooming beauty of 
 Bryde Otterburn, or not to be charmed as an 
 enthusiastic Scotsman and true-hearted cavalier 
 by her rebellious ahandon, her blunt, open, and' 
 fearless loyalty, for she claimed all the dangeroifS 
 privilege of her sex to say whatever she thought ; 
 and, moreover, it was impossible for him not to 
 be stirred by her native songs, which she sang 
 with great sweetness and power. 
 
 Though more than twice her age, poor Mitchell 
 would soon have learned to love her more truly, 
 and tenderly than the thoughtless Egerton, whose 
 love, perhaps, began in ennui ; but he saw that 
 she was the secret object of Dalquharn^s heart, 
 and strove to crush the rising flame, that he 
 might prove the more useful subject and soldier to 
 his exiled king. 
 
 So Bryde had actually four lovers in her little 
 household circle, and almost unknown to herself.
 
 172 
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Balcraftie on the scent. 
 
 ** The fair Matilda dear he loved, 
 A maid of beauty rare ; 
 "EtetL Margaret on the Scottish throne. 
 Was never half so fair ! 
 
 " Lang had he woo'd, lang she refused. 
 With seeming scorn and pride ; 
 Yet oft her eyes confessed the love. 
 Her fearful words denied." 
 
 Sir James the Rose, 
 
 No softer emotions lessened the deep and fervent 
 zeal of Sir John Mitchell. Every horse he passed 
 afield or on the highway^ he examined with critical 
 eye, that he might ascertain whether it was fitted 
 for mounting cavalry, dragging light artillery, the 
 siege-train, or the heavy baggage, services the 
 owner had never reckoned it should perform. 
 Every feature of the landscape, and every turn of 
 the road suggested a position to be attacked or 
 defended. 
 
 '^ Among those green whin bushes,^' he would 
 say, " the line of skirmishers would lurk unseen ; 
 on yonder grassy knolls would be the field-pieces, 
 unlimbered and loaded ; along the ridge between, 
 would be the first line of infantry, with colours
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 173 
 
 flying ; and in the hollow beyond would be the 
 reserve and the cavalry,, ready to advance at a 
 moment^s notice ; while yonder bog would cover 
 the right flank, and the bridge of the Tyne, if 
 blown up, would secure the other.'^ 
 
 But Sir Baldred would wince at this suggestion, 
 as he had built, at his own expense, the bridge re- 
 ferred to. 
 
 Mitchell loved merry Bryde, but her bright, 
 laughing eyes never lured him to forget, even for 
 a moment, the great mission he had come upon. 
 He had already paid several visits to influential 
 Jacobites in Edinburgh and its vicinity, absenting 
 himself studiously from the spells of the little en- 
 chantress at Auldhame, and, as the sequel proved, 
 happy would it have been for the young Lord 
 Dalquharn had he done so too ! 
 
 Sir John with Sir Baldred's horses freely and 
 frequently rode more than forty miles a day on 
 the king^s service, each time returning to Auld- 
 hame with a ruddied cheek, a bright eye, and a 
 brave heart, that beat gaily and anxiously with 
 loyal hope and joy, for he had cheerful tidings to 
 communicate. 
 
 Archibald Stewart, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 
 and some of the magistrates (though they were 
 mounting new cannon on the walls and increasing 
 the city guard). Lieutenant - General Joshua 
 Guest, the new English governor of the Castle, 
 sent specially to supersede old General Preston,
 
 174 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 because tlie latter was a Scot^ and could not be 
 trusted (tbough he proved the truer Hanoverian 
 in the end), some of the officers of his garrison. 
 Lieutenant- General Peregrine Lascelles^ regiment 
 (47th), these and many others in and around the 
 capital were all, as their future conduct evinced, 
 in the interest of the house of Stuart, and who 
 could doubt of success ! 
 
 Like the Scots of all classes. Sir Baldred grum- 
 bled incessantly at his share of the English taxes, 
 consequent to the union. Prior to that event, Scot- 
 land, though she had borne her share in the wars 
 of Flanders and the Spanish succession, had no 
 national debt. That millstone, round the neck of 
 England, dated from a much earlier period than 
 1707. Of the fourteen years of the reign of 
 William of Orange, ten were years of uninter- 
 rupted war, waged chiefly for the defence of 
 Holland. Of the thirteen years of Anne, twelve 
 were years of a war that ended only by the dis- 
 graceful treaty of Utrecht ; and next, the house 
 of Hanover led us into disastrous wars on behalf 
 of that pitiful Electorate. William, a king totally 
 reckless of posterity, spent more than forty-four 
 millions in war ; ^' and after all the blood and 
 treasure expended, his ambition and revenge re- 
 mained unsatisfied, and the ostensible object of 
 the war, the curbing the ambition of Louis XIV., 
 unattained.''^^ 
 
 * The Extraordinary Black Book.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 175 
 
 SmoUet says of the strife which ended at the 
 treaty of Ryswick^ " Such was the issue of a long 
 and bloody war_, which had drained England of 
 her wealth and people^ almost entirely ruined her 
 commerce^ debauched her morals^ by encouraging 
 venality and corruption, and entailed upon her 
 the curse of foreign connections, as well as a na- 
 tional debt, which was gradually increasing to an 
 intolerable burthen/^ 
 
 Sir Baldred abhorred the heavy taxation and re- 
 strictions those foreign strifes imposed — taxation 
 for which the equivalent paid by England to 
 Scotland at the union was no recompense, when 
 the total ruin of the east coast trade is considered ; 
 and he looked forward to an imaginary time, when 
 once again, the Otterburns of Auldhame, and 
 other gentlemen along the sea-border, might im- 
 port their own damask, taffeta, and ironwork 
 from Flanders, and their claret and brandy from 
 France, without the obnoxious interference of a 
 custom-house officer, or a king^s cruiser. 
 
 ^^ Sir John,^^ said he, after a long visit the 
 latter had paid to Edinburgh, ^^ are you equally 
 well assured that London swarms with those who 
 are true to the good cause ? '^ 
 
 " Yes — with Jacobites, known and secret, who 
 wait but the princess advance with a Scottish 
 force ; we have them in the navy — the Lord Mus- 
 kerry for one we can rely on — and in the army, 
 some^ ^tis said, in all regiments, but chiefly among
 
 176 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 our Irish and National corps, the Greys, the 
 Scots Guards, the Fusileers, and Edinburgh regi- 
 ment — aye, even among Semples canting Camero- 
 nians. We have them among the merchant 
 princes of London, the privy council, and the 
 officers of state,"*^ continued poor Sir John, for on 
 such delusive hopes, did the few unfortunate 
 loyalists in Scotland rely, undeterred by the bitter 
 experiences of 1715. " Here we may count upon 
 the dukes of Douglas, Athole, and Hamilton — I 
 would to heaven we could add Argyle; but that 
 may never be ; the feud between the Campbells 
 and the Stuarts, is too deeply rooted. Let the 
 prince but land, as his father^s regent, and the 
 nation, long weary of German wars and Hanove- 
 rian subsidies, will rise as one man, and long ere 
 the snows of Yule are on the mountains, the bells 
 of Holyrood shall have rung for a coronation, and 
 the Elector, with his hideous mistresses, may be 
 smoking the pipe of peace, over a mug of beer in 
 Herrenhausen.^' 
 
 '^ Pray heaven, this may be so, and no tale of a 
 tub,^^ said Sir Baldred, earnestly. 
 
 " Something is certainly afoot among the 
 people,'' said Captain Wyvil, one day, soon after 
 this conversation ; " and I hope it hath no refe- 
 rence to the rash young gentleman, who aspires 
 so highly.'' 
 
 " How so, sir — mean you the young Chevalier?" 
 asked Sir Baldred, wheeling his easy chair half
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 177 
 
 round, and fronting the Englishman, whose face 
 wore a somewhat grave expression. 
 
 '^Yes, good Sir Baldred; Tony Teesdale, my 
 Serjeant, was at the smithes shop in the hamlet, 
 getting the head of his halbert riveted anew, and 
 there in a corner he espied — what think you ? A 
 goodly bundle of sword blades, some long Scots 
 pistols, and so forth." 
 
 '^ In my young days, ^twas nothing uncommon 
 to see the iron graith of war in a Scot's smithy; 
 but now, Captain " 
 
 "What now?" 
 
 tc 
 
 This vile incorporating union hath taken alike 
 the honey from the bee, and the sting from the 
 wasp." 
 
 " I am a loyal man," replied Wyvil, " and can* 
 not help beholding the indications of the time, 
 with emotions of sadness and alarm." 
 
 "Sir, you are loyal to those who are on the 
 throne, and I think you not the less a man of 
 honour. I am loyal to the distant and the dead — 
 to kings in exile and kings in the grave, and 
 whilk think you is the most unselfish loyalty of 
 the two?" 
 
 "Yours, of course," said Wyvil, smiling; "but 
 I pray you, most worthy friend, to let this matter 
 drop, and " 
 
 "We shall have a pint — a Scot's pint — of 
 claret on the head of it ! " 
 
 In his secret heart, or that ingenious piece of 
 VOL. I. 1^
 
 178 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 .mechanism,, which an anatomist would term so — 
 Bailie Reuben Balcraftie far from regretted^ he 
 even rejoiced that his acquaintance (he presumed 
 not to term him^ friend), Sir Baldred, was com- 
 promised, as he felt morally certain he was, by 
 the presence of two Jacobite emissaries in his 
 house. Balcraftie liked to have people in his 
 power, no matter whom or how ; they might be 
 turned to profit in some way, so he determined to 
 wait and watch well. 
 
 Too old to take the field himself, and unable 
 to send men. Sir Baldred resolved to raise some 
 money for the prince^'s service, and asked the 
 moneylender to accommodate him with five 
 hundred pounds, a sum equal to thrice its present 
 value, or more. 
 
 "Money again, Auldhame ?^' said the Bailie, 
 whose curiosity was at once roused. 
 
 " Yes, monev ! "^ 
 
 "But how in the name o' misfortune cometh it 
 to pass, that I find you again like the unthrifty 
 virgins, who had nae oil in their lamps ? And in 
 what wild Darien scheme, or South Sea bubble 
 are you proposing to sink the money ?^^ 
 
 " You ask too many questions, Mr. Balcraftie,^^ 
 replied Sir Baldred, sternly. " You can give me 
 the money, I suppose, or a wadset, over the land 
 of Halflongbarns P"*' 
 
 "True," said the other, twisting his tiewig 
 about ; " but the sum. is an unco large one — and
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 170 
 
 wliat want yon wi' the siller, for sae sure as I ani 
 a pardoned '^ 
 
 ^'^ What is it to thee, fellow, if I require the 
 wretehed dross, and pay a usurious interest for 
 it?" 
 
 '^ Your son's funeral, puir fallow, cost enough, 
 I mind, to ruin a barony,^' said the Bailie, still 
 " angling '' to discover the baronet's purpose. 
 
 " My son's funeral ! '' retorted the other, with 
 flashing eyes ; " what is that to thee, either, 
 wretch ? Thy lyke wake will cost less, I warrant ! 
 I remember the funeral of Scougal of Whitekirk ; 
 there were the Lords of Council and Session, the 
 advocates and clerks to the Signet, and the 
 macers Avith crape-covered maces, all in mourning, 
 on foot or on horseback, present, and dost thinlv 
 I would give my murdered boy a lesser cortege 
 than his ? " 
 
 The Bailie changed colour, and his cunning 
 eyes quailed beneath the fiery glance of the old 
 gentleman, yet he ventured to remark, 
 
 " This money would outrig a troop of horse." 
 
 " Perhaps," said the other, drily ; " but if you 
 have not the money, I must apply to old Johnny 
 Screwdriver, the clerk to the Signet, in Craig's 
 Close, and he, I warrant " 
 
 " Ye shall hae the money, Auldluime, ye shall 
 hae the money," said the other, hastily ; " I'vt 
 just had that identical sum repaid me by Colone^ 
 Gardiner, of Bankton, that pious and Christiai 
 
 12—2
 
 180 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 soldier, who pores daily over that wonderfu' book, 
 ' Heaven taken by Storm/ " 
 
 " He must have a lively time of it/' said Sir 
 Baldred, who had a great contempt for the gallant 
 officer in question. 
 
 "False carle V thought the Bailie, as he with- 
 drew, " thy pride shall hae a sorrowfu' fa', or my 
 name is no Reuben Balcraftie \" 
 
 The heavy wadset or bond which he already 
 held over a portion of the Auldhame estate, and 
 which has already been referred to, as consequent 
 to the assassination and robbery of Bryde's father, 
 gave him a certain hold, or influence over the 
 worthy old baronet, otherwise he, Reuben Bal- 
 craftie, though Bailie of North Berwick, and 
 elder of St. Andrew's church, had never been 
 tolerated beyond the corridor or housekeeper's 
 room, by the proud Laird of Auldhame, who was 
 now, somehow, constrained to receive him as an 
 occasional guest at his own table. 
 
 How such a creature as Balcraftie, a man in 
 his fiftieth year at least, a smuggler, hypocrite 
 and usurer, a cringing slave to the rich, a grind- 
 ing tyrant to the poor ; a canting, whining, coarse, 
 and burly fellow, with his sleek bearing, his 
 bushy eyebrows, and dull pale watery eyes, thin 
 lips, huge feet and hands, his massive stooping 
 shoulders and stealthy gait, could ever hope to 
 win even one favourable glance from such a girl 
 as Bryde Otterburn ; or how he dared to imagine
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 181 
 
 that she could ever view liiin otherwise than with 
 simple aversion^ it is difficult to conceive. So is it 
 hard to comprehend the confidence that made him 
 think of putting himself in competition with two 
 handsome young men like Talbot Egerton and the 
 Lord Dalquharn ; one he knew to be of a good 
 old English family^ and the other having all the 
 bearing of what lie shrewdly suspected him to be, 
 the scion of some noble Scottish house. . Yet 
 those there are and have been, whose incongruities 
 or idiosyncrasies of character have led them to 
 nurse schemes, or visions, as wild and desperate. 
 
 Balcraftie's jealous hate alternated between the 
 two ; as for Sir John Mitchell, he never thought 
 of him as a competitor, as he seldom saw him in 
 Bryde's society, either at home or abroad. 
 Having heard " Captain Douglas ^^ state that he» 
 had been at Auldhame ten years ago, the Bailie 
 had a perilous clue to his identity, he followed it 
 up like a snake and soon discovered him. 
 
 '^ So, so,'''' said he, depositing his tie-wig on a 
 wig-block in his office, and proceeding to polish 
 his bald pate vigorously with a yellow bandanna 
 (one of a bale that had come by the ^ Etoile de la 
 Mer^), "Henry Douglas, Master of Dalquharn, 
 was here ten years syne, wi^ the lord and lady his 
 parents, at the very time Jock Porteous was hung 
 on the Dyer^s tree! Ho, ho, my Lord Dalqu- 
 harn, umquhile of the Holm, I have you fast, my 
 brave man, I have you fast ! I hope, erelong, to
 
 182 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 see the black lioodie-craws flapping tlieir wings 
 owre the haiise banes and harn-pans o^ you and 
 a^ sic popish traitors — ilk ane spiked on a yettlan 
 jagg !" he added, grinding his sharp fangs. Then 
 a smile stole over his coarse visage — a leer of 
 avarice, and something of lasciviousness — and he 
 muttered, while rubbing his huge hands together 
 with nervous glee : '"' Tak^ patience, Reuben, 
 ^ Better is he who ruleth his spirit, than him who 
 taketh a city.^ Patience yet a while, and a"* shall 
 be thine, their tents and their flesh-pots, their 
 gold and their spoils, Auldhame main and farm, 
 lee and woodland — and w^hat is better, the bonnie 
 bird Bryde licrseF V
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 183 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ^ YOUES ONLY AND EVER !' 
 
 "xl promise iii tlie oriel won, 
 
 To crown my growina; bliss ; 
 A drooping head, a circled waist. 
 
 And such a binding kiss ! 
 Oh, happy time ! oh, happy time ! 
 
 It never has its fellow — • 
 The one green leaf that hangs among ^ 
 
 So many sere and 3'^ellow." 
 
 Though I have but to tell " the old, old story '* 
 of a true love, the course of Avhich was neither 
 so smooth as glass, or so swift as an express train 
 (for we could never have a story worth telling 
 without the element of love) the events to be 
 recorded, happened long ago, and have in them 
 points which are decidedly strange and start- 
 ling. 
 
 Bryde and Lord Dalquharn had all their old 
 haunts to revisit ; she had no mother to direct or 
 control her actions, and thus they could steal 
 away by a little postern gate, and pass down the 
 glen towards the sca^ unknown to all, even to the
 
 184 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 jealous Egerton,, for jealous lie was becoming, de- 
 cidedly now ! 
 
 They visited the ewe-hughts, where they had 
 been wont to see Brvde^s ewes milked for the 
 making of cheese, and those bughts are the 
 pleasant theme of many a Scottish song. The 
 DeiFs Loan, with its sombre old trees, the avenue 
 with its gloomy story of the Spectre Drummer, 
 the old tower of Scougal, of which, but a frag- 
 ment now remains ; St. Baldred^s Well near 
 Tantallon, his cradle as a deep fissure in the rocks 
 near Whitberry Point is named, and his boat, 
 now a rock at the mouth of Auldhame Bay, as- 
 serted by tradition to have been once a dangerous 
 obstruction far at sea — these w^ere each and all, 
 visited in turn. 
 
 " The blessed Baldrecl,^^ (according to the His- 
 tory of the Caldees, a hermit who died amid the 
 solitude of the Bass Rock, on the 6tn March, 
 607, when Ewen IV. was King of the Scots,) 
 " moved with pity by the number of wrecks and 
 disasters, occasioned bv this rock, ordered that he 
 should be placed upon it. This being done, at 
 his nod the rock was immediately lifted up, and 
 like a ship driven by a favourable breeze, pro- 
 ceeded to the nearest shore, and henceforth re- 
 mained in the same place as a memorial of this 
 miracle,^'' at the mouth of Auldhame Bay, where 
 in rough weather, the fanciful assert still that it is 
 rocked by the waves and winds. These, and
 
 • THE WHITE COCKADE. 185 
 
 many other legends of East Lotliian, well calcu- 
 lated to 
 
 "Deepen tlie murmur of the falling floods, 
 And shed a browcer liorror o'er the woods," 
 
 were all well known to Brvde Otterburn, and 
 tlms beyond even the charms of her person and 
 manner, Dalqnharn found her a delightful com- 
 panion. Many a Aolume of poetry they conned 
 together, as they walked through the ripening 
 fields, Avliere Bryde's quick eye espied the pret- 
 tiest wild-flowers, with which she Avould make 
 such charming posies, as few others could have 
 done. 
 
 Many of these walks had been taken, but de- 
 terred by the trammels of his personal and. 
 political circumstances, Dalquharn, had not as yet, 
 made known his love to Brvde. 
 
 She led^im to many a fairy ring, long since 
 obliterated by plough and forgotten, but where 
 divers persons in those days of simplicity and old 
 belief in the m.arvellous, averred the little fairies, 
 or gude neighbours in green, danced on the eve of 
 St. John, while the murmur of their tiny harps 
 and voices softlv attuned, in the silence of the 
 place and time, mingled sweetly with the gurgle 
 of the mountain burn, that wound under the 
 leafy gorse and flourishing broom towards the 
 sea. 
 
 At St. Baldred's Well she shewed him the 
 place where Monk's cannon had breached the
 
 186 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 ramparts of Tantallon, and when tlie most of his 
 sokliers, Avho jjerishecl in the attack, had fallen. 
 
 " Many a poor wounded and dying Englishman 
 mnst have Iain here on the green brae side, my 
 lord/^ said Bryde, as her tender eyes filled wdth 
 emotion at the ideas her vivid fancy suggested, 
 " Ah, I hope that the golden broom-bells and the 
 wild guelder roses grew here then, just as they cLo 
 now V 
 
 "Why, Miss Otterburn?'' 
 
 *^ That their beauty and their sweet perfume, 
 may have soothed the last hours of those whose 
 spirits passed away/^ 
 
 " They were sour and morose Puritans, Miss 
 Otterburn,''^ replied Dalquharn, " and doubtless 
 cared but little for such tranquillising influences 
 in their parting moments.^^ 
 
 A day had been set apart at Dalquharn^s 
 earnest wish, for a visit to the old chapel of St. 
 Baldred, and the very evening of this day, Eger- 
 ton had made up his mind to address Miss Otter- 
 burn, if he had an eligible opportunity, and if 
 none offered, to seek a formal interview. 
 
 She was just quitting her ivory-mounted spin- 
 ning-wheel, which usually stood in one of tho 
 drawing-room windows, as Egerton entered, after 
 having made a most careful toilet, and was about 
 to speak, all unaware that Dalquharn, who had 
 been superintending the spinning, was half hidden 
 by the drapery of a little oriel.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 187 
 
 Bowing low and reverentially, Egerton touclied 
 her hand lightly, and something in the action and 
 the expression of the yonng man^s face, gave her 
 an intuitive dread of what he was about to say, 
 for she said hurriedly to her companion : — 
 
 '^ Captain Douglas, have you — have you for- 
 gotten our proposed pilgrimage T* 
 
 '" To the old Chapel ?— how could I forget it T' 
 replied Dalquharn, suddenly appearing to Talbot 
 Egerton^s intense chagrin. 
 
 '^ I have but to get my gloves, fan, and capu- 
 chin — they are in the librarj^, and then I shall 
 show you the tomb of him who won the old 
 chalice of St. Baldred from the fairies,^^ said 
 Bryde, laughing and looking very like a bright 
 fairy herself. " You must know,' ^ she continu(?d 
 with some precipitation and confusion, " that 
 long, long ago, a castle stood by the lonely and 
 rugged shore near North Berwick, on the summit 
 of the great green knoll near the mouth of the 
 mill- burn, and therein, below the ruins, the 
 fishermen allege, that Anlaf tlic Dane, who 
 burned and plundered all the country hereabout, 
 stored up his treasure, which was equal in value 
 to the ransom of three crowned kings. 
 
 '^ The first Otterburn of Auldhamc was riding 
 thence homewards on St. John^s Eve, after dining 
 with the Goodman of North Berwick, and in 
 the moonlight he saAV a multitude of grotesque 
 little dwarfs, and beautiful fairies with long
 
 188 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 golden hair, dancing hand in hand among the 
 heaps of treasure that were visible through an 
 opening in the side of the ruined castle hill. 
 
 " Being a stout and brave-hearted fellow, he 
 reined in his horse, and shouted to them lustilv. 
 On this there came forth a quaint, stunted and 
 bandy-legged little elf, about only eighteen inches 
 in height. He wore a conical red cap, a short 
 red mantle, and bore a large silver cup, under the 
 weight of which he seemed to totter. 
 
 *' ' Sir Knight,^ quoth he, ' drink with us, a 
 stirrup cup ere ye go T 
 
 " Otterburn courageously took the cup ; its 
 weight was ponderous, for it seemed as if full of 
 molten gold, so dense and thick was the yellow 
 liquid which gleamed and bubbled within it — a 
 liquid but little to the liking of the horseman. 
 Firmly he grasped the cup, and dashing the con- 
 tents full into the eyes of the fairy man, he 
 -clapped spurs to his horse, and with an invocation 
 of ' God and St. Baldred V on his lips, galloped 
 away. 
 
 "With what manner of liquor the cup was 
 filled no man could say, but the few drops that 
 fell on the knight^s horse, burned into the bone, 
 through flesh and skin. With shrill shouts and 
 elvish outcries, all the fairies rushed from a thou- 
 sand holes in the hillside, in hot pursuit ; but as 
 the fugitive leaped his maddened horse over the 
 mill-burn, the running water stopped their course.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 189 
 
 as no evil thing can cross a flowing stream, and lie 
 bore home the cnp, which proved to be the beaker 
 of Anlaf the Rover, and which he gifted to the. 
 chapel of St. Baldrcd, where it remained to the 
 Reformation. After tliat event it was brought 
 hither, and is now chained to the stone ambre ia 
 the hall, where you may still see it, but none have 
 drank from it since King James VI. passed here 
 on his way to England. I know you don^t care 
 much for such stories, my dear Mr. Egerton ; thus 
 our ramble would have no charm for vou : but 
 after tea, we shall have some of our usual music 
 — shall we not ?" 
 
 Egerton gave a sickly smile and bowed in 
 silence, for it was perhaps unwise, if not a little 
 provoking in Bryde, to hint thus broadly that h(? 
 was not required to accompany them ; but indeed, 
 the young man had not the slightest intention of 
 offering to do so. 
 
 On getting her walking gear, she thrust the 
 masses of her fair hair between her soft cheek 
 and her black velvet cajiuchin or little hood which 
 was lined with pale blue satin ; drew her tight 
 kid gloves on her small and well-shaped hands, 
 and went forth with a bow and a bright smile 
 that sank deep in Egerton^s heart and filled him 
 with a jealous fury, as the lovers retired together. 
 
 He had come to make a declaration of love, 
 and was left as if turned to stone, without a word 
 having passed his lips, though he smiled as they
 
 191) THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 left liiin — smiled to cloak the cliagriii; tlie bitter- 
 ness and Avoundcd pride that galled him, and the 
 fury that made him nearly tear the silver knot 
 from his sword hilt. 
 
 She was gone, and with another, but her voice 
 yet lingered in his car ! 
 
 " I may have some chance jet/' thought the 
 infatuated young fellow ; " Douglas and she may 
 not speak of love. He may be, as I half suspect, 
 a Jacobite plotter, and women, like Jesuits, are 
 ever the favourite agents of that party ; and then 
 perhaps, egad, the man may be married already V' 
 
 Thoughts like these, gave him false hopes and 
 delusive courage, and he became for a time, a 
 little more composed; but still resolved, that, 
 come what might, he would yet have his interview 
 with Bryde, and from her own lips, learn the secret 
 of his fate, not that we fear, however, Mr. Eger- 
 ton^s heart w'ould have been broken in the least, 
 by a rejection of his suit. 
 
 On this evening, as on a score of others the 
 secret of his love, was hovering on the lips of 
 Dalquharn ; but a sentiment of generosity to 
 Bryde, and a fear lest he might involve her, and 
 perhaps her family, in his most unmerited poverty 
 and political ruin, sealed them up and filled his 
 heart with mingled emotions of love for her and 
 bitterness at fate ! and yet they spoke of the 
 expected landing of the Prince, an event which 
 Dalquharn, who shared that vast and vital secret,
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 191 
 
 knew was drawing nearer and nearer every day. 
 Speaking of his own present poverty : — 
 
 " I am rich/^ said lie, " only in love of country 
 and in loyalty to our rightful king. Deprived of 
 these inspirations and incentives to a glorious 
 future, I should be poor indeed ! But if I fall, 1 
 shall do so, without dishonour/^ and he continued 
 bitterly, " at times I feel so weary even of my 
 young life, that, as a change, I would almost 
 welcome death V 
 
 " On Towerhill, where the noble Derwent water 
 and your kinsman, the brave Kenmure, died — or 
 at the gates of Carlisle ?^^ 
 
 " Nay, on neither place. Miss Otterburn — but 
 on the field of battle.''^ 
 
 " Woe is me, my dear friend, talk not thus V^ * 
 " Where elsc,^^ he exclaimed proudly, " should a 
 Douglas die ? I shall leave few, none perhaps, to 
 lament me, for I am the last of my race — the old 
 line of the Douglasses of the Holm, and as 
 Orlando says in the play, in departing, I shall 
 ^ do the world no injury, for in it I have notluDg ; 
 only in the world I fill up a place, which may be 
 better supplied, when I have made it empty '/ " 
 
 " Then, if you speak thus bitterly, let me add 
 with Hosalind ' the little strength I have, I would 
 it were with you,^ that you might wrestle the 
 better with your fate,'''' said Bryde, with one of 
 her loveliest smiles, as" she caressingly patted the 
 arm on which she leaned : '' vou see that I have
 
 192 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 read the book of the great English dramatist as 
 well as you, my lord/^ 
 
 As they walked on_, Egerton^s presence in the 
 house they had quitted^ even his very existence was 
 forgotten by Bryde and her lover. They passed 
 through the shrubberies and close-clipped hedge- 
 rows, and proceeded towards the venerable fane 
 of Auldhame, which had been built, no man 
 knows when, upon the Seacliff that overhangs the 
 waves of the Firth, but it was old, even in the 
 days of the gracious Duncan, who gifted it to 
 God and St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. 
 
 Dalquharn was silent, for his heart and his eyes 
 were full of love as he gazed from time to time, 
 on his alluring and confiding companion. 
 
 It was an evening of June, and a lovely one ! 
 The purity of the au', the breeze from the far 
 expanse of blue sea that stretched away towards 
 the dark bluff of St. Abb ; the bright sunshine 
 and the odour of the fresh meadows ; the birds 
 that carolled aloft or twittered in the old green 
 hedge-rows, and the gay Avild flowers that grew 
 by the wayside, all conduced to soothe the hearts 
 of Dalquharn and the young girl, and fill tliem 
 with a sense of joy and lightness. 
 
 Within the ruined chapel on the Seacliff, they 
 lingered long. 
 
 Impressed, perhaps, by the solemnity of the 
 place, they went hand in hand now, when de- 
 cyphering the epitaphs and other inscriptions.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 193 
 
 which the stern hand of time, the storms from 
 the sea and the hammers of the gloomy icono- 
 clasts of 1559 had spared. The walls were time- 
 worn_, and covered in some places by emerald 
 green moss ; in others by luxuriant masses 
 of ivy. 
 
 Though the vaulted roof yet remained, in some 
 parts the pavement beneath it, was sunk and 
 irregular, as if the graves below [had fallen in, 
 and the rank grass, the dock and nettle grew up 
 between the slabs, which were covered by quaint 
 Saxon letters, and bore incised marks, where 
 shields and crosses of monumental brass had been 
 torn away by gipsies and peasants for the mere 
 value of the metal. 
 
 Under an arched vault, profusely decorated' 
 with otters^ heads, lay the effigy of a knight (with 
 his mailed feet resting on an otter crouching) 
 since the days of the Reformation, minus his 
 helmetted head, clasped hands and sword hilt; 
 but an inscription, still traceable, requested the 
 visitor to pray for the soul of ^' Sir Nicolas Otter- 
 burn, umquhile of Auldhame, slayne in battel be 
 ye Inglis, anno [1513,^^ for it was he who had 
 brought the calamity of the Spectre Drummer 
 upon his posterity. 
 
 A new rail surrounded this tomb, and Bryde, 
 in a voice which grew low and tremulous, in- 
 formed Dalquharn, that therein her mother and 
 her murdered father lay. Her head drooped 
 
 VOL. I. 13
 
 194 THE WHITE .COCKADE. 
 
 sadly on one side as she spoke, and somehow^ the 
 yonng lord^s arm, went caressingly, in sympathy 
 around her, while his heart rose to his lips. 
 
 "Miss Otterburn — Bryde,dear, dear Bryde,"said 
 he, " I have a solemn thing to say to you, and what 
 place so fitting as this ?^^ He paused and she trem- 
 bled, for too well she knew what was about to come. 
 " I love you — I, homeless, houseless, landless and 
 attainted, am, I know, most guilty in telling you 
 this ; but I do love you tenderly, Bryde — and — 
 and you are the first and only woman, to whom I 
 have ever said so.^^ 
 
 Bryde was silent, very pale, and trembling 
 violently. A shower of tears would have been a 
 great relief, but no tears came. 
 
 Speak, Bryde — dearest, speak ? ''■' he urged. 
 Oh, my lord ! '''' she began, and instead of 
 withdrawiug her hand from his, their clasp 
 seemed to tighten mutually, as if she sought 
 support. 
 
 "Lord me not, Bryde Otterburn — call me 
 Henry Douglas, as ten years ago, in this very 
 place, you were wont to do,"*^ said he, ten- 
 derly. 
 
 "In — in my heart I have long called you 
 
 
 so.'' 
 
 " May I hope that you — you love me then ! '' 
 he exclaimed, in a transport of joy. 
 
 " Hush,^^ said she, glancing hastily around, as 
 if even the dead might hear her, and blushing
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 195 
 
 painfully : " you know that I do — would I have 
 come here with you else — and alone ? " 
 
 Her voice was barely audible. 
 
 One kiss now, and overcome by the excess of 
 long pent-up emotion, they tottered as if intoxi- 
 cated, towards a fragment of the ruined wall, 
 when he seated her beside him. Her face 
 was crimsoned by one continued blush ; but it was 
 hidden in Dalquharn^s breast. His cheek rested 
 on the tresses of her soft brown hair, for her hood 
 had fallen back, and his strong sustaining arm 
 was round her. 
 
 Then he took her fair head caressingly between 
 his hands, and again turned the sweet face up- 
 wards to his — and — somehow, their lips met again, 
 and they trembled in the very excess of their new- 
 born joy, as they looked into each other's 
 wimming eyes, and it might be, into each other^s 
 hearts, too. 
 
 They were long silent and bewildered now, for 
 words no longer came. 
 
 The green leaves rustled pleasantly in the mid- 
 summer breeze, that passed through the open 
 mullions and tracery of the ruined windows ; the 
 merry birds flew in and out, as they sang and 
 twittered among the wild roses and sweet-briar 
 that grew in masses over all the chancel arch, 
 and where of old the altar stood ; the sound of the 
 sea was heard as its white waves climbed the 
 volcanic rocks of the adjacent shore, and the 
 
 13—2
 
 196 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 lovers sat long in silence^ while time seemed to 
 pause, thougli, in reality, witli them it went 
 swifter tlian ever. 
 
 Words come anon, and then confessions were 
 made, and mental impressions related ; coinci- 
 dences of thought and wishes — coincidences that 
 seemed truly miraculous ! How and why had 
 their spirits been apart so long ? How long they 
 had sighed for and thought of each other ! Their 
 strange dreams, their moments of doubt, of sorrow 
 and of sadness ; their former, almost childish days 
 of joyous companionship, with all their dim fore- 
 shadowings of the present time of ecstacy, were 
 re- called and compared with all their minutise, 
 as indicating the hour that had come ; and never 
 were the pure illusions of youthful life and love, 
 more brilliant to the poor attainted loyalist, than 
 at this time, when Bryde Otterburn, in the full 
 flush of her blooming beauty, her girlhood and her 
 passion, reclined her head on his breast, and ac- 
 knowledged that she loved him, though he had 
 only — sorry we are to confess it — his entire estate, 
 a few Louis d^ors in his pocket ! 
 
 ^^ And now it is, that I tremble for you, my own 
 beloved Bryde, whose fate is linked with such a 
 man as an attainted Jacobite — an outlaw whom 
 any man may kill, without the commission of a 
 crime. *^ 
 
 '' And I tremble for you, dear Henry, and my 
 poor old grandfather, who lives so completely in
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 197 
 
 tlie past. Alas, Henry! you know me to be 
 
 loyal — loyal unto death ; but is not tbe cause of 
 
 the Elector too strong for King James to subvert 
 
 it ? oh, if you should — if you should — ; ^^ she 
 
 failed to conclude the sentence, for tears choked 
 
 her utterance. 
 
 ^^ Fear not for me,^^ said he, with assumed 
 
 gaiety; '^1 could deny you nothing, but my 
 
 loyalty to the king, beloved Bryde — Bryde in 
 
 name and purpose — is it not so ? '' 
 
 Could poor Egerton have seen them then ! 
 
 It was almost sunset, (and the June evenings 
 are long,) when they left the ruined chapel 
 and returned towards the house, hand in 
 hand, in silence and full of happiness, and 
 then Bryde, anxious for solitude, and to enjoy 
 a quiet flood of tears, rushed away to her own 
 room. 
 
 On her engaged finger she had a strange ring, 
 which was inscribed 
 
 Yours only and Ever, 
 
 It had been the betrothal ring given by Dalqu- 
 harn's father to his mother, blue-eyed Jessie 
 Gordon, of the loyal House of Kenmure, and 
 could a Scottish cavalier desire a better golden 
 hoop to place on the finger of his affianced 
 bride ? 
 
 On the morrow, Dalquharn would inform Sir 
 Baldred of what had occurred, and crave pardon
 
 198 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 for abusing his hospitality by seeking to rob him 
 of his granddaughter. 
 
 Alas ! he little knew the terrible events^ which 
 a few short hours^ would bring to pass !
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 199 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 MR. EGERTON PROPOSES. 
 
 " Chloe ! my precious ! why so coy ! 
 Tliou dear provoking jewel I 
 Why wilt tkou still suspend my joy, 
 And still continue cruel ? 
 
 " Thus armed with snuff-box, cane and ring, 
 And twenty pretty fancies, 
 Glib nonsense from my tongue shall spring, 
 In a-la-mode advances. 
 
 " However, if these methods fail. 
 And have no power to win ye, 
 I'U only turn about my tail, 
 And think the devil's in ye ! " 
 
 Scot^s Magazinex 1739. 
 
 Neither Captain "Wyvil nor Mr. Egerton graced 
 her teaboard by their presence in the drawing- 
 room on this evening. Mr. John Gage, the 
 English exciseman, had come hurriedly to Auld- 
 hame, announcing that there were rumours of the 
 black lugger having been seen outside the Isle of 
 May, and patrols under Sergeant Teesdale were 
 required at certain points, as the ' Eox ' frigate 
 had run up the river to St. Margaret's Hope, for
 
 200 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 repairs. Sir Jolm Mitcliell, into whose custody 
 Sir Baldred had placed the five hundred pounds 
 obtained from Balcraftie^ was in Edinburgh, on 
 what errand need scarcely be explained. 
 
 Bryde when tea was over found that she was 
 left alone. Dalquharn had swiftly stolen one 
 sweet salute and retired to the library, having to 
 write letters, which he meant to dispatch in person, 
 at a quiet post-house, about two miles distant. 
 They were for the Lords Elcho and Balmerino, 
 and were in cypher, the addresses being " Mr. 
 David Wemyss " and " Captain Arthur Elphin- 
 stone,^^ to the care of the Conservator of Scottish 
 Privileges at Campvere. 
 
 Sir Baldred had fallen asleep in his wide easy 
 chair, with his black wig and sword-belt hung on 
 the knobs thereof, and he wore a purple silk cap 
 pulled over his eyes ; so she kissed the good old 
 man, kindly and tenderly, and issued into the 
 garden, which, in the style of those days was a 
 labyrinth of close walks and yew-hedges; and 
 which, though it covered but four acres or so, 
 would have taken a stranger at least two hours to 
 perambulate and explore. 
 
 Her mind and step were buoyant with happi- 
 ness. Her thoughts were turned inward, and she 
 mentally rehearsed again and again the visit to 
 the ruined chapel, with all its delightful details, 
 while seated on a stone sofa, with her drooping head 
 resting on her left hand, her brown hair falling in
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 201 
 
 bright masses over it, all golden in the light that 
 yet lingered in the west. Her right hand toyed 
 unconsciously with her fan; there was a bright 
 smile playing abont her parted lips ; and she was 
 all unconscious that Egerton stood by, surveying 
 her with admiration and a passion that did not 
 require wine to inflame it. 
 
 He little knew of what had passed, or of what 
 was then in her heart ; but pique, and the wine, of 
 which he had been partaking too freely, gave him 
 a false courage, and a bearing that by turns was 
 jaunty, gay, maudlin, sad, and bitter; so when 
 he did ultimately attract Bryde^s attention and 
 address her, she had but one idea, that he — bored 
 her. ^ 
 
 Poor Egerton had been at Lucky S cougars 
 change-house in Auldhame, where some of the 
 farmers, or yeomen of the Lord Haddington, 
 would insist on sharing with him more than one 
 bottle of good wine, as they were joUy fellows, 
 and simply because he was an English soldier. 
 
 '^Many people in East Lothian at that time 
 were Jacobites, and they were most forward to 
 mix with the soldiers,^^ says Carlyle of Inveresk, 
 in his co-temporaneous autobiography. '^ The 
 commons in general, as well as two-thirds of the 
 gentry, had no aversion to the family of Stuart ; 
 and could their religion have been secured, would 
 have been very glad to see them on the throne 
 again/^
 
 202 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 ^^ Drinking smuggled wine ! ^Twas smuggled,, 
 no doubt, in a rascally Scot^s change-house, when, 
 this very night twelvemonth, I was at a ridotta in 
 the Haymarket, with more than fifteen hundred 
 fashionables, after seeing Mr. Pritchard, Mrs. 
 Clive, and Macklin, at the play. Demme, how 
 the world wags \'' He was muttering this, when 
 he suddenly came upon the young lady seated in 
 the garden, and immersed in happy thoughts as 
 she has just been described — the flush of delight 
 that thrills in the heart of a young and romantic 
 girl on first being assured that an ardent and 
 handsome lover is hers, and hers only ! 
 
 Jealousy, pride, and confidence, now prompted 
 Egerton to test his future fate — to put all upon 
 the hazard of the die ; so he at once seated him- 
 self by the side of Miss Otterburn, who would 
 gladly have avoided him at such a time and in 
 such a private place, lest Dalquharn might come 
 forth in search of her, and suspect her of coquetry. 
 
 '' Has Wyvil told you. Miss Otterburn, that — 
 that in three days only, we in all probability march 
 from this, on our return to head-quarters?^^ he 
 asked. 
 
 '^ I have not seen Captain Wyvil all day,^' she 
 replied, rather coldly, and in no way moved by 
 the tidings of their approaching departure, to 
 Egerton^s intense chagrin. 
 
 '^ Ah ! I forgot ; he has been sending three cor- 
 porals, with patrols, along the coast, to assist the
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 203 
 
 officers of excise in their search for smugglers; 
 but, most probably, in three days, your amiability 
 and hospitality will be no longer taxed by our 
 presence." 
 
 " Taxed— dear Mr. Egerton ? Pray do not talk 
 so. If we have served in any way to lessen the 
 too evident tedium of Scottish quarters to you and 
 good Captain Wyvil, we shall only consider our- 
 selves too happy." 
 
 '^ WonH you be sorry, though, when we are all 
 gone?" asked Egerton, adjusting his wig and 
 hat, which, sooth to say, were both somewhat 
 awry, so much so, that Bryde^s merry eyes were 
 laughing at him mischievously over her fan. 
 Though her sweet mouth was hidden, he knew 
 that he was the object of her merriment, and said, 
 with pique in his tone, 
 
 '' Egad, madam, you are very cruel ! " 
 
 '^ Cruel ! How so, sir ? " 
 
 '^ Ah ! don^t say sir.'' 
 
 " You called me madam." 
 
 " But your expression chills me," he continued, 
 twirling his sword knot. 
 
 '^ Well — and I am cruel — a veritable cockatrice 
 perhaps ; but in what way ?" 
 
 '^ To dally — to trifle thus, with one who you — 
 you know too well, loves you." 
 
 ^^Sir!" exclaimed Bryde, in an unmistakable 
 flutter, shutting her great green fan, and re- 
 opening it.
 
 204 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 cc 
 
 Sir, again! Pray call me friend — chum — 
 wliat you will : surely my words merit some kind- 
 
 ness/'' 
 
 ^^Well, my friend/^ said Bryde, whose recent 
 and much more momentous interview with Lord 
 Dalquharn had given her more decision of manner 
 and independence of spirit than she would other- 
 wise have possessed at such a crisis as this, " what 
 do you mean, Mr. Egerton?" 
 
 ^^Bryde — Miss Otterburn, I mean — will you 
 pardon me ; but, egad, there is something I must 
 say to you before I go, and — and you shall hear 
 
 me now.^^ 
 
 • Egerton took her left hand between his own, 
 and she was so much agitated that she could not 
 withdraw it, though a heavy, yet stealthy, step 
 was heard on the gravel of an adjacent walk. 
 
 " In three days we shall march, as I said, too 
 probably, and I shall never be here again — unless 
 — unless " 
 
 " What, sir ? Oh, speak quickly, pray ! ^' 
 
 " You should wish me.^^ 
 
 " You, Bryde ; for into your hands I commit 
 my heart, my fate, my future existence ! Bryde 
 Otterburn, I am a straightforward fellow : do you 
 think that you could love — could like me — well 
 enough to marry me. There, egad, the words are 
 out at last \'^ 
 
 Bryde was flushed, breathless, and silent. Eger-
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 205 
 
 ton mistook these for symptoms of yielding, and 
 became more vehement while the eavesdropper 
 drew nearer. 
 
 '^ You have but one word of three little letters 
 to say, Bryde ! '' 
 
 ^' Oh, Mr. Egerton, I pray — I pray ^' 
 
 " Or say you will try to like me — or learn to 
 like me, well enough to be my wife ; or that you 
 would have me wait a little until you considered 
 it — a day, a week if you will ; but say something 
 to give me a little hope, however slender?'^ 
 
 Stunned and bewildered now, Bryde knew not 
 what to say ; but as Egerton^s disengaged hand 
 was menacing her waist, she started up and with- 
 drew a pace or two, trembling with agitation ; for 
 it is not often that a young lady, even one . so 
 charming as our Bryde Otterburn, receives two 
 such offers in one day. 
 
 '^ Pardon me if I give you pain, my dear sir^^' 
 said she, looking down while she spoke ; ^^ but I 
 can never love you — can never marry you, nor, if 
 you knew all, any man who wears a scarlet uni- 
 form,^^ she added, to take away the sting of rejec- 
 tion on political grounds. 
 
 ^^Of course,^' replied Egerton, with a sudden 
 tinge of bitterness in his manner ; " the colour is 
 not popular here I know ; yet it was worn by all 
 your regiments and guards, horse and foot, long 
 before this Union, which we find a pill so bitter 
 here that I marvel Sawney ever swallowed it.
 
 306 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 though that same pill was pretty well gilded by 
 John Bull for the purpose/^ 
 
 It was now Bryde^s turn to be piqued by this 
 suddenly-assumed banter. 
 
 " Why should an English gentleman wear the 
 colours of the German-Elector like you?^^ she 
 asked. 
 
 ^'^^Tis His Majesty's will and pleasure, madam, 
 that the uniform of the Kentish Buffs be scarlet, 
 laced with silver and faced with buff/^ said Egerton, 
 into whose head the wine mounted at times, and 
 made him quaint and absurd ; '^ but, egad, madam, 
 I am independent of the service. My old grand- 
 dad — God bless him ! — left me two thousand a 
 year clear, from good land in Cheshire. I shall 
 resign, quit, sell out, to please you. Miss Otter- 
 burn. Bryde, dearest Bryde ! do you hear me ? 
 though I know my mother and sisters will all take 
 to hysterics and Hungary water on hearing of my 
 marriage with a Scots girl '^ 
 
 ^' Poor gentlewomen ! '' said Bryde, laughing, 
 when she had him half-melted by his earnestness ; 
 '^ I should be so sorry to ofPend their fine feelings. 
 But you address me in vain, Mr. Egerton; my 
 heart is not my own, nor, perhaps, my hand 
 either, if Sir Baldredis consulted on the subject.^^ 
 
 " Then, I have no hope,^^ said the blunderer, 
 sadly. 
 
 '^None; but yet let us be friends, my dear 
 Mr. Egerton.''
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 207 
 
 (( 
 
 Friends^ oh yes, for ever and whatever may 
 happen/^ lie exclaimed, and raising his hat, he 
 knelt down and kissed her proffered hand, with 
 great tenderness. 
 
 It was at this very juncture, that the steps 
 which had been crashing among the gravel, ap- 
 proached the end of the walk, where the stone - 
 sofa stood between the hedgerows, and then, at 
 an arch cut through the dense old yews, Bryde 
 saw the mischievous visage of Bailie Balcraftie 
 appear for a moment. 
 
 ^^ Enough,^^ said she ; " rise Mr. Egerton, and 
 let this matter be recurred to no more.^^ 
 
 She hurriedly withdrew her hand, and with a 
 glance of scorn and anger at the intruder — a 
 glance which Egerton mistook as being meant for 
 him — sailed away, fanning herself vigorously, with 
 her hooped-train sweeping the gravel behind her. 
 
 ^^Aye — aye, Mr. Egerton, and you, my fine 
 madam ! '''' muttered the Bailie, as he slunk away ; 
 ^^ sets the wind in that quarter ? Sae, sae, it is 
 you — ^You, Mr. Egerton, in the king^s livery, the 
 red coat and cocked hat, I maun beware o^, and no 
 the sae called Captain Douglas ! But 1^11 mar 
 your game, 1^11 mar your game, or my name 
 is no Beuben Balcraftie ! '^ 
 
 He continued to mutter thus, while striding 
 away, a fierce gleam passing over his vile visage in 
 the starlight. His hands were clutching convul- 
 sively the square skirts of his coat unconsciously.
 
 208 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 as it were, for jealousy, stung and disappointed, 
 maddened him. 
 
 Between an opening in the walk, Bryde, when 
 just about to enter the house, could see Egerton 
 still kneeling by the garden seat, like one be- 
 wildered. She sighed and feared that she might 
 unwittingly have pained the poor fellow, who had 
 been such a pleasant inmate of Auldhame, her 
 friend and companion too, now for several weeks ; 
 and it was well that she had those gentle thoughts 
 of pity, even for a moment, as she was fated 
 never again to hear the pleasant voice of Talbot 
 Egerton.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 209 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE QUARREI* 
 
 " He is quick ! 
 F"is point and eye do go together ! Scarce 
 You are marked, you're hit ! his sword is part of him, 
 Grows to his hand, sir, as his hand to his wrist ; 
 The very moment that your weapons touch, 
 He is here, and there, and in ! his lounge, a shot 
 
 You see not till 'tis home ! '' 
 
 Woman^s Wii, 
 
 The mistaken glance of Miss Otterbnrn ronsed all 
 Egerton^s pique^ pride^ and jealousy. He started 
 to his feet^ and thrust his silver-laced KevenhuUer 
 hat firmly down upon his curly regimental wig, 
 nearly tearing away its upright feather and black 
 cockade in doing so. 
 
 " Oh ! ^^ he exclaimed in mingled sorrow and 
 anger ; ^^ "'tis very well, madam_, demme ! You 
 Scots have the pride of Lucifer ! What has a 
 plain English squire, like Talbot Egerton, to hope 
 for, when such a spruce Scottish jockey as this 
 Captain Douglas comes into the field ? He will 
 have a pedigree beyond the flood, no doubt, for 
 whether pedlar, with his pack, or a peer of the 
 
 VOL, I, 14
 
 210 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 realm, every Scot hath that hj right of inheritance. 
 Eut I^d have yon to know, Miss Otterbnrn, that 
 the Egertons were Lords of Malpas and Eger- 
 ton, when yonr James I. was twangling on his 
 ghittern in the Tower of Windsor, and that was 
 not yesterday ! And she can treat me so ! Ah/' 
 ne added after a panse, " if I had been a great 
 man with a star on my coat, or a handle of 
 any kind to my name — even a laird of some black 
 rocks and red heather, and ' of that Ilk ^ (instead 
 of my fertile acres in Cheshire) , more than all, if 
 I were a rebel, a Jacobite, a Jesnit^s toady, an 
 outlaw, a Scots cattle stealing thief, perhaps '' 
 
 ^^ What on earth means this farrago, Talbot ? ■" 
 asked Captain Wyvil, who, at that moment, came 
 upon his comrade soliloquizing angrily in the 
 garden ; " is this a comedy you are rehearsing ?''^ 
 
 ^' A comedy, ''sdeath ! no — ^tis more like to 
 prove a tragedy,^' replied the other, greatly 
 ruffled, especially at having been surprised in this 
 state of irritation. 
 
 '^ Prythee, man, what is the matter — you have 
 been taking too much wine ; is it not so ? '' asked 
 the good humoured Wyvil. 
 
 '^ Like Jack Freelove, in the ' Spectator,' who 
 was ' murdered by Melissa, in her hair,' this 
 fair Scottish lass, in her unpowdered locks, hath 
 fairly murdered me ! " 
 
 " Come, come, Talbot, rouse thee, man,'' said 
 the Captain, taking his arm, for Egerton's steps
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 211 
 
 were now becoming unsteady ; ^' don^t be a moon- 
 struck fool. We shall, too soon, I fear, have 
 other work cut out for us among tbe misty Scot- 
 tish mountains, than falling in love, and sighing 
 like furnaces ; and other work even than searching 
 a wild and rocky shore, and by rugged roads in In- 
 dian file, for smugglers^ secret haunts and hoards.^' 
 
 '^ Captain Douglas — a pretty fellow, no doubt ! '^ 
 muttered Egerton, talking to himself; ^*^I^11 have 
 him out to a game of sharps, though — FU have 
 him with sword and pistol ! ^^ 
 
 " Aha, I see how it is,^' said Wyvil ; '^ our new 
 friend from Holland has turned your flank, my 
 poor beau, Egerton.^^ 
 
 The latter replied only by an incoherent exple- 
 tive. 
 
 " Well, Talbot, after being, as I and all our 
 mess have known you to be, madly in love with 
 sundry queens, princesses, and fairies of Covent 
 Garden and old Drury, carrying even their sedans 
 at night, and after parading Sir Timothy Tawdry 
 and others of ours at the back of Montague 
 House about them, I do marvel that even the 
 blooming freshness of this Scots heather belle 
 hath dazzled you ; but " 
 
 " This way ! down the avenue — come with me,^^ 
 said Egerton, hurriedly ; ^^ V\\ have it out with 
 him — I tell you, Marmaduke, 1^11 have it out 
 with him,^^ he threatened for the fourth time, as 
 he saw Dalquharn approaching, with his head 
 
 14—2
 
 212 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 bent on his breast, and apparently full of thongbt. 
 He was walking quickly, being in baste, to post 
 the letters he had just penned to two of the lead- 
 ing men of his party. 
 
 He was evidently in deep reverie, as one might 
 well be, whose mind saw in the future crumbling 
 thrones and the strife of kings, bloody fields, and 
 all the horrors of a civil war, the flames of which 
 his own hand was seeking, or aiding to kindle. 
 He saw neither Wyvil nor Egerton, against whom 
 he stumbled, or by whom he was roughly jostled, 
 for both started and surveyed each other with con- 
 siderable irritation. 
 
 ^^ You will apologise. Captain Douglas, if 
 Captain Douglas you are indeed ? '''' said Egerton^ 
 with undisguised hauteur. 
 
 ^^ I apologise ! most assuredly not now ; but I 
 demand an amende honorable from you, Mr. 
 Egerton, for your offensive bearing and direct 
 insinuation." 
 
 " Good, demme ! ^' said Egerton, fiercely, cock- 
 ing his hat over his right eye ; ^' you demand satis- 
 faction, do you ? ■'"' 
 
 ^^ This to me ? ■'"' said Dalquharn, greatly ruffled^ 
 as he came forward a pace. 
 
 ^^ To you, or any other man ! " 
 
 ^' Zounds, sirrah ! — " 
 
 '' And I say zounds, my pretty Scot, as the 
 player says, ' I shall tickle your catastrophe ! ' 
 You are welcome to a tune on your own Cale-
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 213 
 
 donian cremona, and demme, if I donH make you 
 dance to it. On guard ! " cried Egerton, who , 
 now seemed mad with furj, and to become intoxi- 
 cated by his own words, as he drew his sword, 
 and smoothed his long lace ruffles back from the 
 wrist of his right hand. 
 
 '^ Have the goodness to lend me your hanger, 
 Captain Wyvil!^^ said Dalquharn, '^I have no- 
 thing, as you see, but a riding rod.^^ 
 
 ^^ Talbot — Talbot Egerton, are you mad!^' ex- 
 claimed Wyvil ; ^^ is this bearing courteous — this 
 rashness seemly ?^^ 
 
 ^^ I care not what they are, so that they suit my 
 humour. On guard, I say ! lend him your sword, 
 Marmaduke, or 1^11 spit him like a spring 
 chicken." 
 
 '^ Never shall my sword be drawn in quarrels 
 
 such as this — so put up yours," said Wyvil, angrily. 
 
 It was fortunate that Dalquharn was unarmed, 
 
 for every vein tingled, and every nerve quivered 
 
 with rage. 
 
 '' Gentlemen, gentlemen," exclaimed Bailie 
 Balcraftie, now hurrying forward, and no doubt 
 extremely glad to see those . men — the two who 
 stood exactly in the path of his intended plans 
 against Bryde — ready to tilt at each other's 
 throats ; ^^ keep the king's peace ! would ye draw 
 in the avenue o' Auldhame, and close to the very 
 door o' your friend and host. Sir Baldred? A 
 bonnie fray it is, and beseeming, too !"
 
 214 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 '^ As a magistrate^ aid me, Mr. Balcraftie — you 
 are an alderman " 
 
 *' A bailie, sir ! " said the other, perking up Ms 
 head and planting his cane on the ground. 
 
 '^ Well, Bailie, aid me to keep the peace here/^ 
 said Captain Wyvil. 
 
 '^ Beware, ye sirs,^^ said the Bailie, thus urged ; 
 '^ for if one person assaults another wi^ a lethal 
 weapon, either in design to slay, or in heedless- 
 ness o^ the bluidy result, the act is held as felony 
 and murder by our Scottish law." 
 
 ^^ Chut ! out upon your Scots law; what is it to 
 me ? I am a free-born Englishmen, and don^t 
 value your Scots law a brass farthing — not even a 
 tester ! '' 
 
 '^ But the Lord Advocate may teach you to 
 your cost, my gay spark, what forethocht-felony 
 is,^^ said the Bailie, shaking his stick; ^^and 
 know ye not, that they who live by the sword, 
 shall perish by the sword ? Mairoure, it is weel 
 nigh hamesiicken to draw blades here ! " 
 
 '^ I draw mine whenever, and wherever I am in- 
 sulted,^^ said Egerton, still standing on his defence. 
 
 "I have no blade to draw,^'' said Dalquham, 
 with growing rage, " or this hour would be a 
 dear one for thee, mad fool ! However, my friend 
 Captain Mitchell " 
 
 '^A Scots rebel like yourself, I doubt not,'^ 
 thundered Egerton, injuriously, and still blindly 
 bent on quarrel and bloodshed.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 215 
 
 ''Nay, sir — a man of the most unspotted 
 honour '/' 
 
 ^' Well— and your Captain Mitchell V 
 
 ^'Jle, on the morrow, shall arrange a fitting 
 time and place for our meeting. Enough of this, 
 Mr. Egerton. You must see, Captain Wyvil, that 
 he is quite beside himself to-night, and I should 
 encounter him, even in the starlight, to his 
 decided disadvantage.'^ 
 
 Egerton laughed scornfully. 
 
 ^^Be assured that, when next we meet, there 
 shall be none to separate us, till one lies stiff on 
 his mother earth V 
 
 With these impressive words, which were re- 
 gretfully remembered at another time, Dalquharn 
 lifted his hat, bowed with great loftiness of bear-* 
 ing, and hastily quitted the avenue, while Bal- 
 craftie followed stealthily a few paces, to learn 
 which way he had gone. 
 
 Dalquharn's heart was burning with rage, and 
 agitated by alarm, for a duel or brawl might lead 
 to his discovery, arrest, and the total destruction 
 of all his hopes, and those of others at this great 
 political juncture. But he knew that he must 
 fight now, and that his honour required it. 
 
 ^^If I fall on the morrow,'^ thought he, "I 
 shall die as plain Captain Douglas, and shall com- 
 promise no one ; but if I had been killed to-night, 
 with the letters and cyphers of Elcho and Balme- 
 rino upon me, how fatal to the cause of the king ! "
 
 216 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 ^^ ^Sdeath^ and the devil ! '^ exclaimed Egerton ; 
 " 1^11 after that fellow, and send him home with 
 his ears in his pocket/^ 
 
 ^' To-morrow, my rash friend, this matter shall 
 be settled, but in presence of selected witnesses,^^ 
 said Captain Wyvil, sternly, " I for one, though 
 ever opposed to duels ; but one word more of this 
 matter to-night, Talbot, and you will make me 
 your enemy /^ 
 
 "My old buck, Marmaduke, to-morrow then 
 be it," replied Egerton, who was now completely 
 sobered, and shook the captain^s hand j " I shall 
 then give our Scottish friend a lesson in carte and 
 tierce, that will serve him for the remainder of 
 his life." 
 
 " A deuced unpleasant thing it is, however, to 
 have a fracas with Sir Baldred^s most favoured 
 guest, and, apparently, his most particular friend,^^ 
 said Wyvil, " and to run that friend through the 
 body, is but a poor return for the old man^s kind- 
 ness during our long visit here. What the devil 
 possessed thee to-night, Talbot? Other three 
 days had seen us on the march to head-quarters." 
 
 " I am a perfect swordsman " 
 
 " Few better in England, as I know well." 
 
 "And I shall kill him and every man who 
 stands between me and Bryde Otterburn, now 
 that my hand is in for the game !" 
 
 '^ Hush, for heaven^s sake, and don^t let that 
 cool-headed fellow, Balcraftie, hear you — see, he
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 217 
 
 comes tliis way/^ whispered Wyvil; but the 
 Bailie did hear the melo-dramatic threat, which 
 seemed to confirm the scene he had witnessed at 
 the garden seat, and it made his craven heart 
 wince, for he both feared and hated the bold and 
 reckless young Englishman, who now said hur- 
 riedly, 
 
 " Good night, Wyvil — zounds ! I can^t stay 
 here. Why is it that my heart is always strangely 
 stirred, and that my very flesh creeps, whenever 
 the cold fishy eyes of that canting Scotsman fall 
 upon me ! Good night, friend Marmaduke, and 
 remember — to-morrow.^^ 
 
 To-morrow ! 
 
 Egerton hurried away. Wyvil and the Bailie 
 thought that he had gone through the garden 
 hedge-rows to the mansion of Auldhame ; but the 
 acute magistrate soon discovered that he had 
 returned to the change-house of Lucky Scougal, 
 in the hamlet, to assuage his wrath by one bottle 
 more of her good smuggled Spanish wine. 
 
 When the gardener came a few minutes after, 
 to secure the garden gate, he found one of his 
 best spades missing. It was a new one, fresh 
 from Edinburgh, by the cart of the Dunbar 
 carrier ; he searched everywhere among his flower- 
 beds ; but a thief had evidently been there, for 
 his new implement of husbandry could nowhere 
 be found.
 
 218 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 CHAPTEK XIX. 
 
 MYSTERY. 
 
 ** The afternoon grows dark betimes ; 
 
 The night winds ere the night are blowing ; 
 And cold grey mists from out the sea, 
 
 Along the forest moor are going : 
 And now she paces through the room ; — 
 And ' he will come anon,* she sayeth ; 
 And then she stirs the sleeping fire. 
 Sore marvelling why he thus delayeth." 
 
 The JSunter's Linn* 
 
 Next morning,, when the little party assembled at 
 breakfast, in the chamber-of-dais, or dining 
 room, Bryde Otterburn was absent, but sent a 
 message to the effect that her presence must be 
 excused, as she found herself too ill on that morn- 
 ing to leave bed, and her doting grandfather, who 
 became seriously alarmed about the nervous and 
 hysterical state in which he found her, despatched 
 a servant on horseback, with a led horse, for 
 the barber-surgeon of North Berwick, who bled, 
 blistered, and drew teeth, as well as shaved, curled 
 perriwigs, and dressed toupees, as his striped pole 
 and gilt bason served to inform all who passed 
 through the High Street.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 219 
 
 Mr. Birniebousle officiated at the tea and 
 coffee board; Captain Wyvil presided over the 
 ham J fowl^ and other edibles : and now it was found 
 that another seat was vacant — that of Mr. Egerton. 
 
 Could he be so silly as to sulk, and not to 
 appear purposely ? thought Wyvil. 
 
 The meal proceeded rapidly, but silently ; Bryde 
 with her smiling, brown eyes, quick small hands, 
 and pretty morning dress, with its frills all 
 plaited (as if by the fingers of the Brownie), was 
 not there to shed radiance over all. 
 
 WyviFs idea was soon dissipated by the butler, 
 who announced with some astonishment, that Mr. 
 Egerton was not in the house, that he had not 
 been abed, nor had he been seen since last night ! 
 Captain Mitchell had not yet returned from Edin- 
 burgh. Wyvil glanced enquiringly at Dalquharn, 
 and was astonished by the change in his face, and 
 appearance generally, since last night. He was 
 paler and actually older looking; his dark blue 
 eyes were bloodshot, and he seemed to have passed 
 a sleepless night. He drank little and ate less. 
 He was feverish and nervous, and to the observant 
 eyes of Wyvil, he seemed to have an intense diffi- 
 culty in commanding or fixing his ideas. In 
 short, his once strong, but keen nervous system, 
 seemed completely unstrung, like one who was 
 recovering from a long and deep debauch. 
 
 Can this young man be afraid of Egerton, and 
 of the proposed hostile meeting ? thought the cap-
 
 220 , THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 tain next, and with some contempt in his tone, he 
 again asked if Captain Mitchell had returned. 
 
 Dalquharn, in a voice that was barely audible, 
 replied, that he had not. Sir Baldred was 
 fidgety and alarmed, but knew not why. 
 
 " Egad,'' he muttered, " I shall have two 
 patients on my hands apparently. Any word of 
 Mr. Egerton yet?" he asked, as the butler re- 
 turned from making fresh enquiries. 
 
 He had been last seen with Captain Wyvil in 
 the garden and avenue ; thieves were supposed to 
 have been about last night, as the gardener had 
 one of his best shovels stolen, and there were 
 marks of strange feet among the tulip-beds. 
 
 "Wyvil now became seriously alarmed. He 
 remembered that he had heard his grandfather 
 (an old colonel of the Ironsides) relate many a 
 time at Hurstmonceaux, how CromwelFs men in 
 Scotland, during the first two or three years of 
 their service there, had been slain like reptiles by 
 the peasantry. His blood boiled up; he stuck 
 his loaded pistols in his girdle, and went forth to 
 urge the scrutiny in person. 
 
 The day passed slowly on ; Mitchell returned in 
 the evening, and joined in the search with Dalqu- 
 ham and others ; the sun drew westward, but 
 still no trace was found of the missing man. 
 
 Woodlands and highways, corn-fields and hedge- 
 rows, were searched and examined; every flight 
 of crows was deemed ominous that he was lying
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 221 
 
 in the spot towards which they winged their way. 
 Could he have fallen over the rocks into the sea, 
 or otherwise have committed suicide ? Wyvil 
 loudly asserted that he was not the man to be 
 guilty either of such folly or such wickedness. 
 Had he been waylaid by Egyptians (as the gipsies 
 are named in Scotland), by footpads, for the value 
 of his watch and rings, or by revengeful smug- 
 glers, for Scupperplug^s sable craft was alleged to 
 have been seen in the offing ? 
 
 Sergeant Tony Teesdale, who, with all the 
 grenadiers of the detachment, made a close and 
 vigorous pursuit, averred that he had not seen 
 him at Auldhame hamlet ; and Lucky Scougal 
 asserted that he had quitted her house about half- 
 past nine, or in the early part of the gloaming/ 
 and that he was then not quite sober, but was 
 flushed with wine and excitement. 
 
 Suspicions of the worst kind seemed verified 
 when Sergeant Teesdale and the drummer arrived 
 at the house about nightfall, with a lace sleeve 
 ruffle and golden link, and with the buff-faced cuff 
 of a uniform coat, having thereon six flat buttons of 
 plain silver. Though regimental buttons bore no 
 number or device until 1767, it was at once 
 recognised as Egerton^s, and seemed to have been 
 rent away by violence, like the ruffle, which was 
 spotted with blood ! 
 
 It was taken to Bryde, who shuddered and 
 wept over it, for she knew the ruffle only too
 
 222 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 wellj by some stitches she had put in it a day or 
 so past, at the request of the wearer, who was 
 then in a gay and flirting mood. These relics 
 had been found on the highway, near the avenue 
 gate, but this might not indicate the scene of 
 violence, as they seemed to have been blown 
 hither and thither by the last night's wind. 
 
 Their discovery added greatly to the growing 
 excitement ; the search was resumed with greater 
 vigour, and even Bailie Balcraftie, who arrived 
 with the Esculapian shaver from North Berwick, 
 took part therein. 
 
 " My brave young friend must have been the 
 victim of some foul treachery," exclaimed Captain 
 Wyvil ; ^' he was one of the best swordsman in 
 all London ! '^ 
 
 '^ Alake the day ! " moaned the Bailie ; " I aye 
 feared that English lad would come to an evil 
 end ! '' 
 
 " Wherefore thought you so, sir ? '' asked 
 Captain Wyvil, sternly ; ^' there was not a more 
 harmless fellow in the Buffs, or in all the king's 
 
 service." 
 
 " May be sae, but I warrant he never knelt to 
 the blessed book, and as the song says, 
 
 *' 'He downie sing at the Psalm 
 For spoihng his mim mim mou ; 
 And the lips that sing na to God 
 Should never a maiden woo.'" 
 
 "Excuse me, sir — ^but d n your song!"
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 223 
 
 said Wyvil, fiercely, as he adjusted Ms sleeve 
 ruffles. 
 
 '^And then he was sorely addicted to card- 
 playing, to twangling on the vial, to dancing and 
 blowing on the flute — vain snares o' the man o' 
 sin, and in nae way suiting the man o^ God." 
 
 Wyvil could not speak; he only gave the 
 magistrate a withering glance of silent and pro- 
 found scorn. 
 
 '^ Gude forgive me, a weak and erring creature, 
 if I misjudge the youth, Captain,^' continued the 
 Bailie ; and then lifting up his face, and closing 
 his pale and cunning eyes, he crossed his hands 
 meekly on his walking cane, and whined out, ^' ^Oh 
 judge not, lest ye be judg — ed V and ^ oh cease 
 ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for 
 wherein is he to be accounted of?'" 
 
 Another day passed, and still there came no 
 tidings of Egerton. 
 
 The spinnet stood open in the drawing-room, 
 with some leaves of Scottish music on the stand, 
 and there lay the poor fellow's flute, with which 
 but two or three days ago, he had been accom- 
 panying Bryde, and striving hard to please that 
 beautiful and wilful young lady, by attempting 
 a Jacobite air, 'The auld Stuart^s back again,* 
 which would have cost him his commission, and 
 more perhaps, if those in authority had heard 
 him. And now Wyvil looked sadly at the instru- 
 ment, and at the tiny flageolet, which had been
 
 224 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 the player^s gift to Miss Otterburn in a happier 
 hour; and the honest and true hearted captain 
 sighed, for he loved his young subaltern sincerely, 
 and in Scotland, Englishmen still felt as if they 
 were somewhat in a foreign country. 
 
 '^ Can she have loved him after all — and what 
 means all this horrible mystery ?^' exclaimed the 
 captain, who on hearing that the young lady was 
 still unwell and abed, craved that he might have 
 an interview with her for a few moments ; but Mrs. 
 Dorriel Grahame assured him in language, which 
 to Wyvil was barely intelligible, that she was far 
 too ill to see anyone. 
 
 She had been recovered with difficulty from a 
 succession of fainting fits, by burnt feathers being 
 placed under her nostrils, and by having poured 
 between her lips, the distillation known as Hun- 
 gary water, being wine flavoured with rosemary, 
 after the recipe written about 1659 by Elizabeth, 
 queen of Hungary. 
 
 She was now pale, speechless, and did nothing 
 
 but moan, weep, and refuse all food. It may be 
 
 added, that the ring which bore the significant 
 
 motto. 
 
 Yours only and ever, 
 
 the ring placed upon her finger in that delicious 
 hour at St. Baldred^s chapel by Dalquharn, was 
 already withdrawn from her hand. 
 
 "Why was this ? 
 
 An inexplicable change had also come over the
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 225 
 
 bearing of Lord Dalquharn. Was it the result of 
 the unavenged insults and defiances hurled at him 
 on. that eventful evening, or was it the anxiety for 
 the fate of his foe, which caused this too apparent 
 alteration. He had now a wistful expression of 
 eye, and did not exert himself much in the search, 
 so thought the sharpsighted and now suspicious 
 Wyvil — or he did so in a hopeless and mechanical 
 way, as if the inquiry would have no result. 
 
 To Sir Baldred it always seemed as if there 
 was something which the young lord wished to say, 
 but lacked the heart or energy to do so ; or he was 
 always interrupted by the inopportune arrival or 
 presence of Balcraftie, of Wyvil, and of inquiring 
 country friends, who poured from all quarters 
 into Auldhame, to eat and drink, condole, sug- 
 gest, and speculate upon the mystery. 
 
 There were times when Dalquharn thought him- 
 self unobserved, or when Balcraftie was present, and 
 when the cold but vulture-like eyes of that indivi- 
 dual were upon him, that his pallor — he was very 
 pale now — increased, when a spasm would pass 
 over his handsome features, and even an uncon- 
 trollable convulsive shudder shake his frame. 
 
 Once he was seen gnawing his lips, with a glare 
 in his blood-shot eyes; he frequently sighed 
 heavily, and, strange to say, those indications of 
 violent emotion were also exhibited by Sir John 
 Mitchell (that usually jovial and equable guest of 
 Sir Baldred), with whom Lord Dalquharn was 
 
 VOL. I. 15
 
 226 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 now almost hourly in conversation and earnest 
 consultation, apart from tlie rest of the household. 
 By orders from Sir John Cope, the Lieutenant- 
 General commanding in Scotland, Captain Wyvil 
 delayed marching his detachment to headquarters, 
 till more stringent inquiries were made concerning^ 
 the missing officer ; but these, like the rest, were 
 all urged in vain. 
 
 Old Dorriel Grahame was never weary now of 
 discanting on the many good qualities possessed 
 by '' puir Maister Aigerton,^^ as she named him, 
 and made Bryde more feverish and wretched by her 
 noisy lamentations for his supposed death, on which 
 she dilated with all the morbid minutice of her class. 
 '^ That pawky auld kimmer. Lucky Scougal, 
 should ken something o^ this black business,^' 
 said the Bailie, sententiously. 
 
 '' Why so ? '' asked Captain Wyvil. 
 "She may have cast her evil eye upon the 
 puir lad, for the carlin hath but a bad repute in 
 the parish/^ 
 
 Wyvil knew not what this meant ; but it was 
 averred in the district that the keeper of the 
 change-house Egerton had last quitted, was one 
 of those who practised witchcraft in secret, and 
 who levied a species of black mail upon the pea- 
 santry, in the shape of meal, barley, and cheese, 
 to shield them from the power of the evil eye, 
 or, as the phrase is still in the country, to make 
 her een look kindly.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 227 
 
 " We must seek aid o' the sheriff, the Procura- 
 tor-Fiscal, and the Lord Advocate/^ said Bal- 
 craftie, who was apparently unremitting in his 
 efforts, and certainly suffered all the sorrow of — a 
 mute at a funeral. 
 
 ^^ Malediction on the Lord Advocate ! '^ said 
 Sir Baldred ; ^^ I have seen the loon at Edinburgh 
 cross, flaunting it with an orange cockade in his 
 hat. Woe is me ! " he added sadly ; " the winter 
 rime of many years hath whitened my auld pow, 
 but never to a guest of mine did such a calamity 
 as this occur before, and no such hour of evil, save 
 when my dear and only son died by the hand of 
 a black and unknown traitor ! 'Tis strange,^* 
 continued the old baronet, musingly, '^that the 
 greatest calamities usually occur between night' 
 and morning, especially if the wind be high.'* 
 
 According to the superstitions of the good folks 
 in and about Auldhame, the mystery involving 
 the fate of Talbot Egerton was heralded or accom- 
 panied by as many omens of evil as might have 
 presaged the fate of a more important personage, 
 than a heedless and half-tipsy young subaltern of 
 the Kentish Buffs ; but then, the Scots of those 
 days doted dearly on the marvellous. 
 
 In the gloaming, the bittern, now no longer an 
 inhabitant of the wilds and marshes of the lonely 
 Lammermuirs, had been heard — 
 
 " to sound its drum 
 Booming from the sedgy fallow." 
 
 15—2
 
 228 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 The voice of " tlie hedge-pig '^ had been heard at 
 times near the close-clipped yew fences of the 
 home-farm, and been taken for the moaning of a 
 disturbed spirit ; and about midnight there came 
 a storm of wind, accompanied by such a roaring 
 and bellowing noise in the Firth, as had not been 
 heard, Sir Baldred affirmed, " since the night the 
 union was signed, when more than fifty whales 
 came up, madly careering and plunging with the 
 tide, which, at its ebbing, left more than thirty 
 of these monsters stranded and rolling on the flat 
 sands of Kirkaldy and Tyninghame next morning 
 — that morning when not a cock in all Scotland 
 had been heard to crow ! '' 
 
 '^ The whales were no bad omen of the future, 
 surely ? " said Captain Wyvil, smiling. 
 
 A description of Egerton^s personal appearance 
 and dress, fairly written in round text by Maister 
 Scoutherdoup, parochial schoolmaster and precen- 
 tor of St. Andrew^s kirk, was displayed at the 
 market-cross of North Berwick, beside Bailie 
 Balcraftie's notice of a preachment thereupon; 
 and, by the voice of the town-drummer, a reward 
 of fifty guineas (to which the Bailie added ten) 
 was oficred for information concerning him, but 
 all in vain ; and his wonderful disappearance 
 formed the staple subject of a great discourse, 
 delivered with singular fluency by the Bailie on 
 Midsummer eve, to a great multitude, on the 
 Links, near the sea ; and there he failed not to in-
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 229 
 
 veigli against the scarlet woman of Babylon (who 
 was then as great a bugbear to the children of 
 Scotland, as the Boo-man and Napoleon Bona- 
 parte in later times), then came prelacy, episco- 
 pacy, and all the backslidings of the times, after 
 which he gave thanks to heaven that he was not 
 as other men are, and the multitude dispersed. 
 
 In the sweet long evenings of June, at the 
 song-trystes, when some twenty or thirty lads and 
 lassies met by agreement at some farm or cot- 
 house, for song-singing and merriment, as was 
 the custom, and at the milking of the ewes, Eger- 
 ton's dark tragedy formed the subject of many a 
 sad ballad and quaint speculation, in which our 
 old friends the fairies figured, for there were not 
 a few of the sturdy plough-lads and shepherd- 
 lassies at the ewe bughts of Auldhame and Tyning- 
 hame, and Whitekirk too, who thought that the 
 elves might have spirited away the handsome 
 Englishman, as all the world knows they did our 
 gallant King James, and the great King Arthur. 
 
 But a short time elapsed before the occurrence 
 of other events of a more startling nature, com- 
 mitted the brief story of Talbot Egerton to obli- 
 vion.
 
 230 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE DEIL^S LOAN. 
 
 *' Is't guilt alone convicted tliat keeps silence P 
 Guilt, saucy guilt, that dares to break the law 
 Of God and man ? Remember you no case 
 Where innocence accused hath all at once 
 Been stricken dumb ? Appalled to undergo 
 The charge of sin, that never could endure 
 The thought of sin?" 
 
 Sheridan Knowles, 
 
 How was it that^ crushed in spirit, and subdued 
 in bearing, the once proud and lofty Dalquham 
 had now almost a terror of Reuben Balcraftie, 
 when before be had only disgust and contempt ? 
 Why was it that he and Bryde were so suddenly 
 changed, and that, although he knew it not, his 
 ring was no longer worn by her ; and what was 
 tbe cause or origin of that grievous and mysterious 
 illness which had so suddenly prostrated her in 
 body and mind, and which baffled alike the skill 
 of the poor excited barber-surgeon of North Ber- 
 wick, and the deeper wit and greater dexterity of 
 the most learned of the physicians of Edinburgh, 
 whose Royal College was then situated at the foot 
 of the Fountain Close ?
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 231 
 
 On the night that Egerton disappeared, Bryde 
 by an appointment was to meet Dalquharn at the 
 end of the avenue, as he returned from despatching 
 his letters at the post-house near Castleton. 
 Luckily for the lovers, all in Auldhame had re- 
 tired early to rest ; the gloaming of the June 
 evening was clear and beautiful ; the air ambient 
 and calm. She tied her capuchin lightly over her 
 soft brown hair; locked up her spaniel lest his 
 barking might betray her ; and issued forth from 
 the private gate, with a flushed cheek, a sparkling 
 eye, alight step, and a joyous heart; for never 
 had the innocent young girl kept a lover's tryste 
 before. 
 
 She looked at her tiny gold watch by the light 
 of the clear, cold, crescent moon, which was now 
 high in the deep blue sky, above the flood of 
 amber that still steeped the western clouds. She 
 was almost too late ! Already Dalquharn must 
 be at the trysting-place, and awaiting her, she 
 thought, and hurriedly she traversed the walk 
 that led outside the garden wall to the long and 
 dark avenue, an umbrageous and leafy tunnel, at 
 the western end of which, and apparently at a 
 vast distance (though but a few miles ofi"), the 
 acute cone of Berwick Law rose in dark and 
 opaque outline against the lighted sky. 
 
 Dalquharn was not at the gate, each pillar 
 whereof was surmounted by a stone otter, the paws 
 of which rested on a quaint, old-fashioned shield.
 
 232 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 She looked out upon the highway ; its far extent, 
 stretching away in dim perspective^ between hedge- 
 rowsj showed no sign of any living thing, save, 
 perhaps, an occasional rabbit or hare flitting 
 across from field to field. The summer night was 
 intensely calm and still, and not a sound was 
 heard now save an occasional drop of dew, as it 
 fell heavily, from a yielding and overcharged leaf, 
 on the thick green sward below. 
 
 On her left lay the deep, dark shadows of the 
 DeiFs Loan. She turned her back upon it with a 
 kind of tremor, for it had ever possessed a species 
 of superstitious terror for her since infancy, as 
 memories of the old Druid days and their rites of 
 blood had come down in the shape of calcined 
 bones found in strange clay urns under a mossy 
 cairn, adders'-heads and elf-arrows, with strange 
 ornaments of bronze and ivory, that told of other 
 races of men and of other times ; and there too, 
 in rank luxuriance, grew the large yellow witch- 
 gowan, the stalk of which is filled with a pernicious 
 sap, which, when placed on the eye-lids, was sup- 
 posed to cause instant blindness. 
 
 Again she looked at her watch ; more than half 
 an hour had elapsed since Dalquharn should have 
 been at the gate, and why did he not (>ome ? "Was 
 it lover-like to tarry ? 
 
 She knew that the errand on which he had 
 returned to Scotland was indeed a perilous one, 
 and that if discovered or betrayed, he was a lost
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 233 
 
 man I She also knew that he was brave, proud, 
 and high-spirited — even reckless; and she now 
 remembered with a thrill of alarm that he had 
 gone forth without arms, without pistols, or even 
 his walking sword; for she had seen him to the 
 door, and bade him a tender adieu. 
 
 Just as this recollection occurred to her, she 
 seemed to hear his voice on the still air, and it 
 came to her ear in tones of anger. 
 
 From whence? She listened again; but the 
 quick beating of her anxious little heart, and the 
 tingling of her ears, though she drew back her 
 hood and her thick, heavy hair, scarcely permitted 
 her to hear. 
 
 Again his voice, and louder still ! 
 
 It came — too surely it came, from that unhal- 
 lowed spot the DeiFs Loan ! She remembered 
 that her dress was dark, and that the moonlight 
 was but faint, and thus, without a moment's hesi- 
 tation — for, though gentle as a lamb, she was a 
 brave and high-spirited girl — she crept along 
 imder the shadow of the hawthorn hedge, till she 
 found herself close to the gloomy and sombre 
 grove of ancient trees. 
 
 She could distinguish figures as well as voices 
 now ; but she felt her blood alternately glow in a 
 fever heat, and then become icy with apprehen- 
 sion, while a nameless horror, a vague and irresis- 
 tible perception that something was wrong, grew 
 strong in her heart.
 
 234 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 She drew nearer, and shrunk almost down on 
 her knees as she peeped through the hedge, and 
 saw between her and the pale moonlight a figure 
 which she knew to be that of Dalquham, and with 
 his the form of another man, bearing a third 
 person between them — a person dead — a person 
 whom she instantly knew to be Talbot Egerton, 
 by his sword and sash, and by his costume, parti- 
 cularly his pale buff waistcoat, which was covered 
 with black stains ; but his face she could not see, 
 as his head had fallen back, and was trailed 
 heavily along the grass ! 
 
 For one moment she remained as if spell-bound, 
 gazing on this horrible vision. The next beheld 
 her flying along the avenue, overcome by a terror 
 that gave wings to her speed, and yet caused her 
 many times to stumble, to fall, and creep breath- 
 lessly on her tender hands and knees. 
 
 Had some fierce national quarrel or political 
 duel ensued, or was it a vile and vulgar murder 
 under cloud of night ? 
 
 How she reached home, and secured the postern 
 gate, how she ascended to her own room, and got 
 to bed, she never knew ; for she was as if in a 
 dream — till the winds of a stormy midnight shook 
 the tall chimneys and turrets of the house, and 
 roared sullenly among the old woodlands, when a 
 fever seized her, and ere the stars paled out, and 
 the dawn came in, she was delirious. 
 
 Already was the light bubble burst, already was
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 235 
 
 the cup of happiness dashed from her lips, and 
 already was the sunshine of her young love over- 
 clouded in its dawn, and long ere it reached the 
 maturity of noon I 
 
 Bryde's illness was naturally enough coupled 
 by her friends with Egerton's disappearance, and 
 added to the excitement of that sequestered loca- 
 lity. My Lady Haddington, in her two-wheeled 
 Italian chaise, preceded by two outriders; the 
 Scougals of that ilk, in their lumbering coach, 
 drawn by four black Flemish mares; and Mr. 
 Carfnfae of Whitekirk, on his nag-tailed cob, and 
 many more, came dutifully to offer their kind aid 
 and advice ; but Bryde obstinately refused to see 
 any one but her old nurse Dorriel Grahame. 
 
 When sense returned, and the fever passed 
 away, she could not speak of the events of the 
 night without inculpating Lord Dalquharn and 
 another whom she knew not; and as her lover 
 could not visit her room, in the severely decorous 
 ideas of the time, they could have no mutual 
 explanation of that terrible mystery. 
 
 ''Could it be a dream ?^^ she often asked of 
 herself; but she remembered how the wind blew, 
 and how the pale grey dawn replaced the short 
 twilight of the June night : " a dream ! — impos- 
 sible ; for I never slept ! " 
 
 Then Egerton's disappearance was a dreadful 
 corroboration of the episode she had witnessed. 
 Was there indeed blood on the hands of her loved
 
 236 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 Henry Douglas ? and who was that other j by 
 whom the body of the victim was borne ? He 
 was too short in stature to be Sir John Mitchell, 
 and too sturdy in figure to be-— another dreadful 
 thought— her aged grandfather ; for a duel, the 
 result of some political dispute, was ever hovering 
 before her. 
 
 Three days the poor girl fevered and raved, and 
 at times seemed on the eve of losing her senses ; 
 and now, leaving her for a time, with affectionate 
 old Sir Baldred wringing his withered hands, and 
 worthy nurse Dorriel weeping over her, let us 
 follow '^the movements of Lord Dalquharn on the 
 night in question — that night so fruitful in events.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 237 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 THE DEATH SHOT. 
 
 " A falcon towering in his pride of place, 
 Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed! " 
 
 Macbeth, 
 
 It was, as already related, the twilight of a 
 glorious evening in June. The lark had gone to 
 its nest in the woodlands, and the stag was in his 
 lair among the long green feathery ferns in Bin- 
 ning Wood; the dew was falling softly, and so 
 gentle was the wind that it would scarcely have 
 stirred the downy beard of the wild thistle by the 
 wayside. The stars were coming out clear and 
 bright, and in the streams the grey salmon and 
 the bull trout were leaving their deep, dark pools 
 for the shallower places. 
 
 It was indeed an evening for two lovers to 
 meet, and Dalquharn as he hastened on his secret 
 errand, with those letters which he could entrust 
 to no other hand, though stUl ruffled by his recent 
 angry interview with Egerton, and deeply regret- 
 ting the hostile contingency of the morrow, felt 
 his own happiness in the love of Bryde so much, 
 that he trembled for the perils that might menace
 
 238 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 it j or was this tremor but a dim forshadowing of 
 the future ? Perhaps so, for there is no emotion 
 that is so sensitive as true affection. 
 
 He felt all the luxurious joy of being a success- 
 ful lover, and trembled lest he should be wakened 
 roughly from his delicious dream. 
 
 With a prayer almost on his lips for the success 
 of the great matter in hand, he left the enigma- 
 tical letters for the two Jacobite lords at the 
 post-house, and hurried back to meet Bryde as he 
 expected, at the gate which had the two heraldic 
 otters^ heads. 
 
 "When passing the skirts of the old thicket 
 known as the Deil's Loan, the dark trees of 
 which stood up like masses of bronze against the 
 amber coloured sky, he suddenly heard a shot, 
 and almost immediately afterwards, a pistol, as if 
 hurled towards him by an unseen hand, fell at his 
 feet. He picked it up, and the barrel was still 
 warm with the recent discharge. It was a rough 
 weapon, of common aspect, with a brass butt, and 
 seemed to be of that kind usually called a ship- 
 pistol, as the ramrod was secured to the stock by 
 a lanyard of tarry twine. 
 
 All was still after this, and never did Dalqu- 
 harn more deeply regret the thoughtlessness, 
 which, on this occasion, brought him forth un- 
 armed ; but he was naturally too brave to pass on 
 without ascertaining what was the meaning of a 
 shot fired in such a time and place, and clubbing
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 239 
 
 the pistol as a weapon for defence^ he forced a 
 passage through the hedge, and went boldly 
 towards the spot from whence the report had 
 come. 
 
 He had not proceeded twenty yards through 
 the fern, gorse and thick grass which grew under 
 the old trees, when he came upon the body of a 
 man, in a scarlet coat, lying on his face, quite dead. 
 
 It was Talbot Egerton, weltering in his blood 
 — ^killed by a shot through the head ! 
 
 Horror and astonishment were the first emo- 
 tions of Dalquharn ; sorrow and alarm were the 
 next — sorrow for the fate, so untimely and sud- 
 den, of this fyoung and gallant Englishman, and 
 alarm lest he might personally be compromised 
 by the event or its discovery. He was not left 
 long in doubt as to the latter, for the sound of 
 footsteps was heard, and Bailie Balcraftie ap- 
 peared, armed with a spade, 
 
 "In the name of heaven, Mr. Balcraftie," 
 exclaimed Dalquharn, "who has done this foul 
 act !" 
 
 The other started, raised the spade as if to 
 defend himself, but recovering from his emotion, 
 whatever it was, he replied very calmly : — 
 
 "It iU becomes you, sir, to ask sic a question, 
 seeing that you stand by his side, and armed 
 mairoure by the very weapon that has cost the 
 puir young gentleman his life, as sure as I^m a 
 pardoned sinner, V
 
 240 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 ^'Bailie BalcraftieP' 
 
 '^ Ohj waes me, puir Mr. Egerton ! truly, truly 
 in tlie midst o' life we are in death, and as for 
 man, Ms days, as the blessed Psalmist saith, are 
 as grass — ^yea, as a flower o' the field so he 
 perisheth/' 
 
 '^ Canting villain V exclaimed Dalquham, hurl- 
 ing the empty pistol with such violence at the 
 Bailie's head, that had he not eluded it, by adroitly 
 ducking, he had assuredly been stretched by the 
 side of the dead man ; ^' villain, I repeat, dare you 
 attempt to fix your odious crime on me V* 
 
 '^ My odious crime !" chuckled the other with 
 an obnoxious grin ; '^ weel, weel, you are a bold 
 man to say this to me, a merchant o' substance, 
 a magistrate and elder, senior bailie, nae less o' 
 the royal burgh o^ North Berwick ! Ken you the 
 worth o^ your head, or the length o^ your neck, 
 that you daur to breathe a word o' sic an 
 aspersion 1^' 
 
 '^Then who has done it?'^ said Dalquham, 
 almost staggered by the Bailie's self-possession; 
 " you heard the shot I presume ?" 
 
 '^ I am coming through the wood, I hear the 
 explosion o' firearms ; I come further on and find 
 — what, sir ? Mr. Egerton dead, and the so-called 
 Captain Douglas bending over him wi' a pistol in 
 his hand ! Yea I beheld him,'' whined Balcraftie, 
 lifting up his eyes and hands, ^^ as if 'I beheld 
 Satan as lightening fa' frae heaven ;' wae's me !
 
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 241 
 
 and tlien I betMnk me of the bitter and deadly 
 words uttered in the hearing o' the worthy- 
 Captain Wyvil, no two hours sin syne^ that you 
 and Mr. Egerton would ^ meet when there would be 
 none to separate you, until one lay stiff on his mother 
 earth!' Ye have met, and behold the awful end! 
 
 ^^ Silencej fellow — silence, lest I strangle thee ! 
 said Dalquharn, who felt his flesh creep, while a 
 clamorous fluttering came about his bold heart, 
 at the apprehension these words and this myste- 
 rious crime aroused. 
 
 ^*^Do you daur again to threaten a bailie — a 
 magistrate, an elder o' the kirk, sir ?^' 
 
 " Reuben Balcraftie, there is no greater villain 
 than thee under the canopy of heaven or the 
 keystone of hell ! What diabolical motive has 
 induced you to commit this crime, I know not ; 
 but I can laugh to scorn your wicked attempt to 
 inculpate me with a deed so dark and bloody. 
 Moreover, Sirrah, I know that this is not the 
 first crime of which you have been guilty.*' 
 
 Dalquharn referred merely to the smuggling 
 and to his appearance in disguise on board the 
 lugger ; but the poet tells us that — 
 
 " Many a shaft at random sent, 
 Finds mark the archer never meant, 
 
 >> 
 
 so these words had a wonderful efifect on Bal- 
 craftie, whose visage grew pale and became sufiiised 
 with beads of perspiration which almost glittered 
 VOL. I. 16
 
 242 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 in the moonlight, as it streamed between the still 
 and drooping foliage of the wood. His eyes wore 
 a startled expression of rage and alarm, and he 
 raised the spade, as if he meant to cleave the 
 speaker down. 
 
 ^^ Attempt to strike at your peril/^ said Dalqu- 
 harn; ^'^ stand off, fellow — you know not whom 
 you speak to ! ^' 
 
 " I ken owre weel, may be," replied the other, 
 taking off his hand and making a mock bow, with 
 the most profound insolence ; ^^ a cavalier, a Jaco- 
 bite in disguise, a popish plotter against kirk and 
 law, as is most likely/^ 
 
 ^^ Oh that I had my sword ! '^ exclaimed Dalqu- 
 harn, in a low voice of concentrated passion ; and 
 then losing all sense of caution, " Back dog,^^ he 
 thundered out, ^^ I am Henry Douglas, Lord 
 Dalquharn of the Holm ! ^* 
 
 " I kenned as muckle three weeks ago,^^ replied 
 the Bailie, changing his bearing entirely, relin- 
 quishing his sanctimonious whine, and adopting a 
 bearing which somewhat reminded Dalquharn 
 of that of Scupperplug, or of the Dutch mate, 
 Vander Pierboom. " Noo stand ye there, my Lord 
 Dalquharn o^ the Holm, in the Stewartry of Kirk- 
 cudbright, and obey me, lest I denounce ye — 
 obey me I say ! '^ he added, assuming an air of 
 ferocious authority, as he tore open his coat, and 
 shewed that he had beneath it, a pair of double- 
 barrelled pistols in a broad leathern girdle. " It
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 243 
 
 will be a hard thing for you, I doubt not, if just 
 on the eve o' a rising wbilk you hope may be 
 successful, you lose your bead, your title, and, 
 for a' that I ken, your braw leman at the Loan- 
 end, Bryde Otterburn, and a^ by a word frae my 
 mouth — eh ? '^ 
 
 Dalquharn clenched his hand and groaned, for 
 he felt himself more and more in the power or the 
 toils of this human snake. He stooped over 
 Egerton, and felt his hands and pulse, cold and 
 still j poor corpse ! the heart had quite ceased to 
 beat. 
 
 '^ This evening he was in the garden, on his 
 knees before bonnie Bryde Otterburn — ^ha ! ha ! 
 — on his knees — he is lower noo, and a bluidjfc 
 tryste hath it been," chuckled Balcraftie. 
 
 '^ Her name on your foul lips may drive me 
 mad ! ^^ exclaimed the young lord, furiously, as he 
 remembered the interrupted meeting, and was 
 about to spring upon his tormentor, when quick 
 as lightning, that personage cocked and levelled 
 one of his double-barrelled pistols straight at his 
 head. 
 
 ^^ The grave to be dug here, will baud twa, as 
 weel as ane," said Balcraftie ; '^ but I^m no done 
 wi' you yet, my braw man. You have been at the 
 Post-house near Castleton ? '^ he asked, categori- 
 cally, and keeping his pistol still levelled at the 
 young peer's head ; " speak ! '' 
 
 " I have — ^but how know you that ? " 
 
 16—2
 
 244 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 '^ I saw you go^ after your last fatal threat to 
 this puir fellow — go to post letters, doubtless, 
 addressed to Captain Elphinstone and Mr. David 
 WemysSj in answer to those you received some 
 three days gane by, from the attainted traitors, 
 Balmerino and Elcho — letters o^ whilk the dupli- 
 cates are now in my office, where your answers will 
 be duly inspected to-morrow morning, and a braw 
 sum the Lord Advocate and the Secretary o' State 
 will pay for your correspondence. Oh, my gallant 
 Lord Dalquharn, I ken you weel, but I wouldna 
 like to stand in your lordship^s boots/^ 
 
 " If I must condescend to reply to such a reptile 
 as you, I may inform you, that the letters to 
 which you refer, and to which you have had 
 access, by most villanously tampering with the 
 mail-bags, are worthless ever to you, without the 
 cypher — *^ 
 
 " But that I possess, my gay birkie — that I 
 possess/* 
 
 ^^ Impossible ! '^ 
 
 ^^ I have heard o^ sic things as secret papers 
 being wrapped round a sword-blade, and so hid in 
 the scabbard/' 
 
 Dalquharn started and felt the blood rush back 
 upon his heart. 
 
 " I examined yours, my lord, when you were at 
 breakfast in my house, and left sword and belt, 
 like an unwary fule in your bedroom. The cypher 
 was wrapped round the blade, and could be left
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 245 
 
 there or drawn forth at pleasure, and on the blade 
 I read the motto, no union; we a' ken what that 
 means. The cypher I copied and restored, ere we 
 set out for Auldhame; and noo I hae in my grip 
 you and a score o* others, proud, braw, noble and 
 handsome as ye deem yoursel's, — ^ha ! ha ! unco 
 galling a' this maun be to you, nae doubt, nae 
 doubt j but there'll be balm in Gilead, I suppose, 
 balm in Gilead, even for hellicate cavaliers,^' he 
 added, with a touch of his general manner and 
 character, for, as we have shown, this pillar of " the 
 kirk and state,^'' had two — a public and a private 
 one.
 
 246 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 IN THE TOILS. 
 
 — " 'Tis not impossible, 
 But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground, 
 May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute, 
 As Angelo ; even so may Angelo, 
 In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms, 
 Be an arch- villain : believe it, royal prince, 
 If he be less, he's nothing ; but he's more, 
 Had I more name for badness," 
 
 Measure for Measure. 
 
 Lord Dalquham was, for a time, completely 
 silenced, and filled by a horror and alarm, which 
 increased every moment, the more he realised and 
 considered his situation, and the conviction that 
 so many gallant gentlemen, whose names were in 
 his letters — men of high birth and long descent, 
 of great estates and irreproachable loyalty — were 
 thus compromised, and placed in the power of a 
 wretch so venal and corrupt as this man, Reuben 
 Balcraftie. 
 
 In his dread of what might be their fate, and 
 the fortune even of the Prince's intended attempt 
 that summer, he forgot his present peril, he forgot
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 247 
 
 his tryst with Bryde Otterburn, he forgot all but 
 the desire for vengeance, and sprang across the 
 dead body of Egerton, intending to close in with 
 his more wary tormentor; but the latter, who 
 possessed more strength than his youthful assail- 
 ant could have imagined, thrust him furiously 
 back, with the barrels of his loaded pistols, for he 
 had one in each hand now, and never was the life 
 of Dalquharn in greater jeopardy than at that 
 moment. 
 
 ^' Stand, I bid you — stand off and barken," 
 said Balcraftie, sternly ; " outlawed and attainted 
 as you are, even as your father was before you, 
 for adherence to a popish and perjured tyrant — a 
 double-dyed traitor to the House o' Hanover, I 
 might lay you dead beside him who lies here, and 
 nae man in a^ the land, frae Tweed to Thule, could 
 ask me why or wherefore ! I could, this instant 
 if I chose, shoot you dead through the brain-pan, 
 and cast these pistols beside him and you, and 
 after what passed in the garden, and these awfu' 
 words uttered in the hearing o' Captain Wyvil, 
 forby and attour other mair moving political 
 causes, would the procurator fiscal, or ony man 
 in his senses, doubt, when your bodies and wea- 
 pons were found, that ye had perished otherwise 
 than in a just and lawfu' duel ? It's a braw thocht 
 —a braw thocht and a tempting one ! ^^ and his 
 eyes shone and his teeth too, as he grinned a hor- 
 rible smile.
 
 248 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 <c 
 
 Subtle villain/^ exclaimed Dalquham^ with 
 sudden despair in his gallant heart ; ^^ fire^ if you 
 dare ! " 
 
 " And lose the price o' your lordship's head, 
 when the time comes to exchange it for a cheque 
 on the Treasury ; oh no — Reuben Balcraftie is a 
 prudent and a wary man too." 
 
 Dalquharnwas almost suffocating : he felt himself 
 to be completely and utterly in this man's power, 
 for the future, as well as the present, perhaps ; and 
 for the present he had no resource but to comply 
 with his orders. 
 
 " In the meantime 1^11 lend you a hand to hide 
 your braw night^s work from the gleds and hoodie- 
 craws,'^ said Balcraftie, still affecting to implicate 
 Dalquharn in the commission of that crime, for 
 which the young lord yet failed to comprehend the 
 motive. ^^ Suppose you did it, my Lord,^' he con- 
 tinued, seeing the start of passion given by the 
 other, " I only say suppose , my Lord — I may gie 
 you a title here, whar nae human ears can hear 
 us, what matter is it, whether you killed him here 
 or in the field of battle? ^Twill come to gun- 
 powder ere lang, I suppose, and he'll sleep just 
 as weel here in the Deil's Loan, as if he lay on 
 Penrith Moor, on the braes o' Dumblane, or 
 Glenshiel, or wherever else you Jacobites hae 
 crossed steel with King George's red coats. 
 
 "While the Bailie said this he had replaced his 
 pistols in his girdle, and after compelling his com-
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 249 
 
 panion to stand some paces distant, he proceeded 
 adroitly to cut and roll over some large and tough 
 green sods, keeping apparently one stealthy eye on 
 his work, and the other on Dalquharn, whose slight- 
 est movement he watched, and every half minute 
 his hands were on the pistols again. The soil was 
 soft, and he scooped out a grave about a foot 
 deep, scattering each shovel of earth far and wide, 
 tossing it even over the tree tops, while Dalquham 
 looked on as one in a dreadful dream ; but vow- 
 ing again and again, that whatever might come 
 of it he would yet avenge, with his own hand, 
 perhaps, the foul murder of the young English 
 officer. 
 
 '^This night he was birling the cogue and 
 drinking the bluid red wine at untimeous and un- 
 lawful hours in Lucky Scougal's,^' said Balcraftie, 
 with somewhat of his usual conventional whine ; 
 " and noo — noo, here stark and stiff in the DeiFs 
 Loan ! Truly, man^s days are as grass ; but 
 alake, sir, help me to lift the body ? ^' 
 
 Dalquham folded his arms, drew himself up to 
 his full height, and gave the speaker a frown of 
 hatred and disgust. 
 
 " Help me to lift the body in here,^' said Bal- 
 craftie, in a low hissing voice, while cocking a 
 pistol; "or, by heaven and by hell, I lay you 
 beside him, and leave ye baith, as I threatened, 
 together ! '' 
 
 Thus constrained, Dalquharn, with something
 
 250 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 like a sob in his throat — a sob of sorrow^ rage, and 
 humiliation, turned poor Egerton on his back, 
 and felt his heart deeply moved at the sight of his 
 pale face, the fallen jaws, full of coagulated blood, 
 the ice-cold lips, the glazed and open eyes, which 
 he had last seen sparkle with animation and fury 
 against himself — eyes which he had seen beaming 
 with frolic and merriment in many an idle hour. 
 
 Seizing the dead body brutally by the throat, 
 with his right hand, Balcraftie now, with a pistol 
 in the left, covered Dalquharn, who took up Eger- 
 ton's feet, but, overcome by conflicting emotions, 
 let them drop upon the grass. 
 
 " Hist and harken \" said Balcraftie, starting, 
 and in a fierce whisper ; " something stirred by 
 the hedge side ! '' 
 
 In fact, the sound at that moment was caused 
 by Bryde Otterburn, who had peeped fearfully 
 through, and then fled, like a startled fawn, in 
 terror and despair, towards the avenue gate. 
 
 Again the threatening pistol was levelled at his 
 head, and once more compelled to stoop to his 
 odious task, Dalquharn assisted Balcraftie to lay 
 Egerton in his scantily scooped grave, over 
 which the latter carefully deposited the green 
 sods, with the spade, and beat them down. He 
 then tore a branch from a tree, and brushed all the 
 grass round for several feet, to remove any traces 
 of footsteps or blood that might remain, after 
 tirhich, with a caution, which showed he was
 
 T^B WHITE COCKADE. 251 
 
 no new hand in such nefarious work^ he tossed 
 the spade from him, far among the growing 
 com of a neighbouring field, where he knew it 
 would remain undiscovered till thfe reapers came 
 in harvest time. 
 
 " My Lord Dalquharn, we now ken the terms 
 o' our mutual silence anent this black night's 
 wark. I shall speak not o' your secret character, 
 if you venture not to speak o' mine ; but if you 
 would take heed o' yoursel', quit Auldhame 
 without delay, for the countryside may soon be 
 owre hot for you ; and now gude night, my Lord, 
 gude night, I am your Lordship's maist humble 
 servitor/' 
 
 With a species of mock salute, and a cruel 
 glare in his horrid eyes. Bailie Balcraftie departed' 
 for his home, on the way to which he discovered, 
 with some consternation, that he had dropped his 
 breeches Bible during his recent occupation — 
 dropped it, perhaps, near the scene of his crime ; 
 and on a fly-leaf of it were his autograph, ad- 
 dress, and a short prayer, or invocation in his 
 
 own handwriting ! 
 
 * ^ ^ * * 
 
 How Dalquharn reached his apartment in Auld- 
 hame, somewhat like poor Bryde (from whose 
 piisery he was only separated by a wall), he 
 scarcely knew ; but his altered bearing on the 
 morrow has thus been sufficiently accounted for. 
 
 To Sir John Mitchell he related all that had
 
 252 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 occurred, and long and earnest were the consulta- 
 tions they held together; but mutual dread of 
 the future, and of Balcraftie^s great local power 
 and influence, sealed their lips. To denounce 
 him, to accuse him of the crime, and say where 
 the body of his victim lay — to accuse hirrij an ac- 
 tive whig magistrate, unwearying in his search 
 after Papists, Jacobites, and all manner of recu- 
 sants, a leading elder, and zealous and rather 
 noisy professor of religion, in whose household 
 every day began and ended with prayer — could but 
 serve to bring the wrath of an incredulous neigh- 
 bourhood upon themselves. It might, moreover, 
 lead to a suspicion that they were the criminals, 
 and not he ; while, in revenge, he might antici- 
 pate the coming catastrophe by denouncing them 
 and their friends to the Lord Advocate, including 
 Sir Baldred, whom they deemed too old, blunder- 
 ing, and unwary to entrust with the key they 
 possessed to the secret life of his money-lending 
 acquaintance. 
 
 There were times when Dalquharn and Mitchell 
 actually conceived the rash idea of visiting the 
 reptile Baler aftie, and pistolling him on his own 
 hearthstone, after the fashion of some of the wild 
 Scottish raiders of the preceding century ; or, to 
 use a more modern term, to " lynch him,^' as an 
 act of retributive justice, and so end the game of 
 villany he was playing, and the terror he gave 
 them.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 253 
 
 But cooler reflection showed that little would 
 be gained hy an act so reckless and perilous, 
 while their letters, or the copies of them and of the 
 cypher, remained among the papers of this man, 
 who added to his many other perquisites and 
 means of acquiring money and power, the then 
 lucrative one, of being a Scottish government spy. 
 
 The five hundred pounds borrowed by Sir Bal- 
 dred, at usurious interest, over the lands of Half- 
 longbarns, for the Princess use and service, were 
 still in Sir John^s hands ; but if a portion of this 
 sum, or even the whole of it (then equal to more 
 than a thousand pounds in the present day), were 
 offered to Balcraftie as a bribe for the papers he 
 possessed, they knew he was too wary to give up 
 the originals, or all the copies he might possess ; he 
 would pocket the money, and betray them still ! 
 
 With all these anxieties, there was a crowning 
 one — he might already have been in communica- 
 tion with the Government officials on the sub- 
 ject, and, like the sword of Damocles, the terror 
 of arrest hung hourly over the heads of both. 
 
 When Dalquharn took his friend Mitchell next 
 day to the place in the thicket where the missing 
 man lay in his lowly bed, he could scarcely recog- 
 nise the exact spot, for four reasons : the turfs had 
 been very carefully relaid, rain had drenched the 
 ground, after the wind had swept it, and the strong 
 gusts of midnight had overthrown a large tree, the 
 summer foliage, branches, and ruin of which lay
 
 254 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 immediately over poor Talbot Egerton's unhal- 
 lowed grave ; and from the evil reputation which 
 the wood possessed, there was but little chance of 
 any stroller, gamekeeper, or even poacher passing 
 near the place of his last repose.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 255 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE ARLED BRIDE. 
 
 *'No more upon these lips of mine 
 
 Shall lover's kiss be pressed ; 
 No more held fast within his arms. 
 
 And folded to his breast, 
 Shall my heart find a hiding place 
 
 To nestle down and rest. 
 And I must check the thoughts as sin, 
 
 Which bade my heart rejoice, 
 Whene'er I heard, like some sweet chord, 
 
 The music of his voice." 
 
 These lines describe somewhat of the emotions of 
 poor Bryde Otterburn^ after the terrible discovery 
 which she believed she had made on that eventful 
 night of Egerton^s disappearance. Was Dalqu- 
 harn actually implicated in the deed of slaughter? 
 It was impossible to discredit the evidence of her 
 own senses ; and by his strange employment 
 about the body, he seemed to be at least art and 
 part in the affair,, and that involves the penalty of 
 death by the law of Scotland ! 
 
 Ohj never more should his hand touch hers^ for 
 the blood of that unfortunate English stranger, 
 their household guest, was on it ! But could he
 
 256 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 actually be guilty of such a deed — lie so nobly 
 born and highly bred_, so gallant^ so gentle and 
 kind ? She felt that imperatively she must love 
 him no more^ but thrust his image from her 
 heart ; and if he was the vile person appearances 
 made him^ it should not be difficult to do so ; and 
 yet — and yet the wrench, the effort, cost her a 
 terrible pang, and many a flood of bitter, bitter, 
 silent, and unseen tears. 
 
 Never more must she listen to his once loved 
 voice j and Bryde hoped, when on the seventh or 
 eighth day she left her chamber and appeared in 
 the drawing-room, that he would be gone ; but it 
 was not so; the guests were all there, save Eger- 
 ton, and now it seemed that doubt, fear, and 
 wrath hovered in the atmosphere of Auldhame, 
 and these emotions were all most visibly to be 
 read by turns in the ^aVc expressive faces of 
 Mitchell and l)alquharn. 
 
 Bryde quailed beneath the loving and enquiring 
 eye of the latter, and shuddered when he touched 
 her shrinking hand. She dared not speak of 
 what she had seen, and she dared not denounce 
 him, without discovering his real name, rank, and 
 purpose, and thereby inculpating her dear, doting 
 old grandfather, and breaking her own heart. 
 
 At the first glance as they met, Dalquharn saw 
 that there was some other mystery to torture 
 him, for his ring was no longer on her engaged 
 finger; her whole manner and appearance were
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 257 
 
 changed from laughing brightness and espieglerie, 
 to pale, chilling, and statuesque coldness ; and 
 now a sickening fear came over his soul, that she 
 had, after all, in her secret heart, loved the lost 
 Egerton ! 
 
 Old Dorriel Grahame believed that her pet- 
 mistress was under some warlock^s evil spell, and 
 insisted on tying round her white and delicate 
 neck a string of roman-berry heads, and she hung 
 ^ver the watch-pocket in her bed-curtains, an 
 elf-cup, a most approved charm against cantrips, 
 being one of those little stones which are perfo- 
 rated by friction, and were believed to be the 
 workmanship of the elves, though they are usually 
 found under waterfalls. 
 
 These and other charms of equal value and 
 power were placed around her, but in vain, for 
 Bryde continued to be, after all, pale, wan, pre- 
 occupied, and listless. 
 
 Dalquharn, though acting his part in the 
 search for Egerton, was somewhat in the same 
 condition; and there were times when, like a 
 phantasmagoria of the brain, the memory of the 
 terrible episode of that fatal night came before 
 him so vividly, that he almost imagined himself to 
 have had a share in the death of Egerton ; and to 
 be the custodier of such a secret, would have 
 maddened him, had he not made his friend. Sir 
 John Mitchell, a participator of it; and like 
 himself, the sturdy baronet longed intensely for 
 
 VOL. I. 17
 
 258 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 the time when they might with safety denounce 
 and punish Balcraftie, whose dreaded denuncia- 
 tion of themselves tied up their tongues at 
 present, and filled them with perpetual alarm. 
 
 To be at the mercy of this man, whom they 
 deemed the living embodiment of all the vilest 
 qualities of the venal, subtle, and canting Low- 
 land whig of that age — false to king, to country, 
 and to God — ready alike to sell all to the highest 
 bidder, even as his party had sold Montrose, King 
 Charles, and their national name and fame, was 
 galling, indeed, to such proud and restless spirits 
 as those of Lord Dalquharn and his compatriot. 
 
 He was burning for action — for some excite- 
 ment without, to counteract the rage and shame, 
 the terror and sorrow, that gnawed his heart 
 within; rage and shame for his false position, 
 even in his own eyes, a terror of Balcraftie^s 
 ulterior purpose, and a deep sorrow for the cold 
 blight that had come upon his once successful 
 love. 
 
 A dozen of times at least were the searchers 
 close upon the humble grave of Egerton, but it 
 was passed unnoticed and unheeded, for the rain 
 and wind of the subsequent night, and the fallen 
 tree completely concealed all trace that the sods 
 had been broken. A bloodhound would soon 
 have solved the mystery; but these dogs were 
 no longer used in the Lowlands ; and now, 
 puzzled and piqued by Bryde^s unexpected and
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 259 
 
 unexplained coldness, and dreading Balcraftie's 
 threats, Dalquharn resolved to take his departure 
 from Auldhame at an early period, and in some 
 loyal household in the North, to await the landing 
 of Prince Charles Edward. 
 
 He came to this conclusion, as he walked to and 
 fro in the garden, alone, on the evening of the 
 seventh or eighth unhappy day. 
 
 In great sullen masses of unpurpled brown, the 
 clouds were gathered in the westward over the 
 hills of Fifeshire, and beneath those masses, the 
 red sun of June glared through bars of fiery 
 vapour, as its great disc sank slowly behind the 
 darkening ridges. It shone with crimson sheen 
 on the foam-flecked waters of the Forth, and the 
 summer wind, which waved the ripening corn,.' 
 rustled pleasantly among the heavy foliage of the 
 old copsewood. 
 
 As Dalquharn turned into one of those soft 
 and smoothly trimmed grass-walks which were so 
 common in old Scottish gardens, his heart leaped, 
 as he came suddenly upon Miss Otterburn, who 
 was standing sunk in reverie, sadly, and alone, 
 near the pedestal of a dancing fawn. She was 
 playing with a large moss rose, plucking it to 
 pieces, leaf by leaf, and apparently unconscious of 
 what she did, for her eyes were bent on the grass, 
 or rather on vacancy. They were reddened by 
 recent tears, but they were seldom otherwise now. 
 
 How beautiful she looked ! She had no head- 
 
 17—3
 
 260 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 dresSj and on the summer wind, the masses of her 
 right brown hair rippled and waved over her 
 shoulders. 
 
 The sad preoccupation of her manner told 
 plainly the tenor of her thoughts ; but Dalquharn 
 jealously construed it after a fashion of his 
 own. 
 
 Henceforth — thought poor Bryde — must love 
 be dead in her heart — the love of him at least ; 
 but could she live without it, or ever admit the 
 love of another ? So the first passionate dream 
 of her romantic and girlish heart was passing 
 away ; its joy changed to sorrow ; its brilliance to 
 blackness and gloom. In the sweet spring time 
 of life, she already felt the autumn of the heart. 
 Oh this horrible mystery ! Was Dalquharn 
 guilty ? If not, why was he so silent and so 
 reserved ? Why did he not address her as of 
 old, and seek that explanation of her coldness to 
 which their mutual relation entitled him ? 
 
 As if in echo to her thoughts, at that moment — 
 
 ^' Bryde \" said a voice that thrilled tenderly in 
 her ear; "Miss Otterburn, why are you so 
 changed to me — why are we so altered to each 
 other ? Surely grief for the loss of a — a mere 
 friend, cannot alone, have done this V 
 
 " It has not — it has not," said Bryde, after a 
 slight cry of alarm had escaped her, and then 
 without- looking at the speaker, she covered her 
 face with her handkerchief.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 261 
 
 Dalquharn leaned against the pedestal and re- 
 garded her with mournful interest. 
 
 " Miss Otterburn — Brjde" said he, putting his 
 lips so near her, that her hair touched them, as 
 the wind lifted it ; " have you — have you already 
 ceased to love me ?'' 
 
 " Oh no — oh no — but would to heaven that T 
 did V^ replied Bryde, in a voice half stifled by her 
 tears. 
 
 " You love me still V* 
 
 Her voice was gone now, but her sobs were 
 deeper. 
 
 " Why this enigma — what means this change 7" 
 said he gently and tenderly, as he attempted to 
 fold one of her hands in his ; but she shrank from 
 him saying, hurriedly, almost angrily, 
 
 " Do not, I pray you, touch me !" 
 
 She withdrew a pace or two ; the hectic of a 
 moment crossed the face of Dalquharn, and he 
 said with measured calmness, 
 
 " Your changed demeanour towards me, fills my 
 heart with the deepest grief, and believe me, Bryde 
 Otterburn, that if you knew all — all the black 
 sorrows it sufiers already, you would, perhaps, 
 spare it these pangs ; but I do not mean to up- 
 braid you now, or torment you longer by my pre- 
 sence here, as I leave Auldhame to-morrow.** 
 
 '^ To-morrow !*' 
 
 " Yes.'' 
 
 " And for whence, my Lord ?"
 
 262 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 '^ I scarcely know^ beings as you are aware^ alike 
 landless and homeless ; but if tbe fate of a poor 
 wanderer sucb as I, can interest one so fickle^ my 
 steps stall be bent northward, for the house of 
 the loyal and aged Keppoch, or the Castle of Min- 
 garry ; though others change, I change not, and 
 shall wait with patience the arrival of His Royal 
 Highness the Prince of Wales /^ 
 
 Bryde^s clear and beautiful deep brown eyes were 
 bent earnestly and enquiringly on his, as if she 
 would search his soul. The eyes of Dalquharn 
 were full of sadness and of great sweetness too ; 
 and after a deep sigh which seemed to pain him, 
 for he placed his right hand within the breast of 
 his coat, the same faded green one, in which he 
 had come from Dunkirk, he said, 
 
 ^' If grief for the fate of poor Mr. Egerton, has 
 in any way lessened your regard for me, or if the 
 mystery that involves it, has developed, as I rather 
 suspect it has, some secret passion greater than 
 you professed for me, and greater than you were 
 aware of possessing, I shall only do my duty in 
 disclosing to you, the secret of his story ; though 
 by doing so, if your discretion fail me, I shall per- 
 haps covet my own ruin.^' 
 
 It was now Bryde^s turn to flush for a moment, 
 but only a moment, for her marble paleness re- 
 turned, while her enquiring eyes seemed to dilate 
 with surprise at this remarkable preamble. 
 
 " Come this way, and be seated,'' said he, point-
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 263 
 
 ing to a bower of sweet-briar, roses and ivy; 
 ^' permit me to lead you." 
 
 Still she withheld her hand, on which he lifted 
 his hat, and bowing with studious politeness, 
 placed it imder his arm, saying, 
 
 " As you will, madame — as you will ! I am 
 perhaps not worthy to touch one so good and pure 
 as you/' 
 
 This extreme humility, while it seemed to corro- 
 borate her suspicions, grieved and distressed her. 
 She seated herself in the bower and looked up at 
 him with earnest and beseeching eyes, her lips 
 half parted, her chesnut hair rolling in shining 
 masses over her graceful shoulders, her white 
 hands folded on her knees to stay their trembling, 
 while her blue satin skirt, being partly lifted- 
 by her hoop, shewed one taper ankle and pretty 
 foot that beat the turf with impatience. 
 
 " As my presence, Miss Otterburn, appears now 
 to excite only repugnance in your breast and im- 
 patience in your manner, I shall be as brief as I 
 can in my narrative, and then, trouble you no 
 
 more.'' 
 
 C( 
 
 I too have a secret, which, alas ! may break 
 my poor heart in the keeping of it, for I have 
 none now, with whom to share my sorrow.'' 
 
 ^' Not even me ?" 
 
 " Not even you !" 
 . Dalquharn clasped his hands. 
 
 " Say on, sir — you were about to explain — "
 
 264 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 (( 
 
 My reason for failing to meet you in tHe 
 avenue on that unhappy night. You remember 
 that we were to have met there ?" 
 
 " Too well — alas, too well V 
 
 Dalquham stood in the entrance of the bower, 
 and looking down upon her, with eyes expressive 
 of great love and grief, related the whole story of 
 his quarrel with Egerton, and the threats ex- 
 changed between them, in the presence of Captain 
 Wyvil and Bailie Balcraftie ; he thence passed to 
 his return from the post-house, the shot he heard 
 in the wood, and the assassination (as he could 
 not doubt it must have been) by the hand of 
 Balcraftie, whose mischievous face Bryde now re- 
 membered to have seen in the garden walk, at the 
 moment when Egerton knelt to kiss her hand ; 
 and she recalled too, that the very peculiar ex- 
 pression of that coarse visage had startled and 
 impressed her at the time. 
 
 She flushed with indignation at that part of the 
 narrative, in which, under threats of instant death 
 •or" future shame, the hypocrite and dissembler 
 compelled Lord Dalquharn to obey his obnoxious 
 orders implicitly; and she shed abundance of 
 silent tears, when he related the manner of Eger- 
 ton^s interment, and described the place where his 
 poor remains lay hidden, unhonoured and un- 
 umed. 
 
 '^ At that terrible moment, you heard a sound — 
 near the hedge, did you not ?^' she asked.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 265 
 
 (t 
 
 Yes — and it thoroughly alarmed the watchful 
 villain, whose victim I am likely to be next." 
 
 '' 'Twas I, who was there/^ 
 
 " You — you, Bryde ?" 
 
 On this, she related rapidly the share she had 
 borne in the adventures of the night, and holding 
 forth her hands to him, added in a voice, touching 
 and tremulous with emotion, 
 
 ^' Forgive my thoughts, Dalquharn — forgive me ! 
 my love — my own love, I am not worthy of you, 
 for had I loved you with truth and tenderness, I 
 could not, even for a moment, have mistrusted 
 you. Oh, assuredly, it is only perfect love that 
 casteth out all fear !" , 
 
 And Bryde clung to him sobbing, caressing his 
 face and hair with her kind little hands, as he* 
 knelt down by her side. 
 
 " I am your arled bride,'' she added, using a 
 plaintive Scottish phrase, " your own betrothed 
 Bryde Otterburn. Kiss me and pet me, Henry, 
 to show that you forgive me — I have been so 
 miserable — so heart-broken V and she laid her 
 head upon his shoulder. 
 
 " I dread your discretion in keeping this secret, 
 on which our lives, and even the success of the 
 good cause, in some measure depend," said he 
 after a time. 
 
 " Oh trust me — trust me V^ 
 
 '' But Balcraftie— " m 
 
 " Horror ! I shall dissemble, even to him.^ 
 
 a
 
 266 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 *^ A canting hypocrite, with the stamp of perdi- 
 tion on his forehead V 
 
 *' Dead — dead — poor Mr. Egerton dead V' mnr- 
 mured Bryde with a fresh burst of tears ; '' he, so 
 merry and so handsome, to be so foully slain, and 
 we shall never, never see him more ! And must 
 he lie in that horrid place — '' 
 
 ^^Till things are settled and vengeance done, 
 dear bride; and then my own hands, if heaven 
 spares me amid the dangers that are to come, shall 
 lay Talbot Egerton in a worthier tomb.^^ 
 
 ^^And you leave us for the Highlands, you 
 said ? " 
 
 " Not if you wish me to stay."*^ 
 
 ' *' And yet, my own love, Henry, you might be 
 safer there than here, and from thence, by letter, 
 you could denounce this Reuben Balcraftie, and 
 say where the body of his victim is hidden.^^ 
 
 " All of which would be deemed as proofs that 
 I — or we, poor Jack Mitchell and I — rebels and 
 outlaws, had murdered a king's oJ0B.cer, adding 
 thus to our crime of treason^ by seeking to fix the 
 stigma of our guilt upon a wealthy, pious, and 
 irreproachable magistrate and stout upholder of 
 kirk and king, as by law established. It would 
 never do, sweet ladybird Bryde; besides, my 
 silence is at present the price of his withholding 
 from government, the letters and papers of which 
 he has surreptitiously possessed himself, and 
 these concern deeply the safety of many gallant
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 267 
 
 gentlemen, and the success of King Jameses 
 cause/' 
 
 > " Oh, that we could, by any means, get those 
 papers from Balcraftie \'' 
 
 " One might as well hope to take a lamb 
 gently from a famished wolf." 
 
 From that evening, Bryde^s health and spirit 
 seemed to improve ; she became content now and 
 even placid. Old Dorriel Grahame was convinced 
 that the roman-berry necklet and the elf-cup had 
 wrought the charm, and said so to Sir Baldred, 
 whose affectionate old heart became joyous again 
 in the sunshine of his grand-daughter's face ; he 
 took a deeper horn of wine at night, and again 
 engaged Captain Wyvil in more than one dispute 
 concerning the merits and demerits ^^ of the vile^ 
 unnatural, and incorporating Union."
 
 368 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 DEPARTURE OF WYVIL. 
 
 " Oh spare the living, judge them leniently, 
 
 Exact not all the honour that is due :— 
 
 The cold exterior and the calm proud-eye 
 
 Hide many a gnawing, rankling grief from view. 
 Thou see'st but the outward act and deed, 
 The motive and the thought thou canst not read i 
 Oh, spare the living, judge them leniently ! '* 
 
 Thistledown, 
 
 ^'Wounds heal rapidly in a heart of two-and- 
 twenty/' says the worthy Colonel Esmond; 
 *^ hopes revive daily, and courage rallies in spite 
 of a man/' Dalqnharn was five and twenty, 
 and three years more experience of life had not 
 lessened the natural buoyancy of his spirit. He 
 was now much happier, or at least more re- 
 signed to the course of events, whe'n he knew 
 and felt assured how much Bryde still loved 
 him; and one morning, after breakfast, he re- 
 solved to have an explanation with Captain 
 Wyvil, whose marked coldness of manner, and 
 whose bearing, which amounted to ill-concealed 
 aversion and suspicion, galled and fretted the 
 proud and generous spirit of Lord Dalquharn. 
 But the time was awkwardly chosen, for the
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 269 
 
 captain and his host were then engaged in a high 
 dispute — high, at least, on the part of the latter, 
 concerning his great grievance the Union, and the 
 total ruin it had brought upon all the cities and ^. 
 
 towns of the east coast, the, as yet, non-develop- 
 ment of trade on the west ; the desertion of the 
 capital where the grass was growing around the 
 market cross, and before the porch of Holyrood. 
 
 Some satirical remarks and coarse national re- 
 flections copied by the ^ Caledonian Mercury,' 
 from an old number of ' Fog's Journal,' had put 
 the old cavalier on his mettle, and he was enraged 
 to a pitch, that required, all the captain's bonhom- 
 mie and general good humour to enable him to 
 keep his ground ; and Bryde's playfulness, which 
 whilom was wont to turn their arguments into 
 laughter, by a verse of a droll Jacobite song, was 
 no longer in existence. Sir Baldred was particu- 
 larly severe on the king and ministry, for permit- 
 ting the London press to be constantly reviling, 
 without cause, their Scottish fellow subjects. 
 He boasted of the time when King James VI. 
 had sent a Scottish herald to the Duke of Pome- 
 rania, demanding the life of a Pole, who wrote a 
 book against the Scots, and how the duke imme- 
 diately hung the audacious scribbler in the city of 
 Dantzig; there was no such sharp justice now, he 
 added, and on George II. he was bitter to the 
 verge of ferocity. 
 
 *^ But loyalty, my dear sir,'' urged the captain,
 
 270 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 (C 
 
 loyalty should prevent you speaking thus, and 
 equity too, for the king cannot control all the 
 quills in Grub Street. 
 
 " To whom should I be loyal — the Elector of 
 Hanover ?'^ 
 
 " To the king on the throne of Great Britain.^' 
 
 '^Know you not, sir/^ said Sir Baldred, ad- 
 justing his black wig angrily with one hand, and 
 striking his cane on the floor with the other. 
 '^ Know you not, sir, that the House of Hanover 
 came to the throne of these realms by the mutual 
 treaty of union. Now, every article of that 
 treaty which was for the good of Scotland, hath 
 been broken by the overwhelming majorities of 
 the so-called British parliament — witness the 
 restoration of patronage which hath split the 
 kirk in twain; hence the treaty is null; I say 
 null, for no treaty can be binding on one party 
 only. Then, where is the right of your Elector, 
 though he swears by his coronation oath to keep it 
 inviolate ?" 
 
 " These are dangerous words, sir, especially at 
 such a time when the whole air teems with 
 rumours of Jacobite plots and conspiracies/^ said 
 the captain, smiling at the fervour of the old man, 
 for whom he was really no match on these subjects. 
 
 '^ We were not wont to choose and pick our 
 words in my young days, Captain." 
 
 "But, my dear Sir Baldred, as brother Bri- 
 tons "
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 271 
 
 "We are brother Britons when you wish to 
 wheedle us out of men and money for the wicked 
 wars in Germany^ but ^tis all oatmeal and brim- 
 stone^ and beggarly Scots^ at other times. I tell 
 you, sir, 'the name of Briton suits Welshmen 
 only — we were born Scots, and Scots we shall 
 remain.^ That was the shout of the Union Mobs 
 on that terrible night, when the High Street of 
 Edinburgh was all aflame with tarbarrels and 
 rockets, and when I saved the vile Lord Chan- 
 cellor Seafield, just as the rioters tore him from 
 his coach by the throat, and would have rent 
 him limb from limb in the face of all the Grey 
 Dragoons and Foot Guards; but I and a few 
 members of the opposition, with our armed valets, 
 rescued him at swords point, yet minus coat and* 
 wig, and he fled for England next morning, like a 
 craven as he was. But we shall be Scots, Captain 
 Wyvil, like our forefathers — even as our old land 
 charters say, while grass grows and water runs !^^* 
 
 * It is impossible now to imagine the rancour which 
 the Treaty of Union excited in the minds of the Scots, 
 In the language of De Foe — *' The Jacobite and the 
 Presbyterian, the prelatic Nonjuror and the Cameronian, 
 the Papist and the Protestant, parleyed together, joined 
 interest and concerted measures against the Union." 
 Curses and execrations followed everywhere the Xing's 
 commissioner and its promoters, and driven from place to 
 place by a mob (whom the Scottish troops failed to resist), 
 it was ultimately signed by them in an obscure tavern in 
 the High Street of Edinburgh. So blind were our an- 
 cestors to the advantages of this Union, which saved 
 the Scots from themselves !
 
 272 THE WHITE COCKADE. . 
 
 And effectually, to prevent the captain making 
 any of his jocular responses, the old gentleman 
 walked away, punching the floor with his cane as 
 emphatically as if the Elector and all Grub Street 
 were under it. It was now that Dalquharn, who 
 took no part in the discussion, and who had been 
 looking dreamily from a window at the sea, where 
 some Dutch and Norwegian schooners were beat- 
 ing into the river against a fresh west wind, came 
 forward, just as Captain Wyvil was assuming his 
 hat and sword, apparently as if about to go 
 abroad. 
 
 ^^ Captain Wyvil — may I have a few words 
 with you ?" he asked. 
 
 '^ ^Servant, sir — servant — certainly,'^ said 
 Wyvil, curtly and haughtily, while smoothing his 
 upright regimental feather, which was stuck into 
 the black silk cockade of the house of Hanover. 
 
 " Captain Wyvil,^' said Dalquharn without 
 heeding his stiff, dry manner, ^^ you are I know 
 an English gentleman of good family, and a man 
 of honour .'* 
 
 "I trust so, sir; I have served in the four 
 quarters of the globe and borne His Majesty's 
 commission these twenty years, without re- 
 proach,^' replied the officer bowing still more 
 stiffly; '^but what have I done to merit the 
 flattery of so distinguished a person as — as Cap- 
 tain Douglas of — excuse me, but I don't quite 
 know the regiment ?"
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 273 
 
 '^ I pass over the too evident sneer in your tone." 
 
 " ^Tis well you do^ sir ; but to tlie point ? I am 
 in haste, my men parade in the hamlet at eleven, 
 (here the Captain looked at his watch) and we 
 march from this in half an hour after .^' 
 
 " The knowledge of that, makes me feel that I 
 can no longer delay, and that I must confide in 
 you and cast myself upon your generosity." 
 
 The Captain coughed dubiously, and again toyed 
 with the feather in his hat, so Dalquharn added — 
 
 " I know the fate of your friend Mr. Egerton, 
 and have known it all this while." 
 
 " Even when assisting us — " 
 
 " In that mock search — yes." 
 
 " I suspected as much — death and the devil^ 
 sir, I suspected as much !" said the Captain, 
 sternly, but otherwise quite unmoved. 
 
 ^^ Suspected it — by what ?" 
 
 " Your change of manner since the catastrophe; 
 your abstraction, your paleness and so forth. I 
 heard your quarrel and his insulting defiance ; you 
 killed him in a fair duel I hope, for if so, tell me? 
 In the heat of duelling, we cannot always have 
 our wits about us. Not that I ever fought a duel, 
 nor ever shall, with God's help and guidance, for 
 like my friend Colonel Gardiner of the Light 
 Dragoons, I have religious objections to all such 
 tests of the divine favour. So you killed him ?" 
 
 " We are alone and none can hear us now, so 
 do not misunderstand me, sir." 
 
 VOL. I. 18
 
 274 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 tc 
 
 Do you tlireaten me^ egad !" exclaimed the 
 Captain, changing colour. 
 
 '^ Far from it_," said tlie other gravely and 
 firmly ; " but I am about to trust to your honour 
 and generosity. In me. Captain Wyvil, you see 
 an attainted peer of Scotland — Henry Douglas, 
 the Lord Dalquharn.'' 
 
 The Captain started, and then bowed low, saying, 
 
 ^^ By my soul I always suspected something of 
 that kind too — that you were one of those luck- 
 less gentlemen who adhere so obstinately to a 
 fated cause ; to this unhappy House of Stuart in 
 its downfall ; but, be assured, my lord, that your 
 secret at least, is safe with Marmaduke Wyvil — 
 safe as if I sheltered you in my own house at 
 Hurstmonceaux, where, though we are old 
 rumpers and whigs, more than one cavalier friend 
 hath found safe hiding, as many a sliding pannel 
 and secret stair, had they tongues, could testify.^' 
 , " And Heaven will reward your house for the 
 succour it gave to the unfortunate in the hour 
 when treason triumphed.''^ 
 
 " My grandfather defended Wem in old NolFs 
 time, when there were little else within its walls 
 but women and children as a garrison, hence to 
 this day, the milkmaid in Salop sings how 
 
 *' ' The women of Wem and a few musketeers, 
 Beat the Lord Capel and his cavaUers.' 
 
 But, concerning my poor friend Egerton ?''
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 275 
 
 " He was most foully murdered V 
 
 ^' Murdered V exclaimed Wyvil in a low and 
 earnest voice, as he laid his hand on his sword. 
 
 " I say so, with sincere sorrow ; I saw him as 
 he lay dead, and scarcely cold, at my feet.^' 
 
 " Yours T' 
 
 ^^ And yet you made no effort to succour or 
 defend him ?" 
 
 " I was without arms — even a walking cane, 
 as you may remember, on the night in ques- 
 tion.^^ 
 
 " True, now that I bethink me ; but by whom 
 was he murdered ?" 
 
 ^' To tell you by whom he was shot down in 
 cold blood, or to say where now he lies, would 
 but serve to imperil my own safety and liberty — 
 even my life, and the lives and liberties, the 
 estates and titles of many dear friends, which are 
 all at the mercy of him who slew Egerton.^^ 
 
 " ^Tis an enigma this, and all High Dutch to 
 me V said the Captain in great wrath. 
 
 " But if you will trust me so far. Captain 
 Wyvil, as to believe in me implicitly, I swear to 
 you by my hopes of heaven, by my father's and 
 mother's bones in their distant graves — graves 
 which are now, alas ! my sole inheritance — that in 
 three months' time, I may explain all this to you, 
 and avenge your countryman openly.'" 
 
 *^^ Three months,'' said Wyvil pausing and 
 
 18—2
 
 276 THE whttp: cockade. 
 
 pondering j ^' but in doing this do I not condone 
 a crime^ and obstruct the ends of justice ; hence 
 I know not if I am bound to abide — " 
 
 " By your word of honour that you would keep 
 my secret T' urged Dalquharn, anxiously. 
 
 " True — odd though this compact is, Zounds, 
 I'll agree to it," replied the confiding English- 
 man. 
 
 Ere the time stated, Dalquharn hoped that the 
 standard of the prince — the same standard which 
 he had seen some fair and royal fingers em- 
 broidering at Versailles — would be floating over 
 the palace of Holyrood, and that the wiles and 
 espionage of Balcraftie would be futile. 
 
 " I could not see you march from here. Captain, 
 viewing me as you did, with cold and suspicious 
 eyes, without having this explanation; and, as a 
 pledge of my truth, I have placed my personal 
 safety in your hands.^'' 
 
 ' " And you may trust me ; I shall be true to 
 you, as this blade to its hilt,'"' exclaimed Wyvil 
 presenting his hand. " Come — Egad ! though 
 our good old friend here, will storm and argue 
 with me, because I cannot see Scottish aff'airs 
 from his point of view, I have a kindly feeling at 
 times for your countrymen. When I served in 
 1741, under Vernon and Wentworth, on that 
 unfortunate expedition to Carthagena, where, 
 after the battle of St. Lazare, the army was so 
 reduced by fever, that in two short April days
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 277 
 
 more than three thousand four hundred and forty- 
 men died under canvas^ I too had perished, but 
 for the exertions of a Scots surgeon^s mate of the 
 ^ Elizabeth/ seventy gun ship, one Tobias Smollet_, 
 a native of Dunbartonshire, who tended me well 
 and kindly ; and with him, I remember, this same 
 Union was a very sore subject, and when I was 
 well, he sent me a challenge for d — ning it and 
 the Scots too, which, in a moment of anger, I had 
 done with all my heart. Then, as for your 
 Highlanders, I think them fine, manly fellows, 
 for I served with some of them against the Indians 
 in Carolina and Georgia, and I shall be truly 
 sorry if there is another rising in the north for 
 
 King James. I was on the staff of his Excellency 
 
 • 
 
 General Wade in the Highlands in 1727, when 
 we all took to the trade of making roads and 
 building bridges, and I remember when first his 
 coach and six came along the highways, the 
 astonishment it excited among the poor, simple 
 fellows, who all took off their bonnets with the 
 greatest respect to the* coachman — but to him 
 only.'' 
 
 '' You will then trust me, sir, until this dark 
 matter is cleared up, by myself.^' 
 
 '^ I shall ; we march for Stirling, and we may 
 be at least four days en route. There are 
 rumours of expected disturbances north of the 
 Highland frontier — disturbances of which you 
 are, perhaps, unfortunately too cognisant. I
 
 278 THE WHITE COCKADE. • 
 
 shall be some time, no doubt, in Stirling Castle, 
 where any letters addressed to Captain Wyvil, 
 Howard^s Foot, or the Old Buffs, will be sure to 
 find me/' 
 
 It was long before Dalquharn was able to com- 
 municate the truth to Wyvil, and before they 
 both learned the secret motive which animated the 
 assassin of Egerton. 
 
 Sir Baldred was too hospitable and too warm- 
 hearted to part without regret from his English 
 antagonist in so many games of chess and primero, 
 and so many political discu.ssions ; and now he 
 ordered the butler to broach a runlet of rare 
 old wine that had lain among cobwebs and dust 
 in a deep, dark binn of the cellar since 1715 — ever 
 since His Grace John Duke of Mar (for duke he 
 was always styled by the Jacobites, as his patent 
 was signed at St. Germains) marched to Sheriff- 
 muir '^ to hand the Whigs in order.'^ 
 
 Mitchell was again in Edinburgh ; indeed, the 
 worthy fellow absented himself as much as pos- 
 sible to avoid the witcherj^ of Bryde's society ; for, 
 in secret, he loved this gentle and loveable girl, and 
 dreaded to become the rival of his friend. 
 
 Thus, like Orlando, he was feeling how 
 
 " His passion hangetli weights upon his tongue, 
 He cannot speak to her should she urge conferences ;" 
 
 And that his friendship for Dalquharn hung 
 weights thereon that were heavier still. 
 
 Home- brewed ale,bread, and bannocks of barley-
 
 « THE WHITE COCKADE. 279 
 
 meal, were liberally supplied to tlie soldiers, who 
 filled their canvas havresacks, and drank to the 
 health of Sir Baldred — " ^towd Squoire," as most 
 of them called him — with three hearty English 
 cheers for the " yoong ladie ; '^ and the old baro- 
 net^s face lit up with kindness and enthusiasm as 
 he saw them for the last time ; for with him, at 
 heart, it Avas not that he '' loved England less, but 
 Scotland more J' 
 
 " A long farewell. Miss Otterburn, and God be 
 wi^ ye,^"* Wy vil said, as he lifted his hat and kissed 
 Bryde^'s hand. "Adieu, Captain Douglas; may 
 our next meeting be as peaceful as our parting. 
 Farewell, my brave old cavalier,^^ he added, waving 
 his hat to Sir Baldred ; ^' with all your antique 
 ways, egad, I can^t help liking you ; and I hope 
 some day to crack a bottle of good old port, or 
 drain a crown bowl of punch with you, at my old 
 manor of Hurstmonceaux, and there return your 
 many hospitalities.^^ 
 
 Sergeant Teesdale advanced his halberd; the 
 drum and fife struck up ; and the fine grenadiers 
 of the old Buffs, with their knapsacks and cross- 
 belts, their square-skirted coats buttoned back to 
 display their pipe-clayed small clothes, their sugar- 
 loaf caps, queues, ruffles, and long black gaiters, 
 once more made a brave show, with their sloped 
 arms and fixed bayonets flashing in the sun, as 
 they marched down the long shady avenue, and 
 wheeled to the right upon the highway to Castle-
 
 280 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 ton, where the sound of their drum soon died away 
 in the distance, as they trod to their route towards 
 the land of the Gael/ leaving, we may presume, 
 the usual number of soft and sorrowing hearts 
 behind them.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 281 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 BRYDE^S ENTERPRISE. 
 
 "Gae tell tliy master, frae tliis arm 
 Mine answer will I gi'e ; 
 Hemind liim of his tyrant deeds, 
 And bid him answer me. 
 
 " Wha was't that slew my father dear ; 
 That bared my castle wa' ? 
 Wha was't that bade wild ruin bruid 
 Whar' pipes did ^lad the ha' H" 
 
 Old Ballad. 
 
 Notwithstanding the full explanation wliicli had 
 taken place between Bryde and Lord Dalqnliarn, 
 and between the latter and Captain Wyvil^ even 
 after the departure of that officer and his grena- 
 diers^ a cloud seemed to hover darkly above the 
 little circle at Auldhame. It was not the secret 
 of an unhallowed grave close by their baronial 
 gates, or of an unavenged crime alone^ that caused 
 this general gloom, but the incessant doubt and 
 dread lest Balcraftie, who had them all at his 
 mercy, might put a climax to his villany by 
 betraying Dalquharn, Mitchell, and many others, 
 through the simple act of placing the intercepted
 
 2S2 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 correspondence in the hands of the authorities^ 
 which he was quite likely to do_, the moment that 
 a sum sufficiently tempting was offered him, though 
 the act would destroy for ever his chances of again 
 setting foot within the door of Auldhame, in his 
 present capacity at least. 
 
 Anticipation of misfortune is often worse than 
 the reality thereof. '^ Imaginary evils/^ says Dean 
 Swift, " soon become real ones by indulging our 
 reflections on them ; as he who, in a melancholy 
 fancy, sees something like a face on the wall or 
 wainscot, can, by two or three touches of a lead 
 pencil, make visible, and agreeing with what he 
 had seen." 
 
 Singular to say, the Bailie still daringly con- 
 tinued his visits to Auldhame, but at longer 
 intervals. He conceived his terrible secret was 
 known only to Dalquharn, but he found himself 
 avoided by all save Sir Baldred, who was totally 
 ignorant of all this underplot, and was too old, and 
 had too little discretion, to be trusted with it. 
 Forced by policy to dissemble the intense repug- 
 nance with which his presence inspired her, Bryde 
 grew pale, stern, and all but ill, when the Bailie 
 appeared ; and at such times, she observed now, 
 that his cringing smile, his cat-like attempts to 
 gain her favour, failed him — and that even his 
 diabolical courage seemed quite to die away. 
 
 " Why do you wince and shrink from me now. 
 Bailie ?^^ she once asked, with her eyes half-
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 288 
 
 closed in disdain, and lier head thrown haughtily 
 back, as if she felt her advantage and power — the 
 power of birth, innocence, and purity, over lowly 
 station, when combined with black guilt and subtle 
 hypocrisy. 
 
 " I dinna ken. Miss Ottcrburn ; but times there 
 are when — when ^' 
 
 ^' When what, sir ?^^ she asked impatiently, and 
 making her spinning-wheel fly as she spoke. 
 
 " You remind me sorely o^ one who hath gane 
 to his place of rest. O — o — oh ! blessed are the 
 dead who '' 
 
 " I remind you of my poor father, you would 
 say?^^ 
 
 " W — yes — puir young man V* 
 
 " I am thought to be like him ; for his hair was 
 a light brown, and his eyes hazel, with black 
 lashes. ^^ 
 
 ^^Even sae, Miss Otterburn,^^ murmured the 
 Bailie, while smoothing the nap of his huge trian- 
 gular beaver, and lowering his stealthy eyes. 
 
 " It was an evil ni^ht that on which vou and 
 he rode homeward from the Bank of Scotland, 
 Reuben Baler aftie.^^ 
 
 "Evil was it indeed !^^ he rejoined, cowering 
 still more beneath the keen flashing glance of 
 her beautiful eyes, in which a strange light was 
 now shining ; " but Lufliiess Muir hath the repu- 
 tation o' being a fatal spot to the Otterburus of 
 Auldhamo, as vou ken wccl. To-morrow,'' he
 
 284 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 added Imrriedly^ to change the subject, '' I am to 
 attend a meeting o^ the Synod of Lothian and 
 IVeedale, anent that flagrant violation o' the 
 Treaty of Union — the restoration o' kirk patron- 
 age. Sir Baldred/^ 
 
 The baronet did not care much about that spe- 
 cial violation, as it restored to his family the 
 patronage of the ancient parish church of St. Bal- 
 dred, which they had possessed since the Refor- 
 mation and plunder of the temporalities, during 
 the regency of Mary of Guise ; but a reference to 
 the Union was quite sufficient to make him mount 
 his hobby, and begin an angry dissertation, which 
 the Bailie evidently preferred to continuing the 
 (conversation on that midnight ride over Luffness 
 Muir. 
 
 Bryde had remarked this more than once — the 
 Bailie^s reluctance to speak of an episode that 
 ^vould certainly have formed a natural subject for 
 morbid relish to one so vulgar as he, and it set her 
 thinking. 
 
 The Synod met in Edinburgh; the Bailie, she 
 expected, would be absent at least two days from 
 his house in the Burgh-town, and Bryde resolved 
 to visit it and reconnoitre. 
 
 " You take horse for Edinburgh to-morrow. 
 Bailie ?^^ she asked, making a violent effort, and 
 addressing him again. 
 
 " By eight hours o^ the morning, Deo Volente, I 
 shall be going forth on a pious and righteous
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 285 
 
 errand, Miss Otterburn/^ he replied, bowing low, 
 while tilting up the ties of his huge wig, and 
 planting the heels of his square-toed shoes to- 
 gether on the carpet ; " I shall tarry at Ramsay's 
 stables in the Horse Wynd. Can I do aught for 
 you in the Lawn-market, Miss Otterburn ; though 
 I can but little anent a la modes and lutestrings, 
 pompons and pearlings ? '^ 
 
 Even while shrinking from him with loathing, 
 Bryde smiled at her own thoughts, as she retired 
 to join Dalquharn, who could not abide the pre- 
 sence of Balcraftie, if he could by any means avoid 
 it ; and while the latter looked after her retreating- 
 figure admiringly, till the dining-room door closed 
 over it, there came into his pale eyes an avaricious 
 glitter. Then he turned to the woodlands, and 
 the yellow fields, which, from the windows, could 
 be seen stretching far eastward in the sunshine, 
 and he rubbed his hands and muttered, 
 
 " The estate shall be mine, mine — mine ! 
 Tower and fortalice, kirk and doocot, main and 
 farm, bake and brewhouse, outfang thief and iii- 
 fang thief, sae surely as the field o^ Ephron, which 
 was in Machpelah, and a^ the trees which were in 
 that field, were given unto Abraham ! and mair 
 than a', you shall be mine too, madam, for a 
 hand-fast, a bond-maiden, it may be, for wi' a^ 
 your pride, your scorn and braw airs, Reuben Bal- 
 craftie may see you at his feet yet V 
 
 The attainder of Auldhame (to which he confi-
 
 286 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 fidently looked forward) on the one hand, his secret 
 services to the government, and the wadsets he 
 personally held on the other, wonld ensure him a 
 strong chance of obtaining possession of the whole, 
 and thus Bryde would be placed by poverty and 
 humility, completely in his power; so, like a 
 coiled-up snake, he bided the time " to hurl at 
 once his venom and his strength '^ — bided slowly, 
 surely, greedily and warily ! 
 
 About five hours after the Bailie and Mr. Car- 
 fuffle, of Whitekirk, took horse next day at the 
 Otterburn Arms, and set out for Edinburgh, Bryde 
 ordered her pad to be saddled, and an armed 
 groom to accompany her, as she meant to ride a 
 few miles ^ 
 
 Without acquainting her grandfather or Dalqu- 
 harn of her purpose, she stole away by the private 
 door, holding up the gathered skirt of her riding 
 habit, which was light blue trimmed with silver, 
 a white ostrich feather floating from her broad 
 hat behind her, and her riding switch pressed 
 against her rosy lips, as if she would impress 
 silence on herself. There was a flush in her now 
 usually pale cheek, and a sparkle in her clear 
 brown eye, that made her face, though an irregu- 
 lar one, full of glorious beauty. 
 
 "Praise be blest! my bonnie lamb — my ain 
 cushie-doo, the roses are coming back to your 
 cheeks again ! '' said Dorriel, as she saw her setting 
 forth, and whip up her pad to a gallop, as she sped
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 287 
 
 towards Castleton, followed by a trusty fellow, 
 the butler's oldest son, Arcbie, armed with a 
 hanger and pair of holster pistols. 
 
 Her purpose, that forenoon, was to visit the 
 house of Balcraftie in his absence, and endeavour 
 by force, if bribery or stratagem failed her, to 
 secure those dangerous papers, which might cause 
 alike the ruin of her lover, her own family, and, 
 perhaps, the prince's cause. 
 
 Where their personal feelings are so keenly, so 
 terribly excited as those of Bryde were, women, 
 bei-ng generally given more to sudden impulse than 
 to subtle casuistry, are not apt to consider nicely or 
 maturely, how the law may view their proceedings ; 
 thus, to Bryde Otterburn^s mind, to commit 
 invasion on the premises of Bailie Balcraftie, 
 risking even the charge of hame-sucken and 
 violence, even to the wrenching open of his most 
 secret places, seemed but an act of fair reprisal, 
 retributiA^e justice and patriotism in King James's 
 cause. 
 
 "Balcraftie is a villain, and worse than a 
 villain ! " she kept repeating, while whipping her 
 horse ; " tlien why dally, delay or trifle with him ? 
 Time presses and such an opportunity may not 
 occur again/^ 
 
 She neither armed herself with a loaded pistol 
 or sharp poniard ; neither was she furnished with a 
 sleeping drug, a dark lantern, or any of the melo- 
 dra,matic accessories usually adopted by ladies of
 
 288 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 high enterprise in sensational romance. She was 
 simply resolved to see what she could do, at all 
 personal risks, to recover those dangerous docu- 
 ments. 
 
 Her heart beat painfully with growing excite- 
 ment, as she approached the little town, with its 
 ruined church on the rocks beside the sea ; and 
 checking the pace of her horse, she permitted the 
 reins to drop on his neck. 
 
 The noon of the summer day was bright and 
 beautiful : the woods tossed on the wind their 
 dense green foliage ; the bearded grain was yellow- 
 ing in the sun, and the black crows were cawing 
 in the quaint belfry of the parish church, whose 
 shadow falls on the grave of many a martyr and 
 resolute covenanter; and they were wheeling in 
 flights above the turrets and walls of the old Cis- 
 tercian nunneiy, which Malcolm Macduff, son of 
 Duncan, Earl of Fife, built and consecrated to the 
 blessed Virgin Mary, when Alexander II. filled 
 the Scottish throne — a shattered ruin, at the altar 
 of which, three fair young ladies of her house, 
 at different times, had taken the veil, when their 
 lovers fell in battle for their country at Sark, at 
 Arkinholme and Pinkeycleugh ; and Bryde 
 thought of them sadly, and of their sorrows begun 
 and ended, all so long ago, when, in this age of 
 utility and desecration, she saw the corn of the 
 Ihrifty Presbyterian farmer (who was not troubled 
 by many poetical compunctions), growing deepest
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 289 
 
 and richest, where, in the days of old, the con- 
 vent graveyard lay. 
 
 There was a great bustle in and around the 
 narrow main street of the quaint little town of 
 North Berwick, and the beating of a hoarse, ill- 
 braced drum was heard at times. At the market 
 cross, there stood, by sentence of the Lords of 
 Justiciary, a degraded merchant burgess, with his 
 hands tied behind his back, which was bared to 
 the long lash of the public executioner, while a 
 placard on his breast, bore the following, in capital 
 letters : 
 
 ^^ Convicted of withdrawing His Majesty 
 King George^s weights, and using false ones, in 
 place thereof.^* Underneath was written in the , 
 hand of Balcraftie, the text so well known, 
 " Render unto Csesar,^^ &c. 
 
 The town-drummer beat a roll, and the first of 
 twenty stripes to be administered, drew a yell 
 from the culprit, and a varied murmur from the 
 crowd j at the same time, it made Bryde gallop 
 on to the mansion of Balcraftie. 
 
 Dismounting and telling the groom to take the 
 horses to the Otterburn Arms, and await her 
 there, she advanced straight to the house of her 
 foe, with her heart beating every moment more 
 painfully and rapidly. 
 
 With several other gossips, whose presence and 
 observation Brvde would rather have avoided, the 
 housekeeper of Balcraftie, a shrivelled and wrinkled 
 
 VOL. I. 19
 
 290 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 crone^ whose hooked nose and prominent chin 
 (under her close crimped curchie^ with its black 
 band J met like nntcrackers^ stood on the steps of 
 his door^ curiously and morbidly observant of the 
 bustle and punishment at the cross^ though the 
 good folks of those days_, were treated, at very 
 short periods, to the sight of hanging, lashing, 
 nailing of ears and boring of tongues, for various 
 crimes, and drumming of scolding wives, through 
 the streets at a cart-tail. 
 
 She received the young lady of Auldhame with 
 a profusion of smiles and low curtsies. 
 
 The Bailie, she said, a little pompously, had 
 just ridden that morning to Edinburgh, with the 
 worthy Mr. Carfuffle, to attend a meeting of the 
 Synod, anent the abomination of Patronage, and 
 would be absent two, may be, three days; but 
 Jabez Starvieston (the poor anatomy was well 
 named) his clerk, was at the cross, reading the 
 sentence on the dealer with false weights — a vile 
 Seceder loon, who upheld the ^ Marrow of Modern 
 Divinity^ — but Jabez would be back anon to 
 attend to her ladyship^s pleasure. 
 
 Annoyed by the fawning manner and repeated 
 curtsies of this wrinkled crone, Bryde said briefly 
 that she did not require the clerk, a poor starveling 
 and slave, whose shrunken limbs and cadaverous 
 aspect she had often pitied, the pittance he received 
 from his hard task-master, aftbrding but few of 
 the necessaries, and certainly none of the luxuries
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 291 
 
 of life ; she would write a note for tlie Bailie, and 
 with the good darnels permission_, would step into 
 his office and make use of his writing materials. 
 
 The old housekeeper, with all the officiousness, 
 loquacity, and gossip of her class, accompanied 
 Bryde into that celebrated apartment which the 
 reader may, perhaps, remember, the same in 
 which Mr. Gage and the armed tidesmen brought 
 Dalquharn and Mitchell before the Dionysius of 
 iSTorth Berwick ; and had the young lady not dis- 
 missed her peremptorily, by remarking that she 
 must be left alone, and would be some time in 
 writing, she might as well have tarried in Auld- 
 liame, as have hoped to iuvestigate the archives of 
 Balcraftie without observation or interruption. 
 
 The housekeeper hurried back to rejoin the 
 gossips on the steps outside, their conversation 
 now having new food in the discussion of Miss 
 Otterburn^s appearance, bearing, and dress ; and 
 the instant she was gone, our heroine turned the 
 key in the door, and looked curiously and anxiously 
 about her. 
 
 She remembered the room and all its gloomy 
 features but too well, for she had been in it more 
 than once, when poor Sir Baldred had come hither 
 in the hard times and dear years, during the 
 cattle disease and bad crops and so forth, to screw 
 money out of the grasping usurer^s ill won hoards. 
 
 Its windows were barred like those of a prison, 
 and faced the wide expanse of sand, the rocky isle 
 
 19—2
 
 292 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 of Craigleitli^ wliicli so closely resembles a vast lion, 
 with its chin resting on its fore paws ; the ceiling 
 was low, and discoloured by stains ; the grate was 
 rusty, and full of waste paper, carefully torn into 
 very minute bits, and a damp and earthy odour, 
 like that of a tomb, pervaded the place. Vague 
 ideas of alarm came over Bryde, and she shud- 
 dered, she knew not why. 
 
 Those documents of such vast consequence to 
 the lives of those she held most dear, might be — 
 nay, must be, Bryde knew — within arm^s length of 
 her j but where, in what drawer, in what coffer, 
 in what exact spot ? Could her eyes but pierce 
 those boxes and pannels. 
 
 What if Balcraftie had on that day taken the 
 papers with him to Edinburgh, either to secure or 
 surrender them ? Even at that moment he might 
 be in conference with the crown officials concern- 
 ing them ; to-morrow the warrants might be out, 
 and the criminal officers and a guard of horse 
 might secure all the avenues from Auldhame. 
 There was despair in that thought ! 
 
 OflP her nervous little hands, which seemed so 
 Avhite and babyish for the work to be done, she 
 drew her tight and well-fitting riding gauntlets, and 
 cast them with her switch on the black oak table. 
 It was littered by books, docquets, and musty 
 papers; but she knew too well that those she 
 longed for, v/ould not be lying openly there. 
 
 On the maps and charts by Herman Moll, the
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 293 
 
 bills of wreckage, salvage, of the weekly waggon, 
 and tlie Bailie's next preachment on the links, 
 *^ Deo Volente,'^ and so forth, her ejes wandered 
 rapidly. 
 
 His oak lettron, or desk, massively bonnd and 
 fenced about with brass, was before her; might 
 the papers be there ? 
 
 An old fashioned bureau, which surmounted a 
 mahogany chest of drawers, with hanging handles 
 of brass — a piece of double furniture still to be 
 seen in remote Scottish country houses — stood in 
 an arched recess, that, somehow, suggested secu- 
 rity. She stepped towards it ; the sloping-lid of 
 the bureau was locked, and now a sound startled 
 her. It was only a mob hooting the culprit at 
 the market cross. 
 
 The drawers of this bureau were all unfastened 
 save one. She pulled them all open, and shut 
 them in quick succession, not because she ex- 
 pected the papers to be there, but rather in nervous 
 anxiety to be doing something before the clerk 
 returned. They were crammed with bundles of 
 old invoices, accounts, bills of lading, and other 
 written rubbish, tied up with red tape, and seemed 
 of no value, as they referred to long past trans- 
 actions. 
 
 The lower one was locked ; this excited alike the 
 suspicion and irritability of Bryde, and she exerted 
 all her strength to pull it open. The Avood was 
 old, worm-eaten, and rotten ; the lock fell into
 
 294 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 <& 
 
 the drawer, which came suddenly out,, and seemed 
 empty. Bryde was about to shut it when some- 
 thing caught her eye, which made her cheek grow 
 pale, and her heart to die away in her breast. 
 
 She drew it forth — that something, the sight of 
 which almost suffocatecl her Avith emotion. 
 
 Covered with the dust of years, and faded in 
 hue, it was a small maroquin case, or pocket-book, 
 of scarlet leather, which bore the arms of the Ot- 
 terburns of Auldhame stamped thereon, in gold. 
 It was originally wont to be fastened by a curious 
 clasp of steel, which she remembered well, but 
 this means of security had been rent completely 
 away. Trembling in every limb, Bryde opened 
 it, and saw on the inside the autograph of 
 her father, in whose hands she had many times 
 seen this case — the identical one of which he had 
 been robbed, with all its contents, on the night 
 when he was so foullv slain bv a shot from be- 
 hind, on Luffness Muir ! 
 
 The dark spots upon it — his blood, doubtless — 
 filled her heart with emotions of rage and sorrow. 
 
 " This pocket-book — how came it into Bal- 
 craftie's possession ? How, but with the notes it 
 contained ! ^' she whispered in her heart. 
 
 Another l^lack link in the secret life of Balcraf- 
 tie was here taken up, and, swift as light, a hun- 
 dred suspicions now flashed on the mind of Bryde. 
 She now knew beyond a doubt, that Eeuben 
 Baleraftie, incited by robbery and avarice, was the
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 295 
 
 author of her father's assassination, and, by that 
 deed, the breaker of her mother's heart. 
 
 She remembered the long night of suspense 
 and anxiety that preceded the knowledge of the 
 crime ; the alarm and dismay that the cold grey 
 morning brought to all their hearts ; her mother, 
 dishevelled and wild with grief, embracing the 
 stiffened corpse, as it was borne by sorrowing 
 vassals into Auldhame, muffled in a roquelaure 
 pale, and covered with hideous blood gouts. 
 
 What if the author of that foul crime were to 
 return now, and find her with the proofs of it in 
 her possession ! Quick, quick, she thought, there 
 is no time to lose ! 
 
 " Traitor ! " she exclaimed, " corrupt and hypo-* 
 crite as you are, and cunning and wary though 
 you be, I shall make you suffer torments yet, 
 greater than you have ever caused to the hearts 
 of those who were good, gallant, and true ! We 
 shall yet be revenged on thee, wretch ! " 
 
 She remembered the expression which Bal- 
 craftie at times alleged he had seen in her face, a 
 something that reminded him of her father, and 
 which bewildered and terrified him; and she 
 remembered too of the wadset which had been 
 principally paid in some of the same notes of 
 which her father had been robbed. To her it was 
 all as clear now as sunshine at noon ! 
 
 There is something mysterious in the persist- 
 ence of imj)ressions, " There is reason to believe
 
 296 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 that no idea which ever existed in the mind can 
 be lost/^ says a modern writer ; " it may seem to 
 ourselves to be gone^ since we have no power 
 to recall it^ as is the case with the vast majority of 
 our thoughts. But numerous facts show that it 
 needs only some change in our physical or intel- 
 lectual condition to restore the long lost impres- 
 sion )^ and in the mind of Bryde^ a flood of past 
 thoughts and suspicions gathered or returned 
 with fresh intensity. 
 
 Nerved thus anew_, and thereby with less repug- 
 nance than ever^ she looked about for some lever, 
 wherewith to wrench open the bureau, and every 
 other lock-fast place in this assassin^s den. In 
 the cautious Scottish fashion of the preceding 
 century, the fire-irons were chained to the jambs 
 of the mantle-piece, not so much to prevent their 
 abstraction as the dangerous use of them in any 
 sudden brawl, so they could not avail her. 
 
 She looked anxiously round, for time was most 
 precious and was passing quickly. 
 
 The rusty head of an old halbert (broken in 
 some row or tulzie in the burgh), with about 
 three feet of the shaft adhering to it, lay in a 
 corner, and Bryde found that it woidd suit her 
 purpose exactly. 
 
 The strong steel head she inserted under the 
 sloping lid of the bureau for some inches, and 
 then bending upon it with all her weight, the 
 wood parted from the lock with a great crash^ and
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 297 
 
 the slab of mahogany fell at her feet. A double 
 row of pigeon-holes, filled with docquets of letters, 
 was now visible, and many bundles of paper, 
 tied and labelled, lay on the desk of the bureau, 
 and to these, while her temples throbbed and her 
 hands trembled, she addressed herself in rapid suc- 
 cession. 
 
 The old wadset over a portion of the home- 
 farm of Auldhame and other places, with the more 
 recent one for money for the Prince's service, 
 borrowed over the land of Halflongbarns, met 
 her eye, and these she might have taken and de- 
 stroyed; but they were carefully recorded in the 
 sheriff court books of the Counting of Hadding- 
 ton, so their destruction would have availed little ,• 
 besides, Bryde had other views. 
 
 " Hah — what is this ? '' she exclaimed, as a 
 foolscap document came to her hand, recently 
 written, at some length and docquetted thus : 
 
 " Information for His Majesty's Advocate for 
 His Majesty's Interest, anent Dalquharn and 
 Mitchell, emissaries of the Popish Pretender and 
 Spies of the French King, with evidence that they 
 came from Dunkirk last, in the ' Etoile de la Mer' 
 smuggler, in time of war, eluding the fleet of 
 Admiral Byng. Cyphers and intercepted corres- 
 pondence between the aforesaid forfeited traitors, 
 and the Lords Balmerino, Lovat, Elcho, the Earl 
 of Kilmarnock, and the (so-called) Duke of Perth 
 and Melfort, numbered from one to twelve,
 
 298 THE AVHITE COCKADE. 
 
 together with an account of the secret murther of 
 an English officer_, Lieutenant Egerton, of 
 HowarcVs Foot^ and the complicity of Sir Baldred 
 Otterburn therewith^ as the body is now buried 
 near his mansion of Auldhame^ &c/^ 
 
 This document was dated but yesterday, and 
 the ink was barely dry ! Tied up with red tape, 
 and ready for transmission to the hands of the 
 Public Prosecutor at Edinburgh, the docquet was 
 bulky. 
 
 Bryde had now all she wanted ; she threw her 
 riding skirt over her left arm to conceal the 
 papers and the recovered pocket-book, and grasp- 
 ing her riding-switch, as if it was a weapon for 
 defence, sallied from the house like one in a 
 dream, and reached the innyard, where the armed 
 groom awaited her with the horses. 
 
 Ten minutes more beheld her flying homeward 
 with her spoil, almost at racing speed. The poor 
 girr s heart and head seemed alike on fire ! She 
 (iared not what might be thought of the adven- 
 ture, which the Bailie^s household would soon 
 make known over all the country; for all those 
 noble peers, whose names were mentioned in the 
 correspondence, and some of whose holograph letters 
 were there, " numbered from one to twelve/^ were 
 saved by her from immediate destruction : her 
 lover too, the brave and devoted Dalquharn, Sir 
 John Mitchell too, and though mentioned last, 
 not least her poor old, loving grandfather, whom
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 299 
 
 this man Balcraftie had robbed and so deeply 
 wronged. 
 
 Sir Baldred she resolved not to consult^ as yet, 
 on this discovery ; his impatience and impotent 
 wrath wonld be too great even for the occasion, 
 and might serionsly affect his health. She en- 
 quired for Lord Dalquharn the moment she 
 reached Auldhame, breathless by her ride, and 
 alternately flushed by her triumph, and then 
 pallid at the contemplation of the danger they 
 all escaped, and by her courage and prudence 
 alone. 
 
 Lord Dalquharn was no where to be found, 
 though evening was at hand, and the dinner bell 
 had long since been rung. He had gone forth 
 with Mr. John Gage, the English custom-house 
 officer, taking with him his sword and pistols, and 
 had not returned. 
 
 " Whither had he gone — in what direction ? '' 
 she asked. Some said towards Tantallan ; others 
 said, towards Tyninghame, in the opposite direc- 
 tion ; in short, no one knew with certainty. 
 
 The evening drew on, and Bryde^s anxiety be- 
 came, erelong, an agony. She had gained a great 
 victory, and he in whose cause the essay had 
 chiefly been made, was not here to share her 
 triumph or her secret — the new and terrible 
 secret, that she had discovered the assassin of her 
 father ! 
 
 To Sir John Mitchell, Bryde related, with all
 
 300 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 its details^ the story of her adventure. He read 
 over the " Information for His Majesty^s Advo- 
 cate/^ while his brows were knit with rage and 
 fury ; for they had all been toppling on the brink 
 of a precipice, from which Bryde^s hand had saved 
 them^ but he laughed and kissed it_, and could he 
 have dared so great a liberty, he would have 
 pressed the dear girl to his breast, as she hung with 
 a species of sisterly regard on his arm, and looked 
 into his kind eyes for approbation of her courage 
 and conduct, which he praised loudly. 
 
 " And now my dear and gallant Miss -Otter- 
 burn,^^ said he, ^^ as we never know what a 
 moment may bring forth, these papers must all, 
 with your permission, be put out of existence.''^ 
 
 " Before Dalquharn sees them ? " 
 
 ^'^ Yes, and especially before others might ^i ^, 
 them. I have not lived in exile since the battle 
 of Sheriffmuir, .without learning caution, my dear 
 young lady." 
 
 Procuring a light from the silver tinder box, 
 which, as a habitual smoker, he always carried for 
 using his pipe, they were speedily torn to shreds 
 and blazing in the dining-room grate. He and 
 Bryde stood by watching the conflagration in 
 silence, until the last glowing spark of redness 
 had flickered out and died away among the black 
 and impalpable ashes, and then he again caressed 
 Bryde^s delicate hand, tenderly, and bent his lip 
 upon it. Mitchell could do so in safety then, for
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 301 
 
 the secret that he loved her, with all the afiPection 
 of lover, brother and friend, was known to himself 
 alone. 
 
 As the light of the burned papers passed away, 
 the two lookers on became aware how far the 
 twilight had advanced,- and that Lord Dalquharn 
 was still unaccounted for. 
 
 He had never before been absent so long, 
 without some known and just excuse, and was so 
 regular in his habits, that the present affair 
 seemed extraordinary, and rapidly became alarm- 
 ing j for the night drew on, and still there was no 
 appearance of him. Sir Baldred dispatched a 
 mounted servant to the residence of Mr. Gage, a 
 pretty cottage in the westgate of North Berwick, 
 to make enquiries, but that official had not re- 
 t^ ned either; however, as his habits Avere some- 
 what erratic and nocturnal, in consequence of his 
 peculiar avocation, his absence created little alarm 
 in the mind of his buxom little English wife, who 
 seemed to have no doubt that ^^ he would turn up 
 somewhere between the night and morning — he 
 always ^ad ^itherto.^^ 
 
 Absent — absent, even as Egerton had been — he 
 had gone forth into the darkness of the night, and 
 leaving only wild surmise and mystery behind ; 
 so thought Bryde, who had a very active imagi- 
 nation, with a great aptitude for tormenting 
 herself. Oh, what had happened now? Scot- 
 land and England, too, were still somewhat
 
 502 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 lawless; there were no regular police, and the 
 roads were often beset by broken-men, gypsies, 
 foot-pads and sturdy beggars ; and human life and 
 human suffering were both of much less account 
 than they are now. 
 
 Why was he absent thus from her who loved him 
 as her own soul? Once again her tears were 
 falling fast and bitterly. He might have heard 
 of danger, Mitchell kindly suggested, and so, have 
 fled somewhere for concealment, "and in that 
 case,^^ added the baronet, " we shall soon hear of 
 him, for though thepost-boys appear to be strangely 
 tampered with, he would not leave you in suspense 
 and me in the lurch.^^ 
 
 It could not be a danger menaced by Balcraftie, 
 as the perilous papers no longer existed ; but what 
 business could he have had with Mr. Gage, an 
 Englishman — a government official ? It was very 
 perplexing. 
 
 So the night passed away at Auldhame without 
 Lord Dalquharn appearing; it was, though, a 
 midsummer one, a long — long night of tears and 
 apprehension to Bryde Otterburn, who heard every 
 hour and half hour, chimed in dreary monotony 
 by the old brass clock in the chamber-of-dai's.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 303 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE SEQUEL. 
 
 ** Fell spectre of tlie haggard eye, 
 Wild gesture and erected hair, 
 Quick from my presence fly ! 
 
 Ease — ease awhile my heart opprest, 
 Lest, lost and woebegone, Despair 
 Should seal me for her own, 
 And reason banished from her throne, 
 
 To madness should resign my tortured breast." 
 
 Ode to Terror. 
 
 Late that niglit Bailie Balcraftie came galloping 
 home^, and to the great surprise of his small house- 
 hold, presented himself at an hour, when he and 
 other members of the Synod of Lothian and 
 Tweedale, were supposed to be sitting round a 
 snug crown-bowl of steaming whiskey punch at 
 Ramsay the vintner^s in St. Mary^s Wynd. He 
 had returned, he said briefly, for some papers of 
 importance ; in fact, for a right royal sum, he had 
 agreed to place in the hands of the Lord Advocate 
 (of course an unscrupulous ministerial placeman) 
 the carefully numbered correspondence, and the 
 precious "information^"' which Mitchell, had, a 
 short time before, quite as carefully committed to
 
 304 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 the flames ; tlms the Bailie, had preferred a ride 
 in the dark/ even by Gulane Links and LuflPness 
 Mmr_, to enjoying a pipe and bowl, and the 
 society of such men as Home, the author of 
 ^ Douglas/ Blair who wrote ^ The Grave/ the 
 witty Carlyle of Inveresk, and others among 
 whose society his profound hypocrisy enabled him 
 to move. 
 
 In the hurry of his arrival and in the lust of 
 gratified avarice, and the triumph of anticipated re- 
 venge on Dalquharn, Mitchell and Sir Baldred, all 
 of whom he cordiallv hated in his heart, he failed 
 to observe at first, the pale terror and painful 
 tribulation of Mr. Jabez Starvieston his clerk, 
 a poor, famished and overtasked creature, whose 
 services were rewarded by the reversion of the 
 Bailie^s wardrobe, and the crumbs that fell from 
 his table, and whose pale watery eyes and cunning 
 leer gave him a resemblance so close to our enter- 
 prising magistrate, that a few evil-minded persons 
 — Tories and nonjurors — were wont to affirm 
 that there was a very near relationship between 
 them, more especially as in babyhood, the starve- 
 ling clerk had been found one morning tied in a 
 bundle of rags, to the of the risp Bailie^s front door. 
 
 This abject creature, who regarded Balcraftie 
 with a strange fear, and stranger regard, blended 
 with the most abject submission, the result of 
 long force of habit, after having his intellects 
 brightened by a smart application from a rattan
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 305 
 
 wielded unsparingly by Balcraftie_, informed him 
 that Miss Otterburn had been there that day. 
 
 " Here — Bryde Otterburn, here V exclaimed 
 Balcraftie, astonished by a circumstance so un- 
 usual. 
 
 '^ Yes — in the office, saying she would — would 
 — would leave a note, but — but — ^' 
 
 " But, what — speak, you gomeral — you puir 
 cockle-headed loon V 
 
 Jabez could only gasp like a dying cod-fish^ and 
 cower under the uplifted rattan. 
 
 "A licht, Lucky a licht !"' said the Bailie, 
 snatching a candle from his scared housekeeper, 
 and hurrying into his sanctum. He hastened in- 
 stinctively to the bureau ; it was open ; the hal- 
 berd head was lying among the littered papers 
 with it, and split in two, the lid lay on the floor. 
 
 A film passed over his eyesight; a sickness 
 came into his avaricious heart; and he would 
 have sunk down, for his knees gave way beneath 
 him, but he clung to the bureau. 
 
 His precious papers, the double instruments of 
 wealth and triumph were gone — gone — gone ! 
 
 And Bryde had taken them ! There was no 
 note, for none had been written; it was all a 
 snare, a pretence to take advantage of his absence, 
 on that expedition to Edinburgh, of which he had 
 so carefully informed her ; and there lay her tiny 
 gloves, just where she had cast them on the table,, 
 and forgotten them in the hurry of her departure. 
 
 VOL. I. 20
 
 306 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 lie tore tliem with his teeth ; he trod them under 
 foot_, in his impotent rage — trod them as he would 
 have done her own slender neck had it been there. 
 
 Then came the bitter reflection^ that had he but 
 taken the papers when he went to town that morn- 
 ings her scheme would have been baffled ; but now 
 she had confounded and defeated him. 
 
 ^' Curses on her V' he gasped out hoarsely and 
 huskily, as he sank into his black leather elbow 
 chair, which never felt so uncomfortable as at that 
 particular moment ; " curses on her V^ he repeated 
 while depositing his wig on the wig-block, for his 
 ' brain seemed on fire ; ^^ how came she to do this 
 a deed sae bauld and tough — she, a delicate wo- 
 man, barely past her lassiehood, wi^ her saft hazel 
 eyen, and her a"* but bairn^s face ? Curse her ■'' he 
 added, more deep and hoarsely, as he clenched his 
 sharp fangs, and his great coarse and misshapen 
 haiids. 
 
 When the first paroxysm of fury was past^ Jabez 
 Starvieston, who wore a scratch wig made of a dog- 
 skin, which did not improve his lean and hunger- 
 eyed visage, drew timidly nigh, with the whispered 
 information, that the lugger of Sanders Scupper- 
 plug had been seen in the offing from Scougal 
 Point. 
 
 The Bailie groaned, and then said, after a pause, 
 
 '' Was a lantern hung out in the gloaming, to 
 shew that the coast was clear, and the pestilent 
 red coats departed V^
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 307 
 
 '^ Aye^ and at Wliitberry, and I shewed the red 
 flag on Tantallan for weel nigh five minutes/^ 
 
 " Five minutes owre lang^ for that English loon 
 Gage, hath the eyen o' a lynx; in this matter 
 you have dune your best ; in the other you werena 
 to blame. But get me my night gear_, and we 
 shall gae forth ; the run will be made mair than 
 three miles frae this/^ 
 
 Groaning again, as he recurred to his loss — 
 " She hath been guilty o' rank hamesucken/'' 
 said he ; '' and I shall hae the law o^ her — the law 
 if it is to be had in braid Scotland !" 
 
 There was no family worship, and no psalm 
 sung that night in the house of Reuben Balcraftie. 
 ■5f -x- -K- -5^ -Jf . 
 
 The next morning came, but brought with it no 
 tidings of Lord Dalquharn to Auldhame. With 
 the first blush of sunrise, Bryde left her couch 
 sleepless as when she had lain down upon it. She 
 issued into the garden, where the brightness of 
 the summer morning, the perfume of the opening 
 flowers, and the music of the merry birds soothed 
 and revived her. She clung to Sir John Mitchells 
 idea, that urged by some alarm, Dalquharn had 
 fled somewhere for concealment ; but she was im- 
 patient to despatch another horseman to the house 
 of Mr. Gage, to learn how and when that person 
 had seen his Lordship last. 
 
 She heard the sound of hoofs upon the distant 
 highway; a horse was approaching at a gallo p 
 
 20—2
 
 308 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 her heart bounded more and more with expecta- 
 tion — with mingled hope and alarm — when the 
 change of sound distinctly announced that the 
 horse was coming down the avenue. She rushed 
 to the garden gate, and was met face to face by — 
 Bailie Balcraftie ! 
 
 That personage dismounted from his Galloway 
 cob, and grasping the reins, stood some six paces 
 distant, surveying her with a daring glance of 
 hate and spite in his pale and now colourless 
 face. Could a glance have slain, Bryde had been 
 reduced to tinder on the spot ! Balcraftie had 
 regained much of his external composure, but the 
 fires of unsatisfied vengeance and of disappointed 
 avarice were yet smouldering in his heart. 
 
 Her becoming morning toilet, a rich negligee ; 
 her slender waist and curved bust being charm- 
 ingly defined by a long and well-shaped boddice ; 
 her masses of bright brown hair, gathered care- 
 lessly and hastily in rippling waves behind, so as 
 to shew her delicately formed ears, and the long 
 sparkling pendants, which her great grandmother 
 had worn at the coronation of King Charles, in 
 Scone; her paleness and the alluring character 
 of her beauty — for Bryde was beautiful, though 
 her nose was in the faintest degree retrousse, and 
 the envious alleged that her mouth was too large 
 — all failed to afi'ect the Bailie, or move his stub- 
 born heart, while her extreme apparent self- 
 possession infuriated him.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 309 
 
 '^ He dare not assault me, I presume/^ thought 
 Bryde, so she confronted him calmly, boldly, and 
 scornfully. 
 
 " ^Sdeath, madam,^' he hissed through his set 
 teeth. " You are the very person I came hither 
 to see.^^ 
 
 '^ And to what am I indebted for the honour of 
 this early visit from the worthy and excellent Mr. 
 Balcraftie ?^^ she asked, carefully keeping her 
 hand on the lock of the garden gate, ready to 
 close it in an instant, for she feared this man, and 
 knew not what his purpose might be there at an 
 hour so early, and when so few of the household 
 were stirring. 
 
 " I am come to dispel your vapours, madam,,as 
 you shall ken ere long, and your pride too/^ 
 
 Bryde laughed, though her poor fluttering 
 heart grew sick with apprehension. 
 
 '^You committed an invasion o^ my premises 
 yesterday morn, breaking lockfast places — 
 hamesucken, felony — and had you committed 
 slaughter, even as Ishbosheth was slain by felons 
 and hamesuckers in his ain dwelling, it would 
 barely aggravate the crime, as we find in second 
 Samuel,''^ said he, in measured and stern tones •/' 
 " but 1^11 hae you precognosced before the Fiscal, 
 and I'll try it on the floor of the Parliament 
 House if he fails me, for I'll hae vengeance and 
 justice, if they are to be got out o' the wigs o' the 
 fifteen Judges ! ''
 
 310 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 cc 
 
 Begone sir, or I shall order the keeper to let 
 loose the dogs on you, and I know we have one 
 mastiff at least, whose tusks will not respect your 
 rank as a bailie, or your position as an elder/^ 
 
 Balcraftie surveyed her with a terrible ex- 
 pression, but the girl laughed scornfully and 
 bitterly. 
 
 " You would like to strangle me, I know,^^ said 
 she. 
 
 ^^Yes,^' he said through his grinding teeth; 
 " that I should, indeed !" 
 
 (c Qj, j]aarry me ? — eh, assassin ! Oh, we know 
 each other perfectly. My dear father^s pocket- 
 book, which I found in the lower drawer of your 
 bureau yesterday, told me a terrible story.^"* 
 
 At these words, which detailed another abstrac- 
 tion of which he was before ignorant, the perspira- 
 tion started in cold drops upon the brow of Bal- 
 craftie. What species of folly or insanity was it, 
 which caused him to omit the destruction of that 
 record of his crime ? 
 
 ^^ Where is that pocket-book?^^ he asked, 
 hoarsely. 
 
 ^' Safe in Auldhame house,^^ said she, closing 
 the gate of iron bars, for he made a pace towards 
 her with more of menace in his cruel eyes. " And 
 now I shall give you my terms of secresy.^"* 
 
 ^^ We understand each other,''^ said he, pale and 
 trembling with suppressed passion, hate, and fear ; 
 /^ and your terms "
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 311 
 
 " Are, the instant release of the two wadsets, 
 wliich you liold over the lands of Auldliame — each 
 release to be fully and truly written by a notary- 
 public, and stamped; and that you quit Scotland 
 for ever, within a week from this date/^ 
 
 ^^ Otherwise ?" 
 
 '^1 shall hand over that bloodspotted pocket- 
 book to the sheriff at Haddington, that he may 
 elucidate how it, and the bank notes it once con- 
 tained, came into your possession; and with it 
 shall be given a statement, signed by Lord Dalqu- 
 harn and myself, of your last deed of blood in 
 yonder thicket, for I too was there on that fatal 
 night, and saw your mm^derous hands on Mr. 
 Egerton/'' . ^ 
 
 " You — you ?'' he exclaimed, in a voice like a 
 scream, for he knew not how much or how little 
 she knew. 
 
 But for the pomander ball which she raised at 
 times from her chatelain to her nostrils, the girl 
 must have fainted during this obnoxious colloquy, 
 yet she bore up bravely. 
 
 '^Ha, ha '/^ she said; ^*^so, wretch, the money 
 for which you hoped to sell us to the Lord Advo- 
 cate and the Marquis of Tweedale,^ has turned 
 into dried leaves like that of the witches or fairies ! 
 But now begone, and pollute this place no longer 
 by your infamous presence. You know my terms ! 
 Begone, I say,^' she continued, stamping the 
 
 * Secretary of State for Scotlaad from 1742 till 1746.
 
 312 THE WHITE COCKADE. 
 
 ground witli her foot_, ^^or I shall summon the 
 servants, John Archie,, Hob, and the old butler, 
 with whips and dogs. I should like to see a 
 bailie baited as well as a badger, especially where 
 the burn is deepest ; and we have more than one 
 man here, who cares as little for risking his 
 life, as for taking the life of another in the 
 service of the House of Otterburn — especially of 
 such a worm as thee ! More than all, beware 
 how you come under the hands of the Lord 
 Dalquharn V 
 
 " Frae sic hands as his, I, at least, am safe 
 enough,^' replied Balcraftie, with a glare of malig- 
 nant triumph in his eye. " Ken you where this 
 other gay leman is now ?^' 
 
 '' Would that I could know ?" 
 
 '' Shall I tell you where ?' 
 
 Bryde shuddered as he spoke — for his bearing 
 chilled and appalled her. 
 
 " He is chained like a wild beast in the prisons 
 on the Bass!^' said he, pointing northward with 
 his left hand. 
 
 '' It is false V 
 
 ^' It is true — true as that the sun shines owre 
 
 us/' 
 
 ^^ On what charge ?" she asked, faintly. 
 
 " Charges o' treason and murder ; are they 
 enough for you. I kent your pride would hae a 
 fa^ and the hour is come ! ha ! ha !'' cried 
 Balcraftie, as he mounted and galloped away.
 
 THE WHITE COCKADE. 313 
 
 Bryde had acted her part gallantly while face 
 to face with the foe ; but now that he had gone, 
 and in departing had planted this Parthian shot 
 in her heart,, her spirit broke completely down ; 
 her sobs and tears refused to come, and she 
 sank fainting and breathless on the garden walk. 
 
 END OF VOL. I.
 
 X