|
Oh, wert thou of the
golden-winged host,
Who, having clad thyself in human weed,
To earth, from thy prefixed scat didst post,
And. after short abode, fly back with speed,
As if to show what creatures Heav'n doth breed,
Thereby to set the hearts of men on fire,
To scorn the sordid world, and unto Heav'n aspire?—Milton.
In the neighbourhood of the
pleasant village of----------, on the east coast of Scotland, lived Janet
Morrice and her grand-daughter Elsie. A small cottage, overlaid with
woodbine on the exterior, and neat and clean in the interior, contained
this couple; and a small farm attached to it served to supply all their
humble desires. The place was no doubt agreeable to look on; but it was a
pair of bright blue eyes, some light brown locks, and a sweet and modest
face, that drew all the male visitors to the house of Janet Morrice. Elsie
Morrice, her grandchild, had been left a young orphan to her charge. She
was the only child of an only son, and thus came with a double call on the
feelings of her old grandmother. Dearly was she loved by her, and well did
she deserve it; for a better and a kindlier girl was not in all the
country round. Out of the many young men that paid their attentions to
Elsie, it was soon evident that her favourite was William Gordon. In his
person he had nothing particular to recommend him above his companions;
but there was in him that respectful demeanour, that eagerness to please,
and that happiness in serving the object of his affections, which the eyes
of a young woman can so soon perceive, and her heart so readily
appreciate. In their dispositions, though not similar, they were drawn to
each other. She was timid, loving, enthusiastic—in every respect a woman.
He was gifted with those firmer qualities which bespeak a manly mind, but
he had a heart that could love deeply and feel acutely;
And, if sometimes, a sigh should intervene, Or down his cheek a tear of
pity roll, A sigh, a tear so sweet, he wished not to control.
There was also some
resemblance in their situations; for William's mother was dead, and though
he still had a father, yet this parent had never seen him, and took no
concern about him; so that he was entirely dependent upon his maternal
uncle. To his uncle's farm he was to succeed; and William Gordon and Elsie
Morrice were considered by all the neighbours as soon to be man and wife.
William was seated one
evening in the public-house of the village, reading the newspaper, when a
party of sailors entered, and, calling for some drink, casually asked if
there were any seamen in the village. The landlady civilly replied in the
negative; but William, looking up, remarked, without noticing the winks of
the landlord, that he had seen Tom Sangster arrive that morning.
"And where lives Tom
Sangster, my hearty cock?" said the principal of the party, slapping him
on the back, while the rest got betwixt the landlady and the door. He
immediately informed them; and, drinking off their liquor quickly, they
left the house.
"Willie," cried the
landlady, "what hae ye done? It's the press-gang, and Tam Sangster 'll be
torn frae his wife and bairns! "
In a moment William was
past her, and, running with full speed, by a nearer cut, he arrived before
the gang at the house. He had just time to make the seaman strip his
jacket, and put on his coat, and jump out at the back window, when the
gang entered. William, without turning round, knocked out the lamp, when a
struggle ensued, which he contrived to keep up so long as that Tom
Sangster might be out of the way. He was at last overpowered and carried
aboard the tender, when they discovered they had lost the regular sailor;
but the one they had got was too likely a young man to be suffered to
depart. The consciousness of having remedied an error he had committed,
even though in ignorance, partly consoled William for parting with his
beloved Elsie for a little. It was at the time when the news of the
glorious victory of the Nile had arrived, and many a young and aspiring
bosom burned to be under the command of so gallant an admiral. William's
father belonged to the navy ; he knew that he fought under Nelson; and the
thought that he might be able to combat by his side, and under the eye of
the hero who was his country's boast, somewhat palliated the idea of
leaving his love. Besides, he would soon return laden with honours and
riches, and Elsie would share both.
Auspicious hope! in thy
sweet garden grow Wreaths for each toil, a charm for every woe.
And thus he consoled
himself with a flattering vision in circumstances that he could not alter.
As for poor Elsie, her timid mind had never contemplated bloodshed and
war. She loved, fervently loved, and her life had been one scene of
pleasure. She was a dreamer that all the night long had quaffed the
brimful cup of happiness, and in the morning waked to wretchedness. To
lamentations, however, succeeded some consultation for a remedy; and she
was advised, by her sorrowing neighbours, to apply to the laird for his
interest. Loose, unprincipled, and broken down in fortune, he had
returned, from the fashionable life he could no longer support, to live on
his estate ; and he was not beloved by his tenants. But when a woman
loves, and the object of her affection is in danger, where is the obstacle
that can oppose her? Elsie exerted herself to call on him. The poet has
beautifully said,
Ah, too convincing,
dangerously dear,
In woman's eye th' unanswerable tear,
The weapon of her weakness she can wield
To save, subdue—at once her spear and shield.
But there are some men that
can look on woman's grief, and yet coolly calculate on turning it to their
own purposes; and so it was in the present case. Elsie Morrice was lovely,
and that was enough for him. He promised everything, and her heart
overflowed with gratitude. He not only promised this, but he requested her
grandmother's lease, to draw it out anew in her name. Elsie ran home, and,
in a few minutes, without consulting her grandmother, the lease was in his
hands: for who could doubt the intentions of him who had pledged his word
that William Gordon should be put ashore? This was no sooner done, than
came the sneer at her lover, the information that his Majesty's navy must
be manned, the hint at the injury to the landlord in old leases, and the
proposal of the remedy that was to remove all these evils. The colour fled
from Elsie's face. She stood the picture of complete despair, and, for a
little time, reason had to dispute for her sovereignty in her mind. She
rushed from his presence, and, in her way back to Sunnybrae, saw, without
shedding one-tear, the vessel that contained her lover spread her broad
sails to the wind and depart. Janet Morrice reproached her not when she
told her what she had done, but, taking her in her arms, said, "Come, my
Elsie, we maunna bide to be putten out. I've sitten here, and my fathers
afore me, an' I'm wae to leave it; but age and innocence will find a
shelter somewhere else." Next day they removed to a cottage on a
neighbouring estate. A verbal message was all that William could send her
; but it was the assurance he would be soon back to her. Elsie seemed now
to live in another state of existence. She toiled in the fields, and
seemed anxious to make up to her grandmother the effects of her
imprudence. Time passed on, and no letter arrived from William, and Elsie
grew sorrowful and melancholy. Grief and labour bore down a constitution
naturally delicate, and she drooped. There is something to my mind
particularly holy and heavenly in the death-bed of a lovely woman. When I
look on the pale cheek, which now and then regains more than its former
colour in some feverish flush—on the sunk eye which occasionally beams
with a short and transient hope—on the pale lips which utter low sounds of
comfort to those around—and, more especially, on that whole countenance
and appearance which bespeak patient resignation and a trust in that Word
which has said there is another and a better world—I cannot help thinking
that the being, even in her mortality, is already a deserving inmate of
that place where all is immortality. I have stood at the grave while some
of my earliest friends have been lowered into the ground, and I have wept
to think that the bright hopes of youth were for ever fled—that the fair
promises of youthful genius were wrapt within the clay-cold tomb—and that
all the anticipations of the world's applause had ended in the one formal
bow of a few friends over mouldering ashes; but I confess I have sorrowed
more at the grave of a young and lovely woman who had nothing to excite my
compassion but her beauty and her helplessness; and often have the lines
of that poet, who could be pathetic as well as sublime, come to my lips,—
Yet can I not persuade me
thou art dead,
Or that thy corpse corrupts in earth's dark womb,
Or that thy beauties lie in wormy bed,
Hid from the world in a low-delved tomb.
It was on a lovely morning
in the month of May that a sad and sorrowful company assembled to
accompany the remains of poor Elsie Morrice to her last cold
dwelling-place. According to that old-fashioned and most becoming custom,
she was borne on the bier, and carried, as is the practice in that part of
the country, for some way by the young maidens dressed in white. No mother
had she to weep for her, no relation to bear her head to the grave; but
her old grandmother followed her corpse to the door—farther she could not;
and, when it was placed on the bier, she attempted not to speak or to
moan, but she leaned her palsied hands on her staff, and followed the
coffin with her eyes, while down her furrowed cheeks rolled two big tears
that told too well her inward grief. Elsie's young companion, May Leslie,
who was to have been her best-maid at the marriage, who had promised to
assist at her marriage dress, and make her marriage bed, had, in sorrow
and in grief, fashioned that last dress in which beauty is offered, not to
the arms of a lover, but to the crawling worm, now supported her head for
a few steps to that bed from which there is no rising till the last dread
trumpet shall sound. The females then gave the corpse to the young men,
and I could perceive, as they returned, that many a handkerchief was
soaked in briny tears, and many a head turned to take a last look at the
departure of her who had been their companion and their pride. We moved
on, and, after an hour's walking, arrived at the old churchyard of-------.
It is situated on the front of a bleak and barren hill, with neither tree
nor shrub for some way around it; and a few moss-covered tombstones alone
told us that it was the resting place for the dead. The church had been
rebuilt in a more convenient place ; but, like the sojourner in distant
lands, who sighs for his native soil, however barren, there are some that
still cling to the spot which is the grave of their fathers. Though it may
betray some weakness in reason, still I hope it is an excusable failing,
in feeling minds, that they desire to mingle in their ashes with their
friends. Here we deposited the remains of Elsie Morrice, and, when the
grave had been closed over, the company departed in groups, chiefly
engaged in talking over her unfortunate love.
The heather sods had long
become fast, and the hare-bell had blossomed and withered for some summers
on the grave of Elsie Morrice, when one day a seaman, singing a merry
sea-song to himself, tript up the pathway leading to Sunnybrae. It was
William Gordon. The joy he had felt on again entering amongst scenes so
well known to him, sent itself forth in a song; but, as he approached the
house, it died away, and gave place to far different feelings. He had
never heard from Elsie; but, while aboard of ship, he had hushed any fears
that arose, by ascribing this to the letters miscarrying from the ever
changing station of a sailor. Still he was not well at ease; and as he
came in front of the house, and saw the woodbine torn from the walls, the
windows here and there broken and covered with paper, and the pretty
flower-garden of Elsie turned into a kail-yard, the most fearful
forebodings arose in his breast, and with a trembling and hurried hand he
lifted the latch. He started back on perceiving some children playing on
the floor, but again advanced when he saw a middle-aged woman nursing a
child, and asked, in the best way he was able, if she could tell him where
Janet Morrice lived? She gave him a direction, and, without taking one
other look at the cottage he had so often visited, he made his way to the
new dwelling, and on entering, addressed her in the usual salutation, "How
are you, Granny, and how is Elsie?"
The old woman was seated
with her face to the hearth, and perceived not his entrance; but on
hearing his voice, without starting or moving, she immediately answered,
"An ye're come back, Willie Gordon; an' sae ye're come back! I kent a'
this. I kent, when the house and the ha' o' the stranger would be closed
against ye, ye would come back to your ain country. I saw her yestreen as
I hae seen her ilka night, and she tauld me ye would come. But this fire's
out," continued she, stirring about the embers with her stick; "I tried to
blaw that peat, but I wasna able to raise the low: an' when she comes and
scats her sel on that stool, it 'ill be sae cauld, an' she winna complain
o't, but her bonny face 'ill be sae wan, and her braw white gown 'ill be
sae damp and dewy. Ye'll see her, Willie, yell see her wi' the bonny new
mutch on that May Leslie made wi' her ain hand. An' I'll shiver and
tremble in my cauld bed, and she winna lie down wi' me, but she'll sit by
the fire an' aye deck hersel wi' the black kerchief that Willie Gordon
tied roun' her neck lang afore he gaed awa."
William, who had stood
riveted to the earth all this time, now exerted himself, and, seizing her
arm, asked loudly, "Where is Elsie Morrice?"
"Whaur is Elsie Morrice?—and
wha speirs that question? They took her awa frae me lang ago, dressed in
white, like a bride, and mony ane gaed wi' her, but I wasna able, though
they dressed me fine in my braw Sunday-claithes."
"Granny, ye knew me
already," said he; "for God's sake, tell me what has become of Elsie?"
"There were twa bonny
voices ca'd me granny, and I liket to hear them; but the little feathered
flock picks the craw-berries, an' the bee sooks the honey frae the heather
on the grave o' the ane, and the ither is a faithless love, and broke the
heart o' the leal young bairn that lay in my bosom."
William now knew the worst.
He threw himself in agony on the dais, and wept and cursed his hard lot.
Elsie Morrice was dead, and dead, as appeared, through his neglect When
his grief had found some vent, he again asked the old woman if they had
received no letters from him?
She raised her shaking
hand, and tracing every feature of his face, said, "Though I canna see sae
weel that face, I ken ye're Willie Gordon; but oh, Willie, Willie, ye hae
come when the flame ye should hae nourished has been quenched. We never
got ony letters, or else Elsie would hae tried to live."
It was with great exertion
that he was able to gather from her disjointed sentences, that the laird
had turned them out of Sunnybrae, and continued to annoy them, and that
Elsie had broken her heart when he left them and sent no letters. Many a
kind letter had William written, but they were directed, for security's
sake, to the care of the laird, and the mystery of his never receiving any
answer was now cleared away. "But the laird shall answer for this!" said
he, stepping to the door. "Na, Willie Gordon," said she, taking hold of
him, "he manna answer for't to you. There is Anither that will judge him
for abusing the widow and the orphan. Ay, he is already cursed for it,"
continued she, stretching out her lean and shrivelled arm, and raising
herself like a Sibyl; "his lang list of ancestors is at end in him. He
walks the world the last of his proud race. A few years, and yon lordly
house will be the dwalling o' the hoodie-craw and the rook; an' the
present proud man will be lying in his leaden coffin, wi' the worms o' his
ain body devouring him, and the winds o' heaven will dash his lie-telling
tombstone to pieces, an' the beasts will tread on his grave, an' the rains
level it, an' none will repair it, for his name shall be forgotten for
ever. But whisht, Willie, I canna greet wi' you. Ye'll see her, when the
hen has been lang on the roost, an' the tod has left his hole to worry the
puir beasty, an we'll get May Leslie, an' we'll hae a blazing fire, an'
we'll be merry again in Sunnybrae." A shrill and unearthly laugh followed,
and she sank again into her former querulous muttering.
William suddenly left the
house and was never more seen; but some weeks after, the grave of Elsie
Morrice was found finely dressed, and a stone, with her name and age
carved on it by the hand of no regular sculptor, at the head of it. And
every spring the greedy moss was found cleaned away from the stone, and
the grave trimmed. While Janet Morrice lived, her garden was delved, and
money deposited on hertable, by the same invisible hand. No one knew what
became of William Gordon; but occasionally, in the gray of a May morning,
as the shepherd was merrily driving his flocks with the sun to the
pasture, he saw the dark figure of a man chiselling at the stone, or
stretched on the grave of Elsie Morrice. About three years ago a
shepherd's dog, one day, prowling about the old churchyard, returned, and,
by his howling, urged his master to the spot, where he found the dead body
of a seaman. The letters W. G. and an anchor on his forearm, and W S. and
E. M., with a heart between them, and the Saviour on the cross above, on
his left breast, done with China ink or gunpowder, after that fashion
which sailors have in order that their bodies may be known, if (ticked up
after shipwreck, told too well who had chosen this place for his
death-bed. Sufficient money was found on him to pay the expenses of his
burial, and he was laid in the grave he had died upon. Last summer I
visited the spot. The grave was running into wildness; but, in a stale of
mind pleasing yet sad. I spent half a day in dressing the resting-place of
this unfortunate pair. |
