Catharine passed along, she felt all the wild influence of the agitating scene, and it was with difficulty she forbore from repeating the cries of lamentation and alarm which were echoed around her. In the mean time, she rushed rapidly on, embarrassed like one in a dream, with a strange sense of dreadful calamity, the precise nature of which she was unable to define, but which implied the terrible consciousness, that the man who loved her so fondly, whose good qualities she so highly esteemed, and whom she now felt to be dearer than perhaps she would before have acknowledged to her own bosom, was murdered, and most probably by her means. "Without knowing what she sought, except the general desire to know the worst of the dreadful report, she hurried forward to the very spot, which of all others her feelings of the preceding day would have induced her to avoid. Who would, upon the evening of Shrove-tide, have persuaded the proud, the timid, the shy, the rigidly decorous Catharine Glover, that before mass on Ash Wednesday she should rush through the streets of Perth, making her way amidst tumult and confusion, with her hair unbound, and her dress disarranged, to seek the house of that same lover, who, she had reason to believe, had so grossly and indelicately neglected and affronted her, as to pursue a low and licentious amour! "At length, without any distinct idea of her own purpose, she stood before her lover's door, and knocked for admittance. The silence which succeeded the echoing of her hasty summons increased the alarm which had induced her to take this desperate measure. Open,-open, Henry!' she cried. Open, if you yet live! Open, if you would not find Catharine Glover dead upon your threshold?' As she cried thus franticly to ears which she was taught to believe were stopped by death, the lover she invoked opened the door in person, just in time to prevent her sinking on the ground. The extremity of his exstatic joy upon an occasion so unex pected, was qualified only by the wonder which forbade him to believe it real, and by his alarm at the closed eyes, half-opened and blanched lips, total absence of complexion, and apparently total cessation of breathing. To place Catharine Glover in safety, and recal her to herself, was to be thought of before rendering obedience to the summons of the magistrates, however pressingly that had been delivered. He carried his lovely burden, as light as a feather, yet more precious than the same quantity of purest gold, into a smail bedchamber which had been his mother's. It was the most fit for an invalid, as it looked into the garden, and was separated from the noise of the tumult. Here, Nurse Nurse Shoolbred-come quickcome for death and life-here is one wants thy help! Up trotted the old dame. If it should but prove any one that will keep thee out of the scuffle for she also had been aroused by the noise,-but what was her astonishment, when, placed in love and reverence on the bed of her late mistress, and supported by the athletic arms of her foster son, she saw the apparently lifeless form of the Fair Maid of Perth. Catharine Glover!" she said: and, Holy Mother-a dying woman, as it would seem!' Not so, old woman,' said her foster-son; the dear heart throbs the sweet breath comes and returns! Come thou, that may aid her more meetly than I -bring water-essences-whatever thy old skill can devise. Heaven did not place her in my arms to die, but to live for herself and me.' With an activity which her age little promised, Nurse Shoolbred collected the means of restoring animation; for, like many women of the period, she understood what was to be done in such cases, nay, possessed a knowledge of treating wounds of an ordinary description, which the warlike propensities of her foster-son kept in pretty constant exercise. Come now,' she said, son Henry, unfold your arms from about my patient though she is worth the pressing—and set thy arms at freedom to help me with what I want. Nay, I will not insist on your quitting her hand, if you will beat the palm gently, as the fingers unclose their clenched grasp.' I beat her slight beautiful hand!' said Henry; you were as well bid ine beat a glass cup with a forehanımer, as tap her fair palm with my horn-hard fingers. But the fingers do unfold, and we will find a better way than beating;' and he applied his lips to the pretty hand, whose motion indicated returning sensation. One or two deep sighs succeeded, and the Fair Maid of Perth opened her eyes, fixed them on her lover, as he kneeled by the bedside, and again sunk back on the pillow. As she withdrew not her hand from her lover's hold or from his grasp, we must in charity believe that the return to consciousness was not so com 6 plete as to make her aware that he abused the advantage, by pressing it alternately to his lips and his bosom. At the same time we are compelled to own, that the blood was colouring in her cheek, and that her breathing was deep and regular, for a minute or two during this relapse. The noise at the door began now to grow much louder, and Henry was called for by all his various names, of Smith, Gow, and Hal of the Wynd, as heathens used to summon their deities by different epithets.” Chronicles of the Canongate. SECOND SERIES. ST. VALENTINE'S DAY; THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. (Continued from Page 328.) OUR last extract left the heroic Harry, the fair Maid, and the Glover, fully impressed with the absolute necessity of 66 breakfast," a compunctious visiting of nature, which even lovers in the heyday of their blood, have no enduring inclination to resist. The needful meal is served up by old Dorothy; the cakes, of Catharine's own making, are pronounced to be excellent; and Catharine herself seems to have recovered her equanimity of temper. In this scene the boy Conachar takes an abrupt leave of his master, the Glover. The Smith and Conachar barter a few taunts and glances of scorn; but the Smith, as usual, has the advantage. With Highland buskins on his feet, and a small bundle in his hand, Conachar passes through the north gate of Perth, for the Highlands; and the Smith seems relieved by the retreat of one whom he has supposed a rival. The Glover takes this opportunity to leave Harry, for the first time, alone with his daughter. The following spirited disclosure of their relative feelings towards each other, is perhaps as skilfully drawn and beautifully developed as any scene of equal length in the whole range of the writings of Sir Walter Scott. "There was an embarrassment on the maiden's part, and awkwardness on that of the lover, for about a minute; when Henry, calling up his courage, pulled the gloves out of his pocket with which Simon had supplied him, and asked her to permit one who had been so highly graced that morning, to pay the usual penalty for being asleep at the moment when he would have given the slumbers of a whole twelvemonth to be awake for a single minute. "Nay, but,' said Catharine, the fulfilment of my homage to St. Valentine infers no such penalty as you desire to pay, and I cannot therefore think of accepting them.' "These gloves,' said Henry, advancing his seat insidiously towards Catharine as he spoke, were wrought by the hands that are dearest to you; and see-they are shaped for your own.' He extended them as he spoke, and taking her arm in his robust hand, spread the gloves beside it to show how well they fitted. 'Look at that taper arm,' he said, look at these small fingers; think who sewed these seams of silk and gold, and think whether the glove, and the arm which alone the glove can fit, ought to remain separate, because the poor glove has had the misfortune to be for a passing minute in the keeping of a hand so swart and rough as mine.' 66 6 They are welcome as coming from my father, said Catharine; and surely not less so as coming from my friend, (and there was an emphasis on the word), as well as my Valentine and preserver.' "Let me aid to do them on,' said the Smith, bringing himself yet closer to her side; they may seem a little over tight at first, and you may require some assistance.' "You are skilful in such service, good Henry Gow,' said the maiden, smiling, but at the same time drawing farther from her lover. "In good faith no,' said Henry, shaking his head; my experience has been in donning steel gauntlets on mailed knights, more than in fitting embroidered gloves upon maidens.' "I will trouble you then no further, and Dorothy shall aid me-though there needs no assistance-my father's eye and fingers are faithful to his craft; what work he puts through his hand is always true to the measure.' "Let me be convinced of it,' said the Smith; let me see that these slender gloves actually match the hands they were made for.' serious tone. 'Henry,' she said, 'I am going perhaps to be as bold as I gave you reason to think me this morning; for I am about to speak the first upon a subject, on which, it may well be, I ought to wait till I had to answer you. But I cannot, after what has happened this morning, suffer my feelings towards you to remain unexplained, without the possibility of my being greatly misconceived.-Nay, do not answer till you have heard me out.-You are brave, Henry, beyond most men, honest and true as the steel you work upon 666 Stop-stop, Catherine, for mercy's sake! You never said so much that was good concerning me, save to introduce some bitter censure, of which your praises were the harbingers. I am honest, and so forth, you would say, but a hot-brained brawler, and common sworder or stabber.' "I should injure both myself and you in calling you such. No, Henry, to no common stabber, had he worn a plume in his bonnet, and gold spurs on his heels, would Catherine Glover have offered the little grace she has this day voluntarily done to you. If I have at times dwelt severely upon the proneness of your spirit to anger, and of your hand to strike, it is because I would have you, if I could so persuade you, hate in yourself the sins of vanity and wrath, by which you are most easily beset. I have spoken on the topic more to alarm your own conscience, than to express my opinion. I know as well as my father, that in these forlorn and desperate days, the whole customs of our nation, nay, of every Christian nation, may be quoted in favour of bloody quarrels for trifling causes; of the taking deadly and deep revenge for slight offences; and the slaughter of each other for emulation of honour, or often in mere sport. But I know, that for all these things we shall one day be called into judgment; and fain would I convince thee, my brave and ge nerous friend, to listen oftener to the dictates of thy good heart, and take less pride in the strength and dexterity of thy unsparing arm.' "I am-I am convinced, Catharine,' exclaimed Henry; thy words shall henceforward be a law to me. 6 "Some other time, good Henry,' answered the maiden; I will wear the gloves in honour of St. Valentine, and the mate he has sent me for this season. I would to heaven I could pleasure my father as well in weightier matters-at present the perfume of the leather harms the head-ach I have had since morning.' 66 • Head-ach! dearest maiden?' echoed her lover. "If you call it heart-ach, you will not misname it,' said Catharine, with a sigh, and proceeded to speak in a very I have done enough, far too much, indeed, for proof of my bodily strength and courage; but it is only from you, Catharine, that I can learn a better way of thinking. Remember, my fair Valentine, that my ambition, of distinction in arms, and my love of strife, if it can be called such, do not fight evenhanded with my reason and my milder dispositions, but have their patrons and their sticklers to egg them on Is there a quarrel,-and suppose that I, thinking ou says one. your counsels, and something loath to engage in it,-believe you I am left to decide between peace or war at my own choosing? Not so, by St. Mary! there's a hundred round me to stir me on. Why, how now, Smith, is thy main spring rusted,' Jolly Henry is deaf on the quarrelling ear this morning,' says another. Stand to it, for the honour of Perth,' says my Lord the Provost. Harry against them for a gold noble,' cries your father, perhaps. Now, what can a poor fellow do, Catharine, when all are hallooing him on in the devil's name, and not a soul putting in a word on the other side? "Nay, I know the devil has factors enough to utter his wares,' said Catharine; but it is our duty to despise such idle arguments, though they may be pleaded even by those to whom we owe much love and honour. "Then there are the minstrels, with their romaunts and ballads, which place all a man's praise in receiving and repaying hard blows. It is sad to tell, Catharine, how many of my sins that Blind Harry the Minstrel hath to answer for. When I hit a downright blow, it is not, (so save me, St. John!) to do any man injury, but only to strike as William Wallace struck.' "The Minstrel's namesake spoke this in such a tone of rueful seriousness, that Catharine could scarce forbear smiling; but nevertheless she assured him that the danger of his own and other men's lives ought not for a moment to be weighed against such simple toys. "Aye, but, replied Henry, emboldened by her smiles, methinks now the good cause of peace would thrive all the better for an advocate. Suppose, for example, that when I am pressed and urged to lay hand on my weapon, I could have cause to recollect that there was a gentle and guardian angel at home, whose image would seem to whisper, Henry, do no violence; it is my hand which you crimson with blood-Henry, rush upon no idle danger; it is my breast which you expose to injury; such thoughts would do more to restrain my mood, than if every monk in Perth should cry Hold thy hand, on pain of bell, book, and candle.' 6 "If such a warning as could be given by the voice of sisterly affection can have weight in the debate,' said Catharine, do think, that in striking, you empurple this hand; that in receiving wounds, you harm this heart.' "The Smith took courage at the sincerely affectionate tone in which these words were delivered. "And wherefore not stretch your regard a degree beyond these cold limits? Why, since you are so kind and generous as to own some interest in the poor ignorant sinner before you, should you not at once adopt him as your scholar and your husband? Your father desires it; the town expects it; glovers and smiths are preparing their rejoicings; and you, only you, whose words are so fair and so kind, you will not give your consent!' Henry,' said Catharine, in a low and tremulous voice, believe me I should hold it my duty to comply with my father's commands, were there not obstacles invincible to the match which he proposes.' Yet think-think but for a moment. I have little to say for myself in comparison of you, who can both read or write. But then I wish to hear reading, and could listen to your sweet voice for ever. You love music, and I have been taught to play and sing as well as some minstrels. You love to be charitable, I have enough to give, and enough to keep; as large a daily alms as a deacon gives would never be missed by me. Your father gets old for daily toil; he would live with us, as I should truly hold him for my father also. I would be as chary of mixing in causeless strife, as of thrusting my hand into my own furnace; and if there came on us unlawful violence, its wares would be brought to an ill-chosen market.' May you experience all the domestic happiness which you can conceive, Henry, but with some one more happy than I am. "So spoke, or rather so sobbed, the Fair Maiden of Perth, who seemed choking in the attempt to restrain her tears. "You hate me, then?' said the lover, after a pause. "Heaven is my witness, No.' "Or you love some other better?' "It is cruel to ask what it cannot avail you to know. But you are entirely mistaken.' "Yon wild-cat, Conachar, perhaps?' said Henry. I have marked his looks-' "You avail yourself of this painful situation to insult me, Henry, though I have little deserved it. Conachar is nothing to me, more than the trying to tame his wild spirit by instruction might lead me to take some interest in a mind abandoned to prejudices and passions, and therein, Henry, not unlike your own.' "It must then be some of these flaunting silk-worm Sirs about the court,' said the armourer, his natural heat of temper kindling from disappointment and vexation; some of those who think they carry it off through the height of their plumed bonnets and the jingle of their spurs. I would I knew which it was, that, leaving his natural mates, the painted and perfumed dames of the court, comes to take his prey among the simple maidens of the burgher craft. I would I knew but his name and and surname !' 66 6 Henry Smith,' said Catharine, shaking off the weakness which seemed to threaten to overpower her a moment before, this is the language of an ungrateful fool, or rather of a frantic madman. I have told you already, there was no one who stood, at the beginning of this conference, more high in my opinion, than he who is now losing ground with every word he utters, in the tone of unjust suspicion and senseless anger. You had no title to know even what I have told you; which, I pray you to observe, implies no preference to you over others, though it disowns any preference of another to you. It is enough you should be aware that there is as insuperable an objection to what you desire, as if an enchanter had a spell over my destiny.' 66 6 Spells may be broken by true men,' said the Smith. I would it were come to that. Thorbiorn, the Danish armourer, spoke of a spell he had for making breastplates, by singing a certain song while the iron was heating. I told him that his runic rhymes were no proof against the weapons which fought at Loncarty-what farther came of it it is needless to tell ;--but the corslet and the wearer, and the leech who salved his wound, know if Henry Gow can break a spell or no.' "Catharine looked at him as if about to return an answer little approving of the exploit he had vaunted, which the downright Smith had not recollected, was of a kind that exposed him to her frequent censure. But ere she had given words to her thoughts, her father thrust his head in at the door. 66 6 Henry,' he said, 'I must interrupt your more pleasing affairs, and request you to come into my working room in all speed, to consult about certain matters deeply affecting the weal of the burgh.' 66 Henry, making his obeisance to Catharine, left the apartment upon her father's summons. Indeed it was probably in favour of their future friendly intercourse that they were parted on this occasion, at the turn which the conservation seemed likely to take. For as the wooer had begun to hold the refusal of the damsel as somewhat capricious and inexplicable after the degree of encouragement, which, in his opinion, she had afforded; Catharine, on the other hand, considered him rather as an encroacher upon the grace which she had shown him, than one whose delicacy rendered him deserving of such favour. share of golden charms, than could this lady fair, But to our tale, a friend this Tailor had, bad. Must dress in more impenetrable stuff, For Tailors' habits are not good enough. |