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CHAPTER XXI
LORNA ENDS HER STORY
'It is not a twelvemonth yet, although it seems ten
years agone, since I blew the downy globe to learn the
time of day, or set beneath my chin the veinings of the
varnished buttercup, or fired the fox-glove cannonade,
or made a captive of myself with dandelion fetters; for
then I had not very much to trouble me in earnest, but
went about, romancing gravely, playing at bo-peep with
fear, making for myself strong heroes of gray rock or
fir-tree, adding to my own importance, as the children
love to do.
'As yet I had not truly learned the evil of our living,
the scorn of law, the outrage, and the sorrow caused to
others. It even was a point with all to hide the
roughness from me, to show me but the gallant side, and
keep in shade the other. My grandfather, Sir Ensor
Doone, had given strictest order, as I discovered
afterwards, that in my presence all should be seemly,
kind, and vigilant. Nor was it very difficult to keep
most part of the mischief from me, for no Doone ever
robs at home, neither do they quarrel much, except at
times of gambling. And though Sir Ensor Doone is now
so old and growing feeble, his own way he will have
still, and no one dare deny him. Even our fiercest and
most mighty swordsmen, seared from all sense of right
or wrong, yet have plentiful sense of fear, when
brought before that white-haired man. Not that he is
rough with them, or querulous, or rebukeful; but that
he has a strange soft smile, and a gaze they cannot
answer, and a knowledge deeper far than they have of
themselves. Under his protection, I am as safe from
all those men (some of whom are but little akin to me)
as if I slept beneath the roof of the King's Lord
Justiciary.
'But now, at the time I speak of, one evening of last
summer, a horrible thing befell, which took all play of
childhood from me. The fifteenth day of last July was
very hot and sultry, long after the time of sundown;
and I was paying heed of it, because of the old saying
that if it rain then, rain will fall on forty days
thereafter. I had been long by the waterside at this
lower end of the valley, plaiting a little crown of
woodbine crocketed with sprigs of heath--to please my
grandfather, who likes to see me gay at supper-time.
Being proud of my tiara, which had cost some trouble, I
set it on my head at once, to save the chance of
crushing, and carrying my gray hat, ventured by a path
not often trod. For I must be home at the supper-time,
or grandfather would be exceeding wrath; and the worst
of his anger is that he never condescends to show it.
'Therefore, instead of the open mead, or the windings
of the river, I made short cut through the ash-trees
covert which lies in the middle of our vale, with the
water skirting or cleaving it. You have never been up
so far as that--at least to the best of my
knowledge--but you see it like a long gray spot, from
the top of the cliffs above us. Here I was not likely
to meet any of our people because the young ones are
afraid of some ancient tale about it, and the old ones
have no love of trees where gunshots are uncertain.
'It was more almost than dusk, down below the
tree-leaves, and I was eager to go through, and be
again beyond it. For the gray dark hung around me,
scarcely showing shadow; and the little light that
glimmered seemed to come up from the ground. For the
earth was strown with the winter-spread and coil of
last year's foliage, the lichened claws of chalky
twigs, and the numberless decay which gives a light in
its decaying. I, for my part, hastened shyly, ready to
draw back and run from hare, or rabbit, or small field-
mouse.
'At a sudden turn of the narrow path, where it stopped
again to the river, a man leaped out from behind a
tree, and stopped me, and seized hold of me. I tried
to shriek, but my voice was still; I could only hear my
heart.
'"Now, Cousin Lorna, my good cousin," he said, with
ease and calmness; "your voice is very sweet, no doubt,
from all that I can see of you. But I pray you keep it
still, unless you would give to dusty death your very
best cousin and trusty guardian, Alan Brandir of Loch
Awe.'
'"You my guardian!" I said, for the idea was too
ludicrous; and ludicrous things always strike me first,
through some fault of nature.
'"I have in truth that honour, madam," he answered,
with a sweeping bow; "unless I err in taking you for
Mistress Lorna Doone."
'"You have not mistaken me. My name is Lorna Doone."
'He looked at me, with gravity, and was inclined to
make some claim to closer consideration upon the score
of kinship; but I shrunk back, and only said, "Yes, my
name is Lorna Doone."
'"Then I am your faithful guardian, Alan Brandir of
Loch Awe; called Lord Alan Brandir, son of a worthy
peer of Scotland. Now will you confide in me?"
'"I confide in you!" I cried, looking at him with
amazement; "why, you are not older than I am!"
'"Yes I am, three years at least. You, my ward, are
not sixteen. I, your worshipful guardian, am almost
nineteen years of age."
'Upon hearing this I looked at him, for that seemed
then a venerable age; but the more I looked the more I
doubted, although he was dressed quite like a man. He
led me in a courtly manner, stepping at his tallest to
an open place beside the water; where the light came as
in channel, and was made the most of by glancing waves
and fair white stones.
'"Now am I to your liking, cousin?" he asked, when I
had gazed at him, until I was almost ashamed, except at
such a stripling." Does my Cousin Lorna judge kindly
of her guardian, and her nearest kinsman? In a word,
is our admiration mutual?"
'"Truly I know not," I said; "but you seem
good-natured, and to have no harm in you. Do they
trust you with a sword?"
'For in my usage among men of stature and strong
presence, this pretty youth, so tricked and slender,
seemed nothing but a doll to me. Although he scared me
in the wood, now that I saw him in good twilight, lo!
he was but little greater than my little self; and so
tasselled and so ruffled with a mint of bravery, and a
green coat barred with red, and a slim sword hanging
under him, it was the utmost I could do to look at him
half-gravely.
'"I fear that my presence hath scarce enough of
ferocity about it" (he gave a jerk to his sword as he
spoke, and clanked it on the brook-stones); "yet do I
assure you, cousin, that I am not without some prowess;
and many a master of defence hath this good sword of
mine disarmed. Now if the boldest and biggest robber
in all this charming valley durst so much as breathe
the scent of that flower coronal, which doth not adorn
but is adorned"--here he talked some nonsense--"I would
cleave him from head to foot, ere ever he could fly or
cry."
'"Hush!" I said; "talk not so loudly, or thou mayst
have to do both thyself, and do them both in vain."
'For he was quite forgetting now, in his bravery before
me, where he stood, and with whom he spoke, and how the
summer lightning shone above the hills and down the
hollow. And as I gazed on this slight fair youth,
clearly one of high birth and breeding (albeit
over-boastful), a chill of fear crept over me; because
he had no strength or substance, and would be no more
than a pin-cushion before the great swords of the
Doones.
'"I pray you be not vexed with me," he answered, in a
softer voice; "for I have travelled far and sorely, for
the sake of seeing you. I know right well among whom I
am, and that their hospitality is more of the knife
than the salt-stand. Nevertheless I am safe enough,
for my foot is the fleetest in Scotland, and what are
these hills to me? Tush! I have seen some border
forays among wilder spirits and craftier men than these
be. Once I mind some years agone, when I was quite a
stripling lad--"
'"Worshipful guardian," I said, "there is no time now
for history. If thou art in no haste, I am, and
cannot stay here idling. Only tell me how I am akin
and under wardship to thee, and what purpose brings
thee here."
'"In order, cousin--all things in order, even with fair
ladies. First, I am thy uncle's son, my father is thy
mother's brother, or at least thy grandmother's--unless
I am deceived in that which I have guessed, and no
other man. For my father, being a leading lord in the
councils of King Charles the Second, appointed me to
learn the law, not for my livelihood, thank God, but
because he felt the lack of it in affairs of state.
But first your leave, young Mistress Lorna; I cannot
lay down legal maxims, without aid of smoke."
'He leaned against a willow-tree, and drawing from a
gilded box a little dark thing like a stick, placed it
between his lips, and then striking a flint on steel
made fire and caught it upon touchwood. With this he
kindled the tip of the stick, until it glowed with a
ring of red, and then he breathed forth curls of smoke,
blue and smelling on the air like spice. I had never
seen this done before, though acquainted with
tobacco-pipes; and it made me laugh, until I thought of
the peril that must follow it.
'"Cousin, have no fear," he said; "this makes me all
the safer; they will take me for a glow-worm, and thee
for the flower it shines upon. But to return--of law I
learned as you may suppose, but little; although I have
capacities. But the thing was far too dull for me.
All I care for is adventure, moving chance, and hot
encounter; therefore all of law I learned was how to
live without it. Nevertheless, for amusement's sake,
as I must needs be at my desk an hour or so in the
afternoon, I took to the sporting branch of the law,
the pitfalls, and the ambuscades; and of all the traps
to be laid therein, pedigrees are the rarest. There is
scarce a man worth a cross of butter, but what you may
find a hole in his shield within four generations. And
so I struck our own escutcheon, and it sounded hollow.
There is a point--but heed not that; enough that being
curious now, I followed up the quarry, and I am come to
this at last--we, even we, the lords of Loch Awe, have
an outlaw for our cousin, and I would we had more, if
they be like you."
'"Sir," I answered, being amused by his manner, which
was new to me (for the Doones are much in earnest),
"surely you count it no disgrace to be of kin to Sir
Ensor Doone, and all his honest family!"
'"If it be so, it is in truth the very highest honour
and would heal ten holes in our escutcheon. What noble
family but springs from a captain among robbers? Trade
alone can spoil our blood; robbery purifies it. The
robbery of one age is the chivalry of the next. We may
start anew, and vie with even the nobility of France,
if we can once enrol but half the Doones upon our
lineage."
'"I like not to hear you speak of the Doones, as if
they were no more than that," I exclaimed, being now
unreasonable; "but will you tell me, once for all, sir,
how you are my guardian?"
'"That I will do. You are my ward because you were my
father's ward, under the Scottish law; and now my
father being so deaf, I have succeeded to that
right--at least in my own opinion--under which claim I
am here to neglect my trust no longer, but to lead you
away from scenes and deeds which (though of good repute
and comely) are not the best for young gentlewomen.
There spoke I not like a guardian? After that can you
mistrust me?"
'"But," said I, "good Cousin Alan (if I may so call
you), it is not meet for young gentlewomen to go away
with young gentlemen, though fifty times their
guardians. But if you will only come with me, and
explain your tale to my grandfather, he will listen to
you quietly, and take no advantage of you."
'"I thank you much, kind Mistress Lorna, to lead the
goose into the fox's den! But, setting by all thought
of danger, I have other reasons against it. Now, come
with your faithful guardian, child. I will pledge my
honour against all harm, and to bear you safe to
London. By the law of the realm, I am now entitled to
the custody of your fair person, and of all your
chattels."
'"But, sir, all that you have learned of law, is how to
live without it."
'"Fairly met, fair cousin mine! Your wit will do me
credit, after a little sharpening. And there is none
to do that better than your aunt, my mother. Although
she knows not of my coming, she is longing to receive
you. Come, and in a few months' time you shall set the
mode at Court, instead of pining here, and weaving
coronals of daisies."
'I turned aside, and thought a little. Although he
seemed so light of mind, and gay in dress and manner, I
could not doubt his honesty; and saw, beneath his
jaunty air, true mettle and ripe bravery. Scarce had I
thought of his project twice, until he spoke of my
aunt, his mother, but then the form of my dearest
friend, my sweet Aunt Sabina, seemed to come and bid me
listen, for this was what she prayed for. Moreover I
felt (though not as now) that Doone Glen was no place
for me or any proud young maiden. But while I thought,
the yellow lightning spread behind a bulk of clouds,
three times ere the flash was done, far off and void of
thunder; and from the pile of cloud before it, cut as
from black paper, and lit to depths of blackness by the
blaze behind it, a form as of an aged man, sitting in a
chair loose-mantled, seemed to lift a hand and warn.
'This minded me of my grandfather, and all the care I
owed him. Moreover, now the storm was rising and I
began to grow afraid; for of all things awful to me
thunder is the dreadfulest. It doth so growl, like a
lion coming, and then so roll, and roar, and rumble,
out of a thickening darkness, then crack like the last
trump overhead through cloven air and terror, that all
my heart lies low and quivers, like a weed in water. I
listened now for the distant rolling of the great black
storm, and heard it, and was hurried by it. But the
youth before me waved his rolled tobacco at it, and
drawled in his daintiest tone and manner,--
'"The sky is having a smoke, I see, and dropping
sparks, and grumbling. I should have thought these
Exmoor hills too small to gather thunder."
'"I cannot go, I will not go with you, Lord Alan
Brandir," I answered, being vexed a little by those
words of his. "You are not grave enough for me, you
are not old enough for me. My Aunt Sabina would not
have wished it; nor would I leave my grandfather,
without his full permission. I thank you much for
coming, sir; but be gone at once by the way you came;
and pray how did you come, sir?"
'"Fair cousin, you will grieve for this; you will
mourn, when you cannot mend it. I would my mother had
been here, soon would she have persuaded you. And
yet," he added, with the smile of his accustomed
gaiety, "it would have been an unco thing, as we say in
Scotland, for her ladyship to have waited upon you, as
her graceless son has done, and hopes to do again ere
long. Down the cliffs I came, and up them I must make
way back again. Now adieu, fair Cousin Lorna, I see
you are in haste tonight; but I am right proud of my
guardianship. Give me just one flower for token"--
here he kissed his hand to me, and I threw him a truss
of woodbine--"adieu, fair cousin, trust me well, I will
soon be here again."
'"That thou never shalt, sir," cried a voice as loud as
a culverin; and Carver Doone had Alan Brandir as a
spider hath a fly. The boy made a little shriek at
first, with the sudden shock and the terror; then he
looked, methought, ashamed of himself, and set his face
to fight for it. Very bravely he strove and struggled,
to free one arm and grasp his sword; but as well might
an infant buried alive attempt to lift his gravestone.
Carver Doone, with his great arms wrapped around the
slim gay body, smiled (as I saw by the flash from
heaven) at the poor young face turned up to him; then
(as a nurse bears off a child, who is loath to go to
bed), he lifted the youth from his feet, and bore him
away into the darkness.
'I was young then. I am older now; older by ten years,
in thought, although it is not a twelvemonth since. If
that black deed were done again, I could follow, and
could combat it, could throw weak arms on the murderer,
and strive to be murdered also. I am now at home with
violence; and no dark death surprises me.
'But, being as I was that night, the horror overcame
me. The crash of thunder overhead, the last despairing
look, the death-piece framed with blaze of
lightning--my young heart was so affrighted that I
could not gasp. My breath went from me, and I knew not
where I was, or who, or what. Only that I lay, and
cowered, under great trees full of thunder; and could
neither count, nor moan, nor have my feet to help me.
'Yet hearkening, as a coward does, through the brushing
of the wind, and echo of far noises, I heard a sharp
sound as of iron, and a fall of heavy wood. No unmanly
shriek came with it, neither cry for mercy. Carver
Doone knows what it was; and so did Alan Brandir.'
Here Lorna Doone could tell no more, being overcome
with weeping. Only through her tears she whispered,
as a thing too bad to tell, that she had seen that
giant Carver, in a few days afterwards, smoking a
little round brown stick, like those of her poor
cousin. I could not press her any more with
questions, or for clearness; although I longed very
much to know whether she had spoken of it to her
grandfather or the Counsellor. But she was now in such
condition, both of mind and body, from the force of her
own fear multiplied by telling it, that I did nothing
more than coax her, at a distance humbly; and so that
she could see that some one was at least afraid of her.
This (although I knew not women in those days, as now I
do, and never shall know much of it), this, I say, so
brought her round, that all her fear was now for me,
and how to get me safely off, without mischance to any
one. And sooth to say, in spite of longing just to see
if Master Carver could have served me such a trick--as
it grew towards the dusk, I was not best pleased to be
there; for it seemed a lawless place, and some of
Lorna's fright stayed with me as I talked it away from
her.
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