Chapter X: The Stone of the Sun

I have now arrived at a point in the history of that acute factor, pious elder, and severe moralist, Mr. Snaggs, which I would willingly, but cannot omit, without leaving in my narrative a hiatus which every dramatist, novelist, historian, and biographer would unanimously condemn. With the suspicion natural to a Celt, Minnie mistrusted Ephraim Snaggs, and informed Callum of the proposed meeting.

Callum's eyes flashed fire! he grasped his skene, and bit his lips, with a dark expression on his brow; for it was well known in the district that two handsome girls had already been wiled by Snaggs to distant towns, where, after a time, all trace of them was lost; and when questioned by their friends (he had taken care to evict and expatriate their relations), he had only groaned, turned up his eyes, twiddled his thumbs, and quoted Blair.

The peculiarity of his request, the solitude of the place, and its traditionary character, excited the keenest suspicion in the mind of Callum Dhu, and he begged of me to accompany him to the trysting-place, to which we accordingly proceeded, and there ensconced ourselves among the thick broom, juniper-bushes, and long wavy bracken, about an hour or so after sunset.

In a wild and solitary rift or ravine, that opened at the back of Ben Ora, and the rugged sides of which were covered by the light feathery mountain-ash, the silver birch, the hazel, and the alder, amid which the roe and the fallow-deer made their lair, stood the Clach-na-greiné, or _stone of the sun_. A huge misshapen block, on which some quaint figures and runes or words in an ancient and barbarous language were discernible; it was a relic of the Druids, whose religion, a corruption of the older faith of the Magi, had inspired them to worship the God of Day as the essence of fire. Here had the spirit of Loda descended on their souls, and here in latter times the posterity of Mac Ionhuin (or the Son of Love) were wont to meet in arms, to hail and inaugurate their young chiefs; here justice was administered, and the guilty were flung into the Poul-a-baidh, or drowning-pool; here the Red Priest of Applecross anathematized the sacrilege of Lachlan Mohr; and here in 'the glimpses of the moon,' the famous white stag of Loch Ora, which was believed to be bullet-proof, and to have a miraculous longevity, was seen at times.

In the centre of this obelisk was a round hole, through which the lovers of the district had been wont for ages to join hands in testimony of their mutual betrothal: this formed a strong and sacred tie of mutual fidelity, which none had been known to break without suffering a violent death.

It happened as old Mhari had told me a hundred times, and as Callum Dhu was ready to affirm on oath, that among the men who followed my father into the ranks of the Black Watch, there was one who had betrothed himself solemnly to a girl of the glen, through the hole of the Clach-na-greiné. Forgetting both him and her trothplight, this girl fell in love with a handsome stranger whom she met at a harvest-home in Glentuirc. He danced with her repeatedly, and whispered of her beauty and of his passion until her head was turned, and her heart so far won, that he persuaded her to cross the mountain of Ben Ora with him; but her confidence being mingled with fear, she begged of a companion to follow them a little way. The moon was bright, and as they proceeded, she observed with growing alarm that he carefully avoided every stream and rill of running water, and that his face, though manly and beautiful, was deathly pale in the white moonlight. They descended into the ravine, and anon were seen in the full blaze of the moon, near the great rough column of the Clach-na-greiné. A shadowy cloud obscured it for a time. When it passed away, the maiden and her pale lover had disappeared. The Druid obelisk stood on its grassy mound in silence and loneliness. The damsel was never seen again. Her earthly lover also proved false; he married a Spanish wife, and after escaping the whole Peninsular war, was killed at the side of old Ian Mac Raonuil by the _last_ shot that was fired from the hill of Toulouse.

A hundred such traditions combined to make the place wild and unearthly. The path to it from Glen Ora lay through a skeleton forest of old fir-trees, which, being entirely denuded of bark and foliage, were white, bleached, and ghastly in aspect; while the stone was generally covered by numbers of the hideous reptile which is known in some pails of the Highlands as the _bratag_, and is spotted black and white, and when eaten by cattle, causes them to swell and die.

But enough of the Clach-na-greiné.

Minnie had not been many minutes seated on a fragment of rock near it, and had barely exchanged the appointed signal with Callum--a verse of a song, to which he replied by a low whistle--when Mr. Snaggs, who had left his pony among the blasted pines, was seen hastening to the rendezvous with a cat-like step and stealthy eye.

'I am punctual, you will perceive, my dear girl,' said he, taking her hand kindly in his; 'the broad white moon seems just to touch the huge black shoulder of Ben Ora, and throws the shadow of that grim obelisk along this horrid ravine. If one were to shout here, would the sound be heard in Glen Ora, think you?'

'No, sir,' replied Minnie, with a shudder.

'You are very confident or courageous, my dear Minnie, to venture so far to meet _me_,' said he, in his most winning tone. We were close by and heard everything.

'Courage is nothing new in Glen Ora,' said Minnie.

'But your people belonged to Glentuirc?'

'Yes, of old,' answered Minnie, proudly; 'the Mac Omishes of Chaistal Omish.'

'A most euphonious name--are you sure?'

'Do you doubt it?'

'Yes--for so beautiful a face as yours, Minnie never came of the race of Glentuirc.'

'They were braver than they were bonnie, perhaps, Mr. Snaggs,' said Minnie, with reserve.

'But now about your uncle's farm, Minnie--it lies with yourself to keep Gillespie Fatadh in the glen and it lies with you to level his cottage to the earth and drive him into a Lowland workhouse, or to the distant shores of America.'

'With _me_?' was the breathless query.

'Sit down on this green bank and listen to me. We must be wary, my dear girl, in treating with the denizens of this glen, for they are sinful ones--sloth is sin, and they are slothful,' said Mr. Snaggs, drawing close to her side, and patting one of her pretty hands with his right hand, while it was firmly clutched by his left; 'we must be wary--religion is the life of the world, and wickedness is always its own punishment.'

'Sir?' was the perplexed interjection of Minnie.

'I was about to remark, my dear,' resumed the moralist, putting an arm round the waist of the girl, who became flushed, and who trembled violently, 'that we should take care of the beginnings of sin; but as the divine Wilson remarks, "nobody is exceedingly nicked all at once;" thus I might kiss you, as I do now--so might a young man; but I do so, with all the emotions of a father stirred within me--yes Minnie, the emotions of a father, an elder, and a factor; yet were a young man to do this, as the divine Blair remarks----'

'But about my uncle's farm?' urged poor Minnie, in great perplexity; 'we have long expected a rich cousin from India, where, as his letters said, his fortune and his liver were growing larger every day; but he has never appeared--and then my uncle omitted to sow his corn last year in such a way as to save it from the birds and fairies.'

It was now Mr. Snaggs' turn to look perplexed.

'From the fairies?' said he.

'Yes--for after a field is sown, our farmers mix some grain and sand together, and scatter it broadcast, saying at every handful, "the sand for the fairies, and the corn for the birds;" and those mixed grains become all that the birds and fairies take. But the minister told him that this was a sinful superstition--so the crop rotted in the ground, or was destroyed between the Marquis's grouse and the mildew.'

'Hush--did you not hear something stir among these bushes?' said Snaggs, with alarm, as Callum raised, and ducked down his head suddenly; 'pooh! a polecat or a blackcock--listen to me, Minnie; I am always kind to _you_, whatever the glensmen may say of me.'

'Yes, sir.'

'Seldom is there a time, that I come over the hills from Inverness, without bringing something for you--a ribbon, a rosette, a gaud or a gown-piece--eh.'

'True, sir--and many, many thanks for your kindness to a poor girl like me.'

'Not at all--not at all, when she is so sweet and pretty, Minnie.'

'Sir!'

'Do you not understand me?'

'No.'

'Then give me another kiss to begin with.'

Minnie innocently enough tendered her soft cheek, to which the fatherly Snaggs applied his lips like a leech, and his eyes began to sparkle, as he surveyed the fine slope of her shoulders and contour of her bust. He became excited, and retaining one of her hands in his, clasped her tightly by the waist.

'I have ever been kind to your uncle, Minnie.'

She was about to break away, but these words restrained her, and she gazed anxiously into the eyes of Snaggs, who, therefore, kissed her so tenderly, that I had much ado to retain Callum in his lair among the long bracken. Poor Minnie, in her distress, looked beautiful--her face was so full of expression.

'I have kept Gillespie Ruadh in his farm without raising its rent, which would have been rather futile, as he has not paid a sixpence to me for these past two years.'

'God will reward you, sir,' said Minnie, weeping.

'Cannot you reward me too, Minnie?'

'I, sir--a poor girl without a halfpenny in the world!'

'You. Would you not like to leave the glen and enter into the service of a lady in the Lowlands. I know one, a fine and motherly old dame, whose strict, moral, and religious principles----'

'No--no, I could not leave Glen Ora and the Mac Innons.'

'The Mac Innons,' laughed Snaggs, 'will soon be but a memory here: long ere this day twelve months, the grass will grow is green on their hearths, as it waves on the hearths of Glentuirc.'

'Then I will still have Callum Dhu,' murmured Minnie, in a voice that trembled.

'Callum Dhu,' reiterated Snaggs, with scornful impatience; 'what is he that you should regret him?'

'My betrothed husband,' said Minnie, with honest pride; 'and none can reap in harvest or handle the cashcroimh like he; but he preferred to be a hunter like his fathers before him; and at shinty, wrestling, racing, tossing the stone, the hammer, or the caber, there is no one on the Braes of Loch Ora like Callum Dhu Mac Ian.'

'Stuff! These qualities, lassie, only fit him for the trade of a housebreaker. Better would it be for him if he read his prayers; for as the divine Blair sayeth, "every prayer sent up from a secret retirement is listened to." See, here is money, dear Minnie,' continued the wily Snaggs, holding before her a handful of bank-notes; 'those wretched pieces of paper which cause so much misery and crime, will be yours if----'

'If--what?'

The tempter whispered in her ear, and his eyes gleamed in the moonlight.

She uttered a half-stifled scream.

'For Heaven's sake let me go, Mr. Snaggs, or I shall scream for help,' said Minnie, as a rosy crimson replaced the paleness of her cheek.

'None can hear you.'

'Be not so sure of that,' she retorted, with a scornful smile.

'Remember your uncle, his sick wife and family! Why are you so afraid?' he whispered; 'I will be your protector for life, Minnie, and will open up a thousand new scenes and pleasures to you. Let me teach you that you were not born to live always in this dull and hideous glen. Oh, Minnie, have my eyes not told you the secret of my heart?'

'I am getting quite faint,' said Minnie, overcome by excitement and alarm.

'Apply my handkerchief to your nostrils--this strange perfume may revive you.'

He placed his voluminous silk handkerchief close to her face. In a moment a tremor passed over the form of Minnie, and she sank senseless on the grassy mound of the Clach-na-greiné. With a triumphant chuckle the pious moralist knelt down and threw his arms around her; but in the next moment a fierce shout rang in his startled ears, and the strong hand of Callum Dhu was on his throat, while the blade of a bare skene glittered before his eyes.

For a moment these two men glared at each other like a snake and a tiger. In the next, the frail moralist was dashed upon the turf, and the iron fingers of Callum compressed his throat like a vice, until his eyeballs were starting from their sockets.

'Mac Innon,' cried my fosterer, 'what shall I do with him? we are near the old Hill of Justice--his life in your hands--say but the word, and the last breath is in the nostrils of our tormentor!'

'Let us drag him to prison,' said I.

'Prison--ha--but there is none nearer than the Castle of Inverness.'

'Then let us fling him into the Poul-a-baidh, where the bones of many a better man are whitening among the weeds.'

'Right--mona mon dioul! but few stones will be on your cairn, dog!'

And snatching by the throat and heels the terrified wretch, who could scarcely gasp for mercy, we rushed to the edge of the pool, where justice was executed of old, and flung him headlong in.

'The curse of the Red Priest be on him!' cried Callum, as Snaggs disappeared with a scream of terror. Anon, he rose to the surface, floundering, dashing, and bellowing for aid, until he laid hold of the long weeds and broad-bladed water-docks, that fringed the margin, and after being nearly suffocated by the floating watercresses (of which, I suppose, he would in future share the horror of the learned Scaliger), he scrambled out in a woful plight, and ran towards his pony, which was cropping the scanty herbage that grew among the blasted pines. The moment he was mounted, he turned towards us a face that was ghastly and white with fear and fury; he was minus a hat, and his grizzled hair hung lank and dripping about his ears.

'Scoundrels!' he cried, 'for this outrage you shall both rot in the Castle of Inverness.'

'I will not be the only one of my race who has been within its towers,' said I; 'but they suffered for fighting brave battles on the mountain side--not for ducking a yelping hound like you.'

In token of vengeance, he shook his clenched hand at us, and galloped away. Long before this, the situation of Minnie attracted all our attention, and excited our wonder and alarm.

'Laoighe mo chri--speak to me--hear me!' implored Callum, kneeling beside her on the grass and taking her tenderly in his arms. But she remained quite insensible and unconscious of all he said to her.

'By what witchcraft did she faint thus?' said Callum--'she, a strong and healthy girl--so full of life and spirit too!'

'Snaggs spoke of a perfume in his handkerchief.'

'A perfume,' responded the black-browed Celt, grinding his teeth; 'what could it be?'

'Oh--this phial may tell,' said I, picking up a little bottle which lay on the turf beside Minnie. It was labelled 'Chloroform.'

'Dioul! what is that?' asked Callum.

'An essence invented by a Lowland physician. It makes even the strongest man so insensible for a time, that you might cut off his leg and draw all his teeth without having the slightest resistance offered.'

'Insensible!'

'Ay, as a stone; look at our poor Minnie.'

'The unhanged villain!' exclaimed Callum, swelling with new wrath; 'dioul! why did I not gash his throat with my skene as I would have scored a stag? He had some dark and sinister end in view; he deemed Minnie but a poor, ignorant, and unprotected Highland girl, who knew no language but her native Gaelic, and had no idea of aught beyond the sides of the glen; but as far as grass grows and wind blows will I follow and have vengeance on him!'

Minnie recovered slowly and with difficulty: she was sick and had an overwhelming headache, with such a weakness in all her limbs, that we were compelled to support, and almost carry her between us to Glen Ora. Callum mingled his endearments with muttered threats of vengeance on Snaggs, and as I knew that he would keep them too, I was not without anxiety as to the mode in which his wrath might develop itself.

Two days after this affair, on the application of Mr. Snaggs, the sheriff of the county granted warrants of removal against every family in the glen; and these long-dreaded notices of eviction were duly served in form of law by a messenger-at-arms, in the name of 'Fungus Mac Fee, Esquire, Advocate and Sheriff,' a position that worthy had gained, after the usual lapse of time spent in sweeping the Scottish Parliament House with the tail of his gown.

Six days now would seal our doom!

Such was the result of poor Minnie's intercession for her old uncle, with the admirer of the 'divine Blair.'