The Pirate
And dread in secret, while they take her counsel
When sweetheart shall be kind, or when cross dame shall die;
Where lurks the thief who stole the silver tankard,
And how the pestilent murrain may be cured.--
This sage adviser's mad, stark mad, my friend;
Yet, in her madness, hath the art and cunning
To wring fools' secrets from their inmost bosoms,
And pay enquirers with the coin they gave her.
_Old Play._
It seemed as if Norna had indeed full right to claim the gratitude of
the Udaller for the improved condition of his daughter's health. She
once more threw open the window, and Minna, drying her eyes and
advancing with affectionate confidence, threw herself on her father's
neck, and asked his forgiveness for the trouble she had of late
occasioned to him. It is unnecessary to add, that this was at once
granted, with a full, though rough burst of parental tenderness, and as
many close embraces as if his child had been just rescued from the jaws
of death. When Magnus had dismissed Minna from his arms, to throw
herself into those of her sister, and express to her, rather by kisses
and tears than in words, the regret she entertained for her late wayward
conduct, the Udaller thought proper, in the meantime, to pay his thanks
to their hostess, whose skill had proved so efficacious. But scarce had
he come out with, "Much respected kinswoman, I am but a plain old
Norseman,"--when she interrupted him, by pressing her finger on her
lips.
"There are those around us," she said, "who must hear no mortal voice,
witness no sacrifice to mortal feelings--there are times when they
mutiny even against me, their sovereign mistress, because I am still
shrouded in the flesh of humanity. Fear, therefore, and be silent. I,
whose deeds have raised me from the low-sheltered valley of life, where
dwell its social wants and common charities;--I, who have bereft the
Giver of the Gift which he gave, and stand alone on a cliff of
immeasurable height, detached from earth, save from the small portion
that supports my miserable tread--I alone am fit to cope with those
sullen mates. Fear not, therefore, but yet be not too bold, and let this
night to you be one of fasting and of prayer."
If the Udaller had not, before the commencement of the operation, been
disposed to dispute the commands of the sibyl, it may be well believed
he was less so now, that it had terminated to all appearance so
fortunately. So he sat down in silence, and seized upon a volume which
lay near him as a sort of desperate effort to divert ennui, for on no
other occasion had Magnus been known to have recourse to a book for that
purpose. It chanced to be a book much to his mind, being the well-known
work of Olaus Magnus, upon the manners of the ancient Northern nations.
The book is unluckily in the Latin language, and the Danske or Dutch
were, either of them, much more familiar to the Udaller. But then it was
the fine edition published in 1555, which contains representations of
the war-chariots, fishing exploits, warlike exercises, and domestic
employments of the Scandinavians, executed on copper-plates; and thus
the information which the work refused to the understanding, was
addressed to the eye, which, as is well known both to old and young,
answers the purpose of amusement as well, if not better.
Meanwhile the two sisters, pressed as close to each other as two flowers
on the same stalk, sat with their arms reciprocally passed over each
other's shoulder, as if they feared some new and unforeseen cause of
coldness was about to separate them, and interrupt the sister-like
harmony which had been but just restored. Norna sat opposite to them,
sometimes revolving the large parchment volume with which they had found
her employed at their entrance, and sometimes gazing on the sisters with
a fixed look, in which an interest of a kind unusually tender, seemed
occasionally to disturb the stern and rigorous solemnity of her
countenance. All was still and silent as death, and the subsiding
emotions of Brenda had not yet permitted her to wonder whether the
remaining hours of the evening were to be passed in the same manner,
when the scene of tranquillity was suddenly interrupted by the entrance
of the dwarf Pacolet, or, as the Udaller called him, Nicholas Strumpfer.
Norna darted an angry glance on the intruder, who seemed to deprecate
her resentment by holding up his hands and uttering a babbling sound;
then, instantly resorting to his usual mode of conversation, he
expressed himself by a variety of signs made rapidly upon his fingers,
and as rapidly answered by his mistress, so that the young women, who
had never heard of such an art, and now saw it practised by two beings
so singular, almost conceived their mutual intelligence the work of
enchantment. When they had ceased their intercourse, Norna turned to
Magnus Troil with much haughtiness, and said, "How, my kinsman? have you
so far forgot yourself, as to bring earthly food into the house of the
Reimkennar, and make preparations in the dwelling of Power and of
Despair, for refection, and wassail, and revelry?--Speak not--answer
not," she said; "the duration of the cure which was wrought even now,
depends on your silence and obedience--bandy but a single look or word
with me, and the latter condition of that maiden shall be worse than the
first!"
This threat was an effectual charm upon the tongue of the Udaller,
though he longed to indulge it in vindication of his conduct.
"Follow me, all of you," said Norna, striding to the door of the
apartment, "and see that no one looks backwards--we leave not this
apartment empty, though we, the children of mortality, be removed from
it."
She went out, and the Udaller signed to his daughters to follow, and to
obey her injunctions. The sibyl moved swifter than her guests down the
rude descent, (such it might rather be termed, than a proper staircase,)
which led to the lower apartment. Magnus and his daughters, when they
entered the chamber, found their own attendants aghast at the presence
and proceedings of Norna of the Fitful-head.
They had been previously employed in arranging the provisions which they
had brought along with them, so as to present a comfortable cold meal,
as soon as the appetite of the Udaller, which was as regular as the
return of tide, should induce him to desire some refreshment; and now
they stood staring in fear and surprise, while Norna, seizing upon one
article after another, and well supported by the zealous activity of
Pacolet, flung their whole preparations out of the rude aperture which
served for a window, and over the cliff, from which the ancient Burgh
arose, into the ocean, which raged and foamed beneath. _Vifda_, (dried
beef,) hams, and pickled pork, flew after each other into empty space,
smoked geese were restored to the air, and cured fish to the sea, their
native elements indeed, but which they were no longer capable of
traversing; and the devastation proceeded so rapidly, that the Udaller
could scarce secure from the wreck his silver drinking cup; while the
large leathern flask of brandy, which was destined to supply his
favourite beverage, was sent to follow the rest of the supper, by the
hands of Pacolet, who regarded, at the same time, the disappointed
Udaller with a malicious grin, as if, notwithstanding his own natural
taste for the liquor, he enjoyed the disappointment and surprise of
Magnus Troil still more than he would have relished sharing his
enjoyment.
The destruction of the brandy flask exhausted the patience of Magnus,
who roared out, in a tone of no small displeasure, "Why, kinswoman, this
is wasteful madness--where, and on what, would you have us sup?"
"Where you will," answered Norna, "and on what you will--but not in my
dwelling, and not on the food with which you have profaned it. Vex my
spirit no more, but begone every one of you! You have been here too long
for my good, perhaps for your own."
"How, kinswoman," said Magnus, "would you make outcasts of us at this
time of night, when even a Scotchman would not turn a stranger from the
door?--Bethink you, dame, it is shame on our lineage for ever, if this
squall of yours should force us to slip cables, and go to sea so
scantily provided."
"Be silent, and depart," said Norna; "let it suffice you have got that
for which you came. I have no harbourage for mortal guests, no provision
to relieve human wants. There is beneath the cliff, a beach of the
finest sand, a stream of water as pure as the well of Kildinguie, and
the rocks bear dulse as wholesome as that of Guiodin; and well you wot,
that the well of Kildinguie and the dulse of Guiodin will cure all
maladies save Black Death."[22]
"And well I wot," said the Udaller, "that I would eat corrupted
sea-weeds like a starling, or salted seal's flesh like the men of
Burraforth, or wilks, buckies, and lampits, like the poor sneaks of
Stroma, rather than break wheat bread and drink red wine in a house
where it is begrudged me.--And yet," he said, checking himself, "I am
wrong, very wrong, my cousin, to speak thus to you, and I should rather
thank you for what you have done, than upbraid you for following your
own ways. But I see you are impatient--we will be all under way
presently.--And you, ye knaves," addressing his servants, "that were in
such hurry with your service before it was lacked, get out of doors with
you presently, and manage to catch the ponies; for I see we must make
for another harbour to-night, if we would not sleep with an empty
stomach, and on a hard bed."
The domestics of Magnus, already sufficiently alarmed at the violence of
Norna's conduct, scarce waited the imperious command of their master to
evacuate her dwelling with all dispatch; and the Udaller, with a
daughter on each arm, was in the act of following them, when Norna said
emphatically, "Stop!" They obeyed, and again turned towards her. She
held out her hand to Magnus, which the placable Udaller instantly folded
in his own ample palm.
"Magnus," she said, "we part by necessity, but, I trust, not in anger?"
"Surely not, cousin," said the warm-hearted Udaller, wellnigh stammering
in his hasty disclamation of all unkindness,--"most assuredly not. I
never bear ill-will to any one, much less to one of my own blood, and
who has piloted me with her advice through many a rough tide, as I would
pilot a boat betwixt Swona and Stroma, through all the waws, wells, and
swelchies of the Pentland Frith."
"Enough," said Norna, "and now farewell, with such a blessing as I dare
bestow--not a word more!--Maidens," she added, "draw near, and let me
kiss your brows."
The sibyl was obeyed by Minna with awe, and by Brenda with fear; the one
overmastered by the warmth of her imagination, the other by the natural
timidity of her constitution. Norna then dismissed them, and in two
minutes afterwards they found themselves beyond the bridge, and standing
upon the rocky platform in front of the ancient Pictish Burgh, which it
was the pleasure of this sequestered female to inhabit. The night, for
it was now fallen, was unusually serene. A bright twilight, which
glimmered far over the surface of the sea, supplied the brief absence of
the summer's sun; and the waves seemed to sleep under its influence, so
faint and slumberous was the sound with which one after another rolled
on and burst against the foot of the cliff on which they stood. In front
of them stood the rugged fortress, seeming, in the uniform greyness of
the atmosphere, as aged, as shapeless, and as massive, as the rock on
which it was founded. There was neither sight nor sound that indicated
human habitation, save that from one rude shot-hole glimmered the flame