SCOTTISH HEROINES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2902, 27 October 1909, Page 87

SCOTTISH HEROINES.

By Jessik Mackay.

V.— JEANIE DEANS. (Coßelwted.) If some cataclysm, of fiction were to engulf al! Scottish heroines, leaving but one to form the normal standard for all that should arise thereafter on the ashes of that literary Eagnarok, the survivor should be Jeanie Deans. And she holds her proper regnancy on precis3ly the same broad, symmetrical, human grounds which underlie the claim of "Annie Laurie" to be the world's fmeei human love-song. "Annie Laurie."' it is true, has not the exotic passion of the "Creole Love-song," nor the lambent mystery of Shelley's "IndHan Serenade." But it hr.s the rare glance ani glow of the sun-shot northern sky, kindling, hali-revealed. behind the kind grey clood. And in like manner Jeanie Deans has not the u'dianco of those dazzling spi.ites — Xancj S'i'-i' and Babbie, the Egyptian Often she all but hovers on fbe commonplace But Tii«<3 has a way of winnowing the grain of literature ; all that, is not weighted with essential humanity, counted however golden in its own a-g«, blows far away on th-s wind of the years. They are Apsaras, Cloud Maidens, Dewi*. or what you will, Nancy and. Babbie, but it is only by divine acci■cl^nt thai their feat at times touch Scottish grour.-d. But Jeanie, in her soothfast way., is the full ftowe" of Covenant promise, as Marget' Howe is iU Hi^h pT:&st<-ss. Scctlaii'd f-aaled tha Oov-nant, and the Coven- int moiiVctl fJc/iir.'xL Wdthoufc the 'Coven ani and all it stood for Jeanie had been quite as honest and sw-eet, but vhe would have lacked that mexßtal and moral tantness that bore her safely through th-e briars a.cd snares tli-at beset her path. The story of Jean:« and ti.h<a ill-fated Lily of St. Leonardo, to whom she was mother and e^tor hi one, scarcely useds re-telling to Pc-c'.'ti-li vearlers But it strikes tJie mind anew wltJi wonider to r£3 how disftlj' the sliarne and suffering of Effie Deans is enwove:i into the civic tragedy of the Pcrtcous liot. For the "Geord'ie Roberts&n 11 of, hiiniory was the unknown lover who shattered the peace of . David Deans' s ho» >ft hcu-;?. and the storming of the Toibooth. whpee }?fiie was immured on the ielse charge .of chaldmurdei", was jjlaniisd as much ia ihe hops of freeing her as of avenging Edinburgh on the hard captain who had s*h>3d her blood, aavl who was about to, go ire-e under t&e misplaced clemency of Queen Carr-line. These dark conflicting <had,->ws of- mob-law and porvertad national policy whirl batTike to pvA fro l'cur.cl the sample girl, an.l the light, of br ir-ioiuitable «i;<sr-ry-and faith s.bincs there ail down irstn til^ pit fioin which they fp;ang. An almost srpsrh'tman temptation :- f-oi-ctd upon he-r — not f2iz°d on in >pcic;. n'- Nan- v w tair seized up^ii he;.-. P^it-or^-. inclceo, was hin, o e«l, but Effi.c. wh.^r V->ht an<l waipable r.'ture is 11-jt ujMjoi^ p ceitiPan touch of Car.iei'onia'l iion. letiiftss to fly, ai-'J bides b.-r tiiul. By a oruel Jaw of Willam mid iLuy cor. <-akrcmiL under 5-ncli <[■( 1 instances v>;>- then counted prooT or nnu<;>-i Yet f»'i" youth and heaut\ of Kfii". .-ii'l a!) b;-f a child in year.s. melt- e\en b°c «tc:n jnd'/e-:. who would <>ladly \>ut in jFani< V mouth theone little wt.-d th«i' woukl save her sister's liife. But that .^oicl inu-t he a lie. and Jeanie carrot niter it. The tb.J-eats of Fobtntson, th" broad hints ol" th" lawyers, even the connivance, a-. *he is falsely led to imagine, of he;- dutiful father, ar>'l. lastly, tl-e f nt:-"it\-.-, nr-1 reproaches of Kffie, fail to i-hake her irte^i-it.v The trial scene is Jetter-perfpet in ]^rocedure, as Scott's leL-il work is always; o» the human side it is ? tiiiimpli of terc«e but natural feelinjr. Dumbiedikc-., Jeanie's toneue-tied and s'lnujUin,' 'ovci. is there with the pui-e he deeii.^ imincible m all crises; but h-r true lovf. Butler, is ial*gated to a pick oed by drp.ma.tic neces- ' t-'ity ■ sbe mu.-t "dree h?,<- weiird" alone. The callous chatter <jf th-e crowd, the metallic jargon of (he cou-rt. the bowed head 01 David Deans, who will not look unon the child w!io w.ts onc--> t'w light of -hit eve-, the patheti" and not wholly jiiuiajVstii.- figure of Kiiie. ihe shadow of an unjus>t law — vet not one whi* mor<* unju-t for that haid fme tlnn t]™ onesided baibaritv of our own man -in,' >?!■•? l?w for this — the Tolboth behin-J. 1"> gallows in front. a:>-l ag.in.-t it nil. \ho v> iiite t.vuth aid faitli of ore i>e^-ant irirl ! "Alack ' Alack ! sl.«: nevei 1 one word to m-e."' f.n-1 Joam- Dim:*-), knowing tliat she hß<s jrt-onoupced KfiieV donm. To th° s-pirii in tune with the Infinite -. chance street-w oid may lie :i iwelalion So it proves to Joanio. v, ho lc<'vc= J hf- ,-ourt }>D.-s?«»sccl with the ln-'uJit '.-olutioi' to walk to London and 'uji i>?.:dori from ihe King. And, aia.- ! tlin Kii:^"- v. ratii i-s <-till whitc-hoL a^.iinst t'ne 'itv which had hung the ]a=;t j-o\al ]>».•! >r\ on the dyei's pole:> that h?d W^cd s a gibbet for Porlecus. Then begins the great nuven-tirp of Jeanie Dean*, a fort ox fairy quest and sequel, put in workaday words F'rst, pressed by Jia.rd nee*s>-itv, +he goes to Dumb-iedikcs to bonow for the journej.' The crisis draws* out an unexpected and most embairraising declaration. Will she be noade Lady Dumbiedlkes that day. and go to London in her own coach tlw next? "But, Laird.' says Jeanie, "I like anitker man better, and einnn marry ye." "Another man bett-ar th.m me. Jeanie? How is that possible' Ye l;?.e kenned me pae lang.'" 'But I have kenned him I?nger," sayi? Jeanie simply, as she turns to go And

then, once in all his life, the grotesque j Laird rises to hero-pitch, and rides after j her. "Gang Where ye like. Manry a' the Butlers in the country gin ye like !' ' he says, pressing the loan upon her 'n generous measure. Already she holds a pass from " Daddie Ration," turnkey and - ex-highwayman, which screed of thrives, Latin stands her in good stead another day. . . Finally, her heart sends her to Butler's sicl; room, and Butler, though ill and poor, has yet his talisman to offer — a letter from the first Duke of Argyle, whose 'ife his grandfather saved in battle. Most characteristic is Jeanie's refusal to link her clouded fortunes with the voting scholar'a ; most, characteristic, too, the delicate device of the marked Bible, by which she ministers to his needs out of her new-gotten wealth. v Jeanie meets strange company on the long road to London. One night she snends in a gipsy barn, the DrLboner of the hag whose malice has spirited away Effie's child. Here, too, reappears the hag's mad daughter, Madge Wildfire, whose undoing also lay at Robertson's door. Scott's pen was never deeper dipped in liquid magic than when he wrote of this poor vagvant, -with all her mingled vanity, grotesquerie, -affection, and genuine poetry. Madge shows Jeanie, as it were, into the last house she would have entered of hex own choice — the stately English home of the man she had/ known e.s "Robertson." From him, crippled, and writhing in his impotence to help Effis, she learns the story of his life, and is bidden by him to make her own terms wi f h the Court by handing over " Robertson " -to the vengeance of the law. And ever here, abhorrent as he' is to her, Jeanie camsot find ' it in' heart or conscience to buy Effie's life at the price of his.' And a better way is opened to her by Butler's talisman. The Duke of Argyle, then as now the greatest peer in Scotland, wins her an audience from Queen Caroline. The Queen, with her " blue c'en like a goss-hawk," looks through and through th« simple girl, and > her wordb have" a bitter edge as she speaks ,of the flouted- Porteous pardon. Jeanie, unversed in the open secrets of the court, stumblps on a pitfall, and all but ruins her cause ; and by another happy stumble wins the Queen's ear once more and makes her last appeal to a slowly melting heart. " When the hour of death comes, that comes to high and low, lang and late . may it be yours ! Oh, my leddy, then it isna' what we hae dune for oursel's but what, we hae dune for others that we think on maist pleasantly. And the • thought that j r e has intervened- to spare the puir thing's life will h& 'sweeter 'in that how*, come when it may, than if a word -of your mouth' cctild 'hang the haill P'ovtcflUs mob at the tail of ac tow." An'l-»no\v, doubly graced by the relenting Queen, Jeanie returns' to Scotland, pot alone and on foot, but almost in siaie under the kindly protection of Argyle and his retainers, Ijt tajces a gentleman to write of a gentleman, and Scott wrote-hinw-elf large into the bluff unspoiled man of tho world, whose heart neither courtfavour nor wealth could detach from a rathe land then in poor enough credit. anioEj the great onss of the earth. M'Callum More is the earthly good angel of Jeanie henceforth. She never sets foot again in Edinburgh, embittered now with such fearful memories ; the slow post journey is secretly retarded and lengthened to let tht Duke DreDare the surprise of her life, when she lands finally in the Argyle country to find her father installed in a place of trust and Bufcler aopointed to the same parish, in a manse that wants nothing but a mistress. One sorrow, indeed, remains : Effie, after liberation, has fled., to her lover. But on Jeanie's wedding night the two -fugitives find means to bid her a secret farewell : and the parting of the two sisters, both now wedded wives, is intensely pathetic, yet not unhopeful Here the novel ends — as a novel. But Scott, the moralist, had more to say, and taid it both with the consummate art and the grim resolution of a modern Eurimdes. The last chapters, in so far as they relate to Effie and Sir George Stnunton, are dark with the sequences of Fate. Chill as the grave, and yet true to environing circumstances, is the picture of Effie, transformed from the light-hearted Lily of St. Leonards into the languid court beauty, playing an endless part, and dreading every moment that th family pretensions on which her husband's pfide insists may be shattered once and for all. And yet she has a heart not all eaten out by the world, and showers gold on Jeannie in secret — the one pure joy left to her, although she still loves the broken and moody man who is her lord. Hei meeting, all unknown to either, with her son, now a young desperado of the hills, brings only misfortune. A scuffle between some Scottish banditti and the law, backed by Butler and Staunton, each in his own capacity, ends in the death of the latter. But Jeannie and her husband lock the dreadful f-ecret in their hearts, and Effie is never allowed to know that the avenger of Porteous was himself the son of the shyer. And the Lily herself, tiring, not of Jeani-e, but of the ordered ways of her household, returns in time to the world, seeking her final refuge in the cloister — a strange ending for a Cameronian's daughter. For the rest, all peace, all success, all honour crowns Jeanie in her wedded life. Butler playfully counts hor the fairy wife' . who drops pearls and diamonds wherever she goes, and she has enough romance in her gentle" yet practical soul to support the part assigned. Her children are a joy and an honour to her. Like some green-bordered rivulet, her life flows on to the end, blessing and blessed; in the beauty of musk and of lilies. For she was all truth, and truth widens like the sea.