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THE HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN
By SIR WALTER SCOTT THE Heart of Midlothian, by many called the finest of the Waverley Novels, was published anonymously in 1818. It takes its name from the Tolbooth, or old city jail, in Edinburgh (pulled down in 1815), the "stony heart" of Midlothian, which reared its ancient front in the very middle of the High Street of the city. On the afternoon of September 8, 1736, Reuben Butler, assistant-master of the school at Libberton, and licensed minister of the Gospel, found himself in unexpected trouble. First of all, he had become entangled with the crowd of good citizens of Edinburgh in the Grassmarket, murmuring at the postponement of the execution of Captain John Porteous of the City Guard. They were still in the heat of anger from the events of the preceding day, when Porteous had ordered his men to fire, and had fired him-self, upon the crowd, some of whom were attempting to cut down the body of "Scotch" Wilson, the famous smuggler. Several innocent citizens had been killed. Now that the chief offender seemed likely to escape, there was no knowing what the mob might do. The quiet young pedagogue would gladly have returned to Libberton. Then, to his consternation, he learned that Effie Deans, the younger and more charming sister of his sweetheart Jeanie Deans, was imprisoned in the Tolbooth. When he had last seen Effie, more than a year before, she had been a beautiful and blooming girl, the lily of St. Leonard's. Many a traveler past her father's cottage had stopped his horse on the eve of entering Edinburgh, to gaze at her as she tripped by him, with her milk-pail poised on her head, bearing herself so erect, and stepping so light and free under her burden that it seemed rather an ornament than an incumbrance. Now the poor girl, scarce eighteen years of age, lay in the Tolbooth, charged with child-murder. The facts were that after working for a time in a chop in Edinburgh, the unhappy prisoner had disappeared for the space of a week, and then made her appearance before her sister at St. Leonard's in a state that had rendered Jeanie only too certain of her misfortune. But to all questions she had remained mute as the grave, until the officers of justice had come to apprehend her. Before Reuben Butler could see her the Tolbooth was closed; and before he could escape from the city a crowd of rioters compelled him to return with them to the jail and administer the last rites to Porteous, whom they dragged forth to death. The leader of the mob, a young man disguised in woman's clothes, seized a moment in the midst of the turmoil in the jail to beg Effie to escape. "For God's sake-for your own sake-for my sake-flee, or they'll take your life," was all that he had time to say. The girl gazed after him for a moment, and then, faintly muttering, "Better tyne life, since tint is jgude fame," she sank her head upon her hjand, and remained, seemingly, as unconscious as a statue, of the noise and tumult which passed around her. In the morning, on his way to see Jegne and her father at St. Leonard's, Butler en-countered in the King's park a young man of noble bearing, but strangely agitated, who bade him "tell Jeanie Deans that, when the moon rises, I shall expect to meet her at Nicol Muschat's Cairn, beneath Saint Anthony's chapel." After attempting in vain to induce Jeanie to explain the message, he returned to visit Effie again, in the Tolbooth, only to be compelled, on his arrival there, to tell the whole story, lest he be convicted of guilt in the Porteous affair. And then he was sent home, under bail not to leave Libber-ton, nor to communicate with any member of the family of Effie Deans. But if his experiences were to him incomprehensible, they were by no means so to the authorities. By piecing together his testimony with that of others, they rightly determined that the stranger in the King's park, the leader of the Porteous mob, and the father of Effie's child were one and the same person, namely, Geordie Robertson, comrade of Wilson the smuggler, and but lately escaped from the very prison in which Effie Deans was now confined. Accordingly, they planned to capture him that night at Muschat's Cairn. But before they could reach that place, Robertson had time to beg Jeanie to save her sister at the trial by testifying that Effie had disclosed to her her condition. Then he escaped. Merely that slight falsehood would have removed the case of Effie Deans from under the letter of the cruel Scotch statute. But Jeanie, steadfastly, devoutly truthful, was utterly unable to placate her conscience in bearing false witness. Nor could the disappointment of Effie herself, whom she was at last permitted to visit in the strong-room of the prison, alter her resolution. "He wanted that I suld be mansworn," she said. "I told him that I daurna swear to an untruth." At the trial, when Jeanie was brought in to testify, Effie, in human weakness, cried, "0 Jeanie, Jeanie, save me!" But when the solemn oath-"the truth to tell, and no truth to conceal, as far as she knew or was asked," was administered "in the name of God, and as the witness should answer to God at the great day of judgment," Jeanie, educated in deep reverence for the name of the Deity, was elevated above all considerations save those which she could, with a clear conscience, call Him to witness. And when the advocate came at length to the point of asking her, "what your sister said ailed her when you inquired," Jeanie could only answer, "Nothing." When the sentence was pronounced by the Doomsman, Effie's own eyes were the only dry ones in the court. "God forgive ye, my Lords," she said, "and dinna be angry wi' me for wishin' it-we a' need forgiveness." The next morning found Jeanie Deans traveling alone and afoot on the long road to London "to see the Queen's face that gives grace," and beg for her sister's pardon. Her tartan screen served all the purposes of a riding-habit, and of an umbrella; a small bundle contained such changes of linen as were absolutely necessary. She had a few guineas, and a letter from Reuben Butler to the Duke of Argyle, whose grand-father had been under obligations of the deepest to the famous Bible Butler, grand-father of the poor assistant-schoolmaster. now sick at Libberton. She passed luckily, on the whole, through so weary and dangerous a journey, and at length, through the intercession of the duke, secured the pardon which she sought. Before she reached Scotland again, Effie had eloped with her lover, who was in reality George Staunton, son of an English noble-man. The sisters, who had last met when Effie was sitting on the bench of the condemned, did not meet again for many years, though Lady Staunton wrote sometimes to Jeanie-now Mrs. Butler, wife of Mr.Reuben Butler, pastor of Knocktarlitie. Finally, by chance, Sir George learned that Meg Murdockson, who had attended Effie in her illness, had not murdered the child, as they had always supposed. He traced the boy to a certain troop of vagabonds, of which Black Donald was the chief. In an affray with Black Donald's men, Sir George was shot by a young lad called "the Whistler," who proved to be the lost son. The lad disappeared and escaped to America. Lady Staunton, overcome by the tragedy, after vain efforts to drown her grief in society, retired to a convent in France. Although she took no vows, she remained there until her death. But her influence at court accomplished much for the children of her sister Jeanie, who lived happily on in the good parish with which the bounty of the Duke of Argyle had provided her husband. The Heart of Midlothian is notable for having rather fewer important characters, a smaller variety of incidents, and less description of scenery than most of Scott's novels. One of the most remarkable scenes in all fiction is the meeting of the two sisters in prison under the eyes of the jailer Ratcliffe. The interview of Jeanie with Queen Caroline is also most noteworthy. There is much humor at the expense of the Cameronian wing of the Presbyterian faith in Scotland. In this work also appears the strange character of Madge Wildfire, daughter of the old crone, Meg Murdockson. Into her mouth is put the famous song, "Proud Maisie is in the wood." |