Dougal

“ There we found Dougal with the horses. The Bailie had formed a plan with respect to “the creature,” as well as upon the draining of the lake; and, perhaps in both cases, with more regard to the utility than to the practical possibility of his scheme. “Dougal,” he said, “ye are a kindly creature, and hae the sense and feeling o' what is due to your betters—and I'm e'en wae for you, Dougal, for it canna be but that in the life ye lead you suld get a Jeddart cast* ae day suner or later. ”

“ I'm so happy—I'm perfectly happy, Dougal." The tears came to her eyes.
"I know what'll happen," Dougal said, his pale eyebrows drawn together. "He'll play with you for a while, and then he'll throw you down hard as soon as he's through with you, or another girl comes along."
"Then I hope she won't show up for a good while," said Fancy cavalierly.
"And when it's over?" said Elsie.
Fancy dropped her eyes. "When it's over—I don't know." She looked up. "When it's over I suppose I'll sell apples on Market Street. What else will there be for me to do?" ”

“ It wasna a'thegether for sake of the money, Dougal thought; but because he didna like to part wi' my gudesire aff the grund. Dougal was glad to see Steenie, and brought him into the great oak parlour, and there sat the Laird his leesome lane, excepting that he had beside him a great, ill-favoured jackanape, that was a special pet of his; a cankered beast it was, and mony an ill-natured trick it played—ill to please it was, and easily angered—ran about the haill castle, chattering and yowling, and pinching, and biting folk, especially before ill-weather, or disturbances in the state. ”

“ M'Dougal, who appears to have been a man of a thousand projects, and of great though somewhat irregular ambition, suddenly conceived the idea of seeking the hand of one of the native princesses, a daughter of the one eyed potentate Comcomly, who held sway over the fishing tribe of the Chinooks, and had long supplied the factory with smelts and sturgeons. ”

“ Calling in the street of the Gallogate, opposite the Saracen’s Head Inn, where several officers of the gallant 42d regiment were dining at the close of the American war, some of whom knew Dougal before they went abroad, opening the window, called out, "What's that you’ve got on your back, Dougal?" Knowing what the regiment suffered at Bunker’s Hill, Dougal replied, "It's Bunker’s Hill, do you choose to mount?”
FINIS.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. ”

“ The history of mankind is full of the phenomena of “imposed will”—the source of more divergence from the normal line than we ever dream of.
We come now to the third of our quaternion, Helen M‘Dougal, a native, as we have said, of the small village of Meddiston, in the parish of Muiravonside, and county of Stirling, where her early years were spent. Her maiden name was Dougal. At no time, however early, did her character exhibit any such diversity of oscillation between the good and the evil, as, giving play to contending passions, creates an interest in the inquirer into human nature. ”

“ After a successful voyage from Montreal via the Sandwich Islands, the Tonquin, bearing the advanced guard of traders and emigrants, including Mr. M’Dougal, who represented Mr. Astor, cast anchor off the mouth of the Columbia. Here a landing was at once effected, and M’Dougal and his chief assistant, a man named Stuart, were hospitably entertained by the Chinooks, whose chief aided them in selecting a suitable place for the foundation of their fort, and showed no jealousy of their wish to settle near him. ”

“ This last appears to have been greatly altered and enlarged, and many curious passages in the early edition are suppressed in this. In 1752 Dougal talks of the rebels with a great deal of virulence, in 1774 he softens his tone, and occasionally introduces apologies for their conduct. In 1752 Dougal styles himself “merchant in Glasgow;” a rhyming merchant could not be expected to be rich, and he says—
“You Papists are a cursed race,”’ &c. ”

“ Dougal Graham, author of a well known metrical history of the rebellion in 1745, being candidate for the place of town bellman in the city of Glasgow, was desired to call "Gude fresh herrings new come in at the Broomielaw," (it not being the season of herrings) , Dougal added,
"But, indeed, my friends, it’s a’ a blaeflum,
"For the herrings no catch’d, an’ the boat’s no come,
which procured for Dougal the situation.
Dougal was a kind of Scotch Æsop, he had a large humph on one of his shoulders, and like his prototype, had wit. ”

“ Ower he couped as if he had been dead. He could not tell how lang he lay in a trance at the door, but when he gathered himsell he cried on his neighbour, and getting nae answer raised the house, when Dougal was found lying dead within twa steps of the bed where his master’s coffin was placed. As for the whistle, it was gane anes and aye; but mony a time was it heard at the top of the house on the bartizan, and amang the auld chimneys and turrets where the howlets have their nests. Sir John hushed the matter up, and the funeral passed over without mair bogie wark. ”

“ Professor Fraser thus discusses the same matter:—‘He [Graham] possessed this advantage over the ordinary historian; that the latter from his superior height and position seldom condescended to enter the huts of the poor, and when he did enter, the inmates were frightened into their “Sunday clothes and manners” by his stately and majestic presence. But Dougal, being himself one of the poorest, introduces us into the most secret, domestic, and every-day life and thoughts of [65] the lower classes of last century. Nothing is hidden from him. ”

“ Now Steenie was a kind of favourite with his master, and kend a' the folks about the Castle, and was often sent [Pg 227] for to play the pipes when they were at their merriment. Auld Dougal MacCallum, the butler, that had followed Sir Robert through gude and ill, thick and thin, pool and stream, was specially fond of the pipes, and aye gae my gudesire his gude word wi' the Laird; for Dougal could turn his master round his finger.
Weel, round came the Revolution, and it had like to have broken the hearts baith of Dougal and his master. ”

“ On the war breaking out with France in 1793, Dougall was transferred to the yacht Clarence, trading to the Mediterranean from the north of Scotland, and furnished with a letter of marque authorising reprisals on the high seas. When this vessel was lying at Greenock news was received, on 14 June 1794, of Lord Howe's great victory a fortnight earlier over the French, and, on a salute being fired in honour of the event, an accidental discharge from a mismanaged gun wounded Dougall terribly in the right side and permanently destroyed his eyesight. ”

“ The claims of the Royal William are proved by ample contemporary evidence, as well as by the subsequent statements of her master, John M'Dougall, her builder, James Goudie, and John Henry, the Quebec founder who made some castings for her engines the year after they had been put into her at Montreal. {138} M'Dougall was a seaman of indomitable perseverance, as his famous voyage to England shows. ”

“ His son, whether legitimate or illegitimate we know not, was Ian Rewych, or John the Grizzled, termed Makgewykar or son of the Vicar. [1]
His grandson was Dougall Maol, or Dougall the Bald or Tonsured, called patronymically Dougall Johnson, or the son of John. [iii]
This Dougall Johnson appears in 1511 as a notary-public, [2] and dwelt at Tullichmullin, where his wife Katherine, daughter of Donald M’Clawe, alias Grant, died in 1512. [3] He is twice mentioned in the obituary or Chronicle of Fortingall ”

“ But Doctor Dougall was wrong. It was temperamentally impossible for Amory to get the best marks in school. ”

“ Douglas had given him the impression that some danger was hanging over his head, and he had always looked upon his sudden departure from California, and also his renting a house in so quiet a place in England, as being connected with this peril. He imagined that some secret society, some implacable organization, was on Douglas's track, which would never rest until it killed him. ”

“ Instead of treating the Douglases with the haughty distance of an injured captive, she opened to them the natural charms of her mind and conversation. No person, man or woman, could long remain insensible to her fascinations. George Douglas, a younger brother of the house of Lochleven, became deeply in love with her; and the proud mother relaxed her severity, and in the brilliant prospect of a marriage of this young and gallant son with the Queen of Scotland, forgot the interests of her son the regent, who left her to occupy, distant from Court, the odious office of a turnkey. ”

“ This family consisted of only two individuals,—John Douglas and his wife. Douglas was a remarkable man, both in character and in person. In age he may have been about fifty, with a strong-jawed, rugged face, a grizzling mustache, peculiarly keen gray eyes, and a wiry, vigorous figure which had lost nothing of the strength and activity of youth. He was cheery and genial to all, but somewhat offhand in his manners, giving the impression that he had seen life in social strata on some far lower horizon than the county society of Sussex. ”

“ While the armies lay thus opposed to each other, Douglas resolved to give the young king of England a lesson in the art of war. At the dead of night, he left the Scottish camp with a small body of chosen horse, not above two hundred, well armed. He crossed the river in deep silence, and came to the English camp, which was but carelessly guarded. Seeing this, Douglas rode past the English sentinels as if he had been an officer of the English army, saying,—"Ha, Saint George! you keep bad watch here!" ”

“ It has been the custom that one of the Douglases should in every generation be sent to the college to rear for the kirk.
For the hand of the Douglas has ever been kind to kin; and since patronage came back—in law or out law, the Douglases have managed to put their man into Drumdarroch parish and to have a Douglas in the white manse by the Waterside. And so it is like to be when, as they say, the rights of patron shall again pass away. ”

“ With these words he turned his back, and abruptly left his cousin, who returned to Douglas, ill satisfied with the success of his message, but, nevertheless, delivered it faithfully. "That curst carle," said the Douglas, "is a thorn in my thigh, as well as a buckler on my arm. He's as cunning as a fox, as stubborn as an oak, and as fierce as a lion. I must temporize for the present, as I cannot do without his support, but the time may come that he may be humbled, and made to know his betters; since one endeavour has failed, we must try another, and, if that do not succeed, another still." ”

“ Then the hand of thy royal mistress shall buckle on the armour in which thou goest to the field, but never shall unloose it, unless from a victor or a corse!" And with that she stretched forth her hand, which Douglas, as he kneeled with one knee on the ground, took and pressed to his lips.
Every one of the nobles shook Douglas by the hand, and wished him success. Does any man believe that there was one among them that indeed wished it? ”

“ Chapter XV THE QUESTION OF GUILT
When Durgan reached the stone platform of the mine, Bertha came out to meet him. She had apparently been sitting alone on some rock in the lateral cutting. She was dressed for riding; her face was quite pale, and had a strength and sternness in it that alarmed him.
"I must go at once to Hilyard. I have come to—have you not heard?"
"'Tis an affair of niggers," said he; "they are always knifing one another."
"Oh, no, no! Do you not understand at all? Whom do you suppose to be guilty?"
"'Dolphus, of course." ”

“ In the annals of Scotland, no name has been more celebrated for valour and enterprise than that of Douglas. They themselves boast that their line is so ancient, that no person can point out the first man that originally elevated the family. ”

“ The earldom and entailed estates of Douglas reverted by the patent of 1358 to Archibald Douglas, 3rd Earl of Douglas, called “The Grim” (c. 1328–c. 1400) , a natural son of the “good” Sir James. With his cousin, the 1st earl of Douglas, he had fought at Poitiers, where he was taken prisoner, but was released through ignorance of his real rank. On his return to Scotland he became constable and sheriff of Edinburgh, and, later, warden of the western marches, where his position was strengthened by his becoming lord of Galloway in 1369 and by his purchase of the earldom of Wigtown in 1372. ”

“ She had schooled herself to rapid work and action; her thought was quite clear. "I want you to be kind enough to saddle my horse and bring him down to me. I want you to explain to my sister that I have no time to go back to the house, and to tell her that there is no woman who can come to work for us to-day. I want you to speak very gently to her, for she is so distressed; but you must not tell her that I spoke of the lawyer. And first, last, and above all, Mr. Durgan, I want you to be on your guard against an enemy. ”

“ There was one uneasy element in Durgan's sense of rest—he dreaded the advent of the sister who might not be "quite agreeable."
Out of the gloaming, stooping under the tendrils of the vine, a young woman came quickly and stopped upon the threshold. She seemed a perfect type of womanhood, lovely and vigorous. One arm was filled with branches of dogwood bloom, the other hand held in short leash a mastiff. Her figure, at once lithe and buxom, her rosy and sun-browned face, soft lips, aquiline nose, and curly hair gave Durgan sincere astonishment, altho he had formed no expectation. ”