Maclean

“ Perhaps, in the revolutions of the world, Iona may be sometime again the instructress of the Western Regions.
It was no long voyage to Mull, where, under Sir Allan's protection, we landed in the evening, and were entertained for the night by Mr. Maclean, a Minister that lives upon the coast, whose elegance of conversation, and strength of judgment, would make him conspicuous in places of greater celebrity. Next day we dined with Dr. Maclean, another physician, and then travelled on to the house of a very powerful Laird, Maclean of Lochbuy; for in this country every man's name is Maclean. ”

“ By the way, do you know that Castle Maclean is yours for life now? At least Carlton Lodge is, and only the sea-gulls are likely to dispute my princess's claim to her battlements."
He handed her into a boat, and rowed out into the middle of the river.
"Now," he said, "you shall see what your slave's muscles are worth."
Like an arrow the little boat shot through the water in the sunshine, and Mona laughed with delight at the exhilaration of the swift rushing movement.
"That will do, Dr Dudley," she said at last. "Don't kill yourself." ”

“ But just then Lora rose and went out.
"Ian Maclean, what is it?"
"Mary, my kinswoman, he is not alone."
"Not alone?"
"I have seen the other"
She knew now what he meant. He had seen the shadow-self, the phantasm of the living that, ere death, is often seen alongside the one who shall soon die. Mrs. Maclean knew well that this shadowy second-self simulated the real self, and that even all the actions of the body were reproduced with a grotesque verisimilitude. But she was also aware how, sometimes, one may learn from the mien of the phantasm what is hidden in the aspect of the doomed. ”

“ Maclean has been exceedingly ill, though now fast recovering. My talk must be of 'familiar matters to-day'—all my housekeeping troubles, for which, heaven knows, I have neither talent nor experience. However, I am beginning to get on. I know how much yam is to be given out, and how many plantains are to be eaten; and I know how much flour makes such a sized loaf. ”

“ You look as if you were on the road to be hung at Tyburn.'
'The matter is that to-morrow I shall not have a penny in the world,' answered Maclean, gloomily.
'Oh, things are never so bad as they seem,' said Plunket. 'Cheer up. Perhaps I can find a way to supply you with more pennies. It only wants a little pluck and spirit! If we haven't got any money, there are plenty of other people who have.'
Maclean was silent. He understood at once what Plunket meant, and that he was being offered a partnership in a scheme of highway robbery. ”

“ Maclean has herself given us a just portraiture of her peculiar powers. In the concluding lines of her fine poem entitled The Golden Violet, she says
“If that I know myself what keys
Yield to my hand their sympathies,
I should say 't is those whose tone
Is Woman's Love and Sorrow's own."
No writer certainly has written more of Love and Sorrow than Mrs. Maclean. She touches scarcely any other strings. I called her the female Byron: in this respect she is particularly so. Passion and Sadness are the idols of her pen. ”

“ Maclean on the floor near the door, quite senseless; that he immediately sent for the doctor, and assisted to carry her to bed; that the efforts of the doctor to restore life were in vain, and that deponent cannot assign any cause for her death. Mr. Maclean added that an unkind word had never passed between them.
At this period of the proceedings, Mr. Maclean submitted a letter, dated 15th October, written by Mrs. Maclean, and intended for immediate dispatch to a female friend in England, in which there appears no depression of spirits. ”

“ But this profession of fidelity to one monarch soon proved to be hollow. Maclean was truly one of the politicians of the day, swayed by every turn of fortune, and cherishing a deep regard for his own interest in his heart. To inspire dislike and distrust wherever he desired to secure allegiance was the lot of William, of whom it has been bitterly said, that in return for having delivered three kingdoms from popery and slavery, he was, before having been a year on the throne, repaid "with faction in one of them, with rebellion in the other, and with both in the third." ”

“ The family of Maclean in all its numerous and complicated branches, had been distinguished for loyalty and independence during the intervening centuries between the career of Gillean and the birth of that chieftain whose devotion to the Jacobite cause proved eventually the ruin of the house of Duart. Throughout the period of the Great Rebellion, and of the Protectorate, the chief of the Macleans had made im [Pg 128] mense sacrifices to support the interests of the King, and to bring his clan into the field. ”

“ Maclean in his native uniform was always an imposing figure. He was famous for the open-handed hospitality which he extended to all British visitors at the Moorish court. He devoted much of his spare time to the bagpipes, the piano, the guitar, and the accordion. ”

“ Dr Maclean is spoken of as "one of those extraordinary men who is capable of concentrating all the faculties of his mind, and of devoting the best years of his life, to the accomplishment of one great and benevolent object." ”

“ His last appearance was at an afternoon performance at the Strand of 'My Brother's Sister,' in which, under the management of Miss Minnie Palmer, he played an old French nobleman. He died on 15 March 1890, at his lodgings in Percy Street, Tottenham Court Road, London, and was buried on the 19th at Paddington cemetery.
A sound and trustworthy actor, Maclean never rose to eminence. He was capable of playing in respectable fashion most parts in comedy, even to the highest, and was generally satisfactory, but was seldom assigned a rôle of any distinguishing feature. ”

“ Maclean didn’t know what provoked him to say that, though it was true that he had thought Mrs. Garlett rather less well than usual these last few weeks.
“It’s strange that everything in nature, having performed its work, dies, and that only we poor human beings linger on long after any usefulness we ever had in the world has gone,” said Miss Prince musingly. ”

“ Maclean was no advocate of easy divorce, but to his mind there was something intensely repellent in the marriage of a strong healthy man to a hopeless invalid. Deep down in his heart the honest Scotsman knew what would have happened to himself had he been in the shoes of Harry Garlett. He knew that his flesh and blood would not have borne such a difficult, unnatural situation, and he had long admired the young man’s straight, simple, clean way of life. Thanks to that dish of early strawberries, Harry Garlett would now be able to remake his life on happy, natural lines. ”

“ Maclean was alone.
“What signifies the message Jean brought me just now?” she exclaimed. “Why must the marriage be put off, even for one day, Jock? Surely you can postpone going to London till to-morrow afternoon?”
“I’m the bearer of bad news,” he said heavily.
Mrs. Maclean stood up.
“What’s the matter?” she asked in a frightened tone.
As her husband remained silent, she went up to him, and gave his arm a shake:
“Jock? You’re frightening me! Have you found out anything about Harry Garlett? D’you mean you think the marriage will have to be broken off?” ”

“ The great tide of life flows on steadily, ruthlessly, whatever be the tragedies or comedies being enacted below the swift-moving waters. Dr. Maclean had an important consultation early that afternoon with a great London specialist. And though both his wife and his niece were aware that he could not be in to lunch, yet both of them shrank from learning the news as to whether Harry Garlett was a free man or had been committed for trial from any one but him. ”

“ Mrs. Maclean was an intelligent woman, and the words struck a note of sharp fear in her breast.
The doctor went on: “I’ve just had the fellow here for over an hour, and I think I’ve convinced him that the—well, the suspicion, if you can go so far as to call it that, is absolutely groundless.”
Harry Garlett broke in: “But did Kentworthy tell you what I forced him to admit to me—that nothing short of an exhumation will really settle the matter, and that unless that takes place the matter may be raised again at any time?”
A tide of dismay welled up in Dr. Maclean’s heart. ”

“ Maclean, "I should like to know what you're going to charge?"
To this Mary could only answer, whatever he thought right.
"That won't do—that won't do," said Mr. Maclean; "you sell the schooling, and I buy it: it is the one that sells that always ought to fix the price."
"Tom, how you talk," said his wife; "you might as well tell a baby about fixing prices, I dare say. Don't you know what you've paid before for schooling?" ”

“ And you might just as well, you know, as if the officers of the peace catch you they will hang you to a certainty, never stopping to ask questions as to your share in the matter.'
Maclean nodded. He saw the truth of this, and besides, the excitement of the adventure began to stir his blood, and he was soon counting the days till he heard from Plunket again. On this occasion a travelling carriage was to be stopped on the St. Albans road, and it was settled that Maclean should present his pistol to the coachman's head, while Plunket secured the booty. ”

“ He was quite alone, and standing in a shaded corner of the bridge. "What sort of a watch can one man keep?" muttered Maclean who had served on an Australian gunboat. He stepped to the officer's side, seized the telescope in his left hand, and as the startled man turned, he dealt him a terrible blow on the nape of his neck with the hammer. The officer fell into his arms sighing out his breath. Maclean laid him gently on the floor, and relieved him of his revolver. ”

“ Maclean, then Governor of the Gold Coast,* [1] —a man who neither knew, felt, nor estimated her value. He wedded her, I am convinced, only because he was vain of her celebrity; and she married him only because he enabled her to change her name, and to remove from that society in which just then the old and infamous slander had been revived. ”

“ There, with helpless limbs, with his head bowed on his breast, he held on to the paling, while the sunlight flooded the firth with molten silver—the product of an ancient civilisation and a thousand years of Christianity. In that remote era which ended in August 1914 we would have passed him there without so much as a feeling of surprise. But to-day we are as a man awakened from heavy slumber, stung by a sudden dart to a new realisation. ”

“ The agent smiled as he disclaimed the imputation: and with that they parted.
"Those flowers were so much admired and appreciated, Maclean," said Miss Blake to the gardener as she passed the lodge--where he sat at tea with his wife--the door open. "There are no such hothouse flowers anywhere as yours."
Maclean rose and thanked her for the compliment. She passed rapidly on, and entered the house by the window of the North room.
"I wonder where Lucy is?--Dressing, perhaps; or seated at the window looking out for her husband. Foolish child! Does he deserve that love?" ”

“ In 1809 Maclean applied for a post on the Walcheren expedition, naturally without success. Soon after he became lecturer on the diseases of hot climates to the East India Company, and championed the company's cause against the proposals of the government to throw open the trade to India in 'A View of the Consequences of laying open the Trade to India,' 1810. From 1815 to 1817 he travelled in Spain, Turkey, and the Levant, and studied the plague at the Greek Pest Hospital at Constantinople, in the service of the Levant Company. ”

“ Macalonich’s wife had a girl about the same time at which Lady M’Lean brought a boy; and Macalonich, with more generosity to his captive than fidelity to his trust, contrived that the children should be changed. Maclean in time recovered his original patrimony, and in gratitude to his friend, made his castle a place of refuge to any of the clan that should think himself in danger; and Maclean took upon himself and his posterity the care of educating the heir of Macalonich. The power of protection subsists no longer; but Maclean of Coll now educates the heir of Macalonich. ”

“ He declined an offer made to receive him on board the Chevalier's ship, bound for France, and went to Gordon Castle, where, on the twelfth of March, 1716, he expired.
Thus ended a life characterized by no ordinary share of vicissitude and misfortune. If the fate of Sir John Maclean be less tragical than that of other distinguished Jacobites, it was, it must be acknowledged, one replete with anxiety and disappointment. He may be said to have been peculiarly "born to trouble." ”

“ MACLEAN, ALEXANDER (1840–1877) , painter, born in November 1840, was son of David Maclean, a manufacturer at Glasgow. After being educated at Helensburgh and Edinburgh he was placed in business at Glasgow, which he abandoned in 1861. He then adopted the profession of an artist, and studied at Rome, Florence, and Antwerp. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1872. ”

“ Maclean said something which startled her husband.
“It’s all so strange,” she said musingly, “because, as you well know, Jock, he hardly knew our Jean then.”
“It had nothing to do with Jean!” he said violently. “For God’s sake, Jenny, put that horrible idea out of your mind. The truth is—I can say so to you—Emily Garlett had become impossible, intolerable——”
“If the man’s a murderer, you’re just trying to find excuses for him,” she said dryly.
“Not excuses,” said Dr. Maclean sharply, “but a reason for his mad and wicked act—yes.” ”