The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson – Swanston Edition. Volume 3

They were both experienced in such affairs, and powerful with the spade; and they had scarce been twenty minutes at their task before they were rewarded by a dull rattle on the coffin lid. At the same moment, Macfarlane, having hurt his hand upon a stone, flung it carelessly above his head. The grave, in which they now stood almost to the shoulders, was close to the edge of the plateau of the graveyard; and the gig lamp had been propped, the better to illuminate their labours, against a tree, and on the immediate verge of the steep bank descending to the stream. Chance had taken a sure aim with the stone. Then came a clang of broken glass; night fell upon them; sounds alternately dull and ringing announced the bounding of the lantern down the bank, and its occasional collision with the trees. A stone or two, which it had dislodged in its descent, rattled behind it into the profundities of the glen; and then silence, like night, resumed its sway; and they might bend their hearing to its utmost pitch, but naught was to be heard except the rain, now marching to the wind, now steadily falling over miles of open country.

They were so nearly at an end of their abhorred task that they judged it wisest to complete it in the dark. The coffin was exhumed and broken open; the body inserted in the dripping sack and carried between them to the gig; one mounted to keep it in its place, and the other, taking the horse by the mouth, groped along by wall and bush until they reached the wider road by the Fisher’s Tryst. Here was a faint, diffused radiancy, which they hailed like daylight; by that they pushed the horse to a good pace and began to rattle along merrily in the direction of the town.

They had both been wetted to the skin during their operations, and now, as the gig jumped among the deep ruts, the thing that stood propped between them fell now upon one and now upon the other. At every repetition of the horrid contact each instinctively repelled it with the greater haste; and the process, natural although it was, began to tell upon the nerves of the companions. Macfarlane made some ill-favoured jest about the farmer’s wife, but it came hollowly from his lips, and was allowed to drop in silence. Still their unnatural burden bumped from side to side; and now the head would be laid, as if in confidence, upon their shoulders, and now the drenching sackcloth would flap icily about their faces. A creeping chill began to possess the soul of Fettes. He peered at the bundle, and it seemed somehow larger than at first. All over the country-side, and from every degree of distance, the farm dogs accompanied their passage with tragic ululations; and it grew and grew upon his mind that some unnatural miracle had been accomplished, that some nameless change had befallen the dead body, and that it was in fear of their unholy burden that the dogs were howling.

“For God’s sake,” said he, making a great effort to arrive at speech, “for God’s sake, let’s have a light!”

Seemingly Macfarlane was affected in the same direction; for, though he made no reply, he stopped the horse, passed the reins to his companion, got down, and proceeded to kindle the remaining lamp. They had by that time got no farther than the cross-road down to Auchenclinny. The rain still poured as though the deluge were returning, and it was no easy matter to make a light in such a world of wet and darkness. When at last the flickering blue flame had been transferred to the wick and began to expand and clarify, and shed a wide circle of misty brightness round the gig, it became possible for the two young men to see each other and the thing they had along with them. The rain had moulded the rough sacking to the outlines of the body underneath; the head was distinct from the trunk, the shoulders plainly modelled; something at once spectral and human riveted their eyes upon the ghastly comrade of their drive.

For some time Macfarlane stood motionless, holding up the lamp. A nameless dread was swathed, like a wet sheet, about the body, and tightened the white skin upon the face of Fettes; a fear that was meaningless, a horror of what could not be, kept mounting to his brain. Another beat of the watch, and he had spoken. But his comrade forestalled him.

“That is not a woman,” said Macfarlane, in a hushed voice.

“It was a woman when we put her in,” whispered Fettes.

“Hold that lamp,” said the other. “I must see her face.”

And as Fettes took the lamp his companion untied the fastenings of the sack and drew down the cover from the head. The light fell very clear upon the dark, well-moulded features and smooth-shaven cheeks of a too familiar countenance, often beheld in dreams of both of these young men. A wild yell rang up into the night; each leaped from his own side into the roadway: the lamp fell, broke, and was extinguished; and the horse, terrified by this unusual commotion, bounded and went oft toward Edinburgh at a gallop, bearing along with it, sole occupant of the gig, the body of the dead and long-dissected Gray.

END OF VOL. III

1

“Gaudeamus: Carmina vagorum selecta.” Leipsic: Trübner, 1879.

2

Prefatory letter to “Peveril of the Peak.”

3

For the love-affairs see, in particular, Mr. Scott Douglas’s edition under the different dates.

4

Yoshida, when on his way to Nangasaki, met the soldier and talked with him by the roadside; they then parted, but the soldier was so much struck by the words he heard, that on Yoshida’s return he sought him out and declared his intention of devoting his life to the good cause. I venture, in the absence of the writer, to insert this correction, having been present when the story was told by Mr. Masaki. – F. J. [Fleeming Jenkin.] And I, there being none to settle the difference, must reproduce both versions. – R. L. S.

5

I understood that the merchant was endeavouring surreptitiously to obtain for his son instruction to which he was not entitled. – F. J.

6

“Étude Biographique sur François Villon.” Paris: H. Menu.

7

“Bourgeois de Paris,” ed. Panthéon, pp. 688, 689.

8

“Bourgeois,” pp. 627, 636, and 725.

9

“Chronique Scandaleuse,” ed. Panthéon, p. 237.

10

Monstrelet: “Panthéon Littéraire,” p. 26.

11

“Chron. Scand.” ut supra.

12

Here and there, principally in the order of events, this article differs from M. Longnon’s own reading of his material. The ground on which he defers the execution of Montigny and De Cayeux beyond the date of their trials seems insufficient. There is a law of parsimony for the construction of historical documents; simplicity is the first duty of narration; and hanged they were.

13

“Chron. Scand.,” p. 338.

14

Champollion-Figeac’s “Louis et Charles d’Orlèans,” p. 348.

15

D’Héricault’s admirable “Memoir,” prefixed to his edition of Charles’s works, vol. i. p. xi.

16

Vallet de Viriville, “Charles VII. et son Époque,” ii. 428, note 2.

17

See Lecoy de la Marche, “Le Roi René,” i. 167.

18

Vallet, “Charles VII.,” ii. 85, 86, note 2.

19

Champollion-Figeac, pp. 193-198.

20

Champollion-Figeac, p. 209.

21

The student will see that there are facts cited, and expressions borrowed, in this paragraph, from a period extending over almost the whole of Charles’s life, instead of being confined entirely to his boyhood. As I do not believe there was any change, so I do not believe there is any anachronism involved.

22

“The Debate between the Heralds of France and England,” translated and admirably edited by Mr. Henry Pyne. For the attribution of this tract to Charles, the reader is referred to Mr. Pyne’s conclusive argument.

23

Des Ursins.

24

Michelet, iv. App. 179, p. 337.

25

Champollion-Figeac, pp. 279-82.

26

Michelet, iv. pp. 123-24.

27

“Debate between the Heralds.”

28

Sir H. Nicholas, “Agincourt.”

29

“Debate between the Heralds.”

30

Works (ed. d’Héricault), i. 43.

31

Ibid. i. 143.

32

Ibid. i. 190.

33

Ibid. i. 144.

34

Works (ed. d’Héricault), i. 158.

35

M. Champollion-Figeac gives many in his editions of Charles’s works, most (as I should think) of very doubtful authenticity, or worse.

36

Rymer, x. 564; D’Héricault’s “Memoir,” p. xli.; Gairdner’s “Paston Letters,” i. 27, 99.

37

Champollion-Figeac, p. 377.

38

Dom Plancher, iv. 178-9.

39

Works, i. 157-63.

40

Vallet’s “Charles VII.,” i. 251.

41

“Procès de Jeanne d’Arc,” i. 133-55.

42

Monstrelet.

43

Vallet’s “Charles VII.,” iii. chap. i. But see the chronicle that bears Jaquet’s name; a lean and dreary book.

44

Monstrelet.

45

D’Héricault’s “Memoir,” xl. xli.; Vallet, “Charles VII.,” ii. 435.

46

Champollion-Figeac, p. 368.

47

Works, i. 115.

48

D’Héricault’s “Memoir,” xlv.

49

Champollion-Figeac, pp. 361, 381.

50

Ibid., pp. 359, 361.

51

Lecoy de la Marche, “Roi René,” ii. 155, 177.

52

Champollion-Figeac, chaps, v. and vi.

53

Ibid., p. 364; Works, i. 172.

54

Champollion-Figeac, p. 364: “Jeter de l’argent aux petis enfans qui estoient au long de Bourbon, pour les faire nonner en l’eau et aller querre l’argent au fond.”

55

Champollion-Figeac, p. 387.

56

“Nouvelle Biographie Didot,” art. “Marie de Clèves“; Vallet, “Charles VII.,” iii. 85, note 1.

57

Champollion-Figeac, pp. 383-386.

58

Works, ii. 57, 258.

59

H. R. Wheatley, “Samuel Pepys and the World he Lived in.” 1880.

60

Gaberel’s “Église de Genève,” i. 88.

61

“La Démocratie chez les Prédicateurs de la Ligue.”

62

“Historia affectuum se immiscentium controversiæ de gynæcocratia.” It is in his collected prefaces; Leipsic, 1683.

63

“Œuvres de d’Aubigné,” i. 449.

64

“Dames Illustres,” pp. 358-360.

65

Works of John Knox, iv. 349.

66

M’Crie’s “Life of Knox,” ii. 41.

67

Described by Calvin in a letter to Cecil, Knox’s Works, vol. iv.

68

It was anonymously published, but no one seems to have been in doubt about its authorship; he might as well have set his name to it, for all the good he got by holding it back.

69

Knox’s Works, iv. 358.

70

Strype’s “Aylmer,” p. 16.

71

It may interest the reader to know that these (so says Thomasius) are the “ipsissima verba Schlusselburgii.”

72

I am indebted for a sight of this book to the kindness of Mr. David Laing, the editor of Knox’s Works.

73

“Social Statics,” p. 64, etc.

74

Hallam’s “Const. Hist. of England,” i. 225, note m.

75

Knox to Mrs. Locke, 6th April, 1559. – Works, vi. 14.

76

Knox to Sir William Cecil, 10th April, 1559. – Works, ii. 16, or vi. 15.

77

Knox to Queen Elizabeth, July 20th, 1559. – Works, vi. 47, or ii. 26.

78

Ibid., August 6th, 1561. – Works, vi. 126.

79

Knox’s Works, ii. 278-280.

80

Calderwood’s “History of the Kirk of Scotland,” edition of the Wodrow Society, iii. 51-54.

81

Bayle’s “Historical Dictionary,” art. Knox, remark G.

82

Works, iv. 244.

83

Works, iv. 246.

84

Ibid., iv. 225.

85

Works, iv. 245.

86

Ibid. iv. 221.

87

Works, vi. 514.

88

Ibid. iii. 334.

89

Works, iii. 352, 353.

90

Ibid. iii. 350.

91

Ibid. iii. 390, 391.

92

Works, iii. 142.

93

Ibid. iii. 378.

94

Ibid. ii. 379.

95

Ibid. iii. 394.

96

Works, iii. 376.

97

Works, iii. 378.

98

Ibid. vi. 104.

99

Ibid. v. 5.

100

Ibid. vi. 27.

101

Ibid. ii. 138.

102

Mr. Laing’s preface to the sixth volume of Knox’s Works, p. lxii.

103

Works, vi. 534.

104

Ibid. iv. 220.

105

Ibid. iii. 380.

106

Ibid. iv. 220.

107

Works, iii. 380.

108

Ibid. iv. 238.

109

Works, iv. 240.

110

Works, vi. 513, 514.

111

Works, vi. 11.

112

Works, vi. 21, 101, 108, 130.

113

Ibid. vi. 83.

114

Ibid. vi. 129.

115

Ibid. vi. 532.

116

Works, i. 246.