  RED GAUNTLET was published in June 1824. The introduction of Prince Charles Edward, amidst the dulness of hopeless fortune and of advancing age, contrasting painfully with his romantic portraiture in "Waverley," considerably affected the popularity of the novel on its first appearance. The characters of Peter Peebles, Nanty Ewart, and Wandering Willie, all so skilfully portrayed, redeemed the work from absolute failure. The accompanying engraving represents salmon hunting in the Solway. "The banks of that great estuary are here bare and exposed, the waters having receded from a large space of sand through which a stream feeble and fordable found its way to the ocean. The whole was illuminated by the beams of the setting sun, who showed his ruddy front over a huge battlemented wall of crimson and black clouds, resembling some immense Gothic fortress into which the lord of day was descending. At this moment the salmon hunters hastened to the shore, and commenced the ancient sport. They chased the fish at full gallop, and struck them with barbed spears—as hunters spearing boars, in the old tapestry. The feats of one horseman, in particular, called forth the clamorous applause of his companions so repeatedly, that the very banks rang again with their shouts. He was a tall man, well mounted on a strong black horse, which he caused to turn and wind like a bird in the air, carried a longer spear than the others, and wore a sort of fur cap or bonnet, with a short feather in it, which gave him rather a superior appearance to the other fishermen. He seemed to hold some sort of authority among them, and occasionally directed their motions, both by voice and hand; at which times his gestures were striking, and his voice sounded uncommonly sonorous and commanding." In our second illustration Mr Cruikshank presents the frightful adventure of Hutcheon and Dougal MacCallum in presence of the dead body of Redgauntlet. "When midnight came, and the house was quiet as the grave, the silver whistle sounded as sharp and shrill as if Sir Robert was blowing it, and up got the two old serving-men, and tottered into the room where the dead man lay. Hutcheon saw enough at the first glance; for there were torches in the room, which showed him the foul fiend in his ain shape, sitting on the laird's coffin! Ower he couped, as if he had been dead. He could not tell how long he lay in a trance at the door; but when he gathered himself, 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 lost ance and aye, but mony a time it was heard at the top of the house on the bartizan and among the auld chimneys and turrets, where the howlets have their nests."
106
|
|
