CHAPTER VII.

Thrice from the cavern's darksome womb

Her groaning voice arose;

And come, my daughter, fearless come,

And fearless tell thy woes!

MEIKLE.

The dwelling of Norna, though none but a native of Zetland, familiar,

during his whole life, with every variety of rock-scenery, could have

seen any thing ludicrous in this situation, was not unaptly compared by

Magnus Troil to the eyry of the osprey, or sea-eagle. It was very small,

and had been fabricated out of one of those dens which are called Burghs

and Picts-houses in Zetland, and Duns on the mainland of Scotland and

the Hebrides, and which seem to be the first effort at architecture--the

connecting link betwixt a fox's hole in a cairn of loose stones, and an

attempt to construct a human habitation out of the same materials,

without the use of lime or cement of any kind,--without any timber, so

far as can be seen from their remains,--without any knowledge of the

arch or of the stair. Such as they are, however, the numerous remains of

these dwellings--for there is one found on every headland, islet, or

point of vantage, which could afford the inhabitants additional means of

defence--tend to prove that the remote people by whom these Burghs were

constructed, were a numerous race, and that the islands had then a much

greater population, than, from other circumstances, we might have been

led to anticipate.

The Burgh of which we at present speak had been altered and repaired at

a later period, probably by some petty despot, or sea-rover, who,

tempted by the security of the situation, which occupied the whole of a

projecting point of rock, and was divided from the mainland by a rent or

chasm of some depth, had built some additions to it in the rudest style

of Gothic defensive architecture;--had plastered the inside with lime

and clay, and broken out windows for the admission of light and air;

and, finally, by roofing it over, and dividing it into stories, by means

of beams of wreck-wood, had converted the whole into a tower, resembling

a pyramidical dovecot, formed by a double wall, still containing within

its thickness that set of circular galleries, or concentric rings, which

is proper to all the forts of this primitive construction, and which

seem to have constituted the only shelter which they were originally

qualified to afford to their shivering inhabitants.[18]

This singular habitation, built out of the loose stones which lay

scattered around, and exposed for ages to the vicissitudes of the

elements, was as grey, weatherbeaten, and wasted, as the rock on which

it was founded, and from which it could not easily be distinguished, so

completely did it resemble in colour, and so little did it differ in

regularity of shape, from a pinnacle or fragment of the cliff.

Minna's habitual indifference to all that of late had passed around her,

was for a moment suspended by the sight of an abode, which, at another

and happier period of her life, would have attracted at once her

curiosity and her wonder. Even now she seemed to feel interest as she

gazed upon this singular retreat, and recollected it was that of certain

misery and probable insanity, connected, as its inhabitant asserted, and

Minna's faith admitted, with power over the elements, and the capacity

of intercourse with the invisible world.

"Our kinswoman," she muttered, "has chosen her dwelling well, with no

more of earth than a sea-fowl might rest upon, and all around sightless

tempests and raging waves. Despair and magical power could not have a

fitter residence."

Brenda, on the other hand, shuddered when she looked on the dwelling to

which they were advancing, by a difficult, dangerous, and precarious

path, which sometimes, to her great terror, approached to the verge of

the precipice; so that, Zetlander as she was, and confident as she had

reason to be, in the steadiness and sagacity of the sure-footed pony,

she could scarce suppress an inclination to giddiness, especially at one

point, when, being foremost of the party, and turning a sharp angle of

the rock, her feet, as they projected from the side of the pony, hung

for an instant sheer over the ledge of the precipice, so that there was

nothing save empty space betwixt the sole of her shoe and the white foam

of the vexed ocean, which dashed, howled, and foamed, five hundred feet

below. What would have driven a maiden of another country into delirium,

gave her but a momentary uneasiness, which was instantly lost in the

hope that the impression which the scene appeared to make on her

sister's imagination might be favourable to her cure.

[Illustration]

She could not help looking back to see how Minna should pass the point

of peril, which she herself had just rounded; and could hear the

strong voice of the Udaller, though to him such rough paths were

familiar as the smooth sea-beach, call, in a tone of some anxiety, "Take

heed, jarto,"[19] as Minna, with an eager look, dropped her bridle, and

stretched forward her arms, and even her body, over the precipice, in

the attitude of the wild swan, when balancing itself, and spreading its

broad pinions, it prepares to launch from the cliff upon the bosom of

the winds. Brenda felt, at that instant, a pang of unutterable terror,

which left a strong impression on her nerves, even when relieved, as it

instantly was, by her sister recovering herself and sitting upright on

her saddle, the opportunity and temptation (if she felt it) passing

away, as the quiet steady animal which supported her rounded the

projecting angle, and turned its patient and firm step from the verge of

the precipice.

They now attained a more level and open space of ground, being the flat

top of an isthmus of projecting rock, narrowing again towards a point

where it was terminated by the chasm which separated the small peak, or

_stack_, occupied by Norna's habitation, from the main ridge of cliff

and precipice. This natural fosse, which seemed to have been the work of

some convulsion of nature, was deep, dark, and irregular, narrower

towards the bottom, which could not be distinctly seen, and widest at

top, having the appearance as if that part of the cliff occupied by the

building had been half rent away from the isthmus which it

terminated,--an idea favoured by the angle at which it seemed to recede

from the land, and lean towards the sea, with the building which crowned

it.

This angle of projection was so considerable, that it required

recollection to dispel the idea that the rock, so much removed from the

perpendicular, was about to precipitate itself seaward, with its old

tower: and a timorous person would have been afraid to put foot upon it,

lest an addition of weight, so inconsiderable as that of the human body,

should hasten a catastrophe which seemed at every instant impending.

Without troubling himself about such fantasies, the Udaller rode towards

the tower, and there dismounting along with his daughters, gave the

ponies in charge to one of their domestics, with directions to

disencumber them of their burdens, and turn them out for rest and

refreshment upon the nearest heath. This done, they approached the gate,

which seemed formerly to have been connected with the land by a rude

drawbridge, some of the apparatus of which was still visible. But the

rest had been long demolished, and was replaced by a stationary

footbridge, formed of barrel-staves covered with turf, very narrow and

ledgeless, and supported by a sort of arch, constructed out of the

jaw-bones of the whale. Along this "brigg of dread" the Udaller stepped

with his usual portly majesty of stride, which threatened its demolition

and his own at the same time; his daughters trode more lightly and more

safely after him, and the whole party stood before the low and rugged

portal of Norna's habitation.

"If she should be abroad after all," said Magnus, as he plied the black

oaken door with repeated blows;--"but if so, we will at least lie by a

day for her return, and make Nick Strumpfer pay the demurrage in bland

and brandy."

As he spoke, the door opened, and displayed, to the alarm of Brenda,

and the surprise of Minna herself, a square-made dwarf, about four feet

five inches high, with a head of most portentous size, and features

correspondent--namely, a huge mouth, a tremendous nose, with large black

nostrils, which seemed to have been slit upwards, blubber lips of an

unconscionable size, and huge wall-eyes, with which he leared, sneered,

grinned, and goggled on the Udaller as an old acquaintance, without

uttering a single word. The young women could hardly persuade themselves

that they did not see before their eyes the very demon Trolld, who made

such a distinguished figure in Norna's legend. Their father went on

addressing this uncouth apparition in terms of such condescending

friendship as the better sort apply to their inferiors, when they wish,

for any immediate purpose, to conciliate or coax them,--a tone, by the

by, which generally contains, in its very familiarity, as much offence

as the more direct assumption of distance and superiority.

"Ha, Nick! honest Nick!" said the Udaller, "here you are, lively and

lovely as Saint Nicholas your namesake, when he is carved with an axe

for the headpiece of a Dutch dogger. How dost thou do, Nick, or Pacolet,

if you like that better? Nicholas, here are my two daughters, nearly as

handsome as thyself thou seest."

Nick grinned, and did a clumsy obeisance by way of courtesy, but kept

his broad misshapen person firmly placed in the doorway.

"Daughters," continued the Udaller, who seemed to have his reasons for

speaking this Cerberus fair, at least according to his own notions of

propitiation,--"this is Nick Strumpfer, maidens, whom his mistress calls

Pacolet, being a light-limbed dwarf, as you see, like him that wont to

fly about, like a _Scourie_, on his wooden hobbyhorse, in the old

storybook of Valentine and Orson, that you, Minna, used to read whilst

you were a child. I assure you he can keep his mistress's counsel, and

never told one of her secrets in his life--ha, ha, ha!"

The ugly dwarf grinned ten times wider than before, and showed the

meaning of the Udaller's jest, by opening his immense jaws, and throwing

back his head, so as to discover, that, in the immense cavity of his

mouth, there only remained the small shrivelled remnant of a tongue,

capable, perhaps, of assisting him in swallowing his food, but unequal

to the formation of articulate sounds. Whether this organ had been

curtailed by cruelty, or injured by disease, it was impossible to guess;

but that the unfortunate being had not been originally dumb, was evident

from his retaining the sense of hearing. Having made this horrible

exhibition, he repaid the Udaller's mirth with a loud, horrid, and

discordant laugh, which had something in it the more hideous that his

mirth seemed to be excited by his own misery. The sisters looked on each

other in silence and fear, and even the Udaller appeared disconcerted.

"And how now?" he proceeded, after a minute's pause. "When didst thou

wash that throat of thine, that is about the width of the Pentland

Frith, with a cup of brandy? Ha, Nick! I have that with me which is

sound stuff, boy, ha!"

The dwarf bent his beetle-brows, shook his misshapen head, and made a

quick sharp indication, throwing his right hand up to his shoulder with

the thumb pointed backwards.

"What! my kinswoman," said the Udaller, comprehending the signal, "will

be angry? Well, shalt have a flask to carouse when she is from home,

old acquaintance;--lips and throats may swallow though they cannot

speak."

Pacolet grinned a grim assent.

"And now," said the Udaller, "stand out of the way, Pacolet, and let me

carry my daughters to see their kinswoman. By the bones of Saint Magnus,

it shall be a good turn in thy way!--nay, never shake thy head, man; for

if thy mistress be at home, see her we will."

The dwarf again intimated the impossibility of their being admitted,

partly by signs, partly by mumbling some uncouth and most disagreeable

sounds, and the Udaller's mood began to arise.

"Tittle tattle, man!" said he; "trouble not me with thy gibberish, but

stand out of the way, and the blame, if there be any, shall rest with

me."

So saying, Magnus Troil laid his sturdy hand upon the collar of the

recusant dwarf's jacket of blue wadmaal, and, with a strong, but not a

violent grasp, removed him from the doorway, pushed him gently aside,

and entered, followed by his two daughters, whom a sense of

apprehension, arising out of all which they saw and heard, kept very

close to him. A crooked and dusky passage through which Magnus led the

way, was dimly enlightened by a shot-hole, communicating with the

interior of the building, and originally intended, doubtless, to command

the entrance by a hagbut or culverin. As they approached nearer, for

they walked slowly and with hesitation, the light, imperfect as it was,

was suddenly obscured; and, on looking upward to discern the cause,

Brenda was startled to observe the pale and obscurely-seen countenance

of Norna gazing downward upon them, without speaking a word. There was

nothing extraordinary in this, as the mistress of the mansion might be

naturally enough looking out to see what guests were thus suddenly and

unceremoniously intruding themselves on her presence. Still, however,

the natural paleness of her features, exaggerated by the light in which

they were at present exhibited,--the immovable sternness of her look,

which showed neither kindness nor courtesy of civil reception,--her dead

silence, and the singular appearance of every thing about her dwelling,

augmented the dismay which Brenda had already conceived. Magnus Troil

and Minna had walked slowly forward, without observing the apparition of

their singular hostess.

FOOTNOTES:

[18] Note III.--The Pictish Burgh.

[19] _Jarto_, my dear.