I shall not say much about the parting. They parted in tears and in sorrow, that is all; with many a fond vow, with many a fond embrace.
It has often grieved me to think how very little Englishmen know about our most beautiful Scottish songs. Though but a little simple thing, “The Pairtin’” (parting) is assuredly one of the most plaintively melodious I know of in any language. It is very àpropos to the parting of Reginald and Annie o’ the Banks o’ Dee.
“Mary, dearest maid, I leave thee,
Home and friends, and country dear,
Oh, ne’er let our pairtin’ grieve thee,
Happier days may soon be here.
“See, yon bark so proudly bounding,
Soon shall bear me o’er the sea;
Hark! the trumpet loudly sounding,
Calls me far from love and thee.
“Summer flowers shall cease to blossom,
Streams run backward from the sea;
Cold in death must be this bosom
Ere it cease to throb for thee.
“Fare thee well—may every blessing
Shed by Heaven around thee fa’;
One last time thy lov’d form pressing—
Think on me when far awa’.”
“If you would keep song in your hearts,” says a writer of genius, “learn to sing. There is more merit in melody than most people are aware of. Even the cobbler who smoothes his wax-ends with a song will do as much work in a day as one given to ill-nature would do in a week. Songs are like sunshine, they run to cheerfulness, and fill the bosom with such buoyancy, that for the time being you feel filled with June air or like a meadow of clover in blossom.”
How lonely the gardens and the Hall itself seemed to Annie now that her lover had gone, and how sad at heart was she!
Well, and how reluctant am I myself to leave all these pleasant scenes, and bring before the mind’s eye an event so terrible and a deed so dark that I almost shudder as I describe it; but as the evolution of this ower-true tale depends upon it, I am obliged to.
First, I must tell you that just two days before joining his ship, Reginald had to go to Aberdeen to see friends and bid them adieu.
But it happened that Craig Nicol had made a visit on foot to Aberdeen about the same time. Thirty, or even forty, miles was not too much for a sturdy young fellow like him. He had told his housekeeper a week before that he was to draw money from the bank—a considerable sum, too.
This was foolish of him, for the garrulous old woman not only boasted to the neighbouring servants of the wealth of her master, but even told them the day he would leave for the town.