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The Provost-Part12_John Galt(1779-1839)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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sorrowful, and full of a sore anxiety to think of what might happen

to the town, whereof so many were in peril, and to whom no human



magistracy could extend the arm of protection. Seeing no abatement

of the wrath of heaven, that howled and roared around us, I put on



my big-coat, and taking my staff in my hand, having tied down my hat

with a silk handkerchief, towards gloaming I walked likewise to the



kirkyard, where I beheld such an assemblage of sorrow, as few men in

situation have ever been put to the trial to witness.



In the lea of the kirk many hundreds of the town were gathered

together; but there was no discourse among them. The major part



were sailors' wives and weans, and at every new thud of the blast, a

sob rose, and the mothers drew their bairns closer in about them, as



if they saw the visible hand of a foe raised to smite them. Apart

from the multitude, I observed three or four young lasses standing



behind the Whinnyhill families' tomb, and I jealoused that they had

joes in the ships; for they often looked to the bay, with long necks



and sad faces, from behind the monument. A widow woman, one old

Mary Weery, that was a lameter, and dependent on her son, who was on



board the Louping Meg, (as the Lovely Peggy was nicknamed at the

shore,) stood by herself, and every now and then wrung her hands,



crying, with a woeful voice, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh

away, blessed be the name of the Lord;"--but it was manifest to all



that her faith was fainting within her. But of all the piteous

objects there, on that doleful evening, none troubled my thoughts



more than three motherless children, that belonged to the mate of

one of the vessels in the jeopardy. He was an Englishman that had



been settled some years in the town, where his family had neither

kith nor kin; and his wife having died about a month before, the



bairns, of whom the eldest was but nine or so, were friendless

enough, though both my gudewife, and other well-disposed ladies,



paid them all manner of attention till their father would come home.

The three poor little things, knowing that he was in one of the



ships, had been often out and anxious, and they were then sitting

under the lea of a headstone, near their mother's grave, chittering



and creeping closer and closer at every squall. Never was such an

orphan-like sight seen.



When it began to be so dark that the vessels could no longer be

discerned from the churchyard, many went down to the shore, and I



took the three babies home with me, and Mrs Pawkie made tea for

them, and they soon began to play with our own younger children, in



blythe forgetfulness of the storm; every now and then, however, the

eldest of them, when the shutters rattled and the lum-head roared,



would pause in his innocent daffing, and cower in towards Mrs

Pawkie, as if he was daunted and dismayed by something he knew not



what.

Many a one that night walked the sounding shore in sorrow, and fires



were lighted along it to a great extent; but the darkness and the

noise of the raging deep, and the howling wind, never intermitted



till about midnight: at which time a message was brought to me,

that it might be needful to send a guard of soldiers to the beach,



for that broken masts and tackle had come in, and that surely some

of the barks had perished. I lost no time in obeying this



suggestion, which was made to me by one of the owners of the Louping

Meg; and to show that I sincerely sympathized with all those in



affliction, I rose and dressed myself, and went down to the shore,

where I directed several old boats to be drawn up by the fires, and



blankets to be brought, and cordials prepared, for them that might

be spared with life to reach the land; and I walked the beach with



the mourners till the morning.

As the day dawned, the wind began to abate in its violence, and to



wear away from the sou-west into the norit, but it was soon

discovered that some of the vessels with the corn had perished; for



the first thing seen, was a long fringe of tangle and grain along

the line of the highwater mark, and every one strained with greedy



and grieved eyes, as the daylight brightened, to discover which had

suffered. But I can proceed no further with the dismalrecital of



that doleful morning. Let it suffice here to be known, that,

through the haze, we at last saw three of the vessels lying on their



beam-ends with their masts broken, and the waves riding like the

furious horses of destruction over them. What had become of the



other two was never known; but it was supposed that they had




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