CHAPTER XXI.THE MEET.

“A various scene the clansmen made—Some sate, some stood, some slowly strayed,—But most, with mantles folded round,Were couched to rest upon the ground—Scarce to be known by curious eyeFrom the deep heather where they lie;But when, advancing through the gloom,They saw their chieftain’s eagle plume,Their shout of welcome, shrill and wide,Shook the steep mountain’s steady side,—Thrice it arose, and lake and fellThree times returned the martial yell.It died upon Rochastle’s plain,And silence claimed her evening reign.”Lady of the Lake.

“A various scene the clansmen made—

Some sate, some stood, some slowly strayed,—

But most, with mantles folded round,

Were couched to rest upon the ground—

Scarce to be known by curious eye

From the deep heather where they lie;

But when, advancing through the gloom,

They saw their chieftain’s eagle plume,

Their shout of welcome, shrill and wide,

Shook the steep mountain’s steady side,—

Thrice it arose, and lake and fell

Three times returned the martial yell.

It died upon Rochastle’s plain,

And silence claimed her evening reign.”

Lady of the Lake.

Evening had already begun to close in, and the dark branches of the firs, which for the last five or six miles had canopied the road, were beginning to grow darker still, when the carioles emerged from the great forest into a green park-like glade, studded with feathering clumps of birch and spruce; and rattled up to the door of the little inn that stood on the borders of it, which was the place appointed for the meet.

The inn, which, after all, was little better than a post-house, was evidently not large enough to contain a tenth part of the crowd collected in front of it; nor did the half dozen wooden houses, which formed the village, afford much more extensive accommodation.

Few, however, of those there assembled seemed to care much about the matter; the evening was warm, the sky was clear, and the stars were beginning to twinkle merrilythrough the calm blue sky; the good green wood was shelter enough for the hardy peasants and their equally hardy landlords, and would have been shelter enough though the ground had been white with snow.

Fires were beginning to rise here and there, bringing into view the gipsy-like groups collected round them, as they sat, stood, or lay at full-length upon the turf—some busied about the little tin kettles, in which they were mixing their rye gröd, some bringing in fuel, some returning from the inn and the temporary stalls that had been established round it for the sale of bread, cheese, butter, brandy, and other necessaries; though most of the party had brought good store of provision in their own bags. Some—and they mostly the elders of the parish—were quietly smoking their pipes, and discussing the events of former skals, and prophesying good or bad of the present one, according as their dispositions were sanguine or the reverse; but all were talking, laughing, hand-shaking, imparting or listening to little pieces of domestic news, or parish scandal—for, in the forest parishes, (and in Sweden most parishes are of that character), a skal brings together men who have but few other opportunities of meeting.

A few old stagers, indeed, were trying to get one good night’s sleep, in order to prepare themselves for the fatigues of which the morrow was but the beginning, and were stretching themselves on the turf, with their feet towards their fires; but new arrivals were continually rousing them up, and some fresh Calle Jonsen, or Swen Larssen, or Nils Ericsen, would be continually dropping in with fresh inquiries, fresh news, and fresh greetings.

From the windows of the inn, which were wide open, a broad, bright glare of light was streaming across the glade, obscured now and then by the shadow of some great head and shoulders—for the room was full of people,—but strong enough, notwithstanding, to light up the boughs of the old lime trees that shaded the porch, glittering among their soft green leaves, as if they really were what the Swedes suppose them to be, the roosting places of the Spirits of Light.

This was evidently the head quarters of the skal, wherethe generals and field officers were holding high council, receiving information, arranging plans, and issuing orders; and Birger, springing from his cariole and throwing the reins of his horse to his schutzebond, or post-boy, and committing, with utter recklessness of consequences, the whole department of quartermaster-general, and commissary-general to boot, into the hands of Jacob, rushed into the room, followed by his three friends.

This opportune reinforcement was greeted with shouts of welcome: Birger himself was an old friend of the Ofwer Jagmästere, and had, before this, signalized himself as a hunter. Englishmen are invariably popular both in Norway and Sweden; and besides, the value of English rifles, and English sportsmen to carry them, was universally acknowledged. Moodie, however, was the great prize; he had been now, for four years in the country, and had been there quite long enough to be known and appreciated as the best shot and the most sagacious and inventive leader in the province. With a natural turn for the chase in all its varieties, he had thrown himself, heart and soul, into the business of bear hunting, had studied it theoretically and had worked out his theories practically, till he was universally acknowledged to be a fair match for the “gentleman in the fur cloak, who has the wisdom of ten and the strength of twenty,” as the Swedes periphrastically term their great enemy, the bear.

He had remained in the porch for a minute or two, giving some directions to his followers, so that the greetings, and introductions, and first inquiries had a little subsided when he entered; but the moment his well-known green cap was seen in the doorway, there arose such a shout of welcome, that it made the flitches of bacon and strings of onions tremble from the rafters.

“Modige! Modige!”[49]for so they had naturalized his name into a word which, in their language, signifies courageous.

The well-known cry was caught up among the parties out of doors, and echoed back again from tree to tree, while the glare of the camp-fires shewed dark shadows of insane figures, waving arms and hats, aye, and handkerchiefs, too, for every woman who can possibly slip away from home, turns out on a skal.

“Modige! Modige!” again came thundering and screaming back in all sorts of voice, old and young, male and female; now dying away, then bursting forth, as some distant post took it up again.

“Upon my word,” said the Ofwer Jagmästere Bjornstjerna, speaking in French, out of compliment to the strangers—for this language, though utterly despised in Norway, is pretty generally spoken among the Swedish aristocracy; “upon my word, the people have decided the matter for us; I wanted some one to take charge of the hållet, and was going to offer you the command the moment I saw you, but the people seem to have taken the matter into their own hands now; you cannot possibly refuse, you are elected by acclamation.”

“I am delighted to be of any use,” said Moodie,—in fact, he did look delighted in good earnest,—“and will do my best; but you are aware that I am not very familiar with the ground here.”

“Never mind that,” said Bjornstjerna; “we will soon find some one to be your quartermaster-general; what we want is, a man that the people look up to, who knows his business, and is accustomed to command.”

“How many shall I have under me in the hållet?”

“We cannot spare you above five hundred,” said Bjornstjerna; “but the ground is easy enough, at least so far as the hållet is concerned. See here,” and he produced a rough but well-executed military sketch of the ground, which he had surveyed and mapped that morning; “this plain is the country we mean to drive,—there is about three miles of it in length, that is to say,” he added, parenthetically, nodding to the Englishmen, “what you would call in your country, one or two-and-twenty. On the west, as you see, it is bounded by the river which I have marked here in blue; this, in its course, expands into these two lakes, andjust by the water-side the country is comparatively open, with a few farm houses and hamlets about it; the forest, however, closes it all round, getting thicker as you approach the mountains. On the east is this range of heights which, as luck will have it, I find are scarped by nature into cliffs, so that nothing but a bird can get up them—except at these passes, which I have marked on the map with a cross. These are mostly the dry or half-dry beds of torrents, and by the side of almost all of them there is a passage into the upper fjeld, practicable for men, and, consequently, for beasts also, when they are frightened. At this point, where we intend stationing our dref, the range of hills is about six of your miles distant from the line of the river, but it gradually approaches it; and at this point, where there are some falls and rapids, the distance is very trifling—not above a thousand eller—somewhere about half an English mile; and, besides, there is a spur of rock here which causes the falls of the river, and upon this the forest is very thin and open. Here I propose placing you with the hållet. You will establish yourself on the reverse slope of the spur, so that our shot will pass over your heads; you will then only have to clear away sufficient of the under-stuff from the front of your position to give you a fair shot at anything that attempts to cross.

“About a thousand or fifteen hundred eller in front of your position, and parallel to it, runs a cow-track to the upper säters, which, upon the whole, is pretty open, and upon which you may as well set a hundred or two of your men, to improve to-morrow into a shooting line. Here we shall take our stand after we have driven the country. There is a thickish bit between this path and your position; the game will not object to enter it, and if they do, we ought to get every one of them, for to the left the rock is absolutely perpendicular, and on the right the rapids are such that nothing can cross them.”

“You have no skal-plats?” said Moodie.

“Why this is a skal-plats,” said Bjornstjerna, “rather a large one, to be sure; but we shall not run much risk of getting our men shot in driving it, because you will be onthe reverse slope; and, by the way, you must be very particular in cautioning all your skalfogdar to keep their men from showing themselves on the crest of the hill. I did at one time think of making a skal-plats here, on the banks of this lower lake, and driving from both ends at the same time; but the ground is not favourable; a good deal of it is cleared, and every bear will make for the roots of the mountains, where the under-stuff is thickest; they cannot get up the perpendicular cliffs, to be sure, but we should have them creeping up a little way by the branches, and then stealing back as soon as the dref has passed the place,—upon the whole, though, I think my present plan is the best.”

“I really think it is,” said Moodie, “as far as I can judge from seeing it on paper; but you seem to have a pretty large country to drive, not less than twenty miles English in length. What number do you muster?”

“Not above fifteen hundred or two thousand at the most,” said Bjornstjerna, “though I have called out five parishes; but look at the place, it seems cut out for a skal,—half-a-dozen boats will guard the river, which is navigable in its whole length till you come to the rapids which flank your position, and not a bear will go near the houses, as you know, or face the open ground, if he can possibly help it,—so much for our right flank; while for the other, a small picket at each of the water-courses, will be quite sufficient to guard them till the dref has passed, and then the picket can either strengthen the other guards farther on, or reinforce our line, or join you at the hållet, according as they are wanted. Then, since the cliffs keep approaching the river, in proportion as we drive forward so our line will be strengthened by the men closing on each other, till, in the end, when the beasts begin to break out, we shall be able to send you a reinforcement of two or three hundred men, for we shall have more than we want.”

“That will do,” said Moodie; “we shall have a glorious skal, I see, and I give you great credit for making the most of your men.”

“The truth is, I have quite as many men as I want—I have never been at a loss for them; what I have been at aloss for, hitherto, is officers, for the Indelta has been unexpectedly summoned to Stockholm, and with them I have lost almost every man who knows how to command.”

“Why not wait till they come back?” said Birger; “they never keep the Indelta out for more than three weeks, and I am sure the ‘Fur-clothed Disturbers’ would wait for you:” (no Swede ever mentions the bear’s name, if he can possibly help it).

“Yes,” said Bjornstjerna, “but after that the militia is to be called out, and if I get my officers I should lose my men—aye, and two-thirds of the women, too. How many women do you think would turn out, if you took away all the men between the ages of twenty and twenty-five? And let me tell you that the women, though the law does not allow us to press them into the service, are just as useful as the men,—and in the dref, where all you want is to drive the game forward, a great deal more so, for they talk twice as much, and their screams, and squalls, and laughter, are heard as far again as the men’s shouts. O, by the Thousand! I had rather lose my men than my women. But you gentlemen are a perfect Godsend; I shall do very well for officers now. Herr Modige is kind enough to take the hållet, and, whether you like it or no, Master Lieutenant, you will have the charge of that skal-arm which furnishes the pickets.”

“Well, I suppose I must obey my superior officer; I wish they treated us Lieutenants of the Guards as well as they do those of England, and then I should be Captain as well as you—commanding you, perhaps, if I happened to be senior.”

“Would you, my boy? I would have you to know that I rank a Colonel now,—I write ‘Hof’ before my name.”

“Upon my soul, old fellow, I congratulate you; I do not know any one who deserves it better.”

“No more do I,” said Bjornstjerna, “and I must say that it is not often that the Förste Hof Jagmästere shows such a specimen of discrimination. However, to business. Along the left flank of the dref, you will see that in the course of our beat there are some fifteen or twenty placeswhere game can escape by climbing up the water courses. At each of these you will post a picket, strong or weak, according to the nature of the ground. Herr Länsman, can you furnish the Lieutenant with a man who knows the country?”

The Länsman, or tax-gatherer, who in these remote districts acts as police officer, and is, in fact, the sole representative of majesty, offered his own services in that capacity.

“Very good,” said the Ofwer Jagmästere, “then you will point out the particulars; but, to help you, I have marked all the more practicable passages with red crosses. Here, however, is your principal danger—in fact, it is that which made me hesitate about establishing the hållet where it is. You see where this cow-path leads to the hills—the path, I mean, which I have just pointed out to Herr Modige as the place where I wish him to arrange the shooting line; carry your eye onward to where it ascends the hills; that is an easy pass, such as you can ride up, and it is so close to the hållet that any beast that turns at the line, would naturally dash at the opening. Here you must post a very strong force.”

“I cannot do better than put my English friends there,” said Birger, who saw at a glance that this was the very crack post of the whole line; “I will venture to say that their rifles will not allow anything to pass alive through that opening, from an elk to a rabbit.”

“Hush, not a word about elks,” said Bjornstjerna; “neither they nor stags must be touched—the new law is very strict about that.”

“It is very difficult to tell one beast from another, in the thick juniper,” said Birger; “I never could myself.”

The Ofwer Jagmästere laughed, but put on an official frown.

“Do you know, Birger,” said the Parson, “I should like to be your aide-de-camp better than to hold any definite post; I could carry your orders, you know.”

“And deliver them in English or French,” said Birger; “I shall have a very effective aide-de-camp indeed. However, if you like it, I will give you the post, and I think you are right; you will see more in that way than in any other, and you can reinforce the post of danger whenever you aretired. Indeed, you may as well consider it your home during the skal. Would the Captain, then, take charge of that point?”

The Captain was quite willing, and promised to give a good account of it.

“Well, then,” said Birger, “I shall not want Piersen to-morrow, so you may have him, and your own man Tom, and Jacob for cook. The Parson will probably take Torkel, but I dare say the Länsman can find you an intelligent Swede, who knows the ground and can understand a few words of English, and three or four fellows for sentries; that will be quite enough for you, for the Parson and Torkel will join you, and be under your orders before there is anything serious.”

Here the Ofwer Jagmästere spoke a few words in Swedish to Birger, who laughed and replied—“No, no, certainly not; I am confident he would consider it an honour of no small magnitude to bear a commission in our service. The fact is,” continued he, addressing the Captain, “everything in these skaller is arranged according to military discipline, and everyone here has military rank. And as you have to command a picket, you would not object to hold a temporary commission, not quite equal to your own in the English service.”

“Object!” said the Captain, “O, no—delighted, of course!”

“Then give me your cap,” said Birger. “Hand me over that chalk, Bjornstjerna;” and he wrote upon its peak the mystic letters, “S.F.,” being the initials of Skal Fogde; and accordingly the Captain took rank as full sergeant in the Swedish army.

“Now, then,” said the Jagmästere, “as I have arranged matters so satisfactorily here, I will start at once for Lysvik, where I have ordered the dref to assemble. I shall have enough to do to-morrow morning, as you may imagine,—what with numbering the men, and appointing their skalfogdar, and seeing them at their stations, the commander has no easy life of it. As for you, Moodie, I need not tell you your business—you know it as well as I do myself,—but begin appointing your skalfogdar the first thing to-morrow. You need not wait for your full complement of men, theywill drop in in the course of the day; but as your best men are sure to be the first, appoint at once; at twelve precisely write the numbers in their hats, as they stand, and we will fine all that come later than that. That, Mr. Länsman, must be your business; but first of all look out for Lieutenant Birger fifty of your best men. That,” turning to Moodie, “will leave you nearly five hundred, which is quite as much as you can want, as the boats will be manned from my party. You, Birger, will march at daybreak, for I must have every picket posted by twelve, at which time we move forward with the dref. Now, Lönner, my horse, as quick as you please, for we have seven quarters to go before we sleep.”

The Ofwer Jagmästere might almost be said to “exit speaking,” for he continued his speech into the porch, and the last words were lost in the canter of his little hog-maned pony, as he floundered off, followed by Lönner and a couple of orderlies, together with the Länsmen of the two other parishes, who had met him by appointment at Ostmarkand, and now formed his personal staff.

Moodie, who was now in command, hesitated for a moment whether he should exercise it by clearing the inn for the sleeping accommodation of himself and friends, but, on turning the matter over in his mind, the interior looked so dirty and stuffy, and was withal so redolent of tobacco, brandy, and aniseed, while the exterior was so fresh and green, and the moon was shining down so softly, and the air was so still, and the camp fires so bright and inviting, that, with universal consent and approbation, he adjourned the divisional head-quarters to a spreading fir-tree, whose branches were illuminated by a fire worthy of a General; while the provident Jacob, who had tilted the carioles on end, to form a sort of screen, spread out before them the contents of his ambulatory larder.

This was soon discussed, and then a quiet pipe, a moderate horn of brandy and water, a hopeful good night, a roll in their cloaks, and before their heads were well on their knapsacks, the whole four were in the fairy land of sleep and forgetfulness.

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