The Privilege of the Limits

YES, indeed, my grandfather wass once in jail,” said old Mrs. McTavish, of the County of Glengarry, in Ontario, Canada; “but that wass for debt, and he wass a ferry honest man whateffer, and he would not broke his promise—no, not for all the money in Canada. If you will listen to me, I will tell chust exactly the true story about that debt, to show you what an honest man my grandfather wass.

“One time Tougal Stewart, him that wass the poy’s grandfather that kept the same store in Cornwall to this day, sold a plough to my grandfather, and my grandfather said he would pay half the plough in October, and the other half whateffer time he felt able to pay the money. Yes, indeed, that was the very promise my grandfather gave.

“So he was at Tougal Stewart’s store on the first of October early in the morning pefore the shutters wass taken off, and he paid half chust exactly to keep his word. Then the crop wass ferry bad next year, and the year after that one of his horses wass killed by lightning, and the next year his brother that wass not rich and had a big family, died, and do you think wass my grandfather to let the family be disgraced without a good funeral? No, indeed. So my grandfather paid for the funeral, and there was at it plenty of meat and drink for everybody, as wass the right Hielan’ custom those days; and after the funeral my grandfather did not feel chust exactly able to pay the other half for the plough that year either.

“So, then, Tougal Stewart met my grandfather in Cornwall next day after the funeral, and asked him if he had some money to spare.

” ‘Wass you in need of help, Mr. Stewart?’ says my grandfather, kindly. ‘For if it’s in any want you are, Tougal,’ says my grandfather, ‘I will sell the coat off my back, if there is no other way to lend you a loan’; for that was always the way of my grandfather with all his friends, and a bigger-hearted man there never wass in all Glengarry, or in Stormont, or in Dundas, moreofer.

” ‘In want!’ says Tougal—’in want, Mr. McTavish!’ says he, very high. ‘Would you wish to insult a gentleman, and him of the name of Stewart, that’s the name of princes of the world?’ he said, so he did.

“Seeing Tougal had his temper up, my grandfather spoke softly, being a quiet, peaceable man, and in wonder what he had said to offend Tougal.

” ‘Mr. Stewart,’ says my grandfather, ‘it wass not in my mind to anger you whatefer. Only I thought, from your asking me if I had some money, that you might be looking for a wee bit of a loan, as many a gentleman has to do at times, and no shame to him at all,” said my grandfather.

” ‘A loan?’ says Tougal, sneering. ‘A loan, is it? Where’s your memory, Mr. McTavish? Are you not owing me half the price of the plough you’ve had these three years?’

” And wass you asking me for money for the other half of the plough?’ says my grandfather, very astonished.

” ‘Just that,’ says Tougal.

” ‘Have you no shame or honour in you?’ says my grandfather, firing up. “How could I feel able to pay that now, and me chust yesterday been giving my poor brother a funeral fit for the McTavishes’ own grandnephew, that wass as good chentleman’s plood as any Stewart in Glengarry. You saw the expense I wass at, for there you wass, and I thank you for the politeness of coming, Mr. Stewart,’ says my grandfather, ending mild, for the anger would never stay in him more than a minute, so kind was the nature he had.

” ‘If you can spend money on a funeral like that, you can pay me for my plough,’ says Stewart; for with buying and selling he wass become a poor creature, and the heart of a Hielan’ man wass half gone out of him, for all he wass so proud of his name of monarchs and kings.

“My grandfather had a mind to strike him down on the spot, so he often said; but he thought of the time when he hit Hamish Cochrane in anger, and he minded the penances the priest put on him for breaking the silly man’s jaw with that blow, so he smothered the heat that wass in him, and turned away in scorn. With that Tougal Stewart went to court, and sued my grandfather, puir mean creature.

“You might think that Judge Jones—him that wass judge in Cornwall before Judge Jarvis that’s dead—would do justice. But no, he made it the law that my grandfather must pay at once, though Tougal Stewart could not deny what the bargain wass.

” ‘Your Honour,’ says my grandfather, ‘I said I’d pay when I felt able. And do I feel able now? No, I do not,’ says he. ‘It’s a disgrace to Tougal Stewart to ask me, and himself telling you what the bargain was,’ said my grandfather. But Judge Jones says that he must pay, for all that he did not feel able.

” ‘I will nefer pay one copper till I feel able,’ says my grandfather; ‘but I’ll keep my Hielan’ promise to my dying day, as I always done,’ says he.

“And with that the old judge laughed, and said he would have to give judgment. And so he did; and after that Tougal Stewart got out an execution. But not the worth of a handful of oatmeal could the bailiff lay hands on, because my grandfather had chust exactly taken the precaution to give a bill of sale on his gear to his neighbour, Alexander Fraser, that could be trusted to do what was right after the law play was over.

“The whole settlement had great contempt for Tougal Stewart’s conduct, but he was a headstrong body, and once he begun to do wrong against my grandfather, he held on, for all that his trade fell away; and finally he had my grandfather arrested for debt, though you’ll understand, sir, that he was owing Stewart nothing that he ought to pay when he didn’t feel able.

“In those times prisoners for debt was taken to jail in Cornwall, and if they had friends to give bail that they would not go beyond the posts that was around the sixteen acres nearest the jail walls, the prisoners could go where they liked on that ground. This was called ‘the privilege of the limits’. The limits, you’ll understand, wass marked by cedar posts painted white about the size of hitching-posts.

“The whole settlement was ready to go bail for my grandfather if he wanted it, and for the health of him he needed to be in the open air, and so he gave Tuncan Macdonnell of the Greenfields, and Aeneas Macdonald of the Sandfields, for his bail, and he promised, on his Hielan’ word of honour, not to go beyond the posts. With that he went where he pleased, only taking care that he never put even the toe of his foot beyond a post, for all that some prisoners of the limits would chump ofer them and back again, or maybe swing round them, holding by their hands.

“Efery day the neighbours would go into Cornwall to give my grandfather the good word, and they would offer to pay Tougal Stewart for the other half of the plough, only that vexed my grandfather, for he was too proud to borrow, and, of course, every day he felt less and less able to pay on account of him having to hire a man to be doing the spring ploughing and seeding and making the kale-yard.

“All this time, you’ll mind, Tougal Stewart had to pay five shillings a week for my grandfather’s keep, the law being so that if the debtor swore he had not five pounds’ worth of property to his name, than the creditor had to pay the five shillings, and, of course, my grandfather had nothing to his name after he gave the bill of sale to Alexander Fraser. A great diversion it was to my grandfather to be reckoning up that if he lived as long as his father, that was hale and strong at ninety-six, Tougal would need to pay five or six hundred pounds for him, and there was only two pound five shillings to be paid on the plough.

“So it was like that all summer, my grandfather keeping heartsome, with the neighbours coming in so steady to bring him the news of the settlement. There he would sit, just inside one of the posts, for to pass his jokes, and tell what he wished the family to be doing next. This way it might have kept going on for forty years, only it came about that my grandfather’s youngest child—him that was my father—fell sick, and seemed like to die.

“Well, when my grandfather heard that bad news, he wass in a terrible way, to be sure, for he would be longing to hold the child in his arms, so that his heart was sore and like to break. Eat he could not, sleep he could not: all night he would be groaning, and all day he would be walking around by the posts, wishing that he had not passed his Hielan’ word of honour not to go beyond a post; for he thought how he could have broken out like a chentleman, and gone to see his sick child, if he had stayed inside the jail wall. So it went on three days and three nights pefore the wise thought came into my grandfather’s head to show him how he need not go beyond the posts to see his little sick poy. With that he went straight to one of the white cedar posts, and pulled it up out of the hole, and started for home taking great care to carry it in his hands pefore him, so he would not be beyond it one bit.

“My grandfather wass not half a mile out of Cornwall, which was only a little place in those days, when two of the turnkeys came after him.

” ‘Stop, Mr. McTavish,’ says the turnkeys.

” ‘What for would I stop?’ says my grandfather.

“‘You have broke your bail,’ says they.

” ‘It’s a lie for you,’ says my grandfather, for his temper flared up for anybody to say he would broke his bail. ‘Am I beyond the post?’ says my grandfather.

“With that they run in on him, only that he knocked the two of them over with the post, and he went on rejoicing, like an honest man should at keeping his word and overcoming them that would slander his good name. The only thing pesides thought of the child that troubled him was questioning whether he had been strictly right in turning round for to use the post to defend himself in such a way that it was nearer the jail than he wass. But when he remembered how the jailer never complained of prisoners of the limits chumping ofer the posts, if so they chumped back again in a moment, the trouble went out of his mind.

“Pretty soon after that he met Tuncan Macdonnell of Greenfields, coming into Cornwall with the wagon.

” ‘And how is this, Glengatchie?’ says Tuncan. ‘For you were never the man to broke your bail.’

“Glengatchie, you’ll understand, sir, is the name of my grandfather’s farm.

” ‘Never fear, Greenfields,’ says my grandfather, ‘for I’m not beyond the post.’

“So Greenfields looked at the post, and he looked at my grandfather, and he scratched his head a wee, and he seen it was so; and then he fell into a great admiration entirely.

” ‘Get in with me, Glengatchie—it’s proud I’ll be to carry you home’; and he turned his team around. My grandfather did so, taking great care to keep the post in front of him all the time; and that way he reached home. Out comes my grandmother running to embrace him; but she had to throw her arms around the post and my grandfather’s neck at the same time, he was that strict to be within his promise. Pefore going ben the house, he went to the back end of the kale-yard which was farthest from the jail, and there he stuck the post; and then he went back to see his sick child, while all the neighbours that came round was glad to see what a wise thought the saints had put into his mind to save his bail and his promise.

“So there he stayed a week till my father got well. Of course the constables came after my grandfather, but the settlement would not let the creatures come within a mile of Glengatchie. You might think, sir, that my grandfather would have stayed with his wife and weans, seeing the post was all the time in the kale-yard, and him careful not to go beyond it; but he was putting the settlement to a great deal of trouble day and night to keep the constables off, and he was fearful that they might take the post away, if ever they got to Glengatchie, and give him the name of false, that no McTavish ever had. So Tuncan Greenfields and Aeneas Sandfield drove my grandfather back to jail, him with the post behind him in the wagon, so as he would be between it and the jail. Of course Tougal Stewart tried his best to have the bail declared forfeited; but old Judge Jones only laughed, and said my grandfather was a Hielan’ gentleman, with a very nice sense of honour, and that was chust exactly the truth.

“How did my grandfather get free in the end? Oh, then, that was because of Tougal Stewart being careless—him that thought he knew so much of the law. The law was, you will mind, that Tougal had to pay shillings a week for keeping my grandfather in the limits. The money wass to be paid efery Monday, and it was to be paid in lawful money of Canada, too. Well, would you belief that Tougal paid in four shillings in silver one Monday, and one shillings in coppers for he took up the collection in church the day pefore, and it wass not till Tougal had gone away that the jailer saw that one of the coppers was a Brock copper,—a medal, you will understand, made at General Brock’s death, and not lawful money of Canada at all. With that the jailer came out to my grandfather.

” ‘Mr. McTavish,’ says he, taking off his hat, ‘you are a free man, and I’m glad of it.’ Then he told him what Tougal had done.

” ‘I hope you will not have any hard feelings toward me, Mr. McTavish,’ said the jailer; and a decent man he wass, for all that there wass not a drop of Hielan’ blood in him. ‘I hope you will not think hard of me for not being hospitable to you, sir,’ says he; ‘but it’s against the rules and regulations for the jailer to be offering the best he can command to the prisoners. Now that you are free, Mr. McTavish,’ says the jailer, ‘ I would be a proud man if Mr. McTavish of Glengatchie would do me the honour of taking supper with me this night. I will be asking your leave to invite some of the gentlemen of the place, if you will say the word, Mr. McTavish,’ says he.

“Well, my grandfather could never bear malice, the kind man he was, and he seen how bad the jailer felt, so he consented, and a great company came in, to be sure, to celebrate the occasion.

“Did my grandfather pay the balance on the plough? What for should you suspicion, sir, that my grandfather would refuse his honest debt? Of course he paid for the plough, for the crop was good that fall.

” ‘I would be paying you the other half of the plough now, Mr. Stewart,’ says my grandfather, coming in when the store was full.

” ‘Hoich, but YOU are the honest McTavish !’ says Tougal, sneering.

“But my grandfather made no answer to the creature, for he thought it would be unkind to mention how Tougal had paid out six pounds four shillings and eleven pence to keep him in on account of a debt of two pound five that never was due till it was paid.”