فصل 02

CHAPTER two

The Osbaldistones

The following morning, I left the company to go westward where my uncle lived in Osbaldistone Hall. The landscape was romantic and picturesque and appealed to my love of nature. I went past rivers and little solitary valleys until I arrived at Osbaldistone Hall. The house was in a glen between two mountains, surrounded by a large wood of oaks.

I was on a hill above Osbaldistone Hall when I heard the sound of dogs and horses - it was a fox hunt. I saw some men, dressed in green and red uniforms, riding after the fox and I thought: ‘Here are my cousins.’

Suddenly I had a vision - a beautiful young lady appeared in front of me. Her face was uncommonly fine and animated by the hunt. She had long, black hair down to her shoulders. She was wearing riding clothes, like a man, and rode a splendid black horse.

Just then the sound of a horn announced the end of the chase. A young man came triumphantly towards us. He was carrying the fox’s tail in his hand. The young woman spoke to him, then she turned to me and said, “Excuse me, did you meet a young man on the road, a Mr Osbaldistone?”

“I am Francis Osbaldistone,” I answered.

“Ah… I’m pleased to meet you, Mr Osbaldistone. This young man is Thorncliff Osbaldistone, your cousin, and I am Diana Vernon,” she continued.

Diana accompanied me to Osbaldistone Hall, where my uncle, Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone, welcomed me. He was a man of about sixty, dressed in hunting clothes. Once he had been a soldier and a knight under King James II. Alter the king’s deposition, he retired to his lands in the countryside where he was lord.

“These are your cousins, Francis,” he told me. “Percie, Thornie, John, Dick, Wilfred and Rashleigh. The girl you met earlier is Die Vernon, Diana, my dead wife’s niece. She lives here too. Now, shall we have dinner together?”

My cousins were all tall, well-built and good-humoured, with the exception of Rashleigh. He was different from the others - short, thin, lame, and his expression was cruel. However, these disadvantages were partly compensated for by his very soft, sweet voice and his great ability in putting words together.

Diana Vernon was sitting next to me at dinner and gave me some information about my cousins. “Rashleigh,” she said, “wanted to become a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, but his deformity prevented him from entering the seminary.” She also revealed that my father had chosen Rashleigh to take my place in his company.

After dinner my cousins started to drink and laugh immoderately. As my foreign education had given me a dislike for intemperance, I preferred to be alone and decided to go for a walk in the garden. On one of the little paths I met a gardener. He touched his Scottish bonnet with an air of respect. “Good evening, my Lord!” he said. “I am Andrew Fairservice. For twenty-four years I have served the Osbaldistones.” He was very talkative. He told me that he was a Presbyterian and when he heard that I was an English dissenter, he took out a tobacco box and offered me a little. I asked him about Die Vernon. “Oh, the young mistress? The lassie Vernon?” he answered. “She is a Catholic and, what is worse, she is a Jacobite!”