Page:The Galaxy, Volume 5.djvu/211

Rh of possible reach of tradesmen in those days. The regiment returned to Scotland, and there a child being born to them, the young runaway actually went through a marriage ceremony, at which a clergyman officiated, of course, in ignorance of the saddler husband. What their motive could have been in going through a ceremony which Campbell, at least, must have known to be futile, is now locked in the oblivion of the past. Certain it is they continued to live together as man and wife, and remained more faithful to each other than their ill-starred union portended. When the regiment was ordered to Canada, the saddler's wife went out with the troops as Mrs. Major Campbell. It was not until several years had elapsed that the saddler died, and Mrs. and Major Campbell again lived in Scotland together, which, as I have said, makes a marriage of habit and repute, there being now no saddler. It is the grandson of this marriage who claims and has at present obtained possession of the title and estates of Breadalbane.

Such are the difficulties and errors which these marriages are subject to. The Scotch law of marriage has become partially familiar to the world through the celebrated Gretna-Green blacksmith, who realized a large fortune by marrying runaway couples from England. No matter how hotly pursued by raving fathers, or indignant brothers; if the happy pair could once skip over the border into the presence of the blacksmith, and take each other for husband and wife, it was all in vain to preach or swear—it was all so much fuss and fury thrown away—the deed was done, they were as irrevocably wed as though the Bishop of Canterbury had presided at the ceremony.

Any other individual would have answered the purpose as well, but the blacksmith was ever ready to tie the hymeneal knot, and somehow obtained the monopoly, which he kept until his death. He was succeeded by the keeper of the nearest toll-gate across the border, who, however, was shortly dispossessed of his heritage by Lord Brougham's bringing in a bill making it necessary to reside twenty-one days in Scotland before jurisdiction could be obtained to perpetrate marriage. This act, of course, put an unhappy end to the lovers' refuge, and hundreds of British young men and maidens mourned.

There are, therefore, three sorts of irregular Scotch marriages quite as binding as the regular, the only difference being in the facility of proof. The regular marriages have the banns published in the Kirk, though the marriage takes place in a private house, and it is registered by a public functionary; while irregular marriages have no banns or register, and need to be proved as the parties are best able. Scotland thus affords great facilities for marriages, and, moreover, renders deception and seduction under false pretenses almost impossible; for the very act which in England would con-