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The Heart of Midlothian

By SIR WALTER SCOTT Condensation by THURMAN L. HOOD THE Heart of Midlothian, by many called the finest of the Waverley Novels, was published anonymously in 1818. It takes its name from the Tolbooth, or old city jail, in Edinburgh (pulled down in 1815), the "stony heart" of Midlothian, which reared its ancient front in the very middle of the High Street of the city.

On the afternoon of September 8, 1736, Reuben Butler, assistant-master of the school at Libberton, and licensed minister of the Gospel, found himself in unexpected trouble. First of all, he had become entangled with the crowd of good citizens of Edinburgh in the Grassmarket, murmuring at the postponement of the execution of Captain John Porteous of the City Guard. They were still in the heat of anger from the events of the preceding day, when Porteous had ordered his men to fire, and had fired himself, upon the crowd, some of whom were attempting to cut down the body of "Scotch" Wilson, the famous smuggler. Several innocent citizens had been killed. Now that the chief offender seemed likely to escape, there was no knowing what the mob might do. The quiet young pedagogue would gladly have returned to Libberton. Then, to his consternation, he learned that Effie Deans, the younger and more charming sister of his sweetheart Jeanie Deans, was imprisoned in the Tol-booth. When he had last seen Effie, more than a year before, she had been a beautiful and blooming girl, the lily of St. Leonard's. Many a traveler past her father's cottage had stopped his horse on the eve of entering Edinburgh, to gaze at her as she tripped by him, with her milk-pail poised on her head, bearing herself so erect, and stepping so light and free under her burden that it seemed rather an ornament than an incumbrance. Now the poor girl, scarce eighteen years of age, lay in the Tolbooth, charged with child-murder. The facts were that after working for a time in a shop in Edinburgh, the unhappy prisoner had disappeared for the space of a week, and then made her appearance before her sister at St. Leonard's in a state that had rendered Jeanie only too certain of her misfortune. But to all questions she had remained mute as the grave, until the officers of justice had come to apprehend her.