The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner is structured in three parts. An unnamed editor narrates the opening and closing parts. In the opening part, the editor introduces the Colwan family. As lords of Dalcastle, the Colwans have ruled over the area for many generations. In 1687, George Colwan takes on the title of Laird, becoming Laird Colwan. A young woman named Rabina marries the older, wealthy Laird Colwan. Rabina follows “the stern doctrines of the reformers,” (5) but Colwan very much does not. He drinks heavily and engages in many forms of debauchery. Rather than fear God, he prefers to live according to the “cordial terms” (6) he holds with the world around him. Their wedding is very extravagant. Amid the drinking and dancing, Rabina spends her time in a hushed discussion with her priest, Robert Wringhim. She spends the evening reading religious books and, when her new husband arrives in the bed chamber, she distracts the drunken Colwan until he passes out.

Rabina tries to escape him by sleeping in her cousin’s room, so Colwan wakes up alone. Colwan carries Rabina “triumphantly” (10) back into his bedroom against her will, as she claims that she would rather die than have sex with such a sinful man. Rabina spends a number of days locked inside the bedroom until she can escape. She flees to Glasgow and returns to her father, Baillie Orde, only to be told that she should return to her new husband without complaint. When Rabina complains, Orde locks her up and beats her. He hopes that, by the time Colwan comes to collect his “runaway wife” (11), she will be all too happy to leave. When Colwan arrives at his father in law’s house, Rabina willingly leaves with him. She decides that she will turn Laird Colwan into a more Christian man. She fails and becomes frustrated with his refusal to give up his sins. As a result, she secludes herself in a separate part of the house.

Laird Colwan has a mistress named Arabella Logan. When Rabina learns about Arabella, she seeks advice from her priest. Wringhim talks to Colwan on her behalf. He accuses Colwan of adultery. In turn, Colwan berates the priest for being a bad influence on his wife. He calls Wringhim a “stirrer up of strife and commotion” (15). The editor intervenes, claiming that Wringhim’s response cannot be printed. After this, Wringhim returns to Rabina, who thanks the priest. Nevertheless, Colwan soon moves Arabella into the family home as the “mistress-substitute of the mansion” (16). During this time, Wringhim’s visits to Rabina become more frequent. They allegedly discuss religion. Around this time, Rabina gives birth to her first son. She names the boy George, after Laird Colwan. George is raised by his father and seems estranged from his mother. The following year, Rabina gives birth to her second son. She names him Robert after her priest. Since Colwan is convinced that Wringhim is, in fact, Robert’s father, he disowns his legal son. George is raised by his doting father; he grows up to be “generous and kind-hearted” (17). Robert is raised by his devout, embittered mother and her priest; he is very intelligent but antisocial and irritable. Robert is also taught to hate his brother and father. Laird Colwan resolves that the brothers should be kept apart, lest Robert corrupt George. He arranges for Rabina and Robert to live in Glasgow. Since he is also concerned about recent religious fervor, he enlists as a Member of Parliament and becomes a part of the government.

At a tennis game, George unknowingly runs into Robert. He is fascinated by Robert’s dark clothes and “methodistical face” (19), while Robert mocks George from a distance. At another tennis match, they fight and George bloodies Robert’s face with his racket, only learning from a bystander that this irritant is his brother. By now, Robert has rejected the Colwan family name. George tries to apologize to his brother, but Robert refuses him and kicks at George’s outstretched hand. Later, George and his friends enter a pub. Robert tries to follow but his entry is denied. From outside, he mocks George until the police carry him away.

During this time, Wringhim enters politics. He is a Whig, and his political connections help him to free Robert from jail. The political situation in Edinburgh is very tense. Laird Colwan and George are sided with the Episcopalians and the Jacobite order; Wringhim and Robert take the opposing side, the Whigs and the Calvinists. The fight between Robert and George causes a brawl between politically opposed mobs that becomes so violent that the army is called. Since the “completely puzzled” (26) courts cannot find anyone to blame, everyone is released. Furious, Wringhim blames George. Robert asks God to help him seek vengeance against George and Colwan, as they are “cursed in time and eternity” (28). George loses his reputation, as people begin to see him as a troublemaker. Whenever he tries to socialize, Robert is lurking nearby. George is forced to stay home to avoid his dark and brooding brother, as he cannot determine how Robert seems to find him whenever he leaves the house. Robert, George begins to suspect, may be some kind of “demon” (31).

Life indoors infuriates George, so he tries to settle his problems with Robert. This time, however, he cannot find his brother. Gradually, George resumes his old social life. One day, he climbs a local hill to watch the sunrise. As dawn breaks and lights up a halo over the city, George is horrified to see a strange apparition of Robert in the clouds. This apparition glares at George with “murderous malice” (34). Terrified by this demonic sight, George runs. He flees straight into the path of his brother, who he knocks to the ground. Robert shouts out that he is being attacked and they fight again. George wins and forces Robert to swear to stay away from him. Robert explains that he was told George’s location from a friend, but will not divulge the friend’s identity. George scoffs that this friend is “the devil” (36). He offers to make amends with Robert but, again, Robert refuses. He departs.

George attempts to explain his predicament to his father. Colwan, however, struggles to understand. Instead, George finds sympathy from his friend, Adam Gordon, who assures George that Robert is not employing any “supernatural” (39) tricks. Still doubtful, George agrees to travel to the Highlands of Scotland with Adam, but the police arrest him when he tries to leave Edinburgh. George is accused of attacking Robert, though his father’s lawyers and political connections help to make the charge go away by revealing the strange way in which Robert has been acting toward his brother. George and Adam rearrange their trip and, on the eve of their departure, they sit down for a “happy and jovial” (41) meal with their friends. At the dinner, George argues with a man named Drummond, who leaves after a short exchange of words. Some time later, someone asks to speak with George. Assuming Drummond has returned to apologize, George steps out of the restaurant. He is not seen again.

George is found dead the next day, which causes Laird Colwan great pain. Drummond, the primary suspect, insists that he did not kill George, though he takes flight from Scotland. Drummond is convicted of murder in absentia. The grief is so intense that Laird Colwan feels broken, and he dies a short time later. Among his final acts, he predicts that his son’s murderer will be identified eventually. Colwan’s entire estate passes to Robert. Robert celebrates in his inherited home with Rabina and Wringhim, partaking “rather more freely” (44) in drinking alcohol than ever before. For the most part, however, the celebration is quiet and Christian in nature. At the same time, Arabella becomes suspicious of Robert. She investigates Rabina, though she must stop when someone breaks into her home. While chasing down her “valuable articles” (46) in a small town, she is introduced to the main suspect, a woman named Bell Calvert, in a local jail. The girl who makes the introduction is Bell’s impoverished daughter. Bell is a sex worker, and Arabella is informed that if she does not lay claim to the stolen items then Bell will not be executed for the crime. Arabella also declines the opportunity to buy back her possessions at half the price. Though Bell claims to have witnessed George’s murder, she refuses to speak about it. To Arabella, her name seems familiar. Suspecting that Bell may know something about George’s death, Arabella refuses to testify against her. The case is dismissed and, later, Bell returns Arabella’s stolen possessions.

Arabella talks to Bell and hears her story of “utter desperation” (48). Bell says that one night she was solicited by Drummond and agreed to spend the night with him in a rented room in a tavern near where George was dining with his friends. Drummond took pity on Bell, paying her fee without having sex. When he left, Bell saw two men in the street. One of these men was identical to Drummond, though it could not possibly be him. Bell watched the two men argue and felt a deeply troubling sense of unease. Eventually, the Drummond double (dressed in traditional Highlander garb) convinced the other man (dressed entirely in black) to carry out “God’s work” (58). Bell then watched as George was summoned to the street to fight against Drummond’s double. During the fight, the man in black stabbed George from behind. The men fled the scene and George died. Bell called for help, which is why Arabella is vaguely familiar with her name. Arabella knows that the man in black was Robert. She plots a way to have Bell confirm this.

Arabella and Bell travel to Robert’s property, dressed in disguises. As two men pass them, one nods at Bell. She feels a familiar sense of dread and unease. Arabella recognizes one of the men as Robert. The other man, however, now looks exactly like George. The following day, Arabella and Bell return to Robert’s house, disguised as “poor women selling a few country wares” (65). They spy the two men again, watching from a bush as the two men argue ferociously. Strangely, the men issue angry, violent threats against anyone who might be listening, as though they know that Arabella and Bell are hiding nearby. Robert makes explicit threats of violence against the “vile hag” (67), Arabella. The Double of George points to the bush, and Robert finds Arabella, only to be attacked by Bell. Together, Arabella and Bell grab Robert. He calls out to his friend, using the name Gil-Martin, but the other man has disappeared. Arabella and Bell escort Robert to Edinburgh and drag him in front of a magistrate. When they explain what has happened, their testimony matches that of Drummond, who is acquitted. When someone is sent to Robert’s house, however, the property is in a chaotic state. Rabina and Wringhim are nowhere to be found, and neither is Gil-Martin. The editor stops the narrative at this point, revealing that an “original document of a most singular nature” (71) will present a different version of the same story to the reader.