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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Redgauntlet by Sir Walter Scott
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+Redgauntlet
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+by Sir Walter Scott
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+February, 2000  [Etext #2516]
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+*
+
+
+REDGAUNTLET by Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
+
+
+*
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+Introduction
+Text
+    Letters I - XIII
+    Chapters I - XXIII
+    Conclusion
+Notes
+Glossary
+
+*
+
+Note:  Footnotes in the printed book have been inserted in the
+       etext in square brackets ("[]") close to the place where
+       they were referenced by a suffix in the original text.
+       Text in italics has been written in capital letters.
+       There are some numbered notes at the end of the text that
+       are referred to by their numbers with brief notes, also in
+       square brackets, embedded in the text.
+
+*
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+The Jacobite enthusiasm of the eighteenth century, particularly
+during the rebellion of 1745, afforded a theme, perhaps the
+finest that could be selected for fictitious composition, founded
+upon real or probable incident.  This civil war and its
+remarkable events were remembered by the existing generation
+without any degree of the bitterness of spirit which seldom fails
+to attend internal dissension.  The Highlanders, who formed the
+principal strength of Charles Edward's army, were an ancient and
+high-spirited race, peculiar in their habits of war and of peace,
+brave to romance, and exhibiting a character turning upon points
+more adapted to poetry than to the prose of real life.  Their
+prince, young, valiant, patient of fatigue, and despising danger,
+heading his army on foot in the most toilsome marches, and
+defeating a regular force in three battles--all these were
+circumstances fascinating to the imagination, and might well be
+supposed to seduce young and enthusiastic minds to the cause in
+which they were found united, although wisdom and reason frowned
+upon the enterprise.
+
+The adventurous prince, as is well known, proved to be one of
+those personages who distinguish themselves during some single
+and extraordinarily brilliant period of their lives, like the
+course of a shooting-star, at which men wonder, as well on
+account of the briefness, as the brilliancy of its splendour.  A
+long tract of darkness overshadowed the subsequent life of a man
+who, in his youth, showed himself so capable of great
+undertakings; and, without the painful task of tracing his course
+farther, we may say the latter pursuits and habits of this
+unhappy prince are those painfully evincing a broken heart, which
+seeks refuge from its own thoughts in sordid enjoyments.
+
+Still, however, it was long ere Charles Edward appeared to be,
+perhaps it was long ere he altogether became, so much degraded
+from his original self; as he enjoyed for a time the lustre
+attending the progress and termination of his enterprise.  Those
+who thought they discerned in his subsequent conduct an
+insensibility to the distresses of his followers, coupled with
+that egotistical attention to his own interests which has been
+often attributed to the Stuart family, and which is the natural
+effect of the principles of divine right in which they were
+brought up, were now generally considered as dissatisfied and
+splenetic persons, who, displeased with the issue of their
+adventure and finding themselves involved in the ruins of a
+falling cause, indulged themselves in undeserved reproaches
+against their leader.  Indeed, such censures were by no means
+frequent among those of his followers who, if what was alleged
+had been just, had the best right to complain.  Far the greater
+number of those unfortunate gentlemen suffered with the most
+dignified patience, and were either too proud to take notice of
+ill-treatment an the part of their prince, or so prudent as to be
+aware their complaints would meet with little sympathy from the
+world.  It may be added, that the greater part of the banished
+Jacobites, and those of high rank and consequence, were not much
+within reach of the influence of the prince's character and
+conduct, whether well regulated or otherwise.
+
+In the meantime that great Jacobite conspiracy, of which the
+insurrection of 1745-6 was but a small part precipitated into
+action on the failure of a far more general scheme, was resumed
+and again put into motion by the Jacobites of England, whose
+force had never been broken, as they had prudently avoided
+bringing it into the field.  The surprising effect which had been
+produced by small means, in 1745-6, animated their hopes for more
+important successes, when the whole nonjuring interest of
+Britain, identified as it then was with great part of the landed
+gentlemen, should come forward to finish what had been gallantly
+attempted by a few Highland chiefs.
+
+It is probable, indeed, that the Jacobites of the day were
+incapable of considering that the very small scale on which the
+effort was made, was in one great measure the cause of its
+unexpected success.  The remarkable speed with which the
+insurgents marched, the singularly good discipline which they
+preserved, the union and unanimity which for some time animated
+their councils, were all in a considerable degree produced by the
+smallness of their numbers.  Notwithstanding the discomfiture of
+Charles Edward, the nonjurors of the period long continued to
+nurse unlawful schemes, and to drink treasonable toasts, until
+age stole upon them.  Another generation arose, who did not share
+the sentiments which they cherished; and at length the sparkles
+of disaffection, which had long smouldered, but had never been
+heated enough to burst into actual flame, became entirely
+extinguished.  But in proportion as the political enthusiasm died
+gradually away among men of ordinary temperament, it influenced
+those of warm imaginations and weak understandings, and hence
+wild schemes were formed, as desperate as they were adventurous.
+
+Thus a young Scottishman of rank is said to have stooped so low
+as to plot the surprisal of St. James's Palace, and the
+assassination of the royal family.  While these ill-digested and
+desperate conspiracies were agitated among the few Jacobites who
+still adhered with more obstinacy to their purpose, there is no
+question but that other plots might have been brought to an open
+explosion, had it not suited the policy of Sir Robert Walpole
+rather to prevent or disable the conspirators in their projects,
+than to promulgate the tale of danger, which might thus have been
+believed to be more widely diffused than was really the case.
+
+In one instance alone this very prudential and humane line of
+conduct was departed from, and the event seemed to confirm the
+policy of the general course.  Doctor Archibald Cameron, brother
+of the celebrated Donald Cameron of Lochiel, attainted for the
+rebellion of 1745, was found by a party of soldiers lurking with
+a comrade in the wilds of Loch Katrine five or six years after
+the battle of Culloden, and was there seized.  There were
+circumstances in his case, so far as was made known to the
+public, which attracted much compassion, and gave to the judicial
+proceedings against him an appearance of cold-blooded revenge on
+the part of government; and the following argument of a zealous
+Jacobite in his favour, was received as conclusive by Dr. Johnson
+and other persons who might pretend to impartiality.  Dr. Cameron
+had never borne arms, although engaged in the Rebellion, but used
+his medical skill for the service, indifferently, of the wounded
+of both parties.  His return to Scotland was ascribed exclusively
+to family affairs.  His behaviour at the bar was decent, firm,
+and respectful.  His wife threw herself, on three different
+occasions, before George II and the members of his family, was
+rudely repulsed from their presence, and at length placed, it was
+said, in the same prison with her husband, and confined with
+unmanly severity.
+
+Dr. Cameron was finally executed with all the severities of the
+law of treason; and his death remains in popular estimation a
+dark blot upon the memory of George II, being almost publicly
+imputed to a mean and personal hatred of Donald Cameron of
+Lochiel, the sufferer's heroic brother.
+
+Yet the fact was that whether the execution of Archibald Cameron
+was political or otherwise, it might certainly have been
+justified, had the king's ministers so pleased, upon reasons of a
+public nature.  The unfortunate sufferer had not come to the
+Highlands solely upon his private affairs, as was the general
+belief; but it was not judged prudent by the English ministry to
+let it be generally known that he came to inquire about a
+considerable sum of money which had been remitted from France to
+the friends of the exiled family.  He had also a commission to
+hold intercourse with the well-known M'Pherson of Cluny, chief of
+the clan Vourich, whom the Chevalier had left behind at his
+departure from Scotland in 1746, and who remained during ten
+years of proscription and danger, skulking from place to place in
+the Highlands, and maintaining an uninterrupted correspondence
+between Charles and his friends.  That Dr. Cameron should have
+held a commission to assist this chief in raking together the
+dispersed embers of disaffection, is in itself sufficiently
+natural, and, considering his political principles, in no respect
+dishonourable to his memory.  But neither ought it to be imputed
+to George II that he suffered the laws to be enforced against a
+person taken in the act of breaking them.  When he lost his
+hazardous game, Dr. Cameron only paid the forfeit which he must
+have calculated upon.  The ministers, however, thought it proper
+to leave Dr. Cameron's new schemes in concealment, lest, by
+divulging them, they had indicated the channel of communication
+which, it is now well known, they possessed to all the plots of
+Charles Edward.  But it was equally ill advised and ungenerous to
+sacrifice the character of the king to the policy of the
+administration.  Both points might have been gained by sparing
+the life of Dr. Cameron after conviction, and limiting his
+punishment to perpetual exile.
+
+These repeated and successive Jacobite plots rose and burst like
+bubbles on a fountain; and one of them, at least, the Chevalier
+judged of importance enough to induce him to risk himself within
+the dangerous precincts of the British capital.  This appears
+from Dr. King's ANECDOTES OF HIS OWN TIMES.
+
+'September, 1750.--I received a note from my Lady Primrose, who
+desired to see me immediately.  As soon as I waited on her, she
+led me into her dressing-room, and presented me to--' [the
+Chevalier, doubtless].  'If I was surprised to find him there, I
+was still more astonished when he acquainted me with the motives
+which had induced him to hazard a journey to England at this
+juncture.  The impatience of his friends who were in exile had
+formed a scheme which was impracticable; but although it had been
+as feasible as they had represented it to him, yet no preparation
+had been made, nor was anything ready to carry it into execution.
+He was soon convinced that he had been deceived; and, therefore,
+after a stay in London of five days only, he returned to the
+place from whence he came.'  Dr. King was in 1750 a keen
+Jacobite, as may be inferred from the visit made by him to the
+prince under such circumstances, and from his being one of that
+unfortunate person's chosen correspondents.  He, as well as other
+men of sense and observation, began to despair of making their
+fortune in the party which they had chosen.  It was indeed
+sufficiently dangerous; for, during the short visit just
+described, one of Dr. King's servants remarked the stranger's
+likeness to Prince Charles, whom he recognized from the common
+busts.
+
+The occasion taken for breaking up the Stuart interest we shall
+tell in Dr. King's own words:--'When he (Charles Edward) was in
+Scotland, he had a mistress whose name was Walkinshaw, and whose
+sister was at that time, and is still, housekeeper at Leicester
+House.  Some years after he was released from his prison, and
+conducted out of France, he sent for this girl, who soon acquired
+such a dominion over him, that she was acquainted with all his
+schemes, and trusted with his most secret correspondence.  As
+soon as this was known in England, all those persons of
+distinction who were attached to him were greatly alarmed:  they
+imagined that this wench had been placed in his family by the
+English ministers; and, considering her sister's situation, they
+seemed to have some ground for their suspicion; wherefore, they
+dispatched a gentleman to Paris, where the prince then was, who
+had instructions to insist that Mrs. Walkinshaw should be removed
+to a convent for a certain term; but her gallant absolutely
+refused to comply with this demand; and although Mr. M'Namara,
+the gentleman who was sent to him, who has a natural eloquence
+and an excellent understanding, urged the most cogent reasons,
+and used all the arts of persuasion, to induce him to part with
+his mistress, and even proceeded so far as to assure him,
+according to his instructions, that an immediate interruption of
+all correspondence with his most powerful friends in England,
+and, in short, that the ruin of his interest, which was now daily
+increasing, would be the infallible consequence of his refusal;
+yet he continued inflexible, and all M'Namara's entreaties and
+remonstrances were ineffectual.  M'Namara stayed in Paris some
+days beyond the time prescribed him, endeavouring to reason the
+prince into a better temper; but finding him obstinately
+persevere in his first answer, he took his leave with concern and
+indignation, saying, as he passed out, "What has your family
+done, sir, thus to draw down the vengeance of Heaven on every
+branch of it, through so many ages?"  It is worthy of remark,
+that in all the conferences which M'Namara had with the prince on
+this occasion, the latter declared that it was not a violent
+passion, or indeed any particular regard, which attached him to
+Mrs. Walkinshaw and that he could see her removed from him
+without any concern; but he would not receive directions, in
+respect to his private conduct, from any man alive.  When
+M'Namara returned to London, and reported the prince's answer to
+the gentlemen who had employed him, they were astonished and
+confounded.  However, they soon resolved on the measures which
+they were to pursue for the future, and determined no longer to
+serve a man who could not be persuaded to serve himself, and
+chose rather to endanger the lives of his best and most faithful
+friends, than part with an harlot, whom, as he often declared, he
+neither loved nor esteemed.'
+
+From this anecdote, the general truth of which is indubitable,
+the principal fault of Charles Edward's temper is sufficiently
+obvious.  It was a high sense of his own importance, and an
+obstinate adherence to what he had once determined on--qualities
+which, if he had succeeded in his bold attempt, gave the nation
+little room to hope that he would have been found free from the
+love of prerogative and desire of arbitrary power, which
+characterized his unhappy grandfather.  He gave a notable
+instance how far this was the leading feature of his character,
+when, for no reasonable cause that can be assigned, he placed his
+own single will in opposition to the necessities of France,
+which, in order to purchase a peace become necessary to the
+kingdom, was reduced to gratify Britain by prohibiting the
+residence of Charles within any part of the French dominions.  It
+was in vain that France endeavoured to lessen the disgrace of
+this step by making the most flattering offers, in hopes to
+induce the prince of himself to anticipate this disagreeable
+alternative, which, if seriously enforced, as it was likely to
+be, he had no means whatever of resisting, by leaving the kingdom
+as of his own free will.  Inspired, however, by the spirit of
+hereditary obstinacy, Charles preferred a useless resistance to a
+dignified submission, and, by a series of idle bravadoes, laid
+the French court under the necessity of arresting their late
+ally, and sending him to close confinement in the Bastille, from
+which he was afterwards sent out of the French dominions, much in
+the manner in which a convict is transported to the place of his
+destination.
+
+In addition to these repeated instances of a rash and inflexible
+temper, Dr. King also adds faults alleged to belong to the
+prince's character, of a kind less consonant with his noble birth
+and high pretensions.  He is said by this author to have been
+avaricious, or parsimonious at least, to such a degree of
+meanness, as to fail, even when he had ample means, in relieving
+the sufferers who had lost their fortune, and sacrificed all in
+his ill-fated attempt.  [The approach is thus expressed by Dr.
+King, who brings the charge:--'But the most odious part of his
+character is his love of money, a vice which I do not remember to
+have been imputed by our historians to any of his ancestors, and
+is the certain index of a base and little mind.  I know it may be
+urged in his vindication, that a prince in exile ought to be an
+economist.  And so he ought; but, nevertheless, his purse should
+be always open as long as there is anything in it, to relieve the
+necessities of his friends and adherents.  King Charles II,
+during his banishment, would have shared the last pistole in his
+pocket with his little family.  But I have known this gentleman,
+with two thousand louis-d'ors in his strong-box, pretend he was
+in great distress, and borrow money from a lady in Paris who was
+not in affluent circumstances.  His most faithful servants, who
+had closely attended him in all his difficulties, were ill
+rewarded.'--King's MEMOIRS.]  We must receive, however, with some
+degree of jealousy what is said by Dr. King on this subject,
+recollecting that he had left at least, if he did not desert, the
+standard of the unfortunate prince, and was not therefore a
+person who was likely to form the fairest estimate of his virtues
+and faults.  We must also remember that if the exiled prince gave
+little, he had but little to give, especially considering how
+late he nourished the scheme of another expedition to Scotland,
+for which he was long endeavouring to hoard money.
+
+The case, also, of Charles Edward must be allowed to have been a
+difficult one.  He had to satisfy numerous persons, who, having
+lost their all in his cause, had, with that all, seen the
+extinction of hopes which they accounted nearly as good as
+certainties; some of these were perhaps clamorous in their
+applications, and certainly ill pleased with their want of
+success.  Other parts of the Chevalier's conduct may have
+afforded grounds for charging him with coldness to the sufferings
+of his devoted followers.  One of these was a sentiment which has
+nothing in it that is generous, but it was certainly a principle
+in which the young prince was trained, and which may be too
+probably denominated peculiar to his family, educated in all the
+high notions of passive obedience and non-resistance.  If the
+unhappy prince gave implicit faith to the professions of
+statesmen holding such notions, which is implied by his whole
+conduct.
+
+
+*
+
+
+REDGAUNTLET
+
+LETTER I
+
+DARSIE LATIMER TO ALAN FAIRFORD
+
+DUMFRIES.
+
+CUR ME EXANIMAS QUERELIS TUIS?  In plain English, Why do you
+deafen me with your croaking?  The disconsolate tone in which you
+bade me farewell at Noble House, [The first stage on the road
+from Edinburgh to Dumfries via Moffat.] and mounted your
+miserable hack to return to your law drudgery, still sounds in my
+ears.  It seemed to say, 'Happy dog!  you can ramble at pleasure
+over hill and dale, pursue every object of curiosity that
+presents itself, and relinquish the chase when it loses interest;
+while I, your senior and your better, must, in this brilliant
+season, return to my narrow chamber and my musty books.'
+
+Such was the import of the reflections with which you saddened
+our parting bottle of claret, and thus I must needs interpret the
+terms of your melancholy adieu.
+
+And why should this be so, Alan?  Why the deuce should you not be
+sitting precisely opposite to me at this moment, in the same
+comfortable George Inn; thy heels on the fender, and thy
+juridical brow expanding its plications as a pun rose in your
+fancy?  Above all, why, when I fill this very glass of wine,
+cannot I push the bottle to you, and say, 'Fairford, you are
+chased!'  Why, I say, should not all this be, except because Alan
+Fairford has not the same true sense of friendship as Darsie
+Latimer, and will not regard our purses as common, as well as our
+sentiments?
+
+I am alone in the world; my only guardian writes to me of a large
+fortune which will be mine when I reach the age of twenty-five
+complete; my present income is, thou knowest, more than
+sufficient for all my wants; and yet thou--traitor as thou art to
+the cause of friendship--dost deprive me of the pleasure of thy
+society, and submittest, besides, to self-denial on thine own
+part, rather than my wanderings should cost me a few guineas
+more!  Is this regard for my purse, or for thine own pride?  Is
+it not equally absurd and unreasonable, whichever source it
+springs from?  For myself, I tell thee, I have, and shall have,
+more than enough for both.  This same methodical Samuel
+Griffiths, of Ironmonger Lane, Guildhall, London, whose letter
+arrives as duly as quarter-day, has sent me, as I told thee,
+double allowance for this my twenty-first birthday, and an
+assurance, in his brief fashion, that it will be again doubled
+for the succeeding years, until I enter into possession of my own
+property.  Still I am to refrain from visiting England until my
+twenty-fifth year expires; and it is recommended that I shall
+forbear all inquiries concerning my family, and so forth, for the
+present.
+
+Were it not that I recollect my poor mother in her deep widow's
+weeds, with a countenance that never smiled but when she looked
+on me--and then, in such wan and woful sort, as the sun when he
+glances through an April cloud,--were it not, I say, that her
+mild and matron-like form and countenance forbid such a
+suspicion, I might think myself the son of some Indian director,
+or rich citizen, who had more wealth than grace, and a handful of
+hypocrisy to boot, and who was breeding up privately, and
+obscurely enriching, one of whose existence he had some reason to
+be ashamed.  But, as I said before, I think on my mother, and am
+convinced as much as of the existence of my own soul, that no
+touch of shame could arise from aught in which she was
+implicated.  Meantime, I am wealthy, and I am alone, and why does
+my friend scruple to share my wealth?
+
+Are you not my only friend?  and have you not acquired a right to
+share my wealth?  Answer me that, Alan Fairford.  When I was
+brought from the solitude of my mother's dwelling into the tumult
+of the Gaits' Class at the High School--when I was mocked for my
+English accent--salted with snow as a Southern--rolled in the
+gutter for a Saxon pock-pudding,--who, with stout arguments and
+stouter blows, stood forth my defender?--why, Alan Fairford.  Who
+beat me soundly when I brought the arrogance of an only son, and
+of course a spoiled urchin, to the forms of the little republic?
+--why, Alan.  And who taught me to smoke a cobbler, pin a losen,
+head a bicker, and hold the bannets?--[Break a window, head a
+skirmish with stones, and hold the bonnet, or handkerchief, which
+used to divide High School boys when fighting.]  Alan, once more.
+If I became the pride of the Yards, and the dread of the
+hucksters in the High School Wynd, it was under thy patronage;
+and, but for thee, I had been contented with humbly passing
+through the Cowgate Port, without climbing over the top of it,
+and had never seen the KITTLE NINE-STEPS nearer than from
+Bareford's Parks.  [A pass on the very brink of the Castle rock
+to the north, by which it is just possible for a goat, or a High
+School boy, to turn the corner of the building where it rises
+from the edge of the precipice.  This was so favourite a feat
+with the 'hell and neck boys' of the higher classes, that at one
+time sentinels were posted to prevent its repetition.  One of the
+nine-steps was rendered more secure because the climber could
+take hold of the root of a nettle, so precarious were the means
+of passing this celebrated spot.  The manning the Cowgate Port,
+especially in snowball time, was also a choice amusement, as it
+offered an inaccessible station for the boys who used these
+missiles to the annoyance of the passengers.  The gateway is now
+demolished; and probably most of its garrison lie as low as the
+fortress.  To recollect that the author himself, however
+naturally disqualified, was one of those juvenile dreadnoughts,
+is a sad reflection to one who cannot now step over a brook
+without assistance.]
+
+You taught me to keep my fingers off the weak, and to clench my
+fist against the strong--to carry no tales out of school--to
+stand forth like a true man--obey the stern order of a PANDE
+MANUM, and endure my pawmies without wincing, like one that is
+determined not to be the better for them.  In a word, before I
+knew thee, I knew nothing.
+
+At college it was the same.  When I was incorrigibly idle, your
+example and encouragement roused me to mental exertion, and
+showed me the way to intellectual enjoyment.  You made me an
+historian, a metaphysician (INVITA MINERVA)--nay, by Heaven!  you
+had almost made an advocate of me, as well as of yourself.  Yes,
+rather than part with you, Alan, I attended a weary season at the
+Scotch Law Class; a wearier at the Civil; and with what excellent
+advantage, my notebook, filled with caricatures of the professors
+and my fellow students, is it not yet extant to testify?
+
+   Thus far have I held on with thee untired;
+
+and, to say truth, purely and solely that I might travel the same
+road with thee.  But it will not do, Alan.  By my faith, man, I
+could as soon think of being one of those ingenious traders who
+cheat little Master Jackies on the outside of the partition with
+tops, balls, bats, and battledores, as a member of the long-robed
+fraternity within, who impose on grown country gentlemen with
+bouncing brocards of law.  [The Hall of the Parliament House of
+Edinburgh was, in former days, divided into two unequal portions
+by a partition, the inner side of which was consecrated to the
+use of the Courts of Justice and the gentlemen of the law; while
+the outer division was occupied by the stalls of stationers,
+toymen, and the like, as in a modern bazaar.  From the old play
+of THE PLAIN DEALER, it seems such was formerly the case with
+Westminster Hall.  Minos has now purified his courts in both
+cities from all traffic but his own.]  Now, don't you read this
+to your worthy father, Alan--he loves me well enough, I know, of
+a Saturday night; but he thinks me but idle company for any other
+day of the week.  And here, I suspect, lies your real objection
+to taking a ramble with me through the southern counties in this
+delicious weather.  I know the good gentleman has hard thoughts
+of me for being so unsettled as to leave Edinburgh before the
+Session rises; perhaps, too, he quarrels a little--I will not say
+with my want of ancestry, but with my want of connexions.  He
+reckons me a lone thing in this world, Alan, and so, in good
+truth, I am; and it seems a reason to him why you should not
+attach yourself to me, that I can claim no interest in the
+general herd.
+
+Do not suppose I forget what I owe him, for permitting me to
+shelter for four years under his roof:  My obligations to him are
+not the less, but the greater, if he never heartily loved me.  He
+is angry, too, that I will not, or cannot, be a lawyer, and, with
+reference to you, considers my disinclination that way as PESSIMI
+EXEMPLI, as he might say.
+
+But he need not be afraid that a lad of your steadiness will be
+influenced by such a reed shaken by the winds as I am.  You will
+go on doubting with Dirleton, and resolving those doubts with
+Stewart, ['Sir John Nisbett of Dirleton's DOUBTS AND QUESTIONS
+UPON THE LAW, ESPECIALLLY OF SCOTLAND;' and 'Sir James Stewart's
+DIRLETON'S DOUBTS AND QUESTIONS ON THE LAW OF SCOTLAND RESOLVED
+AND ANSWERED,' are works of authority in Scottish jurisprudence.
+As is generally the case, the doubts are held more in respect
+than the solution.]  until the cramp speech  [Till of late years,
+every advocate who catered at the Scottish bar made a Latin
+address to the Court, faculty, and audience, in set terms, and
+said a few words upon a text of the civil law, to show his
+Latinity and jurisprudence.  He also wore his hat for a minute,
+in order to vindicate his right of being covered before the
+Court, which is said to have originated from the celebrated
+lawyer, Sir Thomas Hope, having two sons on the bench while he
+himself remained at the bar.  Of late this ceremony has been
+dispensed with, as occupying the time of the Court unnecessarily.
+The entrant lawyer merely takes the oaths to government, and
+swears to maintain the rules and privileges of his order.]  has
+been spoken more SOLITO from the corner of the bench, and with
+covered head--until you have sworn to defend the liberties and
+privileges of the College of Justice--until the black gown is
+hung on your shoulders, and you are free as any of the Faculty to
+sue or defend.  Then will I step forth, Alan, and in a character
+which even your father will allow may be more useful to you than
+had I shared this splendid termination of your legal studies.  In
+a word, if I cannot be a counsel, I am determined to be a CLIENT,
+a sort of person without whom a lawsuit would be as dull as a
+supposed case.  Yes, I am determined to give you your first fee.
+One can easily, I am assured, get into a lawsuit--it is only the
+getting out which is sometimes found troublesome;--and, with your
+kind father for an agent, and you for my counsel learned in the
+law, and the worshipful Master Samuel Griffiths to back me, a few
+sessions shall not tire my patience.  In short, I will make my
+way into court, even if it should cost me the committing a
+DELICT, or at least a QUASI DELICT.--You see all is not lost of
+what Erskine wrote, and Wallace taught.
+
+Thus far I have fooled it off well enough; and yet, Alan, all is
+not at ease within me.  I am affected with a sense of loneliness,
+the more depressing, that it seems to me to be a solitude
+peculiarly my own.  In a country where all the world have a
+circle of consanguinity, extending to sixth cousins at least, I
+am a solitary individual, having only one kind heart to throb in
+unison with my own.  If I were condemned to labour for my bread,
+methinks I should less regard this peculiar species of
+deprivation, The necessary communication of master and servant
+would be at least a tie which would attach me to the rest of my
+kind--as it is, my very independence seems to enhance the
+peculiarity of my situation.  I am in the world as a stranger in
+the crowded coffeehouse, where he enters, calls for what
+refreshment he wants, pays his bill, and is forgotten so soon as
+the waiter's mouth has pronounced his 'Thank ye, sir.'
+
+I know your good father would term this SINNING MY MERCIES, [A
+peculiar Scottish phrase expressive of ingratitude for the
+favours of Providence.]  and ask how I should feel if, instead of
+being able to throw down my reckoning, I were obliged to
+deprecate the resentment of the landlord for consuming that which
+I could not pay for.  I cannot tell how it is; but, though this
+very reasonable reflection comes across me, and though I do
+confess that four hundred a year in possession, eight hundred in
+near prospect, and the L--d knows how many hundreds more in the
+distance, are very pretty and comfortable things, yet I would
+freely give one half of them to call your father father, though
+he should scold me for my idleness every hour of the day, and to
+call you brother, though a brother whose merits would throw my
+own so completely into the shade.
+
+The faint, yet not improbable, belief has often come across me,
+that your father knows something more about my birth and
+condition than he is willing to communicate; it is so unlikely
+that I should be left in Edinburgh at six years old, without any
+other recommendation than the regular payment of my board to old
+M--, [Probably Mathieson, the predecessor of Dr. Adams, to whose
+memory the author and his contemporaries owe a deep debt of
+gratitude.]  of the High School.  Before that time, as I have
+often told you, I have but a recollection of unbounded indulgence
+on my mother's part, and the most tyrannical exertion of caprice
+on my own.  I remember still how bitterly she sighed, how vainly
+she strove to soothe me, while, in the full energy of despotism,
+I roared like ten bull-calves, for something which it was
+impossible to procure for me.  She is dead, that kind, that ill-
+rewarded mother!  I remember the long faces--the darkened rooms
+--the black hangings--the mysterious impression made upon my mind
+by the hearse and mourning coaches, and the difficulty which I
+had to reconcile all this to the disappearance of my mother.  I
+do not think I had before this event formed, any idea, of death,
+or that I had even heard of that final consummation of all that
+lives.  The first acquaintance which I formed with it deprived me
+of my only relation.
+
+A clergyman of venerable appearance, our only visitor, was my
+guide and companion in a journey of considerable length; and in
+the charge of another elderly man, substituted in his place, I
+know not how or why, I completed my journey to Scotland--and this
+is all I recollect.
+
+I repeat the little history now, as I have a hundred times
+before, merely because I would wring some sense out of it.  Turn,
+then, thy sharp, wire-drawing, lawyer-like ingenuity to the same
+task--make up my history as though thou wert shaping the
+blundering allegations of some blue-bonneted, hard-headed client,
+into a condescendence of facts and circumstances, and thou shalt
+be, not my Apollo--QUID TIBI CUM LYRA?--but my Lord Stair,
+[Celebrated as a Scottish lawyer.]  Meanwhile, I have written
+myself out of my melancholy and blue devils, merely by prosing
+about them; so I will now converse half an hour with Roan Robin
+in his stall--the rascal knows me already, and snickers whenever
+I cross the threshold of the stable.
+
+The black which you bestrode yesterday morning promises to be an
+admirable roadster, and ambled as easily with Sam and the
+portmanteau, as with you and your load of law-learning.  Sam
+promises to be steady, and has hitherto been so.  No long trial,
+you will say.  He lays the blame of former inaccuracies on evil
+company--the people who were at the livery-stable were too
+seductive, I suppose--he denies he ever did the horse injustice--
+would rather have wanted his own dinner, he says.  In this I
+believe him, as Roan Robin's ribs and coat show no marks of
+contradiction.  However, as he will meet with no saints in the
+inns we frequent, and as oats are sometimes as speedily converted
+into ale as John Barleycorn himself, I shall keep a look-out
+after Master Sam.  Stupid fellow!  had he not abused my good
+nature, I might have chatted to him to keep my tongue in
+exercise; whereas now I must keep him at a distance.
+
+Do you remember what Mr. Fairford said to me on this subject--it
+did not become my father's son to speak in that manner to Sam's
+father's son?  I asked you what your father could possibly know
+of mine; and you answered, 'As much, you supposed, as he knew of
+Sam's--it was a proverbial expression.'  This did not quite
+satisfy me; though I am sure I cannot tell why it should not.
+But I am returning to a fruitless and exhausted subject.  Do not
+be afraid that I shall come back on this well-trodden yet
+pathless field of conjecture.  I know nothing so useless, so
+utterly feeble and contemptible, as the groaning forth one's
+lamentations into the ears of our friends.
+
+I would fain promise you that my letters shall be as entertaining
+as I am determined they shall be regular and well filled.  We
+have an advantage over the dear friends of old, every pair of
+them.  Neither David and Jonathan, nor Orestes and Pylades, nor
+Damon and Pythias--although, in the latter case particularly, a
+letter by post would have been very acceptable--ever corresponded
+together; for they probably could not write, and certainly had
+neither post nor franks to speed their effusions to each other;
+whereas yours, which you had from the old peer, being handled
+gently, and opened with precaution, may be returned to me again,
+and serve to make us free of his Majesty's post office, during
+the whole time of my proposed tour.  [It is well known and
+remembered, that when Members of Parliament enjoyed the unlimited
+privilege of franking by the mere writing the name on the cover,
+it was extended to the most extraordinary occasions.  One noble
+lord, to express his regard for a particular regiment, franked a
+letter for every rank and file.  It was customary also to save
+the covers and return them, in order that the correspondence
+might be carried on as long as the envelopes could hold
+together.]  Mercy upon us, Alan!  what letters I shall have to
+send to you, with an account of all that I can collect, of
+pleasant or rare, in this wild-goose jaunt of mine!  All I
+stipulate is that you do not communicate them to the SCOTS
+MAGAZINE; for though you used, in a left-handed way, to
+compliment me on my attainments in the lighter branches of
+literature, at the expense of my deficiency in the weightier
+matters of the law, I am not yet audacious enough to enter the
+portal which the learned Ruddiman so kindly opened for the
+acolytes of the Muses.--VALE SIS MEMOR MEI.  D. L.
+
+PS. Direct to the Post Office here.  I shall leave orders to
+forward your letters wherever I may travel.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER II
+
+ALAN FAIRFORD TO DARSIE LATIMER
+
+NEGATUR, my dear Darsie--you have logic and law enough to
+understand the word of denial.  I deny your conclusion.  The
+premises I admit, namely, that when I mounted on that infernal
+hack, I might utter what seemed a sigh, although I deemed it lost
+amid the puffs and groans of the broken-winded brute, matchless
+in the complication of her complaints by any save she, the poor
+man's mare, renowned in song, that died
+
+  A mile aboon Dundee.
+
+[Alluding, as all Scotsmen know, to the humorous old song:--
+ 'The auld man's mare's dead,
+  The puir man's mare's dead,
+  The auld man's mare's dead,
+  A mile aboon Dundee.']
+
+But credit me, Darsie, the sigh which escaped me, concerned thee
+more than myself, and regarded neither the superior mettle of
+your cavalry, nor your greater command of the means of
+travelling.  I could certainly have cheerfully ridden with you
+for a few days; and assure yourself I would not have hesitated to
+tax your better filled purse for our joint expenses.  But you
+know my father considers every moment taken from the law as a
+step down hill; and I owe much to his anxiety on my account,
+although its effects are sometimes troublesome.  For example:
+
+I found, on my arrival at the shop in Brown's Square, that the
+old gentleman had returned that very evening, impatient, it
+seems, of remaining a night out of the guardianship of the
+domestic Lares.  Having this information from James, whose brow
+wore rather an anxious look on the occasion, I dispatched a
+Highland chairman to the livery stable with my Bucephalus, and
+slunk, with as little noise as might be, into my own den, where I
+began to mumble certain half-gnawed and not half-digested
+doctrines of our municipal code.  I was not long seated, when my
+father's visage was thrust, in a peering sort of way, through the
+half-opened door; and withdrawn, on seeing my occupation, with a
+half-articulated HUMPH! which seemed to convey a doubt of the
+seriousness of my application.  If it were so, I cannot condemn
+him; for recollection of thee occupied me so entirely during an
+hour's reading, that although Stair lay before me, and
+notwithstanding that I turned over three or four pages, the sense
+of his lordship's clear and perspicuous style so far escaped me,
+that I had the mortification to find my labour was utterly in
+vain.
+
+Ere I had brought up my lee-way, James appeared with his summons
+to our frugal supper--radishes, cheese, and a bottle of the old
+ale-only two plates though--and no chair set for Mr. Darsie, by
+the attentive James Wilkinson.  Said James, with his long face,
+lank hair, and very long pig-tail in its leathern strap, was
+placed, as usual, at the back of my father's chair, upright as a
+wooden sentinel at the door of a puppet-show.  'You may go down,
+James,' said my father; and exit Wilkinson.--What is to come
+next?  thought I; for the weather is not clear on the paternal
+brow.
+
+My boots encountered his first glance of displeasure, and he
+asked me, with a sneer, which way I had been riding.  He expected
+me to answer, 'Nowhere,' and would then have been at me with his
+usual sarcasm, touching the humour of walking in shoes at twenty
+shillings a pair.  But I answered with composure, that I had
+ridden out to dinner as far as Noble House.  He started (you know
+his way) as if I had said that I had dined at Jericho; and as I
+did not choose to seem to observe his surprise, but continued
+munching my radishes in tranquillity, he broke forth in ire.
+
+'To Noble House, sir! and what had you to do at Noble House, sir?
+Do you remember you are studying law, sir?--that your Scots law
+trials are coming on, sir?--that every moment of your time just
+now is worth hours at another time?--and have you leisure to go
+to Noble House, sir?--and to throw your books behind you for so
+many hours?--Had it been a turn in the meadows, or even a game at
+golf--but Noble House, sir!'
+
+'I went so far with Darsie Latimer, sir, to see him begin his
+journey.'
+
+'Darsie Latimer?'  he replied in a softened tone--'Humph!--Well,
+I do not blame you for being kind to Darsie Latimer; but it would
+have done as much good if you had walked with him as far as the
+toll-bar, and then made your farewells--it would have saved
+horse-hire--and your reckoning, too, at dinner.'
+
+'Latimer paid that, sir,' I replied, thinking to soften the
+matter; but I had much better have left it unspoken.
+
+'The reckoning, sir!'  replied my father.  'And did you sponge
+upon any man for a reckoning?  Sir, no man should enter the door
+of a public-house without paying his lawing.'
+
+'I admit the general rule, sir,' I replied; 'but this was a
+parting-cup between Darsie and me; and I should conceive it fell
+under the exception of DOCH AN DORROCH.'
+
+'You think yourself a wit,' said my father, with as near an
+approach to a smile as ever he permits to gild the solemnity of
+his features; 'but I reckon you did not eat your dinner standing,
+like the Jews at their Passover?  and it was decided in a case
+before the town-bailies of Cupar-Angus, when Luckie Simpson's cow
+had drunk up Luckie Jamieson's browst of ale while it stood in
+the door to cool, that there was no damage to pay, because the
+crummie drank without sitting down; such being the very
+circumstance constituting DOCH AN DORROCH, which is a standing
+drink, for which no reckoning is paid.  Ha, sir! what says your
+advocateship (FIERI) to that?  EXEPTIO FIRMAT REGULAM--But come,
+fill your glass, Alan; I am not sorry ye have shown this
+attention to Darsie Latimer, who is a good lad, as times go; and
+having now lived under my roof since he left the school, why,
+there is really no great matter in coming under this small
+obligation to him.'
+
+As I saw my father's scruples were much softened by the
+consciousness of his superiority in the legal argument, I took
+care to accept my pardon as a matter of grace, rather than of
+justice; and only replied, we should feel ourselves duller of an
+evening, now that you were absent.  I will give you my father's
+exact words in reply, Darsie.  You know him so well, that they
+will not offend you; and you are also aware, that there mingles
+with the good man's preciseness and formality, a fund of shrewd
+observation and practical good sense.
+
+'It is very true,' he said; 'Darsie was a pleasant companion-but
+over waggish, over waggish, Alan, and somewhat scatter-brained.
+--By the way, Wilkinson must get our ale bottled in English pints
+now, for a quart bottle is too much, night after night, for you
+and me, without his assistance.--But Darsie, as I was saying, is
+an arch lad, and somewhat light in the upper story--I wish him
+well through the world; but he has little solidity, Alan, little
+solidity.'
+
+I scorn to desert an absent friend, Darsie, so I said for you a
+little more than my conscience warranted:  but your defection
+from your legal studies had driven you far to leeward in my
+father's good opinion.
+
+'Unstable as water, he shall not excel,' said my father; 'or, as
+the Septuagint hath it, EFUSA EST SICUT AQUA--NON CRESCAT.  He
+goeth to dancing-houses, and readeth novels--SAT EST.'
+
+I endeavoured to parry these texts by observing, that the
+dancing-houses amounted only to one night at La Pique's ball--the
+novels (so far as matter of notoriety, Darsie) to an odd volume
+of TOM JONES.
+
+'But he danced from night to morning,' replied my father, 'and he
+read the idle trash, which the author should have been scourged
+for, at least twenty times over.  It was never out of his hand.'
+
+I then hinted, that in all probability your fortune was now so
+easy as to dispense with your prosecuting the law any further
+than you had done; and therefore you might think you had some
+title to amuse yourself.  This was the least palatable argument
+of all.
+
+'If he cannot amuse himself with the law,' said my father,
+snappishly 'it is the worse for him.  If he needs not law to
+teach him to make a fortune, I am sure he needs it to teach him
+how to keep one; and it would better become him to be learning
+this, than to be scouring the country like a land-louper, going
+he knows not where, to see he knows not what, and giving treats
+at Noble House to fools like himself' (an angry glance at poor
+me), 'Noble House, indeed!'  he repeated, with elevated voice and
+sneering tone, as if there were something offensive to him in the
+name, though I will venture to say that any place in which you
+had been extravagant enough to spend five shillings, would have
+stood as deep in his reprobation.
+
+Mindful of your idea, that my father knows more of your real
+situation than he thinks proper to mention, I thought I would
+hazard a fishing observation.  'I did not see,' I said, 'how the
+Scottish law would be useful to a young gentleman whose fortune
+would seem to be vested in England.'--I really thought my father
+would have beat me.
+
+'D'ye mean to come round me, sir, PER AMBAGES, as Counsellor Pest
+says?  What is it to you where Darsie Latimer's fortune is
+vested, or whether he hath any fortune, aye or no?  And what ill
+would the Scottish law do to him, though he had as much of it as
+either Stair or Bankton, sir?  Is not the foundation of our
+municipal law the ancient code of the Roman Empire, devised at a
+time when it was so much renowned for its civil polity, sir, and
+wisdom?  Go to your bed, sir, after your expedition to Noble
+House, and see that your lamp be burning and your book before you
+ere the sun peeps. ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS--were it not a sin to
+call the divine science of the law by the inferior name of art.'
+
+So my lamp did burn, dear Darsie, the next morning, though the
+owner took the risk of a domiciliary visitation, and lay snug in
+bed, trusting its glimmer might, without further inquiry, be
+received as sufficient evidence of his vigilance.  And now, upon
+this the third morning after your departure, things are but
+little better; for though the lamp burns in my den, and VOET ON
+THE PANDECTS hath his wisdom spread open before me, yet as I only
+use him as a reading-desk on which to scribble this sheet of
+nonsense to Darsie Latimer, it is probable the vicinity will be
+of little furtherance to my studies.
+
+And now, methinks, I hear thee call me an affected hypocritical
+varlet, who, living under such a system of distrust and restraint
+as my father chooses to govern by, nevertheless pretends not to
+envy you your freedom and independence.
+
+Latimer, I will tell you no lies.  I wish my father would allow
+me a little more exercise of my free will, were it but that I
+might feel the pleasure of doing what would please him of my own
+accord.  A little more spare time, and a little more money to
+enjoy it, would, besides, neither misbecome my age nor my
+condition; and it is, I own, provoking to see so many in the same
+situation winging the air at freedom, while I sit here, caged up
+like a cobbler's linnet, to chant the same unvaried lesson from
+sunrise to sunset, not to mention the listening to so many
+lectures against idleness, as if I enjoyed or was making use of
+the means of amusement!  But then I cannot at heart blame either
+the motive or the object of this severity.  For the motive, it is
+and can only be my father's anxious, devoted, and unremitting
+affection and zeal for my improvement, with a laudable sense of
+the honour of the profession to which he has trained me.
+
+As we have no near relations, the tie betwixt us is of even
+unusual closeness, though in itself one of the strongest which
+nature can form.  I am, and have all along been, the exclusive
+object of my father's anxious hopes, and his still more anxious
+and engrossing fears; so what title have I to complain, although
+now and then these fears and hopes lead him to take a troublesome
+and incessant charge of all my motions?  Besides, I ought to
+recollect, and, Darsie, I do recollect, that my father upon
+various occasions, has shown that he can be indulgent as well as
+strict.  The leaving his old apartments in the Luckenbooths was
+to him like divorcing the soul from the body; yet Dr. R-- did but
+hint that the better air of this new district was more favourable
+to my health, as I was then suffering under the penalties of too
+rapid a growth, when he exchanged his old and beloved quarters,
+adjacent to the very Heart of Midlothian, for one of those new
+tenements (entire within themselves) which modern taste has so
+lately introduced.  Instance also the inestimable favour which he
+conferred on me by receiving you into his house, when you had
+only the unpleasant alternative of remaining, though a grown-up
+lad, in the society of mere boys.  [The diminutive and obscure
+place called Brown's Square, was hailed about the time of its
+erection as an extremely elegant improvement upon the style of
+designing and erecting Edinburgh residences.  Each house was, in
+the phrase used by appraisers, 'finished within itself,' or, in
+the still newer phraseology, 'self-contained.'  It was built
+about the year 1763-4; and the old part of the city being near
+and accessible, this square soon received many inhabitants, who
+ventured to remove to so moderate a distance from the High
+Street.]  This was a thing so contrary to all my father's ideas
+of seclusion, of economy, and of the safety to my morals and
+industry, which he wished to attain, by preserving me from the
+society of other young people, that, upon my word, I am always
+rather astonished how I should have had the impudence to make the
+request, than that he should have complied with it.
+
+Then for the object of his solicitude--Do not laugh, or hold up
+your hands, my good Darsie; but upon my word I like the
+profession to which I am in the course of being educated, and am
+serious in prosecuting the preliminary studies.  The law is my
+vocation--in an especial, and, I may say, in an hereditary way,
+my vocation; for although I have not the honour to belong to any
+of the great families who form in Scotland, as in France, the
+noblesse of the robe, and with us, at least, carry their heads as
+high, or rather higher, than the noblesse of the sword,--for the
+former consist more frequently of the 'first-born of Egypt,'--yet
+my grandfather, who, I dare say, was a most excellent person, had
+the honour to sign a bitter protest against the Union, in the
+respectable character of town-clerk to the ancient Borough of
+Birlthegroat; and there is some reason--shall I say to hope, or
+to suspect?--that he may have been a natural son of a first
+cousin of the then Fairford of that Ilk, who had been long
+numbered among the minor barons.  Now my father mounted a step
+higher on the ladder of legal promotion, being, as you know as
+well as I do, an eminent and respected Writer to his Majesty's
+Signet; and I myself am destined to mount a round higher still,
+and wear the honoured robe which is sometimes supposed, like
+Charity, to cover a multitude of sins.  I have, therefore, no
+choice but to climb upwards; since we have mounted thus high, or
+else to fall down at the imminent risk of my neck.  So that I
+reconcile myself to my destiny; and while you, are looking from
+mountain peaks, at distant lakes and firths, I am, DE APICIBUS
+JURIS, consoling myself with visions of crimson and scarlet
+gowns--with the appendages of handsome cowls, well lined with
+salary.
+
+You smile, Darsie, MORE TUO, and seem to say it is little worth
+while to cozen one's self with such vulgar dreams; yours being,
+on the contrary, of a high and heroic character, bearing the same
+resemblance to mine, that a bench, covered with purple cloth and
+plentifully loaded with session papers, does to some Gothic
+throne, rough with barbaric pearl and gold.  But what would you
+have?--SUA QUEMQUE TRAHIT VOLUPTAS.  And my visions of
+preferment, though they may be as unsubstantial at present, are
+nevertheless more capable of being realized, than your
+aspirations after the Lord knows what.  What says my father's
+proverb?  'Look to a gown of gold, and you will at least get a
+sleeve of it.'  Such is my pursuit; but what dost thou look to?
+The chance that the mystery, as you call it, which at present
+overclouds your birth and connexions, will clear up into
+something inexpressibly and inconceivably brilliant; and this
+without any effort or exertion of your own, but purely by the
+goodwill of Fortune.  I know the pride and naughtiness of thy
+heart, and sincerely do I wish that thou hadst more beatings to
+thank me for, than those which thou dost acknowledge so
+gratefully.  Then had I thumped these Quixotical expectations out
+of thee, and thou hadst not, as now, conceived thyself to be the
+hero of some romantic history, and converted, in thy vain
+imaginations, honest Griffiths, citizen and broker, who never
+bestows more than the needful upon his quarterly epistles, into
+some wise Alexander or sage Alquife, the mystical and magical
+protector of thy peerless destiny.  But I know not how it was,
+thy skull got harder, I think, and my knuckles became softer; not
+to mention that at length thou didst begin to show about thee a
+spark of something dangerous, which I was bound to respect at
+least, if I did not fear it.
+
+And while I speak of this, it is not much amiss to advise thee to
+correct a little this cock-a-hoop courage of thine.  I fear much
+that, like a hot-mettled horse, it will carry the owner into some
+scrape, out of which he will find it difficult to extricate
+himself, especially if the daring spirit which bore thee thither
+should chance to fail thee at a pinch.  Remember, Darsie, thou
+art not naturally courageous; on the contrary, we have long since
+agreed that, quiet as I am, I have the advantage in this
+important particular.  My courage consists, I think, in strength
+of nerves and constitutional indifference to danger; which,
+though it never pushes me on adventure, secures me in full use of
+my recollection, and tolerably complete self-possession, when
+danger actually arrives.  Now, thine seems more what may be
+called intellectual courage; highness of spirit, and desire of
+distinction; impulses which render thee alive to the love of
+fame, and deaf to the apprehension of danger, until it forces
+itself suddenly upon thee.  I own that, whether it is from my
+having caught my father's apprehensions, or that I have reason to
+entertain doubts of my own, I often think that this wildfire
+chase of romantic situation and adventure may lead thee into some
+mischief; and then what would become of Alan Fairford?  They
+might make whom they pleased Lord Advocate or Solicitor-General,
+I should never have the heart to strive for it.  All my exertions
+are intended to Vindicate myself one day in your eyes; and I
+think I should not care a farthing for the embroidered silk gown,
+more than for an old woman's apron, unless I had hopes that thou
+shouldst be walking the boards to admire, and perhaps to envy me.
+
+That this may be the case, I prithee--beware!  See not a
+Dulcinea, in every slipshod girl, who, with blue eyes, fair hair,
+a tattered plaid, and a willow-wand in her grip, drives out the
+village cows to the loaning.  Do not think you will meet a
+gallant Valentine in every English rider, or an Orson in every
+Highland drover.  View things as they are, and not as they may be
+magnified through thy teeming fancy.  I have seen thee look at an
+old gravel pit, till thou madest out capes, and bays, and inlets,
+crags and precipices, and the whole stupendous scenery of the
+Isle of Feroe, in what was, to all ordinary eyes, a mere horse-
+pond.  Besides, did I not once find thee gazing with respect at a
+lizard, in the attitude of one who looks upon a crocodile?  Now
+this is, doubtless, so far a harmless exercise of your
+imagination; for the puddle cannot drown you, nor the Lilliputian
+alligator eat you up.  But it is different in society, where you
+cannot mistake the character of those you converse with, or
+suffer your fancy to exaggerate their qualities, good or bad,
+without exposing yourself not only to ridicule, but to great and
+serious inconveniences.  Keep guard, therefore, on your
+imagination, my dear Darsie; and let your old friend assure you,
+it is the point of your character most pregnant with peril to its
+good and generous owner.  Adieu!  let not the franks of the
+worthy peer remain unemployed; above all, SIS MEMOR MEI.   A. F.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER III
+
+DARSIE LATIMER TO ALAN FAIRFORD
+
+SHEPHERD'S BUSH.
+
+I have received thine absurd and most conceited epistle.  It is
+well for thee that, Lovelace and Belford-like, we came under a
+convention to pardon every species of liberty which we may take
+with each other; since, upon my word, there are some reflections
+in your last which would otherwise have obliged me to return
+forthwith to Edinburgh, merely to show you I was not what you
+took me for.
+
+Why, what a pair of prigs hast thou made of us!  I plunging into
+scrapes, without having courage to get out of them--thy sagacious
+self, afraid to put one foot before the other, lest it should run
+away from its companion; and so standing still like a post, out
+of mere faintness and coldness of heart, while all the world were
+driving full speed past thee.  Thou a portrait-painter!  I tell
+thee, Alan, I have seen a better seated on the fourth round of a
+ladder, and painting a bare-breeched Highlander, holding a pint-
+stoup as big as himself, and a booted Lowlander, in a bobwig,
+supporting a glass of like dimensions; the whole being designed
+to represent the sign of the Salutation.
+
+How hadst thou the heart to represent thine own individual self,
+with all thy motions, like those of a great Dutch doll, depending
+on the pressure of certain springs, as duty, reflection, and the
+like; without the impulse of which, thou wouldst doubtless have
+me believe thou wouldst not budge an inch!  But have I not seen
+Gravity out of his bed at midnight?  and must I, in plain terms,
+remind thee of certain mad pranks?  Thou hadst ever, with the
+gravest sentiments in thy mouth and the most starched reserve in
+thy manner, a kind of lumbering proclivity towards mischief,
+although with more inclination to set it a-going than address to
+carry it through; and I cannot but chuckle internally, when I
+think of having seen my most venerable monitor, the future
+president of some high Scottish court, puffing, blowing, and
+floundering, like a clumsy cart-horse in a bog where his efforts
+to extricate himself only plunged him deeper at every awkward
+struggle, till some one--I myself, for example--took compassion
+on the moaning monster, and dragged him out by mane and tail.
+
+As for me, my portrait is, if possible, even more scandalously
+caricatured, I fail or quail in spirit at the upcome!  Where
+canst thou show me the least symptom of the recreant temper, with
+which thou hast invested me (as I trust) merely to set off the
+solid and impassible dignity of thine own stupid indifference?
+If you ever saw me tremble, be assured that my flesh, like that
+of the old Spanish general, only quaked at the dangers into which
+my spirit was about to lead it.  Seriously, Alan, this imputed
+poverty of spirit is a shabby charge to bring against your
+friend.  I have examined myself as closely as I can, being, in
+very truth, a little hurt at your having such hard thoughts of
+me, and on my life I can see no reason for them.  I allow you
+have, perhaps, some advantage of me in the steadiness and
+indifference of your temper; but I should despise myself, if I
+were conscious of the deficiency in courage which you seem
+willing enough to impute to me.  However, I suppose, this
+ungracious hint proceeds from sincere anxiety for my safety; and
+so viewing it, I swallow it as I would do medicine from a
+friendly doctor, although I believed in my heart he had mistaken
+my complaint.
+
+This offensive insinuation disposed of, I thank thee, Alan, for
+the rest of thy epistle.  I thought I heard your good father
+pronouncing the word Noble House, with a mixture of contempt and
+displeasure, as if the very name of the poor little hamlet were
+odious to him, or as if you had selected, out of all Scotland,
+the very place at which you had no call to dine.  But if he had
+had any particular aversion to that blameless village and very
+sorry inn, is it not his own fault that I did not accept the
+invitation of the Laird of Glengallacher, to shoot a buck in what
+he emphatically calls 'his country'?  Truth is, I had a strong
+desire to have complied with his lairdship's invitation.  To
+shoot a buck!  Think how magnificent an idea to one who never
+shot anything but hedge-sparrows, and that with a horse-pistol
+purchased at a broker's stand in the Cowgate!  You, who stand
+upon your courage, may remember that I took the risk of firing
+the said pistol for the first time, while you stood at twenty
+yards' distance; and that, when you were persuaded it would go
+off without bursting, forgetting all law but that of the biggest
+and strongest, you possessed yourself of it exclusively for the
+rest of the holidays.  Such a day's sport was no complete
+introduction to the noble art of deer-stalking, as it is
+practised in the Highlands; but I should not have scrupled to
+accept honest Glengallacher's invitation, at the risk of firing a
+rifle for the first time, had it not been for the outcry which
+your father made at my proposal, in the full ardour of his zeal
+for King George, the Hanover succession, and the Presbyterian
+faith.  I wish I had stood out, since I have gained so little
+upon his good opinion by submission.  All his impressions
+concerning the Highlanders are taken from the recollections of
+the Forty-five, when he retreated from the West Port with his
+brother volunteers, each to the fortalice of his own separate
+dwelling, so soon as they heard the Adventurer was arrived with
+his clans as near them as Kirkliston. The flight of Falkirk--
+PARMA NON BENE SELECTA--in which I think your sire had his share
+with the undaunted western regiment, does not seem to have
+improved his taste for the company of the Highlanders; (quaere,
+Alan, dost thou derive the courage thou makest such boast of from
+an hereditary source?)  and stories of Rob Roy Macgregor, and
+Sergeant Alan Mhor Cameron, have served to paint them in still
+more sable colours to his imagination.  [Of Rob Roy we have had
+more than enough.  Alan Cameron, commonly called Sergeant Mhor, a
+freebooter of the same period, was equally remarkable for
+strength, courage, and generosity.]
+
+Now, from all I can understand, these ideas, as applied to the
+present state of the country, are absolutely chimerical.  The
+Pretender is no more remembered in the Highlands than if the poor
+gentleman were gathered to his hundred and eight fathers, whose
+portraits adorn the ancient walls of Holyrood; the broadswords
+have passed into other hands; the targets are used to cover the
+butter churns; and the race has sunk, or is fast sinking, from
+ruffling bullies into tame cheaters.  Indeed, it was partly my
+conviction that there is little to be seen in the north, which,
+arriving at your father's conclusions, though from different
+premisses, inclined my course in this direction, where perhaps I
+shall see as little.
+
+One thing, however, I HAVE seen; and it was with pleasure the
+more indescribable, that I was debarred from treading the land
+which my eyes were permitted to gaze upon, like those of the
+dying prophet from top of Mount Pisgah,--I have seen, in a word,
+the fruitful shores of merry England; merry England!  of which I
+boast myself a native, and on which I gaze, even while raging
+floods and unstable quicksands divide us, with the filial
+affection of a dutiful son.
+
+Thou canst not have forgotten, Alan--for when didst thou ever
+forget what was interesting to thy friend?--that the same letter
+from my friend Griffiths, which doubled my income, and placed my
+motions at my own free disposal, contained a prohibitory clause,
+by which, reason none assigned, I was prohibited, as I respected
+my present safety and future fortunes, from visiting England;
+every other part of the British dominions, and a tour, if I
+pleased, on the Continent, being left to my own choice.--Where is
+the tale, Alan, of a covered dish in the midst of a royal
+banquet, upon which the eyes of every guest were immediately
+fixed, neglecting all the dainties with which the table was
+loaded?  This cause of banishment from England--from my native
+country--from the land of the brave, and the wise, and the free--
+affects me more than I am rejoiced by the freedom and
+independence assigned to me in all other respects.  Thus, in
+seeking this extreme boundary of the country which I am forbidden
+to tread, I resemble the poor tethered horse, which, you may have
+observed, is always grazing on the very verge of the circle to
+which it is limited by its halter.
+
+Do not accuse me of romance for obeying this impulse towards the
+South; nor suppose that, to satisfy the imaginary longing of an
+idle curiosity, I am in any danger of risking the solid comforts
+of my present condition.  Whoever has hitherto taken charge of my
+motions has shown me, by convincing proofs more weighty than the
+assurances which they have witheld, that my real advantage is
+their principal object.  I should be, therefore, worse than a
+fool did I object to their authority, even when it seems somewhat
+capriciously exercised; for assuredly, at my age, I might--
+intrusted as I am with the care and management of myself in every
+other particular--expect that the cause of excluding me from
+England should be frankly and fairly stated for my own
+consideration and guidance.  However, I will not grumble about
+the matter.  I shall know the whole story one day, I suppose; and
+perhaps, as you sometimes surmise, I shall not find there is any
+mighty matter in it after all.
+
+Yet one cannot help wondering--but plague on it, if I wonder any
+longer, my letter will be as full of wonders as one of
+Katterfelto's advertisements.  I have a month's mind, instead of
+this damnable iteration of guesses and forebodings, to give thee
+the history of a little adventure which befell me yesterday;
+though I am sure you will, as usual, turn the opposite side of
+the spyglass on my poor narrative, and reduce, MORE TUO, to the
+most petty trivialities, the circumstance to which thou accusest
+me of giving undue consequence.  Hang thee, Alan, thou art as
+unfit a confidant for a youthful gallant with some spice of
+imagination, as the old taciturn secretary of Facardin of
+Trebizond.  Nevertheless, we must each perform our separate
+destinies.  I am doomed to see, act, and tell; thou, like a
+Dutchman enclosed in the same diligence with a Gascon, to hear,
+and shrug thy shoulders.
+
+Of Dumfries, the capital town of this county, I have but little
+to say, and will not abuse your patience by reminding you that it
+is built on the gallant river Nith, and that its churchyard, the
+highest place of the old town, commands an extensive and fine
+prospect.  Neither will I take the traveller's privilege of
+inflicting upon you the whole history of Bruce poniarding the Red
+Comyn in the Church of the Dominicans at this place, and becoming
+a king and patriot because he had been a church-breaker and a
+murderer.  The present Dumfriezers remember and justify the deed,
+observing it was only a papist church--in evidence whereof, its
+walls have been so completely demolished that no vestiges of them
+remain.  They are a sturdy set of true-blue Presbyterians, these
+burghers of Dumfries; men after your father's own heart, zealous
+for the Protestant succession--the rather that many of the great
+families around are suspected to be of a different way of
+thinking, and shared, a great many of them, in the insurrection
+of the Fifteen, and some in the more recent business of the
+Forty-five.  The town itself suffered in the latter era; for Lord
+Elcho, with a large party of the rebels, levied a severe
+contribution upon Dumfries, on account of the citizens having
+annoyed the rear of the Chevalier during his march into England.
+
+Many of these particulars I learned from Provost C--, who,
+happening to see me in the market-place, remembered that I was an
+intimate of your father's, and very kindly asked me to dinner.
+Pray tell your father that the effects of his kindness to me
+follow me everywhere.  I became tired, however, of this pretty
+town in the course of twenty-four hours, and crept along the
+coast eastwards, amusing myself with looking out for objects of
+antiquity, and sometimes making, or attempting to make, use of my
+new angling-rod.  By the way, old Cotton's instructions, by which
+I hoped to qualify myself for one of the gentle society of
+anglers, are not worth a farthing for this meridian.  I learned
+this by mere accident, after I had waited four mortal hours.  I
+shall never forget an impudent urchin, a cowherd, about twelve
+years old, without either brogue or bonnet, barelegged, and with
+a very indifferent pair of breeches--how the villain grinned in
+scorn at my landing-net, my plummet, and the gorgeous jury of
+flies which I had assembled to destroy all the fish in the river.
+I was induced at last to lend the rod to the sneering scoundrel,
+to see what he would make of it; and he had not only half filled
+my basket in an hour, but literally taught me to kill two trouts
+with my own hand.  This, and Sam having found the hay and oats,
+not forgetting the ale, very good at this small inn, first made
+me take the fancy of resting here for a day or two; and I have
+got my grinning blackguard of a piscator leave to attend on me,
+by paying sixpence a day for a herd-boy in his stead.
+
+A notably clean Englishwoman keeps this small house, and my
+bedroom is sweetened with lavender, has a clean sash-window, and
+the walls are, moreover, adorned with ballads of Fair Rosamond
+and Cruel Barbara Allan.  The woman's accent, though uncouth
+enough, sounds yet kindly in my ear; for I have never yet
+forgotten the desolate effect produced on my infant organs, when
+I heard on all sides your slow and broad northern pronunciation,
+which was to me the tone of a foreign land.  I am sensible I
+myself have since that time acquired Scotch in perfection, and
+many a Scotticism withal.  Still the sound of the English
+accentuation comes to my ears as the tones of a friend; and even
+when heard from the mouth of some wandering beggar, it has seldom
+failed to charm forth my mite.  You Scotch, who are so proud of
+your own nationality, must make due allowance for that of other
+folks.
+
+On the next morning I was about to set forth to the stream where
+I had commenced angler the night before, but was prevented by a
+heavy shower of rain from stirring abroad the whole forenoon;
+during all which time, I heard my varlet of a guide as loud with
+his blackguard jokes in the kitchen, as a footman in the shilling
+gallery; so little are modesty and innocence the inseparable
+companions of rusticity and seclusion.
+
+When after dinner the day cleared, and we at length sallied out
+to the river side, I found myself subjected to a new trick on the
+part of my accomplished preceptor.  Apparently, he liked fishing
+himself better than the trouble of instructing an awkward novice
+such as I; and in hopes of exhausting my patience, and inducing
+me to resign the rod, as I had done the preceding day, my friend
+contrived to keep me thrashing the water more than an hour with a
+pointless hook.  I detected this trick at last, by observing the
+rogue grinning with delight when he saw a large trout rise and
+dash harmless away from the angle.  I gave him a sound cuff,
+Alan; but the next moment was sorry, and, to make amends, yielded
+possession of the fishing-rod for the rest of the evening, he
+undertaking to bring me home a dish of trouts for my supper, in
+atonement for his offences.
+
+Having thus got honourably rid of the trouble of amusing myself
+in a way I cared not for, I turned my steps towards the sea, or
+rather the Solway Firth which here separates the two sister
+kingdoms, and which lay at about a mile's distance, by a pleasant
+walk over sandy knells, covered with short herbage, which you
+call Links, and we English, Downs.
+
+But the rest of my adventure would weary out my fingers, and must
+be deferred until to-morrow, when you shall hear from me, by way
+of continuation; and, in the meanwhile, to prevent over-hasty
+conclusions, I must just hint to you, we are but yet on the verge
+of the adventure which it is my purpose to communicate.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IV
+
+THE SAME TO THE SAME
+
+SHEPHERD'S BUSH.
+
+I mentioned in my last, that having abandoned my fishing-rod as
+an unprofitable implement, I crossed over the open downs which
+divided me from the margin of the Solway.  When I reached the
+banks of the great estuary, which are here very bare and exposed,
+the waters had receded from the large and level space of sand,
+through which a stream, now feeble and fordable, found its way to
+the ocean.  The whole was illuminated by the beams of the low and
+setting sun, who showed his ruddy front, like a warrior prepared
+for defence, over a huge battlemented and turreted wall of
+crimson and black clouds, which appeared like an immense Gothic
+fortress, into which the lord of day was descending.  His setting
+rays glimmered bright upon the wet surface of the sands, and the
+numberless pools of water by which it was covered, where the
+inequality of the ground had occasioned their being left by the
+tide.
+
+The scene was animated by the exertions of a number of horsemen,
+who were actually employed in hunting salmon.  Aye, Alan, lift up
+your hands and eyes as you will, I can give their mode of fishing
+no name so appropriate; for they chased the fish at full gallop,
+and struck them with their barbed spears, as you see hunters
+spearing boars in the old tapestry.  The salmon, to be sure, take
+the thing more quietly than the boars; but they are so swift in
+their own element, that to pursue and strike them is the task of
+a good horseman, with a quick eye, a determined hand, and full
+command both of his horse and weapon.  The shouts of the fellows
+as they galloped up and down in the animating exercise--their
+loud bursts of laughter when any of their number caught a fall--
+and still louder acclamations when any of the party made a
+capital stroke with his lance--gave so much animation to the
+whole scene, that I caught the enthusiasm of the sport, and
+ventured forward a considerable space on the sands.  The feats of
+one horseman, in particular, called forth so repeatedly the
+clamorous applause of his companions, that the very banks rang
+again with their shouts.  He was a tall man, well mounted on a
+strong black horse, which he caused to turn and wind like a bird
+in the air, carried a longer spear than the others, and wore a
+sort of fur cap or bonnet, with a short feather in it, which gave
+him on the whole rather a superior appearance to the other
+fishermen.  He seemed to hold some sort of authority among them,
+and occasionally directed their motions both by voice and hand:
+at which times I thought his gestures were striking, and his
+voice uncommonly sonorous and commanding.
+
+The riders began to make for the shore, and the interest of the
+scene was almost over, while I lingered on the sands, with my
+looks turned to the shores of England, still gilded by the sun's
+last rays, and, as it seemed, scarce distant a mile from me.  The
+anxious thoughts which haunt me began to muster in my bosom, and
+my feet slowly and insensibly approached the river which divided
+me from the forbidden precincts, though without any formed
+intention, when my steps were arrested by the sound of a horse
+galloping; and as I turned, the rider (the same fisherman whom I
+had formerly distinguished) called out to me, in an abrupt
+manner, 'Soho, brother!  you are too late for Bowness to-night--
+the tide will make presently.'
+
+I turned my head and looked at him without answering; for, to my
+thinking, his sudden appearance (or rather, I should say, his
+unexpected approach) had, amidst the gathering shadows and
+lingering light, something in it which was wild and ominous.
+
+'Are you deaf?'  he added--'or are you mad?--or have you a mind
+for the next world?'
+
+'I am a stranger,' I answered,' and had no other purpose than
+looking on at the fishing--I am about to return to the side I
+came from.'
+
+'Best make haste then,' said he.  'He that dreams on the bed of
+the Solway, may wake in the next world.  The sky threatens a
+blast that will bring in the waves three feet abreast.'
+
+So saying, he turned his horse and rode off, while I began to
+walk back towards the Scottish shore, a little alarmed at what I
+had heard; for the tide advances with such rapidity upon these
+fatal sands, that well-mounted horsemen lay aside hopes of
+safety, if they see its white surge advancing while they are yet
+at a distance from the bank.
+
+These recollections grew more agitating, and, instead of walking
+deliberately, I began a race as fast as I could, feeling, or
+thinking I felt, each pool of salt water through which I
+splashed, grow deeper and deeper.  At length the surface of the
+sand did seem considerably more intersected with pools and
+channels full of water--either that the tide was really beginning
+to influence the bed of the estuary, or, as I must own is equally
+probable, that I had, in the hurry and confusion of my retreat,
+involved myself in difficulties which I had avoided in my more
+deliberate advance.  Either way, it was rather an unpromising
+state of affairs, for the sands at the same time turned softer,
+and my footsteps, so soon as I had passed, were instantly filled
+with water.  I began to have odd recollections concerning the
+snugness of your father's parlour, and the secure footing
+afforded by the pavement of Brown's Square and Scott's Close,
+when my better genius, the tall fisherman, appeared once more
+close to my side, he and his sable horse looming gigantic in the
+now darkening twilight.
+
+'Are you mad?'  he said, in the same deep tone which had before
+thrilled on my ear, 'or are you weary of your life?  You will be
+presently amongst the quicksands.'  I professed my ignorance of
+the way, to which he only replied, 'There is no time for prating
+--get up behind me.'
+
+He probably expected me to spring from the ground with the
+activity which these Borderers have, by constant practice,
+acquired in everything relating to horsemanship; but as I stood
+irresolute, he extended his hand, and grasping mine, bid me place
+my foot on the toe of his boot, and thus raised me in a trice to
+the croupe of his horse.  I was scarcely securely seated, ere he
+shook the reins of his horse, who instantly sprang forward; but
+annoyed, doubtless, by the unusual burden, treated us to two or
+three bounds, accompanied by as many flourishes of his hind
+heels.  The rider sat like a tower, notwithstanding that the
+unexpected plunging of the animal threw me forward upon him.  The
+horse was soon compelled to submit to the discipline of the spur
+and bridle, and went off at a steady hand gallop; thus shortening
+the devious, for it was by no means a direct path, by which the
+rider, avoiding the loose quicksands, made for the northern bank.
+
+My friend, perhaps I may call him my preserver,--for, to a
+stranger, my situation was fraught with real danger,--continued
+to press on at the same speedy pace, but in perfect silence, and
+I was under too much anxiety of mind to disturb him with any
+questions.  At length we arrived at a part of the shore with
+which I was utterly unacquainted, when I alighted and began to
+return in the best fashion I could my thanks for the important
+service which he had just rendered me.
+
+The stranger only replied by an impatient 'pshaw!'  and was about
+to ride off, and leave me to my own resources when I implored him
+to complete his work of kindness by directing me to Shepherd's
+Bush, which was, as I informed him, my home for the present.
+
+'To Shepherd's Bush?'  he said; 'it is but three miles but if you
+know not the land better than the sand, you may break your neck
+before you get there; for it is no road for a moping boy in a
+dark night; and, besides, there are the brook and the fens to
+cross.'
+
+I was a little dismayed at this communication of such
+difficulties as my habits had not called on me to contend with.
+Once more the idea of thy father's fireside came across me; and I
+could have been well contented to have swapped the romance of my
+situation, together with the glorious independence of control
+which I possessed at the moment, for the comforts of that
+chimney-corner, though I were obliged to keep my eyes chained to
+Erskine's LARGER INSTITUTES.
+
+I asked my new friend whether he could not direct me to any house
+of public entertainment for the night; and supposing it probable
+he was himself a poor man, I added, with the conscious dignity of
+a well-filled pocket-book, that I could make it worth any man's
+while to oblige me.  The fisherman making no answer, I turned
+away from him with as gallant an appearance of indifference as I
+could command, and began to take, as I thought, the path which he
+had pointed out to me.
+
+His deep voice immediately sounded after me to recall me.  'Stay,
+young man, stay--you have mistaken the road already.--I wonder
+your friends sent out such an inconsiderate youth, without some
+one wiser than himself to take care of him.'
+
+'Perhaps they might not have done so,' said I, 'if I had any
+friends who cared about the matter.'
+
+'Well, sir,' he said, 'it is not my custom to open my house to
+strangers, but your pinch is like to be a smart one; for, besides
+the risk from bad roads, fords, and broken ground, and the night,
+which looks both black and gloomy, there is bad company on the
+road sometimes--at least it has a bad name, and some have come to
+harm; so that I think I must for once make my rule give way to
+your necessity, and give you a night's lodging in my cottage.
+
+Why was it, Alan, that I could not help giving an involuntary
+shudder at receiving an invitation so seasonable in itself, and
+so suitable to my naturally inquisitive disposition?  I easily
+suppressed this untimely sensation; and as I returned thanks, and
+expressed my hope that I should not disarrange, his family, I
+once more dropped a hint of my desire to make compensation for
+any trouble I might occasion.  The man answered very coldly,
+'Your presence will no doubt give me trouble, sir, but it is of a
+kind which your purse, cannot compensate; in a word, although I
+am content to receive you as my guest, I am no publican to call a
+reckoning.'
+
+I begged his pardon, and, at his instance, once more seated
+myself behind hint upon the good horse, which went forth steady
+as before--the moon, whenever she could penetrate the clouds,
+throwing the huge shadow of the animal, with its double burden,
+on the wild and bare ground over which we passed.
+
+Thou mayst laugh till thou lettest the letter fall, if thou wilt,
+but it reminded me of the magician Atlantes on his hippogriff
+with a knight trussed up behind him, in the manner Ariosto has
+depicted that matter.  Thou art I know, matter-of-fact enough to
+affect contempt of that fascinating and delicious poem; but think
+not that, to conform with thy bad taste, I shall forbear any
+suitable illustration which now or hereafter may occur to me.
+
+On we went, the sky blackening around us, and the wind beginning
+to pipe such a wild and melancholy tune as best suited the hollow
+sounds of the advancing tide, which I could hear at a distance,
+like the roar of some immense monster defrauded of its prey.
+
+At length, our course was crossed by a deep dell or dingle, such
+as they call in some parts of Scotland a den, and in others a
+cleuch or narrow glen.  It seemed, by the broken glances which
+the moon continued to throw upon it, to be steep, precipitous,
+and full of trees, which are, generally speaking, rather scarce
+upon these shores.  The descent by which we plunged into this
+dell was both steep and rugged, with two or three abrupt
+turnings; but neither danger nor darkness impeded the motion of
+the black horse, who seemed rather to slide upon his haunches,
+than to gallop down the pass, throwing me again on the shoulders
+of the athletic rider, who, sustaining no inconvenience by the
+circumstance, continued to press the horse forward with his heel,
+steadily supporting him at the same time by raising his bridle-
+hand, until we stood in safety at the bottom of the steep--not a
+little to my consolation, as, friend Alan, thou mayst easily
+conceive.
+
+A very short advance up the glen, the bottom of which we had
+attained by this ugly descent, brought us in front of two or
+three cottages, one of which another blink of moonshine enabled
+me to rate as rather better than those of the Scottish peasantry
+in this part of the world; for the sashes seemed glazed, and
+there were what are called storm-windows in the roof, giving
+symptoms of the magnificence of a second story.  The scene around
+was very interesting; for the cottages, and the yards or crofts
+annexed to them, occupied a haugh, or helm, of two acres, which a
+brook of some consequence (to judge from its roar) had left upon
+one side of the little glen while finding its course close to the
+farther bank, and which appeared to be covered and darkened with
+trees, while the level space beneath enjoyed such stormy smiles
+as the moon had that night to bestow.
+
+I had little time for observation, for my companion's loud
+whistle, seconded by an equally loud halloo, speedily brought to
+the door of the principal cottage a man and a woman, together
+with two large Newfoundland dogs, the deep baying of which I had
+for some time heard.  A yelping terrier or two, which had joined
+the concert, were silent at the presence of my conductor, and
+began to whine, jump up, and fawn upon him.  The female drew back
+when she beheld a stranger; the man, who had a lighted lantern,
+advanced, and, without any observation, received the horse from
+my host, and led him, doubtless, to stable, while I followed my
+conductor into the house.  When we had passed the HALLAN, [The
+partition which divides a Scottish cottage.]  we entered a well-
+sized apartment, with a clean brick floor, where a fire blazed
+(much to my contentment) in the ordinary projecting sort of a
+chimney, common in Scottish houses.  There were stone seats
+within the chimney; and ordinary utensils, mixed with fishing-
+spears, nets, and similar implements of sport, were hung around
+the walls of the place.  The female who had first appeared at the
+door, had now retreated into a side apartment.  She was presently
+followed by my guide, after he had silently motioned me to a
+seat; and their place was supplied by an elderly woman, in a grey
+stuff gown, with a check apron and toy, obviously a menial,
+though neater in her dress than is usual in her apparent rank--an
+advantage which was counterbalanced by a very forbidding aspect.
+But the most singular part of her attire, in this very Protestant
+country, was a rosary, in which the smaller beads were black oak,
+and those indicating the PATER-NOSTER of silver, with a crucifix
+of the same metal.
+
+This person made preparations for supper, by spreading a clean
+though coarse cloth over a large oaken table, placing trenchers
+and salt upon it, and arranging the fire to receive a gridiron.
+I observed her motions in silence; for she took no sort of notice
+of me, and as her looks were singularly forbidding, I felt no
+disposition to commence conversation.
+
+When this duenna had made all preliminary arrangements, she took
+from the well-filled pouch of my conductor, which he had hung up
+by the door, one or two salmon, or GRILSES, as the smaller sort
+are termed, and selecting that which seemed best and in highest
+season, began to cut it into slices, and to prepare a GRILLADE;
+the savoury smell of which affected me so powerfully that I began
+sincerely to hope that no delay would intervene between the
+platter and the lip.
+
+As this thought came across me, the man who had conducted the
+horse to the stable entered the apartment, and discovered to me a
+countenance yet more uninviting than that of the old crone who
+was performing with such dexterity the office of cook to the
+party.  He was perhaps sixty years old; yet his brow was not much
+furrowed, and his jet-black hair was only grizzled, not whitened,
+by the advance of age.  All his motions spoke strength unabated;
+and, though rather undersized, he had very broad shoulders, was
+square-made, thin-flanked, and apparently combined in his frame
+muscular strength and activity; the last somewhat impaired
+perhaps by years, but the first remaining in full vigour.  A hard
+and harsh countenance--eyes far sunk under projecting eyebrows,
+which were grizzled like his hair--a wide mouth, furnished from
+ear to ear with it range of unimpaired teeth, of uncommon
+whiteness, and a size and breadth which might have become the
+jaws of an ogre, completed this delightful portrait.  He was clad
+like a fisherman, in jacket and trousers of the blue cloth
+commonly used by seamen, and had a Dutch case-knife, like that of
+a Hamburgh skipper, stuck into a broad buff belt, which seemed as
+if it might occasionally sustain weapons of a description still
+less equivocally calculated for violence.
+
+This man gave me an inquisitive, and, as I thought, a sinister
+look upon entering the apartment; but without any further notice
+of me, took up the office of arranging the table, which the old
+lady had abandoned for that of cooking the fish, and, with more
+address than I expected from a person of his coarse appearance,
+placed two chairs at the head of the table, and two stools below;
+accommodating each seat to a cover, beside which he placed an
+allowance of barley-bread, and a small jug, which he replenished
+with ale from a large black jack.  Three of these jugs were of
+ordinary earthenware, but the fourth, which he placed by the
+right-hand cover at, the upper end of the table, was a flagon of
+silver, and displayed armorial bearings.  Beside this flagon he
+placed a salt-cellar of silver, handsomely wrought, containing
+salt of exquisite whiteness, with pepper and other spices.  A
+sliced lemon was also presented on a small silver salver.  The
+two large water-dogs, who seemed perfectly to understand the
+nature of the preparations, seated themselves one on each side of
+the table, to be ready to receive their portion of the
+entertainment.  I never saw finer animals, or which seemed to be
+more influenced by a sense of decorum, excepting that they
+slobbered a little as the rich scent from the chimney was wafted
+past their noses.  The small dogs ensconced themselves beneath
+the table.
+
+I am aware that I am dwelling upon trivial and ordinary
+circumstances, and that perhaps I may weary out your patience in
+doing so.  But conceive me alone in this strange place, which
+seemed, from the universal silence, to be the very temple of
+Harpocrates--remember that this is my first excursion from home--
+forget not that the manner in which I had been brought hither had
+the dignity of danger and something the air of an adventure, and
+that there was a mysterious incongruity in all I had hitherto
+witnessed; and you will not, I think, be surprised that these
+circumstances, though trifling, should force themselves on my
+notice at the time, and dwell in my memory afterwards.
+
+That a fisher, who pursued the sport perhaps for his amusement as
+well as profit, should be well mounted and better lodged than the
+lower class of peasantry, had in it nothing surprising; but there
+was something about all that I saw which seemed to intimate that
+I was rather in the abode of a decayed gentleman, who clung to a
+few of the forms and observances of former rank, than in that of
+a common peasant, raised above his fellows by comparative
+opulence.
+
+Besides the articles of plate which I have already noticed, the
+old man now lighted and placed on the table a silver lamp, or
+CRUISIE as the Scottish term it, filled with very pure oil, which
+in burning diffused an aromatic fragrance, and gave me a more
+perfect view of the cottage walls, which I had hitherto only seen
+dimly by the light of the fire.  The BINK  [The frame of wooden
+shelves placed in a Scottish kitchen for holding plates.]  with
+its usual arrangement of pewter and earthenware, which was most
+strictly and critically clean, glanced back the flame of the lamp
+merrily from one side of the apartment.  In a recess, formed by
+the small bow of a latticed window, was a large writing-desk of
+walnut-tree wood, curiously carved, above which arose shelves of
+the same, which supported a few books and papers.  The opposite
+side of the recess contained (as far as I could discern, for it
+lay in shadow, and I could at any rate have seen it but
+imperfectly from the place where I was seated) one or two guns,
+together with swords, pistols, and other arms a collection which,
+in a poor cottage, and in a country so peaceful, appeared
+singular at least, if not even somewhat suspicious.
+
+All these observations, you may suppose, were made much sooner
+than I have recorded, or you (if you have not skipped) have been
+able to read them.  They were already finished, and I was
+considering how I should open some communication with the mute
+inhabitants of the mansion, when my conductor re-entered from the
+side-door by which he had made his exit.
+
+He had now thrown off his rough riding-cap, and his coarse
+jockey-coat, And stood before me in a grey jerkin trimmed with
+black, which sat close to, and set off, his large and sinewy
+frame, and a pair of trousers of a lighter colour, cut as close
+to the body as they are used by Highlandmen.  His whole dress was
+of finer cloth than that of the old man; and his linen, so minute
+was my observation, clean and unsullied.  His shirt was without
+ruffles, and tied at the collar with a black ribbon, which showed
+his strong and muscular neck rising from it like that of an
+ancient Hercules.  His head was small, with a large forehead, and
+well-formed ears.  He wore neither peruke nor hair-powder; and
+his chestnut locks, curling close to his head like those of an
+antique statue, showed not the least touch of time, though the
+owner must have been at least fifty.  His features were high and
+prominent in such a degree that one knew not whether to term them
+harsh or handsome.  In either case, the sparkling grey eye,
+aquiline nose, and well-formed mouth, combined to render his
+physiognomy noble and expressive.  An air of sadness, or
+severity, or of both, seemed to indicate a melancholy, and, at
+the same time, a haughty temper.  I could not help running
+mentally over the ancient heroes, to whom I might assimilate the
+noble form and countenance before me.  He was too young, and
+evinced too little resignation to his fate, to resemble
+Belisarius.  Coriolanus, standing by the hearth of Tullus
+Aufidius, came nearer the mark; yet the gloomy and haughty look
+of the stranger had, perhaps, still more of Marius, seated among
+the ruins of Carthage.
+
+While I was lost in these imaginations, my host stood by the
+fire, gazing on me with the same attention which I paid to him,
+until, embarrassed by his look, I was about to break silence at
+all hazards.  But the supper, now placed upon the table, reminded
+me, by its appearance, of those wants which I had almost
+forgotten while I was gazing on the fine form of my conductor.
+He spoke at length, and I almost started at the deep rich tone of
+his voice, though what he said was but to invite me to sit down
+to the table.  He himself assumed the seat of honour, beside
+which the silver flagon was placed, and beckoned to me to sit
+down beside him.
+
+Thou knowest thy father's strict and excellent domestic
+discipline has trained me to bear the invocation of a blessing
+before we break the daily bread, for which we are taught to pray
+--I paused a moment, and, without designing to do so, I suppose
+my manner made him sensible of what I expected.  The two
+domestics or inferiors, as I should have before observed, were
+already seated at the bottom of the table, when my host shot a
+glance of a very peculiar expression towards the old man,
+observing, with something approaching to a sneer, 'Cristal Nixon,
+say grace--the gentleman expects one.'
+
+'The foul fiend shall be clerk, and say amen, when I turn
+chaplain,' growled out the party addressed, in tones which might
+have become the condition of a dying bear; 'if the gentleman is a
+whig, he may please himself with his own mummery.  My faith is
+neither in word nor writ, but in barley-bread and brown ale.'
+
+'Mabel Moffat,' said my guide, looking at the old woman, and
+raising his sonorous voice, probably because she was hard of
+hearing, 'canst thou ask a blessing upon our victuals?'
+
+The old woman shook her head, kissed the cross which hung from
+her rosary, and was silent.
+
+'Mabel will say grace for no heretic,' said the master of the
+house, with the same latent sneer on his brow and in his accent.
+
+At the same moment, the side-door already mentioned opened, and
+the young woman (so she proved) whom I had first seen at the door
+of the cottage, advanced a little way into the room, then stopped
+bashfully, as if she had observed that I was looking at her, and
+asked the master of the house, 'if he had called?'
+
+'Not louder than to make old Mabel hear me,' he replied; 'and
+yet,' be added, as she turned to retire, 'it is a shame a
+stranger should see a house where not one of the family can or
+will say a grace--do thou be our chaplain.'
+
+The girl, who was really pretty, came forward with timid modesty,
+and, apparently unconscious that she was doing anything uncommon,
+pronounced the benediction in a silver-toned voice, and with
+affecting simplicity--her cheek colouring just so much as to show
+that on a less solemn occasion she would have felt more
+embarrassed.
+
+Now, if thou expectest a fine description of this young woman,
+Alan Fairford, in order to entitle thee to taunt me with having
+found a Dulcinea in the inhabitant of a fisherman's cottage on
+the Solway Firth, thou shalt be disappointed; for, having said
+she seemed very pretty, and that she was a sweet and gentle-
+speaking creature, I have said all concerning her that I can tell
+thee.  She vanished when the benediction was spoken.
+
+My host, with a muttered remark on the cold of our ride, and the
+keen air of the Solway Sands, to which he did not seem to wish an
+answer, loaded my plate from Mabel's grillade, which, with a
+large wooden bowl of potatoes, formed our whole meal.  A
+sprinkling from the lemon gave a much higher zest than the usual
+condiment of vinegar; and I promise you that whatever I might
+hitherto have felt, either of curiosity or suspicion, did not
+prevent me from making a most excellent supper, during which
+little passed betwixt me and my entertainer, unless that he did
+the usual honours of the table with courtesy, indeed, but without
+even the affectation of hearty hospitality, which those in his
+(apparent) condition generally affect on such occasions, even
+when they do not actually feel it.  On the contrary, his manner
+seemed that of a polished landlord towards an unexpected and
+unwelcome guest, whom, for the sake of his own credit, he
+receives with civility, but without either goodwill or
+cheerfulness.
+
+If you ask how I learned all this, I cannot tell you; nor, were I
+to write down at length the insignificant intercourse which took
+place between us, would it perhaps serve to justify these
+observations.  It is sufficient to say, that in helping his dogs,
+which he did from time to time with great liberality, he seemed
+to discharge a duty much more pleasing to himself, than when he
+paid the same attention to his guest.  Upon the whole, the result
+on my mind was as I tell it you.
+
+When supper was over, a small case-bottle of brandy, in a curious
+frame of silver filigree, circulated to the guests.  I had
+already taken a small glass of the liquor, and, when it had
+passed to Mabel and to Cristal and was again returned to the
+upper end of the table, I could not help taking the bottle in my
+hand, to look more at the armorial bearings which were chased
+with considerable taste on the silver framework.  Encountering
+the eye of my entertainer, I instantly saw that my curiosity was
+highly distasteful; he frowned, bit his lip, and showed such
+uncontrollable signs of impatience, that, setting the bottle
+immediately down, I attempted some apology.  To this he did not
+deign either to reply, or even to listen; and Cristal, at a
+signal from his master, removed the object of my curiosity, as
+well as the cup, upon which the same arms were engraved.
+
+Then ensued an awkward pause, which I endeavoured to break by
+observing, that 'I feared my intrusion upon his hospitality had
+put his family to some inconvenience'.
+
+'I hope you see no appearance of it, sir,' he replied, with cold
+civility.  'What inconvenience a family so retired as ours may
+suffer from receiving an unexpected guest is like to be trifling,
+in comparison of what the visitor himself sustains from want of
+his accustomed comforts.  So far, therefore, as our connexion
+stands, our accounts stand clear.'
+
+Notwithstanding this discouraging reply, I blundered on, as is
+usual in such cases, wishing to appear civil, and being, perhaps,
+in reality the very reverse.  'I was afraid,' I said, that my
+presence had banished one of the family' (looking at the side-
+door) 'from his table.'
+
+'If,' he coldly replied, 'I meant the young woman whom I had seen
+in the apartment, he bid me observe that there was room enough at
+the table for her to have seated herself, and meat enough, such
+as it was, for her supper.  I might, therefore, be assured, if
+she had chosen it, she would have supped with us.'
+
+There was no dwelling on this or any other topic longer; for my
+entertainer, taking up the lamp, observed, that 'my wet clothes
+might reconcile me for the night to their custom of keeping early
+hours; that he was under the necessity of going abroad by peep of
+day to-morrow morning, and would call me up at the same time, to
+point out the way by which I was to return to the Shepherd's
+Bush.'
+
+This left no opening for further explanation; nor was there room
+for it on the usual terms of civility; for, as he neither asked
+my name, nor expressed the least interest concerning my
+condition, I--the obliged person--had no pretence to trouble him
+with such inquiries on my part.
+
+He took up the lamp, and led me through the side-door into a very
+small room, where a bed had been hastily arranged for my
+accommodation, and, putting down the lamp, directed me to leave
+my wet clothes on the outside of the door, that they might be
+exposed to the fire during the night.  He then left me, having
+muttered something which was meant to pass for good night.
+
+I obeyed his directions with respect to my clothes, the rather
+that, in despite of the spirits which I had drunk, I felt my
+teeth begin to chatter, and received various hints from an aguish
+feeling, that a town-bred youth, like myself, could not at once
+rush into all the hardihood of country sports with impunity.  But
+my bed, though coarse and hard, was dry and clean; and I soon was
+so little occupied with my heats and tremors, as to listen with
+interest to a heavy foot, which seemed to be that of my landlord,
+traversing the boards (there was no ceiling, as you may believe)
+which roofed my apartment.  Light, glancing through these rude
+planks, became visible as soon as my lamp was extinguished; and
+as the noise of the slow, solemn, and regular step continued, and
+I could distinguish that the person turned and returned as he
+reached the end of the apartment, it seemed clear to me that the
+walker was engaged in no domestic occupation, but merely pacing
+to and fro for his own pleasure.  'An odd amusement this,' I
+thought, 'for one who had been engaged at least a part of the
+preceding day in violent exercise, and who talked of rising by
+the peep of dawn on the ensuing morning.'
+
+Meantime I heard the storm, which had been brewing during the
+evening, begin to descend with a vengeance; sounds as of distant-
+thunder (the noise of the more distant waves, doubtless, on the
+shore) mingled with the roaring of the neighbouring torrent, and
+with the crashing, groaning, and even screaming of the trees in
+the glen whose boughs were tormented by the gale.  Within the
+house, windows clattered, and doors clapped, and the walls,
+though sufficiently substantial for a building of the kind,
+seemed to me to totter in the tempest.
+
+But still the heavy steps perambulating the apartment over my
+head were distinctly heard amid the roar and fury of the
+elements.  I thought more than once I even heard a groan; but I
+frankly own that, placed in this unusual situation, my fancy may
+have misled me.  I was tempted several times to call aloud, and
+ask whether the turmoil around us did not threaten danger to the
+building which we inhabited; but when I thought of the secluded
+and unsocial master of the dwelling, who seemed to avoid human
+society, and to remain unperturbed amid the elemental war, it
+seemed that to speak to him at that moment would have been to
+address the spirit of the tempest himself, since no other being,
+I thought, could have remained calm and tranquil while winds and
+waters were thus raging around.
+
+In process of time, fatigue prevailed over anxiety and curiosity.
+The storm abated, or my senses became deadened to its terrors,
+and I fell asleep ere yet the mysterious paces of my host had
+ceased to shake the flooring over my head.
+
+It might have been expected that the novelty of my situation,
+although it did not prevent my slumbers, would have at least
+diminished their profoundness, and shortened their duration.
+It proved otherwise, however; for I never slept more soundly in
+my life, and only awoke when, at morning dawn, my landlord shook
+me by the shoulder, and dispelled some dream, of which,
+fortunately for you, I have no recollection, otherwise you would
+have been favoured with it, in hopes you might have proved a
+second Daniel upon the occasion.
+
+'You sleep sound--' said his full deep voice; 'ere five years
+have rolled over your head, your slumbers will be lighter--unless
+ere then you are wrapped in the sleep which is never broken.'
+
+'How!'  said I, starting up in the bed; 'do you know anything of
+me--of my prospects--of my views in life?'
+
+'Nothing,' he answered, with a grim smile; 'but it is evident you
+are entering upon the world young, inexperienced, and full of
+hopes, and I do but prophesy to you what I would to any one in
+your condition.  But come; there lie your clothes--a brown crust
+and a draught of milk wait you, if you choose to break your fast;
+but you must make haste.'
+
+'I must first,' I said, 'take the freedom to spend a few minutes
+alone, before beginning the ordinary works of the day.'
+
+'Oh!--umph!--I cry your devotions pardon,' he replied, and left
+the apartment.
+
+Alan, there is something terrible about this man.
+
+I joined him, as I had promised, in the kitchen where we had
+supped overnight, where I found the articles which he had offered
+me for breakfast, without butter or any other addition.
+
+He walked up and down while I partook of the bread and milk; and
+the slow measured weighty step seemed identified with those which
+I had heard last night.  His pace, from its funereal slowness,
+seemed to keep time with some current of internal passion, dark,
+slow, and unchanged.  'We run and leap by the side of a lively
+and bubbling brook,' thought I, internally, 'as if we would run a
+race with it; but beside waters deep, slow, and lonely, our pace
+is sullen and silent as their course.  What thoughts may be now
+corresponding with that furrowed brow, and bearing time with that
+heavy step?'
+
+'If you have finished,' said he, looking up to me with a glance
+of impatience, as he observed that I ate no longer, but remained
+with my eyes fixed upon him, 'I wait to show you the way.'
+
+We went out together, no individual of the family having been
+visible excepting my landlord.  I was disappointed of the
+opportunity which I watched for of giving some gratuity to the
+domestics, as they seemed to be.  As for offering any recompense
+to the master of the household, it seemed to me impossible to
+have attempted it.
+
+What would I have given for a share of thy composure, who wouldst
+have thrust half a crown into a man's hand whose necessities
+seemed to crave it, conscious that you did right in making the
+proffer, and not caring sixpence whether you hurt the feelings of
+him whom you meant to serve!  I saw thee once give a penny to a
+man with a long beard, who, from the dignity of his exterior,
+might have represented Solon.  I had not thy courage, and
+therefore I made no tender to my mysterious host, although,
+notwithstanding his display of silver utensils, all around the
+house bespoke narrow circumstances, if not actual poverty.
+
+We left the place together.  But I hear thee murmur thy very new
+and appropriate ejaculation, OHE, JAM SATIS!--The rest for
+another time.  Perhaps I may delay further communication till I
+learn how my favours are valued.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER V
+
+ALAN FAIRFORD TO DARSIE LATIMER
+
+I have thy two last epistles, my dear Darsie, and expecting the
+third, have been in no hurry to answer them.  Do not think my
+silence ought to be ascribed to my failing to take interest in
+them, for, truly, they excel (though the task was difficult) thy
+usual excellings.  Since the moon-calf who earliest discovered
+the Pandemonium of Milton in an expiring wood-fire--since the
+first ingenious urchin who blew bubbles out of soap and water,
+thou, my best of friends, hast the highest knack at making
+histories out of nothing.  Wert thou to plant the bean in the
+nursery-tale, thou wouldst make out, so soon as it began to
+germinate, that the castle of the giant was about to elevate its
+battlements on the top of it.  All that happens to thee gets a
+touch of the wonderful and the sublime from thy own rich
+imagination.  Didst ever see what artists call a Claude Lorraine
+glass, which spreads its own particular hue over the whole
+landscape which you see through it?--thou beholdest ordinary
+events just through such a medium.
+
+I have looked carefully at the facts of thy last long letter, and
+they are just such as might have befallen any little truant of
+the High School, who had got down to Leith Sands, gone beyond the
+PRAWN-DUB, wet his hose and shoon, and, finally, had been carried
+home, in compassion, by some high-kilted fishwife, cursing all
+the while the trouble which the brat occasioned her.
+
+I admire the figure which thou must have made, clinging for dear
+life behind the old fellow's back--thy jaws chattering with fear,
+thy muscles cramped with anxiety.  Thy execrable supper of
+broiled salmon, which was enough to ensure the nightmare's
+regular visits for a twelvemonth, may be termed a real
+affliction; but as for the storm of Thursday last (such, I
+observe, was the date), it roared, whistled, howled, and
+bellowed, as fearfully amongst the old chimney-heads in the
+Candlemaker Row, as it could on the Solway shore, for the very
+wind of it--TESTE ME PER TOTAM NOCTEM VIGILANTE.  And then in the
+morning again, when--Lord help you--in your sentimental delicacy
+you bid the poor man adieu, without even tendering him half a
+crown for supper and lodging!
+
+You laugh at me for giving a penny (to be accurate, though, thou
+shouldst have said sixpence) to an old fellow, whom thou, in thy
+high flight, wouldst have sent home supperless, because he was
+like Solon or Belisarius.  But you forget that the affront
+descended like a benediction into the pouch of the old
+gaberlunzie, who overflowed in blessings upon the generous donor
+--long ere he would have thanked thee, Darsie, for thy barren
+veneration of his beard and his bearing.  Then you laugh at my
+good father's retreat from Falkirk, just as if it were not time
+for a man to trudge when three or four mountain knaves, with
+naked claymores, and heels as light as their fingers, were
+scampering after him, crying FURINISH.  You remember what he said
+himself when the Laird of Bucklivat told him that FURINISH
+signified 'stay a while'.  'What the devil,' he said, surprised
+out of his Presbyterian correctness by the unreasonableness of
+such a request under the circumstances, 'would the, scoundrels
+have had me stop to have my head cut off?'
+
+Imagine such a train at your own heels, Darsie, and ask yourself
+whether you would not exert your legs as fast as you did in
+flying from the Solway tide.  And yet you impeach my father's
+courage.  I tell you he has courage enough to do what is right,
+and to spurn what is wrong--courage enough to defend a righteous
+cause with hand and purse, and to take the part of the poor man
+against his oppressor, without fear of the consequences to
+himself.  This is civil courage, Darsie; and it is of little
+consequence to most men in this age and country whether they ever
+possess military courage or no.
+
+Do not think I am angry with you, though I thus attempt to
+rectify your opinions on my father's account.  I am well aware
+that, upon the whole, he is scarce regarded with more respect by
+me than by thee.  And, while I am in a serious humour, which it
+is difficult to preserve with one who is perpetually tempting me
+to laugh at him, pray, dearest Darsie, let not thy ardour for
+adventure carry thee into more such scrapes as that of the Solway
+Sands.  The rest of the story is a mere imagination; but that
+stormy evening might have proved, as the clown says to Lear, 'a
+naughty night to swim in.'
+
+As for the rest, if you can work mysterious and romantic heroes
+out of old cross-grained fishermen, why, I for one will reap some
+amusement by the metamorphosis.  Yet hold!  even there, there is
+some need of caution.  This same female chaplain--thou sayest so
+little of her, and so much of every one else, that it excites
+some doubt in my mind.  VERY PRETTY she is, it seems--and that is
+all thy discretion informs me of.  There are cases in which
+silence implies other things than consent.  Wert thou ashamed or
+afraid, Darsie, to trust thyself with the praises of the very
+pretty grace-sayer?--As I live, thou blushest!  Why, do I not
+know thee an inveterate squire of dames?  and have I not been in
+thy confidence?  An elegant elbow, displayed when the rest of the
+figure was muffled in a cardinal, or a neat well-turned ankle and
+instep, seen by chance as its owner tripped up the Old Assembly
+Close, [Of old this almost deserted alley formed the most common
+access betwixt the High Street and the southern suburbs.]  turned
+thy brain for eight days.  Thou  wert once caught if I remember
+rightly, with a single glance of a single matchless eye, which,
+when the fair owner withdrew her veil, proved to be single in the
+literal sense of the word.  And, besides, were you not another
+time enamoured of a voice--a mere voice, that mingled in the
+psalmody at the Old Greyfriars' Church--until you discovered the
+proprietor of that dulcet organ to be Miss Dolly MacIzzard, who
+is both 'back and breast', as our saying goes?
+
+All these things considered, and contrasted with thy artful
+silence on the subject of this grace-saying Nereid of thine, I
+must beg thee to be more explicit upon that subject in thy next,
+unless thou wouldst have me form the conclusion that thou
+thinkest more of her than thou carest to talk of.
+
+You will not expect much news from this quarter, as you know the
+monotony of my life, and are aware it must at present be devoted
+to uninterrupted study.  You have said a thousand times that I am
+only qualified to make my way by dint of plodding, and therefore
+plod I must.
+
+My father seems to be more impatient of your absence than he was
+after your first departure.  He is sensible, I believe, that our
+solitary meals want the light which your gay humour was wont to
+throw over them, and feels melancholy as men do when the light of
+the sun is no longer upon the landscape.  If it is thus with him,
+thou mayst imagine it is much more so with me, and canst conceive
+how heartily I wish that thy frolic were ended, and thou once
+more our inmate.
+
+--
+
+I resume my pen, after a few hours' interval, to say that an
+incident has occurred on which you will yourself be building a
+hundred castles in the air, and which even I, jealous as I am of
+such baseless fabrics, cannot but own affords ground for singular
+conjecture.
+
+My father has of late taken me frequently along with him when he
+attends the courts, in his anxiety to see me properly initiated
+into the practical forms of business.  I own I feel something on
+his account and my own from this over-anxiety, which, I dare say,
+renders us both ridiculous.  But what signifies my repugnance?
+my father drags me up to his counsel learned in the law,--'Are
+you quite ready to come on to-day, Mr. Crossbite?--This is my
+son, designed for the bar--I take the liberty to bring him with
+me to-day to the consultation, merely that he may see how these
+things are managed.'
+
+Mr. Crossbite smiles and bows; as a lawyer smiles on the
+solicitor who employs him, and I dare say, thrusts his tongue
+into his cheek, and whispers into the first great wig that passes
+him, 'What the d--l does old Fairford mean by letting loose his
+whelp on me?'
+
+As I stood beside them, too much vexed at the childish part I was
+made to play to derive much information from the valuable
+arguments of Mr. Crossbite, I observed a rather elderly man, who
+stood with his eyes firmly bent on my father, as if he only
+waited an end of the business in which he was engaged, to address
+him.  There was something, I thought, in the gentleman's
+appearance which commanded attention.  Yet his dress was not in
+the present taste, and though it had once been magnificent, was
+now antiquated and unfashionable.  His coat was of branched
+velvet, with a satin lining, a waistcoat of violet-coloured silk,
+much embroidered; his breeches the same stuff as the coat.  He
+wore square-toed shoes, with foretops, as they are called; and
+his silk stockings were rolled up over his knee, as you may have
+seen in pictures, and here and there on some of those originals
+who seem to pique themselves on dressing after the mode of
+Methuselah.  A CHAPEAU BRAS and sword necessarily completed his
+equipment, which, though out of date, showed that it belonged to
+a man of distinction.
+
+The instant Mr. Crossbite had ended what he had to say, this
+gentleman walked up to my father, with, 'Your servant, Mr.
+Fairford--it is long since you and I met.'
+
+My father, whose politeness, you know, is exact and formal,
+bowed, and hemmed, and was confused, and at length professed that
+the distance since they had met was so great, that though he
+remembered the face perfectly, the name, he was sorry to any,
+had--really--somehow--escaped his memory.
+
+'Have you forgot Herries of Birrenswork?'  said the gentleman,
+and my father bowed even more profoundly than before; though I
+think his reception of his old friend seemed to lose some of the
+respectful civility which he bestowed on him while his name was
+yet unknown.  It now seemed to be something like the lip-courtesy
+which the heart would have denied had ceremony permitted.
+
+My father, however, again bowed low, and hoped he saw him well.
+
+'So well, my good Mr. Fairford, that I come hither determined to
+renew my acquaintance with one or two old friends, and with you
+in the first place.  I halt at my old resting place--you must
+dine with me to-day, at Paterson's, at the head of the Horse
+Wynd--it is near your new fashionable dwelling, and I have
+business with you.'
+
+My father excused himself respectfully, and not without
+embarrassment--'he was particularly engaged at home.'
+
+'Then I will dine with you, man,' said Mr. Herries of
+Birrenswork; 'the few minutes you can spare me after dinner will
+suffice for my business; and I will not prevent you a moment from
+minding your own--I am no bottle-man.'
+
+You have often remarked that my father, though a scrupulous
+ohserver of the rites of hospitality, seems to exercise them
+rather as a duty than as a pleasure; indeed, but for a
+conscientious wish to feed the hungry and receive the stranger,
+his doors would open to guests much seldomer than is the case.  I
+never saw so strong an example of this peculiarity (which I
+should otherwise have said is caricatured in your description) as
+in his mode of homologating the self-given invitation of Mr.
+Herries.  The embarsassed brow, and the attempt at a smile which
+accompanied his 'We will expect the honour of seeing you in Brown
+Square at three o'clock,' could not deceive any one, and did not
+impose upon the old laird.  It was with a look of scorn that he
+replied, 'I will relieve you then till that hour, Mr. Fairford;'
+and his whole manner seemed to say, 'It is my pleasure to dine
+with you, and I care not whether I am welcome or no.'
+
+When he turned away, I asked my father who he was.
+
+'An unfortunate gentleman,' was the reply.
+
+'He looks pretty well on his misfortunes,' replied I.  'I should
+not have suspected that so gay an outside was lacking a dinner.'
+
+'Who told you that he does?'  replied my father; 'he is OMNI
+SUSPICIONE MAJOR, so far as worldly circumstances are concerned.
+It is to be hoped he makes a good use of them; though, if he
+does, it will be for the first time in his life.'
+
+'He has then been an irregular liver?'  insinuated I.
+
+My father replied by that famous brocard with which he silences
+all unacceptable queries turning in the slightest degree upon the
+failings of our neighbours,--'If we mend our own faults, Alan, we
+shall all of us have enough to do, without sitting in judgement
+upon other folks.'
+
+Here I was again at fault; but rallying once more, I observed, he
+had the air of a man of high rank and family.
+
+'He is well entitled,' said my father, 'representing Herries of
+Birrenswork; a branch of that great and once powerful family of
+Herries, the elder branch whereof merged in the house of
+Nithesdale at the death of Lord Robin the Philosopher, Anno
+Domini sixteen hundred and sixty-seven.'
+
+'Has he still,' said I, 'his patrimonial estate of Birrenswork?'
+
+'No,' replied my father; 'so far back as his father's time, it
+was a mere designation--the property being forfeited by Herbert
+Herries following his kinsman the Earl of Derwentwater to the
+Preston affair in 1715.  But they keep up the designation,
+thinking, doubtless, that their claims may be revived in more
+favourable times for Jacobites and for popery; and folks who in
+no way partake of their fantastic capriccios do yet allow it to
+pass unchallenged, EX COMITATE, if not EX MISERICORDIA.--But were
+he the Pope and the Pretender both, we must get some dinner ready
+for him, since he has thought fit to offer himself.  So hasten
+home, my lad, and tell Hannah, Cook Epps, and James Wilkinson, to
+do their best; and do thou look out a pint or two of Maxwell's
+best--it is in the fifth bin--there are the keys of the wine-
+cellar.  Do not leave them in the lock--you know poor James's
+failing, though he is an honest creature under all other
+temptations--and I have but two bottles of the old brandy left--
+we must keep it for medicine, Alan.'
+
+Away went I--made my preparations--the hour of dinner came, and
+so did Mr. Herries of Birrenswork.
+
+If I had thy power of imagination and description, Darsie, I
+could make out a fine, dark, mysterious, Rembrandt-looking
+portrait of this same stranger, which should be as far superior
+to thy fisherman as a shirt of chain-mail is to a herring-net.  I
+can assure you there is some matter for description about him;
+but knowing my own imperfections, I can only say, I thought him
+eminently disagreeable and ill-bred.--No, ILL-BRED is not the
+proper word on the contrary, he appeared to know the rules of
+good-breeding perfectly, and only to think that the rank of the
+company did not require that he should attend to them--a view of
+the matter infinitely more offensive than if his behaviour had
+been that of uneducated and proper rudeness.  While my father
+said grace, the laird did all but whistle aloud; and when I, at
+my father's desire, returned thanks, he used his toothpick, as if
+he had waited that moment for its exercise.
+
+So much for Kirk--with King, matters went even worse.  My father,
+thou knowest, is particularly full of deference to his guests;
+and in the present care, he seemed more than usually desirous to
+escape every cause of dispute.  He so far compromised his loyalty
+as to announce merely 'The King' as his first toast after dinner,
+instead of the emphatic 'King George', which is his usual
+formula.  Our guest made a motion with his glass, so as to pass
+it over the water-decanter which stood beside him, and added,
+'Over the water.'
+
+My father coloured, but would not seem to hear this.  Much more
+there was of careless and disrespectful in the stranger's manner
+and tone of conversation; so that, though I know my father's
+prejudices in favour of rank and birth, and though I am aware his
+otherwise masculine understanding has never entirely shaken off
+the slavish awe of the great which in his earlier days they had
+so many modes of commanding, still I could hardly excuse him for
+enduring so much insolence--such it seemed to be as this self-
+invited guest was disposed to offer to him at his own table.
+
+One can endure a traveller in the same carriage, if he treads
+upon your toes by accident, or even through negligence; but it is
+very different when, knowing that they are rather of a tender
+description, he continues to pound away at them with his hoofs.
+In my poor opinion--and I am a man of peace--you can, in that
+case, hardly avoid a declaration of war.
+
+I believe my father read my thoughts in my eye; for, pulling out
+his watch, he said; 'Half-past four, Alan--you should be in your
+own room by this time--Birrenswork will excuse you.'
+
+Our visitor nodded carelessly, and I had no longer any pretence
+to remain.  But as I left the room, I heard this magnate of
+Nithesdale distinctly mention the name of Latimer.  I lingered;
+but at length a direct hint from my father obliged me to
+withdraw; and when, an hour afterwards, I was summoned to partake
+of a cup of tea, our guest had departed.  He had business that
+evening in the High Street, and could not spare time even to
+drink tea.  I could not help saying, I considered his departure
+as a relief from incivility.  'What business has he to upbraid
+us,' I said, 'with the change of our dwelling from a more
+inconvenient to a better quarter of the town?  What was it to him
+if we chose to imitate some of the conveniences or luxuries of an
+English dwelling-house, instead of living piled up above each
+other in flats?  Have his patrician birth and aristocratic
+fortunes given him any right to censure those who dispose of the
+fruits of their own industry, according to their own pleasure?'
+
+My father took a long pinch of snuff, and replied, 'Very well,
+Alan; very well indeed.  I wish Mr. Crossbite or Counsellor Pest
+had heard you; they must have acknowledged that you have a talent
+for forensic elocution; and it may not be amiss to try a little
+declamation at home now and then, to gather audacity and keep
+yourself in breath.  But touching the subject of this paraffle of
+words, it's not worth a pinch of tobacco.  D'ye think that I care
+for Mr. Herries of Birrenswork more than any other gentleman who
+comes here about business, although I do not care to go tilting
+at his throat, because he speaks like a grey goose, as he is?
+But to say no more about him, I want to have Darsie Latimer's
+present direction; for it is possible I may have to write the lad
+a line with my own hand--and yet I do not well know--but give me
+the direction at all events.'
+
+I did so, and if you have heard from my father accordingly, you
+know more, probably, about the subject of this letter than I who
+write it.  But if you have not, then shall I have discharged a
+friend's duty, in letting you know that there certainly is
+something afloat between this disagreeable laird and my father,
+in which you are considerably interested.
+
+Adieu!  and although I have given thee a subject for waking
+dreams, beware of building a castle too heavy for the foundation;
+which, in the present instance, is barely the word Latimer
+occurring in a conversation betwixt a gentleman of Dumfriesshire
+and a W.S. of Edinburgh--CAETERA PRORSUS IGNORO.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VI
+
+DARSIE LATIMER TO ALAN FAIRFORD
+
+(In continuation of Letters III and IV.)
+
+I told thee I walked out into the open air with my grave and
+stern landlord.  I could now see more perfectly than on the
+preceding night the secluded glen in which stood the two or three
+cottages which appeared to be the abode of him and his family.
+
+It was so narrow, in proportion to its depth, that no ray of the
+morning sun was likely to reach it till it should rise high in
+the horizon.  Looking up the dell, you saw a brawling brook
+issuing in foamy haste from a covert of underwood, like a race-
+horse impatient to arrive at the goal; and, if you gazed yet;
+more earnestly, you might observe part of a high waterfall
+glimmering through the foliage, and giving occasion, doubtless,
+to the precipitate speed of the brook.  Lower down, the stream
+became more placid, and opened into a quiet piece of water which
+afforded a rude haven to two or three fishermen's boats, then
+lying high and dry on the sand, the tide being out.  Two or three
+miserable huts could be seen beside this little haven, inhabited
+probably by the owners of the boats, but inferior in every
+respect to the establishment of mine host, though that was
+miserable enough.
+
+I had but a minute or two to make these observations, yet during
+that space my companion showed symptoms of impatience, and more
+than once shouted, 'Cristal--Cristal Nixon,' until the old man of
+the preceding evening appeared at the door of one of the
+neighbouring cottages or outhouses, leading the strong black
+horse which I before commemorated, ready bridled and saddled.  My
+conductor made Cristal a sign with his finger, and, turning from
+the cottage door, led the way up the steep path or ravine which
+connected the sequestered dell with the open country.
+
+Had I been perfectly aware of the character of the road down
+which I had been hurried with so much impetuosity on the
+preceding evening, I greatly question if I should have ventured
+the descent; for it deserved no better name than the channel of a
+torrent, now in a good measure filled with water, that dashed in
+foam and fury into the dell, being swelled with the rains of the
+preceding night.  I ascended this ugly path with some difficulty
+although on foot, and felt dizzy when I observed, from such
+traces as the rains had not obliterated, that the horse seemed
+almost to have slid down it upon his haunches the evening before.
+
+My host threw himself on his horse's back, without placing a foot
+in the stirrup--passed me in the perilous ascent, against which
+he pressed his steed as if the animal had had the footing of a
+wild cat.  The water and mud splashed from his heels in his
+reckless course, and a few bounds placed him on the top of the
+bank, where I presently joined him, and found the horse and rider
+standing still as a statue; the former panting and expanding his
+broad nostrils to the morning wind, the latter motionless, with
+his eye fixed on the first beams of the rising sun, which already
+began to peer above the eastern horizon and gild the distant
+mountains of Cumberland and Liddesdale.
+
+He seemed in a reverie, from which he started at my approach,
+and, putting his horse in motion, led the way at a leisurely pace
+through a broken and sandy road, which traversed a waste, level,
+and uncultivated tract of downs, intermixed with morass, much
+like that in the neighbourhood of my quarters at Shepherd's Bush.
+Indeed, the whole open ground of this district, where it
+approaches the sea, has, except in a few favoured spots, the same
+uniform and dreary character.
+
+Advancing about a hundred yards from the brink of the glen, we
+gained a still more extensive command of this desolate prospect,
+which seemed even more dreary, as contrasted with the opposite
+shores of Cumberland, crossed and intersected by ten thousand
+lines of trees growing in hedgerows, shaded with groves and woods
+of considerable extent, animated by hamlets and villas, from
+which thin clouds of smoke already gave sign of human life and
+human industry.
+
+My conductor had extended his arm, and was pointing the road to
+Shepherd's Bush, when the step of a horse was heard approaching
+us.  He looked sharply round, and having observed who was
+approaching, proceeded in his instructions to me, planting
+himself at the same time in the very middle of the path, which,
+at the place where we halted, had a slough on the one side and a
+sandbank on the other.
+
+I observed that the rider who approached us slackened his horse's
+pace from a slow trot to a walk, as if desirous to suffer us to
+proceed, or at least to avoid passing us at a spot where the
+difficulty of doing so must have brought us very close to each
+other.  You know my old failing, Alan, and that I am always
+willing to attend to anything in preference to the individual who
+has for the time possession of the conversation.
+
+Agreeably to this amiable propensity, I was internally
+speculating concerning the cause of the rider keeping aloof from
+us, when my companion, elevating his deep voice so suddenly and
+so sternly as at once to recall my wandering thoughts, exclaimed,
+'In the name of the devil, young man, do you think that others
+have no better use for their time than you have, that you oblige
+me to repeat the same thing to you three times over?  Do you see,
+I say, yonder thing at a mile's distance, that looks like a
+finger-post, or rather like a gallows?  I would it had a dreaming
+fool hanging upon it, as an example to all meditative moon-
+calves!--Yon gibbet-looking pole will guide you to the bridge,
+where you must pass the large brook; then proceed straight
+forwards, till several roads divide at a cairn.  Plague on thee,
+thou art wandering again!
+
+It is indeed quite true that at this moment the horseman
+approached us, and my attention was again called to him as I made
+way to let him pass.  His whole exterior at once showed that he
+belonged to the Society of Friends, or, as the world and the
+world's law calls them, Quakers.  A strong and useful iron-grey
+galloway showed, by its sleek and good condition, that the
+merciful man was merciful to his beast.  His accoutrements were
+in the usual unostentatious but clean and servicable order which
+characterizes these sectaries.  His long surtout of dark-grey
+superfine cloth descended down to the middle of his leg, and was
+buttoned up to his chin, to defend him against the morning air.
+As usual, his ample beaver hung down without button or loop, and
+shaded a comely and placid countenance, the gravity of which
+appeared to contain some seasoning of humour, and had nothing in
+common with the pinched puritanical air affected by devotees in
+general.  The brow was open and free from wrinkles, whether of
+age or hypocrisy.  The eye was clear, calm, and considerate, yet
+appeared to be disturbed by apprehension, not to say fear, as,
+pronouncing the usual salutation of, 'I wish thee a good morrow,
+friend,' he indicated, by turning his palfrey close to one side
+of the path, a wish to glide past us with as little trouble as
+possible--just as a traveller would choose to pass a mastiff of
+whose peaceable intentions he is by no means confident.
+
+But my friend, not meaning, perhaps, that he should get off so
+easily, put his horse quite across the path, so that, without
+plunging into the slough, or scrambling up the bank, the Quaker
+could not have passed him.  Neither of these was an experiment
+without hazard greater than the passenger seemed willing to
+incur.  He halted, therefore, as if waiting till my companion
+should make way for him; and, as they sat fronting each other, I
+could not help thinking that they might have formed no bad emblem
+of Peace and War; for although my conductor was unarmed, yet the
+whole of his manner, his stern look, and his upright seat on
+horseback, were entirely those of a soldier in undress, He
+accosted the Quaker in these words, 'So ho!  friend Joshua, thou
+art early to the road this morning.  Has the spirit moved thee
+and thy righteous brethren to act with some honesty, and pull
+down yonder tide-nets that keep the fish from coming up the
+river?'
+
+'Surely, friend, not so,' answered Joshua, firmly, but good-
+humouredly at the same time; 'thou canst not expect that our own
+hands should pull down what our purses established.  Thou killest
+the fish with spear, line, and coble-net; and we, with snares and
+with nets, which work by the ebb and the flow of the tide.  Each
+doth what seems best in his eyes to secure a share of the
+blessing which Providence hath bestowed on the river, and that
+within his own bounds.  I prithee seek no quarrel against us, for
+thou shalt have no wrong at our hand.'
+
+'Be assured I will take none at the hand of any man, whether his
+hat be cocked or broad-brimmed,' answered the fisherman.  'I tell
+you in fair terms, Joshua Geddes, that you and your partners are
+using unlawful craft to destroy the fish in the Solway by stake-
+nets and wears; and that we, who fish fairly, and like men, as
+our fathers did, have daily and yearly less sport and less
+profit.  Do not think gravity or hypocrisy can carry it off as
+you have done.  The world knows you, and we know you.  You will
+destroy the salmon which makes the livelihood of fifty poor
+families, and then wipe your mouth, and go to make a speech at
+meeting.  But do not hope it will last thus.  I give you fair
+warning, we will be upon you one morning soon, when we will not
+leave a stake standing in the pools of the Solway; and down the
+tide they shall every one go, and well if we do not send a lessee
+along with them.'
+
+'Friend,' replied Joshua, with a constrained smile, 'but that I
+know thou dost not mean as thou sayst, I would tell thee we are
+under the protection of this country's laws; nor do we the less
+trust to obtain their protection, that our principles permit us
+not, by any act of violent resistance, to protect ourselves.'
+
+'All villainous cant and cowardice,' exclaimed the fisherman,
+'and assumed merely as a cloak to your hypocritical avarice.'
+
+'Nay, say not cowardice, my friend,' answered the Quaker, 'since
+thou knowest there may be as much courage in enduring as in
+acting; and I will be judged by this youth, or by any one else,
+whether there is not more cowardice--even in the opinion of that
+world whose thoughts are the breath in thy nostrils--in the armed
+oppressor who doth injury, than in the defenceless and patient
+sufferer who endureth it with constancy.'
+
+'I will change no more words with you on the subject,' said the
+fisherman, who, as if something moved at the last argument which
+Mr. Geddes had used, now made room for him to pass forward on his
+journey.  'Do not forget, however,' he added, 'that you have had
+fair warning, nor suppose that we will accept of fair words in
+apology for foul play.  These nets of yours are unlawful--they
+spoil our fishings--we will have them down at all risks and
+hazards.  I am a man of my word, friend Joshua.'
+
+'I trust thou art,' said the Quaker; 'but thou art the rather
+bound to be cautious in rashly affirming what thou wilt never
+execute.  For I tell thee, friend, that though there is as great
+a difference between thee and one of our people as there is
+between a lion and a sheep, yet I know and believe thou hast so
+much of the lion in thee, that thou wouldst scarce employ thy
+strength and thy rage upon that which professeth no means of
+resistance.  Report says so much good of thee, at least, if it
+says little more.'
+
+'Time will try,' answered the fisherman; 'and hark thee, Joshua,
+before we part I will put thee in the way of doing one good deed,
+which, credit me, is better than twenty moral speeches.  Here is
+a stranger youth, whom Heaven has so scantily gifted with brains,
+that he will bewilder himself in the Sands, as he did last night,
+unless thou wilt kindly show him the way to Shepherd's Bush; for
+I have been in vain endeavouring to make him comprehend the road
+thither.  Hast thou so much charity under thy simplicity, Quaker,
+as to do this good turn?'
+
+'Nay, it is thou, friend,' answered Joshua, 'that dost lack
+charity, to suppose any one unwilling to do so simple a
+kindness.'
+
+'Thou art right--I should have remembered it can cost thee
+nothing.  Young gentlemen, this pious pattern of primitive
+simplicity will teach thee the right way to the Shepherd's Bush--
+aye, and will himself shear thee like a sheep, if you come to
+buying and selling with him.'
+
+He then abruptly asked me, how long I intended to remain at
+Shepherd's Bush.
+
+I replied, I was at present uncertain--as long probably, as I
+could amuse myself in the neighbourhood.
+
+'You are fond of sport?'  he added, in the same tone of brief
+inquiry.
+
+I answered in the affirmative, but added, I was totally
+inexperienced.
+
+'Perhaps if you reside here for some days,' he said, 'we may meet
+again, and I may have the chance of giving you a lesson.'
+
+Ere I could express either thanks or assent, he turned short
+round with a wave of his hand by way of adieu, and rode back to
+the verge of the dell from which we had emerged together; and as
+he remained standing upon the banks, I could long hear his voice
+while he shouted down to those within its recesses.
+
+Meanwhile the Quaker and I proceeded on our journey for some time
+in silence; he restraining his sober-minded steed to a pace which
+might have suited a much less active walker than myself, and
+looking on me from time to time with an expression of curiosity,
+mingled with benignity.  For my part, I cared not to speak first.
+It happened I had never before been in company with one of this
+particular sect, and, afraid that in addressing him I might
+unwittingly infringe upon some of their prejudices or
+peculiarities, I patiently remained silent.  At length he asked
+me, whether I had been long in the service of the laird, as men
+called him.
+
+I repeated the words 'in his service?'  with such an accent of
+surprise, as induced him to say, 'Nay, but, friend, I mean no
+offence; perhaps I should have said in his society--an inmate, I
+mean, in his house?'
+
+'I am totally unknown to the person from whom we have just
+parted,' said I, 'and our connexion is only temporary.  He had
+the charity to give me his guidance from the Sands, and a night's
+harbourage from the tempest.  So our acquaintance began, and
+there it is likely to end; for you may observe that our friend is
+by no means apt to encourage familiarity.'
+
+'So little so,' answered my companion, 'that thy case is, I
+think, the first in which I ever heard of his receiving any one
+into his house; that is, if thou hast really spent the night
+there.'
+
+'Why should you doubt it?'  replied I; 'there is no motive I can
+have to deceive you, nor is the object worth it.'
+
+'Be not angry with me,' said the Quaker; 'but thou knowest that
+thine own people do not, as we humbly endeavour to do, confine
+themselves within the simplicity of truth, but employ the
+language of falsehood, not only for profit, but for compliment,
+and sometimes for mere diversion.  I have heard various stories
+of my neighbour; of most of which I only believe a small part,
+and even then they are difficult to reconcile with each other.
+But this being the first time I ever beard of his receiving a
+stranger within his dwelling, made me express some doubts.  I
+pray thee let them not offend thee.'
+
+'He does not,' said I, 'appear to possess in much abundance the
+means of exercising hospitality, and so may be excused from
+offering it in ordinary cases.'
+
+'That is to say, friend,' replied Joshua, 'thou hast supped ill,
+and perhaps breakfasted worse.  Now my small tenement, called
+Mount Sharon, is nearer to us by two miles than thine inn; and
+although going thither may prolong thy walk, as taking thee of
+the straighter road to Shepherd's Bush, yet methinks exercise
+will suit thy youthful limbs, as well as a good plain meal thy
+youthful appetite.  What sayst thou, my young acquaintance?'
+
+'If it puts you not to inconvenience,' I replied; for the
+invitation was cordially given, and my bread and milk had been
+hastily swallowed, and in small quantity.
+
+'Nay,' said Joshua, 'use not the language of compliment with
+those who renounce it.  Had this poor courtesy been very
+inconvenient, perhaps I had not offered it.'
+
+'I accept the invitation, then,' said I, 'in the same good spirit
+in which you give it.'
+
+The Quaker smiled, reached me his hand, I shook it, and we
+travelled on in great cordiality with each other.  The fact is,
+I was much entertained by contrasting in my own mind, the open
+manner of the kind-hearted Joshua Geddes, with the abrupt, dark,
+and lofty demeanour of my entertainer on the preceding evening.
+Both were blunt and unceremonious; but the plainness of the
+Quaker had the character of devotional simplicity, and was
+mingled with the more real kindness, as if honest Joshua was
+desirous of atoning, by his sincerity, for the lack of external
+courtesy.  On the contrary, the manners of the fisherman were
+those of one to whom the rules of good behaviour might be
+familiar, but who, either from pride or misanthropy, scorned to
+observe them.  Still I thought of him with interest and
+curiosity, notwithstanding so much about him that was repulsive;
+and I promised myself, in the course of my conversation with the
+Quaker, to learn all that he knew on the subject.  He turned the
+conversation, however, into a different channel, and inquired
+into my own condition of life, and views in visiting this remote
+frontier.
+
+I only thought it necessary to mention my name, and add, that I
+had been educated to the law, but finding myself possessed of
+some independence, I had of late permitted myself some
+relaxation, and was residing at Shepherd's Bush to enjoy the
+pleasure of angling.
+
+'I do thee no harm, young man,' said my new friend, 'in wishing
+thee a better employment for thy grave hours, and a more humane
+amusement (if amusement thou must have) for those of a lighter
+character.'
+
+'You are severe, sir,' I replied.  'I heard you but a moment
+since refer yourself to the protection of the laws of the
+country--if there be laws, there must be lawyers to explain, and
+judges to administer them.'
+
+Joshua smiled, and pointed to the sheep which were grazing on the
+downs over which we were travelling.  'Were a wolf,' he said, 'to
+come even now upon yonder flocks, they would crowd for
+protection, doubtless, around the shepherd and his dogs; yet they
+are bitten and harassed daily by the one, shorn, and finally
+killed and eaten by the other.  But I say not this to shock you;
+for, though laws and lawyers are evils, yet they are necessary
+evils in this probationary state of society, till man shall learn
+to render unto his fellows that which is their due, according to
+the light of his own conscience, and through no other compulsion.
+Meanwhile, I have known many righteous men who have followed thy
+intended profession in honesty and uprightness of walk.  The
+greater their merit, who walk erect in a path which so many find
+slippery.
+
+'And angling,' said I:--'you object to that also as an amusement,
+you who, if I understood rightly what passed between you and my
+late landlord, are yourself a proprietor of fisheries.'
+
+'Not a proprietor,' he replied, 'I am only, in copartnery with
+others, a tacksman or lessee of some valuable salmon-fisheries a
+little down the coast.  But mistake me not.  The evil of angling,
+with which I class all sports, as they are called, which have the
+sufferings of animals for their end and object, does not consist
+in the mere catching and killing those animals with which the
+bounty of Providence hath stocked the earth for the good of man,
+but in making their protracted agony a principle of delight and
+enjoyment.  I do indeed cause these fisheries to be conducted for
+the necessary taking, killing, and selling the fish; and, in the
+same way, were I a farmer, I should send my lambs to market.  But
+I should as soon think of contriving myself a sport and amusement
+out of the trade of the butcher as out of that of the fisher.'
+
+We argued the point no further; for though I thought his
+arguments a little too high-strained, yet as my mind acquitted me
+of having taken delight in aught but the theory of field-sports,
+I did not think myself called upon stubbornly to advocate a
+practice which had afforded me so little pleasure.
+
+We had by this time arrived at the remains of an old finger-post,
+which my host had formerly pointed out as a landmark.  Here, a
+ruinous wooden bridge, supported by long posts resembling
+crutches, served me to get across the water, while my new friend
+sought a ford a good way higher up, for the stream was
+considerably swelled.
+
+As I paused for his rejoining me, I observed an angler at a
+little distance pouching trout after trout, as fast almost as he
+could cast his line; and I own, in spite of Joshua's lecture on
+humanity, I could not but envy his adroitness and success, so
+natural is the love of sport to our minds, or so easily are we
+taught to assimilate success in field-sports with ideas of
+pleasure, and with the praise due to address and agility.  I soon
+recognized in the successful angler little Benjie, who had been
+my guide and tutor in that gentle art, as you have learned from
+my former letters.  I called--I whistled--the rascal recognized
+me, and, starting like a guilty thing, seemed hesitating whether
+to approach or to run away; and when he determined on the former,
+it was to assail me with a loud, clamorous, and exaggerated
+report of the anxiety of all at the Shepherd's Bush for my
+personal  safety; how my landlady had wept, how Sam and the
+ostler had not the heart to go to bed, but sat up all night
+drinking--and how he himself had been up long before daybreak to
+go in quest of me.
+
+'And you were switching the water, I suppose,' said I, 'to
+discover my dead body?'
+
+This observation produced a long 'Na--a--a' of acknowledged
+detection; but, with his natural impudence, and confidence in my
+good nature, he immediately added, 'that he thought I would like
+a fresh trout or twa for breakfast, and the water being in such a
+rare trim for the saumon raun, [The bait made of salmon-roe
+salted and preserved.  In a swollen river, and about the month of
+October, it is a most deadly bait.]  he couldna help taking a
+cast.'
+
+While we were engaged in this discussion, the honest Quaker
+returned to the farther end of the wooden bridge to tell me he
+could not venture to cross the brook in its present state:  but
+would be under the necessity to ride round by the stone bridge,
+which was a mile and a half higher up than his own house.  He was
+about to give me directions how to proceed without him, and
+inquire for his sister, when I suggested to him that, if he
+pleased to trust his horse to little Benjie, the boy might carry
+him round by the bridge, while we walked the shorter and more
+pleasant road.
+
+Joshua shook his head, for he was well acquainted with Benjie,
+who, he said, was the naughtiest varlet in the whole
+neighbourhood.  Nevertheless, rather than part company, he agreed
+to put the pony under his charge for a short season, with many
+injunctions that he should not attempt to mount, but lead the
+pony (even Solomon) by the bridle, under the assurances of
+sixpence in case of proper demeanour, and penalty that if he
+transgressed the orders given him, 'verily he would be scourged.'
+
+Promises cost Benjie nothing, and he showered them out wholesale;
+till the Quaker at length yielded up the bridle to him, repeating
+his charges, and enforcing them by holding up his forefinger.  On
+my part, I called to Benjie to leave the fish he had taken at
+Mount Sharon, making, at the same time, an apologetic countenance
+to my new friend, not being quite aware whether the compliment
+would be agreeable to such a condemner of field-sports.
+
+He understood me at once, and reminded me of the practical
+distinction betwixt catching the animals as an object of cruel
+and wanton sport, and eating them as lawful and gratifying
+articles of food, after they were killed.  On the latter point he
+had no scruples; but, on the contrary, assured me that this brook
+contained the real red trout, so highly esteemed by all
+connoisseurs, and that, when eaten within an hour of their being
+caught, they had a peculiar firmness of substance and delicacy of
+flavour, which rendered them an agreeable addition to a morning
+meal, especially when earned, like ours, by early rising, and an
+hour or two's wholesome exercise.
+
+But to thy alarm be it spoken, Alan, we did not come so far as
+the frying of our fish without further adventure.  So it is only
+to spare thy patience, and mine own eyes, that I pull up for the
+present, and send thee the rest of my story in a subsequent
+letter.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VII
+
+THE SAME TO THE SAME (In continuation.)
+
+Little Benjie, with the pony, having been sent off on the left
+side of the brook, the Quaker and I sauntered on, like the
+cavalry and infantry of the same army occupying the opposite
+banks of a river, and observing the same line of march.  But,
+while my worthy companion was assuring me of a pleasant
+greensward walk to his mansion, little Benjie, who had been
+charged to keep in sight, chose to deviate from the path assigned
+him, and, turning to the right, led his charge, Solomon, out of
+our vision.
+
+'The villain means to mount him!'  cried Joshua, with more
+vivacity than was consistent with his profession of passive
+endurance.
+
+I endeavoured to appease his apprehensions, as he pushed on,
+wiping his brow with vexation, assuring him that, if the boy did
+mount, he would, for his own sake, ride gently.
+
+'You do not know him,' said Joshua, rejecting all consolation;
+'HE do anything gently!--no, he will gallop Solomon--he will
+misuse the sober patience of the poor animal who has borne me so
+long!  Yes, I was given over to my own devices when I ever let
+him touch the bridle, for such a little miscreant there never was
+before him in this country.'
+
+He then proceeded to expatiate on every sort of rustic enormity
+of which he accused Benjie.  He had been suspected of snaring
+partridges--was detected by Joshua himself in liming singing-
+birds--stood fully charged with having worried several cats, by
+aid of a lurcher which attended him, and which was as lean, and
+ragged, and mischievous, as his master.  Finally, Benjie stood
+accused of having stolen a duck, to hunt it with the said
+lurcher, which was as dexterous on water as on land.  I chimed in
+with my friend, in order to avoid giving him further irritation,
+and declared I should be disposed, from my own experience, to
+give up Benjie as one of Satan's imps.  Joshua Geddes began to
+censure the phrase as too much exaggerated, and otherwise
+unbecoming the mouth of a reflecting person; and, just as I was
+apologizing for it, as being a term of common parlance, we heard
+certain sounds on the opposite side of the brook, which seemed to
+indicate that Solomon and Benjie were at issue together.  The
+sandhills behind which Benjie seemed to take his course, had
+concealed from us, as doubtless he meant they should, his ascent
+into the forbidden saddle, and, putting Solomon to his mettle,
+which he was seldom called upon to exert, they had cantered away
+together in great amity, till they came near to the ford from
+which the palfrey's legitimate owner had already turned back.
+
+Here a contest of opinions took place between the horse and his
+rider.  The latter, according to his instructions, attempted to
+direct Solomon towards the distant bridge of stone; but Solomon
+opined that the ford was the shortest way to his own stable.  The
+point was sharply contested, and we heard Benjie gee-hupping,
+tchek-tcheking, and, above all, flogging in great style; while
+Solomon, who, docile in his general habits, was now stirred
+beyond his patience, made a great trampling and recalcitration;
+and it was their joint noise which we heard, without being able
+to see, though Joshua might too well guess, the cause of it.
+
+Alarmed at these indications, the Quaker began to shout out,
+'Benjie--thou varlet!  Solomon--thou fool!'  when the couple
+presented themselves in full drive, Solomon having now decidedly
+obtained the better of the conflict, and bringing his unwilling
+rider in high career down to the ford.  Never was there anger
+changed so fast into humane fear, as that of my good companion.
+'The varlet will be drowned!'  he exclaimed--'a widow's son!--
+her only son!--and drowned!--let me go'--And he struggled with me
+stoutly as I hung upon him, to prevent him from plunging into the
+ford.
+
+I had no fear whatever for Benjie; for the blackguard vermin,
+though he could not manage the refractory horse, stuck on his
+seat like a monkey.  Solomon and Benjie scrambled through the
+ford with little inconvenience, and resumed their gallop on the
+other side.
+
+It was impossible to guess whether on this last occasion Benjie
+was running off with Solomon, or Solomon with Benjie; but,
+judging from character and motives, I rather suspected the
+former.  I could not help laughing as the rascal passed me,
+grinning betwixt terror and delight, perched on the very pommel
+of the saddle, and holding with extended arms by bridle and mane
+while Solomon, the bit secured between his teeth, and his head
+bored down betwixt his forelegs, passed his master in this
+unwonted guise as hard as he could pelt.
+
+'The mischievous bastard!'  exclaimed the Quaker, terrified out
+of his usual moderation of speech--'the doomed gallows-bird!--he
+will break Solomon's wind to a certainty.'
+
+I prayed him to be comforted--assured, him a brushing gallop
+would do his favourite no harm and reminded him of the censure he
+had bestowed on me a minute before, for applying a harsh epithet
+to the boy.
+
+But Joshua was not without his answer; 'Friend youth,' he said,
+'thou didst speak of the lad's soul, which thou didst affirm
+belonged to the enemy, and of that thou couldst say nothing of
+thine own knowledge; on the contrary, I did but speak of his
+outward man, which will assuredly be suspended by a cord, if he
+mendeth not his manners.  Men say that, young as he is, he is one
+of the laird's gang.'
+
+'Of the laird's gang!'  said I, repeating the words in surprise.
+'Do you mean the person with whom I slept last night?  I heard
+you call him the laird.  Is he at the head of a gang?'
+
+'Nay, I meant not precisely a gang,' said the Quaker, who
+appeared in his haste to have spoken more than he intended--a
+company, or party, I should have said; but thus it is, friend
+Latimer, with the wisest men when they permit themselves to be
+perturbed with passion, and speak as in a fever, or as with the
+tongue of the foolish and the forward.  And although thou hast
+been hasty to mark my infirmity, yet I grieve not that thou hast
+been a witness to it, seeing that the stumbles of the wise may be
+no less a caution to youth and inexperience, than is the fall of
+the foolish.'
+
+This was a sort of acknowledgement of what I had already begun to
+suspect--that my new friend's real goodness of disposition,
+joined to the acquired quietism of his religious sect, had been
+unable entirely to check the effervescence of a temper naturally
+warm and hasty.
+
+Upon the present occasion, as if sensible he had displayed a
+greater degree of emotion than became his character, Joshua
+avoided further allusion to Benjie and Solomon, and proceeded to
+solicit my attention to the natural objects around us, which
+increased in beauty and interest, as, still conducted by the
+meanders of the brook, we left the common behind us, and entered
+a more cultivated and enclosed country, where arable and pasture
+ground was agreeably varied with groves and hedges.  Descending
+now almost close to the stream, our course lay through a little
+gate, into a pathway kept with great neatness, the sides of which
+were decorated with trees and flowering shrubs of the hardier
+species; until, ascending by a gentle slope, we issued from the
+grove, and stood almost at once in front of a low but very neat
+building, of an irregular form; and my guide, shaking me
+cordially by the hand, made me welcome to Mount Sharon.
+
+The wood through which we had approached this little mansion was
+thrown around it both on the north and north-west, but, breaking
+off into different directions, was intersected by a few fields
+well watered and sheltered.  The house fronted to the south-east,
+and from thence the pleasure-ground, or, I should rather say, the
+gardens, sloped down to the water.  I afterwards understood that
+the father of the present proprietor had a considerable taste for
+horticulture, which had been inherited by his son, and had formed
+these gardens, which, with their shaven turf, pleached alleys,
+wildernesses, and exotic trees and shrubs, greatly excelled
+anything of the kind which had been attempted in the
+neighbourhood.
+
+If there was a little vanity in the complacent smile with which
+Joshua Geddes saw me gaze with delight on a scene so different
+from the naked waste we had that day traversed in company, it
+might surely be permitted to one who, cultivating and improving
+the beauties of nature, had found therein, as he said, bodily
+health, and a pleasing relaxation for the mind.  At the bottom of
+the extended gardens the brook wheeled round in a wide
+semicircle, and was itself their boundary.  The opposite side was
+no part of Joshua's domain, but the brook was there skirted by a
+precipitous rock of limestone, which seemed a barrier of nature's
+own erecting around his little Eden of beauty, comfort, and
+peace.
+
+'But I must not let thee forget,' said the kind Quaker, 'amidst
+thy admiration of these beauties of our little inheritance, that
+thy breakfast has been a light one.'
+
+So saying, Joshua conducted me to a small sashed door, opening
+under a porch amply mantled by honeysuckle and clematis, into a
+parlour of moderate size; the furniture of which, in plainness
+and excessive cleanliness, bore the characteristic marks of the
+sect to which the owner belonged.
+
+Thy father's Hannah is generally allowed to be an exception to
+all Scottish housekeepers, and stands unparalleled for
+cleanliness among the women of Auld Reekie; but the cleanliness
+of Hannah is sluttishness compared to the scrupulous
+purifications of these people, who seem to carry into the minor
+decencies of life that conscientious rigour which they affect in
+their morals.
+
+The parlour would have been gloomy, for the windows were small
+and the ceiling low; but the present proprietor had rendered it
+more cheerful by opening one end into a small conservatory,
+roofed with glass, and divided from the parlour by a partition of
+the same.  I have never before seen this very pleasing manner of
+uniting the comforts of an apartment with the beauties of a
+garden, and I wonder it is not more practised by the great.
+Something of the kind is hinted at in a paper of the SPECTATOR.
+
+As I walked towards the conservatory to view it more closely, the
+parlour chimney engaged my attention.  It was a pile of massive
+stone, entirely out of proportion to the size of the apartment.
+On the front had once been an armorial scutcheon; for the hammer,
+or chisel, which had been employed to deface the shield or crest,
+had left uninjured the scroll beneath, which bore the pious
+motto, 'TRUST IN GOD.'  Black-letter, you know, was my early
+passion, and the tombstones in the Greyfriars' churchyard early
+yielded up to my knowledge as a decipherer what little they could
+tell of the forgotten dead.
+
+Joshua Geddes paused when he saw my eye fixed on this relic of
+antiquity.  'Thou canst read it?'  he said.
+
+I repeated the motto, and added, there seemed vestiges of a date.
+
+'It should be 1537,' said he; 'for so long ago, at the least
+computation, did my ancestors, in the blinded times of Papistry,
+possess these lands, and in that year did they build their
+house.'
+
+'It is an ancient descent,' said I, looking with respect upon the
+monument.  'I am sorry the arms have been defaced.'
+
+It was perhaps impossible for my friend, Quaker as he was, to
+seem altogether void of respect for the pedigree which he began
+to recount to me, disclaiming all the while the vanity usually
+connected with the subject; in short, with the air of mingled
+melancholy, regret, and conscious dignity, with which Jack Fawkes
+used to tell us at college of his ancestor's unfortunate
+connexion with the Gunpowder Plot.
+
+'Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher,' thus harangued Joshua
+Gleddes of Mount Sharon; 'if we ourselves are nothing in the
+sight of Heaven, how much less than nothing must be our
+derivation from rotten bones and mouldering dust, whose immortal
+spirits have long since gone to their private account?  Yes,
+friend Latimer, my ancestors were renowned among the ravenous and
+bloodthirsty men who then dwelt in this vexed country; and so
+much were they famed for successful freebooting, robbery, and
+bloodshed, that they are said to have been called Geddes, as
+likening them to the fish called a Jack, Pike, or Luce, and in
+our country tongue, a GED--a, goodly distinction truly for
+Christian men!  Yet did they paint this shark of the fresh waters
+upon their shields, and these profane priests of a wicked
+idolatry, the empty boasters called heralds, who make engraven
+images of fishes, fowls, and four-footed beasts, that men may
+fall down and worship them, assigned the ged for the device and
+escutcheon of my fathers, and hewed it over their chimneys, and
+placed it above their tombs; and the men were elated in mind, and
+became yet more ged-like, slaying, leading into captivity, and
+dividing the spoil, until the place where they dwelt obtained the
+name of Sharing-Knowe, from the booty which was there divided
+amongst them and their accomplices.  But a better judgement was
+given to my father's father, Philip Geddes, who, after trying to
+light his candle at some of the vain wildfires then held aloft at
+different meetings and steeple-houses, at length obtained a spark
+from the lamp of the blessed George Fox, who came into Scotland
+spreading light among darkness, as he himself hath written, as
+plentifully as fly the sparkles from the hoof of the horse which
+gallops swiftly along the stony road.'--Here the good Quaker
+interrupted himself with, 'And that is very true, I must go
+speedily to see after the condition of Solomon.'
+
+A Quaker servant here entered the room with a tray, and inclining
+his head towards his master, but not after the manner of one who
+bows, said composedly, 'Thou art welcome home, friend Joshua, we
+expected thee not so early; but what hath befallen Solomon thy
+horse?'
+
+'What hath befallen him, indeed?'  said my friend; 'hath he not
+been returned hither by the child whom they call Benjie?'
+
+'He hath,' said his domestic, 'but it was after a strange
+fashion; for he came hither at a swift and furious pace, and
+flung the child Benjie from his back, upon the heap of dung which
+is in the stable-yard.'
+
+'I am glad of it,' said Joshua, hastily,--'glad of it, with all
+my heart and spirit!  But stay, he is the child of the widow--
+hath the boy any hurt?'
+
+'Not so' answered the servant, 'for he rose and fled swiftly.'
+
+Joshua muttered something about a scourge, and then inquired
+after Solomon's present condition.
+
+'He seetheth like a steaming cauldron,' answered the servant;
+'and Bauldie, the lad, walketh him about the yard with a halter,
+lest he take cold.'
+
+Mr. Geddes hastened to the stable-yard to view personally the
+condition of his favourite, and I followed to offer my counsel as
+a jockey.  Don't laugh, Alan, sure I have jockeyship enough to
+assist a Quaker--in this unpleasing predicament.
+
+The lad who was leading the horse seemed to be no Quaker, though
+his intercourse with the family had given him a touch of their
+prim sobriety of look and manner.  He assured Joshua that his
+horse had received no injury, and I even hinted that the exercise
+would be of service to him.  Solomon himself neighed towards his
+master, and rubbed his head against the good Quaker's shoulder,
+as if to assure him of his being quite well; so that Joshua
+returned in comfort to his parlour, where breakfast was now about
+to be displayed.
+
+I have since learned that the affection of Joshua for his pony is
+considered as inordinate by some of his own sect; and that he has
+been much blamed for permitting it to be called by the name of
+Solomon, or any other name whatever; but he has gained so much
+respect and influence among them that they overlook these
+foibles.
+
+I learned from him (whilst the old servant, Jehoiachim, entering
+and re-entering, seemed to make no end of the materials which he
+brought in for breakfast) that his grandfather Philip, the
+convert of George Fox, had suffered much from the persecution to
+which these harmless devotees were subjected on all sides during
+that intolerant period, and much of their family estate had been
+dilapidated.  But better days dawned on Joshua's father, who,
+connecting himself by marriage with a wealthy family of Quakers
+in Lancashire, engaged successfully in various branches of
+commerce, and redeemed the remnants of the property, changing its
+name in sense, without much alteration of sound, from the Border
+appellation of Sharing-Knowe, to the evangelical appellation of
+Mount Sharon.
+
+This Philip Geddes, as I before hinted, had imbibed the taste for
+horticulture and the pursuits of the florist, which are not
+uncommon among the peaceful sect he belonged to.  He had
+destroyed the remnants of the old peel-house, substituting the
+modern mansion in its place; and while he reserved the hearth of
+his ancestors, in memory of their hospitality, as also the, pious
+motto which they had chanced to assume, he failed not to
+obliterate the worldly and military emblems displayed upon the
+shield and helmet, together with all their blazonry.
+
+In a few minutes after Mr. Geddes had concluded the account; of
+himself and his family, his sister Rachel, the only surviving
+member of it, entered the room.  Her appearance is remarkably
+pleasing, and although her age is certainly thirty at least, she
+still retains the shape and motion of an earlier period.  The
+absence of everything like fashion or ornament was, as usual,
+atoned for by the most perfect neatness and cleanliness of her
+dress; and her simple close cap was perticularly suited to eyes
+which had the softness and simplicity of the dove's.  Her
+features were also extremely agreeable, but had suffered a little
+through the ravages of that professed enemy to beauty, the small-
+pox; a disadvantage which was in part counterbalanced by a well-
+formed mouth, teeth like pearls, and a pleasing sobriety of
+smile, that seemed to wish good here and hereafter to every one
+she spoke to.  You cannot make any of your vile inferences here,
+Alan, for I have given a full-length picture of Rachel Geddes; so
+that; you cannot say, in this case, as in the letter I have just
+received, that she was passed over as a subject on which I feared
+to dilate.  More of this anon.
+
+Well, we settled to our breakfast after a blessing, or rather an
+extempore prayer, which Joshua made upon the occasion, and which
+the spirit moved him to prolong rather more than I felt
+altogether agreeable.  Then, Alan, there was such a dispatching
+of the good things of the morning as you have not witnessed since
+you have seen Darsie Latimer at breakfast.  Tea and chocolate,
+eggs, ham, and pastry, not forgetting the broiled fish,
+disappeared with a celerity which seemed to astonish the good-
+humoured Quakers, who kept loading my plate with supplies, as if
+desirous of seeing whether they could, by any possibility, tire
+me out.  One hint, however, I received, which put me in mind
+where I was.  Miss Geddes had offered me some sweet-cake, which,
+at the moment, I declined; but presently afterwards, seeing it
+within my reach, I naturally enough helped myself to a slice, and
+had just; deposited it beside my plate, when Joshua, mine host,
+not with the authoritative air of Sancho's doctor, Tirteafuera,
+but in a very calm and quiet manner, lifted it away and replaced
+it on the dish, observing only, 'Thou didst refuse it before,
+friend Latimer.'
+
+These good folks, Alan, make no allowance for what your good
+father calls the Aberdeen-man's privilege, of 'taking his word
+again;' or what the wise call second thoughts.
+
+Bating this slight hint that I was among a precise generation,
+there was nothing in my reception that was peculiar--unless,
+indeed, I were to notice the solicitous and uniform kindness with
+which all the attentions of my new friends were seasoned, as if
+they were anxious to assure me that the neglect of worldly
+compliments interdicted by their sect, only served to render
+their hospitality more sincere.  At length my hunger was
+satisfied, and the worthy Quaker, who, with looks of great good
+nature, had watched my progress, thus addressed his sister:--
+
+'This young man, Rachel, hath last night sojourned in the tents
+of our neighbour whom men call the laird.  I am sorry I had not
+met him the evening before, for our neighbour's hospitality is
+too unfrequently exercised to be well prepared with the means of
+welcome.'
+
+'Nay, but, Joshua,' said Rachel, 'if our neighbour hath done a
+kindness, thou shouldst not grudge him the opportunity; and if
+our young friend hath fared ill for a night, he will the better
+relish what Providence may send him of better provisions.'
+
+'And that he may do so at leisure,' said Joshua, 'we will pray
+him, Rachel, to tarry a day or twain with us:  he is young, and
+is but now entering upon the world, and our habitation may, if he
+will, be like a resting-place, from which he may look abroad upon
+the pilgrimage which he must take, and the path which he has to
+travel.--What sayest thou, friend Latimer?  We constrain not our
+friends to our ways, and thou art, I think, too wise to quarrel
+with us for following our own fashions; and if we should even
+give thee a word of advice, thou wilt not, I think, be angry, so
+that it is spoken in season.'
+
+You know, Alan, how easily I am determined by anything resembling
+cordiality--and so, though a little afraid of the formality of my
+host and hostess, I accepted their invitation, provided I could
+get some messenger to send to Shepherd's Bush for my servant and
+portmanteau.
+
+'Why, truly, friend,' said Joshua, 'thy outward frame would be
+improved by cleaner garments; but I will do thine errand myself
+to the Widow Gregson's house of reception, and send thy lad
+hither with thy clothes.  Meanwhile, Rachel will show thee these
+little gardens, and then will put thee in some way of spending
+thy time usefully, till our meal calls us together at the second
+hour after noon.  I bid thee farewell for the present, having
+some space to walk, seeing I must leave the animal Solomon to his
+refreshing rest.'
+
+With these words, Mr. Joshua Geddes withdrew.  Some ladies we
+have known would have felt, or at least affected, reserve or
+embarrassment, at being left to do the honours of the grounds to
+(it will be out, Alan)--a smart young fellow--an entire stranger.
+She went out for a few minutes, and returned in her plain cloak
+and bonnet, with her beaver gloves, prepared to act as my guide,
+with as much simplicity as if she had been to wait upon thy
+father.  So forth I sallied with my fair Quakeress.
+
+If the house at Mount Sharon be merely a plain and convenient
+dwelling, of moderate size and small pretensions, the gardens and
+offices, though not extensive, might rival an earl's in point of
+care and expense.  Rachel carried me first to her own favourite
+resort, a poultry-yard, stocked with a variety of domestic fowls,
+of the more rare as well as the most ordinary kinds, furnished
+with every accommodation which may suit their various habits.  A
+rivulet which spread into a pond for the convenience of the
+aquatic birds, trickled over gravel as it passed through the
+yards dedicated to the land poultry, which were thus amply
+supplied with the means they use for digestion.
+
+All these creatures seemed to recognize the presence of their
+mistress, and some especial favourites hastened to her feet, and
+continued to follow her as far as their limits permitted.  She
+pointed out their peculiarities and qualities, with the
+discrimination of one who had made natural history her study; and
+I own I never looked on barn-door fowls with so much interest
+before--at least until they were boiled or roasted.  I could not
+help asking the trying question, how she could order the
+execution of any of the creatures of which she seemed so careful.
+
+'It was painful,' she said, 'but it was according to the law of
+their being.  They must die; but they knew not when death was
+approaching; and in making them comfortable while they lived, we
+contributed to their happiness as much as the conditions of their
+existence permitted to us.'
+
+I am not quite of her mind, Alan.  I do not believe either pigs
+or poultry would admit that the chief end of their being was to
+be killed and eaten.  However, I did not press the argument, from
+which my Quaker seemed rather desirous to escape; for, conducting
+me to the greenhouse, which was extensive, and filled with the
+choicest plants, she pointed out an aviary which occupied the
+farther end, where, she said, she employed herself with attending
+the inhabitants, without being disturbed with any painful
+recollections concerning their future destination.
+
+I will not trouble you with any account of the various hot-houses
+and gardens, and their contents.  No small sum of money must have
+been expended in erecting and maintaining them in the exquisite
+degree of good order which they exhibited.  The family, I
+understood, were connected with that of the celebrated Millar,
+and had imbibed his taste for flowers, and for horticulture.  But
+instead of murdering botanical names, I will rather conduct you
+to the POLICY, or pleasure-garden, which the taste of Joshua or
+his father had extended on the banks betwixt the house and river.
+This also, in contradistinction to the prevailing simplicity, was
+ornamented in an unusual degree.  There were various
+compartments, the connexion of which was well managed, and
+although the whole ground did not exceed five or six acres, it
+was so much varied as to seem four times larger.  The space
+contained close alleys and open walks; a very pretty artificial
+waterfall; a fountain also, consisting of a considerable jet-
+d'eau, whose streams glittered in the sunbeams and exhibited a
+continual rainbow.  There was a cabinet of verdure, as the French
+call it, to cool the summer heat, and there was a terrace
+sheltered from the north-east by a noble holly hedge, with all
+its glittering spears where you might have the full advantage of
+the sun in the clear frosty days of winter.
+
+I know that you, Alan, will condemn all this as bad and
+antiquated; for, ever since Dodsley has described the Leasowes,
+and talked of Brown's imitations of nature and Horace Walpole's
+late Essay on Gardening, you are all for simple nature--condemn
+walking up and down stairs in the open air and declare for wood
+and wilderness.  But NE QUID NIMIS.  I would not deface a scene
+of natural grandeur or beauty, by the introduction of crowded
+artificial decorations; yet such may, I think, be very
+interesting, where the situation, in its natural state, otherwise
+has no particular charms.
+
+So that when I have a country-house (who can say how soon?) you
+may look for grottoes, and cascades, and fountains; nay if you
+vex me by contradiction, perhaps I may go the length of a temple
+--so provoke me not, for you see of what enormities I am capable.
+
+At any rate, Alan, had you condemned as artificial the rest of
+Friend Geddes's grounds, there is a willow walk by the very verge
+of the stream, so sad, so solemn, and so silent, that it must
+have commanded your admiration.  The brook, restrained at the
+ultimate boundary of the grounds by a natural dam-dike or ledge
+of rocks, seemed, even in its present swollen state, scarcely to
+glide along:  and the pale willow-trees, dropping their long
+branches into the stream, gathered around them little coronals of
+the foam that floated down from the more rapid stream above.  The
+high rock, which formed the opposite bank of the brook, was seen
+dimly through the branches, and its pale and splintered front,
+garlanded with long streamers of briers and other creeping
+plants, seemed a barrier between the quiet path which we trod,
+and the toiling and bustling world beyond.  The path itself,
+following the sweep of the stream, made a very gentle curve;
+enough, however, served by its inflection completely to hide the
+end of the walk until you arrived at it.  A deep and sullen
+sound, which increased as you proceeded, prepared you for this
+termination, which was indeed only a plain root-seat, from which
+you looked on a fall of about six or seven feet, where the brook
+flung itself over the ledge of natural rock I have already
+mentioned, which there crossed its course.
+
+The quiet and twilight seclusion of this walk rendered it a fit
+scene for confidential communing; and having nothing more
+interesting to say to my fair Quaker, I took the liberty of
+questioning her about the laird; for you are, or ought to be,
+aware, that next to discussing the affairs of the heart, the fair
+sex are most interested in those of their neighbours.
+
+I did not conceal either my curiosity, or the check which it had
+received from Joshua, and I saw that my companion answered with
+embarrassment.  'I must not speak otherwise than truly,' she
+said; 'and therefore I tell thee, that my brother dislikes, and
+that I fear, the man of whom thou hast asked me.  Perhaps we are
+both wrong--but he is a man of violence, and hath great influence
+over many, who, following the trade of sailors and fishermen,
+become as rude as the elements with which they contend.  He hath
+no certain name among them, which is not unusual, their rude
+fashion being to distinguish each other by nicknames; and they
+have called him the Laird of the Lakes (not remembering there
+should be no one called Lord, save one only) in idle derision;
+the pools of salt water left by the tide among the sands being
+called the Lakes of Solway.'
+
+'Has he no other revenue than he derives from these sands?'  I
+asked.
+
+'That I cannot answer,' replied Rachel; 'men say that he wants
+not money, though he lives like an ordinary fisherman, and that
+he imparts freely of his means to the poor around him.  They
+intimate that he is a man of consequence, once deeply engaged in
+the unhappy affair of the rebellion, and even still too much in
+danger from the government to assume his own name.  He is often
+absent from his cottage at Broken-burn-cliffs, for weeks and
+months.'
+
+'I should have thought,' said I, 'that the government would
+scarce, at this time of day, be likely to proceed against any one
+even of the most obnoxious rebels.  Many years have passed away'
+--
+
+'It is true,' she replied; 'yet such persons may understand that
+their being connived at depends on their living in obscurity.
+But indeed there can nothing certain be known among these rude
+people.  The truth is not in them--most of them participate in
+the unlawful trade betwixt these parts and the neighbouring shore
+of England; and they are familiar with every species of falsehood
+and deceit.'
+
+'It is a pity,' I remarked, 'your brother should have neighbours
+of such a description, especially as I understand he is at some
+variance with them.'
+
+'Where, when, and about what matter?'  answered Miss Geddes,
+with an eager and timorous anxiety, which made me regret having
+touched on the subject.
+
+I told her, in a way as little alarming as I could devise, the
+purport of what passed betwixt this Laird of the Lakes and her
+brother, at their morning's interview.
+
+'You affright me much,' answered she; 'it is this very
+circumstance which has scared me in the watches of the night.
+When my brother Joshua withdrew from an active share in the
+commercial concerns of my father, being satisfied with the
+portion of worldly substance which he already possessed, there
+were one or two undertakings in which he retained an interest,
+either because his withdrawing might have been prejudicial to
+friends, or because he wished to retain some mode of occupying
+his time.  Amongst the more important of these is a fishing
+station on the coast, where, by certain improved modes of
+erecting snares, opening at the advance of the tide, and shutting
+at the reflux, many more fish are taken than can be destroyed by
+those who, like the men of Broken-burn, use only the boat-net and
+spear, or fishing-rod.  They complain of these tide-nets, as men
+call them, as an innovation, and pretend to a right to remove and
+destroy them by the strong hand.  I fear me, this man of
+violence, whom they call the laird, will execute these his
+threats, which cannot be without both loss and danger to my
+brother.'
+
+'Mr. Geddes,' said I, 'ought to apply to the civil, magistrate;
+there are soldiers at Dumfries who would be detached for his
+protection.'
+
+'Thou speakest, friend Latimer,' answered the lady, 'as one who
+is still in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity.  God
+forbid that we should endeavour to preserve nets of flax and
+stakes of wood, or the Mammon of gain which they procure for us,
+by the hands of men of war and at the risk of spilling human
+blood.'
+
+'I respect your scruples,' I replied; 'but since such is your way
+of thinking, your brother ought to avert the danger by compromise
+or submission.'
+
+'Perhaps it would be best,' answered Rachel; 'but what can I say?
+Even in the best-trained temper there may remain some leaven of
+the old Adam; and I know not whether it is this or a better
+spirit that maketh my brother Joshua determine, that though he
+will not resist force by force, neither will he yield up his
+right to mere threats, or encourage wrong to others by yielding
+to menaces.  His partners, he says, confide in his steadiness:
+and that he must not disappoint them by yielding up their right
+for the fear of the threats of man, whose breath is in his
+nostrils.'
+
+This observation convinced me that the spirit of the old sharers
+of the spoil was not utterly departed even from the bosom of the
+peaceful Quaker; and I could not help confessing internally that
+Joshua had the right, when he averred that there was as much
+courage in sufferance as in exertion.
+
+As we approached the farther end of the willow walk, the sullen
+and continuous sound of the dashing waters became still more and
+more audible, and at length rendered it difficult for us to
+communicate with each other.  The conversation dropped, but
+apparently my companion continued to dwell upon the apprehensions
+which it had excited.  At the bottom of the walk we obtained a
+view of the cascade, where the swollen brook flung itself in foam
+and tumult over the natural barrier of rock, which seemed in vain
+to attempt to bar its course.  I gazed with delight, and, turning
+to express my sentiment to my companion, I observed that she had
+folded her hands in an attitude of sorrowful resignation, which
+showed her thoughts were far from the scene which lay before her.
+When she saw that her abstraction was observed, she resumed her
+former placidity of manner; and having given me sufficient time
+to admire this termination of our sober and secluded walk,
+proposed that me should return to the house through her brother's
+farm.  'Even we Quakers, as we are called, have our little
+pride,' she said; 'and my brother Joshua would not forgive me,
+were I not to show thee the fields which he taketh delight to
+cultivate after the newest and best fashion; for which, I promise
+thee, he hath received much praise from good judges, as well as
+some ridicule from those who think it folly to improve on the
+customs of our ancestors.'
+
+As she spoke, she opened a low door, leading through a moss and
+ivy-covered wall, the boundary of the pleasure-ground, into the
+open fields; through which we moved by a convenient path,
+leading, with good taste and simplicity, by stile and hedgerow,
+through pasturage, and arable, and woodland; so that in all
+ordinary weather, the good man might, without even soiling his
+shoes, perform his perambulation round the farm.  There were
+seats also, on which to rest; and though not adorned with
+inscriptions, nor quite so frequent in occurrence as those
+mentioned in the account of the Leasowes, their situation was
+always chosen with respect to some distant prospect to be
+commanded, or some home-view to be enjoyed.
+
+But what struck me most in Joshua's domain was the quantity and
+the tameness of the game.  The hen partridge scarce abandoned the
+roost, at the foot of the hedge where she had assembled her
+covey, though the path went close beside her; and the hare,
+remaining on her form, gazed at us as we passed, with her full
+dark eye, or rising lazily and hopping to a little distance,
+stood erect to look at us with more curiosity than apprehension.
+I observed to Miss Geddes the extreme tameness of these timid and
+shy animals, and she informed me that their confidence arose from
+protection in the summer, and relief during the winter.
+
+'They are pets,' she said, 'of my brother, who considers them as
+the better entitled to his kindness that they are a race
+persecuted by the world in general.  He denieth himself,' she
+said, 'even the company of a dog, that these creatures may here
+at least enjoy undisturbed security.  Yet this harmless or humane
+propensity, or humour, hath given offence,' she added, 'to our
+dangerous neighbours.'
+
+She explained this, by telling me that my host of the preceding
+night was remarkable for his attachment to field-sports, which he
+pursued without much regard to the wishes of the individuals over
+whose property he followed them.  The undefined mixture of
+respect and fear with which he was generally regarded induced
+most of the neighbouring land-holders to connive at what they
+would perhaps in another have punished as a trespass; but Joshua
+Geddes would not permit the intrusion of any one upon his
+premises, and as he had before offended several country
+neighbours, who, because he would neither shoot himself nor
+permit others to do so, compared him to the dog in the manger, so
+he now aggravated the displeasure which the Laird of the Lakes
+had already conceived against him, by positively debarring him
+from pursuing his sport over his grounds--'So that,' said Rachel
+Geddes, 'I sometimes wish our lot had been cast elsewhere than in
+these pleasant borders, where, if we had less of beauty around
+us, we might have had a neighbourhood of peace and, goodwill.'
+
+We at length returned to the house, where Miss Geddes showed me a
+small study, containing a little collection of books, in two
+separate presses.
+
+'These,' said she, pointing to the smaller press, 'will, if thou
+bestowest thy leisure upon them, do thee good; and these,'
+pointing to the other and larger cabinet, 'can, I believe, do
+thee little harm.  Some of our people do indeed hold, that every
+writer who is not with us is against us; but brother Joshua is
+mitigated in his opinions, and correspondeth with our friend John
+Scot of Amwell, who hath himself constructed verses well approved
+of even in the world.  I wish thee many good thoughts till our
+family meet at the hour of dinner.'
+
+Left alone, I tried both collections; the first consisted
+entirely of religious and controversial tracts, and the latter
+formed a small selection of history and of moral writers, both in
+prose and verse.
+
+Neither collection promising much amusement, thou hast, in these
+close pages, the fruits of my tediousness; and truly, I think,
+writing history (one's self being the subject) is as amusing as
+reading that of foreign countries, at any time.
+
+Sam, still more drunk than sober, arrived in due time with my
+portmanteau, and enabled me to put my dress into order, better
+befitting this temple of cleanliness and decorum, where (to
+conclude) I believe I shall be a sojourner more days than one.
+[See Note 1.]
+
+PS.--I have noted your adventure, as you home-bred youths may
+perhaps term it, concerning the visit of your doughty laird.  We
+travellers hold such an incident no great consequence, though it
+may serve to embellish the uniform life of Brown's Square.  But
+art thou not ashamed to attempt to interest one who is seeing the
+world at large, and studying human nature on a large scale, by so
+bald a narrative?  Why, what does it amount to, after all, but
+that a Tory laird dined with a Whig lawyer?  no very uncommon
+matter, especially as you state Mr. Herries to have lost the
+estate, though retaining the designation.  The laird behaves with
+haughtiness and impertinence--nothing out of character in that:
+is NOT kicked down stairs, as he ought to have been, were Alan
+Fairford half the man that he would wish his friends to think
+him.  Aye, but then, as the young lawyer, instead of showing his
+friend the door, chose to make use of it himself, he overheard
+the laird aforesaid ask the old lawyer concerning Darsie Latimer
+--no doubt earnestly inquiring after the handsome, accomplished
+inmate of his family, who has so lately made Themis his bow and
+declined the honour of following her farther.  You laugh at me
+for my air-drawn castles; but confess, have they not surer
+footing, in general, than two words spoken by such a man as
+Herries?  And yet--and yet--I would rally the matter off, Alan;
+but in dark nights even the glow-worm becomes an object of
+lustre, and to one plunged in my uncertainty and ignorance, the
+slightest gleam that promises intelligence is interesting.  My
+life is like the subterranean river in the Peak of Derby, visible
+only where it crosses the celebrated cavern.  I am here, and this
+much I know; but where I have sprung from, or whither my course
+of life is like to tend, who shall tell me?  Your father, too,
+seemed interested and alarmed, and talked of writing; would to
+Heaven he may!--I send daily to the post-town for letters.
+
+
+
+LETTER VIII
+
+ALAN FAIRFORD TO DARSIE LATIMER
+
+Thou mayst clap thy wings and crow as thou pleasest.  You go in
+search of adventures, but adventures come to me unsought for; and
+oh!  in what a pleasing shape came mine, since it arrived in the
+form of a client--and a fair client to boot!  What think you of
+that, Darsie!  you who are such a sworn squire of dames?  Will
+this not match my adventures with thine, that hunt salmon on
+horseback, and will it not, besides, eclipse the history of a
+whole tribe of Broadbrims?--But I must proceed methodically.
+
+When I returned to-day from the College, I was surprised to see a
+broad grin distending the adust countenance of the faithful James
+Wilkinson, which, as the circumstance seldom happens above once a
+year, was matter of some surprise.  Moreover, he had a knowing
+glance with his eye, which I should have as soon expected from a
+dumb-waiter--an article of furniture to which James, in his usual
+state, may be happily assimilated.  'What the devil is the
+matter, James?'
+
+'The devil may be in the matter, for aught I ken,' said James,
+with another provoking grin; 'for here has been a woman calling
+for you, Maister Alan.'
+
+'A woman calling for me?'  said I in surprise; for you know well,
+that excepting old Aunt Peggy, who comes to dinner of a Sunday,
+and the still older Lady Bedrooket, who calls ten times a year
+for the quarterly payment of her jointure of four hundred merks,
+a female scarce approaches our threshold, as my father visits all
+his female clients at their own lodgings.  James protested,
+however, that there had been a lady calling, and for me.  'As
+bonny a lass as I have seen,' added James, 'since I was in the
+Fusileers, and kept company with Peg Baxter.'  Thou knowest all
+James's gay recollections go back to the period of his military
+service, the years he has spent in ours having probably been dull
+enough.
+
+'Did the lady leave no name nor place of address?'
+
+'No,' replied James; 'but she asked when you wad be at hame, and
+I appointed her for twelve o'clock, when the house wad be quiet,
+and your father at the Bank.'
+
+'For shame, James!  how can you think my father's being at home
+or abroad could be of consequence?--The lady is of course a
+decent person?'
+
+'I'se uphaud her that, sir--she is nane of your--WHEW'--(Here
+James supplied a blank with a low whistle)--'but I didna ken--my
+maister makes an unco wark if a woman comes here.'
+
+I passed into my own room, not ill-pleased that my father was
+absent, notwithstanding I had thought it proper to rebuke James
+for having so contrived it, I disarranged my books, to give them
+the appearance of a graceful confusion on the table, and laying
+my foils (useless since your departure) across the mantelpiece,
+that the lady might see I was TAM MARTE QUAM MERCURIO--I
+endeavoured to dispose my dress so as to resemble an elegant
+morning deshabille--gave my hair the general shade of powder
+which marks the gentleman--laid my watch and seals on the table,
+to hint that I understood the value of time;--and when I had made
+all these arrangements, of which I am a little ashamed when I
+think of them, I had nothing better to do than to watch the dial-
+plate till the index pointed to noon.  Five minutes elapsed,
+which.  I allowed for variation of clocks--five minutes more
+rendered me anxious and doubtful--and five minutes more would
+have made me impatient.
+
+Laugh as thou wilt; but remember, Darsie, I was a lawyer,
+expecting his first client--a young man, how strictly bred up I
+need not remind you, expecting a private interview with a young
+and beautiful woman.  But ere the third term of five minutes had
+elapsed, the door-bell was heard to tinkle low and modestly, as
+if touched by some timid hand.
+
+James Wilkinson, swift in nothing, is, as thou knowest,
+peculiarly slow in answering the door-bell; and I reckoned on
+five minutes good, ere his solemn step should have ascended the
+stair.  Time enough, thought I, for a peep through the blinds,
+and was hastening to the window accordingly.  But I reckoned
+without my host; for James, who had his own curiosity as well as
+I, was lying PERDU in the lobby, ready to open at the first
+tinkle; and there was, 'This way, ma'am--Yes, ma'am--The lady,
+Mr. Alan,' before I could get to the chair in which I proposed to
+be discovered, seated in all legal dignity.  The consciousness of
+being half-caught in the act of peeping, joined to that native
+air of awkward bashfulness of which I am told the law will soon
+free me, kept me standing on the floor in some confusion; while
+the lady, disconcerted on her part, remained on the threshold of
+the room.  James Wilkinson, who had his senses most about him,
+and was perhaps willing to prolong his stay in the apartment,
+busied himself in setting a chair for the lady, and recalled me
+to my good-breeding by the hint.  I invited her to take
+possession of it, and bid James withdraw.
+
+My visitor was undeniably a lady, and probably considerably above
+the ordinary rank--very modest, too, judging from the mixture of
+grace and timidity with which she moved, and at my entreaty sat
+down.  Her dress was, I should suppose, both handsome and
+fashionable; but it was much concealed by a walking-cloak of
+green silk, fancifully embroidered; in which, though heavy for
+the season, her person was enveloped, and which, moreover, was
+furnished with a hood.
+
+The devil take that hood, Darsie!  for I was just able to
+distinguish that, pulled as it was over the face, it concealed
+from me, as I was convinced, one of the prettiest countenances I
+have seen, and which, from a sense of embarrassment, seemed to be
+crimsoned with a deep blush.  I could see her complexion was
+beautiful--her chin finely turned--her lips coral--and her teeth
+rivals to ivory.  But further the deponent sayeth not; for a
+clasp of gold, ornamented with it sapphire, closed the envious
+mantle under the incognita's throat, and the cursed hood
+concealed entirely the upper part of the face.
+
+I ought to have spoken first, that is certain; but ere I could
+get my phrases well arranged, the young lady, rendered desperate
+I suppose by my hesitation opened the conversation herself.
+
+'I fear I am an intruder, sir--I expected to meet an elderly
+gentleman.'
+
+This brought me to myself.  'My father, madam, perhaps.  But you
+inquired for Alan Fairford--my father's name is Alexander.'
+
+'It is Mr. Alan Fairford, undoubtedly, with whom I wished to
+speak,' she said, with greater confusion; 'but I was told that he
+was advanced in life.'
+
+'Some mistake, madam, I presume, betwixt my father and myself--
+our Christian names have the same initials, though the
+terminations are different.  I--I--I would esteem it a most
+fortunate mistake if I could have the honour of supplying my
+father's place in anything that could be of service to you.'
+
+'You are very obliging, sir,' A pause, during which she seemed
+undetermined whether to rise or sit still.
+
+'I am just about to be called to the bar, madam,' said I, in
+hopes to remove her scruples to open her case to me; 'and if my
+advice or opinion could be of the slightest use, although I
+cannot presume to say that they are much to be depended upon,
+yet'--
+
+The lady arose.  'I am truly sensible of your kindness, sir; and
+I have no doubt of your talents.  I will be very plain with you--
+it is you whom I came to visit; although, now that we have met, I
+find it will be much better that I should commit my communication
+to writing.'
+
+'I hope, madam, you will not be so cruel--so tantalizing, I would
+say.  Consider, you are my first client--your business my first
+consultation--do not do me the displeasure of withdrawing your
+confidence because I am a few years younger than you seem to have
+expected.  My attention shall make amends for my want of
+experience.'
+
+'I have no doubt of either,' said the lady, in a grave tone,
+calculated to restrain the air of gallantry with which I had
+endeavoured to address her.  'But when you have received my
+letter you will find good reasons assigned why a written
+communication will best suit my purpose.  I wish you, sir, a good
+morning.'  And she left the apartment, her poor baffled counsel
+scraping, and bowing, and apologizing for anything that might
+have been disagreeable to her, although the front of my offence
+seems to be my having been discovered to be younger than my
+father.
+
+The door was opened--out she went--walked along the pavement,
+turned down the close, and put the sun, I believe, into her
+pocket when she disappeared, so suddenly did dullness and
+darkness sink down on the square, when she was no longer visible.
+I stood for a moment as if I had been senseless, not recollecting
+what a fund of entertainment I must have supplied to our watchful
+friends on the other side of the green.  Then it darted on my
+mind that I might dog her, and ascertain at least who or what she
+was.  Off I set--ran down the close, where she was no longer to
+be seen, and demanded of one of the dyer's lads whether he had
+seen a lady go down the close, or had observed which way she
+turned.
+
+'A leddy!'--said the dyer, staring at me with his rainbow
+countenance.  'Mr. Alan, what takes you out, rinning like daft,
+without your hat?'
+
+'The devil take my hat!'  answered I, running back, however, in
+quest of it; snatched it up, and again sallied forth.  But as I
+reached the head of the close once more, I had sense enough to
+recollect that all pursuit would be now in vain.  Besides, I saw
+my friend, the journeyman dyer, in close confabulation with a
+pea-green personage of his own profession, and was conscious,
+like Scrub, that they talked of me, because they laughed
+consumedly.  I had no mind, by a second sudden appearance, to
+confirm the report that Advocate Fairford was 'gaen daft,' which
+had probably spread from Campbell's Close-foot to the Meal-market
+Stairs; and so slunk back within my own hole again.
+
+My first employment was to remove all traces of that elegant and
+fanciful disposition of my effects, from which I had hoped for so
+much credit; for I was now ashamed and angry at having thought an
+instant upon the mode of receiving a visit which had commenced so
+agreeably, but terminated in a manner so unsatisfactory.  I put
+my folios in their places--threw the foils into the dressing-
+closet--tormenting myself all the while with the fruitless doubt,
+whether I had missed an opportunity or escaped a stratagem, or
+whether the young person had been really startled, as she seemed
+to intimate, by the extreme youth of her intended legal adviser.
+The mirror was not unnaturally called in to aid; and that
+cabinet-counsellor pronounced me rather short, thick-set, with a
+cast of features fitter, I trust, for the bar than the ball--not
+handsome enough for blushing virgins to pine for my sake, or even
+to invent sham cases to bring them to my chambers--yet not ugly
+enough either to scare those away who came on real business--
+dark, to be sure, but--NIGRI SUNT HYACINTHI--there are pretty
+things to be said in favour of that complexion.
+
+At length--as common sense will get the better in all cases when
+a man will but give it fair play--I began to stand convicted in
+my own mind, as an ass before the interview, for having expected
+too much--an ass during the interview, for having failed to
+extract the lady's real purpose--and an especial ass, now that it
+was over, for thinking so much about it.  But I can think of
+nothing else, and therefore I am determined to think of this to
+some good purpose.
+
+You remember Murtough O'Hara's defence of the Catholic doctrine
+of confession; because, 'by his soul, his sins were always a
+great burden to his mind, till he had told them to the priest;
+and once confessed, he never thought more about them.'  I have
+tried his receipt, therefore; and having poured my secret
+mortification into thy trusty ear, I will think no more about
+this maid of the mist,
+
+   Who, with no face, as 'twere, outfaced me.
+
+
+--Four o'clock.
+Plague on her green mantle, she can be nothing better than a
+fairy; she keeps possession of my head yet!  All during dinner-
+time I was terribly absent; but, luckily, my father gave the
+whole credit of my reverie to the abstract nature of the
+doctrine, VINCO VINCENTEM, ERGO VINCO TE; upon which brocard of
+law the professor this morning lectured.  So I got an early
+dismissal to my own crib, and here am I studying, in one sense,
+VINCERE VINCENTEM, to get the better of the silly passion of
+curiosity--I think--I think it amounts to nothing else--which has
+taken such possession of my imagination, and is perpetually
+worrying me with the question--will she write or no?  She will
+not--she will not!  So says Reason, and adds, Why should she take
+the trouble to enter into correspondence with one who, instead of
+a bold, alert, prompt gallant, proved a chicken-hearted boy, and
+left her the whole awkwardness of explanation, which he should
+have met half-way?  But then, says Fancy, she WILL write, for she
+was not a bit that sort of person whom you, Mr. Reason, in your
+wisdom, take her to be.  She was disconcerted enough, without my
+adding to her distress by any impudent conduct on my part.  And
+she will write, for--By Heaven, she HAS written, Darsie, and with
+a vengeance!  Here is her letter, thrown into the kitchen by a
+caddie, too faithful to be bribed, either by money or whisky, to
+say more than that he received it, with sixpence, from an
+ordinary-looking woman, as he was plying on his station near the
+Cross.
+
+
+'FOR ALAN FAIRFORD, ESQUIRE, BARRISTER.
+
+'SIR,
+'Excuse my mistake of to-day.  I had accidentally learnt that Mr.
+Darsie Latimer had an intimate friend and associate in Mr. A.
+Fairford.  When I inquired for such a person, he was pointed out
+to me at the Cross (as I think the Exchange of your city is
+called) in the character of a respectable elderly man--your
+father, as I now understand.  On inquiry at Brown's Square, where
+I understood he resided, I used the full name of Alan, which
+naturally occasioned you the trouble of this day's visit.  Upon
+further inquiry, I am led to believe that you are likely to be
+the person most active in the matter to which I am now about to
+direct your attention; and I regret much that circumstances,
+arising out of my own particular situation, prevent my
+communicating to you personally what I now apprise you of in this
+matter.
+
+'Your friend, Mr. Darsie Latimer, is in a situation of
+considerable danger.  You are doubtless aware that he has been
+cautioned not to trust himself in England.  Now, if he has not
+absolutely transgressed this friendly injunction, he has at least
+approached as nearly to the menaced danger as he could do,
+consistently with the letter of the prohibition.  He has chosen
+his abode in a neighbourhood very perilous to him; and it is only
+by a speedy return to Edinburgh, or at least by a removal to some
+more remote part of Scotland, that he can escape the machinations
+of those whose enmity he has to fear.  I must speak in mystery,
+but my words are not the less certain; and, I believe, you know
+enough of your friend's fortunes to be aware that I could not
+write this much without being even more intimate with them than
+you are.
+
+'If he cannot, or will not, take the advice here given, it is my
+opinion that you should join him, if possible, without delay, and
+use, by your personal presence and entreaty, the arguments which
+may prove ineffectual in writing.  One word more, and I implore
+of your candour to take it as it is meant.  No one supposes that
+Mr. Fairford's zeal in his friend's service needs to be quickened
+by mercenary motives.  'But report says, that Mr. Alan Fairford,
+not having yet entered on his professional career, may, in such a
+case as this, want the means, though he cannot want the
+inclination, to act with promptitude.  The enclosed note Mr. Alan
+Fairford must be pleased to consider as his first professional
+emolument; and she who sends it hopes it will be the omen of
+unbounded success, though the fee comes from a hand so unknown as
+that of
+'GREEN MANTLE'
+
+A bank-note of L20 was the enclosure, and the whole incident left
+me speechless with astonishment.  I am not able to read over the
+beginning of my own letter, which forms the introduction to this
+extraordinary communication.  I only know that, though mixed with
+a quantity of foolery (God knows very much different from my
+present feelings), it gives an account sufficiently accurate, of
+the mysterious person from whom this letter comes, and that I
+have neither time nor patience to separate the absurd commentary
+from the text, which it is so necessary you should know.
+
+Combine this warning, so strangely conveyed, with the caution
+impressed on you by your London correspondent, Griffiths, against
+your visiting England--with the character of your Laird of the
+Solway Lakes--with the lawless habits of the people on that
+frontier country, where warrants are not easily executed owing to
+the jealousy entertained by either country of the legal
+interference of the other; remember, that even Sir John Fielding
+said to my father that he could never trace a rogue beyond the
+Briggend of Dumfries--think that the distinctions of Whig and
+Tory, Papist and Protestant, still keep that country in a loose
+and comparatively lawless state--think of all this, my dearest
+Darsie, and remember that, while at this Mount Sharon of yours,
+you are residing with a family actually menaced with forcible
+interference, and who, while their obstinacy provokes violence,
+are by principle bound to abstain from resistance.
+
+Nay, let me tell you, professionally, that the legality of the
+mode of fishing practised by your friend Joshua is greatly
+doubted by our best lawyers; and that, if the stake-nets be
+considered as actually an unlawful obstruction raised in the
+channel of the estuary, an assembly of persons who shall proceed,
+VIA FACTI, to pull dawn and destroy them, would not, in the eye
+of the law, be esteemed guilty of a riot.  So, by remaining where
+you are, YOU are likely to be engaged in a quarrel with which you
+have nothing to do, and thus to enable your enemies, whoever
+these may be, to execute, amid the confusion of a general hubbub,
+whatever designs they may have against your personal safety.
+Black-fishers, poachers, and smugglers are a sort of gentry that
+will not be much checked, either by your Quaker's texts, or by
+your chivalry.  If you are Don Quixote enough to lay lance in
+rest, in defence of those of the stake-net, and of the sad-
+coloured garment, I pronounce you but a lost knight; for, as I
+said before, I doubt if these potent redressers of wrongs, the
+justices and constables, will hold themselves warranted to
+interfere.  In a word, return, my dear Amadis; the adventure of
+the Solway-nets is not reserved for your worship.  Come back, and
+I will be your faithful Sancho Panza upon a more hopeful quest.
+We will beat about together, in search of this Urganda, the
+Unknown She of the Green Mantle, who can read this, the riddle of
+thy fate, better than wise Eppie of Buckhaven, [Well known in the
+Chap-Book, called the History of Buckhaven.]  or Cassandra
+herself.
+
+I would fain trifle, Darsie; for, in debating with you, jests
+will sometimes go farther than arguments; but I am sick at heart
+and cannot keep the ball up.  If you have a moment's regard for
+the friendship we have so often vowed to each other, let my
+wishes for once prevail over your own venturous and romantic
+temper.  I am quite serious in thinking that the information
+communicated to my father by this Mr. Herries, and the admonitory
+letter of the young lady, bear upon each other; and that, were
+you here, you might learn something from one or other, or from
+both, that; might throw light on your birth and parentage.  You
+will not, surely, prefer an idle whim to the prospect which is
+thus held out to you?
+
+I would, agreeably to the hint I have received in the young
+lady's letter (for I am confident that such is her condition),
+have ere now been with you to urge these things, instead of
+pouring them out upon paper.  But you know that the day for my
+trials is appointed; I have already gone through the form of
+being introduced to the examinators, and have gotten my titles
+assigned me.  All this should not keep me at home, but my father
+would view any irregularity upon this occasion as a mortal blow
+to the hopes which he has cherished most fondly during his life;
+viz. my being called to the bar with some credit.  For my own
+part, I know there is no great difficulty in passing these formal
+examinations, else how have some of our acquaintance got through
+them?  But, to my father, these formalities compose an august and
+serious solemnity, to which he has long looked forward, and my
+absenting myself at this moment would wellnigh drive him
+distracted.  Yet I shall go altogether distracted myself, if I
+have not an instant assurance from you that you are hastening
+hither.  Meanwhile I have desired Hannah to get your little crib
+into the best order possible.  I cannot learn that my father has
+yet written to you; nor has he spoken more of his communication
+with Birrenswork; but when I let him have some inkling of the
+dangers you are at present incurring, I know my request that you
+will return immediately will have his cordial support.
+
+Another reason yet--I must give a dinner, as usual, upon my
+admission, to our friends; and my father, laying aside all his
+usual considerations of economy, has desired it may be in the
+best style possible.  Come hither then, dear Darsie!  or, I
+protest to you, I shall send examination, admission-dinner, and
+guests to the devil, and come, in person, to fetch you with a
+vengeance.  Thine, in much anxiety,    A. F.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IX
+
+ALEXANDER FAIRFORD, W.S., TO MR. DARSIE LATIMER
+
+DEAR MR. DARSIE,
+Having been your FACTOR LOCO TUTORIS or rather, I ought to say,
+in correctness (since I acted without warrant from the court),
+your NEGOTIORUM GESTOR, that connexion occasions my present
+writing.  And although having rendered an account of my
+intromissions, which have been regularly approved of, not only by
+yourself (whom I could not prevail upon to look at more than the
+docket and sum total), but also by the worthy Mr. Samuel
+Griffiths of London, being the hand through whom the remittances
+were made, I may, in some sense, be considered as to you FUNCTUS
+OFFICIO; yet to speak facetiously, I trust you will not hold me
+accountable as a vicious intromitter, should I still consider
+myself as occasionally interested in your welfare.  My motives
+for writing, at this time, are twofold.
+
+I have met with a Mr. Herries of Birrenswork, a gentleman of very
+ancient descent, but who hath in time past been in difficulties,
+nor do I know if his affairs are yet well redd.  Birrenswork says
+that he believes he was very familiar with your father, whom he
+states to have been called Ralph Latimer of Langcote Hall, in
+Westmoreland; and he mentioned family affairs, which it may be of
+the highest importance to you to be acquainted with; but as he
+seemed to decline communicating them to me, I could not civilly
+urge him thereanent.  Thus much I know, that Mr. Herries had his
+own share in the late desperate and unhappy matter of 1745, and
+was in trouble about it, although that is probably now over.
+Moreover, although he did not profess the Popish religion openly,
+he had an eye that way.  And both of these are reasons why I have
+hesitated to recommend him to a youth who maybe hath not
+altogether so well founded his opinions concerning Kirk and
+State, that they might not be changed by some sudden wind of
+doctrine.  For I have observed ye, Master Darsie, to be rather
+tinctured with the old leaven of prelacy--this under your leave;
+and although God forbid that you should be in any manner
+disaffected to the Protestant Hanoverian line, yet ye have ever
+loved to hear the blawing, blazing stories which the Hieland
+gentlemen tell of those troublous times, which, if it were their
+will, they had better pretermit, as tending rather to shame than
+to honour.  It is come to me also by a sidewind, as I may say,
+that you have been neighbouring more than was needful among some
+of the pestilent sect of Quakers--a people who own neither priest
+nor king, nor civil magistrate, nor the fabric of our law, and
+will not depone either IN CIVILIBUS or CRIMINALIBUS, be the loss
+to the lieges what it may.  Anent which heresies, it were good ye
+read 'The Snake in the Grass' or 'The Foot out of the Snare,'
+being both well-approved tracts, touching these doctrines.
+
+Now, Mr. Darsie, ye are to judge for yourself whether ye can
+safely to your soul's weal remain longer among these Papists and
+Quakers--these defections on the right hand, and failings away on
+the left; and truly if you can confidently resist these evil
+examples of doctrine, I think ye may as well tarry in the bounds
+where ye are, until you see Mr. Herries of Birrenswork, who does
+assuredly know more of your matters than I thought had been
+communicated to any man in Scotland.  I would fain have
+precognosced him myself on these affairs, but found him unwilling
+to speak out, as I have partly intimated before.
+
+To call a new cause--I have the pleasure to tell you, that Alan
+has passed his private Scots Law examinations with good
+approbation--a great relief to my mind; especially as worthy Mr.
+Pest told me in my ear there was no fear of 'the callant', as he
+familiarly called him, which gives me great heart.  His public
+trials, which are nothing in comparison save a mere form, are to
+take place, by order of the Honourable Dean of Faculty, on
+Wednesday first; and on Friday he puts on the gown, and gives a
+bit chack of dinner to his friends and acquaintances, as is, you
+know, the custom.  Your company will be wished for there, Master
+Darsie, by more than him, which I regret to think is impossible
+to have, as well by your engagements, as that our cousin, Peter
+Fairford, comes from the West on purpose, and we have no place to
+offer him but your chamber in the wall.  And, to be plain with
+you, after my use and wont, Master Darsie, it may be as well that
+Alan and you do not meet till he is hefted as it were to his new
+calling.  You are a pleasant gentleman, and full of daffing,
+which may well become you, as you have enough (as I understand)
+to uphold your merry humour.  If you regard the matter wisely,
+you would perchance consider that a man of substance should have
+a douce and staid demeanour; yet you are so far from growing
+grave and considerate with the increase of your annual income,
+that the richer you become, the merrier I think you grow.  But
+this must be at your own pleasure, so far as you are concerned.
+Alan, however (overpassing my small savings), has the world to
+win; and louping and laughing, as you and he were wont to do,
+would soon make the powder flee out of his wig, and the pence out
+of his pocket.  Nevertheless, I trust you will meet when you
+return from your rambles; for there is a time, as the wise man
+sayeth, for gathering, and a time for casting away; it is always
+the part of a man of sense to take the gathering time first.  I
+remain, dear sir, your well-wishing friend; and obedient to
+command,
+ALEXANDER FAIRFORD.
+
+PS.--Alan's Thesis is upon the title DE PERICULO ET COMMODO REI
+VENDITAE, and is a very pretty piece of Latinity.--Ross House, in
+our neighbourhood, is nearly finished, and is thought to excel
+Duff House in ornature.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER X
+
+DARSIE LATIMER TO ALAN FAIRFORD
+
+The plot thickens, Alan.  I have your letter, and also one from
+your father.  The last makes it impossible for me to comply with
+the kind request which the former urges.  No--I cannot be with
+you, Alan; and that, for the best of all reasons--I cannot and
+ought not to counteract your father's anxious wishes.  I do not
+take it unkind of him that he desires my absence.  It is natural
+that he should wish for his son what his son so well deserves--
+the advantage of a wiser and steadier companion than I seem to
+him.  And yet I am sure I have often laboured hard enough to
+acquire that decency of demeanour which can no more be suspected
+of breaking bounds, than an owl of catching a butterfly.
+
+But it was in vain that I have knitted my brows till I had the
+headache, in order to acquire the reputation of a grave, solid,
+and well-judging youth.  Your father always has discovered, or
+thought that he discovered, a hare-brained eccentricity lying
+folded among the wrinkles of my forehead, which rendered me a
+perilous associate for the future counsellor and ultimate judge.
+Well, Corporal Nym's philosophy must be my comfort--'Things must
+be as they may.'--I cannot come to your father's house, where he
+wishes not to see me; and as to your coming hither,--by all that
+is dear to me, I vow that if you are guilty of such a piece of
+reckless folly--not to say undutiful cruelty, considering your
+father's thoughts and wishes--I will never speak to you again as
+long as I live!  I am perfectly serious.  And besides, your
+father, while he in a manner prohibits me from returning to
+Edinburgh, gives me the strongest reasons for continuing a little
+while longer in this country, by holding out the hope that I may
+receive from your old friend, Mr. Herries of Birrenswork, some
+particulars concerning my origin, with which that ancient
+recusant seems to be acquainted.
+
+That gentleman mentioned the name of a family in Westmoreland,
+with which he supposes me connected.  My inquiries here after
+such a family have been ineffectual, for the borderers, on either
+side, know little of each other.  But I shall doubtless find some
+English person of whom to make inquiries, since the confounded
+fetterlock clapped on my movements by old Griffiths, prevents me
+repairing to England in person.  At least, the prospect of
+obtaining some information is greater here than elsewhere; it
+will be an apology for my making a longer stay in this
+neighbourhood, a line of conduct which seems to have your
+father's sanction, whose opinion must be sounder than that of
+your wandering damoselle.
+
+If the road were paved with dangers which leads to such a
+discovery, I cannot for a moment hesitate to tread it.  But in
+fact there is no peril in the case.  If the Tritons of the Solway
+shall proceed to pull down honest Joshua's tide-nets, I am
+neither Quixote enough in disposition, nor Goliath enough in
+person, to attempt their protection.  I have no idea of
+attempting to prop a falling house by putting my shoulders
+against it.  And indeed, Joshua gave me a hint that the company
+which he belongs to, injured in the way threatened (some of them
+being men who thought after the fashion of the world), would
+pursue the rioters at law, and recover damages, in which probably
+his own ideas of non-resistance will not prevent his
+participating.  Therefore the whole affair will take its course
+as law will, as I only mean to interfere when it may be necessary
+to direct the course of the plaintiffs to thy chambers; and I
+request they may find thee intimate with all the Scottish
+statutes concerning salmon fisheries, from the LEX AQUARUM,
+downward.
+
+As for the Lady of the Mantle, I will lay a wager that the sun so
+bedazzled thine eyes on that memorable morning, that everything
+thou didst look upon seemed green; and notwithstanding James
+Wilkinson's experience in the Fusileers, as well as his negative
+whistle, I will venture to hold a crown that she is but a what-
+shall-call-'um after all.  Let not even the gold persuade you to
+the contrary.  She may make a shift to cause you to disgorge
+that, and (immense spoil!) a session's fees to boot, if you look
+not all the sharper about you.  Or if it should be otherwise, and
+if indeed there lurk some mystery under this visitation, credit
+me, it is one which thou canst not penetrate, nor can I as yet
+even attempt to explain it; since, if I prove mistaken, and
+mistaken I may easily be, I would be fain to creep into
+Phalaris's bull, were it standing before me ready heated, rather
+than be roasted with thy raillery.  Do not tax me with want of
+confidence; for the instant I can throw any light on the matter
+thou shalt have it; but while I am only blundering about in the
+dark, I do not choose to call wise folks to see me, perchance,
+break my nose against a post.  So if you marvel at this,
+
+  E'en marvel on till time makes all things plain.
+
+In the meantime, kind Alan, let me proceed in my diurnal.
+
+On the third or fourth day after my arrival at Mount Sharon,
+Time, that bald sexton to whom I have just referred you, did
+certainly limp more heavily along with me than he had done at
+first.  The quaint morality of Joshua, and Huguenot simplicity of
+his sister, began to lose much of their raciness with their
+novelty, and my mode of life, by dint of being very quiet, began
+to feel abominably dull.  It was, as thou say'st, as if the
+Quakers had put the sun in their pockets--all around was soft and
+mild, and even pleasant; but there was, in the whole routine, a
+uniformity, a want of interest, a helpless and hopeless languor,
+which rendered life insipid.  No doubt, my worthy host and
+hostess felt none of this void, this want of excitation, which
+was becoming oppressive to their guest.  They had their little
+round of occupations, charities, and pleasures; Rachel had her
+poultry-yard and conservatory, and Joshua his garden.  Besides
+this, they enjoyed, doubtless, their devotional meditations; and,
+on the whole, time glided softly and imperceptibly on with them,
+though to me, who long for stream and cataract, it seemed
+absolutely to stand still.  I meditated returning to Shepherd's
+Bush, and began to think, with some hankering, after little
+Benjie and the rod.  The imp has ventured hither, and hovers
+about to catch a peep of me now and then; I suppose the little
+sharper is angling for a few more sixpences.  But this would have
+been, in Joshua's eyes, a return of the washed sow to wallowing
+in the mire, and I resolved, while I remained his guest, to spare
+him so violent a shock to his prejudices.  The next point was, to
+shorten the time of my proposed stay; but, alas!  that I felt to
+be equally impossible.  I had named a week; and however rashly my
+promise had been pledged, it must be held sacred, even according
+to the letter, from which the Friends permit no deviation.
+
+All these considerations wrought me up to a kind of impatience
+yesterday evening; so that I snatched up my hat, and prepared for
+a sally beyond the cultivated farm and ornamented grounds of
+Mount Sharon, just as if I were desirous to escape from the
+realms of art, into those of free and unconstrained nature.
+
+I was scarcely more delighted when I first entered this peaceful
+demesne, than I now was--such is the instability and
+inconsistency of human nature!--when I escaped from it to the
+open downs, which had formerly seemed so waste and dreary, The
+air I breathed felt purer and more bracing.  The clouds, riding
+high upon a summer breeze, drove, in gay succession, over my
+head, now obscuring the sun, now letting its rays stream in
+transient flashes upon various parts of the landscape, and
+especially upon the broad mirror of the distant Firth of Solway.
+
+I advanced on the scene with the light step of a liberated
+captive; and, like John Bunyan's Pilgrim, could have found in my
+heart to sing as I went on my way.  It seemed as if my gaiety had
+accumulated while suppressed, and that I was, in my present
+joyous mood, entitled to expend the savings of the previous week.
+But just as I was about to uplift a merry stave, I heard, to my
+joyful surprise, the voices of three or more choristers, singing,
+with considerable success, the lively old catch,
+
+  For all our men were very very merry,
+    And all our men were drinking:
+    There were two men of mine,
+    Three men of thine,
+  And three that belonged to old Sir Thom o' Lyne;
+  As they went to the ferry, they were very very merry,
+    And all our men were drinking.'
+
+[The original of this catch is to be found in Cowley's witty
+comedy of THE GUARDIAN, the first edition.  It does not exist in
+the second and revised edition, called THE CUTTER OF COLEMAN
+STREET.
+
+  CAPTAIN BLADE.  Ha, ha, boys, another catch.
+             AND ALL OUR MEN ARE VERY VERY MERRY,
+             AND ALL OUR MEN WERE DRINKING.
+  CUTTER.    ONE MAN OF MINE.
+  DOGREL.    TWO MEN OF MINE.
+  BLADE.     THREE MEN OF MINE.
+  CUTTER.    AND ONE MAN OF MINE.
+  OMNES.     AS WE WENT BY THE WAY WE WERE DRUNK, DRUNK, DAMNABLY
+             DRUNK, AND ALL OUR MEN WERE VERY VERY MERRY, &c.
+Such are the words, which are somewhat altered and amplified in
+the text.  The play was acted in presence of Charles II, then
+Prince of Wales, in 1641.  The catch in the text has been happily
+set to music.]
+
+As the chorus ended, there followed a loud and hearty laugh by
+way of cheers.  Attracted by sounds which were so congenial to my
+present feelings, I made towards the spot from which they came,--
+cautiously, however, for the downs, as had been repeatedly hinted
+to me, had no good name; and the attraction of the music, without
+rivalling that of the sirens in melody, might have been followed
+by similarly inconvenient consequences to an incautious amateur.
+
+I crept on, therefore, trusting that the sinuosities of the
+ground, broken as it was into knells and sand-pits, would permit
+me to obtain a sight of the musicians before I should be observed
+by them.  As I advanced, the old ditty was again raised.  The
+voices seemed those of a man and two boys; they were rough, but
+kept good time, and were managed with too much skill to belong to
+the ordinary country people.
+
+  Jack looked at the sun, and cried, Fire, fire, fire;
+  Tom stabled his keffel in Birkendale mire;
+  Jem started a calf, and halloo'd for a stag;
+  Will mounted a gate-post instead of his nag:
+  For all our men were very very merry,
+    And all our men were drinking;
+      There were two men of mine,
+      Three men of thine,
+  And three that belonged to old Sir Thom o' Lyne;
+  As they went to the ferry, they were very very merry,
+    For all our men were drinking.
+
+The voices, as they mixed in their several parts, and ran through
+them, untwisting and again entwining all the links of the merry
+old catch, seemed to have a little touch of the bacchanalian
+spirit which they celebrated, and showed plainly that the
+musicians were engaged in the same joyous revel as the MENYIE of
+old Sir Thom o' Lyne.  At length I came within sight of them,
+three in number, where they sat cosily niched into what you might
+call a BUNKER, a little sand-pit, dry and snug, and surrounded by
+its banks, and a screen of whins in full bloom.
+
+The only one of the trio whom I recognized as a personal
+acquaintance was the notorious little Benjie, who, having just
+finished his stave, was cramming a huge luncheon of pie-crust
+into his mouth with one hand, while in the other he held a
+foaming tankard, his eyes dancing with all the glee of a
+forbidden revel; and his features, which have at all times a
+mischievous archness of expression, confessing the full sweetness
+of stolen waters, and bread eaten in secret.
+
+There was no mistaking the profession of the male and female, who
+were partners with Benjie in these merry doings.  The man's long
+loose-bodied greatcoat (wrap-rascal as the vulgar term it), the
+fiddle-case, with its straps, which lay beside him, and a small
+knapsack which might contain his few necessaries; a clear grey
+eye; features which, in contending with many a storm, had not
+lost a wild and, careless expression of glee, animated at
+present, when he was exercising for his own pleasure the arts
+which he usually practised for bread,--all announced one of those
+peripatetic followers of Orpheus whom the vulgar call a
+strolling fiddler.  Gazing more attentively, I easily discovered
+that though the poor musician's eyes were open, their sense was
+shut, and that the ecstasy with which he turned them up to heaven
+only derived its apparent expression from his own internal
+emotions, but received no assistance from the visible objects
+around.  Beside him sat his female companion, in a man's hat, a
+blue coat, which seemed also to have been an article of male
+apparel, and a red petticoat.  She was cleaner, in person and in
+clothes, than such itinerants generally are; and, having been in
+her day a strapping BONA ROBA, she did not even yet neglect some
+attention to her appearance; wore a large amber necklace, and
+silver ear-rings, and had her laid fastened across her breast
+with a brooch of the same metal.
+
+The man also looked clean, notwithstanding the meanness of his
+attire, and had a decent silk handkerchief well knotted about his
+throat, under which peeped a clean owerlay.  His beard, also,
+instead of displaying a grizzly stubble, unmowed for several
+days, flowed in thick and comely abundance over the breast, to
+the length of six inches, and mingled with his hair, which was
+but beginning to exhibit a touch of age.  To sum up his
+appearance, the loose garment which I have described was secured
+around him by a large old-fashioned belt, with brass studs, in
+which hung a dirk, with a knife and fork, its usual
+accompaniments.  Altogether, there was something more wild and
+adventurous-looking about the man than I could have expected to
+see in an ordinary modern crowder; and the bow which he now and
+then drew across the violin, to direct his little choir, was
+decidedly that of no ordinary performer.
+
+You must understand that many of these observations were the
+fruits of after remark; for I had scarce approached so near as to
+get a distinct view of the party, when my friend Benjie's
+lurching attendant, which he calls by the appropriate name of
+Hemp, began to cock his tail and ears, and, sensible of my
+presence, flew, barking like a fury, to the place where I had
+meant to lie concealed till I heard another song.  I was obliged,
+however, to jump on my feet, and intimidate Hemp, who would
+otherwise have bit me, by two sound kicks on the ribs, which sent
+him howling back to his master.
+
+Little Benjie seemed somewhat dismayed at my appearance; but,
+calculating on my placability, and remembering, perhaps, that the
+ill-used Solomon was no palfrey of mine, he speedily affected
+great glee, and almost in one breath assured the itinerants that
+I was 'a grand gentleman, and had plenty of money, and was very
+kind to poor folk;' and informed me that this was 'Willie
+Steenson--Wandering Willie the best fiddler that ever kittled
+thairm with horse-hair.'
+
+The woman rose and curtsied; and Wandering Willie sanctioned his
+own praises with a nod, and the ejaculation, 'All is true that
+the little boy says.'
+
+I asked him if he was of this country.
+
+'THIS country!'  replied the blind man--'I am of every country in
+broad Scotland, and a wee bit of England to the boot.  But yet I
+am, in some sense, of this country; for I was born within hearing
+of the roar of Solway.  Will I give your honour a touch of the
+auld bread-winner?'
+
+He preluded as he spoke, in a manner which really excited my
+curiosity; and then, taking the old tune of Galashiels for his
+theme, he graced it with a number of wild, complicated, and
+beautiful variations; during which it was wonderful to observe
+how his sightless face was lighted up under the conscious pride
+and heartfelt delight in the exercise of his own very
+considerable powers.
+
+'What think you of that, now, for threescore and twa?'
+
+I expressed my surprise and pleasure.
+
+'A rant, man--an auld rant,' said Willie; 'naething like the
+music ye hae in your ballhouses and your playhouses in Edinbro';
+but it's weel aneugh anes in a way at a dykeside.  Here's another
+--it's no a Scotch tune, but it passes for ane--Oswald made it
+himsell, I reckon--he has cheated mony ane, but he canna cheat
+Wandering Willie,'
+
+He then played your favourite air of Roslin Castle, with a number
+of beautiful variations, some of which I am certain were almost
+extempore.
+
+'You have another fiddle there, my friend,' said I--'Have you a
+comrade?'  But Willie's ears were deaf, or his attention was
+still busied with the tune.
+
+The female replied in his stead, 'O aye, sir--troth we have a
+partner--a gangrel body like oursells.  No but my hinny might
+have been better if he had liked; for mony a bein nook in mony a
+braw house has been offered to my hinny Willie, if he wad but
+just bide still and play to the gentles.'
+
+'Whisht, woman!  whisht!'  said the blind man, angrily, shaking
+his locks; 'dinna deave the gentleman wi' your havers.  Stay in a
+house and play to the gentles!--strike up when my leddy pleases,
+and lay down the bow when my lord bids!  Na, na, that's nae life
+for Willie.  Look out, Maggie--peer out, woman, and see if ye can
+see Robin coming.  Deil be in him!  He has got to the lee-side of
+some smuggler's punch-bowl, and he wunna budge the night, I
+doubt.'
+
+'That is your consort's instrument,' said I--' Will you give me
+leave to try my skill?'  I slipped at the same time a shilling
+into the woman's hand.
+
+'I dinna ken whether I dare trust Robin's fiddle to ye,' said
+Willie, bluntly.  His wife gave him a twitch.  'Hout awa,
+Maggie,' he said in contempt of the hint; 'though the gentleman
+may hae gien ye siller, he may have nae bowhand for a' that, and
+I'll no trust Robin's fiddle wi' an ignoramus.  But that's no sae
+muckle amiss,' he added, as I began to touch the instrument; 'I
+am thinking ye have some skill o' the craft.'
+
+To confirm him in this favourable opinion, I began to execute
+such a complicated flourish as I thought must have turned
+Crowdero into a pillar of stone with envy and wonder.  I scaled
+the top of the finger-board, to dive at once to the bottom--
+skipped with flying fingers, like Timotheus, from shift to shift
+--struck arpeggios and harmonic tones, but without exciting any
+of the astonishment which I had expected.
+
+Willie indeed listened to me with considerable attention; but I
+was no sooner finished, than he immediately mimicked on his own
+instrument the fantastic complication of tones which I had
+produced, and made so whimsical a parody of my performance, that,
+although somewhat angry, I could not help laughing heartily, in
+which I was joined by Benjie, whose reverence for me held him
+under no restraint; while the poor dame, fearful, doubtless, of
+my taking offence at this familiarity, seemed divided betwixt her
+conjugal reverence for her Willie, and her desire to give him a
+hint for his guidance.
+
+At length the old man stopped of his own accord, and, as if he
+had sufficiently rebuked me by his mimicry, he said, 'But for a'
+that, ye will play very weel wi' a little practice and some gude
+teaching.  But ye maun learn to put the heart into it, man--to
+put the heart into it.'
+
+I played an air in simpler taste, and received more decided
+approbation.
+
+'That's something like it man.  Od, ye are a clever birkie!'
+
+The woman touched his coat again.  'The gentleman is a gentleman,
+Willie--ye maunna speak that gate to him, hinnie.'
+
+'The deevil I maunna!'  said Willie; 'and what for maunna I?--If
+he was ten gentles, he canna draw a bow like me, can he?'
+
+'Indeed I cannot, my honest friend,' said I; 'and if you will go
+with me to a house hard by, I would be glad to have a night with
+you.'
+
+Here I looked round, and observed Benjie smothering a laugh,
+which I was sure had mischief in it.  I seized him suddenly by
+the ear, and made him confess that he was laughing at the
+thoughts of the reception which a fiddler was likely to get from
+the Quakers at Mount Sharon.  I chucked him from me, not sorry
+that his mirth had reminded me in time of what I had for the
+moment forgotten; and invited the itinerant to go with me to
+Shepherd's Bush, from which I proposed to send word to Mr. Geddes
+that I should not return home that evening.  But the minstrel
+declined this invitation also.  He was engaged for the night, he
+said, to a dance in the neighbourhood, and vented a round
+execration on the laziness or drunkenness of his comrade, who had
+not appeared at the place of rendezvous.
+
+'I will go with you instead of him,' said I, in a sudden whim;
+'and I will give you a crown to introduce me as your comrade.'
+
+'YOU gang instead of Rob the Rambler!  My certie, freend, ye are
+no blate!'  answered Wandering Willie, in a tone which announced
+death to my frolic.
+
+But Maggie, whom the offer of the crown had not escaped, began to
+open on that scent with a maundering sort of lecture.  'Oh
+Willie!  hinny Willie, whan will ye learn to be wise?  There's a
+crown to be win for naething but saying ae man's name instead of
+anither.  And, wae's me!  I hae just a shilling of this
+gentleman's gieing, and a boddle of my ain; and ye wunna, bend
+your will sae muckle as to take up the siller that's flung at
+your feet!  Ye will die the death of a cadger's powney, in a
+wreath of drift!  and what can I do better than lie doun and die
+wi' you?  for ye winna let me win siller to keep either you or
+mysell leevin.'
+
+'Haud your nonsense tongue, woman,' said Willie, but less
+absolutely than before.  'Is he a real gentleman, or ane of the
+player-men?'
+
+'I'se uphaud him a real gentleman,' said the woman.
+
+'I'se uphaud ye ken little of the matter,' said Willie; 'let us
+see haud of your hand, neebor, gin ye like.
+
+I gave him my hand.  He said to himself, 'Aye, aye, here are
+fingers that have seen canny service.'  Then running his hand
+over my hair, my face, and my dress, he went on with his
+soliloquy; 'Aye, aye, muisted hair, braidclaith o' the best, and
+seenteen hundred linen on his back, at the least o' it.  And how
+do you think, my braw birkie, that you are to pass for a tramping
+fiddler?'
+
+'My dress is plain,' said I,--indeed I had chosen my most
+ordinary suit, out of compliment to my Quaker friends,--'and I
+can easily pass for a young farmer out upon a frolic.  Come, I
+will double the crown I promised you.'
+
+'Damn your crowns!'  said the disinterested man of music.  'I
+would like to have a round wi' you, that's certain;--but a
+farmer, and with a hand that never held pleugh-stilt or pettle,
+that will never do.  Ye may pass for a trades-lad from Dumfries,
+or a student upon the ramble, or the like o' that.  But hark ye,
+lad; if ye expect to be ranting among the queans o' lasses where
+ye are gaun, ye will come by the waur, I can tell ye; for the
+fishers are wild chaps, and will bide nae taunts.'
+
+I promised to be civil and cautious; and, to smooth the good
+woman, I slipped the promised piece into her hand.  The acute
+organs of the blind man detected this little manoeuvre.
+
+'Are ye at it again wi' the siller, ye jaud?  I'll be sworn ye
+wad rather hear ae twalpenny clink against another, than have a
+spring from Rory Dall, [Blind Rorie, a famous musician according
+to tradition.]  if he was-coming alive again anes errand.  Gang
+doun the gate to Lucky Gregson's and get the things ye want, and
+bide there till ele'en hours in the morn; and if you see Robin,
+send him on to me.'
+
+'Am I no gaun to the ploy, then?'  said Maggie, in a disappointed
+tone.
+
+'And what for should ye?'  said her lord and master; 'to dance a'
+night, I'se warrant, and no to be fit to walk your tae's-length
+the morn, and we have ten Scots miles afore us?  Na, na.  Stable
+the steed, and pit your wife to bed, when there's night wark to
+do.'
+
+'Aweel, aweel, Willie hinnie, ye ken best; but oh, take an unco
+care o' yoursell, and mind ye haena the blessing o' sight.'
+
+'Your tongue gars me whiles tire of the blessing of hearing,
+woman,' replied 'Willie, in answer to this tender exhortation.
+
+But I now put in for my interest.  'Hollo, good folks, remember
+that I am to send the boy to Mount Sharon, and if you go to the
+Shepherd's Bush, honest woman, how the deuce am I to guide the
+blind man where he is going?  I know little or nothing of the
+country.'
+
+'And ye ken mickle less of my hinnie, sir,' replied Maggie, 'that
+think he needs ony guiding; he's the best guide himsell that
+ye'll find between Criffell and Carlisle.  Horse-road and foot-
+path, parish-road and kirk-road, high-road and cross-road, he
+kens ilka foot of ground in Nithsdale.'
+
+'Aye, ye might have said in braid Scotland, gudewife,' added the
+fiddler.  'But gang your ways, Maggie, that's the first wise word
+ye hae spoke the day.  I wish it was dark night, and rain, and
+wind, for the gentleman's sake, that I might show him there is
+whiles when ane had better want een than have them; for I am as
+true a guide by darkness as by daylight.'
+
+Internally as well pleased that my companion was not put to give
+me this last proof of his skill, I wrote a note with a pencil,
+desiring Samuel to bring my horses at midnight, when I thought my
+frolic would be wellnigh over, to the place to which the bearer
+should direct him, and I sent little Benjie with an apology to
+the worthy Quakers.
+
+As we parted in different directions, the good woman said, 'Oh,
+sir, if ye wad but ask Willie to tell ye ane of his tales to
+shorten the gate!  He can speak like ony minister frae the
+pu'pit, and he might have been a minister himsell, but'--
+
+'Haud your tongue, ye fule!'  said Willie,--'But stay, Meg--gie
+me a kiss, ne maunna part in anger, neither.'--And thus our
+society separated.
+
+[It is certain that in many cases the blind have, by constant
+exercise of their other organs, learned to overcome a defect
+which one would think incapable of being supplied.  Every reader
+must remember the celebrated Blind Jack of Knaresborough, who
+lived by laying out roads.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XI
+
+THE SAME TO THE SAME
+
+You are now to conceive us proceeding in our different directions
+across the bare downs.  Yonder flies little Benjie to the
+northward with Hemp scampering at his heels, both running as if
+for dear life so long as the rogue is within sight of his
+employer, and certain to take the walk very easy so soon as he is
+out of ken.  Stepping westward, you see Maggie's tall form and
+high-crowned hat, relieved by the fluttering of her plaid upon
+the left shoulder, darkening as the distance diminishes her size
+and as the level sunbeams begin to sink upon the sea.  She is
+taking her quiet journey to the Shepherd's Bush.
+
+Then, stoutly striding over the lea, you have a full view of
+Darsie Latimer, with his new acquaintance, Wandering Willie, who,
+bating that he touched the ground now and then with his staff,
+not in a doubtful groping manner, but with the confident air of
+an experienced pilot, heaving the lead when he has the soundings
+by heart, walks as firmly and boldly as if he possessed the eyes
+of Argus.  There they go, each with his violin slung at his back,
+but one of them at least totally ignorant whither their course is
+directed.
+
+And wherefore did you enter so keenly into such a mad frolic?
+says my wise counsellor.--Why, I think, upon the whole, that as a
+sense of loneliness, and a longing for that kindness which is
+interchanged in society, led me to take up my temporary residence
+at Mount Sharon, the monotony of my life there, the quiet
+simplicity of the conversation of the Geddeses, and the
+uniformity of their amusements and employments, wearied out my
+impatient temper, and prepared me for the first escapade which
+chance might throw in my way.
+
+What would I have given that I could have procured that solemn
+grave visage of thine, to dignify this joke, as it has done full
+many a one of thine own!  Thou hast so happy a knack of doing the
+most foolish things in the wisest manner, that thou mightst pass
+thy extravagances for rational actions, even in the eyes of
+Prudence herself.
+
+From the direction which my guide observed, I began to suspect
+that the dell at Brokenburn was our probable destination; and it
+became important to me to consider whether I could, with
+propriety, or even perfect safety, intrude myself again upon the
+hospitality of my former host.  I therefore asked Willie whether
+we were bound for the laird's, as folk called him.
+
+'Do ye ken the laird?'  said Willie, interrupting a sonata of
+Corelli, of which he had whistled several bars with great
+precision.
+
+'I know the laird a little,' said I; 'and therefore I was
+doubting whether I ought to go to his town in disguise.'
+
+'I should doubt, not a little only, but a great deal, before I
+took ye there, my chap,' said Wandering Willie; 'for I am
+thinking it wad be worth little less than broken banes baith to
+you and me.  Na, na, chap, we are no ganging to the laird's, but
+to a blithe birling at the Brokenburn-foot, where there will be
+mony a braw lad and lass; and maybe there may be some of the
+laird's folks, for he never comes to sic splores himsell.  He is
+all for fowling-piece and salmon-spear, now that pike and musket
+are out of the question.'
+
+'He has been at soldier, then?'  said I.
+
+'I'se warrant him a soger,' answered Willie; 'but take my advice,
+and speer as little about him as he does about you.  Best to let
+sleeping dogs lie.  Better say naething about the laird, my man,
+and tell me instead, what sort of a chap ye are that are sae
+ready to cleik in with an auld gaberlunzie fiddler?  Maggie says
+ye're gentle, but a shilling maks a' the difference that Maggie
+kens between a gentle and a semple, and your crowns wad mak ye a
+prince of the blood in her een.  But I am ane that ken full weel
+that ye may wear good claithes, and have a saft hand, and yet
+that may come of idleness as weel as gentrice.'
+
+I told him my name, with the same addition I had formerly given
+to Mr. Joshua Geddes; that I was a law-student, tired of my
+studies, and rambling about for exercise and amusement.
+
+'And are ye in the wont of drawing up wi' a' the gangrel bodies
+that ye meet on the high-road, or find cowering in a sand-bunker
+upon the links?'  demanded Willie.
+
+'Oh, no; only with honest folks like yourself, Willie,' was my
+reply.
+
+'Honest folks like me!  How do ye ken whether I am honest, or
+what I am?  I may be the deevil himsell for what ye ken; for he
+has power to come disguised like an angel of light; and besides
+he is a prime fiddler.  He played a sonata to Corelli, ye ken.'
+
+There was something odd in this speech, and the tone in which it
+was said.  It seemed as if my companion was not always in his
+constant mind, or that he was willing to try if he could frighten
+me.  I laughed at the extravagance of his language, however, and
+asked him in reply, if he was fool enough to believe that the
+foul fiend would play so silly a masquerade.
+
+'Ye ken little about it--little about it,' said the old man,
+shaking his head and beard, and knitting his brows, 'I could tell
+ye something about that.'
+
+What his wife mentioned of his being a tale-teller, as well as a
+musician, now occurred to me; and as you know I like tales of
+superstition, I begged to have a specimen of his talent as we
+went along.
+
+'It is very true,' said the blind man, 'that when I am tired of
+scraping thairm or singing ballants, I whiles mak a tale serve
+the turn among the country bodies; and I have some fearsome anes,
+that make the auld carlines shake on the settle, and the bits o'
+bairns skirl on their minnies out frae their beds.  But this that
+I am gaun to tell you was a thing that befell in our ain house in
+my father's time--that is, my father was then a hafflins callant;
+and I tell it to you that it may be a lesson to you, that are but
+a young, thoughtless chap, wha ye draw up wi' on a lonely road;
+for muckle was the dool and care that came o't to my gudesire.'
+
+He commenced his tale accordingly, in a distinct narrative tone
+of voice which he raised and depressed with considerable skill;
+at times sinking almost into a whisper, and turning his clear but
+sightless eyeballs upon my face, as if it had been possible for
+him to witness the impression which his narrative made upon my
+features.  I will not spare you a syllable of it, although it be
+of the longest; so I make a dash--and begin
+
+WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE.
+
+Ye maun have heard of Sir Robert Redgauntlet of that Ilk, who
+lived in these parts before the dear years.  The country will
+lang mind him; and our fathers used to draw breath thick if ever
+they heard him named.  He was out wi' the Hielandmen in
+Montrose's time; and again he was in the hills wi' Glencairn in
+the saxteen hundred and fifty-twa; and sae when King Charles the
+Second came in, wha was in sic favour as the Laird of
+Redgauntlet?  He was knighted at Lonon court, wi' the king's ain
+sword; and being a redhot prelatist, he came down here,
+rampauging like a lion, with commissions of lieutenancy (and of
+lunacy, for what I ken) to put down a' the Whigs and Covenanters
+in the country.  Wild wark they made of it; for the Whigs were as
+dour as the Cavaliers were fierce, and it was which should first
+tire the other.  Redgauntlet was ay for the strong hand; and his
+name is kend as wide in the country as Claverhouse's or Tam
+Dalyell's.  Glen, nor dargle, nor mountain, nor cave, could hide
+the puir hill-folk when Redgauntlet was out with bugle and
+bloodhound after them, as if they had been sae mony deer.  And
+troth when they fand them, they didna mak muckle mair ceremony
+than a Hielandman wi' a roebuck--it was just, 'Will ye tak the
+test?'--if not, 'Make ready--present--fire!'--and there lay the
+recusant.
+
+Far and wide was Sir Robert hated and feared.  Men thought he had
+a direct compact with Satan--that he was proof against steel--and
+that bullets happed aff his buff-coat like hailstanes from a
+hearth--that he had a mear that would turn a hare on the side of
+Carrifra-gawns [A precipitous side of a mountain in Moffatdale.]
+--and muckle to the same purpose, of whilk mair anon.  The best
+blessing they wared on him was, 'Deil scowp wi' Redgauntlet!'  He
+wasna a bad master to his ain folk, though, and was weel aneugh
+liked by his tenants; and as for the lackies and troopers that
+raid out wi' him to the persecutions, as the Whigs caa'd those
+killing times, they wad hae drunken themsells blind to his health
+at ony time.
+
+Now you are to ken that my gudesire lived on Redgauntlet's grund
+--they ca' the place Primrose Knowe.  We had lived on the grund,
+and under the Redgauntlets, since the riding days, and lang
+before.  It was a pleasant bit; and I think the air is callerer
+and fresher there than onywhere else in the country.  It's a'
+deserted now; and I sat on the broken door-cheek three days
+since, and was glad I couldna see the plight the place was in;
+but that's a' wide o' the mark.  There dwelt my gudesire, Steenie
+Steenson, a rambling, rattling chiel' he had been in his young
+days, and could play weel on the pipes; he was famous at 'Hoopers
+and Girders'--a' Cumberland couldna, touch him at 'Jockie
+Lattin'--and he had the finest finger for the back-lilt between
+Berwick and Carlisle.  The like o' Steenie wasna the sort that
+they made Whigs o'.  And so he became a Tory, as they ca' it,
+which we now ca' Jacobites, just out of a kind of needcessity,
+that he might belang to some side or other.  He had nae ill will
+to the Whig bodies, and liked little to see the blude rin,
+though, being obliged to follow Sir Robert in hunting and
+hoisting, watching and warding, he saw muckle mischief, and maybe
+did some, that he couldna avoid.
+
+Now Steenie was a kind of favourite with his master, and kend a'
+the folks about the castle, and was often sent for to play the
+pipes when they were at their merriment.  Auld Dougal MacCallum,
+the butler, that had followed Sir Robert through gude and ill,
+thick and thin, pool and stream, was specially fond of the pipes,
+and ay gae my gudesire his gude word wi' the laird; for Dougal
+could turn his master round his finger.
+
+Weel, round came the Revolution, and it had like to have broken
+the hearts baith of Dougal and his master.  But the change was
+not a'thegether sae great as they feared, and other folk thought
+for.  The Whigs made an unco crawing what they wad do with their
+auld enemies, and in special wi' Sir Robert Redgauntlet.  But
+there were ower mony great folks dipped in the same doings, to
+mak a spick and span new warld.  So Parliament passed it a' ower
+easy; and Sir Robert, bating that he was held to hunting foxes
+instead of Covenanters, remained just the man he was.  [The
+caution and moderation of King William III, and his principles of
+unlimited toleration, deprived the Cameronians of the opportunity
+they ardently desired, to retaliate the injuries which they had
+received during the reign of prelacy, and purify the land, as
+they called it, from the pollution of blood.  They esteemed the
+Revolution, therefore, only a half measure, which neither
+comprehended the rebuilding the Kirk in its full splendour, nor
+the revenge of the death of the Saints on their persecutors.]
+His revel was as loud, and his hall as weel lighted, as ever it
+had been, though maybe he lacked the fines of the nonconformists,
+that used to come to stock his larder and cellar; for it is
+certain he began to be keener about the rents than his tenants
+used to find him before, and they behoved to be prompt to the
+rent-day, or else the laird wasna pleased.  And he was sic an
+awsome body, that naebody cared to anger him; for the oaths he
+swore, and the rage that he used to get into, and the looks that
+he put on, made men sometimes think him a devil incarnate.
+
+Weel, my gudesire was nae manager--no that he was a very great
+misguider--but he hadna the saving gift, and he got twa terms'
+rent in arrear.  He got the first brash at Whitsunday put ower
+wi' fair word and piping; but when Martinmas came, there was a
+summons from the grund-officer to come wi' the rent on a day
+preceese, or else Steenie behoved to flit.  Sair wark he had to
+get the siller; but he was weel-freended, and at last he got the
+haill scraped thegether--a thousand merks--the maist of it was
+from a neighbour they ca'd Laurie Lapraik--a sly tod.  Laurie had
+walth o' gear--could hunt wi' the hound and rin wi' the hare--and
+be Whig or Tory, saunt or sinner, as the wind stood.  He was a
+professor in this Revolution warld, but he liked an orra sough of
+this warld, and a tune on the pipes weel aneugh at a bytime; and
+abune a', he thought he had gude security for the siller he lent
+my gudesire ower the stocking at Primrose Knowe.
+
+Away trots my gudesire to Redgauntlet Castle wi' a heavy purse
+and a light heart, glad to be out of the laird's danger.  Weel,
+the first thing he learned at the castle was, that Sir Robert had
+fretted himsell into a fit of the gout, because he did not appear
+before twelve' o'clock.  It wasna a'thegether for sake of the
+money, Dougal thought; but because he didna like to part wi' my
+gudesire aff the grund.  Dougal was glad to see Steenie, and
+brought him into the great oak parlour, and there sat the laird
+his leesome lane, excepting that he had beside him a great, ill-
+favoured jackanape, that was a special pet of his; a cankered
+beast it was, and mony an ill-natured trick it played--ill to
+please it was, and easily angered--ran about the haill castle,
+chattering and yowling, and pinching, and biting folk, specially
+before ill weather, or disturbances in the state.  Sir Robert
+caa'd it Major Weir, after the warlock that was burnt; [A
+celebrated wizard, executed at Edinburgh for sorcery and other
+crimes.]  and few folk liked either the name or the conditions of
+the creature--they thought there was something in it by ordinar--
+and my gudesire was not just easy in mind when the door shut on
+him, and he saw himself in the room wi' naebody but the laird,
+Dougal MacCallum, and the major, a thing that hadna chanced to
+him before.
+
+Sir Robert sat, or, I should say, lay, in a great armed chair,
+wi' his grand velvet gown, and his feet on a cradle; for he had
+baith gout and gravel, and his face looked as gash and ghastly as
+Satan's.  Major Weir sat opposite to him, in a red laced coat,
+and the laird's wig on his head; and ay as Sir Robert girned wi'
+pain, the jackanape girned too, like a sheep's-head between a
+pair of tangs--an ill-faur'd, fearsome couple they were.  The
+laird's buff-coat was hung on a pin behind him, and his
+broadsword and his pistols within reach; for he keepit up the
+auld fashion of having the weapons ready, and a horse saddled day
+and night, just as he used to do when he was able to loup on
+horseback, and away after ony of the hill-folk he could get
+speerings of.  Some said it was for fear of the Whigs taking
+vengeance, but I judge it was just his auld custom--he wasna,
+gien to fear onything.  The rental-book, wi' its black cover and
+brass clasps, was lying beside him; and a book of sculduddry
+sangs was put betwixt the leaves, to keep it open at the place
+where it bore evidence against the Goodman of Primrose Knowe, as
+behind the hand with his mails and duties.  Sir Robert gave my
+gudesire a look, as if he would have withered his heart in his
+bosom.  Ye maun ken he had a way of bending his brows, that men
+saw the visible mark of a horseshoe in his forehead, deep dinted,
+as if it had been stamped there.
+
+'Are ye come light-handed, ye son of a toom whistle?'  said Sir
+Robert.  'Zounds!  if you are'--
+
+My gudesire, with as gude acountenance as he could put on, made a
+leg, and placed the bag of money on the table wi' a dash, like a
+man that does something clever.  The laird drew it to him
+hastily--'Is it all here, Steenie, man?'
+
+'Your honour will find it right,' said my gudesire.
+
+'Here, Dougal,' said the laird, 'gie Steenie a tass of brandy
+downstairs, till I count the siller and write the receipt.'
+
+But they werena weel out of the room, when Sir Robert gied a
+yelloch that garr'd the castle rock.  Back ran Dougal--in flew
+the livery-men--yell on yell gied the laird, ilk ane mair awfu'
+than the ither.  My gudesire knew not whether to stand or flee,
+but he ventured back into the parlour, where a' was gaun hirdy-
+girdie--naebody to say 'come in,' or 'gae out.'  Terribly the
+laird roared for cauld water to his feet, and wine to cool his
+throat; and Hell, hell, hell, and its flames, was ay the word in
+his mouth.  They brought him water, and when they plunged his
+swollen feet into the tub, he cried out it was burning; and folk
+say that it DID bubble and sparkle like a seething cauldron.  He
+flung the cup at Dougal's head, and said he had given him blood
+instead of burgundy; and, sure aneugh, the lass washed clotted
+blood aff the carpet; the neist day.  The jackanape they caa'd
+Major Weir, it jibbered and cried as if it was mocking its
+master; my gudesire's head was like to turn--he forgot baith
+siller and receipt, and downstairs he banged; but as he ran, the
+shrieks came faint and fainter; there was a deep-drawn shivering
+groan, and word gaed through the castle that the laird was dead.
+
+Weel, away came my gudesire, wi' his finger in his mouth, and his
+best hope was that Dougal had seen the money-bag, and heard the
+laird speak of writing the receipt.  The young laird, now Sir
+John, came from Edinburgh, to see things put to rights.  Sir John
+and his father never gree'd weel.  Sir John had been bred an
+advocate, and afterwards sat in the last Scots Parliament and
+voted for the Union, having gotten, it was thought, a rug of the
+compensations--if his father could have come out of his grave, he
+would have brained him for it on his awn hearthstane.  Some
+thought it was easier counting with the auld rough knight than
+the fair-spoken young ane--but mair of that anon.
+
+Dougal MacCallum, poor body, neither grat nor grained, but gaed
+about the house looking like a corpse, but directing, as was his
+duty, a' the order of the grand funeral.  Now Dougal looked ay
+waur and waur when night was coming, and was ay the last to gang
+to his bed, whilk was in a little round just opposite the chamber
+of dais, whilk his master occupied while he was living, and where
+he now lay in state, as they caa'd it, weel-a-day!  The night
+before the funeral, Dougal could keep his awn counsel nae langer;
+he came doun with his proud spirit, and fairly asked auld
+Hutcheon to sit in his room with him for an hour.  When they were
+in the round, Dougal took ae tass of brandy to himsell, and gave
+another to Hutcheon, and wished him all health and lang life, and
+said that, for himsell, he wasna lang for this world; for that,
+every night since Sir Robert's death, his silver call had sounded
+from the state chamber, just as it used to do at nights in his
+lifetime, to call Dougal to help to turn him in his bed.  Dougal
+said that being alone with the dead on that floor of the tower
+(for naebody cared to wake Sir Robert Redgauntlet like another
+corpse) he had never daured to answer the call, but that now his
+conscience checked him for neglecting his duty; for, 'though
+death breaks service,' said MacCallum, 'it shall never break my
+service to Sir Robert; and I will answer his next whistle, so be
+you will stand by me, Hutcheon.'
+
+Hutcheon had nae will to the wark, but he had stood by Dougal in
+battle and broil, and he wad not fail him at this pinch; so down
+the carles sat ower a stoup of brandy, and Hutcheon, who was
+something of a clerk, would have read a chapter of the Bible; but
+Dougal would hear naething but a blaud of Davie Lindsay, whilk
+was the waur preparation.
+
+When midnight came, and the house was quiet as the grave, sure
+enough the silver whistle sounded as sharp and shrill as if Sir
+Robert was blowing it, and up got the twa auld serving-men, and
+tottered into the room where the dead man lay.  Hutcheon saw
+aneugh at the first glance; for there were torches in the room,
+which showed him the foul fiend, in his ain shape, sitting on the
+laird's coffin!  Ower he cowped as if he had been dead.  He could
+not tell how lang he lay in a trance at the door, but when he
+gathered himself, he cried on his neighbour, and getting nae
+answer, raised the house, when Dougal was found lying dead within
+twa steps of the bed where his master's coffin was placed.  As
+for the whistle, it was gaen anes and ay; but mony a time was it
+heard at the top of the house on the bartizan, and amang the auld
+chimneys and turrets where the howlets have their nests.  Sir
+John hushed the matter up, and the funeral passed over without
+mair bogle-wark.
+
+But when a' was ower, and the laird was beginning to settle his
+affairs, every tenant was called up for his arrears, and my
+gudesire for the full sum that stood against him in the rental-
+book.  Weel, away he trots to the castle, to tell his story, and
+there he is introduced to Sir John, sitting in his father's
+chair, in deep mourning, with weepers and hanging cravat, and a
+small wallring rapier by his side, instead of the auld broadsword
+that had a hundredweight of steel about it, what with blade,
+chape, and basket-hilt.  I have heard their communing so often
+tauld ower, that I almost think I was there mysell, though I
+couldna be born at the time.  (In fact, Alan, my companion
+mimicked, with a good deal of humour, the flattering,
+conciliating tone of the tenant's address, and the hypocritical
+melancholy of the laird's reply.  His grandfather, he said, had,
+while he spoke, his eye fixed on the rental-book, as if it were a
+mastiff-dog that he was afraid would spring up and bite him).
+
+'I wuss ye joy, sir, of the head seat, and the white loaf, and
+the braid lairdship.  Your father was a kind man to friends and
+followers; muckle grace to you, Sir John, to fill his shoon--his
+boots, I suld say, for he seldom wore shoon, unless it were muils
+when he had the gout.'
+
+'Aye, Steenie,' quoth the laird, sighing deeply, and putting his
+napkin to his een, 'his was a sudden call, and he will be missed
+in the country; no time to set his house in order--weel prepared
+Godward, no doubt, which is the root of the matter--but left us
+behind a tangled heap to wind, Steenie.--Hem!  hem!  We maun go
+to business, Steenie; much to do, and little time to do it in.'
+
+Here he opened the fatal volume.  I have heard of a thing they
+call Doomsday Book--I am clear it has been a rental of back-
+ganging tenants.
+
+'Stephen,' said Sir John, still in the same soft, sleekit tone of
+voice--'Stephen Stevenson, or Steenson, ye are down here for a
+year's rent behind the hand--due at last term.'
+
+STEPHEN.  'Please your honour, Sir John, I paid it to your
+father.'
+
+SIR JOHN.  'Ye took a receipt, then, doubtless, Stephen; and can
+produce it?'
+
+STEPHEN.  'Indeed I hadna time, an it like your honour; for nae
+sooner had I set doun the siller, and just as his honour, Sir
+Robert, that's gaen, drew it till him to count it, and write out
+the receipt, he was ta'en wi' the pains that removed him.'
+
+'That was unlucky,' said Sir John, after a pause.  'But ye maybe
+paid it in the presence of somebody, I want but a TALIS QUALIS
+evidence, Stephen.  I would go ower strictly to work with no poor
+man.'
+
+STEPHEN.  'Troth, Sir John, there was naebody in the room but
+Dougal MacCallum the butler.  But, as your honour kens, he has
+e'en followed his auld master.
+
+'Very unlucky again, Stephen,' said Sir John, without altering
+his voice a single note.  (The man to whom ye paid the money is
+dead--and the man who witnessed the payment is dead too--and the
+siller, which should have been to the fore, is neither seen nor
+heard tell of in the repositories.  How am I to believe a' this?'
+
+STEPHEN.  'I dinna, ken, your honour; but there is a bit
+memorandum note of the very coins; for, God help me!  I had to
+borrow out of twenty purses; and I am sure that ilka man there
+set down will take his grit oath for what purpose I borrowed the
+money.'
+
+SIR JOHN.  'I have little doubt ye BORROWED the money, Steenie.
+It is the PAYMENT to my father that I want to have some proof
+of.'
+
+STEPHEN.  'The siller maun be about the house, Sir John.  And
+since your honour never got it, and his honour that was canna
+have taen it wi' him, maybe some of the family may have seen it.'
+
+SIR JOHN.  'We will examine the servants, Stephen; that is but
+reasonable.'
+
+But lackey and lass, and page and groom, all denied stoutly that
+they had ever seen such a bag of money as my gudesire described.
+What was waur, he had unluckily not mentioned to any living soul
+of them his purpose of paying his rent.  Ae quean had noticed
+something under his arm, but she took it for the pipes.
+
+Sir John Redgauntlet ordered the servants out of the room, and
+then said to my gudesire, 'Now, Steenie, ye see ye have fair
+play; and, as I have little doubt ye ken better where to find the
+siller than ony other body, I beg, in fair terms, and for your
+own sake, that you will end this fasherie; for, Stephen, ye maun
+pay or flit.'
+
+'The Lord forgie your opinion,' said Stephen, driven almost to
+his wit's end--'I am an honest man.'
+
+'So am I, Stephen,' said his honour; 'and so are all the folks in
+the house, I hope.  But if there be a knave amongst us, it must
+be he that tells the story he cannot prove.'  He paused, and then
+added, mair sternly, 'If I understand your trick, sir, you want
+to take advantage of some malicious reports concerning things in
+this family, and particularly respecting my father's sudden
+death, thereby to cheat me out of the money, and perhaps take
+away my character, by insinuating that I have received the rent I
+am demanding.  Where do you suppose this money to be?  I insist
+upon knowing.'
+
+My gudesire saw everything look so muckle against him, that he
+grew nearly desperate--however, he shifted from one foot to
+another, looked to every corner of the room, and made no answer.
+
+'Speak out, sirrah,' said the laird, assuming a look of his
+father's, a very particular ane, which he had when he was angry--
+it seemed as if the wrinkles of his frown made that selfsame
+fearful shape of a horse's shoe in the middle of his brow;--
+'Speak out, sir!  I WILL know your thoughts;--do you suppose that
+I have this money?'
+
+'Far be it frae me to say so,' said Stephen.
+
+'Do you charge any of my people with having taken it?'
+
+'I wad be laith to charge them that may be innocent,' said my
+gudesire; 'and if there be any one that is guilty, I have nae
+proof.'
+
+'Somewhere the money must be, if there is a word of truth in your
+story,' said Sir John; 'I ask where you think it is--and demand a
+correct answer?'
+
+'In HELL, if you will have my thoughts of it,' said my gudesire,
+driven to extremity, 'in hell!  with your father, his jackanape,
+and his silver whistle.'
+
+Down the stairs he ran (for the parlour was nae place for him
+after such a word) and he heard the laird swearing blood and
+wounds behind him, as fast; as ever did Sir Robert, and roaring
+for the bailie and the baron-officer.
+
+Away rode my gudesire to his chief creditor (him they ca'd Laurie
+Lapraik) to try if he could make onything out of him; but when he
+tauld his story, he got but the worst word in his wame--thief,
+beggar, and dyvour, were the saftest terms; and to the boot of
+these hard terms, Laurie brought up the auld story of his dipping
+his hand in the blood of God's saunts, just as if a tenant could
+have helped riding with the laird, and that a laird like Sir
+Robert Redgauntlet.  My gudesire was, by this time, far beyond
+the bounds of patience, and, while he and Laurie were at deil
+speed the liars, he was wanchancie aneugh to abuse Lapraik's
+doctrine as weel as the man, ond said things that garr'd folks'
+flesh grue that heard them;--he wasna just himsell, and he had
+lived wi' a wild set in his day.
+
+At last they parted, and my gudesire was to ride hame through the
+wood of Pitmurkie, that is a' fou of black firs, as they say.--I
+ken the wood, but the firs may be black or white for what I can
+tell.--At the entry of the wood there is a wild common, and on
+the edge of the common, a little lonely change-house, that was
+keepit then by an ostler-wife, they suld hae caa'd her Tibbie
+Faw, and there puir Steenie cried for a mutchkin of brandy, for
+he had had no refreshment the haill day.  Tibbie was earnest wi'
+him to take a bite of meat, but he couldna think o't, nor would
+he take his foot out of the stirrup, and took off the brandy
+wholely at twa draughts, and named a toast at each:--the first
+was the memory of Sir Robert Redgauntlet, and might he never lie
+quiet in his grave till he had righted his poor bond-tenant; and
+the second was a health to Man's Enemy, if he would but get him
+back the pock of siller or tell him what came o't, for he saw the
+haill world was like to regard him as a thief and a cheat, and he
+took that waur than even the ruin of his house and hauld.
+
+On he rode, little caring where.  It was a dark night turned, and
+the trees made it yet darker, and he let the beast take its ain
+road through the wood; when all of a sudden, from tired and
+wearied that it was before, the nag began to spring and flee, and
+stend, that my gudesire could hardly keep the saddle.  Upon the
+whilk, a horseman, suddenly riding up beside him, said, 'That's a
+mettle beast of yours, freend; will you sell him?'  So saying, he
+touched the horse's neck with his riding-wand, and it fell into
+its auld heigh-ho of a stumbling trot.  'But his spunk's soon out
+of him, I think,' continued the stranger, 'and that is like mony
+a man's courage, that thinks he wad do great things till he come
+to the proof.'
+
+My gudesire scarce listened to this, but spurred his horse, with
+'Gude e'en to you, freend.'
+
+But it's like the stranger was ane that doesna lightly yield his
+point; for, ride as Steenie liked, be was ay beside him at the
+selfsame pace.  At last my gudesire, Steenie Steenson, grew half
+angry, and, to say the truth, half feared.
+
+'What is it that ye want with me, freend?'  he said.  'If ye be a
+robber, I have nae money; if ye be a leal man, wanting company, I
+have nae heart to mirth or speaking; and if ye want to ken the
+road, I scarce ken it mysell.'
+
+'If you will tell me your grief,' said the stranger, 'I am one
+that, though I have been sair miscaa'd in the world, am the only
+hand for helping my freends.'
+
+So my gudesire, to ease his ain heart, mair than from any hope of
+help, told him the story from beginning to end.
+
+'It's a hard pinch,' said the stranger; 'but I think I can help
+you.'
+
+'If you could lend the money, sir, and take a lang day--I ken nae
+other help on earth,' said my gudesire.
+
+'But there may be some under the earth,' said the stranger.
+'Come, I'll be frank wi' you; I could lend you the money on bond,
+but you would maybe scruple my terms.  Now, I can tell you, that
+your auld laird is disturbed in his grave by your curses, and the
+wailing of your family, and if ye daur venture to go to see him,
+he will give you the receipt.'
+
+My gudesire's hair stood on end at this proposal, but he thought
+his companion might be some humoursome chield that was trying to
+frighten him, and might end with lending him the money.  Besides,
+he was bauld wi' brandy, and desperate wi' distress; and he said
+he had courage to go to the gate of hell, and a step farther, for
+that receipt.  The stranger laughed.
+
+Weel, they rode on through the thickest of the wood, when, all of
+a sudden, the horse stopped at the door of a great house; and,
+but that he knew the place was ten miles off, my father would
+have thought he was at Redgauntlet Castle.  They rode into the
+outer courtyard, through the muckle faulding yetts and aneath the
+auld portcullis; and the whole front of the house was lighted,
+and there were pipes and fiddles, and as much dancing and deray
+within as used to be at Sir Robert's house at Pace and Yule, and
+such high seasons.  They lap off, and my gudesire, as seemed to
+him, fastened his horse to the very ring he had tied him to that
+morning, when he gaed to wait on the young Sir John.
+
+'God!'  said my gudesire, 'if Sir Robert's death be but a dream!'
+
+He knocked at the ha' door just as he was wont, and his auld
+acquaintance, Dougal MacCallum--just after his wont, too,--came
+to open the door, and said, 'Piper Steenie, are ye there, lad?
+Sir Robert has been crying for you.'
+
+My gudesire was like a man in a dream--he looked for the
+stranger, but he was gane for the time.  At last he just tried to
+say, 'Ha!  Dougal Driveower, are ye living?  I thought ye had
+been dead.'
+
+'Never fash yoursell wi' me,' said Dougal, 'but look to yoursell;
+and see ye tak naethlng frae ony body here, neither meat, drink,
+or siller, except just the receipt that is your ain.'
+
+So saying, he led the way out through halls and trances that were
+weel kend to my gudesire, and into the auld oak parlour; and
+there was as much singing of profane sangs, and birling of red
+wine, and speaking blasphemy and sculduddry, as had ever been in
+Redgauntlet Castle when it was at the blithest.
+
+But, Lord take us in keeping, what a set of ghastly revellers
+they were that sat around that table!  My gudesire kend mony that
+had long before gane to their place, for often had he piped to
+the most part in the hall of Redgauntlet.  There was the fierce
+Middleton, and the dissolute Rothes, and the crafty Lauderdale;
+and Dalyell, with his bald head and a beard to his girdle; and
+Earlshall, with Cameron's blude on his hand; and wild Bonshaw,
+that tied blessed Mr. Cargill's limbs till the blude sprung; and
+Dunbarton Douglas, the twice-turned traitor baith to country and
+king.  There was the Bluidy Advocate MacKenyie, who, for his
+worldly wit and wisdom had been to the rest as a god.  And there
+was Claverhouse, as beautiful as when he lived, with his long,
+dark, curled locks streaming down over his laced buff-coat, and
+his left hand always on his right spule-blade, to hide the wound
+that the silver bullet had made.  [See Note 2.]  He sat apart
+from them all, and looked at them with a melancholy, haughty
+countenance; while the rest hallooed, and sang, and laughed, that
+the room rang.  But their smiles were fearfully contorted from
+time to time; and their laugh passed into such wild sounds as
+made my gudesire's very nails grow blue, and chilled the marrow
+in his banes.
+
+They that waited at the table were just the wicked serving-men
+and troopers, that had done their work and cruel bidding on
+earth.  There was the Lang Lad of the Nethertown, that helped to
+take Argyle; and the bishop's summoner, that they called the
+Deil's Rattle-bag; and the wicked guardsmen in their laced coats;
+and the savage Highland Amorites, that shed blood like water; and
+many a proud serving-man, haughty of heart and bloody of hand,
+cringing to the rich, and making them wickeder than they would
+be; grinding the poor to powder, when the rich had broken them to
+fragments.  And mony, mony mair were coming and ganging, a' as
+busy in their vocation as if they had been alive.
+
+Sir Robert Redgauntlet, in the midst of a' this fearful riot,
+cried, wi' a voice like thunder, on Steenie Piper to come to the
+board-head where he was sitting; his legs stretched out before
+him, and swathed up with flannel, with his holster pistols aside
+him, while the great broadsword rested against his chair, just as
+my gudesire had seen him the last time upon earth--the very
+cushion for the jackanape was close to him, but the creature
+itself was not there--it wasna its hour, it's likely; for he
+heard them say as he came forward, 'Is not the major come yet?'
+And another answered, 'The jackanape will be here betimes the
+morn.'  And when my gudesire came forward, Sir Robert, or his
+ghaist, or the deevil in his likeness, said, 'Weel, piper, hae ye
+settled wi' my son for the year's rent?'
+
+With much ado my father gat breath to say that Sir John would not
+settle without his honour's receipt.
+
+'Ye shall hae that for a tune of the pipes, Steenie,' said the
+appearance of Sir Robert--'Play us up "Weel hoddled, Luckie".'
+
+Now this was a tune my gudesire learned frae a warlock, that
+heard it when they were worshipping Satan at their meetings, and
+my gudesire had sometimes played it at the ranting suppers in
+Redgauntlet Castle, but never very willingly; and now he grew
+cauld at the very name of it, and said, for excuse, he hadna his
+pipes wi' him.
+
+'MacCallum, ye limb of Beelzebub,' said the fearfu' Sir Robert,
+'bring Steenie the pipes that I am keeping for him!'
+
+MacCallum brought a pair of pipes might have served the piper of
+Donald of the Isles.  But he gave my gudesire a nudge as he
+offered them; and looking secretly and closely, Steenie saw that
+the chanter was of steel, and heated to a white heat; so he had
+fair warning not to trust his fingers with it.  So he excused
+himself again, and said he was faint and frightened, and had not
+wind aneugh to fill the bag.
+
+'Then ye maun eat and drink, Steenie,' said the figure; 'for we
+do little else here; and it's ill speaking between a fou man and
+a fasting.'
+
+Now these were the very words that the bloody Earl of Douglas
+said to keep the king's messenger in hand while he cut the head
+off MacLellan of Bombie, at the Threave Castle, [The reader is
+referred for particulars to Pitscottie's HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.]
+and that put Steenie mair and mair on his guard.  So he spoke up
+like a man, and said he came neither to eat, or drink.  or make
+minstrelsy; but simply for his ain--to ken what was come o' the
+money he had paid, and to get a discharge for it; and he was so
+stout-hearted by this time that he charged Sir Robert for
+conscience-sake (he had no power to say the holy name) and as he
+hoped for peace and rest, to spread no snares for him, but just
+to give him his ain.
+
+The appearance gnashed its teeth and laughed, but it took from a
+large pocket-book the receipt, and handed it to Steenie.  'There
+is your receipt, ye pitiful cur; and for the money, my dog-whelp
+of a son may go look for it in the Cat's Cradle.'
+
+My gudesire uttered mony thanks, and was about to retire when Sir
+Robert roared aloud, 'Stop, though, thou sack-doudling son of a
+whore!  I am not done with thee.  HERE we do nothing for nothing;
+and you must return on this very day twelvemonth, to pay your
+master the homage that you owe me for my protection.'
+
+My father's tongue was loosed of a suddenty, and he said aloud,
+'I refer mysell to God's pleasure, and not to yours.'
+
+He had no sooner uttered the word than all was dark around him;
+and he sank on the earth with such a sudden shock, that he lost
+both breath and sense.
+
+How lang Steenie lay there, he could not tell; but when he came
+to himsell, he was lying in the auld kirkyard of Redgauntlet
+parochine just at the door of the family aisle, and the scutcheon
+of the auld knight, Sir Robert, hanging over his head.  There was
+a deep morning fog on grass and gravestane around him, and his
+horse was feeding quietly beside the minister's twa cows.
+Steenie would have thought the whole was a dream, but he had the
+receipt in his hand, fairly written and signed by the auld laird;
+only the last letters of his name were a little disorderly,
+written like one seized with sudden pain.
+
+Sorely troubled in his mind, he left that dreary place, rode
+through the mist to Redgauntlet Castle, and with much ado he got
+speech of the laird.
+
+'Well, you dyvour bankrupt,' was the first word, 'have you
+brought me my rent?'
+
+'No,' answered my gudesire, 'I have not; but I have brought your
+honour Sir Robert's receipt for it.'
+
+'Wow, sirrah?  Sir Robert's receipt!  You told me he had not
+given you one.'
+
+'Will your honour please to see if that bit line is right?'
+
+Sir John looked at every line, and at every letter, with much
+attention; and at last, at the date, which my gudesire had not
+observed,--'FROM MY APPOINTED PLACE," he read, 'THIS TWENTY-FIFTH
+OF NOVEMBER.'--'What!--That is yesterday!--Villain, thou must
+have gone to hell for this!'
+
+'I got it from your honour's father--whether he be in heaven or
+hell, I know not,' said Steenie.
+
+'I will delate you for a warlock to the Privy Council!'  said Sir
+John.  'I will send you to your master, the devil, with the help
+of a tar-barrel and a torch!'
+
+'I intend to delate mysell to the Presbytery,' said Steenie, 'and
+tell them all I have seen last night, whilk are things fitter for
+them to judge of than a borrel man like me.'
+
+Sir John paused, composed himsell, and desired to hear the full
+history; and my gudesire told it him from point to point, as I
+have told it you--word for word, neither more nor less,
+
+Sir John was silent again for a long time, and at last he said,
+very composedly, 'Steenie, this story of yours concerns the
+honour of many a noble family besides mine; and if it be a
+leasing-making, to keep yourself out of my danger, the least you
+can expect is to have a redhot iron driven through your tongue,
+and that will be as bad as scauding your fingers wi' a redhot
+chanter.  But yet it may be true, Steenie; and if the money cast
+up I shall not know what to think of it.  But where shall we find
+the Cat's Cradle?  There are cats enough about the old house, but
+I think they kitten without the ceremony of bed or cradle.'
+
+'We were best ask Hutcheon,' said my gudesire; 'he kens a' the
+odd corners about as weel as--another serving-man that is now
+gane, and that I wad not like to name.'
+
+Aweel, Hutcheon, when he was asked, told them, that a ruinous
+turret, lang disused, next to the clock-house, only accessible by
+a ladder, for the opening was on the outside, and far above the
+battlements, was called of old the Cat's Cradle.
+
+'There will I go immediately,' said Sir John; and he took (with
+what purpose, Heaven kens) one of his father's pistols from the
+hall-table, where they had lain since the night he died, and
+hastened to the battlements.
+
+It was a dangerous place to climb, for the ladder was auld and
+frail, and wanted ane or twa rounds.  However, up got Sir John,
+and entered at the turret-door, where his body stopped the only
+little light that was in the bit turret.  Something flees at him
+wi' a vengeance, maist dang him back ower--bang gaed the knight's
+pistol, and Hutcheon, that held the ladder, and my gudesire that
+stood beside him, hears a loud skelloch.  A minute after, Sir
+John flings the body of the jackanape down to them, and cries
+that the siller is fund, and that they should come up and help
+him.  And there was the bag of siller sure aneugh, and mony orra
+thing besides, that had been missing for mony a day.  And Sir
+John, when he had riped the turret weel, led my gudesire into the
+dining-parlour, and took him by the hand and spoke kindly to him,
+and said he was sorry he should have doubted his word and that he
+would hereafter be a good master to him to make amends.
+
+'And now, Steenie,' said Sir John, 'although this vision of yours
+tend, on the whole, to my father's credit, as an honest man, that
+he should, even after his death, desire to see justice done to a
+poor man like you, yet you are sensible that ill-dispositioned
+men might make bad constructions upon it, concerning his soul's
+health.  So, I think, we had better lay the haill dirdum on that
+ill-deedie creature, Major Weir, and say naething about your
+dream in the wood of Pitmurkie.  You had taken ower muckle brandy
+to be very certain about onything; and, Steenie, this receipt'
+(his hand shook while he held it out),--'it's but a queer kind of
+document, and we will do best, I think, to put it quietly in the
+fire.'
+
+'Od, but for as queer as it is, it's a' the voucher I have for my
+rent,' said my gudesire, who was afraid, it may be, of losing the
+benefit of Sir Robert's discharge.
+
+'I will bear the contents to your credit in the rental-book, and
+give you a discharge under my own hand,' said Sir John, 'and that
+on the spot.  And, Steenie, if you can hold your tongue about
+this matter, you shall sit, from this term downward, at an easier
+rent.'
+
+'Mony thanks to your honour,' said Steenie, who saw easily in
+what corner the wind was; 'doubtless I will be comformable to all
+your honour's commands; only I would willingly speak wi' some
+powerful minister on the subject, for I do not like the sort of
+sommons of appointment whilk your honour's father'--
+
+'Do not call the phantom my father!'  said Sir John, interrupting
+him.
+
+'Weel, then, the thing that was so like him,' said my gudesire;
+'he spoke of my coming back to see him this time twelvemonth, and
+it's a weight on my conscience.'
+
+'Aweel, then,' said Sir John, 'if you be so much distressed in
+mind, you may speak to our minister of the parish; he is a douce
+man, regards the honour of our family, and the mair that he may
+look for some patronage from me.'
+
+Wi' that, my father readily agreed that the receipt should be
+burnt, and the laird threw it into the chimney with his ain hand.
+Burn it would not for them, though; but away it flew up the lum,
+wi' a lang train of sparks at its tail, and a hissing noise like
+a squib.
+
+My gudesire gaed down to the Manse, and the minister, when he had
+heard the story, said it was his real opinion that though my
+gudesire had gaen very far in tampering with dangerous matters,
+yet, as he had refused the devil's arles (for such was the offer
+of meat and drink) and had refused to do homage by piping at his
+bidding, he hoped, that if he held a circumspect walk hereafter,
+Satan could take little advantage by what was come and gane.
+And, indeed, my gudesire, of his ain accord, lang foreswore baith
+the pipes and the brandy--it was not even till the year was out,
+and the fatal day past, that he would so much as take the fiddle,
+or drink usquebaugh or tippeny.
+
+Sir John made up his story about the jackanape as he liked
+himsell; and some believe till this day there was no more in the
+matter than the filching nature of the brute.  Indeed, ye'll no
+hinder some to threap that it was nane o' the auld Enemy that
+Dougal and my gudesire saw in the laird's room, but only that
+wanchancy creature, the major, capering on the coffin; and that,
+as to the blawing on the laird's whistle that was heard after he
+was dead, the filthy brute could do that as weel as the laird
+himsell, if no better.  But Heaven kens the truth, whilk first
+came out by the minister's wife, after Sir John and her ain
+gudeman were baith in the moulds.  And then my gudesire, wha was
+failed in his limbs, but not in his judgement or memory--at least
+nothing to speak of--was obliged to tell the real narrative to
+his friends, for the credit of his good name.  He might else have
+been charged for a warlock.  [See Note 3.]
+
+The shades of evening were growing thicker around us as my
+conductor finished his long narrative with this moral--'Ye see,
+birkie, it is nae chancy thing to tak a stranger traveller for a
+guide, when you are in an uncouth land.'
+
+'I should not have made that inference,' said I.  'Your
+grandfather's adventure was fortunate for himself, whom it saved
+from ruin and distress; and fortunate for his landlord also, whom
+it prevented from committing a gross act of injustice.'
+
+'Aye, but they had baith to sup the sauce o't sooner or later,'
+said Wandering Willie--'what was fristed wasna forgiven.  Sir
+John died before he was much over three-score; and it was just
+like of a moment's illness.  And for my gudesire, though he
+departed in fullness of life, yet there was my father, a yauld
+man of forty-five, fell down betwixt the stilts of his pleugh,
+and rase never again, and left nae bairn but me, a puir
+sightless, fatherless, motherless creature, could neither work
+nor want.  Things gaed weel aneugh at first; for Sir Redwald
+Redgauntlet, the only son of Sir John, and the oye of auld Sir
+Robert, and, waes me!  the last of the honourable house, took the
+farm aff our hands, and brought me into his household to have
+care of me.  He liked music, and I had the best teachers baith
+England and Scotland could gie me.  Mony a merry year was I wi'
+him; but waes me!  he gaed out with other pretty men in the
+Forty-five--I'll say nae mair about it--My head never settled
+weel since I lost him; and if I say another word about it, deil a
+bar will I have the heart to play the night.--Look out, my gentle
+chap,' he resumed in a different tone, 'ye should see the lights
+at Brokenburn glen by this time.'
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XII
+
+THE SAME TO THE SAME
+
+  Tam Luter was their minstrel meet,
+    Gude Lord as he could lance,
+  He play'd sae shrill, and sang sae sweet,
+    Till Towsie took a trance.
+  Auld Lightfoot there he did forleet,
+    And counterfeited France;
+  He used himself as man discreet,
+    And up took Morrice danse sae loud,
+  At Christ's Kirk on the Green that day.
+                                     KING JAMES I.
+
+I continue to scribble at length, though the subject may seem
+somewhat deficient in interest.  Let the grace of the narrative,
+therefore, and the concern we take in each other's matters, make
+amends for its tenuity.  We fools of fancy who suffer ourselves,
+like Malvolio, to be cheated with our own visions, have,
+nevertheless, this advantage over the wise ones of the earth,
+that we have our whole stock of enjoyments under our own command,
+and can dish for ourselves an intellectual banquet with most
+moderate assistance from external objects.  It is, to be sure,
+something like the feast which the Barmecide served up to
+Alnaschar; and we cannot expect to get fat upon such diet.  But
+then, neither is there repletion nor nausea, which often succeed
+the grosser and more material revel.  On the whole, I still pray,
+with the Ode to Castle Building--
+
+  Give me thy hope which sickens not the heart;
+    Give me thy wealth which has no wings to fly;
+  Give me the bliss thy visions can impart:
+    Thy friendship give me, warm in poverty!
+
+And so, despite thy solemn smile and sapient shake of the head, I
+will go on picking such interest as I can out of my trivial
+adventures, even though that interest should be the creation of
+my own fancy; nor will I cease to indict on thy devoted eyes the
+labour of perusing the scrolls in which I shall record my
+narrative.
+
+My last broke off as we were on the point of descending into the
+glen at Brokenburn, by the dangerous track which I had first
+travelled EN CROUPE, behind a furious horseman, and was now again
+to brave under the precarious guidance of a blind man.
+
+It was now getting dark; but this was no inconvenience to my
+guide, who moved on, as formerly, with instinctive security of
+step, so that we soon reached the bottom, and I could see lights
+twinkling in the cottage which had been my place of refuge on a
+former occasion.  It was not thither, however, that our course
+was directed.  We left the habitation of the laird to the left,
+and turning down the brook, soon approached the small hamlet
+which had been erected at the mouth of the stream, probably on
+account of the convenience which it afforded as a harbour to the
+fishing-boats.  A large, low cottage, full in our front, seemed
+highly illuminated; for the light not only glanced from every
+window and aperture in its frail walls, but was even visible from
+rents and fractures in the roof, composed of tarred shingles,
+repaired in part by thatch and divot.
+
+While these appearances engaged my attention, that of my
+companion was attracted by a regular succession of sounds, like a
+bouncing on the floor, mixed with a very faint noise of music,
+which Willie's acute organs at once recognized and accounted for,
+while to me it was almost inaudible.  The old man struck the
+earth with his staff in a violent passion.  'The whoreson fisher
+rabble!  They have brought another violer upon my walk!  They are
+such smuggling blackguards, that they must run in their very
+music; but I'll sort them waur than ony gauger in the country.--
+Stay--hark--it 's no a fiddle neither--it's the pipe and tabor
+bastard, Simon of Sowport, frae the Nicol Forest; but I'll pipe
+and tabor him!--Let me hae ance my left hand on his cravat, and
+ye shall see what my right will do.  Come away, chap--come away,
+gentle chap--nae time to be picking and waling your steps.'  And
+on he passed with long and determined strides, dragging me along
+with him.
+
+I was not quite easy in his company; for, now that his minstrel
+pride was hurt, the man had changed from the quiet, decorous, I
+might almost say respectable person, which he seemed while he
+told his tale, into the appearance of a fierce, brawling,
+dissolute stroller.  So that when he entered the large hut, where
+a great number of fishers, with their wives and daughters, were
+engaged in eating, drinking, and dancing, I was somewhat afraid
+that the impatient violence of my companion might procure us an
+indifferent reception.
+
+But the universal shout of welcome with which Wandering Willie
+was received--the hearty congratulations--the repeated 'Here's t'
+ye, Willie!'--'Where hae ya been, ye blind deevil?'  and the call
+upon him to pledge them--above all, the speed with which the
+obnoxious pipe and tabor were put to silence, gave the old man
+such effectual assurance of undiminished popularity and
+importance, as at once put his jealousy to rest, and changed his
+tone of offended dignity into one better fitted to receive such
+cordial greetings.  Young men and women crowded round, to tell
+how much they were afraid some mischance had detained him, and
+how two or three young fellows had set out in quest of him.
+
+'It was nae mischance, praised be Heaven,' said Willie, 'but the
+absence of the lazy loon Rob the Rambler, my comrade, that didna
+come to meet me on the Links; but I hae gotten a braw consort in
+his stead, worth a dozen of him, the unhanged blackguard.'
+
+'And wha is't tou's gotten, Wullie, lad?'  said half a score of
+voices, while all eyes were turned on your humble servant, who
+kept the best countenance he could, though not quite easy at
+becoming the centre to which all eyes were pointed.
+
+'I ken him by his hemmed cravat,' said one fellow; 'it's Gil
+Hobson, the souple tailor frae Burgh.  Ye are welcome to
+Scotland, ye prick-the-clout loon,' he said, thrusting forth a
+paw; much the colour of a badger's back, and of most portentous
+dimensions.
+
+'Gil Hobson?  Gil whoreson!'  exclaimed Wandering Willie; 'it's a
+gentle chap that I judge to be an apprentice wi' auld Joshua
+Geddes, to the quaker-trade.'
+
+'What trade be's that, man?'  said he of the badger-coloured
+fist.
+
+'Canting and lying,'--said Willie, which produced a thundering
+laugh; 'but I am teaching the callant a better trade, and that
+is, feasting and fiddling.'
+
+Willie's conduct in thus announcing something like my real
+character, was contrary to compact; and yet I was rather glad he
+did so, for the consequence of putting a trick upon these rude
+and ferocious men, might, in case of discovery, have been
+dangerous to us both, and I was at the same time delivered from
+the painful effort to support a fictitious character.  The good
+company, except perhaps one or two of the young women whose looks
+expressed some desire for better acquaintance, gave themselves no
+further trouble about me; but, while the seniors resumed their
+places near an immense bowl or rather reeking cauldron of brandy-
+punch, the younger arranged themselves on the floor and called
+loudly on Willie to strike up.
+
+With a brief caution to me, to 'mind my credit, for fishers have
+ears, though fish have none,' Willie led off in capital style,
+and I followed, certainly not so as to disgrace my companion,
+who, every now and then, gave me a nod of approbation.  The
+dances were, of course, the Scottish jigs, and reels, and
+'twasome dances', with a strathspey or hornpipe for interlude;
+and the want of grace on the part of the performers was amply
+supplied by truth of ear, vigour and decision of step, and the
+agility proper to the northern performers.  My own spirits rose
+with the mirth around me, and with old Willie's admirable
+execution, and frequent 'weel dune, gentle chap, yet;'--and, to
+confess the truth, I felt a great deal more pleasure in this
+rustic revel, than I have done at the more formal balls and
+concerts in your famed city, to which I have sometimes made my
+way.  Perhaps this was because I was a person of more importance
+to the presiding matron of Brokenburn-foot, than I had the means
+of rendering myself to the far-famed Miss Nickie Murray, the
+patroness of your Edinburgh assemblies.  The person I mean was a
+buxom dame of about thirty, her fingers loaded with many a silver
+ring, and three or four of gold; her ankles liberally displayed
+from under her numerous blue, white, and scarlet; short
+petticoats, and attired in hose of the finest and whitest lamb's-
+wool, which arose from shoes of Spanish cordwain, fastened with
+silver buckles.  She took the lead in my favour, and declared,
+'that the brave young gentleman should not weary himself to death
+wi' playing, but take the floor for a dance or twa.'
+
+'And what's to come of me, Dame Martin?'  said Willie.
+
+'Come o' thee?'  said the dame; 'mishanter on the auld beard o'
+ye!  ye could play for twenty hours on end, and tire out the
+haill countryside wi' dancing before ye laid down your bow,
+saving for a by-drink or the like o' that.'
+
+'In troth, dame,' answered Willie, 'ye are no sae far wrang; sae
+if my comrade is to take his dance, ye maun gie me my drink, and
+then bob it away like Madge of Middlebie.'
+
+The drink was soon brought; but while Willie was partaking of it,
+a party entered the hut, which arrested my attention at once, and
+intercepted the intended gallantry with which I had proposed to
+present my hand to the fresh-coloured, well-made, white-ankled
+Thetis, who had obtained me manumission from my musical task.
+
+This was nothing less than the sudden appearance of the old woman
+whom the laird had termed Mabel; Cristal Nixon, his male
+attendant; and the young person who had said grace to us when I
+supped with him.
+
+This young person--Alan, thou art in thy way a bit of a conjurer
+--this young person whom I DID NOT describe, and whom you, for
+that very reason, suspected was not an indifferent object to me
+--is, I am sorry to say it, in very fact not so much so as in
+prudence she ought.  I will not use the name of love on this
+occasion; for I have applied it too often to transient whims and
+fancies to escape your satire, should I venture to apply it now.
+For it is a phrase, I must confess, which I have used--a romancer
+would say, profaned--a little too often, considering how few
+years have passed over my head.  But seriously, the fair chaplain
+of Brokenburn has been often in my head when she had no business
+there; and if this can give thee any clue for explaining my
+motives in lingering about the country, and assuming the
+character of Willie's companion, why, hang thee, thou art welcome
+to make use of it--a permission for which thou need'st not thank
+me much, as thou wouldst not have failed to assume it whether it
+were given or no.
+
+Such being my feelings, conceive how they must have been excited,
+when, like a beam upon a cloud, I saw this uncommonly beautiful
+girl enter the apartment in which they were dancing; not,
+however, with the air of an equal, but that of a superior, come
+to grace with her presence the festival of her dependants.  The
+old man and woman attended, with looks as sinister as hers were
+lovely, like two of the worst winter months waiting upon the
+bright-eyed May.
+
+When she entered--wonder if thou wilt--she wore A GREEN MANTLE,
+such as thou hast described as the garb of thy fair client, and
+confirmed what I had partly guessed from thy personal
+description, that my chaplain and thy visitor were the same
+person.  There was an alteration on her brow the instant she
+recognized me.  She gave her cloak to her female attendant, and,
+after a momentary hesitation, as if uncertain whether to advance
+or retire, she walked into the room with dignity and composure,
+all making way, the men unbonneting, and the women curtsying
+respectfully, as she assumed a chair which was reverently placed
+for her accommodation, apart from others.
+
+There was then a pause, until the bustling mistress of the
+ceremonies, with awkward but kindly courtesy, offered the young
+lady a glass of wine, which was at first declined, and at length
+only thus far accepted, that, bowing round to the festive
+company, the fair visitor wished them all health and mirth, and
+just touching the brim with her lip, replaced it on the salver.
+There was another pause; and I did not immediately recollect,
+confused as I was by this unexpected apparition, that it belonged
+to me to break it.  At length a murmur was heard around me, being
+expected to exhibit,--nay, to lead down the dance,--in
+consequence of the previous conversation.
+
+'Deil's in the fiddler lad,' was muttered from more quarters than
+one--'saw folk ever sic a thing as a shame-faced fiddler before?'
+
+At length a venerable Triton, seconding his remonstrances with a
+hearty thump on my shoulder, cried out, 'To the floor--to the
+floor, and let us see how ye can fling--the lasses are a'
+waiting.'
+
+Up I jumped, sprang from the elevated station which constituted
+our orchestra, and, arranging my ideas as rapidly as I could,
+advanced to the head of the room, and, instead of offering my
+hand to the white-footed Thetis aforesaid, I venturously made the
+same proposal to her of the Green Mantle.
+
+The nymph's lovely eyes seemed to open with astonishment at the
+audacity of this offer; and, from the murmurs I heard around me,
+I also understood that it surprised, and perhaps offended, the
+bystanders.  But after the first moment's emotion, she wreathed
+her neck, and drawing herself haughtily up, like one who was
+willing to show that she was sensible of the full extent of her
+own condescension, extended her hand towards me, like a princess
+gracing a squire of low degree.
+
+There is affectation in all this, thought I to myself, if the
+Green Mantle has borne true evidence--for young ladies do not
+make visits, or write letters to counsel learned in the law, to
+interfere in the motions of those whom they hold as cheap as this
+nymph seems to do me; and if I am cheated by a resemblance of
+cloaks, still I am interested to show myself, in some degree,
+worthy of the favour she has granted with so much state and
+reserve.  The dance to be performed was the old Scots Jig, in
+which you are aware I used to play no sorry figure at La Pique's,
+when thy clumsy movements used to be rebuked by raps over the
+knuckles with that great professor's fiddlestick.  The choice of
+the tune was left to my comrade Willie, who, having finished his
+drink, feloniously struck up the well-known and popular measure,
+
+  Merrily danced the Quaker's wife,
+  And merrily danced the Quaker.
+
+An astounding laugh arose at my expense, and I should have been
+annihilated, but that the smile which mantled on the lip of my
+partner, had a different expression from that of ridicule, and
+seemed to say, 'Do not take this to heart.'  And I did not, Alan
+--my partner danced admirably, and I like one who was determined,
+if outshone, which I could not help, not to be altogether thrown
+into the shade.
+
+I assure you our performance, as well as Willie's music, deserved
+more polished spectators and auditors; but we could not then have
+been greeted with such enthusiastic shouts of applause as
+attended while I handed my partner to her seat, and took my place
+by her side, as one who had a right to offer the attentions usual
+on such an occasion.  She was visibly embarrassed, but I was
+determined not to observe her confusion, and to avail myself of
+the opportunity of learning whether this beautiful creature's
+mind was worthy of the casket in which nature had lodged it.
+
+Nevertheless, however courageously I formed this resolution, you
+cannot but too well guess the difficulties I must needs have felt
+in carrying it into execution; since want of habitual intercourse
+with the charmers of the other sex has rendered me a sheepish
+cur, only one grain less awkward than thyself.  Then she was so
+very beautiful, and assumed an air of so much dignity, that I was
+like to fall under the fatal error of supposing she should only
+be addressed with something very clever; and in the hasty raking
+which my brains underwent in this persuasion, not a single idea
+occurred that common sense did not reject as fustian on the one
+hand, or weary, flat, and stale triticism on the other.  I felt
+as if my understanding were no longer my own, but was alternately
+under the dominion of Aldeborontiphoscophornio, and that of his
+facetious friend Rigdum-Funnidos.  How did I envy at that moment
+our friend Jack Oliver, who produces with such happy complacence
+his fardel of small talk, and who, as he never doubts his own
+powers of affording amusement, passes them current with every
+pretty woman he approaches, and fills up the intervals of chat by
+his complete acquaintance with the exercise of the fan, the
+FLACON, and the other duties of the CAVALIERE SERVENTE.  Some of
+these I attempted, but I suppose it was awkwardly; at least the
+Lady Green Mantle received them as a princess accepts the homage
+of a clown.
+
+Meantime the floor remained empty, and as the mirth of the good
+meeting was somewhat checked, I ventured, as a DERNIER RESSORT,
+to propose a minuet.  She thanked me, and told me haughtily
+enough, 'she was here to encourage the harmless pleasures of
+these good folks, but was not disposed to make an exhibition of
+her own indifferent dancing for their amusement.'
+
+She paused a moment, as if she expected me to suggest something;
+and as I remained silent and rebuked, she bowed her head more
+graciously, and said, 'Not to affront you, however, a country-
+dance, if you please.'
+
+What an ass was I, Alan, not to have anticipated her wishes!
+Should I not have observed that the ill-favoured couple, Mabel
+and Cristal, had placed themselves on each side of her seat, like
+the supporters of the royal arms?  the man, thick, short, shaggy,
+and hirsute, as the lion; the female, skin-dried, tight-laced,
+long, lean, and hungry-faced, like the unicorn.  I ought to have
+recollected, that under the close inspection of two such watchful
+salvages, our communication, while in repose, could not have been
+easy; that the period of dancing a minuet was not the very
+choicest time for conversation; but that the noise, the exercise,
+and the mazy confusion of a country-dance, where the
+inexperienced performers were every now and then running against
+each other, and compelling the other couples to stand still for a
+minute at a time, besides the more regular repose afforded by the
+intervals of the dance itself, gave the best possible openings
+for a word or two spoken in season, and without being liable to
+observation.
+
+We had but just led down, when an opportunity of the kind
+occurred, and my partner said, with great gentleness and modesty,
+'It is not perhaps very proper in me to acknowledge an
+acquaintance that is not claimed; but I believe I speak to Mr.
+Darsie Latimer?'
+
+'Darsie Latimer was indeed the person that had now the honour and
+happiness'--
+
+I would have gone on in the false gallop of compliment, but she
+cut me short.  'And why,' she said, 'is Mr. Latimer here, and in
+disguise, or at least assuming an office unworthy of a man of
+education?--I beg pardon,' she continued,--'I would not give you
+pain, but surely making, an associate of a person of that
+description'--
+
+She looked towards my friend Willie, and was silent.  I felt
+heartily ashamed of myself, and hastened to say it was an idle
+frolic, which want of occupation had suggested, and which I could
+not regret, since it had procured me the pleasure I at present
+enjoyed.
+
+Without seeming to notice my compliment, she took the next
+opportunity to say, 'Will Mr. Latimer permit a stranger who
+wishes him well to ask, whether it is right that, at his active
+age, he should be in so far void of occupation, as to be ready to
+adopt low society for the sake of idle amusement?'
+
+'You are severe, madam,' I answered; 'but I cannot think myself
+degraded by mixing with any society where I meet'--
+
+Here I stopped short, conscious that I was giving my answer an
+unhandsome turn.  The ARGUMENTUM AD HOMINEM, the last to which a
+polite man has recourse, may, however, be justified by
+circumstances, but seldom or never the ARGUMENTUM AD FOEMINAM.
+
+She filled up the blank herself which I had left.  'Where you
+meet ME, I suppose you would say?  But the case is different.  I
+am, from my unhappy fate, obliged to move by the will of others,
+and to be in places which I would by my own will gladly avoid.
+Besides, I am, except for these few minutes, no participator of
+the revels--a spectator only, and attended by my servants.  Your
+situation is different--you are here by choice, the partaker and
+minister of the pleasures of a class below you in education,
+birth, and fortunes.  If I speak harshly, Mr. Latimer,' she
+added, with much sweetness of manner, 'I mean kindly.'
+
+I was confounded by her speech, 'severe in youthful wisdom'; all
+of naive or lively, suitable to such a dialogue, vanished from my
+recollection, and I answered with gravity like her own, 'I am,
+indeed, better educated than these poor people; but you, madam,
+whose kind admonition I am grateful for, must know more of my
+condition than I do myself--I dare not say I am their superior in
+birth, since I know nothing of my own, or in fortunes, over which
+hangs an impenetrable cloud.'
+
+'And why should your ignorance on these points drive you into low
+society and idle habits?'  answered my female monitor.  'Is it
+manly to wait till fortune cast her beams upon you, when by
+exertion of your own energy you might distinguish yourself?  Do
+not the pursuits of learning lie open to you--of manly ambition
+--of war?  But no--not of war, that has already cost you too
+dear.'
+
+'I will be what you wish me to be,' I replied with eagerness--
+'You have but to choose my path, and you shall see if I do not
+pursue it with energy, were it only because you command me.'
+
+'Not because I command you,' said the maiden, 'but because
+reason, common sense, manhood, and, in one word, regard for your
+own safety, give the same counsel.'
+
+'At least permit me to reply, that reason and sense never assumed
+a fairer form--of persuasion,' I hastily added; for she turned
+from me--nor did she give me another opportunity of continuing
+what I had to say till the next pause of the dance, when,
+determined to bring our dialogue to a point, I said, 'You
+mentioned manhood also, and in the same breath, personal danger.
+My ideas of manhood suggest that it is cowardice to retreat
+before dangers of a doubtful character.  You, who appear to know
+so much of my fortunes that I might call you my guardian angel,
+tell me what these dangers are, that I may judge whether manhood
+calls on me to face or to fly them.'
+
+She was evidently perplexed by this appeal.
+
+'You make me pay dearly for acting as your humane adviser,' she
+replied at last:  'I acknowledge an interest in your fate, and
+yet I dare not tell you whence it arises; neither am I at liberty
+to say why, or from whom, you are in danger; but it is not less
+true that danger is near and imminent.  Ask me no more, but, for
+your own sake, begone from this country.  Elsewhere you are safe
+--here you do but invite your fate.'
+
+'But am I doomed to bid thus farewell to almost the only human
+being who has showed an interest in my welfare?  Do not say so--
+say that we shall meet again, and the hope shall be the leading
+star to regulate my course!'
+
+'It is more than probable,' she said--'much more than probable,
+that we may never meet again.  The help which I now render you is
+all that may be in my power; it is such as I should render to a
+blind man whom I might observe approaching the verge of a
+precipice; it ought to excite no surprise, and requires no
+gratitude.'
+
+So saying, she again turned from me, nor did she address me until
+the dance was on the point of ending, when she said, 'Do not
+attempt to speak to or approach me again in the course of the
+night; leave the company as soon as you can, but not abruptly,
+and God be with you.'
+
+I handed her to her seat, and did not quit the fair palm I held,
+without expressing my feelings by a gentle pressure.  She
+coloured slightly, and withdrew her hand, but not angrily.
+Seeing the eyes of Cristal and Mabel sternly fixed on me, I bowed
+deeply, and withdrew from her; my heart saddening, and my eyes
+becoming dim in spite of me, as the shifting crowd hid us from
+each other.
+
+It was my intention to have crept back to my comrade Willie, and
+resumed my bow with such spirit as I might, although, at the
+moment, I would have given half my income for an instant's
+solitude.  But my retreat was cut off by Dame Martin, with the
+frankness--if it is not an inconsistent phrase-of rustic
+coquetry, that goes straight up to the point.
+
+'Aye, lad, ye seem unco sune weary, to dance sae lightly?  Better
+the nag that ambles a' the day, than him that makes a brattle for
+a mile, and then's dune wi' the road.'
+
+This was a fair challenge, and I could not decline accepting it.
+Besides, I could see Dame Martin was queen of the revels; and so
+many were the rude and singular figures about me, that I was by
+no means certain whether I might not need some protection.  I
+seized on her willing hand, and we took our places in the dance,
+where, if I did not acquit myself with all the accuracy of step
+and movement which I had before attempted, I at least came up to
+the expectations of my partner, who said, and almost swore, 'I
+was prime at it;' while, stimulated to her utmost exertions, she
+herself frisked like a kid, snapped her fingers like castanets,
+whooped like a Bacchanal, and bounded from the floor like a
+tennis-ball,--aye, till the colour of her garters was no
+particular mystery.  She made the less secret of this, perhaps,
+that they were sky-blue, and fringed with silver.
+
+The time has been that this would have been special fun; or
+rather, last night was the only time I can recollect these four
+years when it would not have been so; yet, at this moment, I
+cannot tell you how I longed to be rid of Dame Martin.  I almost
+wished she would sprain one of those 'many-twinkling' ankles,
+which served her so alertly; and when, in the midst of her
+exuberant caprioling, I saw my former partner leaving the
+apartment, and with eyes, as I thought, turning towards me, this
+unwillingness to carry on the dance increased to such a point,
+that I was almost about to feign a sprain or a dislocation
+myself, in order to put an end to the performance.  But there
+were around me scores of old women, all of whom looked as if they
+might have some sovereign recipe for such an accident; and,
+remembering Gil Blas, and his pretended disorder in the robber's
+cavern, I thought it as wise to play Dame Martin fair, and dance
+till she thought proper to dismiss me.  What I did I resolved to
+do strenuously, and in the latter part of the exhibition I cut
+and sprang from the floor as high and as perpendicularly as Dame
+Martin herself; and received, I promise you, thunders of
+applause, for the common people always prefer exertion and
+agility to grace.  At length Dame Martin could dance no more,
+and, rejoicing at my release, I led her to a seat, and took the
+privilege of a partner to attend her.
+
+'Hegh, sirs,' exclaimed Dame Martin, 'I am sair forfoughen!
+Troth!  callant, I think ye hae been amaist the death o' me.'
+
+I could only atone for the alleged offence by fetching her some
+refreshment, of which she readily partook.
+
+'I have been lucky in my partners,' I said, 'first that pretty
+young lady, and then you, Mrs, Martin.'
+
+'Hout wi' your fleeching,' said Dame Martin.  'Gae wa--gae wa,
+lad; dinna blaw in folk's lugs that gate; me and Miss Lilias
+even'd thegither!  Na, na, lad--od, she is maybe four or five
+years younger than the like o' me,--bye and attour her gentle
+havings.'
+
+'She is the laird's daughter?'  said I, in as careless a tone of
+inquiry as I could assume.
+
+'His daughter, man?  Na, na, only his niece--and sib aneugh to
+him, I think.'
+
+'Aye, indeed,' I replied; 'I thought she had borne his name?'
+
+'She bears her ain name, and that's Lilias.'
+
+'And has she no other name?'  asked I.
+
+'What needs she another till she gets a gudeman?'  answered my
+Thetis, a little miffed perhaps--to use the women's phrase--that
+I turned the conversation upon my former partner, rather than
+addressed it to herself.
+
+There was a little pause, which was interrupted by Dame Martin
+observing, 'They are standing up again.'
+
+'True,' said I, having no mind to renew my late violent CAPRIOLE,
+and I must go help old Willie.'
+
+Ere I could extricate myself, I heard poor Thetis address herself
+to a sort of merman in a jacket of seaman's blue, and a pair of
+trousers (whose hand, by the way, she had rejected at an earlier
+part of the evening) and intimate that she was now disposed to
+take a trip.
+
+'Trip away, then, dearie,' said the vindictive man of the waters,
+without offering his hand; 'there,' pointing to the floor, 'is a
+roomy berth for you.'
+
+Certain I had made one enemy, and perhaps two, I hastened to my
+original seat beside Willie, and began to handle my bow.  But I
+could see that my conduct had made an unfavourable impression;
+the words, 'flory conceited chap,'--'hafflins gentle,' and at
+length, the still more alarming epithet of 'spy,' began to be
+buzzed about, and I was heartily glad when the apparition of
+Sam's visage at the door, who was already possessed of and
+draining a can of punch, gave me assurance that my means of
+retreat were at hand.  I intimated as much to Willie, who
+probably had heard more of the murmurs of the company than I had,
+for he whispered, 'Aye, aye,--awa wi' ye--ower lang here--slide
+out canny--dinna let them see ye are on the tramp.'
+
+I slipped half a guinea into the old man's hand, who answered,
+'Truts pruts!  nonsense but I 'se no refuse, trusting ye can
+afford it.  Awa wi' ye--and if ony body stops ye, cry on me.'
+
+I glided, by his advice, along the room as if looking for a
+partner, joined Sam, whom I disengaged with some difficulty from
+his can, and we left the cottage together in a manner to attract
+the least possible observation.  The horses were tied in a
+neighbouring shed, and as the moon was up, and I was now familiar
+with the road, broken and complicated as it is, we soon reached
+the Shepherd's Bush, where the old landlady was sitting up
+waiting for us, under some anxiety of mind, to account for which
+she did not hesitate to tell me that some folks had gone to
+Brokenburn from her house, or neighbouring towns, that did not
+come so safe back again.  'Wandering Willie,' she said, 'was
+doubtless a kind of protection.'
+
+Here Willie's wife, who was smoking in the chimney corner, took
+up the praises of her 'hinnie,' as she called him, and
+endeavoured to awaken my generosity afresh, by describing the
+dangers from which, as she was pleased to allege, her husband's
+countenance had assuredly been the means of preserving me.  I was
+not, however, to be fooled out of more money at this time, and
+went to bed in haste, full of vanous cogitations.
+
+I have since spent a couple of days betwixt Mount Sharon and this
+place, and betwixt reading, writing to thee this momentous
+history, forming plans for seeing the lovely Lilias, and--partly,
+I think, for the sake of contradiction--angling a little in spite
+of Joshua'a scruples--though I am rather liking the amusement
+better as I begin to have some success in it.
+
+And now, my dearest Alan, you are in full possession of my
+secret--let me as frankly into the recesses of your bosom.  How
+do you feel towards this fair ignis fatuus, this lily of the
+desert?  Tell me honestly; for however the recollection of her
+may haunt my own mind, my love for Alan Fairford surpasses the
+love of woman, I know, too, that when you DO love, it will be to
+
+  Love once and love no more.
+
+A deep-consuming passion, once kindled in a breast so steady as
+yours, would never be extinguished but with life.  I am of
+another and more volatile temper, and though I shall open your
+next with a trembling hand and uncertain heart, yet let it bring
+a frank confession that this fair unknown has made a deeper
+impression on your gravity than you reckoned for, and you will
+see I can tear the arrow from my own wound, barb and all.  In the
+meantime, though I have formed schemes once more to see her, I
+will, you may rely on it, take no step for putting them into
+practice.  I have refrained from this hitherto, and I give you my
+word of honour, I shall continue to do so; yet why should you
+need any further assurance from one who is so entirely yours as
+D.L.
+
+PS.--I shall be on thorns till I receive your answer.  I read,
+and re-read your letter, and cannot for my soul discover what
+your real sentiments are.  Sometimes I think you write of her as
+one in jest--and sometimes I think that cannot be.  Put me at
+ease as soon as possible.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIII
+
+ALAN FAIRFORD TO DARSIE LATIMER
+
+I write on the instant, as you direct; and in a tragi-comic
+humour, for I have a tear in my eye and a smile on my cheek.
+Dearest Darsie, sure never a being but yourself could be so
+generous--sure never a being but yourself could be so absurd!  I
+remember when you were a boy you wished to make your fine new
+whip a present to old Aunt Peggy, merely because she admired it;
+and now, with like unreflecting and inappropriate liberality, you
+would resign your beloved to a smoke-dried young sophister, who
+cares not one of the hairs which it is his occupation to split,
+for all the daughters of Eve.  I in love with your Lilias--your
+Green Mantle--your unknown enchantress!--why I scarce saw her for
+five minutes, and even then only the tip of her chin was
+distinctly visible.  She was well made, and the tip of her chin
+was of a most promising cast for the rest of the face; but,
+Heaven save you!  she came upon business!  and for a lawyer to
+fall in love with a pretty client on a single consultation, would
+be as wise as if he became enamoured of a particularly bright
+sunbeam which chanced for a moment to gild his bar-wig.  I give
+you my word I am heart-whole and moreover, I assure you, that
+before I suffer a woman to sit near my heart's core, I must see
+her full face, without mask or mantle, aye, and know a good deal
+of her mind into the bargain.  So never fret yourself on my
+account, my kind and generous Darsie; but, for your own sake,
+have a care and let not an idle attachment, so lightly taken up,
+lead you into serious danger.
+
+On this subject I feel so apprehensive, that now when I am
+decorated with the honours of the gown, I should have abandoned
+my career at the very starting to come to you, but for my father
+having contrived to clog my heels with fetters of a professional
+nature.  I will tell you the matter at length, for it is comical
+enough; and why should not you list to my juridical adventures,
+as well as I to those of your fiddling knight-errantry?
+
+It was after dinner, and I was considering how I might best
+introduce to my father the private resolution I had formed to set
+off for Dumfriesshire, or whether I had not better run away at
+once, and plead my excuse by letter, when, assuming the peculiar
+look with which he communicates any of his intentions respecting
+me, that he suspects may not be altogether acceptable, 'Alan,' he
+said, 'ye now wear a gown--ye have opened shop, as we would say
+of a more mechanical profession; and, doubtless, ye think the
+floor of the courts is strewed with guineas, and that ye have
+only to stoop down to gather them?'
+
+'I hope I am sensible, sir,' I replied, 'that I have some
+knowledge and practice to acquire, and must stoop for that in the
+first place.'
+
+'It is well said,' answered my father; and, always afraid to give
+too much encouragement, added, 'Very well said, if it be well
+acted up to--Stoop to get knowledge and practice is the very
+word.  Ye know very well, Alan, that in the other faculty who
+study the ARS MEDENDI, before the young doctor gets to the
+bedsides of palaces, he must, as they call it, walk the
+hospitals; and cure Lazarus of his sores, before he be admitted
+to prescribe for Dives, when he has gout or indigestion'--
+
+'I am aware, sir, that'--
+
+'Whisht--do not interrupt the court.  Well--also the chirurgeons
+have a useful practice, by which they put their apprentices and
+tyrones to work; upon senseless dead bodies, to which, as they
+can do no good, so they certainly can do as little harm; while at
+the same time the tyro, or apprentice, gains experience, and
+becomes fit to whip off a leg or arm from a living subject, as
+cleanly as ye would slice an onion.'
+
+'I believe I guess your meaning, sir,' answered I; 'and were it
+not for a very particular engagement'--
+
+'Do not speak to me of engagements ; but whisht--there is a good
+lad--and do not interrupt the court.'
+
+My father, you know, is apt--be it said with all filial duty--to
+be a little prolix in his harangues.  I had nothing for it but to
+lean back and listen.
+
+'Maybe you think, Alan, because I have, doubtless, the management
+of some actions in dependence, whilk my worthy clients have
+intrusted me with, that I may think of airting them your way
+INSTANTER; and so setting you up in practice, so far as my small
+business or influence may go; and, doubtless, Alan, that is a day
+whilk I hope may come round.  But then, before I give, as the
+proverb hath it, "My own fish-guts to my own sea-maws," I must,
+for the sake of my own character, be very sure that my sea-maw
+can pick them to some purpose.  What say ye?'
+
+'I am so far,' answered I, 'from wishing to get early into
+practice, sir, that I would willingly bestow a few days'--
+
+'In further study, ye would say, Alan.  But that is not the way
+either--ye must walk the hospitals--ye must cure Lazarus--ye must
+cut and carve on a departed subject, to show your skill.'
+
+'I am sure,' I replied, 'I will undertake the cause of any poor
+man with pleasure, and bestow as much pains upon it as if it were
+a duke's; but for the next two or three days'--
+
+'They must be devoted to close study, Alan--very close study
+indeed; for ye must stand primed for a hearing, IN PRESENTIA
+DOMINORUM, upon Tuesday next.'
+
+'I, sir?'  I replied in astonishment--'I have not opened my mouth
+in the Outer House yet!'
+
+'Never mind the court of the Gentiles, man,' said my father; 'we
+will have you into the Sanctuary at once--over shoes, over
+boots.'
+
+'But, sir, I should really spoil any cause thrust on me so
+hastily.'
+
+'Ye cannot spoil it, Alan,' said my father, rubbing his hands
+with much complacency ; 'that is the very cream of the business,
+man--it is just, as I said before, a subject upon whilk all the
+TYRONES have been trying their whittles for fifteen years; and as
+there have been about ten or a dozen agents concerned, and each
+took his own way, the case is come to that pass, that Stair or
+Amiston could not mend it; and I do not think even you, Alan, can
+do it much harm--ye may get credit by it, but ye can lose none.'
+
+'And pray what is the name of my happy client, sir?'  said I,
+ungraciously enough, I believe.
+
+'It is a well-known name in the Parliament House,' replied my
+father.  'To say the truth, I expect him every moment; it is
+Peter Peebles.'  [See Note 4.]
+
+'Peter Peebles!'  exclaimed I, in astonishment; 'he is an insane
+beggar--as poor as Job, and as mad as a March hare!'
+
+'He has been pleaing in the court for fifteen years,' said my
+father, in a tone of commiseration, which seemed to acknowledge
+that this fact was enough to account for the poor man's condition
+both in mind and circumstances.
+
+'Besides, sir,' I added, 'he is on the Poor's Roll; and you know
+there are advocates regularly appointed to manage those cases;
+and for me to presume to interfere'--
+
+'Whisht, Alan!--never interrupt the court--all THAT is managed
+for ye like a tee'd ball' (my father sometimes draws his similes
+from his once favourite game of golf); 'you must know, Alan, that
+Peter's cause was to have been opened by young Dumtoustie--ye may
+ken the lad, a son of Dumtoustie of that ilk, member of
+Parliament for the county of --, and a nephew of the laird's
+younger brother, worthy Lord Bladderskate, whilk ye are aware
+sounds as like being akin to a peatship [Formerly, a lawyer,
+supposed to be under the peculiar patronage of any particular
+judge, was invidiously termed his PEAT or PET.] and a sheriffdom,
+as a sieve is sib to a riddle.  Now, Peter Drudgeit, my lord's
+clerk, came to me this morning in the House, like ane bereft of
+his wits; for it seems that young Dumtoustie is ane of the Poor's
+lawyers, and Peter Peebles's process had been remitted to him of
+course.  But so soon as the harebrained goose saw the pokes
+[Process-bags.]  (as indeed, Alan, they are none of the least) he
+took fright, called for his nag, lap on, and away to the country
+is he gone; and so?  said Peter, my lord is at his wit's end wi'
+vexation, and shame, to see his nevoy break off the course at the
+very starting.  "I'll tell you, Peter," said I, "were I my lord,
+and a friend or kinsman of mine should leave the town while the
+court was sitting, that kinsman, or be he what he liked, should
+never darken my door again."  And then, Alan, I thought to turn
+the ball our own way; and I said that you were a gey sharp
+birkie, just off the irons, and if it would oblige my lord, and
+so forth, you would open Peter's cause on Tuesday, and make some
+handsome apology for the necessary absence of your learned
+friend, and the loss which your client and the court had
+sustained, and so forth.  Peter lap at the proposition like a
+cock at a grossart; for, he said, the only chance was to get a
+new hand, that did not ken the charge he was taking upon him; for
+there was not a lad of two sessions' standing that was not dead-
+sick of Peter Peebles and his cause; and he advised me to break
+the matter gently to you at the first; but I told him you were, a
+good bairn, Alan, and had no will and pleasure in these matters
+but mine.'
+
+What could I say, Darsie, in answer to this arrangement, so very
+well meant--so very vexatious at the same time?  To imitate the
+defection and flight of young Dumtoustie, was at once to destroy
+my father's hopes of me for ever; nay, such is the keenness with
+which he regards all connected with his profession, it might have
+been a step to breaking his heart.  I was obliged, therefore, to
+bow in sad acquiescence, when my father called to James Wilkinson
+to bring the two bits of pokes he would find on his table.
+
+Exit James, and presently re-enters, bending under the load of
+two huge leathern bags, full of papers to the brim, and labelled
+on the greasy backs with the magic impress of the clerks of
+court, and the title, PEEBLES AGAINST PLAINSTANES.  This huge
+mass was deposited on the table, and my father, with no ordinary
+glee in his countenance, began to draw out; the various bundles
+of papers, secured by none of your red tape or whipcord, but
+stout, substantial casts of tarred rope, such as might have held
+small craft at their moorings.
+
+I made a last and desperate effort to get rid of the impending
+job.  'I am really afraid, sir, that this case seems so much
+complicated, and there is so little time to prepare, that we had
+better move the court to supersede it till next session.'
+
+'How, sir?--how, Alan?'  said my father--'Would you approbate and
+reprobate, sir?  You have accepted the poor man's cause, and if
+you have not his fee in your pocket, it is because he has none to
+give you; and now would you approbate and reprobate in the same
+breath of your mouth?  Think of your oath of office, Alan, and
+your duty to your father, my dear boy.'
+
+Once more, what could I say?  I saw from my father's hurried and
+alarmed manner, that nothing could vex him so much as failing in
+the point he had determined to carry, and once more intimated my
+readiness to do my best, under every disadvantage.
+
+'Well, well, my boy,' said my father, 'the Lord will make your
+days long in the land, for the honour you have given to your
+father's grey hairs.  You may find wiser advisers, Alan, but none
+that can wish you better.'
+
+My father, you know, does not usually give way to expressions of
+affection, and they are interesting in proportion to their
+rarity.  My eyes began to fill at seeing his glisten; and my
+delight at having given him such sensible gratification would
+have been unmixed but for the thoughts of you.  These out of the
+question, I could have grappled with the bags, had they been as
+large as corn-sacks.  But, to turn what was grave into farce, the
+door opened, and Wilkinson ushered in Peter Peebles.
+
+You must have seen this original, Darsie, who, like others in the
+same predicament, continues to haunt the courts of justice, where
+he has made shipwreck of time, means, and understanding.  Such
+insane paupers have sometimes seemed to me to resemble wrecks
+lying upon the shoals on the Goodwin Sands, or in Yarmouth Roads,
+warning other vessels to keep aloof from the banks on which they
+have been lost; or rather, such ruined clients are like
+scarecrows and potato-bogies, distributed through the courts to
+scare away fools from the scene of litigation.
+
+The identical Peter wears a huge greatcoat threadbare and patched
+itself, yet carefully so disposed and secured by what buttons
+remain, and many supplementary pins, as to conceal the still more
+infirm state of his under garments.  The shoes and stockings of a
+ploughman were, however, seen to meet at his knees with a pair of
+brownish, blackish breeches; a rusty-coloured handkerchief, that
+has been black in its day, surrounded his throat, and was an
+apology for linen.  His hair, half grey, half black, escaped in
+elf-locks around a huge wig, made of tow, as it seemed to me, and
+so much shrunk that it stood up on the very top of his head;
+above which he plants, when covered, an immense cocked hat,
+which, like the chieftain's banner in an ancient battle, may be
+seen any sederunt day betwixt nine and ten, high towering above
+all the fluctuating and changeful scene in the Outer House, where
+his eccentricities often make him the centre of a group of
+petulant and teasing boys, who exercise upon him every art of
+ingenious torture.  His countenance, originally that of a portly,
+comely burgess, is now emaciated with poverty and anxiety, and
+rendered wild by an insane lightness about the eyes; a withered
+and blighted skin and complexion; features begrimed with snuff,
+charged with the self-importance peculiar to insanity; and a
+habit of perpetually speaking to himself.  Such was my
+unfortunate client; and I must allow, Darsie, that my profession
+had need to do a great deal of good, if, as is much to be feared,
+it brings many individuals to such a pass.
+
+After we had been, with a good deal of form, presented to each
+other, at which time I easily saw by my father's manner that he
+was desirous of supporting Peter's character in my eyes, as much
+as circumstances would permit, 'Alan,' he said, 'this is the
+gentleman who has agreed to accept of you as his counsel, in
+place of young Dumtoustie.'
+
+'Entirely out of favour to my old acquaintance your father, said
+Peter.  with a benign and patronizing countenance, 'out of
+respect to your father, and my old intimacy with Lord
+Bladderskate.  Otherwise, by the REGIAM MAJESTATEM!  I would have
+presented a petition and complaint against Daniel Dumtoustie,
+Advocate, by name and surname--I would, by all the practiques!--
+I know the forms of process; and I am not to be triffled with.'
+
+My father here interrupted my client, and reminded him that there
+was a good deal of business to do, as he proposed to give the
+young counsel an outline of the state of the conjoined process,
+with a view to letting him into the merits of the cause,
+disencumbered from the points of form.  'I have made a short
+abbreviate, Mr. Peebles,' said he; 'having sat up late last
+night, and employed much of this morning in wading through these
+papers, to save Alan some trouble, and I am now about to state
+the result.'
+
+'I will state it myself,' said Peter, breaking in without
+reverence upon his solicitor.
+
+'No, by no means,' said my father; 'I am your agent for the
+time.'
+
+'Mine eleventh in number,' said Peter; 'I have a new one every
+year; I wish I could get a new coat as regularly.'
+
+'Your agent for the time,' resumed my father; 'and you, who are
+acquainted with the forms, know that the client states the cause
+to the agent--the agent to the counsel'--
+
+'The counsel to the Lord Ordinary,' continued Peter, once  set
+a-going, like the peal of an alarm clock, 'the Ordinary to the
+Inner House, the President to the Bench.  It is just like the
+rope to the man, the man to the ox, the ox to the water, the
+water to the fire'--
+
+'Hush, for Heaven's sake, Mr. Peebles,' said my father, cutting
+his recitation short; 'time wears on--we must get to business--
+you must not interrupt the court, you know.--Hem, hem!  From this
+abbreviate it appears'--
+
+'Before you begin,' said Peter Peebles 'I'll thank you to order me
+a morsel of bread and cheese, or some cauld meat, or broth, or
+the like alimentary provision; I was so anxious to see your son,
+that I could not eat a mouthful of dinner.'
+
+Heartily glad, I believe, to have so good a chance of stopping
+his client's mouth effectually, my father ordered some cold meat;
+to which James Wilkinson, for the honour of the house, was about
+to add the brandy bottle, which remained on the sideboard, but,
+at a wink from my father, supplied its place with small beer.
+Peter charged the provisions with the rapacity of a famished
+lion; and so well did the diversion engage him, that though,
+while my father stated the case, he looked at him repeatedly, as
+if he meant to interrupt his statement, yet he always found more
+agreeable employment for his mouth, and returned to the cold beef
+with an avidity which convinced me he had not had such an
+opportunity for many a day of satiating his appetite.  Omitting
+much formal phraseology, and many legal details, I will endeavour
+to give you, in exchange for your fiddler's tale, the history of
+a litigant, or rather, the history of his lawsuit.
+
+'Peter Peebles and Paul Plainstanes,' said my father, entered
+into partnership, in the year --, as mercers and linendrapers, in
+the Luckenbooths, and carried on a great line of business to
+mutual advantage.  But the learned counsel needeth not to be
+told, SOCIETAS EST MATER DISCORDIARUM, partnership oft makes
+pleaship.  The company being dissolved by mutual consent, in the
+year --, the affairs had to be wound up, and after certain
+attempts to settle the matter extra-judicially, it was at last
+brought into the court, and has branched out into several
+distinct processes, most of whilk have been conjoined by the
+Ordinary.  It is to the state of these processes that counsel's
+attention is particularly directed.  There is the original action
+of Peebles v. Plainstanes, convening him for payment of 3000l.,
+less or more, as alleged balance due by Plainstanes.  Secondly,
+there is a counter action, in which Plainstanes is pursuer and
+Peebles defender, for 2500l., less or more, being balance alleged
+per contra, to be due by Peebles.  Thirdly, Mr. Peeble's seventh
+agent advised an action of Compt and Reckoning at his instance,
+wherein what balance should prove due on either side might be
+fairly struck and ascertained.  Fourthly, to meet the
+hypothetical case, that Peebles might be found liable in a
+balance to Plainstanes, Mr. Wildgoose, Mr. Peebles's eighth
+agent, recommended a Multiplepoinding, to bring all parties
+concerned into the field.'
+
+My brain was like to turn at this account of lawsuit within
+lawsuit, like a nest of chip-boxes, with all of which I was
+expected to make myself acquainted.
+
+'I understand,' I said, 'that Mr. Peebles claims a sum of money
+from Plainstanes--how then can he be his debtor?  and if not his
+debtor, how can he bring a Multiplepoinding, the very summons of
+which sets forth, that the pursuer does owe certain monies, which
+he is desirous to pay by warrant of a judge?'  [Multiplepoinding
+is, I believe, equivalent to what is called in England a case of
+Double Distress.]
+
+'Ye know little of the matter, I doubt, friend,' said Mr.
+Peebles; 'a Multiplepoinding is the safest REMEDIUM JURIS in the
+whole; form of process.  I have known it conjoined with a
+declarator of marriage.--Your beef is excellent,' he said to my
+father, who in vain endeavoured to resume his legal disquisition;
+'but something highly powdered--and the twopenny is undeniable;
+but it is small swipes--small swipes--more of hop than malt-with
+your leave, I'll try your black bottle.'
+
+My father started to help him with his own hand, and in due
+measure; but, infinitely to my amusement, Peter got possession of
+the bottle by the neck, and my father's ideas of hospitality were
+far too scrupulous to permit his attempting, by any direct means,
+to redeem it; so that Peter returned to the table triumphant,
+with his prey in his clutch.
+
+'Better have a wine-glass, Mr. Peebles,' said my father, in an
+admonitory tone, 'you will find it pretty strong.'
+
+'If the kirk is ower muckle, we can sing mass in the quire,' said
+Peter, helping himself in the goblet out of which he had been
+drinking the small beer.  'What is it, usquebaugh?--BRANDY, as I
+am an honest man!  I had almost forgotten the name and taste of
+brandy.  Mr. Fairford elder, your good health' (a mouthful of
+brandy), 'Mr. Alan Fairford, wishing you well through your
+arduous undertaking' (another go-down of the comfortable liquor).
+'And now, though you have given a tolerable breviate of this
+great lawsuit, of whilk everybody has heard something that has
+walked the boards in the Outer House (here's to ye again, by way
+of interim decreet) yet ye have omitted to speak a word of the
+arrestments.'
+
+'I was just coming to that point, Mr. Peebles.'
+
+'Or of the action of suspension of the charge on the bill.'
+
+'I was just coming to that.'
+
+'Or the advocation of the Sheriff-Court process.'
+
+'I was just coming to it.'
+
+'As Tweed comes to Melrose, I think,' said the litigant; and then
+filling his goblet about a quarter full of brandy, as if in
+absence of mind, 'Oh, Mr. Alan Fairford, ye are a lucky man to
+buckle to such a cause as mine at the very outset!  it is like a
+specimen of all causes, man.  By the Regiam, there is not a
+REMEDIUM JURIS in the practiques but ye'll find a spice o't.
+Here's to your getting weel through with it--Pshut--I am drinking
+naked spirits, I think.  But if the heathen he ower strong, we'll
+christen him with the brewer' (here he added a little small beer
+to his beverage, paused, rolled his eyes, winked, and
+proceeded),--'Mr. Fairford--the action of assault and battery,
+Mr. Fairford, when I compelled the villain Plainstanes to pull my
+nose within two steps of King Charles's statue, in the Parliament
+Close--there I had him in a hose-net.  Never man could tell me
+how to shape that process--no counsel that ever selled mind could
+condescend and say whether it were best to proceed by way of
+petition and complaint, AD VINDICTAM PUBLICAM, with consent of
+his Majesty's advocate, or by action on the statute for battery
+PENDENTE LITE, whilk would be the winning my plea at once, and so
+getting a back-door out of court.--By the Regiam, that beef and
+brandy is unco het at my heart--I maun try the ale again' (sipped
+a little beer); 'and the ale's but cauld, I maun e'en put in the
+rest of the brandy.'
+
+He was as good as his word, and proceeded in so loud and animated
+a style of elocution, thumping the table, drinking and snuffing
+alternately, that my father, abandoning all attempts to interrupt
+him, sat silent and ashamed, suffering, and anxious for the
+conclusion of the scene.
+
+'And then to come back to my pet process of all--my battery and
+assault process, when I had the good luck to provoke him to pull
+my nose at the very threshold of the court, whilk was the very
+thing I wanted--Mr. Pest, ye ken him, Daddie Fairford?  Old Pest
+was for making it out HAMESUCKEN, for he said the court might be
+said--said--ugh!--to be my dwelling-place.  I dwell mair there
+than ony gate else, and the essence of hamesucken is to strike a
+man in his dwelling-place--mind that, young advocate--and so
+there's hope Plainstanes may be hanged, as many has for a less
+matter; for, my lords,--will Pest say to the Justiciary bodies,--
+my lords, the Parliament House is Peebles' place of dwelling,
+says he--being COMMUNE FORUM, and COMMUNE FORUM EST COMMUNE
+DOMICILIUM--Lass, fetch another glass of and score it--time to
+gae hame--by the practiques, I cannot find the jug--yet there's
+twa of them, I think.  By the Regiam, Fairford--Daddie Fairford
+--lend us twal pennies to buy sneeshing, mine is done--Macer,
+call another cause.'
+
+The box fell from his hands, and his body would at the same time
+have fallen from the chair, had not I supported him.
+
+'This is intolerable,' said my father--'Call a chairman, James
+Wilkinson, to carry this degraded, worthless, drunken beast
+home.'
+
+When Peter Peebles was removed from this memorable consultation,
+under the care of an able-bodied Celt, my father hastily bundled
+up the papers, as a showman, whose exhibition has miscarried,
+hastes to remove his booth.  'Here are my memoranda, Alan,' he
+said, in a hurried way; 'look them carefully over--compare them
+with the processes, and turn it in your head before Tuesday.
+Many a good speech has been made for a beast of a client; and
+hark ye, lad, hark ye--I never intended to cheat you of your fee
+when all was done, though I would have liked to have heard the
+speech first; but there is nothing like corning the horse before
+the journey.  Here are five goud guineas in a silk purse--of your
+poor mother's netting, Alan--she would have been a blithe woman
+to have seen her young son with a gown on his back--but no more
+of that--be a good boy, and to the work like a tiger.'
+
+I did set to work, Darsie; for who could resist such motives?
+With my father's assistance, I have mastered the details,
+confused as they are; and on Tuesday I shall plead as well for
+Peter Peebles as I could for a duke.  Indeed, I feel my head so
+clear on the subject as to be able to write this long letter to
+you; into which, however, Peter and his lawsuit have insinuated
+themselves so far as to show you how much they at present occupy
+my thoughts.  Once more, be careful of yourself, and mindful of
+me, who am ever thine, while
+ALAN FAIRFORD.
+
+From circumstances, to be hereafter mentioned, it was long ere
+this letter reached the person to whom it was addressed.
+
+
+
+*
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+NARRATIVE
+
+The advantage of laying before the reader, in the words of the
+actors themselves, the adventures which we must otherwise have
+narrated in our own, has given great popularity to the
+publication of epistolary correspondence, as practised by various
+great authors, and by ourselves in the preceding chapters.
+Nevertheless, a genuine correspondence of this kind (and Heaven
+forbid it should be in any respect sophisticated by
+interpolations of our own!)  can seldom be found to contain all
+in which it is necessary to instruct the reader for his full
+comprehension of the story.  Also it must often happen that
+various prolixities and redundancies occur in the course of an
+interchange of letters, which must hang as a dead weight on the
+progress of the narrative.  To avoid this dilemma, some
+biographers have used the letters of the personages concerned, or
+liberal extracts from them, to describe particular incidents, or
+express the sentiments which they entertained; while they connect
+them occasionally with such portions of narrative, as may serve
+to carry on the thread of the story.
+
+It is thus that the adventurous travellers who explore the summit
+of Mont Blanc now move on through the crumbling snowdrift so
+slowly, that their progress is almost imperceptible, and anon
+abridge their journey by springing over the intervening chasms
+which cross their path, with the assistance of their pilgrim-
+staves.  Or, to make a briefer simile, the course of story-
+telling which we have for the present adopted, resembles the
+original discipline of the dragoons, who were trained to serve
+either on foot or horseback, as the emergencies of the service
+required.  With this explanation, we shall proceed to narrate
+some circumstances which Alan Fairford did not, and could not,
+write to his correspondent.
+
+Our reader, we trust, has formed somewhat approaching to a
+distinct idea of the principal characters who have appeared
+before him during our narrative; but in case our good opinion of
+his sagacity has been exaggerated, and in order to satisfy such
+as are addicted to the laudable practice of SKIPPING (with whom
+we have at times a strong fellow-feeling), the following
+particulars may not be superfluous.
+
+Mr. Saunders Fairford, as he was usually called, was a man of
+business of the old school, moderate in his charges, economical
+and even niggardly in his expenditure, strictly honest in
+conducting his own affairs and those of his clients, but taught
+by long experience to be wary and suspicious in observing the
+motions of others.  Punctual as the clock of Saint Giles tolled
+nine, the neat dapper form of the little hale old gentleman was
+seen at the threshold of the court hall, or at farthest, at the
+head of the Back Stairs, trimly dressed in a complete suit of
+snuff-coloured brown, with stockings of silk or woollen as,
+suited the weather; a bob-wig, and a small cocked hat; shoes
+blacked as Warren would have blacked them; silver shoe-buckles,
+and a gold stock-buckle.  A nosegay in summer, and a sprig of
+holly in winter, completed his well-known dress and appearance.
+His manners corresponded with his attire, for they were
+scrupulously civil, and not a little formal.  He was an elder of
+the kirk, and, of course, zealous for King George and the
+Government even to slaying, as he had showed by taking up arms in
+their cause.  But then, as he had clients and connexions of
+business among families of opposite political tenets, he was
+particularly cautious to use all the conventional phrases which
+the civility of the time had devised, as an admissible mode of
+language betwixt the two parties.  Thus he spoke sometimes of the
+Chevalier, but never either of the Prince, which would have been
+sacrificing his own principles, or of the Pretender, which would
+have been offensive to those of others.  Again, he usually
+designated the Rebellion as the AFFAIR of 1745, and spoke of any
+one engaged in it as a person who had been OUT at a certain
+period.  [OLD-FASHIONED SCOTTISH CIVILITY.--Such were literally
+the points of politeness observed in general society during the
+author's youth, where it was by no means unusual in a company
+assembled by chance, to find individuals who had borne arms on
+one side or other in the civil broils of 1745.  Nothing,
+according to my recollection, could be more gentle and decorous
+than the respect these old enemies paid to each other's
+prejudices.  But in this I speak generally.  I have witnessed one
+or two explosions.]  So that, on the whole, Mr. Fairford was a
+man much liked and respected on all sides, though his friends
+would not have been sorry if he had given a dinner more
+frequently, as his little cellar contained some choice old wine,
+of which, on such rare occasions he was no niggard.
+
+The whole pleasure of this good old-fashioned man of method,
+besides that which he really felt in the discharge of his daily
+business, was the hope to see his son Alan, the only fruit of a
+union which death early dissolved, attain what in the father's
+eyes was the proudest of all distinctions--the rank and fame of a
+well-employed lawyer.
+
+Every profession has its peculiar honours, and Mr. Fairford's
+mind was constructed upon so limited and exclusive a plan, that
+he valued nothing save the objects of ambition which his own
+presented.  He would have shuddered at Alan's acquiring the
+renown of a hero, and laughed with scorn at the equally barren
+laurels of literature; it was by the path of the law alone that
+he was desirous to see him rise to eminence, and the
+probabilities of success or disappointment were the thoughts of
+his father by day, and his dream by night.
+
+The disposition of Alan Fairford, as well as his talents, were
+such as to encourage his father's expectations.  He had acuteness
+of intellect, joined to habits of long and patient study,
+improved no doubt by the discipline of his father's house; to
+which, generally speaking, he conformed with the utmost docility,
+expressing no wish for greater or more frequent relaxation than
+consisted with his father's anxious and severe restrictions.
+When he did indulge in any juvenile frolics, his father had the
+candour to lay the whole blame upon his more mercurial companion,
+Darsie Latimer.
+
+This youth, as the reader must be aware, had been received as an
+inmate into the family of Mr. Fairford, senior, at a time when
+some of the delicacy of constitution which had abridged the life
+of his consort began to show itself in the son, and when the
+father was, of course, peculiarly disposed to indulge his
+slightest wish.  That the young Englishman was able to pay a
+considerable board, was a matter of no importance to Mr.
+Fairford; it was enough that his presence seemed to make his son
+cheerful and happy.  He was compelled to allow that 'Darsie was a
+fine lad, though unsettled,' and he would have had some
+difficulty in getting rid of him, and the apprehensions which his
+levities excited, had it not been for the voluntary excursion
+which gave rise to the preceding correspondence, and in which Mr.
+Fairford secretly rejoiced, as affording the means of separating
+Alan from his gay companion, at least until he should have
+assumed, and become accustomed to, the duties of his dry and
+laborious profession.
+
+But the absence of Darsie was far from promoting the end which
+the elder Mr. Fairford had expected and desired.  The young men
+were united by the closest bonds of intimacy; and the more so,
+that neither of them sought nor desired to admit any others into
+their society.  Alan Fairford was averse to general company, from
+a disposition naturally reserved, and Darsie Latimer from a
+painful sense of his own unknown origin, peculiarly afflicting in
+a country where high and low are professed genealogists.  The
+young men were all in all to each other; it is no wonder,
+therefore, that their separation was painful, and that its
+effects upon Alan Fairford, joined to the anxiety occasioned by
+the tenor of his friend's letters, greatly exceeded what the
+senior had anticipated.  The young man went through his usual
+duties, his studies, and the examinations to which he was
+subjected, but with nothing like the zeal and assiduity which he
+had formerly displayed; and his anxious and observant father saw
+but too plainly that his heart was with his absent comrade.
+
+A philosopher would have given way to this tide of feeling, in
+hopes to have diminished its excess, and permitted the youths to
+have been some time together, that their intimacy might have been
+broken off by degrees; but Mr. Fairford only saw the more direct
+mode of continued restraint, which, however, he was desirous of
+veiling under some plausible pretext.  In the anxiety which he
+felt on this occasion, he had held communication with an old
+acquaintance, Peter Drudgeit, with whom the reader is partly
+acquainted.  'Alan,' he said, 'was ance wud, and ay waur; and he
+was expecting every moment when he would start off in a
+wildgoose-chase after the callant Latimer; Will Sampson, the
+horse-hirer in Candlemaker Row, had given him a hint that Alan
+had been looking for a good hack, to go to the country for a few
+days.  And then to oppose him downright--he could not but think
+on the way his poor mother was removed.  Would to Heaven he was
+yoked to some tight piece of business, no matter whether well or
+ill paid, but some job that would hamshackle him at least until
+the courts rose, if it were but for decency's sake.'
+
+Peter Drudgeit sympathized, for Peter had a son, who, reason or
+none, would needs exchange the torn and inky fustian sleeves for
+the blue jacket and white lapelle; and he suggested, as the
+reader knows, the engaging our friend Alan in the matter of Poor
+Peter Peebles, just opened by the desertion of young Dumtoustie,
+whose defection would be at the same time concealed; and this,
+Drudgeit said, 'would be felling two dogs with one stone.'
+
+With these explanations, the reader will hold a man of the elder
+Fairford's sense and experience free from the hazardous and
+impatient curiosity with which boys fling a puppy into a deep
+pond, merely to see if the creature can swim.  However confident
+in his son's talents, which were really considerable, he would
+have been very sorry to have involved him in the duty of pleading
+a complicated and difficult case, upon his very first appearance
+at the bar, had he not resorted to it as an effectual way to
+prevent the young man from taking a step which his habits of
+thinking represented as a most fatal one at his outset of life.
+
+Betwixt two evils, Mr. Fairford chose that which was in his own
+apprehension the least; and, like a brave officer sending forth
+his son to battle, rather chose he should die upon the breach,
+than desert the conflict with dishonour.  Neither did he leave
+him to his own unassisted energies.  Like Alpheus preceding
+Hercules, he himself encountered the Augean mass of Peter
+Peebles' law-matters.  It was to the old man a labour of love to
+place in a clear and undistorted view the real merits of this
+case, which the carelessness and blunders of Peter's former
+solicitors had converted into a huge chaotic mass of
+unintelligible technicality; and such was his skill and industry,
+that he was able, after the severe toil of two or three days, to
+present to the consideration of the young counsel the principal
+facts of the case, in a light equally simple and comprehensible.
+With the assistance of a solicitor so affectionate and
+indefatigable, Alan Fairford was enabled, then the day of trial
+arrived, to walk towards the court, attended by his anxious yet
+encouraging parent, with some degree of confidence that he would
+lose no reputation upon this arduous occasion.
+
+They were met at the door of the court by Poor Peter Peebles in
+his usual plenitude of wig and celsitude of hat.  He seized on
+the young pleader like a lion on his prey.  'How is a' wi' you,
+Mr. Alan--how is a' wi' you, man?  The awfu' day is come at last
+--a day that will be lang minded in this house.  Poor Peter
+Peebles against Plainstanes--conjoined proceases--Hearing in
+presence--stands for the Short Roll for this day--I have not been
+able to sleep for a week for thinking of it, and, I dare to say,
+neither has the Lord President himsell--for such a cause!!  But
+your father garr'd me tak a wee drap ower muckle of his pint
+bottle the other night; it's no right to mix brandy wi' business,
+Mr. Fairford.  I would have been the waur o' liquor if I would
+have drank as muckle as you twa would have had me.  But there's a
+time for a' things, and if ye will dine with me after the case is
+heard, or whilk is the same, or maybe better, I'LL gang my ways
+hame wi' YOU, and I winna object to a cheerfu' glass, within the
+bounds of moderation.'
+
+Old Fairford shrugged his shoulders and hurried past the client,
+saw his son wrapped in the sable bombazine, which, in his eyes,
+was more venerable than an archbishop's lawn, and could not help
+fondly patting his shoulder, and whispering to him to take
+courage, and show he was worthy to wear it.  The party entered
+the Outer Hall of the court, (once the place of meeting of the
+ancient Scottish Parliament), and which corresponds to the use of
+Westminster Hall in England, serving as a vestibule to the Inner
+House, as it is termed, and a place of dominion to certain
+sedentary personages called Lords Ordinary.
+
+The earlier part of the morning was spent by old Fairford in
+reiterating his instructions to Alan, and in running from one
+person to another, from whom he thought he could still glean some
+grains of information, either concerning the point at issue, or
+collateral cases.  Meantime, Poor Peter Peebles, whose shallow
+brain was altogether unable to bear the importance of the moment,
+kept as close to his young counsel as shadow to substance,
+affected now to speak loud, now to whisper in his ear, now to
+deck his ghastly countenance with wreathed smiles, now to cloud
+it with a shade of deep and solemn importance, and anon to
+contort it with the sneer of scorn and derision.  These moods of
+the client's mind were accompanied with singular 'mockings and
+mowings,' fantastic gestures, which the man of rags and
+litigation deemed appropriate to his changes of countenance.  Now
+he brandished his arm aloft, now thrust his fist straight out, as
+if to knock his opponent down.  Now he laid his open palm on his
+bosom, and now hinging it abroad, he gallantly snapped his
+fingers in the air.
+
+These demonstrations, and the obvious shame and embarrassment of
+Alan Fairford, did not escape the observation of the juvenile
+idlers in the hall.  They did not, indeed, approach Peter with
+their usual familiarity, from some feeling of deference towards
+Fairford, though many accused him of conceit in presuming to
+undertake, at this early stage of his practice, a case of
+considerable difficulty.  But Alan, notwithstanding this
+forbearance, was not the less sensible that he and his companion
+were the subjects of many a passing jest, and many a shout of
+laughter, with which that region at all times abounds.
+
+At length the young counsel's patience gave way, and as it
+threatened to carry his presence of mind and recollection along
+with it, Alan frankly told his father, that unless he was
+relieved from the infliction of his client's personal presence
+and instructions, he must necessarily throw up his brief, and
+decline pleading the case.
+
+'Hush, hush, my dear Alan,' said the old gentleman, almost at his
+own wit's end upon hearing this dilemma; 'dinna mind the silly
+ne'er-do-weel; we cannot keep the man from hearing his own cause,
+though he be not quite right in the head.'
+
+'On my life, sir,' answered Alan, 'I shall be unable to go on, he
+drives everything out of my remembrance; and if I attempt to
+speak seriously of the injuries he has sustained, and the
+condition he is reduced to, how can I expect but that the very
+appearance of such an absurd scarecrow will turn it all into
+ridicule?'
+
+'There is something in that,' said Saunders Fairford, glancing a
+look at Poor Peter, and then cautiously inserting his forefinger
+under his bob-wig, in order to rub his temple and aid his
+invention; 'he is no figure for the fore-bar to see without
+laughing; but how to get rid of him?  To speak sense, or anything
+like it, is the last thing he will listen to.  Stay, aye,--Alan,
+my darling, hae patience; I'll get him off on the instant, like a
+gowff ba'.'
+
+So saying, he hastened to his ally, Peter Drudgeit, who on seeing
+him with marks of haste in his gait, and care upon his
+countenance, clapped his pen behind his ear, with 'What's the
+stir now, Mr. Saunders?  Is there aught wrang?'
+
+'Here's a dollar, man,' said Mr. Saunders; 'now, or never, Peter,
+do me a good turn.  Yonder's your namesake, Peter Peebles, will
+drive the swine through our bonny hanks of yarn; get him over to
+John's Coffeehouse, man--gie him his meridian--keep him there,
+drunk or sober, till the hearing is ower.'  [The simile is
+obvious, from the old manufacture of Scotland, when the
+gudewife's thrift, as the yarn wrought in the winter was called,
+when laid down to bleach by the burn-side, was peculiarly exposed
+to the inroads of pigs, seldom well regulated about a Scottish
+farm-house.]
+
+'Eneugh said,' quoth Peter Drudgeit, no way displeased with his
+own share in the service required, 'We'se do your bidding.'
+
+Accordingly, the scribe was presently seen whispering in the ear
+of Peter Peebles, whose response came forth in the following
+broken form :-
+
+'Leave the court for ae minute on this great day of judgement?
+not I, by the Reg--Eh!  what?  Brandy, did ye say--French
+brandy?--couldna ye fetch a stoup to the bar under your coat,
+man?  Impossible?  Nay, if it's clean impossible, and if we have
+an hour good till they get through the single bill and the
+summar-roll, I carena if I cross the close wi' you; I am sure I
+need something to keep my heart up this awful day; but I'll no
+stay above an instant--not above a minute of time--nor drink
+aboon a single gill,'
+
+In a few minutes afterwards, the two Peters were seen moving
+through the Parliament Close (which new-fangled affectation has
+termed a Square), the triumphant Drudgeit leading captive the
+passive Peebles, whose legs conducted him towards the dramshop,
+while his reverted eyes were fixed upon the court.  They dived
+into the Cimmerian abysses of John's Coffeehouse, [See Note 5.]
+formerly the favourite rendezvous of the classical and genial
+Doctor Pitcairn, and were for the present seen no more.
+
+Relieved from his tormentor, Alan Fairford had time to rally his
+recollections, which, in the irritation of his spirits, had
+nearly escaped him, and to prepare himself far a task, the
+successful discharge or failure in which must, he was aware, have
+the deepest influence upon his fortunes.  He had pride, was not
+without a consciousness of talent, and the sense of his father's
+feelings upon the subject impelled him to the utmost exertion.
+Above all, he had that sort of self-command which is essential to
+success in every arduous undertaking, and he was constitutionally
+free from that feverish irritability by which those whose over-
+active imaginations exaggerate difficulties, render themselves
+incapable of encountering such when they arrive.
+
+Having collected all the scattered and broken associations which
+were necessary, Alan's thoughts reverted to Dumfriesshire, and
+the precarious situation in which he feared his beloved friend
+had placed himself; and once and again he consulted his watch,
+eager to have his present task commenced and ended, that he might
+hasten to Darsie's assistance.  The hour and moment at length
+arrived.  The macer shouted, with all his well-remembered brazen
+strength of lungs, 'Poor Peter Peebles VERSUS Plainstanes, PER
+Dumtoustie ET Tough!--Maister Da-a-niel Dumtoustie!'  Dumtoustie
+answered not the summons, which, deep and swelling as it was,
+could not reach across the Queensferry; but our Maister Alan
+Fairford appeared in his place.
+
+The court was very much crowded; for much amusement had been
+received on former occasions when Peter had volunteered his own
+oratory, and had been completely successful in routing the
+gravity of the whole procedure, and putting to silence, not
+indeed the counsel of the opposite party, but his own.
+
+Both bench and audience seemed considerably surprised at the
+juvenile appearance of the young man who appeared in the room of
+Dumtoustie, for the purpose of opening this complicated and long
+depending process, and the common herd were disappointed at the
+absence of Peter the client, the Punchinello of the expected
+entertainment.  The judges looked with a very favourable
+countenance on our friend Alan, most of them being acquainted,
+more or less, with so old a practitioner as his father, and all,
+or almost all, affording, from civility, the same fair play to
+the first pleading of a counsel, which the House of Commons
+yields to the maiden speech of one of its members.
+
+Lord Bladderskate was an exception to this general expression of
+benevolence.  He scowled upon Alan, from beneath his large,
+shaggy, grey eyebrows, just as if the young lawyer had been
+usurping his nephew's honours, instead of covering his disgrace;
+and, from feelings which did his lordship little honour, he
+privately hoped the young man would not succeed in the cause
+which his kinsman had abandoned.
+
+Even Lord Bladderskate, however, was, in spite of himself,
+pleased with the judicious and modest tone in which Alan began
+his address to the court, apologizing for his own presumption,
+and excusing it by the sudden illness of his learned brother, for
+whom the labour of opening a cause of some difficulty and
+importance had been much more worthily designed.  He spoke of
+himself as he really was, and of young Dumtoustie as what he
+ought to have been, taking care not to dwell on either topic a
+moment longer than was necessary.  The old judge's looks became
+benign; his family pride was propitiated, and, pleased equally
+with the modesty and civility of the young man whom he had
+thought forward and officious, he relaxed the scorn of his
+features into an expression of profound attention; the highest
+compliment, and the greatest encouragement, which a judge can
+render to the counsel addressing him.
+
+Having succeeded in securing the favourable attention of the
+court, the young lawyer, using the lights which his father's
+experience and knowledge of business had afforded him, proceeded
+with an address and clearness, unexpected from one of his years,
+to remove from the case itself those complicated formalities with
+which it had been loaded, as a surgeon strips from a wound the
+dressings which had been hastily wrapped round it, in order to
+proceed to his cure SECUNDUM ARTEM.  Developed of the cumbrous
+and complicated technicalities of litigation, with which the
+perverse obstinacy of the client, the inconsiderate haste or
+ignorance of his agents, and the evasions of a subtle adversary,
+had invested the process, the cause of Poor Peter Peebles,
+standing upon its simple merits, was no bad subject for the
+declamation of a young counsel, nor did our friend Alan fail to
+avail himself of its strong points.
+
+He exhibited his client as a simple-hearted, honest, well-meaning
+man, who, during a copartnership of twelve years, had gradually
+become impoverished, while his partner (his former clerk) having
+no funds but his share of the same business, into which he had
+been admitted without any advance of stock, had become gradually
+more and more wealthy.
+
+'Their association,' said Alan, and the little flight was
+received with some applause, 'resembled the ancient story of the
+fruit which was carved with a knife poisoned on one side of the
+blade only, so that the individual to whom the envenomed portion
+was served, drew decay and death from what afforded savour and
+sustenance to the consumer of the other moiety.'  He then plunged
+boldly into the MARE MAGNUM of accompts between the parties; he
+pursued each false statement from the waste-book to the day-book,
+from the day-book to the bill-book, from the bill-book to the
+ledger; placed the artful interpolations and insertions of the
+fallacious Plainstanes in array against each other, and against
+the fact; and availing himself to the utmost of his father's
+previous labours, and his own knowledge of accompts, in which he
+had been sedulously trained, he laid before the court a clear and
+intelligible statement of the affairs of the copartnery, showing,
+with precision, that a large balance must, at the dissolution,
+have been due to his client, sufficient to have enabled him to
+have carried on business on his own account, and thus to have
+retained his situation in society as an independent and
+industrious tradesman.  'But instead of this justice being
+voluntarily rendered by the former clerk to his former master,--
+by the party obliged to his benefactor,--by one honest man to
+another,--his wretched client had been compelled to follow his
+quondam clerk, his present debtor, from court to court; had found
+his just claims met with well-invented but unfounded counter-
+claims, had seen his party shift his character of pursuer or
+defender, as often as Harlequin effects his transformations,
+till, in a chase so varied and so long, the unhappy litigant had
+lost substance, reputation, and almost the use of reason itself,
+and came before their lordships an object of thoughtless derision
+to the unreflecting, of compassion to the better-hearted, and of
+awful meditation to every one who considered that, in a country
+where excellent laws were administered by upright and
+incorruptible judges, a man might pursue an almost indisputable
+claim through all the mazes of litigation; lose fortune,
+reputation, and reason itself in the chase, and now come before
+the supreme court of his country in the wretched condition of his
+unhappy client, a victim to protracted justice, and to that hope
+delayed which sickens the heart.'
+
+The force of this appeal to feeling made as much impression on
+the Bench as had been previously effected by the clearness of
+Alan's argument.  The absurd form of Peter himself, with his tow-
+wig, was fortunately not present to excite any ludicrous emotion,
+and the pause that took place when the young lawyer had concluded
+his speech, was followed by a murmur of approbation, which the
+ears of his father drank in as the sweetest sounds that had ever
+entered them.  Many a hand of gratulation was thrust out to his
+grasp, trembling as it was with anxiety, and finally with
+delight; his voice faltering as he replied, 'Aye, aye, I kend
+Alan was the lad to make a spoon or spoil a horn.'  [Said of an
+adventurous gipsy, who resolves at all risks to convert a sheep's
+horn into a spoon.]
+
+The counsel on the other side arose, an old practitioner, who had
+noted too closely the impression made by Alan's pleading not to
+fear the consequences of an immediate decision.  He paid the
+highest compliments to his very young brother--'the Benjamin, as
+he would presume to call him, of the learned Faculty--said the
+alleged hardships of Mr. Peebles were compensated by his being
+placed in a situation where the benevolence of their lordships
+had assigned him gratuitously such assistance as he might not
+otherwise have obtained at a high price--and allowed his young
+brother had put many things in such a new point of view, that,
+although he was quite certain of his ability to refute them, he
+was honestly desirous of having a few hours to arrange his
+answer, in order to be able to follow Mr. Fairford from point to
+point.  He had further to observe, there was one point of the
+case to which his brother, whose attention had been otherwise so
+wonderfully comprehensive, had not given the consideration which
+he expected; it was founded on the interpretation of certain
+correspondence which had passed betwixt the parties soon after
+the dissolution of the copartnery.'
+
+The court having heard Mr. Tough, readily allowed him two days
+for preparing himself, hinting at the same time that he might
+find his task difficult, and affording the young counsel, with
+high encomiums upon the mode in which he had acquitted himself,
+the choice of speaking, either now or at the next calling of the
+cause, upon the point which Plainstanes's lawyer had adverted to.
+
+Alan modestly apologized for what in fact had been an omission
+very pardonable in so complicated a case, and professed himself
+instantly ready to go through that correspondence, and prove that
+it was in form and substance exactly applicable to the view of
+the case he had submitted to their lordships.  He applied to his
+father, who sat behind him, to hand him, from time to time, the
+letters, in the order in which he meant to read and comment upon
+them.
+
+Old Counsellor Tough had probably formed an ingenious enough
+scheme to blunt the effect of the young lawyer's reasoning, by
+thus obliging him to follow up a process of reasoning, clear and
+complete in itself, by a hasty and extemporary appendix.  If so,
+he seemed likely to be disappointed; for Alan was well prepared
+on this as on other parts of the cause, and recommenced his
+pleading with a degree of animation which added force even to
+what he had formerly stated, and might perhaps have occasioned
+the old gentleman to regret his having again called him up, when
+his father, as he handed him the letters, put one into his hand
+which produced a singular effect on the pleader.
+
+At the first glance, he saw that the paper had no reference to
+the affairs of Peter Peebles; but the first glance also showed
+him, what, even at that time, and in that presence, he could not
+help reading; and which, being read, seemed totally to disconcert
+his ideas.  He stopped short in his harangue--gazed on the paper
+with a look of surprise and horror-uttered an exclamation, and
+flinging down the brief which he had in his hand, hurried out of
+court without returning a single word of answer to the various
+questions, 'What was the matter?'--'Was he taken unwell?'--
+'Should not a chair be called?'  &c. &c. &c.
+
+The elder Mr. Fairford, who remained seated, and looking as
+senseless as if he had been made of stone, was at length recalled
+to himself by the anxious inquiries of the judges and the counsel
+after his son's health.  He then rose with an air, in which was
+mingled the deep habitual reverence in which he held the court,
+with some internal cause of agitation, and with difficulty
+mentioned something of a mistake--a piece of bad news--Alan, he
+hoped would be well enough to-morrow.  But unable to proceed
+further, he clasped his hands together, exclaiming, 'My son!  my
+son!'  and left the court hastily, as if in pursuit of him.
+
+'What's the matter with the auld bitch next?'  [Tradition
+ascribes this whimsical style of language to the ingenious and
+philosophical Lord Kaimes.]  said an acute metaphysical judge,
+though somewhat coarse in his manners, aside to his brethren.
+'This is a daft cause, Bladderskate--first, it drives the poor
+man mad that aught it--then your nevoy goes daft with fright, and
+flies the pit--then this smart young hopeful is aff the hooks
+with too hard study, I fancy--and now auld Saunders Fairford is
+as lunatic as the best of them.  What say ye till't, ye bitch?'
+
+'Nothing, my lord,' answered Bladderskate, much too formal to
+admire the levities in which his philosophical brother sometimes
+indulged--'I say nothing, but pray to Heaven to keep our own
+wits.'
+
+'Amen, amen,' answered his learned brother; 'for some of us have
+but few to spare.'
+
+The court then arose, and the audience departed, greatly
+wondering at the talent displayed by Alan Fairford at his first
+appearance in a case so difficult and so complicated, and
+assigning a hundred conjectural causes, each different from the
+others, for the singular interruption which had clouded his day
+of success.  The worst of the whole was, that six agents, who had
+each come to the separate resolution of thrusting a retaining fee
+into Alan's hand as he left the court, shook their heads as they
+returned the money into their leathern pouches, and said, 'that
+the lad was clever, but they would like to see more of him before
+they engaged him in the way of business--they did not like his
+lowping away like a flea in a blanket.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Had our friend Alexander Fairford known the consequences of his
+son's abrupt retreat from the court, which are mentioned in the
+end of the last chapter, it might have accomplished the
+prediction of the lively old judge, and driven him utterly
+distracted.  As it was, he was miserable enough.  His son had
+risen ten degrees higher in his estimation than ever by his
+display of juridical talents, which seemed to assure him that the
+applause of the judges and professors of the law, which, in his
+estimation, was worth that of all mankind besides, authorized to
+the fullest extent the advantageous estimate which even his
+parental partiality had been induced to form of Alan's powers.
+On the other hand, he felt that he was himself a little humbled,
+from a disguise which he had practised towards this son of his
+hopes and wishes.
+
+The truth was, that on the morning of this eventful day, Mr.
+Alexander Fairford had received from his correspondent and
+friend, Provost Crosbie of Dumfries, a letter of the following
+tenor:
+
+'DEAR SIR,
+'Your respected favour of 25th ultimo, per favour of Mr. Darsie
+Latimer, reached me in safety, and I showed to the young
+gentleman such attention as he was pleased to accept of.  The
+object of my present writing is twofold.  First, the council are
+of opinion that you should now begin to stir in the thirlage
+cause; and they think they will be able, from evidence NOVITER
+REPERTUM, to enable you to amend your condescendence upon the use
+and wont of the burgh, touching the GRANA INVECTA ET ILLATA.  So
+you will please consider yourself as authorized to speak to Mr.
+Pest, and lay before him the papers which you will receive by
+the coach.  The council think that a fee of two guineas may be
+sufficient on this occasion, as Mr. Pest had three for drawing
+the original condescendence.
+
+'I take the opportunity of adding that there has been a great
+riot among the Solway fishermen, who have destroyed, in a
+masterful manner, the stake-nets set up near the mouth of this
+river; and have besides attacked the house of Quaker Geddes, one
+of the principal partners of the Tide-net Fishing Company, and
+done a great deal of damage.  Am sorry to add, young Mr. Latimer
+was in the fray and has not since been heard of.  Murder is spoke
+of, but that may be a word of course.  As the young gentleman has
+behaved rather oddly while in these parts, as in declining to
+dine with me more than once, and going about the country with
+strolling fiddlers and such-like, I rather hope that his present
+absence is only occasioned by a frolic; but as his servant has
+been making inquiries of me respecting his master, I thought it
+best to acquaint you in course of post.  I have only to add that
+our sheriff has taken a precognition, and committed one or two of
+the rioters.  If I can be useful in this matter, either by
+advertising for Mr. Latimer as missing, publishing a reward, or
+otherwise, I will obey your respected instructions, being your
+most obedient to
+command,
+'WILLIAM CROSBIE.'
+
+When Mr. Fairford received this letter, and had read it to an
+end,' his first idea was to communicate it to his son, that an
+express might be instantly dispatched, or a king's messenger sent
+with proper authority to search after his late guest.
+
+The habits of the fishers were rude; as he well knew, though not
+absolutely sanguinary or ferocious; and there had been instances
+of their transporting persons who had interfered in their
+smuggling trade to the Isle of Man and elsewhere, and keeping
+them under restraint for many weeks.  On this account, Mr.
+Fairford was naturally led to feel anxiety concerning the fate of
+his late inmate; and, at a less interesting moment, would
+certainly have set out himself, or licensed his son to go in
+pursuit of his friend.
+
+But, alas!  he was both a father and an agent.  In the one
+capacity, he looked on his son as dearer to him than all the
+world besides; in the other, the lawsuit which he conducted was
+to him like an infant to its nurse, and the case of Poor Peter
+Peebles against Plainstanes was, he saw, adjourned, perhaps SINE
+DIE, should this document reach the hands of his son.  The mutual
+and enthusiastical affection betwixt the young men was well known
+to him; and he concluded that if the precarious state of Latimer
+were made known to Alan Fairford, it would render him not only
+unwilling, but totally unfit, to discharge the duty of the day to
+which the old gentleman attached such ideas of importance.
+
+On mature reflection, therefore, he resolved, though not without
+some feelings of compunction, to delay communicating to his son
+the disagreeable intelligence which he had received, until the
+business of the day should be ended.  The delay, he persuaded
+himself, could be of little consequence to Darsie Latimer, whose
+folly, he dared to say, had led him into some scrape which would
+meet an appropriate punishment in some accidental restraint,
+which would be thus prolonged for only a few hours longer.
+Besides, he would have time to speak to the sheriff of the
+county--perhaps to the King's Advocate--and set about the matter
+in a regular manner, or, as he termed it, as summing up the
+duties of a solicitor, to AGE AS ACCORDS.  [A Scots law phrase,
+of no very determinate import, meaning, generally, to do what is
+fitting.]
+
+The scheme, as we have seen, was partially successful, and was
+only ultimately defeated, as he confessed to himself with shame,
+by his own very unbusiness-like mistake of shuffling the
+provost's letter, in the hurry and anxiety of the morning, among
+some papers belonging to Peter Peebles's affairs, and then
+handing it to his son, without observing the blunder.  He used to
+protest, even till the day of his death, that he never had been
+guilty of such an inaccuracy as giving a paper out of his hand
+without looking at the docketing, except on that unhappy
+occasion, when, of all others, he had such particular reason to
+regret his negligence.
+
+Disturbed by these reflections, the old gentleman had, for the
+first time in his life, some disinclination, arising from shame
+and vexation, to face his own son; so that to protract for a
+little the meeting, which he feared would be a painful one, he
+went to wait upon the sheriff-depute, who he found had set off
+for Dumfries in great haste to superintend in person the
+investigation which had been set on foot by his substitute.  This
+gentleman's clerk could say little on the subject of the riot,
+excepting that it had been serious, much damage done to property,
+and some personal violence offered to individuals; but, as far as
+he had yet heard, no lives lost on the spot.
+
+Mr. Fairford was compelled to return home with this intelligence;
+and on inquiring at James Wilkinson where his son was, received
+for answer, that 'Maister Alan was in his own room, and very
+busy.'
+
+'We must have our explanation over,' said Saunders Fairford to
+himself.  'Better a finger off, as ay wagging;' and going to the
+door of his son's apartment, he knocked at first gently--then
+more loudly--but received no answer.  Somewhat alarmed at this
+silence, he opened the door of the chamber it was empty--clothes
+lay mixed in confusion with the law-books and papers, as if the
+inmate had been engaged in hastily packing for a journey.  As Mr.
+Fairford looked around in alarm, his eye was arrested by a sealed
+letter lying upon his son's writing-table, and addressed to
+himself.  It contained the following words:--
+
+'MY DEAREST FATHER,
+'You will not, I trust, be surprised, nor perhaps very much
+displeased, to learn that I am on my way to Dumfriesshire, to
+learn, by my own personal investigation, the present state of my
+dear friend, and afford him such relief as may be in my power,
+and which, I trust, will be effectual.  I do not presume to
+reflect upon you, dearest sir, for concealing from me information
+of so much consequence to my peace of mind and happiness; but I
+hope your having done so will be, if not an excuse, at least some
+mitigation of my present offence, in taking a step of consequence
+without consulting your pleasure; and, I must further own, under
+circumstances which perhaps might lead to your disapprobation of
+my purpose.  I can only say, in further apology, that if anything
+unhappy, which Heaven forbid!  shall have occurred to the person
+who, next to yourself, is dearest to me in this world, I shall
+have on my heart, as a subject of eternal regret, that being in a
+certain degree warned of his danger and furnished with the means
+of obviating it, I did not instantly hasten to his assistance,
+but preferred giving my attention to the business of this unlucky
+morning.  No view of personal distinction, nothing, indeed, short
+of your earnest and often expressed wishes, could have detained
+me in town till this day; and having made this sacrifice to
+filial duty, I trust you will hold me excused if I now obey the
+calls of friendship and humanity.  Do not be in the least anxious
+on my account; I shall know, I trust, how to conduct myself with
+due caution in any emergence which may occur, otherwise my legal
+studies for so many years have been to little purpose.  I am
+fully provided with money, and also with arms, in case of need;
+but you may rely on my prudence in avoiding all occasions of
+using the latter, short of the last necessity.  God almighty
+bless you, my dearest father!  and grant that you may forgive the
+first, and, I trust, the last act approaching towards
+premeditated disobedience, of which I either have now, or shall
+hereafter have, to accuse myself.  I remain, till death, your
+dutiful and affectionate son,
+ALAN FAIRFORD.'
+
+'PS.--I shall write with the utmost regularity, acquainting you
+with my motions, and requesting your advice.  I trust my stay
+will be very short, and I think it possible that I may bring back
+Darsie along with me.'
+
+'The paper dropped from the old man's hand when he was thus
+assured of the misfortune which he apprehended.  His first idea
+was to get a postchaise and pursue the fugitive; but he
+recollected that, upon the very rare occasions when Alan had
+shown himself indocile to the PATRIA POTESTAS, his natural ease
+and gentleness of disposition seemed hardened into obstinacy, and
+that now, entitled, as arrived at the years of majority and a
+member of the learned faculty, to direct his own motions, there
+was great doubt, whether, in the event of his overtaking his son,
+he might be able to prevail upon him to return back.  In such a
+risk of failure he thought it wiser to desist from his purpose,
+especially as even his success in such a pursuit would give a
+ridiculous ECLAT to the whole affair, which could not be
+otherwise than prejudicial to his son's rising character.
+
+Bitter, however, were Saunders Fairford's reflections, as again
+picking up the fatal scroll, he threw himself into his son's
+leathern easy-chair, and bestowed upon it a disjointed
+commentary, 'Bring back Darsie?  little doubt of that--the bad
+shilling is sure enough to come back again.  I wish Darsie no
+worse ill than that he were carried where the silly fool, Alan,
+should never see him again.  It was an ill hour that he darkened
+my doors in, for, ever since that, Alan has given up his ain old-
+fashioned mother-wit for the tother's capernoited maggots and
+nonsense.  Provided with money?  you must have more than I know
+of, then, my friend, for I trow I kept you pretty short, for your
+own good.  Can he have gotten more fees?  or, does he think five
+guineas has neither beginning nor end?  Arms!  What would he do
+with arms, or what would any man do with them that is not a
+regular soldier under government, or else a thief-taker?  I have
+had enough of arms, I trow, although I carried them for King
+George and the government.  But this is a worse strait than
+Falkirk field yet.  God guide us, we are poor inconsistent
+creatures!  To think the lad should have made so able an
+appearance, and then bolted off this gate, after a glaiket ne'er-
+do-weel, like a hound upon a false scent!  Las-a-day!  it's a
+sore thing to see a stunkard cow kick down the pail when it's
+reaming fou.  But, after all, it's an ill bird that defiles its
+ain nest. I must cover up the scandal as well as I can.  What's
+the matter now, James?'
+
+'A message, sir,' said James Wilkinson, 'from my Lord President;
+and he hopes Mr. Alan is not seriously indisposed.'
+
+'From the Lord President?  the Lord preserve us!--I'll send an
+answer this instant; bid the lad sit down, and ask him to drink,
+James.  Let me see,' continued he, taking a sheet of gilt paper
+'how we are to draw our answers.'
+
+Ere his pen had touched the paper, James was in the room again.
+
+'What now, James?'
+
+'Lord Bladderskate's lad is come to ask how Mr. Alan is, as he
+left; the court'--
+
+'Aye, aye, aye,' answered Saunders, bitterly; 'he has e'en made a
+moonlight flitting, like my lord's ain nevoy.'
+
+'Shall I say sae, sir?'  said James, who, as an old soldier, was
+literal in all things touching the service.
+
+'The devil!  no, no!--Bid the lad sit down and taste our ale.  I
+will write his lordship an answer.'
+
+Once more the gilt paper was resumed, and once more the door was
+opened by James.
+
+'Lord -- sends his servitor to ask after Mr. Alan.'
+
+'Oh, the deevil take their civility!'  said poor Saunders.  set
+him down to drink too--I will write to his lordship.'
+
+'The lads will bide your pleasure, sir, as lang as I keep the
+bicker fou; but this ringing is like to wear out the bell, I
+think; there are they at it again.'
+
+He answered the fresh summons accordingly, and came back to
+inform Mr. Fairford that the Dean of Faculty was below, inquiring
+for Mr. Alan.  'Will I set him down to drink, too?'  said James.
+
+'Will you be an idiot, sir?'  said Mr. Fairford.  'Show Mr. Dean
+into the parlour.'
+
+In going slowly downstairs, step by step, the perplexed man of
+business had time enough to reflect, that if it be possible to
+put a fair gloss upon a true story, the verity always serves the
+purpose better than any substitute which ingenuity can devise.
+He therefore told his learned visitor, that although his son had
+been incommoded by the heat of the court, and the long train of
+hard study, by day and night, preceding his exertions, yet he had
+fortunately so far recovered, as to be in condition to obey upon
+the instant a sudden summons which had called him to the country,
+on a matter of life and death.
+
+'It should be a serious matter indeed that takes my young friend
+away at this moment,' said the good-natured dean.  'I wish he had
+stayed to finish his pleading, and put down old Tough.  Without
+compliment, Mr. Fairford, it was as fine a first appearance as I
+ever heard.  I should be sorry your son did not follow it up in a
+reply.  Nothing like striking while the iron is hot.'
+
+Mr. Saunders Fairford made a bitter grimace as he acquiesced in
+an opinion which was indeed decidedly his own; but he thought it
+most prudent to reply, 'that the affair which rendered his son
+Alan's presence in the country absolutely necessary, regarded the
+affairs of a young gentleman of great fortune, who was a
+particular friend of Alan's, and who never took any material step
+in his affairs without consulting his counsel learned in the
+law.'
+
+'Well, well, Mr. Fairford, you know best,' answered the learned
+dean; 'if there be death or marriage in the case, a will or a
+wedding is to be preferred to all other business.  I am happy Mr.
+Alan is so much recovered as to be able for travel, and wish you
+a very good morning.'
+
+Having thus taken his ground to the Dean of Faculty, Mr. Fairford
+hastily wrote cards in answer to the inquiry of the three judges,
+accounting for Alan's absence in the same manner.  These, being
+properly sealed and addressed, he delivered to James with
+directions to dismiss the particoloured gentry, who, in the
+meanwhile, had consumed a gallon of twopenny ale, while
+discussing points of law, and addressing each other by their
+masters' titles.  [The Scottish judges are distinguished by the
+title of lord prefixed to their own temporal designation.  As the
+ladies of these official dignitaries do not bear any share in
+their husbands' honours, they are distinguished only by their
+lords' family name.  They were not always contented with this
+species of Salique law, which certainly is somewhat inconsistent.
+But their pretensions to title are said to have been long since
+repelled by James V, the sovereign who founded the College of
+Justice.  'I,' said he, 'made the caries lords, but who the devil
+made the carlines ladies?']
+
+The exertion which these matters demanded, and the interest which
+so many persons of legal distinction appeared to have taken in
+his son, greatly relieved the oppressed spirit of Saunders
+Fairford, who continued, to talk mysteriously of the very
+important business which had interfered with his son's attendance
+during the brief remainder of the session.  He endeavoured to lay
+the same unction to his own heart; but here the application was
+less fortunate, for his conscience told him that no end, however
+important, which could be achieved in Darsie Latimer's affairs,
+could be balanced against the reputation which Alan was like to
+forfeit by deserting the cause of Poor Peter Peebles.
+
+In the meanwhile, although the haze which surrounded the cause,
+or causes, of that unfortunate litigant had been for a time
+dispelled by Alan's eloquence, like a fog by the thunder of
+artillery, yet it seemed once more to settle down upon the mass
+of litigation, thick as the palpable darkness of Egypt, at the
+very sound of Mr. Tough's voice, who, on the second day after
+Alan's departure, was heard in answer to the opening counsel.
+Deep-mouthed, long-breathed, and pertinacious, taking a pinch of
+snuff betwixt every sentence, which otherwise seemed
+interminable--the veteran pleader prosed over all the themes
+which had been treated so luminously by Fairford:  he quietly and
+imperceptibly replaced all the rubbish which the other had
+cleared away, and succeeded in restoring the veil of obscurity
+and unintelligibility which had for many years darkened the case
+of Peebles against Plainstanes; and the matter was once  more
+hung up by a remit to an accountant, with instruction to report
+before answer.  So different a result from that which the public
+had been led to expect from Alan's speech gave rise to various
+speculations.
+
+The client himself opined, that it was entirely owing, first, to
+his own absence during the first day's pleading, being, as he
+said, deboshed with brandy, usquebaugh, and other strong waters,
+at John's Coffee-house, PER AMBAGES of Peter Drudgeit, employed
+to that effect by and through the device, counsel, and covyne of
+Saunders Fairford, his agent, or pretended agent.  Secondly by
+the flight and voluntary desertion of the younger Fairford, the
+advocate; on account of which, he served both father and son with
+a petition and complaint against them, for malversation in
+office.  So that the apparent and most probable issue of this
+cause seemed to menace the melancholy Mr. Saunders Fairford, with
+additional subject for plague and mortification; which was the
+more galling, as his conscience told him that the case was really
+given away, and that a very brief resumption of the former
+argument, with reference to the necessary authorities and points
+of evidence, would have enabled Alan, by the mere breath, as it
+were, of his mouth, to blow away the various cobwebs with which
+Mr. Tough had again invested the proceedings.  But it went, he
+said, just like a decreet in absence, and was lost for want of a
+contradictor.
+
+In the meanwhile, nearly a week passed over without Mr. Fairford
+hearing a word directly from his son.  He learned, indeed, by a
+letter from Mr. Crosbie, that the young counsellor had safely
+reached Dumfries, but had left that town upon some ulterior
+researches, the purpose of which he had not communicated.  The
+old man, thus left to suspense, and to mortifying recollections,
+deprived also of the domestic society to which he had been
+habituated, began to suffer in body as well as in mind.  He had
+formed the determination of setting out in person for
+Dumfriesshire, when, after having been dogged, peevish, and
+snappish to his clerks and domestics, to an unusual and almost
+intolerable degree, the acrimonious humours settled in a hissing-
+hot fit of the gout, which is a well-known tamer of the most
+froward spirits, and under whose discipline we shall, for the
+present, leave him, as the continuation of this history assumes,
+with the next division, a form somewhat different from direct
+narrative and epistolary correspondence, though partaking of the
+character of both.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JOURNAL OF DARSIE LATIMER
+(The following address is written on the inside of the envelope
+which contained the Journal.)
+
+Into what hands soever these leaves may fall, they will instruct
+him, during a certain time at least, in the history of the life
+of an unfortunate young man, who, in the heart of a free country,
+and without any crime being laid to his charge, has been, and is,
+subjected to a course of unlawful and violent restraint.  He who
+opens this letter, is therefore conjured to apply to the nearest
+magistrate, and, following such indications as the papers may
+afford, to exert himself for the relief of one, who, while he
+possesses every claim to assistance which oppressed innocence can
+give, has, at the same time, both the inclination and the means
+of being grateful to his deliverers.  Or, if the person obtaining
+these letters shall want courage or means to effect the writer's
+release, he is, in that case, conjured, by every duty of a man to
+his fellow mortals, and of a Christian towards one who professes
+the same holy faith, to take the speediest measures for conveying
+them with speed and safety to the hands of Alan Fairford, Esq.,
+Advocate, residing in the family of his father, Alexander
+Fairford, Esq., Writer to the Signet, Brown's Square, Edinburgh.
+He may be assured of a liberal reward, besides the consciousness
+of having discharged a real duty to humanity.
+
+MY DEAREST ALAN,
+Feeling as warmly towards you in doubt and in distress, as I ever
+did in the brightest days of our intimacy, it is to you whom I
+address a history which may perhaps fall into very different
+hands.  A portion of my former spirit descends to my pen when I
+write your name, and indulging the happy thought that you may be
+my deliverer from my present uncomfortable and alarming
+situation, as you have been my guide and counsellor on every
+former occasion, I will subdue the dejection which would
+otherwise overwhelm me.  Therefore, as, Heaven knows, I have time
+enough to write, I will endeavour to pour my thoughts out, as
+fully and freely as of old, though probably without the same gay
+and happy levity.
+
+If the papers should reach other hands than yours, still I will
+not regret this exposure of my feelings; for, allowing for an
+ample share of the folly incidental to youth and inexperience, I
+fear not that I have much to be ashamed of in my narrative; nay,
+I even hope that the open simplicity and frankness with which I
+am about to relate every singular and distressing circumstance,
+may prepossess even a stranger in my favour; and that, amid the
+multitude of seemingly trivial circumstances which I detail at
+length, a clue may be found to effect my liberation.
+
+Another chance certainly remains--the Journal, as I may call it,
+may never reach the hands, either of the dear friend to whom it
+is addressed, or those of an indifferent stranger, but may become
+the prey of the persons by whom I am at present treated as a
+prisoner.  Let it be so--they will learn from it little but what
+they already know; that, as a man and an Englishman, my soul
+revolts at the usage which I have received; that I am determined
+to essay every possible means to obtain my freedom; that
+captivity has not broken my spirit, and that, although they may
+doubtless complete their oppression by murder, I am still willing
+to bequeath my cause to the justice of my country.  Undeterred,
+therefore, by the probability that my papers may be torn from me,
+and subjected to the inspection of one in particular, who,
+causelessly my enemy already, may be yet further incensed at me
+for recording the history of my wrongs, I proceed to resume the
+history of events which have befallen me since the conclusion of
+my last letter to my dear Alan Fairford, dated, if I mistake not,
+on the 5th day of this still current month of August.
+
+Upon the night preceding the date of that letter, I had been
+present, for the purpose of an idle frolic, at a dancing party at
+the village of Brokenburn, about six miles from Dumfries; many
+persons must have seen me there, should the fact appear of
+importance sufficient to require investigation.  I danced, played
+on the violin, and took part in the festivity till about
+midnight, when my servant, Samuel Owen, brought me my horses, and
+I rode back to a small inn called Shepherd's Bush, kept by Mrs.
+Gregson, which had been occasionally my residence for about a
+fortnight past.  I spent the earlier part of the forenoon in
+writing a letter, which I have already mentioned, to you, my dear
+Alan, and which, I think, you must have received in safety.  Why
+did I not follow your advice, so often given me?  Why did I
+linger in the neighbourhood of a danger, of which a kind voice
+had warned me?  These are now unavailing questions; I was blinded
+by a fatality, and remained, fluttering like a moth around the
+candle, until I have been scorched to some purpose.
+
+The greater part of the day had passed, and time hung heavy on my
+hands.  I ought, perhaps, to blush at recollecting what has been
+often objected to me by the dear friend to whom this letter is
+addressed, viz. the facility with which I have, in moments of
+indolence, suffered my motions to be, directed by any person who
+chanced to be near me, instead of taking the labour of thinking
+or deciding for myself.  I had employed for some time, as a sort
+of guide and errand-boy, a lad named Benjamin, the son of one
+widow Coltherd, who lives near the Shepherd's Bush, and I cannot
+but remember that, upon several occasions, I had of late suffered
+him to possess more influence over my motions than at all became
+the difference of our age and condition.  At present, he exerted
+himself to persuade me that it was the finest possible sport to
+see the fish taken out from the nets placed in the Solway at the
+reflux of the tide, and urged my going thither this evening so
+much, that, looking back on the whole circumstances, I cannot but
+think he had some especial motive for his conduct.  These
+particulars I have mentioned, that if these papers fall into
+friendly hands, the boy may be sought after and submitted to
+examination.
+
+His eloquence being unable to persuade me that I should take any
+pleasure in seeing the fruitless struggles of the fish when left
+in the nets and deserted by the tide, he artfully suggested, that
+Mr. and Miss Geddes, a respectable Quaker family well known in
+the neighbourhood and with whom I had contracted habits of
+intimacy, would possibly be offended if I did not make them an
+early visit.  Both, he said, had been particularly inquiring the
+reasons of my leaving their house rather suddenly on the previous
+day.  I resolved, therefore, to walk up to Mount Sharon and make
+my apologies; and I agreed to permit the boy to attend upon me,
+and wait my return from the house, that I might fish on my way
+homeward to Shepherd's Bush, for which amusement, he assured me,
+I would find the evening most favourable.  I mention this minute
+circumstance, because I strongly suspect that this boy had a
+presentiment how the evening was to terminate with me, and
+entertained the selfish though childish wish of securing to
+himself an angling-rod which he had often admired, as a part of
+my spoils.  I may do the boy wrong, but I had before remarked in
+him the peculiar art of pursuing the trifling objects of cupidity
+proper to his age, with the systematic address of much riper
+years.
+
+When we had commenced our walk, I upbraided him with the coolness
+of the evening, considering the season, the easterly wind, and
+other circumstances, unfavourable for angling.  He persisted in
+his own story, and made a few casts, as if to convince me of my
+error, but caught no fish; and, indeed, as I am now convinced,
+was much more intent on watching my motions than on taking any.
+When I ridiculed him once more on his fruitless endeavours, he
+answered with a sneering smile, that 'the trouts would not rise,
+because there was thunder in the air;' an intimation which, in
+one sense, I have found too true.
+
+I arrived at Mount Sharon; was received by my friends there with
+their wonted kindness; and after being a little rallied on my
+having suddenly left them on the preceding evening, I agreed to
+make atonement by staying all night, and dismissed the lad who
+attended with my fishing-rod, to carry that information to
+Shepherd's Bush.  It may be doubted whether he went thither, or
+in a different direction.
+
+Betwixt eight and nine o'clock, when it began to become dark, we
+walked on the terrace to enjoy the appearance of the firmament,
+glittering with ten million stars; to which a slight touch of
+early frost gave tenfold lustre.  As we gazed on this splendid
+scene, Miss Geddes, I think, was the first to point out to our
+admiration a shooting or falling star, which, she said, drew a
+long train after it.  Looking to the part of the heavens which
+she pointed out, I distinctly observed two successive sky-rockets
+arise and burst in the sky.
+
+'These meteors,' said Mr. Geddes, in answer to his sister's
+observation, 'are not formed in heaven, nor do they bode any good
+to the dwellers upon earth.'
+
+As he spoke, I looked to another quarter of the sky, and a
+rocket, as if a signal in answer to those which had already
+appeared, rose high from the earth, and burst apparently among
+the stars.
+
+Mr. Geddes seemed very thoughtful for some minutes, and then said
+to his sister, 'Rachel, though it waxes late.  I must go down to
+the fishing station, and pass the night in the overseer's room
+there.'
+
+'Nay, then,' replied the lady, 'I am but too well assured that
+the sons of Belial are menacing these nets and devices.  Joshua,
+art thou a man of peace, and wilt thou willingly and wittingly
+thrust thyself where thou mayst be tempted by the old man Adam
+within thee, to enter into debate and strife?'
+
+'I am a man of peace, Rachel,' answered Mr. Geddes, 'even to the
+utmost extent which our friends can demand of humanity; and
+neither have I ever used, nor, with the help of God, will I at
+any future time employ, the arm of flesh to repel or to revenge
+injuries.  But if I can, by mild reasons and firm conduct, save
+those rude men from committing a crime, and the property
+belonging to myself and others from sustaining damage, surely I
+do but the duty of a man and a Christian.'
+
+With these words, he ordered his horse instantly; and his sister,
+ceasing to argue with him, folded her arms upon her bosom, and
+looked up to heaven with a resigned and yet sorrowful
+countenance.
+
+These particulars may appear trivial; but it is better, in my
+present condition, to exert my faculties in recollecting the
+past, and in recording it, than waste them in vain and anxious
+anticipations of the future.
+
+It would have been scarcely proper in me to remain in the house
+from which the master was thus suddenly summoned away; and I
+therefore begged permission to attend him to the fishing station,
+assuring his sister that I would be a guarantee for his safety.
+
+That proposal seemed to give much pleasure to Miss Geddes.  'Let
+it be so, brother,' she said; 'and let the young man have the
+desire of his heart, that there may be a faithful witness to
+stand by thee in the hour of need, and to report how it shall
+fare with thee.
+
+'Nay, Rachel,' said the worthy man, 'thou art to blame in this,
+that to quiet thy apprehensions on my account, thou shouldst
+thrust into danger--if danger it shall prove to be--this youth,
+our guest; for whom, doubtless, in case of mishap, as many hearts
+will ache as may be afflicted on our account.'
+
+'No, my good friend,' said I, taking Mr. Geddes's hand, 'I am not
+so happy as you suppose me.  Were my span to be concluded this
+evening, few would so much as know that such a being had existed
+for twenty years on the face of the earth; and of these few, only
+one would sincerely regret me.  Do not, therefore, refuse me the
+privilege attending you; and of showing, by so trifling an act of
+kindness, that if I have few friends, I am at least desirous to
+serve them.'
+
+'Thou hast a kind heart, I warrant thee,' said Joshua Geddes,
+returning the pressure of my hand.  'Rachel, the young man shall
+go with me.  Why should he not face danger, in order to do
+justice and preserve peace?  There is that within me,' he added,
+looking upwards, and with a passing enthusiasm which I had not
+before observed and the absence of which perhaps rather belonged
+to the sect than to his own personal character--'I say, I have
+that within which assures me, that though the ungodly may rage
+even like the storm of the ocean, they shall not have freedom to
+prevail against us.'
+
+Having spoken thus, Mr. Geddes appointed a pony to be saddled for
+my use; and having taken a basket with some provisions, and a
+servant to carry back the horses for which there was no
+accommodation at the fishing station, we set off about nine
+o'clock at night, and after three-quarters of an hour's riding,
+arrived at our place of destination.
+
+The station consists, or then consisted, of huts for four or five
+fishermen, a cooperage and shed, and a better sort of cottage at
+which the superintendent resided.  We gave our horses to the
+servant, to be carried back to Mount Sharon; my companion
+expressing himself humanely anxious for their safety--and knocked
+at the door of the house.  At first we only heard a barking of
+dogs; but these animals became quiet on snuffing beneath the
+door, and acknowledging the presence of friends.  A hoarse voice
+then demanded, in rather unfriendly accents, who we were, and
+what we wanted and it was not; until Joshua named himself, and
+called upon his superintendent to open, that the latter appeared
+at the door of the hut, attended by three large dogs of the
+Newfoundland breed.  He had a flambeau in his hand, and two large
+heavy ship-pistols stuck into his belt.  He was a stout elderly
+man, who had been a sailor, as I learned, during the earlier part
+of his life, and was now much confided in by the Fishing Company,
+whose concerns he directed under the orders of Mr. Geddes.
+
+'Thou didst not expect me to-night, friend Davies?'  said my
+friend to the old man, who was arranging seats for us by the
+fire.
+
+'No, Master Geddes,' answered he, 'I did not expect you, nor, to
+speak the truth, did I wish for you either.'
+
+'These are plain terms:  John Davies,' answered Mr.Geddes.
+
+'Aye, aye, sir, I know your worship loves no holiday speeches.'
+
+'Thou dost guess, I suppose, what brings us here so late, John
+Davies?'  said Mr. Geddes.
+
+'I do suppose, sir,' answered the superintendent, 'that it was
+because those d--d smuggling wreckers on the coast are showing
+their lights to gather their forces, as they did the night before
+they broke down the dam-dyke and weirs up the country; but if
+that same be the case, I wish once more you had stayed away, for
+your worship carries no fighting tackle aboard, I think; and
+there will be work for such ere morning, your worship.'
+
+'Worship is due to Heaven only, John Davies,' said Geddes, 'I
+have often desired thee to desist from using that phrase to me.'
+
+'I won't, then,' said John; 'no offence meant:  But how the devil
+can a man stand picking his words, when he is just going to come
+to blows?'
+
+'I hope not, John Davies,' said Joshua Geddes.  'Call in the rest
+of the men, that I may give them their instructions.'
+
+'I may cry till doomsday Master Geddes, ere a soul answers--the
+cowardly lubbers have all made sail--the cooper, and all the rest
+of them, so soon as they heard the enemy were at sea.  They have
+all taken to the long-boat, and left the ship among the breakers,
+except little Phil and myself--they have, by--!'
+
+'Swear not at all, John Davies--thou art an honest man; and I
+believe, without an oath, that thy comrades love their own bones
+better than my goods and chattels.  And so thou hast no
+assistance but little Phil against a hundred men or two?'
+
+'Why, there are the dogs, your honour knows, Neptune and Thetis
+--and the puppy may do something; and then though your worship--I
+beg pardon--though your honour be no great fighter, this young
+gentleman may bear a hand.'
+
+'Aye, and I see you are provided with arms,' said Mr. Geddes;
+'let me see them.'
+
+'Aye, aye, sir; here be a pair of buffers will bite as well as
+bark--these will make sure of two rogues at least.  It would be a
+shame to strike without firing a shot.  Take care, your honour,
+they are double-shotted.'
+
+'Aye, John Davies, I will take care of them, throwing the pistols
+into a tub of water beside him; 'and I wish I could render the
+whole generation of them useless at the same moment.'
+
+A deep shade of displeasure passed over John Davies's
+weatherbeaten countenance.  'Belike your honour is going to take
+the command yourself, then?'  he said, after a pause.  'Why, I
+can be of little use now; and since your worship, or your honour,
+or whatever you are, means to strike quietly, I believe you will
+do it better without me than with me, for I am like enough to
+make mischief, I admit; but I'll never leave my post without
+orders.'
+
+'Then you have mine, John Davies, to go to Mount Sharon directly,
+and take the boy Phil with you.  Where is he?'
+
+'He is on the outlook for these scums of the earth,' answered
+Davies; 'but it is to no purpose to know when they come, if we
+are not to stand to our weapons.'
+
+'We will use none but those of sense and reason, John.'
+
+'And you may just as well cast chaff against the wind, as speak
+sense and reason to the like of them.'
+
+'Well, well, be it so,' said Joshua; 'and now, John Davies, I
+know thou art what the world calls a brave fellow, and I have
+ever found thee an honest one.  And now I command you to go to
+Mount Sharon, and let Phil lie on the bank-side--see the poor boy
+hath a sea-cloak, though--and watch what happens there, and let
+him bring you the news; and if any violence shall be offered to
+the property there, I trust to your fidelity to carry my sister
+to Dumfries to the house of our friends the Corsacks, and inform
+the civil authorities of what mischief hath befallen.'
+
+The old seaman paused a moment.  'It is hard lines for me,' he
+said, 'to leave your honour in tribulation; and yet, staying
+here, I am only like to make bad worse; and your honour's sister,
+Miss Rachel, must be looked to, that's certain; for if the rogues
+once get their hand to mischief, they will come to Mount Sharon
+after they have wasted and destroyed this here snug little
+roadstead, where I thought to ride at anchor for life.'
+
+'Right, right, John Davies,' said Joshua Geddes; 'and best call
+the dogs with you.'
+
+'Aye, aye, sir,' said the veteran, 'for they are something of my
+mind, and would not keep quiet if they saw mischief doing; so
+maybe they might come to mischief, poor dumb creatures.  So God
+bless your honour--I mean your worship--I cannot bring my mouth
+to say fare you well.  Here, Neptune, Thetis!  come, dogs, come.'
+
+So saying, and with a very crestfallen countenance, John Davies
+left the hut.
+
+'Now there goes one of the best and most faithful creatures that
+ever was born,' said Mr. Geddes, as the superintendent shut the
+door of the cottage.  'Nature made him with a heart that would
+not have suffered him to harm a fly; but thou seest, friend
+Latimer, that as men arm their bull-dogs with spiked collars, and
+their game-cocks with steel spurs, to aid them in fight, so they
+corrupt, by education, the best and mildest natures, until
+fortitude and spirit become stubbornness and ferocity.  Believe
+me, friend Latimer, I would as soon expose my faithful household
+dog to a vain combat with a herd of wolves, as yon trusty
+creature to the violence of the enraged multitude.  But I need
+say little on this subject to thee, friend Latimer, who, I doubt
+not, art trained to believe that courage is displayed and honour
+attained, not by doing and suffering as becomes a man that which
+fate calls us to suffer and justice commands us to do, but
+because thou art ready to retort violence for violence, and
+considerest the lightest insult as a sufficient cause for the
+spilling of blood, nay, the taking of life.  But, leaving these
+points of controversy to a more fit season, let us see what our
+basket of provision contains; for in truth, friend Latimer, I am
+one of those whom neither fear nor anxiety deprives of their
+ordinary appetite.'
+
+We found the means of good cheer accordingly, which Mr. Geddes
+seemed to enjoy as much as if it had been eaten in a situation of
+perfect safety; nay, his conversation appeared to be rather more
+gay than on ordinary occasions.  After eating our supper, we left
+the hut together, and walked for a few minutes on the banks of
+the sea.  It was high water, and the ebb had not yet commenced.
+The moon shone broad and bright upon the placid face of the
+Solway Firth, and showed a slight ripple upon the stakes, the
+tops of which were just visible above the waves, and on the dark-
+coloured buoys which marked the upper edge of the enclosure of
+nets.  At a much greater distance--for the estuary is here very
+wide--the line of the English coast was seen on the verge of the
+water, resembling one of those fog-banks on which mariners are
+said to gaze, uncertain whether it be land or atmospherical
+delusion.
+
+'We shall be undisturbed for some hours,' said Mr. Geddes; 'they
+will not come down upon us:  till the state of the tide permits
+them to destroy the tide-nets.  Is it not strange to think that
+human passions will so soon transform such a tranquil scene as
+this into one of devastation and confusion?'
+
+It was indeed a scene of exquisite stillness; so much so, that
+the restless waves of the Solway seemed, if not absolutely to
+sleep, at least to slumber; on the shore no night-bird was heard
+--the cock had not sung his first matins, and we ourselves walked
+more lightly than by day, as if to suit the sounds of our own
+paces to the serene tranquillity around us.  At length, the
+plaintive cry of a dog broke the silence, and on our return to
+the cottage, we found that the younger of the three animals which
+had gone along with John Davies, unaccustomed, perhaps, to
+distant journeys, and the duty of following to heel, had strayed
+from the party, and, unable to rejoin them, had wandered back to
+the place of its birth.
+
+'Another feeble addition to our feeble garrison,' said Mr.
+Geddes, as he caressed the dog, and admitted it into the cottage.
+'Poor thing!  as thou art incapable of doing any mischief, I hope
+thou wilt sustain none.  At least thou mayst do us the good
+service of a sentinel, and permit us to enjoy a quiet repose,
+under the certainty that thou wilt alarm us when the enemy is at
+hand.'
+
+There were two beds in the superintendent's room, upon which we
+threw ourselves.  Mr. Geddes, with his happy equanimity of
+temper, was asleep in the first five minutes.  I lay for some
+time in doubtful and anxious thoughts, watching the fire, and the
+motions of the restless dog, which, disturbed probably at the
+absence of John Davies, wandered from the hearth to the door and
+back again, then came to the bedside and licked my hands and
+face, and at length, experiencing no repulse to its advances,
+established itself at my feet, and went to sleep, an example
+which I soon afterwards followed.
+
+The rage of narration, my dear Alan--for I will never relinquish
+the hope that what I am writing may one day reach your hands--has
+not forsaken me, even in my confinement, and the extensive though
+unimportant details into which I have been hurried, renders it
+necessary that I commence another sheet.  Fortunately, my pygmy
+characters comprehend a great many words within a small space of
+paper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+DARSIE LATIMER'S JOURNAL, IN CONTINUATION
+
+The morning was dawning, and Mr. Geddes and I myself were still
+sleeping soundly, when the alarm was given by my canine
+bedfellow, who first growled deeply at intervals, and at length
+bore more decided testimony to the approach of some enemy.  I
+opened the door of the cottage, and perceived, at the distance of
+about two hundred yards, a small but close column of men, which I
+would have taken for a dark hedge, but that I could perceive it
+was advancing rapidly and in silence.
+
+The dog flew towards them, but instantly ran howling back to me,
+having probably been chastised by a stick or a stone.  Uncertain
+as to the plan of tactics or of treaty which Mr. Geddes might
+think proper to adopt, I was about to retire into the cottage,
+when he suddenly joined me at the door, and, slipping his arm
+through mine, said, 'Let us go to meet them manfully; we have
+done nothing to be ashamed of.--Friends,' he said, raising his
+voice as we approached them, 'who and what are you, and with what
+purpose are you here on my property?'
+
+A loud cheer was the answer returned, and a brace of fiddlers who
+occupied the front of the march immediately struck up the
+insulting air, the words of which begin--
+
+  Merrily danced the Quaker's wife,
+  And merrily danced the Quaker.
+
+Even at that moment of alarm, I think I recognized the tones of
+the blind fiddler, Will, known by the name of Wandering Willie,
+from his itinerant habits.  They continued to advance swiftly and
+in great order, in their front
+
+  The fiery fiddlers playing martial airs;
+
+when, coming close up, they surrounded us by a single movement,
+and there was a universal cry, 'Whoop, Quaker--whoop, Quaker!
+Here have we them both, the wet Quaker and the dry one.'
+
+'Hang up the wet Quaker to dry, and wet the dry one with a
+ducking,' answered another voice.
+
+'Where is the sea-otter, John Davies, that destroyed more fish
+than any sealch upon Ailsa Craig?'  exclaimed a third voice.  'I
+have an old crow to pluck with him, and a pock to put the
+feathers in.'
+
+We stood perfectly passive; for, to have attempted resistance
+against more than a hundred men, armed with guns, fish-spears,
+iron-crows, spades, and bludgeons, would have been an act of
+utter insanity.  Mr. Geddes, with his strong sonorous voice,
+answered the question about the superintendent in a manner the
+manly indifference of which compelled them to attend to him.
+
+'John Davies,' he said, 'will, I trust, soon be at Dumfries'--
+
+'To fetch down redcoats and dragoons against us, you canting old
+villain!'
+
+A blow was, at the same time, levelled at my friend, which I
+parried by interposing the stick I had in my hand.  I was
+instantly struck down, and have a faint recollection of hearing
+some crying, 'Kill the young spy!'  and others, as I thought,
+interposing on my behalf.  But a second blow on the head,
+received in the scuffle, soon deprived me of sense and
+consciousness, and threw me into it state of insensibility, from
+which I did not recover immediately.  When I did come to myself,
+I was lying on the bed from which I had just risen before the
+fray, and my poor companion, the Newfoundland puppy, its courage
+entirely cowed by the tumult of the riot, had crept as close to
+me as it could, and lay trembling and whining, as if under the
+most dreadful terror.  I doubted at first whether I had not
+dreamed of the tumult, until, as I attempted to rise, a feeling
+of pain and dizziness assured me that the injury I had sustained
+was but too real.  I gathered together my senses listened--and
+heard at a distance the shouts of the rioters, busy, doubtless,
+in their work of devastation.  I made a second effort to rise, or
+at least to turn myself, for I lay with my face to the wall of
+the cottage, but I found that my limbs were secured, and my
+motions effectually prevented--not indeed by cords, but by linen
+or cloth bandages swathed around my ankles, and securing my arms
+to my sides.  Aware of my utterly captive condition, I groaned
+betwixt bodily pain and mental distress,
+
+A voice by my bedside whispered, in a whining tone, 'Whisht a-ye,
+hinnie--Whisht a-ye; haud your tongue, like a gude bairn--ye have
+cost us dear aneugh already.  My hinnie's clean gane now.'
+
+Knowing, as I thought, the phraseology of the wife of the
+itinerant musician, I asked her where her husband was, and
+whether he had been hurt.
+
+'Broken,' answered the dame, 'all broken to pieces; fit for
+naught but to be made spunks of--the best blood that was in
+Scotland.'
+
+'Broken?--blood?--is your husband wounded; has there been
+bloodshed broken limbs?'
+
+'Broken limbs I wish,' answered the beldam, 'that my hinnie had
+broken the best bane in his body, before he had broken his
+fiddle, that was the best blood in Scotland--it was a Cremony,
+for aught that I ken.'
+
+'Pshaw--only his fiddle?'  said I.
+
+'I dinna ken what waur your honour could have wished him to do,
+unless he had broken his neck; and this is muckle the same to my
+hinnie Willie and me.  Chaw, indeed!  It is easy to say chaw, but
+wha is to gie us ony thing to chaw?--the bread-winner's gane, and
+we may e'en sit down and starve.'
+
+'No, no,' I said, 'I will pay you for twenty such fiddles.'
+
+'Twenty such!  is that a' ye ken about it?  the country hadna the
+like o't.  But if your honour were to pay us, as nae doubt wad be
+to your credit here and hereafter, where are ye to get the
+siller?'
+
+'I have enough of money,' said I, attempting to reach my hand
+towards my side-pocket; 'unloose these bandages, and I will pay
+you on the spot.'
+
+This hint appeared to move her, and she was approaching the
+bedside, as I hoped, to liberate me from my bonds, when a nearer
+and more desperate shout was heard, as if the rioters were close
+by the hut.
+
+'I daurna I daurna,' said the poor woman, 'they would murder me
+and my hinnie Willie baith, and they have misguided us aneugh
+already;--but if there is anything worldly I could do for your
+honour, leave out loosing ye?'
+
+What she said recalled me to my bodily suffering.  Agitation, and
+the effects of the usage I had received, had produced a burning
+thirst.  I asked for a drink of water.
+
+'Heaven Almighty forbid that Epps Ainslie should gie ony sick
+gentleman cauld well-water, and him in a fever.  Na, na, hinnie,
+let me alane, I'll do better for ye than the like of that.'
+
+'Give me what you will,' I replied; 'let it but be liquid and
+cool.'
+
+The woman gave me a large horn accordingly, filled with spirits
+and water, which, without minute inquiry concerning the nature of
+its contents, I drained at a draught.  Either the spirits taken
+in such a manner acted more suddenly than usual on my brain, or
+else there was some drug mixed with the beverage.  I remember
+little after drinking it off, only that the appearance of things
+around me became indistinct; that the woman's form seemed to
+multiply itself, and to flit in various figures around me,
+bearing the same lineaments as she herself did.  I remember also
+that the discordant noises and cries of those without the cottage
+seemed to die away in a hum like that with which a nurse hushes
+her babe.  At length I fell into a deep sound sleep, or rather, a
+state of absolute insensibility.
+
+I have reason to think this species of trance lasted for many
+hours; indeed, for the whole subsequent day and part of the
+night.  It was not uniformly so profound, for my recollection of
+it is chequered with many dreams, all of a painful nature, but
+too faint and too indistinct to be remembered.  At length the
+moment of waking came, and my sensations were horrible.
+
+A deep sound, which, in the confusion of my senses, I identified
+with the cries of the rioters, was the first thing of which I was
+sensible; next, I became conscious that I was carried violently
+forward in some conveyance, with an unequal motion, which gave me
+much pain.  My position was horizontal, and when I attempted to
+stretch my hands in order to find some mode of securing myself
+against this species of suffering, I found I was bound as before,
+and the horrible reality rushed on my mind that I was in the
+hands of those who had lately committed a great outrage on
+property, and were now about to kidnap, if not to murder me.  I
+opened my eyes, it was to no purpose--all around me was dark, for
+a day had passed over during my captivity.  A dispiriting
+sickness oppressed my head--my heart seemed on fire, while my
+feet and hands were chilled and benumbed with want of
+circulation.  It was with the utmost difficulty that I at length,
+and gradually, recovered in a sufficient degree the power of
+observing external sounds and circumstances; and when I did so,
+they presented nothing consolatory.
+
+Groping with my hands, as far as the bandages would permit, and
+receiving the assistance of some occasional glances of the
+moonlight, I became aware that the carriage in which I was
+transported was one of the light carts of the country, called
+TUMBLERS, and that a little attention had been paid to my
+accommodation, as I was laid upon some sacks covered with
+matting, and filled with straw.  Without these, my condition
+would have been still more intolerable, for the vehicle, sinking
+now on one side, and now on the other, sometimes sticking
+absolutely fast and requiring the utmost exertions of the animal
+which drew it to put it once more in motion, was subjected to
+jolts in all directions, which were very severe.  At other times
+it rolled silently and smoothly over what seemed to be wet sand;
+and, as I heard the distant roar of the tide, I had little doubt
+that we were engaged in passing the formidable estuary which
+divides the two kingdoms.
+
+There seemed to be at least five or six people about the cart,
+some on foot, others on horseback; the former lent assistance
+whenever it was in danger of upsetting, or sticking fast in the
+quicksand; the others rode before and acted as guides, often
+changing the direction of the vehicle as the precarious state of
+the passage required.
+
+I addressed myself to the men around the cart, and endeavoured to
+move their compassion.  I had harmed, I said, no one, and for no
+action in my life had deserved such cruel treatment, I had no
+concern whatever in the fishing station which had incurred their
+displeasure, and my acquaintance with Mr. Geddes was of a very
+late date.  Lastly, and as my strongest argument, I endeavoured
+to excite their fears, by informing them that my rank in life
+would not permit me to be either murdered or secreted with
+impunity; and to interest their avarice, by the promises I made
+them of reward, if they would effect my deliverance.  I only
+received a scornful laugh in reply to my threats; my promises
+might have done more, for the fellows were whispering together as
+if in hesitation, and I began to reiterate and increase my
+offers, when the voice of one of the horsemen, who had suddenly
+come up, enjoined silence to the men on foot, and, approaching
+the side of the cart, said to me, with a strong and determined
+voice, 'Young man, there is no personal harm designed to you.  If
+you remain silent and quiet, you may reckon on good treatment;
+but if you endeavour to tamper with these men in the execution of
+their duty, I will take such measures for silencing you, as you
+shall remember the longest day you have to live.'
+
+I thought I knew the voice which uttered these threats; but, in
+such a situation, my perceptions could not be supposed to be
+perfectly accurate.  I was contented to reply, 'Whoever you are
+that speak to me, I entreat the benefit of the meanest prisoner,
+who is not to be subjected, legally to greater hardship than is
+necessary for the restraint of his person.  I entreat that these
+bonds, which hurt me so cruelly, may be slackened at least, if
+not removed altogether.'
+
+'I will slacken the belts,' said the former speaker; 'nay, I will
+altogether remove them, and allow you to pursue your journey in a
+more convenient manner, provided you will give me your word of
+honour that you will not attempt an escape?'
+
+'NEVER!'  I answered, with an energy of which despair alone could
+have rendered me capable--'I will never submit to loss of freedom
+a moment longer than I am subjected to it by force.'
+
+'Enough,' he replied; 'the sentiment is natural; but do not on
+your side complain that I, who am carrying on an important
+undertaking, use the only means in my power for ensuring its
+success.'
+
+I entreated to know what it was designed to do with me; but my
+conductor, in a voice of menacing authority, desired me to be
+silent on my peril; and my strength and spirits were too much
+exhausted to permit my continuing a dialogue so singular, even if
+I could have promised myself any good result by doing so.
+
+It is proper here to add, that, from my recollections at the
+time, and from what has since taken place, I have the strongest
+possible belief that the man with whom I held this expostulation
+was the singular person residing at Brokenburn, in Dumfriesshire,
+and called by the fishers of that hamlet, the Laird of the Solway
+Lochs.  The cause for his inveterate persecution I cannot pretend
+even to guess at.
+
+In the meantime, the cart was dragged heavily and wearily on,
+until the nearer roar of the advancing tide excited the
+apprehension of another danger.  I could not mistake the sound,
+which I had heard upon another occasion, when it was only the
+speed of a fleet horse which saved me from perishing in the
+quicksands.  Thou, my dear Alan, canst not but remember the
+former circumstances; and now, wonderful contrast!  the very man,
+to the best of my belief, who then saved me from peril, was the
+leader of the lawless band who had deprived me of my liberty.  I
+conjectured that the danger grew imminent; for I heard some words
+and circumstances which made me aware that a rider hastily
+fastened his own horse to the shafts of the cart in order to
+assist the exhausted animal which drew it, and the vehicle was
+now pulled forward at a faster pace, which the horses were urged
+to maintain by blows and curses.  The men, however, were
+inhabitants of the neighbourhood; and I had strong personal
+reason to believe that one of them, at least, was intimately
+acquainted with all the depths and shallows of the perilous paths
+in which we were engaged.  But they were in imminent danger
+themselves; and if so, as from the whispering and exertions to
+push on with the cart was much to be apprehended, there was
+little doubt that I should be left behind as a useless
+encumbrance, and that, while I was in a condition which rendered
+every chance of escape impracticable.  These were awful
+apprehensions; but it pleased Providence to increase them to a
+point which my brain was scarcely able to endure.
+
+As we approached very near to a black line, which, dimly visible
+as it was, I could make out to be the shore, we heard two or
+three sounds, which appeared to be the report of fire-arms.
+Immediately all was bustle among our party to get forward.
+Presently a fellow galloped up to us, crying out, 'Ware hawk!
+ware hawk!  the land-sharks are out from Burgh, and Allonby Tom
+will lose his cargo if you do not bear a hand.'
+
+Most of my company seemed to make hastily for the shore on
+receiving this intelligence.  A driver was left with the cart;
+but at length, when, after repeated and hairbreadth escapes, it
+actually stuck fast in a slough or quicksand, the fellow, with an
+oath, cut the harness, and, as I presume, departed with the
+horses, whose feet I heard splashing over the wet sand and
+through the shallows, as he galloped off.
+
+The dropping sound of fire-arms was still continued, but lost
+almost entirely in the thunder of the advancing surge.  By a
+desperate effort I raised myself in the cart, and attained a
+sitting posture, which served only to show me the extent of my
+danger.  There lay my native land--my own England--the land where
+I was born, and to which my wishes, since my earliest age, had
+turned with all the prejudices of national feeling--there it lay,
+within a furlong of the place where I yet was; that furlong,
+which an infant would have raced over in a minute, was yet a
+barrier effectual to divide me for ever from England and from
+life.  I soon not only heard the roar of this dreadful torrent,
+but saw, by the fitful moonlight, the foamy crests of the
+devouring waves, as they advanced with the speed and fury of a
+pack of hungry wolves.
+
+The consciousness that the slightest ray of hope, or power of
+struggling, was not left me, quite overcame the constancy which I
+had hitherto maintained.  My eyes began to swim--my head grew
+giddy and mad with fear--I chattered and howled to the howling
+and roaring sea.  One or two great waves already reached the
+cart, when the conductor of the party whom I have mentioned so
+often, was, as if by magic, at my side.  He sprang from his horse
+into the vehicle, cut the ligatures which restrained me, and bade
+me get up and mount in the fiend's name.
+
+Seeing I was incapable of obeying, he seized me as if I had been
+a child of six months old, threw me across the horse, sprang on
+behind, supporting with one hand, while he directed the animal
+with the other.  In my helpless and painful posture, I was
+unconscious of the degree of danger which we incurred; but I
+believe at one time the horse was swimming, or nearly so; and
+that it was with difficulty that my stern and powerful assistant
+kept my head above water.  I remember particularly the shock
+which I felt when the animal, endeavouring to gain the bank,
+reared, and very nearly fell back on his burden.  The time during
+which I continued in this dreadful condition did not probably
+exceed two or three minutes, yet so strongly were they marked
+with horror and agony, that they seem to my recollection a much
+more considerable space of time.
+
+When I had been thus snatched from destruction, I had only power
+to say to my protector,--or oppressor,--for he merited either
+name at my hand, 'You do not, then, design to murder me?'
+
+He laughed as he replied, but it was a sort of laughter which I
+scarce desire to hear again,--'Else you think I had let the waves
+do the work?  But remember, the shepherd saves his sheep from the
+torrent--is it to preserve its life?--Be silent, however, with
+questions or entreaties.  What I mean to do, thou canst no more
+discover or prevent, than a man, with his bare palm, can scoop
+dry the Solway.'
+
+I was too much exhausted to continue the argument; and, still
+numbed and torpid in all my limbs, permitted myself without
+reluctance to be placed on a horse brought for the purpose.  My
+formidable conductor rode on the one side, and another person on
+the other, keeping me upright in the saddle.  In this manner we
+travelled forward at a considerable rate, and by by-roads, with
+which my attendant seemed as familiar as with the perilous
+passages of the Solway.
+
+At length, after stumbling through a labyrinth of dark and deep
+lanes, and crossing more than one rough and barren heath, we
+found ourselves on the edge of a highroad, where a chaise and
+four awaited, as it appeared, our arrival.  To my great relief,
+we now changed our mode of conveyance; for my dizziness and
+headache had returned in so strong a degree, that I should
+otherwise have been totally unable to keep my seat on horseback,
+even with the support which I received.
+
+My doubted and dangerous companion signed to me to enter the
+carriage--the man who had ridden on the left side of my horse
+stepped in after me, and drawing up the blinds of the vehicle,
+gave the signal for instant departure.
+
+I had obtained a glimpse of the countenance of my new companion,
+as by the aid of a dark lantern the drivers opened the carriage
+door, and I was wellnigh persuaded that I recognized in him the
+domestic of the leader of this party, whom I had seen at his
+house in Brokenburn on a former occasion.  To ascertain the truth
+of my suspicion, I asked him whether his name was not Cristal
+Nixon.
+
+'What is other folk's names to you,' he replied, gruffly, 'who
+cannot tell your own father and mother?'
+
+'You know them, perhaps!'  I exclaimed eagerly.  'You know them!
+and with that secret is connected the treatment which I am now
+receiving?  It must be so, for in my life have I never injured
+any one.  Tell me the cause of my misfortunes, or rather, help me
+to my liberty, and I will reward you richly.'
+
+'Aye, aye,' replied my keeper; 'but what use to give you liberty,
+who know nothing how to use it like a gentleman, but spend your
+time with Quakers and fiddlers, and such like raff!  If I was
+your--hem, hem, hem!'
+
+Here Cristal stopped short, just on the point, as it appeared,
+when some information was likely to escape him.  I urged him once
+more to be my friend, and promised him all the stock of money
+which I had about me, and it was not inconsiderable, if he would
+assist in my escape.
+
+He listened, as if to a proposition which had some interest, and
+replied, but in a voice rather softer than before, 'Aye, but men
+do not catch old birds with chaff, my master.  Where have you got
+the rhino you are so flush of?'
+
+'I will give you earnest directly, and that in banknotes,' said
+I; but thrusting my hand into my side-pocket, I found my pocket-
+book was gone.  I would have persuaded myself that it was only
+the numbness of my hands which prevented my finding it; but
+Cristal Nixon, who bears in his countenance that cynicism which
+is especially entertained with human misery, no longer suppressed
+his laughter.
+
+'Oh, ho!  my young master,' he said; 'we have taken good enough
+care you have not kept the means of bribing poor folk's fidelity.
+What, man, they have souls as well as other people, and to make
+them break trust is a deadly sin.  And as for me, young
+gentleman, if you would fill Saint Mary's Kirk with gold, Cristal
+Nixon would mind it no more than so many chucky-stones.'
+
+I would have persisted, were it but in hopes of his letting drop
+that which it concerned me to know, but he cut off further
+communication, by desiring me to lean back in the corner and go
+to sleep.
+
+'Thou art cock-brained enough already,' he added, 'and we shall
+have thy young pate addled entirely, if you do not take some
+natural rest.'
+
+I did indeed require repose, if not slumber; the draught which I
+had taken continued to operate, and, satisfied in my own mind
+that no attempt on my life was designed, the fear of instant
+death no longer combated the torpor which crept over me--I slept,
+and slept soundly, but still without refreshment.
+
+When I awoke, I found myself extremely indisposed; images of the
+past, and anticipations of the future, floated confusedly through
+my brain.  I perceived, however, that my situation was changed,
+greatly for the better.  I was in a good bed, with the curtains
+drawn round it; I heard the lowered voice and cautious step of
+attendants, who seemed to respect my repose; it appeared as if I
+was in the hands either of friends, or of such as meant me no
+personal harm.
+
+I can give but an indistinct account of two or three broken and
+feverish days which succeeded, but if they were chequered with
+dreams and visions of terror, other and more agreeable objects
+were also sometimes presented.  Alan Fairford will understand me
+when I say, I am convinced I saw G.M. during this interval of
+oblivion.  I had medical attendance, and was bled more than once.
+I also remember a painful operation performed on my head, where I
+had received a severe blow on the night of the riot.  My hair was
+cut short, and the bone of the skull examined, to discover if the
+cranium had received any injury.
+
+On seeing the physician, it would have been natural to have
+appealed to him on the subject of my confinement, and I remember
+more than once attempting to do so.  But the fever lay like a
+spell upon my tongue, and when I would have implored the doctor's
+assistance, I rambled from the subject, and spoke I know not what
+nonsense.  Some power, which I was unable to resist, seemed to
+impel me into a different course of conversation from what I
+intended, and though conscious, in some degree, of the failure, I
+could not mend it; and resolved, therefore, to be patient, until
+my capacity of steady thought and expression was restored to me
+with my ordinary health, which had sustained a severe shock from
+the vicissitudes to which I had been exposed.  [See Note 6.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+DARSIE LATIMER'S JOURNAL, IN CONTINUATION
+
+Two or three days, perhaps more, perhaps less, had been spent in
+bed, where I was carefully attended, and treated, I believe, with
+as much judgement as the case required, and I was at length
+allowed to quit my bed, though not the chamber.  I was now more
+able to make some observation on the place of my confinement.
+
+The room, in appearance and furniture, resembled the best
+apartment in a farmer's house; and the window, two stories high,
+looked into a backyard, or court, filled with domestic poultry.
+There were the usual domestic offices about this yard.  I could
+distinguish the brewhouse and the barn, and I heard, from a more
+remote building, the lowing of the cattle, and other rural
+sounds, announcing a large and well-stocked farm.  These were
+sights and sounds qualified to dispel any apprehension of
+immediate violence.  Yet the building seemed ancient and strong,
+a part of the roof was battlemented,and the walls were of great
+thickness; lastly, I observed, with some unpleasant sensations,
+that the windows of my chamber had been lately secured with iron
+stanchions, and that the servants who brought me victuals, or
+visited my apartment to render other menial offices, always
+locked the door when they retired.
+
+The comfort and cleanliness of my chamber were of true English
+growth, and such as I had rarely seen on the other side of the
+Tweed; the very old wainscot, which composed the floor and the
+panelling of the room, was scrubbed with a degree of labour which
+the Scottish housewife rarely bestows on her most costly
+furniture.
+
+The whole apartments appropriated to my use consisted of the
+bedroom, a small parlour adjacent, within which was a still
+smaller closet having a narrow window which seemed anciently to
+have been used as a shot-hole, admitting, indeed, a very moderate
+portion of light and air, but without its being possible to see
+anything from it except the blue sky, and that only by mounting
+on a chair.  There were appearances of a separate entrance into
+this cabinet, besides that which communicated with the parlour,
+but it had been recently built up, as I discovered by removing a
+piece of tapestry which covered the fresh mason-work.  I found
+some of my clothes here, with linen and other articles, as well
+as my writing-case, containing pen, ink, and paper, which enables
+me, at my leisure (which, God knows, is undisturbed enough) to
+make this record of my confinement.  It may be well believed,
+however, that I do not trust to the security of the bureau, but
+carry the written sheets about my person, so that I can only be
+deprived of them by actual violence.  I also am cautious to write
+in the little cabinet only, so that I can hear any person
+approach me through the other apartments, and have time enough to
+put aside my journal before they come upon me.
+
+The servants, a stout country fellow and a very pretty milkmaid-
+looking lass, by whom I am attended, seem of the true Joan and
+Hedge school, thinking of little and desiring nothing beyond the
+very limited sphere of their own duties or enjoyments, and having
+no curiosity whatever about the affairs of others.  Their
+behaviour to me in particular, is, at the same time, very kind
+and very provoking.  My table is abundantly supplied, and they
+seem anxious to comply with my taste in that department.  But
+whenever I make inquiries beyond 'what's for dinner', the brute
+of a lad baffles me by his ANAN, and his DUNNA KNAW, and if hard
+pressed, turns his back on me composedly, and leaves the room.
+The girl, too, pretends to be as simple as he; but an arch grin,
+which she cannot always suppress, seems to acknowledge that she
+understands perfectly well the game which she is playing, and is
+determined to keep me in ignorance.  Both of them, and the wench
+in particular, treat me as they would do a spoiled child, and
+never directly refuse me anything which I ask, taking care, at
+the same time, not to make their words good by effectually
+granting my request.  Thus, if I desire to go out, I am promised
+by Dorcas that I shall walk in the park at night, and see the
+cows milked, just as she would propose such an amusement to a
+child.  But she takes care never to keep her word, if it is in
+her power to do so.
+
+In the meantime, there has stolen on me insensibly an
+indifference to my freedom--a carelessness about my situation,
+for which I am unable to account, unless it be the consequence of
+weakness and loss of blood.  I have read of men who, immured as I
+am, have surprised the world by the address with which they have
+successfully overcome the most formidable obstacles to their
+escape; and when I have heard such anecdotes, I have said to
+myself, that no one who is possessed only of a fragment of
+freestone, or a rusty nail to grind down rivets and to pick
+locks, having his full leisure to employ in the task, need
+continue the inhabitant of a prison.  Here, however, I sit, day
+after day, without a single effort to effect my liberation.
+
+Yet my inactivity is not the result of despondency, but arises,
+in part at least, from feelings of a very different cast.  My
+story, long a mysterious one, seems now upon the verge of some
+strange development; and I feel a solemn impression that I ought
+to wait the course of events, to struggle against which is
+opposing my feeble efforts to the high will of fate.  Thou, my
+Alan, wilt treat as timidity this passive acquiescence, which has
+sunk down on me like a benumbing torpor; but if thou hast
+remembered by what visions my couch was haunted, and dost but
+think of the probability that I am in the vicinity, perhaps under
+the same roof with G.M., thou wilt acknowledge that other
+feelings than pusillanimity have tended in some degree to
+reconcile me to my fate.
+
+Still I own it is unmanly to submit with patience to this
+oppressive confinement.  My heart rises against it, especially
+when I sit down to record my sufferings in this journal, and I am
+determined, as the first step to my deliverance, to have my
+letters sent to the post-house.
+
+----
+
+I am disappointed.  When the girl Dorcas, upon whom I had fixed
+for a messenger, heard me talk of sending a letter, she willingly
+offered her services, and received the crown which I gave her
+(for my purse had not taken flight with the more valuable
+contents of my pocket-book) with a smile which showed her whole
+set of white teeth.
+
+But when, with the purpose of gaining some intelligence
+respecting my present place of abode, I asked to which post-town
+she was to send or carry the letter, a stolid 'ANAN' showed me
+she was either ignorant of the nature of a post-office, or that,
+for the present, she chose to seem so.--'Simpleton!'  I said,
+with some sharpness.
+
+'O Lord, sir!'  answered the girl, turning pale, which they
+always do when I show any sparks of anger, 'Don't put yourself in
+a passion--I'll put the letter in the post.
+
+'What!  and not know the name of the post-town?'  said I, out of
+patience.  'How on earth do you propose to manage that?'
+
+'La you there, good master.  What need you frighten a poor girl
+that is no schollard, bating what she learned at the Charity
+School of Saint Bees?'
+
+'Is Saint Bees far from this place, Dorcas?  Do you send your
+letters there?'  said I, in a manner as insinuating, and yet
+careless, as I could assume.
+
+'Saint Bees!  La, who but a madman--begging your honour's pardon
+--it's a matter of twenty years since fader lived at Saint Bees,
+which is twenty, or forty, or I dunna know not how many miles
+from this part, to the West, on the coast side; and I would not
+have left Saint Bees, but that fader'--
+
+'Oh, the devil take your father!'  replied I.
+
+To which she answered, 'Nay, but thof your honour be a little
+how-come-so, you shouldn't damn folk's faders; and I won't stand
+to it, for one.'
+
+'Oh, I beg you a thousand pardons--I wish your father no ill in
+the world--he was a very honest man in his way.'
+
+'WAS an honest man!'  she exclaimed; for the Cumbrians are, it
+would seem, like their neighbours the Scotch, ticklish on the
+point of ancestry,--'He IS a very honest man as ever led nag with
+halter on head to Staneshaw Bank Fair.  Honest!  He is a horse-
+couper.'
+
+'Right, right,' I replied; 'I know it--I have heard of your
+father-as honest as any horse-couper of them all.  Why, Dorcas, I
+mean to buy a horse of him.'
+
+'Ah, your honour,' sighed Dorcas, 'he is the man to serve your
+honour well--if ever you should get round again--or thof you were
+a bit off the hooks, he would no more cheat you than'--
+
+'Well, well, we will deal, my girl, you may depend on't.  But
+tell me now, were I to give you a letter, what would you do to
+get it forward?'
+
+'Why, put it into Squire's own bag that hangs in hall,' answered
+poor Dorcas.  'What else could I do?  He sends it to Brampton, or
+to Carloisle, or where it pleases him, once a week, and that
+gate.'
+
+'Ah!'  said I; 'and I suppose your sweetheart John carries it?'
+
+'Noa--disn't now--and Jan is no sweetheart of mine, ever since he
+danced at his mother's feast with Kitty Rutlege, and let me sit
+still; that a did.'
+
+'It was most abominable in Jan, and what I could never have
+thought of him,' I replied.
+
+'Oh, but a did though--a let me sit still on my seat, a did.'
+
+'Well, well, my pretty May, you will get a handsomer fellow than
+Jan--Jan's not the fellow for you, I see that.'
+
+'Noa, noa,' answered the damsel; 'but he is weel aneugh for a'
+that, mon.  But I carena a button for him; for there is the
+miller's son, that suitored me last Appleby Fair, when I went wi'
+oncle, is a gway canny lad as you will see in the sunshine.'
+
+'Aye, a fine stout fellow.  Do you think he would carry my letter
+to Carlisle?'
+
+'To Carloisle!  'Twould be all his life is worth; he maun wait on
+clap and hopper, as they say.  Odd, his father would brain him if
+he went to Carloisle, bating to wrestling for the belt, or sic
+loike.  But I ha' more bachelors than him; there is the
+schoolmaster, can write almaist as weel as tou canst, mon.'
+
+'Then he is the very man to take charge of a letter; he knows the
+trouble of writing one.'
+
+'Aye, marry does he, an tou comest to that, mon; only it takes
+him four hours to write as mony lines.  Tan, it is a great round
+hand loike, that one can read easily, and not loike your
+honour's, that are like midge's taes.  But for ganging to
+Carloisle, he's dead foundered, man, as cripple as Eckie's mear.'
+
+'In the name of God,' said I, 'how is it that you propose to get
+my letter to the post?'
+
+'Why, just to put it into Squire's bag loike,' reiterated Dorcas;
+'he sends it by Cristal Nixon to post, as you call it, when such
+is his pleasure.'
+
+Here I was, then, not much edified by having obtained a list of
+Dorcas's bachelors; and by finding myself, with respect to any
+information which I desired, just exactly at the point where I
+set out.  It was of consequence to me, however, to accustom, the
+girl to converse with me familiarly.  If she did so, she could
+not always be on her guard, and something, I thought, might drop
+from her which I could turn to advantage.
+
+'Does not the Squire usually look into his letter-bag, Dorcas?'
+said I, with as much indifference as I could assume.
+
+'That a does,' said Dorcas; 'and a threw out a letter of mine to
+Raff Miller, because a said'--
+
+'Well, well, I won't trouble him with mine,' said I, 'Dorcas;
+but, instead, I will write to himself, Dorcas.  But how shall I
+address him?'
+
+'Anan?'  was again Dorcas's resource.
+
+'I mean how is he called?  What is his name?'
+
+'Sure you honour should know best,' said Dorcas.
+
+'I know?  The devil!  You drive me beyond patience.'
+
+'Noa, noa!  donna your honour go beyond patience--donna ye now,'
+implored the wench.  'And for his neame, they say he has mair nor
+ane in Westmoreland and on the Scottish side.  But he is but
+seldom wi' us, excepting in the cocking season; and then we just
+call him Squoire loike; and so do my measter and dame.'
+
+'And is he here at present?'  said I.
+
+'Not he, not he; he is a buck-hoonting, as they tell me,
+somewhere up the Patterdale way; but he comes and gangs like a
+flap of a whirlwind, or sic loike.'
+
+I broke off the conversation, after forcing on Dorcas a little
+silver to buy ribbons, with which she was so much delighted that
+she exclaimed, 'God!  Cristal Nixon may say his worst on thee;
+but thou art a civil gentleman for all him; and a quoit man wi'
+woman folk loike.'
+
+There is no sense in being too quiet with women folk, so I added
+a kiss with my crown piece; and I cannot help thinking that I
+have secured a partisan in Dorcas.  At least, she blushed, and
+pocketed her little compliment with one hand, while, with the
+other, she adjusted her cherry-coloured ribbons, a little
+disordered by the struggle it cost me to attain the honour of a
+salute.
+
+As she unlocked the door to leave the apartment, she turned back,
+and looking on me with a strong expression of compassion, added
+the remarkable words, 'La--be'st mad or no, thou'se a mettled
+lad, after all.'
+
+There was something very ominous in the sound of these farewell
+words, which seemed to afford me a clue to the pretext under
+which I was detained in confinement, My demeanour was probably
+insane enough, while I was agitated at once by the frenzy
+incident to the fever, and the anxiety arising from my
+extraordinary situation.  But is it possible they can now
+establish any cause for confining me arising out of the state of
+my mind?
+
+If this be really the pretext under which I am restrained from my
+liberty, nothing but the sedate correctness of my conduct can
+remove the prejudices which these circumstances may have excited
+in the minds of all who have approached me during my illness.  I
+have heard--dreadful thought!--of men who, for various reasons,
+have been trepanned into the custody of the keepers of private
+madhouses, and whose brain, after years of misery, became at
+length unsettled, through irresistible sympathy with the wretched
+beings among whom they were classed.  This shall not be my case,
+if, by strong internal resolution, it is in human nature to avoid
+the action of exterior and contagious sympathies.
+
+Meantime I sat down to compose and arrange my thoughts, for my
+purposed appeal to my jailer--so I must call him--whom I
+addressed in the following manner; having at length, and after
+making several copies, found language to qualify the sense of
+resentment which burned in the first, drafts of my letter, and
+endeavoured to assume a tone more conciliating.  I mentioned the
+two occasions on which he had certainly saved my life, when at
+the utmost peril; and I added, that whatever was the purpose of
+the restraint, now practised on me, as I was given to understand,
+by his authority, it could not certainly be with any view to
+ultimately injuring me.  He might, I said, have mistaken me for
+some other person; and I gave him what account I could of my
+situation and education, to correct such an error.  I supposed it
+next possible, that he might think me too weak for travelling,
+and not capable of taking care of myself; and I begged to assure
+him, that I was restored to perfect health, and quite able to
+endure the fatigue of a journey.  Lastly, I reminded him, in firm
+though measured terms, that the restraint which I sustained was
+an illegal one, and highly punishable by the laws which protect
+the liberties of the subject.  I ended by demanding that he would
+take me before a magistrate; or, at least, that he would favour
+me with a personal interview and explain his meaning with regard
+to me.
+
+Perhaps this letter was expressed in a tone too humble for the
+situation of an injured man, and I am inclined to think so when I
+again recapitulate its tenor.  But what could I do?  I was in the
+power of one whose passions seem as violent as his means of
+gratifying them appear unbounded.  I had reason, too, to believe
+(this to thee, Alan) that all his family did not approve of the
+violence of his conduct towards me; my object, in fine, was
+freedom, and who would not sacrifice much to attain it?
+
+I had no means of addressing my letter excepting 'For the
+Squire's own hand.'  He could be at no great distance, for in the
+course of twenty-four hours I received an answer.  It was
+addressed to Darsie Latimer, and contained these words:  'You
+have demanded an interview with me.  You have required to be
+carried before a magistrate.  Your first wish shall be granted--
+perhaps the second also.  Meanwhile, be assured that you are a
+prisoner for the time, by competent authority, and that such
+authority is supported by adequate power.  Beware, therefore, of
+struggling with a force sufficient to crush you, but abandon
+yourself to that train of events by which we are both swept
+along, and which it is impossible that either of us can resist.'
+
+These mysterious words were without signature of any kind, and
+left me nothing more important to do than to prepare myself for
+the meeting which they promised.  For that purpose I must now
+break off, and make sure of the manuscript--so far as I can, in
+my present condition, be sure of anything--by concealing it
+within the lining of my coat, so as not to be found without
+strict search.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+LATIMER'S JOURNAL, IN CONTINUATION
+
+The important interview expected at the conclusion of my last
+took place sooner than I had calculated; for the very day I
+received the letter, and just when my dinner was finished, the
+squire, or whatever he is called, entered the room so suddenly
+that I almost thought I beheld an apparition.  The figure of this
+man is peculiarly noble and stately, and his voice has that deep
+fullness of accent which implies unresisted authority.  I had
+risen involuntarily as he entered; we gazed on each other for a
+moment in silence, which was at length broken by my visitor.
+
+'You have desired to see me,' he said.  'I am here; if you have
+aught to say let me hear it; my time is too brief to be consumed
+in childish dumb-show.'
+
+'I would ask of you,' said I, 'by what authority I am detained in
+this place of confinement, and for what purpose?'
+
+'I have told you already,' said he, 'that my authority is
+sufficient, and my power equal to it; this is all which it is
+necessary for you at present to know.'
+
+'Every British subject has a right to know why he suffers
+restraint,' I replied; 'nor can he be deprived of liberty without
+a legal warrant.  Show me that by which you confine me thus.'
+
+'You shall see more,' he said; 'you shall see the magistrate by
+whom it is granted, and that without a moment's delay.'
+
+This sudden proposal fluttered and alarmed me; I felt,
+nevertheless, that I had the right cause, and resolved to plead
+it boldly, although I could well have desired a little further
+time for preparation.  He turned, however, threw open the door of
+the apartment, and commanded me to follow him.  I felt some
+inclination, when I crossed the threshold of my prison-chamber,
+to have turned and run for it; but I knew not where to find the
+stairs--had reason to think the outer doors would be secured and,
+to conclude, so soon as I had quitted the room to follow the
+proud step of my conductor, I observed that I was dogged by
+Cristal Nixon, who suddenly appeared within two paces of me, and
+with whose great personal strength, independent of the assistance
+he might have received from his master, I saw no chance of
+contending.  I therefore followed, unresistingly and in silence;
+along one or two passages of much greater length than consisted
+with the ideas I had previously entertained of the size of the
+house.  At length a door was flung open, and we entered a large,
+old-fashioned parlour, having coloured glass in the windows,
+oaken panelling on the wall, a huge grate, in which a large
+faggot or two smoked under an arched chimney-piece of stone which
+bore some armorial device, whilst the walls were adorned with the
+usual number of heroes in armour, with large wigs instead of
+helmets, and ladies in sacques, smelling to nosegays.
+
+Behind a long table, on which were several books, sat a smart
+underbred-looking man, wearing his own hair tied in a club, and
+who, from the quire of paper laid before him, and the pen which
+he handled at my entrance, seemed prepared to officiate as clerk.
+As I wish to describe these persons as accurately as possible, I
+may add, he wore a dark-coloured coat, corduroy breeches, and
+spatterdashes.  At the upper end of the same table, in an ample
+easy-chair covered with black leather, reposed a fat personage,
+about fifty years old, who either was actually a country justice,
+or was well selected to represent such a character.  His leathern
+breeches were faultless in make, his jockey boots spotless in the
+varnish, and a handsome and flourishing pair of boot-garters, as
+they are called, united the one part of his garments to the
+other; in fine, a richly-laced scarlet waistcoat and a purple
+coat set off the neat though corpulent figure of the little man,
+and threw an additional bloom upon his plethoric aspect.  I
+suppose he had dined, for it was two hours past noon, and he was
+amusing himself, and aiding digestion, with a pipe of tobacco.
+There was an air of importance in his manner which corresponded
+to the rural dignity of his exterior, and a habit which he had of
+throwing out a number of interjectional sounds, uttered with a
+strange variety of intonation running from bass up to treble in a
+very extraordinary manner, or breaking off his sentences with a
+whiff of his pipe, seemed adopted to give an air of thought and
+mature deliberation to his opinions and decisions.
+Notwithstanding all this, Alan, it might be DOOTED, as our old
+Professor used to say, whether the Justice was anything more then
+an ass.  Certainly, besides a great deference for the legal
+opinion of his clerk, which might be quite according to the order
+of things, he seemed to be wonderfully under the command of his
+brother squire, if squire either of them were, and indeed much
+more than was consistent with so much assumed consequence of his
+own.
+
+'Ho--ha--aye--so--so--hum--humph--this is the young man, I
+suppose--hum--aye--seems sickly.  Young gentleman, you may sit
+down.'
+
+I used the permission given, for I had been much more reduced by
+my illness than I was aware of, and felt myself really fatigued,
+even by the few paces I had walked, joined to the agitation I
+suffered.
+
+'And your name, young man, is--humph--aye--ha--what is it?'
+
+'Darsie Latimer.'
+
+'Right--aye--humph--very right.  Darsie Latimer is the very
+thing--ha--aye--where do you come from?'
+
+'From Scotland, sir,' I replied.
+
+'A native of Scotland--a--humph--eh--how is it?'
+
+'I am an Englishman by birth, sir.'
+
+'Right--aye--yes, you are so.  But pray, Mr. Darsie Latimer, have
+you always been called by that name, or have you any other?--
+Nick, write down his answers, Nick.'
+
+'As far as I remember, I never bore any other,' was my answer.
+
+'How, no?  well, I should not have thought so, Hey, neighbour,
+would you?'
+
+Here he looked towards the other squire, who had thrown himself
+into a chair; and, with his legs stretched out before him, and
+his arms folded on his bosom, seemed carelessly attending to what
+was going forward.  He answered the appeal of the Justice by
+saying, that perhaps the young man's memory did not go back to a
+very early period.
+
+'Ah--eh--ha--you hear the gentleman.  Pray, how far may your
+memory be pleased to run back to?--umph?'
+
+'Perhaps, sir, to the age of three years, or a little further.'
+
+'And will you presume to say, sir,' said the squire, drawing
+himself suddenly erect in his seat, and exerting the strength of
+his powerful voice, 'that you then bore your present name?'
+
+I was startled at the confidence with which this question was
+put, and in vain rummaged my memory for the means of replying.
+'At least,' I said, 'I always remember being called Darsie;
+children, at that early age, seldom get more than their Christian
+name.'
+
+'Oh, I thought so,' he replied, and again stretched himself on his
+seat, in the same lounging posture as before.
+
+'So you were called Darsie in your infancy,' said the Justice;
+'and--hum--aye--when did you first take the name of Latimer?'
+
+'I did not take it, sir; it was given to me.'
+
+'I ask you,' said the lord of the mansion, but with less severity
+in his voice than formerly, 'whether you can remember that you
+were ever called Latimer, until you had that name given you in
+Scotland?'
+
+'I will be candid:  I cannot recollect an instance that I was so
+called when in England, but neither can I recollect when the name
+was first given me; and if anything is to be founded on these
+queries and my answers, I desire my early childhood may be taken
+into consideration.'
+
+'Hum--aye--yes,' said the Justice; 'all that requires
+consideration shall be duly considered.  Young man--eh--I beg to
+know the name of your father and mother?'
+
+This was galling a wound that has festered for years, and I did
+not endure the question so patiently as those which preceded it;
+but replied, 'I demand, in my turn, to know if I am before an
+English Justice of the Peace?'
+
+'His worship, Squire Foxley, of Foxley Hall, has been of the
+quorum these twenty years,' said Master Nicholas.
+
+'Then he ought to know, or you, sir, as his clerk, should inform
+him,' said I, 'that I am the complainer in this case, and that my
+complaint ought to be heard before I am subjected to cross-
+examination.'
+
+'Humph--hoy--what, aye--there is something in that, neighbour,'
+said the poor Justice, who, blown about by every wind of
+doctrine, seemed desirous to attain the sanction of his brother
+squire.
+
+'I wonder at you, Foxley,' said his firm-minded acquaintance;
+'how can you render the young man justice unless you know who he
+is?'
+
+'Ha--yes--egad, that's true,' said Mr. Justice Foxley; 'and now--
+looking into the matter more closely--there is, eh, upon the
+whole--nothing at all in what he says--so, sir, you must tell
+your father's name, and surname.'
+
+'It is out of my power, sir; they are not known to me, since you
+must needs know so much of my private affairs.'
+
+The Justice collected a great AFFLATUS in his cheeks, which
+puffed them up like those of a Dutch cherub, while his eyes
+seemed flying out of his head, from the effort with which he
+retained his breath.  He then blew it forth with,--'Whew!--Hoom--
+poof--ha!--not know your parents, youngster?--Then I must commit
+you for a vagrant, I warrant you.  OMNE IGNOTUM PRO TERRIBILI, as
+we used to say at Appleby school; that is, every one that is not
+known to the Justice; is a rogue and a vagabond. Ha!--aye, you
+may sneer, sir; but I question if you would have known the
+meaning of that Latin, unless I had told you.'
+
+I acknowledged myself obliged for a new edition of the adage, and
+an interpretation which I could never have reached alone and
+unassisted.  I then proceeded to state my case with greater
+confidence.  The Justice was an ass, that was clear; but if was
+scarcely possible he could be so utterly ignorant as not to know
+what was necessary in so plain a case as mine.  I therefore
+informed him of the riot which had been committed on the Scottish
+side of the Solway Firth, explained how I came to be placed in my
+present situation, and requested of his worship to set me at
+liberty.  I pleaded my cause with as much earnestness as I could,
+casting an eye from time to time upon the opposite party, who
+seemed entirely indifferent to all the animation with which I
+accused him.
+
+As for the Justice, when at length I had ceased, as really not
+knowing what more to say in a case so very plain, he replied,
+'Ho--aye--aye--yes--wonderful!  and so this is all the gratitude
+you show to this good gentleman for the great charge and trouble
+he hath had with respect to and concerning of you?'
+
+'He saved my life, sir, I acknowledge, on one occasion certainly,
+and most probably on two; but his having done so gives him no
+right over my person.  I am not, however, asking for any
+punishment or revenge; on the contrary, I am content to part
+friends with the gentleman, whose motives I am unwilling to
+suppose are bad, though his actions have been, towards me,
+unauthorized and violent.'
+
+This moderation, Alan, thou wilt comprehend, was not entirely
+dictated by my feelings towards the individual of whom I
+complained; there were other reasons, in which regard for him had
+little share.  It seemed, however, as if the mildness with which
+I pleaded my cause had more effect upon him than anything I had
+yet said.  We was moved to the point of being almost out of
+countenance; and took snuff repeatedly, as if to gain time to
+stifle some degree of emotion.
+
+But on Justice Foxley, on whom my eloquence was particularly
+designed to make impression, the result was much less favourable.
+He consulted in a whisper with Mr. Nicholas, his clerk--pshawed,
+hemmed, and elevated his eyebrows, as if in scorn of my
+supplication.  At length, having apparently made up his mind, he
+leaned back in his chair, and smoked his pipe with great energy,
+with a look of defiance, designed to make me aware that all my
+reasoning was lost on him.
+
+At length, when I stopped, more from lack of breath than want of
+argument, he opened his oracular jaws, and made the following
+reply, interrupted by his usual interjectional ejaculations, and
+by long volumes of smoke:--'Hem--aye--eh--poof.  And, youngster,
+do you think Matthew Foxley, who has been one of the quorum for
+these twenty years, is to be come over with such trash as would
+hardly cheat an apple-woman?  Poof--poof--eh!  Why, man--eh--
+dost thou not know the charge is not a bailable matter--and that
+--hum--aye--the greatest man--poof--the Baron of Graystock
+himself, must stand committed?  and yet you pretend to have been
+kidnapped by this gentleman, and robbed of property, and what
+not; and--eh--poof--you would persuade me all you want is to get
+away from him?  I do believe--eh--that it IS all you want.
+Therefore, as you are a sort of a slip-string gentleman, and--aye
+--hum--a kind of idle apprentice, and something cock-brained
+withal, as the honest folks of the house tell me--why, you must
+e'en remain under custody of your guardian, till your coming of
+age, or my Lord Chancellor's warrant, shall give you the
+management of your own affairs, which, if you can gather your
+brains again, you will even then not be--aye--hem--poof--in
+particular haste to assume.'
+
+The time occupied by his worship's hums, and haws, and puffs of
+tobacco smoke, together with the slow and pompous manner in which
+he spoke, gave me a minute's space to collect my ideas, dispersed
+as they were by the extraordinary purport of this annunciation.
+
+'I cannot conceive, sir,' I replied, 'by what singular tenure
+this person claims my obedience as a guardian; it is a barefaced
+imposture.  I never in my life saw him, until I came unhappily to
+this country, about four weeks since.'
+
+'Aye, sir--we--eh--know, and are aware--that--poof--you do not
+like to hear some folk's names; and that--eh--you understand me--
+there are things, and sounds, and matters, conversation about
+names, and suchlike, which put you off the hooks--which I have no
+humour to witness.  Nevertheless, Mr. Darsie--or--poof--Mr.
+Darsie Latimer--or--poof, poof--eh--aye, Mr. Darsie without the
+Latimer--you have acknowledged as much to-day as assures me you
+will best be disposed of under the honourable care of my friend
+here--all your confessions--besides that--poof--eh--I know him to
+be a most responsible person--a--hay--aye--most responsible and
+honourable person--Can you deny this?'
+
+'I know nothing of him,' I repeated; 'not even his name; and I
+have not, as I told you, seen him in the course of my whole life,
+till a few weeks since.'
+
+'Will you swear to that?'  said the singular man, who seemed to
+await the result of this debate, secure as a rattle-snake is of
+the prey which has once felt its fascination.  And while he said
+these words in deep undertone, he withdrew his chair a little
+behind that of the Justice, so as to be unseen by him or his
+clerk, who sat upon the same side; while he bent on me a frown so
+portentous, that no one who has witnessed the look can forget it
+during the whole of his life.  The furrows of the brow above the
+eyes became livid and almost black, and were bent into a
+semicircular, or rather elliptical form, above the junction of
+the eyebrows.  I had heard such a look described in an old tale
+of DIABLERIE, which it was my chance to be entertained with not
+long since; when this deep and gloomy contortion of the frontal
+muscles was not unaptly described as forming the representation
+of a small horseshoe.
+
+The tale, when told, awaked a dreadful vision of infancy, which
+the withering and blighting look now fixed on me again forced on
+my recollection, but with much more vivacity.  Indeed, I was so
+much surprised, and, I must add, terrified, at the vague ideas
+which were awakened in my mind by this fearful sign, that I kept
+my eyes fixed on the face in which it was exhibited, as on a
+frightful vision; until, passing his handkerchief a moment across
+his countenance, this mysterious man relaxed at once the look
+which had for me something so appalling.  'The young man will no
+longer deny that he has seen me before,' said he to the Justice,
+in a tone of complacency; 'and I trust he will now be reconciled
+to my temporary guardianship, which may end better for him than
+he expects.'
+
+'Whatever I expect,' I replied, summoning my scattered
+recollections together, 'I see I am neither to expect justice nor
+protection from this gentleman, whose office it is to render both
+to the lieges.  For you, sir, how strangely you have wrought
+yourself into the fate of an unhappy young man or what interest
+you can pretend in me, you yourself only can explain.  That I
+have seen you before is certain; for none can forget the look
+with which you seem to have the power of blighting those upon
+whom you cast it.'
+
+The Justice seemed not very easy under this hint,'Ha!--aye,' he
+said; 'it is time to be going, neighbour.  I have a many miles to
+ride, and I care not to ride darkling in these parts.  You and I,
+Mr. Nicholas, must be jogging.'
+
+The Justice fumbled with his gloves, in endeavouring to draw them
+on hastily, and Mr. Nicholas bustled to get his greatcoat and
+whip.  Their landlord endeavoured to detain them, and spoke of
+supper and beds.  Both, pouring forth many thanks for his
+invitation, seemed as if they would much rather not, and Mr.
+Justice Foxley was making a score of apologies, with at least a
+hundred cautionary hems and eh-ehs, when the girl Dorcas burst
+into the room, and announced a gentleman on justice business.
+
+'What gentleman?--and whom does he want?'
+
+'He is cuome post on his ten toes,' said the wench; 'and on
+justice business to his worship loike.  I'se uphald him a
+gentleman, for he speaks as good Latin as the schule-measter;
+but, lack-a-day!  he has gotten a queer mop of a wig.'
+
+The gentleman, thus announced and described, bounced into the
+room.  But I have already written as much as fills a sheet of my
+paper, and my singular embarrassments press so hard on me that I
+have matter to fill another from what followed the intrusion of--
+my dear Alan--your crazy client--Poor Peter Peebles!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+LATIMER'S JOURNAL, IN CONTINUATION
+
+Sheet 2.
+
+I have rarely in my life, till the last alarming days, known what
+it was to sustain a moment's real sorrow.  What I called such,
+was, I am now well convinced, only the weariness of mind which,
+having nothing actually present to complain of, turns upon itself
+and becomes anxious about the past and the future; those periods
+with which human life has so little connexion, that Scripture
+itself hath said, 'Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.'
+
+If, therefore, I have sometimes abused prosperity, by murmuring
+at my unknown birth and uncertain rank in society, I will make
+amends by bearing my present real adversity with patience and
+courage, and, if I can, even with gaiety.  What can they--dare
+they-do to me?  Foxley, I am persuaded, is a real Justice of
+Peace, and country gentleman of estate, though (wonderful to
+tell!) he is an ass notwithstanding; and his functionary in the
+drab coat must have a shrewd guess at the consequences of being
+accessory to an act of murder or kidnapping.  Men invite not such
+witnesses to deeds of darkness.  I have also--Alan, I have hopes,
+arising out of the family of the oppressor himself.  I am
+encouraged to believe that G.M. is likely again to enter on the
+field.  More I dare not here say; nor must I drop a hint which
+another eye than thine might be able to construe.  Enough, my
+feelings are lighter than they have been; and, though fear and
+wonder are still around me, they are unable entirely to overcloud
+the horizon.
+
+Even when I saw the spectral form of the old scarecrow of the
+Parliament House rush into the apartment where I had undergone so
+singular an examination, I thought of thy connexion with him, and
+could almost have parodied Lear--
+
+  Death!--nothing could have thus subdued nature
+  To such a lowness, but his 'learned lawyers.'
+
+He was e'en as we have seen him of yore, Alan, when, rather to
+keep thee company than to follow my own bent, I formerly
+frequented the halls of justice.  The only addition to his dress,
+in the capacity of a traveller, was a pair of boots, that seemed
+as if they might have seen the field of Sheriffmoor; so large and
+heavy that, tied as they were to the creature's wearied hams with
+large bunches of worsted tape of various colours, they looked as
+if he had been dragging them along, either for a wager or by way
+of penance.
+
+Regardless of the surprised looks of the party on whom he thus
+intruded himself, Peter blundered into the middle of the
+apartment, with his head charged like a ram's in the act of
+butting, and saluted them thus:--
+
+'Gude day to ye, gude day to your honours.  Is't here they sell
+the fugie warrants?'
+
+I observed that on his entrance, my friend--or enemy--drew
+himself back, and placed himself as if he would rather avoid
+attracting the observation of the new-comer.  I did the same
+myself, as far as I was able; for I thought it likely that Mr.
+Peebles might recognize me, as indeed I was too frequently among
+the group of young juridical aspirants who used to amuse
+themselves by putting cases for Peter's solution, and playing him
+worse tricks; yet I was uncertain whether I had better avail
+myself of our acquaintance to have the advantage, such as it
+might be, of his evidence before the magistrate, or whether to
+make him, if possible, bearer of a letter which might procure me
+more effectual assistance.  I resolved, therefore, to be guided
+by circumstances, and to watch carefully that nothing might
+escape me.  I drew back as far as I could, and even reconnoitred
+the door and passage, to consider whether absolute escape might
+not be practicable.  But there paraded Cristal Nixon, whose
+little black eyes, sharp as those of a basilisk, seemed, the
+instant when they encountered mine, to penetrate my purpose.
+
+I sat down, as much out of sight of all parties as I could, and
+listened to the dialogue which followed--a dialogue how much more
+interesting to me than any I could have conceived, in which Peter
+Peebles was to be one of the dramatis personae!
+
+'Is it here where ye sell the warrants--the fugies, ye ken?'
+said Peter.
+
+'Hey--eh--what!'  said Justice Foxley; 'what the devil does the
+fellow mean?--What would you have a warrant for?'
+
+'It is to apprehend a young lawyer that is IN MEDITATIONE FUGAE;
+for he has ta'en my memorial and pleaded my cause, and a good fee
+I gave him, and as muckle brandy as he could drink that day at
+his father's house--he loes the brandy ower weel for sae youthful
+a creature.'
+
+'And what has this drunken young dog of a lawyer done to you,
+that you are come to me--eh--ha?  Has he robbed you?  Not
+unlikely if he be a lawyer--eh--Nick--ha?'  said Justice Foxley.
+
+'He has robbed me of himself, sir,' answered Peter; 'of his help,
+comfort, aid, maintenance, and assistance, whilk, as a counsel to
+a client, he is bound to yield me RATIONE OFFICII--that is it, ye
+see.  He has pouched my fee, and drucken a mutchkin of brandy,
+and now he's ower the march, and left my cause, half won half
+lost--as dead a heat as e'er was run ower the back-sands.  Now, I
+was advised by some cunning laddies that are used to crack a bit
+law wi' me in the House, that the best thing I could do was to
+take heart o' grace and set out after him; so I have taken post
+on my ain shanks, forby a cast in a cart, or the like.  I got
+wind of him in Dumfries, and now I have run him ower to the
+English side, and I want a fugie warrant against him.'
+
+How did my heart throb at this information, dearest Alan!  Thou
+art near me then, and I well know with what kind purpose; thou
+hast abandoned all to fly to my assistance; and no wonder that,
+knowing thy friendship and faith, thy sound sagacity and
+persevering disposition, 'my bosom's lord should now sit lightly
+on his throne'; that gaiety should almost involuntarily hover on
+my pen; and that my heart should beat like that of a general,
+responsive to the drums of his advancing ally, without whose help
+the battle must have been lost.
+
+I did not suffer myself to be startled by this joyous surprise,
+but continued to bend my strictest attention to what followed
+among this singular party.  That Poor Peter Peebles had been put
+on this wildgoose chase by some of his juvenile advisers in the
+Parliament House, he himself had intimated; but he spoke with
+much confidence, and the Justice, who seemed to have some secret
+apprehension of being put to trouble in the matter, and, as
+sometimes occurs on the English frontier, a jealousy lest the
+superior acuteness of their northern neighbours might overreach
+their own simplicity, turned to his clerk with a perplexed
+countenance.
+
+'Eh--oh--Nick--d--n thee--Hast thou got nothing to say?  This is
+more Scots law, I take it, and more Scotsmen.'  (Here he cast a
+side-glance at the owner of the mansion, and winked to his
+clerk.)  'I would Solway were as deep as it is wide, and we had
+then some chance of keeping of them out.'
+
+Nicholas conversed an instant aside with the supplicant, and then
+reported:--
+
+'The man wants a border-warrant, I think; but they are only
+granted for debt--now he wants one to catch a lawyer.'
+
+'And what for no?'  answered Peter Peebles, doggedly; 'what for
+no, I would be glad to ken?  If a day's labourer refuse to work,
+ye'll grant a warrant to gar him do out his daurg--if a wench
+quean rin away from her hairst, ye'll send her back to her heuck
+again--if sae mickle as a collier or a salter make a moonlight
+flitting, ye will cleek him by the back-spaul in a minute of
+time--and yet the damage canna amount to mair than a creelfu' of
+coals, and a forpit or twa of saut; and here is a chield taks leg
+from his engagement, and damages me to the tune of sax thousand
+punds sterling; that is, three thousand that I should win, and
+three thousand mair that I am like to lose; and you that ca'
+yourself a justice canna help a poor man to catch the rinaway?  A
+bonny like justice I am like to get amang ye!'
+
+'The fellow must be drunk,' said the clerk.
+
+'Black fasting from all but sin,' replied the supplicant; 'I
+havena had mair than a mouthful of cauld water since I passed the
+Border, and deil a ane of ye is like to say to me, "Dog, will ye
+drink?"'
+
+The Justice seemed moved by this appeal.  'Hem---tush, man,'
+replied he; 'thou speak'st to us as if thou wert in presence of
+one of thine own beggarly justices--get downstairs--get something
+to eat, man (with permission of my friend to make so free in his
+house), and a mouthful to drink, and I warrant we get ye such
+justice as will please ye.'
+
+'I winna refuse your neighbourly offer,' said Poor Peter Peebles,
+making his bow; 'muckle grace be wi' your honour, and wisdom to
+guide you in this extraordinary cause.'
+
+When I saw Peter Peebles about to retire from the room, I could
+not forbear an effort to obtain from him such evidence as might
+give me some credit with the Justice.  I stepped forward,
+therefore, and, saluting him, asked him if he remembered me?
+
+After a stare or two, and a long pinch of snuff, recollection
+seemed suddenly to dawn on Peter Peebles.  'Recollect ye!'  he
+said; 'by my troth do I.---Haud him a grip, gentlemen!--
+constables, keep him fast!  where that ill-deedie hempy is, ye
+are sure that Alan Fairford is not far off.  Haud him fast,
+Master Constable; I charge ye wi' him, for I am mista'en if he is
+not at the bottom of this rinaway business.  He was aye getting
+the silly callant Alan awa wi' gigs, and horse, and the like of
+that, to Roslin, and Prestonpans, and a' the idle gates he could
+think of.  He's a rinaway apprentice, that ane.'
+
+'Mr. Peebles,' I said, 'do not do me wrong.  I am sure you can
+say no harm of me justly, but can satisfy these gentlemen, if you
+will, that I am a student of law in Edinburgh--Darsie Latimer by
+name.'
+
+'Me satisfy!  how can I satisfy the gentlemen,' answered Peter,
+'that am sae far from being satisfied mysell?  I ken naething
+about your name, and can only testify, NIHIL NOVIT IN CAUSA.'
+
+'A pretty witness you have brought forward in your favour,' said
+Mr. Foxley.  'But--ha--aye---I'll ask him a question or two.
+Pray, friend, will you take your oath to this youth being a
+runaway apprentice?'
+
+'Sir,' said Peter, 'I will make oath to onything in reason; when
+a case comes to my oath it's a won cause:  But I am in some
+haste to prie your worship's good cheer;' for Peter had become
+much more respectful in his demeanour towards the Justice since
+he had heard some intimation of dinner.
+
+'You shall have--eh--hum--aye--a bellyful, if it be possible to
+fill it.  First let me know if this young man be really what he
+pretends.  Nick, make his affidavit.'
+
+'Ow, he is just a wud harum-scarum creature, that wad never take
+to his studies; daft, sir, clean daft.'
+
+'Deft!'  said the Justice; 'what d'ye mean by deft--eh?'
+
+'Just Fifish,' replied Peter; 'wowf--a wee bit by the East Nook
+or sae; it's a common case--the ae half of the warld thinks the
+tither daft.  I have met with folk in my day that thought I was
+daft mysell; and, for my part, I think our Court of Session clean
+daft, that have had the great cause of Peebles against
+Plainstanes before them for this score of years, and have never
+been able to ding the bottom out of it yet.'
+
+'I cannot make out a word of his cursed brogue,' said the
+Cumbrian justice; 'can you, neighbour--eh?  What can he mean by
+DEFT?'
+
+'He means MAD,' said the party appealed to, thrown off his guard
+by impatience of this protracted discussion.
+
+'Ye have it--ye have it,' said Peter; 'that is, not clean skivie,
+but--'
+
+Here he stopped, and fixed his eye on the person he addressed
+with an air of joyful recognition.--'Aye, aye, Mr. Herries of
+Birrenswork, is this your ainsell in blood and bane?  I thought
+ye had been hanged at Kennington Common, or Hairiebie, or some of
+these places, after the bonny ploy ye made in the Forty-five.'
+
+'I believe you are mistaken, friend,' said Herries, sternly, with
+whose name and designation I was thus made unexpectedly
+acquainted.
+
+'The deil a bit,' answered the undaunted Peter Peebles; I mind ye
+weel, for ye lodged in my house the great year of Forty-five, for
+a great year it was; the Grand Rebellion broke out, and my cause
+--the great cause--Peebles against Plainstanes, ET PER CONTRA
+--was called in the beginning of the winter session, and would
+have been heard, but that there was a surcease of justice, with
+your plaids, and your piping, and your nonsense.'
+
+'I tell you, fellow,' said Herries, yet more fiercely, 'you have
+confused me with some of the other furniture of your crazy pate.'
+
+'Speak like a gentleman, sir,' answered Peebles; 'these are not
+legal phrases, Mr. Herries of Birrenswork.  Speak in form of law,
+or I sall bid ye gude day, sir.  I have nae pleasure in speaking
+to proud folk, though I am willing to answer onything in a legal
+way; so if you are for a crack about auld langsyne, and the
+splores that you and Captain Redgimlet used to breed in my house,
+and the girded cask of brandy that ye drank and ne'er thought of
+paying for it (not that I minded it muckle in thae days, though I
+have felt a lack of it sin syne), why I will waste an hour on ye
+at ony time.--and where is Captain Redgimlet now?  he was a wild
+chap, like yoursell, though they arena sae keen after you poor
+bodies for these some years bygane; the heading and hanging is
+weel ower now--awful job--awful job--will ye try my sneeshing?'
+
+He concluded his desultory speech by thrusting out his large bony
+paw, filled with a Scottish mull of huge dimensions, which
+Herries, who had been standing like one petrified by the
+assurance of this unexpected address, rejected with a
+contemptuous motion of his hand, which spilled some of the
+contents of the box.
+
+'Aweel, aweel,' said Peter Peebles, totally unabashed by the
+repulse, 'e'en as ye like, a wilful man maun hae his way; but,'
+he added, stooping down and endeavouring to gather the spilled
+snuff from the polished floor, 'I canna afford to lose my
+sneeshing for a' that ye are gumple-foisted wi' me.'
+
+My attention had been keenly awakened, during this extraordinary
+and unexpected scene.  I watched, with as much attention as my
+own agitation permitted me to command, the effect produced on the
+parties concerned.  It was evident that our friend, Peter
+Peebles, had unwarily let out something which altered the
+sentiments of Justice Foxley and his clerk towards Mr. Herries,
+with whom, until he was known and acknowledged under that name,
+they had appeared to be so intimate.  They talked with each other
+aside, looked at a paper or two which the clerk selected from the
+contents of a huge black pocket-book, and seemed, under the
+influence of fear and uncertainty, totally at a loss what line of
+conduct to adopt.
+
+Herries made a different, and far more interesting figure.
+However little Peter Peebles might resemble the angel Ithuriel,
+the appearance of Herries, his high and scornful demeanour, vexed
+at what seemed detection yet fearless of the consequences, and
+regarding the whispering magistrate and his clerk with looks in
+which contempt predominated over anger or anxiety, bore, in my
+opinion, no slight resemblance to
+
+     the regal port
+  And faded splendour wan
+
+with which the poet has invested the detected King of the powers
+of the air.
+
+As he glanced round, with a look which he had endeavoured to
+compose to haughty indifference, his eye encountered mine, and, I
+thought, at the first glance sank beneath it.  But he instantly
+rallied his natural spirit, and returned me one of those
+extraordinary looks, by which he could contort so strangely the
+wrinkles on his forehead.  I started; but, angry at myself for my
+pusillanimity, I answered him by a look of the same kind, and
+catching the reflection of my countenance in a large antique
+mirror which stood before me, I started again at the real or
+imaginary resemblance which my countenance, at that moment, bore
+to that of Herries.  Surely my fate is somehow strangely
+interwoven with that of this mysterious individual.  I had no
+time at present to speculate upon the subject, for the subsequent
+conversation demanded all my attention.
+
+The Justice addressed Herries, after a pause of about five
+minutes, in which, all parties seemed at some loss how to
+proceed.  He spoke with embarrassment, and his faltering voice,
+and the long intervals which divided his sentences, seemed to
+indicate fear of him whom he addressed.
+
+'Neighbour,' he said, 'I could not have thought this; or, if
+I--eh--DID think--in a corner of my own mind as it were--that
+you, I say--that you might have unluckily engaged in--eh--the
+matter of the Forty-five--there was still time to have forgot all
+that.'
+
+'And is it so singular that a man should have been out in the
+Forty-five?'  said Herries, with contemptuous composure;--'your
+father, I think, Mr. Foxley, was out with Derwentwater in the
+Fifteen.'
+
+'And lost half of his estate,' answered Foxley, with more
+rapidity than usual; 'and was very near--hem--being hanged into
+the boot.  But this is--another guess job--for--eh--Fifteen is
+not Forty-five; and my father had a remission, and you, I take
+it, have none.'
+
+'Perhaps I have,' said Herries indifferently; 'or if I have not,
+I am but in the case of half a dozen others whom government do
+not think worth looking after at this time of day, so they give
+no offence or disturbance.'
+
+'But you have given both, sir,' said Nicholas Faggot, the clerk,
+who, having some petty provincial situation, as I have since
+understood, deemed himself bound to be zealous for government,
+'Mr. Justice Foxley cannot be answerable for letting you pass
+free, now your name and surname have been spoken plainly out.
+There are warrants out against you from the Secretary of State's
+office.'
+
+'A proper allegation, Mr. Attorney!  that, at the distance of so
+many years, the Secretary of State should trouble himself about
+the unfortunate relics of a ruined cause,' answered Mr. Herries.
+
+'But if it be so,' said the clerk, who seemed to assume more
+confidence upon the composure of Herries's demeanour; 'and if
+cause has been given by the conduct of a gentleman himself, who
+hath been, it is alleged, raking up old matters, and mixing them
+with new subjects of disaffection--I say, if it be so, I should
+advise the party, in his wisdom, to surrender himself quietly
+into the lawful custody of the next Justice of Peace--Mr. Foxley,
+suppose--where, and by whom, the matter should be regularly
+inquired into.  I am only putting a case,' he added, watching
+with apprehension the effect which his words were likely to
+produce upon the party to whom they were addressed.
+
+'And were I to receive such advice,' said Herries, with the same
+composure as before--'putting the case, as you say, Mr. Faggot--I
+should request to see the warrant which countenanced such a
+scandalous proceeding.'
+
+Mr. Nicholas, by way of answer, placed in his hand a paper, and
+seemed anxiously to expect the consequences which were to ensue.
+Mr. Herries looked it over with the same equanimity as before,
+and then continued, 'And were such a scrawl as this presented to
+me in my own house, I would throw it into the chimney, and Mr.
+Faggot upon the top of it.'
+
+Accordingly, seconding the word with the action, he flung the
+warrant into the fire with one hand, and fixed the other, with a
+stern and irresistible grip, on the breast of the attorney, who,
+totally unable to contend with him, in either personal strength
+or mental energy, trembled like a chicken in the raven's clutch.
+He got off, however, for the fright; for Herries, having probably
+made him fully sensible of the strength of his grasp, released
+him, with a scornful laugh.
+
+'Deforcement--spulzie-stouthrief--masterful rescue!'  exclaimed
+Peter Peebles, scandalized at the resistance offered to the law
+in the person of Nicholas Faggot.  But his shrill exclamations
+were drowned in the thundering voice of Herries, who, calling
+upon Cristal Nixon, ordered him to take the bawling fool
+downstairs, fill his belly, and then give him a guinea, and
+thrust him out of doors.  Under such injunctions, Peter easily
+suffered himself to be withdrawn from the scene.
+
+Herries then turned to the Justice, whose visage, wholly
+abandoned by the rubicund hue which so lately beamed upon it,
+hung out the same pale livery as that of his dismayed clerk.
+'Old friend and acquaintance,' he said, 'you came here at my
+request on a friendly errand, to convince this silly young man of
+the right which I have over his person for the present.  I trust
+you do not intend to make your visit the pretext of disquieting
+me about other matters?  All the world knows that I have been
+living at large, in these northern counties, for some months, not
+to say years, and might have been apprehended at any time, had
+the necessities of the state required, or my own behaviour
+deserved it.  But no English magistrate has been ungenerous
+enough to trouble a gentleman under misfortune, on account of
+political opinions and disputes which have been long ended by the
+success of the reigning powers.  I trust, my good friend, you
+will not endanger yourself by taking any other view of the
+subject than you have done ever since we were acquainted?'
+
+The Justice answered with more readiness, as well as more spirit
+than usual, 'Neighbour Ingoldsby--what you say--is--eh--in some
+sort true; and when you were coming and going at markets, horse-
+races, and cock-fights, fairs, hunts, and such-like--it was--eh
+--neither my business nor my wish to dispel--I say--to inquire
+into and dispel the mysteries which hung about you; for while you
+were a good companion in the field, and over a bottle now and
+then--I did not--eh--think it necessary to ask--into your private
+affairs.  And if I thought you were--ahem--somewhat unfortunate
+in former undertakings, and enterprises, and connexions, which
+might cause you to live unsettledly and more private, I could
+have--eh--very little pleasure--to aggravate your case by
+interfering, or requiring explanations, which are often more
+easily asked than given.  But when there are warrants and
+witnesses to names--and those names, christian and surname,
+belong to--eh--an attainted person--charged--I trust falsely--
+with--ahem-taking advantage of modern broils and heart-burnings
+to renew our civil disturbances, the case is altered; and I must
+--ahem--do my duty.'
+
+The Justice, got on his feet as he concluded this speech, and
+looked as bold as he could.  I drew close beside him and his
+clerk, Mr. Faggot, thinking the moment favourable for my own
+liberation, and intimated to Mr. Foxley my determination to stand
+by him.  But Mr. Herries only laughed at the menacing posture
+which we assumed.  'My good neighbour,' said he, 'you talk of a
+witness.  Is yon crazy beggar a fit witness in an affair of this
+nature?'
+
+'But you do not deny that you are Mr. Herries of Birrenswork,
+mentioned in the Secretary of State's warrant?'  said Mr. Foxley.
+
+'How can I deny or own anything about it?'  said Herries, with a
+sneer.  'There is no such warrant in existence now; its ashes,
+like the poor traitor whose doom it threatened, have been
+dispersed to the four winds of heaven.  There is now no warrant
+in the world.'
+
+'But you will not deny,' said the Justice, 'that you were the
+person named in it; and that--eh--your own act destroyed it?'
+
+'I will neither deny my name nor my actions, Justice,' replied
+Mr. Herries, 'when called upon by competent authority to avow or
+defend them.  But I will resist all impertinent attempts either
+to intrude into my private motives, or to control my person.  I
+am quite well prepared to do so; and I trust that you, my good
+neighbour and brother sportsman, in your expostulation, and my
+friend Mr. Nicholas Faggot here, in his humble advice and
+petition that I should surrender myself, will consider yourselves
+as having amply discharged your duty to King George and
+government.'
+
+The cold and ironical tone in which he made this declaration; the
+look and attitude, so nobly expressive of absolute confidence in
+his own superior strength and energy, seemed to complete the
+indecision which had already shown itself on the side of those
+whom he addressed.
+
+The Justice looked to the clerk--the clerk to the Justice; the
+former HA'D, EH'D, without bringing forth an articulate syllable;
+the latter only said, 'As the warrant is destroyed, Mr. Justice,
+I presume you do not mean to proceed with the arrest?'
+
+'Hum--aye--why, no--Nicholas--it would not be quite advisable--
+and as the Forty-five was an old affair--and--hem--as my friend
+here will, I hope, see his error--that is, if he has not seen it
+already--and renounce the Pope, the Devil, and the Pretender--I
+mean no harm, neighbour--I think we--as we have no POSSE, or
+constables, or the like--should order our horses--and, in one
+word, look the matter over.'
+
+'Judiciously resolved,' said the person whom this decision
+affected; 'but before you go, I trust you will drink and be
+friends?'
+
+'Why,' said the Justice, rubbing his brow, 'our business has
+been--hem--rather a thirsty one.'
+
+'Cristal Nixon,' said Mr. Herries, 'let us have a cool tankard
+instantly, large enough to quench the thirst of the whole
+commission.'
+
+While Cristal was absent on this genial errand, there was a
+pause, of which I endeavoured to avail myself by bringing back
+the discourse to my own concerns.  'Sir,' I said to Justice
+Foxley, 'I have no direct business with your late discussion with
+Mr. Herries, only just thus far--You leave me, a loyal subject of
+King George, an unwilling prisoner in the hands of a person whom
+you have reason to believe unfriendly to the king's cause.  I
+humbly submit that this is contrary to your duty as a magistrate,
+and that you ought to make Mr. Herries aware of the illegality of
+his proceedings, and take steps for my rescue, either upon the
+spot, or, at least, as soon as possible after you have left this
+case'--
+
+'Young man,' said Mr. Justice Foxley, 'I would have you remember
+you are under the power, the lawful power--ahem--of your
+guardian.'
+
+'He calls himself so, indeed,' I replied; 'but he has shown no
+evidence to establish so absurd a claim; and if he had, his
+circumstances, as an attainted traitor excepted from pardon,
+would void such a right if it existed.  I do therefore desire
+you, Mr. Justice, and you, his clerk, to consider my situation,
+and afford me relief at your peril.'
+
+'Here is a young fellow now,' said the Justice, with much-
+embarrassed looks, 'thinks that I carry the whole statute law of
+England in my head, and a POSSE COMITATUS to execute them in my
+pocket!  Why, what good would my interference do?--but--hum--eh
+--I will speak to your guardian in your favour.'
+
+He took Mr. Herries aside, and seemed indeed to urge something
+upon him with much earnestness; and perhaps such a species of
+intercession was all which, in the circumstances, I was entitled
+to expect from him.
+
+They often looked at me as they spoke together; and as Cristal
+Nixon entered with a huge four-pottle tankard, filled with the
+beverage his master had demanded, Herries turned away from Mr.
+Foxley somewhat impatiently, saying with emphasis, 'I give you my
+word of honour, that you have not the slightest reason to
+apprehend anything on his account.'  He then took up the tankard,
+and saying aloud in Gaelic, 'SLAINT AN REY,' [The King's health.]
+just tasted the liquor, and handed the tankard to Justice Foxley,
+who, to avoid the dilemma of pledging him to what might be the
+Pretender's health, drank to Mr. Herries's own, with much pointed
+solemnity, but in a draught far less moderate.
+
+The clerk imitated the example of his principal, and I was fain
+to follow their example, for anxiety and fear are at least as
+thirsty as sorrow is said to be.  In a word, we exhausted the
+composition of ale, sherry, lemon-juice, nutmeg, and other good
+things, stranded upon the silver bottom of the tankard the huge
+toast, as well as the roasted orange, which had whilom floated
+jollily upon the brim, and rendered legible Dr. Byrom's
+celebrated lines engraved thereon--
+
+  God bless the King!--God bless the Faith's defender!
+  God bless--No harm in blessing--the Pretender.
+  Who that Pretender is, and who that King,--
+  God bless us all!--is quite another thing.
+
+I had time enough to study this effusion of the Jacobite muse,
+while the Justice was engaged in the somewhat tedious ceremony of
+taking leave.  That of Mr. Faggot was less ceremonious; but I
+suspect something besides empty compliment passed betwixt him and
+Mr. Herries; for I remarked that the latter slipped a piece of
+paper into the hand of the former, which might perhaps be a
+little atonement for the rashness with which he had burnt the
+warrant, and imposed no gentle hand on the respectable minion of
+the law by whom it was exhibited; and I observed that he made
+this propitiation in such a manner as to be secret from the
+worthy clerk's principal.
+
+When this was arranged, the party took leave of each other with
+much formality on the part of Squire Foxley, amongst whose adieus
+the following phrase was chiefly remarkable:  'I presume you do
+not intend to stay long in these parts?'
+
+'Not for the present, Justice, you may be sure; there are good
+reasons to the contrary.  But I have no doubt of arranging my
+affairs so that we shall speedily have sport together again.'
+
+He went to wait upon the Justice to the courtyard; and, as he did
+so, commanded Cristal Nixon to see that I returned into my
+apartment.  Knowing it would be to no purpose to resist or tamper
+with that stubborn functionary, I obeyed in silence, and was once
+more a prisoner in my former quarters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+LATIMER'S JOURNAL, IN CONTINUATION
+
+I spent more than an hour, after returning to the apartment which
+I may call my prison, in reducing to writing the singular
+circumstances which I had just witnessed.  Methought I could now
+form some guess at the character of Mr. Herries, upon whose name
+and situation the late scene had thrown considerable light--one
+of those fanatical Jacobites, doubtless, whose arms, not twenty
+years since, had shaken the British throne, and some of whom,
+though their party daily diminished in numbers, energy, and
+power, retained still an inclination to renew the attempt they
+had found so desperate.  He was indeed perfectly different from
+the sort of zealous Jacobites whom it had been my luck hitherto
+to meet with.  Old ladies of family over their hyson, and grey-
+haired lairds over their punch, I had often heard utter a little
+harmless treason; while the former remembered having led down a
+dance with the Chevalier, and the latter recounted the feats they
+had performed at Preston, Clifton, and Falkirk.
+
+The disaffection of such persons was too unimportant to excite
+the attention of government.  I had heard, however, that there
+still existed partisans of the Stuart family of a more daring and
+dangerous description; men who, furnished with gold from Rome,
+moved, secretly and in disguise, through the various classes of
+society, and endeavoured to keep alive the expiring zeal of their
+party.
+
+I had no difficulty in assigning an important post among this
+class of persons, whose agency and exertion are only doubted by
+those who look on the surface of things, to this Mr. Herries,
+whose mental energies, as well as his personal strength and
+activity, seemed to qualify him well to act so dangerous a part;
+and I knew that all along the Western Border, both in England and
+Scotland, there are so many nonjurors, that such a person may
+reside there with absolute safety, unless it becomes, in a very
+especial degree, the object of the government to secure his
+person; and which purpose, even then, might be disappointed by
+early intelligence, or, as in the case of Mr. Foxley, by the
+unwillingness of provincial magistrates to interfere in what is
+now considered an invidious pursuit of the unfortunate.
+
+There have, however, been rumours lately, as if the present state
+of the nation or at least of some discontented provinces,
+agitated by a variety of causes but particularly by the
+unpopularity of the present administration, may seem to this
+species of agitators a favourable period for recommencing their
+intrigues; while, on the other hand, government may not, at such
+a crisis, be inclined to look upon them with the contempt which a
+few years ago would have been their most appropriate punishment.
+
+That men should be found rash enough to throw away their services
+and lives in a desperate cause, is nothing new in history, which
+abounds with instances of similar devotion--that Mr. Herries is
+such an enthusiast is no less evident; but all this explains not
+his conduct towards me.  Had he sought to make me a proselyte to
+his ruined cause, violence and compulsion were arguments very
+unlikely to prevail with any generous spirit.  But even if such
+were his object, of what use to him could be the acquisition of a
+single reluctant partisan, who could bring only his own person to
+support any quarrel which he might adopt?  He had claimed over me
+the rights of a guardian; he had more than hinted that I was in a
+state of mind which could not dispense with the authority of such
+a person.  Was this man, so sternly desperate in his purpose--he
+who seemed willing to take on his own shoulders the entire
+support of a cause which had been ruinous to thousands--was he
+the person that had the power of deciding on my fate?  Was it
+from him those dangers flowed, to secure me against which I had
+been educated under such circumstances of secrecy and precaution?
+
+And if this was so, of what nature was the claim which he
+asserted?--Was it that of propinquity?  And did I share the
+blood, perhaps the features, of this singular being?--Strange as
+it may seem, a thrill of awe, which shot across my mind at that
+instant, was not unmingled with a wild and mysterious feeling of
+wonder, almost amounting to pleasure.  I remembered the
+reflection of my own face in the mirror at one striking moment
+during the singular interview of the day, and I hastened to the
+outward apartment to consult a glass which hung there, whether it
+were possible for my countenance to be again contorted into the
+peculiar frown which so much resembled the terrific look of
+Herries.  But I folded my brows in vain into a thousand
+complicated wrinkles, and I was obliged to conclude, either that
+the supposed mark on my brow was altogether imaginary, or that it
+could not be called forth by voluntary effort; or, in fine, what
+seemed most likely, that it was such a resemblance as the
+imagination traces in the embers of a wood fire, or among the
+varied veins of marble, distinct at one time, and obscure or
+invisible at another, according as the combination of lines
+strikes the eye or impresses the fancy.
+
+While I was moulding my visage like a mad player, the door
+suddenly opened, and the girl of the house entered.  Angry and
+ashamed at being detected in my singular occupation, I turned
+round sharply, and, I suppose, chance produced the change on my
+features which I had been in vain labouring to call forth.
+
+The girl started back, with her 'Don't ya look so now--don't ye,
+for love's sake--you be as like the ould squoire as--But here a
+comes,' she said, huddling away out of the room; 'and if you want
+a third, there is none but ould Harry, as I know of, that can
+match ye for a brent broo!'
+
+As the girl muttered this exclamation, and hastened out of the
+room, Herries entered.  He stopped on observing that I had looked
+again to the mirror, anxious to trace the look by which the wench
+had undoubtedly been terrified.  He seemed to guess what was
+passing in my mind, for, as I turned towards him, he observed,
+'Doubt not that it is stamped on your forehead--the fatal mark of
+our race; though it is not now so apparent as it will become when
+age and sorrow, and the traces of stormy passions and of bitter
+penitence, shall have drawn their furrows on your brow.'
+
+'Mysterious man,' I replied, 'I know not of what you speak; your
+language is as dark as your purposes!'
+
+'Sit down, then,' he said, 'and listen; thus far, at least, must
+the veil of which you complain be raised.  When withdrawn, it
+will only display guilt and sorrow--guilt followed by strange
+penalty, and sorrow which Providence has entailed upon the
+posterity of the mourners.'
+
+He paused a moment, and commenced his narrative, which he told
+with the air of one, who, remote as the events were which he
+recited, took still the deepest interest in them.  The tone of
+his voice, which I have already described as rich and powerful,
+aided by its inflections the effects of his story, which I will
+endeavour to write down, as nearly as possible, in the very words
+which he used.
+
+'It was not of late years that the English learned that their
+best chance of conquering their independent neighbours must be by
+introducing amongst them division and civil war.  You need not be
+reminded of the state of thraldom to which Scotland was reduced
+by the unhappy wars betwixt the domestic factions of Bruce and
+Baliol, nor how, after Scotland had been emancipated from a
+foreign yoke by the conduct and valour of the immortal Bruce, the
+whole fruits of the triumphs of Bannockburn were lost in the
+dreadful defeats of Dupplin and Halidon; and Edward Baliol, the
+minion and feudatory of his namesake of England, seemed, for a
+brief season, in safe and uncontested possession of the throne so
+lately occupied by the greatest general and wisest prince in
+Europe.  But the experience of Bruce had not died with him.
+There were many who had shared his martial labours, and all
+remembered the successful efforts by which, under circumstances
+as disadvantageous as those of his son, he had achieved the
+liberation of Scotland.
+
+'The usurper, Edward Baliol, was feasting with a few of his
+favourite retainers in the castle of Annan, when he was suddenly
+surprised by a chosen band of insurgent patriots.  Their chiefs
+were, Douglas, Randolph, the young Earl of Moray, and Sir Simon
+Fraser; and their success was so complete, that Baliol was
+obliged to fly for his life scarcely clothed, and on a horse
+which there was no leisure to saddle.  It was of importance to
+seize his person, if possible, and his flight was closely pursued
+by a valiant knight of Norman descent, whose family had been long
+settled in the marches of Dumfriesshire.  Their Norman
+appellation was Fitz-Aldin, but this knight, from the great
+slaughter which he had made of the Southron, and the reluctance
+which he had shown to admit them to quarter during the former war
+of that bloody period, had acquired the name of Redgauntlet,
+which he transmitted to his posterity'--
+
+'Redgauntlet!'  I involuntarily repeated.
+
+'Yes, Redgauntlet,' said my alleged guardian, looking at me
+keenly; 'does that name recall any associations to your mind?'
+
+'No,' I replied, 'except that I had lately heard it given to the
+hero of a supernatural legend.'
+
+'There are many such current concerning the family,' he answered;
+and then proceeded in his narrative.
+
+'Alberick Redgauntlet, the first of his house so termed, was, as
+may be supposed from his name, of a stern and implacable
+disposition, which had been rendered more so by family discord.
+An only son, now a youth of eighteen, shared so much the haughty
+spirit of his father, that he became impatient of domestic
+control, resisted paternal authority, and finally fled from his
+father's house, renounced his political opinions, and awakened
+his mortal displeasure by joining the adherents of Baliol.  It
+was said that his father cursed, in his wrath, his degenerate
+offspring, and swore that if they met he should perish by his
+hand.  Meantime, circumstances seemed to promise atonement for
+this great deprivation.  The lady of Alberick Redgauntlet was
+again, after many years, in a situation which afforded her
+husband the hope of a more dutiful heir.
+
+'But the delicacy and deep interest of his wife's condition did
+not prevent Alberick from engaging in the undertaking of Douglas
+and Moray.  He had been the most forward in the attack of the
+castle, and was now foremost in the pursuit of Baliol, eagerly
+engaged in dispersing or cutting down the few daring followers
+who endeavoured to protect the usurper in his flight.
+
+'As these were successively routed or slain, the formidable
+Redgauntlet, the mortal enemy of the House of Baliol, was within
+two lances' length of the fugitive Edward Baliol, in a narrow
+pass, when a, youth, one of the last who attended the usurper in
+his flight, threw himself between them, received the shock of the
+pursuer, and was unhorsed and overthrown.  The helmet rolled from
+his head, and the beams of the sun, then rising over the Solway,
+showed Redgauntlet the features of his disobedient son, in the
+livery, and wearing the cognizance, of the usurper.
+
+'Redgauntlet beheld his son lying before his horse's feet; but he
+also saw Baliol, the usurper of the Scottish crown, still, as it
+seemed, within his grasp, and separated from him only by the
+prostrate body of his overthrown adherent.  Without pausing to
+inquire whether young Edward was wounded, he dashed his spurs
+into his horse, meaning to leap over him, but was unhappily
+frustrated in his purpose.  The steed made indeed a bound
+forward, but was unable to clear the body of the youth, and with
+its hind foot struck him in the forehead, as he was in the act of
+rising.  The blow was mortal.  It is needless to add, that the
+pursuit was checked, and Baliol escaped.
+
+'Redgauntlet, ferocious as he is described, was yet overwhelmed
+with the thoughts of the crime he had committed.  When he
+returned to his castle, it was to encounter new domestic sorrows.
+His wife had been prematurely seized with the pangs of labour
+upon hearing the dreadful catastrophe which had taken place.  The
+birth of an infant boy cost her her life.  Redgauntlet sat by her
+corpse for more than twenty-four hours without changing either
+feature or posture, so far as his terrified domestics could
+observe.  The Abbot of Dundrennan preached consolation to him in
+vain.  Douglas, who came to visit in his affliction a patriot of
+such distinguished zeal, was more successful in rousing his
+attention.  He caused the trumpets to sound an English point of
+war in the courtyard, and Redgauntlet at once sprang to his arms,
+and seemed restored to the recollection which had been lost in
+the extent of his misery.
+
+'From that moment, whatever he might feel inwardly, he gave way
+to no outward emotion.  Douglas caused his infant to be brought;
+but even the iron-hearted soldiers were struck with horror to
+observe that, by the mysterious law of nature, the cause of his
+mother's death, and the evidence of his father's guilt, was
+stamped on the innocent face of the babe, whose brow was
+distinctly marked by the miniature resemblance of a horseshoe.
+Redgauntlet himself pointed it out to Douglas, saying, with a
+ghastly smile, "It should have been bloody."
+
+'Moved, as he was, to compassion for his brother-in-arms, and
+steeled against all softer feelings by the habits of civil war,
+Douglas shuddered at this sight, and displayed a desire to leave
+the house which was doomed to be the scene of such horrors.  As
+his parting advice, he exhorted Alberick Redgauntlet to make a
+pilgrimage to Saint Ninian's of Whiteherne, then esteemed a
+shrine of great sanctity; and departed with a precipitation which
+might have aggravated, had that been possible, the forlorn state
+of his unhappy friend.  But that seems to have been incapable of
+admitting any addition.  Sir Alberick caused the bodies of his
+slaughtered son and the mother to be laid side by side in the
+ancient chapel of his house, after he had used the skill of a
+celebrated surgeon of that time to embalm them; and it was said
+that for many weeks he spent; some hours nightly in the vault
+where they reposed.
+
+'At length he undertook the proposed pilgrimage to Whiteherne,
+where he confessed himself for the first time since his
+misfortune, and was shrived by an aged monk, who afterwards died
+in the odour of sanctity.  It is said that it was then foretold
+to the Redgauntlet, that on account of his unshaken patriotism
+his family should continue to be powerful amid the changes of
+future times; but that, in detestation of his unrelenting cruelty
+to his own issue, Heaven had decreed that the valour of his race
+should always be fruitless, and that the cause which they
+espoused should never prosper.
+
+'Submitting to such penance as was there imposed, Sir Alberick
+went, it is thought, on a pilgrimage either to Rome, or to the
+Holy Sepulchre itself.  He was universally considered as dead;
+and it was not till thirteen years afterwards, that in the great
+battle of Durham, fought between David Bruce and Queen Philippa
+of England, a knight, bearing a horseshoe for his crest, appeared
+in the van of the Scottish army, distinguishing himself by his
+reckless and desperate valour; who being at length overpowered
+and slain, was finally discovered to be the brave and unhappy Sir
+Alberick Redgauntlet.'
+
+'And has the fatal sign,' said I, when Herries had ended his
+narrative, 'descended on all the posterity of this unhappy
+house?'
+
+'It has been so handed down from antiquity, and is still
+believed,' said Herries.  'But perhaps there is, in the popular
+evidence, something of that fancy which creates what it sees.
+Certainly, as other families have peculiarities by which they are
+distinguished, this of Redgauntlet is marked in most individuals
+by a singular indenture of the forehead, supposed to be derived
+from the son of Alberick, their ancestor, and brother to the
+unfortunate Edward, who had perished in so piteous a manner.  It
+is certain there seems to have been a fate upon the House of
+Redgauntlet, which has been on the losing side in almost all the
+civil broils which have divided the kingdom of Scotland from
+David Bruce's days, till the late valiant and unsuccessful
+attempt of the Chevalier Charles Edward.'
+
+He concluded with a deep sigh, as one whom the subject had
+involved in a train of painful reflections.
+
+'And am I then,' I exclaimed, 'descended from this unhappy race?
+Do you belong to it?  And if so, why do I sustain restraint and
+hard usage at the hands of a relation?'
+
+'Inquire no further for the present,' he said.  'The line of
+conduct which I am pursuing towards you is dictated, not by
+choice but by necessity.  You were withdrawn from the bosom of
+your family and the care of your legal guardian, by the timidity
+and ignorance of a doting mother, who was incapable of estimating
+the arguments or feelings of those who prefer honour and
+principle to fortune, and even to life.  The young hawk,
+accustomed only to the fostering care of its dam, must be tamed
+by darkness and sleeplessness, ere it is trusted on the wing for
+the purposes of the falconer.'
+
+I was appalled at this declaration, which seemed to threaten a
+long continuance, and a dangerous termination, of my captivity. I
+deemed it best, however, to show some spirit, and at the same
+time to mingle a tone of conciliation.  'Mr. Herries,' I said
+'(if I call you rightly by that name), let us speak upon this
+matter without the tone of mystery and fear in which you seem
+inclined to envelop it.  I have been long, alas!  deprived of the
+care of that affectionate mother to whom you allude--long under
+the charge of strangers--and compelled to form my own resolutions
+upon the reasoning of my own mind.  Misfortune--early
+deprivation--has given me the privilege of acting for myself; and
+constraint shall not deprive me of an Englishman's best
+privilege.'
+
+'The true cant of the day,' said Herries, in a tone of scorn.
+'The privilege of free action belongs to no mortal--we are tied
+down by the fetters of duty--our mortal path is limited by the
+regulations of honour--our most indifferent actions are but
+meshes of the web of destiny by which we are all surrounded.'
+
+He paced the room rapidly, and proceeded in a tone of enthusiasm
+which, joined to some other parts of his conduct, seems to
+intimate an over-excited imagination, were it not contradicted by
+the general tenor of his speech and conduct.
+
+'Nothing,' he said, in an earnest yet melancholy voice--'nothing
+is the work of chance--nothing is the consequence of free-will--
+the liberty of which the Englishman boasts gives as little real
+freedom to its owner as the despotism, of an Eastern sultan
+permits to his slave.  The usurper, William of Nassau, went forth
+to hunt, and thought, doubtless, that it was by an act of his own
+royal pleasure that the horse of his murdered victim was prepared
+for his kingly sport.  But Heaven had other views; and before the
+sun was high, a stumble of that very animal over an obstacle so
+inconsiderable as a mole-hillock, cost the haughty rider his life
+and his usurped crown, Do you think an inclination of the rein
+could have avoided that trifling impediment?  I tell you, it
+crossed his way as inevitably as all the long chain of Caucasus
+could have done.  Yes, young man, in doing and suffering, we play
+but the part allotted by Destiny, the manager of this strange
+drama, stand bound to act no more than is prescribed, to say no
+more than is set down for us; and yet we mouth about free-will
+and freedom of thought and action, as if Richard must not die, or
+Richmond conquer, exactly where the Author has decreed it shall
+be so!'
+
+He continued to pace the room after this speech, with folded arms
+and downcast looks; and the sound of his steps and tone of his
+voice brought to my remembrance, that I had heard this singular
+person, when I met him on a former occasion, uttering such
+soliloquies in his solitary chamber.  I observed that, like other
+Jacobites, in his inveteracy against the memory of King William,
+he had adopted the party opinion, that the monarch, on the day he
+had his fatal accident, rode upon a horse once the property of
+the unfortunate Sir John Friend, executed for high treason in
+1698.
+
+It was not my business to aggravate, but, if possible, rather to
+soothe him in whose power I was so singularly placed.  When I
+conceived that the keenness of his feelings had in some degree
+subsided, I answered him as follows:--'I will not--indeed I feel
+myself incompetent to argue a question of such metaphysical
+subtlety, as that which involves the limits betwixt free-will and
+predestination.  Let us hope we may live honestly and die
+hopefully, without being obliged to form a decided opinion upon a
+point so far beyond our comprehension.'
+
+'Wisely resolved,' he interrupted, with a sneer--'there came a
+note from some Geneva, sermon.'
+
+'But,' I proceeded, 'I call your attention to the fact that I, as
+well as you, am acted upon by impulses, the result either of my
+own free will, or the consequences of the part which is assigned
+to me by destiny.  These may be--nay, at present they are--in
+direct contradiction to those by which you are actuated; and how
+shall we decide which shall have precedence?--YOU perhaps feel
+yourself destined to act as my jailer.  I feel myself, on the
+contrary, destined to attempt and effect my escape.  One of us
+must be wrong, but who can say which errs till the event has
+decided betwixt us?'
+
+'I shall feel myself destined to have recourse to severe modes of
+restraint,' said he, in the same tone of half jest, half earnest
+which I had used.
+
+'In that case,' I answered, 'it will be my destiny to attempt
+everything for my freedom.'
+
+'And it may be mine, young man,' he replied, in a deep and stern
+tone, 'to take care that you should rather die than attain your
+purpose.'
+
+This was speaking out indeed, and I did not allow him to go
+unanswered.  'You threaten me in vain,' said I; 'the laws of my
+country will protect me; or whom they cannot protect, they will
+avenge.'
+
+I spoke this firmly, and he seemed for a moment silenced; and the
+scorn with which he at last answered me, had something of
+affectation in it.
+
+'The laws!'  he said; 'and what, stripling, do you know of the
+laws of your country?  Could you learn jurisprudence under a
+base-born blotter of parchment, such as Saunders Fairford; or
+from the empty pedantic coxcomb, his son, who now, forsooth,
+writer himself advocate?  When Scotland was herself, and had her
+own king and legislature, such plebeian cubs, instead of being
+called to the bar of her supreme courts, would scarce have been
+admitted to the honour of bearing a sheepskin process-bag.'
+
+Alan, I could not bear this, but answered indignantly, that he
+knew not the worth and honour from which he was detracting.
+
+'I know as much of these Fairfords as I do of you,' he replied.
+
+'As much,' said I, 'and as little; for you can neither estimate
+their real worth nor mine.  I know you saw them when last in
+Edinburgh.'
+
+'Ha!'  he exclaimed, and turned on me an inquisitive look.
+
+'It is true,' said I; 'you cannot deny it; and having thus shown
+you that I know something of your motions, let me warn you I have
+modes of communication with which you are not acquainted.  Oblige
+me not to use them to your prejudice.'
+
+'Prejudice me!'  he replied.  'Young man, I smile at, and forgive
+your folly.  Nay, I will tell you that of which you are not
+aware, namely, that it was from letters received from these
+Fairfords that I first suspected, what the result of my visit to
+them confirmed, that you were the person whom I had sought for
+years.'
+
+'If you learned this,' said I, 'from the papers which were about
+my person on the night when I was under the necessity of becoming
+your guest at Brokenburn, I do not envy your indifference to the
+means of acquiring information.  It was dishonourable to'--
+
+'Peace, young man,' said Herries, more calmly than I might have
+expected; 'the word dishonour must not be mentioned as in
+conjunction with my name.  Your pocket-book was in the pocket of
+your coat, and did not escape the curiosity of another, though it
+would have been sacred from mine, My servant, Cristal Nixon,
+brought me the intelligence after you were gone.  I was
+displeased with the manner in which he had acquired his
+information; but it was not the less my duty to ascertain its
+truth, and for that purpose I went to Edinburgh.  I was in hopes
+to persuade Mr. Fairford to have entered into my views; but I
+found him too much prejudiced to permit me to trust him.  He is a
+wretched, yet a timid slave of the present government, under
+which our unhappy country is dishonourably enthralled; and it
+would have been altogether unfit and unsafe to have entrusted him
+with the secret either of the right which I possess to direct
+your actions, or of the manner in which I purpose to exercise
+it.'
+
+I was determined to take advantage of his communicative humour,
+and obtain, if possible, more light upon his purpose.  He seemed
+most accessible to being piqued on the point of honour, and I
+resolved to avail myself, but with caution, of his sensibility
+upon that topic.  'You say,' I replied, 'that you are not
+friendly to indirect practices, and disapprove of the means by
+which your domestic obtained information of my name and quality--
+Is it honourable to avail yourself of that knowledge which is
+dishonourably obtained?'
+
+'It is boldly asked,' he replied; 'but, within certain necessary
+limits, I dislike not boldness of expostulation.  You have, in
+this short conference, displayed more character and energy than I
+was prepared to expect.  You will, I trust, resemble a forest
+plant, which has indeed, by some accident, been brought up in the
+greenhouse, and thus rendered delicate and effeminate, but which
+regains its native firmness and tenacity when exposed for a
+season to the winter air.  I will answer your question plainly.
+In business, as in war, spies and informers are necessary evils,
+which all good men detest; but which yet all prudent men must
+use, unless they mean to fight and act blindfold.  But nothing
+can justify the use of falsehood and treachery in our own
+person.'
+
+'You said to the elder Mr. Fairford,' continued I, with the same
+boldness, which I began to find was my best game, 'that I was the
+son of Ralph Latimer of Langcote Hall?  How do you reconcile this
+with your late assertion that my name is not Latimer?'
+
+He coloured as he replied, 'The doting old fool lied; or perhaps
+mistook my meaning.  I said, that gentleman might be your father.
+To say truth, I wished you to visit England, your native country;
+because, when you might do so, my rights over you would revive.'
+
+This speech fully led me to understand a caution which had been
+often impressed upon me, that, if I regarded my safety, I should
+not cross the southern Border; and I cursed my own folly, which
+kept me fluttering like a moth around the candle, until I was
+betrayed into the calamity with which I had dallied.  'What are
+those rights,' I said, 'which you claim over me?  To what end do
+you propose to turn them?'
+
+'To a weighty one, you may be certain,' answered Mr. Herries;
+'but I do not, at present, mean to communicate to you either its
+nature or extent.  You may judge of its importance, when, in
+order entirely to possess myself of your person, I condescended
+to mix myself with the fellows who destroyed the fishing station
+of yon wretched Quaker.  That I held him in contempt, and was
+displeased at the greedy devices with which he ruined a manly
+sport, is true enough; but, unless as it favoured my designs on
+you, he might have, for me, maintained his stake-nets till Solway
+should cease to ebb and flow.'
+
+'Alas!'  I said, 'it doubles my regret to have been the unwilling
+cause of misfortune to an honest and friendly man.'
+
+'Do not grieve for that,' said Herries; 'honest Joshua is one of
+those who, by dint of long prayers, can possess themselves of
+widow's houses--he will quickly repair his losses.  When he
+sustains any mishap, he and the other canters set it down as a
+debt against Heaven, and, by way of set-off, practise rogueries
+without compunction, till the they make the balance even, or
+incline it to the winning side.  Enough of this for the present.
+--I must immediately shift my quarters; for, although I do not
+fear the over-zeal of Mr. Justice Foxley or his clerk will lead
+them to any extreme measure, yet that mad scoundrel's unhappy
+recognition of me may make it more serious for them to connive at
+me, and I must not put their patience to an over severe trial.
+You must prepare to attend me, either as a captive or a
+companion; if as the latter, you must give your parole of honour
+to attempt no escape.  Should you be so ill advised as to break
+your word once pledged, be assured that I will blow your brains
+out without a moment's scruple.'
+
+'I am ignorant of your plans and purposes,' I replied, 'and
+cannot but hold them dangerous.  I do not mean to aggravate my
+present situation by any unavailing resistance to the superior
+force which detains me; but I will not renounce the right of
+asserting my natural freedom should it favourable opportunity
+occur.  I will, therefore, rather be your prisoner than your
+confederate.'
+
+'That is spoken fairly,' he said; 'and yet not without the canny
+caution of one brought up in the Gude Town of Edinburgh.  On my
+part, I will impose no unnecessary hardship upon you; but, on the
+contrary, your journey shall be made as easy as is consistent
+with your being kept safely.  Do you feel strong enough to ride
+on horseback as yet, or would you prefer a carriage?  The former
+mode of travelling is best adapted to the country through which
+we are to travel, but you are at liberty to choose between them.'
+
+I said, 'I felt my strength gradually returning, and that I
+should much prefer travelling on horseback.  A carriage,' I
+added, 'is so close'--
+
+'And so easily guarded,' replied Herries, with a look as if he
+would have penetrated my very thoughts,--'that, doubtless, you
+think horseback better calculated for an escape.'
+
+'My thoughts are my own,' I answered; 'and though you keep my
+person prisoner, these are beyond your control.'
+
+'Oh, I can read the book,' he said, 'without opening the leaves.
+But I would recommend to you to make no rash attempt, and it will
+be my care to see that you have no power to make any that is
+likely to be effectual.  Linen, and all other necessaries for one
+in your circumstances, are amply provided, Cristal Nixon will act
+as your valet,--I should rather, perhaps, say, your FEMME DE
+CHAMBRE.  Your travelling dress you may perhaps consider as
+singular; but it is such as the circumstances require; and, if
+you object to use the articles prepared for your use, your mode
+of journeying will be as personally unpleasant as that which
+conducted you hither.--Adieu--We now know each other better than
+we did--it will not be my fault if the consequences of further
+intimacy be not a more favourable mutual opinion.'
+
+He then left me, with a civil good night, to my own reflections,
+and only turned back to say that we should proceed on our journey
+at daybreak next morning, at furthest; perhaps earlier, he said;
+but complimented me by supposing that, as I was a sportsman, I
+must always be ready for a sudden start.
+
+We are then at issue, this singular man and myself.  His personal
+views are to a certain point explained.  He has chosen an
+antiquated and desperate line of politics, and he claims, from
+some pretended tie of guardianship or relationship, which he does
+not deign to explain but which he seems to have been able to pass
+current on a silly country Justice and his knavish clerk, a right
+to direct and to control my motions.  The danger which awaited me
+in England, and which I might have escaped had I remained in
+Scotland, was doubtless occasioned by the authority of this man.
+But what my poor mother might fear for me as a child--what my
+English friend, Samuel Griffiths, endeavoured to guard against
+during my youth and nonage, is now, it seems, come upon me; and,
+under a legal pretext, I am detained in what must be a most
+illegal manner, by a person, foe, whose own political immunities
+have been forfeited by his conduct.  It matters not--my mind is
+made up neither persuasion nor threats shall force me into the
+desperate designs which this man meditates.  Whether I am of the
+trifling consequence which my life hitherto seems to intimate, or
+whether I have (as would appear from my adversary's conduct) such
+importance, by birth or fortune, as may make me a desirable
+acquisition to a political faction, my resolution is taken in
+either case.  Those who read this journal, if it shall be perused
+by impartial eyes, shall judge of me truly; and if they consider
+me as a fool in encountering danger unnecessarily, they shall
+have no reason to believe me a coward or a turncoat, when I find
+myself engaged in it.  I have been bred in sentiments of
+attachment to the family on the throne and in these sentiments I
+will live and die.  I have, indeed, some idea that Mr. Herries
+has already discovered that I am made of different and more
+unmalleable metal than he had at first believed.  There were
+letters from my dear Alan Fairford, giving a ludicrous account of
+my instability of temper, in the same pocket-book, which,
+according to the admission of my pretended guardian, fell under
+the investigation of his domestic during the night I passed at
+Brokenburn, where, as I now recollect, my wet clothes, with the
+contents of my pockets, were, with the thoughtlessness of a young
+traveller, committed too rashly to the care of a strange servant.
+And my kind friend and hospitable landlord, Mr. Alexander
+Fairford, may also, and with justice, have spoken of my levities
+to this man.  But he shall find he has made a false estimate upon
+these plausible grounds, since--
+
+I must break off for the present.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+LATIMER'S JOURNAL, IN CONTINUATION
+
+There is at length a halt--at length I have gained so much
+privacy as to enable me to continue my journal.  It has become a
+sort of task of duty to me, without the discharge of which I do
+not feel that the business of the day is performed.  True, no
+friendly eye may ever look upon these labours, which have amused
+the solitary hours of an unhappy prisoner.  Yet, in the
+meanwhile, the exercise of the pen seems to act as a sedative
+upon my own agitated thoughts and tumultuous passions.  I never
+lay it down but I rise stronger in resolution, more ardent in
+hope.  A thousand vague fears, wild expectations, and indigested
+schemes, hurry through one's thoughts in seasons of doubt and of
+danger.  But by arresting them as they flit across the mind, by
+throwing them on paper, and even by that mechanical act
+compelling ourselves to consider them with scrupulous and minute
+attention, we may perhaps escape becoming the dupes of our own
+excited imagination; just as a young horse is cured of the vice
+of starting by being made to stand still and look for some time
+without any interruption at the cause of its terror.
+
+There remains but one risk, which is that of discovery.  But
+besides the small characters, in which my residence in Mr.
+Fairford's house enabled me to excel, for the purpose of
+transferring as many scroll sheets as possible to a huge sheet of
+stamped paper, I have, as I have elsewhere intimated, had
+hitherto the comfortable reflection that if the record of my
+misfortunes should fall into the hands of him by whom they are
+caused, they would, without harming any one, show him the real
+character and disposition of the person who has become his
+prisoner--perhaps his victim.  Now, however, that other names,
+and other characters, are to be mingled with the register of my
+own sentiments, I must take additional care of these papers, and
+keep them in such a manner that, in case of the least hazard of
+detection, I may be able to destroy them at a moment's notice.  I
+shall not soon or easily forget the lesson I have been taught, by
+the prying disposition which Cristal Nixon, this man's agent and
+confederate, manifested at Brokenburn, and which proved the
+original cause of my sufferings.
+
+My laying aside the last sheet of my journal hastily was
+occasioned by the unwonted sound of a violin, in the farmyard
+beneath my windows.  It will not appear surprising to those who
+have made music their study, that, after listening to a few
+notes, I became at once assured that the musician was no other
+than the itinerant, formerly mentioned as present at the
+destruction of Joshua Geddes's stake-nets, the superior delicacy
+and force of whose execution would enable me to swear to his bow
+amongst a whole orchestra.  I had the less reason to doubt his
+identity, because he played twice over the beautiful Scottish air
+called Wandering Willie; and I could not help concluding that he
+did so for the purpose of intimating his own presence, since what
+the French called the nom de guerre of the performer was
+described by the tune.
+
+Hope will catch at the most feeble twig for support in extremity.
+I knew this man, though deprived of sight, to be bold, ingenious,
+and perfectly capable of acting as a guide.  I believed I had won
+his goodwill, by having, in a frolic, assumed the character of
+his partner; and I remembered that in a wild, wandering, and
+disorderly course of life, men, as they become loosened from the
+ordinary bonds of civil society, hold those of comradeship more
+closely sacred; so that honour is sometimes found among thieves,
+and faith and attachment in such as the law has termed vagrants.
+The history of Richard Coeur de Lion and his minstrel, Blondel,
+rushed, at the same time, on my mind, though I could not even
+then suppress a smile at the dignity of the example when applied
+to a blind fiddler and myself.  Still there was something in all
+this to awaken a hope that, if I could open a correspondence with
+this poor violer, he might be useful in extricating me from my
+present situation.
+
+His profession furnished me with some hope that this desired
+communication might be attained; since it is well known that, in
+Scotland, where there is so much national music, the words and
+airs of which are generally known, there is a kind of freemasonry
+amongst performers, by which they can, by the mere choice of a
+tune, express a great deal to the hearers.  Personal allusions
+are often made in this manner, with much point and pleasantry;
+and nothing is more usual at public festivals, than that the air
+played to accompany a particular health or toast, is made the
+vehicle of compliment, of wit, and sometimes of satire.  [Every
+one must remember instances of this festive custom, in which the
+adaptation of the tune to the toast was remarkably felicitous.
+Old Neil Gow, and his son Nathaniel, were peculiarly happy on
+such occasions.]
+
+While these things passed through my mind rapidly, I heard my
+friend beneath recommence, for the third time, the air from which
+his own name had been probably adopted, when he was interrupted
+by his rustic auditors.
+
+'If thou canst play no other spring but that, mon, ho hadst best
+put up ho's pipes and be jogging.  Squoire will be back anon, or
+Master Nixon, and we'll see who will pay poiper then.'
+
+Oho, thought I, if I have no sharper ears than those of my
+friends Jan and Dorcas to encounter, I may venture an experiment
+upon them; and, as most expressive of my state of captivity, I
+sang two or three lines of the 137th Psalm--
+
+  By Babel's streams we sat and wept.
+
+The country people listened with attention, and when I ceased, I
+heard them whisper together in tones of commiseration, 'Lack-a-
+day, poor soul!  so pretty a man to be beside his wits!'
+
+'An he be that gate,' said Wandering Willie, in a tone calculated
+to reach my ears, 'I ken naething will raise his spirits like a
+spring.'  And he struck up, with great vigour and spirit, the
+lively Scottish air, the words of which instantly occurred to me
+--
+
+  Oh whistle and I'll come t'ye, my lad,
+  Oh whistle and I'll come t'ye, my lad;
+  Though father and mother and a' should gae mad,
+  Oh whistle and I'll come t'ye, my lad.
+
+I soon heard a clattering noise of feet in the courtyard, which I
+concluded to be Jan and Dorcas dancing a jig in their Cumberland
+wooden clogs.  Under cover of this din, I endeavoured to answer
+Willie's signal by whistling, as loud as I could---
+
+  Come back again and loe me
+  When a' the lave are gane.
+
+He instantly threw the dancers out, by changing his air to
+
+  There's my thumb, I'll ne'er beguile thee.
+
+I no longer doubted that a communication betwixt us was happily
+established, and that, if I had an opportunity of speaking to the
+poor musician, I should find him willing to take my letter to the
+post, to invoke the assistance of some active magistrate, or of
+the commanding-officer of Carlisle Castle, or, in short, to do
+whatever else I could point out, in the compass of his power, to
+contribute to my liberation.  But to obtain speech of him, I must
+have run the risk of alarming the suspicions of Dorcas, if not of
+her yet more stupid Corydon.  My ally's blindness prevented his
+receiving any communication by signs from the window--even if I
+could have ventured to make them, consistently with prudence--so
+that notwithstanding the mode of intercourse we had adopted was
+both circuitous and peculiarly liable to misapprehension, I saw
+nothing I could do better than to continue it, trusting my own
+and my correspondent's acuteness in applying to the airs the
+meaning they were intended to convey.  I thought of singing the
+words themselves of some significant song, but feared I might, by
+doing so, attract suspicion.  I endeavoured, therefore, to
+intimate my speedy departure from my present place of residence,
+by whistling the well-known air with which festive parties in
+Scotland usually conclude the dance:--
+
+  Good night and joy be wi' ye a',
+  For here nae langer maun I stay;
+  There's neither friend nor foe, of mine
+  But wishes that I were away.
+
+It appeared that Willie's powers of intelligence were much more
+active than mine, and that, like a deaf person accustomed to be
+spoken to by signs, he comprehended, from the very first notes,
+the whole meaning I intended to convey; and he accompanied me in
+the air with his violin, in such a manner as at once to show he
+understood my meaning, and to prevent my whistling from being
+attended to.
+
+His reply was almost immediate, and was conveyed in the old
+martial air of 'Hey, Johnnie lad, cock up your beaver.'  I ran
+over the words, and fixed on the following stanza, as most
+applicable to my circumstances:--
+
+  Cock up your beaver, and cock it fu' sprush;
+  We'll over the Border and give them a brush;
+  There's somebody there we'll teach better behaviour,
+  Hey, Johnnie lad, cock up your beaver.
+
+If these sounds alluded, as I hope they do, to the chance of
+assistance from my Scottish friends, I may indeed consider that a
+door is open to hope and freedom.  I immediately replied with:--
+
+  My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
+  My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;
+  A-chasing the wild deer, and following the roe,
+  My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go.
+
+  Farewell to the Highlands!  farewell to the North!
+  The birth-place of valour, the cradle of worth;
+  Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
+  The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.
+
+Willie instantly played, with a degree of spirit which might have
+awakened hope in Despair herself, if Despair could be supposed to
+understand Scotch music, the fine old Jacobite air,
+
+  For a' that, and a' that,
+  And twice as much as a' that.
+
+I next endeavoured to intimate my wish to send notice of my
+condition to my friends; and, despairing to find an air
+sufficiently expressive of my purpose, I ventured to sing a
+verse, which, in various forms, occurs so frequently in old
+ballads--
+
+  Whare will I get a bonny boy
+  That will win hose and shoon:
+  That will gae down to Durisdeer,
+  And bid my merry men come?
+
+He drowned the latter part of the verse by playing, with much
+emphasis,
+
+  Kind Robin loes me.
+
+Of this, though I ran over the verses of the song in my mind, I
+could make nothing; and before I could contrive any mode of
+intimating my uncertainty, a cry arose in the courtyard that
+Cristal Nixon was coming.  My faithful Willie was obliged to
+retreat; but not before he had half played, half hummed, by way
+of farewell,
+
+  Leave thee--leave thee, lad--
+  I'll never leave thee;
+  The stars shall gae withershins
+  Ere I will leave thee.
+
+I am thus, I think, secure of one trusty adherent in my
+misfortunes; and, however whimsical it may be to rely much on a
+man of his idle profession and deprived of sight withal, it is
+deeply impressed on my mind that his services may be both useful
+and necessary.  There is another quarter from which I look for
+succour, and which I have indicated to thee, Alan, in more than
+one passage of my journal.  Twice, at the early hour of daybreak,
+I have seen the individual alluded to in the court of the farm,
+and twice she made signs of recognition in answer to the gestures
+by which I endeavoured to make her comprehend my situation; but
+on both occasions she pressed her finger on her lips, as
+expressive of silence and secrecy.
+
+The manner in which G.M. entered upon the scene for the first
+time, seems to assure me of her goodwill, so far as her power may
+reach; and I have many reasons to believe it is considerable.
+Yet she seemed hurried and frightened during the very transitory
+moments of our interview, and I think was, upon the last
+occasion, startled by the entrance of some one into the farmyard,
+just as she was on the point of addressing me.  You must not ask
+whether I am an early riser, since such objects are only to be
+seen at daybreak; and although I have never again seen her, yet I
+have reason to think she is not distant.  It was but three nights
+ago, that, worn out by the uniformity of my confinement, I had
+manifested more symptoms of despondence than I had before
+exhibited, which I conceive may have attracted the attention of
+the domestics, through whom the circumstance might transpire.  On
+the next morning, the following lines lay on my table; but how
+conveyed there, I cannot tell.  The hand in which they were
+written is a beautiful Italian manuscript:--
+
+  As lords their labourers' hire delay,
+  Fate quits our toil with hopes to come,
+  Which, if far short of present pay,
+  Still, owns a debt and names a sum.
+
+  Quit not the pledge, frail sufferer, then,
+  Although a distant date be given;
+  Despair is treason towards man,
+  And blasphemy to Heaven.
+
+That these lines were written with the friendly purpose of
+inducing me to keep up my spirits, I cannot doubt; and I trust
+the manner in which I shall conduct myself may show that the
+pledge is accepted.
+
+The dress is arrived in which it seems to be my self-elected
+guardian's pleasure that I shall travel; and what does it prove
+to be?--A skirt, or upper-petticoat of camlet, like those worn by
+country ladies of moderate rank when on horseback, with such a
+riding-mask as they frequently use on journeys to preserve their
+eyes and complexion from the sun and dust, and sometimes, it is
+suspected, to enable then to play off a little coquetry.  From
+the gayer mode of employing the mask, however, I suspect I shall
+be precluded; for instead of being only pasteboard, covered with
+black velvet, I observe with anxiety that mine is thickened with
+a plate of steel, which, like Quixote's visor, serves to render
+it more strong and durable.
+
+This apparatus, together with a steel clasp for securing the mask
+behind me with a padlock, gave me fearful recollections of the
+unfortunate being, who, never being permitted to lay aside such a
+visor, acquired the well-known historical epithet of the Man in
+the Iron Mask.  I hesitated a moment whether I should, so far
+submit to the acts of oppression designed against me as to assume
+this disguise, which was, of course, contrived to aid their
+purposes.  But when I remembered Mr. Herries's threat, that I
+should be kept close prisoner in a carriage, unless I assumed the
+dress which should be appointed for me; and I considered the
+comparative degree of freedom which I might purchase by wearing
+the mask and female dress as easily and advantageously purchased.
+Here, therefore, I must pause for the present, and await what the
+morning may bring forth.
+
+[To carry on the story from the documents before us, we think it
+proper here to drop the journal of the captive Darsie Latimer,
+and adopt, instead, a narrative of the proceedings of Alan
+Fairford in pursuit of his friend, which forms another series in
+this history.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+NARRATIVE OF ALAN FAIRFORD
+
+The reader ought, by this time, to have formed some idea of the
+character of Alan Fairford.  He had a warmth of heart which the
+study of the law and of the world could not chill, and talents
+which they had rendered unusually acute.  Deprived of the
+personal patronage enjoyed by most of his contemporaries, who
+assumed the gown under the protection of their aristocratic
+alliances and descents, he early saw that he should have that to
+achieve for himself which fell to them as a right of birth.  He
+laboured hard in silence and solitude, and his labours were
+crowned with success.  But Alan doted on his friend Darsie, even
+more than he loved his profession, and, as we have seen, threw
+everything aside when he thought Latimer in danger; forgetting
+fame and fortune, and hazarding even the serious displeasure of
+his father, to rescue him whom he loved with an elder brother's
+affection.  Darsie, though his parts were more quick and
+brilliant than those of his friend, seemed always to the latter a
+being under his peculiar charge, whom he was called upon to
+cherish and protect in cases where the youth's own experience was
+unequal to the exigency; and now, when, the fate of Latimer
+seeming worse than doubtful, Alan's whole prudence and energy
+were to be exerted in his behalf, an adventure which might have
+seemed perilous to most youths of his age had no terrors for him.
+He was well acquainted with the laws of his country, and knew how
+to appeal to them; and, besides his professional confidence, his
+natural disposition was steady, sedate, persevering, and
+undaunted.  With these requisites he undertook a quest which, at
+that time, was not unattended with actual danger, and had much in
+it to appal a more timid disposition.
+
+Fairford's first inquiry concerning his friend was of the chief
+magistrate of Dumfries, Provost Crosbie, who had sent the
+information of Darsie's disappearance.  On his first application,
+he thought he discerned in the honest dignitary a desire to get
+rid of the subject.  The provost spoke of the riot at the fishing
+station as an 'outbreak among those lawless loons the fishermen,
+which concerned the sheriff,' he said, 'more than us poor town
+council bodies, that have enough to do to keep peace within
+burgh, amongst such a set of commoners as the town are plagued
+with.'
+
+'But this is not all, Provost Crosbie,' said Mr. Alan Fairford;
+'A young gentleman of rank and fortune has disappeared amongst
+their hands--you know him.  My father gave him a letter to you--
+Mr. Darsie Latimer.'
+
+'Lack-a-day, yes!  lack-a-day, yes!'  said the provost; 'Mr.
+Darsie Latimer--he dined at my house--I hope he is well?'
+
+'I hope so too,' said Alan, rather indignantly; 'but I desire
+more certainty on that point.  You yourself wrote my father that
+he had disappeared.'
+
+'Troth, yes, and that is true,' said the provost.  'But did he
+not go back to his friends in Scotland?  it was not natural to
+think he would stay here.'
+
+'Not unless he is under restraint,' said Fairford, surprised at
+the coolness with which the provost seemed to take up the matter.
+
+'Rely on it, sir,' said Mr. Crosbie, 'that if he has not returned
+to his friends in Scotland, he must have gone to his friends in
+England.'
+
+'I will rely on no such thing,' said Alan; 'if there is law or
+justice in Scotland, I will have the thing cleared to the very
+bottom.'
+
+'Reasonable, reasonable,' said the provost, 'so far as is
+possible; but you know I have no power beyond the ports of the
+burgh.'
+
+'But you are in the commission besides, Mr. Crosbie; a justice of
+peace for the county.'
+
+'True, very true--that is,' said the cautious magistrate, 'I will
+not say but my name may stand on the list, but I cannot remember
+that I have ever qualified.'  [By taking the oaths to
+government.]
+
+'Why, in that case,' said young Fairford, 'there are ill-natured
+people might doubt your attachment to the Protestant line, Mr.
+Crosbie.'
+
+'God forbid, Mr. Fairford!  I who have done and suffered in the
+Forty-five.  I reckon the Highlandmen did me damage to the amount
+of 100l. Scots, forby all they ate and drank--no, no, sir, I
+stand beyond challenge; but as for plaguing myself with county
+business, let them that aught the mare shoe the mare.  The
+commissioners of supply would see my back broken before they
+would help me in the burgh's work, and all the world kens the
+difference of the weight between public business in burgh and
+landward.  What are their riots to me?  have we not riots enough
+of our own?--But I must be getting ready, for the council meets
+this forenoon.  I am blithe to see your father's son on the
+causeway of our ancient burgh, Mr. Alan Fairford.  Were you a
+twelve-month aulder, we would make a burgess of you, man.  I hope
+you will come and dine with me before you go away.  What think
+you of to-day at two o'clock--just a roasted chucky and a drappit
+egg?'
+
+Alan Fairford resolved that his friend's hospitality should not,
+as it seemed the inviter intended, put a stop to his queries.  'I
+must delay you for a moment,' he said, 'Mr. Crosbie; this is a
+serious affair; a young gentleman of high hopes, my own dearest
+friend, is missing--you cannot think it will be passed over
+slightly, if a man of your high character and known zeal for the
+government do not make some active inquiry.  Mr. Crosbie, you are
+my father's friend, and I respect you as such--but to others it
+will have a bad appearance.'
+
+The withers of the provost were not unwrung; he paced the room in
+much tribulation, repeating, 'But what can I do, Mr. Fairford?  I
+warrant your friend casts up again--he will come back again, like
+the ill shilling--he is not the sort of gear that tynes--a
+hellicat boy, running through the country with a blind fiddler
+and playing the fiddle to a parcel of blackguards, who can tell
+where the like of him may have scampered to?'
+
+'There are persons apprehended, and in the jail of the town, as I
+understand from the sheriff-substitute,' said Mr. Fairford; 'you
+must call them before you, and inquire what they know of this
+young gentleman.'
+
+'Aye, aye--the sheriff-depute did commit some poor creatures, I
+believe--wretched ignorant fishermen bodies, that had been
+quarrelling with Quaker Geddes and his stake-nets, whilk, under
+favour of your gown be it spoken, Mr. Fairford, are not over and
+above lawful, and the town clerk thinks that they may be lawfully
+removed VIA FACTI--but that is by the by.  But, sir, the
+creatures were a' dismissed for want of evidence; the Quaker
+would not swear to them, and what could the sheriff and me do but
+just let them loose?  Come awa, cheer up, Master Alan, and take a
+walk till dinner-time--I must really go to the council.'
+
+'Stop a moment, provost,' said Alan; 'I lodge a complaint before
+you as a magistrate, and you will find it serious to slight it
+over.  You must have these men apprehended again.'
+
+'Aye, aye--easy said; but catch them that can,' answered the
+provost; 'they are ower the march by this time, or by the point
+of Cairn.--Lord help ye!  they are a kind of amphibious deevils,
+neither land nor water beasts neither English nor Scots--neither
+county nor stewartry, as we say--they are dispersed like so much
+quicksilver.  You may as well try to whistle a sealgh out of the
+Solway, as to get hold of one of them till all the fray is over.'
+
+'Mr. Crosbie, this will not do,' answered the young counsellor;
+'there is a person of more importance than such wretches as you
+describe concerned in this unhappy business--I must name to you a
+certain Mr. Herries.'
+
+He kept his eye on the provost as he uttered the name, which he
+did rather at a venture, and from the connexion which that
+gentleman, and his real or supposed niece, seemed to have with
+the fate of Darsie Latimer, than from any distinct cause of
+suspicion which he entertained.  He thought the provost seemed
+embarrassed, though he showed much desire to assume an appearance
+of indifference, in which he partly succeeded.
+
+'Herries!'  he said--'What Herries?--There are many of that name
+--not so many as formerly, for the old stocks are wearing out;
+but there is Herries of Heathgill, and Herries of Auchintulloch,
+and Herries'--
+
+'To save you further trouble, this person's designation is
+Herries of Birrenswork.'
+
+'Of Birrenswork?'  said Mr. Crosbie; 'I have you now, Mr. Alan.
+Could you not as well have said, the Laird of Redgauntlet?'
+
+Fairford was too wary to testify any surprise at this
+identification of names, however unexpected.  'I thought,' said
+he, 'he was more generally known by the name of Herries.  I have
+seen and been in company with him under that name, I am sure.'
+
+'Oh aye; in Edinburgh, belike.  You know Redgauntlet was
+unfortunate a great while ago, and though he was maybe not deeper
+in the mire than other folk, yet, for some reason or other, he
+did not get so easily out.'
+
+'He was attainted, I understand; and has no remission,' said
+Fairford.
+
+The cautious provost only nodded, and said, 'You may guess,
+therefore, why it is so convenient he should hold his mother's
+name, which is also partly his own, when he is about Edinburgh.
+To bear his proper name might be accounted a kind of flying in
+the face of government, ye understand.  But he has been long
+connived at--the story is an old story--and the gentleman has
+many excellent qualities, and is of a very ancient and honourable
+house--has cousins among the great folk--counts kin with the
+advocate and with the sheriff--hawks, you know, Mr. Alan, will
+not pike out hawks' een--he is widely connected--my wife is a
+fourth cousin of Redgauntlet's.'
+
+HINC ILLAE LACHRYMAE!  thought Alan Fairford to himself; but the
+hint presently determined him to proceed by soft means and with
+caution.  'I beg you to understand,' said Fairford, 'that in the
+investigation I am about to make, I design no harm to Mr.
+Herries, or Redgauntlet--call him what you will.  All I wish is,
+to ascertain the safety of my friend.  I know that he was rather
+foolish in once going upon a mere frolic, in disguise, to the
+neighbourhood of this same gentleman's house.  In his
+circumstances, Mr. Redgauntlet may have misinterpreted the
+motives, and considered Darsie Latimer as a spy.  His influence,
+I believe, is great among the disorderly people you spoke of but
+now?'
+
+The provost answered with another sagacious shake of his head,
+that would have done honour to Lord Burleigh in the CRITIC.
+
+'Well, then,' continued Fairford,' is it not possible that, in
+the mistaken belief that Mr. Latimer was a spy, he may, upon such
+suspicion, have caused him to be carried off and confined
+somewhere?  Such things are done at elections, and on occasions
+less pressing than when men think their lives are in danger from
+an informer.'
+
+'Mr. Fairford,' said the provost, very earnestly, 'I scarce think
+such a mistake possible; or if, by any extraordinary chance, it
+should have taken place, Redgauntlet, whom I cannot but know
+well, being as I have said my wife's first cousin (fourth cousin,
+I should say) is altogether incapable of doing anything harsh to
+the young gentleman--he might send him ower to Ailsay for a night
+or two, or maybe land him on the north coast of Ireland, or in
+Islay, or some of the Hebrides; but depend upon it, he is
+incapable of harming a hair of his head.'
+
+'I am determined not to trust to that, provost,' answered
+Fairford firmly; 'and I am a good deal surprised at your way of
+talking so lightly of such an aggression on the liberty of the
+subject.  You are to consider, and Mr. Herries or Mr.
+Redgauntlet's friends would do very well also to consider, how it
+would sound in the ears of an English Secretary of State, that an
+attainted traitor (for such is this gentleman) has not only
+ventured to take up his abode in this realm--against the king of
+which he has been in arms--but is suspected of having proceeded,
+by open force and violence, against the person of one of the
+lieges, a young man who is neither without friends nor property
+to secure his being righted.'
+
+The provost looked at the young counsellor with a face in which
+distrust, alarm, and vexation seemed mingled.  'A fashious job,'
+he said at last, 'a fashious job; and it will be dangerous
+meddling with it.  I should like ill to see your father's son
+turn informer against an unfortunate gentleman.'
+
+'Neither do I mean it,' answered Alan, 'provided that unfortunate
+gentleman and his friends give me a quiet opportunity of securing
+my friend's safety.  If I could speak with Mr. Redgauntlet, and
+hear his own explanation, I should probably be satisfied.  If I
+am forced, to denounce him to government, it will be in his new
+capacity of a kidnapper.  I may not be able, nor is it my
+business, to prevent his being recognized in his former character
+of an attainted person, excepted from the general pardon.'
+
+'Master Fairford,' said the provost, 'would ye ruin the poor
+innocent gentleman on an idle suspicion?'
+
+'Say no more of it, Mr. Crosbie; my line of conduct is
+determined--unless that suspicion is removed.'
+
+'Weel, sir,' said the provost, 'since so it be, and since you say
+that you do not seek to harm Redgauntlet personally, I'll ask a
+man to dine with us to-day that kens as much about his matters as
+most folk.  You must think, Mr. Alan Fairford, though Redgauntlet
+be my wife's near relative, and though, doubtless, I wish him
+weel, yet I am not the person who is like to be intrusted with
+his incomings and outgoings.  I am not a man for that--I keep the
+kirk, and I abhor Popery--I have stood up for the House of
+Hanover, and for liberty and property--I carried arms, sir,
+against the Pretender, when three of the Highlandmen's baggage-
+carts were stopped at Ecclefechan; and I had an especial loss of
+a hundred pounds'--
+
+'Scots,' interrupted Fairford.  'You forget you told me all this
+before.'
+
+'Scots or English, it was too much for me to lose,' said the
+provost; so you see I am not a person to pack or peel with
+Jacobites, and such unfreemen as poor Redgauntlet.'
+
+'Granted, granted, Mr. Crosbie; and what then?'  said Alan
+Fairford.
+
+'Why, then, it follows, that if I am to help you at this pinch,
+if cannot be by and through my ain personal knowledge, but
+through some fitting agent or third person.'
+
+'Granted again,' said Fairford.  'And pray who may this third
+person be?'
+
+'Wha but Pate Maxwell of Summertrees--him they call Pate-in-
+Peril.'
+
+'An old Forty-five man, of course?'  said Fairford.
+
+'Ye may swear that,' replied the provost--'as black a Jacobite as
+the auld leaven can make him; but a sonsy, merry companion, that
+none of us think it worth while to break wi' for all his brags
+and his clavers.  You would have thought, if he had had but his
+own way at Derby, he would have marched Charlie Stuart through
+between Wade and the Duke, as a thread goes through the needle's
+ee, and seated him in Saint James's before you could have said
+haud your hand.  But though he is a windy body when he gets on
+his auld-warld stories, he has mair gumption in him than most
+people--knows business, Mr. Alan, being bred to the law; but
+never took the gown, because of the oaths, which kept more folk
+out then than they do now--the more's the pity.'
+
+'What!  are you sorry, provost, that Jacobitism is upon the
+decline?'  said Fairford.
+
+'No, no,' answered the provost--'I am only sorry for folks losing
+the tenderness of conscience which they used to have.  I have a
+son breeding to the bar, Mr. Fairford; and, no doubt, considering
+my services and sufferings, I might have looked for some bit
+postie to him; but if the muckle tykes come in--I mean a' these
+Maxwells, and Johnstones, and great lairds, that the oaths used
+to keep out lang syne--the bits o' messan doggies, like my son,
+and maybe like your father's son, Mr. Alan, will be sair put to
+the wall.'
+
+'But to return to the subject, Mr. Crosbie,' said Fairford, 'do
+you really think it likely that this Mr. Maxwell will be of
+service in this matter?'
+
+'It's very like he may be, for he is the tongue of the trump to
+the whole squad of them,' said the provost; 'and Redgauntlet,
+though he will not stick at times to call him a fool, takes more
+of his counsel than any man's else that I am aware of.  If Fate
+can bring him to a communing, the business is done.  He's a sharp
+chield, Pate-in-Peril.'
+
+'Pate-in-Peril!'  repeated Alan; 'a very singular name.'
+
+'Aye, and it was in as queer a way he got it; but I'll say
+naething about that,' said the provost, 'for fear of forestalling
+his market; for ye are sure to hear it once at least, however
+oftener, before the punch-bowl gives place to the teapot.--And
+now, fare ye weel; for there is the council-bell clinking in
+earnest; and if I am not there before it jows in, Bailie Laurie
+will be trying some of his manoeuvres.'
+
+The provost, repeating his expectation of seeing Mr. Fairford at
+two o'clock, at length effected his escape from the young
+counsellor, and left him at a considerable loss how to proceed.
+The sheriff, it seems, had returned to Edinburgh, and he feared
+to find the visible repugnance of the provost to interfere with
+this Laird of Birrenswork, or Redgauntlet, much stronger amongst
+the country gentlemen, many of whom were Catholics as well as
+Jacobites, and most others unwilling to quarrel with kinsmen and
+friends, by prosecuting with severity political offences which
+had almost run a prescription.
+
+To collect all the information in his power, and not to have
+recourse to the higher authorities until he could give all the
+light of which the case was capable, seemed the wiser proceeding
+in a choice of difficulties.  He had some conversation with the
+procurator-fiscal, who, as well as the provost, was an old
+correspondent of his father.  Alan expressed to that officer a
+purpose of visiting Brokenburn, but was assured by him, that it
+would be a step attended with much danger to his own person, and
+altogether fruitless; that the individuals who had been
+ringleaders in the riot were long since safely sheltered in their
+various lurking-holes in the Isle of Man, Cumberland, and
+elsewhere; and that those who might remain would undoubtedly
+commit violence on any who visited their settlement with the
+purpose of inquiring into the late disturbances.
+
+There were not the same objections to his hastening to Mount
+Sharon, where he expected to find the latest news of his friend;
+and there was time enough to do so, before the hour appointed for
+the provost's dinner.  Upon the road, he congratulated himself on
+having obtained one point of almost certain information.  The
+person who had in a manner forced himself upon his father's
+hospitality, and had appeared desirous to induce Darsie Latimer
+to visit England, against whom, too, a sort of warning had been
+received from an individual connected with and residing in his
+own family, proved to be a promoter of the disturbance in which
+Darsie had disappeared.
+
+What could be the cause of such an attempt on the liberty of an
+inoffensive and amiable man?  It was impossible it could be
+merely owing to Redgauntlet's mistaking Darsie for a spy; for
+though that was the solution which Fairford had offered to the
+provost, he well knew that, in point of fact, he himself had been
+warned by his singular visitor of some danger to which his friend
+was exposed, before such suspicion could have been entertained;
+and the injunctions received by Latimer from his guardian, or him
+who acted as such, Mr. Griffiths of London, pointed to the same
+thing.  He was rather glad, however, that he had not let Provost
+Crosbie into his secret further than was absolutely necessary;
+since it was plain that the connexion of his wife with the
+suspected party was likely to affect his impartiality as a
+magistrate.
+
+When Alan Fairford arrived at Mount Sharon, Rachel Geddes
+hastened to meet him, almost before the servant could open the
+door.  She drew back in disappointment when she beheld a
+stranger, and said, to excuse her precipitation, that 'she had
+thought it was her brother Joshua returned from Cumberland.'
+
+'Mr. Geddes is then absent from home?'  said Fairford, much
+disappointed in his turn.
+
+'He hath been gone since yesterday, friend,' answered Rachel,
+once more composed to the quietude which characterizes her sect,
+but her pale cheek and red eye giving contradiction to her
+assumed equanimity.
+
+'I am,' said Fairford, hastily, 'the particular friend of a young
+man not unknown to you, Miss Geddes--the friend of Darsie
+Latimer--and am come hither in the utmost anxiety, having
+understood from Provost Crosbie, that he had disappeared in the
+night when a destructive attack was made upon the fishing-station
+of Mr. Geddes.'
+
+'Thou dost afflict me, friend, by thy inquiries,' said Rachel,
+more affected than before; 'for although the youth was like those
+of the worldly generation, wise in his own conceit, and lightly
+to be moved by the breath of vanity, yet Joshua loved him, and
+his heart clave to him as if he had been his own son.  And when
+he himself escaped from the sons of Belial, which was not until
+they had tired themselves with reviling, and with idle reproach,
+and the jests of the scoffer, Joshua, my brother, returned to
+them once and again, to give ransom for the youth called Darsie
+Latimer, with offers of money and with promise of remission, but
+they would not hearken to him.  Also, he went before the head
+judge, whom men call the sheriff, and would have told him of the
+youth's peril; but he would in no way hearken to him unless he
+would swear unto the truth of his words, which thing he might not
+do without sin, seeing it is written, Swear not at all--also,
+that our conversation shall be yea or nay.  Therefore, Joshua
+returned to me disconsolate, and said, "Sister Rachel, this youth
+hath run into peril for my sake; assuredly I shall not be
+guiltless if a hair of his head be harmed, seeing I have sinned
+in permitting him to go with me to the fishing station when such
+evil was to be feared.  Therefore, I will take my horse, even
+Solomon, and ride swiftly into Cumberland, and I will make myself
+friends with Mammon of Unrighteousness, among the magistrates of
+the Gentiles, and among their mighty men; and it shall come to
+pass that Darsie Latimer shall be delivered, even if it were at
+the expense of half my substance."  And I said, "Nay, my brother,
+go not, for they will but scoff at and revile thee; but hire with
+thy silver one of the scribes, who are eager as hunters in
+pursuing their prey, and he shall free Darsie Latimer from the
+men of violence by his cunning, and thy soul shall be guiltless
+of evil towards the lad."   But he answered and said, "I will not
+be controlled in this matter."  And he is gone forth and hath not
+returned, and I fear me that he may never return; for though he
+be peaceful, as becometh one who holds all violence as offence
+against his own soul, yet neither the floods of water, nor the
+fear of the snare, nor the drawn sword of the adversary
+brandished in the path, will overcome his purpose.  Wherefore the
+Solway may swallow him up, or the sword of the enemy may devour
+him--nevertheless, my hope is better in Him who directeth all
+things, and ruleth over the waves of the sea, and overruleth the
+devices of the wicked, and who can redeem us even as a bird from
+the fowler's net.'
+
+This was all that Fairford could learn from Miss Geddes; but he
+heard with pleasure that the good Quaker, her brother, had many
+friends among those of his own profession in Cumberland, and
+without exposing himself to so much danger as his sister seemed
+to apprehend, he trusted he might be able to discover some traces
+of Darsie Latimer.  He himself rode back to Dumfries, having left
+with Miss Geddes his direction in that place, and an earnest
+request that she would forward thither whatever information she
+might obtain from her brother.
+
+On Fairford's return to Dumfries, he employed the brief interval
+which remained before dinner-time, in writing an account of what
+had befallen Latimer and of the present uncertainty of his
+condition, to Mr. Samuel Griffiths, through whose hands the
+remittances for his friend's service had been regularly made,
+desiring he would instantly acquaint him with such parts of his
+history as might direct him in the search which he was about to
+institute through the border counties, and which he pledged
+himself not; to give up until he had obtained news of his friend,
+alive or dead, The young lawyer's mind felt easier when he had
+dispatched this letter.  He could not conceive any reason why his
+friend's life should be aimed at; he knew Darsie had done nothing
+by which his liberty could be legally affected; and although,
+even of late years, there had been singular histories of men, and
+women also, who had been trepanned, and concealed in solitudes
+and distant islands in order to serve some temporary purpose,
+such violences had been chiefly practised by the rich on the
+poor, and by the strong on the feeble; whereas, in the present
+case, this Mr. Herries, or Redgauntlet, being amenable, for more
+reasons than one, to the censure of the law, must be the weakest
+in any struggle in which it could be appealed to.  It is true,
+that his friendly anxiety whispered that the very cause which
+rendered this oppressor less formidable, might make him more
+desperate.  Still, recalling his language, so strikingly that of
+the gentleman, and even of the man of honour, Alan Fairford
+concluded, that though, in his feudal pride, Redgauntlet might
+venture on the deeds of violence exercised by the aristocracy in
+other times, he could not be capable of any action of deliberate
+atrocity.  And in these convictions he went to dine with Provost
+Crosbie, with a heart more at ease than might have been expected.
+[See Note 7.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+NARRATIVE OF ALAN FAIRFORD, CONTINUED
+
+Five minutes had elapsed after the town clock struck two,
+before Alan Fairford, who had made a small detour to put his
+letter into the post-house, reached the mansion of Mr. Provost
+Crosbie, and was at once greeted by the voice of that civic
+dignitary, and the rural dignitary his visitor, as by the voices
+of men impatient for their dinner.
+
+'Come away, Mr. Fairford--the Edinburgh time is later than ours,'
+said the provost.
+
+And, 'Come away, young gentleman,' said the laird; 'I remember your
+father weel at the Cross thirty years ago--I reckon you are as
+late in Edinburgh as at London, four o'clock hours--eh?'
+
+'Not quite so degenerate,' replied Fairford; 'but certainly many
+Edinburgh people are so ill-advised as to postpone their dinner
+till three, that they may have full time to answer their London
+correspondents.'
+
+'London correspondents!'  said Mr. Maxwell; 'and pray what the
+devil have the people of Auld Reekie to do with London
+correspondents?'  [Not much in those days, for within my
+recollection the London post; was brought north in a small mail-
+cart; and men are yet as live who recollect when it came down
+with only one single letter for Edinburgh, addressed to the
+manager of the British Linen Company.]
+
+'The tradesmen must have their goods,' said Fairford.
+
+'Can they not buy our own Scottish manufactures, and pick their
+customers pockets in a more patriotic manner?'
+
+'Then the ladies must have fashions,' said Fairford.
+
+'Can they not busk the plaid over their heads, as their mothers
+did?  A tartan screen, and once a year a new cockernony from
+Paris, should serve a countess.  But ye have not many of them
+left, I think--Mareschal, Airley, Winton, Vemyss, Balmerino, all
+passed and gone--aye, aye, the countesses and ladies of quality
+will scarce take up too much of your ball-room floor with their
+quality hoops nowadays.'
+
+'There is no want of crowding, however, sir,' said Fairford;
+'they begin to talk of a new Assembly room.'
+
+'A new Assembly room!'  said the old Jacobite laird--'Umph--I
+mind quartering three hundred men in the old Assembly room [I
+remember hearing this identical answer given by an old Highland
+gentleman of the Forty-Five, when he heard of the opening of the
+New Assembly Rooms in George Street.]--But come, come--I'll ask
+no more questions--the answers all smell of new lords new lands,
+and do but spoil my appetite, which were a pity, since here comes
+Mrs. Crosbie to say our mutton's ready.'
+
+It was even so.  Mrs. Crosbie had been absent, like Eve, 'on
+hospitable cares intent,' a duty which she did not conceive
+herself exempted from, either by the dignity of her husband's
+rank in the municipality, or the splendour of her Brussels silk
+gown, or even by the more highly prized lustre of her birth; for
+she was born a Maxwell, and allied, as her husband often informed
+his friends, to several of the first families in the county.  She
+had been handsome, and was still a portly, good-looking woman of
+her years; and though her peep into the kitchen had somewhat
+heightened her complexion, it was no more than a modest touch of
+rouge might have done.
+
+The provost was certainly proud of his lady, nay, some said he
+was afraid of her; for of the females of the Redgauntlet family
+there went a rumour, that, ally where they would, there was a
+grey mare as surely in the stables of their husbands, as there is
+a white horse in Wouvermans' pictures.  The good dame, too, was
+supposed to have brought a spice of politics into Mr. Crosbie's
+household along with her; and the provost's enemies at the
+council-table of the burgh used to observe that he uttered there
+many a bold harangue against the Pretender, and in favour of King
+George and government, of which he dared not have pronounced a
+syllable in his own bedchamber; and that, in fact, his wife's
+predominating influence had now and then occasioned his acting,
+or forbearing to act, in a manner very different from his general
+professions of zeal for Revolution principles.  If this was in
+any respect true, it was certain, on the other hand, that Mrs.
+Crosbie, in all external points, seemed to acknowledge the
+'lawful sway and right supremacy' of the head of the house, and
+if she did not in truth reverence her husband, she at least
+seemed to do so.
+
+This stately dame received Mr. Maxwell (a cousin of course) with
+cordiality, and Fairford with civility; answering at the same
+time with respect, to the magisterial complaints of the provost,
+that dinner was just coming up.  'But since you changed poor
+Peter MacAlpin, that used to take care of the town-clock, my
+dear, it has never gone well a single day.'
+
+'Peter MacAlpin, my dear,' said the provost,' made himself too
+busy for a person in office, and drunk healths and so forth,
+which it became no man to drink or to pledge, far less one that
+is in point of office a servant of the public, I understand that
+he lost the music bells in Edinburgh, for playing "Ower the Water
+to Charlie," upon the tenth of June.  He is a black sheep, and
+deserves no encouragement.'
+
+'Not a bad tune though, after all,' said Summertrees; and,
+turning to the window, he half hummed, half whistled, the air in
+question, then sang the last verse aloud:
+
+  'Oh I loe weel my Charlie's name,
+    Though some there be that abhor him;
+   But oh to see the deil gang hame
+    Wi' a' the Whigs before him!
+   Over the water, and over the sea,
+    And over the water to Charlie;
+   Come weal, come woe, we'll gather and go,
+    And live or die with Charlie.'
+
+Mrs. Crosbie smiled furtively on the laird, wearing an aspect at
+the same time of deep submission; while the provost, not choosing
+to hear his visitor's ditty, took a turn through the room, in
+unquestioned dignity and independence of authority.
+
+'Aweel, aweel, my dear,' said the lady, with a quiet smile of
+submission, 'ye ken these matters best, and you will do your
+pleasure--they are far above my hand--only, I doubt if ever the
+town-clock will go right, or your meals be got up so regular as I
+should wish, till Peter MacAlpin gets his office back again.  The
+body's auld, and can neither work nor want, but he is the only
+hand to set a clock.'
+
+It may be noticed in passing, that notwithstanding this
+prediction, which, probably, the fair Cassandra had the full
+means of accomplishing, it was not till the second council day
+thereafter that the misdemeanours of the Jacobite clock-keeper
+were passed over, and he was once more restored to his occupation
+of fixing the town's time, and the provost's dinner-hour.
+
+Upon the present occasion the dinner passed pleasantly away.
+Summertrees talked and jested with the easy indifference of a man
+who holds himself superior to his company.  He was indeed an
+important person, as was testified by his portly appearance; his
+hat laced with POINT D'ESPAGNE; his coat and waistcoat once
+richly embroidered, though now almost threadbare; the splendour
+of his solitaire, and laced ruffles, though the first was sorely
+creased, and the other sullied; not to forget the length of his
+silver-hilted rapier.  His wit, or rather humour, bordered on the
+sarcastic, and intimated a discontented man; and although he
+showed no displeasure when the provost attempted a repartee, yet
+it seemed that he permitted it upon mere sufferance, as a
+fencing-master, engaged with a pupil, will sometimes permit the
+tyro to hit him, solely by way of encouragement.  The laird's own
+jests, in the meanwhile, were eminently successful, not only with
+the provost and his lady, but with the red-cheeked and red-
+ribboned servant-maid who waited at table, and who could scarce
+perform her duty with propriety, so effectual were the explosions
+of Summertrees.  Alan Fairford alone was unmoved among all this
+mirth; which was the less wonderful, that, besides the important
+subject which occupied his thoughts, most of the laird's good
+things consisted in sly allusions to little parochial or family
+incidents, with which the Edinburgh visitor was totally
+unacquainted:  so that the laughter of the party sounded in his
+ear like the idle crackling of thorns under the pot, with this
+difference, that they did not accompany or second any such useful
+operation as the boiling thereof.
+
+Fairford was glad when the cloth was withdrawn; and when Provost
+Crosbie (not without some points of advice from his lady touching
+the precise mixture of the ingredients) had accomplished the
+compounding of a noble bowl of punch, at which the old Jacobite's
+eyes seemed to glisten, the glasses were pushed round it, filled,
+and withdrawn each by its owner, when the provost emphatically
+named the toast, 'The King,' with an important look to Fairford,
+which seemed to say, You can have no doubt whom I mean, and
+therefore there is no occasion to particularize the individual.
+
+Summertrees repeated the toast, with a sly wink to the lady,
+while Fairford drank his glass in silence.
+
+'Well, young advocate,' said the landed proprietor, 'I am glad to
+see there is some shame, if there is little honesty, left in the
+Faculty.  Some of your black gowns, nowadays, have as little of
+the one as of the other.'
+
+'At least, sir,' replied Mr. Fairford, 'I am so much of a lawyer
+as not willingly to enter into disputes which I am not retained
+to support--it would be but throwing away both time and
+argument.'
+
+'Come, come,' said the lady, 'we will have no argument in this
+house about Whig or Tory--the provost kens what he maun SAY, and
+I ken what he should THINK; and for a' that has come and gane
+yet, there may be a time coming when honest men may say what they
+think, whether they be provosts or not.'
+
+'D'ye hear that, provost?'  said Summertrees; 'your wife's a
+witch, man; you should nail a horseshoe on your chamber door--Ha,
+ha, ha!'
+
+This sally did not take quite so well as former efforts of the
+laird's wit.  The lady drew up, and the provost said, half aside,
+'The sooth bourd is nae bourd.  [The true joke is no joke.]  You
+will find the horseshoe hissing hot, Summertrees.'
+
+'You can speak from experience, doubtless, provost,' answered
+the laird; 'but I crave pardon--I need not tell Mrs. Crosbie that
+I have all respect for the auld and honourable House of
+Redgauntlet.'
+
+'And good reason ye have, that are sae sib to them,' quoth the
+lady, 'and kend weel baith them that are here, and them that are
+gane.'
+
+'In troth, and ye may say sae, madam,' answered the laird; 'for
+poor Harry Redgauntlet, that suffered at Carlisle, was hand and
+glove with me; and yet we parted on short leave-taking.'
+
+'Aye, Summertrees,' said the provost; 'that was when you played
+Cheat-the-woodie, and gat the by-name of Pate-in-Peril.  I wish
+you would tell the story to my young friend here.  He likes weel
+to hear of a sharp trick, as most lawyers do.'
+
+'I wonder at your want of circumspection, provost,' said the
+laird,--much after the manner of a singer when declining to sing
+the song that is quivering upon his tongue's very end.  'Ye
+should mind there are some auld stories that cannot be ripped up
+again with entire safety to all concerned.  TACE is Latin for a
+candle,'
+
+'I hope,' said the lady, 'you are not afraid of anything being
+said out of this house to your prejudice, Summertrees?  I have
+heard the story before; but the oftener I hear it, the more
+wonderful I think it.'
+
+'Yes, madam; but it has been now a wonder of more than nine days,
+and it is time it should be ended,' answered Maxwell.
+
+Fairford now thought it civil to say, 'that he had often heard of
+Mr. Maxwell's wonderful escape, and that nothing could be more
+agreeable to him than to hear the right version of it.'
+
+But Summertrees was obdurate, and refused to take up the time of
+the company with such 'auld-warld nonsense.'
+
+'Weel, weel,' said the provost, 'a wilful man maun hae his way.
+What do your folk in the country think about the disturbances
+that are beginning to spunk out in the colonies?'
+
+'Excellent, sir, excellent.  When things come to the worst; they
+will mend; and to the worst they are coming.  But as to that
+nonsense ploy of mine, if ye insist on hearing the particulars,'
+--said the laird, who began to be sensible that the period of
+telling his story gracefully was gliding fast away.
+
+'Nay,' said the provost, 'it was not for myself, but this young
+gentlemen.'
+
+'Aweel, what for should I not pleasure the young gentlemen?  I'll
+just drink to honest folk at hame and abroad, and deil ane else.
+And then--but you have heard it before, Mrs. Crosbie?'
+
+'Not so often as to think it tiresome, I assure ye,' said the
+lady; and without further preliminaries, the laird addressed Alan
+Fairford.
+
+'Ye have heard of a year they call the FORTY-FIVE, young
+gentleman; when the Southrons' heads made their last acquaintance
+with Scottish claymores?  There was a set of rampauging chields
+in the country then that they called rebels--I never could find
+out what for--Some men should have been wi' them that never came,
+provost--Skye and the Bush aboon Traquair for that, ye ken.--
+Weel, the job was settled at last.  Cloured crowns were plenty,
+and raxed necks came into fashion.  I dinna mind very weel what I
+was doing, swaggering about the country with dirk and pistol at
+my belt for five or six months, or thereaway; but I had a weary
+waking out of a wild dream.  When did I find myself on foot in a
+misty morning, with my hand, just for fear of going astray,
+linked into a handcuff, as they call it, with poor Harry
+Redgauntlet's fastened into the other; and there we were,
+trudging along, with about a score more that had thrust their
+horns ower deep in the bog, just like ourselves, and a sergeant's
+guard of redcoats, with twa file of dragoons, to keep all quiet,
+and give us heart to the road.  Now, if this mode of travelling
+was not very pleasant, the object did not particularly recommend
+it; for, you understand, young man, that they did not trust these
+poor rebel bodies to be tried by juries of their ain kindly
+countrymen, though ane would have thought they would have found
+Whigs enough in Scotland to hang us all; but they behoved to
+trounce us away to be tried at Carlisle, where the folk had been
+so frightened, that had you brought a whole Highland clan at once
+into the court, they would have put their hands upon their een,
+and cried, "hang them a'," just to be quit of them.'
+
+'Aye, aye,' said the provost, 'that was a snell law, I grant ye.'
+
+'Snell!'  said the wife, 'snell!  I wish they that passed it had
+the jury I would recommend them to!'
+
+'I suppose the young lawyer thinks it all very right,' said
+Summertrees, looking at Fairford--"an OLD lawyer might have
+thought otherwise.  However, the cudgel was to be found to beat
+the dog, and they chose a heavy one.  Well, I kept my spirits
+better than my companion, poor fellow; for I had the luck to have
+neither wife nor child to think about, and Harry Redgauntlet had
+both one and t'other.--You have seen Harry, Mrs. Crosbie?'
+
+'In troth have I,' said she, with the sigh which we give to early
+recollections, of which the object is no more.  'He was not so
+tall as his brother, and a gentler lad every way.  After he
+married the great English fortune, folk called him less of a
+Scottishman than Edward.'
+
+'Folk lee'd, then,' said Summertrees; 'poor Harry was none of
+your bold-speaking, ranting reivers, that talk about what they
+did yesterday, or what they will do to-morrow; it was when
+something was to do at the moment that you should have looked at
+Harry Redgauntlet.  I saw him at Culloden, when all was lost,
+doing more than twenty of these bleezing braggarts, till the very
+soldiers that took him cried not to hurt him--for all somebody's
+orders, provost--for he was the bravest fellow of them all.
+Weel, as I went by the side of Harry, and felt him raise my hand
+up in the mist of the morning, as if he wished to wipe his eye--
+for he had not that freedom without my leave--my very heart was
+like to break for him, poor fellow.  In the meanwhile, I had been
+trying and trying to make my hand as fine as a lady's, to see if
+I could slip it out of my iron wristband.  You may think,' he
+said, laying his broad bony hand on the table, 'I had work enough
+with such a shoulder-of-mutton fist; but if you observe, the
+shackle-bones are of the largest, and so they were obliged to
+keep the handcuff wide; at length I got my hand slipped out, and
+slipped in again; and poor Harry was sae deep in his ain
+thoughts, I could not make him sensible what I was doing,'
+
+'Why not?'  said Alan Fairford, for whom the tale began to have
+some interest.
+
+'Because there was an unchancy beast of a dragoon riding close
+beside us on the other side; and if I had let him into my
+confidence as well as Harry, it would not have been long before a
+pistol-ball slapped through my bonnet.--Well, I had little for it
+but to do the best I could for myself; and, by my conscience, it
+was time, when the gallows was staring me in the face.  We were
+to halt for breakfast at Moffat.  Well did I know the moors we
+were marching over, having hunted and hawked on every acre of
+ground in very different times.  So I waited, you see, till I was
+on the edge of Errickstane-brae--Ye ken the place they call the
+Marquis's Beef-stand, because the Annandale loons used to put
+their stolen cattle in there?'
+
+Fairford intimated his ignorance,
+
+'Ye must have seen it as ye came this way; it looks as if four
+hills were laying their heads together, to shut out daylight from
+the dark hollow space between them.  A d--d deep, black,
+blackguard-looking abyss of a hole it is, and goes straight down
+from the roadside, as perpendicular as it can do, to be a
+heathery brae.  At the bottom, there is a small bit of a brook,
+that you would think could hardly find, its way out from the
+hills that are so closely jammed round it.'
+
+'A bad pass, indeed,' said Alan.
+
+'You may say that,' continued the laird.  'Bad as it was, sir, it
+was my only chance; and though my very flesh creeped when I
+thought what a rumble I was going to get, yet I kept my heart up
+all the same.  And so, just when we came on the edge of this
+Beef-stand of the Johnstones, I slipped out my hand from the
+handcuff, cried to Harry Gauntlet, 'Follow me!'--whisked under
+the belly of the dragoon horse--flung my plaid round me with the
+speed of lightning--threw myself on my side, for there was no
+keeping my feet, and down the brae hurled I, over heather and
+fern, and blackberries, like a barrel down Chalmer's Close, in
+Auld Reekie.  G--, sir, I never could help laughing when I think
+how the scoundrel redcoats must have been bumbazed; for the mist
+being, as I said, thick, they had little notion, I take it, that
+they were on the verge of such a dilemma.  I was half way down--
+for rowing is faster wark than rinning--ere they could get at
+their arms; and then it was flash, flash, flash--rap, rap, rap--
+from the edge of the road; but my head was too jumbled to think
+anything either of that or the hard knocks I got among the
+stones.  I kept my senses thegither, whilk has been thought
+wonderful by all that ever saw the place; and I helped myself
+with my hands as gallantly as I could, and to the bottom I came.
+There I lay for half a moment; but the thoughts of a gallows is
+worth all the salts and scent-bottles in the world for bringing a
+man to himself.  Up I sprang, like a four-year-auld colt.  All
+the hills were spinning round with me, like so many great big
+humming-tops.  But there was nae time to think of that neither;
+more especially as the mist had risen a little with the firing.
+I could see the villains, like sae mony craws on the edge of the
+brae; and I reckon that they saw me; for some of the loons were
+beginning to crawl down the hill, but liker auld wives in their
+red cloaks, coming frae a field preaching, than such a souple lad
+as I was.  Accordingly, they soon began to stop and load their
+pieces.  Good-e'en to you, gentlemen, thought I, if that is to be
+the gate of it.  If you have any further word with me, you maun
+come as far as Carriefraw-gauns.  And so off I set, and never
+buck went faster ower the braes than I did; and I never stopped
+till I had put three waters, reasonably deep, as the season was
+rainy, half a dozen mountains, and a few thousand acres of the
+worst moss and ling in Scotland, betwixt me and my friends the
+redcoats.'
+
+'It was that job which got you the name of Pate-in-Peril,' said
+the provost, filling the glasses, and exclaiming with great
+emphasis, while his guest, much animated with the recollections
+which the exploit excited, looked round with an air of triumph
+for sympathy and applause,--'Here is to your good health; and may
+you never put your neck in such a venture again.'  [The escape of
+a Jacobite gentleman while on the road to Carlisle to take his
+trial for his share in the affair of 1745, took place at
+Errickstane-brae, in the singular manner ascribed to the Laird of
+Summertrees in the text.  The author has seen in his youth the
+gentleman to whom the adventure actually happened.  The distance
+of time makes some indistinctness of recollection, but it is
+believed the real name was MacEwen or MacMillan.]
+
+'Humph!--I do not know,' answered Summertrees.  'I am not like to
+be tempted with another opportunity--[An old gentleman of the
+author's name was engaged in the affair of 1715, and with some
+difficulty was saved from the gallows by the intercession of the
+Duchess of Buccleugh and Monmouth.  Her Grace, who maintained a
+good deal of authority over her clan, sent for the object of her
+intercession, and warning him of the risk which he had run, and
+the trouble she had taken on his account, wound up her lecture by
+intimating that in case of such disloyalty again, he was not to
+expect her interest in his favour.  'An it please your Grace,'
+said the stout old Tory, 'I fear I am too old to see another
+opportunity.']  Yet who knows?'  And then he made a deep pause.
+
+'May I ask what became of your friend, sir?'  said Alan Fairford.
+
+'Ah, poor Harry!'  said Summertrees.  'I'll tell you what, sir,
+it takes time to make up one's mind to such a venture, as my
+friend the provost calls it; and I was told by Neil Maclean,--who
+was next file to us, but had the luck to escape the gallows by
+some sleight-of-hand trick or other,--that, upon my breaking off,
+poor Harry stood like one motionless, although all our brethren
+in captivity made as much tumult as they could, to distract the
+attention of the soldiers.  And run he did at last; but he did
+not know the ground, and either from confusion, or because he
+judged the descent altogether perpendicular, he fled up the hill
+to the left, instead of going down at once, and so was easily
+pursued and taken.  If he had followed my example, he would have
+found enough among the shepherds to hide him, and feed him, as
+they did me, on bearmeal scenes and braxy mutton, till better
+days came round again.'  [BRAXY MUTTON.--The flesh of sheep that
+has died of disease, not by the hand of the butcher.  In pastoral
+countries it is used as food with little scruple.]
+
+'He suffered then for his share in the insurrection?'  said Alan.
+
+'You may swear that,' said Summertrees.  'His blood was too red
+to be spared when that sort of paint was in request.  He
+suffered, sir, as you call it--that is, he was murdered in cold
+blood, with many a pretty fellow besides.  Well, we may have our
+day next--what is fristed is not forgiven--they think us all dead
+and buried--but'--Here he filled his glass, and muttering some
+indistinct denunciations, drank it off, and assumed his usual
+manner, which had been a little disturbed towards the end of the
+narrative.
+
+'What became of Mr. Redgauntlet's child?'  said Fairford.
+
+MISTER Redgauntlet!  He was Sir Henry Redgauntlet, as his son, if
+the child now lives, will be Sir Arthur--I called him Harry from
+intimacy, and Redgauntlet, as the chief of his name--His proper
+style was Sir Henry Redgauntlet.'
+
+'His son, therefore, is dead?'  said Alan Fairford.  'It is a
+pity so brave a line should draw to a close.'
+
+'He has left a brother,' said Summertrees, 'Edward Hugh
+Redgauntlet, who has now the representation of the family.  And
+well it is; for though he be unfortunate in many respects, he
+will keep up the honour of the house better than a boy bred up
+amongst these bitter Whigs, the relations of his elder brother
+Sir Henry's lady.  Then they are on no good terms with the
+Redgauntlet line--bitter Whigs they are in every sense.  It was a
+runaway match betwixt Sir Henry and his lady.  Poor thing, they
+would not allow her to see him when in confinement--they had even
+the meanness to leave him without pecuniary assistance; and as
+all his own property was seized upon and plundered, he would have
+wanted common necessaries, but for the attachment of a fellow who
+was a famous fiddler--a blind man--I have seen him with Sir Henry
+myself, both before the affair broke out and while it was going
+on.  I have heard that he fiddled in the streets of Carlisle, and
+carried what money he got to his master, while he was confined in
+the castle.'
+
+'I do not believe a word of it,' said Mrs. Crosbie, kindling with
+indignation.  'A Redgauntlet would have died twenty times before
+he had touched a fiddler's wages.'
+
+'Hout fye--hout fye--all nonsense and pride,' said the Laird of
+Summertrees.  'Scornful dogs will eat dirty puddings, cousin
+Crosbie--ye little ken what some of your friends were obliged to
+do yon time for a sowp of brose, or a bit of bannock.  G--d, I
+carried a cutler's wheel for several weeks, partly for need, and
+partly for disguise--there I went bizz--bizz--whizz--zizz, at
+every auld wife's door; and if ever you want your shears
+sharpened, Mrs. Crosbie, I am the lad to do it for you, if my
+wheel was but in order.'
+
+'You, must ask my leave first,' said the provost; 'for I have
+been told you had some queer fashions of taking a kiss instead of
+a penny, if you liked your customer.'
+
+'Come, come, provost,' said the lady; rising, 'if the maut gets
+abune the meal with you, it is time for me to take myself away--
+And you will come to my room, gentlemen, when you want a cup of
+tea.'
+
+Alan Fairford was not sorry for the lady's departure.  She seemed
+too much alive to the honour of the house of Redgauntlet, though
+only a fourth cousin, not to be alarmed by the inquiries which he
+proposed to make after the whereabout of its present head.
+Strange confused suspicions arose in his mind, from his imperfect
+recollection of the tale of Wandering Willie, and the idea forced
+itself upon him that his friend Darsie Latimer might be the son
+of the unfortunate Sir Henry.  But before indulging in such
+speculations, the point was to discover what had actually become
+of him.  If he were in the hands of his uncle, might there not
+exist some rivalry in fortune, or rank, which might induce so
+stern a man as Redgauntlet to use unfair measures towards a youth
+whom he would find himself unable to mould to his purpose?  He
+considered these points in silence, during several revolutions of
+the glasses as they wheeled in galaxy round the bowl, waiting
+until the provost, agreeably to his own proposal, should mention
+the subject, for which he had expressly introduced him to Mr.
+Maxwell of Summertrees.
+
+Apparently the provost had forgot his promise, or at least was in
+no great haste to fulfil it.  He debated with great earnestness
+upon the Stamp Act, which was then impending over the American
+colonies, and upon other political subjects of the day, but said
+not a word of Redgauntlet.  Alan soon saw that the investigation
+he meditated must advance, if at all, on his own special motion,
+and determined to proceed accordingly.
+
+Acting upon this resolution, he took the first opportunity
+afforded by a pause in the discussion of colonial politics, to
+say, 'I must remind you, Provost Crosbie, of your kind promise to
+procure some intelligence upon the subject I am so anxious
+about.'
+
+'Gadso!'  said the provost, after a moment's hesitation, 'it is
+very true.--Mr. Maxwell, we wish to consult you on a piece of
+important business.  You must know indeed I think you must have
+heard, that the fishermen at Brokenburn, and higher up the
+Solway, have made a raid upon Quaker Geddes's stake-nets, and
+levelled all with the sands.'
+
+'In troth I heard it, provost, and I was glad to hear the
+scoundrels had so much pluck left as to right themselves against
+a fashion which would make the upper heritors a sort of clocking-
+hens, to hatch the fish that folk below them were to catch and
+eat.'
+
+'Well, sir,' said Alan, 'that is not the present point.  But a
+young friend of mine was with Mr. Geddes at the time this violent
+procedure took place, and he has not since been heard of.  Now,
+our friend, the provost, thinks that you may be able to advise'--
+
+Here he was interrupted by the provost and Summertrees speaking
+out both at once, the first endeavouring to disclaim all interest
+in the question, and the last to evade giving an answer.
+
+'Me think!'  said the provost; 'I never thought twice about it,
+Mr. Fairford; it was neither fish, nor flesh, nor salt herring of
+mine.'
+
+'And I "able to advise"!'  said Mr. Maxwell of Summertrees; 'what
+the devil can I advise you to do, excepting to send the bellman
+through the town to cry your lost sheep, as they do spaniel dogs
+or stray ponies?'
+
+'With your pardon,' said Alan, calmly, but resolutely, 'I must
+ask a more serious answer.'
+
+'Why, Mr. Advocate,' answered Summertrees, 'I thought it was your
+business to give advice to the lieges, and not to take it from
+poor stupid country gentlemen.'
+
+'If not exactly advice, it is sometimes our duty to ask
+questions, Mr. Maxwell.'
+
+'Aye, sir, when you have your bag-wig and your gown on, we must
+allow you the usual privilege of both gown and petticoat, to ask
+what questions you please.  But when you are out of your
+canonicals, the case is altered.  How come you, sir, to suppose
+that I have any business with this riotous proceeding, or should
+know more than you do what happened there?  the question proceeds
+on an uncivil supposition.'
+
+'I will explain,' said Alan, determined to give Mr. Maxwell no
+opportunity of breaking off the conversation.  'You are an
+intimate of Mr. Redgauntlet--he is accused of having been engaged
+in this affray, and of having placed under forcible restraint the
+person of my friend, Darsie Latimer, a young man of property and
+consequence, whose fate I am here for the express purpose of
+investigating.  This is the plain state of the case; and all
+parties concerned,--your friend, in particular,--will have reason
+to be thankful for the temperate manner in which it is my purpose
+to conduct the matter, if I am treated with proportionate
+frankness.'
+
+'You have misunderstood me,' said Maxwell, with a tone changed to
+more composure; 'I told you I was the friend of the late Sir
+Henry Redgauntlet, who was executed, in 1745, at Hairibie, near
+Carlisle, but I know no one who at present bears the name of
+Redgauntlet.'
+
+'You know Mr. Herries of Birrenswork,' said Alan, smiling, 'to
+whom the name of Redgauntlet belongs?'
+
+Maxwell darted a keen reproachful look towards the provost, but
+instantly smoothed his brow, and changed his tone to that of
+confidence and candour.
+
+'You must not be angry, Mr. Fairford, that the poor persecuted
+nonjurors are a little upon the QUI VIVE when such clever young
+men as you are making inquiries after us.  I myself now, though I
+am quite out of the scrape, and may cock my hat at the Cross as I
+best like, sunshine or moonshine, have been yet so much
+accustomed to walk with the lap of my cloak cast over my face,
+that, faith, if a redcoat walk suddenly up to me, I wish for my
+wheel and whetstone again for a moment.  Now Redgauntlet, poor
+fellow, is far worse off--he is, you may have heard, still under
+the lash of the law,--the mark of the beast is still on his
+forehead, poor gentleman,--and that makes us cautious--very
+cautious, which I am sure there is no occasion to be towards you,
+as no one of your appearance and manners would wish to trepan a
+gentleman under misfortune.'
+
+'On the contrary, sir,' said Fairford, 'I wish to afford Mr.
+Redgauntlet's friends an opportunity to get him out of the
+scrape, by procuring the instant liberation of my friend Darsie
+Latimer.  I will engage that if he has sustained no greater
+bodily harm than a short confinement, the matter may be passed
+over quietly, without inquiry; but to attain this end, so
+desirable for the man who has committed a great and recent
+infraction of the laws, which he had before grievously offended,
+very speedy reparation of the wrong must be rendered.'
+
+Maxwell seemed lost in reflection, and exchanged a glance or two,
+not of the most comfortable or congratulatory kind, with his host
+the provost.  Fairford rose and walked about the room, to allow
+them an opportunity of conversing together; for he was in hopes
+that the impression he had visibly made upon Summertrees was
+likely to ripen into something favourable to his purpose.  They
+took the opportunity, and engaged in whispers to each other,
+eagerly and reproachfully on the part of the laird, while the
+provost answered in an embarrassed and apologetical tone.  Some
+broken words of the conversation reached Fairford, whose presence
+they seemed to forget, as he stood at the bottom of the room,
+apparently intent upon examining the figures upon a fine Indian
+screen, a present to the provost from his brother, captain of a
+vessel in the Company's service.  What he overheard made it
+evident that his errand, and the obstinacy with which he pursued
+it, occasioned altercation between the whisperers.
+
+Maxwell at length let out the words, 'A good fright; and so send
+him home with his tail scalded, like a dog that has come a-
+privateering on strange premises.'
+
+The provost's negative was strongly interposed--'Not to be
+thought of'--'making bad worse'--'my situation'--'my utility'--
+'you cannot conceive how obstinate--just like his father'.
+
+They then whispered more closely, and at length the provost
+raised his drooping crest, and spoke in a cheerful tone.  'Come,
+sit down to your glass, Mr. Fairford; we have laid our heads
+thegither, and you shall see it will not be our fault if you are
+not quite pleased, and Mr. Darsie Latimer let loose to take his
+fiddle under his neck again.  But Summertrees thinks it will
+require you to put yourself into some bodily risk, which maybe
+you may not be so keen of.'
+
+'Gentlemen,' said Fairford, 'I will not certainly shun any risk
+by which my object may be accomplished; but I bind it on your
+consciences--on yours, Mr. Maxwell, as a man of honour and a
+gentleman; and on yours, provost, as a magistrate and a loyal
+subject, that you do not mislead me in this matter.'
+
+'Nay, as for me,' said Summertrees, 'I will tell you the truth at
+once, and fairly own that I can certainly find you the means of
+seeing Redgauntlet, poor man; and that I will do, if you require
+it, and conjure him also to treat you as your errand requires;
+but poor Redgauntlet is much changed--indeed, to say truth, his
+temper never was the best in the world; however, I will warrant
+you from any very great danger.'
+
+'I will warrant myself from such,' said Fairford, 'by carrying a
+proper force with me.'
+
+'Indeed,' said Summertrees, 'you will, do no such thing; for, in
+the first place, do you think that we will deliver up the poor
+fellow into the hands of the Philistines, when, on the contrary,
+my only reason for furnishing you with the clue I am to put into
+your hands, is to settle the matter amicably on all sides?  And
+secondly, his intelligence is so good, that were you coming near
+him with soldiers, or constables, or the like, I shall answer for
+it, you will never lay salt on his tail.'
+
+Fairford mused for a moment.  He considered that to gain sight of
+this man, and knowledge of his friend's condition, were
+advantages to be purchased at every personal risk; and he saw
+plainly, that were he to take the course most safe for himself,
+and call in the assistance of the law, it was clear he would
+either be deprived of the intelligence necessary to guide him, or
+that Redgauntlet would be apprised of his danger, and might
+probably leave the country, carrying his captive along with him.
+He therefore repeated, 'I put myself on your honour, Mr. Maxwell;
+and I will go alone to visit your friend.  I have little; doubt I
+shall find him amenable to reason; and that I shall receive from
+him a satisfactory account of Mr. Latimer.'
+
+'I have little doubt that you will,' said Mr. Maxwell of
+Summertrees; 'but still I think it will be only in the long run,
+and after having sustained some delay and inconvenience.  My
+warrandice goes no further.'
+
+'I will take it as it is given,' said Alan Fairford.  'But let me
+ask, would it not be better, since you value your friend's safety
+so highly and surely would not willingly compromise mine, that
+the provost or you should go with me to this man, if he is within
+any reasonable distance, and try to make him hear reason?'
+
+'Me!--I will not go my foot's length,' said the provost; and
+that, Mr. Alan, you may be well assured of.  Mr. Redgauntlet is
+my wife's fourth cousin, that is undeniable; but were he the last
+of her kin and mine both, it would ill befit my office to be
+communing with rebels.'
+
+'Aye, or drinking with nonjurors,' said Maxwell, filling his
+glass.  'I would as soon expect; to have met Claverhouse at a
+field-preaching.  And as for myself, Mr. Fairford, I cannot go,
+for just the opposite reason.  It would be INFRA DIG. in the
+provost of this most flourishing and loyal town to associate with
+Redgauntlet; and for me it would be NOSCITUR A SOCIO.  There
+would be post to London, with the tidings that two such Jacobites
+as Redgauntlet and I had met on a braeside--the Habeas Corpus
+would be suspended--Fame would sound a charge from Carlisle to
+the Land's End--and who knows but the very wind of the rumour
+might blow my estate from between my fingers, and my body over
+Errickstane-brae again?  No, no; bide a gliff--I will go into the
+provost's closet, and write a letter to Redgauntlet, and direct
+you how to deliver it.'
+
+'There is pen and ink in the office,' said the provost, pointing
+to the door of an inner apartment, in which he had his walnut-
+tree desk and east-country cabinet.
+
+'A pen that can write, I hope?'  said the old laird.
+
+'It can write and spell baith in right hands,' answered the
+provost, as the laird retired and shut the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+NARRATIVE OF ALAN FAIRFORD, CONTINUED
+
+The room was no sooner deprived of Mr. Maxwell of Summertrees's
+presence, than the provost looked very warily above, beneath, and
+around the apartment, hitched his chair towards that of his
+remaining guest, and began to speak In a whisper which could not
+have startled 'the smallest mouse that creeps on floor.'
+
+'Mr. Fairford,' said he, 'you are a good lad; and, what is more,
+you are my auld friend your father's son.  Your father has been
+agent for this burgh for years, and has a good deal to say with
+the council; so there have been a sort of obligations between him
+and me; it may have been now on this side and now on that; but
+obligations there have been.  I am but a plain man, Mr. Fairford;
+but I hope you understand me?'
+
+'I believe you mean me well, provost; and I am sure,' replied
+Fairford, 'you can never better show your kindness than on this
+occasion.'
+
+'That's it--that's the very point I would be at, Mr. Alan,'
+replied the provost; 'besides, I am, as becomes well my
+situation, a stanch friend to kirk and king, meaning this present
+establishment in church and state; and so, as I was saying, you
+may command my best--advice.'
+
+'I hope for your assistance and co-operation also,' said the
+youth.
+
+'Certainly, certainly,' said the wary magistrate.  'Well, now,
+you see one may love the kirk, and yet not ride on the rigging of
+it; and one may love the king, and yet not be cramming him
+eternally down the throat of the unhappy folk that may chance to
+like another king better.  I have friends and connexions among
+them, Mr. Fairford, as your father may have clients--they are
+flesh and blood like ourselves, these poor Jacobite bodies--sons
+of Adam and Eve, after all; and therefore--I hope you understand
+me?--I am a plain-spoken man.'
+
+'I am afraid I do not quite understand you,' said Fairford; 'and
+if you have anything to say to me in private, my dear provost,
+you had better come quickly out with it, for the Laird of
+Summertrees must finish his letter in a minute or two.'
+
+'Not a bit, man--Pate is a lang-headed fellow, but his pen does
+not clear the paper as his greyhound does the Tinwald-furs.  I
+gave him a wipe about that, if you noticed; I can say anything to
+Pate-in-Peril--Indeed, he is my wife's near kinsman.'
+
+'But your advice, provost,' said Alan, who perceived that, like a
+shy horse, the worthy magistrate always started off from his own
+purpose just when he seemed approaching to it.
+
+'Weel, you shall have it in plain terms, for I am a plain man.
+Ye see, we will suppose that any friend like yourself were in the
+deepest hole of the Nith, sand making a sprattle for your life.
+Now, you see, such being the case, I have little chance of
+helping you, being a fat, short-armed man, and no swimmer, and
+what would be the use of my jumping in after you?'
+
+'I understand you, I think,' said Alan Fairford.  'You think that
+Darsie Latimer is in danger of his life?'
+
+'Me!--I think nothing about it, Mr. Alan; but if he were, as I
+trust he is not, he is nae drap's blood akin to you, Mr. Alan.'
+
+'But here your friend, Summertrees,' said the young lawyer,
+'offers me a letter to this Redgauntlet of yours--What say you to
+that?'
+
+'Me!' ejaculated the provost, 'me, Mr. Alan?  I say neither buff
+nor stye to it--But ye dinna ken what it is to look a Redgauntlet
+in the face;--better try my wife, who is but a fourth cousin,
+before ye venture on the laird himself--just say something about
+the Revolution, and see what a look she can gie you.'
+
+I shall leave you to stand all the shots from that battery,
+provost.'  replied Fairford.  'But speak out like a man--Do you
+think Summertrees means fairly by me?'
+
+'Fairly--he is just coming--fairly?  I am a plain man, Mr.
+Fairford--but ye said FAIRLY?'
+
+'I do so,' replied Alan, 'and it is of importance to me to know,
+and to you to tell me if such is the case; for if you do not, you
+may be an accomplice to murder before the fact, and that under
+circumstances which may bring it near to murder under trust.'
+
+'Murder!--who spoke of murder?'  said the provost; no danger of
+that, Mr. Alan--only, if I were you--to speak my plain mind'--
+Here he approached his mouth to the ear of the young lawyer, and,
+after another acute pang of travail, was safely delivered of his
+advice in the following abrupt words:--'Take a keek into Pate's
+letter before ye deliver it.'
+
+Fairford started, looked the provost hard in the face, and was
+silent; while Mr. Crosbie, with the self-approbation of one who
+has at length brought himself to the discharge of a great duty,
+at the expense of a considerable sacrifice, nodded and winked to
+Alan, as if enforcing his advice; and then swallowing a large
+glass of punch, concluded, with the sigh of a man released from a
+heavy burden, 'I am a plain man, Mr. Fairford.'
+
+'A plain man?'  said Maxwell, who entered the room at that
+moment, with the letter in his hand,--'Provost, I never heard you
+make use of the word but when you had some sly turn of your own
+to work out.'
+
+The provost looked silly enough, and the Laird of Summertrees
+directed a keen and suspicious glance upon Alan Fairford, who
+sustained it with professional intrepidity.--There was a moment's
+pause.
+
+'I was trying,' said the provost, 'to dissuade our young friend
+from his wildgoose expedition.'
+
+'And I,' said Fairford, 'am determined to go through with it.
+Trusting myself to you, Mr. Maxwell, I conceive that I rely, as I
+before said, on the word of a gentleman.'
+
+'I will warrant you,' said Maxwell, 'from all serious
+consequences--some inconveniences you must look to suffer.'
+
+'To these I shall be resigned,' said Fairford, 'and stand
+prepared to run my risk.'
+
+'Well then,' said Summertrees, 'you must go'--
+
+'I will leave you to yourselves, gentlemen,' said the provost,
+rising; 'when you have done with your crack, you will find me at
+my wife's tea-table.'
+
+'And a more accomplished old woman never drank catlap,' said
+Maxwell, as he shut the door; 'the last word has him, speak it
+who will--and yet because he is a whillywhaw body, and has a
+plausible tongue of his own, and is well enough connected, and
+especially because nobody could ever find out whether he is Whig
+or Tory, this is the third time they have made him provost!--But
+to the matter in hand.  This letter, Mr. Fairford,' putting a
+sealed one into his hand, 'is addressed, you observe, to Mr. H--
+of B--, and contains your credentials for that gentlemen, who is
+also known by his family name of Redgauntlet, but less frequently
+addressed by it, because it is mentioned something invidiously in
+a certain Act of Parliament.  I have little doubt he will assure
+you of your friend's safety, and in a short time place him at
+freedom--that is, supposing him under present restraint.  But the
+point is, to discover where he is--and, before you are made
+acquainted with this necessary part of the business, you must
+give me your assurance of honour that you will acquaint no one,
+either by word or letter, with the expedition which you now
+propose to yourself.'
+
+'How, sir?'  answered Alan; 'can you expect that I will not take
+the precaution of informing some person of the route I am about
+to take, that in case of accident it may be known where I am, and
+with what purpose I have gone thither?'
+
+'And can you expect,' answered Maxwell, in the same tone, 'that I
+am to place my friend's safety, not merely in your hands, but in
+those of any person you may choose to confide in, and who may use
+the knowledge to his destruction?  Na--na--I have pledged my word
+for your safety, and you must give me yours to be private in the
+matter--giff-gaff, you know.'
+
+Alan Fairford could not help thinking that this obligation to
+secrecy gave a new and suspicious colouring to the whole
+transaction; but, considering that his friend's release might
+depend upon his accepting the condition, he gave it in the terms
+proposed, and with the purpose of abiding by it.
+
+'And now, sir,' he said, 'whither am I to proceed with this
+letter?  Is Mr. Herries at Brokenburn?'
+
+'He is not; I do not think he will come thither again until the
+business of the stake-nets be hushed up, nor would I advise him
+to do so--the Quakers, with all their demureness, can bear malice
+as long as other folk; and though I have not the prudence of Mr.
+Provost, who refuses to ken where his friends are concealed
+during adversity, lest, perchance, he should be asked to
+contribute to their relief, yet I do not think it necessary or
+prudent to inquire into Redgauntlet's wanderings, poor man, but
+wish to remain at perfect freedom to answer, if asked at, that I
+ken nothing of the matter.  You must, then, go to old Tom
+Trumbull's at Annan,--Tam Turnpenny, as they call him,--and he is
+sure either to know where Redgauntlet is himself, or to find some
+one who can give a shrewd guess.  But you must attend that old
+Turnpenny will answer no question on such a subject without you
+give him the passport, which at present you must do, by asking
+him the age of the moon; if he answers, "Not light enough to land
+a cargo," you are to answer, "Then plague on Aberdeen Almanacks,"
+and upon that he will hold free intercourse with you.  And now, I
+would advise you to lose no time, for the parole is often
+changed--and take care of yourself among these moonlight lads,
+for laws and lawyers do not stand very high in their favour.'
+
+'I will set out this instant,' said the young barrister; 'I will
+but bid the provost and Mrs. Crosbie farewell, and then get on
+horseback so soon as the ostler of the George Inn can saddle
+him;--as for the smugglers, I am neither gauger nor supervisor,
+and, like the man who met the devil, if they have nothing to say
+to me, I have nothing to say to them.'
+
+'You are a mettled young man,' said Summertrees, evidently with
+increasing goodwill, on observing an alertness and contempt of
+danger, which perhaps he did not expect from Alan's appearance
+and profession,--'a very mettled young fellow indeed!  and it is
+almost a pity'--Here he stopped abort.
+
+'What is a pity?'  said Fairford.
+
+'It is almost a pity that I cannot go with you myself, or at
+least send a trusty guide.'
+
+They walked together to the bedchamber of Mrs. Crosbie, for it
+was in that asylum that the ladies of the period dispensed their
+tea, when the parlour was occupied by the punch-bowl.
+
+'You have been good bairns to-night, gentlemen,' said Mrs.
+Crosbie; 'I am afraid, Summertrees, that the provost has given
+you a bad browst; you are not used to quit the lee-side of the
+punch-bowl in such a hurry.  I say nothing to you, Mr. Fairford,
+for you are too young a man yet for stoup and bicker; but I hope
+you will not tell the Edinburgh fine folk that the provost has
+scrimped you of your cogie, as the sang says?'
+
+'I am much obliged for the provost's kindness, and yours, madam,'
+replied Alan; 'but the truth is, I have still a long ride before
+me this evening and the sooner I am on horse-back the better.'
+
+'This evening?'  said the provost, anxiously; 'had you not better
+take daylight with you to-morrow morning?'
+
+'Mr. Fairford will ride as well in the cool of the evening,' said
+Summertrees, taking the word out of Alan's mouth.
+
+The provost said no more, nor did his wife ask any questions, nor
+testify any surprise at the suddenness of their guest's
+departure.
+
+Having drunk tea, Alan Fairford took leave with the usual
+ceremony.  The Laird of Summertrees seemed studious to prevent
+any further communication between him and the provost, and
+remained lounging on the landing-place of the stair while they
+made their adieus--heard the provost ask if Alan proposed a
+speedy return, and the latter reply that his stay was uncertain,
+and witnessed the parting shake of the hand, which, with a
+pressure more warm than usual, and a tremulous, 'God bless and
+prosper you!'  Mr. Crosbie bestowed on his young friend.  Maxwell
+even strolled with Fairford as far as the George, although
+resisting all his attempts at further inquiry into the affairs of
+Redgauntlet, and referring him to Tom Trumbull, alias Turnpenny,
+for the particulars which he might find it necessary to inquire
+into.
+
+At length Alan's hack was produced--an animal long in neck, and
+high in bone, accoutred with a pair of saddle-bags containing the
+rider's travelling wardrobe.  Proudly surmounting his small stock
+of necessaries, and no way ashamed of a mode of travelling which
+a modern Mr. Silvertongue would consider as the last of
+degradations, Alan Fairford took leave of the old Jacobite, Pate-
+in-Peril, and set forward on the road to the loyal burgh of
+Annan.  His reflections during his ride were none of the most
+pleasant.  He could not disguise from himself that he was
+venturing rather too rashly into the power of outlawed and
+desperate persons; for with such only, a man in the situation of
+Redgauntlet could be supposed to associate.  There were other
+grounds for apprehension, Several marks of intelligence betwixt
+Mrs. Crosbie and the Laird of Summertrees had not escaped Alan's
+acute observation; and it was plain that the provost's
+inclinations towards him, which he believed to be sincere and
+good, were not firm enough to withstand the influence of this
+league between his wife and friend.  The provost's adieus, like
+Macbeth's amen, had stuck in his throat, and seemed to intimate
+that he apprehended more than he dared give utterance to.
+
+Laying all these matters together, Alan thought, with no little
+anxiety on the celebrated lines of Shakespeare,
+
+                                  -- A drop,
+  That in the ocean seeks another drop, &c.
+
+But pertinacity was a strong feature in the young lawyer's
+character.  He was, and always had been, totally unlike the
+'horse hot at hand,' who tires before noon through his own over
+eager exertions in the beginning of the day.  On the contrary,
+his first efforts seemed frequently inadequate to accomplishing
+his purpose, whatever that for the time might be; and it was only
+as the difficulties of the task increased, that his mind seemed
+to acquire the energy necessary to combat and subdue them.  If,
+therefore, he went anxiously forward upon his uncertain and
+perilous expedition, the reader must acquit him of all idea, even
+in a passing thought, of the possibility of abandoning his
+search, and resigning Darsie Latimer to his destiny.
+
+A couple of hours' riding brought him to the little town of
+Annan, situated on the shores of the Solway, between eight and
+nine o'clock.  The sun had set, but the day was not yet ended;
+and when he had alighted and seen his horse properly cared for at
+the principal inn of the place, he was readily directed to Mr.
+Maxwell's friend, old Tom Trumbull, with whom everybody seemed
+well acquainted.  He endeavoured to fish out from the lad that
+acted as a guide, something of this man's situation and
+profession; but the general expressions of 'a very decent man'--
+'a very honest body'--'weel to pass in the world,' and such like,
+were all that could be extracted from him; and while Fairford was
+following up the investigation with closer interrogatories, the
+lad put an end to them by knocking at the door of Mr. Trumbull,
+whose decent dwelling was a little distance from the town, and
+considerably nearer to the sea.  It was one of a little row of
+houses running down to the waterside, and having gardens and
+other accommodations behind.  There was heard within the
+uplifting of a Scottish psalm; and the boy saying, 'They are at
+exercise, sir,' gave intimation they might not be admitted till
+prayers were over.
+
+When, however, Fairford repeated the summons with the end of his
+whip, the singing ceased, and Mr. Trumbull himself, with his
+psalm-book in his hand, kept open by the insertion of his
+forefinger between the leaves, came to demand the meaning of this
+unseasonable interruption.
+
+Nothing could be more different than his whole appearance seemed
+to be from the confidant of a desperate man, and the associate of
+outlaws in their unlawful enterprises.  He was a tall, thin, bony
+figure, with white hair combed straight down on each side of his
+face, and an iron-grey hue of complexion; where the lines, or
+rather, as Quin said of Macklin, the cordage, of his countenance
+were so sternly adapted to a devotional and even ascetic
+expression, that they left no room for any indication of reckless
+daring or sly dissimulation.  In short, Trumbull appeared a
+perfect specimen of the rigid old Covenanter, who said only what
+he thought right, acted on no other principle but that of duty,
+and, if he committed errors, did so under the full impression
+that he was serving God rather than man.
+
+'Do you want me, sir?'  he said to Fairford, whose guide had
+slunk to the rear, as if to escape the rebuke of the severe old
+man,--'We were engaged, and it is the Saturday night.'
+
+Alan Fairford's preconceptions were so much deranged by this
+man's appearance and manner, that he stood for a moment
+bewildered, and would as soon have thought of giving a cant
+password to a clergyman descending from the pulpit, as to the
+respectable father of a family just interrupted in his prayers
+for and with the objects of his care.  Hastily concluding Mr.
+Maxwell had passed some idle jest on him, or rather that he had
+mistaken the person to whom he was directed, he asked if he spoke
+to Mr. Trumbull.
+
+'To Thomas Trumbull,' answered the old man--'What may be your
+business, sir?'  And he glanced his eye to the book he held in
+his hand, with a sigh like that of a saint desirous of
+dissolution.
+
+'Do you know Mr. Maxwell of Summertrees?'  said Fairford.
+
+'I have heard of such a gentleman in the country-side, but have
+no acquaintance with him,' answered Mr. Trumbull; 'he is, as I
+have heard, a Papist; for the whore that sitteth on the seven
+hills ceaseth not yet to pour forth the cup of her abomination on
+these parts.'
+
+'Yet he directed me hither, my good friend,' said Alan.  'Is
+there another of your name in this town of Annan?'
+
+'None,' replied Mr. Trumbull, 'since my worthy father was
+removed; he was indeed a shining light.--I wish you good even,
+sir.'
+
+'Stay one single instant,' said Fairford; 'this is a matter of
+life and death.'
+
+'Not more than the casting the burden of our sins where they
+should be laid,' said Thomas Trumbull, about to shut the door in
+the inquirer's face.
+
+'Do you know,' said Alan Fairford, 'the Laird of Redgauntlet?'
+
+'Now Heaven defend me from treason and rebellion!' exclaimed
+Trumbull.  'Young gentleman, you are importunate.  I live here
+among my own people, and do not consort with Jacobites and mass-
+mongers.'
+
+He seemed about to shut the door, but did NOT shut it, a
+circumstance which did not escape Alan's notice.
+
+'Mr. Redgauntlet is sometimes,' he said, 'called Herries of
+Birrenswork; perhaps you may know him under that name.'
+
+'Friend, you are uncivil,' answered Mr. Trumbull; 'honest men
+have enough to do to keep one name undefiled.  I ken nothing
+about those who have two.  Good even to you, friend.'
+
+He was now about to slam the door in his visitor's face without
+further ceremony, when Alan, who had observed symptoms that the
+name of Redgauntlet did not seem altogether so indifferent to him
+as he pretended, arrested his purpose by saying, in a low voice,
+'At least you can tell me what age the moon is?'
+
+The old man started, as if from a trance, and before answering,
+surveyed the querist with a keen penetrating glance, which seemed
+to say, 'Are you really in possession of this key to my
+confidence, or do you speak from mere accident?'
+
+To this keen look of scrutiny, Fairford replied by a smile of
+intelligence.
+
+The iron muscles of the old man's face did not, however, relax,
+as he dropped, in a careless manner, the countersign, 'Not light
+enough to land a cargo.'
+
+'Then plague of all Aberdeen Almanacks!'
+
+'And plague of all fools that waste time,' said Thomas Trumbull,
+'Could you not have said as much at first?  And standing wasting
+time, and encouraging; lookers-on, in the open street too?  Come
+in by--in by.'
+
+He drew his visitor into the dark entrance of the house, and shut
+the door carefully; then putting his head into an apartment which
+the murmurs within announced to be filled with the family, he
+said aloud, 'A work of necessity and mercy--Malachi, take the
+book--You will sing six double verses of the hundred and
+nineteen-and you may lecture out of the Lamentations.  And,
+Malachi,'--this he said in an undertone,--'see you give them a a
+creed of doctrine that will last them till I come back; or else
+these inconsiderate lads will be out of the house, and away to
+the publics, wasting their precious time, and, it may be, putting
+themselves in the way of missing the morning tide.'
+
+An inarticulate answer from within intimated Malachi's
+acquiescence in the commands imposed; and, Mr. Trumbull, shutting
+the door, muttered something about fast bind, fast find, turned
+the key, and put it into his pocket; and then bidding his visitor
+have a care of his steps, and make no noise, he led him through
+the house, and out at a back-door, into a little garden.  Here a
+plaited alley conducted them, without the possibility of their
+being seen by any neighbour, to a door in the garden-wall, which
+being opened, proved to be a private entrance into a three-
+stalled stable; in one of which was a horse, that whinnied on
+their entrance.  'Hush, hush!' cried the old man, and presently
+seconded his exhortations to silence by throwing a handful of
+corn into the manger, and the horse soon converted his
+acknowledgement of their presence into the usual sound of
+munching and grinding his provender.
+
+As the light was now failing fast, the old man, with much more
+alertness than might have been expected from the rigidity of his
+figure, closed the window-shutters in an instant, produced
+phosphorus and matches, and lighted a stable-lantern, which he
+placed on the corn-bin, and then addressed Fairford.  'We are
+private here, young man; and as some time has been wasted
+already, you will be so kind as to tell me what is your errand.
+Is it about the way of business, or the other job?'
+
+'My business with you, Mr. Trumbull, is to request you will find
+me the means of delivering this letter, from Mr. Maxwell of
+Summertrees to the Laird of Redgauntlet.'
+
+'Humph--fashious job!  Pate Maxwell will still be the auld man--
+always Pate-in-Peril--Craig-in-Peril, for what I know.  Let me
+see the letter from him.'
+
+He examined it with much care, turning it up and down, and
+looking at the seal very attentively.  'All's right, I see; it
+has the private mark for haste and speed.  I bless my Maker that
+I am no great man, or great man's fellow; and so I think no more
+of these passages than just to help them forward in the way of
+business.  You are an utter stranger in these parts, I warrant?'
+
+Fairford answered in the affirmative.
+
+'Aye--I never saw them make a wiser choice--I must call some one
+to direct you what to do--Stay, we must go to him, I believe.
+You are well recommended to me, friend, and doubtless trusty;
+otherwise you may see more than I would like to show, or am in
+the use of showing in the common line of business.'
+
+Saying this, he placed his lantern on the ground, beside the post
+of one of the empty stalls, drew up a small spring bolt which
+secured it to the floor, and then forcing the post to one side,
+discovered a small trap-door.  'Follow me,' he said, and dived
+into the subterranean descent to which this secret aperture gave
+access.
+
+Fairford plunged after him, not without apprehensions of more
+kinds than one, but still resolved to prosecute the adventure.
+
+The descent, which was not above six feet, led to a very narrow
+passage, which seemed to have been constructed for the precise
+purpose of excluding every one who chanced to be an inch more in
+girth than was his conductor.  A small vaulted room, of about
+eight feet square, received them at the end of this lane.  Here
+Mr. Trumbull left Fairford alone, and returned for an instant, as
+he said, to shut his concealed trap-door.
+
+Fairford liked not his departure, as it left him in utter
+darkness; besides that his breathing was much affected by a
+strong and stifling smell of spirits, and other articles of a
+savour more powerful than agreeable to the lungs.  He was very
+glad, therefore, when he heard the returning steps of Mr.
+Trumbull, who, when once more by his side, opened a strong though
+narrow door in the wall, and conveyed Fairford into an immense
+magazine of spirit-casks, and other articles of contraband trade.
+
+There was a small, light at the end of this range of well-stocked
+subterranean vaults, which, upon a low whistle, began to flicker
+and move towards them.  An undefined figure, holding a dark
+lantern, with the light averted, approached them, whom Mr.
+Trumbull thus addressed:--'Why were you not at worship, Job; and
+this Saturday at e'en?'
+
+'Swanston was loading the JENNY, sir; and I stayed to serve out
+the article.'
+
+'True--a work of necessity, and in the way of business.  Does
+the JUMPING JENNY sail this tide?'
+
+'Aye, aye, sir; she sails for'--
+
+'I did not ask you WHERE she sailed for, Job,' said the old
+gentleman, interrupting him.  'I thank my Maker, I know nothing
+of their incomings or outgoings.  I sell my article fairly and in
+the ordinary way of business; and I wash my hands of everything
+else.  But what I wished to know is, whether the gentleman called
+the Laird of the Solway Lakes is on the other side of the Border
+even now?'
+
+'Aye, aye,' said Job, 'the laird is something in my own line, you
+know--a little contraband or so, There is a statute for him--But
+no matter; he took the sands after the splore at the Quaker's
+fish-traps yonder; for he has a leal heart, the laird, and is
+always true to the country-side.  But avast--is all snug here?'
+
+So saying, he suddenly turned on Alan Fairford the light side of
+the lantern he carried, who, by the transient gleam which it
+threw in passing on the man who bore it, saw a huge figure,
+upwards of six feet high, with a rough hairy cap on his head, and
+a set of features corresponding to his bulky frame.  He thought
+also he observed pistols at his belt.
+
+'I will answer for this gentleman,' said Mr. Trumbull; 'he must
+be brought to speech of the laird.'
+
+'That will be kittle steering,' said the subordinate personage;
+'for I understood that the laird and his folk were no sooner on
+the other side than the land-sharks were on them, and some
+mounted lobsters from Carlisle; and so they were obliged to split
+and squander.  There are new brooms out to sweep the country of
+them, they say; for the brush was a hard one; and they say there
+was a lad drowned;--he was not one of the laird's gang, so there
+was the less matter.'
+
+'Peace!  prithee, peace, Job Rutledge,' said honest, pacific Mr.
+Trumbull.  'I wish thou couldst remember, man, that I desire to
+know nothing of your roars and splores, your brooms and brushes.
+I dwell here among my own people; and I sell my commodity to him
+who comes in the way of business; and so wash my hands of all
+consequences, as becomes a quiet subject and an honest man.  I
+never take payment, save in ready money.'
+
+'Aye, aye,' muttered he with the lantern, 'your worship, Mr.
+Trumbull, understands that in the way of business.'
+
+'Well, I hope you will one day know, Job,' answered Mr.
+Trumbull,--'the comfort of a conscience void of offence, and that
+fears neither gauger nor collector, neither excise nor customs.
+The business is to pass this gentleman to Cumberland upon earnest
+business, and to procure him speech with the Laird of the Solway
+Lakes--I suppose that can be done?  Now I think Nanty Ewart, if
+he sails with the brig this morning tide, is the man to set him
+forward.'
+
+'Aye, aye, truly is he,' said Job; 'never man knew the Border,
+dale and fell, pasture and ploughland, better than Nanty; and he
+can always bring him to the laird, too, if you are sure the
+gentleman's right.  But indeed that's his own look-out; for were
+he the best man in Scotland, and the chairman of the d--d Board
+to boot, and had fifty men at his back, he were as well not visit
+the laird for anything but good.  As for Nanty, he is word and
+blow, a d--d deal fiercer than Cristie Nixon that they keep such
+a din about.  I have seen them both tried, by'--
+
+Fairford now found himself called upon to say something; yet his
+feelings, upon finding himself thus completely in the power of a
+canting hypocrite, and of his retainer, who had so much the air
+of a determined ruffian, joined to the strong and abominable fume
+which they snuffed up with indifference, while it almost deprived
+him of respiration, combined to render utterance difficult.  He
+stated, however, that he had no evil intentions towards the
+laird, as they called him, but was only the bearer of a letter to
+him on particular business, from Mr. Maxwell of Summertrees.
+
+'Aye, aye,' said Job, 'that may be well enough; and if Mr.
+Trumbull is satisfied that the service is right, why, we will
+give you a cast in the JUMPING JENNY this tide, and Nanty Ewart
+will put you on a way of finding the laird, I warrant you.'
+
+'I may for the present return, I presume, to the inn where I left
+my horse?'  said Fairford.
+
+'With pardon,' replied Mr. Trumbull, 'you have been ower far ben
+with us for that; but Job will take you to a place where you may
+sleep rough till he calls you.  I will bring you what little
+baggage you can need--for those who go on such errands must not
+be dainty.  I will myself see after your horse, for a merciful
+man is merciful to his beast--a matter too often forgotten in our
+way of business.'
+
+'Why, Master Trumbull,' replied Job, 'you know that when we are
+chased, it's no time to shorten sail, and so the boys do ride
+whip and spur.'  He stopped in his speech, observing the old man
+had vanished through the door by which he had entered--'That's
+always the way with old Turnpenny,' he said to Fairford; 'he
+cares for nothing of the trade but the profit--now, d--me, if I
+don't think the fun of it is better worth while.  But come along,
+my fine chap; I must stow you away in safety until it is time to
+go aboard.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+NARRATIVE OF ALAN FAIRFORD, CONTINUED
+
+Fairford followed his gruff guide among a labyrinth of barrels
+and puncheons, on which he had more than once like to have broken
+his nose, and from thence into what, by the glimpse of the
+passing lantern upon a desk and writing materials, seemed to be a
+small office for the dispatch of business.  Here there appeared
+no exit; but the smuggler, or smuggler's ally, availing himself
+of a ladder, removed an old picture, which showed a door about
+seven feet from the ground, and Fairford, still following Job,
+was involved in another tortuous and dark passage, which
+involuntarily reminded him of Peter Peebles's lawsuit.  At the
+end of this labyrinth, when he had little guess where he had been
+conducted, and was, according to the French phrase, totally
+DESORIENTE, Job suddenly set down the lantern, and availing
+himself of the flame to light two candles which stood on the
+table, asked if Alan would choose anything to eat, recommending,
+at all events, a slug of brandy to keep out the night air.
+Fairford declined both, but inquired after his baggage.
+
+'The old master will take care of that himself,' said Job
+Rutledge; and drawing back in the direction in which he had
+entered, he vanished from the farther end of the apartment, by a
+mode which the candles, still shedding an imperfect light, gave
+Alan no means of ascertaining.  Thus the adventurous young lawyer
+was left alone in the apartment to which he had been conducted by
+so singular a passage.
+
+In this condition, it was Alan's first employment to survey, with
+some accuracy, the place where he was; and accordingly, having
+trimmed the lights, he walked slowly round the apartment,
+examining its appearance and dimensions.  It seemed to be such a
+small dining-parlour as is usually found in the house of the
+better class of artisans, shopkeepers, and such persons, having a
+recess at the upper end, and the usual furniture of an ordinary
+description.  He found a door, which he endeavoured to open, but
+it was locked on the outside.  A corresponding door on the same
+side of the apartment admitted him into a closet, upon the front
+shelves of which were punch-bowls, glasses, tea-cups, and the
+like, while on one side was hung a horseman's greatcoat of the
+coarsest materials, with two great horse-pistols peeping out of
+the pocket, and on the floor stood a pair of well-spattered jack-
+boots, the usual equipment of the time, at least for long
+journeys,
+
+Not greatly liking the contents of the closet, Alan Fairford shut
+the door, and resumed his scrutiny round the walls of the
+apartment, in order to discover the mode of Job Rutledge's
+retreat.  The secret passage was, however, too artificially
+concealed, and the young lawyer had nothing better to do than to
+meditate on the singularity of his present situation.  He had
+long known that the excise laws had occasioned an active
+contraband trade betwixt Scotland and England, which then, as
+now, existed, and will continue to exist until the utter
+abolition of the wretched system which establishes an inequality
+of duties betwixt the different parts of the same kingdom; a
+system, be it said in passing, mightily resembling the conduct of
+a pugilist, who should tie up one arm that he might fight the
+better with the other.  But Fairford was unprepared for the
+expensive and regular establishments by which the illicit traffic
+was carried on, and could not have conceived that the capital
+employed in it should have been adequate to the erection of these
+extensive buildings, with all their contrivances for secrecy of
+communication.  He was musing on these circumstances, not without
+some anxiety for the progress of his own journey, when suddenly,
+as he lifted his eyes, he discovered old Mr. Trumbull at the
+upper end of the apartment, bearing in one hand a small bundle,
+in the other his dark lantern, the light of which, as he
+advanced, he directed full upon Fairford's countenance.
+
+Though such an apparition was exactly what he expected, yet he
+did not see the grim, stern old man present himself thus suddenly
+without emotion; especially when he recollected, what to a youth
+of his pious education was peculiarly shocking, that the grizzled
+hypocrite was probably that instant arisen from his knees to
+Heaven, for the purpose of engaging in the mysterious
+transactions of a desperate and illegal trade.
+
+The old man, accustomed to judge with ready sharpness of the
+physiognomy of those with whom he had business, did not fail to
+remark something like agitation in Fairford's demeanour.  'Have
+ye taken the rue?'  said he.  'Will ye take the sheaf from the
+mare, and give up the venture?'
+
+'Never!'  said Fairford, firmly, stimulated at once by his
+natural spirit, and the recollection of his friend; 'never, while
+I have life and strength to follow it out!'
+
+'I have brought you,' said Trumbull, 'a clean shirt, and some
+stockings, which is all the baggage you can conveniently carry,
+and I will cause one of the lads lend you a horseman's coat, for
+it is ill sailing or riding without one; and, touching your
+valise, it will be as safe in my poor house, were it full of the
+gold of Ophir, as if it were in the depth of the mine.'  'I have
+no doubt of it,' said Fairford.
+
+'And now,' said Trumbull, again, 'I pray you to tell me by what
+name I am to name you to Nanty (which is Antony) Ewart?'
+
+'By the name of Alan Fairford,' answered the young lawyer.
+
+'But that,' said Mr. Trumbull, in reply, 'is your own proper name
+and surname.'
+
+'And what other should I give?'  said the young man; 'do you
+think I have any occasion for an alias?  And, besides, Mr.
+Trumbull,' added Alan, thinking a little raillery might intimate
+confidence of spirit, 'you blessed yourself, but a little while
+since, that you had no acquaintance with those who defiled their
+names so far as to be obliged to change them.'
+
+'True, very true,' said Mr. Trumbull; 'nevertheless, young man,
+my grey hairs stand unreproved in this matter; for, in my line of
+business, when I sit under my vine and my fig-tree, exchanging
+the strong waters of the north for the gold which is the price
+thereof, I have, I thank Heaven, no disguises to keep with any
+man, and wear my own name of Thomas Trumbull, without any chance
+that the same may be polluted.  Whereas, thou, who art to journey
+in miry ways, and amongst a strange people, mayst do well to have
+two names, as thou hast two shirts, the one to keep the other
+clean.'
+
+Here he emitted a chuckling grunt, which lasted for two
+vibrations of the pendulum exactly, and was the only approach
+towards laughter in which old Turnpenny, as he was nicknamed, was
+ever known to indulge.
+
+'You are witty, Mr. Trumbull,' said Fairford; 'but jests are no
+arguments--I shall keep my own name.'
+
+'At your own pleasure,' said the merchant; 'there is but one name
+which,' &c. &c, &c.
+
+We will not follow the hypocrite through the impious cant which
+he added, in order to close the subject.
+
+Alan followed him, in silent abhorrence, to the recess in which
+the beaufet was placed, and which was so artificially made as to
+conceal another of those traps with which the whole building
+abounded.  This concealment admitted them to the same winding
+passage by which the young lawyer had been brought thither.  The
+path which they now took amid these mazes, differed from the
+direction in which he had been guided by Rutledge.  It led
+upwards, and terminated beneath a garret window.  Trumbull opened
+it, and with more agility than his age promised, clambered out
+upon the leads.  If Fairford's journey had been hitherto in a
+stifled and subterranean atmosphere, it was now open, lofty, and
+airy enough; for he had to follow his guide over leads and
+slates, which the old smuggler traversed with the dexterity of a
+cat.  It is true, his course was facilitated by knowing exactly
+where certain stepping-places and holdfasts were placed, of which
+Fairford could not so readily avail himself; but, after a
+difficult and somewhat perilous progress along the roofs of two
+or three houses, they at length descended by a skylight into a
+garret room, and from thence by the stairs into a public-house;
+for such it appeared, by the ringing of bells, whistling for
+waiters and attendance, bawling of 'House, house, here!'  chorus
+of sea songs, and the like noises.
+
+Having descended to the second story, and entered a room there in
+which there was a light, old Mr. Trumbull rang the bell of the
+apartment thrice, with an interval betwixt each, during which he
+told deliberately the number twenty.  Immediately after the third
+ringing the landlord appeared, with stealthy step, and an
+appearance of mystery on his buxom visage.  He greeted Mr.
+Trumbull, who was his landlord as it proved, with great respect,
+and expressed some surprise at seeing him so late, as he termed
+it, 'on Saturday e'en.'
+
+'And I, Robin Hastie,' said the landlord to the tenant, am more
+surprised than pleased, to hear sae muckle din in your house,
+Robie, so near the honourable Sabbath; and I must mind you that
+it is contravening the terms of your tack, whilk stipulates that
+you should shut your public on Saturday at nine o'clock, at
+latest.'
+
+'Yes, sir,' said Robin Hastie, no way alarmed at the gravity of
+the rebuke, 'but you must take tent that I have admitted naebody
+but you, Mr. Trumbull (who by the way admitted yoursell), since
+nine o'clock for the most of the folk have been here for several
+hours about the lading, and so on, of the brig.  It is not full
+tide yet, and I cannot put the men out into the street.  If I
+did, they would go to some other public, and their souls would be
+nane the better, and my purse muckle the waur; for how am I to
+pay the rent if I do not sell the liquor?'
+
+'Nay, then,' said Thomas Trumbull, 'if it is a work of necessity,
+and in the honest independent way of business, no doubt there is
+balm in Gilead.  But prithee, Robin, wilt thou see if Nanty Ewart
+be, as is most likely, amongst these unhappy topers; and if so,
+let him step this way cannily, and speak to me and this young
+gentleman.  And it's dry talking, Robin--you must minister to us
+a bowl of punch--ye ken my gage,'
+
+'From a mutchkin to a gallon, I ken your honour's taste, Mr.
+Thomas Trumbull,' said mine host; 'and ye shall hang me over the
+signpost if there be a drap mair lemon or a curn less sugar than
+just suits you.  There are three of you--you will be for the auld
+Scots peremptory pint-stoup for the success of the voyage?'  [The
+Scottish pint of liquid measure comprehends four English measures
+of the same denomination.  The jest is well known of my poor
+countryman, who, driven to extremity by the raillery of the
+Southern, on the small denomination of the Scottish coin, at
+length answered, 'Aye, aye!  But the deil tak them that has the
+LEAST PINT-STOUP.']
+
+'Better pray for it than drink for it, Robin,' said Mr. Trumbull.
+'Yours is a dangerous trade, Robin; it hurts mony a ane--baith
+host and guest.  But ye will get the blue bowl, Robin--the blue
+bowl--that will sloken all their drouth, and prevent the sinful
+repetition of whipping for an eke of a Saturday at e'en.  Aye,
+Robin, it is a pity of Nanty Ewart--Nanty likes the turning up of
+his little finger unco weel, and we maunna stint him, Robin, so
+as we leave him sense to steer by.'
+
+'Nanty Ewart could steer through the Pentland Firth though he
+were as drunk as the Baltic Ocean,' said Robin Hastie; and
+instantly tripping downstairs, he speedily returned with the
+materials for what he called his BROWST, which consisted of two
+English quarts of spirits, in a huge blue bowl, with all the
+ingredients for punch in the same formidable proportion.  At the
+same time he introduced Mr. Antony or Nanty Ewart, whose person,
+although he was a good deal flustered with liquor, was different
+from what Fairford expected.  His dress was what is emphatically
+termed the shabby genteel--a frock with tarnished lace--a small
+cocked hat, ornamented in a similar way--a scarlet waistcoat,
+with faded embroidery, breeches of the same, with silver knee-
+bands, and he wore a smart hanger and a pair of pistols in a
+sullied swordbelt.
+
+'Here I come, patron,' he said, shaking hands with Mr. Trumbull.
+'Well, I see you have got some grog aboard.'
+
+'It is not my custom, Mr. Ewart,' said the old gentleman, 'as you
+well know, to become a chamberer or carouser thus late on
+Saturday at e'en; but I wanted to recommend to your attention a
+young friend of ours, that is going upon a something particular
+journey, with a letter to our friend the Laird from Pate-in-
+Peril, as they call him.'
+
+'Aye--indeed?--he must be in high trust for so young a gentleman.
+I wish you joy, sir,' bowing to Fairford.  'By'r lady, as
+Shakespeare says, you are bringing up a neck for a fair end.
+Come, patron, we will drink to Mr. What-shall-call-um.  What is
+his name?  Did you tell me?  And have I forgot it already.'
+
+'Mr. Alan Fairford,' said Trumbull.
+
+'Aye, Mr. Alan Fairford--a good name for a fair trader--Mr. Alan
+Fairford; and may he be long withheld from the topmost round of
+ambition, which I take to be the highest round of a certain
+ladder.'
+
+While he spoke, he seized the punch-ladle, and began to fill the
+glasses.  But Mr. Trumbull arrested his hand, until he had, as he
+expressed himself, sanctified the liquor by a long grace; during
+the pronunciation of which he shut indeed his eyes, but his
+nostrils became dilated, as if he were snuffing up the fragrant
+beverage with peculiar complacency.
+
+When the grace was at length over, the three friends sat down to
+their beverage, and invited Alan Fairford to partake.  Anxious
+about his situation, and disgusted as he was with his company, he
+craved, and with difficulty obtained permission, under the
+allegation of being fatigued, heated, and the like, to stretch
+himself on a couch which was in the apartment, and attempted at
+least to procure some rest before high-water, when the vessel was
+to sail.
+
+He was at length permitted to use his freedom, and stretched
+himself on the couch, having his eyes for some time fixed on the
+jovial party he had left, and straining his ears to catch if
+possible a little of their conversation.  This he soon found was
+to no purpose for what did actually reach his ears was disguised
+so completely by the use of cant words and the thieves-latin
+called slang, that even when he caught the words, he found
+himself as far as ever from the sense of their conversation.  At
+length he fell asleep.
+
+It was after Alan had slumbered for three or four hours, that he
+was wakened by voices bidding him rise up and prepare to be
+jogging.  He started up accordingly, and found himself in
+presence of the same party of boon companions; who had just
+dispatched their huge bowl of punch.  To Alan's surprise, the
+liquor had made but little innovation on the brains of men who
+were accustomed to drink at all hours, and in the most inordinate
+quantities.  The landlord indeed spoke a little thick, and the
+texts of Mr. Thomas Trumbull stumbled on his tongue; but Nanty
+was one of those topers, who, becoming early what bon vivants
+term flustered, remain whole nights and days at the same point of
+intoxication; and, in fact, as they are seldom entirely sober,
+can be as rarely seen absolutely drunk.  Indeed, Fairford, had he
+not known how Ewart had been engaged whilst he himself was
+asleep, would almost have sworn when he awoke, that the man was
+more sober than when he first entered the room.
+
+He was confirmed in this opinion when they descended below, where
+two or three sailors and ruffian-looking fellows awaited their
+commands.  Ewart took the whole direction upon himself, gave his
+orders with briefness and precision, and looked to their being
+executed with the silence and celerity which that peculiar crisis
+required.  All were now dismissed for the brig, which lay, as
+Fairford was given to understand, a little farther down the
+river, which is navigable for vessels of light burden till almost
+within a mile of the town.
+
+When they issued from the inn, the landlord bid them goodbye.
+Old Trumbull walked a little way with them, but the air had
+probably considerable effect on the state of his brain; for after
+reminding Alan Fairford that the next day was the honourable
+Sabbath, he became extremely excursive in an attempt to exhort
+him to keep it holy.  At length, being perhaps sensible that he
+was becoming unintelligible, he thrust a volume into Fairford's
+hand--hiccuping at the same time--'Good book--good book--fine
+hymn-book--fit for the honourable Sabbath, whilk awaits us to-
+morrow morning.'  Here the iron tongue of time told five from the
+town steeple of Annan, to the further confusion of Mr. Trumbull's
+already disordered ideas.  'Aye?  Is Sunday come and gone
+already?  Heaven be praised!  Only it is a marvel the afternoon
+is sae dark for the time of the year--Sabbath has slipped ower
+quietly, but we have reason to bless oursells it has not been
+altogether misemployed.  I heard little of the preaching--a cauld
+moralist, I doubt, served that out--but, eh--the prayer--I mind
+it as if I had said the words mysell.'  Here he repeated one or
+two petitions, which were probably a part of his family
+devotions, before he was summoned forth to what he called the way
+of business.  'I never remember a Sabbath pass so cannily off in
+my life.'  Then he recollected himself a little, and said to
+Alan, 'You may read that book, Mr. Fairford, to-morrow, all the
+same, though it be Monday; for, you see, it was Saturday when we
+were thegither, and now it's Sunday and it's dark night--so the
+Sabbath has slipped clean away through our fingers like water
+through a sieve, which abideth not; and we have to begin again
+to-morrow morning, in the weariful, base, mean, earthly
+employments, whilk are unworthy of an immortal spirit--always
+excepting the way of business.'
+
+Three of the fellows were now returning to the town, and, at
+Ewart's command, they cut short the patriarch's exhortation, by
+leading him back to his own residence.  The rest of the party
+then proceeded to the brig, which only waited their arrival to
+get under weigh and drop down the river.  Nanty Ewart betook
+himself to steering the brig, and the very touch of the helm
+seemed to dispel the remaining influence of the liquor which he
+had drunk, since, through a troublesome and intricate channel, he
+was able to direct the course of his little vessel with the most
+perfect accuracy and safety.
+
+Alan Fairford, for some time, availed himself of the clearness of
+the summer morning to gaze on the dimly seen shores betwixt which
+they glided, becoming less and less distinct as they receded from
+each other, until at length, having adjusted his little bundle by
+way of pillow, and wrapped around him the greatcoat with which
+old Trumbull had equipped him, he stretched himself on the deck,
+to try to recover the slumber out of which he had been awakened.
+Sleep had scarce begun to settle on his eyes, ere he found
+something stirring about his person.  With ready presence of mind
+he recollected his situation, and resolved to show no alarm until
+the purpose of this became obvious; but he was soon relieved from
+his anxiety, by finding it was only the result of Nanty's
+attention to his comfort, who was wrapping around him, as softly
+as he could, a great boatcloak, in order to defend him from the
+morning air.
+
+'Thou art but a cockerel,' he muttered, 'but 'twere pity thou
+wert knocked off the perch before seeing a little more of the
+sweet and sour of this world--though, faith, if thou hast the
+usual luck of it, the best way were to leave thee to the chance
+of a seasoning fever.'
+
+These words, and the awkward courtesy with which the skipper of
+the little brig tucked the sea-coat round Fairford, gave him a
+confidence of safety which he had not yet thoroughly possessed.
+He stretched himself in more security on the hard planks, and was
+speedily asleep, though his slumbers were feverish and
+unrefreshing.
+
+It has been elsewhere intimated that Alan Fairford inherited from
+his mother a delicate constitution, with a tendency to
+consumption; and, being an only child, with such a cause for
+apprehension, care, to the verge of effeminacy, was taken to
+preserve him from damp beds, wet feet, and those various
+emergencies to which the Caledonian boys of much higher birth,
+but more active habits, are generally accustomed.  In man, the
+spirit sustains the constitutional weakness, as in the winged
+tribes the feathers bear aloft the body.  But there is a bound to
+these supporting qualities; and as the pinions of the bird must
+at length grow weary, so the VIS ANIMI of the human struggler
+becomes broken down by continued fatigue.
+
+When the voyager was awakened by the light of the sun now riding
+high in heaven, he found himself under the influence of an almost
+intolerable headache, with heat, thirst, shooting across the back
+and loins, and other symptoms intimating violent cold,
+accompanied with fever.  The manner in which he had passed the
+preceding day and night, though perhaps it might have been of
+little consequence to most young men, was to him, delicate in
+constitution and nurture, attended with bad and even perilous
+consequences.  He felt this was the case, yet would fain have
+combated the symptoms of indisposition, which, indeed, he imputed
+chiefly to sea-sickness.  He sat up on deck, and looked on the
+scene around, as the little vessel, having borne down the Solway
+Firth, was beginning, with a favourable northerly breeze, to bear
+away to the southward, crossing the entrance of the Wampool
+river, and preparing to double the most northerly point of
+Cumberland.
+
+But Fairford felt annoyed with deadly sickness, as well as by
+pain of a distressing and oppressive character; and neither
+Criffel, rising in majesty on the one hand, nor the distant yet
+more picturesque outline of Skiddaw and Glaramara upon the other,
+could attract his attention in the manner in which it was usually
+fixed by beautiful scenery, and especially that which had in it
+something new as well as striking.  Yet it was not in Alan
+Fairford's nature to give way to despondence, even when seconded
+by pain.  He had recourse, in the first place, to his pocket; but
+instead of the little Sallust he had brought with him, that the
+perusal of a classical author might help to pass away a heavy
+hour, he pulled out the supposed hymn-book with which he had been
+presented a few hours before, by that temperate and scrupulous
+person, Mr. Thomas Trumbull, ALIAS Turnpenny.  The volume was
+bound in sable, and its exterior might have become a psalter.
+But what was Alan's astonishment to read on the title page the
+following words:--'Merry Thoughts for Merry Men; or Mother
+Midnight's Miscellany for the Small Hours;' and turning over the
+leaves, he was disgusted with profligate tales, and more
+profligate songs, ornamented with figures corresponding in infamy
+with the letterpress.
+
+'Good God!'  he thought, 'and did this hoary reprobate summon his
+family together, and, with such a disgraceful pledge of infamy in
+his bosom, venture to approach the throne of his Creator?  It
+must be so; the book is bound after the manner of those dedicated
+to devotional subjects, and doubtless the wretch, in his
+intoxication, confounded the books he carried with him, as he did
+the days of the week.'  Seized with the disgust with which the
+young and generous usually regard the vices of advanced life,
+Alan, having turned the leaves of the book over in hasty disdain,
+flung it from him, as far as he could, into the sea.  He then had
+recourse to the Sallust, which he had at first sought for in
+vain.  As he opened the book, Nanty Ewart, who had been looking
+over his shoulder, made his own opinion heard.
+
+'I think now, brother, if you are so much scandalized at a little
+piece of sculduddery, which, after all, does nobody any harm, you
+had better have given it to me than have flung it into the
+Solway.'
+
+'I hope, sir,' answered Fairford, civilly, 'you are in the habit
+of reading better books.'
+
+'Faith,' answered Nanty, 'with help of a little Geneva text, I
+could read my Sallust as well as you can;' and snatching the book
+from Alan's hand, he began to read, in the Scottish accent:--
+"'IGITUR EX DIVITIIS JUVENTUTEM LUXURIA ATQUE AVARITIA CUM
+SUPERBILI INVASERE:  RAPERE, CONSUMERE; SUA PARVI PENDERE, ALIENA
+CUPERE; PUDOREM, AMICITIAM, PUDICITIAM, DIVINA ATQUE HUMANA
+PROMISCUA, NIHIL PENSI NEQUE MODERATI HABERE." [The translation
+of the passage is thus given by  Sir Henry Steuart of Allanton:--
+'The youth, taught to look up to riches as the sovereign good,
+became apt pupils in the school of Luxury.  Rapacity and
+profusion went hand in hand.  Careless of their own fortunes, and
+eager to possess those of others, shame and remorse, modesty and
+moderation, every principle gave way.'--WORKS OF SALLUST, WITH
+ORIGINAL ESSAYS, vol. ii. p.17.]--There is a slap in the face
+now, for an honest fellow that has been buccaneering!  Never
+could keep a groat of what he got, or hold his fingers from what
+belonged to another, said you?  Fie, fie, friend Crispus, thy
+morals are as crabbed and austere as thy style--the one has as
+little mercy as the other has grace.  By my soul, it is
+unhandsome to make personal reflections on an old acquaintance,
+who seeks a little civil intercourse with you after nigh twenty
+years' separation.  On my soul, Master Sallust deserves to float
+on the Solway better than Mother Midnight herself.'
+
+'Perhaps, in some respects, he may merit better usage at our
+hands,' said Alan; 'for if he has described vice plainly, it
+seems to have been for the purpose of rendering it generally
+abhorred.'
+
+'Well,' said the seaman, 'I have heard of the Sortes Virgilianae,
+and I dare say the Sortes Sallustianae are as true every tittle.
+I have consulted honest Crispus on my own account, and have had a
+cuff for my pains.  But now see, I open the book on your behalf,
+and behold what occurs first to my eye!--Lo you there--"CATILINA
+. . . OMNIUM FLAGITIOSORUM ATQUE FACINOROSORUM CIRCUM SE
+HABEBAT." And then again--"ETIAM SI QUIS A CULPA VACUUS IN
+AMICITIAM EJUS INCIDIDERAT QUOTIDIANO USU PAR SIMILISQUE CAETERIS
+EFFICIEBATUR." [After enumerating the evil qualities of
+Catiline's associates, the author adds, 'If it happened that any
+as yet uncontaminated by vice were fatally drawn into his
+friendship, the effects of intercourse and snares artfully
+spread, subdued every scruple, and early assimilated them to
+their conductors.'--Ibidem, p. 19.]  That is what I call plain
+speaking on the part of the old Roman, Mr. Fairford.  By the way,
+that is a capital name for a lawyer.
+
+'Lawyer as I am,' said Fairford, 'I do not understand your
+innuendo.'
+
+'Nay, then,' said Ewart, 'I can try it another way, as well as
+the hypocritical old rascal Turnpenny himself could do.  I would
+have you to know that I am well acquainted with my Bible-book, as
+well as with my friend Sallust.'  He then, in a snuffling and
+canting tone, began to repeat the Scriptural text--'"DAVID
+THEREFORE DEPARTED THENCE, AND WENT TO THE CAVE OF ADULLAM.  AND
+EVERY ONE THAT WAS IN DISTRESS, AND EVERY ONE THAT WAS IN DEBT,
+AND EVERY ONE THAT WAS DISCONTENTED, GATHERED THEMSELVES TOGETHER
+UNTO HIM, AND HE BECAME A CAPTAIN OVER THEM."  What think you of
+that?'  he said, suddenly changing his manner.  'Have I touched
+you now, sir?'
+
+'You are as far off as ever,' replied Fairford.
+
+'What the devil!  and you a repeating frigate between Summertrees
+and the laird!  Tell that to the marines--the sailors won't
+believe it.  But you are right to be cautious, since you can't
+say who are right, who not.  But you look ill; it's but the cold
+morning air.  Will you have a can of flip, or a jorum of hot
+rumbo?  or will you splice the mainbrace' (showing a spirit-
+flask).  'Will you have a quid--or a pipe--or a cigar?--a pinch
+of snuff, at least, to clear your brains and sharpen your
+apprehension?'
+
+Fairford rejected all these friendly propositions.
+
+'Why, then,' continued Ewart, 'if you will do nothing for the
+free trade, I must patronize it myself.'
+
+So saying, he took a large glass of brandy.
+
+'A hair of the dog that bit me,' he continued,--'of the dog that
+will worry me one day soon; and yet, and be d--d to me for an
+idiot, I must always have hint at my throat.  But, says the old
+catch'--Here he sang, and sang well--
+
+  'Let's drink--let's drink--while life we have;
+   We'll find but cold drinking, cold drinking in the grave.
+
+All this,' he continued, 'is no charm against the headache.  I
+wish I had anything that could do you good.  Faith, and we have
+tea and coffee aboard!  I'll open a chest or a bag, and let you
+have some in an instant.  You are at the age to like such catlap
+better than better stuff.'
+
+Fairford thanked him, and accepted his offer of tea.
+
+Nanty Ewart was soon heard calling about, 'Break open yon chest--
+take out your capful, you bastard of a powder-monkey; we may want
+it again.  No sugar?  all used up for grog, say you?  knock
+another loaf to pieces, can't ye?  and get the kettle boiling, ye
+hell's baby, in no time at all!'
+
+By dint of these energetic proceedings he was in a short time
+able to return to the place where his passenger lay sick and
+exhausted, with a cup, or rather a canful, of tea; for everything
+was on a large scale on board of the JUMPING JENNY.  Alan drank
+it eagerly, and with so much appearance of being refreshed that
+Nanty Ewart swore he would have some too, and only laced it, as
+his phrase went, with a single glass of brandy.  [See Note 8.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+NARRATIVE OF ALAN FAIRFORD, CONTINUED
+
+We left Alan Fairford on the deck of the little smuggling brig,
+in that disconsolate situation, when sickness and nausea, attack
+a heated and fevered frame, and an anxious mind.  His share of
+sea-sickness, however, was not so great as to engross his
+sensations entirely, or altogether to divert his attention from
+what was passing around.  If he could not delight in the
+swiftness and agility with which the 'little frigate' walked the
+waves, or amuse himself by noticing the beauty of the sea-views
+around him, where the distant Skiddaw raised his brow, as if in
+defiance of the clouded eminence of Criffel, which lorded it over
+the Scottish side of the estuary, he had spirits and composure
+enough to pay particular attention to the master of the vessel,
+on whose character his own safety in all probability was
+dependent.
+
+Nanty Ewart had now given the helm to one of his people, a
+bald-pated, grizzled old fellow, whose whole life had been spent
+in evading the revenue laws, with now and then the relaxation of
+a few months' imprisonment, for deforcing officers, resisting
+seizures, and the like offences.
+
+Nanty himself sat down by Fairford, helped him to his tea, with
+such other refreshments as he could think of, and seemed in his
+way sincerely desirous to make his situation as comfortable as
+things admitted.  Fairford had thus an opportunity to study his
+countenance and manners more closely.
+
+It was plain, Ewart, though a good seaman, had not been bred upon
+that element.  He was a reasonably good scholar, and seemed fond
+of showing it by recurring to the subject of Sallust and Juvenal;
+while, on the other hand, sea-phrases seldom chequered his
+conversation.  He had been in person what is called a smart
+little man; but the tropical sun had burnt his originally fair
+complexion to a dusty red; and the bile which was diffused
+through his system, had stained it with a yellowish black--what
+ought to have been the white part of his eyes, in particular, had
+a hue as deep as the topaz.  He was very thin, or rather
+emaciated, and his countenance, though still indicating alertness
+and activity, showed a constitution exhausted with excessive use
+of his favourite stimulus.
+
+'I see you look at me hard,' said he to Fairford.  'Had you been
+an officer of the d--d customs, my terriers' backs would have been
+up.  He opened his breast, and showed Alan a pair of pistols
+disposed between his waistcoat and jacket, placing his finger at
+the same time upon the cock of one of them.  'But come, you are
+an honest fellow, though you're a close one.  I dare say you
+think me a queer customer; but I can tell you, they that see the
+ship leave harbour know little of the seas she is to sail
+through.  My father, honest old gentleman, never would have
+thought to see me master of the JUMPING JENNY.'
+
+Fairford said, it seemed very clear indeed that Mr. Ewart's
+education was far superior to the line he at present occupied.
+
+'Oh, Criffel to Solway Moss!'  said the other.  Why, man, I
+should have been an expounder of the word, with a wig like a
+snow-wreath, and a stipend like--like--like a hundred pounds a
+year, I suppose.  I can spend thrice as much as that, though,
+being such as I am.  Here he sang a scrap of an old Northumbrian
+ditty, mimicking the burr of the natives of that county:--
+
+  'Willy Foster's gone to sea,
+   Siller buckles at his knee,
+   He'll come back and marry me--
+              Canny Willy Foster.'
+
+'I have no doubt,' said Fairford, 'your present occupation is
+more lucrative; 'but I should have thought the Church might have
+been more'--
+
+He stopped, recollecting that it was not his business to say
+anything disagreeable.
+
+'More respectable, you mean, I suppose?'  said Ewart, with a
+sneer, and squirting the tobacco-juice through his front teeth;
+then was silent for a moment, and proceeded in a tone of candour
+which some internal touch of conscience dictated.  'And so it
+would, Mr. Fairford--and happier, too, by a thousand degrees--
+though I have had my pleasures too.  But there was my father (God
+bless the old man!) a true chip of the old Presbyterian block,
+walked his parish like a captain on the quarterdeck, and was
+always ready to do good to rich and poor--Off went the laird's
+hat to the minister, as fast as the poor man's bonnet.  When the
+eye saw him--Pshaw!  what have I to do with that now?--Yes, he
+was, as Virgil hath it, "VIR SAPIENTIA ET PIETATE GRAVIS." But he
+might have been the wiser man, had he kept me at home, when he
+sent me at nineteen to study Divinity at the head of the highest
+stair in the Covenant Close.  It was a cursed mistake in the old
+gentleman.  What though Mrs. Cantrips of Kittlebasket (for she
+wrote herself no less) was our cousin five times removed, and
+took me on that account to board and lodging at six shillings
+instead of seven shillings a week?  it was a d--d bad saving, as
+the case proved.  Yet her very dignity might have kept me in
+order; for she never read a chapter excepting out of a Cambridge
+Bible, printed by Daniel, and bound in embroidered velvet.  I
+think I see it at this moment!  And on Sundays, when we had a
+quart of twopenny ale, instead of butter-milk, to our porridge,
+it was always served up in a silver posset-dish.  Also she used
+silver-mounted spectacles, whereas even my father's were cased in
+mere horn.  These things had their impression at first, but we
+get used to grandeur by degrees.  Well, sir!--Gad, I can scarce
+get on with my story--it sticks in my throat--must take a trifle
+to wash it down.  Well, this dame had a daughter--Jess Cantrips,
+a black-eyed, bouncing wench--and, as the devil would have it,
+there was the d--d five-story stair--her foot was never from it,
+whether I went out or came home from the Divinity Hall. I would
+have eschewed her, sir--I would, on my soul; for I was as
+innocent a lad as ever came from Lammermuir; but there was no
+possibility of escape, retreat, or flight, unless I could have
+got a pair of wings, or made use of a ladder seven stories high,
+to scale the window of my attic.  It signifies little talking--
+you may suppose how all this was to end--I would have married the
+girl, and taken my chance--I would, by Heaven!  for she was a
+pretty girl, and a good girl, till she and I met; but you know
+the old song, "Kirk would not let us be." A gentleman, in my
+case, would have settled the matter with the kirk-treasurer for a
+small sum of money; but the poor stibbler, the penniless dominie,
+having married his cousin of Kittlebasket, must next have
+proclaimed her frailty to the whole parish, by mounting the
+throne of Presbyterian penance, and proving, as Othello says,
+"his love a whore," in face of the whole congregation.
+
+'In this extremity I dared not stay where I was, and so thought
+to go home to my father.  But first I got Jack Radaway, a lad
+from the same parish, and who lived in the same infernal stair,
+to make some inquiries how the old gentleman had taken the
+matter.  I soon, by way of answer, learned, to the great increase
+of my comfortable reflections, that the good old man made as much
+clamour as if such a thing as a man's eating his wedding dinner
+without saying grace had never happened since Adam's time.  He
+did nothing for six days but cry out, "Ichabod, Ichabod, the
+glory is departed from my house!" and on the seventh he preached
+a sermon, in which he enlarged on this incident as illustrative
+of one of the great occasions for humiliation, and causes of
+national defection.  I hope the course he took comforted himself
+--I am sure it made me ashamed to show my nose at home.  So I
+went down to Leith, and, exchanging my hoddin grey coat of my
+mother's spinning for such a jacket as this, I entered my name at
+the rendezvous as an able-bodied landsman, and sailed with the
+tender round to Plymouth, where they were fitting out a squadron
+for the West Indies.  There I was put aboard the FEARNOUGHT,
+Captain Daredevil--among whose crew I soon learned to fear Satan
+(the terror of my early youth) as little as the toughest Jack on
+board.  I had some qualms at first, but I took the remedy'
+(tapping the case-bottle) 'which I recommend to you, being as
+good for sickness of the soul as for sickness of the stomach--
+What, you won't?--very well, I must, then--here is to ye.'
+
+'You would, I am afraid, find your education of little use in
+your new condition?'  said Fairford.
+
+'Pardon me, sir,' resumed the captain of the JUMPING JENNY; 'my
+handful of Latin, and small pinch of Greek, were as useless as
+old junk, to be sure; but my reading, writing and accompting,
+stood me in good stead, and brought me forward; I might have been
+schoolmaster--aye, and master, in time; but that valiant liquor,
+rum, made a conquest of me rather too often, and so, make what
+sail I could, I always went to leeward.  We were four years
+broiling in that blasted climate, and I came back at last with a
+little prize-money.  I always had thoughts of putting things to
+rights in the Covenant Close, and reconciling myself to my
+father.  I found out Jack Hadaway, who was TUPTOWING away with a
+dozen of wretched boys, and a fine string of stories he had ready
+to regale my ears withal.  My father had lectured on what he
+called "my falling away," for seven Sabbaths, when, just as his
+parishioners began to hope that the course was at an end, he was
+found dead in his bed on the eighth Sunday morning.  Jack Hadaway
+assured me, that if I wished to atone for my errors, by
+undergoing the fate of the first martyr, I had only to go to my
+native village, where the very stones of the street would rise up
+against me as my father's murderer.  Here was a pretty item--
+well, my tongue clove to my mouth for an hour, and was only able
+at last to utter the name of Mrs. Cantrips.  Oh, this was a new
+theme for my Job's comforter.  My sudden departure--my father's
+no less sudden death--had prevented the payment of the arrears of
+my board and lodging--the landlord was a haberdasher, with a
+heart as rotten as the muslin wares he dealt in.  Without respect
+to her age or gentle kin, my Lady Kittlebasket was ejected from
+her airy habitation--her porridge-pot, silver posset-dish,
+silver-mounted spectacles, and Daniel's Cambridge Bible, sold, at
+the Cross of Edinburgh, to the caddie who would bid highest for
+them, and she herself driven to the workhouse, where she got in
+with difficulty, but was easily enough lifted out, at the end of
+the month, as dead as her friends could desire.  Merry tidings
+this to me, who had been the d--d' (he paused a moment) 'ORIGO
+MALI--Gad, I think my confession would sound better in Latin than
+in English!
+
+'But the best jest was behind--I had just power to stammer out
+something about Jess--by my faith he HAD an answer!  I had taught
+Jess one trade, and, like a prudent girl, she had found out
+another for herself; unluckily, they were both contraband, and
+Jess Cantrips, daughter of the Lady Kittlebasket, had the honour
+to be transported to the plantations, for street-walking and
+pocket-picking, about six months before I touched shore.'
+
+He changed the bitter tone of affected pleasantry into an attempt
+to laugh, then drew his swarthy hand across his swarthy eyes, and
+said in a more natural accent, 'Poor Jess!'
+
+There was a pause--until Fairford, pitying the poor man's state
+of mind, and believing he saw something in him that, but for
+early error and subsequent profligacy, might have been excellent
+and noble, helped on the conversation by asking, in a tone of
+commiseration, how he had been able to endure such a load of
+calamity.
+
+'Why, very well,' answered the seaman; 'exceedingly well--like a
+tight ship in a brisk gale.  Let me recollect.  I remember
+thanking Jack, very composedly, for the interesting and agreeable
+communication; I then pulled out my canvas pouch, with my hoard
+of moidores, and taking out two pieces, I bid Jack keep the rest
+till I came back, as I was for a cruise about Auld Reekie.  The
+poor devil looked anxiously, but I shook him by the hand, and ran
+downstairs, in such confusion of mind, that notwithstanding what
+I had heard, I expected to meet Jess at every turning.
+
+It was market-day, and the usual number of rogues and fools were
+assembled at the Cross.  I observed everybody looked strange on
+me, and I thought some laughed.  I fancy I had been making queer
+faces enough, and perhaps talking to myself, When I saw myself
+used in this manner, I held out my clenched fists straight before
+me, stooped my head, and, like a ram when be makes his race,
+darted off right down the street, scattering groups of
+weatherbeaten lairds and periwigged burgesses, and bearing down
+all before me.  I heard the cry of "Seize the madman!" echoed, in
+Celtic sounds, from the City Guard, with "Ceaze ta matman!"--but
+pursuit and opposition were in vain.  I pursued my career; the
+smell of the sea, I suppose, led me to Leith, where, soon after,
+I found myself walking very quietly on the shore, admiring the
+tough round and sound cordage of the vessels, and thinking how a
+loop, with a man at the end of one of them, would look, by way of
+tassel.
+
+'I was opposite to the rendezvous, formerly my place of refuge--
+in I bolted--found one or two old acquaintances, made half a
+dozen new ones--drank for two days--was put aboard the tender--
+off to Portsmouth--then landed at the Haslar hospital in a fine
+hissing-hot fever.  Never mind--I got better--nothing can kill
+me--the West Indies were my lot again, for since I did not go
+where I deserved in the next world, I had something as like such
+quarters as can be had in this--black devils for inhabitants--
+flames and earthquakes, and so forth, for your element.  Well,
+brother, something or other I did or said--I can't tell what--How
+the devil should I, when I was as drunk as David's sow, you know?
+But I was punished, my lad--made to kiss the wench that never
+speaks but when she scolds, and that's the gunner's daughter,
+comrade.  Yes, the minister's son of no matter where--has the
+cat's scratch on his back!  This roused me, and when we were
+ashore with the boat, I gave three inches of the dirk, after a
+stout tussle, to the fellow I blamed most, and took the bush for
+it.  There were plenty of wild lads then along shore--and, I
+don't care who knows--I went on the account, look you--sailed
+under the black flag and marrow-bones--was a good friend to the
+sea, and an enemy to all that sailed on it.'
+
+Fairford, though uneasy in his mind at finding himself, a lawyer,
+so close to a character so lawless, thought it best,
+nevertheless, to put a good face on the matter, and asked Mr.
+Ewart, with as much unconcern as he could assume, 'whether he was
+fortunate as a rover?'
+
+'No, no--d--n it, no,' replied Nanty; 'the devil a crumb of
+butter was ever churned that would stick upon my bread.  There
+was no order among us--he that was captain to-day, was swabber
+to-morrow; and as for plunder--they say old Avery, and one or two
+close hunks, made money; but in my time, all went as it came; and
+reason good, for if a fellow had saved five dollars, his throat
+would have been cut in his hammock.  And then it was a cruel,
+bloody work.--Pah,--we'll say no more about it.  I broke with
+them at last, for what they did on board of a bit of a snow--no
+matter what it was bad enough, since it frightened me--I took
+French leave, and came in upon the proclamation, so I am free of
+all that business.  And here I sit, the skipper of the JUMPING
+JENNY--a nutshell of a thing, but goes through the water like a
+dolphin.  If it were not for yon hypocritical scoundrel at Annan,
+who has the best end of the profit, and takes none of the risk, I
+should be well enough--as well as I want to be.  Here is no lack
+of my best friend,'--touching his case-bottle;--'but, to tell you
+a secret, he and I have got so used to each other, I begin to
+think he is like a professed joker, that makes your sides sore
+with laughing if you see him but now and then; but if you take up
+house with him, he can only make your head stupid.  But I warrant
+the old fellow is doing the best he can for me, after all.'
+
+'And what may that be?'  said Fairford.
+
+'He is KILLING me,' replied Nanty Ewart; 'and I am only sorry he
+is so long about it.'
+
+So saying he jumped on his feet, and, tripping up and down the
+deck, gave his orders with his usual clearness and decision,
+notwithstanding the considerable quantity of spirits which he had
+contrived to swallow while recounting his history.
+
+Although far from feeling well, Fairford endeavoured to rouse
+himself and walk to the head of the brig, to enjoy the beautiful
+prospect, as well as to take some note of the course which the
+vessel held.  To his great surprise, instead of standing across
+to the opposite shore from which she had departed, the brig was
+going down the Firth, and apparently steering into the Irish Sea.
+He called to Nanty Ewart, and expressed his surprise at the
+course they were pursuing, and asked why they did not stand
+straight across the Firth for some port in Cumberland.
+
+'Why, this is what I call a reasonable question, now,' answered
+Nanty; 'as if a ship could go as straight to its port as a horse
+to the stable, or a free-trader could sail the Solway as securely
+as a King's cutter!  Why, I'll tell ye, brother--if I do not see
+a smoke on Bowness, that is the village upon the headland yonder,
+I must stand out to sea for twenty-four hours at least, for we
+must keep the weather-gage if there are hawks abroad.'
+
+'And if you do see the signal of safety, Master Ewart, what is to
+be done then?'
+
+'Why then, and in that case, I must keep off till night, and then
+run you, with the kegs and the rest of the lumber, ashore at
+Skinburness,'
+
+'And then I am to meet with this same laird whom I have the letter
+for?'  continued Fairford.
+
+'That,' said Ewart, 'is thereafter as it may be; the ship has its
+course--the fair trader has his port--but it is not easy to say
+where the laird may be found.  But he will be within twenty miles
+of us, off or on--and it will be my business to guide you to
+him.'
+
+Fairford could not withstand the passing impulse of terror which
+crossed him, when thus reminded that he was so absolutely in the
+power of a man, who, by his own account, had been a pirate, and
+who was at present, in all probability, an outlaw as well as a
+contraband trader.  Nanty Ewart guessed the cause of his
+involuntary shuddering.
+
+'What the devil should I gain,' he said, 'by passing so poor a
+card as you are?  Have I not had ace of trumps in my hand, and
+did I not play it fairly?  Aye, I say the JUMPING JENNY can run
+in other ware as well as kegs.  Put SIGMA and TAU to Ewart, and
+see how that will spell--D'ye take me now?'
+
+'No indeed,' said Fairford; 'I am utterly ignorant of what you
+allude to.'
+
+'Now, by Jove!'  said Nanty Ewart, 'thou art either the deepest
+or the shallowest fellow I ever met with--or you are not right
+after all.  I wonder where Summertrees could pick up such a
+tender along-shore.  Will you let me see his letter?'
+
+Fairford did not hesitate to gratify his wish, which, he was
+aware, he could not easily resist.  The master of the JUMPING
+JENNY looked at the direction very attentively, then turned the
+letter to and fro, and examined each flourish of the pen, as if
+he were judging of a piece of ornamented manuscript; then handled
+it back to Fairford, without a single word of remark.
+
+'Am I right now?'  said the young lawyer.
+
+'Why, for that matter,' answered Nanty, 'the letter is right,
+sure enough; but whether you are right or not, is your own
+business rather than mine.'  And, striking upon a flint with the
+back of a knife, he kindled a cigar as thick as his finger, and
+began to smoke away with great perseverance.
+
+Alan Fairford continued to regard him with a melancholy feeling,
+divided betwixt the interest he took in the unhappy man, and a
+not unnatural apprehension for the issue of his own adventure.
+
+Ewart, notwithstanding the stupefying nature of his pastime,
+seemed to guess what was working in his passenger's mind; for,
+after they had remained some time engaged in silently observing
+each other, he suddenly dashed his cigar on the deck, and said to
+him, 'Well then, if you are sorry for me, I am sorry for you.
+D--n me, if I have cared a button for man or mother's son, since
+two years since when I had another peep of Jack Hadaway.  'The
+fellow was got as fat as a Norway whale--married to a great
+Dutch-built quean that had brought him six children.  I believe
+he did not know me, and thought I was come to rob his house;
+however, I made up a poor face, and told him who I was.  Poor
+Jack would have given me shelter and clothes, and began to tell
+me of the moidores that were in bank, when I wanted them.  Egad,
+he changed his note when I told him what my life had been, and
+only wanted to pay me my cash and get rid of me.  I never saw so
+terrified a visage.  I burst out a-laughing in his face, told him
+it was all a humbug, and that the moidores were all his own,
+henceforth and for ever, and so ran off.  I caused one of our
+people send him a bag of tea and a keg of brandy, before I left--
+poor Jack!  I think you are the second person these ten years,
+that has cared a tobacco-stopper for Nanty Ewart.'
+
+'Perhaps, Mr. Ewart,' said Fairford, 'you live chiefly with men
+too deeply interested for their own immediate safety, to think
+much upon the distress of others?'
+
+'And with whom do you yourself consort, I pray?'  replied Nanty,
+smartly.  'Why, with plotters, that can make no plot to better
+purpose than their own hanging; and incendiaries, that are
+snapping the flint upon wet tinder.  You'll as soon raise the
+dead as raise the Highlands--you'll as soon get a grunt from a
+dead sow as any comfort from Wales or Cheshire.  You think
+because the pot is boiling, that no scum but yours can come
+uppermost--I know better, by --.  All these rackets and riots
+that you think are trending your way have no relation at all to
+your interest; and the best way to make the whole kingdom friends
+again at once, would be the alarm of such an undertaking as these
+mad old fellows are trying to launch into.
+
+'I really am not in such secrets as you seem to allude to,' said
+Fairford; and, determined at the same time to avail himself as
+far as possible of Nanty's communicative disposition, he added,
+with a smile,' And if I were, I should not hold it prudent to
+make them much the subject of conversation.  But I am sure, so
+sensible a man as Summertrees and the laird may correspond
+together without offence to the state.'
+
+'I take you, friend--I take you,' said Nanty Ewart, upon whom, at
+length, the liquor and tobacco-smoke began to make considerable
+innovation.  'As to what gentlemen may or may not correspond
+about, why we may pretermit the question, as the old professor
+used to say at the Hall; and as to Summertrees, I will say
+nothing, knowing him to be an old fox.  But I say that this
+fellow the laird is a firebrand in the country ; that he is
+stirring up all the honest fellows who should be drinking their
+brandy quietly, by telling them stories about their ancestors and
+the Forty-five ; and that he is trying to turn all waters into
+his own mill-dam, and to set his sails to all winds.  And because
+the London people are roaring about for some pinches of their
+own, he thinks to win them to his turn with a wet finger.  And he
+gets encouragement from some, because they want a spell of money
+from him; and from others, because they fought for the cause once
+and are ashamed to go back; and others, because they have nothing
+to lose; and others, because they are discontented fools.  But if
+he has brought you, or any one, I say not whom, into this scrape,
+with the hope of doing any good, he's a d--d decoy-duck, and
+that's all I can say for him; and you are geese, which is worse
+than being decoy-ducks, or lame-ducks either.  And so here is to
+the prosperity of King George the Third, and the true
+Presbyterian religion, and confusion to the Pope, the Devil, and
+the Pretender!  I'll tell you what, Mr. Fairbairn, I am but tenth
+owner of this bit of a craft, the JUMPING JENNY--but tenth owner
+and must sail her by my owners' directions.  But if I were whole
+owner, I would not have the brig be made a ferry-boat for your
+Jacobitical, old-fashioned Popish riff-raff, Mr. Fairport--I
+would not, by my soul; they should walk the plank, by the gods,
+as I have seen better men do when I sailed under the What-d'ye-
+callum colours.  But being contraband goods, and on board my
+vessel, and I with my sailing orders in my hand, why, I am to
+forward them as directed--I say, John Roberts, keep her up a bit
+with the helm.--and so, Mr. Fairweather, what I do is--as the
+d--d villain Turnpenny says--all in the way of business.'
+
+He had been speaking with difficulty for the last five minutes,
+and now at length dropped on the deck, fairly silenced by the
+quantity of spirits which he had swallowed, but without having
+showed any glimpse of the gaiety, or even of the extravagance, of
+intoxication.
+
+The old sailor stepped forward and flung a sea-cloak over the
+slumberer's shoulders, and added, looking at Fairford, 'Pity of
+him he should have this fault; for without it, he would have been
+as clever a fellow as ever trod a plank with ox leather.'
+
+'And what are we to do now?'  said Fairford.
+
+'Stand off and on, to be sure, till we see the signal, and then
+obey orders.'
+
+So saying, the old man turned to his duty, and left the passenger
+to amuse himself with his own meditations.  Presently afterward a
+light column of smoke was seen rising from the little headland.
+
+'I can tell you what we are to do now, master,' said the sailor.
+'We'll stand out to sea, and then run in again with the evening
+tide, and make Skinburness; or, if there's not light, we can run
+into the Wampool river, and put you ashore about Kirkbride or
+Leaths, with the long-boat.'
+
+Fairford, unwell before, felt this destination condemned him to
+an agony of many hours, which his disordered stomach and aching
+head were ill able to endure.  There was no remedy, however, but
+patience, and the recollection that he was suffering in the cause
+of friendship.  As the sun rose high, he became worse; his sense
+of smell appeared to acquire a morbid degree of acuteness, for
+the mere purpose of inhaling and distinguishing all the various
+odours with which he was surrounded, from that of pitch to all
+the complicated smells of the hold.  His heart, too, throbbed
+under the heat, and he felt as if in full progress towards a high
+fever.
+
+The seamen, who were civil and attentive considering their
+calling, observed his distress, and one contrived to make an
+awning out of an old sail, while another compounded some
+lemonade, the only liquor which their passenger could be
+prevailed upon to touch.  After drinking it off, he obtained, but
+could not be said to enjoy, a few hours of troubled slumber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+NARRATIVE OF ALAN FAIRFORD, CONTINUED
+
+Alan Fairford's spirit was more ready to encounter labour than
+his frame was adequate to support it.  In spite of his exertions,
+when he awoke, after five or six hours' slumber, he found that he
+was so much disabled by dizziness in his head and pains in his
+limbs, that he could not raise himself without assistance.  He
+heard with some pleasure that they were now running right for the
+Wampool river, and that he would be put on shore in a very short
+time.  The vessel accordingly lay to, and presently showed a weft
+in her ensign, which was hastily answered by signals from on
+shore.  Men and horses were seen to come down the broken path
+which leads to the shore; the latter all properly tackled for
+carrying their loading.  Twenty fishing barks were pushed afloat
+at once, and crowded round the brig with much clamour, laughter,
+cursing, and jesting.  Amidst all this apparent confusion there
+was the essential regularity.  Nanty Ewart again walked his
+quarter-deck as if he had never tasted spirits in his life,
+issued the necessary orders with precision, and saw them executed
+with punctuality.  In half an hour the loading of the brig was in
+a great measure disposed in the boats; in a quarter of an hour
+more, it was landed on the beach, and another interval of about
+the same duration was sufficient to distribute it on the various
+strings of packhorses which waited for that purpose, and which
+instantly dispersed, each on its own proper adventure.  More
+mystery was observed in loading the ship's boat with a quantity
+of small barrels, which seemed to contain ammunition.  This was
+not done until the commercial customers had been dismissed; and
+it was not until this was performed that Ewart proposed to Alan,
+as he lay stunned with pain and noise, to accompany him ashore.
+
+It was with difficulty that Fairford could get over the side of
+the vessel, and he could not seat himself on the stern of the
+boat without assistance from the captain and his people.  Nanty
+Ewart, who saw nothing in this worse than an ordinary fit of sea-
+sickness, applied the usual topics of consolation.  He assured
+his passenger that he would be quite well by and by, when he had
+been half an hour on terra firma, and that he hoped to drink a
+can and smoke a pipe with him at Father Crackenthorp's, for all
+that he felt a little out of the way for riding the wooden horse.
+
+'Who is Father Crackenthorp?'  said Fairford, though scarcely
+able to articulate the question.
+
+'As honest a fellow as is of a thousand,' answered Nanty.
+
+'Ah, how much good brandy he and I have made little of in our
+day!  By my soul, Mr. Fairbird, he is the prince of skinkers, and
+the father of the free trade--not a stingy hypocritical devil
+like old Turnpenny Skinflint, that drinks drunk on other folk's
+cost, and thinks it sin when he has to pay for it--but a real
+hearty old cock;--the sharks have been at and about him this many
+a day, but Father Crackenthorp knows how to trim his sails--never
+a warrant but he hears of it before the ink's dry.  He is BONUS
+SOCIUS with headborough and constable.  The king's exchequer
+could not bribe a man to inform against him.  If any such rascal
+were to cast up, why, he would miss his ears next morning, or be
+sent to seek them in the Solway.  He is a statesman, [A small
+landed proprietor.]  though he keeps a public; but, indeed, that
+is only for convenience and to excuse his having cellarage and
+folk about him; his wife's a canny woman--and his daughter Doll
+too.  Gad, you'll be in port there till you get round again; and
+I'll keep my word with you, and bring you to speech of the laird.
+
+Gad, the only trouble I shall have is to get you out of the
+house; for Doll is a rare wench, and my dame a funny old one, and
+Father Crackenthorp the rarest companion!  He'll drink you a
+bottle of rum or brandy without starting, but never wet his lips
+with the nasty Scottish stuff that the canting old scoundrel
+Turnpenny has brought into fashion.  He is a gentleman, every
+inch of him, old Crackenthorp; in his own way, that is; and
+besides, he has a share in the JUMPING JENNY, and many a
+moonlight outfit besides.  He can give Doll a pretty penny, if he
+likes the tight fellow that would turn in with her for life.'
+
+In the midst of this prolonged panegyric on Father Crackenthorp,
+the boat touched the beach, the rowers backed their oars to keep
+her afloat, whilst the other fellows lumped into the surf, and,
+with the most rapid dexterity, began to hand the barrels ashore.
+
+'Up with them higher on the beach, my hearties,' exclaimed Nanty
+Ewart--'High and dry--high and dry--this gear will not stand
+wetting.  Now, out with our spare hand here--high and dry with
+him too.  What's that?--the galloping of horse!  Oh, I hear the
+jingle of the packsaddles--they are our own folk.'
+
+By this time all the boat's load was ashore, consisting of the
+little barrels; and the boat's crew, standing to their arms,
+ranged themselves in front, waiting the advance of the horses
+which came clattering along the beach.  A man, overgrown with
+corpulence, who might be distinguished in the moonlight panting
+with his own exertions, appeared at the head of the cavalcade,
+which consisted of horses linked together, and accommodated with
+packsaddles, and chains for securing the kegs which made a
+dreadful clattering.
+
+'How now, Father Crackenthorp?'  said Ewart--'Why this hurry with
+your horses?  We mean to stay a night with you, and taste your
+old brandy, and my dame's homebrewed.  The signal is up, man, and
+all is right.'
+
+'All is wrong, Captain Nanty,' cried the man to whom he spoke;
+'and you are the lad that is like to find it so, unless you
+bundle off--there are new brooms bought at Carlisle yesterday to
+sweep the country of you and the like of you--so you were better
+be jogging inland.
+
+'How many rogues are the officers?  If not more than ten, I will
+make fight.'
+
+'The devil you will!'  answered Crackenthorp.  'You were better
+not, for they have the bloody-backed dragoons from Carlisle with
+them.'
+
+'Nay, then,' said Nanty, 'we must make sail.  Come, Master
+Fairlord, you must mount and ride.  He does not hear me--he has
+fainted, I believe--What the devil shall I do?  Father
+Crackenthorp, I must leave this young fellow with you till the
+gale blows out--hark ye--goes between the laird and the t'other
+old one; he can neither ride nor walk--I must send him up to
+you.'
+
+'Send him up to the gallows!'  said Crackenthorp; 'there is
+Quartermaster Thwacker, with twenty men, up yonder; an he had not
+some kindness for Doll, I had never got hither for a start--but
+you must get off, or they will be here to seek us, for his orders
+are woundy particular; and these kegs contain worse than whisky--
+a hanging matter, I take it.'
+
+'I wish they were at the bottom of Wampool river, with them they
+belong to,' said Nanty Ewart.  'But they are part of cargo; and
+what to do with the poor young fellow--'
+
+'Why, many a better fellow has roughed it on the grass with a
+cloak o'er him,' said Crackenthorp.  'If he hath a fever, nothing
+is so cooling as the night air.'
+
+'Yes, he would be cold enough in the morning, no doubt; but it's
+a kind heart and shall not cool so soon if I can help it,'
+answered the captain of the JUMPING JENNY.
+
+'Well, captain, an ye will risk your own neck for another man's,
+why not take him to the old girls at Fairladies?'
+
+'What, the Miss Arthurets!  The Papist jades!  But never mind; it
+will do--I have known them take in a whole sloop's crew that were
+stranded on the sands.'
+
+'You may run some risk, though, by turning up to Fairladies; for
+I tell you they are all up through the country.'
+
+'Never mind--I may chance to put some of them down again,' said
+Nanty, cheerfully.  'Come, lads, bustle to your tackle.  Are you
+all loaded?'
+
+'Aye, aye, captain; we will be ready in a jiffy,' answered the
+gang.
+
+'D--n your captains!  Have you a mind to have me hanged if I am
+taken?  All's hail-fellow, here.'
+
+'A sup at parting,' said Father Crackenthorp, extending a flask
+to Nanty Ewart.
+
+'Not the twentieth part of a drop,' said Nanty.  'No Dutch
+courage for me--my heart is always high enough when there's a
+chance of fighting; besides, if I live drunk, I should like to
+die sober.  Here, old Jephson--you are the best-natured brute
+amongst them--get the lad between us on a quiet horse, and we
+will keep him upright, I warrant.'
+
+As they raised Fairford from the ground, he groaned heavily, and
+asked faintly where they were taking him to.
+
+'To a place where you will be as snug and quiet as a mouse in his
+hole,' said Nanty, 'if so be that we can get you there safely.
+Good-bye, Father Crackenthorp--poison the quartermaster, if you
+can.'
+
+The loaded horses then sprang forward at a hard trot, following
+each other in a line, and every second horse being mounted by a
+stout fellow in a smock frock, which served to conceal the arms
+with which most of these desperate men were provided.  Ewart
+followed in the rear of the line, and, with the occasional
+assistance of old Jephson, kept his young charge erect in the
+saddle.  He groaned heavily from time to time; and Ewart, more
+moved with compassion for his situation than might have been
+expected from his own habits, endeavoured to amuse him and
+comfort him, by some account of the place to which they were
+conveying him--his words of consolation being, however,
+frequently interrupted by the necessity of calling to his people,
+and many of them being lost amongst the rattling of the barrels,
+and clinking of the tackle and small chains by which they are
+secured on such occasions.
+
+'And you see, brother, you will be in safe quarters at
+Fairladies--good old scrambling house--good old maids enough, if
+they were not Papists,--Hollo, you Jack Lowther; keep the line,
+can't ye, and shut your rattle-trap, you broth of a--?  And so,
+being of a good family, and having enough, the old lasses have
+turned a kind of saints, and nuns, and so forth.  The place they
+live in was some sort of nun-shop long ago, as they have them
+still in Flanders; so folk call them the Vestals of Fairladies--
+that may be, or may not be; and I care not whether it be or no.--
+Blinkinsop, hold your tongue, and be d--d!--And so, betwixt great
+alms and good dinners, they are well thought of by rich and poor,
+and their trucking with Papists is looked over.  There are plenty
+of priests, and stout young scholars, and such-like, about the
+house it's a hive of them.  More shame that government send
+dragoons out after-a few honest fellows that bring the old women
+of England a drop of brandy, and let these ragamuffins smuggle in
+as much papistry and--Hark!--was that a whistle?  No, it's only a
+plover.  You, Jem Collier, keep a look-out ahead--we'll meet them
+at the High Whins, or Brotthole bottom, or nowhere.  Go a furlong
+ahead, I say, and look sharp.--These Misses Arthurets feed the
+hungry, and clothe the naked, and such-like acts--which my poor
+father used to say were filthy rags, but he dressed himself out
+with as many of them as most folk.--D--n that stumbling horse!
+Father Crackenthorp should be d--d himself for putting an honest
+fellow's neck in such jeopardy.'
+
+Thus, and with much more to the same purpose, Nanty ran on,
+increasing, by his well-intended annoyance, the agony of Alan
+Fairford, who, tormented by a racking pain along the back and
+loins, which made the rough trot of the horse torture to him, had
+his aching head still further rended and split by the hoarse
+voice of the sailor, close to his ear.  Perfectly passive,
+however, he did not even essay to give any answer; and indeed his
+own bodily distress was now so great and engrossing, that to
+think of his situation was impossible, even if he could have
+mended it by doing so.
+
+Their course was inland; but in what direction, Alan had no means
+of ascertaining.  They passed at first over heaths and sandy
+downs; they crossed more than one brook, or beck, as they are
+called in that country--some of them of considerable depth--and
+at length reached a cultivated country, divided, according to the
+English fashion of agriculture, into very small fields or closes,
+by high banks, overgrown with underwood, and surmounted by hedge-
+row trees, amongst which winded a number of impracticable and
+complicated lanes, where the boughs projecting from the
+embankments on each side, intercepted the light of the moon, and
+endangered the safety of the horsemen.  But through this
+labyrinth the experience of the guides conducted them without a
+blunder, and without even the slackening of their pace.  In many
+places, however, it was impossible for three men to ride abreast;
+and therefore the burden of supporting Alan Fairford fell
+alternately to old Jephson and to Nanty; and it was with much
+difficulty that they could keep him upright in his saddle.
+
+At length, when his powers of sufferance were quite worn out, and
+he was about to implore them to leave him to his fate in the
+first cottage or shed--or under a haystack or a hedge--or
+anywhere, so he was left at ease, Collier, who rode ahead, passed
+back the word that they were at the avenue to Fairladies--'Was he
+to turn up?'
+
+Committing the charge of Fairford to Jephson, Nanty dashed up to
+the head of the troop, and gave his orders.--'Who knows the house
+best?'
+
+'Sam Skelton's a Catholic,' said Lowther.
+
+'A d--d bad religion,' said Nanty, of whose Presbyterian
+education a hatred of Popery seemed to be the only remnant.  'But
+I am glad there is one amongst us, anyhow.  You, Sam, being a
+Papist, know Fairladies and the old maidens I dare say; so do you
+fall out of the line, and wait here with me; and do you, Collier,
+carry on to Walinford bottom, then turn down the beck till you
+come to the old mill, and Goodman Grist the Miller, or old Peel-
+the-Causeway, will tell you where to stow; but I will be up with
+you before that.'
+
+The string of loaded horses then struck forward at their former
+pace, while Nanty, with Sam Skelton, waited by the roadside till
+the rear came up, when Jephson and Fairford joined them, and, to
+the great relief of the latter, they began to proceed at an
+easier pace than formerly, suffering the gang to precede them,
+till the clatter and clang attending their progress began to die
+away in the distance.  They had not proceeded a pistol-shot from
+the place where they parted, when a short turning brought them in
+front of an old mouldering gateway, whose heavy pinnacles were
+decorated in the style of the seventeenth century, with clumsy
+architectural ornaments; several of which had fallen down from
+decay, and lay scattered about, no further care having been taken
+than just to remove them out of the direct approach to the
+avenue.  The great stone pillars, glimmering white in the
+moonlight, had some fanciful resemblance to supernatural
+apparitions, and the air of neglect all around, gave an
+uncomfortable idea of the habitation to those who passed its
+avenue.
+
+'There used to be no gate here,' said Skelton, finding their way
+unexpectedly stopped.
+
+'But there is a gate now, and a porter too,' said a rough voice
+from within.  'Who be you, and what do you want at this time of
+night?'
+
+'We want to come to speech of the ladies--of the Misses
+Arthuret,' said Nanty; 'and to ask lodging for a sick man.'
+
+'There is no speech to be had of the Miss Arthurets at this time
+of night, and you may carry your sick man to the doctor,'
+answered the fellow from within, gruffly; 'for as sure as there
+is savour in salt, and scent in rosemary, you will get no
+entrance--put your pipes up and be jogging on.'
+
+'Why, Dick Gardener,' said Skelton, 'be thou then turned porter?'
+
+'What, do you know who I am?'  said the domestic sharply.
+
+'I know you, by your by-word,' answered the other; 'What, have
+you forgot little Sam Skelton, and the brock in the barrel?'
+
+'No, I have not forgotten you,' answered the acquaintance of Sam
+Skelton; 'but my orders are peremptory to let no one up the
+avenue this night, and therefore'--
+
+'But we are armed, and will not be kept back,' said Nanty.  'Hark
+ye, fellow, were it not better for you to take a guinea and let
+us in, than to have us break the door first, and thy pate
+afterwards?  for I won't see my comrade die at your door be
+assured of that.'
+
+'Why, I dunna know,' said the fellow; 'but what cattle were those
+that rode by in such hurry?'
+
+'Why, some of our folk from Bowness, Stoniecultrum, and thereby,'
+answered Skelton; 'Jack Lowther, and old Jephson, and broad Will
+Lamplugh, and such like.'
+
+'Well,' said Dick Gardener, 'as sure as there is savour in salt,
+and scent in rosemary, I thought it had been the troopers from
+Carlisle and Wigton, and the sound brought my heart to my mouth.'
+
+'Had thought thou wouldst have known the clatter of a cask from
+the clash of a broadsword, as well as e'er a quaffer in
+Cumberland,' said Skelton.
+
+'Come, brother, less of your jaw and more of your legs, if you
+please,' said Nanty; 'every moment we stay is a moment lost.  Go
+to the ladies, and tell them that Nanty Ewart, of the JUMPING
+JENNY, has brought a young gentleman, charged with letters from
+Scotland to a certain gentleman of consequence in Cumberland--
+that the soldiers are out, and the gentleman is very ill and if
+he is not received at Fairladies he must be left either to die at
+the gate, or to be taken, with all his papers about him, by the
+redcoats.'
+
+Away ran Dick Gardener with this message; and, in a few minutes,
+lights were seen to flit about, which convinced Fairford, who was
+now, in consequence of the halt, a little restored to self-
+possession, that they were traversing the front of a tolerably
+large mansion-house.
+
+'What if thy friend, Dick Gardener, comes not back again?'  said
+Jephson to Skelton.
+
+'Why, then,' said the person addressed, 'I shall owe him just
+such a licking as thou, old Jephson, had from Dan Cooke, and will
+pay as duly and truly as he did.'
+
+The old man was about to make an angry reply, when his doubts
+were silenced by the return of Dick Gardener, who announced that
+Miss Arthuret was coming herself as far as the gateway to speak
+with them.
+
+Nanty Ewart cursed in a low tone the suspicions of old maids and
+the churlish scruples of Catholics, that made so many obstacles
+to helping a fellow creature, and wished Miss Arthuret a hearty
+rheumatism or toothache as the reward of her excursion; but the
+lady presently appeared, to cut short further grumbling.  She was
+attended by a waiting-maid with a lantern, by means of which she
+examined the party on the outside, as closely as the imperfect
+light, and the spars of the newly-erected gate, would permit.
+
+'I am sorry we have disturbed you so late, Madam Arthuret,' said
+Nanty; 'but the case is this'--
+
+'Holy Virgin,' said she, 'why do you speak so loud?  Pray, are
+you not the captain of the SAINTE GENEVIEVE?'
+
+'Why, aye, ma'am,' answered Ewart, 'they call the brig so at
+Dunkirk, sure enough; but along shore here, they call her the
+JUMPING JENNY.'
+
+'You brought over the holy Father Buonaventure, did you not?'
+
+'Aye, aye, madam, I have brought over enough of them black
+cattle,' answered Nanty.  'Fie!  fie!  friend,' said Miss
+Arthuret; 'it is a pity that the saints should commit these good
+men to a heretic's care.'
+
+'Why, no more they would, ma'am,' answered Nanty, 'could they
+find a Papist lubber that knew the coast as I do; then I am
+trusty as steel to owners, and always look after cargo--live
+lumber, or dead flesh, or spirits, all is one to me; and your
+Catholics have such d--d large hoods, with pardon, ma'am, that
+they can sometimes hide two faces under them.  But here is a
+gentleman dying, with letters about him from the Laird of
+Summertrees to the Laird of the Lochs, as they call him, along
+Solway, and every minute he lies here is a nail in his coffin.'
+
+'Saint Mary!  what shall we do?'  said Miss Arthuret; 'we must
+admit him, I think, at all risks.  You, Richard Gardener, help
+one of these men to carry the gentleman up to the Place; and you,
+Selby, see him lodged at the end of the long gallery.  You are a
+heretic, captain, but I think you are trusty, and I know you have
+been trusted--but if you are imposing on me'--
+
+'Not I, madam--never attempt to impose on ladies of your
+experience--my practice that way has been all among the young
+ones.  Come, cheerly, Mr. Fairford--you will be taken good care
+of--try to walk.'
+
+Alan did so; and, refreshed by his halt, declared himself able to
+walk to the house with the sole assistance of the gardener.
+
+'Why, that's hearty.  Thank thee, Dick, for lending him thine
+arm'--and Nanty slipped into his hand the guinea he had
+promised.--'Farewell, then, Mr. Fairford, and farewell, Madam
+Arthuret, for I have been too long here.'
+
+So saying, he and his two companions threw themselves on
+horseback, and went off at a gallop.  Yet, even above the clatter
+of their hoofs did the incorrigible Nanty hollo out the old
+ballad--
+
+  A lovely lass to a friar came,
+  To confession a-morning early;--
+  'In what, my dear, are you to blame?
+  Come tell me most sincerely?'
+  'Alas!  my fault I dare not name--
+  But my lad he loved me dearly.'
+
+'Holy Virgin!'  exclaimed Miss Seraphina, as the unhallowed
+sounds reached her ears; 'what profane heathens be these men, and
+what frights and pinches we be put to among them!  The saints be
+good to us, what a night has this been!--the like never seen at
+Fairladies.  Help me to make fast the gate, Richard, and thou
+shalt come down again to wait on it, lest there come more
+unwelcome visitors--Not that you are unwelcome, young gentleman,
+for it is sufficient that you need such assistance as we can give
+you, to make you welcome to Fairladies--only, another time would
+have done as well--but, hem!  I dare say it is all for the best.
+The avenue is none of the smoothest, sir, look to your feet.
+Richard Gardener should have had it mown and levelled, but he was
+obliged to go on a pilgrimage to Saint Winifred's Well, in
+Wales.'  (Here Dick gave a short dry cough, which, as if he had
+found it betrayed some internal feeling a little at variance with
+what the lady said, he converted into a muttered SANCTA
+WINIFREDA, ORA PRO NOBIS.  Miss Arthuret, meantime, proceeded)
+'We never interfere with our servants' vows or penances, Master
+Fairford--I know a very worthy father of your name, perhaps a
+relation--I say, we never interfere with our servants vows.  Our
+Lady forbid they should not know some difference between our
+service and a heretic's.--Take care, sir, you will fall if you
+have not a care.  Alas!  by night and day there are many
+stumbling-blocks in our paths!'
+
+With more talk to the same purpose, all of which tended to show a
+charitable and somewhat silly woman with a strong inclination to
+her superstitious devotion, Miss Arthuret entertained her new
+guest, as, stumbling at every obstacle which the devotion of his
+guide, Richard, had left in the path, he at last, by ascending
+some stone steps decorated on the side with griffins, or some
+such heraldic anomalies, attained a terrace extending in front of
+the Place of Fairladies; an old-fashioned gentleman's house of
+some consequence, with its range of notched gable-ends and narrow
+windows, relieved by here and there an old turret about the size
+of a pepper-box.  The door was locked during the brief absence of
+the mistress; a dim light glimmered through the sashed door of
+the hall, which opened beneath a huge stone porch, loaded with
+jessamine and other creepers.  All the windows were dark as
+pitch.
+
+Miss Arthuret tapped at the door.  'Sister, sister Angelica.'
+'Who is there?'  was answered from within; 'is it you, sister
+Seraphina?'
+
+'Yes, yes, undo the door; do you not know my voice?'
+
+'No doubt, sister,' said Angelica, undoing bolt and bar; 'but you
+know our charge, and the enemy is watchful to surprise us--
+INCEDIT SICUT LEO VORANS, saith the breviary.  Whom have you
+brought here?  Oh, sister, what have you done?'
+
+'It is a young man,' said Seraphina, hastening to interrupt her
+sister's remonstrance, 'a relation, I believe, of our worthy
+Father Fairford; left at the gate by the captain of that blessed
+vessel the SAINTE GENEVIEVE--almost dead--and charged with
+dispatches to '--
+
+She lowered her voice as she mumbled over the last words.
+
+'Nay, then, there is no help,' said Angelica; 'but it is
+unlucky.'
+
+During this dialogue between the vestals of Fairladies, Dick
+Gardener deposited his burden in a chair, where the young lady,
+after a moment of hesitation, expressing a becoming reluctance to
+touch the hand of a stranger, put her finger and thumb upon
+Fairford's wrist, and counted his pulse.
+
+'There is fever here, sister,' she said; 'Richard must call
+Ambrose, and we must send some of the febrifuge.'
+
+Ambrose arrived presently, a plausible and respectable-looking
+old servant, bred in the family, and who had risen from rank to
+rank in the Arthuret service till he was become half-physician,
+half-almoner, half-butler, and entire governor; that is, when the
+Father Confessor, who frequently eased him of the toils of
+government, chanced to be abroad.  Under the direction, and with
+the assistance of this venerable personage, the unlucky Alan
+Fairford was conveyed to a decent apartment at the end of a long
+gallery, and, to his inexpressible relief, consigned to a
+comfortable bed.  He did not attempt to resist the prescription
+of Mr. Ambrose, who not only presented him with the proposed
+draught, but proceeded so far as to take a considerable quantity
+of blood from him, by which last operation he probably did his
+patient much service.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+NARRATIVE OF ALAN FAIRFORD, CONTINUED
+
+On the next morning, when Fairford awoke, after no very
+refreshing slumbers, in which were mingled many wild dreams of
+his father and of Darsie Latimer,--of the damsel in the green
+mantle and the vestals of Fairladies,--of drinking small beer
+with Nanty Ewart and being immersed in the Solway with the
+JUMPING JENNY,--he found himself in no condition to dispute the
+order of Mr. Ambrose, that he should keep his bed, from which,
+indeed, he could not have raised himself without assistance.  He
+became sensible that his anxiety, and his constant efforts for
+some days past, had been too much for his health, and that,
+whatever might be his impatience, he could not proceed in his
+undertaking until his strength was re-established.
+
+In the meanwhile, no better quarters could have been found for an
+invalid.  The attendants spoke under their breath, and moved only
+on tiptoe--nothing was done unless PAR ORDONNANCE DU MEDECIN.
+Aesculapius reigned paramount in the premises at Fairladies.
+Once a day, the ladies came in great state to wait upon him and
+inquire after his health, and it was then that; Alan's natural
+civility, and the thankfulness which he expressed for their
+timely and charitable assistance, raised him considerably in
+their esteem.  He was on the third day removed to a better
+apartment than that in which he had been at first accommodated.
+When he was permitted to drink a glass of wine, it was of the
+first quality; one of those curious old-fashioned cobwebbed
+bottles being produced on the occasion, which are only to be
+found in the crypts of old country-seats, where they may have
+lurked undisturbed for more than half a century.
+
+But however delightful a residence for an invalid, Fairladies, as
+its present inmate became soon aware, was not so agreeable to a
+convalescent.  When he dragged himself to the window so soon as
+he could crawl from bed, behold it was closely grated, and
+commanded no view except of a little paved court.  This was
+nothing remarkable, most old Border houses having their windows
+so secured.  But then Fairford observed, that whosoever entered
+or left the room.  always locked the door with great care and
+circumspection; and some proposals which he made to take a walk
+in the gallery, or even in the garden, were so coldly received,
+both by the ladies and their prime minister, Mr. Ambrose, that he
+saw plainly such an extension of his privileges as a guest would
+not be permitted.
+
+Anxious to ascertain whether this excessive hospitality would
+permit him his proper privilege of free agency, he announced to
+this important functionary, with grateful thanks for the care
+with which he had been attended, his purpose to leave Fairladies
+next morning, requesting only, as a continuance of the favours
+with which he had been loaded, the loan of a horse to the next
+town; and, assuring Mr. Ambrose that his gratitude would not be
+limited by such, a trifle, he slipped three guineas into his
+hand, by way of seconding his proposal.  The fingers of that
+worthy domestic closed as naturally upon the honorarium, as if a
+degree in the learned faculty had given him a right to clutch it;
+but his answer concerning Alan's proposed departure was at first
+evasive, and when he was pushed, it amounted to a peremptory
+assurance that he could not be permitted to depart to-morrow; it
+was as much as his life was worth, and his ladies would not
+authorize it.
+
+'I know best what my own life is worth,' said Alan; 'and I do not
+value it in comparison to the business which requires my instant
+attention.'
+
+Receiving still no satisfactory answer from Mr. Ambrose, Fairford
+thought it best to state his resolution to the ladies themselves,
+in the most measured, respectful, and grateful terms; but still
+such as expressed a firm determination to depart on the morrow,
+or next day at farthest.  After some attempts to induce him to
+stay, on the alleged score of health, which were so expressed
+that he was convinced they were only used to delay his departure,
+Fairford plainly told them that he was entrusted with dispatches
+of consequence to the gentleman known by the name of Herries,
+Redgauntlet, and the Laird of the Lochs; and that it was matter
+of life and death to deliver them early.
+
+'I dare say, Sister Angelica,' said the elder Miss Arthuret, that
+the gentleman is honest; and if he is really a relation of Father
+Fairford, we can run no risk.'
+
+'Jesu Maria!'  exclaimed the younger.  'Oh, fie, Sister
+Seraphina! Fie, fie!--'VADE RETRO--get thee behind me!'
+
+'Well, well; but, sister--Sister Angelica--let me speak with you
+in the gallery.'
+
+So out the ladies rustled in their silks and tissues, and it was
+a good half-hour ere they rustled in again, with importance and
+awe on their countenances.
+
+'To tell you the truth, Mr. Fairford, the cause of our desire to
+delay you is--there is a religious gentleman in this house at
+present'--
+
+'A most excellent person indeed'--said the sister Angelica.
+
+'An anointed of his Master!'  echoed Seraphina,--'and we should
+be glad that, for conscience' sake, you would hold some discourse
+with him before your departure.'
+
+'Oho!'  thought Fairford, 'the murder is out--here is a design of
+conversion!  I must not affront the good ladies, but I shall soon
+send off the priest, I think.'  He then answered aloud, 'that he
+should be happy to converse with any friend of theirs--that in
+religious matters he had the greatest respect for every
+modification of Christianity, though, he must say, his belief was
+made up to that in which he had been educated; nevertheless, if
+his seeing the religious person they recommended could in the
+least show his respect'--
+
+'It is not quite that,' said Sister Seraphina, 'although I am
+sure the day is too short to hear him--Father Buonaventure, I
+mean--speak upon the concerns of our souls; but'--
+
+'Come, come, Sister Seraphina,' said the younger, 'it is needless
+to talk so much about it.  His--his Eminence--I mean Father
+Buonaventure--will himself explain what he wants this gentleman
+to know.'
+
+'His Eminence!'  said Fairford, surprised--'is this gentleman so
+high in the Catholic Church?  The title is given only to
+Cardinals, I think.'
+
+'He is not a Cardinal as yet,' answered Seraphina; 'but I assure
+you, Mr. Fairford, he is as high in rank as he is eminently
+endowed with good gifts, and'--
+
+'Come away,' said Sister Angelica.  'Holy Virgin, how you do
+talk!  What has Mr. Fairford to do with Father Buonaventure's
+rank?  Only, sir, you will remember that the Father has been
+always accustomed to be treated with the most profound deference;
+indeed'--
+
+'Come away, sister,' said Sister Seraphina, in her turn; 'who
+talks now, I pray you?  Mr. Fairford will know how to comport
+himself.'
+
+'And we had best both leave the room,' said the younger lady, 'for
+here his Eminence comes.'
+
+She lowered her voice to a whisper as she pronounced the last
+words; and as Fairford was about to reply, by assuring her that
+any friend of hers should be treated by him with all the ceremony
+he could expect, she imposed silence on him, by holding up her
+finger.
+
+A solemn and stately step was now heard in the gallery; it might
+have proclaimed the approach not merely of a bishop or cardinal,
+but of the Sovereign Pontiff himself.  Nor could the sound have
+been more respectfully listened to by the two ladies, had it
+announced that the Head of the Church was approaching in person.
+They drew themselves, like sentinels on duty, one on each side of
+the door by which the long gallery communicated with Fairford's
+apartment, and stood there immovable, and with countenances
+expressive of the deepest reverence.
+
+The approach of Father Buonaventure was so slow, that Fairford
+had time to notice all this, and to marvel in his mind what wily
+and ambitious priest could have contrived to subject his worthy
+but simple-minded hostesses to such superstitious trammels.
+Father Buonaventure's entrance and appearance in some degree
+accounted for the whole.
+
+He was a man of middle life, about forty or upwards; but either
+care, or fatigue, or indulgence, had brought on the appearance of
+premature old age, and given to his fine features a cast of
+seriousness or even sadness.  A noble countenance, however, still
+remained; and though his complexion was altered, and wrinkles
+stamped upon his brow in many a melancholy fold, still the lofty
+forehead, the full and well-opened eye, and the well-formed nose,
+showed how handsome in better days he must have been.  He was
+tall, but lost the advantage of his height by stooping; and the
+cane which he wore always in his hand, and occasionally used, as
+well as his slow though majestic gait, seemed to intimate that
+his form and limbs felt already some touch of infirmity.  The
+colour of his hair could not be discovered, as, according to the
+fashion, he wore a periwig.  He was handsomely, though gravely
+dressed in a secular habit, and had a cockade in his hat;
+circumstances which did not surprise Fairford, who knew that a
+military disguise was very often assumed by the seminary priests,
+whose visits to England, or residence there, subjected them to
+legal penalties.
+
+As this stately person entered the apartment, the two ladies
+facing inward, like soldiers on their post when about to salute a
+superior officer, dropped on either hand of the father a curtsy
+so profound that the hoop petticoats which performed the feat
+seemed to sink down to the very floor, nay, through it, as if a
+trap-door had opened for the descent of the dames who performed
+this act of reverence.
+
+The father seemed accustomed to such homage, profound as it was;
+he turned his person a little way first towards one sister, and
+then towards the other, while, with a gracious inclination of his
+person, which certainly did not amount to a bow, he acknowledged
+their curtsy.  But he passed forward without addressing them, and
+seemed by doing so to intimate that their presence in the
+apartment was unnecessary.
+
+They accordingly glided out of the room, retreating backwards,
+with hands clasped and eyes cast upwards, as if imploring
+blessings on the religious man whom they venerated so highly.
+The door of the apartment was shut after them, but not before
+Fairford had perceived that there were one or two men in the
+gallery, and that, contrary to what he had before observed, the
+door, though shut, was not locked on the outside.
+
+'Can the good souls apprehend danger from me to this god of their
+idolatry?'  thought Fairford.  But he had no time to make further
+observations, for the stranger had already reached the middle of
+his apartment.
+
+Fairford rose to receive him respectfully, but as he fixed his
+eyes on the visitor, he thought that the father avoided his
+looks.  His reasons for remaining incognito were cogent enough to
+account for this, and Fairford hastened to relieve him, by
+looking downwards in his turn; but when again he raised his face,
+he found the broad light eye of the stranger so fixed on him that
+he was almost put out of countenance by the steadiness of his
+gaze.  During this time they remained standing,
+
+'Take your seat, sir,' said the father; 'you have been an
+invalid.'
+
+He spoke with the tone of one who desires an inferior to be
+seated in his presence, and his voice was full and melodious.
+
+Fairford, somewhat surprised to find himself overawed by the airs
+of superiority, which could be only properly exercised towards
+one over whom religion gave the speaker influence, sat down at
+his bidding, as if moved by springs, and was at a loss how to
+assert the footing of equality on which he felt that they ought
+to stand.  The stranger kept the advantage which he had obtained.
+
+'Your name, sir, I am informed, is Fairford?'  said the father.
+
+Alan answered by a bow.
+
+'Called to the Scottish bar,' continued his visitor, 'There is, I
+believe, in the West, a family of birth and rank called Fairford
+of Fairford.'
+
+Alan thought this a strange observation from a foreign
+ecclesiastic, as his name intimated Father Buonaventure to be;
+but only answered he believed there was such, a family,
+
+'Do you count kindred with them, Mr. Fairford?'  continued the
+inquirer.
+
+'I have not the honour to lay such a claim,' said Fairford.
+
+'My father's industry has raised his family from a low and
+obscure situation--I have no hereditary claim to distinction of
+any kind.  May I ask the cause of these inquiries?'
+
+'You will learn it presently,' said Father Buonaventure, who had
+given a dry and dissatisfied HEM at the young man's acknowledging
+a plebeian descent.  He then motioned to him to be silent, and
+proceeded with his queries.
+
+'Although not of condition, you are, doubtless, by sentiments and
+education, a man of honour and a gentleman?'
+
+'I hope so, sir,' said Alan, colouring with displeasure.  'I have
+not been accustomed to have it questioned.'
+
+'Patience, young man,' said the unperturbed querist--'we are on
+serious business, and no idle etiquette must prevent its being
+discussed seriously.  You are probably aware that you speak to a
+person proscribed by the severe and unjust laws of the present
+government?'
+
+'I am aware of the statute 1700, chapter 3,' said Alan,
+'banishing from the realm priests and trafficking Papists, and
+punishing by death, on summary conviction, any such person who
+being so banished may return.  But I have no means of knowing
+you, sir, to be one of those persons; and I think your prudence
+may recommend to you to keep your own counsel.'
+
+'It is sufficient, sir; and I have no apprehensions of
+disagreeable consequences from your having seen me in this
+house,' said the priest.
+
+'Assuredly no,' said Alan.  'I consider myself as indebted for my
+life to the mistresses of Fairladies; and it would be a vile
+requital on my part to pry into or make known what I may have
+seen or heard under this hospitable roof.  If I were to meet the
+Pretender himself in such a situation, he should, even at the
+risk of a little stretch to my loyalty, be free from any danger
+from my indiscretion.'
+
+'The Pretender!'  said the priest, with some angry emphasis; but
+immediately softened his tone and added, 'No doubt, however, that
+person is a pretender; and some people think his pretensions are
+not ill founded.   But, before running into politics, give me
+leave to say, that I am surprised to find a gentleman of your
+opinions in habits of intimacy with Mr. Maxwell of Summertrees
+and Mr. Redgauntlet, and the medium of conducting the intercourse
+betwixt them.'
+
+'Pardon me, sir,' replied Alan Fairford; 'I do not aspire to the
+honour of being reputed their confidant or go-between.  My
+concern with those gentlemen is limited to one matter of
+business, dearly interesting to me, because it concerns the
+safety--perhaps the life--of my dearest friend.'
+
+'Would you have any objection to entrust me with the cause of
+your journey?'  said Father Buonaventure.  'My advice may be of
+service to you, and my influence with one or both these gentlemen
+is considerable.'
+
+Fairford hesitated a moment, and, hastily revolving all
+circumstances, concluded that he might perhaps receive some
+advantage from propitiating this personage; while, on the other
+hand, he endangered nothing by communicating to him the occasion
+of his journey.  He, therefore, after stating shortly that he
+hoped Mr. Buonaventure would render him the same confidence which
+he required on his part, gave a short account of Darsie Latimer--
+of the mystery which hung over his family--and of the disaster
+which had befallen him.  Finally, of his own resolution to seek
+for his friend, and to deliver him, at the peril of his own life.
+
+The Catholic priest, whose manner it seemed to be to avoid all
+conversation which did not arise from his own express motion,
+made no remarks upon what he had heard, but only asked one or two
+abrupt questions, where Alan's narrative appeared less clear to
+him; then rising from his seat, he took two turns through the
+apartment, muttering between his teeth, with emphasis, the word
+'madman!'  But apparently he was in the habit of keeping all
+violent emotions under restraint; for he presently addressed
+Fairford with the most perfect indifference.
+
+'If,' said he, 'you thought you could do so without breach of
+confidence, I wish you would have the goodness to show me the
+letter of Mr. Maxwell of Summertrees.  I desire to look
+particularly at the address.'
+
+Seeing no cause to decline this extension of his confidence,
+Alan, without hesitation, put the letter into his hand.  Having
+turned it round as old Trumbull and Nanty Ewart had formerly
+done, and, like them, having examined the address with much
+minuteness, he asked whether he had observed these words,
+pointing to a pencil-writing upon the under side of the letter.
+Fairford answered in the negative, and, looking at the letter,
+read with surprise, 'CAVE NE LITERAS BELLEROPHONTIS ADFERRES'; a
+caution which coincided so exactly with the provost's admonition,
+that he would do well to inspect the letter of which he was
+bearer, that he was about to spring up and attempt an escape, he
+knew not wherefore, or from whom.
+
+'Sit still, young man,' said the father, with the same tone of
+authority which reigned in his whole manner, although mingled
+with stately courtesy.  'You are in no danger--my character shall
+be a pledge for your safety.  By whom do you suppose these words
+have been written?'
+
+Fairford could have answered, 'By Nanty Ewart,' for he remembered
+seeing that person scribble something with a pencil, although he
+was not well enough to observe with accuracy where or upon what.
+But not knowing what suspicions, or what worse consequences the
+seamen's interest in his affairs might draw upon him, he judged
+it best to answer that he knew not the hand.
+
+Father Buonaventure was again silent for a moment or two, which
+he employed in surveying the letter with the strictest attention;
+then stepped to the window, as if to examine the address and
+writing of the envelope with the assistance of a stronger light,
+and Alan Fairford beheld him, with no less amazement than high
+displeasure, coolly and deliberately break the seal, open the
+letter, and peruse the contents.
+
+'Stop, sir, hold!'  he exclaimed, so soon as his astonishment
+permitted him to express his resentment in words; 'by what right
+do you dare'--
+
+'Peace, young gentleman,' said the father, repelling him with a
+wave of his hand; 'be assured I do not act without warrant--
+nothing can pass betwixt Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Redgauntlet that I
+am not fully entitled to know.'
+
+'It may be so,' said Alan, extremely angry; 'but though you may
+be these gentlemen's father confessor, you are not mine; and in
+breaking the seal of a letter entrusted to my care, you have done
+me'--
+
+'No injury, I assure you,' answered the unperturbed priest; 'on
+the contrary, it may be a service.'
+
+'I desire no advantage at such a rate, or to be obtained in such
+a manner,' answered Fairford; 'restore me the letter instantly,
+or'--
+
+'As you regard your own safety,' said the priest, 'forbear all
+injurious expressions, and all menacing gestures.  I am not one
+who can be threatened or insulted with impunity; and there are
+enough within hearing to chastise any injury or affront offered
+to me, in case I may think it unbecoming to protect or avenge
+myself with my own hand.'
+
+In saying this, the father assumed an air of such fearlessness
+and calm authority, that the young lawyer, surprised and
+overawed, forbore, as he had intended, to snatch the letter from
+his hand, and confined himself to bitter complaints of the
+impropriety of his conduct, and of the light in which he himself
+must be placed to Redgauntlet should he present him a letter with
+a broken seal.
+
+'That,' said Father Buonaventure, 'shall be fully cared for.  I
+will myself write to Redgauntlet, and enclose Maxwell's letter,
+provided always you continue to desire to deliver it, after
+perusing the contents.'
+
+He then restored the letter to Fairford, and, observing that he
+hesitated to peruse it, said emphatically, 'Read it, for it
+concerns you.'
+
+This recommendation, joined to what Provost Crosbie had formerly
+recommended, and to the warning which he doubted not that Nanty
+intended to convey by his classical allusion, decided Fairford's
+resolution.  'If these correspondents,' he thought, 'are
+conspiring against my person, I have a right to counterplot them;
+self-preservation, as well as my friend's safety, require that I
+should not be too scrupulous.'
+
+So thinking, he read the letter, which was in the following
+words:--
+
+'DEAR RUGGED AND DANGEROUS,
+'Will you never cease meriting your old nick-name?  You have
+springed your dottrel, I find, and what is the consequence?--why,
+that there will be hue and cry after you presently.  The bearer
+is a pert young lawyer, who has brought a formal complaint
+against you, which, luckily, he has preferred in a friendly
+court.  Yet, favourable as the judge was disposed to be, it was
+with the utmost difficulty that cousin Jenny and I could keep him
+to his tackle.  He begins to be timid, suspicious, and
+untractable, and I fear Jenny will soon bend her brows on him in
+vain.  I know not what to advise--the lad who carries this is a
+good lad--active for his friend--and I have pledged my honour he
+shall have no personal ill-usage.  Pledged my honour, remark
+these words, and remember I can be rugged and dangerous as well,
+as my neighbours.  But I have not ensured him against a short
+captivity, and as he is a stirring active fellow, I see no remedy
+but keeping him out of the way till this business of the good
+Father B-- is safely blown over, which God send it were!--Always
+thine, even should I be once more
+CRAIG-IN-PERIL.'
+
+'What think you, young man, of the danger you have been about to
+encounter so willingly?'
+
+'As strangely,' replied Alan Fairford, 'as of the extraordinary
+means which you have been at present pleased to use for the
+discovery of Mr. Maxwell's purpose.
+
+'Trouble not yourself to account for my conduct,' said the
+father; 'I have a warrant for what I do, and fear no
+responsibility.  But tell me what is your present purpose.'
+
+'I should not perhaps name it to you, whose own safety may be
+implicated.'
+
+'I understand you,' answered the father; 'you would appeal to the
+existing government?  That can at no rate be permitted--we will
+rather detain you at Fairladies by compulsion.'
+
+'You will probably,' said Fairford, 'first weigh the risk of such
+a proceeding in a free country.'
+
+'I have incurred more formidable hazard,' said the priest,
+smiling; 'yet I am willing to find a milder expedient.  Come; let
+us bring the matter to a compromise.'  And he assumed a
+conciliating graciousness of manner, which struck Fairford as
+being rather too condescending for the occasion; 'I presume you
+will be satisfied to remain here in seclusion for a day or two
+longer, provided I pass my solemn word to you that you shall meet
+with the person whom you seek after--meet with him in perfect
+safety, and, I trust, in good health, and be afterwards both at
+liberty to return to Scotland, or dispose of yourselves as each
+of you may be minded?'
+
+'I respect the VERBUM SACERDOTIS as much as can reasonably be
+expected from a Protestant,' answered Fairford; 'but methinks,
+you can scarce expect me to repose so much confidence in the word
+of an unknown person as is implied in the guarantee which you
+offer me.'
+
+'I am not accustomed, sir,' said the father, in a very haughty
+tone, 'to have my word disputed.  But,' he added, while the angry
+hue passed from his cheek, after a moment's reflection, 'you know
+me not, and ought to be excused.  I will repose more confidence
+in your honour than you seem willing to rest upon mine; and,
+since we are so situated that one must rely upon the other's
+faith, I will cause you to be set presently at liberty, and
+furnished with the means of delivering your letter as addressed,
+provided that now, knowing the contents, you think it safe for
+yourself to execute the commission.'
+
+Alan Fairford paused.  'I cannot see,' he at length replied, 'how
+I can proceed with respect to the accomplishment of my sole
+purpose, which is the liberation of my friend, without appealing
+to the law and obtaining the assistance of a magistrate.  If I
+present this singular letter of Mr. Maxwell, with the contents of
+which I have become so unexpectedly acquainted, I shall only
+share his captivity.'
+
+'And if you apply to a magistrate, young man, you will bring ruin
+on these hospitable ladies, to whom, in all human probability,
+you owe your life.  You cannot obtain a warrant for your purpose,
+without giving a clear detail of all the late scenes through
+which you have passed.  A magistrate would oblige you to give a
+complete account of yourself, before arming you with his
+authority against a third party; and in giving such an account,
+the safety of these ladies will necessarily be compromised.  A
+hundred spies have had, and still have, their eyes upon this
+mansion; but God will protect his own.'--He crossed himself
+devoutly, and then proceeded,--'You can take an hour to think of
+your best plan, and I will pledge myself to forward it thus far,
+provided it be not asking you to rely more on my word than your
+prudence can warrant.  You shall go to Redgauntlet,--I name him
+plainly, to show my confidence in you,--and you shall deliver him
+this letter of Mr. Maxwell's, with one from me, in which I will
+enjoin him to set your friend at liberty, or at least to make no
+attempts upon your own person, either by detention or otherwise.
+If you can trust me thus far,' he said, with a proud emphasis on
+the words 'I will on my side see you depart from this place with
+the most perfect confidence that you will not return armed with
+powers to drag its inmates to destruction.  You are young and
+inexperienced--bred to a profession also which sharpens
+suspicion, and gives false views of human nature.  I have seen
+much of the world, and have known better than most men how far
+mutual confidence is requisite in managing affairs of
+consequence.'
+
+He spoke with an air of superiority, even of authority, by which
+Fairford, notwithstanding his own internal struggles, was
+silenced and overawed so much, that it was not till the father
+had turned to leave the apartment that he found words to ask him
+what the consequences would be, should he decline to depart on
+the terms proposed.
+
+'You must then, for the safety of all parties, remain for some
+days an inhabitant of Fairladies, where we have the means of
+detaining you, which self-preservation will in that case compel
+us to make use of.  Your captivity will be short; for matters
+cannot long remain as they are.  The cloud must soon rise, or it
+must sink upon us for ever.  BENEDICITE!'
+
+With these words he left the apartment.
+
+Fairford, upon his departure, felt himself much at a loss what
+course to pursue.  His line of education, as well as his father's
+tenets in matters of church and state, had taught him a holy
+horror for Papists, and a devout belief in whatever had been said
+of the Punic faith of Jesuits, and of the expedients of mental
+reservation by which the Catholic priests in general were
+supposed to evade keeping faith with heretics.  Yet there was
+something of majesty, depressed indeed and overclouded, but still
+grand and imposing, in the manner and words of Father
+Buonaventure, which it was difficult to reconcile with those
+preconceived opinions which imputed subtlety and fraud to his
+sect and order.  Above all, Alan was aware that if he accepted
+not his freedom upon the terms offered him, he was likely to be
+detained by force; so that, in every point of view, he was a
+gainer by accepting them.
+
+A qualm, indeed, came across him, when he considered, as a
+lawyer, that this father was probably, in the eye of law, a
+traitor; and that there was an ugly crime on the Statute Book,
+called misprision of treason.  On the other hand, whatever he
+might think or suspect, he could not take upon him to say that
+the man was a priest, whom he had never seen in the dress of his
+order, or in the act of celebrating mass; so that he felt himself
+at liberty to doubt of that respecting which he possessed no
+legal proof.  He therefore arrived at the conclusion, that he
+would do well to accept his liberty, and proceed to Redgauntlet
+under the guarantee of Father Buonaventure, which he scarce
+doubted would be sufficient to save him from personal
+inconvenience.  Should he once obtain speech of that gentleman,
+he felt the same confidence as formerly, that he might be able to
+convince him of the rashness of his conduct, should he not
+consent to liberate Darsie Latimer.  At all events, he should
+learn where his friend was, and how circumstanced.
+
+Having thus made up his mind, Alan waited anxiously for the
+expiration of the hour which had been allowed him for
+deliberation.  He was not kept on the tenter-hooks of impatience
+an instant longer than the appointed moment arrived, for, even as
+the clock struck, Ambrose appeared at the door of the gallery,
+and made a sign that Alan should follow him.  He did so, and
+after passing through some of the intricate avenues common in old
+houses, was ushered into a small apartment, commodiously fitted
+up, in which he found Father Buonaventure reclining on a couch,
+in the attitude of a man exhausted by fatigue or indisposition.
+On a small table beside him, a silver embossed salver sustained a
+Catholic book of prayer, a small flask of medicine, a cordial,
+and a little tea-cup of old china.  Ambrose did not enter the
+room--he only bowed profoundly, and closed the door with the
+least possible noise, so soon as Fairford had entered.
+
+'Sit down, young man,' said the father, with the same air of
+condescension which had before surprised, and rather offended
+Fairford.  'You have been ill, and I know too well by my own case
+that indisposition requires indulgence.  Have you,' he continued,
+so soon as he saw him seated, 'resolved to remain, or to depart?'
+
+'To depart,' said Alan, 'under the agreement that you will
+guarantee my safety with the extraordinary person who has
+conducted himself in such a lawless manner toward my friend,
+Darsie Latimer.'
+
+'Do not judge hastily, young man,' replied the father.
+'Redgauntlet has the claims of a guardian over his ward, in
+respect to the young gentleman, and a right to dictate his place
+of residence, although he may have been injudicious in selecting
+the means by which he thinks to enforce his authority.'
+
+'His situation as an attainted person abrogates such rights,'
+said Fairford, hastily.
+
+'Surely,' replied the priest, smiling at the young lawyer's
+readiness; 'in the eye of those who acknowledge the justice of
+the attainder--but that do not I.  However, sir, here is the
+guarantee--look at its contents, and do not again carry the
+letters of Uriah.'
+
+Fairford read these words:--
+
+'GOOD FRIEND,
+'We send you hither a young man desirous to know the situation of
+your ward, since he came under your paternal authority, and
+hopeful of dealing with you for having your relative put at
+large.  This we recommend to your prudence, highly disapproving,
+at the same time, of any force or coercion when such can be
+avoided, and wishing, therefore, that the bearer's negotiation
+may be successful.  At all rates, however, the bearer hath our
+pledged word for his safety and freedom, which, therefore, you
+are to see strictly observed, as you value our honour and your
+own.  We further wish to converse with you, with as small loss of
+time as may be, having matters of the utmost confidence to
+impart.  For this purpose we desire you to repair hither with all
+haste, and thereupon we bid you heartily farewell.
+P. B.'
+
+'You will understand, sir,' said the father, when he saw that
+Alan had perused his letter, 'that, by accepting charge of this
+missive, you bind yourself to try the effect of it before having
+recourse to any legal means, as you term them, for your friend's
+release.'
+
+'There are a few ciphers added to this letter,' said Fairford,
+when he had perused the paper attentively,--'may I inquire what
+their import is?'
+
+'They respect my own affairs,' answered the father, briefly; 'and
+have no concern whatever with yours.'
+
+'It seems to me, however,' replied Alan, 'natural to suppose'--
+
+'Nothing must be supposed incompatible with my honour,' replied
+the priest, interrupting him; 'when such as I am confer favours,
+we expect that they shall be accepted with gratitude, or declined
+with thankful respect--not questioned or discussed.'
+
+'I will accept your letter, then,' said Fairford, after a
+minute's consideration, 'and the thanks you expect shall be most
+liberally paid, if the result answer what you teach me to
+expect.'
+
+'God only commands the issue,' said Father Buonaventure.  'Man
+uses means.  You understand that, by accepting this commission,
+you engage yourself in honour to try the effect of my letter upon
+Mr. Redgauntlet, before you have recourse to informations or
+legal warrants?'
+
+'I hold myself bound, as a man of good faith and honour, to do
+so,' said Fairford.
+
+'Well, I trust you,' said the father.  'I will now tell you that
+an express, dispatched by me last night, has, I hear, brought
+Redgauntlet to a spot many miles nearer this place, where he will
+not find it safe to attempt any violence on your friend, should
+he be rash enough to follow the advice of Mr. Maxwell of
+Summertrees rather than my commands.  We now understand each
+other.'
+
+He extended his hand towards Alan, who was about to pledge his
+faith in the usual form by grasping it with his own, when the
+father drew back hastily.  Ere Alan had time to comment upon this
+repulse, a small side-door, covered with tapestry, was opened;
+the hangings were drawn aside, and a lady, as if by sudden
+apparition, glided into the apartment.  It was neither of the
+Misses Arthuret, but a woman in the prime of life, and in the
+full-blown expansion of female beauty, tall, fair, and commanding
+in her aspect.  Her locks, of paly gold, were taught to fall over
+a brow, which, with the stately glance of the large, open, blue
+eyes, might have become Juno herself; her neck and bosom were
+admirably formed, and of a dazzling whiteness.  She was rather
+inclined to EMBONPOINT, but not more than became her age, of
+apparently thirty years.  Her step was that of a queen, but it
+was of Queen Vashti, not Queen Esther--the bold and commanding,
+not the retiring beauty.
+
+Father Buonaventure raised himself on the couch, angrily, as if
+displeased by this intrusion.  'How now, madam,' he said, with
+some sternness; 'why have we the honour of your company?'
+
+'Because it is my pleasure,' answered the lady, composedly.
+
+'Your pleasure, madam!'  he repeated in the same angry tone.
+
+'My pleasure, sir,' she continued, 'which always keeps exact pace
+with my duty.  I had heard you were unwell--let me hope it is
+only business which produces this seclusion.'
+
+'I am well,' he replied; 'perfectly well, and I thank you for
+your care--but we are not alone, and this young man'--
+
+'That young man?'  she said, bending her large and serious eye on
+Alan Fairford, as if she had been for the first time aware of his
+presence,--'may I ask who he is?'
+
+'Another time, madam; you shall learn his history after he is
+gone.  His presence renders it impossible for me to explain
+further.'
+
+'After he is gone may be too late,' said the lady; 'and what is
+his presence to me, when your safety is at stake?  He is the
+heretic lawyer whom those silly fools, the Arthurets, admitted
+into this house at a time when they should have let their own
+father knock at the door in vain, though the night had been a
+wild one.  You will not surely dismiss him?'
+
+'Your own impatience can alone make that step perilous,' said the
+father; 'I have resolved to take it--do not let your indiscreet
+zeal, however excellent its motive, add any unnecessary risk to
+the transaction.'
+
+'Even so?'  said the lady, in a tone of reproach, yet mingled
+with respect and apprehension.  'And thus you will still go
+forward, like a stag upon the hunter's snares, with undoubting
+confidence, after all that has happened?'
+
+'Peace, madam,' said Father Buonaventure, rising up; 'be silent,
+or quit the apartment; my designs do not admit of female
+criticism.'
+
+To this peremptory command the lady seemed about to make a sharp
+reply; but she checked herself, and pressing her lips strongly
+together, as if to secure the words from bursting from them which
+were already formed upon her tongue, she made a deep reverence,
+partly as it seemed in reproach, partly in respect, and left the
+room as suddenly as she had entered it.
+
+The father looked disturbed at this incident, which he seemed
+sensible could not but fill Fairford's imagination with an
+additional throng of bewildering suspicions; he bit his lip and
+muttered something to himself as he walked through the apartment;
+then suddenly turned to his visitor with a smile of much
+sweetness, and a countenance in which every rougher expression
+was exchanged for those of courtesy and kindness.
+
+'The visit we have been just honoured with, my young friend, has
+given you,' he said, 'more secrets to keep than I would have
+wished you burdened with.  The lady is a person of condition--of
+rank and fortune--but nevertheless is so circumstanced that the
+mere fact of her being known to be in this country would occasion
+many evils.  I should wish you to observe secrecy on this
+subject, even to Redgauntlet or Maxwell, however much I trust
+them in all that concerns my own affairs.'
+
+'I can have no occasion,' replied Fairford, 'for holding any
+discussion with these gentlemen, or with any others, on the
+circumstance which I have just witnessed--it could only have
+become the subject of my conversation by mere accident, and I
+will now take care to avoid the subject entirely.'
+
+'You will do well, sir, and I thank you,' said the father,
+throwing much dignity into the expression of obligation which he
+meant to convey.  'The time may perhaps come when you will learn
+what it is to have obliged one of my condition.  As to the lady,
+she has the highest merit, and nothing can be said of her justly
+which would not redound to her praise.  Nevertheless--in short,
+sir, we wander at present as in a morning mist--the sun will, I
+trust, soon rise and dispel it, when all that now seems
+mysterious will be fully revealed--or it will sink into rain,' he
+added, in a solemn tone, 'and then explanation will be of little
+consequence.--Adieu, sir; I wish you well.'
+
+He made a graceful obeisance, and vanished through the same side-
+door by which the lady had entered; and Alan thought he heard
+their voices high in dispute in the adjoining apartment.
+
+Presently afterwards, Ambrose entered, and told him that a horse
+and guide waited him beneath the terrace.
+
+'The good Father Buonaventure,' added the butler, 'has been
+graciously pleased to consider your situation, and desired me to
+inquire whether you have any occasion for a supply of money?'
+
+'Make my respects to his reverence,' answered Fairford, 'and
+assure him I am provided in that particular.  I beg you also to
+make my acknowledgements to the Misses Arthuret, and assure them
+that their kind hospitality, to which I probably owe my life,
+shall be remembered with gratitude as long as that life lasts.
+You yourself, Mr. Ambrose, must accept of my kindest thanks for
+your skill and attention.'
+
+Mid these acknowledgements they left the house, descended the
+terrace, and reached the spot where the gardener, Fairford's old
+acquaintance, waited for him, mounted upon one horse and leading
+another.
+
+Bidding adieu to Ambrose, our young lawyer mounted, and rode down
+the avenue, often looking back to the melancholy and neglected
+dwelling in which he had witnessed such strange scenes, and
+musing upon the character of its mysterious inmates, especially
+the noble and almost regal-seeming priest, and the beautiful but
+capricious dame, who, if she was really Father Buonaventure's
+penitent, seemed less docile to the authority of the church than,
+as Alan conceived, the Catholic discipline permitted.  He could
+not indeed help being sensible that the whole deportment of these
+persons differed much from his preconceived notions of a priest
+and devotee.  Father Buonaventure, in particular, had more
+natural dignify and less art and affectation in his manner, than
+accorded with the idea which Calvinists were taught to entertain
+of that wily and formidable person, a Jesuitical missionary.
+
+While reflecting on these things, he looked back so frequently at
+the house, that Dick Gardener, a forward, talkative fellow, who
+began to tire of silence, at length said to him, 'I think you
+will know Fairladies when you see it again, sir?'
+
+'I dare say I shall, Richard,' answered Fairford good-humouredly.
+'I wish I knew as well where I am to go next.  But you can tell
+me, perhaps?'
+
+'Your worship should know better than I,' said Dick Gardener;
+'nevertheless, I have a notion you are going where all you
+Scotsmen should be sent, whether you will or no.'
+
+'Not to the devil, I hope, good Dick?'  said Fairford.
+
+'Why, no.  That is a road which you may travel as heretics; but
+as Scotsmen, I would only send you three-fourths of the way--and
+that is back to Scotland again--always craving your honour's
+pardon.'
+
+'Does our journey lie that way?'  said Fairford.
+
+'As far as the waterside,' said Richard.  'I am to carry you to
+old Father Crackenthorp's, and then you are within a spit and a
+stride of Scotland, as the saying is.  But mayhap you may think
+twice of going thither, for all that; for Old England is fat
+feeding-ground for north-country cattle.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+NARRATIVE OF DARSIE LATIMER
+
+Our history must now, as the old romancers wont to say, 'leave to
+tell' of the quest of Alan Fairford, and instruct our readers of
+the adventures which befell Darsie Latimer, left as he was in the
+precarious custody of his self-named tutor, the Laird of the
+Lochs of Solway, to whose arbitrary pleasure he found it
+necessary for the present to conform himself.
+
+In consequence of this prudent resolution, and although he did
+not assume such a disguise without some sensations of shame and
+degradation, Darsie permitted Cristal Nixon to place over his
+face, and secure by a string, one of those silk masks which
+ladies frequently wore to preserve their complexions, when
+exposed to the air during long journeys on horseback.  He
+remonstrated somewhat more vehemently against the long riding-
+skirt, which converted his person from the waist into the female
+guise, but was obliged to concede this point also.
+
+The metamorphosis was then complete; for the fair reader must be
+informed, that in those rude times, the ladies, when they
+honoured the masculine dress by assuming any part of it, wore
+just such hats, coats, and waistcoats as the male animals
+themselves made use of, and had no notion of the elegant
+compromise betwixt male and female attire, which has now
+acquired, PAR EXCELLENCE, the name of a HABIT.  Trolloping things
+our mothers must have looked, with long square-cut coats, lacking
+collars, and with waistcoats plentifully supplied with a length
+of pocket, which hung far downwards from the middle.  But then
+they had some advantage from the splendid colours, lace, and gay
+embroidery which masculine attire then exhibited; and, as happens
+in many similar instances, the finery of the materials made
+amends for the want of symmetry and grace of form in the garments
+themselves.  But this is a digression.
+
+In the court of the old mansion, half manor-place, half farm-
+house, or rather a decayed manor-house, converted into an abode
+for a Cumberland tenant, stood several saddled horses.  Four or
+five of them were mounted by servants or inferior retainers, all
+of whom were well armed with sword, pistol, and carabine.  But
+two had riding furniture for the use of females--the one being
+accoutred with a side-saddle, the other with a pillion attached
+to the saddle.
+
+Darsie's heart beat quicker within him; he easily comprehended
+that one of these was intended for his own use; and his hopes
+suggested that the other was designed for that of the fair Green
+Mantle, whom, according to his established practice, he had
+adopted for the queen of his affections, although his
+opportunities of holding communication with her had not exceeded
+the length of a silent supper on one occasion, and the going down
+a country-dance on another.  This, however, was no unwonted mood
+of passion with Darsie Latimer, upon whom Cupid was used to
+triumph only in the degree of a Mahratta conqueror, who overruns
+a province with the rapidity of lightning, but finds it
+impossible to retain it beyond a very brief space.  Yet this new
+love was rather more serious than the scarce skinned-up wounds
+which his friend Fairford used to ridicule.  The damsel had shown
+a sincere interest in his behalf; and the air of mystery with
+which that interest was veiled, gave her, to his lively
+imagination, the character of a benevolent and protecting spirit,
+as much as that of a beautiful female.
+
+At former times, the romance attending his short-lived
+attachments had been of his own creating, and had disappeared as
+soon as ever he approached more closely to the object with which
+he had invested it.  On the present occasion, it really flowed
+from external circumstances, which might have interested less
+susceptible feelings, and an imagination less lively than that of
+Darsie Latimer, young, inexperienced, and enthusiastic as he was.
+
+He watched, therefore, anxiously to whose service the palfrey
+bearing the lady's saddle was destined.  But ere any female
+appeared to occupy it, he was himself summoned to take his seat
+on the pillion behind Cristal Nixon, amid the grins of his old
+acquaintance Jan who helped him to horse, and the unrestrained
+laughter of Cicely, who displayed on the occasion a case of teeth
+which might have rivalled ivory.
+
+Latimer was at an age when being an object of general ridicule
+even to clowns and milkmaids was not a matter of indifference,
+and he longed heartily to have laid his horse-whip across Jan's
+shoulders.  That, however, was a solacement of his feelings which
+was not at the moment to be thought of; and Cristal Nixon
+presently put an end to his unpleasant situation, by ordering the
+riders to go on.  He himself kept the centre of the troop, two
+men riding before and two behind him, always, as it seemed to
+Darsie, having their eye upon him, to prevent any attempt to
+escape.  He could see from time to time, when the straight line
+of the road, or the advantage of an ascent permitted him, that
+another troop of three or four riders followed them at about a
+quarter of a mile's distance, amongst whom he could discover the
+tall form of Redgauntlet, and the powerful action of his gallant
+black horse.  He had little doubt that Green Mantle made one of
+the party, though he was unable to distinguish her from the
+others.
+
+In this manner they travelled from six in the morning until
+nearly ten of the clock, without Darsie exchanging a word with
+any one; for he loathed the very idea of entering into
+conversation with Cristal Nixon, against whom he seemed to feel
+an instinctive aversion; nor was that domestic's saturnine and
+sullen disposition such as to have encouraged advances, had he
+thought of making them.
+
+At length the party halted for the purpose of refreshment; but as
+they had hitherto avoided all villages and inhabited places upon
+their route, so they now stopped at one of those large ruinous
+Dutch barns, which are sometimes found in the fields, at a
+distance from the farm-houses to which they belong.  Yet in this
+desolate place some preparations had been made for their
+reception.  There were in the end of the barn racks filled with
+provender for the horses, and plenty of provisions for the party
+were drawn from the trusses of straw, under which the baskets
+that contained them had been deposited.  The choicest of these
+were selected and arranged apart by Cristal Nixon, while the men
+of the party threw themselves upon the rest, which he abandoned
+to their discretion.  In a few minutes afterwards the rearward
+party arrived and dismounted, and Redgauntlet himself entered the
+barn with the green-mantled maiden by his side.  He presented her
+to Darsie with these words:--
+
+'It is time you two should know each other better.  I promised
+you my confidence, Darsie, and the time is come for reposing it.
+But first we will have our breakfast; and then, when once more in
+the saddle, I will tell you that which it is necessary that you
+should know.  Salute Lilias, Darsie.'
+
+The command was sudden, and surprised Latimer, whose confusion
+was increased by the perfect ease and frankness with which Lilias
+offered at once her cheek and her hand, and pressing his as she
+rather took it than gave her own, said very frankly, 'Dearest
+Darsie, how rejoiced I am that our uncle has at last permitted us
+to become acquainted!'
+
+Darsie's head turned round; and it was perhaps well that
+Redgauntlet called on him to sit down, as even that movement
+served to hide his confusion.  There is an old song which says--
+
+  --when ladies are willing,
+  A man can but look like a fool;
+
+And on the same principle Darsie Latimer's looks at this
+unexpected frankness of reception, would have formed an admirable
+vignette for illustrating the passage.  'Dearest Darsie,' and
+such a ready, nay, eager salute of lip and hand!  It was all very
+gracious, no doubt--and ought to have been received with much
+gratitude; but, constituted as our friend's temper was, nothing
+could be more inconsistent with his tone of feeling.  If a hermit
+had proposed to him to club for a pot of beer, the illusion of
+his reverend sanctity could not have been dispelled more
+effectually than the divine qualities of Green Mantle faded upon
+the ill-imagined frank-heartedness of poor Lilias.  Vexed with
+her forwardness, and affronted at having once more cheated
+himself, Darsie could hardly help muttering two lines of the song
+we have already quoted:
+
+  The fruit that must fall without shaking
+  Is rather too mellow for me.
+
+And yet it was pity for her too--she was a very pretty young
+woman--his fancy had scarcely overrated her in that respect--and
+the slight derangement of the beautiful brown locks which escaped
+in natural ringlets from under her riding-hat, with the bloom
+which exercise had brought into her cheek, made her even more
+than usually fascinating.  Redgauntlet modified the sternness of
+his look when it was turned towards her, and in addressing her,
+used a softer tone than his usual deep bass.  Even the grim
+features of Cristal Nixon relaxed when he attended on her, and it
+was then, if ever, that his misanthropical visage expressed some
+sympathy with the rest of humanity.
+
+'How can she,' thought Latimer, 'look so like an angel, yet be so
+mere a mortal after all?  How could so much seeming modesty have
+so much forwardness of manner, when she ought to have been most
+reserved?  How can her conduct be reconciled to the grace and
+ease of her general deportment?'
+
+The confusion of thoughts which occupied Darsie's imagination,
+gave to his looks a disordered appearance, and his inattention to
+the food which was placed before him, together with his silence
+and absence of mind, induced Lilias solicitously to inquire,
+whether he did not feel some return of the disorder under which
+he had suffered so lately.  This led Mr. Redgauntlet, who seemed
+also lost in his own contemplations, to raise his eyes, and join
+in the same inquiry with some appearance of interest.  Latimer
+explained to both that he was perfectly well.
+
+'It is well it is so,' answered Redgauntlet; 'for we have that
+before us which will brook no delay from indisposition--we have
+not, as Hotspur says, leisure to be sick.'
+
+Lilias, on her part, endeavoured to prevail upon Darsie to
+partake of the food which she offered him, with a kindly and
+affectionate courtesy corresponding to the warmth of the interest
+she had displayed at their meeting; but so very natural,
+innocent, and pure in its character, that it would have been
+impossible for the vainest coxcomb to have mistaken it for
+coquetry, or a desire of captivating a prize so valuable as his
+affection.  Darsie, with no more than the reasonable share of
+self-opinion common to most youths when they approach twenty-one,
+knew not how to explain her conduct.
+
+Sometimes he was tempted to think that his own merits had, even
+during the short intervals when they had seen each other, secured
+such a hold of the affections of a young person who had probably
+been bred up in ignorance of the world and its forms that she was
+unable to conceal her partiality.  Sometimes he suspected that
+she acted by her guardian's order, who, aware that he, Darsie,
+was entitled to a considerable fortune, might have taken this
+bold stroke to bring about a marriage betwixt him and so near a
+relative.
+
+But neither of these suppositions was applicable to the character
+of the parties.  Miss Lilias's manners, however soft and natural,
+displayed in their ease and versatility considerable acquaintance
+with the habits of the world, and in the few words she said
+during the morning repast, there were mingled a shrewdness and
+good sense, which could scarce belong to a miss capable of
+playing the silly part of a love-smitten maiden so broadly.  As
+for Redgauntlet, with his stately bearing, his fatal frown, his
+eye of threat and of command, it was impossible, Darsie thought,
+to suspect him of a scheme having private advantage for its
+object; he could as soon have imagined Cassius picking Caesar's
+pocket, instead of drawing his poniard on the dictator.
+
+While he thus mused, unable either to eat, drink, or answer to
+the courtesy of Lilias, she soon ceased to speak to him, and sat
+silent as himself.
+
+They had remained nearly an hour in their halting-place, when
+Redgauntlet said aloud, 'Look out, Cristal Nixon.  If we hear
+nothing from Fairladies, we must continue our journey.'
+
+Cristal went to the door, and presently returned and said to his
+master, in a voice as harsh as his features, 'Gilbert Gregson is
+coming, his horse as white with foam as if a fiend had ridden
+him.'
+
+Redgauntlet threw from him the plate on which he had been eating,
+and hastened towards the door of the barn, which the courier at
+that moment entered; a smart jockey with a black velvet hunting-
+cap, and a broad belt drawn tight round his waist, to which was
+secured his express-bag.  The variety of mud with which he was
+splashed from cap to spur showed he had had a rough and rapid
+ride.  He delivered a letter to Mr. Redgauntlet, with an
+obeisance, and then retired to the end of the barn, where the
+other attendants were sitting or lying upon the straw, in order
+to get some refreshment.
+
+Redgauntlet broke the letter open with haste, and read it with
+anxious and discomposed looks.  On a second perusal, his
+displeasure seemed to increase, his brow darkened, and was
+distinctly marked with the fatal sign peculiar to his family and
+house.  Darsie had never before observed his frown bear such a
+close resemblance to the shape which tradition assigned it.
+
+Redgauntlet held out the open letter with one hand, and struck it
+with the forefinger of the other, as, in a suppressed and
+displeased tone, he said to Cristal Nixon, 'Countermanded--
+ordered northward once more!  'Northward, when all our hopes lie
+to the south--a second Derby direction, when we turned our back
+on glory, and marched in quest of ruin!'
+
+Cristal Nixon took the letter and ran it over, then returned it
+to his master with the cold observation, 'A female influence
+predominates.'
+
+'But it shall predominate no longer,' said Redgauntlet; 'it shall
+wane as ours rises in the horizon.  Meanwhile, I will on before--
+and you, Cristal, will bring the party to the place assigned in
+the letter.  You may now permit the young persons to have
+unreserved communication together; only mark that you watch the
+young man closely enough to prevent his escape, if he should be
+idiot enough to attempt it, but not approaching so close as to
+watch their free conversation.'
+
+'I care naught about their conversation,' said Nixon, surlily.
+
+'You hear my commands, Lilias,' said the laird, turning to the
+young lady.  'You may use my permission and authority to explain
+so much of our family matters as you yourself know.  At our next
+meeting I will complete the task of disclosure, and I trust I
+shall restore one Redgauntlet more to the bosom of our ancient
+family.  Let Latimer, as be calls himself, have a horse to
+himself; he must for some time retain his disguise.--My horse--my
+horse!'
+
+In two minutes they heard him ride off from the door of the barn,
+followed at speed by two of the armed men of his party.
+
+The commands of Cristal Nixon, in the meanwhile, put all the
+remainder of the party in motion, but the laird himself was long
+out of sight ere they were in readiness to resume their journey.
+When at length they set out, Darsie was accommodated with a horse
+and side-saddle, instead of being obliged to resume his place on
+the pillion behind the detestable Nixon.  He was obliged,
+however, to retain his riding-skirt, and to reassume his mask.
+Yet, notwithstanding this disagreeable circumstance, and although
+he observed that they gave him the heaviest and slowest horse of
+the party, and that, as a further precaution against escape, he
+was closely watched on every side, yet riding in company with the
+pretty Lilias was an advantage which overbalanced these
+inconveniences.
+
+It is true that this society, to which that very morning he would
+have looked forward as a glimpse of heaven, had, now that it was
+thus unexpectedly indulged, something much less rapturous than he
+had expected.
+
+It was in vain that, in order to avail himself of a situation so
+favourable for indulging his romantic disposition, he endeavoured
+to coax back, if I may so express myself, that delightful dream
+of ardent and tender passion; he felt only such a confusion of
+ideas at the difference between the being whom he had imagined,
+and her with whom he was now in contact, that it seemed to him
+like the effect of witchcraft.  What most surprised him was, that
+this sudden flame should have died away so rapidly,
+notwithstanding that the maiden's personal beauty was even
+greater than he had expected--her demeanour, unless it should be
+deemed over kind towards himself, as graceful and becoming as he
+could have fancied if, even in his gayest dreams.  It were
+judging hardly of him to suppose that the mere belief of his
+having attracted her affections more easily than he expected was
+the cause of his ungratefully undervaluing a prize too lightly
+won, or that his transient passion played around his heart with
+the hitting radiance of a wintry sunbeam flashing against an
+icicle, which may brighten it for a moment, but cannot melt it.
+Neither of these was precisely the ease, though such fickleness
+of disposition might also have some influence in the change.
+
+The truth is, perhaps, the lover's pleasure, like that of the
+hunter, is in the chase; and that the brightest beauty loses half
+its merit, as the fairest flower its perfume, when the willing
+hand can reach it too easily.  There must be doubt--there must be
+danger--there must be difficulty; and if, as the poet says, the
+course of ardent affection never does run smooth, it is perhaps
+because, without some intervening obstacle, that which is called
+the romantic passion of love, in its high poetical character and
+colouring can hardly have an existence--any more than there can
+be a current in a river without the stream being narrowed by
+steep banks, or checked by opposing rocks.
+
+Let not those, however, who enter into a union for life without
+those embarrassments which delight a Darsie Latimer, or a Lydia
+Languish, and which are perhaps necessary to excite an
+enthusiastic passion in breasts more firm than theirs, augur
+worse of their future happiness because their own alliance is
+formed under calmer auspices.  Mutual esteem, an intimate
+knowledge of each other's character, seen, as in their case,
+undisguised by the mists of too partial passion--a suitable
+proportion of parties in rank and fortune, in taste and pursuits
+--are more frequently found in a marriage of reason, than in a
+union of romantic attachment; where the imagination, which
+probably created the virtues and accomplishments with which it
+invested the beloved object, is frequently afterwards employed in
+magnifying the mortifying consequences of its own delusion, and
+exasperating all the stings of disappointment.  Those who follow
+the banners of Reason are like the well-disciplined battalion,
+which, wearing a more sober uniform and making a less dazzling
+show than the light troops commanded by imagination, enjoy more
+safety, and even more honour, in the conflicts of human life.
+All this, however, is foreign to our present purpose.
+
+Uncertain in what manner to address her whom he had been lately
+so anxious to meet with, and embarrassed by a TETE-A-TETE to
+which his own timid inexperience, gave some awkwardness, the
+party had proceeded more than a hundred yards before Darsie
+assumed courage to accost, or even to look at, his companion.
+Sensible, however, of the impropriety of his silence, he turned
+to speak to her; and observing that, although she wore her mask,
+there was something like disappointment and dejection in her
+manner, he was moved by self-reproach for his own coldness, and
+hastened to address her in the kindest tone he could assume.
+
+'You must think me cruelly deficient in gratitude, Miss Lilias,
+that I have been thus long in your company, without thanking you
+for the interest which you have deigned to take in my unfortunate
+affairs?'
+
+'I am glad you have at length spoken,' she said, 'though I owe it
+is more coldly than I expected.  MISS Lilias!  DEIGN to take
+interest!  In whom, dear Darsie, CAN I take interest but in you;
+and why do you put this barrier of ceremony betwixt us, whom
+adverse circumstances have already separated for such a length of
+time?'
+
+Darsie was again confounded at the extra candour, if we may use
+the term, of this frank avowal.  'One must love partridge very
+well,' thought he, 'to accept it when thrown in one's face--if
+this is not plain speaking, there is no such place as downright
+Dunstable in being!'
+
+Embarrassed with these reflections, and himself of a nature
+fancifully, almost fastidiously, delicate, he could only in reply
+stammer forth an acknowledgement of his companion's goodness, and
+his own gratitude.  She answered in a tone partly sorrowful and
+partly impatient, repeating, with displeased emphasis, the only
+distinct words he had been able to bring forth--'Goodness--
+gratitude!--O Darsie!  should these be the phrases between you
+and me?  Alas!  I am too sure you are displeased with me, though
+I cannot even guess on what account.  Perhaps you think I have
+been too free in venturing upon my visit to your friend.  But
+then remember, it was in your behalf, and that I knew no better
+way to put you on your guard against the misfortunes and
+restraint which you have been subjected to, and are still
+enduring.'
+
+'Dear Lady'--said Darsie, rallying his recollection, and
+suspicious of some error in apprehension,--a suspicion which his
+mode of address seemed at once to communicate to Lilias, for she
+interrupted him,--
+
+'LADY!  dear LADY!  For whom, or for what, in Heaven's name, do
+you take me, that you address me so formally?'
+
+Had the question been asked in that enchanted hall in fairyland,
+where all interrogations must be answered with absolute
+sincerity, Darsie had certainly replied, that he took her for the
+most frank-hearted and ultra-liberal lass that had ever lived
+since Mother Eve eat the pippin without paring.  But as he was
+still on middle-earth, and free to avail himself of a little
+polite deceit, he barely answered that he believed he had the
+honour of speaking to the niece of Mr. Redgauntlet,
+
+'Surely,' she replied; 'but were it not as easy for you to have
+said, to your own only sister?'
+
+Darsie started in his saddle, as if he had received a pistol-
+shot.
+
+'My sister!'  he exclaimed.
+
+'And you did NOT know it, then?'  said she.  'I thought your
+reception of me was cold and indifferent!'
+
+A kind and cordial embrace took place betwixt the relatives; and
+so light was Darsie's spirit, that he really felt himself more
+relieved, by getting quit of the embarrassments of the last half-
+hour, during which he conceived himself in danger of being
+persecuted by the attachment of a forward girl, than disappointed
+by the vanishing of so many day-dreams as he had been in the
+habit of encouraging during the time when the green-mantled
+maiden was goddess of his idolatry.  He had been already flung
+from his romantic Pegasus, and was too happy at length to find
+himself with bones unbroken, though with his back on the ground.
+He was, besides, with all his whims and follies, a generous,
+kind-hearted youth, and was delighted to acknowledge so beautiful
+and amiable a relative, and to assure her in the warmest terms of
+his immediate affection and future protection, so soon as they
+should be extricated from their present situation.  Smiles and
+tears mingled on Lilias's cheeks, like showers and sunshine in
+April weather.
+
+'Out on me,' she said, 'that I should be so childish as to cry at
+what makes me so sincerely happy!  since, God knows, family-love
+is what my heart has most longed after, and to which it has been
+most a stranger.  My uncle says that you and I, Darsie, are but
+half Redgauntlets, and that the metal of which our father's
+family was made, has been softened to effeminacy in our mother's
+offspring.'
+
+'Alas!'  said Darsie, 'I know so little of our family story, that
+I almost doubted that I belonged to the House of Redgauntlet,
+although the chief of the family himself intimated so much to
+me.'
+
+'The chief of the family!'  said Lilias.  'You must know little
+of your own descent indeed, if you mean my uncle by that
+expression. You yourself, my dear Darsie, are the heir and
+representative of our ancient House, for our father was the elder
+brother--that brave and unhappy Sir Henry Darsie Redgauntlet, who
+suffered at Carlisle in the year 1746.  He took the name of
+Darsie, in conjunction with his own, from our mother, heiress to
+a Cumberland family of great wealth and antiquity, of whose large
+estates you are the undeniable heir, although those of your
+father have been involved in the general doom of forfeiture.  But
+all this must be necessarily unknown to you.'
+
+'Indeed I hear it for the first time in my life,' answered
+Darsie.
+
+'And you knew not that I was your sister?'  said Lilias.  'No
+wonder you received me so coldly.  What a strange, wild, forward
+young person you must have thought me--mixing myself in the
+fortunes of a stranger whom I had only once spoken to--
+corresponding with him by signs--Good Heaven!  what can you have
+supposed me?'
+
+'And how should I have come to the knowledge of our connexion?'
+said Darsie.  'You are aware I was not acquainted with it when we
+danced together at Brokenburn.'
+
+'I saw that with concern, and fain I would have warned you,'
+answered Lilias; 'but I was closely watched, and before I could
+find or make an opportunity of coming to a full explanation with
+you on a subject so agitating, I was forced to leave the room.
+What I did say was, you may remember, a caution to leave the
+southern border, for I foresaw what has since happened.  But
+since my uncle has had you in his power, I never doubted he had
+communicated to you our whole family history.'
+
+'He has left me to learn it from you, Lilias; and assure yourself
+that I will hear it with more pleasure from your lips than from
+his.  I have no reason to be pleased with his conduct towards
+me.'
+
+'Of that,' said Lilias, 'you will judge better when you have
+heard what I have to tell you;' and she began her communication
+in the following manner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+NARRATIVE OF DARSIE LATIMER, CONTINUED
+
+'The House of Redgauntlet,' said the young lady, 'has for
+centuries been supposed to lie under a doom, which has rendered
+vain their courage, their talents, their ambition, and their
+wisdom.  Often making a figure in history, they have been ever in
+the situation of men striving against both wind and tide, who
+distinguish themselves by their desperate exertions of strength,
+and their persevering endurance of toil, but without being able
+to advance themselves upon their course by either vigour or
+resolution.  They pretend to trace this fatality to a legendary
+history, which I may tell you at a less busy moment.'
+
+Darsie intimated that he had already heard the tragic story of
+Sir Alberick Redgauntlet.
+
+'I need only say, then,' proceeded Lilias, 'that our father and
+uncle felt the family doom in its full extent.  They were both
+possessed of considerable property, which was largely increased
+by our father's marriage, and were both devoted to the service of
+the unhappy House of Stuart; but (as our mother at least
+supposed) family considerations might have withheld her husband
+from joining openly in the affair of 1745, had not the high
+influence which the younger brother possessed over the elder,
+from his more decided energy of character, hurried him along with
+himself into that undertaking.
+
+'When, therefore, the enterprise came to the fatal conclusion
+which bereaved our father of his life and consigned his brother
+to exile, Lady Redgauntlet fled from the north of England,
+determined to break off all communication with her late husband's
+family, particularly his brother, whom she regarded as having, by
+their insane political enthusiasm, been the means of his untimely
+death; and determined that you, my brother, an infant, and that
+I, to whom she had just given birth, should be brought up as
+adherents of the present dynasty.  Perhaps she was too hasty in
+this determination--too timidly anxious to exclude, if possible,
+from the knowledge of the very spot where we existed, a relation
+so nearly connected with us as our father's only brother.  But
+you must make allowance for what she had suffered.  See,
+brother,' she said, pulling her glove off, 'these five blood-
+specks on my arm are a mark by which mysterious Nature has
+impressed, on an unborn infant, a record of its father's violent
+death and its mother's miseries.'  [Several persons have brought
+down to these days the impressions which Nature had thus
+recorded, when they were yet babes unborn.  One lady of quality,
+whose father was long under sentence of death previous to the
+Rebellion, was marked on the back of the neck by the sign of a
+broad axe.  Another whose kinsmen had been slain in battle and
+died on the scaffold to the number of seven, bore a child
+spattered on the right shoulder and down the arm with scarlet
+drops, as if of blood.  Many other instances might be quoted.]
+
+'You were not, then, born when my father suffered?'  said Darsie.
+
+'Alas, no!'  she replied; 'nor were you a twelvemonth old.  It
+was no wonder that my mother, after going through such scenes of
+agony, became irresistibly anxious for the sake of her children
+--of her son in particular; the more especially as the late Sir
+Henry, her husband, had, by a settlement of his affairs, confided
+the custody of the persons of her children, as well as the
+estates which descended to them, independently of those which
+fell under his forfeiture, to his brother Hugh, in whom he placed
+unlimited confidence.'
+
+'But my mother had no reason to fear the operation of such a
+deed, conceived in favour of an attainted man,' said Darsie.
+
+'True,' replied Lilias; 'but our uncle's attainder might have
+been reversed, like that of so many other persons, and our
+mother, who both feared and hated him, lived in continual terror
+that this would be the case, and that she should see the author,
+as she thought him, of her husband's death come armed with legal
+powers, and in a capacity to use them for the purpose of tearing
+her children from her protection.  Besides, she feared, even in
+his incapacitated condition, the adventurous and pertinacious
+spirit of her brother-in-law, Hugh Redgauntlet, and felt assured
+that he would make some attempt to possess himself of the persons
+of the children.  On the other hand, our uncle, whose proud
+disposition might, perhaps, have been soothed by the offer of her
+confidence, revolted against the distrustful and suspicious
+manner in which Lady Darsie Redgauntlet acted towards him.  She
+basely abused, he said, the unhappy circumstances in which he was
+placed, in order to deprive him of his natural privilege of
+protecting and educating the infants, whom nature and law, and
+the will of their father, had committed to his charge, and he
+swore solemnly he would not submit to such an injury.  Report of
+his threats was made to Lady Redgauntlet, and tended to increase
+those fears which proved but too well founded.  While you and I,
+children at that time of two or three years old, were playing
+together in a walled orchard, adjacent to our mother's residence
+which she had fixed somewhere in Devonshire, my uncle suddenly
+scaled the wall with several men, and I was snatched up; and
+carried off to a boat which waited for them.  My mother, however,
+flew to your rescue, and as she seized on and held you fast, my
+uncle could not, as he has since told me, possess himself of your
+person, without using unmanly violence to his brother's widow.
+Of this he was incapable; and, as people began to assemble upon
+my mother's screaming, he withdrew, after darting upon you and
+her one of those fearful looks, which, it is said, remain with
+our family, as a fatal bequest of Sir Alberick, our ancestor.'
+
+'I have some recollection of the scuffle which you mention,' said
+Darsie; 'and I think it was my uncle himself (since my uncle he
+is) who recalled the circumstance to my mind on a late occasion.
+I can now account for the guarded seclusion under which my poor
+mother lived--for her frequent tears, her starts of hysterical
+alarm, and her constant and deep melancholy.  Poor lady!  what a
+lot was hers, and what must have been her feelings when it
+approached to a close!'
+
+'It was then that she adopted,' said Lilias, 'every precaution
+her ingenuity could suggest, to keep your very existence
+concealed from the person whom she feared--nay, from yourself;
+for she dreaded, as she is said often to have expressed herself,
+that the wildfire blood of Redgauntlet would urge you to unite
+your fortunes to those of your uncle, who was well known still to
+carry on political intrigues, which most other persons had
+considered as desperate.  It was also possible that he, as well
+as others, might get his pardon, as government showed every year
+more lenity towards the remnant of the Jacobites, and then he
+might claim the custody of your person, as your legal guardian.
+Either of these events she considered as the direct road to your
+destruction.'
+
+'I wonder she had not claimed the protection of Chancery for me,'
+said Darsie; 'or confided me to the care of some powerful
+friend.'
+
+'She was on indifferent terms with her relations, on account of
+her marriage with our father,' said Lilias, 'and trusted more to
+secreting you from your uncle's attempts, than to any protection
+which law might afford against them.  Perhaps she judged
+unwisely, but surely not unnaturally, for one rendered irritable
+by so many misfortunes and so many alarms.  Samuel Griffiths, an
+eminent banker, and a worthy clergyman now dead were, I believe,
+the only persons whom she intrusted with the execution of her
+last will; and my uncle believes that she made them both swear to
+observe profound secrecy concerning your birth and pretensions,
+until you should come to the age of majority, and, in the
+meantime, to breed you up in the most private way possible, and
+that which was most likely to withdraw you from my uncle's
+observation.'
+
+'And I have no doubt,' said Darsie, 'that betwixt change of name
+and habitation, they might have succeeded perfectly, but for the
+accident--lucky or unlucky, I know not which to term it--which
+brought me to Brokenburn, and into contact with Mr. Redgauntlet.
+I see also why I was warned against England, for in England'--
+
+'In England alone, if I understand rightly,' said Miss
+Redgauntlet, 'the claims of your uncle to the custody of your
+person could have been enforced, in case of his being replaced in
+the ordinary rights of citizenship, either by the lenity of the
+government or by some change in it.  In Scotland, where you
+possess no property, I understand his authority might; have been
+resisted, and measures taken to put you under the protection of
+the law.  But, pray, think it not unlucky that you have taken the
+step of visiting Brokenburn--I feel confident that the
+consequences must be ultimately fortunate, for have they not
+already brought us into contact with each other?'
+
+So saying, she held out her hand to her brother, who grasped it
+with a fondness of pressure very different from the manner in
+which they first clasped hands that morning.  There was a
+moment's pause, while the hearts of both were overflowing with a
+feeling of natural affection, to which circumstances had hitherto
+rendered them strangers.
+
+At length Darsie broke silence; 'I am ashamed,' he said, 'my
+dearest Lilias, that I have suffered you to talk so long about
+matters concerning myself only, while I remain ignorant of your
+story, and your present situation.'
+
+'The former is none of the most interesting, nor the latter the
+most safe or agreeable,' answered Lilias; 'but now, my dearest
+brother, I shall have the inestimable support of your countenance
+and affection; and were I but sure that we could weather the
+formidable crisis which I find so close at hand, I should have
+little apprehensions for the future.'
+
+'Let me know,' said Darsie, 'what our present situation is; and
+rely upon my utmost exertions both in your defence and my own.
+For what reason can my uncle desire to detain me a prisoner?  If
+in mere opposition to the will of my mother, she has long been no
+more; and I see not why he should wish, at so much trouble and
+risk, to interfere with the free will of one, to whom a few
+months will give a privilege of acting for himself, with which he
+will have no longer any pretence to interfere.'
+
+'My dearest Arthur,' answered Lilias--'for that name, as well as
+Darsie, properly belongs to you--it is the leading feature in my
+uncle's character, that he has applied every energy of his
+powerful mind to the service of the exiled family of Stuart.  The
+death of his brother, the dilapidation of his own fortunes, have
+only added to his hereditary zeal for the House of Stuart a deep
+and almost personal hatred against the present reigning family.
+He is, in short, a political enthusiast of the most dangerous
+character, and proceeds in his agency with as much confidence, as
+if he felt himself the very Atlas who is alone capable of
+supporting a sinking cause.'
+
+'And where or how did you, my Lilias, educated, doubtless, under
+his auspices, learn to have a different view of such subjects?'
+
+'By a singular chance,' replied Lilias, 'in the nunnery where my
+uncle placed me.  Although the abbess was a person exactly after
+his own heart, my education as a pensioner devolved much on an
+excellent old mother who had adopted the tenets of the
+Jansenists, with perhaps a still further tendency towards the
+reformed doctrines, than those of Port Royal.  The mysterious
+secrecy with which she inculcated these tenets, gave them charms
+to my young mind, and I embraced them the rather that they were
+in direct opposition to the doctrines of the abbess, whom I hated
+so much for her severity, that I felt a childish delight in
+setting her control at defiance, and contradicting in my secret
+soul all that I was openly obliged to listen to with reverence.
+Freedom of religious opinion brings on, I suppose, freedom of
+political creed; for I had no sooner renounced the Pope's
+infallibility, than I began to question the doctrine of
+hereditary and indefeasible right.  In short, strange as it may
+seem, I came out of a Parisian convent, not indeed an instructed
+Whig and Protestant, but with as much inclination to be so as if
+I had been bred up, like you, within the Presbyterian sound of
+Saint Giles's chimes.'
+
+'More so, perhaps,' replied Darsie; 'for the nearer the church--
+the proverb is somewhat musty.  But how did these liberal
+opinions of yours agree with the very opposite prejudices of my
+uncle?'
+
+'They would have agreed like fire and water,' answered Lilias,
+'had I suffered mine to become visible; but as that would have
+subjected me to constant reproach and upbraiding, or worse, I
+took great care to keep my own secret; so that occasional
+censures for coldness, and lack of zeal for the good cause, were
+the worst I had to undergo; and these were bad enough.'
+
+'I applaud your caution,' said Darsie.
+
+'You have reason,' replied his sister; 'but I got so terrible a
+specimen of my uncle's determination of character, before I had
+been acquainted with him for much more than a week, that it
+taught me at what risk I should contradict his humour.  I will
+tell you the circumstances; for it will better teach you to
+appreciate the romantic and resolved nature of his character,
+than anything which I could state of his rashness and enthusiasm.
+
+'After I had been many a long year at the convent, I was removed
+from thence, and placed with a meagre old Scottish lady of high
+rank, the daughter of an unfortunate person whose head had in the
+year 1715 been placed on Temple Bar.  She subsisted on a small
+pension from the French Court, aided by an occasional gratuity
+from the Stuarts; to which the annuity paid for my board formed a
+desirable addition.  She was not ill-tempered, nor very covetous
+--neither beat me nor starved me--but she was so completely
+trammelled by rank and prejudices, so awfully profound in
+genealogy, and so bitterly keen, poor lady, in British, politics,
+that I sometimes thought it pity that the Hanoverians, who
+murdered, as she used to tell me, her poor dear father, had left
+his dear daughter in the land of the living.  Delighted,
+therefore, was I, when my uncle made his appearance, and abruptly
+announced his purpose of conveying me to England.  My extravagant
+joy at the idea of leaving Lady Rachel Rougedragon was somewhat
+qualified by observing the melancholy look, lofty demeanour, and
+commanding tone of my near relative.  He held more communication
+with me on the journey, however, than consisted with his taciturn
+demeanour in general, and seemed anxious to ascertain my tone of
+character, and particularly in point of courage.  Now, though I
+am a tamed Redgauntlet, yet I have still so much of our family
+spirit as enables me to be as composed in danger as most of my
+sex; and upon two occasions in the course of our journey--a
+threatened attack by banditti, and the overturn of our carriage--
+I had the fortune so to conduct myself, as to convey to my uncle
+a very favourable idea of my intrepidity.  Probably this
+encouraged him to put in execution the singular scheme which he
+had in agitation.
+
+'Ere we reached London we changed our means of conveyance, and
+altered the route by which we approached the city, more than
+once; then, like a hare which doubles repeatedly at some distance
+from the seat she means to occupy, and at last leaps into her
+form from a distance so great as she can clear by a spring, we
+made a forced march, and landed in private and obscure lodgings
+in a little old street in Westminster, not far from the
+Cloisters.
+
+'On the morning of the day on which we arrived my uncle went
+abroad, and did not return for some hours.  Meantime I had no
+other amusement than to listen to the tumult of noises which
+succeeded each other, or reigned in confusion together during the
+whole morning.  Paris I had thought the most noisy capital in the
+world, but Paris seemed midnight silence compared to London.
+Cannon thundered near and at a distance--drums, trumpets, and
+military music of every kind, rolled, flourished, and pierced the
+clouds, almost without intermission.  To fill up the concert,
+bells pealed incessantly from a hundred steeples.  The
+acclamations of an immense multitude were heard from time to
+time, like the roaring of a mighty ocean, and all this without my
+being able to glean the least idea of what was going on, for the
+windows of our apartment looked upon a waste backyard, which
+seemed totally deserted.  My curiosity became extreme, for I was
+satisfied, at length, that it must be some festival of the
+highest order which called forth these incessant sounds.
+
+'My uncle at length returned, and with him a man of an exterior
+singularly unprepossessing.  I need not describe him to you, for
+--do not look round--he rides behind us at this moment.'
+
+'That respectable person, Mr. Cristal Nixon, I suppose?'  said
+Darsie.
+
+'The same,' answered Lilias; 'make no gesture, that may intimate
+we are speaking of him.'
+
+Darsie signified that he understood her, and she pursued her
+relation.
+
+'They were both in full dress, and my uncle, taking a bundle from
+Nixon, said to me, "Lilias, I am come to carry you to see a grand
+ceremony--put on as hastily as you can the dress you will find in
+that parcel, and prepare to attend me."  I found a female dress,
+splendid and elegant, but somewhat bordering upon the antique
+fashion.  It might be that of England, I thought, and I went to
+my apartment full of curiosity, and dressed myself with all
+speed.
+
+'My uncle surveyed me with attention--"She may pass for one of
+the flower-girls," he said to Nixon, who only answered with a
+nod.
+
+'We left the house together, and such was their knowledge of the
+lanes, courts, and bypaths, that though there was the roar of a
+multitude in the broad streets, those which we traversed were
+silent and deserted; and the strollers whom we met, tired of
+gazing upon gayer figures, scarcely honoured us with a passing
+look, although, at any other time, we should, among these vulgar
+suburbs, have attracted a troublesome share of observation.  We
+crossed at length a broad street, where many soldiers were on
+guard, while others, exhausted with previous duty, were eating,
+drinking, smoking, and sleeping beside their piled arms.
+
+'"One day, Nixon," whispered my uncle, "we will make these
+redcoated gentry stand to their muskets more watchfully."
+
+'"Or it will be the worse for them," answered his attendant, in a
+voice as unpleasant as his physiognomy.
+
+'Unquestioned and unchallenged by any one, we crossed among the
+guards; and Nixon tapped thrice at a small postern door in a huge
+ancient building, which was straight before us.  It opened, and
+we entered without my perceiving by whom we were admitted.  A few
+dark and narrow passages at length conveyed us into an immense
+Gothic hall, the magnificence of which baffles my powers of
+description.
+
+'It was illuminated by ten thousand wax lights, whose splendour
+at first dazzled my eyes, coming as we did from these dark and
+secret avenues.  But when my sight began to become steady, how
+shall I describe what I beheld?  Beneath were huge ranges of
+tables, occupied by princes and nobles in their robes of state--
+high officers of the crown, wearing their dresses and badges of
+authority--reverend prelates and judges, the sages of the church
+and law, in their more sombre, yet not less awful robes--with
+others whose antique and striking costume announced their
+importance, though I could not even guess who they might be.  But
+at length the truth burst on me at once--it was, and the murmurs
+around confirmed it, the Coronation Feast.  At a table above the
+rest, and extending across the upper end of the hall, sat
+enthroned the youthful sovereign himself, surrounded by the
+princes of the blood, and other dignitaries, and receiving the
+suit and homage of his subjects.  Heralds and pursuivants,
+blazing in their fantastic yet splendid armorial habits, and
+pages of honour, gorgeously arrayed in the garb of other days,
+waited upon the princely banqueters.  In the galleries with which
+this spacious hall was surrounded, shone all, and more than all,
+that my poor imagination could conceive, of what was brilliant in
+riches, or captivating in beauty.  Countless rows of ladies,
+whose diamonds, jewels, and splendid attire were their least
+powerful charms, looked down from their lofty seats on the rich
+scene beneath, themselves forming a show as dazzling and as
+beautiful as that of which they were spectators.  Under these
+galleries, and behind the banqueting tables, were a multitude of
+gentlemen, dressed as if to attend a court, but whose garb,
+although rich enough to have adorned a royal drawing room, could
+not distinguish them in such a high scene as this.  Amongst these
+we wandered for a few minutes, undistinguished and unregarded.  I
+saw several young persons dressed as I was, so was under no
+embarrassment from the singularity of my habit, and only
+rejoiced, as I hung on my uncle's arm, at the magical splendour
+of such a scene, and at his goodness for procuring me the
+pleasure of beholding it.
+
+'By and by, I perceived that my uncle had acquaintances among
+those who were under the galleries, and seemed, like ourselves,
+to be mere spectators of the solemnity.  They recognized each
+other with a single word, sometimes only with a grip of the hand-
+exchanged some private signs, doubtless--and gradually formed a
+little group, in the centre of which we were placed.
+
+'"Is it not a grand sight, Lilias?"  said my uncle.  "All the
+noble, and all the wise, and all the wealthy of Britain, are
+there assembled."
+
+'"It is indeed," said I, "all that my mind could have fancied of
+regal power and splendour."
+
+'"Girl," he whispered,--and my uncle can make his whispers as
+terribly emphatic as his thundering voice or his blighting look
+--"all that is noble and worthy in this fair land are there
+assembled--but it is to bend like slaves and sycophants before
+the throne of a new usurper."
+
+'I looked at him, and the dark hereditary frown of our unhappy
+ancestor was black upon his brow.
+
+'"For God's sake," I whispered, "consider where we are."
+
+'"Fear nothing," he said; "we are surrounded by friends."  As he
+proceeded, his strong and muscular frame shook with suppressed
+agitation.  "See," he said, "yonder bends Norfolk, renegade to
+his Catholic.faith; there stoops the Bishop of --, traitor to the
+Church of England; and,--shame of shames!  yonder the gigantic
+form of Errol bows his head before the grandson of his father's
+murderer!  But a sign shall be seen this night amongst them--
+MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN, shall be read on these walls, as
+distinctly as the spectral handwriting made them visible on those
+of Belshazzar!"
+
+'"For God's sake," said I, dreadfully alarmed, "it is impossible
+you can meditate violence in such a presence!"
+
+'"None is intended, fool," he answered, "nor can the slightest
+mischance happen, provided you will rally your boasted courage,
+and obey my directions.  But do it coolly and quickly, for there
+are a hundred lives at stake."
+
+'"Alas!  what--can I do?"  I asked in the utmost terror.
+
+'"Only be prompt to execute my bidding," said he; "it is but to
+lift a glove--Here, hold this in your hand--throw the train of
+your dress over it, be firm, composed, and ready--or, at all
+events, I step forward myself."
+
+'"If there is no violence designed," I said, taking,
+mechanically, the iron glove he put into my hand.
+
+'"I could not conceive his meaning; but, in the excited state of
+mind in which I beheld him, I was convinced that disobedience on
+my part would lead to some wild explosion.  I felt, from the
+emergency of the occasion, a sudden presence of mind, and
+resolved to do anything that might avert violence and bloodshed.
+I was not long held in suspense.  A loud flourish of trumpets and
+the voice of heralds were mixed with the clatter of horses'
+hoofs, while a champion, armed at all points like those I had
+read of in romances, attended by squires, pages, and the whole
+retinue of chivalry, pranced forward, mounted upon a barbed
+steed.  His challenge, in defiance of all who dared impeach the
+title of the new sovereign, was recited aloud--once, and again.
+
+'" Rush in at the third sounding," said my uncle to me; "bring me
+the parader's gage, and leave mine in lieu of it."
+
+'I could not see how this was to be done, as we were surrounded
+by people on all sides.  But, at the third sounding of the
+trumpets, a lane opened as if by word of command, betwixt me and
+the champion, and my uncle's voice said, "Now, Lilias, NOW!"
+
+'With a swift and yet steady step, and with a presence of mind for
+which I have never since been able to account, I discharged the
+perilous commission.  I was hardly seen, I believe, as I
+exchanged the pledges of battle, and in an instant retired.
+"Nobly done, my girl!"  said my uncle, at whose side I found
+myself, shrouded as I was before, by the interposition of the
+bystanders.  "Cover our retreat, gentlemen," he whispered to
+those around him.
+
+'Room was made for us to approach the wall, which seemed to open,
+and we were again involved in the dark passages through which we
+had formerly passed.  In a small anteroom, my uncle stopped, and
+hastily muffling me in a mantle which was lying there, we passed
+the guards--threaded the labyrinth of empty streets and courts,
+and reached our retired lodgings without attracting the least
+attention.'
+
+'I have often heard,' said Darsie, 'that a female, supposed to be
+a man in disguise,--and yet, Lilias, you do not look very
+masculine,--had taken up the champion's gauntlet at the present
+king's coronation, and left in its place a gage of battle, with a
+paper, offering to accept the combat, provided a fair field
+should be allowed for it.  I have hitherto considered it as an
+idle tale.  I little thought how nearly I was interested in the
+actors of a scene so daring.  How could you have courage to go
+through with it?'  [See Note 9.]
+
+'Had I had leisure for reflection,' answered his sister, 'I
+should have refused, from a mixture of principle and of fear.
+But, like many people who do daring actions, I went on because I
+had not time to think of retreating.  The matter was little
+known, and it is said the king had commanded that it should not
+be further inquired into;--from prudence, as I suppose, and
+lenity, though my uncle chooses to ascribe the forbearance of the
+Elector of Hanover, as he calls him, sometimes to pusillanimity,
+and sometimes to a presumptuous scorn of the faction who opposes
+his title.'
+
+'And have your subsequent agencies under this frantic
+enthusiast,' said Darsie, 'equalled this in danger?'
+
+'No--nor in importance,' replied Lilias; 'though I have witnessed
+much of the strange and desperate machinations, by which, in
+spite of every obstacle, and in contempt of every danger, he
+endeavours to awaken the courage of a broken party.  I have
+traversed, in his company, all England and Scotland, and have
+visited the most extraordinary and contrasted scenes; now lodging
+at the castles of the proud gentry of Cheshire and Wales, where
+the retired aristocrats, with opinions as antiquated as their
+dwellings and their manners, still continue to nourish
+Jacobitical principles; and the next week, perhaps, spent among
+outlawed smugglers, or Highland banditti.  I have known my uncle
+often act the part of a hero, and sometimes that of a mere vulgar
+conspirator, and turn himself, with the most surprising
+flexibility, into all sorts of shapes to attract proselytes to
+his cause.'
+
+'Which, in the present day,' said Darsie, 'he finds, I presume,
+no easy task.'
+
+'So difficult,' said Lilias, 'that, I believe, he has, at
+different times, disgusted with the total falling away of some
+friends, and the coldness of others, been almost on the point of
+resigning his undertaking.  How often I have I known him affect
+an open brow and a jovial manner, joining in the games of the
+gentry, and even in the sports of the common people, in order to
+invest himself with a temporary degree of popularity; while, in
+fact, his heart was bursting to witness what he called the
+degeneracy of the times, the decay of activity among the aged,
+and the want of zeal in the rising generation.  After the day has
+been spent in the hardest exercise, he has spent the night in
+pacing his solitary chamber, bewailing the downfall of the cause,
+and wishing for the bullet of Dundee or the axe of Balmerino.'
+
+'A strange delusion,' said Darsie; 'and it is wonderful that it
+does not yield to the force of reality.'
+
+'Ah, but,' replied Lilias, 'realities of late have seemed to
+flatter his hopes.  The general dissatisfaction with the peace--
+the unpopularity of the minister, which has extended itself even
+to the person of his master--the various uproars which have
+disturbed the peace of the metropolis, and a general state of
+disgust and disaffection, which seems to affect the body of the
+nation, have given unwonted encouragement to the expiring hopes
+of the Jacobites, and induced many, both at the Court of Rome,
+and, if it can be called so, of the Pretender, to lend a more
+favourable ear than they had hitherto done to the insinuations of
+those who, like my uncle, hope, when hope is lost to all but
+themselves.  Nay, I really believe that at this moment they
+meditate some desperate effort.  My uncle has been doing all in
+his power, of late, to conciliate the affections of those wild
+communities that dwell on the Solway, over whom our family
+possessed a seignorial interest before the forfeiture, and
+amongst whom, on the occasion of 1745, our unhappy father's
+interest, with his own, raised a considerable body of men.  But
+they are no longer willing to obey his summons; and, as one
+apology among others, they allege your absence as their natural
+head and leader.  This has increased his desire to obtain
+possession of your person, and, if he possibly can, to influence
+your mind, so as to obtain your authority to his proceedings.'
+
+'That he shall never obtain,' answered Darsie; 'my principles and
+my prudence alike forbid such a step.  Besides, it would be
+totally unavailing to his purpose.  Whatever these people may
+pretend, to evade your uncle's importunities, they cannot, at
+this time of day, think of subjecting their necks again to the
+feudal yoke, which was effectually broken by the act of 1748,
+abolishing vassalage and hereditary jurisdictions.'
+
+'Aye, but that my uncle considers as the act of a usurping
+government,' said Lilias.
+
+'Like enough he may think so,' answered her brother, 'for he is a
+superior, and loses his authority by, the enactment.  But the
+question is, what the vassals will think of it who have gained
+their freedom from feudal slavery, and have now enjoyed that
+freedom for many years?  However, to cut the matter short, if
+five hundred men would rise at the wagging of my finger, that
+finger shall not be raised in a cause which I disapprove of, and
+upon that my uncle may reckon.'
+
+'But you may temporize,' said Lilias, upon whom the idea of her
+uncle's displeasure made evidently a strong impression,--'you may
+temporize, as most of the gentry in this country do, and let the
+bubble burst of itself; for it is singular how few of them
+venture to oppose my uncle directly.  I entreat you to avoid
+direct collision with him.  To hear you, the head of the House of
+Redgauntlet, declare against the family of Stuart, would either
+break his heart, or drive him to some act of desperation.'
+
+'Yes, but, Lilias, you forget that the consequences of such an
+act of complaisance might be, that the House of Redgauntlet and I
+might lose both our heads at one blow.'
+
+'Alas!'  said she, 'I had forgotten that danger.  I have grown
+familiar with perilous intrigues, as the nurses in a pest-house
+are said to become accustomed to the air around them, till they
+forget even that it is noisome.'
+
+'And yet,' said Darsie, 'if I could free myself from him without
+coming to an open rupture.  Tell me, Lilias, do you think it
+possible that he can have any immediate attempt in view?'
+
+'To confess the truth,' answered Lilias, 'I cannot doubt that he
+has.  There has been an unusual bustle among the Jacobites of
+late.  They have hopes, as I told you, from circumstances
+unconnected with their own strength.  Just before you came to the
+country, my uncle's desire to find you out became, if possible,
+more eager than ever--he talked of men to be presently brought
+together, and of your name and influence for raising them.  At
+this very time your first visit to Brokenburn took place.  A
+suspicion arose in my uncle's mind, that you might be the youth
+he sought, and it was strengthened by papers and letters which
+the rascal Nixon did not hesitate to take from your pocket.  Yet
+a mistake might have occasioned a fatal explosion; and my uncle
+therefore posted to Edinburgh to follow out the clue he had
+obtained, and fished enough of information from old Mr. Fairford
+to make him certain that you were the person he sought.
+Meanwhile, and at the expense of some personal and perhaps too
+bold exertion, I endeavoured, through your friend young Fairford,
+to put you on your guard.'
+
+'Without success,' said Darsie, blushing under his mask when he
+recollected how he had mistaken his sister's meaning.
+
+'I do not wonder that my warning was fruitless,' said she; 'the
+thing was doomed to be.  Besides, your escape would have been
+difficult.  You were dogged the whole time you were at the
+Shepherd's Bush and at Mount Sharon, by a spy who scarcely ever
+left you.'
+
+'The wretch, little Benjie!'  exclaimed Darsie.  'I will wring
+the monkey's neck round, the first time we meet.'
+
+'It was he indeed who gave constant information of your motions
+to Cristal Nixon,' said Lilias.
+
+'And Cristal Nixon--I owe him, too, a day's work in harvest,'
+said Darsie; 'for I am mistaken if he was not the person that
+struck me down when I was made prisoner among the rioters.'
+
+'Like enough; for he has a head and hand for any villany.  My
+uncle was very angry about it; for though the riot was made to
+have an opportunity of carrying you off in the confusion, as well
+as to put the fishermen at variance with the public law, it would
+have been his last thought to have injured a hair of your head.
+But Nixon has insinuated himself into all my uncle's secrets, and
+some of these are so dark and dangerous, that though there are
+few things he would not dare, I doubt if he dare quarrel with
+him.  And yet I know that of Cristal would move my uncle to pass
+his sword through his body.'
+
+'What is it, for Heaven's sake?', said Darsie.  'I have a
+particular desire for wishing to know.'
+
+'The old, brutal desperado, whose face and mind are a libel upon
+human nature, has had the insolence to speak to his master's
+niece as one whom he was at liberty to admire; and when I turned
+on him with the anger and contempt he merited, the wretch
+grumbled out something, as if he held the destiny of our family
+in his hand.'
+
+'I thank you, Lilias,' said Darsie, eagerly,--'I thank you with
+all my heart for this communication.  I have blamed myself as a
+Christian man for the indescribable longing I felt from the first
+moment I saw that rascal, to send a bullet through his head; and
+now you have perfectly accounted for and justified this very
+laudable wish.  I wonder my uncle, with the powerful sense you
+describe him to be possessed of, does not see through such a
+villain.'
+
+'I believe he knows him to be capable of much evil,' answered
+Lilias--'selfish, obdurate, brutal, and a man-hater.  But then he
+conceives him to possess the qualities most requisite for a
+conspirator--undaunted courage, imperturbable coolness and
+address, and inviolable fidelity.  In the last particular he may
+be mistaken.  I have heard Nixon blamed for the manner in which
+our poor father was taken after Culloden.'
+
+'Another reason for my innate aversion,' said Darsie, but I will
+be on my guard with him.'
+
+'See, he observes us closely,' said Lilias.  'What a thing is
+conscience!  He knows we are now speaking of him, though he
+cannot have heard a word that we have said.'
+
+It seemed as if she had guessed truly; for Cristal Nixon at that
+moment rode up to them, and said, with an affectation of
+jocularity, which sat very ill on his sullen features, 'Come,
+young ladies, you have had time enough for your chat this
+morning, and your tongues, I think, must be tired.  We are going
+to pass a village, and I must beg you to separate--you, Miss
+Lilias, to ride a little behind--and you, Mrs., or Miss, or
+Master, whichever you choose to be called, to be jogging a little
+before.'
+
+Lilias checked her horse without speaking, but not until she had
+given her brother an expressive look, recommending caution; to
+which he replied by a signal indicating that he understood and
+would comply with her request.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+NARRATTVE OF DARSIE LATIMER, CONTINUED
+
+Left to his solitary meditations, Darsie (for we will still term
+Sir Arthur Darsie Redgauntlet of that Ilk by the name to which
+the reader is habituated) was surprised not only at the
+alteration of his own state and condition, but at the equanimity
+with which he felt himself disposed to view all these
+vicissitudes.
+
+His fever--fit of love had departed like a morning's dream, and
+left nothing behind but a painful sense of shame, and a
+resolution to be more cautious ere he again indulged in such
+romantic visions.  His station in society was changed from that
+of a wandering, unowned youth, in whom none appeared to take an
+interest excepting the strangers by whom he had been educated, to
+the heir of a noble house, possessed of such influence and such
+property, that it seemed as if the progress or arrest of
+important political events were likely to depend upon his
+resolution.  Even this sudden elevation, the more than fulfilment
+of those wishes which had haunted him ever since he was able to
+form a wish on the subject, was contemplated by Darsie, volatile
+as his disposition was, without more than a few thrills of
+gratified vanity.
+
+It is true, there were circumstances in his present situation to
+counterbalance such high advantages.  To be a prisoner in the
+hands of a man so determined as his uncle, was no agreeable
+consideration, when he was calculating how he might best dispute
+his pleasure and refuse to join him in the perilous enterprise
+which he seemed to meditate.  Outlawed and desperate himself,
+Darsie could not doubt that his uncle was surrounded by men
+capable of anything--that he was restrained by no personal
+considerations--and therefore what degree of compulsion he might
+apply to his brother's son, or in what manner he might feel at
+liberty to punish his contumacy, should he disavow the Jacobite
+cause, must depend entirely upon the limits of his own
+conscience; and who was to answer for the conscience of a heated
+enthusiast who considers opposition to the party he has espoused,
+as treason to the welfare of his country?  After a short
+interval, Cristal Nixon was pleased to throw some light upon the
+subject which agitated him.
+
+When that grim satellite rode up without ceremony close to
+Darsie's side, the latter felt his very flesh creep with
+abhorrence, so little was he able to endure his presence, since
+the story of Lilias had added to his instinctive hatred of the
+man.
+
+His voice, too, sounded like that of a screech-owl, as he said,
+'So, my young cock of the north, you now know it all, and no
+doubt are blessing your uncle for stirring you up to such an
+honourable action.'
+
+'I will acquaint my uncle with my sentiments on the subject,
+before I make them known to any one else,' said Darsie, scarcely
+prevailing on his tongue to utter even these few words in a civil
+manner.
+
+'Umph,' murmured Cristal betwixt his teeth.  'Close as wax, I
+see; and perhaps not quite so pliable.  But take care, my pretty
+youth,' he added, scornfully; 'Hugh Redgauntlet will prove a
+rough colt-breaker--he will neither spare whipcord nor spur-
+rowel, I promise you.'
+
+'I have already said, Mr. Nixon, answered Darsie, 'that I will
+canvass those matters of which my sister has informed me, with my
+uncle himself, and with no other person.'
+
+'Nay, but a word of friendly advice would do you no harm, young
+master,' replied Nixon.  'Old Redgauntlet is apter at a blow than
+a word--likely to bite before he barks--the true man for giving
+Scarborough warning, first knock you down, then bid you stand.
+So, methinks, a little kind warning as to consequences were not
+amiss, lest they come upon you unawares.'
+
+'If the warning is really kind, Mr. Nixon,' said the young man,
+'I will hear it thankfully; and indeed, if otherwise, I must
+listen to it whether I will or no, since I have at present no
+choice of company or of conversation.'
+
+'Nay, I have but little to say,' said Nixon, affecting to give to
+his sullen and dogged manner the appearance of an honest
+bluntness; 'I am as little apt to throw away words as any one.
+But here is the question--Will you join heart and hand with your
+uncle, or no?'
+
+'What if I should say Aye?'  said Darsie, determined, if
+possible, to conceal his resolution from this man.
+
+'Why, then,' said Nixon, somewhat surprised at the readiness of
+his answer, 'all will go smooth, of course--you will take share
+in this noble undertaking, and, when it succeeds, you will
+exchange your open helmet for an earl's coronet perhaps.'
+
+'And how if it fails?'  said Darsie.
+
+'Thereafter as it may be,' said Nixon; 'they who play at bowls
+must meet with rubbers.'
+
+'Well, but suppose, then, I have some foolish tenderness for my
+windpipe, and that when my uncle proposes the adventure to me I
+should say No--how then, Mr. Nixon?'
+
+'Why, then, I would have you look to yourself, young master.
+There are sharp laws in France against refractory pupils--LETTRES
+DE CACHET are easily come by when such men as we are concerned
+with interest themselves in the matter.'
+
+'But we are not in France,' said poor Darsie, through whose blood
+ran a cold shivering at the idea of a French prison.
+
+'A fast-sailing lugger will soon bring you there though, snug
+stowed under hatches, like a cask of moonlight.'
+
+'But the French are at peace with us,' said Darsie, 'and would
+not dare'--
+
+'Why, who would ever hear of you?'  interrupted Nixon; 'do you
+imagine that a foreign court would call you up for judgement, and
+put the sentence of imprisonment in the COURRIER DE L'EUROPE, as
+they do at the Old Bailey?  No, no, young gentleman--the gates of
+the Bastille, and of Mont Saint Michel, and the Castle of
+Vincennes, move on d--d easy hinges when they let folk in--not
+the least jar is heard.  There are cool cells there for hot
+heads--as calm, and quiet, and dark, as you could wish in Bedlam
+--and the dismissal comes when the carpenter brings the
+prisoner's coffin, and not sooner.'
+
+'Well, Mr. Nixon,' said Darsie, affecting a cheerfulness which he
+was far from feeling, 'mine is a hard case--a sort of hanging
+choice, you will allow--since I must either offend our own
+government here and run the risk of my life for doing so, or be
+doomed to the dungeons of another country, whose laws I have
+never offended since I have never trod its soil--Tell me what you
+would do if you were in my place.
+
+'I'll tell you that when I am there,' said Nixon, and, checking
+his horse, fell back to the rear of the little party.
+
+'It is evident,' thought the young man, 'that the villain
+believes me completely noosed, and perhaps has the ineffable
+impudence to suppose that my sister must eventually succeed to
+the possessions which have occasioned my loss of freedom, and
+that his own influence over the destinies of our unhappy family
+may secure him possession of the heiress; but he shall perish by
+my hand first!--I must now be on the alert to make my escape, if
+possible, before I am forced on shipboard.  Blind Willie will
+not, I think, desert me without an effort on my behalf,
+especially if he has learned that I am the son of his late
+unhappy patron.  What a change is mine!  Whilst I possessed
+neither rank nor fortune, I lived safely and unknown, under the
+protection of the kind and respectable friends whose hearts
+Heaven had moved towards me.  Now that I am the head of an
+honourable house, and that enterprises of the most daring
+character await my decision, and retainers and vassals seem ready
+to rise at my beck, my safety consists chiefly in the attachment
+of a blind stroller!'
+
+While he was revolving these things in his mind, and preparing
+himself for the interview with his uncle which could not but be a
+stormy one, he saw Hugh Redgauntlet come riding slowly back to
+meet them without any attendants.  Cristal Nixon rode up as he
+approached, and, as they met, fixed on him a look of inquiry.
+
+'The fool, Crackenthorp,' said Redgauntlet, has let strangers
+into his house.  Some of his smuggling comrades, I believe; we
+must ride slowly to give him time to send them packing.'
+
+'Did you see any of your friends?'  said Cristal.
+
+'Three, and have letters from many more.  They are unanimous on
+the subject you wot of--and the point must be conceded to them,
+or, far as the matter has gone, it will go no further.'
+
+'You will hardly bring the father to stoop to his flock,' said
+Cristal, with a sneer.
+
+'He must and shall!'  answered Redgauntlet, briefly.  'Go to the
+front, Cristal--I would speak with my nephew.  I trust, Sir
+Arthur Redgauntlet, you are satisfied with the manner in which I
+have discharged my duty to your sister?'
+
+'There can be no fault found to her manners or sentiments,'
+answered Darsie; 'I am happy in knowing a relative so amiable.'
+
+'I am glad of it,' answered Mr. Redgauntlet.  'I am no nice judge
+of women's qualifications, and my life has been dedicated to one
+great object; so that since she left France she has had but
+little opportunity of improvement.  I have subjected her,
+however, as little as possible to the inconveniences and
+privations of my wandering and dangerous life.  From time to time
+she has resided for weeks and months with families of honour and
+respectability, and I am glad that she has, in, your opinion, the
+manners and behaviour which become her birth.'
+
+Darsie expressed himself perfectly satisfied, and there was a
+little pause, which Redgauntlet broke by solemnly addressing his
+nephew.
+
+'For you, my nephew, I also hoped to have done much.  The
+weakness and timidity of your mother sequestered you from my
+care, or it would have been my pride and happiness to have
+trained up the son of my unhappy brother in those paths of honour
+in which our ancestors have always trod.'
+
+'Now comes the storm,' thought Darsie to himself, and began to
+collect his thoughts, as the cautious master of a vessel furls
+his sails and makes his ship snug when he discerns the
+approaching squall.
+
+'My mother's conduct in respect to me might be misjudged,' he
+said, 'but it was founded on the most anxious affection.'
+
+'Assuredly,' said his uncle, 'and I have no wish to reflect on
+her memory, though her mistrust has done so much injury, I will
+not say to me, but to the cause of my unhappy country.  Her
+scheme was, I think, to have made you that wretched pettifogging
+being, which they still continue to call in derision by the once
+respectable name of a Scottish Advocate; one of those mongrel
+things that must creep to learn the ultimate decision of his
+causes to the bar of a foreign court, instead of pleading before
+the independent and august Parliament of his own native kingdom,'
+
+'I did prosecute the study of law for a year or two, said Darsie,
+'but I found I had neither taste nor talents for the science.'
+
+'And left it with scorn, doubtless,' said Mr. Redgauntlet.
+'Well, I now hold up to you, my dearest nephew, a more worthy
+object of ambition.  Look eastward--do you see a monument
+standing on yonder plain, near a hamlet?'
+
+Darsie replied that he did,
+
+'The hamlet is called Burgh-upon-Sands, and yonder monument is
+erected to the memory of the tyrant Edward I The just hand of
+Providence overtook him on that spot, as he was leading his bands
+to complete the subjugation of Scotland whose civil dissensions
+began under his accursed policy.  The glorious career of Bruce
+might have been stopped in its outset; the field of Bannockburn
+might have remained a bloodless turf, if God had not removed, in
+the very crisis, the crafty and bold tyrant who had so long been
+Scotland's scourge.  Edward's grave is the cradle of our national
+freedom.  It is within sight of that great landmark of our
+liberty that I have to propose to you an undertaking, second in
+honour and importance to none since the immortal Bruce stabbed
+the Red Comyn, and grasped with his yet bloody hand the
+independent crown of Scotland.'
+
+He paused for an answer; but Darsie, overawed by the energy of
+his manner, and unwilling to commit himself by a hasty
+explanation, remained silent.
+
+'I will not suppose,' said Hugh Redgauntlet, after a pause, that
+you are either so dull as not to comprehend the import of my
+words--or so dastardly as to be dismayed by my proposal--or so
+utterly degenerate from the blood and sentiments of your
+ancestors, as not to feel my summons as the horse hears the war-
+trumpet.'
+
+'I will not pretend to misunderstand you, sir,' said Darsie; 'but
+an enterprise directed against a dynasty now established for
+three reigns requires strong arguments, both in point of justice
+and of expediency, to recommend it to men of conscience and
+prudence.'
+
+'I will not,' said Redgauntlet, while his eyes sparkled with
+anger,--'I will not hear you speak a word against the justice of
+that enterprise, for which your oppressed country calls with the
+voice of a parent, entreating her children for aid--or against
+that noble revenge which your father's blood demands from his
+dishonoured grave.  His skull is yet standing over the Rikargate,
+[The northern gate of Carlisle was long garnished with the heads
+of the Scottish rebels executed in 1746.] and even its bleak and
+mouldered jaws command you to be a man.  I ask you, in the name
+of God and of your country, will you draw your sword and go with
+me to Carlisle, were it but to lay your father's head, now the
+perch of the obscene owl and carrion crow and the scoff of every
+ribald clown, in consecrated earth as befits his long ancestry?'
+
+Darsie, unprepared to answer an appeal urged with so much
+passion, and not doubting a direct refusal would cost him his
+liberty or life, was again silent.
+
+'I see,' said his uncle, in a more composed tone, 'that it is not
+deficiency of spirit, but the grovelling habits of a confined
+education, among the poor-spirited class you were condemned to
+herd with, that keeps you silent.  You scarce yet believe
+yourself a Redgauntlet; your pulse has not yet learned the
+genuine throb that answers to the summons of honour and of
+patriotism.'
+
+'I trust,' replied Darsie, at last, 'that I shall never be found
+indifferent to the call of either; but to answer them with
+effect--even were I convinced that they now sounded in my ear--I
+must see some reasonable hope of success in the desperate
+enterprise in which you would involve me.  I look around me, and
+I see a settled government--an established authority--a born
+Briton on the throne--the very Highland mountaineers, upon whom
+alone the trust of the exiled family reposed, assembled into
+regiments which act under the orders of the existing dynasty.
+[The Highland regiments were first employed by the celebrated
+Earl of Chatham, who assumed to himself no small degree of praise
+for having called forth to the support of the country and the
+government, the valour which had been too often directed against
+both.]  France has been utterly dismayed by the tremendous
+lessons of the last war, and will hardly provoke another.  All
+without and within the kingdom is adverse to encountering a
+hopeless struggle, and you alone, sir, seem willing to undertake
+a desperate enterprise.'
+
+'And would undertake it were it ten times more desperate; and
+have agitated it when ten times the obstacles were interposed.
+Have I forgot my brother's blood?  Can I--dare I even now repeat
+the Pater Noster, since my enemies and the murderers remain
+unforgiven?  Is there an art I have not practised--a privation to
+which I have not submitted, to bring on the crisis, which I now
+behold arrived?  Have I not been a vowed and a devoted man,
+forgoing every comfort of social life, renouncing even the
+exercise of devotion unless when I might name in prayer my prince
+and country, submitting to everything to make converts to this
+noble cause?  Have I done all this, and shall I now stop short?'
+Darsie was about to interrupt him, but he pressed his hand
+affectionately upon his shoulder, and enjoining, or rather
+imploring, silence, 'Peace,' he said, 'heir of my ancestors'
+fame--heir of all my hopes and wishes.  Peace, son of my
+slaughtered brother!  I have sought for thee, and mourned for
+thee, as a mother for an only child.  Do not let me again lose
+you in the moment when you are restored to my hopes.  Believe me,
+I distrust so much my own impatient temper, that I entreat you,
+as the dearest boon, do naught to awaken it at this crisis.'
+
+Darsie was not sorry to reply that his respect for the person of
+his relation would induce him to listen to all which he had to
+apprise him of, before he formed any definite resolution upon the
+weighty subjects of deliberation which he proposed to him.
+
+'Deliberation!'  repeated Redgauntlet, impatiently; 'and yet it
+is not ill said.  I wish there had been more warmth in thy reply,
+Arthur; but I must recollect, were an eagle bred in a falcon's
+mew and hooded like a reclaimed hawk, he could not at first gaze
+steadily on the sun.  Listen to me, my dearest Arthur.  The state
+of this nation no more implies prosperity, than the florid colour
+of a feverish patient is a symptom of health.  All is false and
+hollow.  The apparent success of Chatham's administration has
+plunged the country deeper in debt than all the barren acres of
+Canada are worth, were they as fertile as Yorkshire--the dazzling
+lustre of the victories of Minden and Quebec have been dimmed by
+the disgrace of the hasty peace--by the war, England, at immense
+expense, gained nothing but honour, and that she has gratuitously
+resigned.  Many eyes, formerly cold and indifferent, are now
+looking towards the line of our ancient and rightful monarchs, as
+the only refuge in the approaching storm--the rich are alarmed--
+the nobles are disgusted--the populace are inflamed--and a band
+of patriots, whose measures are more safe than their numbers are
+few, have resolved to set up King Charles's standard,'
+
+'But the military,' said Darsie--'how can you, with a body of
+unarmed and disorderly insurgents, propose to encounter a regular
+army.  The Highlanders are now totally disarmed.'
+
+'In a great measure, perhaps,' answered Redgauntlet; 'but the
+policy which raised the Highland regiments has provided for that.
+We have already friends in these corps; nor can we doubt for a
+moment what their conduct will be when the white cockade is once
+more mounted.  The rest of the standing army has been greatly
+reduced since the peace; and we reckon confidently on our
+standard being joined by thousands of the disbanded troops.'
+
+'Alas!'  said Darsie, 'and is it upon such vague hopes as these,
+the inconstant humour of a crowd or of a disbanded soldiery, that
+men of honour are invited to risk their families, their property,
+their life?'
+
+'Men of honour, boy,' said Redgauntlet, his eyes glancing with
+impatience, 'set life, property, family, and all at stake, when
+that honour commands it!  We are not now weaker than when seven
+men, landing in the wilds of Moidart, shook the throne of the
+usurper till it tottered--won two pitched fields, besides
+overrunning one kingdom and the half of another, and, but for
+treachery, would have achieved what their venturous successors
+are now to attempt in their turn,'
+
+'And will such an attempt be made in serious earnest?'  said
+Darsie.  'Excuse me, my uncle, if I can scarce believe a fact so
+extraordinary.  Will there really be found men of rank and
+consequence sufficient to renew the adventure of 1745?'
+
+'I will not give you my confidence by halves, Sir Arthur,'
+replied his uncle--'Look at that scroll--what say you to these
+names?--Are they not the flower of the western shires--of Wales
+of Scotland?'
+
+'The paper contains indeed the names of many that are great and
+noble,' replied Darsie, after perusing it; 'but'--
+
+'But what?'  asked his uncle, impatiently; 'do you doubt the
+ability of those nobles and gentlemen to furnish the aid in men
+and money at which they are rated?'
+
+'Not their ability certainly,' said Darsie, 'for of that I am no
+competent judge; but I see in this scroll the name of Sir Arthur
+Darsie Redgauntlet of that Ilk, rated at a hundred men and
+upwards--I certainly am ignorant how he is to redeem that
+pledge.'
+
+'I will be responsible for the men,' replied Hugh Redgauntlet.
+
+'But, my dear uncle,' added Darsie, 'I hope for your sake that
+the other individuals whose names are here written, have had more
+acquaintance with your plan than I have been indulged with.'
+
+'For thee and thine I can be myself responsible,' said
+Redgauntlet; 'for if thou hast not the courage to head the force
+of thy house, the leading shall pass to other hands, and thy
+inheritance shall depart from thee like vigour and verdure from a
+rotten branch.  For these honourable persons, a slight condition
+there is which they annex to their friendship--something so
+trifling that it is scarce worthy of mention.  This boon granted
+to them by him who is most interested, there is no question they
+will take the field in the manner there stated.'
+
+Again Darsie perused the paper, and felt himself still less
+inclined to believe that so many men of family and fortune were
+likely to embark in an enterprise so fatal.  It seemed as if some
+rash plotter had put down at a venture the names of all whom
+common report tainted with Jacobitism; or if it was really the
+act of the individuals named, he suspected that they must be
+aware of some mode of excusing themselves from compliance with
+its purport.  It was impossible, he thought, that Englishmen, of
+large fortune, who had failed to join Charles when he broke into
+England at the head of a victorious army, should have the least
+thoughts of encouraging a descent when circumstances were so much
+less propitious.  He therefore concluded the enterprise would
+fall to pieces of itself, and that his best way was, in the
+meantime, to remain silent, unless the actual approach of a
+crisis (which might, however, never arrive) should compel him to
+give a downright refusal to his uncle's proposition; and if, in
+the interim, some door for escape should be opened, he resolved
+within himself not to omit availing himself of it.
+
+Hugh Redgauntlet watched his nephew's looks for some time, and
+then, as if arriving from some other process of reasoning at the
+same conclusion, he said, 'I have told you, Sir Arthur, that I do
+not urge your immediate accession to my proposal; indeed the
+consequences of a refusal would be so dreadful to yourself, so
+destructive to all the hopes which I have nursed, that I would
+not risk, by a moment's impatience, the object of my whole life.
+Yes, Arthur, I have been a self-denying hermit at one time--at
+another, the apparent associate of outlaws and desperadoes--at
+another, the subordinate agent of men whom I felt in every way my
+inferiors--not for any selfish purpose of my own, no, not even to
+win for myself the renown of being the principal instrument in
+restoring my king and freeing my country.  My first wish on earth
+is for that restoration and that freedom--my next, that my
+nephew, the representative of my house and of the brother of my
+love, may have the advantage and the credit of all my efforts in
+the good cause.  But,' he added, darting on Darsie one of his
+withering frowns, 'if Scotland and my father's house cannot stand
+and flourish together, then perish the very name of Redgauntlet!
+perish the son of my brother, with every recollection of the
+glories of my family, of the affections of my youth, rather than
+my country's cause should be injured in the tithing of a barley-
+corn!  The spirit of Sir Alberick is alive within me at this
+moment,' he continued, drawing up his stately form and sitting
+erect in his saddle, while he pressed his finger against his
+forehead; 'and if you yourself crossed my path in opposition, I
+swear, by the mark that darkens my brow, that a new deed should
+be done--a new doom should be deserved!'
+
+He was silent, and his threats were uttered in a tone of voice so
+deeply resolute, that Darsie's heart sank within him, when he
+reflected on the storm of passion which he must encounter, if he
+declined to join his uncle in a project to which prudence and
+principle made him equally adverse.  He had scarce any hope left
+but in temporizing until he could make his escape, and resolved
+to avail himself for that purpose of the delay which his uncle
+seemed not unwilling to grant.  The stern, gloomy look of his
+companion became relaxed by degrees, and presently afterwards he
+made a sign to Miss Redgauntlet to join the party, and began a
+forced conversation on ordinary topics; in the course of which
+Darsie observed that his sister seemed to speak under the most
+cautious restraint, weighing every word before she uttered it,
+and always permitting her uncle to give the tone to the
+conversation, though of the most trifling kind.  This seemed to
+him (such an opinion had he already entertained of his sister's
+good sense and firmness) the strongest proof he had yet received
+of his uncle's peremptory character, since he saw it observed
+with so much deference by a young person whose sex might have
+given her privileges, and who seemed by no means deficient either
+in spirit or firmness.
+
+The little cavalcade was now approaching the house of Father
+Crackenthorp, situated, as the reader knows, by the side of the
+Solway, and not far distant front a rude pier, near which lay
+several fishing-boats, which frequently acted in a different
+capacity.  The house of the worthy publican was also adapted to
+the various occupations which he carried on, being a large
+scrambling assemblage of cottages attached to a house of two
+stories, roofed with flags of sandstone--the original mansion, to
+which the extensions of Mr. Crackenthorp's trade had occasioned
+his making many additions.  Instead of the single long watering-
+trough which usually distinguishes the front of the English
+public-house of the second class, there were three conveniences
+of that kind, for the use, as the landlord used to say, of the
+troop-horses when the soldiers came to search his house; while a
+knowing leer and a nod let you understand what species of troops
+he was thinking of.  A huge ash-tree before the door, which had
+reared itself to a great size and height, in spite of the blasts
+from the neighbouring Solway, overshadowed, as usual, the ale-
+bench, as our ancestors called it, where, though it was still
+early in the day, several fellows, who seemed to be gentlemen's
+servants, were drinking beer and smoking.  One or two of them
+wore liveries which seemed known to Mr. Redgauntlet, for he
+muttered between his teeth, 'Fools, fools! were they on a march
+to hell, they must have their rascals in livery with them, that
+the whole world might know who were going to be damned.'
+
+As he thus muttered, he drew bridle before the door of the place,
+from which several other lounging guests began to issue, to look
+with indolent curiosity as usual, upon an ARRIVAL.
+
+Redgauntlet sprang from his horse, and assisted his niece to
+dismount; but, forgetting, perhaps, his nephew's disguise, he did
+not pay him the attention which his female dress demanded.
+
+The situation of Darsie was indeed something awkward; for Cristal
+Nixon, out of caution perhaps to prevent escape, had muffled the
+extreme folds of the riding-skirt with which he was accoutred,
+around his ankles and under his feet, and there secured it with
+large corking-pins.  We presume that gentlemen-cavaliers may
+sometimes cast their eyes to that part of the person of the fair
+equestrians whom they chance occasionally to escort; and if they
+will conceive their own feet, like Darsie's, muffled in such a
+labyrinth of folds and amplitude of robe, as modesty doubtless
+induces the fair creatures to assume upon such occasions, they
+will allow that, on a first attempt, they might find some
+awkwardness in dismounting.  Darsie, at least, was in such a
+predicament, for, not receiving adroit assistance from the
+attendant of Mr. Redgauntlet, he stumbled as he dismounted from
+the horse, and might have had a bad fall, had it not been broken
+by the gallant interposition of a gentleman, who probably was, on
+his part, a little surprised at the solid weight of the
+distressed fair one whom he had the honour to receive in his
+embrace.  But what was his surprise to that of Darsie, when the
+hurry of the moment and of the accident, permitted him to see
+that it was his friend Alan Fairford in whose arms he found
+himself!  A thousand apprehensions rushed on him, mingled with
+the full career of hope and joy, inspired by the unexpected
+appearance of his beloved friend at the very crisis, it seemed,
+of his fate.
+
+He was about to whisper in his ear, cautioning him at the same
+time to be silent; yet he hesitated for a second or two to effect
+his purpose, since, should Redgauntlet take the alarm from any
+sudden exclamation on the part of Alan, there was no saying what
+consequences might ensue.
+
+Ere he could decide what was to be done, Redgauntlet, who had
+entered the house, returned hastily, followed by Cristal Nixon.
+'I'll release you of the charge of this young lady, sir;' he
+said, haughtily, to Alan Fairford, whom he probably did not
+recognize.
+
+'I had no desire to intrude, sir,' replied Alan; 'the lady's
+situation seemed to require assistance--and--but have I not the
+honour to speak to Mr. Herries of Birrenswork?'
+
+'You are mistaken, sir,' said Redgauntlet, turning short off, and
+making a sign with his hand to Cristal, who hurried Darsie,
+however unwillingly, into the house, whispering in his ear,
+'Come, miss, let us have no making of acquaintance from the
+windows.  Ladies of fashion must be private.  Show us a room,
+Father Crackenthorp.'
+
+So saying, he conducted Darsie into the house, interposing at the
+same time his person betwixt the supposed young lady and the
+stranger of whom he was suspicious, so as to make communication
+by signs impossible.  As they entered, they heard the sound of a
+fiddle in the stone-floored and well-sanded kitchen, through
+which they were about to follow their corpulent host, and where
+several people seemed engaged in dancing to its strains.
+
+'D--n thee,' said Nixon to Crackenthorp, 'would you have the lady
+go through all the mob of the parish?  Hast thou no more private
+way to our sitting-room?'
+
+'None that is fit for my travelling,' answered the landlord,
+laying his hand on his portly stomach.  'I am not Tom Turnpenny,
+to creep like a lizard through keyholes.'
+
+So saying, he kept moving on through the revellers in the
+kitchen; and Nixon, holding Darsie by his arm, as if to offer the
+lady support but in all probability to frustrate any effort at
+escape, moved through the crowd, which presented a very motley
+appearance, consisting of domestic servants, country fellows,
+seamen, and other idlers, whom Wandering Willie was regaling with
+his music.
+
+To pass another friend without intimation of his presence would
+have been actual pusillanimity; and just when they were passing
+the blind man's elevated seat, Darsie asked him with some
+emphasis, whether he could not play a Scottish air?  The man's
+face had been the instant before devoid of all sort of
+expression, going through his performance like a clown through a
+beautiful country, too much accustomed to consider it as a task,
+to take any interest in the performance, and, in fact, scarce
+seeming to hear the noise that he was creating.  In a word, he
+might at the time have made a companion to my friend Wilkie's
+inimitable blind crowder.  But with Wandering Willie this was
+only an occasional and a rare fit of dullness, such as will at
+times creep over all the professors of the fine arts, arising
+either from fatigue, or contempt of the present audience, or that
+caprice which so often tempts painters and musicians and great
+actors, in the phrase of the latter, to walk through their part,
+instead of exerting themselves with the energy which acquired
+their fame.  But when the performer heard the voice of Darsie,
+his countenance became at once illuminated, and showed the
+complete mistake of those who suppose that the principal point of
+expression depends upon the eyes.  With his face turned to the
+point from which the sound came, his upper lip a little curved,
+and quivering with agitation, and with a colour which surprise
+and pleasure had brought at once into his faded cheek, he
+exchanged the humdrum hornpipe which he had been sawing out with
+reluctant and lazy bow, for the fine Scottish air,
+
+  You're welcome, Charlie Stuart,
+
+which flew from his strings as if by inspiration and after a
+breathless pause of admiration among the audience, was received
+with a clamour of applause, which seemed to show that the name
+and tendency, as well as the execution of the tune, was in the
+highest degree acceptable to all the party assembled.
+
+In the meantime, Cristal Nixon, still keeping hold of Darsie, and
+following the landlord, forced his way with some difficulty
+through the crowded kitchen, and entered a small apartment on the
+other side of it, where they found Lilias Redgauntlet already
+seated.  Here Nixon gave way to his suppressed resentment, and
+turning sternly on Crackenthorp, threatened him with his master's
+severest displeasure, because things were in such bad order to
+receive his family, when he had given such special advice that he
+desired to be private.  But Father Crackenthorp was not a man to
+be brow-beaten.
+
+'Why, brother Nixon, thou art angry this morning,' he replied;
+'hast risen from thy wrong side, I think.  You know, as well as
+I, that most of this mob is of the squire's own making--gentlemen
+that come with their servants, and so forth, to meet him in the
+way of business, as old Tom Turnpenny says--the very last that
+came was sent down with Dick Gardener from Fairladies.'
+
+'But the blind scraping scoundrel yonder,' said Nixon, 'how dared
+you take such a rascal as that across your threshold at such a
+time as this?  If the squire should dream you have a thought of
+peaching--I am only speaking for your good, Father Crackenthorp.'
+
+'Why, look ye, brother Nixon,' said Crackenthorp, turning his
+quid with great composure, 'the squire is a very worthy
+gentleman, and I'll never deny it; but I am neither his servant
+nor his tenant, and so he need send me none of his orders till he
+hears I have put on his livery.  As for turning away folk from my
+door, I might as well plug up the ale-tap, and pull down the
+sign--and as for peaching, and such like, the squire will find
+the folk here are as honest to the full as those he brings with
+him.'
+
+'How, you impudent lump of tallow,' said Nixon, 'what do you mean
+by that?'
+
+'Nothing,' said Crackenthorp, 'but that I can tour out as well as
+another--you understand me--keep good lights in my upper story--
+know a thing or two more than most folk in this country.  If folk
+will come to my house on dangerous errands, egad they shall not
+find Joe Crackenthorp a cat's-paw.  I'll keep myself clear, you
+may depend on it, and let every man answer for his own actions--
+that's my way.  Anything wanted, Master Nixon?'
+
+'No--yes--begone!'  said Nixon, who seemed embarrassed with the
+landlord's contumacy, yet desirous to conceal the effect it
+produced on him.
+
+The door was no sooner closed on Crackenthorp, than Miss
+Redgauntlet, addressing Nixon, commanded him to leave the room
+and go to his proper place.
+
+'How, madam?'  said the fellow sullenly, yet with an air of
+respect, 'Would you have your uncle pistol me for disobeying his
+orders?'
+
+'He may perhaps pistol you for some other reason, if you do not
+obey mine,' said Lilias, composedly.
+
+'You abuse your advantage over me, madam--I really dare not go--I
+am on guard over this other miss here; and if I should desert my
+post, my life were not worth five minutes' purchase.'
+
+'Then know your post, sir,' said Lilias, 'and watch on the
+outside of the door.  You have no commission to listen to our
+private conversation, I suppose?  Begone, sir, without further
+speech or remonstrance, or I will tell my uncle that which you
+would have reason to repent be should know.'
+
+The fellow looked at her with a singular expression of spite,
+mixed with deference.  'You abuse your advantages, madam,' he
+said, 'and act as foolishly in doing so as I did in affording you
+such a hank over me.  But you are a tyrant; and tyrants have
+commonly short reigns.'
+
+So saying, he left the apartment.
+
+'The wretch's unparalleled insolence,' said Lilias to her
+brother, 'has given me one great advantage over him.  For knowing
+that my uncle would shoot him with as little remorse as a
+woodcock, if he but guessed at his brazen-faced assurance towards
+me, he dares not since that time assume, so far as I am
+concerned, the air of insolent domination which the possession of
+my uncle's secrets, and the knowledge of his most secret plans,
+have led him to exert over others of his family.'
+
+'In the meantime,' said Darsie, 'I am happy to see that the
+landlord of the house does not seem so devoted to him as I
+apprehended; and this aids the hope of escape which I am
+nourishing for you and for myself.  O Lilias!  the truest of
+friends, Alan Fairford, is in pursuit of me, and is here at this
+moment.  Another humble, but, I think, faithful friend, is also
+within these dangerous walls,'
+
+Lilias laid her finger on her lips, and pointed to the door.
+Darsie took the hint, lowered his voice, and informed her in
+whispers of the arrival of Fairford, and that he believed he had
+opened a communication with Wandering Willie.  She listened with
+the utmost interest, and had just begun to reply, when a loud
+noise was heard in the kitchen, caused by several contending
+voices, amongst which Darsie thought he could distinguish that of
+Alan Fairford.
+
+Forgetting how little his own condition permitted him to become
+the assistant of another, Darsie flew to the door of the room,
+and finding it locked and bolted on the outside, rushed against
+it with all his force, and made the most desperate efforts to
+burst it open, notwithstanding the entreaties of his sister that
+he would compose himself and recollect the condition in which he
+was placed.  But the door, framed to withstand attacks from
+excisemen, constables, and other personages, considered as worthy
+to use what are called the king's keys, [In common parlance, a
+crowbar and hatchet.]  'and therewith to make lockfast places
+open and patent,' set his efforts at defiance.  Meantime the
+noise continued without, and we are to give an account of its
+origin in our next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+NARRATIVE OF DARSIE LATIMER, CONTINUED
+
+Joe Crackenthorp's public-house had never, since it first reared
+its chimneys on the banks of the Solway, been frequented by such
+a miscellaneous group of visitors as had that morning become its
+guests.  Several of them were persons whose quality seemed much
+superior to their dresses and modes of travelling.  The servants
+who attended them contradicted the inferences to be drawn from
+the garb of their masters, and, according to the custom of the
+knights of the rainbow, gave many hints that they were not people
+to serve any but men of first-rate consequence.  These gentlemen,
+who had come thither chiefly for the purpose of meeting with Mr.
+Redgauntlet, seemed moody and anxious, conversed and walked
+together apparently in deep conversation, and avoided any
+communication with the chance travellers whom accident brought
+that morning to the same place of resort.
+
+As if Fate had set herself to confound the plans of the Jacobite
+conspirators, the number of travellers was unusually great, their
+appearance respectable, and they filled the public tap-room of
+the inn, where the political guests had already occupied most of
+the private apartments.
+
+Amongst others, honest Joshua Geddes had arrived, travelling, as
+he said, in the sorrow of the soul, and mourning for the fate of
+Darsie Latimer as he would for his first-born child.  He had
+skirted the whole coast of the Solway, besides making various
+trips into the interior, not shunning, on such occasions, to
+expose himself to the laugh of the scorner, nay, even to serious
+personal risk, by frequenting the haunts of smugglers, horse-
+jockeys, and other irregular persons, who looked on his intrusion
+with jealous eyes, and were apt to consider him as an exciseman
+in the disguise of a Quaker.  All this labour and peril, however,
+had been undergone in vain.  No search he could make obtained the
+least intelligence of Latimer, so that he began to fear the poor
+lad had been spirited abroad--for the practice of kidnapping was
+then not infrequent, especially on the western coasts of Britain
+--if indeed he had escaped a briefer and more bloody fate.
+
+With a heavy heart, he delivered his horse, even Solomon, into
+the hands of the ostler, and walking into the inn, demanded from
+the landlord breakfast and a private room.  Quakers, and such
+hosts as old Father Crackenthorp, are no congenial spirits; the
+latter looked askew over his shoulder, and replied, 'If you would
+have breakfast here, friend, you are like to eat it where other
+folk eat theirs.'
+
+'And wherefore can I not,' said the Quaker, 'have an apartment to
+myself, for my money?'
+
+'Because, Master Jonathan, you must wait till your betters be
+served, or else eat with your equals.'
+
+Joshua Geddes argued the point no further, but sitting quietly
+down on the seat which Crackenthorp indicated to him, and calling
+for a pint of ale, with some bread, butter, and Dutch cheese,
+began to satisfy the appetite which the morning air had rendered
+unusually alert.
+
+While the honest Quaker was thus employed, another stranger
+entered the apartment, and sat down near to the table on which
+his victuals were placed.  He looked repeatedly at Joshua, licked
+his parched and chopped lips as he saw the good Quaker masticate
+his bread and cheese, and sucked up his thin chops when Mr.
+Geddes applied the tankard to his mouth, as if the discharge of
+these bodily functions by another had awakened his sympathies in
+an uncontrollable degree.  At last, being apparently unable to
+withstand his longings, he asked, in a faltering tone, the huge
+landlord, who was tramping through the room in all corpulent
+impatience, whether he could have a plack-pie?'
+
+'Never heard of such a thing, master,' said the landlord, and was
+about to trudge onward; when the guest, detaining him, said, in a
+strong Scottish tone, 'Ya will maybe have nae whey then, nor
+buttermilk, nor ye couldna exhibit a souter's clod?'
+
+'Can't tell what ye are talking about, master,' said
+Crackenthorp.
+
+'Then ye will have nae breakfast that will come within 'the
+compass of a shilling Scots?'
+
+'Which is a penny sterling,' answered Crackenthorp, with a sneer.
+'Why, no, Sawney, I can't say as we have--we can't afford it; But
+you shall have a bellyful for love, as we say in the bull-ring.'
+
+'I shall never refuse a fair offer,' said the poverty-stricken
+guest; 'and I will say that for the English, if they were deils,
+that they are a ceeveleesed people to gentlemen that are under a
+cloud.'
+
+'Gentlemen!--humph!'  said Crackenthorp--'not a blue-cap among
+them but halts upon that foot.'  Then seizing on a dish which
+still contained a huge cantle of what had been once a princely
+mutton pasty, he placed it on the table before the stranger,
+saying, 'There, master gentleman; there is what is worth all the
+black pies, as you call them, that were ever made of sheep's
+head.'
+
+'Sheep's head is a gude thing, for a' that,' replied the guest;
+but not being spoken so loud as to offend his hospitable
+entertainer, the interjection might pass for a private protest
+against the scandal thrown out against the standing dish of
+Caledonia.
+
+This premised, he immediately began to transfer the mutton and
+pie-crust from his plate to his lips, in such huge gobbets, as if
+he was refreshing after a three days' fast, and laying in
+provisions against a whole Lent to come.
+
+Joshua Geddes in his turn gazed on him with surprise, having
+never, he thought, beheld such a gaunt expression of hunger in
+the act of eating.  'Friend,' he said, after watching him for
+some minutes, 'if thou gorgest thyself in this fashion, thou wilt
+assuredly choke.  Wilt thou not take a draught out of my cup to
+help down all that dry meat?'
+
+'Troth,' said the stranger, stopping and looking at the friendly
+propounder, 'that's nae bad overture, as they say in the General
+Assembly.  I have heard waur motions than that frae wiser
+counsel.'
+
+Mr. Geddes ordered a quart of home-brewed to be placed before our
+friend Peter Peebles; for the reader must have already conceived
+that this unfortunate litigant was the wanderer in question.
+
+The victim of Themis had no sooner seen the flagon, than he
+seized it with the same energy which he had displayed in
+operating upon the pie--puffed off the froth with such emphasis,
+that some of it lighted on Mr. Geddes's head--and then said, as
+if with it sudden recollection of what was due to civility,
+'Here's to ye, friend.  What!  are ye ower grand to give me an
+answer, or are ye dull o' hearing?'
+
+'I prithee drink thy liquor, friend,' said the good Quaker; 'thou
+meanest it in civility, but we care not for these idle fashions.'
+
+'What!  ye are a Quaker, are ye?'  said Peter; and without
+further ceremony reared the flagon to his head, from which he
+withdrew it not while a single drop of 'barley-broo' remained.
+'That's done you and me muckle gude,' he said, sighing as he set
+down his pot; 'but twa mutchkins o' yill between twa folk is a
+drappie ower little measure.  What say ye to anither pot?  or
+shall we cry in a blithe Scots pint at ance?  The yill is no
+amiss.'
+
+'Thou mayst call for what thou wilt on thine own charges,
+friend,' said Geddes; 'for myself, I willingly contribute to the
+quenching of thy natural thirst; but I fear it were no such easy
+matter to relieve thy acquired and artificial drought.'
+
+'That is to say, in plain terms, ye are for withdrawing your
+caution with the folk of the house?  You Quaker folk are but
+fause comforters; but since ye have garred me drink sae muckle
+cauld yill--me that am no used to the like of it in the forenoon
+--I think ye might as weel have offered me a glass of brandy or
+usquabae--I'm nae nice body--I can drink onything that's wet and
+toothsome.'
+
+'Not a drop at my cost, friend,' quoth Geddes.  'Thou art an old
+man, and hast perchance a heavy and long journey before thee.
+Thou art, moreover, my countryman, as I judge from thy tongue;
+and I will not give thee the means of dishonouring thy grey hairs
+in a strange land.'
+
+'Grey hairs, neighbour!'  said Peter, with a wink to the
+bystanders, whom this dialogue began to interest, and who were in
+hopes of seeing the Quaker played off by the crazed beggar, for
+such Peter Peebles appeared to be.  'Grey hairs!  The Lord mend
+your eyesight, neighbour, that disna ken grey hairs frae a tow
+wig!'
+
+This jest procured a shout of laughter, and, what was still more
+acceptable than dry applause, a man who stood beside called out,
+'Father Crackenthorp, bring a nipperkin of brandy.  I'll bestow
+a dram on this fellow, were it but for that very word.'
+
+The brandy was immediately brought by a wench who acted as
+barmaid; and Peter, with a grin of delight, filled a glass,
+quaffed it off, and then saying, 'God bless me!  I was so
+unmannerly as not to drink to ye--I think the Quaker has smitten
+me wi' his ill-bred havings,'--he was about to fill another, when
+his hand was arrested by his new friend; who said at the same
+time, 'No, no, friend--fair play's a jewel--time about, if you
+please.'  And filling a glass for himself, emptied it as
+gallantly as Peter could have done.  'What say you to that,
+friend?'  he continued, addressing the Quaker.
+
+'Nay, friend,' answered Joshua, 'it went down thy throat, not
+mine; and I have nothing to say about what concerns me not; but
+if thou art a man of humanity, thou wilt not give this poor
+creature the means of debauchery.  Bethink thee that they will
+spurn him from the door, as they would do a houseless and
+masterless dog, and that he may die on the sands or on the
+common.  And if he has through thy means been rendered incapable
+of helping himself, thou shalt not be innocent of his blood.'
+
+'Faith, Broadbrim, I believe thou art right, and the old
+gentleman in the flaxen jazy shall have no more of the comforter.
+Besides, we have business in hand to-day, and this fellow, for as
+mad as he looks, may have a nose on his face after all.  Hark ye,
+father,--what is your name, and what brings you into such an out-
+of-the-way corner?'
+
+'I am not just free to condescend on my name,' said Peter; 'and
+as for my business--there is a wee dribble of brandy in the
+stoup--it would be wrang to leave it to the lass--it is learning
+her bad usages.'
+
+'Well, thou shalt have the brandy, and be d--d to thee, if thou
+wilt tell me what you are making here.'
+
+'Seeking a young advocate chap that they ca' Alan Fairford, that
+has played me a slippery trick, and ye maun ken a' about the
+cause,' said Peter.
+
+'An advocate, man!'  answered the captain of the JUMPING JENNY--
+for it was he, and no other, who had taken compassion on Peter's
+drought; 'why, Lord help thee, thou art on the wrong side of the
+Firth to seek advocates, whom I take to be Scottish lawyers, not
+English.'
+
+'English lawyers, man!'  exclaimed Peter, 'the deil a lawyer's in
+a' England.'
+
+'I wish from my soul it were true,' said Ewart; 'but what the
+devil put that in your head?'
+
+'Lord, man, I got a grip of ane of their attorneys in Carlisle,
+and he tauld me that there wasna a lawyer in England ony mair
+than himsell that kend the nature of a multiple-poinding!  And
+when I told him how this loopy lad, Alan Fairford, had served me,
+he said I might bring an action on the case--just as if the case
+hadna as mony actions already as one case can weel carry.  By my
+word, it is a gude case, and muckle has it borne, in its day, of
+various procedure--but it's the barley-pickle breaks the naig's
+back, and wi' my consent it shall not hae ony mair burden laid
+upon it.'
+
+'But this Alan Fairford?'  said Nanty--'come--sip up the drop of
+brandy, man, and tell me some more about him, and whether you are
+seeking him for good or for harm.'
+
+'For my ain gude, and for his harm, to be sure,' said Peter.
+'Think of his having left my cause in the dead-thraw between the
+tyneing and the winning, and capering off into Cumberland here,
+after a wild loup-the-tether lad they ca' Darsie Latimer.'
+
+'Darsie Latimer!'  said Mr. Geddes, hastily; 'do you know
+anything of Darsie Latimer?'
+
+'Maybe I do, and maybe I do not,' answered Peter; 'I am no free
+to answer every body's interrogatory, unless it is put
+judicially, and by form of law--specially where folk think so
+much of a caup of sour yill, or a thimblefu' of brandy.  But as
+for this gentleman, that has shown himself a gentleman at
+breakfast, and will show himself a gentleman at the meridian, I
+am free to condescend upon any points in the cause that may
+appear to bear upon the question at issue.'
+
+'Why, all I want to know from you, my friend, is, whether you are
+seeking to do this Mr. Alan Fairford good or harm; because if you
+come to do him good, I think you could maybe get speech of him--
+and if to do him harm, I will take the liberty to give you a cast
+across the Firth, with fair warning not to come back on such an
+errand, lest worse come of it.'
+
+The manner and language of Ewart were such that Joshua Geddes
+resolved to keep cautious silence, till he could more plainly
+discover whether he was likely to aid or impede him in his
+researches after Darsie Latimer.  He therefore determined to
+listen attentively to what should pass between Peter and the
+seaman, and to watch for an opportunity of questioning the
+former, so soon as he should be separated from his new
+acquaintance.
+
+'I wad by no means,' said Peter Peebles, 'do any substantial harm
+to the poor lad Fairford, who has had mony a gowd guinea of mine,
+as weel as his father before him; but I wad hae him brought back
+to the minding of my business and his ain; and maybe I wadna
+insist further in my action of damages against him, than for
+refunding the fees, and for some annual rent on the principal sum
+due frae the day on which he should have recovered it for me,
+plack and bawbee, at the great advising ; for ye are aware, that
+is the least that I can ask NOMINE DAMNI; and I have nae thought
+to break down the lad bodily a'thegither--we maun live and let
+live--forgie and forget.'
+
+'The deuce take me, friend Broadbrim,' said Nanty Ewart, looking
+to the Quaker, 'if I can make out what this old scarecrow means.
+If I thought it was fitting that Master Fairford should see him,
+why perhaps it is a matter that could be managed.  Do you know
+anything about the old fellow?--you seemed to take some charge of
+him just now.'
+
+'No more than I should have done by any one in distress,' said
+Geddes, not sorry to be appealed to; 'but I will try what I can
+do to find out who he is, and what he is about in this country.
+But are we not a little too public in this open room?'
+
+'It's well thought of,' said Nanty; and at his command the
+barmaid ushered the party into a side-booth, Peter attending them
+in the instinctive hope that there would be more liquor drunk
+among them before parting.  They had scarce sat down in their new
+apartment, when the sound of a violin was heard in the room which
+they had just left.
+
+'I'll awa back yonder,' said Peter, rising up again; 'yon's the
+sound of a fiddle, and when there is music, there's ay something
+ganging to eat or drink.'
+
+'I am just going to order something here,' said the Quaker; 'but
+in the meantime, have you any objection, my good friend, to tell
+us your name?'
+
+'None in the world, if you are wanting to drink to me by name and
+surname,' answered Peebles; 'but, otherwise, I would rather evite
+your interrogatories.'
+
+'Friend,' said the Quaker, 'it is not for thine own health,
+seeing thou hast drunk enough already--however--here, handmaiden
+--bring me a gill of sherry.'
+
+'Sherry's but shilpit drink, and a gill's a sma' measure for twa
+gentlemen to crack ower at their first acquaintance.  But let us
+see your sneaking gill of sherry,' said Poor Peter, thrusting
+forth his huge hand to seize on the diminutive pewter measure,
+which, according to the fashion of the time, contained the
+generous liquor freshly drawn from the butt.
+
+'Nay, hold, friend,' said Joshua, 'thou hast not yet told me what
+name and surname I am to call thee by.'
+
+'D--d sly in the Quaker,' said Nanty, apart, 'to make him pay for
+his liquor before he gives it him.  Now, I am such a fool, that I
+should have let him get too drunk to open his mouth, before I
+thought of asking him a question.'
+
+'My name is Peter Peebles, then,' said the litigant, rather
+sulkily, as one who thought his liquor too sparingly meted out to
+him; 'and what have you to say to that?'
+
+'Peter Peebles?'  repeated Nanty Ewart and seemed to muse upon
+something which the words brought to his remembrance, while the
+Quaker pursued his examination.
+
+'But I prithee, Peter Peebles, what is thy further designation?
+Thou knowest, in our country, that some men are distinguished by
+their craft and calling, as cordwainers, fishers, weavers, or the
+like, and some by their titles as proprietors of land (which
+savours of vanity)--now, how may you be distinguished from others
+of the same name?'
+
+'As Peter Peebles of the great plea of Poor Peter Peebles against
+Plainstanes, ET PER CONTRA--if I am laird of naething else, I am
+ay a DOMINUS LITIS.'
+
+'It's but a poor lairdship, I doubt,' said Joshua.
+
+'Pray, Mr, Peebles,' said Nanty, interrupting the conversation
+abruptly, 'were not you once a burgess of Edinburgh?'
+
+'WAS I a burgess!'  said Peter indignantly, 'and AM I not a
+burgess even now?  I have done nothing to forfeit my right, I
+trow--once provost and ay my lord.'
+
+'Well, Mr. Burgess, tell me further, have you not some property
+in the Gude Town?'  continued Ewart.
+
+'Troth have I--that is, before my misfortunes, I had twa or three
+bonny bits of mailings amang the closes and wynds, forby the shop
+and the story abune it.  But Plainstanes has put me to the
+causeway now.  Never mind though, I will be upsides with him
+yet.'
+
+'Had not you once a tenement in the Covenant Close?'  again
+demanded Nanty.
+
+'You have hit it, lad, though ye look not like a Covenanter,'
+said Peter; 'we'll drink to its memory--(Hout!  the heart's at
+the mouth o' that ill-faur'd bit stoup already!)--it brought a
+rent, reckoning from the crawstep to the groundsill, that ye
+might ca' fourteen punds a year, forby the laigh cellar that was
+let to Lucky Littleworth.'
+
+'And do you not remember that you had a poor old lady for your
+tenant, Mrs. Cantrips of Kittlebasket?'  said Nanty, suppressing
+his emotion with difficulty.
+
+'Remember!  G--d, I have gude cause to remember her,' said Peter,
+'for she turned a dyvour on my hands, the auld besom!  and after
+a' that the law could do to make me satisfied and paid, in the
+way of poinding and distrenzieing and sae forth, as the law will,
+she ran awa to the charity workhouse, a matter of twenty punds
+Scots in my debt--it's a great shame and oppression that charity
+workhouse, taking in bankrupt dyvours that canna, pay their
+honest creditors.'
+
+'Methinks, friend,' said the Quaker, 'thine own rags might teach
+thee compassion for other people's nakedness.'
+
+'Rags!'  said Peter, taking Joshua's words literally; 'does ony
+wise body put on their best coat when they are travelling, and
+keeping company with Quakers, and such other cattle as the road
+affords?'
+
+'The old lady DIED, I have heard,' said Nanty, affecting a
+moderation which was belied by accents that faltered with
+passion.
+
+'She might live or die, for what I care,' answered Peter the
+Cruel; 'what business have folk to do to live that canna live as
+law will, and satisfy their just and lawful creditors?'
+
+'And you--you that are now yourself trodden down in the very
+kennel, are you not sorry for what you have done?  Do you not
+repent having occasioned the poor widow woman's death?'
+
+'What for should I repent?'  said Peter; 'the law was on my side
+--a decreet of the bailies, followed by poinding, and an act of
+warding--a suspension intented, and the letters found orderly
+proceeded.  I followed the auld rudas through twa courts--she
+cost me mair money than her lugs were worth.'
+
+'Now, by Heaven!'  said Nanty, 'I would give a thousand guineas,
+if I had them, to have you worth my beating!  Had you said you
+repented, it had been between God and your conscience; but to
+hear you boast of your villany--Do you think it little to have
+reduced the aged to famine, and the young to infamy--to have
+caused the death of one woman, the ruin of another, and to have
+driven a man to exile and despair?  By Him that made me, I can
+scarce keep hands off you!
+
+'Off me?  I defy ye!'  said Peter.  'I take this honest man to
+witness that if ye stir the neck of my collar, I will have my
+action for stouthreif, spulzie, oppression, assault and battery.
+Here's a bra' din, indeed, about an auld wife gaun to the grave,
+a young limmer to the close-heads and causeway, and a sticket
+stibbler [A student of divinity who has not been able to complete
+his studies on theology.]  to the sea instead of the gallows!'
+
+'Now, by my soul,' said Nanty, 'this is too much!  and since you
+can feel no otherwise, I will try if I cannot beat some humanity
+into your head and shoulders.'
+
+He drew his hanger as he spoke, and although Joshua, who had in
+vain endeavoured to interrupt the dialogue to which he foresaw a
+violent termination, now threw himself between Nanty and the old
+litigant, he could not prevent the latter from receiving two or
+three sound slaps over the shoulder with the flat side of the
+weapon.
+
+Poor Peter Peebles, as inglorious in his extremity as he had been
+presumptuous in bringing it on, now ran and roared, and bolted
+out of the apartment and house itself, pursued by Nanty, whose
+passion became high in proportion to his giving way to its
+dictates, and by Joshua, who still interfered at every risk,
+calling upon Nanty to reflect on the age and miserable
+circumstances of the offender, and upon Poor Peter to stand and
+place himself under his protection.  In front of the house,
+however, Peter Peebles found a more efficient protector than the
+worthy Quaker.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+NARRATIVE OF ALAN FAIRFORD
+
+Our readers may recollect that Fairford had been conducted by
+Dick Gardener from the house of Fairladies to the inn of old
+Father Crackenthorp, in order, as he had been informed by the
+mysterious Father Buonaventure, that he might have the meeting
+which he desired with Mr. Redgauntlet, to treat with him for the
+liberty of his friend Darsie.  His guide, by the special
+direction of Mr. Ambrose, had introduced him into the public-
+house by a back-door, and recommended to the landlord to
+accommodate him with a private apartment, and to treat him with
+all civility; but in other respects to keep his eye on him, and
+even to secure his person, if he saw any reason to suspect him to
+be a spy.  He was not, however, subjected to any direct
+restraint, but was ushered into an apartment where he was
+requested to await the arrival of the gentleman with whom he
+wished to have an interview, and who, as Crackenthorp assured,
+him with a significant nod, would be certainly there in the
+course of an hour.  In the meanwhile, he recommended to him, with
+another significant sign, to keep his apartment, 'as there were
+people in the house who were apt to busy themselves about other
+folk's matters.'
+
+Alan Fairford complied with the recommendation, so long as he
+thought it reasonable; but when, among a large party riding up to
+the house, he discerned Redgauntlet, whom he had seen under the
+name of Mr. Herries of Birrenswork, and whom, by his height and
+strength, he easily distinguished from the rest, he thought it
+proper to go down to the front of the house, in hopes that, by
+more closely reconnoitring the party, he might discover if his
+friend Darsie was among them.
+
+The reader is aware that, by doing so, he had an opportunity of
+breaking Darsie's fall from his side-saddle, although his
+disguise and mask prevented his recognizing his friend.  It may
+be also recollected that while Nixon hurried Miss Redgauntlet and
+her brother into the house, their uncle, somewhat chafed at an
+unexpected and inconvenient interruption, remained himself in
+parley with Fairford, who had already successively addressed him
+by the names of Herries and Redgauntlet; neither of which, any
+more than the acquaintance of the young lawyer, he seemed at the
+moment willing to acknowledge, though an air of haughty
+indifference, which he assumed, could not conceal his vexation
+and embarrassment.
+
+'If we must needs be acquainted, sir,' he said at last--'for
+which I am unable to see any necessity, especially as I am now
+particularly disposed to be private--I must entreat you will tell
+me at once what you have to say, and permit me to attend to
+matters of more importance
+
+'My introduction,' said Fairford, 'is contained in this letter.
+--(Delivering that of Maxwell.)--I am convinced that, under
+whatever name it may be your pleasure for the present to be
+known, it is into your hands, and yours only, that it should be
+delivered.'
+
+Redgauntlet turned the letter in his hand--then read the contents
+then again looked upon the letter, and sternly observed, 'The
+seal of the letter has been broken.  Was this the case, sir, when
+it was delivered into your hand?'
+
+Fairford despised a falsehood as much as any man,--unless,
+perhaps, as Tom Turnpenny might have said, 'in the way of
+business.'  He answered readily and firmly, 'The seal was whole
+when the letter was delivered to me by Mr. Maxwell of
+Summertrees.'
+
+'And did you dare, sir, to break the seal of a letter addressed
+to me?'  said Redgauntlet, not sorry, perhaps, to pick a quarrel
+upon a point foreign to the tenor of the epistle.
+
+'I have never broken the seal of any letter committed to my
+charge,' said Alan; 'not from fear of those to whom such letter
+might be addressed, but from respect to myself.'
+
+'That is well worded,' said Redgauntlet; 'and yet, young Mr.
+Counsellor, I doubt whether your delicacy prevented your reading
+my letter, or listening to the contents as read by some other
+person after it was opened.'
+
+'I certainly did hear the contents read over,' said Fairford;
+'and they were such as to surprise me a good deal.'
+
+'Now that,' said Redgauntlet, 'I hold to be pretty much the same,
+IN FORO CONSCIENTIAE, as if you had broken the seal yourself.  I
+shall hold myself excused from entering upon further discourse
+with a messenger so faithless; and you may thank yourself if your
+journey has been fruitless.'
+
+'Stay, sir,' said Fairford; 'and know that I became acquainted
+with the contents of the paper without my consent--I may even
+say, against my will; for Mr. Buonaventure'--
+
+'Who?'  demanded Redgauntlet, in a wild and alarmed manner--'WHOM
+was it you named?'
+
+'Father Buonaventure,' said Alan,--'a Catholic priest, as I
+apprehend, whom I saw at the Misses Arthuret's house, called
+Fairladies.'
+
+'Misses Arthuret!--Fairladies!--A Catholic priest!--Father
+Buonaventure!'  said Redgauntlet, repeating the words of Alan
+with astonishment.--'Is it possible that human rashness can reach
+such a point of infatuation?  Tell me the truth, I conjure you,
+sir.  I have the deepest interest to know whether this is more
+than an idle legend, picked up from hearsay about the country.
+You are a lawyer, and know the risk incurred by the Catholic
+clergy, whom the discharge of their duty sends to these bloody
+shores.'
+
+'I am a lawyer, certainly,' said Fairford; 'but my holding such a
+respectable condition in life warrants that I am neither an
+informer nor a spy.  Here is sufficient evidence that I have seen
+Father Buonaventure.'
+
+He put Buonaventure's letter into Redgauntlet's hand, and watched
+his looks closely while he read it.  'Double-dyed infatuation!'
+he muttered, with looks in which sorrow, displeasure, and anxiety
+were mingled.  '"Save me from the indiscretion of my friends,"
+says the Spaniard; "I can save myself from the hostility of my
+enemies."'
+
+He then read the letter attentively, and for two or three minutes
+was lost in thought, while some purpose of importance seemed to
+have gathered and sit brooding upon his countenance.  He held up
+his finger towards his satellite, Cristal Nixon, who replied to
+his signal with a prompt nod; and with one or two of the
+attendants approached Fairford in such a manner as to make him
+apprehensive they were about to lay hold of him.
+
+At this moment a noise was heard from withinside of the house,
+and presently rushed forth Peter Peebles, pursued by Nanty Ewart
+with his drawn hanger, and the worthy Quaker, who was
+endeavouring to prevent mischief to others, at some risk of
+bringing it on himself.
+
+A wilder and yet a more absurd figure can hardly be imagined,
+than that of Poor Peter clattering along as fast as his huge
+boots would permit him, and resembling nothing so much as a
+flying scarecrow; while the thin emaciated form of Nanty Ewart,
+with the hue of death on his cheek, and the fire of vengeance
+glancing from his eye, formed a ghastly contrast with the
+ridiculous object of his pursuit.
+
+Redgauntlet threw himself between them.  'What extravagant folly
+is this?'  he said.  'Put up your weapon, captain.  Is this a
+time to indulge in drunken brawls, or is such a miserable object
+as that a fitting antagonist for a man of courage?'
+
+'I beg pardon,' said the captain, sheathing his weapon--'I was a
+little bit out of the way, to be sure; but to know the
+provocation, a man must read my heart, and that I hardly dare to
+do myself.  But the wretch is safe from me.  Heaven has done its
+own vengeance on us both.'
+
+While he spoke in this manner, Peter Peebles, who had at first
+crept behind Redgauntlet in bodily fear, began now to reassume
+his spirits.  Pulling his protector by the sleeve, 'Mr. Herries--
+Mr. Herries,' he whispered, eagerly, 'ye have done me mair than
+ae gude turn, and if ye will but do me anither at this dead
+pinch, I'll forgie the girded keg of brandy that you and Captain
+Sir Harry Redgimlet drank out yon time.  Ye sall hae an ample
+discharge and renunciation, and, though I should see you walking
+at the Cross of Edinburgh, or standing at the bar of the Court of
+Justiciary, no the very thumbikins themselves should bring to my
+memory that ever I saw you in arms yon day.'
+
+He accompanied this promise by pulling so hard at Redgauntlet's
+cloak, that he at last turned round.  'Idiot!  speak in a word
+what you want.'
+
+'Aweel, aweel.  In a word, then,' said Peter Peebles, 'I have a
+warrant on me to apprehend that man that stands there, Alan
+Fairford by name, and advocate by calling.  I bought it from
+Maister Justice Foxley's clerk, Maister Nicholas Faggot, wi' the
+guinea that you gied me.
+
+'Ha!'  said Redgauntlet, 'hast thou really such a warrant?  let
+me see it.  Look sharp that no one escape, Cristal Nixon.'
+
+Peter produced a huge, greasy, leathern pocketbook, too dirty to
+permit its original colour to be visible, filled with scrolls of
+notes, memorials to counsel, and Heaven knows what besides.  From
+amongst this precious mass he culled forth a paper, and placed it
+in the hands of Redgauntlet, or Herries, as he continued to call
+him, saying, at the same time, 'It's a formal and binding
+warrant, proceeding on my affidavy made, that the said Alan
+Fairford, being lawfully engaged in my service, had slipped the
+tether and fled over the Border, and was now lurking there and
+thereabouts, to elude and evite the discharge of his bounden duty
+to me; and therefore granting warrant to constables and others,
+to seek for, take, and apprehend him, that he may be brought
+before the Honourable Justice Foxley for examination, and, if
+necessary, for commitment.  Now, though a' this be fairly set
+down, as I tell ye, yet where am I to get an officer to execute
+this warrant in sic a country as this, where swords and pistols
+flee out at a word's speaking, and folk care as little for the
+peace of King George as the peace of Auld King Coul?  There's
+that drunken skipper, and that wet Quaker, enticed me into the
+public this morning, and because I wadna gie them' as much brandy
+as wad have made them blind-drunk, they baith fell on me, and
+were in the way of guiding me very ill.'
+
+While Peter went on in this manner, Redgauntlet glanced his eye
+over the warrant, and immediately saw that it must be a trick
+passed by Nicholas Faggot, to cheat the poor insane wretch out of
+his solitary guinea.  But the Justice had actually subscribed it,
+as he did whatever his clerk presented to him, and Redgauntlet
+resolved to use it for his own purposes.
+
+Without making any direct answer, therefore, to Peter Peebles, he
+walked up gravely to Fairford, who had waited quietly for the
+termination of a scene in which he was not a little surprised to
+find his client, Mr. Peebles, a conspicuous actor.
+
+'Mr. Fairford,' said Redgauntlet, 'there are many reasons which
+might induce me to comply with the request, or rather the
+injunctions, of the excellent Father Buonaventure, that I should
+communicate with you upon the present condition of my ward, whom
+you know under the name of Darsie Latimer; but no man is better
+aware than you that the law must be obeyed, even in contradiction
+to our own feelings; now this poor man has obtained a warrant for
+carrying you before a magistrate, and, I am afraid, there is a
+necessity of your yielding to it, although to the postponement of
+the business which you may have with me.'
+
+'A warrant against me!'  said Alan, indignantly; 'and at that
+poor miserable wretch's instance?--why, this is a trick, a mere
+and most palpable trick.'
+
+'It may be so,' replied Redgauntlet, with great equanimity;
+'doubtless you know best; only the writ appears regular, and with
+that respect for the law which has been,' he said, with
+hypocritical formality, 'a leading feature of my character
+through life, I cannot dispense with giving my poor aid to the
+support of a legal warrant.  Look at it yourself, and be
+satisfied it is no trick of mine.'
+
+Fairford ran over the affidavit and the warrant, and then
+exclaimed once more, that it was an impudent imposition, and that
+he would hold those who acted upon such a warrant liable in the
+highest damages.  'I guess at your motive, Mr. Redgauntlet,' he
+said, 'for acquiescing in so ridiculous a proceeding.  But be
+assured you will find that, in this country, one act of illegal
+violence will not be covered or atoned for by practising another.
+You cannot, as a man of sense and honour, pretend to say you
+regard this as a legal warrant.'
+
+'I am no lawyer, sir,' said Redgauntlet; 'and pretend not to know
+what is or is not law--the warrant is quite formal, and that is
+enough for me.'
+
+'Did ever any one hear,' said Fairford, 'of an advocate being
+compelled to return to his task, like a collier or a salter [See
+Note 10.]  who has deserted his master?'
+
+'I see no reason why he should not,' said Redgauntlet, dryly,
+'unless on the ground that the services of the lawyer are the
+most expensive and least useful of the two.'
+
+'You cannot mean this in earnest,' said Fairford; 'you cannot
+really mean to avail yourself of so poor a contrivance, to evade
+the word pledged by your friend, your ghostly father, in my
+behalf.  I may have been a fool for trusting it too easily, but
+think what you must be if you can abuse my confidence in this
+manner.  I entreat you to reflect that this usage releases me
+from all promises of secrecy or connivance at what I am apt to
+think are very dangerous practices, and that'--
+
+'Hark ye, Mr. Fairford,' said Redgauntlet; 'I must here interrupt
+you for your own sake.  One word of betraying what you may have
+seen, or what you may have suspected, and your seclusion is like
+to have either a very distant or a very brief termination; in
+either case a most undesirable one.  At present, you are sure of
+being at liberty in a very few days--perhaps much sooner.'
+
+'And my friend,' said Alan Fairford, 'for whose sake I have run
+myself into this danger, what is to become of him?  Dark and
+dangerous man!'  he exclaimed, raising his voice, I will not be
+again cajoled by deceitful promises'--
+
+'I give you my honour that your friend is well,' interrupted
+Redgauntlet; 'perhaps I may permit you to see him, if you will
+but submit with patience to a fate which is inevitable.'
+
+But Alan Fairford, considering his confidence as having been
+abused, first by Maxwell, and next by the priest, raised his
+voice, and appealed to all the king's lieges within hearing,
+against the violence with which he was threatened.  He was
+instantly seized on by Nixon and two assistants, who, holding
+down his arms, and endeavouring to stop his mouth, were about to
+hurry him away.
+
+The honest Quaker, who had kept out of Redgauntlet's presence,
+now came boldly forward.
+
+'Friend,' said he, 'thou dost more than thou canst answer.  Thou
+knowest me well, and thou art aware that in me thou hast a deeply
+injured neighbour, who was dwelling beside thee in the honesty
+and simplicity of his heart.'
+
+'Tush, Jonathan,' said Redgauntlet; 'talk not to me, man; it is
+neither the craft of a young lawyer, nor the SIMPLICITY of an old
+hypocrite, can drive me from my purpose.
+
+'By my faith,' said the captain, coming forward in his turn,
+'this is hardly fair, general; and I doubt,' he added, 'whether
+the will of my owners can make me a party to such proceedings.
+Nay, never fumble with your sword-hilt, but out with it like a
+man,if you are for a tilting.'  He unsheathed his hanger, and
+continued--' I will neither see my comrade Fairford, nor the old
+Quaker, abused.  D--n all warrants, false or true--curse the
+justice--confound the constable!--and here stands little Nanty
+Ewart to make good what he says against gentle and simple, in
+spite of horse-shoe or horse-radish either.'
+
+The cry of 'Down with all warrants!'  was popular in the ears of
+the militia of the inn, and Nanty Ewart was no less so.  Fishers,
+ostlers, seamen, smugglers, began to crowd to the spot.
+Crackenthorp endeavoured in vain to mediate.  The attendants of
+Redgauntlet began to handle their firearms; but their master
+shouted to them to forbear, and, unsheathing his sword as quick
+as lightning, he rushed on Ewart in the midst of his bravado, and
+struck his weapon from his hand with such address and force, that
+it flew three yards from him.  Closing with him at the same
+moment, he gave him a severe fall, and waved his sword over his
+head, to show he was absolutely at his mercy.
+
+'There, you drunken vagabond,' he said, 'I give you your life--
+you are no bad fellow if you could keep from brawling among your
+friends.  But we all know Nanty Ewart,' he said to the crowd
+around, with a forgiving laugh, which, joined to the awe his
+prowess had inspired, entirely confirmed their wavering
+allegiance.
+
+They shouted, 'The laird for ever!'  while poor Nanty, rising
+from the earth, on whose lap he had been stretched so rudely,
+went in quest of his hanger, lifted it, wiped it, and, as he
+returned the weapon to the scabbard, muttered between his teeth,
+'It is true they say of him, and the devil will stand his friend
+till his hour come; I will cross him no more.'
+
+So saying, he slunk from the crowd, cowed and disheartened by his
+defeat.
+
+'For you, Joshua Geddes,' said Redgauntlet, approaching the
+Quaker, who, with lifted hands and eyes, had beheld the scene of
+violence, 'l shall take the liberty to arrest thee for a breach
+of the peace, altogether unbecoming thy pretended principles; and
+I believe it will go hard with thee both in a court of justice
+and among thine own Society of Friends, as they call themselves,
+who will be but indifferently pleased to see the quiet tenor of
+their hypocrisy insulted by such violent proceedings.'
+
+'I violent!'  said Joshua; 'I do aught unbecoming the principles
+of the Friends!  I defy thee, man, and I charge thee, as a
+Christian, to forbear vexing my soul with such charges:  it is
+grievous enough to me to have seen violences which I was unable
+to prevent.'
+
+'O Joshua, Joshua!'  said Redgauntlet, with a sardonic smile;
+'thou light of the faithful in the town of Dumfries and the
+places adjacent, wilt thou thus fall away from the truth?  Hast
+thou not, before us all, attempted to rescue a man from the
+warrant of law?  Didst thou not encourage that drunken fellow to
+draw his weapon--and didst thou not thyself flourish thy cudgel
+in the cause?  Think'st thou that the oaths of the injured Peter
+Peebles, and the conscientious Cristal Nixon, besides those of
+such gentlemen as look on this strange scene, who not only put on
+swearing as a garment, but to whom, in Custom House matters,
+oaths are literally meat and drink,--dost thou not think, I say,
+that these men's oaths will go further than thy Yea and Nay in
+this matter?'
+
+'I will swear to anything,' said Peter.  'All is fair when it
+comes to an oath AD LITEM.'
+
+'You do me foul wrong,' said the Quaker, undismayed by the
+general laugh.  'I encouraged no drawing of weapons, though I
+attempted to move an unjust man by some use of argument--I
+brandished no cudgel, although it may be that the ancient Adam
+struggled within me, and caused my hand to grasp mine oaken staff
+firmer than usual, when I saw innocence borne down with violence.
+But why talk I what is true and just to thee, who hast been a man
+of violence from thy youth upwards?  Let me rather speak to thee
+such language as thou canst comprehend.  Deliver these young men
+up to me,' he said, when he had led Redgauntlet a little apart
+from the crowd, 'and I will not only free thee from the heavy
+charge of damages which thou hast incurred by thine outrage upon
+my property, but I will add ransom for them and for myself.  What
+would it profit thee to do the youths wrong, by detaining them in
+captivity?'
+
+'Mr. Geddes,' said Redgauntlet, in a tone more respectful than he
+had hitherto used to the Quaker, 'your language is disinterested,
+and I respect the fidelity of your friendship.  Perhaps we have
+mistaken each other's principles and motives; but if so, we have
+not at present time for explanation.  Make yourself easy.  I hope
+to raise your friend Darsie Latimer to a pitch of eminence which
+you will witness with pleasure;--nay, do not attempt to answer
+me.  The other young man shall suffer restraint a few days,
+probably only a few hours,--it is not more than due for his
+pragmatical interference in what concerned him not.  Do you, Mr.
+Geddes, be so prudent as to take your horse and leave this place,
+which is growing every moment more unfit for the abode of a man
+of peace.  You may wait the event in safety at Mount Sharon.'
+
+'Friend,' replied Joshua, 'I cannot comply with thy advice; I
+will remain here, even as thy prisoner, as thou didst but now
+threaten, rather than leave the youth who hath suffered by and
+through me and my misfortunes, in his present state of doubtful
+safety.  Wherefore I will not mount my steed Solomon; neither
+will I turn his head towards Mount Sharon, until I see an end of
+this matter.'
+
+'A prisoner, then, you must be,' said Redgauntlet.  'I have no
+time to dispute the matter further with you.  But tell me for
+what you fix your eyes so attentively on yonder people of mine.'
+
+'To speak the truth,' said the Quaker, 'I admire to behold among
+them a little wretch of a boy called Benjie, to whom I think
+Satan has given the power of transporting himself wheresoever
+mischief is going forward; so that it may be truly said, there is
+no evil in this land wherein he hath not a finger, if not a whole
+hand.'
+
+The boy, who saw their eyes fixed on him as they spoke, seemed
+embarrassed, slid rather desirous of making his escape; but at a
+signal from Redgauntlet he advanced, assuming the sheepish look
+and rustic manner with which the jackanapes covered much
+acuteness and roguery.
+
+'How long have you been with the party, sirrah?'  said
+Redgauntlet.
+
+'Since the raid on the stake-nets,' said Benjie, with his finger
+in his mouth.
+
+'And what made you follow us?'
+
+'I dauredna stay at hame for the constables,' replied the boy.
+
+'And what have you been doing all this time?'
+
+'Doing, sir?  I dinna ken what ye ca' doing--I have been doing
+naething,' said Benjie; then seeing something in Redgauntlet's
+eye which was not to be trifled with, he added, 'Naething but
+waiting on Maister Cristal Nixon.'
+
+'Hum!--aye--indeed?'  muttered Redgauntlet.  'Must Master Nixon
+bring his own retinue into the field?  This must be seen to.'
+
+He was about to pursue his inquiry, when Nixon himself came to
+him with looks of anxious haste, 'The Father is come,' he
+whispered, 'and the gentlemen are getting together in the largest
+room of the house, and they desire to see you.  Yonder is your
+nephew, too, making a noise like a man in Bedlam.'
+
+'I will look to it all instantly,' said Redgauntlet.  'Is the
+Father lodged as I directed?'
+
+Cristal nodded.
+
+'Now, then, for the final trial,' said Redgauntlet.  He folded
+his hands--looked upwards--crossed himself--and after this act of
+devotion (almost the first which any one had observed him make
+use of) he commanded Nixon to keep good watch--have his horses
+and men ready for every emergence--look after the safe custody of
+the prisoners--but treat them at the same time well and civilly.
+And, these orders given, he darted hastily into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+NARRATIVE CONTINUED
+
+Redgauntlet's first course was to the chamber of his nephew.  He
+unlocked the door, entered the apartment, and asked what he
+wanted, that he made so much noise.
+
+'I want my liberty,' said Darsie, who had wrought himself up to a
+pitch of passion in which his uncle's wrath had lost its terrors.
+'I desire my liberty, and to be assured of the safety of my
+beloved friend, Alan Fairford, whose voice I heard but now.'
+
+'Your liberty shall be your own within half an hour from this
+period--your friend shall be also set at freedom in due time--and
+you yourself be permitted to have access to his place of
+confinement.'
+
+'This does not satisfy me,' said Darsie; 'I must see my friend
+instantly; he is here, and he is here endangered on my account
+only--I have heard violent exclamations--the clash of swords.
+You will gain no point with me unless I have ocular demonstration
+of his safety.'
+
+'Arthur--dearest nephew,' answered Redgauntlet, 'drive me not
+mad!  Thine own fate--that of thy house--that of thousands--that
+of Britain herself, are at this moment in the scales; and you are
+only occupied about the safety of a poor insignificant
+pettifogger!'
+
+'He has sustained injury at your hands, then?'  said Darsie,
+fiercely.  'I know he has; but if so, not even our relationship
+shall protect you.'
+
+'Peace, ungrateful and obstinate fool!'  said Redgauntlet.  Yet
+stay--will you be satisfied if you see this Alan Fairford, the
+bundle of bombazine--this precious friend of yours--well and
+sound?  Will you, I say, be satisfied with seeing him in perfect
+safety without attempting to speak to or converse with him?'
+Darsie signified his assent.  'Take hold of my arm, then,' said
+Redgauntlet; 'and do you, niece Lilias, take the other; and
+beware; Sir Arthur, how you bear yourself.'
+
+Darsie was compelled to acquiesce, sufficiently aware that his
+uncle would permit him no interview with a friend whose influence
+would certainly be used against his present earnest wishes, and
+in some measure contented with the assurance of Fairford's
+personal safety.
+
+Redgauntlet led them through one or two passages (for the house,
+as we have before said, was very irregular, and built at
+different times) until they entered an apartment, where a man
+with shouldered carabine kept watch at the door, but readily
+turned the key for their reception.  In this room they found Alan
+Fairford and the Quaker, apparently in deep conversation with
+each other.  They looked up as Redgauntlet and his party entered;
+and Alan pulled off his hat and made a profound reverence, which
+the young lady, who recognized him,--though, masked as she was,
+he could not know her,--returned with some embarrassment, arising
+probably from the recollection of the bold step she had taken in
+visiting him.
+
+Darsie longed to speak, but dared not.  His uncle only said,
+'Gentlemen, I know you are as anxious on Mr. Darsie Latimer's
+account as he is upon yours.  I am commissioned by him to inform
+you, that he is as well as you are--I trust you will all meet
+soon.  Meantime, although I cannot suffer you to be at large, you
+shall be as well treated as is possible under your temporary
+confinement.'
+
+He passed on, without pausing to hear the answers which the
+lawyer and the Quaker were hastening to prefer; and only waving
+his hand by way of adieu, made his exit, with the real and the
+seeming lady whom he had under his charge, through a door at the
+upper end of the apartment, which was fastened and guarded like
+that by which they entered.
+
+Redgauntlet next led the way into a very small room; adjoining
+which, but divided by a partition, was one of apparently larger
+dimensions; for they heard the trampling of the heavy boots of
+the period, as if several persons were walking to and fro and
+conversing in low and anxious whispers.
+
+'Here,' said Redgauntlet to his nephew, as he disencumbered him
+from the riding-skirt and the mask, 'I restore you to yourself,
+and trust you will lay aside all effeminate thoughts with this
+feminine dress.  Do not blush at having worn a disguise to which
+kings and heroes have been reduced.  It is when female craft or
+female cowardice find their way into a manly bosom, that he who
+entertains these sentiments should take eternal shame to himself
+for thus having resembled womankind.  Follow me, while Lilias
+remains here.  I will introduce you to those whom I hope to see
+associated with you in the most glorious cause that hand ever
+drew sword in.'
+
+Darsie paused.  'Uncle,' he said, 'my person is in your hands;
+but remember, my will is my own.  I will not be hurried into any
+resolution of importance.  Remember what I have already said--
+what I now repeat--that I will take no step of importance but
+upon conviction.'
+
+'But canst thou be convinced, thou foolish boy, without hearing
+and understanding the grounds on which we act?'
+
+So saying he took Darsie by the arm, and walked with him to the
+next room--a large apartment, partly filled with miscellaneous
+articles of commerce, chiefly connected with contraband trade;
+where, among bales and barrels, sat, or walked to and fro,
+several gentlemen, whose manners and looks seemed superior to the
+plain riding dresses which they wore.
+
+There was a grave and stern anxiety upon their countenances,
+when, on Redgauntlet's entrance, they drew from their separate
+coteries into one group around him, and saluted him with a
+formality which had something in it of ominous melancholy.  As
+Darsie looked around the circle, he thought he could discern in
+it few traces of that adventurous hope which urges men upon
+desperate enterprises; and began to believe that the conspiracy
+would dissolve of itself, without the necessity of his placing
+himself in direct opposition to so violent a character as his
+uncle, and incurring the hazard with which such opposition must
+be attended.
+
+Mr. Redgauntlet, however, did not, or would not, see any such
+marks of depression of spirit amongst his coadjutors, but met
+them with cheerful countenance, and a warm greeting of welcome.
+'Happy to meet you here, my lord,' he said, bowing low to a
+slender young man.  'I trust you come with the pledges of your
+noble father, of B--, and all that loyal house.--Sir Richard,
+what news in the west?  I am told you had two hundred men on foot
+to have joined when the fatal retreat from Derby was commenced.
+When the White Standard is again displayed, it shall not be
+turned back so easily, either by the force of its enemies, or the
+falsehood of its friends.--Doctor Grumball, I bow to the
+representative of Oxford, the mother of learning and loyalty.--
+Pengwinion, you Cornish chough, has this good wind blown you
+north?--Ah, my brave Cambro-Britons, when was Wales last in the
+race of honour?'
+
+Such and such-like compliments he dealt around, which were in
+general answered by silent bows; but when he saluted one of his
+own countrymen by the name of MacKellar, and greeted Maxwell of
+Summertrees by that of Pate-in-Peril, the latter replied, 'that
+if Pate were not a fool, he would be Pate-in-Safety;' and the
+former, a thin old gentle-man, in tarnished embroidery, said
+bluntly, 'Aye, troth, Redgauntlet, I am here just like yourself;
+I have little to lose--they that took my land the last time, may
+take my life this; and that is all I care about it.'
+
+The English gentlemen, who were still in possession of their
+paternal estates, looked doubtfully on each other, and there was
+something whispered among them of the fox which had lost his
+tail.
+
+Redgauntlet hastened to address them.  'I think, my lords and
+gentlemen,' he said, 'that I can account for something like
+sadness which has crept upon an assembly gathered together for so
+noble a purpose.  Our numbers seem, when thus assembled, too
+small and inconsiderable to shake the firm-seated usurpation of a
+half-century.  But do not count us by what we are in thew and
+muscle, but by what our summons can do among our countrymen.  In
+this small party are those who have power to raise battalions,
+and those who have wealth to pay them.  And do not believe our
+friends who are absent are cold or indifferent to the cause.  Let
+us once light the signal, and it will be hailed by all who retain
+love for the Stuart, and by all--a more numerous body--who hate
+the Elector.  Here I have letters from'--
+
+Sir Richard Glendale interrupted the speaker.  'We all confide,
+Redgauntlet, in your valour and skill--we admire your
+perseverance; and probably nothing short of your strenuous
+exertions, and the emulation awakened by your noble and
+disinterested conduct, could have brought so many of us, the
+scattered remnant of a disheartened party, to meet together once
+again in solemn consultation; for I take it, gentlemen,' he said,
+looking round, 'this is only a consultation.'
+
+'Nothing more,' said the young lord.
+
+'Nothing more,' said Doctor Grumball, shaking his large
+academical peruke.
+
+And, 'Only a consultation,' was echoed by the others.
+
+Redgauntlet bit his lip.  'I had hopes,' he said, 'that the
+discourses I have held with most of you, from time to time, had
+ripened into more maturity than your words imply, and that we
+were here to execute as well as to deliberate; and for this we
+stand prepared.  I can raise five hundred men with my whistle.'
+
+'Five hundred men!'  said one of the Welsh squires; 'Cot bless
+us! and pray you, what cood could five hundred men do?'
+
+'All that the priming does for the cannon, Mr. Meredith,'
+answered Redgauntlet; 'it will enable us to seize Carlisle, and
+you know what our friends have engaged for in that case.'
+
+'Yes--but,' said the young nobleman, 'you must not hurry us on
+too fast, Mr. Redgauntlet; we are all, I believe, as sincere and
+truehearted in this business as you are, but we will not be
+driven forward blindfold.  We owe caution to ourselves and our
+families, as well as to those whom we are empowered to represent
+on this occasion.'
+
+'Who hurries you, my lord?  Who is it that would drive this
+meeting forward blindfold?  I do not understand your lordship,'
+said Redgauntlet.
+
+'Nay,' said Sir Richard Glendale, 'at least do not let us fall
+under our old reproach of disagreeing among ourselves.  What my
+lord means, Redgauntlet, is, that we have this morning heard it
+is uncertain whether you could even bring that body of men whom
+you count upon; your countryman, Mr. MacKellar, seemed, just
+before you came in, to doubt whether your people would rise in
+any force, unless you could produce the authority of your
+nephew.'
+
+'I might ask,' said Redgauntlet,' what right MacKellar, or any
+one, has to doubt my being able to accomplish what I stand
+pledged for?  But our hopes consist in our unity.  Here stands my
+nephew.  Gentlemen, I present to you my kinsman, Sir Arthur
+Darsie Redgauntlet of that Ilk.'
+
+'Gentlemen,' said Darsie, with a throbbing bosom, for he felt the
+crisis a very painful one, 'Allow me to say, that I suspend
+expressing my sentiments on the important subject under
+discussion until I have heard those of the present meeting.'
+
+'Proceed in your deliberations, gentlemen,' said Redgauntlet; 'I
+will show my nephew such reasons for acquiescing in the result,
+as will entirely remove any scruples which may hang around his
+mind.'
+
+Dr. Grumball now coughed, 'shook his ambrosial curls,' and
+addressed the assembly.
+
+'The principles of Oxford,' he said,' are well understood, since
+she was the last to resign herself to the Arch-Usurper,--since
+she has condemned, by her sovereign authority, the blasphemous,
+atheistical, and anarchical tenets of Locke, and other deluders
+of the public mind.  Oxford will give men, money and countenance,
+to the cause of the rightful monarch.  But we have, been often
+deluded by foreign powers, who have availed themselves of our
+zeal to stir up civil dissensions, in Britain, not for the
+advantage of our blessed though banished monarch, but to stir up
+disturbances by which they might profit, while we, their tools,
+are sure to be ruined.  Oxford, therefore, will not rise, unless
+our sovereign comes in person to claim our allegiance, in which
+case, God forbid we should refuse him our best obedience.'
+
+'It is a very cood advice,' said Mr. Meredith.
+
+'In troth,' said Sir Richard Glendale, 'it is the very keystone
+of our enterprise, and the only condition upon which I myself and
+others could ever have dreamt of taking up arms.  No insurrection
+which has not Charles Edward himself at its head, will, ever last
+longer than till a single foot company of redcoats march to
+disperse it.'
+
+'This is my own opinion, and that of all my family,' said the
+young nobleman already mentioned; 'and I own I am somewhat
+surprised at being summoned to attend a dangerous rendezvous such
+as this, before something certain could have been stated to us on
+this most important preliminary point.'
+
+'Pardon me, my lord,' said Redgauntlet; 'I have not been so
+unjust either to myself or my friends--I had no means of
+communicating to our distant confederates (without the greatest
+risk of discovery) what is known to some of my honourable
+friends.  As courageous, and as resolved, as when, twenty years
+since, he threw himself into the wilds of Moidart, Charles Edward
+has instantly complied with the wishes of his faithful subjects.
+Charles Edward is in this country--Charles Edward is in this
+house!--Charles Edward waits but your present decision, to
+receive the homage of those who have ever called themselves his
+loyal liegemen.  He that would now turn his coat, and change his
+note, must do so under the eye of his sovereign.'
+
+There was a deep pause.  Those among the conspirators whom mere
+habit, or a desire of preserving consistency, had engaged in the
+affair, now saw with terror their retreat cut off; and others,
+who at a distance had regarded the proposed enterprise as
+hopeful, trembled when the moment of actually embarking in it was
+thus unexpectedly and almost inevitably precipitated.
+
+'How now, my lords and gentlemen!'  said Redgauntlet; is it
+delight and rapture that keep you thus silent?  where are the
+eager welcomes that should be paid to your rightful king, who a
+second time confides his person to the care of his subjects,
+undeterred by the hairbreadth escapes and severe privations of
+his former expedition?  I hope there  is no gentleman here that
+is not ready to redeem, in his prince's presence, the pledge of
+fidelity which he offered in his absence.'
+
+'I, at least,' said the young nobleman resolutely, and laying his
+hand on his sword, 'will not be that coward.  If Charles is come
+to these shores, I will be the first to give him welcome, and to
+devote my life and fortune to his service.'
+
+'Before Cot,' said Mr. Meredith, 'I do not see that Mr.
+Redgauntlet has left us anything else to do.'
+
+'Stay,' said Summertrees, 'there is yet one other question.  Has
+he brought any of those Irish rapparees with him, who broke the
+neck of our last glorious affair?'
+
+'Not a man of them,' said Redgauntlet.
+
+'I trust,' said Dr. Grumball, 'that there are no Catholic priests
+in his company.  I would not intrude on the private conscience of
+my sovereign, but, as an unworthy son of the Church of England,
+it is my duty to consider her security.'
+
+'Not a Popish dog or cat is there, to bark or mew about his
+Majesty,' said Redgauntlet.  'Old Shaftesbury himself could not
+wish a prince's person more secure from Popery--which may not be
+the worst religion in the world, notwithstanding.  Any more
+doubts, gentlemen?  can no more plausible reasons be discovered
+for postponing the payment of our duty, and discharge of our
+oaths and engagements?  Meantime your king waits your
+declaration--by my faith he hath but a frozen reception!'
+
+'Redgauntlet,' said Sir Richard Glendale, calmly, 'your
+reproaches shall not goad me into anything of which my reason
+disapproves.  That I respect my engagement as much as you do, is
+evident, since I am here, ready to support it with the best blood
+in my veins.  But has the king really come hither entirely
+unattended?'
+
+'He has no man with him but young --, as aide de camp, and a
+single valet de chambre.'
+
+'No MAN--but, Redgauntlet, as you are a gentleman, has he no
+woman with him?'
+
+Redgauntlet cast his eyes on the ground and replied, 'I am sorry
+to say--he has.'
+
+The company looked at each other, and remained silent for a
+moment.  At length Sir Richard proceeded.  'I need not repeat to
+you, Mr. Redgauntlet, what is the well-grounded opinion of his
+Majesty's friends concerning that most unhappy connexion there is
+but one sense and feeling amongst us upon the subject.  I must
+conclude that our humble remonstrances were communicated by you,
+sir, to the king?'
+
+'In the same strong terms in which they were couched,' replied
+Redgauntlet.  'I love his Majesty's cause more than I fear his
+displeasure.'
+
+'But, apparently, our humble expostulation has produced no
+effect.  This lady, who has crept into his bosom, has a sister in
+the Elector of Hanover's court, and yet we are well assured that
+our most private communication is placed in her keeping.'
+
+'VARIUM ET MUTABILE SEMPER FEMINA,' said Dr. Grumball.
+
+'She puts his secrets into her work-bag,' said Maxwell; 'and out
+they fly whenever she opens it.  If I must hang, I would wish it
+to be in somewhat a better rope than the string of a lady's
+hussey.'
+
+'Are you, too, turning dastard, Maxwell?'  said Redgauntlet, in a
+whisper.
+
+'Not I,' said Maxwell; 'let us fight for it, and let them win and
+wear us; but to be betrayed by a brimstone like that'--
+
+'Be temperate, gentlemen,' said Redgauntlet; 'the foible of which
+you complain so heavily has always been that of kings and heroes;
+which I feel strongly confident the king will surmount, upon the
+humble entreaty of his best servants, and when he sees them ready
+to peril their all in his cause, upon the slight condition of his
+resigning the society of a female favourite, of whom I have seen
+reason to think he hath been himself for some time wearied.  But
+let us not press upon him rashly with our well-meant zeal.  He
+has a princely will as becomes his princely birth, and we,
+gentlemen, who are royalists, should be the last to take
+advantage of circumstances to limit its exercise.  I am as much
+surprised and hurt as you can be, to find that he has made her
+the companion of this journey, increasing every chance of
+treachery and detection.  But do not let us insist upon a
+sacrifice so humiliating, while he has scarce placed a foot upon
+the beach of his kingdom.  Let us act generously by our
+sovereign; and when we have shown what we will do for him, we
+shall be able, with better face, to state what it is we expect
+him to concede.'
+
+'Indeed, I think it is but a pity,' said MacKellar, 'when so many
+pretty gentlemen are got together, that they should part without
+the flash of a sword among them'
+
+'I should be of that gentleman's opinion,' said Lord --, 'had I
+nothing to lose but my life; but I frankly own, that the
+conditions on which our family agreed to join having been, in
+this instance, left unfulfilled, I will not peril the whole
+fortunes of our house on the doubtful fidelity of an artful
+woman.'
+
+'I am sorry to see your lordship,' said Redgauntlet, 'take a
+course which is more likely to secure your house's wealth than to
+augment its honours.'
+
+'How am I to understand your language, sir?'  said the young
+nobleman, haughtily.
+
+'Nay, gentlemen,' said Dr Grumball, interposing, 'do not let
+friends quarrel; we are all zealous for the cause--but truly,
+although I know the license claimed by the great in such matters,
+and can, I hope, make due allowance, there is, I may say, an
+indecorum in a prince who comes to claim the allegiance of the
+Church of England, arriving on such an errand with such a
+companion--SI NON CASTE, CAUTE TAMEN.'
+
+'I wonder how the Church of England came to be so heartily
+attached to his merry old namesake,' said Redgauntlet.
+
+Sir Richard Glendale then took up the question, as one whose
+authority and experience gave him right to speak with much
+weight.
+
+'We have no leisure for hesitation,' he said; 'it is full time
+that we decide what course we are to hold.  I feel as much as
+you, Mr. Redgauntlet, the delicacy of capitulating with our
+sovereign in his present condition.  But I must also think of the
+total ruin of the cause, the confiscation and bloodshed which
+will take place among his adherents, and all through the
+infatuation with which he adheres to a woman who is the
+pensionary of the present minister, as she was for years Sir
+Robert Walpole's.  Let his Majesty send her back to the
+continent, and the sword on which I now lay my hand shall
+instantly be unsheathed, and, I trust, many hundred others at the
+same moment.'
+
+The other persons present testified their unanimous acquiescence
+in what Sir Richard Glendale had said.
+
+'I see you have taken your resolutions, gentlemen,' said
+Redgauntlet; 'unwisely I think, because I believe that, by softer
+and more generous proceedings, you would have been more likely to
+carry a point which I think as desirable as you do.  But what is
+to be done if Charles should refuse, with the inflexibility of
+his grandfather, to comply with this request of yours?  Do you
+mean to abandon him to his fate?'
+
+'God forbid!'  said Sir Richard, hastily; 'and God forgive you,
+Mr. Redgauntlet, for breathing such a thought.  No!  I for one
+will, with all duty and humility, see him safe back to his
+vessel, and defend him with my life against whosoever shall
+assail him.  But when I have seen his sails spread, my next act
+will be to secure, if I can, my own safety, by retiring to my
+house; or, if I find our engagement, as is too probable, has
+taken wind, by surrendering myself to the next Justice of Peace,
+and giving security that hereafter I shall live quiet, and submit
+to the ruling powers.'
+
+Again the rest of the persons present intimated their agreement
+in opinion with the speaker.
+
+'Well, gentlemen,' said Redgauntlet, 'it is not for me to oppose
+the opinion of every one; and I must do you the justice to say,
+that the king has, in the present instance, neglected a condition
+of your agreement which was laid before him in very distinct
+terms.  The question now is, who is to acquaint him with the
+result of this conference; for I presume you would not wait on
+him in a body to make the proposal that he should dismiss a
+person from his family as the price of your allegiance.'
+
+'I think Mr. Redgauntlet should make the explanation, said Lord
+--.  'As he has, doubtless, done justice to our remonstrances by
+communicating them to the king, no one can, with such propriety
+and force, state the natural and inevitable consequence of their
+being neglected.'
+
+'Now, I think,' said Redgauntlet, 'that those who make the
+objection should state it, for I am confident the king will
+hardly believe, on less authority than that of the heir of the
+loyal House of B--, that he is the first to seek an evasion of
+his pledge to join him.'
+
+'An evasion, sir!'  repeated Lord --, fiercely, 'I have borne too
+much from you already, and this I will not endure.  Favour me
+with your company to the downs.'
+
+Redgauntlet laughed scornfully, and was about to follow the fiery
+young man, when Sir Richard again interposed.  'Are we to
+exhibit,' he said, 'the last symptoms of the dissolution of our
+party, by turning our swords against each other?  Be patient,
+Lord --; in such conferences as this, much must pass unquestioned
+which might brook challenge elsewhere.  There is a privilege of
+party as of parliament--men cannot, in emergency, stand upon
+picking phrases.  Gentlemen, if you will extend your confidence
+in me so far, I will wait upon his Majesty, and I hope my Lord --
+and Mr. Redgauntlet will accompany me.  I trust the explanation
+of this unpleasant matter will prove entirely satisfactory, and
+that we shall find ourselves at liberty to render our homage to
+our sovereign without reserve, when I for one will be the first
+to peril all in his just quarrel.'
+
+Redgauntlet at once stepped forward.  'My lord,' he said, 'if my
+zeal made me say anything in the slightest degree offensive, I
+wish it unsaid, and ask your pardon.  A gentleman can do no
+more.'
+
+'I could not have asked Mr. Redgauntlet to do so much,' said the
+young nobleman, willingly accepting the hand which Redgauntlet
+offered.  'I know no man living from whom I could take so much
+reproof without a sense of degradation as from himself.'
+
+'Let me then hope, my lord, that you will go with Sir Richard and
+me to the presence.  Your warm blood will heat our zeal--our
+colder resolves will temper yours.
+
+The young lord smiled, and shook his head.  'Alas!  Mr.
+Redgauntlet,' he said, 'I am ashamed to say, that in zeal you
+surpass us all.  But I will not refuse this mission, provided you
+will permit Sir Arthur, your nephew, also to accompany us.'
+
+'My nephew?'  said Redgauntlet, and seemed to hesitate, then
+added, 'Most certainly.  I trust,' he said, looking at Darsie,
+'he will bring to his prince's presence such sentiments as fit
+the occasion.'
+
+It seemed however to Darsie, that his uncle would rather have
+left him behind, had he not feared that he might in that case
+have been influenced by, or might perhaps himself influence, the
+unresolved confederates with whom he must have associated during
+his absence.
+
+'I will go,' said Redgauntlet, 'and request admission.'
+
+In a moment after he returned, and without speaking, motioned for
+the young nobleman to advance.  He did so, followed by Sir
+Richard Glendale and Darsie, Redgauntlet himself bringing up the
+rear.  A short passage, and a few steps, brought them to the door
+of the temporary presence-chamber, in which the Royal Wanderer
+was to receive their homage.  It was the upper loft of one of
+those cottages which made additions to the old inn, poorly
+furnished, dusty, and in disorder; for, rash as the enterprise
+might be considered, they had been still careful not to draw the
+attention of strangers by any particular attentions to the
+personal accommodation of the prince.  He was seated, when the
+deputies, as they might be termed, of his remaining adherents
+entered; and as he rose, and came forward and bowed, in
+acceptance of their salutation, it was with a dignified courtesy
+which at once supplied whatever was deficient in external pomp,
+and converted the wretched garret into a saloon worthy of the
+occasion.
+
+It is needless to add that he was the same personage already
+introduced in the character of Father Buonaventure, by which name
+he was distinguished at Fairladies.  His dress was not different
+from what he then wore, excepting that he had a loose riding-coat
+of camlet, under which he carried an efficient cut-and-thrust
+sword, instead of his walking rapier, and also a pair of pistols.
+
+Redgauntlet presented to him successively the young Lord --, and
+his kinsman, Sir Arthur Darsie Redgauntlet, who trembled as,
+bowing and kissing his hand, he found himself surprised into what
+might be construed an act of high treason, which yet he saw no
+safe means to avoid.
+
+Sir Richard Glendale seemed personally known to Charles Edward,
+who received him with a mixture of dignity and affection, and
+seemed to sympathize with the tears which rushed into that
+gentleman's eyes as he bade his Majesty welcome to his native
+kingdom,
+
+'Yes, my good Sir Richard,' said the unfortunate prince in a tone
+melancholy, yet resolved, 'Charles Edward is with his faithful
+friends once more--not, perhaps, with his former gay hopes which
+undervalued danger, but with the same determined contempt of the
+worst which can befall him, in claiming his own rights and those
+of his country.'
+
+'I rejoice, sire--and yet, alas!  I must also grieve, to see you
+once more on the British shores,' said Sir Richard Glendale, and
+stopped short--a tumult of contradictory feelings preventing his
+further utterance.
+
+'It is the call of my faithful and suffering people which alone
+could have induced me to take once more the sword in my hand.
+For my own part, Sir Richard, when I have reflected how many of
+my loyal and devoted friends perished by the sword and by
+proscription, or died indigent and neglected in a foreign land, I
+have often, sworn that no view to my personal aggrandizement
+should again induce me to agitate a title which has cost my
+followers so dear.  But since so many men of worth and honour
+conceive the cause of England and Scotland to be linked with that
+of Charles Stuart, I must follow their brave example, and, laying
+aside all other considerations, once more stand forward as their
+deliverer.  I am, however, come hither upon your invitation; and
+as you are so completely acquainted with circumstances to which
+my absence must necessarily have rendered me a stranger, I must
+be a mere tool in the hands of my friends.  I know well I never
+can refer myself implicitly to more loyal hearts or wiser heads,
+than Herries Redgauntlet, and Sir Richard Glendale.  Give me your
+advice, then, how we are to proceed, and decide upon the fate of
+Charles Edward.'
+
+Redgauntlet looked at Sir Richard, as if to say, 'Can you press
+any additional or unpleasant condition at a moment like this?'
+And the other shook his head and looked down, as if his
+resolution was unaltered, and yet as feeling all the delicacy of
+the situation.
+
+There was a silence, which was broken by the unfortunate
+representative of an unhappy dynasty, with some appearance of
+irritation.  'This is strange, gentlemen,' he said; 'you have
+sent for me from the bosom of my family, to head an adventure of
+doubt and danger; and when I come, your own minds seem to be
+still irresolute.  I had not expected this on the part of two
+such men.'
+
+'For me, sire,' said Redgauntlet, 'the steel of my sword is not
+truer than the temper of my mind.'
+
+'My Lord --'s and mine are equally so,' said Sir Richard; 'but
+you had in charge, Mr. Redgauntlet, to convey our request to his
+Majesty, coupled with certain conditions.'
+
+'And I discharged my duty to his Majesty and to you,' said
+Redgauntlet.
+
+'I looked at no condition, gentlemen,' said their king, with
+dignity,' save that which called me here to assert my rights in
+person.  That I have fulfilled at no common risk.  Here I stand
+to keep my word, and I expect of you to be true to yours.'
+
+'There was, or should have been, something more than that in our
+proposal, please your Majesty,' said Sir Richard.  'There was a
+condition annexed to it.'
+
+'I saw it not,' said Charles, interrupting him.  'Out of
+tenderness towards the noble hearts of whom I think so highly, I
+would neither see nor read anything which could lessen them in my
+love and my esteem.  Conditions can have no part betwixt prince
+and subject.'
+
+'Sire,' said Redgauntlet, kneeling on one knee, 'I see from Sir
+Richard's countenance he deems it my fault that your Majesty
+seems ignorant of what your subjects desired that I should
+communicate to your Majesty.  For Heaven's sake!  for the sake of
+all my past services and sufferings, leave not such a stain upon
+my honour!  The note, Number D, of which this is a copy,
+referred to the painful subject to which Sir Richard again
+directs your attention.'
+
+'You press upon me, gentlemen,' said the prince, colouring
+highly,' recollections, which, as I hold them most alien to your
+character, I would willingly have banished from my memory.  I did
+not suppose that my loyal subjects would think so poorly of me,
+as to use my depressed circumstances as a reason for forcing
+themselves into my domestic privacies, and stipulating
+arrangements with their king regarding matters in which the
+meanest minds claim the privilege of thinking for themselves.  In
+affairs of state and public policy, I will ever be guided as
+becomes a prince, by the advice of my wisest counsellors; in
+those which regard my private affections and my domestic
+arrangements, I claim the same freedom of will which I allow to
+all my subjects, and without which a crown were less worth
+wearing than a beggar's bonnet.'
+
+'May it please your Majesty,' said Sir Richard Glendale, 'I see
+it must be my lot to speak unwilling truths; but believe me, I do
+so with as much profound respect as deep regret.  It is true, we
+have called you to head a mighty undertaking, and that your
+Majesty, preferring honour to safety, and the love of your
+country to your own ease, has condescended to become our leader.
+But we also pointed out as a necessary and indispensable
+preparatory step to the achievement of our purpose--and, I must
+say, as a positive condition of our engaging in it--that an
+individual, supposed,--I presume not to guess how truly,--to have
+your Majesty's more intimate confidence, and believed, I will not
+say on absolute proof but upon the most pregnant suspicion, to be
+capable of betraying that confidence to the Elector of Hanover,
+should be removed from your royal household and society.'
+
+'This is too insolent, Sir Richard!'  said Charles Edward.  'Have
+you inveigled me into your power to bait me in this unseemly
+manner?  And you, Redgauntlet, why did you suffer matters to come
+to such a point as this, without making me more distinctly aware
+what insults were to be practised on me?'
+
+'My gracious prince,' said Redgauntlet, 'I am so far to blame in
+this, that I did not think so slight an impediment as that of a
+woman's society could have really interrupted an undertaking of
+this magnitude.  I am a plain man, sire, and speak but bluntly; I
+could not have dreamt but what, within the first five minutes of
+this interview, either Sir Richard and his friends would have
+ceased to insist upon a condition so ungrateful to your Majesty,
+or that your Majesty would have sacrificed this unhappy
+attachment to the sound advice, or even to the over-anxious
+suspicions, of so many faithful subjects.  I saw no entanglement
+in such a difficulty which on either side might not have been
+broken through like a cobweb.'
+
+'You were mistaken, sir,' said Charles Edward, 'entirely
+mistaken--as much so as you are at this moment, when you think in
+your heart my refusal to comply with this insolent proposition is
+dictated by a childish and romantic passion for an individual, I
+tell you, sir, I could part with that person to-morrow, without
+an instant's regret--that I have had thoughts of dismissing her
+from my court, for reasons known to myself; but that I will never
+betray my rights as a sovereign and a man, by taking this step to
+secure the favour of any one, or to purchase that allegiance
+which, if you owe it to me at all, is due to me as my
+birthright.'
+
+'I am sorry for this,' said Redgauntlet; 'I hope both your
+Majesty and Sir Richard will reconsider your resolutions, or
+forbear this discussion, in a conjuncture so pressing.  I trust
+your Majesty will recollect that you are on hostile ground; that
+our preparations cannot have so far escaped notice as to permit
+us now with safety to retreat from our purpose; insomuch, that it
+is with the deepest anxiety of heart I foresee even danger to
+your own royal person, unless you can generously give your
+subjects the satisfaction, which Sir Richard seems to think they
+are obstinate in demanding,'
+
+'And deep indeed your anxiety ought to be,' said the prince.  'Is
+it in these circumstances of personal danger in which you expect
+to overcome a resolution, which is founded on a sense of what is
+due to me as a man or a prince?  If the axe and scaffold were
+ready before the windows of Whitehall, I would rather tread the
+same path with my great-grandfather, than concede the slightest
+point in which my honour is concerned.'
+
+He spoke these words with a determined accent, and looked around
+him on the company, all of whom (excepting Darsie, who saw, he
+thought, a fair period to a most perilous enterprise) seemed in
+deep anxiety and confusion.  At length, Sir Richard spoke in a
+solemn and melancholy tone.  'If the safety,' he said, 'of poor
+Richard Glendale were alone concerned in this matter, I have
+never valued my life enough to weigh it against the slightest
+point of your Majesty's service.  But I am only a messenger--a
+commissioner, who must execute my trust, and upon whom a thousand
+voices will cry, Curse and woe, if I do it not with fidelity.
+All of your adherents, even Redgauntlet himself, see certain ruin
+to this enterprise--the greatest danger to your Majesty's person
+--the utter destruction of all your party and friends, if they
+insist not on the point, which, unfortunately, your Majesty is so
+unwilling to concede.  I speak it with a heart full of anguish--
+with a tongue unable to utter my emotions--but it must be spoken
+--the fatal truth--that if your royal goodness cannot yield to us
+a boon which we hold necessary to our security and your own, your
+Majesty with one word disarms ten thousand men, ready to draw
+their swords in your behalf; or, to speak yet more plainly, you
+annihilate even the semblance of a royal party in Great Britain.'
+
+'And why do you not add,' said the prince, scornfully, 'that the
+men who have been ready to assume arms in my behalf, will atone
+for their treason to the Elector, by delivering me up to the fate
+for which so many proclamations have destined me?  Carry my head
+to St. James's, gentlemen; you will do a more acceptable and a
+more honourable action, than, having inveigled me into a
+situation which places me so completely in your power, to
+dishonour yourselves by propositions which dishonour me.
+
+'My God, sire!'  exclaimed Sir Richard, clasping his hands
+together, in impatience, 'of what great and inexpiable crime can
+your Majesty's ancestors have 'been guilty, that they have been
+punished by the infliction of judicial blindness on their whole
+generation!--Come, my Lord --, we must to our friends.'
+
+'By your leave, Sir Richard,' said the young nobleman, 'not till
+we, have learned what measures can be taken for his Majesty's
+personal safety.'
+
+'Care not for me, young man,' said Charles Edward; 'when I was in
+the society of Highland robbers and cattle-drovers, I was safer
+than I now hold myself among the representatives of the best
+blood in England.  Farewell, gentlemen--I will shift for myself.'
+
+'This must never be,' said Redgauntlet.  'Let me that brought you
+to the point of danger, at least provide for your safe retreat.'
+
+So saying, he hastily left the apartment, followed by his nephew.
+The Wanderer, averting his eyes from Lord -- and Sir Richard
+Glendale, threw himself into a seat at the upper end of the
+apartment, while they, in much anxiety, stood together, at a
+distance from him, and conversed in whispers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+NARRATIVE CONTINUED
+
+When Redgauntlet left the room, in haste and discomposure, the
+first person he met on the stair, and indeed so close by the door
+of the apartment that Darsie thought he must have been listening
+there, was his attendant Nixon.
+
+'What the devil do you here?'  he said, abruptly and sternly.
+
+'I wait your orders,' said Nixon.  'I hope all's right!--excuse
+my zeal.'
+
+'All is wrong, sir.  Where is the seafaring fellow--Ewart--what
+do you call him?'
+
+'Nanty Ewart, sir.  I will carry your commands,' said Nixon.
+
+'I will deliver them myself to him,' said Redgauntlet; call him
+hither.'
+
+'But should your honour leave the presence?'  said Nixon, still
+lingering.
+
+''Sdeath, sir, do you prate to me?'  said Redgauntlet, bending
+his brows.  'I, sir, transact my own business; you, I am told,
+act by a ragged deputy.'
+
+Without further answer, Nixon departed, rather disconcerted, as
+it seemed to Darsie.
+
+'That dog turns insolent and lazy,' said Redgauntlet; but I must
+bear with him for a while.'
+
+A moment after, Nixon returned with Ewart.
+
+'Is this the smuggling fellow?'  demanded Redgauntlet.  Nixon
+nodded.
+
+'Is he sober now?  he was brawling anon.'
+
+'Sober enough for business,' said Nixon.
+
+'Well then, hark ye, Ewart;--man your boat with your best hands,
+and have her by the pier--get your other fellows on board the
+brig--if you have any cargo left, throw it overboard; it shall be
+all paid, five times over--and be ready for a start to Wales or
+the Hebrides, or perhaps for Sweden or Norway.'
+
+Ewart answered sullenly enough, 'Aye, aye, sir.'
+
+'Go with him, Nixon,' said Redgauntlet, forcing himself to speak
+with some appearance of cordiality to the servant with whom he
+was offended; 'see he does his duty.'
+
+Ewart left the house sullenly, followed by Nixon.  The sailor was
+just in that species of drunken humour which made him jealous,
+passionate, and troublesome, without showing any other disorder
+than that of irritability.  As he walked towards the beach he
+kept muttering to himself, but in such a tone that his companion
+lost not a word, 'Smuggling fellow--Aye, smuggler--and, start
+your cargo into the sea--and be ready to start for the Hebrides,
+or Sweden--or the devil, I suppose.  Well, and what if I said in
+answer--Rebel, Jacobite--traitor--I'll make you and your d--d
+confederates walk the plank--I have seen better men do it--half a
+score of a morning--when I was across the Line.'
+
+'D--d unhandsome terms those Redgauntlet used to you, brother.'
+said Nixon.
+
+'Which do you mean?'  said Ewart, starting, and recollecting
+himself.  'I have been at my old trade of thinking aloud, have
+I?'
+
+'No matter,' answered Nixon, 'none but a friend heard you.  You
+cannot have forgotten how Redgauntlet disarmed you this morning.'
+
+'Why, I would bear no malice about that--only he is so cursedly
+high and saucy,' said Ewart.
+
+'And then,' said Nixon,'I know you for a true-hearted
+Protestant.'
+
+'That I am, by G--,' said Ewart.  'No, the Spaniards could never
+get my religion from me.'
+
+'And a friend to King George, and the Hanover line of
+succession,' said Nixon, still walking and speaking very slow.
+
+'You may swear I am, excepting in the way of business, as
+Turnpenny says.  I like King George, but I can't afford to pay
+duties.'
+
+'You are outlawed, I believe,' said Nixon.
+
+'Am I?--faith, I believe I am,' said Ewart.  'I wish I were
+INLAWED again with all my heart.  But come along, we must get all
+ready for our peremptory gentleman, I suppose.'
+
+'I will teach you a better trick,' said Nixon.  'There is a
+bloody pack of rebels yonder.'
+
+'Aye, we all know that,' said the smuggler; 'but the snowball's
+melting, I think.'
+
+'There is some one yonder, whose head is worth--thirty thousand--
+pounds--of sterling money,' said Nixon, pausing between each
+word, as if to enforce the magnificence of the sum.
+
+'And what of that?'  said Ewart, quickly.
+
+'Only that, instead of lying by the pier with your men on their
+oars, if you will just carry your boat on board just now, and
+take no notice of any signal from the shore, by G--d, Nanty
+Ewart.  I will make a man of you for life!'
+
+'Oh ho!  then the Jacobite gentry are not so safe as they think
+themselves?'  said Nanty.
+
+'In an hour or two,' replied Nixon, 'they will be made safer in
+Carlisle Castle.'
+
+'The devil they will!'  said Ewart; 'and you have been the
+informer, I suppose?'
+
+'Yes; I have been ill paid for my service among the Redgauntlets
+--have scarce got dog's wages--and been treated worse than ever
+dog was used.  I have the old fox and his cubs in the same trap
+now, Nanty; and we'll see how a certain young lady will look
+then.  You see I am frank with you, Nanty.'
+
+'And I will be as frank with you,' said the smuggler.  'You are a
+d--d old scoundrel--traitor to the man whose bread you eat!  Me
+help to betray poor devils, that have been so often betrayed
+myself!  Not if they were a hundred Popes, Devils, and
+Pretenders. I will back and tell them their danger--they are part
+of cargo--regularly invoiced--put under my charge by the owners--
+I'll back'--
+
+'You are not stark mad?'  said Nixon, who now saw he had
+miscalculated in supposing Nanty's wild ideas of honour and
+fidelity could be shaken even by resentment, or by his Protestant
+partialities.  'You shall not go back--it is all a joke.'
+
+'I'll back to Redgauntlet, and see whether it is a joke he will
+laugh at.'
+
+'My life is lost if you do,' said Nixon--'hear reason.'
+
+They were in a clump or cluster of tall furze at the moment they
+were speaking, about half-way between the pier and the house, but
+not in a direct line, from which Nixon, whose object it was to
+gain time, had induced Ewart to diverge insensibly.
+
+He now saw the necessity of taking a desperate resolution.  'Hear
+reason,' he said; and added, as Nanty still endeavoured to pass
+him, 'Or else hear this!'  discharging a pocket-pistol into the
+unfortunate man's body.
+
+Nanty staggered, but kept his feet.  'It has cut my back-bone
+asunder,' he said; 'you have done me the last good office, and I
+will not die ungrateful.'
+
+As he uttered the last words, he collected his remaining
+strength, stood firm for an instant, drew his hanger, and,
+fetching a stroke with both hands, cut Cristal Nixon down.  The
+blow, struck with all the energy of a desperate and dying man,
+exhibited a force to which Ewart's exhausted frame might have
+seemed inadequate;--it cleft the hat which the wretch wore,
+though secured by a plate of iron within the lining, bit deep
+into his skull, and there left a fragment of the weapon, which
+was broke by the fury of the blow.
+
+One of the seamen of the lugger, who strolled up attracted by the
+firing of the pistol, though being a small one the report was
+very trifling, found both the unfortunate men stark dead.
+Alarmed at what he saw, which he conceived to have been the
+consequence of some unsuccessful engagement betwixt his late
+commander and a revenue officer (for Nixon chanced not to be
+personally known to him) the sailor hastened back to the boat, in
+order to apprise his comrades of Nanty's fate, and to advise them
+to take off themselves and the vessel.
+
+Meantime Redgauntlet, having, as we have seen, dispatched Nixon
+for the purpose of securing a retreat for the unfortunate
+Charles, in case of extremity, returned to the apartment where he
+had left the Wanderer.  He now found him alone.
+
+'Sir Richard Glendale,' said the unfortunate prince, 'with his
+young friend, has gone to consult their adherents now in the
+house.  Redgauntlet, my friend, I will not blame you for the
+circumstances in which I find myself, though I am at once placed
+in danger, and rendered contemptible.  But you ought to have
+stated to me more strongly the weight which these gentlemen
+attached to their insolent proposition.  You should have told me
+that no compromise would have any effect--that they desire not a
+prince to govern them, but one, on the contrary, over whom they
+were to exercise restraint on all occasions, from the highest
+affairs of the state, down to the most intimate and private
+concerns of his own privacy, which the most ordinary men desire
+to keep secret and sacred from interference.'
+
+'God knows,' said Redgauntlet, in much agitation, 'I acted for
+the best when I pressed your Majesty to come hither--I never
+thought that your Majesty, at such a crisis, would have scrupled,
+when a kingdom was in view, to sacrifice an attachment, which'--
+
+'Peace, sir!'  said Charles; 'it is not for you to estimate my
+feelings upon such a subject.'
+
+Redgauntlet coloured high, and bowed profoundly.  'At least,' he
+resumed, 'I hoped that some middle way might be found, and it
+shall--and must.--Come with me, nephew.  We will to these
+gentlemen, and I am confident I will bring back heart-stirring
+tidings.'
+
+'I will do much to comply with them, Redgauntlet.  I am loath,
+having again set my foot on British land, to quit it without a
+blow for my right.  But this which they demand of me is a
+degradation, and compliance is impossible.'
+
+Redgauntlet, followed by his nephew, the unwilling spectator of
+this extraordinary scene, left once more the apartment of the
+adventurous Wanderer, and was met on the top of the stairs by Joe
+Crackenthorp.  'Where are the other gentlemen?'  he said.
+
+'Yonder, in the west barrack,' answered Joe; 'but Master
+Ingoldsby,'--that was the name by which Redgauntlet was most
+generally known in Cumberland,--'I wish to say to you that I must
+put yonder folk together in one room.'
+
+'What folk?'  said Redgauntlet, impatiently.
+
+'Why, them prisoner stranger folk, as you bid Cristal Nixon look
+after.  Lord love you!  this is a large house enow, but we cannot
+have separate lock-ups for folk, as they have in Newgate or in
+Bedlam.  Yonder's a mad beggar, that is to be a great man when he
+wins a lawsuit, Lord help him!--Yonder's a Quaker and a lawyer
+charged with a riot; and, ecod, I must make one key and one lock
+keep them, for we are chokeful, and you have sent off old Nixon
+that could have given one some help in this confusion.  Besides,
+they take up every one a room, and call for naughts on earth,
+--excepting the old man, who calls lustily enough,--but he has
+not a penny to pay shot.'
+
+'Do as thou wilt with them,' said Redgauntlet, who had listened
+impatiently to his statement; 'so thou dost but keep them from
+getting out and making some alarm in the country, I care not.'
+
+'A Quaker and a lawyer!'  said Darsie.  'This must be Fairford
+and Geddes.--Uncle, I must request of you'--
+
+'Nay, nephew,' interrupted Redgauntlet, 'this is no time for
+asking questions.  You shall yourself decide upon their fate in
+the course of an hour--no harm whatever is designed them.'
+
+So saying, he hurried towards the place where the Jacobite
+gentlemen were holding their council, and Darsie followed him, in
+the hope that the obstacle which had arisen to the prosecution of
+their desperate adventure would prove insurmountable and spare
+him the necessity of a dangerous and violent rupture with his
+uncle.  The discussions among them were very eager; the more
+daring part of the conspirators, who had little but life to lose,
+being desirous to proceed at all hazards; while the others, whom
+a sense of honour and a hesitation to disavow long-cherished
+principles had brought forward, were perhaps not ill satisfied to
+have a fair apology for declining an adventure, into which they
+had entered with more of reluctance than zeal.
+
+Meanwhile Joe Crackenthorp, availing himself of the hasty
+permission attained from Redgauntlet, proceeded to assemble in
+one apartment those whose safe custody had been thought
+necessary; and, without much considering the propriety of the
+matter, he selected for the common place of confinement, the room
+which Lilias had, since her brother's departure, occupied alone.
+It had a strong lock, and was double-hinged, which probably led
+to the preference assigned to it, as a place of security.
+
+Into this, Joe, with little ceremony, and a good deal of noise,
+introduced the Quaker and Fairford; the first descanting on the
+immorality, the other on the illegality, of his proceedings; and
+he turned a deaf ear both to the one and the other.  Next he
+pushed in, almost in headlong fashion, the unfortunate litigant,
+who, having made some resistance at the threshold, had received a
+violent thrust in consequence, and came rushing forward, like a
+ram in the act of charging, with such impetus as must have
+carried him to the top of the room, and struck the cocked hat
+which sat perched on the top of his tow wig against Miss
+Redgauntlet's person, had not the honest Quaker interrupted his
+career by seizing him by the collar, and bringing him to a stand.
+'Friend,' said he, with the real good-breeding which so often
+subsists independently of ceremony, 'thou art no company for that
+young person; she is, thou seest, frightened at our being so
+suddenly thrust in hither; and although that be no fault of ours,
+yet it will become us to behave civilly towards her.  Wherefore
+come thou with me to this window, and I will tell thee what it
+concerns thee to know.'
+
+'And what for should I no speak to the Leddy, friend?'  said
+Peter, who was now about half seas over.  'I have spoke to
+leddies before now, man.  What for should she be frightened at
+me?  I am nae bogle, I ween.  What are ye pooin' me that gate
+for?  Ye will rive my coat, and I will have a good action for
+having myself made SARTUM ATQUE TECTUM at your expenses.'
+
+Notwithstanding this threat, Mr. Geddes, whose muscles were as
+strong as his judgement was sound and his temper sedate, led Poor
+Peter under the sense of a control against which he could not
+struggle, to the farther corner of the apartment, where, placing
+him, whether he would or no, in a chair, he sat down beside him,
+and effectually prevented his annoying the young lady, upon whom
+he had seemed bent upon conferring the delights of his society.
+
+If Peter had immediately recognized his counsel learned in the
+law, it is probable that not even the benevolent efforts of the
+Quaker could have kept him in a state of restraint; but
+Fairford's back was turned towards his client, whose optics,
+besides being somewhat dazzled with ale and brandy, were speedily
+engaged in contemplating a half-crown which Joshua held between
+his finger and his thumb, saying, at the same time, 'Friend, thou
+art indigent and improvident.  This will, well employed, procure
+thee sustentation of nature for more than a single day; and I
+will bestow it on thee if thou wilt sit here and keep me company;
+for neither thou nor I, friend, are fit company for ladies.'
+
+'Speak for yourself, friend,' said Peter, scornfully; 'I was ay
+kend to be agreeable to the fair sex; and when I was in business
+I served the ladies wi' anither sort of decorum than Plainstanes,
+the d--d awkward scoundrel!  It was one of the articles of dittay
+between us.'
+
+'Well, but, friend,' said the Quaker, who observed that the young
+lady still seemed to fear Peter's intrusion, 'I wish to hear thee
+speak about this great lawsuit of thine, which has been matter of
+such celebrity.'
+
+'Celebrity!  Ye may swear that,' said Peter, for the string was
+touched to which his crazy imagination always vibrated.  'And I
+dinna wonder that folk that judge things by their outward
+grandeur, should think me something worth their envying.  It's
+very true that it is grandeur upon earth to hear ane's name
+thunnered out along the long-arched roof of the Outer House,--
+"Poor Peter Peebles against Plainstanes ET PER CONTRA;" a' the
+best lawyers in the house fleeing like eagles to the prey; some
+because they are in the cause, and some because they want to be
+thought engaged (for there are tricks in other trades by selling
+muslins)--to see the reporters mending their pens to take down
+the debate--the Lords themselves pooin' in their chairs, like
+folk sitting down to a gude dinner, and crying on the clerks for
+parts and pendicles of the process, who, puir bodies, can do
+little mair than cry on their closet-keepers to help them.  To
+see a' this,' continued Peter, in a tone of sustained rapture,
+'and to ken that naething will be said or dune amang a' thae
+grand folk, for maybe the feck of three hours, saving what
+concerns you and your business--Oh, man, nae wonder that ye judge
+this to be earthly glory!  And yet, neighbour, as I was saying,
+there be unco drawbacks--I whiles think of my bit house, where
+dinner, and supper, and breakfast, used to come without the
+crying for, just as if fairies had brought it--and the gude bed
+at e'en--and the needfu' penny in the pouch.  And then to see a'
+ane's warldly substance capering in the air in a pair of
+weighbauks, now up, now down, as the breath of judge or counsel
+inclines it for pursuer or defender,--troth, man, there are times
+I rue having ever begun the plea wark, though, maybe, when ye
+consider the renown and credit I have by it, ye will hardly
+believe what I am saying.'
+
+'Indeed, friend,' said Joshua, with a sigh, 'I am glad thou hast
+found anything in the legal contention which compensates thee for
+poverty and hunger; but I believe, were other human objects of
+ambition looked upon as closely, their advantages would be found
+as chimerical as those attending thy protracted litigation.'
+
+'But never mind, friend,' said Peter, 'I'll tell you the exact
+state of the conjunct processes, and make you sensible that I can
+bring mysell round with a wet finger, now I have my finger and my
+thumb on this loup-the-dike loon, the lad Fairford.'
+
+Alan Fairford was in the act of speaking to the masked lady (for
+Miss Redgauntlet had retained her riding vizard) endeavouring to
+assure her, as he perceived her anxiety, of such protection as he
+could afford, when his own name, pronounced in a loud tone,
+attracted his attention.  He looked round, and seeing Peter
+Peebles, as hastily turned to avoid his notice, in which he
+succeeded, so earnest was Peter upon his colloquy with one of the
+most respectable auditors whose attention he had ever been able
+to engage.  And by this little motion, momentary as it was, Alan
+gained an unexpected advantage; for while he looked round, Miss
+Lilias, I could never ascertain why, took the moment to adjust
+her mask, and did it so awkwardly, that when her companion again
+turned his head, he recognized as much of her features as
+authorized him to address her as his fair client, and to press
+his offers of protection and assistance with the boldness of a
+former acquaintance.
+
+Lilias Redgauntlet withdrew the mask from her crimsoned cheek.
+'Mr. Fairford,' she said, in a voice almost inaudible, 'you have
+the character of a young gentleman of sense and generosity; but
+we have already met in one situation which you must think
+singular; and I must be exposed to misconstruction, at least, for
+my forwardness, were it not in a cause in which my dearest
+affections were concerned.'
+
+'Any interest in my beloved friend Darsie Latimer,' said
+Fairford, stepping a little back, and putting a marked restraint
+upon his former advances, 'gives me a double right to be useful
+to'--He stopped short.
+
+'To his sister, your goodness would say,' answered Lilias.
+
+'His sister, madam!'  replied Alan, in the extremity of
+astonishment--'Sister, I presume, in affection only?'
+
+'No, sir; my dear brother Darsie and I are connected by the bonds
+of actual relationship; and I am not sorry to be the first to
+tell this to the friend he most values.'
+
+Fairford's first thought was on the violent passion which Darsie
+had expressed towards the fair unknown.  'Good God!'  he
+exclaimed, 'how did he bear the discovery?'
+
+'With resignation, I hope,' said Lilias, smiling.  'A more
+accomplished sister he might easily have come by, but scarcely
+could have found one who could love him more than I do.'
+
+'I meant--I only meant to say,' said the young counsellor, his
+presence of mind failing him for an instant--'that is, I meant to
+ask where Darsie Latimer is at this moment.'
+
+'In this very house, and under the guardianship of his uncle,
+whom I believe you knew as a visitor of your father, under the
+name of Mr. Herries of Birrenswork.'
+
+'Let me hasten to him,' said Fairford; 'I have sought him through
+difficulties and dangers--I must see him instantly.'
+
+'You forget you are a prisoner,' said the young lady.
+
+'True--true; but I cannot be long detained--the cause alleged is
+too ridiculous.'
+
+'Alas!'  said Lilias, 'our fate--my brother's and mine, at least
+--must turn on the deliberations perhaps of less than an hour.
+For you, sir, I believe and apprehend nothing; but some
+restraint; my uncle is neither cruel nor unjust, though few will
+go further in the cause which he has adopted.'
+
+'Which is that of the Pretend'--
+
+'For God's sake speak lower!'  said Lilias, approaching her hand,
+as if to stop him.  'The word may cost you your life.  You do not
+know--indeed you do not--the terrors of the situation in which we
+at present stand, and in which I fear you also are involved by
+your friendship for my brother.'
+
+'I do not indeed know the particulars of our situation,' said
+Fairford; 'but, be the danger what it may, I shall not grudge my
+share of it for the sake of my friend; or,' he added, with more
+timidity, 'of my friend's sister.  Let me hope,' he said, 'my
+dear Miss Latimer, that my presence may be of some use to you;
+and that it may be so, let me entreat a share of your confidence,
+which I am conscious I have otherwise no right to ask.'
+
+He led her, as he spoke, towards the recess of the farther window
+of the room, and observing to her that, unhappily, he was
+particularly exposed to interruption from the mad old man whose
+entrance had alarmed her, he disposed of Darsie Latimer's riding-
+skirt, which had been left in the apartment, over the back of two
+chairs, forming thus a sort of screen, behind which he ensconced
+himself with the maiden of the green mantle; feeling at the
+moment, that the danger in which he was placed was almost
+compensated by the intelligence which permitted those feelings
+towards her to revive, which justice to his friend had induced
+him to stifle in the birth.
+
+The relative situation of adviser and advised, of protector and
+protected, is so peculiarly suited to the respective condition of
+man and woman, that great progress towards intimacy is often made
+in very short space; for the circumstances call for confidence on
+the part of the gentleman, and forbid coyness on that of the
+lady, so that the usual barriers against easy intercourse are at
+once thrown down.
+
+Under these circumstances, securing themselves as far as possible
+from observation, conversing in whispers, and seated in a corner,
+where they were brought into so close contact that their faces
+nearly touched each other, Fairford heard from Lilias Redgauntlet
+the history of her family, particularly of her uncle; his views
+upon her brother, and the agony which she felt, lest at that very
+moment he might succeed in engaging Darsie in some desperate
+scheme, fatal to his fortune and perhaps to his life.
+
+Alan Fairford's acute understanding instantly connected what he
+had heard with the circumstances he had witnessed at Fairladies.
+His first thought was, to attempt, at all risks, his instant
+escape, and procure assistance powerful enough to crush, in the
+very cradle, a conspiracy of such a determined character.  This
+he did not consider as difficult; for, though the door was
+guarded on the outside, the window, which was not above ten feet
+from the ground, was open for escape, the common on which it
+looked was unenclosed, and profusely covered with furze.  There
+would, he thought, be little difficulty in effecting his liberty,
+and in concealing his course after he had gained it.
+
+But Lilias exclaimed against this scheme.  Her uncle, she said,
+was a man who, in his moments of enthusiasm, knew neither remorse
+nor fear.  He was capable of visiting upon Darsie any injury
+which he might conceive Fairford had rendered him--he was her
+near kinsman also, and not an unkind one, and she deprecated any
+effort, even in her brother's favour, by which his life must be
+exposed to danger.  Fairford himself remembered Father
+Buonaventure, and made little question but that he was one of the
+sons of the old Chevalier de Saint George; and with feelings
+which, although contradictory of his public duty, can hardly be
+much censured, his heart recoiled from being the agent by whom
+the last scion of such a long line of Scottish princes should be
+rooted up.  He then thought of obtaining an audience, if
+possible, of this devoted person, and explaining to him the utter
+hopelessness of his undertaking, which he judged it likely that
+the ardour of his partisans might have concealed from him.  But
+he relinquished this design as soon as formed.  He had no doubt,
+that any light which he could throw on the state of the country,
+would come too late to be serviceable to one who was always
+reported to have his own full share of the hereditary obstinacy
+which had cost his ancestors so dear, and who, in drawing the
+sword, must have thrown from him the scabbard.
+
+Lilias suggested the advice which, of all others, seemed most
+suited to the occasion, that, yielding, namely, to the
+circumstances of their situation, they should watch carefully
+when Darsie should obtain any degree of freedom, and endeavour to
+open a communication with him, in which case their joint flight
+might be effected, and without endangering the safety of any one.
+
+Their youthful deliberation had nearly fixed in this point, when
+Fairford, who was listening to the low sweet whispering tones of
+Lilias Redgauntlet, rendered yet more interesting by some slight
+touch of foreign accent, was startled by a heavy hand which
+descended with full weight on his shoulder, while the discordant
+voice of Peter Peebles, who had at length broke loose from the
+well-meaning Quaker, exclaimed in the ear of his truant counsel--
+'Aha, lad!  I think ye are catched--An' so ye are turned chamber-
+counsel, are ye?  And ye have drawn up wi' clients in scarfs and
+hoods?  But bide a wee, billie, and see if I dinna sort ye when
+my petition and complaint comes to be discussed, with or without
+answers, under certification.'
+
+Alan Fairford had never more difficulty in his life to subdue a
+first emotion, than he had to refrain from knocking down the
+crazy blockhead who had broken in upon him at such a moment.  But
+the length of Peter's address gave him time, fortunately perhaps
+for both parties, to reflect on the extreme irregularity of such
+a proceeding.  He stood silent, however, with vexation, while
+Peter went on.
+
+'Weel, my bonnie man, I see ye are thinking shame o' yoursell,
+and nae great wonder.  Ye maun leave this quean--the like of her
+is ower light company for you.  I have heard honest Mr. Pest say,
+that the gown grees ill wi' the petticoat.  But come awa hame to
+your puir father, and I'll take care of you the haill gate, and
+keep you company, and deil a word we will speak about, but just
+the state of the conjoined processes of the great cause of Poor
+Peter Peebles against Plainstanes.'
+
+'If thou canst; endure to hear as much of that suit, friend,'
+said the Quaker, 'as I have heard out of mere compassion.  for
+thee, I think verily thou wilt soon be at the bottom of the
+matter, unless it be altogether bottomless.'
+
+Fairford shook off, rather indignantly, the large bony hand which
+Peter had imposed upon his shoulder, and was about to say
+something peevish, upon so unpleasant and insolent a mode of
+interruption, when the door opened, a treble voice saying to the
+sentinel, 'I tell you I maun be in, to see if Mr. Nixon's here;'
+and little Benjie thrust in his mop-head and keen black eyes.
+Ere he could withdraw it, Peter Peebles sprang to the door,
+seized on the boy by the collar, and dragged him forward into the
+room.
+
+'Let me see it,' he said, 'ye ne'er-do-weel limb of Satan--I'll
+gar you satisfy the production, I trow--I'll hae first and second
+diligence against you, ye deevil's buckie!'
+
+'What dost thou want?'  said the Quaker, interfering; 'why dost
+thou frighten the boy, friend Peebles?'
+
+'I gave the bastard a penny to buy me snuff,' said the pauper,
+'and he has rendered no account of his intromissions; but I'll
+gar him as gude.'
+
+So saying, he proceeded forcibly to rifle the pockets of Benjie's
+ragged jacket of one or two snares for game, marbles, a half-
+bitten apple, two stolen eggs (one of which Peter broke in the
+eagerness of his research), and various other unconsidered
+trifles, which had not the air of being very honestly come by.
+The little rascal, under this discipline, bit and struggled like
+a fox-cub, but, like that vermin, uttered neither cry nor
+complaint, till a note, which Peter tore from his bosom, flew as
+far as Lilias Redgauntlet, and fell at her feet.  It was
+addressed to C. N.
+
+'It is for the villain Nixon.'  she said to Alan Fairford; 'open
+it without scruple; that boy is his emissary; we shall now see
+what the miscreant is driving at.'
+
+Little Benjie now gave up all further struggle, and suffered
+Peebles to take from him, without resistance, a shilling, out of
+which Peter declared he would pay himself principal and interest,
+and account for the balance.  The boy, whose attention seemed
+fixed on something very different, only said, 'Maister Nixon will
+murder me!'
+
+Alan Fairford did not hesitate to read the little scrap of paper,
+on which was written, 'All is prepared--keep them in play until I
+come up.  You may depend on your reward.--C. C.'
+
+'Alas, my uncle--my poor uncle!'  said Lilias; 'this is the
+result of his confidence.  Methinks, to give him instant notice
+of his confidant's treachery, is now the best service we can
+render all concerned--if they break up their undertaking, as they
+must now do, Darsie will be at liberty.'
+
+In the same breath, they were both at the half-opened door of the
+room, Fairford entreating to speak with the Father Buonaventure,
+and Lilias, equally vehemently, requesting a moment's interview
+with her uncle.  While the sentinel hesitated what to do, his
+attention was called to a loud noise at the door, where a crowd
+had been assembled in consequence of the appalling cry, that the
+enemy were upon them, occasioned, as it afterwards proved, by
+some stragglers having at length discovered the dead bodies of
+Nanty Ewart and of Nixon.
+
+Amid the confusion occasioned by this alarming incident, the
+sentinel ceased to attend, to his duty; and accepting Alan
+Fairford's arm, Lilias found no opposition in penetrating even to
+the inner apartment, where the principal persons in the
+enterprise, whose conclave had been disturbed by this alarming
+incident, were now assembled in great confusion, and had been
+joined by the Chevalier himself.
+
+'Only a mutiny among these smuggling scoundrels,' said
+Redgauntlet.
+
+ONLY a mutiny, do you say?'  said Sir Richard Glendale; 'and the
+lugger, the last hope of escape for,'--he looked towards
+Charles,--'stands out to sea under a press of sail!'
+
+'Do not concern yourself about me,' said the unfortunate prince;
+'this is not the worst emergency in which it has been my lot to
+stand; and if it were, I fear it not.  Shift for yourselves, my
+lords and gentlemen.'
+
+'No, never!'  said the young Lord --.  'Our only hope now is in
+an honourable resistance.'
+
+'Most true,' said Redgauntlet; 'let despair renew the union
+amongst us which accident disturbed.  I give my voice for
+displaying the royal banner instantly, and--How now!'  he
+concluded, sternly, as Lilias, first soliciting his attention by
+pulling his cloak, put into his hand the scroll, and added, it
+was designed for that of Nixon.
+
+Redgauntlet read--and, dropping it on the ground, continued to
+stare upon the spot where it fell, with raised hands and fixed
+eyes.  Sir Richard Glendale lifted the fatal paper, read it, and
+saying, 'Now all is indeed over,' handed it to Maxwell, who said
+aloud, 'Black Colin Campbell, by G--d!  I heard he had come post
+from London last night.'
+
+As if in echo to his thoughts, the violin of the blind man was
+heard, playing with spirit, The Campbells are coming,' a
+celebrated clan-march.
+
+'The Campbells are coming in earnest,' said MacKellar; they are
+upon us with the whole battalion from Carlisle.'
+
+There was a silence of dismay, and two or three of the company
+began to drop out of the room.
+
+Lord -- spoke with the generous spirit of a young English
+nobleman.  'If we have been fools, do not let us be cowards.  We
+have one here more precious than us all, and come hither on our
+warranty--let us save him at least,'
+
+'True, most true,' answered Sir Richard Glendale.  'Let the king
+be first cared for.'
+
+'That shall be my business,' said Redgauntlet 'if we have but
+time to bring back the brig, all will be well--I will instantly
+dispatch a party in a fishing skiff to bring her to.'  He gave
+his commands to two or three of the most active among his
+followers. 'Let him be once on board,' he said, 'and there are
+enough of us to stand to arms and cover his retreat.'
+
+'Right, right,' said Sir Richard, 'and I will look to points
+which can be made defensible; and the old powder-plot boys could
+not have made a more desperate resistance than we shall.
+Redgauntlet,' continued he, 'I see some of our friends are
+looking pale; but methinks your nephew has more mettle in his eye
+now than when we were in cold deliberation, with danger at a
+distance.'
+
+'It is the way of our house,' said Redgauntlet; 'our courage ever
+kindles highest on the losing side.  I, too, feel that the
+catastrophe I have brought on must not be survived by its author.
+Let me first,' he said, addressing Charles, 'see your Majesty's
+sacred person in such safety as can now be provided for it, and
+then'--
+
+'You may spare all considerations concerning me, gentlemen,'
+again repeated Charles; 'yon mountain of Criffel shall fly as
+soon as I will.'
+
+Most threw themselves at his feet with weeping and entreaty; some
+one or two slunk in confusion from the apartment, and were heard
+riding off.  Unnoticed in such a scene, Darsie, his sister, and
+Fairford, drew together, and held each other by the hands, as
+those who, when a vessel is about to founder in the storm,
+determine to take their chance of life and death together.
+
+Amid this scene of confusion, a gentleman, plainly dressed in a
+riding-habit, with a black cockade in his hat, but without any
+arms except a COUTEAU-DE-CHASSE, walked into the apartment
+without ceremony.  He was a tall, thin, gentlemanly man, with a
+look and bearing decidedly military.  He had passed through their
+guards, if in the confusion they now maintained any, without stop
+or question, and now stood, almost unarmed, among armed men, who
+nevertheless, gazed on him as on the angel of destruction.
+
+'You look coldly on me, gentlemen,' he said.  'Sir Richard
+Glendale--my Lord --, we were not always such strangers.  Ha,
+Pate-in-Peril, how is it with you?  and you, too, Ingoldsby--I
+must not call you by any other name--why do you receive an old
+friend so coldly?  But you guess my errand.'
+
+'And are prepared for it, general,' said Redgauntlet; 'we are not
+men to be penned up like sheep for the slaughter.'
+
+'Pshaw!  you take it too seriously--let me speak but one word
+with you.'
+
+'No words can shake our purpose,' said Redgauntlet, were your
+whole command, as I suppose is the case, drawn round the house.'
+
+'I am certainly not unsupported,' said the general; 'but if you
+would hear me'--
+
+'Hear ME, sir,' said the Wanderer, stepping forward; 'I suppose I
+am the mark you aim at--I surrender myself willingly, to save
+these gentlemen's danger--let this at least avail in their
+favour.'
+
+An exclamation of 'Never, never!'  broke from the little body of
+partisans, who threw themselves round the unfortunate prince, and
+would have seized or struck down Campbell, had it not been that
+he remained with his arms folded, and a look, rather indicating
+impatience because they would not hear him, than the least
+apprehension of violence at their hand.
+
+At length he obtained a moment's silence.  'I do not,' he said,
+'know this gentleman'--(making a profound bow to the unfortunate
+prince)--'I do not wish to know him; it is a knowledge which
+would suit neither of us.'
+
+'Our ancestors, nevertheless, have been well acquainted,' said
+Charles, unable to suppress, even at that hour of dread and
+danger, the painful recollections of fallen royalty.
+
+'In one word, General Campbell,' said Redgauntlet, 'is it to be
+peace or war?  You are a man of honour, and we can trust you.'
+
+'I thank you, sir,' said the general; 'and I reply, that the
+answer to your question rests with yourself.  Come, do not be
+fools, gentlemen; there was perhaps no great harm meant or
+intended by your gathering together in this obscure corner, for a
+bear-bait or a cock-fight, or whatever other amusement you may
+have intended, but it was a little imprudent, considering how you
+stand with government, and it has occasioned some anxiety.
+Exaggerated accounts of your purpose have been laid before
+government by the information of a traitor in your own counsels;
+and I was sent down post to take the command of a sufficient
+number of troops, in case these calumnies should be found to have
+any real foundation.  I have come here, of course, sufficiently
+supported both with cavalry and infantry, to do whatever might be
+necessary; but my commands are--and I am sure they agree with my
+inclination--to make no arrests, nay, to make no further
+inquiries of any kind, if this good assembly will consider their
+own interest so far as to give up their immediate purpose, and
+return quietly home to their own houses.'
+
+'What!--all?'  exclaimed Sir Richard Glendale--'all, without
+exception?'
+
+'ALL, without one single exception' said the general; 'such are
+my orders.  If you accept my terms, say so, and make haste; for
+things may happen to interfere with his Majesty's kind purposes
+towards you all.'
+
+'Majesty's kind purposes!'  said the Wanderer.  'Do I hear you
+aright, sir?'
+
+'I speak the king's very words, from his very lips,' replied the
+general.  '"I will," said his Majesty, "deserve the confidence of
+my subjects by reposing my security in the fidelity of the
+millions who acknowledge my title--in the good sense and prudence
+of the few who continue, from the errors of education, to disown
+it."  His Majesty will not even believe that the most zealous
+Jacobites who yet remain can nourish a thought of exciting a
+civil war, which must be fatal to their families and themselves,
+besides spreading bloodshed and ruin through a peaceful land.  He
+cannot even believe of his kinsman, that he would engage brave
+and generous though mistaken men, in an attempt which must ruin
+all who have escaped former calamities; and he is convinced,
+that, did curiosity or any other motive lead that person to visit
+this country, he would soon see it was his wisest course to
+return to the continent; and his Majesty compassionates his
+situation too much to offer any obstacle to his doing so.'
+
+'Is this real?'  said Redgauntlet.  'Can you mean this?  Am I--
+are all, are any of these gentlemen at liberty, without
+interruption, to embark in yonder brig, which, I see, is now
+again approaching the shore?'
+
+'You, sir--all--any of the gentlemen present,' said the general,
+--'all whom the vessel can contain, are at liberty to embark
+uninterrupted by me; but I advise none to go off who have not
+powerful reasons unconnected with the present meeting, for this
+will be remembered against no one.'
+
+'Then, gentlemen,' said Redgauntlet, clasping his hands together
+as the words burst from him, 'the cause is lost for ever!'
+
+General Campbell turned away to the window, as if to avoid
+hearing what they said.  Their consultation was but momentary;
+for the door of escape which thus opened was as unexpected as the
+exigence was threatening.
+
+'We have your word of honour for our protection,' said Sir
+Richard Glendale, 'if we dissolve our meeting in obedience to
+your summons?'
+
+'You have, Sir Richard,' answered the general.
+
+'And I also have your promise,' said Redgauntlet, 'that I may go
+on board yonder vessel, with any friend whom I may choose to
+accompany me?'
+
+Not only that, Mr. Ingoldsby--or I WILL call you Mr. Redgauntlet
+once more--you may stay in the offing for a tide, until you are
+joined by any person who may remain at Fairladies.  After that,
+there will be a sloop of war on the station, and I need not say
+your condition will then become perilous.'
+
+'Perilous it should not be, General Campbell,' said Redgauntlet,
+'or more perilous to others than to us, if others thought as I do
+even in this extremity.'
+
+'You forget yourself, my friend,' said the unhappy Adventurer;
+you forget that the arrival of this gentleman only puts the cope-
+stone on our already adopted resolution to abandon our bull-fight
+or by whatever other wild name this headlong enterprise may be
+termed.  I bid you farewell, unfriendly friends--I bid you
+farewell,' (bowing to the general) 'my friendly foe--I leave this
+strand as I landed upon it, alone and to return no more!'
+
+'Not alone,' said Redgauntlet, 'while there is blood in the veins
+of my father's son.'
+
+'Not alone,' said the other gentlemen present, stung with
+feelings which almost overpowered the better reasons under which
+they had acted.  'We will not disown our principles, or see your
+person endangered.'
+
+'If it be only your purpose to see the gentleman to the beach,'
+said General Campbell, 'I will myself go with you.  My presence
+among you, unarmed, and in your power, will be a pledge of my
+friendly intentions, and will overawe, should such be offered,
+any interruption on the part of officious persons.'
+
+'Be it so,' said the Adventurer, with the air of a prince to a
+subject, not of one who complied with the request of an enemy too
+powerful to be resisted.
+
+They left the apartment--they left the house--an unauthenticated
+and dubious, but appalling, sensation of terror had already
+spread itself among the inferior retainers, who had so short time
+before strutted, and bustled, and thronged the doorway and the
+passages.  A report had arisen, of which the origin could not be
+traced, of troops advancing towards the spot in considerable
+numbers; and men who, for one reason or other, were most of them
+amenable to the arm of power, had either shrunk into stables or
+corners, or fled the place entirely.  There was solitude on the
+landscape excepting the small party which now moved towards the
+rude pier, where a boat lay manned, agreeably to Redgauntlet's
+orders previously given.
+
+The last heir of the Stuarts leant on Redgauntlet's arm as they
+walked towards the beach; for the ground was rough, and he no
+longer possessed the elasticity of limb and of spirit which had,
+twenty years before, carried him over many a Highland hill as
+light as one of their native deer.  His adherents followed,
+looking on the ground, their feelings struggling against the
+dictates of their reason.
+
+General Campbell accompanied them with an air of apparent ease
+and indifference, but watching, at the same time, and no doubt
+with some anxiety, the changing features of those who acted in
+this extraordinary scene.
+
+Darsie and his sister naturally followed their uncle, whose
+violence they no longer feared, while his character attracted
+their respect, and Alan Fairford attended them from interest in
+their fate, unnoticed in a party where all were too much occupied
+with their own thoughts and feelings, as well as with the
+impending crisis, to attend to his presence.
+
+Half-way betwixt the house and the beach, they saw the bodies of
+Nanty Ewart and Cristal Nixon blackening in the sun.
+
+'That was your informer?'  said Redgauntlet, looking back to
+General Campbell, who only nodded his assent.
+
+'Caitiff wretch!'  exclaimed Redgauntlet;--'and yet the name were
+better bestowed on the fool who could be misled by thee.'
+
+'That sound broadsword cut,' said the general, 'has saved us the
+shame of rewarding a traitor.'
+
+They arrived at the place of embarkation.  The prince stood a
+moment with folded arms, and looked around him in deep silence.
+A paper was then slipped into his hands--he looked at it, and
+said, 'I find the two friends I have left at Fairladies are
+apprised of my destination, and propose to embark from Bowness.
+I presume this will not be an infringement of the conditions
+under which you have acted?'
+
+'Certainly not,' answered General Campbell; 'they shall have all
+facility to join you.'
+
+'I wish, then,' said Charles, 'only another companion.
+Redgauntlet, the air of this country is as hostile to you as it
+is to me.  These gentlemen have made their peace, or rather they
+have done nothing to break it.  But you--come you and share my
+home where chance shall cast it.  We shall never see these shores
+again; but we will talk of them, and of our disconcerted bull-
+fight.'
+
+'I follow you, sire, through life,' said Redgauntlet, 'as I would
+have followed you to death.  Permit me one moment.'
+
+The prince then looked round, and seeing the abashed countenances
+of his other adherents bent upon the ground, he hastened to say,
+'Do not think that you, gentlemen, have obliged me less because
+your zeal was mingled with prudence, entertained, I am sure, more
+on my own account and on that of your country, than from selfish
+apprehensions.'
+
+He stepped from one to another, and, amid sobs and bursting
+tears, received the adieus of the last remnant which had hitherto
+supported his lofty pretensions, and addressed them individually
+with accents of tenderness and affection.
+
+The general drew a little aloof, and signed to Redgauntlet to
+speak with him while this scene proceeded.  'It is now all over,'
+he said, 'and Jacobite will be henceforward no longer a party
+name.  When you tire of foreign parts, and wish to make your
+peace, let me know.  Your restless zeal alone has impeded your
+pardon hitherto.'
+
+'And now I shall not need it,' said Redgauntlet.  'I leave
+England for ever; but I am not displeased that you should hear my
+family adieus.--Nephew, come hither.  In presence of General
+Campbell, I tell you, that though to breed you up in my own
+political opinions has been for many years my anxious wish, I am
+now glad that it could not be accomplished.  You pass under the
+service of the reigning monarch without the necessity of changing
+your allegiance--a change, however,' be added, looking around
+him, which sits more easy on honourable men than I could have
+anticipated; but some wear the badge of their loyalty on their
+sleeve, and others in the heart.  You will, from henceforth, be
+uncontrolled master of all the property of which forfeiture could
+not deprive your father--of all that belonged to him--excepting
+this, his good sword' (laying his hand on the weapon he wore),
+'which shall never fight for the House of Hanover; and as my hand
+will never draw weapon more, I shall sink it forty fathoms deep
+in the wide ocean.  Bless you, young man!  If I have dealt
+harshly with you, forgive me.  I had set my whole desires on one
+point,--God knows, with no selfish purpose; and I am justly
+punished by this final termination of my views, for having been
+too little scrupulous in the means by which I pursued them.--
+Niece, farewell, and may God bless you also!'
+
+'No, sir,' said Lilias, seizing his hand eagerly.  'You have been
+hitherto my protector,--you are now in sorrow, let me be your
+attendant and your comforter in exile.'
+
+'I thank you, my girl, for your unmerited affection; but it
+cannot and must not be.  The curtain here falls between us.  I go
+to the house of another.  If I leave it before I quit the earth,
+it shall be only for the House of God.  Once more, farewell both!
+The fatal doom,' he said, with a melancholy smile, 'will, I
+trust, now depart from the House of Redgauntlet, since its
+present representative has adhered to the winning side.  I am
+convinced he will not change it, should it in turn become the
+losing one.'
+
+The unfortunate Charles Edward had now given his last adieus to
+his downcast adherents.  He made a sign with his hand to
+Redgauntlet, who came to assist him into the skiff.  General
+Campbell also offered his assistance, the rest appearing too much
+affected by the scene which had taken place to prevent him.
+
+'You are not sorry, general, to do me this last act of courtesy,'
+said the Chevalier; 'and, on my part, I thank you for it.  You
+have taught me the principle on which men on the scaffold feel
+forgiveness and kindness even for their executioner.  Farewell!'
+
+They were seated in the boat, which presently pulled off from the
+land.  The Oxford divine broke out into a loud benediction, in
+terms which General Campbell was too generous to criticize at the
+time, or to remember afterwards;--nay, it is said, that, Whig and
+Campbell as he was, he could not help joining in the universal
+Amen!  which resounded from the shore.
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION, BY DR. DRYASDUST
+
+IN A LETTER TO THE AUTHOR OF WAVERLEY
+
+I am truly sorry, my worthy and much-respected sir, that my
+anxious researches have neither, in the form of letters, nor of
+diaries or other memoranda, been able to discover more than I
+have hitherto transmitted, of the history of the Redgauntlet
+family.  But I observe in an old newspaper called the WHITEHALL
+GAZETTE, of which I fortunately possess a file for several years,
+that Sir Arthur Darsie Redgauntlet was presented to his late
+Majesty at the drawing-room, by Lieut.-General Campbell--upon
+which the editor observes, in the way of comment, that we were
+going, REMIS ATQUE VELIS, into the interests of the Pretender,
+since a Scot had presented a Jacobite at Court.  I am sorry I
+have not room (the frank being only uncial) for his further
+observations, tending to show the apprehensions entertained by
+many well-instructed persons of the period, that the young king
+might himself be induced to become one of the Stuarts' faction,--
+a catastrophe from which it has pleased Heaven to preserve these
+kingdoms.
+
+I perceive also, by a marriage-contract in the family
+repositories, that Miss Lilias Redgauntlet of Redgauntlet, about
+eighteen months after the transactions you have commemorated,
+intermarried with Alan Fairford, Esq., Advocate, of Clinkdollar,
+who, I think, we may not unreasonably conclude to be the same
+person whose name occurs so frequently in the pages of your
+narration.  In my last excursion to Edinburgh, I was fortunate
+enough to discover an old caddie, from whom, at the expense of a
+bottle of whisky and half a pound of tobacco, I extracted the
+important information, that he knew Peter Peebles very well, and
+had drunk many a mutchkin with him in Caddie Fraser's time.  He
+said 'that he lived ten years after King George's accession, in
+the momentary expectation of winning his cause every day in the
+session time, and every hour in the day, and at last fell down
+dead, in what my informer called a 'perplexity fit,' upon a
+proposal for a composition being made to him in the Outer House.
+I have chosen to retain my informer's phrase, not being able
+justly to determine whether it is a corruption of the word
+apoplexy, as my friend Mr. Oldbuck supposes, or the name of some
+peculiar disorder incidental to those who have concern in the
+courts of law, as many callings and conditions of men have
+diseases appropriate to themselves.  The same caddie also
+remembered Blind Willie Stevenson, who was called Wandering
+Willie, and who ended his days 'unco beinly, in Sir Arthur
+Redgauntlet's ha' neuk.'  'He had done the family some good
+turn,' he said, 'specially when ane of the Argyle gentlemen was
+coming down on a wheen of them that had the "auld leaven" about
+them, and wad hae taen every man of them, and nae less nor headed
+and hanged them.  But Willie, and a friend they had, called Robin
+the Rambler, gae them warning, by playing tunes such as "The
+Campbells are coming" and the like, whereby they got timeous
+warning to take the wing.'  I need not point out to your
+acuteness, my worthy sir, that this seems to refer to some
+inaccurate account of the transactions in which you seem so much
+interested.
+
+Respecting Redgauntlet, about whose subsequent history you are
+more particularly inquisitive, I have learned from an excellent
+person who was a priest in the Scottish Monastery of Ratisbon,
+before its suppression, that he remained for two or three years
+in the family of the Chevalier, and only left it at last in
+consequence of some discords in that melancholy household.  As he
+had hinted to General Campbell, he exchanged his residence for
+the cloister, and displayed in the latter part of his life, a
+strong sense of the duties of religion, which in his earlier days
+he had too much neglected, being altogether engaged in political
+speculations and intrigues.  He rose to the situation of prior,
+in the house which he belonged to, and which was of a very strict
+order of religion.  He sometimes received his countrymen, whom
+accident brought to Ratisbon, and curiosity induced to visit the
+Monastery of --.  But it was remarked, that though he listened
+with interest and attention, when Britain, or particularly
+Scotland, became the subject of conversation, yet he never either
+introduced or prolonged the subject, never used the English
+language, never inquired about English affairs, and, above all,
+never mentioned his own family.  His strict observation of the
+rules of his order gave him, at the time of his death, some
+pretensions to be chosen a saint, and the brethren of the
+Monastery of -- made great efforts for that effect, and brought
+forward some plausible proofs of miracles.  But there was a
+circumstance which threw a doubt over the subject, and prevented
+the consistory from acceding to the wishes of the worthy
+brethren.  Under his habit, and secured in a small silver box, he
+had worn perpetually around his neck a lock of-hair, which the
+fathers avouched to be a relic.  But the Avvocato del Diabolo, in
+combating (as was his official duty) the pretensions of the
+candidate for sanctity, made it at least equally probable that
+the supposed relic was taken from the head of a brother of the
+deceased prior, who had been executed for adherence to the Stuart
+family in 1745-6; and the motto, HAUD OBLIVISCENDUM, seemed to
+intimate a tone of mundane feeling and recollection of injuries,
+which made it at least doubtful whether, even in the quiet and
+gloom of the cloister, Father Hugo had forgotten the sufferings
+and injuries of the House of Redgauntlet.
+
+June 10, 1824,
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+NOTE 1.--THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
+
+In explanation of this circumstance, I cannot help adding a note
+not very necessary for the reader, which yet I record with
+pleasure, from recollection of the kindness which it evinces.  In
+early youth I resided for a considerable time in the vicinity of
+the beautiful village of Kelso, where my life passed in a very
+solitary manner.  I had few acquaintances, scarce any companions,
+and books, which were at the time almost essential to my
+happiness, were difficult to come by.  It was then that I was
+particularly indebted to the liberality and friendship of an old
+lady of the Society of Friends, eminent for her benevolence and
+charity.  Her deceased husband had been a medical man of
+eminence, and left her, with other valuable property, a small and
+well-selected library.  This the kind old lady permitted me to
+rummage at pleasure, and carry home what volumes I chose, on
+condition that I should take, at the same time, some of the
+tracts printed for encouraging and extending the doctrines of her
+own sect.  She did not even exact any promise that I would read
+these performances, being too justly afraid of involving me in a
+breach of promise, but was merely desirous that I should have the
+chance of instruction within my reach, in case whim, curiosity,
+or accident, might induce me to have recourse to it.
+
+
+NOTE 2.--THE PERSECUTORS
+
+The personages here mentioned are most of them characters of
+historical fame; but those less known and remembered may be found
+in the tract entitled, 'The Judgment and Justice of God
+Exemplified, or, a Brief Historical Account of some of the Wicked
+Lives and Miserable Deaths of some of the most remarkable
+Apostates and Bloody Persecutors, from the Reformation till after
+the Revolution.'  This constitutes a sort of postscript or
+appendix to John Howie of Lochgoin's 'Account of the Lives of the
+most eminent Scots Worthies.'  The author has, with considerable
+ingenuity, reversed his reasoning upon the inference to be drawn
+from the prosperity or misfortunes which befall individuals in
+this world, either in the course of their lives or in the hour of
+death.  In the account of the martyrs' sufferings, such
+inflictions are mentioned only as trials permitted by providence,
+for the better and brighter display of their faith, and constancy
+of principle.  But when similar afflictions befell the opposite
+party, they are imputed to the direct vengeance of Heaven upon
+their impiety.  If, indeed, the life of any person obnoxious to
+the historian's censures happened to have passed in unusual
+prosperity, the mere fact of its being finally concluded by
+death, is assumed as an undeniable token of the judgement of
+Heaven, and, to render the conclusion inevitable, his last scene
+is generally garnished with some singular circumstances.  Thus
+the Duke of Lauderdale is said, through old age but immense
+corpulence, to have become so sunk in spirits, 'that his heart
+was not the bigness of a walnut.'
+
+
+NOTE 3.--LAMENTATION FOR THE DEAD
+
+I have heard in my youth some such wild tale as that placed in
+the mouth of the blind fiddler, of which, I think, the hero was
+Sir Robert Grierson of Lagg, the famous persecutor.  But the
+belief was general throughout Scotland that the excessive
+lamentation over the loss of friends disturbed the repose of the
+dead, and broke even the rest of the grave.  There are several
+instances of this in tradition, but one struck me particularly,
+as I heard it from the lips of one who professed receiving it
+from those of a ghost-seer.  This was a Highland lady, named
+Mrs. C-- of B--, who probably believed firmly in the truth of an
+apparition which seems to have originated in the weakness of her
+nerves and strength of her imagination.  She had been lately left
+a widow by her husband, with the office of guardian to their only
+child.  The young man added to the difficulties of his charge by
+an extreme propensity for a military life, which his mother was
+unwilling to give way to, while she found it impossible to
+repress it.  About this time the Independent Companies, formed
+for the preservation of the peace of the Highlands, were in the
+course of being levied; and as a gentleman named Cameron, nearly
+connected with Mrs. C--, commanded one of those companies, she
+was at length persuaded to compromise the matter with her son, by
+permitting him to enter this company in the capacity of a cadet,
+thus gratifying his love of a military life without the dangers
+of foreign service, to which no one then thought these troops
+were at all liable to be exposed, while even their active service
+at home was not likely to be attended with much danger.  She
+readily obtained a promise from her relative that he would be
+particular in his attention to her son and therefore concluded
+she had accommodated matters between her son's wishes and his
+safety in a way sufficiently attentive to both.  She set off to
+Edinburgh to get what was awanting for his outfit, and shortly
+afterwards received melancholy news from the Highlands.  The
+Independent Company into which her son was to enter had a
+skirmish with a party of caterans engaged in some act of spoil,
+and her friend the captain being wounded, and out of the reach of
+medical assistance, died in consequence.  This news was a
+thunderbolt to the poor mother, who was at once deprived of her
+kinsman's advice and assistance, and instructed by his fate of
+the unexpected danger to which her son's new calling exposed him.
+She remained also in great sorrow for her relative, whom she
+loved with sisterly affection.  These conflicting causes of
+anxiety, together with her uncertainty, whether to continue or
+change her son's destination, were terminated in the following
+manner:--
+
+The house in which Mrs. C-- resided in the old town of Edinburgh,
+was a flat or story of a land accessible, as was then universal,
+by a common stair.  The family who occupied the story beneath
+were her acquaintances, and she was in the habit of drinking tea
+with them every evening.  It was accordingly about six o'clock,
+when, recovering herself from a deep fit of anxious reflection,
+she was about to leave the parlour in which she sat in order to
+attend this engagement.  The door through which she was to pass
+opened, as was very common in Edinburgh, into a dark passage.  In
+this passage, and within a yard of her when she opened the door,
+stood the apparition of her kinsman, the deceased officer, in his
+full tartans, and wearing his bonnet.  Terrified at what she saw,
+or thought she saw, she closed the door hastily, and, sinking on
+her knees by a chair, prayed to be delivered from the horrors of
+the vision.  She remained in that posture till her friends below
+tapped on the door, to intimate that tea was ready.  Recalled to
+herself by the signal, she arose, and, on opening the apartment
+door, again was confronted by the visionary Highlander, whose
+bloody brow bore token, on this second appearance, to the death
+he had died.  Unable to endure this repetition of her terrors,
+Mrs. C-- sank on the door in a swoon.  Her friends below,
+startled with the noise, came upstairs, and, alarmed at the
+situation in which they found her, insisted on her going to bed
+and taking some medicine, in order to compose what they took for
+a nervous attack.  They had no sooner left her in quiet, than the
+apparition of the soldier was once more visible in the apartment.
+This time she took courage and said, 'In the name of God, Donald,
+why do you haunt one who respected and loved you when living?'
+To which he answered readily, in Gaelic, 'Cousin, why did you not
+speak sooner?  My rest is disturbed by your unnecessary
+lamentation--your tears scald me in my shroud.  I come to tell
+you that my untimely death ought to make no difference in your
+views for your son; God will raise patrons to supply my place and
+he will live to the fullness of years, and die honoured and at
+peace.'  The lady of course followed her kinsman's advice and as
+she was accounted a person of strict veracity, we may conclude
+the first apparition an illusion of the fancy, the final one a
+lively dream suggested by the other two.
+
+
+NOTE 4.--PETER PEEBLES
+
+This unfortunate litigant (for a person named Peter Peebles
+actually flourished) frequented the courts of justice in Scotland
+about the year 1792, and the sketch of his appearance is given
+from recollection.  The author is of opinion that he himself had
+at one time the honour to be counsel for Peter Peebles, whose
+voluminous course of litigation served as a sort of assay-pieces
+to most young men who were called to the bar.  The scene of the
+consultation is entirely imaginary.
+
+
+NOTE 5.--JOHN'S COFFEE-HOUSE
+
+This small dark coffee-house, now burnt down, was the resort of
+such writers and clerks belonging to the Parliament House above
+thirty years ago as retained the ancient Scottish custom of a
+meridian, as it was called, or noontide dram of spirits.  If
+their proceedings were watched, they might be seen to turn
+fidgety about the hour of noon, and exchange looks with each
+other from their separate desks, till at length some one of
+formal and dignified presence assumed the honour of leading the
+band, when away they went, threading the crowd like a string of
+wild fowl, crossed the square or close, and following each other
+into the coffee-house, received in turn from the hand of the
+waiter, the meridian, which was placed ready at the bar.  This
+they did, day by day:  and though they did not speak to each
+other, they seemed to attach a certain degree of sociability to
+performing the ceremony in company.
+
+
+NOTE 6.--FISHING RIGHTS
+
+It may be here mentioned, that a violent and popular attack upon
+what the country people of this district considered as an
+invasion of their fishing right is by no means an improbable
+fiction.  Shortly after the close of the American war, Sir James
+Graham of Netherby constructed a dam-dyke, or cauld, across the
+Esk, at a place where it flowed through his estate, though it has
+its origin, and the principal part of its course, in Scotland.
+The new barrier at Netherby was considered as an encroachment
+calculated to prevent the salmon from ascending into Scotland,
+and the right of erecting it being an international question of
+law betwixt the sister kingdoms, there was no court in either
+competent to its decision.  In this dilemma, the Scots people
+assembled in numbers by signal of rocket lights, and, rudely
+armed with fowling-pieces, fish-spears, and such rustic weapons,
+marched to the banks of the river for the purpose of pulling down
+the dam-dyke objected to.  Sir James Graham armed many of his own
+people to protect his property, and had some military from
+Carlisle for the same purpose.  A renewal of the Border wars had
+nearly taken place in the eighteenth century, when prudence and
+moderation on both sides saved much tumult, and perhaps some
+bloodshed.  The English proprietor consented that a breach should
+be made in his dam-dyke sufficient for the passage of the fish,
+and thus removed the Scottish grievance.  I believe the river has
+since that time taken the matter into its own disposal, and
+entirely swept away the dam-dyke in question.
+
+
+NOTE 7.--STATE OF SCOTLAND
+
+Scotland, in its half-civilized state, exhibited too many
+examples of the exertion of arbitrary force and violence,
+rendered easy by the dominion which lairds exerted over their
+tenants and chiefs over their clans.  The captivity of Lady
+Grange, in the desolate cliffs of Saint Kilda, is in the
+recollection of every one.  At the supposed date of the novel
+also a man of the name of Merrilees, a tanner in Leith, absconded
+from his country to escape his creditors; and after having slain
+his own mastiff dog, and put a bit of red cloth in its mouth, as
+if it had died in a contest with soldiers, and involved his own
+existence in as much mystery as possible, made his escape into
+Yorkshire.  Here he was detected by persons sent in search of
+him, to whom he gave a portentous account of his having been
+carried off and concealed in various places.  Mr. Merrilees was,
+in short, a kind of male Elizabeth Canning, but did not trespass
+on the public credulity quite so long.
+
+
+NOTE 8.--CONCEALMENTS FOR THEFT AND SMUGGLING
+
+I am sorry to say that the modes of concealment described in the
+imaginary premises of Mr. Trumbull, are of a kind which have been
+common on the frontiers of late years.  The neighbourhood of two
+nations having different laws, though united in government, still
+leads to a multitude of transgressions on the Border, and extreme
+difficulty in apprehending delinquents.  About twenty years
+since, as far as my recollection serves, there was along the
+frontier an organized gang of coiners, forgers, smugglers, and
+other malefactors, whose operations were conducted on a scale not
+inferior to what is here described.  The chief of the party was
+one Richard Mendham a carpenter, who rose to opulence, although
+ignorant even of the arts of reading and writing.  But he had
+found a short road to wealth, and had taken singular measures for
+conducting his operations.  Amongst these, he found means to
+build, in a suburb of Berwick called Spittal, a street of small
+houses, as if for the investment of property.  He himself
+inhabited one of these; another, a species of public-house, was
+open to his confederates, who held secret and unsuspected
+communication with him by crossing the roofs of the intervening
+houses, and descending by a trap-stair, which admitted them into
+the alcove of the dining-room of Dick Mendham's private mansion.
+A vault, too, beneath Mendham's stable, was accessible in the
+manner mentioned in the novel.  The post of one of the stalls
+turned round on a bolt being withdrawn, and gave admittance to a
+subterranean place of concealment for contraband and stolen
+goods, to a great extent.  Richard Mendham, the head of this very
+formidable conspiracy, which involved malefactors of every kind,
+was tried and executed at Jedburgh, where the author was present
+as Sheriff of Selkirkshire.  Mendham had previously been tried,
+but escaped by want of proof and the ingenuity of his counsel.
+
+
+NOTE 9--CORONATION OF GEORGE III
+
+In excuse of what may be considered as a violent infraction of
+probability in this chapter, the author is under the necessity of
+quoting a tradition which many persons may recollect having
+heard.  It was always said, though with very little appearance of
+truth, that upon the Coronation of the late George III, when the
+champion of England, Dymock, or his representative, appeared in
+Westminster Hall, and in the language of chivalry solemnly
+wagered his body to defend in single combat the right of the
+young King to the crown of these realms, at the moment when he
+flung down his gauntlet as the gage of battle, an unknown female
+stepped from the crowd and lifted the pledge, leaving another
+gage in room of it, with a paper expressing, that if a fair field
+of combat should be allowed, a champion of rank and birth would
+appear with equal arms to dispute the claim of King George to the
+British kingdoms.  The story is probably one of the numerous
+fictions which were circulated to keep up the spirits of a
+sinking faction, The incident was, however, possible, if it could
+be supposed to he attended by any motive adequate to the risk,
+and might be imagined to occur to a person of Redgauntlet's
+enthusiastic character.  George III, it is said, had a police of
+his own, whose agency was so efficient, that the sovereign was
+able to tell his prime minister upon one occasion, to his great
+surprise, that the Pretender was in London.  The prime minister
+began immediately to talk of measures to be taken, warrants to be
+procured, messengers and guards to be got in readiness.  'Pooh,
+pooh,' said the good-natured sovereign, since I have found him
+out, leave me alone to deal with him.'--'And what,' said the
+minister, 'is your Majesty's purpose, in so important a case?'--
+'To leave the young man to himself,' said George III; 'and when
+he tires he will go back again.'  The truth of this story does
+not depend on that of the lifting of the gauntlet; and while the
+latter could be but an idle bravado, the former expresses George
+Ill's goodness of heart and soundness of policy.
+
+
+NOTE 10.--COLLIER AND SALTER
+
+The persons engaged in these occupations were at this time
+bondsmen; and in case they left the ground of the farm to which
+they belonged, and as pertaining to which their services were
+bought or sold, they were liable to be brought back by a summary
+process.  The existence of this species of slavery being thought
+irreconcilable with the spirit of liberty, colliers and salters
+were declared free, and put upon the same footing with other
+servants, by the Act 15 Geo. III chapter 28th.  They were so far
+from desiring or prizing the blessing conferred on them, that
+they esteemed the interest taken in their freedom to be a mere
+decree on the part of the proprietors to get rid of what they
+called head and harigald money, payable to them when a female of
+their number, by bearing a child, made an addition to the live
+stock of their master's property.
+
+
+
+
+GLOSSARY
+
+ABOON, above.
+AD LITEM, in law.
+AD VINDICTAM PUBLICAM, for the public defence.
+ADUST, looking as if burned or scorched.
+AE, one.
+AFFLATUS, breath, inspiration.
+AIRT, direct.
+ALCANDER, a Greek soothsayer.
+ALDEBORONTIPHOSCOPHORNIO, a courtier in H. Carey's burlesque,
+    CHRONONHOTONTHOLOGOS.
+ALIMENTARY, nourishing.
+ALQUIFE, an enchanter in the mediaeval romances of knight-
+    errantry.
+AMADIS, a hero of the romances, especially in Amadis of Gaul.
+ANENT, about.
+ANES, once.
+ANNO DOMINI, in the year of the Lord.
+ARGUMENTUM AD HOMINEM, AD FEMINAM, lit. 'the argument to a man,
+    to a woman,' refutation of a man's argument by an example
+    drawn from his own conduct.
+ARIES, earnest-money, a gift.
+ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS, art is long, life short.
+ARS MEDENDI, art of medicine.
+APPROBATE, approve.
+ATLANTES, a character in ORLANDO FURIOSO.
+AULD REEKIE, Edinburgh.
+ADVOCATO DEL DIABOLO, lit. 'the devil's advocate', one whose duty
+    it is to oppose the canonization of a person on whose behalf
+    claims to sanctity are made.
+AWSOME, awful, fearful.
+
+BACK-GANGING, behind hand in paying.
+BACKSPAUL, the back of the shoulder.
+BALLANT, a ballad, a fable.
+BANNOCK, a flat, round cake.
+BARLEY-BROO, barley-broth.
+BARON-OFFICER, the magistrate's officer in a burgh of barony.
+BARTIZAN, a small overhanging turret, the battlements.
+BEAUFET, cupboard.
+BEAVER, the lower part of the helmet.
+BEIN, comfortable.
+BELISARIUS, a general of the Eastern Empire ungratefully treated
+    by the Emperor Justinian.
+BENEDICTE, bless you.
+BETIMES THE MORN, early in the morning.
+BICKER, a wooden vessel for holding drink; a quarrel.
+BILLIE, a term of familiarity, comrade.
+BIRKIE, a smart fellow.
+BIRLING, merry-making.
+BIT, small.
+BLATE, shy, bashful.
+BLAWING, flattering.
+BLEEZING, bragging.
+BLUE-CAP, a Scotsman.
+BOGLE, a ghost, a scarecrow.
+BON VIVANTS, lovers of good living.
+BONA ROBA, a showy wanton.
+BONUS SOCIUS, good comrade.
+BORREL, common, rude.
+BRAID, broad.
+BRASH, a sudden storm, an attack.
+BRATTLE, a clattering noise, as of a horse going at full speed.
+BRAW, brave, fine.
+BRENT BROO, high brow.
+BROCARD, maxim.
+BROSE, oatmeal which has had boiling water poured upon it.
+BROWN, a famous landscape gardener.
+BROWST, a brewing.
+BUCEPHALUS, the favourite horse of Alexander the Great.
+BUCKIE, an imp, a fellow with an evil twist in his character.
+BUFF NOR STYE, neither one thing nor another.
+BUFFERS, pistols.
+BUSK, deck up.
+BY ORDINAR, extraordinary, uncommon.
+BYE AND ATTOUR, over and above.
+
+CADGER, a travelling dealer.
+CADDIE, a porter, an errand-boy.
+CAETERA PRORSUS IGNORO, in short, I know nothing of the rest.
+CALLANT, a young lad.
+CALLER, cool, fresh.
+CANNY, shrewd, prudent, quiet.
+CANTLE, fragment.
+CAPERNOITED, crabbed, foolish.
+CAPRICCIOS, a fanciful composition.
+CAPRIOLE, a leap made by a horse without advancing.
+CARDINAL, a woman's cloak.
+CARLINES, old women.
+CATILINA OMNIUM, ETC. Catilina had surrounded himself with the
+    most vile and criminal company.
+CAUSEWAY, path, roadway.
+CAVALIERE SERVENTE, gentleman in attendance.
+CAVE NE LITERAS, ETC. take care that you are not carrying
+    Bellerophon's letters (letters unfavourable to the bearer).
+CHACK, a slight repast.
+CHANCY, safe, auspicious.
+CHANGE-HOUSE, a small inn or ale-house.
+CHANTER, the tenor or treble pipe in a bag-pipe.
+CHAPE, a thin metal blade at the end of a scabbard.
+CHAPEAU BRAS, a low, three-cornered hat.
+CHOUGH, a bird of the crow family.
+CHUCKY, fowl.
+CHUCKY-STONES, small stones, a child's game.
+CLAP AND HOPPER, signs of the mill.
+CLAVERS, gossip, idle talk.
+CLEEK, lay hold on.
+CLEIK IN, to join company.
+CLOSE, an alley, a narrow way.
+CLOSE-HEADS, the entry to an alley, a meeting-place for gossips.
+CLOUR, to strike, to bump.
+COBLE, a little boat.
+COCKERNONY, top-knot.
+COGIE, small wooden bowl.
+COMMUNE FORUM, ETC. the common court is the common dwelling-place.
+CORDWAIN, Spanish leather.
+CORIOLANUS, a Roman patrician, who, being driven from the city,
+    took refuge with Aufidius, the leader of the Volsci.
+COUP, fall, upset.
+COURIER DE L'EUROPE, a newspaper.
+COVYNE, artifice.
+CRACK, gossip.
+CRAIG, throat, neck.
+CRAWSTEP, the steplike edges of a gable seen in some old houses.
+CREEL, basket carried on the back.
+CREMONY, Cremona [where the best fiddles were made].
+CROWDER, fiddler.
+CUR ME EXAMINAS QUERELIS TUIS?, why do you wear me out with your
+    complaints.
+CURN, a very little.
+
+DAFT, crazy.
+DAIS, a canopy, a table placed above the others, a room of state.
+DARGLE, dell.
+DAURG, day's work.
+DE APICIBUS JURIS, from the high places of the law.
+DE PERICULO ET COMMODO REI VENDITAE, concerning the risk and
+    profit of sales.
+DEAD-THRAW, death-thraw.
+DEBOSHED, debauched.
+DEFORCEMENT--SPULZIE--SOUTHRIEF, legal terms for resisting an
+    officer of law.
+DEIL, devil.
+DELATE, accuse.
+DELICT, misdemeanour, QUASI DELICT, apparent offence.
+DEPONE, to testify.
+DERNIER RESORT, last resort.
+DIABLERIE, sorcery, witchcraft.
+DILIGENCE, writ of execution, coach.
+DING, to knock, beat down.
+DIRDUM, uproar, disturbance.
+DITTAY, an indictment.
+DIVOT, thin turf used for thatching cottages.
+DOCH AN DORROCH, the stirrup cup.
+DOMINUS LITIS, one of the principals in a law suit.
+DOOL, sorrow, sad consequences.
+DOOR-CHEEK, door-post.
+DOUCE, respectable.
+DRAMATIS PERSONAE, persons of the drama.
+DRAPPIT, fried.
+DRIBBLE, a drop.
+DRIFT, drift-snow.
+DULCINEA, Don Quixote's imaginary mistress.
+DUNSTABLE, something simple and matter-of-fact.
+DYVOUR, bankrupt.
+
+EKE, addition.
+EMBONPOINT, plumpness.
+EN CROUPE, riding behind one another.
+ET PER CONTRA, and on the other side.
+EVITE, avoid.
+EX COMITATE, out of courtesy.
+EX MISERICORDIA, out of pity.
+EXCEPTIO FIRMAT REGULAM, the exception proves the rule.
+EXOTIC, of foreign origin.
+
+FACTOR LOCO TUTORIS, an agent acting in place of a guardian.
+FARDEL, burden.
+FASH, FASHERIE, trouble.
+FECK, space.
+FEMME DE CHAMBRE, chamber-maid.
+FIERI, to be made.
+FLACON, a smelling bottle.
+FLAP, gust.
+FLIP, a drink consisting of beer and spirit sweetened.
+FLORY, frothy.
+FORBY, besides.
+FORENSIC, legal.
+FORFOUGHEN, out of breath, distressed.
+FORPIT, fourth part of a peck.
+FORTALICE, a small outwork.
+FRIST, to postpone, give credit,
+FUGIE, fugitive.
+FUNCTUS OFFICIO, having finished my duties, 'out of office'.
+
+GABERLUNZIE, a beggar.
+GAEN, gone.
+GALLOWAY, a strong Scotch cob.
+GANGREL, wandering, a vagrant.
+GAR, to force, make.
+GATE, way, road.
+GAUGER, an exciseman.
+GENTRICE, gentle blood.
+GIFF-GAFF, give and take.
+GIRDED, hooped like a barrel.
+GIRN, to grin, cry.
+GLAIKET, giddy, rash.
+GLIFF, glimpse, moment,
+GOWFF BA', golf ball.
+GRAINED, groaned.
+GRANA INVECTA ET ILLATA, grain brought and imported.
+GRAT, wept.
+GRILLADE, a broiled dish.
+GRIT, great.
+GROSSART, gooseberry.
+GRUE, to creep, shiver,
+GUDESIRE, grandfather.
+GUIDE, to deal with, to employ.
+GUMPLE-FOISTED, sulky, sullen.
+GWAY, very.
+GYTES, contemptuous name for a young child, a brat.
+
+HAFFLINS, half-grown.
+HAILL, all, the whole.
+HAIRST, harvest.
+HAMESUCKEN, assaulting a person in his own house.
+HAMSHACKLE, to fasten.
+HANK, a hold.
+HAP, to hop, turn from.
+HARPOCRATES, an Egyptian god, supposed by the Greeks to be the
+    god of silence.
+HAUGH, holm, low-lying flat ground.
+HAULD, place of abode.
+HAVINGS, behaviour.
+HEFTED, closed, as a knife in its haft.
+HELLICAT, extravagant, light-headed.
+HEMPEY, rogue.
+HET, hot.
+HEUCK, sickle.
+HINC ILLAE LACRYMAE, hence these tears.
+HINNY, honey, a term of endearment.
+HIPPOGRIFF, a fabulous winged animal, half horse and half griffin.
+HODDIN-GREY, cloth manufactured from undyed wool.
+HOMOLOGATING, ratifying, approving.
+HOOKS, OFF THE, light-headed.
+HOSE-NET, a small net used for rivulet fishing.
+HOW-COME-SO, light-headed.
+HUMOURSOME, subject to moods.
+HUSSEY, lady's needle-case.
+HYSON, green tea from China.
+
+IGNIS FATUUS, will o' the wisp.
+ILK, each; of the same name, as Redgauntlet of that Ilk
+    =Redgauntlet of Redgauntlet.
+ILL-DEEDIE, mischievous.
+ILL-FAUR'D, ugly, ill-favoured.
+IN CIVILIBUS or CRIMINALIBUS, in civil or criminal causes.
+IN FORO CONSCIENTIAE, in the assize of conscience.
+IN MEDITATIONE FUGAE, meditating flight.
+IN PRESENTIA DOMINORUM, before the Lords.
+INCEDIT SICUT LEO VORANS, goeth about like a roaring lion.
+INCOGNITA, unknown.
+INFRA DIG, beneath one's dignity.
+INSTANTER, at once.
+INTROMIT, to medldle with.
+INVITA MINERVA, against my bent.
+
+JACK, a metal pitcher.
+JAZY, wig.
+JET D'EAU, jet of water.
+JORUM, a drinking-vessel, or the liquor in it.
+JOW, to toll.
+JURIDICAL, pertaining to a judge or to the courts.
+
+KATTERFELTO, a famous quack.
+KEEK, to look.
+KEFFEL, a bad horse.
+
+LAIGH, low.
+LAND-LOUPER, runagate, vagabond.
+LARES, household gods, the special divinities of a family.
+LAP, leaped; fold.
+LAVE, rest, remainder.
+LAWING, inn reckoning.
+LEAL, loyal, true.
+LEASING-MAKING, lies, slander, seditious words.
+LEASOWES, the estate of the poet Shenstone.
+LEE-SIDE, the side of a vessel farthest from the point where the
+    wind blows.
+LEESOME LANE, his dear self alone.
+LEEVIN, living.
+LEE WAY, arrears of work.
+LEG, TO MAKE A, to bow.
+LETTRES DE CACHET, sealed letters issued by the King of France,
+    conferring power over the liberty of others.
+LEX AQUARUM, the law of the waters.
+LIMMER, a loose woman, a jade.
+LING, thin long grass, heather.
+LOANING, a meadow, pasture where the cows were milked,
+LOE, love.
+LOON, fellow, rogue.
+LOOPY, crafty.
+LOUIS-D'OR, a French gold coin worth from 16s, 6d. to 18s. 9d.
+LOUP, leap.
+LOUP-THE-DYKE, giddy, runaway.
+LOUP THE TETHER, breaking loose from restraint.
+LOVELACE AND BELFORD, characters in CLARISSA HARLOWE.
+LUCKY, a name given to an elderly dame.
+LUG, the ear.
+LUM, chimney.
+
+MACER, a court official.
+MAILING, a small farm or rented property.
+MAILS, rents.
+MALVERSATION, fraudulent tricks.
+MANUMISSION, liberty.
+MARCH, border.
+MARE MAGNUM, the great sea.
+MARIUS, a Roman general, leader in the civil war against Sulla.
+MEAR, mare.
+MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN, the writing seen by Belshazzar
+    (Daniel V. 25).
+MENYIE, retinue.
+MERIDIAN, noon; a mid-day drink.
+MERK, an old Scottish coin=1s. 1 1/2d. in English money.
+MESSAN, a lap-dog, a little dog.
+MICKLE, much.
+MIFFED, piqued.
+MILLAR, Philip Millar, author of several works on gardening.
+MINOS, a law-giver of Crete, afterwards set as a judge in Hades.
+MISHANTER, mischief.
+MISPRISION OF TREASON, concealment of treason.
+MOIDART, a loch in Inverness, where Prince Charles Stuart landed,
+    1745.
+MOIDORE, a gold coin of Portugal worth about L1 7s. 0d.
+MORE SOLITO, in the accustomed manner.
+MORE TUO, in your own way.
+MUILS, slippers.
+MUISTED, scented.
+MUTCHKIN, English pint.
+
+NE QUID NIMIS, do nothing in excess.
+NEGATUR, lit. 'it is denied,' I deny it.
+NEGOTIORUM GESTOR, manager of affairs.
+NEREID, a sea-nymph.
+NIGRI SUNT HYACINTHI, irises are dark flowers.
+NIHIL NOVIT IN CAUSA, nothing is known of the case.
+NIPPERKIN, a small cup, a liquid measure.
+NOM DE GUERRE, professional name.
+NOMINE DAMNI, in the name of damages.
+NONJURING, not swearing allegiance to the government, loyal to the
+    Stuarts.
+NOSCITUR A SOCIO, he is known by his friend.
+NOVITER REPERTUM, newly discovered.
+
+OHE, JAM SATIS, oh, enough.
+OMNE IGNOTUM PRO TERRIBILI, the unknown is always held in terror.
+OMNI SUSPICIONE MAJOR, above all suspicion.
+ORESTES AND PYLADES, DAMON AND PYTHIAS, classical examples of
+    friendship.
+ORIGO MALI, cause of the evil.
+ORNATURE, adornment, decoration.
+ORRA, odd.
+OVERTURE, opening.
+OWERLAY, cravat.
+OYE, a grandson.
+
+PACK OR PEEL, to traffic.
+PANDE MANUM, hold out your hand.
+PANDECTS, a digest of Roman law.
+PAR EXCELLENCE, above all, specially.
+PAR ORDONNANCE DU MEDECIN, by the doctor's orders.
+PARMA NON BENE SELECTA, a shield, or defence, not well chosen.
+PAROCHINE, parish.
+PATER NOSTER, Our Father, the Lord's Prayer.
+PATRIA POTESTAS, paternal authority.
+PAWMIE, a stroke on the palm of the hand.
+PEACH, betray, speak out.
+PEEL-HOUSE, a small fortified house, or tower.
+PEGASUS, the winged horse of the Muses.
+PENDENTE LITE, whilst the case is proceeding.
+PENDICLES, articles, small parts.
+PER AMBAGES, by circumlocution, in a roundabout way.
+PER CONTRA, on the other side.
+PERDU, concealed, lost.
+PERIPATETIC, walking, wandering.
+PESSIMI EXEMPLI, the worst possible example.
+PETTLE, a plough-staff.
+PHALARIS'S BULL, a furnace shaped like a bull into which the
+    tyrant Phalaris used to cast his victims.
+PISCATOR, fisherman.
+PISTOLE, a gold coin worth about 16s.
+PLACK, a small copper coin, equal to one-third of an English penny.
+PLEACH, interweave.
+PLICATIONS, folds, wrinkles.
+PLOY, a frolic.
+POCK-PUDDING, a contemptuous term applied to Englishmen
+POINT D'ESPAGNE, Spanish lace.
+POKE, pocket.
+PORT ROYAL, a monastery near Paris which became the headquarters
+    of the Jansenists, the opponents of the Jesuits.
+POSSE COMITATUS, the civil force of a county.
+POUND SCOTS, worth about 1s. 8d. English money.
+PRACTIQUES, practices of the profession.
+PRECOGNITION, examination prior to prosecution.
+PRECOGNOSCED, to take precognition of.
+PRETERMIT, omit, pass by.
+PURSUIVANTS, an officer-at-arms, in rank below a herald.
+
+QUAERE, query, a question.
+QUEAN, a young woman, a wench.
+QUI VIVE, alert, cautious.
+QUID, piece of tobacco to chew.
+QUID TIBI CUM LYRA, what hast thou to do with the lyre?
+QUORUM, the body of justices, so called from a word used in the
+    commission appointing them.
+
+RANT, a noisy dance-tune.
+RAPPAREE, an Irish plunderer; a worthless fellow,
+RATIONE OFFICII, by virtue of his position.
+RATTLING, lively, brisk.
+RAX, stretch.
+REAMING, frothing, foaming.
+REDD, clear up, tidy.
+REGIAM MAJESTATEM, a collection of Scotch laws.
+REIVER, robber.
+REMEDIUM JURIS, legal remedy.
+RIGDUM-FUNNIDOS, a courtier in H. Carey's burlesque,
+     CHRONONHOTONTHOLOGOS.
+RIPE, search.
+RUDAS, a scold, a virago.
+RUG, a share, a good mouthful.
+
+SANCTA WINIFREDA, ORA PRO NOBIS, Saint Winifred, pray for us.
+SARTUM ATQUE TECTUM, repaired and covered.
+SAT EST, it is enough.
+SAWNEY, a nickname for a Scotchman.
+SCARBOROUGH WARNING, the blow before the threat.
+SCOWP, quaff.
+SCRUB, the name of a footman in the BEAUX' STRATAGEM (Geo.
+    Farquhar, 1704).
+SCULDUDDERY, loose, immoral.
+SEALGH, seal,
+SEA-MAWS, sea-mews.
+SECUNDUM ARTEM, according to the rules of his art.
+SEDERUNT, a sitting of the courts.
+SEMPLE, simple, not of gentle birth,
+SHILPIT, weak; poor, shabby.
+SHINGLES, thin boards used for roofs.
+SI NON CASTE, CAUTE TAMEN, if not for virtue's sake, yet for
+    caution.
+SIB, kin.
+SIGMA, the Greek S.
+SINE DIE, without a date, indefinitely.
+SIS MEMOR MEI, be mindful of me.
+SKELLOCH, screech.
+SKINKER, a server of liquor.
+SKIRL, to scream.
+SKIVIE, harebrained.
+SLEEKIT, smooth.
+SLOKEN, quench.
+SNEESHING, snuff.
+SNELL, sharp, terrible.
+SNICKERS, sniggers.
+SOCIETAS EST MATER DISCORDIARUM, partnership is the mother of
+    quarrels.
+SOLITAIRE, an ornament for the neck.
+SOLON, the law-giver of Athens.
+SONSY, good-humoured, sensible.
+SORT, to chastise; to manage.
+SORTES VIRGILIANAE, Virgilian lots; opening the works of Virgil at
+    random and taking the first passage read for counsel.
+SOUGH, a breath, a chant.
+SOUPLE, active; supple in mind or body.
+SOUTER'S CLOD, a kind of coarse black bread.
+SPATTERDASHES, coverings for the legs to protect them from mud.
+SPEER, ask.
+SPLICE THE MAIN BRACE, have an extra allowance of spirits.
+SPLORE, a frolic, quarrel.
+SPRATTLE, struggle, scramble.
+SPRING, a merry tune.
+SPRUSH, spruce.
+SPULE-BLADE, shoulder blade,
+SPUNK, courage, fire: SPUNKS, matches.
+STEND, take long steps.
+STEWARTRY, territory in Scotland administered by a steward.
+STIBBLER, a divinity student, a probationer.
+STILTS, plough-handles.
+STUNKARD, sullen, obstinate.
+SUA QUEMQUE TRAHIT VOLUPTAS, his own peculiar pleasure allures
+    each.
+SURTOUT, a tight-fitting, broad-skirted outer coat.
+SWIPES, small beer.
+
+TAES, toes.
+TALIS QUALIS, of some kind.
+TAM MARTE QUAM MERCURIO, as much devoted to Mars as to Mercury (as
+    much a soldier as a pleader).
+TASS, a glass.
+TAU, the Greek: T.
+TERRA FIRMA, firm earth.
+TESTE ME PER TOTUM NOCTEM VIGILANTE, I am witness as I was awake
+    all night.
+TETE-A-TETE, a private conversation.
+THAIRM, catgut.
+THEMIS, the goddess of law and justice.
+THIRLAGE, mortgaging of property.
+THREAP, aver.
+THUMBIKINS, thumbscrews, instruments of torture.
+TIMOTHEUS, a famous musician.
+TIPPENY, twopenny ale,
+TIRTEAFUERA, a character in DON QUIXOTE, the doctor in Sancho
+    Panza's island government.
+TITHER, the other.
+TOD, a bush, a fox.
+TOOM, empty.
+TOUR OUT, to look about.
+TOY, a linen cap; a head-dress hanging down over the shoulders.
+TRANCES, passages.
+TUPTOWING, beating, from the Greek verb 'tupto', to strike.
+TWALPENNY, one penny sterling.
+TWASOME, a pair or couple.
+TYNE, loss or forfeit.
+TYRO, TYRONES, beginner, beginners; novice.
+
+UNCO, very, uncommon, strange.
+URGANDA, an enchantress in the romance of AMADIS OF GAUL.
+USQUEBAUGH, whisky.
+
+VADE RETRO, get thee behind me.
+VALE, SIS MEMOR MEI, farewell, be mindful of me.
+VARIUM ET MUTABILE SEMPER FEMINA, woman is always variable and
+    changeful.
+VERBUM SACERDOTIS, the word of a priest.
+VIA FACTI, by personal force.
+VINCERE VINCENTEM, to conquer the conquering.
+VINCO VINCENTEM, ERGO VINCO TE, I conquer the conquering,
+    therefore I conquer you.
+VIOLER, a player on a viol.
+VIR SAPIENTIA ET PIETATE GRAVIS, a man of much wisdom and piety.
+VIS ANIMI, strength of soul.
+VITIOUS, vicious, unruly.
+VOET, Jan Voet, author of a book on the PANDECTS.
+
+W.S., writer to the signet, a lawyer.
+WALING, choosing.
+WAME, stomach.
+WANCHANCY, unlucky, dangerous.
+WARE, spend.
+WARK, work, trouble.
+WAUR, worse.
+WEARS, weirs, dams.
+WEIGH-BANKS, scales.
+WHIN, gorse.
+WHITTLE, a small clasp-knife.
+WITHERSHINS, backwards in their courses, in the contrary way.
+WUD, mad.
+WYND, yard, alley.
+
+YAULD, active.
+YELLOCH, yell.
+YETTS, gates.
+YILL, ale.
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg Etext Redgauntlet by Sir Walter Scott.
+
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