gaes awa by the Knot o' the Gate ower to Keeldar-ward -and that makes an unco difference.'

And what difference does it make, friend?' said Pleydell. 'How many sheep will it feed?'

'Ou, no mony,' said Dandie, scratching his head; 'it's lying high and exposed-it may feed a hog, or aiblins twa in a good year.'

'And for this grazing, which may be worth about five shillings a year, you are willing to throw away a hundred pound or two?'

Na, sir, it's no for the value of the grass,' replied Dinmont; it's for justice.'

'My good friend,' said Pleydell, 'justice, like charity, should begin at home. Do you justice to your wife and family, and think no more about the matter.' Dinmont still lingered, twisting his hat in his hand'It's no for that, sir-but I would like ill to be bragged wi' him;-he threeps he'll bring a score o' witnesses and mair-and I'm sure there's as mony will swear for me as for him, folk that lived a' their days upon the Charlies-hope, and wadna like to see the land lose its right.'

'Zounds, man, if it be a point of honour,' said the lawyer, why don't your landlords take it up?'

'I dinna ken, sir' (scratching his head again); 'there's been nae election-dusts lately, and the lairds are unco neighbourly, and Jock and me cannot get them to yoke thegither about it a' that we can say; but if ye thought we might keep up the rent'

No! no! that will never do,' said Pleydell ;'confound you, why don't you take good cudgels and settle it?'

'Od, sir,' answered the farmer, 'we tried that three times already-that's twice on the land and ance at Lockerby fair. But I dinna ken-we 're baith gey good at single-stick, and it couldna weel be judged.'

'Then take broadswords, and be d-d to you, as your fathers did before you,' said the counsel learned in the law.

'Aweel, sir, if ye think it wadna be again the law, it's a' ane to Dandie.'

'Hold! hold!' exclaimed Pleydell, we shall have another Lord Soulis' mistake-Pr'ythee, man, comprehend me; I wish you to consider how very trifling and foolish a lawsuit you wish to engage in.'

Ay, sir?' said Dandie, in a disappointed tone. 'So ye winna take on wi' me, I'm doubting?'

'Me! not I-Go home, go home, take a pint and agree.' Dandie looked but half contented, and still remained stationary. Anything more, my friend?' 'Only, sir, about the succession of this leddy that's dead-auld Miss Margaret Bertram o' Singleside.'

Ay, what about her?' said the counsellor, rather surprised.

'Ou, we have nae connection at a' wi' the Bertrams,' said Dandie-'they were grand folk by the like o' us.But Jean Liltup, that was auld Singleside's housekeeper, and the mother of these twa young ladies that are gane -the last o' them's dead at a ripe age, I trow-Jean Liltup came out o' Liddel water, and she was as near our connection as second cousin to my mother's half sister. She drew up wi' Singleside, nae doubt, when she was his housekeeper, and it was a sair vex and grief to a' her kith and kin. But he acknowledged a marriage, and satisfied the kirk-and now I wad ken frae you if we hae not some claim by law?'

Monkbarns and Saunders Mucklebackit. The Antiquary, as we informed the reader in the end of the thirty-first chapter, had shaken off the company of worthy Mr Blattergowl, although he offered to entertain him with an abstract of the ablest speech he had ever known in the teind court, delivered by the procurator for the church in the remarkable case of the parish of Gatherem. Resisting this temptation, our senior preferred a solitary path, which again conducted him to the cottage of Mucklebackit. When he came in front of the fisherman's hut, he observed a man working intently, as if to repair a shattered boat which lay upon the beach, and going up to him was surprised to find it was Mucklebackit himself. 'I am glad,' he said in a tone of sympathy I am glad, Saunders, that you feel yourself able to make this exertion.'

'And what would ye have me to do,' answered the fisher gruffly, unless I wanted to see four children starve, because ane is drowned? It's weel wi' you gentles, that can sit in the house wi' handkerchers at your een when ye lose a friend; but the like o' us maun to our wark again, if our hearts were beating as hard as my hammer.'

Without taking more notice of Oldbuck, he proceeded in his labour; and the Antiquary, to whom the display of human nature under the influence of agitating passions was never indifferent, stood beside him, in silent attention, as if watching the progress of the work. He observed more than once the man's hard features, as if by the force of association, prepare to accompany the sound of the saw and hammer with his usual symphony of a rude tune, hummed or whistled,-and as often a slight twitch of convulsive expression showed that ere the sound was uttered, a cause for suppressing it rushed upon his mind. At length, when he had patched a considerable rent, and was beginning to mend another, his feelings appeared altogether to derange the power of attention necessary for his work. The piece of wood which he was about to nail on was at first too long; then he sawed it off too short, then chose another equally ill adapted for the purpose. At length, throwing it down in anger, after wiping his dim eye with his quivering hand, he exclaimed, 'There is a curse either on me or on this auld black bitch of a boat, that I have hauled up high and dry, and patched and clouted sae mony years, that she might drown my poor Steenie at the end of them, an' be d-d to her!' and he flung his hammer against the boat, as if she had been the intentional cause of his misfortune. Then recollecting himself, he added, 'Yet what needs ane be angry at her, that has neither soul nor sense?-though I am no that muckle better mysell. She's but a rickle o' auld rotten deals nailed

thegither, and warped wi' the wind and the sea-and I am a dour carle, battered by foul weather at sea and land till I am maist as senseless as hersell. She maun be mended though again the morning tide-that's a thing o' necessity.'

Thus speaking, he went to gather together his instruments, and attempt to resume his labour,-but Oldbuck took him kindly by the arm. 'Come, come,' he said, 'Saunders, there is no work for you this day. I'll send down Shavings the carpenter to mend the boat, and he may put the day's work into my account-and you had better not come out to-morrow, but stay to comfort your family under this dispensation, and the gardener will bring you some vegetables and meal from Monkbarns.'

'I thank ye, Monkbarns,' answered the poor fisher; 'I am a plain spoken man, and hae little to say for mysell; I might hae learned fairer fashions frae my mither lang syne, but I never saw muckle gude they did her; however, I thank ye. Ye were aye kind and neighbourly, whatever folk says o' your being near and close; and I hae often said, in thae times when they were ganging to raise up the puir folk against the gentles -I hae often said ne'er a man should steer a hair touching to Monkbarns while Steenie and I could wag a finger-and so said Steenie too. And, Monkbarns, when ye laid his head in the grave (and mony thanks for the respect), ye saw the mouls laid on an honest lad that likit you weel, though he made little phrase about it.' (From The Antiquary.)

Dour carle, stiff, rough fellow; the mouls, the mould, earth.

Cuddie Headrigg and Mause.

Cuddie, whose malady, real or pretended, still detained him in bed, lay perdu during all this conference, snugly ensconced within his boarded bedstead, and terrified to death lest Lady Margaret, whom he held in hereditary reverence, should have detected his presence, and bestowed on him personally some of those bitter reproaches with which she loaded his mother. But as soon as he thought her ladyship fairly out of hearing, he bounced up in his nest.

'The foul fa' ye, that I suld say sae,' he cried out to his mother, for a lang-tongued clavering wife, as my father, honest man, aye ca'd ye! Couldna ye let the leddy alane wi' your whiggery? And I was e'en as great a gomeral to let ye persuade me to lie up here amang the blankets like a hurcheon, instead o' gaun to the wappenschaw like other folk.-Od, but I put a trick on ye, for I was out at the window-bole when your auld back was turned, and awa' down by to hae a baff at the popinjay, and I shot within twa on 't. I cheated the leddy for your clavers, but I wasna gaun to cheat my joe. But she may marry whae she likes now, for I'm clean dung ower. This is a waur dirdum than we got frae Mr Gudyill when he garr'd me refuse to eat the plum-porridge on Yule-eve, as if it were ony matter to God or man whether a pleughman had suppit on minched pies or sour sowens.'

'Oh, whisht, my bairn whisht!' replied Mause; "thou kensna about thae things-It was forbidden meat, things dedicated to set days and holidays, which are inhibited to the use of Protestant Christians.'

'And now,' continued her son, 'ye hae brought the leddy hersell on our hands! An I could but hae gotten some decent claes in, I wad hae spanged out o' bed, and

tauld her I wad ride where she liked, night or day, an she wad but leave us the free house, and the yaird that grew the best early kale in the haill country, and the cow's grass.'

'O wow! my winsome bairn, Cuddie,' continued the old dame, 'murmur not at the dispensation; never grudge suffering in the gude cause.'

'But what ken I if the cause is gude or no, mither,' rejoined Cuddie, ' for a' ye bleeze out sae muckle doctrine about it? It's clean beyond my comprehension a'thegither. I see nae sae muckle difference atween the twa ways o't as a' the folk pretend. It's very true the curates read aye the same words ower again; and if they be right words, what for no?-a gude tale's no the waur o' being twice tauld, I trow; and a body has aye the better chance to understand it. Everybody's no sae gleg at the uptake as ye are yoursell, mither.' 'O, my dear Cuddie, this is the sairest distress of a',' said the anxious mother. 'O, how aften have I shown ye the difference between a pure evangelical doctrine, and ane that's corrupt wi' human inventions? O, my bairn, if no for your ain saul's sake, yet for my grey hairs'

'Weel, mither,' said Cuddie, interrupting her, 'what need ye mak sae muckle din about it? I hae aye dune whate'er ye bade me, and gaed to kirk whare'er ye likit on the Sundays, and fended weel for ye in the ilka days besides. And that's what vexes me mair than a' the rest, when I think how I am to fend for ye now in thae brickle times. I am no clear if I can pleugh ony place but the Mains and Mucklewhame; at least I never tried ony other grund, and it wadna come natural to me. And nae neighbouring heritors will daur to take us, after being turned aff thae bounds for non-enormity.'

'Non-conformity, hinnie,' sighed Mause, 'is the name that thae warldly men gie us.'

'Aweel, aweel-we 'll hae to gang to a far country, maybe twall or fifteen miles aff. I could be a dragoon, nae doubt, for I can ride and play wi' the broadsword a bit, but ye wad be roaring about your blessing and your grey hairs.' (Here Mause's exclamations became extreme.) 'Weel, weel, I but spoke o't; besides, ye 're ower auld to be sitting cocked up on a baggage-waggon, wi' Eppie Dumblane, the corporal's wife. Sae what's to come o' us I canna weel see-I doubt I'll hae to take the hills wi' the wild whigs, as they ca' them, and then it will be my lot to be shot down like a mawkin at some dike-side, or to be sent to Heaven wi' a Saint Johnstone's tippet about my hause.'

O, my bonny Cuddie,' said the zealous Mause, 'forbear sic carnal, self-seeking language, whilk is just a misdoubting o' Providence-I have not seen the son of the righteous begging his bread,-sae says the text; and your father was a douce honest man, though somewhat warldly in his dealings, and cumbered about earthly things, e'en like yoursell, my jo!'

'Aweel,' said Cuddie, after a little consideration, 'I see but ae gate for 't, and that's a cauld coal to blaw at, mither. Howsomever, mither, ye hae some guess o' a wee bit kindness that's atween Miss Edith and young Mr Henry Morton, that suld be ca'd young Milnwood, and that I hae whiles carried a bit book, or maybe a bit letter, quietly atween them, and made believe never to ken wha it cam frae, though I ken'd brawly. There's whiles convenience in a body looking a wee stupid-and

I have aften seen them walking at e'en on the little path by Dinglewood-burn; but naebody ever ken'd a word about it frae Cuddie. I ken I'm gey thick in the head, but I'm as honest as our auld fore-hand ox, puir fallow, that I'll ne'er work ony mair-I hope they'll be as kind to him that come ahint me as I hae been.-But, as I was saying, we 'll awa' down to Milnwood and tell Mr Harry our distress. They want a pleughman, and the grund's no unlike our ain-I am sure Mr Harry will stand my part, for he's a kind-hearted gentleman.-I'll get but little penny-fee, for his uncle, auld Nippie Milnwood, has as close a grip as the deil himsell. But we'll aye win a bit bread, and a drap kale, and a fire-side, and theeking ower our heads; and that's a' we 'll want for a season.—Sae get up, mither, and sort your things to gang away; for since sae it is that gang we maun, I wad like ill to wait till Mr Harrison and auld Gudyill cam to pu us out by the lug and the horn.'

(From Old Mortality.)

Gemeral, simpleton; hurcheon, hedgehog; dirdum, hubbub; sewens, a kind of thin porridge; kale, greens; gleg, keen, quick; aptake, comprehension; heritors, landlords; mawkin, hare; a Saint Johnstone's tippet, halter; hause, throat; brawly, bravely, perfectly; theeking, thatch; lug, ear.

Bailie Nicol Jarvie and Andrew Fairservice. 'Keep back, sir, as best sets ye,' said the Bailie, as Andrew pressed forward to catch the answer to some question I had asked about Campbell ;-'ye wad fain ride the fore-horse, an ye wist how.-That chield's aye for being out o' the cheese-fat he was moulded in.— Now, as for your questions, Mr Osbaldistone, now that chield's out of ear-shot, I'll just tell you it's free to you to speer, and it's free to me to answer, or no-Gude I canna say muckle o' Rob, puir chield; ill I winna say o' him, for, forby that he's my cousin, we're coming near his ain country, and there may be ane o' his gillies ahint every whin-bush, for what I ken-And if ye'll be guided by my advice, the less ye speak about him, or where we are gaun, or what we are gaun to do, we 'll be the mair likely to speed us in our errand. For it's like we may fa' in wi' some o' his unfreends-there are e'en ower mony o' them about-and his bonnet sits even on his brow yet for a' that; but I doubt they'll be upsides wi' Rob at the last-air day or late day, the fox's hide finds aye the flaying knife.'

'I will certainly,' I replied, 'be entirely guided by your experience.'

'Right, Mr Osbaldistone-right. But I maun speak to this gabbling skyte too, for bairns and fules speak at the Cross what they hear at the ingle-side. -D'ye hear, you, Andrew-what's your name?-Fairservice!'

Andrew, who at the last rebuff had fallen a good way behind, did not choose to acknowledge the summons. 'Andrew, ye scoundrel!' repeated Mr Jarvie ; 'here, sir: here!'

'Here is for the dog,' said Andrew, coming up sulkily.

'I'll gie you dog's wages, ye rascal, if ye dinna attend to what I say t'ye-We are gaun into the Hielands a bit

'I judged as muckle,' said Andrew.

'Haud your peace, ye knave, and hear what I have to say till ye-We are gaun a bit into the Hielands '—

'Ye tauld me sae already,' replied the incorrigible Andrew.

'I'll break your head,' said the Bailie, rising in wrath, 'if ye dinna haud your tongue.'

'A hadden tongue,' replied Andrew, 'makes a slabbered mouth.'

It was now necessary I should interfere, which I did by commanding Andrew, with an authoritative tone, to be silent at his peril.

'I am silent,' said Andrew. 'I'se do a' your lawfu' bidding without a nay-say. My puir mother used aye to tell me,

""Be it better, be it worse,

Be ruled by him that has the purse."

Sae ye may e'en speak as lang as ye like, baith the tane and the tither o' you, for Andrew.'

Mr Jarvie took the advantage of his stopping after quoting the above proverb, to give him the requisite instructions.

'Now, sir, it's as muckle as your life's worth-that wad be dear o' little siller, to be sure-but it is as muckle as a' our lives are worth, if ye dinna mind what I say to ye. In this public whar we are gaun to, and whar it is like we may hae to stay a' night, men o' a' clans and kindred-Hieland and Lawland -tak up their quarters-And whiles there are mair drawn dirks than open Bibles amang them, when the usquebaugh gets uppermost. See ye neither meddle nor mak, nor gie nae offence wi' that clavering tongue o' yours, but keep a calm sough, and let ilka cock fight his ain battle.'

'Muckle needs to tell me that,' said Andrew, contemptuously, as if I had never seen a Hielandman before, and ken'd nae how to manage them. Nae man alive can cuitle up Donald better than mysell—I hae bought wi' them, sauld wi' them, eaten wi' them, drucken wi' them'

'Did ye ever fight wi' them?' said Mr Jarvie.

'Na, na,' answered Andrew, 'I took care o' that it wad ill hae set me, that am an artist and half a scholar to my trade, to be fighting amang a wheen kilted loons that dinna ken the name o' a single herb or flower in braid Scots, let abee in the Latin tongue.'

'Then,' said Mr Jarvie, 'as ye wad keep either your tongue in your mouth, or your lugs in your head (and ye might miss them, for as saucy members as they are), I charge ye to say nae word, gude or bad, that ye can weel get by, to onybody that may be in the Clachan. And ye'll specially understand that ye 're no to be bleezing and blasting about your master's name and mine, or saying that this is Mr Bailie Nicol Jarvie o' the Saut Market, son o' the worthy Deacon Nicol Jarvie, that a' body has heard about; and this is Mr Frank Osbal distone, son of the managing partner of the great house of Osbaldistone and Tresham, in the City.'

'Eneuch said,' answered Andrew-'eneuch said. What need ye think I wad be speaking about your names for?—I hae mony things o' mair importance to speak about, I trow.'

'It's thae very things of importance that I am feared for, ye blethering goose; ye maunna speak ony thing, gude or bad, that ye can by any possibility help.'

'If ye dinna think me fit,' replied Andrew, in a huff, 'to speak like ither folk, gie me my wages and my boardwages, and I'se gae back to Glasgow-There's sma' sorrow at our parting, as the auld mear said to the broken cart.' (From Rob Roy.) Cheese-fat, cheese-vat; speer, ask; unfreends, enemies; a calm sough, quiet; cuitle, tickle; drucken, drunk; mear, mare.

David Deans and Bartoline Saddletree. 'These are kittle times-kittle times, Mr Deans, when the people take the power of life and death out of the hands of the rightful magistrate into their ain rough grip. I am of opinion, and so I believe will Mr Crossmyloof and the Privy Council, that this rising in effeir of war, to take away the life of a reprieved man, will prove little better than perduellion.'

'If I hadna that on my mind whilk is ill to bear, Mr Saddletree,' said Deans, 'I wad make bold to dispute that point wi' you.'

'How could you dispute what's plain law, man?' said Saddletree, somewhat contemptuously; there's no a callant that e'er carried a pock wi' a process in 't, but will tell you that perduellion is the warst and maist virulent kind of treason, being an open convocating of the king's lieges against his authority (mair especially in arms, and by touk of drum, to baith whilk accessories my een and lugs bore witness), and muckle warse than lese-majesty, or the concealment of a treasonable purpose--It winna bear a dispute, neighbour.'

'But it will, though,' retorted Douce Davie Deans; 'I tell ye it will bear a dispute-I never like your cauld, legal, formal doctrines, neighbour Saddletree. I haud unco little by the Parliament House, since the awfu' downfall of the hopes of honest folk that followed the Revolution.'

'But what wad ye hae had, Mr Deans?' said Saddletree, impatiently; 'didna ye get baith liberty and conscience made fast, and settled by tailzie on you and your heirs for ever?'

'Mr Saddletree,' retorted Deans, 'I ken ye are one of those that are wise after the manner of this world, and that ye haud your part, and cast in your portion, wi' the lang heads and lang gowns, and keep with the smart witty-pated lawyers of this our land-Weary on the dark and dolefu' cast that they hae gien this unhappy kingdom, when their black hands of defection were clasped in the red hands of our sworn murtherers: when those who had numbered the towers of our Zion, and marked the bulwarks of Reformation, saw their hope turn into a snare and their rejoicing into weeping.'

'I canna understand this, neighbour,' answered Saddletree. I am an honest Presbyterian of the Kirk of Scotland, and stand by her and the General Assembly, and the due administration of justice by the fifteen Lords o' Session and the five Lords o' Justiciary.'

'Out upon ye, Mr Saddletree!' exclaimed David, who, in an opportunity of giving his testimony on the offences and backslidings of the land, forgot for a moment his own domestic calamity-out upon your General Assembly, and the back o' my hand to your Court o' Session What is the tane but a waefu' bunch o' cauldrife professors and ministers, that sate bien and warm when the persecuted remnant were warstling wi' hunger, and cauld, and fear of death, and danger of fire and sword, upon wet brae-sides, peat-haggs and flow-mosses, and that now creep out of their holes, like bluebottle flees in a blink of sunshine, to take the pu'pits and places of better folk-of them that witnessed, and testified, and fought, and endured pit, prison-house, and transportation beyond seas?-A bonny bike there's o' them!-And for your Court o' Session'

'Ye may say what ye will o' the General Assembly,' said Saddletree, interrupting him, and let them clear them that kens them; but as for the Lords o' Session,

forby that they are my next-door neighbours, I would have ye ken, for your ain regulation, that to raise scandal anent them, whilk is termed to murmur again them, is a crime sui generis,—sui generis, Mr Deans-ken ye what that amounts to?'

'I ken little o' the language of Antichrist,' said Deans; 'and I care less than little what carnal courts may call the speeches of honest men. And as to murmur again them, it's what a' the folk that loses their pleas, and nine-tenths o' them that win them, will be gey sure to be guilty in. Sae I wad hae ye ken that I haud a' your gleg-tongued advocates, that sell their knowledge for pieces of silver-and your worldly-wise judges, that will gie three days of hearing in presence to a debate about the peeling of an ingan, and no ae half-hour to the gospel testimony-as legalists and formalists, countenancing by sentences, and quirks, and cunning terms of law, the late begun courses of national defections—union, toleration, patronages, and Yerastian prelatic oaths. As for the soul and body-killing Court o' Justiciary '

The habit of considering his life as dedicated to bear testimony in behalf of what he deemed the suffering and deserted cause of true religion, had swept honest David along with it thus far; but with the mention of the criminal court, the recollection of the disastrous condition of his daughter rushed at once on his mind; he stopped short in the midst of his triumphant declamation, pressed his hands against his forehead, and remained silent.

(From The Heart of Midlothian.) Kittle, ticklish; pock, bag; touk, tap; tailzie, entail; cauldrife, cold; bien, snug; bike, hive; forby, besides; gleg, quick; ingan,

onion.

Jeanie Deans and Queen Caroline. The queen seemed to acquiesce, and the duke made a signal for Jeanie to advance from the spot where she had hitherto remained, watching countenances which were too long accustomed to suppress all apparent signs of emotion, to convey to her any interesting intelligence. Her majesty could not help smiling at the awe-struck manner in which the quiet, demure figure of the little Scotchwoman advanced towards her, and yet more at the first sound of her broad northern accent. But Jeanie had a voice low and sweetly toned, an admirable thing in woman, and she besought her leddyship to have pity on a poor misguided young creature,' in tones so affecting that, like the notes of some of her native songs, provincial vulgarity was lost in pathos.

'Stand up, young woman,' said the queen, but in a kind tone, and tell me what sort of a barbarous people your country-folk are, where child-murder is become so common as to require the restraint of laws like yours.'

'If your leddyship pleases,' answered Jeanie, there are mony places besides Scotland where mothers are unkind to their ain flesh and blood.'

It must be observed that the disputes between George II. and Frederick, Prince of Wales, were then at the highest, and that the good-natured part of the public laid the blame on the queen. She coloured highly, and darted a glance of the most penetrating character, first at Jeanie, and then at the duke. Both sustained it unmoved; Jeanie from total unconsciousness of the offence she had given, and the duke from his habitual composure. But in his heart he thought, My unlucky protégée has with this luckless answer shot dead, by a kind of chance-medley, her only hope of success.'

Lady Suffolk, good-humouredly and skilfully, inter

posed in this awkward crisis. 'You should tell this lady,' she said to Jeanie, 'the particular causes which render this crime common in your country.'

'Some thinks it's the Kirk-session-that is-it's the -it's the cutty-stool, if your leddyship pleases,' said Jeanie, looking down and courtesying.

'The what?' said Lady Suffolk, to whom the phrase was new, and who besides was rather deaf.

'That's the stool of repentance, madam, if it please your leddyship,' answered Jeanie, for light life and conversation, and for breaking the seventh command.' Here she raised her eyes to the duke, saw his hand at his chin, and, totally unconscious of what she had said out of joint, gave double effect to the innuendo by stopping short and looking embarrassed.

As for Lady Suffolk, she retired like a covering party, which, having interposed betwixt their retreating friends and the enemy, have suddenly drawn on themselves a fire unexpectedly severe.

The deuce take the lass, thought the Duke of Argyle to himself; there goes another shot, and she has hit with both barrels right and left!

Indeed the duke had himself his share of the confusion, for, having acted as master of ceremonies to this innocent offender, he felt much in the circumstances of a country squire, who, having introduced his spaniel into a well-appointed drawing-room, is doomed to witness the disorder and damage which arises to china and to dress-gowns, in consequence of its untimely frolics. Jeanie's last chance-hit, however, obliterated the ill impression which had arisen from the first; for her majesty had not so lost the feelings of a wife in those of a queen, but that she could enjoy a jest at the expense of 'her good Suffolk.' She turned towards the Duke of Argyle with a smile, which marked that she enjoyed the triumph, and observed, 'The Scotch are a rigidly moral people.' Then, again applying herself to Jeanie, she asked how she had travelled up from Scotland.

Upon my foot mostly, madam,' was the reply. 'What, all that immense way upon foot? How far can you walk in a day?'

'Five-and-twenty miles and a bittock.'

'And a what?' said the queen, looking towards the Duke of Argyle.

And about five miles more,' replied the duke.

'I thought I was a good walker,' said the queen, 'but this shames me sadly.'

'May your leddyship never hae sae weary a heart that ye canna be sensible of the weariness of the limbs,' said Jeanie.

That came better off, thought the duke; it's the first thing she has said to the purpose.

'And I didna just a'thegither walk the haill way neither, for I had whiles the cast of a cart; and I had the cast of a horse from Ferrybridge-and divers other easements,' said Jeanie, cutting short her story, for she observed the duke made the sign he had fixed upon.

With all these accommodations,' answered the queen, you must have had a very fatiguing journey, and, I fear, to little purpose; since, if the king were to pardon your sister, in all probability it would do her little good, for I suppose your people of Edinburgh would hang her out of spite.'

She will sink herself now outright, thought the duke. But he was wrong. The shoals on which Jeanie had touched in this delicate conversation lay underground,

'She was confident,' she said, that baith town and country wad rejoice to see his majesty taking compassion on a poor unfriended creature.'

'His majesty has not found it so in a late instance,' said the queen; but I suppose my lord duke would advise him to be guided by the votes of the rabble themselves, who should be hanged and who spared?

'No, madam,' said the duke, but I would advise his majesty to be guided by his own feelings, and those of his royal consort; and then I am sure punishment will only attach itself to guilt, and even then with cautious reluctance.'

'Well, my lord,' said her majesty, all these fine speeches do not convince me of the propriety of so soon showing any mark of favour to your-I suppose I must not say rebellious?-but, at least, your very disaffected and intractable metropolis. Why, the whole nation is in a league to screen the savage and abominable murderers of that unhappy man; otherwise, how is it possible but that, of so many perpetrators, and engaged in so public an action for such a length of time, one at least must have been recognised? Even this wench, for aught I can tell, may be a depository of the secret.-Hark you, young woman, had you any friends engaged in the Porteous mob?'

'No, madam,' answered Jeanie, happy that the question was so framed that she could, with a good conscience, answer it in the negative.

'But I suppose,' continued the queen, ‘if you were possessed of such a secret, you would hold it a matter of conscience to keep it to yourself?'

'I would pray to be directed and guided what was the line of duty, madam,' answered Jeanie.

'Yes, and take that which suited your own inclinations,' replied her majesty.

'If it like you, madam,' said Jeanie, 'I would hae gaen to the end of the earth to save the life of John Porteous, or any other unhappy man in his condition; but I might lawfully doubt how far I am called upon to be the avenger of his blood, though it may become the civil magistrate to do so. He is dead and gaen to his place, and they that have slain him must answer for their ain act. But my sister, my puir sister, Effie, still lives, though her days and hours are numbered! She still lives, and a word of the king's mouth might restore her to a broken-hearted auld man, that never in his daily and nightly exercise forgot to pray that his majesty might be blessed with a long and prosperous. reign, and that his throne, and the throne of his posterity, might be established in righteousness. O madam, if ever ye kend what it was to sorrow for and with a sinning and a suffering creature, whose mind is sae tossed that she can be neither ca'd fit to live or die, have some compassion on our misery !-Save an honest house from dishonour, and an unhappy girl, not eighteen years of age, from an early and dreadful death! Alas! it is not when we sleep soft and wake merrily ourselves that we think on other people's sufferings. Our hearts are waxed light within us then, and we are for righting our ain wrongs and fighting our ain battles. But when the hour of trouble comes to the mind or to the bodyand seldom may it visit your leddyship-and when the hour of death comes, that comes to high and low-lang and late may it be yours!-Oh, my leddy, then it isna