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In the meanwhile, Madge, who had looked very | Wildfire's, the words of which bore some distant anapensive when she first stopped, suddenly burst into a logy with the situation of Robertson, trusting that the vehement fit of laughter, then paused and sighed bit-power of association would not fail to bring the rest terly, then was seized with a second fit of laughter, to her mind: -then, fixing her eyes on the moon, lifted up her voice and sung,

"Good even, good fair moon, good even to thee;
I prithee, dear moon, now show to me

The form and the features, the speech and degree,
Of the man that true lover of mine shall be."

"But I need not ask that of the bonny Lady Moon-
ken that weel eneugh mysell-true-love though he
wasna-But naebody shall say that I ever tauld a
word about the matter-But whiles I wish the bairn
nad lived-Weel, God guide us, there's a heaven
aboon us a',"-(here she sighed bitterly)
"and a
bonny moon, and sterns in it forby," (and here she
laughed once more.)

Are we to stand here all night?" said SharpitCaw, very impatiently. Drag her forward."

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Ay, sir," said Ratcliffe, "if we kend whilk way to drag her, that would settle it at ance.-Come, Madge, hinny," addressing her, "we'll no be in time o see Nicol and his wife, unless ye show us the road." "In troth and that I will, Ratton," said she, seizing him by the arm, and resuming her route with huge strides, considering it was a female who took them. ‘And I'll tell ye, Ratton, blithe will Nicol Muschat be to see ye, for he says he kens weel there isna sic a villain out o' hell as ye are, and he wad be ravished to hae a crack wi' you like to like, ye ken-it's a proverb never fails-and ye are baith a pair o' the deevil's peats, I trow-hard to ken whilk deserves the nettest corner o'. his ingle-side."

"There's a bloodhound ranging Tinwald wood,
There's harness glancing sheen,

There's a maiden sits on Tinwald brae,

And she sings loud between."

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Madge had no sooner received the catch-word, than she vindicated Ratcliffe's sagacity by setting off at score with the song:

"O sleep ye sound, Sir James, she said.
When ye suld rise and ride?

There's twenty men wi' bow and blade
Are seeking where ye hide."

Though Ratcliffe was at a considerable distance
from the spot called Muschat's, Cairn, yet his eyes,
practised like those of a cat to penetrate darkness,
could mark that Robertson had caught the alarm.
George Poinder, less keen of sight, or less attentive,
was not aware of his flight any more than Sharpit-
law and assistants, whose view, though they were
considerably nearer to the cairn, was intercepted by the
broken nature of the ground under which they were
screening themselves. At length, however, after the
interval of five or six minutes, they also perceived that
Robertson had fled, and rushed hastily towards the
place, while Sharpitlaw called out aloud, in the harsh-
est tones of a voice which resembled a saw-mill at
work, Chase, lads-chase-haud the brae-I see
him on the edge of the hill!" Then hollaing back
to the rear-guard of his detachment, he issued his
further orders: "Ratcliffe, come here, and detain the
woman-George, run and keep the style at the Duke's
Walk-Ratcliffe, come here directly-but first knock
"Ye had better rin for it, Madge," said Ratcliffe,
'for it's ill dealing wi' an angry man."

Ratcliffe was conscience-struck, and could not forbear making an involuntary protest against this clas-out that mad bitch's brains!" sification. 'I never shed blood," he replied.

Madge Wildfire was not so absolutely void of com

But ye hae sauld it, Ratton-ye hae sauld blood" nony a time. Folk kill wi' the tongue as weel as wi' the hand-wi' the word as weel as wi' the gul-mon sense as not to understand this innuendo; and Loy!

K

'It is the bonny butcher lad,

That wears the sleeves of blue,

He sells the flesh on Saturday,
On Friday that he slew.'"

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And what is that I am doing now?" thought Ratcliffe. But I'll hae nae wyte of Robertson's young bluid, if I can help it" then speaking apart to Madge, he asked her, "Whether she did not remember ony o' her auld sangs?"

Mony a dainty ane," said Madge; "and blithely can I sing them, for lighsome sangs make merry gate." And she sang,→

"When the glede's in the blue cloud,
The lavrock lies still;

When the hound's in the green-wood,
The hind keeps the hill."

"Silence her cursed noise, if you should throttle her," said Sharpitlaw; "I see somebody yonder.Keep close, my boys, and creep round the shoulder of the height. George Poinder, stay you with Ratcliffe and that mad yelling bitch; and you other two, come with me round under the shadow of the brae."

while Ratcliffe, in seemingly anxious haste of obedience, hastened to the spot where Sharpitlaw waited to deliver up Jeanie Deans to his custody, she fled with all the dispatch she could exert in an opposite direction. Thus the whole party were separated, and in rapid motion of flight or pursuit, excepting Ratcliffe and Jeanie, whom, although making no attempt to escape, he held fast by the cloak, and who remained standing by Muschat's Cairn.

CHAPTER XVIII.

You have paid the heavens your function, and the prisoner the very debt of your calling. Measure for Measure.

JEANIE DEANS, for here our story unites itself with that part of the narrative which broke off at the end of the first chapter,-while she waited, in terror and amazement, the hasty advance of three or four men towards her, was yet more startled at their suddenly breaking asunder, and giving chase in different directions to the late object of her terror, who became at that moment, though she could not well assign a And he crept forward with the stealthy pace of an reasonable cause, rather the cause of her interest. Indian savage, who leads his band to surprise an One of the party (it was Sharpitlaw) came straight unsuspecting party of some hostile tribe. Ratcliffe up to her, and saying, "Your name is Jeanie Deans, saw them glide off, avoiding the moonlight, and keep-and you are my prisoner," immediately added, "but ing as much in the shade as possible. "Robert- if you will tell me which way he ran I will let you go." son's done up," said he to himself; "thae young "I dinna ken, sir," was all the poor girl could utter; lads are aye sae thoughtless. What deevil could he and, indeed it is the phrase which rises most readily hae to say to Jeanie Deans, or to ony woman on to the lips of any person in her rank, as the readiest earth, that he suld gang awa and get his neck raxed reply to any embarrassing question. for her? And this mad quean, after cracking like a pen-gun, and skirling like a pea-hen for the hail night, behooves just to hae hadden her tongue when her clavers might have done some gude! But it's aye the way wi' women; if they ever haud their tongues ava', ye may swear it's for mischief. I wish I could set her on again without this blood-sucker kenning what lam doing. But he's as gleg as MacKeachan's elshin, that ran through sax plies of bend-leather and half an inch into the king's heel.

He then began to hum, but in a very low and supplessca tone, the first stanza of a favourite ballad of

"But," said Sharpitlaw, "ye ken wha it was ye were speaking wi', my leddy, on the hill side, and midnight sae near; ye surely ken that, my bonny woman?"

"I dinna ken, sir," again iterated Jeanie, who really did not comprehend in her terror the nature of the questions which were so hastily put to her in this moment of surprise.

"We will try to mend your memory by and by, hinny," said Sharpitlaw, and shouted, as we have already told the reader, to Ratcliffe, to come up and take charge of her, while he himself directed the chase after

Robertson, which he still hoped might be successful. I in order to satisfy herself whether he had been dis

As Ratcliffe approached, Sharpitlaw pushed the young turbed by her return. He was awake,-probably nad woman towards him with some rudeness, and be- slept but little; but the constant presence of his own taking himself to the more important object of his sorrows, the distance of his apartment from the outerquest, began to scale crags and scramble up steep door of the house, and the precautions which Jeanie banks, with an agility of which his profession and his had taken to conceal her departure and return, had general gravity of demeanour would previously have prevented him from being sensible of either. He argued him incapable. In a few minutes there was was engaged in his devotions, and Jeanie could disno one within sight, and only a distant halloo from tinctly hear him use these words: "And for the other one of the pursuers to the other, faintly heard on the child thou hast given me to be a comfort and stay to side of the hill, argued that there was any one within my old age, may her days be long in the land, achearing. Jeanie Deans was left in the clear moon-cording to the promise thou hast given to those who light, standing under the guard of a person of whom shall honour father and mother; may all her pur she knew nothing, and, what was worse, concerning chased and promised blessings be multiplied upon whom, as the reader is well aware, she could have her; keep her in the watches of the night, and in the learned nothing that would not have increased her uprising of the morning, that all in this land may know that thou hast not utterly hid thy face from When all in the distance was silent, Ratcliffe for those that seek thee in truth and in sincerity." He the first time addressed her, and it was in that cold was silent, but probably continued his petition in the sarcastic indifferent tone familiar to habitual depra-strong fervency of mental devotion. vity, whose crimes are instigated by custom rather than by passion. "This is a braw night for ye, dearie," he said, attempting to pass his arm across her shoulder, "to be on the green hill wi' your jo." Jeanie extricated herself from his grasp, but did not make any reply. "I think lads and lasses," continued the ruffian, "dinna meet at Muschat's Cairn at midnight to crack nuts," and he again attempted to take hold of her.

terror.

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"If ye are an officer of justice, sir," said Jeanie, again eluding his attempt to seize her, "ye deserve to have your coat stripped from your back.' "Very true, hinny," said he, succeeding forcibly in his attempt to get hold of her, "but suppose I should strip your cloak off first?"

"Ye are more a man, I am sure, than to hurt me, sir," said Jeanie; "for God's sake have pity on a half-distracted creature!"

"Come, come," said Ratcliffe, "you're a goodlooking wench, and should not be cross-grained. I was going to be an honest man-but the devil has this very day flung first a lawyer, and then a woman, in my gate. I'll tell you what, Jeanie, they are out an the hill-side-if you'll be guided by me, I'll carry you to a wee bit corner in the Pleasance, that I ken o' in an auld wife's that a' the prokitors o' Scotland wat naething o', and we'll send Robertson word to meet us in Yorkshire, for there is a set of braw lads about the mid-land counties, that I hae done business wi' before now, and so we'll leave Mr. Sharpitlaw to whistle on his thumb."

It was fortunate for Jeanie, in an emergency like the present, that she possessed presence of mind and courage, so soon as the first hurry of surprise had enabled her to rally her recollection. She saw the risk she was in from a ruffian, who not only was such by profession, but had that evening been stupifying, by means of strong liquors, the internal aversion which he felt at the business on which Sharpitlaw had resolved to employ him.

"Dinna speak sae loud," said she, in a low voice, "he's up yonder."

"Who?-Robertson?" said Ratcliffe, eagerly. Ay," replied Jeanie; "up yonder;" and she pointea to the ruins of the hermitage and chapel. "By G-d, then," said Ratcliffe, "Ill make my ain of him, either one way or other-wait for me here." But no sooner had he set off, as fast as he could run, towards the chapel, than Jeanie started in an opposite direction, over high and low, on the nearest path homeward. Her juvenile exercise as a herdswoman had put "life and mettle" in her heels, and never had she followed Dustiefoot, when the cows were in the corn, with half so much speed as she now cleared the distance betwixt Muschat's Cairn and her father's cottage at Saint Leonard's. To lift the latch-to enter to shut, bolt, and double bolt the door to draw against it a heavy article of furniture, (which she could not have moved in a moment of less energy,) so as to make yet further provision against violence, was almost the work of a moment, yet done with such silence as equalled the celerity.

Her next anxiety was upon her father's account, and she drew silently to the door of his apartment,

His daughter retired to her apartment, comforted, that while she was exposed to danger, her head had been covered by the prayers of the just as by an helmet, and under the strong confidence, that while she walked worthy of the protection of Heaven, she would experience its countenance. It was in that moment that a vague idea first darted across her mind, that something might yet be achieved for her sister's safety, conscious as she now was of her inno cence of the unnatural murder with which she stood charged. It came, as she described it, on her mind, like a sun-blink on a stormy sea; and although it instantly vanished, yet she felt a degree of composure which she had not experienced for many days, and could not help being strongly persuaded that, by some means or other she would be called upon, and directed, to work out her sister's deliverance. She went to bed, not forgetting her usual devotions, the more fervently made on account of her late deliverance, and she slept soundly in spite of her agitation.

We must return to Ratcliffe, who had started, like a greyhound from the slips when the sportsman cries halloo, so soon as Jeanie had pointed to the ruins. Whether he meant to aid Robertson's escape, or to assist his pursuers, may be very doubtful; perhaps he did not himself know, but had resolved to be guided by circumstances. He had no opportunity, however, of doing either; for he had no sooner surniounted the steep ascent, and entered under the broken arches of the ruins, than a pistol was presented at his head. and a harsh voice commanded him, in the king's name, to surrender himself prisoner. "Mr. Sharpit law!" said Ratcliffe, surprised, "is this your honour?" "Is it only you, and be d-d to you?" answered the fiscal, still more disappointed-"what made you leave the woman?"

"She told me she saw Robertson go into the ruins, so I made what haste I could to cleek the callant." "It's all over now," said Sharpitlaw; we shal see no more of him to-night; but he shall hide himself in a bean-hool, if he remains on Scottish ground without my finding him. Call back the people, Ratcliffe."

Ratcliffe holloed to the dispersed officers, who willingly obeyed the signal; for probably there was no individual among them who would have been much desirous of a rencontre hand to hand, and at a distance from his comrades, with such an active and desperate fellow as Robertson.

"And where are the two women?" said Sharpitlaw. "Both made their heels serve them, I suspect," replied Ratcliffe, and he hummed the end of the old song

"Then hey play up the rin awa bride,

For she has then the gee."

"One woman," said Sharpitlaw,-for, like al rogues, he was a great calumniator of the fair sex,

Holland to obtain the surrender of the unfortunate William Brodie, bears a reflection on the ladies somewhate that put in the mouth of the police officer Sharpitlaw. It had been found difficult to identify the unhappy criminal; and, when a Scotcn gentleman of respectability had seemed disposed to give evi dence on the point required, his son-in-law, a clergyman in Ain sterdam, and his daughter, were suspected by Graves to have

The journal of Graves, a Bow-street officer, dispatched in

one woman is enough to dark the fairest ploy that | ever was planned; and how could I be such an ass as to expect to carry through a job that had two in it? But we know how to come by them both, if they are wanted, that's one good thing."

Accordingly, like a defeated general, sad and sulky, he led back his discomfited forces to the metropolis, and dismissed them for the night.

The next morning early, he was under the necessity of making his report to the sitting magistrate of the day. The gentleman who occupied the chair of office on this occasion (for the bailies, Anglicé, aldermen, take it by rotation) chanced to be the same by whom Butler was committed, a person very generally respected among his fellow-citizens. Something he was of a humorist, and rather deficient in general education; but acute, patient, and upright, possessed of a fortune acquired by honest industry, which made him perfectly independent; and, in short, very happily qualified to support the respectability of the office which he held.

Mr. Middleburgh had just taken his seat, and was Jebating, in an animated manner, with one of his colleagues, the doubtful chances of a game at golf which they had played the day before, when a letter was delivered to him, addressed "For Bailie Middleburgh; These: to be forwarded with speed." It contained these words:

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ed-may have been unable to afford to it. And yet it
is certain, if the woman is found guilty under the
statute, execution will follow. The crime has been
too common, and examples are necessary."
"But if this other wench," said the city-clerk," can
speak to her sister communicating her situation, it
will take the case from under the statute."

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Very true," replied the Bailie; "and I will walk out one of these days to St. Leonard's, and examine the girl myself. I know something of their father Deans--an old true-blue Cameronian, who would see house and family go to wreck ere he would disgrace his testimony by a sinful complying with the defec tions of the times; and such he will probably uphold the taking an oath before a civil magistrate. If they are to go on and flourish with their bull-headed ob stinacy, the legislature must pass an act to take their affirmations, as in the case of Quakers. But surely neither a father nor a sister will scruple in a case of this kind. As I said before, I will go speak with them myself, when the hurry of this Porteous investigation is somewhat over; their pride and spirit of contradiction will be far less alarmed, than if they were called into a court of justice at once.'

"And I suppose Butler is to remain incarcerated ?" said the city-clerk.

"For the present, certainly," said the magistrate. "But I hope soon to set him at liberty upon bail." "Do you rest upon the testimony of that light"Not very much," answered the Bailie; "and yet there is something striking about it too-it seems the letter of a man beside himself, either from great agition, or some great sense of guilt."

"I know you to be a sensible and a considerate ma-headed letter?" asked the clerk, gistrate, and one who, as such, will be content to worship God, though the devil bid you. I therefore expect that, notwithstanding the signature of this letter acknowledges my share in an action, which, in a proper time and place, I would not fear either to "Yes," said the town-clerk, "it is very like the avow or to justify, you will not on that account re-letter of a mad strolling play-actor, who deserves to ject what evidence I place before you. The clergy-be hanged with all the rest of his gang, as your ho man, Butler, is innocent of all but involuntary pre-nour justly observes." sence at an action which he wanted spirit to approve of, and from which he endeavoured, with his best set phrases, to dissuade us. But it was not for him that it is my hint to speak. There is a woman in your jail, fallen under the edge of a law so cruel, that it has hung by the wall, like unscoured armour, for twenty years, and is now brought down and whetted to spill the blood of the most beautiful and most innocent creature whom the wails of a prison ever girdled in. Her sister knows of her innocence, as she communicated to her that she was betrayed by a villain. O that high Heaven

Would put in every honest hand a whip,

To scourge me such a villain through the world!' "I write distractedly-but this girl-this Jeanie Deans, is a peevish puritan, superstitious and scrupulous after the manner of her sect; and I pray your honour, for so my phrase must go, to press upon her, that her sister's life depends upon her testimony. But though she should remain silent, do not dare to think that the young woman is guilty-far less to permit her execution. Remember the death of Wilson was fearfully avenged; and those yet live who can compel you to drink the dregs of your poisoned chalice.I say, remember Porteous,-and say that you had good counsel from ONE OF HIS SLAYERS."

The magistrate read over this extraordinary letter twice or thrice. At first he was tempted to throw it aside as the production of a madman, so little did the scraps from playbooks," as he termed the poetical quotation, resemble the correspondence of a rational being. On a re-perusal, however, he thought that, amid its incoherence, he could discover something like a tone of awakened passion, though expressed in a manner quaint and unusual.

"It is a cruelly severe statute," said the magistrate to his assistant," and I wish the girl could be taken from under the letter of it. A child may have been born, and it may have been conveyed away while the mother was insensible, or it may have perished for want of that relief which the poor creature herselfhelpless, terrified, distracted, despairing, and exhaustused arguments with the wiess to dissuade him from giving his testimony. On which subject the journal of the Bow-street officer proceeds thus:

"Saw then a manifest reluctance in Mr. ——, and had no

"I was not quite so bloodthirsty," continued the magistrate. "But to the point, Butler's private character is excellent; and I am given to understand, by some inquiries I have been making this morning, that he did actually arrive in town only the day be fore yesterday, so that it was impossible he could have been concerned in any previous machinations of these unhappy rioters, and it is not likely that he should have joined them on a suddenty.'

"There's no saying anent that-zeal catches fire at a slight spark as fast as a brunstane match," observed the secretary, "I hae kend a minister wad be fair gude day and fair gude e'en wi' ilka man in the parochine, and hing just as quiet as a rocket on a stick, till ye mentioned the word abjuration-oath, or patronage, or siclike, and then, whiz, he was off, and up in the air an hundred miles beyond common manners, common sense, and common comprehension."

"I do not understand," answered the burghermagistrate, "that the young man Butler's zeal is of so inflammable a character. But I will make further investigation. What other business is there before us?"

And they proceeded to minute investigations concerning the affair of Porteous's death, and other affairs through which this history has no occasion to trace them.

In the course of their business they were interrupted by an old woman of the lower rank, extremely haggard in look, and wretched in her apparel, who thrust herself into the council room.

"What do you want, gudewife?-Who are you?" said Bailie Middleburgh.

"What do I want!" replied she, in a sulky tone"I want my bairn, or I want naething frae nane o' ye, for as grand's ye are." And she went on muttering to herself, with the wayward spitefulness of age" They maun hae lordships and honours, nae doubt-set them up, the gutter-bloods! and deil a gentleman amang them."-Then again addressing the sitting magistrate, "Will your honour gie me back my puir crazy bairn ?-His honour!—I hae kend doubt the daughter and parson would endeavour to persuade him to decline troubling himself in the matter, but judged he could not go back from what he had said to Mr. Rich.-NOTA BENB. No mischief but a woman or a priest, in il-here both.'

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"That's as muckle as till say, Bark, Bawtie, and be dune wi't! I tell ye," raising her termagant voice, "I want my bairn! is na that braid Scots?"

day when less wad ser'd him, the oe of a Camp- | ble mother. He proceeded to investigate the circum vere skipper." stances which had led to Madge Murdock son's (or Good we woman "said the magistrate to this shrew- Wildfire's) arrest, and as it was clearly s.own that ish supplicant, tell us what it is you want, and do she had not been engaged in the riot, he contented not interrupt the court." himself with directing that an eye should be kept upon her by the police, but that for the present she should be allowed to return home with her mother. During the interval of fetching Madge from the jail, the magistrate endeavoured to discover whether her mother had been privy to the change of dress betwixt that young woman and Robertson. But on this point he could obtain no light. She persisted in declaring, that she had never seen Robertson since his remarkable escape during service-time; and that, if her daughter had changed clothes with him, it must have been during her absence at a hamlet about two miles

"Who are you?-who is your bairn?" demanded Cie magistrate.

"Wha am I?-wha suld I be, but Meg Murdockson, and wha suld my bairn be but Magdalen Murdockson? -Your guard soldiers, and your constables, and your officers, ken us weel eneugh when they rive the bits o' duds aff our backs, and take what penny o' siller we hae, and harle us to the Correction-house in Leith Wynd, and pettle us up wi' bread and water, and sic-out of town, called Duddingstone, where she could like sunkets."

"Who is she?" said the magistrate, looking round to some of his prople.

"Other than a gude ane, sir," said one of the cityofficers, shrugging his shoulders, and smiling,

"Will ye say sae?" said the termagant, her eye gleaming with impotent fury; "an I had ye amang the Frigate-Whins, wadna I set my ten talents in your wuzzent face for that very word?" and she suited the word to the action, by spreading out a set of claws resembling those of St. George's dragon on a country sign-post.

"What does she want here?" said the impatient magistrate "Can she not tell her business, or go away?"

"It's my bairn!-it's Magdalen Murdockson I'm wantin'," answered the beldame, screaming at the highest pitch of her cracked and mistuned voicehavena I been tellin' ye sae this half-hour? And if ye are deaf, what needs ye sit cockit up there, and keep folk scraughin' t'ye this gate ?"

44

She wants her daughter, sir," said the same officer whose interference had given the hag such offence before-"her daughter, who was taken up last night-Madge Wildfire, as they ca' her."

"Madge HELLFIRE, as they ca' her!" echoed the beldame;" and what business has a blackguard like you to ca' an honest woman's bairn out o' her ain name ?"

"An honest woman's bairn, Maggie?" answered the peace-officer, smiling and shaking his head with an ironical emphasis on the adjective, and a calmness calculated to provoke to madness the furious old shrew.

"If I am no honest now, I was honest ance," she replied; "and that's mair than ye can say, ye born and bred thief, that never kend ither folk's gear frae your ain since the day ye was cleckit. Honest, say ye?-ye pykit your mother's pouch o' twalpennies Scotch when ye were five years auld, just as she was taking leave o' your father at the fit o' the gallows." "She has you there, George," said the assistants, and there was a general laugh; for the wit was fitted for the meridian of the place where it was uttered. This general applause somewhat gratified the passions of the old hag; the "grim feature" smiled, and even laughed-but it was a laugh of bitter scorn. She condescended, however, as if appeased by the success of her sally, to explain her business more distinctly, when the magistrate, commanding silence, again desired her either to speak out her errand, or to leave the place.

"Her bairn," she said, "was her bairn, and she came to fetch her out of ill haft and waur guiding, If she wasna sae wise as ither folk, few ither folk had suffered as muckle as she had done; forby that she could fend the waur for hersell within the four wa's of a jail. She could prove by fifty witnesses, and fifty to that, that her daughter had never seen Jock Porteous, alive or dead, since he had gien her a loundering wi' his cane, the neger that he was! for driving a dead cat at the provost's wig on the Elector of Hanover's birth-day.

Notwithstanding the wretched appearance and violent demeanour of this woman, the magistrate felt the justice of her argument, that her child might be as dear to her as to a more fortunate and more amiaVol. III

E

prove that she passed that eventful night. And, in fact, one of the town-officers, who had been searching for stolen linen at the cottage of a washerwoman in that village, gave his evidence, that he had seen Maggie Murdockson there, whose presence had considerably increased his suspicion of the house in which she was a visiter, in respect that he considered her as a person of no good reputation."

"I tauld ye sae," said the bag; ་་. see now what it is to hae a character, gude or bad!-Now, maybe after a,' I could tell ye something about Porteous that you council-chamber bodies never could find out, for as muckle stir as ye mak."

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All eyes were turned towards her-all ears were alert. น Speak out!" said the magistrate. "It will be for your ain gude," insinuated the town-clerk.

Dinna keep the Bailie waiting," urged the as sistants.

She remained doggedly silent for two or three minutes, casting around a malignant and sulky glance, that seemed to enjoy the anxious suspense with which they waited her answer. And then she broke forth at once,-" A' that I ken about him is, that he was neither soldier nor gentleman, but just a thief and a blackguard, like maist o' yoursells, dears What will ye gie me for that news, now ?-He wad hae served the gude town lang or provost or bailie wad hae fund that out, my joe!"

While these matters were in discussion, Madge Wildfire entered, and her first exclamation was," Eh! see if there isna our auld ne'er-do-weel deevil's buckie o' a mither-Heigh, sirs! but we are a hopetu' family, to be twa o' us in the Guard at ance-But there were better days wi' us ance-were there na, mither?"

Old Maggie's eyes had glistened with something like an expression of pleasure when she saw her daughter set at liberty. But either her natural affection, like that of the tigress, could not be displayed without a strain of ferocity, or there was something in the ideas which Madge's speech awakened, that again stirred her cross and savage temper "What signifies what we were, ye street-raking limmer!" she exclaimed, pushing her daughter before her to the door, with no gentle degree of violence. "I'se tell thee what thou is now-thou's a crazed hellicat Bess o' Bedlam, that sall taste naething but bread and water for a fortnight, to serve ye for the plague ye hae gien me-and ower gude for ye, ye idle taupie!"

Madge, however, escaped from her mother at the door, ran back to the foot of the table, dropped a very low and fantastic curtsey to the judge, and said with a giggling laugh,-"Our minnie's sair mis-set, after her ordinar, sir-She'll hae had some quarrel wi' her auld gudeman-that's satan, ye ken, sirs." This explanatory note she gave in a low confidential tone, and the spectators of that credulous generation aid not hear it without an involuntary shudder. gudeman and her disna aye gree weel, and then I maun pay the piper; but my back's broad enough to bear't a'-an' if she hae nae havings, that's nae reason why wiser folk shouldna hae some." Here another deep curtsey, when the ungracious. voice of her mother was heard.

The

Madge, ve limmer! If I come to fetch ye!" "Hear till her," said Madge. "But L.wan out a

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gliff the night for a' that, to dance in the moonlight, I charter and liberties, for what a violent and overwhen her and the gudeman will be whirrying through mastering mob had done walls, were the blue lift on a broom-shank, to see Jean Jap, that resented by many who thought a pretext was too they hae putten intill the Kirkcaldy tolbooth-ay, hastily taken for degrading the ancient metropolis they will hae a merry sail ower Inchkeith, and ower of Scotland. In short, there was much heart-burna' the bits o' bonny waves that are poppling and ing, discontent, and disaffection, occasioned by thes plashing against the rocks in the gowden glimmer ill-considered measures.* o' the moon, ye ken.-I'm coming, mother-I'm coming," she concluded, on hearing a scuffle at the door betwixt the beldam and the officers, who were endeavouring to prevent her re entrance. Madge then waved her hand wildly towards the ceiling, and sung, at the topmost pitch of her voice,

"Up in the air,

On my bonny gray mare,

And I see, and I see, and I see her yet.'

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Amidst these heats and dissensions, the trial of Effie Deans, after she had been many weeks imprisoned, was at length about to be brought forward, and Mr. Middleburgh found leisure to inquire into the evidence concerning her. For this purpose, he chose a fine day for his walk towards her father's house.

The excursion into the country was somewhat distant, in the opinion of a burgess of those days, And with a hop, ski and jump, sprung out of the although many of the present inhabit suburban villas room, as the witches of Macbeth used, in less re- considerably beyond the spot to which we allude. fined days, to seem to fly upwards from the stage. Three quarters of an hour's walk, however, even at a Some weeks intervened before Mr. Middleburgh, pace of magisterial gravity, conducted our benevolent agreeably to his benevolent resolution, found an op-office-bearer to the Crags of St. Leonard's, and the portunity of taking a walk towards St. Leonard's, humble mansion of David Deans. in order to discover whether it might be possible to obtain the evidence hinted at in the anonymous letter respecting Effie Deans.

In fact, the anxious perquisitions made to discover the murderers of Porteous occupied the attention of all concerned with the administration of justice.

In the course of these inquiries, two circumstances happened material to our story. Butler, after a close investigation of his conduct, was declared innocent of accession to the death of Porteous; but, as having been present during the whole transaction, was obliged to find bail not to quit his usual residence at Libberton, that he might appear as a witness when called upon. The other incident regarded the disappearance of Madge Wildfire and her mother from Edinburgh. When they were sought, with the purpose of subjecting them to some further interrogatories, it was discovered by Mr. Sharpitlaw that they had eluded the observation of the police, and left the city so soon as dismissed from the council-chamber. No efforts could trace the place of their retreat.

In the meanwhile the excessive indignation of the Council of Regency, at the slight put upon their authority by the murder of Porteous, had dictated measures, in which their own extreme desire of detecting the actors in that conspiracy were consulted, in preference to the temper of the people, and the character of their churchmen. An act of parliament was hastily passed, offering two hundred pounds reward to those who should inform against any person concerned in the deed, and the penalty of death, by a very unusual and severe enactment, was denounced against those who should harbour the guilty. But what was chiefly accounted exceptionable, was a clause, appointing the act to be read in churches by the officiating clergyman, on the first Sunday of every month, for a certain period, immediately before the sermon. The ministers who should refuse to comply with this injunction were declared, for the first offence, incapable of sitting or voting in any church judicature, and for the second, incapable of holding any ecclesiastical preferment in Scotland.

This last order united in a common cause those who might privately rejoice in Porteous's death, though they dared not vindicate the manner of it, with the more scrupulous presbyterians, who held that even the pronouncing of the name of the "Lords Spiritual" in a Scottish pulpit was, quodammodo, an acknowledgment of prelacy, and that the injunction of the Legislature was an interference of the civil government with the jus divinum of presbytery, since to the General Assembly alone, as representing the invisible ead of the kirk, belonged the sole and exclusive right of regulating whatever pertained to public worship. Very many also, of different political or religious sentiments, and therefore not much moved by these considerations, thought they saw, in so violent an act of parliament, a more vindictive spirit than became the legislature of a great country, and something like an attempt to trample upon the rights and independence of Scotland. The various steps adopted for « aunishing the city of Edinburgh, by taking away her

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The old man was seated on the deas, or turf-seat, at the end of his cottage, busied in mending his cartharness with his own hands; for in those days any sort of labour which required a little more skill than usual fell to the share of the goodman himself, and that even when he was well to pass in the world. With stern and austere gravity he persevered in his task,, after having just raised his head to notice the advance of the stranger. It would have been impossible to have discovered, from his countenance and manner, the internal feelings of agony with which he contended. Mr. Middleburgh waited an instant, expecting Deans would in some measure acknowledge his presence, and lead into conversation; but, as he seemed determined to remain silent, he was himself obliged to speak first.

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My name is Middleburgh-Mr. James Middleburgh, one of the present magistrates of the city of Edinburgh."

"It may be sae," answered Deans laconically, and without interrupting his labour.

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"You must understand," he continued, "that the duty of a magistrate is sometimes an unpleasant one.' "It may be sae," replied David; "I hae naething to say in the contrar;" and he was again doggedly silent.

"You must be aware," pursued the magistrate, "that persons in my situation are often obliged to make painful and disagreeable inquiries of individuals, merely because it is their bounden duty.'

"It may be sae," again replied Deans; "I hae naething to say anent it, either the tae way or the t'other. But I do ken there was ance in a day a just and Godfearing magistracy in yon town o' Edinburgh, that did not bear the sword in vain, but were a terror to evildoers, and a praise to such as kept the path. In the glorious days of auld worthy faithfu' Provost Dick,t

*The Magistrates were closely interrogated before the House

of Peers, concerning the particulars of the Mob, and the patels in which these functionaries made their answers, sounded strange in the ears of the Southern nobles. The Duke of New

castle having demanded to know with what kind of shot the guard which Porteous commanded had loaded their muskets, was answered naively, "Ow, just sic as ane shoots dukes and fools with." This reply was considered as a contempt of the House of Lords, and the Provost would have suffered accordingly, but that the Duke of Argyle explained, that the exprésfowl.

on, properly rendered into English, meant ducks and water

This gentleman formed a striking example of the instability of human prosperity. He was once the wealthiest man of his time in Scotland, a merchant in an extensive line of commerce, and a farmer of the public revenue; insomuch that, about 1640, he estimated his fortune at two hundred thousand pounds sterling. Sir William Dick was a zealous Covenanter; and in the memorable year 1641, he lent the Scottish Convention of Estates to support and pay their army, which must otherwise have broken to pieces. He afterwards advanced 20,000, for the service of King Charles, during the usurpation; and having, by owning he was fleeced of more money, amounting in all to 65,0001. ster the royal cause, provoked the displeasure of the ruling party, lig

one hundred thousand merks at once, and thereby enabled them

Being in this manner reduced to indigence, he went to London to try to recover some part of the sums which had been lent on Scottish Croesus was thrown into prison, in which he died, 15th government security. Instead of receiving any satisfaction, the December 1655. It is said his death was hastened by the want

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