He entered with a profound salutation to Sir Robert Hazlewood. Sir
Robert, who had rather begun to suspect that his plebeian
neighbour had made a cat's paw of him, inclined his head stiffly,
took snuff, and looked another way.

'Mr. Corsand,' said Glossin to the other yokefellow of justice,
'your most humble servant.'

'Your humble servant, Mr. Glossin,' answered Mr. Corsand drily,
composing his countenance regis ad exemplar, that is to say, after
the fashion of the Baronet.

'Mac-Morlan, my worthy friend,' continued Glossin, 'how d' ye do;
always on your duty?'

'Umph,' said honest Mac-Morlan, with little respect either to the
compliment or salutation.

'Colonel Mannering (a low bow slightly returned), and Mr. Pleydell
(another low bow), I dared not have hoped for your assistance to
poor country gentlemen at this period of the session.'

Pleydell took snuff, and eyed him with a glance equally shrewd and
sarcastic. 'I'll teach him,' he said aside to Mannering, 'the
value of the old admonition, Ne accesseris in consilium antequam
voceris.'

'But perhaps I intrude, gentlemen?' said Glossin, who could not
fail to observe the coldness of his reception. 'Is this an open
meeting?'

'For my part,' said Mr. Pleydell, 'so far from considering your
attendance as an intrusion, Mr. Glossin, I was never so pleased in
my life to meet with you; especially as I think we should, at any
rate, have had occasion to request the favour of your company in
the course of the day.'

'Well, then, gentlemen,' said Glossin, drawing his chair to the
table, and beginning to bustle about among the papers, 'where are
we? how far have we got? where are the declarations?'

'Clerk, give me all these papers,' said Mr. Pleydell. 'I have an
odd way of arranging my documents, Mr. Glossin, another person
touching them puts me out; but I shall have occasion for your
assistance by and by.'

Glossin, thus reduced to inactivity, stole one glance at Dirk
Hatteraick, but could read nothing in his dark scowl save
malignity and hatred to all around. 'But, gentlemen,' said
Glossin, 'is it quite right to keep this poor man so heavily
ironed when he is taken up merely for examination?'

This was hoisting a kind of friendly signal to the prisoner. 'He
has escaped once before,' said Mac-Morlan drily, and Glossin was
silenced.

Bertram was now introduced, and, to Glossin's confusion, was
greeted in the most friendly manner by all present, even by Sir
Robert Hazlewood himself. He told his recollections of his infancy
with that candour and caution of expression which afforded the
best warrant for his good faith. 'This seems to be rather a civil
than a criminal question,' said Glossin, rising; 'and as you
cannot be ignorant, gentlemen, of the effect which this young
person's pretended parentage may have on my patrimonial interest,
I would rather beg leave to retire.'

'No, my good sir,' said Mr. Pleydell, 'we can by no means spare
you. But why do you call this young man's claims pretended? I
don't mean to fish for your defences against them, if you have
any, but--'

'Mr. Pleydell,' replied Glossin, 'I am always disposed to act
above-board, and I think I can explain the matter at once. This
young fellow, whom I take to be a natural son of the late
Ellangowan, has gone about the country for some weeks under
different names, caballing with a wretched old mad-woman, who, I
understand, was shot in a late scuffle, and with other tinkers,
gipsies, and persons of that description, and a great brute farmer
from Liddesdale, stirring up the tenants against their landlords,
which, as Sir Robert Hazlewood of Hazlewood knows--'

'Not to interrupt you, Mr. Glossin,' said Pleydell, 'I ask who you
say this young man is?'

'Why, I say,' replied Glossin, 'and I believe that gentleman
(looking at Hatteraick) knows, that the young man is a natural son
of the late Ellangowan, by a girl called Janet Lightoheel, who was
afterwards married to Hewit the shipwright, that lived in the
neighbourhood of Annan. His name is Godfrey Bertram Hewit, by
which name he was entered on board the Royal Caroline excise
yacht.'

'Ay?' said Pleydell, 'that is a very likely story! But, not to
pause upon some difference of eyes, complexion, and so forth--be
pleased to step forward, sir.' (A young seafaring man came
forward.) 'Here,' proceeded the Counsellor, 'is the real Simon
Pure; here's Godfrey Bertram Hewit, arrived last night from
Antigua via Liverpool, mate of a West-Indian, and in a fair way of
doing well in the world, although he came somewhat irregularly
into it.'

While some conversation passed between the other justices and this
young man, Pleydell lifted from among the papers on the table
Hatteraick's old pocket-book. A peculiar glance of the smuggler's
eye induced the shrewd lawyer to think there was something here of
interest. He therefore continued the examination of the papers,
laying the book on the table, but instantly perceived that the
prisoner's interest in the research had cooled. 'It must be in the
book still, whatever it is,' thought Pleydell; and again applied
himself to the pocket-book, until he discovered, on a narrow
scrutiny, a slit between the pasteboard and leather, out of which
he drew three small slips of paper. Pleydell now, turning to
Glossin, requested the favour that he would tell them if he had
assisted at the search for the body of Kennedy and the child of
his patron on the day when they disappeared.

'I did not--that is, I did,' answered the conscience-struck
Glossin.

'It is remarkable though,' said the Advocate, 'that, connected as
you were with the Ellangowan family, I don't recollect your being
examined, or even appearing before me, while that investigation
was proceeding?'

'I was called to London,' answered Glossin, 'on most important
business the morning after that sad affair.'

'Clerk,' said Pleydell, 'minute down that reply. I presume the
business, Mr. Glossin, was to negotiate these three bills, drawn
by you on Messrs. Vanbeest and Vanbruggen, and accepted by one
Dirk Hatteraick in their name on the very day of the murder. I
congratulate you on their being regularly retired, as I perceive
they have been. I think the chances were against it.' Glossin's
countenance fell. 'This piece of real evidence,' continued Mr.
Pleydell, 'makes good the account given of your conduct on this
occasion by a man called Gabriel Faa, whom we have now in custody,
and who witnessed the whole transaction between you and that
worthy prisoner. Have you any explanation to give?'

'Mr. Pleydell,' said Glossin, with great composure, 'I presume, if
you were my counsel, you would not advise me to answer upon the
spur of the moment to a charge which the basest of mankind seem
ready to establish by perjury.'

'My advice,' said the Counsellor, 'would be regulated by my
opinion of your innocence or guilt. In your case, I believe you
take the wisest course; but you are aware you must stand
committed?'

'Committed? for what, sir?' replied Glossin. 'Upon a charge of
murder?'

'No; only as art and part of kidnapping the child.'

'That is a bailable offence.'

'Pardon me,' said Pleydell, 'it is plagium, and plagium is
felony.'

'Forgive me, Mr. Pleydell, there is only one case upon record,
Torrence and Waldie. They were, you remember, resurrection-women,
who had promised to procure a child's body for some young
surgeons. Being upon honour to their employers, rather than
disappoint the evening lecture of the students, they stole a live
child, murdered it, and sold the body for three shillings and
sixpence. They were hanged, but for the murder, not for the
plagium [Footnote: This is, in its circumstances and issue,
actually a case tried and reported.]--Your civil law has carried
you a little too far.'

'Well, sir, but in the meantime Mr. Mac-Morlan must commit you to
the county jail, in case this young man repeats the same story.
Officers, remove Mr. Glossin and Hatteraick, and guard them in
different apartments.'

Gabriel, the gipsy, was then introduced, and gave a distinct
account of his deserting from Captain Pritchard's vessel and
joining the smugglers in the action, detailed how Dirk Hatteraick
set fire to his ship when he found her disabled, and under cover
of the smoke escaped with his crew, and as much goods as they
could save, into the cavern, where they proposed to lie till
nightfall. Hatteraick himself, his mate Vanbeest Brown, and three
others, of whom the declarant was one, went into the adjacent
woods to communicate with some of their friends in the
neighbourhood. They fell in with Kennedy unexpectedly, and
Hatteraick and Brown, aware that he was the occasion of their
disasters, resolved to murder him. He stated that he had seen them
lay violent hands on the officer and drag him through the woods,
but had not partaken in the assault nor witnessed its termination;
that he returned to the cavern by a different route, where he
again met Hatteraick and his accomplices; and the captain was in
the act of giving an account how he and Brown had pushed a huge
crag over, as Kennedy lay groaning on the beach, when Glossin
suddenly appeared among them. To the whole transaction by which
Hatteraick purchased his secrecy he was witness. Respecting young
Bertram, he could give a distinct account till he went to India,
after which he had lost sight of him until he unexpectedly met
with him in Liddesdale. Gabriel Faa farther stated that he
instantly sent notice to his aunt Meg Merrilies, as well as to
Hatteraick, who he knew was then upon the coast; but that he had
incurred his aunt's displeasure upon the latter account. He
concluded, that his aunt had immediately declared that she would
do all that lay in her power to help young Ellangowan to his
right, even if it should be by informing against Dirk Hatteraick;
and that many of her people assisted her besides himself, from a
belief that she was gifted with supernatural inspirations. With
the same purpose, he understood his aunt had given to Bertram the
treasure of the tribe, of which she had the custody. Three or four
gipsies, by the express command of Meg Merrilies, mingled in the
crowd when the custom-house was attacked, for the purpose of
liberating Bertram, which he had himself effected. He said, that
in obeying Meg's dictates they did not pretend to estimate their
propriety or rationality, the respect in which she was held by her
tribe precluding all such subjects of speculation. Upon farther
interrogation, the witness added, that his aunt had always said
that Harry Bertram carried that round his neck which would
ascertain his birth. It was a spell, she said, that an Oxford
scholar had made for him, and she possessed the smugglers with an
opinion that to deprive him of it would occasion the loss of the
vessel.

Bertram here produced a small velvet bag, which he said he had
worn round his neck from his earliest infancy, and which he had
preserved, first from superstitious reverence, and latterly from
the hope that it might serve one day to aid in the discovery of
his birth. The bag, being opened, was found to contain a blue silk
case, from which was drawn a scheme of nativity. Upon inspecting
this paper, Colonel Mannering instantly admitted it was his own
composition; and afforded the strongest and most satisfactory
evidence that the possessor of it must necessarily be the young
heir of Ellangowan, by avowing his having first appeared in that
country in the character of an astrologer.

'And now,' said Pleydell, 'make out warrants of commitment for
Hatteraick and Glossin until liberated in due course of law. Yet,'
he said, 'I am sorry for Glossin.'

'Now, I think,' said Mannering, 'he's incomparably the least
deserving of pity of the two. The other's a bold fellow, though as
hard as flint.'

'Very natural, Colonel,' said the Advocate, 'that you should be
interested in the ruffian and I in the knave, that's all
professional taste; but I can tell you Glossin would have been a
pretty lawyer had he not had such a turn for the roguish part of
the profession.'

'Scandal would say,' observed Mannering, 'he might not be the
worse lawyer for that.'

'Scandal would tell a lie, then,' replied Pleydell, 'as she
usually does. Law's like laudanum: it's much more easy to use it
as a quack does than to learn to apply it like a physician.'




CHAPTER LVII

     Unfit to live or die--O marble heart!
     After him, fellows, drag him to the block.

          Measure for Measure.


The jail at the county town of the shire of----was one of those
old-fashioned dungeons which disgraced Scotland until of late
years. When the prisoners and their guard arrived there,
Hatteraick, whose violence and strength were well known, was
secured in what was called the condemned ward. This was a large
apartment near the top of the prison. A round bar of
iron,[Footnote: See Note 9.] about the thickness of a man's arm
above the elbow, crossed the apartment horizontally at the height
of about six inches from the floor; and its extremities were
strongly built into the wall at either end. Hatteraick's ankles
were secured within shackles, which were connected by a chain, at
the distance of about four feet, with a large iron ring, which
travelled upon the bar we have described. Thus a prisoner might
shuffle along the length of the bar from one side of the room to
another, but could not retreat farther from it in any other
direction than the brief length of the chain admitted. When his
feet had been thus secured, the keeper removed his handcuffs and
left his person at liberty in other respects. A pallet-bed was
placed close to the bar of iron, so that the shackled prisoner
might lie down at pleasure, still fastened to the iron bar in the
manner described.

Hatteraick had not been long in this place of confinement before
Glossin arrived at the same prison-house. In respect to his
comparative rank and education, he was not ironed, but placed in a
decent apartment, under the inspection of Mac-Guffog, who, since
the destruction of the bridewell of Portanferry by the mob, had
acted here as an under-turnkey. When Glossin was enclosed within
this room, and had solitude and leisure to calculate all the
chances against him and in his favour, he could not prevail upon
himself to consider the game as desperate.

'The estate is lost,' he said, 'that must go; and, between
Pleydell and Mac-Morlan, they'll cut down my claim on it to a
trifle. My character--but if I get off with life and liberty I'll
win money yet and varnish that over again. I knew not of the
gauger's job until the rascal had done the deed, and, though I had
some advantage by the contraband, that is no felony. But the
kidnapping of the boy--there they touch me closer. Let me see.
This Bertram was a child at the time; his evidence must be
imperfect. The other fellow is a deserter, a gipsy, and an outlaw.
Meg Merrilies, d-n her, is dead. These infernal bills! Hatteraick
brought them with him, I suppose, to have the means of threatening
me or extorting money from me. I must endeavour to see the rascal;
must get him to stand steady; must persuade him to put some other
colour upon the business.'

His mind teeming with schemes of future deceit to cover former
villainy, he spent the time in arranging and combining them until
the hour of supper. Mac-Guffog attended as turnkey on this
occasion. He was, as we know, the old and special acquaintance of
the prisoner who was now under his charge. After giving the
turnkey a glass of brandy, and sounding him with one or two
cajoling speeches, Glossin made it his request that he would help
him to an interview with Dirk Hatteraick. 'Impossible! utterly
impossible! it's contrary to the express orders of Mr. Mac-Morlan,
and the captain (as the head jailor of a county jail is called in
Scotland) would never forgie me.'

'But why should he know of it?' said Glossin, slipping a couple of
guineas into Mac-Guffog's hand.

The turnkey weighed the gold and looked sharp at Glossin. 'Ay, ay,
Mr. Glossin, ye ken the ways o' this place. Lookee, at lock-up
hour I'll return and bring ye upstairs to him. But ye must stay a'
night in his cell, for I am under needcessity to carry the keys to
the captain for the night, and I cannot let you out again until
morning; then I'll visit the wards half an hour earlier than
usual, and ye may get out and be snug in your ain birth when the
captain gangs his rounds.'

When the hour of ten had pealed from the neighbouring steeple Mac-
Guffog came prepared with a small dark lantern. He said softly to
Glossin, 'Slip your shoes off and follow me.' When Glossin was out
of the door, Mac-Guffog, as if in the execution of his ordinary
duty, and speaking to a prisoner within, called aloud, 'Good-night
to you, sir,' and locked the door, clattering the bolts with much
ostentatious noise. He then guided Glossin up a steep and narrow
stair, at the top of which was the door of the condemned ward; he
unbarred and unlocked it, and, giving Glossin the lantern, made a
sign to him to enter, and locked the door behind him with the same
affected accuracy.

In the large dark cell into which he was thus introduced Glossin's
feeble light for some time enabled him to discover nothing. At
length he could dimly distinguish the pallet-bed stretched on the
floor beside the great iron bar which traversed the room, and on
that pallet reposed the figure of a man. Glossin approached him.
'Dirk Hatteraick!'

'Donner and hagel! it is his voice,' said the prisoner, sitting up
and clashing his fetters as he rose; 'then my dream is true!
Begone, and leave me to myself; it will be your best.'

'What! my good friend,' said Glossin, 'will you allow the prospect
of a few weeks' confinement to depress your spirit?'

'Yes,' answered the ruffian, sullenly, 'when I am only to be
released by a halter! Let me alone; go about your business, and
turn the lamp from my face!'

'Psha! my dear Dirk, don't be afraid,' said Glossin; 'I have a
glorious plan to make all right.'

'To the bottomless pit with your plans!' replied his accomplice;
'you have planned me out of ship, cargo, and life; and I dreamt
this moment that Meg Merrilies dragged you here by the hair and
gave me the long clasped knife she used to wear; you don't know
what she said. Sturmwetter! it will be your wisdom not to tempt
me!'

'But, Hatteraick, my good friend, do but rise and speak to me,'
said Glossin.

'I will not!' answered the savage, doggedly. 'You have caused all
the mischief; you would not let Meg keep the boy; she would have
returned him after he had forgot all.'

'Why, Hatteraick, you are turned driveller!'

'Wetter! will you deny that all that cursed attempt at
Portanferry, which lost both sloop and crew, was your device for
your own job?'

'But the goods, you know--'

'Curse the goods!' said the smuggler, 'we could have got plenty
more; but, der deyvil! to lose the ship and the fine fellows, and
my own life, for a cursed coward villain, that always works his
own mischief with other people's hands! Speak to me no more; I'm
dangerous.'

'But, Dirk--but, Hatteraick, hear me only a few words.'

'Hagel! nein.'

'Only one sentence.'

'Tousand curses! nein.'

'At least get up, for an obstinate Dutch brute!' said Glossin,
losing his temper and pushing Hatteraick with his foot.

'Donner and blitzen!' said Hatteraick, springing up and grappling
with him; 'you WILL have it then?'

Glossin struggled and resisted; but, owing to his surprise at the
fury of the assault, so ineffectually that he fell under
Hatteraick, the back part of his neck coming full upon the iron
bar with stunning violence. The death-grapple continued. The room
immediately below the condemned ward, being that of Glossin, was,
of course, empty; but the inmates of the second apartment beneath
felt the shock of Glossin's heavy fall, and heard a noise as of
struggling and of groans. But all sounds of horror were too
congenial to this place to excite much curiosity or interest.

In the morning, faithful to his promise, Mac-Guffog came. 'Mr.
Glossin,' said he, in a whispering voice.

'Call louder,' answered Dirk Hatteraick.

'Mr. Glossin, for God's sake come away!'

'He'll hardly do that without help,' said Hatteraick.

'What are you chattering there for, Mac-Guffog?' called out the
captain from below.

'Come away, for God's sake, Mr. Glossin!' repeated the turnkey.

At this moment the jailor made his appearance with a light. Great
was his surprise, and even horror, to observe Glossin's body lying
doubled across the iron bar, in a posture that excluded all idea
of his being alive. Hatteraick was quietly stretched upon his
pallet within a yard of his victim. On lifting Glossin it was
found he had been dead for some hours. His body bore uncommon
marks of violence. The spine where it joins the skull had received
severe injury by his first fall. There were distinct marks of
strangulation about the throat, which corresponded with the
blackened state of his face. The head was turned backward over the
shoulder, as if the neck had been wrung round with desperate
violence. So that it would seem that his inveterate antagonist had
fixed a fatal gripe upon the wretch's throat, and never quitted it
while life lasted. The lantern, crushed and broken to pieces, lay
beneath the body.

Mac-Morlan was in the town, and came instantly to examine the
corpse. 'What brought Glossin here?' he said to Hatteraick.

'The devil!' answered the ruffian.

'And what did you do to him?'

'Sent him to hell before me!' replied the miscreant.

'Wretch,' said Mac-Morlan, 'you have crowned a life spent without
a single virtue with the murder of your own miserable accomplice!'

'Virtue?' exclaimed the prisoner. 'Donner! I was always faithful
to my shipowners--always accounted for cargo to the last stiver.
Hark ye! let me have pen and ink and I'll write an account of the
whole to our house, and leave me alone a couple of hours, will ye;
and let them take away that piece of carrion, donnerwetter!'

Mac-Morlan deemed it the best way to humour the savage; he was
furnished with writing materials and left alone. When they again
opened the door it was found that this determined villain had
anticipated justice. He had adjusted a cord taken from the
truckle-bed, and attached it to a bone, the relic of his
yesterday's dinner, which he had contrived to drive into a crevice
between two stones in the wall at a height as great as he could
reach, standing upon the bar. Having fastened the noose, he had
the resolution to drop his body as if to fall on his knees, and to
retain that posture until resolution was no longer necessary. The
letter he had written to his owners, though chiefly upon the
business of their trade, contained many allusions to the younker
of Ellangowan, as he called him, and afforded absolute
confirmation of all Meg Merrilies and her nephew had told.

To dismiss the catastrophe of these two wretched men, I shall only
add, that Mac-Guffog was turned out of office, notwithstanding his
declaration (which he offered to attest by oath), that he had
locked Glossin safely in his own room upon the night preceding his
being found dead in Dirk Hatteraick's cell. His story, however,
found faith with the worthy Mr. Skriegh and other lovers of the
marvellous, who still hold that the Enemy of Mankind brought these
two wretches together upon that night by supernatural
interference, that they might fill up the cup of their guilt and
receive its meed by murder and suicide.



CHAPTER LVIII

     To sum the whole--the close of all.

          DEAN SWIFT.


As Glossin died without heirs, and without payment of the price,
the estate of Ellangowan was again thrown upon the hands of Mr.
Godfrey Bertram's creditors, the right of most of whom was,
however, defeasible in case Henry Bertram should establish his
character of heir of entail. This young gentleman put his affairs
into the hands of Mr. Pleydell and Mr. Mac-Morlan, with one single
proviso, that, though he himself should be obliged again to go to
India, every debt justly and honourably due by his father should
be made good to the claimant. Mannering, who heard this
declaration, grasped him kindly by the hand, and from that moment
might be dated a thorough understanding between them.

The hoards of Miss Margaret Bertram, and the liberal assistance of
the Colonel, easily enabled the heir to make provision for payment
of the just creditors of his father, while the ingenuity and
research of his law friends detected, especially in the accounts
of Glossin, so many overcharges as greatly diminished the total
amount. In these circumstances the creditors did not hesitate to
recognise Bertram's right, and to surrender to him the house and
property of his ancestors. All the party repaired from Woodbourne
to take possession, amid the shouts of the tenantry and the
neighbourhood; and so eager was Colonel Mannering to superintend
certain improvements which he had recommended to Bertram, that he
removed with his family from Woodbourne to Ellangowan, although at
present containing much less and much inferior accommodation.

The poor Dominie's brain was almost turned with joy on returning
to his old habitation. He posted upstairs, taking three steps at
once, to a little shabby attic, his cell and dormitory in former
days, and which the possession of his much superior apartment at
Woodbourne had never banished from his memory. Here one sad
thought suddenly struck the honest man--the books! no three rooms
in Ellangowan were capable to contain them. While this qualifying
reflection was passing through his mind, he was suddenly summoned
by Mannering to assist in calculating some proportions relating to
a large and splendid house which was to be built on the site of
the New Place of Ellangowan, in a style corresponding to the
magnificence of the ruins in its vicinity. Among the various rooms
in the plan, the Dominie observed that one of the largest was
entitled THE LIBRARY; and close beside was a snug, well-
proportioned chamber, entitled Mr. SAMPSON'S APARTMENT.
'Prodigious, prodigious, pro-di-gi-ous!' shouted the enraptured
Dominie.

Mr. Pleydell had left the party for some time; but he returned,
according to promise, during the Christmas recess of the courts.
He drove up to Ellangowan when all the family were abroad but the
Colonel, who was busy with plans of buildings and pleasure-
grounds, in which he was well skilled, and took great delight.

'Ah ha!' said the Counsellor, 'so here you are! Where are the
ladies? where is the fair Julia?'

'Walking out with young Hazlewood, Bertram, and Captain Delaserre,
a friend of his, who is with us just now. They are gone to plan
out a cottage at Derncleugh. Well, have you carried through your
law business?'

'With a wet finger,' answered the lawyer; 'got our youngster's
special service retoured into Chancery. We had him served heir
before the macers.'

'Macers? who are they?'

'Why, it is a kind of judicial Saturnalia. You must know, that one
of the requisites to be a macer, or officer in attendance upon our
supreme court, is, that they shall be men of no knowledge.'

'Very well!'

'Now, our Scottish legislature, for the joke's sake I suppose,
have constituted those men of no knowledge into a peculiar court
for trying questions of relationship and descent, such as this
business of Bertram, which often involve the most nice and
complicated questions of evidence.'

'The devil they have! I should think that rather inconvenient,'
said Mannering.

'O, we have a practical remedy for the theoretical absurdity. One
or two of the judges act upon such occasions as prompters and
assessors to their own doorkeepers. But you know what Cujacius
says, "Multa sunt in moribus dissentanea, multa sine ratione."
[Footnote: The singular inconsistency hinted at is now, in a great
degree, removed.] However, this Saturnalian court has done our
business; and a glorious batch of claret we had afterwards at
Walker's. Mac-Morlan will stare when he sees the bill.'

'Never fear,' said the Colonel, 'we'll face the shock, and
entertain the county at my friend Mrs. Mac-Candlish's to boot.'

'And choose Jock Jabos for your master of horse?' replied the
lawyer.

'Perhaps I may.'

'And where is Dandie, the redoubted Lord of Liddesdale?' demanded
the advocate.

'Returned to his mountains; but he has promised Julia to make a
descent in summer, with the goodwife, as he calls her, and I don't
know how many children.'

'O, the curly-headed varlets! I must come to play at Blind Harry
and Hy Spy with them. But what is all this?' added Pleydell,
taking up the plans. 'Tower in the centre to be an imitation of
the Eagle Tower at Caernarvon--corps de logis--the devil! Wings--
wings! Why, the house will take the estate of Ellangowan on its
back and fly away with it!'

'Why, then, we must ballast it with a few bags of sicca rupees,'
replied the Colonel.

'Aha! sits the wind there? Then I suppose the young dog carries
off my mistress Julia?'

'Even so, Counsellor.'

'These rascals, the post-nati, get the better of us of the old
school at every turn,' said Mr. Pleydell. 'But she must convey and
make over her interest in me to Lucy.'

'To tell you the truth, I am afraid your flank will be turned
there too,' replied the Colonel.

'Indeed?'

'Here has been Sir Robert Hazlewood,' said Mannering, 'upon a
visit to Bertram, thinking and deeming and opining--'

'O Lord! pray spare me the worthy Baronet's triads!'

'Well, sir,' continued Mannering, 'to make short, he conceived
that, as the property of Singleside lay like a wedge between two
farms of his, and was four or five miles separated from
Ellangowan, something like a sale or exchange or arrangement might
take place, to the mutual convenience of both parties.'

'Well, and Bertram--'

'Why, Bertram replied, that he considered the original settlement
of Mrs. Margaret Bertram as the arrangement most proper in the
circumstances of the family, and that therefore the estate of
Singleside was the property of his sister.'

'The rascal!' said Pleydell, wiping his spectacles. 'He'll steal
my heart as well as my mistress. Et puis?'

'And then Sir Robert retired, after many gracious speeches; but
last week he again took the field in force, with his coach and six
horses, his laced scarlet waistcoat, and best bob-wig--all very
grand, as the good-boy books say.'

'Ay! and what was his overture?'

'Why, he talked with great form of an attachment on the part of
Charles Hazlewood to Miss Bertram.'

'Ay, ay; he respected the little god Cupid when he saw him perched
on the Dun of Singleside. And is poor Lucy to keep house with that
old fool and his wife, who is just the knight himself in
petticoats?'

'No; we parried that. Singleside House is to be repaired for the
young people, and to be called hereafter Mount Hazlewood.'

'And do you yourself, Colonel, propose to continue at Woodbourne?'

'Only till we carry these plans into effect. See, here's the plan
of my bungalow, with all convenience for being separate and sulky
when I please.'

'And, being situated, as I see, next door to the old castle, you
may repair Donagild's tower for the nocturnal contemplation of the
celestial bodies? Bravo, Colonel!'

'No, no, my dear Counsellor! Here ends THE ASTROLOGER.'

THE END






NOTES AND GLOSSARY


NOTES

NOTE 1, p. 93

The roads of Liddesdale, in Dandie Dinmont's days, could not be
said to exist, and the district was only accessible through a
succession of tremendous morasses. About thirty years ago the
author himself was the first person who ever drove a little open
carriage into these wilds, the excellent roads by which they are
now traversed being then in some progress. The people stared with
no small wonder at a sight which many of them had never witnessed
in their lives before.


NOTE 2, p. 102

The Tappit Hen contained three quarts of claret--

     Weel she loed a Hawick gill,
       And leugh to see a tappit hen.

I have seen one of these formidable stoups at Provost Haswell's,
at Jedburgh, in the days of yore It was a pewter measure, the
claret being in ancient days served from the tap, and had the
figure of a hen upon the lid. In later times the name was given to
a glass bottle of the same dimensions. These are rare apparitions
among the degenerate topers of modern days.


NOTE 3, p. 102

The account given by Mr. Pleydell of his sitting down in the midst
of a revel to draw an appeal case was taken from a story told me
by an aged gentleman of the elder President Dundas of Amiston
(father of the younger President and of Lord Melville). It had
been thought very desirable, while that distinguished lawyer was
king's counsel, that his assistance should be obtained in drawing
an appeal case, which, as occasion for such writings then rarely
occurred, was held to be matter of great nicety. The solicitor
employed for the appellant, attended by my informant acting as his
clerk, went to the Lord Advocate's chambers in the Fishmarket
Close, as I think. It was Saturday at noon, the Court was just
dismissed, the Lord Advocate had changed his dress and booted
himself, and his servant and horses were at the foot of the close
to carry him to Arniston. It was scarcely possible to get him to
listen to a word respecting business. The wily agent, however, on
pretence of asking one or two questions, which would not detain
him half an hour, drew his Lordship, who was no less an eminent
ban vivant than a lawyer of unequalled talent, to take a whet at a
celebrated tavern, when the learned counsel became gradually
involved in a spirited discussion of the law points of the case.
At length it occurred to him that he might as well ride to
Arniston in the cool of the evening. The horses were directed to
be put in the stable, but not to be unsaddled. Dinner was ordered,
the law was laid aside for a time, and the bottle circulated very
freely. At nine o'clock at night, after he had been honouring
Bacchus for so many hours, the Lord Advocate ordered his horses to
be unsaddled; paper, pen, and ink were brought; he began to
dictate the appeal case, and continued at his task till four
o'clock the next morning. By next day's post the solicitor sent
the case to London, a chef-d'oeuvre of its kind; and in which, my
informant assured me, it was not necessary on revisal to correct
five words. I am not, therefore, conscious of having overstepped
accuracy in describing the manner in which Scottish lawyers of the
old time occasionally united the worship of Bacchus with that of
Themis. My informant was Alexander Keith, Esq., grandfather to my
friend, the present Sir Alexander Keith of Ravelstone, and
apprentice at the time to the writer who conducted the cause.


NOTE 4, p. 180

We must again have recourse to the contribution to Blackwood's
Magazine, April 1817:--

'To the admirers of good eating, gipsy cookery seems to have
little to recommend it. I can assure you, however, that the cook
of a nobleman of high distinction, a person who never reads even a
novel without an eye to the enlargement of the culinary science,
has added to the "Almanach des Gourmands" a certain Potage a la
Meg Merrilies de Derndeugh, consisting of game and poultry of all
kinds, stewed with vegetables into a soup, which rivals in savour
and richness the gallant messes of Camacho's wedding; and which
the Baron of Bradwardine would certainly have reckoned among the
epulae lautiores.'

The artist alluded to in this passage is Mons. Florence, cook to
Henry and Charles, late Dukes of Buccleuch, and of high
distinction in his profession.


NOTE 5, p. 212

The Burnet whose taste for the evening meal of the ancients is
quoted by Mr. Pleydellwas the celebrated metaphysician and
excellent man, Lord Monboddo, whose coenae will not be soon
forgotten by those who have shared his classic hospitality. As a
Scottish judge he took the designation of his family estate. His
philosophy, as is well known, was of a fanciful and somewhat
fantastic character; but his learning was deep, and he was
possessed of a singular power of eloquence, which reminded the
hearer of the os rotundum of the Grove or Academe.
Enthusiastically partial to classical habits, his entertainments
were always given in the evening, when there was a circulation of
excellent Bourdeaux, in flasks garlanded with roses, which were
also strewed on the table after the manner of Horace. The best
society, whether in respect of rank or literary distinction, was
always to be found in St. John's Street, Canongate. The
conversation of the excellent old man, his high, gentleman-like,
chivalrous spirit, the learning and wit with which he defended his
fanciful paradoxes, the kind and liberal spirit of his
hospitality, must render these noctes coenaeque dear to all who,
like the author (though then young), had the honour of sitting at
his board.


NOTE 6, p. 215

It is probably true, as observed by Counsellor Pleydell, that a
lawyer's anxiety about his case, supposing him to have been some
time in practice, will seldom disturb his rest or digestion.
Clients will, however, sometimes fondly entertain a different
opinion. I was told by an excellent judge, now no more, of a
country gentleman who, addressing his leading counsel, my
informer, then an advocate in great practice, on the morning of
the day on which the case was to be pleaded, said, with singular
bonhomie, 'Weel, my Lord (the counsel was Lord Advocate), the
awful day is come at last. I have nae been able to sleep a wink
for thinking of it; nor, I daresay, your Lordship either.'


NOTE 7, p. 235

Whistling, among the tenantry of a large estate, is when an
individual gives such information to the proprietor or his
managers as to occasion the rent of his neighbour's farms being
raised, which, for obvious reasons, is held a very unpopular
practice.


NOTE 8, p. 286

This hard word is placed in the mouth of one of the aged tenants.
In the old feudal tenures the herezeld constituted the best horse
or other animal on the vassals' lands, become the right of the
superior. The only remnant of this custom is what is called the
sasine, or a fee of certain estimated value, paid to the sheriff
of the county, who gives possession to the vassals of the crown.


NOTE 9, p. 301

This mode of securing prisoners was universally practised in
Scotland after condemnation. When a man received sentence of death
he was put upon THE GAD, as it was called, that is, secured to the
bar of iron in the manner mentioned in the text. The practice
subsisted in Edinburgh till the old jail was taken down some years
since, and perhaps may be still in use.




GLOSSARY

'A, he, I.
 a', all.
 abide, endure.
 ablins, aiblins, perhaps.
 abune, above.
 ae, one.
 aff, off.
 afore, before.
 a-guisarding, masquerading.
 ahint, behind.
 aik, an oak.
 ails, hinders, prevents.
 ain, own.
 amang, among.
 an, if.
 ance, once.
 ane, one.
 anent, about.
 aneuch, enough.
 auld, old.
 auld threep, a superstitious notion.
 avise, advise, deliberate.
 awa', away.
 aweel, well.
 awfu', awful.
 awmous, alms.
 aye, ever.

 bairn, a child.
 baith, both.
 ballant, a ballad.
 banes, bones.
 bannock, a flat round or oval cake.
 barken, stiffen, dry to a crust.
 barrow-trams, the shafts of a hand  barrow.
 baulks, ridges.
 berling, a galley.
 bield, a shelter, a house.
 biggit, built.
 billie, a brother, a companion.
 bing out and tour, go out and watch.
 binna, be not.
 birk, a birch tree.
 bit, a little.
 bittle, beat with a bat.
 bittock, a little bit.
 Black Peter, a portmanteau.
 blate, shy, bashful.
 blawn, blown.
 blear, obscure.
 blude, bluid, blood.
 blunker, a cloth printer.
 blythe, glad.
 boddle, a copper coin worth one   third of a penny.
 bogle, a goblin, a spectre.
 bonnet, a cap.
 bonnie, bonny, pretty, fine.
 bonspiel, a match game at curling.
 bottle-head, beetle-head, stupid fellow.
 bow, a boll.
 bowster, a bolster.
 braw, fine.
 brigg, a bridge.
 brock, a badger, a dirty fellow.
 brod, a church collection plate.
 buckkar, a smuggling lugger.
 bully-huff, a bully, a braggart.
 burn, a brook.
 bye, besides.

 ca', call.
 cake-house, a house of entertainment.
 callant, a stripling.
 cam, came.
 canny, lucky, cautious.
 cantle, a fragment.
 canty, cheerful.
 capons, castrated cocks.
 carle, a churl, an old man.
 cast, lot, fate.
 chapping-stick, a stick to strike with.
 cheerer, spirits and hot water.
 chield, a young man.
 chumlay, a chimney.
 clanjamfray, rabble.
 clashes, lies, scandal.
 claught, clutched, caught.
 clecking, hatching.
 clodded, threw heavily.
 close, a lane, a narrow passage.
 clour, a heavy blow.
 cloyed a dud, stolen a rag.
 collieshangie, an uproar.
 come o' will, a child of love.
 cottar, cottage.
 cramp-ring, shackles, fetters.
 cranking, creaking.
 craw, crow.
 creel, a basket.
 cuddy, an ass.
 cusp, an entrance to a house.
 cusser, a courser, a stallion.

 daft, mad, foolish.
 darkmans, night.
 daurna, dare not.
 day-dawing, dawn.
 dead-thraw, death-agony.
 death-ruckle, death-rattle.
 deil-be-lickit, nothing, naught.
 dike, a wall, a ditch.
 dinging, slamming.
 dingle, a dell, a hollow.
 dizzen, a dozen.
 doo, a dove.
 dooket, dukit, a dovecot.
 doun, down.
 douse the glim, put out the light.
 dow, list, wish.
 drap, a drop.
 drumming, driving.
 dub, a puddle.
 duds, clothes.

 eassel, provincial for eastward.
 een, eyes.
 endlang, along.
 eneugh, enough.
 evening, putting on the same level.

 faem, foam.
 fair-strae, natural.
 fambles, hands.
 fash, trouble.
 fauld, a fold.
 fause, false.
 feared, afraid.
 fearsome, frightful.
 feck, a quantity.
 feckless, feeble.
 fell, a skin.
 fernseed, gather the, make invisible.
 fie, mad, foredoomed.
 fient a bit, never a bit
 fient a haet, not the least.
 fire-raising, setting fire.
 firlot, a quarter of a boll.
 fit, a foot.
 flesh, fleesh, a fleece.
 flick, cut.
 flit, remove.
 fond, glad to.
 forbears, ancestors.
 forbye, besides.
 foumart, a polecat.
 fowk, people.
 frae, from.
 frummagem'd, throttled, hanged.
 fu', full.
 fule-body, a foolish person.

 gae, go.
 gaed, went.
 gane, gone.
 gang, go.
 gang-there-out, wandering.
 gangrel, vagrant.
 gar, make.
 gate, gait, way.
 gaun, going.
 gay, gey, very.
 gelding, a castrated horse.
 gentle or semple, high born or common people.
 gie, give.
 gliffing, a surprise, an instant.
 glower, glare.
 gowan, a field daisy.
 gowd, gold.
 gowpen, a double handful.
 greet, weep.
 grieve, an overseer.
 grippet, grasped, caught.
 grunds, grounds.
 gude, guid, good.
 gudeman, master of a house.
 gyre-carlings, witches.

 ha', hall.
 hadden, held, gone.
 hae, have.
 hafflin, half grown.
 haick, hack.
 haill, whole.
 hallan, a partition.
 hame, home.
 hank, a skein of yarn.
 hansel, a present.
 hantle, a quantity.
 haud, hauld, hold.
 hauden, held.
 heezie, a lift.
 herds, herders.
 heuch, a crag, a steep bank.
 hinging, hanging.
 hinney, honey.
 hirsel, a flock.
 hizzie, a housewife, a hussy.
 hog, a young sheep.
 horning, a warrant for a debtor.
 houdie, a midwife.
 howm, flat low ground.
 humble-cow, a cow without horns.
 hunds, hounds.

 ilka, every.
 ingans, onions.
 ingleside, fireside.
 I'se, I'll.
 ither, other.

 jaw-hole, a sink.
 Jethart, Jedburgh.
 jo, a sweetheart.

 kahn, a skiff.
 kaim, a low ridge, a comb.
 kain, part of a farm-rent paid in fowls.
 keep, a stronghold.
 keepit, kept, attended.
 ken, know.
 kenna, do not know.
 kibe, an ulcerated chilblain, a chapped heel.
 killogie, the open space before a kiln fire.
 kilt, upset.
 kilting, girding or tucking up.
 kimmer, a female gossip.
 kinder, children.
 kipper, cured salmon.
 kirk, church.
 kist, a chest, a coffin.
 kitchen-mort, kinchen-mort, a girl.
 kittle, tickle, ticklish.
 kitt, a number, the whole.
 knave, a boy.
 knevell, knead, beat severely.
 kobold, a hobgoblin.

 laird, lord of the manor.
 lampit, a limpet.
 landloupers, persons of wandering tendencies.
 lang, long.
 lang or, long before.
 lang-lugged, long-eared.
 langsyne, long ago.
 lap and paunel, liquor and food.
 lassie, a young girl.
 latch, mire.
 leddy, a lady.
 lee, pasture land.
 leg bail, to give, to run away.
 letter-gae, the precentor is called by Allan Ramsay
 'the letter-gae of haly rhyme.'
 leugh, laughed.
 levin, lightning, scorn.
 licks, blows.
 lift, the sky.
 like, as it were.
 limmer, a jade, a hussy.
 links, the windings of a river.
 lippen, trust.
 loan, an open place, a lane.
 loaning, a milking place.
 long bowls, ninepins.
 looby, a booby, a lout.
 loon, a clown, a rogue.
 loup, leap, start.
 low, blaze, flame.
 luckie, an old woman.
 lugs, ears.
 lunt, blaze, torch.
 lykewake, a watch at night over a dead body.

 mair, more.
 mair by token, especially.
 maist, most.
 maun, must.
 meddling and making, interfering.
 messan, a little dog.
 milling in the darkmans, murder by night.
 mind, remember.
 minded, looked after.
 mirk, dark; pit mirk, pitch dark.
 moaned, mourned.
 Monanday, Monday.
 mony, many.
 moonshie, a secretary.
 morn, tomorrow.
 moss, a morass.
 moss-hag, a pit, a slough.
 muckle, great, much.
 muir, a moor, a heath.
 muscavado, unrefined sugar.
 mutchkin, a measure equal to an English pint.

 na, nae, no.
 nane, none.
 nathless, nevertheless.
 needna, need not.
 nice, simple.
 now, the, at once.

 odd-come-shortly, chance time not far in the future.
 ony, any.
 or, ere.
 orra, odd, occasional.
 orra time, occasionally.
 o't, of it.
 out, out in rebellion.
 out of house and hauld, destitute.
 outcast, a falling out, a quarrel.
 ower, over.
 owt, the exterior, out.

 paiks, punishment.
 parritch, oatmeal porridge.
 peat-hag, a bog.
 penny-stane, a stone quoit.
 periapts, amulets.
 pike, pick.
 pinners, a headdress.
 pirn, a reel.
 pit, put.
 plash, splash.
 plough-gate of land, land that can be tilled with one plough.
 pock, a pouch, a bag.
 poinded, impounded.
 poschay, a post-chaise.
 pouches, pockets.
 pow, the head.
 powny, a pony.
 preceese, exact.
 precentor, a leader of congregational singing.
 prin, a pin.
 puir, poor.

 quean, a young woman, a wench.

 rade, rode.
 ramble, a spree.
 rampauging, raging.
 randle-tree, a horizontal bar across a chimney, on which
  pot-hooks are hung; sometimes used as an opprobrious  epithet.
 randy, wild.
 ranging and riping, scouring and searching.
 rape, rope.
 rasp-house, a custom-house.
 red cock craw, kindle a fire.
 redding-straik, a blow received when trying to separate
     combatants.
 reek, smoke.
 reif and wear, robbery and injury.
 reise, a bough.
 reist, smoke.
 reiver, a robber.
 retour, return of a writ.
 rin, run.
 ripe, search.
 rive, rend, rob.
 rotten, rottan, a rat.
 roup, an auction.
 roupit, sold at auction.
 routing, snoring, bellowing.
 rubbit, robbed.
 rump and dozen, meat and drink, a good dinner.
 run goods, smuggled goods.

 sack, sackcloth.
 sae, so.
 saft, soft.
 sain, bless.
 sair, sore.
 sail, shall.
 samyn, the same.
 sang, song.
 sark, a shirt.
 saugh, a willow tree.
 saul, soul.
 saut, salt.
 sax, six.
 scaff-raff, riff raff.
 scart, scratched, written on.
 schnaps, a dram of liquor.
 scones, flat round cakes.
 scouring the cramp-ring, said metaphorically for being
      thrown into fetters or, generally, into prison.
 screed o' drink, a drinking bout.
 sell'd, sold.
 semple, simple, poor people.
 shake-rag, a tatterdemalion.
 shanks, legs.
 shealing, sheiling, a shed, a hut.
 shear, cut.
 sherra, a sheriff.
 shoeing-horn, something that leads to more drinking.
 shoon, shoes.
 shouther, a shoulder.
 sic, so, such.
 siclike, such.
 siller, money.
 sinsyne, since.
 skeel, a bucket, a tub.
 slack, a hollow, a morass.
 slap, a breach.
 sleepery, sleepy.
 slow-hund, a sleuth hound.
 sma', small.
 smack, smaik, a rogue, a low wretch.
 snaw, snow.
 soup o' drink, a spoonful.
 souple, a cudgel.
 spae, foretell.
 speir, ask.
 sprug, a sparrow.
 spunk, a spark.
 start, betray.
 stell, a stall, a covert.
 stickit, stopped, hindered.
 stir your gear, disturb your goods.
 stark, a heifer, a bullock.
 stiver, a small Dutch coin.
 stoppit, stopped.
 stoup, a drinking vessel, a wooden pitcher.
 stown, stolen.
 strae, straw.
 strammel, straw.
 streik, stretch.
 suld, should.
 sune, soon.
 sunkets, delicacies, provisions of any kind.
 sunkie, a low stool.
 swear, difficult.
 swure, swore.
 syne, since.

 ta'en, taken.
 tait, a tuft.
 tak, take.
 tap, the top.
 tass, a cup.
 tat, that.
 tell'd, told.
 tent, care.
 thack, thatch.
 thae, those.
 thegither, together.
 thereawa', thence, thereabout.
 thrapple, the windpipe, the throat.
 thristle, a thistle.
 till, to.
 tippenny, ale at twopence a bottle.
 tod, a fox.
 tolbooth, a jail.
 toom, empty.
 tow, a rope.
 trine to the cheat, get hanged.
 troking, intercourse, trafficking.
 trow, trust.
 tulzie, tuilzie, a scuffle, a brawl.
 twa, two.
 tweel, a web.
 tyke, a cur.

 umwhile, formerly, late.
 uncanny, weird, unlucky.
 unco, strange, very.
 uphaud, uphold.
 upright man, the leader (and greatest rogue) of the gang.

 wa', wall.
 wad, would.
 wadded, wedded.
 wae, woe.
 waefu', woeful.
 wale, choice.
 ware, spend.
 wark, work.
 warld, the world.
 warlock, a wizard.
 waster, a long spear.
 waur, worse.
 wean, a young child.
 wear, war.
 weary fa', curse.
 wedder, a wether.
 wee, small.
 weel, well.
 weel-faured, well-favored, prepossessing.
 weize, direct, incline.
 wessel, westward.
 wha, who.
 whaap, the (or the Hope), is the sheltered part or hollow of the
     hill. Hoff, howff, haaf, and haven are all modifications of
     the same word.
 wheen, a few.
 whigging, jogging.
 whiles, sometimes.
 whilk, which.
 whin, a few.
 whinger, a kind of knife, a hanger.
 whistle, give information against one.
 whittret, a weasel.
 wi', with.
 win, get.
 witters, the barbs of the spear.
 woo', wool.
 woodie, wuddie, a rope, a halter, the gallows.
 worricow, a hobgoblin.
 wots na, does not know.
 wrang, wrong.
 wrang side of the blanket, illegitimate.
 writer, an attorney.
 wuddie, a rope, the gallows.
 wuss, wish.

 yaffing, chattering, barking.
 yet, yere, your.
 yont, beyond.