“James ran in for his hat; but, as he was coming out at the door, he met another messenger, such as came running across the plain to David, to acquaint him of the death of Absalom, crying, ‘Rin away doun, Jamie, rin away doun; your cart is standing yonder, without either horse or driver; for they’re baith killed!’
“Jamie thanked Heaven that the cart was to the fore; then, rinning back for his stick, which he had forgotten, he stopped a moment to bid his wife not greet so loud, and was then rushing out in full birr, when he ran foul of a third chield, that mostly knocked doun the door in his hurry. ‘Awfu’ news, man, awfu’ news,’ was the way o’t, with this second Eliphaz the Temanite. ‘Your cart and horse ran away—and threw the driver, puir fellow, clean owre the brig into the water. No a crunch o’ him is to be seen or heard tell of; for he was a’ smashed to pieces!! It’s an awfu’ business!’
“‘But where’s the horse? and where’s the cart, then?’ askit Jamie, a thought brisker. ‘Where’s the horse and cart, then, my man? Can ye tell me ought of that?’
“‘Ou,’ said he, ‘they’re baith doun at the Toll yonder, no a hair the waur.’
“‘That’s the best news I’ve heard the nicht, my man.—Goodwife, I say, Goodwife; are ye deaf or donnart? Give this lad a dram; and, as it rather looks like a shower, I’ll e’en no go out the night.—I’ll easily manage to find another driver, though half a hundred o’ the blockheads should get their brains knocked out.’
“Is not that a gude ane noo?” quo’ Tammie, laughing. “’Od Jamie Bowie was a real ane. He wadna let them light a candle by his bedside to let him see to dee; he gied them a curse, and said that was needless extravagance.”
Dog on it, thought I to myself, the further in the deeper. This beats the round-shouldered horse-couper with the Japan hat, skinning his reeking horse, all to sticks; and so I again fell into a gloomy sort of a musing; when, just as we came opposite the Duke’s gate, with the deers on each side of it, two men rushed out upon us, and one of them seized Tammie’s horse by
the bridle, as the other one held his horse-pistol to my nose, and bade me stop in the King’s name!
“Hold your hand, hold your hand, for the sake of mercy!” cried I. “Spare the father of a small family that will starve on the street if ye take my life!! Hae—hae—there’s every coin and copper I have about me in the world! Be merciful, be merciful; and do not shed blood that will not, cannot be rubbed out of your conscience. Take all that we have—horse and cart and all if ye like; only spare our lives, and let us away home!”
“De’il’s in the man,” quo’ Tammie, “horse and cart! that’s a gude one! Na, na, lads; fire away gin ye like; for as lang as I hae a drap o’ bluid in me, ye’ll get neither. Better be killed than starve. Do your best, ye thieves that ye are; and I’ll hae baith of ye hanged neist week before the Fifteen!”