On to the platform now meekly and modestly comes his lordship, and the professors group around him.
He is received by a few faint cheers from the Highlanders and Foreigners, but by a dinful distracting chorus of yelling, hooting, and hissing by the rioters.
But Scotsmen are naturally pious, so, while Dr. Dewar prays, they are silent and still.
No sooner, however, does the ceremony commence in earnest, than, with their arms crossed, two stalwart students form a chair, and on this between them mounts Jamie B——r, afterwards Dr. B——r, and only recently dead. He is carried forward till right beneath the platform. He there reads a long and well-worded protest against his lordship’s election.
Three groans are then called for, after which a voice is heard shouting—
“All that are against this unjust and cruel installation will now leave the hall.”
And so the rioters left in a body, and the great hall doors were shut behind them.
These great folding doors, I may mention, are as nearly as I can remember about twelve feet high, and open in the centre. They were now locked and bolted, and the installation, it was hoped, would proceed in peace. Those who thought so had, however, reckoned without their host.
On both sides of the wing, in which was the installation hall, the rioters stationed themselves. They had a fine supply of stones and pebbles, and inside that hall, from through the windows, those stones soon began to fall as thick as leaves in Vallombrosa.
Not one student or professor, but many, were hit with the hail-shower of falling pebbles.