"Like thee, fool!—And where the devil didst bestow thyself this morning?"
"Just awa' up at the tounheid, to see that auld witch tar-barrelled. It was a braw sight! Every place was crowded wi' folk—every window crammed wi' faces, and every lumheid and bartisan loaded wi' skirling weans and shouting laddies. And there was auld Magnus the provost, the baillies and the councillors, a' majoring up the causeway in their scarlet gowns, wigs, and cocked beavers, with the city sword, mace and banner borne before them, wi' drums beating and halberts glinting. Dunmore's dragoons lined the street.
"Certes, it was grand, my lord, and a bleeze weel worth riding to Birgham to see. She maun hae been a horrid witch, that auld carlin, for gude kens was a dooms ugly ane. She was trussed wi' a tow, like a chicken for the spit; and a devilish black beetle, her familiar spirit, tied round her neck in a crystal vial. 'Twas na brunt wi' her, but, God sain us! when the flames touched it, gaed up into the sky, wi' a flaff o' sparks and a clap like a thunder. She scraighed for a tass o' water before the fire was lighted. 'Gie her nane,' quoth my Lord Mersington, 'Gie her nane, ye loons; gin the auld jaud's dry, she'll burn better.' Then a' body leugh and threw up their bannets, as if they had been making a Robin Hude.
"Auld Sir Thomas o' Binns was there, and he leugh too, till the tears came rowing owre his beard; for there is naething that born deil likes better than a tar-barrelling, unless it be a back-handed slash at the hill-folk. And ken ye, Clermistonlee, that a' body said she would hae slippit the claws o' the Council and the Fifteen to boot, but for the notable speech o' my worthy Lord Mersington, who laid down the law and quoted the acts o' Estate in a way whilk was most edifying to hear."
"What is all this cursed cataract of words about?—Of what are you prating?"
"Prating?" reiterated Juden, a little put out. "Ou, just that if your lordship would condescend to break your fast——"
"To eat!—no, the first morsel would choke me like a burning coal. No, Juden; away with the table, and bring me the quilted gloves and a bundle of foils."
Clermistonlee impatiently pushed aside the table, and in doing so, overturned the great ale tankard.
"What are ye aboot, laddie?—are ye daft?" exclaimed Juden, wiping up the streaming liquor in a state of high excitement. "The best damask buirdclaith—he's gane clean wud! The last o' four dizzen o' my lady's Flanders plenishing—he's daft—keepit for high days. O Randal! hae some respect for yoursel', if you have nane for her whose bonnie hands worked your cypher in the corner o' this very buirdclaith."
"Silence, pest!" cried his master in a voice of thunder; but the destruction of the table-cloth was a matter of no small importance to the thrifty old butler, who continued to wipe and mutter,