"It is but too true, I fear. Indeed, I was on that duty, and at the Richardson's Barony of Cramond too."
"Oh, such valour!—to terrify women and children, and drive the poor millers and fishers away; to stop the mills, break the dams, spoil the nets, and sink the boats. Fie upon you! Don't come near me, sir. Alas for the warriors of the great Condé, how sadly they are degenerating! Oh! Mr. Fenton, we positively blush for you: do we not, gossip Lilian?"
"Fair Annie, you are very severe upon me. If I was on such a duty, could I help it? A soldier must hear and obey."
"Even to ducking his mother, I suppose. Go to—I have no patience with such work! And was it by Finland's orders that all the old cummers of Cramond were sent swimming down the river tied to chairs and cutty-stools?"
"But they were very old, and ugly too; besides, the stream was very shallow. And as they were all caught in the act of singing a psalm in the wood of Dalmenie, what else could we do but duck them well for their contumacy? It was rare fun, I assure you, and Finland nearly burst his corslet with laughing; but I assure you, ladies, we only ducked the old women of the village."
"Ay—ay; the young would not get off scatheless, I fear," replied Annie, giving him a switch with her riding-rod; "I know soldiers of old. But, marry come up! our Teviotdale lads would have given you a hot reception had you come among them with such hostile intentions."
"Then the worse would be their fare," said Walter, in a tone of pique. "When ordered by our superiors to test the people——"
"Heigh-day! Now, good Mr. Fenton, suppose you were commanded to test us in that rough fashion, because we would not pronounce Sharp a martyr and the Covenant a bond of rebellion, and said just whatever you wished of us,—what then? For, in sooth, we would say none of those things: would we, gossip Lilian?"
"But then we should each be sent voyaging down the loch on a cutty-stool," said Lilian, joining her friend in a loud burst of merriment.
"On my honour, ladies," said Walter very seriously, "these Orders of Council refer only to the rascal multitude. Who ever heard of a lady of rank being treated like a cottar-wife?"