"Then it came to me that if I could but see the Little Fair Man again he would tell me what I should do. I knew that he had been of a long season regent of a college in the town of Sanct Anders. So I gave myself no rest day nor night till my good wife, after vainly trying to settle me by her loving words, made all preparation of provend in saddle-bags, and guineas in pouch, and set me on a good beast at the louping-on stone by our door. It was the first year of the restored King Charles, the Second of that name, and the darkness was just thickening upon the land, a darkness greater than the first, when I set out to see Mr. Rutherfurd.
"For the early part of my travel all went well, but when I was passing through the town of Hamilton, certain soldiers set upon me, asking for my pass, and calling me 'Westland Whig' and 'canting rebel.' They would have taken from me all that I had, having already turned my saddle-bags outside in, and one of them even came near to thrust his hand into my pocket, when a coach drove up with six horses and outriders mired to the shoulders. Then a pair of grand servants sprang down from behind, and cried: 'Room for my Lord Bishop!' And at this the soldiers desisted from plundering me to do their obeisance.
"Then there came forth first a rosy buxom woman, breathing heavily, and holding out a plump hand to the man-servant.
"But when she saw me with a soldier at either side, she took one long look, and then cried out in a hearty voice: 'What's this—what's this—my friend Harry Wedderburn in the gled's claws? Let be, scullions! Donald, here's our host frae the Black Craig o' Dee!'
"And forthwith, the soldiers falling back abashed, the bishop's lady, she that had been poor Jean Bain, came at me in her old reckless way, and flung her arms about my neck, kissing me soundly and heartily—as I had not been kissed of a long season by any save Rachel, me being no more a young man.
"And the bishop was no other than Donald himself, the same who had been curate of Kirkchrist—and a right reverend prelate he looked.
"Then nothing would do Jean and Donald but I must get into the carriage with them, and have one of their men-servants ride my beast into Edinburgh. Neither excuse nor nay-say would my lady bishop take. So in this manner we travelled very comfortably, I sitting beside her, and at Edinburgh we parted, I to Sanct Anders, they to a lodging near my Lord of Sutherland's house, to whose influence with the king they owed their advancement. For they were hand and glove with him. And the morning I was to ride away came their carriage to the door, and lo! my lady again—this time with a safe-conduct and letter of certification from the Privy Council setting forth that I was a person notably well-affected and staunch; that none were to hinder or molest me or mine in body or estate under penalty of the King's displeasure. Which thing in the troublous times to come more than once or twice stood me in great stead.
"But when I came to Sanct Anders, the first thing I heard was that Mr. Rutherfurd lay a-dying in his college of St. Mary's. I betook me thither, and lo! a guard of soldiers was about the doors, and would in no wise permit me pass. They were burning a pile of books, and I heard say that it was done by order of the parliament, and that thereafter Mr. Rutherfurd was to be carried out, alive or dead, and his bed set in the open street. Lex Rex was the name of the book I saw them turning this way and that with sticks, so as to make the leaves burn faster. I know not why it was so dour to catch, for out of curiosity I got me a copy afterwards, and the Lord knows it was dry enough—at least to my taste.
"But after a while, showing the officer my Privy Council letter, I prevailed on him that I had a mandate from government to see Mr. Rutherfurd, and that I had come directly and of purpose from Edinburgh to oversee the affair, and report on those who were diligent. So at long and last they let me go up the stair.
"And at the top I found many doors closed, but one open, and the sound of a voice I knew well speaking within.