Serjeant.—With your leave, sir, I’ll rather tell it to you on our way up the glen, when we come near to the place where the cruel deed was done. You will be the better able to understand some of its most important circumstances.
Author.—You are right, Serjeant.
Clifford (taking out his tablets.)—Well, Mr. Serjeant, I’ll book you for it, at all events.—Rory Mackenzie of Turfearabrad.
Serjeant.—I’ll not forget it, sir. But, in the meanwhile, gentlemen, I may tell you, that as this Rory Mackenzie used to bring his beasts up this glen, which, as I formerly mentioned, was so full of woods at that time as to make an open patch of pasture a thing of great value, he was so tempted by the fineness and richness of the grass on the meadow that lies hereabouts, all produced, as you will naturally see, from the marly matter brought down upon it by the streams from the hill, that he used to make a regular practice of lodging himself and his animals here for some days, in order to rest and refresh them for their journey; and so, at last, the place got its name from him. But there was no house here in his day.
Dominie.—We have vurra great reason to be thankful, Serjeant, that we have so good a house over our heads now, then.
Clifford.—House! why in such weather, a house like this in the wilderness is as good as a palace in a city. Soldier though I be, I by no means envy Rory, the laird of Turfearabrad, his sylvan bivouacks. What think you, Mr. Serjeant?
Serjeant.—Troth, sir, I can lie out when I am obliged to do it. But I am grown old enough now to think, that, in an ill day, the nearer to the fire-side the better, and still better is it in an ill night. What say you to that, Mr. Macpherson?
Dominie.—If my last night’s scramble hither, and the deep mud of that filthy peat pot into which I fell, has not convinced me of that truth, Serjeant, I must be a stubborn bubo indeed.
Clifford.—Truth is generally found at the bottom of a well, but to find it, as you seem to have done, at the bottom of a peat pot, is a new discovery, Mr. Macpherson.
Clifford (after all are done with breakfast.)—Come, then, gentlemen, shall we adjourn to the fire, and commence our sitting?