An’ money mae had nane ava,
Fan lasses wi’ their rocks set out
To are anither night about,”
the author proceeds to tell how a laird near Kinghorn got over head and ears in debt, and was at his wit’s end to find a way out of his troubles. At last one evening, as he was wandering alone in the fields, very much dejected, he was accosted by a fine-looking stranger on a black horse, who sympathised with him in his difficulties, and, seeming to know what they were without being told, offered him £10,000 on his simple note of hand.
“Ye’s get it on your single bond,
As I frae Scotland maun abscond
To France, or in a woody swing
For lies a neighbour tald the King—
An’ said I meant to tak’ his life,
To let a gallant get his wife.”