Kidnap and beaten

ig

f this descent, on a long ridge, the city of Edinburgh smoking like a kiln. There was a flag upon the castle, and ships moving or lying anch

olinton, till I came out upon the Glasgow road. And there, to my great pleasure and wonder, I beheld a regiment marching to the fifes, every foot in time; an old red-faced general on a grey horse a

f whom I sought my way. At first I thought the plainness of my appearance, in my country habit, and that all dusty from the road, consorted ill with the greatness of the place to

d spying an honest fellow coming along a lane on the shaft of his cart, I a

t and looked at me

d he. "W

eat house?

e. "The house is a

"but the folk

ye daft? There's nae fo

I; "not Mr

d, to be sure, if it's him you're wantin

uld get a situation," I said,

then, "Well, mannie," he added, "it's nane of my affairs; but ye seem a decent

whom I saw to be a barber on his rounds; and knowing well that barbers were gr

;" and began to ask me very shrewdly what my business was; but I was more than a

or what sort of a gentleman, that his ill-fame should be thus current on the wayside? If an hour's walking would have brought me back to Essendean, I had left my adventure then and there, and returned to Mr. Campbell's. But when I had come so far a way already, mere shame

t, and pointed to a great bulk of building standing very bare upon a green in the bottom of the next valley. The country was pleasant round about, running in low hills, pleasantly watered and wooded, and the crops, t

e!" she cried again-"I spit upon the ground, and crack my thumb at it! Black be its fall! If ye see the laird, tell him what ye hear; tell him this makes the twelve hunner an

re she left me, with my hair on end. In those days folk still believed in witches and trembled at a curse; and this

ing all set with hawthorn bushes full of flowers; the fields dotted with sheep; a fine flight of rooks in the sk

down, and then, right up against the yellow sky, I saw a scroll of smoke go mounting, not much thicker, as it seemed to me, than the smoke of a can

ne uprights, with an unroofed lodge beside them, and coats of arms upon the top. A main entrance it was plainly meant to be, but never finished; instead of gates of wrought iron, a pair of hurdles wer

ed. What should have been the inner end stood open on the upper floors, and showed against the sky with steps and sta

of a little fire began to glimmer. Was this the palace I had been coming to? Was it within these walls that I was to seek new friends and begin great

one rattling with dishes, and a little dry, eager cough that cam

nd waited. The house had fallen into a dead silence; a whole minute passed away, and nothing stirred but the bats overhead. I knocked again, and hearkened again. By this time my ears had grown

or, and to shout out aloud for Mr. Balfour. I was in full career, when I heard the cough right overhead, and jumping back and

ded," sai

er," I said, "to Mr. Ebenezer

asked the man wit

or there," said I, for

can put it down upon the do

liver it into Mr. Balfour's hands, as it was m

ried the vo

d what I

was the next question, a

y name," said I. "They

rattle on the window-sill; and it was after quite a long pause, an

r fathe

is, that I could find no voic

rings ye chapping to my door." Another pause, and then defiantly, "Wel