st in turn, he asked, "if ony o' the
gentlemen could tell him whar the king leeved, and if they could put him
on a way o' gettin introduced to him?"

"Thou couldst not have lighted more luckily for that, my friend," said
the young man to whom we have already so often alluded, "than thou hast
done in coming amongst us; for it happens that I hold a confidential
place near the person of Charles, and will have much pleasure in
exerting my influence in procuring you the introduction you desire."

"Mony thanks to ye, freend," replied the martyr to royalty--"mony thanks
to ye, if ye mean, by Charles, His Majesty the King o' England--God
bless him!"

"I certainly do, my friend. I mean him and no other."

"Weel, sir--excuse my freedom--if ye do, I think ye micht ca' him sae.
Wha can dispute his title, although his back be at the wa'?"

"Oh! no one--no one, my good friend, I believe--that is, lawfully,"
replied the young cavalier, laughingly; "but, seeing his present
circumstances--a wandering exile in a foreign land, crownless and
coinless--we, somehow or other, cannot get our tongues about those
sounding titles that are his birthright. We prefer calling him simply
Charles, or English Charles; and I rather think he prefers it himself.
His titles he thinks best left in abeyance in the meantime."

"Aweel, if it be his ain pleasure, I hae nae mair to say. Perhaps it's
as prudent and becomin; for, as ye say, sir, a king that has neither a
croon on his head nor in his pouch is in but a sair condition for his
dignity. That maun be allowed."

There was not much in this remark itself to excite merriment; but there
was certainly something in the naive manner in which it was delivered
that was calculated to produce this effect; and it did. A shout of
laughter, in which the speaker's young friend was the loudest and
heartiest performer, acknowledged the peculiarity to which we have
alluded. On the laugh subsiding, the latter again addressed the former,
saying--

"But, friend, you have not yet told us by what name we should address
you."

"As to that," replied the stranger, smilingly, "I believe the maist
appropriate name or title ye could gie me at the present moment wad be
that o' the Launless Laird. But it wasna aye sae. I had a bit guid
property in the Loudans, ca'ed Lucky's How, every clod o't my ain, wi' a
yearly rental o' forty merks, guid siller, forby the thirlage o' the
Mill o' Meldrum, that was worth a guid twa or thre