d quality of Sir Patrick Charteris, the Provost of
Perth, being such as we have sketched in the last chapter, let us now
return to the deputation which was in the act of rendezvousing at the
East Port, in order to wait upon that dignitary with their complaints at
Kinfauns.

And first appeared Simon Glover, on a pacing palfrey, which had
sometimes enjoyed the honour of bearing the fairer person as well as the
lighter weight of his beautiful daughter. His cloak was muffled round
the lower part of his face, as a sign to his friends not to interrupt
him by any questions while he passed through the streets, and partly,
perhaps, on account of the coldness of the weather. The deepest anxiety
was seated on his brow, as if the more he meditated on the matter he was
engaged in, the more difficult and perilous it appeared. He only greeted
by silent gestures his friends as they came to the rendezvous.

A strong black horse, of the old Galloway breed, of an under size, and
not exceeding fourteen hands, but high shouldered, strong limbed, well
coupled, and round barrelled, bore to the East Port the gallant smith. A
judge of the animal might see in his eye a spark of that vicious temper
which is frequently the accompaniment of the form that is most vigorous
and enduring; but the weight, the hand, and the seat of the rider,
added to the late regular exercise of a long journey, had subdued his
stubbornness for the present. He was accompanied by the honest bonnet
maker, who being, as the reader is aware, a little round man, and
what is vulgarly called duck legged, had planted himself like a red
pincushion (for he was wrapped in a scarlet cloak, over which he had
slung a hawking pouch), on the top of a great saddle, which he might be
said rather to be perched upon than to bestride. The saddle and the man
were girthed on the ridge bone of a great trampling Flemish mare, with
a nose turned up in the air like a camel, a huge fleece of hair at each
foot, and every hoof full as large in circumference as a frying pan. The
contrast between the beast and the rider was so extremely extraordinary,
that, whilst chance passengers contented themselves with wondering how
he got up, his friends were anticipating with sorrow the perils which
must attend his coming down again; for the high seated horseman's
feet did not by any means come beneath the laps of the saddle. He had
associated himself to the smith, whose motions he had watched for the
purpose o