and craftsmen of Glasgow one Thomas Sword, the
deacon of the hammermen, and he having the command of those stationed at
the gate, overheard what was passing with my grandfather, and coming out
of the wardroom, inquired his name, which when he heard, and that he was
son to Michael Gilhaize, the Lithgow ferrier, he advised to let him in,
saying he knew his father well, and that they had worked together, when
young men, in the King's armoury at Stirling; and he told him where he
lived, and invited him, when his horse was stabled, to come to supper,
for he was glad to see him for his father's sake.

CHAPTER XI

At this time an ancient controversy between the Archbishops of St
Andrews and of Glasgow, touching their respective jurisdictions, had
been resuscitated with great acrimony, and in the debates concerning the
same the Glasgow people took a deep interest, for they are stouthearted
and of an adventurous spirit, and cannot abide to think that they or
their town should, in anything of public honour, be deemed either slack
or second to the foremost in the realm, and none of all the worthy
burgesses thereof thought more proudly of the superiority and renown of
their city than did Deacon Sword. So it came to pass, as he was sitting
at supper with my grandfather, that he enlarged and expatiated on the
inordinate pretensions of the Archbishop of St Andrews, and took
occasion to diverge from the prelate's political ambition to speak of
the enormities of his ecclesiastical government, and particularly of
that heinous and never-to-be-forgotten act, the burning of an aged man
of fourscore and two years, whose very heresies, as the deacon
mercifully said, ought rather to have been imputed to dotage than
charged as offences.

My grandfather was well pleased to observe such vigour of principle and
bravery of character in one having such sway and weight in so great a
community as to be the chief captain of the crafts who were banded with
the hammermen, namely, the cartwrights, the saddlers, the masons, the
coopers, the mariners, and all whose work required the use of
edge-tools, the hardiest and buirdliest of the trades, and he allowed
himself to run in with the deacon's humour, but without letting wot
either in whose service he was, or on what exploit he was bound, sowing
however, from time to time, hints as to the need that seemed to be
growing of putting a curb on the bold front wherewith the Archbishop of
St Andrews, un