ay--and threw the
driver, puir fellow, clean owre the brig into the water. No a crunch o'
him is to be seen or heard tell of; for he was a' smashed to pieces!!
It's an awfu' business!'

"'But where's the horse? and where's the cart, then?' askit Jamie, a
thought brisker. 'Where's the horse and cart, then, my man? Can ye tell
me ought of that?'

"'Ou,' said he, 'they're baith doun at the Toll yonder, no a hair the
waur.'

"'That's the best news I've heard the nicht, my man.--Goodwife, I say,
Goodwife; are ye deaf or donnart? Give this lad a dram; and, as it
rather looks like a shower, I'll e'en no go out the night.--I'll easy
manage to find another driver, though half a hundred o' the blockheads
should get their brains knocked out.'

"Is not that a gude ane noo?" quo' Tammie, laughing. '"Od Jamie Bowie
was a real ane. He wadna let them light a candle by his bedside to let
him see to dee; he gied them a curse, and said that was needless
extravagance."

Dog on it, thought I to myself, the further in the deeper. This beats
the round-shouldered, horse-couper with the Japan hat, skinning his
reeking horse, all to sticks; and so I again fell into a gloomy sort of a
musing; when, just as we came opposite the Duke's gate, with the deers on
each side of it, two men rushed out upon us, and one of them seized
Tammie's horse by the bridle, as the other one held his horse-pistol to
my nose, and bade me stop in the King's name!

"Hold your hand, hold your hand, for the sake of mercy!" cried I. "Spare
the father of a small family that will starve on the street if ye take my
life!! Hae--hae--there's every coin and copper I have about me in the
world! Be merciful, be merciful; and do not shed blood, that will not,
cannot be rubbed out of your conscience. Take all that we have--horse
and cart and all if ye like; only spare our lives, and let us away home!"

"De'il's in the man," quo' Tammie, "horse and cart! that's a gude one!
Na, na, lads; fire away gin ye like; for as lang as I hae a drap o' bluid
in me, ye'll get neither. Better be killed than starve. Do your best,
ye thieves that ye are; and I'll hae baith of ye hanged neist week before
the Fifteen!"

Every moment I expected my head to be shot off, till I got my hand
clapped on Tammie's mouth, and could get cried to them--"Shoot him then,
lads; shoot him then, lads, if he wants it; but take my siller like
Christians, and let me away with my poor deeing bairn!"