wing to an end; and I have only to relate what
happened at the conclusion of the last act of my very serviceable and
eventful life, the which I will proceed to do with as much brevity as is
consistent with the nature of that free and faithful spirit in which the
whole of these notandums have been indited.

CHAPTER XLVII--THE RESIGNATION

Shortly after the Battle of Waterloo, I began to see that a change was
coming in among us. There was less work for the people to do, no outgate
in the army for roving and idle spirits, and those who had tacks of the
town lands complained of slack markets; indeed, in my own double vocation
of the cloth shop and wine cellar, I had a taste and experience of the
general declension that would of a necessity ensue, when the great outlay
of government and the discharge from public employ drew more and more to
an issue. So I bethought me, that being now well stricken in years, and,
though I say it that should not, likewise a man in good respect and
circumstances, it would be a prudent thing to retire and secede entirely
from all farther intromissions with public affairs.

Accordingly, towards the midsummer of the year 1816, I commenced in a far
off way to give notice, that at Michaelmas I intended to abdicate my
authority and power, to which intimations little heed was at first given;
but gradually the seed took with the soil, and began to swell and shoot
up, in so much that, by the middle of August, it was an understood thing
that I was to retire from the council, and refrain entirely from the part
I had so long played with credit in the burgh.

When people first began to believe that I was in earnest, I cannot but
acknowledge I was remonstrated with by many, and that not a few were
pleased to say my resignation would be a public loss; but these
expressions, and the disposition of them, wore away before Michaelmas
came; and I had some sense of the feeling which the fluctuating gratitude
of the multitude often causes to rise in the breasts of those who have
ettled their best to serve the ungrateful populace. However, I
considered with myself that it would not do for me, after what I had done
for the town and commonality, to go out of office like a knotless thread,
and that, as a something was of right due to me, I would be committing an
act of injustice to my family if I neglected the means of realizing the
same. But it was a task of delicacy, and who could I prompt to tell the
t