was a great vex; then I behoved to
learn about my godfathers and godmothers to please the auld leddy; and
whiles I jumbled them thegether and pleased nane o' them; and when I cam
to man's yestate, cam another kind o' questioning in fashion that I liked
waur than Effectual Calling; and the 'did promise and vow' of the tape
were yokit to the end o' the tother. Sae ye see, sir, I aye like to hear
questions asked befor I answer them."

"You have nothing to apprehend from mine, my good friend; they only
relate to the state of the country."

"Country?" replied Cuddie; "ou, the country's weel eneugh, an it werena
that dour deevil, Claver'se (they ca' him Dundee now), that's stirring
about yet in the Highlands, they say, wi' a' the Donalds and Duncans and
Dugalds, that ever wore bottomless breeks, driving about wi' him, to set
things asteer again, now we hae gotten them a' reasonably weel settled.
But Mackay will pit him down, there's little doubt o' that; he'll gie him
his fairing, I'll be caution for it."

"What makes you so positive of that, my friend?" asked the horseman.

"I heard it wi' my ain lugs," answered Cuddie, "foretauld to him by a man
that had been three hours stane dead, and came back to this earth again
just to tell him his mind. It was at a place they ca' Drumshinnel."

"Indeed?" said the stranger. "I can hardly believe you, my friend."

"Ye might ask my mither, then, if she were in life," said Cuddie; "it was
her explained it a' to me, for I thought the man had only been wounded.
At ony rate, he spake of the casting out of the Stewarts by their very
names, and the vengeance that was brewing for Claver'se and his dragoons.
They ca'd the man Habakkuk Mucklewrath; his brain was a wee ajee, but he
was a braw preacher for a' that."

"You seem," said the stranger, "to live in a rich and peaceful country."

"It's no to compleen o', sir, an we get the crap weel in," quoth Cuddie;
"but if ye had seen the blude rinnin' as fast on the tap o' that brigg
yonder as ever the water ran below it, ye wadna hae thought it sae bonnie
a spectacle."

"You mean the battle some years since? I was waiting upon Monmouth that
morning, my good friend, and did see some part of the action," said the
stranger.

"Then ye saw a bonny stour," said Cuddie, "that sail serve me for
fighting a' the days o' my life. I judged ye wad be a trooper, by your
red scarlet lace-coat and your looped hat."

"And which side were you upon, my frie