ye tak him awa'?"

"It's my belief and opinion, honest gentleman," said the corporal, "that
if you were going to be hanged yourself, you would be in no such d--d
hurry."

This by-dialogue prevented my hearing what passed between the prisoner
and Captain Thornton; but I heard the former snivel out, in a very
subdued tone, "And ye'll ask her to gang nae farther than just to show ye
where the MacGregor is?--Ohon! ohon!"

"Silence your howling, you rascal--No; I give you my word I will ask you
to go no farther.--Corporal, make the men fall in, in front of the
houses. Get out these gentlemen's horses; we must carry them with us. I
cannot spare any men to guard them here. Come, my lads, get under arms."

The soldiers bustled about, and were ready to move. We were led out,
along with Dougal, in the capacity of prisoners. As we left the hut, I
heard our companion in captivity remind the Captain of "ta foive
kuineas."

"Here they are for you," said the officer, putting gold into his hand;
"but observe, that if you attempt to mislead me, I will blow your brains
out with my own hand."

"The creature," said the Bailie, "is waur than I judged him--it is a
warldly and a perfidious creature. O the filthy lucre of gain that men
gies themsells up to! My father the deacon used to say, the penny siller
slew mair souls than the naked sword slew bodies."

The landlady now approached, and demanded payment of her reckoning,
including all that had been quaffed by Major Galbraith and his Highland
friends. The English officer remonstrated, but Mrs. MacAlpine declared,
if "she hadna trusted to his honour's name being used in their company,
she wad never hae drawn them a stoup o' liquor; for Mr. Galbraith, she
might see him again, or she might no, but weel did she wot she had sma'
chance of seeing her siller--and she was a puir widow, had naething but
her custom to rely on."

Captain Thornton put a stop to her remonstrances by paying the charge,
which was only a few English shillings, though the amount sounded very
formidable in Scottish denominations. The generous officer would have
included Mr. Jarvie and me in this general acquittance; but the Bailie,
disregarding an intimation from the landlady to "make as muckle of the
Inglishers as we could, for they were sure to gie us plague eneugh," went
into a formal accounting respecting our share of the reckoning, and paid
it accordingly. The Captain took the opportunity to make us some slight