t from his cottage at
Broken-burn-cliffs, for weeks and months.'

'I should have thought,' said I, 'that the government would scarce, at
this time of day, be likely to proceed against any one even of the most
obnoxious rebels. Many years have passed away'--

'It is true,' she replied; 'yet such persons may understand that their
being connived at depends on their living in obscurity. But indeed there
can nothing certain be known among these rude people. The truth is not
in them--most of them participate in the unlawful trade betwixt these
parts and the neighbouring shore of England; and they are familiar with
every species of falsehood and deceit.'

'It is a pity,' I remarked, 'your brother should have neighbours of such
a description, especially as I understand he is at some variance with
them.'

'Where, when, and about what matter?' answered Miss Geddes, with an
eager and timorous anxiety, which made me regret having touched on the
subject.

I told her, in a way as little alarming as I could devise, the purport
of what passed betwixt this Laird of the Lakes and her brother, at their
morning's interview.

'You affright me much,' answered she; 'it is this very circumstance
which has scared me in the watches of the night. When my brother Joshua
withdrew from an active share in the commercial concerns of my father,
being satisfied with the portion of worldly substance which he already
possessed, there were one or two undertakings in which he retained an
interest, either because his withdrawing might have been prejudicial to
friends, or because he wished to retain some mode of occupying his time.
Amongst the more important of these is a fishing station on the coast,
where, by certain improved modes of erecting snares, opening at the
advance of the tide, and shutting at the reflux, many more fish are
taken than can be destroyed by those who, like the men of Broken-burn,
use only the boat-net and spear, or fishing-rod. They complain of these
tide-nets, as men call them, as an innovation, and pretend to a right
to remove and destroy them by the strong hand. I fear me, this man of
violence, whom they call the laird, will execute these his threats,
which cannot be without both loss and danger to my brother.'

'Mr. Geddes,' said I, 'ought to apply to the civil, magistrate; there
are soldiers at Dumfries who would be detached for his protection.'

'Thou speakest, friend Latimer,' answered the lady, 'as one who is
still i