his tormentor, Alan Fairford had time to rally his
recollections, which, in the irritation of his spirits, had nearly
escaped him, and to prepare himself far a task, the successful discharge
or failure in which must, he was aware, have the deepest influence upon
his fortunes. He had pride, was not without a consciousness of talent,
and the sense of his father's feelings upon the subject impelled him to
the utmost exertion. Above all, he had that sort of self-command
which is essential to success in every arduous undertaking, and he was
constitutionally free from that feverish irritability by which
those whose over-active imaginations exaggerate difficulties, render
themselves incapable of encountering such when they arrive.

Having collected all the scattered and broken associations which were
necessary, Alan's thoughts reverted to Dumfriesshire, and the precarious
situation in which he feared his beloved friend had placed himself; and
once and again he consulted his watch, eager to have his present task
commenced and ended, that he might hasten to Darsie's assistance. The
hour and moment at length arrived. The macer shouted, with all his
well-remembered brazen strength of lungs, 'Poor Peter Peebles VERSUS
Plainstanes, PER Dumtoustie ET Tough!--Maister Da-a-niel Dumtoustie!'
Dumtoustie answered not the summons, which, deep and swelling as it was,
could not reach across the Queensferry; but our Maister Alan Fairford
appeared in his place.

The court was very much crowded; for much amusement had been received
on former occasions when Peter had volunteered his own oratory, and
had been completely successful in routing the gravity of the whole
procedure, and putting to silence, not indeed the counsel of the
opposite party, but his own.

Both bench and audience seemed considerably surprised at the juvenile
appearance of the young man who appeared in the room of Dumtoustie, for
the purpose of opening this complicated and long depending process, and
the common herd were disappointed at the absence of Peter the client,
the Punchinello of the expected entertainment. The judges looked with
a very favourable countenance on our friend Alan, most of them being
acquainted, more or less, with so old a practitioner as his father, and
all, or almost all, affording, from civility, the same fair play to the
first pleading of a counsel, which the House of Commons yields to the
maiden speech of one of its members.

Lord Bladderskate was