e t'ye, my lad;
Though father and mother and a' should gae mad,
Oh whistle and I'll come t'ye, my lad.

I soon heard a clattering noise of feet in the courtyard, which I
concluded to be Jan and Dorcas dancing a jig in their Cumberland wooden
clogs. Under cover of this din, I endeavoured to answer Willie's signal
by whistling, as loud as I could---

Come back again and loe me
When a' the lave are gane.

He instantly threw the dancers out, by changing his air to

There's my thumb, I'll ne'er beguile thee.

I no longer doubted that a communication betwixt us was happily
established, and that, if I had an opportunity of speaking to the poor
musician, I should find him willing to take my letter to the post,
to invoke the assistance of some active magistrate, or of the
commanding-officer of Carlisle Castle, or, in short, to do whatever
else I could point out, in the compass of his power, to contribute to
my liberation. But to obtain speech of him, I must have run the risk
of alarming the suspicions of Dorcas, if not of her yet more stupid
Corydon. My ally's blindness prevented his receiving any communication
by signs from the window--even if I could have ventured to make
them, consistently with prudence--so that notwithstanding the mode of
intercourse we had adopted was both circuitous and peculiarly liable to
misapprehension, I saw nothing I could do better than to continue it,
trusting my own and my correspondent's acuteness in applying to the airs
the meaning they were intended to convey. I thought of singing the words
themselves of some significant song, but feared I might, by doing so,
attract suspicion. I endeavoured, therefore, to intimate my speedy
departure from my present place of residence, by whistling the
well-known air with which festive parties in Scotland usually conclude
the dance:--

Good night and joy be wi' ye a',
For here nae langer maun I stay;
There's neither friend nor foe, of mine
But wishes that I were away.

It appeared that Willie's powers of intelligence were much more active
than mine, and that, like a deaf person accustomed to be spoken to by
signs, he comprehended, from the very first notes, the whole meaning I
intended to convey; and he accompanied me in the air with his violin,
in such a manner as at once to show he understood my meaning, and to
prevent my whistling from being attended to.

His reply was almost immediate, and was conveyed in the old martial air