a blatter o' Latin about his lugs, that poor Rab Tull, wha was nae great
scholar, was clean overwhelmed. Od, but he was a bauld body, and he
minded the Latin name for the deed that he was wanting. It was something
about a cart, I fancy, for the ghaist cried aye, Carter, carter--"

"Carta, you transformer of languages!" cried Oldbuck;--"if my ancestor
had learned no other language in the other world, at least he would not
forget the Latinity for which he was so famous while in this."

"Weel, weel, carta be it then, but they ca'd it carter that tell'd me
the story. It cried aye carta, if sae be that it was carta, and made a
sign to Rab to follow it. Rab Tull keepit a Highland heart, and banged
out o' bed, and till some of his readiest claes--and he did follow the
thing up stairs and down stairs to the place we ca' the high dow-cot--(a
sort of a little tower in the corner of the auld house, where there was
a Rickle o' useless boxes and trunks)--and there the ghaist gae Rab a
kick wi' the tae foot, and a kick wi' the tother, to that very auld
east-country tabernacle of a cabinet that my brother has standing beside
his library table, and then disappeared like a fuff o' tobacco, leaving
Rab in a very pitiful condition."

"Tenues secessit in auras," quoth Oldbuck. "Marry, sir, mansit odor--But,
sure enough, the deed was there found in a drawer of this forgotten
repository, which contained many other curious old papers, now properly
labelled and arranged, and which seemed to have belonged to my ancestor,
the first possessor of Monkbarns. The deed, thus strangely recovered,
was the original Charter of Erection of the Abbey, Abbey Lands, and so
forth, of Trotcosey, comprehending Monkbarns and others, into a Lordship
of Regality in favour of the first Earl of Glengibber, a favourite
of James the Sixth. It is subscribed by the King at Westminster,
the seventeenth day of January, A. D. one thousand six hundred and
twelve--thirteen. It's not worth while to repeat the witnesses' names."

"I would rather," said Lovel with awakened curiosity, "I would rather
hear your opinion of the way in which the deed was discovered."

"Why, if I wanted a patron for my legend, I could find no less a one
than Saint Augustine, who tells the story of a deceased person appearing
to his son, when sued for a debt which had been paid, and directing him
where, to find the discharge.*

*Note D. Mr. Rutherford's dream.

But I rather opine with Lord Baco