he
alarm, whizz-whizz, whizzing in the chimney lug.

_III.--The Friends of the People_

The sough of war and invasion flew over the land at this time, like a
great whirlwind; and the hearts of men died within their persons with
fear and trembling. Abroad the heads of crowned kings were cut off, and
great dukes and lords were thrown into dark dungeons, or obligated to
flee for their lives to foreign countries.

But worst of all the trouble seemed a smittal one, and even our own land
began to show symptoms of the plague spot. Agents of the Spirit of
Darkness, calling themselves the Friends of the People, held secret
meetings, and hatched plots to blow up our blessed king and
constitution. Yet the business, though fearsome in the main, was in some
parts almost laughable. Everything was to be divided, and everyone made
alike. Houses and lands were to be distributed by lots, and the mighty
man and the beggar--the old man and the hobble-de-hoy--the industrious
man and the spendthrift, the maimed, the cripple, and the blind, the
clever man of business, and the haveril simpleton, made all just
brethern, and alike. Save us! but to think of such nonsense! At one of
their meetings, held at the sign of the Tappet Hen and the Tankard,
there was a prime fight of five rounds between Tammy Bowsie, the snab,
and auld Thrashem, the dominie, about their drawing cuts which was to
get Dalkeith Palace, and which Newbottle Abbey! Oh, sic riff-raff!

It was a brave notion of the king to put the loyalty of the land to the
test, that the daft folk might be dismayed, and that the clanjamphrey
might be tumbled down before their betters, like the windle-straes in a
hurricane. And so they were. Such crowds came forward when the names of
the volunteers were taken down. I will never forget the first day that I
got my regimentals on, and when I looked myself in the glass, just to
think I was a sodger who never in my life could thole the smell of
powder! Oh, but it was grand! I sometimes fancied myself a general, and
giving the word of command. Big Sam, who was a sergeant in the
fencibles, and enough to have put five Frenchmen to flight any day of
the year, whiles came to train us; but as nature never intended me for
the soldiering trade, I never got out of the awkward squad, though I had
two or three neighbours to keep me in countenance.

We all cracked very crouse about fighting; but one dark night we got a
fleg in sober earnest. Jow went the