lie? It cost that
body five hundred merks ere he got to the south of Bally-Brough.--And
ance Donald played a pretty sport. [13] There was to be a
blythe bridal between the Lady Cramfeezer, in the howe o' the Mearns
(she was the auld laird's widow, and no sae young as she had been
hersell), and young Gilliewhackit, who had spent his heirship and
movables, like a gentleman, at cock-matches, bull-baitings, horse-races,
and the like. Now, Donald Bean Lean, being aware that the bridegroom
was in request, and wanting to cleik the cunzie (that is, to hook the
siller), he cannily carried off Gilliewhackit ae night when he was
riding DOVERING hame (wi' the malt rather abune the meal), and with the
help of his gillies he gat him into the hills with the speed of light,
and the first place he wakened in was the cove of Uaimh an Ri. So there
was old to do about ransoming the bridegroom; for Donald would not lower
a farthing of a thousand punds'--

The devil!'

'Punds Scottish, ya shall understand. And the lady had not the siller
if she had pawned her gown; and they applied to the governor o' Stirling
castle, and to the major o' the Black Watch; and the governor said, it
was ower far to the northward, and out of his district; and the major
said, his men were gane hame to the shearing, and he would not call
them out before the victual was got in for all the Cramfeezers in
Christendom, let alane the Mearns, for that it would prejudice the
country. And in the meanwhile ye'll no hinder Gilliewhackit to take the
small-pox. There was not the doctor in Perth or Stirling would look near
the poor lad; and I cannot blame them, for Donald had been misguggled by
ane of these doctors about Paris, and he swore he would fling the first
into the loch that he catched beyond the Pass. However, some cailliachs
(that is, old women) that were about Donald's hand, nursed Gilliewhackit
sae weel, that between the free open air in the cove and the fresh whey,
deil an' he did not recover maybe as weel as if he had been closed in a
glazed chamber and a bed with curtains, and fed with red wine and white
meat. And Donald was sae vexed about it, that when he was stout and
weel, he even sent him free home, and said he would be pleased with
onything they would like to gie him for the plague and trouble which
he had about Gilliewhackit to an unkenn'd degree. And I cannot tell you
precisely how they sorted; but they agreed sae right that Donald was
invited to dance