chooses to pay handsomely for the lodging."

"And then, maybe," said the stranger, "the siller would find out a bed
to lie in."

"I could lend him mine, perhaps," returned the accommodating landlady.

"Then here's a crown," said the other, "and let the old man be both
fed and bedded. I have money enough; and his purse, I think, is not
overstocked with provision, if we may guess by the lining of his
wallet."

The dame, growing courteous in an instant, promised as good a bed as
King George himself slept in that blessed night. The astonished
fisherman could hardly credit his senses. He thanked his stars for
this unexpected interposition; nor would he refuse the gift, though
from the hands of a stranger.

The latter shortly afterwards retired to rest; and the political
weaver and blacksmith, having settled the hanging, drawing, and
quartering of the unfortunate prisoner, not without a full and
minute-description of this disgusting and barbarous, though to them
diverting process, called for a parting cup, to drink confusion to the
rebels and a speedy dismissal to the Chevalier.

Old Grimes retired also; and in a low wide room, white-washed and
bare-walled, containing a broken chair, two-thirds of a table, and a
bed without tester, covered with a thick blue quilt, was deposited the
mortal fabric of the weary fisherman.

He could not sleep for a considerable time; the strange events he had
witnessed, the excitement he had undergone, together with the rude
brawls beneath his window, prevented him from closing his eyes until
past midnight. He heard not a few loyal home-made songs, by the
red-hot braggarts, pot-valiant and full of "gentle minstrelsie," as
they trolled lustily past his lodging. Amongst many others, the
following seemed an especial favourite:--

1.
"Down wi' the Papists an' a', man,
Down wi' the priest and confession;
Down wi' the Charlies an' a', man,
And up wi' the Duke an' the nation.

2.
"There's Townley, an' Fletcher, an' Syddal,
And Nairn, wi' his breeks wrang side out, man;
Some ran without breeks to their middle,
But Charlie ran fastest about, man."

After a while, the sounds began to mingle confusedly with the images
floating on his own sensorium. He felt as though unable to separate
them: ideal forms took up the real impressions, and arrayed themselves
so cunningly withal, that to his mind's eye the