oldest Bailie, naturally officiated as chief magistrate in my stead.

There have been, as the world knows, a disposition on the part of
the grand monarque of that time, to invade and conquer this country,

the which made it a duty incumbent on all magistrates to keep a
vigilant eye on the in-comings and out-goings of aliens and other

suspectable persons. On the said day, and during my absence, a
Frenchman, that could speak no manner of English, somehow was

discovered in the Cross-Key inns. What he was, or where he came
from, nobody at the time could tell, as I was informed; but there he

was, having come into the house at the door, with a bundle in his
hand, and a portmanty on his shoulder, like a traveller out of some

vehicle of conveyance. Mrs Drammer, the landlady, did not like his
looks; for he had toozy black whiskers, was lank and wan, and

moreover deformed beyond human nature, as she said, with a parrot
nose, and had no cravat, but only a bit black riband drawn through

two button-holes, fastening his ill-coloured sark neck, which gave
him altogether something of an unwholesome, outlandish appearance.

Finding he was a foreigner, and understanding that strict
injunctions were laid on the magistrates by the king and government

anent the egressing of such persons, she thought, for the credit of
her house, and the safety of the community at large, that it behoved

her to send word to me, then provost, of this man's visibility among
us; but as I was not at home, Mrs Pawkie, my wife, directed the

messenger to Bailie Booble's. The bailie was, at all times, overly
ready to claught at an alarm; and when he heard the news, he went

straight to the council-room, and sending for the rest of the
council, ordered the alien enemy, as he called the forlorn

Frenchman, to be brought before him. By this time, the suspicion of
a spy in the town had spread far and wide; and Mrs Pawkie told me,

that there was a palid consternation in every countenance when the
black and yellow man--for he had not the looks of the honest folks

of this country--was brought up the street between two of the town-
officers, to stand an examine before Bailie Booble.

Neither the bailie, nor those that were then sitting with him, could
speak any French language, and "the alien enemy" was as little

master of our tongue. I have often wondered how the bailie did not
jealouse that he could be no spy, seeing how, in that respect, he

wanted the main faculty. But he was under the enchantment of a
panic, partly thinking also, perhaps, that he was to do a great

exploit for the government in my absence.
However, the man was brought before him, and there was he, and them

all, speaking loud out to one another as if they had been hard of
hearing, when I, on my coming home from Kilmarnock, went to see what

was going on in the council. Considering that the procedure had
been in handsome time before my arrival, I thought it judicious to

leave the whole business with those present, and to sit still as a
spectator; and really it was very comical to observe how the bailie

was driven to his wit's-end by the poor lean and yellow Frenchman,
and in what a pucker of passion the pannel put himself at every new

interlocutor, none of which he could understand. At last, the
bailie, getting no satisfaction--how could he?--he directed the

man's portmanty and bundle to be opened; and in the bottom of the
forementioned package, there, to be sure, was found many a mystical

and suspicious paper, which no one could read; among others, there
was a strange map, as it then seemed to all present.

"I' gude faith," cried the bailie, with a keckle of exultation,
"here's proof enough now. This is a plain map o' the Frith o'

Clyde, all the way to the tail of the bank o' Greenock. This muckle
place is Arran; that round ane is the craig of Ailsa; the wee ane

between is Plada. Gentlemen, gentlemen, this is a sore discovery;
there will be hanging and quartering on this." So he ordered the

man to be forthwith committed as a king's prisoner to the tolbooth;
and turning to me, said:- "My lord provost, as ye have not been

present throughout the whole of this troublesome affair, I'll e'en
gie an account mysel to the lord advocate of what we have done." I

thought, at the time, there was something fey and overly forward in
this, but I assented; for I know not what it was, that seemed to me

as if there was something neither right nor regular; indeed, to say
the truth, I was no ill pleased that the bailie took on him what he

did; so I allowed him to write himself to the lord advocate; and, as
the sequel showed, it was a blessedprudence on my part that I did

so. For no sooner did his lordship receive the bailie's terrifying
letter, than a special king's messenger was sent to take the spy

into Edinburgh Castle; and nothing could surpass the great
importance that Bailie Booble made of himself, on the occasion, on

getting the man into a coach, and two dragoons to guard him into
Glasgow.

But oh! what a dejected man was the miserable Bailie Booble, and
what a laugh rose from shop and chamber, when the tidings came out

from Edinburgh that, "the alien enemy" was but a French cook coming
over from Dublin, with the intent to take up the trade of a

confectioner in Glasgow, and that the map of the Clyde was nothing
but a plan for the outset of a fashionable table--the bailie's

island of Arran being the roast beef, and the craig of Ailsa the
plum-pudding, and Plada a butter-boat. Nobody enjoyed the

jocularity of the business more than myself; but I trembled when I
thought of the escape that my honour and character had with the lord

advocate. I trow, Bailie Booble never set himself so forward from
that day to this.

CHAPTER XIII--THE MEAL MOB
After the close of the American war, I had, for various reasons of a

private nature, a wish to sequestrate myself for a time, from any
very ostensible part in public affairs. Still, however, desiring to

retain a mean of resuming my station, and of maintaining my
influence in the council, I bespoke Mr Keg to act in my place as

deputy for My Lord, who was regularly every year at this time chosen
into the provostry.

This Mr Keg was a man who had made a competency by the Isle-of-Man
trade, and had come in from the laighlands, where he had been

apparently in the farming line, to live among us; but for many a
day, on account of something that happened when he was concerned in

the smuggling, he kept himself cannily aloof from all sort of town
matters; deporting himself with a most creditable sobriety; in so

much, that there was at one time a sough that Mr Pittle, the
minister, our friend, had put him on the leet for an elder. That

post, however, if it was offered to him, he certainly never
accepted; but I jealouse that he took the rumour o't for a sign that

his character had ripened into an estimation among us, for he
thenceforth began to kithe more in public, and was just a patron to

every manifestation of loyalty, putting more lights in his windows
in the rejoicing nights of victory than any other body, Mr M'Creesh,

the candlemaker, and Collector Cocket, not excepted. Thus, in the
fulness of time, he was taken into the council, and no man in the

whole corporation could be said to be more zealous than he was. In
respect, therefore, to him, I had nothing to fear, so far as the

interests, and, over and above all, the loyalty of the corporation,
were concerned; but something like a quailing came over my heart,

when, after the breaking up of the council on the day of election,
he seemed to shy away from me, who had been instrumental to his

advancement. However, I trow he had soon reason to repent of that
ingratitude, as I may well call it; for when the troubles of the

meal mob came upon him, I showed him that I could keep my distance
as well as my neighbours.

It was on the Friday, our market-day, that the hobleshow began, and
in the afternoon, when the farmers who had brought in their victual

for sale were loading their carts to take it home again, the price
not having come up to their expectation. All the forenoon, as the

wives that went to the meal-market, came back railing with toom
pocks and basins, it might have been foretold that the farmers would

have to abate their extortion, or that something would come o't
before night. My new house and shop being forenent the market, I

had noted this, and said to Mrs Pawkie, my wife, what I thought
would be the upshot, especially when, towards the afternoon, I