looked out through the glass, without opening it, for, being in my

night clothes, I was afraid of taking cold.
The street was as throng as on a market day, and every face in the

moonlight was pale with fear.--Men and lads were running with their
coats, and carrying their breeches in their hands; wives and maidens

were all asking questions at one another, and even lasses were
fleeing to and fro, like water nymphs with urns, having stoups and

pails in their hands.--There was swearing and tearing of men, hoarse
with the rage of impatience, at the tolbooth, getting out the fire-

engine from its stance under the stair; and loud and terrible afar
off, and over all, came the peal of alarm from drunken Robin's drum.

I could scarcely keep my composity when I beheld and heard all this,
for I was soon thoroughly persuaded of the fact. At last I saw

Deacon Girdwood, the chief advocate and champion of Robin, passing
down the causey like a demented man, with a red nightcap, and his

big-coat on--for some had cried that the fire was in his yard.--
"Deacon," cried I, opening the window, forgetting in the jocularity

of the moment the risk I ran from being so naked, "whar away sae
fast, deacon?"

The deacon stopped and said, "Is't out? is't out?"
"Gang your ways home," quo' I very coolly, "for I hae a notion that

a' this hobleshow's but the fume of a gill in your friend Robin's
head."

"It's no possible!" exclaimed the deacon.
"Possible here or possible there, Mr Girdwood," quo' I, "it's oure

cauld for me to stand talking wi' you here; we'll learn the rights
o't in the morning; so, good-night;" and with that I pulled down the

window. But scarcely had I done so, when a shout of laughter came
gathering up the street, and soon after poor drunken Robin was

brought along by the cuff of the neck, between two of the town-
officers, one of them carrying his drum. The next day he was put

out of office for ever, and folk recollecting in what manner I had
acted towards him before, the outcry about my arbitrary power was

forgotten in the blame that was heaped upon those who had espoused
Robin's cause against me.

CHAPTER XXXIV--THE COUNTRY GENTRY
For a long period of time, I had observed that there was a gradual

mixing in of the country gentry among the town's folks. This was
partly to be ascribed to a necessity rising out of the French

Revolution, whereby men of substance thought it an expedient policy
to relax in their ancient maxims of family pride and consequence;

and partly to the great increase and growth of wealth which the
influx of trade caused throughout the kingdom, whereby the merchants

were enabled to vie and ostentate even with the better sort of
lairds. The effect of this, however, was less protuberant in our

town than in many others which I might well name, and the cause
thereof lay mainly in our being more given to deal in the small way;

not that we lacked of traders possessed both of purse and
perseverance; but we did not exactly lie in the thoroughfare of

those mighty masses of foreign commodities, the throughgoing of
which left, to use the words of the old proverb, "goud in goupins"

with all who had the handling of the same. Nevertheless, we came in
for our share of the condescensions of the country gentry; and

although there was nothing like a melting down of them among us,
either by marrying or giving in marriage, there was a communion that

gave us some insight, no overly to their advantage, as to the extent
and measure of their capacities and talents. In short, we

discovered that they were vessels made of ordinary human clay; so
that, instead of our reverence for them being augmented by a freer

intercourse, we thought less and less of them, until, poor bodies,
the bit prideful lairdies were just looked down upon by our gawsie

big-bellied burgesses, not a few of whom had heritable bonds on
their estates. But in this I am speaking of the change when it had

come to a full head; for in verity it must be allowed that when the
country gentry, with their families, began to intromit among us, we

could not make enough of them. Indeed, we were deaved about the
affability of old crabbit Bodle of Bodletonbrae, and his sister,

Miss Jenny, when they favoured us with their company at the first
inspection ball. I'll ne'er forgot that occasion; for being then in

my second provostry, I had, in course of nature, been appointed a
deputy lord-lieutenant, and the town-council entertaining the

inspecting officers, and the officers of the volunteers, it fell as
a duty incumbent on me to be the director of the ball afterwards,

and to the which I sent an invitation to the laird and his sister
little hoping or expecting they would come. But the laird, likewise

being a deputy lord-lieutenant, he accepted the invitation, and came
with his sister in all the state of pedigree in their power. Such a

prodigy of old-fashionedgrandeur as Miss Jenny was!--but neither
shop nor mantuamaker of our day and generation had been the better

o't. She was just, as some of the young lasses said, like Clarissa
Harlowe, in the cuts and copperplates of Mrs Rickerton's set of the

book, and an older and more curious set than Mrs Rickerton's was not
in the whole town; indeed, for that matter, I believe it was the

only one among us, and it had edified, as Mr Binder the bookseller
used to say, at least three successivegenerations of young ladies,

for he had himself given it twice new covers. We had, however, not
then any circulating library. But for all her antiquity and

lappets, it is not to be supposed what respect and deference Miss
Jenny and her brother, the laird, received--nor the small praise

that came to my share, for having had the spirit to invite them.
The ball was spoken of as the genteelest in the memory of man,

although to my certain knowledge, on account of the volunteers, some
were there that never thought to mess or mell in the same chamber

with Bodletonbrae and his sister, Miss Jenny.
CHAPTER XXXV--TESTS OF SUCCESS

Intending these notations for the instruction of posterity, it would
not be altogether becoming of me to speak of the domestic effects

which many of the things that I have herein jotted down had in my
own family. I feel myself, however, constrained in spirit to lift

aside a small bit of the private curtain, just to show how Mrs
Pawkie comported herself in the progressive vicissitudes of our

prosperity, in the act and doing of which I do not wish to throw any
slight on her feminine qualities; for, to speak of her as she

deserves at my hand, she has been a most excellent wife, and a
decent woman, and had aye a ruth and ready hand for the needful.

Still, to say the truth, she is not without a few little weaknesses
like her neighbours, and the ill-less vanity of being thought far

ben with the great is among others of her harmless frailities.
Soon after the inspection ball before spoken of, she said to me that

it would be a great benefit and advantage to our family if we could
get Bodletonbrae and his sister, and some of the other country

gentry, to dine with us. I was not very clear about how the benefit
was to come to book, for the outlay I thought as likely o'ergang the

profit; at the same time, not wishing to baulk Mrs Pawkie of a ploy
on which I saw her mind was bent, I gave my consent to her and my

daughters to send out the cards, and make the necessary
preparations. But herein I should not take credit to myself for

more of the virtue of humility than was my due; therefore I open the
door of my secret heart so far ajee, as to let the reader discern

that I was content to hear our invitations were all accepted.
Of the specialities and dainties of the banquet prepared, it is not

fitting that I should treat in any more particular manner, than to
say they were the best that could be had, and that our guests were

all mightily well pleased. Indeed, my wife was out of the body with
exultation when Mrs Auchans of that Ilk begged that she would let

her have a copy of the directions she had followed in making a
flummery, which the whole company declared was most excellent. This

compliment was the more pleasant, as Lady Auchans was well known for
her skill in savoury contrivances, and to have anything new to her

of the sort was a triumph beyond our most sanguine expectations. In
a word, from that day we found that we had taken, as it were, a step

above the common in the town. There were, no doubt, some who envied
our good fortune; but, upon the whole, the community at large were

pleased to see the consideration in which their chief magistrate was