e. "And when will that be, I would like to
ken?"

"Well, Alan, I have had some thoughts of that, too," said I; "and my
plan is this. It's my opinion to be called an advocate."

"That's but a weary trade, Davie," says Alan, "and rather a blagyard one
forbye. Ye would be better in a king's coat than that."

"And no doubt that would be the way to have us meet," cried I. "But as
you'll be in King Lewie's coat, and I'll be in King Geordie's, we'll
have a dainty meeting of it."

"There's some sense in that," he admitted.

"An advocate, then, it'll have to be," I continued, "and I think it a
more suitable trade for a gentleman that was _three times_ disarmed. But
the beauty of the thing is this: that one of the best colleges for that
kind of learning--and the one where my kinsman, Pilrig, made his
studies--is the college of Leyden in Holland. Now, what say you, Alan?
Could not a cadet of _Royal Ecossais_ get a furlough, slip over the
marches, and call in upon a Leyden student!"

"Well, and I would think he could!" cried he. "Ye see, I stand well in
with my colonel, Count Drummond-Melfort; and, what's mair to the
purpose, I have a cousin of mine lieutenant-colonel in a regiment of the
Scots-Dutch. Naething could be mair proper than what I would get a leave
to see Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart of Halkett's. And Lord Melfort, who is
a very scienteefic kind of a man, and writes books like Caesar, would be
doubtless very pleased to have the advantage of my observes."

"Is Lord Melfort an author, then?" I asked; for much as Alan thought of
soldiers, I thought more of the gentry that write books.

"The very same, Davie," said he. "One would think a colonel would have
something better to attend to. But what can I say that make songs?"

"Well, then," said I, "it only remains you should give me an address to
write you at in France; and as soon as I am got to Leyden I will send
you mine."

"The best will be to write me in the care of my chieftain," said he,
"Charles Stewart, of Ardshiel, Esquire, at the town of Melons, in the
Isle of France. It might take long, or it might take short, but it would
aye get to my hands at the last of it."

We had a haddock to our breakfast in Musselburgh, where it amused me
vastly to hear Alan. His great-coat and boot-hose were extremely
remarkable this warm morning, and perhaps some hint of an explanation
had been wise; but Alan went into that matter like a business, or, I
should rather say, lik