e to the legend which
it had pleased Gow to circulate; for, though not much caring for the
matter, he had always doubted the bonnet maker's romancing account
of his own exploits, which hereafter he must hold as in some degree
orthodox.

The shrewd old glover looked closer into the matter. "You will drive the
poor bonnet maker mad," he whispered to Henry, "and set him a-ringing
his clapper as if he were a town bell on a rejoicing day, when for order
and decency it were better he were silent."

"Oh, by Our Lady, father," replied the smith, "I love the poor little
braggadocio, and could not think of his sitting rueful and silent in
the provost's hall, while all the rest of them, and in especial that
venomous pottingar, were telling their mind."

"Thou art even too good natured a fellow, Henry," answered Simon. "But
mark the difference betwixt these two men. The harmless little bonnet
maker assumes the airs of a dragon, to disguise his natural cowardice;
while the pottingar wilfully desires to show himself timid, poor
spirited, and humble, to conceal the danger of his temper. The adder
is not the less deadly that he creeps under a stone. I tell thee, son
Henry, that, for all his sneaking looks and timorous talking, this
wretched anatomy loves mischief more than he fears danger. But here we
stand in front of the provost's castle; and a lordly place is Kinfauns,
and a credit to the city it is, to have the owner of such a gallant
castle for its chief magistrate."

"A goodly fortalice, indeed," said the smith, looking at the broad
winding Tay, as it swept under the bank on which the castle stood, like
its modern successor, and seemed the queen of the valley, although, on
the opposite side of the river, the strong walls of Elcho appeared to
dispute the pre-eminence. Elcho, however, was in that age a peaceful
nunnery, and the walls with which it was surrounded were the barriers of
secluded vestals, not the bulwarks of an armed garrison.

"'Tis a brave castle," said the armourer, again looking at the towers
of Kinfauns, "and the breastplate and target of the bonny course of the
Tay. It were worth lipping a good blade, before wrong were offered to
it."

The porter of Kinfauns, who knew from a distance the persons and
characters of the party, had already opened the courtyard gate for
their entrance, and sent notice to Sir Patrick Charteris that the eldest
bailie of Perth, with some other good citizens, were approaching the
c