sleeping chambers as if they were in a bordel at Paris. A party of
reiving night walkers--courtiers and men of rank, as there is but too
much reason to believe--attempted to scale the windows of Simon Glover's
house last night; they stood in their defence with drawn weapons when
they were interrupted by Henry Smith, and fought till they were driven
off by the rising of the citizens."

"How!" said Sir Patrick, setting down the cup which he was about to
raise to his head. "Cock's body, make that manifest to me, and, by
the soul of Thomas of Longueville, I will see you righted with my best
power, were it to cost me life and land. Who attests this? Simon Glover,
you are held an honest and a cautious man--do you take the truth of this
charge upon your conscience?"

"My lord," said Simon, "understand I am no willing complainer in this
weighty matter. No damage has arisen, save to the breakers of the peace
themselves. I fear only great power could have encouraged such lawless
audacity; and I were unwilling to put feud between my native town and
some powerful nobleman on my account. But it has been said that, if I
hang back in prosecuting this complaint, it will be as much as admitting
that my daughter expected such a visit, which is a direct falsehood.
Therefore, my lord, I will tell your lordship what happened, so far as I
know, and leave further proceeding to your wisdom."

He then told, from point to point, all that he had seen of the attack.

Sir Patrick Charteris, listening with much attention, seemed
particularly struck with the escape of the man who had been made
prisoner.

"Strange," he said, "that you did not secure him when you had him. Did
you not look at him so as to know him again?"

"I had but the light of a lantern, my Lord Provost; and as to suffering
him to escape, I was alone," said the glover, "and old. But yet I might
have kept him, had I not heard my daughter shriek in the upper room;
and ere I had returned from her chamber the man had escaped through the
garden."

"Now, armourer, as a true man and a good soldier," said Sir Patrick,
"tell me what you know of this matter."

Henry Gow, in his own decided style, gave a brief but clear narrative of
the whole affair.

Honest Proudfute being next called upon, began his statement with an air
of more importance. "Touching this awful and astounding tumult within
the burgh, I cannot altogether, it is true, say with Henry Gow that I
saw the very beginnin