he movements of the entire body, politic or ecclesiastical,
over which these natural monarchs seem to preside. But truce with
apology. Partly in the character of leader--partly being my self led--I
succeeded about this time in getting one of my larger parties into a
tolerably serious scrape. We passed every day, on our way to the cave, a
fine large orchard, attached to the manor-house of the Cromarty estate;
and in ascending an adjacent hill over which our path lay, and which
commands a bird's-eye view of the trim-kept walks and well-laden trees,
there used not unfrequently to arise wild speculations among us
regarding the possibility and propriety of getting a supply of the
fruit, to serve as desserts to our meals of shell-fish and potatoes.
Weeks elapsed, however, and autumn was drawing on to its close, ere we
could quite make up our minds regarding the adventure, when at length I
agreed to lead; and, after arranging the plan of the expedition, we
broke into the orchard under the cloud of night, and carried away with
us whole pocketfuls of apples. They were all intolerably bad--sour,
hard, baking apples; for we had delayed the enterprise until the better
fruit had been pulled: but though they set our teeth on edge, and we
flung most of them into the sea, we had "snatched" in the foray, what
Gray well terms "a fearful joy," and had some thought of repeating it,
merely for the sake of the excitement induced and the risk encountered,
when out came the astounding fact, that one of our number had "peached,"
and, in the character of king's evidence, betrayed his companions.

The factor of the Cromarty property had an orphan nephew, who formed at
times a member of our gang, and who had taken a willing part in the
orchard foray. He had also engaged, however, in a second enterprise of a
similar kind wholly on his own account, of which we knew nothing. An
out-house pertaining to the dwelling in which he lodged, though itself
situated outside the orchard, was attached to another house inside the
walls, which was employed by the gardener as a store-place for his
apples; and finding an unsuspected crevice in the partition which
divided the two buildings, somewhat resembling that through which
Pyramus and Thisbe made love of old in the city of Babylon, our comrade,
straightway availing himself of so fair an opening, fell a-courting the
gardener's apples. Sharpening the end of a long stick, he began
harpooning, through the hole, the