dat de people does be sayhi' it. Dey say
dat himself and wan of our bishops went to France togither"

The squire seemed to breathe more freely as he said, in a low soliloquy,
"I'm devilish glad of it; for, after all, it would go against my heart
to hang the fellow."

"Well," he said aloud, "so he's gone to France?"

"So de people does be sayin, shir."

"Well, tell me--do you know a gentleman called Sir Robert Whitecraft?"

"Is dat him, shir, dat keeps de misses privately?"

"How do you know that he keeps misses privately?"

"Fwhy, shir, dey say his last one was a Miss Herbert, and dat she had
a young one by him, and dat she was an Englishwoman. It isn't ginerally
known, I believe, shir, but dey do be sayin' dat she was brought to
bed in de cottage of some bad woman named Mary Mahon, dat does be on de
lookout to get sweethearts for him."

"There's five thirteens for you, and I wish to God, my good fellow, that
you would allow yourself to be put in better feathers."

"Oh, I expect my pinance will be out before a mont', shir; but, until
den, I couldn't take any money."

"Malcomson," said he to the gardener, "I think that fellow's a half
fool. I offered him a crown, and also said. I would get him a suit
of clothes, and he would not take either; but talked about some silly
penance he was undergoing."

"Saul, then, your honor, he may be a fule in ither things, but de'il a
ane of him's a fule in the sceence o' buttany. As to that penance, it's
just some Papistrical nonsense, he has gotten into his head--de'il hae't
mair: but sure they're a' full o't--a' o' the same graft, an' a bad one
I fear it is."

"Well, I believe so, Malcomson, I believe so. However, if the
unfortunate fool is clever, give him good wages."

"Saul, your honor, I'll do him justice; only I think that, anent that
penance he speaks o', the hail Papish population, bad as we think them,
are suffering penance eneuch, one way or tither. It disna' beseem a
Protestant--that is, a prelatic Government--to persecute ony portion o'
Christian people on, account o' their religion. We have felt and kenned
that in Scotland, sairly. I'm no freend to persecution, in ony shape.
But, as to this chiel, I ken naething aboot him, but that he is a gude
buttanist. Hout, your honor, to be sure I'll gi'e him a fair wage for
his skeel and labor."

Malcomson, who was what we have often met, a pedant gardener, saw,
however, that the squire's mind was disturbed. In the s