en of the
true Scottish character whom he had met in the county of Angus.

We meant to carry on the deception next morning, but the laird
was too happy for concealment. Before the door closed on the
good-night of the ladies, he had disclosed the secret, and
before we reached the top of the stairs, the gentlemen were
scampering at our heels like a pack of hounds in full cry.

Here are at random some extracts from the others:--

Mr. Jeffrey now inquired what the people in her part of the
country thought of the trial of the Queen. She could not tell
him, but she would say what she herself had remarked on siclike
proceedings: "Tak' a wreath of snaw, let it be never so white,
and wash it through clean water, it will no come out so pure as
it gaed in, far less the dirty dubs the poor Queen has been
drawn through."

Mr. Russell inquired if she possessed any relics of Prince
Charles from the time he used to spin with the lasses:--

"Yes," she said, "I have a _flech_ that loupit aff him upon my
aunty, the Lady Brax, when she was helping him on wi' his
short-gown; my aunty rowed it up in a sheet of white paper, and
she keepit it in the tea canister, and she ca'd it aye the
King's Flech; and the laird, honest man, when he wanted a cup of
gude tea, sought aye a cup of the _Prince's mixture_." This
produced peals of laughter, and her ladyship laughed as heartily
as any of them. When somewhat composed again, she looked across
the table to Mr. Clerk, and offered to let him see it. "It is
now set on the pivot of my watch, and a' the warks gae round the
_flech_ in place of turning on a diamond."

Lord Gillies thought this flight would certainly betray her, and
remarked to Mr. Clerk that the flea must be painted on the
watch, but Mr. Clerk said he had known of relics being kept of
the Prince quite as extraordinary as a flea; that Mr. Murray of
Simprim had a pocket-handkerchief in which Prince Charles had
blown his nose.

The Lady Pitlyal said her daughter did not value these things,
and that she was resolved to leave it as a legacy to the
Antiquarian Society.

Holmehead was rather amused with her originality, though he had
not forgotten the attack. He said he would try if she was a real
Jacobite, and he called out, "Madam, I am going to propose a
toast for ye!

"May t