s accused me to some of the primates, the rulers
for the time, as if I were a cut-throat, and an abettor of bravoes and
assassinates and coupe-jarrets. And they have sent soldiers here to abide
on the estate, and hunt me like a partridge upon the mountains, as
Scripture says of good King David, or like our valiant Sir William
Wallace--not that I bring myself into comparison with either. I thought,
when I heard you at the door, they had driven the auld deer to his den at
last; and so I e'en proposed to die at bay, like a buck of the first
head. But now, Janet, canna ye gie us something for supper?' 'Ou ay, sir,
I'll brander the moor-fowl that John Heatherblutter brought in this
morning; and ye see puir Davie's roasting the black hen's eggs. I daur
say, Mr. Wauverley, ye never kend that a' the eggs that were sae weel
roasted at supper in the Ha'-house were aye turned by our Davie? there's
no the like o' him ony gate for powtering wi' his fingers amang the het
peat-ashes and roasting eggs.' Davie all this while lay with his nose
almost in the fire, nuzzling among the ashes, kicking his heels, mumbling
to himself, turning the eggs as they lay in the hot embers, as if to
confute the proverb, that 'there goes reason to roasting of eggs,' and
justify the eulogium which poor Janet poured out upon

Him whom she loved, her idiot boy.

'Davie's no sae silly as folk tak him for, Mr. Wauverley; he wadna hae
brought you here unless he had kend ye was a friend to his Honour; indeed
the very dogs kend ye, Mr. Wauverley, for ye was aye kind to beast and
body. I can tell you a story o' Davie, wi' his Honour's leave. His
Honour, ye see, being under hiding in thae sair times--the mair's the
pity--he lies a' day, and whiles a' night, in the cove in the dern hag;
but though it's a bieldy eneugh bit, and the auld gudeman o' Corse-Cleugh
has panged it wi' a kemple o' strae amaist, yet when the country's quiet,
and the night very cauld, his Honour whiles creeps doun here to get a
warm at the ingle and a sleep amang the blankets, and gangs awa in the
morning. And so, ae morning, siccan a fright as I got! Twa unlucky
red-coats were up for black-fishing, or some siccan ploy--for the neb o'
them's never out o' mischief--and they just got a glisk o' his Honour as
he gaed into the wood, and banged aff a gun at him. I out like a
jer-falcon, and cried--"Wad they shoot an honest woman's poor innocent
bairn?" And I fleyt at them, and threepit it was