llies he gat
him into the hills with the speed of light, and the first place he
wakened in was the cove of Uaimh an Ri. So there was old to do about
ransoming the bridegroom; for Donald would not lower a farthing of a
thousand punds--'

'The devil!'

'Punds Scottish, ye shall understand. And the lady had not the siller if
she had pawned her gown; and they applied to the governor o' Stirling
castle, and to the major o' the Black Watch; and the governor said it was
ower far to the northward, and out of his district; and the major said
his men were gane hame to the shearing, and he would not call them out
before the victual was got in for all the Cramfeezers in Christendom, let
alane the Mearns, for that it would prejudice the country. And in the
meanwhile ye'll no hinder Gilliewhackit to take the small-pox. There was
not the doctor in Perth or Stirling would look near the poor lad; and I
cannot blame them, for Donald had been misguggled by ane of these doctors
about Paris, and he swore he would fling the first into the loch that he
catched beyond the pass. However some cailliachs (that is, old women)
that were about Donald's hand nursed Gilliewhackit sae weel that, between
the free open air in the cove and the fresh whey, deil an he did not
recover maybe as weel as if he had been closed in a glazed chamber and a
bed with curtains, and fed with red wine and white meat. And Donald was
sae vexed about it that, when he was stout and weel, he even sent him
free home, and said he would be pleased with onything they would like to
gie him for the plague and trouble which he had about Gilliewhackit to an
unkenn'd degree. And I cannot tell you precisely how they sorted; but
they agreed sae right that Donald was invited to dance at the wedding in
his Highland trews, and they said that there was never sae meikle siller
clinked in his purse either before or since. And to the boot of all that,
Gilliewhackit said that, be the evidence what it liked, if he had the
luck to be on Donald's inquest, he would bring him in guilty of nothing
whatever, unless it were wilful arson or murder under trust.'

With such bald and disjointed chat Evan went on illustrating the existing
state of the Highlands, more perhaps to the amusement of Waverley than
that of our readers. At length, after having marched over bank and brae,
moss and heather, Edward, though not unacquainted with the Scottish
liberality in computing distance, began to think that Evan'