as
you suppose. I have good friends, if I could get to them, for which all
I want is to be once clear of Scotland; and I have money for the road."
And I produced my bundle.

"English bank-notes?" she said. "That's not very handy for Scotland.
It's been some fool of an Englishman that's given you these, I'm
thinking. How much is it?"

"I declare to Heaven I never thought to count!" I exclaimed. "But that
is soon remedied."

And I counted out ten notes of ten pound each, all in the name of
Abraham Newlands, and five bills of country bankers for as many guineas.

"One hundred and twenty-six pound five," cried the old lady. "And you
carry such a sum about you, and have not so much as counted it! If you
are not a thief, you must allow you are very thief-like."

"And yet, madam, the money is legitimately mine," said I.

She took one of the bills and held it up. "Is there any probability,
now, that this could be traced?" she asked.

"None, I should suppose; and if it were, it would be no matter," said I.
"With your usual penetration, you guessed right. An Englishman brought
it me. It reached me through the hands of his English solicitor, from my
great-uncle, the Comte de Keroual de Saint-Yves, I believe the richest
_emigre_ in London."

"I can do no more than take your word for it," said she.

"And I trust, madam, not less," said I.

"Well," said she, "at this rate the matter may be feasible. I will cash
one of these five-guinea bills, less the exchange, and give you silver
and Scots notes to bear you as far as the border. Beyond that, Mosha the
Viscount, you will have to depend upon yourself."

I could not but express a civil hesitation as to whether the amount
would suffice, in my case, for so long a journey.

"Ay," said she, "but you havena heard me out. For if you are not too
fine a gentleman to travel with a pair of drovers, I believe I have
found the very thing, and the Lord forgive me for a treasonable old
wife! There are a couple stopping up-by with the shepherd-man at the
farm; to-morrow they will take the road for England, probably by skreigh
of day--and in my opinion you had best be travelling with the stots,"
said she.

"For Heaven's sake do not suppose me to be so effeminate a character!"
I cried. "An old soldier of Napoleon is certainly beyond suspicion. But,
dear lady, to what end? and how is the society of these excellent
gentlemen supposed to help me?"

"My dear sir," said she, "you do not a