d leases
that were belyve to fall in, and I said--

"Nothing can be more reasonable, Mr M'Lucre; for the office of dean of
guild must be a very fashious one, to folks like me, no skilled in its
particularities; and I'm sure I'll be right glad and willing to give it
up, when we hae got our present turn served.--But to keep a' things quiet
between us, let us no appear till after the election overly thick;
indeed, for a season, we maun fight, as it were, under different
colours."

Thus was the seed sown of a great reformation in the burgh, the sprouting
whereof I purpose to describe in due season.

CHAPTER V--THE FIRST CONTESTED ELECTION

The sough of the dissolution of parliament, during the whole of the
summer, grew stronger and stronger, and Mr M'Lucre and me were seemingly
pulling at opposite ends of the rope. There was nothing that he proposed
in the council but what I set myself against with such bir and vigour,
that sometimes he could scarcely keep his temper, even while he was
laughing in his sleeve to see how the other members of the corporation
were beglammered. At length Michaelmas drew near, when I, to show, as it
were, that no ill blood had been bred on my part, notwithstanding our
bickerings, proposed in the council that Mr M'Lucre should be the new
bailie; and he on his part, to manifest, in return, that there was as
little heart-burning on his, said "he would have no objections; but then
he insisted that I should consent to be dean of guild in his stead."

"It's true," said he in the council on that occasion, "that Mr Pawkie is
as yet but a greenhorn in the concerns of the burgh: however, he'll never
learn younger, and if he'll agree to this, I'll gie him all the help and
insight that my experience enables me to afford."

At the first, I pretended that really, as was the truth, I had no
knowledge of what were the duties of dean of guild; but after some
fleeching from the other councillors, I consented to have the office, as
it were, forced upon me; so I was made dean of guild, and Mr M'Lucre the
new bailie.

By and by, when the harvest in England was over, the parliament was
dissolved, but no candidate started on my lord's interest, as was
expected by Mr M'Lucre, and he began to fret and be dissatisfied that he
had ever consented to allow himself to be hoodwinked out of the guildry.
However, just three days before the election, and at the dead hour of the
night, the sound of chariot wheels