ere was a palid consternation in every countenance when the black
and yellow man--for he had not the looks of the honest folks of this
country--was brought up the street between two of the town-officers, to
stand an examine before Bailie Booble.

Neither the bailie, nor those that were then sitting with him, could
speak any French language, and "the alien enemy" was as little master of
our tongue. I have often wondered how the bailie did not jealouse that
he could be no spy, seeing how, in that respect, he wanted the main
faculty. But he was under the enchantment of a panic, partly thinking
also, perhaps, that he was to do a great exploit for the government in my
absence.

However, the man was brought before him, and there was he, and them all,
speaking loud out to one another as if they had been hard of hearing,
when I, on my coming home from Kilmarnock, went to see what was going on
in the council. Considering that the procedure had been in handsome time
before my arrival, I thought it judicious to leave the whole business
with those present, and to sit still as a spectator; and really it was
very comical to observe how the bailie was driven to his wit's-end by the
poor lean and yellow Frenchman, and in what a pucker of passion the
pannel put himself at every new interlocutor, none of which he could
understand. At last, the bailie, getting no satisfaction--how could
he?--he directed the man's portmanty and bundle to be opened; and in the
bottom of the forementioned package, there, to be sure, was found many a
mystical and suspicious paper, which no one could read; among others,
there was a strange map, as it then seemed to all present.

"I' gude faith," cried the bailie, with a keckle of exultation, "here's
proof enough now. This is a plain map o' the Frith o' Clyde, all the way
to the tail of the bank o' Greenock. This muckle place is Arran; that
round ane is the craig of Ailsa; the wee ane between is Plada. Gentlemen,
gentlemen, this is a sore discovery; there will be hanging and quartering
on this." So he ordered the man to be forthwith committed as a king's
prisoner to the tolbooth; and turning to me, said:--"My lord provost, as
ye have not been present throughout the whole of this troublesome affair,
I'll e'en gie an account mysel to the lord advocate of what we have
done." I thought, at the time, there was something fey and overly
forward in this, but I assented; for I know not what it was, that seeme