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acquainted him, as an apology for disturbing him an hour earlier than his usual time of rising, that there was an express from Tillietudlem. "From Tillietudlem?" said the old gentleman, rising hastily in his bed, and sitting bolt upright,--"Open the shutters, Pike--I hope my sister-in-law is well--furl up the bed-curtain.--What have we all here?" (glancing at Edith's note.) "The gout? why, she knows I have not had a fit since Candlemas.--The wappen-schaw? I told her a month since I was not to be there.--Paduasoy and hanging sleeves? why, hang the gipsy herself!--Grand Cyrus and Philipdastus?--Philip Devil!--is the wench gone crazy all at once? was it worth while to send an express and wake me at five in the morning for all this trash?--But what says her postscriptum?--Mercy on us!" he exclaimed on perusing it,--"Pike, saddle old Kilsythe instantly, and another horse for yourself." "I hope nae ill news frae the Tower, sir?" said Pike, astonished at his master's sudden emotion. "Yes--no--yes--that is, I must meet Claverhouse there on some express business; so boot and saddle, Pike, as fast as you can.--O, Lord! what times are these!--the poor lad--my old cronie's son!--and the silly wench sticks it into her postscriptum, as she calls it, at the tail of all this trumpery about old gowns and new romances!" In a few minutes the good old officer was fully equipped; and having mounted upon his arm-gaunt charger as soberly as Mark Antony himself could have done, he paced forth his way to the Tower of Tillietudlem. On the road he formed the prudent resolution to say nothing to the old lady (whose dislike to presbyterians of all kinds he knew to be inveterate) of the quality and rank of the prisoner detained within her walls, but to try his own influence with Claverhouse to obtain Morton's liberation. "Being so loyal as he is, he must do something for so old a cavalier as I am," said the veteran to himself; "and if he is so good a soldier as the world speaks of, why, he will be glad to serve an old soldier's son. I never knew a real soldier that was not a frank-hearted, honest fellow; and I think the execution of the laws (though it's a pity they find it necessary to make them so severe) may be a thousand times better intrusted with them than with peddling lawyers and thick-skulled country gentlemen." Such were the ruminations of Major Miles Bellenden, which were terminated by John Gudyill (not more than half-drun
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