you, gentlemen, for your advice," said I. "And now I
would like, by your leave, to set you two or three questions. There is
one thing that has fallen rather on one side, for instance: Will this
cause do any good to our friend James of the Glens?"

They seemed all a hair set back, and gave various answers, but
concurring practically in one point, that James had now no hope but in
the King's mercy.

"To proceed, then," said I, "will it do any good to Scotland? We have a
saying that it is an ill bird that fouls his own nest. I remember
hearing we had a riot in Edinburgh when I was an infant child, which
gave occasion to the late Queen to call this country barbarous; and I
always understood that we had rather lost than gained by that. Then came
the year 'Forty-five, which made Scotland to be talked of everywhere;
but I never heard it said we had anyway gained by the 'Forty-five. And
now we come to this cause of Mr. Balfour's, as you call it. Sheriff
Miller tells us historical writers are to date from it, and I would not
wonder. It is only my fear they would date from it as a period of
calamity and public reproach."

The nimble-witted Miller had already smelt where I was travelling to,
and made haste to get on the same road. "Forcibly put, Mr. Balfour,"
says he. "A weighty observe, sir."

"We have next to ask ourselves if it will be good for King George," I
pursued. "Sheriff Miller appears pretty easy upon this; but I doubt you
will scarce be able to pull down the house from under him, without his
Majesty coming by a knock or two, one of which might easily prove
fatal."

I gave them a chance to answer, but none volunteered.

"Of those for whom the case was to be profitable," I went on, "Sheriff
Miller gave us the names of several, among the which he was good enough
to mention mine. I hope he will pardon me if I think otherwise. I
believe I hung not the least back in this affair while there was life to
be saved; but I own I thought myself extremely hazarded, and I own I
think it would be a pity for a young man, with some idea of coming to
the bar, to ingrain upon himself the character of a turbulent, factious
fellow before he was yet twenty. As for James, it seems--at this date of
the proceedings, with the sentence as good as pronounced--he has no hope
but in the King's mercy. May not his Majesty, then, be more pointedly
addressed, the characters of these high officers sheltered from the
public, and myself kept out of