the less a gentleman and a marquis, he stood on the steps of the
town-hall and spoke to his people. They received him with wild
enthusiasm.

"The open air is better for everything," he began. "Fishers, I have
called you first, because you are my own people. I am and shall be a
fisherman--after such fashion, I trust, as will content my old comrades.
How things have come about I shall not now tell you. Come, all of you,
and dine with me, and you shall hear enough to satisfy at least lawful
curiosity. At present my care is that you should understand the terms
upon which it is possible for us to live together as friends. I make no
allusion to personal friendships. A true friend is for ever a friend.
And I venture to say my old friends know best both what I am and what I
shall be. As to them, I have no shadow of anxiety. But I would gladly be
a friend to all, and will do my endeavor to that end.

"You of Portlossie shall have your harbor cleared without delay."

In justice to the fishers I here interrupt my report to state that the
very next day they set about clearing the harbor themselves. It was
their business--in part, at least, they said--and they were ashamed of
having left it so long. This did much toward starting well for a new
order of things.

"You of Scaurnose shall hear the blasting necessary for your harbor
commence within a fortnight; and every house shall ere long have a small
piece of land at a reasonable rate allotted it. But I feel bound to
mention that there are some among you upon whom, until I see that they
carry themselves differently, I must keep an eye. That they have shown
themselves unfriendly to myself, in my attempts to persuade them to what
they knew to be right, I shall endeavor to forget, but I give them
warning that whoever shall hereafter disturb the peace or interfere with
the liberty of my people shall assuredly be cast out of my borders, and
that as soon as the law will permit.

"I shall take measures that all complaints shall be heard, and all save
foolish ones heeded; for, as much as in me lies, I will to execute
justice and judgment and righteousness in the land. Whoever oppresses or
wrongs his neighbor shall have to do with me. And to aid me in doing
justice I pray the help of every honest man. I have not been so long
among you without having in some measure distinguished between the men
who have heart and brain, and the men who have merely a sense of their
own importance; which