it sin syne), why I will
waste an hour on ye at ony time.--and where is Captain Redgimlet now?
he was a wild chap, like yoursell, though they arena sae keen after you
poor bodies for these some years bygane; the heading and hanging is weel
ower now--awful job--awful job--will ye try my sneeshing?'

He concluded his desultory speech by thrusting out his large bony paw,
filled with a Scottish mull of huge dimensions, which Herries, who had
been standing like one petrified by the assurance of this unexpected
address, rejected with a contemptuous motion of his hand, which spilled
some of the contents of the box.

'Aweel, aweel,' said Peter Peebles, totally unabashed by the repulse,
'e'en as ye like, a wilful man maun hae his way; but,' he added,
stooping down and endeavouring to gather the spilled snuff from the
polished floor, 'I canna afford to lose my sneeshing for a' that ye are
gumple-foisted wi' me.'

My attention had been keenly awakened, during this extraordinary and
unexpected scene. I watched, with as much attention as my own agitation
permitted me to command, the effect produced on the parties concerned.
It was evident that our friend, Peter Peebles, had unwarily let out
something which altered the sentiments of Justice Foxley and his clerk
towards Mr. Herries, with whom, until he was known and acknowledged
under that name, they had appeared to be so intimate. They talked with
each other aside, looked at a paper or two which the clerk selected
from the contents of a huge black pocket-book, and seemed, under the
influence of fear and uncertainty, totally at a loss what line of
conduct to adopt.

Herries made a different, and far more interesting figure. However
little Peter Peebles might resemble the angel Ithuriel, the appearance
of Herries, his high and scornful demeanour, vexed at what seemed
detection yet fearless of the consequences, and regarding the whispering
magistrate and his clerk with looks in which contempt predominated over
anger or anxiety, bore, in my opinion, no slight resemblance to

the regal port
And faded splendour wan

with which the poet has invested the detected King of the powers of the
air.

As he glanced round, with a look which he had endeavoured to compose to
haughty indifference, his eye encountered mine, and, I thought, at
the first glance sank beneath it. But he instantly rallied his natural
spirit, and returned me one of those extraordinary looks, by which he
coul