l be of service in this
matter?'

'It's very like he may be, for he is the tongue of the trump to the
whole squad of them,' said the provost; 'and Redgauntlet, though he will
not stick at times to call him a fool, takes more of his counsel than
any man's else that I am aware of. If Fate can bring him to a communing,
the business is done. He's a sharp chield, Pate-in-Peril.'

'Pate-in-Peril!' repeated Alan; 'a very singular name.'

'Aye, and it was in as queer a way he got it; but I'll say naething
about that,' said the provost, 'for fear of forestalling his market;
for ye are sure to hear it once at least, however oftener, before the
punch-bowl gives place to the teapot.--And now, fare ye weel; for there
is the council-bell clinking in earnest; and if I am not there before it
jows in, Bailie Laurie will be trying some of his manoeuvres.'

The provost, repeating his expectation of seeing Mr. Fairford at two
o'clock, at length effected his escape from the young counsellor, and
left him at a considerable loss how to proceed. The sheriff, it seems,
had returned to Edinburgh, and he feared to find the visible repugnance
of the provost to interfere with this Laird of Birrenswork, or
Redgauntlet, much stronger amongst the country gentlemen, many of
whom were Catholics as well as Jacobites, and most others unwilling to
quarrel with kinsmen and friends, by prosecuting with severity political
offences which had almost run a prescription.

To collect all the information in his power, and not to have recourse
to the higher authorities until he could give all the light of which
the case was capable, seemed the wiser proceeding in a choice of
difficulties. He had some conversation with the procurator-fiscal, who,
as well as the provost, was an old correspondent of his father. Alan
expressed to that officer a purpose of visiting Brokenburn, but was
assured by him, that it would be a step attended with much danger to his
own person, and altogether fruitless; that the individuals who had
been ringleaders in the riot were long since safely sheltered in their
various lurking-holes in the Isle of Man, Cumberland, and elsewhere; and
that those who might remain would undoubtedly commit violence on any
who visited their settlement with the purpose of inquiring into the late
disturbances.

There were not the same objections to his hastening to Mount Sharon,
where he expected to find the latest news of his friend; and there
was time enou