f business, and Butler set off
instantly to see Effie herself, and try to get her to give him the
information that she had refused to everyone.

"Farewell, Jeannie," said he. "Take no _rash steps_ till you hear from
me."

Butler was at once recognised by the turnkey when he presented himself
at the Tolbooth, and detained as having been connected with the riots
the night before. One of the prisoners had recognised Robertson, the
leader of the rioters, and seen him trying to persuade Effie Deans to
escape and to save himself from the gallows, being a well-known thief
and prison-breaker, gave information, hoping, as he candidly said, to
obtain the post of gaoler himself.

It became obvious that the father of Effie's child and the slayer of
Porteous were one and the same person, and on hearing from Butler, who
had no reason to conceal his movements, of the stranger he had met on
the hill, the procurator fiscal, otherwise the superintendent of police,
with a strong body-guard, interrupted Jeannie's meeting with the
stranger that night; but he had made her understand that her sister's
life was in her hands before, hearing men approaching, he plunged into
the darkness and was lost to sight.

_II.--Effie's Trial_

Soon afterwards, Ratcliffe, the prisoner who had recognised Robertson,
received a full pardon, and becoming gaoler, was repeatedly applied to,
to procure an interview between the sisters; but the magistrates had
given strict orders to the contrary, hoping that they might, by keeping
them apart, obtain some information respecting the fugitive. But Jeannie
knew nothing of Robertson, except having met him that night by
appointment to give her some advice respecting her sister's concern, the
which, she said, was betwixt God and her conscience. And Effie was
equally silent. In vain they offered, even a free pardon, if she would
confess what she knew of her lover.

At length the day was fixed for Effie's trial, and on the preceding
evening Jeannie was allowed to see her sister. Even the hard-hearted
turnkey could not witness the scene without a touch of human sympathy.

"Ye are ill, Effie," were the first words Jeannie could utter. "Ye are
very ill."

"O, what wad I gie to be ten times waur, Jeannie!" was the reply. "O
that I were lying dead at my mother's side!"

"Hout, lassie!" said Ratcliffe. "Dinna be sae dooms downhearted as a'
that. There's mony a tod hunted that's no killed. They are weel aff has
such