i' you, then," said Cuddie; "but mind, deil a finger ye maun
lay on Lady Margaret, or Miss Edith, or the auld Major, or, aboon a', on
Jenny Dennison, or ony body but the sodgers--cut and quarter amang them
as ye like, I carena."

"Ay, ay," said the other, "let us once in, and we will make our ain terms
with them a'."

Gingerly, and as if treading upon eggs, Cuddie began to ascend the
well-known pass, not very willingly; for, besides that he was something
apprehensive of the reception he might meet with in the inside, his
conscience insisted that he was making but a shabby requital for Lady
Margaret's former favours and protection. He got up, however, into the
yew-tree, followed by his companions, one after another. The window was
small, and had been secured by stancheons of iron; but these had been
long worn away by time, or forced out by the domestics to possess a free
passage for their own occasional convenience. Entrance was therefore
easy, providing there was no one in the pantry, a point which Cuddie
endeavoured to discover before he made the final and perilous step. While
his companions, therefore, were urging and threatening him behind, and he
was hesitating and stretching his neck to look into the apartment, his
head became visible to Jenny Dennison, who had ensconced herself in said
pantry as the safest place in which to wait the issue of the assault. So
soon as this object of terror caught her eye, she set up a hysteric
scream, flew to the adjacent kitchen, and, in the desperate agony of
fear, seized on a pot of kailbrose which she herself had hung on the fire
before the combat began, having promised to Tam Halliday to prepare his
breakfast for him. Thus burdened, she returned to the window of the
pantry, and still exclaiming, "Murder! murder!--we are a' harried and
ravished--the Castle's taen--tak it amang ye!" she discharged the whole
scalding contents of the pot, accompanied with a dismal yell, upon the
person of the unfortunate Cuddie. However welcome the mess might have
been, if Cuddie and it had become acquainted in a regular manner, the
effects, as administered by Jenny, would probably have cured him of
soldiering for ever, had he been looking upwards when it was thrown upon
him. But, fortunately for our man of war, he had taken the alarm upon
Jenny's first scream, and was in the act of looking down, expostulating
with his comrades, who impeded the retreat which he was anxious to
commence; so that the