steel cap and buff coat which formerly belonged to
Sergeant Bothwell, being garments of an excellent endurance, protected
his person against the greater part of the scalding brose. Enough,
however, reached him to annoy him severely, so that in the pain and
surprise he jumped hastily out of the tree, oversetting his followers, to
the manifest danger of their limbs, and, without listening to arguments,
entreaties, or authority, made the best of his way by the most safe road
to the main body of the army whereunto he belonged, and could neither by
threats nor persuasion be prevailed upon to return to the attack.

[Illustration: Jenny Dennison--050]

As for Jenny, when she had thus conferred upon one admirer's outward man
the viands which her fair hands had so lately been in the act of
preparing for the stomach of another, she continued her song of alarm,
running a screaming division upon all those crimes, which the lawyers
call the four pleas of the crown, namely, murder, fire, rape, and
robbery. These hideous exclamations gave so much alarm, and created such
confusion within the Castle, that Major Bellenden and Lord Evandale
judged it best to draw off from the conflict without the gates, and,
abandoning to the enemy all the exterior defences of the avenue, confine
themselves to the Castle itself, for fear of its being surprised on some
unguarded point. Their retreat was unmolested; for the panic of Cuddie
and his companions had occasioned nearly as much confusion on the side
of the besiegers, as the screams of Jenny had caused to the defenders.

There was no attempt on either side to renew the action that day. The
insurgents had suffered most severely; and, from the difficulty which
they had experienced in carrying the barricadoed positions without the
precincts of the Castle, they could have but little hope of storming the
place itself. On the other hand, the situation of the besieged was
dispiriting and gloomy. In the skirmishing they had lost two or three
men, and had several wounded; and though their loss was in proportion
greatly less than that of the enemy, who had left twenty men dead on the
place, yet their small number could much worse spare it, while the
desperate attacks of the opposite party plainly showed how serious the
leaders were in the purpose of reducing the place, and how well seconded
by the zeal of their followers. But, especially, the garrison had to fear
for hunger, in case blockade should be r