rty to keep against the claims o' auld parchment, doesna ken thae
fifteen auld runts? They keep the hail country side in a steer wi' their
scandal. Nae man's character is safe in their keeping; and they're sae
fu' o' mischief that they hae even blawn into the king's lug that my
tower o' Gilnockie was escheat to the king by the death o' my ancestor,
who was hanged at Carlenrig. They say a' the mischief that has come on
the Borders sin' the guid auld times, has its beginning in that coterie
o' weazened gimmers. Dootless, they're at the root o' the danger o' yer
bonny barony o' Coberston. By the rood! I wish I had a dash at their big
curches."

"Ay, Will," responded Traquair; "but they're securely lodged in their
strong Parliament House, and the difficulty is how to get at them."

"But I fancy ane o' the lurdons will satisfy yer Lordship," said Will,
"or do ye want them a' lodged in Graeme's Tower? They would mak a bonny
nest o' screighing hoolets, if we had them safely under the care o'
the sly redcap o' that auld keep: they wad hatch something else than
scandal, and leasin-makin, and reports o' the instability o' Border
rights, the auld jauds."

"I will be content with one of them," rejoined the Warden.

"Ha! ha! I see, I see," replied Will. "Ane o' the limmers has been
sapping and undermining Coberston wi' her hellish scandal. What's the
lurdon's name, my Lord?"

"Gibson of Durie," rejoined Traquair.

"Ah! a weel-kenned scandalous runt that," replied Will. "She's the
auldest o' the hail fifteen, if I'm no cheated--Leddie President o' the
coterie. She spak sair against me when the King's advocate claimed for
his Majesty my auld turret o' Gilnockie. I owe that quean an auld score.
How lang do you want her lodged in Graeme's Tower?"

"Three months would maybe change her tongue," replied the Warden;
"but the enterprise seems desperate, Will."

"Desperate! my Lord," replied the other--"that word's no kenned on the
Borders. Is it the doing o't, or the dool for the doing o't, that has
the desperation in't?"

"The consequences to you would be great, Will," said Traquair. "You are
confined here for stealing a cow, and would be hanged for it if I did
not save ye. Our laws are equal and humane. For stealing a cow one may
be hanged; but there's no such law against stealing a paper-lord."

"That shows the guid sense o' our lawgivers," replied Will, with a leer
on his face. "The legislator has wisely weighed the merits o'