wing the young soldier, asked him to pay the
price of the hen and chickens, for both were lost to her, and they formed a
great part of her means of subsistence; but the unfeeling youth would not
give her a farthing--threatening if she annoyed him he would send her after
her hen; upon which the injured old woman predicted, "that as many people
would one day gaze in wonder on his lifeless body as that hen had feathers
on hers."

Young Porteous afterwards left the army and returned to London, where he
wrought for some time as a journeyman tailor; but his evil habits brought
him to poverty, and he was found in rags by a friend of his father's, who
wrote to the old man to remit L10 to clothe him and defray his travelling
charges to Edinburgh, which, moved by the compassion of a father, he did,
and when John appeared, the kind-hearted old man received him with tears of
joy, and embraced him with all the warmth of paternal affection. Vainly
hoping that his son was a reformed man, he gave up his business to him, and
agreed that he should only have a room in the house and his maintenance and
clothes.

Young Porteous, thus possessed of the house and trade of his father, and of
all his other goods and effects, began by degrees to neglect and maltreat
the old man, first, by refusing him a fire in his room in the middle of
winter, and even grudging him the benefit of the fire in the kitchen. In
addition to this, he disallowed him a sufficiency of victuals, so that he
was in danger of being starved to death with cold and hunger. In this
unhappy condition he applied for admission into the Trinity Hospital.

John Porteous having been for some time in the army, and being known to be
possessed of no small courage and daring, was selected by John Campbell,
lord provost of Edinburgh, in the memorable year 1715, to be drill-sergeant
of the city-guard, as it became necessary to have the guard well
disciplined and made as effective as possible in that eventful period, for
the support of the government and the protection of Edinburgh. In this
office he discharged his duty remarkably well, and was often sent for by
the lord provost to report what progress his men made in military
discipline. This gave him an opportunity of meeting sometimes with a
gentlewoman who had the charge of the lord provost's house and family, with
whom he fell deeply in love; after paying his addresses for some time, and
proposing to her, he was accepted, and they were