"Who are these two, mother?" I asked, and pointed to the corpses.
"A blessing on your precious face!" she cried. "Twa joes {7}
o'mine: just two o' my old joes, my hinny dear."
"What did they suffer for?" I asked.
"Ou, just for the guid cause," said she. "Aften I spaed to them
the way that it would end. Twa shillin' Scots: no pickle mair;
and there are twa bonny callants hingin' for 't! They took it frae
a wean {8} belanged to Brouchton."
"Ay!" said I to myself, and not to the daft limmer, "and did they
come to such a figure for so poor a business? This is to lose all
indeed."
"Gie's your loof, {9} hinny," says she, "and let me spae your weird
to ye."
"No, mother," said I, "I see far enough the way I am. It's an unco
thing to see too far in front."
"I read it in your bree," she said. "There's a bonnie lassie that
has bricht een, and there's a wee man in a braw coat, and a big man
in a pouthered wig, and there's the shadow of the wuddy, {10} joe,
that lies braid across your path. Gie's your loof, hinny, and let
Auld Merren spae it to ye bonny."
The two chance shots that seemed to point at Alan and the daughter
of James More struck me hard; and I fled from the eldritch
creature, casting her a baubee, which she continued to sit and play
with under the moving shadows of the hanged.
My way down the causeway of Leith Walk would have been more
pleasant to me but for this encounter. The old rampart ran among
fields, the like of them I had never seen for artfulness of
agriculture; I was pleased, besides, to be so far in the still
countryside; but the shackles of the gibbet clattered in my head;
and the mope and mows of the old witch, and the thought of the dead
men, hag-rode my spirits. To hang on a gallows, that seemed a hard
case; and whether a man came to hang there for two shillings Scots,
or (as Mr. Stewart had it) from the sense of duty, once he was
tarred and shackled and hung up, the difference seemed small.
There might David Balfour hang, and other lads pass on their
errands and think light of him; and old daft limmers sit at a leg-
foot and spae their fortunes; and the clean genty maids go by, and
look to the other aide, and hold a nose. I saw them plain, and
they had grey eyes, and their screens upon their heads were of the
Drummed colours.
I was thus in the poorest of spirits, though still pretty resolved,
when I came in view of Pilrig, a pleasant gabled house set by the
walkside among some brave young woods. The laird's horse was
standing saddled at the door as I came up, but himself was in the
study, where he received me in the midst of learned works and
musical instruments, for he was not only a deep philosopher but
much of a musician. He greeted me at first pretty well, and when
he had read Rankeillor's letter, placed himself obligingly at my
disposal.
"And what is it, cousin David!" said he--"since it appears that we
are cousins--what is this that I can do for you! A word to
Prestongrange! Doubtless that is easily given. But what should be
the word?"
"Mr. Balfour," said I, "if I were to tell you my whole story the
way it fell out, it's my opinion (and it was Rankeillor's before
me) that you would be very little made up with it."
"I am sorry to hear this of you, kinsman," says he.
"I must not take that at your hands, Mr. Balfour," said I; "I have
nothing to my charge to make me sorry, or you for me, but just the
common infirmities of mankind. 'The guilt of Adam's first sin, the
want of original righteousness, and the corruption of my whole
nature,' so much I must answer for, and I hope I have been taught
where to look for help," I said; for I judged from the look of the
man he would think the better of me if I knew my questions. {11}
"But in the way of worldly honour I have no great stumble to
reproach myself with; and my difficulties have befallen me very
much against my will and (by all that I can see) without my fault.