Finding he was a foreigner, and understanding that strict
injunctions were laid on the magistrates by the king and government
anent the egressing of such persons, she thought, for the credit of
her house, and the safety of the community at large, that it behoved
her to send word to me, then provost, of this man's visibility among
us; but as I was not at home, Mrs Pawkie, my wife, directed the
messenger to Bailie Booble's. The bailie was, at all times, overly
ready to claught at an alarm; and when he heard the news, he went
straight to the council-room, and sending for the rest of the
council, ordered the alien enemy, as he called the forlorn
Frenchman, to be brought before him. By this time, the suspicion of
a spy in the town had spread far and wide; and Mrs Pawkie told me,
that there was a palid consternation in every countenance when the
black and yellow man--for he had not the looks of the honest folks
of this country--was brought up the street between two of the town-
officers, to stand an examine before Bailie Booble.

Neither the bailie, nor those that were then sitting with him, could
speak any French language, and "the alien enemy" was as little
master of our tongue. I have often wondered how the bailie did not
jealouse that he could be no spy, seeing how, in that respect, he
wanted the main faculty. But he was under the enchantment of a
panic, partly thinking also, perhaps, that he was to do a great
exploit for the government in my absence.

However, the man was brought before him, and there was he, and them
all, speaking loud out to one another as if they had been hard of
hearing, when I, on my coming home from Kilmarnock, went to see what
was going on in the council. Considering that the procedure had