surprised, my lord, you will not rather take a lady of your own."
He looked kindly, but confused, saying, he did not know where to get
one; so seeing his shame, and not wishing to put him out of conceit
entirely with himself, I replied, "Na, na, my lord, there's nobody
will believe that, for there never was a silly Jock, but there was
as silly a Jenny," at which he laughed heartily, and rode away. But
I know not what was in't; I was troubled in mind about him, and
thought, as he was riding away, that I would never see him again;
and sure enough it so happened; for the next day, being airing in
his coach with Miss Spangle, the lady he had brought, he happened to
see Mungo Argyle with his dogs and his gun, and my lord being as
particular about his game as the other was about boxes of tea and
kegs of brandy, he jumped out of the carriage, and ran to take the
gun. Words passed, and the exciseman shot my lord. Never shall I
forget that day; such riding, such running, the whole country side
afoot; but the same night my lord breathed his last; and the mad and
wild reprobate that did the deed was taken up and sent off to
Edinburgh. This was a woeful riddance of that oppressor, for my
lord was a good landlord and a kind-hearted man; and albeit, though
a little thoughtless, was aye ready to make his power, when the way
was pointed out, minister to good works. The whole parish mourned
for him, and there was not a sorer heart in all its bounds than my
own. Never was such a sight seen as his burial: the whole country
side was there, and all as solemn as if they had been assembled in
the valley of Jehoshaphat in the latter day. The hedges where the
funeral was to pass were clad with weans, like bunches of hips and
haws, and the kirkyard was as if all its own dead were risen.
Never, do I think, was such a multitude gathered together. Some
thought there could not be less than three thousand grown men,
besides women and children.