his nature which had led him to embrace with enthusiasm the principles
of the French Revolution, and had ended by bringing him under the hawse
of my Lord Hermiston in that furious onslaught of his upon the Liberals,
which sent Muir and Palmer into exile and dashed the party into chaff.
It was whispered that my lord, in his great scorn for the movement, and
prevailed upon a little by a sense of neighbourliness, had given Gib a
hint. Meeting him one day in the Potterrow, my lord had stopped in
front of him: "Gib, ye eediot," he had said, "what's this I hear of you?
Poalitics, poalitics, poalitics, weaver's poalitics, is the way of it, I
hear. If ye arena a'thegither dozened with cediocy, ye'll gang your
ways back to Cauldstaneslap, and ca' your loom, and ca' your loom, man!"
And Gilbert had taken him at the word and returned, with an expedition
almost to be called flight, to the house of his father. The clearest of
his inheritance was that family gift of prayer of which Kirstie had
boasted; and the baffled politician now turned his attention to
religious matters - or, as others said, to heresy and schism. Every
Sunday morning he was in Crossmichael, where he had gathered together,
one by one, a sect of about a dozen persons, who called themselves
"God's Remnant of the True Faithful," or, for short, "God's Remnant."
To the profane, they were known as "Gib's Deils." Bailie Sweedie, a
noted humorist in the town, vowed that the proceedings always opened to
the tune of "The Deil Fly Away with the Exciseman," and that the
sacrament was dispensed in the form of hot whisky-toddy; both wicked
hits at the evangelist, who had been suspected of smuggling in his
youth, and had been overtaken (as the phrase went) on the streets of
Crossmichael one Fair day. It was known that every Sunday they prayed
for a blessing on the arms of Bonaparte. For this "God's Remnant," as
they were "skailing" from the cottage that did duty for a temple, had
been repeatedly stoned by the bairns, and Gib himself hooted by a
squadron of Border volunteers in which his own brother, Dand, rode in a