being, in his own phrase, so old a hawk; nay, he could turn a
letter for some unlucky swain, or even string a few lines of
verse that should clinch the business and fetch the
hesitating fair one to the ground. Nor, perhaps, was it only
his "curiosity, zeal, and intrepid dexterity" that
recommended him for a second in such affairs; it must have
been a distinction to have the assistance and advice of RAB
THE RANTER; and one who was in no way formidable by himself
might grow dangerous and attractive through the fame of his
associate.

I think we can conceive him, in these early years, in that
rough moorland country, poor among the poor with his seven
pounds a year, looked upon with doubt by respectable elders,
but for all that the best talker, the best letter-writer, the
most famous lover and confidant, the laureate poet, and the
only man who wore his hair tied in the parish. He says he
had then as high a notion of himself as ever after; and I can
well believe it. Among the youth he walked FACILE PRINCEPS,
an apparent god; and even if, from time to time, the Reverend
Mr. Auld should swoop upon him with the thunders of the
Church, and, in company with seven others, Rab the Ranter
must figure some fine Sunday on the stool of repentance,
would there not be a sort of glory, an infernal apotheosis,
in so conspicuous a shame? Was not Richelieu in disgrace
more idolised than ever by the dames of Paris? and when was
the highwayman most acclaimed but on his way to Tyburn? Or,
to take a simile from nearer home, and still more exactly to
the point, what could even corporal punishment avail,
administered by a cold, abstract, unearthly school-master,