consult with a crack-brained humourist. He therefore advanced with
three profound congees, and craved permission to lay his
credentials at the feet of the Scottish monarch, in order to be
perused at his best leisure. The gravity with which he
accommodated himself to the humour of the moment, and the deep and
humble inclination with which he at first declined, and then
accepted, a seat presented by the master of the ceremonies,
procured him three rounds of applause.

'Deil hae me, if they arena a' mad thegither!' said Dinmont,
occupying with less ceremony a seat at the bottom of the table;
'or else they hae taen Yule before it comes, and are gaun a-
guisarding.'

A large glass of claret was offered to Mannering, who drank it to
the health of the reigning prince. 'You are, I presume to guess,'
said the monarch, 'that celebrated Sir Miles Mannering, so
renowned in the French wars, and may well pronounce to us if the
wines of Gascony lose their flavour in our more northern realm.'

Mannering, agreeably flattered by this allusion to the fame of his
celebrated ancestor, replied by professing himself only a distant
relation of the preux chevalier, and added, 'that in his opinion
the wine was superlatively good.'

'It's ower cauld for my stamach,' said Dinmont, setting down the
glass--empty however.

'We will correct that quality,' answered King Paulus, the first of
the name; 'we have not forgotten that the moist and humid air of