"Glory to his bones! he has left a decent son to his name," says
he. "Yet I would not have you judge me over-sorely. My case is
dooms hard. See, sir, ye tell me ye're a Whig: I wonder what I
am. No Whig to be sure; I couldnae be just that. But--laigh in
your ear, man--I'm maybe no very keen on the other side."

"Is that a fact?" cried I. "It's what I would think of a man of
your intelligence."

"Hut! none of your whillywhas!" {4} cries he. "There's
intelligence upon both sides. But for my private part I have no
particular desire to harm King George; and as for King James, God
bless him! he does very well for me across the water. I'm a
lawyer, ye see: fond of my books and my bottle, a good plea, a
well-drawn deed, a crack in the Parliament House with other lawyer
bodies, and perhaps a turn at the golf on a Saturday at e'en.
Where do ye come in with your Hieland plaids and claymores?"

"Well," said I, "it's a fact ye have little of the wild
Highlandman."

"Little?" quoth he. "Nothing, man! And yet I'm Hieland born, and
when the clan pipes, who but me has to dance! The clan and the
name, that goes by all. It's just what you said yourself; my
father learned it to me, and a bonny trade I have of it. Treason
and traitors, and the smuggling of them out and in; and the French
recruiting, weary fall it! and the smuggling through of the
recruits; and their pleas--a sorrow of their pleas! Here have I
been moving one for young Ardsheil, my cousin; claimed the estate