now, to say naething o' ower-looking him last night, when naming his name
wad hae cost him his life--I'll be hearing o' this in the council maybe
frae Bailie Grahame. and MacVittie, and some o' them. They hae coost up
my kindred to Rob to me already--set up their nashgabs! I tauld them I
wad vindicate nae man's faults; but set apart what he had done again the
law o' the country, and the hership o' the Lennox, and the misfortune o'
some folk losing life by him, he was an honester man than stood on ony o'
their shanks--And whatfor suld I mind their clavers? If Rob is an outlaw,
to himsell be it said--there is nae laws now about reset of
inter-communed persons, as there was in the ill times o' the last
Stuarts--I trow I hae a Scotch tongue in my head--if they speak, I'se
answer."

It was with great pleasure that I saw the Bailie gradually surmount the
barriers of caution, under the united influence of public spirit and
good-natured interest in our affairs, together with his natural wish to
avoid loss and acquire gain, and not a little harmless vanity. Through
the combined operation of these motives, he at length arrived at the
doughty resolution of taking the field in person, to aid in the recovery
of my father's property. His whole information led me to believe, that if
the papers were in possession of this Highland adventurer, it might be
possible to induce him to surrender what he could not keep with any
prospect of personal advantage; and I was conscious that the presence of
his kinsman was likely to have considerable weight with him. I therefore
cheerfully acquiesced in Mr. Jarvie's proposal that we should set out
early next morning.

That honest gentleman was indeed as vivacious and alert in preparing to
carry his purpose into execution, as he had been slow and cautious in
forming it. He roared to Mattie to "air his trot-cosey, to have his