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An' yon's the verra hole to this day, 'at ye was sae near ower weel acquaint wi' yersel', my leddy. For the yerl left the castel, and never a Colonsay has made his abode there sin' syne. But some say 'at the rizzon the castel cam to be desertit a'thegither was, that as aften as they biggit up the hole, it fell oot again as sure 's the day o' the year cam roon' whan it first happened.
The prence gae him ae glower, an' declared that his leddy's word was law to him; he wad bide till she wulled him to gang. At this her een shot fire 'maist like his ain, an' she smilit as she had never smilit afore; an' the yerl cudna bide the sicht o' 't, but daurna interfere: he rase an' left the room an' them thegither.
Thae fallows, that are the democraws, as they ca' them, that are again' the king and the law, and hairpowder and dressing o' gentlemen's wigs a wheen blackguards they say he's come doun to speak wi' your honour about bringing doun his hill lads and Highland tenantry to break up the meetings of the Friends o' the People; and when I said your honour never meddled wi' the like o' sic things where there was like to be straiks and bloodshed, they said, if ye didna, your nevoy did, and that he was weel ken'd to be a kingsman that wad fight knee-deep, and that ye were the head and he was the hand, and that the Yerl was to bring out the men and the siller."
David did not feel entirely satisfied, on one side of his mind as to his own loyalty to his father, or Geordie's to 'the Yerl, and yet there was something diverting to the enterprising mind in the stolen expedition; and the fellow-feeling which results in honour to contemporaries made him promise not to betray the young man and to shield him from notice as best he might.
"Weel, gudewife, I did your errand to the Yerl." "To what Earl? I ken nae Earl; I ken'd a Countess ance I wish to Heaven I had never ken'd her! for by that acquaintance, neighbour, their cam," and she counted her withered fingers as she spoke "first Pride, then Malice, then Revenge, then False Witness; and Murder tirl'd at the door-pin, if he camna ben.
"No," said Lady Florimel consequentially; "the difference is not so great as to prevent their meeting on a level of courtesy." "I dinna freely ken what that means; but gien 't be yer leddyship's wull to mak a yerl o' me, I'm no to raise ony objections." He uttered it definitively, and stood silent. "Well?" said the girl. "What's yer wull, my leddy?" returned Malcolm, as if roused from a reverie.
"Oh! let me see; yes yes the heir to an earldom. That's liberal enough is it not?" "That 's as muckle as say I wad come to be a yerl some day, sae be I didna dee upo' the ro'd?" "Yes that's what it means." "An' a yerl's neist door till a markis isna he?" "Yes he's in the next lower rank." "Lower? Ay! No that muckle, maybe?"
"He shall be Malcolm's tutor," answered the marquis, not to be outdone in coolness, "and go with him to Edinburgh or Oxford, if he prefers it." "Never yerl o' Colonsay had a better!" said Miss Horn. "Softly, softly, ma'am!" returned the marquis. "I did not say he should go in that style." "He 's gang as my lord o' Colonsay, or he s' no gang at your expense, my lord," said his antagonist.
For he crossed himsel' an' gaed straucht for the bridal chaumer. By this time the yerl had come up, an' followed cooerin' ahin' the priest. "Never a horse was i' the transe; an' the priest, first layin' the cross 'at hang frae 's belt agane the door o' the chaumer, flang 't open wi'oot ony ceremony, for ye 'll alloo there was room for nane. "An' what think ye was the first thing the yerl saw?
But d'ye ken the langnebbit hill that cocks its tap abune the Clachlands heid? Weel, he's got a wee bit o' grund on the tap frae the Yerl, and there he's howkit a grave for himsel'. He's sworn me and twae-three ithers to bury him there, wherever he may dee. It's a queer fancy in the auld dotterel."
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