"We are, I trust, no longer such," said the gold-| smith; "and for my guerdon, when my mediation proves successful, and your fortunes are re-established, you shall order your first cupboard of plate from George Heriot." "You would have a bad paymaster, Master Heriot," said Lord Nigel. "I do not fear that," replied the goldsmith; "and I am glad to see you smile, my lord methinks it makes you look still more like the good old lord your father; and it emboldens me, besides, to bring out a small request-that you would take a homely dinner with me to-morrow. I lodge hard by, in Lombard street. For the cheer, my lord, a mess of white broth, a fat capon well larded, a dish of beef collops for auld Scotland's sake, and it may be a cup of right old wine, that was barrelled before Scotland and England were one nation-Then for company, one or two of our own loving countrymen-and maybe my housewife may find out a bonny Scots lass or so." "I would accept your courtesy, Master Heriot," said Nigel, "but I hear the city ladies of London like to see a man gallant-I would not like to let down a Scottish nobleman in their ideas, as doubtless you have said the best of our poor country, and I rather lack the means of bravery for the present." "My lord, your frankness leads me a step farther," said master George. "I-I owed your father some moneys;-and-nay, if your lordship looks at me so fixedly, I shall never tell my story-and, to speak plainly, for I never could carry a lie well through in my life-it is most fitting, that, to solicit this matter properly, your lordship should go to Court in a manner beseeming your quality. I am a goldsmith, and live by lending money as well as by selling plate.. I am ambitious to put a hundred pounds to be at interest in your hands, till your affairs are settled." "And if they are never favourably settled?" said Nigel. "Then, my lord," returned the citizen, "the misearriage of such a sum will be of little consequence to me, compared with other subjects of regret.' "Master Heriot," said the Lord Nigel, 'your favour is generously offered, and shall be frankly accepted. I must presume that you see your way through this business, though I hardly do; for I think you would be grieved to add any fresh burden to me, by persuading me to incur debts which I am not likely to discharge. I will therefore take your money, under the hope and trust that you will enable me to repay you punctually." "I will convince you, my lord," said the goldsmith, "that I mean to deal with you as a creditor from whom I expect payment; and therefore, you shall, with your own good pleasure, sign an acknowledgment for these moneys, and an obligation to content and repay me." He then took from his girdle his writing materials, and, writing a few lines to the purport he expressed, pulled out a small bag of gold from a side-pouch under his cloak, and, observing that it should contain a hundred pounds, proceeded to tell out the contents very methodically upon the table. Nigel Olifaunt could not help intimating that this was an unnecessary ceremonial, and that he would take the bag of gold on the word of his obliging creditor; but this was repugnant to the old man's forms of transacting business. Bear with me," he said, "my good lord,-we citizens are a wary and thrifty generation; and I should lose my good name for ever within the toll of Paul's, were I to grant quittance, or take acknowledgment, without bringing the money to actual tale. I think it be right now-and, body of me," he said, booking out at the window, "yonder come my boys with my mule; for I must Westward Hoe. Put your moneys aside, my lord; it is not well to be seen with such goldfinches chirping about one in the lodgings of London. I think the lock of your casket be indifferent good; if not, I can serve you at an easy rate with one that has held thousands; it was the good old Sir Faithful Frugal's; his spendthrift son sold the shell when he had eaten the kernel-and there is the end of a city-fortune." "I hope yours will make a better termination, Master Heriot," said the Lord Nigel. "I hope it will, my lord," said the old man, with a smile; but," to use honest John Bunyan's phrasetherewithal the water stood in his eyes,' "it has pleased God to try me with the loss of two children; and for one adopted child who lives-ah! wo is me! and well-a-day!-But I am patient and thankful; and for the wealth God has sent me, it shall not want inheritors while there are orphan lads in Auld Reekie-I wish you good-morrow, my lord." ་ One orphan has cause to thank you already," said Nigel, as he attended him to the door of his chamber, where, resisting farther escort, the old citizen made his escape. As, in going down stairs, he passed the shop where dame Christie stood becking, he made civil inquiries after her husband. The dame of course regretted his absence; but he was down, she said, at Deptford, to settle with a Dutch ship-master. ་་ Our way of business, sir," she said, "takes him much from home, and my husband must be the slave of every tarry jacket that wants but a pound of oakum." "All business must be minded, dame," said the goldsmith. Make my remembrances-George Heriot of Lombard-street's remembrances-to your goodman. I have dealt with him-he is just and punctual-true to time and engagements;-be kind to your noble guest, and see he wants nothing, Though it be his pleasure at present to lie private and retired, there be those that care for him, and I have a charge to see him supplied; so that you may let me know by your husband, my good dame, how my lord is, and whether he wants aught." 66 And so he is a real lord after all?" said the good dame. "I am sure I always thought he looked like one. But why does he not go to Parliament, then ?" "He will, dame," answered Heriot, to the Parliament of Scotland, which is his own country." 66 "Oh! he is but a Scots lord, then," said the good dame; "and that's the thing makes him ashamed to take the title, as they say?" "Let him not hear you say so, dame," replied the citizen. "Who, I, sir?" answered she; "no such matter my thought, sir. Scot or English, he is at any rate a likely man, and a civil man; and rather than he should want any thing, I would wait upon him myself, and come as far as Lombard-street to wait upon your worship too." "Let your husband come to me, good dame," said the goldsmith, who, with all his experience and worth, was somewhat of a formalist and disciplinarian, "The proverb says, House goes mad when women gad;' and let his lordship's own man wait upon his master in his chamber-it is more seemly. God give ye good-morrow." "Good-morrow to your worship," said the dame, somewhat coldly; and, so soon as the adviser was out of hearing, was ungracious enough to mutter, in contempt of his council, "Marry quep of your advice, for an old Scotch tinsmith, as you are! My husband is as wise, and very near as old, as yourself; and if I please him, it is well enough; and though he is not just so rich just now as some folks, yet I hope to see him ride upon his moyle, with a foot-cloth, and have his two blue-coats after him, as well as they do." "His son!" said Ramsay; "Maybe he will want something of a chronometer, or watch-few gallants care to be without them now-a-days." "He may buy half your stock-in-trade, if ever he comes to his own, for what I know," said his friend; "but, Davie, remember your bond, and use me not as you did when my housewife had the sheep's-head and the cock-a-leeky boiling for you as late as two of the clock afternoon." "She had the more credit by her cookery," answered David, now fully awake; "a sheep's head, over-boiled, were poison, according to our saying." excited a gentle degree of spleen on the part of Dame Christie, which, to do her justice, vanished in the little soliloquy which we have recorded. The good man, besides the natural desire to maintain the exterior of a man of worship, was at present bound to Whitehall in order to exhibit a piece of valuable workmanship to King James, which he deemed his Majesty might be pleased to view, or even to purchase. He himself was therefore mounted upon his caparisoned mule, that he might the better make his way through the narrow, dirty, and crowded streets; and while one of his attendants carried under his arm the piece of plate, wrapped up in red baize, the other two gave an eye to its safety; for such was then the state of the police of the metropolis, that men were often assaulted in the public street for the sake of revenge or of plunder; and those who apprehended being beset, usually endeavoured, if their estate admitted such expense, to secure themselves by the attendance of armed followers. And this custom, which was at first limited to the nobility "I will not trust you, though," replied Heriot.and gentry, extended by degrees to those citizens of "Hear you, Jenkin boy, tell Scots Janet to tell pretty consideration, who, being understood to travel with Mistress Margaret, my god-child, she must put her a charge, as it was called, might otherwise have been father in remembrance to put on his best doublet toselected as safe subjects of plunder by the street-morrow, and to bring him to Lombard street at noon. robber. Tell her they are to meet a brave young Scots lord." Jenkin coughed that sort of dry short cough utter "Well," answered Master George, "but as there will be no sheep's head to-morrow, it may chance you to spoil a dinner which a proverb cannot mend. It may be you may forgather with your friend, Sir Mungo Malogrowther, for I purpose to ask his worship; so, be sure and bide tryste, Davie." That will I-I will be true as a chronometer," said Ramsay. "Umph!" repeated Master George-who, as we have already noticed, was something of a martinet in domestic discipline-" what does umph mean?—— Will you do mine errand, or not, sirrah?" As Master George Heriot paced forth westward with this gallant attendance, he paused at the shop-ed by those who are either charged with errands door of his countryman and friend, the ancient which they do not like, or hear opinions to which they horologer, and having caused Tunstall, who was in must not enter a dissent. attendance, to adjust his watch by the real time, he desired to speak with his master; in consequence of which summons the old Time-meter came forth from his den, his face like a bronze bust, darkened with dust, and glistening here and there with copper filings, and his senses so bemused in the intensity of calculation, that he gazed on his friend the goldsmith for a minute before he seemed perfectly to comprehend who he was, and heard him express his invitation to David Ramsay, and pretty Mistress Margaret, his daughter, to dine with him next day at noon, to meet with a noble young countryman, without returning any answer. "I'll make thee speak, with a murrain to thee," muttered Heriot to himself; and suddenly changing his tone, he said aloud, "I pray you, neighbour David, when are you and I to have a settlement for the bullion wherewith I supplied you to mount yonder hall-clock at Theobald's; and that other whirligig that you made for the Duke of Buckingham? I have had the Spanish house to satisfy for the ingots, and I must needs put you in mind that you have been eight months behind-hand." There is something so sharp and aigre in the demand of a peremptory dun, that no human tympanum, however inaccessible to other tones, can resist the application. David Ramsay started at once from his reverie, and answered in a pettish tone, "Wow, George, man, what needs aw this din about sax score o' pounds? Aw the world kens I can answer aw claims on me, and you proffered yourself fair time, till his maist gracious Majesty and the noble Duke suld make settled accompts wi' me; and ye may ken by your ain experience, that I canna gang rowting like an unmannered Highland stot to their doors, as ye come to mine." Heriot laughed, and replied, "Well, David, I see a demand of money is like a bucket of water about your ears, and makes you a man of the world at once. And now, friend, will you tell me, like a Christian man, if you will dine with me to-morrow at noon, and bring pretty Mistress Margaret, my goddaughter, with you, to meet with our noble young countryman, the Lord of Glenvarloch ?" Sure, Master George Heriot," said the apprentice, touching his cap, "I only meant, that Mistress Margaret was not likely to forget such an invitation." Why, no,' ," said Master George; "she is a dutiful girl to her godfather, though I sometimes call her a jill-flirt.—And, hark ye, Jenkin, you and your comrade had best come with your clubs, to see your master and her safely home; but first shut shop, and loose the bull-dog, and let the porter stay in the foreshop till your return. I will send two of my knaves with you; for I hear these wild youngsters of the Temple are broken out worse and lighter than ever." "We can keep their steel in order with good handbats," said Jenkin, "and never trouble your servants for the matter." "Or if need be," said Tunstall, "we have swords as well as the Templars." "Fie upon it-fie upon it, young man," said the citizen; An apprentice with a sword!--Marry, Heaven forefend! I would as soon see him in a hat and feather." "Well, sir," said Jenkin-"We will find arms fitting to our station, and will defend our master and his daughter, if we should tear up the very stones of the pavement." "There spoke a London 'prentice bold !" said the citizen; "and, for your comfort, my lads, you shall crush a cup of wine to the health of the Fathers of the City. I have my eye on both of you-you are thriving lads, each in his own way.-God be wi' you, Davie. Forget not to-morrow at noon." And, so saying, he again turned his mule's head westward, and crossed Temple-Bar, at that slow and decent amble, which at once became his rank and civic importance, and put his pedestrian followers to no inconvenience to keep up with him. At the Temple gate he again paused, dismounted, and sought his way into one of the small booths occupied by scriveners in the neighbourhood. A young man, with lank smooth hair combed straight to his "The young Lord of Glenvarloch!" said the old ears, and then cropped short, rose, with a cringing mechanist; wi' aw my heart, and blithe I will be reverence, pulled off a slouched hat, which he would to see him again. We have not met these forty years upon no signal replace on his head, and answered, -he was twa years before me at the humanity class-with much demonstration of reverence, to the goldes-he is a sweet youth." smith's question of, "How goes business, Andrew ?" "That was his father-his father-his father!-you Aw the better for your worship's kind counteold dotard Dot-and-carry-one that you are," answer-nance and maintenance.' ed the goldsmith. A sweet youth he would have been by this time, had he lived, worthy nobleman! This is his son, the Lord Nigel." "Get a large sheet of paper, man, and make a new pen, with a sharp neb, and fine hair stroke. Do not slit the quill up too high, it's a wastrife course in your trade, Andrew-they that do not mind corn- It may be worth while to remind our readers, that the Temple-Bar which Heriot passed, was not the arched screen, or gateway, of the present day; but an open railing, or palisade, which, at night, and in times of alarm, was closed with a barricade of posts and chains. The Strand also, along which he rode, was not as now, a continued street although it was beginning already to assume that character. It still might be considered as an open road, along the south side of which stood various houses and hotels belonging to the nobility, having gardens behind them down to the water-side, with stairs to the river, for the convenience of taking boat; which mansions have bequeathed the names of their lordly owners to many of the streets leading from the Strand to the Thames. The north side of the Strand was also a long line of houses, behind which, as in Saint Martin's Lane, and other points, buildings were rapidly arising; but Covent-Garden was still a garden, in the literal sense of the word, or at least but beginning to be studded with irregular buildings. All that was passing around, however, marked the rapid increase of a capital which had long enjoyed peace, wealth, and a regular government. Houses were rising in every direction; and the shrewd eye of our citizen already saw the period not distant, which should convert the nearly open highway on which he travelled, into a connected and regular street, uniting the court and the town with the city of London. He next passed Charing-Cross, which was no longer the pleasant solitary village at which the judges were wont to breakfast on their way to Westminster Hall, but began to resemble the artery through which, to use Johnson's expression, "pours the full tide of London population." The buildings were rapidly increasing, yet certainly gave not even a faint idea of its present appearance. At last Whitehall received our traveller, who passed under one of the beautiful gates designed by Holbein, and composed of tesselated brick-work, being the same to which Moniplies had profanely likened the West-Port of Edinburgh, and entered the ample precincts of the palace of Whitehall, now full of all the confusion attending improvement. sion attending the erection of the new pile, which formed at present a labyrinth not easily traversed. The goldsmith to the Royal Household, and who, if fame spoke true, oftentimes acted as their banker, for these professions were not as yet separated from each other-was a person of too much importance to receive the slightest interruption from sentinel or porter; and, leaving his mule and two of his followers in the outer-court, he gently knocked at a posterngate of the building, and was presently admitted, while the most trusty of his attendants followed him closely, with the piece of plate under his arm. This man also he left behind him in an ante-room,-where three or four pages in the royal livery, but untrussed, unbuttoned, and dressed more carelessly than the place, and nearness to a King's person, seemed to admit, were playing at dice and draughts, or stretched upon benches, and slumbering with half-shut eyes. A corresponding gallery, which opened from the anteroom, was occupied by two gentlemen-ushers of the chamber, who gave each a smile of recognition as the wealthy goldsmith entered. No word was spoken on either side; but one of the ushers looked first to Heriot, and then to a little door half-covered by the tapestry, which seemed to say, as plain as a look could, "Lies your business that way?" The citizen nodded; and the court-attendant, moving on tiptoe, and with as much caution as if the floor had been paved with eggs, advanced to the door, opened it gently, and spoke a few words in a low tone. The broad Scottish accent of King James was heard in reply,-"Admit him instanter, Maxwell. Have you hairboured sae lang at the Court, and not learned, that gold and silver are ever welcome?" The usher signed to Heriot to advance, and the honest citizen was presently introduced into the cabinet of the Sovereign. The scene of confusion amid which he found the King seated, was no bad picture of the state and quality of James's own mind. There was much that was rich and costly in cabinet pictures and valuable ornaments; but they were arranged in a slovenly manner, covered with dust, and lost half their value, or at least their effect, from the manner in which they were presented to the eye. The table was loaded with huge folios, amongst which lay light books of jest and ribaldry; and, amongst notes of unmercifully long orations, and essays on king-craft, were mingled miserable roundels and ballads by the Royal 'Prentice, as he styled himself, in the art of poetry, and schemes for the general pacification of Europe, with a list of the names of the King's hounds, and remedies against canine madness. moment of the flight, in remembrance of which the King wore this highly honoured feather. His Majesty's dress was of green velvet, quilted so full as to be dagger-proof-which gave him the appearance of clumsy and ungainly protuberance; while its being buttoned awry, communicated to his figure an air of distortion. Over his green doublet he wore a sad-coloured nightgown, out of the pocket of which peeped his hunting-horn. His high-crowned gray hat lay on the floor, covered with dust, but encircled by a carcanet of large balas rubies; and he wore a blue velvet nightcap, in the front of which was placed the plume of a heron, which had been It was just at the time when James,-little sus-struck down by a favourite hawk in some critical pecting that he was employed in constructing a palace from the window of which his only son was to pass in order that he might die upon a scaffold before it, was busied in removing the ancient and ruinous buildings of De Burgh, Henry VIII., and Queen Elizabeth, to make way for the superb architecture on which Inigo Jones exerted all his genius. The King, ignorant of futurity, was now engaged in pressing on his work; and, for that purpose, still maintained his royal apartments at Whitehall, amidst the rubbish of old buildings, and the various confu* A biblical commentary by Gill, which, (if the author's memory serves him,) occupies between five and six hundred printed quarto pages, and must therefore have filled more pages of manuscript than the number mentioned in the text, has this qua train at the end of the volume With one good pen I wrote this book, And a pen I leave it still." But such inconsistencies in dress and appointments were mere outward types of those which existed in the royal character; rendering it a subject of doubt amongst his contemporaries, and bequeathing it as a problem to future historians. He was deeply learned, without possessing useful knowledge; sagacious in many individual cases, without having real wisdom; fond of his power, and desirous to maintain and augment it, yet willing to resign the direction of that, and of himself, to the most unworthy favourites; a big and bold assertor of his rights in words, yet one who tamely saw them trampled on in deeds; a lover of negotiations, in which he was always outwitted; and one who feared war, where conquest might have been easy. He was fond of his dignity, while he was perpetually degrading it by undue familiarity; capable of much public labour, yet often neglecting it for the meanest amusement; a wit, though a pedant; and a scholar, though fond of the conversation of the ignorant and uneducated. Even his timidity of temper was not uniform; and there were moments of his life, and those critical, in which he showed the spirit of his ancestors. He was laborious in trifles, and a trifler where serious labour was required; deyout in his sentiments, and yet too often profane in his language; just and beneficent by nature, he yet gave way to the iniquities and oppressions of others. He was penurious respecting money which he had to give from his own hand, yet inconsiderately and unboundedly profuse of that which he did not see, In a word, those good qualities which displayed themselves in particular cases and occasions, were not of a nature sufficiently firm and comprehensive to regulate his general conduct; and, showing themselves as they occasionally did, only entitled James to the character bestowed on him by Sully-that he was the wisest fool in Christendom." That the fortunes of this monarch might be as little of a piece as his character, he, certainly the least able of the Stewarts, succeeded peaceably to that kingdom, against the power of which his predecessors had, with so much difficulty, defended his native throne; and, lastly, although his reign appeared calculated to ensure to Great Britain that lasting tranquillity and internal peace which so much suited the King's disposition, yet, during that very reign, were sown those seeds of dissension, which, like the teeth of the fabulous dragon, had their harvest in a bloody and universal civil war.* Such was the monarch, who, saluting Heriot by the name of Jingling Geordie, (for it was his wellknown custom to give nicknames to all those with whom he was in terms of familiarity,) inquired what new clatter-traps he had brought with him, to cheat his lawful and native Prince out of his siller. "It has naething in it tending to papistrie?" said the King, looking graver than his wont. 66 Surely not, please your Majesty," said Heriot; "I were not wise to bring any thing to your presence that had the mark of the beast." "You would be the mair beast yourself to do so," said the King; "it is weel kend that I wrestled wi' Dagon in my youth, and smote him on the groundsill of his own temple; a gude evidence that I should be in time called, however unworthy, the Defender of the Faith.-But here comes Maxwell, bending under his burden, like the Golden Ass of Apuleius." Heriot hastened to relieve the usher, and to place the embossed salver, for such it was, and of extraordinary dimensions, in a light favourable for his Majesty's viewing the sculpture. "Saul of my body, man," said the King, "it is a curious piece, and, as I think, fit for a King's chalmer; and the subject, as you say, Master George, vera adequate and beseeming-being, as I see, the judgment of Solomon-a prince in whose paths it weel becomes a' leeving monarchs to walk with emulation.' "But whose footsteps," said Maxwell, "only one of them-if a subject may say so much-hath ever overtaken." "Haud your tongue for a fause fleeching loon!" said the King, but with a smile on his face that showed the flattery had done its part. 'Look at the bonny piece of workmanship, and haud your clavering tongue.-And whase handiwork may it be, Geordie?" "It was wrought, sir," replied the goldsmith," by the famous Florentine, Benvenuto Cellini, and designed for Francis the First of France; but I hope it will find a fitter master." Francis of France!" said the King; "send Solomon, King of the Jews, to Francis of France!-Body of me, man, it woud have kythed Cellini mad, had he never done ony thing else out of the gate. Francis!why, he was a fighting fule, man, a mere fighting fule,-got himsell ta'en at Pavia, like our ain David at Durham lang syne;-if they could hae sent him "Solomon's wit, and love of peace, and godliness, they wad hae dune him a better turn. But Solomon should sit in other gate company than Francis of France." "God forbid, my liege," said the citizen, "that I should have any such disloyal purpose. I did but bring a piece of plate to show to your most gracious Majesty, which, both for the subject and for the workmanship, I were loath to put into the hands of any subject until I knew your Majesty's pleasure anent it." Body o' me, man, let's see it, Heriot; though, by my saul, Steenie's service o' plate was sae dear a bargain, I had maist pawned my word as a Royal King to keep my ain gold and silver in future, and let you, Geordie, keep yours." "Respecting the Duke of Buckingham's plate," said the goldsmith, "your Majesty was pleased to direct that no expense should be spared, and" "What signifies what I desired, man? when a wise man is with fules and bairns, he maun e'en play at the chucks. But you should have had mair sense and consideration than to gie Babie Charles and Steenie their ain gate; they wad hae floored the very rooms wi' silver, and I wonder they didna." George Heriot bowed, and said no more. He knew his master too well to vindicate himself otherwise than by a distant allusion to his order; and James, with whom economy was only a transient and momentary twinge of conscience, became immediately afterwards desirous to see the piece of plate which the goldsmith proposed to exhibit, and despatched Maxwell to bring it to his presence. In the meantime he demanded of the citizen whence he had procured it. "From Italy, may it please your Majesty," replied Heriot. *The dress of this monarch, together with his personal appear ance, is thus described by a contemporary : "He was of a middle stature, more corpulent through [i. e. by means of his clothes than in his body, yet fat enough. His legs were very weak, having had, as was thought, some foul play in his youth, or rather before he was born, that he was not able to stand at seven years of age. That weakness made him ever leaning on other men's shoulders. His walk was even circular: his hands are in that walk ever fiddling about --(a part of dress now laid aside.] He would make a great deal too bold with God in his passion, both with cursing and swearing, and a strain higher verging on blasphemy; but would, in his better temper, say, he hoped God would not impute them as sins, and Jay them to his charge, secing they proceeded from passion. He had need of great assistance, rather than hope, that would daily make thus bold with God."-DALZELL'S Sketches of Scottish History, p. 86. "I trust that such will be his good fortune," said Heriot. "It is a curious and very artificial sculpture," said the King, in continuation; "but yet, methinks, the carnifex, or executioner there, is brandishing his gulley ower near the King's face, seeing he is within reach of his weapon. I think less wisdom than Solomon's wad have taught him that there was danger in edge-tools, and that he wad haye bidden the smaik either sheath his shabble, or stand farther back." George Heriot endeavoured to alleviate this objection, by assuring the king that the vicinity betwixt Solomon and the executioner was nearer in appearance than in reality, and that the perspective should be allowed for. "Gang to the deil wi' your prospective, man," said the King; "there canna be a waur prospective for a lawfu' king, wha wishes to reign in luve, and die in peace and honour, than to have naked swords flashing in his een. I am accounted as brave as maist folks; and yet I profess to ye I could never look on a bare blade without blinking and winking. But a'thegither it is a brave piece; and what is the price of it, man?" The goldsmith replied by observing, that it was not his own property, but that of a distressed countryman. "Whilk you mean to mak your excuse for asking the double of its worth, I warrant ?" answered the King. "I ken the tricks of your burrows-town merchants, man.' "I have no hopes of baffling your Majesty's sagacity," said Heriot; "the piece is really what say, and the price a hundred and fifty pounds sterling, if it pleases your Majesty to make present payment." "A hundred and fifty punds, man! and as mony witches and warlocks to raise them!" said the irritated Monarch. "My saul, Jingling Geordie, ye are minded that your purse shall jingle to a bonny tune! -How am I to tell you down a hundred and fifty punds for what will not weigh as many merks? and ye ken that my very household servitors, and the officers of my mouth, are sax months in arrear!" The goldsmith stood his ground against all this objurgation, being what he was well accustomed to, and only answered, that, if his Majesty liked the piece, and desired to possess it, the price could be easily settled. It was true that the party required the money, but he, George Heriot, would advance it on his Majesty's account, if such were his pleasure, and wait his royal conveniency for payment, for that and other matters; the money, meanwhile, lying at the ordinary usage. ding your hand into your pouch, bring forth your supplication, and place it reverentially in our open palm." The goldsmith, who had complied with great accuracy with all the prescribed points of the ceremonial, here completed it, to James's no small astonishment, by placing in his hand the petition of the Lord of Glenvarloch. "What means this, ye fause loon?" said he, reddening and sputtering; "hae I been teaching you the manual exercise, that ye suld present your piece at our ain royal body ?-Now, by this light I had as lief that ye had bended a real pistolet against me, and yet this hae ye done in my very cabinet, where nought suld enter but at my ain pleasure." 66 "I trust your Majesty," said Heriot, as he continued to kneel," will forgive my exercising the lesson you condescended to give me in the behalf of a friend?" "Of a friend!" said the King; so much the By my honour," said James, "and that is speak-waur-so much the waur, I tell you. If it had been ing like an honest and reasonable tradesman. We something to do yoursell good there would have been maun get another subsidy frae the Commons, and some sense in it, and some chance that you wad not that will make ae compting of it. Awa wi' it, Max- have come back on me in a hurry; but a man may well-awa wi' it, and let it be set where Steenie have a hundred friends, and petitions for every ane and Babie Charles shall see it as they return from o' them, ilk ane after other." Richmond. And now that we are secret, my good auld friend Geordie, I do truly opine, that speaking of Solomon and ourselves, the haill wisdom in the Country left Scotland, when we took our travels to the Southland here." George Heriot was courtier enough to say, that "the wise naturally follow the wisest, as stags follow their leader." "Troth I think there is something in what thou sayest," said James; "for we ourselves, and those of our court and household, as thou thyself, for example, are allowed by the English, for as selfopinioned as they are, to pass for reasonable good wits; but the brains of those we have left behind are all astir, and run clean hirdie-girdie, like sae mony warlocks and witches on the Devil's Sabbath-e'en." "I am sorry to hear this, my liege," said Heriot. "May it please your Grace to say what our countrymen have done to deserve such a character?" "They are become frantic, man-clean braincrazed," answered the King. 'I cannot keep them out of the Court by all the proclamations that the heralds roar themselves hoarse with. Yesterday, nae farther gane, just as we were mounted, and about to ride forth, in rushed a thorough Edinburgh gutterblood-a ragged rascal, every dud upon whose back was bidding good-day to the other, with a coat and hat that would have served a pease-bogle, and, without havings or reverence, thrusts into our hands, like a sturdy beggar, some Supplication about debts owing by our gracious mother, and siclike trash; whereat the horse spangs on end, and, but for our admirable sitting, wherein we have been thought to excel maist sovereign princes, as well as subjects, in Europe, I promise you we would have been laid endlang on the causeway." "Your Majesty," said Heriot, "is their common father, and therefore they are the bolder to press into your gracious presence." "I ken I am pater patriæ well enough," said James; "but one would think they had a mind to squeeze my puddings out, that they may divide the inheritance. Ud's death, Geordie, there is not a loon among them can deliver a Supplication, as it suld be done in the face of majesty." "I would I knew the most fitting and beseeming mode to do so," said Heriot," where it but to instruct our poor countrymen in better fashions." "By my halidome," said the King, "ye are a ceevileezed fellow, Geordie, and I carena if I fling awa as much time as may teach ye. And, first, see you, sir -ye shall approach the presence of majesty thusshadowing your eyes with your hand, to testify that you are in the presence of the Vicegerent of Heaven. -Vera weel, George, that is done in a comely manner.-Then, sir, ye sall kneel, an make as if ye would kiss the hem of our garment, the latch of our shoe, or such like. Very weel enacted-whilk we, as being willing to be debonair and pleasing towards our lieges, prevent thus-and motion to you to rise; whilk having a boon to ask, as yet you obey not but gli "Your Majesty, I trust," said Heriot, "will judge me by former experience, and will not suspect me of such presumption." "the "I kenna," said the placable monarch; world goes daft, I think-sed semel insanivimus omnes-thou art my old and faithful servant, that is the truth; and were't any thing for thy own behoof, man, thou shouldst not ask twice. But, troth, Steenie loves me so dearly, that he cares not that any one should ask favours of me but himself. -Maxwell," (for the usher had re-entered after having carried off the plate,) "get into the ante-chamber wi' your lang lugs. In conscience, Geordie, I think as that thou hast been mine ain auld fiduciary, and wert my goldsmith when I might say with the Ethnic poetNon mea renidet in domo lacunar-for faith they had pillaged my mither's auld house sae, that beechen bickers, and treen trenchers, and latten platters, were whiles the best at our board, and glad we were of something to put on them, without quarrelling with the metal of he dishes. D'ye mind, for thou wert in maist of our complots, how we were fain to send sax of the Blue-banders to harry the Lady of Loganhouse's dowcot and poultry-yard, and what an awfu' plaint the poor dame made against Jock of Milch, and the thieves of Annandale, wha were as sackless of the deed as I am of the sin of murder?" "It was the better for Jock," said Heriot; "for, if I remember weel, it saved him from a strapping up at Dumfries, which he had weel deserved for other misdeeds." Ay, man, mind ye that ?" said the King; "but he had other virtues, for he was a tight huntsman, moreover, that Jock of Milch, and could halloo to a hound till all the woods rang again. But he came to an Annandale end at the last, for Lord Tothorwald ran his lance out through him.-Cock snails, man, when I think of these wild passages, in my conscience I am not sure but we lived merrier in auld Holyrood in those shifting days, than now when we are living at heck and manger. Cantabit vacuus-we had but little to care for." "And if your Majesty please to remember," said the goldsmith, "the awful task we had to gather silver-vessail and gold-work enough to make some show before the Spanish Ambassador." "Vera true," said the King, now in a full tide of gossip," and I mind not the name of the right leal ford tha, helped us with every unce he had in his house, tha. his native Prince might have some credit in the eyes of them that had the Indies at their beck.". "I think, if your Majesty," said the citizen, "will cast your eye on the paper in your hand, you will recollect his name." "Ay!" said the King," say ye sae, man?-Lord Glenvarlock, that was his name indeed-Justus et tenax propositi-A just man, but as obstinate as baited bull. He stood whiles against us, that Lord Randal Olifaunt of Glenvarloch, but he was a loving and a leal subject in the main. But this supplicator maun |