CHAPTER XXVIII.

Nor board nor garner own we now,
Nor roof nor latched door,

Nor kind mate, bound, by holy vow,
To bless a good man's store.
Noon lulls us in a gloomy den,
And night is grown our day;
Uprouse ye, then, my merry men!
And use it as ye may.

JOANNA BAILLIE.

BROWN could now reckon his foes;-they were five in number; two of them were very powerful men, who appeared to be either real seamen, or strollers who assumed that character; the other three, an old man and two lads, were slighter made, and from their black hair and dark complexion, seemed to belong to Meg's tribe. They passed from one to another the cup out of which they drank their spirits. "Here's to his good voyage!" said one of the seamen, drinking; "a squally night he's got, however, to drift through the sky in."

We omit here various execrations with which these honest gentlemen garnished their discourse, retaining only such of their expletives as are least offensive.

"'A does not mind wind and weather-'A has had many a north-easter in his day."

"He had his last yesterday," said another gruffly; "and now old Meg may pray for his last fair wind, as she's often done before."

"I'll pray for nane o' him," said Meg, "nor for you

The times are sair altered since
Men were men then, and fought

neither, you randy dog. I was a kitchen-mort.* other in the open field, and there was nae milling in the darkmans.† And the gentry had kind hearts, and would have given baith lap and pannel to ony puir gipsy; and there was not one, from Johnnie Faa, the upright man,§ to little Christie that was in the panniers, would cloyed a dud || from them. But ye are a' altered from the gude auld rules, and no wonder that you scour the crampring, and trine to the cheat ¶ sae often. Yes, ye are a' altered -you'll eat the goodman's meat, drink his drink, sleep on the strammel ** in his barn, and break his house and cut his throat for his pains! There's blood on your hands, too, ye dogs-mair than ever came there by fair fighting. See how ye'll die then-lang it was ere he died—he strove, and strove sair, and could neither die nor live;—but you-half the country will see how ye'll grace the woodie."

The party set up a hoarse laugh at Meg's prophecy. "What made you come back here, ye auld beldam?” said one of the gipsies; "could ye not have staid where you were, and spaed fortunes to the Cumberland flats ?— Bing out and tour,†† ye auld devil, and see that nobody has scented; that's a' you're good for now."

"Is that a' I am good for now?" said the indignant matron. "I was good for mair than that in the great fight between our folk and Patrico Salmon's; if I had not helped you with these very fambles (holding up her

* A girl.
Liquor and food.
|| Stolen a rag.
** Straw.

† Murder by night.

§ The leader (and greatest rogue) of the gang. Get imprisoned and hanged.

†† Go out and watch.

hands,) Jear Baillie would have frammagem'd you,* ye feckless do-little!"

There was here another laugh, at the expense of the hero who had received this amazon's assistance.

"Here, mother," said one of the sailors, "here's a cup of the right for you, and never mind that bully-huff."

Meg drank the spirits, and, withdrawing herself from farther conversation, sat down before the spot where Brown lay hid, in such a posture that it would have been difficult for any one to have approached it without her rising. The men, however, showed no disposition to disturb her.

They closed around the fire, and held deep consultation together; but the low tone in which they spoke, and the cant language which they used, prevented Brown from understanding much of their conversation. He gathered in general, that they expressed great indignation against some individual. "He shall have his gruel," said one, and then whispered something very low into the ear of his comrade.

"I'll have nothing to do with that,” said the other. 66 Are you turned hen-hearted, Jack?"

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No, by G-d, no more than yourself, but I won't; -it was something like that stopped all the trade fifteen or twenty years ago—you have heard of the Loup?" "I have heard him (indicating the corpse by a jerk of his head) tell about that job. G-d, how he used to laugh when he showed us how he fetched him off the perch!"

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Well, but it did up the trade for one while," said Jack.

"How should that be?" asked the surly villain.

*Throttled you.

"Why,” replied Jack, "the people got rusty about it, and would not deal, and they had bought so many

that "

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brooms *

Well, for all that," said the other, "I think we should be down upon the fellow one of these darkmans, and let him get it well."

"But old Meg's asleep now," said another; "she grows a driveller, and is afraid of her shadow. She'll sing out, some of these odd-come-shortlies, if you don't look sharp."

"Never fear," said the old gipsy man; "Meg's truebred; she's the last in the gang that will start-but she has some queer ways, and often cuts queer words."

With more of this gibberish, they continued the conversation, rendering it thus, even to each other, a dark obscure dialect, eked out by significant nods and signs, but never expressing distinctly, or in plain language, the subject on which it turned. At length one of them, observing Meg was still fast asleep, or appeared to be so, desired one of the lads "to they might flick it open." The boy stepped to the door and brought in a portmanteau, which Brown instantly recognised as his own. His thoughts immediately turned to the unfortunate lad he had left with the carriage. the ruffians murdered him? was the horrible doubt that crossed his mind. The agony of his attention grew yet keener, and while the villains pulled out and admired the different articles of his clothes and linen, he eagerly listened for some indication that might intimate the fate of the postilion. But the ruffians were too much delighted

hand in the black Peter, that

*Got so many warrants out.

Had

† To sing out, or whistle in the cage, is when a rogue, being apprehended, peaches against his comrades.

with their prize, and too much busied in examining its contents, to enter into any detail concerning the manner in which they had acquired it. The portmanteau contained various articles of apparel, a pair of pistols, a leathern case with a few papers, and some money, &c. &c. At any other time it would have provoked Brown excessively to see the unceremonious manner in which the thieves shared his property, and made themselves merry at the expense of the owner. But the moment was too perilous to admit any thoughts but what had immediate reference to self-preservation.

After a sufficient scrutiny into the portmanteau, and an equitable division of its contents, the ruffians applied themselves more closely to the serious occupation of drinking, in which they spent the greater part of the night. Brown was for some time in great hopes that they would drink so deep as to render themselves insensible, when his escape would have been an easy matter. But their dangerous trade required precautions inconsistent with such unlimited indulgence, and they stopped short on this side of absolute intoxication. Three of them at length composed themselves to rest, while the fourth watched. He was relieved in this duty by one of the others, after a vigil of two hours. When the second watch had elapsed, the sentinel awakened the whole, who, to Brown's inexpressible relief, began to make some preparations as if for departure, bundling up the various articles which each had appropriated. Still, however, there remained something to be done. Two of them, after some rummaging, which not a little alarmed Brown, produced a mattock and shovel; another took a pick-axe from behind the straw on which the dead body was extended. With these implements two of them left the hut,