Once in the course of one of his Midlothian tours we had something in the nature of adventure. He was to address an {119} evening meeting at Heriot, and arrangements were duly made for the stopping of an outgoing express which left the Waverley Station about six o'clock, as well as for the stopping of the Pullman express in order to bring him back to Edinburgh. The arrangement was so beautifully fine that it failed disastrously. To begin with, the departure of the outgoing train was delayed for over twenty minutes awaiting a Glasgow connection, and, to make matters worse, the fact that the village of Heriot is about two miles distant from the railway station had been totally disregarded--if, indeed, it was known. The result was that the candidate, his agent, and the writer alighted at Heriot Station just about the time that the meeting was announced to begin. There was nothing for it but walking. In a drenching rain the three of us set out for the meeting-place. When we had accomplished a considerable part of the journey we were overtaken by a light country van. The driver on having our plight explained to him, readily gave us a 'lift,' and in this way we reached Heriot about the time we ought to have been leaving it in order to catch the train that was being stopped for the express purpose of picking us up. The audience, it was evident, was not quite in the best of humour at having been kept waiting so long; but the explanation of the Colonel, and his candid, honest attitude won the hearts of his audience, and he had an excellent reception. A passage in his speech on that occasion is worth recalling in the light of the event over which all Scotland to-day mourns. 'People state,' he said, 'that I am a warlike candidate; but, gentlemen, I have twice or thrice been shot in the body already, and I declare to you I have no great desire to be shot again.' At the close of the meeting we set out on the return trudge to Heriot, painfully aware of the fact that the last train had gone, and not knowing in the least how or where we were going to pass the night. In the course of our march, I remember, the Colonel turned to me and said seriously, 'I hope you don't get into any bother over this?' I assured him that he need have no anxiety on that score. 'Because,' he added, 'I'll sign any certificate you like.' The remark was quite like him. It reflected at once the soldier and the considerate gentleman. Well, when we {120} got to the railway station, we found that the train that was to have picked us up, had passed quite an hour previously. The stationmaster, I remember, took in the situation sympathetically at a glance. If he was not a sturdy Unionist he must have been one of the General's numerous admirers. 'There is nothing for it,' said he, 'but to walk up the line to Falahill, where we may have a chance of getting a pilot engine to run you down at least to Dalkeith.' Accordingly the