Clergy -- Fiction; Love stories; Scotland -- Fiction
Who flung the first stone is not known, but it is believed to have
been the Egyptian. The policemen were recalled, and the whole body
ordered to advance down the brae. Thus the weavers who had not escaped
at once were driven before them, and soon hemmed in between the two
bodies of soldiers, when they were easily captured. But for two
minutes there was a thick shower of stones and clods of earth.
It was ever afterwards painful to Gavin to recall this scene, but less
on account of the shower of stones than because of the flight of one
divit in it. He had been watching the handsome young captain,
Halliwell, riding with his men; admiring him, too, for his coolness.
This coolness exasperated the gypsy, who twice flung at Halliwell and
missed him. He rode on smiling contemptuously.
"Oh, if I could only fling straight!" the Egyptian moaned.
Then she saw the minister by her side, and in the tick of a clock
something happened that can never be explained. For the moment Gavin
was so lost in misery over the probable effect of the night's rioting
that he had forgotten where he was. Suddenly the Egyptian's beautiful
face was close to his, and she pressed a divit into his hand, at the
same time pointing at the officer, and whispering "Hit him."
Gavin flung the clod of earth, and hit Halliwell on the head.
I say I cannot explain this. I tell what happened, and add with
thankfulness that only the Egyptian witnessed the deed. Gavin, I
suppose, had flung the divit before he could stay his hand. Then he
shrank in horror.
"Woman!" he cried again.
"You are a dear," she said, and vanished.
By the time Gavin was breathing freely again the lock-up was crammed
with prisoners, and the Riot Act had been read from the town-house
stair. It is still remembered that the baron-bailie, to whom this duty
fell, had got no further than, "Victoria, by the Grace of God," when
the paper was struck out of his hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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