"What kind o' women are you," cried the Egyptian, her face gleaming as she turned to her own sex, "that bid your men folk gang to gaol when a bold front would lead them to safety? Do you want to be husbandless and hameless?" "Disperse, I command you!" cried Gavin. "This abandoned woman is inciting you to riot." "Dinna heed this little man," the Egyptian retorted. It is curious to know that even at that anxious moment Gavin winced because she called him little. "She has the face of a mischief-maker," he shouted, "and her words are evil." "You men and women o' Thrums," she responded, "ken that I wish you weel by the service I hae done you this nicht. Wha telled you the sojers was coming?" "It was you; it was you!" "Ay, and mony a mile I ran to bring the news, Listen, and I'll tell you mair." "She has a false tongue," Gavin cried; "listen not to the brazen woman." "What I have to tell," she said, "is as true as what I've telled already, and how true that is you a' ken. You're wondering how the sojers has come to a stop at the tap o' the brae instead o' marching on the town. Here's the reason. They agreed to march straucht to the square if the alarm wasna given, but if it was they were to break into small bodies and surround the town so that you couldna get out. That's what they're doing now." At this the screams were redoubled, and many men lifted the weapons they had dropped. "Believe her not," cried Gavin. "How could a wandering gypsy know all this?" "Ay, how can you ken?" some demanded. "It's enough that I do ken," the Egyptian answered. "And this mair I ken, that the captain of the soldiers is confident he'll nab every one o' you that's wanted anless you do one thing." "What is 't?" "If you a' run different ways you're lost, but if you keep thegither you'll be able to force a road into the country, whaur you can scatter. That's what he's fleid you'll do." "Then it's what we will do." "It is what you will not do," Gavin said passionately. "The truth is not in this wicked woman." But scarcely had he spoken when he knew that startling news had reached the square. A murmur arose on the skirts of the mob, and swept with the roar of the sea towards the town-house. A detachment of the soldiers were marching down the Roods from the north. "There's some coming frae the east-town end," was the next intelligence; "and they've gripped Sanders Webster, and auld Charles Yuill has given himsel' up." "You see, you see," the gypsy said, flashing triumph at Gavin. "Lay down your weapons," Gavin cried, but his power over the people had gone. "The Egyptian spoke true," they shouted; "dinna heed the minister." Gavin tried to seize the gypsy by the shoulders, but she slipped past him down the stair, and crying "Follow me!" ran round the town-house and down the brae.