He threw open a window that faced the south, where the black mansions of the Netherbow towered up from the steep hill at the foot of which his house was situated. The sound of a distant drum, beat in slow, regular, and monotonous measure, was heard on the wind at intervals, as a drummer of the Civic Guard (an old corps of Scottish gensd'armes, which existed from the fatal day at Flodden until 1818,) ascended St. Mary's Wynd, his usual nightly round, after having descended the Bow, and beat along the once lordly and fashionable Cowgate, where kings have feasted royally, and where Scottish nobles and the ambassadors of foreign powers were wont to dwell--but now the hideous abode of misery and crime, and long since abandoned to the dregs of mankind. On strode the drummer, and the gates of the Netherbow revolved back at his approach: as he passed under its double towers, its picturesque spire and high embattled arch, the great street of the city, wide and lofty, but dark and deserted, rang to the same monotonous chamade and all its echoing closes, broad paved wynds and old arcades of wood or stone, its circular stairs and oaken outshots gave back a thousand reverberations as "the ten o'clock drummer" strode on, until reaching the Town Guard House, where he finished his perambulation of the ancient Royalty by a long and loud ruffle, which scared the vultures from the skulls that mouldered on the parapets of the prison, startled the rooks in the gothic diadem of St. Giles, and made all its hollow vaults and high arched aisles, where the dead of ages lie, give back the warlike sound. The drum rang loudly as it passed the archway that led to the lodging of Clermistonlee, who threw down the window with a crash, exclaiming, "Malediction on my messenger--I must mount and ride without him. Hah! here comes the loitering rascal in time to save his shoulders from a stout truncheoning." A horse's hoofs rang in the courtyard; Juden's heavy boots clattered on the pavement as he dismounted and ascended to the chamber-of-dais, puffing, panting, and looking very pale and disconcerted. "So-so, fellow," said the irritated lord, "it has pleased you to return at last." "With God's providence, my Lord." "How, fool? What means this unwonted piety? Art drunk, fellow?" "Fie, Juden!" said Mersington, "a fou-man' and a fasting horse, should hae come faster home hee, hee!" "You saw this woman, Gilruth, and left my message, I presume:" "Yes, my Lord, yes," gasped Juden. "What the devil is all this? There is something wrong with thee, Juden." "Then to be plain wi' your Lordship, I canna thole the auld Place after nightfa'? I aye think o'--think o'----" "What?" asked Clermistonlee, furiously.