"Ten thousand curses!--wretch and varlet! whence all this insolence, and why this maudlin grief?" cried Clermistonlee, in a voice of thunder. "Why speak of Alison? she sleeps in peace in the old aisles of St. Marcel, in Paris, and are her ashes to be ever thrown upon me thus? S'death! away, sirrah. Get thee gone, or the sack tankard may follow _that_!" And plucking off his long black wig, he flung it full in Juden's face. Without making any immediate reply, the latter picked up the ample wig, carefully brushed the flowing curls with his hand, and hung it upon the knob of a chair. He then turned to leave the room, but pausing, said slyly-- "Then, my Lord, ye dinna want to ken where this bonnie bird could be netted. I could cast your hawk to the perch in a minute." "Art sure of that, sirrah?" "My thumb on't, Clermistonlee, I will." "You are a pawkie auld carle, Juden," said his master, in an altered voice; "but tell with brevity what ye know of this matter." "Lucky Elshender, a cottar body at St. Rocque, owre the Burghmuir yonder, was nurse to the Lady Lilian--yea, and to her mother before her. Though as wicked and cankered an auld carlin as ever tirled a spindle, or steered hell-kail, she was ane leal and faithful servitor to the house o' Bruntisfield, for her gudeman and his twa sons died in their stirrups by Sir Archibald's side, on that black day by the Keithing Burn. Sae, Clermistonlee, as she is a body mickle trusted by the family, if any woman or witch in a' braid Scotland can enlighten ye anent this matter, it is Lucky Elshender. And maybe my Lord Mersington (he's asleep, the gomeral body) will be sae gude as keep in memory, that there is not an auld wife in the three Lothians mair deserving o' a fat tar-barrel bleezing under her, in respect o' puir Meg's mischanter." "Right, Juden," replied his master. "She may be brought to the stake yet, though the taste for such exhibitions is somewhat declining among our gentles. To-morrow I will have her dragged to the Laigh Chamber; and if there is any truth in her tongue, or blood in her fingers, I warrant Pate Pincer's screws will produce both. Take these, Juden, as earnest of the largess I will give if the scent holds good." But Juden drew back from the proffered gold pieces. "If I am to serve ye, my Lord, as a leal vassal and servitor ought, and as I served your honoured faither before ye, and my forbears did yours in better and braver times, ye will hold me excused from touching a bodle o' this reward, or ony other beyond my yearly fee and livery coat. Keep your gowd, Clermistonlee, for faith ye need it mair than auld Juden Stenton; and sae, as my een are gathering straws, I will bid your Lordship a gude morning, and hie cannily away to my nest, for, by my sooth! there's the Norloch shining through the window shutters like silver in the braid day light." And so saying, Juden withdrew with a jaunty step, pleased with his own magnanimous refusal.