"When the Tron Kirk bell rings aucht. My Lord Provost, the Baillies and the Captain of the Guard are to eat the deid-chack at Hughie Blair's twa hours thereafter. Fie upon the greedy gleds that meet to revel and roister oure a puir sinner's departure, and to drink Gascony and Rhenish like spring water, though they be eight-pence the quart, and at this time when a puir man's four hours' draught----" "But gif a' be true, nane hae sae well deservit bridle and faggot, since that monster o' iniquity, Weir, was burnt wi' his staff, whilk my ain faither, as honest a body as ever wore the blue ribbon at his lug, often met stoting down the Bow, for a plack's worth o' snuff for its hellicate master. And mair, cummer----" But Clermistonlee hurried on, and passing the Porte of the Potter's Row, hurried down the steep College Wynd, where picturesque edifices of vast strength and unknown antiquity towered up on each side of the way, and excluded the pale light of the stars. A single ray from a window revealed the rich dresses of two gentlemen who were slowly ascending. "I insist upon giving you a Kelso convoy, my Lord," said one. "A devil of a dark night, Laird, especially for a summer one--but I vow to ye, Libberton, that my Lord Perth's claret has cast a glamour oure me." "Hold up, Balcarris, or ye'll measure your length in the gutter; and that would be a braw place for the Lord High Treasurer to be found in the morning. Thank God, the gate is no a broad ane. I mind when Cromwell, that's now roasting in a pretty hot place--ahoa! who goes there? Draw, Balcarris--it's some spy o' the States-General--a keeper o' conventicles contrary to proclamation. Stand, ye deil's buckie--for King or Covenant?" "For the King!" cried Clermistonlee; and, irritated by their stopping the narrow way, he unceremoniously tumbled the inebriated laird of Libberton to the right and the Treasurer to the left, as he broke past and hurried into the Cowgate (the ancient _comunis via_), then the residence of aristocratic exclusives. An old author,* who wrote in the sixteenth century, informs us "that the nobility and chief senators of the city dwell in the Cowgate--_via vaccarum in qua habitant patricii et senatores urbis;_" and that "the palaces of the chief men of the nation are also there; that none of the houses are mean or vulgar, but, on the contrary, all magnificent--_sed omnia magnified_." * Munster Cosmograph, p, 52. The troubles of Clermistonlee were not yet over. On issuing into the High Street a crowd of tipsy roisterers, young bucks, students, and Life Guards, burst out of Hugh Blair's tavern, with shouts of laughter and drawn swords, ripe for mischief. They beat back the axes of the watch, and joining hands in one long line, danced down the broad street, vociferously chaunting the merry old ditty--