completely as if they had been natural-born subjects of this realm, and was on the very eve of reaping the fruits of his patriotic labours--the fame of a breeder of a new species of poultry, and the emoluments of a vender or seller of the same to the farmers and bird-fanciers of the kingdom--when David Drumwhussle, tenant of Craignockan, actuated by _malice prepense_, or by envy, or by fear that his own breed of poultry (of the common or dunghill species) would be displaced and superseded by the other and superior kind, or by some other motive or feeling, implying _dolus_, did stir up and excite his son, John Drumwhussle, for whose acts and deeds--being a minor, and not _forisfamiliated_--he was liable, to bring--_vi aut clam_--his the said David Drumwhussle's cock, and his the said complainer's, into a pugnacious attitude and position, and to instigate the same to mortal combat, whereby the said cocks having engaged _secundum suam naturam_ in a lethal _duellum_, did fight till his, the complainer's, was left in the field dead; that the primary consequence of this premeditated act was, that the female was rendered mateless, unproductive, and useless, insomuch as her cohabitation and society with cocks of this country would never be the means of producing the species of _gallus giganteus_; the secondary, that the complainer was deprived of a source of legitimate gain; and the tertiary, that the country of Great Britain lost the superlative advantage of an improved breed of poultry.' Thae are the premises." "An' fine premises they are," replied Guidyill. "Jobbit never laid an egg mair certain o' producin a weel-feathered bird for the lawyers." "Ye're richt, laird, sae far," replied Drumwhussle; "but ye've yet to learn that it had twa yolks--twa law-pleas cam out o't. But ye'll hear. I needna read the conclusion--a' in the ordinary form, ye ken:--therefore it ought and should be found and declared, and so forth; and that I should be decerned to pay twenty guineas as the value of the cock, and damages sustained for the loss of his expected progeny." "Weel, weel, the defences, the defences," cried the laird, in eager expectation. "Ye wad state the defence on the merits first, I fancy, an' then the preliminary ane."