"The cart afore the horse, ye fule!" answered Drumwhussle, chuckling. "I despised a' dilatory pleas, man: I cam to the marrow at ance, an' instructed my agent, Mr Kirkham, or Quirkum, as he is generally styled, for his exquisite adroitness an' cleverness, to use the very highest flicht o' his inventive fancy--to consult Erskine an' Stair, an' even Corporal Jooris--to dive into the Roman Pawndecs[10]--the deegest--the discreets--every authority, in fack, he could think o'--no forgetting Cock on Littletun; and send me a draft o' the defences _siny mory_.[11] He did so, and oh, such a beautiful invention! They set forth, as a kind o' flourish afore the real tug o' the tournay, that the libel was a big lee frae beginning to end; that the pursuer's cock was, even in his ain showing, an alien cratur, an' no entitled to the richts o' natural-born subjects; that he interfered wi' the queens o' the seraglio o' my winged potentate--making love to them, crawing to them, an' displaying his gaudy wings to them, as if he were lord o' a' the feathered creation; that the defender's cock, acting upon the weel-ascertained richt o' defending conjugal property, slew him, on the strength o' the English case, Jenkins _versus_ Lovelace, where a husband was found justified in taking the life o' ane wha made love to his wife. In the second place, it was denied _simpleeciter_ that the cock was o' the species _gawlus giganteus_, being a mere 'blue ginger'--worth five shillins--o' the auld breed o' Scotland, whilk cam frae the stock named by the Greek play-writer, Mr Arrantstuffanes, 'the Persian bird.' We thus threw the hail _onus proovandy_ on the back o' the dominie, an', by my faith, he fand the weight o't!" [Footnote 10: Pandects.] [Footnote 11: Sine mora.] "A noble defence--jist exactly what I wad hae written," ejaculated Guidyill, in ecstasy. "Weel, ye wad revise the condescendence after that, I fancy?" "Before it was written, man?" responded Drumwhussle. "Na, na; ye ken little aboot thae things. The dominie was ordered to condescend on what he undertook, and offered to prove in support o' his libel, then we answered, then he revised, then we revised, then he re-revised, then we re-revised, then he made an addition, which we answered by a corresponding addition, equal to a re-re-revision." "Hurrah!" cried Scouthercakes.