The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

484 WAVE RL EY NOVELS.
shoulder, flung her from him with great violence, exclaiming, "What,
Mother Damnable -again, and in my sovereign presence! - Hark ye,
Madge of Bedlam! get to your hole with your playfellow, or we shall have
the devil to pay here, and nothing to pay him with."
Madge took Levitt's advice, retreating as fast as she could, and dragging
Jeanie along with her into a sort of recess, partitioned off from the rest of
the barn, and filled with straw, from which it appeared that it was intended
for the purpose of slumber. The moonlight shone, through an open hole,
upon a pillion, a pack-saddle, and one or two wallets, the travelling furniture
of Madge and her amiable mother. - " Now, saw ye e'er in your life," said
Madge, "sae dainty a chamber of deas? see as the moon shines down sac
caller on thefresh strae! There's no a pleasanter cell in Bedlam, for as braw
a place as it is on the outside. - Were ye ever in Bedlam?"
"No," answered Jeanie faintly, appalled by the question, and the way in
which it was put, yet willing to soothe her insane companion, being in circumstances so unhappily precarious, that even the society of this gibbering
madwoman seemed a species of protection.
" Never in Bedlam!" said Madge, as if with some surprise. -" But ye'll
hae been in the cells at Edinburgh?"
" Never," repeated Jeanie.
"Weel, I think thae daft carles the magistrates send naebody to Bedlam
but me-thae maun hae an unco respect for me, for whenever I am brought
to them, they aye hae me back to Bedlam. But troth, Jeanie," (she said
this in a very confidential tone,) "to tell ye my private mind about it, I
think ye are at nae great loss; for the keeper's a cross-patch, and he maun
hae it a' his ain gate, to be sure, or he makes the place waur than hell. I
often tell him he's the daftest in a' the house. -But what are they making
sic a skirling for? - Deil ane o' them's get in here - it wadna be mensefu'!
I will sit my back again the door; it winna be that easy stirring me."
"Madge!" — "Madge!" -" Madge Wildfire!" -" Madge devil! what
have ye done with the horse?" was repeatedly asked by the men without.
" He's e'en at his supper, puir thing," answered Madge; " deil an ye
were at yours, too, an it were scauding brimstane, and then we wad hae
less o' your din."
" Iis supper!" answered the more sulky ruffian - "What d'ye mean by
that?- Tell me where he is, or I will knock your Bedlam brains out!"
"He's in Gaffer Gablewood's wheat-close, an ye maun ken."
" His wheat-close, you crazed jilt!" answered the other, with an accent
of great indignation.
" 0, dear Tyburn Tam, man, what ill will the blades of the young wheat
do to the puir nag?'
"That is not the question," said the other robber; " but what the country
will say to us to-mQrrow, when they see him in such quarters? -Go, Tom,
and bring him in; and avoid the soft ground, my lad; leave no hoof-track
behind you."
"I think you give me always the fag of it, whatever is to be done,"
grumbled his compani,,i.
"Leap, Laurence, you're long enough," said the other; and the fellow
left the barn accordingly, without farther remonstrance.
In the meanwhile, Madge had arranged herself for repose on the straw;
but still in a half-sitting posture, with her back resting against the door of
the hovel, which, as it opened inwards, was in this manner kept shut by the
weight of the person.
"There's mair shifts by stealing, Jeanie," said Madge Wildfire; "though
whiles I can hardly get our mother to think sae. Wha wad hae thought
but mysell of making a bolt of my ain back-bane? But it's no sae strong;as thae that I hae seen in the Tolbooth at Edinburgh. The hamnmernmen
of Edinburgh are to my mind afore the world for making stancheons, ring