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.

THE HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN. 557
pedlar brought to Longtown that evening, amongst other wares, a large
broad-side sheet, giving an account of the " Last Speech and Execution of
Margaret Murdockson, and of the barbarous Murder of her Daughter, Magdalene or Madge Murdockson, called Madge Wildfire; and of her pious
conversation with his Reverence Archdeacon Fleming;" which authentic
publication had apparently taken place on the day they left Carlisle, and
being an article of a nature peculiarly acceptable to such country-folk as
were within hearing of the transaction, the itinerant bibliopolist had forthwith added them to his stock in trade. He found a merchant sooner than
he expected; for Archibald, much applauding his own prudence, purchased
the whole lot for two shillings and ninepence; and the pedlar, delighted with
the profit of such a wholesale transaction, instantly returned to Carlisle to
supply himself with more.
The considerate Mr. Archibald was about to commit his whole purchase
to the flames, but it was rescued by the yet more considerate dairy-damsel,
who said, very prudently, it was a pity to waste so much paper, which might
crepe hair, pin up bonnets, and serve many other useful purposes; and who
promised to put the parcel into her own trunk, and keep it carefully out
of the sight of Mrs. Jeanie Deans: " Though, by-the-bye, she had no great
notion of folk being so very nice. Mrs. Deans might have had enough to
think about the gallows all this time to endure a sight of it, without all this
to do about it."
Archibald reminded the dame of the dairy of the Duke's particular charge,
that they should be attentive and civil to Jeanie; as also that they were to
part company soon, and consequently would not be doomed to observing
any one's health or temper during the rest of the journey. With which
answer Mrs. Dolly Dutton was obliged to hold herself satisfied.
On the morning they resumed their journey, and prosecuted it successfully, travelling through Dumfries-shire and part of Lanarkshire, until they
arrived at the small town of Rutherglen, within about four miles of Glasgow.
Here an express brought letters to Archibald from the principal agent of the
Duke of Argyle in Edinburgh.
He said nothing of their contents that evening; but when they were seated
in the carriage the next day, the faithful squire informed Jeanie, that he
had received directions from the Duke's factor, to whom his Grace had
recommended him to carry her, if she had no objection, for a stage or two
beyond Glasgow. Some temporary causes of discontent had occasioned
tumults in that city and the neighbourhood, which would render it unadvisable for Mrs. Jeanie Deans to travel alone and unprotected betwixt that
city and Edinburgh; whereas, by going forward a little farther, they would
meet one of his Grace's subfactors, who was coming down from the Highlands to Edinburgh with his wife, and under whose charge she might
journey with comfort and in safety.
Jeanie remonstrated against, this arrangement. " She had been lang,"
she said, "frae hame-her father and her sister behoved to be very anxious
to see her -there were other friends she had that werena weel in health.
peat-hag; and that the hand, with which a butcher in Kilmarnock struck one of the other sheep, became
powerless and withered to the very bone. In the summer of 1769, when she was passing by New Cumnock, a young man, whose name was William Forsvth, son of a farmer in the same parish, plagued her so
much that she wished he might never see the moin; upon which he went home and hanged himself in his
father's barn. And I doubt not that many such stories may yet be remembered in other parts where she
had been."
So far Mr. Train. The author can only add to this narrative, that Feckless Fannie and her little flock were
well known in the pastoral districts.
In attempting to introduce such a character into fiction, the author felt the risk of encountering a comparison with the Marie of Sterne; and, besides, the mechanism of the story would have been as much
retarded by Feckless Fannie's flock, as the night-nmarch of Don Quixote was delayed by Sancho's tale of the
sheep that were ferried over the river.
The author has only to add, that notwithstanding the preciseness of his friend Mr. Train's statement, there
spay be some hopes that the outrage on Feckless Fannie and her little flock was not carried to extremity.
There is no mention of any trial on account of it, which, had it occurred in the manner stated, would have
certainly taken place; and the author has understood that it was on the Border she was last seen, about the
skirts of the Cheviot hills, but without her little flock.
2w2