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.

OLD MORTALITY. 403
"Ay, my leddy, nae doubt; but no to displeasure your leddyship, ye'll
mind that there was ance a king in Scripture they ca'd Nebuchadnezzar,
and he set -up a golden image in the plain o' Dura, as it might be in the
haugh yonder by the water side, where the array were warned to meet yesterday; and the princes, and the governors, and the captains, and the
judges themsells, forby the treasurers, the counsellors, and the sheriffs,
were warned to the dedication thereof, and commanded to fall down and
worship at the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all
kinds of music."
"And what o' a' this, ye fule wife? Or what had Nebuchadnezzar to do
with the wappen-schaw of the Upper Ward of Clydesdale?"
" Only just thus far, my leddy," continued Mause, firmly, " that prelacy
is like the great golden image in the plain of Dura, and that as Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, were borne out in refusing to bow down and worship, so neither shall Cuddie Headrigg, your leddyship's poor pleughman,
at least wi' his auld mither's consent, make murgeons or Jenny-flections
as they ca' them, in the house of the prelates and curates, nor gird him wi'
armour to fight in their cause, either at the sound of kettle-drums, organs,
bagpipes, or ony other kind of music whatever."
Lady Margaret Bellenden heard this exposition of Scripture with the
greatest possible indignation, as well as surprise.
"I see which way the wind blows," she exclaimed, after a pause of astonishment; "the evil spirit of the year sixteen hundred and forty-twa is
at wark again as merrily as ever, and ilka auld wife in the chimley-neuck
will be for knapping doctrine wi' doctors o' divinity and the godly fathers
o' the church."
" If your leddyship means the bishops and curates, I'm sure they hae
been but step-fathers to the Kirk o' Scotland. And. since your leddyship
is pleased to speak o' parting wi' us, I am free to tell you a piece o' my
mind in another article. Your leddyship and the steward hae been pleased
to propose that my son Cuddie suld work in the barn wi' a new-fangled
machine* for dighting the corn frae the chaff, thus impiously thwarting
the will of Divine Providence, by raising wind for your leddyship's ain
particular use by human art, instead of soliciting it by prayer, or waiting
patiently for. whatever dispensation of wind Providence was pleased to send
upon the sheeling-hill. Now, my leddy"'"The woman would drive ony reasonable being daft!" said Lady Margaret; then resuming her tone of authority and indifference, she concluded,
" Weel, Mause, I'll just end where I sud hae begun - ye're ower learned
and ower godly for me to dispute wi'; sae I have just this to say,-either
Cuddlie must attend musters when he's lawfully warned by the ground
officer, or the sooner he and you flit and quit my bounds the better; there's
nae scarcity o' auld wives or ploughmen; but if there were, I had rather
that the rigs of Tillietudlem bare naething but windle-straes and sandy
lavrockst than that they were ploughed by rebels to the king."
"Aweel my leddy," said. Mause, "I was born here, and thought to die
where my father died; and your leddyship has been a kind mistress, I'll
ne'er deny that, and I'se ne'er cease to pray for you and for Miss Edith,
and that ye may be brought to see -the error of your ways. But still"" The error of my-ways!" interrupted Lady Margaret, much incensed"the error of my ways, ye uncivil woman?"
"Ou, ay, my leddy, we are blinded that live in this valley of tears and
darkness, and hae a' ower mony errors, grit folks as weel as sma'-but, as
I said, my puir bennison will rest wi' you and yours wherever I am. I
* Probably something similar to the barn fanners now used for winnowing corn, which were not, however,
used in their present.shtpe until about 1730. They were objected to by the more rigid sectaries onr their
first introduction, upon such reasoning as that of honest Mlause in the next.
t Bent-grass and sand larks.