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.

574 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
that morning, my good friend, and did see some part of the action," said
the stranger.
"Then ye saw a bonny stour," said Cuddie, "that sall serve me for
fighting a' the days o' my life.-I judged ye wad be a trooper, by your red
scarlet lace-coat and your looped hat."
"And which side were you upon, my friend?" continued the inquisitive
stranger.
" Aha, lad!" retorted Cuddie, with a knowing look, or what he designed
for such —" there's nae use in telling that, unless I ken'd wha was asking
me."
" I commend your prudence, but it is unnecessary; I know you acted on
that occasion as servant to Henry Morton."
"Ay!" said Cuddie, in surprise, "how came ye by that secret? No that
I need care a bodle about it, for the sun's on our side o' the hedge now. I
wish my master were living to get a blink o't2"
"And what became of him?" said the rider.
"I He was lost in the vessel gaun to that weary Holland-clean lost, and
a'body perished, and my poor master amang them. Neither man nor mouse
was ever heard o' mair." Then Cuddie uttered a groan.
"You had some regard for him, then?" continued the stranger.
"Hlow could I help it?-His face was made of a fiddle, as they say, for
a'body that looked on him liked him. And a braw soldier he was. O, an
ye had but seen him down at the brigg there, fleeing about like a fleeing
dragon to gar folk fight that had unco little will till't. There was he and
that sour whigamlore they ca'd Burley-if twa men could hae won a field,
we wadna hae gotten our skins paid that day.".
"You mention Burley-Do you know if he yet lives?"
"I kenna muckle about him. Folk say he was abroad, and our sufferers
wad hold no communion wi' him, because o' his having murdered the archbishop. Sae he cam hame ten times dourer than ever, and broke aff wi'
mony o' the presbyterians; and, at this last coming of the Prince of Orange,
he could get nae countenance nor command for fear of his deevilish temper,
and he hasna been heard of since; only some folk say, that pride and anger
hae driven him clean wud."
" And-and," said the traveller, after considerable hesitation,-" do you
know anything of Lord Evandale?"
"Div I ken onything o' Lord Evandale? Div Ino? Is not my young
leddy up by yonder at the house, that's as gude as married to him!"
"And are they not married then?" said the rider, hastily.
"No; only what they ca' betrothed-me and my wife were witness-it's
no mony months bypast. It was a lang courtship-few folk ken'd the
reason by Jenny and mysell. But will ye no light down? I downa bide to
see ye sitting up there, and the clouds are casting up thick in the west ower
Glasgow-ward, and maist skeily folk think that bodes rain."
In fact, a deep black cloud had already surmounted the setting sun; a
few large drops of rain fell, and the murmurs of distant thunder were
heard.
"The deil's in this man," said Cuddie to himself; "I wish he would
either light aff or ride on, that he may quarter himsell in Hamilton or the
shower begin."
But the rider sate motionless on his horse for two or three moments after
his last question, like one exhausted by some uncommon effort. At length,
recovering himself, as if with a sudden and painful effort, he asked Cuddie,
"if Lady Margaret Bellenden still lived?"
" She does," replied Cuddie, " but in a very sma' way. They hae been
a sad changed family since theae rough times began; they hae suffered
eneugh first and last-and to lose the auld Tower, and a' the bonny barony,
and the holms that I hae pleughed sac often, and the Mains, and my kale