You can see tobacco growin' like aits, and mair big
trees in one plantin' than in all the shire o' Lothian. Besides--"
But I got no more of Muckle John's travels, for the door opened on that
instant, and the gaoler appeared. He looked at our heads, then singled
me out, and cried on me to follow. "Come on, you," he said. "Ye're
wantit in the captain's room."
I followed in bewilderment; for I knew something of the law's delays,
and I could not believe that my hour of trial had come already. The man
took me down the turret stairs and through a long passage to a door
where stood two halberdiers. Through this he thrust me, and I found
myself in a handsome panelled apartment with the city arms carved above
the chimney. A window stood open, and I breathed the sweet, fresh air
with delight. But I caught a reflection of myself in the polished steel
of the fireplace, and my spirits fell, for a more woebegone ruffian my
eyes had never seen. I was as dirty as a collier, my coat was half off
my back from my handling on the moor, and there were long rents at the
knees of my breeches.
Another door opened, and two persons entered. One was a dapper little
man with a great wig, very handsomely dressed in a plum-coloured silken
coat, with a snowy cravat at his neck.
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